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| Wherefore, be not weary in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. D&C 64:33 |
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
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
As of May 1st..... 2 months to go!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Week 66 04/25/2011
i LOVE you i LOVE you i LOVE you!!!
I hope everyone had an awesome easter! I totally spaced it last week when I was emailing and didn’t even realize that easter was last week (yesterday). Thank you for the easter package mom and dad! And sister Whitaker says thank you and she wants to give you a big hug but she’ll just hug me instead. Sounds like you guys have been havin fun in Pittsburgh. That’s funny that you guys saw some sisters from Nauvoo! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for her next time I go. I’ll actually be going on may 10th with a bunch of the elders and president and sister jergensen for our going home temple trip which is gonna be awesome!
Well, it was a pretty awesome week here in Bettendorf. Monday we had a really good lesson candy. When we went to meet with her she hadn’t read the chapter in the book of mormon that we asked her to read before we came back so we read it with her. We talked to her about being baptized and she said she wants to but says she’s not ready yet so we asked her to pray and ask heavenly father when he thinks she’ll be ready. She didn’t come to church yesterday and we’re not sure why but we’re gonna be meeting with her pretty soon. Tuesday morning we had to be in iowa city at 8 in the morning to meet everyone else and car pool to des moines for leadership training. Last week was really rainy and so cold all of a sudden and of course that happens right after I send all my winter stuff home thinkin that I don’t need it anymore. Iowa is so bipolar when it comes to the weather. Goodness. Once we got to des moines we had training for the rest of the day. Then the same thing the next day. We had breakfast at the mission home with everyone which was fun getting to hangout with the people that you don’t get to see very often and then we went to the stake center and had training till about 5 that day and then we went to dinner with a bunch of the elders. There were only 4 of us sisters at training and the other two had to leave early so sister Whitaker and I went to dinner with our AP’s and some of ther other missionaries that were there and then we had a 3 hour drive home from there so it definitely made for a long day. It was really good though. I love going to leadership training! We haven’t really had very many chances to teach this week. I don’t know what people do here but they’re never home. We’ve been trying to meet people that the elders were working with and we’ve just been knocking on doors and no ones home. The weather is getting a lot nicer though so people are startin to come out of hibernation finally so that makes it a lot easier to talk to people when they’re already outside. So I never thought this would happen but i’ve been eating super healthy lately and I like vegetables. Lol. But ive been trying to eat really healthy lately, haven’t eaten any junk, no soda…nuthin. But on Friday I was really craving pizza and I just wished that our dinner appointment would have pizza and when we got there…there was papa murphys! Tender mercy right there. Lol. That happened when I was in iowa city with sister shields and she really wanted a baked potato and then our dinner appointment said she changed her mind at the last minute and decided to have baked potatos. Heavenly father answers prayers…even when its just about a potato or pizza. Lol. But don’t go thinkin that hes gonna give you a potato everytime. Lol . cuz then the next day our dinner appointment was apparently going to give us pizza but then she found out that we had it the night before and decided to give us seafood! Whats with people and eating things that live in water? I prefer animals that have at least 2 legs.
Well, the Mississippi river’s been floodin lately and there’s a bunch of roads that are closed because they’re completely covered by water so we went down by one of the bridges that cross the river and it was pretty cool. The Mississippi river is huge!! We have to cross it to go to church everyweek. It was a pretty good week!! I think that’s about it for here. Hopefully we’ll be gettin a few new people to teach this week. i love you all!!! I cant believe bethany’s gonna be home this week! give her a big hug for me! And tell her I love her!!!
Your attitude determines your week…..make it a GREAT one!!!!!!!
Till next time,
Sister C
The church is TRUE!!!!!!!! and i LOVE it!
I hope everyone had an awesome easter! I totally spaced it last week when I was emailing and didn’t even realize that easter was last week (yesterday). Thank you for the easter package mom and dad! And sister Whitaker says thank you and she wants to give you a big hug but she’ll just hug me instead. Sounds like you guys have been havin fun in Pittsburgh. That’s funny that you guys saw some sisters from Nauvoo! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for her next time I go. I’ll actually be going on may 10th with a bunch of the elders and president and sister jergensen for our going home temple trip which is gonna be awesome!
