20th Birthday (9//29/14)

HELLO EVERYONE!

So I'll start out by saying that I had a marvelous birthday yesterday. I woke up to a Birthday cake and a new dress!!! Its really cute! :)

A BIG THANKS TO MY PARENTS FOR THE DIAPER PACKAGE! The sisters in my house think that it's really funny that the last package you sent was in a Wet wipe box and this one was in a diaper box. hahaha THANKS MOM!

This week was really good! We say Jenny almost everyday this week! It was amazing, she's changing so much! So on Tuesday at our lesson, we were going over the Plan of Salvation and we got to the Atonement and asked if she had prayed about Jesus Christ and she said yes but she doesn't feel like she has faith.. We then explained to her how she had TONS of faith. She's had so many spiritual impressions lately and she's been acting on that faith by going to church and keep commitments and THEN she was reminded about an experience that happened earlier that morning. She was praying to Heavenly Father and telling him about how happy she's been lately. Learning about the gospel makes her happy. Praying is new to her, so she's nervous about her prayers but she knows that she's been happy since she's started going to church and taking the lessons. And she kept emphasizing that in her prayer. Well after she prayed she felt like getting a pumpkin spice hot chocolate! (I LOVE THOSE btw) But as she rolled up to the window she lady said that her drink had been paid for and that the lady who had paid for her hot chocolate had a message for her. She said "just be happy." Jenny could not believe how quickly the Lord answered her prayers. She said "I don't know if this is the true church yet, but I know that the Lord wants me to he happy and this church makes me happy." WHAT AN AMAZING MIRACLE! God loves his children and will take care of them, He's taking care of Jenny. We have another appointment with her tomorrow! :)

 

We had interviews last Wednesday and they were awesome! President Nattress is my hero! And his training was great. He also let us know that we'll soon have a private screening of the new movie "Meet the Mormons." Can't wait to see that, its going to be a powerful tool in helping people understand the gospel!!! :)

Last night, we celebrated my birthday with Peach Cobbler (the Peaches were from Utah) but it was too hot and totally melted the wax candles. I still managed to blow out all 20 candles. Man... I'm an old fart. lol

Well... an update on my Tadpoles. We got home after emailing and shopping last week and they were all belly up.... they DIED! Apparently the rocks I put in there to make it feel more "homie" were actually covered in weed poison. Im the worst froggy MOM ever!!!!!!

ALL MY LOVE!

-Sister Raubenheimer

Tadpoles (9/22/14)

Hello Everyone! :)

This week has been really great!

We got A LOT more teaching opportunities this week than we normally get. Not as many as Florence 2nd ward but still a really good amount compared to what we normally get!

I think the difference this week has been that we're determined to put our faith into action. We expect miracles daily and we've BEEN SEEING THEM! We found 2 new investigators this week. There's this less active man (Brother Banks) and he got baptized two years ago in Gilbert 9th ward. He hasn't ever attended church out in San Tan Valley because he doesn't know anyone. So we FINALLY got in contact with him. He was actually really excited to see us and he has a picture of his missionaries and his baptism day in front room. He loves the gospel, he's just out of practice and he wants our help getting back to church. The only problem is.... football. He loves football way too much! He didn't come to church on Sunday because he wanted to watch the game. But we had a lesson with him and 2 of his kids on Saturday and we invited the kids to be baptized! They said they would have to think about it but they really would like to! (Miracle #1)

(Miracle #2) We have this investigator named Jenny (she's the one who was atheist but had an experience that helped her believe in God). We had two lessons with her this week. The first one was on the Savior (she doesn't understand his role and what he's done for us) and then left a commitment with her to read 3 Nephi 11. Which is ALL about the Savior and His gospel. But at the second lesson that backfired... So far all she understands of God is that HE loves her and her children. But in that chapter there's a verse that mentions being damned if you're not baptized. She got really upset about that. So we explained how being damned is like an actual damn. The water is being stopped and cannot move forward. Being spiritually damned is the same way. Your spiritual progression would be stopped and would not be able to move forward unless you make necessary steps like baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. SO then we moved on and taught her the Restoration lesson. But 15 minutes into the lesson we could tell that is wasn't connecting with her so we had to change gears. Luckily she had a chalkboard in her living room and we were able to draw out the plan of Salvation for her. This answered all her questions and she started laughing and joking around with us again. Even though we had planned the Restoration, it wasn't what she needed. But we followed the spirit and helped her understand her purpose. We then invited her to be baptized and she said "well, if I'm ready by then and I'll have to pray about it." So that's what she's doing now. We have another lesson with her on Tuesday. She also came to church on Sunday and everything seemed to be prepared exactly for her. It was amazing. She text us this morning and asked us for all the scriptures we read in Gospel Principles class. SO JENNY IS AMAZING AND AN ANSWER TO PRAYERS! :)

And then I can't keep count of all the other miracles that happened. We got in with a lot of inactive members this week and we even met a few less actives that we had never before seen. So overall, it was an amazing week!

