Week 42 - Hays

 

Olá Y'all!

This was an absolutely crazy week! I am preparing to go to Brazil and there was a lot that needed to be done. 

We got to do a lot of service for our ward this week! It was primarily through the funeral of a much-beloved man! 

Today we drove all the way to Kansas City to get my yellow fever vaccine and then we stopped by the temple in Kansas City on our way out! That was amazing! I loved it so much and it was refreshing just to see another temple! I think I took it for granted before my mission. 

This will be my last email from Kansas! It is kinda bitter sweet. I will be leaving many friends here in Kansas! I have 2 friends who are preparing to be baptized in April and it is sad to see them leave, but I am happy to get to go to Brazil! 

I have learned so much about the love of God for everyone. I know he has a plan for us. I know that if we repent we will feel within our heart that Christ is our savior! I know that when we align our. Will with God then all else in our life will work out! I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Christ leads His church today through prophets! And I can't wait to tell the people of Brazil about these things! 

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

1. An awesome member and our friend who is preparing for an upcoming Baptism!

 

2. An awesome family that I had to say goodbye to. 

 

3. Another great family that I sadly had to say goodbye to

 

 

4. Comp photo with Elder Belnap! I got to stop by take this photo, because I forgot to when Elder Belnap left

 

 

 

5-6. Delicious lunch in KC 

 

 

 

 

7+ KC temple! I was blessed to be able to visit here! 

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! I'll see y'all in Brazil! 

Com muito amor, 

Elder Sant 

Acreditar. Amar. Fazer.

Mission email

 

Dear Parents,

 

It is transfer week! If your missionary is being transferred, please get their new address before you send packages and letters. Those should be sent directly to their apartments.

 

We say goodbye to Elder Nickolas Alano, Sister Maddie Butler, Sister Emma Craig, Sister Camille Driggs, Sister Jane Ferderber, Sister Haydee Gleed, Elder Steven Hill, Sister Mikayla Morgan, Elder Spencer Permann, Sister Abigale Sheridan, Elder Ammon Walden, Elder Logan Weaver, Elder Jackson Haymond, Elder Juan Salazar, Elder Austin Bascom, and Elder Joseph Sant.

These missionaries have had an impact on the work, their companions, and the people. We will miss them.

 

We welcome 9 new missionaries tomorrow.

 

Our social media group is putting together an Easter event called “He is Risen”. St. Mary’s Parish Catholic School here in Wichita has joined us in this musical and video celebration of the life of Jesus Christ. This is the first time that our friendship has united us in this way.

 

Please help us get the word out to everyone you can, and please watch our event Easter Sunday at 6:30 pm CST on our church of Jesus Christ in Wichita Facebook page.

Here is the link to this event to share and watch.

 

https://fb.me/e/cNdOmsfXa

 

Here is a brief description that you could include with the link:

 

“He is Risen”: An Easter Musical Celebration of Jesus Christ

 

St. Mary’s Parish Catholic School and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invite your family to join us as we reflect upon the life, grace, and magnificent resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Live Event:

Easter Sunday, April 4^th  6:30 pm (CST).

Facebook page – church of Jesus Christ in Wichita

Hope you can join us!

 

Also, our social media missionaries have created an invitation to General Conference. Please share this on your profiles. This is a really great video.

 

https://www.facebook.com/churchofjesuschristinlawrence/videos/748543792522259/

 

We’ve asked the missionaries to talk with you today about them receiving the Covid vaccine. We are hoping that it will be made available to the missionaries soon. The Missionary Department has encouraged all the missionaries to be inoculated. If you have any concerns or questions, please reach out to me.

 

Thank you for your weekly social media help, your prayers, and your wonderful missionary.

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245

Week 41- Hays

Olá Y'all!

This week was pretty fun! I got to go on exchanges with some awesome missionaries! That was fun! While on exchanges I got to have a few Spanish conversations with some people and that was a bit surprising but also really fun! 

