"The spirit was so thick and strong you could cut it with a knife."

March 12th:

Pictures from sisters exchange! I stayed in sunrise with Sister Lio and Sister Lasalosi! 3 pak!!!!!!!!!!! But we got to meet with all the sisters and I took pics with all my compnaions! We did this cool thing where all of us brought all the clothes that we didn’t want anymore and we did a clothing swap and the leftovers were taken to DI. AWESOMR STUFF! I got a few things :] Sisters exchange was awesome! We stayed our my area and did work :] That night it was a REALLY bad windstorms. They were saying it was like hurricane winds. One time that we got out of the car the door blew the car door open so hard that it hit sister Lasalosi in the face and she started bleeding everywhere. It was an exciting time. hahaha she is okay though. 

Yes we had the baptisms for MJ and Sami and that was the most amazing baptism I have ever been to. We were the ones setting up for everything and filling the font and we set up as many chairs as would fit in the room and we STILL had people standing in the hall. The spirit was so thick and strong that you could cut into it with a knife. Sister Hanny and I gave the talks and it was a great time. I gave the Holy ghost talk and I could just feel the words flowing out of my mouth. I KNOW that the words were not mine because if they were, the audience would be in trouble hahaha. It was so cool because their dad is not a member and yet he was so supportive and kind to the boys about everything. Sister Hanny and I think that he will be ready very soon. The family always talk to us like we are part of their family. They are another family that I will NEVER forget. It is crazy to me how there are so many people you just fall in love with on the mission. I have fallen in love with all the people in my areas and I am just so thankful. I know for a fact that this was the place that the Lord wanted me to serve (in the NVLV mission) but who knows about the mission splits. We will see. That isnt for another few transfers. Can you beleive in a week I have been out for half of my mission? That is insane to me. Every month for me goes by faster and faster. I am learning more than ever what my weaknesses are and how I can make them into strengths. I have a long ways to go but I am chipping away at it every day. I am really focusing on relying solely upon the Lord and since I have made that my focus I have felt a HUGE change in my mission. We cannot rely on ourselves, if we do, we WILL be left in our own power. At some point we just have to let go and let God take over. I have heard and felt the promptings of the spirit more so and I recognize them more easily. I am so thankful that I have learned that here and I will continue to work on my many many weaknesses. 

Anyways....we haven't set anyone for baptism in a few months and things were really slow for a few weeks. But we were obedient and dilligent anyways and just trying to be patient for some new investigators to come along. Lo and behold it all payed off because this week we set a lady for baptism for april 14th and we got 11 new investigators this week. (6 of them were from yesterday alone) That is really crazy. We really are being so blessed right now and I can see myself becoming a better teacher. By no means am I a good teacher but I am really striving to do my very best. I guess I am a lot better than when I came into the field hahaha that was scary. We had an amazing lesson with leslie last night. Yesterday we felt as if she might not be quite ready for her baptism this weekend but after last night we KNOW she is ready. Usually it is hard to have a lesson with her because her boys are running around crazt but before we went in we said a prayer with the bishops wife and she asked if Heavenly Father would calm the boys so that leslie could feel the spirit and lo and behold, weston was asleep and Talis was a little sickie so I brought the felt things in that you sent me and he was preoccupied the entire time we were having a lesson. She told us that she feels so right about the church and she knows that it is true! We are so excited for her. So we will be having her baptism this saturday. It was cool because she got to come the the twin's baptism yesterday and she loved it! Her boys got to come too. We thought that that was really good to have the boys come as well because then they could see that this was for them someday too! We are seeing our area start to build up again after all these baptisms and we are so excited to see our area explode! This area is going to be on fire! I feel like it has been on fire! It has been a really great blessing. Having sister Hanny and I together for atleast one more is going to be a great blessing. That is a LONG time to be together but I have so much more to learn from her and this area needs us together right now. We are sooo HAPPY! Danny is doing great and he acts like he has been a member for 100 years. He is hilarious. He is so crazy we love him. We are so proud of him because instead of calling us 392484659876108 times a day he calls us about 2 or 3 times a day hahaha. Funny guy.Um I dont know what else to say...hmmm. Things are really going great here. My mission is going wonderfully. Hmmm advice for Sister Monson...she needs light light lightweight clothing and NO BLACK she will die. Especially coming into the summer. Have her get thops that she doesnt have to wear a tanktop underneath and tops that wont show garments under her armpits. hahaha. Ummmmmmm....she should wear her shoes before she comes out. BIG MISTAKE ON MY PART! My feet were bleeding for weeks!!!!!!!!!!! Memorize 3rd nephi 5:15, the Standard of truth, D&C 4, The 1st vision, and hmmmmmmm tell her to study preach my gospel! That is SUPER IMPORTANT! Um Icant think of anything else right now. I wonder if they are going to keep her in the NVLV mission or move her to a different mission right off the bat..........who knows....no one knows hahaha. Anyways. Love you guys and I miss you and I hope that everything is going well. Yes mom I am ALL better. I FREAKED OUT when I heard Grandpa's voice. I flipped. Wow I am so excited for baby nah and baby shar. I love you and thank you for letting me know about some of my ancestors. Its cool to know that I am part lamanite yay. Kay love you! BYE!

