the time is now to listen!

Welll what a week! What a great time to be a missionary! I hope everyone had a chance to hear the broadcast yesterday... because man! I am so grateful to be a missionary in this day and age! So many new things are coming about... the time is now to listen! :)

Well here is my week... It was kind of a slow week… but still fun! :)

Monday: After emailing guess what I got to do? Dye my comps hair! She wanted it a little more brown... so yes! It was so great to be able to do that again!

Tuesday: Oh we just had another flash flood warning day... (no big deal seeing as we have been getting those at least once a week since I got here...) But guess what we were doing on the rainy day?? Out knocking on peoples doors who are on the ward list and we have no idea why... so yes we got soaked and no one was home! ha! Except for one family that said we can come back next week so that will be good! Hopefully some good will come from that! :)

Wednesday: Well all of our appts. got cancelled on us this day so we spent the day on that ward list again! Going to different people’s houses! :) But then we went to Young Womens after! One of our less actives came and that was great! :) I think I had a little too much fun with the chalk and the hu-lo-hoops... haha :)

Thursday: We were able to see a lady in the ward that needs help... which was good! :) Then we came home to finish our studies and then we heard a giant "BANG" outside our house... there was a car wreck outside our door! It was scary! Luckily everyone was okay though! :) So after that, our neighbor took us out to dinner again... but don't worry, after dinner, we read through the Book of Mormon with him (the strippling warrior story because he loves war stories) and after wards we knelt with him in prayer! SOO cool! Slowly but surely progress is coming with him! :) 

Friday: We met with a Recent Convert (who is amazing!) and after our lesson we asked her if she wanted to come out with us and knock on doors! She was soo excited and said yes!! So we split up and her and Sister Webb were able to contact a lady and taught her a lesson on the Plan of Salvation! It was soo cool and such a good experience for her. She loved it! :)  Also this day we went to see a referral a member gave us and we were able to go inside and get their number and they totally want us to come back this week! So it was great! :)

Saturday: Cool day! :) We were able to meet with another Recent Convert and do Family History work! So for the first time in my life I decided if I was teaching it I better get on the site and take a look at my family history. WOW. Mom and Shauna... I am impressed! Clear back to 300 AD??? I will no longer make fun of the two of you! :) That is so cool! :) And how cool is that, that we are related to the queen of FRANCE! :) Family History is pretty cool... :) After that we were able to go to see a less active and guess what he has on his property.... HORSES!!! :) :) I got to pet a horse for the first time in 2 months... you have no idea how hard it was not to get on them... There were two horses and they both were jumping horses... poor little guys... they told me that they wanted to run barrels and rope... so I promised them that when I get back I will come and get them and take them back and let them live out their dreams! That’s what horses are for... they don't want to jump over logs right?? They want to run barrels and chase cows! :) What a great day though! :)

Sunday: Great day at church! Talk about a missionary themed day! In our ward that’s what they talked about then we were able to go to the broadcast! WOW! Can you even believe that we can use the internet now?!!? Who would of thought... it is said that we will be getting smartphones or ipads to be able to use the internet and facebook to keep up with those people we see! That is so cool! :) No wonder they lowered the age... they needed the young kids out here to know how to use the internet to spread the gospel! ha! I am so glad to be a part of this though! How exciting will this be! :)

This coming week will be great! :) We will be able to go to Morristown with the entire mission and have a fun day playing games on Wednesday! Our mission president and his wife are soo much fun! Then Thursday we REALLY are going to go to the temple! Didn’t have time this week. NEW YORK here we come! :) I hope all of you have a great week!! I love you all so much! :) You are all in my prayers! Pray for me too... pray that I don’t' sweat to death… the heat has come!!! 91 degrees yesterday with 4 million percent humidity!!! AHHH! ha! Have a good week! :)

p.s. I had a panic attack this morning... haha I organized the entire kitchen!!! We have tub a wears in every cupboard and most of them don’t' have lids so I went just a little crazy and cleaned out! Thought you would be proud :) haha made me feel a lot better! :)

*Side note from mom…apparently I taught her to want to be organized, but not enough about Tupperware!!! (tub a wears…really??? Sure makes me miss laughing at…and… with her! Ha ha

 Sister Webb and Sister Dahl

 Sister Nelson and Sister Dahl

 Sidewalk chalk at a Young Women's activity!

 hu-lo-hoop (as she called it ;)

 Lexi, a young women who came to the activity

 Steven!!

 The horses that don't want to jump!

They secretly want to come to Utah and run barrels and chase calves.

