Called to Serve in DC North: June 2016

Update from Maryland

Hello everyone!

This week was really good! We had a lot of training meetings for Sister Greenhalgh but it was still a pretty successful week!

We had our last interview with President and Sister Cooke this week! It was bitter sweet! I love the Cookes so much! The biggest thing that I have learned from President Cooke is to never give up. To never turn back in a battle. To always keep going. He always always always tells us that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ and to wear His name strong and proud. He has really changed my life. Sister Cooke is the perfect example of someone who is always putting others first. She is just the best! She is a huge role model to me. Although I will miss the Cookes, I am excited to meet our new Mission President and his wife on July 1!

Funny story: So somehow we found 4 toads in our apartment... how they got there we have no idea! I am on the very top bunk bed and Sister Higginson and Sister Greenhalgh told me that apparently at 1:00 in the morning I JUMPED off the bunk bed and screamed, "OH MY GOSH THERE IS A FROG IN MY BED" and then I climbed back up the bunk bed and went to sleep.... I don't recall any of it! Hahaha!! We had a good laugh over that!

We went to a baptism for a little girl in our ward named Kailey. She is the cutest girl! We have been working with her family and teaching them lessons. We were just sitting there when all the sudden we heard the person conducting say, "Sister Freeman, Sister Greenhalgh and Sister Higginson will now be doing the musical number"..... haha we were like WHAT?! It was so funny! We ended up doing a pretty good job! We just sang Teach me to Walk in the Light! It is a good thing we are in a trio-- two people overpowering my horrible singing voice is better than one! ;)

One of our recent coverts as of a week (Michael) introduced one of his friends, Min, to us! We got to teach him! We are so excited to see where this will go! Michael is doing so great! He told us that he wants to serve a mission and then attend BYU after!!! So exciting!

This week for service, we got to go to the farm and pull weeds... for 5 hours! It was actually really fun! We had a good time!

Well there isn't too much this week to report on so I will just leave you all with my testimony.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that the atonement will carry us, if we let it.

I always heard people say that the atonement would carry us, but I never knew what that felt like, until I got on a mission and had to fully and wholly rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ. Rely on the atonement with all your heart. Prayer is power. We can not get through life without prayer.

Lover you all! Have a great week!

Sister Freeman

Our companionship...

Sister Greenhalgh, Higginson and me.

A cute little girl named Evelynn Hurt gave us this present at a member meal.

They were cute leis! It made our day!

A lady in our ward gave us Maryland headbands!!

8 Months!! :)

This week was crazy but so good! There were lots of changes! We had transfers on Wednesday! Sister Ete went to the Kensington area and I will be training Sister Greenhalgh!! She is from Utah and is just so great!! I am so happy to get to be her trainer! We also found out on transfer day that Sister Higginson will be joining us for 3 weeks! She leaves to go home half way through the transfer for school so we will be in a trio for half of the transfer! It has been great, I love them so much!

Michael's baptism yesterday went so well! He looked so happy! It was so cool, four days before the baptism, Michael called us very excited and said, "I JUST FOUND OUT THAT MY GRANDPARENTS ARE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS!!" Holy cow this was so exciting! So his grandpa got to baptize him yesterday. It was such a sweet experience. Funny story, so we were in charge of filling up the font... And so I was trying to figure out how to turn the water on and the same time I was trying to turn the water on, Sister Greenhalgh was trying to figure out how to plug the font.... Sooooooo I think you guys can see where this is going!! She got drenched! I felt so bad!! Aw man we had a good laugh though so that was good!

We had a lesson with Seth at the Visitors' Center! The spirit was so strong. We committed him to baptism, but he said he would pray about a date! As we were testifying to him that we knew this church was true, he stopped us and he said, "Every time a missionary tells me they know this church is true or that they know something is true, I feel something in my heart." He went on to say, "I hope you guys know how powerful your testimonies are and that every time you say 'I know' you just bare so much witness." This really struck me because it shows how powerful testimonies are. What you KNOW to be true and what you share with others will go a long way! Never keep your testimony to yourself! Always share it.

