Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This email is going to be pretty fast, because I get to talk to my family this week! I have to leave something for us to talk about!

This week we had the Christmas Party and that was really fun! We ate an amazing meal and then we played Minute to Win it games. You know the game where you put an Oreo on your forehead and then you have to get it into your mouth without using your hands? Well.... I'm boss at that game, I got into the finals and would of won if I had been sitting down but we were standing and I kinda lost my balance! It was a lot of fun to be with all the missionaries in our mission and just have a good time together! I realized that I may get a little competitive at those kind of games. But it was still fun! Then we got our Christmas letters from our families (a lot of sisters were crying but I managed to keep the tears in this time). After that we had a devotional with President Nattress and his parents were there so we heard a few funny stories from his childhood. Then we let go of 400 balloons with lights attached to them, these balloons represented the number of people our mission has helped bring to the gospel. IT WAS AN AWESOME NIGHT!

Then I went on exchanges with Sister Taylor. She's from Japan and we had an awesome time together. Its amazing to me how much I learn from the sisters I go on exchanges with. Each missionary has so much to offer and I'm grateful for the change that  I have to learn from sisters and they strengths that they have when doing missionary work.

We also got to go to the Mesa Christmas Lights 2 times this week. Both times I looked for Hermana Andelin but she was nowhere to be found. I talked to a few of the Mesa Temple Visitor Center Sisters and asked if the new Tempe missionaries had come in that week and they said there was one Sister in the group! It must have been Kathy! I could of seen her if I had gone the same day! Oh well. That's okay. Maybe I'll see her at the Easter pageant.

Next week is Nadine's baptism. She's an investigator from my last area but I see her all the time because I go on exchanges in that area and I attend the same church building. I can't wait for Saturday, this is going to be an awesome experience for her. Especially since her husband's family is

in town for Christmas and they're coming to the baptism to show their support! She's an awesome lady and deserves this!!!

I'm so excited for Christmas! I can't wait to talk to my family!

NO CRYING OKAY?

I don't know if that's possible but I'll try not to cry! 3 more days!!

All my love,

Sister Raubenheimer 

He is the Gift

Hey there family and friends and anyone else who chooses to read my cheesy emails,

How are you doing this Christmas season?

I hope that the lights and Christmas trees make your soul as happy as it makes mine. This afternoon we get to help a lady put up Christmas lights. We're cutting our Pday short to do service but it's worth it, since its CHRISTMAS!

Well I'm not really sure what to tell you about. This week was pretty uneventful except for the fact that everyone wants to talk about Jesus right now. All we have to say is, "Hey, we've been sharing a two minute video about the true meaning of Christmas with everyone, could we show that to you quickly." And people say YES! Everyone has time for Jesus during Christmas! And it also helps that we carry around our little portable DVD players so when we see people at the park they don't have any excuses about not having a internet on their phones. This week we were able to have 23 teaching opportunities. That's the most I've taught my whole mission! God truly blessed us this week and now we've just got to keep it up! Working hard and talking to everyone you see is the only way that God can bless missionaries. The only disappointing part of the week was that we weren't able to find any new investigators from all those people we shared "He is the Gift" with. So this week we're focusing on finding new investigators!!!

Sister Barlow has only been out for 4 months now, so she tends to get really stressed out about little things. I try to keep the mood light by being funny and end up making a fool of myself but it doesn't really matter since everyone already thinks missionaries are weird. If I sing Jingle Bells at the top of my lungs in the middle of the street, who is actually going to care? No one. Besides the members. And there's a lot of them around here!

Okay, funny experiences. So! We were street contacting this man and we talk to him about his day and what he's been up to then we comment on his Christmas lights and ask him what his favorite part of Christmas is... he says  I don't believe in Christmas or Christ... Well I have no idea what to say to that. SO I say okay, well have a great day! As we're biking away I turn to Sister Barlow saying "why does he have Christmas lights then? What is he celebrating if he isn't celebrating the Savior's birth? Shopping? Spending money!?" We both burst out into fits of laughter. I don't really know why it was so hilarious but it was! Then the 2nd funny experience. Last night we were at a LA's home and the little boy told us his stomach hurt. No one really thought anything about it and we kept talking. After we share the message, he tells us he wants to show us his hotdog...

