Hey hey y'all! Another week has flown by. Time is so different here on
a mission. I feel like I have been a missionary for years and yet the
weeks fly by in the blink of an eye. All of a sudden it is Monday

 again :) good luck to everyone starting school in the next little
while. Make sure to send pictures. I love pictures!

Life has been wonderful here in good ol' Louisville. The weather has
been very odd for an August in Kentucky apparently (according to the
locals). It is still hot and humid but it has been raining more lately
which has been cooling it down :) The bugs are still everywhere
though, and they ALWAYS bite me. My companion thinks I'm crazy because
I put bug spray on every time we leave the house but I will do
whatever it take to keep those little critters off of me! Haha

The last couple days have been very adventurous and I have learned so
much. It is amazing how much you learn and grow on a mission. It is
definitely the hardest thing I have ever done but I am so grateful for
it because the harder things are, the more room you have to grow.

Thursday we had our first Skype lesson! We have a less active who
lives super far away with us so we decided to skype with her for 20
minutes and read scriptures with her. She gets super distracted so it
is sometimes a struggle but we love being able to bring the spirit to
her even if it is only for a short time. Technology seriously is
hastening this work!

Friday was the highlight of my week for sure though. I was asked by
our district leader to give a training on the Christlike attribute of
hope. It was such an amazing experience! I was able to learn and teach
about how essential hope is in our lives. In PMG pg. 117, it states
that hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises
to you...When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties
with confidence and assurance that all things will work together for
your good. Hope helps you conquer discouragement. 'Hope is an anchor
for our souls'". How amazing is that?? Hope can bring us peace in this
life. When founded on the Atonement of our Savior and His infinite
love for us, hope can carry us through any trial. I am so grateful for
a Savior that has given each of us the opportunity to hope for eternal
life and joy. It is so good!! :) Then we had interviews with the
mission president and his wife. They are seriously my favorite. They
brought so much joy to my heart and I love spending time with them.
After all of our meetings, we got on a bus and I started talking to
this girl named Juliet about our church and the Book of Mormon. This
guy behind her was like "Dang! How many cups of coffee did you have
this morning??" I just laughed and said, "Actually none! I am just
super happy!" We ended up teaching them about the Book of Mormon and
our church on the bus and now Juliet has appointments with the elders
in her area. It is so amazing how prepared people just soak up this
gospel. People notice something different about what we teach. It is
familiar to them! All you have to do is share what you know and live
what you believe :)

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to do the I Am a Witness challenge.
It was so much fun! Thank you all for sharing it and for all the sweet
comments. Continue sharing it and make your own. Be creative. You
won't believe how many people you can reach through social media. Be a
light for all who come in contact with you, no matter what method that
may be. I know that as we share our testimonies with the world, we
will be able to find our brothers and sisters who are kept from the
truth only because they "know not where to find it". You can do it!
The Lord is hastening His work and He will be with you as you share
your testimony, even if it is just by the example you set for others.

We also got to teach Terry on SaturdayI am seriously amazed by Terry
every single time we teach him. He is so prepared so it is just a
blessing to be able to be a part of his conversion process. He knows
this church is true. He has been listening to the Book of Mormon at
work and he says it brings so much peace to him and he is able to have
that peace with him during the day. Learning the gospel has been
changing his life and he said that he feels like a new man. How cool
is that?? It is such a tender mercy to be able to witness the Spirit
testifying of truth to the hearts of those we teach. That is why it is
so important that we always live worthy for the Spirit. If we have the
Spirit, those we come in contact with will feel it and the Spirit will
bring the truth to their hearts.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to church. One of our less
actives, the one we Skype with every day, actually came! She only came
for sacrament but that is a whole lot better than not coming at all!
We are super grateful for the technology that we have so that we could
read with her and help her be a little more comfortable with coming
back to church.

