August, 16, 2010
Hello my dear wonderful family!
How are you all doing? I hope you are all holding up wonderfully and doing ok. I love you guys a lot! I'm not going to make this email long because I'm going to write everyone an individual email. So I'll just basically go over the things that happened this week to let you know all that is going on out here in State College.
So it's going pretty well! My new sisters name is Sister Johnson and she is from Mt. Vernon, WA.......and Abilene, TX. Raised in WA but more recently from TX. She is doing great though and excited to be a missionary! It's really interesting to see the difference between the two different missionaries that I've trained. And boy is it two different experiences!!!! hahaha. It's going great and Sister Johnson is trying her best. She got sick her very first day out here though. Sad, huh? She started out with a cold, with sore throat, cough, runny/stuffy nose, etc. That stinks to be sick right off the bat! But the ward members have been great to her and have brought her lots of cough drops, tissues, chicken noodle soup, orange juice, etc. And while we've been tracting, there have been a couple people who made her some herbal tea to help her. It's been precious. There really are some great people in the world! She thinks it's turning into tonsillitis so we did have to stay in for a bit on Friday night......which makes me go stir-crazy. But I guess if we don't let her get a little rest, it's never going to go away. Actually yesterday was quite a crazy Sunday!! The way church normally works for us on Sundays goes like this......we have PEC at 7:30 for our ward, so the other sisters come with us and do their personal study at the church since we share the car. Then after PEC, sometimes we do a split and two missionaries go to our home ward at 9:00 while the others go to the PEC/university branch at 10:00, which is over on the Penn State campus. Then they come back and go to Relief Society for their own ward. So Sundays are usually pretty nutty, but yesterday it was even more nutty! After we got out of PEC yesterday, we found out that one of the other sister missionaries was sick and throwing up. haha, good way to start the day! So we decided to take her home along with Sister Johnson since she wasn't feeling well still and let them rest. Then Sister Cahoon and I tried to manage three wards by ourselves, jumping back and forth from the church, to campus, back to church, etc. Crazy, crazy day! Then after all of church was over, luckily neither companionship had solid appointments for the night so we managed to work everything out great. We saw one of our investigators, had a dinner appointment with someone in their ward. I'm glad for the way the night worked out, haha. And I am also very grateful that Sister Cahoon was healthy so we could still go to church and go out and work. I hate sitting inside!!!! I'm taking Sister Johnson to the doctor today to get some medicine or something and hopefully she'll recover soon enough.
We did get a new investigator this week. He's way cool! His name is Shawn and he is Chinese. He's cool because he really wants to learn about God and what that really means. He did an exchange program in Alabama and lived with a minister so he learned a lot about Christianity through him. He gets so confused though with everything the world tells him, which is understandable. As we were talking about prophets and how we have one on the earth today, he got really excited and was like "REALLY????????" haha, it was cute. I'm excited for him to learn more. :)
Well it's definitely been a crazy first week of the transfer, probably one of the craziest ones I've had. But everything is going great here and I'm so excited for all the miracles that are going to happen this transfer! You guys are in my prayers, every prayer! I love you lots and can't wait to see you soon enough. Have a great week, keep a positive attitude and outlook and remember how wonderful the plan of salvation is!!!! It's such a blessing that we can know of it! Love you lots!
Love, Holly
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Week 68 - Beginning of the Last
August 9, 2010
Hi everybody!
Here it is....the beginning of the last transfer. And guess what? I'm going to be training again. Yay! I'm excited to have a little greenie who has that greenie fire! It'll be a great way to end the mission and we are going to see SO many wonderful miracles! It'll be the best transfer yet! Guess what else? Sister Anderson (who I trained before) is going to be training too!! Cool huh? She's an amazing missionary! I'm so excited for her! Sister Westbrook is going home though, so that's a little sad. Exciting for her, but sad for all of us who she is leaving. This week was full of goodbye appointments and LOTS of dinner appointments. Even lunch appointments. I'm surprised I haven't gained 500 pounds just this week! Maybe by the end of this next transfer I will, who knows, haha. I'll miss Sister Westbrook though, we've had a great transfer together and a whole lot of fun! :)
Since this week was full of a whole bunch of goodbye appointments, not a whole lot more really happened. BUT two appointments that I am absolutely excited about. The first was with Elizabeth. We met with her on Friday and taught her the plan of salvation. She loved it! Right now she is studying Buddhism because it's been the closest thing she has found to what she believes. But she can't get over the fact that they don't believe in one God and that Christ was the Son of God. She also has been looking into Dowism (sp?) but I guess they don't really believe in prayer and she is a huge pray-er. So when she heard the plan of salvation she was like "wow! I totally believe that this could happen!" She was so excited about it all. Elizabeth is great! We invited her to be baptized and she said she would definitely pray about it and pray about all the things we have been teaching her. She is going through a lot right now though, trying to figure out wedding planning and moving and a whole lot more, so it may be a while until she's ready to be baptized.
Then we have a new investigator, Karen! She's awesome too. We tracted into her house earlier this week and she let us in right away. She is newly married as of like 2 months ago. Cute! She told us that she has family that lives in Tremonton, Utah (they aren't members) but she goes out to visit every now and then. She's seen the SLC temple from a distance and thinks it's beautiful! Of course! She said that she has no knowledge about the church though and she's really interested in learning. So we set an appointment to bring her a Book of Mormon and she was really intrigued by it all. It's fun to be able to see people learn of the gospel when they have never heard a thing about it before. She's really interested in the Book of Mormon too. She told us that she had never really thought of people living here on the American continent but that it makes sense. She also told us that she talked to her family in another part of Pennsylvania about meeting us and had a good discussion with them. All good signs, I'm loving it!
