week 8- The Unexpected

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you so much for the condolences and words of encouragement I've already received. Its a hard thing to loose your grandmother unexpectedly while on your mission. When your mission president calls you during church and tell you to call your mother it freaks you out a little bit. Its been hard but I'm surviving I have a great companion who is taking care of me. I am so grateful for a support I've already had. I'm also super grateful for a knowledge of God's plan for us and to know my Grandma is with her Father in Heaven. She was a strong woman, filled with unconditional love. I hope to one day become like her. Thanks again for the kind words from everyone :)

First of all I survived my first transfer of missionary life and I have one more until my training is complete. Crazy stuff here. I feel like I left home yesterday. I have two baptisms on the 23rd, Juanita and JoAnn. I'm so excited about these baptisms! They are two of the most converted people I have ever met. I am so lucky to be the tool in the Lord's had to bring them closer to their Savior. Our Recent converts are on FIRE! Tomeka called us the other day and said she was on the bus with this Lady and the lady wanted to talk to us about the gospel. Then Christy and Emily are 12 and 14 and they called us because they go street contacting for fun on the weekends and wanted to know what questions they could ask people. This amazes me so much! 

Thats about all I have to say right now... sorry haha!

Love,

Sister Klein

week 7- A letter from Siri

So the library was full today so I'm at the church right now I'm on
the iPad we're using Siri so hopefully this goes well and nothings too
weird.
one of our investigators Joanne she's Catholic and she told all the
other missionaries that she couldn't be baptized because she promised
her mom as you stay in the Catholic Church. So Sister Loveridge and I
started praying for that should be able to make the right choice for
her. On Tuesday we taught her plan of salvation and while teaching her
about spirit world we told her about how she family members that were
waiting for her to join this church that she could be baptized for
them. She then said that she would be baptized and that she felt like
her mother really wanted her to be baptizing guided her to our church.
It was a miracle and Joannes like the sweetest lady we know she works
for Disneyworld for years and she gave me an earring and it's princess
Jasmine's. She said that one day princess Jasmine dropped it and
Joanne found it on the next day and she kept it kept for years. That
earring was very special to Joann and Joann gave it to me because she
knew how much I loved princesses.  It's seriously the best gift I
could ever be given, not only that she's going to be baptized and
she's going to receive eternal life but also that she give me
something very special to her.
Okay funny story so walking down the road and we're passing this car
and he rolls down his window and yells "y'all are gorgeous"  and
sister leverage turns around she goes "it's the Holy Ghost" then we
had a great talk with him about baptism, he was just recently baptized
and he talked about how much is changing on his life and how he really
respects what were doing and going out here and doing this.
We had a great conference on Wednesday and learned so much about how
to be better missionaries and it was so refreshing to get personal
revelation, I love learning and I'm so thankful that I can always
become a better missionary.
So Tomeka said the funniest thing so she's on the bus with this lady
and she gets on the topic of religion She explained how she takes
lessons from the sister missionaries and she goes "they're like
perfume scents you know they just leave this aroma of Jesus Christ in
my house"
We have a miracle day on Friday. It was hard for us to leave the house
so we got out a little later then we would like to have. We were kind
of frustrated but as the day went on we realized how much of a
blessing it really was.
So we went to go visit a less active that we've been trying to go see
for weeks now. We were going to try one last time then give up. We
knocked on the door and no one answered. But as we were about to leave
he pulled into the driveway. The same thing happened again twice later
in the day.
We also went and say a less active family and 3 college boys come to
the door they said that family hasn't lived there in years and that we
could send over the elders to teach them. Are they prepared or what?
At our movie night we had 13 non members and 3 recent converts! Which
is a huge miracle. Sister Loveridge and I then took them on a church
tour and taught them the restoration. It was so powerful! I cannot
believe how well it turned out.
Well I got to go. But have a great week everybody! The church is true
Love,
Sister Klein

week 6- dates set,

Dear Friends and Family,

This has been a great week! Sister Loveridge and I have been so blessed by the Lord. We've been working a lot with members this week and we've found some amazing people to teach! The Lord hand has been in my life I have seen it. We have Juanita's baptism set for August 23rd. Then Kirk and his three boys are set for August 16th. We are so excited for all of them to come unto Christ, to strengthen their faith, and to be baptized for a remission of their sins. 

