Our journeys are so personal and yet God's plan is universal.

The last few days have been wonderful. We met our new Zone Leaders on Friday and they are a lot of fun! We had an appointment with them and someone in their ward Friday night.

We went and talked to two young kids about serving missions. The parents wanted to have a question and answer. It was so fun! I loved getting them excited about the idea of serving missions. It is literally the best decision I have made up to this point in my life. :) I have no fear letting everyone know that.

We moved back into our apartment! It is so nice to be back home in our area. I am loving it. Our bathroom is so nice too, we are spoiled. It's bright white everywhere.

I do miss being around Sister Giblette though. I love that Sister missionary. You guys will love her. :) We attempted to garden on Saturday, but it just got too cold. We instead spent the afternoon with a potential investigator named Maya. She made us herbal tea and we talked about what we believe in comparison to what she believes. She isn't super interested right now, so we are just going to be like Ammon and serve her. :) Plus we get to garden, doesn't get much better than that.

We ate dinner at the Boaz's. I grew in so much love for the Boaz family that night. I love them and I hope we will always stay in touch. They are such good people.

The broadcast was AMAZING! Changed my life.. I will send all my notes on it, plus some other study stuff. :) It was a tear jerker. They did such a good job and the Spirit confirmed over and over again how true this church really is. It's true! I love it more and more each day. :D

My notes from the Women's Broadcast, very scattered:

Wixom:

Defend and sustain the kingdom of God, it's a path to eternal life. Our journeys are so personal and yet God's plan is universal. I love that. All of our blessings are available through the Atonement. I loved how she talked about going to the temple will help us realize our divinity and grow in our knowledge that we are children of the Most High. Question to ask myself.. How much does the temple mean to me? It brings me incomprehensible joy. :) Love all men, can't cut corners.

Oscarson:

Tremendous strength in unity when we come together. We have one thing in common, no matter our circumstances, we are daughters of God. Shouldn't that be enough? This hit home. When we compare we will ALWAYS feel inadequate. ALWAYS. Christ does require us to be so hard on ourselves, I think we are so hard on ourselves. That's something I need to work on. I thought it was so interesting that she mentioned the Sister Missionaries "giving up" 18 months of our lives. I had a hard time with that one in the sense that what would be better than this? I think this is the best decision I could have made for my past, present, and future. It's hard to put the way I feel into words. I am going to focus on praying to not only love more, but to love better. So good. :)

Burton:

What is my identity and purpose? What do we need to know and do in order to return to our Heavenly Father? What do disciples do? God wants us to become complete. Our help to become complete comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I loved how she quoted that all easy things have been done, we must expect rocky shores ahead. I am a disciple of Christ and that is a gift. :) A divine gift. I want to stand as a witness, share the gospel by the way I love and live.

Eyring:

The words are not meant to be left at a superficial level. Let them go down into our hearts. Encourage and testify. We must strive for God's approval in all things. How prepared are we for our covenants? We must do our part.We are nurturing others for Him. :) I love that. The Plan that God has created is marked with covenants. We are SO blessed to have been taught the gospel, to have been shown the way back home. Comfort and help with a smile. :) Who am I now and who can I become? The closer we move to our potential, the happier God becomes. He cares. Each person we come in contact with is loved by the same Eternal Being, treat them that way. I loved the idea of praying to strengthen my capacity.. :)

The work is wonderful

This past week in a half has been an interesting one. :) In good ways. I finally feel at peace with what I know to be my purpose as a missionary. Heavenly Father and I have an ever growing in strength relationship. I talk to him all day, and I know He is listening because He lets me know all day long. It's the best thing in the world.  

 

Okay, so get this. I eat beans and coleslaw now! Voluntarily! I have made leaps and bounds with my food.. haha 

 

 We taught our investigator Maria Teresa this week. She is a wonderful lady. I love that she has no fears with sharing her concerns or her worries with the church. She is also very accepting of the answers we give to her. 

 

I have been praying so hard to gain an increased amount of love for Belmont. Serving here has been hard and different. Not that I haven't enjoyed being here. :) because it's been wonderful. I am finally to the point where after every appointment all I can think of is how much I love the people we just visited. It has been such a blessing and an answer to prayer. I have definitely learned what I am like in different situations and the person I do not want to be. Life is good. :) The work is wonderful.

 

We were able to help garden on Saturday! It was kinda warm, so one of our members broke out their shovels and pete moss. It was a blast. They are the cutest older couple and they remind me so much of Papa and Gma. 

 

OH! I saw Sister Bell! Oh how I missed her. She was at the Belmont chapel for a meeting the same time we were for a clean-up. You should have seen the reunion. :) hahaha I also survived transfers.. Many people in our zone did not though. We are losing both of our zone leaders, which is a huge bummer. They are probably two of my best friends. :) It's okay though, one is going to Weber (Elder Watson) and the other will be working in Cambridge (Elder Fenn) which is right next door. 

