Ah I love it!

Hi!!!
Elder Porter came and talked to us. It was so amazing!!! He taught about the first principles of the gospel: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It was so great! The Spirit was so strong! I love how simple the gospel truly is!
Went on companionship exchanges. I traded with another companion for 24 hrs. It was great to see how a ward works and everything. I also got to see one of my best friends from the MTC. So it was great!
Miracle: An appointment fell through so we went to our back up plans. And we tracked into this lady who was so prepared.The Spirit was so strong and everything we felt we should say was exactly what she needed to hear. She was crying as we talked to her. She could not wait to read the Book of Mormon! The Spirit was so strong!
I am now allowed to e-mail family and friends also!!!
I am so grateful for this opportunity to testify of Jesus Christ everyday! Ah I love it! Nothing can make us more happy and bring more joy into our lives than the gospel
 of Jesus Christ! Ah I love it! I love how much we can grow once we do His will. I love this gospel. I love this church! I love this opportunity to serve a mission! I love it!

 I miss you all and love you all so much!!!!!!
Love Always, 
Sister McDougle

I Don't Like Dogs :)

Hi everyone!! I hope all is going great! Yesterday was sunny!!!! So I was happy! We also had a snow storm and ice storm this week also. They always say "If you don't like the weather here wait ten minutes it will change." It is so crazy true! Honestly they have more variation in temperature change in a day than Irvine does through the whole year. After a huge snow storm we were driving to another town and it was so gorgeous! All the fields covered in fresh snow were so pretty!

I have learned that I don't like dogs. I like dogs just not other peoples dogs. Every since I have realized this I have never seen so many dogs outside not on leashes.  

We got stuck in the mud the other day, like really stuck. I had to get out and push. After prayers and lifting the side up we got out. This week has been busy and crazy. Heavenly Father is definitely blessing us. 


We met with a less active member who has Down Syndrome. She has so much faith and loves Jesus Christ so much. She is so amazing!

New lingo: 
warsh = wash, boot= trunk, mamu= grandma

Akita WELCOME TO THE FAMILY!!!!!! I am so excited for you and Ky! He sent me pictures and you look gorgeous as always! I love you both! 
Kyle congratulations! Thank you so much for the pictures! I loved them!

Thais- Thank you so much for the clothes!!!! They are exactly what I need, Thank you!

Thank you so much for all the e-mails! I do read them and I do love them but unfortunately I can't e-mail back. But I will write  soon! They mean so much to me thank you! Thank you also Sydney, Ash, and Mo for the letters! Love you girls! They helped me so much! I promise I will write people back! I only have a few hours on Monday to do it and today we have "Fun Day" or as my companion was joking Mandatory fun :). We are meeting with a bunch of zones to do all these games and stuff!  I am excited but it is a far ways away from us so we don't have time to write sorry. I will though. I love you all and am so grateful for all of you!

Sorry for the short letter we need to hurry so we can go to fun day! Thanks for the prayers and all the support! Love you all so much! I am so grateful for you all! 

Love, Sister McDoulge

Blessed

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Congratulations to Kyle and Akita on the engagement!

 

This week we have definitely been blessed. It was kind of a hard week. I got sick and had to stay in one day, unfortunately. The rest of the week we did a lot of tracting in other towns. Lots of tracting. I started to get bolder so it's been good. I got to testify about Joseph Smith's first vision to a young man on the doorstep, I have done it before, but that time I looked him into the eye and could just feel the Spirit so strong. It was great! He is going to read the Book of Mormon and ask Heavenly Father if it is true. Unfortunately one investigator stood us up. And another lady was sick, but that was a blessing because that was right when I was getting sick also, so I am glad we will teach her when we are more with it.

Our branch is so sweet! We had to cancel dinner because I was sick and within like an hour someone else was calling to see if I was OK. One member gave us tissues, soup, cough drops, and other things to help me get better. They are so nice. So we made plans to teach her on Saturday since she was sick. I have been looking forward to it because she seemed genuinely interested. When we got there, no one was home. So after leaving a note we went to our back up plans. I was kind of down because of some discouraging things that seemed to be adding up that day. My companion just reminded me that we needed to have faith and obviously the Lord wants us somewhere else right now. So we went to our back up plans. We went to the street that we were going to tract on Monday but halfway through we had to leave because I was feeling nauseous. So we went back there and the first door we knocked on the lady let us in before we said much. She was really sweet and we talked a bit about God is our loving Heavenly Father and other things, and we got to talking about how they are moving when we offered to help her husband started listening and they started to care more. When we talked about how there is a living prophet she was sincerely listening. She invited herself to church before we could ask. It was so great! Her husband was tired so we made plans to come back the next morning to bring breakfast and we were going to find a ride for them and made plans to meet next Sat to talk!!! Pure Miracle!!!!! We could not find a ride for them for the longest time and then our prayers were answered and someone could!!!! Unfortunately the next morning when we showed up they were sick, but they still want to meet with us on sat and seem interested!!!!