I also got news that I am going to Brasil!!! I will be leaving on April 1st! I am pretty excited but also really nervous! The language and culture shock is a little nerve racking but besides that, I can't wait! So there will only be one more email from 'Merica after this one. 

A scripture that I loved this week was Alma 34:41, I may have shared this scripture already, but it is really good! It says "But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions." We may have a lot of trials in this life, but they are all temporary! We may not see the end, but God does. He knows how this trial will bless us and help us to do and be better. So when life seems hard to bear, keep moving forward with a firm trust in God! 

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

1. We got to help out with an animal shelter, so here I am helping out with the kittens. Also you can see some of the gray hairs growing on my head

 

2. Elder Withers and I with the best book known to man. 

 

3. A noice motorcycle 

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,

 

It’s been a wonderful week. The work moves forward.

 

We say goodbye to Elder Karson Bailey who returns to Argentina. It’s hard to let these missionaries go.

 

Thanks to those of you who sent out the invite for last night’s Live Event. With your efforts, and the missionary’s efforts we reached 50,350 people!

 

We have hard working missionaries who help with the Live Feed and Advertising committees. They work under the direction of Elder Ingram and Elder Ethan Brown.

 

Our four Media Missionaries who moderate with those people who respond to our paid advertising have sent out 58 referrals this transfer. The message of the gospel is getting out to people in so many ways.

 

We have two videos for you to view and Blitz this week. The first one is a Spanish video. Please share it if you speak Spanish or know someone that does. The video is from Elder Cabrera and Elder Obregon.

 

https://www.facebook.com/IglesiadeJesucristoOestedeKansas/videos/148873990435790/

 

Our other Blitz is a music video from Elder Lines, Sister Larson, and Sister Asplund.

 

https://www.facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristinDerby/videos/1135660660230013/

 

Thank you!

 

Have a great week.

Sister Ernst

316-308-7245

Week 40 Hays

 

Olá Y'all!

This week was a wild week, but we saw so many miracles. Some of our new friends started introducing us to some of their friends and we were able to start meeting a lot of new friends! 

As well, we did some service and that was pretty great! For one of them, we cleaned out some dead plants. And at first that's just what it was to me, some dead plants. But as you started to dig out the dead you could see the green plants. It was so nice to see things that were not, well, golden or brown like it seems everything is in this part of Kansas. So that was a pretty cool moment, and it made me realize that we are sometimes like these plants, and Christ is the gardener. We may seem a little "dead" or useless to just lay it out plainly, but Christ can take those things that may be weighing us down, that may be making us feel even more tired and alone. Christ can take it away!  "4 ¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5) I know that with the help of Christ we can be healed! Through Christ and his grace and mercy the little plant that is our life can be pruned and made healthy again. It will be hard, it will include digging the roots out of some things, but it will all be worth it in the end! 

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

1-2. The plants that we worked on at that service 

3-5. We got to help out at an animal shelter and give some puppies baths! 

6. Nice view of Kansas 

7. Another nice sunset. Kansas is definitely the most consistent with the best sunsets! 

8. Some massive hay bails and more Kansas 

9+ the rest are all pictures of these two abandoned houses in this little town about an hour away from us, Alexander Ks. These weren't the only abandoned houses and we came here for service and couldn't help but take some pictures with these abandoned homesteads. 

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 beautiful Kansas. They are beginning to burn the fields here… that signals spring is on its way!

 

We said goodbye this morning to Elder James Longmore and Elder London Christiansen. Elder John Garrett will be leaving us on Thursday. Once again, wonderful missionaries who have been impactful here in Kansas.

 

The biggest change regarding Covid is that the Kansas City temple will be opening for baptisms. That is so exciting!

 

Our Social Media missionaries have put together some incredible events to help members have an opportunity to share messages of faith and testimonies about Jesus Christ with their family and friends.

 

We invite you to participate with the people here in Kansas in these events. Elder Bednar has asked us to flood the earth with messages that will bless lives and teach of Jesus Christ.

We have an event this Sunday evening at 6:30 CST that will bless everyone.

