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

Hello! Can I just say I am super excited to spend Thanksgiving out in the field. Not that the MTC dinner wasn't great and all, it just is nice to be with families. We are not allowed to Proselyte so we'll be with members all day. It should be fun :)

 

Transfer calls are on Sunday so we'll see what happens. My address is 1806 N. Spokane St. # D11, Post Falls, Idaho 83854 but I wouldn't send anything there unless it is sent today or tomorrow because it might not get here before tranfers.

 

I don't even know what to say about this week. Every day felt like a week and was so different from the day before. The beginning of the week was crazy hard and we spent a ton of time doing comp inventory, but by the end after many phone calls and a visit to Spokane I think the week ended fairly well. We taught our 4 on-dates and now we only have 1 on-date. It's so hard because all of them want to get baptized, but one is not accountable, 2 just want to get wet and have no idea what commitment means and the last is 13-year old awesomeness. But with faith and a ton of work I know it will all work out.

 

I've decided that I definitely have taken cars for granted. Riding a bike in the rain in a skirt is just a little different than riding in a car. But I figure every missionary at least has to ride a bike for a little while to be a true missionary right? Speaking of being a missionary the missionary forces are surging! It's so exciting! Everyone we talk to has someone submitting their papers or we hear about miracles every day of new missionaries coming out. It's so exciting. This truly is the Lord's work.

 

Funny Stories: So yesterday I was supposed to give a talk in one of the wards. It was on the restoration and I wasn't too nervous because we teach that every day and I've had to give a bunch of talks as a missionary. Unfortunatly the brother speaking with me was pretty nervous because he's from Brazil and his english isn't super great. A member of the stake presidency was there to make a change in the bishopric and decided to change the whole program as well and started inviting members by name from the congregation up to come and share their testimony. Then he turned around and told us speakers to go back to our seats we wouldn't be speaking that day. It was awesome! I thought the Brazillian guy was going to jump for joy. It was pretty fun. Then he talked about how we all need to step it up and do better because the Lord wants more from His members. It was awesome!

 

Second funny Story: So a veces hay una problema con la communicacion con mi compenera. Basically sometimes my companion doesn't really understand what is going on all the times because she's still learning English and I definitely do not speak Kettipus (I think thats how you spell it). She was being nice and wanted to make a sack lunch for both of us. She asked what I wanted and I said a bagel with cream cheese (I should have just said whatever she wanted to make because she was being so nice). We were sitting in the car about to eat and I bite into a bagel and cheese curds start falling out. I ask what in the world is this! She said a bagel with sour cheese! Luckily it was just cottage cheese! I died laughing! She didn't know what I meant when I said cream cheese so she just put some kind of cheese on there. I'm learning to speak more clearly and more specifically :)

 

Spiritual moment: We were at a less-actives who was having some major health problems. She had taken in a homeless couple and it didn't end so well for her (she has the biggest heart in the world). We invited her hometeacher over to give her a blessing. It may have been the greatest example of hometeaching I have ever seen. He had been her hometeacher for years and obviously knew her and loved her. The way he spoke to her was like a beloved grandson talking to his favorite relative in the world. As he put his hands on her head the whole room was just filled with the spirit. As he pronounced a blessing on her I knew that I was witnessing the power of God in action. The priesthood was in that room and I knew it truly was from God. I knew that this man was a worthy priesthood holder and that he was acting for God in that moment. It was so powerful to know that the power of God was there and that it is still on the earth today. After he left the sister shared how she always loved priesthood blessings because she felt like God had his hands on her head and was filling up her whole body with His love. I told her it was because He was. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth today! I know that Heavenly Father's priesthood power is on the earth! I know that we have a living prophet who is the servant of the Lord! I know it! I love it! I live it!

 

I love you all! Thank you so much for being a part of my life. Count your many blessing. The prophet of God admonished us to do so the last time he taught us. Let us do it.

 

Love

Sister Probst

 

P.S. KJ WRITE ME!!!!

So the fire and smoke persists. More fires keep breaking out everywhere and the ones that are going are just growing and growing. The schools in Cashmere are still shut down. Pres. Hunsaker has limited the hours we can be outside and we have to wear masks all the time. Everyone is leaving. Our ward is about 1/3 of it's regular size. Everyone is sick. It's so hard to breathe and do anything. It's been over 2 weeks now of just fire and smoke. Several more canyons have been evacuated. We're praying for rain like crazy. We went to a zone conference in Moses Lake and there was even smoke out there. We're hoping it will let up soon, but they're saying that they may not be able to get them under control and so we'll have to wait for rain or snow. I sure hope not.

The Elders gave David back to us because it was to hard to keep in communication with him while he was so far away. Yay! He's so awesome and wants to be baptized so bad. It's so exciting! Chris is leaving this week to fight in New Mexico and then for a few fights in Canada and then possibly down to Brazil :(  He will be gone for at least a month and possibly 4. He said he would go to church wherever he goes so hopefully he'll be able to. It's so hard to see him go especially when he's so close. He's our best member (non-member) missionary. After his trip downtown inviting everyone he met to come to church we gave him a huge stack of mormon.org cards to hand out. After 3 days he asked for more. He said that he has met a ton of people that we've already talked to and he just challenged them to learn for themselves and not just believe other people. He actually got some people to listen to him! I wonder if we start working out and try to bulk up more if people will listen to us like that :)

At the Zone conference we had Elder Foster of the 70 come to do a mission tour. It was so awesome! He talked about working with members and how member work and missionary work are supposed to be the same. He asked us to imagine what our last prayer as a missionary would sound like. What would we tell God? It was so motivating and really made us want to be better. He taught about the universe and how tiny we really are in the grand scheme of things, but how God still knows who we are. It was so awesome to hear. Awesome, awesome experience. Elder Foster really made me think about how I have been serving my mission and how I could do better. I feel like I have been giving my all and have no regrets thus far. However, I also know there are so many ways to improve. We decided that on Sunday we would fast to discover anything we may be doing or thinking that is keeping us from completely focusing everything on the work. It was an incredible experience. There weren't too many things that I thought of, but I could feel the spirit so much more strongly. I felt like I was overwhelmed by the spirit most of the day and could feel the Savior's love so strongly. I felt so much love for every member and I felt truly devastated for the members that weren't there. We had a lesson with Chris in the afternoon and we taught about the Savior. It was hard to contain the feelings I had of just intense love for the Savior. I could feel so strongly the love He has for Chris and for all of us. As I invited to Chris to be baptized, again, I knew he knew it was true and I knew he wanted it so bad. He said yes! He has a few things he wants to work out, but he says he wants to be baptized! I know the Holy Ghost was there. I know that that God hears our prayers and answers them. I know that He loves us even more than we can comprehend. I am so grateful to be a part of this great work. I feel so unworthy to be able to bear His name, but I know that he knows who I am. I have been so incredibly blessed.

