Thursday, October 2, 2014
8 September 2014
Hey family!
I'm so glad to hear that grandpa's surgery went well and that everyone
else has been enjoying their week! Things are going great here in Natchitoches!
We had an awesome few lessons with Darby this week and we committed her to
baptism on the 20th of September. We then invited her to go home and pray about
it. She was super excited and texted us the next day and told us that she feels
really strongly that she needs to wait. She said that she would get baptized
today but she feels really strongly that the Lord is telling her 'not yet'.
I'm not sure how much I shared about her situation but her parents are
completely against her joining the church. When she went home for the summer
they tried to push a lot of anti-doctrine on her and that's been really hard for
her. So as she has been praying about baptism she has been asking the Lord
about when she should get baptized to best prepare her parents' hearts to be
softened. She is absolutely amazing and it has been so cool to see the change
in happiness that has taken place in her just during the past two weeks! The
YSAs in the ward have been AMAZING in fellowshipping her! Last night we had
dinner at our stake president's house and he had gone to the YSA activity the
night before and Darby was in attendance. He started talking to her and she
made a comment that she "wasn't a member yet". He really liked that 'yet' part
and I think that says a lot about Darby and her sincere desire to be baptized
and to follow the will of the Lord. The fact that she truly wants to be
baptized when the Lord wants her to be and not when she wants to be also tells a
lot about her testimony! I don't know why I have been so lucky to teach such
amazing people here in Louisiana, but I am most definitely not
complaining!
We've been doing a lot of work with finding less actives as well.
It's crazy how similar, yet different, the work is in each of my areas. I feel
like every less active we have visited doesn't come to church because they were
offended by something someone said or did. Seriously, EVERYONE! Everyone that
I taught in my other areas simply didn't come to church because they were
struggling with their testimony and they just needed to feel God's love for them
and gain a testimony themselves. But here, it's crazy! I start talking to each
of these people about what the church means to them and when they joined the
church and then it always comes to them not coming anymore because of someone
else in the ward. And then, I'm stuck. It makes me think a lot about Elder
Bednar's talk "and Nothing Shall Offend Them". He talks about his experiences
with visiting less actives and a large portion of them stopped coming to church
because they were offended. He would then talk to them about their experiences
in coming to know about the restored gospel and he would help them to see the
blessings they were preventing themselves from receiving because they chose to
be offended. I hope I can truly implement Elder Bednar's talk in my life so
that I too can help these members realize what they are doing to themselves
spiritually because of someone else's words or actions. It's just sad to see
how many people have chosen to be offended and are now preventing themselves
from receiving all the blessings of the restored gospel. I hope with prayer and
time I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands in Him helping at least one of
these children come back into the fold.
I am continueing to love Natchitoches though! It is an absolutely
beautiful town and the people here are so southern! It's awesome! We went down
to Alexandria on Friday for our monthly zone training meeting and that was fun!
It was so nice to be able to sit with all the other missionaries and not have
to worry about instructing!! I just sat in the back and listened and soaked in
all the the Spirit was teaching me and I didn't have to stress one little bit
about what I was going to say in my instruction, because I didn't have to
instruct!!! It really was wonderful :)
Thank you for your emails and all your prayers! It's so fun to read
all y'alls fun stories about what's going on y'alls lives! I love y'all and I
hope you have a fantastic week!!!!
Love,
Sister Ogden
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
September 2, 2014 Lots of Potential Here!
Hi family!!
Sorry I didn't email yesterday, the library was
closed because of Labor Day but luckily we had time to come and quickly email
today! It's been a great week and I'm beginning to learn my way around
Natchitoches a little more now! I finally got to go to our ward this past week
and it was really fun to meet more members of the ward. There was actually one
family that had just moved into the ward and they had previously been in the
Alexandria ward so it was fun to see them and the wife was really excited to see
someone she knew. They were only in the Alexandria ward for a few weeks so I
didn't know them too well, but I'm excited to get to know them
better!Love,
August 25, 2014 Welcome to Natchitoches, LA
Hello from Natchitoches (pronounced nak-u-dish)!
