bitter iowa winter!
Hello family!! How is everyone!! Thank you thank you for the Christmas sign and the package mom!! And thank you finally for the package brit! Very nice wrapping job amy and haley! And I got a chrsitmas card from the macintosh’s tell them thank you for me!
Highlights of this week: the weather is horrible and the sun is a liar! When your looking out the window and the sun is really bright outside, doesn’t look like its to cold but then you walk outside and nope its 2 degrees…kinda depressing. Lol. I love iowa! But I don’t know why anyone lives here during the winter!! Its painful! I would leave my house to go to church and that’s about it if I lived here.
Sister frisbys still been sick so we didn’t do a whole lot of tracting this week until yesterday. Ive had a lot of time to study though while shes been sick. I finished up the book of mormon this week and Im workin on finishing Jesus the Christ, doctrine and coventants and the pearl of great price right now since we’ve been inside so much. Im kinda goin crazy but that’s okay I guess.
On Tuesday we went over to the pawlowskis house to help their kids shovel the snow off of their sidewalk and driveway. That was my first time shoveling snow…and in a skirt! Wasn’t that bad my face was just about the only thing that was cold. Saturday we went over to see Karen and had a lesson with her. She was kinda bummed out cuz she had been stuck in side for the last 2 days and her doctor told her she was allowed to go outside but she really wanted to make a snowman in her front yard so sister frisby and I went and made one for her so she could see it through her window. That was the first time either one of us had made an actually snowman! I didn’t know that snow can actually roll! (we’re totally from California. Lol) but karen was excited about it and it made her happy!
Church got canceled yesterday because the weather was so bad and no one could really get to de witt so we went to the Methodist church here in town with our investigator ted. It was really nice! Everyone was soo friendly and it was a really good service. Later Sunday afternoon we went to the nursing home that we volunteer at while they were having their Christmas party and visited with some of the residents there which is always interesting. One of the guys that has downs syndrome there his name is Stanley, he’s so cute, we were helping him walk to another room and he was holding my hand and apparently he’s a licker cuz he licked my hand like 4 times. The rest of the day we ended up tracting and it was the worst tracting weather. I thought my face was going to fall off. It was soo cold and windy and we had people ask us if we didn’t have anything better to do. And one lady gave me another scarf and wrapped it around my face. Other than that the day was awesome!!!!
Well everyone that’s about is for my week. I love you all! Have a super awesome week! Thank you for everything!!
Till next time
Sister C
Courtney's favorite scripture: I know that which the Lord hath commmanded me,and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. Alma 29:9
Heaven on earth
Monday, December 13, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Week 46 12/06/2010
I'm thinking shes maybe being a little sarcastic in her subject line considering when I looked at the temp. this morning it said it felt like -6 BURRRRRRRRRRRRRR! lol But regardless heres this weeks letter.
Subject: yay for snow!!
Hello again everyone!! Hope you guys are having an awesome day! I heard its rainin over your way…at least its not 5 degrees!! We have to leave pretty early for church on Sundays and I don’t do anything to my hair anymore after I shower so when we walked outside my hair froze within 2 seconds. I was afraid it was gonna snap off. Lol.
Well, honestly not much has happened since last Wednesday. Sister frisby has been sick pretty much since she got here so we’ve spent a got amount of time inside and at dr. appointments but we’ve had some really good lessons with Karen, ted and todd and tracy. On Thursday we went with bro. trainer (in the branch presidency) to some of his friends houses and shared to reflections of Christ video with them and we ended up getting a couple return appointment with them. Bro trainer was very bold and just told “hey, you need to get active in the church again and you need to take the lessons from the missionaries.” Karens really been getting into the gospel principles book which I might have told you that already. We went and saw her on Saturday and she wanted to go through the chapter in there about the life of jesus Christ good choice considering the season and she loved it! We had a good meeting with ted as always. He’s still being a stubborn old man as usual but you’ve gotta love him! You cant not love him! But while we were at his house it started to snow and we went out and played in it for a few minutes and by the time we left his house everything was completely covered in snow and it didn’t stop the rest of the night.
I hope everyone got to watch the first presidency Christmas devotional last night. It was awesome!! I love Christmas time! And im bummed I don’t get to spend it with my family and friends at home but im so excited to spend it with my family and friends that ive made out here and that I get to spread “Christmas cheer for all to hear” as a missionary and to serve heavenly fathers children, my brothers and sisters in iowa! In the words of the Grinch “maybe Christmas doesn’t come from the store, maybe Christmas means alittle bit more!” I love you all! Have an awesome week!
Abi! – Congrats! Im soo happy for you! I love you!!
Till next time!
Sister C
Subject: yay for snow!!
Hello again everyone!! Hope you guys are having an awesome day! I heard its rainin over your way…at least its not 5 degrees!! We have to leave pretty early for church on Sundays and I don’t do anything to my hair anymore after I shower so when we walked outside my hair froze within 2 seconds. I was afraid it was gonna snap off. Lol.
Well, honestly not much has happened since last Wednesday. Sister frisby has been sick pretty much since she got here so we’ve spent a got amount of time inside and at dr. appointments but we’ve had some really good lessons with Karen, ted and todd and tracy. On Thursday we went with bro. trainer (in the branch presidency) to some of his friends houses and shared to reflections of Christ video with them and we ended up getting a couple return appointment with them. Bro trainer was very bold and just told “hey, you need to get active in the church again and you need to take the lessons from the missionaries.” Karens really been getting into the gospel principles book which I might have told you that already. We went and saw her on Saturday and she wanted to go through the chapter in there about the life of jesus Christ good choice considering the season and she loved it! We had a good meeting with ted as always. He’s still being a stubborn old man as usual but you’ve gotta love him! You cant not love him! But while we were at his house it started to snow and we went out and played in it for a few minutes and by the time we left his house everything was completely covered in snow and it didn’t stop the rest of the night.
I hope everyone got to watch the first presidency Christmas devotional last night. It was awesome!! I love Christmas time! And im bummed I don’t get to spend it with my family and friends at home but im so excited to spend it with my family and friends that ive made out here and that I get to spread “Christmas cheer for all to hear” as a missionary and to serve heavenly fathers children, my brothers and sisters in iowa! In the words of the Grinch “maybe Christmas doesn’t come from the store, maybe Christmas means alittle bit more!” I love you all! Have an awesome week!
Abi! – Congrats! Im soo happy for you! I love you!!
Till next time!
Sister C
Friday, December 3, 2010
Maquoketa address
If you would like to write to her between now and Christmas. You can use this address.
108 N. Niagra #3
Maquoketa, IA 52060
108 N. Niagra #3
Maquoketa, IA 52060
Week 45 12/01/2010
Subject: love you!!!!
hello everyone!! First, congrats Steve and Ashley!! Tyler’s soo cute! He’s got some nice sideburns! Sounds like everyone had a pretty good thanksgiving only a couple stitches and a few wrecks atleast no one caught one fire this year….thats always good. Thank you for the PACKAGE MOM!!!! Thank you for the mandarins! Tell Ted I said thank you too!!
As for us last week was pretty good, we had district meeting on Wednesday and had our own district thanksgiving for lunch afterwards which was pretty fun! I just love being around all the other missionaries it is much fun! We have the best missionaries out here! I love em. Its really hard to teach during the holidays im starting to realize. People leave on vacation or they’ve got lots of family over. It should be a really good time because everyone is with their families but most people don’t want to because they are trying to spend time with their families and they don’t want us there at the same time. so we’ll see how this works out. Thanksgiving day we had an early lunch/dinner at sister younts house with her and her whole extended family. Sister frisby and I made a bunch of the paper turkeys that you trace your hands to make and (I found out Im either not very good at tracing or I have fat knuckles, I hope it’s the first) anyway we wrote a scripture about being thankful for the things god has given us on it (of course I cant remember which one it was) so after sister younts we went and left them on some of our members and investigators front doors or in their mail boxes. After that we went to the cheneys for another dinner and had a short lesson with sister cheneys dad that is visiting for a couple weeks. Not gonna lie I ate so much I didn’t get up off of their couch for about 2 hours. i should have worn my stretchy pants or skirt. Lol. It was a good thanksgiving!!
We’ve had a couple really good lessons with Karen the last week and a half. We had a lesson about prayer and how important it is and how the spirit talks to us by making us feel happy and peaceful when we are read the scriptures and pray. It started to snow alittle bit yesterday and we went over to karens house and made cookies with her and she’s been studying from the gospel principles book and had some questions about the priesthood so we talked to her about that for awhile. It was really good! She believes everything in the book of mormon and wants to get baptized we just have to get her husband to be okay with it and get her to set a date. I love her! She’s so awesome! She reminds me a lot of Leslie from iowa city. Other than that we haven’t had very many other lessons the last couple of days. Sister Frisby and I have both been sick since last Saturday and that’s always awesome! Not! I haven’t stayed inside for an entire day my entire mission until Saturday, that was the longest day ever. It went on forever!! Anyways, im getting kicked off of the computer so ive gotta go. Sister Frisby and I are staying together here in Maquoketa this next transfer so I’ll be here for Christmas. I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!!
Till next time!
Sister C!
hello everyone!! First, congrats Steve and Ashley!! Tyler’s soo cute! He’s got some nice sideburns! Sounds like everyone had a pretty good thanksgiving only a couple stitches and a few wrecks atleast no one caught one fire this year….thats always good. Thank you for the PACKAGE MOM!!!! Thank you for the mandarins! Tell Ted I said thank you too!!
As for us last week was pretty good, we had district meeting on Wednesday and had our own district thanksgiving for lunch afterwards which was pretty fun! I just love being around all the other missionaries it is much fun! We have the best missionaries out here! I love em. Its really hard to teach during the holidays im starting to realize. People leave on vacation or they’ve got lots of family over. It should be a really good time because everyone is with their families but most people don’t want to because they are trying to spend time with their families and they don’t want us there at the same time. so we’ll see how this works out. Thanksgiving day we had an early lunch/dinner at sister younts house with her and her whole extended family. Sister frisby and I made a bunch of the paper turkeys that you trace your hands to make and (I found out Im either not very good at tracing or I have fat knuckles, I hope it’s the first) anyway we wrote a scripture about being thankful for the things god has given us on it (of course I cant remember which one it was) so after sister younts we went and left them on some of our members and investigators front doors or in their mail boxes. After that we went to the cheneys for another dinner and had a short lesson with sister cheneys dad that is visiting for a couple weeks. Not gonna lie I ate so much I didn’t get up off of their couch for about 2 hours. i should have worn my stretchy pants or skirt. Lol. It was a good thanksgiving!!
We’ve had a couple really good lessons with Karen the last week and a half. We had a lesson about prayer and how important it is and how the spirit talks to us by making us feel happy and peaceful when we are read the scriptures and pray. It started to snow alittle bit yesterday and we went over to karens house and made cookies with her and she’s been studying from the gospel principles book and had some questions about the priesthood so we talked to her about that for awhile. It was really good! She believes everything in the book of mormon and wants to get baptized we just have to get her husband to be okay with it and get her to set a date. I love her! She’s so awesome! She reminds me a lot of Leslie from iowa city. Other than that we haven’t had very many other lessons the last couple of days. Sister Frisby and I have both been sick since last Saturday and that’s always awesome! Not! I haven’t stayed inside for an entire day my entire mission until Saturday, that was the longest day ever. It went on forever!! Anyways, im getting kicked off of the computer so ive gotta go. Sister Frisby and I are staying together here in Maquoketa this next transfer so I’ll be here for Christmas. I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!!
Till next time!
Sister C!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Week 44 11/22/2010
Subject: gobble gobble!!!
Happy Turkey week everyone!! i hope everyone had a good week! did ash have the baby yet?! Whats everyone doin for thanksgiving!?!