One other cool story. A family in our ward brought their neighbors to church with them yesterday!!!! They seemed to really enjoy it too! The members have talked all about the church with them and have given them a copy of the Book of Mormon and even talked about us meeting up with them. So we got to meet them yesterday and get an appointment with them. I'm so excited to teach them! It'll be fun to have a brand new greenie get to teach them too. I'm telling you, great things are going to happen this transfer!
This isn't very long, I know. Probably a relief to you guys though, haha. I remember just skimming through other missionaries emails because they were so long. So this will be a good break. I love you all soooooo much! Hope to hear from you all next week. Keep staying strong and keep being amazing member missionaries! :)
Love, Holly
Hi everybody!
Here it is....the beginning of the last transfer. And guess what? I'm going to be training again. Yay! I'm excited to have a little greenie who has that greenie fire! It'll be a great way to end the mission and we are going to see SO many wonderful miracles! It'll be the best transfer yet! Guess what else? Sister Anderson (who I trained before) is going to be training too!! Cool huh? She's an amazing missionary! I'm so excited for her! Sister Westbrook is going home though, so that's a little sad. Exciting for her, but sad for all of us who she is leaving. This week was full of goodbye appointments and LOTS of dinner appointments. Even lunch appointments. I'm surprised I haven't gained 500 pounds just this week! Maybe by the end of this next transfer I will, who knows, haha. I'll miss Sister Westbrook though, we've had a great transfer together and a whole lot of fun! :)
Since this week was full of a whole bunch of goodbye appointments, not a whole lot more really happened. BUT two appointments that I am absolutely excited about. The first was with Elizabeth. We met with her on Friday and taught her the plan of salvation. She loved it! Right now she is studying Buddhism because it's been the closest thing she has found to what she believes. But she can't get over the fact that they don't believe in one God and that Christ was the Son of God. She also has been looking into Dowism (sp?) but I guess they don't really believe in prayer and she is a huge pray-er. So when she heard the plan of salvation she was like "wow! I totally believe that this could happen!" She was so excited about it all. Elizabeth is great! We invited her to be baptized and she said she would definitely pray about it and pray about all the things we have been teaching her. She is going through a lot right now though, trying to figure out wedding planning and moving and a whole lot more, so it may be a while until she's ready to be baptized.
Then we have a new investigator, Karen! She's awesome too. We tracted into her house earlier this week and she let us in right away. She is newly married as of like 2 months ago. Cute! She told us that she has family that lives in Tremonton, Utah (they aren't members) but she goes out to visit every now and then. She's seen the SLC temple from a distance and thinks it's beautiful! Of course! She said that she has no knowledge about the church though and she's really interested in learning. So we set an appointment to bring her a Book of Mormon and she was really intrigued by it all. It's fun to be able to see people learn of the gospel when they have never heard a thing about it before. She's really interested in the Book of Mormon too. She told us that she had never really thought of people living here on the American continent but that it makes sense. She also told us that she talked to her family in another part of Pennsylvania about meeting us and had a good discussion with them. All good signs, I'm loving it!
One other cool story. A family in our ward brought their neighbors to church with them yesterday!!!! They seemed to really enjoy it too! The members have talked all about the church with them and have given them a copy of the Book of Mormon and even talked about us meeting up with them. So we got to meet them yesterday and get an appointment with them. I'm so excited to teach them! It'll be fun to have a brand new greenie get to teach them too. I'm telling you, great things are going to happen this transfer!
This isn't very long, I know. Probably a relief to you guys though, haha. I remember just skimming through other missionaries emails because they were so long. So this will be a good break. I love you all soooooo much! Hope to hear from you all next week. Keep staying strong and keep being amazing member missionaries! :)
Love, Holly
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Week 67 - Cooling Down
August 2, 2010
Hey again my favorite people in the world! :0
How is everyone doing? Great I hope! Thanks for all your fun emails! It's one of the many highlights of my week being able to read about what's going on in everyones life!
It's been a fun week. Last week, I don't remember if I told you but it was sooooooooooo stinkin hot! It was only in like the low 90's but with the humidity, it was pretty rough. But this week, it has cooled down a lot.....and less humidity! It's been wonderful and a lot easier to walk around in.
So as I was thinking about what to write about, I was having troubles thinking of something good. But then all of a sudden everything just came to my memory all at once so I have lots of completely RANDOM things to talk about today!
First of all, the amazing investigator Elizabeth we found, we have had a hard time trying to get a hold of her. We called and stopped by many times this week and haven't been able to get a hold of her. We were worried she got antied or something and was avoiding us. BUT she called us this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) She said that she has barely been home for the last week and she had lost our phone number. But we called her again on Saturday and left our phone number again and she called us back to set up another time to meet! Yay. They have to move into her mom's house because of financial difficulties so she has been in the process of doing that and also thinking a lot about church, so she has been thinking of lots of questions to ask us! Elizabeth is so great! I love miracles! Just when we are in despair, the Lord blesses us!
Some other cool things happened this week. I have been really really really praying hard to see lots of success for my last transfer. Since 2 baptisms fell through this transfer, I've been feeling a little saddened. So I've been trying to "wrestle with the Lord" and pour out my heart to be able to see miracles......even to help teach and baptize a family (that's my transfer goal!) Here's the stories: first a member in our ward called us and said that he has a neighbor family that he has been working with who have been asking lots of questions. They said that they were interested in coming to church, but first they wanted to read up and learn a little bit about the church. So he asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and some of the introductory pamphlets. When we gave it to him on Sunday, he was excited to tell us all about this family and that they would hopefully be at church next week. But it's a family of 4 and they seem really interested, so are my prayers being answered? I sure hope so!!!!
