He is there

Hello everyone! So this week is a big shocker. Sister Johnson and I are BOTH being transferred out of the area. This is weird seeing how I have 2 transfers left. 

This week has been really fun, but so short. 

This Wednesday Sister Johnson and I got sick so we didn't really do anything that day at all, we just slept..and had issues. haha

On Thursday we got ready to rock and roll and do missionary work to make up for us not working the day before...and Sister Johnson's bike was broken, so we had to go make a trip to visit Elder Ashton, and get her bike fixed. 

Saturday we went over and helped Debbi go through Dianne's things and her pictures. 

It was so fun to see pictures of Dianne when she was younger, and to hear stories about her life. 

This week we got a self referral from a lady named, Beth, and she is absolutely amazing. She told us that she's been reading the book of Mormon on her own, she's in Jacob. She's been watching General Conference talks, and researching things on LDS.org by herself. She's amazing. We're meeting with her tonight. I'm so bummed that neither one of us will be teaching her, but I know whatever missionaries she gets will be amazing! 

This is one of my favorite talks from the 2016 April General Conference, and it helps that it's President Uchtdorf. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/he-will-place-you-on-his-shoulders-and-carry-you-home?lang=eng

my favorite quote from this talk is "Just as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep, if you will only lift up your heart to the Savior of the world, He will find you."

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are ALWAYS there for us. In Relief Society yesterday we talked about trials. We talked about how when we're in our slumps..when we feel like we're in the pits of hell going through everything we thought we never would. Christ is right there with us. Holding us by our arms, and helping us get through the hard times. 

He is always there. Just look for Him. 

Don't let anything get in your way.

I went on exchanges with Sister Butler this week. It was so fun serving with someone that I came out on the mission with! It was a super fun day, and kind of a relaxing day I needed. We went to an apartment complex to try a few people. So we locked up our bikes to each other and walked around. We came back to our bikes after 20 minutes...and they were stolen! So the cops came so we could file a report. While one was talking to us..the other was walking around the complex to look. Well the second cop found our bicycles! WHAT A MIRACLE. We didn't tell the officers this....but the spot the officer found our bikes is where we left them. We're just dumb and thought we put them somewhere else. The every day life of Sister Kilsby. 

On exchanges we ate with one of Sister Butler's investigators. She's Turkish, and fed us turkish food! Who would've thought I'd eat Turkish food in Arizona? Well, we read the book of Mormon with her. She had her Turkish one out and her English one. It was so cool to hear her read in English..not understand what's going on and then read it in Turkish. After she read it in Turkish she always said "OH! I understand it now. Why didn't you girls explain it like I read it?" Well, Julia, I can't speak Turkish. 

I was thinking about my mission and how at first I was upset that I haven't been in the south of the mission, or actually anywhere in the mission (because I've served in Desert Ridge for half of my mission). Anyway..it hit me that I have been able to serve everywhere in the mission because of exchanges. I've been on exchanges in every single zone in the mission. So technically I can say I've served in every zone..right? We'll pretend. 

We had Family Home Afternoon with a senior missionary couple in the mission, The Asbury's. It was so fun to get together with our zone, and the missionary couple, and play games and get to know each other better! This week we ate with a Samoan family. They're so awesome! They had some different cultural things. WELLLL they had drums there that I started playing on, and they told us that those drums were used in filming the music for MOANA! I thought that was cool. 

Anyway! I hope y'all have an awesome week. 

I've been pondering my mission lately. Especially since I only have a little while left (I actually have a lot of time left), but I've been thinking about the person I've always wanted to become. When I was in high school my mom gave me a blank poster and told me to write what I wanted to achieve on there. I was thinking back before my mission...if I wouldn't have gone on a mission..I wouldn't be that person that I wrote I wanted to become. Because I have come on a mission and completely submitted my will to the Lord's...I have become more close to the woman that I want to become and that Heavenly Father wants me to become. I didn't let my trials that I had before my mission, and even on my mission, stop me from doing what I want to do, and going to where I KNEW I needed to go. Don't let anything get in your way. Don't let Satan stop you.

