July 1, 2014 Liberty, Missouri "Tornado!"

Hey family!

So first things first, I feel very blessed to be alive today and to have had the opportunity to have read another e-mail! Mom and dad, thanks so much for your e-mails. I really do love getting them every week. I always get a boost from them :) Oh and HAPPY CANADA DAY!! I was  really excited to hear that Germany is in the quarter finals for the FIFA match, and dad if you want to experience some humidity you should come to Missouri, I'm sure the plane ticket won't be as expensive as the one to Brazil ;) Speaking of Missouri, a tornado totally passed by us last night and it was the scariest experience of my life. I literally felt like I was in an end of the world Apocalyptic Movie, you seriously don't even know how terrifying this whole tornado experience was, so allow me to explain.

Yesterday was really really really humid. It was about 85F outside , but with the humidity it felt about 105 F. Needless to say, it felt like a sauna outside. At the end of the night once Sister Morris and I had gotten back to the apartment, we were just hanging out and then all of a sudden a thunder storm popped out of nowhere.  Thunderstorms here are amazing! The lightning never stops, so the sky just continuously flashes. Well, about 10minutes later it was like someone opened the floodgates in the sky, because there was no rain and then all of a sudden there was sheets of rain falling from the sky. The parking lot had a river of water flowing through it. I was looking out our glass door from our third story apartment, and Sister Morris wasn't feeling to comfortable about this storm, but after about 5 minutes she came out from hiding to watch the storm with me. Literally 2 minutes later we heard the tornado sirens going off, which is the scariest most awful noise in the world. We had no clue what to do. 

​Instantly, Sister Morris began to panic. She ran into the bathroom freaking out and I had no idea what we were supposed to do. There was no shelter at our apartment and we were on the third story, perfect tornado bait. We didn't know where we were supposed to go for shelter.  I tried calling the District Leaders, but they didn't answer. I called the Sister Leaders that live by the Liberty Jail (our old house) and they asked if we had the car.  Luckily we did, they told us to stay calm and to drive to the Historic Liberty Jail, because we had about 10minutes to get to the shelter at the jail. Luckily, the jail is only about a half a mile from our house.

Sister Morris was hysteric and I would have been too, except I knew I needed to get us out of there ASAP. I tried staying as calm as I could, and we grabbed our 72 hour kits, I didn't even have time to put on my shoes. We grabbed our stuff, and we locked the door behind us. We ran down the three flights of stairs. Once we reached the door to get out of the apartment, once again fear and panic set in. We had to get to the car, but the raging storm outside and the deafening wails of the tornado sirens haulted us. We took a deep breath, tried to get some courage and raced to the car. Instantly, my socks, shirt and pajama pants were soaked. We threw our stuff in the car, got in, started the car and started our way to the jail, I asked sister Morris to say a prayer as we drove. I have no idea what Sister Morris said in that prayer, but we were terrified and a half a mile had never felt so long in my entire life. We reached the jail, grabbed our 72hr kits and ran to the basement door. The sisters were waiting at the door to shuffle us in. We finally felt safe. We all went into the storm room, and finally the panic kind of sank in. I had been trying to act calm for the most part to get sister Morris and I to the jail, but now that I was there I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry. I was kind of in shock about the whole thing, and wet and cold. Seriously from the time the tornado sirens went off to us getting safely inside the jail, was like a movie. It was terrifying!!

Once all of us were in the shelter, we texted our mission President to let him know we were all safely in the shelter, and we got a call from the Zone Leaders to make sure we were all safe in a shelter. We grabbed some hymn books and the sisters wanted to sing a hymn. I suggested we sing " Master the Tempest is Raging", hahaha! It seemed pretty fitting, so we did. It was very comforting having all the sisters together and within a few minutes we were  all at ease and laughing and joking about the scary predicament we were in. About 30 minutes later the storm passed and the sirens turned off. We were given permission to return to our homes. Of course, sister Morris and I felt a little uneasy about returning to our apartment, because if the storm came back we didn't want to go through all of that panic again, but we were told we had to return to our homes. We got to our house at about 10:20pm, but Sister Morris and I didn't fall asleep until about 12:30am. So, now I have experienced a tornado, I can cross it off my bucket list, and I hope I never experience that ever again.....unless I am directly by a storm shelter.

So, needless to say, Sister Morris and I are super exhausted and have scheduled in a nap for our P-Day today :) Something awesome though. Our new Mission President, President Vest is here in the mission now. It was sad seeing President Keyes go, but I am excited to see what President Vest is like. He is from Texas and we have interviews with him on July 9th. As a whole, this last week was pretty good. We were able to find two new investigators from member referrals. One of them we are actually teaching tonight. We are eating with the B's tonight. I love them. They are a recently re-activated couple, and they are so cute. They love sister missionaries like their own daughters. Their son and his girlfriend are visiting for a few weeks, and the girlfriend isn't a member, but wants to learn about the gospel so we are teaching the first discussion after dinner tonight :) We are really excited! 