 

Today we watched the hour long Restoration movie and played games as a zone. It was so much fun. :) We also get to move back into our apartment tomorrow! WOO! Oh and it was so much fun walking in Boston today! The wind was blowing so hard that we could lean all the way back on our heels and the wind kept us upright. I LOVED IT! You are already up into the 70's? Ouch.

 

No baptismal date for Ali yet. Getting people to commit to baptism here is so much harder than anywhere else I have served. Everyone's lives are so good and prosperous. They don't see the need for baptism because they feel like they have it all without it.

We have two new investigators! Amelie (Om-ell-ee) and Susan. Amelie is 9 years old and such an adorable little girl. I love teaching kids. :) So much fun. We haven't actually met Susan yet, but she is being passed to us from Weston! Woo Woo! She seems to be awesome. :)

I flew in a spaceship :)

The Petersen family in Belmont 1 ward.  He is our ward mission leader and I love him :)

YOU TWO SMELL LIKE BUNNIES!

I am doing so well. :) This past week has been fantastic. So we had to move out of our apartment for a few weeks because our landlord is redoing our bathroom. We get a new bathroom and we have been forced to figure out the bus systems! I think Heavenly Father was in Heaven like,"Okay, it's time to stop walking everywhere.. Now you have to ride the bus system." :) It has been a blessing. We have been living with the sisters in Watertown. Six sisters in and apartment.. It's been fun. :) Our zone leaders brought our mattresses over.. We are loved! I have gotten to spend time with Sister Giblette too, she is one of the sisters in the apartment. We eat so much brownies and ice cream it is ridiculous.. I didn't know it was a huge thing until my mission.. We went to return and report for the new missionaries and their trainers. It was SO good. I love love love being around other missionaries. We got to hear from our AP's and from President Packard. 

We were on the bus on Friday and a little girl sat next to us and she was so excited because she was heading to the dentist. We were talking about how excited she was for the prizes she was about to get.. Our stop came and as we walked off the bus she stood up and yelled,"YOU TWO SMELL LIKE BUNNIES!" We took it as a compliment coming from a four year old. Everyone else in the world knows that bunnies stink. :)  We also had a little boy asked what language we spoke in Utah.. hahaha

We had a member call us Thursday night asking if we could create a mini visitors center for the lobby in the chapel by Sunday.. He wanted it their for his friends to be able to look at. We were able to have it done by Sunday, it was a good test run.. Improvements will be made. :) 

Miracle time!

1. Ali is such and awesome guy. He wants so badly to do the things that God would have him do. He is fasting and praying for a baptismal date, so keep him in your prayers. I am so excited about him.

2. Sister Eager is a member in the Belmont 1 ward. She has had such cool missionary experiences the past few weeks.. So she has been going to this dry cleaners here in Belmont for years now. The people who run it are Korean and Sister Eager decided that she wanted to give them a Book of Mormon.. So she bought one in Korean, but never had the courage to give it to them. About a week ago the man asked if he could have a copy of the Mormon Bible! How awesome is that? Heavenly Father knew that Sister Eager did what she could do and He made up for the rest. Now he has a Book of Mormon and good things are happening. :)

3.Yesterday, the Lambs, invited a family over for dinner and invited us as well. The father is Catholic and the mom has no religious background. Our members lead the discussion in what they thought their friends were comfortable with. We ended up talking about the KJV of the Bible and we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was such a wonderful experience and so exciting for all involved. Follow-up soon to come. We are very excited about this one. :) We know that their are people here in Belmont ready to receive Christ's gospel. We are trying really hard to find them.

4. We had a lesson with Farah and the Farsi translator. We were able to teach her about the Bible. She has very little understanding of a lot of Christian things.. Anyways, the Spirit was so strong and the lesson was so touching. She was able to come to church this past Sunday as well. She is wonderful. :)

My District... They are the best!

I am an old granny in the mission :)

My week was great. :) I have some miracles too share. But first, my companion is doing great! I think. haha She seems to be adjusting to mission life well. She is already a really great teacher and it's fun getting to go over the basics again. I needed it. 

Our investigators are so good. We are teaching a total of 7 people, hopefully more to come soon. We are working really hard on finding many new people to teach. I am an old granny in the mission and still have fears when it comes to talking to random people on the street. I am getting better though. :) 

The ward members are the best. They are so willing to help us out and so willing to share the gospel with everyone they see. We would not be as successful as we are without these awesome members. I have learned that members and missionaries have to work together for the gospel to be able to spread forward as Heavenly Father intends. It's impossible for us to do it alone. 

