The Lord is My Light

My favorite quote of the week: 

"Today's complexities require greater simplicity." -Elder L. Tom Perry- 

THIS HAS BEEN THE GREATEST WEEK OF MY MISSION. Really!!

Not only have I received birthday packages from my family--- 

but the most incredible investigators have been coming out of the woodwork! 

We have had such powerful lessons this week and a pool of people progressing towards baptism!

HOLY COW!!! HOLY COW!! HOLY COW!!!! 

I HAVE THE GREATEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD!!!!!! 

YOU SENT ME A FOOT MESSAGER?!!

When I opened the box I was in shock!!!! TRACTING THERAPY!!!! 

YOU GUYS ARE WAY TOO NICE!!! 

"HalleluLa!!!" -as Bella used to say :) 

I wish you could have seen my face!! bahaha 

I was not expecting a foot messager!!! 

What in the World?!!! WHOOT WHOOT!!!!

I have been using it every night. I love the heat setting! My feet get so cold! 

Sister Milligan had the best response... "Is this for real? I would never think to send THAT to my kid on their mission-

...IT'S GENIUS!!!!!"

& The cute Anchor bracelet.... if only you knew. I share Ether 12:4 with EVERYONE when we go "Pier contacting.

We invented this thing called Camera Contacting. We ask someone if they can take our picture for us... & then we talk to them about the gospel. :) We teach people how Hope makes an anchor to the souls of men. 

Heavenly Father sent me some awesome presents too!

I was able to pray at Lydia Hutchison's Baptism yesterday! Her grandpa who baptized her came up to us and sincerely said, "Thank you for spending so much time helping our family!" Wow. 

We are teaching her Lydia's Dad now!! He said the closing prayer at the baptism and definitely felt the spirit. 

Lydia said, "Maybe now that I'm baptized my Daddy won't be so scared."

They are such a nice family, I love them. 

Also Brother King who we have been meeting with once a week bore his testimony! He said, "I made a promise to God and the missionaries.. I'm here to stay! It's been far too long since I have been active in church." He had such a proud smile on his face!!! 

I AM SO HAPPY FOR HIM !!

(Sorry this week I'm not doing a formal letter- Just pictures and thoughts if that's alright!!!! I am just so excited!)

PHEWFTA. 

Okay SO also really quick..........

I had a dream .... 

It was a pretty intense dream:

I was with you guys all day but then it was time to say goodbye and it was SO hard. 

I was crying and hugging Mom and I said, "Mom!! Missions are just sooooo looooong!"

 & Dad you responded: "So are my cuticles!!"hahahahahahaahhaa

I said, "What?" and we both started laughing and you wiped my tears, stroked my hair and gave me a hug and said, 

"I know honey, I believe in you! Keep going. You can do it. and when it gets tough- think of that joke okay?!"

Isn't that Awesome!!! It was such a crazy dream....I think I needed it... 

Randomness--- we met a cat named, "FREE BURGER!" haha 

The lady was calling after it and we said, "What is his name?"

She said, "Free Burger. He was a stray. We saved him." 

hahahahaha!! People and their cats. Marsha (The Butterscotch Lady)'s cat is named SOUP CAN !!

Update: We went to Blue Shirt Guy's house- Right as they were leaving town!  NO COINCIDENCES. 

It was perfect timing! :) They were SO nice & they felt so bad about missing our appointment with them. 

"Can we schedule another appointment?!" Kyle asked.

What a great question. :)  So we are excited to teach them this week and invite them to church! 

We have been sending them a scripture a day. 

One Book of Mormon verse and a matching Bible verse so they can see how the two testify of the same truths! 

Stay tuned. 

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!!

MY 20th BIRTHDAY WAS SO SPECIAL!!!!

HAVE THE BEST WEEK!!! 

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love,

 Sister Osmond

ps. the Women's meeting was so good!!! &

I AM SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! 

psss. have you seen YOU NEVER KNOW mormon message? I think you guys would like it. :) 

Also I really think Zak and Wyatt should watch the becoming a priestood man mormon message, 

I watched it and was like, " I HAVE to tell them to see this!"

Lydia's Baptism

                                                                      I CAT believe you sent me this. 

                                                                You've got to be KITTEN me right now. 

                                                                      My feet are so Happy MEOW.

                                                      spraying Sister Milligan with REVIVE!!!! hahaha

This is the Birthday Breakfast that my companion made me...it was Fast Sunday! Ha! 

Testify with your Feet!

    

Mosiah 12:21

So the mission has this mantra: "Testify with your Feet!"

