YAYAYAYAYAYAYA!!! We finally have a legit on-date. We were walking through a trailer park down in Dryden last Thursday just checking on some potentials (we'd already knocked the whole park) and a big young guy walked out of the druggy trailer and we started to talk to him. His name is David, he's 19 and when he was in foster care in Oregon he lived with an LDS family that took him to church every week. We invited him on a Church Tour for Saturday and when we went he basically asked us if he could get baptized! It was so awesome! So he is on-date for September 29th and he even came to church yesterday! It was so exciting. The whole ward was super great at fellowshipping him and so we basically didn't have to do anything and he already had someone to sit by, got invited over to Dinner yesterday and FHE tonight and the ward party on Saturday. I love when that happens.

Church was awesome yesterday. We had David and Chris at church with the whole recent convert Emmons family, a less-active single mom and our less-active Spanish couple. We were super busy running around trying to make sure everyone had someone to sit by and was being helped. It was awesome! I love Sundays like that. The rest of the week was spent tracting basically. We're working really hard on finding right now so hopefully some things come up soon. Chris should be going to New Mexico soon for his big fight. We might try teaching him again soon, but we'll see how it goes.

So we got transfer calls last night. Guess what?! I'm staying in Leavenworth! Haha I have been in Wenatchee zone forever! I now get to see Leavenworth in the fall and the leaves are already starting to change. It's so pretty! That means I get to see the Monitor building open house! Yay! and next week is Ward Conference so we get to hear from the awesome President Hunsaker! I'm so excited. Sister Donaldson is going senior companion to Othello with Sister Collins. Sister Ziegler is coming to Leavenworth with me. Hah! How funny is that! We were in the MTC together. All of Wenatchee got switched up and now there are two completely Spanish areas and all the rest are only English. Sad day :( But I guess it's inspired.

Welp I don't know much more to report. I hope all is well down in Utah! I love you all and I love this work! It's so great!

Keep the faith and love the Lord!

I love you all!

Sister Probst

Haha so I bet you're all thinking that we had an amazing baptism with Chris and that he's the newest member of the Leavenworth ward. Nope. Unfortunately we're not teaching him or anybody for that matter anymore. It's really sad, but none of them are ready yet :( The baptism was actually a baptism that we took Chris to. It was for a lady named Theresa in a different ward. There weren't really any sisters to help her out and she was older so it was actually a really good thing that we were there. We got to help her in the dressing room and explain was she was going to do. The best part was we also got to help her out of the font and as soon as she got out of the water she said "I feel like I was floating. I still feel like I am floating. This is the best feeling I've ever had! I feel so good!" As she came up the stairs she was starting to weep she was so happy. Sis. D. and I both started to cry as we helped her into the next room. We were so happy for her. I realized that this is what it feels like! This is what it feels like to have someone accept the gospel and understand what they're doing! I've never felt that way before and it was so amazing! I really enjoy living vicariously through other missionaries baptisms :) Hopefully I'll be able to do that for myself someday.

We've spent a ton of time tracting this week. I think my feet are in a permanent state of soreness. I almost wish there was a video recording of me and Sis D. when we wake up in the morning and start walking around. We both hobble around and laugh at each other. A fun adventure we had though was that we found a bear! It was just walking along the side of the road minding its own business. I think I'll take bears over mice any day at least you can tell when they're crawling around your feet.

I also had the awesome experience of being able to talk to the Bishop from my old ward. We had a less-active we were working with that he had worked a lot with so we were asking him how we could help her best. It was so cool because he had remembered exactly how long I had been in Wenatchee and knew how long I had been in Leavenworth for. Then he said he had it all planned out so that we could sweep back into E. Wenatchee and I could end my mission there. I wish! That would be so cool. It was mostly a nice experience to realize that even though we may not have had any baptisms in his ward that somehow we made a difference and they remembered us. Cool experience. And there are several baptisms that are going to happen there. Yay!

The amazing recent convert family that just moved in is still amazing! Every visit they just amaze us with how prepared they were to hear the Gospel. That's what it's supposed to be like. The ward is really doing a great job of fellowshipping them. Also we got a new Elders Quorum President and Relief Society President. We introduced Focus 5 to them and they're super excited about it! I'm so excited for the ward to latch on to it because it truly is a divinely inspired program. It works miracles.

