Angie is Amazing!

Hi! 

This week was great! We had exchanges with 2 sisters. 

I got to work with Sister Hansen and Love again which was really fun and great! 

Broke a HUGE blister- bigger than a quarter that went through3 layers of  skin...like a champ :)

Hunter and Angie had us over for dinner and made us each individual cakes! 

It was soo sweet!

We watched the Testament with them one day, it made me cry when Christ comes. I love how He knows each of us by name.

Angie is amazing! Her baptism is this weekend, so Satan is working hard but she is so amazing and always putting God first! 

Love you all!

They call me Sister Goofball :)

I kinda loudly said, "No Way!"

Hi! 

So Wednesday was a crazy day! It was really hard saying goodbye to people in Reynoldsburg. There are so many amazing people there who were amazing examples to me. 

President Nilsen called on Wednesday to call me as a Sister Training Leader. He said it's like a Zone Leader. Said some hard goodbyes and then packed everything up that night. 

Transfers were crazy! Over 90% of the companionship's in the mission were affected! So, basically most of the mission was there. Also super crazy, a lot of the areas now have Elders and Sisters in the wards/branches. 

They called Sister Training Leaders to be with Sister Training Leaders, kinda like how zone leaders are. So.... I am with... SISTER DYCUS!!!!!! I am back with my mama (Trainer)! When they were announcing our names I was so shocked I kinda loudly said "No Way!" We were stocked! 

I am now serving in the Canal Winchester ward. I am in Circleville. The area is split, so the Elders have Canal Winchester and we have Circleville. We have a big ward, the biggest I have ever served in. There is about 100 active members! In our area though we have about 4 active members. But it's all good, we're working on that! It is a lot like Greenfield. Lots of corn here. It's so different going from the city and suburbs to this area. It's great! It is just super surreal when I look over and see Sister Dycus driving with cornfields all around us, I feel like it's a flashback of 6 months ago. 

We have amazing investigators we are working with! Two are on date! And guess what, the kid we are working with his name is Hunter, just like in Reynoldsburg! He is great! He just turned 8. He calls me Goofball. 

It was such a blessing, because the first Sunday is always a little crazy, it was so cool that I knew some people! A family from Reynoldburg was visiting and one of Sister Love's mini missionaries that we worked with is in that ward. She is awesome! 

Today we had a mission luau. It was so fun! We had a bunch of fun games: volleyball, water-balloon volleyball, corn hole, stick pull, and other stuff. We also had our amazing "King of Tonga", senior couple Elder and Sister Neu, made us a BBQ. It was really fun! 

Tomorrow we have interviews with the President. Sister Dycus and I will be helping train the zones during it. Then Wed is Zone meeting, which we are putting on with the Zone Leaders, and then we have exchanges that day with one of the companionship's, then on Friday with another companionship, and then a really cool Relief Society Fireside on Saturday. At the fireside, Sister Nilsen will be speaking, some of the Amish sisters who recently have been baptized will be speaking, and they are going to have Cafe Rio style food! So excited! 

I love you all! Thank you so much for the support and prayers it means a lot! I love being out here and seeing how the Atonement not only works in others lives but in mine. I know that it is only through Jesus Christ's sacrifice that I can do and be more than I am.

 I love you all!

 

Love Always,

 Sister Mcdougle

I'm being transferred!

Hunter got baptized!!!!! Ah it was so amazing! It was great! He looked so happy! And the next day he got confirmed! He is such an awesome/amazing kid! 

We have also been working with this one less active who has honestly changed all of our lives. He has changed his life around and is working towards going to the temple!! He is such an example to all of us. And he is really awesome because at one point we were talking about donuts and Ohio is different and doesn't have any maple bars that aren't filled!!! Crazy right? Well he is close with the donut people and got me two non-filled donuts. It was amazing and tasted like home :). Also he has been talking to his brother about the church and how he is going back, and his brother has seen all the changes and is open to learning more and we got to teach him the other day!!! He is awesome!

