Week 60: miracle wHiP

now don't be fooled, the title of this email is not referring to the disgusting white spread people decide to put on sandwiches for some reason. it simply is referring to the fact that this week was full of MIRACLES and i am definitely whipping about it on the daily. (for the older more wise folks: whipping- a dance move). so it all began Monday night, we teach member families the 5 missionary lessons to strengthen their testimonies of the gospel and so they can share it with others! and this monday at one of my favorite members homes they brought their friend and their grandson who is not baptized but is turning 9 ! so we are now teaching both of them and invited them both to be baptized and they both said yes !!!!! then: i got to go on exchanges with sister frehner! and she went to dixie!!!! finally someone on my mission who doesnt give me grief about where i went to college. the miracle of this exchange was simply the fact we talked about college all day and we found out we were in the same math class. small world. she is the coolest and smartest bc shes a dixie chick. next: there was a baptism this Saturday we wanted Elaine to come to. sooo we showed up an hour before and invited her and she said she would come. a lot of prayer went into this and it was a pretty big deal so me and sis heuston were happy as could be! she LOVED the baptism and told everyone that "she was doing this on August 31st". she is so converted to this gospel and to Jesus Christ. it is amazing. I am humbled every time I get to be with her and teach her. then: Elaine came to church!!!!!! and i know that the power of prayer is REAL. sis heuston and i have been working for 5 weeks and praying and planning and doing literally everything in our power and ELAINE CAME AND SHE LOVED IT. God is good my friends!!!!
a spiritual thought from my study this week: 3 Nephi 13:34 "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof." Trust Heavenly Father. Trust that he has a precise plan just for you, that will help you grow in the ways necessarily to return to Him. This is simply what the Spirit taught me as I read this verse reflecting the past transfer, to trust that my Heavenly Father has my best interest at heart and everything that happens is for my good. and I know this is true for each of you, oddly no Heavenly Father wont decide who you spend 6-12 weeks with 24/7 but he will decide what trials you need and what you will learn from them, so trust him and ask him what he wants you to learn from learn. i love you all so much! xoxo sis folkman 

Pics: 1. The gang at church! 2. Took away some cigs👌👌👌 3. Dixie gurlz 💙❤

Week 59: im 20 1/2! wahoo!

Dont worry everyone the heat wave only turned me into a sweaty rat again! No sunburns here---- just a sweaty gal knocking on your door! Although this week was 110 w/ humidity it was fantastic! I took a special challenge from my mother and sister to look at the positive in everyday and wow my life has been changed! Being grateful for even the small things changes it all! LIFE SKILL LEARNED THIS WEEK: ---packing--- All the video game tetris finally payed off. We went over to help my fave member from my first area who lives in columbia pack up her kitchen to move across town. Not to bragggg butttttt i packed all the boxes like a bo$$ and they just handed me everything and i tetrised it into the boxes.  
---sunscreen is my new scent--- I found out that if i use sunscreen as perfume it is the illusion that im going to the pool/beach when in reality im going tracting and it put one big smile on my face! MIRACLES! ELAINE- she is just as amazing!!! We were on the phone with her this week and she just says "your job is so important" then she continues and talks about how we are the best people (all the people from church and missionaries) she has met in her entire life. She said "it just shines in your faces." I LOVED that. Our faith really is so evident, we have a light and sharing it with others and being that example is so important. Especially because our light comes from Christ's light and his can never ever be darkened! Mosiah 16:9 "He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death". SCOTTIE- Is literally my favorite person to teach. He is a tough cookie to crack but i can totally see that he is truly just seeking truth and has a sincere desire to change his life. We had an amazing lesson with him this week and we asked him if he had prayed about the things we were teaching and he said "personally im praying about a baptism date" WOW FOLKS it doesnt get better than this ! I also got to go on exchanges with sis hassan this week and she is a STELLAR missionary! We worked so hard all day in the heat and found 2 new people to teach! Twas a good week folks! Thanks for tuning in, shine your light this week!!!!! (TB to the shine the light celebration) it has new meaning now 😁😁😁😁😁😁 All my love plus some more, sis folk <3

Pics: 1. Sister Hassan and I !!! 2. tryin smile through the heat wave =) 3. lol bacon fest
4. eatin those leafy greens so i be healthy mmmm delicious 5. bailey hoskins -- the best human/member