This week was kinda crazy! Tuesday was full of service. Our investigator Karen has been really sick the past couple weeks, something wrong with her colon. Tuesday morning she called us and asked us to come over. We went to the grocery store and got her some stuff that her doctor told her to eat and then we cleaned up some of her house while she laid on the couch cuz she was so warn out. We went tracting for a couple hours after that and then we went to the cheneys and helped sister cheney around her house a little bit which got all 8 of her kids to help so we got things done pretty fast. Wednesday we had our usual service at the museum. We had a couple really good lessons with the frandsens and then with this girl named liz that we met the week before. She used to live in vegas and had the sister missionaries over for dinner every Wednesday and really liked it. So we’re gonna see if we can start that up again with her and her husband. She has lots of questions about everything and shes really open but shes a little hesitant because her parents are catholic and shes afraid they’ll get mad at her. We’ll work on it. so Wednesday night we got to go to iowa city and stay the night at the elzingas! When we got to iowa city we went and saw the flynns first. Oh my gosh I miss them! I miss iowa city so bad!! We stayed and saw them for awhile and then we went to the elzingas for the rest of the night. We had dinner over there and anna came!! i love her! It was soo much fun!! The next morning we got up and went to the stake center to go from there to Nauvoo. Sister felix and I rode with a couple of the other sisters. We thought we knew how to get there but somehow we ended up in Missouri so we had to find our way back to Illinois. So we got to be in 3 different states that day, it was a nice little road trip! Lol.
So we got to Nauvoo eventually and had a really good conference. Sister jergensen and the other sr. sisters spoke along with president jergensen for a bit. After that we went and had lunch at a place across the street from the temple and after lunch we all went and did a session at the temple!! It was awesome!!! I love that temple!!! We didn’t get back to our apartment that night until about 11 I was sooo tired!!! So Friday was kinda crazy, we had our weekly planning which usually takes about 3 hours and later that day we got a phone call from president jergensen saying that he needed us to cancel all our appointments for the rest of the day because he needed to make some changes with some other missionaries and we needed to be in davenport later that day. So we had to pack sister felix’ stuff and went to davenport that night and made the switch. So sister felix is in a different area and I am still in Maquoketa but im with sister frisby now. So far shes pretty cool. She’s from the bay area and she’s got 2 transfers left. Transfers are next week so I don’t know if she’ll stay here though or if I even will but we’ll find out next week I guess. Saturday was Saturday, tracted most of the day and visited some members and then Sunday I was soo lucky and I got to give a talk in sacrament!!! My favorite! I told brother buttars (one of the branch counselors) that he better have a bucket up there for me to throw up in. Karen did come to church again this week which was awesome!!
That was about it for our week though. This week we’re having thanksgiving dinner with the cheneys of course with a couple of the elders. It’ll defiantly be a different thanksgiving for me but im excited, it’ll be pretty fun!!!! I hope everyone has an awesome week and an awesome thanksgiving! Thank you everyone for all your love, prayers and support! I love you all!!!!!
Till next time (next Wednesday)
Sister C
Did you know: iowa is the number 1 pork producing state in the US. Produces 30% of US pork!! Good ‘ole iowa!!
Happy Turkey week everyone!! i hope everyone had a good week! did ash have the baby yet?! Whats everyone doin for thanksgiving!?!
This week was kinda crazy! Tuesday was full of service. Our investigator Karen has been really sick the past couple weeks, something wrong with her colon. Tuesday morning she called us and asked us to come over. We went to the grocery store and got her some stuff that her doctor told her to eat and then we cleaned up some of her house while she laid on the couch cuz she was so warn out. We went tracting for a couple hours after that and then we went to the cheneys and helped sister cheney around her house a little bit which got all 8 of her kids to help so we got things done pretty fast. Wednesday we had our usual service at the museum. We had a couple really good lessons with the frandsens and then with this girl named liz that we met the week before. She used to live in vegas and had the sister missionaries over for dinner every Wednesday and really liked it. So we’re gonna see if we can start that up again with her and her husband. She has lots of questions about everything and shes really open but shes a little hesitant because her parents are catholic and shes afraid they’ll get mad at her. We’ll work on it. so Wednesday night we got to go to iowa city and stay the night at the elzingas! When we got to iowa city we went and saw the flynns first. Oh my gosh I miss them! I miss iowa city so bad!! We stayed and saw them for awhile and then we went to the elzingas for the rest of the night. We had dinner over there and anna came!! i love her! It was soo much fun!! The next morning we got up and went to the stake center to go from there to Nauvoo. Sister felix and I rode with a couple of the other sisters. We thought we knew how to get there but somehow we ended up in Missouri so we had to find our way back to Illinois. So we got to be in 3 different states that day, it was a nice little road trip! Lol.
So we got to Nauvoo eventually and had a really good conference. Sister jergensen and the other sr. sisters spoke along with president jergensen for a bit. After that we went and had lunch at a place across the street from the temple and after lunch we all went and did a session at the temple!! It was awesome!!! I love that temple!!! We didn’t get back to our apartment that night until about 11 I was sooo tired!!! So Friday was kinda crazy, we had our weekly planning which usually takes about 3 hours and later that day we got a phone call from president jergensen saying that he needed us to cancel all our appointments for the rest of the day because he needed to make some changes with some other missionaries and we needed to be in davenport later that day. So we had to pack sister felix’ stuff and went to davenport that night and made the switch. So sister felix is in a different area and I am still in Maquoketa but im with sister frisby now. So far shes pretty cool. She’s from the bay area and she’s got 2 transfers left. Transfers are next week so I don’t know if she’ll stay here though or if I even will but we’ll find out next week I guess. Saturday was Saturday, tracted most of the day and visited some members and then Sunday I was soo lucky and I got to give a talk in sacrament!!! My favorite! I told brother buttars (one of the branch counselors) that he better have a bucket up there for me to throw up in. Karen did come to church again this week which was awesome!!
That was about it for our week though. This week we’re having thanksgiving dinner with the cheneys of course with a couple of the elders. It’ll defiantly be a different thanksgiving for me but im excited, it’ll be pretty fun!!!! I hope everyone has an awesome week and an awesome thanksgiving! Thank you everyone for all your love, prayers and support! I love you all!!!!!
Till next time (next Wednesday)
Sister C
Did you know: iowa is the number 1 pork producing state in the US. Produces 30% of US pork!! Good ‘ole iowa!!
Week 43 11/14/2010
Subject: brrr... its cold in here....
Hello there everyone!! How was everyones week!?! Sounds like amys meet was pretty good! Too much rock for one hand baby! Right ames!! Whats everyone else been up to?come on...gimme somethin... lol.
Well its startin to cold here and I don’t like it!! Sister felix and I went tracting yesterday and it started raining little balls of ice. Not big enough to be considered full on hail more like baby hail. And I thought my toes were gonna freeze so then we went over to the cheneys and laid on the couch under a heating blanket… it was nice. And its gonna get soooooo much colder! Theres supposed to be at least a couple ice storms this winter! I just have to think warm thoughts…lake powell!!! I don’t like how dark it gets so early in the afternoon now it makes it a lot harder to tract. People get so grumpy when you know on their door and its dark outside like they were sound asleep or something at 4:30 in the afternoon. Lol.
This week was long! We didn’t tract very much this week but we had a lot of lessons. We had a very blunt but really good lesson with ted and had sister meyer there with us. Sister meyer used to be Methodist like ted so they got along really well. Ted loves everything we taught him and he knows its true but he’s being a stubborn old man and says that he knows what his answers going to be if he prays about it but as long he doesn’t pray then he doesn’t know it for sure so he claims he doesn’t have to do anything about it if he doesn’t know for sure. That’s just called procrastination and denial.
Tuesday the Onkens (family in our branch) took us to davenport for dinner at red robin…yumm!!! And their daughter brought her friend kara that we’ve seen a couple times. I love them, they’re awesome!! Brother Onken actually served in the sacramento mission and loomis was his first area! Small mormon world!
Friday afternoon sister jergensen came out with sister felix and I and went to a couple lessons with us. We had a lesson with the green family which we tracted into a couple weeks ago and had 2 lessons with them so far. They’re such a cool family. The parents are todd and tracy and they have a little girl named Mariah (8 yrs old). Todd takes such good care of his family. He works 12 hour shifts 5 days a week and takes care of Tracy who has epilepsy, and then their little girl Mariah they adopted. When she was 4 months old her birth father shook her and ruined all 4 parts of her brain so she’s pretty much a “vegetable” but she is the cutest thing! Oh my gosh I love her! She has the cutest smile when you make weird noises the she likes! Awesome family! So Friday afternoon when we were there we were in the middle of teaching the plan of salvation and tracy had a seizure so ended up leaving alittle bit after that so tracy could go to bed. But it was a really good lesson up to that point. And they’ve both been reading the book of mormon. After that we took sister jergensen to meet Arlene (the 98 yr old) and then after that we took sister jergensen to davenport meet president jergensen and we ended up going to the food court at the mall for dinner with pres and sister jergensen and our zone leaders. So that was a lot of fun with them! Oh and I meant to tell you that president jergensen went to the same mission that trevors goin to except it was a lot bigger back then. He served most of his one the Indian reservation and spoke Navajo near the 4 corners.
Well that was about it for last week but this week we have sisters conference on Thursday in Nauvoo with president and sister jergensen. We get to spend the whole day pretty much in Nauvoo. We’re gonna have the conference in the morning, doing I have no idea but then we get to go to do a session at the temple after lunch. Im excited!!! Since we have to meet the van in iowa city at 7 Thursday morning I talked to P.J and he said we could stay the night at a members house in iowa city so we’re gonna be staying at the elzingas that night and I get to see anna!! Im soo excited! I miss them so bad! But I love it here too! I love iowa!
Well that’s about it for me! What about you guys!? I love you all and I hope you have an awesome week! And I hope yours is warmer than mine will be!!
Till next time
Sister C
*Do it now!! Because today will be yesterday tomorrow!
Hello there everyone!! How was everyones week!?! Sounds like amys meet was pretty good! Too much rock for one hand baby! Right ames!! Whats everyone else been up to?come on...gimme somethin... lol.
Well its startin to cold here and I don’t like it!! Sister felix and I went tracting yesterday and it started raining little balls of ice. Not big enough to be considered full on hail more like baby hail. And I thought my toes were gonna freeze so then we went over to the cheneys and laid on the couch under a heating blanket… it was nice. And its gonna get soooooo much colder! Theres supposed to be at least a couple ice storms this winter! I just have to think warm thoughts…lake powell!!! I don’t like how dark it gets so early in the afternoon now it makes it a lot harder to tract. People get so grumpy when you know on their door and its dark outside like they were sound asleep or something at 4:30 in the afternoon. Lol.
This week was long! We didn’t tract very much this week but we had a lot of lessons. We had a very blunt but really good lesson with ted and had sister meyer there with us. Sister meyer used to be Methodist like ted so they got along really well. Ted loves everything we taught him and he knows its true but he’s being a stubborn old man and says that he knows what his answers going to be if he prays about it but as long he doesn’t pray then he doesn’t know it for sure so he claims he doesn’t have to do anything about it if he doesn’t know for sure. That’s just called procrastination and denial.
Tuesday the Onkens (family in our branch) took us to davenport for dinner at red robin…yumm!!! And their daughter brought her friend kara that we’ve seen a couple times. I love them, they’re awesome!! Brother Onken actually served in the sacramento mission and loomis was his first area! Small mormon world!
Friday afternoon sister jergensen came out with sister felix and I and went to a couple lessons with us. We had a lesson with the green family which we tracted into a couple weeks ago and had 2 lessons with them so far. They’re such a cool family. The parents are todd and tracy and they have a little girl named Mariah (8 yrs old). Todd takes such good care of his family. He works 12 hour shifts 5 days a week and takes care of Tracy who has epilepsy, and then their little girl Mariah they adopted. When she was 4 months old her birth father shook her and ruined all 4 parts of her brain so she’s pretty much a “vegetable” but she is the cutest thing! Oh my gosh I love her! She has the cutest smile when you make weird noises the she likes! Awesome family! So Friday afternoon when we were there we were in the middle of teaching the plan of salvation and tracy had a seizure so ended up leaving alittle bit after that so tracy could go to bed. But it was a really good lesson up to that point. And they’ve both been reading the book of mormon. After that we took sister jergensen to meet Arlene (the 98 yr old) and then after that we took sister jergensen to davenport meet president jergensen and we ended up going to the food court at the mall for dinner with pres and sister jergensen and our zone leaders. So that was a lot of fun with them! Oh and I meant to tell you that president jergensen went to the same mission that trevors goin to except it was a lot bigger back then. He served most of his one the Indian reservation and spoke Navajo near the 4 corners.