Thank you so much for everything! I love you all and can truly feel your prayers! Please pray that the fires will go out soon so we can breathe :)

Love
Sister Probst

Hello! So it was so nice to hear from ya'll today :) We went to the temple and it was great. So I had all these things I was super excited to write about, but now I really don't remember because of recent events. I only have a few minutes to write so hopefully I get it all in. We got a call yesterday morning from President Mullen telling us that a sister in Post Falls Idaho had been sent home medical leave and that I was to be with her companion and a sister from Quincy would come up and be in Leavenworth. The transfer is to happen today. So basically I'm going to Post Falls/ Coeur d'Alene Idaho English speaking to be with a sister who is from the islands, has been out longer than me and I am senior companion. Crazy! I'm not even joking this time. So I'm just waiting for my ride to come. It's a good thing we went to the temple this morning for the extra support.

 

I will miss Leavenworth so much! I love it! It's kind of hard to leave right in the middle of a transfer with such short notice, but I definitely know it is of the Lord. Leavenworth is finally picking up. The golden lady that was on-date for baptism keeps missing appointments so we'll see what happens. We found two other couples and they seem awesome so hopefully it will work out for the sisters. We got to help chop wood and stack it for a less-active family and it was so fun. I missed doing that. We had exchanges with Moses sisters and it was so good! It was so fun to speak Spanish and teach again. We had zone conference and it was way fun. We had a scripture chase and I almost won. So close :)

 

So I'm still kind of in shock and don't really know what's going on so hopefully next week I'll remember more.

 

I love you all!

 

Sister Probst

The English speaking Idahonian missionary

So it was a little weird not hearing from anyone in email this week, but hopefully all is well.

So I decided to describe this last week by way of song and I may have changed some of the lyrics and added some: "The Sister Missionaries sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and knocked and walked and walked and knocked and walked and walked and walked and knocked and talked and walked and walked and walked and walked....and walked!"

Yep that was about the extent of our week. Unfortunately it was also combined with a ton of rain...every day. But I decided to make some spiritual comparisons to it. So last Monday we spent a considerable amount of time waterproofing our shoes, coats and everything we could find. The first day out my feet are soaked and my boots are squishing out water. Later that night with a cup of hot cocoa I examine my boots and find holes in the bottom and a separation between the soles and boot. No matter how much waterproof spray I put on, the holes let everything in. Then I switched to the new boots and waterproofed them! Amazingly enough my feet have now been dry for days. This can be compared to repentance. We can try to prepare ourselves for the future and eternal life, but if we have holes in our souls then it doesn't matter how much preparation we have made all the bad stuff will still leak in. When we prepare ourselves to make promises with the Lord and for Eternal Life if we haven't fully repented we cannot enjoy the full warmth of the Gospel and Eternal Life. I love dry boots.

Sister Ziegler and I had our year mark this past week! Crazy! We've already been out a year! To celebrate we . . . (drum role please) . . . walked and knocked! I knew you would guess it. It's scary to think we only have a short amount of time left before we go back to normal life. I love my mission. I also received amazing news (long-awaited for might I add) from Alexis the now married one! Yay so good to hear from an old friend. Alexi is going to Singapore?! That's so awesome! I have a referral for her. What's going on with Kage?

I started reading in Moses this last week and I really loved it. In the very first chapter Moses describes how he had an amazing visitation by God and how much he learned from it. Afterwards he was so exhausted he couldn't do anything. This is when Satan came to visit him. Satan tried to convince Moses that he was merely a man and was nothing. Moses actually became afraid and cried unto the Lord and was able to get Satan hence. This experience made me think of Joseph Smith and how right before he prayed he was overwhelmed by darkness. It made me realize that around almost every good spiritual experience that happens Satan is also present. He wants to discourage us and weaken us, but he truly has no power if we call upon the Lord. This realization helped me to put into better perspective my mission and my time here in Leavenworth.  Learning of Moses and focusing on the more Eternal perspective made me realize how truly short this time as a missionary is. We have hardly no time to do a great work that will have eternal consequences. Even though I may not see the immediate consequences of my mission I know that someday there will be fruit and it will be eternal. I am so grateful to be able to serve my Lord. I know He knows us and loves us.

In other news this also relates to my work with Bro. Stoltz the cowboy less-active. I have worked for 6 months now to try and get him to church and he has yet to do so. We went and did service for him this last week in taking down a horse shed in the muddy remains of the horses digested supper. Yes it was lovely, but I did get to use power tools which was a blast! I miss using those. Apparently our work that day really helped Bro. Stoltz to feel a greater desire to come back to church and be with the members! Yay! Service really does change hearts!

I received my absentee ballot so I now will be able to vote. Thanks! and I may not be emailing on Monday next week,but probably Tuesday because hopefully we're going to the temple.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all you do! Go forth and serve!

Love
Sister Probst

So guess what?! We had transfer calls last night and the unthinkable happened! I'm going to the Washington Leavenworth Mission German speaking with Sis. Ziegler. Hahahaha! That's what I feel like sometimes. I think I've learned more about the German language and culture since coming here than I have about Spanish. I can't help but laugh because that will be 5 transfers which is 7 1/2 months in the same spot. Oh well obviously there's a reason. Luckily there are more sisters that will be coming in.

So this last week was pretty good. We had a huge miracle happen in that it rained! and rained! and rained! I sure hope it put out all the fires. The smoke in Leavenworth is now gone, but I don't know about Wenatchee. Hopefully. And fall has finally come. It is amazing! All the orchards are starting to turn colors and so the sea of green is changing to a sea of orange, red, and yellow. It's really incredible


We had an amazing lesson with Annette again. She is so prepared. We didn't get to see her for a week because I got sick for a day so we had to reschedule and it was a bummer, but when we saw her it was so great. She had read and she wanted to know if we ever felt like there was something missing in our lives or if there was emptiness at all. We said no we feel full to overflowing! It was so great. She was so excited and we taught her about the Atonement and she said "I definitely need to be baptized." The whole lesson was just amazing. I have never had such a teaching experience to anyone so prepared.

We're still searching for more investigators, but that's a constant process. Oktoberfest will be over after this weekend so we'll finally be able to go downtown again. It's insane how crazy it gets.

Life is amazing and being a missionary is the best! I love this work with all my heart. I feel like I learn so much every day and the more I learn the more I realize I don't have enough time to learn everything! Reading the Book of Mormon is like a wealth of constant knowledge. It really does answer every question.

I love you all and pray for you daily!

