Week 24 7/6/2010

Courtneys letter didn't come til tuesday because of the holiday. Thanks to Brother Gelder for letting me know and for all the pictures. Just got home from girls camp so trying to catch up . Here she is...

Hello hello everyone!! Sounds like the family reunion was pretty exciting! Thanks for the pictures!

Lets see…we did a lot of tracting this week. Its so funny how people make excuses to not talk to us when we are tracting. Its like they feel like they have to justify themselves to us. We’ve gotten some people that tell us their entire schedule to tell us that they just don’t have time to squeeze us in, or we’ve gotten the “Im brewin my own beer right now, I don’t have time” lol. Apparently a lot of people do that out here cuz we’ve gotten that one a few times. We’ve had a couple of our investigators drop us and anna and leslie are both baptized now. Needless to say our teaching pool is draining pretty fast so im gonna be getting pretty good at tracting with how much we’ll be doin that this week.
So leslies baptism was on Saturday and it was amazing! Leslie was so happy! Her whole family came in from Alabama. Sister shields and I had to teach the restoration while leslie changed. And of course I was terrified of doing it in front of everyone. (mom, you know how I get. Lol) but it ended up being really good, the spirit was so strong and everyone was smiling throughout the entire baptism. Leslies son in law gary baptized her and after the baptism he came and just thanked us over and over again for teaching her. He said that their whole family never thought that this would happen in this life atleast. We really didn’t do anything, we were just the people that finally clicked with her and were able to help her connect all the dots. But im soo thankful for the opportunity that I had to be a part of it.
Well we’ve got another lady named Gretchen, she’s soo awesome! We started teaching her about 2 weeks ago. And she told us we weren’t going to convert her…..she’s getting baptized on the 24th of this month. She loves the book of mormon! She loves church and she loves just learning and the spirit that she feels when we teach her and when she reads and studies.
We’ve got zone conference tomorrow so we’re all lookin forward to meeting our new mission president and his wife. President and sister jergensen.
I LOVE this gospel and I love being out here and having the chance to teach and help people like anna, leslie and Gretchen. Even though its hard its totally worth it.
I love you all and have an awesome week!!!!!
Till next time
Sister C

Week 23 6/28/2010

Hello everyone!!! How was everyones week!? I hope it was super duper awesome!! sounds like you guys had fun at the lake.
Our week was pretty darn awesome! We had a lot of lessons this week, met with anna and leslie getting them ready for their baptisms. We spent a good amount of time tracting. We did a lot of service: some cleaning, yard work, painting fun stuff like that.
Thursday we had an awesome district meeting. Our new district leader, elder tenney is awesome hense the awesome district meeting. This transfer our zone is focusing on becoming new creatures in Christ everyday we’re working on becoming a new creature so we started on Thursday with becoming a “humble-bee” Friday was a “charita-beetle” satuday we were supposed to pop our “prideful puffer fish” Sunday was a hipp-hope-apotamus”. Lol. Our zone leaders come up with a new one everyday. I love our district this transfer! After district meeting we met with president and sister Talbot and had our last interviews with them before they leave on Wednesday. Sad!
Annas baptism was on Saturday and oh my gosh. I have no words to explain it! It was the most amazing baptism. The spirit was so strong it just hit you when you walked in the room! Anna was the happiest person ive ever seen when she walked out of the font and just hugged me and cried for a few minutes. i wish everyone could just realize that they can have that kind of happiness. Its really not that hard to get it! J
So we have another baptism this weekend for leslie lee. Her families been workin on her for the past 30 years apparently. She used to hate the church when her daughter joined and apparently I just time. We taught her for the first time about 2 weeks ago and then taught her the next day and she decided to be baptized. She is awesome along with everyone else I talk about. Lol. Her entire family is coming out this weekend from Alabama and she’s super excited!
I LOVE it here!! I miss you all so much and sometimes I just wanna be able to see you all but I know that this is where im supposed to be. Its hard to explain the feelings you have while on a mission because they’re all over the place, up and down, backwards, forwards, side to side..its like the tatsu rollercoaster (britt knows what im talkin about. Lol) but its totally worth every second.
I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!!! I challenge you all to become a new creature everyday! (2 Cor. 5:17)
Till next time!
Sister C!

