ONE MONTH!!! :D

Hello everyone!!

First of all I have to wish Courtney a happy day of birth!! I promise i didnt forget haha. All day Sunday I was thinking about you! So i love you and hope you had a wonderful day sister :) I even started writing you a letter but you wont get it for some time, because 1. im not done with it yet haha and 2. im not sure how long it takes for letters to get from here to you. And a happy early birthday to Erik!! I know you're a leap year baby, so what are you like technically 8 still? Haha im just kidding. But i hope you have a wonderful day!...Also, Aubrey!! You are the cutest little pregnant woman ever!!! I cant wait to see pictures of your little man when he gets here! 

Well lets see this week was interesting! And sorry Im emailing tuesday instead of monday, but the reason being was because we had a Mission Conference yesterday!! Which doesnt usually happen i guess. The last time the PPM was together as a mission was about 5 years ago we were told, so this was exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time because no one knew what it was for. But I LOVED it!! It was incredible! We had two members of the seventy (Elder David F. Evans, and Elder Steven B. Allen) come and speak to us about the new changes that will be happening. We are the first mission to have this meeting, where they announced that they will be changing the system with the IPads, and missionary use of technology, and online proselyting. The last year or so i guess is when they started using IPads for missionary work. And for that time the church has just been testing out how effective the use of technology can be in missionary work. But now they are using a different system. One with more safeguards. Which i am certainly very grateful for. They talked a lot about how technology is suppose to help us in hastening the Lords work, not distracting us from it. Something I loved that Elder Allen mentioned was a quote from president Kimball. He said, (forgive me if this isnt quoted exactly but this is the just of it) "Why do you think the Lord allowed the airplane to be invented? So that his servants could more easily travel throughout the world to share His gospel. Everything else is just a byproduct... Why do you think the Lord allowed the television to be invented? To allow others to hear the message of His gospel throughout the world from where they are. Everything else is just a byproduct." That truly made me realize that the Lord has given us these resources PURELY for the purpose of hastening His glorious work. We are to use these tools for spreading the gospel, not getting distracted. Now I know we are all guilty of letting ourselves get distracted by the use of technology and social media but I challenge everyone to start using these resources for the spreading of the gospel. IM SERIOUS GUYS :) Haha i want everyone to share a scripture or a quote from a talk or something! Something that will help you spread the gospel, and do it every week! Or however often you want! But thats what these things are intended for! So use them for their intended purpose of sharing the gospel :) Now this last part im not going to spend much time talking about but its worth mentioning i think. They also talked to us for 2 hours about the dangers of pornography. Obviously in using technology there are horrible things all over the internet. Its the sad truth. But they talked to us about listening to the spirit, and if you listen to the spirit, He will ALWAYS protect you from those dangers. ALWAYS. Elder Allen shared another story about how he said that he had been at the hotel they were staying at before the conference and he mentioned how he was going to turn on the news, when he heard the spirit say, "no, dont do that." He said it was just a simple simple thought he had. And so he didnt. He said, "I didnt know why...but i didnt need to. It doesnt matter. The spirit said no, so i obeyed."  Also he shared a quote from Elder Packer, he said "No one person will ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the spirit."...I love that. Because it is so true. The spirit will always warn us of any dangers ahead of us. And so plead with all of you to learn to recognize the spirit so that you can heed to the promptings from Him. Because He will protect you, ALWAYS. One more thing about Mission Conference...they mentioned how these new changes are not only to help you out as a missionary but that they will help you throughout your entire life. I could go on and on about Mission Conference because it was amazing and i learned so much but now on to other things! I have a miracle story and a funny story.

