Jordan Lynn

The Time Has Come

2012-02-02T10:29:00.001-08:00

Dear Family and Friends Who Have Also Endured Reading My Letters Until The End,

Oh. My. I'm sorry, but wow. I'll tell you what, wow! It is my last email home as a missionary! I can't exactly comprehend that fact, actually. I have loved my time as a missionary. LOVED it! Every moment hasn't been perfect. Everyday, there are challenges and ups and downs. But as I've reflected a lot over this last transfer, I can definitely see that the ups have WAY outweighed the downs. I know that I needed this mission. I know I've needed each companion, each investigator, each less active, each recent convert, each member of the church. I've needed each missionary who I've served around. I've grown a lot over these last (almost) 19 months. I still have a long way to go, of course, but it's been a necessary part of MY progression and life. Sigh. It's incredibly bittersweet at this point, but anyways...Let me tell you about my last week and a half, shall I? Enough of this sappy stuff...

Tuesday, after we emailed, we had dinner with Kathy and Don in our ward. They're two single adults in the ward who come to Book of Mormon night every week. They live right by our referral, Tony and we were tickled when we walked in and Kathy told us that she'd invited Tony to come to dinner! We had some appetizers and then some sloppy joes. We got to answer a lot of his questions about what the Book of Mormon is, etc. He had called us earlier in the day, almost sounding like he was backing out of meeting with us. As Kathy and Don interacted with Tony, he was put at ease and showed some real interest in what we were talking about. They invited him to Book of Mormon night and then the single adult fireside, too! He seemed a little overwhelmed, but happy to be invited! We shared a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon, and it was a lovely night!

Wednesday, we visited with Brenda and Ashley. Sister T pronounces Brenda like "Blender" so I'm a little jealous. She naturally has a PART of the New England accent down! I'm still working on it. Being so far from Boston, the accent isn't as strong and I fear that my testimony in my native mission language won't be as cool :) When we left Blender's, we had a couple messages, one from a number we didn't recognize. We got my first really scathing voicemail from a less active who definitely doesn't want to be contacted anymore. It was either his wife or the new owners of the home. She threatened to call the police if we came back, because we'd left a note addressed to Bro. Davis and apparently it was offensive...We had to listen to some Hymns pretty quickly to bring the Spirit back into our car after that! Sister T just wanted to listen to it over and over again and wanted to go over there and apologize. I spoke up and we didn't call back (at her request) and we didn't head back there...Bullet: dodged! We spent some time visiting less actives, including Mary. She was tickled that we stopped by and we had a lovely discussion about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. Sister T likes her a lot and they click together, so I think that she can help her get back to church! I hope so! We did mormon.org and had dinner before we headed to the church for what we thought was a church tour for Tony. When Brother Bacik showed up, Tony wasn't there, so we were a little bummed. Apparently he wasn't feeling too well. Still have hopes for him. It might just be a bad week OR he may just not be ready at this point. At least he knows a few members who can and will reach out to him without us asking!

Thursday, we had district meeting, which consisted of a "District Blitz!" That meant that we took a little time talking about what we've learned in our district meetings and Preach My Gospel about finding people, and then we actually did a "real" play (instead of a ROLE play), and we headed to different parts of Manchester to find some people. It was a little bit hilarious, because we picked places close to the church so some could be street contacting and some could be knocking. We were knocking first and in true New England fashion, we knocked about 20 doors and out of those, only 3 answered. We got one who was a die hard Catholic, we got one who was holding back a giant dog and said no thanks, and we got one who was "all set," but who told us to stay warm on a frigid day. Bless their hearts :) Who knows. We left a lot of cards on doors and hope that that somehow plants seeds! I think most of the elders had similar experiences, so that was a bummer and not quite as successful as was planned, but that's ok. It was a fun experience, nonetheless! The zone leaders had to leave early, so it was just the 6 of us, and for my last district meeting, we went to Catsup and Mustard for lunch. It was delightful, but apparently made E. Gardner sick the next day. Whoops! Anyway, there was quite a bit of snow predicted that evening, so our dinner appointment with the Allens was pretty much right after District lunch...I obviously should NOT have eaten there, but oh well...We had a fun time visiting with them and I got some advice from Sister Allen to get married ASAP after I get home...probably not going to happen, honey, but thank you anyway! They have this incredible wood burning stove to heat their house, so we spent quite a bit of time in the room crowded around there!!! There was snow, but we got home ok!

Friday, we had a visit with Carolyn where we talked a lot about what she'd been reading in the Conference Ensign. She'd read the talk I'm using for my homecoming talk, so I could point out the parts that really stuck out to me, and we ended up talking about missionary work with her! She's working hard on her next door neighbor, Nikki, to get her to come to church and hopefully take the lessons. She's allowed Carolyn to take baby Ava (who is exactly a month older than Sophie) to church for several Sundays in a row, and Sister Gilmore has been SO awesome to fellowship them both. I hope we can catch her :) We had a lovely appointment with Valerie right after that. She'd made us a giant breakfast for my last visit, so we talked all about the scriptures over scrambled eggs and bacon! It's REALLY weird that I haven't lost weight for a while...Hmmm. Mysterious. She is LOVING the Book of Mormon, though! She's been going with her husband to the Gospel Doctrine class, so they've talked a lot about it there and it's really come alive to her. Their ward is doing a 40 Day Feast, which I'm planning on doing when I get home, and her testimony of the Book of Mormon is growing a TON. She's made definitely plans for baptism at the end of March and was excited to learn more what the protocol is for that, because she wasn't too sure. Hopefully Sister T gets to be here to see it!!! We had lunch and then did service for my last time. Yes, we DID stop to get my last Candy Cane Blizzard...for old times sake. We've found something Sister T likes, so it's all for her...I'm serious. We had a new referral that day given to us, and we'd gotten in contact with him, to bring him a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. He ended up being a little creepy and we found out that he just collects Jesus movies and watches them as a "part time hobby." Hmmm. He goes to "The Prayer Tower," aka the Rameumptum, and is very happy there, he just wanted a free movie. Rude. We visited with the La Marques, and that was exciting! Tina had sent their friend Dennis over to check out the place for the referral (who lives right by them) so that we weren't going somewhere dangerous. I love this place.

Saturday we had massive snow! We were red dotted if the roads weren't clear, and they definitely were NOT clear! It was snowing solid for all of the morning and then into the afternoon. The Saldivars were close enough to walk, so we did. We had a lovely time celebrating Sister Saldivar's "22nd" birthday. Again, they used Zhei Zhei's candles for her cake. We had an interesting conversation about how someone thought that Brother Saldivar (in his early 30s) was actually 47, and that Sister Saldivar (a year younger than Bro. Saldivar) was mistaken for 25. It was hilarious to hear Brother Saldivar call himself a "cradle robber," because apparently he was 47 and she was 25. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with them to review what Khristinn had learned about faith and about the Atonement. We took lots of pictures, too! Brother Saldivar always has his camera out and ready to capture any kind of moment. Another semi-awkward moment came when he said that they'd found my facebook profile to add me as a friend and that apparently it's public? He found out my secret of making funny faces and we all had quite a bit of fun trying to pull different faces :) We walked him and it was more and more slippery, so we thought it best to stay in until it stopped snowing. We had gotten puzzles from the Wade family for Christmas, so we may or may not have put together some nice puzzles. By the time our dinner appointment was coming up, it had stopped snowing and plows were going through to clear everything up, so we got to drive to the Lythgoes for some homemade soup and bread. It was perfect for a pretty miserable and cold day! They had some sick kids, so we didn't stay too long, but we had a fun time visiting with them. They're just such a cool family. I can't even describe it...But anyways. We got home just fine, although the roads weren't as clear as we hoped, and were happy to be home for good!

Sunday, we had ward council in the morning. I got to experience a little bit of contention for my last one, which is only fair :) We spent a lot of time again talking about missionary work and getting the ward mission plan going. We don't have full support for all our goals, etc, but that's alright! We'll be fine...Church was wonderful! Carolyn AND Nikki came! We kind of have our row now. We have the Gilmores, then Carolyn and Ava and Nikki, then us, then the Palmbergs. Behind us are the Saldivars and Brother Beaudoin. Dream team right in the center of the chapel. Whoop whoop! I was asked to give my testimony for my last Sunday, so I did actually bear my testimony. I wanted to not be emotional and I wanted to show Carolyn that a testimony isn't about stories or experiences necessarily, it's what we believe and know to be true. I didn't shed a tear for which I was grateful :) We had some wonderful talks by the Websters, using the 2 different President Uchtdorf talks. As always, those are a huge hit at Conference time! I was also asked to give my testimony in Relief Society. Rather than saying the same thing I'd said during Sacrament meeting, I did want to be a little more personal and share my gratitude for the women in this ward who have taken such good care of us. This meant that there may have been a few tears shed and that was obnoxious. I STILL can't cry and talk at the same time, so the ladies were patiently waiting for me for a few awkward moments. But, that's ok. It had just really hit me that it's the end, that I won't be back next Sunday, and that I have loved this ward more than I ever thought I would. It had been such a struggle when I first got here, but my love has grown for each person that I've met, and it was just a sad moment for me. We came home and had lunch and ferociously tried to get some things in order for a meeting with the Bishop. He wanted to meet with us to talk about less actives we'd tried stopping by, and he ended up spending a few hours going through the ward list with us, sharing information about people we didn't know and what their circumstances are. Brother Smith hasn't been here long enough to know those things, so it was a tender mercy that he wanted our information and he ended up sharing some vital information about people. We then headed to the Gilmores for what we thought was a small dinner. Well, it was a "Pre-Wake" for Sister Lynn's dying this week...They'd invited the Beaudoin's, the Smiths, the Saldivars, the Sloans, and then Carolyn and Sister Gilmore had been in charge of the food. It was the sweetest thing and completely unexpected! It was so fun to spend time with some of my favorite people in the ward. Brother Saldivar was of course taking pictures of everything, and I'm excited to see those pictures when I get back on facebook :) Sister Gilmore's sister and mom were also there, so we got to visit with some non-members. The food was incredibly delicious! We had Jamaican jerk chicken, we had Filipino curry chicken, we had all kinds of authentic food, complete with Sister Gilmore specials for dessert. It was SO fabulous and my mouth was so happy. My hips may not be, but that's another story...I am so grateful for this ward!

Monday, we had lunch with Blender, Ashley, and Sister Allen. Brenda has given Andover shirts to all the departing missionaries that she's known, but she gave them to Sister Stevens and I for Christmas, so I wasn't expecting anything. Well, apparently a few weeks ago, I blabbed my name, because as I sat down, there was a box with a card taped to the front that said JORDAN. Oh my. Another weird moment where I thought about how soon I'll have to start responding to that name again. At this point, when members or investigators say it, it sounds like a swear word. That may take some getting used to. I hope it's not as weird as I think it's going to be! It was a UConn Huskies winter hat that is adorable. Ashley picked it out :) We had a really fun visit and it makes me sad that I won't be visiting with Brenda weekly anymore! We stopped by Sister Bain afterward, who lives really close, and I said my last goodbye to her! She made us eat too...it's amazing how much more that happens when you're headed home..Not cool. We've had some tire problems lately, and got the go ahead to get them checked out. We were at Pep Boys for a little while and ended up walking around the store next to it for a little while. We then got to drive through some wicked crazy fog. Man oh man. New England is CRAZY! It was SUPER thick in some places and not at all in others. We were running late, so I was driving probably faster than I should have, especially with the fact that I couldn't see too far ahead of me, but we got there safe and sound. The idea was that it would be a quick picture and then we'd head to our dinner appointment. Well, Aiden had made popcorn and juice and brownies for another video. We found Our Heavenly Father's Plan in the backseat, so we brought that in and ate and laughed and talked about it. We did take some pictures and then I raced through the fog again because we were late getting to our DINNER with the Palmbergs! It was a delicious meal and we had a fun time visiting with the family and oohing over the newest edition, Owen. He's adorable and has really fluffy hair. He was born about 3 weeks ago, so he still sleeps most of the time, but he was adorable. Brother Stafford brought out his ukulele, which apparently Sister T plays, and they had a fun time jamming. I loved listening to Sister T sing and play in Kiribati language. SO cool! We got home safe and sound, despite the crazy fog, and were glad to be back just fine.

Yesterday, we had our last appointment with Carolyn. We spent most of the time visiting. I know this is going to be really hard for her, because I've been part of her whole conversion and progression process, and now it's going to be totally different than it has been for the past 7 months. Baby Ava was there, so we oohed and ahh-ed at her too. She's a beautiful baby and Carolyn LOVES her adopted grandbaby :) We also got to go visit Becky, who's health is still not good. We watched a few shorter little videos with her and ate some popcorn and had some juice with her...We then rushed to meet Sister Hinckley at the UConn Dairy Bar. We won her service coupon for babysitting at the RS activity a few weeks ago, and she said that she'd like to take us there instead of babysitting for us :) It was delicious! Not as great as the BYU creamery, but still delicious! She is just so amazing! I want to be like her. She gives and gives, despite working, having a special needs child, and all kinds of other stresses and worries. She never thinks twice when a generous thought comes to mind. Awesome! We visited with Sarah, and as we were leaving Sarah, Sister T said that she had a headache and that her stomach wasn't feeling too great. Well, we had dinner with Denise, who made meatloaf, rice, veggies, macaroni salad, and then cheesecake. Poor Sister T was pretty green about halfway through dinner, but Denise was really dragging things out. We finally got out of there and just made it home before she got pretty sick. She was vomitting a lot for the first few hours, and she's like me and likes to be left alone when she's sick, so I did laundry downstairs and packed and everything. I got a lot done and hoped that that meant that tonight I don't have to be up all night getting things packed! Please bless :) Poor little brownie cookie...she was a champ and kept apologizing after throwing up that she couldn't help me. Oh my. Crazy person :) She is gratefully feeling better today, so we can run all the last minute errands that I need to before heading home.

Today, we'll have Book of Mormon night and hopefully stop by a few more people and then tomorrow is transfer meeting! Sister T is training a greenie! She's nervous, but I know she'll do fabulously! I'll be going to the temple after the meeting and then having dinner with the departing missionaries and president, staying with some people in Brighton, and then Friday morning, I'll be at the airport! CRAZY! I love you so much! Thank you for all the support you've given me over the last 18.5 months! I feel so blessed to have so many people behind me! I can't wait to hug and squeeze and kiss each of you profusely for at least a few days :) Please, someone bring a camera! I've been asked for documention of my coming home, and I'd love to have some pictures of that...not quite like my going to the MTC ;) JK. LOL.

I love you a lot! And I'll see you soon!!!

Love, Love, Love,

Sister Jordan Lynn

WOW!

2012-01-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Sorry that you had to wait a day longer for this! It's amazing how much I do NOT love Monday holidays as a missionary! I'm sure they'll be a welcome relief when I'm home and when I'm a teacher, but fewf. The simple pleasures of emailing on Mondays when you're supposed to!

I'm not saying this in a trunky way, but can you believe that this is my second to last email home as a missionary? I honestly cannot. People keep asking when I go home and how I'm feeling and it is just the most bizarre thing. Totally indescribable! I've watched 3 companions go through it and thinking, "Why don't you just suck it up! It can't be THAT weird!" Well, it is. I have to start answering "next week" and it's weirding me out BIG TIME! I am so excited to see everyone, but the reality of the change is REALLY starting to set in. I am to the point where most days either I or my companion will say, "Wow! By this time in 2 weeks or next week, I will be seeing my family," or something like that. I don't know if that makes sense. Again, it's not in a trunky way, just in a disbelief kind of way. It's sinking in that this is going to be over and it is actually a real thing. BLEH!

Anyway, let me go ahead and tell you about my week! Sound good? Ok gruh-ate!

Monday, we had a really fun p-day with the elders. We actually went to Bloomfield, since we knew they weren't going to spend hours playing basketball :) The zone leaders found out that we'd come if they played something we wouldn't feel like a burden playing, so they figured it out so that we could play volleyball! Most people were gracious and didn't make us feel bad for playing something different, for which I was grateful! We had some really fun teams and we wailed on them twice. What is up!? We had dinner with that Kalaghers that night. They're wanting us to teach Gavin to get him ready for his baptism, so we had a fun dinner and had some bonding time with each member of the family, and then we followed it by the water bottle apostasy lesson. Gavin made us some cupcakes that he got for CHristmas. It was to make faces on the cupcakes, so they were REALLY realistic...I looked incredibly evil and spooky. Real cute, Gav. REAL. Cute.

Tuesday, we spend a lot of time stopping by less actives. We'd gotten a referral for a Bible on Monday, so we stopped by him and we met him! His name is Tony and he lives in teh same area as a few of our members, so we're excited for the prospect of a new investigator in that way! He'd ordered a Bible, so we gave him one and then gave him a Book of Mormon, and made an appointment with him. He seems pretty neat! He's in his early 50s I would say and before we left, he played a Christian song on his guitar and a short little number on his keyboard. I can tell it will be fun if we get to teach him :) We were out walking, trying to contact and see less actives, when Shirly called us! Shirly is the one who has CP and we'd followed her home :) She said she needed help with something and invited us over. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous that she saw us as people who just helped, etc, but we went over there and she made a proposition for us. She said that she'd found a printer on sale and couldn't get there by herself, so we decided we'd go with her, since we couldn't take the money and buy it FOR her, which is what she'd suggested...We set up a time for the next day, and she asked us to explain more about being a Mormon. She told us that a long time ago, when she was young and "stupid," she'd met with elders who'd pushed her way too far way too fast. It sounds like they didn't get very far, because she didn't remember anything about Joseph Smith or the restoration, etc. That was fine though! We were happy to answer her questions! We had dinner with the Beaudoin family. They asked what I wanted as my going away dinner, so I told them that I'd been craving Mexican food, and Sister Beaudoin DEFINITELY delivered! We had enchiladas and rice and beans and for some reason, it tasted absolutely HEAVENLY! I just haven't had too much of it on my mission and I've really missed it! Not that it was super authentic or anything, but it was great :) We visited with Tina after that. She was sick and laying on the couch, so we didn't stay too long!

Wednesday, we met with Carolyn in the morning. She'd had something come up and couldn't meet Tuesday. We didn't talk about what we'd planned, because she was surprised by the Bishop calling her Sunday and asking her to bear her testimony at ward conference! She was thrilled but a little scared out of her mind! She'd only been to a few testimony meetings, so she seemed really confused about what a testimony was, and although we tried to explain, it didn't work out so well :) She wanted to know what the intro and conclusion should be. She told us she wanted to do a little bio, and then move into the body :) She's so adorable. We helped her at least get an outline ready, but left it up to her what she'd want to say. We then visited with Brenda and her granddaughter Ashley. We had a fun visit with them about all kinds of things. They're getting a dog, so she was happy to tell us all about it! She then explained all about what she'd read in the Book of Mormon and we had a lovely discussion with her about that! After that, we headed straight to Shirly's for our big adventure. We were taking the bus with her, and I've never had to take the bus really anywhere, so I was very unfamiliar. Carolyn had walked us through it, though, so I knew generally where we would need to go. As we sat in her living room while her sister/aide got her ready to go out in the cold, she smoked 3 cigarettes and then we talked while we waited until the bus was about to come. She had more questions, and I got to explain more about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. It was frustrating for her and Sister T because they don't understand each other very well. Shirly has a very difficult time speaking because of the cerebral palsy, and with Sister T's accent, Shirly can't understand her very well. So I was kind of the middleman...We went out there, near her house, and waited for the bus on the wrong side of the road. At the beginning, she was sure, but as I talked to her, I knew for sure we needed to be on the other side, and she let us go, still calling her aide to check that it was where we needed to be. It was THE most frustrating thing, though. I feel like for the most part, people trust us. Even if they don't know us, people can see a difference in us, or they just feel at ease. Well, Shirly was not. She's gone through a lot of difficult things in her life that make it so that she doesn't really trust people. It was hard to be patient and understanding as she continued to say she was nervous to be with us, that she doesn't want to be out with us, etc. She needed out help, which meant that she sucked it up, but she wasn't happy about it and told us. We tried to keep smiling and doing all we could to help her see that we could be trusted and that she was in good hands. The ride there went without a hitch and we got to the store, she had a very helpful helper who understood her just great, and we found a bus stop to take us home. The ride home was much more sticky for her. The bus was very full, and people kept getting really close to her. She did NOT like that! I kind of took over command of being close to her and helping her feel comfortable, but it was tough. I was SO emotionally and physically exhausted after all of that! We went home for our lunch break very late! It took a really long time and it was just draining to give all I could to help her trust me, and she never really showed that she was comfortable with me or us, etc. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was rough! We had Book of Mormon night and I got to talk about the last chapter in Helaman. Everything went well and there were a lot of happy faces there, so can't complain :)

Thursday, we had a district meeting where we focused all on the Christlike attributes found in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. It was really nice to talk about our experiences with different attributes. I chose obedience, because as I mentioned last week, we focused on being exactly obedient to the daily schedule every day last week. It was incredible to see the blessings that came with Tony and Shirly and other potential. My testimony grew and I was so grateful for the opportunity to see blessings immediately following my changing my ways to be more obedient! I loved i :) We had district lunch and then headed to visit with Sarah. We had a good talk with her and then watched a few more general conference talks. We watched The Privilege of Prayer and The Songs They Could Not Sing or whatever the title is! She really enjoyed it and we had good discussions about both of them. She's doing pretty good with the changes that are happening in her life, with her dad at the "home." It's tough for her, but she's a trooper :) We had our Relief Society activity that night and it was so fun to see Carolyn mingling around with lots of different sisters in the ward. We did a few different service projects and then an "auction" or service swap. Loved it! We got one for babysitting from Sister Hinckley, but we will be using that instead to go to the UConn creamery with her next week :) She felt bad about her babysitting one! It worked out great though! We got to help Sister Gilmore, who'd been planning the activity, and so it was fun to get to know the ladies in the ward better.

Friday, we had an appointment with Valerie. Sister Bazyk from her ward came, and we had a good discussion about the Word of Wisdom. Once she'd heard about it from her husband, she got "off" of coffee. It was painful and she had a lot of challenges getting rid of the effects of that, but she did great and she's been living the Word of Wisdom by herself for about 5 months! It was awesome! She was having a dinner party with Sister Bazyk that night, and had said earlier that she wanted to talk about baptism with Sister Bazyk, so hopefully that happens. She still hasn't chosen a date, but is definitely working toward it. We'll hopefully extend a date at our next visit to see if she'll take the leap and just work toward it! We visited with Becky right after that, who's been struggling a lot. There's been a lot of drama at home and she's been ill, so we got to talk to her and help her feel more peace. We watched Mountain of the Lord with her, and she really enjoyed that! We also did mormon.org that day and visited with Carolyn before heading to the Saldivar's home. It was Brother Saldivar's birthday, and he'd decided last minute to invite Gordon and Carolyn and us and the Bishop during our normal meeting time. It was lovely and a fun way for all of them to get to know each otehr better. There was delicious food, we got to look at pictures Brother Saldivar had taken of each of us, and then we had cake and a little lesson with Khristinn. We taught them all the 10 commandments with the fingers, etc. It was pretty funny because Khrizzei and Khristinn both had their birthdays recently, so they had a 2 candle and a 9 candle, so we were all a little shocked when we saw that he was turning 29...apparently it was just an anniversary so they could use what they have already :) It was so much fun and Carolyn was especially happy to have been invited!

Saturday was pretty slow. We did service and a lot of planning! We did have dinner with Denise. She signed up twice before I leave, so this time wasn't the special one. We had homemade macaroni and cheese with hot dogs and then her brownies. We watched a video with her and it was exciting! She said she loves making us healthy food :) I just love her. She's a character and does all she can for us.

Sunday was great! We had ward conference and Carolyn did bear her testimony! She's spent all day Saturday with Sister Gilmore doing all kinds of fun stuff and had apparently been freaking out about giving her testimony all day long. She's prepared all kinds of things to say, so when the sacrament was done and Bishop announced that she's be giving her testimony, Sister Gilmore leaned over to me and said, "Now, why am I nervous?!" I felt the same way, but she did a pretty good job! I'm not sure how much testimony was in there, but it was all from the heart and the Spirit was there as she told of some of the difficult experiences she's been through lately, but how grateful she is to have found the church to give her more direction. There was a few points where I was pretty nervous with the way she was heading, but it's all good. She got lots of compliments and everything, so she felt pretty good about it! Each of the meetings was wonderful and it was a lovely Sunday! We spent a lot of time trying to track down less actives and more headquarter referrals we'd received, and then we had dinner with the Erekson family. They are moving the week after I leave, so we had fun chatting with them. We did hear all kinds of mission stories from Brother Erekson that sounded very elder-ish. Oh man. I did fail to mention that as we drove to church, it was 8 degrees with plenty of wind. It didn't warm up too much in the building, so it was a little bit chilly. In fact, I was afraid we were going to be frozen solid, but somehow we kept it together and are fine now :)

Yesterday, we had a nice p-day as well! I got my hair done and it's in the beginning stages of being ready to go back to blonde, which I'm glad about! We went to Hartford with some of our district to celebrate Sister Takanoi's 99 days left, which is a tradition here, I found out recently. One of the days last week, she asked how many weeks she had left and how many days I had left, and we were both at our 14 month mark! I can now say that I have less days than she has weeks left ;) But it's not that cool...it's just weird! We did a little shopping and then had dinner with Sister Bain who'd prepared a special "last supper" for me. That's going to be happening a LOT in my remaining time in Manchester! A blessing and a weird curse! We had a lovely time and we are always grateful for Sister Bain's generosity toward us! One fun fact: it snowed for the first time since the giant storm in October. We were told by 2 different people yesterday that it was supposed to snow and we were in disbelief...well, at 10:30 as we were laying in bed talking, Sister T looked out the window and gasped big time. It had apparently been snowing for a while and the grown was definitely "dusted." We were hoping and praying for no red-dot and our prayers were answered!

Today, we had an appointment with Carolyn and then Becky! It's been great so far and it's going to be so sad when I'm no longer visiting them every Tuesday! I really don't know what I'll do with myself...We have a great week planned and hope that we do not have a bunch of snow this weekend like Becky predicted...please no!!!

I love you so much! I promise I'm not as trunky as I may sound, I"m just trying to express the thoughts that are kind of swirling around in brain during slower moments. We find out Saturday what's going to happen to Sister T this next transfer, and the next time I write will be next Wednesday and I'll see you after that! Thank you so much for the fun updates this week! I sure love you and hope you have a lovely week and a half until I talk to you again!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Jordan Lynn

Hola!

2012-01-10T08:13:00.001-08:00

Dear Everyone That Loves Me Enough to Read This :)

It's been a pretty exciting week with a few days that I thought I would die it was so cold and windy, and days that I wasn't even wearing a light jacket because it was 60 degrees. My body is NOT loving all the temperature changes, but when it gets closer to those 60 degree days, my heart is happy, so it all balances out, I guess! I am continuing to feel the craziness of the fact that I'm on week 4 of my last transfer, and hoping that I can get everything worked out so that I'm not going crazy at the end of the transfer and so that I'm staying focused! Definitely working on it! I'll update you on our week, though!

Tuesday, after we emailed, we were able to try a few people to stop by. One of those women was the lady that we followed home a few weeks ago :) Her name is Shirly. She has cerebral palsy and we'd helped her in the store and followed her to make sure she got home ok and to not miss the chance. She was a little shocked to see us again, I think! We'd tried a few different times to see her at her apartment building, trying to buzz in, but no answer, etc. We finally hit gold when we just went straight to her door. She let us in and thanked us again for helping her. We pretty much just spent time getting to know her. I was sad to hear that she had the problems she did because of an ex-husband's abuse. She has a lot of bitterness about it, and hopefully as we keep coming back and getting to know her, building trust, that we'll be able to help her let go of that, because it has to be really hard to deal with that every day! We did our studies and had dinner in the evening, so not too exciting of a day!

Wednesday was one of those days where all of your appointments end up canceling. It was a really full day, so it was especially depressing! We DID get to visit with Brenda, so that was a good thing. Her granddaughter Ashley is now living there permanently. We'd met her around Thanksgiving, so she stayed and chatted with us at the beginning. It was really fun to talk about the holidays and to get an update on how Brenda's husband is doing. The poor man has health problem upon health problem. He won't accept a priesthood blessing (had never been supportive of her and the church), and he was going to have to head to the hospital the next day for observation or something. Not good! Poor Brenda is so tired and worn down, and of course her husband is, as well! But we had fun visiting with Brenda and Ashley, eating yummy treats and getting to know them better. When we started following up on Brenda's scripture reading, Ashley cleared the dishes and did not come back...weird :) We had a great discussion about the chapters she'd read and invited her to church. I really hope that some day she'll actually come back! We had lunch and did mormon.org, and then we headed to stop by several less actives. We selected names on the ward list that I'd never tried and that there weren't any notes by, so it was perfect! No luck meeting anyone, and we froze a wee bit as we got out of the car and back in, but that's fine! We did get to visit with Mary and that was a blessing. She really likes Sister Takanoi and I, so she was opening up a lot and ended up leading in perfectly with what we hoped to discuss with her. She mentioned experience after experience where she followed the promptings of the Spirit and was blessed for it. We talked all about faith and told her what a good example of it she is to us. She doesn't come to church now, with no immediate plans to change that, but it was such a blessing to see how much faith she's shown throughout the years and she hasn't ever really recognized it. I'd read all about listening in Preach My Gospel that morning, and it was the most amazing thing to see how my listening period has changed throughout my mission. I've tried really hard since the beginning to actually listen and not to think about what I'm going to say next. I saw through that appointment that my skills at listening are improving. I wasn't thinking of ways to jab in a principle here or there. She was talking and I had the thought and feeling to bring it up at one point and it ended up being perfect timing. She is such a sweet woman who doesn't think much of herself, and it was beautiful to show her how well she's done during her life and that it's something we should all be working on still! We had Book of Mormon night after that, with a good crowd again :) Sister Takanoi and Elder Yim both taught, so it was nice to relax a little :) Good day!

Thursday, we had a good district meeting! Sister Takanoi and Elder Mars gave trainings that went well! It's nice to go back to the basics, because I feel like when we have an "older" district, we talk about different types of things and sometimes forget about those basic principles in Preach My Gospel. Sometimes I feel like I've heard this training before or we've done this role play before, but it becomes a great reminder to me to not forget those basics! I was appreciative of that! I was having one of those moments, though, that I hated hearing other people complain about, but I REALLY missed the district we had last transfer. I missed the "culture" of our district and how well we all blended. For some reason this transfer, I don't feel that we are as unified as last transfer, so it's a bummer, but that's kind of how I was feeling throughout district meeting and then at district lunch. Sigh. We had an appointment with Sarah after that. We got to show her some of our favorite General Conference talks. We showed "It's Better to Look Up," "You Matter to Him," and "Dare to Stand Alone." I really wish that the DVDs we have had the RS broadcast, but alas, they do not. We had good discussions after each talk and she was talking about what's going on in her life and how this talk or that talk applies to her. Sadly, as we were getting ready to go, she got a phone call from the place her dad is and she was incredibly angry. She called her sister and just ranted to us. We were glad to be there to try to calm her down and reassure her, but it was a LONG visit because of that. Listening to the extreme, eh?

Friday, we had Carolyn in the morning, and had a great lesson about obedience specifically and how that's a blessing for us. I shared one of my favorite stories from last October's General Conference about the cows and the pasture from "What Have You Done With My Name?" It was perfect because Carolyn is reading a lot from all the manuals she has. She was prepared for the Sunday lesson from the new George Albert Smith manual. As I begin sharing the basis of the talk, she recognized the story because it's from the manual and so it really stuck with her. She is just doing so well and getting into learning HOW to be a member of the church, if that makes sense. It's so fun to get to watch this for my last 6 weeks and try to help that transition go smoothly. We then headed to Valerie and had a good lesson about the 10 Commandments and Law of Chastity. She's talked about all of this before with her husband and actually has a strong testimony about each of those principles and commandments. It's so fun to teach her when she's bearing her testimony and talking about how living each law has blessed her life. She already recognizes those blessings :) We had lunch with Sister Bain, which was lovely. She let us do some service for her and we had a good chat with her. We did some studies and planning and then had a fun lesson with the Saldivars. Zhei Zhei, the youngest daughter loved us right away, so it was fun because she was happy the whole time, not running to her mom because we were scaring her :) We had more delicious food that apparently Daniel has definitely had. Again, I forgot what it's called, but it's cool. It was noodles that are apparently from mung bean something? I have no idea...We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and of course, Khristinn got it all and retaught us. We had an appointment scheduled for next week that falls on Brother Saldivar's birthday. He asked if he could invite friends and we do a family home evening with them! Um, yes. That would be nice :) Love this family!

Saturday, we did service and then spent time again trying to contact a referral and less actives. We had an appointment with the Nobles. Sister Noble's health continues to decline, and we're pretty worried about her. She has donors who are willing to give her a kidney, so hopefully that means that she can get some help, so her health improves. We watched Mountain of the Lord with them, and challenged Aiden and Kim to prepare to do baptisms. Aiden turns 12 soon, so it should be exciting to have the two of them there! We had dinner with Jane and Sister Gilmore. It was delicious as always, and we had a great chat with two of the most amazing women in this ward. There are a lot of amazing women, but these two just give all they have to fulfill their callings above and beyond what you'd think they needed to do. Sister Gilmore is always coming up with new ways to help the recent convert to stay active, no matter what it takes. For example, she was even considering donating her kidney to Sister Noble. She thought that may be a bit excessive, since she hardly knows her, but that's just the kind of woman she is. I am amazed and want to somehow become like them. So awesome!

Sunday was lovely. We had a great and productive ward council. We just took about a minute at the end to follow up what we needed for our recent converts/less actives, and it was perfect! We had Carolyn at church, Kim and Aiden got there, Patrick and Taryn were there! It was awesome! Another awesome thing: because again one of us is leaving and it's for sure, people signed up for pretty much every day of the week. SO COOL! It will be fun to say some last goodbyes for the next few weeks! I have loved being in this ward and I'm grateful to have such supportive and kind and gracious members! It's the greatest! Not too much excitement besides dinner with the Hinckleys. They are such a good family and they had a whole other family there for dinner on top of us so it was incredibly stressful to her, I'm sure, but it was kind of them to have us anyway. The other family is actually related to Elder Gardner, my district leader, so it was kind of hilarious to rub that in. I think the dad is his cousin or something? Not totally sure. It was a good day, though. We got to finish some planning and set some new goals for this coming week. We are going to work on perfect obedience to the daily schedule. We both feel that if we do that, we will be blessed in every aspect of missionary work, so hopefully as we make more of an effort, it will show and we'll find more people to teach!

Sorry this letter probably hasn't been too exciting! It's been a great week and I am so glad to be here! I'm looking forward to an exciting week (hopefully)! I hope everyone has a lovely week and please know that I love you and am so grateful for you!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Lynn

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Familia y Amigos,

I can't believe another week has come and gone! I realized that you will hear from me on like 1 Monday for the last transfer! We had Christmas, New Years, we have MLK day, and then my last one! Next week you get one on Monday, but I've kept you waiting :) I'll go ahead and tell you about my week and I'll hope that you all had a lovely New Year's Eve and Day!

Last Tuesday, after we finished emailing, we had a meeting with Fred and Sister Takanoi is doing great stepping in and getting to know them and she's very bold and shared some great things with him. It's interesting watching it, since I've got the background with him and seeing how she deals with people. It's good that she has some fire, because I think with some people, I don't have too much faith that they're ready at this point, but she tries anyway! We had dinner with the Allen family after that and it was lovely! We shared a message about making New Years goals and finding ways to bring more of the light of Christ into our lives and sharing that with other people. Again, Sister Takanoi invited Brother Allen, who hasn't been active for over 30 or 40 years, and she asked if we'd see him at church Sunday :) Love her! The food was delicious and despite some crazy rain, we didn't die on the way home, although it was very nerve racking!

Wednesday, there's not too much excitement, but we did mormon.org and then visited with Mary. She really likes Sister T, so it's great! Hopefully we can meet with her and help her start coming back to church. We had dinner with the Saldivars and taught about the Plan of Salvation. Khristinn is so smart! We used some cutouts that Sister T had and told her we'd test her on it. She paid great attention, to even how we explained things and she repeated back with such clarity that I was so baffled! She understands it well, and I know it was a good reminder for her parents who have been away for a while. Brother Saldivar remembered most of it and even helped us put a piece in there that we'd forgotten. It was so fun to see the whole family learning and remembering together! We had Book of Mormon night and I got to teach some again. We are starting on Samuel the Lamanite and it's such a good reminder right after the holidays that Christ's birth was known in the Americas, even though he was so far away! We stopped by Walgreens after to try to get the prescription and ended up meeting a former investigator from the Glastonbury ward, and then the cashier has family in Salt Lake who are members! We'd given her a card of the temple and she had been around temple square and everything! It was great!

Thursday was an interesting day! We had zone meeting in the morning, thinking we were going to be interviewed. The APs came and joined us for our wonderful meeting...at the beginning, we did a get to know you activity, as always. We were asked to write a poem about our companions. There were some really funny ones! One very white elder rapped about his companion...it's weird that I didn't do that! Anyway, during the meeting, we talked all about Clayton Christiansen's Member Missionary lessons that we're all trying to get going in our wards. We heard from people who have done it to help us learn how to start them and how to teach them. Lots of fun. We had planned out a potluck lunch that was actually pretty impressive for a bunch of missionaries, primarily elders :) Anyway, President didn't know he was expected, so he dropped what he was doing and came down with his son, Will, to interview us, so we were there for quite some time. Lunch was delicious but a little bit awkward. Our district is great about including us and everything, but when we walked in late to lunch, two of the three tables were full, and one table was empty. We sat there awkwardly, not wanting to make things more awkward trying to squeeze onto another table. I was grateful when Elder Koerper and his new companion came and sat down with us. He was pretty concerned that the elders don't talk to us :) We talked with them and Will for a while and then we ended up talking to Will later because the elders were being weird again. They sat around the corner from us on the ground, so we were a little stuck. It was fun to chat with someone who wasn't being weird about the elder/sister thing. My last interview with President went well, besides the fact that he started off saying, "Pretty soon we'll be having THE interview, where I talk to you about marriage, etc." I wanted to throw up. I assured him he didn't need to worry about talking about that...we can go for other things :) We did service and then headed to the Smith family for dinner. We ate yummy tacos and had a good message with them. They told us all about their Christmas and we drank hot cocoa by the fire. It was pretty great on such a cold night! We had a mini-correlation with Brother Smith. We're still trying to work out the kinks with a new ward mission leader who's never done it before. It was good though!

Friday, we had Carolyn in the morning. We talked about fasting and invited her to fast for her first time. She was enthusiastic, so we had a great discussion. We had lunch with Sarah and had a good time getting to talk with her more. We haven't met with her for like 3 weeks, so we had lots of catching up to do, with her dad in the hospital, etc. It was really good and we talked a lot about the hope the gospel brings, especially in regards to the Plan of Salvation. Sister T opened up a lot with Sarah about the many deaths she's had to experience in her family. It made me want to cry as she named person after person that she knew and loved that has passed away, and I think it gave Sarah a lot of comfort. We had a great meeting with the Saldivars. Khristinn's baptism has been postponed so that Brother Saldivar can actually baptize her. We talked about faith and kind of decided to slow down with her. She's so smart and she gets whatever we talk about. It's been such a fun experience to get to know them better! They fed us a DELICIOUS meal with garlic rice and shrimp deliciousness. We then had our actual dinner appointment. I wanted to explode when the night was done. Everything was delicious, and our dinner with the Ereksons was great, because I've never eaten there and so we got to know them better. Great day!

Saturday was pretty much spent planning and then we had dinner with the Dark family. It was my first time eating there as well, because Sister Dark has been in school and just graduated. Guess what we had? Both firsts for me...I had my first steak (which was still moo-ing, it seemed), AND my first lobstuh! Not too bad, but I was the most awkward lobster killer you ever saw. I'd try to use the cracking device, which would then cause the lobster to shoot out excess water to people across the table. YIKES. It was not bad! I liked it, actually, but I wish I could have done it in a room by myself to try to figure it out :) Everyone thought they'd be giving Sister T such a treat, but she was detaching the lobster more expertly than they were! I was the one fumbling and struggling to figure it all out. Fewf. I'm initiated though. They had a friend there who just talked and talked, so we had quite the interesting night. Not really sure what she believes, but she said she believes in a higher power, in Karma, and in the Force...Needless to say, it was an interesting night :) Shockingly, we did NOT stay up to see the ball drop. I was up for some time because my heart beat so quickly on the ride home. All day it had been extremely foggy, but let me tell you, the idea of driving on New Years Eve with who knows on the road in the fog...another white-knuckle experience! But we survived!