Keep the faith and go brighten someone else's day :)

Love
Sister Probst

Sister Probst's new definition for Drunk Driving: (verb) strategically maneuvering a vehicle to avoid coming in contact with the bodies of intoxicated persons during Oktoberfest in Leavenworth. Verdad! To say the least we are very glad Oktoberfest is finally over! We weren't allowed to go down town while it was going on, but there was no way to get out of town except down the main road and so it really became slow, strategic maneuvering to avoid all the people randomly falling into the road. It reminded me of so many scriptures. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. I feel like on a daily basis we are reminded of how the natural man truly is an enemy to God, unless he yields to the enticings of the spirit. I have seen people yield to the spirit and be able to witness the happiness it gives them and I have also seen the opposite happen. There truly is no joy in sin.

On the flip side the weather is beautiful! It's starting to rain and so there is snow in the tops of the hills. I have a feeling it won't be too long until we are hiking in it. I love the beauty of it all, but the idea of actually working in it is a little daunting. It just makes me appreciate all the nice days even more. The harvest is now coming to a close so hopefully we'll be able to teach in Spanish again. I'm so rusty I don't even know if I'll be able to say anything. Oh well, I'll just talk to them in German :)

Miracle! We were  coming home from District Meeting and had just received a message from our investigator Annette that she would not be able to make the appointment that day due to errands. We were rather disappointed because we had had difficulty in meeting with her recently and needed to see her to keep her on-date. We were starting to head to our back-ups and Sister Ziegler said that she felt very strongly that we needed to go see Annette. I asked her more about her feeling trying to understand how strongly she felt because we didn't have the miles to go all the way out and see her and then try our back-ups if she wasn't there. She said she didn't know why but that we really needed to go see Annette right then. So we did. When we pulled up, still being the Doubting Thomas that I am, I asked what the plan was. She said she didn't know, but that we could teach the Plan of Salvation as originally planned or just leave a note saying we missed her. We went and knocked on the door and she answered! My first thought was one of frustration because she told us she wouldn't be there. But then I realized we really were there for a reason. As she let us in she started to share how she almost had told us not to come back because she had a concern and was embarrassed to bring it up. We were able to talk to her for a while and address and resolve her concern. By the time we left she said she was very glad we had come by and was willing to set another appointment with us. I know the spirit was prompting us to go to her house at that time. I don't always understand why we're told to do what we are, but I know that when the Spirit speaks we should listen.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your love and support!

Love
Sister Probst

ELI!!! GOOOOO!!!! Don't put it off! Come join the ranks! Being a missionary is the best ever!!! I was so excited when I heard they changed the ages. It's so great! If I hadn't have been in the chapel I would have been jumping for joy! Conference was so amazing! Submit your papers as soon as you can so you can go!

This last week was absolutely amazing! It definitely reminded me of Ether 12:6 "you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." The week before last was probably one of the hardest I've had. It was definitely heart-wrenching for a number of different reasons. It was the trial before the witness. But then this last week was absolutely amazing! We had interviews and an additional training down in Wenatchee. President Mullen taught about General Conference and invited us to come up with 5 personal questions to be answered through General Conference. They were answered! It was easily one of the greatest spiritual experiences I've been able to have. I wrote my 5 questions and within the first session almost every single one was answered. In the second session a 6th question that I was too scared to write was also answered. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. He knows the intents of our hearts and knows our inner most desires. I learned so much at conference. All the talks were so bold and so loving. We HAVE to be converted. There is no other way!

Another amazing miracle happened Thursday night. We were trying this lady named Annette. Sister Donaldson and I contacted her on the street several months ago and had been trying her back ever since. She finally let us in because she was so impressed that we would keep trying back. She started asking all these questions about the church and we taught the restoration. She said that this is exactly what she had been praying for. She felt like we had been sent to show her the way. We invited her to be baptized on November 3 and she said yes! It was such a miracle! She was so excited to read the Book of Mormon. Ah!! I'm so excited for her!

There were just so many amazing experiences this week I couldn't possibly write them all!

I love you all! This Gospel is so true!

Love
Sister Probst

P.S. I need an absentee ballott soon please :)

September 17 2012

Yep the fires are still burning. It's horrible. We're completely surrounded by fires and they just keep burning. The smoke is so thick we can't even see the mountains. We're all safe so far, but there have been a ton of evacuations. Apparently the mission office tried to email mom and dad about it, but the email address was wrong? We've been limited to  how much time we're allowed to be outside. It feels like a battleground because there are helicopters flying overhead constantly and any field that doesn't have trees in it is being used as a fire base. The national guard came in later last week and so there are huge trucks driving around and tons of official looking people. Signs are constantly posted telling us of the latest evacuations. School and all outside activities have been canceled. It kind of feels like a ghost town at times. Sometimes a breeze will come through and blow away some of the smoke so we can actually see the blue sky and people will come out for a time, but that's it. The sun is a constant glowing red ball and so everything has a red-orangish tinge to it. It's kind of eery. It got a little better on Saturday and we could actually see most of the valley, but then another fire started somewhere and everything was covered in black smoke again.

Unfortunately all the being indoors has really limited our teaching and finding time. We're in a huge finding stage right now and we can't tract for more than 20 minutes without getting a head-ache. So the week was a little rough. We moved out of our house and into the Bishop's old house down in Dryden. No more mice! I'm so excited! The house is adorable and we have it all to ourselves. it's in the middle of an orchard and so we have more fruit than we know what to do with. Mom - the house was built in the 1920s and has a ton of antique furniture in it, you'd love it! I think the best thing is that the Spirit is there. It feels so good.

We have started teaching Chris again and he's basically our only investigator. However, he is also our best missionary. He has invited several friends to church, he walks up and down Main and talks to everyone he meets and invites all of them to church, he mailed a Book of Mormon to a struggling friend and has been handing out mormon.org cards and pamphlets. Now all he has to do is get baptized. We had to pass David off to the Young Single Adult Elders, but he's still on-date for September 29 so we're excited for him. We have 2 other awesome potentials that we're trying to teach, but haven't been able to yet.

We had the Monitor building open house and dedication and it was so awesome! I watched the thing built from start to finish and it was so exciting to be there.  I got to see some of my old E. Wenatchee peeps and it was so good to see them. We got to spend a bit of time talking to President Hunsaker about the ward and Chris and he was very encouraging. He's so fired up about missionary work it's awesome! Good things are going to happen in Wenatchee. We're going to get a senior couple that is completely devoted to the Spanish work and they should be here soon. We had a training last week on invitations to baptism. Our commitment was to invite one person a day to baptism. Unfortunately we didn't get any, but the area next to ours exploded! They found several families and they're all on-date! It's so exciting!