Anyways, I hope everything keeps going well. Mom, don't get too sunburned out at the lake, and I hope you guys are staying cool. I'm bummed that you won't be at Kootenay Lake this year, but I do agree with mom, it will be much nicer for swimming. I love you all so much and I'll send you some pictures from our Tornado experience, I wish I could send you the video one of the sisters took of their escape out of their house running to the Jail shelter. It seriously looks like a scene from a movie with the panic, wind howling, wailing sirens, and screaming but that will have to wait until after the mission. Anyways, have a great week :)

Love,

Sister Luening

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I took this pic this morning, do you see the "EXTREME ALERT" warning we got last night!? SCARY!!!!

 

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All of the sisters in the storm shelter at the Historic Liberty Jail. In total there were 8 sisters at the jail waiting for the storm to pass.

June 26, 2014, Liberty, Missouri

Hey Family! 

Well, sounds like everyone has had a pretty good week. Things here in the Liberty Stake are going well and the Lord is truly hastening his work. On Sunday ward boundaries were changed to create a new ward called the Doniphan Ward. About a third of our Liberty 1st ward area and families were taken into the newly created ward. So Sister Morris and I spent most of our day yesterday reorganizing our map boundaries, area books and ward rosters. We are sad to see people go and some investigators no longer being able to work directly with us, but we know this is what the Lord wants and we are excited to get closer to some of our other members.

 Sister Morris and I had the opportunity to go to a baptism of a girl named M that we both taught together for a little while back in January and February in Kearney. The Kearney sisters were able to finally pick M back up and she had some pretty amazing personal experiences that testified to her of the need to get baptized, and so she was baptized on Saturday. It was so awesome to see her take this step in her life. While we were there we also got to see J S, another one of our former investigators. He's still going strong in the gospel, but not yet baptized. It was such a tender moment being able to sit with him. He really poured out his heart to me in letting me know how much of an impact I really made on him and his family. He told me how much he misses me. I seriously wanted to just give him a big hug. It broke my heart to know that he still hasn't taken the step to be baptized. I asked him when he would take this step and he sighed heavily and told me he didn't know. He said he knows he needs to, its just things are complicated. He asked me if I would come to His baptism when the time comes and if I would be one of the speakers. I told him absolutely, but that he better get working on it cause I'll only be around for 5 more months, haha. I can tell he has a lot on his plate, and that there a lot of things kind of stopping this from taking place, but I know if he will really put his faith and trust in the Lord and commit to this step that he will be blessed so much. So, I've decided my one wish on my mission is that I will be able to witness the baptism of J S before I go home.

But, with everything else going on this week, I have felt so blessed. Sister Morris and I have been so blessed this week in finding precious souls to help draw closer to Christ. It's neat how the Lord places us in the paths of those who are prepared if we will just ask and then follow the promptings of the Spirit. This is such a special mission. I feel so blessed to serve in the New Jerusalem. Over the last few weeks I have really experienced how much the Lord has been guiding me in this work. While out in the Liberty 1st ward area and at the Historic Liberty Jail it has been such a miracle to have the Spirit truly fill my mouth and guide me to know what to say. I had a neat miracle at the Historic Liberty Jail. In fact this miracle took place on my mission year mark last Thursday on June 19th. I can't believe I've already been out a year now, and I felt so blessed to have this miracle and be able to see how much I have truly grown since my first day in the MTC. So here goes...

 While sister Morris and I were on shift at the Historic Liberty Jail, Sister Jacobs and Sister Albrecht came in with a recent convert named C and his non-member friend named A. This was Sister Jacobs and Sister Albrecht's first time ever meeting A. I had the opportunity to take them through the Liberty Jail and the Spirit was so strong. It guided me in what to share about the restoration of the Gospel. It talked about Joseph Smith's experience and recited the first vision and how the gospel was fully restored to the earth. I knew when to ask questions and when to invite the sisters and C to bear their own testimonies. It was so neat. Normally, I would have been kind of nervous, but I could feel the Spirit place words in my mouth, and it was honestly like I didn't have to think at all, it was just right there and then coming out of my mouth. It was amazing!

