Christmas Miracle!

 Hey yall! 

This week has been a week. Phew! Started off slow but on Friday things picked up. 

On Friday we had lunch with all 6 missionaries in Council Bluffs and the senior missionaries that just got assigned to our ward. We have such a great need for rides for our friends their sole assignment is to give rides to the people we teach! 

On Saturday we got to help the lovely Linda (a recent convert) wrap Christmas presents! It's amazing how generous mid westerners are. Never seen anything like it. 

Miracle Monday. What a time. We found out Sunday night that one of the sisters in our stewardship was going to head home early  :( always heart breaking and especially so with a sister I am very close with. We are now a trio in Council Bluffs and cover our area as well as theirs! We ended up finding 3 new people to teach yesterday between the two areas. 

One of them was Ashley! We were driving in a less than choice area of town and saw a woman walking on the sidewalk with a man next to her. We started down the street she was on and the guy made a b-line across the street. Apparently she was in danger and prayed that God would protect her. When we offered a message about Jesus Christ she was so excited!! We walked her home and shared a message with her. 

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." Alma 37:37 

Also, today we got to go to the temple! The temple is where we can feel closest to God in this life and where we can make promises with him. Go visit the temple, walk around and feel the special Spirit there. 

Jesus loves you, 

Sister Katie Troy

puzzler

temple!!

mlc

lunch

golden spike

a Lil chilly 

Queen Isabella

 Hey yall! 

This week was packed and I really didn't realize until just now! 

On Wednesday we had MLC! It was a good one. Always fun to get together with some of the greats in the mission. Every time I go I feel out of place lol. 

On Thursday we had exchanges with the Lakeview sisters! I had the opportunity to stay in CB with the lovely greenie sister Beveridge! It was a fun day and we found a couple new people to teach. 

Sunday was CRAZY and I mean that. We had CB sacrament meeting then the Kanesville ward which is where Isabella is from. Both were great meetings I learned a lot! Then come 4pm Isabella got baptized! It was such a cool miracle to watch her be so prepared to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and reactivate her boyfriend along the way. We are going to the temple tomorrow! THEN we had why I believe and Isabella and Ammon went with us. Definitely the best WIB I've been to and I got to see Marissa (an old friend from Logan) speak!! 

Today has been just as crazy honestly, we've been playing sports since 9:30 this morning. The grind don't stop apparently lol. 

Phew. Thanks for sticking around friends! Here's a cool miracle we saw this week: we met this lady Stephanie who is pretty different than some folks here in CB. We had the opportunity to teach her, her husband, and 3 kids one night. Such a fun family! Everybody deserves the gospel. Everybody. 

Jesus loves you, 

Sister Katie Troy 

Pics: comp, ✨️outside our apartment✨️, QUEEN ISABELLA, boujie lofts, saw this doormat one night. (mm some nice leaves there 😬) 

Zoey and Fire

 Hey yall! 

This week our friend Zoey came to church with her friend named Fire! They're both young women's age and so much fun. Zoey is getting baptized on Christmas eve! Please pray for her :) 

On Tuesday we had district council and interviews with our mission president, president Bailey! Per usual he gave some good advice. On Tuesday we also had a lesson with our friend Gwen who turned out to be way more interested than we thought so that was exciting! 

We had a lesson on light the world (obv plug go check it out) with some members of our ward! One of them is a ward missionary so it was good to get to know them. They gave us Dr. Pepper (shoutout jules). 

Isabella is still plugging along and so ready for her baptism this Sunday! She is definitely the most prepared person I've had the privilege of teaching. She knows so much I swear she should be teaching us. It's so fun to teach young people sometimes! 

Also we met a girl named Sequoia on the street yesterday. She's going through some tough stuff but is so resilient! By the end of our message she was in tears and we were in a group hug on the side of the road. Haha the things you do as a missionary! 😅

My spiritual-ish thought of the week is that "Comparison is the thief of joy."-Teddy Roosevelt. I was listening to a BYU devotional this morning called Wrestling with Comparisons and it stuck out to me! The best person to measure your growth against is your own. 