Week 58: troubled child

wow what a WEEK. we went to st. louis twice this week, once to meet President Bell and his family and once to have MLC with him. President Bell is flippin cool and i am SO excited to have him as my mission president for the remainder of my mission. a story about bacon:
one of our first meals together, we had steak wrapped in bacon (mmm delicious you know me and how i love me a good steak). so we get in the car and i say "i hate steak" and sis heuston goes "i hate bacon".  it has been so funny because literally every meal since then has included bacon. bacon wrapped chicken, BLT's, potato soup w/ you guessed it bacon. pancakes with bacon in them, pasta w/ bacon, and breakfast for dinner w/ bacon, and so on. the best thing was last night when we had bacon the family was like "we dont even like bacon this is the 2nd time we have cooked it in a year" ahhh dont ever say you dont like something cause you will then have it for the remainder of the transfer. #missionarylife. i told sis heuston i dont like pizza...... so lets hope we have pizza for the next 3 weeks ;)) #tricky. Sister Folkman aka troubled: so the stories begins like this, we are teaching a part member family but i hadnt met them yet because they love to work. so we finally have an appointment this weekend and we start to talk with her and after about 45 minutes of her telling us about how she sees and speaks to demons and angels all the time, she randomly turns to me and puts her hand on my arm and goes "whats wrong with you?" and i go "what?" and she goes "i can see your color its green, boiling, and swirling..." and i said "no im fine" and she said "no you are troubled". in my head i said "well ya im troubled your dogs wont stop licking my arms and legs and you just told me about your demon conversations! " but i politely accepted her advice as she told me it was okay Christ was by my side. ahhh love when i became the student instead of the teacher. scottie-- had to postpone until tonight so stay tuned. elaine !!!!! she is literally amazing !!!! i have never seen someone change so much because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. she knows exactly what she wants and is willing to do whatever she takes. she is a different human being from when i first met her, she has so much light!!!!! she asked for a priesthood blessing and we went over yesterday with some brothers of the ward and watching them bless her was simply amazing. the spirit filled the room and it was another testimony to me that the church has been restored and that the priesthood they hold truly is directly from God. It is so amazing to watch people be willing to change their lives for Christ and only be able to make these huge changes because of Him, truly humbling. on another note, a member is flipping a house and asked for our help.... my new way to relieve stress is to swing a sledgehammer into a ceiling and completely destroy it. it was very satisfying. i wish i had a good spiritual thought but i dont have my notebooks nearby but all i know is that the gospel is true and has changed my life. ill have a better thought next week but until then "whether its the best of times or the worst of times, he is with us. He has promised that this will never change." -President Monson. i just loved this quote and have been thriving off of it. He is with us always!!!!

pics: 1. president and sister bell! 2-3. aftermath of house flipping :))))))) 4. sis bahr and shaffer !!!!! 5. food bank fun! 

Week 57: Chuggin along

Im running out of ways to start these emails and so I guess I'll just dive right in!!!! MIRACLES: saturday we had absolutely nothing planned and appointments canceled so we went finding all day long! And it was hot! And tiring! And i got blisters! But we saw miracles! Here is the story- so we were in a certain neighborhood and we felt directionless and so we prayed. And for some reason 420 hackberry came to mind. But no streets in the neighborhood were named hackberry... so later in the day after lunch we went to a new neighborhood and low and behold there was a street there named HACKBERRY. So we tracked the whole street !!!!!! I looked like a wet rat but we found a girl named summer on the street and she said she said she is looking for a church and wants to come closer to Christ. All i know is that she accepted Christ not the wet rat that i was. God loves us. It took the whole day to find her but we did! Then we found 2 others the last 30 minutes of the night! God is so aware of us!! 4th of July we volunteered at the yearly Parley P. Pratt run and we passed out water cuz #haterunning. other than 6 sister missionaries from UT trying to find the trail.. we missed all the fast runners but thats what they get for being over achievers. =))) I love you all, im learning im growing and im surviving the heat kinda!! Love Sis folk <3

Week 56: Its July??? JULYING

HELLO !!! To all my fans: I'm melting its way to hot here, plz send otter pops. Walking outside aka i might as well just dump a cup of water on my head bc thats what i look like when im done. Well I have a new companion, drumroll please....... Sister Heuston from Draper, UT. Another classic sister missionary from utah. We love it. Honestly this week has all been a blur, the beginning of transfers is always a little rough adjusting to another human being but Sister Heuston and I are having a grand time! But man I kinda actually miss the TRI life. We had an amazing lesson with Elaine this week though! She has grown so much this past month and loves the gospel!! It has truly changed her into a new brighter person! I love that we always have the ability to be better through Christ. We have a lesson with Scottie tonight so ill have an update about him next week. Happy 4th of July! I have no idea how its July but i guess it is! Over and out, Sis Folk :))

Pics:
1. Elaine gave us flowers 2. Me cutting Bob's hair. I guess im a cosmetologist now (it did not turn out that bad honestly) 3. Concentrated =)

Week 55: useless potato part 2 ;))

