Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Some pictures







Week 7

It's that week! TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!

Hello all!

I got the call on Saturday Night that I'm being transferred! BUT I don't get to know where until tomorrow at the transfer meeting. Sad that I can't let you know where but I like the element of surprise. I will let you all know my address next P-day. So be sure not to send anything until I let you know! I'm sad to be leaving Delta, the members here have been amazing, the work has been hard, but it has been so worth it. I am really excited to jump into my new area with both feet and to see some miracles!

I can't believe that I've been on my mission for almost 2 months! So weird.

Okay, so "jeeping". Holy. Amazing. I've found another something I really like! Basically "Jeeping" is going driving up in the mountains in a Jeep- original right? (usually a Rubicon) you get to go up these GIANT rocks. We went to Ouray (Yur-ray) which is this cute little town at the base of the mountains and reminds me a lot of Port Townsend, and we went up Imogene Pass and at the very top it was over 13,000 feet! Sister Allison (Spanish Speaking Sister in Montrose) and I went with the Br. and Sis. Schiller. They own the jeeps and the Spanish sisters live with them. I'll post some pictures! And I will send my SD card home to Sister Bessey and she can hopefully upload some vids for your enjoyment.

This week was a lot of fun, but really hard, working both my area and that San Juan Sister's area. But I got to use a lot of Spanish again and I can carry on a pretty basic but decent conversation in Spanish now.

This transfer, as many of you know, our entire mission read the Book of Mormon in 42 days (a transfer, and 13 pages a day. Try getting that in in only 1 hour of personal study) and we highlighted every reference to Christ in it. Then in the back, we right down every name/title he is mentioned as. I have over 120 of them, and I'm almost positive I missed quite a few. Among my favorites are Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and Redeemer. I've gone through 2 highlighters because of how much I was highlighting. I'm sure we all know that the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER testament of Jesus Christ, but I didn't realize just HOW much it was a testament of him. There are some chapters where it is entirely highlighted! My testimony of the BoM and my Saviour has grown immensely and I am so grateful that while I am being strengthened and helping the light of Christ within me to grow and I love that I'm able to help others find the light of Christ within themselves and to help them cultivate it!

Friends and family, I encourage and invite every single one of you to read the book of Mormon for yourselves in 60 days. That's 8.5 pages a day. If you don't have a copy, I can get one to you easy! Just let me know!  Along with reading, I challenge you to highlight every reference to Jesus Christ within its pages. You will need 2 highlighters at least! And every day, before you read it, ask our Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, if it is true. I promise that if you put forth the effort, you WILL receive an answer, and more importantly I promise that you WILL come to know that this book truly testifies of Christ and that He is our big brother, Savior, and Redeemer. He lives, and he loves each and every one of you and he KNOWS who you are and what you need even before know you need it! As a representative of Christ on this earth, I testify of this, and so much more in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all and I know that missionary work is real. I know that we all have the light of Christ within us, we just have to put forth the effort; exercise faith, and we will come to know truth.

Love,
Sister Voss


Pic1- Hermana Allison and I on our way up to Imogene Pass in the back of the jeep! Google a Jeep Rubicon and you will kind of get an idea of what we were riding in. But ours was just a roll cage, no windows or hard roof.

 Pic 2- WE DROVE UP THAT!!!!!!!!
Pic 3- That's only a FRACTION of what Jeeps can do. Crazy, right? Google "jeeping" and you'll get an idea of some of the things we got to do! But it wasn't really crazy like some of those pics. Still have to make sure the missionaries are safe!

Pic 4- The Columbine is the state flower. It's so beautiful, but illegal to pick! The wildflowers up in the mountains were absolutely gorgeous!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Transfers!

Sister Voss is being transferred this week. I will update with where and her new mailing address as soon as I have it! Thank you all for your support reading this blog, sending letters, prayers, and good thoughts! - Dede

Monday, July 20, 2015

Week 6

Hello All!!!


I only have like 5 mins to write because I'm going "Jeeping" this afternoon. NO idea what that is.... but it sounds like fun! There will be pics next week, for sure!