(what he meant to say was helicopter) so he runs upstairs, grabs his helicopter and brings it back down. Well.... he opens his mouth to talk and he projectile vomits all over my boots... all over!!!!!!! Then my boots were covered in those hot dogs. GROSS! We quickly decide that it's our time to exit and make our way to the door. And then we hear him throw up again..... at this point Im ready to barf because I can still smell his dinner all over my feet.

Anyways, after we got home we cleaned up and we took airbourne, so hopefully neither of us get sick!!!

Well that's it for now!

Sorry, I don't have any pictures from this week but I'll have some next week. We're going to the Mesa Temple Christmas lights tomorrow! And Elder Packer's son (Elder Packer, who is in the 70) will be touring our mission this week! Should be great!

I hope everyone has a great week!

MERRY CHISTMAS!

Remember to think about the Gifts that Christ has given you this year!

ALL MY LOVE,

Sister Raubie

Thanksgiving

Hello everyone!

There's so much that I need to fit in this email, my mind is about to explode because of all the info in my head right now. Okay so I got transferred right? But then I was inner zoned and I literally moved over 1 neighborhood. That was really surprising! Didn't expect that at all. Also I got called to be a Sister Training Leader. I'm really excited to be working with other sisters and helping them with their missionary work. The sisters who are in my old area are in my stewardship so I have the chance to go on exchanges with them and see all the people that I love from that area. I also get to see Nadine and continue to help her progress to the waters of baptism. Isn't that amazing? I am so happy about that!! 

So Sister Barlow is my new companion, she's been out for 3 months and loves missionary work! She's from Fruitland, Idaho. The same place our mission president is from, he's even been her bishop and stake president. So I guess that makes her one of his favorites! I'm really excited to be her companion. She has an amazing work ethic and love for the people that we are working with. This transfer is going to be absolutely amazing! :)

​So Thanksgiving morning we spent at a member house with our zone but only part of our zone because at transfers they combined Bella Vista (my old zone) with Ironwood Zone together. So now we're in Ironwood Zone and we have 20 missionaries in our zone, before it was just 12... so yeah that was surprise! For lunch we went with the Copeliens to their aunt's house who lives outside of our area but still in our zone on a ranch. That was really fun!!! We stayed for a long time! Then we had dinner at the Miller's house! And finally pie at the Higby's house. SO basically it was a day full of stuffing and turkey but I ate ham where I could. I'm still not fond of turkey. I guess that's the South African inside of me.

Oh we also stopped by Torrance's house. He is a recent convert in Pecan Creek 1st ward. And he is literally the bomb diggity! He's this 54 year old little black man that LOVES THE GOSPEL! In fact he often comes out with us on his bike and does missionary work with us! He really is the coolest kid on the block and I'm super excited to work with him. But whenever he talks I tend to fall asleep because he has this silky radio gospel voice, so I have to make sure that I stay awake when we he shares his testimony.

 

Everything is going well here! And I absolutely love that Christmas lights are going up now! Christmas is my favorite holiday and it just makes me so happy! I encourage everyone who receives this email to check out the new video that the church has made for Christmas. It is called "He is the Gift". You can find it out Youtube or Christmas.mormon.org

When you watch it, think about the gifts that the Savior has given you this year and then share the video and your thoughts online on facebook or on instagram. But make sure that you #sharethegift. The church has put a lot of effort into this production so let's support them by sharing it as much as we can!