1. We made it on the wall in the mission office!

2&3. FHA this week

4. Playing scrabble with the Elders...again. 

Oh How Great the Plan of Our God

Diane passed away this morning. We went over this morning as soon as her daughter called us. 

It's hard to loose someone you love, but at the same time it's a relief to know that she's not in pain anymore. She's with her two sons that she's lost and her husband. 

It's wonderful to know that we have a plan mapped out for us bu our Father in Heaven, and that we know where we're going. We know that we're going to be back with our families again and with God. 

I know that I'll see Diane again one day, and all of the other people who have passed before me. I know that we will live again. I love Heavenly Father's plan for us, and that through it we can have hope. 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2016/11/saturday-morning-session/o-how-great-the-plan-of-our-god?lang=eng

1. we went to the temple together as a zone. It's always comforting to be in the House of the Lord.

Live by faith. Not fear.

This week was super slow, but super exhausting all at the same time. 

So since I'm going home in a hot second, and by a hot second I mean a few months, I decided to sell my bicycle to the mission. SO in the mean time I'm using a mission bike.

All in the same night, actually within 5 minutes of each other, ..Sister Johnson's light broke, my kick stand fell off, and my seat broke. So we're just struggling over here. 

We went over to Diane and Debi's house this week and helped Diane with her family history. She wanted to see how much of her family's work has been done. SO I helped her with connecting her family search, ancestry, and lds.org accounts. Turns out..up to 6 generations of work in her family have been done! Miracles.

Sister Johnson and I this week were talking about how we can find joy in things that Heavenly Father gives us. 

Our stake performed Handel's Messiah. We didn't get to go to the performance, but we did get the privilege of hearing them practice. It was angelic, and hearing it in person was amazing. As I've been pondering the things that give me joy, I was thinking about when I first came on my mission. It was SO HARD for me to find joy and beauty here in Arizona. I've realized that there is beauty in everything, and you can find joy in everything around you. For example, my favorite things are classical music, the sunsets on the Superstition mountains, the stars, and lightening storms over the desert. These things somehow prove to me that God is real. These simple things to ME let me know that He cares about me and knows the things that I love the most, and that if you look around you can find things in your every day life that Heavenly Father gives us that can bring us joy and happiness. Find things that bring you peace. 

https://www.mormon.org/easter/principles-of-peace/faith

​

1. The lovely Diane

2. Sister Olson came to visit! 

3. Easter with the Hawkes

4. What we do in weekly planning (everything BUT plan)

5. fortunes s

Ask of God

This week was absolutely amazing. After the week my companion and I have had..I could never deny Heavenly Father or this Gospel. 

It started off with Diane and her baptism. Diane has stage 4 cancer, and she wasn't doing well at all when we went over Wednesday morning. She and her daughters told us that she wanted to get baptized before she passed. It was amazing how everyone got together and worked together to make her baptism happen. Our ward mission leader, Bishop, and a member of our mission presidency (President Lowder) came over to give her a blessing and talk to her about being baptized. When we first got to Diane's house..she could barely speak and she was in so much pain. After her blessing she was herself again. She was still in pain, but she was talking, eating, and had so much energy. President Lowder called a member who has a patient transport business, and he came to Diane's house and loaded her up on a stretcher, and drove her to the church building. There the elders, along with president Lowder, carried her into the font and baptized her. The spirit was so strong during her baptism. All I could do was sit there and cry - a good cry of course. I know I had nothing to do with this miracle that happened. 

Saturday we went to the Rockin R Ranch and helped with a special needs fundraiser. I love those kids. Their spirits are so sweet, pure, and kind. 

This week we also got to go to a sealing of a family in our ward. 

It makes me so excited to one day be sealed to my own family so soon! 