Went on exchanges with Sister Dycus and Pricket. They are great.

On labor day we went park contacting at Blacklick park. It is so gorgeous! I love it! So green and has all these walking trails through the forest that make me think of the sacred grove. Ohio is funny. We went in sweating because it was sooo hot and left running to our car drenched from the pouring buckets of rain. 

Learning about the enabling power of the Atonement. It is life changing! I love it! 

I was invited to go to the leadership council this week. It was so great! I received a lot of amazing training! 

Miracle! So on Sunday we really wanted to find 2 more new investigators. We felt impressed to visit an investigator. So we basically got down to we had 2 hrs left. We prayed for help. The first door we went to we met this great lady who became an investigator, saw members invited them to the follow up lesson, and then I felt impressed to go to this random house. She became an investigator! It was a pure miracle!!! Like that doesn't happen!! Ah! And we did it all in an hour so we had time to go visit the investigator! And the lesson was super cool because we felt impressed to suggest that he reads Proverbs and then the footnotes on it to the Book of Mormon, since he was reading in Proverbs and stuff. He said that when we said that it clicked. It was really cool. Plus he has been going through a hard time so it was really great we got to see him.

Today we had zone day fun day! We played glow in the dark volleyball! We also played normal volleyball, ate spaghetti, and played a game like dodge ball. It was so fun! 

I got the call. I am being transferred and Sister Love and Hansen are staying. I am so grateful to have served here, especially with them. It's cool because we can see how inspired it was to have us together this last transfer. It is really cool. I am so grateful for all the amazing people here. Ah the ward is so great. And I have learned so much from Sister Love and Hansen. They are such amazing missionaries. I love them. So I guess on Monday I will let you know where I am. Love yah all and thank you for all the support!

Love, Sister McDougle

Three little girls in skirts pushing a car...

Hi everybody! 

This week has been good! Honestly, I know a lot happened but I can't really remember any of it right now. :)

Our car was in the shop, so we walked A LOT! But it was cool because we had a lot of miracles happen.

One lady who's son is  a member was hopping to see missionaries and saw us! She gave us a ride. She is so sweet! (This same sweet lady took a picture of the sisters and e-mailed the picture and a note to us parents! She wrote what a blessing it was to see them and even though she isn't a member of our church, she is is so proud of their commitment!) 

Oh one day we were on our way to an apointment  and were so blessed. We weren't paying attention and didn't cross when we should of, and a car that was stopped at the red light got hit and was pushed to the intersection! We were defiantly protected! Luckily no one was hurt. We helped push his car into the parking lot. We were laughing the whole time, just thinking how funny it must be to all the cars driving by to see 3 little girls pushing a car up this small hill in skirts! Turns out he was a baptist pastor! The whole thing sounds like a bad punch line. He was really nice.

We had great lessons. And were able to have four lessons that members were present! It was great! Members there make such a difference, because people don't think we are normal people. One guy we are teaching was so surprised when he found out Mormons watch movies. It helps to have members there a lot!

I love it here! It's going great! Hope all is well! Love you all! 

Love,

Sister McDougle

Like Some Cheesy Romantic Comedy

Hey! 

I hope everybody is doing great! 

This week has been eventual! We ran out of miles so we walked like 6 or more miles everyday. It was good though! I liked being able to be outside walking and talking to people on the streets. There was one homeless lady we talked to who was really nice, I don't know it was really cool to think how much love Heavenly Father has for His daughter. 

We had one great day where one guy decided he wanted to teach us and then when we politely said it was great to meet you sir but we do have to go, we set apart an hour for this and now we have to get to our next appointment. He said "Thank you for setting apart the time to come, you didn't have to. And I don't believe that anyone really Wants to go to Hell. So I ask you to pray and think about what I told you." So that was a great "bonding moment" as Sister Hansen called it. 

And then a lady who was so prepared for the gospel, she cancelled on us because we believe God and Jesus are the same person, but we don't, and she wouldn't believe us so that was a fun day. 