So since Sister Barlow just finished training we got to go to new missionary meeting on Friday and the APs trained us on how we can be more effective missionaries. I realized that I don't know my scriptures as well as I thought and that I still have a lot to learn on my mission but there was something interesting that they trained on that I thought I would share with all of you today. Why do you think that we pray on our knees? I never really thought about why we do it, I just do it because its what I grew up doing and it seems to be one of the best ways to show respect to our Heavenly Father. I also thought that if I was in the most uncomfortable position possible then I wouldn't fall asleep during my prayers. But think about this quote "If you go out of your way for God, He will go out of the way for you." Isn't that interesting! President Nattress always says in order to receive personal revelation we need to make a sacrifice and a covenant with Him. Prayer is the tool we use in order to make that covenant so might as well be sacrificing at the same time. So my commitment to you is to get out of your bed every morning and every night, get on your knees and have a deep conversation with your Heavenly Father. I promise that he's listening! He will answer you!!!

I love this work! I love being a missionary and I love Arizona! I'm so grateful for the chance that I have to be here and become the person that my Father in Heaven wants me to be.

Also, shout out to Sister Bowen! Congrats on your call to Brazil! You will do amazing things in Brazil!! I'm so proud of you!!!! :)

p.s. we helped out at a turkey trot Thanksgiving morning and it was really awesome!!!! :)

AHHHHHHH I'm getting transferred!

AHHHHHHH I'm getting transferred! 

This better be the last transfer of my mission, as much as I love to pack everything up and totally uproot my life its getting to be a bit much. I'm excited for the new adventure and what lies ahead! I just have this weird feeling in my heart that I haven't done everything that I'm supposed to do in this area.... I'm missing something but I have no idea what that would be.... God knows best right? So I'll go where He sends me and find those people who I'm meant to serve. I have a feeling I'll be going to Mesa. But who the heck knows. I'll let you know next week! It will be sad to leave my companion tho. We've really gotten along well and I have a feeling I might sink back into running only a mile because my personal trainer won't be there to push me.... But she's also taught me a lot and I'm very glad that we got to spend this last transfer together!!! :)

So this past week was really fun! On Saturday we got to help out at The Gilbert Days Marathon and it totally got me pumped to run that 1/2 marathon next year dad! We were able to do this because the church is starting a new program called "Just Serve" and this gives missionaries more of an opportunity to help out in the Community. So 100 missionaries were there on Saturday volunteering and cleaning up after the runners. It was awesome and I got to see two families from my previous area! On our way back from the starting line we really needed to take a bathroom break so we headed into a gas station, little did we know that we had walked into a Wine Seller Gas Station. Two rows of normal food and the rest of the stuff was alcohol....  I didn't even know that those kind of places existed..... so yeah. That was just a tad awkward. Here's a picture...  

But overall it was an awesome day! And a lot of people mentioned that we were the happiest volunteers they had ever seen at a Marathon. So that was a really positive experience!

Also I had to say Goodbye to my beloved trainer this week. She heads home tomorrow and Im going to miss her dearly! LOVE HER!

We saw Gertie this week and she's awesome but she's getting very sick... I guess that's what happens when you're 78 years old. And Nadine is AMAZING! She's in 2 Nephi now and her testimony gets stronger and stronger everyday! I hope that I don't get transferred too far so that I can come to her baptism next month.

There's not much else. But next week's email will be great! Here goes Transfer # 10!It's going to be a great one!!! :)

All my love,

Sister Raubenheimer

A Week Of Miracles

Hello Everyone!!

This week has been a week of miracles! We started out the week with basically no investigators and now we an Investigator on date for baptism. Nadine is an awesome lady. Her husband is already a member of the church but we don't have his records in the ward because he's been inactive for awhile. But Nadine is ready to have an eternal family and wants to become a member of the church! She's basically an answer to our prayers and I'm so grateful that she came into our lives right now. I was beginning to think that Heavenly Father didn't have anyone else for us to teach but that's just what Satan wants us to think. I'm so grateful for the chance to continue to learn from Nadine and her family. They truly are AMAZING!

Sister Fairchild and I are almost running 3 miles in the morning.... But we'll get there this week for sure! It's been interesting being with a companion who loves to work out so much. Definitely not one of my favorite things to do but I'm learning to love it? Actually I'm just loving the results of working out so hard. But we're doing good together!