Sister Fine

"I seriously love being a missionary and all I want to do it daily become perfected in him so that I can abide his presence without guilt. "

March 5th: 

It was such a great week! :] Danny's baptism was great! The spirit was really strong and sister hanny and I sang together. He loved his baptism and TONS of people came to support him. Sister hanny and I have been really impressed by the WA AVE ward and how amazing they are in taking care of the new members. Amazing stuff. Danny is hilarious I cant wait for you to meet him. He is just this old grouchy guy that is such a stinker but he is so funny! We love him so much! The layadi twins are getting baptized this next sunday. Wow I loved testimony meeting yesterday. MJ (one of the twins), and his mom bore their testimonies. My mission all became worth it when she looked over at me at the pulpit and said, "Thank you for coming on a mission, you and sister hanny were the only ones that could have helped our sons." Of course I was bawling at this point. I wish that sister hanny was there so that she could see that. She was in the other ward because our wards overlap. SO we were on splits. It was a great moment of my mission. Also Leslie is getting baptized on march 17 and we are stoked! She has sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much faith. We took her to the temple this week for a lesson and she fell in LOVE with the temple. Its great when we can help investigators know that baptism is only the first step and the ultimate goal is the TEMPLE. She loved it! We also had a lesson at the temple with the Layadi family and Jasmin. THe layadis are a Part member family and after the kids get baptized, the dad will be the only non member. Sister hanny and I think that he is really close to getting baptized because he is sooooooooooooooooo supportive to his kids, he helps out in lessons and he also joined them at the temple this week for the lesson. He loved the temple and he wanted a picture of the temple to take home too. He is so golden, but he just has his family traditions of being muslim so that is really hard.  But the time will come and I hope that we get to see their family get sealed in the temple someday! 

I miss you all too! Went to the temple this thursday and I loved it! I am feeling lots of promptings and I am really doing my best to put forth all my courage and faith and go for it! Ummmmmmm so our mission is getting split into 3 different directions. NVLV Mission, NVLV west, and the new mission of NV Reno. Crazy huh. I am one of the ones that might be moved to another mission because president said that only the people who have had one mission president will be moved. SO that is me!!!! Who knows what will happen. But I have a feeling that the next few months will be a roller coaster ride. The change will take place on july 1st. So pretty crazy stuff. We had a great thing happen this week! Sister Hanny and I brought up an idea that the wards just ran with!!!!!! We wanted to do a movie night for the youth so we did that this week! We watched 17 miracles and it was a success because we had 4-6 nonmembers there. Amazing. The spirit was so strong and we had such a great time. The next time you hear from me you will hear if I am staying in sunrise or if sister hanny is staying or if we are both staying or training or wahtever. :] Time flies! Sister hanny and I have already been together for 3 months. I cant believe it. 

