"Thank You So Much For The Prayers That You Have Offered For Me"

December 24, 2012

We have been caroling every day for a week and it has been amazing! We have gotten into so many homes to give blessings on the home. What we did was all of us made a huge list of people we wanted to carol to (non members, potentials, and part member families) and our ward mission leader hooked up  the biggest flatbed trailer I have ever seen to the back of his truck, threw some bails of hay on the back and got a huge group together! Going on the hay wagon has been super fun but SUPER COLD! BTW I am going to freeze to death when I get home if I am freezing in 50 degree weather. Then we would stop and go up to a house and sing a few songs. As we sang, many people from our group would go up to the door and hand the people oranges, candy canes, a box of my favorite cherry chocolates, and at the end one of us missionaries would go up to the door and give them a Joy to the World dvd. Then we would proceed to ask them if they would allow my companion and I to come in their home and have a prayer with them right then. Then we did the blessing contact I told you about before. REALLY EFFECTIVE! We have gotten 4 appointments from it so far and that is such a miracle!

 We had one of the appointments with this lady a couple of days ago that the elders found in our area from 
caroling. She is really nice, her name is Teri. She is an older disabled lady and she is know for her "senior smart house, the house that cares for you!" She showed us around, it was really awesome! Then we were able to share the Christmas story with her and she invited us back on Christmas!!!! WOWEE! Usually no one wants to see our face on holidays hahaha but she is alone and she wants us to celebrate with her. Really cool! Last night we were really successful. We found 2 families that are ready to receive the restored gospel! One of the families set an appointment for the 3rd at 11 :( that was a dagger to the heart.) The other family we are meeting with to teach the plan of salvation to the day after Christmas! SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! These two families lived right next to the Dutsons and the Taylors. Obviously really really active members in missionary work all the time. The Lord puts people in the path of those that are willing and ready to share the gospel! WHAT A MIRACLE!!!! :]

 Soooooo...........the end of the world didnt happen. SO GLAD! There are so many more things that need to happen before Christ comes again. I swear everyone was going crazy down here hahaha. I hope no one in the world did anything too stupid. There are some crazies in the world, let me tell you hahaha. 

So I have kinda bummed that my last baptism was in October and I dont get to see one before I go home...welll....I take that back........miracles happen so I dont know yet............but anyways, the SPirit has taught me this week why we are not getting baptisms right now and he has also taught me why I am in the position I am in now. Let me explain.  I have learned the power of 2 testifying about the message more than ever. When there is only one, it is not as powerful. I have had some talks with my companion (with love) about what I expect from her as my companion. She takes all of my suggestions with great humility, which has been a powerful example to me.  One day, after a lesson I just shut down. I was soooooooo discouraged  because the goal of teaching in unity felt so out of reach. Since we didnt have the spirit I pulled the car over and prayed. The Spirit chastised me for being so frustrated and I learned why this was happening. The Spirit spoke to me and said, "Sister Fine, cheer up your heart, you are in this companionship because though you wont have another baptism before the end of your mission, your companion will have people placed in her path in the last year of her mission. You are needed to train her and to help her with the skills that you have gained over your 18 months of service to help her become an effective advocate of the truth. Your legacy will live on through her as she serves the rest of her mission. Take hold of the opportunity at hand and move forward with faith." Mom and dad and babies, I literally felt the power of the Atonement overcome me and fill me with love and compassion for my companion. I have a clear understanding of what the Lord expects of me in the last few days of my mission. I am so thankful for the light that the Lord sheds into my heart by the Spirit. I am so thankful for the strength that he has always given me to act on the promptings of the Spirit and I am so thankful for all the confirmation I have received letting me know that what I have done is right. I love the Lord. I feel his love. I want others to feel of his grace as well. I pray that all of us will look into ourselves and what the Spirit is telling us right now. May we act upon it so the Lord can continually bless us. I love you all so much and I have prayed for you every night. 

