New Address {10/28/13}

I almost forgot! Here is my new address!
139 1/2 S. Main Street #2
Kendallville, IN
46755

While I'm at it I might as well attach a few more pictures and a good quote, right?

“If life and its rushed pace and many stresses have made it difficult for you to feel like rejoicing, then perhaps now is a good time to refocus on what matters most.”         
                                     -Elder Uchtdorf

 Happy Halloween!!
xoxo

My first week in Tree City {10/28/13}

My first full week in Kendallville, Indiana! Can I get a woot woot?

Let me start by telling you a bit about Kendallville. It is a perfectly charming little town. About 10,000 people, but it seems smaller. There are train tracks EVERYWHERE. We're talking running through neighborhoods. Yikes. The nephews would love it! We're constantly being stopped at train crossings and we hear train horns (whistles?) at least 30 times a day. There is also an abundance of corn fields. Shocker right? Yes, I definitely live in Indiana. One of my favorite things, though, is the windmills! There are decorative windmills all over the place and Kendallville is actually the home of the Mid-America windmill museum. Yes, I've been dying to go. Yes, Sister Fox thinks I'm crazy.

Anyway, we live on Main Street--which is exactly how you're probably wanting to picture it. I love the houses in K-Ville! They are all old and have a ton of character. It makes tracting a lot more exciting.

All in all, Kendallville is a great place to live. Even if it's lovingly referred to as Kendalltucky. As my branch mission leader puts it, there are 4 great things about Kendallville:

1. Our churchhouse (it's phase 2!)

2. The Library (it's seriously huge)

3. The Compost (they pick up your leaves for you and turn them into mulch)

4. And, the Mayor. She's great.

Who wouldn't want to live here, really?

 

So anyway, let's talk about missionary work. The important stuff, right? Oh wait I have to tell you about Sister Fox! She is fantastic. The fantastic Mrs. Fox if you will. She grew up in Vegas (crazy!) but moved to Oregon for high school. She's the middle child of 7--some on her moms side, some on her dads. She went to BYU-I. AND I LOVE HER!! Oh, she's also 19. We got along from the moment they put us in a brand new car and sent us on our way to Indiana. Sometimes I think we have too much fun together! Our people here really expect a lot of us--as they should. We are, after all, the first sister missionaries here in 20 years! Last night our branch mission leader told us he wasn't too sure about our branch getting another set of missionaries. Then, last Sunday, we had a meeting with him and the elders and he said he felt the spirit stronger than he has in a long time and he just knew that Sister Fox and I were specifically chosen to come here. He is very confident that we will perform miracles for this branch! As is everyone else. We definitely feel the weight of our calling being here.

The Kendallville branch is great but they are kind of stuck at a stand still. There branch has been getting smaller, actually. Even though they have enough members in the area to be a good sized ward-- no one comes! We're working on that, though. I really feel like this branch is on the verge of something great, I just don't know how to get there. I know that with the Lord anything is possible and I know that he has something big in store for this branch. I'm just trying to remind myself that we are His representatives--we're here to accomplish that purpose and He  will provide a way for us to do it. There's a quote in Preach My Gospel by President Hinckley that says

"Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people... Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Chirst."

Don't you love that? I do. I wrote it on a sticky note and hung it on my study desk. I read it every day. You could say it's become by mantra. Just kidding, but that is what I'm really trying to focus on. Forget yourself and go to work, right? Easier said than done, but through the atonement I know that I can change every day and work toward becoming the missionary that God knows I can be. I know that he knows me and I know that I am in Kendallville right now for a reason. I'll let you know when I figure out what that reason is :)

 

In festive news, this week has been filled with Halloween celebrations! Our branch trunk or treat was Wednesday. My favorite part was a game they had set up-- a bucket with a toliet seat on top that you tossed toilet paper rolls into. Haha. We also made apple cider this week! We went through the whole process from picking the apples to putting them through the press. We made 27 and a half gallons! YUM! Saturday morning the kids paraded down main street in their costumes and we sat our front of our apartment and handed out candy and pass along cards :) That night we stopped by a Halloween party a family in our ward was having. They have a lot of property and set up a spooky trail through the woods. It was so fun! I love the people here. I seriously feel like I've been here forever!

 

Funny story of the week-- we went to dinner at a family's house last night. Their 2 year old boy was so excited for the "missionmaries" to come over. When he saw us he said "You're not missionmaries!!" Apparently missionaries here means guys in black suits :) He did warm up to us after I gave him a few (dozen) Halloween stickers. Thanks again Ken and fam :)

Well, there is so much more to say, but this is all you're getting for now. I would love to tell you anything you want to hear if you email and ask though! :)

A boy in our ward dressed up as a missionary for Halloween :)

Making apple cider!

