It is Tropical Storm Season in Vegas Too!

Things are slow here in black mountain. But I am trying to keep my head up. Sister Cheatham and I are figuring things out more and more and having more and more fun. We are more similar than we thought.  I really don't know what is going to happen for transfers. This area by far has been the most difficult to fulfill my purpose as a missionary. More and more less actives are coming to church and people are learning about the gospel, they are just not getting into the water! Agency is a blessing but I hate it when people use their agency in the wrong way. Im trying to keep my head up. I know I have been more than blessed with number of baptisms but I want to help more people come unto Christ. I am doing everything in my power by being obedient and working hard and going the extra mile with people but right now I just need to be patient. When things are like this that is when my impatience comes out. Im really trying to fight it. 

We took Jessica to the temple on saturday  night and it was good. She wants to get baptized as soon as she can.  But we just got the good news that she is getting transferred to a different store so that she might be able to come to church on sundays. Amazing. At the temple it started pouring down rain!!!! It is tropical storm season and we really get a lot of thunder and lightning storms from it. VERY COOL TO SEE! I love it! 

Mom and Dad I feel like I am becoming the best missionary I have ever been on my mission and the baptisms just stopped at a dead hault in May. It is August and the mission wants us to baptize once a month. It has been a little bit hard and I feel a little on the edge but I know that things will happen I just need to always have a smile on and work my hardest. I am doing this 40 day purification thing with myself. I am writing down everything in my life that disturbs the spirit in any little way and praying and fasting that I can overcome those things. It is going okay so far but I think I might need a bunch of 40 day purifications after I get home too. On Aug 16th I made a goal to read one section of the doctrine and covenants per day. A lot of missionaries do that in the last months of their mission. 138 days to the day is aug 16. Crazy. I only counted it because I wanted to know when to start the goal...Im not trunky by any means. I want to stay here for the rest of my life. But I know that Life goes on. 

So the pictures are a little girl named liahauna loves to decorate my face every time I come over. She is so cute. The hole is with a black widow with her 3 big eggs. They were about the size of a dime. This black widow was huge and we killed it....well sister cheatham did. She is the designated bug killer......scorpians, cockroaches, spiders....etc. She's not a baby like me. Another is with us and jessica at the temple.  Oh yes and I cannot forget.....this dinsaur thing is someone's yard....yes............it is in someones yard. The first time I drove past that hahahaha I was laughing so hard. People are so weird sometimes hahahaha. Well I love you. Pray for us....I need that extra help right now. I am relying on the Lord in all I do and he is my strength. Without him, the mission would not be possible. I love you and miss you all. I hope that your trip is great and say hello to the cabin for me. I hope our cabin is safe. Dad and mom I am so glad that you get a break. You deserve it. I love you

Sister Fine

 

TEXT ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS RIGHT NOW AND ASK THEM IF THEY WOULD TAKE THE MISSIONARY LESSONS. RIGHT NOW.

Hello my loves,

Cool experience just now. There were these teenage kids behind me on the computers at the library and they were swearing so much. I havent heard language like that in the longest time and I never want to hear it again! But I was about to turn around and say something to them.....then I prayed for a few min for help and then one of them got up and left after I prayed. SInce then I havent heard a bad word since. Amazing. The Lord really answers prayers big or small. If things are important to us, they are important to him. 

 SO we had zone conference this week and it was really great! We had it with the green valley zone. So I got to see Sister Tahi and Medina (they opened another area in green valley for sisters. kinda crazy!) Also I got to see the sister that I would have been training instead of sister Tahi and that is sister Hunt. She and I get along sooooooooooooo well and I just have this feeling that we are going to be companions someday. I wasnt meant to train her for some reason but I hope that we will be compys someday. She is the one with the strawberry blondish hair and she is really tall. 

With Sister Hunt

This week we had something awesome called camp zarahemla. Is is a camp for Junior and Seniors in High school that took a preach my gospel class in their ward. This week in camp zarahemla they got to put their knowledge of preach my gospel to the test. It was an incredible experience. On saturday they got to come with us to see the day in the life of a missionary. There were probably about 50 youth that got to go out with the companionships of the black mountain zone. So We had 2 girls Ashlee and Lynsie. They were amazing and it was amazing to have 2 companionships working in our area at once. We got so much done! And for the first time since May we have 2 people set for a specific baptism date. That is Cody and his mom for Sept 22! :] We saw miracles as we went out with these girls. I felt the prayers of the stake surrounding us as we went to work! it was an incredible feeling. Here is one specific story I want to share with you. Lynsie and I were walking in a really dead neighborhood and it was really hot. We talked to one guy on the street and saw one member. Then we were walking back to our car and there was this lady working in her garage. We walked up to her and introduced ourselves. It was awesome because we asked her if she wanted some help and she siad "REALLY???? you can help me?' Obnviously we said we would and she said "Are you mormons?" I said yes and then she said "I have always wanted to go to the mormon church!!!! My mother in law does too!" I about fell over. We havent had any new investigators  for atleast a month. She asked us if we could tell her more about our faith and I was like "Yes we can!" and my insides about expolded. I was so excited. We helped her and talked to her for a little while and then we had to go to an appointment with jessica but we are going to see her tomorrow.SO excited! :] 