One of the neatest experiences I had was at the Dedication. The stake presidency had asked us to sit basically front and center with Chris and we were singing The Spirit of God. All I could think about was how this great work is truly filling the earth. It is rolling forth and picking up speed. I thought of when that song was sung at the Kirtland Temple and how long ago that was and the amazing growth that has happened since. It is growing so fast because it is true! Feeling the power of all those people and the spirit burning within that room was overwhelming. That's why we're here! That's what we're doing. It was purity and power all in the same. We have that! Chris felt it and I know it. He loves it! he came from such darkness and now he is drawn to the light just like the rest of the world. I love this Gospel so much. The Church is true. There is nothing more that needs to be said. It is truth and everyone wants the truth. Live it. Love it. Share it.

I love you all so much!

Sister Probst

ps Sister Haws is engaged!

September 10 2012

Can I just say that I loved the emails! I wish I could have gone up to Heber for the farewells and homecoming talks they sound like they were amazing! I'm so excited for Hans and Caleb. Serving a mission is the best thing ever!

So Fire. Wenatchee is on fire! It's so sad, but the whole mountainside is black and the sky is full of smoke. In Leavenworth we can even see the flames the fires are so big. Saturday night we were out tracting and there was a big lightning storm and it caused a ton of fires. I hate to see my Wenatchee burn :( Mice. Yes they are back and are in force. They seem to be trap savvy and we have no idea how to catch them. They're getting into everything! Our bedroom is the only place untouched. We safe-guard it. We hopefully will be moving soon.

Funny/not-so-funny (but you'll probably laugh) story: Last p-day I was all excited to get my hairs trimmed. I just wanted the lady to trim up my bangs a little because they were driving me nuts. Well she may have taken a little more than a little off and then attempted to fix it by chopping one side way shorter than the other. When we left and Sis. Donaldson saw she didn't even laugh it was so bad. She taught me how to pin them up so they're not so noticeable. Luckily there's a lady in our ward that cuts hair (wish we knew that before-hand) and she evened them all up so that now all of my bangs are really short, but at least they're even. I now will have permantly pinned up hair for the next month or two. Yay. I look like those people from the 80s who have the super short hair in front and short in back. But enough with my own vainess and now to the spiritual.

We had exchanges with Moses Lake and Sis. Sanchez came up here. We had an awesome exchange. We saw a less-active named Misti and almost committed her to come to church. She actually finally felt the spirit! So great. Then we had an interesting lesson with a less-active named Jack. We were teaching him the Gospel and all he could tell us was that he hasn't had to repent for years because he hasn't done anything wrong. We tried to teach him that we all have to repent every day. We all do things wrong and need our Lord's forgiveness daily. He didn't like that idea too much. It made me realize how often we as members may just feel complacent and comfortable with where we are and maybe feel like we don't need to change much. I know I've felt that way before. I found a scripture that really exemplifies this 2 Nephi 28: 24. I learned that no matter who we are we can always change and we have to. On Sunday we had Ward Conference and the amazing President Hunsaker expounded this idea to our ward. He explained that all too often he has a member in his office with a serious problem and they ask him what to do. Before he even addresses their problem he starts with the simple small questions. Are you reading your scriptures daily personally and with your family? Are you praying morning and night? Do you attend every meeting you're supposed to on Sunday? Do you attend the temple regularly? Almost every single one of these is answered with a no. It really is that simple. Sometimes we feel like we have enormous problems that cannot be solved, but if we're doing the small, simple, daily acts then they can be avoided. It's all those little things that truly matter.

He also expounded to the ward about missionary work! Yay!!!! He told them that because of a shortage of missionaries in our mission they had been pulled out of certain areas in Wenatchee. He said that they were super lucky to have missionaries and that they better use us or else we would be pulled out. He then told them that they had to talk about the church with everyone because we can't do it alone no matter how hard we work. It was so awesome! We had a whole bunch of members come up to us afterwards and ask what they could do to help. It was so great. He also talked about how now is the perfect time to bring up the Gospel. Everyone is asking about it. All we have to do is open our mouths. It's so exciting. President Hunsaker also interviewed Chris for like an hour and almost got him on-date. So great. I had to translate for Sacrament meeting and it was crazy! Everyone wanted to talk about sailing! Who does that?!

So our one on-date, David, we have to give to the young single adult Elders. It's best for him, but it is so hard to give up someone that you have grown to love and want to walk with to the end. He'll do well with the Elders though.

I love you all so much. I love this Gospel more than anything I can imagine. The more I learn about the Savior the more I learn to love. Everything we do truly has to be centered on Jesus Christ, if not we will not find true joy. I'm so glad I could have the great blessing of serving. I love it!

Love
Sister Probst

So this week was a good one. We got to teach a lot again! It's so crazy when we get to teach a lot it's awesome! It's almost like that's what I'm supposed to be doing. We got to find a lot of less-actives up in the mountains that we had been looking for. We went up to Lake Wenatchee to find some and it was gorgeous! I love serving in the mountains. So I hit my 9-month mark this last week. Crazy! I'm already half-way. It feels kind of weird to be on the other side of the half. It hasn't been as hot this week which is super nice. We had two investigators come to church yesterday. One was Chris who is a regular and the other we never thought she'd come. When she, Michelle, walked in Sister Donaldson and I both freaked out. It was awesome! We asked what had happened and she said she just figured she might come. We've been trying for months to get her to come and she finally did.

One of our greatest tools to use when we're contacting is the new church building that is going up in Monitor. We're super excited for it because everyone asks about it and wants to see inside. It's going to be dedicated around September 17 and we get to do tours of it for a couple weeks before hand. I really hope I'm still here because they were still working on the basic foundation when I got here in December and now it's almost done and I got to see it all! The Stake Presidency is expecting over 2,000 people to go through. I sure hope so because that would be great!

Things with Chris are going great. Apparently he's pretty famous. The Stake Presidency googled him. Who knew. He's supposed to be baptized this Saturday, but I'm not sure it's going to happen on that date. We saw him quite a bit last week and he finally admitted that he's just really waiting for a solid answer that he needs to be baptized. We tried to help him recognize that a lot of the experiences he's been having are answers, but it all came together last night. We started talking about baptism and what he feels like he needs to receive in order to feel ready. We were reading in Alma 32 about faith and how it is not to have a perfect knowledge, but that we show our faith by acting first. It really seemed to hit him and our fellowshippers shared how they had wanted to know everything before they joined, but then they realized that they had to show God they were ready first by making promises with him. The spirit was so strong and then we just bore testimony about how we knew he would get baptized because we felt it and how we could feel how much Heavenly Father really loves him. The feeling was overwhelming and Chris actually teared up. We invited him to say the prayer and it was the most sincere heartfelt plea for an answer we have heard him give. We were all rather emotional after it. I know he's truly going to search now. Before he was focusing on not-so-important issues, but now he knows what he needs to ask for. It was so exciting. It's really quite a neat experience being able to see a massive, muscle-man fighter that has spent his whole life fighting, hiding his weaknesses and not show too much emotion give in to the promptings of the spirit and recognize that Heavenly Father really loves him. I know Heavenly Father works through us. We are nothing, but He is everything. He loves us all so much! We can't even comprehend His love. I love this work with all my heart. There is nothing like it.

