Out on a WIM #37

295972_149384371824946_1071148538_n

Pre-mission happy darling girl!!!

#37

Hi everyone!

I am glad to hear all about how your week went. It’s sounds wonderful 🙂
Ok so… (side note) Sorry if I haven’t been putting enough detail and experiences in my emails! I will try and do better. There is just SO much going on I can’t put it all into words.
So Sister K. is doing very well. We went by this week and when we got to her house she had been memorizing the Relief Society Declaration we do everysunday! And she has been reading a lot. But at the same time it has been a challenge, she has been reading anti-mormon things online. So I guess she had googled Mormons and Joseph Smith and came across all kinds of awful things! SO she has been a little hung up on those things… But other than that she is doing really well. We redirected her search to the church websites so she can have accurate information.
A spiritual experience we had with her when we were there, we showed her the Mormon message of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland talking about Joseph Smith and the BOM (Book of Mormon). It was powerful. And I really could see her doubts melting away, if only for a few minutes. The spirit is really so wonderful. It’s so important to feel this way. Satan is working hard on her, but I know she will be ok.
G. is doing really well. Still searching for a place to stay so he can move out of the pastor ladies house. He wants to be baptized on Feb. 9th the date we had set but he won’t be able to make it to church 3 times before then and that’s the requirement… So he’ll probably be baptized the 1st week of next transfer when I probs won’t be here. Oh everything in the world is trying to stop him from moving forward as well.
J…………………..………. CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were so happy. We walked her to a place where she could be picked up by a member. She really enjoyed church and said she wants to come next week and also bring someone! She is gaining a strong testimony of the BOM. She is very logical, and that’s the cool thing is the gospel just makes sense!!!
K.: We call him Brother R. and HE LOVES IT! He came to church yesterday too!!!!!!!!!!! It was the best. So he has been feeling surrounded by evil on this island, but really we found out it’s just where he is staying. He came to church and he told us “I felt the spirit so strong” He even recognized it! He said he felt like everyone loved him and only felt happiness and peace while he was there. We had a really spirit filled lesson last night after church. He wants to keep coming and is excited to be baptized on March 1st!!! He loves learning and he had already read next weeks lesson for sunday when we got there last night. He has quite a few concerns but they seem to fade away the more he feels the spirit and gains a testimony 🙂
AWWWWWWWWWWWW…. I love these people all so much. In case you couldn’t tell. My heart belongs here.
I have been so blessed and continue to be. The Lord has a hand in each one of our lives. We all need to be tested to the core and show the Lord where our desires truly are.
Oh this week we have been doing lots of Puppet Shows for a drug awareness week and stuff! It has been fun and many missionary opportunities come from it!
Also Sister K. gave us a whole bunch of clothes this week, it was so nice.
Oh something funny that happened this week is that Sister H. and I got locked out of our apartment (I honestly do not remember if I told you this already but if I did I will tell you again and just pretend that it’s funny….) So we go out exercising in the morn and I have this habit of locking the door when going in and out of the house (I prolly got that from you ma;) Anyway so I occasionally accidentally lock us out of the apartment! SO it happened the other morn and our land lord was not home to open the door so we went around looking for a window that might be open. Well the bathroom window was open (keep in mind the bathroom window is like MAYBE a foot wide and tall. So Sister H. and I naturally decide we are going to somehow squeeze through this window head first and not die…. Long story short we ended up finding our land lord and going through the front door like normal people. IT WAS GREAT!
This week has been wild and so wonderful.
Mom: I am glad to hear you are doing well! I also love the Holy Ghost it’s amazing to feel the difference of when he is there and when he is not. Thanks for your example and cute mommy self. I love you forever and beyond.
Oh Sister H. started driving this week… Speaking of the Holy Ghost, I have been relying on the comforter part of him…. 😉 But really I prolly feel like you did when I first started driving.
Anyway!! That is all for this week….. Not really but I can’t write anymore because of time and such! But I love you all very much and hope you have a blessed week. Be good and keep on keepin’ on! The church is true, we are so blessed! I’m out.
Love, Sister Em dog da big cheese Nan 🙂

Out on a WIM #36

_MG_9384

#36

Hello my dears. How are you this lovely day in the beautiful world that Heavenly Father created for us?