Sunday was awesome! We had church first thing in the morning with a very productive PEC meeting. We're hoping to be a blessing this year, not a burden in those meetings, so hopefully there will be some good things happening there! We had a lovely fast and testimony meeting. We got to sit by Carolyn, who had brought little Ava. It was the most hilarious thing to watch her squirm around. The great thing was that we watched her get passed to the above row ot the Gilmore's, then scoot over to the Darks, then behind to Emily who was sitting next to me, then down the row back to Carolyn. It happened for the entire hour and then passed on to Gospel Principles. I loved watching her walking with the help of Brother and SIster Saldivar, Carolyn, Sister Gilmore, Sister T and I, and then Patrick and Taryn. We were all looking out for her as we listened to the lesson about service. Yay for a good class who helps a sister out :) Shes' quite the handful for Carolyn! Anyway, we left a little early so we could head to Oxford, to attend a baptism for Sister Cannon and SIster Takanoi. It was SO fun to see everyone! Ann was at church, with a cane instead of a wheelchair! She has a baptismal date for sometime in February! I also got to see Hannah and then Rommel, Rodel, John, and Ashley who were baptized right after I left. IT was such a treat and so funny to see many members smile and look at me awkwardly, feeling like I looked familiar but not recognizing me with the dark hair :) One of the biggest treats was to see the Berthiaumes. I don't know if I told you last week, but Phyllis passed away last week and they'd had her funeral earlier in the week. I LOVED seeing Kylie though. She didn't recognize me at first, but when I told her I was SIster Lynn and she finally got it, she wouldn't leave my side :) Baby Sophia has so much hair now and is walking around. Poor Kylie, while she was sitting by me at the baptism, though, said, "Grammy died." She looked so sad, but I'm sure not comprehending what happened. I loved it! I also got to see Brandis and stuff. I was a happy girl! The only problem was that I had the WORST headache I've had my whole mission, so I came home and pretty much went to bed early and slept well!

Yesterday, we went to do a little shopping and SIster T found some good stuff on sale, as did I! I should look rocking for my grand entrance ;) We got a lot of stuff done, though, and it was a fun day! We continue to grow in unity and it's been a lot of fun experiencing a lot of stuff with her! We had dinner with Anita and Jane, both single sisters in the ward. It was delicious and we had a lot of fun getting to know Anita, especially! Good women who serve well in the church! We then visited with Tina and had a good time getting to hear more of her concerns. I felt bad, though, because Sister T got sucked into a lot of the drama and seemed so happy that Tina opened up, etc. I've heard so many excuses, again, that I have to take everything with a grain of salt, and I didn't tell Sister T that before...We shall see how it goes, though! Hopefully Sister T enjoys her time and can get her to church!

Today so far, we've had Carolyn in the morning and we talked again about the restoration and then talked mostly about the Priesthood. It was great! We used Gospel Principles and things continue to click for her more and more. She had a big "Ah hah!" moment and it was so fun to see that! She felt when she first started that it was weird that women didn't hold the priesthood, etc. She didn't voice that too much, but I think this morning is when it really clicked! She opened up a lot saying that women and men have different roles in life and in the church and that women are more nurturing. I wondered if she's already read The Proclamation! It sure sounded like it! Today should be a good day! We'll see how it goes :)

I am just loving being a missionary. It's hard to believe that all last year, I was on a mission. As I've thought of New Years resolutions and goals, I still have in my mind that it's for my mission, but it's really becoming real that in about 3 weeks, I will no longer be a missionary. That the goals I set for my mission will need to be revamped soon. I know it's coming, I talk about it coming, but it doesn't feel like it yet. I'm grateful for the time I have left and hope to continue to use it wisely, to help Sister T get to know the people and the area better, to do all the good I can before I head home to start my new life! It's quite the adventure, isn't it?!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a lovely week! I sure love you and thank you for all your love and support! It means so much!

Love, Love, LOVE,
Sister Jordan Lynn

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T08:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

It was so fun to get to talk to you a few days ago!! I loved hearing everyone's voices and also to hear Sadie fussing in the background. I have a testimony that she exists, now more solidified than having just seen pictures. It was especially great to hear Daniel's voice. For some reason that's the only part I got really choked up about! As we were saying our goodbyes, it was hard to think about coming home and him not being there. It's all for the cause and I'm glad he's where he is! Thank you everyone who sent such sweet gifts! We had an awesome Christmas here in Manchester and I couldn't be more grateful :)

I'll go ahead and tell you about my week now. I have limited time, so hopefully I can explain it in enough detail to satisfy curious minds. I'll do my best!

Monday, we had a relaxing P-day. We got a bunch of things done at home and I felt productive! I really promise I'm not crazy trunky, I just want to plan ahead, so last week I went through my desk and got all the paper stuff I want to send home in a box so that I don't go crazy with the weight of my luggage. I just don't want to be stressed out later. Don't judge me. ;) We had dinner with the Kim family. They're from South Korea and it was so interesting to see the culture in their home and how they ate, etc. We got there and just the mom and two kids were home. She's not super comfortable with her English, so we tried to make conversation but she seemed so nervous! When her husband got home, she was physically relieved and left us to talk to him. While he was doing a few things, we sat with the kids who were watching Finding Nemo. I was trying not to watch or listen, but when Brother Kim went to the bathroom, I realized that Bruce didn't sound quite right. It was definitely in Korean. Let me tell you, it was hilarious to think about Australian Bruce versus Korean Bruce. Two very different people...Sister Kim ate down on the floor with the 2 year old son, so we ate awkwardly, not sure where to put the rice, the noodles, or the meat. We failed and we weren't even using chop sticks. Yikes. I'm so embarrassing. He had to translate as we gave our spiritual thought, but overall it went really well! They've never had us over, so it was excited that she'd signed up! Hopefully she will again!

Tuesday, we visited Becky in the morning after Sister T did her language study. We ended up watching Joy to the World with her and her adopted daughter, Melissa. It was fun to watch so close to Christmas, as we really tried to get into the Christmas spirit. After we came home and ate lunch, we spent most of the afternoon walking around, trying to save miles, while trying to contact along the way of visiting less actives. We met a few people, but I think it was too cold for most people to want to be out. Poor Sister T was absolutely frozen solid! Apparently Kiribati doesn't have freezing wind or something? It's weird. We walked to our dinner appointment with the Hilke family. We ate a delicious dinner and we got to hear more of Brother Hilke's conversion story, and then because of a question that Brother Hilke asked, I got to hear more about Sister T's conversion story. The Spirit was so strong as she shared her testimony and experiences. It's been interesting with the culture difference. Sister T has talked a lot about what other companions have done that she gets tired of, like asking if she has this or that on her island, what the culture's like. After I think 8 companions, she's tired of answering, so I've tried not to overload her with questions. I'm always grateful when members ask her the questions so I can get the answers :) We visited Carolyn along the way and it was really great. She loved having us stop in unexpected this time. She even gave us some carrot cake she'd made in preparation for our visit the next day. Love her.

Wednesday, we visited Carolyn in the morning and had an amazing discussion about a lot of different things, but most especially about visiting teaching. She'd asked us to bring her a Daughters in my Kingdom book, so we did and we ended up reading a chapter that was solely about the beginnings and evolution of visiting teaching. The Spirit was strong as we bore testimony and read about past sisters' experiences. By the end of that lesson, she was so excited for the chance to become a visiting teacher herself and also to be visit taught. I was grateful for her enthusiasm. We did studies, lunch, and then mormon.org as well, and the only other big thing of note is that we had Book of Mormon night. Because the week before Sister Stevens and I were in Boston, the elders took over, so it was just the two of us this time. Sister T was incredibly nervous because she's never seen it happen, so it worked out well. She did a great job. I was praying for her so much as she got up there, because when she gets really nervous, she kind of mumbles and stutters in English, so when that started, I prayed and all of a sudden, she did great and didn't stumble at all! Everyone seemed to be able to understand her, so it was great!

Thursday, we had district meeting. I was asked to give a training about commitments. I was actually really grateful for the chance to share about it, because it's something that I've slacked on a little when I don't seem to have to focus on it so much. It gave me a renewed determination to be more firm in extending and then following up on commitments that we extend. The Spirit was strong while I taught and I felt that something I said must have been what someone needed to hear, because I talked about things I hadn't necessarily prepared. It's always nice when that happens! We did service after lunch and eventually had dinner with the Boardman family. They're always so good to us and left us with cards and leftovers and all kinds of stuff! Sister Boardman especially always feels like she needs to laden us with gifts because she's so grateful for the missionaries that first helped her. It's so sweet! We tried a few referrals before and after dinner, but no one was home. That's always a bummer. We did get to visit the La Marques and Sister T got to be introduced to Tina and stuff. It was great!

Friday, We visited Carolyn for a minute because we had some wrapping paper and she wanted to wrap a gift or two. You would be so proud, Dad. I folded the corners and it looked like it could have been wrapped professionally. She was incredibly impressed with my skills. She was getting ready for a little get together at the Gilmore's that night. We were pretty excited. We had lunch and did planning. It was a very productive planning session and it was nice because Sister T is becoming more familiar with the people and it helps when we're both on the same page and planning for people we both know. We tried to stop by the referral again with no luck. We then headed to Christmas Eve Eve Chocolate Night! Can you see why we were excited?! Next week I'll hopefully be able to send some pictures because not only did everything taste amazing, but the presentation was astounding. It could and should have been in a magazine. I got to meet a former investigator who's good friends with one of the members in the ward. I got to talk with Nikki, Carolyn's neighbor. The whole ward that knows them is really taking to Nikki and her baby Ava. They came to the Christmas party and to Carolyn's baptism, so we're hoping that with a lot of fellowship, they might start coming to church or something? It was just a fun night. I got to talk to a bunch of my favorite people in the ward and everything. It was a happy evening :)

Saturday, Christmas Eve, was a wonderful day for so many reasons :) We had lunch with the Saldivar family. Brother Saldivar had prepared a delicious Filipino meal that they assured me Daniel had tried before. I couldn't tell you what it was, but it was delicious! We got to see some pictures that he'd taken as well. He recently bought a really nice camera, so at every ward event, he's taken picture after picture, and he gave us a slideshow. He apologized for not being able to take more pictures of us. I reassured him it was fine :) One funny thing is that the first real visit we had with them, Brother Saldivar told me that I look like I could be twins with his niece. It's obvious that he hasn't seen me blonde, but he ended up showing me a picture of her, and I couldn't actually really see the resemblance. He said he'd put a picture of his daughter and I up on facebookk from the Christmas party and then tagged his niece. Guess what her name is? Eunice. Not sure how I feel about it...but alas, that's how it went :) We watched The Restoration with them and extended the date of January 14th for Khristinn, the 9 year old daughter, and they accepted. It's the day after Brother Saldivar's birthday, so he was thrilled at the prospect! They asked about us being able to call our family, and when Sister Takanoi asked about calling cards, he invited her back anytime to call via Skype because it costs nothing. It's almost like you were calling locally. So, we set up a time to come later that day so she could try it out, not really sure it would work. After that, we headed to Hartford. On the way, the GPS I'm borrowing from Sister Dixon died because the charger I bought for $7 ceased to function. Weird. That meant that we were completely lost, because we didn't even have a map, so I called one of the elders serving in Hartford and for an hour, he directed me around to West and then South Hartford, assuring me he knew exactly where I was and how to get where we were meeting to go caroling. We went a very roundabout way, and we got there an hour late, but it was fine. It was supposed to be a zone activity but ended up just being a district activity of caroling in Hartford. It was incredibly sketchy and i was so grateful that I wasn't asked to serve in Hartford. I felt much safer with 6 elders around me, that's for sure! We got home just fine with a little direction from my trusty district leader. We got back to the Saldivar's and Sister T got to call her family who asked her to call in 10 minutes. Brother Saldivar had fixed us a second dish for when we'd come back, so we ate a fried rice-ish thing. It was so fun to sit beside Sister T as she talked with her mom in Kiribati Language. She said afterward that she'd really struggled to talk in her native language because she never gets to use it, but she loved it! We ended up having dinner right after with the Sloans. Two of their older daughters were home visiting, so we had fun getting to know them better! We ate a delicious turkey dinner, we watched a DVD of the Mo-Tab with Walter Cronkite, ate dessert, and then played Apples to Apples. It was fun to see Bishop in a more relaxed manner. He was joking with his daughters and everything. It was great! We came home, planned, I tried to take a little nap before our call home, but couldn't sleep. I layed on the couch out in the living room, watching the same Mo-Tab DVD that we'd borrowed from Elder Gardner, and right on the dot, I got to call in! Despite it being pretty hard to understand our dear Elder Lynn, it was SOOOO fun to get to hear everyone's voices! It was hilarious to hear Daniel's voice which sounds even deeper than when I left. I'm sure it's not, it's just been a while :) It just felt so good to talk to family! Made me excited, but really NOT trunky (I promise) for when I get to talk to family whenever I want! It will be nice, but I will enjoy my time NOT talking whenever I want. Really!!! I went to bed a happy girl!

Sunday morning, when the alarm went off at 6:30, Sister Takanoi almost shouted "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" We rolled out of bed and headed to the living room. As I tried to plug in the tree's lights, I definitely knocked it over and broke a few ornaments...whoops :) All was well and Christmas wasn't ruined! We took about an hour to open our gifts from a Secret Santa and from you guys. We had the same amount of presents so it wasn't awkward or weird at all. I was grateful! I made an almost delicious breakfast...as best as I could do without a recipe! We read Luke 2 together and talked about it. I love Christmas on my mission! Sacrament meeting was lovely! I wore my new sweater and my Christmas Cat Earrings from Garfy and Ollie. We sat with two little girls whose parents were singing in the choir. Miriam drew a picture of me complete with the new flower headband from Mom, my sweater, and my cat earrings. Everyone told me how good I looked and I don't even know why...cough. Carolyn was there with her newly called home teacher Gordon picked her up! She loved it! It was mostly music and it was lovely! We had a little break, calling to check up on some people before we headed to the Wades for most of the day. It was SO fun! Their family seems very similar to ours, so as I was around them, I felt so at home! Sister Wade makes food like you would make, the relationship with the kids was a lot like ours. Oh man. It was as close to home as I could have gotten here! We watched the new Bible Videos with them, we ate yummy food, we watched Mr. Kruegers Christmas, we sang carols, we shared a thought, ate more yummy food. It was delightful! They were so kind to have us on Christmas and to help us feel so comfortable! It was fun because a few of their kids are in Provo, so I got t ask where they're living, etc. Weird that I could see them anytime when I get back to school! Might be a little weird :) It was really weird especially because their Freshman daughter left when I was there and came back for the semester when I was there. I've been in Manchester a while, I guess! Anyway, it was a lovely Christmas!

Monday, we did a lot more at home again! After Christmas and running around, we cleaned the place up, we sent out a bunch of cards, I went through clothing this week to get more summery things packed away. It was a VERY laid back day! We had dinner with Jane at the Olive Garden. We got there early early to avoid lines, etc. It was a really productive time with her, too. She brought up a few things that we can do to help the ward and the ward council to be more productive. I could have taken it offensively but did not :) Definitely things we can change to be better and more of a blessing than a burden to our ward.

Today so far, we've visited with Carolyn and Becky. With Carolyn, we mostly talked about callings and again, she is very excited to have the chance to serve. She's nervous at the possibility of what she'll be called to do, but as we talked with her about possibilities, she got more and more excited. We talked about who serves where in our ward and I think that was helpful for her to see the different areas where she could serve. I just love Carolyn! There's supposed to be a temple trip this week but we haven't found anyone who's going, so it's sad that she might not be able to go! Hopefully sometime before I leave! If not, it will be a good experience for the next sisters!! Our visit with Becky was good and weird as it usually is when her adopted daughter or her son are there. Conversations get a little weird, etc. It's all good. She's very good to us and loves having us come visit! We've got a lot of good things planned for this week, so hopefully we can do all of it!

Thank you again for making Christmas so wonderful! I loved talking to you and I look forward to seeing you soon! I promise that even if I sounded a little trunky, I'm not! I'm not dwelling on it or anything. I am so grateful for the time I have left and I hope to use it wisely :) I hope you all have a wonderful week and next time I talk to you, it will 2012! I hope the world doesn't end so I actually get to email you next Tuesday ;)

I love, love, LOVE you!
Love,
Sister Jordan Lynn

My LAST transfer has officially begun!

2011-12-19T11:30:00.001-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry early Christmas! I can't believe it's this weekend! Can't wait to hear all about it :) Also to talk to you. I guess I'm kind of looking forward to that...or something. Things are going gruh-ate here! I'm really enjoying being with Sister Takanoi so far and I'm excited we have a transfer together! It's going to be great!

Anyways, I'll tell you a little about the last few days and then I'm hoping to send a boatload of pictures so you can experience the last little while! Here it goes!

Wednesday, we had SO much fun going to Boston! We headed out right after email and stopped at the Stake Center in Cambridge to park the car and head out for a fun day. It was crazy to pass signs to get to Revere. I was in heaven and TOTALLY having a flashback to a year ago when I was actually there. GREAT times. Miss that place. But I was NOT excited to hit the point where driving was incredibly stressful. We got into Cambridge/Charlestown (Right near where James lives) and all of a sudden, my pulse was flying and Sister Stevens had to get off the phone to be my other set of eyes. We did, in fact, survive and got there without death or destruction. I know you were nervous. A couple other missionaries were there and decided to meet up with us, so we had a pretty chill day going around, having Sister Stevens show us some of the fun places to go. It was the perfect day in Boston. We didn't have a crazy schedule or a a bunch of people who wanted to go here and there, etc. We went to the top of the Prudential building, to a place called The Top of the Hub, where you can see all over Boston. It's a super nice restaurant, and we ordered a plate of cookies to share :) THEN we had dinner at a place called Al Capones. It's got incredibly delicious, pretty cheap, sandwiches. It was so delicious. We walked around the public gardens, saw where there was ice skating. I thought of While You Were Sleeping the WHOLE time, but never saw someone wipe out quite so well :) Some things never change. Sorry...It was just such a fun day! We ended up going to stay with Sister McGlawn and Sister Nagliati who live in Arlington. Two greenies came and stayed there too and it was the most hilarious thing, remembering me almost 18 months ago getting into the mission home and then sleeping in a senior sister's apartment. I was scared out of my mind. I was a little jealous of the fire that especially one of them had and I didn't want to do what they'd done to me the first night, which is to tell crazy stories and make me even more scared out of my mind. They went to bed on time, and we ended up staying up and talking to the hermanas until like 2 AM. We both used to live with the two of them in separate apartments and at different times, so there was a lot of catching up to do, and weirdness that Sister Stevens would be getting ready to go home the next day. It was perfect. Probably the last time I'll see those girls! It's hilarious though: there's a new Sister Stevens. Super weird. I'm guessing there's not going to be a new Sister Lynn next transfer :)

Thursday we had transfer meeting. We were pretty close to Belmont, so we were there on time and didn't have to drive for 2 hours or get caught in traffic which was miraculous. We had so much fun! So many of the missionaries I've served with were there! I got to see Elder Anderson, Elder Hammer, and Elder Dawe, who I served around in Revere. It was awesome! Elder Dawe is now home, Elder Hammer goes home with me but is now a zone leader, as is Elder Anderson. My babies are all grown up! We took a ton of pictures and had some sweet testimonies born from the departing missionaries. Again, it was so weird to picture myself in that position in (now less than) six weeks. It didn't make me wish I was there. I was incredibly grateful that I have another 6 weeks to get to the point where I may be MORE ready to go home. Just an odd sensation. I remember the first one and all the departing missionaries talked about how weird it was to be here, that time flies, etc, and I definitely didn't believe them. Now I do! Anyway, Sister Takanoi and I headed out and got home with some time for her to unpack, to do a little bit of planning, to contact a referral, and then crash from a crazy day! We had plenty of time to chat in the car and it's fun to hear how different her mission experience has been, how many crazy companions she's had, etc. Hilarious story: we're borrowing Sister Dixon's GPS and we'd had it set on Mr. T to be the one directing us. Well, every time he'd say, "Turn Right, HAHAHA" or call us fools, she DIED laughing. I may or may not call her Sister T, because now she does the laughing thing :) LOVE IT! I tried to assure her that I will do my best to resist being "trunky," that I want to work hard, and that I want to really have a great transfer. I'm going to do my best!

Friday, we had a great day! We had district meeting in the morning. We have 2 new greenies in the district, with Elder Mars and I being on our last transfer. It's definitely a different district and the feeling is much different, but it should be a great transfer! We have Sister T from Kiribati (which sounds like Kittybess), Elder Yim from Hong Kong, Elder Gardner from Canada, and Elder Thompson, Elder Gardner's greenie, who's from Samoan descent. He's American, but still. Very multicultural district. One of the greenies, Elder Gallagher knows Kevin and Nicki in Kanab. When I heard he was from there, I asked if he knew Kevin, and he said, "KO?! I love that guy! He's the best teacher at Kanab High!" Way to go, Uncle Kevin :) Anyway, we did a get to know you activity and then did some role playing about street contacting. Again, it should be good because with the new people, we'll probably do more role playing, which we've kind of gotten out of the habit of, because the youngest elder in the district last transfer was out about 15 months. Now, we're starting at the basics. We had lunch with a member in our ward! Sister and Warrene Haskell took us to Friendly's so we could meet Warrene's friend Caitlyn. We met her officially at the Christmas party last week, and Warrene asked for a Book of Mormon to give to her, and then she set up an appointment so we could casually meet her and still kind of get to know where she's at and see if she's interested in meeting with us. It was a little bit awkward, but fun to watch Warrene and Caitlyn interact. They're 19 and 20 years old, but for some reason seem much younger. Their sense of humor is different, but they get along perfectly. I guess Caitlyn has been going to institute with Warrene for a few months now, and just is curious. It went really well, but as we mentioned that we could teach her more, she didn't seem TOO excited about that. She said she wants to come to church though! There were some ladies at the church when we'd left District Meeting who were decorating for a wedding reception. There was only 3 of them and they'd been there for hours, so we switched plans and volunteered our services. It was so much fun to get to know Sister Olson, Sister Hinckley, and Sister Erekson better! We then had a relief society activity that night and Sister T got to meet a bunch of new people! It was a lot of fun and Warrene kind of stuck around us more. She's thinking about a mission, so it's great that we now have a better relationship with her and she can ask us more about what we do. I think she's been curious but hasn't really reached out to us before, and has seemed uncomfortable when we've reached out. It's awesome! Yummy food, good chance to get to know the relief society better, and we got to watch an awesome little movie. It's from one of the Mo-Tab christmas concerts. It was "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," with the grandpa from Gilmore Girls narrating about Longfellow writing that song. It was incredibly powerful and the Spirit was SO strong in that room! On the way home (Jane drove us), we got stopped for a sobriety check. Jane was thoroughly amused, told us to show our nametags more prominently, pumped the Mo-Tab jams, and cheerily told the officer that we were Mormons, that we don't drink, and just laughed the entire way home. Lots of LDS women would be stopped at that check point that evening :) Maybe too much chocolate, but that's it!

Saturday was busy! We did service and mormon.org, so that wasn't too exciting, but took up a lot of time! We then got to visit the Nobles. We watched Joy to the World with them, and they really enjoyed that! It was nice to not be the one attacked by their giant dogs this time. Their cat Charlie that usually sits on my lap when we go, totally back stabbed me and chose Sister T multiple times over me. Rejectamundo. We stopped by a headquarter referral who we found out doesn't exist. Weird. And we came home and had dinner. It was hilarious because we tried the La Marques but Tina was asleep so we couldn't go in. Sister T wanted some different breakfast options, so we ran to Save a Lot to grab milk and cereal. While we were there, we met Shirly. She asked us, as we went down the isle, if they had a certain spice. I checked for her, and we kept bumping into her throughout the store. She's in a wheelchair and I believe has cerebral palsy, so of course I just really wanted to be around her because I'm creepy and just that way. She let us help her each time we bumped into her and we helped her get everything in the bag and get stuff squared away. We watched her drive her motorized wheelchair in the 20 degree weather. We were going a different way home, but we both just really wanted to make sure she got home ok. She'd told us what apartments she lived in, so it wasn't AS creepy, but we followed her home and actually got to talk to her and asked if we could visit her again sometime. I hope we get to! She lives with her sister, so I hope her sister does'nt think we're too creepy :) I was so grateful that we were there when we were so we could meet her.

Sunday, we had a really nice PEC. Generally, it seems, new missionaries experience the worst of the worst, but I think the male leaders in the ward felt the need to not be so confrontational. The Bishop was very sweet to Sister T and asking more about where she's from. YAY! We updated them and got good feedback, etc. Carolyn didn't get to come, but Warrene's friend Caitlyn did! She enjoyed sacrament meeting and then we got to take her to gospel principles. We were a little worried, but she really seemed to like it a lot and then talked about how she wants to meet with us again and do the lunch thing, etc. She wanted a gospel principles book and wanted to start reading the Book of Mormon, etc. She lives way outside our area and would be in the Bloomfield ward, so I don't know that we can teach her, but after Sunday, she was acting like the four of us were best friends and she was going to miss over the holidays, but wants to come back to the ward, etc. Pretty exciting! We finally got to stop by Carolyn so Sister T could meet her. We had a great chat about visiting teaching and she already seems equipped to do that. She noticed a few ladies in the ward who seem to be going through a hard time and wanted to help them. Soon she'll have the capacity to do so! Hopefully she gets assigned as a VT soon! We had dinner with a part member family, the Kubish family. We had a great time getting to know them. The husband was very cordial, but doesn't quite seem ready to have missionaries. His parents are pastors for a different church, so he's very loyal to them, etc. But, it was really fun and again, they had a great time asking questions about Sister T's island and what they have and don't have there. I love it, because she's so sick of companions asking those kinds of things, but when members do, I get to hear the answers! It's great!

We have a great week planned and are excited to celebrate Christmas on Sunday! I hope you all have a lovely Christmas eve, etc! I can't wait to talk to you! I love you and Merry Christmas!

Love,
Sister Jordan Lynn

HELLLOOOOOOO!

2011-12-14T18:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Quick news first: I am staying in Manchester for my last transfer! And my new companion is....Sister Takanoi!! She's been out about a year and she's from a teeny island right off of Fiji! I started my mission with a Polynesian and I'm ending it with a Polynesian! I am really excited to serve with her! kind of followed me after a few transfers in Boston, etc, by going to Revere, then Oxford, and now Manchester! But she's catching up with me now, so I get to grill her about all the people that I've left and loved :) Super excited!

I also would like to apologize in advance. I forgot my planner, so I'm going to be winging the last 10 days! Hopefully I can remember some key points. Also, we are headed to Boston for a fun last p-day hoorah, so this might be a little shorter, because we have to get moving asap.

One last quick note first of all: THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PICTURES! We both just ooh and aaah every week at how much our babies are growing up and how beautiful they each are! I was thinking of baby Sadie during our Christmas party nativity, and I'm glad she behaved so well as baby Jesus :) I just can't wait to squeeze each and every one of them! But I will, because I sure like this mission stuff. I guess.

Alrighty then. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. I will most likely be talking all about Thursday until now, because that's when the most exciting stuff happened since last I emailed. We were asked by President if we would be willing to have a mini-missionary a few weeks ago for this weekend. We agreed and were excited and nervous at the prospect. We knew her name was Rachel. We knew she lived in Providence, that she was 25 and thinking about serving a mission. And that's about it. So, Thursday evening, after a delicious dinner with the Beaudoin family, we rushed home to find a cute girl carrying a bunch of stuff, standing on the porch waiting for us :) We let her in and then spent about an hour and a half or more just chatting and trying to get some background, because we knew this was a crucial weekend and that we'd need to be pretty unified to get everything done and have an enjoyable experience with it. We got to tell her all about our investigators and the people we'd be seeing. Over and over again we apologized, because so much of the next few days would be centered on getting ready for Carolyn's baptism. She was excited and had no pre-conceived notions about what it would be like, so we were pretty excited. We were also a little nervous as we found out that she's a Public Health person (yay, Em!), and that she's crazy about fitness and nutrition. As you may have noticed in recent pictures, that is NOT necessarily on the top of my list of priorities at the moment, so as we discussed what we should do for exercise in the mornings, Sister Stevens and I were incredibly nervous. She's so sweet though, and genuine, and ready to enjoy herself, that she was pretty laid back about it.

Friday morning, we went and played tennis at the courts right by our apartment, which Sister Stevens and I have done in the past. Pretty whimpy, but about all that we could handle at that point :) We had a great companionship study before we headed to our last lesson with Carolyn before her baptism! We went in wanting to prep her to endure to the end. Although we've talked about it in the past, we wanted to hit it home that she'll need to prepare herself to turn to our Father in Heaven if she questions things about the church and if she has problems, etc. We used a lot of scriptures we've talked about before, and we had an incredibly spiritual lesson. Rachel jumped in like she'd been in our companionship for the last 3 transfers as well, and we were happy with how smoothly it went and how much Carolyn liked her right away :) She'd made us porridge, which looked a little questionable, but actually tasted pretty good. She'd used un-ripened bananas instead of whatever else you use, so Rachel was enjoying it even more! Anyway, I already felt an immense gratitude that it all worked so well. We knew nothing about her. President knew nothing about her, but he asked US to have Rachel, who meshed well and who helped us so much over the next few days! We had an appointment with Valerie right after, and again, we had an incredibly spiritual lesson. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and had a great discussion, with each of us participating in one way or another. Valerie took really well to Rachel, and was SO sad to hear that it was our last meeting with Sister Stevens. She said a BEAUTIFUL closing prayer and got really emotional as she thanked God for sending Sister Stevens into her life and everything. She's still considering baptism, but opened up a lot about when she wants to and why it's not next week, etc. She's going to be brave and tell her mom over Christmas and she's shooting for the Spring :) She asked if we could stop by the next day so that Sister Stevens, the future ASL interpreter, could meet Valerie's sons, one of which is deaf! We were excited about that prospect :) We had lunch with Sister Bain who, as always, showered each of us with gifts. She has so many treasures in her house and as she cleans, she thinks of us and what we might be able to use. She's so sweet! Next, we headed to the ward mission leader's house so we could pick up keys and grab a few baptismal suits for Carolyn to try on. We dropped them off and helped her bring groceries in. She decided to make a bunch of hourdervs (I know that's spelled SO wrong), for her baptism, so she had a bunch of stuff for that. She said she was starting to feel a cold coming on and seemed really stressed, so we made the plan to come the next morning and help her make everything! After THAT, we headed to the Sloan's for dinner. Bishop came later, but we had a wonderful meal and visit with Sister Sloan. She's always so good to us and sent so much stuff home with us. We've been unusually blessed with leftovers and canned goods etc, lately. I am so grateful! Our last stop for this busy day was to the Saldivar family! I LOVE THEM! They just came to our ward for the first time last weekend, from the Philippines, and Brother Saldivar asked if we could come teach his daughter to get ready for baptism. We were more than happy to oblige, so I brought a little object lesson for the apostasy and we were able to teach their almost 9 year old daughter. She caught on quickly and since she had a bit of a background (they've been inactive for a while), she seemed to remember things as we taught them. One thing I'd forgotten since I'd taught the Filipino family in Oxford so long ago is that they ALWAYS seem to have something for you to eat. I don't know how I forgot that...but after eating a giant, delicious meal at the Sloan's and then getting fed at the Saldivars, we were all about ready to 'splode! It was a delicious soup that they put on rice that they said Daniel's probably eaten quite a bit on his mission. It was pretty good, and it's always such a treat to try something Daniel's been eating, being around people who have the same culture of people Daniel are seeing. They are SUCH happy people. Even as they were talking about some of their sad background, they had big smiles on their faces and laughed, etc. I was hoping that it's the same there for him as the treatment I'm receiving here :) Is it?!

Saturday was quite the hectic but rewarding day :) We spent the first few hours making Jamaican cocktail patties (which are basically empanadas), Jamaican potato pudding, and prepping for Jamaican lemonade and fruit salad. She went all out, hoping to provide real Jamaican treats for people before the big Christmas party! Rachel was again perfect for this weekend. She handled everything like a champ. She's a little Type-A, so she was very organized and help get things moving while Carolyn first was stressed out of her mind. The longer we were there and enjoying ourselves, the more she relaxed and felt happier and more excited for her baptism. We left in time to get to Valerie's to meet her sons Conner and Colton. Colton is deaf, with cochlear implants, so he can hear a little, read lips, and sign. He was pretty shy, but such a sweet little boy who seemed to be really happy we were there. They showered us with gifts as well, for Christmas, and for going away, etc. It was such a fun, short visit. We headed home for a quick lunch, then back to Carolyn to see how she was coming along, and she was cool as a cucumber, finished with everything, etc. We took stuff to get it to the church early so she wouldn't have to worry about it. Straight to the church we went to clean out and then start up the font. Brother Haskell and his daughter came to help set up for the baptism, so we got to head to the store really close by to get ice and utensils, etc. The font was perfectly warm and filled up right on time, because we'd gotten there so early. We got to practice the song we were asked to sing. When we went over her program, we mentioned that some people do musical numbers, and we said we could do one or someone in the ward. Sister Stevens doesn't LOVE to sing in front of groups, so that meant that I was preparing for a solo. Thankfully, Rachel is a singer, which gave Sister Stevens more of a desire to sing, so all three of us got to sing! No solo for me, and it sounded well. We still blend well, even in song ;) We ran through it about 2 or 3 times and then Carolyn and other "guests" started coming, so we showed her where to get changed, etc. The bishop, who did the baptizing, had gotten a flat tire on the way there, so he was running a little late, which worked out nicely. We got pictures, we got to relax a little before the service began. I can't even tell you how strong the Spirit was at the baptism. The program went off without a hitch, and a lot of people commented on how wonderful it was! Here's a rundown:

Brother Smith conducted the baptism
Bishop Sloan presided :)
Opening Song: Now Thank We All Our God (a hymn from her old church AND her new church)
Opening Prayer: Sister Stevens
Talk on Baptism: Sister Gilmore. She did such a wonderful job! Nikki and Janet both came, as well as Sister Beaudoin, and Brother Watt's friend Phil, so she kept things simple while explaining what it is and why we do it. She and Carolyn are going to be good friends :)
Testimony: Sister Dark. Sister Dark has been taking Carolyn to church, so she wanted her to have a part in the program. S. Dark shared a bit of her conversion story which was good for everyone to hear and related well to some of the struggles Carolyn has faced, but how they've both overcome it, etc.
Talk on Holy Ghost: Brother Smith. He also did a great job. He tends to head in the deeper doctrine, but he kept it pretty simple while still explaining perfectly what it is and how she'll have that gift soon!
Musical Number: There is a Green Hill Far Away by us! Went pretty well. Good not great :)
Baptism!!! Bishop had talked with her before about what he'll do to baptize her, so she knew what was coming and it all went perfectly smoothly. She went straight under the water, with no legs flailing, didn't have to do it twice. She commented on how perfect the water was, and as she came out of the water, she did a fist pump. SHE MADE IT!!!
We had a welcome to the RS by Jane, and then a welcome to the ward by Bishop, and Carolyn said a quick thank you to everyone who came!
Closing Song: Onward Christian Soldiers
Closing Prayer: Me!

The treats went over perfectly well! We'd gotten everything ready to go as the font was filling, and people really seemed to love what we'd made! She was thrilled with how it all turned out. We were afraid there wouldn't be enough to go around, but there was plenty and everyone just raved about everything! We got to chat with people before we all trickled into the ward Christmas Party!

The ward Christmas party was phenomenal. The Websters, several weeks before, had talked to us about doing the ugly sweater thing, so we all brought something to change into. Rachel had no ugly sweaters, so she wore the vest that Sister Stevens wore for Halloween :) We had a delicious dinner and then had a musical program going. It was genius. The Primary did the nativity. I got some good pictures hopefully I'll have time to send next p-day of some of the kids who got bored REAL quick. Our Joseph was laid back in his chair, head back, mouth wide open. And he's 11. Nice. Some of the other highlights: The Young Men had a conductor who led them in doing Jingle Bells via whistling and humming. No singing, no dancing. It was perfect for the young men! Brother Watt and Brother Stafford did a Christmas around the world, which included one from Scotland, where they did bagpipes with their mouths. I'll have to demonstrate, because Sister Stevens and I have practiced so we could master it! SO HILARIOUS! Carolyn and Nikki and Janet stayed for the whole thing and they seemed to really enjoy it. Sister Gilmore pounced and did her fellowship thing. She's so good at that! A lot of people were so nice to all of them, so we hope they come back soon!!!

Anyways! Quick few things of note...

Sunday: We had a lovely church where Sister Stevens was asked to again bear her testimony. Twice. Carolyn got confirmed and her blessing was just perfect for her! She seemed SO happy! Lots of people, to fellowship Carolyn, came to Gospel Principles, so it was a nice class! Sister Stevens got to take pictures with a bunch of people, etc. We had to bid farewell to Rachel. We're excited to see if she'll serve a mission, because she didn't give too much of an indication. We had a lot of fun with her and really loved the chance to impart WAY too much wisdom on her. You should all thank her, because I think that helped get some of it out of my system. I got a taste of what I'll be like when I get home and someone asks me a simple question about my mission. Prepare to be SUPER bored of hearing about everything...heh. Sorry about that already!

Monday and Tuesday were a day full of lasts. We got to see everyone we wanted to in plenty of time. We had lots of delicious food, took lots of fun pictures. One highlight from Monday was that we got to go caroling as a district. They came to Main Street in Manchester. We set up a table, full of Christmasy things, and lots of people stopped and talked to the few spokesmen we had. We sang carol after carol. It sounded kind of sketchy, but people seemed to enjoy the fact that someone was caroling and we got more smiles than weirdo looks :) YAY!

Ok, I'm sorry this is so scattered, but really, the baptism was the best part of this week. We loved having a mini-missionary! Seeing Sister Stevens get ready to go makes me super nervous about 6 weeks from today, when it will be MY last p-day and I will have been trying to say my last goodbyes and getting pictures, etc. I'm glad I have 6 more weeks! I'm glad I get to be with Sister Takanoi for the last one, and I hope that we mesh well and work well together! It's hard when Sister Stevens and I have been so good teaching together, etc. It's going to be hard if we don't have the same style of teaching, etc. I have high hopes though :)

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely week! I miss you and love you! I can't believe that Christmas is SO close! Can't wait to hear everyone's voices!!! LOVE YOU!!

Love, Love, Love
Sister Lynn

Happy Beginning of the Christmas Season

2011-12-05T08:24:00.001-08:00

Dear Family,

I had a lovely Thanksgiving week and I hope you did too! Congratulations on your baptism, Elder Lynn! That's so exciting! I LOVED the pictures of Lynn Kids 2.0. Oh man do we have some cute babies in our family! Fewf! Anyways, I'll tell you about our week and such, since that seems to be the weekly routine :)

Monday, we had a nice p-day that was fairly laid back. Sister Stevens is now going home in about 2.5 weeks, so last p-day, she was busy trying to get some of the things send home that she wouldn't need between now and then. I got to spend some time writing a few letters, though I'm still a little behind due to the outpouring of mail a few weeks ago. Thanks everbiddy who participated in that :) We didn't end up playing sports, we just ran some errands and then went to the post office, etc. Watching Sister Stevens go through this has helped me figure out kind of what I want/need to do next transfer before I get headed home. It's still not quite real that I'm approaching my last transfer, but it's been a good distraction focusing on someone else going home besides myself! That's for sure :) That evening, we were able to go to a single adult Thanksgiving dinner that our ward high priests put on. We came a little early to help get things together and then we just got to visit with a bunch of people. We were so happy because Jane was able to bring Carolyn, who in turn got to know more people in the ward. We hope she'll become involved in the single adult activities, because they're uplifting and something fun to do almost every week! Brother Bacik is one of the stake single adult reps, and his newly called co-rep, Daisy came to visit. She's part of the Hartford Spanish Branch and is just a firecracker. She was baptized about 2 years ago and is still on fire about the gospel and about sharing it with other people. She came in and joined our group as we ate and ended up talking almost an hour straight! She was attempting to tell her conversion story but got off on some tangents. Normally, that might have been painful, but a lot of the things she'd struggled with, Carolyn is now struggling with. At that point, we didn't know, but she was really getting attacked by Satan and was doubting whether or not this was really for her, etc. She kind of sat back and I was sitting next to her, so she'd make comments and stuff. It was really good for her to be there. We all had a nice time!

