Okay... umm... I left my book of Mormon with my Planner... at home... so I'm kind of lost and don't know what to say.
The weather! That's a great place to start! It's been GORGEOUS!!! If it would stay like this the rest of my mission, I'd be in heaven. My companion, sister Talines, and I have just finished taking about 200 pictures... each. Okay, maybe I exaggerate.... Any way, I took more than I have in a LONG time.
So, today was pretty neat. We finally got to Weekly planning (we had Zone Conference this week as well as a ton of other meetings, so we haven't had a companion study to do it in. That's something that's different from outbound... Weekly planning is a LOT longer, and you HAVE to do it before the next week starts. It's now Saturday and the week started on Wednesday, and we just did Weekly planning this morning. Kind of weird, but we don't have any investigators to plan for, so why take more time than is needed?
Any way, so we got onto the Square and almost as soon as we got there, we ran into a man from North Carolina. It was fun. We took him around, then walked and talked with people, namely the parents of the organist who was performing today. His mother's from the Philippines, so sister Talines and she had a fun conversation. We were near the tabernacle when they started handing out programs for the performance that day. Sister Rafi' (shortened because most people can't say Rafidairimanda.. and I probably spelled it wrong.) and Holmes asked us to stay in the Tab' during the performance to let people out when they need to go, etc, in a way that it won't be loud. It was wonderful to be able to hear the music, especially 'Come Come Ye Saints' I got goose bumps and one of the ladies who was listening wanted to leave because she was tearing up. It's neat how heavenly father gives little treats now and again to make life sweet. Kind of like eating a raisin bagel, mostly bland with a bite of sweetness every once and a while, that makes the whole thing sweet. :) But if the whole thing were sweet, we'd get tired of it. Bored you might say.
After the Organ Recital, a man came in from England. He was there on business and was interested in different things. We got to know him, and were able to answer questions. Sister Talines mentioned that she used to be Catholic, and he had said previously that he was Catholic, so he asked if they were different. I explained the greatest difference was that we believe the authority was lost and is now back on the earth with prophets and apostles, and he seemed to accept that well. He asked a few more questions, but didn't want missionaries because he's always traveling. We encouraged him to stop and talk to the missionaries in his area whenever he saw them. We hope the best for him. I think we have to have a lot of faith on this mission and know that those who are ready will receive the gospel one way or another...
Earlier in the week, Thursday I think(which is when we had our Zone Conference) we met a couple from Pittsburgh. They were truck drivers, and had a bit of an accent. At first I thought they were from Brazil, because it sounded similar, but when I asked if they "spoke another language" (my polite way of saying, "I can hear a bit of an accent... what's it from?") When they replied, they said, "Arabic." I was a little surprised, it was my first time in a long time that I ran into people who originally spoke that language. We'd already been having a great discussion about Christ, so I just kept on going, explaining about the Temple, and so on. They were both open and could feel the spirit, and it felt good to them.
After we finished, one of the sisters who can kind of speak Arabic walked by myself and sister Talines, and we pointed her in the right direction to distract them while we got them an Arabic book of Mormon. They were very thankful for the book, and said they would read it. They're already reading the bible in Arabic, so it would be good for them to have both. :D So... again with the faith thing. Hopefully they'll meet with missionaries too...
I'm very thankful for sunscreen.
Sunday was nice. Sister Talines announced in Tagalog, and we kind of got a tour. Some other sisters found them for us, and they were members and had a very limited amount of time, but it was nice for them all to talk for a while.
I used the crock pot for the second time on my mission... the first time was in my first transfer. It worked out well. I tried to do something like what dad does for sundays (potroast, with potatoes, etc), and... well, I didn't have most of the ingredients that he uses, so for what I had it turned out well :).
I don't remember much. Sorry... that's what happens when I don't have my planner... my goldfish-sized memory kicks in .