Week 22 June 21, 2010

guten tag everyone!! well im assuming everyone had an awesome and super busy week since i havent heard from anyone. lol so our mission boundaries are changing and vermilion south dakota will be part of the omaha nebraska mission now and sister myers got transfered there so she will be in a different mission now which makes me super sad that i wont get to see her anymore but obviously thats where the lord wants her, thats the only reason im okay with it. lol. well theres not a whole lot to update you on since wednesday. president and sister talbot came to our ward yesterday so that president could interview anna. and its a go!!! she's getting baptized on saturday. oh my gosh she is so amazing!! the minute we taught her the word of wisdom she quit drinking coffee. what ever we tell her she does and says if thats what god said then i'll do it. i just love her!! she brought her granddaughter abby to church with her yesterday. abbys never been to church before and she loved it. she said shes never prayed before either so i taught her how to pray and anna said she prayed the whole way home in the car. and she went home and asked her mom if she could pray for her and told her that she believes in jesus christ now. thats huge for their family! anna is going to be the most amazing example for her whole family. she already is. friday there was a HUGE storm. the loudest thunder ive ever heard! 70 mph wind completely uprooting huge trees, tons of trees that got hit by lightning and just split right down the middle, streets were flooding, tornado watch....it was awesome!! would've been the best time to tract everyone was home and would think we're crazy for being out in it and let us in their house. lol. but we stayed at saras for awhile during it. i love iowa city!!! so, i've been trying soo hard to be the missionary that the lord wants me to be, to be consecrated and i fail miserably everyday. theres always something i can do better but i've started to realizes that the lord doesnt expect perfection but he expects progress. as long as i along with everyone recognize the things that we need to work on and we have the desire to change and be better and we put that desire into action then we're pleasing the lord. and im sooo grateful for that because theres no way im ever going to be anywhere near perfection. have an awesome week!! remember who you are........a child of god!!! (just in case you forgot) i love you ALL so much! thank you for everything!! till next time! sister c

Week 21 6/16/2010

hello hello everyone!!! seems like everyone had a super busy week again! mom, thank you for the package. i love the shirts! and steph looked like a beast in her powderpuff game! well im staying in iowa city this next transfer!!! yay!!! so this week went by soo fast. tuesday i got to go to nauvoo with president and sister talbot and all the missionaries that are going home the end of this next transfer. it was so awesome! i totally forgot my temple recommend but president talbot vouched for me so they let me in anyway. lol. we went through and did an endowment session and then we got to go to the top of the bell tower i could have unscrewed the bolts that hold the angel moroni and taken them as a souvenier, but i figured that wasnt the best idea. so we went up there and sang our mission song together. president and sister talbot are going home on july 1st which is super sad! sister shields and i have been finding a lot of new people to teach lately. we've been doing a lot of tracting since most of our investigators have been dropping us. but we still have anna!! she's getting baptized next saturday and she cant wait! she's been inviting all her friends and telling everyone. i called her anna banana the other day just for you mom. lol. we have a 75 year old lady named leslie thats going to get baptized on july 3rd. we've taught her twice and her kids are members. she's been coming to church for a long time apparently and everyone thought she was a member but she asked us to come over and teach her and she started crying and said " i always wondered why everyone cried when they bare their testimonies and now i know why" it was so cute and awesome!!! so yesterday sister shileds and i went tracting and it started raining pretty hard and this guy named anders let us in and we talked to him for awhile and answered some questions he had and when we left the streets we completely flooded we had to run about 2 blocks to get to our car with the water past our ankles. we were sooooo soaked and we had to go to a lunch appointment at a restaurant. we looked like wet cats but it was soo funny! sorry this one is so short today but we have to go help the elders that are getting tranfered but i will email on monday!! i love you all!!!!! have an awesome week!!!! have fun at the family reunion, tell everyone i say hi!!!!
till next time!
sister c


An update on a couple in Cedar Falls. Josh and Kayla that she talked alot about were married in May and baptized the next day.

Week 20 6/7/2010

Subject:
aloha, shalom, hola, ya ta hay.........HELLO!!!!

Hello hello everyone!!!! Sounds like this was another busy/exciting weekend!!
I cant wait to see pictures. Thank you so much for your email everyone. They make my day!