My favorite part about being a missionary is that I get to feel the love God has for each of his Children. It amazes me how much God really does love us all :)

I had some complications logging on to my computer so I don't have that much time, but I will write you all more next week!

Take Care

Love,

Sister Klein

Also a really good talk to read this week is from the October 2012 General Conference and its called Where is the Pavilion by Henry B. Eyring :)

Week 5- "Y'all work for Jesus?!"

So this week was kind of an adventure, we spent monday night-wednesday morning downtown Tampa getting some training on street contacting. This homeless man was selling crosses and he sees our name tag and goes "Wait, y'all work for Jesus? you can have a cross for free" :) haha! 
Sister Loveridge and I just had a blast talking to everyone we met about the gospel and being bold! We also ate at this great place called pita pit and its like wraps made out of pita bread! SO YUMMY!

On Friday all of the full time missionaries in our zone and the priest/laurels in our stake came to our mission and did a mini-mission. We taught them about missionary work and then we were put into companionships. We then did a comp study and then we went out and did street contacting. It was so much fun and it was a blessing to St. Petersburg, we got like 4 referrals out of it.

Tomeka's baptism was amazing! A girl named Emily (who I love a whole awful lot) got baptized too! It was beautiful the room was stuffed full of people! A lot of people said my talk was the best baptism talk they've ever heard and that it had a lot of power with it. OKAY BEST PART OF THE BAPTISM! at the end Juanita comes up to me and says "I want to be baptized as soon as possible" WHAT?!? she has been unsure since I wrote you last but now she is sure!

This morning we went to Sister Weatherlys home and she taught us some cardio and fitness exercises to do. August is our healthy month and I'm trying to cut out sweets (except mondays) and as much gluten as possible so send me some recipe ideas and not like nasty gluten free stuff.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! :)

Have a great week and I love y'all!

Love,

Sister Klein

Week 4- Miracles Happen

Dear Friends and Family,
I have been so blessed this week to have the Lord work through me and Sister Loveridge. We have been praying and fasting to see a miracle every day and its happened. There has been so many of them I don't even have time to tell you. But the Lord's hand has been in my life. I'm keeping a journal full of those miracles I've seen while out in the field. So everyone thinks that Sister Loveridge and I are sisters even the missionaries have to ask us. Its kind of funny. We don't really see it. haha. 

SO there is this hill right by our house that we have to bike up on our way home and so to make it fun we bike as fast as we can up the hill. so I'm pushing it up this hill and I see this lady and I want to talk to her so I stop the bike and I fall off right in front of her! it was so funny!!! She just has this face of "What??" then I stand up and go "have you been to our church before?" haha!

Also I can check something off the bucket list this week we got asked if we were nuns! I've always wanted to be a mormon nun and I was.

Tomeka is getting baptized July 26th. We are super excited for her. I love her so much! She brings joy into my day. She asked me yesterday if I would give the talk on baptism. I'm super excited! 

But your not going to believe her mom, Juanita. We were watching a video of Christ getting baptized in our lesson and Tomeka turns to her mom and goes "Have you been baptized before?" and her mom goes "no, but I'd like to be when I am ready" so we're totally going to baptize her mom when she is ready. CRAZY!

The best part about this week was getting visiting Families. In order to go to dinner at a members home you have to have a non member, recent convert, inactive, or investigator with you. So Tomeka had us over for her birthday dinner on Wednesday, then on Thursday the bridges family had us over and they had their atheist neighbors over, then on Friday was the ward multi- cultural dinner, and then Sunday went went over to Brother Nye's (the ward mission leaders) house. Somebody has been feeding the missionaries in the Las Vegas. 

