7-11

Dear all,
On Wednesday this week we had a great mutual night with the youth in
our ward. Sister Cleaver and I and the elders in our ward have been
planning a mutual night for a couple of weeks to get to know the youth
better/get them excited for missions. There were a lot of youth there
which was great! We started off with a relay (I'm pretty sure we did
this a couple years ago in 6th ward) where everyone is in teams and
they had to complete different stations and then see what team could
do it the fastest. The first station was running across the gym and
turning off the alarm clock 2) doing 15 push-ups 3) shaving their
companions face with shaving cream and a popsicle stick 4) tying a tie
5) eating a bowl of cereal 6) memorize a scripture 7) knocking on a
door and giving someone a Book of Mormon. Then the next game was kind
of like catch phrase where each team had a bowl full of pieces of
paper with gospel words on them and your group would have to guess the
word you had without you actually saying the word. The first time you
could try to explain it with other words, and then the next time only
actions without words. It was really fun and a good experience because
we have a lot of church lingo that sometimes we don't know how to
explain because we've never really had to. Then after the games we had
a Q&A with all of us missionaries and our mission President and his
wife President and sister Johnson came. It was a great night. On
Thursday night we had an amazing lesson with Miriam. We just answered
some of the questions that she had at church last week and she told us
how much she is enjoying it. She asked about baptism again and said
how she really thinks this is the right path and wants this for her
family. We invited her to be baptized on May 6th and she said
yes!!!!!!! Her and her son Sebastian both want to be baptized. Her
husband is very open to it as well, he has brought the kids to a
couple of activities but is never home when we are able to teach
Miriam. On Saturday we went to the Meenas and had a lesson with them
about the priesthood. Lokesh is really excited to get it and pass the
sacrament. Then later that night we had another lesson with Miriam.
The relief society President in our ward, sister Snow came with us.
Originally we had planned to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson
and focus on baptism and enduring to the end, but when we got there we
both had a strong feeling to just teach and talk more about the Book
of Mormon. We sat down together, said a prayer and the first thing she
asked about was the Book of Mormon. Plus, sister snow had been
studying all week for a talk she was giving the next day on the Book
of Mormon. It was one of the morass spiritual lessons I've ever been
in and by the end we all had tears in our eyes. I am so grateful for
the spirit and the blessing it is to testify of truth. Miriam and her
kids came to church again on Sunday and just loves it! Sunday night we
had our "why I believe" at the visitors center where all of the
missionaries come with their investigators or recent converts. The
speaker was a guy named mason wells who was one of the missionaries in
the Brussels bombing at the airport. He told us his story and
testimony. It was really powerful. We got to have dinner last night at
a family in our ward, the Foulger's and the wife who used to be a
Pratt grew up in the tri cities when she was really young! Next week
we get to go to the temple which I am really excited about! Yesterday
at church we had ward conference. One of my favorite parts was during
relief society when we all got a slip of paper and we had to write
down one spiritual gift that we saw in someone sitting in the room.
They read them all out loud and talked about how a lot of times we see
other people's spiritual gifts and forget about what we have as well.
Satan wants us to think that only those really great, important,
known, spiritual gifts are for a few special people that we can't ever
attain. Heavenly Father sees us each individually and has given us
different spiritual gifts to help each other. Russel M Nelson talks
about all of the gifts both physical and spiritual that God has given
us. He said, "How much better it would be if all could be more aware
of God’s providence and love and express that gratitude to Him. Ammon
taught, “Let us give thanks to [God], for he doth work righteousness
forever.” Our degree of gratitude is a measure of our love for Him." I
hope you all (as well as me) can remember how blessed and loved we our
by our Heavenly Father. Have a great week!! Love you all.
Love Sister Haertling

top picture:  7 months down, 11 to go

middle picture: missionary mutual

bottom picture:  Sister Cleaver andSsister Haertling

Happy Easter

 Happy Easter! This week was definitely one to remember...for lots of different reasons! Easter weekend was lots of fun. We had a big Easter egg hunt/party for the Bethesda and Potomac wards combined at Brother and Sister Marriotts house. It was really warm and so people were swimming near the end! Miriam and her kids came, and the Meenas did as well. So many people brought their friends and it was a great turnout. The next day at church Miriam came again with her kids!! Sophia and Sebastian (two of her three kids) were a lot happier to be there than last week which was good. The Nirma and the girls came with a family in our ward to church because Lokesh wasn't there at church. He is in Boston running the Boston Marathon today! He is an amazing runner. 