Well that was about it for last week but this week we have sisters conference on Thursday in Nauvoo with president and sister jergensen. We get to spend the whole day pretty much in Nauvoo. We’re gonna have the conference in the morning, doing I have no idea but then we get to go to do a session at the temple after lunch. Im excited!!! Since we have to meet the van in iowa city at 7 Thursday morning I talked to P.J and he said we could stay the night at a members house in iowa city so we’re gonna be staying at the elzingas that night and I get to see anna!! Im soo excited! I miss them so bad! But I love it here too! I love iowa!
Well that’s about it for me! What about you guys!? I love you all and I hope you have an awesome week! And I hope yours is warmer than mine will be!!
Till next time
Sister C
*Do it now!! Because today will be yesterday tomorrow!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Week 42 11/08/2010
Subject: hi hi hi hi hi
Hello hello!! Sounds like this weekend was pretty busy and homecoming was pretty good. Amy and tori are getting way to old…stop it!!
Well its gonna have to be a quick one today we’re using different computers today and these ones kick you off after 30 minutes. So in a nut shell this week was really good. We had another awesome lesson with tasha and helped her really get started with reading the book of mormon. We had a lesson with karen and she told us she wanted to get baptized and be able to have the feeling that she had when she came to church with her all the time. We asked her to pray and ask heavenly father when he wanted her to get baptized so that she can set the date herself. We had an awesome lesson with ted on Friday and had the frandsens come with us since they’ve known him forever. They’re all in their 80’s and both the frandsens are kinda hard of hearing so it was actually pretty amusing at the beginning cuz one of them would be talking and not even realize that the other one was talking at the same time.
We had some awesome lessons with ted and arlene that we took our friend liberty to with us. She’s been coming out with us every once in awhile and she’s awesome!!! Im about to get kicked off of here. Sorry this is kind of a pooper of an email. Next week will be longer and better! I love you all!! Have an awesome week!!!!
Till next time,
Sister C
Trust god to move your mountain but keep on climbing!
Hello hello!! Sounds like this weekend was pretty busy and homecoming was pretty good. Amy and tori are getting way to old…stop it!!
Well its gonna have to be a quick one today we’re using different computers today and these ones kick you off after 30 minutes. So in a nut shell this week was really good. We had another awesome lesson with tasha and helped her really get started with reading the book of mormon. We had a lesson with karen and she told us she wanted to get baptized and be able to have the feeling that she had when she came to church with her all the time. We asked her to pray and ask heavenly father when he wanted her to get baptized so that she can set the date herself. We had an awesome lesson with ted on Friday and had the frandsens come with us since they’ve known him forever. They’re all in their 80’s and both the frandsens are kinda hard of hearing so it was actually pretty amusing at the beginning cuz one of them would be talking and not even realize that the other one was talking at the same time.
We had some awesome lessons with ted and arlene that we took our friend liberty to with us. She’s been coming out with us every once in awhile and she’s awesome!!! Im about to get kicked off of here. Sorry this is kind of a pooper of an email. Next week will be longer and better! I love you all!! Have an awesome week!!!!
Till next time,
Sister C
Trust god to move your mountain but keep on climbing!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Week 41 11/01/2010
Subject: im not looking forward to the snow!!
Ya ta hay everyone!!! How was everyones week….awesome, that’s good to hear. That’s the way it should be! Sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week! hope Halloween was spooky awesome!
Well this week was pretty awesome! its startin to get pretty cold. We tracted a lot s usual but we also had some pretty good lessons. Right now we’re trying to teach this lady named Arlene. She’s 98 years old, lives by herself, really hard of hearing, she wears glasses and uses a magnify glass to try a read anything. We tracted into her and ended up visiting with her a couple weeks ago and we’ve gone back every week since then and taught her the plan of salvation and the restoration and she really likes it. The only thing is I have the worst headaches whenever we leave from having to pretty much yell the lesson at her so she can hear. Lol. Her husband died 17 years ago, she has no kids and not very much family around anymore. So every time we go over there to see her she tells us “well im not gonna be here much longer im either gonna die or im gonna have to go to a nursing home” so she just gives us things. She loves us and she has no kids so she gives us just tons of stuff.im sure people see us walking out of her place every week and think we’re robbing this little out lady. lol She gave us a Christmas tree last week and a bunch of other random stuff so act surprised when Christmas comes around. Lol.
We’re also teaching this really awesome girl named tasha and we had an awesome lesson with her this week. She’s 23 or 24, she has 3 super cute kids and she’s going through a divorce and I don’t blame her cuz he’s a complete jerk. Anyway, her little girl matteson kept wanting to show me her dolls and wouldn’t really let us talk so sister felix played with her while I taught tasha and it ended up being about a 2 hour lesson cuz she had so many questions about everything. It was soo good. She’s never really prayed very much and it made he feel really weird at first and then at the end of the lesson she was like im gonna go pray. And I talked to her the next day and she told me she prayed twice the day before and she felt really good. So im really excited for her!!
One cool experience, we had a lesson with this lady named Karen that’s been meeting with the missionaries for awhile. So before we started the lesson we were trying to help her find her sewing needle that she dropped on the floor, could not find it anywhere. Doesn’t seem like that important of a thing but she was really worried about it and earlier that day she lost 2 gold rings that are worth over a thousand dollars each so she wasn’t in the best mood so in my head I said a little prayer and asked heavenly father to help us find the needle and I m not even kidding 2 seconds after that it was in a spot that I checked like 5 times. Heavenly father just like dropped it right there in front of us. I told Karen that I said a prayer to find it and her whole bad mood just went right out the window and she came to church yesterday!!! Yay!!! It was cool!!
Well yesterday was Halloween and it was awesome!! We had to either be in our apartments or at a members house by 6 until the end of the night. So we went to the cheneys of course and hung out there. I was in charge of the candy (not a very good idea) but I got to dress like cousin it and pass out candy all night…it was awesome!!!!
well that’s about it for now more to come next week. Have an awesome week!!! i love you all!!!!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Ya ta hay everyone!!! How was everyones week….awesome, that’s good to hear. That’s the way it should be! Sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week! hope Halloween was spooky awesome!
Well this week was pretty awesome! its startin to get pretty cold. We tracted a lot s usual but we also had some pretty good lessons. Right now we’re trying to teach this lady named Arlene. She’s 98 years old, lives by herself, really hard of hearing, she wears glasses and uses a magnify glass to try a read anything. We tracted into her and ended up visiting with her a couple weeks ago and we’ve gone back every week since then and taught her the plan of salvation and the restoration and she really likes it. The only thing is I have the worst headaches whenever we leave from having to pretty much yell the lesson at her so she can hear. Lol. Her husband died 17 years ago, she has no kids and not very much family around anymore. So every time we go over there to see her she tells us “well im not gonna be here much longer im either gonna die or im gonna have to go to a nursing home” so she just gives us things. She loves us and she has no kids so she gives us just tons of stuff.im sure people see us walking out of her place every week and think we’re robbing this little out lady. lol She gave us a Christmas tree last week and a bunch of other random stuff so act surprised when Christmas comes around. Lol.
We’re also teaching this really awesome girl named tasha and we had an awesome lesson with her this week. She’s 23 or 24, she has 3 super cute kids and she’s going through a divorce and I don’t blame her cuz he’s a complete jerk. Anyway, her little girl matteson kept wanting to show me her dolls and wouldn’t really let us talk so sister felix played with her while I taught tasha and it ended up being about a 2 hour lesson cuz she had so many questions about everything. It was soo good. She’s never really prayed very much and it made he feel really weird at first and then at the end of the lesson she was like im gonna go pray. And I talked to her the next day and she told me she prayed twice the day before and she felt really good. So im really excited for her!!
One cool experience, we had a lesson with this lady named Karen that’s been meeting with the missionaries for awhile. So before we started the lesson we were trying to help her find her sewing needle that she dropped on the floor, could not find it anywhere. Doesn’t seem like that important of a thing but she was really worried about it and earlier that day she lost 2 gold rings that are worth over a thousand dollars each so she wasn’t in the best mood so in my head I said a little prayer and asked heavenly father to help us find the needle and I m not even kidding 2 seconds after that it was in a spot that I checked like 5 times. Heavenly father just like dropped it right there in front of us. I told Karen that I said a prayer to find it and her whole bad mood just went right out the window and she came to church yesterday!!! Yay!!! It was cool!!
Well yesterday was Halloween and it was awesome!! We had to either be in our apartments or at a members house by 6 until the end of the night. So we went to the cheneys of course and hung out there. I was in charge of the candy (not a very good idea) but I got to dress like cousin it and pass out candy all night…it was awesome!!!!
well that’s about it for now more to come next week. Have an awesome week!!! i love you all!!!!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Week 40 10/25/2010
Subject: i love you all!!!!!
Hello everyone!!! Hope everyone had an awesome week! Happy birthday on Thursday grandpa!! Tell brian we’ll have a big ufc party when I get back!!! Whats everyone else been up to?
Well lets see, theres not a whole lot that changes around here especially since Wednesday. We did get to go and milk cows on Wednesday with the rest of our district last wednesday though. We got to play with the baby moo cows and I kidnapped one and brought it back to our apartment and named him norman!! (I wish, if we were allowed to have pets I totally would have.) so after we milked cows we all went out to lunch and guess what….Red Robin, yummm!!! They have one in Dubuque. Im sure you can imagine how happy I was and I think the elders think im even weirder than usual because of how excited I was. Lol.
Well we spent a lot of time tracting this week but what else is new. Thursday we got to go out to some of our members (the wouters, they’re and older couple) property and helped them get rid of some trees that got blown over during a big storm a couple months ago. It was pretty fun. I got to wear pants and I got to work outside. And brother wouters made sure to let everyone know at church yesterday that “sister callaway’s gonna make a real nice husband someday!” very nice! So after we were done helping with the trees we had dinner with the wouters and our branch president and his wife which was pretty fun.
We started teaching this guy named ted. I don’t think I told you about him yet but ted is a friend of some of our members, the frandsens (our gma and gpa out here, they take care of us) their dog actually reminds me of roxy, every time we go over there their puppy gets excited andjumps on me pees all over me. Its pretty sweet. Lol. Anyway, brother frandsen told us to go see his friend ted so we did and we taught him the plan of salvation and he loves it. We’ve met with him more than a couple times. He reads the book of mormon and believes everything we teach him. He’s a sassy old man, he’s awesome. But he doesn’t like things that mess with his “routine” but we can change that. Lol.
So kara and woody are awesome!!! We see them all the time. Woody has been a member his whole life and is kind of less active but its mostly just cuz he’s stubborn and he has to act like he’s all tough and doesn’t give a crap what anyone thinks but he’s a big teddy bear. And his wife kara got baptized almost a year ago now and she’s completely active. They’re soo awesome I love them!! Saturday night we had a lesson at their house with woodys sister kate who is also a member but hasn’t been active her whole life pretty much but she’s been asking woody a lot of questions and she wanted to meet with us. So now we’re having a lesson with them every Saturday and I know that helping kate get active will help woody be more active too.
We don’t get fed by members that often out here which is weird cuz we got fed almost every night in iowa city. So at the cheneys house we usually just go over whenever we want and help ourselves to the kitchen so we usually go over there every Sunday for dinner. Its awesome! We’re not allowed to knock on the door, we just walk right in its awesome its just like home. I love that family! They’re so much fun! They’re already planning on coming out to California to see me next summer. Lol. But according to president jergensen that wont be happening if he has anything to do with it. I was talking to him the other day and he said he’s giving me a 3 year extension. Im not allowed to go home until he and sister jergensen go home. Lol. And we decided we’re all gonna hangout at lake powell after that. Lol.
Welp that’s about it for now. Hopefully we’ll find some new people to tell you about next week! Have an awesome week everyone. I love you all!!! Thank you for everything!
Have a super spooky Halloween!!
Till next time
Sister C
Hello everyone!!! Hope everyone had an awesome week! Happy birthday on Thursday grandpa!! Tell brian we’ll have a big ufc party when I get back!!! Whats everyone else been up to?
