my talk went pretty well, i mostly
just elaborated on a few "how to begin teaching" points from preach
my gospel & used the examples of nephi/laman&lemuel, alma the younger,
& the sons of mosiah :) uhhh what jacob blew a tire??!? glad everyone was
safe!! haha crazy, what happened??? br y has a baptismal date for feb 16th but he still
hasn't made it out to church... sick, then didn't have anything to wear, then
sick again. :/ bummer dude. we're going out to see him on tuesday and see how
things are going! but the "good news" i guess is because of his
illness he can't drink hot drinks! haha so that makes quitting coffee easy? ;)
elder bedar -- so so so so good!!!! i used some stuff from his talk as well :)
ahhhhhh. so good. i just remember being BLOWN AWAY by that talk hahaha. go
panthers!! crush 'em ;) wow, go lauren! and trevor!! hooray for missionaries!!
we've got like 25 new missionaries this month and more are coming!!!
Aaaaaahh!!!!!! and TRANSFERS are on feb 20th!!! i'm so nervous hahaha
aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. i love that you feel like we get to have a chat once a
week! i feel that way too :) :) the fun bus is so crazy haha, it's just like a
12-seater van that we use to go to zone stuff so that we don't all drive our
cars and use up our miles. i'll send you a picture of ammon with a sombrero
haha. zone conference was milwaukee north & milwaukee south zones. there's
also green bay zone, appleton zone, and madison zone :) i'm in milwaukee south.
i'll send you the picture we took of the zone! see if you can spy me ;) haha
not too hard (i hope! ;)) and i'll send you a picture from his baptism!!! so
great hahaha, none of the jumpsuits fit him except for a (literally) XXXXXL
one! so he looks kind of gangster hahahaha. we asked him how he was feeling
before the baptism and he goes "i feeeeeeel goood!" (james brown
style) hahahaha. he says, "i may be old, but i'm still funky!"
hahahahahhaha.
i love that the Elder's Quorum is
going out and getting people! we have such a great ward :) :) & way to go
nathan, going out with the missionaries! yeah we get to go to the temple if we
can get a member to take us and it's not more than 2 hours away and not more
than once every 6 months. so sister casdorph and i are gonna try to go in
february! cause i just can't get enough!! haha aaahhh. http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/ces-devotionals/2013/01?lang=eng ta-da! CES devotionals. DEFINITELY read president uchtdorf's and
tell me what you think!!!! i wish i could print it all out haha. speaking of
which, i didn't get a paper letter last week... which is okay, just fyi. maybe
it's delayed. :) i don't know where to find the mtc devotionals but definitely
worth the hunt if you can find them!!!! so so so so SO good!! i LOVED the MTC,
it's like missionary summer camp!! with apostles!! haha just SUCH a great
place, i'm so excited for nathan and jacob and joseph and maryanne and julia to
all go there :) :) yeah Sister H is great! and something that was cool - we
invited her to read Mosiah 18 as her "homework" one night, and when
we came back to talk about it she said different verses had stood out and we
talked about why, and one that was interesting to me was she said that verse 28
stood out because it talked about "imparting of your substance of your own
free will" and she took that to mean quitting her addictions of her own
free will! like her substance abuse. which i thought was so interesting. that's
not the "right" way to interpret that verse, but it was the right way
for her! and the Spirit spoke to her and let her know what she needs to do :)
haha YEAH the paper towel totally froze in my hand!! so so so so cold haha but
it's warmer today. might even be above freezing out there haha ;) wow so
exciting for the everett mission too!! i was thinking - all these new
missionaries means a ton of new AREAS! so nathan & i will probably get to
open new areas as part of our missions - which kind of scares me!! hahaha but
it's part of the Lord hastening His work. so it's exciting! and scary! haha :)
speaking of everett washington, can you ask the missionaries what their
standards of excellence are, if they have them? i'm really curious :) :) i want
to see Snohomish from a missionary pov! haha :)
the baptism went excellent, sister
casdorph said it was the most spiritual baptism of her whole mission and elder
kanahele said the interview was the most spiritual he'd ever had. so that was
crazy haha. it was really really awesome :) oh thanks for the reminder! yes
member lessons have been great, we've been trying to do some role-play with
members, helping them to practice just like we practice every morning. and we taught
a great family, the d's, the plan of salvation using pillows haha. they have 3
little****, i think 9 6 and 2? something like that. so we set out pillows and i
stood with the 3 **** on each one and we talked about pre-earth life and who we
lived with, earth life & why we're here, the spirit world, then the
celestial kingdom! "think of the happiest you've ever been" "my
baptism!" says b, the 9 year old :) ***s really bright, knew all the
answers, so great :) then we took away all the pillows except for "earth
life" and talked about how so many people don't have all the 'pillows'!
they don't know anything except earth life. so how can we help them know the
whole picture? "give them a Book of Mormon!" says B. so we gave a copy & let practice giving it to someone. "This is a
Book of Mormon. I would like you to have it." & it really is that
simple!! & then dad asked her to
pick a favourite verse so could make it
more personal, which i thought was a great idea. *** likes 2 nephi 2:25 :)
anyways that was really fun. :)
.