Anyway. My companion is in Denver right now getting some help so I am with the Spanish Sister Training Leader and we are working both the Spanish and Delta/Uncompahgre areas this week. 5th week in the mission and I'm already in charge of the area. Yikes! The Lord obviously has way more faith in me than I do!

I love you all and I'm so sorry I couldn't reply this week. It's been really crazy and really hectic trying to keep the Lord in the center of the work, but I definitely know how to bear up my companions burdens. I love Sister Koenig so much and I'm glad I was there to help ease her burdens. Now I have to let her and the Lord do the rest of the work! BUT! That is one of the reasons we are here on this earth, to love one another and build on another up and ease each other's burdens. Love everyone like Christ!

I will be finding out about transfers at the end of this week/Saturday so if you're going to send something be sure you send it TODAY. I will let you all know next Monday what the outcome was and if I have a new address.

I love you all and I hope you all know that you are always in my prayers! The Church is true, the book is Blue!

Love,
Sister Voss

Monday, July 13, 2015

Week 5

Hello Hello!

Oh man! There isn't a whole lot to report here this week! And I don't have pictures! As busy as we have been, I wish we had more to show for it. But it's all in the Lord's timing. Our AC stopped working again, but Heavenly Father has blessed us with cooler weather this last week so it hasn't been too bad. The last few nights on the other hand have been not so great. Fun Story: we decided to move our beds downstairs to where its cooler. So.... we now sleep in our living room. But it's worth it. We have contacted our landlord (who lives in Arizona) and he is supposedly sending someone to come fix our AC, hopefully, for good this time. Pray for relief! Sister Voss doesn't deal with hot weather very well. Growing up in WA has spoiled me.

My companion and I are struggling here in Delta but we know that that means Heavenly Father has something in the works and that blessings are just around the corner. We appreciate all of your love and prayers and I can't wait to have more adventures and miracles to write to you about. 

***Also:  Important for those of you who have been sending letters and packages.*** First of all THANK YOU! I try to write letters back but sometimes forget or don't remember if I have or not. There is this thing called "mission brain". It's like pregnancy brain, but worse and very real. I can't remember things like what day it is, or the names of actors, or remember lyrics/ melodies to songs I liked or the name of movies. Well, I shouldn't be focusing on those things anyway so the Holy Ghost is making it so that I completely focus on the work like I should! ANYWAY (See? Mission Brain)! As this is week 5 of 6 of the transfer, if you are going to send anything, be sure to send it no later than Monday the 20th. I don't know if the Lord will be keeping me in Delta or if He will be calling me to serve in another area. 

Either way, I know that this is the Lord's work and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have found my small insignificant testimony enough to be a representative of Him! I testify that Christ lives and loves each and every one of us. I know that the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth through a prophet and that today we have an amazing prophet who is also called of God, Thomas S. Monson. And I know that the Book of Mormon truly testifies of Christ. The Church is true, the book is blue!

I love you all so dearly! But not nearly as much as our loving Heavenly Father and big brother, Jesus Christ, do!

Love,
Sister Voss

Interesting factoid:
Sonic is amazing! The Sonic here in Delta is owned by a member so Missionaries get free meals! It's dangerous lol.

Monday, July 6, 2015

1 MONTH!

Hello All! I cannot believe it has been 1 month that I have been a missionary! Crazy!

I absolutely love this work, despite the heat.

 I tried to upload a video and its just too big to send. Yesterday I got to experience my first Midwest rain storm. Holy-wow-rain. The raindrops were HUGE. We watched the clouds roll in as we were tracting and as soon as we felt the first rain drops we ran to the car. It was perfect timing because we had just finished speaking to a gentleman. And then, the heavens unleashed their fury. We must have sat in the car for 15 minutes because we could barely see out the window!

On the 4th we didn't get to do a whole lot of teaching. The majority or people were gone so we mostly gave service to those in our ward. It was hot! (Surprise). But we enjoyed it.