Next is another family that we have sort of been working with, the Kondash's. They are super cool but so busy, so we don't get to see them very often. We stopped in and taught the Plan of Salvation to the parents and they want us to come back to teach it to their sons. They are planning on feeding us this Friday, so hopefully it'll be a great lesson too. They seriously ask the most perfect questions and tell all their friends about their "Mormon girls!" haha, I love it.
Every week we also do what is called a 'public forum' on Penn State's campus where basically we get to set up a booth and talk to people. It is a closed campus, but they allow us to do this once a week. But last week we talked to this really cool Asian kid named Shawn (american version of the name) for a long time and he told us that he lived in Alabama for a while and worked with some Christian groups but really didn't understand the nature of God or anything. So we told him we would teach him about it and he was excited to come to church too. Asian's are seriously the nicest people ever! In the city, my favorite people to go up and talk to were the Asians and the Indians. They were all so kind and polite! So I'm pretty excited about Shawn.
Last of all, we helped Jess and her member husband, Jacob, move from the basement of her parent-in-laws home to an apartment above the garage. They needed to move out because another one of the Benedict's sons was going to be moving in to the basement. So we thought we'd be of help and help move things up, not thinking much of it. Just to help reduce the stress of moving. Well, we found out yesterday at church from Sister Benedict (the member mother in law) that it was a lot more help to them then we thought. She said that Jacob and Jess had moved a little slower then her other son was planning on, so their would probably be an overlap of moving. She said that there probably would have been a blow-out between brothers over it and that we came in just at the right time to get everything moved out so the other boy could move in. Pretty lucky huh? It's fun to hear about these things after the fact. :)
So lots of good potential that we are working with! I seriously love this work and I am going to work the hardest I have ever worked these last 6 weeks! Oh man I can't believe that it is here already. Keep praying that we can see miracles and baptisms here in State College please! Your prayers are very well appreciated and loved! Thank you so much! Love you all and I hope everyone has a great week! Miss you!
Love, Holly
Hey again my favorite people in the world! :0
How is everyone doing? Great I hope! Thanks for all your fun emails! It's one of the many highlights of my week being able to read about what's going on in everyones life!
It's been a fun week. Last week, I don't remember if I told you but it was sooooooooooo stinkin hot! It was only in like the low 90's but with the humidity, it was pretty rough. But this week, it has cooled down a lot.....and less humidity! It's been wonderful and a lot easier to walk around in.
So as I was thinking about what to write about, I was having troubles thinking of something good. But then all of a sudden everything just came to my memory all at once so I have lots of completely RANDOM things to talk about today!
First of all, the amazing investigator Elizabeth we found, we have had a hard time trying to get a hold of her. We called and stopped by many times this week and haven't been able to get a hold of her. We were worried she got antied or something and was avoiding us. BUT she called us this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) She said that she has barely been home for the last week and she had lost our phone number. But we called her again on Saturday and left our phone number again and she called us back to set up another time to meet! Yay. They have to move into her mom's house because of financial difficulties so she has been in the process of doing that and also thinking a lot about church, so she has been thinking of lots of questions to ask us! Elizabeth is so great! I love miracles! Just when we are in despair, the Lord blesses us!
Some other cool things happened this week. I have been really really really praying hard to see lots of success for my last transfer. Since 2 baptisms fell through this transfer, I've been feeling a little saddened. So I've been trying to "wrestle with the Lord" and pour out my heart to be able to see miracles......even to help teach and baptize a family (that's my transfer goal!) Here's the stories: first a member in our ward called us and said that he has a neighbor family that he has been working with who have been asking lots of questions. They said that they were interested in coming to church, but first they wanted to read up and learn a little bit about the church. So he asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and some of the introductory pamphlets. When we gave it to him on Sunday, he was excited to tell us all about this family and that they would hopefully be at church next week. But it's a family of 4 and they seem really interested, so are my prayers being answered? I sure hope so!!!!
Next is another family that we have sort of been working with, the Kondash's. They are super cool but so busy, so we don't get to see them very often. We stopped in and taught the Plan of Salvation to the parents and they want us to come back to teach it to their sons. They are planning on feeding us this Friday, so hopefully it'll be a great lesson too. They seriously ask the most perfect questions and tell all their friends about their "Mormon girls!" haha, I love it.
Every week we also do what is called a 'public forum' on Penn State's campus where basically we get to set up a booth and talk to people. It is a closed campus, but they allow us to do this once a week. But last week we talked to this really cool Asian kid named Shawn (american version of the name) for a long time and he told us that he lived in Alabama for a while and worked with some Christian groups but really didn't understand the nature of God or anything. So we told him we would teach him about it and he was excited to come to church too. Asian's are seriously the nicest people ever! In the city, my favorite people to go up and talk to were the Asians and the Indians. They were all so kind and polite! So I'm pretty excited about Shawn.
Last of all, we helped Jess and her member husband, Jacob, move from the basement of her parent-in-laws home to an apartment above the garage. They needed to move out because another one of the Benedict's sons was going to be moving in to the basement. So we thought we'd be of help and help move things up, not thinking much of it. Just to help reduce the stress of moving. Well, we found out yesterday at church from Sister Benedict (the member mother in law) that it was a lot more help to them then we thought. She said that Jacob and Jess had moved a little slower then her other son was planning on, so their would probably be an overlap of moving. She said that there probably would have been a blow-out between brothers over it and that we came in just at the right time to get everything moved out so the other boy could move in. Pretty lucky huh? It's fun to hear about these things after the fact. :)
So lots of good potential that we are working with! I seriously love this work and I am going to work the hardest I have ever worked these last 6 weeks! Oh man I can't believe that it is here already. Keep praying that we can see miracles and baptisms here in State College please! Your prayers are very well appreciated and loved! Thank you so much! Love you all and I hope everyone has a great week! Miss you!
