ATTENTION, EVERYONE {robin hood crocodile voice}

this week was another great week! it went by so fast! but also felt so long? haha basically the story of my whole mission ;)
so first of all, an assignment/challenge/idea for you! in preach my gospel, pp176-77, there are 10 "how to begin teaching" bullet points. the assignment/challenge/idea is to pick one and journal about how you've seen that truth in your own life :) and thennnnnnn to tell me about it! haha we talked about those last district meeting and they're cool :) also you can mold them to fit any situation. so they're perfect and true :)
so these are the facts:
1. this week {mondaytuesday&wednesdaymostly} was deathly hot. in the 90s. 5 million % humidity. and by that i mean i think it was actually in the 70s%. it felt like i was swimming.
2. my glasses fogged up. this is how hot & humid it was. THEY FOGGED UP;. i thought that a cloud was in the car with us. i have never been so wet.
3. there was an unsafe heat weather advisory not to go outside. That we didn't find out about until after.........
4. i walked 6 miles in this weather. 6. miles. MISSIONARY WORK, i tell ya! i was on exchanges in sturgeon bay with cute sister eden. it was great. and hot. and wet. and hot. and hot. and hot. i drank water.
5. bugs were sticking to sister ericksons arms. sticking to them. it was wet.
6. I GOT A FREE CHERRY PIE. let me repeat, a free cherry pie. this is perfect the highlight of my week, if not my entire life. this is how it went down: door county (where sturgeon bay is) is famous (apparently) for its cherries & cherry pies. so, obviously, i wanted one. During dinner in sturgeon, we went on the hunt. we located a bakery, it looked like they were closed, but there were people so we decided to go talk to them because that is what we do. and it turned out that yes the bakery was closed but they swore it was the best cherry pie in
door county and that getting any other pie would be doing myself a disservice. what a dilemma! so one guy went to get the owner while we chatted up the other guy and told him who we were and what we were doing :) THEN THE OWNER COMES OUT WITH A FROZEN CHERRY PIE. "how much do we owe you?" "psshhh. just come back here for breakfast sometime." and then he flees back into the store. leaving me. with a free.
frozen. door county cherry pie. yes this was the most exciting part of my week hahaha i hope you enjoyed reading that whole entire long story :) :) :) :): )
7. the pie was delicious :)
OTHER great things of the week................ a surprise wedding! My second hmong wedding, and i got to play the piano again! hooray! :) :) it was sooo cute :) bai is amazing, and i just love her. also elder schvanaveldt LOVES weddings and relift society. this is another fact.
and after the wedding we got to teach the m**** and cute miss b*** is progressing so much and feeling the spirit and loving it :) so cute! i just love her & her whole family!! :) :) they listen to the book of mormon every night on their ipad as they fall asleep :)
then THURSDAY we got to go to CAMP!! and i LOOOOOOOVE girls camp!! It made me want to go so so bad!!!! i love girls camp!! so fun!! we just went for testimony meeting and it was so so so so good :) and they
looooooooooooooooooove sister missionaries at girls camp hahaha we were like celebrities.............. seriously. so funny hahaha so cute!!!! LOVE girls camp & girls campers!! :) :)
and thaaaaaattttt was pretty much the week i think! just teachin lessons, meeting people, working with the ward, getting pumped for our un-titled ysa bonfire next sunday.... should be great!!

love you family!!! you are the greatest & i love you so so much :) :) :) :) :) hope you had a great week!! email me soon & tell me allllll about it :)


love, love, love   sister cece proffit :)

i'll think of a title later maybe :)

hello family! it's been another crazy busy speedy fast week!! and I wasn't even in my area for half the time! haha :)

updates on friends: sister m and her kids came to the church tour on monday! hurrah!! :) :) alsoooo n & m & h were there and they were all 3 at church and n & m are at girls camp right NOW :) yay!!! :) :) :) alsoooooo their mom wants to come to church! we brought sister r, who is awesome, to come with us to explain to her what girls camp is and to basically help us convince her to let the girls go hahaha and it worked!! they're there right now!! hurrah! i love girls camp!! :) :) :) sister r has also b & o to church every sunday since she found out they knew her daughter and basically she is just awesome :) alsoooo we {finally!} were able to teach j again and i just love her :) aaaaand we had zone training meeting, which was fun..... the elderzz just always make me laugh hahahaha they're just so good and trying to hard to be good and i just love 'em :) :)

