Windy Mars

Yesterday was kinda hard just having everything start to settle in. I'm sad that I won't see Grandpa again in this life, but I was able to reflect on the good memories I had of him. His amazing homemade mac-n-cheese, his sweet thought out gifts for Christmas, his loving tender demeanor. I will miss him, but I too know he needed to go. I bet he has the best missionaries teaching him right now and preparing him for that glorious day he will be baptized!

I'm feeling pretty ok with transfers. It was hard saying goodbye to these amazing people, but I know I'll meet so many others that I will grow to love:) We went to breakfast this morning with my favorite member today. Her name is Lindsay and they are just the cutest little family. Unfortunately her husband and other daughter weren't there today. She wrote me the sweetest letter and it made me realize that I was needed here and that even though I may not physically see the change I made I did have an impact on this area:)

This week was actually pretty good!

Windy day in Mars

We went and tried potentials in this little township called Mars! Haha it was so windy and cold, but I was having a blast! Some days you just get this adrenaline kick and get so excited to go knock on doors and get rejected, it's weird i know, but it's true:) As we were being blown around walking all over Mars.. haha that sounds funny, we tried a few people and all of them said they weren't interested. So we decided to go tracting and walked to a really cute area and started! 

We knocked on one man’s door and he was not interested. We turned to walk down the walk way when we looked up to see a lady walking down the street. We went and talked to her because she was the only other person we had seen outside that whole day (I guess people don't generally like being out in the cold wind;) She knew right away that we were mormon missionaries, which was super cool. We got talking and she is basically the sweetest lady ever! We asked if she would be interested in learning more about our church and she said, "Sure, Why not?!" We found out that she had a debate teacher when she was in high school who was mormon and she thought very highly of him! We kept talking and talking so she said we could come to her office for some tea! We agreed.. a little apprehensively, not knowing what kind of tea we would be getting.. haha it was peppermint;) We warmed up and she talked about this book she was writing and Sister Beutler was super into it, because she's a writer too. Then we talked about the massage therapy she does. She said we were welcome to come back any time! So Sister Beutler is planning on seeing her again this upcoming week! I really hope things go well. I know we were in the right place in the right time, just to meet her that day:) It was super cool though, because I had prayed that morning that we would find "the one" and I really think we did! 

In Harmony at the German Christmas Festival

The German Christmas Festival was so much fun! First we walked around Harmony and went into all the little shops there. They had a cool tie die shop (Hippie shop) I was thinking about Alli the whole time! They had a lot of antique shops and this cute one that had all of these tea sets, I was thinking about you the whole time:) It was cool though because there is this guys music studio and a lot of kids in our ward take lessons from him. So they were out playing on the side of the street! They even had people fire dancing and playing Christmas music haha! The market was super cool though, and reminded me of the SLC farmers market, but German;) They had this place selling german food, which I didn't get, because it didn't look good enough for it's price haha. And they had a lot of booths with people's hand crafted stuff. There was even a tent where they were doing german dancing, which was really cool! I'll send pictures:)

Well I'm sure good things are to come! You are in my prayers always:)

Love Sis Douglas

The Cranberry Missionaries-Last P day together

The One

This week was pretty rough, we tracted (went door to door) all week, and it

was exhausting and no one let us in. But that's ok, because we've weeded

out who's not interested, right?! We had stake conference on Halloween

night so that was pretty great. If we didn't have a ward or stake

function that night we had to be in our apartments by 6, so I'm glad

we could see other missionaries and President Johnson and his wife

that night. They had a really great topic on finding the one! I loved

how they talked about  how the one doesn't only mean the one

investigator, or one less-active. They talked about how we need to

help and strengthen those around us! That's one thing that my

companion and I have been focusing on lately--serving others. 

Fall!!!

This quote by Elder Holland has given me so much comfort:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to

ask, Why is this so hard? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why

aren’t there more people joining the Church? Why isn’t the only risk

in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day

and all night in the baptismal font?

I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal

feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because

salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are

The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great

Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was

never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission

leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane.

Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two

toward the summit of Calvary."

I know this is true. It is hard to be a missionary, but as Elder

Holland says, it's hard for a good reason. I know that as we

faithfully do all that we can to help the work of the Lord move

forward we will be lifted in our afflictions and trials. I know that

the Church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I love to

testify of the incredible joy this knowledge has been in my life.