Hi FRIENDS!!! ITS ME IM STILL LIVIN! so transfer calls came and im staying in smithton ridge and sis smith is sadly leaving elsewhere... and sis bahr is going back to como #heckyaaaaa #cantseperateus. crazy busy day today! so heres a quick recap! SCOTTIE: we had 2 lessons with him this week and hes literally the coolest human! he is searching for truth and is so sincere ! He actually replies to our texts messages and doesnt cancel our appointments and thats pretty unheard of in my experience so im HYPE about it. We invited him to be baptized on July 27th and he said "i dont think ill be ready by then" so he is praying to choose his own date but we promised he would be ready because Heavenly Father is a God of MIRACLES. So we went street contacting in a park and we met a Spanish couple! So cute and for about .5 seconds i felt useful but then i again felt like a useless potato LOL. Sis smith whipped out her 7 years of spanish and we gave the the el libro de mormon (i think) and our ZL is a spanish elder so hopefully he will get to start teaching them! It was another wonderful week in the MSLM. This next transfer will hopefully be less CrAzY ! And i can send out a quality email. I love Missouri! I love being a missionary! I love Jesus! All my love plus some more, Sis folk :)) 

Pics: 1. Threw a pie in elder rogers face, what a good experience 2. I found the cat, its me 3. Cute spanish couple 4. Sis bahr= my soulmate 5. Sis smith im gunna miss her 6. Got a hair cut =)

Week 54: throwback tuesday 2 YWs

Well hey friends... another pday has rolled around and we are halfway through June and I'm not sure how. But ANYWAY...this week was another of running around like a chicken w/ no head. i dont have much to say because its all a blur and im also heading to the temple today! So highlight of my week was going Columbia wards girls camp for a little bit and it was so fun!!!! I got to be back with all the YW i love. Their theme was " This is Me ". they focused a lot on their true identity and how we are literally daughters of a God. And the world is going to tell us otherwise and mock us for what we believe but we truly know that, it is such an amazing feeling. Then we also got to be there for testimony meeting! The youth are simply so amazing here. The spirit was so strong. We had a lesson with Scottie, the man we started teaching by playing basketball w/ him. He opened up to us and told us about how he has been searching for truth and a church to attend because of what he is currently going through. It was such a cool lesson ! Being a missionary is the best JOB. We had a lesson with Will, the deaf man we are teaching.. I am getting better and I'm a little more useful in lessons especially when we bring an interpreter =) Well folks all i have to say is that covering these two areas has taken a toll on our mental stability but we hanging in there. If we make it through the day we buy ourselves ice cream, so its safe to say we have had plenty of ice cream. Sorry for the lame email, lots of love -Sis folk <3

Pics: 1. Heard the ice cream truck--- ran outside and dropped everything 2. Servin in Jeff City again, zoom in to the pic of me jump roping with a tree branch #athletic 3. Not included in the selfie :/ 4. Big Jesus 

Week 53: I'm in a quad?

Buckle down folks. It's going to be a wild ride. So one of the Sisters over in Columbia (my old area) went home so I am now in a tri companionship (but actually a quad because Jesus Christ) and Sis Bahr has joined me and Sis Smith. Literally I LOVE this girl, she has kept me laughing throughout this treacherous week. So we now cover both areas and we have been running around like chickens w NO HEADS. skrttin from appointment to appointment. It's definitely been interesting here is a rundown. We had a couple lessons with the people Columbia sisters are teaching. my favorite was Will, he's deaf and all im going to say is that I wasted 2 years of my life taking ASL in high school because a potato would have been of more use during that lesson. I didn't understand any of the sign language. But im learning and it's fun to sign for him. then Sister Bahr and I went on exchanges with Sister Clark! It was just another day of running headless chickens! Successful but insane! Sister Clark was a trooper and just put up with mine and Sister Sister Bahr's insanity. We had a lesson with a guy we are teaching named Justin! We had a super amazing lesson with him teaching him the GOJC, he is now on date for July 20th! He told us he is buckling down so I'll keep you posted. Then we had MLC and a special STL training at which I learned way to much for my brain to handle. But it was the best MLC.... I mean it was my only one ive been too but still the best. President and Sister Bateman surprised us and we got to go to the beautiful temple! It was such a blessing!! I love the temple so much and the spirit that I felt and answers to my prayers were received! The house of the Lord is so amazing!!! And so are the covenants we make inside! SO nonetheless we have been busy and gone. So yesterday we had about 45 minutes to reach our goals for the week and find 2 new people to teach for both our areas.. we stopped by a family in Columbia and they have 8 kids and we started teaching the mom and dad and then 4 kids! It was such a MIRACLE. We all said a prayer around there pool while holding hands and it was just one of those moments when in my head I was like "yes this is pure joy". I love those weird moments on my mission. Then we skrtted back to Smithon Ridge to find us some people to teach! And we park our car look up and we see some kids balling it up down the street. So we get out walk down and asked them if we could play and we played a round of lighting and I got 3rd place out of like 7 so that's pretty good for a classic PE girl. Then we started talking to Scotty the dad, and low and behold he had talked to Elders where he just moved from 2 years ago! So we are going to start teaching him and his son Cordell! Okay so hang on I'm almost done. But can you just see that miracle! We worked so hard all week and did all we could but we had no time for finding but because we did literally all that we could and Heavenly Father rewarded our efforts. He always will. He is SO aware of us, my testimony of that has grown so much of that this week! His timing is so real and so crucial! Just trust in him and whatever happens is because he needs it too! He dropped 7 people in our laps for us to teach in under 1 hour!
Okay 2 more things
1. I got to go to Columbia church and see all the people I LOVE. All my favorite people from my time serving in that ward. It is so fun to be back and see all the people that mean the literal world mean to me.
2. We had interviews with President and he just is awesome!!! He helped me realize how stuck we are without the Spirit. We won't progress and we won't be able to keep our covenants without it and our covenants are essential to our salvation/exaltation!
All I know is that I love this thing I call my "mission" because it really is just like I LOVE my life right now..its rough, it gives me stress, headaches, tears, BUT it makes me smile, laugh, and feel overwhelming amount of love for random folks in MO/IL. Anywho I love you all!!!!!
sis folk <3

