Happy Week my Friends!

Greg's baptism went 100% perfect. Wow, it was incredible. What a man.

He wanted me and Sis B to be a part of the program and share a missionary moment. So we shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ (3rd lesson) and wow I was shaking in my boots because there were all sorts of missionaries and our mission president and the assistants were there-- so glad that part is over! But the actual baptism part and his testimony was out of the park great!

He talked about how he was in the "big building" across the treacherous river and midst of darkness looking upon the ones below and now he has finally taken a grasp of the iron rod towards the Tree of Life and has never felt more clarity and joy. I thought it was pretty neat he used his whole testimony referencing to           1 Nephi 8.

Then Women's Conference was super. It made me really reflect on virtue.

I think a lot of times the Holy Ghost is talked about to be with us when we're doing good things and not with us when we're doing bad things-- black and white. But I think it's a little more complex than that.

I find myself letting my thoughts linger in holy places but thoughts that are distracting as to what the spirit wants me to know right then and right there.

It's a tricky thing to focus in the moment and "let virtue garnish [our] thoughts, unceasingly" but I'm coming to realize that I need the Holy Ghost in my life more than anything.

It is the way God communicates to us. It is the way we feel of His love. It is the way we are comforted, guided, and warned of the prevalent dangers in these last days. And the way we qualify ourselves for that guidance is by pure and virtuous thoughts and actions and intentions.

(Missionaries LOVE packages!)

 

Missions are hard. Life is hard. There is no denying that.

But I have the strongest testimony that when we reach the end of our lives and see the glory that is reserved for us, we will look at the Almighty with awe and ask him, "Was that ALL that was required?"

 

I have so much gratitude for the Lord's hand in every single detail of my life. I really am so blessed. 

I love you all more than soft pretzels and blue raspberry nerd slushes!!

xoxo,

Sister Dohner

 

 

 

Good day Family, Friends, and Fans!

This week was all sorts of good but mostly I want to talk about one of our investigators because he is out of this world awesome. 

It's a funky situation but a good one. He lives in our area but he's dating a member in a different area so we team-teach him with the elders of that ward (which has been super dope because one of those elders just happen to be one of my best friends on the mission!)

This is a little of his story:

So the elders started teaching him and he continually expressed how he just wants a sign. He wanted God to show him that the things they taught were true. The elders explained to him that it doesn't work like that and he needs to put his trust and faith in God. That didn't really satisfy him.

A couple days later it was about 5 am and he couldn't sleep. So he decided to pray. 

He offered a humble prayer asking God if he truly was there and if this really was the path that He wanted him to take. 

Right after he ended those words the fire alarm went off. Three times. 

He said each time he got the unmistakable impression that God was telling him: Greg. You know these things are true. Greg. You know these things are true. Greg. You know these things are true.

Greg is getting baptized on Saturday!

In our lesson with him a few days ago, that left me holding back a load of tears, he expressed to us that he was mad. He was mad he didn't know about these teachings before. He was mad he didn't teach his kids with these standards. And he was mad he spent 50 years of his life without these blessings. He told us in his whole life he has never been so happy as he has in these past 5 weeks; that he finally knows what it's like to be happy.

Wow my heart is so happy. I can't believe I have been so blessed to be trusted by the Lord in having a front row seat in watching hearts change and truly come unto Christ.

I see miraculous things every single day and I cannot imagine a life without letting God's love guide me. 

I love you all and I hope you all are loving life!

xoxo Sister Dohner

 

 

Hey cute people,

This week was wild. Up and down crazy.

We picked up a new investigator that is super solid! 

She is 14 and is adorable. We taught her the restoration

on the doorstep a couple weeks ago and she then had us 

over to teach her the Plan of Salvation last week. 

Wow the spirit was so strong! We ended with watching 

BecauseHeLives and she said she felt so much peace. 

The room felt on fire the spirit was so strong!

Our poor 76 year old investigator had a stroke so that was not good.

We spent the last half of our week in the hospital singing 

Primary songs to her and painting her nails... I don't like hospitals.

Poor woman is just trying to get baptized! Pray for her!

Something that really stuck out to me this week was the importance

of the first commandment: Love God.

The love that God requires isn't a selfish love- for Him to receive more

recognition or more power- but that love helps US. That love refines us.

If we love God, we will keep his commandments. If we don't love God

with all our "might, mind, and strength", we wouldn't do what we do, 

sacrifice what we sacrifice, and obey with a full heart of faith. When we

love God and do what he requires of us, that in return blesses us more 

than we could ever earn on our own. 

I do what I do because I love the Lord. I love people out here but alone,

that love wouldn't be enough to keep me out here. I stay out here because

I love God so much and that love helps me understand why He sent me here.

I am learning so much and my eyes are opened to so many miracles-

I know you all can experience the same if you only put your full faith

in God and love him with your whole heart.

Stay classy babes!

-Sister Dohner

 

 

 

Hello beautiful people of America + beyond~

This week (from Wednesday-now) was superb!!