speaking of things i love......... MARQUETTE MICHIGAN. it is like a magical land up dere, i tell yah. Caleb condie i thought of you & your michigan pride! up in da UP eh it is a wonderful place!! i met such great people! and funny people! with beards! and also a guy who looks like chad michael murray / heath ledger. yes, this is true.  side note about marquette: we carpool up with the zone leaders & the marinette elders, and on the way up we were talking about weight lifting....... yes, this is something i am an expert in............ but i was saying how my brother is like a champion weight lifter and elder palmer (who is from a literal FARM FARM in oregon) was talking about how he used to go out in the field and throw some weight around....... and from the back of the mini van (yes the zone leaders drive a mini van) comes elder lebaron's voice....... "i'll never be able to protect my woman :(" hahahahahahahahahaha i looooostttttt it hahahahhahahahaha sister erickson and i were CRYING laughing so hard hahahahahahhaaha. you have to know him........... all i can say is he loves lord of the rings and would fit right into the movies. so well. poor elder lebaron hahahah you'll be able to protect your woman! don't fret hahhah. i hope he never reads this. elder lebaron, you made my day hahahahaha :) :) :) such good elders.

anyways, the UP is a great place to be. it is BEAUTIFUL. oh wait, I think i have a picture! i'll try to attach it :) lake superior is definitely superior to lake michigan haha. also it's not as HOT up there (i am dying in green bay.) and the people are just amazing. We met bro graham..... look him up on mormon.org. http://mormon.org/me/9YTB/BroGraham. he plays in a band called "sparrow tree" or something and has a song called Zarahemla. yes, he is great. also he told me to look up a band called "langhorn slim" [I told him i liked his music] and so this is my reminder to myself to do so next april :)

speaking of april, how weird is that. so weird. anyways...

marquette is beautiful and the people are great :) :) also they have the world's greatest children's museum.

we've had some great lessons this week, trying to use art & music more & it's been great!! :) :) i just loove the Book of Mormon & the Spirit & how music & art can help people to feel the Spirit more :) :) :) sister erickson has that picture book, Another Testament? from mark mabry? it is great :) :)

yesterday we texted the entire world of YSA's and now we are waiting to hear back! well a couple of them have already said "GO AWAY" Hahaha but whatever! we texted like 100 people in the time it would've taken to knock like 5 doors so success = yes :) :)

also i love girls camp. i wish i was going every day. we might get to ride up thursday night for testimony and to see n & m!!!! :) :) and yesterday we got a referral from an 11 year old girl... she wants us to teach her friend and she wants to come with us. and we didn't even ask and neither did her parents. her name is o and she is awesome :) :)

and that was the week! it was a great one! 3 people came to church, hoorah!! :) :) missionary work is the best! it is stressful sometimes! perhaps a great majority of the time! but there is so much to learn! and do! and become!! :) :) i love it! even when i feel like i can never ever do it and i am the worst! which happens a lot haha Heavenly Father just seessoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more in me than i see in myself and it is overwhelming at times!! but i just have to rise a little bit and try a little harder to be a litte better!! how grateful i am (general conference tense) for a Savior who Atoned for me, who makes it possible for me to REPENT and become better day by day as I rely on Him :) :) :) I just LOOOOOOOOOVE Him and I love you!! I'm grateful that He has made it possible for us to be together Eternally!!! also I love temples!!!!! everyone needs to go to one as often as possible!! worship there and feel His Spirit :) :):)

mission prep tip of the week: learn to recieve answers & revelation from the scriptures, not just to read them :) i know this will happen as you live what you learn! i'm so grateful for the scriptures and for you!!

love, love, love, love, love    your favorite wisconsin sister :) :)  xoxo

OH AND THIS AMAZING QUESTION from a lesson taught by a less-active ysa in marquette :) "What is your example telling others about your relationship with Heavenly Father?" :) :) :) :) :) perfection. ponder it :) love you!!!!

ahhhhh and remember how in appleton we would play music with the elders? well aparently elder smith sent some videos home and his mom put them on youtube........ try searching "usumicsmi nephi's courage"??? hahaha hopefully that works!!!!!!! :) :) :)

hola familia!

i have titled this email thus because we just got back from the mexican store. and i wish i spoke mexican :)