Thank you so much for the prayers that you have offered for me. I literally feel them over me and blessing me. I feel more at peace about leaving the mission. The Lord has been telling me through my mind and through President that it is my time to go home and that he will take care of me.  I have to tell you though, the wards I am in are not being subtle with the hints on wanting me to marry their returned missionary sons..............oh boy. Needless to say, ward counsel yesterday was all of the auxiliary leaders setting me up with all of them. I was so embarrassed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were so naughty! I tried to change the subject but it didn't work! I am just taking it as a compliment and shrugging it off, but you'd think that they would be more respectful of my calling as a missionary. They know how much I love the mission and how much I don't want to leave.....little stinkers....

 Anyways....besides that, the members are spoiling us with gifts! I cant even believe it!!!!! We get little gifts on our doorstep every day! SO SWEET! Anyways...I am sending some packages home for me trying to make room in my suitcases so I am sorry if it is a lot. I will try to ship them as cheap as possible. I am getting rid of a lot of stuff by leaving it here for other missionaries so that will help. Love you all and I will see you TOMORROW AT 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooohooooooooo!

Sister Fine

"I have a 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City!"

December 17, 2012

Hey Family! I love you! Did you see the temple when you flew home? Mom I have a 3 hour layover in SLC! I AM GOING TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK! Who can come visit me from SLC during that time? Hmmmmmmmm..........I guess I will just have to hand out the Book of Mormon like candy at the airport! Yea I was wondering what you were going to do for the 25th. Are all the kids okay with doing all of Christmas on Jan 4th or something? When were we going to do it? The same day I get home? Or after so we can all sleep in the same room again over night when santa comes or what is the plan? Are the kids going to be able to wait? Yes I did give in on the skype thing. We are going to skype at sister dutsons house and sister dutson should be calling you today with us there about Christmas day so we can plan it all out. Reporting to the High Counsel? Like a talk? Or what is that? hahaha. Never heard of that hahaha. Maybe Im just deaf hahaha. I want you to know that I am soooooooooo happy and excited to come home and kiss all of your faces! You are amazing and I miss you so much! Im excited to skype with you all! I would LOVE to help out with the Activity day thing. It will be so bomb! The whole tradgety this week...wow.....I didnt even hear until yesterday at church. It just shows how sheltered we are as missionaries. Had a good week this week. Better than last week for sure!

 

Had more lessons this week. And we got a new investigator! Jessie's sister Erica! :] When Jessie and Jeremy joined the church, Jessie's family was really against the whole thing. But they ended up coming to her baptism and seeing her confirmed on sunday in sac meeting. A few months go by and Jessie has been talking to her sister about the gospel. Erica agreed to have a lesson with us for Jessie, so that she can understand what Jessie is doing. THat is where it all starts! Erica is way more receptive than Jessie thinks she is! I know there is a little fear with sharing with your family because you dont want them to reject the gospel. You know? But Erica had great questions! It felt so good to teach again because we have just been trying to find find find. We have been doing everything we can to find people to teach. And look! We got Erica! AMazing daughter of God. After the lesson she said, "Sister Fine, when do you go home? I like you! I want to have more lessons before you leave!" That made me feel really good. SInce sister De Greef and I started the transfer, we have been really working on teaching together. It has been a little rough....but we are getting there. When we were doing something at sister dutsons house the other day, sister dutson said "sister fine, you are doing great work with sister de greef, she did a lot better this time!"  I know that every area or companion has helped me a ton whether it was really difficult or not. We had a zone meeting this week and we had the Christmas party and talent show.  It was nice to sit and enjoy. I was going to dance, but music selection and choreography is really hard on the mission hahaha. Also I havent danced in 18 months so.......who knows what that looks like hahaha.

 

We also did something cool in our area this week! We gathered up the district (5 companionships total) and divided our area up to everyone and made assignments so our area could be blitzed! 10 missionaries in one area was the BOMB! Everyone made great contacts and we are excited to followup on everything that the Elders helped us do. Awesome Possum!

