Tuna ruined my life...

My week was really great!  Monday we taught our new investigator.  She is 15 and so awesome!  She wants to be baptized, we are thinking next weekend. :)  We get to see her again tonight which will be great!  We met a less active in our ward that has to get part of her intestine taken out because of food poisoning she got from Wendy's!  Oh gross.  A woman in our ward came out with us on Wednesday to see someone in Central Falls.  She grew up there, and Central Falls is a pretty sketchy area.  She was telling us all about it and then took us to her favorite pizza place.  She told us that it's where she used to go when she was a single momma with her daughter.  We went contacting in Central Falls, it was so much fun!  We got to talk to so many people, someone gave us a fake number. :) Oh well right? Their loss.  We were in the area tracking down less actives and we just talked to people on the streets.  :)  No door to door.  We have 3 new investigators and so many potential. It's crazy busy, but so good. :)  We went and contacted a man from Haiti and he only spoke french.  Luckily, Sister Hurst speaks french too.  Sister Hurst's family is french so she decided to learn it. She has been taking lessons the past 10 years.  Pretty cool.  He came to church the next day!  He had no idea what was going on. :)

 

I was able to go to Rubi's baptism!!  It was so wonderful. I am so proud of her.  She got a lot of crap from her husband right before too and she still made the decision.  Her 16 year old and her 6 year old were there to support her.  I could tell it meant so much.  She knows what she wants and she goes for it.  I am glad that I got to go too.  It was much needed. :)  While we were in Weston I got to see my recent convert and her husband.  Thank GOODNESS.  I love them so much. :) 

 

I had a lemon poppy seed muffin on Tuesday, so that was pretty great.  I tried tuna. Thinking it was chicken. NEVER AGAIN.  I hate that I tried tuna, it ruined my life. haha :)

Training is going really well, it can be stressful, but it is no where near as bad as people told me it would be. Isn't President Packard so sweet? :)

 

It has rained so much here the last few days. A crazy amount. It's nice because it gets rid of the humidity. I dropped an 8 pound weight onto my chin while we were working out. May not seem like much, but when it's on your face it hurts more than you'd think. :) haha I am loving being able to work out in a gym every morning.  It helps me push myself. 

 

I have a lot of pictures to send, but I left my cord at home.  So next week. :)

Sisters get all the dinner appointments....

This week has been SO much fun. :)  I don't even know where to begin.  I am living in Cumberland, Rhode Island, and my chapel is in Pawtucket. :)  So far it has been wonderful.  The members are calling us to set up splits and appointments.  I love it!  The new bishop is so funny.  He knows how to get down to business, he had a list of things for us to do before we even got there.  I like him a lot.  My new companion is awesome. Her name is Sister Hurst.  She is 22 and from St. Louis, Missouri.  Training has been a lot of fun. :) Sometimes I forget that she just got here.  We have a lot to do, so planning hasn't been stressful yet. :)  which is nice.

Sister Hurst and Sister Kendall

We are teaching our first investigator tonight together.  It will be a lot of fun I think.  I also spoke at the musical fireside on Saturday.  It is something that the missionaries put on and it travels all over the mission. Only full time missionaries perform, so you can imagine the sweet Spirit that comes from it.  I was supposed to write about an experience in my life that changed the way I lived.  I wrote first about a talk I read once and then Sister Jordan made me change it to something more personal so I talked about dad.  I will have to send it to you.  I had everyone crying, including myself.  I have heard that it helped a lot of people though, which is what I was hoping for.  I talked to a lady who asked me how I came to terms with dad's death because she needed help doing the same.  She has my number, hopefully she calls. :)  I am glad that our struggles and triumphs are able to help other people.  It does make it more worth it, times 100%
 

Elder Moser (old Zone Leader and best person ever), Sister Kendall and Sister Hurst

 I have met two people that I knew before my mission.  Crazy huh!?  It's really cool though.  Church was awesome, it is in an old bank building so it's very different than a normal church house.  We get to teach gospel principles every other week with the elders.  The elders we are working with are named Elder Vargas and Elder Lopes.  They are both from Brazil and they are great missionaries.  They weren't excited about sisters though because they are afraid we'll take all of their dinner appointments.  I told them not to worry. :) OH AND GUESS WHAT!?  Elder Vargas was baptized by someone in our family.  What the?   It is crazy that I am working with someone that our family baptized. It's cool stuff. :)

My "sunburn" is going away. :)  No worries.  I cut 3 inches off my hair because it was all dead and nasty.. Now I have layers and it is so soft. :D

