Monday, September 16, 2013

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Dearest Fan club.

Soooooo -- as always not much time!

Buuuuut -- I was able [with a long p-day, no emails because of Labor Day] to write letters to peeps in the family. Sooo - with that- I don’t actually have tons to say.  But. This is the important meat; and we just found out yesterday!

Ready....
  
Are you sure....? Make sure you are sitting down [especially Amber....]

We can use Facebook starting in October!!!!  I know right! The lord is truly hastening His work and it is UNREAL!  I have such a testimony of the importance of the church keeping up with the times, and I know this will bless so many people’s lives!  Our ZL’s went to a meeting about it with President Calderwood and the Sister Training Leaders, APs, and ZL's all start using it today.  I hear that you are to spend an hour on it daily and in December when we get Ipads online proselyting will be a huge deal!  In the middle of this month all DL's will start using it and then it’ll be October and the whole mission will have access.  We are to clean up our Facebooks when we are allowed to use them and have the page we used prior to our mission for missionary work!  We will be starting blogs at that same time and we will be teaching lessons over Skype here shortly!  Members from all over the world will be able to be the member that is present during those lessons and things.  It is so neat to see how technology was truly inspired to further the Lords work.  The Lord allowed these people the knowledge so that his children could be blessed with the gospel!

The thing that gets me the most is realizing how much this will drastically change the way we work- we will become more "real" to these people when we can let them know that they can go to our blog page and see what it’s like in the day of a life of a missionary.  Or check out our Facebook page and see that before our mission we had hobbies and loves as well- That we are just here taking a break from all that to share such an important message.  I recognize how the lord has been preparing a previously 'disobedient' mission, to now having one where obedience is key and people are striving to do what is right.  It sounds like our mission culture has changed a lot over the last couple years!  But now - we are ready to take on something like this. The lord trusts that we can still stay focused and do what is right with new tools like these!  It will be nice to make appointments on mini Ipads and everything will just be COMPLETELY different.  The way missionary work will be done is literally forever changed.  We are recognizing that what is happening here is that the Lord is molding us into member missionaries for life.  We are in a position where we have to be a missionary to our friends and people at home!  It will be neat to hear about it further, but the official word is out :) I think the reason I laugh the most is because in all reality it is putting me in place of my #1 addiction in life.  And two - it is asking a huge sacrifice to not have home life and missionary life separate.  I am grateful- but it will require a lot of self control.  And of course it will be so worth it!

Sister Blosil is one of my new best friends.  We truly get along so well.  I am so thankful for her example to me!

We are recognizing the need to be more and more bold which I love!  Today is a great example.  Instead of just mentioning that we are missionaries we really teach doctrine whenEVER possible.  So today we brought up the Book of Mormon to a woman that we expressed our love of her hair. And then she accepted the invite to learn more! :) The even greater thing is we had TWO Jewish people give us pens because they thought we were looking for a pen to write down her number, when really we were looking for the phone to add her to our contacts.  But to see that the Jewish community is recognizing us more and more and talking to the missionaries in passing more and more than they used to it sounds like! :)

MORE cool news that I forgot to write about!  We can go to the temple every 6 months now!!!!  So we get to go at the 6 month mark, year mark, and end of the mission!  Three times instead of 2!  I remember just weeping when I got the news!  I miss the temple so much!  That is one of my favorite things to teach people about; that their family has the opportunity to be a family forever! :)

For more good news- our area got 1 car that the District Leader is allowed to drive missionaries around in to get to the top of our area since it is an hour away!  It is such a blessing!  We made a huge map and found where all the less actives live so we can visit them- so that will be a great experience too!

I am realizing more than ever what coming on a mission is doing for the rest of my life.  I already am forever changed and I love my life!  Serve someone, read the Book of Mormon daily- pray fervently and you’ll love your life too.  Plus, in Alma it says you’ll come to know the mysteries of god if you do.

I hope you all just love my typos.  When you add up how fast I’m trying to type and the fact that I can’t spell and there is no spell check- you can understand! hahaha

I love you all.  The church is so true.  Just find a mormon.org card and give it out or share your testimony- you really have absolutely no idea how much it will change someone’s life! I’m learning rejection isn’t bad :) remember that... :)

Love you all so much! :) Have a GLORIOUS day!


Sister Freeze

Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday, August 12, 2013

Well-- this week has so much to report again and no time to really spend on the computer.  This library is more restricted than Lynbrook was.  Super bummer.

SOOOO! I am currently living in MIDWOOD BROOKLYN!! Crazy, I know!  I miss Sister Lee but she has taught me everything I have needed to know to be prepared!

There are so many people to talk to and we have great investigators!  I have met a few already! Sister Blosil is my new comp! She rocks!   We laugh ‘til we cry, almost every day!  It’s great, because we were both trained by Sister Leeeeee!  Cool right?!  Sister Blosil was trained the 2 transfers before I was, sooooo we both are really new to missionary work and have a lot of things to learn together.  But we both are "greenies" so we are super gung-ho towards missionary work!

I am out of time; we are going to Flushing to see a sister that is on her way to Peru for her mission since she is a visa waiter! :) Sorry the letters are so lame... one day there will be time...

I sure love you all. :)

So, looks like I was able to get more time.  You do it in 30 minute increments, but can go as many times as you want- unless there is a wait.