There is a great work to be done and I'm grateful I get to be a part

of it!

Love and prayers always

Sister Douglas

Mom's note: LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS??

We went to Harmony today and it was fun! It's the Harmony that
was settled by a German harmony singing group! So cool!

"Touch and Feel" and #Spiritprobs

Selfie at the Ranch!

This week was pretty low key. We had a lesson with our investigator

Hannah that went pretty bad. Her mom was there and she was pretty

anti about the Book of Mormon and wanted us to show her proof in the

bible. We could, but it would have been pointless. We read the

introduction of the Book of Mormon with her and told her she needs to

exercise faith and pray to know if it's true. She still wasn't

convinced but... One day she'll understand! Hannah was super quiet the

whole time and the spirit wasn't there. Hannah still shows a lot of

potential she's just confused. She did read the first four chapters of

the Book of Mormon and she took notes and had legit questions for us!

We were supposed to meet with her on Saturday, but she canceled...that

made me worried, I hope she'll continue to meet with us. Man it's

crazy how much love you feel for these complete strangers.

We had exchanges on Thursday and I stayed in Cranberry with sister

Beusath! She's awesome and it was actually a really good

exchange! She is super sweet and it really good at teaching

The Ranch

right when when she finds people. We were tracting all that day, and

then went and contacted a potential and invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. We are going to see them again on Wednesday, which I'm pretty excited for!

The ranch was pretty fun this week. It was just Beutler and I—no elders. They had us drop hay which took like two hours. Beutler is tiny so I did most of the lifting lol!!! Then, they replaced the roof, so we stacked all of the old roofing in the rain. Haha Good times Good times!

Saturday night we had the ward trunk or treat and that was super fun!

The missionaries were in charge of the “touch and feel” table so we

came up with all of these nasty things like maggots and eyeballs which were

Fall time in PA.

rice and grapes. Haha little kids thought it was super cool! Then we cut a hole in the back of a box and put Elder Rackham under the table and put his hand in the hole and he was freaking everyone out!  Hahahahah! So funny😂 We invited so many people to that party and none of them came. But I didn't want it to ruin our fun time so I had to get over myself really quick! But the Standlee's

(a less-active family) came which was super great!

Sunday was really great! It was the primary program and they were so cute! Haha it's funny, I was looking at all the people at church and thinking about how cool it was that I got to get to know most all of the people in this amazing ward. They've become my lil fam away from home! I'm really going to miss them when I leave this area. One of the young women brought her friend to church and she plays lax too, so it was fun to talk to her! Man I miss playing sooooo bad! I wish I just had a stick here! But she was super sweet and she really liked the primary program and started tearing up. #spiritprobs haha!! So cool though! We'll see😀

Love love love

Sister Douglas

Comps and Coats. We found these sweet coats at Plato's closet! Haha so fun! And
they totally match our personality!

Tracting Life

Ran into this guy yesterday while tracting. Seems to be interested in
the gospel!

What a week!!! This has been one of the best/busiest/hardest weeks of my mission. It's been really great getting to know Sis. Beutler and here are some things that I think make her awesome. #1 She is an incredible teacher. #2 She likes Enya and Enya = bae (Mom’s note:Sis Douglas loves Enya and has since she was so little. Good to know there’s another fan out there.). #3 She is the nicest person on the planet. #4 She's a really hard worker and #5 she's a triplet (I think I forgot to mention that last week). Both of her other sisters are serving missions as well! Anyway I just love her.

While tracting this week we found a new investigator. She is 19 and her name is Hannah!!!!! I love that girl.  Seriously, I feel like I already knew her and that we were long lost friends. Talking to her about the gospel felt so natural and I felt completely like myself. We are going to go see her tomorrow again and I hope and pray she read from the Book of Mormon and prayed for an answer! Wouldn't it be so amazing if she did:)

We had to stop teaching Jerry this week because he wasn't keeping commitments and wouldn't pray on his own to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He also told us he just wanted to be Catholic. It makes me sad to let him go, but we did our part. We shared our message and invited him to come to Christ. Now it's up to him!

