8/22/16 The field is ready for harvest

HEY HEY HEY!

Sis Rish and I said our goodbyes and had our cries. But Sis Friel is my new companion and she is wonderful! is always happy and laughing and that makes things real good. She has been out 14 months and I'm ready to learn soooo much from her!

Lots of tender  mercies and good stuff....

When we first got into the area we were teaching bout 9 lessons a week (which is low for this mission) it was crazy one week we are at 7 total lessons. Then the next week and the next 5 weeks we doubled it,  hitting between 14-17 lessons! Like it was a miracle and members are crazy cool in helping us. We were having a bout 60 people at church a week and now (probably due to school starting) we are pushing 90+ which is exciting! Hopefully now we can get our own builing instead of meeting in another church hahaha. It's all good actually.

Other cool miracles?

Our returning member told us he wants to work toward the priesthood. Had the word of wisdom lesson and he gave us his cigarettes and wants us to do the stop smoking workshop with him tomorrow! Soooo cool! I love that kid.

We got a few more referrals and we are so excited for this specific one. We called her, but she texted us later and said she would be happy to meet on Wednesday at 7. Like woa! She just wants to sit down with us:) it usually takes us a little more nagging and persist-ency to get someone to agree that we are not trying to curse them.

What else?

One of our other returning members is trying to find a testimony and truth in the Book of Mormon but wouldn't read it! Ugh! Until last week:) he needed some comfort and some hope and understanding, so we gave him about 3 chapters from the Book of Mormon and all he had to choose was to read one. Next day at institute, we were talking about something and he commented saying "That sounds a lot like what is taught in Mosiah 4" HE READ IT HE READ IT! I nearly fell out of my chair because of how happy I was:)

This week we will be on the University of Tulsa campus with a booth for the activities fair for the students, im really really excited:) and things are going great!

I've made it a goal to complete the Book of Mormon and New Testament by my birthday. and so far....I'm glad that my birthday is in December haha.

Oh i just remembered!!!!!!

Sis Friel and I are making dinner in the apartment. and we get this knock on our door. 'Strange, no one knows we live here' I thought it was a package or a pizza, but no, its this guy who is about 25 in street clothes inviting us to bible study! I was all "WHAT?! yes!" but the more we talked with him some strange things came up. He knows about the book of Mormon but has never read it or prayed about it. Well we sat down and opened the scriptures and kinda did our own bible study right there. The main thing that he told us is that Christ has already come. He came in 1948 and we are waiting for something else. My first reaction was "Oh man! I missed it!!" Of course we know that Christ has not returned yet. We know that the time is close so we need to repent now and prepare the way for him. Buy anywho it was a way interesting 30 minute discussion and kinda some passive aggressive bible bashing and he was very hesitant about giving us the address to the church where they study the bible. but we got it:) Haven't gone yet.  But it was a really cool experience but saddens me when people are deceived. and I know many think that I am deceived.

People think that I've fallen for the false prophets, and that I have lost my faith or I'm in a cult or possessed by the devil, and in the moments when you're.....rejected because of your belief you tend to question it. You ask for another confirmation so that you know again what it true, or you ask how to help them know what is true. "Spiritual Questions needs Spiritual Answers from God." I think of 1 Nephi chapter 15: 11. It talks about how when we need answers from God (ex. is the Book of Mormon true? Is Joseph Smith your prophet? Is there a God that loves me? Does my life have purpose? Can I live with my family again? and more) Then you need to have faith in your Savior. you can show that faith by keeping his commandments (If you don't know the commandments ask the missionaries) and believe that you will receive answers. Because you will. He will answer you because he loves you and out of everyone on this earth He does not want you to be deceived or lost.

I know what is true, not everything, but I know the power in prayer. God will answer prayers. I know that he loves ALL his children. I know that Joseph Smith saw and talked with God and His Son and he lived his life as a Man of God and was His prophet. I know the Book of Mormon to be another Testament of Christ. Even though I grew up in a Christian home, I did not come to know Christ to be my Savior until I read the Book of Mormon. I love church. it is a church when I partake of the sacrament when I ponder and hold all these things in my heart.

T

his is my testimony and my faith and what keeps me going in my life. Christ Lives. My Redeemer, Savior, and Friend Lives. I pray that you too might come to know that truth and feel that joy and hope and peace that comes from such a belief:)

In His name, Jesus Christ, Amen

Sister Pollard

8/1/16 Two sticks of Joseph

Wow so much has happened this week and I have sooo much to do so this will probably be short....ish....it be better if I sent a letter home with all the cool stories....I might do that

BUT

Wednesday-had interviews with Mission President and visited with his wife. Got a lot of good advice and help and.....we probably be riding the bus now:) soooo excited.