Well ya know, I am doing really well. I AM SO HAPPY. I love life. I love being a missionary. I love my people out here. I love the hot sunshine. I love the gospel. I love learning. I love the scriptures. Let’s face it I am just so blessed and stinkin’ jolly!
So to answer your questions….. Yes. I do have doctrinal questions sometimes and I usually ask one of my leaders but when President M. is here I do ask him questions and he helps a lot! He is very intelligent and can teach me a lot.
Oh man yes I feel and know that my knowledge of the gospel has grown SO much. I was just thinking about that this week. Speaking of which, Sister W. and I were discussing this book written by Tad R. Callister, called the Infinite Atonement. IT IS SO INTERESTING AND WONDERFUL. I have learned a lot about the Plan of Salvation from it. I sincerely feel like I hardly knew anything before my mission. Welp good thing I am here then 🙂
I learned that the world basically goes through the same things we do and that before when Adam and Eve were in the Garden before the Fall happened that the earth was near God. (BY Kolob) And then when they Fell so did the earth and now this is where earth will stay for a time. ANYWAY deep stuff I tell you.
Do any members of your Branch have to have more than one calling? 
We have a pretty small branch but mostly there are enough people to each have a calling 🙂
Ahhhh… I am excited to hear about what all happens wiff all these new babies! CUTE!!!!!
Ok so this week was just great! Sister H. and I are working hard and finding success. I love she lots. She makes me laugh, she has grown so so so much. I feel like a proud mom.
Ok so this week Sister K. (our investigator) was able to get work off and come to church. It was solid. She loved church is gaining such a strong testimony.
This transfer is already half over! It is flying by too fast. Where does the time even go? I wish there was more time to teach and study because I love reading and learning but I love the people and teaching. There should be more hours in the day.
Sister H. is starting to drive soon, we have to get her comfortable with dat because it’s like a 100% chance that I am leaving this coming transfer… Wah. But I guess it’s time after spending 9 months here!!
Also can you email me some of the pictures from Ri and Jannys wedding!? I never got to see them. 🙂 TANK YOU!!!
Alright well I am sorry I don’t get to write everyone back but you are all wonderful. I enjoyed what you wrote and you can just picture what I would have written back..
Get feeling better Kels and Janny say hi to the baby for me. Al keep being a stud. And mom and dad I love you a lot.
Have a great week. God be with you. Stay excellent erybody!
Lots of love, Sister Emily 🙂

Lists, Calendars, and Binders!

photo (3)

I have been frantically trying to get a grip!

I am always organizing and listing and calendaring each January as a new year begins. I honestly love it! I cannot function until I do it.

One of my favorite things about organizing my life is the fact that I (best case scenario) “Have a place for everything and keep everything in it’s place”. When I do, I feel calm and orderly. I can focus on what needs to be done, and not worry about what doesn’t need to be done at the current moment.

So this is what I do:

  • I usually buy the new wall calendar and my new planner early in the previous year. That way, as I make Dr. appointments and things that I plan for six months or so down the road, I can put the appointment information right on the calendar.
  • When I have a minute here or there, I start adding birthdays to the calendar on the upcoming year.
  • I go over in my mind what things we have discussed as a family we will want to put on the calendar. One example is that Emily will be home from her mission in 2014. We will want to plan all kinds of activities around that event.
  • In my LDS ward, I’m the Primary President. That means I’m in charge of the children and their teachers and leaders. I have two counselors and a secretary that I couldn’t live without! We meet weekly to discuss our primary. We want to be prepared for all of the upcoming events and celebrations as well as making sure everyone’s needs are met. So we start listing all of the activities and events, and plan a date for them to take place. We need to get them on the calendar for our ward so others know when they’ll take place too.
  • Right now I have several lists I’m creating and working on. One for Primary, one for my second job, working for a local dentist, and one for my family and extended family. We get together at least once a month, and I help plan those. Also, I am making a list and planning for our taxes. Because I do daycare, I will finish organizing my records so that they are orderly and complete. I will need to make receipts for those parents whose children I tend.
  • In each of the categories of my life, I have a binder. NO floating papers! I love it. Of course I decorate them and then I feel like I’m being creative too.
  • I made a binder for each extended family, my family and my darlin’s. I will keep papers that tend to get misplaced that have to do with these families is each binder.
  • One more thing I do, that happens as the year goes by is I will use a folder for planning a particular event. When my parents had their 50th Wedding anniversary I organized food, and kept track of those who were invited. We recently put a new roof on the house. In the planning stages I got quotes from a few different roofing companies. I kept the quotes and measurements and anything else we may need to get it ready in the folder. I even took a small piece of the roofing shingle to compare colors. In the end what I have is a record  that can stay with the house if we ever sell it, and we know how much we spent and how we did it next time we need to re-roof the house. I file that folder away in my file cabinet with other informative files.