Well lets see, theres not a whole lot that changes around here especially since Wednesday. We did get to go and milk cows on Wednesday with the rest of our district last wednesday though. We got to play with the baby moo cows and I kidnapped one and brought it back to our apartment and named him norman!! (I wish, if we were allowed to have pets I totally would have.) so after we milked cows we all went out to lunch and guess what….Red Robin, yummm!!! They have one in Dubuque. Im sure you can imagine how happy I was and I think the elders think im even weirder than usual because of how excited I was. Lol.
Well we spent a lot of time tracting this week but what else is new. Thursday we got to go out to some of our members (the wouters, they’re and older couple) property and helped them get rid of some trees that got blown over during a big storm a couple months ago. It was pretty fun. I got to wear pants and I got to work outside. And brother wouters made sure to let everyone know at church yesterday that “sister callaway’s gonna make a real nice husband someday!” very nice! So after we were done helping with the trees we had dinner with the wouters and our branch president and his wife which was pretty fun.
We started teaching this guy named ted. I don’t think I told you about him yet but ted is a friend of some of our members, the frandsens (our gma and gpa out here, they take care of us) their dog actually reminds me of roxy, every time we go over there their puppy gets excited andjumps on me pees all over me. Its pretty sweet. Lol. Anyway, brother frandsen told us to go see his friend ted so we did and we taught him the plan of salvation and he loves it. We’ve met with him more than a couple times. He reads the book of mormon and believes everything we teach him. He’s a sassy old man, he’s awesome. But he doesn’t like things that mess with his “routine” but we can change that. Lol.
So kara and woody are awesome!!! We see them all the time. Woody has been a member his whole life and is kind of less active but its mostly just cuz he’s stubborn and he has to act like he’s all tough and doesn’t give a crap what anyone thinks but he’s a big teddy bear. And his wife kara got baptized almost a year ago now and she’s completely active. They’re soo awesome I love them!! Saturday night we had a lesson at their house with woodys sister kate who is also a member but hasn’t been active her whole life pretty much but she’s been asking woody a lot of questions and she wanted to meet with us. So now we’re having a lesson with them every Saturday and I know that helping kate get active will help woody be more active too.
We don’t get fed by members that often out here which is weird cuz we got fed almost every night in iowa city. So at the cheneys house we usually just go over whenever we want and help ourselves to the kitchen so we usually go over there every Sunday for dinner. Its awesome! We’re not allowed to knock on the door, we just walk right in its awesome its just like home. I love that family! They’re so much fun! They’re already planning on coming out to California to see me next summer. Lol. But according to president jergensen that wont be happening if he has anything to do with it. I was talking to him the other day and he said he’s giving me a 3 year extension. Im not allowed to go home until he and sister jergensen go home. Lol. And we decided we’re all gonna hangout at lake powell after that. Lol.
Welp that’s about it for now. Hopefully we’ll find some new people to tell you about next week! Have an awesome week everyone. I love you all!!! Thank you for everything!
Have a super spooky Halloween!!
Till next time
Sister C
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Week 39 HAPPY HALF WAY DAY!!
Subject: happy happy day!!
Hello loved ones!! I hope everyones having an awesome day so far! Everyday should be awesome actually!!! Thank you for the package mommy! I love my little Frankenstein and mummy bobble heads! And the sweet business cards! Lol.
Well this computers gonna kick me off so lets see what I can tell you guys before it does… this last week was the best we’ve had in this area when it comes to teaching. We had a lot more lessons which was awesome! The members have been getting a lot more involved. We had dinner at the pawlowski’s (awesome family) on Monday and brother pawlowski had one of his friends that he works with (steve) come over and after dinner steve started asking questions about the plan of salvation so we taught him all about it. Hopefully we can keep teaching him! We had mutual with the young men and women and gave them a church tour where we teach them the restoration as we go through the church building. It was awesome! A couple of them brought some non member friends. It’s a really good way to help people feel the spirit in the church before even coming to church on a Sunday. We’ve gotten to teach some people that we’re given to us as referrals from some of the members. Lets see…joanie dropped us! Told us she doesn’t want us to come back, no idea what happened there.
Saturday we got to help at the fall festival for the elementary school here in town. That was pretty fun! Made me miss the good ole franklin school fall festival! Lol. It was really good, we ended up tracting into a couple families that we had met at the festival so that was cool. So I just have to tell you about one of the coolest families I’ve met (don’t worry pres. Gelder or sarah elzinga you guys are up there. My list is pretty long actually! Lol)their in our branch, the Cheneys are so awesome! They’ve got 8 awesome kids! They are our family here! They’re really hard to describe I just realized you just have to meet them! One of their girls, savannah looks just like haley though. Its weird. Then there’s kara and woody but this computers gonna kick me off so I’ll tell you about them next time.
I love you all soooooo much!! Have an awesome week! And everyone should go get a slurpee cuz I really want one right now!! John I am SOOOO excited for you!! Ya Jamaica mon!!!!
Till next time!!
Sister C
Hello loved ones!! I hope everyones having an awesome day so far! Everyday should be awesome actually!!! Thank you for the package mommy! I love my little Frankenstein and mummy bobble heads! And the sweet business cards! Lol.
Well this computers gonna kick me off so lets see what I can tell you guys before it does… this last week was the best we’ve had in this area when it comes to teaching. We had a lot more lessons which was awesome! The members have been getting a lot more involved. We had dinner at the pawlowski’s (awesome family) on Monday and brother pawlowski had one of his friends that he works with (steve) come over and after dinner steve started asking questions about the plan of salvation so we taught him all about it. Hopefully we can keep teaching him! We had mutual with the young men and women and gave them a church tour where we teach them the restoration as we go through the church building. It was awesome! A couple of them brought some non member friends. It’s a really good way to help people feel the spirit in the church before even coming to church on a Sunday. We’ve gotten to teach some people that we’re given to us as referrals from some of the members. Lets see…joanie dropped us! Told us she doesn’t want us to come back, no idea what happened there.
Saturday we got to help at the fall festival for the elementary school here in town. That was pretty fun! Made me miss the good ole franklin school fall festival! Lol. It was really good, we ended up tracting into a couple families that we had met at the festival so that was cool. So I just have to tell you about one of the coolest families I’ve met (don’t worry pres. Gelder or sarah elzinga you guys are up there. My list is pretty long actually! Lol)their in our branch, the Cheneys are so awesome! They’ve got 8 awesome kids! They are our family here! They’re really hard to describe I just realized you just have to meet them! One of their girls, savannah looks just like haley though. Its weird. Then there’s kara and woody but this computers gonna kick me off so I’ll tell you about them next time.
I love you all soooooo much!! Have an awesome week! And everyone should go get a slurpee cuz I really want one right now!! John I am SOOOO excited for you!! Ya Jamaica mon!!!!
Till next time!!
Sister C
Monday, October 11, 2010
Week 38 10/11/2010
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010
From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: XxOo
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello hello everyone!!!! Sounds like everyone had a pretty good week!!! Trev im soo excited for you!!!! Bein so close to lake powell that’s crazy! Tell scott meteer that I said congratulations!! What the heck, first everyone’s getting married while im gone and now everyone’s having babies…..well I guess that’s the way its supposed to work! Congratulations everyone!!!!
Well lets see, this week we were only in our area on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday which we spent that time tracting as usual. Tuesday night we went to go see joanie but she wasn’t home so we started to drive away when we saw this guy crawling across the road on his hands and knees. He’d crawl a couple steps and then rest his head on the ground and the keep going and then do it again. So sister felix and I got out of the car and joanies neighbor sherry was there and said that he was drunk and lived across the road. So sherry and I went to help him get up and take him to his house. so once we got him up I had to catch him cuz he couldn’t stand up at all. He was soo wasted! So we had his arm around mine and sherry’s shoulders and got him to his house and I smelt like alcohol and pee after that! That’s right, he was so drunk he peed on himself!! Gotta love iowa!!!!!
Wednesday morning sister felix and I drove to iowa city and go to des moines and cedar falls from there. So when I was getting my stuff out of the car guess who came to the stake center to surprise me…anna!!!! We both kinda freaked out!! Oh my gosh, she made me day, week, month all of the above! so from there sister felix went with sister whitbeck to cedar falls and I went to des moines with a van full of elders! It takes about 2 hours to get from iowa city to des moines and that’s about as close as we get to a road trip so its usually pretty exciting for us. Lol. So once we got to des moines we met at the stake center where we had our training Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and it was awesome!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I cant explain how much I loved it! I love being around president and sister jergensen and all the other missionary leaders! The first day we had training from 12-6 and then Thursday and Friday we all had breakfast together at the mission home and then had training from 10-5 and after that everyone went out and worked, tracting mostly in des moines so we pretty much swarmed des moines with about 15-20 companionships of missionaries. So after finishing up the night we all went back to the mission home and hung out with eachother and played ping pong with president and sister jergensen all night (till 10:30 lol ). It was awesome! Our training was really focused on revelation. Revelation through the book of mormon, revelation through church attendance and revelation through prayer. Those are the most important things for an investigator to have. They have to read from the book of mormon or else they aren’t going to progress and gain a real testimony which is important and so true. Even as members we have to keep reading the book of mormon or we’re not going to progress either. I LOVE the book of mormon!!! I have a hard time going to bed at night sometimes cuz I don’t wanna put it down. Throughout the day we would have training on one topic and then we would go into the gym and split up into groups and practice teaching. I loved it! The spirit was so strong. And its not everyday that I get to teach with an elder as my companion. Lol. I got to teach with president jergensen and with a couple other elders it was fun and the spirit was defiantly super strong.
Friday night I went back to iowa city with the elders and picked up our car and sister felix and then we went to dinner with all the elders before heading back to Maquoketa. I got to see the hungers (at the restaurant) that are in the iowa city ward! I miss that ward so bad!!!!
Well that was about it for my week! It was awesome! Next week is transfers so I wont be emailing till Wednesday!! I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!!!
Philippians 1:3-4
Till next time
Sister C
From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: XxOo
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello hello everyone!!!! Sounds like everyone had a pretty good week!!! Trev im soo excited for you!!!! Bein so close to lake powell that’s crazy! Tell scott meteer that I said congratulations!! What the heck, first everyone’s getting married while im gone and now everyone’s having babies…..well I guess that’s the way its supposed to work! Congratulations everyone!!!!
Well lets see, this week we were only in our area on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday which we spent that time tracting as usual. Tuesday night we went to go see joanie but she wasn’t home so we started to drive away when we saw this guy crawling across the road on his hands and knees. He’d crawl a couple steps and then rest his head on the ground and the keep going and then do it again. So sister felix and I got out of the car and joanies neighbor sherry was there and said that he was drunk and lived across the road. So sherry and I went to help him get up and take him to his house. so once we got him up I had to catch him cuz he couldn’t stand up at all. He was soo wasted! So we had his arm around mine and sherry’s shoulders and got him to his house and I smelt like alcohol and pee after that! That’s right, he was so drunk he peed on himself!! Gotta love iowa!!!!!
Wednesday morning sister felix and I drove to iowa city and go to des moines and cedar falls from there. So when I was getting my stuff out of the car guess who came to the stake center to surprise me…anna!!!! We both kinda freaked out!! Oh my gosh, she made me day, week, month all of the above! so from there sister felix went with sister whitbeck to cedar falls and I went to des moines with a van full of elders! It takes about 2 hours to get from iowa city to des moines and that’s about as close as we get to a road trip so its usually pretty exciting for us. Lol. So once we got to des moines we met at the stake center where we had our training Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and it was awesome!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I cant explain how much I loved it! I love being around president and sister jergensen and all the other missionary leaders! The first day we had training from 12-6 and then Thursday and Friday we all had breakfast together at the mission home and then had training from 10-5 and after that everyone went out and worked, tracting mostly in des moines so we pretty much swarmed des moines with about 15-20 companionships of missionaries. So after finishing up the night we all went back to the mission home and hung out with eachother and played ping pong with president and sister jergensen all night (till 10:30 lol ). It was awesome! Our training was really focused on revelation. Revelation through the book of mormon, revelation through church attendance and revelation through prayer. Those are the most important things for an investigator to have. They have to read from the book of mormon or else they aren’t going to progress and gain a real testimony which is important and so true. Even as members we have to keep reading the book of mormon or we’re not going to progress either. I LOVE the book of mormon!!! I have a hard time going to bed at night sometimes cuz I don’t wanna put it down. Throughout the day we would have training on one topic and then we would go into the gym and split up into groups and practice teaching. I loved it! The spirit was so strong. And its not everyday that I get to teach with an elder as my companion. Lol. I got to teach with president jergensen and with a couple other elders it was fun and the spirit was defiantly super strong.
