Listen. Remember. 4-24-2015

Temple Square on an April day

SO much has happened this week I literally do not know where to start. I feel like a completely different person/missionary. We have had trainings alllll week. Tuesday was MLC and so from 8:30am-1pm we basically just talked about where our mission currently is and where we want it to be. The training was based on Chapter 10 of Preach my Gospel. There was a portion given on listening. 

A quote one of the sisters read to us really stood out to me. It says,

 "Most people don't listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." 

(It's Stephen R. Covey if you enjoyed that.)

  I just realized that I'm seriously the worst at listening to people!! 

  The trainings we had on Wednesday-Friday have been all about focusing on our purpose as missionaries. They talked a lot about how God's purpose, his work and his glory, is to give each one of his children eternal life. If we are to teach in His way and by His Spirit, that needs to be our purpose as well, regardless of where we serve our mission. 

  It was so eye-opening to think every time we talk to someone, "Did I give them the opportunity to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ in this 30-minute tour?" or "Is this person one step closer to returning back to live with God because of the experience they had on Temple Square or the spirit they felt as we were talking?" 

  I'm so excited to share with my sisters all the training we've gotten because I feel like it is so easy to stick to the traditions here on Temple Square. The missionary department told us that we don't have to talk about the history at all during our tour. I don't know why this came as a shock to all of us, but I think it's because although we are missionaries, people are interested in history so we kind of mesh the gospel and history - which isn't necessarily bad if it's helping someone come unto Christ and receive eternal life. I don't exactly know how to verbalize how I felt while receiving the trainings. In reading over this email, it doesn't seem that incredible/mission-changing, but it was. 

  This week I feel like we've had so many miracles!! Those miracles include meeting people that you know God put in your path for a reason. 

  Today, we were in Guest Services and we got a call saying that there was a girl here to see Sis Kemple and me. So we went upstairs and it was a girl we met at General Conference a few weeks ago who had just got off her mission! She asked if we remembered her and we totally did because we talked to her brother who was really less-active and he had a really cool story. 

  She asked if we remembered her brother. We said yes and she said that after we got through talking to her brother, they went to the car and her brother said, "I feel like we were supposed to talk to those missionaries tonight. I felt something different."

  She said that he hasn't gone to church in years and years. She tried to get him to talk to the missionaries where they live in Provo but she said he wasn't interested. She gave us his number and asked if we would try calling him. Of course we said yes!! 

 I swear my mission on Temple Square is to teach less-actives. They are my favorite. I just love them because teaching is all about helping them remember what they once knew.

 The concept of remembering is so interesting to me. For me, I'm terrible at remembering. I always have these experiences when I know God is so aware of each one of us and that the Gospel is so true and then I have those moments where I feel discouraged and forget!

 I was thinking today about how we can't remember living with God before this life but we feel the Spirit which helps us to remember what God's love feels like. 

  Before my mission, I never understood why it was so important to read our scriptures and pray everyday. The reason we do those things is so we can remember that the Gospel is amazing. We do it so we can never forget that the Book of Mormon is true and adds light into our lives. We do these little things so the Spirit can remind us every single day that God is there, that He has a plan, and that our lives have a purpose. 

  This is my 34th week.

  Also, I just thought I would tell you that an 86-year-old man kissed Sister Kemple and me in front of a ton of guests on Temple Square this week. It was really funny, but also probably the strangest experience of my mission, other than when I crossed paths with the man running through the plaza in a Speedo.

Love you tons!

Sister Helton

Twin from Down Under

My focus is to pray with real intent 4-17-15

Hi!

 Start of my 6th transfer! (P-day changed to Fridays.) So crazy, so fun. 

 Sister Kemple and I are still companions (SO HAPPY!) She is the best. 

 I'm trying to think all the way back to last Wednesday ... a lot has happened, I just can't really remember what. 

 We went on a hike as a zone for our last week together. It was really fun. It was more of a nature walk ... but the view was gorgeous at the top. All the sisters in my zone bore their testimony in their native language. It was really beautiful because there was only one other English speaking sister so I could literally understand no one, but the Spirit was so strong. So I understood.

 So we've been at Welfare Square 3 days this week and Wednesday was our last day. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to learn more about the church's Welfare Program. I feel like the more we explained the program during tours, the more I started to understand the purpose of it all. 

 The Welfare and Humanitarian programs of the church are not done because the prophet or leaders of the church say they should be. They are implemented because they are Christ's programs. They are led and created according to what He would have us do. 