That’s about it. I love to be organized. I am not always organized, but I love it when I am. I hope this helps anyone who is not sure what to do with all of their calendars, lists, and binders!

Happy organizing!!!

P.S. In case you notice the little colorful dots on my little Moleskine Planner and calendar, I have my daycare kids color coded. Each color represents a family/child. Then all I have to do if I’m tending them on that day is put the dot. Then I’m not filling up the calendar with information that takes up a lot of space. FYI.

Out on a WIM #35

486765_10200115207338813_156973574_n

Two darling girls!!!

#35

Hello my most awesome, beautiful, caring, daring, fabulous, great, happy, intelligent, jolly, kool…….., loving, meek, nastily amazing, o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z. Sorry I don’t have time to write them all… But just know that you are Stupendous 🙂

Ok so if I am hearing correctly it sounds like all is well mostly.
I am excited to hear about Liz and all that good stuff. And sad to hear about grandpops. I will def keep him in my prayers.
Alright alright, getting down to the nitty gritty. This week was………………….. AWESOME!
Ok so first off we had Zone Conference this week. On tuesday. It was THE BEST. I got to see a lot of missionaries I have served with in the past and it was so good to hear from President M. I love him and Sister M. I learned a lot. They talked a lot about teaching in the language of the people.. As in teaching according to each need individually. We all learned about the trials that we go through and the things we learn. He taught us a lot of doctrine and helped us to understand the Plan of Salvation. He said we will all be tested to the core. And at this point in our lives we will welcome it because we will understand things we need to learn and that it is preparation for the life to come. We practiced our teaching skills and it was all around wonderful.
Everything was just gravy.
Wednesday we had interviews with President M. I had almost memorized my whole chapter… 3 Nephi 14 but I was still trying to get the last couple verses.. President M didn’t mind he was very kind about it. I had a solid interview with him. He did some role plays with me and told me how proud he was, and grateful for my hard work… Awwwwww 🙂 I thanked me for loving and training Sister H. properly. Then after that we went with Sister M. to get lunch for us all. And then Sister H. and I ate with the 2 of them. We then took Sister M. out teaching and it went really well. I LOVE Sister M. She helped us to figure out and teach to the investigators concerns.
Saturday we had met with this man J. and his friend M. At first they were both skeptical of us and had heard bad things about mormons. Then they just opened right up. I know it was the spirit. At the end they were so interested and understood what we taught! They both really wanted a Book of Mormon 🙂 It was a cool experience. They kept saying Sister (Emily) I have not seen you without a smile on your face this whole time… WHY are you so happy? Then I was able to bear my testimony. It was wonderful.
One of our people we are working with G. who is planning to be baptized on Feb 9th. We found out that the house that he lives in is actually this lady who is a Pastor and he is her deacon and she is providing a place for him to stay for that reason. So to baptized he’ll have to find a place to stay and everything. It has been a real challenge for us and him. He spoke to the Pastor lady and she flipped out on he…. sorry, him (my bajan’s coming out) And so now he looking for a place to stay so he can leave his deacon duties there and be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority. Talk about being tested to the core! He has grown so much along with his testimony. He said once he is able to he will leave so he can come to church and be baptized. So we’ve been praying hard. I know the Lord will help him.
We also met this cute fam that we are starting to teach. They are looking for the truth and a place to raise their family in 🙂
At church on Sunday we were expecting at least 3 people there and only one came… But wait what a blessing that one came 🙂 And we’ll hope for more next week!
Anyway not much more for this week!
Mommy: Tell everyone hello for me 🙂 Thanks for taking care of everything while I am gone. I really appreciate you a lot. And I am sorry about your lack of sunshine… I am soaking in PLENTY for you 😉 Tell Liz I love her and good luck! She will be amazing. I love you mommy bear. I hope you had a good winter solstice! 😉 Have a good week. Thanks for your letters of encouragement.
I love you all and want you to know that you are great!
The Church is true.
God bless you.

Sunday Best!

DSC01995

“Where the Lord plants us, there we are to stand: when He requires us to exert ourselves for the support of these holy principles, that we are to do; that is all we need to trouble ourselves about; the rest our Heavenly Father will take care of.  But it need not surprise us that difficulties and storms arise-that we see hurricanes playing about us-that we see war-clouds gather thick and fast about us; this need not be surprising.  Where there is no trial there can be no deliverance; where there is no temptation, the power of God cannot be made manifest to any great extent” -Lorenzo Snow

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

Out on a WIM #34

399323_2832250327819_1377711941_nPre-Mission Picture of Darling Emily!

