6/24/13

Dear Friends and Family,

Well it's been a crazy, busy, great week. I just dropped off my companion at the mission office this morning :( sister Fleming is all done with her mission. I can't believe it. What else is funny is that until I get my new companion I will be with Sister Baum until she gets her new companion as well. So I'm with my last companion today in the last area I served in, in the same library I used to write from and we were both trained by Sister Fleming.

So as far as news goes. The reason I don't have a companion is because I'm training.... Yep. The Lord is very patient to make me a trainer. I just finished my own training and now here I go. I've only been in the area for one transfer and I don't know the area as well as I should and I know I have many inadequacies so this will definitely be a time of patience, and learning, and growing. I had a feeling from day one that I was with Sister Fleming that I would be training so I've been paying close attention to all she does and tried to learn and remember all I could. so far I'm two for two with predicting transfers, we'll see if I get the next one right! haha. I'm grateful for this opportunity I will have to train. It's sad when you see other missionaries that are disobedient or gossipy or don't seem to care much or other things like that and I'm grateful to be with a new companion so we can work together to not be any of those things and not bring any disobedience into the mission. I've been noticing my weaknesses a lot lately which isn't always fun but it's good for us all to strive to do better and be more repentant. The gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism/ sacrament, endure to the end) is the key to life but we have to actually DO it which means continually repenting and looking to the ward for strength.

No baptisms or investigators with baptismal dates to report. At times I get frustrated with myself that I haven't had any yet but I have to remember that I can always do better and that everyone still has their agency and that I can always repent and move forward/ do better. There has been a bit of a drought lately it seems as far as teaching and baptizing go in this area but I have great hope, faith, and renewed determination and drive to get working harder and live and teach my purpose better (the gospel of Jesus Christ). The work will move forward here and we will baptize. It will be wonderful. It's happening I just need to get my act together better and live and breathe and teach and love the gospel of Jesus Christ at all times.

If you didn't watch the general Leadership Broadcast this past Sunday do it. Watch it by yourself, with your families, whatever you can do. Every member of the church should watch it and pay attention to the promptings they get and then get up and do them right away without delay. We need your help! I love you all. Have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister Chelsey Fjeldsted