I did get the GPS.  It is adorable! :D  I love it so much.  One of the elders in my old area let me borrow his until I got one of my own.  So, crisis avoided. :)

President Packard is so excited that I am living in their ward (Brian and Kelly).  He said it is truly inspired and he almost sent me to Merimack, NH but he kept getting a prompting to send me here.. Hmm. :)   I did get to go visit Brian on Saturday.  It was SO good to see them.  Avery and Kason are adorable and I got big hugs from both of them. :)  President likes people to stay in one area for 6-9 months.  It's been hard though with all the new missionaries and the new areas they have had to open.  I could (stay for 9 months in this area). :D This area is going to be my baby.. I would love to stay here for as long as I can! :D

Stephen is the husband of my first convert De De. He is hilarious and we always made such fun of each other.  He is a softy and cried when I left.  I think he misses me more than De De does. :)

Stephen and De De and Sister Kendall

Sister Kendall and Sister Calder

The Dowlings with Sister Kendall from the Weston 2 Ward (they were kind enough to let Sister Kendall skype from their house for 2 hours on Mother's Day!!)

Donna (in the middle) bought the Sisters their Boston Strong t-shirts

Rhode Island Here I Come!!

So as a matter of fact I am being transfered to serve in Central Falls, Rhode Island, on Thursday.  IS IT REALLY UNCLE BRIAN'S WARD!?  I thought it might be but I wasn't totally sure.  I am SO excited. :D I will be training a new missionary in a new area.  Should be interesting.  I can't believe that's Uncle Brian's ward. Whoa.  I wonder if President Packard knows.  He'd be so excited. :)  I'll have to tell him today.  I think this is a major answer to prayers too.  A huge one.

This past week was crazy!  I was on splits in Boston for most of it which was a lot of fun.  I feel like I have two sets of investigators. :)  We have a new investigator and she is so awesome!  She is a recovering alcoholic and so solid. Crazy story with her, we wanted to have a member come to the lesson with us.  We have a member in our ward who is also a recovering alcoholic.  We tried to invite her, but it didn't work and was too short notice. A few days later our investigator texted us and said she wanted to see us again and that we had a friend in common.  The member we wanted to bring to the lesson is friends with our investigator already!  Our investigator told us that they were driving and passed the Boston temple when the member, Jaime, said,"Hey that's my church's temple." Then our investigator asked what church she belonged to and when she found out it was this church she almost died.  She told Jaime that her saying that was an answer to a prayer and that this is the church she wants to be apart of!  How cool is that!?

I am SO nervous for the transfer.  I will be in a new area for sisters and I have to train.  It will be a lot of work, I hope I can remember to do it all. I can't wait though.  This area will be everything I make it to be.  I am sad to be leaving Weston 2, I love this ward so much.  I also love the people we're teaching.  My companion and I mush so well together.  I hope my next companion and I are the same.  We have so much fun and have grown pretty close.  I will miss her.  I will also miss the elders I get to work with.  They are THE BEST.  I have no idea who my new companion will be.  President hasn't even decided yet.  He interviews them today and tomorrow and then he decides. 

 

Rubi is being baptized on the 15th, too bad I'll be all the way in Rhode Island.  :( Oh well.  I am bummed about Rubi too. :(   I didn't tell her. :(  I couldn't..  It made me too sad.  I do have to get used to it. This is mission life. :) I have already learned so much, I can't wait for more.
 

It is so hot here now.  Think Utah heat with 90% humidity.  It's fun. :) Oh and I may or may not have cut 3 inches off my hair.

Have you ever read the talk in the Ensign that is about Adam and Eve being equal in the garden?  It is so good.  I think it's in the March or April Ensign.  It's so true, women are just as important.  My Bishop here explained it in a way I really liked.  He said that women come here with a natural ability to love, serve and to bless others.  Men don't have that, the Priesthood is the way they can connect in ways that women already do.  Cool huh. :)  I totally agree that women should feel like they belong.  The RS is the oldest running women's organization in the world. :)  The temple is an amazing place. I love teaching people about it. I don't like it when people fight against things they think are man's law.  The fact that only men hold the Priesthood is God's law.  They aren't fighting against man, they are fighting against God.

3 Month Birthday

So this week was a lot of fun. I spent some time on Tuesday in Worcester (you say it like Woo-Stah) and I got to help a less active plant a garden! It was so much fun. :) I missed doing one this year. She was impressed that I wasn't afraid to dig in the cow manure mixed with dirt. I hope it grows. :)  I finally got to have a real life work out, I biked three miles. It felt so good!  It rained so much the last few days! Holy wow. Everything is so green now though, it's awesome. 