SOOOOOO this week was pretty fatastic! we played prophets charades with this cute mexican family... it's pretty funny when all the kids know about the stories is what you just told them hahaha i***** did a gigantic belly flop for hers..... any guesses?? no??? OBVIOUSLY it's Jonah being spit out of the whale! hahahaha she kills me :) :) AND the mother is less-active, so we've been going over there and just teaching little lessons to the kids, trying to bring the spirit, teaching them to sing the primary songs so the spirit can stay even after we leave.... and we've been going over there weekly since we got here, we found this family our first real day in green bay where we just walked around in the sun for hours. and. last tuesday. Sister m totally opened up and talked about how she believes in God and Jesus and the church and all that but she maybe doesn't feel it as much as we do? so we talked about that and helped her find the gospel library app for her phone and she was like "so where should i start? the book of mormon?" and we were like "hmmm yeah that might be good..." playing it all casual haha we were SO EXCITED!!!!!!! and then b**** and o**** came to the 4th of july picnic and bella was like "you know that app you put on my mom's phone? she's been on it every time she has a free minute at work and at home!" !!!!!!!!!! so that is p r e t t y darn exciting. totally worth walking around in the sun for 9 hours :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

also m****, our 13 year old investigator (n's sister!) is toooottally reading the book of mormon and loving it too :) :) hooray!! and we just saw their family today and finally met the mom and she's going to let the girls come to girls camp!!! hooray!!!!!! and the ward is so excited about it!! and the mom wants to come to church on sunday! hoorah!! now i just need to learn to speak hmong........... haha :) :)

other fun facts from the week: there is a sister in the ward who has had season packer tickets in the family since 1936. this is a true fact.

we alsooooooo had meet the president! and I love the Cutlers!! so so so so much :) :) :) :) :) love them. they have a huge focus on families, rescue work, and the book of mormon and i love it. they are  great teachers and leaders and i'm just so excited for the next 10 months with them!! (ps can you believe i've almost been out 8 months????????????????????????!!!) this cute senior couple bore their testimony (ps i love senior missionaries!!!!!!!) and they said the coolest, simplest thing... do you want to be closer to God? read the Book of Mormon :) kind of a neat challenge! so basic & true! :)

OH THIS ONE IS SO GOOD. attention everyone. l l, our investigator from chicago who is finna come to church, has written a rap. About what, you might ask? ABOUT ALMA THE YOUNGER. and it. is so. legit. we read it with her and then she made up a RAP on the spot about how she can relate to him and all this. it is soooooo cooooooool hahahah i'll have to make a copy of the words for you. it was so fun. i love it hahahahahahaha.

so on FRIDAY was mission leadership council, which is awesome, it's seriously so fun & cool & i just love president & sister cutler :) we carpool down with the gb & appleton zone leaders, who are great, and then we meet with all the zone leaders & sister training leaders & the assistants & president & sister cutler. and then we talk about the needs of the mission and how we can lift the mission! and it's wonderful! president cutler has SUCH a clear vision for this mission and is also really good at listening to our ideas and helping us council with each other :)he said over and over things like "teaching less-active members will help you find new investigators, but more importantly it will help you bring people back." and "it's just as important to bring someone back as it is to baptize. they have friends. we will have so many people to teach." and he kept over & over mentioning the book of mormon! it was the perfect answer to like every question hahaha when we talked about how we're struggling with progressing investigators & investigators at church, he would ask "how do you think it would make a difference if they were invited to study the book of mormon?" and we're all like uhhh that sounds good.... and then he would BOOM throw out an awesome promise - if we invite everyone to begin a serious study of the Book of Mormon, our issues with progressing investigators and sacrament meeting attendance will change dramatically. the Book of Mormon will bring repentance and will change our mission. they will WANT to come to sacrament meeting." !!! so we're all like, okay! let's do it! let's make this happen! hooray! :) :) :) and it just is really FUN! the spirit was so present and i loved it :) :) :) he also wants us to get a list of YSA's and just start texting them! he's like "you can text 100 people in the time it takes you to knock on 10 doors so......." :) :) :) also, wausau stake has a cool program called "flood the stake with the Book of Mormon," and part of it is inviting every recent convert to give a friend a Book of Mormon. and guess what? Wausau stake has 100% retention. i wish i could put numbers in all-caps. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. that is unheard of!!!!!!! and i know it's because of the Book of Mormon :) :) :) :) :) so that's awesome. also we've been going out with members to do some rescue work and it is legit! yesterday we had 4 lessons in 3 hours! miracles! :) :) :)  so basically, things are great.