On a side note. I caught tadpoles last week and they're really cute. Their legs are forming and soon they'll be hopping around.

This week we will have interviews and housing inspections, and car inspections. So we'll be doing a lot of cleaning today. And I might have to find a new home for my tadpoles considering we're not supposed to have pets... but they're so cute. And hardly pets. They stay outside and all they eat is a piece of spinach and I'm planning on letting them go... eventually. The other sisters in our house, really don't like that we have them but I saved them from an evaporating puddle so I'm all they've got! :)

We got the Most OYMs (street contacts) in our district FOUR weeks in a row. So we won this Buddha. No big deal. lol  

ALL MY LOVE,

Sister Raubenheimer

Trucks and Tanks (9/15/14)

​Hey everyone,

I hope the week went well!!

The suns still shining here in Arizona. I really really really really would like it to cool down but people keep saying it won't cool down until November.... poopy. I miss snow.... But I love Arizona so I guess I'll get over that fact that its hotter than the surface of the sun still.

Okay. So our week. Well... we've desperately been trying to find new investigators and we found ONE! Her name is Jenny and she's been going to the Sierra Ranch ward (not one of the wards that we cover) with her neighbor. She grew up atheist and didn't really believe there could be a God until a few months back when she was driving down the road and had a moment of clarity where she knew that there had to be a God. Life wouldn't make sense without a creator. So- she has a belief in God. But she's lacking faith in a Savior. She really doesn't understand the role He plays and she's never even heard of the Holy Ghost. So we have to work from the ground up BUT we're super excited. She seems genuine, so we're excited about her lesson on Tuesday! In fact her 1st lesson felt a lot like Bridget's (a lady from my first area, who got baptized last month) first lesson. So we're extremely hopeful about her progress.

Otherwise we're just knocking on doors but here's the problem. We have two small neighborhoods that consist of our area. About a 3 mile radius. We could tract our whole area in a day. Is that where we go from here? We walked down this one street the other day and I counted 12 members. THAT'S MORE THAN UTAH! Members EVERYWHERE! So we need to find a more effective way to find investigators. We're working on that. Heavenly Father will show us His ways soon. You know how missionaries always tell people who are struggling that we have to go through tough times to understand the good times. Well, here's the moment where I have to swallow my own medicine! Isn't it funny when you have to do that? I feel like it happens a lot when you're a missionary. Especially during companionship inventory. lol

So Sister Welch and I had a few adventures this week

Here are some pictures...

(this is an example of the water retention park. This is a park but now its a swimming pool. These are some cute kids from the ward)

Yeah I'm cool... well the member who owns this TANK is actually really cool.

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But life is good! Missionary work is amazing! And  I'm really glad that I get to be a part of it!

oh... I can ride my bike without my hands now. Yup. Im that talented.... Don't worry I plan on joining the circus when I get home.

ALLY MY LOVE

Si

ster Raubenheimer

oh that truck is not really a tank but it sure looks like it!!

Don't worry Dad Im being safe! lol

Minis, Toilets, Rain, and lots of Sweat (9/8/14)

Minis, Toilets, Rain, and lots of Sweat! (I stole this title from Sister Welch...just so you know)

That about sums up the whole entire week. But really it was a crazy week. Way too many emotions..... I don't even know where to begin.

Wednesday: Transfer Meeting! Okay so the best transfer meeting are when you know nothing is going to happen. Sister Welch and I got to sing "we're not getting transferred song." I'll have to sing it for you next week on my video diary thingy. So we got some amazing training at transfer meeting. Elder Robins came to our mission and met with all the ZLs and STLs and he spoke about the "Loser List". Everything that holds us back from being responsible missionaries. For example, FEAR keeps us from being the best missionaries that we can be. The antidote to fear is LOVE. Having enough love for the people we see to go out of our way and talk to them about the gospel is one way that we can be more effective. There's an antidote for anything but it starts with understanding the Atonement and then acting.

"Courage is every Christlike attribute at its testing point." - Pres. Nattress

So I'm working on being a better servant to my companion and our investigators. I feel like this goal will help me overcome my bad habits and become more like the Savior.

After Transfer meeting I got to hang out with one of my old companions- Sister Walker! She's amazing! We went to Café Rio for lunch before we headed off to the temple to go to the Temple with Kim. It was her very first time going through the Temple and she absolutely glowed the whole time. What a marvelous experience! And I got to a lot of my members from Florence 2nd ward. My first are. That was great! (Dad, will you send me that picture I sent to you of me and Sister Welch- I don't have a copy of it. Thanks!)