I am loving my mission more and more and I am relying more and more on God every day. My ultimate goal is to become the 4th missionary. Its mentioned in a talk given by Lawrence corbridge. I think that he was a mission president or something. But it is a great talk and it applies to all of us even if we are not a missionary. I seriously love being a missionary and all I want to do it daily become perfected in him so that I can abide his presence without guilt. We can achieve that when we become perfected. But I am going to always work on it from here on out. I love this gospel. I know that it is true with all my heart. Not only is is true but it is the ONLY church that has the fulness of the gospel and the priesthood, and the order of Jesus Christ’s primitive church. I am so thankful that I was born into the covenant and that I can be sealed to my family forever. I am so thankful for this opportunity to live and try to become the person GOd wants me to be. I know that Joseph smith was a prophet. I am so thankful for the saints of the early church. I guess besides holding a baby and sleeping and getting a job hahaha. I love this gospel, I love my mission and nothing will stop me from inviting others to come unto Christ but helping them receive the restored gospel. I pray every night for all my friends and family who do not have that at this time to learn about it and ask God for themselves if this message is true. I am addicted to the Book of Mormon and I love it so much! Well I love you and miss you and I will talk to you next week! MWAH!

SIster Fine

"I am really working hard right now to continually lose myself in the work and become a better missionary and person."

Feb. 27th:

Wow it looks like you guys are having so much fun in hawaii! SO AMAZING! MOM AND DAD YOU DESERVE IT! So thankful that you sent pictures to me :] So this week was so great! And we are ready to have another great week! I had exchanges with sister lasalosi again this week and we were in green valley this time. It was great! I got to see the Baggett Family. Here is a picture of them and Olga is having a baby boy! She told us she was pregnant right before I left. So I am SOOOOO excited for them. Sister Hanny and I are hoping that we will be able to see them get sealed as a family before we both go home! AMAZING! Also we had dinner at carey's house and seeing him is always so great! I love that man! Also something really cool happened on sat morning. This was the day I was in green valley. We got a call on the phone during our companionship study and it was a member of the green valley ward. She said that there was a man that just showed up to the humanitarian project and wanted to talk to missionaries. So we grabbed our stuff and went over to the stake center. We saw the guy and his name was garrett. I recognized him but I couldn't put my finger on where I met him. Anyways, he said that he recognized me too and we sat down in the chapel. He said that he was contacted by missionaries a couple of times in the park right across the street from the church. We found out later that sister hanny and sister matthew and I had all contacted him last year in the summertime. He said that he came into the church that day looking for some peace because he had just found out some really horrible news. It was not coincidence that one of the many missionaries that contacted him was in green valley that particular day. Wow, so we taught him a little but mostly provided moral support through the atonement and scriptures. We asked him if he would want a blessing and he said yes. So we got the Zone leaders over and they gave him a blessing. The spirit was so strong! I know that someday he will get baptized. As I was listening to his story it sounds as though he has been prepared to hear the gospel for some time now. I cant wait to hear what happens! We are so excited because this next weekend is danny's baptism. He was sooooooooo nervous for his interview but he passed iwth flying colors! He is so funny and I think that he calls us about 12 times a day hahaha. We had interviews with president this week which are always good and we had a great time learning about how we can better use the scriptures. THis week we had 11 non-members at church. Unfortunately only 4 of them were investigators but we are working on getting the rest to take the lessons and try is out for themselves. I am really working hard right now to continually lose myself in the work and become a better missionary and person. I am continually humbled by all the stuff that I need to change but I am trying to get to the point where I can accept "line upon line, precept upon precept." That is how God's church is set up. If we were perfect all at once, it wouldn't be God's plan. 