Yesterday in Beverly Glen ward we had just finished hearing all the talks and then the bishop got up to close the meeting. To my suprise, this is what he said...."As all of you know, we have had Sister Fine serving in our ward for a few months now and she is going home in about three weeks. Sister Fine will you please come up and give a 5 minute talk on your mission?" So I got up there and I about had a heart attack! After I was done I didnt remember what I said but I got lots of love from the members. I love these people so much!  I got really emotional at the pulpit because it seemed as though all of my mission hit me in that one moment. As I sat down next to my recent convert Jessie, I was bawling. She linked her arm with mine and said that she loved me. I was so thankful for that moment because I just love Jessie and I love all of the people that I have come into contact with. EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER!!!!!! AHHHHH! But it has changed my life. I know that all of these things that I teach are true. I feel the Savior in my life every day. I feel angels surrounding me and bearing me up!

 

We had interviews with president this week and he said many things that really touched me. He said that he trusts me completely and that he loves me so much and is so thankful for the leadership I am in the mission and for helping others to grow around me. I thought that was really sweet. Also Sister Neider told me that she loved me so much. She looked deep into my eyes and I could really feel their love for me.

 

One more experience before I have to go do my laundry. Saturday night we came home at 9 to plan for the next day....and as soon as I shut the door when I came inside, I got a ton of pain in my bad knee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAdnt had that in a long time! BUt I had it for the rest of the night and it was really hard to sleep. But as soon as I got out of bed at 630 I felt nothing. It just showed me that the Lord provides for us so that we can have strength as we do his work. Amazing amazing! Love you all! and I will talk to you next monday!

 

Sister Fine

"We have a new Pet in our Home"

December 10, 2012

We are Working really hard. Staying really focused. Using all of our resources. Biking all the time. Talking to everyone we see. Following up with all of our members that have potential investigator friends. Going through the purification challenge. ETC ETC. But we know in missionary work that the work ebs and flows. In sept-october we had amazing miracles and now we are down in the dumps of missionary work but that doesnt mean my effort is down in the dumps. I am working harder and harder all the time and I know that miracles will come!

 

This week we got the opportunity to finally go to the temple with kelsie to do baptisms! It was awesome! Out of the 6 baptisms we have had in this area we have helped 5 do their family history and go to the temple to do baptisms. The only one left is pam and she has been doing a lot of family history research! Very exciting! This week we helped set up for the Chrirstmas parties. It was a great idea! Down here in Vegas, they treat every activity like a wedding!!!!!!! THEY GO ALL OUT! And the 2 wards in our building just all set up and helped decorate and they just left all the decorations up for 2 nights so both wards could enjoy. Half the work and more AMAZING! I was also a part of the beverly glen play. I was the angel and I sang hark the herald angels sing acapella!  The Frenchman Hills Party was really small but the Beverly Glen party was HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe 450 people in the cultural hall. Maybe a 1/3 of them non members! That ward is really good at getting people out to their parties!

 

I have been doing this purification challenge that I will show you when I get home. It is amazing and sister Monson and I did it together for 2 transfers. I just saw her at the computer lab by the way! I just love sister monson! Anyways, sister de greef didnt really want to do it with me so I have been doing it by myself. Then one morning we were going over to morning sports with the sisters and they were bearing their testimony to us about how the purification challenge is helping them and they are seeing miracles in their area. SO that day sister degreef decided to give it a shot. This was saturday, and that day that she decided, we saw so many more things happen in that day than in the whole week combined! There is POWER in the companionship unity! I pray that I can help sister De Greef as best as I can.  She is very quiet and doesnt talk when we are around people, but then when we are by ourselves she is a little chatterbox hahaha. So cute! I love her, she is awesome and so loving and willing to work hard and be obedient, but it is hard to do all the talking by myself. I have lots of things to say hahahahaha but the power of both testimonies is where the power lies.

 

This weekend we had the missionary breakfast with the Stake President. After we ate, President Jarvis put me on the spot and asked me to bear my testimony since it was my last breakfast. I had about 10 min to wait to bear my testimony and tears just filled my eyes. Las Vegas is a home for me. A sacred ground that will always have a large piece of my heart for the rest of my life. I bore my testimony and the Spirit was with me. The influence of my mission hit me all at once and it was a powerful experience. I know that the Lord is pleased with me and my service. This is a huge changing ground for me! I will never be the same person that I once was. This has changed me. I love my mission and I am so thankful to say that I have time left to serve full time and then I can serve as a member missionary when I get home. We are going to see miracles in this next week I just know it! Love you all and miss you tons. Please invite people who are close to this area for my departing testimony on jan 2nd 3:30 pm at 9270 S Maryland Pwky Las Vegas Nv, 89123. By the way I have decided to Skype on Christmas! I will get back to you on that! Love you!!!! MISS YOU!!!!