Well, it was a pretty awesome week here in Bettendorf. Monday we had a really good lesson candy. When we went to meet with her she hadn’t read the chapter in the book of mormon that we asked her to read before we came back so we read it with her. We talked to her about being baptized and she said she wants to but says she’s not ready yet so we asked her to pray and ask heavenly father when he thinks she’ll be ready. She didn’t come to church yesterday and we’re not sure why but we’re gonna be meeting with her pretty soon. Tuesday morning we had to be in iowa city at 8 in the morning to meet everyone else and car pool to des moines for leadership training. Last week was really rainy and so cold all of a sudden and of course that happens right after I send all my winter stuff home thinkin that I don’t need it anymore. Iowa is so bipolar when it comes to the weather. Goodness. Once we got to des moines we had training for the rest of the day. Then the same thing the next day. We had breakfast at the mission home with everyone which was fun getting to hangout with the people that you don’t get to see very often and then we went to the stake center and had training till about 5 that day and then we went to dinner with a bunch of the elders. There were only 4 of us sisters at training and the other two had to leave early so sister Whitaker and I went to dinner with our AP’s and some of ther other missionaries that were there and then we had a 3 hour drive home from there so it definitely made for a long day. It was really good though. I love going to leadership training! We haven’t really had very many chances to teach this week. I don’t know what people do here but they’re never home. We’ve been trying to meet people that the elders were working with and we’ve just been knocking on doors and no ones home. The weather is getting a lot nicer though so people are startin to come out of hibernation finally so that makes it a lot easier to talk to people when they’re already outside. So I never thought this would happen but i’ve been eating super healthy lately and I like vegetables. Lol. But ive been trying to eat really healthy lately, haven’t eaten any junk, no soda…nuthin. But on Friday I was really craving pizza and I just wished that our dinner appointment would have pizza and when we got there…there was papa murphys! Tender mercy right there. Lol. That happened when I was in iowa city with sister shields and she really wanted a baked potato and then our dinner appointment said she changed her mind at the last minute and decided to have baked potatos. Heavenly father answers prayers…even when its just about a potato or pizza. Lol. But don’t go thinkin that hes gonna give you a potato everytime. Lol . cuz then the next day our dinner appointment was apparently going to give us pizza but then she found out that we had it the night before and decided to give us seafood! Whats with people and eating things that live in water? I prefer animals that have at least 2 legs.
Well, the Mississippi river’s been floodin lately and there’s a bunch of roads that are closed because they’re completely covered by water so we went down by one of the bridges that cross the river and it was pretty cool. The Mississippi river is huge!! We have to cross it to go to church everyweek. It was a pretty good week!! I think that’s about it for here. Hopefully we’ll be gettin a few new people to teach this week. i love you all!!! I cant believe bethany’s gonna be home this week! give her a big hug for me! And tell her I love her!!!
Your attitude determines your week…..make it a GREAT one!!!!!!!
Till next time,
Sister C
The church is TRUE!!!!!!!! and i LOVE it!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Week 65 04/18/2011
i love iowa!!!!
Good morning family!!! Hows it goin? How was everyones week? I hope everyone has an awesome spring break.
We had a pretty good week last week. We had some really good lessons with some people we’re teaching right now. We’re teaching a lady named candy right now. Her son is a member and on Wednesday we met with her and taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it. She loved it and talked about how she really believes it and it brings her so much hope. We also are starting to teach a lady named soon-yi. Shes from korea and is married to a member that has just started coming back to church the last couple of months. They’re an awesome family and we’re going to be meeting with her a lot more and helping her read the book of Mormon and slowly teach her the lessons. The whole concept of god is completely new to her and the language barrier makes it a little harder but we’re just going to take our time to help her as much as we can. We met with keith again on Friday and were able to talk to him about the basics of the gospel of jesus Christ and he really liked it. We talked a lot about repentance and baptism and what we need to do to get to that point in our lives and what happens after we’re baptized. So we had some pretty good solid lessons this week. We got to have dinner with a lot of the members this week and got to know them alittle better. The members here are so on top of everything and are asking us what they can do to help us and they are just so awesome when it comes to finding people for us to teach. Theres one family that we had dinner with last night, the murphys that are trying to work with so many people right now and trying to get them interested in learning more about the church. They’re awesome! Oh my gosh mom…you’ll never believe me, maybe I should have sister whitaker tell you but the other night we went over to this one families house for dinner and and we went to the table and I got a whif of something nasty and I had to eat……FISH!!! It was horrible. All I did was pray real hard that heavenly father would take away my taste buds or something…anything. lol. And I ate as much of it as I could. Im pretty sure I covered that thing in more salt than ive ever had. Lol. And then sister whitaker and i went and got ice cream after dinner to wash it down. We spent a lot of time trying to meet people that were being taught before we got here but didn’t have much luck with that so hopefully this week we’ll be able to. On Saturday we got to do service at the family museum they have here in Bettendorf and we get to help little kids with science and art projects two subject that I am not good at but it was so fun! We get to do that every Saturday. So yesterday was an interesting Sunday. We had candy at church and she always has her grandkids with her so sister whitaker and I came prepared this week so candy could actually pay attention in sacrament. We got a bunch of little kid bible stories, coloring books, fruit snacks..what else does a kid need. The youngest kids just threw everything and screamed the most horrible scream ever and tried to bite me.