So our mission does this cool musical Fireside each month and it was on Thursday. We thought that a hundred people or so would come but it ended up being more like 200 people. That was really cool!  Nadine even came and I got to see a lot of members from my previous areas and it was just a really good experience. Especially since the focus was on the Restoration of the gospel and anytime we get to talk about Joseph Smith and the 1st vision the Spirit is really strong, so basically it was great!

This week we had FHA (family home afternoon) and we played the Couch/Name Game. It was fun to play a game that I use to play with my friends in Utah. Brought back some really good memories. We played 1 game for a full two hours.... way too long but it was fun. We're too smart for our own good. It's a game of strategy and remembering- we switch names for the game.

This is the Bella Vista Zone, yes! We're a tiny zone... I think that they'll switch up the zones next transfer because a lot of missionaries are going home in November

SO the Elder on the left side in this picture. That's Elder Peery, he was on my MTC group and now he's my ZONE LEADER! Sometimes I can't take him seriously when we're in trainings because all I can think about is the MTC and all the funny moments we had there as a district.  And then I have to focus back and remember that he's my leadership and I should respect him but it's really hard for me to do. Something Im working on. lol

  

This week was cooler but not cold. Still pretty warm, I hope that I will be able to wear the boots that I bought last PDay eventually. Maybe in December? This week during Planning we set a date for one of our investigators and it was in December and I had this weird flashback to last November when my trainer and I were planning baptism dates for investigators in December last year.... that was a strange moment. When something like that happens I realize that I've been a missionary for a long time...

 

Wyatt is the cute little boy in this picture. Whenever we go over to his house he always dresses up for us. This day he was Captain American and he really wanted to take a selfie with us. So here it is. We also have to hold him back sometimes because he loves to kiss us. This little boy is a flirt but SUPER CUTE!!! :)

This week we get to have Zone Conference and SISTERS Conference and go to the Mission President's Fireside for Recent Converts so it's going to be a crazy, awesome, busy week and I'm totally looking forward to it!!!

ALL MY LOVE,

SISTER RAUBENHEIMER

Halloween

Good MORNING!

WOW what a week it's been! I think I felt every single emotion known to man this week. But we'll start off with last night! My dad said that it snowed in Utah last night and we could definitely feel it down here. It was FREEZING! We were biking through the fields last night and I couldn't even feel my fingers. I haven't been that cold since JANUARY! Im so use to being in warm weather that being cold is a foreign concept to me. The odd thing is that I remember on Halloween night thinking, "wow, I can't believe its Halloween and its still super hot." But the very next day you could feel the cooler weather. It was very strange to be cold...

So last week I was really worried that we weren't going to make it to the Phoenix Temple Open House but we made it! It seriously was an unexpected miracle. SO by Wednesday we were still at a loss of who to take to the temple. AndWednesday was basically the only day we could of gone because we were going on Exchanges on Thursday and Halloween was on Friday and from past experience I've learned not to go to Temple Open Houses on the last day they're open because thousands flock to the temple on that day. Wednesday was our ONLY option-- So we fasted! LO and BEHOLD our dinner called us at 3 o'clock and said "Hey, we want to go to the Phoenix Temple Open House tonight and we want you Sisters to go with us, how to we make that happen?" We explained that we needed a nonmember to go with us and that we'd have to drive with her family. She told us that she had some people to call and she would get back to us within the hour. Sister Godfrey is literally one of the best people ever. And not just because she served her mission in South Africa but because she drops anything to help the missionaries. She called us back and told us that her nonmember activity day girl was willing to come with us that night! AHHHH Heavenly Father answers prayers especially when you sacrifice and fast at the same time! The Phoenix Temple  was beautiful! And we felt totally blessed being able to be there! :)

On Thursday I went on Exchanges with our STL. Sister Caron happens to be in my fist area. FLORENCE 2nd WARD! SO I got to see quite a few people that I dearly love and miss! Kim Leopard- one of my favorite people in the world! The Fitch family- they are the cutest family EVER! And Tiffany- who was an investigator that I taught and as soon as I left the area she stopped taking the lessons. She felt like the other missionaries didn't understand her. And she's 5 months pregnant, so we got to catch up on a lot of life and she promised that she would give the new missionaries a try. She's also coming to our musical fireside this Thursday so Im excited to see here again! Also, Thursday happened to be my year mark and spending the day in FLO 2nd was a great way to celebrate a year of missionary work! :)

HALLOWEEN!

