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
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, August 30, 2010
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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