Almost New Year

So, to start this off, MOLLIE CAME TO CHURCH!!! We were so happy about that. Well the rest of this week we went caroling at a retirement home on Christmas Eve. That was really fun... I know a lot has happened but I can't really remember....hehe...sorry

I'm doing good. It's really slow out here, but were working hard. My companion is doing good. We're having lots of fun.  2014 is coming really fast. 

--
сестра стаффр (That's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Emergency Transfer

So, this week we had an ET (Emergency Transfer). I stayed in Beaver Lake and Sister Batton went to Lake Hills. My new companion is Sister Smalley.  She is from Queensland, Australia and has been out 3 months. We're having LOADS of fun.

It snowed this week and it was her first time seeing snow. So, we had snowball fights; it was really fun. She's also helping me work on my Australian accent. :D So that's really fun.

And, war was officially declared this week as well against us and Elder Tongish. Brother Jones did payback pretty good. We also had a Zone Breakfast this week. "Santa" came and gave us a nutella! That was really fun. I also got Renee's package at the Zone Breakfast. And the best part about the Zone Breakfast was that "Santa" gave Elder Tongish coal. It was so great!!

Well, I think that's all I have for this week. So I'll probably be calling (well skyping) around 2-4 ish....

--
сестра стаффр (That's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Christmas Coming

So, this week we had a mission Christmas party that was really fun.  I saw Hermana Norton and Sister Thompson at it.  Pres. Wood and his wife put on a live nativity.  It was really funny. Oh yeah, I also saw Elder Kirk there too.

I also got the package the family sent me.  Thank you so much!! We love it!!! (The toffee is already gone).

Then we also went and saw this former investigator named Maggy Mow. She gave us these pencils that turn into pens too! They're pretty cool.

So we had a church tour with Molly and Max when Elder Tongish (a Zone Leader) walked in in the middle of it and interrupted it XP.

He also took our phone and took pics of himself and set it as our background. So we talked to Brother Jones (he's a High Counclior) and he has the zone Leaders over for breakfast every once in a while and he happened to have them over today so he put TOO much salt on it. so I'm curious to see how that turns out.

We also get to teach Sis. Turtel!!! She used to live in the Duthie Hill ward, then she moved to our ward boundaries. Then the ward split so she ended up in the Klahanie Ward then she just moved to the Pine Lake Ward but wants Sisters to teach her so we're teaching her and she told us she's ready to take the next step!!! We're super excited for her!!! We also built a gingerbread house this week that was really fun.

We also helped Sis. Church out some more and I discovered that her husband makes bows and arrows...-drools- they look SUPER nice...

Then we met a lady last night named Sharon and she has horses!! She's going to let us help her with them. (Sadly I can't ride them :'( stupid rules )  but I'm super excited to help her out and to slowly teach her. I think that's all that has happened this week.

I just got done making cards with Sister Wood. There are ASL missionaries, Chinese Missionaries, Tongan, Samoan, Russian, and Spanish...  I think that's it.

Have a great week@!!!! And p-day is on Christmas. And that's about all I know for next week.

--
сестра стаффр (That's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

New Week

So, this week has been good. Our first day together was great. We both somehow managed to cut ourselves. We're not really sure how we did that... Sister Batton is from Lancaster, California and she's been out for 6 months.

We bought Elf ears and we wore them at the Christmas party. We got a pictures taken with Santa. We also helped Sister Church put her Christmas tree up. We wore our elf ears then too. Sister Church taught us how to make these really cool fire starters!! All it is is an egg carton, lint or cotton balls, and wax. They work really well.

We taught Molly this week too. She has so many hidden concerns it's making my head hurt.

Hmmm....we went to the temple today which was awesome!!! And p-day will be next Tuesday too, then it'll be back to Mondays.

We made a new District name. It used to be "the forgotten district" then it was "Hiroshima" then it was "Post H." and now it's "Mcgemperfish part 2" because the district is Elder Mcneil, Elder Gemperlin, Elder Fisher, and Elder Partlow.

I also saw Hermana Norton at the Temple (I went to EFY with her and she went to Lone Peak High School too). She  was in Elder (Jordan) Stauffer's district at the MTC and I saw Elder Kirk at the temple as well.

--
сестра стаффр (That's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Thanksgiving

So, I guess I'll just start off with transfers. I didn't get transferred but Sister Wright did. My new companion is Sister Batton. She's from California.

Then this week... well after I emailed last week, we ended up doing visa pictures which took forever!!! We had to go to 3 different places, then to the mission office the next day. Then, on Thanksgiving, we had a Holiday Activity. My zone and the Redmond Zone got together at the Bellevue Stake Center and we played Sports for 3 hours. Then we just member hopped for Thanksgiving. It was good.

We had dinner with the Sansings yesterday. I love that family. They're so funny!! And they have a Havanese dog who is just so adorable!!!!! And yeah.... that's all that I can remember of what happened this last week...so yeah....

--
сестра стаффр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Referral

So this week we went to the Relief Society Holiday Party. Molly went. It was really fun. Sis. Fawset sang (she's not a member). It was really pretty. I know one day her heart will be softened toward the church. Then Sister McFadden played this beautiful arrangement of "i Know that My Redeemer Lives." It was so pretty. She sang with Missy and there was a great slide show that went
with it!!!

Then we went to try this refferal that we kept getting over and over again from the refferal system. We had tried it once before and the dad answered.  He wasn't interested. So we tried back again and we were hoping that the dad wasn't going to be home...but he was. And we talked about the Bible and stuff like that. And he started bashing and when we left the coolest thing was we left with our testimonies strenghtened because you could feel the difference between when we spoke and he did. So that was a cool experience.