Tuesday, we had breakfast bright and early with Jane, the ward RS president. She's a returned sister missionary, so we always have some great discussions when we spend time alone with her. She's got some pretty incredible stories to tell! We talked about our investigator and less actives we're working with, and she was quick to ask what she can do or what we can do together. We went to a place called the Sinnamon Shop, which is owned by someone who's last name is actually Sinnamon. Weird. You'd think if he was named after a spice, it would at least be spelled correctly...Not so. It was delicious and we were happy sisters as we left that place :) We had an appointment with Carolyn, again expecting to teach the stop smoking workshop. She was out working on the yard, so we dropped our stuff off in the house and went out and worked with her for a while. We cleared all the leaves off the front yard and it chatted as we went. She opened up about how she'd been feeling the last several days and about how she felt like she couldn't make it, etc. As we talked fairly casually, not preachy, she got more and more excited. She started talking about some of the things that stuck out about what Daisy had said the day before. Daisy goes to the temple often, and it got Carolyn thinking about her year mark and wanting to come to Salt Lake for her firs time so Sister Stevens and I could be there. She loves the idea of taking a train/bus to Utah and being able to come visit us and be there when we graduate, etc. Not sure that's going to happen, but she just loves the idea of staying part of our lives after we leave, which I am ALL for! It was a lovely visit with her! We went inside after we raked for a while and we got to finish up talking about baptism, confirmation, and enduring to the end. It was a very spiritual lesson and I was so grateful that she was feeling like she was all in, instead of on the edge. I think she'll make it!!! We went and had lunch with Becky, who made delicious soup and salad for us. We visited with her about her holiday traditions and she told us a bunch of stories. Her son came home from work, so we got to visit with both of them. The only problem was that in both the soup and the salad, there was a LOT of onions. Like, it felt like I ate a whole onion just from the giant chunks in my salad. My stomach was not so happy throughout the rest of the day...and I'm sure poor Sister Stevens was in agony being in a confined space with me. We had correlation meeting later that evening and discussed more how to help the members do member missionary work. There's a curriculum Elder Clayton Christensen came up with to teach members HOW to do missionary work, and for the last several weeks, we've been trying to work with the bishop and ward council about getting this going, so we discussed more in depth in order to bring those ideas to the ward council to refine the plans. It was great!

Wednesday, we got to visit with Brenda in the morning. We haven't seen her for the last several weeks, and were sad that when we got there, she was on day 3 of a horrific cold. She's been so run down taking care of her husband, that I think her immune system was next to nothing, and she got hit badly. It was so sad that as we talked about what she's read so far in the Book of Mormon, she was hacking coughing and just looking miserable. I felt so bad! We did mormon.org later on, and that's always nice. There's some great videos on both mormon.org and lds.org that just had me in awe. I love what the church is doing to get the message going! Not too exciting of a day. We had Book of Mormon night and that went well. Elder Keeler and I taught and the Spirit was there and we all learned together. There were a few new faces, so it was nice to have a bigger class than normal! Hopefully Carolyn will be able to come next week!

Thursday was incredibly delighful! We usually have district meeting on Thursdays, so instead of doing district meeting at the normal time and having lunch afterward, we decided to have it really early and had breakfast before hand and everything. We all brought something different. Elder Gardner had a lot of faith in us, because he assigned other missionaries to bring pancakes and eggs, etc, but his assignment to us was to come up with something amazing. Luckily for us, we had stuff for smoothies already and Emily had just sent me a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe, so we got to use that and I'll have you know that all of the muffins were gone and the elders were going back for 3rds and 4ths. Thank you, Em!!! Also, funny sidenote, we had decided to wear Christmas sweaters. I decided it was a bad idea to just wear my nightgown, so I tucked it into my skirt and folded it over to look like a sweater and I got some pretty good reactions. I was so grateful to my Jewish friend, Cindy, who gave it to me for Christmas :) Anyway, we played a few games after that. We played a game called Danish ball, which is a combination of baseball and dodgeball. It was done with a fairy ball, so it wasn't actual baseball, but we had so much fun! After that, the Elders humored us and played walking football, which is what we did last Thanksgiving at the park near President's house. It was so much fun and we were so sore afterward. It was ridiculous! But so much fun! We arrived pretty sweaty to the Gilmores. Sister Gilmore put us in the car and we drove to pick up Carolyn, who hadn't had a place to go, and Sister Gilmore graciously opened her home to all of us. It was a delicious meal, so well presented, and Carolyn was just in awe the whole time. There were a few of the Gilmore's kids and her mom, and once everybody headed out, Sister Gilmore was hilarious. Carolyn had somehow gotten on the subject of politics, and we got it changed to religion. Sister Gilmore said, "speaking of religion...you in?" Carolyn responded positively and invited her to the baptism, etc. It was a great opportunity for Carolyn to tell her story and to get excited and share her excitement about her baptism! It was such a lovely Thanksgiving. Not like being home, but a nice one for a mission, for sure!

Friday, we had another appointment with Carolyn. We were geared up for her to say next time to the stop smoking workshop. But she didn't! We finally got to teach it to her!!! We went through all the steps and talked about them. She was very open with us. The day before, when we'd gone to pick her up, we'd seen a few cartons of cigarettes, so we were worried. She didn't let us throw them away either, so we were worried as she said she doesn't know when she'll get to start because she doesn't have all the materials. We both had the feeling that we needed to get them for her, because we couldn't let her put it off any more. We did service after Carolyn, had lunch, and then visited with Sister Bain. She kept hinting that she'd like us to come visit, so we did, and it was lovely. Even though she's been a member a long time, and sometimes she feels like she might know everything, we were still able to testify specifically about the Plan of Salvation. Her husband died 7 years ago, and it's still painful for her, so we got to share our testimonies, and it was really helpful for her, I think. As always, we left with goodies. This time, it was 2 cat keychains. Mine says "best," and S. Stevens' says "friends." Classy, I know. After that, we headed to Walmart and miraculously found everything she needs pretty cheap. We dropped it off to her, and then we dropped off some jello to Sarah who is still deathly ill. She had bronchitis, and her 93 year old dad and younger sister have an upper respiratory something. It was awful! We were glad we had jello on hand, because that's the only thing she said she wanted :) It was a crazy day, but good. When we dropped stuff off to Carolyn, we saw the carton of cigarettes back on the front porch, so she let us take the almost empty box and the ashtray and throw it away. She wasn't giving as we pushed, so we hoped for the best. I was glad that when we did some reporting and talked to Elder Gardner, he said that the interview needs to be next Saturday and that she needs to be done for a week before that, so we made plans to stop by and let her know, hoping that a deadline will get her booty into shape.

Saturday was nice! We did a little planning in the morning and then had an early lunch with the Hilke family. Sister Hilke's niece was in town visiting. She's currently in Washington DC doing an internship, but she usually goes to BYU, so we got to make some connections. She knows some people I know! She's from Meridian Idaho, but I couldn't really remember any families she might know. And it's huge now, so I was even more lost. It was a delicious lunch, with Thanksgiving leftovers turned into turkey pot pie, and then some dessert pie. It's weird that I'm not losing weight right now...cough. We stopped by Carolyn and told her about the interview deadline, and she seems to be getting closer to stopping. I hope she just does it! She seemed less and less excited when we'd just drop in, so we were nervous that we would be pushing her farther back... Not good. We did more planning and then had dinner with the Kalagher family. Taryn's mom had had a mini-heartattack the night before, and yet they still fed us. We had no idea about it and just felt terrible, but they needed a bit of a break, it sounded like. Jordan and Gavin are HILARIOUS to watch. Jordan has a little girlfriend, Molly, who just loves him, and she came to visit for a minute, so we finally got to meet her. Before she came, his grandpa was asking him if Molly kisses him, and he'd give a funny smile and say no, but then say yes. The hussy. It was a delicious and fun dinner with an amazing family. I just love them.

Sunday, we had a great day! We'd been asked by the bishop to see a less active family. We'd run into one of the sons before who said to try back a different day, but we weren't able to go. We hadn't tried again, so before church, we decided to try, and the whole family was home! They were a little skeptical to have us, but were very warm and friendly. Sister Casteneda was about to leave for work, so we set up an appointment to go on Saturday. Hopefully we'll be able to bring a Spanish speaker to translate for us, because she was having a hard time understanding us. One or two of them are young single adult age, so the ward wants to get them involved in YSA stuff, but we hope to get the family back and going to church! She works Sunday mornings, so that may be an obstacle. Anyway, ward council was productive with the agenda we brought, and the ward seems more and more excited about Carolyn getting baptized. Which is GREAT! Carolyn DID come to church, so we were excited about that! She enjoyed church a lot. There was a freshly returned SISTER MISSIONARY who served in Mesa that came back and spoke with her dad, who's in the stake presidency. It was fun and weird to hear her talk. Not going to think about it. We had some nice lessons, but the best thing is that more and more people came to introduce themselves to Carolyn, and I think she's feeling more and more welcome! After church, we dropped off more jello to Sarah, and then we had dinner with Steve and Mary. I've met them before. They fed missionaries weekly for over 2 years but never really progresses, so the mission president told the elders to stop going over there. Well, we were careful not to make it a weekly thing, and last time we saw him, we kind of left if at he'll contact us when he's ready. He contacted us on Thanksgiving and so we set up an appointment. We had a DELICIOUS dinner and had a great conversation. He's still very closed-minded, so we're not going to make it weekly, but hopefully make it frequently enough that he doesn't feel forgotten, because we hadn't contacted him in months. At all.

Fewf! Anyway, tomorrow I get to go to the temple with my zone for the Christmas thing, so I'm super excited about that! We'll be teaching Carolyn her last lessons to get her ready for the interview and baptism, so we're excited about this week! Please pray that everything goes well and that Carolyn has the strength to quit smoking, because I know this will be hard, but she wants to do it on her own. Thank you so much for your support! I love you and miss you! Have a happy week!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Jordan Lynn

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

2011-11-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

Thank you for the cute updates and pictures! I am loving our little babies and every week Sister Stevens and I just ooooh and aaaah at them! They're getting so big and I just can't wait to meet them! Just FYI, I am going to be doing a little something different this week and possibly next week. Yesterday at church, Brother Watt in our ward gave a talk and challenged us to do a few things. His talk was obviously about Gratitude and he gave some good suggestions about how we can become more grateful everyday for the many things we have. One of them that I really liked was to think of 5 things you're grateful for everyday. On really hard days or days that aren't too exciting, it can be hard to find things to be grateful for, but I decided after that talk, that what I want to do is to express at least 5 things I was grateful for everyday this week. I hope it's not boring or too cheesy, but I figured I might as well try it out! So...here it goes!

Monday:
1. I'm grateful for email and for family that updates me. Often, I open up my email and I have tons of emails of pictures and things, and I know that most of my companions haven't had that luxury. I am grateful to have a family that takes time out of their busy schedule to do something that they know is incredibly meaningful to me. It makes me sad to have missed being there for births or blessings of all 3 babies, but I never have felt like I'm out of the loop on what's going on! I feel like I'm watching them grow up and I get to hear about their different personalities and what they enjoy. I may not get a ton of mail during the week, but Mondays are a guarantee that I get something and I am so grateful to each of you for actually making that a possibility!
2. I'm grateful for real life grocery stores. We often to go a place called "Save-a-Lot" because we tend to save a lot...weird. But, it doesn't have a great selection and stuff tends to go bad quickly if we don't eat it. Well, we decided to go to a real life cheaper grocery store, and we were both in heaven, having almost forgotten what it was like to have so much to choose from and to get quality products.
3. I'm grateful first of all that Sister Dixon (who was in the MTC with me) has lent S. Stevens and I her GPS. We were borrowing one from Sister Halverson, who went home a few weeks ago, and she graciously let us use hers so we didn't have to try to buy one. Unfortunately, the charger isn't working, so I've (thankfully) been able to get us most places without using it. Well, Monday night, we had dinner with the Kalaghers who just moved and we didn't have time to study the map to figure out how to get there. I'm grateful that that GPS got us there right before it ran out of battery. Sister Dixon gave us a charger that would work in computers, just not the car, so we were able to charge it there while we ate dinner.
4. I'm grateful for the South Beach Diet :) Patrick and Taryn just started it, so they apologetically informed us that this meal was going to be really healthy and that there would be no starch, just a ton of veggies. It was DELICIOUS and it was the most healthy meal I've eaten at a member's house! I didn't feel like I was going to vomit when I was done. I didn't feel like I Needed to get rolled to the car. It was so incredibly delicious and filling and healthy. It was a nice change :)
5. I'm grateful for Book of Mormon blogging. We've kind of wondered, since we don't go there every week, if Patrick and Taryn are sticking to reading and praying, etc. Well, Patrick went to go help the boys get to bed and Taryn told us that she and a friend are trying to get through the Book of Mormon together by the end of the year, and they've been emailing/blogging about it everyday as they read together. I was incredibly grateful for the technology that makes that kind of thing possible, because it's helping Taryn stay focused and motivated to read the scriptures and to try to get something from it, so she can share it with her friend. "I love technology...always and forever."

Tuesday:
1. I'm grateful for Chobani (?) yogurt. We got some on good sale at the amazing grocery store and it tasted so delicious in the morning to eat something fairly healthy and that was real food instead of weirdo cereal. Sigh. Thankful for mango yogurt.
2. I'm grateful for the opportunity we had to teach Carolyn the first principles of the Gospel. We've taught them before on different days, so it was good to put it in perspective. We didn't get through all of that lesson, but we focused a lot on faith and on repentance, and had a wonderful discussion about it. The Spirit was really strong as we all shared together and as we explained and invited her to think of all the things she needs to repent of. I'm grateful that I was given that lesson for myself, to remind me that I need to make repentance a daily occurrence.
3. I'm grateful for those who have served our country. We were invited by Sarah to help out at a Thanksgiving lunch for veterans. We invited all the elders to come and help us, and there wasn't as many vets there as expected, so we got to help a little, but the service we really did was to listen to some of them. They have incredible stories, many fighting in different wars and going through different trials as after-effects. Most of them don't have visitors and they can't tell their stories to all the other vets who have gone through similar or worse experiences. I'm grateful for the chance I had to really appreciate what people have had to go through. I'm also grateful for the delicious meal I got out of it :) We had pie for dessert even. We also got to help some of them play bingo, and I'm not really grateful for that game. They got a little too into it :)
4. I'm grateful that we are not experiencing a zombie apocalypse. We got to our correlation meeting early and as we were waiting for Brother Smith to get there, we were asked to go and help Brother Watt with the 11 year old scouts, because his partner wasn't there to be in the room with him. We sat at the table and drew plants, because they'd be talking about poisonous plants later on. Brother Watt was trying to keep them focused and reviewing the first aid they'd learned last week, but their conversations were going all over the place. As Brother Watt was trying to tell a story about getting poison oak, one of the boys said loudly, "Would you rather be in a meteor apocalypse or a zombie apocalypse?" I could NOT stop laughing. As all the kids talked about zombie apolcalypses, I just thought how good it was that I haven't been called as an 11 year old scout leader, because I would just die laughing every week.
5. I'm grateful for having a ward mission leader. We had a great discussion with Brother Smith as we talked about how to help Carolyn become more integrated in the ward, and he's very enthusiastic and supportive. It was hard not having one, and it's been a little hard to get things going because he's new to this calling, but we're working together and it's going well!

Wednesday:
1. I'm grateful for mormon.org. I love our time on mormon.org. People's stories just amaze me! I think about all the non-members who go to this website, and get to look at the videos and profiles and how wonderful the work is that the church is doing to spread the gospel in ways that people nowadays relate to.
2. I'm grateful for cell phones. We got stood up at the library as we waited for the referral Carolyn gave us. After waiting for a few minutes, we were able to call and reschedule, so we didn't have to reschedule or so that we knew she in fact was not at the library. Tender mercy.
3. I'm grateful that there can be humor in the rough moments. We rescheduled with this referral for later that day at the library, and so she was actually there. We met her and then she proceeded to talk for about half an hour straight, possibly without a breath, and had several people trying to shoosh her, to no avail. We were able to get out of there because it was clear she wasn't interested at all in hearing anything from us. She just wanted to share about how great her pentacostal church is and how she rebukes people...awkward. We just laughed about it. Some experiences you have on your mission are just ridiculous. Where else would I run into that type of person who would sit and talk to me about those things? Gotta love it.
4. I'm grateful for Brother Bacik. He was the only one who showed up to Book of Mormon night! We need to get more people there!
5. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon class anyway. I have learned so much more from the Book of Mormon, whether it's from other missionaries or the actually people that come to the class. I may have read the chapter not that long ago, I may have read it a million times, but getting someone else's perspective or ideas about a verse is so uplifting and so edifying. I love to hear other people's interpretations to scriptures that still apply to me, I just didn't know it. We've found a lot of gems in the war chapters :)

Thursday:
1. I'm grateful for my zone. We had zone meeting and had a fun get to know you game. I don't know everyone that well, but I feel a lot of unity within this zone, and that's a definite blessing!
2. I'm grateful for success stories. The zone leaders had one of their recent converts, whose baptism we went to a few weeks ago, come and tell her story to us missionaries. She was found from knocking and apparently watched the elders try to contact a referral and then knock around. She was watching them just hoping they'd come to her door. It's hard to believe there are people like that in Manchester, because we haven't experienced that type of success, but I was grateful to hear it from her, and it gave me a more firm determination to not let doubts keep me from finding those who really do want us to come knock on their door and share a message :)
3. I'm grateful for the fact that none of the sisters seem to be sister haters anymore. It really makes things more fun. We had a fun time going to lunch as a zone afterward, and no one excluded us or made weirdo comments. We've come a long way!
4. I'm grateful for Wal-Mart having a GPS charger for under $10. We stopped by because we were right there, and I'd only seem them $25 and up, which I wasn't willing to pay for. I found one for $7 and it works like a charm. We are no longer GPS-charger-less! Woohoo!
5. I'm grateful for my trainer sending me a letter :) Everyday, Sister Stevens and I have a silent moment before we check the mail, which tends to be empty, but this day, we were BOTH blessed with letters from former companions. It makes the day so much better!

Friday:
1. I'm grateful for the great lesson we had with Valerie. We hadn't been able to meet with her for like 3 weeks, it felt like, and we'd told her that we would be teaching about the Plan of Salvation. Well, she did a ton of research in all kinds of manuals, so she had lots of things she wanted to share with us, and because she was so prepared for the lesson, the Spirit was so strong as we got through the whole thing. She felt very comforted as we taught her the principles and I was grateful for that! The member from that ward that was supposed to come didn't show up, so we were worried, but it went great!
2. I'm grateful for watermelon. Valerie's husband had bought some for our little meeting and even though it was out of season, it was delicious :)
3. I'm grateful for Eny's nephew Jaevon who entertained us while Eny was on the phone. He started telling us how he could do Michael Jackson dance moves. He could. And it was HILARIOUS. Thriller: 4 year old style. Classic Peg.
4. I'm grateful for Eny's parenting experiences she's gotten to share with us. It tied in a lot with what we talked about with Carolyn and Valerie this week. I love learning about how different parents handle different situations, and I was again grateful for that chance. Christlike parenting is the way to go...I guess :)
5. I'm grateful for breakfast for dinner! The Beaudoins, a part member family, had invited us again and asked what we wanted, and for some reason that sounded so good to us. They delivered well and I was in heaven :)

Saturday:
1. I'm grateful that Carolyn is becoming more open and honest with us. Over and over again, she's pushed back the stop smoking workshop and finally she opened up that she's afraid to do it. She's afraid of failing. She's afraid that she won't be able to live up to the covenants she's going to make at baptism. She's afraid that she's going to disappoint us. It was heartbreaking to me that this kind of stuff has been holding her back, so it was good that we were able to testify to her and tell her how much we love her and give her encouragement. If we don't teach it on Tuesday, like she finally firmly committed to...no more miss nice girl :)
2. I'm grateful for another letter from one of my friends from BYU who's serving in Wisconsin. It's fun to get letters from other sisters who are serving. Similar problems, and similar joys!
3. I'm even more grateful for an exciting and fun Thanksgiving/Pre-Christmas package from Emily. I'm wearing the scarf right now, Em! Everything was so fun to get and I can't even wait until I get to make the muffins. You are so wonderful!!!
4. I'm grateful for our dinner with the Watt family. They accidentally again invited a non-member friend to have dinner the same night we were coming over. He came to church last week, and it was such a comfortable setting that he got to ask us questions about missionaries, which we and Brother Watt could answer. I am just amazed at how smoothly this family does missionary work. Over and over again, Brother Watt has told us that the missionary experiences he's had lately have come to him. He's always ready to have them and wants them, so they come to him! He's so laid back and non threatening, that people feel comfortable asking him about religion and he easily invites them to church and it's just amazing! Phil may not be ready to have the lessons, but the interest is there and he's comfortable with us and with his friend that he can pursue at any time. I want to be like that!
5. I'm grateful for oragami penguins. Need I say more?

Sunday:
1. I'm grateful for another mostly non-contentious PEC. There was a few moments where people were fired up, but for the most part, people were supportive of what we had to say and had good feedback and suggestions.
2. I'm grateful that Alden, Becky, and Sister Bain could all come to church! Becky and Sister Bain haven't been feeling well, so it was exciting that they could come!
3. I'm grateful for Sister Gilmore. She was excited to have time to discuss with us and Brother Smith a game-plan to find new investigators :) She's fired up about her calling and wants to fulfill it.
4. I'm grateful for the RS lesson about the final judgment. The teacher focused a lot on the small judgments we have often to help keep us in check, so I was grateful for that reminder. I want to be ready when the real final judgment comes and when my mission's final judgment comes! It can seem scary, but it doesn't have to be if I use my time wisely!
5. I'm grateful for the fun dinner we could have with the Webster family. I still want to become like Sister Webster! She's so laid back but so fun. We always have good conversations with them and they're always so excited to hear more about us and such. They didn't realize Sister Stevens is going home so soon, so they wanted to sign up right then again for another time they could have us over before she leaves!

Ok, I hope that wasn't too boring :) It was a good self-reflector for me! I am grateful for the week I had, even though it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, there's still a lot to be grateful for! I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving! I'm excited to have dinner at the Gilmores! I'm sure it will be a pretty delicious meal, although nothing in comparison to anyone who I'm related to :) I sure love you and am grateful for all you're doing to help me! Love you, miss you!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Lynn

week 1, transfer 12 over

2011-11-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

It's been a much different week than the week before. Things are definitely settling down with the storm, most people have power, and most people are feeling happier! I can't believe that time is going so quickly, as I'm sure I mention in every email, but it is just incredible to think about! Bleh.

Anyways. Let's get down to the nitty gritty :)

Monday, we went and played sports at the chapel. For the last few transfers, basketball has seemed to be the main focus of sports on p-day, which is kind of not so awesome for Sister Stevens and I. We may or may not struggle. Well, since they weren't changing which game to play, we figured we might as well join them, whether it was helping or hurting. We got split into teams and because I had some good players on my team, we didn't get totally defeated, but I was incredibly grateful that after a few times trying to pass it to me, they stopped. I think I have the wrong attitude playing this game. I'll pretend like I'm trying to get open, but if you throw it to me, I'll throw it right back. Forget about shooting...sigh. But we did play scatter ball, which is a form of dodgeball Sister Stevens and I also tend to avoid. The elders get each other out, mostly avoiding us, and then it gets down to the two of us and the last person standing and we get defeated. Well, my play of life happened when it was just us with Elder Keeler. He got Sister Stevens out and so it was just him and me. I had some help from those who had died before, but I got the ball and tried to throw it, which usually doesn't end well, and I actually got him! I can't even tell you how happy I was. I am, like, SO good at sports. It's ridiculous :) I did get hit in the head with a basketball and Sister Stevens got pelted from behind with the dodgeball, but other than that, no traumatic injuries. We're improving, that's for sure :)

Tuesday, we visited with Carolyn in the morning. She had a ridiculously terrible cold, which had prevented her from going to church on Sunday, but when we got to her house, she was out raking leaves with a stuffed nose and eyes that looked like they were about to explode. We helped her and had some fun doing service. It was taking us back to the first time we met her :) Yay for service! We came in and talked with her for a few minutes. She was really pretty out of it, so we didn't teach any new concepts, but we reviewed with her some of the things we've taught previously and then followed up on how her Book of Mormon reading is going. After companionship study, we had lunch and then headed to out to try and visit some less active members of the ward and some referrals. It was miraculous, because we got in contact with someone at each of the houses. We found out one guy moved out in 2007, which was kind of interesting that no one knew that...We met the son of a woman who we were asked to try to see. He was shocked when he saw our nametags and tried to quit talking to us as soon as possible, and so we asked when we could try back. We then tried a referral who we found out we'd met before. We'd asked if Zena lived there and she said no but eventually told us that she did, just wasn't home. Well, when we met her again, we asked if SHE was Zena and she told us that she was. We've been trying for weeks to meet her but haven't been able to. If only she'd just told us the first time, then it wouldn't have had to be so awkward the second time we met her and she was caught in her bluff :) But, we decided to knock her street, because we hadn't in that area before. It was around dinner time and we met a bunch of people! No one was outright mean, but no one accepted a return appointment. We talked to a woman whose friend is a member and she was just really nice. We talked through a screen door :) It was incredible to see the amount of damage on that street, though! There were tree limbs down and we heard chainsaws going, etc. A few powerlines were still down, so that was sketchy, but we survived. Barely. We had our correlation meeting with Brother Smith at the church and talked more about what we need him to do and what we can do. It's becoming an incredibly slow process, because there's a lot that needs to be done in the ward, but he just moved here and stuff. Hopefully by the time I leave, we'll have a ward mission plan, we'll be promoting action on member missionary stuff, and we'll be more organized working with the ward council about specific people! We met with the La Marques after that and it was good to visit with her now that she has tenants next door. That takes away a lot of stress, I think. And hopefully it will take away the excuses we keep hearing!!!

Wednesday, we got to visit with Becky, who had been able to come to church on Sunday! She was looking good and had made us some hair accessories to show her appreciation for us coming every week. She just has no visitors and I think it's made a big difference that we've been coming. We watched Legacy with her and she seemed to enjoy that :) We talked more about the pioneers and the examples they were for us. She just loves it! We visited with Sarah and found out a lot more background of what's been going on with her lately that she hasn't talked about before. It just broke my heart and she was talking about some of the things that I wouldn't have even guessed, and I was feeling so strongly that I needed to share my testimony about God's love for her. I think she was feeling really overwhelmed with all that she was dealing with at home and then feeling like she was letting people down at church. I tried to help her see that the focus isn't on the people at church. If they were making her feel pressured, I wanted her to see that it was because they knew it would help her to actually go to church, to partake of the sacrament, and to feel that renewal. She's expressed gratitude at the feeling she gets when she partakes of the sacrament, she just hasn't been able to come for a while. She still didn't get to come to church Sunday, but the Spirit was there strongly and I know that it helped her get back on track spiritually. We had Book of Mormon night later on and I got to talk about Alma 58 and 59...nothing too exciting. The Glastonbury Elders had a few more people there who were recent converts, so our class was a little bigger! We would love for Carolyn to be able to come! Hopefully she'll get the chance!

Thursday, we did mormon.org in the morning and then got to visit with Eny later on. She's doing well! She's quite the chatter box, so it's hard to get on track sometimes, but it's a good sign, because that means she's feeling more trust and more comfort when we got there! We talked about Helaman 5:12 and encouraged her to build upon her foundation. We've been worried that she had this great experience with the priesthood blessing, but because she hasn't been to church, the feeling she got will begin to diminish, so we want to help her keep on track toward coming back to church. She has that desire to be a light to her family and so I hope that becomes motivation enough to keep moving forward. We also had a relief society meeting that evening. It was a visiting teaching workshop with delicious food and a little guest speaker from the stake relief society presidency. I was once again infused with the desire to be a better visiting teacher when I get home. The speaker brought her visiting teaching companion who was once her visiting teachee. She had been less active for about 15 years and she'd turned away many visiting teachers, telling them she didn't want them there. She was then diagnosed with cancer, and this sister came unexpectedly and brought her pink pajamas. That started a wonderful friendship, and the one who'd had cancer bore her testimony of the power that visiting teachers can have for good. She talked about how she was "loved back into the gospel." It reminded me of Mom and of her experience with that family who I can't remember their name :) I know I wasn't a great visiting teacher before my mission, but I'm excited to change my ways and help to love people closer to Christ :) Very uplifting. And Tina came! I was SO happy!!!

Friday was incredible. We had zone conference in Bloomfield. We had Springfield zone and New Haven zone there with us, which meant I got to visit with Sister Takanoi, who just left Revere to go to Oxford. It was so fun to hear from her that people in Revere still talk about me :) She said that when she told people she was going to Oxford, they said "Sister Lynn went there!" It made me feel good that even though it was like 7 months ago that I left Revere, people haven't forgotten me! She gave me updates on several people, some good, some really sad. I guess Kim and Amy haven't gone to church for a while because Kim got offended by something someone said on Facebook. I heard that Stacy has been going to church regularly, as has Gloria! Gloria had just barely gotten to the point where she'd go to an activity, and I guess she's now going every week and that she's a fellowshipper for an investigator :) It made me SO SO happy! It's interesting though because Revere is becoming a Spanish and English area. They had Hermanas there when I was there, obviously, but now those who were just the English ward and pulling double duty. There's just so much work there, especially in the Spanish program, and there's getting to be so many more hermanas than sisters, so I pretty much won't be going back there as a missionary. Sad day! Anyway, the actual conference was incredibly uplifting and encouraging. It was different than it has been in the past, in that we only had a few trainings and it was as a big group. Elder Koerper is still an AP, so he and his companion gave a training, and then a few elders from the New Haven zone did, and that was it. They were great though! They talked a lot about planning and setting goals and using the tools that we've been given as missionaries to be the most effective we can be. Especially in the area book, which is always tricky. I've come to a few areas where the area book is in disarray and it's so frustrating, so I was given a renewed determination to keep mine up to date, no matter where I am! I got to see a bunch of missionaries I either came out with or that I've served around, so it was a lot of fun. So weird to think that it's my last one on my mission. I talked to some missionaries specifically who are going home with Sister Stevens in a month, and one was particularly "trunky." He's counting down the days...I'm real glad that Sister Stevens isn't there yet. I tend to be the one pointing out that she only has this many weeks left, etc. I'm just glad I have another transfer after that! I'm not ready to be at that point yet, though I know it's coming! Anyway, it was a great day, and I'm glad to have zone conferences where we get together with so many other missionaries and that we get to learn from each other.

Saturday, we got to visit with Carolyn again, who is still very under the weather. We were firm enough, though, that we got her to commit to come to church, and she got more and more excited about it, the more we were with her. It's been so frustrating, because we've put off teaching the stop smoking workshop for weeks because things come up, but hopefully it will be this week. I know she has to be in her right frame of mind and all the way there to have the workshop take effect, but it's frustrating, because the longer she waits, the more Satan will work on her. Things seem to work out with her, though, and I'm hoping there's a reason and that she'll be fully ready on Friday when we teach her! We did service after that and then headed to Sarah's, who we were going to help rake leaves. Unfortunately, it was too windy, so we just got to have a visit with her, and try to encourage her more. She mentioned that before our meeting Tuesday, she'd felt unworthy to pray and that she felt that because she hadn't taken the sacrament, she couldn't pray. I was grateful that what we said made a difference. She was hoping to go to church, but again, the family problems got in the way and she couldn't make it :( But, the intent was there, so that's a good thing! We had an appointment with the Nobles later on. They'd invited us for dinner, so we had pizza while we watched Legacy with them. Believe me, I'm Legacy-d out. They seemed to enjoy it, and Aiden wasn't quite as disruptive as when we watched the Testaments. We had fun with them, and Chris seemed to enjoy a more casual setting than a sit down lesson. I still wonder where he's at with all of this...

Sunday was lovely. Carolyn DID come to church and she enjoyed it a lot! We had Patrick and Taryn there. No Tina or Eny but we'll make it there. We had a lovely few talks from Bishop Sloan and his wife. Carolyn really seemed to enjoy them, despite being sick and still seeming like she's not all the way there. After Sacrament meeting was a little crazy because Brother Smith, who we thought was teaching Gospel Principles, was substituting in primary, so we got to teach last minute. We had a good discussion though about the sacrament, which I think she enjoyed. We were also excited because Brother Watt in the ward had invited a friend from work to church, so we got to meet Phil, who had asked for a Book of Mormon. We just happened to have one :) He wasn't sure about meeting, but Brother Watt will be on top of it. He'd invited him for dinner and it was very comfortable. He didn't seem overwhelmed, so I was grateful. Great example of member missionary work!!! Anyway, Relief Society was good. I was pretty much super nervous because we started out singing "If You Could Hie To Kolob" and then talked about the Millenium. Her head didn't explode, and the only question she seemed to have throughout the whole lesson was when Sister Hinckley mentioned something about Visiting Teaching and she wanted to know what that was :) I think it helped that she had a cold. Thank goodness! Several elders have talked about singing that song in sacrament meeting and having investigators drop them because of the deep doctrine, etc. I was incredibly grateful! She also got some help from a sister in the ward who's a nurse. I think she's feeling more and more comfortable. Sister Hinckley invited us for dinner, so we really enjoyed getting to visit with them. The kids are a little crazy, and the house is always a little chaotic, but they are such a wonderful family who do so much for the ward. It was super weird again to be asked what our plans are after the mission and Sister Hinckley mentioning over and over again that we're going to be gone so soon. Bleh! Have I mentioned that I'm really not ready for people to say that? Because I'm not. It's exciting, of course, but you don't want to focus on it, etc. YIKES!

Today, we had an appointment with a less active woman we've been trying to visit for a long time. We'd made contact with her Tuesday when we were making all those visits, so we'd set up an appointment for today. Her ex-husband had introduced her to the church and she hadn't been too active for a long time. He had a lot of mental illness problems, which ended in his death a few months ago, so she's really been struggling. We had a great visit with her. She's been toying with the idea of taking the lessons again, so she wanted to start over. We planned on teaching about the Restoration, but realized quickly that she needed a few lessons before we got to that point. She has very specific questions and needs, so we'll be teaching her alone and then hopefully her kids later on to get them back to church. It's a hard time for all of them, so we're hoping for the best!

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful week. I laughed as I watched Sadie's due date come and go and that she's definitely ahead of the game :) I'm so sorry to hear about Grandpa Rollins. I'm thinking about you and praying for your family! I love you so much and I hope you have a fabulous week this week! See you next Monday!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Lynn

FEWF! Let the snow days begin...

2011-11-02T12:07:00.001-07:00

Dearest Familia,

Man, oh man. What. a. week. and. a. half. The red dot days have begun and I am SO hoping they don't continue as consecutively as last year. Not cool. But, the library is jam packed with people who are still without power, so this may be a little shorter. I'll try to do a quick recap of all the most important details of the week. Also, Sister Stevens and I are both staying in Manchester! Which means that I'll probably be here the rest of my mission! Sister Stevens will be home in 6 weeks...bleh. Too crazy.

Anyways.

Last Monday: We got to hang out with Sister Dixon and Sister Allen! We went and had lunch at Catsup and Mustard and then headed to Bloomfield to play sports with the elders. Sister Dixon's been going through a really hard time, so it was good that we all got to hang out. She especially loves Sister Stevens, since they were companions for a really long time, so I hope that it provided some relief for her! I got a little too competitive while playing basketball, so it reminded me that I should never be allowed to play a real life game of basketball. I take it personally...But, it was still fun, and when the games weren't as intense, I really enjoyed myself.

Tuesday: We had an AWESOME lesson with Carolyn! The first time we'd tried to teach the Plan of Salvation, we didn't get through the whole thing and it was really scattered. Any time we tried to continue in later lessons, it just didn't happen. I don't know if this was something she REALLY needed to learn or what, but Satan was working pretty hard to try to make it not happen! The lesson was long and she went off on some random tangents, but we got through the whole thing and the Spirit was SO strong. By the end, she seemed to really agree with everything we talked about and said, "You know, I'm about at the point where I'd say that you're preaching to the choir!" She'd studied the pamphlet before, so we had some good discussion going and I was grateful that it turned out so well! She seems to still be on track for baptism on December 10th, so hopefully that keeps happening! We had a lesson with Eny and then helped Sister Bain, who's home from the hospital. Since it was starting to get pretty cold, she wanted help getting her plants inside, so we did that. We had dinner with Sarah, who spent most of the time helping her Dad get changed. The dinner was delicious, but we didn't get to talk with her too much. We had our ward Trunk or Treat that night and Eny came with her twin sister and their kids! They were excited to be in their Halloween costumes and I think the kids who went trunk or treating got WAY more candy than if they spent that amount of time regular trick or treating :) We had sort of put together costumes that would still be missionary appropriate but enough that you could tell we were dressed up. I tried to go pirate again, but without the giraffe on my shoulder, the outfit just wasn't complete. Sister Stevens found quite a few treasures in the apartment to put a pretty good 80s Sister Missionary. Hopefully I'll have time Monday to email pictures! Classic Peg.

Wednesday was a little miserable. As Daniel would put it, we got punted pretty much all day long. We went to Hebron to try to revisit some less actives and to contact a referral. The referral wasn't home, so we knocked on the next door neighbor's house, and she was having dinner with her little kids, but said we could come back on a weekday when her kids aren't home. That was exciting!

Thursday: We had our last district meeting with this district. Sad day. We watched the newer Joseph Smith movie, that apparently is meant more for investigators. It was really good! We brought the popcorn and the elders brought the soda. WHile they were buying it, they met someone who's a member who served a mission, but didn't know where to go for church. Meant to be? I think so! We did transfer predictions at lunch and everyone thought I was getting transferred, so that kind of freaked me out. I was feeling like there could be some type of change, so that was not so righteous. Other events of note: We had dinner with the Beaudoins, who we'd had dinner with with the Gilmores a few weeks ago. He's a fairly recent convert who just moved here with his nonmember wife. She loved to feed the missionaries when they lived in Utica, so we were excited that they invited us over. At this point, she's still not ready for the lessons, but that's ok. As long as we're in there and get to share a message. As Brother Beaudoin was talking, I looked up, out the window, above the curtains, and saw snow! We were told it may snow Saturday, but we were NOT expecting it on that rainy day! It was crazy! We took some pictures before we got home :) I got a ginormous package that day from dear mother with LOADS of Halloween candy. Oh man. You know me SO well. THANK YOU!!!!

Friday: we had a great lesson with Valerie and the RS President in Bloomfield. She'd been studying a lot about Joseph Smith and was also feeling closer to having a true testimony of him being a prophet. We taught a first lesson all the way through, and she really understood and seemed to agree with what we were talking about. She's been praying a lot and had a strong feeling that she's on the right path. She said she's closer to her baptism than she thought she would be. Since we hadn't really had a chance to extend yet, we told her that we like to make goals with people to work toward, and she said that she'd think and pray about a specific date that she can work toward. She really liked the idea! It was so good to have the RS President there, too, because she brought Valerie some CDs of Sheri Dew. Valerie is very intellectual and smart, so I think that will be perfect for her! She knew that snow was coming, so she wanted a good movie to watch, as well, so we had the elders bring her the Joseph Smith movie, because she's so curious about his life. It was awesome! We had lunch with Brenda and talked about the Strippling Warriors, which she'd read about. We talked about how important it is to study from the scriptures daily and invited her to start reading from the beginning! She really liked that idea. We had dinner with the Wades, who are so great. Brother Wade asked what kind of reactions we have when we got out tracting, and in reality, people just don't really open their doors at all. If they do, they're "all set." He was telling us about a show on BYUtv where someone goes around asking people's stories, etc. I guess they came to Connecticut and had the same problem. Oh, New England. We had a good visit with the LaMarques after that. We tried to talk more about why it's important to come to church and help them realize that we miss seeing them and that they need to come back. Being bold but not overbearing. Too bad there was no church this week. BLEH.

Saturday: Was quite the interesting day. We finally got to do service in the morning. It was a pretty bleak looking day. We were told snow should be coming around 5. After service, we came home, had a quick bite to eat, and then headed to the Glastonbury Elder's baptism. An incredibly spunky lady got baptized and had her nonmember family there, so that was fun. It was a small crowd, so I got to lead the music :) When we were coming there, it was raining and kind of turning into heavy snow. Not cold enough to stick, you know? Well, by the time we headed to the RS room to have treats, it was sticking and was super fluffy snow. We again took pictures, which will hopefully come on Monday. It was semi-treacherous getting back home, with a little bit of slipping and sliding on the road. We were wondering what the status was, so when we got home, we checked the phone which contained the message, "When snow starts, get to your apartment and don't get on the road." Well, our apartment was already without power! WEIRD. We did as told and stayed in, even though that meant that we didn't get dinner with the Gilmores, which is SUCH a sad thing! We played some games, I got caught up in my journal. We knew that T-Texts were coming, so we had to watch our phone battery, which barely lasts until we go to bed. We had canned corn and green beans for dinner. Yum? T-Texts didn't come until after 10! It was crazy! We found out that Elder Knight is leaving to go to my old district in Oxford, and that Elder Henson is leaving and going somewhere I don't know. The good news is that we're getting Elder Clark, who was my district leader my second transfer in Oxford! I am SO happy about that! Should be a fun transfer :) The temperature was dropping slowly in our apartment, and all throughout the evening, after dark, we were seeing flashes of green and hearing pops.