 As I focused on our Savior Jesus Christ and the Love of our Heavenly Father the Spirit was so strong. I felt very strongly that A needed to be invited to be baptized and so on several occasions throughout the presentation I touched on the importance of baptism and how that draws us closer to Christ.  Sister Albrecht, Sister Jacobs and C throughout the entire presentation bore their testimonies at the perfect moment. Before heading to the reconstructed jail site, I played the Christus narration. It brought the spirit so strongly and we were able to talk about the power of prayer, which was a perfect segue in talking about Joseph Smith and the sacredness of this place because of the prayer he uttered while here. In the rotunda after listening to the revelations Joseph Smith received, the Spirit brought such a great peace into the room. A could feel it and talked about the calmness she felt. We sang "I know that my Redeemer Lives". I bore my testimony on the truthfulness of the gospel and how she can come to know for herself how much this will bless her life, again I mentioned baptism and hoped that the sisters would invite her to be baptized right then, haha, but they didn't. We went up into the exit room. The sisters and I talked with A for a while and the sisters invited her to learn more about the gospel. A accepted the invitation to learn, but I still felt prompted that she needed to be invited for baptism because the spirit was so strong. I bore my testimony and told A that this would truly bless her life just as the sisters said, and that there will come a point when the sisters will invite her to be baptized and she will have that desire to follow after Christ. Sister Jacobs asked A if baptism is something she would want. She said yes, and the sisters were able to put her on baptismal date for July 19th. It was incredible. I feel so blessed to have been guided by the Spirit and to have been a part of this pivotal point in A's life.

I'm so grateful for the Spirit and for how it directs us in our lives. It has done miraculous things for me in my life and especially here on my mission. I feel so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God called to restore all the gospel truths and the priesthood keys for us in our day. I know that my redeemer lives. Jesus is the Christ and it is by following His gospel path that we are able to become like Him and return to live with our Heavenly Father and our Families. I love each of you, I pray for you everyday, and I hope that you know how much I miss you, and how grateful I am to be here serving my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. There is seriously no greater thing! I hope you all have a great week, and are continually kept safe in all you do!

Love,

Sister Luening

Celebrating my Year mark with some strawberry Short-cake and Sparkling Grape Juice!

June 17, 2014 Liberty, Missouri

Dear Family!

Well, this last week has been crazy :) To start off let me tell you it was transfers last week. Sister McDonnell and I thought we would be together at least one more transfer since we've only been together one transfer, but knowing my track record for companions and how for the majority of the time I only get a companion for one transfer, fate hit once again, and I'm back on a one transfer streak. So normally we get the transfer roster at about 9am, which we did get on Tuesday evening, but in the morning right after I sent my email to you guys, President Keyes called. He asked to speak with me, and he ended up telling me that he was calling to discuss the transfer I would hear about later that evening. He told me he wanted to discuss it with me so it wouldn't come as a shock. He told me that Sister McDonnell would be getting transferred and that my new companion would be SISTER MORRIS.....AGAIN!!!! I was super shocked, seriously you should have seen my face! I didn't say a thing for 10minutes while President Keyes told me about why we would be companions again. I was sad to know Sister McDonnell would be leaving, scared to take over an area I barely knew, and now excited to be companions with Sister Morris. It brought back fun memories we had together in Kearney.  He said in the three years he's been a mission president there has only been one other time where he has felt two missionaries who were companions previously should be companions again, crazy, huh! So, sister Morris is now at Historic Liberty Jail, which was her dream come true and serving in the Liberty 1st ward with me for her last transfer. President Keyes told me since this is sister Morris' last transfer next transfer I will be getting a new companion again, but I will more than likely be training, that was intimidating to hear. So the next few transfers should be interesting. But I'm excited to be back with Sister Morris, its been a fun week so far and its nice that we already know we get along, and are like best friends :)

 

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So here's something else that is kind of funny. Mom, you asked if the package arrived. It did! So, while I was companions with Sister McDonnell I think just about every morning I would look at her and say "I think my package is going to come today". So for about a month we both eagerly awaited the arrival of my package. And guess when it came, the day after transfers, so Sister McDonnell never got to take part in my package arriving, oh well, haha! Sister Morris says thanks for sending all the Canadian treats :) Its like being together for Christmas all over again. Seriously though, thanks for the package it was so awesome!! The missionary medallion was really wonderful! I love it! The freezies, were a brilliant idea, and I was so excited to see home-made jam and I must say its just as delicious as I remember! Also, all the Canada Day stuff was hilarious to pull out, and you bet I'll be struttin' my stuff on Canada Day! In fact Canada Day this year is on my P-Day, so that will be great, and I'll be sure to deck out my companion with the celebratory things ;) The Canada Football was cute, and that giant  blow-up balloon you sent, you bet I blew it up, and the packaging didn't lie! It does blow up to four feet! CRAZY!!