6/17/13

Dear Family and Friends,
This week was great. I had some pretty low points where I was very very discouraged at the begining of the week but my attitude has turned around completely. We had two exchanges this week (Sister Fleming is a sister trainer- which is like a sister zone leader) so she has to go on exchanges with all the sisters in the zone and help them. The fist was in our area and I was with sister Fogavai. She is from American Samoa and she is absolutely wonderful. She told me about her and her family's conversion to the church. I learned a lot from her and really enjoyed serving with her. She's been out for about a year so she had lots of great advice for me. The second was awesome as well. I was with sister Harker. Her and sister Fleming and a few other are like the legand sisters in the area. I think it's silly that people in the mission put some missionaries above others in the way they talk but i'm just saying it how it is. Either way, she really is amazing. She reminds me of what I'll probaly be like by the end of my mission: assertive, loving, bold, kind. Kind of like Grandma Ann. Most of the time I don't feel very confident since I've just been out 12 weeks and haven't even finished my training yet so I'm not quite assertive or bold yet much of the time but there are circumstances where I am. It's amazing to be someone who's confident not because of who they are in a cocky sense but because they know who they are- diciples of Christ, children of God- and He will not let us be confounded before men so we have no reason to fear. She's still humble though which is amazing and something I need to work on. I figured out one huge thing I need to learn at this part of my mission: patience. There's in overriding theme that comes up in everything I do. Everything is taking FOREVER and I get really frustrated really easily. The work is moving slowly, our investigators are moving slowly, everything seems to be slow and I'm trying so hard to do EVERYTHING I can and asking for the Lord's help. I need to learn to be patient with members, investigators, everyone and remember that people have their agency. Heavenly Father is so patient with me each day and always so it isn't fair for me to be impatient with others. I also need to learn to be more patient with myself. Patience defined in Christ like attributes in Preach My Gospel (chaper 6) is described so well. Patience means waiting without getting frustrated or discouraged because we love them. It's not supposed to be endure to the end and grin and bear it the whole way but rather endure to the end and love every part of this human exsistance both the good times and the difficult times.
I saw lots of miracles this week. There were probably more miracles at the begining of my mission but my eyes weren't open to it as much. On Saturday when I was with sister Harker we taught a lesson to an investigator in their area whom I've never met in my life and our fellowship was a couple that was previously mission presidents. No pressure. And I've only been out for 12 weeks. And the sister I'm teaching with (sister harker) is on the last week of her mission. Awesome. I actually wasn't too nervous but I was just kind of thinking, well I sure hope I don't mess this one up. We tried to teach him the plan of salvation starting with the pre-exsistance and it was a bit of a struggle because he was Cathloic and doesn't believe in that. We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and Gift of the Holy Ghost and how it testifies of truth and how he needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost before he will know. Then talked about the plan of salvation. It went okay but not fantastic. Sister Harker made a coment about something that rememinded of something I should tell him but then sister Collins spoke so I didn't then what she said made me think of something else. Then before I know it her husband cuts in and says I know these things are true and basically closed the discussion. But I still had so much left to say! Then the investigator said thanks to each of us and when he got to me he said thanks for being here even though it wasn't my area and I was just here for the day and thanks for my testimony and I basically said you're welcome it was great to be here but I have one more thing to say. I shared my personal testimony of the atonement and different points of it that came clear to me at different times in my life and was able to explain how it helped me better understand the plan of salvation, how it all fit together, and how I have been able to understand over time greater through the power of the Holy Ghost and that he can too. He just looked straight at me and I couldn't tell what he was thinking, if he was like what she's crazy or wow that's awesome and when I was done he was just like stunned and said plainly, How did you know? How did you know that was exactly everything I needed to hear and what I was wondering about and that what you said put everything together for me? It was an amazing experience. Sometimes it takes the weak things of this world to just be the ones that are like I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm unexperienced so please help me to know what to say Heavenly Father. Another blessing of being new is that I'm not stuck in usual teaching patterens or ways of teaching the same all the time so I can let the spirit work more fully and to be able to talk with people not to people and teach people not lessons which is something I always need to work on. Anther cool thing that happened that day was that Sister Harker and I contacted some former and potential investigators who were in her area I was in for the day (Temple City). It was a Hispanic family and they were so nice. She and I were able to use our Spanish again which was a blessing that I could remember it. They were so nice and when we left we asked if we could say a prayer. We asked the 20 year old son if he would but he said he'd never prayed before so we taught him how and he did! He prayed for the first time with us. It was wonderful. Another cool miracle- we've been meeting with a lady name Patty and she's from MN! We had a great visit with her last night. She's not exactly interested in the church yet but we talked about families and how we can be with our families forever. We then realized that she's from a broken family so sister Fleming was promted to say that Heavenly Father will also take care of those with broken families and everything will work out. She began to cry and out of the kindness of her heart said that I hope you two young ladies find wonderful young men someday to marry. It was very sweet. She has a grown daughter probably in her 30s and mentioned that she's not married and wants to be with someone but is having a hard time with dating and such so she asked us to pray for her- that was last week- and so we did in our closing prayer before we left. She told us yesterday- a week later- that her daughter later called her and said that last Sunday at like 8:30pm (the exact time we met with her and prayed for her) she found a guy! Nothing serious yet but he is interested in her and they've been talking and went on a date or something. We also found out that she knows a memeber in our ward. So we're going to bring her next week as fellowship and teach her the plan of salvation. I'm really excited. It's funny because numbers (key indicators- like lessons taught, etc.) don't mean anything if there isn't real growth taking place. We've seen so many miracles lately and have many great things ahead that can't be put into those key indicators. This transfer has been a bit rough as far as finding and teaching. We haven't taught a single first discussion to a new investigator once this transfer if that paints a picture for you and the very few investigators we do have are slowly progressing but we've been making greater efforts to work harder and ask for the Lord's help. I have great hope and I think there are great things instore these next few months. I also have a feeling I'll be here for a long long time. I think there's something I need to do here and much to learn and people to find. There's great work to be done. I love the Lord and I am so grateful to be serving him. I have finally come to the point that I don't want to be home I really really don't. I want to be here. Not that I haven't always but I just really don't want to come home. It's a blessing how our attitude changes when we better internalize our purpose and are here for the people and to do the Lord's work. I am so blessed.
One last awesome thing to share for dad. There's an awesome Korean family in the ward and they had us over and fed us tonkatsu and korean beef! My favorite foods! I hope someday to serve in a Korean branch here. That would be my dream come true. I love Koreans.
Have a great week everyone and I wonderful vacation. I love you all. You're in my prayers. Let me know what I can do for all of you.