Sometimes I stop and think of all the incredible people I've met. I have literally met people from all walks of life that have done every heinous crime you could think of and yet now you would never know. In their pasts I probably would have been scared to meet some of these people because of how hardened they were, but who they are now I never could have imagined who they used to be. The Atonement of Jesus Christ truly changes people. It transforms, softens, and enlightens. Repentance is not just admitting you did something wrong, rather it is admitting that we are human, we make mistakes, but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can change! That's what it is all about is change. If we're not comfortable with change then we can't truly accept the everlasting sacrifice that our Savior made for every single one of us. If we are not looking for changes we can make in our lives than we are not repenting. I have never learned something so clearly as I have now. Every single one of the people I have been teaching has done some major crime or had some horrible lifestyle, but now I would never know. I know Jesus Christ died for us all. He died so that we can live again. I know that we can all feel it's influence in our lives if we just accept it.

Thank you all so much for everything! I love you all and I love this Gospel! Go forth and do good things! Don't be afraid to change :)

Love
Sister Probst

Lemon Meringue Pie :) Can I just say that I love it! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all! for the birthday wishes. I went to the post office twice to pick up mail this last week and there were so many cards! Thank you! I love them all and hopefully will be able to respond soon. So the story about the pie: hehe it still makes me laugh. So on Friday (my birthday) we had a full day of lessons and then exchanges with Quincy in the evening. So one of the lessons was with Chris our awesome investigator (I'll tell you his story in a sec) so he found out it was my birthday and brought both of us pepper spray, apparently he worries about us, and gave me some sweet earrings and ordered a lemon meringue pie! I was pretty excited. So then we were going to pick it up at about the same time we were meeting the sisters from Quincy so I could go down there. Well we couldn't find Chris anywhere so we decided that I would have to leave and sister Donaldson would have to pick up the pie from him later. When we were pulling out we saw him sitting on a bench with the pie so we turned around. Then that pie went to Quincy, the church, the sisters house, the church and then back to Leavenworth and the church and finally I finished it :) I was a happy camper :) So it was a good birthday. In Quincy every lesson was in Spanish! It was crazy! I haven't spoken that much Spanish probably since the last time I was down there. Sister Driggs who I was with is actually going home today :( So everywhere we went they were saying good-bye to her. It was kind of sad because Sister Haws is also going home today. I got to a learn a lot from Sister Driggs though and got some good advice so that was awesome. She's such a great missionary.

So transfers... Once again I'm not going anywhere. And neither is Sister Donaldson. That means we'll be together for 4 1/2 months! Wow! It should be good though because Leavenworth is starting to explode. We are the only sisters that didn't change so there must be a reason we're still here. Our whole zone changed out too so that means that me and one other elder have been here forever! I love it though. Wenatchee is awesome.

So back to Chris. We've been seeing him almost every day now and last Monday we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom again. We challenged him to try it for just a week and he said he'd have to pray about it. After the lesson we were really struggling to figure out what we could teach him to help him live it so we decided to teach about faith. We had this awesome lesson planned out and were convinced that after it he would commit to live the Word of Wisdom. We showed up to the lesson all fired up and asked him how his prayers were going and he said "Oh I'm already living the word of wisdom." I think our jaws hit the floor. He's like "Yeah I stopped coffee, tea and alcohol, and I never had a problem with drugs or tobacco. That's it right? I figured I may as well start living it while I'm trying to decide if I want to or not." We were so excited! It was awesome! He's truly accepting it into his life! We taught about faith anyway, but it was more of praising his faith. Then we committed him to baptism on August 4 if he still feels the word of wisdom is true and he agreed! It's so awesome! I might actually have to learn how to get everything ready for a baptism though because the one other I've had I was passed out most the time. He has now come to church 5 times and has been inviting friends and waiting for them in foyer just like we do when we're waiting for investigators to come. I love it!

This church is so true! If you don't know for yourself try living it and then you'll know! I love this Gospel so much!
Stay true and I love you all! Thanks for all you do!
Love
Sister Probst

Wow! It has been a super hot week! We're starting to shower at night and in the morning just to cool off. I'm even in the mountains and it has been in the hundreds! I can't imagine what the valleys are getting.

Last week we had several meetings down in Wenatchee. One was interviews with President Mullen. That was different. It's kind of funny to think that he's just like what we were like when we first came out. You definitely learn fast though. So we have transfers this Sunday. Who knows what will happen. My bet is Sister Donaldson is probably leaving. I have to keep my streak of being in non-Spanish speaking areas. When I was in E. Wenatchee I used to think that any other area I went to would have more Spanish because they all did. Little did I know I would sweep an area even further west than I was and have even less Spanish! Funny thing.

Not too much exciting stuff happened this week. I'm trying to remember. Chris came to church again. It's his fourth Sunday! And he comes to all the activities and stays late and even brings refreshments. Who does that?! He hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet, but he says his one hang-up is the Word of Wisdom. Little does he know he really doesn't have a problem with it. He's not really addicted to anything so it's perfect!

We had an awesome lesson with a recent convert named Diego. We invited two non-Spanish speaking men from the ward to come with us just so they could have a missionary experience and fellowship Diego. We were running a little late so we told them to wait for us before they went to his house. They decided not to and we got a call from Diego saying that he was very confused because there were two big white men at his house that rode up on motorcycles and didn't speak Spanish. He asked if they were supposed to be teaching him now and how that was supposed to happen. When we stopped laughing we told him we would be there shortly. The image of what happened after may have been even funnier. His patron or boss was up there slightly confused as to why two white men who didn't speak spanish were coming to talk to Diego and then really confused when two white girls in dresses showed up who did speak Spanish. It was a great missionary experience. Then we all sat down and taught Diego the Law of Chastity. He lives in a shack at the top of a mountain with a long dirt road. We have to teach outside because his friends don't want to turn off the tv. So we sit out on rickety chairs while chickens run all around us. Looking back on it we could have created a very awkward situation for ourselves, but it really turned out well. The spirit was really strong and the two ward members were able to bear powerful testimony. Diego is such a great example for all his friends. I love being a missionary. I would never have imagined myself in such situations before. Pretty fun.

I love this church with all my heart. The Gospel is true. Live it and love it!

I love you all! Happy 50th Mom!!!!