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Things have been going really well though! Sister Morris and I have been finding more people to teach. There's a 15 year old girl named C we taught once and her mom was away in Vegas. Last Saturday, we were supposed to meet with C to teach her the message of the restoration. We realized since we didn't officially have her mom's permission to teach her and since she's not an adult, we figured there might be a mission rule against going and teaching her in her home. We called up the zone leaders and they said we should probably get permission from her mom and not go in their home alone. So we headed to our teaching appointment and figured we would just talk to C about the situation on her doorstep. Well, guess what! Her mom, S, got home from Vegas, and so we were able to talk with her and she wanted to reschedule a time for us to come back and teach her with her daughter C. Now we're going to be teaching both of them. MIRACLE!! S, the mom, was taught last fall, but she got really busy with school and so the missionaries could never catch her at a good time, but we are excited to pick things up again and help them see how much the gospel will bless them as a family :)

So something funny, the sisters at the Liberty House, where we don't live anymore, have been begging me to run over to the house at 6:30am to make them do P-90X. Apparently, they want me to be their personal trainer, haha! So on Saturday, Sister Morris and I sacrificed 10 minutes of our precious sleep, got up early and headed to the house. I kicked their patooties! We did Plyometrics, it was actually a lot of fun doing it together as a group! They want me to come on a daily basis for morning exercise, but we'll see if that happens, I might alternate it and go over there every other day, and just mainly workout at our place. But, its fun getting the whole house back into shape ;)

Dad, I hope you had a great Father's Day! I'm sending a card in the mail today, since I didn't have time last week to finish writing in it. So expect a card in the next few weeks. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY!! You're 20 years old, that's crazy!! I also have a card in the mail for you. Just know I love you and am super proud of how hard you are working! You're awesome!! Well, I miss you all! I hope you are all doing well. I can't believe how many people seem to keep passing away in the ward. Its sad to hear about, but I know that they are enjoying a state of peace and rest. I love this gospel. I love serving at the Historic Liberty Jail. Over the last week, I have been able to receive my own personal revelation of different lessons that can be learned from the Liberty Jail experience and to help you understand what I teach and testify about everyday in that sacred Historic Liberty Jail, I would invite you to read the talk by Elder Holland entitled " Lessons from Liberty Jail". It is an amazing talk and can really help us deepen our testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the love our Heavenly the Father and the depth and power that comes from the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  

Love you all!

Sister Luening

P.S. If you want to read it, here's the link to lds.org:  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2009/09/lessons-from-liberty-jail?lang=eng

June 10, Liberty, Missouri Pictures

Dear Friends, 

Because we all know you've been missing Sister Luening's beautiful face and personality like crazy, here are some pictures to help you through the next few months. :)

June 10, 2014, Liberty, Missouri

Dear Family, 

This email might be a little shorter than most, but just know that Sister McDonnell and I are moved into our new place, and all is well. On Thursday morning in the pouring rain we spent 2 hours hauling stuff back and forth to the car out of the house and then down into our new apartment. Hahaha, we were drenched and then had to go on shift at the Liberty Jail. We were both physically and emotionally exhausted, but we survived :) We arranged the furniture, set up the beds, washed and put away all the kitchen stuff and unpacked our stuff, phew! It was a crazy week filled with a lot of emotions, but thankfully we are all settled in now, and we are already seeing how great the move has been for our companionship. Although it was a lot of fun livivng with the other sisters, now with no sisters running wild through the house and popping in and out of rooms, Sister McDonnell and I have realized in our new place alone we have had a lot more time just to talk to each other and build a stronger friendship and companionship. Its been great! 

Over the last two days we've also been able to finally find some people to teach. We've struggled to find people who will listen. We were feeling getting kind of rundown having so many people challenge our personal testimonies and knowledge that the Gospel is true and has blessed our life, but our hard work and diligence has paid off and we have been able to sift through the wheat, plant some seeds and find some rich soil to work with. On sunday, Austin Gale gave his farewell talk and it was so good! Oh my gosh, he should of spoken in General Conference or something, the Spirit was so strong in the room, and he really followed the Spirit in what he should speak about in his talk. It was amazing. Sunday afternoon we went to our Investigator's house, S, and ate dinner with her. Lately, we've been feeling like she is stuck on something because her progression seems to be slowing down. We read through 3 Nephi 11 with her and talked a lot about The Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End). We focused a lot on authority and baptism. We were able to find out some of her concerns. She told us she feels she still needs to continue her search for the "right church", so we simply bore our testimony about the Book of Mormon and invited her to sincerely read it, study it, and pray about it to know if its true. For anyone who has watched "The District" missionary videos. you could say I kind of felt like Elder Marino, in one of their meetings with a lady named Jynx. We've been inviting her to read the Book of Mormon, but she hasn't been doing it. S feels like she hasn't received her answer, but she also hasn't been doing all she can to really know and receive that answer. Revelation requires a desire that will motivate us to act and do all we can to find answers. 

