Hello one and all!

Yes you read it right we finally have an on-date! That means we actually have someone with a baptism date! Unfortunately it's not one of the ones that we've been teaching forever, but it doesn't matter. He's a 13-year old named Garrett. His mom was baptized a few years ago and he's super active in church he just never got baptized. So we're going to do it on March 24 if not sooner. I finally get to learn how to prepare for a baptism so that's exciting.

I've decided that as a missionary you can feel every feeling in just one day. Every day can be a weeks worth of information, events, and emotions and every week feels like a day. So the week started out pretty hard, but ended pretty awesome. Valentines Day was probably even the best I've had in a long time. We were pretty worried because we didn't have a single appointment scheduled, Tuesdays are usually like that, and so we decided to make valentines and take them to less-actives, investigators and people who really needed something. It was so fun! We didn't stay long at anybodies house so we got to see a ton of people and they were so appreciative it was amazing. Most of them were house-bound little old ladies and men that couldn't go anywhere, spouses had passed away, or didn't have any family close. It was obvious that we made a potentially bad day into a great day for some of them because they were remembered which really made our day. It's amazing how when you're feeling bad you can go out and make others feel good and then you feel good.

I got to go on exchanges this weekend with Sister Krambule in Quincy. Quincy is a tiny farming town that is completely flat and mostly hispanic. I got to speak more Spanish in just that one day than I probably have the whole last month. It was awesome! Being able to hear and speak that much I realized that I really understand and can speak better than I think. Even though I haven't had many opportunites to speak Spanish here the Lord has truly blessed me. I also came to realize that Sister Haws and I are actually doing pretty good. We were kind of worried because nothing seemed to be working out for us and we kept trying to figure out what we were doing wrong. We couldn't find anymore potential investigators and nobody would get baptized. But in talking with Sister Krambule I realized that we are working super hard and doing a good job and that's what matters. The people are just being stubborn and they still have their agency. Sometimes we tease that we're going to pull a Nephi and just wrestle people and make them listen like Nephi did with Zoram. Highly tempting sometimes ;) She was trying to give me ideas of things we could do, but we've already done almost everything. She was pretty impressed. I also realized how nice it is to follow the rules and plan the way we're supposed to. The whole day is different if we don't. By the time I got back to Wenatchee I was pretty excited and glad to be back. Sister Haws felt kind of the same way. The exchange was really great I learned a lot and was able to build some more confidence back up, but it was good to be back with my companion in my area. Funny fact Sis. K's mom is a marriage and family therapist and she analyzes handwriting. So I sent her a paragraph and she's going to analyze mine. Funny. Sis. K did a little bit and she came out with a couple things and that I'm stubborn. I guess she's pretty right ;)

We're still kind of at a stand-still with our investigators, but we had a pretty cool experience with our newly weds. Mari is staunch Catholic, but she loves to lear more so she is taught while we teach her husband Alberto. He's super accepting of everything because he has no religious back ground. However, we have been able to get Mari to read from the Book of Mormon and she is eating it up. She's already almost done with 2 Nephi and she loves it! She says she can understand it so much better than the Bible and it feels so good to her. How amazing is that?! Most members don't even like 2 Nephi, but she loves it because it's so easy. When we gave Alberto a chapter to read she started to go off on how much she loved that story and started telling him all about it and how he can use the footnotes to learn more and even told him about the other books in the Book of Mormon and how there are multiple books of Nephi. We were astounded to say the least. It just goes to show that what all the prophets say is true - everything leads back to the Book of Mormon. If anybody has any problem with anything go to the Book of Mormon. We were struggling to know how we can help her want to be baptized, but the answer was already in her hands. I love the Book of Mormon! I just finished it again and I can't believe how much I learned and how much I still get to learn.

Well I love you all very much and I miss you. Thank you for all your support and help! You're all the best!

Love

Hermana Probst

Hello everbody!

So I've gotten a few comments about my "colorful/interesting" emails. Does that mean I should be less descriptive?

