Well talk about busy week for you guys! Sounds like you are powering through this awesome calling of yours! I love to hear your success stories they make me so proud of you. I have always said that your work that you do is always top notch quality, nothing you do, you do half way! I love that! :) Keep it up! :) I am glad the fun run went well, and that everyone enjoyed it! :) I think it's crazy that school is already starting and fall is beginning, I am so excited to see the fall colors here in Ohio! You are going to be so jealous when I send you pictures because I get to live in it!!! ;) Transfers are next Thursday, I have no idea what is going to happen, the only thing I know for sure is that I will be a sister training leader. It's a bit scary to think that I will have sisters under me.....the mission won't know what to do when I'm done with them! Mwahahah! :) 

Grandpa's letter was perfect for sister Black! She loved it! It was hilarious! :) Tell him thank you for sending it! :)  

To answer your questions.   These are the questions I asked her:

1.  Did you get the package we sent last week?

2.  Do you have limited mileage on your car?

3.  Do you do all the driving?

4.  What do you do to decompress or relax at the end of the day?

 

I did get the package you sent, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! I needed it, Everything in there was just what I needed! :) 

We have 1200 miles a month, and some things we do we don't count them on our miles. Like when we go on exchanges we don't count the miles to and from where we go, but only the miles in the city we are working. Sometimes it's a stretch to make it, but we usually do! :) 

I do all of the driving, much to sister black's dismay, she doesn't think I am a good driver. I happen to think I am quite a good driver! :) Don't ask her about it...Sometimes I wish I didn't have to drive, but sometimes I like it.

and finally to decompress at the end of the day, we usually get ready for bed and then read some scriptures, and eat something yummy, then if there is time we write in our journals, or just fall into bed exhausted! Or we talk about random stuff, or I don't know, just really whatever we feel like doing, or what we have time for. 

 

 I think the main thing that I have learned this week is that the members love us here so much that they want to help us in any way that they can. 

One example of this is Bro. Hamner, he came to Steve's lesson with us, and the lesson didn't go the way we wanted it to. We struggled through it, and the spirit wasn't very strong except when we ended it with reading a chapter in the book of Mormon with them. After the lesson we felt junky about it, and on the way home we got a call from Bro. Hamner and he expressed the same feelings that we were having. So we set up a time to meet with him the next day to talk about what happened and how we can make the lesson better. He pointed out some things that he observed that we could have done better, and helped us to figure out what we could teach Steve on Thursday. So we decided that we needed to ask him the Baptismal interview questions and figure out where he was at in his testimony. We started the lessons the way the Assistants taught us at Training, setting expectations, using HTBT and then went into the questions with him and from the beginning of that lesson to the end the spirit was so strong and we were able to help him, and Sis. Black had a breakthrough during that lesson as well. She was able to feel the spirit and recognize when she was feeling it. it was amazing! I really have a testimony of how important members are to this work. 

Also this week I was able to go on an exchange to Circleville with Sis. Dycus. I learned so much from her. She is a great missionary, in a hard area, and she is doing well. I learned how important it is to set inspired goals and to work your hardest to reach those goals. They had set a goal to find 5 people in 2 days through tracting and to extend baptism to every one they talked to. I was amazed as I watched Sis. Dycus talk to these people and use the methods she used that it worked. Every person that would listen was extended to. and we were able to find 3 people in the 6 hours that we went tracting together. 

I love going on these exchanges to see what things Sis. Black and I can implement in Zanesville! 

We have 2 people being baptized on saturday. Chase and Isaiah are half brothers and are 9 years old. They are so excited to be baptized! We are meeting with them today to get them suited up in their suits and getting the program set up. We are so excited to finally have a baptism in Zanesville! 

I have missed you a lot this week too, I hope that you are doing well! I love you so much! :) 

Love 

Sis. Buhler

This week has been a great week for us here in Zanesville. We have been able to teach some lessons to our investigators, Steve and Mike. They are both doing great. Sometimes we get a little frustrated and our patience is tested because we want them to progress  faster than they are ready for, but we have learned a lot this week in this regard that it is not us that knows when they are ready it is the Lord that knows. He is the only one who knows what they are going through and when they are personally ready to move to the waters of baptism. We had a cool experience with Steve this week, we walked into his house and the spirit was different, something was wrong. we all could feel it. We started to teach and nothing was clicking, we couldn't say the things we had planned to say, everything we tried was just not working. Finally Bro. Hamner spoke up and said that he has been trying to figure out what was wrong the whole time. He said that he knew something was wrong but he couldn't put his finger on it. So we asked Steve what had changed and he said that he had hit a spiritual wall and that he didn't feel like he was going anywhere, and that he has been just feeling junky. Bro. Hamner offered to give Steve and his wife Faith a blessing. he did so and it was so good for them. It was their first blessing and it changed the spirit of their home. He came to church on Sunday and looked like he was doing so much better. The priesthood is real and it has so much power to heal and to comfort. I am amazed at every time I get one or witness one there is always something miraculous said in them. I love the priesthood so much. 