Our appointment with S went really well and we felt like we were really guided by the Spirit in what we could expound on in the scriptures to help S. After we left we headed towards a members house to ask for a ride home, since by that time it was about 8:30 and we had some calls and things to make. As we were walking down the road, we saw a man outside on his porch with some little kids. We said hello and asked how his evening was going. He said great and asked the same question. We continued our conversation and mentioned that we weren't from around here. In finding out that I was from BC, he said he's originally from Seattle and has spent the last year in Missouri. We got into a discussion of why we were here in Missouri. His name is M and he said he was a church going guy and has a great faith in Christ. As we shared the message of the restoration with him, his eyes lit up. He said he feels there are "false prophets", but also that the Bible doesn't hold all the truth. As we told him about the Book of Mormon, he asked us if he could read it. The desire he had to know for himself what truths he was missing in his life was astounding. We testified of the blessings of the Book of Mormon and of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ here on the earth. We are meeting with him on Saturday. It was so cool to see how excited he seemed at the possibility that he had to come to really find Christ's church on the earth. It was truly a miracle!

This experience was amazing. Later reflecting on this experience I realized that in talking to M, I didn't even have to think about opening my mouth and starting up a conversation with him. Usually when people are already standing outside and we are approaching them I have to get my courage and confidence up because talking to strangers, quite frankly can still be terrifying. But it was cool to look back and see how the Spirit was with us the whole time. I know that as we spoke to M that it really wasn't us talking, but rather the Spirit speaking to his heart through us. This work is amazing, being a missionary, a witness of Jesus Christ is such a joy. It can be discouraging at times and hard, but our testimonies and knowledge that the Lord has prepared people for us to teach is that beacon in the distance that draws us forward and creates a desire in us to push through and work harder. I feel blessed to know that no effort is ever wasted. that through everything we do as members really does play a role in the eternal plan that our Father in Heaven has for us and others. 

In Austin's talk he mentioned how Jesus Christ asked Peter if he loved him. He mentioned how it is interesting that after Peter tells the Lord, "thou knowest I love thee." The Lord responds "Feed my sheep". Austin mentioned how it is not good enough for us to simply just love the Lord. If we trust in him, if we love him and truly supported the Plan our Father in Heaven created for each of us in the pre-existence we will continue to be Valiant in that fight in Heaven and continue the fight here on the earth. Satan is working against us and the rest of our brothers and sisters. How great will be our joy when we are able to return to our Father in Heaven, and he will ask us, just as he asked Peter " Lovest thou me?" but we can respond to the Lord a little differently, by saying, "'Yea, Lord thou knowest I love thee.'.... and thy sheep have been fed and they are on their way. " Then God will embrace us, He will know and feel of our love and we will be able to greet those who have helped us in our journey, but we will also be able to stand with our Father in Heaven waiting to greet and embrace those we've cheered on in this fight and helped bring back to the fold. 

I love the Lord. I am so grateful for his eternal plan of Happiness. A plan that each of us play a key role in. As it says in the hymn, "Put your shoulder to the wheel". 

"then don't stand idly, looking on, the fight for sin is real. It will be long, but must go on, put your shoulder to the wheel."

I'm grateful for all of your efforts to share the gospel. I'm proud of all of you. I hope we will be able to retain in remembrance the blessing and responsibility of Discipleship that each of us bears. We are witnesses of Christ. We love the Lord, I love the Lord. I am grateful for His blessed eternal plan that brings us such great joy and happiness in this life. I know that others are searching. We can be the ones to help them find the path that they need to be on to be able to remember the Plan, become zealous in the fight and see us standing by our Heavenly Father standing victorious and embrace them. I love you all and I pray that you will continue to have missionary opportunities, 

Love sister Luening

May 27, 2014, Liberty, Missouri

Dear Family,

Thank-you so much for all the emails. I love hearing about your week and of the testimonies and gratitude each of you have for the gospel in your own lives. It truly is amazing!! This week was full of Miracles, aside from Saturday, haha! Saturday was hard on Sister McDonnell and I. It was our full proselyting day and only 3 people opened their doors and talked to us the whole day we were out. So we went home at the end of the night kind of bummed, and then on top of it we found out that our 17 year old investigator named K, who isn't really allowed to meet with us, now her parents have told her she isn't allowed to come to church until she moves out of the house in August. It was a low blow and hit Sister McDonnell pretty hard. In the last hour of the night as we reflected and pondered on our day, I thought about what these low experiences do for us. As we laid in bed, I mentioned to Sister McDonnell, how blessed we are to have these experiences.