Sunday: We woke up fairly chilly. We were completely out of battery and knew our leaders were trying to get everyone's status. The roads were absolutely clear, although there was snow on all the trees and grass. We decided that we should go to the church to see if we could charge our phone there and to see if we'd even be having church! When we finally got our car dug out of the snow and cleared off, and we drove to the mouth of the parking lot, we could see why there were so many green lights and pops. There were at least two major trees down that took powerlines with them. Luckily, and dangerously, there was just enough room for cars to pass through because one of the powerlines was sort of leaning :) Pictures will explain this more. The roads all over were clear except when we got closer to the church and there were more trees and powerlines down. It was incredible to see how much more damage was caused by the snow storm than there was from Irene in August! Trees all around, powerlines, more people without power for longer periods of time. When we'd called Sister Gilmore to tell her were couldn't come, she'd said she still had power, so, since she was close to the church (which had no power), we decided to see if they still did and if they could allow us to charge our phone there. They did NOT have power, but they had a generator and a wood-burning stove which was warmer than anything else, so we got to visit with them while our phone charged. Sister Gilmore actually had a project for us to do after we'd eaten hot soup :) Being the Chocolateer that she is, she had us rolling fudge to make the inside of truffles, then we got to dip it into chocolate and decorate it with things. It was so much fun! We got to update her more on our work and she told us some opinions about things, and it was really good! She's a great ward missionary! We got a call from a Sister Edwards during that time, who said they had power, warmth, and food, and invited us for dinner. She also offered to let us stay the night, but we thought that wouldn't be a great idea. So, we had a delicious meal with the Edwards. Brother Bacik joined us and we got to play some Jenga, which was super exciting! They offered to let us come and use their warm shower in the morning if we didn't have power, so we were grateful for that idea! We'd been in bed for a few hours when all of a sudden the power came back on! We had a lightswitch in the room turned on so that we'd know if it did. So, I got up and turned it off, and we promptly heard that the power turned back off. We were sad. And REALLY cold. It supposedly got down to like 20 that night, so when we woke up, our apartment was at about 57 or 58, which was not as bad as it could have been!

Monday, we did take the Edwards up on their offer to shower, and they had us over for lunch too. They were so kind to share in their good fortune :) We spent pretty much the rest of the day visiting people in Coventry and Manchester. We were a little below halfway gas-wise, so we decided that despite the lines to get to the few gas stations with power, it would be worth it to get our gas tank to full. We only had to wait about 15 minutes, and we'd seen a much worse line at a different one, so we were lucky! Everyone we visited still had no power and was freezing. We did this Monday and Tuesday. We visited several ward members and less actives, as well as Carolyn and Janet. We had a little visit with Sarah on Monday around 3. We'd stopped at home right before and found that our power was back up!!!! We were SO happy! Sarah's was as well! Sadly, mostly everyone else's wasn't. The LaMarques were freezing, as was Denise, and Janet. Carolyn had been out the few times we'd tried! Someone had flagged us down as we were walking around because she was out of cell phone service. Oh my. The stories were more and more heartbreaking! This woman had just gotten out of the hospital and had been out about as long as we had. We just can't do a lot for people physically and so it just broke my heart all day yesterday, to hear how people weren't supposed to get power back until like Friday and that we were warm and cozy in our house at that point. I think more and more people are getting their power back, which is good, but it's amazing how much we depend on power, especially in the cold! Thankfully, these last few days have been about 50 during the day, so it's not as bad at that point.

Anyway, we are alive and well, thankfully! I'm really hoping this doesn't keep happening because it's bad enough having "snow days," but to take away the power makes it SO much worse!!! I hope everyone else had a great week! I'm happy to hear that Little Miss has a BEAUTIFUL name! And that she's a BEAUTIFUL baby :) The Halloween pictures of her and Luke are just priceless! And the house is looking AWESOME, Mom and Dad! Fewf! I can't wait to see it in real life :)

I sure love you! Have a happy day and week!!!

Love,
Me

Hallooooo!

2011-10-24T12:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

YAY FOR LITTLE MISS FINALLY JOINING US! I can't wait to hear the story and find out her name! I hope she has one by the next time I get to email :) The pictures of her and Luke were SO adorable! He seems so excited to have a little sister! I hope he keeps having those smiles! Anyways, I will tell you about my week, because this is all about me. Let's be real.

Monday was SO fun! Rus got here safe and sound from Maine. We had a late lunch with him at Catsup and Mustard. I just was so happy to see him, it made me really excited for when I see EVERYONE! We had such a fun visit, and it was so just so lovely! It was especially fun, because he's part of the missionary department, so we got the inside scoop! We learned more about mormon.org and the work that's going forward with that, as well as with other missionary efforts that are expanding. He also said some perfect things for me and Sister Stevens in regards to going home, which we both needed to hear. It's kind of been pounded in our heads that we won't really have the spirit when we get home, that we'll feel totally alone and empty. He said that the things that bring the Spirit to us as missionaries doesn't include the nametag. It's the studying of scriptures, the prayer, the pondering, etc. We are set apart for a specific calling as missionaries, and even though we'll be released, we'll be set apart for other callings that will give us purpose and that will help us to continue feeling the Spirit. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was sorely needed for us at this point. Everyone's pointing out how little time we have left, and the idea of impending doom coming our way is a little scary, but he definitely helped soften the blow :) It was also fun to have Maxwell and Jenny call while he was sitting with us. He put it on speaker phone so that we could say hello and that we love them. I was just so happy! It added such a boost for me this whole week. THANK YOU RUS!!!! After he started heading to Mass, we headed to the church to meet Eny and her home teachers so that she could receive a priesthood blessing. It was so good! She was pretty nervous, and they were late and ended up being on the other side of the church, so it took us a minute to connect with them, but they made their introductions, asked for her name, and then gave her a perfect blessing. It was very heartfelt and individual for her, which was perfect, since she doesn't know them, and having that happen was a testimony that they were acting for our Heavenly Father and not just saying the same thing they say to everyone. She didn't show too much emotion after that, but she headed home and we were excited for our appointment later in the week to see how she was doing and how she was feeling. We had dinner with the Palmbergs and had fun visiting with them. They are so good to us :)

Tuesday, we had Carolyn in the morning. She'd read Joseph Smith History, and the pamphlet about the Restoration, so we had a discussion about Joseph Smith, about the apostasy and the priesthood. We focused a lot on how she can continue to know for herself if it's true. She's been praying about the things we've been teaching her and praying to be ready for baptism in December, so she's on the right track. She is so cute and every time we come, she has tea for us, as I've mentioned before. This time, she had "sweet potato pudding," which is sweet potato pie, and also some muffins for us. She's adding, which is so hilarious and not needed, but she loves being able to give something to us. We visited with Becky after that. Her son was home, and he headed out to get us pizza unexpectedly, while we watched the Joseph Smith movie with her. She loved it! We had a great discussion about it, and she said that she's hoping in a few weeks she can make it to church. Her husband doesn't want to take her to church, so her home teacher will be, and I'm hoping that it will be a good experience and that eventually her example will get her husband back to church. We went and visited Sister Bain at the hospital. She was still not looking good after whatever happened on Sunday. She didn't want to be at the hospital, she didn't feel like the doctors knew what they were talking about, etc. She obviously wasn't feeling up to visitors, so we said we'd come back another time, and she appreciated that. Later, we had dinner with the Hartman family, who is new in the ward. They have a 3 year old, Abby, and twin daughters Sophie and Charlotte. Abby is hilarious and so smart. She has very buck teeth, and the way she smiles is just so funny. She was very entertaining while her mom got dinner ready. She's such a polite little girl, too! When we walked in and I asked how she was doing, she said, "Doing well!" At 3! Brother Hartman had to leave partway through dinner because of his fresh calling into the young mens, so we visited with Sister Hartman and got to sit and play with the twins a little. They were born a month before our Sophie, so it was fun to see where they were and imagine sitting with our Sophie! It was heavenly :) We stopped by a few people after that, and then stopped by Wilson and Gifty. Gifty was finally home, so we got to sit and show them mormon.org and invite her to learn more. We set up an appointment for this week, so I'm really hoping that it will happen. She was curious, and then she stopped being there when we got there. After this appointment, we'll either put her on the future contact list or start teaching her. Make or break situation here!

Wednesday, we visited with Brenda in the morning. She read about Samuel the Lamanite, so we had a great discussion about that! She just loves whatever she reads in the Book of Mormon, so we're hoping that soon we'll be able to help her start reading daily and hopefully get her back to church...sigh. we did mormon.org after that and got to watch a new video from the I'm a Mormon campaign. It's the main singer from the Killers, which was cool! I didn't know he was still active, but it was a cool profile video to watch. Fun to see that and hopefully that will help people who like his music think more about it :) It had been an incredibly rainy day, and we were headed to Columbia to have dinner, so we got there early to try a couple less actives that we hadn't been able to meet yet, but that we'd tried. One of them had a grassy hill that you walk up to get to the front door. Well, someone was inside but didn't answer, so we left a note and headed down the hill to get in our car. Annnnd, all of a sudden, I was on my booty, sliding down the hill. Needless to say, I was a bit dirty and was grateful that we were headed to the Allens, because she would totally help me get cleaned up! We had a lovely dinner and spiritual thought with them. He doesn't take the spiritual thoughts to seriously, but the spirit was there as we talked about prayer. They were kind enough to help us get out on time so we could head to Book of Mormon night. We talked about Alma 55 and 56, and had a great discussion about those chapters. I love being able to discuss them and to hear what our members and what the other missionaries think about what we talk about.

Thursday, we had district meeting. Sister Cannon, who used to be here, volunteered to make a DVD for the mission for Christmas, so she said to bring some pictures, etc. Well, Elder Gardner was pretty excited about that idea, and wanted to make sure this district was recorded for all to see, so he brought a Canadian flag, and there was an American flag set up in the room we meet in. After an awesome district meeting, with trainings by Elder Henson and Elder Thompson, we went outside and took some fun pictures. We are so international in this district. Word. We did planning after that and then had a Relief Society activity with the young women. Dejah came, which was exciting! It was such a fun activity! They had women in the ward talk about what they studied in college or what they do for work, and then had the girls tell us what their interests are and what they want to be, etc. It's purpose was to help the sisters help the young women feel welcome and to help the transition into relief society be an easy one! There was some fun mingling, and I was grateful that several of the young women came and stood around Dejah to help her feel a part of it. She needed that!

Friday, we had Carolyn in the morning, and talked about studying the scriptures daily and prayer. She wants to know what the life of a Latter-day Saint is like, so we wanted to start with commandments that she would be keeping everyday first. She was excited as we challenged her to read from the beginning of the Book of Mormon, and she said she wants to start making a big dent in it. She invited us for lunch the following day, so we were excited about that ;) We had Eny after lunch, and just walking in, I could tell that she was feeling better. She was smiling, she was dressed, she was enjoying all the kids running around. The anxiety seemed to be almost gone, and she was thrilled to tell us that ever since the blessing, day by day, she's been feeling back to normal. She was told to be a light to those around her, so she called her less active mother and sister and is trying to get them to come back to church with her. She wants to make these changes. She's started living the word of wisdom on her own, actually thinking beforehand that coffee might have been having that effect on her, but she's been over 2 weeks without, and I am so proud of her. I was so grateful for the priesthood and for the comfort that it's brought to her. She called the kids in so we could teach a lesson, which she'd asked us to direct for her son. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. The oldest is 5, her nephew is 4, and Tiana is 2, so attention span wasn't there, but we tried to keep it fun and quick moving so they weren't bored out of their mind. We had fun and they laughed a lot, so I was grateful :) We visited with Sarah after that. We'd planned on reading from the Book of Mormon with her, but she didn't know where it was, and she hasn't been to church in over a month. I had studied something earlier for Carolyn, so I shared that scripture with her, and we talked about what we need to do to feel the Holy Ghost more in our lives. I didn't want to be hurtful, but I was bold in talking about reading, praying, and going to church in order to feel the Spirit more, and she talked about how there's things that have been neglected that she needs to make right. I was grateful to be guided to that scripture! We had dinner with Denise, which is always an adventure. She kind of sheepishly told us that there were a few things she forgot from the store. One of them was lettuce, so our salad was cold Ramen noodles (without the flavor), green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and Ranch. The most interesting salad I've ever had. We had American chop suy, which is always fun...and we brought the dessert. She wanted to show us a church movie she'd found, called On the Way Home, so we watched that with her. It was hard not to make comments or giggle at some points, but she loved it and it was good to talk about how families can be forever, etc. We visited the LaMarques after that, who have been working hard on the other side of the house. Always excited when we go over there.

Saturday, we did service in the morning and then had lunch with Carolyn and Janet. She'd made this soup that she carefully told us what was in. She gave us each a "potahto," a turnip, carrots, gungko peas, sweet potato, thyme, and something else. It was a very Jamaican soup and had an interesting flavor, but it was fun to visit with her. She said she wanted to go to stake conference, so we were excited to try to find her a ride for the next morning. We had an appointment with the Nobles. We've basically finished the lessons, and Chris isn't progressing, so we wanted to express that we won't be coming every week. Aiden, who's 11 was a little bit devastated. We expressed that we'd still come maybe every other week, etc, but he was trying to think of every excuse to have us come :) We had dinner and then got a ride from Jane to stake conference. We were breathlessly hoping that the temple's location would be announced. Mostly on account of the fact that the whole theme of Conference was about the temple, all the songs were about temples, etc. At the end of the adult session, President Taylor, the stake president got up and said, "Regarding the location of the Hartford Temple...." *gasps, and zero movement*...."The church has indicated that the announcement will be coming soon." Sigh. He told us that a few weeks ago...Bleh! Sad day, but lovely conference anyway.

Sunday, we finally got to meet with Brother Smith, our new ward mission leader. The youth had a session at 8:30 AM, so we met with him while the kids were there. I'm really excited to have him as a ward mission leader! He's pretty awesome. Conference was great! Carolyn got a ride and when we finally got in to get seated, we found her near the front, chatting away with whoever was sitting right by her, no one we knew. She got up when she saw us and told me that she had been on a walk with one of her neighbors, and they could tell a woman was behind them, so they moved to the side, but she didn't move. Eventually, they got talking about religion, and this Jamaican woman who was walking behind joined in the conversation. She asked Carolyn what religion she was, and Carolyn answered that she'd getting ready to become a Mormon. This Pentacostal woman said she was always fascinated by our religion, so Carolyn told her that she's working with 2 wonderful young ladies who are helping her learn more, and she got her name, address, and phone number! She's beating most of our members at giving us referrals ;) I was so grateful that she's already getting into that spirit! She loved conference! President and Sister Evans got to speak, and that's always fun! We sat by Emily Palmberg and the Watt family, because there was no room by Carolyn. Lots of children around us that were screaming by the end of the 2 hours! We visited Sister Bain after a lunch break, who is doing SO MUCH BETTER! She was up and walking, she's getting ready to go home today, actually! It was wonderful! We got to tell her about Conference, etc. We stopped by lots of less actives and referrals, with no luck. We came home and did our studies and finished up planning, and that was pretty much our day!

Well, I hope everyone else has had a lovely week! Again, I'm so glad to hear that Little Miss has joined our family! Can't wait to see her! This coming Saturday we find out about transfers, and that happens next week. I'm totally not sure what's going to happen, so I'm excited to find out! That means, however, that emailing will be happening Wednesday, so if anyone wants to send me a letter before that telling me what Little Miss's name is, I would be more than happy to receive it :) I sure love you! Thank you for your prayers and support!

I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU!!!!
Love,
Sister Lynn

Fewf!

2011-10-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

It has been quite the week! You heard about part of it, but there's some fun things to share, so I'm going to go ahead and do that! But first, CONGRATULATIONS ON SELLING YOUR HOUSE IN INDIANA!!! I've been praying especially hard this week and fasted for it last Sunday, so I'm glad the prayers have been answered! What a blessing! I'm SO excited for you :)

Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

Tuesday, before emailing, I had called President to ask permission. Uncle Rus is in the area this week and had emailed and asked if he could take Sister Stevens and I to lunch today. President obediently read from the white handbook to me and said he'd have to say no, wondering if it was a test to see if he'd crack, since Rus works for the Missionary Department. I was sad, but President had said that if one of the people he looks to told him it was ok, he'd do what he says. So, I emailed Rus all of that information and wondered what would happen in the meantime, hoping it would happen. So, we went through the rest of the day...We had dinner with a really cute young couple in the ward who I just LOVE. It was my first time being over there, and they are awesome! They're really laid back but have a cool story and they serve a lot in the church. I would love to be more like Sister Webster when I get home :) Anyways, we get home that night and are planning for our next day. Sometimes we don't get great reception in the apartment, so the phone didn't ring, but we got a voicemail. I definitely saved it, because it's one of my favorite voicemails I've gotten on my mission. It said, "Hi Sister Lynn! This is President Evans! ................Ok you win. Your uncle did go to my representative, and you're on for lunch! So at least they know I keep the rules. Now, I don't know when to keep them or not! You are to take him for all he's worth and eat as much as you can. Thank you. Bye." I was laughing so hard. He's such a sweet man and I was so excited to be able to go to lunch! Should be later today :)

Wednesday, we got to visit with Brenda. She's finished reading 3 Nephi, and her DVD player is fixed, so we brought The Testaments to watch with her. She LOVED it. I continue to try not to vomit as I watch some of these movies, but it helped solidify more of what she's reading and although it's not a perfect depiction, it gives her a visual. She also informed us that Vocal Point is still in the game. WOOT! We got to visit with Eny right after that. She's been doing a lot better with her anxiety issues, but is still looking foward to the blessing. We watched President Uchtdorf's talk with her from the Relief Society General Broadcast, and she loved it! And I did too! I got to soak more in than just the first time I watched it. How grateful I am that those videos go on so quickly after Conference! We went to Sarah's after that and tried to start help putting on a fence to keep her dog inside the yard. It started raining though, so we didn't get to finish it...We had dinner with a new family in the ward, the Shurtz family. Both are returned missionaries who served in South America, one in Chile one in Argentina. They have two beautiful little girls who both want to serve missions. One wants to go to Mexico, and the other wants Florida. They're adorable! Book of Mormon night was right after that, and we got to talk about more battles...Elder Keeler went a little crazy with a chalkboard, trying to show what happened in a battle. I think he enjoyed it a LOT...I couldn't think of anything I could add to the drawing as I started talking about the 2,000 Strippling Warriors. Failure, I know.

Thursday, we got to have district meeting in Bloomfield, so we could get pulled out for interviews. District meeting was actually really great. Elder Gardner is trying a new set up to try to keep it more spiritual, because sometimes we just have too much fun...It was great, though. We learned "Elder Gardner's Five Points to Teaching with Your Companion in Unity: stolen directly from Preach My Gospel." They were inspirational. We did a role play where Elder Gardner was the investigator and he would point to us so we'd trade off teaching the first lesson quickly. It was intense. But, we definitely need to get better at switching more and so it was needed, for sure. My interview was pretty quick. He asked if things were going ok in the companionship and the area. I told him about the baptismal date in December, so perhaps he'll keep me there another transfer at least? Please bless! It would be really hard to not be here for Carolyn's baptism! He was very sweet and thanked me for being here :) He had to put in a little something about lunch with Rus again. Apparenty he's aware that "sisters get anything they want in this mission." I never knew! We had lunch with the elders at iHop after that, which is always interesting. It was more elders in our zone than in our district, and there was definitely a different feeling. I missed district lunch! We did a little planning and then had dinner with Sister Sloan. As always, it was delicious and she sent us home with WAY too much food :) We are always grateful for such contributions! We visited the La Marques after that, which didn't last too long. Tasha actually came down and visited with us, and told us she has a new job! She's been searching for one over a year and finally found something, so that was exciting! Tina got on her phone, so we left quickly to show that we won't stick around if they aren't going to give us their time.

Friday, we had a visit with Carolyn in the morning. She'd studied a lot to get ready to talk about the Word of Wisdom. She mentioned that particularly coffee and cigarettes will be a problem for her to give up, but she totally understands why that's necessary. She talked about how both affect her judgement and just how she functions, so she's going to be making some goals so that she can be done in the next few weeks. Amazingly enough, her coffee pot broke not too long ago, so that may be and easier way to give it up! She's still a little sick, so she didn't want to go to church this week and be coughing and such. Frustrating, but a fairly good excuse. I just hope that soon, as we emphasize the importance of going to church and the blessings that come from it, she'll stop finding excuses and she'll just come! We headed to Valerie's right after that in the pouring rain. It was almost scary driving in it, actually. But, we had a lovely visit with her. The relief society president in that ward came for it and although the lesson jumped around a lot, she felt the spirit a lot and something each of us said seemed to really touch her. She'd had a rough week, but she was strong and still let us come instead of cancelling on us, so I was proud of her! We did mormon.org after lunch and then went to Sarah's for a visit, because it was still raining. She's been curious a lot about church history, so we've shown her Joseph Smith movie and Legacy, so we finished off the full length church history features with Mountain of the Lord. She seemed to really enjoy it and loved being able to see some parts of the temple at the end. It was good! We finished up planning that night, which was great! It's nice to be well planned, especially if it's done efficiently.

Saturday, we did quite a bit of service. We did our regular service in the morning, which was none too exciting, and then we changed really fast in order to head to the Speek's home. We'd tried to contact them not too long ago, because he's an ex-communicated member and she was an investigator at some point, but they weren't interested. They were moving, though, and needed help, so us and some of the elders quorum went and helped. It was incredible how much dog and cat hair had accumulated and was on everything we were packing into the Uhaul. Several of the brothers were allergic, namely Gordon. So when they walked in, there was tears streaming down their faces, or they started sniffling or whatever. They were grateful for our help, but I'm fairly certain that I inhaled a whole cat during that hour and a half! We tried to stop by a less active, who we'd found out was moved out of the ward, and then a referral. We met the referral's daughter who told us the next two days wouldn't be good to try to visit her, but she seemed friendly enough. Hopefully it works out! We headed to the Nobles and we watched the Joseph Smith movie with them! It wasn't planned to watch movies this week, but it happened to turn out that way. They really enjoyed it and Aiden was pretty aware of what was going to happen and would ask questions throughout. We're hoping Chris liked it, because he didn't show too much emotion. We tried to stop by Wilson and Gifty, but again, Gifty wasn't home, so it was a quick visit. Sigh. Hopefully we get to teach her someday!

Sunday was kind of crazy! We had PEC in the morning, which went well. No contention there :) It got out early, because Bishop had several callings to extend to people, so we went and joined the choir practice. Sister Bain was sitting in the seats, because she usually leads the choir, but prior to us coming in, she'd said she couldn't breathe, so she sat down and Sister Hilke got up and lead. A few minutes after we got there, Sister Bain got really sick, but couldn't move! It was heartbreaking! Her home teachers were quick to try to help her and were so kind, but no one really knew what to do. She was still sitting up there, sick, and they were trying to help her down into a wheelchair so they could take her home, but they ended up not being able to even get her in the car, becuase she was fainting, so they called an ambulance. We're pretty worried about her, because she hasn't been feeling well since Conference. We're hoping to visit her later this week, either at her home or in the hospital. Other than that, church went well! Gordon got a calling to teach the youth Sunday School class! I think he will be such a great teacher. He has such a thirst for learning more about the gospel, and I think he'll really be an inspiration to the youth. I'm sure he's feeling overwhelmed, but he will be fantastic! We had dinner with the Hinckley's and Thompsons. Sister Thompson and the boys had their last Sunday in our ward, which was so sad. But, they're going to the LA area, so I'm hoping I can maybe visit them sometime when I'm visiting Elisabeth and Tyler :) It was such a fun dinner to visit with all of them! We went to the LaMarques who are in a pretty tough situation. I was SO grateful for wonderful home and visiting teacher, Brother Lythgoe and Sister Chuong, who were sitting down with Tina when we got there to try to help her through this situation. I was filled with gratitude for Mom and Dad who did the same thing in Indiana, and will probably be doing the same thing in California, to help as much as they can, those who are in need. I got to call Uncle Rus last night to figure out our plan for today. He's clear up in Maine, so hopefully he can get down here ok. It's a beautiful day, so no yucky weather to deal with, I hope. It's amazing how it's only a few hours to get from Maine to CT. You have to pass through like 4 states! Thank you, New England.

Well, I hope everyone has a fabulous week! I hope to as well :) I hope Little Miss can join us soon. My guess was WAY off...I sure love you!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Lynn

stinking columbus day!

2011-10-14T10:03:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

I forgot to remember last week that I couldn't write on Monday because of Columbus Day! But, here I am, finally writing! It's been an interesting week with some fun things that happened, so hopefully you can enjoy!

Monday, after email, we did a bunch of errands, like, constantly. We had to get our oil changed, after putting it off for a few weeks, and sadly, we ended up being there for almost 3 hours! Good thing we went when we did, because it probably would have been worse! We sat at Pep Boys and tried to work on some letters, also trying not to be distracted by Ellen DeGeneres which seemed incredibly entertaining. Sigh. We were strong though. Don't worry! Sister Chuong in the ward was kind enough to come pick us up since we had to be late to dinner because of our car. They had to change 2 tires and that cut way into dinner. We had a lovely dinner with them though! Both served missions, and we enjoyed hearing some crazy stories about what got them there and what it was like. Sister Chuong served on Temple Square and he served in Sydney Australia! He didn't know an Elder Rollins, though. We shared a thought about missionary work and she took us back to Pep Boys so we could get ourselves home in time for curfew. Not too exciting. Just a little frustrating!

Tuesday, we'd had to cancel an appointment with Carolyn so we could finally get our apartment inspected. That didn't take too long, but they went through what we had to see what the quality was and what we might be in need of. It was nice, but they didn't even check cleanliness, so it felt like a waste to have spent so much time cleaning! I'm grateful for a clean apartment, but still. Sigh. Lost appointment :( I had a giant headache and was not feeling well at all, so it was a bummer when we headed to an appointment with Sister Judkins who lives about 30 minutes away, only to find out that she wasn't feeling well and couldn't have us over. Needless to say, we have and will continue to be better at double checking our appointments with everyone! We came home and had lunch and I layed down. We tried to stop by a few less actives, one who has a 7 year old daughter who's almost 8. We're hoping to be able to teach the fam the lessons to get her ready for baptism. I came home and took a nap because I was not doing well at all. There's so much sickness going around that I was really nervous it would turn into something else, but I'm doing fine, so it was just a fluke day. We had dinner with Sister Bain. She treated us to pizza, chips, soda, and cheesecake! It was a really healthy meal that was incredibly delicious...for some reason. We had a great discussion with her about General Conference, and it's always fun to see what sticks out to other people during conference. It's totally individual and usually completely different than what sticks out to me. No wonder we're all supposed to watch....

Wednesday was miraculous! I'd been thinking about Eny, who we haven't had contact with in over a month, because she stopped texting back/not calling/"not being home" when we tell her we're coming, etc. I thought it would be best to give her space. So, I thought if appointments canceled in the morning, we should just pop in. Well, during studies, she called! Sister Stevens talked to her and she apologized for being so distant and expressed that she was struggling with some anxiety and that she would really like to have a visit, because she knows it will make her feel better. I was so thrilled! We street contacted to her house and had a wonderful talk with her. We told her we'd get her a priesthood blessing for this week and encouraged her to pray, because that's something she hasn't been doing. She also opened up about the real reason why she doesn't come to church, which is because she's alone with her kids and isn't social, so when she feels so alone, she doesn't want to go. Her less active twin sister is coming with her this Sunday apparently, though, so hopefully that gets her here! I know it would make her feel better! And she'd feel more peace in such a difficult time in her life! We made some cupcakes to celebrate Gordon's birthday a week late at Book of Mormon night. We visited Hilda, a less active who always says she wants to feed us, but usually backs out last minute. She invited us for dinner this coming Friday, so hopefully that happens! Book of Mormon night was great! Gordon later texted us and said thank you for the cupcakes and then said that the last two weeks of Book of Mormon night have been his favorite so far, which is funny because we've been talking about the wars between the Nephites and Lamanites. The comments have been great, though, and we've had good discussions with how they relate to us, so I think it's been great for those who have come!

Thursday, we had a strange situation in the morning. We were told that district meeting was changed to Friday, which wouldn't work for us, so we were sad we'd be missing it. Elder Gardner told us that the zone leaders would be stopping in unannounced to the other elders in the district to make sure they were up on time, etc. It was kind of a strange idea to me...but whatever. I'm not a leader! But he did get it changed back to that day, so district meeting was kind of weird, not having the zone leaders, and having some unhappy elders there. But we had a great discussion as a district about our favorite Conference talks and kind of reminding us of what we need to do now that we have this information. I seem to sometimes forget that part. I soak it in, I enjoy it, but then nothing changes at that point, or I don't set goals and make plans to apply what I learn. Something I'm definitely working on at this point! We had a really fun lunch with the elders, and I think things are really clicking as a district. They're opening up a lot more and including us more. I feel a lot of unity and it's so fun! I think the sister hatred is gone, which I am incredibly grateful for! We did planning, tried to stop by some less actives, and that was mostly our day. We did some great planning, though, and it was nice to do it all in one sitting, thoroughly.

Friday, we had some fun! We had an appointment with Carolyn who had just gotten bulldozed by a cold. She looked completely miserable and we were glad to keep it short, because we had an appointment to get to right after. We talked about Conference and she told us some things that stuck out to her and things that she liked, which is always fun to hear. Seriously, the session she went to was THE perfect one to go to. We've answered questions in the same way, but hearing it from General Authorities just concretes it for all of us, so I was glad she got that opportunity. Since her baptismal date is getting close (October 22nd) and she's still far from being ready, we mentioned that next time, we'd like to get a timeline together to help her feel ready. She mentioned that the date is probably realistically too close and that we can pick a date next time. We're more than happy about that. Hopefully we can create a plan that will keep us focused with her and something that she'll be comfortable with! We headed quickly to Windsor, to teach the referral, Valerie. She's recently married to an excommunicated member who's working on coming back. She went to church all last transfer, but just moved and asked for sisters to teach her. We had a lovely time really getting to know her, finding out what she already knows and getting a better hold on how we should teach her and what she's looking for. She expressed that she mostly is gathering information about Joseph Smith and that she won't get baptized until she really feels it. We taught briefly about prayer and through that small discussion, she recognized that that's something she's lacking right now and something she'll need to work on. We'll have regular appointments with her every Friday at that time, so hopefully we can get fellowshippers from her ward to come to lessons, since we're pretty far removed from that ward! We had lunch and then headed to Patrick and Taryn's. They're moving into her mom's house from his parents' house, and it's kind of a wreck, so we helped paint the boys' room. It was a perfect opportunity to get to know Taryn better. I never really knew where she was coming from because we never took that opportunity when I was with Sister Jacob, and Sister Stevens and I haven't met with them very much since we've been together, so I was incredibly grateful for that! We got a lot done and I know it was a big help to them!

Saturday, we did service, which is always fun...we also did mormon.org, because we needed library cards for that and didn't get the needed paperwork until then! We headed to the Noble's area and tried to stop by a less active who had some vicious looking dogs. One didn't even flinch when we showed up, the door to the front was open with a dog laying right inside the doorway. I'm guessing the member's son was laying on the couch and he didn't come to the door or anything, he just said she wasn't home. As we were leaving, both dogs perked up and I was afraid for our lives....we lived. Don't even worry. We had a great lesson with the Nobles about missionary work. They read what we'd given them a few weeks ago, which we thought the boys would enjoy, so we talked about Ammon cutting off the arms. This week, they'll read about the strippling warriors :) Yay for boys who like war and bloodshed! We headed to Sarah after that. On the way there, we got a text from Elder Gardner, whose birthday it was. We'd sent him letter by letter a "Happy Birthday Elder Gardner!!!" text, which he said came out to like 26 texts that morning. He asked if we had dinner, which we didn't. So he said that as a district, we'd have dinner to celebrate his birthday at the mall in our area. We were excited about that! We had a great lesson with Sarah, talking about General Conference, which she didn't get to see at all. She updated us on her dad, who had been streaking through the house the day before, which was why she'd cancelled on us :) We had dinner with the Elders at Chili's after that, and took some fun pictures. Again, unity is growing. They could have easily left us out of that, but they didn't. We had a lot of fun!

Sunday was a lovely fast and testimony Sunday. We had ward council in the morning, which went well. Patrick got a calling after lots of insistence from us, and we also got a ward mission leader, after over a month of not having one!!! His name is Brother Smith, and he and his family got to the ward probably a few weeks after I did. He has some really cute young women and a younger girl and boy. I'm excited to get to work with him! It was a little bit of a strange sacrament meeting with a lot of space between testimonies. Usually there's a lot going on and lots of people to talk, but that didn't happen. We had a small gospel principles class, but had a wonderful discussion about gifts of the Spirit. Again, made me want to think about what I already possess and think about which ones I want to work on developing. A lot of application ideas have come to me this week :) We stopped by some people after church with no luck, and then we had dinner with the Gilmores. They invited sneakily a recent convert who just moved here and his wife, the Beaudoins. They used to live in Utica (yay Michael!) and he got baptized a year ago. She loved feeding the missionaries, but he told us she's not ready for the discussions. It was the perfect way to build a relationship with her, to get us in their home eventually, because we'd tried contacting them, but she wasn't interested or comfortable yet, but it was a lovely evening! We got to know them better, the Gilmores are wonderful fellowshipping members, and by the end of the night, she asked how she can get us over for dinner. Nailed it.

Monday was exciting...Sister Stevens got her hair trimmed at a member's house and it turned out great. A little shorter than she expected, but it will grow out in no time :) We got more caught up on letters and then headed to play sports in Bloomfield. No one even came close to getting hurt! We had a lot of fun playing Horse with just each other, and then playing a few other games before we had to leave. We had dinner again at Sister Bain's, who'd asked us to come help her also clean out a closet she can't do herself. She's a bit of a hoarder, so it was a little strange, but it was a great opportunity to serve. She's been having a difficult couple weeks, because her husband's anniversary of his death is coming up, and it's just a hard time of year for her. We helped cheer her up, and we left with some treasures, including a poncho. Pictures maybe next week :)

This morning has been pretty eventful! We had a meeting with Carolyn this morning who's doing a little better. She picked a new date herself, which we thought would be a good idea. She picks it and then she'll be more committed to work toward it. She chose December 10th, which is 6 days before Sister Stevens goes home :) I hope we're both here for that! We made a map of what we'll teach from now to then and it was perfect. I have been waiting to hear this from an investigator my whole mission, but she said that she looks forward to us coming every Tuesday and Friday morning. She said she feels so good when we're here, and the day of, but the next day, it's worn off. We took that opportunity to testify of the Spirit and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. She wants to be prepared, and I think this amount of time will be most beneficial for her. She will have plenty of time to feel comfortable with the doctrines and she'll be able to gain a testimony for herself! We got to visit with Sister Judkins also, who's feeling a lot better. We talked about family history work and next week, we're going to bring the Joseph Smith movie to watch with her. She loves having us come and said that next summer she'll be in Utah and she wants to visit with us! We've only been to her home maybe 3 times, but I think our visits are doing a lot for her spirits, at least!

Fewf! Sorry that was so long! Lots to update on. Thank you for your prayers! I hope everyone's doing well! Next week should be a for sure for Monday, so don't worry :) I sure love you! Have a happy week!

Love,
Sister Lynn

Hellooooo

2011-10-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Familia,

I'm sorry my emailing was delayed today. We got to the library much earlier and all their computers were getting updated, so we had to come back later. Hence the lateness :) But alas, I AM still writing, so here I am and I'm going to go ahead and tell you about my week. A few comments to start off first, though: I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE. It's third on the list of my favorite holidays of the year as a missionary especially: Christmas, Mother's Day, General Conference. Woot! Secondly, I really wish that Sister Missionaries could be cordially invited to attend Priesthood session. Thirdly, It's really I think becoming Fall! We had a fakeout a few weeks ago and then had some wicked hot and humid days, and now it's more in the 60s and not as humid and I'm in heaven.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

Monday, We ran some errands to get cleaning supplies for our ridiculously deep clean, so we were very prepared. We each took one of the smaller but well-used rooms to start out with, blasting the Mo-Tab like there's no tomorrow :) I was cleaning the bathroom and she was cleaning the kitchen. Unfortunately, because of our prior appt that morning, we had limited time, and because of how ferociously we were scrubbing, we both had to shower and get ready before our dinner, so the cleaning was minimal :( We had dinner with the Sorich family. He's the elders quorum president and she's in the relief society. I pretty much want to be like her when I get older. She's the happiest person I know! She always looks adorable, she's cute with her kids who just love her, and she's SO willing to serve. (She substituted for the primary chorister for the primary program with no notice!) It was so fun to chat with her and she made an incredibly delicious dinner, so that made it even better. Brother Sorich was helping a new family move in, so he came at the end of our visit, but we had a great discussion about feeding the sheep/finding the lost sheep. They both work a lot with less active families in the ward and as we were talking, Sister Sorich said something that really stuck out to me. She said that sometimes, we go out and we find the lost sheep. We cradle it and put it over our shoulder to carry it back to the fold. And then, the lamb kicks you in the face and runs back to where it was. It was profound to me. We can't drag a sheep back to the "fold." We have to go find it and then figure out if it's ready to come back! Or come for the first time! It doesn't help us or them if we drag them kicking and screaming, because the second we set them down, they'll bolt. Similar idea to something dad sent me not too long ago, and I want to make that part of my missionary service, focusing on finding those who are ready to come! Whether less active or nonmember! Thank you Dad and Sister Sorich :)

Tuesday, because of limited time Monday, we spent more time cleaning, but we had several appointments between cleaning spurts. We met with Carolyn in the morning. She had forgotten we were meeting, so we had more of a low-key visit with her. Sister Stevens fixed a CD player that was broken so she could show us a few of the hymns we share with the Anglican church she belongs to. She was so grateful and the Spirit was there as we talked about how music can provide a lot of peace. She's experiencing a lot of contention with a tenet upstairs, so she was grateful to be able to listen to uplifting music to calm her down. We went to visit Sister Judkins, who we'd visited in the hospital, but now she's home. She was SO excited to show us the newest Ensign, and because of deteriorating eyesight, she asked us to read some of the articles and to explain ways she can improve her scripture study. We were happy to oblige and were wildly jealous because a week earlier we had finally gotten our apartment September Ensign. We have since gotten our October one and are excited to dive in :) Yay for the Book of Mormon! We tried to stop by several less actives and were supposed to have a meeting with Bertha, who continues to stand us up...bummer. We had dinner with Sister Edwards in the ward. Her husband is not a member but was very friendly, so we were grateful for that. We had a fairly awkward dinner with them, but it was just fine. There were a few points where there was silence, which really wasn't awkward, but then Sister Edwards said, "So..." and everyone looked at her. She then said "Why are you looking at me? I don't have anything brilliant to say!" 'M srry. We had a lovely discussion with them, though. She asked us about our missions and we were happy to talk about some things we've learned and to share some experiences with them. I think she especially enjoyed the discussion. He seemed to mostly be thinking about what joke he should tell next. Like, "Who was the skinniest man in the Bible? The man who slept on his watch!" Heh. Yes...

