TRANSFERRRSSSS

Hey family! 

 So I know you're all probably DYING to know.. is she training or is she not? Well maybe you're not dying to know, but I'll just pretend you are :) 

 .......... 

 I'm training!! 

 I'm really excited/nervous/sad. 

 I'm excited to learn and grow from training. I always learn the most when I lead and teach others. I'm excited to be an example to her. I'm nervous because I've only been out for 6 weeks....I haven't even finished my training yet! (training lasts for 12 weeks) I'm nervous that she won't respect me as a trainer and that she won't trust me. But! I will do the best I can and I guess if she doesn't respect me, it's her problem. I'm sad because Sister Lundell is leaving :( I will be staying in Marysville and it just won't be the same without her! We've become bff's if you can't tell :) Our time has been cut short. 

 We found out on Thursday that I'll be training and lemme tell ya, I didn't sleep that night. I couldn't eat, I couldn't concentrate on the work, I was TERRIFIED. And sometimes I just like to keep things all inside of me and then on Saturday I kinda just broke down and I spilled my guts to Sister Lundell and Elder Caruso and Elder Finley came and gave me a blessing and told me that God will never leave me. Even though, I feel completely unqualified, but the Lord has put me here in the this mission at this time for a reason! I know that! At the trainers training meeting on Friday, President took me aside and said to me 2 things. 1. Keep training myself as well as my trainee and 2. I do trust you with this assignment, but don't let it get to your head. My first thought was "Oh that's great, he trusts me!" My second thought was "What is he going to do to me???" hahaha. I'll be fine :) I feel a lot better now, I'm still super nervous, but I'll be okay :) I can't wait to meet her and get to know her and have as much fun and work as hard as I did with Sister Lundell. 

 So my MIRACLE OF THE WEEK this week is kinda crazy awesome. A couple Sundays ago there was a cottage meeting. A cottage meeting is where new converts tell their stories and we bring investigators and stuff. It's at the mission home and you have to have someone bring you. So we had a less active to bring us and we were so excited because it was my first one! And last minute, our less active cancels on us and so we call someone else and they will take us! But then right before we had to leave, she calls us and says she just randomly threw up and got real sick. So we call every single person we know! And everybody is busy! And so we're like "Alright... God must want us to stay here." We had NO idea what he wanted us to do so we prayed and then we went to a house that we were parked in front of. We talked to a guy, but it wasn't anything too big. Then we decide to go to another less actives home. So we do! Her name is Lesley Lopez. She is home and we get to know her and we ask her if there was anyone she knew that would accept this gospel. She tells us to go see her daughter Genevieve. So a couple days later we go see Genevieve. Oh. My. Goodness. She is SO prepared to receive this gospel! She is 35 and just got out rehab. She is just thirsting for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So I invited her and her two daughters to be baptized and they accepted! They will be baptized in September and it's just so wonderful! :) She is just eating everything up and she has so much faith and such a sincerity to receive this Gospel. Her daughters names are Alea, who is 10 and Ariana, who is 14. The Lord is truly directing our every path. 

 I cannot believe my first transfer is over! We go pick up our new missionaries tomorrow! It feels like yesterday I was there in that position! I was so nervous and really tired, but it was a special day! I'm excited to be such a big influence in this new sister's life! 

 Last week for P Day, we went to a trampoline gym. It was so fun it felt like it should be apostate. (any time something is against the rules, we call it apostate, it's great) But you could jump on the tramps to the foam pit or do par kour on the side tramps or play dodge ball. We went with our district. It was just so much fun! This week Sister Mereness (a lady in our ward, she's the best) took us to Olive Garden and then to the outlet malls! We are having way too much fun over here, seriously. 

 Me and Sister Lundell sang in Sacrament Meeting yesterday! We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount. It was a lot of fun! The arrangement didn't have parts so I got to write the harmonies! It was awesome and I'm happy to be using my talents out here :) 

 Okay, so basically I'm in desperate need of music! (Richie, you were right....) So maybe you could all send me some? Just find some cool uplifting songs and send them my way! I would love that! 