I hope the way I explain this makes sense.  I know that K has a strong spirit and that although at this time she is faced with this trial that she will eventually be able to receive and accept the gospel. I thought about how just like in Adam and Eve's experience they recognized the necessity of experiencing trials so they could really see how sweet the good experiences are. I feel the same is with us as missionaries. The devastation that came to Sister McDonnell and I when we found out that K couldn't meet with us, really reminded me more deeply of what a blessing the gospel is in our lives. It deepened my determination, conviction and desire to want to share it with everyone. If we were successful all the time and teaching all the time, I think that I would get into a pattern and would slightly lose sight of how amazing this gospel truly is. But when I see people reject it or lose that opportunity in their lives, it pierces my soul and causes me to wonder,why don't they just accept the gospel. Don't they know its going to bless their lives. It helps me to regain the vision of what the gospel can do for others, and helps me to re-enforce what my purpose is here serving the Lord as a missionary. Through the hard days I am able to recognize how sweet the experiences really are when people accept the message of the restored gospel and bring it into their lives. 

 Well, I feel pretty blessed. We only really seemed to have one hard day last week, and many great teaching experiences out in our area. Last week in my email home, I mentioned that we were hoping our investigator S could come to the Relief Society Activity. Well, after exercising our faith with 2 straight hours of calling everyone in our ward on our P-Day, miracles did not cease and we were able to find people to drive us and S to the activity as well as to other appointments we had that night. The activity was really great, it was a poor turnout only about 9 sisters came, but it actually was really good for S because she was able to comfortably mingle with all the sisters and built some great relationships with them. S really seemed to enjoy herself and later on Saturday we invited her to come to church, and guess what! She came to church! Normally, she would have gone with her grown daughter to the Liberty 2nd ward, but with our invitation she decided to come to the proper ward. She really enjoyed it and she signed up to bring something to the "munch and mingle" after church next week, and she signed up on the missionary calendar to feed us, haha! We were kind of worried about her coming to church because we were asked to teach the Beehive class. In Beehives we taught about Testimonies and how to strengthen testimony through praying with faith and reading our scriptures for revelation. It went really well and luckily because we had prepared for the lesson, when I was asked by the Bishop to bear my testimony on scripture study in place of the youth speaker in sacrament meeting, I was directed by the Spirit what to say.

Also, on Sunday, we took Laura Blanch tracting with us. She has her mission papers in and is waiting for her call. The day before, on Saturday, we had taken Sage, one of the young women with us, and one person actually talked to us, so it wasn't as successful as we had hoped. But, on Sunday, we had a miracle with Laura. All day we had been praying that the street we had decided to tract would produce some sort of miracle. Well, the third door we knocked on a guy in his late 20's answered. His name was C and as we introduced ourselves, he just kind of smiled at us and said, "Oh, ya I know you're church. " We asked how he knew of it and he said that he had actually gone to our church for the first time earlier that day. We were so shocked and asked him what he thought of it. He said he had a blast, and that he loved how family oriented it was. He said he went to the Liberty 2nd ward because his friend, Br. Edwards, had invited him and his wife to come. So they both went and had also brought their two year old son. He had a few questions for us and as we answered them for him, we asked if it would be okay if we set up a time to teach him and his wife more. He said he would love that. He told us he wasn't normally the church going kind of person, but that he would love to come again. We asked about his wife, and he said that she was Baptist and would maybe be more hesitant about learning more, but that he would talk to her. He was super friendly and it was such a miracle that we were guided to his house, on the same day that he came to church for the first time. So cool! We're excited to see what happens with C. We'll find out this week if we do have the blessing to teach him, or if the Liberty 2nd elders will be given that opportunity. I'm just excited for C and his wife to experience the joy and blessing of the gospel. 

On Thursday, we met with our investigator L for the last time as she went back to Brazil on Saturday since her student exchange program was finished. We shared with her some verses out of 2 Nephi 4 to help her remember the testimony and feelings she has felt here and that it will be hard for her going to Brazil, but that as long as she leans on the Lord for strength that he will help her and direct her closer to the gospel and lead her to her goal of baptism. On Friday, we had a great discussion with our Investigator R over the phone. We are teaching R through teaching center in the Liberty Jail. He lives in Washington and we call him every week. Well, this time our conversation was very interesting. So we called him and asked him about the usual, you know how his week has been and everything, and then all of a sudden we heard someone say to him, "welcome to the temple. What brings you hear today?" We heard some mumbling in the background and then someone said" are you meeting with the missionaries?" we heard R explain to them that he was talking to us on the phone, and after saying that we heard a man pipe up and say" well, that's wonderful, I met with missionaries 27 years ago and it blessed my life". Sister McDonnell and I were in shock and disbelief. Then all of a sudden the phone went dead.  We were so confused. He knows about the temple?! What is he doing at the temple. So, Sister McDonnell and I called him back and asked him about where he was. He explained to us that he went on LDS.org and saw a picture of a temple and later discovered there was a temple nearby, so he decided he wanted to come and check it out. We asked him if he ran into people he knew and he said that they were complete strangers, but very friendly. I think that is so cool, that whoever those members were, saw him and followed the promptings of the Spirit to say hello and bear their testimonies to him.