This week we have had lots of thunder and lightning storms, I LOVE IT! And some pretty amazing sunsets. :] We are continuing to see success with our less actives coming back to church and that is really rewarding to see. I was reading today that we can only come back to live with Heavenly Father IF we have all the ordinances done. and we know that the ordinances can only be done by the authority of the priesthood and the priesthood only is in the church so we need to invite our friends. In the big scheme of things if someone gets offended that we want to share this with them, it doesnt really matter. The important thing is to share it and give them the opportunity to use their agency. here is my challenge and I will follow up next week because I had a spiritual prompting that this will work!!!!!!! I know it will!

Every member of the church who reads this... TEXT ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS RIGHT NOW AND ASK THEM IF THEY WOULD TAKE THE MISSIONARY LESSONS. RIGHT NOW.  An institute teacher asked their class to do this right then. When they did it a miracle happened in our mission. One girl texted her friend and after 2 months her friend was baptized.

I love you all and things are looking up here.  I think that I will be transferred out at the end of august.

Miss you all! and I love you so much. Thank you so much for sending me pictures it seriously makes my day!

Flying home: I like the idea of having the airplane experience. Then I will just be home with you and we never have to let go of eachother hahaha. And I can relax at home and not have to travel a ton after im done.

Sister Fine

"I am convinced that I will wear my nametag for the rest of my life!" HaHa

July 30, 2012

 Oh my gosh that just melted my heart that britton mowed the lawn for dad. Oh my gosh I just want to cry. My little babies are growing up and I can tell that our family is closer than ever before. I am so thankful. Wow that will be so amazing to all be together in hawaii. Such a blast! I cant wait :] Wow, both of my friends had their babies?  So amazing! Tell Carly I cant wait to meet my little nephew Clark. He has an aunite sister fine that wants to meet him! Tell that to ashley too! Wow I didnt know that Eric was HOME! I thought he had til the beginning of AUGUST!  Nick was freaking out that he was home and that they missed eachother. But the cool thing is that they are so close and such amazing people. I love them both! Amazing twin humans :]

This week has been a bit of a struggle. We are going out and doing work and being super obedient but we are not harvesting the way that we hope for. But I know that the Lord has tons of plans for this area...I just might not be here when it starts happening again. It is hot....no appointments....no one out to talk to on the street and members are so hard to catch but we will keep thrusting in our sickle with our might and things will work out. I just broke down crying last night and I had President Jones give me a blessing for patience and long suffering in the work. He said, I bless you to be able to open your eyes and see all the good you are doing here and also to see that people have their agency, and we cannot help how they choose. SO TRUE. I am being hard on myself for the choices they are NOT making and blaming myself for it. But that is not the way I should look at it. I see now that the Less Actives we have been working with have been coming back to church and at least staying for sacrament meeting. That is a huge blessing, I guess it is just not the success I have been programmed to see up to this point. I just know that the Lord loves all of his children and he wants us ALL to return to live with him. No matter what we have done, we can never be far enough away that would be out of the Savior's reach. We can turn around and make it back. We only become canidates for the celestial kingdom when we are baptized (like preach my gospel says). We must ENDURE and PROVE our worthiness to God every day. It is hard but it is possible. And I have loved helping these Less Actives start to see that again.

So the pictures...We had a cake decorating activity and it was so much fun! Some of our less actives came and I thought hannah would be so proud of me. I know its not very good but I had fun! :] Also we were helping someone move in to our ward and I decided to get into a box. It was fun. I love being a silly billy still :] Tag or no tag. But I am convinced that I will wear my nametag for the rest of my life. No one can take it from me hahaha. Im going to be the most akward person when I come back....blah! SO sister Cheatham and I realized some things this week. Whenever you see a member, no matter how long you have been in an area they ask us 3 questions EVERYTIME! Where are you from? How long have you been out? How did you feel when you got the call to Las Vegas?

 So we had a little adventure this morning. I heard sister Cheatham super frustrated in the bathroom getting ready...she called me into the bathroom and some people had come into our bathroom and just played harmful pranks. CHEWING GUM EVERYWHERE....all of sister Cheatham's makeup was covered in lotion, they dumped stuff into her perfume, gum all over the straightener, and the toilet is not working right, we think these people flushed some pretty big non-flushable things. It was really irritating. We found out that it was some 10 year old girls that were visiting the house that wanted to play a bad prank on the sisters. None of my stuff was damaged but I felt bad for sister Cheatham. SIster Jones obviously was mortified at finding out what happened and she is taking us makeup shopping today. It really wasnt that big of a deal and sister Cheatham is fine with it now but sister Jones wont let it go. SO she insists on taking us. Anyways...interesting stuff this week.

