Monday, July 22, 2013

My Dearest Fan Club- Boy do I miss you all dearly!

Thanks for the pictures- that’s usually my favorite!  Amber should send me pictures like mom does; you all know I especially love pictures with funny faces! haha The picture of Amber, Landon and Tanner didn’t show up, could you please send it again? :)

The house will be great! I won’t even recognize it when I see it again! It is nice to have renovation projects again, I bet. I miss those- a great family bonding time, even if there is usually yelling involved ;)

This week has sure been great! P-days are a blast! Last week we went to Flushing and Jamaica and bought tee shirts.  The guy gave me a GREAT deal 9 shirts for 20 dollars... so one day in the next 15 months you can expect shirts! I hate to break it to you, but that'll probably be the only souvenir you get, considering you can buy any other souvenir I would get here, in Huntington... hahaha!  We also got Korean food for Sister Lee, she promised a member she would cook for her, and I’m excited to try more food like that anyway.  Flushing is basically a town of all Asians, and so when you walk in there you feel like everyone is staring at you. I mean, I’m stared at anyways cuz I’m beautiful [;)] wearing a skirt and a badge, but add height, weight, and skin color... you are just the only thing to look at.... Sister Mcgrath [sister in my district] went to some clothing stores and asked to try on some shoes, and they didn’t have our size.... who knew a 9 was A MASSIVE shoe size?!   Not me....

The heat wave here in NY is stronger than ever.  We are so blessed to have a studio pad cuz the AC can do its job so we don’t die!  It was around 100 most of the week.

We have been visiting a less active member that is just amazing!  She is in quite the rough patch in her life and she committed to coming to church the past 3 weeks but never came until this week, and she had the most spiritual experience!  The sister's investigator got confirmed on Sunday and that was such a blessing that she could see that again. She leaned over and told us that she remembers when she was confirmed.  It really helped her remember those feelings of the spirit.

Almost all our branch was out of town this weekend at the Hill Cumorah pageant!  I am so going to that when I am not a missionary!  It’s so close, yet so far away!  The spirit really would be so strong there! :) Our old DL was in it with his family- kinda cool for all the members to go see him again now that he is released.

The work is moving forward- members are the key and we are still trying our hardest to get them involved.  The Hermana's had a great idea to have the members give out flyers for the Restoration Fireside we are having.  Our mission district initiated it- but we are getting all the districts in our zone involved by having them get musical numbers from their branches.  So hopefully there is a decent turn out. We made flyers a few weeks ago and have probably handed out well over 1000 with the whole zone and district involved.  We go to the train stations when people are getting home from work, and give them cold bottled water with a label that we made with mormon.org on it.  Speaking of that experience,  what a tender mercy, we had been looking to buy a Styrofoam cooler for a little bit of time, but we were not willing to spend the money on it.  So we gave up. One night we were knocking and we look down the street and see 2 coolers!  We couldn’t believe it!  So we went to the house and knocked to see if we could have it since they looked like they were going to be thrown away. No one answered the two times we knocked so we left a note and she called us the next day and said we could have them!  We got there and she gave us FOUR of them for free! :) :) So we loaded them up and took them to the church.  We have stories like this all the time... I wish I was better about recording them.  Oh well, there is no time for much of anything but the day to day things.

Aside from the fireside we are also having the blood drive this Saturday, so that should be solid! People can sign up online through the Red Cross.  We already have like 30 people signed up and only 2 of them are members!  So it will be a great turn out!  We plan to do church tours and things too!  So it will be great!

We have two exchanges this week, one with other sisters in Jamaica and one with the training sisters.   I am really looking forward to that :) I really like exchanges and getting to see how others do the work, and of course I love meeting people all the time.  That’s always a highlight for me! Last time I stayed in Lynbrook for the exchange and this time I get to leave the area- so more to come on that!

We are also doing a FHE type of thing on Thursday nights- we used to have them on Mondays but that never worked that well, so now it is on Thursday!  haha  We have been getting a good turnout, the sisters did Minutes To win It and the elders did Jeopardy with the scriptures. It really was a good time.  I have a feeling we are in charge this week... I suppose we need to check on that.  haha

ZTM [zone training meeting] was really good this week.  The zone leaders talked on having a good attitude and an elder spoke on clear bold commitments.  He touched on the importance of, you are being bold until the spirit isn’t there anymore, then you are being overbearing.  haha He told of a funny story where his first transfer he was frustrated with the lack of people accepting the message, so... on the next house he let himself in. hahaha He was demonstrating the difference between bold and overbearing. haha

We met with a man who is SO ready and prepared.  I am grateful for the area book so that we could go visit him.  His name is Nick.  He has known Mormons for a long time and finally felt like the Lord wouldn’t keep putting members in his life if he wasn’t suppose to look into the religion. Our lesson literally was wonderful!  The spirit was so strong and just amazing.  We look forward to teaching him again.

Linda has been sick and also her car broke down; as much as she wants to be at church, Satan doesn’t want her to be there.   It’s really hard to see how he does anything in his power to make people not be able to do what is right!

This week I am learning that I need to remember that just cuz I’m on a mission doesn’t mean i don’t have to work to do what is right. I think I was deceived at first that by putting the tag on it would be easier, and it’s not.  I am reminded over and over of my spiritual gifts, and of course the ones I also lack.  I  am trying to build them to the best of my ability :) The hardest thing as a missionary for me, is to study DILIGENTLY. I can study all day every day, but when you only get an hour to have personal study you really have to focus your mind to truly be led by the spirit and learn.  I continually have to work on that, luckily there is always a tomorrow, right? :)

:) I love you.  Thanks for the letters and love!

--Sister Freeze