My (first world) struggle for this last week. Our house is great! However, the AC works fantastically downstairs, it's always an ice box. I'm not sure how accurate our thermostat is. But the AC doesn't work upstairs hardly at all. I was able to fiddle around with the vents a week or so ago and was able to get some cool air flowing upstairs but it was still significantly hotter upstairs than it was downstairs. The thermostat downstairs would say 68 but upstairs it would be about 80. Not fun to sleep in. We finally got the bright idea to call our Ward Mission Leader and his wife. They are absolutely wonderful people, they're our parents out here basically. They came over and Br. Christensen took out the air filter from the air duct because it really wasn't doing anything because it was pulling in air and not pushing it out so that GREATLY helped the airflow throughout the house. He couldn't get in to the room where the furnace was because it was locked. He thought that the airflow might be off.

But we thought, "okay, problem solved its going to be so much cooler!". WRONG! We came back in the middle of the day and found that it was actually hotter downstairs, 75 degrees. But we had left a window open so we figured that was the problem. We came home later that night after a long day and it was 78 downstairs so we guessed it was about 85-90 upstairs. We figured out that our vents were blowing out warm air despite us having our thermostat being set to 67. We tried everything. we turned it off, switched the braker (not sure if that is spelled correctly). Nothing helped! We did not sleep well that night. At about 3 AM I looked towards my companion's bed and asked "are you awake?" She said, "of course...." I exclaimed "THIS IS AWFUL!!" She went downstairs to stop the air all together and we opened the windows. Very little sleep was had that night.

As I was saying my morning prayers I said "Heavenly Father, PLEASE fix our AC. I don't know if I can handle another night like last night. And could you please make it nice and cool outside, just for today?" Miracles happened! I went down to turn the air back on and it started blowing COLD air! AND it didn't get any hotter than 73 yesterday with a giant rainstorm tacked on. It was a glorious day! I love the power of prayer! Even if it is Heavenly Father taking pity on me for begging unceasingly for rain and cooler weather. Today, it is back to being a high of 93 today.

Another miracle that happened this week: My companion and I were out tracting in a town called Olathe (Oh-lay-thuh) on Friday. We ran into this man who was sitting outside his door step. Here in the CDS Mission we have a survey that we ask people and that's how we go about door to door. I said hi to this man and he waived us away. He couldn't talk, only grunt. and I asked verbally if he could sign as well as in ASL but he shook his head and he pointed to the top of his head and we understood that we had a brain injury. We bid him farewell and, having finished that block, we walked back to the car. We didn't know where to go next so Sister Koenig and I said a prayer. I looked at her and said we needed to go back to that man. She looked at me like I was crazy. Our survey questions are mostly Yes or No questions or can easily be made into yes or no questions. We went back and I asked if we could ask him some Yes or No questions. He answered all of them shaking his head, using his hands and using his voice with positive or negative inflection. I was able to teach him about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We found out that he had been in an accident a few years ago and it left him with paralysis on his right side, no ability to speak, and delayed thinking. He has a very strong belief in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and was really receptive to our message and really seemed to understand it, he just had to think about things a little harder sometimes. We invited him to church and we asked if we could come back to see him again so that we could introduce him to someone who could give him a ride to church. He eagerly said yes and we went back the following day and talked about the Sabbath and how important it is. I'm not sure what will come of him, but I know that Heavenly Father was testing to see if I would follow the promptings of the Spirit. I'm so glad I did because this man is ready for the gospel!

That's about it for this week. I'm ready to hit the ground running after P-day

I love you all and thank you so much for your cards, pictures, and packages, they mean the world to me and they truly make my day! I hope you know that I love you, but not half as much as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you. Believe in prayer and believe in miracles, they happen every day!

Love,


Sister Voss

The first is the Rainbow after the storm. We could see both ends of the rainbow and there was another one on the outside of it that was faint but still there. Double Rainbow, pretty cool if you ask me!

And the second is our house errrmm, condo? Anyway, ours is the one on the right and that's our car.