As a mission, we have a goal that we set each week for how many people
we will talk with (TWE). We set 250 this week since that is the normal
number that we have been hitting every week. However, we were about 75
short yesterday because of some things that happened during the week
and the fact that not as many people are outside now that school
started. We were super sad about not being able to hit our weekly goal
because we only on average talk with about 25 people on Sundays. We
prayed about it a lot and asked Heavenly Father to help us hit it,
even though we couldn't see how it was going to happen. Miraculously
though, our appointment that night fell through and the weather was
the best that is has been all month. So many people were outside! We
were able to talk to 76 people on a Sunday! And we got in contact with
some less actives on our roster. It is so cool to see that just a
little bit of faith brings even more blessings than you were hoping to
receive.

Dang! I have so much to write every week. Sorry if these are too long.
I can't promise to make them shorter though ;)

I have learned so much this week. I know that our Heavenly Father and
Savior live. They love each of us so much! Trust in them and the plan
that they have for you. It is so much more rewarding than anything
that you could decide for yourself. Give all of your dreams and wants
and desires over to Him and submit your will to His. As you do so, it
may be difficult and painful, but He will make you into a celestial
being. I am so grateful for the Atonement and the chance I have to do
a little bit better each and every day. I have never been more aware
of my weaknesses and yet more aware of my Saviors ability to make them
strengths of I trust Him and do as He asks. This life is not easy, but
it is oh so worth it.

I love you all! Have a great week. My PDay next week got moved to
Tuesday because of halfway training on Monday so I will talk to you
all then. Love you all. Thank you for all your love and prayers. It
means more than you know.

Hurrah for Israel!

Much love,
Sister Dorian

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ,
having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and all men.
Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of
Christ, and endure to the end, behold, this switch the Father: ye
shall have eternal life" 2 Nephi 31:20

Lightening Bugs!!! They Exist!! (week 5)

Hey y'all!

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is having a great time
finishing up the summer and enjoying every last second before school
starts. The Kentucky schools started this week so enjoy it while you
can :)

One thing I have learned on my mission is that even though we are
working hard, we can still have fun and find joy in little things. One
thing that brings me joy here is the fireflies (or lightening bugs if
we are being technical) they are so cool! They are dying off because
it is the end of the summer but when they light up in front of you
while you are walking, it is a magical sight :) another thing we look
forward to during the week is service on Tuesdays. We go over to
Cherokee park which is this HUGE park in the middle of the city. We go
and cut out evasive plants and pull vines and get spiders all over us
but it is so fun to be able to help out!

This week was a very tiring yet rewarding week. It is so funny that
those words often go together in life, especially as a missionary.
Earlier last week we taught Terry and guess what?? HE CAME TO CHURCH!!
 He absolutely loved it. He sang the songs and listened intently in
class and had the biggest smile on afterwards. Afterwards he said, "I
feel so alive right now. I gotta get my family in here. They need to
feel this. I feel so happy." It was so good to hear him say that since
we haven't been able to make much progress with his family yet. He
felt the Spirit so strongly and it was really a neat experience to be
a part of. He is seriously the best! We taught him word of wisdom and
he committed to stop drinking coffee on the spot and he taught him the
word of wisdom and he is working on getting a wedding set up with his
fiancé so that he can get married before he gets baptized. What a
prepared guy! He wants to follow our Savior so badly and he has such
faith that if he is obedient, he will be blessed. We may be planning a
wedding soon so if anyone has any pointers, let us know :)

We also had the chance to teach a guy named James with some members in
the ward. He is so awesome. He has 7 kids and they are seriously the
cutest things you have ever seen. As some of you know, I love unique
names and this family is full of them. They have Kenya, Cortez,
deyron, tyreese, Lebron, mikell, and Constance. So cute!! When we were
teaching him, he told us right up front that he knows our message is
true and he knows that he wants to be baptized. He has such a desire
to change his life. I know that Heavenly Father prepares His children
to hear this gospel and accept it. I know that as we trust in Him and
His timing, he will lead us to those who are ready and willing to make
the necessary steps to come back to Him.

