Serving in "Zion"

Ok let's see if I can get all of the past two weeks summed up this week.

It's so great that I can laterally say I am serving in "Zion" We go up near Zion Nation Park every week which is a HUGE tourist attraction:

(The pictures don't do it justice)

 It fits in great with this little game I started for myself of the way down from huntington. I had heard this to be a fun road trip game in the states well in this area it's like a road trip all the time. So I started tring to find a Licence plate from every state. Well it has been quite an adventure! It started as a quite game that I was doing on my own to keep me entertained as I was driving then sister Eyers started helping me out trying to find them all and well now when we see a plate that looks unfamilair (especially when we go up to Springdale) we end up saying things like "FOLLOW THAT CAR!!!" haha it is way fun, and only sometimes distracting. But we have found all the western states, and as we were going through all the states to see which ones we still need to get we were thinking that we would not be able to find obscure states like Maryland or Dalaware and New Jersey Etc. BUT we HAVE found a few of them like

MARYLAND (On a day that we said we will never find maryland)

RHODE ISLAND (Which we found both of them an the same day!)

ALASKA (there are actually quite a few of those)

SOUTH CAROLINA

And the best of all we found HAWAII!!! WHATTT??? That is an island.... haha we thought at the beginging that we would write that one off and last week at cosco we found it!!! 

Well it is strating to slow down a bit but I hope we can find at least one new each week. We got Pennsylvania last week we have about 15 left to find. I do think I have become a pro at the western state plates I can glance and say where they are from. It has been quite a surprise though I think there are as many californians as there are utah'ns.

Anyway on other news Sister Eyers started doing something last week which I think is a great idea (I just need to humble myself a bit before I can do it.) she is doing a 40 day fast 

(similar to lent) to help her to be a more concentrated missionary. She started it with a fast (of food and water) to find out what 10 things she can "put on the altar" to become a more consecrated missionary so she can be a powerful missionary, and the idea is to abstain from these things for 40 days. I do think that Satan really did not want her to do this. On the day of the fast of food and water she faced many trails that day, it was a tough time for us both, but I think more so for her. Well we finally got our heads together and started battling one thing after the next. And we saw many miracles in overcoming each of those things. Then the next day was the day she was to start the 40 day fast and one of the things she decided to give up (which is probably the hardest thing for her) is Movie quoting. This sister can seriously quote the whole series of harry potter and almost all the disney movies. the first day was really tough for her but I have seen how it has been getting better. it is still hard though. I really admire her for doing this. I think I will start doing the same thing soon I just need a real desire to do it. I have heard of a few missionaries that have done in across the globe and have seen the blessings from it.

Speaking of 40 day fasts, we have challenged all the wards to participate in a 40 day fast so that one family each day for 40 days will fast for missionary opportunities and growth of the ward. A ward in Arizona did this and at the end of the 40 days their membership increased by 40 people: 3 families were baptized into the church and a few other families moved into the ward. What a miracle. many of the wards have started and I think we are starting to see the miracles come to pass. This week was incredible on Saturday we had a bit of a hard day - not being able to find anyone at home and lessons being cancelled. Well After dinner one of our ward mission leaders called us up and gave us a referral for a couple that are not members (but are related to members in his ward) that want to take the lessons :) - we hope that they are both non members - sometimes people get their facts mixed up because they are so inactive that they have never gone to church and seem to be non members. #UtahMissionProblems so we were soooooo excited!!! and still are we know of 3 other potential investigators this week. We are sooo excited! These are miracles of diligence and obedience and also from the fast that we had as a Zone last week for new investigators - unfortunately we don't think we will have any baptisms this month but our baptisms are looking good for novemeber we have 6 on date for baptism 5 in Nov and 1 in Dec (they may not all make it on these dates but we are really concentrating on getting them progressing).

We also met a wonderful family this week - they are just passing through and I forgot the pamphlet at home but see if you can google the "Jucan foundation". they are a fantastic family walking from "one magic kingdom to the next" from Disney land to Disney World. California to Florida. They are doing it one day at a time. They have an incredible story I wish we could have been a part of their cause. If you can please follow their story.

Anyway running out of time again but here is a great talk about Missionary Work and the Atonement By Elder Holland. I used parts of this in my talk yesterday (it was so strange I spoke in sacrament without my companion... apparently they do things a bit different in LaVerkin) Oh and I had to change my 10-15min talk to a 30 min talk cause everythign ended too quickly.

But all in all there were MANY miracles in LaVerkin this week. "All is well in Zion"

Love and Blessings to you all ;),

Sister Karen Hollander

Utah, St George Mission

881 South River Road

St. George Utah, 84790

United States

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