Love, Holly
Week 66 - The Ups and the Downs.
July 26, 2010
Hi all my loved ones!
It has been quite an adventuresome week! A lot of cool miracles and a lot of big disappointments. I'll start off with the bad news first and finish off with the good news. That seems like a good way to work it.
Sad news.......Karen decided not to be baptized :( She called us on Thursday and left a message saying that she didn't feel her testimony was strong enough and didn't want to be baptized anymore. Once we got the message, we called her back and ran over to her house as quickly as possible to talk to her. We visited with her for about an hour and a half trying to help her resolve her concerns, but no luck. She wants to continue trying out other churches and continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying. It's so sad!!! I hate when Satan gets his way! Grrrrr. Like Natalie told me one time though, I think we CAN throw Satan down and stomp him on his head with a little faith and love! :) ( I use that all the time now. Thanks Natalie!) She'll eventually come around. I don't know if it will be in the near future or way down the road. But she'll get there. She's had too many confirmations from the spirit to really deny the truthfulness of the church. I think she's just scared at the moment. Besides that bad news, we had SUCH a hot week this week, with tons and tons of humidity. It was almost a killer. One afternoon, we didn't have anything else to do to stay out of the heat, so we tracted all afternoon. Had dinner, then tracted again out in the heat. I was glad to have that day be over! hahaha. Good ol' missionary life.
Alrighty, now for some good news. We met with Elizabeth on Tuesday and had a GREAT lesson with her. When we told her about the first vision, she was like "Why have I never heard this before??" It was great :) She was excited to read from the Book of Mormon and continue learning more. She's awesome. But a little minor sad news....we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then. Hopefully she's still reading and doing great.......we'll catch up with her sometime!
Our investigator Jess is doing really well. She's a lot of fun! Her and her husband Jacob (who is a member) had a little bit of a hard/emotional week this past week but we taught them the plan of salvation and I think it brought her a little more hope. They both committed to reading the Book of Mormon together, so Jacob can help her understand and we should be meeting with them this next Wednesday. Jacob's mom, Sister Benedict (who gave us Jess as a referrel), called us yesterday and told us how she is impressed with how Jess is maturing and she is seeing a lot of good changes in her. Good! That's what we like to hear! :)
One other pretty cool thing that we experienced this week. Sister Westbrook and I had noticed on a previous progress record that sisters had visited a less-active family named the Emel's. Sister Westbrook had never heard of them before so we decided to go stop by and visit. They let us in and talked with us for a good amount of time! They are great people! They used to be very active about 7-8 years ago but let themselves get lazy and just stopped coming. They have 2 sons that are still very active in another part of Pennsylvania though. I guess they lived in a branch and he was ward clerk and elders quorum president at the same time and she was relief society president and they got burnt out really fast. And I think some of their inactivity is from being offended too. Anyway, they were tired of serving so they just stopped coming when they moved to this area. Sad huh? I know sometimes we can be over-worked, but that's when we learn how to deal with it and talk with the bishopric when we need a change. We invited them to come to church and even brought over another couple in the ward to meet them. Which they hit it off right away and they seem like they will be good friends! Yay. Hopefully we can start visiting them on a regular basis and help them come back to activity!
So good things are happening despite the challenging time too. I still absolutely love it here in State College! It's so much fun and we are (usually) so super busy! It's great! :) Love you guys a whole lot! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GOT MY TRAVEL ITINERARY ALREADY! Sick. Well I guess I'll see you guys soon enough. Have a great week!
Love, Holly
Hi all my loved ones!
It has been quite an adventuresome week! A lot of cool miracles and a lot of big disappointments. I'll start off with the bad news first and finish off with the good news. That seems like a good way to work it.
Sad news.......Karen decided not to be baptized :( She called us on Thursday and left a message saying that she didn't feel her testimony was strong enough and didn't want to be baptized anymore. Once we got the message, we called her back and ran over to her house as quickly as possible to talk to her. We visited with her for about an hour and a half trying to help her resolve her concerns, but no luck. She wants to continue trying out other churches and continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying. It's so sad!!! I hate when Satan gets his way! Grrrrr. Like Natalie told me one time though, I think we CAN throw Satan down and stomp him on his head with a little faith and love! :) ( I use that all the time now. Thanks Natalie!) She'll eventually come around. I don't know if it will be in the near future or way down the road. But she'll get there. She's had too many confirmations from the spirit to really deny the truthfulness of the church. I think she's just scared at the moment. Besides that bad news, we had SUCH a hot week this week, with tons and tons of humidity. It was almost a killer. One afternoon, we didn't have anything else to do to stay out of the heat, so we tracted all afternoon. Had dinner, then tracted again out in the heat. I was glad to have that day be over! hahaha. Good ol' missionary life.
Alrighty, now for some good news. We met with Elizabeth on Tuesday and had a GREAT lesson with her. When we told her about the first vision, she was like "Why have I never heard this before??" It was great :) She was excited to read from the Book of Mormon and continue learning more. She's awesome. But a little minor sad news....we haven't been able to get a hold of her since then. Hopefully she's still reading and doing great.......we'll catch up with her sometime!