Then we had the wonderful opportunity of having two mini missionaries for the weekend. President Nattress told Sister Welch and I that since he kept us together (there were only 3 sister companionships that stayed together this transfer) he was going to give us two minis. SO we had to split our already tiny area into two areas and find enough work for all of us to do the whole weekend. We saw quite a few miracles! Unfortunately our only progressing investigators dropped us Friday morning. So we weren't able to have them teach at a legit investigators house. But we did get in with two part member families and share messages with them. And we saw quite a few Less Actives that never let us in. So hopefully they had an enjoyable experience. We worked them hard! At least they'll remember that. lol

And the heat. Living in Arizona and serving a mission here are two completely different ways of life.

Oh so the toilet story.

Sister Welch has had 2 bad experiences with toilets lately.

Let's just say that there was an older man living in the house and there was a contraption on the toilet to help him stay up.... well  Sister Welch took the thingy off the toilet and pee went EVERYWHERE--- all over the floor!!!! BUT she cleaned it up afterwards! She's so nice! I don't know if I would have been able to handle cleaning up old man pee. I guess that's why I'm working on being a servant.  SO moral of the story, just go to the bathroom at a members house! Much safer.

 And the rain.... I love RAIN!

Apparently the governor declared it a state emergency. The freeways are flooded and  cars are literally floating away! In our area we got quite a bit of rain last night but not enough to stop us from getting to the library. Arizona is built on these little washes. So all the rain goes straight into washes. Now it looks like there are pretty little streams everywhere. The ground is so dry that it doesn't soak up any of the rain and creates flash floods. It only takes four inches of rain to make things interesting here. I don't think we'll be in danger. But its funny to hear how some of the schools closed because of the rain. OHHHH Arizona...

 

Okay I think that's it.

Life is good!

I love the gospel.

Love the WORK!

And I love ARIZONA!

​

(Comp unity- we were shaving our legs together)

All my love,

Sister Raubie

Transfer Calls (9/1/14)

TRANSFER CALLS!

And Sister Welch and I get to stay together for another transfer!!!! WAHOOOOO!!!

IM SO EXCITED TO BE HER COMPANION for another transfer! This is going to be AWESOME!!! :)

So the Langford's are still on date but not for the 6th anymore. They are now preparing for the 13th. We still had 3 lessons to do and get their baptismal interviews done. It just wasn't going to happen. And their favorite family in the ward was going to be out of town for the 6th so we all decided it would be best to postpone it till the following week.

So...covering four wards is EXHAUSTING!!! We were in church yesterday for 7 hours straight. No lunch and no breaks. PLUS Sister Welch and I talked in Sacrament in the Creekside Ward. We were asked to speak on the "why" of the Restoration. I was asked to give the youth talk and Sister Welch had to prepare for the full 20 minute talk.  Sister Welch kept giving me a hard time because I was the "youth speaker" but when I got up to speak I told everyone that I didn't mind being the youth speaker because I'm still 19 which makes me a youth, so I didn't mind taking up the youth spot. Everyone laughed at that. And came up to me afterwards and told me that they thought I was much older than 19 - apparently they were surprised at my age. When Sister Welch got up to speak she ironically pointed out that even though I had the youth talk and she was supposed to be the adult the pulpit went down when she came up to speak. SO LOOK WHO'S THE ADULT NOW! #beingtallisthebest

We have way too much fun together... but it's great! :)

Anyways being in a trio is hard- it's just awkward showing up to a door and there's three of you. I see why we go out two by two. It's a much better plan!

So I finished the Book of Mormon this week. 60 days. Doctrine of Christ. And a lot of enlightenment. I've finished the Book of Mormon twice now on my mission and its amazing to see how much it effects your proselyting. If investigators understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and how much it testifies of the Savior and all He has done for us then they will understand the need for the Restoration of the gospel through Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is amazing and I LOVE LEARNING from its teachings. I challenge everyone to read the Book of Mormon again and again and again. You  will always learn something wonderful and the Holy Ghost will testify of the Savior's divinity through its words.

On a happy note. A convert from my first area is going through the temple on Wednesday and we get to go with her. So I'll get to see all my Florence 2nd ward buddies! I loved that area! But who doesn't love their "greenie" area? I can't wait to see her and be a part of her special day.

I don't have any pictures for you this week. Sorry I'm a slacker but I'll be better this week. Lots of pictures for you next week! I promise!! :)

ALL MY LOVE!! :)

Sister Raubie

Toilet paper package (8/18/14)

ANOTHER WEEK has come and gone.