We spoke in the Laurel hills ward yesterday and it was really great! We sent around the signup for the 40 day fast and 20 people have signed up already. We hope to get it filled by next sunday so we can start on aug 6th. :] So exciting. Um...........what else happened to our lives this week? Been kinda a crazy week as you can tell! I got a lot of letters this week which I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THANKFUL FOR! Sister Hanny, an elder from Elko sending me a baptism program for someone sister espinal and I taught, Spencer wrote me a really nice letter and Dani Curry.  Also the relief society presidentcy from home sent me a birthday card!   Um love you and I miss you tons. MWAH MWAH MWAH! I have the family picture you sent me by my bed. I LOVE THAT PICTURE! THank you for having me in the picture too! It means a lot to me. Miss you tons and Im hanging in there.

Sister Fine

ps-I have never seen so many cockroaches in my entire life, than what I have this week. BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"The Lord Accepts My Service"

July 23, 2012

Hello from Black Mountain!

Sometimes our investigators are not all the way ready so they need to be little fishies thrown back into the water for a bit until next season.  Sister Hanny and I baptized 5 people together because of the faith to let them go.  It is so hard because you love these people so much and they show some interest but they aren't quite there yet.  We have a ton of things on the horizon and Billions of people that are waiting to hear the gospel and we just havent found them yet. SO I had some pretty amazing experiences this week! It was incredible.

This isn't the picture she sent, I couldn't get that one from showing up sideways!

#1 We got to go to transfer testimony meeting and it was soooooooo great! I got major spiritual uplift that I needed. Sister Hanny is going home in the middle of this transfer because of school starting so she got to bare her final departing testimony and that was amazing. It totally freaked me out because that means I have less than 4 transfers left. At most 2 more areas (probably 1) and a few more companions. Wow that is really scary. But I love it! So this picture of sister Hanny and I are when I said my goodbyes to her until after the mission. ALL of my companions are going to be in Utah after the mission. I hate Utah but if all my companions were there that might be incentive enough to get me to Utah someday. Who knows. BLAHHH  hahaha. Anyways but I love my compys. I will miss sister Hanny so much!  (Wow, I had no idea she had such strong feeling about Utah! hee, hee)

#2 I got to see sister Abeyta this week! It was amazing to see her. I love that girl so much! and I got to meet her family too. Amazing people. It is so crazy to think that all of my companions are off their mission except for Medina, Cheatham and Tahi. Insane. Seeing sister Abeyta again was like little childhood friends were getting together. I miss her!

#3 The last thing is Saturday. Oh boy I do not have words to describe Saturday. PURE JOY is all I can think of. So I was called by Bob from my first area. He is the guy that got baptized a couple days before I got to the mission field. I got really close with him over the time I was there. But his year mark had passed so that he could go through the temple to receive his endownment and he was inviting me to come!!!! With permission I was able to go and it sounds like Bill, Carey and Gerry are coming to the temple soon too! I will be able to go just in time before I come home. I have a feeling that I will be making random trips, if means provide, so that I can come down and see more of my recent converts go through and get sealed and stuff. But here's the cool part.....we needed a ride to get to the temple and we had been trying to find one for a couple days. Then the thought came to me....the Mccullough hills ward temple night is the same session as bob's session. So soon enough I got a call from the bishop's wife saying, " I had a prompting this morning that I needed to call you sisters and see if you wanted a ride to the ward temple night session tonight." Of course we said yes! :] It was amazing to see people I loved from McCullough hills ward AND the Green Valley ward together in the same session. I was overwhelmed with the joy of my mission and all the loved ones around support Bob and doing work for those who have gone before us. I looked over at Bob during the session and he was GLOWING. Incredible. I will never forget when we went into the celetial room and seeing Bob and everyone else. SUCH PEACE. Also to top it all off there is another mini story. During the session I was sitting by someone that looked so familiar to me but I couldnt put it together for some reason. When we were in the celestial room she gave me a great big hug and said "thank you for everything you have done." Then she showed me to her dad and said that he would like to see me. Then it started coming back to me. I think we must have known each other before this life. So then she led me to this little old man with a big smile on his face holding his cane. He looked into my eyes and said "are you Sister Fine?" I said yes and he said "I will always remember you for singing at my wife's funeral." I remembered then....I sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" and it was the best time I had ever performed it. I remember feeling angels all around me helping me to perform for this family. As I was talking to this man in the celestial room my heart overflowed with joy. It was the best feeling I have ever felt. I love my mission and I know that the Lord is pleased with me and my service no matter how many doors have been slammed in my face, no matter how many unpleasant situations I have been in. The Lord accepts my service. :]

I want to express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to serve a mission. Lately I have been told, "You are lucky you even got to come on your mission because of your anxiety."  But because of God's grace he gave me the strength and the opportunity to have that not be withheld from me.  I love my mission. I love you my lovelies and I pray for you every night and day. Until we write again. I love you.

Sister Fine

Ps-Mom I heard your voice when I was taking a 5 min lunch nap and I could have sworn you were with me. Sister Jones said that you were probably thinking of me. It was so plain to be heard...you said my name and I thought you were in the room.