On Friday we met with this lady that we thought was really interested in the gospel! We got to her house and she just bible bashed us hard core! The spirit was gone. We offered her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she literally threw it back at us and said she wanted nothing to do with it. We left her with a prayer and our testimonies and said goodbye. We got to the car and we were all a little disturbed by what happened. It is hard when you have such a strong testimony about something and someone tries to break it down and throw it back at you. The spirit brought a scripture to our mind while we were in the car. It was Ether 12 verse 6, "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." The last sentence of this scripture "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" really rang true to us. Our faith was tried but I can honestly say that that experience made my testimony on the Book of Mormon grow even stronger. That trial of my faith made my witness of the Book of Mormon unshakable. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that it goes hand in hand with the Bible and that it will bring happiness into peoples lives. It truly is written by God. That is knowledge that won't be shaken. As you study the Book of Mormon, I promise you will find added spirit in your life! Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want more of Gods word? I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister Freeman

Michael's baptism! Sister Ete got to come back for it!

Sisters Ete, Freeman, Greenhalgh and Higginson

Michael and his Grandpa!

My greenie! (Sister Greenhalgh) :)

She is the best!

All the trainees and trainers for this transfer!

Sister McArthur and I on transfer day!

Sister Greenhalgh with President and Sister Cooke the day she flew in.

Sister Ete's and my last Pday together.

We went on a really pretty hike!

Sister Griffin (my trainer) just left to go home! I'm going to miss her so much!

My district for last transfer!

Lydia!! She is an incredible young woman that Sister Ete and I got really close with!

We saw her at the Why I Believe Fireside last night!:)

I'M TRAINING!!!!!

GUESS WHAT! I received some crazy exciting news this week from President Cooke! He told me I will be training a brand new missionary!!!! I get to meet her on transfers this Wednesday! All I know about her is she speaks little English, so I'm guessing she is from out of the country! Ah I can't wait to meet her! I am going to miss Sister Ete so much! She has been such a huge example to me! This transfer has been so amazing! I feel like I have grown so much because of Sister Ete!:)

Oh my goodness this week was so good! Ismael got baptized yesterday! It was so incredible to see how happy he was after! I'll send some pictures! We are so proud of him for following the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We met with George, another member referral from the Gaithersburg YSA Branch, and the lesson was one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission. We were in a huge room, but man it was filled all the way to the top with the spirit. He wants to get baptized on July 3! He is so amazing! He has gone through a lot and has many trials in his life but he always trusts in God. He is such a huge example to me! Michael is doing well! He is so excited for his baptism on the 19th!

He came to Ismael's baptism and really enjoyed it! Ismael is such a huge example to our branch!:) Michael also told me he is going to apply to BYU!!!! AND he wants to serve a mission! Can you believe that?!! Man he has such a bright future ahead of him.

So Sister Ete and I set this goal at the beginning of the week of getting 30 doctrinal lessons! We decided we would do everything we could to get there and that God would make up the rest. So, it was Saturday and we were at 23 lessons. Right as we were talking about how we needed 7 more lessons and trying to think of ways we could get more lessons, Sister Ete said, "Well let's teach when we find." Literally right after Sister Ete said that, this lady stops her car and rolls down her window and said, "Oh my gosh I haven't seen Mormons in forever! I love you guys!" We then started to teach her and got her information so we could come back! This was such a cool experience for me!! We accomplished our goal! God is so aware of our righteously set goals and WILL help us fulfill them! I have such a strong testimony of that!

We had an interesting lesson with this man named George. How we came to meet him is a funny story... So he has been looking for his daughter that ran away 5 years ago. He called us up and said, "Hey girls so I have been trying to look for my daughter for 5 years. Someone told me to 1. Check Facebook to see if she is on there, 2. Call the police to see if they can help, and 3. Talk to the Mormon missionaries because they are good at finding people!" Haha! It was so funny! We met up with him and taught him the first lesson. He is really sweet! We will see how that goes!

We got to go to the farm this week to help out with service! Sister Ete and I, and another companionship was assigned to 'deadhead' the flower bushes! So Sister Ete and I started on one side and the other companionship went to the other side... Somehow, Sister Ete and I missed the memo of only cutting the DEAD flowers off haha... We cut off all of them! It was funny to see the different sides! We ended up just sticking the flowers back on the bush so they would look somewhat normal haha! We had a good laugh about that!