There was a baptism in our branch on Sat. The Spirit was so strong there! We watched the Restoration video and then had the opportunity to testify after that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly did appear to Joseph Smith, that Jesus Christ did restore His church on the Earth today and invited all those who have not to follow Jesus Christ's example and be baptised.

One member we have been meeting with has completely changed his life around it is so amazing! Ah it's so cool that Heavenly Father lets us witness the change of heart.

One lady was actually there for our appointment!!!!!! She is so sweet! We asked her how it felt after we gave Joseph Smith;s account of the first vision and she said it felt like the first time she prayed. Ah the Spirit was so strong!!!!!

A member who hasn't been active in the church in like 30 years came. He told us he knew this was the true church. We got to talk to him and he wouldn't make any promise to come back to church, that it would probably be 3 or 4 months till he came back. The Spirit led us to be so bold, I don't know if I have ever been so bold in my whole entire life. My companion also was bold. By the end he committed to come back next Sunday and meet with us again after church!!!!!

Tracked yesterday in the country for about 6 miles. A horse drawn buggy went by us.

This week we have been so blessed to see that this is the Lord's work. If it was up to me I would have all these lessons we get to teach, people coming to church, and baptisms. But it's not mine, it's the Lord. He blessed us with seeing that even if our numbers aren't showing anything that we are making a difference. I have learned so much more how it is not about numbers but doing the Lord's will. I am so grateful for all the blessings Heavenly Father has blessed us with. This week we have appointments to meet with a lot of the less active members so I'm excited!

I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all so much! Thank you so much for all the love and support!!!

Love, 
Sister Kellie McDougle 

 

P.s.  Natalie I need your address, Jordan thank you for the e-mail I didn't get the first one, Kara- CONGRATULATIONS on your mission call to FIJI!!! You are going to rock it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Grandpa and Thais for the Birthday package! Also Grandma Judy and Grandpa Jim for the birthday wishes!

I Could Be Called to a New Mission!

Dear Friends and Family,

That is so exciting that Irvine is becoming a mission!!! What areas will it cover? 

This week has been good. The first few days were kind of tough. While we were out tracting people said they would want to hear more so we made appointments with them, and when we went back 4 of them weren't home. So that was a little rough. But one man was there!!!!!! We got to teach him about the restoration and he committed to praying to find out if what we have said was true and to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true! We are meeting with him this week! I also got to teach a great lady who believes but is dragging her feet to be baptised because she is worried about leaving the community of her church. But she recieved an answer to her prayers that she shouldn't worry about that! SO great how the Lord answers our prayers. 

The Holy Ghost is just amazing! I know I would not be able to teach or do anything with out it! It was cool, we knocked on this trailor and this lady came out and it was cool that the Spirit was able to touch her heart and help us know what to say to do that. We also got to see one member start changing his life around, it is so awesome! 

Anyone going on a mission look up the talk the 4th missionary- it will change your life. It has helped me change my attitude and everything. It's about giving your will to the Lord and doing His will.

The Branch is seriously amazing! They are so sweet! I love them so much!

We are almost done tracting in our whole town so we have started going to the other towns in our area. They are tiny but charming. They remind me of 'Remember the Titans' because they all have signs in the buisnesses supporting the local high school football team. People have been nice. Some people are funny and will look at their blinds and pretend they aren't home, or funny stuff like that. One lady knocked on her door window and waved goodbye to us, that was interesting. The Lord has blessed us a lot. We have had opportunities to testify a lot. And for every person who isn't so sweet there are a couple nice people.

Last week we had a conference call with the mission president and all (280 or i forget how many of us) missionaries. He informed us that a new Ohio mission if being formed because of the increase of missionaries, thanks to the October general conference announcement (age change for missionaries). It's so exciting. There will be 58 new missions! So basically what this means for my mission is lots of exciting changes! Our three big cities in our mission is Dayton, Collumbus, and Cincinatti. The New Cincinatti mission will now cover Cincinatti and Dayton and parts of Indiana. So there will be a new mission president for that mission and everything. Also some of our missionaries in our mission will be assigned to be in that mission. So basically a bunch of missionaries in my mission, will be assigned to a whole new mission then they were originally! It sounds like our mission president will pray about it and through revelation decide who goes where. No one knows when or how many missionaries. Our mission president has promised to keep us informed as soon as he knows more. So yeah, I could be assigned to a new mission. It's exciting either way! 

Congrats Roxy on your wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for everyone that e-mailed me. I can only e-mail back my family but I will write you as soon as I can.

Love you all so much!!!! Miss you!

Love Always,

Sister McDougle