Fun scripture we found this week Proverbs 15:10. We have it written on sticky notes all over. Next week is transfers and we know that one of us is going to leave, most likely Sis. D. because all the other senior companions just changed up and so nobody has been in their areas very long except for the junior companions. They've been slowly shutting down sisters areas lately and it's kind of scary. We haven't got any new sisters in for 4 transfers! President Palmer spent 3 years tripling the sister effort here and now it's being downsized. Sad day :( We really want to make this the best week we can and so Proverbs 15:10 has become our motto. It's going to be a great week. We're going to find those that are truly seeking!

I love you all! This church is so true and Christ loves every single one of us. We're never alone because of that!

Love
Sister Probst

Can I just say that I love the temple! It was the most amazing experience ever! It has been so long since I last got to go and it was a super early morning with tons of driving, but it was so worth it. That is the reason why we're even here on missions. To help people learn what eternal life is and that our whole purpose is to have joy and the only way to have complete joy is through Jesus Christ. I'm on such a spiritual high right now it's awesome! It filled my tank and now I'm ready to go :)

Okay so not much time to write, tons of things to write about. So last week we had to "temporarily discontinue teaching" most of our investigators. It was really hard, but they weren't really progressing and so we felt it would help them the best. After every single one we found an awesome potential that is so ready to learn. We haven't been able to teach any of them yet, but we know the Lord is blessing us for our faith. We're also "temporarily discontinuing teaching" Chris. That was such a hard decision to make, but he really knows everything he just has to choose to live it or not. We still see him everywhere and he's still coming to church and we'll probably try again in a week or so, but he needs some time to decide some things.

We had an amazing referral text from mormon.org. There's a family that has lived here in Peshastin for many years. Dad lost his job and went to North Dakota to work in January. His family joined him at the beginning of the summer and he said he wanted to be baptized. They all took the lessons and were baptized last weekend. Then mom and the kids moved back to Leavenworth for school. They're awesome! We're so excited for them and they were so prepared! they're going to the temple this weekend to do baptisms. Miracles!

Less active work has been going awesome! Larry Stoltz the cowboy guy that I had an amazing experience with called us up and wanted to feed us dinner. So we brought another less-active sister and had an awesome lesson with him. He even said he thinks he'll come to church soon. That's huge progress from where he was at before. Another Less Active named Brian actually called us asking for help finding a new home and after he gets it he will invite us up and we can teach about God all we want. We're so excited, we've been working hard with these two and they're finally making progress!

Crazy stories: I HATE MICE!!! I'm sure there is some purpose to having them here on the earth, but I really don't understand what their purpose is in our living quarters. We chased one around the kitchen the other day and found a rotting one in our basement (we followed our noses eww). Our apartment inspection missionaries actually came by 2 days later and gave us some suggestions to get rid of them. Hopefully they'll work. Then we'll just have to conquer the massive spiders. They're winning the battles lately, but we'll win the war (if I can get Sis. Donaldson to stop screaming every time she sees one ;). Story 2: I recently got a rubber chicken in a package. Yes, I love it. I have since started hiding it around the basement for Sis. Donaldson. I hid it in her bag Saturday night thinking she would find it in the morning. Well she definitely found it in the morning, but a little later than I had hoped. We had just finished ward council and she opened her bag. Oops. Luckily the Bishopric has a good sense of humor so when she chucked it at me they just laughed. Then I had little kids coming up to me all day asking to see the chicken in my bag. Good times :)

Sorry not super spiritual, but now time to write. I love you all! The Church is so true!

Love
Sister Probst

Hello all. Before I forget I will not be emailing on Monday next week, but on Tuesday. We get to go to the Temple!!!! I'm so excited! I haven't been since January. It's a 4 hour drive to get there, but it will be well worth it. We're so spoiled to have a temple in our mission and actually be able to go to it.

So this week was good. We made some realizations about our investigators. Most of them are not really progressing. Some are doing their reading assignments, but nothing else. They're making little changes in their lives, but not true repentance. So we'll probably be giving them some time to ponder for themselves. It could be a rough week.

We had a zone conference on Friday and it was in Wenatchee. Yay! My favorite part was listening to our stake president. He's so missionary minded and is really an amazing leader. I have learned so much from him and am so grateful to be able to serve with him. He talked to us about how one of his favorite parts of his job is setting apart and releasing missionaries. He said he has yet to release a missionary that did not weep when they took off their badge. He said that this is the only time we'll be able to be here doing this. Our jobs are so precious and our time so short, we need to cherish every moment. It made all of us tear up a little at even the thought of having to put down our badges. I don't think a single person in the room of 50 missionaries does not love their mission. It definitely gave us greater drive to find the elect because they are out there. We have to make the most of every single moment. We're on the Lord's time.

