Finding the joy in our lives

Dear all,
I can't believe it's Monday already again! This week we have been working with Tara a lot. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Tara's story before, but she is married, in her 40s, been investigating the church for about 3 or 4 years and has a son who joined the church and is getting home from his mission in a week! He's been serving in Australia so it's been great for her to have a connection with sister Stevens. Tara also has two other sons, one is in high school and the other is 24 and has special needs. His name is Julian and is one of the happiest, funniest people I have ever met. It's always an adventure when we have lessons at Tara's house and Julian is home haha! So Tara hasn't ever really read the Book of Mormon because she doesn't think she can understand it. Sister Stevens and I had another lesson with Tara about the Book of Mormon and gave her a Book of Mormon study guide to read along with it. Since our lesson on Tuesday she has been reading it every night which is huge for her! We are so happy she is understanding it and is gaining a desire. Our next step is getting her to come to church every Sunday. With her son coming home we hope it will be that spark that she needs to progress even more. On Wednesday we had a big worldwide missionary broadcast! It emphasized how we can be better teachers and answered a lot of questions that missionaries have. Some of the questions I feel can be applied to anyone regardless if you are serving a mission or not. There was one question that I thought would really be applicable to any parent because parents are some of the most important teachers. Most of you probably do a lot of these things already! (These are my notes that I took so they in my own words) 

How do we become a more persuasive teacher???

1. Take the sacrament worthily every week and do everything that we can to be better so that we will always have the spirit to be with us 
2. Pray for our companion as they are teaching and also as we are teaching. ~I thought this was perfect for parents and just family members in general day to day when we pray morning and night... always pray for each other~
3. Always look for the unseen
4. What are our motives?? If we teach in a way where we want to be applauded, we won't be able to teach effectively.  When we start teaching for the purpose that we truly want to help our investigators, then we can have the spirit and help them understand and feel. ~I think this can go for anything, not just teaching, but our motives for all of our actions and decisions we  make~
5. Stop beating yourself up. Nobody is a perfect teacher. Just be the best you can be and Heavenly Father will magnify you. 
6. The Spirit should always be the senior companion. ~the spirit should always be in the home~
7. Write Down those experiences that you have while you are teaching in your journals and believe that those experiences will happen again.  ~writing in my journal is something I really want to keep doing after my mission and try my hardest to make time for~ How do I overcome my fear of inviting people to invite??

1. If we are concerned about ourselves, then we will be scared...but if we focus on the love that we have to that investigator then Heavenly Father and the spirit will put those words into our mouths to invite. 
2. Fear is the opposite of faith. We have to do the things that we know are required. Just do it. 

There was also some pretty big changes that we got from the broadcast, one of them being that our schedule changed. Usually we have our studies starting at 8 and have all of our studies in the morning, and then plan for the next day at night when we get home. Now they have changed it so we don't start studies until 8:30, we only have personal study, and then plan for our day in the mornings. Then we have our own agency to choose when we have companionship during the day. Plus having planning in the morning allows us to go to bed anywhere from 9:30-10:30 which is earlier now:). It's really nice and we have more agency to choose how we spend our time each day. It's really amazing to see how the Lord trusts us and also requires more from us as He gives us agency. I love it because it gives us flexibility in our day. The other change we had has to do with key indicators which is a little hard to explain (it's the numbers and goals we set each week for our areas) but for missionaries it was a big change. We now only keep track of 4 key indicators which is a big drop. It really is just helping us focus on our purpose clearly and narrowing it down. On Friday we had a dinner appointment with a lady named Brenda and her husband Mateo. They came into the Festival of Lights during December and really loved meeting sister Stevens. It was great because now sister Stevens is in this area with me and we got to go visit them. They had invited us over for dinner earlier in the week when we first were able to visit them. Brenda is from Italy and all of her family lives there. Her husband Mateo lived in Italy for a lot of his life, but is from the United States. Brenda is an amazing cook though and we had some of the best food I've ever eaten. I'm jealous of Roman serving in Italy and getting that all the time haha! They invited about 6 of their friends over who are all very strong Catholics and so the whole time at dinner they were all just asking us questions. They made it very clear that they loved their religion, but a lot of the comments they made were that they didn't know how many similarities they had with us and didn't know that our church was so "normal" haha. It was a great experience and even though they made it clear they were Catholics and that was never going to change..it was really refreshing to meet people who loved talking about their belief in Jesus Christ together and had high moral standards. 