I don't even know where the time is flying to- I feel like it shouldn't be going this fast but this transfer is almost done. We start the new transfer at the beginning of September. I really hope that I get to stay with Sister Welch for another transfer. Basically she makes me more happy than chocolate ice cream... and we know how much I love chocolate ice cream. Every time we see President he says "know you two just want me to forget about you two so  you can stay together but I'm not going to forget".. Gee thanks President, ruin all our dreams!

Zone Conference was great! I love learning from President. He is an AMAZING man. He had each of the missionaries share their favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon since we're taking 60 days to read the Book of Mormon. I shared 2 Nephi 25: 29 and Sister Welch shared Mosiah 4:9. It was cool to see everyone's favorite scriptures and hear about their experience as they've read the Book of Mormon lately.  Zone Conference is always so inspiring! Then I went on exchanges with Sister Wiggins. She's also very tall so people kept calling us the Twin Towers.... we probably shouldn't be companions. Two tall Sisters- that could probably be very intimidating.

Okay what else? We got 3 new investigators this week. That was really exciting!! :)

And we had to help out with 2 classes yesterday at church which would have been fine. But both classes were on families... okay its bad enough that I can't hold babies for 18 months but now I have to testify about eternal families for 2 hours straight.... Heavenly Father really knows how to make his missionaries baby hungry. We had two investigators at church this week. And those two teenage boys didn't show up... they slept in again... We had a lesson about sacrifice this week but apparently they weren't listening very well. We'll have to see how this week goes with them.

Thanks for the Toilet paper package Mom! LOVED IT! Had a good laugh when I opened it. I LOVED YOUR LETTER!!! :) Thank you!

And those cookies! ARE THE BOMB!!! We live with a sister who is from the Philippians and she absolutely adores them. It's so funny to see what American food she loves. For example- smores are her favorite and Root Beer floats are her nightly "mid night snacks". They don't have those things where she's from but she can't stand Mexican food. Too bad she got called to ARIZONA! The land of MEXICAN FOOD. lol

Overall its been a great week!!!

Our Stake President told us this (we meet with him weekly to go over progress records since he lives in our ward) "Choose ACTION that will count for ETERNITY."

I loved that because its true-- every choice we make determines who we become. Each step should take us closer to our Heavenly Father! 

I have loved sharing the gospel and seeing people making changes in their lives. Positive action will always bring positive results!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!! :)

ALL MY LOVE,

SISTER RAUBENHEIMER 

Quick Update(8/11/14)

Hey everyone!

I don't have that much time to email a big long email today but just know that everything is going well. Last week was a tad bit hot. But could you expect anything else from Arizona?

We met with quite a few less active people in the last week. That was awesome! We also set up 3 appointments with street contacts!

We also got to go to the Gilbert Temple last week! I love the temple. It really makes me so happy. Wish I could stay there all day. lol

Okay investigators... Gertie (she's 78 years old) came to church yesterday. Basically the whole ward came up and introduced themselves and they all knew her name because we sent out a text the night before explaining her situation. She was very impressed that everyone knew her name. lol

And she loved seeing all the little kids in their suits and dresses. But she didn't like that there wasn't any "Jesus Preaching."

She said that she can't wait to come back and try out all the classes. She's awesome!!

Our other progressing investigators didn't show up to church this week. What the heck? We called them and they said they were tired and wanted to sleep... that's what you get from two teenage boys. Next week we'll have a leader pick them up.

Otherwise everything is going well!! Next week is Zone Conference- super excited about that! It's always great seeing President Nattress and Sister Nattress.

Hope everyone is doing well!

All my love,

Sister Raubenheimer

Halfway Mark (8/4/14)

HUMP DAY

That's what Missionaries call their halfway mark. Wednesday was AWESOME! We got to spend our very last day with Sister Freestone (our mini missionary).

​

 She was beyond amazing! All she wanted to do that week was hand out a Book of Mormon but everyone we street contacted during the time she was with us had already taken the discussions or read the Book of Mormon. I was sad that she wasn't able to accomplish her goal BUT she had an awesome experience otherwise. Or that's what she told us at least. She has family in one the wards we serve in so she even got to come visit on Sunday and share her testimony in that ward. It was cool to see how much that experience had strengthened her resolve to go on a mission!!! :)

Then.... when we got home we took my 9 month Mark pictures!

SO ENJOY

​hahaha 9 more months to Go!

We picked up three new investigators this week. That was a miracle. One lady is 78 years old- she's basically falling apart. BUT when we talk about Jesus she gets super excited! And all her energy comes back, then she has to lie down again. Its quite the experience talking to her.