We had exchanges with the Moses Lake sisters. I stayed in Leavenworth and got to serve with a visa waiter to Argentina, Sister Cahoon. It's always so fun to serve with the younger missionaries and just see their excitement and nervousness. She was so genuine and natural it was like she had been out here forever.

Chris is doing great. I feel like every day he has some new realization of something that can help him get closer to baptism. We had fasted with him last Sunday and we were teaching him Tuesday and he said that after the fast he felt the most overwhelming peaceful feeling he has ever felt. We were jumping with joy (inside of course) and told him that this was his answer! This was God answering his question of should I be baptized. He said he recognized that and that he also wants to be a part of the church. Apparently his major set back is he knows he'll be making a promise with the Lord and he does not want to mess up after he has done that. He feels like he has yet be able to control one of his passions perfectly. We shared with him about the Atonement and how all of us are sinners and that's why we have the sacrament so we can repent. He's so close! He knows it's true and he is now texting us Book of Mormon scriptures that talk about faith and how it always precedes the miracles. We keep expecting that any day he will call us saying he wants to be baptized. So close!

Another miracle was that one of our less-actives that we've been trying to work with lost our number, called the bishopric and said he hoped we hadn't been transferred yet because he wants to meet with us and he wants to do it with all the rules attached. We were literally bouncing up and down. He's the one that I had the amazing experience with and could feel Heavenly Father's love for him so strongly. He's going to come back to church I just know it!

This gospel is truly the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love it with my whole soul! I don't feel like my mortal body can even contain all the joy I have!

I love you all so much! Love the Lord!

Love
Sister Probst

I had a silly realization this week. I love snow! It just makes everything feel so much more like Christmas. It has finally snowed. There's only a few inches, but I'm hoping for more.

 

We had an amazing week full of miracles! We were able to teach so much and invite so many people to baptism. Nobody has yet to accept, but they will. We even had 5 people in church and 4 less active families! That's a miracle! I had to speak yesterday in one of the sacrament meeting on the Restoration. It was fun. Next week I get to speak on the Atonement. Man that will be fun!.

 

I had my first exchange and it was slightly exhausting. It's like I'm the designated counselor that everyone wants to tell all their problems. That's why I love the scriptures and the words of the prophets. They have all the answers. We're getting ready for Christmas and are so excited. We get to go carolling Christmas eve with the other missionaries and skype home on Christmas. Sweet!

 

Spiritual Experience: So I've had a lot of people asking me what I'll be doing after my mission. When I talk about possibly grad school they all say I have to apply. I wasn't going to because it would be super difficult from the mission field. Then one morning I was listening to a conference talk and I got the overwhelming feeling that I needed to apply to grad school. So I called up President Mullen and he said that absolutely I needed to. So I have permission to send emails to who I need and to get online. But I only have 90 minutes on Mondays to do that and to email home so my emails may be a little short for a while. Sorry :(

 

I love you all! The Gospel is so true check out mormon.org/christmas it's so cool!

 

Love

Sister Probst

Do you think I'm excited? BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It actually happened! Oh me of little faith! My second baptism and to another 13-year old! Woohoo! I've decided that if they came too frequently I wouldn't fully appreciate every moment so God keeps me humble by only letting me be a part of one every so often. It's working. Everything worked out just perfectly and she was so excited. The spirit was so strong! She does not have a lot of support from her family, but some of them were there so that was huge. She's going to be a light for everyone else.

 

This last week was absolutely phenomenal! It was so great. We saw so many miracles and were able to find so many new investigators and called so many to repentance. That's like my favorite new word now "Repent!" This area is just waiting for us to come in and teach. It's so fun. We just have to prepare ourselves to make sure we're ready to receive all the blessings. So I had to go to a training in Spokane to learn about my new responsibilities. It was so fun! There was only one other sister there from the Spanish side and she is awesome! She filled me in on all that is happening on that side of the mission, it made me slightly homesick for it, but that's okay. Basically I get to do trainings with all the other sisters. Fun stuff. English side is so different.

