Week 67 - Happy Monday from Liberty Missouri

Happy Monday from Liberty MO! We're back to Monday pday for the next little while and I have a new companion after transfers, Sister Morgan!:) I have actually been serving around her my whole mission and we were already super good friends so this transfer is going to be stellar!:)

I still can't believe we're companions.  So crazy!!

To finish off last week, with sister Peterson and Sister Schiess first, it was a miracle of finding!! We have been working hard to find new people to teach. Tracking isn't successful in this area like it has been in others so we sometimes track but our biggest focus is families where every family member is not a member, because they can hear the testimonies of their family members and all come and support each other in the gospel. It's pretty powerful! So we used this focus this week and had some incredible miracles!
There is an active member who just had 4 of her grandkids come live with her. The oldest is 14, down to 9 and we were just talking with them about prayer and how God loves us. The 14 year old granddaughter has been leaning towards being being an atheist and our goal was to be able to help her feel that God loves her and that he's real. At the end of the lesson we asked them, "why do we pray, what is the point of praying?" And after a minute to think, she spoke up and said, "because he's listening, and he loves us." They all said they would start saying a prayer together as a family every night:) they are in the area we were only covering for the week in Sister Peterson's area so we won't be able to continue teaching them personally but I'm excited to hear the updates on them!!
And we made this super great plan of how to help the Ward to invite their friends to come closer to Christ! They all have friends who they talk with about he church and share their testimonies. They have the desire to invite them to do more but aren't really in the acting stage yet. So we're starting up a 40 days fast! We will have families or individuals sign up for each day, and every day for 40 days someone in the Ward will be fasting for a specific goal they have to help their friends or family. We announced it and sent the calendar around to the classes yesterday and already 30 of the 40 days are filled and we don't even start until next week!:) and something else that's amazing about it, many of them are youth fasting for their friends and missionary experiences. I am so excited to see this build the Ward to a whole new level!:)
And one more miracle to close the day! Sister Morgan and I were leaving dinner the other night and right across the street from our dinner is a less active member who wants to come back to church that we have been trying to visit but she is never home because she works full time, has 2 boys and is going to school. But we walk of dinner and whose car is in the driveway!? HERS. So we go knock on her door and had such a good visit with her. We didn't need to say much, and she opened up with many of her concerns and her desires and what she has been going though. Then she told us that her son had turned 8 a couple months ago and she wanted to prepare him to be baptized. So the elders are going to meet with the family and this little boy to prepare him to be baptized:)
Something I have gained a stronger testimony of this week is the amazing power of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Every day we receive little thoughts and feelings that guide us to know what to say, where to be and who to help. Sometimes we may think they're just our thoughts, but every good thing comes from God! I think we would be pretty shocked to see just how often we are guided and how God really is in every detail of all we do.

Keep the faith and fight the fight! All is well and God is good:)  Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

Farewell to our dear sisters with a fun little jail tradition :)

A little bit of evaluation for you!  On the left was February 2015 while we were volunteering at the MTC before we were missionaries.  On the right is August 2016!

A good ole transfer selfie.  How many can we get in??

And here is our jail crew now!  Sisters Peterson, GC, Me, Morgan, Erazo, Guerreo, Hixon and Anderson.

Week 66 - The terrific trio!

Wonderful sisters at zone conference in front of the Kansas City temple.

The terrific trio at the Historic Liberty Jail

Well this week was a whole bunch of crazy!!:) hahaha but we've been working it! Some of the highlights up front! We're in a trio this week!:) Sister Prior went home a week before transfers because she was starting school, so she left us on Friday and started school on Monday(crazy I know, good thing she's a champion). But that means SisterPeterson got to be our companion for this week and it's been super great!:) we had some miracle contacts and were also able to help with a triathlon that the ward organized! So it was great, but I think every one has noticed that stories are my favorite thing so let's just jump in to some of those!

Last Tuesday night we had a lesson with our returning member Tami! She is so awesome:) we planned to start reading a little bit of the book"daughters in my kingdom" to talk a little but more about what relief society is and what she can do with the organization, it was going to be a great lesson! Then we walk in and her husband is there too...it's a pretty complicated story because they're separated but still really good friends, and her husband is less active too but loves when we come visit so we're like trying to come up with a last minute plan of what might be applicable to both of them but it's not like my companion and I can talk about any of it!! So we sit down and Sister Schiess was just like, well this isn't really up your alley but we want you to stay anyway!!:) haha so he stayed and read daughters in my kingdom with us!! Haha but he told us at that end that it helped to strengthen his testimony of the different roles that we have! So I learned not to back out of plans you made with the spirit even if you may think it doesn't apply.