Sister Allison Barber shares her story of going blind and what it has meant for her husband and her family.

 

Please share the event to your personal Facebook profiles and then with all your family and friends. It is a message of trial and faith.

 

https://fb.me/e/2mMOQvFKv

 

If you go to our “church of Jesus Christ in Wichita” page you will see it pinned as an upcoming live event.

 

We will also be hosting “He is Risen”, a musical celebration live event on Easter Sunday, at 6:30 pm. Details to follow.

 

Thank you for Blitzing our weekly video. Sister Ferderber and Sister Thornton are responsible for this week’s video. It has already reached 11,477 people and with your help it will have the opportunity to reach and touch even more. The missionaries prepare these videos and posts with the hope and prayer that they will find those who will let God prevail.

 

https://www.facebook.com/churchofjesuschristinmanhattan/videos/466734634453076/

 

The top quick post is from the Wichita page “Guess these 4 different names of Jesus Christ”. It has reached 798 people.

 

We have March Member Madness going on in the mission. Each District is competing for a spot in the “Elite 8” by sharing the Easter, or one of our Facebook videos in a lesson, helping a member share one of our videos with a friend, or having a member participate in one of their Facebook posts. We love what happens when members get involved…. Miracles.

 

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Sister Ernst

Week 39 Hays

Olá Y'all!

This week was probably the best week of my mission so far! Elder Withers and I have been working super hard and we are just loving it! Kansas truly is a great place and I am so grateful for the people here and what they mean to me! I am also so grateful for each of you and the support you give me! It truly does make a difference! 

We had a super busy week with a Zone Conference and stake Conference. For those who don't know, that basically means I had two big meetings, but they were both very good and I learned so much! 

This week I loved a scripture in Exodus 14, specifically verse 14. It says "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." The Lord will truly fight our battles. He desires to bless us in all things, temporally, spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially! In all aspects of our life he wants to bless us. And we learn in Mosiah 2:41 that when we keep his commandments we will be blessed in all things. But it can be a lot more difficult than that sounds, right!? It's easy to simply say "keep the commandments and you'll be blessed." It is a lot harder to do it. But I promise as you strive to do it, to keep the commandments, to live the laws that God has given us, we will b of blessed in all aspects of our life. We can't expect perfection because that is higher than what Gods expectation is for us. And we can't expect God to bless us immediately.  But the blessings will come as we follow Him and Let God prevail over all else in our lives. 

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

1. The wonderful Kansas landscape! I have grown to really love it! 

 

2. The best district at an old abandoned Kansas homestead

 

3. Don't know if you can tell what this is, but it is a candy cane wrapped in tape. We found it in the abyss between the seat and the middle console thing in the car. No one knows who put that, or last that, there. 

 

4. I knwo you heard this a few times, but again, the best district 

 

5. This was at an old church in the literal middle of nowhere. It was on a hill top and there were just field around it. No homes or anything else. 

 

6. This is Meaux. We baught her for an old lady we visited in the hospital, and well, we had to take a picture of us shopping for a pink stuffed animal in wal mart with some 5 year old girls and their parents around us. 

7. When a member gets the missionaries a grocery cart full of food 

 

8. And now it is time for the pictures of a really awesome underground bomb shelter that one of our friends live in. This the shack on top of the door. 

 

9. The stairwell to the blast door. 

 

10. Here I am opening the literal blast door. 

 

11. A really cool and massive generator. 

 

12. Da bois right before we left the bunker. 

 

13. One last photo, a Kansas sunset 

This is all for now! Sorry for all the pictures, but it was a fun week. 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 Zone Conferences. Derby, Wichita, Salina, and Topeka all in one week. The Zone photos are on the mission family and friends Facebook page.

 

Our social media leaders trained in each conference about a new method of finding people through social media. Thanks to Elder Wiegman who designed and created a spreadsheet that will help the missionaries track those they are finding, liking their posts, leaving comments, and then friending on Facebook. Columns turn green, or a “thumbs up” appears when it is time to reach out to those they are following. It is incredible the gifts our missionaries have been given that bless and help the work move forward.