Our cute home on Main Street! (just the top)

I LOVE YOU!

xoxo

Sister Kayla Rolfe'

Corn Fields for Days {10/21/13}

Holy Cow!

What a week. I feel like it's been 5. I'm attaching the voice recordings so you'll know what's going on but....

I moved. (Sorry, I don't know how to attache her voice recordings to the blog!)

To Indiana! What?! I've only been here for 5 days and I feel like Ohio was a lifetime ago. Time is so strange! I miss Eastgate like crazy but I love Kendallville already. You'll hear all about it in my recordings :) Sorry they're really random and probably extremely boring to listen to. Feel free to email me any questions and I'll be happy to write you back!

I love you all so much!

xoxo

Sis Rolfe

Sister Parker and I frantically carved our pumpkins the morning of transfers!

Sister Fox and I were handed car keys to a brand new car and an address after the transfer meeting. Luckily we had a GPS or we would have never made it to Indiana!! We drove on lots of back roads, by millions of corn fields, through many little towns, and even came across this huge lake at one point!

This is the huge staircase to our apartment!

Pictures from my last week in Batavia {10/14/13}

The building behind us is the biggest church you'll ever see where we do the mobile food pantries

Our neighborhood is festive and put up this pumpkin. We love it.

We went to a farm kind of like Staehli Farm and bought baby pumpkins that I'm not going to be able to carve now :( It was so fun!

The Spirit of Mormon and Flying Pigs

Hola!

Sister Parker and I worked real hard scrubbing our apartment this morning so we rewarded ourselves by eating lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant. Okay, I actually didn't like the food that much but it had GREAT atmosphere so I obviously loved it anyway. 

So, missionary work! It has been another amazing week of work and growth. I've never fallen asleep so fast every single night as I do here. It's wonderful. And somehow the Lord blesses me with strength to hop out of bed at 6:22 in the morning and run. How great He is!

Just last night we had a miracle. Let me tell you about it.

We've been struggling to have member present lessons because our pool of progressing investigators is pretty slim right now. Most of our time the past couple weeks has been spent finding. Our goal for member present lessons last week was 5. Saturday night rolled around and as we planned we realized we had only had 3. Seeing as the next day was Sunday and we didn't have any lessons set up with investigators, we did not know how we would reach our goal! We did have faith, though, and we knew that if we did everything we could the Lord would provide a way. 

Fast forward to 7:30 pm Sunday night. We had had one member present lesson and were earnestly praying for one more. After trying to set something up, and not having any success, we decided to stop by the MccIntires (a family in our ward) to drop off a talk to their nephew and have a quick member lesson. The MccIntires graciously welcome us into their home and we had a lovely lesson with them. Then we invited their nephew, Cory, to go teaching with us sometime. You see, Cory is very shy but isn't afraid to tell you no (and he has before). He's 20 and doesn't have a desire to serve a mission although he grew up in the church. He's living with the MccIntires for a few months because his parents hoped it would give him a new outlook and possibly change his mind. 

Anyway, he told us he would! We asked when he could and his uncle answered "Any time!!"

"So...." we asked, "How about now?" And once again, he said yes!!! He hopped in his car, we hopped in ours, and we were off to visit a man we met the day before who told us to come back the next night. We prayed and pleaded fervently in the car that we would witness a miracle and that Cory would have a positive experience. We even texted the President and asked for his prayers. 

We knocked on the man's door and..... no answer. We knock twice more. Still no answer. So we decide to drive to a potential down the road. On the way, we saw a group of people outside so we stopped to talk to them. One of them, John, actually had quite a few questions for us and we ended up having a lesson with him! He wanted a Book of Mormon and our number but wouldn't commit to a specific return appointment. Although we were thrilled to get our member present goal, we felt like Cory could have had a better experience. We said our goodbyes, invited him to come again, and just as we were about to part Cory asked us if he could ask each of us a personal question. We agreed.

"Why are you here?" he asked. It was quiet for a second. Then Sister Parker and I got to share our journeys with Cory and bare testimony of missionary work and the power and influence it has had in our lives. It was powerful. I know this was what Cory needed tonight. It was a miracle.

The Lord doesn't always answer prayers how we expect, but He does answer prayers.