First of all I cant believe Ive already been on my mission for a month!! That is so crazy to think about! The weeks seriously do just fly by. Its crazy. Well first of all Ill tell you about a miracle story... Earlier this week Sister McCuen and I were doing some finding...Its seems like thats all we ever do! Haha but it was great. Anyway, we were both just so tired for some reason and just did not want to find anymore. But in obedience we kept on finding. We went to this nicer neighborhood and started knocking on some doors to which each and every person kindly said "no thank you" and so it was starting to get dark and we were freezing. We got back in the car to warm up a bit and decided to just go home and have dinner. But right then we thought we should just try at least one more house... And so OF COURSE, when Sister McCuen and I had resolved to just give up for the night and go home, we knocked on the last house and this very sweet woman answers the door and without hesitation the first thing she says is, "Come on in!" We didnt even finish saying the name of the church before she invited us in haha. And Sister McCuen and I just looked at each other like "of course it would be the LAST house." And so we went in and saw that she was watching the old 10 Commandments movie because it was Ash Wednesday. So we got to talking with her and found out that she had grown up Lutheran but doesn't practice it. She mentioned how she reads her Bible and prays everyday. Shes a firm believer but she said that every time she goes to a church service they are always good but she just feels like something is missing and she got so emotional when she said it....And when she said that though, everything in me just wanted to shout "WE HAVE WHAT YOURE MISSING!!" but i didnt although I know she felt the spirit, which is the mist important thing. But she was SO sweet. Sister McCuen taught her The Restoration in like 5 minutes and she did it so well! And i helped to teach her a bit of the Plan of Salvation, according to what questions she asked. We just sat there for an hour talking about the church! It was awesome! Her name was Debra btw, and she had so many questions that we were able to answer for her! We then gave her a Book of Mormon and pamphlets and we exchanged numbers, and we will be meeting with her soon! :) IT WAS A MIRACLE!! And very humbling too I might add...Its always the last house haha. 

Then a few days later Sister McCuen and I were out finding again. And as we were driving we passed a house and I said to Sis. M... "turn around theres a house we need to try back there." She said okay and turned around. And for some reason i felt SO good about knocking on the door of this house i dont even know why! But anyway we got out and walked up to the door only to find a sign that said, "DEVILS FANS ONLY! no one else allowed." Sis. M and i looked each-other and just started laughing!! haha. So i knocked on the door and a woman answered the door. I began to explain who we were and before i even finished she said "NO!" and slammed the door in our faces... I was stunned. haha. Seriously, i had felt SO good about knocking on this house. Why would Heavenly Father let me knock on this house if He knew they were going to say no?? I didnt understand! Fast forward to the next day when I was on exchanges. I heard a story to which the point was, the Lord was testing your faithfulness. And so i took that experience and realized that maybe Heavenly Father was just seeing if i would simply be obedient and act on a prompting I had been given.

Alright well i love you all sorry but im out of time! Look for the miracles this week! Until next week!

Love, 

Sister Amy Callaway

Prayer works!!...Seriously, don't ever doubt it :)

Hello my loved ones! 

This week has been full of many miracles! So many small ones but I am just going to share with you the two big ones from this week. It would take too long to mention them all :) The beginning of the week was pretty slow but things started to pick up around Wednesday. We do a lot of finding here but it's so cold that no one wants to open their doors for two crazy girls who decided to walk around in that kind of weather haha. But it's still fun especially being companions with Sister McCuen she's so funny! I just love her! But that's really how most of our week went...us finding and having no luck. But all of the miracles have really happened within just these last few days. So I will tell you all about them!

My First Lesson Ever Taught!

I taught my very first lesson this week!! It was amazing!...We taught one of our investigators, his name is Ben. He's 18, and goes to Kutztown University. He was a headquarter referral and he requested a Book of Mormon. He is however an Atheist. But he is one of the nicest guys you would ever meet. He became interested in the church because he is taking a class at school where he has to learn about different religions and so he's technically doing research, but along with his research he has found that he has become genuinely interested in the gospel. And so I got to teach him as my first lesson! 

