Monday, July 1, 2013

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!! :)

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