wow wait WHAT julia went to new
beginnings??!?!?!?!?!? WHAT THE WHAT THE WHAT. our new beginnings is this
wednesday, the whole ward is invited so we're trying to get sister h a ride! :)
so cool. & Sister D came to church yesterday!! even though S was sick so
she had the perfect excuse not to come!! she really wanted to be there and so
she made it happen. :) :) & church was ALL about families, so she asked us
"what's family home evening?" so we're having home evening with her
family tonight! hooray! :) :) so so fun.
haha i love bro night! fun, was the Hobbit good?
that is nice of BYU friends to pick him
up. so hard to say goodbye!! but it's good. it's where we need to be. NATHAN -
be sure to write in your journal how you know this is where you need to be
& when. satan likes to make you doubt that! don't you let him :)
i'm glad the kringle was good!!! i
was really really worried about it hahaha. & feel free to look through
those things if you want, they don't do me any good in storage haha so you can
just have them :) i'm glad you liked the kringle! packages are just really fun
i think :) a little piece of wisconsin in your home! sent with tons and tons of
love!! hey cool that nathan got to talk to j about that stuff. missions are
awesome and they are unique! for a reason i think :) Br R - so funny haha - the
more he learns about missionaries the more he's like, "Wow. Double
wow!" like that we pay our own way and we don't go to school for this
stuff haha. it's fun :) yeah yeah sealings!! that seriously has had probably
the GREATEST impact on me, of everything that we did in the temple. probably
the greatest was proxy sealings to you & dad. that's why i'm out here!!
& i'm SO SO SO SO grateful that our family is together forever! what love
Heavenly Father has for us! ps -- watch the new mormon message "earthly
father, heavenly father" -- so so good :) & hooray for a baptism! so
nice of you all to fast for us, it means a lot :) you are the best best best!
the scriptures are wonderful! preach my gospel is the greatest! aaaaah what
love our Heavenly Father has for us :) :) :) i do love being a missionary, and
Elder Holland is great :) hooray for Apostles!! you're right mom -- why would
we want to go back?? Go forwards and not backwards. Courage, brethren, and on!
on to the victory!! :) :)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
- seriously. you have no idea how
much these people LOVE the green bay packers. sometimes i play a game called
"how many people in this room are wearing packers gear" and when we
went to culvers once it was 5. and this wasn't even on a game day! haha.
packers & cheese, packers & cheese, i'm a little wisconsinite who loves
packers and cheeeeeeseee! ;) ! that's cool you went to a church. i feel the
same way when i go to other churchs - it's great but i just feel like stuff is
MISSING. i love it and i definitely feel the Spirit, i just wish they had ALL
of it, ya know? thank goodness for the Restoration! & what's SO COOL about
the Restoration is it's Jesus Christ restoring the Way for ALL of us to have
FULL access to His Atonement. Think about it -- during the great apostasy, NO
ONE was taking full advantage of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!!!!! can you
imagine???? just think about how incredible that makes the first vision -- AT
LAST Jesus Christ was able to restore the FULLNESS of His Gospel so that we
could take FULL advantage of His Atonement!!!! it's all about getting closer to
Him :) aaaah so good. :) :)
i LOVE the new youth curriculum and
i'm glad you do too!! i'm kinda jealous haha!! it's so so awesome. definitely,
God promises us over & over that if we open our mouths they will be filled!
we just gotta use our AGENCY and show FAITH so that He can bless us! :) :) you
can do it!!
also i LOVE that scene from Lion King!! what a
great insight!! love love love it. also this http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001
mormon message is super super great, methinks :) hahaha you're just going crazy
with the Lion King analogy!! i love it!! ps -- i had to stop myself from being
like "THIS IS JUST LIKE LOTR" one time when we were reading the Book
of Mormon with a less-active sister :) (alma 46)
also, definitely yes God can reach
us ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE :) hooray, infinite Atonement!!! :) :) love it.
anyways i love you! i'm glad you
like my letters haha. YOU da best! love love -- xoxoxox
nathan - how did your talk go? send
me your notes! :)
i loved the hymns too!! even though i had to
conduct and i can't sing very high!! hahaha but aren't they SO so great?? what
a happy day of joy and gladness :) :) also one time sister casdorph and i
decided to sing our hymn of the day as low as we could ("love at home")
and we barely made it through we were laughing so hard hahaha. so basically,
that's the fun life of a missionary hahah ;) i am loving Wisconsin! and here's
the next letter you wanted haha ;) ps i'm glad you're excited for the raspberry
kringle! i hope you like it! we had pecan kringle and apple kringle for
Christmas (they're HUGE here... like super huge. what?? i'd never even heard of
them!! haha) but i didn't think you'd like those kinds. and at the baptism we
had cinnamon roll kringle! but i didn't even know that kind existed when i went
to the bakery haha. anyways i hope you enjoy it!! let me know! and just lie if
you don't! haha just kidding ;) if i could send you all some frozen custard i
would!! YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM. :) :) ps -- if you ever get to go to culvers (i
think there's one in utah??) GO and get a kids meal and then send me your
scoopie token. i'm collecting them to win a free scoop of custard ;) haha well
anyways. i love you! :)
yeah it is pretty cold here haha. below 0 is
funny, you go outside and you're like psshh it's not that cold, i'm fine.....