In more exciting news-- Sister P and I taught over 30 lessons this week!! Holy cow. No wonder I'm always so exhausted! We also had 6 people at church which is really quite exciting. Guess what else happened at church yesterday? Your favorite missionary spoke! Hopefully I'm your favorite missionary so I'm not a liar. I was called Saturday night and we were busy proselyting so I gathered my thoughts on the way to church! It went really well though. You know me--I love speaking in church! Elder Marchello also talked! Still crazy to me that we're in the same ward. I said in my talk that I've been in Eastgate my entire mission (so far) and I wouldn't mind staying here my entire mission. The stake president was sitting on the stand and I hear that he smiled and nodded so I'm hoping he'll put in a good word for me. 

Let me tell you a few more more reasons I loved this week:

1. We found an enchanted neighborhood in the woods
2. We got to see Jamie!! (another miracle story)
3. Mandi sent me the cutest picture book! THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Seriously, it made my day. I can't wait for more photo shoots. My special requests are Snow Canyon State Park and the Dixie Rock. And Rosenburch could be fun. And the Jubilee of Trees and Dickens of course. And the road in Bloomington I love (mom do you know what I'm talking about?)
4. Sis. P and I got caught in a HUGE rainstorm and sung hymns while walking/proselyting in the pouring rain
5.A Jehovah's witness gave us sweet potatoes

And last, but certainly not least, my crazy story for the week. We had a lesson with an awesome recent convert we meet every week. He's 21 and is kinda sorta thinking about a mission. After his lesson we invited him to contact a referral with us at his complex. He was skeptical but we told him it would be a good missionary experience. So, we knock and this sweet little old lady answers and says, "You're the Mormons!" We say, "Yes we are!!" And then things turn upside down. She starts freaking out-- telling us Joseph Smith was a liar and did we know he want to jail?? Yes, yes we did. She kept telling us you're so young and you don't know what you're doing! Apparently she wrote a book about Joseph Smith. She asks if we're afraid of her prayers. Uh, no... should we be? So she prays for us and locks us with Sis P and commands the Spirit of Mormon that is attached to us to be taken from us in the name of Jesus whether it be in an hour or a week. I'm not exactly sure what the Spirit of Mormon is but I'm pretty sure I've still got it! 

Anyway, we got out of there and Tony says, "Is this what happens to you guys every day?!" 

Luckily not :) 

I love you!!! Don't lose that Spirit of Mormon ;)

xoxo

Sis Rolfe

Sis. P and I after getting caught in a massive rainstorm

We finished our painting in our basement!! The weather vane is because we are so directionally challenged and it had to be topped with a flying pig because we live in Porkopolis!

We have lovely picnic dinners in Polo Fields when we spend our evenings proselyting and no one wants to feed us. We usually feel/look quite homeless.

Read at your own risk-- I might be losing my mind {9/16/13}

Another wonderful week in the great and marvelous OHIO!

A lot of you have been asking me if it's fall here yet. Well, last week my answer was NO WAY! It got so hot and humid. Yikes. It was pretty miserable. But I am pleased to announce that this week has been perfectly lovely and fall is surely on it's way to Cincinnati!! Ah, I just love it. 

So, once again I am at a loss of where to start. My thoughts are so scattered trying to think about everything that's happened in a whole entire week. I think I'll tell you a little about my schedule. "A Day in the Life" if you will. Oh goodness this sounds incredibly boring but I'm literally sitting here staring at the screen at a loss for words so here goes nothing.

6:20 roll out of bed and pray/try not to fall asleep

6:30 pray with my comp and head outside to run. It's pitch dark when we run and it's so strange. It feels like the middle of the night! We either run around our neighborhood or cross the street to Avalon Gardens-- a magical forest somewhat like Narnia.

7:00 get ready for the day!

8:00 personal study, except not really because we're not studying for ourselves. We study with one of the investigators we're teaching that day in mind and in case you were wondering we study upstairs in Blackham territory (haha). Brother Blackham always tells us to have a good missionary day when he leaves for work and we love it. I don't actually believe I could have a good day without that it's such a part of our routine!

9:00 Companion study! We sing and pray and recite My Commission and our mission scripture and read out of the white handbook! Then we talk about the marvelous things we've studied, role play teaching our investigators, and read the Book of Mormon. We have become so Mormon nerdy! But it's okay because we're missionaries. Starting over the Book with our mission, highlighting it like I told you about, has given me this burning love for the Book of Mormon. Don't get me wrong, I always loved it, but now I am giddy to read it and ah I just can't even describe my feelings. I love it so so much. We are SO lucky to have the Book of Mormon and I'm so sad that I took it for granted for so long! It was literally written by prophets thousands of years ago specifically for US right here right now. Amazing.