It snowed this morning. I am so over the snow. It was 50 degrees on Saturday! It was wonderful! The snow from today melted pretty fast though, thank goodness. I thought spring was supposed to be here already..? Oh well, I still love it here. :) 

Okay, now time for some miracles..

1. We went former investigator hunting with a member of our ward Tuesday night. We had lots of places to stop on Marsh st in Belmont. We didn't know at the time, but Marsh street is super classy. HUGE homes. Our member said that she was surprised that's where we wanted to go. :) haha anyways. We walked up to the home and they have this giant cross in their front yard.. As we get closer we notice their house was all windows so everyone inside was watching us walk up.. We knocked and the people were so nice! They let us in and it just so happened that they were having Bible study. :) We read Galatians with their family and then just sat and talked for awhile. They are really active in their church, but were so interested in FHE and visiting/home teaching. They want us to come back and teach them how to do it. Pretty cool. :)

2. We went over to a members home yesterday for dinner.. We got there and they let us know that they invited their non-member friend over too. His name is Michael and he was so much fun to talk too! The member asked us to share a message with them and we had the opportunity to bear our testimony about the Book of Mormon and about Jesus Christ. It seemed like he thought it was pretty cool. :) Hopefully we can follow-up and maybe meet with him soon

3. Small tender mercy. We got bus passes! We were also brave enough to try out said bus passes and we did not get lost! Riding the bus is actually pretty fun. 

The achievement day girls emailed me. :) It was so sweet of them. They asked so many cute questions! I hope they got my email back. I am the only sister missionary from our ward? That's crazy! That's so sweet that they are so excited to get my reply.. I am glad I am having a positive influence on them. :) Maybe I will hand write them a letter, will you give it to them for me? 

Digital is the new face of missionary work.. Everyone is online asking their questions, that's where they feel most comfortable. I think it's awesome, but at the same time I like old fashioned missionary work.. It's the world we live in though, we have to adapt. :) God has given us some great tools to help spread His gospel.

A piece of my heart has been left in all my areas...

My one year anniversary was great! We got to spend the day at Zone Conference. :) So I saw a lot of my favorite missionaries and had a lot of spiritual food all day long. One of the elders in my district brought me goldfish the next day in district meeting. It was so nice! They are funny guys. I can not believe I have been gone a year! I thought going a month without seeing you was a long time. We had some suh-sweet miracles this week. :)

1. Farah is our investigator from Iran who doesn't speak much English. We have been trying to find a translator for our lessons with little success.. Yesterday we learned that we have someone who speaks Farsi in our ward!! What the what!! She wants to help us teach her. I am so happy. :) Also, we learned that the Book of Mormon is printed in Farsi so she can start reading from it now. Farah also came to church yesterday. :) Awh.. 

2. We taught Ali on Sunday. I love that guy. He is so smart and asks so many good questions. It blows my mind how prepared he is for this gospel. He knows it. Hopefully we can have him come and give our training sometime soon in our district meeting. He is so solid. We invited him to pray about a baptismal date, so exciting things soon to come. :)

3. Do you remember Kassy from Norwich? She was baptized after I left.. Anyways. She came to the temple on Saturday to do baptisms!! I was so overwhelmed with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to be there for that day. It was so special. :) She is like my baby sister and I was so excited to see her. So many people from Norwich came up to visit the temple too. I saw so many people that I love. :D It made me miss being in Norwich. Not that I don't love Belmont, because I do. A piece of my heart has been left in all my areas. 

Sister Giblette is my sister trainer and we went on exchanges with her and her companion. It was so great to be with her again. Sister Giblette is hilarious. We both needed the exchange and I feel like I learned a lot from her. It's nice to be sister trained. They promised to mention us at MLC this Wednesday so we can still be there in spirit.. haha I got to open my package with her, which was fun. Zone Conference was amazing. We learned so much and were given so many things to do. It was probably my favorite one so far. We always play, "Do You Know Your Mission" at lunch and this time they made me play.. I knew more than I though, but we still lost.. Sister Calder won. :) Which basically means we did too because she is my mission mom. 

My greenie is good. She seems to be happy.. She is catching on quickly, it has been hard for me to share the responsibility with her at the start..I am getting better at it though. 

No Romney sightings.. hahaha 

I have been able to avoid sugar pretty well, although I do have to eat it sometimes.. Members get really offended when you tell them no. 

The mini missionary was a lot of fun. She was a sweetheart. Her name is Sister Olsen. She didn't eat all of our food. hahaha We also went grocery shopping today, so we are loaded up on all things good. :) I will totally make mini missionaries a thing when I come home.. Consider it done. :)

My new companion's first day in the field

My one year celebration package :)

It's so soft it's like wearing a hug!

I love Sister Giblette!

There's so much snow!

I found these footy pajamas in my closet :)

Holly

Kassy