This week started out pretty rough but turned miraculous. So up to Wednesday things weren't going so great. Everybody was dropping us or not responding or not showing up for appointments and we were pretty frustrated. By Thursday things started to happen it was amazing! Our whole day was full of appointments and they went great! We found Jim, this really goldent investigator who set upa church tour with and we haven't seen him since. He said he still really wants to do so we have one tonight with him. We got the Lopez family, Maria y Eutiquio, to come to a baptism. They're the ones that are so close to baptism, she moved out because of his drinking, and they were going through a really rough time. She moved back in and he hasn't touched a drop since! It's been 2 weeks and he's still clean! Truly miraculous because he used to drink every single day! They even came to the Spanish branch Valentine party on Saturday. Eutiquio is super good friends with one of the members and he asked him to be in charge of filling the water cups and there never was a better man for the job. He would not sit down until everybody had a water and the pitchers were never less than half-full. It was fun to watch. Sis. Haws and I felt like parents watching their kids go out on their own and finally make their own friends. They socialized with everyone and played the games. We were very proud parents ;) They both came to church yesterday and fit right in, but they're still fighting baptism. We don't get it because they're so ready! They're better members than most of the members.

So crazy story yesterday. Our war vet, James, has been very difficult this week. He didn't show up to any of his appointments and wouldn't answer our calls. We were pretty frustrated with him and figured we'll wait for him to call us. Then he shows up to church! Sister Haws is on the stand because she has to give a talk. I sit by James and his fellowshipper and he's asking good questions and the whole meeting is going great. Sis. Haws gives her talk and then comes the next speaker. He was supposed to speak on the Holy Ghost which would have been perfect for James, but then he decides to change it to the Ensign talk in January on how to improve your relationship with your spouse. If any of you have read it you know how in depth it goes. Sis. Haws went stonefaced up on the stand and I started to panic. James is going through an absolutely horrible, ugly divorce right now and is constantly depressed because of it. The speaker went into even more detail than what was in the talk! I kept trying to talk to James and share scriptures with him and distract him. It was definitely one of those moments where I just wanted to disappear and have him disappear too. Suddenly he stands up and bolts for the door so I chase after him. He's gone before I could even talk to him. I went back in the chapel and was just horrified by what had just happened. Several fellowshippers went out and tried to find him, but he was gone. All of this happened while the speaker was still speaking and he never skipped a beat. Afterwards I was still pretty upset and yet had to be happy for all the people we had to talk to. The Bishop came and talked to us and told us that yes that was a very inappropriate talk for sacrament and how could he make things right. We couldn't do anything then because we had another ward to go to and back-to-back appointments. To top all we had to go to dinner at the speakers house! It was easily one of the most awkward dinners I've been to. Sis. Haws was trying to be calm, I was pretty livid so I wasn't speaking and they just kept going on like nothing had happened. Amazingly enough the spiritual thought was on how we need to love our neighbor even when they do things to make us mad. Sis. Haws had found the wrong scripture and that was what she found, so we were both called to repentance.

Later that night we felt strongly that we needed to go see James even though the Bishop said it might be better to give him some time. We stopped by and apologized profusely. He then apologized for being rude and running out and told us we didn't need to apologize because it could have been a good talk in a different setting it was just too hard for him to hear at that moment. Wow! That was a huge miracle. We thought we had lost him and then he turned around and apologized to us. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways.

Well more next week, but coninue on serving the Lord. I love being a servant of the Lord and being able to witness these miracles. I truly feel like things are finally starting to come to together.

I love you all very much and am so grateful for all your support!

Love,

Hermana Probst

So I survived my first transfer and now I'm going to Libby, Montana! Woohoo! Who knew it's English speaking! I'll be back in Montana and with Sister Bethany Maxfield! I'm super excited! Just kidding I get to stay here hehe with Sister Haws. Montana and Canada are Elders areas only. Apparently cows are very dangerous to the sisters ;) We're excited it's going to be great!