We also ran into this AMAZING family when we were out tracting. They are super Catholic, but they have known the missionaries for a long time. The mom invited us in and offered us dinner, which was crazy, because that NEVER happens. We talked and talked and found out they had had a long going relationship with elders for years, but when the sisters came into the area it kind of fell away. So they were so happy to have us there. They pulled out their two copies of the Book of Mormon and said they had read parts of it and enjoyed it, but weren't really interested. We shared a Mormon Message with them, Because of Him. When it was over, the Spirit was so strong in their home and there wasn't a dry eye. I bore my testimony of the Savior and told them I know He lives and loves each of us and had blessed me that night by meeting their sweet family. Their daughter is 15 and her name is Johanna and reminds me SO much of Alli it's cray cray. She plays the piano and guitar and sings...it weirded me out and it made miss her a whole lot.  

It’s almost been four months that I’ve been out…can you believe that? Honestly though, it's all flying by soooo fast.

I love you all. I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sis Douglas

Down in Freedom tracting after a lesson with Jerry.
Behind the trains is the Ohio river. It's a really cute city.

Autumn! So pretty right now!

The District with President and Sister Johnson.

.

The Leaves Aren't the Only Thing Changing

Leaf lips!!

(Raquel had other things that had to be done today instead of write for the blog this week so I decided to add some pictures and call it good.  Mom/Annie)

A tiny excerpt from this week's letter:
My new companion's name is Sister Beutler and she is from Phoenix, AZ.  I know that the Lord has made us companions for a reason and I've already grown to love her very very much. She served her first eight months in Beaver, which is in my zone, so we had actually met before. She is really really nice... all the time! She's a great missionary and has been so patient with me as I've tried to lead out the area this week.

The New Cran Crew

This was on our way to the ranch this Saturday. What a beautiful
place. I love the changing leaves and the autumn season!

Heinz Field- Steelers

Conference --Basically Christmas

Had so much fun today in Pittsburgh city! Went to the
point and the
strip district (farmers market) so great!

(excerpts from this weeks emails)

Saturday morning before conference we got

transfer calls and sister Hokafonu is being transferred. Oh man I'm

going to miss her, but I know she needs to go bless other lives. I

won't be training so it will be cool to have someone experienced in

missionary work come in and help improve this area. 

I LOVED LOVED LOVED conference. It was such a treat! As a missionary

conference is basically Christmas! Hearing the prophet brought tears

to my eyes and deep prayers for the Lord to give him strength to

finish his talk. I love that man, I know he is the mouthpiece for

the church. Why would someone struggle so much to even physically stand

there if he didn't know what he was saying was important and true.

One night  this week we went to the Young's and made really good sushi! Haha

Pittsburg City!! Last P-day as comps.

this is the second time in my mission that I've been able to make my own

sushi and it was a blast! Sister Young is the sweetest and made all of

these Korean dishes to go along with our sushi! It was basically a five star meal! Oh boy... I'm so spoiled in this area #blessed # fgp. We were there later than normal and I was starting to feel antsy antsy about being there for that long. I was honestly kinda frustrated, but I learned that night that the Lord does really work in his own timing

and puts us places for a reason. On the way home, as we pulled into the apartment parking lot, we saw a man and his wife trying to back a Uhaul

into the parking lot. The elders were with us and Elder Redford, our Zone Leader, said we should go help them.

We went over and asked if we could help! You could immediately tell this man was from the south. He said yes as he was chowing down on

some fried chicken haha! It took forever but we finally got his truck into the parking lot and started unloading it so we could get their

bed out for the night.

We met his cute little wife and two little girls who are two and one.

They are just moving here from Georgia after living there for eight

years and are both originally from Ghana! He was very grateful and we said we would be back the next morning to unload the rest.

The next morning we went over with the elders and unloaded the whole

truck into their apartment on the third floor... I was so sore after! Probably the best work out ever! While we helped them move we met their neighbor, who just so happens to also be from Ghana! She is the

sweetest lady and has a six year old and two year old. We talked to both her and Fauzie (the man we helped move in) about the church and it was great! Fauzie wanted to pay us for our help but we told him we would like to teach them a lesson about Jesus Christ instead. He gratefully

said yes, so we are planning on going back this week! Jenoviva, the neighbor, also seemed interested and said we could stop by any time to

Fun sushi dinner at the Young's house. And yes I did make
 that amazing sushi with caviar on it!
Haha 

I'll have to make it for you when I get
back! Super fun and actually pretty easy!

teach her. They both know about our church and even knew there was a temple in Ghana!