scripture of the week: hebrews 13:16. because sometimes i'm really bad at communicating hahaha. :) :) also, from the cutlers: where did laman & lemuel get their joy? from their stuff. and they chose to be miserable without it. where did nephi get his joy? from the Lord :) who do you look to for approval? when we feel the Holy Ghost, we feel God's approval :) and when we read the Book of Mormon, we feel the Spirit!! :) :) :)

so that was the week! oh and we are planning the most legit ysa-rescue-work-shindig OF ALL TIME. i am seriously sooooooooooooooooooooo excited. we're calling it "bonfire" because the e***, j***, and i all agree that titles make it lame. sister erickson disagreed and wanted to call it "s'more spirit" but we outnumbered her hahahahaha. [note: that is a cute title. but perhaps not fitting for our target audience hahah] :) :) :) anyways the e***' have a seriously legit like loft-thingy and little cabin with a sweet backyard and a fire pit so we are having a bonfire shindig and everybody is going to come. booya. and we even got a budget for it. yes. this will be fantastic. i know it. i'm stoked :) :) july 28th! i'll let you know how it goes! :) :) we invited j*** because, by her own admittance, she doesn't like YSA things because they are lame. so she is our official lame-o-meter to help us make this osmething that people will actually want to come to :)

i hope you've had a fantastic week family!! i'm glad wyoming was fun!! you are the best & i love you :) :) :) i love being a missionary!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) 

love,  sister cece proffit :)  xoxoxoxoxox

request: can i have a little primary songbook? it would be soooo useful. jacob, bring one on your mission :) where will you go???????? when can you submit your papers?????????? :) :) :) :) :)

happy july! :)

SO this week has been a lotttttttttttt better hahaha :) and have I mentioned that the Green Bay *** ward is amazing??????????????? because they ARE :) :) :) last sunday we passed around a little hand-drawn calendar and were like "hey if you want to come out with us write down your name on a day and we'll call you" and it came back FULL. these sisters are incredible :) :) and they are all my best friends. i never want to leave them ever. the m's are moving at the end of the month and i'm SO sad about it....... she was baptized in college and served a mission in italy and she's a philosophy professor and she's AWESOME. she came out with us on tuesday for FIVE HOURS haha we didn't even realize how much time had gone by!!! we taught some lessons, tried to contact some people, did some street contacting and she just testified so straight up "i know that you're a son of God and that He wants you to be happy" and basically she's just amazing, then she took us to get the most delicious lunch ever, and then she introduced us to her neighbor friends that they've been having scripture study with for the past few weeks. aaaaaaaand everything is great and i love her. also we were looking for this referral (just sis erickson and i, sis m wasn't there) and couldn't find it and couldn't find it haha (the elders gave us the wrong street.......... that's okay! haha) but we were wandering around and it was like 9009283940 degrees (okay it wasn't thaaaaaaaaaaatt bad but it was hot) and TWO members drove past and were like "Heyyyyyy sisters!!! need a ride?????" and you probably don't realize how much of a miracle that is haha but i have only ONCE before on my mission met a member on accident, and that was at walmart in appleton. so it was cool. we didn't need a ride but it was just really nice of them, and the hones even helped us find the address :) :) :) soooooooo i love them. :) also i love the m. brother m is the WML and sister m is the RSP........ yeah. crazy haha. And they have 4 little daughters who are SO cute and always give us hugs.... they're like 9 7 4 and 2. or something. i just guessed haha. but they're super awesome. and hilarious. and they love each other. and they do so much to help this ward. it's incredible. the saints in wisconsin are the best, y'all!!

i re-read my mission call letter this week and just remember how when i read that i had NO IDEA what i was getting myself into.... i had no idea how much i would come to LOVE the state of wisconsin and the good
wonderful amazing beautiful saints here and the other missionaries I serve with and just EVERYTHING about being a missionary. i had. No idea. i still don't have any idea. but it's just really cool. :) and i
love it here :)(can you believe it's been almost a year since i got my call? WHAT.) :)