Friday night I went back to iowa city with the elders and picked up our car and sister felix and then we went to dinner with all the elders before heading back to Maquoketa. I got to see the hungers (at the restaurant) that are in the iowa city ward! I miss that ward so bad!!!!
Well that was about it for my week! It was awesome! Next week is transfers so I wont be emailing till Wednesday!! I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!!!
Philippians 1:3-4
Till next time
Sister C
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Week 37 10/4/2010
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2010
From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: happy october!!!!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello hello loved ones!!!! Happy October!!!! Im so excited for Halloween even though I cant really do anything cuz im a missionary but I still love Halloween!! Lol. Maybe I’ll dress up as an elder! Sounds like you guys had a pretty exciting weekend in Utah!sounds like you guys saw just about everyone there. I hope Trev had a good birthday! And thank you for your letter Uncle Mike! Im glad you guys liked the postcard. Im going to say Trevs going to Chile! Conference was awesome! I hope everyone enjoyed it…and stayed awake!! Haha. I loved President Eyrings talk on trusting god and President Monson talk on the attitude of gratitude!!! I cant wait for the conference ensign to come out!!
Well here in maquoketa/de witt we’ve been doin a lot of tracting but what else is new, oh that’s right…nothing. Lol. Just the same old same old, tracting, service at the nursing home and at the museum. We had zone conference this last Thursday which is always awesome! We’re only having zone conferences every 3 months now because the 1st presidency I guess wants the mission presidents to start going out with the missionaries more so Sister Jergensen gets to come out with us. Its awesome but at the same time I love zone conference, it pumps you up for the transfer but we’ll see how it works out. This week we have leadership training on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for all the zone leaders, district leaders and trainers. so sister felix gets to go to either iowa city or cedar falls and serve with the sisters there while I go to des moines for three days which is gonna be awesome!!!!i heard the training is amazing so im super super excited for that!!
Anyway, sorry this is such a shortie but we’ve gotta get up to davenport in a little bit but I love you all!! Hopefully I have more to talk about next week!! Have an awesome week everyone!!
Till next time
Sister C
From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: happy october!!!!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello hello loved ones!!!! Happy October!!!! Im so excited for Halloween even though I cant really do anything cuz im a missionary but I still love Halloween!! Lol. Maybe I’ll dress up as an elder! Sounds like you guys had a pretty exciting weekend in Utah!sounds like you guys saw just about everyone there. I hope Trev had a good birthday! And thank you for your letter Uncle Mike! Im glad you guys liked the postcard. Im going to say Trevs going to Chile! Conference was awesome! I hope everyone enjoyed it…and stayed awake!! Haha. I loved President Eyrings talk on trusting god and President Monson talk on the attitude of gratitude!!! I cant wait for the conference ensign to come out!!
Well here in maquoketa/de witt we’ve been doin a lot of tracting but what else is new, oh that’s right…nothing. Lol. Just the same old same old, tracting, service at the nursing home and at the museum. We had zone conference this last Thursday which is always awesome! We’re only having zone conferences every 3 months now because the 1st presidency I guess wants the mission presidents to start going out with the missionaries more so Sister Jergensen gets to come out with us. Its awesome but at the same time I love zone conference, it pumps you up for the transfer but we’ll see how it works out. This week we have leadership training on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for all the zone leaders, district leaders and trainers. so sister felix gets to go to either iowa city or cedar falls and serve with the sisters there while I go to des moines for three days which is gonna be awesome!!!!i heard the training is amazing so im super super excited for that!!
Anyway, sorry this is such a shortie but we’ve gotta get up to davenport in a little bit but I love you all!! Hopefully I have more to talk about next week!! Have an awesome week everyone!!
Till next time
Sister C
Monday, September 27, 2010
Week 36 9/27/2010
From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: who loves tracting!!?!!!! :)
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hola, aloha, ya ta hay, shalom….Hello!!!!! I hope everyone had a super duper awesome week!! congrats on your meet ames! I told you you’d do awesome!!!! Thank you for the package mom!!! I loved it!!
Well lets see….not much has changed since my email last week. we tracted pretty much the entire week. we had about 5 lessons planned for this week and all of them either canceled or just weren’t home. So that was a bummer but oh well. Try try and try again right! We did have a lesson with our investigator joanie. She’s in her 70’s I think, she’s been meeting with the missionaries for a while, she’s had a baptismal date a couple times and wants to get baptized but she’s stuck on tithing. And we’ve tried and tried to help her understand that as we put our faith in Christ and in heavenly father and put them first that they will make sure she’s taken care of and of course heavenly father answers prayers but in his time or in the timing that is right for us. Heavenly father knows best!!
so our week consisted of tracting and service. We helped joanie clean her house. Oh my word. I will never complain about a messy house again!!! (well, I’ll try really hard not to) but lets just say it was horrible that’s all I can say . Joanie is soo awesome though!! She’s been through soo much in her life! She’s one TOUGH cookie lets just leave it at that! We’ve also been doing service at the Clinton engine museum. It used to be the worlds largest small engine manufacturer and now one of the members in our branch runs the museum so we help her and her husband out over there on Wednesdays. We’ve also had a few unexpected service opportunities while we were contacting some referrals and ended up helping one lady clean and rearrange some of her furniture. And from that she said she would like us to come back and help her out around her house and teach her. I hate that I’ve gotten to the point that I feel weird in pants! I don’t like it! Lol.
Saturday night we went and watched the relief society broadcast at the church. I honestly don’t think ive ever watched the relief society session, shame on me! It was awesome! President monson is soo cute! He was so funny but aside from that I LOVED his talk about not being judgmental!! It was such a good lesson about not judging someone based on their looks, circumstances etc.. im soooo excited to watch conference this weekend! Sister felix and I have been trying to encourage the members in our branch to pray specifically to invite someone to watch conference with them this weekend. It’s a great way to share the gospel with friends and family. We should all have some kind of question in mind when you watch conference and it will be answered in some way. Ive had that happen at church on Sundays and last conference! Its awesome!
You’re all awesome!!! Thank you for everything! I love you all!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Subject: who loves tracting!!?!!!! :)
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hola, aloha, ya ta hay, shalom….Hello!!!!! I hope everyone had a super duper awesome week!! congrats on your meet ames! I told you you’d do awesome!!!! Thank you for the package mom!!! I loved it!!
Well lets see….not much has changed since my email last week. we tracted pretty much the entire week. we had about 5 lessons planned for this week and all of them either canceled or just weren’t home. So that was a bummer but oh well. Try try and try again right! We did have a lesson with our investigator joanie. She’s in her 70’s I think, she’s been meeting with the missionaries for a while, she’s had a baptismal date a couple times and wants to get baptized but she’s stuck on tithing. And we’ve tried and tried to help her understand that as we put our faith in Christ and in heavenly father and put them first that they will make sure she’s taken care of and of course heavenly father answers prayers but in his time or in the timing that is right for us. Heavenly father knows best!!
so our week consisted of tracting and service. We helped joanie clean her house. Oh my word. I will never complain about a messy house again!!! (well, I’ll try really hard not to) but lets just say it was horrible that’s all I can say . Joanie is soo awesome though!! She’s been through soo much in her life! She’s one TOUGH cookie lets just leave it at that! We’ve also been doing service at the Clinton engine museum. It used to be the worlds largest small engine manufacturer and now one of the members in our branch runs the museum so we help her and her husband out over there on Wednesdays. We’ve also had a few unexpected service opportunities while we were contacting some referrals and ended up helping one lady clean and rearrange some of her furniture. And from that she said she would like us to come back and help her out around her house and teach her. I hate that I’ve gotten to the point that I feel weird in pants! I don’t like it! Lol.
Saturday night we went and watched the relief society broadcast at the church. I honestly don’t think ive ever watched the relief society session, shame on me! It was awesome! President monson is soo cute! He was so funny but aside from that I LOVED his talk about not being judgmental!! It was such a good lesson about not judging someone based on their looks, circumstances etc.. im soooo excited to watch conference this weekend! Sister felix and I have been trying to encourage the members in our branch to pray specifically to invite someone to watch conference with them this weekend. It’s a great way to share the gospel with friends and family. We should all have some kind of question in mind when you watch conference and it will be answered in some way. Ive had that happen at church on Sundays and last conference! Its awesome!
You’re all awesome!!! Thank you for everything! I love you all!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Week 35 9/21/2010
Subject: the sunny side of life!!!!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello loved ones!! How was everyones week!?!anything exciting!?! come on gimme somethin. lol. good luck at your meet this weekend ames!!
Well here in Maquoketa (ma-coke-a-duh!) we’ve been trackting and street contacting a lot. And it doesn’t take very long to start walking from one part of town and end up back at the same spot. We’ve been going through our ward list and going around and trying to meet all of the less active or not active members of the ward. So far most of them want nothing to do with the church so we got yelled at a couple times while we did that this week. We had some people get mad at us and some that were just really rude to us while we were tracting this week. Sister felix started getting really upset about it so I told her about how much I despised tracting the first couple months I was out here and then I actually read a part of a letter I got from blake that helped me really realize that its ALL about your attitude. You have to have a sense of humor about stuff like that or else you’re gonna be miserable and then you start to get to the point where you don’t even care if someone yells at you. Whatever the world throws at me I just throw back a smile! Partially because I just like being happy and because I know that I have the gospel of jesus Christ and nothing is as important as that. Its sad that they are passing up the opportunity to have it too but everyone has their agency. Anyway, I’ve been praying so much to find investigators for this area, people that are being prepared because they are out there we just have to find them and we will. So Friday night we went tracting but the only problem was that no one was home, they were all at the high school homecoming football game so we went and talked to people up at the game. Its right next to a bunch of cornfields (go figure) so we ended up being there for about half of the game talking to this one guy and his wife that are actually starting their own Baptist church this week so we talked to them for awhile. While we were walking home from that we knocked on this guys door and ended up teaching him the 1st lesson and we’re going back to teach him tomorrow. He’s so cool, his name’s ben and he started reading the book of mormon. Im super excited to go back tomorrow. On sunday we went tracting and we knocked on this one door and this guy named jay came out of the house next door and told us to come over. So we went over and he invited us in to listen to his brother and his wife play the guitar and sing. So his brother and his wife are sooo good they just got back from nashville!! Faith hill and tim mcgraw are their producers and their soo good! We’re gonna go back and see them later this week.
So we had mission conference yesterday. It was really nice cuz it wasn’t the whole mission though, they split it into two different sessions so we have 5 zone at ours yesterday. We had a general authority, elder zwick come and teach us. Elder zwick is actually president jergensens wifes brother so that was really special for her. It was awesome!! We learned a lot about using preach my gospel and the scriptures together while we teach. So elder zwick have 4 companionships go up and demonstrate in front of everyone. And of course one of those companionships had to be mine. We each had to teach a principle from preach my gospel. If I can get up and teach in front of a room full of missionaries, my mission president and a general authority I guess that should probably get me over my fear of talking in front of people huh.
Well that’s about it for now. I hope everyone has a super awesome week!!!! Thank you everyone for all your support and for all the letters!! I’ve never loved mail so much in my life. Lol. I love you all!! And remember: whatever the world throws at you, throw back a SMILE!!!!!
Till next time
Sister C
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello loved ones!! How was everyones week!?!anything exciting!?! come on gimme somethin. lol. good luck at your meet this weekend ames!!