So I had quite an interesting experience happen this week....a couple of weeks ago we were going through our contacts and found a guy who didn't have much information about him but wanted to learn more. We called him and he said he would meet up with us on Thursday at Barnes and Nobles. He called back later that week and specifically asked if "sister Haertling was there" and wanted to make sure we were still coming to meet with him. I was a little unsure about going but since we were meeting in a public place with lots of people I felt good about it. Plus he said he really was interested in learning more. So we were walking around waiting for him, hoping he would find us because we had no idea what he looked like. We only knew that he was a 40 year old American guy. So all of the sudden a man walks up to us and asks, "are you sister Haertling"???  And grabs me and starts kissing my whole face!!!! I was caught so off guard and squirmed my way out of his arms. I looked over and Sister Cleaver looked like she had just seen a ghost she was so terrified hahaha. He gave her a hug and luckily that was it. I told him right away what we were there to do as MISSIONARIES and he said he was interested. The lesson lasted about 5 minutes and told him we had to go. He actually wanted to talk about it and we gave him some things to read. He has a couple of challenges and I think that's why he acts a little differently than most people, but we are going to have the elders in our ward teach him from now on. It was definitely a funny experience I will never forget haha!:)

This week we were tracting and knocked on a door that we both felt really strongly we needed to knock on across the street. A girl opened the door named Sarah and said, "sisters!! Come on in, we haven't seen you in forever!" We were really surprised and came to find out that her husband had been meeting with missionaries a long time ago in 2010 or something. He came downstairs and we talked for a long time. He said he had been thinking about the missionaries this week and missed going to church. We are going to meet with him again in a couple of days!
This week I was reading a talk by President Uchtdorf called, Waiting on the Road to Damascus. One of the quotes that really stood out to me was, "There are many others who, for different reasons, find themselves waiting on the road to Damascus. They delay becoming fully engaged as disciples. The truth is, those who diligently seek to learn of Christ eventually will come to know Him. They will personally receive a divine portrait of the Master, although it most often comes in the form of a puzzle--one piece at a time. Each individual piece may not be easily recognizable by itself; it may not be clear how it relates to the whole. Each piece helps us to see the big picture a little more clearly. Eventually, after enough pieces have been put together, we recognize the grand beauty of it all. Then, looking back on our experience, we see that the Savior had indeed come to be with us--not all at once but quietly, gently, almost unnoticed." There is a big production going on at the visitors center right now called Savior of the World. Every night the auditorium is filled and after being able to watch it, I know why. Each year there are auditions from the surrounding stakes in the area and they practice for months to perform this musical on the life of Jesus Christ. It specifically focuses on the last few days of Christ's life and then the resurrection. It is amazing!! The part that really hit me was during the scene where Thomas finally gets to see the Savior and feel the prints in His hands. Then Christ says, "Thomas, because thou hast ​​​seen​ me, thou hast believed: ​​​blessed​ ​are​ they that have not seen, and ​yet​ have ​​​believed". It reminded me of the quote above from President Uchtdorf. It is by small and gradual times in our life that we come to know the Savior. It's a process and by studying our scriptures, praying, and keeping the covenants we have made, we come to know the Savior. I know that Christ lives and that He gave His life for each one of us. He knows exactly how we feel and that is only possible because He payed the price and because He loves us so much. Love you all!! 