Our investigator Jess is doing really well. She's a lot of fun! Her and her husband Jacob (who is a member) had a little bit of a hard/emotional week this past week but we taught them the plan of salvation and I think it brought her a little more hope. They both committed to reading the Book of Mormon together, so Jacob can help her understand and we should be meeting with them this next Wednesday. Jacob's mom, Sister Benedict (who gave us Jess as a referrel), called us yesterday and told us how she is impressed with how Jess is maturing and she is seeing a lot of good changes in her. Good! That's what we like to hear! :)
One other pretty cool thing that we experienced this week. Sister Westbrook and I had noticed on a previous progress record that sisters had visited a less-active family named the Emel's. Sister Westbrook had never heard of them before so we decided to go stop by and visit. They let us in and talked with us for a good amount of time! They are great people! They used to be very active about 7-8 years ago but let themselves get lazy and just stopped coming. They have 2 sons that are still very active in another part of Pennsylvania though. I guess they lived in a branch and he was ward clerk and elders quorum president at the same time and she was relief society president and they got burnt out really fast. And I think some of their inactivity is from being offended too. Anyway, they were tired of serving so they just stopped coming when they moved to this area. Sad huh? I know sometimes we can be over-worked, but that's when we learn how to deal with it and talk with the bishopric when we need a change. We invited them to come to church and even brought over another couple in the ward to meet them. Which they hit it off right away and they seem like they will be good friends! Yay. Hopefully we can start visiting them on a regular basis and help them come back to activity!
So good things are happening despite the challenging time too. I still absolutely love it here in State College! It's so much fun and we are (usually) so super busy! It's great! :) Love you guys a whole lot! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GOT MY TRAVEL ITINERARY ALREADY! Sick. Well I guess I'll see you guys soon enough. Have a great week!
Love, Holly
Week 65 - Soooo Gooooooood! :)
July 19, 2010
Hi again!
I'm excited I got to finally hear all the updates about the reception and everything! And I'm glad it went wonderfully! I wish I could see some pictures! Tell Hayley to send me some through email! I'm dying to see what everyone and everything looked like!
Alright, some quick updates really fast.....we had zone conference again this past week and found out some exciting news!! President Pugh is going to be the new Seattle temple president!!!!! Cool, huh? I'm excited for him! And now excited to have a reason to go to the Seattle temple. :) We were also told about some changes that all missions are going through (again). Mostly just with missionary meetings. When I first started my mission, we had zone conference and interviews every transfer. Then in October when we had mission tour, Elder C. Scott Grow changed it to having zone conference and interviews monthly. Now it will be changed to having it quarterly. Only 4 times a year. Crazy huh?? So for sisters, they will only have 6 opportunities for zone conferences and president interviews! I'm so glad I got more then that! haha. They are starting it pretty much right now too, but luckily President Summerhays has already planned for an August zone conference. So at least I get one more! :) But my last interview will be next week.....until the exit interview. Yikes! Then they are also adding in Leadership training meetings for zone leaders, district leaders, and some sisters that will happen every other month. And they will last for 2 days. It's going to be interesting to see how this all works out!
Now for the real fun stuff! The work that is going on here! It is GREAT! Karen's baptism will be this upcoming Saturday! They announced it in church yesterday and she was just beaming! She's excited. When we visited with her this week, she said that she has been feeling a little depressed. Since she gave up coffee, she hasn't been having that 'pick-me-up' and her body is trying to adjust back to normal. In a moment of depression, she was going to give in and just drink some, but then she reminded herself that she REALLY wanted to be baptized and that would stop her if she drank it. So she stayed strong and is moving forward! She's great.
We received a member referral this past week! A lady in our ward has a daughter-in-law, Jess, who has been against organized religion for most of her life. She just had a cute baby girl though and realized that she wants religion in her family. So she asked to meet with us and she's pretty much set on joining. :) We had a great first lesson with her and talked all about how the gospel blesses families. It was perfect! I guess she had a discussion with her own mom about the church and her mom told her to not take the lessons. But Jess is set on it and is going to do what she wants! Another great thing that goes along with Jess learning about the gospel is that HER sister-in-law is coming in on it too! Her name is Amber. Amber formerly had all the lessons and was set to be baptized but things came up and she fell away. But Jess is sort of bringing her back around! It's a beautiful thing! I love this gospel so much!
As for Chuck, it's still pretty much the same old-same old. He was pretty sick yesterday so he didn't come to church. But Megan (his fiancée who is a member) invited his mom to church to listen to her Relief Society lesson and she said that she was interested in coming. Unfortunately she didn't come.....but that is a step forward. His mom wasn't opposed to coming. Maybe she has just been feeling left out because Chuck doesn't tell her anything so she gets mad at the church for it. Hopefully her heart will start softening and she'll come around.
We stopped by that one girl I told you about last week, Elizabeth, who is living in a former investigators home and wants us to teach her more. We stopped by and things were just really crazy for her that day, but she wants us to come back this Tuesday to actually sit down and teach her more. She's so cute and so sincere! She is planning a wedding and was talking about how she's having a hard time finding a church to get married in because they all charge so much if you aren't a member of these certain churches. We told her that she could look at our church and it would be for free. She LOVED that idea! haha. Don't worry, we told her about the basketball hoops and everything and she said that was OK because her fiancée loves basketball! haha. Cool. She's going to come check it out :)
And one last little thing I forgot to mention......at zone conference, Sister Westbrook and I recited the family proclamation during our scripture mastery time and President came up to us and told us that Sister Summerhays is taking us to dinner and gave us $20 again! :) Oh my goodness, I love President and I love this mission! Oh, and we found out that we are getting 4 new sisters this upcoming transfer! That's a lot!!!!! But we're so excited!
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week and I can't wait to hear from you next week! Love you and miss you!!!!
Love, Holly
Hi again!
I'm excited I got to finally hear all the updates about the reception and everything! And I'm glad it went wonderfully! I wish I could see some pictures! Tell Hayley to send me some through email! I'm dying to see what everyone and everything looked like!