Sister Welch and I like to take some time each day to have some fun! SO on Friday night we were walking home from an appointment and all the sprinklers were on.. Needless to say that by the time we got home at 9 we were completely soaked and our shoes were very muddy! But it was super fun!!!

ohhh what else? oh. The Less active work here is much different to my last area. People who don't come to church (ever) still invite us in to talk about the church. Whereas in Gilbert we got chased away with broomsticks... well not literally but sometimes it felt that way. SO Im really excited about working with the less active members here!

LIFE IS GOOD!

Missionary work is amazing and I love being a part of it!

Sister Freestone's favorite scripture was Doctrine and Covenants 6:33-34

Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

And now it's one of my favorite scriptures too. Although we are small in numbers - we are doing the Lord's work and HE will protect His children!

I hope that everyone is praying for missionary work each and everyday. I can't express how much Heavenly Father will bless you if you are taking the time to share the glorious message of the gospel!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

We're headed off to the mall today (its the first time I've gone to the mall in 9 months and Sister Welch is going to get her ears pierced! yay!!!! )

ALL MY LOVE

Sister Raubenheimer

New Companion (7/28/14)

GOOD MORNING FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day and an even better week!!!

So Transfer News first- My companions name is Sister Stephanie Welch. She is 20 years old and just about the best person I've ever met. She been out on her mission for a year (so she came out 2 transfers before me) and she's from Nebraska but she went to school at BYU-Idaho. Pretty much all of my companions went to or are planning to go to BYU-Idaho. At least I'll know some people when I go out to school. All my friends from AHS are going on mission or are planning to go on missions pretty soon. It blows my mind every time I think about the gospel. God is truly hastening His work and I'm so glad to be a part of it! 

​

On to the area. We serve in two wards. Creekside Ward and Castlegate ward. Both of these wards meet at the same time on Sundays so its madness going back and forth making sure everyone is in their right classes and has fellowship with them.

We  have a few progressing investigators. We were able to put Karen on date for August 30th. We've met with her twice this week and she is really excited about building her faith in Jesus Christ. She's an awesome lady and I can't wait to see how the gospel will bless her life.

We also have two over age youth that we are working with. We can't really figure out why they won't commit to a date but we found out that the oldest hast a girlfriend (he's only 15) and he doesn't want to break up with.... So we decided that we'll just have to invite his girlfriend to take the lessons as well. SO we'll see how that goes.

We've found quite a few potential investigators the last week. We even set up return appointments from street contacts. AND I GAVE OUT A BOOK OF MORMON during an OYM- that hasn't happened since Florence. Man its good to be back in the game! :)

We've seen so many miracles in the last 5 days. I can't even begin to describe how much Heavenly Father has blessed Sister Welch and I since we've been together. But the biggest blessing we saw was on Sunday. We had two investigators at the Creekside ward and we went with them to Gospel Principles but we had to leave right after to go to our other ward. Well... the husband Antoin (I have no idea how to spell his name) went to Priesthood with the Ward Mission Leader and afterwards asked Brother Urestee how he could get the priesthood. He's been thinking about it for awhile and he's ready to get serious about lessons and get baptized. What an amazing miracle!!!

Oh also we have a Mini Missionary with us. She's from the Desert Ridge Stake and she's 17 years old. Her name is Sister Freestone and she'll  be living with us till Wednesday. Basically she does everything we do so she can see what missionary work is all about. Its a cool idea! I think everyone should have a chance to do this before they go out on their missions.

OH.Oh.oh

A polygamist family showed up at church yesterday... we're not sure what to do  with them... (Gia- have any advice for me? lol)

We're going by to visit them tonight. We'll see how it goes!!

Okay. I think that's all the news!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CASEY!!! I can't believe how old you are!! 15 years old and not quite as tall as me. What the heck? Weren't you supposed to be taller than me?

Oh btw I've gotten taller on my mission. Just thought I would throw that out there. ANYWAYS!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!! :)

​This is Greenfield Acres Ward from my last area, all the ward missionaries had a little goodbye party for me- as you can see, we had a little too much fun! :)

ALL MY LOVE,

SISTER RAUBENHEIMER

Transfers and Puppies (7/21/14)

HELLO FAMILY!!!!

Transfer calls are in-- I'm getting transferred.... I didn't think that I would be the one leaving because I've been in the area for 3 less months than Sister Greiner but it seems like Heavenly Father has other plans for me. I'll let you know next week who my new companion is and where my new area is.

The worst part about transfers is packing everything up.... It's CRAZY how much stuff you collect on a mission.... I have no idea how I'm going to get everything home. We'll have to take a road trip back down here to get everything! lol

We went on exchanges this last week. I was with Sister Hibbard in San Tan Valley. So close to Florence but not quite there. We met with a lot of really awesome people and I learned a lot from Sister Hibbard! We even got to play with cute little puppies!! OOHHHHH the highlight of my week!!! :)

We got to see our new investigators 2 times this week. We even did some service for them. We planted desert plants for them. It was awesome! They almost made it to church this week. But on their way to church they got a flat tire... poop. What Satan does to prevent people from learning about the truth.