This is a pretty long letter, sorry. So last week was the craziest week yet. Which pretty much ended the transfer the perfect way because it was a crazy transfer. Sister Haws said she has never had a transfer as hard or as crazy. So last Monday I got to have dinner with my Uncle Buck. That was pretty awesome. We talked about a river trip he took me on when I was 8. He doesn't seem as wild now as he was back then ;) He was super nice, I like him :)

After that the world fell apart again :( Maria, one of our investigators that we had that amazing lesson with, moved out of her apartment because of her husband's drinking problems. She called us in tears and wanted us to come over. We went over to her mom's where she was staying and talked to her about how because she's trying to do what is right Satan is going to work really hard on her. Then her husband walked in. Slightly awkward. Luckily he wasn't completely drunk yet. She's having such a hard time, but she's still pressing forward and she actually came to church yesterday. Yes! On our way back across the river we found out that one of the leaders in one of our wards got offended and isn't going to come to church anymore. That was crushing. We work a lot with him and he's done so much to help us. It was a really hard blow to overcome. I don't know how things are going to work if he leaves :( We'll find out on Tuesday if he'll come back or not. So Monday kind of started out the week pretty rough. But luckily I got a letter from Nozer and everything felt better ;)

Wednesday we had District Meeting and our numbers were really bad. We didn't have any progressing investigators, nobody at church, and no new investigators. We were pretty discouraged. That night we were pretty stressed out, but then we had an epiphany. We realized that every single one of our investigators has a very extreme situation they are living in. They're all very high maintenance and require lots of support. That made us feel a lot better because the people we're working with are not typical investigators. We also realized that even though we may have no baptisms we can be seed-planters. Our new motto is we are seed-planters. We're are preparing many many people to receive the Gospel even if they won't do it now we know they'll do it later. It was a real testimony builder for us to realize how important every contact someone has with the church is. We can't think that we're just spinning our wheels because we do expose a lot of people to the Church.

One of our dinners with a member also brought along a Doug Arnold. Has anybody heard of him? Apparently he's pretty famous, wrote a book about rifles, and was CEO and President of several very prosperous companies. Someday I'll have to google him. He was super impressed with the feeling he had when we talked to him and what we were like. He said he probably wouldn't have let us in if we had knocked on his door, but because he got to know us better he would welcome the opportunity. Member-investigator relationships are crucial!

Friday we started running for exercise. Ugh. Hopefully someday I'll like it and won't be sore from it. All the snow is melting now and it's been in the 40s a lot so we can go outside. It is gorgeous to see the sun rise though. And Dad, we never get to sleep in even on P-days. We're up at 6:30 or earlier every single day. Brother Barrett one of our ward mission leaders made us each a little plaque. A few weeks ago in correlation meeting Sister Barrett was sharing a missionary moment with us. I kept saying Bien Hecho which means well done. She thought I was saying "Be an Angel" so she liked it. Finally we were telling about our week and she said "wait, I've got this one B-N-H-L, no B-N-H-T, no B-N-H-O" we were all dying of laughter because I never thought that it really does sound like BNHO. Now it's an inside joke and Brother Barrett made us little plaques that say BNHO - be an angel. It was very sweet and funny.

Saturday I woke up to half of my face swollen the size of Texas! I had gottena spider bite the day before on my cheek! Eww! To think that a spider was crawling around on my face in the night still gives me chills. And then my face swelled all up so it looked like I had a black eye because apparently it got infected. That was pretty exciting and disgusting. Apparently you don't have to go to a foreign country to have interesting experiences with bugs. Luckily the swelling has all gone down now, but I'm still taking the anti-biotics. Gross!

This week was truly a testament of how truth is truly stranger than fiction. We met this inactive member who has really experienced and seen everything. She told us some pretty intense stories about her life and how she came to have 8 almost 10 kids. The amazing thing is that even though she spent most of her life on drugs, smoking, and drinking and swearing like a sailor almost all of her kids have turned out amazing. Several even served missions even though she never went to church with them. Some things I just really can't figure out, but need to trust in the Lord for. The best part was we went to a ward party right after to meet a few less actives and we stank of cigarette smoke. Oops. It has become a regular occurance now so we're getting used to it but that's okay because as President Palmer says the church is not a retirement home for the members, but a hospital for the sick. The best smell in a church building is of cigarette smoke because it means we are bringing in the sick.

We still don't have any baptism dates yet, but we do have one new investigator so that's exciting. We are the seed planters ;)

Grandpa Probst - apparently I say a lot of things you say. "Don't bug me pigmy," and "duh Ralph" are the most popular ones I say to my companion. So now she has started to say "Okay Gwampa." Just thought you'd like to know that. And some of your jokes she does the same to. Who knew I'd be quoting those ;)

I love getting pictures, but I can't view videos. So you can email me pictures, but I can't watch the videos :(

By the way this is a pretty momentous week for me. I have now survived one year of being gall-bladderless (Alexis I had to add that for you), 4 years since my car wreck that ruined my college basketball career forever ;), and 3 years (Feb 10) since becoming a Probst! The last one is my favorite. Happy birthday to me :)

Well I better sign off. I hope all is well with everyone. I love you all very much and am so grateful for all you do. Thanks for letting me know what's going on and how ya'll are doing ;)

I love you and I love this Gospel!