Alright, some quick updates really fast.....we had zone conference again this past week and found out some exciting news!! President Pugh is going to be the new Seattle temple president!!!!! Cool, huh? I'm excited for him! And now excited to have a reason to go to the Seattle temple. :) We were also told about some changes that all missions are going through (again). Mostly just with missionary meetings. When I first started my mission, we had zone conference and interviews every transfer. Then in October when we had mission tour, Elder C. Scott Grow changed it to having zone conference and interviews monthly. Now it will be changed to having it quarterly. Only 4 times a year. Crazy huh?? So for sisters, they will only have 6 opportunities for zone conferences and president interviews! I'm so glad I got more then that! haha. They are starting it pretty much right now too, but luckily President Summerhays has already planned for an August zone conference. So at least I get one more! :) But my last interview will be next week.....until the exit interview. Yikes! Then they are also adding in Leadership training meetings for zone leaders, district leaders, and some sisters that will happen every other month. And they will last for 2 days. It's going to be interesting to see how this all works out!
Now for the real fun stuff! The work that is going on here! It is GREAT! Karen's baptism will be this upcoming Saturday! They announced it in church yesterday and she was just beaming! She's excited. When we visited with her this week, she said that she has been feeling a little depressed. Since she gave up coffee, she hasn't been having that 'pick-me-up' and her body is trying to adjust back to normal. In a moment of depression, she was going to give in and just drink some, but then she reminded herself that she REALLY wanted to be baptized and that would stop her if she drank it. So she stayed strong and is moving forward! She's great.
We received a member referral this past week! A lady in our ward has a daughter-in-law, Jess, who has been against organized religion for most of her life. She just had a cute baby girl though and realized that she wants religion in her family. So she asked to meet with us and she's pretty much set on joining. :) We had a great first lesson with her and talked all about how the gospel blesses families. It was perfect! I guess she had a discussion with her own mom about the church and her mom told her to not take the lessons. But Jess is set on it and is going to do what she wants! Another great thing that goes along with Jess learning about the gospel is that HER sister-in-law is coming in on it too! Her name is Amber. Amber formerly had all the lessons and was set to be baptized but things came up and she fell away. But Jess is sort of bringing her back around! It's a beautiful thing! I love this gospel so much!
As for Chuck, it's still pretty much the same old-same old. He was pretty sick yesterday so he didn't come to church. But Megan (his fiancée who is a member) invited his mom to church to listen to her Relief Society lesson and she said that she was interested in coming. Unfortunately she didn't come.....but that is a step forward. His mom wasn't opposed to coming. Maybe she has just been feeling left out because Chuck doesn't tell her anything so she gets mad at the church for it. Hopefully her heart will start softening and she'll come around.
We stopped by that one girl I told you about last week, Elizabeth, who is living in a former investigators home and wants us to teach her more. We stopped by and things were just really crazy for her that day, but she wants us to come back this Tuesday to actually sit down and teach her more. She's so cute and so sincere! She is planning a wedding and was talking about how she's having a hard time finding a church to get married in because they all charge so much if you aren't a member of these certain churches. We told her that she could look at our church and it would be for free. She LOVED that idea! haha. Don't worry, we told her about the basketball hoops and everything and she said that was OK because her fiancée loves basketball! haha. Cool. She's going to come check it out :)
And one last little thing I forgot to mention......at zone conference, Sister Westbrook and I recited the family proclamation during our scripture mastery time and President came up to us and told us that Sister Summerhays is taking us to dinner and gave us $20 again! :) Oh my goodness, I love President and I love this mission! Oh, and we found out that we are getting 4 new sisters this upcoming transfer! That's a lot!!!!! But we're so excited!
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week and I can't wait to hear from you next week! Love you and miss you!!!!
Love, Holly
Week 64 - What's going on???
July 12, 2010
Hi!
Kelsey told me that Jorge finally made it up here just in time for the reception!! YAYYYYY! It finally happened!!!! But no one else wrote to me about it so I am so curious to know how it all went. I want DETAILS! How is he doing here in America? Probably a ton of culture shock, haha. Poor boy. Please let me know everything all about it!
So I realized last week after I was all done emailing that I forgot to give you my new address. So here it is:
10 Vairo Blvd. Apt 245C
State College, PA 16803
Now you can send me some fun packages and letters and let everyone else know what it is so they can write to me in the last couple months left out here in PA and update me on their lives before I get home!
Alright, now I can tell you a little bit of what is going on out here. Things are going so good! Karen is still set for her baptism on July 24th. She gets cold feet every now and then but then she overcomes it and moves forward with faith. She is great. We had a lesson on the word of wisdom last time and her only addiction was coffee. But she easily committed to stop drinking coffee and stopped it that very day. I'm so proud of her :) When people let the gospel play a role in their lives, I love seeing their countenances change to become such a happy, bright person. It's beautiful. As for Chuck though, he's still doing good and wants to be baptized. He didn't make it to his baptism date this past Saturday though because he didn't ever talk to his mom about it. So we visited with him last night and set him with a new date of August 14th and committed him to just sit down with his mom this week and just talk to her about some of the things we believe in. Megan (chuck's fiancee who is a member) is teaching Relief Society next week too, so she's going to invite his mom to church. I never ever thought that this would be the issue I saw the most out on my mission....parents who don't let their adult children be baptized. It's a huge stumbling block in people's progressions, understandably. Children love their parents so they want to respect them, but that goes for each individual. So parents should respect the children too, especially when it's for so great a cause. Sometimes I just wish I could just stand on rooftops and clear up all confusions that people have about the church and everyone would believe me. Too bad it doesn't work that way though.