 

Sister Fine

 

ps-We have a pet in our home. His name is Gigantor the cockroach. We have had several interactions that involved highpitch screams and him crawling into a hole in the cupboard. NOT OKAY!!!!! I assure you that this will end like the story about el diablo the mouse.

"Biking in a Skirt is an Art"

December 3, 2012

This week was a little rough but everything will be fine!

Pday was good. We keep cutting our pday short because we want to have lessons with Jessie and Jeremy. Before that we played frisbee golf with the elders. I love playing sports with everyone! Usually we play sports in the morning with the elders and I have gotten quite good, if I do say so myself! :] my sisters and brothers will be very proud of me hahah!

 

We had district meeting! Got a lot of work done today! We had an investigator flake out on us which is really sad, that has been happening a lot lately....it seems. we have been biking alot lately! We ended up biking the entire day and man my skirt took a beating! I got my skirt caught in my bike SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many times! I even pinned my skirt and it still didnt work! Im telling you, biking in a skirt is an art!

 

We went to see Kevin in the hospital again. They found blood clots all over in his body this time. One even close to his heart. If it dislodges, Kevin will..... :(. I just feel so bad! I hope and pray that he will be okay. He is a recent convert of almost a year and he wants to serve a mission so badly. I pray that he will serve where the Lord wants him to serve.

 

 We started to teach Jasmine. This is Bill's niece. She is so sweet and we love her so much! She will be baptized on dec 15th! So very excited for her! She has such a sweet spirit. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo story time. On friday night I threw up and it was soooooo bad. The whole night I felt sick. Then the next day we went out for a while and came home for lunch and I was just soooooo sick! I have never stayed in for more than an hour or 2 for being sick, but this time I stayed in for most of saturday and all sunday pretty much. That is the worst feeling as a missionary to have to stay in!!!!! I never want to ever ever ever have to do that again! I FELT SO WORTHLESS!!!!!!!!!!! I got up at 630 and showered and started getting ready and then I just felt like garbage! I called sister Neider and she said "Sister Fine, you need to rest, The President and I love you and trust you to make the best decision, you are a sharp missionary and we are thankful for you!" Man That made my day that they would say that about me. :] So I said that I would go back to sleep for a little bit and then go to our second sacrament meeting and see how I felt. So I did. I fell asleep and then got up and finished getting ready at 1015ish. Then we got there and I felt like I was in a daze. I couldnt even think straight. I realized that it was my last testimony meeting in the mission field so I wanted to get up there but I couldnt. I was too sick. Then I looked at our planner and I started to cry because we had appointments every hour after church. I couldnt even sit quietly without feeling so sick, let alone run around and do everything so I started to cry during the closing prayer. At the end of the prayer, all of my beverly glen mom's came around me and gave me hugs and words of encouragement. One sister said very powerfully "sister Fine, you are a servant of the Lord, at any time you can call down the power to Heal you right now so that you can continue your work at this time. you have the faith, let him heal you." So at that moment I said in my heart, "Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and as his representative I pray that I will be healed from this sickness so that I can get back to work, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." After that, sister De Greef and I went home and I slept forever. Then sister Taylor brought us food and we ate it. Then sister Whitehead came and got me and sister taylor took sister Degreef. I went to sister Whitehead's house for the Christmas devotional and stayed there while sister degreef and sister taylor went to all our lessons for that night. I was sooooooo thankful. I know that my prayer worked because I slept through the whole night and I woke up completely fine. Now I am here emailing and I am doing good. A little nervous for the next month to come but I know that it will be a joyous day and a step into the next exciting chapter of my life! Love you all and I miss you tons! I will see you all a month from today at about 3 pm. Mwah!

Sister Fine

"I Turned 17 Months on Thanksgiving"

November 26, 2012

Hello my family! HAPPY Thanksgiving late! I love you so much and I really hope and pray that it was a really good time with the sister Missionaries. Here was my week.