 I love you all so much! Sometimes when one of you pops in my head randomly, I like to think that you are somewhere thinking about me too! I miss you and I pray for you everyday! 

 Love, 

Heidi 

 P.S. The people next to me at the library reek of Marijuana...welcome to Marysville.

Picture Post

Cute Ella Mereness that got baptized! 

Sister Mereness...she's my favorite.

cutest dog ever.  Her name is Bella and she  fits on my scriptures. it's great. This is at the Cubbedge's home

The Dating Game Continues

August 19, 2013 

Helllloooo everyone! 

 How are you all? Great? I sure hope so. :) Alright so crazy thing, this is the last week of this transfer! We find out on Thursday if we will be training or not and basically I'm real nervous... I'm not sure what will happen and I reaaaallllly don't want to leave Sister Lundell :( it just wouldn't be the same! 

 So bad news this week... Saturday Glen calls us... he's moving. On Tuesday..... Sad for us, but he'll be in good hands with the new missionaries. He is moving to Blaine...or however you spell it. And it's like the farthest north you can go in our mission. Then on Sunday Audrey tell us that she is moving on Monday... She is moving to Olympia... And we'll also get her in good hands...but it's pretty sad that we don't get to teach them. They were both golden investigators. We'll just have to go to their baptisms! 

 Alright, so I'll tell you what I did with my life this past week. 

Monday we went thrift store shopping! It was great and I found some real cute stuff for like 3 bucks. Grandpa would be proud. 

 Tuesday was my first Zone Conference! It was awesome and me and Sister Lundell sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives! It went well :) I learned a lot of great things and stuff :) Me and Sister Lundell got the award for cleanest car...oooohhhhhh yeah. That thing was sparkling. The rest of the day we visited people. We went to dinner at the Guzman's, boy they are funny people. They are members and they have like a billion grand kids and none of them are members. Shanae, one of our investigators, is their grand daughter. 

Wednesday we had to go to Everett for an appointment for Sister Lundell and a less active is at the hospital doing chemo there in Everett so we stopped by but she was sleeping so we got her a bear and a note and it was great :) 

 Thursday we did service at Sister Bailey's house. We had to pick apples and there were spiders EVERYWHERE on the tree. It was bad...bad bad bad. We looked ridiculous but was pretty funny. Then she had us shuck some corn and then cut off the kernels... We did like 40 of them... we were just covered in corn and grossness. I felt like one big giant kernel of corn. Then we had a lesson with Shanae! It went SOOO well. She asked so many great questions and she was able to feel the Spirit and she wants to keep meeting with us. She will be baptized one day! 

Friday we went on exchanges! I was with Sister Amataga, she's from Samoa. She's great! When we were there I just realized how sad it would be to be in this area with Sister Lundell! I don't want to, don't make me... :( 

 Saturday we went to a little girl's baptism, her name is Ella. She is so cute and her mom, Sister Mereness, is my favorite. She's from Austria and she has an accent and I love their family. So we sang at her baptism! We sang I Know Heavenly Father Loves Me! Just like I sang at my baptism! It was very special. 

 Sunday we went to church of course! And then we were kinda bummed out all day because of Audrey and Glen and Pam had cancelled her lesson and then didn't come to church....again... but then we had this lesson with Sister Cubbedge and she is preparing to go to the temple! So we are teaching her a temple prep class! We had a great lesson with her :) 

 So we have this neighbor, Dave, and he's great. He's very friendly and he's a great neighbor. And we were talking to him one day and he's like "Hey so I have this projector and we should totally set it up and watch a movie out back." and we're like..."uhhhhh.... we'll have to watch a church movie!" then he says "Alright! Sounds good to me!" And then we're like crap... he just wants to watch a movie with us... awkward... luckily the Elders were right there and we could run away with them. hahaha I don't really understand why someone would think we could go on a date with them. Crazy people. 

 And I got Jen's package! Thanks for the bows and my SHIRT! I was really sad that I lost that...but now I am happy :) Letters will be on your way! 