Here is my last story for the week. As I was doing my personal study this past week and during our weekly planning, I felt that we should look up some former investigators to stop by and see if they are interested again. I really, really, really want to find, teach, and baptize a family before the end of my mission so I was trying to look up all the families that have been taught. We stopped by a lot and they weren't home, a lot had moved, and we stopped by one house that I had actually starred in my notes because I felt so good about it, had moved as well. But the lady who answered the door was SO friendly to us! She talked to us for a long time and her son actually told us that he had seen us before. I guess the sisters had tracted into his grandma's house a little while ago when he was there and he remembered. Anyway, as we were talking about the church, she told us that she has been looking for a church herself. (Her name is Elizabeth by the way) She has gotten on this website called beliefnet or something like that and took a quiz about the things she believes in and it gave her a list of different churches that matched up with her beliefs. Ours was on her list!!!! She was going through and studying about the churches on her list but hadn't gotten to ours yet. So we got her information so we can teach her more! She seemed pretty excited about it too. I'm pretty excited about it! I'm praying that this is legit and that she sincerely investigates!!! That would be an amazingly awesome story!
Well, please let me know everything that is going on at home! I hate not knowing how things are going! Have an awesome week! Love you all! Keep being great member missionaries!
Love, Holly
Hi!
Kelsey told me that Jorge finally made it up here just in time for the reception!! YAYYYYY! It finally happened!!!! But no one else wrote to me about it so I am so curious to know how it all went. I want DETAILS! How is he doing here in America? Probably a ton of culture shock, haha. Poor boy. Please let me know everything all about it!
So I realized last week after I was all done emailing that I forgot to give you my new address. So here it is:
10 Vairo Blvd. Apt 245C
State College, PA 16803
Now you can send me some fun packages and letters and let everyone else know what it is so they can write to me in the last couple months left out here in PA and update me on their lives before I get home!
Alright, now I can tell you a little bit of what is going on out here. Things are going so good! Karen is still set for her baptism on July 24th. She gets cold feet every now and then but then she overcomes it and moves forward with faith. She is great. We had a lesson on the word of wisdom last time and her only addiction was coffee. But she easily committed to stop drinking coffee and stopped it that very day. I'm so proud of her :) When people let the gospel play a role in their lives, I love seeing their countenances change to become such a happy, bright person. It's beautiful. As for Chuck though, he's still doing good and wants to be baptized. He didn't make it to his baptism date this past Saturday though because he didn't ever talk to his mom about it. So we visited with him last night and set him with a new date of August 14th and committed him to just sit down with his mom this week and just talk to her about some of the things we believe in. Megan (chuck's fiancee who is a member) is teaching Relief Society next week too, so she's going to invite his mom to church. I never ever thought that this would be the issue I saw the most out on my mission....parents who don't let their adult children be baptized. It's a huge stumbling block in people's progressions, understandably. Children love their parents so they want to respect them, but that goes for each individual. So parents should respect the children too, especially when it's for so great a cause. Sometimes I just wish I could just stand on rooftops and clear up all confusions that people have about the church and everyone would believe me. Too bad it doesn't work that way though.
Here is my last story for the week. As I was doing my personal study this past week and during our weekly planning, I felt that we should look up some former investigators to stop by and see if they are interested again. I really, really, really want to find, teach, and baptize a family before the end of my mission so I was trying to look up all the families that have been taught. We stopped by a lot and they weren't home, a lot had moved, and we stopped by one house that I had actually starred in my notes because I felt so good about it, had moved as well. But the lady who answered the door was SO friendly to us! She talked to us for a long time and her son actually told us that he had seen us before. I guess the sisters had tracted into his grandma's house a little while ago when he was there and he remembered. Anyway, as we were talking about the church, she told us that she has been looking for a church herself. (Her name is Elizabeth by the way) She has gotten on this website called beliefnet or something like that and took a quiz about the things she believes in and it gave her a list of different churches that matched up with her beliefs. Ours was on her list!!!! She was going through and studying about the churches on her list but hadn't gotten to ours yet. So we got her information so we can teach her more! She seemed pretty excited about it too. I'm pretty excited about it! I'm praying that this is legit and that she sincerely investigates!!! That would be an amazingly awesome story!
Well, please let me know everything that is going on at home! I hate not knowing how things are going! Have an awesome week! Love you all! Keep being great member missionaries!
Love, Holly
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Week 63 - State College!!!
July 6, 2010
Hello again!
How is everyone doing? Well, I sure did get transferred and it turned out exactly as I was hoping and praying for! I am now in State College (home of Penn State) serving with Sister Westbrook again!!!!! It is SOOO much fun! We were both praying to serve with eachother again and the Lord answered our prayers. This is her last transfer now! Crazy huh? Two oldies serving together, but I am grateful. There is another set of sisters that serves here too and they are both pretty young in the mission. President is doing that on purpose. He wants all these newer young missionaries to gain leadership experiences quickly so he can have good leaders all throughout the mission. There are TONS of missionaries going home this upcoming transfer so the majority of the mission is fairly young. The other sisters think it's crazy but I like the way its going! haha. Well, let me tell you a little bit about State College. We serve in a family ward and a university branch......our Sundays are super busy! I don't know how missionaries do it in Utah! I was exhausted on Sunday. But everyone around her is soo sweet and kind. This place is a little bit of the best of both worlds on my mission so far. I get the countryside again and we see a little bit of Amish people again :) And we also get to be around the young single adults and work on campus. So it is a mixture of my whole mission in one area. I LOVE it! Let's see, what else can I tell you.....the work here is going great. There is a lot of great potential with the people the sisters have been working with. We were able to set one lady, Karen Rath, with a baptism date this past week. She is set to be baptized on July 24th. Pray for her please! Her's is a little bit of an interesting story. She actually investigated in the 80's but didn't get very far with it. She ended up joining many different churches over the years, I guess none of them were really fitting her needs. She joined a Mennonite church and it's the longest she's been in a church her whole life, which has been 5 years. Missionaries tracted into her about a year ago, but she wasn't ready for it then. Then the sisters stopped by a couple months ago and I guess she was just ready for it now! :) She completely believes that the church is true and she knows she wants to be baptized. She expresses one concern though of her making sure she's doing it for the right reasons. She feels although she knows it's true, she doesn't want to do it for other reasons, like for friends and socializing. But in our lessons, the spirit is amazingly strong and you can see the light in her eyes. She's great!
