Sunday, March 21, 2010

Week 43 - NO KIDDING!

February 8, 2010

It is the snow storm of the century! You should see how much snow there is! I'll tell you all about it.....first of all, it started snowing on Friday. For most of the afternoon it wasn't sticking. We had a lesson and institute that evening, which was about 2 hours of being inside, and when we came out, there was probably about 3-4 inches on the ground and it was still snowing. It snowed all night long and into the next day, Saturday. When we woke up, I would say it was a good foot and a half. I never heard an actual report of how much snow there was. BUT for some reason, Pittsburgh has not done anything about snow removal!!!!! 2 days later, the streets still aren't plowed. Crazy huh? Sooo, on saturday morning, Sister Sorensen and I helped shovel snow for a couple hours, then we were pretty much snowed in. Twice on my mission now! I never thought I would really be snowed in! On Sunday, they had one sacrament meeting for all the wards and no classes. Since we still didn't have much to do (not many people were out and walking around) us and the other sisters in our area decided to just roleplay and study together at the church. haha, have to make it productive somehow! Oh, and as we were walking home, I dont' think I've ever seen so many ambulances in my life. Even walking to the library today, there have been so many! People keep slipping and falling and breaking things! Basically, it's just nuts over here! hahaha. But hopefully the snow melts soon and hopefully we can get back to normal work this week. One awesome thing though, although church was kind of wierd and crazy yesterday, we did have an investigator trek through and come!! Her name is Erin. She is actually a former investigator from about a year ago who almost was baptized, but she was under 18 and her parents wouldn't allow it. Her mom forbid her to come to church too. Well guess what? She's 18 now!!! And she showed up at church last week. We had a lesson with her and she is ready to be baptized now! She is praying about a day but she is ready to move forward! Cool huh? Miracles happen in this area! People just show up at church and then we get to teach them. I love it! Erin is awesome too, she says from the beginning the church just made total and complete sense to her and she loves the Book of Mormon. She even uses it in papers at school, haha. Plus she is a ballerina, which makes her even more cool. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing so good at home! I love you all so much! And miss you so much too! (p.s. today is my 10 month mark) YAY! Have a great week!Love, Holly

Week 42- Surprise!

February 1, 2010

Hi family!I have a fun surprise for you! Steve was baptized on Saturday!!!! hahahaha, totally unexpected from where we were at last week. He was originally set for February 6th, but found out there was a temple trip that day for the ward and he really wants to go on it. So we talked to him about it this past Tuesday and asked him when he wanted to move it to and he told us since he already knows he wants to be baptized, why wait any longer? hahaha, so cooool! So we saw him every day this past week to finish up the lessons and for him to have his interview and then the baptism was on Saturday. It was a great service too! President and Sister Summerhays came and almost the whole singles ward was there to support him. He bore his testimony after his baptism and it was so sweet! I'm so excited for him! He just completely fell into our laps! He was already to be baptized before we even had to challenge him. I love how the Lord puts people in our path! Last night, there was also a fireside for the stake. I don't know if you've heard of him but Thurl Bailey came and spoke to us. He used to play for the Utah Jazz and joined the church a couple years after. He shared his conversion story and his whole journey through life. It was a great testimony! We all got to meet him and talk to him afterward, Steve went up and told him he was baptized just the night before. :) haha, Bro. Bailey told him congratulations! We also got our picture with him. This man is 6'11'' so for the picture, I had him put his arm out to show how small I actually am standing next to him. I came up to his elbow. Funny huh? I have one other crazy story to share with you. Before Steve's baptism on Saturday, Sister Sorensen and I were going to get some pizza at a shop just across the street from the church for dinner. As we were walking, we saw this blind man (Brian) yelling for help. We stopped to help him and he just needed the time to know when the next bus would come because he needed to get to an area as quickly as possible. We stayed and waited with him and when it came, we found out we were on the wrong side of the street. Right at that moment, the bus he really did need passed by! Ohhh, he wasn't very happy. I thought he was going to cry for a minute. Luckily we had a member with us who knows her way around town. So she told us of another stop we could go to a couple blocks away, but we had to hurry or else we would miss the bus again. Me and Amber were walking very quickly in front and Sister Sorensen had Brian's arm leading him. After a couple minutes, Amber saw the bus coming, so her and I booked it to try to stop it so Brian could get on. We got up and explained that a blind man was coming just around the corner, could he wait. He told us "If he can get here before the light turns green. I'm on a tight schedule and can't wait" Noooo mercy at all! BUT he did get there just in time and got headed towards his destination. hahahaha, it was seriously an adventure running around the streets of Pittsburgh trying to catch buses. Missionary life always keeps you on your toes!I hope you all have a great week! I love you and miss you! Thanks for keeping me updated all the time!!!!Love, Holly

