Hello Again My Loved Ones!

Hello again my loved ones!

It seriously seems like I emailed you guys yesterday haha. Honestly the weeks are just going by so fast! Anyway I hope everyone is doing well! From the emails it sounds like everyone is :) Oh also I need to apologize for not emailing everyone back personally. I do get them just so everyone knows! And I read them often, and they truly help sooo much! :) Im just so sorry that I don't email everyone back directly. I just spend like an hour writing a book for everyone to read so youre all somewhat updated haha. If I could spend my entire P~Day just emailing, I would be perfectly happy :) But sadly that's not the case. We have much more to do on P~Days. Oh and also I need to wish Erik another happy birthday I hope it was awesome! :) And I need to wish Aubrey and Joe a happy one year!! I cant believe you got married a year ago!! That is so crazy to me! But just know I love you guys :) And I heard Haley did well at sate!! Good job baby sister! I love you and am so so proud of you! I wish I could've been there to cheer you on while you were wrestling but I know you kicked butt! And everyone else just know that I love you all and will figure out a way to email you guys soon :) I promise!

Okay so this week was pretty good. LOTS of ups and downs for sure but still good. It has snowed here quite a bit, but thankfully they didn't cancel church yesterday. Some days its freezing cold and other days its bearable haha. But snow or ice we are out and trying to find new people to teach :) Oh! And also Sister McCuen and I found out the other day that we are moving! Not being transferred or anything but just moving apartments. Last week we had interviews with President which was SO awesome. Seriously hes the greatest. But he told us that they are trying to find a new apartment for us. The one we live in is perfectly fine but I guess Topton technically isn't the safest place to be haha :) So they are wanting to move us out. Our area is called Kutztown and right now we live in Topton, but they want to move us out to Macungie (muh-cuhn-gee) because that's where most of the members are. Which will be good. So today we had to go look at apartments with our WML's wife. It was pretty fun! Although I keep joking with Sister McCuen and telling her that she'll probably be transferred by the time we have to move. But Im sure its the best thing for the work right now that we move.

Well lets see this week was hard, but still good. Lots of our appointments fell through, and also most people just never got back to us, and to top it all off we went over on our miles for the month...which meant we had A LOT of walking to do. So everyday Sister McCuen and I found ourselves out finding yet again :) But seriously I have started to like finding, I have met some interesting people for sure haha and already have some good stories...So all the people in Pennsylvania are just so kept to themselves...It bugs the heck out of me!! Haha seriously, I didn't realize how much I liked talking until I got out here. Because I want to talk to everyone! But nobody wants to talk to me. Ill walk up to someone on the street or knock on a door and I start talking to them or complimenting them just to hopefully get a conversation going and they just give me this look like "Who are you and why are you being nice to me?" And then when they hear that we are missionaries theyre like "heck no!"  And walk away. All you can do is really laugh though haha. But that's just part of missionary work. Also everyone here thinks that we are Jehovah's Witness...which bothers me a bit too to be honest because people just assume they know who we are and yell at us to go away. But eventually you will find those people who will just be nice and talk to you and in so doing will find out that we are in fact not JW. I have a story that is perfect for this and its my favorite story from this week. It actually happened last night...

So Sister McCuen and I went to a neighborhood to do some finding. It was about 7:30pm and so we figured most people might be having dinner or possibly going to bed but we kept on with our finding. Anyway we stopped by this one house where I knocked quite a few times and no one answered, so we trekked all the way back through the snow covered yard back onto the main road. (it snowed really bad yesterday, I was in snow up to my knees. Which doesn't say much because im so short haha but anyway nothing had been plowed yet that's why we were marching through the snow!) But anyway, as we were walking away to go to another house a man walks out of that same house we had just knocked on and starts talking to us. We told him who we were and He started talking about how he doesn't agree with our doctrine and how he believes that he knows far more about Jesus Christ than we do and that he knows Him more personally than we ever could. But as he was talking to us he wasn't hostile in his tone of voice but it sounded like he just pitied us. But Sister McCuen and I just sat there with smiles on our faces as we let him finish what he was saying. He went on to ask us why we didn't believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and why we didn't believe that his suffering for us on the cross wasn't enough for us to be able to be saved. (which is obviously NOT what we believe) While he was talking though it occurred to be that he probably thinks we are JW. So when he finished I asked him just that. And he looked at our nametags and said, "Oh! no I know who you guys are, youre Mormons right?" and we smiled and said 'yes!' to which then he apologized because he was reciting to us what the JW believe. But I then piped up and began to do the only thing I could think to do, which was to testify. And so I bore my simple testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. I told him that "we believe and KNOW that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That he suffered and died for us and that it is only through His Atonement that we can be forgiven of our sins and become pure and clean to be able to live with Him and our Father in Heaven again. But that we also have a part to do. Jesus Christ is our perfect example, and we are to follow His example by keeping His commandments and doing all things which He has asked of us." and it was the coolest thing because after Sister McCuen bore her testimony also he just sat there. And we sat there in silence for a good 5 minutes. I mean its not like we confounded him or anything like in the scriptures haha but it was the coolest thing because we simply bore our testimonies...that was all we did! But he couldn't say a thing against us because I believe he felt the spirit and he knew our words were true. We then just had like a mini testimony meeting on his front lawn in the like 10 degree weather haha but then he told us to "carry on!" and went back inside. It was a MIRACLE!! Seriously it was amazing! I can testify that there is no better way to strengthen your own testimony than to share it. 

And so to end this email I will share with you all my simple testimony. My testimony is simple but firm. I KNOW that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love us, far more than we will ever know in this life. My purpose as a missionary is to 'invite others to come unto Christ...' How great is my calling?!? I couldn't ask for a better one. But that's not only my purpose as a missionary I have made it my life long purpose. I will invite EVERYONE to come unto Him. Members and non members because here is what I have found, we can always always always come closer to Him. Until the day that we have found ourselves to be like Him. (Moroni 7: 47-48) And so if I can help my friends, family, members and non-members and myself to come unto Him then I will know I have fulfilled my purpose. Not only as a missionary but as a Daughter of God. And so, my loved ones, im finally starting to understand what the prophets have felt like to be honest. I want to help my 'beloved brethren [and sisters]' to come unto Christ in anyway that I can :) Because that is honestly the best thing I could EVER do you. The best thing that we could ever be known by is 'Men and Women of God.' In the sacred name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all more than you will ever know!! look for the miracles this week! There are so many just look :)

Much love,

Sister Amy Elizabeth Callaway

P.s. Mom that Moroni reference is the one that I would like on my plaque please :)