 

I am obsessed with eating vanilla wafers in milk.  It didn't replace my apples and peanut butter. :) it's up there though. I tried flan and borscht.  I am not really a fan of either. haha Big surprise I am sure. :) 

 

 

 

We are going on a ton of exchanges, it is a lot of fun.  Exchanges are the same as splits. :) Sister Wagner is one of the sisters we are assigned to train, she is serving in Boston. That's our mini. :) I was on splits for most of the time that she was here.. So I don't know her very well. 

 

Starting on the left with the Sisters... That's our mini missionary, then my companion, then me :)
Starting on the left with Elders... That's my zone leader, their mini missionary, and my other zone leader :)  Funny guys

 

Funny story, I was on exchanges in Boston and we were teaching some recent converts. They are all under the age of 20 and their mom is not a member. Sister Wagner went to give the mom a huge hug before we left and afterwards we found out that she is a huge racist (she is from Haiti). Awkward.  Also while we were sleeping the night before Sister Wagner farted so loud that it woke me up, three times.  It's already week five of the transfer, next week I will be getting a new companion and possible a new area.  Scary! I find out on Saturday. :)  

 

I made a Plan of Salvation object lesson and it's pretty nifty if I do say so myself. :)  For the Plan of Salvation object lesson I just cut out little shapes and stuff for a visual. :) I guess it's not really an object lesson.. I'll take a picture and send it next week. :) 

 

We got the best phone call ever on Friday! One of our investigators called us and said the she knows it's true and that she can't wait to be baptized. :) Rubi is the person who decided to get baptized. :) I LOVE HER! You would too. :)  We moved her baptism date to the 8th of June. We also finally met her husband!! Please take a moment to stop and dance around, that is exciting stuff. :D She also asked for a blessing, she said I am not sure what it is, but I know it will help me. What faith. :)

 

Our new Bishop is FANTASTIC. He is all over missionary work and can't wait to get the ward more involved. Oh and fun fact, my new Bishop's Uncle is named Gerald Lund. The guy who wrote the Work and the Glory series.. He also wrote the Alliance! :) Small world.

 

I have tried this new thing where every Sunday I try to pray for 30 minutes in the morning before my studies. I pray individually for our investigators and write down any revelation that comes. It's awesome, sometimes 30 minutes isn't even enough time.. :)  Yesterday we got to go to the Temple. It was so amazing. It's crazy how everything is magnified now that I am on a mission. I also got to take a two hour nap. :) Woo!

 

The people here are so patriotic and so into all the holidays. I got to watch a two hour parade yesterday. You know how much I love parades. :)  

 

 

 

 

We were in Watertown watching the parade which is where they caught the bomber.. Cool stuff. :)

 

The coolest bridge in the world

 

I went to the doctors and he asked me if I had been squeezing limes recently.  At first I wasn't sure but then I remembered that about a month ago that I cut and juiced about 10 limes.  He said that lime juice makes your skin sensitive to sunlight and that I just have a really dark tan/sunburn.  The mission doctor thought that was odd so I am supposed to call him on the 13th to check in with him.  Good news is that it's not leprosy. :) haha.  

 

Just so you know, I will be emailing you on Tuesday of next week as well. :) I have a bunch of meetings I have to go to on Monday next week. :)

I had pasta with bacon in it!

My week was hectic! Last week we played baseball with tennis rackets and tennis balls.  It was so much fun!

I had my first zone conference and it was so good. We are so blessed out here to have the leaders that we do. Our zone leaders bought us donuts and made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to make sure we got protein.. It was nice of them!

Our investigator that was supposed to be baptized this weekend is being moved to June 15th, she finally opened up and said she wants to know the BOM is true first. Go her, plus she finally understands the Word of Wisdom. Originally she said she didn't want to follow it because it would make her feel like a baby. :) She is funny.  Our investigator is the only one in her family that is really interested in the church. BUT on Sunday her 19 year old son came with her!? Can you imagine my excitement!?

I was on splits in Boston and we were visiting less-actives in their ward. We got in contact with one and she said that she stopped going to church because she felt like people were trying to control her mind, she mentioned she was mentally handicapped. Then she started saying really bad cuss words and that someone stole her VCR. She made me nervous, so we left.  We are reactivating a lady in our ward, she hasn't been to church for 30 years! Splits are so much fun. :)

The coolest things happened to me on Saturday! I had a question about the Spirit World and the souls who are stuck in the state of prison. I found a good explanation that helped me a lot in D&C 138.  Now here is the cool part.  I went to read the BOM, just at the point where I left off in my last personal study and I was on Alma 42 and vs 1 was total revelation.  Heavenly Father knew I would have that question and made sure that I was on that chapter that day.  I was so excited!

