Hello, hello family!
I'm a bit short on time today, but I just wanted to tell you a few fun and exciting things from this week:
1. A VISIT FROM ELDER MALM. This was actually from last week, but I hadn't told you about it yet. Elder Malm, from the Quorum of the Seventy came and visited our mission, and it was SO amazing! He reminded us that we should NEVER expect someone to say no--they all said yes to this plan once, and there's a part of everyone that wants to say yes again. There were lots of other wonderful things we talked about, but it'd take all day to write. You can just trust that it was FANTASTIC!
2. TRANSFER MEETING! I got to see 4 of my favorite people at transfer meeting this week:
a) The wonderful Doenice Chavez,
b) Sister Kayla Cox,
c) Hermana Proctor (man, I love her) and,
d) JONATHAN!! In case you don't remember, John is one of my favorite investigators from Camarillo, whom I just adore. AND he came to transfers with news...HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!! Apparently, he just walked right up to the sisters after we left, and said, "I've decided to be baptized...on THIS day (Sorry, I forget which day it is...:). And since then, he's been working toward it! It'll be interesting to see though--the Camarillo Sisters were just replaced with Elders...and John doesn't take too kindly to them. But, LUCKILY, he's converted to the gospel, not the missionaries. He'll be okay. :)
3. I HAVE A NEW COMPANION!! Sister Platt is in Ventura 2nd ward now, and I'm serving with Sister Cox (not the same one that trained me :). She is from Mapleton, UT, and has been serving for about a year now. She is SO great. She has such a powerful testimony, and brings the spirit so strongly when she teaches. We've definitely seen miracles this week.
4. TARANTULA SEASON. So...Sister Cox and I were driving down the road by the church, when we saw something sitting in the middle of the street: I might add, something big enough for us to not only see from down the street, but to stop, and say...what in the world is that?! We seriously though it was a small animal, so we tried driving around it...NOPE. IT WAS A SPIDER. Apparently, this is their time of year, and they are all over the place. They are horrifying...but it's okay, because we have faith that God will protect His missionaries. Still, SO gross.
5. THE WORK IS PROGRESSING. Things are going great here with our investigators. We had an AWESOME lesson with Euell this week, and we were finally able to find out why he wouldn't commit to baptism. We're working right now on helping him overcome it, but he is SO close, and has so much potential. I have no doubt in my mind that he will get there, even if it takes a little while. :) We FINALLY helped Lenore fix her cupboards this week (who knew I could be handy?!), and she was so darn happy. Now that they're fixed, we've painted them...and next week, we're going back to paint flowers on them. :) Beside our handywork, she's also reading the Book of Mormon. It makes absolute and complete sense to her--it's so neat! She's another, that I have not doubt, will get there. I love that lady, and she's on my list of people to come back and visit. :)
6. EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING THIS WEEK! At the transfer, we actually go put into the Santa Barbara district, which means no more of our fun drives out to Lompoc. :( But this week, we're getting together with our district to see "Meet the Mormons." Yep, they're showing it to all of the missionaries, so we can talk about it with our investigators. It'll be a lot of fun!!
Well, cute family...I have to go for today. But, I hope you all know how much I love you. Can you believe I've been here SIX MONTHS?! Time's flying, and I'll be seeing all your cute faces very soon. Love you forever. :)
♥Sister Shay Shay
Shaylie
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Letter to Dad Oldroyd :)
Hello Dad!
So, it sounds like scout camp was a BLAST! I think it's so fun that you got to go, and really cool that you got to stay on a house boat. As Chayden would say, "You fancy, huh!" What a weirdo. But I'm sure that the boys loved having you there - careful, or the word's going to get out that you're really a big softie. :)
I'm glad you got to meet Pete and Doenice!! Aren't they just so cool?! They really are my pride and joy (well, as far as my mission goes), as far as life goes, you guys are my pride and joy. :) I show EVERYONE my family pictures! I'm glad the weekend was great, Doenice seriously just RAVED about you guys! And Pete's so cool, right?! We as missionaries always joke that it's the coolest to see someone with their tattooed sleeves, and a white baptismal suit. It kind of gives a visual of how much the gospel changes lives. Aren't we blessed to have it?!
