I can't believe how short mission life really is!

I can't believe it's been that long either! I remember how it felt when I first got into the mission. So many crazy emotions and I thought that I had so much time to. I can't believe how short mission life really is. I have changed so much, Mom. I can't even describe the feelings of my heart. It's so good. :) 

 

It has been a good few days. We are teaching Arnold all the lessons this week so that he can be baptized as soon as possible. It's really exciting. :) Our bishop is so on board as so involved, we couldn't do this without him. 

 

We volunteered at Habitat on Saturday. It was so much fun because we just played in the mud. :D Guess what animal they have there that people can take care of? GOATS! How much does Heavenly Father love me? A lot. 

 

We have been SO busy. The Lord has truly blessed us with work to do Sunday was a really good day. We had a new investigator come to church, Susan, and she loved it! She is a delight to be around, we get to teach her on Wednesday. :) More details to come. 

 

I went to the "Time to Sprint" fireside that night. As I sat there, in the Weston 2 chapel, and reflected on all of the wonderful things that have come to pass because of my mission. I got to see all of the missionaries I have come to love. It was a huge mix of emotion. God answered so many of my prayers that night. I'll have to send my thoughts and impressions if I have time. 

 

Sister Shields taught Ali on splits and he is thinking of being baptized on June 6. :) SO EXCITING! Today we made a rice krispie brain for one of the elders in the mission.. It's a long story, but I have pictures. :)

The weather has been all over the place. It's nuts!

Sister Calder!!!

At the Boston Marathon

Sister Shields and Me at Boston Marathon

Rice Krispie brain for the Elders

Me and Sister Bell

Me and Sister Hurst!

My children :)

BIKES!!

I am ready to run until the end!

I am do well. :D Easter was fun, we rode around on our bikes and ding dong ditched peoples houses with Easter treats. It was a beautiful day. So much fun! We ate dinner at the Payne's and I used the Easter Egg lesson you sent me. Thank you so much for that by the way! We had fun with the bunny ears and can't wait to send pictures of the rice krispie treats. :) Papa was right, it was very needed for p-day. We have been so busy. It's fantastic! The weather has been perfect for bike riding. We have had so many great things happen to us this past week

1. We got a call from a member saying that they brought a friend to church and she loved it so much that she wants to meet with us! She got the stomach flu the day after.. But we are seeing her tomorrow. :) Her name is Noel and she seems like an awesome person

2. Someone called our 1st ward bishop and told him that he is now ready to be baptized. He took the lessons 5 years ago and feels like now is the time.

3. We got to do the COOLEST church tour in the world. It actually started in the temple lobby. :) His name is Bob and he is a walking miracle. I will have to give you his story over skype. He is going to come and teach our Elders Quorum in a few weeks and our genius member asked if he wanted a church tour beforehand. I love when people follow inspiration. :)

4. A woman came to church, Vivian, and said that she wants to be baptized into the church as well. She has studied with missionaries a lot. She is very into ancestry and there are a few doctrinal differences to work out before she can get baptized.. She is wonderful though. :) I need to tell you her story over skype too.

I went on exchanges and spent the day in Cambridge with Sister Staley. It was fun, but I missed Belmont.. I get anxious when I leave. There is SO much to do! WOO! I don't know how to explain it, but the Lord is truly hastening His work here. All I can think of is how grateful I am that He has called me to be apart of it. New England is a very special place. On exchanges we taught a guy from Chad, Africa. He was so funny! He thinks Mormon girls are gorgeous. Which means we will see how long he takes the lessons once he passed over to the elders. :) hahaha We helped out with activity days. We built flower arrangements. I felt like I was back at G-ville high school. We had stake conference over Easter weekend. It was fantastic! They had powerful speakers and lots of music, which was nice.

The marathon was SO MUCH FUN! One of the best p-days on my mission. We met up at the Cambridge stake building and walked into Boston. We spent most of our time in Boston Commons. I love that place.. Such a good vibe. There were so many people! We were told that there were 9,000 more runners than normal this year because of what happened last year. We got a lot of shout outs from the Mormons that were around. :) One of the guys who just finished the race ran over to the sideline and yelled," Sisters! Sisters! The church is true!" It was awesome. We were at the finish line and it inspired me not to ever run a marathon.. The people were waddling off the road.. I'll stick to my bike. :) We then went to our RS Presidents house for dinner. We finished off the night helping the 1st ward clean up the local elementary school. It was a blast.. We found leftover Easter egg candy.. Jackpot! haha I gave it to one of the girls we were cleaning with, we are best friends now. :)

Today we taught our investigator Amalie, served at the Senior Center, started weekly planning and now we are emailing. :) Later we are going to dinner at a members and then hunting for former investigator with a member of our ward. Success.

