Transfer Week

Hello Family, etc!


So as many of you know, this was Transfer week! Dun dun dun DUUUUUUNNNNN!!!! Everything changed... I moved, my companion is now a trainee and... Okay, I just went to the temple this morning, I shouldn't lie...

Basically everything stayed the same. I'm very thankful! Sister Carlisle and I are still companions, still in Chat, and still in the same apartment! I've been in that apartment since I got back from outbound! I'm so glad that I don't have to move, I can't tell you!

Something that's kind of fun, is that our roommates are Sister Ang who is training Sister Carlile. It's kind of funny. Something else that is going to be interesting is that we all have the same p-day, so we're working out who does laundry when and so on and so forth.

One huge change in my life is that Chat zone went from being the smallest zone in the mission, to the largest!! I thought that president might end or shrink chat zone because during the summer we need a ton of sisters to accommodate the guests on temple square, but he made it bigger! We were all so surprised! But also very excited. There are going to be lots of changes coming soon that make it so we will need tons of sisters in chat!

So now we're getting used to having many sisters on a few computers, and now it is set up in a different way where we schedule computers during times we have appointments, rather than having our own set computers. We're still working things out, but I think it will work out well!

It's getting hot. My companion loves it, but I'm... well I'm like a marshmallow next to a fire... I don't do well in the heat! Thankfully this summer I'm in chat, and last summer I trained so I had/have reason to either be in the cool, or a good example!

And now there's a sister in our apartment who's being trained, so I get to be an example there! I'm excited to get to know her and sister Ang better!

Oh, and if you're all still trying to think of what to get me for my birthday... I don't want a lot of things... just a laptop I can use for school! That way you don't have to worry about giving me something I will use only for a short time before I come home from my mission! You all can pool together and... hehe.

Any way, random thought that I ran into while I was reading the Book of Mormon this morning; Alma the elder. How on earth did he get people to listen to him if he was teaching in private? Did he have a friend that he went to first, then that friend told other friends, and it just kept going and going? Just something to think about. It would be interesting to see how that all worked because he wouldn't be able to put a sign up that says, "Come and learn about the truth!" and have people flock to him, or anything like that. He'd be killed. Any way, random.

so many people came back from outbound, so it's really exciting to see them!!! and a few people went out- one of them went to Tasha's mission! Sister Sorensen! So Aunt Julie- Tell Tasha to keep her eye out for a blond from Temple Square!

Any way, love you you all!!!

LOVE!!!

~Sis Sarah

B-day week!

Amy asked some questions about my birthday-


How does it feel to be 23? Doesn't feel bad at all! People keep on saying with surprised voices, "It's your birthday???" because I wasn't very verbal about it (and neither was my companion, but a few times) and I was in chat the whole day, save a couple of hours.



Are you feeling old yet? You're not old, by the way, but I know sometimes you can feel old. Old??? What's that??? O.O Sometimes I feel it, sometimes I feel immature :P Both are fun in... diverse ways!



Did you have a good birthday? Did you do anything different to celebrate?

I did have a good birthday! Sister Storer and Moulton (ASL sisters who are companions, kinda funny) came to our apartment just before I went to take a shower that morning and sang happy birthday very loudly (sis. Storer is VERY loud when she wants to be.) and that was loads of fun! They gave me cookies. which are really tasty. And now in the freezer because I still have a sugar high from yesterday.


I also celebrated it by going to a new restaurant called the Blue Lemon (tasty but pricey...) and because my compy told the worker there that it was my birthday I got a free dessert! I chose a chocolate cake. Twas good. I ate it that day so I wouldn't have it staring at me the rest of the week!


Also our neighbors (who helped me surprise sister Talines with brownies for her birthday) made me some muffins and sang happy birthday to me in the evening!

Do you get to call Father's day?

Yes! I do get to call father's day! What a great gift!

Heavenly father also gave me a most happy gift! I found the ring I'd been searching for since before I went outbound! It's my Celtic one I got from the renfaire the first time I went! It was in a suit coat I don't wear because it doesn't fit me (too small- got it from sister Droege) and I decided to try it on today. It still doesn't fit me quite right, and the button fell off. I put the button in one of the pockets, and heard a clink, and felt inside and LO and BEHOLD! my ring!!! I was (and am) SO excited!!! :D YAY Ring!!!

So that was Heavenly Father's gift to me, a day late, but that's okay! He always does it at the right time!