I'm glad the Utah season has started off right, although Mom said we have a really hard schedule this year. How do you think we'll do? Is Travis Wilson a senior this year? Hopefully not, I want to see him play again! Do we still have our awesome punter? It seems that all the church members here follow the Utah teams, but I try not to ask TOO many questions. Our Bishop's family, in particular, are GIANT "U" fans, and always try to get the football fan out of me. Members are TROUBLEMAKERS and try to temp the missionaries. "Sisters, the game's on. You can 'linger in the hall' and check the score!" NO, BISHOP HAWS!!
Just a few updates - it's the last week of the transfer. Crazy, right?! I said in my email today: I'm pretty sure I'm staying. However, today I found out that District predictions say I'm leaving for Santa Barbara! :) WOOHOO! Basically, the week before transfers, we all make guesses of where the district's going. We have an Elder who's practically a transfer prophet. Last transfer, he guessed EVERYONE who'd be leaving and where they were going! Either way, don't write to my Solvang address until I can update you on Monday, and tell you where I'm headed. :)
Just another fun update for the week: Euell missed our appointment. Why, you may ask? Our conversation went like this when we called: "So Euell, what're you up up to right now?" "Oh, just at the airport in Camarillo, looking at airplane parts." "Oh...why are you doing that?" "Girls...I've decided I'm going to build a plane." "Okay...do you know how to FLY a plane?" Well, of course not!! I just came up with this idea yesterday!!" Hmm...so now 'plane building' has been added to his current list of "to-do's," along with taking the bar exam, starting medical school, and teaching anger management classes. Euell dreams big, and we love him for it. :)
Well I've got to go, but I love you both (I'm assuming you'll read this to mom). I love you both!
♥Shay Shay
P.S. - We played "missionary werewolf" in district meeting today! It reminded me of home...except that after we got mauled, we went onto preach the gospel to the dead. :)
So, it sounds like scout camp was a BLAST! I think it's so fun that you got to go, and really cool that you got to stay on a house boat. As Chayden would say, "You fancy, huh!" What a weirdo. But I'm sure that the boys loved having you there - careful, or the word's going to get out that you're really a big softie. :)
I'm glad you got to meet Pete and Doenice!! Aren't they just so cool?! They really are my pride and joy (well, as far as my mission goes), as far as life goes, you guys are my pride and joy. :) I show EVERYONE my family pictures! I'm glad the weekend was great, Doenice seriously just RAVED about you guys! And Pete's so cool, right?! We as missionaries always joke that it's the coolest to see someone with their tattooed sleeves, and a white baptismal suit. It kind of gives a visual of how much the gospel changes lives. Aren't we blessed to have it?!
I'm glad the Utah season has started off right, although Mom said we have a really hard schedule this year. How do you think we'll do? Is Travis Wilson a senior this year? Hopefully not, I want to see him play again! Do we still have our awesome punter? It seems that all the church members here follow the Utah teams, but I try not to ask TOO many questions. Our Bishop's family, in particular, are GIANT "U" fans, and always try to get the football fan out of me. Members are TROUBLEMAKERS and try to temp the missionaries. "Sisters, the game's on. You can 'linger in the hall' and check the score!" NO, BISHOP HAWS!!
Just a few updates - it's the last week of the transfer. Crazy, right?! I said in my email today: I'm pretty sure I'm staying. However, today I found out that District predictions say I'm leaving for Santa Barbara! :) WOOHOO! Basically, the week before transfers, we all make guesses of where the district's going. We have an Elder who's practically a transfer prophet. Last transfer, he guessed EVERYONE who'd be leaving and where they were going! Either way, don't write to my Solvang address until I can update you on Monday, and tell you where I'm headed. :)
Just another fun update for the week: Euell missed our appointment. Why, you may ask? Our conversation went like this when we called: "So Euell, what're you up up to right now?" "Oh, just at the airport in Camarillo, looking at airplane parts." "Oh...why are you doing that?" "Girls...I've decided I'm going to build a plane." "Okay...do you know how to FLY a plane?" Well, of course not!! I just came up with this idea yesterday!!" Hmm...so now 'plane building' has been added to his current list of "to-do's," along with taking the bar exam, starting medical school, and teaching anger management classes. Euell dreams big, and we love him for it. :)
Well I've got to go, but I love you both (I'm assuming you'll read this to mom). I love you both!
♥Shay Shay
P.S. - We played "missionary werewolf" in district meeting today! It reminded me of home...except that after we got mauled, we went onto preach the gospel to the dead. :)
Monday, September 15, 2014
Ostrichland, USA
Do you remember the opening scene in Jurassic Park 2, where the little British girl almost got eaten because she thought the little dinosaurs were cute? This week, I experienced that, in the form of Ostrichland, USA. Scariest place on earth.