Rewind to companionship study that morning. I had known we were going to teach Ben so I studies the Plan of Salvation for my personal studies. But during comp study I started freaking for out haha. Because is was my first lesson EVER that wasn't a role play. I just wanted it to go so well so badly that I just started stressing myself out. But then two things came to my mind...one was Elder Bednar (from my last email) "It's not about you! Get over yourself, get out of the way, and let the spirit guide you." And the second was something that Elder Pule said to me in the MTC he said "when your cup is full there is no room left for the spirit...your cup must be empty and ready to be filled." I loved that analogy. And so I just stopped everything I was doing and knelt and prayed. I prayed that I would be guided by the spirit, that I would be calm and that I would not let 'myself' get in the way of what the spirit wanted to teach him but rather that I would be the vessel that the spirits message would come through...and so once we got to the lesson I was SO nervous but I prayed in my heart again and the most incredible thing happened!...I taught by the spirit!!! It was in fact a MIRACLE! :) it was the most amazing first lesson I could've ever taught! And Ben was so receptive to everything we were teaching him. He loved it! But most importantly the spirit was there! And then I was able to bear my testimony which he said really touched his heart...it was amazing!...Prayer Works!!

A Softened Heart

Okay so last week I told you about how we had dinner on Sunday night at a members house. Well the father is a member but he is actually less active however he is coming to church now with his kids and his fiancé and her two kids as well. So her name is Kate and her two kids are Sophie and Jack. Kate wants to be baptized but we are just waiting on her and her fiancé to get married. Also Sophie and Jack want be baptized. Like really really bad! I have never met two kids who wanted to be baptized so badly. These kids are so amazing, seriously I just love them so much already! However their dad would not give them permission to be baptized. He had "done his research" and was convinced that the church was evil. And refused to allow them to be baptized. This was devastating to all of us, because now Sophie and Jack would have to wait until they're 18 to get baptized. Sophie is 13 and Jack is 8. And so through out the week their father was just being absolutely awful to them, like really really awful. Even though Sophie taught her dad everything she could to try and make him understand. He would not change his mind....It was all so frustrating!!

And so on Wednesday we had a visit with Kate to see what the plans were for her baptism at least and her wedding. And it was then that she told us their dad would still not change his mind. That Sophie and Jack were going to have to wait until they we 18 because no matter what anyone said he would not change his mind. Well before we left we said a prayer. I said the prayer and I just prayed(as everyone had been) that their fathers heart would somehow be softened, that he would understand, and allow them to be baptized. And once I was finished with the prayer I honestly felt this sense of peace. I knew that eventually, somehow, some way they would be baptized. I didn't know when but I just knew that they would. 

So fast forward to Sunday night, after we had had dinner at a members house we got a text from Kate saying "he said yes :)" Sister McCuen and I started screaming haha we were so so so happy!! It was indeed a MIRACLE :) Kate said that their father had gone to see an old friend who was a preacher and his friend convinced him that religion is good. Whether or not he agrees with the particular religion but that he was denying his children a blessing. And so he gave Sophie and Jack permission to be baptized!! And so they're getting baptized!!:D...I said it before and I'll say it again...Prayer Works!! 

So there are just a few of the miracles that occurred this week. Too many more to count but it would take me forever to tell of the rest of them I promise I will sometime though. 

But a few more things I wanted to share that I learned this week...yesterday for one our family Ward canceled church because of the weather but the YSA Ward still held church only to announce that they were splitting it :( so we no longer have a YSA Ward which I'm so sad about! But "All is well" :) anyway yesterday in relief society we were taught from the teaching of pres benson and he talked about "Living Joyfully In Troubled Times." Easier said than done haha however I loved this so much that I wanted to share with everyone also! I don't have much more time so I will just copy and paste it because it's not too long. (I put my favorite parts in bold)

{Happiness must be earned from day to day, but it is worth the effort.

We have no cause to really worry. Live the gospel, keep the commandments. Attend to your prayers night and morning in your home. Maintain the standards of the Church. Try and live calmly and cheerfully. … Happiness must be earned from day to day. But it is worth the effort.

When George A. Smith was very ill, he was visited by his cousin, the Prophet Joseph Smith. The afflicted man reported: “He [the Prophet] told me I should never get discouraged, whatever difficulties might surround me. If I were sunk into the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged, but hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I should come out on the top of the heap.” …

There are times when you simply have to righteously hang on and outlast the devil until his depressive spirit leaves you. As the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith: 

“Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high.” (D&C 121:7–8.)