PICS.
1. MLC crew @ the temple 2. STL crew @ the mission home 3. sis Bahr :,) 4. my bff sis beal goes home in 14 days:( 5. the tri👌👌👌 and the elders sticked noted our car #yay 6. When in st louis
And some other stuffffff

Week 52: the best most hardest, happiest, year yet

so here's the deal, some crazy things been happening here in Como today that I'll explain next week but here's the spark notes version of happened this week! Honestly it was rough and Satan sorta kicked our trash but we kicked his right back! Here are some negative and positive things to keep it real!
1. a lot of people dropped us! but we planted some fat seeds in their hearts
2. we knocked on some mansions and a very "kind" lady told us we were going to be condemned for believing in the Book of Mormon! 👍👍👍 but for some reason she accepted one...she is probably going to burn it... I should go get it back now that I think about it.
3.I have been doing this missionary thing for one year somehow??
4. we had our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Bateman :( I'm going to miss that couple SO much
5. Mosiah 2:17 is still in action cuz the whole zone helped clean up more tornado mess!
6. I went on exchanges with Sister herbert. We literally became bffs instantly and I absolutely love her to pieces.
anyways I dont have a computer again so I promise next week I'll actually talk about some missionary experience and cool stuff instead of ramble on! even tho I know my fans love whatever I send ya know? HERES SOMETHING WORTHWHILE TO READ: I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE! President talked about how when we read it daily it helps us be on "offense" against the adversary! We are being proactive and reading it before temptation comes and then when temptation does come we are ready to play offense! Please read this book daily! It is the most precious possession that I have. It really brings true JOY. When I feel like i cant go on I just crack that puppy open and soak up the spirit and i know it will be all okay! So crack it open! Read it daily!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!! One last thing, at zone Conference we also talked about repentance and how.its not always just correcting the wrong. Repentance is reading the BOM daily, praying daily, etc. I loved that because sometimes we are so hard on ourselves, especially me haha. repentance can also be changing for the better it doesn't have to be so focused on our mess ups or what we didnt do. Anyways president said it better than me but at least I tried. I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL -sis folk ☆1707 Garden Dr. Columbia MO 65202 -wanna be pen pals? 

Pics: 1. 1 year for me and sis Smith! 2. 1 year! Celebration! 3-4. Como zone! 5. Zone conference 6. Me and pres and sis bateman 7. Exchanges w sis herbert 8. Me 9. A sketchy payless shoes that i thought was funny "come inside" lol

Week 51: como couldn't live w/out me

back in COMO. I guess they missed me so im back ;)) im now in the smithton ridge ward and im pumped to be back. there was 2 tornadoes and one was super close to me but dont worry IM FINE! but Jefferson City is destroyed and it is so sad!! Literally just houses torn apart. I am now terrified of tornadoes. But slept through all the tornado sirens 👍👍👍👍👍 good thing it wasnt in como. we helped clean up and it was really hot and humid but mosiah 2:17 amiright. anyway it's memorial day and i dont have a computer or else i would write a novel because i LOVE being back here. we are teaching like 15 ppl and run from place to place like crazy people and the past 5 days have been a blur! STL life is just grand and i have no idea what im doing! My new companion is sis smith from good old layton utah. I look up to her so much. Literally because shes 6'3". But also a spiritual giant. She has been awesome dealing with craziness 😃😃. my new address: 1707 garden dr columbia, MO 65201. anywho love u all, sis folkman

Pics: 1. Tornado clean up crew 2. Maughan fam :,) 3.my baby sis v. Miss her lots :(
4-5. Tornado 😓 6. Me n sis smith 😋 7. Me n sis beal 😋