...a frog the size of my head

Wellllll HELLOOO! :)

Sooo Glad its pday! :) And State is over!! :) YES!!! I’m glad all went well though! I'm sorry that you missed me... :( I would of loved to be there but I am not gonna lie, being here is better than at state finals! :) :) haha

Well good thing I forget everything because I had a whole list of things written down to tell you about today in this email and yes... it's at home… along with our cell phone... haha I am losing it.. and I'm only 20 ... things are not looking good for the future!! Anyways! It was a really great week in terms of learning a lot but in terms of the work here, it was slow! :(

Monday: We went to dinner at a family’s house and when we left, there was a frog the size of my head outside the on the driveway!! It was great! We got pictures!

So on Tuesday: We were able to meet with our investigator, the teenager. We hadn't heard from him for a couple days so we were just like "okay... that's it... we are going to his house!!" So we did and he was home! And he was actually just sending us a text as we rang the doorbell telling us he is sorry and that he is struggling but really doesn't know what to do... :( So we talked to him a lot and the spirit was so strong and he was able to feel that peace again! :) So pray for him! He needs help! :) Then that night we were able to visit another family’s house for dinner! The dad runs the Metlife Stadium! (where the superbowl will be this year...) :) haha but guess where he used to work? The stadium that the MAVS played for...(Cades favorite basketball team) sooo he ran that Stadium when the Mavs won the Championship so guess what he has?!? A championship RING!! Don't worry he showed us and I got pictures of it and he even let me try it on! I was so excited haha I bet Cade would of cried! :) He will never believe it! :) haha But then our Elders came that night and met us there for dinner and they cooked us a nice steak dinner.. man Tuesday was good! :)

Wednesday: We had our district meeting and met all the new missionaries in our Zone then we spent the rest of the day at the church telling the Elders what to do... haha The area is split so they get one half and we get the other! It will be good, but it is sad because there are so many great people on their side... :( but we need the help! One of the Elders is Elder Walker and he is from Morgan, Utah! Crazy! Then the other is Elder Johnson and he was in my district in the MTC! Then we went and helped with young men’s that night..

Thursday! This is our car fast... walking day! OH YAY.... and guess what it does every single Thursday here in New Jersey... it pours rain!! Every Thursday! I am not kidding! So we start heading out with our coats and gloves and umbrellas and we have one appt with a recent convert. Her house is like 3 miles away!! So we get about half way and she texts us and says she has to cancel... haha awesome. So then we were like great! What do we do? So we just decide to walk to the center of the town where there are stores and start contacting people on the street! I hadn't really done this yet... but it was so fun! Hardly anyone was interested but it was great just talking to people and bringing God into the conversation! I loved it so much! :) Then a member picked us up and then took us back to her house, fed us, then dropped us back off at an appt. We did a great bible study with a part member family and then brought in Book of Mormon Scriptures! It was fun! We did Moses and the Red Sea and it talks about that in the BOM sooo much! It was great to prove that we believe in the Bible too! :) Then they gave us ice cream and sent us home! (I'm not kidding when I say people feed us really good!)

Friday: We woke up at 5:30 and headed to Short Hills NJ and had a training for all the New missionaries! It was the most spiritual thing I have ever done! All we did for 8 hours is ROLE PLAY! Now I don’t like to role play… however, the spirit was so strong there and it made it fun! We were able to be investigators that we were having problems with and so when other missionaries role played the situation we got new ideas of what to say to them! It was awesome! Plus it was really good to learn new ways of teaching... something I needed help with! It was a blast and I learned so much! Then after that we were supposed to go to the temple with the ward but President asked us not to go at night so we had to cancel that plan... :( but we were able to see a less active family so that was great! :)

Saturday: We did the same thing! Woke up and went to short hills and had another 8 hours of training! It was awesome! So get this... there are these bugs called Cicadas.. Apparently they only come out every 17 years and there are loads of them! They make this crazy noise that you can hear then after a while they go live in the ground again for another 17 years. Well this year is the year for them to come out! So people have been talking about them like crazy! So we have been waiting for them to come out... well they have started to come out down south so they were everywhere down there and they are huge! So we are hoping they don’t make it up here!!! AHH!!

Sunday: Church... and importantly... Father’s Day! :) Such a great Sunday thinking about how awesome my dad is and how much I love him! I don't know what I would do without his example! I am also grateful for my Father in Heaven! For all that He does for me in my life as well... For sending me down here to learn and grow and experience things so that one day I have the potential to become like Him! I love Him and am grateful for the chance that I have to Serve Him! :)

That’s my week! It was great! :) We are planning on going to the temple next Thursday so that should be fun! But this week is going to be great getting back into the normal of things and getting to work! :) I love what I am doing and I love all of you! :) Have a great week!

p.s. Dad, I told our neighbor this week one of your sayings... he always says he will TRY to read the Book of Mormon... so I told him "Rich... My dad always tells me this... Steers try... Bulls make it happen!!!!" ha ha thought you would be proud! :) I love you! :)

 Three Amigos

 The Giant Frog!