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Week 41 - DOWNTOWN, things will be great when you're, DOWNTOWN

January 25, 2010

Hi family!How is everything doing? It's pretty good here in Pittsburgh but I feel like I'm still adjusting to city mission life. It's a little rough! We have to pretty solid people we are working with right now but trying to get more people to teach. Our first one I may have talked about last time is Steve. He is soooo cool. We originally set him to be baptized on Feb. 6th, but then we found out that a ward temple trip is that same day. A lot of people are going and won't be able to see him get baptized. So when we talked to him about changing the date, he was thinking about moving his baptism date up so he can go on the temple trip too! Pretty cool huh? He's thinking and praying about it right now and we will meet with him again on Tuesday to see what he wants to do. Either way though, he'll probably go. It will just be if he goes in or goes to the visitors center that will be different. The other sisters that share the ward with us had a baptism this past weekend. His name is Brandon and he is so solidly awesome too! He is 20, going to the University of Pitt in Bio Physics or something like that. He wants to be an Oncologist when he grows up. I saw him walking down the hall at church yesterday in his white shirt and tie and he had a backpack on. He looked like such a missionary!!!! Even though he is new to the gospel, he seems like he's been a member his whole life. He's such a little stud, I want Kelsey to date him if I could get them to meet somehow, hahahaha. Sorry Kel, I'm trying to set you up with everyone!Nicole will take a little more time before she really starts progressing. We did set her with a baptism date for March 6, but she still needs to figure out of the gospel is true. But she said she definitely would get baptized once she recieves her answer. Yay! You can see she wants it so bad too. She just needs to act on it.Other then that, we have been doing a lot of finding! It can be pretty rough trying to find new people to teach, but this week all of us sisters in the city are doing a "finding blitz" and we are going to pray our guts out, try to get referrels, street contact like none other and get creative to try to find people. So please pray for us that we will all be able to find those people the Lord had prepared and who is ready for us!!! :) Thank you family! I love you all! I hope you have a great week, can't wait to get your emails next week too! Miss you!Love, Holly

Week 40 - PITTSBURGH

January 19, 2010

I'm sure you can tell from the subject of my email that my new area is DOWNTOWN PITTSBURGH!!!! Such a change from the country amish living of Lititz. It's a different lifestyle and missionary lifestyle, but it's been fun so far. Almost like I'm starting a brand new mission all over. To tell you a little bit about this area, we are serving in a Young Single Adult ward and basically just work with the young kids. In our area, there are two major colleges, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Then some smaller colleges too. No more tracting either, hahaha. We walk around the colleges and just talk to the students all day long and ride the bus everywhere. Plus since we work with the young single adults, we get to go to FHE, institute twice a week, and an articles of faith class on Wednesday nights. It's so different but I am really liking it so far. Plus my new companion, Sister Sorensen is awesome! We just clicked right away and we teach really well together. There is also another set of sisters in the ward, so we basically work together all the time!! I love it. It's going to be such a good transfer. We already had interviews with President and he basically told me to get comfortable and unpack my bags because I'll probably be staying here for a while. Wow. Now as for some of the people we are working with, first of all, there is Steve. He is so cool because he found the church all by himself. The Sunday before I got here, he just showed up at church. So the sisters set up an appointment to teach him and he has been solid. He comes to institute and loves getting to know everybody. In our first appointment with him, we set him to be baptized on Feb. 6th. :) So please pray for Steve!!!!! Another person we are working with is a girl named Nicole. She was referred by a member and is basically awesome. She already lives an LDS lifestyle and gets frustrated that her friends and people around her get upset with her for keeping high standards. She feels her calling life is to be a wife and a mother and wants to feel like her relationship with God is very close. She hasn't recieved her answer about if the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith are true yet, but she'll get there. I'm so excited for her to learn more!! :)Now here is my new address:613 Copeland St. Apt. A2Pittsburgh, PA 15232I'm excited to get some good letters and packages and fun stuff!!! Thank you for all you do for me. Please keep praying for the mission and my area and that we can have lots of people to teach! Have a good week, and I love you all lots and lots! Miss you!Love, Holly

Week 39 - Transfer time again!