We also saw some super awesome miracles with offering service to less active members. One was in Sister Peterson's ward. She didn't know who they were and we had no info so we went to go meet them and we actually met her husband who we don't think is a member. He was super kind and said that they were moving so they were really busy and so of course we offer to help and he got this smile on his face and was like yeah maybe we could set something up! So we will be able to go help them soon and help them to feel the love that comes from the gospel:)

We also had a similar contact in our ward, same circumstance, we didn't know anything about her. In the beginning of the contact she said she wouldn't like any contact from the church. We continued to chat with her for a bit before we left, and as we left asked if there was anything we could do because we love service. And she actually said yes! That we could come and help with some rocks in their yard so we have that set up for in September and she has been texting us! I have a testimony that service really does soften hearts:)

And one more miracle of the week! We had a lesson yesterday with a mom and son in Sister Peterson's area and the son just turned 11 and hadn't been baptized because his father won't give him permission. But we talked with them about the sacrament and we all just sat and had   great discussion, we were all teaching each other, and they were teaching us! They brought up his baptism and said they feel it's coming soon and are working towards that. I know Heavenly Father is going to bless them with the opportunity because of their faith:)

So that's a little wrap up from Liberty, Missouri! 

Love you all!

And remember, all is well and God is good:)

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

Helping out at the triathlon...a minute at the pool and then focus back on the mission!!

After our little down pour one night!

Week 65 - Come join the ranks

A bunch of lovely sisters a zone conference by the Kansas City temple.

Exchanges with Sister Peterson! She'll be in a trio with us next week because her companion is going home a week early for school.  It's going to be awesome!

Hello from the MIM! 

A couple of things we did this week! We were able to do personal progress with a member of our Ward and her daughter. They are both converts and so we were helping them get in the groove and it was so awesome to see them grow closer as we all read the scriptures together:) we also painted a kitchen for a woman who is returning back to church! She hasn't been active for a long time but knows now that this is where she needs to be and she will be getting a calling next week:) we talked to so many people all over! Many of them weren't interested, but I know as we keep working hard we will find those who want to come closer to Christ!:) 

we also had an awesome zone conference! At zone conference I had to give my first departing testimony....we bear departing testimonies at all of your last meetings, so last zone conference, zone training, district meeting, all of those. And I guess this last week was my last zone conference which absolutely blows my mind...but all of that aside! There has been something that has been on my mind a lot, it's what I shared in my testimony and I felt I should share it here too! The world is a pretty crazy place, honestly a lot of the time it's getting pretty scary. But Heavenly Father has given us an incredible blessing and that is the amazing people around us, our friends and our family! He knew when we left his presence that this would be so hard, but he never expected us to do it on our own, so he blessed us with others. On those hard days that we all have, I have something that always brings me back. When I think of my companion beside me who is working hard to succeed and do the will of the Lord. I think of the other sisters serving with me at the liberty jail who come in to the jail each night looking exhausted because they worked so hard all day long. Then it spreads to all the missionaries in this mission, then those friends I have who are all over the world and the people in their missions. And that doesn't even begin to touch all the members everywhere! We may be small in number compared to the numbers of the world, but I hope you can feel a little of how strong the team that we have is! We are on the winning team, we know that Christ will come out victorious and just as it says over and over in the Book of Mormon, those will not be ashamed who wait for him. Don't forget that you are not alone in working to live the gospel! 

The last two verses to "We are all Enlisted" really sums up everything I've been feeling! 

"Hark! the sound of battle sounding loudly and clear; Come join the ranks! Come join the ranks! We are waiting now for soldiers; who’ll volunteer? Rally round the standard of the cross. Hark! ’tis our Captain calls you today; Lose not a moment, make no delay! Fight for our Savior; come, come away! We’re joyfully, joyfully marching to our home. Fighting for a kingdom, and the world is our foe; Happy are we! Happy are we! Glad to join the army, we will sing as we go; We shall gain the vict’ry by and by. Dangers may gather--why should we fear? Jesus, our Leader, ever is near. He will protect us, comfort, and cheer. We’re joyfully, joyfully marching to our home. We are all enlisted till the conflict is o’er; Happy are we! Happy are we! Soldiers in the army, there’s a bright crown in store; We shall win and wear it by and by." 

Thank you to all of you, because you have been my team all along the way! I couldn't ask for a better support system. So make no delay, come join the ranks:) All is well, God is good, and we are his hands. 

Love Hermana/Sister Courtney Baggett

Sister Schiess and I.