Anyway, tomorrow we’re going to des moines for leadership training. So we’ll be staying at the mission home with all the other missionaries and be there tomorrow and Wednesday. It’s gonna be awesome! I love going to leadership training and zone conferences and stuff with all the other missionaries. Just being in a room full of missionaries is an awesome feeling. The spirit is soo strong. Well, I think that’s about it for this week here in iowa!!! Hopefully the weather gets nicer. I hope you all have an awesome spring break. I love you all soo much! Thank you for everything!
Till next time,
Sister C
Good morning family!!! Hows it goin? How was everyones week? I hope everyone has an awesome spring break.
We had a pretty good week last week. We had some really good lessons with some people we’re teaching right now. We’re teaching a lady named candy right now. Her son is a member and on Wednesday we met with her and taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it. She loved it and talked about how she really believes it and it brings her so much hope. We also are starting to teach a lady named soon-yi. Shes from korea and is married to a member that has just started coming back to church the last couple of months. They’re an awesome family and we’re going to be meeting with her a lot more and helping her read the book of Mormon and slowly teach her the lessons. The whole concept of god is completely new to her and the language barrier makes it a little harder but we’re just going to take our time to help her as much as we can. We met with keith again on Friday and were able to talk to him about the basics of the gospel of jesus Christ and he really liked it. We talked a lot about repentance and baptism and what we need to do to get to that point in our lives and what happens after we’re baptized. So we had some pretty good solid lessons this week. We got to have dinner with a lot of the members this week and got to know them alittle better. The members here are so on top of everything and are asking us what they can do to help us and they are just so awesome when it comes to finding people for us to teach. Theres one family that we had dinner with last night, the murphys that are trying to work with so many people right now and trying to get them interested in learning more about the church. They’re awesome! Oh my gosh mom…you’ll never believe me, maybe I should have sister whitaker tell you but the other night we went over to this one families house for dinner and and we went to the table and I got a whif of something nasty and I had to eat……FISH!!! It was horrible. All I did was pray real hard that heavenly father would take away my taste buds or something…anything. lol. And I ate as much of it as I could. Im pretty sure I covered that thing in more salt than ive ever had. Lol. And then sister whitaker and i went and got ice cream after dinner to wash it down. We spent a lot of time trying to meet people that were being taught before we got here but didn’t have much luck with that so hopefully this week we’ll be able to. On Saturday we got to do service at the family museum they have here in Bettendorf and we get to help little kids with science and art projects two subject that I am not good at but it was so fun! We get to do that every Saturday. So yesterday was an interesting Sunday. We had candy at church and she always has her grandkids with her so sister whitaker and I came prepared this week so candy could actually pay attention in sacrament. We got a bunch of little kid bible stories, coloring books, fruit snacks..what else does a kid need. The youngest kids just threw everything and screamed the most horrible scream ever and tried to bite me.
Anyway, tomorrow we’re going to des moines for leadership training. So we’ll be staying at the mission home with all the other missionaries and be there tomorrow and Wednesday. It’s gonna be awesome! I love going to leadership training and zone conferences and stuff with all the other missionaries. Just being in a room full of missionaries is an awesome feeling. The spirit is soo strong. Well, I think that’s about it for this week here in iowa!!! Hopefully the weather gets nicer. I hope you all have an awesome spring break. I love you all soo much! Thank you for everything!
Till next time,
Sister C
Monday, April 11, 2011
Week 64 04/11/2011
Subject: hello bettendorf!!!!!!!
HELLO!!!!! Hows it goin everyone! Spring breaks comin up…awesome! What are you all doin for it!?
Well, things have definitely been different this week. Thursday we went to transfers where we all find out where we’re goin. Usually when they take both missionaries out of an area and put two new ones in they call it whitewashing but president decided that when he puts sisters in he’s gonna call it pink washing. I told him there is no pink washing goin on here..i don’t do pink. Lol. President likes getting a reaction out of me. so we found out where we were goin and said HELLO BETTENDORF!!! Sounds like something from harry potter. I love it here so far! Its definitely weird after being in Maquoketa/de witt for so long and being somewhere now that I don’t know everyone and you have to start all over with getting to know people and building those relationship again. Thursday night I barely slept, I just laid there and was just thinking this isn’t my bed..this is weird. But we’ve got some pretty good people that the elders started teaching before they left that we’re gonna meet with this week. We met with one of them, keith on Friday. He’s pretty sweet and he’s really interested and said that he eventually wants to join our church which is awesome. We just need to help him get to the point of actually doing it. Our lesson with him went really well. We had our bishops wife, sister cropper with us and she was amazing when she bore her testimony of the book of mormon and joseph smith. The spirit was super strong. Friday we got to go and do service at a retirement assisted living place and holy cow you wouldn’t mind being old and retired either if you saw the place where these people live. Lol. It was really fun though getting to help them plays games and whatever kind of activities they want to do. Then we spent a lot of time on Friday and Saturday going through our area book and seeing what kind of work we have to do in this area. We’ve also been goin around and meeting some of the members and then we got to meet most of them at church yesterday which was good. Ive heard so many good things about this ward and im super excited to work with them. This area kinda makes me feel like im in Roseville which is a really weird feeling. Theres been some crazy thunder/lightning storms this last week but I love em. Its gonna be an awesome week for sister Whitaker and I and for all of you…I can feel it! You are all awesome and remember I love you so much! Have a sweet spring break! Tell uncle walt I love him too!