I can't believe it's Week three... and the middle of it to boot! I've noticed a lot of things, and have been trying to improve. It's kind of funny because I remembered some things from before outbound and some of them are starting to come back. Some of those things I'm glad about, but others I'm not. We (Sister Talines and I) made a goal today to try and learn something new every day that we can use every day, so we're not just saying, doing, etc, the same things over and over again and getting bored. So hopefully that will help.
I've been able to run into a lot of members recently. I've really encouraged the young members to go on missions, especially mission-aged young men (girls too ;) ) I've been able to improve my ways of talking with them, and others... I hope.
Any way. Many many miracles. I love it. :D
Love you all! Be good! And Happy!
LOVE!
~Sister of the Durtschi of the Sarah Sort.
Ps... No butters were involved in the making of this email... aside from the small amount that was in dinner last night (in case you were wondering about the subject.)
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
More Pictures
1. Sample from today's pictures
5. Conference Sunday night when we got together to see what the totals were and so on.
2/3/4. Just after the session of conference that we got to see
Monday, April 12, 2010
Hi... again :)
So, it's not been that long ago that I wrote. But that's okay, right? You like hearing from me, yes? :)
This week is pretty neat, even though you just heard from me on Wednesday :)
We were able to take two wonderful ladies around on Thursday. They're deaf and wanted to learn more by the end of it. My poor companion almost fell asleep because we chatted so much. At first I thought they're members, but as we chatted we got to know each other better. they asked some really great questions about the church and what we believed, and some normal questions about temple square and us as missionaries, especially since the next day we were able to take the same ladies around the Beehive house. They asked us there if all of us had to wear skirts (common question...) and we let them know that we want to look professional, so as missionaries we wear nice clothes, etc.
Something that's interesting about temple square is we have a chance to answer a lot of people's questions. Some of them make me think a lot. Even though I know the answers for myself, it forces me to think about it from their perspectives... which means that I have to find a different way to answer the same question with the same answer. I love it. Even if I don't love it at the time I'm having to think on my toes and answer it.
We met a lady today who's coming back to church. We were able to share some uplifting scriptures with her and help her feel welcome. I think those who come back are brave, because it usually means they're admitting they have been wrong and they're willing to make the changes that they need to. Change is scary a lot.
There have been a lot of things that have changed here, namely sisters and so on, but it's taking me a while to adjust to absolutely everything. Thankfully the gospel always stays the same :D
Something I'm also thankful for is the district that I had in the MTC is still going strong. None of us, asside from the one who went home in the MTC, have gone home yet. All the girls are still here, and according to them, all the boys are still in Hawaii. The reason I bring that up is because one of the elders from our zone in the MTC who left to go to his mission when we left to come here is home now. I ran into him yesterday. It was kind of sad, but things work out in their own way.
Any ways, love yas lots!
Be happy n all that!!
Love
Sis. of the Durtschi of the Sarah Sort.
This week is pretty neat, even though you just heard from me on Wednesday :)
We were able to take two wonderful ladies around on Thursday. They're deaf and wanted to learn more by the end of it. My poor companion almost fell asleep because we chatted so much. At first I thought they're members, but as we chatted we got to know each other better. they asked some really great questions about the church and what we believed, and some normal questions about temple square and us as missionaries, especially since the next day we were able to take the same ladies around the Beehive house. They asked us there if all of us had to wear skirts (common question...) and we let them know that we want to look professional, so as missionaries we wear nice clothes, etc.
Something that's interesting about temple square is we have a chance to answer a lot of people's questions. Some of them make me think a lot. Even though I know the answers for myself, it forces me to think about it from their perspectives... which means that I have to find a different way to answer the same question with the same answer. I love it. Even if I don't love it at the time I'm having to think on my toes and answer it.
We met a lady today who's coming back to church. We were able to share some uplifting scriptures with her and help her feel welcome. I think those who come back are brave, because it usually means they're admitting they have been wrong and they're willing to make the changes that they need to. Change is scary a lot.