 The box...

THE RING!!

Good thing their hands are bigger than mine!

I have found my new favorite food...

GOOOOOD AFTERNOOON!!! :)

How are you doing??

Sorry we are so late today! We went to NEW YORK this morning and went to Costco with our Senior Couple and I gave her a haircut so everything got thrown off! But I am staying here in Fardale with my Companions for another transfer. :) I am so happy! I wouldn't even be ready to leave! I am really just starting to get the hang of things and I LOVE the people here! :) So this week I will try to do a little better at telling you things that happened... I guess last week was just so crazy by the time Monday came... I didn't want to think about anything! Ha! So this week I will try to make more sense! :) This week we have done a lot of detective work on our ward list. There are loads of people that we have no idea who they are or why they are on our records so we were asked to go through everything and try to figure it out! So we have! We have also been getting things ready for the Elders coming in. Starting tomorrow our area will be split in half so we will have one side and the elders will have the other side! Kind of sad because we visit with sooo many great people on that side... :( but the Elders will do good for them! So this week was spent getting things ready for them so they can come in and get to work!!!

This week we were able to meet with a couple different people. One was a Less Active/Part Member Family... We went over there three times this week and read a chapter of the Book of Mormon each time! We are trying to help them get in the habit and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon! It went great and it was fun to try to help them gain that love for the Book of Mormon! We challenged them to read on their own and they haven't yet... But hopefully they will! Two of them came to church this week! :) That will be a family handed over to the Elders...

We also met with a sister; the sweetest little lady. She lives in an assisted living apartment! We have tried to catch her at home over 10 times since I have been here and haven't had any luck but this week we did! The first time she answered the door and she said she was really sick but that we could come back…Well we were able to go back and see later in the week! Her bed was in her living room… and her living room stuff was in her bedroom... beats me? She also has a collection of little elephants! She had over 100 of them... it reminded me of someone else I know... ;) But it was a really cool experience because her foot doctor was in the apartment when we got there and we talked with him and told him about our church and that there were modern day prophets here on the Earth today!! He was like "wow... I guess that would make sense to have them here today..." so we were like YES YES YES IT WOULD!!! CAN WE GET YOUR NUMBER?!? haha So we got his information... only sad thing is that he will be in the Elders area but we are setting them up with an investigator which will be great! :) Being in the right place in the right time! The Lord really helps us with that!

We also were able to see another family; the 19 year old investigator I talked about and then his mom and dad. They are the funniest family ever! We met with the boy and had a really great lesson with him this week! Trying to help him come closer to baptism! He knows it’s true...he just is scared... :( So pray for him! But then we went over and visited his whole family another night and watched the Joseph Smith Movie... the long one... it was so amazing! The spirit in the room after the movie was so strong! You could tell they were all touched by what Joseph Smith went through to bring the Book of Mormon... Only problem is... they didn't come to church this week...and they won't call us back… Something must be wrong because that is so not like them... so hopefully we get ahold of them! (they will still be in our area thank heavens)

We were also able to see another family and their cousins (who aren't members) and teach them the plan of salvation! They all came to church this week and had a great time! They said they want to keep coming which is awesome! We also met with a lady who is such a sweet heart and has been offended by the church quite a few times but she allows us to see her and she told us that she really loves us and is so grateful we are so nice to her! :) It is cool...little by little there is light coming back into her eyes! :)

I have found my new favorite food... Risotto! I have had two members cook that for me this week... it is delicious!!! :) One put shrimp in it and everything!!! I have never tasted anything so good!!! :) mom... you've got some researchin to do! Learn how to cook it for me when I get home ;) haha

This week I have been studying Jacob 5! Probably my most favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon!!! I just love how much detail is in there! I drew the whole story out on a piece of paper and I will send it to you soon! I also think it is pretty cool how inspired Nephi was to right about his wicked brothers Lamen and Lemuel... I know if my brothers were that wicked I wouldn't write about them…however, because he did, he was able to set up the entire Book of Mormon! I guess if he hadn't written about them, the whole Book of Mormon stories wouldn't have made sense…All the wars between the Nephites and the Lamenites wouldn't have meant anything if Nephi didn't write about them from the beginning! Cool thought! I love the scriptures and how much I am learning! The Lord is amazing! Here I am trying to serve Him...and He just blesses me more!!! :)

But that was pretty much our week! We did go to a member’s house last night that has hermit crabs and we played with them forever! haha it was awesome! :) This week will be the best week ever... wanna know why?? WE ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE!!! :) YES! We will be going to the city on Friday and going to the temple! I am so excited to actually see New York... but I am also so excited to be able to feel the spirit of the temple again! We are really lucky! We are going with our ward for ward temple night so it will be fun to be able to go with them too! But other than that, everything is going great! Thank you all for your support and know that I love you! AND I CAN'T FORGET... HAPPY FATHERS DAY ON SUNDAY TO MY DAD AND ALL THE OTHERS OUT THERE! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! :) :) and I wish I could call home on Father’s day... :( oh well! Have a good week!