10:00 Training! I learn how to be a really great missionary like my dear Sister Parker. We watch the District and read PMG and what not. 

11:00-9:00 teach the gospel!!! We get a lunch and dinner break of course but other than that we are going to appointments, knocking doors, doing service projects-- all that good stuff. I am not going to lie-- it is absolutely exhausting! But so worth it!

9:00 plan for tomorrow

9:30 get ready for bed/listen to conference call if there is one/write in my grateful journal

10:30 collapse in bed after praying of course. Honestly I don't think it's taken me longer than 5 minutest to fall asleep since I've been here.

Then it starts all over again! P Day starts the same until 10. 10-6 we do laundry, clean house, clean and vacuum car, grocery shop, go to the library to email, write letters, and anything else we might need to do! Then we teach all night. 

Now I get to tell you something exciting if you're still reading that is. I'm terribly sorry for all of that nonsense. Anyway, last night we were on conference call listening to all the zone and sister training leaders report their weekly numbers and guess what! Sister P and I had the most new investigators in the mission! Not that it's a competition or anything, but I was pretty excited because we've been working so hard on that since all of our investigators dropped off the face of the Earth. It's so neat listening to everyone's reports though. We get to listen to everyone's miracles. Wow. I wish I could just email you those. It is truly amazing what the Lord will do for his children so they will have opportunities to hear the Gospel.

Here's my funny/cute story of the week. A dear family that I love, the Hurst family, came to church with us yesterday (they're investigators). Their 8 year old Aurora and I are basically best friends and she calls me Ralphie. Not Sister or anything, just Ralphie. Haha. And she loves my "gold book" (my scriptures). She always tells me that when she grows up she's going to be a missionary too and that she's going to take good care of me!

Another quick one-- I forgot to mention in my schedule that we pray all the time for everything. In and out of the car and house etc etc. The other day I accidentally prayed that the people we were meeting with would feel fear instead of the Spirit. :) Oops!

Oh get this. Sister P and I chopped and hauled wood for a guy the other night. He was pretty impressed. Unfortunately, he's not too interested in the Gospel, but we will see about that. He was pretty shocked when we actually showed up at his house in our service clothes a week after we talked about it!

Oh goodness! I almost forgot my miracle story!! We were at the church for Ward correlation the other night. Our meeting was moved back an hour and that is the only time during the week we're at church aside from Sunday. This lady comes into the room and says I need them! (Pointing to sis P and I) so we go out in the hall with her and we know she looks familiar but honestly have no idea who she is. Turns out we are teaching her father in law. Anyway. She just found out she has cancer for the second time and she has to take a bus every day downtown to get treatment but she literally has no money. She had just found out that day and had been at her house crying all day when God told her to find us. She had never even offically met us--just seen us at her dad's house next door! So she found out where I church was and came exactly when we were there. Wow. The Elders gave her a blessing and we gave her some numbers and information for organizations that could help her. It was amazing but it gets more miraculous. When Sis P and I left later we realized that the door to the building was locked!! I have honestly no idea how she even got in the church-- oh and her car was on empty. God is a God of miracles! If he wasn't he would cease to be God!

Okay. I'm contemplating erasing this whole thing because It is so random but then you would get no email so hopefully you get something out of this. 

I LOVE YOU!
xoxo
Sister Kay Rolfe

We ate at the cutest cafe in Newtown. It was born the same year as me!

After church we had lunch with a sweet lady in our ward and her mom who we're actually teaching. The Blackhams were also there! Yay! We had pumpkin ice cream and it was delicious.

This is the WONDERFUL Martha!! I literally do not know how this woman does everything she does. Wow. She amazes me! Anyway, she is so very sweet and calls Ma and Pa!

I almost killed a dog {9/9/13}

I don't know where to start so how about with this.. I LOVE YOU!!

Really, I do. I cried and cried this morning because we were talking about families during our companion study and I was just so sad that families are not important in our society anymore and that I was one of the very few who was sent to a perfect family (hahaha). Really though, we are so so lucky.