It's moments like these that make the mission so worth it! I can't wait to see where these great people's lives go! I sure hope and pray

that they are ready for the gospel to change their lives for the better! I know Heavenly Father put them in our path late that night for a reason!

I hope you have a fabulous week :)

Love Sis Douglas

Lil taste of PA. So cute! It looks like this in the outer parts of our area and I love it!

Trying to get Raquel ready for a cold Pennsylvania winter. She's modeling the coat I sent last week. I had to add this pic because she just looks so cute!!
Mom/Annie

Bite, Black Boxes, BBQ

In the beautiful Pennsylvania forest. 

Only one more week of Training! (thumbs up)

Between the dog bite, zone conference, black boxes, German food, and

the Elders quorum bbq I would say it was a pretty fresh week!!!

Ok so back it up! We went and visited our little 96 year old friend on

Tuesday! We were outside playing this German game called rummy cube

with her and our other dear friend Sister Swazuk... who's a total

Pittsburghian! She has a legit Pittsburghies accent, oh boy that lady

can't say one thing without making me burst out laughing! :) Anyway, we

were getting whooped at this game by 96 year old Sister McCarty, which always feels great, haha! I was petting her dog Bear and he turned for

me to scratch his tummy so I did like any Christ-like missionary

would... then Bear got mad because he had a sore on him or something

and went all crazy! He barked at me and bit my arm....dingus dog! It wasn't bad, and it didn't puncture the skin, but it was all red and

sore! Her cute little care taker, Freddy was so upset and felt really

bad, but it wasn't a big deal. Haha sad to say, but I doubt that will

be the last time that happens, EVERYONE in Pennsylvania has dogs!!

Zone conference was, as Sister Hokafonu would say, A1! Translation: A1

= AWESOME First we had training from President Johnson, who

focused his remarks on how keeping the Sabbath day holy can build our

faith in Christ. He talked about how as we as members strive to keep

the Sabbath day holy, that faith will increase across the world. We

watched a few clips from Elders Holland and Ballard from the mission

president training last year. In the message by Elder Holland he

talked about how the sacrament is the most repeated ordinance we do

Got a quick pic at zone training with the AP's because Elder Birrell
is going home next transfer. These two are incredible missionaries

as members for ourselves. We only get to be baptized and go through

the temple for ourselves once, but in taking the sacrament each week

we are renewing those covenants individually. He also talked about how

the Sabbath day shouldn't be a list of do's and don'ts, but rather to

think of what sign we want to give God on the Sabbath. My mission

president asked us that question and it has really made me think

differently about the sabbath and how I worship. So what sign are you

choosing to give God?! We were all asked to come to conference with a

3 minute talk prepared on this topic. I had totally forgotten about it

so I stayed up writing it the night before... apostate, I know! But

I'm grateful I did because I got called on to give a talk. The focus

of my talk was on how we were given the Sabbath day "in remembrance of

Jesus Christ"

Then the not so fun part of zone conference came with the loathed

black boxes...nooooo!!! Basically we now have these gps speed tracking

devices in all the mission cars that talk to you and tell you to slow

down and such. I'm not a fan. But I know they're just trying to keep

us safe. These things are crazy though, we have to log in as the

driver and then it records our driving and gives our President a

report each transfer. My poor Californian companion’s crazy driving has

been put to an abrupt halt, she's not too excited about the whole

thing haha!!

We found this little nature walk by the really cute Cranberry park. We
went for a walk before we taught Jerry, because we were so tired! I
love how pretty it is here! Always brightens my day:)

That night we went to a members home for a really nice German dinner!

Sister von Rintelen went on a mission to Germany where she met her

husband, who is German and has a sweet accent! It was fun to talk

about his life back in Germany and have all of this traditional German

food that was really different and good!

There was an Elders quorum bbq that we helped put on Friday night! It

was such a good turn out and a ton of people brought their families

and many members brought friends and their families too! This ward is

seriously stellar, they're really trying their best to help in this

great work:)

Well just another great week in Cranberry, PA! I can't wait for

General Conference this weekend and to get three new Apostles!!!!!!!

There are good things to come my friends:)

I hope all is well and I keep all of you in my prayers.

Lots of Love -Sister Douglas

More beautiful PA.