Well here in Maquoketa (ma-coke-a-duh!) we’ve been trackting and street contacting a lot. And it doesn’t take very long to start walking from one part of town and end up back at the same spot. We’ve been going through our ward list and going around and trying to meet all of the less active or not active members of the ward. So far most of them want nothing to do with the church so we got yelled at a couple times while we did that this week. We had some people get mad at us and some that were just really rude to us while we were tracting this week. Sister felix started getting really upset about it so I told her about how much I despised tracting the first couple months I was out here and then I actually read a part of a letter I got from blake that helped me really realize that its ALL about your attitude. You have to have a sense of humor about stuff like that or else you’re gonna be miserable and then you start to get to the point where you don’t even care if someone yells at you. Whatever the world throws at me I just throw back a smile! Partially because I just like being happy and because I know that I have the gospel of jesus Christ and nothing is as important as that. Its sad that they are passing up the opportunity to have it too but everyone has their agency. Anyway, I’ve been praying so much to find investigators for this area, people that are being prepared because they are out there we just have to find them and we will. So Friday night we went tracting but the only problem was that no one was home, they were all at the high school homecoming football game so we went and talked to people up at the game. Its right next to a bunch of cornfields (go figure) so we ended up being there for about half of the game talking to this one guy and his wife that are actually starting their own Baptist church this week so we talked to them for awhile. While we were walking home from that we knocked on this guys door and ended up teaching him the 1st lesson and we’re going back to teach him tomorrow. He’s so cool, his name’s ben and he started reading the book of mormon. Im super excited to go back tomorrow. On sunday we went tracting and we knocked on this one door and this guy named jay came out of the house next door and told us to come over. So we went over and he invited us in to listen to his brother and his wife play the guitar and sing. So his brother and his wife are sooo good they just got back from nashville!! Faith hill and tim mcgraw are their producers and their soo good! We’re gonna go back and see them later this week.
So we had mission conference yesterday. It was really nice cuz it wasn’t the whole mission though, they split it into two different sessions so we have 5 zone at ours yesterday. We had a general authority, elder zwick come and teach us. Elder zwick is actually president jergensens wifes brother so that was really special for her. It was awesome!! We learned a lot about using preach my gospel and the scriptures together while we teach. So elder zwick have 4 companionships go up and demonstrate in front of everyone. And of course one of those companionships had to be mine. We each had to teach a principle from preach my gospel. If I can get up and teach in front of a room full of missionaries, my mission president and a general authority I guess that should probably get me over my fear of talking in front of people huh.
Well that’s about it for now. I hope everyone has a super awesome week!!!! Thank you everyone for all your support and for all the letters!! I’ve never loved mail so much in my life. Lol. I love you all!! And remember: whatever the world throws at you, throw back a SMILE!!!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Monday, September 13, 2010
Week 34 9/13/2010
Subject: hello from maquoketa!!!!!!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
hello from Maquoketa!! I hope everyones having an awesome week so far…granted its only Monday but I hope everyones having an awesome Monday! Thank you for all the letters ive gotten from everyone im slowly but surely writing you back I promise.
So they changed the way we’re doing transfers now. Instead of having everyone be picked up by the transfer van and having trainers pick up their greenies in des moines everyone that is being transferred or getting a new companion goes to the stake center in iowa city and we have a big transfer meeting with president jergensen where he announces where everyone is going and with who. So that’s how I met my new greenie sister felix. She’s from Anaheim California. She’s super cute and quiet. We are the complete opposite in every way shape and form possible so far. Its really funny! But I like her! I don’t know what heavenly father was thinkin having me train, hopefully I don’t ruin this girl. Lol.
Its really weird not being in iowa city. Being in a new area with a new companion where neither one of us know whats going on in the area. Its super awesome! So we got to Maquoketa Thursday afternoon. The elders that were there before us told me that they did their best to clean it for us. We all know what that means…so we ended up spending a couple hours actually cleaning the apartment before we got settled in. lol. Since then we’ve pretty much been trying to meet a lot of the members in the branch and meeting the investigators that the elders left for us which aren’t very many but we work with what we’ve got. There are A LOT of inactive members here. It could be a ward if even half of the inactive list became active. We’ve got a lot of work to do. And our area is really big. Maquoketa is a super small town and its really spread out. And then we cover a few other towns that are about 30-40 minutes away. We have to drive about 30-35 minutes to get to church but that’s okay cuz I get to drive a super nice chevy Malibu forget the soccer mom van I drove in iowa city. Lol. it is soooooo pretty out here, its ridiculous. Its gonna be a really busy week trying to find new investigators and starting to work with the ones we have and with the members. We’re supposed to preach the gospel to every living creature….theres a lot of hogs out here im sure theres some potential with them if we cant find any in town this week but we will.
Sorry this was kind of a pooper of an email this week but I do love you all!! I love being a missionary! This is the greatest work! To go out and to share with other people the plan that heavenly father has for all of us. To come to earth and live (no matter how long or short of a time that might be)so that we can learn and progress to be more like heavenly father and live with him again after this life. that’s what he wants for us. He wants us to be happy! thats my favorite thing to share with people and if it wasn’t for a really good friend of mine that I love and miss so much I wouldn’t be out here sharing that with people. So thank you to her and to her mom! Phillipians 1:3
You’re all in my prayers! I love you all
Till next time
Sister C
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
hello from Maquoketa!! I hope everyones having an awesome week so far…granted its only Monday but I hope everyones having an awesome Monday! Thank you for all the letters ive gotten from everyone im slowly but surely writing you back I promise.
So they changed the way we’re doing transfers now. Instead of having everyone be picked up by the transfer van and having trainers pick up their greenies in des moines everyone that is being transferred or getting a new companion goes to the stake center in iowa city and we have a big transfer meeting with president jergensen where he announces where everyone is going and with who. So that’s how I met my new greenie sister felix. She’s from Anaheim California. She’s super cute and quiet. We are the complete opposite in every way shape and form possible so far. Its really funny! But I like her! I don’t know what heavenly father was thinkin having me train, hopefully I don’t ruin this girl. Lol.
Its really weird not being in iowa city. Being in a new area with a new companion where neither one of us know whats going on in the area. Its super awesome! So we got to Maquoketa Thursday afternoon. The elders that were there before us told me that they did their best to clean it for us. We all know what that means…so we ended up spending a couple hours actually cleaning the apartment before we got settled in. lol. Since then we’ve pretty much been trying to meet a lot of the members in the branch and meeting the investigators that the elders left for us which aren’t very many but we work with what we’ve got. There are A LOT of inactive members here. It could be a ward if even half of the inactive list became active. We’ve got a lot of work to do. And our area is really big. Maquoketa is a super small town and its really spread out. And then we cover a few other towns that are about 30-40 minutes away. We have to drive about 30-35 minutes to get to church but that’s okay cuz I get to drive a super nice chevy Malibu forget the soccer mom van I drove in iowa city. Lol. it is soooooo pretty out here, its ridiculous. Its gonna be a really busy week trying to find new investigators and starting to work with the ones we have and with the members. We’re supposed to preach the gospel to every living creature….theres a lot of hogs out here im sure theres some potential with them if we cant find any in town this week but we will.
Sorry this was kind of a pooper of an email this week but I do love you all!! I love being a missionary! This is the greatest work! To go out and to share with other people the plan that heavenly father has for all of us. To come to earth and live (no matter how long or short of a time that might be)so that we can learn and progress to be more like heavenly father and live with him again after this life. that’s what he wants for us. He wants us to be happy! thats my favorite thing to share with people and if it wasn’t for a really good friend of mine that I love and miss so much I wouldn’t be out here sharing that with people. So thank you to her and to her mom! Phillipians 1:3
You’re all in my prayers! I love you all
Till next time
Sister C
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Courtney has lived with the Gelders while in Iowa City. Brother Gelder sent me this email today. The people in Iowa City have been great.
Hi Anna,
I am told you already know, but Sister Callaway transferred away from us this morning. :( She is transferring to the town of Maquoketa, where she will be a trainer to a new missionary from the MTC. The two of them will open the town for sister missionaries--there were elders living there until today. We will certainly miss her. We love her, and she's been a wonderful missionary here, as well as a great addition to our family for the time she was here. You can be very proud of her and of the growth she has shown during the 4+ months she lived with us, as well as her great attitude. She of course loves you and misses you (and enjoyed hearing your recorded voice the other day), but know that she is where she should be and is doing a good job and has a strong testimony. She will be a great trainer.
I hope you will stay in touch. I wish you and your family well always.
Love,
Bruce Gelder
Hi Anna,
I am told you already know, but Sister Callaway transferred away from us this morning. :( She is transferring to the town of Maquoketa, where she will be a trainer to a new missionary from the MTC. The two of them will open the town for sister missionaries--there were elders living there until today. We will certainly miss her. We love her, and she's been a wonderful missionary here, as well as a great addition to our family for the time she was here. You can be very proud of her and of the growth she has shown during the 4+ months she lived with us, as well as her great attitude. She of course loves you and misses you (and enjoyed hearing your recorded voice the other day), but know that she is where she should be and is doing a good job and has a strong testimony. She will be a great trainer.
I hope you will stay in touch. I wish you and your family well always.
Love,
Bruce Gelder
Week 33 9/9/2010
Bye bye Iowa City!!!
Hello!!!!! How was everyones week!? whats everyone up to? Happy birthday last Saturday daddy d!!
First of all, the weather has been amazing the past week and a half!! I love it!! Feels like California weather!! Football season is definatley here. Saturday was the first hawkeye game of the season and i’ve never seen so many people dressed in black and gold before. Definatley not as good as any del oro game! But holy cow people are dedicated to the hawkeyes out here. I’ve seen so many people w the hawkeye tattooed on their backs or legs and who knows where else. This week was pretty crazy for us. We’ve been in a tri-companionship for the last week because one of the sisters from a different area was emergency transferred to us. President had to move her before there was a beat down. I like her though, she’s awesome! Its really weird going tracting with 3 people. I feel like it’s a little overwhelming for the person whos door we are knocking on but teaching with 3 people is pretty nice. We’ve doing A LOT of work with the members and the less active members and recent converts in the ward this week because we haven’t had anyone to teach except for ricky. Anna is amazing as usual! She got a calling a couple weeks in relief society. She had no idea what it was but she was excited!
We saw ricky a couple times this week and he’s getting baptized next Saturday!!! Im soo excited for him. Ricky’s so awesome! And of course im getting transferred the week before. I leave tomorrow for maquokada (don’t ask me how to spell that). Im training for the next 2 transfers!im super excited but a little nervous at the same time. Should be quite the adventure!! This transfer has been really good but pretty hard at the same time so im hoping that the next 2 will be ever better. I cant even explain how much I don’t want to leave iowa city though. Im excited to go somewhere else but I don’t want to leave the people here. Ahh. But obviously god doesn’t want me here anymore, you cant really argue with him about it. Lol. Anna was really upset when I told her I was leaving! Im gonna everyone but especially anna and leslie and the elzingas! I’ll definatley be back to visit though! the last couple of days we’ve pretty much been tracting and running around so I could say bye to people. Sorry this ones kinda of short but I’ve gotta go finish packing (my favorite thing to do!! Lol)
I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!! Have a good first day of school steph!! Blake, presty, trav, vita and steph…be good! Have fun! Tell Idaho hello for me.
Till next time
Sister C
Hello!!!!! How was everyones week!? whats everyone up to? Happy birthday last Saturday daddy d!!
First of all, the weather has been amazing the past week and a half!! I love it!! Feels like California weather!! Football season is definatley here. Saturday was the first hawkeye game of the season and i’ve never seen so many people dressed in black and gold before. Definatley not as good as any del oro game! But holy cow people are dedicated to the hawkeyes out here. I’ve seen so many people w the hawkeye tattooed on their backs or legs and who knows where else. This week was pretty crazy for us. We’ve been in a tri-companionship for the last week because one of the sisters from a different area was emergency transferred to us. President had to move her before there was a beat down. I like her though, she’s awesome! Its really weird going tracting with 3 people. I feel like it’s a little overwhelming for the person whos door we are knocking on but teaching with 3 people is pretty nice. We’ve doing A LOT of work with the members and the less active members and recent converts in the ward this week because we haven’t had anyone to teach except for ricky. Anna is amazing as usual! She got a calling a couple weeks in relief society. She had no idea what it was but she was excited!