There have been a lot of things that have changed here, namely sisters and so on, but it's taking me a while to adjust to absolutely everything. Thankfully the gospel always stays the same :D
Something I'm also thankful for is the district that I had in the MTC is still going strong. None of us, asside from the one who went home in the MTC, have gone home yet. All the girls are still here, and according to them, all the boys are still in Hawaii. The reason I bring that up is because one of the elders from our zone in the MTC who left to go to his mission when we left to come here is home now. I ran into him yesterday. It was kind of sad, but things work out in their own way.
Any ways, love yas lots!
Be happy n all that!!
Love
Sis. of the Durtschi of the Sarah Sort.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Temple Square, take two
SO, yes, I'm back. And it's weird. but good.... and weird.
We have lovely shiny new computers in the Family Search center, and a shiny new gmail-ish email thing that makes it so it doesn't munch my emails, so I can safely type in the email thing, YAY! And if you didn't understand that sentence... I'm sorry. Thus is my ability to speak currently ;)
any ways. It's weird to type a letter, rather than write it. my fingers are getting ahead of each other and trying to give ya'll a bunch of typoes to play with... but I'm cleaning them up so no worries.
Any way, so as you probably know I got back to Temple sqare the wednesday before general conference. Heavenly father didn't want to give me any time to complain about my feet hurting before I was on them alllll t he time, I think.
So my last day in Washington was kind of crazy, Tuesday we went to zone conference in a different zone because President Showalter wanted me to go to one last zone conference so I could bear my testimony, which was nice. We gained a new companion that day, sister Christianson, and took her over to meet one of the families we were working on re-activating, because we had meant to see them earlier that day, but since zone conference went over (plus the exit interview with pres. Showalter) we didn't get back until an hour or two after we had wanted to go. So we attempted to take pictures. Edith was less than cooperative. At 96 she didn't really want people taking pictures of her, but we accomplished it. :D
We moved that day into a different member's home, because another sister from Temple Square, C.Martinez, took over my area. She also knows some sign language, and will help the Deaf branch out a lot! I'm excited for her. I hope all goes well there.
Wednesday I went to the airport (After repacking my bags so everything could fit.) And waited. For a long time. Sister Bailey(who flew with me to washington) came and joined me and we chattered about outbound and how fast it went and exchanged pictures and stories, but since we sat on different places on the plane, we didn't meet up again until after the flight. During the flight I sat next to a woman who lived in, basically, my area back in washington. It was fun. We talked the entire flight and enjoyed each other's company, and at the end of the flight, I asked if we could keep in contact, we exchanged info (I just gave my email since that's all I really knew... ) and then I asked if she wouldn't mind having missionaries like myself go and visit with her. She agreed. I was so excited.
Thursday we had an outbound testimony meeting at President and sister Holmes' house. It was really great to see all the sisters who came back and how they've grown.
I've noticed that I'm a lot more comfortable with people asking me challenging questions. We've had a lot of those since conference, and I've been able to answer them well, even though I still don't like them.
At the meeting, President asked us to not talk about outbound now that we're here, so that we can focus on the work here. it's kind of weird since it was part of us for months, but I've been able to use what I learned there, here. I'm more straight forward with people, and don't hide behind facts as much as I used to, I give them the facts, because that's what they want, but I also don't shy away from explaining the gospel, especially when they ask questions about it.
Friday we had a lot of miracles. At around 10:30 I got paged for us to go to the Beehive house (so something that's changed here is that our schedules are basically blank except for when we have lunch and dinner, so not all the sisters go at the same time. Especially in Extended zone, where I am. We can go wherever we want, within reason.) Because they were swamped. We stayed until lunch, took a quick lunch, then came back until dinner. I lost count of how many tours we took, but I was VERY thankful that my knees didn't give me any problems the whole day. We saw so many miracles. A deaf woman and her significant other came in and informed us that they were deaf, so I got to take the two of them on a tour, rather than a group of 20. It was nice, they wanted to learn more, so I'm excited for them.