#34

Hiiiiiiii, How are youuuuu???

Hello my most wonderful fam.
Well! It sounds like each and every one of your cute selves is doing ever so well. I love hearing about what’s going on with everything 🙂
Ok so this week was challenging, yet AWESOME.
This past Tuesday we had our last Zone Meeting with everyone all together. It was so sad. Elder G. (who I have been serving with since I was born) (on the mission birth 😉 He is like my brother. He has been my zone leader and helped me a lot. He left the island. And Elder R. my other zone leader. And one of the other Elders I was serving with here in Elder G. all left. I may or may not have shed a few tears. And by few I mean a solid 279 tearlets… (if that is even a word) IT WAS HARD. I think I was still trying to jump back into the swing of everything.
Along with that, Zone Conference is tomorrow and President M. asked us to memorize and whole chapter from the BOM (Book of Mormon). Remember what I said about him having a lot of faith in people?? Yeah……… So I have been memorizing 3 Nephi 14 it is coming along. I also have memorized D&C 121:34-46, D&C 31:3-7, D&C 20:37, and 2 Nephi 4: 14-26. ANYWAY lots and lots of memorizing and it can get stressful at times. Along with trying to do all the other things in missionary work.
Ok so one of the biggest tender mercies this week was: Yesterday we had like a solid 3 people at least plan for them coming to church. And without fail everyone told us they couldn’t in the morning and we even set up plans and everything to get them there. So I was feeling really sad… Like, why in the world will no one come to church????????? So we were having testimony meeting and all the testimonies were just what I needed to hear…. AND THEN! Sister A. My cute recent convert got up and bore a solid testimony and was talking about how thankful she was to have been taught by us. Then Brother K. got up right after her and bore a solid testimony too. THEY MADE MY WHOLE DAY! And I was just thinking the Lord is so kind to me. I am so blessed. And right at the moment where I felt down and like there was not success. He so tenderly reminded me of the success we have had 🙂 It was great!
The people we are teaching are all so fantastic. I love them. I pray that the Lord will direct us best in how to help them… Just like Alma 🙂
Anyway!!! Good learning week 🙂
Mom: Thank you very much. You are so kind. I watched the short clip from skype that I got and a cried a little so I haven’t been watching it. But yes I am so happy and blessed! I can’t believe it is 2014… It’s wild! That’s so cute about the kids. Jesus IS the answer for everything. You are so cute with the kids. I am glad to hear all is well. Anyway I love you a ton.
Daddy: Sounds like all is going well and you are taking care of car problems as usual. Give Murph (the car) a big hug and kiss for me… Have great week and I love you very much.
We are so blessed! Let us all make the most of 2014!!!!! I love you all very muchly. I’ll see you all this year! Tee hee! Have a blessed week.
The church is true. Christ lives!
Love with all my heart, Sister Emily 🙂

Sunday Best!

DSC01984

“Going forward with our service and work is an important way to qualify for revelation. In my study of the scriptures I have noted that most revelation to the children of God comes when they are on the move, not when they are sitting back in their habitations waiting for the Lord to tell them the first step to take.” -Dallin H. Oaks

Hope your Sunday was the Best! Love, Joy

Happy New Year!!!

20070617_205845

“I said to the man who stood at the gate of the new year, ‘Give to me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” Minnie Louise Haskins

This is one of my favorite quotes. It is the beginning of a poem that was written by Minnie Louise Haskins. It was read by King George VI during his Christmas address in 1939. World War II had recently begun. I can imagine what the people that King George spoke to had on their minds at that time.

I think that at this particular time in the history of our world people have many things on their minds, too.

Life on this planet has always been a challenge, to some more that others. Really, it’s a challenge to everyone, just in different ways.

Our Heavenly Father has given us this amazing opportunity to come to earth, to learn and grow. We learn from all of our experiences. We learn each and every time we make a choice. Sometimes we learn how to manage or be successful in spite of another person’s choice that has had an affect on us.

No one knows what lies ahead. I know that if we trust in God, do what He asks, live a good life, and listen to what He is trying to tell us, we can make our way through life and be triumphant!

I think what Ms. Haskins is trying to teach us with her words is this: There are a lot of smart people in the world. There are a lot of books that give advice and tell us what we need to do to be successful in life, but the best thing we can do is trust God. Let Him lead us as we go. He knows everything and loves us with a pure love. Would He ever lead us the wrong way? No.

He is the way.

May we all, put our “hand in the hand of God” as we begin a new year!

Make it a great one!! Love, Joy