Monday, June 30, 2014
June 16 Post
I seriously have the best family! I loved the pictures y'all sent of dad and
Brook, dad in his awesome outfit! and then trying to potty train Abby!
Priceless! And of course it was great to hear about everything going on in
Chico!
It was a great week here in Alexandria and Pineville! Actually,
probably one of my favorite weeks, and it just made it even better that it was
the week of my one year mark! We had plans to start exchanges with the
Marksville sisters during the middle of the week but after meeting with the
during district meeting we felt strongly to start the exchange as soon as
possible, so we did! And it was a great week! We basically spent the entire
week on exchanges, I stayed in Alexandria with Sister Stephens and my companion
went to Marksville with her old companion (Sister Paulson, she's the Paulson's
niece). Anyhow, it was great! This was the third time Sister Stephens and I
have been on exchanges together and this was definitely the best of them all,
they just keep getting better and better! We has some amazing lessons with
everyone we visited and everyone instantly fell in love with her! We had one
lesson with a less active from the Alexandria ward and it was amazing! I've had
a few lessons with her but none that felt really spirit led and specific to her
needs. When we went into her office we just started talking with her and the
three of us had a blast just talking and she really opened up about the stress
that she had been feeling and her desire to one day be active in the church. It
was the most she had ever opened up to us! As she was talking to I knew that we
needed to share something from the Book of Mormon and about the Book of Mormon
and we needed to share something about faith, but I had no clue what!! As she
continued to talk about wanting to feel peace I immediately thought about a line
from the Introduction to the Book of Mormon that talks about obtaining peace
through reading the Book of Mormon and I knew I needed to share it. I still
didn't know what we needed to share on faith though. Then I looked at Sister
Stephens and her scriptures were open to Alma 32 and I knew that she had a
scripture on faith she wanted to share. So I shared my paragraph from the intro
and she shared her scripture from Alma 32 and it was perfect!! Seriously, I
wish I could express how strong the spirit was and it was so cool to see how the
Spirit worked through both of us to meet the needs of his daughter! It was
wonderful and she asked for the chapters that we read from so she could go home
and read them on her own! Then we got a text from her yesterday, saying she
was going to come to church but accidentally slept in. That's a big deal that
she was planning on coming!! Even though she didn't come, I was still stoked
that she even had the desire to come!! It was pretty cool!
Another cool story was from yesterday, after church. I need to
preface the story with another story though! My first transfer here in
Alexandria during one of our exchanges, Sister Lindstrom and the sister she was
with went tracting in a trailer park in Pineville. That had great success in
handing out copies of the Book of Mormon and someone invited them to come back,
but they realized they had left their planners at the car. So they walked back
to the car and while Sister Lindstrom was in the car getting the planner she
heard the other sister talking to someone and looked up to see this girl that
seriously had come out of nowhere. It turns out her father had pasted away last
year and she had been just telling her mom the night before that she wanted to
start going back to church. Lindstrom described it as a huge miracle moment
from her mission because the girl came out of nowhere and it was obvious she had
been prepared. So they got her number to contact her and set up a return
appointment. Now, this was back in March and between that time and now we had
been trying to call this girl and set up a time to come over but she was always
really busy with school and work and then one day we tried calling and her
number had been disconnected. Well, we had no clue where her house was and her
name and number was all we had to get a hold of her. So, back to yesterday.
After church I had this thought that we should call this girl, but immediately I
dismissed it because her number hadn't been working. So we left church and went
to visit a less active. After the lesson my companion told me she had this
distinct feeling that we needed to go tracting in Pineville and so I asked her
where in Pineville and she said she didn't know. So we said a prayer and then
started driving towards Pineville. I just drove and she would tell me where she
felt like we needed to turn. As we got into Pineville I thought about the
trailer park that I knew this girl lived near but I figured that was just
because it was the main place in Pineville I had gone tracting in the pass. So
I continued to listen to the directions of my companion. Well, my current
companion as no clue where this trailer park that I kept thinking of is located,
but low and behold, where does she take us... down the back roads and into the
back entrance of this trailer park. As soon as we got there, I knew who we were
there for but I had no clue where her house was. So we knocked on a few doors
and finally had success with one boy accepting a copy of the Book of Mormon. As
we were about to leave I had a thought to ask him if he knew this girl. He told
me his friend in a nearby neighborhood had a sister with that name and he
directed us where to go. So we drove towards that neighborhood and walked up to
a house with a group kids on the front porch. I introduced ourselves and
offered them a copy of the Book of Mormon. The oldest of the group accepted it
and then I asked him if he knew this girl. He told me that was his sister and
she had just got home from work!! It was crazy!! It was an amazing experience
and wonderful to see how we were led by the Spirit but it still took effort and
courage on our part. Anyhow, it turns out her phone had been stolen but she was
really excited to meet with us and learn more about the church. As we talked to
her it was obvious she has been prepared to hear the message of the restoration
and we gave her another copy of the Book of Mormon. We read through the
introduction again and she told us she is excited to read it on her own! It was
seriously one of the most amazing experiences and it was such a simple
experience in the moment but definitely powerful! I'm excited to see where it
leads! Turns out she is really good friends with a girl in the Pineville ward
that is planning on leaving on a mission the beginning of next year and she
wants to come to the lessons! I promise to keep y'all updated on how it all
goes!!