I also went on exchanges with the hermanas this week! I sat in on like
3 lessons completely in Spanish. It was pretty different but it was
kinda cool because I got a glimpse of what it was like for my sister
who served a Spanish mission. I even got to participate in one of the
lessons and the sisters teaching translated for me. That was awesome!
It was cool to see that no matter what language, the message is the
same and it is oh so true :)

It has been pretty interesting meeting so many different people every
single day. We average about 250-260 talk with's a week which is a
crazy high number apparently! Most areas get around 80 because they
are in cars but since we are on bikes, we can talk to a lot more
people. We have met some seminary students who go to the huge
baptist/Catholic seminaries here in town. We actually met a guy the
other day who is studying to be a baptist pastor and he invited us
over so that we could talk religion. We said yes and then he said as
we were leaving, "I'll try to convince you to be baptist and you can
try to convince me to be Mormon, it'll be great!". We will see if we
actually go over there but it would be pretty interesting to have that
conversation don't you think? It is super intimidating talking to them
because they study so much and a lot of times I am worried that I
won't know how to respond to some of their questions but the spirit
has taught me something very significant in the past few days. I know
that this church is true. It doesn't matter how much he knows vs. how
much I know. If I have the spirit with me and I teach with the spirit,
those that I teach will be able to feel it and then the Spirit will
teach them for me. I trust that as long as I live worthy and am
prepared to speak with the the spirit, I will never have to wonder
what to say. The Lord will give it to me and I will be able to be that
vessel through which our Savior and teach and convert His children.

We also got to go to the temple today! What an amazing experience. Me
and sister I both woke up with colds and we're feeling super lame but
we pushed through satans attempts to keep us from the Lords house and
it ended up being so good! We got to do everything except baptisms and
the spirit was SO STRONG. I love that no matter where you are in the
world, the temple always feels the same. It was such a refreshing,
rejuvenating way to end a crazy wonderful week and a half :)

I know that this church is true! I know that our Savior lives. There
are so many that claim to know the truth but they only have bits and
pieces. I am constantly reminded by the Spirit and through all the
experiences I have as a missionary that this message that I share is
the truth. It is real. Joseph smith really did see Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon was written by actual prophets long
ago. It is true. All of it. As you search and pray, asking for answers
to your question, the Spirit WILL testify of truth. He always does.
Trust in Heavenly Father and our Savior. Let the enabling power of the
Atonement take care of worries and weaknesses and mistakes that we all
have and make and as you do, you will see yourself come closer and
become more like the Savior. They love you and I love you. Keep on
trying and be believing. There is always happiness in every situation.
You just have to love as Christ would and do your very best and He
will take care of the rest :)

Sorry this one was long this week! There is just so much to tell! ;)

P.S. We got Facebook this week as some may have noticed. We can post
and proselyte on there now and like/comment as long as everything we
do is fulfilling our purpose of helping others come unto Christ. We
are all very new to it so bear with us ;)

I love you all! Thank you for all the prayers and support. I can feel
all of your love.
Have a great week! 

"See ya later Jesus Girls!" (week4)

Hey y'all! 

How is everyone?? I hope all is well and all of you are
enjoying the wonderful summertime. Everything is super amazing here in
Louisville. Kentucky is such a beautiful place! The green things grow
spontaneously from all the water in the air so no one ever waters
anything. Some people don't even know what sprinklers are! :) the only
bad thing about that is the bugs also grow spontaneously, so they eat
us alive! our area is pretty big and we are the only strictly bike
area sisters in the mission so we have gotten super good at riding the
buses everywhere and we've made super good friends with some of the
bus drivers. Hopefully we can teach them one of these days ;) I can't
help but love this place with all of my heart and the people are
absolutely amazing. I might even end up moving here one day, but that
is a conversation for another day :)

One quick funny highlight to explain the subject of the email. We were
walking down the street one day and saw a father with his two
daughters (5 yrs old and baby age) in the driveway. We walked up and
said hello and the 5 yr old ran right up to us and started asking us
all these questions about who we were (she reminded me of myself
haha). We told her that we were here to share about Jesus Christ. She
told us she loved Jesus and then started climbing on her tree while we
talked to her dad. When we found out he wasn't interested, we said
goodbye and started walking away. As we were walking, we heard her
yell at us "see ya later Jesus girls!". Me and sister I had a nice
long laugh about that one :)

The work is progressing slowly but surely here in the Highlands, which
is the official name for our area. It is a very different experience
whitewashing an area but I am super grateful to have sister Israelsen
here with me so we can figure it out together. We are teaching Terry
about commandments and he is working super hard to get work off so
that he can come to church. He is so solid! Every time we teach him he
just says over and over, "I know this is true and I am gonna join this
church as soon as I can!". We had to move his date back because of his
work schedule but we really do feel such a strong spirit with him and
we know that if he continues to read the BOM and keep his commitments,
he will be baptized! He is such an amazing example to his family as
well. When we first started coming over, none of them would talk to us
much but last time we came over his mom and dad were talking with us
and we were even able to invite his mom to sit in on a lesson. It is
so amazing how the Lord works in providing the truth for His children.

