This week was great! It's been rainy and cold, but we're staying warm, so no worries. I love love love it here still and it's so gorgeous. 

 As for Taylor....please pray for her. She needs the spirit in her life and she wants it. She knows she feels it with us, but she won't make those changes on her own. She won't read or come to church and I know she wants it. That darned agency! So yeah, just pray for her!

But this week, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Belliston, and it was way cool because she is soooo good at testifying about Christ every chance she gets. I noticed that she always testified about Christ, even in little ways. I commented on it and was talking to her about how that's something I've been working on and she told me that the reason why she had gotten good at it was that she hadn't felt like she was getting changed by her mission as much as she wanted to, so she decided to focus on Christ and testify of Him to everyone! And I thought that was really cool. Christ is really what's going to change us. We have incredible experiences as missionaries, but they will pass us by if our we aren't focused on Christ. We can go through the motions and we will see success, but if we focus on Christ then we will be changed. As we focus on Christ, we will realize the true reason we are out here- to invite and help others to come unto Christ- and we will get closer to Him as well. We will have personal experiences with the Atonement, and that is why we will be changed. Christ changes us and makes us better. And that is what we are doing as missionaries...sharing that with everyone! It was really cool to be able to learn from Sister Belliston, as Sister Gunnell and I have really been focusing on teaching and testifying more on doorsteps and changing up door approaches. It was definitely inspired.

Also, on exchanges we listened to the talk "The Missionary Next Door" about member missionary work, and I LOVED IT! Oh my goodness, it is incredible, and I've used it in every single member inspire since. It talks about how we as missionaries are in charge of the spiritual conversion, we just need members to be in charge of the social conversion. Their job is just to invite to come meet us, to come to activities, to be a friend, and we will do the hard part! It made it so simple and easy and I think it's really helped get the work moving a little bit more with the members. The Seabeck ward is really on fire with missionary work. They want so badly to have baptisms and see success, and we've been trying to do member inspires and get them all involved and invite them to just invite people. They are some really fun activities coming up and we've been pushing them to invite people, so we are excited to get the work moving and get it going!

Anyway, love you so much. Hope you have an awesome week!

love, Sister Kramer

Port Angeles, Paul's baptism and "nosey rose"

 This week, we got to see Paul baptized! And he has so many wonderful friends in the Kitsap Lake ward. He really belongs there, and it's so wonderful to see how excited they all are to have him join them. 

We tried again to get no zeroes ("nosey rose"), and we got everything except a progressing investigator, because everyone we've been teaching decided to go ghost on us (or, in Paul's case, get baptized!) so unfortunately Taylor and Girina we haven't seen all week :( But Taylor definitely knows she feels happy when she's with us, so please pray that she will recognize that as her answer that she needs to come to church and not be scared! 

BUT on the bright side, our members have decided to go crazy with missionary work and invited so many people to church!!! So that was amazing. It's so wonderful to see how the Lord works and I just hope you all know how loved you are and how Heavenly Father truly wants you back in his presence again. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, Sister Kramer

 

Labor Day Picnic and MLC. okay that's it for today I LOVE YOU ALL

This week was really good! We had 2 baptisms, which were really tender mercies, because they were two 9 year old girls. Literally, Sister Johansen and I both had barely met them once or twice before they were baptized with the child of record baptisms, so we literally did nothing! But we set the goal of having no zero's to report this week, and we knew it was going to be hard to someone on date for baptism. We tried really hard but none of our investigators were ready to commit. We really tried and were praying really hard to find someone who was ready to be put on date, and Sister Johansen felt like we needed to go back to these apartments we'd knocked a few days ago, and we met this guy named Alex. He's an ex drug addict and he is really searching to change his life and to strengthen his faith. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would pray and prepare for baptism on the 30th! It was definitely a miracle and tender mercy. 

I also had my first exchange! We went with Silverdale 3rd, Sisters Peters and Larsen and they are amazing. I learned so much from Sister Larsen. I love this work and it's amazing how the Lord works. Keep up the good work and just know I love you all!!!!

Love you! Sister Kramer

13 months? Transfers? STL? This week was crazy!

Well, how do I start this? First, today is my 13 month mark, which is crazy! I can't believe I've been out this long! Also, I'm getting transferred to the Bremerton Zone as a Sister Training Leader! I will be over four sets of Sisters and go on exchanges with them! I really wanted to go to Port Angeles (so I can go to Forks, of course :P) and I also wanted to go back to Silverdale, and I will be over the Silverdale and Port Angeles Sisters so what an answer to prayer!!!! and I already know most of the sisters I'm over so YAYYYY! I am soooo excited. My new companion is Sister Johansen. I know a bit about her, but not much so I'm excited to work with her. I will really really miss sister Pluim, though. She is such a sweetheart and such a fun person and a great teacher. I love her lots. 