There was this awesome Multi Regional conference that took place here in las vegas. Every member in our stake was busy because it was hosted by the unrise stake. It was very well put together and the program that was set up for everyone was incredible. THere were amazing speakers like Brad wilcox and BARBARA THOMPSON (from the general relief society presidency). Also HILARY WEEKS put on a concert for them which I was SOO JEALOUS of hahahaha. Anyways everyone had a great time. Our investigator danny went to it and he was very well known there. He is quite the character, we love him. We have been teaching this little 10 year old named jasmin. She is so amazing we just love her so much! She is our little sister. Anyways, we found these perfect fellowshippers for her and they are just amazing to her. THEY ALSO LIVE SUPER CLOSE TO HER! THey are befriending her like crazy and we are just so thankful because she doesn't get a lot of family support. She wants to get baptized so bad but the mom has to give the permission. We will be finding out soon was will happen with that. We also saw leslie this week and she just bought all matching church outfits for her boys and they are always excited to come to church! We had a ward fast for her this week because she had a hard court date for custody of one of her sons. It ended up that now she has more time now than she has been granted in the past! She says that she KNOWS that it was because the ward fasted for her. She is amazing, she has so much faith and we love her so much! Her testimony is growing daily and she is so willing to keep any commandment we throw at her because she has felt all the blessings of applying the gospel so far. We are having a temple lesson with her this week! I am so grateful that we have the temple in our zone! What a blessing. That simple fact that we have the temple in our zone makes all the blessings and hardships really intense. Pretty crazy huh! Satan is hard at work but we are working harder. He will not win! I love you so much and I miss you a ton! 

Cassie I love you so much and I am going to be thinking about you right as I close my eyes to sleep on wed night because as soon as the lights turn off at 10:30, your endowment session will be starting. I am so proud of you and I am so thankful that you are my sister. You will love the temple, and just remember what I told you before. You are going to do great! Mommy and daddy will be there right with you! MWAH MWAH MWAH!

Sister Fine

"We are practicing for heaven."

Feb. 20th:

HOLY GARBAGE! Today we hiked Sunrise mountain, which is the mountain behind the temple. We did it as a zone and it was SO MUCH FUN. it was also a ton of hard work but I am made of solid steel so don’t worry about it...hahaha We saw some old mines for copper and some caves. we had a great view of the temple, the strip and our area.  and it was just great to spend time together. on the way back we talked about what would everyone be if they were a fruit, animal, etc... I came out to be a blueberry, tinkerbell, nicole kidman, a piccolo, a pomeranian, a forest, hip hop music, baby gap, a baby chick, etc wow the elders are hilarious. We had so much fun going down the mountain .So... if i am a little tired while writing this and leave some things out please forgive me.
  I met my goal for this area by singing in mountain vista with sister hanny. it went pretty well. One of our favorite people in the ward cried because it touched her so much. We also went to a fireside called "Why I Believe".  It was incredible. this one guy stood up and told how every time he got in a fight with his wife the missionaries came around and talked to him while he smoked, every single time. He finally invited them back but said I will never become a Mormon. He said that he figured that everything they talked about had to be found in the bible. So he started really searching his bible. he read about the pattern God had for sending prophets. How Moses had grown up with the Egyptians and how everyone probably thought who does this guy think he is? Calling himself a prophet. He talked about how Christ's church was set up on a foundation of apostles and prophets and if thats the way it was then then thats the way it had to be now. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He does not change. He had the strongest testimony and the spirit was really strong in the meeting. the awesome thing is Danny came and that was what his question was- if President Monson was a prophet. Then we introduced him to the guy who will be doing his interview. he wants to finish all of his lessons tonight so that he can get the interview over with and not have to worry about it anymore. Danny came to fireside and he was so funny, talking president neider's ear off hahahahaha. We had to pull him away. Every lesson is Danny talking our ears off about vietnam haha. Love that man.