We also had some amazing lessons! We have two investigators that are SO open! One was actually trying to get the other to stop learning with us, but we committed the other to invite her to one of the lessons, and now she can understand why! We're so excited for them! They both love the fact that we teach that we're children of God and that He loves us so much! Since they're both just finishing high school, they love the young women's talks!

I'm excited to chat with you all on Sunday!






And I look forward to hearing your exciting stories too!!






Love!!!






~Sister Sarah






PS- the dolled up pictures, first one is where I'm trying to look nice, second is where I'm being silly and our roommate sis Pommells is in the background.

LOVE

Adventures...

My week has been weird.


So, Friday night/Saturday morning I wake up because I swallowed. Yes, I swallowed. And it hurt. A lot. I got through Saturday alright, downing loads of vitimin C and so on, and even half of a Niquill when I went to bed that night... It didn't help.

Saturday-Sunday morning, I tossed and turned and had weird dreams about one of our investigators and trying to find the right thing for her to read for our next appointment, and waking up every time I swallowed. It's kind of weird how you don't notice how often you do a bodil function until it hurts! Well I finally got to sleep, just in time for alarms to start going off, and couldn't get out of bed to go to church. I had no energy, and it was excruciating to swallow anything. I signed to my companion (and mouthed, because I've been teaching her a bit, and she had a crash course the day before because it was hard for me to speak.) "I think I have strep."

She told that to our district leader and zone leader, but I didn't have the symptoms that they recognized, so after going between sleeping and attempting to swallow blended up food, I went to the square and did Chatfinding with my companion for an hour, went home, slept, ate some more soup (my companion's amazing and made some for me), then went back to chat finding for another 3 hours. My companion didn't like that I had to be there while I was sick, but we saw so many miracles! For the first time, we had so many return appointments, we almost didn't have time to give them their own time slot later on!

Monday, I was feeling a bit better, a combination of benadryl and Ibuprophen knocked me out for the night, so sleep probably helped greatly. Sunday hurt the worst, and I started to get better Monday. I was signed up to see the mission doctor on Tuesday, but I was feeling well enough, and we were going to be late to RC. My companion insisted, "You can blame me if it's nothing, but I think you should go."

so I did. The conversation with the doctor went something like this,

"I wasn't going to come, but my companion told me to. I think I have strep."

"Let me see... Say AH. Yep. You have strep. Take this prescription to Rite aid, and take it until it's gone." So that's what I've been doing and it's getting better and better every day!

Like today, I could actually eat/Swallow, and it didn't hurt very much at all! YAY! I'm very thankful that I'm able to recognize what I have... even if others don't realize it at first. That's the second time I've had strep and both times, I self-diagnosed, and both times I was right. Kind of funny.

Any way, so things have been going well! We love the people we've been teaching, even if some of them are flaky. Or at least the things we try to contact them with are flaky, like phones, or internet.

One of our investigators is amazing, and continues to want to learn more even though her family and best friend don't approve.

Love you all! And Thank you for writing too!

I look forward to reading your adventures too!

~Sister Sarah

Always improving...

That's the motto that this mission has. And clearly that's what's going on all the time. Whether it be changing up where we're assigned to different places, or jack-hammars going on the square to improve it in some way, there's always improvments!


My companion and I have been doing some improvments of our own. During our weekly planning we made a LOT of goals to help us be more effecive missionaries, especially in our assigned zone. We have chosen to do a lot of things that will help us use our time more wisely, and so on. We're both excited about getting more things done in a timely manner!

We also have a new way to chat with people that makes it so that the people we're chatting with can see us both at the same time! That's pretty exciting, and during one of the chats we had together, we found a young woman who wants to learn more, and she's deaf! It's pretty neat! I'm excited!

So my talk went well! Amy emailed me a talk that had a little saying on it. The saying was similar to the one that Mom had on a hanging in the kitchen,

"Control your thoughts because they become the words you use.

Control your words because they become the actions you perform.

Control your actions because they become the habits you acquire.

Control your habits because they become the character you reflect.

Control your character because your character becomes your destiny.

Control your destiny by becoming what your Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ want you to be. "

And for some reason, when I first got up, I felt impressed to say that God loves everyone in that room, and if anyone was feeling any less than they should- they should know that they were loved. Or something like that. Kind of a weird thing to say when you're about to tell them to keep their thoughts and hearts clean and pure...