Thursday-Friday I want on exchanges with my sister training leader, Sister Benites, who Is incredible! We had a great time teaching together and talking. I really enjoyed it.

Saturday we got 2 new investigators who are just the cutest couple!!! I adore them soo much and we are seeing them again this Thursday I'm so excited.

Sunday was a good day as always

And today we went bowling with the elders and a couple of our members took us out to eat!

Honestly this has been a great week. It started off real rough and I mean....REALLY ROUGH. But I couldn't even tell you what happened, but things are going great! The branch is improving. members are getting involved, we have more investigators. and more people to teach.

I'll just tell you one of my favorite experiences....

It's about this kid, we are going to call him Jack even though that isn't his real name. Jack moved to Oklahoma not too long ago, but he and his mom have been less active for a few years now. His dad isn't a member and he lives in another state. We go see Jack and get the scoop on where he is at spiritually. He is a wonderful guy, who has "forgotten" his testimony. Well that morning during studies I was reading 1 Nephi 1, when Lehi prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem. I thought "if Jerusalem was destroyed, where in the bible does it talk about it?" And so my search began, and of course it is there (2 kings 25) and I was really really really excited, so we showed that to Jack. The spirit was there, Jacks testimony was brought back to remembrance and now he is coming back, getting his mom and called his dad and told him about the Book of Mormon. I had a lovely chat with him on Sunday about all of it. He got a new Book of Mormon (since he lost his) and is eager to learn more. Really intelligent kid, and is trying hard to share the gospel with his family.

Anywho! I love the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I have been on a real Bible kick this week and I couldn't tell you everything but I will tell you that the Bible is very very important. But without the Book of Mormon, it is confusing. Thank goodness for modern day revelation as well.

Love you all! probably write mom and dad a letter soon:)

Love

sister Pollard

7/25/16 Someone Proposed to Me!

This week was great!

Tuesday we taught this Less active she is 19 and is struggling, feeling wanted and loved. Really she started losing hope in God, in life, and in herself, which breaks my heart. We showed her the Like a Broken Vessel video and within second tears where streaming down her face because those feelings describe what she has been feeling perfectly. But near the end of the video it talks about gaining hope. So her tears turned into tears of joy, knowing that there is a way. We then talked for a bit and shed a few more tears. and by the end of our conversation her whole countenance changed. She had a light about her. One of faith and hope, she started believing that there is a God and is ready to make the changes to come closer to her savior. I love her soo much! She just needed to know that she isn't given up on:) most of us needs to be reminded of that.

Sister Rish either pulled a muscle in her foot or spranged her ankle so that has beeen fun adjusting to haha. She also had her 20th birthday on July 21 so we celebrated:) and there are now 2 cakes and icecream in our house.....oh vay.

Friday we were doing service for the Methodist church. We do this every Friday. we make this food orders and deliver them to certain people. We then leave a message with them and if they are interested send their info to the elders as referrals. It is a great resource. So we are on our last delivery, and we walk up to the apartment door (passing other doors) to get the lady to sign the paper, as we are passing these other doors this older man (40ish) opens his door and walks out in his underwear! And tries to talk to us but we had a hard time understanding him. Then we felt the feeling "keep walking." so we just headed on, got the lady to sign then walked back to the car to get the food. and AGAIN this older man comes out and stares at us, no big deal I tell myself. just grab the pepper spray from the car and we will be good. We get the food, haul it up to the ladies house and he just stands outside his door watching and smiling at us (clearly he was not all there in his mind). We had a lovely discussion with the lady about the Book of Mormon and on our way back to our car to leave the man interferes into my path and shows me this ring (it looks like a copper diy ring) I, trying to be polite, say "oh that's pretty." He then gets down on one knee and holds the ring up to me.....I stuck out my hand and firmly said "No." and walked away.  That is not at all how I wanted to be proposed to (by a man in his boxers who I don't know with a copper ring) and I was hoping that my first proposal I would say yes....oh well. we had a good laugh about it. 

Friday Night and Saturday was our YSA Conference. We were able to go and meet lots of new people:):):) which always makes me happy and stressed out but its all good haha, and it was enjoyable. We didn't stay for the whole thing, we left taught a few lessons all that good stuff. 

Sunday we visited with this cute girl who just moved into her dads. She was very hesitant about coming to the conference but she came, but she has been struggling for  a little bit. We pulled up to her apartment and her dad came out, ready to head to church when he saw us. He stopped and talked to us thanking us for visiting his daughter he walked away but then turned around back to us and with tears in his eyes, he told us that he knew that we were inspired to help his daughter. It was such a tender moment, we had a lovely talk with her and got to know her better. She shared with us her fav scripture from the Book of Mormon. it was great talking with her. and it was great seeing her fathers faith. He has such great faith. 

