Elder Renlund in Bismarck

Hey Family and Friends:) 

This has been an awesome week!!! We had a Tri-Zone Conference in Bismarck with Elder Renlund of the Seventy. We received amazing trainings. He taught us on a number of different things. Something that stood out to me as a whole though was just how well he knows Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the conference he told us that one of the purposes and responsibilities of a Seventy is to be a Special Witness of Jesus Christ. I noticed throughout the entire conference just that. He is a witness, and He knows Christ so well. Just being able to see that in him was such a blessing to my own testimony. It helped me to understand that Christ is Our Friend. He has a body and He is literally there. I love that He is in our lives everyday and in everything that we do, we just need to recognize that He really is there! All I can really say is that Jesus Christ Lives and that He is very much interested in our lives. 

We have also had an amazing week with our investigators. Mackenzie called us last saturday night and asked if she could come to church...so we said yes!!!! We gave her one of our skirts and next thing we knew we were all three sitting in sacrament meeting:) She is so cool!! I Love her and her faith that she is willing to exercise! During Sacrament Meeting though, she asked me

"Is this not an important part of church?"

"no, this is important, why?"

"Why is everyone on their phones?" 

What a disappointing moment. I don't think I have ever been more disappointed in the example that the members set. We are examples and how can we ever teach someone else the importance of our baptismal covenants if we ourselves don't even care enough to put our silly phones away for one hour at church to renew them? People are watching all of the time, and we just be examples of Christ's People not only at church, but always. Thankfully Mackenzie asked and we were able to help her understand that Sacrament is important. 

Another thing that we learned with Elder Renlund was that we must strive to have the gospel written on our hearts. We learn in Elder Bednars Talk "Converted unto the Lord" that having a testimony is not enough to protect us from the devil anymore. We must become Converted. I know that this is true! I can only hope that we will listen to our Prophet and Apostles and know that we need to continue to grow, Satan is getting stronger, But He Cannot be stronger than God.The time for sitting on the fence is over and sooner or later we will be knocked off onto one side or another, so instead we need to choose a side. I would hope that we each choose God's side. Because He has already won the fight. 

We have seen so many blessings recently from striving to be obedient! It is super hard sometimes to do what we are asked to do, but I know that there are reasons for all the things that God asks of us and I am super grateful that He watches out for each of us! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and look out for those around you who might be in need of the Gospel:) Then don't hesitate to invite them to the "Greatest party that is going on, and its the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!" "No one goes to a party without and invitation, so invite them and let them know that the Party is still going on." - Sister Renlund 

Love you all:) Keep up the Good work and Testify of what you love about the Gospel of Jesus Christ:) 

Love, Sister A ( Tay ) 

--

Sister Taylor Andrus

Specialized Training In Bismarck

Hey Guys!:) 

So this week we had Specialized training in Bismarck with our President and The AP's. It was a great thing!!! We got to have 6 Sister live in our Shoe Box of an apartment the night before so that we could all carpool down to the meeting the next morning. You know when your Mom says that your room is so dirty you can see the carpet? well we really, literally couldn't see the floor...We had air mattresses, and a cot and a sleeping pad and everyone was squished in there like sardines. But it was fun none the less:) 

The Training that the AP's gave us was awesome and focused on why we came. We talked a lot about the promises that we made to The Lord when we agreed to accept our mission call, and Why we are called and asked to give up our personal affairs and give all our time and attention to the work. I loved it! There were also many missionaries giving their final testimonies because this was their last transfer. I am excited to give mine someday and look back at all I was able to accomplish:) 

President Hess Trained on Training....So yeah... We have another 30 missionaries coming out this next transfer so a lot of us who have been out for 3 months will be training. I hope that I get to!!!:) I want to train so bad:) We will know for sure in 2 weeks:) 

So We got a new Investigator. Her name is McKenzie and she is 18. She is really unsure of why she is even meeting with us, But we are excited, I think that she will be an amazing member of the church:) On a more sad note....Rosalind is moved away. She randomly moved this last week to Montana....yeah, that is basically all I know. It was really hard. We had a couple of hard lessons with her and It was so hard to teach her and feel so much of God's love for her and she couldn't understand what we were trying to teach to her. We wish her the best of Luck and trust that God knows what he is doing with her...so yeah, that was interesting. 

There wasnt much else that happened this week. We cleaned up the highway with the ward and had a great week:) 

Love you all:) 

--

Sister Taylor Andrus

I got this cute picture and a message from a member in Minot, Taylor was there making cupcakes Monday afternoon. She looks so happy!!

Cooling off in Minot

Hello! 

Well this week was awesome!:) 

Earlier this week, We had dinner with a couple here named the Nelson's. Oddly enough, John Nelson's Great Grandpa and My Great Grandpa are Brothers. We are both from the line of Milo Andrus and Jane Munday. Cool right? It is so cool, I feel like I have family out here:) They also named their new parakeets after us, Andrus & Clegg :) Cool names right? Over all that was just an awesome night! Dad- will you look into the Giant Family Reunion thing they do at Milo's Home in SLC every year for me? 

We have Rosalind back on date now, she is on date for Sept. 12. We are very excited! We finally got her to church! We tried absolutely everything we could to get her there and finally something worked out! I was so glad we got to bring her. we ended up in the other ward that meets at 3pm but hey, Church is Church so whatever it takes right? 

Also when we put her on date She told us she was still drinking Coffee so I recommitted her so Live the word of wisdom. When we were leaving the nursing home, I just told a nurse about what Rosalind was trying to stop coffee, and she just looked at me and said  ' Rosalind doesn't drink Coffee'..... ahah that was really awkward. I just Said " Great, ahah have an awesome day" and then we left....what the heck Rosalind? haha 

We met another family, the Tobey's. They are awesome we showed up and they all had notebooks and pens and a paper full of questions for us. We answered all their questions and by the end Tiffani ( the mom) was in tears. We asked them to be baptized and she agreed to October 5th. We invited them to church and they said that they will come. But yesterday she texted and told us that her husband didn't want them to attend our church so that they should shop around a few other churches first... So basically we need to teach the Husband and then hopefully we can help him feel the spirit.. Their family is so Golden, I really hope that we can help them find Christ. 

Anyways, I hope you all had a fantastic week!:) I love  you all :) 

Love, Tay ( Sister A)