After Stake Conference we went to visit a media referral - a media referral is when someone goes on the mormon.org and either refers themself or someone else and then they send it to us so we can go visit them. :) - and before we went into the house we sat outside and called some people.  We have gone to the house before and we met the referral's mom, and she was not very nice to us and told us that her daughter wasn't interested.  Being missionaries, that's not a good enough answer so we had to go back so we could hear it from the daughter.  While we were sitting in our car the mom came down her long driveway and started walking towards our car.  We freaked out and drove away, we parked farther down the street so we could finish planning and she started walking down the street towards us! I think that she took down our plates. She probably now thinks we are stalking her. :) haha oh well.

I can't believe Sister Monson passed away. It is really sad. :( I bet it is heartbreaking but he (President Monson) is so close to the Spirit World that I bet he still sees her while he is in the temple. :)

We ate at a member's home and they make steak, chicken, potatoes, and corn every single night for dinner. Dinner is always at 6:30 too. :) They are funny.  I had pasta with bacon in it yesterday! :D (Since I have been gone) I had a little bit of bacon in the MTC and an even smaller amount mixed in with some brussel sprouts.. I tried brussel sprouts!  Brussel sprouts are good with bacon. :)  This is the first major event that bacon has played on my mission though. :)  I should ask my members for breakfast. :) haha It would be interesting to see bacon jerky.. It looks kinda gross in my mind. haha

I drove some more in Boston and it isn't as scary as it once was. :)  I am becoming a Boston driver. Utah better watch out! 

I found them (the flowers) outside a house in Boston and I had to take a picture of them. :) I wish I knew what they were called.

Mother's Day Phone Call

We got to skype with Janica for about two hours yesterday!  She looks so happy.  There is no where else in the world she should be.

Janica told us she got to see a new state this week.  They went to New Hampshire.  The last street they past in Massachusetts was named Kendall and the first exit they saw was in New Hampshire was #1.  This fulfilled a life long dream for Janica... she has always wanted to see where in the world exit #1 is :) She has also been told she has a Boston accent :)

Janica in her Boston Strong t-shirt

The proceeds of the Boston Strong t-shirts go to the victims of the bombings.  She said there on lots of different kinds for purchase online...

The sisters have two more baptisms scheduled, one for May 25th and one in June.  All of their investigators so far have been from referrals.  The Lord has prepared so many people!

Her ward got a new bishopric this weekend, no more celebrity bishop for Janica...

Keep the prayers and mail coming.  Janica is grateful for everyone's love and support!

Janica the medical mystery...

So this week was fantastic. :D We have two baptismal dates, which is very exciting, but at the same time things could change. I hope they both happen and I have faith that they will. :)

They made a new leadership position for sisters called the sister training leader. My companion was made one, it's like a female zone leader. :) Very cool. I get to be a part of all the meetings and training. We will be traveling a lot and things will be crazy, but I am excited. :) This week we are going to North Brookfield on Wednesday. :)

There is a family in my ward that has 5 kids and the kids and I love each other. :) haha They always draw me such cute pictures and give me hugs all the time. The back of my name tag is covered in stickers. They are such an amazing family, I will miss them a lot.

On Saturday we helped set up and serve food for the Stake Relief Society Conference, it was a lot of fun. There were so many missionaries helping out! I got to experience being a waitress, it's harder than it looks. :) haha It really is. I just want to eat at wingers.. Not work there. :) We didn't get to stay and clean up because we had to leave to go to a service project. It was at an Episcopal church and it was a fundraiser for a charity called Parent Talk. We got to meet a lot of people in the community. It was nice. :)

We had an investigator come to church and we haven't seen or heard her from her in weeks! It was so good to have her there! :D Tomorrow we get to take our recent convert to do baptisms for her mom and grandma. She can't wait to do the baptisms.  It is going to be such a cool experience for her. I can't wait. :) . We were there last night and she said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the chance she has to bring her mom and grandma into paradise. :) awe. One of them is Rachel and the other one is Rubi. :) I'll tell you all about them next week. :D  I also got a bunch of letters from the ward this week.. I will be sending my replies shortly. :)

 

I still have that weird rash on my arm.. I talked to the mission doctor and he prescribed me some steroid cream, it doesn't seem to be helping. :( bummer. If it's not gone by Wednesday I am going to call him again. I also had a super weird allergic reaction to something on Saturday. I must have touched something and then got it in my eye. I had bumps on the inside of my eyelid and it was pretty swollen. I took benadryl and slept it off. :) I am a medical mystery, let's see what happens next week..