 Saturday sister lasalosi came to sunrise and we worked really hard. She is so amazing! I love her so much! She is the perfect example of christlike love. At the end of Saturday I was ready to have sister hanny come back and us to go home to sister roth's house. I will send pictures of the house and our room and stuff next time. Saturday was hilarious because Sister hanny and I wore the exact exact same thing. We even did our hair the same way. It was awesome to see the other sisters faces when we got back together for the trade off.

 Danny is soooooooooooooooooooo funny. I love tha man. He always calls us his granddaughters. We heart attacked everyone that we are teaching or who we just super love in our wards. This family helped us to color all of the paper and we cut the hearts out and had enough to cover 7 doors. Danny is always outside so he spotted us. we went inside because "we were hungry" and he had to stay outside. We heart attacked his oven! Leslie's mom was the only one who caught us. Leslie is doing so so good. The ward has opened their arms and hearts to her. She went bowling with her neighbors and they stayed up til 3am working on some things she has been worried about. Awesome. We love leslie she is so humble and has so much faith. She is getting baptized in march too.

We have been teaching this couple Jay and Tina, they have 2 cute little boys and they are amazing. We have had such high hopes for them but we found out that Jay is reading anti-mormon material. We told him that it will poison his soul. much of it is half truths twisted and combined with lies. It is all so frustrating because we care about him so much. He doesn't want to listen to what we have to say just read on his own. We are really sad for their family. God gives us all choice. LAME! No choice is a good thing.

 Sister Hanny and I have learned so much about grace this morning! We are all saved by grace. Period. Christ paid all the debt and we never even pay him back a penny. Compare it to a mom paying for piano lessons. But because she did that she can make requirements- practice. This requirement will help her soon to grow and to become a pianist. We can be changed by grace. When we keep the requirements we practice for heaven. We cannot feel comfortable in heaven if we are not heavenly. When a son hits wrong notes he is only told to keep practicing. for all those who are perfectionists- just keep trying and changing and practicing. We are practicing for heaven. We will all be resurrected and stand before God. Its up to what we do in this life and what we become that depends on what kind of body we have (what degree of glory) and how long we stay in God's presence. It won't be us begging Christ to stay, it will be him begging us. We will be the ones who won't want to stay if we don't become like him- we will not be comfortable. hence the different degrees of glory- there is a place prepared for everyone. God wants us all to be where we will be happiest. Interesting, huh. Enlightening.

Love you and I cant think of anything else.

Love,

Sister Fine

"I felt completely confident."

Feb 13th:

SO this one might be shorter but we will see hahaah. This week was amazing. Danny has quit smoking, he is getting baptized in the first weekend of Mar and so is Leslie. They are amazing. Sister Hanny and I spoke at church yesterday and it was awesome! Im not a very confident speaker but I know that the Holy Ghost was carrying me through the whole thing because I FELT CONFIDENT. That is a HUGE thing for me. Also the words came out of my mouth like butter. I was very thankful to my heavenly father. I talked about how before we can do missionary work as members we need to be converted ourselves. Also sister Hanny and I sang together "I go to serve my Lord," and it turned out really well. SO only one more performance in the mtn vista ward before I am up to date with my goal of singing in every ward I serve. I LOVE MY MISSION! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I cant even think about going home! That is just too SOON! Dont get me wrong I miss you all so much but this is the best work in the world! AHHHHHHHHH! Danny gave us a valentine vase full of tulips! Isn't that cute? Wow he is amazing! He said beautiful flowers for my beautiful grand daughters. hahaha. We love him. Man I went on exchanges with Sister Garner in Green Valley on sat. It was amazing. We did that because her and her comp cant drive because sis garner broke her foot and her comp is from tonga so I came to drive. We are going to be doing that once a week with them so that they can get around. I had a blast in green valley. I saw carey which was amazing as usual, and I saw balil and Gerry and lots of people! Also we got alot of work done! I was having deja vu the whole time I was there. When I went back to the house I stayed at I was freaking out because all the smells are the same and I just missed where I was born hahaha. I admired sister garner for her dedication to the work because she was miserable on crutches running after people but, she doesn't care about the pain, she just wants to help souls come to Christ. Amazing sister missionary! I have missed her! I love her so much! All my companions have helped me with lots beleive it or not hahaha. Next time isister Lasalosi will be coming here with me. We are seeing so many qthings happen in the area and we love it here! I think that sister hanny will get transfered next but Im not sure. Its just a guess. I think that I will stay. I love you and I will talk to you next week! I am sending a package with the dress and some other things I want to send home. BTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The elders in ELKO found my planner! I WAS SOOOOOOOO happy. So my collection of planners will be complete! I love you all and happy valentines day!