MAYBE that's a slight exaggeration, but seriously, it was freaky. We went with the district, instead of doing sports this week! It was fun, but they are SO CREEPY. The ostriches are semi-cute, and at least pretty funny. They're mean, though, so we have to feed them with a dogbowl glued to a dustpan...yep. The emus, though, are not cute, they're just horrifying. From far away, they look all cute and tiny...til 30 of them come running toward you, and you realize they are just feathered dinosaurs. THEY ARE SO SCARY!! But, it was a fun day with the district, and we got to explore a little more of Solvang. :)
As far as missionary work goes (that's the important part, right?!), we've officially started the "JustServe" program, and it has brought so many miracles!! I'll tell you about it in much more detail next week, but today, we just have a couple minutes left. Through service, we were able to pick up an old investigator that had dropped the missionaries about a year ago...but this week, the ward will be coming to give her a Priesthood blessing! We also were able to contact a less-active member, that disappeared right after her baptism, about a year ago. Now, we serve with her every Tuesday, and have lunch together!
In other news...this week was Stake Conference. It was SO good! And it's pretty funny, that even though I've only been in this Stake for 3 months, I knew so many people! That's one of the benefits of being a missionary...we know EVERY SINGLE ward member. This week, we'll also be serving at DANISH DAYS!! It starts this Friday. We'll be having an aebleskiver breakfast Saturday morning, then helping all throughout the festival. It'll give me a good chance to practice my Danish dancing. ;)
Lastly, then I have to go...We have ANOTHER Zone Conference on Friday!! We'll be having Elder Malm of the Quorum of the Seventy come to the mission to speak to us. We can't wait! And then...transfer news comes next Monday! Sister Platt and I have both been here for 2 transfers now--it's more than likely one of us is leaving. We don't KNOW who, but I think Sister Platt's heading out. I think Solvang may be my home for a little while. :)
Anyway, I'm out for the day, but I love you all so much, and I'll talk to you very soon!
Love, Shay Shay
MAYBE that's a slight exaggeration, but seriously, it was freaky. We went with the district, instead of doing sports this week! It was fun, but they are SO CREEPY. The ostriches are semi-cute, and at least pretty funny. They're mean, though, so we have to feed them with a dogbowl glued to a dustpan...yep. The emus, though, are not cute, they're just horrifying. From far away, they look all cute and tiny...til 30 of them come running toward you, and you realize they are just feathered dinosaurs. THEY ARE SO SCARY!! But, it was a fun day with the district, and we got to explore a little more of Solvang. :)
As far as missionary work goes (that's the important part, right?!), we've officially started the "JustServe" program, and it has brought so many miracles!! I'll tell you about it in much more detail next week, but today, we just have a couple minutes left. Through service, we were able to pick up an old investigator that had dropped the missionaries about a year ago...but this week, the ward will be coming to give her a Priesthood blessing! We also were able to contact a less-active member, that disappeared right after her baptism, about a year ago. Now, we serve with her every Tuesday, and have lunch together!
In other news...this week was Stake Conference. It was SO good! And it's pretty funny, that even though I've only been in this Stake for 3 months, I knew so many people! That's one of the benefits of being a missionary...we know EVERY SINGLE ward member. This week, we'll also be serving at DANISH DAYS!! It starts this Friday. We'll be having an aebleskiver breakfast Saturday morning, then helping all throughout the festival. It'll give me a good chance to practice my Danish dancing. ;)
Lastly, then I have to go...We have ANOTHER Zone Conference on Friday!! We'll be having Elder Malm of the Quorum of the Seventy come to the mission to speak to us. We can't wait! And then...transfer news comes next Monday! Sister Platt and I have both been here for 2 transfers now--it's more than likely one of us is leaving. We don't KNOW who, but I think Sister Platt's heading out. I think Solvang may be my home for a little while. :)
Anyway, I'm out for the day, but I love you all so much, and I'll talk to you very soon!
Love, Shay Shay
Monday, September 1, 2014
5-Month Zone Conference!!
Good morning, cute family!!