We had such an amazing miracle story on Saturday that has definitely
strengthened my testimony in spiritual promptings and being worthy of
the spirit. We had an appointment with a recent convert that fell
through so we decided to contact on the street she lived on and maybe
visit some less actives. After unsuccessfully trying to visit some
people, we decided to visit one of our investigators who lived nearby.
On our way over, I felt like we should turn around. Not knowing why,
we turned around and ended up bumping into one of the less actives we
had just tried to visit who we have been working hard with to try to
get her back to church. We were able to teach her and it was awesome!

The story just gets better from there, though. We had an appointment
with a new investigator that night that we were so excited about.
After visiting with the less active lady, we went to get our bikes and
look up his address so we could head over. To our dismay, his address
was wrong!! The house number didn't exist on the street listed. We
tried to call him but his phone got disconnected. We were devastated,
especially since he had called us a couple days before and confirmed
with us. It was hot and we were so sweaty and we were both very
tempted to just go home and chalk it up as another fallen through
appointment. Then all of a sudden, I remembered a story that president
had told us that week about sisters who had gone through the same
situation and ended up finding their appointment. So, acting on faith
since it was near impossible to find him without his address, we went
to the street listed and decided to talk to people and ask if anyone
knew him. We started talking to this Hispanic family who could hardly
understand us and quickly figured out that they didn't know who this
guy was. Then, I heard these people walking behind me. I turned around
and saw two guys. I quickly stopped them and said "Hi! Quick question.
Do you know this guy that we are looking for??". Looking at me in
disbelief he said "that's me!!". He actually lived 15 minutes away in
a completely different neighborhood and had decided to go to the store
with his roommate when we didn't show. We ended up teaching him and
his roommate in front of some random ladies house on a road that he
didn't even live on and helped to clear up major misconceptions he had
because of the church. What a miracle! If things hadn't happened the
way they did leading up to that moment when we met him and if we
hadn't followed the promptings that we did, we never would have found
him! I know that Heavenly Father directs His work. He is in charge of
the details and as long as we are living righteously and worthily, He
will guide us to those who are searching for the truth. I know that as
we trust in the Lord, He will lead us to those who's hearts are
prepared to know the truth. Such an amazing experience to bring light
and hope into a hot, humid afternoon.

I am so grateful for this chance I get to serve a mission. Never have
I felt more joy and peace then now as I serve my Savior and declare
the truth of the things I know to be truth to my brothers and sisters
here. I love this gospel with all of my heart and I know that it is
true. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. He restored the gospel
and translated the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God. The
Book of Mormon is true. It will give you strength and answers in any
situation as you pray in faith, seek for inspiration, and ponder on
what the spirit testifies to you. As you apply those promptings, you
will grow closer the the Savior and develop a strong desire to follow
Him and surrender your will to His. I know He loves each and every one
of us just as our Heavenly Father does. He understands us perfectly
and knows how to help us through each and every hardship and I know
that He will come to you and stand by you as you do the same for him.
I love this gospel and I love all of you!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. You all mean more to me
than you know. Keep your head up and remember to laugh and eat otter
pops if things are hard or you are too sweaty for it to be normal and
people are repulsed by you. (that's what I do) :)

Hurrah for Israel!

Much love,
Sister Dorian

 

First Week in KENTUCKY (Week 3)

Hey y'all

Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky. That's right. My first area is
right here in Louisville, my mission President is in my ward and
everything! It's so awesome. We are white washing this area which
means that me and my trainer are new to the area. There used to be
Elders here but the ward mission leader asked specifically for sisters
this transfer because of all the single women and less actives. It has
been an adventure for sure trying to figure out the bus system since
we are strictly a bike area but I have loved every second of it :) it
is quite humid here but I actually love it which is a blessing. I
pretty much love this place and I haven't even been to the country
yet. There are so many people to talk to and so many things to see.