We saw ricky a couple times this week and he’s getting baptized next Saturday!!! Im soo excited for him. Ricky’s so awesome! And of course im getting transferred the week before. I leave tomorrow for maquokada (don’t ask me how to spell that). Im training for the next 2 transfers!im super excited but a little nervous at the same time. Should be quite the adventure!! This transfer has been really good but pretty hard at the same time so im hoping that the next 2 will be ever better. I cant even explain how much I don’t want to leave iowa city though. Im excited to go somewhere else but I don’t want to leave the people here. Ahh. But obviously god doesn’t want me here anymore, you cant really argue with him about it. Lol. Anna was really upset when I told her I was leaving! Im gonna everyone but especially anna and leslie and the elzingas! I’ll definatley be back to visit though! the last couple of days we’ve pretty much been tracting and running around so I could say bye to people. Sorry this ones kinda of short but I’ve gotta go finish packing (my favorite thing to do!! Lol)
I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!! Have a good first day of school steph!! Blake, presty, trav, vita and steph…be good! Have fun! Tell Idaho hello for me.
Till next time
Sister C
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Stormin in Iowa
I'm not sure when this was taken
but thought it was funny and fun to
see and hear her voice.
but thought it was funny and fun to
see and hear her voice.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Week 32 8/31/2010
Subject: happy monday!!!
Hello everyone!! I don’t have very much time today, the library is packed so ive only got 30 minutes on the computer. First off thank you to the jarvis’ and the zufelts for the letters I got this week! You guys are awesome! And thank you dad for the lake powell shirt..i love it!! And for the pictures mom!! Sounds like everyones doin awesome!!
This week in a nut shell was really good. We did a lot of tracting considering we only have about 4 investigators. We meet a lot of really cool people that we’re gonna make sure to go and visit this week. Sister jergensen came to an appointment we had with leslie and anna on Tuesday. That was awesome! I wish sister jergensen could come out with us all the time. Really the whole week wasn’t to exciting, just normal but it was good, leading up to the weekend which was awesome! So about 2 weeks ago sister graham and I tracted into this guy named jerry that turns out to be a member. He got baptized into our ward 15 years ago and then moved to florida and just moved back and he said he wanted to start coming back to church actually. He didn’t come last week though. But then we were tracting on Saturday on this random street that is on the other side of town from where he lives and we ran into him on the street with his son.
Yesterday I was standing outside the chapel saying hi to everyone as they were walking in and in my head I just asked heavenly father to do whatever he needed to to get jerry at church and I swear maybe a minute later jerry and his son gavin walked into the chapel. God is so cool! Jerry is so cool! And then after church was over I met this guy named frank that just moved here from Chicago and was taking the lessons while he was there and just showed up to our ward. He’s around our age and loves coming to our church. He said he feels the spirit in our church more than he has at any other church he’s gone to and really wants to keep learning!! Im soo excited! And ricky wants to get baptized and sister graham and I taught sharing time yesterday and taught about miracles . and I talked about our family and about grandma and grandpa being sealed in the temple. It was an awesome day! Have you ever been so happy and excited on the inside that you feel like you’re gonna burst…that was me yesterday. All you can really do is smile!!! Its awesome and I love it! Ive never been happier in my life than I have been the last 7 months!
I love you all and Im soo thankful and happy that you are all a part of my life!! Thank you!!!! Have an awesome week!!! Do your duties with a heart full of song!!!
Till next time (which will be next Wednesday….transfers!!)
Sister C
Hello everyone!! I don’t have very much time today, the library is packed so ive only got 30 minutes on the computer. First off thank you to the jarvis’ and the zufelts for the letters I got this week! You guys are awesome! And thank you dad for the lake powell shirt..i love it!! And for the pictures mom!! Sounds like everyones doin awesome!!
This week in a nut shell was really good. We did a lot of tracting considering we only have about 4 investigators. We meet a lot of really cool people that we’re gonna make sure to go and visit this week. Sister jergensen came to an appointment we had with leslie and anna on Tuesday. That was awesome! I wish sister jergensen could come out with us all the time. Really the whole week wasn’t to exciting, just normal but it was good, leading up to the weekend which was awesome! So about 2 weeks ago sister graham and I tracted into this guy named jerry that turns out to be a member. He got baptized into our ward 15 years ago and then moved to florida and just moved back and he said he wanted to start coming back to church actually. He didn’t come last week though. But then we were tracting on Saturday on this random street that is on the other side of town from where he lives and we ran into him on the street with his son.
Yesterday I was standing outside the chapel saying hi to everyone as they were walking in and in my head I just asked heavenly father to do whatever he needed to to get jerry at church and I swear maybe a minute later jerry and his son gavin walked into the chapel. God is so cool! Jerry is so cool! And then after church was over I met this guy named frank that just moved here from Chicago and was taking the lessons while he was there and just showed up to our ward. He’s around our age and loves coming to our church. He said he feels the spirit in our church more than he has at any other church he’s gone to and really wants to keep learning!! Im soo excited! And ricky wants to get baptized and sister graham and I taught sharing time yesterday and taught about miracles . and I talked about our family and about grandma and grandpa being sealed in the temple. It was an awesome day! Have you ever been so happy and excited on the inside that you feel like you’re gonna burst…that was me yesterday. All you can really do is smile!!! Its awesome and I love it! Ive never been happier in my life than I have been the last 7 months!
I love you all and Im soo thankful and happy that you are all a part of my life!! Thank you!!!! Have an awesome week!!! Do your duties with a heart full of song!!!
Till next time (which will be next Wednesday….transfers!!)
Sister C
Sister Callaways song.
This was a song written for Courtney by Joe (now Elder Fagersten) before she was transfered to Iowa City.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Week 31 08/23/2010
Last friday Courtney hit her 7 month mark! I can't believe she's almost half way! I had some people asking me if she has been affected by recent flooding so I asked my "source" and he said it hasn't affected their area. So here is this weeks letter:
.From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: hello mr sunshine!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Happy Monday everyone!!! I hope everyone has an awesome day!! Sounds like it was an exciting weekend. Lots of weddings and homecoming talks. Everyones starting school…woohoo!!!! I cant believe amy’s in high school..barf! thank you everyone for all the letters I get from you. I got some from some of the young women from girls camp, from lily and just from family and friends that I love and I appreciate them all!! I know im really bad at writing especially out here but ive got letters on the way to as many as I can. Josh and ally I love you, im sorry I haven’t written but im getting on it! And taylor cole and ashlynn too. I did meet wade and beckys niece Erica and her husband Andrew at church yesterday. The mormon world really is pretty small I guess. They seem awesome!!
Well this week was really slow and not the best week. It was pretty stressful. Our investigators are droppin like its hot. Lol. I mean like flies. And we haven’t had much luck finding any new ones.we are working with grethchens friend ricky though. He’s awesome and wants to be baptized so we’re gonna be working with him a lot more this week. We’ve been doing a lot of work with the less actives and the part member families in our ward this week. We finally saw sara for the first time in a couple weeks. Lots of work with the members doing service this week. I LOVE this ward!i love it I love it I love it!! The people are amazing! I wish I could stay here the rest of my mission!!! Sister elzinga reminds me of you mom. Everything about her! She’s awesome!!
Tomorrow our mission presidents wife sister jergensen is going to be spending the day with sister graham and i. so that will be pretty awesome! So I bought this little notebook last week and carry it around with me everywhere and started writing down everything that im grateful for, anything that pops into my head and wow im startin to fill it up pretty fast and I love being able to think about those things. Everything that heavenly father has given me or done for my family and friends and for the people here in iowa. Sister call gave us a gratitude journal in young womens a long time ago and I really wanted to do that again.
Sorry this ones kind of short but ive gotta skedaddle!! I love you all and thank you for everything!! And mom I will send you my memory card tomorrow!! Love you!! Have an awesome awesome week!!
Till next time
Sister C
.From: Courtney Lynn Callaway
Subject: hello mr sunshine!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Happy Monday everyone!!! I hope everyone has an awesome day!! Sounds like it was an exciting weekend. Lots of weddings and homecoming talks. Everyones starting school…woohoo!!!! I cant believe amy’s in high school..barf! thank you everyone for all the letters I get from you. I got some from some of the young women from girls camp, from lily and just from family and friends that I love and I appreciate them all!! I know im really bad at writing especially out here but ive got letters on the way to as many as I can. Josh and ally I love you, im sorry I haven’t written but im getting on it! And taylor cole and ashlynn too. I did meet wade and beckys niece Erica and her husband Andrew at church yesterday. The mormon world really is pretty small I guess. They seem awesome!!
Well this week was really slow and not the best week. It was pretty stressful. Our investigators are droppin like its hot. Lol. I mean like flies. And we haven’t had much luck finding any new ones.we are working with grethchens friend ricky though. He’s awesome and wants to be baptized so we’re gonna be working with him a lot more this week. We’ve been doing a lot of work with the less actives and the part member families in our ward this week. We finally saw sara for the first time in a couple weeks. Lots of work with the members doing service this week. I LOVE this ward!i love it I love it I love it!! The people are amazing! I wish I could stay here the rest of my mission!!! Sister elzinga reminds me of you mom. Everything about her! She’s awesome!!
Tomorrow our mission presidents wife sister jergensen is going to be spending the day with sister graham and i. so that will be pretty awesome! So I bought this little notebook last week and carry it around with me everywhere and started writing down everything that im grateful for, anything that pops into my head and wow im startin to fill it up pretty fast and I love being able to think about those things. Everything that heavenly father has given me or done for my family and friends and for the people here in iowa. Sister call gave us a gratitude journal in young womens a long time ago and I really wanted to do that again.
Sorry this ones kind of short but ive gotta skedaddle!! I love you all and thank you for everything!! And mom I will send you my memory card tomorrow!! Love you!! Have an awesome awesome week!!
Till next time
Sister C
Monday, August 16, 2010
Week 30 08/16/2010
Subject: i love you all!
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Aloha everyone!! How was everyones week!?! I hope it was awesome! Schools gettin ready to start…exciting!! Sounds like this weekend was full of parties and this next weekend is gonna be full of weddings. Theres gotta be something in the water over there. I leave and everyone just goes crazy and starts gettin married. Whats up with that? Lol. Congratulations to everyone getting married this weekend!! Tell Andrew Meteer that I said good luck and to stay awesome!! Thank you for my package mom!!!
This week has been really slow investigator wise. I don’t know what happened but most of our investigators dropped on the face of the earth this week. We’ve been doing a lot of service this last week. We’ve been going to this place called pathways that is an adult day care center on Tuesdays. Its just like being at one of dads nursing homes. I love it! Ive been thinking a lot this week about how I personally like to work out here. We’re supposed to do the Lords work, to teach the people here and to serve them. I love doing service! Our mission call says “you are called to SERVE”. If we’re not teaching then we should be actively trying to find service, any kind. Serving the members, non members, less actives. Behind each one of those people somewhere is a friend of family member that is being prepared for the gospel which leads to the teaching part of our calling.
We’ve been visiting with Leslie a good amount this week. Studying with her and helping her with things around her place. She can't write very well anymore (she’s had 20 strokes) so she has me write letters and do some of her bills for her. She’s so awesome! She’s the sassiest 76 year old I've ever met. We’ve also been doin a good amount of service at the Elzinga’s this week. Sister Elzinga goes to a lot of lessons with us so in return we help her around her house. They have a daughter named emma that is way to much like me when I was 13 (that’s kinda scary. Lol. ) ive really been working with her a lot trying to help her get in the habit of reading and studying her scriptures because that is going to be the starting foundation of your testimony. Oh my gosh and the book of mormon is so amazing!!! I definitely didn’t appreciate it growing up as much as I should have. I wish I would have taken advantage of it and actually read it like I should have. We’ve watched the reflections of Christ slideshow by mark mabry about the book of mormon this week. Oh my gosh, you should all get it. It is the most amazing thing ever. I don’t get emotional that easily and it made me cry. I don’t know how anyone would not want to know him or they think they know enough. I get frustrated cuz I want to know everything and that’s not gonna happen till the resurrection. Lol. Im soo grateful for Jesus Christ I cant even explain to you how grateful I am. He’s my brother, my friend and my Savior. And he’s all those things to all of you too!!!! Take advantage of having the book of mormon! If you don’t have one…get one!!!
I love you all soo much!! Have an awesome week!!!