Till next time,
HELLO!!!!! Hows it goin everyone! Spring breaks comin up…awesome! What are you all doin for it!?
Well, things have definitely been different this week. Thursday we went to transfers where we all find out where we’re goin. Usually when they take both missionaries out of an area and put two new ones in they call it whitewashing but president decided that when he puts sisters in he’s gonna call it pink washing. I told him there is no pink washing goin on here..i don’t do pink. Lol. President likes getting a reaction out of me. so we found out where we were goin and said HELLO BETTENDORF!!! Sounds like something from harry potter. I love it here so far! Its definitely weird after being in Maquoketa/de witt for so long and being somewhere now that I don’t know everyone and you have to start all over with getting to know people and building those relationship again. Thursday night I barely slept, I just laid there and was just thinking this isn’t my bed..this is weird. But we’ve got some pretty good people that the elders started teaching before they left that we’re gonna meet with this week. We met with one of them, keith on Friday. He’s pretty sweet and he’s really interested and said that he eventually wants to join our church which is awesome. We just need to help him get to the point of actually doing it. Our lesson with him went really well. We had our bishops wife, sister cropper with us and she was amazing when she bore her testimony of the book of mormon and joseph smith. The spirit was super strong. Friday we got to go and do service at a retirement assisted living place and holy cow you wouldn’t mind being old and retired either if you saw the place where these people live. Lol. It was really fun though getting to help them plays games and whatever kind of activities they want to do. Then we spent a lot of time on Friday and Saturday going through our area book and seeing what kind of work we have to do in this area. We’ve also been goin around and meeting some of the members and then we got to meet most of them at church yesterday which was good. Ive heard so many good things about this ward and im super excited to work with them. This area kinda makes me feel like im in Roseville which is a really weird feeling. Theres been some crazy thunder/lightning storms this last week but I love em. Its gonna be an awesome week for sister Whitaker and I and for all of you…I can feel it! You are all awesome and remember I love you so much! Have a sweet spring break! Tell uncle walt I love him too!
Till next time,
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Dear Anna~ 
Today I brought the sister missionaries down to the stake center for
transfers. You can imagine how delighted I was to see Sister
Calloway. She looks wonderful and seems to be very happy.
She asked me to send this picture of us to you.
We just love her. Sorry, but I didn't find out where she was going to
be transferred.
Hope all is going well for you and yours.
Take care,
Katherine Fagersten
UPDATE!
Courtney and her Companion Sister Whiticker were transfered to Bettendorf, IA. This is an hour east of Iowa City near the Mississippi River.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Week 63 04/06/2011
Good morning everyone!!! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend and loved conference! Conference was awesome! Gotta love Elder Holland and how blunt Elder Packer is.
Well im getting transferred tomorrow, Sister Whitaker and I are both getting transferred actually. Totally not expecting that considering pres told me a week and a half ago that we were both staying but I guess that’s what happens when inspiration hits. I was kinda freakin out when I found out mostly because I wasnt expecting it and I don’t want to leave the people here at all but about 2 hours before we found out we are leaving we were at the onkens and while we were there brother onken told me something about their older son that without knowing I did anything I helped with and it had a big impact on him I guess and right after he told me that I felt like I was done in this area. I don’t really know how to explain the whole situation over an email but I found the reason that ive been here and after that im okay with leaving now. Im gonna miss it so much. Its been hard but its been awesome! Im gonna miss the onkens and kara like crazy! And the pawlowskis, the cheneys, everyone! Its like leaving home and my family all over again after 7 ½ months, almost half my mission. Crazy!
Sorry its not very long this week. My brains kinda everywhere, I cant even remember last week right now and ive gotta get goin so we can go finish packing and say bye to everyone. Hopefully I’ll have more for ya on Monday. I love you all! Have an awesome week! Remember to smile!!!
Till next time,
Sister C
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