10/20/14

Oh, I am also getting transferred back to Framingham/Marlboro

I am going back to my first area. I am really not too happy about it, but I know that I am needed there. Called to serve right? Oh well, I am sure that everything will be fine. I went to an Aquarium this morning and it was sooo cool! There were Beluga Whales and Seals and I got to pet a Sting Ray, actually a bunch of them. They are super slimey. :P But it was super cool.

10/13/14

I am doing really good! I got to go to the Temple today, and it was AWESOME!!! I also got to watch meet the mormons at Zone Conference and it was AMAZING!! YOU HAVE TO GO SEE IT!!! The last person that they filmed was a missionary mom and it made me think of you! I teared up a little. :)

10/6/14

Sooo this week we went to Charlestown and there is the investigator from manchester there. Well as we were picking shells on the beach I ripped my pants right up the side!!! HAHAHAHA, sooo funny. So I am down to one pair, which is fine cause I can get new ones when I come home. We are going to join a gym!! Sister Hanson loves to work out in the morning, and I need to loose a couple pounds and never find them again...:/

General Conference was AMAZING!!!! I loved the afternoon sessions! They were super great!

 Yeah it was like 41  degrees this morning...It has warmed up since then though... 

Oh, it is going to be a really busy week! We have Zone Conference on thursday all the way up in foxboro MA, but we get to watch meet the mormons!! So I am really looking forward to that. We just got done cleaning our car....Nothing random this week. You know, just going around, teaching people about Jesus. Hahahahaha, but really tho

So I got my hair cut today and it looks great!!! I also really like the color of it. :) you can see it really well in the pictures that I sent to you. What do you think. You obvi cant see the hair cut but you can see the color!

Yeah I still love the MBM! It is the greatest mission on earth! :D

I have thought about it, but I feel like I need to go to Utah for school, it is not really my favorite place in the world, but I feel like that is where I am needed. :/

9/29/14

This week was really awesome! I loved the broadcast and am super excited for general conference. We have a rs presidency meeting this morning which is why I am using a members ipad to email you. It is starting to get really cold here! I loved my cello lessons. I would have another one today but we area going to hang out with an investigators from Manchester. Soooo I won't be able to play today. But I want to be able to play the song bring him home :) we will see how it goes

Yeah it is getting pretty chilly here but I will be fine without my comforter, we can turn on the heat in our apartment. The leaves are changing color and it is soooooo beautiful! I will take pictures for you.

9/22/14

The leaves are starting to change color here!! It is super pretty! This week was pretty great! Today I am learning to play the Cello! We are also going to help the Westerly Elders wash their car. :) Then play some volleyball. We are also going on exchanges today so I will be in Norwich this evening and tomorrow. Norwich is where and asylum went out of business so they just let all the people go!!  CRAZY!!! So there are literally crazy people walking the streets on Norwich... So yeah. I come home soon! Are you excited??

We went Saturday morning and picked corn!! We had like 300 ears of corn in our trunk!! Crazy!

Yeah I really love Westerly. The members here are just AMAZING!!! I love them and their kids. I am just really happy here. And I have a really good companion. :)

 a sister in the ward would like Delora's pulled pork enchilada recipe. :) YOu know the one she make with like lime-cilantro sauce and guac?? Would you be able to send that to me so I can send it to her??THANKS She is going to make it for dinner when she feeds us :) YUMMY

Yeah the work is exploding out here. :)

 I am 5.7 miles away from the beach. You could look up our house on googlearth.  It is a weird blue color.

we are all going to the Groton chapel and Sister Blair will be teaching cello lessons. :) I was with her in the MTC :)

 

9/15/14

We are going to Newport again :)   there is a cliff walk that we can go on. And we can look at the mansions :) They are super pretty

 Yeah it is definitly cooling off!! but the leaves havent started changing color yet. Although I think that they will soon :)

9/8/14

This week was fantastic! Maggie got baptized yesterday and it was amazing!!  But everything is going really well here. I am most likely going to finish my mission here :) Which I am really excited about.

 Can you believe that I have less than 3 months left??? I cant!

So today we decided that we would all go to a soccer field and play soccer and ultimate Frisbee. Well, it was all going great until one of the Elders kick the soccer ball into my face, specifically my eye. I am pretty sure that I am going to have a black eye. It hurts pretty bad... I think I might be able to use it to get some investigators. :) Oh boy. what a day. I think I will go home tonight and ice it, see if I can get the swelling to go down. Oh well. I had fun, minus the part of a ball connecting to my face. :/ Elders...