This week went by ridiculously fast. I cant believe this transfers almost over. Speaking of which I wont be emailing till next Wednesday because of transfers.
We started teaching our new investigator anna . Oh my gosh, she’s amazing! She looves the book of mormon, she loves the lessons, she LOVES church and she loves sister shields and i!! she’s got a very “colorful” (for lack of a better word) past but has been changing her life a ton!! She’s getting baptized on june 26th. Thursday morning we went to the VA hospital and were volunteers for this disaster drill the doctors were doing. So we got to be disaster victims. It was pretty exciting. Friday we helped sara and her family clean their new house and help move their stuff in and had dinner with them like we usually do on Friday nights.
So sister shields and I are doing this “40 day fast” thing that president Talbot gave us at zone conference. So for that we made a list of things that distract us, keep us from being disobedient, just little things that poke at our spirits and we pray and fast from those things for 40 days. Oh my gosh its so hard. and then all of a sudden all of our investigators dropped us so I felt like I was doing something wrong but I guess things have to get worse before they get better. Then Saturday we set 3 baptismal dates and we keep finding awesome new investigators that are sooo ready for the gospel. Its awesome!!!!!!!!!
Funny story, so the family that we live with, the gelders have a cat named misty that is their baby! They treat her like she is a person and she hates sister shields and I because the gelders love us and we take the attention from her. So she came down stairs last night and started hissing at me so I hissed back and we got into a big hissing fight until she left and then we woke up this morning and she pooped on my desk!!! She usually poops on sister shields bag when they get in a fight. Lol.
I get to go to Nauvoo tomorrow!!!!!!! Yaya!! President Talbot takes everyone that is getting ready to go home to Nauvoo for a day and sister shields is going home the end of next transfer so I get to go with them!i want to live in the nauvoo temple!! :)
Well that’s about it for this week. sorry this ones such a shorty. I hope everyone has an awesome week! You’re all in my prayers!!! I love you all!!
Till next time!
Love
Sister C

Week 19 6/1/2010

Courtney's letter didn't come til today because the Library was closed yesterday. We did get a heads up on sunday from my "source" lol

Subject: howdy dudey!! To: macfamilyfarm@surewest.net
Hello everyone!!!! I hope everyone had an awesome week!! SWEET bruises steph!! Im sure the powder puff game was awesome!! I cant believe steph, travy, trev, vita and jess are graduating this week! and ames is going into high school..that makes me wanna through up! You’re all gonna be party animals this weekend! Well honestly this week was not the best for us. We had a couple people drop us, so we spent a lot of time tracting which I don’t mind so much anymore. But oh my gosh it is so gross and humid here. I thought I was going to die!! And tracting in that, you feel like you’re gonna throw up cuz you get so hot. So we tracted and did a good amount of service this last week. Did some yard work at a couple members’ homes which was awesome and we get to wear pants which is a bonus!!! So iowa city is pretty ghetto. We’ve got one area that’s pretty ghetto where some of or investigators live and theres always super sketchy stuff goin on over there. Crazy iowa! lol We’ve got an awesome family that we’ve been teaching. Their grandpa just joined the church almost a year ago. And man do black people know how to make chicken and kool-aid….mmm….good!!! I don’t know what it is but it’s the best kool-aid ive ever had. Lol. I know ive told you about sara and her daughter aja and their family alittle bit. We’ve been spending a lot more time with them lately. They’ve been having some tough times in their family right now but oh my gosh they are amazing!!! I LOVE them! i think sara and I were like best friends in the pre-existence. I cant wait for you guys to meet that family someday! Well, our investigator george that ive told you a lot about just called and dropped us right before we came came to email. He told us we were no longer welcome in his home and that we “worship a false prophet and that Joseph Smith was a manic depressive lunatic that wrote the Book of Mormon” that’s a first. Lol. He was like mad at us. Soo out of character for him, he’s not like that at all so im still kind of in shock from that and I have no idea what happened. But im not gonna let him drop us like that. If he wants nothing to do with us then he can say it to my face. So sister shields and I are going over there after we’re done emailing actually. Just to let everyone know….NO manic depressive lunatic would ever have the ability to write something like the Book of Mormon. Lol. The Book of Mormon is meant to bring us closer to Jesus Christ not Joseph Smith hence “another testament of Jesus Christ”...duh. Joseph Smith is just the tool that Heavenly Father used so we could have that testament. God is great Book of Mormon is good People are crazy! I love you all!!! Have an awesome week!! happy graduation everyone!!
till next time Sister C

Craziness!!

Sorry to be a bit behind but with last weeks letter. With graduations and one more to go. Here are last weeks and todays letters. PS Steph had a picture of and Courtney in her cap. Here is Amy after her graduation with her favorite pre-school teacher "Miss Maureen"