A few more things.  We are teaching a few people.  One of them I’ve met is named Esther!  She is so great! She is really reserved and is looking to join the church.  She understands the commitments and reads The Book of Mormon on her own!  She really is progressing well.  Her mom is fine with the idea of her being baptized, but she isn’t interested in baptism herself.  We will get her support from the ward.  I am serving in the Midwood 1st ward.  Everyone that I know thought that I was for sure going to be going to Jamaica- and I had no thought of even being transferred.... I’m still in shock that I was transferred!  Lesson to be learned; expect the unexpected.  Serving in a ward as opposed to a branch sure has a lot of differences.  We hold much different responsibilities as missionaries here.  I had forgotten how much we did in the branch.  We did far more to serve the branch than we did teach.  I can tell that will not be the case here.

I rode the subway for the first time too!  I’m grateful we were not blinded in here, because if we were I would have had no idea how to figure out what stops I need.  ha-ha we have an unlimited metro card which is handy to not have to worry about how many rides we have left.


 The Spanish sisters live right down the hall but we have an English district plus a companionship of Creole elders and a Spanish district. The zone leaders are in our district.  It is the weirdest thing being the only set of sister missionaries in our district.  I didn’t realize how much the 4 of us sisters in Lynbrook dominated decisions.   ha-ha

Also... LYNbrook and brookLYN, cool right.  Apparently the people that settled Lynbrook were from Brooklyn.

Things are really expensive in the city- I am just amazed at all the orthodox Jews that live here. Some things close on Saturday because of their Sabbath.  Really interesting.

We also went over to dinner at an investigators house. She is soooo cool! We were teaching her a brief lesson on what we learned at church and then committed her to read scriptures daily. :)

Like I said, Sister Blosil and I are learning a lot together.   We ended up spending a lot of time at the pad just finding direction for the area now that sister Blosil is "leading" in the area, since she was here before and now that I’m new to the area.

Alright-- the YSA sisters are here to pick us up to go to Flushing.  I love it here!! :)
Love ya!

Sister Freeze

Monday, September 16, 2013

Monday, September 16, 2013

So, here is the latest--

First and foremost I and my entire district are staying here in Midwood Brooklyn! :)  My District Leader is going home to Equador, so we are getting another elder in.  That will make the Creole elders have a trio :)  So it’s fun to add and not to lose!  I am so sad that elder cdv is leaving- but I’ll remember what he has taught me and move forward with that!

Our investigator came to church on Sunday!! :) It was such a miracle! She always wants to come, but has such a hard time making it because of her health and so honestly we had a myriad of people praying for her and she made it! All three hours! :)

We had a baptism for the District Leaders and that was so great!  I think that was the 5th baptism I’ve gone to since being on my mission and they are always such a treat!

I have decided to make this upcoming transfer all related to the Savior and Atonement.  I'm bound to understand it on a deeper level than JUST my sins being forgiven.  I am excited to fill gaps that can only be filled with the Savior.  It is amazing to me the timing of this month’s Ensign.  It is ALL on the Savior.  So that has been neat for me.  Everyone, and I mean everyone- go read His Grace is sufficient-- http://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/09/his-grace-is-sufficient?lang=eng
Basically they are the greatest talks.  I just know that the Atonement is real. I know that His grace is sufficient.  I see how this is a time in my life, where I can't turn to my mother like I usually would, is blessing me. At first I was really angry about it.  There are things that I wish that I could just sit at the kitchen table and tell her what I’m feeling and what I’m learning in the way that I used to. But I’m realizing that I can, and NEED to do that with Heavenly Father.  I need to tell HIM what I’m feeling, what I’m learning.  It is so easy to get caught in the day to day things and not even call on Heavenly Father other than the "repetitive prayers"... we all know what I’m talking about. The funny thing is I thought it would be easier on my mission, not before!  haha i was mistaken.  It is always hard work.  I love in the bible dictionary where it talks about how we should pray.
PRAYER:
"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."

There is way more but this bolded part I love!  Prayer is to be hard work!  And let me tell you, at 6:30am when you are beyond tired and 10:30 at night when you are EXHAUSTED - it is hard enough to pray hard, let alone stay awake! :) haha

:) I am feeling an immense amount of gratitude for the way I was raised.  I am seeing how that will forever bless my life.  The people around me don’t have it as good as I do. I’m not even just referring to temporally.  I was raised to be very independent and I realize that I am taught many things others don’t even really understand.

Less active look ups has truly been quite the treat for me!  I love being able to find people that haven’t been contacted in years! :)  We made an appointment with the most amazing woman!  She totally could have been a freeze. haha I was reading a talk and it was saying that the people that we meet on our mission will bless us as much as we bless them- and I feel that so frequently!

We are trying to improve our finding efforts- I think that is one of the harder parts of missionary work- but man, it’s so cool to meet so many people and hear their story!  This week a 93 year old man with a HEAVY Greek accent stopped us on the street and told us all about his life for an hour!  I could have listened to him for hours. But I am recognizing that people are more comfortable to talk with us because of the Light of Christ we have :)

I’m learning and learning. I thought I was here for the people- but man. it’s for me too
:) Love you all!


Sister Freeze