8/11/14

I am using a members iPad! Coolest thing ever, I feel so techy. Did you get my essays? We had the craziest week. Got attacked by dogs like 3 times in one day, went and visited a naked man (you would think that when he saw people at his door he would put on pants, but no, he put on a jacket), locked ourselves out of our apartment so we had to use to fire escape ladder to get back in. So many adventures! 

My new companion is great!! We get along really really well. No, mom, I am not counting down the days till I come home. How many weeks do I have left?

I got you all souvenirs from Mystic :) I think that I will just bring them home with me. I got you a dress pattern mom for 27 cents!!! I hope that you can make me a dress when I get home. or even teach me how to make it. :) ​

Yeah we are working with 4 investigators, and 2 potentials. It is going really really well. 2 of our investigators are a mom and son, the dad is less active but the whole family came to church yesterday and loved it!! One of them is out of town and the 4th is doing good. We are doing the Addiction Recovery Program with her. and it is going pretty well. :)  

8/4/14

This has been a pretty awesome week! We got two new investigators, were attacked by dogs, locked ourselves out of our apartment and climbed in through the window...on the second floor, got asked if we were Amish, and a bunch of other fun things.

7/21/14

I only have 3 transfers left. Oh and transfers are next week on wednesday. But monday will still be pday.

7/14/14

We are going to the church to play games and there is a family history center there, so I will be able to email on/off all day today. GUESS what!! I traced my line all the way back to Adam!!!  Not sure how acurate, but still, how cool is that! :)

Essay for BYU:

The most difficult thing that I have ever experienced is serving a mission. As I have been on my mission I have had to learn many things. One of the main things is that my life belongs to the Lord, all day, every day and forever. It has taken me a while to realize this, but through a lot of humbling experiences I have learned that I do not know where to go or what to do unless I let the Lord guide me. He knows me better than I know myself and therefore He knows what I need to do. Before, and even during the beginning of my mission, I thought that I had my life all planned out. However, I came to realize that I had no idea what I should go to school for or how badly I wanted a family that is strong in the Gospel. But as I have come closer to the Lord I realize that I do not know the first thing about my future. It has taken a lot of work in my prayers to be able to understand what the Lord is trying to tell me. Although, as I pray with real intent, knowing that the Lord truly cares about my future I have been able to feel His guiding hand in my life. I know that I can do nothing without Him, but I can do everything and even more with Him. 

7/7/14

Thank you soooooooooo much for the food and shoes!!!!! I am sooo thankful for them. There was a crazy tropical storm/hurricane on thursday and friday and it was nice to have shoes that didnt have holes in them, cause my feet would have been more soaked than they were, hahahaha.  :)  I am feeling FANTASTIC!!!! Can you believe that I have less than 5 months??!!!! Where did the time go??

I am on exchanges so I am currently in Norwich 

So super cool!! Last P-day we went to Newport and there are a ton of mansions!! One of which is the Gatsby house!!! It was super cool!!!! It is the house that they filmed the movie after!!! They are super cool! I wish that you could see it!! 

I love it here!!! :) It is soooo beautiful!! And everyone is super nice here. The work is going. We are doing the Addiction Recovery Program with our investigator.  It is really rewarding when you can watch them make progress, but it is REALLY hard to watch them relapse. :/ So it has its pros and cons, like everything else in the world.

6/30/14

yeah it was in the 60's last night. I miss the heat.... :/ Never thought that I would say that, but I do.

 I am getting along with sister Johnson great! She is super cool, and we have fun and work hard. :) She goes home after this transfer. :/

 I dont have a ton of time today because we are driving to Newport to go and do a cliff walk and see all the cool mansions :)

 

This week a sister missionary got hit by a car!!! I am really good friends with this sister so I was freaking out. But the story is that her and her comp were in a hurry to catch the bus and tried to jay walk to catch it. The first car stopped, and the second car didnt see her and hit her at 40mph!! She went flying all the way across the median, but she is ok. No internal bleeding, or major broken bones. A couple of small facial fractures and a couple of really deep cuts and a lot of road rash. Angels are really watching over us. :) 

Our one investigator is super cool. We just started ARP with her this past week and she actually called us today because she needed someone to talk to because she was struggling. Super cool!!! SHe prayed last night for strength and she said that it really helped. I am SOOOOO proud of her. YES!!!! I WILL MAKE TIME FOR THAT!!!! PLEASE SEND IT!!!!!!!! I have been craving sweets, :(

 THAT SOUNDS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!! it is really funny. The members basically feed me salad. BUT!!! I did find out that I can eat red meat and pork!!! One of the members made a spaghetti with hamburger and sausage in it. I had to bring my own noodles, but that is ok. It was pretty good.  A member took us to 99 and I got a hamburger and it had a gluten free bun and it was pretty good. :)

 Yeah I had to get some rice chex for my sacrament bread. Ifelt special. BAHAHAHAHAHA!! 