So...this week was crazy. We found three new investigators, but none of them were home for their appointments, so that was sad. Also, we saw our investigator Brian, who is homeless, and he was practically having a heart attack but wouldn't let us do anything to help, so we just made sure he got home safe and said a prayer. It was sad! but prayers work miracles, so hopefully he's okay! We also did 10 hours of service, so that was great! We unpacked boxes, organized papers, served food to seniors, and painted a closet. It was was fun. I love service. Anyway, that was really the week. It's been so fun in Oly, but I am definitely so excited to go to Bremerton! My new address is 

6665 NW Newberry Hill

Silverdale WA

98383.

love you all soooo much! Thank you for all your prayers, let me tell you....we need them. I love you. Have an awesome week!

Love, Sister Kramer

Zone activity. I love these sisters!

EVERYONE has bear statues, so I had to high five one, right? :)

Some deer skeleton in someone's back yard. Creepy much?

More Chickens....they're the best to chase :P

My District (Left-right: Elders Hovey, Bell, Zhou, and Woodbrey, me and Sister Pluim)

I love the little things

1. Fresh Blackberries. Holy smokes! They're EVERYWHERE and it just makes me so happy. We can be knocking and just pick some fresh berries :) I love it!

2. Members and non members who give us water and food and berries! We've gotten fresh produce from a bunch of people and it really makes lunch delicious! 

3. a lady the other day said she wasn't interested but said to take some fresh flowers and vegetables from her stand and so I took a Dahlia, which is one of my favorite flowers since being on a mission!

Even when people slam the door on us or tell us to "rethink our religion" or plans fall through, when we focus on those who are ready to hear the gospel and on all the tender mercies Christ gives us, our joy is "swallowed up in Christ" (Alma 31:38 page 287 in the Book of Mormon) and I love that. When we focus on the good, it makes the bad worth it! 

 

so this week, we were able to find a couple new investigators, which is exciting! We had a member come knocking with us and we found Christine . She met missionaries before and really wanted to come to church but "lost touch" with the missionaries and never was able to make it. So we gave her the church address and set up a return appointment, and the member who came with us that day wants to come to the return appointment with us! It's perfect. Then we also met this sweet lady with two Autistic kids named Stephen and Justin. They're way sweet and were very open and have friends in the ward, so we are hoping to go back and start teaching them! Then Mariah said she was interested in learning more and we could come back! She's taking lessons with Jehovah's Witnesses, too, so she's open and searching and hopefully we can help her feel the spirit!

I just love this work and I love you guys. Thank you soooo much for your prayers and your love and support. I couldn't do this without you and I find strength from you guys every day. I love you so much! have an amazing week!

Black berries EVERYWHERE! I love it!

Did you know donkeys are actually way sweet!? I really like them :)

Aparently, black birds aren't so sweet....they can be aggressive. Who'd a thought!? I

I also love horses :) This one really liked me too. He thought I had treats in my purse :P

My Dahlia and Pluim's Zuchinni that we took from the lady's free stand

Families are Forever

AH this week was so wonderful!

Dylan's still doing wonderfully and due to some church building conflicts, is on date for the 9th, but  is still on date and is way excited! Also, I loooove his little boy, Elijah. The kid has me wrapped around his little fingers! Ugh. SO cute!

Also, we have a wonderful family we are working with, the Felix Family. Victoria has been a member all her life, and Juan was baptized around last September, but Juan's sisters, Rosio and Alondra, are living with them now and aren't members! It was so cute, because Juan needed to get the priesthood, but he wanted to wait for a week later than anticipated so his sisters could be there! And a young women went up and introduced herself to them and made sure they came to Young Women's and they loved it! So we are working on teaching them and putting them on date :) And their mom will be coming to live with them soon, as well, and already is looking forward to coming to church! The girls love church and are so prepared :) we are so excited! I can't wait to be able to start teaching them even more. They're so prepared and so excited and cute. I love them so much!

Missionary work is amazing. I'm so grateful that I get to be a part of this work! miss you tons and love you all! Pictures next week :)

Love you!

Love,

Sister Kramer

Someone forgot to turn on the AC...

It was waaaaaay hot this week! Especially yesterday. And they don't believe in AC here, so it was hard to sleep some nights. I can't really complain cause I know there are people in Brazil or Arizona or North Carolina who probably have it a LOT worse, but it was still hot okay? Especially when we were knocking doors. We were dying for water. Luckily, this guy have us each a cold bottle. I definitely thanks Heavenly Father for him! haha.

We also had a chicken run up to us and let us hold it, so that was fun!

Um....other than that. Let's see....we saw some really cute elderly ladies in the ward. One was like: "come back any time. I was wondering when you were going to stop by!" we were like...AW! Okay. We'll definitely come back. We got to set up some appointments with less actives that we will be seeing this week. We weren't able to see Lynn (she got a job! Yay! but not yay cause then we couldn't help her!) we went to the senior center and served the people there are soooo cute and funny! We love them. Met a couple of nice people while knocking, and a few not so nice people. This one guy was like: You believe in Mythology? and we were like....Um....no? We also got peed on by a dog! yucj. But that was pretty much our week. Still working hard ot find people and teach them! Still loving it here :) I love you all! Y'all are the best., Have a GREAT week!

Love,

Sister Kramer

the Memorial day Picnic

1) my birthday 2) eating tai food! 3) BUTTERFLY! 4) someone wrote a note and put it on our car while we were knocking. People get so mad about where we park....we weren't even on anyone's property! 5) our area is beautiful!