Those are really my big experiences from the week! Bishop and Sister
Green came home last night and it's great to have them back! We have our last
meeting with President Wall this Thursday and that's when we'll have to say
goodbye to him. It's definitely going to be weird! I have some pictures the
assistants sent us from our last leadership meeting that I will have to forward
to y'all!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!! Especially, dad,
grandpa, Devin, Amiel, and both Nates! I love y'all and can't thank you enough
for all your support and prayers!! I'm so lucky to be a part of this family!!!
I love y'all!!!!
Love,
Sister Emily Ogden
June 9 Post
Hi family!
It was great to read y'alls letters and it sounds like everyone is
having fun enjoying the wonderful heat in Chico :) Just be grateful you don't
have 100% humidity on top of that heat!! It's been a busy and great week here
in Alexandria! We got to travel down to Baton Rouge on Wednesday for our final
leadership meeting with President Wall. It was an amazing meeting and very
bitter sweet. At one point he told us that he is handing the mission over to us
for us to carry until the new president gets on his feet, that was crazy! We
also ended the meeting with a group scripture study and that was amazing! We
all shared our favorite scripture and then why it meant so much to us.
President and Sister Wall were the last to go and Sister Wall started crying
before she could even say what her scripture was. I'm going to miss them so
much and they have done so much for us! It will be so weird to go into that
home and not have them there but I'm excited to have another President to teach
us even more, it's all very bitter sweet!
After the meeting it was rush hour traffic in Baton Rouge so we had to
wait a little bit before we headed back to Alexandria and so we got to go to
Buffalo Wild Wings where Madison works and I got to see her and Ariel for a
little while and it was so much fun!! I love those girls and it was great to
hear what's going on at LSU and to hear that they are doing well. Madison
actually came up to Alexandria yesterday to drop her friend off at the church so
I got to see her again yesterday and that was a big shocker! We were in choir
practice and I see everyone starting at the door and I look over and Madison is
standing there just smiling! I practically jumped from where I was standing to
where she was :) It was awesome!
The work this week has been great! We visited a lot of less actives
this week and got to experience a lot of tender mercies! One of our main less
actives from Alexandria we had an amazing lesson with! We talked about
covenants this week with her and she told us that she is wearing her garments
again!!!! That's huge!! It's probably been about 10 years since she has worn
her garments and she has been wearing them every day for a week now and she
talked to the bishop to figure out when she can get her temple recommend
again!! Which reminds me of other big news... Bishop Green got released
yesterday! Totally threw me for a loop and he was actually out of town so I
haven't been able to even talk to him about it yet! There were all these signs
that I totally blew right over and when they released him, I'm pretty sure you
could have picked my jaw off the floor! Anyhow... Back to our less active :)
It's been amazing to be a part of this journey back that she is on! Every time
we go visit her she is so appreciative and so excited to follow through with the
commitments we leave with her! She has been reading/listening to The Book of
Mormon every day and loves it! We also got to go visit her and her daughter
yesterday and asked her daughter if we can start teaching her too. She is 17
and has been less active as well. She was really excited and said yes! I'm so
grateful to be here and experiencing this miracle that is unfolding with the
both of them!