6/23/14

I LOVE it here. We have a car but we do a lot of bike riding, and it is soooo pretty. We rode our bikes this morning over 8 miles to the beach!! And we saw T-swizzles house!! The people here are super nice. we have about 45 people, on a good day, in our branch. There was only 38 there yesterday and a lot of people are leaving for vacation... :( It is sooo great here!! I will be taking a lot of pics. We are going to play sports on the beach today :D

 T-swizzle is taylor swift. lol. the members have given us bikes. There were 4 when I got here and we just gave 2 to the elders. We cover Mystic CT!!! How cool is that!!

Our apartment is oddly set up... We dont get very much hot water in our shower, but that is ok. I take 5 minute showers now :) I love Sister Johnson!! She is really funny. This is her last transfer, so sad. I do not miss being an STL at all. It is so nice to just be a normal missionary. :) I feel good, tired from the bike ride, but good. I am still gluten free. Which is interesting/ starting to get hard. Since we dont have a lot of members it is hard getting fed here, and they dont sign up very much, which is kinda good kinda bad. But I know what I am eating. And they were really accommodating yesterday when I told them I couldn't have gluten. They were really sweet about it.

 I am so sad that I will be missing Tori's wedding!!!!!

yeah that sounds good, brownies. i have been eating peanut butter on a spoon and sticking chocolate chips in it, and licking it like an ice cream cone. :) yeah I eat a lot of fruits and veggies, bread is tricky cause i dont have time to bake or money to buy it. but that it ok, i have about 5 months left, so i can survive with out it until then. It is really helping my stomach a lot. I feel a lot healthier too. :) 

6/16/14

I am feeling so much better! I have been gluten free for the past couple days or so and I am doing sooooo much better. I have more energy and I am happier and I am not in so much pain. I can tell when there is gluten in food cause I  can feel it eating my small intestine. :/

I am also getting transferred!!!!! Woohoooo!!!! It will be really good to get a fresh start with this in a new ward. I am going to Westerly RI. :) I will be right on the coast! :) I am sooooo excited!!!

So my companion had to give a training on setting goals, and she gave us all this really super awesome quote. Not really sure who it is by, but I thought that I would share it with you.

"I am part of the Fellowship of The Unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I wont look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees,colorless dreams, tainted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I dont have to be right, first recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am uplifted buy prayer and labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast and my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I wont give up, shut up, or let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He returns for His own He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear."

Coolest Quote Ever!!! 

6/10/14

Yesterday we had a zone conference, so they made today our p-day. The dr appointment didnt go like I wanted it to. I wanted him to tell me what was wrong and tell me what to do to fix it. But, of course, he didnt! He that he doesnt know what is wrong, and that we are now "fishing" for answers. Which doesnt help at all. SO he had them take blood today to test for lime disease, which I know I dont have or I would be dead by now. I am constantly looking for ticks and havent found a single one, which I told him. He is also testing the blood for food allergies. A lot of the members think that I could be gluten intolerant since a lot of foods hurt to eat. So he is doing those tests too. He wants to do an upper endoscopy, so I really have no hope right now of being fixed. And it is honestly really hard being on a mission because I have no energy for anything. I dont mean to dump all of this on you, but I am just really struggling right now. I am tired of being in pain, and I am tired of not sleeping. 

6/2/14

The work is going really well here. I was with a member of the Avon ward last night and we were working on my family search and I found out some really cool stuff!!! Thomas Palmer, my third great grandfather is my pioneer, and he hometaugh president taylor!! Sooooo cool!!! Sooo, yeah. Talk about the spirit of Elijah

5/27/14

Sorry I couldn't email yesterday, but we went to the Temple! :) And since it was a holiday I wouldn't have been able to anyway... But the Temple was great as always! And then we went to Boston! My first real time in the city. We walked all over the place! I have a ton of pictures to send you. But I got to see some really cool things. I think that it would have been way cooler if I wasn't exhausted. I had to get up at 430 am to go to the Temple. But it was all worth it :)

