Mission experiences - 23 March 2015

Dear Mom,

You are welcome for the card. I knew that you would enjoy it! :) I'm glad you were able to go bowling with Bug. Congrats on your scores! How is the bowling league going?

How is your hand doing now? Was the cut really deep? I've used you being a seminary teacher and studying the scriptures as an example of the blessing of studying the scriptures to a few different people the last few weeks. I hope you don't mind. I'm so glad you share the experiences with me! 

The house looks great! Happy birthday!!!

Thanks for sharing the spiritual thought with me! It was so neat! Did you take any pictures of the handouts you made?

 

Thank you so much for holding on to the clippings for me!

I love the pictures of Kristofer! So creepy to be holding a snake! 

My companion and I have had a couple good discussions this week. Our relationship is stronger.

We set two more baptism dates this past week! One of them was a girl we had just met named Kim. Her family is innactive and she had been thinking about taking the discussions for a while. She want's to be baptized, but was scared at first because she didn't want to feel alone. BUT GUESS WHAT!! She has A LOT of friends in the YSA branch here! It's so cool to see the Lord directing us where and when we are needed.

The second date is set with a woman named Gina. Her husband is less active with a crazy strong testimony. The only reason he is innactive is because he feels uncomfortable at church(he was WoW issues.. but he's working on them). We met them two weeks ago and have had 3 discussions and 1 lesson on how to make no bake cookies(Gina is a cook). She has attended church twice! The first Sunday she was given the Gospel Principles book. When we taught we that Wednesday she told us she had read the entire book in one day! Saturday we took her on a church tour of the Thane Tabernacle. 

The whole time she was talking about what she had read in the book and the importance of baptism. When we got to the room with the font (the last stop on the tour) we talked about how Jesus was baptized and read about baptisms in the Book of Mormon. Then we asked if she would be baptized on May 2nd. She and her husband were hestant because they want him to baptize her and they both smoke, but we assured them that we and the church could help. And they will be getting blessings to help them as well. It was so cool what she said after that! She told us that when she had been reading the book she hadn't wanted to smoke at all. We promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon daily that she would continue to have that blessing.

It's so cool to be out here. And those are only two of the experiences we have had!

I don't think I will be sending any letters out this week. The Elders had a baptism earlier that we helped with a lot. So I haven't had any time to write. 

I love you so much mom! 

I gave a talk on acting on our faith in Jesus Christ this past Sunday. I'm going to send it. It has A LOT of errors. Just to warn you.

The pictures I included are the first 4 flights of our six flight trek up the tabernacle.

Love you!

Sister Kremer

Mission information - 16 March 2015

I'm doing alright. I love Wyoming and I love the work. I'm praying daily for the strength to remember why I am here and that God sent me to this specific area at this exact time for a reason. I hope that I can talk to all those who He has prepared.

I'm sorry for what I am about to tell you, just know that I tried to fix the problem, but I'm not sure it's going to work.

Yesterday I fell in mud. The mud stained the skirt and shirt I was wearing, it net clear throughout to the skin. When we got back to the apartment I tried washing all the mud out by hand in the bathtub but it didn't touch the stains. I was going to wash them this morning, but was informed that washing all of our clothing and then the additional muddy loads would make it impossible for us to make it to our prep. day activity on time. So I will wash them tomorrow. I'm letting the clothes soak today. I'm hoping that when they get washed the mud will come out, but if it doesn't I've lost an entire outfit.  It may be that at some point in the next month I need to buy a skirt and/or shirt. Hopefully I don't need to. If that does happen it won't be till the next time we go to Idaho Falls. And who knows when that will happen.

I do love my  companion, she is great, but I pray daily for my heart to be softened so I can have more understanding.

It is SO COOL to be able to spend so much time in the scriptures and I'm SO GLAD you are being able to immerse yourself in them as well

**(These photos were taken Saturday morning at a missionary mom's house after she fed Sister Kremer, her companion, and the rest of the district) I received them attached to a text that morning.

Sister Kremer and her companion       The whole district

This is an amazing story and I can totally see Sister Kremer doing this . . .

Saturday night we were driving to an investigators house when we saw three men walking down mainstreet. Sister K said that we should go talk to them and since I was the one driving a made a u-turn (the most used move in WY) we saw that the men were walking fast and Sister K said to cut them off. But I didn't because that would have been rude and might have freaked them out. So instead I pulled into a parking spot (WORST parking job of my life). We ran out of the car. Sister K grabbed a Book of Mormon from the backseat and we ran after them (they couldn't see us at this point but I am rather certain they could hear us running). When we reached the mainstreet where they could see us we stopped running and started walking really fast. Meanwhile Sister k was calling out to them in various forms of greeting. We finally caught up to them and were certain they could hear but they kept walking and ignoring us. So I sped walked in front of them, turned around and started walking backwards and greeted them letting them know who we were. Then I stopped walking and they were kind of forced to stop walking as well. We got to know them a bit (they all gave fake names) then shared a short message with them (which they weren't to happy about) then Sister k handed them the Book of Mormon and asked them to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized once they know that the gospel was true (or something along those lines). One guy said no, he should probably read the book first and it looked long. My response was to tell him of Moroni's promise and let him know that he didn't have to read the whole book, just read pray and desire to know if the words in the Book of Mormon were true or not. Then we bore short testimonies and closed with a prayer.     Sister Kolbo hated it, and thought it was the most awkward thing ever. I LOVED IT! Not only was it my first street contact it was the first time since I got here that I actually felt like I was being a missionary and doing what I am here to do.  And yeah, it was probably weird to run after them but I think that everyone needs to have the chance to hear the Gospel.