We also have a less active from Pineville that Sister Lindstrom and I
started teaching a few months ago, and we had a wonderful lesson with him and
his daughter this past week! His daughter is probably one of the cutest little
6 year olds and she is a definite daddy's girl! When she goes fishing with him
she can tell you the name of every type of fish she caught! And she is a
smarty! We had a lesson with them about covenants as well and we told the story
of the anti-nephi-lehis when they burry their swords and we talked about the
swords they need to bury. Afterwards we had a ctr ring that we got to give to
his daughter. It was so cute to see how excited she was and her dad was so
grateful! I wish I could have captured the look of pure gratitude that filled
his face when we gave that ring to her daughter. It really makes every
sacrifice you make as a missionary, worth it!
I don't really know what other stories to share with you from the week.
We had crawfish for dinner again last night and I saw a baby gator in the road
on our way back from Baton Rouge, that was pretty cool! Bishop and Sister Green
are in Arkansas for the week too so I've been having to take care of the
chickens and rooster, I feel like a real country girl :) Although I'm not going
to lie, I hate their rooster! Last time they went out of town he attacked me
about 10 times and I had to keep wacking him with the feeding bucket! Luckily
he is in his own cage now, but I'm sure someone would have had a good laugh
watching me last time!! We also had ward conference in Pineville yesterday and
that was wonderful! Our stake president is amazing and I'm pretty sure he is
the future prophet, no joke! I'll leave y'all with a poem and words of advice
that he gave in a past meeting:
Be like the bird, who,
Halting in his flight,
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath him,,
Yet slings,
Knowing he hath wings
-Victor Hugo
In our lives we are often times like the bird and we rely on our own
strength, forgetting that we have wings, the atonement! We need to always live
with the perspective that we have wings, because in reality, we do! The
Atonement will always carry us through!
I love y'all and can't thank you enough for everything you do for me and
for all your prayers! I love y'all!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Sister Emily Ogden
Lots of Good Work Going on Here!
Can you believe that one year ago we were all preparing for the Tahoe
Relay... Crazy!!! I can't believe it has been almost a year already! So much
has happened during that year that I never would have imagined! I'm glad to
hear that everyone is starting to return back to health in California and in
Utah and that Melynda and Amiel sold their house!! I can't wait to come see
your new house one day!!!
Things are going well here in Alexandria and Pineville! It was definitely
an interesting week but still filled with miracles! Because it was the end of
the month we didn't have a whole lot of miles (13 per day to be exact) so we
were stretched on who we could visit and what we could do to remain diligent
during the day. We made it though! We ended up doing A LOT of service for
people during this week and that was great! We had one non member that we did
service for and it was a great experience! She is actually really close friends
with a few members but she is an atheist. However, you would think she was
Mormon because she loves to can, has an amazing food storage, and loves
Bountiful Baskets! So, she is definitely on the right track to becoming a
member one day :) Anyhow, her husband is in the army and coming home soon and
she wanted the front yard looking good, so we got to spend a few hours on Friday
helping remove weeds from her flower beds. It was great!! She was so overly
grateful for all the work we did and when we asked if we could come back and
help with the mulch she was super excited! I was talking to Bishop's
daughter-in-law, who she is really close friends with, and she was telling us
that we made a big difference and definitely taking steps in bringing her closer
to the church. I think it's going to be a long time if she does join the church
but it's cool that we get to be a part of this beginning process and that we are
able to serve her!
Another cool experience from the week: We've been visiting this less
active in the Alexandria ward and we finally got her to start coming to church
for sacrment meeting (she's been less active for 13 years now). We had an
amazing lesson with her on Wednesday! We felt impressed to teach the Tree of
Life and specifically highlight the importance of the iron rod. When we got
there and before we started teaching she told us about how she hurt her back
earlier int he week and missed a few days of her scripture reading because she
was in so much pain, but she's better now and determined to continue with
reading every night. So, when we told her what we wanted to teach she was
really touched because that was exactly where she was at in her reading, but if
she hadn't missed those few days she would have been passed it. It was a great
lesson and you could tell that it all really meant a lot to her! The best part
is that she came to church yesterday and got up to share her testimony!! She
talked about our Tree of Life lesson and how it was our fault she hurt her back
because the Lord knew she needed to be at 1 Nephi 8 on Wednesday and not the
previous Saturday :) She also told everyone that is back, she is doing it and
she is not going to let anything stop her!! She even planned on talking to
Bishop yesterday and talk to him about getting her temple recommend back!!! It
was amazing and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it all!!