Elder Holland was amazing!!! I got to shake his hand, but I couldn't get a picture with him. :( But he was speaking and then suddenly felt like giving a sermon. It was great! It was crazy, at one point he had us make a list of all the qualities of the Jews during the time that Jesus came, and reasons why they couldn't understand His teachings. We came up with things like: corrupt, fearful, ignorant, apostate, foolish, prideful, sinful, etc. And then he pointed to this list and said, "Welcome to Boston!" He talked about how the people that we are teaching have these qualities. He referenced Nicodemus and how he wanted to know what it meant to be "born again" Nicodemus says, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?" And this obviously isn't the kind of "born again" that the Savior is talking about. Jesus is talking about baptism, and Nicodemus isn't getting it, however they are both talking about birth. Elder Holland talked about the Samaritan woman. And he gave some great insight on it. The Samaritan woman, basically asked Jesus, Considering that you are a Jew, why on earth are you asking me for water? and Jesus replies, Well if you knew who I was, then you would ask me to give you water, and it would have been living water. And she responds back saying, you dont have anyway to get water, how are you supposed to get this living water?? And Jesus replies again saying, Yes well if you drink from this well, you are going to get thirsty again. But if you drink the water that I can give you, then you will never thirst. Now this woman of Samaria had to travel multiple times a day to get water from this well. So never having to do this would be very desirable. So Jesus tells her to go and get her husband, and she says that she doesnt have one. And Jesus calls her out on it. And says, "For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly." SO THEN, the Apostles come back from buying food in town, and they are surprised and very curious as to why the Savior is conversing with a Samaritan. But of course no one said anything cause they didnt want to offend or upset the Savior. AND THEN! His own disciples ask his to eat something and Jesus tells them, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." And they are a little upset, and are like did someone else feed you already? SO, TO SUM IT ALL UP, in all three of these scenarios, the Savior is talking about birth and Nicodemus is talking about birth. The Savior is talking about water and the Samaritan woman is talking about water. The Savior is talking about meat and his Apostles are talking about meat. We must be speaking of the same thing that the Savior is. We must understand what he is trying to tell us and be on his level.

Man, I dont even know what more to say. Maybe I will write more about it on monday. I have so many thoughts and I am not sure where to begin. So I promise I will write more later. :) 

5/5/14

I am great!! This was a really sad week cause Sister Boldt is getting transferred. :( She is going to Oxford Mass. which is in my old zone. We are sooooooooooooo sad. Transfers are on Wednesday now. I havent gotten them yet, maybe they will come today... Sister Boldt and I were looking at tuition for a bunch of different schools in Ut and BYU is sooo cheap!  I am so game for going there!

Wow I bet the girls are excited to get out of school. I just put a letter in the mail this morning for syd. :) The weather is starting to be beautiful here. :) We are having a cinco de Mayo party!!! I get to call on Sunday :)

4/28/14

Guess what! We are getting a new car!! Woohoo Super excited to the max!! We are going to be cleaning our car today so we can turn it in on Wednesday.

hahahahahahahahah That is soooo funny!!! Dont worry mom, one of the Elders informed me of what color I should color my hair, so I am back to my natural color. And I really love it. :) But thanks for being honest :)

 Oh, hahahaha, that pic is for Syd. That mansion is 50 cent's house. :D It is huge!! There are sooo many rooms and there are guest houses upon that :)

4/21/14

Transfers are on May 7th. I dont know if I will be transfered or not. We have both been asking Pres for another transfer together. But we will see. I know!!! I only have like 7 months lefts!!!! Bahhhh that is soooo crazy!!! Where is all my time going??!!!! Yeah I still love it here :) :D being an STL is great :) I am getting the hang of it :) So it is becoming less stressful.

 I did have a good Easter! We went to church and then went to dinner with a really cool family. They offered to let us skype at their house for mothers day :) I cant believe that it is soooo close already!!

9/2/14

I am wonderful! Alicia got baptized this Sunday and then received the Hly Ghost the same day :) It was the best. We went over there yesterday and played monopoly for like 20 min with one of her kids. :) We are working on having one of them take the lessons. :) BEST NEWS EVER, We are getting Elders here in westerly, so we will be a quad-companionship!! BEST THING EVER!!!! I am super happy with my new comp, I love her to pieces. :) 

So you know how I have a hard time drinking water sometimes? Well yesterday in the car, we were driving back from a hike called devils hopyard, and I had run out of water so I was using Sister Hansons, and her bottle is massive. So I was stopped at a red light and I told her to tell me when the light was green so I didnt have to drink and watch the light at the same time. Well, she told me it was green, but I kept drinking. And then one of the Elders in the backseat started laughing, and so I started laughing, with a bunch of water in my mouth. So I handed Sister hanson her water back, and I am not really sure what happened, but all the water came out my nose, and I started choking on it. So I pulled over and spit the rest of it out. And then I couldnt breath for like 2 minutes, and my throat hurts today, but everyone else in the car thought that it was hilarious...me, not so much.