Monday: Had a good pday. Sister Monson packed up all her stuff and I took a long nap. I was soooooo exhausted and I didnt know why! Little did I know I was about to get real reall sick. Im glad I had a nap or else it probably would have been worse this week. That night we went and had a lesson with Jill at the Dutson's house. Jill is going through a lot of the normal struggles that investigators have, and she doesnt want to come to church...sooooo...thats an issue but we are working on it. All we need to do is to teach her and promise her blessings that come from keeping the commandments and she will be just fine. She will progress along. We have a meeting with her tomorrow. After the lesson, Sister Monson and I presented an FHE lesson for one of the empty nesters groups out here and that was good. We had a lot of good food and we played a game. Oh my goodness I cannot wait to teach you this game when I come home.  We all will die of laughing so hard. hahaha. Then the Dutsons said goodbye to sister monson and I was bawling like a baby. I love Sister Monson so much! 

Tues: Transfers! In the Morning we said goodbye to everyone that sister Monson wanted to see and then we headed over to transfers. It was a really great meeting. It was REALLY REALLY weird to see some of the sisters go home that were in the MTC with me and flew out here with me on the plane. My time is coming wayyyyyy too soon. The members and everyone is reminding me how I only have about 5 weeks left. But sister De Greef and I got together and had a great first evening! Sister Cheatham finally got transferred out of Black mountain since I started training her!  She is now serving in the same area sister Hanny and I opened about a year ago. WOw it has been that long since I have been there. wow. Also, sister Lio went home. Sad day. Do you know if Carly and Mike are coming to my departing testimony? Do the Bensons want to come? Will you invite anyone that is close to here to come and see me?  Uncle Danny?  I think he is only about an hour or 2 away from here. Anyways.....

Wed: We had district meeting. And we had a lesson with Suzanne. It was good.  She is also really closed off so I have no idea how to find out her concern. Its really hard, but we are still working at it. Showing her that the Lord loves her and her family so much!

Thurs: We have been biking a ton this week! Lots of fun! Talking to lots of people! Then we went to the Dutsons for thanksgiving! We helped set everything up and it was really good to meet more of their family! Their youngest daughter just got her mission call to Santiago Chile! Cool cool! I love the Dutsons so much! SOOOOO SOOOOO Much! Then that night because no one wanted to talk to us hahahaha we handed out tons and tons of thank you cards to some of our members and investigators and such! :] fun stuff! Also I turned 17 months on thanksgiving! Pretty crazy huh! 

Friday: Friday was really slow. We had weekly planning though and that was good. We have a lot of potentials coming out of the woodwork! Very excited!

Sat: Sat was a good day. We had a new member lesson with Jessie and Jeremy! I love them soooooooooooo much! Then we visited a member and all of a sudden she is working on 3 different people! We were like "so when were you planning on telling us that you are baptizing the world right now hahahaha." Then at night we went with our ward mission leader and his wife to deliver haloween pictures. The wards down here are GENIUS when it comes to missionary work in the activities. That is what they plan the entire event around! So for the Haloween party we had at the church, Bro Affleck painted an amazing backdrop so that people could get their pictures taken. Then we had it set up that the people would give their addresses so that we could deliver the pictures when they were done! That way we can make some contact to the non members who came and invite them to our Christmas party and see if there is any other way that we can help them! So we did that this week and I have never been so welcomed by nonmembers in my life! hahahahaha! I swear all the non members look at us here like we are going around killing innocent dogs or something. hahaha. wow. But it was really amazing!!!!!!

Sunday: CHURCHNESS! We had some really hard stuff happen about an investigator we have, but the Spanish missionaries and us were really unified in all of it and just did our best. We cant control everything, just what we do! I am really excited because we have a new sweet sweet investigator named Jasmine. We love her so much! She is BIll's niece. Very excited. And it worked out to where both the spansih elders and us are teaching her at the same time. That is what she wanted I guess so that is how we are going to do it! Jasmine is getting baptized either dec 15 or dec 22. Very excited! OH MY GOODNESS! We also got a Christmas tree!!!!! The members brought it over and helped us set it up! Made me so happy! ALso this morning to decorate it I made a long strand of popcorn. I poked myself alot but it was worth it! Very cute popcorn tree :]

Well Love you so much! That was my week!  My new compy is amazing! I love her so much! When I wanted my mommy to take care of me being sick this week, sister De Greef just took over and made me soup and she was just so sweet! I was sooooo thankful! She is very humble, very sweet and caring. She is a great companion to end with! I love her so much! 

Sister Fine

"I Spoke in Stake Conference"

November 19, 2012

So STORYTIME!!!! This week, the Elders were street contacting in an apt complex and they saw this lady praying. So they walked up to her and waited for her to be done. When she opened her eyes she was like "ELDERS HI!!!" Then before they could even say anything, she wrote out all her information and gave it to them and said I want to be taught by sisters. hahaha. So then we contacted her and she is amazing. Maybe I already told you this but, her name is Stefani and she is sooooooooooooooooooooo sweet. She has had some really big trials in her life and she is super humble. She said that she is thinking about joining the church. So we gave her the first lesson and then asked her to get baptized and her response was "ABSOLUTELY!!!" hahahaha wow I havent quite gotten that response before hahaha. It was amazing. She said that she needs to get her answer before she sets a date but we are soooooooooooooooooooo excited for her! 

This week was stake conference and she came! She loved it! Afterwards she was like, "Its over already?" hahahaha I dont think that she will have a hard time with church being 3 hours long hahaha. Speaking of Stake conference, I was asked  by the stake president to speak in stake conference. I spoke for 5-7 minutes on missionary work, go figure, hahaah. After I spoke I sat down and I said a little prayer in my heart, "Heavenly Father, please help me to know if I said what I was supposed to say. And please let me know if I was guided by the spirit." After Stake conference, I was swarmed by people who said over and over again that I had the spirit radiating from me. I knew it was an answer to my prayer. The end of stake conference was very powerful because the Stake President had all of us fulltime missionaries march from the back of the gym to the front through the isles singing Called to Serve! People were crying! It was pretty cool. Im excited because the theme for next year in the central stake is missionary work! In the foyers afterwards we handed out so many items so that members can give them out to their friends. It was great! 

 We had a fireside on tuesday night that was soooooooooo amazing! Stanley G. Ellis spoke to all of us and our investigators and recent converts. We took Pam Pew with us. I love her so much! Since a month before her baptism til now, she has given out 50 marked BOMs! Can you beleive that? And when she went to new mexico after her baptism she gathered all of these ranch families and held cottage meetings in her home and showed church movies and taught them about the church. Unfortunatley there are no missionaries in sight for about an hour and a half!!! :( But she is a great missionary. 

We are contacting people like crazy out here. I got into this slump of not contacting people as well because there werent a lot of people to talk to on the street. But even though I get nervous sometimes I just go up to everyone I see and talk to them and words just fall out of my mouth. Its amazing. The Lord really helps us as we rely solely on him. 

The weather has been getting pretty cold. I broke out the sweats and sweatshirts when it hit the 60's. 60 is FREEZING down here. I think it is because now I have las vegas blood. hahaha. Its about 50 or 60 every day. And Im just thinking about how cold Im going to be wihen I get home. I think I will die of cold when I get home. 

The missionary force is getting huge! SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! Everyone and their dog and their goldfish is getting mission calls to all over the world! Did you know that a mission opened in China finally? THey are just being hush hush about it because they want to keep their relationship with China a good one that keeps building. :] Awesome. The second coming of the Messiah is coming soon I feel! :] We must prepare! 

HEY I GOT BANGS! My Fall tradition. :] I love them! Im trying to send a picture, we will see if it works!

Last thing for this week. We went on splits and did a mini mission with some laurels. It was awesome! It is amazing how miracles happen when you take the youth out with you! COntacts right and left and potential investigators right and left! Amazing! Now they are so excited to go on their missions. I love the fire behind all the youth right now! It is amazing to see! Well I love you all so much and I miss you and I want to kiss your cheeks and I just love you and love you and love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sister Fine