We finally took our class picture. It was the last week possible to get everyone that we could in because one of the sisters had to go home so she could be sure to get a visa back to the US to go to school. We're going to miss her!

I can't believe it's June!

OH! We got a new display! I know I've kind of been talking about this off and on, but the walls are down and the display is a hit! Tons of people come and look at it.

Now that I know what it looks like, I can describe it to you! It's an exact replica, a minature, of the Salt Lake Temple, with two sides (the south and west) cut away so you can see inside. It shows many of the different rooms and has two keyosks that each give a discription of the different rooms. It explains it very simply, that people who don't know anything about the church can understand without having any other background information. I haven't had much time to use it myself, but what I have seen is really neat!

The modle is SO close to the original, it even has the little black marks that you see that comes from the imperfections in the granite! When ya'll come here, you HAVE to come and see it! It's a great way to explain the temple to any friends you have that wonder why they can't go inside, or what goes on inside, and really demonstrates that the reason people who haven't prepared can't go in is because of the cerimonies, not because we want to keep people out.

something else that is neat about the display, is that as Sisters we were able to see it before the press because we needed training on it before it was open to the public, so that we could answer people's questions about it, etc.

I met someone who knows 3 people I know! Cousin Emily, Amy, and my trainer! Weird! Her name is Kajsa (Sp...) and she taught Emily German, served in Amy's ward, and grew up with Sis. Williams!

Crazy stuff, eh?

So we had to let a few of our investigators tbe taken by the missionaries in their area since they contacted them. It's amazing to be able to find the most prepared people online, but also... well the least prepared. We had a funny situation where a member came on masquarading as an investigator and put my poor companion through the ringer, we later found out that the same member... was related to one of the sisters!

Our roommates are falling apart! Both of them have backpain, and are looking to me for sympathy and massages. I do my best, lol.

They're both fun, and the same ones as last transfer, so it's even more fun!

Any ways, I look forward to hearing your own crazy stories!

Love ya!

Be good n stuff!

~Sister Sarah

Zone Conference and randomness, etc

So this week we have had Zone Conference. It's been a bit different this time, because in stead of having everything all at once, or even over two days, it's been over the better part of a week or two.

Each group which consisted of a portion of our zone and another, was taught by 2 sets of Zone leaders, President Holmes, and the Assistants. Each teaching was about an hour long, which totaled to about 4 hours. Each one was tailored to a specific subject that all came together and helped us improve in missionary work, and having them spread out helped us to implement what we learned throughout the week, instead of doing it all at once, and then forgetting most of it. There was a day or two in between so it soaked in better.

The last day of Zone Conference was a temple marathon! We were able to do Baptisms, Initiatories, and a Session, some people were also able to do Sealings, it just depended on what they had for each companionship. We could only do 3 of the 4 things in the time we had. It was really nice to end that on an extra spiritual note!

The last two days have been pretty exciting, with the temple, and then later that day we recieved someone who wants to be taught! We were able to teach him and his wife today, and they are both excited to learn more! This has been a process for them for the last 12-15 years, and they finally decided that this is something that they need to do. We are so excited for them!

On a different subject, I am giving my talk on Sunday. The topic is, "We must discipline our Thoughts and Purify our Hearts" so I've been thinking about that a lot recently. I've been listening to Zone Conference, and trying to find things to add to my talk, and started writing /compiling it this morning, and will hopefully finish today, as it's the only day I truely have time until sunday.

I'll try and type up what I say next week so you all don't miss out too much ;)

Also on Monday we had our first Chat Zone FHE, which was a blast! We played a game that was basically Cranium, and we all had a blast while we ate psudo-mexican food, and had a spiritual thought. That's what the picture is of. The sisters converging to the table that contains the food! YAY food!

Other than those things, this week has been pretty uneventful. Sister Carlisle and I are still just as crazy as ever... and so are our roommates. Sometimes the craziness is a little more than needed, but it all works our right??

I love you all and I look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Be good! And Happy!

Lots of love!

~Sister Sarah

Pix!

1- Infamous Roommate picture!

2&3 service at heratage park

4- One of the reasons I love Africa = missionaries contacted 4 of our investigators!

5&6 Heratage park service again! Tis fun stuffs!

7 a pic my compy took of the tulips with the Tabernacle peeking in the background!

Enjoy!

Chat Zone Picture

This is the zone I'm in now, and the picture was taken last transfer, so I'm not in it, but it's fun!