Love
Sister Probst

What! I can't believe there was a fire that close! That's so scary. Those pictures were incredible. I'm so glad they got everything under control though. Did all the evacuations promote summer cleaning as well? jk :)

Well it has definitely been hot up here. We're up in the 100s and they say it's supposed to get hotter. We drink so much water I feel like a fish. Our planning for tracting is now based on areas with the most trees and shade instead of proximity of houses. More people are more willing to let us in to cool down for a little bit and talk to them though so that's good.

This last week was absolutely incredible! Last Monday we had a church tour with two brothers we found on the street who looked a little rough around the edges. It was awesome! They were so excited to learn about God and that He has a plan for them that they both accepted a baptismal date right off. Unfortunately we haven't been able to meet with them since, but they still text us so hopefully we'll be able to keep them on-date for baptism. We got to teach Chris-the fighter- several times and he's awesome! If he doesn't agree with or understand something he asks us to let him study it and then he comes back telling us that he understands what we're saying now and he agrees. He's so great. Whenever we try to get a commitment out of him though he always says "God willing." It drives me crazy! And so we were asking him if he would come to church again and he said "God willing and if I'm not in the hospital from my fight." He picked up a few fights to help get him ready for his big fight in a few months and they're the first ones he's done in 3 years! So he told us to pray that he would win his fights so that he could come to church and not be too injured. I can't believe someone would ever purposely go get hit by someone it just really doesn't make sense to me, but we definitely prayed hard. I can't say I've ever prayer for anything violent before, but I really prayed hard that he would be able to not be injured too bad so he could come to church. The lengths missionaries go to for their investigators ;) Turns out he won both fights and only got a black eye and his body woke up at 6 am and he couldn't go back to sleep so he came to church. The power of prayer :) It turns out that God is definitely willing for him to come to church. That's 3 weeks in a row!

Next awesome story: The Elders had been teaching a lady named Michelle forever before we came in. She hadn't been progressing so they had to "temporarily discontinue teaching." We see her all the time because her daughter, Tera, is a less-active recent-convert. Michelle has definitely become more spiritual and open since we've come and so Saturday we asked her if we could start teaching her again and she said absolutely! Then she told us how far she had already come on her spiritual journey. It's a really twisted story. She used to be a major druggy with her husband Michael. Apparently he was really bad and she had tried to kill him several times. Then they divorced and he had a major stroke that completely incapacitated him. She lets him move back in so she can take care of him then she almost dies during a surgery and has a complete turn around in her spiritual life. She decided there is a God and she wanted to change her life. So she did. She started going to Celebrate Recovery classes, moved to the other side of the state, got custody of her grandson, is the care-giver for her ex-husband who lives with her and has become awesome. It's the most crazy story every, but she has worked so hard to completely turn her life around. This is the Atonement in action. Knowing her now I would never believe she was capable of hurting anyone. And the idea of love your enemies is real and she did it!

Huge awesome story! Last night we had what is called a Cottage Meeting. It is where we invite a small group of less-actives, recent converts, members and all of our investigators to basically a testimony meeting. We had a few musical numbers and asked some members to share their conversion stories. It was incredible. Chris, Michelle, Michael and another investigator Mandi came. The spirit was so strong and all of the investigators even shared their testimonies. Just about everyone was crying by the end. In Michelle's testimony she said that she's not a Mormon yet and yes she said yet! Basically she told us she knows the church is true and she wants to get baptized, but not quite yet. It was so great! All the big manly men in the group were even crying. Chris tried super hard to act all tough, but it didn't really work. It was so great! Everyone got fellowshipped and shared their personal stories and their love for God. The spirit was so strong it was almost tangible. I'm still on a spiritual high from it. The whole time I couldn't get this less-active out of my head though; Brother Stoltz. He's the one who I had an indescribable experience with a few weeks ago where I was completely overwhelmed with our Heavenly Father's love for him. For some reason I am always thinking about him. During the whole cottage meeting I could not get out of my head that God wants him back. That He loves him and He has a very special plan for him. We went right to his house afterwards and he was half asleep and didn't want to talk to us much. I told him that we have a message for him and he said he knows. I don't know why and I don't know how, but somehow Brother Stoltz and I have some crazy connection through which Heavenly Father is communicating. It's quite an incredible experience.

This church is true. I cannot even say how true it is and how much God loves ALL his children. This is the truth. Christ died for us. Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son. I know it! The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. I love His Gospel!

I love you all so very much. I pray for you every day and am so very grateful that you are all safe.

Love
Sister Probst

Can you believe it's July!? I can't. time seems to fly so fast. It still doesn't seem like July. It rains at a least a few times a week. Even when the sun is out somehow it starts raining. Which feels really good after we've been tracting for a few hours.

We had 2 investigators in church yesterday! They were the same ones as the week before! I was so excited. One is a little boy in a part-member family and his dad won't let him get baptized. Hopefully that will change soon. The other is Chris. He's a professional fighter and is awesome! He basically already lives the Gospel and knows it better than most members. The only problem is he hates to make commitments and doesn't not like time so he never knows what day or time it is. The past 2 Sundays he has woken up at 6 am and has not been able to go back to sleep so he takes it as a sign that God wants him to go to church. So true! We finally got him to commit to setting a time to meet with us so we can explain authority. It's going to be good.

Another investigator is Alfonso. There are 2 different families that leave in this trailer out in the middle of nowhere and I think he's a cousin. Every time we go out there's a bunch of guys outside listening to music and drinking. Alfonso is always inside with the kids taking care of them. He's so great. As we teach there's always this other guy named Julian that comes in from drinking to "hear the word." That's what all the Mexicans say. Alfonso is so humble and so ready to listen. It's great!

 I have been learning a great deal from my study lately. Every day I try to focus on the needs of the investigators and the questions that I have. Every time I read I can find their answers and it's such an epiphany moment for me. Every time I wish they were reading the exact same thing. We were talking with an investigator named Fred. He is very well-versed in the Bible and loves to study it. One visit he came to us and said that he knew that every question we ever have can truly be answered through the scriptures. It's so true! I love reading the scriptures. I love learning the will of the Lord and being able to apply His teachings in every day situations and life. The word was written for us. Every day we meet someone who doesn't believe they have to do anything to have salvation all they have to do is believe. The more I learn the more I can't believe they can truly believe this. We have to give our whole souls to God and we can't hold anything back. I love this work more than anything. The Lord's hand is in everything we do.

Happy Fourth of July! It should be good. I love you all and I'm so grateful for all that you do for me! Keep the faith and stay strong!

