Week 37 Hays

Olá Y'all!

This week was a wild one for sure! We had transfers and because of the cold in Dallas a lot of flights were canceled and so we kept getting it pushed back till Friday. But Elder Dunn was leaving for Brazil and he needed to get to Wichita to a quick covid test before flying internationally. And there was some miscommunication in travel plans, and Elder christiansen and I drove up when weren't supposed to so we had to make the 3 hour drive back to Hays. And then we drove back on Friday to pick up our companion! 

So it was a wild week!  My new comp is Elder Withers and I am super excited to be working with him! I knew him a little before this transfer and he is a stellar missionary, so it is gonna be great! 

This week I was studying in 1 Corinthians 12, and it was an awesome chapter! I love how it talks about the body of the church, and how we all have a critical role to play, whether you watch the little kids or lead the congregation, you are critical and necessary in the household of God! Every person is needed and has important gifts given to them to help in the household of God! So keep working and moving forward and know that God loves you and appreciates what you do! 

Also, Moroni 10 is great! Y'all should read it and look for the promises the Lord gives us in that! 

Alrighty, I am out of time, so it is time for pictures! 

1. I don't know if I already shared this picture but this was our departing gift to Elder Dunn, who is going to Brazil. 

 

2. An awesome frozen river that we walked on 

 

3. Our amazing district playing some games today! 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer. 

Mission Email

Dear Parents,

 

There aren’t words to explain last week.

We planned on saying goodbye to our twelve missionaries on Tuesday morning, but the weather had different plans. Four of them were able to get home and the other eight spent the next five days leaving in ones or twos. Three of the missionaries weren’t able to get home until Saturday.

 

The twenty-six new missionaries we expected on Tuesday arrived here over four days with the last Elder arriving on Saturday. We welcome Elder Riley Allen, Sister Alissa Andrus, Sister Brynlee Barker, Elder Aiden Barrett, Sister Madison Bohn, Elder Broque Domme, Sister Mariell Dopp, Elder Jeffrey Eardley, Sister Kaylee Johnson, Sister Emma Maxwell, Sister Kiana May, Elder Dylan Mclaughlin, Elder Andre Nelson, Elder Guy Pilj, Sister Ashley Rookstool, Elder Kobe Ray, Elder David Saenz, Elder Juan Salazar, Elder Benjamin Shurtleff, Sister Kylie Stahr, Elder Samuel Stanfield, Sister Isabel Wall, Elder Ian Wilson, Elder Arik Windmiller, Sister Tessa Woodin, Elder Richard Worthen.

 

We had temperatures in Wichita that were -14. We had snow for days that didn’t melt until yesterday.

It’s great to finally have everyone here and settled and ready for a successful transfer.

 

We have been able to open up the Covid restrictions a bit. The biggest change is that missionaries are now allowed to teach an investigator lesson at the church, and in a member’s home. They must keep their masks on and maintain social distance.

We are still encouraging them to teach using technology. They can teach more lessons and connect a member in that lesson so easily.

 

Thanks to Elder Weeks and Elder Kutsch for this week’s blitz video. Children are powerful! Please share it on your personal profiles and with your friends.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=426683201879176

 

Here are two other inspiring videos that you can watch and share. This one is from Elder Ingram and Elder Saldana and the social media missionaries.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=226645929166647

 

Sister Gleed and her district put this video together:

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=181014060445674

 

Each Sunday evening, we have a live event hosted by our Facebook pages. Some weeks the missionaries teach short messages that fit the theme of the event. Some weeks we share a conversion story. Yesterday Elder and Sister Cloe (our financial secretary and mission nurse) shared their powerful conversion story. We invite you to watch it and feel of their testimonies. Share it with your friends. It would be fun for you to meet Sister Cloe since for many of you she has worked personally with your missionary.

 

https://www.facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristinWichita/videos/181349576761730

 

This week we say goodbye to Elder Christopher Shaeffer, Elder Samuel Jarvis, Sister Rachel Smith, Sister Hope Bates, Elder Benjamin Barnes, Elder Andrew Hyde, Elder Ethan Slade, and Elder Ryan Romero.

