Linzi and her Companion and the sisters she lives with.

We filled over 2,000 bags. sweet potatoes

sweet potatoes.

An Amazing week

So this week was great! I mentioned we got to teach the Plan of Salvation to David and Bethany and they loved it! We taught them again on Saturday about the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really good! They came to church again and they really like the people and the teachings of our church. They asked us to come over again last night and we taught the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. We found out they smoke... and she drinks coffee but the good news is... They had heard about the Word of Wisdom before we taught it when they were looking into the church and they already have been trying to stop! I was really surprised! We were scared to teach it because we knew that would be a hard thing for them to quit but they had already started trying to quit :) We told them they need to be free of the vices 1 week before their baptism and Bethany said well... it will be hard but the reward will be worth it" They are so great!! We had them download the LDS app on their phone so they could watch conference talks and stuff so then he got on his tv and he has something called roku and it has different channels and stuff and come to find out it has an LDS channel haha so he got it and when we got there they were watching conference on their tv! it was so cute :) We are going to see them again on Thursday and then they offered to take us to downtown Knoxville to go to dinner on Friday :)  Previously David has had a hard time with the story about Joseph Smith and he wants to believe but he just hadn't quite gained a testimony of it yet.. So last night when were were there we talked a little bit more about it and we have just been praying that he would get that testimony. So as they were watching the conference talks I told him how much I loved Elder Holland and that he should listen to a talk from him so I guess after we left he watched a talk from him about believeing and it really hit him. Literally just barley while we were at the library I got a call and I answered but we didn't have his number and he didn't have ours because we just had Bethanys so he didn't know it was us and he said "hi my name is David and I have been meeting with the sister missionaries and I have had a hard time believing the story about Joseph smith but I just wanted to call and say that last night I received a testimony that he was a true prophet and I just needed to tell someone before satan could tell me differently! I don't know who this is but thanks for listening to me." and I said David its Sister Leifson!! and he just started to cry and said I have been trying to call someone for an hour and I was just about to call the Nashville Temple and tell someone there!! I started bawling!! in the middle of the library! I am so happy that he finally received that testimony! We talked for a while and then he said please pray for me because I feel like I have a target on my back and satan wants me more than ever! Please pray for them!!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love Sister Leifson :)

6 down 12 more to go :)

Hello everyone!

wow this week was beyond amazing! First of all.. it was the middle of the day and our dinner apt cancelled and we were at a less actives house and there was a moving truck across the street and there was 5 black guys and one white guy standing outside and they were all staring at us and then all of a sudden we hear "Sisters!" and the white guys comes running across the street to talk to us. Come to find out he is in the YSA ward! we talked to him for a minute and he said.. do you have a dinner apt tonight and we said no they just cancelled and he reaches into his wallet and says well then i will pay for your dinner and gave us $25.. so we treated ourselves to Olive Garden haha :) So as missionaries we get media referrals.. meaning people get on Mormon.org and they can put any ones name and address and request that the missionaries go visit them. So we get a text about it from the mission office and we go contact the person. The only problem is lots of times people just put like random neighbors and stuff but don't tell the person they put them on there, so we get to their house and they say " I don't know why someone put my info on there.. im not interested" then they tell us not to come back. So this week we got 3 media referrals. And all three of them were not interested! on the third one we went to we had been texting him and set up a good time and he seemed really nice so we got there and he came to the door and he was 16 and he started to laugh and said "oh my friends at school thought it would be finny to put my info on there and see if you guys would really come!" I WAS SO MAD!!!! So after that i said to sis sellers.. i don't want anymore media referrals i hate them haha so its Saturday and our 5:00canceled and we didn't have out dinner apt till 6 and we were literally parked on the side of the road trying to figure out where we should go and we get a call from the elders in our district and they said sisters what are you doing at 6:30? and we told them we had a dinner but we  could try to move it up.. and they said there is a man named David who has been on Mormon.org chatting with the missionaries and he said he wants to come to church tomorrow but wants some missionaries to come tell him what to expect at church! WOW! that literally never happens! so they said he is in your area and wants you to come at 6:30 so we ate dinner super fast and got to his house and it was him and his wife and they have been married for 3 years. He is a radio host and he said that Glen Beck was on his show and he found out he was Mormon so he decided to look into the LDS church :) Neither him or his wife have a religion right now but they wanted to see what our church was all about. So were getting to know them and stuff and we invite them to be baptized and the wife Bethany says "oh will the baptism happen tomorrow at church?" hahah we told them we had a couple lessons we wanted to teach them first and then when they are ready they could be baptized. They asked us to start lesson one so we did. They agreed with everything and they were so receptive. Then before we even got to the part about the BOM she said "Do you have a BOM i could have? We have been wanting to read it!"  oh my gosh! i was dying! i have never had this golden of a referral before.. not even in the Philippines!! So we taught about the BOM and gave them 3 Nephi 11 to read and told them we would see them at church. Sunday came and they were there and so excited! They stayed the whole 3 hours and met so many ward members! it was awesome :) We are having dinner with them tonight and were going to teach plan of salvation. We are going to give them a date of May 31 to be baptized :) If not it will be June 7 :) Were so excited about them!! It really goes to show that the lord prepares people everywhere! It had absolutely nothing to so with me and sister sellers.. it was all on the lords time and when he wanted them to receive the gospel. Im just so grateful that i get to be a part of it :) It has strengthened my testimony so much that this really is the Lords work and his hand is in all that we do :)

I hope you all have a good week! thanks for all the love and support! Happy Birthday Boston :)

Love Sister Leifson :)

Tennessee is Amazing

A Recent Convert John He really likes me.