6/10/13

Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings from La Canada. I hope everyone is doing well! Maddy and Jakob are almost done with school! What are the vacation plans (besides Jakob traveling the world)? If you go to Utah or wherever be sure to tell everyone hello for me.
Something funny happened this week. Sister Fleming told me there was a Fjeldsted contact in our mission phone and I thought she was crazy but sure enough there was. Then a few days later I ran into someone at church that told me she knows Paul and Courtney (I can't remember her name....) and then she said that they used to be in La Cresenta (as far as I know she's right) and our phone used to be in that area. We are also in the La Cresenta stake so I'm right where they used to live, if that source is accurate. But I thought that was pretty funny I'm right where they used to be. I also met a lady in this ward who served in Minnesota! She actually served in Anoka which is funny because that's now our stake back home. Her name is Sister Milum (I'm not sure how it's really spelled). She told us some crazy stories of serving there about crazy Minnesotans on their farms and it made me laugh because I knew what she was talking about.
The work here has been going to say the least. I have a hope and faith that things can and will turn around but as of late we've had a bit of a dry spell. We're only teaching a couple people and they haven't been coming to church so technically they aren't progressing. I love them all so much though but there will always be that element of agency and they will on their own have to have that desire increase in themselves to lead them to action. So planning is hard because when there's no one to teach what do you do? Find efforts on our own haven't been much of a success either. It's the same thing every time. We knock on someone's door and tell them who we are and that we have a message about Christ for them and then they just kind of look at us like we're crazy  and then proceed to tell us thanks for all we do for spreading the word of God but we have a church we go to and we're happy there. It's like they have a script or something it's the same every time. We know there is a much better way to find that is more effective and productive and that's through the members. The Sunday before last we had stake conference and they made a big push for missionary work. The Stake President did a great job and President Becerra and his wife (our mission president) spoke which was also great. But now it's a matter of them taking it into their hearts and applying it. It's great to talk about but until we actually do something- invite our friends to church, invite friends over while the missionaries are over, talk to people about the church- then nothing can happen. Sister Fleming and I have continued to fast and pray about ways to get the work going and to get the members excited and actively involved in missionary work and I have great faith that something good can come from this.
I had a few really neat experiences this week. The first was when I went on exchanges with a sister in our district. She came to my area so my companion (who's a sister trainer) could be with her companion (who's training) to help give guidance and direction and help her in any way. So I was holding down the fort in our area with a brand new missionary and we saw some great miracles that day. I find that God is so merciful to each and everyone of us. The experiences that sister and I had that day probably gave her greater hope and enthusiasm for the work and the Lord provided a path for that. That sister and I were able to have several lessons in one day which is more we sometimes get in several days. A really cool experience I had was right before an appointment we had a bit of extra time so I figured we'd just go through the ward list and visit either a less active member, part member family or something would be a good use of our time. I went through and found one that looked good to me and asked my companion for the day what she thought and pretty much said yeah sure since she was kind of just along for the ride that day. When we got there I realized that sister Fleming and I had actually tried this home before but no one answered so I figured we'd just try it again. At first no one answered but then a maid came to the door and answered (pretty much everyone in La Canada has gardeners and maids). She answered the door and said sorry I don't speak much English and somehow I just naturally responded in Spanish "It's okay. Do you work here?" She was a little surprised I spoke a little Spanish then respond that she did. We had a great conversation in Spanish about the church and I told her that we were missionaries. She told us about all her extended family how most of them were members of the church and how she has a nephew that is about ready to leave on a mission. My Spanish has been very rusty this past year from not using it much and at that moment that I needed to use it, it wasn't so difficult anymore. It was pretty funny because she offered us water since it was hot that day and I said sure we'd love that and as she walked away sister Denny just looked at me like what just happened who are you and how do you know Spanish like that. I kind of laughed and told her honestly my Spanish is really rusty and I'm not that great at Spanish. The Lord has a way of blessing us in times of need to recall things we need to know that will help us to bless the lives of others. It's not like I just started speaking in tongues and I didn't all of a sudden know any new big words or anything but what I did already know was brought to my remembrance. It's almost hard to explain. The maid (Victoria) would say something and it wasn't like I just all of a sudden knew everything but as soon as she finished each sentence everything fit together in my mind of what she was saying and I remembered things. Honestly, if I just tried to have a conversation with anyone out of the blue in Spanish it wouldn't have been half as decent as my Spanish was then. It was a great blessing. We saw some other miracles along the way this week but I don't have too much more time. I'll have to write more next week! Oh one last thing I can't remember if I mentioned this but sister Fleming and I had the opportunity of teaching Young Woman's combined and it was so funny thinking I'm only like a year and a half older than some of these girls. It's humbling experiences like that where you know you're not adequate or completely qualified on your own but with your call there is great power and authority you can't deny. We taught on personal revelation (through prayer and scripture study). Teaching doesn't seem so hard anymore once you're on a mission because you just teach who you are and what you know through the power of the testimony you've gained and through the power of the scriptures and ask inspired questions and there you go, you've got a lesson. We're also teaching gospel principles this Sunday which will be a great opportunity. I've grateful for the experiences I've had so far to learn and grow and stretch me. God is very merciful to help me grow and learn while I am on my mission when I haven't found anyone yet to be baptized. I am doing everything I can though and I know he knows that and when we are obedient he will bless us (D&C 82:10). My assignment for you this week is to find someone to serve or someone's spirit you can lift but- you have to go out of your way to do it. It has to be sincere and require a little sacrifice on your part. They will be grateful to you. The greatest law is to love the Lord and the second is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself (or something close to that, I think I worded it a little off) and by doing so you'll do both. I love you all. Have a great week and a fabulous summer! (:
D&C 88:118