Saturday and Sunday were crazy, but that's how conference normally is. We had a goal of 3,000 referalls from members... and we totally blew that goal out of the water with 4780. It was pretty much amazing. It doesn't feel like it was my last conference as a missionary, but I'd say we did it with a boom :D
Mon and tues, we got to sleep in... which was nice. but weird too. I'm not used to sleeping in any more... Oh and monday I found out that my friend Samantha's getting married on Friday, CRAZY! amazing the things that happen while you're on a mission!
Today we had a wonderful tour, a motorcoach of 40 english students. They all were taking english as a second language, and my companion (Sister Talines from the Philipines) and I had to speak very slowly and clearly so that everyone could understand what on earth we were talking about. Their teacher wanted them to ask questions, so we had a lot of questions. Several times it was, "How do you spell..." because they were taking notes. Other times it was, "Could you repeat..." They were very polite, and enjoyable to have. At the end they all had questions, and we enjoyed answering them, but they had to rush to their next class.
Any ways, love you all looootss and lots and lots!
Be happy n all that!
*hugs!*
Byeees for now! I'll email again on Saturday!
~sis Sarah
We have lovely shiny new computers in the Family Search center, and a shiny new gmail-ish email thing that makes it so it doesn't munch my emails, so I can safely type in the email thing, YAY! And if you didn't understand that sentence... I'm sorry. Thus is my ability to speak currently ;)
any ways. It's weird to type a letter, rather than write it. my fingers are getting ahead of each other and trying to give ya'll a bunch of typoes to play with... but I'm cleaning them up so no worries.
Any way, so as you probably know I got back to Temple sqare the wednesday before general conference. Heavenly father didn't want to give me any time to complain about my feet hurting before I was on them alllll t he time, I think.
So my last day in Washington was kind of crazy, Tuesday we went to zone conference in a different zone because President Showalter wanted me to go to one last zone conference so I could bear my testimony, which was nice. We gained a new companion that day, sister Christianson, and took her over to meet one of the families we were working on re-activating, because we had meant to see them earlier that day, but since zone conference went over (plus the exit interview with pres. Showalter) we didn't get back until an hour or two after we had wanted to go. So we attempted to take pictures. Edith was less than cooperative. At 96 she didn't really want people taking pictures of her, but we accomplished it. :D
We moved that day into a different member's home, because another sister from Temple Square, C.Martinez, took over my area. She also knows some sign language, and will help the Deaf branch out a lot! I'm excited for her. I hope all goes well there.
Wednesday I went to the airport (After repacking my bags so everything could fit.) And waited. For a long time. Sister Bailey(who flew with me to washington) came and joined me and we chattered about outbound and how fast it went and exchanged pictures and stories, but since we sat on different places on the plane, we didn't meet up again until after the flight. During the flight I sat next to a woman who lived in, basically, my area back in washington. It was fun. We talked the entire flight and enjoyed each other's company, and at the end of the flight, I asked if we could keep in contact, we exchanged info (I just gave my email since that's all I really knew... ) and then I asked if she wouldn't mind having missionaries like myself go and visit with her. She agreed. I was so excited.
Thursday we had an outbound testimony meeting at President and sister Holmes' house. It was really great to see all the sisters who came back and how they've grown.
I've noticed that I'm a lot more comfortable with people asking me challenging questions. We've had a lot of those since conference, and I've been able to answer them well, even though I still don't like them.
At the meeting, President asked us to not talk about outbound now that we're here, so that we can focus on the work here. it's kind of weird since it was part of us for months, but I've been able to use what I learned there, here. I'm more straight forward with people, and don't hide behind facts as much as I used to, I give them the facts, because that's what they want, but I also don't shy away from explaining the gospel, especially when they ask questions about it.