SO we didn't spend anytime proselyting on Halloween but we did get to spend 5 hours in the temple. We got 2 family names from our ward mission leader's wife and we were able to take those names all the way through the Temple. Baptisms to Endowments! Best night of my life! What an incredible experience! Both Sister Fairchild and I had this very unique calm feeling during the endowment. It was awesome! Then we walked into the Celestial Room and the very first person I saw was President Nattress and then his wife! AND then every other missionary in the Gilbert mission was there. I got to see all my companions and give them hugs in the Celestial Room. If that doesn't describe Heaven perfectly then I don't know what else could.

Saturday and Sunday was full of meetings for stake conference and most of the talks were about using technology to the fullest and being a good missionary by posting on Facebook or whatever. Don't worry President Lawes let me just pull out my invisible Ipad and post something on facebook right away! So we still haven't heard anything about Ipads even though we were supposed to get them a year ago.... hmmm. One day right?

We haven't had very much success in the area lately so Sister Fairchild and I have decided that we need to sacrifice more in order to be worthy enough to receive all of Heavenly Father's blessings. To show Him we're worthy to teach His children. SO we're keeping the house 100% inspection clean all the time! And we read the Book of Mormon every night at 10 - 10:15. There's a few other goals that we've set for ourselves but I won't tell you about them until we can actually accomplish them. lol

But we've already seen a few miracles from our sacrifices. At Stake Conference our RSP in Creekside ward found us and told us that she'd been to see Nadine (she's from a part member family but we don't have her families records and she came to church last week but she wouldn't tell us where she lived so we couldn't visit her) and the RSP continued to tell us how she was ready to take the missionary lessons! And then a less active family went trick or treating at one of the Bishopric member's houses and she explained how her baby had been in the hospital last week and no one thought that he was going to survive but she made a deal with Heavenly Father that if he survived she would go back to church and get her 2 over age youth baptized. SO THREE potential investigators in less than 5 minutes! It was AWESOME! God answers prayers people! He really does!!!!!! :)

So our stake conference was actually a regional conference and it was broadcasted from Salt Lake. Bradley R. Foster said something along the lines of  this --- God has a plan for you, although our plan may differ from His. He knows best! Our plan is to avoid pain and suffering but His plan is different - we are to become acquainted with sorrow to understand Godly qualities. I think that's a perfect way to describe the way I've been feeling lately. The pain I've felt for the investigators who refuse to keep our commitments or continue to learn about the restored gospel is similar to the pain Heavenly Father feels when His very own children reject His gospel. Then Elder Christofferson asked if we were willing to suffer for our Savior? If we are true disciples of Him then a little pain is totally worth it!  President Uchtdorf continued to say that "the highest honor for any man is to be called a disciple of Jesus Christ. Not matter how successful we are on earth, it's nothing, in fact it's a counterfeit for the glory we can receive from God."

We also went mountain biking again, and this is after the ride. I didn't throw up this time so it was much more enjoyable! :)
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​Well that's it folks! This week is going to be awesome! I can already feel it! :)

I hope you have an equally amazing week!

ALL MY LOVE,

Sister Raubenheimer

Mountain Bike Rides and Trunk or Treats

GOOD MORNING,

My companion Sister Fairchild loves working out so we've been stepping up the game a little and running 2 miles instead of my comfortable 1 mile. And then we went MOUNTAIN BIKING twice last week. I've never been mountain biking before and all I have to say is that the coming down part is much more fun than the going up part. This morning when we finally stopped, I lay down on the oh so comfy cactus covered floor to catch my breath and then before I knew it I was throwing up....  I haven't thrown up since 10th grade! That was gross BUT then we got to come flying down the mountain and that part was really really fun! That made the whole gross feeling worth it! lol

So other than my new found hobby here's what happened this week.