Sister Lizer

Dearest Familia!

This week was pretty rough again. We currently have 6 investigators and none could meet with us much last week. We tried a lot of formers, but nothing worked out really well. The members in the ward didn't even really have much time to meet with us. Crazy. But this week is going to be better. We're going to find a lot of golden souls. We did have two highlights though. Our newly weds. We met with them last night and they're incredible. Alberto was a total cholo. He was a big time gangmember, was a dealer and basically everything he could be. He had no religion and no values in his life. He decided to change his life when his son was born about 7 years ago and decided he didn't want his son to have that type of life so he gave up everything! He still looks like a gangmember, but he doesn't do any of that stuff and he's the nicest guy ever. Crazy! His wife, Mari, is 34 and is a grandma to a 5 year old and has a 20 yr old, two 19 year olds, a 15 yr old and another one that died. She had her first at age 14. Her 15 year old was on probation and has now been missing for 3 weeks. I can't even imagine. They have both had the hardest lives ever, but you could never tell by how they live their lives now. They live in the ghetto, but their apartment is super clean with nice furniture and his son is very well behaved. They got married because she's pretty religious and didn't think it was right to move in together. They are hungry to learn how they can be better people and raise his son correctly. They actually call us when they have questions about the reading and she even takes notes during our lessons! They're amazing!

Alberto was almost deported this last week. He had a court date and they had to prove that he was a good citizen. We had to write a letter saying that he was a good person. It was super stressful. He's lived here forever, but because he doesn't have papers he could have just been kicked out! We just found out yesterday that Hermana Ramoz from the Spanish branch and who helps us teach a lot of our lessons could be deported this week also. It's so horrible! She has lived here forever, has a family, husband and he works here, but she could just be sent back to Mexico without her family. I've decided I really don't care for this immigration/deporting thing.

MARIA - she's part of the family that we're teaching. She's the mom and very stubborn. She doesn't want to set a baptism date because she has a hard time forgiving people and doesn't want to feel like a hypocrite when she gets baptized. On Friday we had a District fast for baptisms. It had been a pretty rough day with every single appointment falling through. She was our last possible appointment for the day and we were prepared to teach about forgiveness. She was the only one there and it was obvious she had been crying. We started by watching a mormon message on forgiveness. We shared some scriptures and personal experience. The spirit was so strong. It felt like everything we said was exactly what she needed because it was not what we were planning on saying. We both would have completely random thoughts come into our heads, we would say them, and then she would open up even more. I know the spirit completely taught that lesson because none of our words were from us. I had the thought come into my head that she had to be baptized on February 18, no other date. I kept thinking that's way too soon, she won't want to or think she'll be ready. But the thought kept coming. Finally I told her and told her that I knew she was ready and that she knew that she was ready. She agreed, but said she had to talk to her husband first. It was so amazing! To teach completely by the spirit, fast for help, and then have her come so close to saying yes. It was incredible! The unfortunate thing is we haven't been able to get ahold of her since. She didn't come to church and apparently she and her husband got in a fight and she left with the kids to Wenatchee. He can be a mean drunk. We're really worried about her, but hopefully she'll come back soon.

Welp my time is up, but know that the Church is true and that's amazing!

Love, Sister Probst

Hello!

Sorry I didn't write yesterday. We had to switch p-day to today so that we could go the temple today. It was way awesome to be able to go, but with how much time it took and how much we were not able to do because of it I'm not sure if I'll do that again living this far away from the temple.

I don't have any time, we have an appointment in a few minutes so I'll have to write more next week, sorry. It was kind of a rough week so not too much to report on that. I think the biggest thing is how much it has snowed! It hasn't stopped snowing for almost the last week! Unfortunately our car is not really cut out for the snow so we walked and pushed a lot, pero esta bien por que esta es la obra de dios!

Well I'll have to write more later. I love you all and miss you!

Hermana Probst