Friday we had a lot of miracles. At around 10:30 I got paged for us to go to the Beehive house (so something that's changed here is that our schedules are basically blank except for when we have lunch and dinner, so not all the sisters go at the same time. Especially in Extended zone, where I am. We can go wherever we want, within reason.) Because they were swamped. We stayed until lunch, took a quick lunch, then came back until dinner. I lost count of how many tours we took, but I was VERY thankful that my knees didn't give me any problems the whole day. We saw so many miracles. A deaf woman and her significant other came in and informed us that they were deaf, so I got to take the two of them on a tour, rather than a group of 20. It was nice, they wanted to learn more, so I'm excited for them.
Saturday and Sunday were crazy, but that's how conference normally is. We had a goal of 3,000 referalls from members... and we totally blew that goal out of the water with 4780. It was pretty much amazing. It doesn't feel like it was my last conference as a missionary, but I'd say we did it with a boom :D
Mon and tues, we got to sleep in... which was nice. but weird too. I'm not used to sleeping in any more... Oh and monday I found out that my friend Samantha's getting married on Friday, CRAZY! amazing the things that happen while you're on a mission!
Today we had a wonderful tour, a motorcoach of 40 english students. They all were taking english as a second language, and my companion (Sister Talines from the Philipines) and I had to speak very slowly and clearly so that everyone could understand what on earth we were talking about. Their teacher wanted them to ask questions, so we had a lot of questions. Several times it was, "How do you spell..." because they were taking notes. Other times it was, "Could you repeat..." They were very polite, and enjoyable to have. At the end they all had questions, and we enjoyed answering them, but they had to rush to their next class.
Any ways, love you all looootss and lots and lots!
Be happy n all that!
*hugs!*
Byeees for now! I'll email again on Saturday!
~sis Sarah
Email Update
Hi family type peoples! I'm just writing a short one, then I'll write a longer one :)
Any ways, My p-day is Saturday, but since General Conference was this last saturday and sunday, it got temporarily changed to Wednesday. I'll have another p-day on this coming saturday :)
Letters are also appreciated, especially since we're only supposed to be on for a short time. If you write me, I will respond in a written letter, hopefully sooner more than later :)
Love ya all!
I'll send the long letter in a bit.
~sis
Any ways, My p-day is Saturday, but since General Conference was this last saturday and sunday, it got temporarily changed to Wednesday. I'll have another p-day on this coming saturday :)
Letters are also appreciated, especially since we're only supposed to be on for a short time. If you write me, I will respond in a written letter, hopefully sooner more than later :)
Love ya all!
I'll send the long letter in a bit.
~sis
Thursday, March 25, 2010
March 22nd Letter
I only have a week & 2 days left. It’s crazy and, no, I’m not counting. Everyone keeps asking me, so of course I know :)
This week my district made a goal to have a week of excellence, which means that each companionship achieves standards that the mission President thinks missionaries can achieve (can- but with a lot of work) so we set out and worked hard.
The last few days came and the only thing sister Batkhand and I were short on were new investigators. Every person we met and talked to wasn’t interested in learning any more, or they were but had just moved into the area so had no contact information, or the father of the house said ‘no.’ Frustrating!
But the Zone Leaders and District leader companionship came to our area and tracted for use and got us 4 new investigators. We got standards and would have, as a district, gotten standards, except one companionship was short a member- present lesson. It was pretty neat.
So transfer calls were today. We’re both staying. I think the sister that will be sister Batkand’s companion when I leave will either come tomorrow (hopefully they’ll tell us to go get her before transfers…) or when I leave to go back to Temple Square… I don’t know which and neither do the zone leaders. In some ways I hope she comes now so she can get to know the area, but then again it’s a small place to live in…
Anyway… umm…
One of our investigators is golden. We met him at church and his girlfriend is a member. Her family is very supportive of both of them. We didn’t meet with him the first time we met him because things kept falling through, then he was there the next Sunday and I caught the two of them so I could talk to them at the same time.