 

We have appreciated so much the consecrated work of these Elders and Sisters. They have been remarkable. We send them with our love and know what great things they will do to gather Israel.

 

Parents, if I might, can I please say a few words about the returning of missionaries to their originally assigned missions. The majority of our reassigned missionaries are digging their roots deep into Kansas soil while others can find it difficult to focus all their efforts here.  We know and understand the desire of your missionary and your desires that they have the opportunity to serve where they were originally called. As we talk with our representatives from Salt Lake, they are well aware of these desires which echo the desires of the Brethren.

 

We know that many of you are connected with other moms, groups and sometimes even missions that share the news of their returning missionaries. Perhaps you share that news with your missionary each week. We invite you to be sensitive to the conflict it might cause in your missionary’s mind and heart. We are making our greatest efforts to help them stay focused on the task at hand and they are receiving news of others who are leaving. The scripture says that “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways” James 1:8

 

Even when a missionary receives notice that they are on a “list”, we remind you that they are not leaving until we receive flight plans from the missionary department, and this is the only source we can react to with confidence. Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes it takes months.

 

We believe the best preparation for their future assignment is focusing wholeheartedly on their current assignment.  We try to help the missionaries remember that we don’t serve because of our assignment, or location. We serve because of our covenants.

 

Thank you for your support. We appreciate it and we feel it.

 

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245

Week 36 - Hays

Olá Y'all!

This week was pretty good. We did some service and taught some pretty good lessons. Some of y'all may have seen, but we helped out at catholic charities, which is always fun. We also have a lady, Kathy, that we love to do service for. She isn't interested in our message but she calls us at least once a week to come help her out with different things 

It was also freezing cold! Today the wind chill, it was 34 degrees! I can literally feel the cold air entering my lungs! 

And lastly this upcoming week was transfers and I will be staying here in Hays for another 6 weeks! I am happy because Hays is awesome! Sadly Elder Belnap will be transferring somewhere and I will be getting a new companion! 

And this week I was studying in Mormon 9 and verses 19-21 stood out to me! They say 

      "19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth." 

These scriptures are very powerful! There is a God of Miracles here on the Earth today! He loves each one of us and when we love him back we can expect miracles in our lives. I'm not saying our life will be perfect, but it will full of joy and miracles when we love God and exercise faith in Him and Jesus Christ. 

Alrighty, I am out of time, so it is time for pictures! 

1. Delicious district breakfast to end the transfer 

 

 

2. Weather this morning. Who knew Kansas could get so freaking cold! 

 

 

3. Elder Belnap 

 

4. Kathy, the wonderful lady we get to do service for all the time 

 

 

 

5-6. Some more service at Catholic Charities 

7. A funny meme about most missions nowadays 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.

 

Mission Email

 

Dear Parents,

 

Greetings from the North Pole!! We were told yesterday that Kansas hasn’t had these freezing temperatures for this many days in over a decade. Another opportunity to experience something new in Kansas for all of us. For the first time in nearly a year, we are all grateful that we must wear masks.

 

We’ve talked with the missionaries about being wise and staying warm and out of the freezing temperatures. Please remind them about that as you talk together today.

 

It’s transfer week. Wait to mail any packages to your missionary until you get their new address next Monday. Here are the dates for transfers for the rest of the year. It’s best not to mail a package the week before transfers in the case your missionary will be leaving that area of assignment.

March 29-31

June 21-23

August 2-4

September 13-15

October 25-27

December 6-8

 

We say goodbye this week to an incredible group of missionaries. Those returning home and those returning to their previously assigned missions.

 

Sister Emily Allen, Sister Emma Brownell, Sister Butikofer, Elder Riley Cahoon, Elder Seth Dodge, Sister Sueyzen Fong, Sister Maisy Hollingshead, Elder Kayden Lamb, Sister Salma Salazar, Sister Alina Tingey, Sister Lauren Woodbury, Sister Kylie Lealiifano, Elder Maximus Osmond, Elder Zachary Peterson, Elder Reagan Gardenhire, and Elder Dallin Dunn.