Those are really the most exciting things from the week! We had another
less active come to church for the first time in a year yesterday and that was
great!! She's a lot older and we have been visiting her and her sister every
week and we finally got her to agree to come to church! You could tell she
loved being back and she is excited to come back next week!! I just loved
seeing the smile she had on her face during all of church and it was wonderful
to have so many members come up and introduce themselves! She is originally
from Mississippi and got baptized in Australia a couple years ago when she went
to visit her grandson (who is a member). She moved to Alexandria about a year
ago when her sisters husband died though and yesterday was her first time at
church here in Louisiana!
I wish I had more cool stories to tell but really that's it from the week
:) I love y'all and can't thank you enough for all the prayers and love you have
given for me!! I love y'all and feel so blessed to be serving her in
Louisiana! The people are crazy and I love them!!! :) I love
y'all!!!!!!!
Love,
Sister Emily Ogden
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Hi family!
Sounds like it's been a crazy week that no one wants to repeat! I'm so
glad to hear that dad is recovering and hearing about it all just strengthens my
testimony of the power that comes through fasting and prayers! Continue to get
better dad :) Things have been great down here in the South this past week! We
had transfer calls last night and my companion and I are both staying here for
another transfer. It will be interesting to see what happens from there because
our next transfer will be with the new mission president. I got to go to
Marksville on exchanges this past week and I LOVED it!! It's a small town and
the people there are hilarious and a decent amount of people talk with a cajun
accent. These are the type of people that will make you squirrel from dinner...
no joke! Luckily they made us jambalaya when I was there and it was some good
jambalaya too!! I absolutely loved the people there though! It's a very small
branch there and they actually use a triple wide trailer for their church
building :) Got to love the South! I got to be with Sister Stephens for the
exchange too and it was a blast to be with her! We both served around each
other for a transfer back in Baton Rouge and we actually had the same group of
friends at BYU-Idaho so it was really fun to work Marksville together for a few
days! Some fun stories that came from it all: We went to try and find this
less active that apparently lives in these cabin hotel things. Anyhow, we went
to the ones we thought she lived in and went to the front office but the lady
told us that only guys live in the ones there. We thanked her and then left and
when we went out to the car, it wouldn't start! The battery was dead and we had
to call the elders to come and help us. While we waited for them we went back
into the office and talked with the lady there. She was super nice and told us
that she actually had a lot of close friends that were members and she had met
with the missionaries a few times in the past. We had a great conversation with
her and we were able to just talk to her about her beliefs and her religious
background! When the elders got there we were able to give her a copy of the
Book of Mormon and she told us that we could come back anytime and talk with
her! It was wonderful! After we got the battery started we were driving down
and road and laughing because we would just imagine how God's hand had played in
it all. He sends us to this cabins and wants us to talk to his daughter there
and we talk to her about who lives in her cabins but not about the church like
God wanted us to, so he decides it's about time for the sisters to get a new
battery anyways so might as well use this to help them get the hint that they
need to talk to her more! I'm sure that's not how it all went but we were
laughing about how perfectly everything played through! After two hours at the
auto part store the elders were finally able to get the batter fixed (the
sisters ended up having to get a new battery two days later so apparently it was
only a temporary fix) we went to go visit this older couple that lives in the
ward. The wife is bed ridden and neither of them can hear very well. The
entire lesson was Sister Stephens and I yelling at the top of our lungs so they
could hear us. The best was when you would yell as loud as you could and then
the wife would just look at you with this blank stare and then say, "what" and
all you're thinking is, I don't know if I can yell any louder! And let me tell
ya, trying to read a scripture at the top of your lungs, is HARD!! and after I
finished yelling the scripture they both just looked at me with blank stares and
then just smiled and nodded.... I'm pretty sure they didn't hear a word of the
scripture :) They were an adorable couple though and bless their hearts!
All in all it was a great week! We had a wonderful Memorial Day yesterday
and we got to go visit people at the VA hospital with Bishop and Sister Green.
It's funny because back home it seems like Memorial day is all about
remembering all who have died. Here everyone wears red, white and blue and it's
mainly about the veterans and those who died serving for our country. It was
really cool! We even got to spend a few minutes at the Alexandria Memorial
Cemetery where they have the graves for a ton of veterans. It was really cool!!
I'll have to send y'all some of the pictures I took!
Thank y'all for your emails and I will continue to keep dad and Kristen and
everyone else in my prayers! Amiel and Melynda, good luck with selling your
house! I can't wait to see your new house one day! I love y'all and hope you
have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Sister Ogden
Some Fun Stories
Hey!!