Then on Sunday, we were starting the first hymn and this girl in front of me starts signing the song. And I was like "OH MY GOSH SHE'S DEAF!!!! SO COOL!!!!!" So after sacrament meeting I went and I signed with her. Her name is Anna and she's actually mute not deaf. She's from Idaho and served a signing mission in California!!! She was visiting her sister for Thanksgiving. It was awesome!! I understood her perfectly...my signing wasn't very good..hehehe...but that's alright....

Then we had our member dinner at the Winders. They made "Han-burgers" and "Save Han-jello" and all sorts of Star Warsy food!!! It was so awesome!!! It made me really happy. On top of that, they were all wearing Star Wars shirts!!! So we taught a Star Warsy lesson. it was so great!! Then they gave us  Christmas presents with a little stocking and the stocking had a Yoda head sown on!! It's so adorable!!! I think that's all that happened this week...yeah...

--
сестра стаффр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Nutella

This week has been good. We've been doing A LOT of tracting but we have found 4 new people to start teaching!! We're so excited for that. We accidentally tracted into a member. And guess what!! He knows Uncle Mark [Stauffer].   His name is Brother Bearndt.  He used to work with him, I guess.

We had exchanges this week as well. I went to Cougar Mountain. I was with Sister Coombs. Sister Coombs isn't allowed to drive, so I had to drive. So...we kept getting lost and stuff cuz the GPS she had told me to turn at the last second. So we did a lot of turning around and stuff.

Then we also had Zone Breakfast this week. It was at President Senelli's. They made crepes!!! It was so good!!! They had Nutella there as well. And President Choi Crashed it. which isn't surprising.  He likes to crash or invite himself to things all the time. But it was really fun.

Then we had dinner with the Jones and they made Nutella shakes!!! They were sooooo good!!! It has Nutella, ice cream, milk, and vanilla and they blend it!! It's sooo good!! Apparently, Brother Jones also likes to make cake shakes. I'll have to try one of those...his favorate is the cheesecake shake. I can't wait to try that one day.

Oh yeah, I also learned that Elder Kirk is in my Sister trainer leader's district. They said he had a surgery done. Do you know anything about that? And I keep forgetting to have you tell Dustin "hi" for me and to tell him that he looks like he's grown a lot since I last saw him 2 ish years ago.  hmmm.... I think that's all I have for this week....
--
сестра стаффр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Another Good Week

So this week, we found a new investigator! His name is Glenn. (There are a lot of Glenns in this area.) It was slightly awkward cuz he was in his bathrobe, but he wants us to come back to teach him and his wife!! I'm excited for that.

Then we also found AJ. He's a nice guy. He gave us some catfish. I gave my piece to Sister Wright.

Then also this week, we were studying and there was a knock on our door. I opened it and it was the Jehovah's Witnesses. All they said to me was "Oh, we were looking for a Russian Family." Then they left. That was pretty exciting.

But the most exciting thing that happened this week is...dun dun dun dun..wait for it.......RAHUL AND HIS FAMILY ARE ON DATE TO GET BAPTIZED!!! We're so excited!!! They're so ready. And it was exciting as well because Sister Wright will be getting her Visa in a month or 2!! That was a crazy day!!

Well, things are going well here and I hope things are going awesome there.  Hope you all have a great week!!!

--
сестра стаффр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Stormy

So, this week was good. For Halloween, we had to go tracting for an hour!! It was super awkward, everyone thought we were trick or treaters XP. I kept wanting to say "trick or Gospel?" when they answered the door. We had a Halloween party as we'll. The Bishopric dressed up as 1D (1 Direction), it was so funny!!! XP They even performed!! I'm so glad I had my camera!! I filmed their
performance!! Then Sister Mcbride (our Ward Mission Leader's wife) dressed up as Mary Poppins. She looked like the real thing!!!

I learned that the Winder family in our ward are HUGE Star Wars Fans!! They're having us over for dinner in a week, I believe and Sister Winder said she'd do something Star Wars for it!! :D I'm so excited for that dinner.

Then one of the days we were out tracting we met this girl named Heather. She is awesome!! And she owns 2 horses!! But sadly, she's leaving soon :( Then we had a lesson with Molly (shes in a part member family) and she's just awesome. We read 1 Nephi 7-8 with her and Sis. Mcfadden was there. And guess what. I discovered that Sis. Mcfadden taught EFY and I went to one  of her classes!!!

Then we had dinner at the Harmers and they have a Havanese dog too!!! His name is Riley and he's white and brown and longer then Sirius Black but other then that they look the same!!!

Then 2 days ago, there was a HUGE windstorm and it took the power out!! It was out for like 2 hours, then it went out again for about 30 min. but everywhere else it was out till the next day. The weather was so bad!!  And that same day I met a man named Joe and we were talking with him and he asked "Where are you from?" I said "Cedar Hills" and he said "Is that close to Salt Lake?" I replied "sorta about 30 min away." and he said "Do you know Stake President Steve Bernards?" I said, "No, but is he related to a Duane Bernards?" and he said "Yes." and I guess he knows him through work. I thought that was really weird!!

Then so Rahul (a guy we found about 2 weeks ago) came to church and he LOVED it!!!! He started crying and was thanking us for introducing him to this church!!!! We have an appointment with him and his family on Friday!!! I'm so excited to teach them!!! He is so prepared and ready for the gospel!!!!!