 

These missionaries have blessed, taught, and served the people in Kansas, their fellow missionaries, and their branch and ward members. We are grateful for and love each one of them.

 

Here is the Blitz video this week from the Great Bend District. It’s teaching God’s plan of Salvation in 90 seconds. It’s powerful! Thank you for sending it to your profiles and sharing it with your friends.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=258886285901132

 

We love your missionary. Thank you for your sacrifice so that they can bless the people here in the heartland.

 

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245

Week 35 Hays

 

Olá Y'all!

This week was a pretty good one! We had exchanges which was pretty good! That just means I got to spend a day with another missionary, Elder Christiansen! He's a cool guy and it was fun spending the day with him and teaching with him. 

We also got a little bit of leniency with our covid rules! Woot woot! That is nice but we are still doing most things over our phone. 

And probably one of the better stories I have told yet. So someone requested a bible and they live in a town about 25 miles south of Hays. It is also 12 degrees outside with a real feel of -2. So Elder Belnap and I head out to La Crosse, the little town, to deliver the Bible. And we get a notification on our car saying that the tires are low on air, and that is the only notification/warning we receive, which makes sense because it is super freaking cold. Well, after about 20 miles we notice that our car is starting slow down even though we are trying to speed up! I am trying to figure out why, and we check our gas and we are out of gas!  So we cruise to a turn and park there, on some private property. Probably someone's farm. And we sit and ponder in dismay at our stupidity. 🤦🏻‍♂️ and then our car tells us we are wasting too much battery, so we had to turn off our car. We didn't want to push our luck. And it started getting pretty cold at that point. We only had small coat, cause were gonna be driving for most of the trip and our car did not hold heat very well. And the other elders couldn't come do anything cause we had the car. The closest missionaries with a car were at least an hour away, probably an hour and half. Except for the sisters in our area. so we called the sisters in our area and they were luckily not super busy.  After about an hour they got us some gas, and then we had to fill up our car. By the time we were done filling our car with gas, my hands were blue and purple! I have never seen them that cold! But mercifully, it was enough to drive the rest of the way to the small town to get more gas and deliver the Bible! So, that was our story of almost freezing but we are all okay now. 

Now with that, it is time for a scripture I really liked this week! It is in Alma 36:3, and it says "I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." This scripture means so much for me because of the blessings I have seen from putting my trust in God! Believe me, it's not always easy(the Lord usually doesn't pick the rash way) but it is always worth it. Whether your trial is that you ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere Kansas, or something else, the Lord will support us. We all have unique trials and only the Lord can help every one of us! So choose to put your trust in Christ, especially when it is hard! It will always be worth it! 

Alrighty, I am out of time, so it is time for pictures! 

1. A cool snowflake that landed on our car. 

2. A fun church we got to go to! We are now teaching and studying with their pastor! 

3. Some king cake we got for the season! 

4+ the rest are all pictures and videos(that I hope play) from our adventure with the car! Including a kinda sucky panorama, sorry. My hands were shaking from the cold at that point. Yay! 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.

Mission Email

 

Dear Parents,

 

Thank you for your amazing sons and daughters and the privilege we have to work with them.

This week we will say goodbye to Elder Ellingson who is returning to Brazil.

 

We had two incredible days of interviews and trainings with the Garden City zone. The missionaries serving in Garden City have been heroes to many of the citizens there. President and Sister Steel – 1^st Counselor in the mission presidency – live in Garden City and they work closely with the missionaries.

 

Garden City has had a significant problem this year with tumbleweeds. Thousands of them have been blown into the outlying neighborhoods and they have literally filled the backyards of people and piled up against their homes.

 

Sister Steel and the missionaries have gathered up and burned thousands of tumbleweeds.

This service has softened hearts regarding the church and the missionaries. Neighbors have posted on Facebook about the missionaries who have been lifesavers and have served for free.

 

One of the families asked if the missionaries could give them a Book of Mormon and teach them about the church, because they said that they wanted their family to be like these fine young men and women.