Love
Sister Probst

Como estan?! I have decided that being a missionary is just bipolar. There is no consistency it is always up and down with emotions and events. So this last week was definitely like that. We started out with an amazing experience with a less-active named Hermana Salgado. Our first week here everyone told us to go find her. We went and went and she was never home. Finally we found her and she was all alone in this dinky little trailer and did not talk much. All we could understand was that she might need some food. Coincidentally the day before we had been at a members house who had housed the Elders before we got here. He gave us all their extra food. Because we had been moving around so much we just never took it out of our trunk. So when we thought she said she needed food (yes our Spanish is still not so great, but the spirit makes up for it) we went out and brought her the food. We said we would come back and we kept trying, but she was never there. Finally this last week we had a lesson fall through and the member Sister Tveten was still with us so we asked if she wanted to try some other people. We went and saw Sister Salgado and it was amazing and so sad. Sis. Tveten speaks Spanish and just started talking to her. We found out that her husband had left her and gone to California, She had just returned from a trip to Mexico to see her dying mother (who did die while she was there) and go to the funeral of her son who was shot while trying to cross the border. She made tomales to save up for the flight to Mexico and when she came back her husband left her and she had no money, no job, and couldn't speak English. She had been so lonely and literally starving. We were the only people she had seen since coming back and the food we had brought her had saved her. Wow! The Spirit does work in mysterious ways. I watched as Sis. Tveten addressed each of her concerns, went to her car and brought all the food, money, and medicine she had and gave it to her. Then she went and started to massage Hna. Salgado's neck while she told us her story. The next day she came back with the Bishop and food and now all her needs are being met. It was a true witness to me of true Christ-like love. This is what the church is about. Not just offering help, but giving it. Not just saying I love you, but showing it. I was so humbled by this great service.

After that the week was pretty rough. We have met everyone in the branch and were quickly running out of names to try. All week we were really stretching to find people to teach. Then on Saturday everything suddenly turned completely around. We met with Jennifer who was our investigator. She wanted to know if she could be forgiven of her sins. We taught the Plan of Salvation and then she said "oh I have my answer. If I want to be forgiven I have to actually change what I'm doing and really be sorry. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that. I'll have to think about it." It was so amazing! She finally understands! She wants it, but she's not sure if she's willing to do what it takes. We haven't seen her for a few days and so hopefully we'll be able to see her soon. We're definitely praying for her.

Our next miracle was Kathryn. We had tracted W. Whitman street completely out. We weren't going to go back for a while but we wanted to try one more door. Kathryn opens the door and invites us right in. We taught her the Restoration and she said it made complete sense and it felt so right. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! She said she had been praying to find the right church for 15 years and finally felt like she had! She came to church the next day and that was a whirlwind. I was talking, Sister Donaldson was singing and translating, and a recent spanish convert was speaking, and we had an investigator in church that we had to accomodate for. It was crazy, but amazing! She said she loved it and she came to all three hours. The Relief Society lesson was on Elder Holland's talk about the 11th hour workers. She started crying and said she felt like the 11th hour worker just coming into the field and that now she knew that God still loves her and she can have all the blessings we have. It was so incredible! We were so excited! And then we haven't seen her since. We were supposed to have a lesson with her and she wasn't there and we called and called and she hasn't answered. Hopefully all is well. We're going to keep on trying. Miracles will happen!

For Willis and Leanette - I forgive you for pulling my hair ;) and Celeste's records have now been transferred to her correct ward and so the Bishop can start working with her. The missionaries in the area have her information and are going to tract into her. I'll keep you updated. Unfortunately Lisa does not want to learn more she is very happy where she is at. Hopefully in the future sometime.

Another random connection. The parents of an Elder Frank are in my ward and he is serving in the Tulsa, Oklahoma mission and knows Sister Reeves very well. He says she is an amazing missionary and works really hard. That's my cousin :)

Well the work is continuing. The Church is true! Miracles do happen! I'm finding that if we daily count all the tiny miracles that happen than the big mishaps don't really matter so much.

I love you!

Sister Probst

I think the subject line just about sums it up for the week. It was crazy! It's amazing what you accept to do when you accept the call to serve. I don't even know what to say. Unfortunately some of the people we teach seem to make some rather sad decisions in their lives that have adverse consequences and somehow we ended up showing up right in the middle of them all. Funny thing though is that even though it may have been awkward for us it seemed to help them out which is good. We had an investigator come to church yesterday. It was amazing! Jennifer who told us she would never read our book or come to our church said she wanted to come on Sunday and she did! She loved it and wants to come again next week. It's such a huge change! We were pretty excited. We met this new guy named Alex who we took on a church tour and he said he'll come to church. We also had a ton of less-actives come to church! It felt like pulling teeth to get them there, but they came and loved it!

We almost made our weekly goal of having 20 lessons! We were so excited! We taught more this last week than the entire transfer and it was great. We got to invite a lot of people to the daily dose classes we're going to start teaching this next week. Those are English classes for the Spanish people. As you can probably guess I have not been transferred and neither has Sister Donaldson. Our zone went crazy though! President combined some areas and switched everything around. It's pretty fun.

And I officially now have a normal bed! I'm so excited! The bed I was sleeping on what some kind of water/floater bed. I would just sink into it every time I got on it, but now I don't have to! And Brother and Sister Jantzer are the sweetest ever. We've decided we may have to adopt them as honorary grandparents. He's started giving us random rocks and jewelery that he has collected over his life. They're so great. I might have to send home a bag of rocks though someday :) We met this other less-active cowboy guy. He was so funny and he even gave us flowers. We might be able to get him to come back to church. All the old guys are giving us rocks and flowers and all the young guys are just creepy. Funny.

Thank you all so much for the letters and package! Happy birthday Grandpa Dinsdale! Sorry I'm late and grandma thank you so much for the sweet note. You are all so great! Congrats Dan and Kimber on your upcoming wedding. I'd be there if I could ;)

I love you all so much! Thank you for all you do! I miss you, but I love this work! Keep praying and reading the scriptures.

love

Sister Probst

Yes, it is raining again! We had awesome sunshine for a few days last week and now we're back to rain. Crazy weather!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for the letters! I loved them! I keep reading them over and over!
So this last week was interesting. We found out that our golden investigator Kathryn got antied. This means that right after church she met with some friends who showed her a ton of anti-mormon material. It was so sad. Some day hopefully she'll find the truth. We had exchanges this last week and so Sister Roskelly came from Quincy and Sister Donaldson went there. It was so fun! Sister Roskelly is just a bundle of energy and so we were laughing so hard. I have not laughed that much in almost a month! This transfer is already almost over! Crazy! This Sunday is tranfer calls. Who knows what will happen.

So we spent a ton of time tracting this last week. I feel like we're stepping back into the olden days when all the missionaries did was tract ;) We're focusing our efforts out in the boonies instead of the city because it has been tracted out! It's kind of fun off-roading down dirt roads to random cabins :)

We finally got our car back. Woohoo! We spent a lot of time riding our bikes and walking around. It was good excercise. So I've decided I can't speak/write English or Spanish anymore. They just kind of mix into one. So if my spelling is horrible that is why :)

Well I love you all! The church is so true! Read the Book of Mormon! It will change your life!