--
сестра стаффр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Bigger Area

So, to start out, I'm going to start with our miracle this week. So we were tracting this neighborhood and this man named Rahul opened the door and we sang for him and introduced him to the church  and GUESS WHAT!?  He said, "I'm looking for a church right now" and he wants to learn more and go on a church tour and all other sorts of awesomeness!!!

And then, I was going through the Less Actives in the ward and guess what? One of them is a..Stauffer.  I'm just going to have to activate them!! And see if we're related. (they could be the crazy Stauffer..who knows.)

This ward is very missionary minded and are great. The area is a lot bigger than my  last one, and it gets like Ubber Foggy. so it's slightly hard to drive sometimes. And theres a giant wild life reserve in the middle of it!! It's pretty exciting!! I'm going to find out if I'm allowed to go in it because I want to if we can.

Me and Sister Wright get along really we'll and it's shocking our hair is excactly the same. Same color pretty much style and how curly it is.  Everyone thinks were related...but were not. ...as far as we know... >:)

...oh yeah, and the car we have is so weird XP  It's a 2013 Cruse and I feel very backwards in it.  It took me awhile to figure out where everything was in it.

And I think that's all I have for this week.

yeah....

дасвиданя!!! (goodbye in Russian)

--
сестра стаффр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

First Transfer

So, I forgot to bring my planner in with me so I'm going to try and remember everything that happened this week.
First off, I got transferred. I'm Still in the Bellevue Zone, but I'm in a ward called BeaverLake now. My companion is Sister Wright. She is from Arkansas.  I've met her before at Zone things. she's awesome. She's also a Visa waiter to go to Brazil. soo....guess what language I'm learning now!? PORTUGUESE!!! Crazy right? So much for being called English speaking.

So, this week we were standing at a door and I saw a spider so i said "Look a spider!" in Russian but I accidentally said прорка (prorka) and that means prophet instead of saying паук (paook) which means spider. We also found a lot of potentials and we got an actual Russian appointment!! I was so excited for that and I have been studying hard for that lesson, but sadly, now I don't get to go :( But, this week we have a lesson with a family that only speaks Portuguese. so I need to study hard now for that so I can semi understand what's going on in the lesson.

We also had Zone Conference this week and I saw Elder Kirk there. I also saw him today at Transfers. He's doing good. Zone Conference was awesome. Elder Johnson is really great. we also had Zone Breakfast as well. Which is always fun. I can't remember anything else that happened this week... I'll do better next week because I won't forget my sticky note next time! 

--
сестра стафр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Missionary Fun

First, I'll start out by thanking everyone that helped with Sister Frankenfield.  She had a really good time and can't stop talking about it.

Now I'll start with the week. So we met this Indian family Anshika Anki Pammi and Ajay, they are really nice. But Ajay (the dad) is not willing to change so after 2 lessons they asked us not to come over anymore :( They're a great family though. 

Then we saw Nayer (she's a Iranian) and we left her with a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet the last time we saw her and she read it and loved it. We taught about the Restoration and when we paused in the middle of the first vision she was on the edge of her seat and said, "Don't stop! What happens!?" I could barely hold a laugh back. It was funny! She had prepared all of this fresh fruit for us
to eat so then we ate and she said "Next time we'll have tea." and I replied "We don't drink tea." and she was like "You don't drink tea!? then we'll have Coffee." and I said "we don't drink coffee." Then we explained the Word of Wisdom to her and she said. "Then if I want to be closer to God, I better stop drinking tea and coffee." So she committed herself to live the word of wisdom! It was pretty funny and exciting at the same time.

Then we found this Indian man. I can never quite catch his name but it sounds like Gandolf. so we call him Gandolf. He's so funny and he wants to go to all of the church activities and such. He's such a funny old man.

Then, this week Elder Johnson (the President of Seminary) is coming to our mission on Thursday. I'm pretty excited.  President Choi says he's really  good friend with President Packer and he hopes that President Packer will come out sometime to visit.

--
сестра стафр (that's my name in Russian! :D)
May the Spirit be with you

Tiring Week

Well this week has been very VERY tiring. I honestly can't remember what I did this week. And it doesn't help that I forgot to write down what I wanted to send home....  I wish my sticky note was psychic. (that would help a lot) anyhow. The things I did write are, we met this Indian man named Sarub. and we talked with him and he's really interested...XP But he's in Boston all this week.

Then we met this nice man named James who we thought was not going to talk to us because he instantly started the conversation with "I don't like hypocrite Mormons." but we kept talking with him and he's willing to learn and slowly dip his feet into the "water" (aka gospel).

And then I read this really good talk this week. It's called "The Abundant Life." It's by President Monson.  It's in the January 2012 Ensgin and my favorite quote from that is "You can't direct the wind but you can adjust the sails."










My favorite talk from conference...hmmm...they were all good. I'm not sure which one was my favorite, but I really liked the one about the !'s (exclamation marks).
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May the Spirit be with you

Miracle

A lot has happened this week. District meeting was awesome. But kinda weird at the same time because Elder Wohlgemuth is the District leader now. So it was interesting not sitting next to him in the meeting but looking at him.  But he's a stellar missionary and is really good at what he does. And he gives really great advice/ideas. Then we had interviews with President Choi.

He is so funny.

Then we went and saw Julie and Robert. We taught them how to sing "I am a Child of God." and were hoping that Andrew's (Julie's husband) heart will soften. because Julie knows this church is true but Andrew won't let her participate.