Pressing on in noble endeavors, even while surrounded by a cloud of depression, will eventually bring you out on top into the sunshine. Even our master Jesus the Christ, while facing that supreme test of being temporarily left alone by our Father during the crucifixion, continued performing his labors for the children of men, and then shortly thereafter he was glorified and received a fulness of joy. While you are going through your trial, you can recall your past victories and count the blessings that you do have with a sure hope of greater ones to follow if you are faithful. And you can have that certain knowledge that in due time God will wipe away all tears and that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9.)

Be cheerful in all that you do. Live joyfully. Live happily. Live enthusiastically, knowing that God does not dwell in gloom and melancholy, but in light and love.}

We are on earth for such a short time. But we honestly need never fear. I know I know it's not that easy but!...we have the lord on our side. What more could you ask for?...NOTHING! 

Ah! So much to say and so little time!

One more thing! I also implore everyone to read "The First Great Commandment" by Elder Holland. It's a great talk that helped me to reflect on my love for my Savior and how I can better show that love.

Alright I'm sorry I'm out of time! I promise everyone I'll email individually next week! And send pictures! I love you all! And I TESTIFY and KNOW that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love us more than we can ever know in this earth life. This is Jesus Christ's gospel and it rings with truth. I also please invite everyone to look for ways this week that you can come unto the Savior this week! Okay I love you all but I love our Savior even more! 

Until next week,

~Sister Amy E. Callaway~

Delayed post :)

Mom sent this email to me a few days ago. Sorry I am just now posting it. 

Would you please share this on my facebook with the following picture ( thank you Britt for the picture) and challenge everyone on facebook (from me haha) to read this talk. And let everyone know that I love them :) thank you! I love you!

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all--“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

    “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword” to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live."

The First Great Commandment~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Hello from PA!!

The Elder and Sister Jones Amy mentions, Elder Jones was Brittney's Bishop when she lived in St. George with Great-grandma Ogden. Brittney told them that Amy was going to be serving there. So they were on the look out for her when she arrived. This letter is a 2 part email today. Have a great week everyone!

Anna

The fact that I had someone there to give my little sister a hug...just made my little heart so happy!! I teared up when I saw that she got that hug. Thanks Bishop Jones! ## -Brittney

Hello everyone! 

What a week it has been! Haha. Its been rough, im not going to lie. Ive been super homesick this week and just missing everyone and everything. But thats okay! :) "All is well, All is well." Thats from the hymn Come, Come Ye Saints. Its one of my favorite hymns and I sing it to myself ALL the time just to remind myself that "All Is Well." :) 

Okay well where to even begin?? Haha. First of all thank you everyone for all of your sweet emails! I love them all so much but im so sorry i dont have time to respond to all of them! Just know that they REALLY help and that i love you all! 

Alright so ill start with last wednesday. We all had to get up at 2:30 am to get everything pack and put together to go to the airport. Well once we got to the Salt Lake airport and we finally got to our gate and then boarded the plane we found out that something was wrong with that particular plane so we had to switch planes. Which didnt help considering we had a connecting flight in Detroit. But anyway we got on another plane and when we finally arrived in Detroit we arrived 30 minutes before our flight was suppose to leave. And so then all 13 of the missionaries in our company ran like crazy through the airport to try and catch our flight. Which we only missed by 2 minutes haha. But All was well. We got another flight booked and all. 

Once we got to Philadelphia we saw our mission President and his wife with a few other missionaries standing there waiting for us! It was so great to see them! Once we made our way outside the airport a big man and his wife came over to me and he started shaking my hand and said, "Sister Callaway!!! Its so good to see you!" I then felt bad because I had no idea who this guy was, but then he asked "Do you have any idea who I am??" I then looked down at his name tag and it read Elder Jones. (This story really only has relevance to Brittney) So Brittney, Elder and Sister Jones say "Hi." It was also funny becuase then he hugged me and everyone just stared...and im sure i had a terrified look on my face too because I was like "What are you doing? Im not suppose to hug you!" Haha it was pretty darn funny though. 