Sister Fine

"ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE."

Feb. 6th, 2012

Hello family,

This week has been great! With Sister Neider, Sister Hanny, Dr. Childs, and Dr. Bobbie Turner I am doing well. Wow I didnt even know that Superbowl was yesterday hahaha thats crazy. Hope you guys had fun! We had a great day at church yesterday. We had 7 people at church and there were some of our regular investigators who didn't come due to sickness and miscommunictation with rides....but wow our area is progressing. Honestly sister Hanny and I have felt really strongly about dropping people who are not progressing. In my other areas I felt like we held onto the same people that were not showing promise and now that we are letting them go we can see that it is the best thing for them at the time. ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE. But we are seeing a lot of progression with Danny. He is a 64 year old man and he is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! We die every time we see him. We are helping him quit smoking and he has gone down from 20 ciggarettes to 4-5. He is quiting for sure on tues. I have learned so many different tricks on my mission on how to help people quit smoking. Have them make up their own plan, give them little encouragements and suggestions, have them swish with cinnamon mouth wash, chew cinnamon gum or such on cinnamon candy to fight cravings on top of praying and reading your guts out. Also I have heard that if you rip a ciggarette up and pour the tobacco out into a saucepan with milk and boil it and have the addict drink it they will never smoke again. BUt I have NO IDEA if it works! Im scared to have them try it! It will make them super sick I think hahaha. We also went to a baptism for a person sister hanny taught and Danny came it was awesome. He is going to get baptized on mar 3. We love him so much he calls us his grandaughters. We can never leave his house without our car being washed or be given a gift or be carrying 30 pounds of groceries to our car. He is amazing and so hilarious. He is our grandfather. Its crazy because there were some other things that he had to take care of and as soon as we brought it up he had already been doing things to correct it. AMAZING FAITH! We just did a ward fast for Leslie, we love her and she is going to get baptized on mar 3 too. Awesome we love her boys. They are amazing. We are also teaching jay and tina and they are awesome. We love their little boys too. I love our wards because we dont even have to ask them to go and fellowship the investigators on their own time. It is amazing. I LOVE THE LAS VEGAS MEMBERS! Anyways I love you and I miss you and I hope that everything is going well with everyone! HANNH I LOVED THE PICS THAT YOU SENT ME! KEEP DOING THAT! What is your email and shars email and such? Tell daddy that I hope his back feels better. And tell cas that shes hot and all my babies that they are my loves. Oh one more story for the week.......so yesterday when we were about to go to ward counsel we walked out the door and there was a baby puppy under the porch swing and he wouldn't let us touch him......he was so lonely and cold and hungry and we took care of him outside and then this morning he was gone. Awh little baby beagle. Um I dont know what else to say but things are going well. I love my mission and I am trying to do better everyday. Just a litle bit better every day. I love you. Mwah off to take bridesmaid pics and thank you so much for the camera card! MWAH MWAH MWAH! TEE TEE F N, TAH TAH for NOW! Miss you!

Sister Fine

Ps in the pics we are holding a thing called a Dagoo....its a rodent. hahaha Love you!

Apologies from the Blog-Keeper...

Aloha to all of you blog-readers! I want to deeply apologize for not keeping Sister Fine's blog fully updated since the end of January. I am getting things organized and will be posting her e-mails and her pictures pronto!

Thank you all for understanding :)

Love,

Cassie