Then we were teaching Sister Mercer (shes a less active) and her visit teacher Sister Tate  was over and apparently, if you tap our head it helps you sleep.  Theres a website, tapyourhead.com and we got a Russian refferal this week!! :D But we can't seem to get in contact with them. :(  But we'll keep trying. Then Angie (she's in the YSA ward) came out with us because she wants to serve a mission. She joined in April. Her testimony is so powerful!! And it was awesome having her come out with us.  Then we had an AMAZING Miracle!!!  And here it is.

So last week, we were in this complex and asked this lady if she knew any Russian speakers in the area. She said yes, and pointed to 3 apartments. The first one we knocked on no one was home. Then we went to the other 2 and they were both Spanish speaking. So, a week later, we tried the door that didn't answer, and Musti opened the door. She didn't want to talk with us so we asked if we could say a prayer with her. and she said "Yes." Once we were done with the prayer, she told us to stay there, and she went back into her apartment and started speaking another language... and no, it wasn't Russian. It was Farsi. When she came back, she asked us if we could pray with her mom and we said "Of course!"  So we went in and her mom only knows Farsi, and her name is Allia. And Musti started translating with the little English she knows. A tragedy had just happened in their family and she had been praying to Muhammad, and her prayers weren't being answered and so the night before she decided to pray to Jesus, and she had been praying all day, and we came knocking on her door. she recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ and they are both going to be getting baptized this month! ..(I guess technically next month) :D they are so ready for the gospel. And they are giving up Muslim and are telling all of their friends about our Church and how this was a miracle. And they're both so excited to get baptized. Well, the next day we had a church tour with them. Luckily, we have a Farsi speaking couple in our ward, so we had them come with us. When Musti and Allia showed up, they brought a friend, and her name is G. and Brother Vafa ended up teaching a lesson in the Primary room to them in Farsi. And they're so excited to learn more and to go to church and watch General Conference. Well, when Brother Vafa starts teaching, he doesn't stop. So Sister Vafa just stood up and erased the chalk board and Brother Vafa was so shocked and said, "She cut me off at Apostasy!" We started laughing so hard. the Vafas are such a funny couple. We're grateful for their
willingness to help. And now were slowly (but surely) learning Farsi as we'll (at least trying too).

--
May the Spirit be with you

Good Week

So this week has been good. We got a Russian referral! :D ....but sadly she wasn't interested :(

Then we went and contacted a referral we had gotten a while ago and said they weren't interested but when we went she was. And we had an awesome lesson with her! ...but she went back to India for the next  6 months :(

Then we went to the Vafa's who are new members in our ward. and they are HILARIOUS!!! And they have the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. They are so awesome!!

Then We helped Melinda and I slipped on a stair and landed on my right foot. Luckily, it's not broken or swollen or bruised. But it hurts. :/  I'll live.

While we were tracting a few days ago, we met a man named Fernaad and he works in the Xbox department at Microsoft. He was really nice and funny. He says a new Xbox is coming out in 2 months.

Then We tracted into this other man and we were talking to him and he had lived all over the world and he said his favorite place to live was Washington. And we asked why and he said. "Have you seen 'Return of the Jedi?'" and I said enthusiastically "Of COURSE!!".  He said, "The forests on Endore were filmed here." So now I'm determined to find out if it's in our zone. because if it is, I can go see it on P-days!!! And I'll take a lot of pics!!! :DD

Then for the National Day of Service we helped at a car wash our ward was sponsoring for the VFW. That was really fun.

Then we went to Idylwood Park and there are some Russians who like to fish there. So Sister Eaton talked with them. While I tried to figure out what they were saying. Sister Frankenfield (my nextdoor neighbor) had a English/Russian dictionary and gave it to me.  It helps a lot!

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May the Spirit be with you

Russian Speakers

So... This week we were out tracting and we were down by Lake Sammamish.  We were knocking and knocking on doors. I kept thinking about this other neighborhood that was on the other side of our area! i kept putting it off, then said "Fine". we'll go there. So we did and the 3rd house we knocked on this woman named Evelyn opened the door and she took the Book of Mormon and wants to read it.  And called us her angels when we asked if we could pray with her. because her family was just leaving to go back to Venezuela. We're excited to go see her again and start teaching her and her family!!!!

Then a few days later, we were tracting. (what a surprise haha) and we couldn't find this one house's front door. And suddenly this little Asian boy and his friend come running down with the Dad running after them. And so, after he finished talking with his kid we talked with him. His name is Wes and they just moved here and are trying to find a Christan church. so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he's going to read it. And I can't wait to teach him and his family as well. So that's exciting.

Other then that, nothing terribly exciting. other then trying to learn Russian.  It's a slow process but I'll keep working at it.

Another thing that happened was Wendy (a less active) we went to her place and we were talking and such. Because she's working for Microsoft but she's been on medical leave for the last year.  And she was telling me about her friend who works for Lucasarts.  I highly encouraged that she should work there :)

My new companion, Sister Eaton, is from Rexburg, Idaho.  She is an awesome missionary.  Her parents are the Mission Presidents for the Federal Way Mission [That mission just split off from the Seattle Mission in July]. So she's asking her parents to watch out for Nathan when he enters the mission. She's just Russian speaking. so now I get to help teach Russian people. I'm slowly learning the language. I have the alphabet down :D haha Yes, there are a fair amount of Russians. We actually just got a referal for a Russian so we get to go to the Federal Way boundaries to meet with him.