Anyway once we got to the mission home we got to have dinner and then we had our interviews with President. And once my turn came he welcomed me in with a smile, asked me a few short questions and then said " I already know who your trainer is going to be!" and then wrote down a name next to mine which i couldnt even read...So fast forward to the next wednesday morning. We all traveled to the mission office to them meet our trainers. My trainers name is Sister McCuen. She a tiny bit taller than me and shes the cutest little red head. Shes adorable! And we have become such great friends already! 

Our area is called Kutztown. But we live in a tiny town called Topton. Its probably about the size of Austin, Nevada. Its tiny. And we live in an old Fire House! Its awesome! Everything is so spread out and all over the place though. And becuase its winter no one really cares to let you inside. People here are very kept to themselves, and dont like being bothered. So its really hard to find people right now. But i still love it! Here in the PPM (Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission) when youre new they dont call you "greenies" they call you "goldens" and so on wednesday when we met our trainers at golden training all of us goldens were challenged to invite someone to be baptized by sunday. And that was scary for me to think about but i did it anyway. So heres the story...

So yesterday we had dinner at a members house and once we were finished we decided to go finding. Well with finding most of the week and having no luck, and having most of our appointments fall through i never got the chance to invite someone to be baptized. But having it be 7 pm on sunday night I was determined to invite someone to be baptized. Even if that meant walking up to someone's door and asking them right then and there....So thats exactly what I did haha :) I told my trainer and she looked at me like I was crazy, and I was haha. But she came up with the idea to start by asking them a question and then leading into the baptismal invitation. So this is how it all went down...

We went and knocked on the door of this very nice house, a man opens the door and our conversation goes something like this...(His name was Jose by the way)

Me: "Hello! I have a question for you!"

Jose: "Yes?"

Me: "If you found the right church, and you studied and prayed about it and came to know for yourself that it was true, would you be baptized by someone holding the proper Priesthood authority?" 

Now at this point I wish i could tell you that he said "Yes!" and let us inside and we had a great discussion and now we have a baptismal date set... But thats not how it happened. Technically he didnt say yes or no haha he just mentioned how he and his family were catholic but he was very kind about it and talked with us about  I know, I know that was a completely crazy approach and i agree it was to some degree. But Jose was very nice and we talked for a bit about both of our faiths. I then gave him a Book of Mormon though and a card with our number on it. I knew that more likely than not he would say no, but I had faith for a miracle. And THAT was a miracle in my eyes. Walking away from that experience though I remembered something that an Elder said at golden training. Even though he said no, I still fulfilled my purpose as a missionary. 

Part 2:

Haha sorry the library we are at is dumb so I'm using my iPad now.

Anyway, we also had a baptism this Saturday!! Her name is Angel and

she is 13 years old. BUT, they already had this baptism planned I

didn't have much to do with the teaching but it was exciting

nonetheless! Also I'm sorry I can't send pictures yet. But I will

figure it out next week! Okay I'm sorry but my time is up! I love and

miss you all!

Until next week :)

~Sister Callaway ~

Ok, HAD to pass along these pictures too! lol

K so I got a few! The first is me and my trainer Sister McCuen. Shes

the cutest little ginger you ever did see! (Besides baby Cole haha)

don't mind how awful I look haha and the second is at Angels baptism!

I hope you like them! Love you all :)

Another Picture

This is a picture that was sent to us from a Sister Banks who is in my Grandma Callaway’s ward. Sister Banks ran into Amy at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). 

Love this girl! & We love pictures…the more the merrier! 

Your Sister Missionary Has Arrived

We got this email on a few days ago, sorry for the delay. 

Sister Callaway arrived in Philadelphia Mission, attached is a picture of her with President and Sister Anderson. She will be serving in the Reading PA zone, in the Kutztown YSA area, her companion is Sister McCuen.  We are looking forward to serving with Sister Callaway.

Sister Ballard, Secretary

Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission