"Cottage Cheese and Turtles"

October 1, 2012

 I love you all mucho and I miss you. This week was a good week. Trying to refill our teaching pool because we are baptizing them all hahaha. We had summer and pam's baptism this last saturday and they were awesome! :] Summer is so stinking cute and pam is just hilarious! I love them both! 

Finished the lessons with kelsie this week and we just love her to death. I seriously feel like I knew her before this life because we just click so well! In one of our lessons she turned to us and said that she said that she would love to serve a mission. That I think is the first person out of my investigators that wants to serve a mission. I WAS SOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED! I love kelsie so much!

 I also love sister Monson, she is amazing! She keeps me laughing sooooooooo hard....one quote she said the other day is "I tan about as well as cottage cheese," and the other day, "that is ridiculous that is just like a person saying, I dont want to be a human anymore I have decided to become a turtle." OMGOSH LAUGHING FOR DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also we finished the lessons with Jesse and Jeremy and it is going well. It was really cool because Jeremy expressed concern to us over something he was thinking about and, as a missionary it always feels good when people come to you with concerns because then it shows that they trust us. I talked to him on the phone for about 15 minutes discussing his concern and he said that it really helped. I hope that things continue to get better for him. Jesse and Jeremy are getting baptized on october 13th and they are going up to conference with the dutsons! How amazing is that?!?!

 There is this amazing family in the beverly glen ward and they are the DUTSONS! I want to be like them because they always have people in their home being taught! We dont even have to ask for referrals, they just ask us to come over and teach them. It is amazing! They have helped so many people join the church and get well on their way! It is amazing. I want to be as amazing as the Dutsons when I grow up! :] THey are just so bold and have a clear understanding that THE GOSPEL is the ONLY thing that can bring people to live with Heavenly Father again. It definatley shows that they have that in the forefront of our minds (where it should always be!) :] They are amazing and I look up to them like crazy! Im so excited for you to meet them someday! :]

 We went to the temple this week with the district and it was amazing. I hadnt been since I went through with bob badery. Oh man I love that man! It was a good experience to be there again even though I do live about a slow 5 min walk away! I run past it every morning! :] I went to the doctors this week and he told me that I need to get more out of my exercise because it is making me really anxious during my studies where I literally cannot sit still.  I have been getting good workouts even though my knees strongly dislike me. It is amazing and it really helps with my studies.


 Saturday was obviously a really amazing and exhausting day! 2 baptisms and then we went to the relief society general broadcast with Kelsie. It was amazing! It was a bawl fest hahaha and the dinner that was set up beforehand looked like a wedding reception hahaha. The relief society goes ALL OUT down here. After the broadcast we met up with mikey and kesie (they are dating) at the temple and had a lesson there. The temple was closed but mikey has the hookups and got us into the grounds and we were pretty much the only ones there. It was a very spiritual lesson. We were crying and the spirit was so strong. Yesterday, church was really great!  I love you and I miss you and I hope that all is well!  Love you all! MUAH! 

Sister Fine

"I Will Not Be Still"

September 24, 2012

This week was good :] We are hoping that it is starting to cool down....but it still is over 100 most days. In the morning when we run/walk it is really nice out...about 80 degrees or so. When it rains it cools the whole valley down by 20-30 degrees! I love when that happens but not the flood part... THe floods here are really bad.  It is amazing the power that water has and then in a day it is all evaporated or in the washes. It is insane. 

The baptisms that we had set for the 22nd fell through. Jesse and Jeremy just need a little more time! We felt that was the right thing as well. We did get a new investigator this week though! Her name is diane and she is really sweet. She really wants to know what happens after this life because she is the only one in her ENTIRE family left. SO we taught her the plan of salvation and she felt so much peace. She cried through most of the lesson....very sweet. 

 I was pretty sick this week but I refused to stay in. I only stayed in an extra hour for lunch one of the days because I was going to get sicker if I didn't. I got blessings and then the next day I was fine! It is pretty miserable being sick during the exhausting hard work of a missionary but I got through! :] Sister Monson and I were asked to give the training for the last district meeting on the importance of members. 

 Can you believe that I have been out 15 months? I cant believe that. It has gone by really fast! It keeps on going faster and faster. Also we are starting week 5 of the transfer and I felt like I just got here to central! It is pretty crazy. I think that this will be my last area. This next weekend we have 2 baptisms. One for summer and one for pam! We are soooooooooo excited! They are awesome :] Then after their baptisms we are going to be watching the Relief Society General Conference session! I am sooooooooo EXCITED FOR THAT! General conference is the SUPERBOWL for missionaries! SO EXCITED I can hardly breathe! This week I sang in church in the Frenchman Hills ward and it went really well. It was the song that Kenneth Cope has on one of his cd's "I will not be still" it is a missionary song and it is amazing. 

I wanted to write you the lyrics....they are amazing

Ive never been the kind to testify, I dont have the words his truth deserves

But its a simple thing he asks, A worthy heart and willing hands

He says if Ill make the choice, he'll help me find my voice

He calls me to serve and I cannot fail him, The one who has given me all that I have

I place my trust in him alone, he knows the yearnings of my soul

Because he believes in me, I will go willingly

How can I keep this gift to myself, when I can lift somebody else

I am a witness of his miracles and his mercy

I put my future in his hands, knowing hes made me all I am 

When I put my faith in him, the truth begins to speak

His power is real it moves me until I cannot be still

Lifting the hands that hang down in sorrow, Strengthening knees that bend in despair

Reaching the hopeless hearts who do not know his love

Seeing their lives begin to change, I know I'll never be the same

How can I keep this gift to myself, when I can lift somebody else

I am a witness of his miracles and his mercy

I put my future in his hands, knowing hes made me all I am 

When I put my faith in him, the truth begins to speak

His power is real it moves me until I cannot be still

His power is real Ill trust in his will I will not be still

Then during sac meeting I was asked to sing in relief society for the lesson. It ended up really well, I sang "More holliness give me". It was a really special lesson because our ward mission leader's wife is getting major major major surgery today and before that the lady who gave the lesson called her and had her bear her testimony to the Relief society and there was not a dry eye in the room. Saturday night we heart attacked their house so that they could feel better :] We were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Stealthy :] hahaha. Always lots of work to do! The ward is definatley keeping us busy! I love this area to pieces and I love sister monson she is amazing. 

Sister Fine

"Setting People for Baptism and Having Lessons Left and Right!"

September 17, 2012

:] I absolutely know that sister Monson and I are supposed to be together. We baptized Bill Harper on saturday (who was an investigator I taught before that moved to Central stake when I was in Elko) Pretty cool story! It was an awesome baptism, the spirit was strong and I was excited to see him baptized after all this time. I was asked to give the baptism talk and I felt like the words were flowing out of my mouth from the spirit it was amazing. I always love when that happens. THen afterwards I totally forgot about what I said! hahaha. We are hoping that his wife Rosa joins the church someday. Also this week we set another girl named kelsie for baptism so that makes 5 people set before october 13th! Amazing! The Lord is blessing us like crazy! Sometimes satan tries to get to me to tell me that Im not making a difference to anyone on my mission and my mission has been a failure. But I know that is absolutely crazy talk! Satan is very yucky and he tries so hard but HE WONT WIN WITH ME! :] We know that in the end the Lord will win, it just depends what side we choose to be on. The winning side or the losing side? I choose winning! :] And I hope to share that with people here, that they can find strength in the Lord because he has overcome all. :] I love this work! 

 Floods were crazy! We walked in for lunch and the storm came in and we watched it during our lunch and then the hour ended and we had to find a way to get out and do work in this crazy storm. We walked down the stairs and we saw 6 inches of water on our walkway. That is the one picture with us in it. Crazy huh?!?! The water was everywhere! Rivers on all the streets. Crazy crazy. On friday I told you about a man that they couldn't find...they found him down stream :( So sad. But we are safe and we didnt get too wet! Its okay, maxwell (our toyota corolla :]) did really well in the storm. 

Our week was AMAZING! Setting people for baptism and having lessons left and right. Last night we sent in our numbers and our district leader texted us and said that we had more numbers than the district combined. Crazy huh? I guess we had the highest numbers in the zone. We have been working hard and doing the purification process. Man do I have a long ways to go! Always changing always progressing toward being better. 

Summer: 16 and she wants to be baptized because she loves to feel the spirit and she knows that the church is true

Pam: Has been investigating for 18 years and she got her answer by being pushed into her pool by an invisible force after she prayed about going into the waters of baptism! hahahahahaha amazing!

Kelsie: Is one of the member's girlfriends and she already knows the Book of Mormon is true and set a baptism date on the 1st lesson. She is pretty much already a member. She is so amazing!

Jeremy: He is Jesse's boyfriend and jesse had a prompting that she should invite her boyfriend to take the lessons and he is soooooooooo elect. He want s to be baptized!

Jesse: She has been taking the lessons for a few months and she is getting baptized on saturday! :] she is awesome!

I dont know what else to say besides I love you and I miss you so much! I need my absentee ballot for the election.  THank you for helping me out! Love you!

Sister Fine

"I Need to Become More Like a Potato!"

September 10, 2012

I LOVE SISTER MONSON! She is amazing and I am having a fabulous time! :] Laughing so hard and the Lord is on overtime with us because we have set 4 people for baptism this week! AMAZING AMAZING! The first of the month we had a mission wide fast to have 2 baptisms per month per companionship til the end of the year. We all (as a mission) felt so much power as we fasted. This week really showed God's power working through us. Here are the things in a nutshell that happened. In the white handbook it says that as missionaries we are not representatives of our wards or stakes, but I really think the ward would be proud of us if they were a fly on the wall and saw God's power working through us to bring to pass this goal the mission has. At this point last week the mission was at 470 baptisms. I'm sure that it has been more since then obviously but our goal by the end of the year is 1200. Last year we baptized 1033 people in the mission. So we have quite the ways to go. Even if we get 2 baptisms per month per companionship for the rest of the year it will leave us around 840-850. Obviously we need  divine intervention. The mission has been changing so much when the general authorites came in and re-vamped our mission. At the beginning they said that we would have a really hard, slow time for a while but then it will increase like crazy. They said that our faith will heal the mission as we take their counsel. Also we have recieved 78 new missionaries this transfer and we have lost missionaries to other missions, so our mission is almost starting over. If an older missionary is not training right now, they are still with a green companion. Sister Monson is not green at all it seems! She is a great example to me! She is amazing and I love her so much! So wise and so hilarious! We get eachother's sense of humor! :] So anyways here are the miracles this week....

We set Jeremy for baptism and without hesitation he said yes....

Bill and Rosa, who I taught in green valley with sister garner moved to the central stake while I was in Elko or sunrise....bill has been waiting for permission to be baptized ever since I was in green valley and on wed night president called us and said that bill has received permission from the first presidency to be baptized! So he is getting baptized after waiting a year on sept 15th at 11 am! :] yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a lesson scheduled with Summer and this was going to be a make or break lesson this week. As we were praying outside in the car before going into the house the word TEMPLE came into my head about a thousand times. After we said amen I looked at sister Monson I and said the word temple and that is it. So we changed our plans and met them at the temple. We gave a temple tour and then we set Summer for baptism on sept 29th! She came to church yesterday even though she was sick, she helped with yw and the yw leaders gave her a quad with her name engraved on it. Also she came with us to the fireside last night where a famous female lds singer Cali Reed came and provided a fireside for us. I WANT HER CD! SHE IS AMAZING! Please can I have her cd? She is recording with deseret book. She is incredible. We love Summer!

Yesterday after church a lady who is un named for now....its a secret that we cant tell yet....she has been investigating for 18 years and she came up to us and said "sisters....it is time." Im so dumb and I was like "time for what?" She said "to get baptized!" I about fell over. 

Also we have potentials coming out of the woodwork. It is insane how excited members are about doing missionary work. They all are in the attitude and mindset that inviting your non member friends over to have a lesson with the missionaries. Also the members are handing out BOMs like candy. I am in heaven right now. Some days have been hard but wow the Lord is working! All we have to do is live worthy and purify ourselves and God will bless us with people he is preparing. Since I have started this 40 day purification process satan has attacked me on all sides which has made me very weak at times, but through the help of the Lord he makes us strong!

Here is an analogy I heard last night from Cali Reed. Think about a potato and an egg and the reactions they both have in boiling water. the egg hardens and the potato softens. What is the reaction that we have in trials. Do we harden and become more bitter or do we soften, become more humble and come closer to God? That is a great question that we need to ask all the time.

This week I was honored because I was invited to be one of the 3 sisters that would attend Zone Leader Counsel. I was there with Sister Medina and Sister Vanderdoes...I like to call her Vanderdoodle :] It was a really good meeting and really set the tone for the rest of my mission. 

So I am soooooooo OVER members asking me when I am going home. I always say that I never want to go home and this week was the first time I have cried about it. The mission is the best thing that you can ever do in your entire life and I never want it to end. I STRONGLY DISLIKE WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT WHEN I AM GOING HOME!!!!! SO hint hint...I am really trying not to talk about it or ever think about it so unless you need to ask me a question about my return home or my plans please avoid the subject! The family does a really good job anyways, just a reminder. I love you and I miss you and I hope that I can help all of these people come to Christ through the waters of baptism and help the mission bring 1200 souls to Christ. 

It is amazing how much the Romney/Obama thing is really helping the missionary work move forward. There has NEVER been a better time to share the gospel with someone. It is so easy to bring up in the world today because of that. What an amazing blessing the Lord has given us! This will be a time that will be talked about for years and years to come! 

Love you and miss you all!  I need to become more like a potato. I have no idea what to say for my talk! I feel like my mission has been an explosion of EVERYTHING! hahahaaha. I trust you in whatever you want to say :]

Sister Fine