WHAT A WEEK! There are so many fun and exciting things happening in our mission; I wish you could be here to see it! Instead, I'll try to summarize it as well as I can in the time I have. :)
First of all, Zone Conference was this week! All the missionaries from the Santa Barbara and Ventura Zones met with President Felix (all the way down in Ventura...it's a pretty good drive!). Let me start by just saying, President Felix is SO cool! It's crazy how different he is from President Castro, but they're both so great in different ways. Anyway, we had a theme centered in Zion, this conference. We talked about how we can build Zion where we are, if we have Zion in our hearts. He always reminds us that we CAN be Zion. And he speaks in a way that the spirit is SO strong, you can feel everything he's telling us, and it gets us so excited to do this work. One day, you'll have to meet him, and you'll understand what I'm talking about. It was really neat though, throughout the whole conference we had trainings about how to bring Zion to every aspect of our work. It was such a good day!
Another announcement made for us at the conference, was JustServe.org. It's a new website started by the church, where we'll be finding service opportunities in the community. Normally, we're asked to do 4 hours of service a week, in investigators or member's homes. Now, we'll be doing TEN hours a week, and serving with all kinds of organizations. We'll be volunteering in Soup Kitchens, Senior Centers, with the Red Cross, etc. We're actually going to start doing service at the Santa Ynez Catholic Mission down the street, too. :) They've tried this in 3 other missions, and it's had a HUGE impact on the way the community looks at the missionaries, and it'll make it so we hardly ever tract. (FUN FACT: We're going to be volunteering for DANISH DAYS!! What's cooler than that?!) It'll be so nice to be able to get to know people in the community, and to break down some of the barriers that we all seem to put up. It's going to be great!!
Also...Zone Conference was on my 5-MONTH mark!! Holy cow, it seems crazy that I've been out that long already--time is just FLYING by! It was fun though, because I was there with Sister Currie, Sister Olsen, and Elder Payne, some of my favorite missionaries from my MTC district. We all got to celebrate together. :)
In other news, Lenore is still doing awesome. She seriously is the funniest lady. This week, she said "You know, you two are just like Marie Osmond...SO VIVACIOUS!" What...? Man, she's so cool. She's TOTALLY someone I'm coming back to see! We found out a few weeks ago, though, that she was having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon, because the print was so small. This week, we were finally able to get her a large print book, and she was so excited. SOOOO excited! She just sat down right there, started reading, and talking about how neat it was that Christ came to the Americas. She loves that chapter.
Euell's still doing really well. At our last lesson, while reading, he flipped RIGHT open to the diagram in Abraham...and just STARED at it. Sister Platt and I were PETRIFIED, and just stared at each other with a look that said, a "Are you ready to explain Kolob, cause I'm sure not! Luckily, he finally just looked up and said, "YEP. There's a lotta knowledge in this good book." Phew. I'll admit, some things, I am just not prepared to teach quite yet. :)
I've also found the funniest family in the ward--the Goodwins. They're the ULTIMATE member family, and their daughter is such a good missionary. She's ACTUALLY the one who found Euell! But this week we were having dinner at their house...and somehow it ended up with them setting up rat traps on the dinner table, and having us set them off with screwdrivers. I don't know how things like that happen...but we turned it into a Book of Mormon object lesson.
I love you all, and miss you. But you're always in my prayers, and I'll see you very soon. ♥
Love,
ShaylieRae♥
P.S.- SISTER PLATT AND I ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE TOMORROW!!
WHAT A WEEK! There are so many fun and exciting things happening in our mission; I wish you could be here to see it! Instead, I'll try to summarize it as well as I can in the time I have. :)
First of all, Zone Conference was this week! All the missionaries from the Santa Barbara and Ventura Zones met with President Felix (all the way down in Ventura...it's a pretty good drive!). Let me start by just saying, President Felix is SO cool! It's crazy how different he is from President Castro, but they're both so great in different ways. Anyway, we had a theme centered in Zion, this conference. We talked about how we can build Zion where we are, if we have Zion in our hearts. He always reminds us that we CAN be Zion. And he speaks in a way that the spirit is SO strong, you can feel everything he's telling us, and it gets us so excited to do this work. One day, you'll have to meet him, and you'll understand what I'm talking about. It was really neat though, throughout the whole conference we had trainings about how to bring Zion to every aspect of our work. It was such a good day!