Also are we Las Vegas or Las Vegas West mission? Because one of the families daughter is spanish speaking Las Vegas and she comes home next month.

SO we're sitting outside the church and this lady comes and knocks on the doors and we go to it and she says that she was looking for a church and she had stopped by every day to find out what time the services here were at. CAN YOU SAY MIRACLE? I can! We talk to her for a while. Her name is Joanne. She's lost almost every family member she knows. We showed her the because of him video and she cried the entire time. We're going to try to prepare her for baptism in 3 weeks.

SO we were doing the 12 week training program at this park and we're reading through the restoration pamphlet and this guy name Cedric comes and sits at the table next to us and we start talking to him. We got his info and we gave him a Book of Mormon after teaching him lesson on. The crazy part is that he never goes to that park and we don't either. MIRACLE!

The best part about these miracles is that they're all from our Heavenly Father. I did nothing but have faith. But I have faith. I have faith to make it rain in my area. and I have faith that Its going to rain on the seeds I've planted and I am going to harvest them. 

People you can pray for: Joanne, Tomeka, Juanita, Kirk and his sons, and Cedric

also pray that I can see miracles everyday or the Lord's hand in my life.

I love ya'll!

Sister Klein

Week 3- Arrived in Tampa!

Dear Friends and Family,

I have safely arrived in Florida! Thank you so much for your support while I was in the mtc. I am serving in the St. Petersburg ward and I love it. Ever since being here I have seen a miracle almost every day and that has nothing to do with me. It is all because of the Lord. On my first day here the Lord gave me the opportunity to invite 3 kids to be baptized. The dad already had a date but the kids hadn't committed yet. 

after my companion, Sister Loveridge and I taught the plan of salvation I asked them to be baptized. The kids all said yes! It was so rewarding. I loved it. I know that this is God's plan for me right now, to bring others onto Christ. He is putting people who are prepared to hear the gospel in my path everyday! 

Have a beautiful week and I'll talk to ya'll on Monday!

Love,

Sister Klein

week 2- 4th of July in the MTC

Dear Friends and Family,

Missionary work is awesome! I love the Gospel so much! 

I can't hack the mtc protection to get my camera to work. So you'll have to wait till I get out in the field.

OKAY! highlights of my week... and lowlights

#1 Sister Coleman and I were doing service and we got to wear vacuum cleaner backpacks!!!!!!  so we became ghost busters

#2 Sister Coleman and I got yelled at by 4 different branch presidents for leaving our bags in a classroom so we wouldn't get yelled at for bringing them in the cafeteria. We cried after because these branch presidents tore us apart. then we were late to class because the teacher yelled at us too. :( We seriously went into the bathroom and cried. It wasn't being told we did something wrong that made us sad but the fact that they yelled at us :( They couldn't do it kindly. Luckily our branch presidency was in our classroom when we got back so their wives gave us hugs and comforted us. 

#3 we went outside Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday so if you didn't see me sucks for you... jk

#4 we taught a lesson! well actually we've taught a lot of lessons. our lessons are doing okay but most of our investigators don't believe they need anything else other than what they got :(

We seriously love our investigators and we pray for them but they don't seem to be moving in to faith/repentance.

Its super sad :( 

Overall I love the gospel. and I love being a missionary!

Fun story for ya'll! So someone on the floor of our residence halls caught a burrito on fire in the microwave and so in order to make our room not smell we opened our window. The windows in the mtc open so big that you can climb out them. So of course I'm outside the window before I can even think about how its not a good idea. haha! But how many people can say they climbed out the window at the mtc? I can! 

I love you all! 

The Gospel is true! 

Love

Sister Klein

P.S. write back and tell me how you're spending your 4th of July! :)