then about 20 seconds later everything is numb and you have a brain freeze just
from breathing in the air hahahaha. but it's warm now! well like 20 degrees ;)
haha. it goes back and forth, below 0 and then above, which gets pretty crazy.
that sounds super cool about the trees dripping! wow :) i'm glad you liked the
kringle!!! i'm glad it made it to you safely hahaha. i'll send you another one
when i can even though it costs like $20 to ship stuff haha it's worth it ;)
haha i know my letters are sooooooOOOOOOOO long!! i can't help it!! oh well
haha. i love love love you!!!!!!! you the bestest :) :) xoxoxoxoxo
oh whoops i forgot to say MY stuff!
haha whoopsie. well i already said a lot of it in the replies but here's my
Book of Mormon sharing contribution!
1 Ne 15:14 - so basically for a
while now i've been kind of frustrated with the phrase "come unto
Christ," like we all know we're supposed to do it but HOW??? it's not like
i can just get on a plane to albuqurque and "come unto Him" in that
way! if i could, i would. but that's not the way. so what IS the way we
"Come unto Christ?" WELL shocker shocker, it's in the Book of Mormon.
live the gospel!!!! & what is the gospel??? faith. repentance. baptism.
recieveing the gift of the Holy Ghost. enduring to the end!!! ahh so so good.
so basically the point of the Book of Mormon is so that people everywhere can "know
and dcome... to the eknowledge of the gospel of their Redeemer... and
the very points of his doctrine, that they may know how to come unto him and be
saved." !!!!!!!! so basically, everyone should read the Book of Mormon.
amen, the end. :) :)
1 Ne 13:36 / 3 Ne 11:39 / Hel 5:21
-- How do we build upon the Rock?
What is the gospel? (PMG ch 1!)
PMG page 2. last paragraph. uh,
WHAT? so so so so good!!!!! how did i never see this before. what the what the
what. read it. love it. live it. also, the first sentence on page 6. seriously,
how has preach my gospel been around for like 8 years and i'm JUST NOW seeing
all this great stuff????? what what WHAT have i been doing with my life!! :) :)
THE RESTORATION OF THE GOSPEL OF
JESUS CHRIST. basically, what happened is this. Jesus Christ came and taught
His perfect Gospel & performed His perfect Atonement. [the gospel = the
doctrine of Christ = the way we access the Atonement.] then, we lost it.
priesthood athority, lost. true doctrines & principles? warped. &
without authority, ordinances & covenants? gone. :( :( so during this great
apostasy, NO ONE was taking full advantage of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. no
one. !!!!!!!!!! what the!!!!! can you even imagine how Jesus Christ felt?
people still knew truths, and they still wanted to live His Gospel, but the
fullness was NOT upon the earth!! (amos 8:11-12) what darkness :( this went on
for 1800 years!! enter joseph smith. a 14 year old boy with a question, and
faith, and a prayer. in a little grove of trees in upstate New York. through
him, Jesus Chirst restored the FULLNESS of His Gospel so that we could have
FULL access to His Atonement!! He wants us to be even closer to Him ("just
a closer walk with Thee"). He wants us to use His Atonement every single
day. don't let Christ's sacrifice go to waste! use the Atonement every day.
exercise faith. repent (change). make & keep sacred covenants. live worthy
of the Holy Ghost. Come to know Him more through studying His sacred Word :) :)
how. seriously. awesome. :) :) :) :) :) it's hard to explain over email haha
but you can just imagine that with lots of hand gestures & yelling ;)
that's how i do missionary work! hahaha.
also, i dare you to spend ONE day
driving exactly the speed limit. i dare you. and then tell me what gospel
lessons we can learn from that haha. seriously. do it and then tell me :)
ps i think i do want one of those
little PMGs, if you can send one to me? :) also..... music. GOOD music haha. is
there a way for you to send me my efy cd or something? we listen to cds in the
car and ipods in the apartment. we only have 1 good cd, and it is pretty good
("nearer," from shadow mountain) but it's the only one we have
hahaha. HEY one of the Zone Leaders just handed me the efy 2013 cd!! awesome!!
:) :)
funnies:
sister casdorph introducing me as
her new "partner" hahahahaha
someone at the thrift stop saying
(loudly): "i don't say it "potpourri," i say "POT UH
PURRY"!" hahahah ohhh wisconsinites.... :)
ANYWAYS. i love you all so
much!!!!!!!!!!! big huggggg, little kiiiiiiiisss :) :)
xoxoxoxoxoxox
sister cece :) :)
xox
also i did
the math and there are about as many days in my mission as there are pages in
the Book of Mormon. i'm in the "2nd nephi 9" of my mission ;)