No joke, that's really how it is pronounced and I know that there is no
way you would ever pronounce it that way by looking at the way it is spelt,
but... that's Louisiana and I love it!! I'm now serving in Natchitoches which is
about an hour up the highway from Alexandria. It is actually the oldest city in
the Louisiana Purchase and it is very beautiful! The cane river runs through it
and there are a ton of Victorian style houses. It is very southern and I love
it! The members that I have met so far are also extremely friendly and
welcoming! We had stake conference this past weekend so that was weird because
I was back in Alexandria for church and we stayed at the Green's on Saturday
night so I was back at home. It was especially weird after church because I was
still with my old ward but it was also a huge tender mercy because I got to say
goodbye to a lot of people that I hadn't had the chance to. My companion is a
total sweet heart! She has been out 9 months and is probably the shiest girl
you will ever meet in your entire life :) She was very shocked after stake
conference and when we finally got home she just looked at me stunned and said,
"being with you at stake conference is like being with a celebrity". I just
laughed and told her that's what happens when you serve in those two wards for 6
months, you become friends with half the stake! She has been serving in
Natchitoches her entire mission and we're pretty positive she'll be transferred
this next transferred and I'm pretty positive I'll be finishing up my mission
here. We also have double the missionaries coming in that are leaving next
transfer so there is a good chance I could finish out my mission training, but
we'll see.
As for the work here it has been pretty slow but I'm hoping we can
start picking it up. I'm back on a college campus too! For some reason the
Lord really likes me serving on college campuses! Northwestern State University
is in Natchitoches and school started today. President Hansen really wants
missionaries to focus on YSAs in the areas where we have universities so we are
working to figure out what we can do to meet YSAs and get them involved. The
rules on NSU are a lot more stringent than on LSU. We can't proselyte on campus
and while we couldn't on LSU either, we at least had free speech alley there and
we don't have anything like that here. Our stake president is head of the art
department at NSU so we went to his house and talked to him last night and we
are going to try and put together an LDS student association on campus and
hopefully get people informed about institute through that. We already have one
girl that the sisters met right before I came here and we had our first lesson
with her on Thursday and we taught the restoration. It went really well and we
are hoping to meet up again next week, since school starts this week. We also
have another former investigator that just moved back and the sisters through
she had been antied by her family during the summer but she texted us yesterday
and asked when institute starts up so we are hoping we can get her to take the
lessons again too! So that is two investigators right there and hopefully we
can find some more!
I'm excited to be here in Natchitoches! I had already been here twice
before for exchanges so for the first while it just felt like I was on another
exchange. I think it's finally clicking in that this is my new area though! It
also feels great to not be a sister training leader anymore! I loved that
assignment but it was so much extra stress having to leave our area to go on
exchanges every week and we had to spend so much time in the car traveling
because our zone is so large, so it's really nice to be able to just focus on my
area and how things are progressing here! I know I'm here for my companion
too! I remember when I first became an STL in Alexandria she was a sister that
we prayed for a lot and talked to President Wall a lot about what we can do to
help her. She is so shy and stresses out easily over the work. I'm grateful to
be serving with her here and I know that together we are going to be able to
accomplish a lot in Natchitoches! Her last two companions have been really shy
as well so you can tell it's a slight shock to her and the members to have
someone that actually talks and asks them questions :) The best is when we meet
members and I quickly stick out my hand and introduce myself and ask their name.
They just kind of look at me with a shocked expression because they weren't
used to the sister missionaries being bubbly and talking! So... this should be
fun :)
Things are going good though! It was definitely hard to say goodbye to
the Greens but luckily I will still see them every month because we have all our
zone meetings in Alexandria :)
Thank you for your emails and prayers! I love y'all and I hope you
have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Sister Emily Ogden
August 19, 2014 I'm Being Transferred!
So Ms Robin told me she posted it on Facebook last night so I'm sure
y'all already know that I'm getting transferred tomorrow. We all saw it coming
but I in no way wanted to admit that it was happening. The work was finally
picking up here and we had an amazing musical fireside on Sunday that touched a
lot of the members and reminded them of why it is such a blessing to share the
message of the gospel. I'm just grateful for the opportunity I had to spend 6
months here! I was definitely spoiled by the Greens and the members and it's
going to be hard to say goodbye. I'm also not happy over the fact that I only
got to spend one transfer with Sister Betts. I have loved serving with her and
six weeks has definitely not been long enough. But... This is all what I signed
up for and I know needs me somewhere else now. I just wish I knew where but they
don't tell us until tomorrow afternoon :/
In other news though! Our musical fireside was fantastic on Sunday!
Sister Betts and I have been working all transfer on it and it really turned out
well! We basically taught he restoration through music and then we ended with a
video called Come See the Light. Y'all should look it up, it's an amazing video
about Christ visiting the Americas! You would also be very proud to hear that I
sang in it and Sister Betts and I played a piano duet of I am a Child of God.