Jesus loves you, 

Sister Katie Troy 

Pics: I made pasta!(it was not very good), the big city, iykyk.

transfer #9

 Hey yall! 

Starting off the transfer hot with a new comp and a broken toe (not actually... but maybe?). Haha just kidding but my new companions name is Sister Mickelson! Sister Mickelson is a new missionary and this is only her 3rd transfer. She's a amazing though and her humor is so close to mine lol.

Happy late Thanksgiving by the way! Hopefully it was truly thankful. Our Thanksgiving was spent eating a lot of food and playing a lot of volleyball! We started with a nice little turkey bowl (hence the broken toe) follow by 3 dinners throughout the day. The people of council bluffs are so amazing!! We got a classic Thanksgiving meal, nachos galore, and some southern food. 

We started teaching someone from Thailand and he speaks Karen! Never heard of it? Me either. But he's so amazing and has such a desire to learn about Jesus Christ. Pray for Po to understand English or for us to understand Karen idk!! 

Harold made us some BALLER carrot cake yesterday and a family in our ward made us a Supreme breakfast at night for dinner. 

Jesus teaches the people in the America's how to pray: 

"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

12 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

13 For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."

3 nephi 13:9-13

If you're seeing this right now, say a quick prayer! He wants to hear from you :) 

Jesus loves you,

Sister Katie Troy 

Pics: bye babe, 🥕🍰,Walmart, style, Karen!, 

365 days as a missionary.

 Hey yall! 

Tomorrow I will have been a missionary for 1 year. Woo-hoo! 2/3 done and can't wait to see what the last 4 transfers bring. 

Speaking of transfers- Sister Arnold is leaving me in cb! I'll get a new companion tomorrow morning. I don't know who it will be yet but I'm stoked! Sister Arnold is most likely heading to sioux city. 

So what happened this week? Exchanges per usual! I got to go with Sister sagapolu here in cb. I haven't laughed that much in a hot minute. Sister sagapolu and I have a lot of similar interests and we share a love for pday basketball. After being out of the apartment for MAYBE 10 minutes I ran over some nasty puke in the car and it stuck with us all day. Sister sagapolu even stepped in it so we had to make a pit stop at the CVS to clean it up because it was RANK. 

Anyways ya missionary life is not glamorous haha! 

The last couple weeks we started teaching some pretty amazing people. Our friend Sidney has been interested in baptism since day one and has been reading the book of Mormon every day for 30 minutes. The adversary has been working super hard on her though and I know he works hardest on people seeking truth. Some obstacles Sidney has had: son died, fell down stairs, home bound for weeks (maybe months), husband diagnosed with cancer, etc. Sidney is so resilient and we can't wait to keep teaching her and work towards her baptism. 

Isabella was referred to us by a member of the neighbor ward of council bluffs, kanesville. Isabella is dating her less active son and she works with Isabella! She is a sincere truth seeker and loves reading the book of Mormon. She's been to church the last two weeks and agreed to be baptized last night. I get chills thinking about the Spirit in that lesson and how hard it worked on Isabella and her boyfriend. 

Today for pday we went to the zoo as a district! The Omaha zoo is the highlight of the mission for sure it's amazing. I've been twice before but the first time it was about 10⁰ and the second time about 95⁰. Today's temperature of 55⁰ was nice! 

Looking forward to Thanksgiving with family and friends! I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and hope you take advantage of the time you have to spend with loved ones. Don't take a minute for granted! Stay grateful. 

Jesus loves you, 

Sister Katie Troy 

Pics: zoo!, last district pic :,( rip, nasty shoes, grub, stingrays, monkeys omg

broccoli's baptism!

 Hey yall! 

Another blessed week in the Nebraska Omaha Mission. Christmas is coming soon but here's the highlights from this week:

On Wednesday we had mlc! It was a good one and super juicy with tea let me tell yall. Not actually but there were just a lot of policy? Changes i dont know if policy is the right word but ya. It's really going to change the way we as leadership work and our jobs. All good things! 