My first Zone Training Meeting was a success! I didn't sleep like at all two nights before but...minor details. I was nervous because there are some pretty stellar missionaries in my Zone that have been out for quite some time...and who am I to be counseling them 3 months out? But my favorite one came up to me afterward and pretty much praised our training and made me feel like a million bucks so wahoo! I didn't mess it up!

Sister Fausett and I trained on goal setting and how we have to have a desire and a vision to flourish our areas in the way the Lord requires of us. I can't reiterate all that it was about because it was purely by the Spirit and not me so that's always an awesome feeling! 

Also Saturday we hit up the Los Angeles Temple for Sister B's Birthday! 

First off we had the best week because hello, birthday week! And everything she did or got, I pretty much got it too so... Happy bday to me too ;) 

Beautiful LA Temple

The LA Temple is outrageous. I have such a tender portion of my heart for it considering my cute parents were married there. I feel the strength of my family there so strong. 

In preparation, I came with a couple questions hoping to be answered in the course of our endowment session and ,I learned a lot. It is amazing to see the power of the Lord reaching into the desires of our hearts and caring enough to give us comfort. I couldn't say I necessarily got answers but prayerfully sitting in the celestial room I started to really seek out what God would have me know right then. 

A crazy thing happens when you open your heart up to God. 

My heart burned. I felt like my body mass doubled because my heart was so full.

So much gratitude and comfort knowing that God knows what He's doing. He's got it under control. We must not doubt or fear because that is when faith falters. 

I hate opening up. I hate feeling. I hate it. But I'm continually learning that it's okay to let ourselves feel. Everything hit me at once during fast and testimony meeting and the water works flooded. I embarrassingly wiped about a 1/2 gallon of tears off my face. But as my mom wrote to me quoting from Alma 28 "their sufferings in the land, their sorrows, and their afflictions, and their incomprehensible joy" 

Life is hard- trials are real. But there is no doubt that I have so much joy in my heart. The knowledge that this gospel gives elevates me to incomprehensible joy and gratitude, there is no denying that. 

The power of prayer is so real, my friends. Always remember that. 

I love you all! 

Have the best week!

-Sister Chelsea Zosia Dohner

HELLO MI FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!

Whoa this week was so nuts and my mind blew up from all the SEVEN meetings I went to but man, it was a good one! 

We had transfer meeting which was super fun seeing all my bffs and the newbies. 

And I love being a sister training leader, woof. My zone are ROCKSTARS! We give Zone training meeting tomorrow and eek I'm nervous but I am so excited to be a mouthpiece for the Lord. 

My BFF Elder J

 

So a couple cool experiences:

One of our investigators is 76 and has a lot of health issues so we arranged a healing blessing for her. She occupies like half of my heart, I love this lady so much. We gave a mini lesson at the beginning talking about the healing power through the priesthood and then talked about the importance of baptism. The blessing was meant to be a healing one but it was so much about how pleased the Lord is going to be with her when she gets baptized and I don't remember like any of it but I remember my heart felt like it could have exploded! We concluded with a prayer and she said it. She said the sweetest prayer and said 'I hope I can get baptized in September maybe, I hope so'. I love her so much I get teary-eyed when I picture her getting into that font. I cannot wait for the day. We're shooting for the 26th. Ah I cannot wait.

Another sick thing that happened was we had a mall booth. Us and a couple other sets of missionaries and our ward mission leader took shifts throughout the night on Saturday and talked to people coming out of the movie theatre. A lot of people avoided us, and we had some bashers, but of course the very end of the night came the miracle. A lady and her daughter came out of the theatre because her daughter couldn't sit still. She came up to us and said she has some really good Mormon friends. Sister Fausett (my STL comp) talked to her for like 30 minutes about pretty much everything. She loved everything and asked all about baptism and wants to watch one! AH! Prayers are real my friends. 

Also Elder Hamula from the 70 came and spoke to us for two days and presided in our Mission Leadership Counsel. He is super dope and I love his wife. I learned so much so I won't include a lot but I will say this personal revelation from my journal...

Revelation 12:11- "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."

'We defeat Satan now by forgetting ourselves. We lose the fight when we take our eyes off of the work and focus on our deficiencies. Satan focuses so much on the  selfishness- don't fall into that trap.' It is so easy to become selfish and to focus on what we are and what we are not. But a funny thing happens when we focus more outward, we become those things inward. That is something I really am going to work on. 

Also a small shoutout to my mom and dad. I have a great testimony of prayer thanks to you. You have taught me by example to drop to my knees in the greatest and hardest times and I wouldn't know the significance of that relationship with my Savior otherwise. I know you have been praying for me so hard my whole life and now I am on a mission. I am on a mission because the Lord touched my heart, not because I am that good of a person. So thank you for all the prayers sent my way to unlock those blessings that were and are conditional in God blessing me with them through the act of prayer. 

I LOVE YOU ALL THAT READ THIS BECAUSE THAT MEANS YOU HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ABOUT ME! STAY CUTE FRIENDS 

-Sista Dohner