Happy Pioneer Day

Hey y'all, 

This week was so good! Happy Pioneer day! I am so grateful for all the pioneers who paved the way for us today! Yesterday at church this stat from someones talk blew my mind! It took 90ish days for the pioneers to cross the plains and about 70 thousand pioneers made this trek. Today in about 90 days missionaries around the world baptize 70 thousand people. Isn't that amazing! Gosh I am so grateful that I get to be a small part of this great work!

Okay can I tell you all of the miracles that happened this Friday! Friday after weekly planning we were so pumped to go work in our area. Because of p-day, zone conference, exchanges, and my head we hadn't gotten much time to work in our area yet. We rushed from weekly planning to a member finding visit which went really well. The East's are recent converts and they loved getting to learn about the Restoration of the Gospel of Christ again from the missionaries. Then after that we walked around in their area and it was so hot! We decided to go get a frozen hot chocolate to cool down. Well we walked into Bigbys and there was the biggest line ever! (I guess everyone in Rochester had the same idea we did) We talked to a couple of the people around us and made some texts and calls while we waited. The woman in front of us paid for our drinks! She said she knew a member who's son was on a mission and she always likes to serve the missionaries when she sees them, because this member family has done so much for her. The cashier was also one of the nicest people I have ever met. We were the last in the long line so we got a minute to talk to him. He told us about how he lived in Utah and how great of a job we are doing. He said we brought a smile to his day! We had dinner with a member family they were so sweet and then we went to a lesson at the park where we regularly go contacting. On our way to meet up with Dave this guy on a bike rode up to us and stopped. He asked if we were on our way to an appointment. We replied yes but we could meet with him the next morning. He agreed and we swapped information. (We did meet with him the following morning and it went really well!) Dave our miracle from the last couple of weeks just keeps going. He brought his friend and his girlfriend to his lesson. It went really well. While we were walking with them to the spot we were meeting I was answering some of Dave's questions from what he read in the Book of Mormon. When we sat down his girlfriend Anila pointed at the Book of Mormon I was holding and asked me if she could have one of 'those books' too. It was an awesome lesson! The spirit was so strong and we really taught in unity as a companionship! 

I hope y'all are able to see the miracles! I love you all so much! 

Love Sister Witt

week 51 and week 49 in MDM- Best Birthday Present Ever

Hey Y'all, 

I hope you had a fantastic week! I am now serving in Rochester Hills. It is an awesome ward the boundaries are about half the size of Flint, but so far I love it here. My new companion is Sister Reheis from Arizona. She has been out for 6 months and has had more companions that I have. We have been working hard to find new investigators because we reopened an area so we had none when we got here. We have been walking trails to talk to people and mostly everyone is nice but no one wants to meet. Until Dave, we were walking on the trail near our house and we had gone pretty far down. We felt like we had been far enough so we turned around and started to head back home. We got to the only cross walk and there were these two men standing there waiting for the light to turn green. One of them is also newer to the area and the other was showing him around. We introduced ourselves and started to walk with them. At first their hearts were really hard and they didn't want to talk much about church, but as we walked with them their hearts softened and one of them gave us his number. The other one Jim said he wasn't interested but I am positive his view of Mormons has changed forever. 

Oh I am sure you are all intrigued about what happened on Saturday. Well we had a special missionary meeting. They told us all to dress nice and show up and hour and a half early. We thought it was super weird but we followed as told and when we go there the chapel was set up with seats reserved for all the missionaries in our mission. We found ours and sat down. Everyone else reverently filed into the chapel and I started to read my Book of Mormon. I was reading in the best part of Alma where all the missionary work is happening. My apt 410 sisters walked in and all gave me hugs. Then the assistants announced that we were having a visiting general authority. We all pretty much figured it out by that point. They told us that President Uchtdorf and his family would be arriving and to continue preparing ourselves reverently for this amazing experience. We all couldn't believe it! They moved us into the gym to set us up for a picture and then he walked in. His smile was so bright and Sister Uchtdorf was right beside him. We all got to shake his hand when we were walking into the chapel. During the meeting Sister Uchtdorf told us that we are like fireflies spreading light where the world needs it the most. She told us that we are exactly where we need to be to do the most good. Which was what I needed to hear being in a new area, with a new comp feeling lost. President Uchtdorf left a blessing on our families back home. He told us to continue repenting. He was so sweet. President has been pushing repentance for the small things a lot the last couple of transfers so I am sure it made him extra happy. President Uchtdorf told us that our efforts are not wasted. Even if no on will listen to us, even if everyone is dropping us, even if we just feel like we are planting seeds. He told us about his wife's conversion story and how grateful he is forever for those missionaries that when to the 4th floor last door. I know that he is called of God. He has the most amazing spirit about him! I am so grateful that Christs Church is restored to the earth and that His Priesthood power is here too! 

Love Sister Witt 

week 50 and week 48 in MDM- "Firework or Gunshot"

Hey Y'all, 

Transfer call results are in and Sister Witt is leaving Flint. It will be hard to leave this place because I love it so much but I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for me in my new area. I won't find out where I am going until tomorrow so stay tuned.

So I will explain my subject line now. We live in the hood, well actually our apartment is in a fairly safe place but with all the fireworks going off sometimes it sounds like guns. At the beginning of the week there were just a couple random fire works but by the end there were so many. We all slept in the living room because we knew someone was going to be transferred and everything would be dead silent and Sister Rice or Sister Craig would hear a firework and ask if it was a gunshot. It was so funny. Don't worry 99.9% of the time we think they are fireworks. 

My favorite miracle this week comes from establishing relationships. I never knew what that meant but President Cleveland would always talk about how we are building relationships everywhere we go. Well there is this one Meijer (grocery store) we keep going to in Burton to go contacting. We always buy a few things and talk to people throughout the store while doing it. We have never found much success there but we always get drawn back. Eventually we became friends with Allen the door greeter. He is a sweet heart, he noticed us coming in all the time. He would ask us questions about the church and we would answer them and offer to share more. He never found time to meet with us but when I told him I was leaving he was so sad. He wanted to take a picture with me. I love how everywhere we go people recognize us as something special. They can see the light of Christ glowing so brightly in us and they want to know more about what we know. It truly is amazing!

After this week I am going to be the lone missionary from Heber City in the MDM. Elder Wade goes home. It has been fun having a missionary from my home town serving around me.  

I hope you all had a great week! Happy Fourth of July! Happy Birthday Dad! 

Love Sister Witt