The iconic picture is my beloved mission president with the elders here in Council bluffs. With the beloved Danimal crush cups! Here's the story. Our missions Facebook page was having a competition and our zone won so we got a bunch of yogurt for our prize haha! 

Exchanges on Thursday were with the amazing sister Smyers in fontanelle! We found a couple new people to teach together and explored North Omaha so it was a good time. 

Friday it was so cold the pipes burst and we sprung a leak in the ceiling. Nice! It's officially winter in the Midwest so catch us in our full winter-garb from here on out. Transfers are next week so we'll see where the Lord takes us! 

Oh- and Broc (Broccoli) got baptized or something. 

It was so amazing! It kind of came together last minute but it was so Spirit filled and I've never met someone more ready to receive the restored gospel than Broc. He was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday morning and by Sunday evening he spoke at why I believe! He gave an awesome testimony and we're so proud! 

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26

Jesus loves you! 

Sister Katie Troy 

Pics: winter missionary work., hermana broccoli, danimals, Baptism, queens, mlc, race stripes, sick clouds

hot pot

 Hey yall! 

This weekend we had a meal with a member of our ward and his wife and I CAN'T resist telling yall about it. It was the coolest thing we had hot pot at their house! If you don't know what that is just Google it haha I think Google will explain better than me! 

On Wednesday we had exchanges! I stayed in CB with the lovely sister Dubois. Her and her companion are a hoot and a half oh my goodness they have energy for dayzzz. We had a few hours of service and my goodness my back. It was broken. Gone. For the next three days I had a hard time getting out of a chair. It was bad 😂 

Friday we had zone conference! It was actually great. We talked a lot about following the spirit and the Lord's standard for missionaries and the work. After that we had a lesson with our friends Danny and Jen and they are so fun. Danny is so humble and they are just a cool couple! He offered to walk us to our car because it was dark. So sweet! 

Not sure I have much juice left for a long email this week but I've got a couple great pictures! It's not every day you see dogs on a roof ;) Pray for me yall for real this week it's gonna be interesting. 75⁰ for a high and 13⁰ for a low. Ouch. Hey at least it hasn't snowed yet! 

This week my spiritual thought is my friend Sean's testimony! I'll direct you over there to read it. He's amazing! 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid035wcNM1AWW1QTQ2gWgVQKCfUpsZcaVWpUZPF4ZTF5nf3D3SewCu8MSLLTEH7EkyoQl&id=100015425617038

Jesus loves you, 

Sister Katie Troy 

a Lotta dogs 

torlet

man's got vocals

sunny guy

aliens in iowa?

 Hey yall! 

That was indeed click bait I did indeed dress as an alien for Halloween. What. A. Week. Where to start??

Wednesday! We had the ward trunk or treat and Sister Arnold and I dressed as the "women in black" (our options were limited folks). It was super fun! 

Come Saturday we had Sean's baptism! Thank you all for the prayers because he was able to enter the waters of baptism and receive the gift of the holy ghost this weekend! I cannot believe the way Sean has turned his life around in the 2 months we've been teaching him. How wonderful it is to see others follow the example of Jesus Christ! 

Saturday was not without flaw though haha. The adversary works HARD on people just trying their best to be good. Sean's baptism was together with another family. Long story short only one member of the family was able to make it to the baptism and we started about an hour late. The members of the ward were so gracious to be patient with us and those wanting to change their lives. We love the council bluffs ward!! 

Today for pday Sister Arnold and I had the wonderful honor of planning zone pday! Seriously though it was a ton of fun. We made a bunch of treats and put up decorations so that the Halloween pday would be extra spooky special! We had fun carving pumpkins and playing games (especially volleyball, don't ask about the hard loss though. It was a tough tourney). 

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10 here's a scripture from my recent scripture study. For the full dramatic effect check out this song by the tabernacle choir, inspired by this verse! 

How Firm a Foundation

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/music-from-april-2010-general-conference/2010-04-how-firm-a-foundation-wilberg?lang=eng

Jesus loves you, 

Sister Katie Troy 

women in black

Sean's baptism

I MADE THE MUMMY COOKIES

 Halloween party!

 Halloween party!

Aliens!

🤠🎃