As a mission we're reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days and so far its been a GREAT experience! Spending time reading the Book of Mormon each day really helps me focus on the importance of the Doctrine of Christ. It amazes me how many times the Book of Mormon emphasizes keeping the commandments and then God promises that He will bless you. The world is so different to God's way.  No one really understands the value of being obedient, but it's essential to being happy! And not just the world's view of happiness but true JOY!!

God loves each of His children so much and He wants us to understand our purpose and come unto Him. What a wonderful blessing it is to serve Him and help others understand their Divine Potential.

I'm very excited for the next transfer and what the future holds!!! :)

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

LOVE YOU!!!

-Sister Raubie

4th Of July (7/14/14)

Hello Everyone,

1st Picture: This is how we celebrated the 4th of July. Popsicles and Fireworks. It gets dark here by 8:00 so we were able to see a ton of fireworks before we went to bed.

2nd Picture: We found this Scorpion when we were shoveling cow manure at a members house a few weeks ago. The biggest scorpian I've ever seen. His name is Rufio and the zone leaders kept him... as a pet. They feed him crickets and spiders. Its super gross. Im not a fan of scorpions but the other night we were trying to warm up some food but our mircrowave is really dumb and switches off constantly. So Sister Greiner went out to the garage to fix the breaker- all I hear is screaming!!! She saw a scorpion. Not as big as this one but still it was gross. We got her cowboy boots and smashed it. That's what you get when a bunch of girls live together.

3rd Picture: This was the aftermath of a Haboob (a dust storm- I know, its a weird name). The winds aren't that strong but all the trees seem to fall down. At the church parking lot there were a good 7 or 8 trees that had fallen down. And its not the whole tree. Just the top part. Its quite silly to see how weak these trees are. We've had 2 dust storms in the last week but they pass by very quickly within 10 or 15 minutes.

Okay so now to the rest of the week.

Our week was good. We found 3 new invesitgators. One is an over age youth and the other two are ladies who are room mates. I thought we were going to have to give the law of chastity lesson pretty quick but it seems like they are just really good friends. One of the ladies is Roman Catholic and the other lady is from Iran- she's Muslim.

We also got to go to the Temple with a Recent Covert Khristie to do baptisms for the dead. That was an awesome opportunity!!! She got to do the work for her mom, her grandma, and her great grandmas. Super cool!

We'll be getting transfer calls on Sunday. I'll let you know how that goes next monday!!

I hope everyone is having a great weeek!!

LOVE,

Sister Raubie

Updates- Good and Bad (6/30/2014)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANLEN

I want you to know that I love you so much! I hope you have a great day today and you kick college in the butt! :)

This week?

A lot of finding. Our investigators seem to be avoiding us. Very disappointing. Tristen dropped us because someone told him (his dad) that if he got baptized and then made a mistake that he would go to Hell. NOT TRUE. But he won't agree to meet with us so we can't tell him that he's misinformed.

Danielle and her kids are progressing very well but they don't have a free weekend til August... So they won't be getting baptized for awhile but patience is a virtue and it seems that Heavenly Father wants me to develop a lot of patience on my mission. 

Good News-

When I was in Florence 2nd Ward we street contacted this lady named Bridget. We taught her 3 or 4 times while I was there and it was AWESOME! But then I got transferred... well! I just found out this morning that she's getting BAPTIZED on FRIDAY! The fourth of July!!! AHHHHHHHH. How AMAZING IS THAT? We literally found her at the park and now her and her husband are getting baptised. My heart is so full- I can't even explain how happy this makes me!!

She is an awesome lady and she deserves every happiness in the world!! So that was my extremely happy moment for the week. I'll let you know if I get permission to go to her baptism next week. I hope they do because it could potentially be the best day of my mission. lol

Anyways. We're celebrating the year anniversary of the Gilbert Mission so we got to have a party today and play all sorts of water games. (which I didn't think was allowed but it turns out that we can throw water balloons at eachother all we want)

Tomorrow we get to go to the Gilbert Temple all together as a mission. It's going to be great week!

I hope that you all have a great week as well!!!!