 

A YSA sister who is preparing for her mission stayed with Sis. Tekanene while I was gone and then wanted to spend the rest of the day with us. She was awesome! It was so much fun. These new 19-year old sisters are going to do amazing! I'm so excited for what's going to happen with them filling the earth. We found out that our mission is going to have 150 Elders and 100 Sister! That's huge! They're going to have to have Sister zone leaders and other positions. It's so exciting.

 

We're getting all geared up for Christmas and practicing our caroling. I hope it works :) I've never seen so many Christmas lights in my life! It's like a major competition or something, but it looks pretty. Now we just need some snow to make it complete. I hope we have a white Christmas, last Christmas was so weird without it. If nothing else we'll definitely have a wet one because it never seems to stop raining.

 

I love this work! It's so amazing! I love seeing it change others' lives and to be able to see it change my life even more. I love repentance. All it is is change. It's so amazing and we have so many blessings!

 

I love you all so much!

 

Love Sister Probst

Transfers! So it was rather interesting. I put Leavenworth in the subject line because my beloved area has been closed! That's it! No missionaries at all! I thought that I would probably go back Spanish side because they didn't have enough sisters but instead they shut down Leavenworth to any missionaries and so now we have less sisters areas. So sad :( But what happened with me was rather interesting. Sis. Tekanene and I will stay the same and I am now Travelling Sister. That means I travel to 5 or 6 other sister areas every week and do exchanges with them. The idea is to teach and see what the areas are like and the companionships and report back to president. Rather interesting because I just got here, don't know any areas or sisters. This also means that I will probably be staying in Post Falls for a little while because the Travelling Sister ususally stays for a while, but who knows. I guess I"m going to learn a lot.

 

Thanksgiving was good. We got to eat with members and "hang out" which was kind of weird. We were allowed to proselyte and so we just visited members. We're definitely not used to just hanging out. We also discovered every hill in our area several times that night. Not too exciting on a bike and a full stomach.

 

We discovered a lighted Christmas tree in our apartment! I was so excited! For some reason I am ridiculously excited about anything Christmas so decorations and lights are awesome! Our apartment is actually quite nice. Missionaries have had it for years and luckily the sisters cleaned it out after the Elders had it so we find interesting things all the time. I also discovered trees in Post Falls! I was so excited. Part of our area is in some hills that have huge pine trees (everyone here calls them mountains, but they're really not). It made me feel right at home. I'm not used to huge open places with just houses everywhere so some kind of tree life that is not way out in the distance was nice to be in :)

 

Spiritual news: So it rained a lot this week and one night we were tracting in a trailer park and it was particularly wet. We left and went to an appointment right afterwards and discovered that our phone was missing. This was really bad because all our contacts are in that phone and it's kind of irreplaceable that way. We frantically looked everywhere for it and then decided to pray (should have been the first thing we did). We decided to go back to the trailer park and while I shone the headlights (we had the car this night) Sis. Tekanene would walk down the road and look for the phone. Miracle! She found it in a mud puddle and it was blinking! It still worked! That was a huge answer to prayers! It definitely reminded us that we need to humble ourselves and seek for the Lord early.

 

Second spiritual story: We were teaching Sam our 13 year old on-date for baptism this Saturday! We had a ton we had to teach her so we were going to cover obedience, prophets, Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and obey and honor the law all in one shot. Her house is not the best teaching environment because there's a whole bunch of people walking in and out drinking smoking and who knows what else, but her grandma won't let us teach her anywhere else. So we commenced to teach and were a little aprehensive of how the bystanders might react. Much to our astonishment and joy they actually started to stand around the table and listen. As we shared testimony of how we are all divine in nature because we are children of God and that's why we have these commandments the spirit filled the room. Beers were put down, cigarettes extinguished, immodest clothing covered up with tee-shirts, and foul language ceased. Everyone was listening and the spirit was testifying. The power of God really overcame all wickedness in that room. I know that hearts were touched and truth was felt. I don't know what the longer effects will be of that lesson, but I know it changed my life. Seeing people in sin being drawn to the truth and light of the Gospel was incredible. Right in front of us they started to repent and change their actions. I know that the power of God is real! I know that the study of this Gospel truly changes behavior more quickly than the study of behavior changes behavior. With the Lord all things are possible. I love repentance!

 

I love you all! Thank you so much for all your love and support! Don't forget to repent and let the Lord into your live more!

 

Love

Sister Probst