Love you
Sister Probst

Yay!!! We finally have people to teach! To say the least we are very excited. This week was an amazing week! We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was soo good. Can I just say that the Palmers are the best! He talked all about listening for the promptings of the spirit. The Lord is talking to us all the time, we just might not be listening. He also talked about transition :( That means he told us what is going to happen on July 1 when he spends 1 hour with our new Mission President, President Mullen. He explained the whole process and what happened to him and he talked about priesthood keys. We're going to miss him so much, but we know that President Mullen is supposed to be with us and that he is called of God. It will be good. I got to see Sister Haws! Ahh!!! That was so great! And she writes to me and gives me advice now.  Pretty nice. It's weird not having someone to fall back on who has more experience. Before if I didn't know the answer to something she always knew the answer because she's been here forever and has a ton of experience. Now I do have a better source to rely on, the Lord :) but she's still amazing.

This last week we were finally able to see some progress happen. We have visited almost every member of the ward that would allow us in and have received referrals from many. We ask for referrals from everyone we meet and it's really fun actually. We were able to find 3 new investigators. We found two while tracting. Chenae is really open and loves to learn she is very free-thinking, but loves the idea of a prophet. She has a lot of potential. Lisa we found while trying to contact Celeste Clyde. Trying to find Celeste has turned into a multi-ward miracle. So Lisa is Celeste's mother-in-law and is amazing. She is budhist ( I don't know how to spell that) but very kind and open. She has a lot of potential and she really wants to meet with us. We found out that one of her good friends that she works with is LDS and is in the ward right next to ours named Sister Smart. She actually called us the day after we met with Lisa and told us how she had been praying for this to happen. She said that she has been praying for Celeste for a long time and for her husband and that whole family. We told her that we would do what we could to get missionaries to Celeste's and that we were teaching Lisa. It was such a miracle to see all these ends start coming together. So if anyone talks to Willis and Leanette let them know that Celeste is definitely being watched out for by many people and especially the Lord.

Our last one is Jennifer. She is a hoot. She has gone through just about everything difficult a person can go through in this life and she loves to talk about it. She said her one glimmer of hope for anything good in her life is her 6 year old son. She said he made her start believing in God because she wants a better life for him than she ever had and than she gave her older children. At first she wouldn't read or say anything positive about God or religion or anything. Now she wants to meet almost every day, she promised us she'll read, she loves the idea of repentance, but is not sure she can really be forgiven. She has a lot of anger and hate, but she has so much promise. She loves how she feels when we teach and it's such an opposite feeling than the rest of her life. The Atonement is already starting to bless her life and she doesn't even realize it yet. We're super excited for her and for her to feel Christ change her life. We've been working a lot with the Bishop and the ward members to try and really help the ward. We've had a lot of service opportunities to really help out. It's fun to see our 3 weeks of hard work starting to show glimmers of fruit. The Bishop wants us to be involved in the ward as much as possible and is really giving us opportunities to do so. We have met almost everyone in the ward and now we're trying to take all of them on church tours and get them set up with mormon.org. This ward has so much potential and the members are so willing they just need a direction and they're off. It's really exciting to work with.

Even the couple we live with is making progress. They actually said they might come to church. She even cut us some lilacs. He loves having company, but she was a tough cookie to crack. I think she's finally warmed up to us now. I feel like I could write comic strip every day with all the funny experiences we have with them. Most of them center around their crazy cat Charlie. He is our stalker. We invaded his favorite room that had a hole in the wall where he could sneak into all the other rooms. Now everytime we turn around he's watching us even through the window. Last night he brought a mouse into the master bedroom and they spent the night chasing it around. We just tried to imagine them doing it and it was so funny.

 This week truly was a week of miracles. When we were teaching Jennifer she was sharing some very intense details about her life. When we finally had an opportunity to share with her a little bit all I could feel was the Savior's undying love for her. This woman has done a lot of wrong things her life, but I know that the Atonement can heal everything. All those pains that she feels can truly be swallowed up in the joy of the Lord. She doesn't have to be so afraid of the future because it is as bright as she allows it to be. I love the Atonement. I know that it breaks all bonds and heals all hearts. We had Stake Conference yesterday and in the middle we stood up and sang The Spirit of God. It felt like an army of angels. I felt like everyone had a tiny glimpse into heaven and we all wanted to grasp what we could and fight to do what is right. It was such an amazing experience standing and singing anthems to our King. I love this Gospel more than anything. I would give anything for it.

I love you all! Thank you so much for being so great! Please write!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!

Love
Sister Probst

Hello world. So yesterday was awesome being able to see and talk to my family. It was so weird actually seeing you all in real life, but awesome.

So we finally have a place to live. I live at C/O Jantzer P.O. Box 277 10236 High Street, Peshastin, WA 98826. It's with this funny little old less-active couple. There son is the young mens president and he just moved them here in February from Oregon. They might be slightly crazy, but they're so funny. We only see them at breakfast and it's always a treat because Brother Jantzer will sit there and tell us stories about gnomes and trolls and magnet powered bikes. I can't say I've had a more entertaining breakfast. They're so sweet. We live in their basement and it's all our area which is nice. We will finish evicting the previous occupants (spiders) this afternoon when we get some cleaning supplies. They have an ancient cat named Charlie that is always crawling through the holes in the walls and somehow always ends up in our bedroom. Sister Donaldson hates animals in the house so she's always trying to chase him out of the holes. It's rather entertaining.

We have now met almost met every single member in the ward including less-actives. I would say that is quite a task, but the ward really isn't that big. It is really funny though because we are literally off-roading it some of the time to get to some of these random cabins. We see a lot of rancher/cowboy/hill-billy/

hippy people. It's pretty fun to see all the diversity. We got to spend a lot of time doing service and tracting. I think by the end of my mission I will be a professional landscaper and walker. I won't even need shoes. When we got to the area there weren't any investigators. So we've been trying to find a lot and we have some potentials.

So tomorrow we have a zone conference down in Moses Lake. I'm so excited. It will be the last time we get to be trained by President Palmer. He leaves at the end of the transfer :( But I also get to see Sister Haws!!! I'm so excited. Then this Sunday is Stake Conference so I get to see all the people from East Wenatchee again. It's like a big reunion week. Cool beans.

We went and tried to visit Celeste Clyde from Heber last night. We found out that she used to be in this ward, but she has since moved to Wenatchee. If anyone can talk to her parents and get her current address I can send some other missionaries to her place.

Well I love you all! Keep the faith and write me please! The Church is true and the Book of Mormon really is the word of God.

Love Sister Probst