Okay, no more sappiness. For now. I'm sure you're all dying to know how Sister Parker's and my life as a Sister Training Leader companionship is going, right?! Okay, probably not, but I'll tell you anyway because I bet Dad actually really wants to know. Well, not much has changed beside us feeling a ton of pressure to be awesome because our area is known for being super duper successful. We were both a little overwhelmed. BUT, all is well. We've overcome that and I'll explain in a minute. Anyway, my favorite part so far is that we get to listen to the bi-weekly leadership conference calls. Yes, I am crazy and love conference calls. You would too, though. It's the President, Assistants, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders and it's powerful. I LOVE it. I am so blessed to be receiving this training as a greenie!

Back to us being overwhelmed. Eastgate is basically always on fire. Sister Parker and I felt like we started on but these past couples weeks our flame has been smothered. Seriously, almost all of our investigators have dropped or gone Anti. Not good! We got in a little bit of a rut. We've been working so hard on becoming better missionaries and being obedient we had no idea how this could have happened! 

We were set and determined to "step into the realm of the miraculous" Sunday (as president says. We were ready and willing to pay the price, whatever it may be. Let me tell you. Blessings were literally poured out upon us. People!! Put everything in God's hands and then have faith. That is all it takes. We asked Him for 4 investigators and promised that we would follow His will in finding them. We prayed for guidance all day and we were led. We had the most powerful companion study we've had yet and were simply reading scriptures about Christ from the Book of Mormon to each other. I had the clearest revelation that we needed to simplify our teaching. All we needed to do was read the Book of Mormon and bear powerful testimony of what we know. We did just that and the results were incredible. We talked to a man at his door for no longer than 7 minutes and he was in tears because of the Spirit (so were we!!). I feel like I broke down a huge wall, or something finally clicked, and I was finally the bold missionary I've been trying so hard to find. I've known all along what kind of missionary I wanted to be and I've been praying so hard to be able to give of all my heart, might, mind, and strength, and yesterday everything just kind of fell into place. I don't even know exactly what it was. But I do know that it was because of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that through His atonement we can be made whole and that everything that is unfair about life will be made right. I know that I am a daughter of a gracious Father in Heaven and I know that He knows and loves me personally. 

I love my mission so much and there is nowhere in this world i would rather be than here because I know this is exactly where my Father has placed me. 

Sister Parker and I started over the Book of Mormon and New Testament, reading them side by side. Our mission also started over the Book of Mormon, but we each got a new copy and are highlighting everything about Christ, all of the miracles, and the story line. We're going to finish by Thanksgiving! I encourage you all to do the same. Get a blank copy of the Book and reading highlighting only one specific thing-- the Savior, faith, anything you want to learn more about or understand more fully. I know that the Book of Mormon is the most true book on this Earth and that if we read it prayerfully, with real intent, we will find answers to every question. I love it. I love it so much. 

Oh! And we didn't get 6 new investigators. WE GOT 8!!

I don't know how to transition this, but let me lighten things up a little and tell you my funny/embarrassing/ "yep, I'm still the same Kayla" story of the week. 

 

We really needed to find new investigators the other day and we didn't have much time so we prayed in our car and when we opened our eyes there were two ladies standing right in front of us! We talked to one of them and she really needed it. We're meeting again! Anyway, she referred us to her elderly neighbor whose only friend is her dog she's had forever. But the dog is really sick. 

So we go to J's house (the old lady). And she is so sweet and invites us right in and tells us her whole life story! She tells us about how much she loves her dog and the dog comes limping in. So I lean over the pet the dog (I'm sitting on the couch) and much scriptures slide off my lap and hit the little dog smack dab on the head and the dog stumbles and bashes her head into the coffee table! I'm obviously mortified. I probably just killed this poor woman's dog who is her only family. Luckily, the dog was fine and there were no hard feelings. Anyway, I don't know if this was one of those you had to be there situations, but that night I couldn't even get myself together I was laughing so hard over it. That would happen to me!

Well, I love you all and I will do my best not to kill any precious pets or family members this week. I would appreciate it if you did the same.

xoxo,

Sister Rolfe

Oh and please please please pray for Jamie!! Her friends, ugh, are trying to convince her the Mormons are a cult and they are basically the only friends she has so she is really wavering. Why people feel it's okay to spread crazy rumors about our church I do not know! 

We got three new elders this week in our ward! Two English and one Spanish  The Spanish elder is Elder Marchello from Meridian, Idaho!! AKA the Elder from Sandi's ward she kept telling me to watch for!! Yep, he's in my ward! Crazy! 

We went to Chick Fil A with Brother Alex! Our Lebanese friend who I told you about last week. He's doing much better! We gave him a pass along card and he  read the back... "What is my purpose in life" then he got so excited and said (in his thick accent) "Oh! I must read this!!"