President Mackay is our Stake President. I'm doing good. Just pray that I can pick up Russian because I want to at least be able to understand it by the end of this transfer.  We've already talked to 3 Russian people this week!! So I need to keep practicing and studying so I know whats going on!!

The rainy season is just beginning here! People say there's never lightning and thunder...but we had a TON yesterday!!!

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May the Spirit be with you

New Companion

So, where to start...  It's been CrAzY this week. I have a new companion.  Her name is Sister Eaton. She's Russian speaking. So I'll be learning Russian and finish up her training. So that's the most recent new thing.

And for the rest of this last week. we took our car into the shop twice. We took the Lake Hills Elders car for 24 hours. It was a nice Subaru. We named him Bilbo.

Oh yeah, I saw Elder Kirk today. He's still in the Bellevue South Zone. I'm still in the same ward and everything in Bellevue.

Anyways, President Choi started a Mission Choir. So now I'm in that. So we went to President Mackay's house for dinner last Monday. And his sister-in-law was there and she's from ..Ecuador.. I think. And she got stung on her finger by a bee and freaked out talking really fast in Spanish.  It was her first bee sting. it was really funny!!!!

Then we put Melinda on date..but then she fell off date because she didn't come to church this week :(

Then we went to Seattle for a doctor appointment for Sister Boyce. I got a cool picture of the Space Needle from the freeway :)  She ran a stop sign. It was funny. Then. we were at a red light and a car was in front of us.  And that car went so she followed and it was still red. It was funny, she freaked out. But there was not cops :) so no ticket for running that red light. And we blew the breaker this morning....hahah....so we have no power on one of ours wallls ...and I think that's everything that has happened this week.

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May the Spirit be with you

Transfers Coming

So, first thing first, transfers are next week so P-day will be on Tuesday.  We had exchanges this week.  I went to Cougar Mountain. That was good...I can't remember what happened this week... oh yeah!!

We went to a baptism for the Bellevue Ward and we had Lan.(our upstairs neighbor) come. We put her on date for baptism!!! That's exciting.
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May the Spirit be with you

Spanish/English Class

So, I went to the temple today!! So pretty!! :DD I love it there. And I'm in the Overlake ward. We meet at 9 a.m. The Spanish Branch has range of the Whole mission and they really only speak Spanish except the kids. so we're going to start a Spanish-English learning class. I hope we'll be able to go to it so we can talk to the Spanish people!

Lets see... What's happened this week. We've been helping Melinda a lot. Max (her dog) had a competition and took two 1st and one 2nd place!!! I have a video of her warming him up, but sadly, it's too big to email home so you'll  get it when I send the SD card home.

We also went to the Pro Sports club this week. It's like Disneyland. It's so cool!!! Too bad we can't exercise there, but we can eat there. :D and yeah...hmm...  I can't remember what else happened this week....hum....yeah. Have a great week!! :D

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May the Spirit be with you

Sick this week

So..I got sick this week. It started out with just a sore throat and a stuffy or sometimes runny nose. Then I ended up getting a fever. I'm just barely getting over my fever.

Anyways. ... we had Zone Conference this week and the main thing I remember from it is. PMG instead of Preach My Gospel is Perfect Marriage Guide. President Choi really likes to talk about marriage. Then the other thing I remember is "if you get sick, don't get sick" XP  Well, I still ended up sick. oh well.

Nikole had an opera recital this week so we helped her prepare the refreshments and such. Well, when her mom said refreshments, we expected like brownies, cake, or cookies....or something...but nope.  It ended up being a full blown meal!!! We made sandwiches, salad, and Hors d'oeuvre along with ice cream for dessert. I held their iguana! Sam!! :D He went on my head! That was exciting.


The Spanish Branch is a pretty good size. We had a pot luck with them last night. sadly though, that's when I got sick the most, so we left. All the baptisms fell through :( sadly. 

I've tried Salmon...twice. And I'm still not a seafood person.  We went to a Salmon bake earlier this week.
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May the Spirit be with you

Spanish Branch

We now sponsor the Spanish Branch. It's pretty exciting, minus the fact I don't know Spanish XP haha.  Maybe I should brush up on that.

We've been doing a lot of service for Melinda. It's been so great!! Her dogs are the best. After we finished, she let us play with them!! It was so fun!!! Surf just jumped all over us!!! It was so great!! :D

Then President Choi came to our ward this week. Me and Sister Boyce were kinda nervous because he always pulls people from the audience randomly so we were hoping it wasn't going to be us. But, luckily, it ended up being a farewell, so he picked on him. So we were safe. Then we went on splits and that was exciting.  Chelsea (she's nannying a part member family and she's from Utah) went with us she is so funny!!! Her mom just recently came up because she has to give guardianship to Chelsea's host family so she can go to school here. They have a son in this mission and it's killing her that she can't go and see him, but they're both so hilarious!!!! :D It was great.


Elder Kirk isn't in my zone, barely.  He's in Bellevue South. I'm in Bellevue. I'll probably see him this week because we have another Zone Conference for some reason...-shrugs - who knows.

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May the Spirit be with you

Interesting Week

This week has been interesting like always.... I accidentally threw away the garbage can...hehehe....yeah we don't have a garbage can anymore right now...

I went to a really nice Asian restaurant this week, called Dimsum. It was so good!!! The dumplings were amazing!!!

We had Zone Conference. I saw Travis..err...Elder Kirk there. He is in Issaquah. not too far from me. That was wierd seeing him there.

Then we crashed a party this week. That was fun/interesting.  We were trying to find Chloe's Aunt to talk to her and such and she was throwing a party..it was great.