Till next time
Sister C
To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Aloha everyone!! How was everyones week!?! I hope it was awesome! Schools gettin ready to start…exciting!! Sounds like this weekend was full of parties and this next weekend is gonna be full of weddings. Theres gotta be something in the water over there. I leave and everyone just goes crazy and starts gettin married. Whats up with that? Lol. Congratulations to everyone getting married this weekend!! Tell Andrew Meteer that I said good luck and to stay awesome!! Thank you for my package mom!!!
This week has been really slow investigator wise. I don’t know what happened but most of our investigators dropped on the face of the earth this week. We’ve been doing a lot of service this last week. We’ve been going to this place called pathways that is an adult day care center on Tuesdays. Its just like being at one of dads nursing homes. I love it! Ive been thinking a lot this week about how I personally like to work out here. We’re supposed to do the Lords work, to teach the people here and to serve them. I love doing service! Our mission call says “you are called to SERVE”. If we’re not teaching then we should be actively trying to find service, any kind. Serving the members, non members, less actives. Behind each one of those people somewhere is a friend of family member that is being prepared for the gospel which leads to the teaching part of our calling.
We’ve been visiting with Leslie a good amount this week. Studying with her and helping her with things around her place. She can't write very well anymore (she’s had 20 strokes) so she has me write letters and do some of her bills for her. She’s so awesome! She’s the sassiest 76 year old I've ever met. We’ve also been doin a good amount of service at the Elzinga’s this week. Sister Elzinga goes to a lot of lessons with us so in return we help her around her house. They have a daughter named emma that is way to much like me when I was 13 (that’s kinda scary. Lol. ) ive really been working with her a lot trying to help her get in the habit of reading and studying her scriptures because that is going to be the starting foundation of your testimony. Oh my gosh and the book of mormon is so amazing!!! I definitely didn’t appreciate it growing up as much as I should have. I wish I would have taken advantage of it and actually read it like I should have. We’ve watched the reflections of Christ slideshow by mark mabry about the book of mormon this week. Oh my gosh, you should all get it. It is the most amazing thing ever. I don’t get emotional that easily and it made me cry. I don’t know how anyone would not want to know him or they think they know enough. I get frustrated cuz I want to know everything and that’s not gonna happen till the resurrection. Lol. Im soo grateful for Jesus Christ I cant even explain to you how grateful I am. He’s my brother, my friend and my Savior. And he’s all those things to all of you too!!!! Take advantage of having the book of mormon! If you don’t have one…get one!!!
I love you all soo much!! Have an awesome week!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Monday, August 9, 2010
Week 29 8/09/2010
Happy Day!
Hello hello everyone!!! Sounds like everyone had a pretty good week with volleyball camp, sunsplash and grillouts (bbq) im not allowed to call it a bbq out here. Lol im glad uncle walt and mike get to come out and visit you guys. That’ll be good for him and im sure it will be fun. I want pictures for sure. Oh man I wish I could’ve been there for brother Beausoleils talk yesterday. Wade told me a little bit about it too. Im sure it was awesome! He is setting such a good example for his boys. That whole family is amazing I love them. And happy birthday this week to cody and carson!!! Im sure dad had a good time at the camp out with all boys for once. Lol.
Well this week in iowa I have no idea where the week went. Went by so fast. All the missions are starting to do a new training program. So this week all of the zone leaders, district leaders and and trainers went to des moines for a 3 day training seminar. So since I am none of those sister graham and I got to be in a tri for a couple days with a sister that just came out. Sister zmolek. She’s sos cool. It was different but fun being in a tri. We did a good amount of service this week at the elzingas in our ward. I love that family! I feel like im at home when im with them and the Flynn family. Lesia Flynn is like my own personal Amanda bynes. She’s soo funny. She’s a convert and has been in and out of being active for about 10 years but she is fully active and she’s amazing!! You would love her!!!
We’re still teaching shay and her girls destiny and jazzmine and her little nieces kk and kemha. Oh my gosh they are the cutest little black girls. Everytime we see them all 4 of them just run over and hug me and try to sit on my lap and its torture!!! Oh my gosh, I wanna hold kemha sooooo bad but im trying to follow even the little rules and that one tortures me. Lol.
So on Saturday night sister graham and I went to a narcotics anonymous meeting at an institution with one of our investigators and our convert anna is the one the runs those meetings. I LOVED it!!! I was kind of a random thing but anna really liked having us there. Sister graham thought she was gonna get beat up or something but I told her…you know what, uncle paul showed me how to choke anyone out so don’t even worry. Lol. We definitely did not “fit in”, two little white girls in skirts with names tags on sittin next to 35 people with tats up and down their arms and piercing all over the place. Lol. Anyway, I really felt that by us being there is going to give anna a really good opportunity to introduce some of the people there to the gospel. There were a couple guys that came and talked to us afterward. Oh my gosh we left that place and I was soo happy and I really feel like im supposed to do something to help them when I get home. Be a counselor or something. I don’t know why but I love it!! Heavenly father wanted us there for a reason.
I love you all!!! Have a super duper awesome week!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Hello hello everyone!!! Sounds like everyone had a pretty good week with volleyball camp, sunsplash and grillouts (bbq) im not allowed to call it a bbq out here. Lol im glad uncle walt and mike get to come out and visit you guys. That’ll be good for him and im sure it will be fun. I want pictures for sure. Oh man I wish I could’ve been there for brother Beausoleils talk yesterday. Wade told me a little bit about it too. Im sure it was awesome! He is setting such a good example for his boys. That whole family is amazing I love them. And happy birthday this week to cody and carson!!! Im sure dad had a good time at the camp out with all boys for once. Lol.
Well this week in iowa I have no idea where the week went. Went by so fast. All the missions are starting to do a new training program. So this week all of the zone leaders, district leaders and and trainers went to des moines for a 3 day training seminar. So since I am none of those sister graham and I got to be in a tri for a couple days with a sister that just came out. Sister zmolek. She’s sos cool. It was different but fun being in a tri. We did a good amount of service this week at the elzingas in our ward. I love that family! I feel like im at home when im with them and the Flynn family. Lesia Flynn is like my own personal Amanda bynes. She’s soo funny. She’s a convert and has been in and out of being active for about 10 years but she is fully active and she’s amazing!! You would love her!!!
We’re still teaching shay and her girls destiny and jazzmine and her little nieces kk and kemha. Oh my gosh they are the cutest little black girls. Everytime we see them all 4 of them just run over and hug me and try to sit on my lap and its torture!!! Oh my gosh, I wanna hold kemha sooooo bad but im trying to follow even the little rules and that one tortures me. Lol.
So on Saturday night sister graham and I went to a narcotics anonymous meeting at an institution with one of our investigators and our convert anna is the one the runs those meetings. I LOVED it!!! I was kind of a random thing but anna really liked having us there. Sister graham thought she was gonna get beat up or something but I told her…you know what, uncle paul showed me how to choke anyone out so don’t even worry. Lol. We definitely did not “fit in”, two little white girls in skirts with names tags on sittin next to 35 people with tats up and down their arms and piercing all over the place. Lol. Anyway, I really felt that by us being there is going to give anna a really good opportunity to introduce some of the people there to the gospel. There were a couple guys that came and talked to us afterward. Oh my gosh we left that place and I was soo happy and I really feel like im supposed to do something to help them when I get home. Be a counselor or something. I don’t know why but I love it!! Heavenly father wanted us there for a reason.
I love you all!!! Have a super duper awesome week!!!
Till next time
Sister C
Monday, August 2, 2010
Week 28 8/02/2010
hugs for everyone!!!!
hello family!! i hope everyone had a pretty good week. summer's comin to an end....weird! when does everyone start school again? happy day of birth tomorrow haley!!!!! make it awesome!!! and give yourself a hug for me!
welp i killed sister shields on thursday. she left that morning and sister spencer and i worked in my area for the day until that afternoon. we went to the transfer point and the transfer van ended up running late so we waited there with all the other missionaries for about an hour and a half. while we were there i ended up seeing my friend garrett from school that served here and came back to visit. that was really cool. i picked up my new companion sister graham after that we ended up running a bunch of errands to help get everyone settled in. transfers always makes the week feel all mixed up. we taught shay and her kids a couple times this week. on saturday we taught them about faith and planted flowers with them and explained that we need to constantly strengthen it, take care of it and help it grow. it was a really good lesson. we were running low on our contacts this week so we did a good amount of tracting on saturday and sunday. we were given the goal of getting atleast 80 contacts a week which doesnt seem like it would be that hard to talk to 80 people in a week but when you are constantly having back to back appointments with investigators, doing follow ups and working with members all day and you get to the end of the day and you've only talked to 5 people non members or investigators it gets hard. but sister shields and i have seen that being obedient to even the little things that dont seem very important bless us so much and bless the people that we work with. if we're not obedient to those small things the bigger things are going to get harder to follow. we needed to get 40 contacts yesterday in order to reach our 80 and we were so busy yesterday but i knew we had to find time to go tracting and i new that 80 contacts is what heavenly father wanted us to get so he was gonna make it possible...we got 41 contacts on one street. god is good to us!!! i love him! church was awesome yesterday. we had 4 of our investigators come and 3 less active families come. there's this one family in our ward, the clarks. oh my gosh, they're soo awesome!! the dad eric actually reminds me of uncle ray alot. he's so cool! he let me run a ton of tree branches through the wood chipper @ their house the other day. for some reason it was really exciting!! lol. his wife johanna is on a roller derby team and she rides a harley! she's so awesome!!! other than the fact that i love it here i cant really think of anything else to tell you. :) except i love being a missionary! gretchen was confirmed yesterday..that was awesome as well. she's soo happy and doesnt care that her family is mad at her cuz she knows she made the decision that god wanted her to make.
im sorry about uncle del. i love you all so much!!! and you're all in my prayers family and friends!! have an awesome week!! Love life!!!!!
till next time
Sister C
hello family!! i hope everyone had a pretty good week. summer's comin to an end....weird! when does everyone start school again? happy day of birth tomorrow haley!!!!! make it awesome!!! and give yourself a hug for me!
welp i killed sister shields on thursday. she left that morning and sister spencer and i worked in my area for the day until that afternoon. we went to the transfer point and the transfer van ended up running late so we waited there with all the other missionaries for about an hour and a half. while we were there i ended up seeing my friend garrett from school that served here and came back to visit. that was really cool. i picked up my new companion sister graham after that we ended up running a bunch of errands to help get everyone settled in. transfers always makes the week feel all mixed up. we taught shay and her kids a couple times this week. on saturday we taught them about faith and planted flowers with them and explained that we need to constantly strengthen it, take care of it and help it grow. it was a really good lesson. we were running low on our contacts this week so we did a good amount of tracting on saturday and sunday. we were given the goal of getting atleast 80 contacts a week which doesnt seem like it would be that hard to talk to 80 people in a week but when you are constantly having back to back appointments with investigators, doing follow ups and working with members all day and you get to the end of the day and you've only talked to 5 people non members or investigators it gets hard. but sister shields and i have seen that being obedient to even the little things that dont seem very important bless us so much and bless the people that we work with. if we're not obedient to those small things the bigger things are going to get harder to follow. we needed to get 40 contacts yesterday in order to reach our 80 and we were so busy yesterday but i knew we had to find time to go tracting and i new that 80 contacts is what heavenly father wanted us to get so he was gonna make it possible...we got 41 contacts on one street. god is good to us!!! i love him! church was awesome yesterday. we had 4 of our investigators come and 3 less active families come. there's this one family in our ward, the clarks. oh my gosh, they're soo awesome!! the dad eric actually reminds me of uncle ray alot. he's so cool! he let me run a ton of tree branches through the wood chipper @ their house the other day. for some reason it was really exciting!! lol. his wife johanna is on a roller derby team and she rides a harley! she's so awesome!!! other than the fact that i love it here i cant really think of anything else to tell you. :) except i love being a missionary! gretchen was confirmed yesterday..that was awesome as well. she's soo happy and doesnt care that her family is mad at her cuz she knows she made the decision that god wanted her to make.
im sorry about uncle del. i love you all so much!!! and you're all in my prayers family and friends!! have an awesome week!! Love life!!!!!
till next time
Sister C
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