We set up where we could meet with them (the member’s house w/ her parents) and had a great 1st lesson with a member who served his mission in Brazil, where Sam (our investigator) is from.
He speaks English fairly well, but it’s easier for him to understand in Portuguese, so the RM has been a huge help. :)
Yesterday he accepted the invitation to be baptized. It won’t be while I’m here, but I’m excited for him anyway. :)
Today will be crazy. WE have dinner with the Knowes at 5, lesson w/ Osborns at 6, deaf FHE at 7, lesson with a new investigator at 8…
Okay, not very crazy…we just had the dinner and deaf FHE because other two cancelled…oh well. We’ll meet with them later.
So, my piano practicing (plunkering…) has come in handy because one of our over 90-year old members is less active and plays the piano by ear…which is mainly what I do too. She & her son love having us over and her son has become much more active than he has in the past as a result. The Spirit plays the major roll in all of this, but it’s pretty neat. We try to sing hymns while over there to bring the spirit and now the son, Winston, wants to learn the hymns so he can participate better, which is cool. One more thing to get him interested in church. His mom knows the hymns fairly well, so we see if we can stump one another sometimes and find a song that the other doesn’t know. It’s fun overall. :)
Anyway, loss of love to you and I’ll probably be just as scattered when I write next week too…but y’all love me anyway right????
Love Sis. Durtschi
This week my district made a goal to have a week of excellence, which means that each companionship achieves standards that the mission President thinks missionaries can achieve (can- but with a lot of work) so we set out and worked hard.
The last few days came and the only thing sister Batkhand and I were short on were new investigators. Every person we met and talked to wasn’t interested in learning any more, or they were but had just moved into the area so had no contact information, or the father of the house said ‘no.’ Frustrating!
But the Zone Leaders and District leader companionship came to our area and tracted for use and got us 4 new investigators. We got standards and would have, as a district, gotten standards, except one companionship was short a member- present lesson. It was pretty neat.
So transfer calls were today. We’re both staying. I think the sister that will be sister Batkand’s companion when I leave will either come tomorrow (hopefully they’ll tell us to go get her before transfers…) or when I leave to go back to Temple Square… I don’t know which and neither do the zone leaders. In some ways I hope she comes now so she can get to know the area, but then again it’s a small place to live in…
Anyway… umm…
One of our investigators is golden. We met him at church and his girlfriend is a member. Her family is very supportive of both of them. We didn’t meet with him the first time we met him because things kept falling through, then he was there the next Sunday and I caught the two of them so I could talk to them at the same time.
We set up where we could meet with them (the member’s house w/ her parents) and had a great 1st lesson with a member who served his mission in Brazil, where Sam (our investigator) is from.
He speaks English fairly well, but it’s easier for him to understand in Portuguese, so the RM has been a huge help. :)
Yesterday he accepted the invitation to be baptized. It won’t be while I’m here, but I’m excited for him anyway. :)
Today will be crazy. WE have dinner with the Knowes at 5, lesson w/ Osborns at 6, deaf FHE at 7, lesson with a new investigator at 8…
Okay, not very crazy…we just had the dinner and deaf FHE because other two cancelled…oh well. We’ll meet with them later.
So, my piano practicing (plunkering…) has come in handy because one of our over 90-year old members is less active and plays the piano by ear…which is mainly what I do too. She & her son love having us over and her son has become much more active than he has in the past as a result. The Spirit plays the major roll in all of this, but it’s pretty neat. We try to sing hymns while over there to bring the spirit and now the son, Winston, wants to learn the hymns so he can participate better, which is cool. One more thing to get him interested in church. His mom knows the hymns fairly well, so we see if we can stump one another sometimes and find a song that the other doesn’t know. It’s fun overall. :)
Anyway, loss of love to you and I’ll probably be just as scattered when I write next week too…but y’all love me anyway right????
Love Sis. Durtschi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)