 

We have the privilege of working with a new initiative called “My Covenant Path”. This is a blending of members and missionaries to help not-yet-members, new members, and returning members to step onto and remain on the covenant path. Our intent is to help others Belong, Believe, and Become.

 

One of the primary steps that has blessed our missionaries and the members is that we are seeking to have a member involved in one way or another in every single lesson we teach.

Missionaries are sharing experiences such as the member and their investigator knew each other years ago. One companionship was teaching a dear lady who expressed her fear of water and her reluctance to be baptized. The member shared his experience of someone just like that when he served his mission. Time after time the members are able to share a personal experience that helps the investigator learn and see the benefits of living the gospel.

 

The most powerful part of this experience with members and missionaries is that the members are the third witness to what the missionaries are teaching.

 

The next step is that we want to have the members involved in one way or another with every Facebook post we create. That’s a little harder as we are all a bit camera shy!

 

Alma 37:7 tells us that the Lord works through “means” to accomplish His purposes. That is true and we are a part of those means every day.

 

This week we will be sending off Sister Duenas, Elder Slade, Elder Romero, Elder Hyde, and Elder Barnes. We will miss them. We will especially miss Elder Barnes’ happy “Bonjour” every time he said something in our zoom devotionals.

 

There is not a Blitz video for this week. Please visit our Facebook pages and find a message that you can share with a friend, family member, or post and share on your profile.

 

It’s an incredible time to be involved in this work. It’s the best work in the world.

 

Thank you for your prayers, love, and sacrifice.

Sister Ernst

Week 38 Hays

Olá Y'all!

This week was also a busy and fun week! We found some new people that are interested, taught some fire lessons and did some fun service. 

I love serving with Elder Withers and the rest of our district! They are awesome and the best missionaries in the KWM! This week we got to make a video for our HaysJesus group and it was pretty fun! We acted out the David V Goliath and it was great🏻 we went to a cool state park in our area. We got a giant of an Elder to be goliath and it was just an all around great day! And I also got to edit the video. We got started on our day at about 7 am to edit the videos, which took about 2 1/2 hours! But we were figuring out how to edit so it will go faster next time! If you want ti watch it go to the group on FB or just ask for the link. 

This week I was studying in Alma 42 and I really loved verse 29, which says "And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance." Sometimes it is easy to have the wrong focus, especially in the world we live in. It is easy to worry about so many different things! But when we shift our focus, make those 1 degree changes, then our life will become infinitely better. It may not be immediately, but I promise it will happen! 

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

1. David V Goliath set up 

 

2. Elder Withers and I 

 

3. Kansas has the best sunsets! This is over a partially frozen reservoir!  We just saw it while driving down the road and couldn't pass the chance 

 

4. Kinda blurry picture of the best district in the world! 

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 a marvelous Zone Conference in Garden City. Go to Kansas Wichita Missionary Family and Friends group page to see the photos.

 

We’ve had another change in our Covid restrictions.

Missionaries are now allowed to teach in homes, both member and non-member. They are grateful for this opportunity.

I participated in a lesson yesterday here at the mission home and Elder Turgeon who arrived last October said that this was the first lesson he has taught in person during his mission.

 

We continue to ask the missionaries to use technology for the most part. But in areas and with particular people where technology is impossible or a difficult hurdle, the opportunity to teach in person opens many doors.

 

Our Blitz video “Every Day” comes from Elder Midgley and Elder Withers. It has already reached 11,812 people. It would take us quite a while to knock that many doors! Please, watch it and share it!

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2810899389197998

 

Our top quick post – which is the short message with some type of picture that you see on Facebook comes from Elder Kutsch and Elder Weeks. “Looking to be spiritually revived” on the Derby page. It has reached 1,066 people.

 

We say goodbye to Rebecca Anderson who is heading to Italy. We will miss her.

 

Thank you for your support, prayers, and love.

Sister Ernst