LOVE,

Sister Raubenheimer

Missionaries Don't Want Pizza (6/23/2014)

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to start off this email with a Miracle that we saw this morning. We were doing the usual thing this morning. You know, personal study and then companionship study and we were role playing the Restoration for the lesson we have tonight when the phone rang... no one ever calls us and when they do its because they need us to talk in Sacrament. Which I did yesterday- but I'll talk about that later. We answered the phone and it was a Inactive lady in the ward. We had been to her house last week and her husband (who's not a member) answered the door. We chatted a little and he told us that his wife hasn't been feeling very well lately and never let's people in to see her because she's been having heart problems lately. But I felt prompted to tell him that she needed to call us so that we could just talk to her. He said he would tell her that but he didn't think that she would actually contact us. But LO and BEHOLD she called us this morning. She said she didn't really know why she was calling but she just kept thinking about us. We told her that we had been worried about her lately and wanted to help her out as much as we could! Man... its weird how someone's heart can be completely closed off until that right moment. The missionaries have been trying to get in there for the last 9 months. What a miracle!!

The lesson we have tonight is with Charlie. He is an atheist.... But very willing to listen to our message and the gospel truths. He's told us on multiple occasions that he hopes that we're right about the after life and he's wrong... but he just hasn't seen anything in life to know that there really is a God. We're going to share the Restoration with him tonight and focus a lot on How God is Loving Heavenly Father and we are literally His children. We have a really cool member coming with us. His name is Brother Burnham- he literally feels like my grandpa sometimes. He's AWESOME! So we're really looking forward to this lesson today!!

So last week!

Thursday.. where do I even begin.... Honestly. Probably the most awkward day of my mission. We had interviews with President Nattress- so we had to get our car washed. Every mission car has bike rack at the back of it. NO ONE has ever said anything about taking the rack off of the car before you go through the car wash... So we were 30 seconds into the car wash and everything just stopped. The big round thing (you know what I'm talking about) got hooked on our bike rack! We had to run into the Chevron and tell them what happened.... but they couldn't do anything about it. At this point we were going to be late for Interviews so we didn't have time for them to call the Car Wash people to get it unhooked. So we called the Zone Leaders.... the whole experience was totally embarrassing. They came around the corner with their cameras out taking pictures. Sister Greiner and I will probably be on the wall of shame forever more. After we finally got the bike rack off, I realized I had forgotten my Tag.... and the area book. But we were already late so we just had to go to interviews. President Nattress was really nice about it though. He just laughed and said that his wife always forgets her name tag and even occasionally puts on his name tag. Interviews was great! President is always so understanding- its just great talking to him.

But then we had to have training with Elder Greenhalgh (a senior missionary) and guess what the training was on....??? How to take your bike rack off of the car...

Probably the hottest week of my existence! On Saturday we started walking - which we do everyday but the difference is that it was 110 degrees that day. Within two hours my companion had really bad stomach pains. So we sat down and drank some water and cooled off in the shade for a little but it came back worse after we had done that. She couldn't even walk it was that bad. But we still had a mile or so until we got to the car. I felt really bad for her. All  I wanted to do was pick her up and run to the car.  I would like to think that I'm that strong but I'm not... After we finally made it to the car we went home so that she could cool off. That was a rough afternoon but my dinner time she felt good enough to go out. We went to a converts house to have dinner and we ate Pizza. We had pizza 6 times this week!!! Just a warning for anyone who ever feeds the missionaries. Don't buy pizza please. We get that all the time. I don't even like the way pizza tastes anymore. I didn't think that it was possible not to like pizza. But it is.

But anyways just to conclude with everything. The week was good!

All our progressing investigators were out of town but they are back this week so we're excited to meet with them again.

Everyone told me how everyone leaves Arizona for the summer and its true. I guess there's cooler places to be or something.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! :)

All my love,

Sister Raubie

The temple and cats (6/2/2014)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was really really really really hot... like 106 degrees. And its going to get hotter? I don't know if its possible to survive such extreme weather but I guess hundreds of other missionaries do it so I'll be able to do it too. lol

This week was fun- we went to the Gilbert Temple which was absolutely amazing!!!!! So

Beautiful!! That will forever be my favorite temple! :)

On Friday we got to do a service project with our whole zone at a lady's ranch in Queen Creek. We spent 4 hours shoveling 2 foot deep cow poop. Dad, you would be proud of me! That poop was SMELLY but I dug in and shoveled away!

Tristan is doing well. He is going to Scout Camp next week so that should be a really exciting experience for him. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because he had to do community service. Yeah... he was in a little trouble earlier in the year but he's doing great now. So we'll have to push out his baptismal date by a week because he needs to come to church twice before he can get baptized. But Tristan has an amazing testimony and loves learning about God.  He has such strong feelings about His Heavenly Father and yet His family doesn't even believe in God. I wonder where he developed such a strong faith? I'm excited to see what the future holds for that little guy.