Wednesday, we met with Brenda in the morning. She has LOVED reading about Christ's ministry to the people in the Americas. Last week she'd read about all the destruction, so she read the Sermon on the Temple and when he ordains the Twelve and she just loved it! We had a great discussion about that with her! Sidenote, she was excited to tell us about this show she was watching called "The Sing Off?" Apparently there's an all-male group from BYU, who I'm assuming is Vocal Point competing, and they're her favorite. She's going to keep us updated on how they're doing throughout the show :) She's hoping they'll win the big one...whatever the big one is. We did our mormon.org hour and tried to visit some more less actives, who weren't home. Strange pattern we're finding :) We had dinner with the Hilke family. Both are returned missionaries and had some fun mission stories to tell. We got a referral from Brother Hilke! I guess she's someone who cuts his hair, who's had missionaries before. Her name is Zena, and we're hoping to have some success through our gracious member! Book of Mormon night went great! I got to talk about Amalickiah and his sneakiness. We got some good discussion going! We had some missionaries call during Book of Mormon night and give us a referral! I almost felt like I was back in Revere! Fewf! She seems GREAT though! She's newly married to an excommunicated member, she went to church every Sunday last transfer, and the elders whose ward she was attending texted to see how she was doing, because she'd just moved to a different ward. She said she'd like to meet with missionaries, that she had nothing against elders, but that she would be most comfortable meeting with girls. That's us! Apparently she talked to the elders that Sunday and told them she wants to be baptized, and she has a few kids. We got ahold of her yesterday and she said she was reading the Book of Mormon with her husband at the moment, but that she'd love to meet with us later this week!!! Hallelujah! I wish she was in our ward, but we'll take what we can get :)

Thursday, we had zone meeting. I was asked to re-give a training I'd given in district meeting a few weeks ago. I'd used the aforementioned letter from Dad in my training, and it was something everyone in the district needed to hear, so I got to share it with the whole zone! It went fairly well, but I felt pretty awkward giving a training when that's usually a district leader's job. It was just me and Elder Keeler. Woot. We had lunch all together, which was fun. We're feeling much more bonded to the zone recently. We are having zero sister-hater-ness, and we're really enjoying that! We were again supposed to meet with Bertha who wasn't there, so in the pouring rain, we tried to contact Zena. Whoever answered the door looked VERY skeptical and was basically friendly. However, when we asked if Zena lived there, she said no, but later told us that she does live there. Confusion ensued, but we'll try again. For sure. We had gotten cancelled on for diner by Sister Bain. Sister Allen in the ward (whose dairy farm I'd gotten a tour of with Sister Jacob) had told us that when someone cancelled, we should call her, so we did and she was delighted to have us over! We were in the middle of eating a delicious meal when "bang! Crash! The lightning flashed, oh well that's another story, never mind..." It was incredibly windy outside and they're surrounded by trees. We heard a really weird sound and saw LOTS of blue light outside as the lights flickered. Their powerline went down! So, we ate via candlelight and shared a message with them about prophets, inviting her inactive husband to watch with her. We couldn't leave the house until the lights were back on, so it was good that people came and got them going! I guess it can be pretty dangerous with a line down or something? Weird.

Friday we had an appointment with Carolyn. We were both incredibly nervous because she'd asked if we could talk about a question she was having. She'd asked about possible "dual citizenship" in the Mormon and Anglican church and we were supposed to discuss it with her. She updated us on how she was doing, which always takes quite some time. We finally got our discussion started with prayer and moved forward. She explained more what her question is, and we both tried to assure her she could still visit her Anglican church, etc, and kind of skirting around, I guess. We finally answered her straight up and we weren't sure how happy she was about it, but she went on to tell us about what she'd read in the Book of Mormon and how much she LOVES that book. She talked about how clear it was and to the point. It lays out things in a way that the Bible doesn't, because so many people interpret it so many different ways. Our hearts definitely took courage :) She also said that she wants to be like us, which was so sweet. She said that she loves the way she feels around us and wants to be and feel like us. She said that she wants us to teach her to BE a member, kind of. Can do! We've been fairly scattered in the teaching because of where she goes in lessons and us not taking enough control, so we explained that we'd love to re-teach her the lessons and then move forward to the commandments and talking about what she'd be committing to do when she's baptized. She said that she wants us to be there when she gets baptized. October 22nd is fast approaching, and there's no guarantee that we'll both be here next transfer, so we'll do our best to get her there, but we won't be baptizing her unless she's ready :) It just made us SO happy! We didn't even throw up when we went and did stinky service afterward :) It was lovely. We had an appointment with Sarah after lunch and had a good discussion about church organization and then watched Legacy with her. She's been asking a lot about church history and about Nauvoo and stuff like that, so we figured that the visual of that movie would work for her. It becomes more and more sappy to me, but she really enjoyed it. When the two characters kiss for the first time, she gasped and said, "She's a bad girl! She's an olden day hussy!" It was fairly unexpected and hilarious. We had some time to start planning and then had dinner with the Watt family who I LOVE. They were telling us how he has a friend from work who will be watching Conference with them, and about how they bring Jacob's friend to scouts with them and his mom has been asking Sister Watt questions. Oh man. They're an awesome family! We had so much fun talking to the couple and being entertained by the kids. We found out that their tradition for Conference is to make tents and face them toward the TV screen so they can watch and listen to the prophet. Great idea!

Saturday was the beginning of a heavenly weekend!! Thanks to some delicious Conference treats from dear Mother, we were even happier campers!!! We were scarce at the church for Conference, but we enjoyed it anyway. There were just so many talks that I needed to hear throughout the weekend. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out so I can re-read all of them! Too bad that won't happen for a little while :) Not too much to report on, since everyone was watching the same thing as I was, but we got planning done between and after sessions throughout the weekend.

Sunday morning, we got to join the Palmbergs in their family tradition of crepes for breakfast. It was delicious and so fun to talk to them about the previous few sessions. Emily had her laptop out so when we were done with breakfast, the three of us watched Elder Holland's talk from the Priesthood session, and then we all watched Elder Waddell's talk from Priesthood. Both were incredibly powerful and missionary oriented and both were answers to my prayers. I can't wait to read other talks from it, and again, I wish we were invited to watch because that's a lot of the time where they focus on missionary work! I was grateful that several talks were directed toward that as well, though. Carolyn came to the morning session, and she LOVED it! She kept poking Sister Stevens who she was sitting next to, when people talked about things we'd talked with her about. She has lots of questions, I guess, so our next appointment with her should be fun :) I was answering Denise's questions most of the time. I was so drained by the end of Sunday!!! Being overly spiritually fed :) It's a great feeling!

I hope everyone else enjoyed and was fed! I sure love you and thank you for your prayers and encouragement!!! I hope all is well with all of you and I hope you have a fabulous week!

Love,
Sister Lynn

Fewf!

2011-09-26T15:27:00.001-07:00

Dear Familia,

It was a pretty exciting last half of last week, I guess? Not really that exciting, but we did some good things, so I'll go ahead and tell you all about them! Whether you want to know or not! I was generously fed from the Relief Society broadcast. I really missed being with the mom and sisters for it, for sure! But so good. I just wish I had President Uchtdorf to give me a pep talk every morning. And throughout the day. He knows just what to say to take a girl's bref away :)

Anyways!

Wednesday, after emailing, we headed straight to Bloomfield, the stake center, for some P-day fun. We wanted to take a team picture, since we really didn't the week before, so we were all dressed up and looking mighty fine, and the elders started playing basketball. I thought, "If we came all the way here to sit and watch everyone play basketball, I'm going to throw up." Thankfully, some of the elders not playing wanted to play other things, so we played a version of dodge ball and then speed ball once everyone was done with basketball. I wasn't sure how great of an idea that was, but no one was particularly injured :) I was eternally grateful, because my team actually passed the ball to me, and I TOTALLY made a bunch of scores! Made me feel pretty good. It was junior companions versus senior companions, and I'm pretty sure us senior companions kicked some booty! We did end up having fun and taking some pictures with the parts of the zone that came. It was a last hooray for Elder Salazar and Elder Medley, who we miss greatly. We got to the church in time to be changed and freshened up for Book of Mormon night, which was just with Brother Bacik this week. The elders were late because they locked themselves out, but somehow managed to get in there. Of course. It was fun, even with 4 missionaries and one member!

Thursday, we did service in the morning, which wasn't too exciting. We decided to walk to Sarah's house for our appointment with her. The last little while, it had been VERY fall-ish, so I was thinking it would be great. Yeah. It wasn't. It was in the 80s and WAY humid. We were baking like toasted cheesers as we walked, and there wasn't too many people out...I guess we saved at least 4 miles that day. WOOT. We had a great appointment with her, mostly talking about church organization and answering questions about that. We started reading a little in Alma 5 and discussed some of that. Poor Sarah is super exhaustified. Her dad's health is getting worse and she's up all the time with him, changing him. He's 93 and is like a child, pretty much. It just breaks my heart! We walked home and got freshened up to stop by Bertha, who we'd extended a baptismal date to last week, but who had "punted" us earlier in the week. Her daughter said she was sleeping, so that was a bummer. We headed to our dinner appointment who had been very enthusiastic on Sunday when she asked what we wanted to eat, etc. We hadn't thought we needed to call to confirm. We should have. I felt terrible! We got there and she was asleep because she'd had a migraine. Her kids looked REALLY confused why we were there, almost scared :) She felt terrible, but had slept through picking up her grandson at daycare, so maybe it was a good thing. I just felt bad because SHE felt so bad. Bless her heart. She provided us with dinner, though, at Catsup and Mustard. It was Sister Stevens' first time, so we got some yummy burgers and fries. It was delightful!

Friday was our first district meeting with our newly changed up district. We were there early with Elders Thompson and Henson. Elder Thompson is usually pretty quiet, but he was chatting it up with us and he's so funny! I wish he did that more often! The other elders drove together and they got there quite late. We now have Elder Mars with Elder Keeler, and Elder Knight with Elder Gardner. The feeling in the district is different, but I still really like it. Elder Mars is a military man, new zone leader. He has a lot of camo stuff :) Elder Knight is really quiet and doesn't say too much. We did some get to know you stuff, which was actually really funny, and then we had a jeopardy-esque game of random church facts. Elder Gardner spent so much time planning. He even weighed 40 Book of Mormons to see how many pounds it came to. If ever asked, it's apparently 30 pounds. We had lunch as a district after that, and I really think I'm going to like the district. The new elders are either too quiet that it's like they're not there, or they're really nice. Elder Mars is from Ohio, so hooray for a little bit of connection! He was in a different stake and he'd never heard of New Knoxville, so...rude. We did planning after lunch and then stopped by Bertha and a less active before dinner at the Gilmore's house. Friday night dinner :) It was lovely! Sister Gilmore is an amazing cook! She goes all out to provide incredible meals! She made an incredible dessert, to top it all off, so I was fairly filled to the brim by the time we left. Which made it difficult to go to our appointment with Wilson and Gifty, our Ghanaen friends who feed us when we go over there. She gave me two plates of rice, beans, "gravy" and chicken as we watched Finding Faith in Christ. Oh man. I'm not sure I've ever wanted to throw up so much on my whole mission. I felt an incredible amount of strength, because I didn't start feeling overly stuffed until I was almost done with that second plate, but once we got up, I just wasn't sure I would make it...The good news is, though, that we watched Finding Faith in Christ, which sparked Gifty asking us what the difference is between our church and any other church. Hmm...we would love to talk about that next time we come over :) Boom. Nailed it.

Saturday was an interesting day. We saw the La Marques to do some service, cleaning up their next door apartment. Not too much accomplished there, on account of not so great planning. We're hoping the ward can step in there. We visited with Sarah and talked about the RS broadcast as we helped her make some corn chowder for it. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to actually attend it! She missed out. We had a lesson with the Noble family about the temple and family history work, which was exciting. Sister Noble was planning on going to the broadcast, and Aiden was ready for the primary program the next day, which meant that Chris came to church! We went right after that appointment to the church for dinner. We had soups and rolls and cobblers with the ladies in our ward and the Glastonbury wards. It was all DELICIOUS and girly :) Taryn had made a chocolate cherry cobbler, which I wasn't sure I'd like. I did. A lot. We were invited to be with the Palmbergs for the dinner, so I felt more at home than last year. It will just be fun to be with SOMEONE in my fam next year! I just needed to hear so much of what was said, and it made me even more excited for General Conference this weekend! It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Sunday was a great day! We had a lovely ward council. They are somewhat contentious most of the time, but we got so much done and there was laughter and happiness. I hardly knew what to do with myself. We still have no ward mission leader, but I think Bishop is finally getting the hint that it would be much more productive for us to work through someone than through him, who is already SO busy with, you know, a ward to take care of. Chris did come, but Carolyn did not :( The primary did a fabulous job on their program and it was just so sweet! I loved it! We had a discussion for gospel principles with Sister Gilmore and the Kalaghers, because no one else was there, and then had a great Relief Society lesson about temples. We had dinner right after that by ourselves, and then went and tried to see a less active we've tried to get in contact with for so long, and when her husband said she was busy, we said we'd come back in a little while, and just knocked around. We surprisingly talked to lots of people, few of whom even excepted cards from us, but it was nice to actually see someone open the door! Not very common here in New England, I must say! It was just a great night and we're ready for an exciting week! It'll be topped off by lovely General Conference, which we couldn't ask for more :)

Today, we actually got to visit Rose, who we met last week. We talked about the Atonement with her. Not sure yet if she's interested in church or making commitments, so we're hoping next week, when we teach about the restoration that we'll have a better gauge of that and we'll drop her or keep teaching her. We shall see! We'll be doing a deep clean of the apartment today...yay...I guess they'll be inspected shortly, so I'm excited to get it spotless and possibly rearrange. Should be fun!

I hope everyone has a fabulous week! I sure love you and I hope you have a great Conference weekend! Filled with sunshine and rainbows :)

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Lynn

and...it's fall

2011-09-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Dearest Family,

It has been one heck of a week! It's been great in a ton of respects. One of those being that my dear Sister Stevens and I are both staying in Manchester for another transfer! We both had a freakout moment the other day, because Sister Stevens has only ONE other transfer after this, and I only have TWO! Can you even believe that?! I'm beginning transfer #11 as a missionary and I think I'm going to throw up shortly. YIKES! How has time gone so fast?! Bleh. Moving on.

Monday night, after we emailed, we went and had real life Ghanaen food at a less active, Wilson's house. His niece, Gifty, made us this amazingly delicious chicken/rice/bean thing. So much flavor. I was in heaven. They want us to come again so we can eat more food from Ghana. We are shockingly ok with that. We're hoping to invite Gifty to be taught and to have Wilson be re-taught. He's sounding more serious about really coming to church. Most of the time he's been saying "I'll surprise you" which is Spanish for "I'm probably never going to come again, but saying this will make you happier than telling you no outright." Not buying it, Wilson. NOT buying it. I think Gifty is becoming more curious and he wants to take her to the ward. They invited us again for dinner tonight, so we're planning on showing Finding Faith in Christ and talking about our similar beliefs and moving on to the Gospel which will bless her tremendously. We thought it was a good plan :) What WASN'T a good plan was going home after that and asking Sister Stevens to try to put some layers in my hair. I told her what I knew and tried to demonstrate and my awesome companion tried, but it just wasn't working. We knew we needed some professional assistance!

Tuesday morning, we went to Carolyn's and talked about Faith. She hadn't read Alma 32, so we read some of the main verses and had a great discussion about what faith is and how we can strengthen it. She surprised me at the end by asking specifically if we could talk about prayer next time, because she hasn't been praying with us. We tried at the beginning but she pushed it aside, but she was for reals wanting to talk about how and why we pray, so we were excited! I was also VERY excited, because she randomly decided to share an experience. A while into us meeting "secretly" in the park with Carolyn, she was drinking her nightly cocktail and Janet was sitting and watching her. Carolyn I guess hadn't told Janet she was meeting with us. Janet looks at her and says "You're not doing your part." That kind of took her by surprise, but it made her wake up and realize that she wasn't here to waste our time, she needed to start making changes. She's still got some word of wisdom things to work toward, but it was so cool because she hasn't told us this, but for a few weeks, she has completely stopped that, cold turkey! And with that in mind, and with the goal of actually extending a baptismal date to her, I invited her as we've done before to be baptized and then to set a specific date as a goal. We said October 22nd, and she said that she would work toward that!!!! We have a lot of things to teach still, but that was very positive news! I hope it works out! After that, I got my hair fixed because it was bad. The place we went to is right by the laundromat that we do service in, so we've seen a lot of the stylists before. They were excited to have us come in and were asking us a lot of questions. My hair is beautifully fixed, although my bangs will be in bobby pins for probably the rest of my mission because they're just bad, but the actual haircut is just what I wanted initially. We had dinner at Sister Bain's house after that. We had bologna sandwiches with cole slaw. Took me back to my childhood :) We shared a message about Christlike attributes with her, and headed out. We went to visit Becky, who we'd seen in the hospital a few times. We found that she was moved to down the hallway, and so when we saw her in her room, she was waiting for the papers that would let her go home! It was awesome! We got to meet her husband, who is very tired of having a sick wife and made some fairly awkward comments, but it was ok. We enjoyed seeing her and we promised that we'd come see her at home so she didn't get so lonely! We had dinner and our companionship study at night and then visited Tina and Dejah who were the only ones down talking with us. Tasha came down for a minute and actually said the prayer, which was way exciting. But we still aren't sure how to help the fam...

Wednesday, we visited with Brenda in the morning, who'd read 3 Nephi 28 and mentioned feeling a little lost because she's not too familiar with the background. We challenged her to read basically all of 3 Nephi, so she could understand, with the incentive of watching The Testaments with her. She first started becoming interested in the church because of the film strips the elders would bring over when they were teaching her daughter. She was very excited with that prospect! We went to do service at Carolyn's, but the service was changed to basically lunch with a little bit of cleaning at the end. She made us DELICIOUS Jamaican food, and we had so much fun chatting with her about how she's doing. Her neighbor, Justin, came for a minute. She had invited him to have dinner with her the next night, so he was coming to talk about that. She said something about how she still needed to get something for him to drink, very much hinting toward alcohol, and I guess I gave a hilarious look to her, because she just started laughing. It was awesome. And I hoped that it burned into her memory so she wouldn't actually buy any :) We stopped by several former investigators and actually got a few return appointments, so that was looking hopeful! We're hoping some good comes from that! Bertha, one of them who is from Ghana, invited us for the next day, so we were hoping for the best there! Book of Mormon night went well! I ended up having to change which chapter I would teach because a certain Elder took too long with his first chapter, but it went alright. We had our normal group again, which was comforting. We went to have dinner with Sister Thompson and loved chatting with her and really getting to know her better. It was usually all about talking about our investigators with our ward mission leader, but she is just darling and we like her a lot.

Thursday, we did our normal service and then had an appointment with Sarah not to long afterward. We answered some of the questions she had from Sunday. Nothing too exciting. She's getting really overwhelmed with her dad, whose health is just declining and he keeps her up all night long a lot of the time. You can just tell that she is exhausted and doesn't know how to help her dad. I felt so bad!!! We had our appointment with Bertha and we were able to teach a few principles from the first lesson, but we have the goal to extend on every first lesson with investigators, so we did for November 12th and she accepted! She wanted to come to church Sunday and to have us meet with her and her kids. She loved the idea of Primary and the youth programs. She has an 11 year old and a 14 year old, so we'd love to help all of them get baptized! I don't know what her living situation is and really not too much of her background. We taught her on her front porch, so not too much of a conducive environment! Not too much exciting happened besides that...

Friday, we met with Carolyn and had a wonderful lesson all about prayer. She said she wanted us to teach as if she knew nothing about prayer, so we did. My testimony of prayer grew as we focused a lot on it. I am pretty grateful that I know I can pray and that I know he's listening. I can't imagine living a life without that blessing! She promised she'd practice praying aloud, because she wants to pray in our lessons, but she's not at that point yet. She also wants to come to church :) She told us about her dinner with Justin. Miraculously, it was rainy the day before, so she couldn't go to the grocery store (she relies on public transportation). Miraculously, Justin doesn't drink anyway, so she would have had a whole bottle of wine to herself. She opened up about how that was an excuse for her. She would get it for him, but she knew she'd be drinking it and that that's why she was really getting it. I was so proud of how strong she is! She's pretty amazing! We rushed to district meeting after that. Elder Salazar and Elder Medley are pretty sure they're leaving (which they actually are), so we were pretty sad that this might be the last one (which it was), but we had great trainings and took some AWESOME pictures. I found a lovely jacket that went really well with my outfit. Hopefully pictures to follow! We had lunch as a district and as we sat around, I was thinking about the beginning and about that ridiculously frustrating week a few weeks ago, but I have really come to love this district and I'm sad to see it change. Sigh. That's ok, though. It's supposed to happen. We had an uneventful afternoon, but had dinner with Denise. We helped with the cost of pizza, upon her request, and had chips and root beer floats with it. Quite exciting. She's just started a new job bagging groceries, so she was excited to tell us all about work and that's always good. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her and she really loved it. Hasn't watched it for a long time, but it really touched her, which I'm so grateful for. I just love that video. I think it's so powerful! We saw the La Marques, but Tina wasn't home, so we just stood in the doorway and talked to Dejah. We convinced her to participate in the primary program, which means they were supposed to come to church on Sunday. They didn't...not sure how that will go!

Saturday we had 3 main appointments. Sarah called the night before and asked us to come when Bishop came to do home teaching, so she could ask about polygamy. Wasn't really sure why we were supposed to be there, but she invited us for lunch, so we were down :) We had a great discussion and let bishop lead it about the doctrine of polygamy and we talked about how the FLDS is a breakoff, because she keeps seeing stuff about that in the news. It was good and she felt good about it afterward. We talked about LOTS of other things, too, including missionary work and callings and temples. It was great! We had a lovely lunch with her and her dad kept coming in and talking to us. Sweet man. We had an appointment with the Nobles and talked about Tithing and Obeying and honoring the law, which really doesn't relate, but they were the last few commandments we needed to teach. We had a good discussion, despite Aiden's crazy mood. He kept talking in what his mother called his "X-Box voice." Hilarious. He's doing a part in the primary program though, too, so we're excited about that! We had dinner with Patrick and Taryn and the boys. Jordan was being so cute. He's about 3 and he has a little girlfriend named Molly in his preschool class. They were talking about doing a playdate with her, and he said his mom couldn't come, just his dad. And the missionaries. Taryn asked if he's held her hand and he giggled and said "Yes, but her hand is small!" Oh man. He's so cute. We had "yoda soda" which is lime sherbet in something like sprite. We kept hearing him chant yoda soda over and over again. SO cute. Sarah had told us to stop by and get leftovers before we went home, so we stopped over there, where they were watching a TV show about celebrities and their genealogy. She was so excited to tell us about it. She gave us this giant bag full of leftovers and toilet paper and canned goods. This ward is SO good to us! We planned our day the net day and then anxiously awaited T-Texts! We found that we are both staying and that the only change for sisters is that Sister Meier is training again and that the other two sisters in that trio are going to be together in the other ward. Woot! Together again! Hopefully until the end!

Sunday was uneventful, pretty much. No one came to church, which was a bummer, again, but it was ok though. We had a great PEC meeting in the morning. We were under the impression we'd be getting a new ward mission leader during sacrament meeting. Not so. But hopefully soon. Also, our recent converts should be getting callings soon too! Everyone in PEC seemed very intent to light the fire of missionary work in the members and talking about HOW they can do that and what kind of actions need to be made, which was very comforting! Nothing too exciting about church to share (sorry, I'm running out of time) and we just did planning after church!

Monday, we had an appointment with Rose, a former investigator, who doesn't seem too open, but we got to talk about the plan of salvation, because she's still struggling with the death of her father. She was crying and we're going to go back next week. We did mormon.org after that, since we didn't get to last week, and then had lunch. We stopped by several people with no success...dinner with the Palmbergs though, which is always fun! We had tacos, which was the first Mexican food I've had FOREVER! Oh man, it tasted so good! It was fun to visit them, and I feel like I really got to know each member of the family better. It was great!

Tuesday was fairly uneventful. We saw Becky at home and she was delighted to have us come visit. She is WAY into genealogy and was excited to share how far back she's been able to go and how much joy she finds in doing this work in her family. We visited several less actives during the day, including Tina, who's got a ton on her plate. She had a tenant move out and trash the place, so she's struggling with knowing how to work on that. We're hoping to get a group from the church there to help! Because of several appointments today, we took some of our p-day yesterday and I got almost caught up in my journal. Fewf! I hate getting behind! And it keeps happening...weird.

Today, we visited with Carolyn and had just a short visit. For the second time, she gave us tea. She always wants to offer us something, and she knows we don't drink iced tea or green tea, etc. SO, last time she was at the store, she bought a bunch of different types of herbal, caffeine free teas. Turns out, I really don't like tea. At all. But I can't refuse...she's so sweet and has such good intentions. Bless her heart! We talked about Enos, which she'd just read. We visited with Brenda and talked about the beginning readings of 3 Nephi, which she's loving. We have a busy p-day ahead of us, so I better get going!

I love you so much and I hope you have a fabulous week! I am grateful for your prayers and your updates on p-days! It makes it so much fun to come and email! Good luck moving in this week, Mom and Dad! Should be fun :) Sorry I can't help!!!

Love you!
Sister Lynn

Happy Birthday Week Dad and Emily!!!

2011-09-13T08:48:00.003-07:00

Dear Family,

I'm sorry this is coming SO late today! What a great birthday present, eh? I hope you've had a happy birthday so far, Dad! I wasn't sure where to send a card, so you'll be getting one quite late...sorry...heheh. Anyway, we've had a busy P-Day, so that's why it's taken so long! But I'll tell you about the week first :)

Tuesday was wicked rainy. A tropical storm was really hitting CT, so the rain didn't stop for several days. Our appointments canceled, or even the things we thought would go through, so we got out our umbrellas and we went out to walk. We decided to have the destination be Sarah's house, which is about an hour's walk. We gave out a few pass along cards and met one guy who was out for a smoke who actually knows someone whose son is serving a mission right now! I thought that was cool. He wasn't interested in learning himself, and he lives out of our area, but we gave him a card, just in case! Sarah didn't end up being there, so we walked the hour back and the rain got harder and harder, with less and less people out walking. Weird. Who doesn't go out on walks in the rain? We got home just in time to go to "Mexican" (Taco Bell) with Jane, the RS President, which was nice. We came home and ate it. She checked to see if we had a dinner appointment for the next day, which we didn't. She told us she was "on it." Not sure what that meant, but we found out the next day :)

Wednesday, we had a text early in the morning from Sister Thompson, who we'd told we didn't need dinner because of a different appointment later that evening. She said that Jane sent out an email to the Relief Society: The Sisters will starve if they don't have dinner tonight. They told them when we could eat because of Book of Mormon night. We brushed it off and told Sister Thompson we were fine and that we'd come over next Wednesday, even without our correlation. Later on, we got calls from two other sisters in the ward :) We did get a dinner appointment. We had an appointment with Brenda in the morning, though, and had a great discussion with her about Alma 7. That has become one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, specifically about the Atonement and about how God doesn't walk in crooked paths. We talked about the meaning of that phrase and how it applies to us. It is definitely comforting to know that even when we make our own paths a little crooked, there's always a way to get back and walk in His ways. Even if we don't always do that ourselves. We did service right after that and were thanked profusely for our volunteering at Farm Day. They said that the museum made like $30,000 from that one day! I thought that seemed pretty incredible. Especially since it's like the smallest children's museum known to mankind...We had dinner with the Wade Family. We had a family home evening with the Spanish elders at the end of last transfer, and that was the last time, so I was excited to get to know them better. They've sent their second to last child to Utah for college, so it was funny to watch interactions with the youngest boy, Micah, and his mom. Except he's got 5 years of just him and his parents, so that's not too bad :) We had a lovely visit with a delicious dinner that ALMOST compared to Mom's cooking :) It was a casserole very like unto what I would eat at home, so I felt great about it! We shared a quick message and then headed to Book of Mormon night. We were almost late but were shocked when no one was there yet. Then, Brother Williams, who's in the Glastonbury ward, showed up. We chatted with him for a few minutes while we waited for the elders to get there. Annnnd that was our group. Nevertheless, we still had a fabulous discussion about Alma's advice to his sons, and Brother Williams seemed to enjoy it. Should be more people there next week. Please bless!

Thursday, we met with Carolyn before district meeting. She had re-read 3 Nephi 11, and brought up baptism RIGHT away. We were thinking that was so great, because we wanted to extend a date to her. We talked about HOW we baptize people and WHY we baptize people. We talked about the priesthood and she had questions about us being a lay ministry. She loves that fact. It was just awesome. Until Carolyn started going off on something completely different and we had to leave for the meeting, so next time. I'm really hoping that by the time we actually get to extend and do that she'll be ready! Sheesh! District meeting was actually REALLY good. I was asked to give a training (which is not, in fact, why it was so good), but I was so grateful. I was asked a few days previously to give one about finding people and members inviting their friends...two VERY large struggles for me throughout my mission. I was incredibly grateful that when I opened up my notebook to try to write stuff down, a letter Dad sent me a few weeks ago happened to be there, and it HAPPENED to be exactly what I felt like I needed to talk about. I had studied it and found scriptures and quotes from Preach My Gospel to supplement it. We got to district meeting and I was really afraid I should have gone a different direction with talking about HOW to find, but instead, we talked about finding the elect and having the courage to stop teaching the lukewarm people, and really focus on finding those who are ready to commit. I wasn't sure how it had gone over, but I finished it up, and then Elder Keeler gave a training and everyone's comments really came back to the training I gave and the letter you wrote, Dad. It was something ALL of us needed to hear, so THANK YOU! It was such a blessing because it tied in really well and I've heard from at least our district leader, that they dropped like 14 people because they were just teaching them because it's easy, not because they're ready. I really was so incredibly grateful for the wise father I'm blessed to have and that he's picked up on things that all of my district needed. We had lunch and it went WAY better in the sister-hater comment department :) We were mostly just pumped about the zone vs. zone p-day today and the particulars of that. We had dinner with Sister Sloan and we were spoiled royally from her kindness. She provides our toilet paper and lots of canned goods and food we can make ourselves, which is such a blessing. We shared a message about Christlike Attributes with her and she said she was going to pass it along to her family! WOOT! We stopped by Wilson, who is one of the less actives who's from Ghana. He and his niece invited us to come for dinner tonight, actually, so we should be having some awesome and really real food from Ghana! I'm down for trying it out! We stopped by the La Marques and talked about the Plan of Salvation a little bit. It was a very brief visit, but I think what we said seemed to be what Tina needed to hear.

Friday, we tried to visit a less active member who just got put in the hospital. Her name is Becky and she's in the ICU. She had a friend who was visiting at the exact same time as us, and her friend would hardly look at us, she seemed to unhappy to see us there, so we decided to try another day. This sister in the ward has had a lot of health issues, and she's about 80, I think. She seemed to think she was on her deathbed, but she's doing ok and doctors seem to think she'll be headed home eventually. We got to visit with Sarah, who had more questions about the temple and we actually talked a lot about the country and our freedoms, with September 11th coming up. We talked about how important this country is in Heavenly Father's plan and how vital it is that we have freedom, etc. It was awesome! We were supposed to meet with Jane and Patti, a less active, but she wasn't home, so we stopped by the La Marques who were in a giant crisis. Long story short, Tina was supposed to fax some documents earlier but hadn't asked anyone in the church for help, which she said she was going to do. So, Jane, being as awesome as she is, took us to her work and Tina got everything faxed that she needed to and she even ended up taking us for ice cream afterward. Dejah was there and told us that she hates church and she doesn't want to go back. That was pretty depressing. And possibly over-dramatic. But sad, nonetheless.

Saturday, we spent a majority of the time really focusing on what we can do to help our current investigators progress and going through the area book for former investigators and potentials who we felt may be worth visiting again. We got a good list going and we're hoping that as we focus on finding this week, that someone will be ready now or that we'll be led to someone who will be ready soon. We did go and visit Becky during the day and had a fabulous visit with her. Jane had given us a letter for her and a Conference talk to read to her, so we talked a lot about prayer and the Atonement. Like most of us, she's been battling with some temptations to feel abandoned and forgotten, not only by God, but by everyone. She's usually been home alone and no one's visited her too frequently. Hopefully we'll be able to visit again and help her understand more, because doctors and nurses kept coming and interrupting when the Spirit was getting to be really strong. Frustrating. We also got to go teach the Nobles. We talked about following the prophet, about keeping the 10 Commandments, including keeping the Sabbath Day holy and the Law of Chastity. Poor Aiden and Chris would NOT make eye contact as we talked about that last one, and Kim talked about when she was being taught by elders and how they were pretty embarrassed. That's about the most awkward lesson to teach, for sure, but thankfully that's kind of passed for me. Woot. They said they'd be coming to church (Kim tried to really persuade Chris to come). We hoped for the best :)

Sunday was fairly disappointing in some regards. We got a call from Carolyn in the morning, saying she wasn't feeling up to church. We stopped by the La Marques, and only Dejah was up and she said they weren't coming probably. Justin, Carolyn's neighbor, didn't end up coming either! It's pretty depressing when that happens. We had some fabulous talks at church. Some who talked about 9/11 and some who just brought up things people needed to hear. We had a small Gospel Principles class and Sister Gilmore taught that. She's been gone almost as long as I've been here, so it's nice to have her back, and hopefully we'll be able to establish the kind of relationship that Sister Cannon and Sister Jacob had with her! She asked about our work and she shared her goldfish with me, so I think we'll be alright! Sarah came and stayed for all the meetings. We talked about baptism and the spirit world, and I think she had a LOT of questions about both, so hopefully we'll be able to address some of that this week when we go visit her! For our thank you cards, we handed out funny pictures we'd taken to kind of joke about how much it really means to us that people fed us. For example, I've seen elders who took a knife and fork with them when they found road kill...ours was with Ramen noodles, but still had the same effect ;) Jane showed the picture and basically begged sisters to sign up and we are basically chock full the next two weeks! I was so grateful! We're fine to not eat every day with members, but it is a great opportunity to get to know them better and to be in their homes. It should be great! Sister Bain, who was signed up to feed us Tuesday asked if we had a dinner for that night and invited us as well for Sunday night. We had about the most interesting dinner ever. We ate salad that had lettuce and tomatoes and green olives, dripping with some salad dressing that I can't name. We had some dill pickle spears on the side. And then we had "spaghetti" which was penne pasta with the smooth tomato sauce, with...cut up hot dogs on it. There was some mysteriously old looking peas as well. It really didn't taste that bad, but afterward, we kind of laughed at the combination. She's not well off and it was a Sunday and she invited us last minute, so of course we were so grateful for her kindness, but wow. I tell you what, wow! Something to remember!

Today, we went and got my hair cut by Sister Fusco. It got cut alright. Pictures will follow when I possibly go through and make it look a little bit more like what I was hoping for :) Again, I'm grateful for a free haircut, but it will need some fixing! Yikes! We pretty much headed from there to Meridan, where we'd pick up our carpool of Elder Salazar, Elder Gardner, and Elder Medley. At least one may or may not have seemed nervous to have ME driving them, but I got them there safely and it was a fun car ride :) They are funny elders! We got to a chapel in Woodbridge, which is in the New Haven zone around 1. We got our t-shirts from the elder who made them for us, and got in our little outfits. There was a team meeting, with Elder Gardner in a weirdo suit and a Hitler looking mustache. He said some words and we said a prayer and then made a fantastic entrance. No one in New Haven seemed too wowed by our unity, but it's ok. Our first string players won our first game and then we basically watched a bunch of players and a bunch of different basketball games going on. We played one game of a type of dodgeball called slaughter ball. Everyone was cheating and lots of us hadn't played before, so it was fairly heated and competitive and we played one game only...The day was supposed to be more epic, I think, but we still had fun...Lots of zone unity, just in time for transfers. From the personalities that come out during such competitive games, I've found several missionaries I would NOT love to serve with...please bless! It's ok, though. Still fun. It took about an hour to get home, and here we are :)

I hope you have a fantastic day and week! I love you and I'm thinking about you! I'm incredibly jealous of the next generation get together, but thanks for sending the pictures! I sure can't wait to squeeze those cheeks! And I can't wait to find out when Little Miss is coming!

Love, Love, Love you!
Sister Lynn

Happy Labor Day!

2011-09-13T08:48:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

It's been a busy week of a little bit of teaching and a lot a bit of serving. We've heard of the last of our peeps that they finally got power back Sunday night, so the longest we've heard without power was a week. LOOONG time! I feel bad! But, overall, it was a good week! I hope everyone else had a lovely week!

Monday, we had a very relaxing day of writing letters and getting caught up in (my) journal. It's so easy to get behind in that thing! But, it was nice to have a relaxing day and to take it easy! We had dinner with the Palmbergs, who were still without power. They are so creative when it comes to cooking. They had us for dinner the night of the storm and they used the grill to make biscuits and hot dogs. Monday, they made us pulled pork out of pork they'd canned! Needless to say, they are shining examples of having useful food in their food storage that is delicious and can be cooked on a grill :) We played some more cards with Emily, and this time I actually came in second instead of losing! Whoop whoop! Right after dinner, their uncle came to bring a backup generator for their freezer, so that scattered everyone. We got to share a message from Preach My Gospel with Sister Palmberg and Emily and that was it. It was a fun night!

Tuesday we spent a lot of time doing some planning. We are just not coming up with too much new ideas for helping the work in the area, so we went through the area book thoroughly and the ward list and came up with a list of people in each of the cities in the ward that we should try to go visit. Most of our time is spent in Manchester, but we both feel that there are people all around in our area who are waiting for the gospel and we're hoping to either re-introduce it to them, or to find some new people now! We're really trying to focus on how we can improve the work here. It's definitely at a low point now, and now that summer is over, we have high hopes that people will be home and ready to be blown away by the gospel :) Hopefully that starts happening soon...We had dinner with the Olson family. We had an interesting chat with Brother Olson, who's a ward missionary and has no idea what Preach My Gospel is all about. We talked to him about his mission a little and he expressed a wish that he could have had Preach My Gospel in his mission. We had a fun dinner with their family and getting to know them better. I really love Sister Olson. She's got a lot on her plate and she's a great example to me! We shared a message from Preach My Gospel with them and tried to help familiarize them with it, and to show them how it applies to all members of the church, whether they're preparing to serve full time missions or not. It's the perfect way to learn the simple truths of the gospel and what commitments we all need to make to come closer to the Savior. For the last few months, I've been thinking a lot about it, because there's times that I just don't study it enough. But, I want to be better and I want to keep studying it when I get home, because it IS so important and I know it will continue to be a valuable tool in my own personal study! We went to the La Marque family afterward and had a short visit with them. Tina was not having a good week, with some family matters she's had to take care of, it's been painful and sad. It was heartbreaking to hear about it! I just wish I could take away a lot of the sadness from people's lives here. Things I've not had to deal with and things I hope I never have to deal with. It just makes me so sad.

Wednesday, we did our regular service for the museum, which was good. We did some street contacting after lunch to stop by Carolyn who had been without power the day before and we hadn't heard from her. On the way there, we saw the Gomez family, who we haven't taught in quite some time. Luordes was outside with all the kids, so we got to talk to her. It sounds like she doesn't want to be taught at all anymore, but she won't come right out and say it. Shasterry was just beaming after coming home from her first day at school and she told us all about it :) I remember when it was that exciting...haha! Anyway, we headed to see Carolyn. Janet was outside and told us that Carolyn was asleep, so after chatting with Janet for a minute, we were about to leave when Carolyn came out in her nightgown and cap. It was so cute. She was so excited to tell us that she had been talking to her neighbor Justin the day before and invited him again to come to church and he said he would on Sunday and...that he'd stay the whole 3 hours!!! We were so excited! She realized that she didn't have the address to the church, so she asked us to go stop by and let him know what it was so he could come. We did go stop by, but he didn't answer at the first knock, so we went to the front and rang the bell and he didn't come, so we knocked again and he finally came out. We talked to him for a good 15 or 20 minutes and told him how excited we were that he'd be coming to church and told him what to expect. He kind of asked our basic beliefs, so we shared a little about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He was raised Catholic, but didn't ever really have faith until a few years ago, and he seems like he really wants to start coming back to church. Turns out, we have a GREAT one for him to start going to :) It was good to tell him a little more and he seemed really sincere about coming, so that was reassuring!! A member in the Ashford ward, which is where Sister Dixon and Sister Allen are (S. Dixon was in the MTC with me), called us and told us about a friend she wanted to see the next day and invited us to go with her to visit. So, we did that and her friend Carol (not confusing at all) has recently had a stroke. She's there mentally, but has a hard time communicating. She doesn't really have faith in Christ and Sister Fusco (not related to Joe Jr) really wants us to be able to help her. She seemed open to it, but a little skeptical. We showed her mormon.org, because she's always on the computer and loves videos, etc. We told her we'd love to watch some with her. She kept saying, "You can call, but don't call TOO soon." We'll see how interested she is, but at least we'll be able to teach her something and hopefully help her at her own pace. After that, we headed to Book of Mormon night. It was a sparse crowd, because we were missing Gordon and his nephews, but it went well anyway. We were able to talk about Alma 36-38 and we had a great discussion about it, even without that many people. We went to the Thompsons for our last correlation meeting. He left this weekend to drive cross country to California to start his new job next week. We will be ward mission leader-less for probably a few weeks. Apparently it takes a bit for people to get callings in this ward, so I'm a little nervous! We had a lovely visit with them, asked about some of the less actives we knew nothing about, and took a few pictures. Sad to see him go. He's been a great ward mission leader!