 The three comps!

 Carlo's Bakery (CAKE BOSS!!)

 Happy Girls!

 A nice ward member taking us to breakfast!

 Sister Nelson, Sister Webb, Sister Dahl



 A drawing I made of our group!

 

We were able to have 27 lessons this week!

Another Week! :)

Wow…My time here is already flying by too fast...I can't believe that I will already have been here for 1 transfer at the end of this week (which is 6 weeks long) and I only have 11 transfers left! It is crazy! I still feel like I have been here for a week. But I am enjoying every single day! :) I feel really bad though because both of my companions have gotten sick this week with a cold and they have trouble sleeping and I am over here just being invincible! It must be all your prayers! (Especially yours mom plus those giant horse pill vitamins I’ve been taking... they still try to jump out every morning but don't worry I force them down) because I am never get sick and every night I hit the pillow and CRASH! ha! But despite the sickness, we have had a really successful week! We were able to have 27 lessons this week! That is soo many! ha We didn't have much time to think! But it was so great because this week at church we had 6 less active families and 1 progressing investigator there! It was such progress for our area! We were excited! But there is still lots to do this week! :)

So one of our investigators dropped us… :(  the other day we came home to the Book of Mormon we gave her sitting on our porch with a note that said... "I am not interested... don't come by my corner anymore..." That was sad! :( But at least we gave her the opportunity!

Our other investigator we didn't have much progress with this week... hopefully next week! Then another won't call us back... :(

However! There is still good news! haha Nick! The 19 year old investigator is making progress! He loves reading the Book of Mormon and he says he KNOWS it is true!!! He is just scared to get baptized! So next Sunday there is a baptism nearby and we are going to take him there and show him that it isn't scary! :) He did come to church this week and loved it as well! So keep praying for him! That is our focus this month is to bring him to the waters of baptism!! :) Cause he is soo ready!

Other than that, our week consisted of seeing Less-Actives! It is so crazy how with them, every situation is different! Nothing is ever the same!! But it was really great to see so many of them at church this week and trying to progress!!! :) Keep praying for them as well!

This next couple of weeks should be different because we are pretty sure we are getting Elders into the area… so it might be split and not be so big... which would be good but sad! :( We have so many great people to see but there is so much for just us to handle! We are one of the only areas in the whole mission that only has one set of missionaries assigned to it…so the Elders working here too would be very helpful!

But other than all that, that was the week! The crazy thing about being here doing all this work is my brain is always fried! ha I know there is so much more I could tell you but I really can't remember... I really feel like my brain is always going 700 miles per hour! But it is great and it keeps me busy! :) You will just have to wait till I get home and I can tell you all the amazing experiences that happen!

Yes and I love my 3rd comp soo much! She is amazing and I never want her to go to Brazil... :( so secretly I am praying she doesn't get her visa haha :) probably not properly aligning my will with Gods... :/ ha but she is amazing!

Mom, I am so proud of you for playing volley ball! Wait to be…I just don't believe! I am going to need some proof...ha! Sounds like you are coming out of the house more and more!!! Are you all ready for state this week? I have been praying for you! Good luck and leave some time open for me on Monday! :) That should be your day off right? :) Just remember to say a prayer though and everything will be fine!!!!

But know that I am so happy and super healthy (went to a member’s last night and their scale said I was back to my normal weight... YES! Now I just have to really focus on eating the fudge grandma sent me SLOWLY!!!) But I love you all so much!!!!

Oh yeah-random facts about NJ:

1. The weather is like Utah… one day it will be 90 degrees (plus 400 million% Humidity) but then the next day it will be pouring rain and it will be cold! It can't make up its mind!

2. Carlos Bakery! YES THE CARLOS BAKERY! (CAKE BOSS) Is in our area... okay not his original one… but he actually built a shop in Ramsey too and that is right by where we live! He is supposedly there for like an hour a week… haha pretty sweet huh?

3. HUNGER GAMES was filmed in our area! In a place called Ridgewood! It is so pretty there... Every place you look there are trees and I just keep thinking that I can see the tree that Katness slept in overnight!!! It is so cool! :)

4. I can't spell so I know half these words aren't right but I don't really care enough to fix them! ha! Love you all! :)

Have a great week!

Me and my broken umbrella :(

Don't worry I bought a new one!