Get this.... We went to get our toes done today with Sister Smith and Sister Close in the ward! 

& as we were finishing up: Sister Smith said "This is my treat!"

No way! I couldn't believe it. She was so generous to take us!! 

We just thought she scheduled it for us because she had talked about it how fun it would be. 

When I told her it was my Birthday week she said, "NO WAY!!" It was so much fun and so happy! So... What do you think?! (cue picture) We all died laughing. 

WE ARE LITERALLY TESTIFYING WITH OUR FEET!!! 

We are going to send a picture to President and Sister Cutler 

because they came up with the theme! haha :) 

Missions. are. Fun. A lot of Work... but Wow- when it's the work of the Lord you are blessed in the craziest of ways.  I made egg rolls for the first time this week with a Filipino family!! It's called Lumpia-Shanghai!!!! & guess what!?! They came to came to church for the first time the next day with their relatives in the Ward!! woot! woot!!

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

       Also... don't you love this AT&T add!!! COOL!!! junk mail is great when it has connections to the gospel! haha 

Sister Milligan, Sister Pritzy Smith, Sister Flor Close & me!!

Shalom from Sheboygan!!

It was an exciting week! 

We had Zone Training on Tuesday--- the Appleton Zone is on Fire! 

This is a picture of our district. The Sheboygan ward has a tradition of matching at zone training meetings. haha So we chose green this time!! Also- the Elders are not standing by their right companions so don't think that they are together. 

(The Asian one is with the one with glasses- Elder Vang and Elder Stegner -Hmong-

& The Hispanic one is with the tall one- Elder CriSanto -our district leader- and Elder Casagranda -he came out with me and has been in Sheboygan for all 7 months! whoah. They are the Spanish Elders.) 

The Appleton & Milwaukee North (my last zone) are the top two zones in the mission! I am so grateful to be with such hard working missionaries. It's fun having so many missionary friends now- I go to meetings and have something to talk about with almost everyone! As oppose to at the beginning of your mission when you only know your companion! haha 

We have had a lot of great lessons this week with people who haven't been to church in years!

We pray that what we say might help them to recognize the spirit. And then we ask people questions that get them to think about when they felt the spirit... we ask them about their conversion to the gospel! Many of them open up. They tell us their concerns and then we address them by teaching simple truths. 

We have return appointments with a couple of these people this upcoming week!! Whoot Whoot! 

There was someone who spoke about this in church- he said, 

"Think back on: WHEN YOU KNEW FOR SURE. If that memory is fading, read and listen to the experiences of others."

(The scriptures contain many conversion stories, Mormon Messages, the experiences of Family & Friends, etc.) 

I am so excited that General Conference is around the corner! 

Can you believe it's been 6 months again? Que en el mundo?!

The General Women's Meeting is on September 27th--- the day before my birthday &... DANIELLE'S BAPTISM!! 

She's getting baptized in Arizona!! She just emailed me about it and apparently Sister Westra (my trainer) is going! 

I can't wait to hear details- but what an awesome birthday present!! 

Phew. 

I couldn't believe it! :) 

I love this quote. 

"Take Heart. Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world." -Elder Jeffery R. Holland- 

It changed Danielle's world. 

& in turn, she changed mine! 

It's pretty cool how it works.

Miracle Minute:

I have 2 mini-miracle stories! 

#1. We had interviews with President on Friday! He brought with him- the spirit, a lot of great advice, and cookies from Sister Cutler!! 

What he said I really needed to hear, "Sister Osmond... You can be diligent without being overzealous." 

hmmm... It sounded familiar. (Like something my parents may have told me before!) :)  

Because of my health I had been asking the question all week, "Am I doing enough for this area?" 

What President said brought me a lot of peace... 

I know that if  "[We] have desires to serve God we are called to the work." -D&C 4-

& as long as we are putting the Lord first and doing our best- everything works out the way it needs to. So don't stress! Worrying is unproductive. haha 

Whenever I am tired during the day and I say a little prayer that I will have the strength to do what needs to be done that day and every time I do I see a butterfly... No Joke! 

It's been crazy!! It all started with us pulling up to our apartment for lunch and right outside our car door was a Monarch! (We named him Marvin, took him inside- he couldn't fly very well, it was a freezing day! notice the parka-, & taught him the gospel! -the How to Begin Teaching points on page 176 of PMG, Fun Fact: President Packer wrote those! haha

We set him free the next day, it was warm outside! I bet he's with his friends in Mexico right now- that's where someone told us they migrate. 

We helped him to see his potential and then he flew off Strong!! :) We learned a fun little lesson from Marvin. 