On Sunday Michael and his 2 boys came to church!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so excited to see them walk in and so many people in our ward who knew they were coming greeted him and made them feel welcome which was great for him. Since we have Sunday school first, then relief society/priesthood and then sacrament meeting last, it was different for them and the boys were really nervous to leave their dad. But Michael loved gospel principals and stayed with the Olsens who are their family friends in our ward. They had basketball games that day so they only stayed for the first two hours. Hopefully next Sunday they can stay for sacrament meeting! He and his boys are coming to the visitor center on Wednesday this week. He has been reading the book of Mormon and he said he likes reading it but is having a hard time knowing how to apply it to his life... those were his exact words..we couldn't believe it! It is amazing to see how prepared Michael is!! Yesterday at church we had an amazing lesson in relief society about finding joy in our lives no matter what the circumstance. It was exactly the message that I needed to hear this week and it made me realize how much Our Heavenly Father knows us and is aware of us. I love the quote that says "the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives". Even when the Savior was suffering and going through every pain, he found joy because He loves us so much. If the Savior was able to feel joy in that situation, then it gives me a lot of hope that I can find joy in the trials I face throughout my life. Thank you all for your prayers and love! It brings me so much comfort. Have a great week! 

Love, Sister Haertling

To'p picture: Shaking Elder Rasband's hand 

Middle picture:  Georgetown bakery cupcakes

bottom picture:  Sister Haertling and Sister Stevens 

Miracles

Dear everyone,
This was a pretty big week here as you can imagine with the
inauguration. It's pretty exciting to be in the capital of our country
where everything is happening. Because my area isn't as close to the
city where everything was happening we were still able to go out. We
went to go check on a family that came into the Festival of Lights
that lived in a big apartment right on the Pike and had to be careful
where we walked because of how many big groups of not so happy people
with signs were around. There's still no snow which is surprising
everyone here. It's just been dark and rainy everyday for the past 2
weeks. So this week Sister Stevens and I had to move out of our
apartment to a different one that is not too far away. They had us
move because we have been sharing an apartment with two other sisters
in our mission and they only want one set of missionaries in each
apartment. We feel kinda silly though staying in a two bedroom
apartment with only two people. Anyways, we packed up all of our stuff
and the zone leaders helped carry the big things and took some of the
stuff we couldn't fit in our car..the apartment we are staying in now
was a disaster haha, elders used to live in it and idk how they were
able to live there...there were bugs (dead and alive) everywhere,
cobwebs, dust and I don't even know what else on the walls. Sister
Stevens and I were determined though and scrubbed every wall and
cleaned ever inch of floor...literally. haha. We both decided our moms
would be pretty proud😉. Then we moved furniture around, put all the
furniture that was there before in a back room, threw out 6 huge bags
of trash and finally got to use a vacuum that works. We haven't had a
vacuum since I've gotten here on the mission and I didn't know that I
would ever love to vacuum so much haha! We love where we live now
though! And I'm just grateful that I have a roof over my head!
Anywaysss, an update from last weeks email...unfortunately Fayiah had
to cancel on us but we are going to keep trying. We had that miracle
with him for a reason and he will hopefully get back to us soon. So on
Friday we went to a lady's house who came into Festival and it said
that she wanted a Book of Mormon. Sister Freeman and I had tried about
3 other times to give it to her but she was never home. When sister
Stevens and I got there, the house was completely dark and no cars
were there. We were pretty bummed and we weren't sure what we should
do since it was getting late and we couldn't knock doors anymore. So