We Helped the Linselys move. I'm so sore from it!! They lived on the top floor of the Adagio apts. 
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May the Spirit be with you

Another Transfer Time

I didn't get transferred. So that's exciting... I guess....now I'll be in the Bellevue area for 3 transfers...Sis. Boyce is still my companion, so nothing really changed. I'll start with something funny about this week.

So Sharon and her family were freaking out about us getting transferred. Nicole (her daughter) made us "I hope you don't get transferred" scarfs. They're really cute. Anyways, so transfer call night happens and were waiting and waiting and we get a text that says "if you didn't get called your not getting transferred." So we didn't get transferred!! So the next day, we text Sharon and say "we got calls." Because we explained to them how transfers work so they're thinking we got transferred.  so when we knocked on their door, they were all standing there in a diagnal line (sharon, Nickole, Zach, then Doug) staring at us. And we could see it on their faces. They were all thinking. "what's the Verdict?" So I said. "We're both getting transferred." They totally believed me until they looked at Sister Boyce because Sister Boyce can't keep a straight face!!! It was really funny!! They're happy that we didn't get transferred.

Chloe, this 13 year old girl, has been ready to get baptized for 2 years, but she's been waiting for her
Dad to get worthy to baptize her. We started the discussions with her and she has the strongest testimony I've ever seen for a 13 year old. She had her baptism interview and is getting baptized on the 10th!!!

I think that's all that happened...hmm...I can't remember...I think that's right...yeah..see ya

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May the Spirit be with you

Church Tour

This week has been good. It started off with Sister Mecham deciding she wants to take Sister Boyce and I to China, Singapore, and Indonesia after our missions. So we're pretty excited for that! :DD

Then we had a wonderful miracle!!! :DD  We were looking through our day planner finalizing our plans and at 7 we had planned a church tour. we stared at it and thought. why do we have a CT there? We don't have anyone to give a CT to, but we decided to leave it and have faith that we would have a CT at 7. so we called Brother and Sister Folkman and told them we were going to have a church tour at 7 and that we wanted them to be the member fellowshippers. We were driving to a potentials house and Sister Boyce said, "Let's actually go see Melinda." So we went and saw Melinda and caught her just before she was leaving.  She told us to come back later and we told her we would help her unpack the boxes she was picking up. So we showed up later and we helped her and we talked. She showed us some tricks with her dog and Sister Boyce just looked at me and I looked at her, then I looked at Melinda and said "Would you like to go on a church tour?" and she said, "Yeah, sure when?" and I said "How about right now?" and she said, "Sure." So we went on a church tour and we put her on date for baptism for August 3rd!! :D Oh yeah!! and Melinda is moving to Florida!! She wants to stay in contact.

And now is funny story time!!!! So we went to an investigators house (I guess there more potentials) and Sheron was telling us this story when they were at the Eiffel Tower. They were in the elevator and she saw this man turning the crank for the elevator to go up. She thought, "that poor man. and his wife." and for 2 years she prayed for him and his wife, until one day she was talking about him with her family and they looked at her and said. "that man is wooden." She died. She had been praying for a wooden man for 2 years!!! We were dying of laughter!!! It was so funny!!! This family is just hilarious!! They have so many funny stories, but that one is one of my favorites!!! Well .... I think that's all I have to type about...

Have a great week!!! :DD

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May the Spirit be with you

Out of Order

Note:  This letter is from July 1 and goes before the previous "New President" post chronologically, but I didn't get it till Leanne forwarded it to me today.  Sorry.  Now to the letter:

This week has been interesting.  Well actually, first off, we put Chloe on date for baptism!! For the  13TH!!! :DD So I'm going to have my first baptism!!! So that's exciting.

And we started teaching this Born Again Christan family. (They don't know it yet because they say they'll never be Mormon. but I know they will be). Their daughter, Nichole, loves ASL and horses. Her Mom, Sheren, says she needs to be more specific in her prayers. I guess she's been praying for a friend for Nichole who has high standards and such, and now she says she needs to add who is not a missionary so we can hang out. She's so funny.

Sister Meachum's (the lady who buys us groceries every week) husband has decided he doesn't want to be a member anymore because he can't feel the spirit, so we're starting to go over there and talk with them.  And it's official that they're my family in Washington. They said I could move in with them when I come out here again. Their daughter, Kylie, is adopted and was born deaf, so they're all fluent in ASL!!!! And she has special needs!!! And they want to adopt another special needs child!! They know all about the deaf branch and I learned there's a special needs branch!!!!! They gave me a Book of Mormon in ASL!!! I'm excited to watch it!!! :DD

"Jesus is the Christ and God lives!!"

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May the Spirit be with you

New President

This week has been long and hard, but I'm doing well.

So, in the next few Costco Warehouse adds, an Australian Shepard will be in it. I know that dog. His name is Max. He's an award winning Agility dog. He's super nice!!!!

We met President Choi. He's really funny!!! Although, it seems like his main focus is marriage XP. He kept talking about marriage it was kinda funny....and hmm...yeah....









I hope Grammie will get better soon!!! I love getting her letters!!!!

President Choi just announced we're getting Facebook soon to use for missionary work. So I'm guessing that that means ipads are coming soon too, but I don't know.
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May the Spirit be with you

Papa John's and more...

Yes, I did see Tom and Donna (Constantino) yesterday. We get our new Mission President on the 1st. That's when all of our changes happen.