Another announcement made for us at the conference, was JustServe.org. It's a new website started by the church, where we'll be finding service opportunities in the community. Normally, we're asked to do 4 hours of service a week, in investigators or member's homes. Now, we'll be doing TEN hours a week, and serving with all kinds of organizations. We'll be volunteering in Soup Kitchens, Senior Centers, with the Red Cross, etc. We're actually going to start doing service at the Santa Ynez Catholic Mission down the street, too. :) They've tried this in 3 other missions, and it's had a HUGE impact on the way the community looks at the missionaries, and it'll make it so we hardly ever tract. (FUN FACT: We're going to be volunteering for DANISH DAYS!! What's cooler than that?!) It'll be so nice to be able to get to know people in the community, and to break down some of the barriers that we all seem to put up. It's going to be great!!
Also...Zone Conference was on my 5-MONTH mark!! Holy cow, it seems crazy that I've been out that long already--time is just FLYING by! It was fun though, because I was there with Sister Currie, Sister Olsen, and Elder Payne, some of my favorite missionaries from my MTC district. We all got to celebrate together. :)
In other news, Lenore is still doing awesome. She seriously is the funniest lady. This week, she said "You know, you two are just like Marie Osmond...SO VIVACIOUS!" What...? Man, she's so cool. She's TOTALLY someone I'm coming back to see! We found out a few weeks ago, though, that she was having a hard time reading the Book of Mormon, because the print was so small. This week, we were finally able to get her a large print book, and she was so excited. SOOOO excited! She just sat down right there, started reading, and talking about how neat it was that Christ came to the Americas. She loves that chapter.
Euell's still doing really well. At our last lesson, while reading, he flipped RIGHT open to the diagram in Abraham...and just STARED at it. Sister Platt and I were PETRIFIED, and just stared at each other with a look that said, a "Are you ready to explain Kolob, cause I'm sure not! Luckily, he finally just looked up and said, "YEP. There's a lotta knowledge in this good book." Phew. I'll admit, some things, I am just not prepared to teach quite yet. :)
I've also found the funniest family in the ward--the Goodwins. They're the ULTIMATE member family, and their daughter is such a good missionary. She's ACTUALLY the one who found Euell! But this week we were having dinner at their house...and somehow it ended up with them setting up rat traps on the dinner table, and having us set them off with screwdrivers. I don't know how things like that happen...but we turned it into a Book of Mormon object lesson.
I love you all, and miss you. But you're always in my prayers, and I'll see you very soon. ♥
Love,
ShaylieRae♥
P.S.- SISTER PLATT AND I ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE TOMORROW!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Exchange week!!
Hi cute family! :)
I'm running a little low on time this week, but I wanted to send you a quick update, and let you know that all is well here in Solvang.
This week, I had exchanged with THE one, THE only, SISTER COX! Man, I seriously love her. Of course, I love ALL my companions, but Sister Cox seems to have a special place in my heart. I was so excited for our exchange, and it was just as good as I had hoped it'd be. It was crazy to see how much both of us have changed and grown since we were companions! And it's crazy to think that's been almost 4 months ago. Whoa, time flies. We had such a good day though, saw so many miracles...and spent a good portion of our time laughing our heads off. We tend to do that. :)
As for YOU, I don't think I can explain how happy those pictures made me, of you with Pete and Doenice! All of my favorite people (well, not all...but a lot) together, at the temple. What could be better?! And aren't they just awesome?! I'm so happy you got to meet them, and Doenice told me today just how much they love you. I believe it, but I love you more. ♥
Tomorrow, I get to go to my first Zone Conference!! We'll be getting a lot of exciting new info, and doing all sorts of training. It's with the whole Santa Barbara and Ventura Zones, so we'll be heading down to Ventura in the morning. It's a LONG drive...but it's along the coast, so we get to see the ocean along the way. Not bad. :) I'll tell you about it next week, but for this week, know that I love you, and I'll be seeing you all very soon.
Love,
Sister Shay Shay
I'm running a little low on time this week, but I wanted to send you a quick update, and let you know that all is well here in Solvang.
This week, I had exchanged with THE one, THE only, SISTER COX! Man, I seriously love her. Of course, I love ALL my companions, but Sister Cox seems to have a special place in my heart. I was so excited for our exchange, and it was just as good as I had hoped it'd be. It was crazy to see how much both of us have changed and grown since we were companions! And it's crazy to think that's been almost 4 months ago. Whoa, time flies. We had such a good day though, saw so many miracles...and spent a good portion of our time laughing our heads off. We tend to do that. :)
As for YOU, I don't think I can explain how happy those pictures made me, of you with Pete and Doenice! All of my favorite people (well, not all...but a lot) together, at the temple. What could be better?! And aren't they just awesome?! I'm so happy you got to meet them, and Doenice told me today just how much they love you. I believe it, but I love you more. ♥
Tomorrow, I get to go to my first Zone Conference!! We'll be getting a lot of exciting new info, and doing all sorts of training. It's with the whole Santa Barbara and Ventura Zones, so we'll be heading down to Ventura in the morning. It's a LONG drive...but it's along the coast, so we get to see the ocean along the way. Not bad. :) I'll tell you about it next week, but for this week, know that I love you, and I'll be seeing you all very soon.