we said a prayer that Helen (that's the name of the lady that wanted the Book of
Mormon) would be home and if she wasn't, then that we could find an
effective way to spend the rest of the time for the night. We got out
of the car and I looked at the house 99% sure that they weren't home.
I shut the door of the car and looked up and saw a car pull up to the
stop sign and go right into the driveway. Sister Stevens and I just
looked at each other surprised and started laughing. We walked over to
the little family getting out of the car and gave them the Book of
Mormon and asked if we could come back another time to teach them
more. She said that we could come back on Sunday night! On Saturday we
checked up on the Loreno family that hadn't ever answered either. They
wanted a Book of Mormon and so we tried again that day. They were home
and invited us in. They are from Japan and the Philippines and have
been living here in the US for about 2 months. They loved hearing
about eternal families and how they can be with their two little boys
forever. They kept telling us how busy they are with work and
activities that their boys are involved in...so I'm not sure how
interested they are, but i know that learning about eternal families
really touched their hearts. After that we went to the visitors center
to meet a family that sister Freeman and her companion had run into
while they were tracting. When missionaries find people who are
interested but they aren't in the missionaries boundaries, they can
have a pass off lesson with the missionaries who are in their area so
that the people feel comfortable with the new missionaries that will
be teaching them. We met them, his name is Hermoze and he has 2
beautiful little girls who came and gave us the biggest hugs. He told
us that he loved the feeling he had at the visitors center and when we
talked about baptism he was very interested in it, just he wants to
learn more first! We are so excited to go to their house and teach
them. Then on Sunday after church we finally got to meet with Michael
and his 2 boys!!!! (The family that sister Freeman and I had the
miracle with 2 weeks ago). We went over with sister Olsen who is close
friends with them and have kids the same age. Michael had made dinner
for us and we got to know them better. Michael is divorced and he is
one of the most amazing people I have ever met. He has a family
mission statement on their wall with the three of them in the
background, he coaches their basketball and soccer teams, he's a
personal trainer, he always has the best things to say about others,
is constantly helping their neighbors, and is one of the nicest
people. (He reminded me a lot of my uncles and even his boys are a lot
like some of my cousins) Sister Olsen had made him and his boys a
little #lighttheworld Christmas tree with stars to put up when they do
any act of service. When we were at their house they showed us it and
every star (all 25) had acts of service they did every day such as
"gave food to the homeless shelter", "prayed for grandpa Bob",
"visited Mitchell at the retirement home and played cards with him".
It was amazing!!!! While we were talking after dinner Michael told us
that he had grown up Catholic but he still felt like he was looking
for something and is interested in what we had to teach them. We gave
him a Book of Mormon and he was really looking forward to reading it.
They are planning to come to church this Sunday and we are so
excited!! After that lesson we went back to Helens. After visiting
with Helen and her daughter we came to find out that it was really her
8 year old daughter that wanted the Book of Mormon and learning more
when they came to the visitors center. Helen told us that she was
Buddhist, but that her daughter kept talking about the feeling she had
at the visitors center and she wanted her daughter to choose her
religion and not be forced into one. So we are teaching her daughter
Joyce! We ran to the car and got a children's Book of Mormon as well
and she loved it. She such a smart and sweet little girl and I know
she is setting such a great example to her family. We have had so many
miracles this week and can't wait to keep teaching all of these
amazing families. It is great to see how many people Heavenly Father
has prepared and I'm so grateful I have the opportunity to be His
mouthpiece and to love and teach these people here. I hope you all
have a great week!!
Love Sister Haertling