Danielle is a very busy single mom. She loves meeting with us but sometimes its hard to find time in her busy schedule. Not to mention the 20 cats she foster Moms. So whenever we do go over there, my companion does a lot of sneezing. She's allergic to cats... BUT I sent a lovely picture of her covered with cats so you can understand how many cats we have crawling all over us when we're trying to teach a lesson. And her kids finally agreed to meet with us so we picked up 4 new investigators this week!!! That was the biggest miracle we've seen all week!! We're really excited about that!!

I hope everyone is doing well!!!

LOVE YOU ALL

-Sister Raubie

(5/26/14) SEVEN MONTHS BABY!!!

Hello EVERYONE!

This week has been a little crazy but we've had a lot of teaching opportunities so that was AMAZING! We've been struggling to find new investigators for a few weeks so we focused a lot on that. The good news is that we found 7 new investigators through member missionary work. The bad news- NONE OF THEM COUNTED BECAUSE THEY LIVE OUTSIDE OUR AREA!!!!! Ahhh so frustrating. It doesn't help that we're in the smallest mission in the world so even if they live in the neighborhood right next to us we can't teach them and we have to transfer them over to their own missionaries. We've spent a lot of time getting the members excited about missionary work and then they finally find people for us to teach and we can't keep teaching them! There are a lot of frustrating parts to missionary work and I have to say that this hits the top ten list!

But we're meeting with all three families again this week and then we'll contact their missionaries and maybe we can still come to their baptisms. THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!

Otherwise the week was really good. Not as hot as the previous week so we got a nice little break. BUT this week is supposed to get up to 107 degrees. That's how hot it was when we came for a visit last summer. I'm just super glad that we have a car and that most of the houses have air conditioning and God created water. Otherwise there would be NO WAY anyone could survive in Arizona. The funny this is that the other day is was 94 degrees and I honestly felt like it was a really nice day. MAN, its going to be a dramatic difference when I go to BYU-I next year!

We put another one of our investigators (Danielle) on date for July 5th. She's really excited about getting baptized but she never showed up at church yesterday. We called and texted her but she didn't respond which is not like her at all so we'll have to go by tonight to see what's up.

Tristen is still on date for June 14th and he loves learning about the gospel. His family is not religious at all so he's kinda worried that he'll be stepping on his parents toes all the time but he still wants to move forward with the baptism.

We haven't been able to get in contact with Jodie (she was on date for March 31st) we think that her parents convinced her not to get baptized because they couldn't. They aren't married and refuse to get married for the time being. So she doesn't have that essential support from her family and we think it scares her a little.

We also went on exchanges this week and I went into a Spanish area... let me tell you something. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He sent me to an English area. Yeah- the gift of tongues doesn't apply to me. I was honestly lost the whole entire day. I felt like a greenie all day. But overall I felt the spirit and loved getting to meet cute little Mexican ladies. They kept mentioning how tall I was. The ONLY word I know in Spanish is "alto" which means tall. So every time I heard that word I knew they were speaking about me.

Anyways

Have a great week!!!!!

Send my love to everyone!!!!

Oh my motto this transfer is 3 Nephi 15:3 - Check it out!!! :)

LOVE,

SISTER RAUBIE

Silly Pictures- 5/29/2014

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

This past week has been a little bit of an uphill climb. This area was doing so well before I got transferred in and since I've been here all of the Stats have gone way down. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong or why things aren't going the way I want them to. But I guess that's part of being a missionary. Heavenly Father has bigger plans than you do. And all I can do is accept His plan and work as hard as I can. This next week will be much better!!!  I know it!!

Last Monday I got to have lunch with Sister Becky Turner from Canada! It was awesome getting to see her again and catching up on all the news from the outside world. lol

And ate Costa Vida which was so delicious! OH! They just opened a Cafe Rio by Deseret Book and Kneaders. All three of those stores are around the corner to the temple. I feel like Deseret Book, Kneaders, and Cafe Rio describe UTAH PERFECTLY! So I call it the Utah corner. I haven't had a chance to eat at Cafe Rio yet but soon!

We have one person on date to be baptized right now. He is 13 years old and has an amazing testimony already. We also had another girl on date last week but she didn't come to church on Sunday so she won't be able to get baptized on the 31st. That's okay. We'll set up a new date for her and figure out the minor issues that are preventing her from coming to church. Her mom is not supportive of her decision to be baptized but agreed to letting Jodie get baptized if this is really what she wants to do. There are a lot of members in the ward who are willing to help out with rides and stuff so everything should work out! :)

Otherwise it's as hot as the surface of the sun right now. And it's only going to get hotter. So yeah. I can't wait for it to be October again. The weather was perfect then! lol

And I took this beautiful picture of me and Sister Greiner right now- just for all of you! Hopefully you enjoy!!!

LOVE,

Sister Raubie