Thursday was interesting. We had district meeting. The last few weeks, we haven't been totally sure where we stand with the elders. For the first time in my mission, I feel like I've got a district of sister haters and it's not been fun. All of the elders are so funny and we love them, but not sure they like us. But, it felt like it was getting better. We had a great training about obedience and Christlike attributes. We got split into groups and I was put with a few of the elders I thought didn't like us the most, and it felt way better after working with them. I wasn't feeling too hated :) We went to lunch afterward and one of them sat by me, so that was also looking up. We were talking a LOT about preparations for a zone vs. zone basketball game we'd be having. Sister Stevens and I tragically have no skills at basketball. After watching Elisabeth in YW Basketball, I think I've got a pretty good hold on blocking, but that's about it. We were sharing some concerns about if the other zone didn't have their sisters, would we still be able to "play..." And then it came. "You could make us treats." I wanted to punch him...I threw a napkin at him instead, but oh man. I was not happy. It is SO not cool to be with elders who think we came on our missions to make elders treats. I've known one of them and thankfully she's long gone, but I was ticked. I realize that I blew it far out of proportion, because it was just one off-handed remark, but the next day we got lots of that and I was just...mad. If you couldn't tell :) We decided to take the afternoon to go to Hebron, a town/city in the ward I'd never spent time in. We stopped by 4 or 5 less actives who we didn't know about. We only met one, but she was really nice! She was without power still, but she said that when her power comes back on, she'd love to have us for dinner. Her husband is not a member, but they've been talking about coming back to church, so we hope something happens with that! We ended the day at the La Marques...

Friday, we went to New Britain, which is in our District Leader's area. A member in his ward had a tree go down and fall on an old lady's fence and into her yard. I sadly didn't get a NEW helping hands shirt, but I just wore mine anyway :) We were there from about 9-12 working on cutting it down. The member had a chainsaw and was working on some of it, and Elder Thompson just started going at the trunk with an ax. His hands have some wicked blisters on them now, because he refused gloves (big tough guy) but he totally got the whole thing cut through with his bare hands! I spent most of my time getting the branches and piling them with others so it could go through a woodchipper. It was fun to serve together as a district, but we got some more ridiculous comments afterward when the male member had us over for lunch. His wife was asleep, so he jokingly said that we sisters could wait on the deck and start cooking the food while the elders rest a while. Grrr. He did wake his wife up and we were allowed to come in but the comments continued from this member and a few of the elders, though the members were the worst. He had a bone to pick with females who went to BYU who were RM crazy. He even asked me if I was one of them. Who does that?!?! More pent-up rage on my part. Not Christlike, I know. I'm still working on it!!! I was ready to get the heck out of there. We saw Carolyn who said Justin couldn't come this week. She told us about some drama with her tenet upstairs, but she had forgot we were meeting, so it was a quick visit and that was that. We saw Sarah and watched the Joseph Smith Movie with her. She really liked it and had a few questions for us, but it was a lovely chance to share our testimonies about Joseph Smith with her.

Saturday, we did more service. The museum we do service for put on a big "Farm Day" so we'd asked the elders to help us with it. I was ready to tear one of them apart with my vicious rhetoric if I heard one comment like that, but I was grateful that the one who started it all was VERY friendly and actually seemed to like us that day. For which I was grateful. We helped with directing parking and then with the hayride. We all took breaks, because it was way hot and it was kind of tiring to do the same things over and over again. They had all you can eat ice cream, so we went ahead and got some of that...it was great. The other elders showed up about the time we were all going to leave, so they could take over for us. It really was a great opportunity and they were great sports about doing weird service, but we go to talk to a lot of people in the community! Some looked very unsure about us, even when we were telling them where to park, but overall it was great! We met with the Nobles after we had a quick refresher and had a good lesson about fasting and we invited all of them to fast and have a specific purpose for church the next day. They agreed, though I'm pretty sure none of them did, because they didn't come to church on account of the stomach flu. Sad day. We had dinner and did some more planning. It was a long day of service and such.

Sunday was sad. Carolyn couldn't come to church, the La Marques didn't come, Sarah didn't come, Gordon didn't come, the Nobles didn't come, and Patrick and Taryn didn't come. It's SO sad to me when that happens. We had a great fast and testimony meeting and lots of people seemed to mention missionary work throughout the day, which is always nice, especially when you've had a rough week of not really teaching anyone! We joined Gospel Doctrine and found out that that was one of the reasons Carolyn probably couldn't make it. The class would have been too small, that we would have just combined with them anyway, and it was a little too deep for her, so we were almost grateful, but not really. We had a movie night with the La Marques, watching The Testaments, but most people weren't paying attention, so we stopped it early and left because she had to leave anyway to pick up her son from work. Bummer of a day, kind of.

Monday was super fun! We had a P-Day with Sister Dixon and Allen. We went to Savers, because there was 50% off all clothing. Most of us went straight for the skirts, but I was grateful the selection wasn't too good, because I don't really need anymore skirts. I did get a shirt that's Emily's blue, and sweatpants to cut off for the big basketball game next p-day, and a muffin tin, because we have none. I spent less than $5. I as pretty proud :) We had breakfast at "Sunny Side Up" which was VERY disappointing, and then we headed to Sister Fusco's salon, because she wanted to do our hair. She only had time for Sister Dixon and Sister Stevens. BUT, Sister Stevens went for a PIXIE! She's go such short hair now, it's so cute! The style is adorable and perfect for her face. The way Sister Fusco styled it was much more '80s and almost-mullet-esque, that it wasn't the best for her, but it still looked cute. I'd had the chance to trim Sister Jacob's hair before she went home, and Sister Stevens trusted me, despite my lack of experience, and I was able to cut it into a REAL pixie and it doesn't look terrible!!! She likes it SO much better, as do I. My dreams of going to hair school are totally still there...but that probably won't happen. We'll be going back next week and I'll probably have a much shorter haircut next time I write! Not pixie though. Don't even worry. We had a BBQ with the single adults in the ward, because we were invited by several people to join them. That was fun! And pretty awkward because most of the singles in the ward have some kind of mental health issue. But it was good. Denise loved having us there and so did Jane. We also saw the La Marques, who are doing fairly well. Still hoping to do something to spark them back into the gospel, because they're fading fast. Busy day, but definitely fun!

Sigh. It's been a pretty good week and this week is already looking up. I hope everyone has a great week! I sure love you and I hope babies are doing well, brother is doing well, Indiana house gets sold, etc! I'm praying for you all and I hope you can feel it! Love you!

Love, Love, Love
Sister Lynn

Oh my.

2011-08-29T15:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm wondering if I should be self conscious right now. New England apparently isn't TOO happy to have me here. Last year: hottest summer, almost Hurricane Earl, least impressive fall (I've been told), tornado, giant heat wave, earthquake, and Hurricane Irene. Is someone trying to tell me something!? Fewf! What will they come up with next?! I happily survived the storm, which I'll tell you about later, but sheesh! Lovely weather for a picnic!

Monday we did the normal P-Day things. We went to the stake center to play sports. Oddly enough, no speedball was involved. We played a glorified version of dodge ball. Super fun...to watch the elders compete. Our district leader, Elder Gardner did something to his knee earlier in the week, so he was limping around, walking away quickly from people with the ball. It was REAL funny to watch! We had dinner with (sort of) the Relief Society president, Jane. She took us through the drive through of Taco Bell and we chatted in the car, and then she took us home, where we ate the food. She's doing a great job as our RS President and has such high hopes of doing more for this ward. We went to the La Marques afterward and had an interesting lesson/prayer with them. The Spirit was really strong as we shared our testimonies and hopefully we can keep helping them!

Tuesday, we did service for Carolyn. We were going to help her with the basement again, but her next door neighbor came to tear out the carpet, so we helped clean there. It was hilarious. At one point, he was taking staples out and I finished vacuuming and he started asking me about what I do, what the mission is like. He asked about polygamy and I was able to dispel that rumor...later, Janet and Carolyn cut up some watermelon for us, so they invited Justin to come and eat some. Carolyn wanted to pray for it, so when she invited him, she said, "Come here, baby, we're going to pray." Silence in the other room. "We're going to what?!" "Pray! Come in here now." It took a minute to get him in there, but he did come in so we could pray. Oh, Carolyn. She'd been talking about the church with him, and invited him to come soon! He had noticed she was gone for a while on Sunday, so he wasn't too thrilled about the prospect, but he said he's open to coming, especially if he can leave after the first meeting. I hope he comes in a few weeks!!! I'm pretty sure it was this day, but we were sitting down to lunch, watching some of the church history DVD stuff, and I felt like Sister Stevens must be bouncing her foot up and down and that it was shaking my chair. And I looked down and she definitely wasn't. We both kind of sat there, shaking for a minute, and then it stopped. We had no idea what it could be, because there's no earthquakes here. False. There was. Aftershocks, I guess, but SUPER weird. We went street contacting and didn't really find anyone. At all...We stopped by a few people and no one was home, so that was a little disappointing, but our spirits were high. Not really an exciting day except the earthquake. While we were out contacting, we asked how someone was doing and they said, "Not good. I saw on Facebook there was an earthquake here." Great place to get news, I guess, but we were glad we weren't going crazy and that there was a legit reason we felt the shaking!

Wednesday we met with Carolyn at the park in the morning and talked again about agency, which she needed a refresher on. We started talking about the Spirit World and trying to go beyond that, but the lesson was kind of all over the place. She said, "I've been having thoughts....like, if I become a member of the church, what will I tell my family, etc." We were excited to hear that, but didn't have a chance to extend a baptismal date, because she was rushing to catch a bus. We met with Brenda after that and had a great discussion about Alma 5, which is what she'd read. We all shared a lot about our thoughts on it, and she had some great insights! We did service after that and then we got to meet with Fred. He was home, so we caught up on how he was doing. He's so bored! He's at the point where he's saying, "I was thinking about coming back to church, just for something to do!" Not great intentions, but it would be cool if he did come back! Maybe his heart will soften? We shall see. Book of Mormon night went well! Gordon brought his nephews again and one of them brought a friend, so it was awesome! They may or may not have been bored stiff, but they sat through all of it! We had dinner with the Thompsons who are definitely moving to California! They're going to be closer to Elisabeth, but still exciting! They had a for sale sign out, which was sad! It'll be good for them, though!

Thursday we had district meeting. We got some more updates on Irene, although nothing set in stone. We heard it was coming and that we needed to fill up our cars with gas, get water and food, and just to prepare ourselves for possible disaster. Not in a great position to do that as missionaries, but we determined to look through our 72 hour kit and to figure out what we had and what we needed. District meeting was fabulous though. We talked all about prayer and I was somewhat chastened to have more meaningful prayers. When you pray so much, it's hard to keep them all meaningful and sincere. Sometimes it feels like you're just going through the motions. Hopefully I will see that it helps! We had lunch with them and then met with Mary. She opened up even more about reasons why she doesn't come to church. I just still don't know how to help her. She doesn't want to change or feel the need to...there's only so much we can do! We had dinner with Patrick and Taryn. They ordered delicious pizza and told us exactly what we need to get for the emergency...We taught the boys more than Patrick about repentance, using the fun object lesson, and they really liked it. The boys have finally warmed up to me and they really like Sister Stevens, so we had fun! We met Jane (RS President) at a less active, Patti's, house and we talked about forgiving and about refraining from being offended. Jane wrote this intense talk about it, so we all read it aloud together. Patti really liked it and apparently really needed it. As we keep working, we're hoping to help her get back to church! Our appointment with the La Marques fell through, so we decided to try Walmart to see if we could get some of the stuff. It was completely out of water and batteries, etc, so we decided to try something else the next day.

Friday we met with Sarah and we talked about how wonderful it is to have a prophet who helps us prepare WAY in advance for these kind of things...He told us where we should go to try to get stuff, so we headed to Walgreens after one of the stop bys wasn't home. They had water! They didn't have the gallons, so we just got 2-24 packs of water bottles. We got some other stuff we'd been told from Sarah to get in case the water goes out too, etc. We felt fairly prepared...we did mormon.org before visiting with the Nobles. We were able to teach about the Word of Wisdom and had a great discussion as we refreshed Kim and as we taught Chris. She had some great experiences and insights to share, so the Spirit was strong as we taught him. He's basically living it, so hopefully he keeps making that a goal? We had dinner with Carolyn after that! She'd seen the dinner calendar Sunday, so when we taught her Wednesday, she said that Janet would love to make some Jamaican food for us :) We were totally down. And it was amazingly delicious! She made us this Jamaican lemonade, which is basically limeade. She made curry chicken and another spiced chicken. I was kind of hoping for Jamaican jerk, but maybe next time...It was amazing though, and Carolyn finally REALLY opened up about her past, which she's told us bits and pieces about. It was amazing to see more clearly what she's been through so we can address more personal concerns! We visited with the La Marques and I heard that a lot of people's preparation for the hurricane consisted of buying 20 cheeseburgers from McDonalds and putting them in tin foil until they need them. Ew. I thought I'd throw up!

Saturday, the rain definitely came down. We were told by our zone leaders to buy more water and to do our laundry while we still had power, so we rearranged our day. We went to Walmart again and got a few more essentials, and by then, we felt like there wasn't anything else we could really do to prepare. We stopped by a few people, but the one person who opened their door said they were busy preparing, so we headed home to do our planning and laundry and stuff and things. We kept getting texts and calls from ward members seeing if there was anything we needed, which was SO nice! One of those calls was from Jane who said that the governor had issued a statement that anyone who drove after dusk would be ticketed, so we definitely stayed off the roads. We were dying with the waiting game! The storm wasn't supposed to REALLY hit until the night, so we got flashlights where we thought they should be, we filled up the tub, which someone told us would be perfect for water to use in the toilet if our water went out. Definitely didn't sleep well. I kept checking outside the window just to see if it was windy or raining. The rain was going pretty much all night, but nothing too dramatic.

Sunday, church was cancelled and we were ordered to stay inside our homes, so I got up and got ready while the power was still on. I made a hot breakfast, sat down to start my personal study, when the lights and music flickered and then it was definitely out. And stayed off until about 10:30 at night! We had quite the hilarious day. We played some games, I got caught up in my journal, which I'd fallen behind on, and we ate some room temperature canned goods. All of a sudden everything that needed to be warm sounded REAL good. For lunch, we had some room temp. soup, which wasn't too bad. For an early dinner we had some baked beans and we pulled out hot dogs from the fridge to cut up. It was about the most disgusting thing I've eaten on my mission so far. Oh dolly. I tried to put some hot sauce in it to take away the yucky aftertaste and oddly enough, that totally didn't help. It was right after we both finished that we got a call from the Palmbergs. They asked if we had a dinner appointment and asked if they could come pick us up and do a BBQ because their power was out as well. We said yes, happily! Even though we had hot dogs there, it was SO delicious. Throughout the day, there was a lot of wind and rain. Our car was in the parking lot and we watched as an oasis slowly formed near our car, never hitting it though. Apparently the parking lot isn't quite even :) It was not too exciting, though. We never felt endangered. Would have been cool to have some windows shatter or something. But, we stayed boringly safe. Thanks a lot for your prayers. No cool stories ;) We didn't think the damage was too much because there wasn't anything we could see out our windows. As we drove to Coventry with the Palmbergs, though, we saw trees down and powerlines down. It was worse the farther we got. Hopefully there will be some cleanup opportunities! I want a clean Helping Hands shirt! SO badly. We had such a fun time with the Palmbergs. They made hot dogs and those canned biscuits (that pop when you twist the can?) all on the grill! It totally worked and we got to just chat. I think everyone was pretty much going crazy being stuck inside all day! I WAS glad we didn't have a 3 year old in our apartment though. That sounded not so fun :) We had saved the mission DVD player for the evening so we could watch the Joseph Smith movie when it was too dark to do anything, and as we started it when we got home, the power came on. We survived 14 hours of no power. Barely. Our water never shut off, which we were ETERNALLY grateful for! That would have been awful! The Palmbergs weren't on city water, so they had to use their water storage for flushing the toilet, etc. Yikes. Not so awesome!

Anyway, I had a great week, despite a few natural disasters that hardly effected me personally. Thank you for your prayers! I hope everyone's having a lovely week! Happy September in a few days! Can't believe that's already here! I sure love you and I appreciate all you're doing to help me! I need all the help I can get :)

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Jordan Lynn

week 1, transfer 10: finished?

2011-08-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I can't believe Daniel is in the Philippines already! Last night before bed, I was realizing that he was probably in the middle of his language study...I wonder how the heck he's doing!!! Who's his trainer?! What are the odds that Elder Haws is his trainer? Two blonde-ish, tall, white boys taking on Quezon City? I think it'd be a dream team!!! Can't wait to find out when his P-Day is and when he gets to write! But, I will tell you about my week, even though it probably wasn't as eventful as his was :) I haven't been to quite as many countries in so little time...sigh. BO-Ring.

Monday, we were readying ourselves to get a mini-missionary! We loaded up on snacks and food for three, we washed our car, went to the post office, walmart, etc. We didn't go to the church at all to play sports with the elders, which all of a sudden felt kind of weird and not P-Day-ish, but it was relaxing! Oh, and guess what? While we were waiting for pictures to develop at Walmart, I accidentally looked down the hair aisle and decided to get a box....So Sister Stevens worked her magic and I'm now a brunette! A real and true brunette! I was so shocked every time I looked at myself, but now a week later, it almost seems normal! I decided to be a rebel...hopefully I can send some pictures and you like it :) Anyway, we had dinner with Sister Bain, who had just fed us last week, but she saw our dainty dinner calendar and told us she'd love to have us come again so we did. We were headed home and about 8:45, we got a phone call telling us that our mini missionary wouldn't be able to make it. She's going out of state. To U of U...could they have told us this sooner? I'm sure. We weren't sure if we should be offended or relieved. I was NOT sure how to lead this area with a mini-missionary AND Sister Stevens, who just barely got there! We decided we were relieved :)

Tuesday we had zone conference at the Manchester building. That was probably the first time I haven't had to travel and hour or more to get to zone conference! They had to come to us! It was an incredible zone conference, though. It was all centered on the Atonement. We had President and Sister Evans speak to us, Elder Koerper (AP) and his companion, Elder Taylor, and all of it was about how we should focus our work on the Atonement. I realized that I've not been doing as well at that. Sometimes, you just get into the groove and go through the motions. Sometimes my focus wasn't/isn't about Christ and I was definitely chastened and encouraged to do better. They opened it up for discussion and for about an hour, missionary after missionary shared experiences about how the Atonement has effected them or their investigators. The Spirit was strong and I loved hearing everyone's thoughts about it. Sister Cannon quoted President McKay (possibly not word for word) but apparently he said something like but not necessarily "The Atonement is to make bad men good, and good men better." I realized that sometimes I'm floating in the good stage and I think everything's going great. I feel the Spirit, I'm doing missionary work, but I forget there could be something more I could be feeling. I could find more joy and satisfaction. I could feel more focused and more love for the work and for the people/area. I've got a lot of work to do, that's for sure! We broke for lunch, which the Manchester Relief Society had graciously prepared: Cafe Rio Salad and ice cream sundaes. We had some happy missionaries :) We didn't even come close to winning any clean award. I felt jipped. I did get sung to though for my birthday, and got a little birthday treat which included: a toothbrush and toothpaste and some popcorn. Nailed it. Good to put those two together! The rest of zone conference was wonderful! We had each of the three zone's zone leaders give "trainings" about the Atonement and there was a nice musical number. I left feeling VERY edified! We went and visited Mary, the older woman we've tried to go teach. She really liked Sister Stevens and the Spirit was really strong as we were teaching her and trying to get down to her concerns, but she's just tired and doesn't feel like changing. She doesn't want to go to church. She seems as well to feel that we're two young women and that it's nice what we believe, but she doesn't want to/feel the need to try to believe what we're trying to teach her. It's frustrating and we're not sure how much we'll keep going over, because it doesn't seem to be making a lick of difference in her life...we shall see. A woman in the ward came and brought us dinner, because for some reason we're not allowed at her house (non-member husband, I think?) and we enjoyed that...We tried to stop by some more people, but to no avail.

Wednesday, we went to go and visit Brenda. It was Sister Steven's first time going over there, and I haven't heard myself from her what her concerns are, so we took time trying to get down to the nitty gritty, but she seemed tired of telling the story and answering questions about why she doesn't go anymore. She used to be in the Primary presidency and her sister got sick and her mom passed away, or something, and she got released and eventually quit coming to church. It seems that we can't put a finger on what it is that stops her from coming, and she recognizes that to gain a testimony again, she needs to come to church, she just doesn't. I want to help her, I just don't know how! We did our stinky service and the Storrs (CT) sisters were in town at the same time, so we had a fun visit with them the laundry got clean. It was Sister Dixon (from the MTC) and her companion Sister Allen. It was really fun to get to visit with them for a little while! Not much else exciting happened that night, except that Gordon brought his two nephews, Aaron and Spencer, to Book of Mormon Night. Aaron really seemed to enjoy it, but poor Spencer, who's 5, was bored out of his mind by the end of it :) It went well, though. We had dinner and correlation with the Thompsons, with few updates, because of lack of appointments with the people we generally meet with. I love summer...

Thursday we had district meeting and oh boy was it fun. We have a new District Leader, Elder Gardner, and his companion Elder Medley, who serve in Middletown, CT. Our districts got re-aligned last week, so I was a little nervous about how it would go. The rest of the district is the same, just adding these two. We laughed so hard all throughout the meeting. We had a long get to know you portion, and then we continued on the theme of the Atonement and had a very spiritual testimony meeting. I'm going to love this district! I can already tell. We went to Wendy's for lunch afterward and kept having fun and laughing real hard. It makes such a difference when the district gets along so well. I really liked the last one, but this one just already seems more open and unified. Best transfer ever. We stopped by quite a few families after appointments continued to cancel. We got to visit with the Gomez family for a bit out on the porch, which was fun. Shasterry was excited to tell us all about her camp experience? This is the family we've team-taught with the Spanish Elders, but we haven't been able to for a few weeks. Hopefully we'll get to start again soon. We had dinner with Sister Sloan, the bishop's wife. She fed us so well and we got to talk a lot about her career and about our future plans. We talked about school and about missions and all kinds of stuff. We shared a thought about using the Book of Mormon when answering your friend's questions, and we challenged her to pray for opportunities to share her testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was lovely! We finally got to meet with the La Marques and Dejah's back, so we had some fun hearing ALL about her fun vacation and what she did. She showed us 3 snails she collected, which was not what I would have expected at all...It was fun, though. The whole family really loves Sister Stevens already, so there's a good Spirit when we're there!

Friday we got to meet with Sarah. Her father's Ghanean nurse came while we were there and got to talk to Sister Stevens about Ghana, which is always fun to hear about. I feel like I know a lot about Ghana now :) Sarah didn't have a great experience on her first Visiting Teaching visit, so that was kind of hard to know how to address, but it was all good. Hopefully it will just get better. Most of the rest of the day was spent planning and talking about our investigators, recent converts, and less actives that we work with. Always fun...

Saturday, we did mormon.org in the morning and had lunch. We then got to do service for Carolyn who we haven't been able to meet with for quite some time. She's getting all of her stuff from Florida sent to her house and so she needed to clean out the basement, but her sister can't help, so we got face masks and had some fun getting some gross stuff off the floor. It was crazy. So much soot and dust and I don't even know what else. It was really fun though. And she committed to come to church, and I think because we saw her the day before, she was determined to come! We got to stop by Adjei after we got cleaned up and committed him to come to the earlier ward. He didn't. We went and visited the Nobles. Aiden was out of town, so it was just Kim and Chris, but we got to talk about some of Moroni 7 about how God leaves it to us to judge and He gives the light of Christ to help us in these things. One of the frustrating things is that Christ doesn't want to judge. He doesn't want to decide anything. We can't make him! He doesn't love coming to church. He's reading more often in the Book of Mormon, but he's not going anywhere with it! Blerg. How do I help him!??! I still don't know...We stopped by a ton of people and then finished off our day having dinner. It was quite the day.

Sunday was wondrous. CAROLYN CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! We had gotten her a ride and she showed up in a beautiful, modest dress and she was just so happy to be there! And we were SO grateful that this was her first Sunday, because the last time we taught her, we were teaching the Plan of Salvation and we pretty much got to the Atonement and had to stop there. Well, all of Sacrament Meeting (which was the Thompsons) was about Agency and the Atonement. Gospel Principles was about Repentance. Relief Society was about the Temple and about the Spirit World, etc. It was SOOOOO perfect! It touched on and reviewed what we already taught her and then it will be a nice gateway into what we want to teach her next. She participated in Gospel Principles in the discussion and shared some experiences and it was just PERFECT! Everyone was so friendly in RS and she was invited by several people to come back. I was SUCH a happy girl! We're going to keep helping her with her basement and we have a return teaching appointment. I am just so grateful! We had dinner with the Hinckley family, who I don't know if they're related to President Hinckley or not...sorry. I didn't ask :) But they have a son with cerebral palsy and some other rambunctious children. It was a lovely evening with them. They both served missions. Their 12 year old daughter wants to serve a mission. They've been in the ward for years, so they could talk about some of the people we don't know so well. It was just awesome. Lovely Sabbath!

I am so grateful for your prayers this week! It's easy to get discouraged when no one follows through with appointments and no one you talk to wants to hear what you have to say, but I've felt a lot of hope and peace. I LOVE being with Sister Stevens, too, because she just makes me happy. We talk and talk and talk and we both feel like we're shotgunning this area, so she's patient with me. I just feel so at peace with where I am here on my mission. I couldn't be happier! Unless we got to see Carolyn get baptized...that may make me slightly happier :) I love you all and I hope you have a fabulous week!

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Lynn

She Said "I think I'm going to Boston!!!"

2011-08-14T15:13:00.001-07:00

Dear Familia,

Guess what? That is not me :) Sister Jacob is getting transferred?!?!?!?!? It's crazy and totally unexpected! But, I'm excited for her to have this adventure for her last 5 weeks as a missionary. It will be such an exciting adventure and she'll be great at it! We found out Saturday night via text message. They're now always going to tell us who's leaving and where they're going on Saturday, which makes things super exciting to me! I'll tell you about this later though. I've got a lot to report on!

Monday: We went to the stake center in Bloomfield Connecticut for a zone P-Day activity. We were supposed to go hiking, but the weather was terrible AND no one showed up except the same elders who always come to Manchester. It was hilarious. We all just drove to a different chapel to do the same thing we always do :) It was fun though. We played speed ball for a long time and then a funny kind of dodge ball...weird to explain so I won't...We went and played in the ferocious rain before getting in the car to head back for our proselyting hours. We had dinner with the Watt family, who I just love. They're an awesome example of missionary work. Last time, they had non-members at their house for dinner when we went and this time, he was talking about all these experiences he's had sharing the gospel at work. It's amazing what happens when you're prepared and excited because the Lord provides those experiences for you! We headed to see Patrick and Taryn after that, and they gave us a bunch of stuff for Amish Friendship bread! It was so excited because it was even better than I remembered it being :) We shared a thought with them about temples for their family home evening. They're most likely going to go to BYU Provo or BYU Idaho for Winter Semester, so it should be fun to be able to see them when I'm there as well!

Tuesday: We stopped by a few people in the morning but no one was home, so we went to see Eny. We haven't seen her for a while, so it was good to share a little thought with her, but mostly to get down to some of her concerns about why she's not coming to church. I hope that she'll be able to start coming soon, because I know she wants to and I know she wants it for her kids, it's just a huge leap of faith to go when there's so many things stopping you! I understand why she hasn't come, but I hope that she'll start understanding what a blessing it will be for her! We stopped by more people and did a lot of finding during the day, without actually finding people :) Gotta love it. We did get to see Fred, who we haven't seen for a while and he's still not ready to come back to church, but hopefully soon for him as well! One cool experience during our finding that's worthy of sharing is that I've been studying about finding people in Preach My Gospel. I want to be effective and I want to be doing all I can to find people. Well, one of the things it says is to ask EVERYONE for referrals. It seems so awkward kind of, but I decided that it's something I need to do better at. So, we were knocking on doors and no one was answering or else they weren't interested. One woman said she wasn't interested, so we asked if she knew anyone who might be. She pointed at the house across the street, who we'd knocked on but wasn't home. So, we decided we'd come back and try again...

Wednesday: We got to see a cool thing happen. Something I've wanted my whole mission! We went and stopped by Cheryl's house (the referral from the night before) and she was home! She said she's usually not, so that was miraculous. We offered our services and talked a little about what we do. At first, she was a little resistent, but after a minute, she said that she'd been praying for a church to go to! She expressed interest in coming to ours, so we got her number and told her we'd find a ride! She's super busy, and had no time to sit and talk to us, so we couldn't even explain what church is like, etc, but it turned out great! We saw Sarah on Wednesday as well. We talked about fasting and invited her to think of something special to fast about and she opened up a lot about some things we didn't know about. It was awesome! We stopped by Carolyn and Janet, the Jamaicans, and they didn't have a ton of time because their brother was coming in from New York, but we got to start talking with Carolyn about prophets and tried to pick up where we left off. Janet thankfully went in the other room so there was no contention or questions about Bob Marley being a prophet :) It was great too because Carolyn expressed a desire to meet with us away from the house so there wouldn't be distractions, so we set up a time for the next day to meet early at a park by the library! We had Book of Mormon night after that and it was a great discussion! Sister Jacob and Elder Salazar taught for us, so it was a nice break for me to sit and enjoy! There was a lot more people than normal, too, so that made it fun!

Thursday, we met Carolyn in the park and had an awesome first lesson with her! We started on prophets and apostasy and talked more about the restoration. She's so open minded and she enjoys what we talk about and what she reads. She says she's not ready for baptism yet, but that she wants to keep learning. She talked more about her past and where she's coming from, which was great information for us to have so we could understand her better. It was an awesome lesson! We had district meeting shortly thereafter and had a great training from Elder Thompson, who really hates talking :) He did a great job, though, and I learned a ton! We had lunch as a district after that and it was weird because Elder Mitchem is going home on Friday and this was his very last district meeting...Weird. We saw Mary H., a less active we've been trying to help come back to church and get to the temple. We'd found out the week before that she doesn't have a testimony of mostly anything, so we had a great discussion about the blessings of reading and praying and we talked a bit about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I hope we can help her get a testimony and to be ready for coming back to church! After that, we stopped by a lot of people and did more finding before we had an AWESOME lesson with Amy, who lives near us. We'd met her out cutting her grass with scissors and have seen her various times walking by and we finally had a teaching appointment. She'd read the introduction and the testimonies, etc, at the front of the Book of Mormon and had a few questions. She is very open minded as well and seems to be trying to figure out what she believes. I can't even describe how amazing the lesson was. She has a lot of questions, but everything we talked about made sense to her. I remember one of the times, she asked a question and then answered it herself by talking about prayer. She for some reason isn't sure about praying, but she is so excited to read more in the Book of Mormon and to just learn more of the gospel. She's lived without it most her life and isn't sure what to believe, but she loves a lot of our beliefs already. She doesn't know that she accepts them as truths, but it all makes sense to her. I was SO happy!

Friday we did a ton of planning and stopping by. We got to visit with Brenda, who I just love. She's got a ton to worry about with her husband's health, but we had a great discussion and read from the Book of Mormon with her. She shared with us what she'd read in the Book of Mormon and had lots of good insights about it. We saw Tina and the girls. We talked about hope with them we talked about what she's going through right now...Lots right now. Always...But, it was great! Miracle of miracles: we thought we wouldn't be able to go to the temple because none of the recent converts were going. Well, we got a text from Gordon late-ish saying that seconds after he found out he was not needed at work, bishop called and asked if he needed a ride to the temple, so he was able to go! Which meant that WE were able to go!!!

Saturday was mostly spent getting to the temple and being in the temple. We got to watch the youth and Gordon get baptized and confirmed. WE could only do confirmations, but it was such a sweet experience. Gordon really had a great experience there. Every time I looked at him, he had a huge smile on his face and just looked so happy to be there. The Spirit was strong! I loved getting to go and watch. It reminded me of going with Maryse and I couldn't help but laugh :) That was a year ago! Anyway, we had a fun ride with the YW President and the Wade kids. Lots of laughing and quoting movies and trying to listen to Mo-Tab :) They're so good to us!!! We had a great lesson with the Nobles when we got back. They hadn't read the chapter we left with them, so we read it with them and talked about it. I think that really helped Chris learn HOW to read the scriptures and HOW to learn from them and pick things out that apply to us. I was glad! We had dinner with the Thompsons and it was fun for me to be able to meet their little boys. They have 3: Connor, Tristan, and Hayden. SO adorable! They love the missionaries. As we were talking about our investigators and members, Hayden, who's probably 3, fell asleep cuddling with Sister Jacob. He's put on this blanket that was a monkey (had a tail and ears and everything) and the poor little lamb was all tuckered out. Loved it. We went and got dessert afterward at this place called Shady Glen which had amazing ice cream! It was raining pretty bad and it was about curfew, so we got the ice cream and got home with enough time to plan out our next day and to wait for T-Texts. All day, I'd been thinking "If we HAVE to be in a trio, I hope it's with Sister Stevens." I had even prayed that I could be with Sister Stevens, because I just love her and I've wanted to serve with her since the MTC! Well, my prayer was answered. Her name was on the second text saying that she was coming to Manchester! I was SO relieved, thinking, this is going to be a super fun trio, we're going to love each other. Well, a few texts later, we saw Sister Jacob's name and that she was going to the city to be in the University Ward and the Charles River ward!!! She was freaking out! She'd wanted to stay here the rest of her mission, but I think that what I've heard about it, and the fact that it would be such a good challenge to end your mission on, got her way excited and by now, she's good. I felt so bad, but I am SO excited to serve with Sister Stevens!!!

Sunday was fun! We had all our meetings and church went well! We'd stopped by Carolyn to make sure she still needed a ride and was coming to church. She had a head of hair full of curlers but was unfortunately not feeling well at all, so she told us she'd plan on next week :( We called Cheryl and had gotten her a ride and she came and LOVED it! Because we hadn't gotten to talk to her about anything and the fact that everyone bore testimony of prophets made me a little nervous, but she really liked it and wants to come back! I hope we can start teaching her and help her realize what we're all about :) I was grateful it all went so well! We had dinner with the Allen family. They're an older couple who are so funny. He's been baptized but is zero interested in the church. Sister Allen used to be the RS President and is still mucho active. There was some bantering going back and forth as we talked about how the Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul (because of the Preach My Gospel emphasis in the ward). It was awesome. We got a tour of their old barn which was used for dairy cows. We got some GREAT pictures from that...hopefully will be sent Monday if I've got time! We saw Tina and Tasha who'd gone to church. They were SO sad to hear that SIster Jacob was leaving. It was sad...

Monday and Tuesday were full of visiting a bunch of families in the ward who we love. We had lunch with Brenda, who did fondue for us :) We saw a less active member and a few very active members, including the Palmbergs, who we had the 4th of July with. We got to teach Carolyn most of the Plan of Salvation and she's still enjoying what she's learning. She won't commit to a specific date for baptism, but she's excited to come to church and to meet with us again. WE got pictures with her too, because she's sad that Sister Jacob is leaving!!! We saw Eny again and Sister Bain...WE had dinner with Gordon and his nephews and mom, which was so much fun. The boys are OBSESSED with Star Wars and Harry Potter. I felt rather out of the loop because of my total lack of knowledge on the two subjects. When asked who my favorite Star Wars character, I accidentally said Padowan (?) instead of Padme? I was rebuked. And sorely chastened. I think I'm ok with that though. We saw Sister Whimpey and cleaned her kitchen for her. We saw the La Marques who made cake for her, and then we saw the Gilmores, who'd invited a bunch of people over and also made a giant cake. I've cleaned a bunch in the last few days and she's packed. It should be a nice clean apartment for Sister Stevens :)

It's been a great week for me and I hope everyone has a great rest of their week! Still hoping for the best house-wise! I sure love you and appreciate all your prayers, encouragement, and support!

Love, Love, LOVE,
Sister Jordan Lynn

How is July OVER!?

2011-08-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Yikes!!! I really can't believe how fast July went! I've been in Manchester for a month! I was arriving in Mass about a year ago. It is just amazing how fast time seems to go! Not so awesome sometimes, but it helps me want to make the most of the time I'm given here! It's been a rather challenging week for me, but it turned out really well, so thankfully, I have some good to report on :) One of those good things, right off the bat, is that I somehow DID avoid getting a hot and I'm pretty sure that means that I won't be getting one anytime soon! If it hasn't come in a week, I think and hope it won't come!

Monday was a lovely P-Day. The first really relaxing one I've had since being here in Manchester, and I think I really needed it. We still went to the church with the elders, but because Sister Jacob was still sick, we didn't play speed ball with them, so I got to write some letters, which I'm still behind on, and I got to stay not sweaty. Yay! We had an awesome family home evening with the Hilke family and the Nobles. We had asked the Hilke family if they would be willing to host the recent convert/part member Noble family, and they said yes, so we went early and had dinner with the Hilkes and then the Nobles came for the lesson, game, and dessert. Chris Noble, who we've been teaching, who's really shy, actually seemed to have fun and I know that Kim and Aiden did too! We played Catch Phrase and it made me miss playing that with the fam. It's going to be the funnest to play games again! But we definitely had fun. One of the Hilke boys, who I think is 14, has Aspbergers, and during one of the turns, the person describing the phrase said "it's something they used to say before you'd go to bed," and when that didn't help, he said, "there's a number in it!" Nick said, "27?" There were several other instances which probably aren't that funny on email, but they were funny in person :) It was a good night!

Tuesday we went and contacted a referral we'd gotten the week before, and he wasn't interested in learning more, but he was glad to have the Book of Mormon. We did planning from last week, because we never got the chance to, and then we tried stopping by a bunch of people. It was a blah day, but one of the perks was that a family who had been really active, got sealed, etc, opened the door when we got there, which is unusual for her, and we got to talk to her! I was also grateful, because I had the thought to ask if her 2 younger kids had been baptized and if that's something she wanted for them. She said she did and I was able to offer our services in teaching them and getting them ready for that! Thank you, Oxford, for preparing me to be ready to teach less active children! It was something to make me grateful. She didn't commit to it, but she said she'd talk to her husband and we'd call her this week to find out if they're open to that! We had dinner with Sarah and her sister, and we had a lovely evening with them, eating Chinese and talking about Family History work, because Sarah's non-member sister LOVES genealogy! It was especially wonderful because I had gotten a packet from Grandma and Grandpa Orton with some excellent family history information about ancestors we have that lived in the Oxford area :) I got to share some cool stories they'd sent and it was GREAT! We saw the La Marques and we shared a scripture and listened as they talked about some of the struggles they're going through. It was a great meeting. Dejah is starting to love me, it's awesome.

Wednesday we stopped by a few less actives and tracted wherever we went. We did get to see several of them who let us in and who were really nice. They let us right in and we got to talk with them and get to know them a little better :) We did service and it wasn't that bad, which I was grateful for. We went and stopped by some more people who weren't home and did some tracting/street contacting. We stopped by a less active who'd invited us for dinner, who'd completely forgotten we were coming. She still ordered pizza and let us know more of her conversion story. Hopefully we'll be able to help her get back into church. We met her daughter, who's about 7 months pregnant, who's also less active but that lives outside of our area. She gave us her info so we could give it to the elders who serve there and hopefully they can start working with her and her fiance to get them to church! Book of Mormon night went really well! I got to teach the first half about Alma 20-22 and then one of the elders taught 23-24. The Spirit was SO strong there as we talked about conversion and about missionary work and about repentance. It was so interesting. Elder Keeler pointed out v. 15 where it talks about getting the evil spirit rooted out of us when we're converted. He served in Springfield when the tornado hit, and he talked about seeing giant trunks just rooted out of the ground. It's not something that stuck out to me while I was reading, but it really hit me when he mentioned that. It's not something that happens naturally. Sometimes those roots are really deep. BUT, when we're ready and willing, we can allow that change to come to us where we're truly converted and we let go of those roots. It was just so inspirational to me. We had a meeting at the Thompsons with the ward missionaries to talk about our role playing Sunday, since he'd be gone, and we'd be going on splits to teach the adults and the youth. Long meeting that went around in circles for a while, but we got down to the nitty gritty and it went well :)

Thursday was what I really needed. We had a zone meeting and our interviews with President Evans first thing in the morning. I'd been really discouraged because I felt like nothing we were doing was helping. None of our finding was bringing any fruits and I didn't feel like I'd been following the Spirit correctly, because we never seemed to be in the right place at the right time. President was just so cheerful and he briefly talked about how it all has to be with love. We have to show people who happy we are and how we really care about them. We need to try to make friends, and bring the gospel into conversations with them. The people who are prepared will engage in that, and the people who aren't will be staring at my nametag and someday, they'll remember that they talked to a really nice, happy, friendly person who wore a nametag like that. It was what I needed to hear. We had an amazing zone meeting and I heard a lot of what I needed to hear. I felt better afterward! We went and randomly stopped by a semi-active woman who had just had surgery. We ended up having an awesome conversation with her and inviting her to prepare to go to the temple. It was the right place at the right time! We also finally got to meet some of our referrals we've had a hard time contacting, and it kept helping me feel better. The biggest miracle, though, was that we were knocking on doors after an appointment fell through and met a woman who was really friendly and who was pretty sure her daughter was a member of the Church. She gave us her information and we kept walking. It was a pretty big house, so we said hello to the woman who was smoking on the balcony, but she didn't give us the time of day, so we kept walking, and THANKFULLY Sister Jacob saw a woman on the other side of the house, cleaning the door. We approached her and asked if there was anything we could do to help. Both very serious and sincere, and she was SO touched, she let us come in and scrub her oven and we had an amazing conversation with her. Her name is Carolyn, and she just moved there with her sister Janet. They're from the Caman Islands, both in their 60s. We got to talk to them a little about the church and we gave Carolyn a Book of Mormon. We set up a time to come and talk to them more, and they were both just so excited and grateful to have us come right then. We were too!!! They'd seen missionaries in Jamaica, but hadn't heard much about the church, so it was the perfect opportunity!