So funny story that I forgot to tell you last week. So we ordered Papa John's for during weekly planning and we ordered a pizza the bacon cheese sticks (which are heavenly btw) and bread sticks. It said it'd be there in an hour. An hour and a half later the pizza was still not there, so we called the store and they told us that the driver took our order instead of his, so our order was FREE!! And we ended up with double what we ordered!!! It was pretty funny.

Let's see this week was pretty hard. Tami went to Alaska cause her son got in an accident and is in the hospital and we don't know when she'll be back.  When she comes back, she's bringing her son with her so we're hoping we'll be able to get them both baptized!! :DD and Wendy Cook (this less active we've been working with) came to church!!!! :DD That made my day. She hasn't been in forever.

Sister Jones (Relief Society President) thought Tom and Donna were investigators so when they left early she asked me if they didn't like the meeting XP It was hilarious!!!hmm... I think that's all that has happened....have a great week!!
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May the Spirit be with you

Exchanges & Transfers

Exchanges were great. Me and Sister Dudex got a little lost, but it was fun because I was the driver. We stayed here in Bellevue. 

We had Transfers today.  I'm still in Bellevue and my new companion is Sister Boyce. She's From PG. It's kinda funny, I somehow manage to get companions from Utah. Guess it'll be easier to stay in touch after the mission, I guess.

This week has been pretty crazy.. I'm trying to remember everything that has happened. I'm just really happy that Sister Thompson is in my Zone still, so I'll  still see her! :D  and yeah....I can't think of what has happened other than we tracted into a member accidentally. It was kinda awkward.

And our ward is slowly getting missionary minded but we're still working on it. Our member dinner on Monday was interesting. The Subers they're older and they're from Georga...or something like that. Somewhere in the South. They started arguing about Temples. It was HEATED!! Me and Sister Thompson started laughing. It was so funny!! Bro. Subers said they weren't going to go less active over Temples. Then their cat, Mr. Subers threw up XP and such.

It's been CRAZY!!! uhh...I know more has happened this week but I can't think of it...  so yeah... Have a great week!!
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May the Spirit be with you

Address

For those that need her address, you can send letters to the mission home at:

10675 NE 20th street

Bellevue, WA 98004-2860

Fast Week

This week went by fast. We did a ton of contacting and tracting because we don't have any investigators. We met with Tami like every day, which was good. I love her. We call her Mama Tami. She used to be a massage therapist so she's constantly fixing our posture and such. I think her and Grandma would've gotten along really we'll. We also visited a former investigator named Dick. He was more concerned about my piano playing than anything else. XP It was kinda funny. Dick asked us a question that we haven't found an answer too yet and we're meeting with him tomorrow, I think... It's about the Holy Ghost, and how people say from other religions that they know their church is true because they have prayed about it and they feel good. So it makes the Holy Ghost a liar. So he wants to know how it's different with ours type of thing. And we don't know how to answer him.

Then we met Melinda, she's awesome. She trains Australian Shepards. Kaylee would love her dogs!!! We helped her clean her house this week and we're going over tomorrow to continue to help her. It stinks that she's moving to Oregon soon, :/ but she's a wonderful lady. I'm trying

to think if there's anything else that was exciting this week...hmm...I don't think so...oh yeah!! So There's this neighborhood here called Sherwood Forest!! So yes, I have tracted into Robin (haha) I'll take a picture of the sign this week. It's really cool. and hmm...yeah....


President Mackey, our Stake Mission Leader, served in Indonesia. so I told him about Uncle Bobby and I attempted to say his last name. Tamoama or whatever it is and he laughed at me.







I'm going on my first exchange tomorrow and transfers coming up in 2 weeks.  I hope Sister Thompson will finish my training, but you never know. I think there was something else I wanted to tell you but I can't remember now.....uh....yeah.

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May the Spirit be with you

Stressful

Tell Keala "Hi!" (if you're still in Arizona). Anyways, this week....ugh... okay I'll start with the good. We taught Joe and Josie. The spirit was so strong. as we taught and they were so open and agreed with us on everything. They commited to be baptized. and it was just amazing!!! We left so happy and pumped!!!

After that, everything went down hill.... Tami almost got baptized 3 times this week. She's so ready she even passed the interview, and yeah. It's been really stressful and our whole district has been helping us and have had so much faith. I'm so grateful for them and their support. Hopefully Tami will this week.

 We also found out that we can't teach Joe and Josie for a few weeks!! :( That was really sad, but I know they'll get baptized eventually, but yeah. Just craziness and so much stress this week.  We talk about Disneyland a ton.  We've planned our trip for when we get back.  We learned it only takes 17 hours and about 45 minutes to get there hehehe...  I also learned that Elder Riddle lives really close to Renee and Stephen!!! And, when the boundaries change, we're taking a deaf ward. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can go there. But you never know. And yeah. 

Oh, and I almost died this week. A car was driving on our side of the road and almost hit us head on!!!!! I saw my life flash before my eyes.


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May the Spirit be with you

Slow going

I just found out that temple day is next Tuesday, so I will write next Tuesday.

We have an investigator named Hil. We took him on a church tour it was hilarious!!! He brought strawberries and such for like a little picnic. He came in and was just like "next stop." It sounded like  Luigi's friend in cars. You know the little blues lift truck thing and he always says. "pit stop." It was so funny and it was like he was the one giving the tour.  Anywho, we do a ton of tracting because we don't have any investigators or anything. So one of the doors we knocked on was an Indian couple (that wasn't strange since there's a ton) anyways this particular couple had a little girl and we said we share messsages about Jesus Christ and God. and the little girl was like "I know God and Jesus!!!" she was so cute!!!! Later that day, we started tracting around our complex. We're not supposed too, but I had a feeling we needed too. We found 2 potential investigators. one of them is a man and his family. His name is Joe. He has a daughter with Down Syndrome and his other daughter loves Star Wars. He told us that they saw our temple in L.A. and he started crying. We actually get to teach him tomorrow. I can't wait to teach him tomorrow.