You'll be even more impressed to hear that I only had 3 days to learn the song
because the original performers backed out on Tuesday and for only had a few
opportunities to practice, I was pretty proud of myself. Mr. Gary recorded both
my performances and we've been trying to figure out to send them to y'all from
his iPad. We'll keep working on it :) it really was an amazing fireside though
and most the members where in tears. We even had our stake president come for it
and that was a big deal! I was definitely stressed out of my mind the whole
night and I'm so glad it turned out well!
That was definitely the highlight of our week! We found a less active
sister that just moved to Alexandria and she is originally from Utah. She has
been inactive for ten years and really has a strong desire to come back. We've
met with her twice now and the spirit has been so strong. I'm excited to hear
how she continues to grow!
I don't know what else to really write about from the week. We went
yard saling with Brother a Green and we each found some overalls for really
cheap and that was fun! It sounds like y'all got the pictures he sent of us with
their chicks and ducklings. To answer your question mom, no they don't live on a
farm but they do have chickens and a rooster and he just bought four ducklings!!
I love it!
Thank y'all for your emails and all your prayers and support! I love
y'all!!!!!
Love,
Sister Ogden
Monday, August 11, 2014
The Lord is More Concerned About Who We Are Becoming Verses The Numbers We Produce
Hey family!!!!!
Thank you mom and Kristen for sending me your favorite scriptures! As for
the rest of you, don't worry, the Atonement is real and there is still time for
repentance :) I would exhort y'all to look up Alma 13:27 and ponder upon his
teachings!
Now onto life in the south! Things are continuing to go well here in
Alexandria and Pineville! It was a crazy week filled with meetings and planning
and A LOT of driving!! We had our mission leadership council in Baton Rouge on
Wednesday and that was good. It's a really cool opportunity to be in the
leadership during this time of transition with our new mission president because
we get to see him in a different light! It's obvious he has a great love for
missionary work and wants to do all he can to help the work expand here in the
south! We talked a lot about becoming and how we know we are acceptable before
he lord. He played a talk by President Eyring for us where he says that The Lord
is more concerned with who we are becoming verses the numbers we produce. One
missionary then talked about something he learned while on his mission. Each of
us are sent to an area to do a different work. It's like a building that we are
all being sent to work on. Some our sent to lay the foundation and then leAve,
others come to do the framework, some the mortar, you have the brick layers, the
painters, etc. each person comes to do a specific role without seeing the entire
building completed. We really liked this idea and wanted to take it back to our
zone so we put together an activity to teach this concept. We gathered a ton of
boxes from local groceries stores and then divided the zone into groups. Each
group had a specific assignment where they had to tape certain boxes together in
a specific fashion. Each group's assignment was unique. After all the groups
finished we took all their creations and organized them to create a replica of
the Salt Lake Temple! It was super cool and I sent pictures to dad's Picasa
account so y'all could see! After the meeting everyone kept saying it was heir
favorite zone meeting yet and you could tell it made an impact on them all to
see how their individual role was vital in creating the temple. It was
awesome!
In other exciting news: we got to go to the temple on Saturday
because Zoe and Tracy where doing baptisms for the first time and Miss Bobbie
was going through the endowment for the first time since returning back to
church and we had three other members going through for heir own endowment!!!!!
It was so cool and an amazing experience!!!! Especially being in the Celestial
room with my Alexandria ward family... It was awesome!!! Definitely the
highlight from the week!
Those are really the exciting things from the week. Zoe, Kim, and
Chrystal are all doing well. Kim's been out of town all week so we haven't been
able to meet with her, Zoe enjoyed baptisms and we are still working with
Chrystal to help her see why we need a Savior. We taught her the Plan of
Salvation on Friday and it went well. At the end she said she was starting to
question her own beliefs and committed to pray.... Which is a big deal for her!
Please keep her in your prayers :)
So as you can see life is grand here! We had some baby chicks hatch
this morning and we had banana pudd'in for dessert last night- I love the south
:) I thought I'ed leave you with a quote from bishop's granddaughter Emma. She's
five years old and full of attitude. She was throwing a fit about going to
primary yesterday so they brought her to her dad and this is what she told him,
"I don't need to go to primary, I already know about Jesus, I'm ready to get
baptized!!" :) I got a good kick out of that!
I love y'all and hope you have a fantastic week!!!!!!!
Love,
Sister Ogden
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