Love,
Sister Shay Shay
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Hello, from the HAPPIEST AUNT IN THE WORLD!!
Hello, hello family!
I honestly don't even know where to start...except to say that I am the happiest and luckiest aunt in the world. I get to come home to Baby Noyce AND Baby Oldroyd! I'm so excited to meet them, and see their cute faces. Seriously, congratulations! I'm so darn happy for you. :)
As for things here in Solvang, they're going well!! This week, I think it's safe to say we're finally over the missionary disease (thank goodness!) and the dead body is out of our systems. :) It's about time!! Sadly, the sickness made me lazy on my looks, and I've officially adopted my crazy poodle hair. It looks more and more like Hermione Granger, every single day (no, not from the 7th movie. I'm talking Sorcerer's Stone). But, it's okay. That's really not what matters.
Our new district is AWESOME. We have 3 new Elders (Elder Cavazos, Elder Hurst, and Elder Harper), and a new Hermana in our ward (Hermana Bennion)! She's the cutest. I'll admit, I miss our other awesome district, but this one's going to be pretty great, too! We had our first district meeting on Thursday. It was so good. I sent Mom a whole letter explaining it, but to summarize: it started at about 10:00 am, and ended at 5:00 pm...whoops. That was definitely not in our plans. But it was a good district-bonding experience, and we all became good friend pretty quickly! And, we got a district picture out of it. I'll send it as soon as I get it.
The work is going great! We had a Member-Present lesson with Albert this week! The member happens to be quite the cowboy, and it turned out to be a lesson on church attendance...and rodeos. It's a little hard to imagine...and a little hard to explain. :) It went well, though, and Albert came to church for the first time this week!! It was so nice, and he was able to make friends in the ward. We're so excited for him! His baptismal date is still set for September 20th. We're also working with Euell, and he's doing really well.
On Friday, we also met a less-active woman named Kathy. Sometimes, less-active members are less than thrilled to see us, but she could NOT have been happier. Her husband isn't a member, but she has such a strong testimony and love for the gospel. It seriously was a miracle that we met her, and we're going to help set her with a goal of getting back to the temple. :)
Well, I'm about out of time today,so I'll let you all go... but I hope you have such a good week. You're always in my prayers, and I'll be seeing you very soon. ♥
♥Shay Shay
P.S. - Exchanges with Sister Cox are this week!! :D
I honestly don't even know where to start...except to say that I am the happiest and luckiest aunt in the world. I get to come home to Baby Noyce AND Baby Oldroyd! I'm so excited to meet them, and see their cute faces. Seriously, congratulations! I'm so darn happy for you. :)
As for things here in Solvang, they're going well!! This week, I think it's safe to say we're finally over the missionary disease (thank goodness!) and the dead body is out of our systems. :) It's about time!! Sadly, the sickness made me lazy on my looks, and I've officially adopted my crazy poodle hair. It looks more and more like Hermione Granger, every single day (no, not from the 7th movie. I'm talking Sorcerer's Stone). But, it's okay. That's really not what matters.
Our new district is AWESOME. We have 3 new Elders (Elder Cavazos, Elder Hurst, and Elder Harper), and a new Hermana in our ward (Hermana Bennion)! She's the cutest. I'll admit, I miss our other awesome district, but this one's going to be pretty great, too! We had our first district meeting on Thursday. It was so good. I sent Mom a whole letter explaining it, but to summarize: it started at about 10:00 am, and ended at 5:00 pm...whoops. That was definitely not in our plans. But it was a good district-bonding experience, and we all became good friend pretty quickly! And, we got a district picture out of it. I'll send it as soon as I get it.
The work is going great! We had a Member-Present lesson with Albert this week! The member happens to be quite the cowboy, and it turned out to be a lesson on church attendance...and rodeos. It's a little hard to imagine...and a little hard to explain. :) It went well, though, and Albert came to church for the first time this week!! It was so nice, and he was able to make friends in the ward. We're so excited for him! His baptismal date is still set for September 20th. We're also working with Euell, and he's doing really well.