We also have another kid named Chuck who is supposed to get baptized this upcoming Saturday. Not sure if it's going to happen though. He's a young 20 year old boy who is engaged to a member of the ward. He was actually supposed to get baptized in May but he hadn't told his mom until the night before. So she got mad at him and told him to push it back. So he pushed it back but his mom is still not very happy about him joining the church so he's thinking about pushing it back even more. Who knows, but if you want to pray for Chuck to gain strength to move forward, that would be wonderful! :) haha, thank you!
The 4th of July was fun too! Supposedly State College has fireworks that are 2nd best in the nation. So we were super stoked to see these fireworks! Down at the Stadium they were having festivities and they had a HUGE cake that people could eat for free. We thought it would be a great idea to go contacting down there and talk to lots of people and get free cake too. But I made a mistake.......I forgot to bring my proselyting stuff with me (usually to church, I just bring a little church bag and my scriptures, etc) so I didn't have many pass-along cards or pamphlets or anything. So we had to go home so I could get that and our house is forever away from the stadium. We share the car with the other sisters and they had the car that day, so we didn't quite make it down there :( And then we went to the others sisters house to watch the fireworks because they have a big open back yard at the place they stay at and we thought it would be perfect to see them. But when they started going off, I guess we were too far away and we could only see about the top 1/3 of the fireworks over the treeline. Bummer! So it wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but I have to admit, it was a lot better then last year! I didn't get to see any fireworks last year!
Well, I am loving this area and I am so excited to be here! It's going to be a great 3 months ahead of me!! :) I love you all lots and can't wait to to hear how the reception went and everything. I'll be praying that it goes well and I will be there in spirit! Have a great week! Stay safe and happy!
Love, Holly
How is everyone doing? Well, I sure did get transferred and it turned out exactly as I was hoping and praying for! I am now in State College (home of Penn State) serving with Sister Westbrook again!!!!! It is SOOO much fun! We were both praying to serve with eachother again and the Lord answered our prayers. This is her last transfer now! Crazy huh? Two oldies serving together, but I am grateful. There is another set of sisters that serves here too and they are both pretty young in the mission. President is doing that on purpose. He wants all these newer young missionaries to gain leadership experiences quickly so he can have good leaders all throughout the mission. There are TONS of missionaries going home this upcoming transfer so the majority of the mission is fairly young. The other sisters think it's crazy but I like the way its going! haha. Well, let me tell you a little bit about State College. We serve in a family ward and a university branch......our Sundays are super busy! I don't know how missionaries do it in Utah! I was exhausted on Sunday. But everyone around her is soo sweet and kind. This place is a little bit of the best of both worlds on my mission so far. I get the countryside again and we see a little bit of Amish people again :) And we also get to be around the young single adults and work on campus. So it is a mixture of my whole mission in one area. I LOVE it! Let's see, what else can I tell you.....the work here is going great. There is a lot of great potential with the people the sisters have been working with. We were able to set one lady, Karen Rath, with a baptism date this past week. She is set to be baptized on July 24th. Pray for her please! Her's is a little bit of an interesting story. She actually investigated in the 80's but didn't get very far with it. She ended up joining many different churches over the years, I guess none of them were really fitting her needs. She joined a Mennonite church and it's the longest she's been in a church her whole life, which has been 5 years. Missionaries tracted into her about a year ago, but she wasn't ready for it then. Then the sisters stopped by a couple months ago and I guess she was just ready for it now! :) She completely believes that the church is true and she knows she wants to be baptized. She expresses one concern though of her making sure she's doing it for the right reasons. She feels although she knows it's true, she doesn't want to do it for other reasons, like for friends and socializing. But in our lessons, the spirit is amazingly strong and you can see the light in her eyes. She's great!
We also have another kid named Chuck who is supposed to get baptized this upcoming Saturday. Not sure if it's going to happen though. He's a young 20 year old boy who is engaged to a member of the ward. He was actually supposed to get baptized in May but he hadn't told his mom until the night before. So she got mad at him and told him to push it back. So he pushed it back but his mom is still not very happy about him joining the church so he's thinking about pushing it back even more. Who knows, but if you want to pray for Chuck to gain strength to move forward, that would be wonderful! :) haha, thank you!
The 4th of July was fun too! Supposedly State College has fireworks that are 2nd best in the nation. So we were super stoked to see these fireworks! Down at the Stadium they were having festivities and they had a HUGE cake that people could eat for free. We thought it would be a great idea to go contacting down there and talk to lots of people and get free cake too. But I made a mistake.......I forgot to bring my proselyting stuff with me (usually to church, I just bring a little church bag and my scriptures, etc) so I didn't have many pass-along cards or pamphlets or anything. So we had to go home so I could get that and our house is forever away from the stadium. We share the car with the other sisters and they had the car that day, so we didn't quite make it down there :( And then we went to the others sisters house to watch the fireworks because they have a big open back yard at the place they stay at and we thought it would be perfect to see them. But when they started going off, I guess we were too far away and we could only see about the top 1/3 of the fireworks over the treeline. Bummer! So it wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but I have to admit, it was a lot better then last year! I didn't get to see any fireworks last year!
Well, I am loving this area and I am so excited to be here! It's going to be a great 3 months ahead of me!! :) I love you all lots and can't wait to to hear how the reception went and everything. I'll be praying that it goes well and I will be there in spirit! Have a great week! Stay safe and happy!
Love, Holly
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