Also! We set a baptism date with an investigator named Joe! It is April 16th!

Sister Kremer

Mission experience - 9 March 2015 Star Valley, WY

I HOPE I will be at the groundbreaking! Sister Kolbo and I think we will be because last night while we were meeting one of the Bishops (leader of an LDS congregation) he received a call from one of the people who work for him and is also on the Stake Temple Groundbreaking committee. He came out of the room and said," Sisters, they want you to have a table at the groundbreaking that tells about our religion and what we believe." So we think they won't transfer either of us till at least after the groundbreaking...but we are not positive. For all we know one of us will be transferred next transfer (the first week of April). Thank you.   Sister Kolbo really likes orange tic tacs. 

Everyone here lets me know that TN is getting hit hard with snow and ice. Seriously, they ask where I am from and after I tell them they let me know that TN is having weird weather. So I've started introducing myself like this, " I'm Sister Kremer from TN and from what I hear TN is having worse weather than Star Valley." Which leads to a conversation about how unusually mild the winter has been this year, then Sister Kolbo comments that maybe God held back the winter so the temple groundbreaking could happen sooner. Which leads to a discussion about President Monson announcing the temple in Star Valley, which leads back to winter, which leads to the person we are talking to saying that being from TN and TX Sister Kolbo and I must be really cold. Then Sister Kolbo agrees and I say that I am actually really enjoying the weather. At that point we either get to know more about the person we are talking to or try to tell them about the Restoration.    <-------all that being said I'm not complaining about the conversation, just letting you know how me meeting people generally goes.

The more time one spends in the scriptures the more we get out of them. It is really amazing and I'm so glad that you are having this opportunity! When people ask what my mom does I say," she was a stay at home mom, but now that all her kids are out of the house she has been called to be an early morning seminary teacher- at 6 a.m." I'm so happy for you!

This morning I learned in my scripture study that when a man divorces a woman for reasons other than adultery when the woman gets remarried and does the husband and wife thing the sin that is being committed rests on the head of the ex-husband.  Good stuff to know.

You are being able to train Jazz! I'm so happy for you! If  you end up running her you'll have to give me a play by play of how she does. And pictures!   

I made eggs for us the other day with peppers, cheese, and salt and pepper and she said she didn't know eggs could taste that good. She doesn't really know how to cook, so I'll also be teaching her some things about cooking. Bless her heart, she didn't even know you could use salt and pepper while cooking.

We had a zone conference last Tuesday. It was awesome.

Elder Teokotai isn't in Grandma and Grandpa's stake :( BUT he is covering the YSA. Where COREY IS THE WARD MISSION LEADER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently he was just called to it. After the first set of Elders finished attacking me I said hi to Elder Teokotai and he let me know that. He actually said, "Your friend Corey is the YSA mission leader." That was were I clapped my hands in excitement. Literally clapped my hands. He asked if there was anyone else in the YSA I wanted to say hi to and I said not that I could think of. The other two people I was closest to are on missions right now.

::hugs:;

We have a new investigator. A girl about 10 years old. Her dad is a WAY less active member who served a mission....but didn't have a testimony and while on his mission started reading anti mormon literature so he could get different points of view. He doesn't even believe in Jesus Christ anymore. It's sad how disconnected he is. But he is willing to let her take the lessons and Sister Kolbo and I think the lessons are more for him than her. He had a lot of questions for us when we taught her Saturday. They are actually one of our miracles this week. The missionaries have been trying to contact them for ages with no luck. Friday night our plans fell through so we stopped by their house to see if they would let us in. AND THEY DID. Then we chatted, got to know them, he opened up to us a bit about his past, we asked if his daughter could take the lessons and he said sure could we come back tomorrow. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. NO one EVER want us back THE NEXT DAY.

So that is a bit of my week, I'll write you a letter. 

Love you,

Sister Kremer

Tradition 2 March 2015

I am officially in the mission field! I'm serving in a beautiful place called Star Valley Wyoming. In order to get to it you get to drive through the (currently covered in snow) mountains! I love Idaho with all my heart, but I may have found a deeper love in Star Valley. When we drove into the valley my heart skipped a beat. Star Valley is like nothing I've ever before seen.

They keep us busy here! And well fed. I've been told that it is easier to gain weight in this mission than loose weight, but I let them know that that won't be the case with me.

This past weekend we had a Regional Conference and Elder L. Tom Perry spoke during it. He said many great things but what stuck out the most to me was the following: he quoted the begining lines of The Fiddler on the Roof where the main character is talking about the importance of traditions to himself and the villagers in the town in which he lives. Throughout his talk Elder Perry asked us to follow the traditions of Jesus Christ and center our families in those traditions.

That,my friends, is my challenge to each of you. Center yourself in Christ. I promise that as you

keep yourself center in Christ and strive to live your lives by following in His footsteps that you will be blessed. Your families will be stronger. You will have a deeper feeling of peace. And best of all you will be following our Heavenly Fathers plan. 

Will you center yourself in Christ? Will you introduce His traditions into your and your families lives? I will, and I hope you will as well.

Till next week,

Sister Kremer

Sister Kremer arrived in first area - 26 February 2015

Today I received a text from a ward mission leader in Sister Kremer's first area . . .

          Star Valley, Wyoming.

Sister Kremer and Sister Kolbo