Love, Sister Haertling

City trips and the Meena's baptism

Dear everyone,
The Meenas were baptized on Saturday!!! It was so special and a day I
will never forget. It was at 10 in the morning (conference here starts
at 12), and there was a lot of support from the ward there which was
great. Lokesh kept asking me how so many people knew him and were
there for the baptism. We had a talk on baptism from a sister in the
ward, and then the actual baptism. Lokesh was baptized first, then
Kumkum (the daughter) and then Nirma. Kumkum could hardly contain
herself when she came up out of the water. She had the biggest smile
on her face. As we were in the bathroom braiding her hair and getting
changed, Kumkum turns to me and says, "So now everything that I've
ever done bad is okay and gone???". It was a really sweet moment and I
felt so happy to be able to reassure her that yes she was completely
clean. The Olsens who have been great friends to the Meenas in our
ward let Kumkum barrow one of their girls' baptism dresses which made
her feel really special. We went back into the room with everyone and
had a talk on the Holy Ghost. Then Sister Cleaver, Sister Stevens and
I all sang a musical number, I Feel My Saviors Love/Beautiful Savior.
Then a member of the bishopric welcomed them into the ward and
everyone stayed to eat and talk with each other. Seeing everyone from
the Bethesda and Potomac ward there to welcome this sweet family just
made me feel so blessed and grateful to feel of the love our Heavenly
Father has for each of His children. Conference was just amazing as
always. It's weird to think that last Conference I was sitting in the
MTC watching it. We had a neat day today for Pday. We went to the
city since sister Rees and Sister Cleaver both haven't been yet. We
got up at 4:30 so that we could get on the metro and be in downtown DC
before the sunrise. We went to the capital building first, since all
the Smithsonians don't open until 10. We got to take a really cool
tour of it. Everyone is split up into groups and you wear a head set
so you only hear your tour guide talking. It was so cool. Then we went
to the street vendors to look at cool souvenirs. If you ever go to DC
don't get them from the shops inside stores, get them from the little
street vendors that move around every day. They are a lot better and
less expensive! Then we went to the natural history museum. My
favorite section was the dinosaur and mummy section haha. Then we went
to Shake Shack which is one of the best restaurants ever!!! We had so
many people from Utah that recognized us walking around DC today
haha!!
So we've been meeting with Miriam this week and she loved coming to
church last week!! She told us she was really wanting to take this
seriously and learn as much as she can for "when she is baptized"
(those are the words she used). It was amazing to hear her say that. I
am so excited to see the Meenas continue to progress and have the
blessings that come from keeping our covenants. Sorry for not writing
a lot, but I'll make up for it in pictures!!! Love you all!
Love, sister Haertling

top picture: The Capitol at sunrise
middle pictures:  Meena Family Baptism
Bottom picture:  Sister Kuhn and Sister Haertling in the city

Week 27

Dear all,
On Wednesday night the Meenas had their interview with President
Johnson. It went great and are getting baptized this Saturday!! We had
the interview at the visitors center and while we were there, Kumkum
(she's 9 years old) asked us what we do in the mornings. We told her
how we get to study and read the scriptures. She said, "wow you're
lucky, I wish I could but I can't read Hindi very well". Kumkum and I
ran to the back of the visitors center where we have the Book of
Mormon in almost every language and picked her out a Book of Mormon in
English. We met with them at their house the next night and she was
already in the end of Second Nephi! We couldn't believe it and she
told us all about what she was learning. Then Gaury who is 7 ran up to
me looking like she was going to burst if she didn't tell me right at
that moment and said, "Guess what I got to do last night???". I asked
her what, and she said, "I said family prayer all by myself last
night". Then Avni started arguing with her saying that she said it too
haha! They take turns because all of the girls love praying. It just
makes me so happy to see their family doing all these things on their
own.
Today we had our district activity that took most of the day, so I
don't have much time to write. We are so excited for the Meenas
baptism. Also recently we've been meeting with a lady named Miriam.
She has been really busy and never come to church since I've been here
in the area. Yesterday we were at church talking to some of the ward
in the foyer and all the sudden we saw
Miriam with two of her kids walking outside! I couldn't believe it!
The kids really enjoyed primary and she loved it. She was raised
Catholic and after church she said she loved the idea that no matter
how old you get, there is always something to learn still. While we
were there talking to Miriam, I saw the Meenas zoom past us into
sacrament meeting and they sat down with another family in the ward.
It is great to see how comfortable they are now.
Something that I was studying this week was Alma chapter 5. I've
studied it a lot throughout my mission and it's always a great self
evaluation. There is a quote that goes along with it that I loved by
President Ezra T. Benson. It says ,“When you choose to follow Christ,
you choose to be changed. The Lord works from the inside out. The
world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of
the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take
themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing
their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their
environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can
change human nature. Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can
change the world." I am so grateful that we have the Atonement of
Jesus Christ that allows us to repent and change to be better every
day! I love you all.
Love, sister Haertling