This week was so great! It was such a great way to end this transfer! I can't wait for the experiences to come in the next transfer! A verse that stood out to me in personal studies this week was Helaman 15:6, "Yea, I say unto you, that the more part of them are doing this, and they are striving with unwearied diligence that they may bring the remainder of their brethren to the knowledge of the truth; therefore there are many who do add to their numbers daily." This stood out to me because it just reminded me of what missionaries do, we strive with unwearied diligence , with dedication, with all our heart, might, mind, and strength to bring the truth to the people who are searching for it. If you are looking for truth, and searching, you will find it. God will reveal it to you by His spirit. With out the spirit we would have no connection to heaven. I am so grateful for the spirit and for the chance I have to see it work in other people's lives and in my own life. I know this church is true and am going to try my best to share it with unwearied diligence. Love you all! Keep on working hard! Never give up.

Love, Sister Freeman

ISMAEL'S BAPTISM! :) He is the one on the right!

Rob, the guy to the left of Ismael got to baptize him!

After we got 30 lessons!:)

Sabrina comes out with us to lessons! She is SO AWESOME!

She just told us how she is going to serve a mission when she turns 19!! We are so happy for her!

We met our investigators at the the DC temple visitors center for a tour!

It was such a good experience!

Your weekly selfies from Sister Ete and Sister Freeman haha ;)

(Here is Megan's tag picture that she sent to me this morning! I LOVE it!!)

BEST WEEK EVER!

This was just the BEST week ever!! So much happened! Serving a mission is the best decision I have made in my entire life!:)

I first want to talk about Michael Bailey!!! He is a super awesome investigator that is progressing so much!! We had two lessons with him this week and he really enjoyed both lessons. He said he really feels that this is the path he needs to take! He said he told all his friends he couldn't go out drinking. He said they asked why and he said he needs to stay strong to his faith! He is so incredible! He is getting baptized on June 19!! We are so excited for him. I love all the relationships we get to make as missionaries! They truly are relationships that will last through the eternities!:)

Ismael is probably the most prepared guy I have ever taught! He has been coming to church forever with his friend Diana, but didn't want to meet with missionaries until he felt ready.... SO a couple weeks ago he decided to meet with us! The other day we taught a lesson about the Restoration and at the end we asked him to pray about Joseph Smith and to pray about our message... And he said, "Oh I already know it is true. I don't doubt it at all!" I was not expecting that answer haha!

It was so exciting! He is getting baptized this Sunday, June 12. He bore his testimony at church yesterday and it was so powerful! He is so ready! Haha, during Gospel Principles class at church yesterday Michael and Ismael were answering all the questions and volunteering for everything! It was so great! I know I was called to this area for a reason and I am seeing why, little by little!

Audrey is this sweet lady that we go and read the Book of Mormon with every week with. This week we walked to her house for our Book of Mormon read and she and another lady were talking outside her house. When we walked up, the other lady started to say goodbye to Audrey. The whole time we felt like we needed to talk to the other lady but she left before we had the chance... BUT THEN while we were inside reading with Audrey, the other lady called Audrey and said, "Do you think it would be possible for those two girls to come over to my house next week? I have a couple questions about their church." Ahhhhhh we were so happy! We can't wait! I know we are supposed to meet this lady! God works in mysterious ways!

We had a really good lesson with Margaret about the Plan of Salvation. At the beginning of the lesson she said how she longs to return home to Scotland. So, we related the lesson to returning back home to our Father in Heaven and how we have a plan to get there. She really enjoyed it. I know that we all will be able to return home back to our Father in Heaven if we stay faithful here on earth. There is a life after this-- I know that with all my heart.

We were driving home from exchanges on the highway... During rush hour and guess what!! Our car broke down!!! So we had to pull over on the highway with all this busy traffic. We went to call our vehicle coordinator BUT we forgot our phone in our apartment!! We were stranded for a couple hours. This really nice guy eventually stopped and told us what was wrong with our car... And let us borrow his phone. We ended up surviving barely.;) God sure was watching out for us!

Oh my gosh biggest miracle ever! So we had a lesson at a park with one of our investigators and guess who we saw.... VICTOR! Victor was the very first person I taught on my mission when I was in DC 2nd!!!!! We lost contact with him and he fell off the face of the earth... Until just a couple days ago when we ran into him at the park!! He apologized for everything. He said he has been going through some hard times and someone stole his phone and beat him up and took his wallet as well! Man it was so good to see him again! He gave me his new phone number so hopefully he will get his life all figured out! I know that was no coincidence! Victor is going to come back!:) Prayers really are answered always!

Well, this week was incredible! Sister Ete and I just have the greatest time ever! I have learned so much from her. I hope you all have a great summer week! Don't get sunburned (Brooke and Katelyn).

Love you all!

Sister Freeman