It was so good to hear from y'all and hear that everyone is still doing
well! I loved the pictures of Brooklyn, especially the one with her and Abby!!
Also, CONGRATULATIONS to Devin for making it into the Police Academy!!! That's
AWESOME!!!!! I am so excited for you and I know you are going to do great
things!! Things are going great here in Alexandria! Yes, we have transfers
this next week and I still don't know all that will happen, I guess we'll all
just have to wait until next Tuesday! We have been working hard here though and
that's what's important now! We had a busy week this past week and I loved it!
We met with a lot of less actives and investigators! One lesson that I loved
was on Saturday! We spent all day at a less active couple's home, helping them
with yard work. No joke, we were there all day helping them and afterwards we
got to sit down and have a lesson with them. I've been seeing them almost every
week since I've been up here and they've started coming to church every now and
then but not progressing a whole lot. They are converts to the church of about
7 years. Anyhow, we had decided earlier that we were going to start teaching
them the missionary lessons again so we planned to teach the Restoration to them
that day. When we started to teach there were all these things that started
happening and I thought, there's no way we are going to have time to teach the
restoration, we'll just have to share a quick scripture and hold off on the
restoration until next week. Well, we shared a scripture and then eventually
things settled down and the wife asked a question that led perfectly into the
restoration and I just knew we needed to teach it then, so we did, and it was
awesome! It was an amazing lesson and as we taught the restoration we were able
to answer a lot of their questions and we were able to be bold as we told them
that they can't afford not to be living the gospel, especially because they know
it is true! It was amazing and the Spirit was there teaching them, and I loved
it!! I love those kinds of lessons that give you this big push to keep moving
forward with the work and to keep loving, serving and teaching! I'm stoked for
our next lesson with them now!
We also had a cool experience yesterday when we went to go contact a
less active. She lives way out and yesterday after church I had this distinct
impression that we needed to go see her and I also knew there was another guy on
our roster that lived out by her and we could go visit him too. As we were
driving out there I was thinking to myself, "watch we're going to drive out to
her home, she's not going to be there so we are going to try this other guy and
he'll be home and it's really for him that we were sent out here in the first
place. The Lord knew that only through sending us to contact Morgan would we
contact him though". Well, guess what happened? yup, she wasn't home. So we
drive to this other guy's house and I have this thought to call and ask the
elders if they know anything about him. They call us and Elder Ware gets
excited and tells us he is a member but assigned to the Marksville Branch and he
is awesome. His wife isn't a member but they would love a visit. So we go and
visit them and it was awesome! We truly were led by the spirit to go visit
them! He is the stake executive secretary and him and his wife have been
married for 22 years (they're in their late 70's or early 80's) and she is a
hard core baptist. We had a great time visiting them and seriously his wife is
a doll!! We shared Matthew 5:14-16 with them and talked about he light of Christ
that is in all who follow Jesus Christ and every one who has that relationship
with God and all of us have the responsibility to share it with others. She
shared her thoughts on the scripture as well and it was great! As we left we
noticed her backyard and commented on how beautiful it was and she got so
excited! She immediately took us out back and started talking with us about it
and telling us to never be strangers and we are always welcome back and even
asked for our phone number so she could call us some time! I could tell it was
a big deal! I don't know if all this will lead to her learning about the church
or anything but I know that we were instruments in the Lord's hands and a door
was opened that had been opened before and I was so grateful for the opportunity
to be a part of it!
Those are really my two most exciting stories from the week! We went
tracting and passed out some copies of the Book of Mormon and got a few return
appointments so that was really exciting! We are going on exchanges for most of
this week and I'll be in Marksville so I won't be there when they follow up but
I'm excited to hear how it goes! I'm stoked for my exchange in Marksville too
because it is a cajun town and full of bayous and the people there are very
cajun so it will be fun to spend a couple days down there! I love the sister
that I'm going on exchanges with too. We both had the same group of friends at
BYU-Idaho but we never knew each other until we met a couple transfers ago when
she was my sister training leader. It will be fun to spend that time with her
and working their area, they just opened it this last transfer so it's a lot of
tracting!
Anyhow, things are going great here! The work is moving forward and the
Lord is allowing us to be His instruments and I love it! I love being here and
I can't thank y'all enough for all the support and love you have shown me! I
love y'all!!!!!
Love,
Sister Emily Ogden
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
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