January 11, 2010

Hi!So transfers are here again. President called us last night to tell us personally what is happening. So, here it is, drum roll please...........Sister Ferguson is training for her very last transfer and I am being transfered. I'm excited for her to train, it is her first time and she has always wanted to train. But I'm sad too. I love Lititz WAY too much! We have a lot of great things going on here. Kyleigh is set to be baptized on the 30th, and we have the Lay children who we just started to finally teach, and some other awesome investigators we are working with and awesome less-actives that are coming back to church. This is the hard part about missionary work! Leaving everyone that you love. haha, I grow too attached to people. But I know, it's the missionary life and awesome things will be ahead too. Plus, the new greenie will come into an area that is on FIRE! :) Great way to start! Sooooo, if you send anything to me for now on, make sure to send it to the mission home address until I get you my new address of where I am. 2589 Washington Rd, Ste 410Pittsburgh, PA 15241Like I was saying earlier, things have been really great here! Greg has been so happy! You can see such a change in him! He is soon going to have an interview with the bishop to get a calling and the Aaronic priesthood, YAY! And we had an amazing lesson with one of our less-active families, the Carr's. They were married in the temple and everything but have gotten a litte lazy. We had a lesson all about covenant making and the importance of them. Then at church yesterday, sacrament meeting was all about the covenants we make at baptism and the importance of sacrament meeting. Sister Carr came up to me afterward and was talking about how much she thought about our lesson after we visited and how much she felt that sacrament meeting was just for her! I just love seeing people change their lives for the good! They promised that they would go back to the temple too. Even though I won't be personally working with these people anymore, please continue to pray for them! I love them and don't want to see or hear of them slipping back!One other thing I needed to mention, HAPPY HUMP DAY TO MEEEEE! Of course I celebrated it on Friday with pregnant belly's and everything :) Now the time is going to fly by even faster, oh man!I hope you all have a wonderful week! I'll let you know where I am and how I'm loving the new area next week! Love you all so much!
Love, Holly

Week 38 - Happy New Year!

Monday January 4, 2010

Hey guys!So there is a lot of fun exciting news to update you on. First off, Happy New Year!!!! :) 2010, we're getting very futuristic here, aren't we?!? Us missionaries had to be in at 6:00 of course, so we wouldn't get hurt by crazy people out there. So I made Sister Ferguson have a little fun with me. We popped some homemade popcorn, got some cheese and crackers and some sparkling cider, and had a game in our apartment called spinner that we played. You've got to ring in the new year with some fun right? Well, we did end up going to bed at the normal time but atleast we got to have some fun before hand. Before we had to be in, a member invited us over with one of our investigators to make some cookies and carmeled apples too. But here is where the REAL great thing comes in. We definitely rang in the new year with a bang because on the 1st is when Greg got baptized! :) YAY!!!! It was a great baptismal service too. He was so nervous when he got there, hands clammy, feeling sick. But the spirit was so strong, it was so good!! After he was baptized, Sis. Ferguson sang a beautiful song for a musical number that made the spirit in the room 10x stronger! Then I had to follow that up by giving a talk about the holy ghost. Hard to beat, but it was just a great day! Thank you for all your prayers for him! It really helped! He had a lot of adversity at him, but he was able to stay strong and stick to what he knew was true. Our other investigator, Kyleigh, is still set to be baptized. Hers has to be pushed back though because the bishop had an interview with her father and he wanted him to wait a couple weeks. Since he has been less-active, he of course needs to be worthy to baptize her. But he has a great heart and is trying to be better about coming so he can baptize his children. This is really a great family! I love them! But sadly........since it is being pushed back a couple weeks, that will be in the next transfer. So I might not be able to see it. My district leader told me today that I should bet on me leaving. I don't know how he knows or if it is a for sure thing, but I was kind of getting that feeling that I would. So expect A LOT of boxes of my stuff being sent home soon! I've gotta de-junk!Well, Happy New Year family! I love you all and miss you all so much! Have a great week!Love, Holly


Week 37 - Last email of 2009

Monday December 28, 2009
"Hi Family!This is going to be really short because I am running VERY short on time! Sorry about that. But it was really good to talk to all of you on Friday! I hope your christmas was as stinkin awesome as mine was! It was a great one, and I was very happy to get to talk to all of you! I was happy I got to talk to Kristin too! That was a fun surprise! :)We had 3 dinners on Christmas and I was WAYYYYYY full! On Saturday there were a couple baptisms that we had Greg go see. I think he really, really liked it! The spirit was extremely strong and I really think it helped motivate him to make it to his too! :) I'm so excited. Please keep praying for him!Kyleigh is still strongly set for Jan. 9th :) We visited with her and her parents on Saturday and they are ready for it. We have to meet with her a lot these next couple weeks to get all the lessons taught, so good thing it's christmas break and she doesn't have school! :) WE can get it all done. I was going to send some pictures from Christmas to you guys, but I only have about 3 more minutes left, which isn't enough time to attach. So I promise I'll send pictures next week! There are some fun ones!I love you all, thanks for talking to me the other day. I hope you guys have a GREAT AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! LOVE YOU LOTS!!!!!!!!!!!Miss you!Love, Holly