We  have a goal as a mission to get 101 baptisms this month. and if we get it we get to hike Mount Si. so everywhere we go we shout "give me this mountain!!" Hill also went to the potluck and he was hilarious!!!! so like no one showed up so we were improvising with who did show up, and he was saying we should just buy food and that the church would reimburse us. Sister Jones (R.S. Pres.) asked him if he was a member and he said, "of costco. yes." It was so funny we all started laughing.

Can you ask Renee if she knows any Riddle's. My District Leader is Elder Riddle.  He's from San Diego. He goes home in a month.

I got the Powell's letter. Please thank them for me.

I think that's all that has happened.

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May the Spirit be with you

Busy Week

First item of business. I might be writing on Tuesday next week because we believe it's Temple day. 2nd, Brother and Sister Lindsly are from Utah and go back fairly often so if I need to send things home or if you want to send me things, they said they'd be happy to take it. I believe their next trip is in June or July, I can't remember.  They're awesome and love to help us out. They have 2 dogs!! One is HUGE!!!! His name is Deisel the other is way small and is named Tinkerbell. She has so much energy it's funny!! And she's very playful, Kaylee would love her!!

 3rd, I am now the driver of the car XP.  It is very exciting. but I'm getting used to the area. so it's not too bad now. And yeah... and 3rdly, tell Travis to memorize D&C 4.  I'll send it next week but we recite those every meeting.  And tell him to get used to singing to strangers, because we are a singing mission. I have sung "I Am a Child of God" so many times.

Monday: Last Monday was exciting, we went to downtown Bellevue because Sister Thompson had to return shoes. So we ate at the cafe in Nordstroms. I also tried my first Seattle chocolate. It just tasted like chocolate. We spent most of our day there and then we relaxed around our apartment. yeah...

Tuesday:uhh... We studied, we did tons of contacting and tracting, man the days just blur together. I can't remember what we did.  Maybe I need to start bringing my journal to the library with me so I can remember. I guess I'll just touch on the things that I can remember. Fushia is in Tacoma now. She called us a few days ago because she forgot something but she's doing good. I  can't wait to hear from her again!!!

We also taught our investigator Georgeann. We had a girl in the ward came with us. We were hoping to commit Georgeann to baptism but it just wasn't there. We were hoping she would be our miracle. Maybe we'll be able to this week.

We also taught this girl named Tami who has gone deaf and is learning ASL   So we sign to each other from time to time! So it's great.

One day Sister Thompson was so tired that we went to the gas station and she bought a drink. She bought one of the fancy ones in the glass bottle, but lo and behold, it was not a twist off. After trying to open it with our hands, we finally just went home and used the can opener. My hand was so red and got a little cut up, but it's doing fine now. I wish I could say that for my feet though XP.

I forgot to write about Hil!! He's our new investigator we found at Idlywood Park. He's from Taiwan, he's so funny and was so interested. We have a meeting with him this week. I hope we can answer his questions better. XP

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May the Spirit be with you

Week 2.

Week 2 in Seattle. It's finally raining today!!!!!! So that makes me happy. We're going to go to downtown Bellevue for Sister Thompson to do some returns. so that will be exciting. Here's some pictures!!!!

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May the Spirit be with you

From Bellevue

My companion is Sister Thompson. ...pretty sure I spelled that wrong.  She's from Farmington, Utah.
I'm in Bellevue, Washington. The Mission Home address is 10675 NE 20th Street, Bellevue WA 98004. I'm really close to the temple and the Microsoft Campus is just across the street from the apartment that I live in. It's really green; I'm really enjoying it here. There are so many trees and stuff it's so beautiful. On the freeway, it has this thing that tells you how fast you should go and it changes depending on the traffic. I thought that was really cool. I didn't really get the chance to do any tracting yesterday. but we have some lessons and stuff planned for today.

Off we go...

She called this morning around 8:00 a.m. to let us know she was at the airport in Salt Lake.  She will be on Delta Flight DAL1857 that lands at around 9:15 a.m. in Seattle.  She said her whole district is with her.  Some of them are waiting for Visas ans were assigned there in the meantime.  It was so good to hear from her.  She sounds happy and excited.

So this is my second week, and my last week. I leave for Seattle on Tuesday Morning. it has been CRAZY!!!! Thanks to everyone for the packages and such. It's been great!!! We're all doing good. Ummm......my camera doesn't like the computer, so I'm having issues uploading pictures.

Do you remember Mrs. Wagaman, mine and Kendall's 4th grade teacher? Well guess what!? she's the 2nd councilor's wife in my Branch....she recognized me and remembered Kendall....it was weird.....

First Letter (email)

My companion is Sister Lee.   She's from Colorado.  Today [Saturday] is my p-day.   It's long, really long. I feel like I've been here longer then 3 days.  I've seen Hannah multiple times, and Timothy like 3 times and Ellen 1 time.

MTC

She is in the MTC now, we can't wait for her first letter.

Farewell!!

Thank you to everyone who showed up to my farewell and house party social thing!!! i'll see you all in 18 months!!