Apostles, transfers and goodbyes

Dear everyone,
This week was SO great!! It was transfers week so sister Freeman got
transferred to one of the YSA wards. I stayed in Bethesda and am with
Sister Stevens!!! Sister Stevens is from Australia and came out with
me from the MTC but previously had to wait in Australia for her Visa.
So technically she has been out for 6 months. She was born in England,
her parents are from Zimbabwe and South Africa, then she moved to
Australia when she was 12. She has the coolest accent and sometimes
when we are saying things together I start talking like her haha! But
we get along great and are loving it! We had transfers on Wednesday
and it's always a pretty funny sight to see all the missionaries in
the church parking lot hauling their suitcases and the random things
they have collected over time to other cars. A new change for me is
that I'm now driving! There's always a designated driver in each
companionship and it's been sister Freeman for the last 2 transfers.
So it was weird being behind the wheel again. Traffic here is nothing
like rd 68 in pasco that's for sure...you have to weave in and out on
the big 6 lane freeways and hope someone's nice enough to let you in.
Usually they aren't very nice and will honk at you but I'm used to it
now. On Saturday I had an amazing experience that I will never forget.
We had the greatest opportunity to have an unexpected meeting with all
of the DC north and south mission to hear from Elder Ballard and Elder
Rasband. We left to drive to Virginia at 6:00 that morning and got to
the stake center about 7:00. Then we waited for Elder Rasband and
Elder Ballard to arrive and took pictures with all of the mission. It
was completely silent when they walked into the gym to take the
pictures with us and I will never forget that feeling. Elder Ballard
is a very funny man and we were all surprised how much he likes to
joke around with us. Along with them we got to hear from Elder Randal
K Bennett, Elder Gong, Elder Meurs and elder Perkins all from the
seventy. When we walked out of the gym into the chapel we all got to
shake their hands and say hello to them which was such a neat
experience. Elder Rasband told us that he only knows of one other time
when he was in a meeting with missionaries where there was more than
one apostle coming to speak to a mission. We felt pretty lucky. They
all talked to us about how we can be better teachers. Asking more
inspired questions, listening with love, allowing the spirit to be
with us and praying for those we teach are a few of the things each
person talked about. Elder Gong asked Elder Ballard on the drive over
to the meeting how he wasn't tired after a flight and being in
meetings nonstop and his response was, "if I ever get tired, I always
picture Jesus Christ in the garden of gethsemane". I loved that and
will always remember that when we have especially long days. Elder
Ballard taught us about talking to EVERYONE we see. Their testimonies
were so powerful and I loved singing all together. We were lucky and
got to sit on the very front row in the chapel and so we got to sit
literally 5 steps away from them the whole meeting. It was crazy to
think that I was just watching them in the MTC for general conference
and there they were almost arms length away speaking to our mission.
It was one of the most spiritual meetings I've ever been in and will
never forget it. On Thursdays we don't go into the VC at all and so we
have a full proselyting day. We went tracting that day and sister
Stevens was super excited to be in a new area to tract. It was raining
pretty hard and we started on a neighborhood. We just went down the
street and knocked every door until we made the loop back. Every
single door except one cut us off before we were even done talking and
just slammed the door in our face. One even told us they were calling
someone to get us out of their neighborhood and sure enough, right
when we were back on the car to go to the next neighborhood there was
some kind of truck with its flashing lights on driving to the woman's
house that complained looking around. We left right in time though
luckily. And I don't think he could've done anything anyways. Anyways,
right after that not so fun experience we were ready to go back home
but felt like we should go to a mans house ( his name is Fayiah) that
we've tried getting a hold of so many times before and have never met.
We were soaking wet and pretty discouraged but we were close and
decided to just go. We walked up to the house and a woman answered the
door. She said they had company and her husband wasn't home so we told
them we would come by another time. They live in an apartment complex
and so as we were walking back to the parking lot I saw a man getting
out of his car. I had the strongest feeling telling me to talk to him
but he was a ways away and we had to get home on time. The feeling
came again so i started walking over to him and asked him how his day
was. I asked what his name was and it was Fayiah!!! We were just
smiling really big and told him how we were just at his apartment! He
told us he would love for us to come and meet his family and that his
dad was a member of the church too. We are going over this Thursday
and are pretty excited. The family that I talked about last week with
the two little boys had to move their appointment but still texts us
to let us know how they are doing and invited us over for dinner this
week. We have such a great feeling about them and their friends who
are in our ward have been such a great help with everything. We also
had a lesson with a girl named Madeline who came into the VC for
Festival of Lights (this was when I was companions with sister
freeman) . We met with her on Sunday and she even cancelled work so
that she could meet with us. She told us that she has been going
through a lot emotionally and is interested in learning more about
what we have. We get along great with her and share a lot of the same
interests. She is going to school here and is 19 years old. We will
have to pass her to the YSA missionaries because she is 19, but the
amazing news is that sister Freeman got transferred to the YSA ward
and so she already knows her and gets to teach her! We are so excited
and so is Madeline. Our VC directors are leaving to go home today
which is really sad. I have grown to love them so much. We see them
every day and elder fowler is incredible. He is the greatest example
of dedicating his life to the Lord. He was a general authority when he
was young and ever since then has been on missions and in callings
that require so much of him. The entire 2 years that he was a
missionary here he never took one pday. He told us all that he wants
to seal us all in the temple and if we already have someone to seal us
then he at least had to be at the wedding haha. I just think the world
of him and will really miss the fowlers. But the new VC director and
his wife will be here now and we are excited to get to know them too!
This week has been great and there is so much work to be done in the
Bethesda area. Hope you all have a great week!
Love, sister Haertling

Top picture: Sister Haertling with her new companion Sister Stevens

Middle picture:  Sister Haertling and Stevens with the Visitor Center director Elder Fowler