With that I want to share with you one of my favorite things. It is when I see people being touched by the spirit. When they are moved by the spirit of God. I can't begin to explain to you my love and desire for the spirit, and how important it is. But whenever I see someone, whos heart is warm, or tears fill their eyes, I am reminded of whos work I am doing, and who is in control, which is the most comforting thing ever. I love this gospel. I love the spirit. I thank My Lord for giving us such a precious gift. In the Name of my Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ Amen

Sister Pollard

7/18/16 TORNADO!!

Oh goodness even when I write down things I forget the most terrifying experience!

THERE WAS A TORNADO!!

Well sorta.......

Okay it is Thursday morning,it's around 11 am and we are at the library doing weekly planning. We are in a private room discussing such and such matters when this worker walked in and he said "are you aware that the tornado sirens are going off and we are all taking cover?" My companion and I were like "........uh......no" so we walk out where everyone was near the front doors close to the bathrooms (where we should be) and there is this massive storm going on outside. It's pouring rain like no other, and the wind was tearing through the sky and the sky was turning color to green (big sign of tornado) and of course the sirens are going off and everyone is on their phone watching the weather and seeing where the tornado will be at. Lightning is flashing and the drums are louder than ever. It was a scene!   The doors are opening and closing due to the wind, and rain starts crawling in through the windows and doors! It was that awful of a storm.

But no tornado in Tulsa. There was a tornado in two cities close to us where we visit often but tornado was safe. However, there was damage from the wind. Trees had fallen over, fences had broken apart, electricity was out for hours. but no one was killed (I think) and it was an exciting scene. Biggest lightning storm so far that's for sure!

Just thought I would throw that in there:)

7-18-16 Cursed

HEY YALL

a lot of cool and unusual things happened this week an I'm doing a lot better at remembering them (aka I have a list).

Tuesday we did service at this place called kids against hunger. It is a great service organization but the guy Marshall, is my favorite. He reminds me of grandpa pollard who just won't retire because he loves work too much. haha but he shared some of his most spiritual experiences with us and the good that the Lord is using him for. He is one of the most faithful persons I have met. One who lives what he believes. I love the reminder that the Lord works and inspire all people to do good. and Marshal has over 80 years of experiences to tell you about it.

Thursday we went to institute. Well I should first explain-the building that the YSA members meet is behind a Presbyterian church. as in-we are renting a part of their church for our meetings, and we hold institute there. Well we were walking to up to the door and saw this old man sleeping at the Presbyterian back door. "Strange but not unusual" I thought. However something told me that we will talk to him, but we weren't THAT comfortable to awake him. Well after institute was over we were just about to head out when the old man walked into the door and wanted to learn about the church. After some discussion and prayer we set up an appointment to meet him tomorrow with the elders and left him with the Book of Mormon. Now this old man has no teeth....so it was very difficult to even understand him. The next day we show up (the elders were running late) and luckily the old man was there, but he was mad. Again I have no idea what he said to us but he did not like the Book of Mormon. Since I didn't understand him I asked "I'm sorry sir, what's wrong?" and he got on his bike with all of his stuff and starting speaking so fast and quoting bible verses and I'm pretty sure he cursed us. At least I felt like he was. Sister Rish said he was praying for protection from us. Either way it was weird because he just hopped on this bike and started peddling away and yelling bible verses. Then we tried to explain all that happened to the elders and they totally missed out. It was weird guys, just weird, and I don't even know why he was upset! Moral of the story-keep your teeth. it makes things easier for everyone. To do this don't do drugs, don't drink, and don't smoke.

Saturday was me favorite day! We went to this elderly 'home' to do service. and they had a piano. The elder people weren't doing anything,  actually they just finished a movie when we got there so we rummaged through some stuff and we found a hymn piano book. "Surely this will lift their spirits" I sat on the piano and started playing some hymns. This woman began belting and I mean belting out the lyrics to songs. After that she told me anything I can play she can sing. So I played all the hymns that I knew plus some out of that hymn book and sure enough she knew the words. I sang along with her of course but I couldn't sing as loud as her. She wasn't the only one! A few more elderly women joined us in song. This one adorable woman rolled her little wheel chair up to the piano to ask me the next time I will be here because she wanted to make sure she was here to hear the music again. Then I took a request from her and we sang "God be with you till we meet again." I was so impressed by these women...oh the men? ya they fell asleep. hahaha  the woman that sang so loud-she even got on the piano with me and played "this little light of mine" because I couldn't play it since I had no music for it! but she played it so well from memory I was impressed. we played and sang for 2 hours!! but it sure flew by. we sang:

Sweet hour of prayer

how great thou art

nearer my god to the

amazing grace

and a couple of other ones I cant remember.