Gertie (our 78 year old investigator) decided that she was going to break up with us. She doesn't want us to come over anymore... so that was really sad. I 've really come to love that lady but maybe it's just one of her mood swings and she'll call us next week wanting us to come over again.

Jenny finally contacted us again and we set up a lesson with her for Tuesday so we're praying that the lesson goes well. She really is an awesome lady and she's had SO many spiritual experiences with prayer, hopefully she remembers that when we see her tomorrow.

So the Phoenix Temple Open House is happening right now and we're trying to get there so bad but it doesn't seem like its going to happen. We just don't have any investigators that are interested at the moment and none of them want to go all the way out to the other side of Phoenix to see another Mormon Temple but we keep praying for a miracle. It ends on the 1st and there is plenty of time for God to work His magic before Saturday! :)

We were able to go to the Gilbert Temple on Tuesday! That was one of the highlights of last week. And we get to go this week as well! SO there's quite a few Christian churches in the area that enjoy dressing up like missionaries and Halloween will just give them another excuse to do so we aren't allowed to go out on Halloween. So we get to go to the TEMPLE ALL DAY LONG! If we find family names then we can take the name all the way through the Temple! HOW EXCITING! I haven't done baptisms at the temple in over a year so that will be a good way to spend Halloween.

So overall our teaching pool isn't doing too well but that's okay. We have a game plan. We're going to be setting up Family mission plans with all the Active families in one of the wards because there's absolutely nothing happening in that ward. It might take a little or a lot of time to actually set up but we really feel like this could help the ward to figure out where they stand when it comes to missionary work. Sister Fairchild came from an area where 75-80% of the neighborhood was LDS but through setting up Family Mission Plans and then creating an action plan they were able to have 6 baptisms in the last 3 months. The bishop is on board and so is the Ward Mission Leader, all we have to do is present it to the Ward Council. I think that this is exactly what the ward needs in order to get back on track for the new year.

 

This  picture was from Creekside Ward's Halloween Trunk or Treat party that they had on Saturday. A LOT of people showed up. Probably like 200 people or so. Probably 50 of them were nonmembers. That was a great chance to get to talk to everyone in the ward in a fun casual setting. We have another party on Tuesday for our other ward. That one should be AWESOME as well!
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Sister Fairchild and I are doing well together, we definitely have a funny sense of humor together and we laugh all the time but we seem to have a little bit of a prideful look going sometimes. Our goal for this week is to notify our faces that we're actually happy and that we're NOT "unsatisfied with the current situation". Our District Leader informed us that we didn't look too happy at our last district meeting so that is one of our goals for this week!

I can't believe I've been out on my mission for a year! So much to do and not enough time to do it in. I feel like I haven't learned enough for being out for that long but I guess that's how every missionary feels. Something that our Mission President tells us often is that we are playing a game right now. A game of life and we already know who is going to win the game. But Satan is going to try to take you out of the game by tempting us with the short lived pleasures of the world. And many people end up sitting on the sidelines because they haven't decided who they are going to play for. THERE IS NO WAY THAT SATAN CAN WIN but he's going to do all that he can  to make you feel like its not worth playing for the Savior because it's easier to give in to temptations of the world. I feel like my mission has solidified who I am playing for. There is NO way I will ever give up my agency to the ways of the World. I've seen too much pain and anger from people who don't understand their divine potential and end up not reaching the Basket. (I can only relate to Basketball, so that's what we're playing in this game.)

So the only question is, which Jersey are you going to put on?

Play on the Lord's side! "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophecy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." - 2 Nephi 25:26 

This church is true, God loves each of His children and He wants us to be happy SOOO find that happiness by playing on HIs team, on the Savior's team!

I hope that everyone has a great week and that they put on the Lord's jersey because it's going to be the best winning game ever! :)

ALL my love,

Sister Raubenheimer