2nd miracle... Blue shirt guy. This is a story about how the tiniest of promptings are from our Heavenly Father! He wants us to have joy in this life! Okay? Get this... 

We were driving down the street about 10 days ago and I noticed a random guy in a blue shirt sitting on his porch smoking a cigarette. 

As we continued to drive down the street I felt like we needed to talk to him. 

"But he's way back there!?" ..my mind said to me. 

"But we need to talk to him!" ..was the answer to that. 

So I said it out loud. 

"Sister Milligan, I don't know why- but I really feel like that guy in the blue shirt needs to talk to us!" 

*I've learned that it's so important to vocalize promptings because then your real friends will help you follow them! 

She asked, "What guy? Should I turn around?" 

I said, "Yes!!"

So we went back. & there he was! 

But he was on his phone. & Just think about this: How receptive do you think he would be to us if we walked up to him while he was talking on the phone?

We would have done it but after we prayed we didn't feel like it was too urgent. So we wrote down his address and stopped by a couple days later... no one was home. 

Then- a couple more days later we were driving down his street.. I thought, "Let's go see blue shirt guy! ...but maybe I'm just thinking this because we're driving down his street."

So I vocalized it. SO IMPORTANT. Because Sister Milligan had just had the same conversation in her head as well! 

"...maybe I'm just thinking this because we're driving down his street." 

I learned an awesome lesson that day! 

Don't talk yourself out of promptings! That good thought popped into your head for a reason! 

So we parked, walked up to his door, and I felt like we should start out talking to him about the Book of Mormon- which we never do! 

We always start out with a Mormon.org card or a Family History card leading into the Book of Mormon. Nope. When the Spirit tells you to do something- you do it! 

He answers the door!! 

Blue Shirt Guy= Kyle. 

His wife Kayla came to the door with their daughter Kadence. (This was perfect- the whole family was there. The reason why we needed to wait!) 

I say to Kyle: "We are here to talk to you about the Book of Mormon and how it can help your family."

Kyle proceeds to tell us that he was given a Book of Mormon by his Mormon friend 2 years ago- but he lost it! 

So we whip one out of our bag and he said, "You're just going to replace my Book of Mormon?"

Yes Kyle, We are. haha They are also looking for a church and are the nicest people! As we talked to them on their porch, we felt like we had known them our whole lives. 

There's no way we would have found such a prepared person had we not followed Heavenly Father's guidance!! 

& It brought us so much joy!! 

AMAZING!! We said a little "Hallelujah prayer" in the car thanking Him for such a cool experience! 

I can't wait to go and teach their family this week!! 

REMEMBER: It's not "just you".... It's from Heavenly Father if it's prompting you to do a good thing! 

& You'll never regret following it. :)  

[ETHER 4:11]

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Thank you for your examples!! I'm so excited that you are studying Preach my Gospel! 

Tell me about one thing you learn from it for the week!! --- this is SO FUN we are doing this together!! 

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

Marvin the Monarch

Sister Milligan & I

Sheboygan is SheBOOMIN'!!

Sister Milligan, Ebony, Me,
& Marsha a recent convert as well...
She always has a pocket full  of butterscotch!!

Hey There! 

George, a boy in the ward, thinks we are called "Sister Elders." hahaha!

The Spanish Elders told us that last week! I hope they cleared it up with him at church yesterday... 

but I thought it was hilarious!  

There are SO many people who think we are called Elders- and this took the cake! 

a peek at my week...

Monday: Labor Day

Tuesday: P-Day!

Every P-day we go to this cute little Laundromat where we have some time to write letters while our laundry is washed and dried! 

Wednesday: We had district meeting and I had an incredible A-HA moment! 

As missionaries, we invite people to make commitments and keep them. 

We promise them blessings for every commitment. 

Then we help them make those changes in their lives by following-up and providing them with the love 

and the encouragement they need! 

We also have certain commitments-- and when we keep them...our Heavenly Father can then grant those blessings to us! 

With every commitment there is a promised blessing. Look for them in the scriptures... you can obtain those blessings as you keep those commitments. 

Those blessings can be yours: "...should you choose to accept them!"

Pretty amazing, huh?! 

Thursday: Planning Day

This week was pretty exhausting- so I was praying to Heavenly Father for some comfort and advice. 

& my prayer was answered Thursday night! 

We went to dinner at Pang's house. She is Hmong and a returned missionary of about a year--- she served in Cambodia.

We were asking her about her mission and then out of the blue she said, "Once I hit my 6th month mark I was so tired. I didn't know how I was going to do it.. but I prayed like I had never prayed before and once I hit 9 months, I was on a roll!"