Only 4 months to go. Wow. SO weird! It has flown by for me. I am one of the oldest in the mission. :) My bones are creaking! We have a fireside on Sunday for all the missionaries going home before October. President has titled it,"Time to Sprint." I am ready to run until the end. :D I miss you so much. I can't wait to see you.

I AM A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY

I am doing great. :) We had a pretty eventful week, in the sense that there was a lot of events. :) haha We had interviews with President Packard last Tuesday. That was wonderful and very needed. I love him so much! I can't wait for you to meet him. You will love him lots. We were given training on how to create Zion in our companionship.

Then on Wednesday we had our sisters conference. All of the sister missionaries met together in Weston. It was a blast! Mom, you're going to love this.. The theme was butterflies! I AM A BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY. Never thought I'd say that, huh? I also got to see all of my old companions. They bring sunshine to my soul. The elders in the surrounding areas served us lunch, that was funny. :) They were so nice for doing that for us. We received such powerful messages. Our ride home didn't know that they had to give us a ride home.. Luckily, Sister Giblette and her companion Sister Staley saved the day! :) They showed us how to get home on the greenline. We are true public transportators now.  

 We taught Amelie on Thursday. She is such a delight. We are having her make her own plan of salvation on a poster board to help her remember all the information. She is so creative. I will have to get a picture of it and send it to you. :) We also had real Tepanyaki! They put a grill on their table and grilled all the yummy stuff right in front of us. So much fun!

We ate dinner on Friday with our investigators, the Lopez's. She made authentic taco soup. :) I am loving that the weather is warming up now. Everyone is out and about and so happy.

OH!!! WE ARE RIDING BIKES! IN SKIRTS! It's the best thing ever! So much fun and we are able to get places much faster. People find it so funny. :)

We spentSaturday morning at the chapel helping out a group of people who were here from Maine. We entertained kids while the parents went through the temple. :) So much fun. I love being so close to a temple. Such a blessing. 

Sunday night we went to a musical fireside that was just wonderful. I love music that is centered around Jesus Christ. 

We won't be able to email next week.. It's patriots' day.. Which is a HUGE deal here. :) We get to watch a reenactment and got to the Boston Marathon. Woo Woo! We will email Tuesday. :)

CONFERENCE WAS SO GOOD

My week was great, as always. :) We had such a fun April Fools Day. The mission told us that pday will now be ending at 2 o'clock, you can tell that was a joke. :) haha We also got to teach Farah, the woman from Iran. I love being around her, the Spirit is always so strong. We brought a member to meet her and they hit it off! She took Farah to the science museum and had her watch conference at her home. She is the best! She is also working on getting her a SSN so she can find a job and thus get her family here. So good. :) 

 

We spent the afternoon gardening with our new friend Maya. She is a delight. She gave us herbal tea from the Himalaya's! It's like serving a foreign mission! ;) haha 

 

We ate dinner at the Peterson's (ward mission leader 1st ward) and she made the cutest meal. We had "dessert" for dinner with a "cake" that was really meatloaf covered in mashed potato frosting. For "dinner" we had a cake decorated like a turkey and peas(sixlets) and carrots (starbursts), with mashed potatoes (ice cream) to top it off. :) So clever! I also finished off the night being a horse for their kids so they would brush their teeth. :) So much fun!! 

 

I found out that I am allergic to nuts even when they touch things. I tried to eat nut covered pasta, to no avail. That's alright. :) I had benadryl handy. 

 

We taught our investigator Maria Teresa. I was able to testify, because I know with all my heart, that she will be able to see her mom again. It was so cool. :) 

 

We taught activity days and I got to teach the girls how to dance! That was a lot of fun, I miss it so much! The girls were going crazy, but I enjoyed myself. 

 

We taught Levitt (investigator) and he asked us so many good questions. He has been coming to the church for years and it has been hard to get him to recognize that there is something different about this church, that's why he keeps coming. 

 

We had zone meeting on Friday and they took us on an Easter Egg hunt.. I enjoyed that. :) 

 

CONFERENCE WAS SO GOOD! Wholly guacamole. I learned so much, spiritual overload. We watched conference in lots of different members homes and finished it off with the last session in the chapel. Wasn't it wonderful? :) Such good talks. I loved Elder Bednar's. Endings are hard. :(

 

We got to garden, eat waffles, and teach investigators. Wonderful weekend. :D 

 

We had the BEST lesson with our investigator Bernard. I have never seen so many lights go off and so many things make sense to him before. He kneeled with us in the lesson and prayed to know if he should be baptized. The Spirit was SO sweet and powerful. He knows what he should do.