Bottom picture:  Sister Haertling and Sister Stevens

Transfer Week

Dear all,

This week is transfers, so we find out tonight if Sister Freeman and I are leaving the area. I absolutely love serving in Bethesda, but will be fine wherever I go. Today all of the sisters in the mission went to the mission home to have lunch with President and sister Johnson to celebrate meeting our goal for the Festival of Lights. It was a pretty fun Pday, but I don't have much time to email. We also got to have interviews with president Johnson this week. I have been really looking forward to it because we haven't been able to have interviews since I got here. Usually it is every transfer. So that was really great to talk with him and have him be able to help me with some of the things I've been struggling with. Missions are amazing!! I am learning to enjoy every second of it, the good times, the hard times, the sad times and the exciting times. This week for fast Sunday Sister Freeman and I decided to start our fast early on Saturday and then end it with the Sacrament. I have never done that before and so I was excited to see what it was like. We start church at 10:20, have Sunday school and then end with Sacrament meeting so it is a little different than what I'm used to. Ending our fast with the Sacrament was an experience I won't forget and want to keep doing. It was such a great reminder that it is only through the Savior and the Atonement that we can see the blessings and gain the strength for what we fast for. One of the things Sister Freeman and I fasted for was for a miracle in the Bethesda area. Later in church one of the members came up to us and told us about a friend they had that might be interested in learning more. They gave us his address and we went over later that afternoon. Before we went over we tried to prepare a door approach that would help him know that we had a message specifically for him. He is a single dad and has two little boys. We prepared a thought for his family if he were to actually let us in. We went to the door, hoping that He was prepared at the time and that he would be willing to learn more. We knocked on the door and when he opened I was still trying to think of something that he wouldn't be able to say no to very easily and that would touch his heart. Usually when we knock doors we say something along the lines of "we are the missionaries and have a message about Jesus Christ". When he opened the door and asked what brought us to his house I said, "We are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we have a message that WE KNOW will bless you and your families life. Is there a time that we could come and share that with you?". He smiled really big at us and said, "perfect I'd love to hear about it!". He told us he had to leave soon, but he wanted to hear our message. Something that we have really been working on lately is stating our purpose more clearly when we go to visit people. Sometimes it's easy to just visit and then people don't understand that our purpose is to invite and bring people closer to Christ through faith, baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. So the first thing he asked us was, "So in a 30 second sound-bite, what is your purpose as missionaries". Sister Freeman and I were just smiling really big and told him what it was and he asked us EVERY single question to what we had prepared 10 minutes earlier in the car. He gave us his information and told us he wants us to come back when his kids are home. We were so happy, we just couldn't stop smiling the rest of the night. Heavenly Father knows who is prepared and all we have to do is ask Him, act on the promptings He gives us and trust in His timing. I love being on a mission and I know I was called here for a reason. I love you all!!!
Love, Sister Haertling

Sister Haertling and Sister Freeman enjoying the snow 

2017 Already!

Dear all,
Happy New Year!!!! This week was a great one. Festival is over, which
is bitter sweet...since the end of November our schedule has changed
for VC sisters. We get home from the visitors around 10:30-10:45 which
means we go to bed at 11:30 and wake up at 7:30. So we are happy to
get back to the normal schedule and go to bed earlier. In the month of
December we had over 115,000 people come into the visitors center. A
lot of those people who came were non members and many wanted to learn
more.
I had a cool experience happen last night, I was standing near the
temple model and it was getting late when 3 guys in their twenties
came up to me. They were asking if I was a volunteer and what I did. I
explained my purpose as a missionary and they had lots of questions
about the church since they had friends who were members. Then their
dad came over to us and asked us, "so how do you get inside that
building (the temple)????" We told him that only members of the church
who are worthy and prepared can enter. He then said very simply, "okay
I can do that". I was really caught off guard and wanted to say
something like "wait I don't think you understood me right..you have
to be a member of the church" haha! But I asked him if he would like
to meet with missionaries and he said he was interested and would give
it a try. It was amazing and we got to teach him how he could be
sealed together with his family forever. Sometimes i fall into the
trap of thinking that everyone knows everything that I know. Things as
simple as "we have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us individually"
or "we can be with our families forever and see our loved ones again"
are a foreign concept. That is why being a missionary is such a
blessing because we can give a message of hope to so many people. Even
though a lot of times people slam the door and tell us to get off
their property or just ignore us, there are the times when people stop
to listen and want to learn more. They are the people who make it all
worth it.
We also have been teaching a man named Freburgue and his wife. They
have two older kids and live in Brazil but are here for a year and a
half. It's been really great teaching them because they are so willing
to learn. Almost half of the people we have contacted from the
Festival of Lights that want a Book of Mormon have been from Brazil
and speak Portuguese also. It's cool because both of Sister Freeman's
parents served their missions in Brazil and my dad served in Brazil!!
The weather here has been pretty bipolar. Last week we went to the
city and didn't even bring a coat, but then a couple of days later
there was a big snow storm that didn't ever stick to the ground. I
hope everyone enjoyed the Holidays. I can't believe it's 2017! Have a
great week!
Love, Sister Haertling

Top picture: The district
Bottom picture: Meeting up with Sister Wilcox (MTC companion)