 I know Heavenly Father knows the desires of our hearts, and that if we just ask..He will help us. He is always waiting there, willing to help us. 

https://history.lds.org/story/first-vision?lang=eng
​1. Some of the Sisters 

2. Sister Weyand and I

3. Frog Legs

4. DIANE'S BAPTISM!

5. After the baptism

6. The Buchholzer fam 

#PrinceOfPeace

Just another rad week as a missionary in the AGM. 

Sister Johnson and I had a fun time together this week!

Diane, our investigator and one of my favorite people, was supposed to get baptized yesterday. We taught her 3 of the lessons this week and had her baptism interview.  Well Diane has stage 4 cancer, and this WHOLE week wore her out so much that she was in too much pain to have her baptism yesterday, so we're rescheduling it for this week! It's kind of a miracle that she didn't get baptized yesterday because her other daughter is coming into town today! So she'll end up being here for Diane's baptism. Everything happens for a reason.

On Wednesday we had zone conference. We got together with the Highland and Gilbert Zones, and got trained by our Mission President, his wife, and the Assistants. It's so awesome to be able to be spiritually fed and to grow and learn more about Our Savior. 

Speaking of..I loved General Conference this weekend. It was so amazing. I may or may not have teared up a few times during the talks. Everyone who spoke in Conference was inspired by Heavenly Father in what they needed to say. There is no doubt about that. My favorite talk was Elder Holland's talk in the Saturday Afternoon session. 

In it he says:" Among the realities we face as children of God living in a fallen world is that some days are difficult, days when our faith and our fortitude are tested. These challenges may come from a lack in us, a lack in others, or just a lack in life, but whatever the reasons, we find they can rob us of songs we so much want to sing and darken the promise of “springtime in [the] soul” that Eliza Hewitt celebrates in one of her verses

Brothers and sisters, we live in a mortal world with many songs we cannot or do not yet sing. But I plead with each one of us to stay permanently and faithfully in the choir, where we will be able to savor forever that most precious anthem of all—“the song of redeeming love”. Fortunately, the seats for this particular number are limitless. … “Come as you are,” a loving Father says to each of us, but He adds, “Don’t plan to stay as you are.” We smile and remember that God is determined to make of us more than we thought we could be."

I love the Savior and everything that He has done for us. Without Him and without our Father in Heaven and their guidance I know that I would be lost. I love the Savior and the fact that he performed the Atonement for us. He has felt EVERY pain, loss, suffering - everything that we have, and because of that we have someone to turn to. We have an instant best friend. He want us to be His friend, to get to know Him. So get to know our Savior and our Heavenly Father. Learn about them. Come to find peace through them.  https://youtu.be/Ly9xk59Qkfc

You had me at Gilbert

This week was super sad. Sister Anderson went home! sending a companion home is hard, but it's even more hard after you've been together for almost 5 months. 

But I got a new companion this week, which is super fun! Her name is Sister Johnston, and she's from Great Falls, Montana! She's been out for 4 months. She's pretty rad. 

This week we had the General Women's session of conference. It was so amazing! I love listening to the Apostles and Prophet of our Father in Heaven. The Second Counselor in the General Primary Presidency shared this scripture. Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” then she went on to say :"When we spiritually lean to our own understanding, we lean away from our Savior. If we lean, we are not centered; we are not balanced; we are not focused on Christ. …We must each ask: How do I keep centered and lean not to my own understanding? How do I recognize the voice of the Savior when the voices of the world are so compelling? How do I cultivate trust in the Savior?" and it got me thinking about these questions..and am I REALLY focusing on the Savior and leaning on His teachings? Let us always remember to follow the example of our Savior and His teachings. I know that because Christ suffered for our sins..that we have a built in friend. We always have someone to talk to about the trials we go through, because He has felt the same pains and joys that we have. 

​

1. Last Pday

2. LoLo's Chicken and Waffles

3. Last Zone. Of course I was talking in the picture. 

4. Just hanging with the Elders.

5. One eyed willie

6. Sister Johnson and myself