J moved her baptisms date to the 24th. And then when we went over the other night she dropped us because she doesn't want to quit smoking and stuff.  

And then we got stood up and dumped by almost everyone we were teaching. So basically it is like some cheesy romantic comedy. But there has been lots of miracles. We have found more people to teach who are great. H came to church again and is planning to be baptized the 31st. 

I love being in a trio! It is fun and nice to have more people to talk to. We got into less active members homes! One lady really opened up to us and it was cool to be able to relate to her. One guy we are now teaching he had just finished saying he doesn't like reading Proverbs right now and I opened my Bible and it opened to Proverbs and 3 scriptures that I had marked applied exactly to what he was going through, it was cool. 

I tried peanut butter and mayo. Um, that was interesting. I didn't know how picky I was until I came out on my mission. It's all good though! I love being out here. I found out Reynoldsburg is the birthplace of the tomato! Things are starting to look up! And like one of my investigators said- "like Katy Perry said there is always a rainbow after every storm". 

I love you all!!!! I hope you are all having a great day!

Love, Sister McDougle

Sister Hansen

Hi!

So I am still in Reynoldsburg. I am now in a trio. I am still serving with Sister Love and she is training Sister Hansen. Sister Hansen and I actually knew each other before! We were in the same EFY group! She is so great! She is super bold and an amazing missionary! I was nervous about being in a trio (three missionaries), but I love it! It is so great! It is nice to always have someone to talk to and a different perspective. It is really great. 

So we are kinda running low on miles (we get a certain amount each month). So yesterday we walked most of the day. It was such a blessing! We were able to meet so many prepared and amazing people! It was so great! One kid has such a love for Jesus Christ, it was so great! He just had a true desire to do anything that would bring him closer to Christ. We are excited to teach him this week. 

Our mission President is doing a lot better! He has his energy back and is moving the work even more. The standards of excellence for the mission has been raised. He has such faith in continuing to grow and put our faith in the Lord. He is such a great example. Our bishop is also healing! 

We have great people that are making great progress! One lady it was so amazing- she said how she would never feel worthy to be baptized, we got to explain to her how you don't have to be perfect. We got to go over the requirements with her and realize how much she truly believes and is prepared. She is on date for next month! We have been praying very specifically. 

I have been studying this week about Christlike attributes and how much faith and hope truly means to trust God.

 How we have to have enough faith to believe something will happen, not wait for the miracle to happen to then believe. I am so grateful for the experiences to see how much faith people have and how our faith can continually grow. One sister mentioned God doesn't care where you are on the path as much as He cares about which direction your headed. 

I love you all!

Love Always, Sister McDougle

I Love Being a Missionary!

HI!

I hope you all are having a great week! Today was zone fun day. So we had a BBQ as a zone, played put put, and made zone shirts. I have such a great zone they are great!

We had district meeting this week. I have a great district. We practiced giving chapel tours. It is so awesome! (If you have never been on a tour of one of our church buildings you should go on mormon.org and ask a missionary to give you one). 

You can feel the Spirit so strong! We are teaching a family. They are super great. On Wednesday we had 24 hour exchanges. We went to Lancaster and worked there. Sister Allen is in my zone! And she is my sister training leader so we got to be companions on the exchange. She is so amazing!! I love sister Allen! Ah it was so cool to see how much both of us have grown from being MTC companions. I love her!

 I love being a missionary! It is so fun! The kids in the ward here are so fearless. We gave some pass along cards with picture of Jesus Christ on them and they are giving them to friends they want to invite to church. I love how they just love the gospel so much and their friends so much so they just want to share what they love. Sister Love and I get along great. We were low on miles so the other day we walked for about 7 miles. Yeah being blessed with mad calf muscles! Just kidding. 

But seriously I love you all! thank you for all the support!

 Love You!

P.s. Jenessa Van Buen (sorry if I spelt that wrong) Sister Reed is Sister Allen's companion and in my zone!!!