My companion is awesome. She is Becca Workmans twin I swear! So weird!
She is so sweet and reminds me a lot of my sister Hannah. We have a
lot of fun but we both like control so it is gonna be good to learn
how to give that up a little bit since I am kinda controlling
sometimes... ;)

We came into the area with 7 baptismal dates set from the previous
elders and we have only been able to teach one of them, Terry. All the
other appointments we set with the others fell through so we are still
working with them. Terry is so awesome. We were super late to our
first appointment with him because we missed our stop on the bus and
ended up getting dropped off in downtown (way out of our area).
Luckily we had our bikes or we would have been lost for hours. After a
quick prayer and our wonderful iPads, we found him and taught him and
he was so receptive. His heart is definitely prepared for this gospel.
He got his shut out of storage to come to church with us but he got
sick that morning so he couldn't come. Such a bummer! We are meeting
with him this week so we will keep working hard!

One amazing miracle we had this week was with an investigator we have
that the elders found. Her name is Stacy. We had an appointment with
her but couldn't find where she lived so we couldn't make it. We were
walking around trying to find out what to do instead since she
wouldn't answer her phone and decided to say a prayer. We felt like
going back to the more populated road by the apartments so we did. As
we headed over there, we bumped into her! She had gone to McDonalds
with her sister. Such a blessing! We set up an appointment with her
and went to see her yesterday but only her sister maya was there. So
we taught maya while we waited. The Lord knows who is prepared and He
will lead us if we are worthy and obedient. Even though we couldn't
teach Stacy, her sister was able to have a lesson and set up another
appointment with us. The Lord works in mysterious ways so we will see
what happens with them. It was such a cool experience to see that
prayer so immediately answered :)

We also had the opportunity to visit a lady named Darlene. A recent
convert asked us to visit her because she is super sick and has been
very depressed. We went over with a member in our ward and taught her
about Gods love for her and His mindfulness of her. It was such a cool
experience to be able to just visit her and let her know that sweet
message. I know that the Savior wants us to care for and love all of
His children since He can't physically be here for all of them. I am
so grateful that He has given me this sacred opportunity to serve Him
by serving and loving His children.

We got to talk with this lady named Pam this week and it was a hard
yet spiritual experience. She is an atheist and she started out the
conversation mad at us and the world and I was ready to leave very
soon after I said hello. My companion in her wisdom decided to stay
and listen to her. I got the chance to bear my testimony and explain
why I am on a mission and we ended the conversation on a very positive
note. She said that no missionaries ever stopped to listen to what she
had to say but because we had, we had been the highlight of her day.
She said she had a respect for Mormons which was a big change from the
beginning. Even though it wasn't the most comfortable converts to
have, Heaven,y Father needed us there so she could change her view of
us and feel heard. So cool how Heavenly Father leads us to people that
He needs us to touch even though we would usually have stayed clear of
them. He is so interested in all of His children's lives and I was
grateful for the opportunity to bear my testimony and be a
representative of Christ.

I know that this church is true. I have such a deep testimony of my
Savior's love for me and for all of those on this earth. I have found
myself loving and praying for people that I have hardly met and I care
about them so much! I know that the Savior is blessing us as
missionaries with the ability to love as He loves. Even though the
love I feel doesn't even compare to the love He feels for them, I am
so grateful for that gift from him. I love these people so much and I
can't even wait to find those who's hearts are prepared for this word.
The church is so true! God lives. He directs this work and I am deeply
humble for the opportunity that I have to be a Part of it :) hurrah
for Israel!

I will do my best to write letters this week. I am so busy all day
every day that I hardly ever have time to write in my journal or do
much of anything other than missionary work. But I am allowed to read
emails during the week so you can send them anytime and I'll be able
to read them. I just can't write back until Monday.

Thank you so much for all the support and prayers. I love you all.
Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Sister Sariah Dorian