On Friday, we also met a less-active woman named Kathy. Sometimes, less-active members are less than thrilled to see us, but she could NOT have been happier. Her husband isn't a member, but she has such a strong testimony and love for the gospel. It seriously was a miracle that we met her, and we're going to help set her with a goal of getting back to the temple. :)
Well, I'm about out of time today,so I'll let you all go... but I hope you have such a good week. You're always in my prayers, and I'll be seeing you very soon. ♥
♥Shay Shay
P.S. - Exchanges with Sister Cox are this week!! :D
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Staying in Solvang!
Hi everyone!
So, first of all, I'm staying in Solvang!! Woohoo!! Both Sister Platt and I will be here for another transfer, as well as Hermana Hernandez. (Luckily, cause she's awesome!) Not that I have too much experience at transfers...since I've only had 3. But, from the experience I DO have, it's kinda funny: you can already feel whether you'll be leaving. And we can usually tell when we need to stay a little longer. The weekend before transfers, we always try to do some deep cleaning, and throw unnecessary things out (I LOVE throwing things out...I think I get that from you, Mom!) This weekend, though, even though we cleaned, we mostly decorated. We made it cute and homey, cause we could just feel we'd be here a while longer. Luckily, we were right. :)
There's actually a lot going on in Solvang right now. Like I mentioned, Albert's getting baptized! I'm honestly not sure if I've talked about Albert before. We met him our first week here, and even though he really liked to meet with us, he wasn't really progressing. He got very distracted in lessons, and he wasn't really absorbing much of what we were teaching. We weren't sure what to do, so we decided to have a lesson where we just read the Book of Mormon with him. He LOVED it, and from then on, he started to progress! He came to lessons focused and ready to learn...and now...he's getting BAPTIZED!! Man, the Book of Mormon is so powerful. It made all the difference for Albert. :)
Euell's doing great, too! This week, we did service with him, AND his wife! Normally, she avoids us when we're there...so it was really cool to be able to talk to her and get to know her. She even hugged us when we left! That's progress, if you ask me. :) Hopefully, we'll get to set him with a new baptismal date this week. I'll let you know!
We finally got over the missionary disease this week; it's about time! We're now very healthy, and drinking body-free water. :)
I wish I had more fun and exciting things to tell you, but this has honestly been a pretty normal missionary week. Things really are great here, and I'm happy to be staying.
The church is true. I promise. :) LOVE YOU!
♥Shay Shay
So, first of all, I'm staying in Solvang!! Woohoo!! Both Sister Platt and I will be here for another transfer, as well as Hermana Hernandez. (Luckily, cause she's awesome!) Not that I have too much experience at transfers...since I've only had 3. But, from the experience I DO have, it's kinda funny: you can already feel whether you'll be leaving. And we can usually tell when we need to stay a little longer. The weekend before transfers, we always try to do some deep cleaning, and throw unnecessary things out (I LOVE throwing things out...I think I get that from you, Mom!) This weekend, though, even though we cleaned, we mostly decorated. We made it cute and homey, cause we could just feel we'd be here a while longer. Luckily, we were right. :)
There's actually a lot going on in Solvang right now. Like I mentioned, Albert's getting baptized! I'm honestly not sure if I've talked about Albert before. We met him our first week here, and even though he really liked to meet with us, he wasn't really progressing. He got very distracted in lessons, and he wasn't really absorbing much of what we were teaching. We weren't sure what to do, so we decided to have a lesson where we just read the Book of Mormon with him. He LOVED it, and from then on, he started to progress! He came to lessons focused and ready to learn...and now...he's getting BAPTIZED!! Man, the Book of Mormon is so powerful. It made all the difference for Albert. :)
Euell's doing great, too! This week, we did service with him, AND his wife! Normally, she avoids us when we're there...so it was really cool to be able to talk to her and get to know her. She even hugged us when we left! That's progress, if you ask me. :) Hopefully, we'll get to set him with a new baptismal date this week. I'll let you know!
We finally got over the missionary disease this week; it's about time! We're now very healthy, and drinking body-free water. :)
I wish I had more fun and exciting things to tell you, but this has honestly been a pretty normal missionary week. Things really are great here, and I'm happy to be staying.
The church is true. I promise. :) LOVE YOU!
♥Shay Shay
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