We asked R what he thought about the temple and he said just sitting on the grounds he feels so peaceful and happy. He again mentioned that he wants to have this feeling for the rest of his life. We taught him the rest of the Plan of Salvation and we just felt very prompted to help him recognize that the peace and joy he feels as he learns about the gospel is just a sliver of what he will feel in the eternities living with his family and with Heavenly Father. He just seemed so amazed and over-joyed about that. At the end of our discussion he told us that he is really beginning to know that all of this is true and that he just wants to keep learning more and more. He said this is bringing him so much hope and happiness into his life. He also, told us he wants to tell his parents about this amazing knowledge that he is receiving. I feel so blessed that Sister McDonnell and I have the opportunity to teach R. He is so prepared and has a great desire to learn and apply the gospel into his life. When the Lord says that we are to come forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, the way R feels and acts is the definition of those two words. He is incredible and I am so grateful to be a tool in the Lord's hand to be a vessel for the Spirit to flow through and to bring him that greater light and peace.

I love this gospel! I'm so grateful for the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of us. I know that he knows us perfectly and what we need in every moment of our lives. I know that as we sincerely pray to him that He will be able to bring us the comfort and blessings we need at that time in our lives. The answers don't always come right away, but I know that through the hard times as we try to look at it through an eternal perspective that we will be able to see the blessings and miracles amidst the trial we are being faced with. I love my Saviour Jesus Christ, I know that through his infinite love and atonement he truly is able to take our darkest night and help us to direct our attention on the brightest star and allow us to feel and see the brilliant glow of the brightest star. I love each of you and I pray that you will have a great week. "Remember God in every thought, doubt not, fear not. "

Love,

Sister Luening 

May 22, 2014, Liberty, Missouri

Dear Family, 

Well, it sounds like it has been another eventful week back home. I must
say your mentioning of Kootenay lake and camping adventures soon made me a
little sad that another year I will miss family camp, but hey, I am
really excited to be at the Liberty Jail! Now thinking about it I can't
believe it is already almost June, man time really is flying by here! Its
crazy! I'm sad to hear that the YSA in trail are not really participating
in the activities Jeremy is putting together, but I hope he knows that he
is doing all he can to fulfill his calling and doing his part, and for that
he will be blessed. 

So yesterday we had our mission-wide temple conference. It was amazing!
Before we went to the temple for our session we gathered in the stake
center across from the temple and heard a few words from President Keyes.
He talked a lot about the importance of the Family in our day today and
sticking to God's Laws on the Family. He went over "the Family: A
Proclamation to the World". He also mentioned the importance of the temple
and covenants. The theme of the conference was D&C 82:10, " I the Lord am
bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no
promise." He talked quite a bit on marriage and how with the lowering of
the missionary age change some of us will find our eternal companions on
our missions. That was kind of surprising to hear from our mission
president, haha! But, he tried to emphasize that it is okay to develop
feelings for another missionary, but to make sure that we stay true to our
covenants as we are serving the Lord and continue to serve the Lord with
all our heart, might, mind and strength. He said that as we do this, we will
be blessed as the Lord will be bound to keep his promises. At the end of
our meeting we sang the EFY Medley " As Sisters in Zion/ We'll Bring the
World His Truth". So much power filled the room as we. elders and
sisters, sang that song. The Spirit was so strong and about half of us were
crying. It was incredible! 

We then went to the temple and went through the
session. It was wonderful. We sang called to serve in the chapel of the
temple. At at the end of our session President and Sister Keyes greeted each
one of us in the Celestial Room. President Keyes shook our hands and Sister
Keyes gave us a hug and they thanked us for our diligent service and for
the opportunity they have had to know each one of us. It was our final
good-bye to President Keyes as a mission president. It was so peaceful in that room
and was so cool to see an Army of the Lord's set apart servants standing
together in that beautiful room looking like angels. 