Friday we did our planning for this coming week and that went really well. We made some great plans and with some new zone goals, we were pumped and ready to work hard to meet them! We had amazing lesson with Gordon and Sister Gilmore. It was his last "new member lesson" and we talked about missionary work. It's been perfect because in Book of Mormon night, what we've been reading has all been about missionary work, so it's been on his mind, and we got to share experiences and he got to share his thoughts. One of the things he said that I just was agog about was, "I was thinking the other day...'Who am I to keep this to myself?'" Great question, Gordon. Great. Question. It was just awesome. We stopped by a less active, Mary, who we've seen a few times over the last few weeks. Jane wanted us to stop by to talk about getting her to the temple and it was AMAZING because we got down to what is keeping her from everything. She never had a testimony of the church, the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith. Or even the Plan of Salvation, for that matter. She got baptized because she had an experience, and it wasn't based on faith or belief. It was just the experience, so we want to get in there and start teaching her from the beginning and help her to gain an actual testimony for herself! That night, we had a super fun night with the Wade family. Elder Shepherd, who's here in CT, is their nephew/cousin, and he's about to go home, so President gave him permission to do a family home evening with them and a Spanish family (since he's a Spanish elder), so we invited a less active family in the ward. We had dinner with the Elders and the Wade family, and that was so fun. I saw a picture on their fridge of a girl I went to high school with, so it was fun to have a connection :) The Garcia family showed up on Spanish-standard time. We were worried they weren't going to come, but they did! And we had an awesome family home evening with them. The elders translated into Spanish, and we played a game that everyone got into, and then we had dessert. It was just so fun. There's 2 little girls in that family, and one of them has a stutter, and the whole time we were eating dessert, she was trying to tell me about their day at the zoo. It was so adorable. Loved it.

Saturday was so busy and awesome too. We did mormon.org in the morning because we got shafted by one of our referral appointment. We then went over to see Steve and Mary, who we had dinner with a few Sundays ago. He was meeting with the elders way too frequently and not keeping commitments, so they stopped going and we just got back in contact with them. We had a great discussion with him, getting down to some of his other concerns. It's frustrating because he's had "visions" and so he's expecting his answer about whether or not the church is true to come to him through a vision and he won't accept any other answer. We tried to help him understand the importance of coming to church to help him find the answer, and he just doesn't want to come. It's hard because he wants to progress, he says, but he's not willing to do what it takes! We had lunch with them and got to pick a bunch of stuff from the garden. We have real fresh banana peppers! I'm one happy girl :) We stopped by another less active, Adjei. He's from Ghana and we've tried to stop by his house but he's never home. Well, he was on Saturday. We asked if he was Adjei and he looked kind of skeptical, but he saw the tags and he just got a huge smile on his face. Thankfully there was a girl in the house so we could go in. He was converted 20 years ago, served a mission in NYC a few years later, moved to CT because he had nowhere else to go, got a job that made him work Sundays, and he just got out of the habit. He has a testimony, but he's faded from praying and reading his scriptures as well. He lit up, though, as he talked about some of his mission experiences and we're going to go see him next Saturday again. It was just hilarious. He'd been looking at mission pictures, so he said he wasn't surprised at all that we showed up :) Yay for again being in the right place at the right time!!! We visited with the Nobles and talked a little more about the temple and new member type things, because Chris didn't join us. We had a lovely dinner with Jane and Sister Gilmore. It was such a girly dinner and it made me SO happy. We had bruschetta, soup, and salad. And guess what kind of salad? It was basically my Vermont Maple Blueberry from Zupas. Oh man. I was in heaven. We talked a lot about missionary work with them. They're both just so incredible. I want to be like them when I grow up :) We also got to see a little slideshow of when Sister Gilmore went to help with Hurricane Katrina cleanup. She went with an organization she found and would cook for like 600 people a day! It was awesome :) We saw the La Marques and there was a lot of drama going on when we went there, but Tina calmed down by the time we left. It was intense...

Sunday was SO busy! We didn't have all our meetings in the morning, because it was the 5th Sunday, so we had an appointment early with Janet and Carolyn, who we'd met earlier in the week. It was AWESOME. Carolyn had read the introduction, the testimonies, and 3 Nephi 11 and told us in detail all that she'd read! She is very open minded and really wants to come visit our church. She played "devil's advocate" and asked how she could know it's true. We told her :) What was funny is that Janet was being so negative and so almost confrontational, and Carolyn would try to explain it to Janet. "No, Janet! See: The Book of Mormon, ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF CHRIST" Oh, it was so funny. They're total opposites, and I almost wish we could somehow just teach Carolyn, because the Spirit would be there until Janet would come up with things like "Bob Marley was a prophet! Everything that came out of his mouth was from God!" Uhhhh. Yeah. Should be interesting. They're coming to church next week and we have an appointment with them on Wednesday :) We stopped by Sarah and the La Marques who told us they'd be coming, but didn't show up :( Church was fabulous. I was on "splits" with a Sister Olson in the ward and we did the role plays for the adults and it actually went really well. NO ONE likes the role play Sundays, but everyone participated, and we had some great comments. It was just such a relief. We went to see one of the young women in the ward who'd tried to set up a girls night with Tasha and Emage, but they didn't show up, so she invited a non-member friend over so we could share a message with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. We had dinner with the Sorich family, who I absolutely love. He's the EQ President and she's in the RS presidency. She's just the cutest woman I've ever met. So happy all the time and so funny. Sigh. I just love these people. It was an awesome day and we finished it off, as we've been doing, playing a card game. After we finish planning for the day and before we write in our journals, we play a couple card games and it's been such a de-stresser. It's been perfect.

I loved this week. I was almost in the depths of despair early in the week, but I prayed so hard that I could be happier and that I could see the fruit of the labor, and He lovingly answered my prayers. I know that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and that I am guided by the Spirit, even if we're not seeing new investigators popping up. At least we're inviting people to come unto Christ. It was a rough way to RE-learn that lesson, but I needed it, and it's going to help me hopefully for the rest of my mission! SIDENOTE: next week is transfers (YIKES!!!) so I won't be able to email until Wednesday, so don't be waiting on Monday for me :( SORRY! I sure love you and thank you so much for your prayers! I was fasting and praying for the aforementioned family members, so I hope that miracles happen THIS week for everyone :) THANK YOU!

Love, Love, LOVE,
Sister Jordan Lynn

Guess who survived the wicked heat of Connecticut!

2011-07-25T11:15:00.001-07:00

Dearest Family and Friendly People Who Are Reading This...

It has been quite the week! It's definitely been a great one, but it's had some challenges for sure. Namely: Sister Jacob has gotten a "hot"...not to be confused with a cold. Because it's summer. And not cold at all. Which means that next P-Day, I may or may not be reporting that I've been hit with one as well. I've realized that this has happened my whole mission. If my companion gets sick, I'm usually about a week behind. We shall see, though! We'll be praying for the very best with every one of you though. I'll be fasting for all the aforementioned purposes. My prayers will be headed your way as well. I hope it's a miraculous week for LOADS of people :)

Anyway, let me get down to the nitty gritty and talk about my week while I've got time. Sound good? Ok, ok.

Monday we had a lovely P-Day. We played speed ball again and I'm getting a little better every time. I wonder what this zone would think of walking football, because it's another one of those types of deals where it's a fun game but different....we may have some fun family gatherings when I get home, teaching you the fun games I'm learning here in New England! We spent most of the day after grocery shopping and email at the church. And then we got picked up by the Palmbergs, who also picked up Gordon, so we could have a special family home evening with them. We ate a delicious meal and then we watched the Joseph Smith movie with them. Most of the family hadn't seen it so we were excited to show it to them. Gordon really enjoyed it and had some good questions for us when we saw him later in the week.

Tuesday, we started off the morning seeing Sarah, who had lots of questions for us from the special temple class we'd had at church the Sunday before. We gave her a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet because there was some worry about her modesty. I guess the bishop and his wife had come for home teaching and she wasn't very modest...which was funny because it was super hot Tuesday as well, so she came down in a swimsuit so we could go sit outside...She's in her 60s, so it was kind of uncomfortable, but that's how it goes :) She's really excited to go to the temple, though, so we're excited to help her get there! We got to go visit Mary, who we'd met the week before. Her daughter was going through a hard time, so we talked with her more about how the gospel can help her get through everything she's going through. It's hard there too because she's in her late 80s and feels she has to take it one day at a time, so she won't commit to come to church or get ready to go to the temple...We had an appointment with Vinny after that, who Sisters Jacob and Cannon had met before. It was HILARIOUS. We went up to his apt area, which was on the second floor, and he had a big montage of his juggling days. He's 40 now, he told us, so he was kind of Uncle Rico-esque. But he came home as we were standing at the door, and since we didn't have a female with us, we went out on the front porch with him. He told us "There's more to life than drinking and drugging....like food. I love to eat while I'm drinking...." Oh boy. He talked about going to AA but that he wasn't trying to quit, he was just trying to cut back. I feel like every other sentence was about how much he loves partying. YIKES. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church, but he's not actually that interested. I don't know why he invited us to come back, but that's fine. At least we know where his heart is? The last stop of the day was to the Whimpey family who I am absolutely in love with. They're a young couple and Ashley has Lyme disease. She can hardly get up some days and is getting treated for it, but I guess she had it for 7 years before she was diagnosed, so it's a chronic disease that will never be cured. They have a little 5 year old boy, who is just SO adorable. We went and did service and I got to finally get to know her better. I'd heard so much about her and how amazing she is, and now I know why. PS: All you sisters out there, she has a business of making tutus, and will shortly have a website up, so I may or may not be letting you get over to the site so you can see how adorable it is. It's not up and running yet, though, so it may be a while. You would have died though. Little Bit and Sophie would look SO cute in them! Sigh.

Wednesday we got to go see Brenda in the morning. She always tells us all about what she reads in the Book of Mormon. It's amazing how much she really dives in and understands what she's reading! I don't really know what's keeping her from church though, so hopefully we can help her take that step! She told us we'd have to keep it short because she had an appointment. Well, the appointment ended up being to Harry Potter. She was SO excited. It's hilarious to think that 2 of those movies have come out and to hear second hand how excited people are for it. It's actually really nice to be away from that, I'm not going to lie. Anyway, we did stinky service again and it was all fine and good. And also stinky. But, I guess in Sept, we get to help with a farm day, which supposedly is less stinky and may actually be super fun, so that will be excited! We did a bunch of street contacting, because several appointments fell through, but EVERYONE was telling us how hot it was supposed to get and that we needed to stay inside. We had 6 appointments set up for the hottest day, so we weren't too nervous about it. "Then we got cocky. That's all it takes is one time..." By the end of Wednesday, we had 2 appointments for the next day, with the knowledge that the heat index was supposed to be somewhere between 100 and 110. AWESOME :) Anyway, we had Book of Mormon night, and were excited because Sister Gilmore finally came back from a trip to Utah, where she visited Sister Jacob's fam, so we got to see current pictures. The only pictures she has are the last ones she took with her family, so it was fun! We visited with the La Marques and enjoyed that. We talked a lot about faith and got them more excited to prepare for the temple :)

Thursday. was. hot. And also sticky. It's hilarious to me how you walk outside and there's no fresh air here. Sometimes you feel like you can't even breathe! But, with so much open time, we went and tracted a street that they'd wanted to focus on before I got here. We were knocking for about 2 hours and gave out one Book of Mormon. One older woman told us she had her faith and then as we were inviting her to take a card, she closed the door and said, "Get outta the heat! You crazy?!" *slam* SO funny. We also had an older gentleman who had family that were members, I guess, who, when asked what he feels his purpose in life is, responded, "Not to talk to missionaries!" He had a twinkle in his eye, though, so it was funner :) We had lunch and enjoyed thoroughly the air conditioning in our house. Yay for AC! We street contacted on our way to try and stop by Fred, who we hadn't seen since last week. He was thankfully out on his porch, so we set up a time for the next day. He's doing good, so we were glad! We met Sister Gilmore and Gordon's and we got to talk about the Temple Interview questions and clarify a few things we thought he might have questions on. He's incredibly excited to go! He told us a little about getting the priesthood on Sunday and how excited he is for more! We met the Boardman family at Friendly's, which is an adorable burger/ice cream place that I think is native to New England. We had a fun time getting to know them better and hearing their conversion story. He just got put into the bishopric and she is in RS. It's incredible how the Lord's timing works for them! She got baptized and he surprised her by being a member already :) You never know who you tract into! Miracles DO happen! We're excited to keep working so we can see that! We then stopped by a Less Active, who they'd tried to see for the last 6 months with no luck. Well, speaking of the Lord's timing. We got to her door and heard yelling. I wanted to try another time, thinking we shouldn't get in the middle of domestic disturbance situation. Thankfully, Sister Jacob was ok getting in the middle of it, because she was actually on the phone and bawling with an ex-boyfriend. And she felt lonely because her kids were gone and none of her friends were answering. SO, we got to be her listening ears while she's struggling and invite her to come back. She got offended in the past, I guess, and hasn't been back for a long time, but we were excited to make contact at a good time!

Friday, Sister Jacob got hit with the hot. She hadn't felt great the day before, but she woke up and felt worse. We went to district meeting and had a good time with them at lunch after ward, and then we did mormon.org because a potential didn't show up to our appointment, and then she couldn't tough it out anymore, and we went home so she could sleep. I got to do some more study and I organized cupboards in the kitchen. I tried to keep busy and productive, which can be hard to do...but it was fine. She got a lot of rest and everyone we had to cancel appointments with was fine with it.

Saturday was a fun day! Our ward did a Pioneer Day party!!! Who even knew they did that outside of Utah?! Not I. They had lots of people dressed in costumes, the primary was doing it's own activity while the youth had more activities. I got invited...slash forced....to participate in a pie eating contest because no one would volunteer to do it. We ended up having probably 8 or 9 people doing it. We ate those little personal pies without the use of our hands. I came in 3rd. Good not great. But it was way fun. My hair was going all over the place, so a young adult who just moved in with her sister was kind enough to hold my hair back. I'd like to blame my 3rd place on that. I got distracted....cough. It was really a fun activity though. I got to know the ward a lot better and met some people I'd never met before. It was awesome. The women in the ward (namely 3 older single women and the bishop's wife) sat around the table telling Sister Jacob that she needed to go home and rest and not try to be the hero...I was kind of glad because I can't do that on my own, but I know that if she kept up the pace like we'd been doing at the beginning of the week, she'd never get better! Thankfully, she felt well enough to later go see the Nobles. Chris was there and we got to meet with him, which was excited! We really talked a lot about scripture study and prayer and how he really does want to know if the church is true and helped him realize that he should be working toward something, having us come and teach his recent convert mom and brother. Hopefully it happens! We had dinner with Dale and Kim, a part member/less active couple that we met the week before. Oh man, we had SO much fun. She's from Korea, he's from New York, and they invited over family friends, his friend Doug and his friend's daughter Kristyn, who is a missionary for a Baptist church. At first I was a little nervous about that, but it was so much fun. We ate so much food!!! For appetizers, we ate sushi. I ATE REAL LIFE SUSHI! And I LIKED it! We ate some Kim Chi, which literally means fermented cabbage. I know. I'm adventurous! We ate potatoes and green beans and chicken and cheese cake. I wanted to explode!!! It was a great dinner though. We got to answer a TON of questions that Doug had and gave him a card to look at the website :) It was great.

Sunday was super busy. We had lots of meetings in the morning and then had church. The Whimpeys actually got to come! They've been too sick to come for probably the last 6 weeks! After church, we went with Jane, the RS president, to visit some less actives and go to some appointments that we had, which fell through. But again, the Lord's timing in letting Jane come and our appointments canceling made it possible to stop by a less active who let us in and we had a deep discussion that got down to her real concern about not coming to church. Hopefully we'll be able to work with her to get to her to overcome her fears so she can come! We saw the La Marques and we had a lovely time with them. They came to church without Emage and stayed for all 3 hours! We're going to be helping Tina quit smoking, so hopefully they'll be able to get to the temple soon! I just love that family!!!

Anyway, I have to get off soon, but I sure love you. I pray for you everyday. I hope that we do get to see miracles this week with sold homes, jobs, moving arrangements, children, etc! Know that I love you and that I pray for you! Have a miraculous week!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
Sister Lynn

FEWF!

2011-07-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been an awesome week and I'm going to try to make this as brief as possible, because I just don't get that much time here. BUT, thank you everyone for your updates and I'm glad everyone is doing well! I will keep praying about the house getting sold, because that was a HUGE bummer. Anyway...Let's get down to the nitty gritty.

Monday: We had another P-Day with the elders where I learned how to play "speed ball" which is a cross between ultimate frisbee, football, and soccer. It's intense. But I had so much fun and found that I'm a lottle bit competitive some times. BUT, I didn't injure anyone except with my skills, so it was gruh-ate. We didn't have any dinner appointments, so we were trying to look for our potentials/referrals. No one was home. We stopped by another potential Sister Jacob had met, and instead found his landlord cleaning up after him. He's Haitian, and his name is Moise (which is Moses in French). We offered to help him paint, since his wife and mom were in the house and so we got to talk to him about some stories in the Bible and offered him a French Book of Mormon. He said we could come back and bring it to him and talk to him more about it. It was excited to see how service brought us a potential investigator. You never know when they'll accept the help!

Tuesday: We got to visit with Taryn in the morning, but Patrick wasn't there. We went out and street contacted after that for approximately 3.5 hours in 90 degree heat with MUCHO humidity. It was incredible though because we were put in the right places at the right time SO MANY TIMES! We got to see a few potentials that they've had a hard time contacting. We got to meet a few new people who were out and about. Sister Jacob and I were walking and she got kind of lost, but because of that, we got to stop by a few people who were home and then we met a guy who I think could really be ready! His name is Mike and we're hoping to have an appt with him this week, so we'll see how that goes. He had just gotten home and was sitting, drinking a beer, and it was kind of out of the way. All day, we'd both kind of been taking turns talking to everyone, even when the other person wasn't going to. This time, Sister Jacob started toward him and it ended up being great! We gave him a Book of Mormon and we've got high hopes! We had dinner with Sister Bain, who is an older widow in the ward. We had an interesting dinner with her, and she was so grateful for our company. We got to see the LaMarques after that with Jane, the RS President. They loved Jane, which was miraculous! We had a great discussion about the temple because Tasha had done genealogy at YWs and was just pumped about it.

Wednesday: We got to visit with Brenda in the morning and talked to her more about getting ready to go to the temple. She's got a lot of questions, but I think she's getting it. I got to meet a less active woman, Brenda, who I absolutely love. We haven't been able to meet with her since I got here, but she is so adorable. We had lunch with her and she is just bubbly and fun. I enjoyed our visit with her. She has a hard time getting to church, and I don't know specifics, but she read the scriptures that Sister Jacob and Cannon had left with her and she talked in so much detail about what was in them and what she liked. It was awesome! She has a strong testimony and you can tell she loves the scriptures. Hopefully we can get her back to church! She lives right across from this beautiful lake, so we went out and took pictures by it before heading out. Don't even worry. Jumping picture will come shortly :) We did service doing the stinky laundry which was definitely potent this week. It was fine though. I didn't vomit, which is a plus. I'm not looking forward to the day that happens. We went out and street contacted a bit and then stopped by a less active, Mary. Again, right place, right time. We've tried her before and nothing, but she pulled in with her daughter as we were waiting at the door. Her daughter had just had some traumatic stuff happen with a longtime boyfriend and it was the perfect time for us to be there. She was on the phone for part of it, but we got to talk to Mary and hopefully we'll be able to visit her again! Her daughter felt better after we left, so it was good! We headed to Book of Mormon night and I got to teach a couple chapters. It went pretty well, but we were sad because Fred didn't show up! We had a good sized group though.

Thursday we got to see a few other potentials we've been trying to see. And then we got to visit with Eny. We talked a lot about prophets and why prophets are so important. We then read a quote from President Monson's talk in Conference about how the most important goal we can have is preparing ourselves to go to the temple. We invited her to get ready to go and she felt the Spirit so strong. She remembered when she got to go in her teens and she really wants to go again, so hopefully we can get her there. SHE JUST NEEDS TO COME TO CHURCH! She still didn't come Sunday and it made me sad...We went out and did some more street contacting and nothing too exciting happened. It was a beautiful day, though. It had rained the night before, so it was no longer in the 90s and humid. It was not too painful to be outside!!! We met Gordon with the Palmbergs. Brother Palmberg brought his married daughter, Amy with him. We talked a lot about the Priesthood, which he got on Sunday!!! We also talked about callings and home teaching and he's excited to get started doing all of that. It went really well and I learned things I didn't know too well with all of Brother Palmberg's knowledge about the priesthood. I've got a lot of learning to do! We met with Shasterry and got to talk about the whole gospel. She was kind of distracted, but it was more focused than last week. We got to go to a relief society activity, which I was SO excited about! We got to watch this video about Mariama Kallon, who's a woman from Sierra Leon who eventually learned about the gospel (after losing almost all of her family to rebels) and then served a mission at temple square. It was such a great movie, and all of the La Marques were there and they loved it :) A woman in the ward's neighbor does a lot of humanitarian work, so she came an talked to us about her organization and people donated stuff to help women in Africa after they give birth. It was awesome!

Friday we had district meeting and pretty much all we did was watch Preach My Gospel DVDs. Elder Mitchem had a little activity too about obedience, which I'd done before, so it wasn't too exciting :) We had lunch with the elders and then headed to an appointment with Moise. He was super awkward though, because when we asked him if there was anything we could help him with, he told us that he needs help with his water bill and then with his porch and getting materials, etc. I'm sensing a little bit of being used here. And he's so offended when we tell him we can give him money for his water bill. We DID get to give him the Book of Mormon and talk more about that. He's so adamant about how Christ baptized and THEN taught people the gospel. He used a scripture I'm familiar with in Matthew 28 and when he told me to look at it, he was put out and sure that I had a different Bible than him because mine said that we are to "teach all nations, baptizing them..." It was kind of hilarious but frustrating to kind of Bible bash with him. He seemed like a Jehovah's Witness to me! Pulling out all kinds of scripture references. Bleh. We got to meet with Fred as well, who no longer wants to get baptized and he wants to back off a little bit. It was like he was breaking up with us. He kept saying that he couldn't come to Book of Mormon night anymore and kept asking if we want our large print Book of Mormon back. We're still going to meet with him and hopefully he'll keep coming to church and we'll get him there eventually. We had dinner with an awesome family in the ward: the Watts. They'd invited their couple friends over who aren't members to play games. SO we got to teach their friends a lesson about Faith and then play a game with them. The male friend had a lot of questions about missions, so it was cool to be able to talk about why we come out and what we do. He isn't overly interested right now, and neither is she, but it was still good. We're so proud of the Watts for doing missionary work!!!

Saturday: We pretty much did weekly planning. There was a fiasco though in between all of that. Some elders who are far-ish away called us to ask if we had any X-Large baptismal outfits. We do, so their ward mission leader was going to drive 25 miles to get it, but when we got to the church to meet him, Sister Jacob remembered that they're locked in a closet (which I didn't even think of!) and so we were calling people and waiting for someone to come get the suit out. The poor ward mission leader had to wait probably 45 minutes. It seemed FOREVER! But, the woman who's son got baptized last week just got called as the ward librarian and she has been at the library every night until about midnight making inventories of everything. We had time so we volunteered to help her and we got to do an inventory of a bunch of the books. It was great. She appreciated it so much!

Sunday was intense. We stopped by Sarah and the La Marques to see if they were coming to church. We invited Tina and Sarah both to a special temple class put on by a member of the Boston Temple presidency and his wife. They were both excited. Well, we had our correlation meeting and then PEC, which were productive and not quite so confrontational as a few weeks ago. At church, almost all of our peeps were there, just not Fred or Eny. But it was a wonderful sacrament meeting also put on by President and Sister Spears. After that, however, as we got Tina settled in the temple class, Emage, one of her daughters, became a runner who wanted to leave so she tried walking home. The young women's president and one of the young women were helping us keep her there, because Tina was freaking out and it was SO dramatic. I wanted to vomit. They got her to stay for the whole second hour, and then Tina took her home during the third, but what was so awesome was that Tina came back during RS!!!! They usually only stay for sacrament meeting, so I was SO proud of her! We got to meet a former investigator, Steve and his girlfriend Mary. Apparently things got out of hand with missionaries in the past. For years, the elders were going over there once a week, eating and teaching, but then 6 missionaries were coming to eat and he wasn't coming to church, etc. We were told it would be ok that we stop by, but that we'd have to be careful. They are awesome and I really like them! We can see how easy it would be to slip into a habit, but we're going to be careful :) We had a great conversation kind of finding out where they're at and getting more of an idea about what we can do to help them. It should be fun! We got to have a great lesson with the La Marques and their home teacher, Brother Lythgoe. We talked a lot about Faith and about how we show our faith. They're really getting it and I hope they can start becoming more consistent amongst themselves, rather than having us there all the time. I'm proud of how far they've come already and they're going to keep getting better :)

It's been a wonderful week and I've seen how hard work brings to many blessings, even if we're not showered with new investigators and people getting baptized. I've seen the Lord's hand guiding us to be in certain places at certain times. It's fun to work so hard!!! I hope you all have a fabulous week as well. I love you!!!

Love, Love, LOVE,
Sister Lynn

I'm a (mission) year old!

2011-07-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been a great week since I last wrote! I'm feeling more and more comfortable here in Manchester and I am loving working with Sister Jacob. It's a lot of fun :) I'm so excited to hear that you may have a buyer for the house! I've been praying real hard and will continue to do so, with hope that next P-Day there will be excellent news! I'm praying for everyone else too, I hope ya know...I'll keep on keeping on, and I hope everyone's doing gruh-ate still this week! I'll let you know about my week...since that's kind of why I write. I hope I crystalize it for you...

Wednesday, after emailing, we headed to Fred's porch to talk more with him. We were excited to bring him a large print Book of Mormon so he could finally start reading it so that he could get more decisive answers. We taught him a little more about a lot of different things. He had some good questions about the Priesthood and about the Restoration. We were able to extend a baptismal date to him as a goal to work toward, and he accepted! The hope is that he'll be baptized on July 30th, but he's got a lot to do between now and then, so hopefully he'll be serious and do what it takes to get a firm answer. He loves coming to church and the Book of Mormon night we do, but he doesn't seem to pray about things and take things seriously, as if he wants to commit. Hopefully he'll start soon :) We did our weekly service opportunity which is MUCH smellier than the Peace of Bread! We go to a children's museum that has lots of animals and petting zoo type stuff and we take their laundry to a laundromat and clean it. We're the very bottom of the food chain...we clean up after the volunteers who clean up the animals. Apparently it was a mild week, but I almost gagged when we took it out at the laundromat. Some innocent bystander's young daughter said, "Mama, it smells like poop in here." And then said it again and again until we left. I felt bad. And I laughed. Everyone's thinking it, she's just sayin' it! We went and street contacted as we walked to visit a potential. We got to meet lots of cool people and handed out a few Book of Mormons! It was great experience for me, and I've found that it's not as scary as I always thought it would be. I think that was the first time I've done that on my mission. I've knocked doors but I haven't ever set aside time to go street contacting. Lots of potentials! We had Book of Mormon night that night. Sister Jacob and one of the elders, Elder Salazar taught about Alma 11-13. Showed us Mass missionaries how it's done :) We had Gordon, Fred, and a couple other members come, so it was fun to see! After that, we headed to a mid-week correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. They made us a yummy dinner and it was fun to get to know them a little better! We saw the La Marque family that night and encouraged them to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon.

Thursday we had district meeting and it was a little less awkward than the first one. Still not as awesome as my last district, but that's ok. We did a training and it turned out well. As a district, we're focusing on charity and love, so our training focused a lot on those two aspects of our work, which really encompasses everything about our work! It's been great to study about it everyday and to make that a priority in the work. All different aspects and people are around us that we need to love. It's been a big help to at least be in my brain so that I can remind myself when I slip up...We had lunch with the district afterward and it was fun to get to know some of the elders better. I don't really know any of them but Elder Mitchem, so it's a bonding experience...We got to meet with Gordon with a member and we had an awesome discussion with him again about the temple. There's a youth temple trip that we're hoping to get a bunch of recent converts to, so we challenged him to get ready to do that. We watched a mormon.org video with him as well and gave him the task to go on and watch more. It's such a powerful tool and we hope that he'll get a profile up soon, because he has an amazing story. I still haven't learned how he got burned, etc, but he's overcome a lot. It's amazing. We taught the Gomez family...well, mostly their children. We talked with a daughter Shasterry, a son Joseph, and a cousin Ray. We taught about repentance and about faith. They're great kids who love talking about church stuff. It's awesome! We had dinner with the bishop's wife. They have a daughter who's on a mission in the Italy Milan mission. They're so proud of her! And it was cool to hear how she's doing! She already knew Italian before, so she wasn't in the MTC very long. We had a yummy dinner and it was fun to get to know them a little better. Bishop was kind enough to meet with us after dinner to talk more about the ward and getting the mission process going. I think it really clicked for him, how important it is and how we can help. I was grateful for that chance to meet with him!

Friday we went over to the Gilmores in the rain and pulled some weeds, which Brother Gilmore needed help with. It was fun to be in a garden again. I'm ALMOST missing Jewish Cindy's garden. But not really :) We visited a recent convert, Sarah. She's in her 60s and is taking care of her dad who has Alzheimers. She'd investigated the church for almost 10 years and she still doesn't get everything about the gospel. We challenged her to prepare to go to the temple and hopefully we can help her understand better to make that commitment! We did our planning after that and got a lot done. We tried stopping by some potentials with no luck. We got to visit the La Marque family that night and they didn't read, so we kind of told them how important it is that they do these things on their own when we're not there. We told them we're going to come every other night from now on, and they need to read and pray the nights we're not there.

Saturday we got to go on mormon.org in the morning and then there was a baptism in the ward. An eight year old who showed up almost half an hour late to the baptism. We helped get things set up. The mom is an active member, but his dad is really anti. She had a lot of family coming, so after the baptism, we kind of mixed and mingled and found out that a lot of them are actually members! It was kind of funny though. They were late, so bishop was pretty nervous. He had filled the font and made it WAY too hot, so we had to wait like another half an hour to have it cool down enough for him to be baptized. We showed some Finding Faith in Christ and I had to keep the volume up and down. I felt like I was on Farley Family Reunion. "Test, test, one, two, three, four, test, test..." Yikes. Weird to be me sometimes! We went and taught Chris and the Nobel family and it went pretty well. Chris is 17 and his mom and brother got baptized but he hasn't. WE're teaching them the new member lessons and him for the first time. He knows a lot because he's listened in, but he won't open up about how he feels about it or if he believes it, etc. I don't really know how to open up a 17 year old boy who plays Halo for hours and hours...and actually competes all over the place. Any suggestions would be awesome. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and he knew all the answers to our questions, but he didn't come to church yesterday, so we're going to be working on that...We tried to visit some other less active members/potentials with no luck, so we had dinner and finished up our planning. Great day!

Sunday was a day full of meetings! We visited a potential and a few less actives to see if they're coming to church. Nope. We had our correlation meeting with Brother Thompson and talked to him about our week. It went well! We had some good ideas about some people and some things we talked to the bishop about, so it was good. We went to ward council after that and talked a lot about what we can do to help members with the last month of study from Preach my Gospel as a ward. They do role plays the last Sunday of the month and I guess it hasn't been the best experience for the first few months. Bishop seems to want people do to things with a script or memorized. It's hard to talk to him about how members need to follow the Spirit just as much as we do and that it should NEVER be by wrote memorization! But, luckily, several members of the ward council felt the same as us, so we got it worked out :) Church went well, but only Fred came. The LaMarques didn't show up. Neither did Chris. Or most of our recent converts. It was frustrating. Great day at church, though. Gordon had told us the day before that his sister is going through a really hard time, so he invited us to go have lunch at his mom's house so we could just meet her. We did get to meet her but she was very standoff-ish. We are tight with her 5 year old and 8 year old now. We totally played with light sabers with them. We know how to get into the hearts of children. PLUS, we were thinking about that Conference talk you quoted dad, about how it's often through children that people come into the gospel. Hopefully we can build a relationship with the fam and get Gordon's family baptized! They were all so nice and we might be helping one of his sisters paint the deck this week. He wants it so badly and we hope we can help it happen! We had another meeting at night with some of the ward council members to go over the ward directory and see what information everyone has about less actives, etc, and we got some names of people they want us to go visit, so that's a GREAT thing!

We are definitely ready for P-Day again :) I don't know particulars about what we're going to do, so that should be fun....it's going to be great though! I hope everyone has a great week and that prayers are answered about the house and about the moms and chilluns! I sure love you and thank you for everything you do for me! Have a happy week!

Love,
Sister Lynn

Week 1 of Manchester

2011-07-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I'll try to keep this short because we only have an hour (less now) and so I'll try to just provide details that will be fun/important to hear! I hope everyone had a fabulous Forf a Duly! I sure did! It was so much fun! Best I will ever have on a mission! For reals. Can you remember a year ago when I was getting ready to get set apart and go into the MTC the next day? Yeah. I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M A YEAR OLD ON A MISSION!!!! Happy birthday to me :)

ANYWAYS!

Wednesday, I got my hair done, since I didn't know when the next chance I'd have would come. We had a fun lunch with Sister Lewis and then just chatted while I got some blonde hair :) We went to service and I got to have some goodbyes with some of my Peace of Bread friends. Brandis was SO sad to find out I was leaving, as was the man who is in charge, and one of the other women who helps out. It was fun to take some pictures and unreal to say those goodbyes! Last stop was to the Berthiaumes, and I think that's when it really hit me. I took some pictures and as I was hugging Phyllis and Verana, I just started leaking and so were they. I think that's one of the first times I've cried in goodbyes, so that was really sad! But we came home and I finished packing what I could while we did laundry and then finished it all up. Such a weird feeling!

Thursday was a LOOOONG day! We finished up a few little errands in the morning and then left around 10. We didn't get to Belmont until almost noon and there were SO many missionaries there, it was insane! Eventually I got to meet my new companion, Sister Jacob! Mom, I bet you'd love her hair because it's a really short cut :) We had fun talking with all the other missionaries and sort of getting to know each other better, but it was so loud that that was semi-impossible. We had a fabulous transfer meeting. We heard from Brother/Elder Clayton Christiansen who spoke for about an hour, after we'd had all the changes read over the pulpit. It took 3 APs about 15-20 minutes to get it all read! We heard from the departing missionaries, which wasn't too many. We had a past AP going home, Elder Haslam. And Elder Carrillo was going home, too, which was so weird. When I first met all of them, they'd only been out a year! How time flies! We heard briefly from Sister Evans and President Evans and then went to take a big mission picture in front of the temple. It was amazing how many missionaries we have now! We took time saying goodbyes and taking our own pictures, then transferring my stuff into the new car and Sister Cannon putting it all into the other car. We drove home to Manchester, which took FOREVER! I think we got home around 9. We had stopped at Panera Bread to eat and gotten to know each other on the way home, so it was good. Sister Jacob has been out 16 months and has been in Manchester for about 6 months, so she knows the area well. She was with Sister Cannon that whole time, so I was (and still am) fairly intimidated coming into her area where only she and one person have worked...I found out that she's from Sandy, Utah and that she's big into running and hiking/being outside...I knew morning exercise would never be the same again! We talked about some of the differences of our missions, but mostly I've found out a lot about it since that day. It would be hard being in her spot, having a new mission president and a new way of doing things, but I tell you it is really hard coming into an area where they've been doing things the same way for so long, with a companion who's been doing things one way for 16 months and having to adapt...still working on it!

Friday was good. We had district meeting. Elder Mitchem is my district leader again, so this should be interesting. The district was pretty comfortable, but not totally. I think it will be better this week. We got to visit an investigator, Fred, who is awesome. We taught him outside on his porch. He went blind randomly for about 6 months and he's been slowly regaining sight. He isn't sure he can attribute all of that to God, so that's a little tough, but he loves coming to church and to a Book of Mormon night that we do here, so he's eager to learn, just not sure how eager he is to change. I got to meet a recent convert, Gordon, who was their golden investigator here. He was a burn victim and has a LOT of scarring all along his body, but he has such a testimony of the gospel, it's incredible. We talked about temples and about enduring to the end. He has a fiance from the Philippines! She's in Spain right now, but I walked in and saw like a Rosetta Stone thing for Tagalog and I was SO happy! He's incredible and I'm glad I got to meet him! I met the mother in Manchester, her name's Sister Gilmore. Her daughter Jen went to Gordon with us, so we dropped her off at home and I got to meet her. She LOVES baking and was doing a baking class with some of the younger girls in the ward, so that was fun. She has a whole cabinet full of sprinkles. It was awesome. Em, you would have been in heaven with all her resources :) She's great! We had dinner and then stopped by a less active family who I LOVE. They're the LaMarques. Tina is the mom and she's got 3 girls. We only met the youngest, Deja. She walked down the stairs, took a look at me, and kind of started giggling and whispering to Sister Jacob that she thought I was Asian! I shocked her, I guess. They knew I was coming, and I guess they thought my name was Sister Ling. So they made it Ling-Ling and then I came and was definitely not what they were expecting. We go over there about every night to have family prayer with them. They've started coming back to church since SIster Jacob started working with her, so we're working to get them into habits that will bless their family. It was fun to get to meet them!

Saturday was an intense planning day. We have a big park across from our house, and so we went out there to do some of our planning, but then we ended up having the RS president, Jane, call and invite us to lunch so she could take my picture for the weekly newsletter :) We had fun with her and Sister Gilmore. Jane served her mission in Tempe Arizona and told us some crazy companion stories. I was filled with gratitude to not have to deal with some of that stuff! She seems awesome, though, and I was thrilled when she asked for your email address, mom, so she could send you the picture :) We got back home and did some planning and then made a few more visits before heading to the Gilmores to watch the fireworks. I don't really know why they do them on the 2nd in Manchester, but they had an incredible view and it was fun to keep getting to know them better. I got to meet Brother Gilmore who's 6' 6" and quiet but super funny. We enjoyed our time there and got home late (with permission) and then crashed into bed!

Sunday was intense! We have church at 1, so in the morning, we stopped by some recent converts and less actives to make sure they were coming to church, and the we got to go to our correlation meeting with our ward mission leader. Brother Thompson seems great. I'm excited to work with him. I am even more confused now about where to tell people I'm from and it was getting old to explain everything, so I kept changing up my story with people. He grew up all over the place too, so he understood my predicament. After that, we attended PEC. The Manchester ward is putting top priority to missionary work, so we talked in depth with the male leaders of our ward about some of our less actives and investigators. There were some very opinionated brothers in the ward, and it got rather heated, which was kind of weird. Cool that they put so much priority on us, but we took up the whole time going in circles about some of our people, so it was weird. We had a lovely fast and testimony meeting. I was asked to bear my testimony, which I sometimes feel weird about doing. I feel like sometimes the ward members need the opportunity more than I do, but it's fine. It ended up going like 20 minutes over and there were some really powerful testimonies. It was awesome. We had a great gospel principles class and I got to meet some more recent converts. Apparently they've recently baptized their whole teaching pool, so we've got lots of recent converts and very few investigators. SO nice of them ;) We taught RS, which was from Preach My Gospel (the first and fourth Sundays are dedicated to PMG!) and that went pretty well. I got to meet lots of sisters and got a very warm welcome from the ward. Sadly, Summer time is not so awesome because everyone's going on vacation, but lucky for me, I have a companion that hunts down dinner appts, so we got a few for this week :) We stopped by several people before heading home to have our dinner break. We went to the LaMarques and watched the Joseph Smith movie, which they loved. Emage and Tasha just got back from Youth Conference to Palmyra, so they were excited to tell us where they'd visited, etc. It was an awesome experience!