 

The Lord softens hearts in a variety of ways. Who would have known that it would be tumbleweeds?

 

This is an example of the good that our missionaries are doing all throughout Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. As Ammon said, “that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words.” Alma 17:29

 

Thank you for teaching your missionary how to work, how to serve, and how to lift.

 

I told you about the WAVE in last week’s letter. What an incredible job all the missionaries did. Working with the members and with your help as well, we had 3092 new people like our FB pages!! Our hope is that the majority of these are not-yet-members.

 

Here is the video for this week’s blitz. Thank you for helping us in our FB work.

We’d like to thank Elder Jones, Elder Alano, Elder Layton, and their film crew for this great video on family history.

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4124281250925010

 

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245

Week 34 Hays

Olá Y'all!

We had a pretty good week here in Hays! We had a big Conference/training down in Wichita so that means I got to spend most of Wednesday down in Great Bend, which is about an hour south of here and then we got to drive to Wichita that night and we had a great Conference in Wichita the next day! It was quite inspiring and has helped me learn a lot of new things! The speaker, elder Rawson, went to speak to us without any pre-thought-of points, or topics he wanted to discuss! And it is amazing how the spirit directed his thoughts to be exactly what we needed! His words touched everyone who was there! 

Besides that it was a pretty regular week! We got our fridge fixed and played in some snow! 

This week I was studying a lot about desires and I have learned that God, in general, will give us the true, and deepest desires of our hearts! There is a scripture in Alma 41 that kind of shows this, in verse 5 it says "The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh." God truly will give us the desires of our heart! That does not mean that life will be easy, or a piece of cake, but it does mean that God knows what things will make us happiest and he will give us those things because he is a God of love! 

Alrighty, I am out of time, so it is time for pictures!

1-3: some of you may recognize this, but here is Steve, our snowman we made for a FB video! 

 

4. I know this may be a bad picture, but this is pretty much our entire day in Great Bend! It was kind of hard to do work, especially when you aren't in your area, but we managed to do it. 

This is all for now! Feel free to email me if you would like or if you have any questions or people to pray for! Hope y'all have a great week! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.

Mission Email

 

Dear Parents,

 

We had five remarkable sessions of zone conferences and leadership training with our Area Authority Elder Rawson and his wife Linda. They are powerful teachers, and it was a revelatory experience for everyone. I hope that your missionary shares with you what they learned and what they hope to change and accomplish.

 

This is the second year that the Rawson’s have held conferences for the missionaries here in Wichita. Both years the drive for many missionaries was snowy and a bit scary. Lots of prayers were said and we are grateful for safety upon all of our missionaries.

 

Transfers take place on the 16^th of February. If you were thinking about sending a package for Valentine’s Day make sure you get it to your missionary’s apartment before transfers occur.

 

Thank you for joining us in our social media work.

The WAVE which started last week brought 1,239 new followers to our Facebook pages. In their efforts to get fellow missionaries excited about the WAVE there were lots of videos of Elders sitting in bathtubs of water in their proselyting clothes, buckets of water dumped on missionaries, buckets of water thrown on missionaries, and big puddles being stomped onto missionaries. They are creative! It worked!

The WAVE continues for one more week. The zone with the highest number of new followers to their page wins bragging rights, and a treat at their next zone conference. Inviting your non-member friends to like/follow your missionary’s page will help their cause.

 

This week’s Blitz video was from the Topeka Zone. It’s called “Profound Truths” and it reached 5,184 people. Please share it to your profiles and with your friends. It’s an inspiring video.

 

https://www.facebook.com/100746881606222/videos/319344632832652/

 

We will be saying goodbye this week to Elder Matthew Lloyd, Elder Bonilla, and Elder Facer who will be returning to their originally assigned missions in South America. They have been powerful missionaries and leaders.

 

We are so grateful for your sacrifices so that your missionary can bring others to Christ. Elder Rawson taught us “We are not sent on missions to oversee the inevitable. We are called to make things happen by faith which would not have normally happened.”

That is why we are here in Kansas!

 

Have a great week,

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245