 Well, this has been a wonderful! We've seen quite a few miracles this week
:) So in our area, one of our investigators who sister McDonnell and Sister
Halverstadt were working with, wasn't really taking the discussions, but
they spent quite sometime building a really good relationship with her and
trying to open her heart through service. She is Nazarene and her grown
daughter is actually taking the discussions with the Liberty 2nd sisters
and is planning on getting baptized in September. So it has sparked a lot
of curiosity in S. The other day she was over at her daughters house
and baptisms for the dead was mentioned, she was really confused by it and
asked us if we could explain it to her. We told her we would love to and
asked her if we could share with her our beliefs of what God's Plan is for
us. She said that would be fine. Well, last week we taught S. the Plan
of Salvation and in that were able to explain to her baptisms for the dead.
In preparing the lesson, I really felt like we should base a lot of our
scriptures from the Bible, which normally we would focus on Book of Mormon
verses. Well, it was good we did, because S. is very firm in the bible
and kind of has the "see it to believe it" attitude, haha! Because she is
Nazarene she doesn't believe in Pre-Earth Life and she also didn't have any
concept of Spirit Prison. It was amazing to see her eyes light up as we
shared with her scriptures in Jeremiah 1:5; 1 Peter 4:6 and 1 Corinthians
15:29. As we explained to her the Plan of Salvation and the importance of
temples, the spirit testified to her the truthfulness of what we were
sharing. She just sat quietly for a moment and then looked at us and said,
" I just don't understand why my pastor has never taught any of this?!" It
was neat to see how she recognized that she was missing some important
truths in her life. 

She's really been opening up, and she even is willing
to come to a relief society activity tonight. She has gone to church with
her daughter before, but we hope she will be willing to come to our ward on
sunday so that she can build relationships in the ward.

Otherwise, another neat miracle we had happen was at the Historic Liberty
Jail in our teaching center. So, basically where we go to make calls all
over the world and answer phone calls and online chats of people who go on
Mormon.org to learn more about the gospel. So a few months ago, before I
was at the Jail, a guy in Washington state called the Liberty Jail. He
mentioned that he was 18 years old and Jewish. He said he heard a girl in
his school talk about how amazing the liberty jail is and how much it
teaches us that God really does answer prayers. He was calling to learn how
God answers prayers and how he could recognize the answers to some of his
own prayers. Sister McDonnell had taken the call and talked with him and
got his information, but since that first call she hadn't been able to make
contact with him for 3 months. Well last week she decided to give him a
call and left a message and he actually called back. Sister McDonnell
taught him the message of the restoration over the phone. The spirit was so
strong in that room as she talked with him. Its so cool, how even over the
phone talking about the gospel, the Spirit just fills the room and still
boldly testifies of the truthfulness of the gospel. I only could hear what
she was saying on her side of the conversation, but I could tell that he
was so excited to know that God loves him and made this plan for him. He
said he really wants to learn more, and Sister McDonnell invited him to be
baptized. He said he would need to wait until September to be baptized when
he moves away from home to college, because his parents would not approve
his decision to be baptized into another faith. In fact, we learned that if
his parents even knew that he was talking to us they would probably kick
him out of the house and dis-own him. 

 Well, the other day we were able to talk to him over the phone again.
This was my first time meeting R. and talking to him. Sister McDonnell
and I figured it would be good to teach him the Plan of Salvation.
He expressed to us that he feels so happy learning about the gospel and
that he feels there has got to be more that he doesn't understand. As we
talked with him and I introduced myself and tried to get to now him a
little better, our conversation was directed to The Plan of Salvation
because he asked if we knew if we lived with God before....it was like the
perfect question to go into what we wanted to teach him. Since, he's Jewish
he really doesn't have a very good understanding of who Jesus Christ is and
what the atonement means for him. As we talked about God's Plan for us
and Christ's mission and his atonement and what that means for us, he was
so excited! It was amazing to be able to talk to him and hear of the
happiness and excitement he was gaining in his voice as he realized that he
has a Saviour, and that as he prays that he can receive comfort and
guidance from someone who completely understands him. It was so cool!! We
can tell his understanding of how much God loves him has really grown! He
loves learning about the gospel and is continually expressing to us how
good he feels when we teach him. We've helped him understand that that is
the power of the Holy Ghost testifying to him truth. He told us he really
wants to go to church and be baptized when he goes to college in Virginia.
I know the gospel is really blessing R's life and bringing him the
happiness, peace and answers to the questions his soul has been searching
for. I feel so blessed to be able to teach R. with Sister McDonnell,
seeing how much R. is changing and just hearing of the new light and
happiness that is entering his life as he learns brings me inexplicable joy
and happiness. Every time we talk with R. we end the conversation just
in shock as to how powerful and strong his Spirit is in directing him to
want to learn more truths and to be able to recognize them. He is truly
amazing!!

 I love it here in the Liberty 2nd Ward! We are trying everyday to find more
and more people to teach, but right now I feel so blessed for the
opportunity I do have to teach people. I am learning so much from Sister
McDonnell and she is a powerhouse teacher. She teaches with the Spirit like
the Book of Mormon prophets! She is awesome! I'm grateful to be out hear
and I miss you all so much. I'm glad everything is going good back home!

I love you and can't wait to hear from you next week! 

Love, 

Sister Luening