 That's why there is such a special spirit at both the Humanitarian Center and Welfare Square. I love it because the programs are for those who need help and the cool thing is, we all need help! None of us could return to live with Heavenly Father again without Christ. The Welfare and Humanitarian programs of the church enable people to have their temporal needs met, so that eventually, their spiritual needs can be met as well. 

 One day, I will serve a humanitarian mission!

 Tuesday was probably my favorite day this week. Sister Kemple and I were finishing up our Explore Day hours and we got a phone call saying that there was a man on the Square who wanted to speak to an Italian sister. We got soooo excited because Sis K hasn't had the chance to really use her Italian on the Square yet and so we said we would go chat with him! 

 He ended up being a member of the church but he just said that he really felt like he should come to Temple Square and talk to missionaries. He said lately he's been feeling like he has no motivation to do what he knows he should. He prays everyday and reads the scriptures, but he said he just hasn't been feeling the Spirit at all. He asked us how to find the motivation to continue living the gospel. 

 At this moment, in my head I just had to laugh because sometimes being a missionary is so crazy. People come to you with these questions and you have no idea how to respond because you're 19 and these people have lived so much longer than you but somehow think that you have insights into the gospel they don't have. I need the Spirit to guide.

 It was amazing though. Sister Kemple is such an incredible missionary. I am so lucky to be her companion. 

  It's so interesting to me how it's hard for us as people to recognize the good that we do. As this man was talking to us (he spoke some English so I would have a little idea of what was going on), I didn't see that he was lacking motivation at all.

 He made the choice to follow the Spirit and come to Temple Square and sought out missionaries. That act all in itself just showed me that he does know what he wants and he knows how to get there. 

  I think it's just really hard sometimes to allow ourselves to change and think that Christ is there to help us change. 

  If I could just share one message with everyone who I come into contact with I think it would be that we are never alone. Even when we want to be. We never need to feel like we're going through life by ourselves. God doesn't want it to be that way. He wants to help us! He wants to guide us and he's given us all the tools to understand who He is and what His Son has done for us. I love the Gospel.

 Something I've also been thinking about a lot is the Plan of Salvation. I realized that I've never actually prayed and asked God if there are 3 degrees of glory. So I did last night. 

 It was really cool. I rarely get specific answers to my prayers, but last night, I did. 

 This transfer my focus is to help people understand how to pray with real intent; how to pray to receive answers directly from Heavenly Father. 

  I think as an investigator, it might get annoying because missionaries always say "Don't take our word for these things, pray about what we've said."  

  I'm now just realizing that because I struggle with receiving direct answers from God, I need to be better at explaining the steps to receiving answers to those we teach. Let me know if you have any insights :).

Love you tons! P.S. I got to see Cindy and Niese yesterday!! Best.day.ever.

Sister Helton

Denise and Cindy Burnett took a Tabernacle tour.
They also brought 2 new BFFs they met on the plane coming from Seattle
who had an hour to spend in SLC while traveling on to New Orleans.
It was amazing to introduce them to the Church through the Burnetts. Thank you!

Transfer time in the T2 Mission

Happy Easter and conference rundown 4-8-2015

So much has happened this week! The most exciting thing, I think, would be that we met two apostles, Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Quentin Cook! There was a big meeting downstairs in the South Visitor Center where we have a few theaters and several General Authorities came. We were told to be on our best behavior haha. Sister Kemple and I went downstairs really fast to grab our lunch and we walked right by them and they all said hi! So. cool. 

  General Conference was also amazing. We had some really special experiences. So, just a lil rundown of what conference is like: 

  We are literally on Temple Square from 7:30am till 9:00pm talking to people allllll day. We have a 20-minute lunch/dinner break but other than that, we are on the Square chatting/inviting. 

  It's actually my favorite because we get to really talk to members which is rare for Temple Square. I love meeting members from all over the world because they all have such different backgrounds and such unique conversion stories and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what unites us all! 

  After the Saturday morning session, Sister Kemple and I were talking with this old couple on one of the couches and this lady came up to us and asked if we had a minute. We said "yes" and she just completely opened up and told us all about her past and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what has kept her moving forward. 

  She started telling us about her friend who is currently in one of the hospitals in SLC. She told us about his medical issues and Sister Kemple literally had gone through the same procedures he was undergoing. This woman asked if there was anyway some missionaries could visit him in the hospital. She said she would go give him a Book of Mormon, but he just needed a message of peace and of hope that God has a plan for him. 

  We thought it was amazing that of all the sister missionaries on Temple Square, she chose us even though we were in the middle of talking to someone and Sister Kemple can relate almost exactly with the persons medical issues. 