aaaaaaanyways, the saints here are amazing. and i use the word "Saints" intentionally :) :) we've taught some fun lessons this week, some of the most spiritual of my time in Green Bay, and STILL no one has made it to church haha we're going crazy.................................. we might just have to get creative hahaha but it will all work out!!! anyways sister erickson is really good at thinking of lesson ideas and so we've had some fun...
something i've been realizing is that in missionary work, finding and teaching, you have to play to your strengths. God gave them to you for a reason! so one of our new favourite things to do is to sing in
lessons. we teach this family with all these crazy kids.......actually just two 7 year olds and a 2 year old haha but it feels crazy sometimes!! so for our last lesson we sang "joseph smith's first prayer" (to the tune of "come thou fount" because that's easier......):) and just had them write/color whatever they heard or thought about,
 and then they shared what they had made and it was really cool! They were quiet and you could tell they felt the Spirit! even the mom did :) so it was fun! and then they put the pictures up by their beds to remind them to pray :) and we adapted it for these other girls we're teaching, they're 13 11 and 18 and so we sang again and they made little bookmarks to put in their book of mormons :) it was fun AND the Spirit was there... hooray! :) :)

ALSO (and this is cool) we're teaching this way cool girl named L.... she is from chicago. like, FROM chicago. And sometimes...... i cannot understand what she says haha. she's african-american and FROM the ghetto of chicago. she is teaching me the ways of being cool and i am teaching her the gospel. it's a good
trade ;) haha. no but she says this word, "finna", and i was like whaaaaaaaaaaatttttt are you saying????? "FINNA". it's short for "fixing to." which is short for......? i don't know what haha. but you use it like "i was finna go outside" or something. or "i was finna beat him up" in her case hahahahaha. she is awesome. and after a while i totally start to understand. if that's not the gift of tounges I don't know what is ;) haha. anyways she is legit and we brought our friends the Es' with us (ANOTHER amazing couple!!!) and now they're like her best friends hahahaha :) :) also she always tells us to bring snacks. so a lot of our lessons are food object lessons hahaha. BUT ANYWAYS here is the awesome part. we get to talking to her and she says she believes in God but she doesn't understand how someone she doesn't even know would come and die for her. she says she's had some experience in the world and no one would even give you a dollar, let alone give their life for you. WOAH. so we got to straight up just teach and testify of Christ which is MY FAVORITE THING EVER. it was SO COOL. and brother e was teaching and explaining about how the Atonement gives him strength to become better etc etc and she just had the BIGGEST GRIN ON HER FACE and afterward she was like "while you were talking i just thought, if he can do it i can do it" and even though she's had a WAY different life and has way different challenges, it was just cool. so now they are like best friends forever hahaha. she is legit. up top. thumbs up. yaknowhatimsayin? haha. it's fun :)

in other news........ hm. i met a man from texas! he called me ma'am :) alsooooooo while we were at the restore we called a member to ask if he could come with us to a lesson, he said he had work but "i've
been meaning to call you guys...... my neighbors are coming to church on sunday and they want to learn about the gospel, so we can set up a time for you to come teach them at my house if you want" uhhhhhhhhh whattttttt??????????????? hahahahhahaah AWESOME. soooo cooooool!! And that's just how this ward is, that's how the saints in wisconsin ARE! they just WANT to share the Gospel -- they are so motivated by their
LOVE of God and their love for their friends, and it is amazing and I love them :) :) and i have so many other best friends here that I could tell you all about but i guess that'll probably come up later :)

other fun lessons we've been teaching....... the gospel of Jesus Christ with a tide-to-go stick. sis erickson gets a stain on her white skirt. how does it feel to have dirty clothes? tide to go stick = Atonement. faith = knowing that it works enough to USE it :) repentance = scrubbing the stain out. baptism/sacrament = the washing
machine. the gift of the holy ghost = scotch guard. and it warns you when there is a big drip of spaghetti sauce about to fall on your lap!!! & helps you become better :) enduring to the end = doing it over & over until we stand before our Heavenly Father in totally clean white clothes :) :) :)

also sister erickson has a pretty good sports analogy for the plan of salvation........ it's fun :) we're teaching a baseball player so pre-earth life = practices before the game, the dugout. earth life = you're up to bat, etc. baptism is like hitting a home run. haha fun stuff like that :) :) And then the goal is to get HOME....... get it?????? hahaha :) :) i just love the gospel and i know that it's true! :)

scriptures of the week:
Alma 2:28 -- they prayed to be DELIVERED.... the Lord chose to STRENGTHEN them :) :)
2 Cor. 13:14 because i like it :)

I love you all!!!!! So so so so much :) :) :) You are the best examples to me, and I just love you :) amen, amen, & amen :) :) love, love, love

sister cece proffit :) :)

and yes new mission president is here! meeting him wednesday! mission leadership council friday! oh boy oh boy!! :)