Hey everyone! 

This week was great! It was so fun to call home :)Happy Birthday  Boston.  8 years old. I love you:)
 We had a really good week this week. We spent the first part of the week visiting people that sister brown wanted to say bye to before she left. our ward mission leader took us to outback steakhouse :) it was so good!! Wednesday we had our big transfer meeting and there were 11 new missionaries and they made me stand up with them and introduce myself in front of all the missionaries.. I didn't like that very much haha but sister brown got transferred to Nashville North Carolina. Recently they re arranged the boundaries and we took part of NC and Georgia. So there is a chance I could go to one of those places! We were on our way to a dinner appointment with a part member family and we had like 5 minutes to spare and we saw a yard sale so we thought that would be a good opportunity to introduce ourselves so we did! I started talking to the lady about our church and missionary work and it was so great :) I gave her a pamphlet to read and she told us to come back anytime. There were 4 people working at it. A couple Grace and Jack who are in their 80's and a couple Rita and Richard and they are like 40's. We ended up going yesterday to contact them again and they were so receptive!! We weren't sure if she would remember us and as we walked up to the door she saw us and opened the door before we even knocked and said "sisters! I was hoping you would come back" we taught her about the BOM and she was really interested :) Then we contacted a less active and found out his wife isn't a member and we set up an apt to come back and teach her and when we went we were worried they wouldn't be home but they were literally waiting by the door for us and had dinner made for us! They are so sweet! They invited us to come next Friday for dinner again! I love the people here they are so nice! some people definitely are not interested but once they trust you they will listen. I know for a fact that this is where im suppose to be.. I have been able to connect with so many people here. We are teaching a man named Travis and he recently just started chewing again, We took the elders there to help them with some service and I was able to talk to him a little bit and he started asking about my family and home life and we got on the subject of my dad dying and about my brothers and said "Sister Leifson you just made me want to quit chewing and drinking." it was so cool! Right now im teaching a Michelle, Travis, Jordan, and a grandpa Jack :)  Im really excited for this transfer.. me and sister sellers have already seen success in our area and im sure there will be more to come! im so grateful to be here and to be serving the Lord! Thanks for all the love and support!!

Love Sister Leifson :)

Me and My Companions and My Favorite 102 year old friend who takes care of his garden daily Love him:)

hello everyone

Hello! Before I forget... Happy Mothers Day Mom I Love You :) And to all my other moms! And happy late birthday to Jake and Jordan :) This week was really good! Every Tuesday we go and volunteer at the Bishop Storehouse.. its so much fun! This week we are going to take one of our Less actives with us, she has never been there before. This week we went to a members house for dinner and they lived like 25 minutes away.. We got there and literally they live in a mansion. Its by far the nicest house I have ever seen in my whole life! But it was awkward because we ate really fancy weird food and you had to have really good manners haha but it was fun to go there. Our ward had a Mormon prom and it was at their house so they went all out! it was so pretty! We taught one of our potential investigators this week named Osama and he is muslum so he doesn't even believe in Christ and the whole time he was trying to convert us to his religion! im starting to wonder if he is secretly a muslum missionary! We had our last district meeting lunch before transfers and we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings :) It was really fun! Then we were driving and we stopped at a red light and there was a pizza guy next to us with his window down and I told my companion to unroll the window and give him a restoration pamphlet! haha so she did! it was so funny :) On Saturday we got our transfer call and sister brown is getting transferred. So it will be me and sister sellers for probably one more transfer and then I will get a new companion and lead this area! We had stake conference this week and it was so good! it was all about missionary work and getting members to the temple more often! W also got to listen to a CES fireside and M Russell Ballard was the speaker! It was SO good!! The work right now is pretty slow... We spend a lot of time trying to find more investigators, but we have a lot of Less actives and part member families to work with! Im hoping to help this area progress this transfer!! and hopefully have some baptisms :) This area hasn't had a baptism since December so im hoping to change that! My Commitment for y'all this week is to go on to lds.org and watch Elder Ballards CES broadcast! It talks mostly to the youth but its beneficial for anyone. He talks about 3 main points, 1.Dangers of social media 2. Avoiding pornography and 3. Marriage and families. I hope y'all have a great week! Thanks for all the love and support! Love Sister Leifson :)