6/3/13

Dear Family and Friends,
Thanks for all of your love and support. I'm so blessed to have a family that loves and supports me as well as a great ward back at home.
First off I'd like to say- anyone who is a member of the church is a missionary. If you didn't know that- suprise! Missionaries that serve are just full time missionaries. We are sent around the world to help the ward do missionary work where people live already. We're there to assist them and to have them help us find people to teach and who are ready to receive the gospel. We need your help more than ever! Missionary work doesn't have to be scary. Have you prayed or fasted to have missionary experiences? If not, then start! It will be much easier to have those experiences and be open to them if you desire them. Next, because you are a missionary read preach my gospel! Preach my gospel is for everyone! On your own or as a family read out of it regularly. A page a day, once a week on Sunday or for family home evening, whatever you can do is great! It is inspired and is such a great tool. It will help you learn more about sharing the gospel, why it's important and will get you excited to be a missionary. Spencer W. Kimball said that our purpose as saints is: "To proclaim the gospel, to perfect the Saints, and to redeem the dead." The very first thing listed is to proclam the gospel aka be a missionary. It's that important! Do we put it that high on our list. If not we need to change and start doing so. I never understood how important that was before my mission but I'm starting to understand more and more each day.
This week was much better than last. We still haven't found many new people to teach but we're changing our attitudes and outlook on the work and things seem to be going much better even if they are about the same. We have greater faith and desire to share the gospel. We started out with a fast towards the begining of the week and it was actually a pretty rough day that day but we saw some miracles the next day. We fasted to purify our hearts and to rededicate ourselves to the work. We've changed the way we plan and work to be more effective and efficient and we started memorizing scriptures and the articles of faith together and started The Book of Mormon from the begining together. Life goes much better when you focus on what's most important and what the Lord would have you do. Change is hard and it takes a lot of effort but the effects are wonderful.
I had dinner this week with a family- the Owen's- and they lived in Korea the same time as the Smith family in the Plymouth ward. I also went on exchanges with a brand new sister from Utah- Sister Parker- and she has cousins in minnesota, the Crocket family. I think they're in our stake and Jakob might know some of their kids. I know they have a son my age on a mission in Mexico right now. I think that's it this week for connections. It's a small world in the Mormon world I often know someone that other people know.
I had a great expericence this week having a lesson with a recient convert. He's 19 years old and just joined the church in December and he inspires me. He has a rough family life and they pretty much disowned him for joining the church. He is planing on serving a mission as soon as he can when his year mark comes up and he will have zero support from home (well he already has zero support from home). He's incredible though and has a very powerful testimony with such great desire to do what is right. Sister Fleming and I had a wonderful lesson with him at a members home and they were a great support to him as well. We also had a great expericence with an investigator reading the Psalm of Nephi with her (2 Nephi 4). There is a great power and spirit felt by reading The Book of Mormon with real intent. It touched her very strongly and was a great strength to see that a prophet had felt the way she does through all her trials and challenges.
Alma 37:36-37
Thank you so much to Sister Miller and Sister Gardner for the package. I loved it and love you both so much. Thanks so much!
Thank you family for all the letters you send. Sorry I don't have time to write back but I love you all!
Love, Sister Chelsey Fjeldsted