One thing I am concerned about is with Sis. Black, she is struggling right now to know if she wants to be out here or not. She has talked to me a lot about it as well. I really don't know how to help her. We are working hard but her heart isn't in it and so it's hard to keep her motivated. If you have any suggestions on how I can help her I am open to anything.

Other than that things are going well here. I am feeling great about how things are going. I am excited to be going on all of these exchanges with the sister staining leaders. It is really exciting. We were able to go to Mt. Vernon last week as well to work with Sis. Webb and Sis. Nalls! That was so fun! We were able to find some awesome potentials and 1 new investigator for them! I love helping other missionaries out!

That is so cool about going to Brett's cabin and doing all these fun things in Utah! I think that both landon and I wish we could have been there, but this is a greater thing that we get to do! I am learning to love this work again and things are going really well! Don't work yourself to death, but you are doing a great job! I am so proud of you! You are excelling at your calling and I am amazed at how well they seem to be doing with you as their leader! A lot of times I think about you and what you would do if you were here. and that is what I base what I do. Also the Savior of course but that is a huge testimony to me that you follow the savior and so I can follow you because you follow him! :) Keep it up mom! you are the best! and I love you! :)

This week we have a lot going on we have district meeting on wednesday, We have sis. Specialized training on thursday, weekly planning on friday until 3 and then after that I am going on an exchange to Circleville until saturday night. Then it's sunday again and I will be going on another exchange with the sister training leader in madison lake, adn then it's transfers! What the!!!? Time flies so fast! It's so crazy! :)

I hope that you have a great week and know that the lord will buoy you up and expand your capacity to do the things that you need to do.

Will you put Sis. black's name on the prayer role in temple and pray for her. She needs a lot of prayers this week. also Mike Smith, Steve Stover, and Chase and Isaiah Starkey.

Thank you !

I love you

Sis. Buhler

This week has been a pretty good week, we were able to get a lot of referrals and contact them all. none of them panned out but we were still very grateful that we were able to get them. Sis. Black and I are starting to work together more effectively, and we are being able to figure out what it is we were sent to each other for. She has a lot of the same qualities I had when I first came out. And I am starting to see them, and I know how I was able to refine the things that I wanted to fix, and so I can help her with that. That is something that I learned from her. She is having a hard time learning how to recognize the spirit, she has only had a few times in her life when she actually has been able to feel it working in her. She has had other people tell her when they feel the spirit with her, but she has trouble identifying it for her self. That is her struggle, she feels like it's holding her back and it gets her really discouraged sometimes.  

Other than that we have had a pretty good week. We found 3 new investigators. Bo, Jennifer, and Molly. They are great! We have been out visiting a lot of people this week, almost every less active that we can go see we have tried to see. We have one of our investigators Steve who we taught the Word of Wisdom last week, he's struggling with that, but he's still really strong and reading the BOM every day with his wife. That is changing their lives, it's amazing to see. Mike our investigator we called you about who was on date for Aug 17th is smoking again, he quit for a week and a half and then Satan hit him pretty hard with about 5 things on the same day and he started smoking again. He doesn't have any hope for himself, and we are trying to instill that back into him, but he doesn't feel like the atonement covers him and so it's hard to help him. We are trying everything we can to help him! 

Things are slowly but surely picking back up here in Zanesville, I am so excited to have Sis. Jenkins here with us this week. She is going to be a huge help to us and she will change the lives of the people she teaches out here. She is a recent convert from February serving a mini mission, and she was called here to Zanesville, We found out last night that she was coming, and so it's going to be great having her here. She's really cool and wants to serve a mission really bad, which is awesome! 

I'll be honest with you, this week really has been a hard week, Its been different and hard and just plain frustrating.  I just keep thinking that things here in zanesville are going to get better but they just keep slipping through the cracks and our investigators are slipping away,I know I'm not supposed to send negative stuff in emails but I really need your prayers! It is hard work but also rewarding at the same time.  I love you all.  Thanks for all your letters, prayers and support.     Sister Buhler