  A really special personal experience I had this week was during my personal study. Obviously, on Temple Square especially during conference, there are crazies that come here. We talked to a few people that came to talk to missionaries only to diminish our faith. So, I've just been praying a lot that Heavenly Father would let me know again, that this truly is Christ's church and that Joseph Smith was called to be a servant of God. 

  I decided that I should start reading Doctrine and Covenants because I've never really read all of it and it's mainly the revelations that Joseph Smith received from Jesus Christ.   

  So, I read through the first couple sections and I just wasn't feeling anything. Then I just started praying and just telling Heavenly Father that I didn't need to receive an answer right away, but if he could just sometime in the near future let me know without a doubt that I was in the right place, that would be nice. So, by that point I was in D&C 6 and when I looked down I read this verse: 

14. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

  That experience just reaffirmed to me that God is aware of us. If we have questions or if we feel weak, we can always turn to the scriptures. It is God's word, and He will be able to communicate directly to us through it. 

  

  I LOVE being a missionary on Temple Square. It is such a special place. We were able to go to the temple this morning and just feel the peace that exists there. I am still waiting for conference to be loaded onto Gospel Library so I can read all the talks. 

  We got to attend the Sunday afternoon session so I'm not really sure what was said in the other sessions. Email me the names of the ones I absolutely have to read! Love you so much! Happy Easter. It is never to late to celebrate it.

Sister Helton

Sister Rivas

Sisters Soavu and Smith

In the original Tabernacle

President Poulsen, my mission president

Elder John Delong, serving in Ogden, at conference

Sister Makovei

Sister Kemple's first General Conference

Becca and I saw each other when
 she was attending the SLC Temple

So many people searching. And Conference 4-1-2015

Hi!

  This week has been the best. The first big update is that we received our Ipads! I'm not really sure how to effectively use them here though since we already have so many resources available to us already...but it's really nice to be able to use Gospel Library during studies! 

  Sister Kemple and I took a ton of pictures during our Explore Day this week. We went to the capitol and also to the Relief Society building. I can't figure out how to connect to the Wifi here (I will forever be technologically challenged) but hopefully later on today I'll be able to send them to you. 

 Last week in my email I talked about "Because He Lives."

 I'm sure you have all already seen it online, but we had the coolest experience EVER showing it to an investigator on Temple Square. We had an amazing discussion with a man last week who was only going to be in Salt Lake for 5 days because of a business conference he was attending. We invited him to come to the Square so we could teach him another lesson. 

  During the lesson we talked all about who Christ is and how you can recognize the Spirit and answers from God. He still wasn't very convinced that Christ was his individual Savior, Mediator and Brother, so Sister Kemple suggested that we watch "Because He Lives" and then end the lesson with a prayer. 

  After we watched the video we asked what he felt while watching it. Literally, it felt like we were in a movie. He said that he truly felt that God was speaking to him and that this was the path God intended for him to be on. I cried. He probably thought "these missionaries are crazy." 

  But we called him yesterday because he returned home and he's already read up to Alma 11 in the Book of Mormon and asked when he could be baptized. It just is such a testimony builder to me that God truly does prepare people. So many people are searching. They may not know what they are searching for, but it's the coolest thing ever because when they find the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they realize it's that missing piece. 

  I was reading the New Testament in my studies yesterday and I just really wanted to share a verse that I fell in love with. It's Luke 12:32. 

  Christ is talking about how we need not fear men but we need to testify of Christ. He goes on the explain that we don't need to worry about our temporal needs because God is aware of what we need and will provide for us. 

  The verse says, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." 

  First of all, I thought it was just so cute how Christ refers to us as "little flock" and I just really loved the comfort that this verse provides. It is Heavenly Father's work and glory to give us immortality and eternal life. He wants to give us all things. We don't need to fear when we understand that God is on our side and is rooting for us to succeed! He has a perfect plan and with Christ, we cannot fail. 

  I can't believe it is Conference this weekend already! The flowers are in full bloom up here and the landscapers are working like crazy to make the flowerbeds look perfect. 

  I got to attend Women's Conference on Saturday which was AMAZING. Elder Eyring can bring every woman to tears, I swear. 

  It was such a sweet experience to be able to sit in the Conference Center and listen to the talks on Family and service. I also got to see Grandma Jean after which was the icing on the cake! 

  Oh, this was just an interesting little side note: On Friday at Welfare Square, we met the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea! You never know who you're going to meet in Salt Lake City. Apparently Obama is visiting this weekend. Maybe I'll see him at conference ;)

Love you all so much!
Sister Helton

Instagram: Pres. Obama's meeting with church leaders

At the Conference Center, waiting for Women's Conference to begin

          Exploring the capitol in Salt Lake City with Sister Kemple

Beautiful Sisters