Monday was also intense. We did our grocery shopping and then with a cute girl in our ward, Emily. We went shopping at some places around here. They have an awesome accesories store that you would have loved, Elisabeth. It's called Charming Charlie or something and I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff they had. Too bad I don't ever wear jewelery...It was fun though. We got gelati at a place called Rita's and that was delish! Everything was pretty dead. We meet a bunch of elders at the church and I actually played ultimate frisbee! And after an hour of practicing while we waited for other missionaries to get there, I could actually catch and toss the friz. I felt so great about myself :) It was a long day of playing though, and I can't even describe how gross I got! It was wicked hot and humid and we were just rannin around! Emily's fam had invited us for dinner, so we got to have another cookout, we played some games with them, and then her brother-in-law lit some fireworks. It was so much fun and they are a great family! Sister and Brother in law live with the parents and Emily. They have a baby named Lucas who's super cute. I mean, our Luke is WAY cuter, but Lucas was funny when he walked in and I wasn't Sister Cannon. Lots of disappointment :) We had some delicious, hot, shmoes and then got home late again (again with permission).

Tuesday I got to meet more recent converts and less actives. Eny is a cute young mom. She grew up until teenage years in the church and then her fam went inactive. She's trying to get back in now, and we watched the Joseph Smith movie with her and her kids, which they loved! It's so powerful. I still get teary eyed everytime I watch! I got to meet Patrick and Taryn next. Patrick's a recent conert, and I'm pretty sure Taryn has been a member for a while. They tried to play a trick on me, too. They took us downstairs (it's his parents' house) and we sat down at this huge bar that had SO much alcohol in it. She went behind the bar and asked Sister Jacob if she wanted the usual. I knew that she wasn't going to drink alcohol, but I was a little nervous that they had so much in their house. Everyone's playing tricks on the new gal. Rude ;) They're so awesome though. I really like them! We watched The Testaments with them and that was fun! We had an appt cancel, so we did some knocking and street contacting with not too much success, but that's ok. I have faith!!! We'll be doin a lot of that, I think. We had dinner with the Gilmore's and I got to see their incredible garden. Sister Gilmore is out of town, so Jen cooked us dinner and then Brother Gilmore told us all about the stuff he's planted. It's amazing! I want one when I'm home!!!

Whelp, I hope that was sufficient. I'm sorry it took me until today to write. Because of scheduled appointments yesterday, we didn't think we'd have time, but unless CT has some weird holiday, I promise you'll hear from me Monday!!! I hope everyone's doing well! I am, for the most part. It's pretty tricky and I keep having to remind myself to be humble and moldable, so that we don't have contention about the differences in missions, but I'm grateful to be here, and I know that there can be miracles this transfer if we work hard and do hard things! I sure love you and thank you for your thoughts and prayers! I need them!!!

LOVE YOU!
Sister Jordan Lynn

All my bags are packed...

2011-06-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends,

I basically had the shock of a lifetime when I received news Saturday night that I am being transferred to Manchester Connecticut!!!! I'll tell you more about that night later, but we knew early enough that one of us would be transferred, because a Sister Cannon from Connecticut was getting transferred to Oxford, but because Sister Halverson has been in Oxford the amount I was in Revere, we figured it would surely be her moving. Not so. I am very at peace with the decision. I am 99.9% sure it's becuase I was a little too excited to be baptizing Filipinos before Daniel and now I get to miss their baptism - sad day - but it feels right and I have no doubt that my nameless new companion is absolutely wonderful and we will get along fabulously :) But anyways. I've got a lot to write about, so I'm going to go ahead and get started!

Monday, after emailing, we got to run to Sister Cowden's home to have a painting lesson! We spent about an hour having lunch and chatting with her and then a few hours painting. I chose a sunflower picture as my "inspiration" and got to work. It was shockingly very relaxing. Poor Sister Halverson was just stressed out for 2 hours, not feeling great about her painting, but I was loving it. It's no where near perfect, but it was a fun process to see what I could create with limited "training." I'm SO happy with how it turned out! We went and had a lesson with our newest less active 10 year old investigator, Samantha. She has the mental capability of about a kindergartener, so the lesson was difficult. Her attention span is quite short, and even with our interactive lesson, she wasn't as captivated as most have been, so that was a challenge, but she wants to get baptized badly, so we're excited to get her ready. Our dinner appointment was a no-go, because despite a reminder, this kind sister totally forgot about us, so we went home and finished up all the rest that we needed to do to get ready for our 10 days before next P-Day!

Tuesday we got to visit with Ann who was sad transfers were coming up again. I feel terrible telling people that one of us could be leaving, but we won't find out forever...But we got to read/listen to the Book of Mormon with her, and she loved it. She was having a rough day before we got there, but she seemed more at peace when we left, so that's always a good feeling :) We visited with Rachel and had a lovely talk with her. She was sad to hear that transfers were coming as well. She doesn't take the change well, so we weren't too excited to tell her either! We had a lovely dinner with Sister Bova and a Sister Dearing in our ward. Both are probably in their 60s or 70s and have been widows for almost 15 years! They're a funny pair and they just have fun together, so it was fun to be with them. We had a lovely dinner outside, where it wasn't too hot or muggy, which was also miraculous. We headed out in time to get to the Foley/Portantes and had a great lesson with them. They remembered pretty much everything about the Plan of Salvation, and then we taught about the Gospel and every single one of them just loved what we were doing. We have lots of fun little activities, so all the kids got to be involved and they learned the concepts well. Sidenote: I really have loved teaching children and getting ideas from so many different missionaries. Fun activities for when I have kids and want to teach them more about the gospel in a fun way! I'll share all my secrets, upon request :)

Wednesday was rainy and therefore kind of rough. I hate that the weather has such an effect on my attitude! We still got a lot done and worked, but it's just so hard to drag myself through days when the weather is so barfy. But anyway. We'd gotten a referral the day before, so we tried to go visit them with no success. The rain let up enough that we went and tracted around his house with zero luck. We had to go home and get changed/cleaned up because the New England rain just gets down to the nitty gritty! We headed to visit the Marderosian family, who are fairly recent converts, but have become a little less active. Sister Marderosian was excited that we came and REALLY excited to tell us that she'd started reading in the Book of Mormon again and that she was into Alma! She was just glowing while she talked about it, so that was fun to see! We stopped by Miss Pat who hasn't been feeling great, and she loves videos, so we got on mormon.org with her and watched some of the Mormon Messages, which she really enjoyed! We went to service with our new ward missionary, Lisa. I was really grateful that we had extra people, because some people didn't show up to help, so we got to get a lot done and were busy all evening! Orie was in rare form as we were making up the salads. She stood on the other side of the counter and would point out when there were "holes" in the salad and where we should make it look better. Some days I have less patience with her...like that day. We had to leave early to get to dinner with the Flanders. Sister Flanders had told us that Hannah asked when we were coming over again :) She totally misses us. We had a fun dinner with them, with the kids being all excited that school was out, etc. We got to share a brief message with Sister Flanders and it was fun to be in their house again!

Thursday was a better day :) Still rainy, but for some reason it was ok. We'd devised a plan when going to the Berthiaumes that I would still be in sight and sound, but with the girls in a different place so that Sister Halverson could teach Phyllis, since she always gets so distracted with the girls. So, I was coloring in the kitchen while Sister Halverson got to at least talk more with Phyllis about the gospel. It was really fun and those girls are just so cute. They shockingly weren't too impressed with my drawing skills...so weird. But they liked telling me to draw something and then trying to guess what it was really. It's sometimes depressing to be me :) We got to go see Ann again and we read more in the Book of Mormon. Sadly, we're on the Isaiah chapters, and when we stop the CD after each chapter and ask her about it, sometimes she'll say "I didn't really get anything out of that one..." Honestly, sometimes I don't either. I'm still hoping for the day when it all makes sense, but I've written some things down so I could help her understand a little more what it's talking about, etc. Elder and Sister Resare (the vehicle coordinator/office couple missionaries) decided to give us a new car, so they timed it so they could take us to dinner :) We went to a Chinese restaurant and it was so fun to get to know them better! They testified over and over again about the Lord's hand in both their lives, in bringing them together, and getting them on a mission. So awesome! We rushed to the Foley/Portante home to our lesson with them. For some reason, we're always rushing to their house...But anyway. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with them and reviewed with them what we'd talked about last time. They're such good kids and they listen So intently while we teach, which I'm SO grateful for!

Fridaywas kind of bittersweet. It was our last district meeting together, and I honestly feel SO close with this district. I look forward to district meeting all week. We had a great meeting with some awesome trainings/role plays and then took our pictures after transfer predictions. NO ONE thought I was leaving. Everyone pretty much thought Elder Barnhurst was leaving, as well as Sister Halverson. Quite a few thought Elder Clark, but no one thought me :) Including me! We had lunch with them afterward and that's also such a fun part of my Fridays. We get to know the elders better and I just love them! They fill part of the void of being away from my own little brother! It's always fun. We finally got to do some planning when we got home, but didn't even finish it then. I hope it all gets done before the new sister comes! We had dinner with teh Schmitt family. They have 2 little girls, both with hearing loss/speech problems. Sister Schmitt went to college for: speach pathology and special education! So it was cool to see how grateful she was for what she chose to do, because she had no idea what her children would need from her! Both of them grew up in Massachusetts, but neither have accents (which is really weird). Brother Schmitt grew up in Belmont, which I've been told is basically a mini-Utah in Massachusetts form. He said, "I grew up around a bunch of Mormons who never talked about the gospel." It wasn't until he was in college that one of his friends actually invited him to learn and he got baptized and served a mission! Goes to show that even if you're not outright teaching your friends, it's still good to at least talk about spiritual things to open up those doors!

Saturday was interesting as always. We went and helped the Berthiaumes in their new house, doing sanding and filling in holes, etc. It was so fun to talk more with Verana who just loves talking about the gospel. She didn't grow up a member of the church, but learned about it in her teens. She has such a strong testimony. It strengthens mine! They had to go clean the church and we had lots of visits to make to some of our less active young single adults, so we broke off, but they invited us to come back for dinner! We didn't get to see any of our actual people, but because we didn't know what apt number one of them lived in, we started knocking all the apts and one really cute lady answered the door. She looked surprised but was super friendly. She just moved into the neighborhood and is pregnant, raising 3 boys, she said. We asked if we could come back sometime and share a message with her, and she said yes! She also didn't know where the girl we were looking for might live, so we have to keep coming back until someone knows! We had to run to the grocery store to pick up stuff for a lesson we'd be teaching the next day. I thought about an idea Sister Meier told me about for teaching Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, so we got stuff for ice cream sundaes :) We went and had dinner with the Berthiaumes and got to have family scriptures with them, which is always fun. They read one chapter out of the Book of Mormon and one chapter out of another book of scripture, which I thought was a cool idea! When we left, it was starting to thunder and everything, so as we were driving down their long, windy, and very narrow road, I was SO afraid, because the windshield wipers weren't keeping up with the massive amount of rain that decided to pour. But, we got home safe and sound in just the right time to start making fudge for the musical fireside the next day, and to get ready for T-Texts! It took about 45 minutes to get through all the zones in both missions, and springfield is always one of the last, so we were DYING. Sister Stevens still isn't getting transferred. She's been in the city her WHOLE mission! Can you even imagine?! I feel bad, but I'm sure she's doing awesome work there! Sister Meier is still in the city, but is getting a companion from Connecticut. From my district, it's Elder Phelps, Elder Barnhurst, and I that are getting transferred. Elder Phelps is going to Rhode Island and Elder Barnhurst is going as south in CT as you can go. He's excited to be near the beach :) It's a bummer that we couldn't have stayed a district for more than one transfer, but it's obviously for a reason. It was quite hilarious though. Sister Halverson was filming me reading every single text we got, which was kind of awkward, but fine. I wish I could sent the video of when I read that I was getting transferred because I flipped out and it's all on film...Someday I'll show you hopefully! PS: the Fluff fudge turned out awesome. I was nervous about it, because I've never made fudge before AND because nothing I make out here ever turns out, but it was gruh-ate!

Sunday was busy busy. We got to go to ward council in the morning. The ward leaders in Oxford are just awesome. It was so fun to be there to see them all be so diligent about their calling and working together to solve problems, etc. Church was wonderful! We got to sit with the Berthiaumes and I couldn't tell them I was getting transferred...I'm terrible at that game. After church, we rushed to our lunch appointment with the Heywood family. They were kind enough to accomodate us with an appointment right after, so we kept it to less than 50 minutes with them, including the message. We rushed to the Foleys and got there on time, which was miraculous. The Keep the Sabbath Day Holy lesson turned out SOOOOO good. We made a gross "Sunday" and a good "Sunday" talking about some of the things we shouldn't do and things we should do on Sundays. Then we all made our own. I was sad to tell them I was leaving, but we set up another appointment, so that wasn't my last time :) We then headed to North Brookfield to help the elders get set up for the musical fireside. There wasn't a ton of people there, but it was a fairly good turnout. Our musical numbers all went well. One girl played one of the Hymns-made-easy and messed up and she just sobbed to her mom when she was done. I felt so bad. She was probably 8 or 9. I would have done the same thing at that age. "But I'm not sensitive!" Cough. President Evans came and spoke for a few minutes and they showed some video clips. I was relatively calm as I accompanied Elder Clark, which I was grateful for! Blessings from being a missionary, right? All of our treats were devoured, which was unexpected, but I got loads of compliments on the fudge. I didn't tell pretty much anyone that it came from the Fluff container, but thank you for the idea, Mom! It really was delish! After the fireside, we got all cleaned up and then headed out to our cars, but we ended up staying and talking with the elders for a while. AND we got eaten alive by mosquitos. I honestly have 17 on one leg and 14 on the other. Probably punishment for using our dinner break to talk to them, but that's fine.

Monday was a service-filled and semi-heartbreaking day. We started out by going to a woman in the ward's house to help her pack up her and her kids' things to leave her husband. Several sisters in the ward came to help and we got a lot done. It was all secret and even the kids didn't know, so when the daughter came home unexpectedly, she was just bawling and couldn't breathe and it absolutely broke my heart. I can't imagine going through something like that and I just wanted to hug her but of course that wasn't on her list of things to do at that moment. Poor thing. We then went and helped the Berthiaumes with the house and I think I inhaled pounds of sawdust. Bleh. But we again got a lot done. We took an hour of P-Day because we were going to be in the area so we could go shopping. Apparently President Evans is worried about unity with the combining of missions, so some elder decided to have all of us from both missions wear purple. Do I have any purple? Did Sister Halverson? No. Why they would possibly pick that color is beyond me. But that's fine. We both found something quickly, so done and done. We had dinner with Sister Pratt because Bro. Pratt was out of town, an that was so fun. She seemed sad I was leaving, and that's always nice to hear, even if they're going to forget me in a week :) We came home and I started getting packed up so that it wouldn't be left to the last minute.

Tuesday was SOOOO busy. It's nice when that happens, but I'm totally frazzled! We went and helped the Berthiaumes in the morning and I told Sister Berthiaume and Phyllis, who was SO sad. We'll go see them again before I leave :) We got to stop by the Knights to say goodbye to Ayden and to tell him sorry that I would be missing his baptism. I got a couple pictures with them, so that was good. I got to go say goodbye to Rachel who just burst into tears when I told her. I felt terrible for not crying...but I couldn't do it. I just feel like it's right! Annnd also that it's not real :) But I got some pictures with her too. Next stop: Ann. I'd called to tell her before, so we just talked and she asked more about where I was going and who was coming in my place. Then some of her friends came over and were being kind of weird, so we got going after a while. We had another lesson with Samantha. We reviewed the first lesson and used different hands-on things, which was good. She did remember quite a bit. Hopefully the new sister will have other good ideas to bring to the table! We had dinner with the Olivos and that was fun. I really love that family! They also accomodated us so that we could leave right on time to get to the Foley/Portantes. We had a fun lesson with them about the commandments. We taught them the 10 Commandments with the hand signs and then we tested them. They actually got really into it and were trying to beat each other when I'd ask them. Probably because I gave a highfive to each winner :) It was so fun. As always, Sister Portante fed us a second dinner with a little dessert. AND she taught me a bunch of Filipino words. I'll be fluent in no time. PLUS they said that there's a lot of Filipinos in CT, so I may indeed get to at least BE there for a baptism of Filipinos :) But I won't be prideful about it!

Fewf! This is so long! BUT, it's been a fabulous 10 days since last I wrote and I'm grateful for your prayers. I'm really excited for this change! I'm nervous, of course, but I felt so blessed when I came here to Oxford in learning peoples names and having good connections with the investigators, so I'm excited for that to keep happening! On the map, it looks like Manchester is really close to Hartford, so I wonder if it's going to be more like a Revere area, or if it's still going to be more Oxford-esque. I'll let you know :) I hope everyone has a fabulous week. I'm thinking about you and praying for you! I sure love you and miss you!!!

LOVE,
Sister Lynn

Week 5, transfer 8

2011-06-26T19:44:00.001-07:00

Dear Fam and Friends,

It's been an off week for us. But still gruh-ate in a lot of respects. I'll mostly tell you about the gruh-ate things, because I am NOT a Debbie Downer. Although I CAN sing the theme song word-for-word. But I won't. Out loud.

I can't believe Elder Lynn is Elder Lynn now!!! I have been thinking about him all week long and hoping he's doing ok! I'm beyond grateful that his P-Day is Saturday so that I could have his email when I got on today! I can't believe he's already got some Tagolag phrases down! I'll try to learn some so I can communicate with him when he forgets English. Do you think that could even happen? Yeah. Probably not. I've been told they do speak some English in the Philippines, so it will be fresh in his mind :) Oh man. I'm so proud of him! I loved the MTC, so I hope he keeps loving it!

Anyways, I will tell you all about ME now. Because that's really what this is all about, right? Wrongo. Well, like, sort of. Anyway. Ahem.

Monday, we went and visited cute Vera, who had us over for Easter dinner. We've been trying to stop by but she's never at home. She told us to try Mondays around 3 because that's her day off, so we went and she had a feeling we were coming. We got to talk about what's going on in her life. She sees God's hand in her life so much, I just wish that she would let us teach her more. You can tell that she just thirsts to know more, but won't really take it if we start "preaching." Grrr. BUT, we did get to do a teeny bit of service. She's had a lot of dance stuff happening in the last few weeks, with a big show coming up for the classes she teaches, and she's been stressing and procrastinating writing her bio. With the English skills I have, which is not really that impressive....obviously...we offered to help her, and she was thrilled with it :) I was glad! She served us ice cream while we were working on it, and asked if we wanted "jimmies" on it. Can you guess what song instantly popped in my head, which I haven't thought of in over a year? Yep. Thank you Jonatha Brooke. Anyway, we had a dinner appointment with the Cox family, who I've told you reminds me mucho of Mom and Daniel, because their dad is in the stake presidency, etc. We had a lovely time and Daniel gave an awesome lesson to us, as per a request from his mother. I was wicked impressed by his ability to give an impromptu lesson that just blew my socks off. He's totally preparing for a mission in a few years and he will be a great one, we can tell! They told us a lot about their experience with the tornado and it was just crazy. I love hearing all the different people who are in different parts of the ward boundaries!

Tuesday was a busy day! We had our correlation meeting with Brother Yaede and got to tell him about our Filipino friends. He was excited for them and wants to stop by with his boys, which would be awesome! He gave us some good news. Sister Yaede got put as RS president a few weeks ago, and because of that, he can't go to ward council because he has to get the kids ready for church, so he wants to have us start going. I've missed doing that, because it builds such a strong relationship between the missionaries and the auxiliary leaders. I hope that does happen so we can start with the relationship building. That's what we sisters are all about. We went and visited with Ann after that and read more of the Book of Mormon with her. She's back to her normal, happy self. We read in 2 Nephi where it talks more about Joseph Smith and Joseph of Egypt's prophecies about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and stuff. She loved it and was interested as we kept explaining. We also read Nephi's psalm (I think that's what people call it?) and we got to talk more about that. That really struck me last week when I read it. I identified a lot with him in being so frustrated because of my weaknesses and how easily sin besets us all. It's frustrating to be me sometimes :) We taught Annika the 10 Commandments after that. She was having a really hard time paying attention and expressed that she's not really sure she wants to get baptized. We're going to start taking it more slowly and hopefully helping her see what the gospel can do for her. It stinks though because she's about to go to visit her family in Sweden for 3 weeks...we could lose it before that time is up! Bleh. We got to go to a RS activity that night. It was SO much fun to get to know more of the sisters. It was kind of a get-to-know-you activity anyway, so we got to talk with a lot of sisters we don't know so well, and I loved it! Our ward is just fantastic! Love it.

Wednesday wasn't too exciting. We visited Verana and Phyllis and the girls in the morning. We got to visit with Sister Burgess. Gabby's friends again didn't show up, but Sister Burgess definitely needed a listening ear and we mostly let her unload on us. She's got a lot she's dealing with right now and it was incredible to hear her struggles and be able to help her just by listening. That was exactly what she needed, with a few comments of support, but she felt so much better after we left. Not because we left. Just after. We went to Peace of Bread late and had to leave early, but Brandice almost knocked me over. We had to leave early last week too and I didn't get to see her, so she was excited to see me. We got to chat for a little while. We said hi to Orie and talked with her for a bit. Funny, funny, woman. We left to get to the Cowdens for dinner. I was excited they'd signed up, because I don't know them at all, but oh my gash. They're one of my favorite couples in the ward. They're both probably in their 50s. Both were married before and had children. I think they both got baptized separately, but they've been married for about 15 years and are just hilarious. They would tease each other back and forth. Brother Cowden had a black eye, and he kept telling us these stories about how Sister Cowden had punched him to win a trip to Palmyra to go to the pagaent there. Oh man. Hilarious. Sister Cowden teaches a lot of painting and craft classes. She brought in a bunch of her paintings and we were both commenting about how we wish we could paint and she jumped on it and asked if we wanted to come over for a couple hours on P-Day to learn how to paint. Um, yes. So, that's what we're going to be doing after we finish emailing :) I. Can't. Wait. Hopefully I'll be sending something beautiful for you to put in your new home...

Thursday was not too exciting either. Like I said, kind of an off week. We did our planning and got to go for our hour of mormon.org. I've been working on setting up a profile, because I guess we're supposed to? It's taken me like 2 or 3 weeks! Sheesh! Hopefully it will do good for somebody! We dropped by the Portante/Foleys to set up an appointment because our other appointment with them had fallen through, and we decided on the next night. We were excited and relieved because we can't communicate with them via telephone. They never answer and never return calls! But that's fine. We caught them! We had dinner with the McKinney family. Brother McKinney is so excited for the combining of missions! He served in the Connecticut mission and loves telling us all about how it was back then and where he served. He was shocked that there's only 3 companionships of sisters there, so we're wondering where we'll be! Who knows?!?!?! The suspense is killing us. For reals.

Friday was a fun day! We had an awesome district meeting. I seriously LOVE my district here. We're getting closer and closer and more unified. Elder Clark is an awesome district leader. I just love him! He had told us a few weeks back that he was in a New Era and that his mom told him to bring copies out to give to people. I have my very own signed copy now :) Sister Halverson gave a great training and we had a funny one by Elder Phelps. He said he was doing a training about faith and so he talked for like 5 minutes about it and then asked for examples. Elder Clark, who had been doodling raised his hand and repeated something that Elder Phelps had just said. Psych. The training was about listening during lessons. That probably sounds totally lame but as a missionary, it was funny to me. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Elder Clark is trying to put together a musical fireside for our 3 wards. He asked me to accompany him in a song, so I got to practice a bit for that. Elder Barnhurst and Elder Horton are doing a musical number. Elder Horton had brought a brand new recorder, which I thought was just a joke. It wasn't. He's playing the recorder while Elder Barnhurst is playing the piano. Have I mentioned that I love the district? They also just got a new car and told us that her name was Alice. I thought it was kind of a lame name for the car. Well, apparently it's based of a character from Twilight. They talked about how much they enjoy Twilight. Super weird. And girly. Somehow, Elder Horton also got on the topic of Little House on the Prairie. I couldn't hardly look at them for a few hours...strange boys. After we had lunch with the district, we headed to visit Phyllis and the girls again. It was an off day for them, so we didn't get to talk too much. And then we had dinner with the Millett family. We'd stopped by them once, and Sister Millett wouldn't hardly look or talk to us, so I was surprised last week when she'd signed up. They were very warm and inviting though! We had such a fun time with them! We ate and played pictionary. We totally lost big time the first round, but dominated the second round. We had to rush out, though, because of our appointment with the Portantes. We had a great lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation. They listened intently because we told them that next time, they'll be teaching us with the pictures and everything. They had some good questions and it went really well. I love them and I'm so grateful we get to be working with them! You're going to LOVE the Filipino people, Daniel!!!

Saturday was incredible. We found out at district meeting that our stake was meeting together in Springfield at 8AM the next morning to split up and help with cleanup. We got up way early and drove almost an hour and a half to get to Springfield where we were greeted with LOTS of bright yellow shirts. An almost lifelong dream has been fulfilled: I GOT A MORMON HELPING HANDS T-SHIRT!!! I couldn't be happier! We saw quite a few missionaries (all elders) there, and then a big team of males from our ward. We decided to join their team. We had 2 houses in our packet, but on our way to the first one (IN MONSON, MASS) we were told that it was taken care of. The team leader said that the first house had a tree on top of the car! We saw SO much damage just driving into Springfield. It was definitely a shock to my system! But I got shaken back to reality when we headed to the second house, also in Monson, and met Eddy. On both sides of his house, he had major trees down. He told us a little bit about how he used to have basically a forrest behind his house, but that's all gone now. We broke off into 2 groups, the chainsaw peeps on the side with the biggest trees, and us and Daniel Cox on the other side, picking up all the other trees and hauling them to large piles in the front of the house. I guess there was supposed to be someone in the city coming to pick up all the piles? I don't know a lot about it, but we worked for 3 solid hours. I was so grateful because it wasn't rainy or too humid, and it didn't start getting hot until right about the time we left. We all worked hard and my yellow shirt was mostly brown by the end of that time. We got so much done, but there's still so much to go! I just can't believe how much damage a natural disaster can cause. I just haven't seen it before. I hope we're safe from that kind of thing, but I doubt we always will be! Eddy was so grateful for our help, and I could tell that several of the men in the ward were having the chance to talk with him more, not even all the way about the gospel, but just mentioning their faith and some of the things we believe. It was just an amazing experience. I felt SO good afterward...though completely exhausted. And I may or may not still be feeling it today :)

Sunday was lovely and sore. We had an amazing sacrament meeting. All three of the speakers did an excellent job talking about earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father. There was beautiful music by the primary and a violin trio. Oh man. The Spirit was so strong all throughout the meeting. We were glad to have Phyllis there as well as the Portante boys. Brother Trueman was also there (we've had dinner with the family before...he's from England and not a member). He let us know he was there by throwing some paper at the back of my head. Don't worry. He was reverent throughout the meeting, at least :) It was just beautiful and I was reminded again how lucky I am to have such an amazing Dad! I love ya and appreciate ya for all ya do :) Even for the Portantes, I was grateful for the meeting. Their dad was murdered in the Philippines...probably FAR from Quezon City...and on days like that, it would be hard not having an earthly father. But at least all of us have a Heavenly Father who loves us and is mindful of us and watches over us. I am so incredibly grateful for how mindful he is of me, despite ALL my weaknesses and shortcomings. I always need His help, and He's always willing to give it when any of us need it. It's just usually not in the way we want or when we want! It was just a great Sunday :) I hope you all enjoyed it too! Sorry I couldn't call you, Dad. I figured you would have been ticked if I did...AND I don't even know what your phone number is :) Two good reasons I didn't...

I hope everyone has a fabulous week! I love you, I'm praying for you, and I surely miss each and every one of you! Thank you for all you do to support me AND Daniel on our missions. It means the world to me and blesses me in ways you probably don't even know :) THANK YOU!
Love, Love, Love
Sister Lynn

What. A. Week.

2011-06-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

It was such a hilarious and exciting and strange week! Thank you so much all of you happy birthday wishers! I got so much more mail this week than normal and it was the happiest thing ever! It was a great birthday with a little miracle sprinkled in there, so I will go ahead and start telling you about our exciting week :)

Monday was where the hilarious part comes in. Backstory: There's a 40-something single man who, when it's nice outside, sits out on the apt complex front stairs, smoking and drinking his coffee. It generally creates semi awkward situations when we come from behind him and he has to look up while we say hello. Anyway, we've always been really friendly and on Sunday, Sister Halverson had commented "He's always so excited to see you!" I thought it was both of us and we just see him a lot, so I shrugged it off. Well, Monday I was singing a different tune. With our P-Day errands, we were kind of in and out of the apt, so we saw him way more than we like to. As we were getting home from emailing, we said hi like usual, but as I walked past him and he was looking up at me, he said "I wanted to ask you out for dinner" with a huge smile on his face. Ew. Being the extremely awkward person I am, I thought he was joking at first, but he kept looking up at me, expecting an answer. I then (awkwardly) said, "Me?!? I'm a missionary! I can't do that kind of thing!" To make things even more awkward, he said, "That's a shame. A real shame." And kept repeating that phrase until I went in the house. What made it continuously awkward was that about a half hour later, we were going to head out to do pictures and then head back to get our stuff before heading out for appointments. So, as we were leaving for one of those things, he was on the phone, so I was hoping to just smile and avoid any possible interaction. Not so. He saw us leave and smile at him, but as we were walking to the back parking lot, he took the phone off his ear and almost yelled after me "Come on! Lunch? Breakfast? SOMETHING!?" And then to my complete horror, he also yelled after me "Oh, by the way, you look good in a T-Shirt" which means that he saw us doing laundry the week before. I wanted to vomit and also call every singe member of my family to talk about how weird that was. But I had to wait a whole week. Sigh. I hope someone enjoys how hilarious and awkward that situation was...I hope I crystalized it for you. Anyway, on to a more spiritual part of P-Day....cough. We went and had several appointments. We went and saw Nicole who again has experienced the death of a close family friend. She has seen so many people die in the last year, I think, that it's terrible to know what to do for her. But what she needed was for us to listen as she cried and to comfort her with the gospel. Can do. It was a pretty short appointment, because she had to get ready to go to his wake. After that, we got to go see Ann, who seemed to be in better spirits. We read 2 Nephi 1-2 with her and she really enjoyed it. Her daughter moved on my birthday, so she was sad about all of that, but we get to see her tomorrow, so hopefully it will be ok :) We had dinner with the Campbells, who I just adore. They are a wonderful and strong family. She recently got called as the young womens president, so we got to go through and talk about some of the less active young women she has on her lists. She's going to do great!

Tuesday was an interesting day as well. We went over to the Berthiaumes to help Verana with the new house. We got to fill a bunch of holes with the putty and got nice and sweaty because it was SUPER hot and humid. We rushed to our correlation meeting with Brother Yaede after that and got to talk about some of the things that are happening and discuss some of the ideas we've had to help members do missionary work. Hopefully we can get a plan in action soon. He had to check with the ward council, so we couldn't get it started last week :( We visited with Rachel after that, which was nice! We then headed to the Jachimczyks (sp?!) who are Kip's (from Napolean Dynamite) real-life in-laws. It was really cool because they were really close to the tornado that touched down, so they directed us so we could finally go and see some of the damages, because we still had a hard time believing it was real! It was incredible and so sad as we drove through one of the streets. There was so mcuh damage and so many people out helping them. It just broke my heart. Brother Berthiaume had been out helping as well in some of the more devestated areas and had told Verana about some of the damages he'd seen and how sad it was. I could see a little taste of it for a few minutes and I can't even imagine having that happen to my home! SO unreal.

Wednesday was a miraculous day! I wa SO appreciative that Sister Halverson didn't make a big deal about anything. I opened my packages from parents and April and laughed and loved and missed everyone so much. You are so good to me, Mom. I still haven't made my cake yet or the breakfast thing, but I'm looking forward to it. You know me SO well :) We had a busy day planned, so we got out real quick after our studies. We went to the Berthiaumes again. Verana was doing as much as she could while her husband was gone, so we went and kept helping with the little things that needed to get done that we could do. Again, we got WAY sweaty because it was in the 90s and SUPER humid. But it was fine. I got to have some good talks with Verana throughout the week as we went and helped her. I got to talk to her more about Phyllis and get her perspective about how to teach her so she'll remember and understand. Loved it. We went and visited with Beth after we freshened up and pretty much got ready again because we were so gross. Beth didn't know it was my birthday, but had decided to get apple cider and apple pie for our visit, so we had a GREAT time :) We got to talk more about For the Strength of Youth and gave her her own copy. She's in her early 40s, but was excited to get the pamphlet! It was fabulous. We went to the Burgesses, but none of Gabby's friends were there, and in fact, Gabby was still at school, so we just talked to Sister Burgess who's been having a rough time with some things, and it was great. We got to Peace of Bread in a perfect time, so we got to do a lot to get everything ready and set up, and then left to have dinner with the Knights :) They decided to treat us to a delicious homestyle restaurant. I was SO full after pie and cake and ice cream and delicious dinner. It was perfectly birthday-ish, without anyone knowing. Here comes the miracle. We went to go teach Rommel and Rodel, the Filipino brothers, but Ashley and John (their cousins who are all baptism age or over) decided to sit in. We got to teach a legit first lesson and challenged them to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray, just like Joseph Smith. They were talking about when they can find time to do that (at school, at the bus stop, etc). And then...we extended a baptismal date to all of them and they all accepted!!!! We have 3 investigators getting baptized, and 1 less active 8 year old!! They're getting baptized July 10th (the date they all chose together) so I'm hoping I'm still here to see them get baptized! That's a about a week and half after transfers. Please bless. Rommel is 14, Rodel is 9, John is 10, and Ashley is 8. We are SO excited! Not to, you know, like, rub it in or anything, but I get to baptize 4 Filipino people before you do, Daniel! Sister Halverson pointed out that little fact to me, and I thought I'd share it ;) We floated home, SO happy to finally have investigators to baptize! And we ended the day by taking some pictures with a certain gift from April. Again, she knows me so well. I was reminded that no one put a ring on it yet, so I did a little dance-Beyonce style-with a ring pop. Felt like home...We also had a toe nail painting party with some ridiculously awesome colors from April. I'm such a rebel. But, I wear nylons and shoes that cover it, so no one's actually seen them. Score. It was the happiest mission birthday a girl could ask for!

Thursday was a more relaxed day. We did some nitty-gritty planning, especially for our investigators with a baptismal date :) We got to take some time to go on mormon.org (as per request from our mission president every week). We went to go visit some less active young single adults after that. It had been raining all day, pretty much. Not as hot as it was supposed to be, but SO humid. Anyway, we were listening to a CD April sent that has this really intense version of Nearer, My God, to Thee from Vocal Point. They have it kind of in a minor feel, with some intense Latin or something in the background. It turned out to be the perfect song as we were driving and all of a sudden the wind picked WAY up. Then BANG, CRASH, the lightening flashed! (can you name it?) We were going down these wind-y roads with rain just beating down on our windshield with this music in the background. It was the most intense and awesome car ride ever. We kept checking our phones because we had no idea if this was what it was like before the tornado and we were supposed to head to a dinner appointment with the woman I can to cancel on when Sister Halverson was sick...Nothing came, so we drove to our appointment and had a really fun dinner with the Olivo family. The dad is deployed right now, and there's 4 kids in the family that I haven't really known until now. They are so fun though! They all work together to help out the little 3 year old in the family and they had fun stories to share with us. We had a blast with them. We even played a game called Bee Attitudes. Totally from Deseret Book or BYU or something. And no one knew how to play it, so we tried a couple different rounds with different rules. It was very Lynn Family-esque. No tornados, thankfully, and it was fine by the time we were home. Still rain, but not at all as bad as it has been.

Friday was a great day. We had our zone meeting in the morning, so we had to drive almost an hour and 20 minutes to get there. The meeting was great! President and Sister Evans came and we had fun seeing them. I got to know the people in the zone better and it seems like a good zone, just everyone is so spread out that you can't get to know them too well. It was good though. We got home in enough time to change and have lunch before going back to help Verana with the house. We were there for a few hours, cleaning up pieces of wood, sanding, vacuuming. I felt legit. I got to use a sort of power tool. I'm so cool. Poor Verana got stung by a couple of wasps and her hand swelled up like a balloon! We quit after that and headed back to the house. We played a matching commandments game with the girls, which they love to play, and then we headed out to our dinner appointment after freshening up again. It was kind of a hilarious dinner appointment. It was with the Ivies. Sister Ivie is a convert. She's from Brazil and it just the funniest woman. I love her so much. She has an 18 month old who weighs a few pounds more than her 3 year old. He's huge. Anyway, we had a BBQ with them, a cook out as New Englanders like to call it. What made it another sort of hilarious day was that Brother Ivie's brother is visiting for I think 6 weeks. He's 24 and single, going to school at BYU Hawaii. Sister Ivie kept trying to talk to him about dating, which made it really awkward to be in the same room, because we are, you know, missionaries. She kept talking about her views on marriage and dating and we had no idea what to do or say. It's a good thing her daughter was throwing hot dogs in my water because that gave me an excuse to try to get out of the conversation a little bit. Oh, the joys of being a missionary.

Saturday was a pretty slow day. Highlight: by now, the Berthiaume girls know that I'm Sister Lynn and sometimes they forget Sister Halverson's name, because it's so hard. We knock on their door and we hear "MISHUMARIES!!!!" in a really high pitched voice, ane they come running to the door. But then they start calling us by our names once we're in the house for a while. Sometimes they still slip and say "Hey, Mishumary?" But we're making progress. We got to watch Together Forever with Phyllis while Verana took the girls to the grocery store, and she really enjoyed the video. We got to talk about the blessings of the gospel in our families. She loved it. Verana and the girls got home and we helped them make dinner and got to enjoy a delicious meal with them. Another highlight for them: after being gone for 11 days helping with the clean up, Brother Berthiaume surprised them by coming home earlier than they thought. I wish everyone could see the look on everyone's face when they heard the door open. Phyllis cried and Verana just jumped out of her seat to go give him a hug. It was the cutest thing. He told us how the Ludlow ward had ended about an hour and a half early, and that they were going to drive to Springfield (where Brother Berthiaume was working) to go walk the streets and help people out. It was an amazing story and how beautiful that wards so close to there would go and help where the destruction is the worst. I love this church!

Sunday was crazy! We got asked Saturday night by Brother Yaede to teach gospel principles, so we spent the morning rushing to prepare from the book. We got asked during Sacrament Meeting to go into Young Womens to share a brief message about sharing the gospel with the YW, and then I got asked to play the piano in RS. It was busy! Our lesson went ok. The room was mostly full of recent converts who aren't comfortable commenting or praying, so it was painful at times. BUT, one of the recent converts who's become less active was there, and she took pity on us and tried really hard to think of comments. We were grateful. It went alright though, and everyone in the class survived just fine. It was so weird switching gears to teach a huge class of people for 40 minutes about one principle. It was great though. Loved it. We were so glad, too, because the Knights were at church, as were the Portante boys and the Foley kids! So much people we know and love and are working with :) The other things went well at church. The YW looked relatively uninterested, but that's pretty typical. After church, we got to meet with Rommel, Rodel, and Ashley, because John was sleeping. We watched the Restoration DVD with them and talked more about the Book of Mormon and prayer, to re-emphasize the importance of all those things. I was so proud of Ashley and Rodel because they'd read a specific chapter that Sister Portante had assigned them (3 Nephi 11) and they'd understood it all. After the lesson, we were getting our things together, when the kids started bringing us huge hamburgers, orange soda, and donuts. This is right before our dinner appointment, mind you. I've never had so much pink meat in so little time. Everything was delicious, but it was amazingly weird to me. After chomping down the hamburger, Sister Portante pulled out her scriptures and we decided to read 1 Nephi 11 with them, and that was such a sweet experience! Rodel and Ashley did a great job with all the hard words and they understood everything they read as we kept explaining and answering questions. The Book of Mormon just has so much power. Even to such young kids. I love it! We had dinner with the Andersons in our ward. They're an older couple with lots of grown up children, most of which are inactive. We had a sort of awkward dinner with them. I guess Brother Anderson was the one who signed up and he must have forgotten that his 30-something single son's birthday was the day before, so this was when they were doing the celebrating. But it was fine. We got to listen to some of the siblings and friends talk about the good old days, and we got to eat the also very pink corned beef. Again, delicious, but weird to look at and think I was eating close to raw meat. I feel so manly this week! Let me tell ya! One funny moment was that John, the son whose birthday it was, was complaining about a funny nickname his parents gave him and how much he got teased as he was growing up. Brother Anderson who is a fairly quiet older man all of a sudden said, "Son, now's the time to get even. Get married, have a family, and pass it on." Thanks everyone for not teasing me for not being married...but it was hilarious being on the other side.

Anyway, I've had a great week, I hope everyone else did! Daniel, I'm sorry I missed your farewell! I heard it was awesome and real short. Good luck going into the MTC this week! I'll be thinking about you all day Wednesday! I hope everyone else has a great week! I love you so much and thank you again for all the fun birthday wishes!

I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU!
Love,
Sister Lynn