I really needed to hear that. 

*Pang is moving to Provo for school in a week! (So I gave her our information! She is the sweetest!!) 

She has an amazing conversion story. Her father died and in Hmong culture, they believe you will never see them ever again. 

Pang later found the gospel and has a burning testimony of the Plan of Salvation!! 

Friday: We told our Hmong friend we would visit her at her family's store- just a quick hi and bye. 

She was so grateful that we came to see her that she sent us away with 5 egg rolls and container of purple sticky rice! 

We then went to the pier to contact people by the beach. 

I had an idea: "Sister Milligan... we can't leave until we teach 5 lessons! 1 lesson = 1 egg roll. & if we get 4 before we have to leave, we can't eat the 5th one!"

Saturday: Teach, Teach Teach!! 

Sunday: We taught Jared and Kathryn at the Ponds home! (We teach them every Sunday there). 

Their daughter Ebony was just baptized in July.  

The power of God and The Atonement of Jesus Christ are just SO real. 

I see evidence of it manifested in the lives of these people everyday. 

& the changes they are making in their lives because of it are absolutley incredible. 

Have a GREAT week! 

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond

Ps. I forgot to tell you guys! On my way to Sheboygan I sat next to Sister Roylance (from Ogden, UT) in the transfer bus... I had met her at Holy Hill a couple weeks before- we ran into her when we went with the Farrenkopfs!! She goes on to tell me that her friend served his mission in Wales and he was one of the missionaries we took to Frankie and Benny's!!!! WHAT?! crazy! He emailed her and told her I was coming to the Wisconsin Milwaukee mission------ Things happen for a reason!!! Everyone's connected! She was so grateful that we did that for him! (Yup, I have an awesome family!!) 

These signs are everywhere in Sheboygan. Cute! 

Oh Boy! Sheboygan!!

Sheboygan Ward Picnic

So... Sheboygan! I LOVE IT!!

I love this ward! We have three sets of missionaries! 

(Spanish Elders, Hmong Elders, and English Sisters! US!) 

I tried Hmong food at a Hmong Family Home Evening conference at our church yesterday! It was so fun to get to know the Hmong members...they drove from as far as Greenbay to be there!! 

I love my new companion- Sister Milligan! (Yes Zak- it sounds like Mulligan! haha)

We clicked within our first 5 minutes together!! I feel like we've grown up together. Also- She loves Oprah!

So when the time was right I was able to tell her about the time that we met Oprah and she actually started to tear up!!  

We laughed our heads off and talked about being empowered and creating a vision board for our area! I have been so blessed to have had great companions on my mission! Teaching with Sister Milligan is so easy- we pray for each other while we teach and were able to set a baptismal date with Jared this week! November 15th! He says that isn't soon enough.. haha His wife Katie is a returning less-active woman & their sights are set on the temple and being sealed as a family! The Pond family (we teach Jared and Katie in their home) have been the greatest examples to them of what their family can become! Member Missionary work is the most effective way to do missionary work! From Lake Michigan and now to Sheboygan... I've learned so much about how the Lord brings members and missionaries together to hasten the work!

"Your skills plus my skills in the ring!" -Nacho Libre-

Totally applicable to Member + Missionary work!!

(ps: MOM- Sister Pond= Angie Updike! You taught her (15 yr olds) Sunday school class as a returned missionary! it was a class full of boys and Sister Pond and one other girl! She said that you brought treats every week and that all the boys had crushes on you but you were dating Dad! haha) 

Thank you so much for your prayers! This week couldn't have been better!! 

I'm struggling with endurance right now- but I know that as I rely on the Lord I'll be able to do this

pss: Sister Milligan and I performed in the talent show at the ward picnic together! We just threw it together and it was a miracle that it all came together the way it did!! We basically had the whole ward there! And our Bishop played the bagpipes!

Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=683811278372497&l=2108618222804796878

& because we had this up our sleeve we were able to teach so many people with it this week! We were able to testify of Christ in many setting where we normally wouldn't have been able to. SO COOL!

Have an amazing week! & Remember to be... 

Steadfast & Immovable in Christ!

Love, 

Sister Osmond :) 

 Happy Reunion! I saw my Sisters from the MTC on Wednesday at Transfer Point in OshKosh!!

Karen, one of our neighbors, bought us flowers this week.
We didn't have vase so we put them in the blender.  :)

        People are so thoughtful here in Sheboygan. 

Home of America's largest symbol of freedom...
 there's a giant flag the size of a football field that blows majestically in the wind!!