Sunday. church starts at 2 so we met with our less active at 11 and this kid is super cool. His name is Josh. Josh is actually striving to come back to church. He's making long strides. Well we wanted this lesson to be a little bit more fun, so we bought ice cream. and we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy. haha no need to get into detail but it was fun:)

The week was pretty good:)

Love you all!

7/11/16 Ukulele?

Guys.....I bought a ukulele!

First song I learned was a primary song "When I Am Baptized." and now when my companion is having a bad day I just pull out the ukulele and serenade her. It's really funny we think. and she has it recorded and ya...enough with that.

Our YSA branch is cooking!! Well...really water is boiling!! That is super super good:) and we started to plead for the Lords mercy on this branch and somehow a light turned on that hasn't been on in a long time. It is hard to explain but you can feel a stronger spirit. There is enthusiasm, t's not where we want it at yet. but its getting brighter.

It's hard to stay busy in a YSA, because everyone is either at work or at school until the evening, sooo for the past 3 weeks we have been searching and calling so many places to fill our time with service in the morning and afternoon. WE DID IT! we have service everyday this week. This way we can soften hearts and teach people when the spirit prompts. We are doing service with 5 different companies. Bueno, and we also are seeing and working with more family members from the wards. gaining parents trust so that they will encourage their child to go to YSA.

Really the lord has given us so many tender mercies, and I just want to be a better person because I am so grateful for that.

Oh and my companion and I are staying in Tulsa! So address is the same:)

Love you and thanks for the prayers:)

Love sister Pollard

7-4-16 Idle hands are the devils workshop

In case you didn't know, I HIT MY 6 MONTH MARK! typically elders would burn a tie at this 'big' event but I, loving my clothes too much, decided that burning clothes was not an option. So today we are celebrating with manicures:) and then I'm gonna buy a banjo. so all happiness I need.

This week was probably good:) We started the 40 day fast and we are super excited about how many members are participating!

 For family home evening this week we played ultimate Frisbee. I, of course, just had to play (regardless the skirt and flats). And of course, I being my competitive self, got way into it and aggressive and came out with a hurt shoulder. I'M OKAY!! haha it was just funny.

Downtown here there is like 3 blocks filled with taco trucks. pretty legit. And our investigator wanted to get lunch with us so we went and had taco truck food with her which was pretty good:) and she is just the cutest doll.

We were looking for this new move in girl the other day, and we went to her apartment and saw two guys and a girl and a cute baby outside at the door next tp the one we wanted to knock on. We passed by them and started talking to them and one of the guys really wanted to talk to us about Christ. Really Cool! To bring it short, he has forgotten Gods love for him and has felt outcasted by other churches because he has tattoos. We assured him that God still loves him and that his suffering will end if he follows Jesus Christ. Super cool and something he needed to hear. We then invited them all to church with us, but they didn't come. BUT! we have his number and will stop by this week again:)

Ultimately the week was good. Got some rain. taught more lessons this week more than before so that's cool. 

OH! So last night we were talking to this very active member, and he said "Satan Loves boredom and isolation." and that just rang true! When we are bored or when we feel isolated that is when we take down our guard and Satan attacks us. Always be going somewhere and doing something with your life that is good,  and remember that God put millions of people on this earth for a reason. Don't isolate yourself. There is good in the world.

Probably one of the most important thing I've learned  that I feel the need to share is that it is very easy to be deceived, and it breaks my heart. There are so many people out here that don't know good from evil anymore. They don't know what truth is. They get so caught up in what they WANT to believe and not what they NEED to believe. I plead with you, if you don't know something, but you think it might be important to know, ask God. That is one reason why we have prayers. Missionaries, leaders, family members, friends can help but you must, for your salvation, YOU MUST humble yourself, ask God, put trust in Him and make the necessary changes. I know it is easier said then done. I know doing what is right today is a lot more difficult then to do what is wrong. but the ultimate reward of righteousness is "peace in this world, and eternal like in the world to come." What else does one need? Again, I urge you, pray, trust, believe, have faith. 

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what changes a person.-living that Gospel. And that Gospel is found in the Book of Mormon, in the Bible, In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I know this. I love this. I fight for this. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He amazes me:) and I look forward to the day when He comes again. 

I leave these things with you In His beloved name, Jesus Christ Amen.

Sister Pollard