 So I do a lot of studying (go figure) and I am learning sooooooooooooooooo much. Heavenly Father is just giving me all the info about anything. It's great. And the Gospel makes so much sense. Everything fits together and it's just good. Every question that you have can be answered and every concern that you've heard from people can be cleared up if you just READ the scriptures. So many people take things out of context and don't study the whole thing. Here's my bold comment for the day... anyone who doesn't believe that this gospel is true has not studied it correctly. Study with the Holy Ghost and with prayer and with a desire to know the mysteries of God. It's quite amazing. And this week I realized something. I've realized that my whole life has led me to this. Everything that I've experienced, everything I've learned. It's prepared me to preach this gospel. I've always been supposed to serve a mission. When I didn't get a clear answer of whether or not I should go, I was always supposed to. God just knew that I would choose to go and so He just let me decide. He trusted me enough to make this decision. I'm so grateful for this gospel and direction that it gives me. It's everything that I am. 

 MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: When we try and call Shanae, she usually doesn't answer and then we can't get a hold of her for a while. But this week we call her, she didn't answer and then like a half an hour later, SHE CALLS US! We were just so happy and Heavenly Father has led us to her! 

 Okay, I love you so much and I think about you and I pray for you everyday! I'm glad that Jen is safe in Syracuse and that the trip went well! 

 Love, 

Heidi

The Beach

                                        The Beach

My first rain in Washington!

It was Elder Caruso's birthday so naturally we got him a sombrero

 Us and little Sydney Sumsion!  She is Bishops daughter and was just baptized! 

Cats and Scary Places

Hello everyone! 

 So, it's been a tough week in the field! But definitely a good kind of tough :) Once again, all of our appointments fell through so that's always nice. haha. It's frustrating sometimes but then again, we are working really hard and doing the best we can so a lot of times we just have to leave things up to God. We have 15 potential investigators. And they are all very much potential... not just oh yeah they could perhaps. Everyone seemed very excited to talk with us but some how they keep falling through. BUT NOT THIS WEEK. Me and Sister Lundell made a goal this week to have 11 new investigators. That's right. 11. And it's a lot and it's going to take soooo much work. But we are going to do it! We will get this! But we definitely need your help! Please pray for us to specifically get 11 new investigators. And spread the word! Let this become a world wide prayer! 11 NEW INVESTIGATORS! IT WILL HAPPEN. I have faith in God's plan. 

 So yeah, we haven't been teaching much at all, but we've met a lot of....interesting people. We went tracting by the ocean. So basically they are all pretty rich and they feel that they don't need the Gospel. One lady thought it was appropriate to yell at us TWICE. Thanks.... It's fine, it's easy to laugh it off because it's their loss. We definitely did what we could do and maybe we have planted some seeds and one day they will be prepared to hear this message. I sure hope so! 

 Funny story, we went to a less actives house and she's like "I'm not interested in this church anymore but HOW DO YOU GUYS ALWAYS FIND ME?" Hahaha I guess that she had just moved there and every time she moves she has some missionaries come over to meet her and stuff. Our church is secretly the FBI. hahaha 

 Oh so the other day a lady in our ward gave us some donuts and it took us a while but it was HOSTESS brand! Is it back? When did this happen? Hooray for Hostess! I'm outta the loop here. 

 This week we had received a refferal. His name is Kevin. So we went to Kevin's house and his roommate Brett answered the door and Kevin wasn't home of course. Brett is Agnostic so he wasn't interested but we gave him our card with our number so that Kevin could call us. That night we get a text that says "Hi" and the rest of the conversation as follows 

Us: "Hey, who is this??" 

Unknown: "You came by earlier looking for my roommate." 

Us: "Oh is this Brett?" 

Unknown: "Yep." 

Us: "Oh hey Brett! Are you interested in hearing our message?" 

Brett: "Yeah actually I was talking to Kevin last night" 

Us: "Oh that's awesome! Why don't you talk to Kevin and let us know when we can come teach both you!" 

Brett: "Okay, I will!" 

End convo. 

Then the next two days we don't hear from him. We text him and we don't have any reply.... Then a couple days later we get a text from Brett. 

 Brett: "Hi." 

 We were talking to a less active so we didn't reply but a couple of minutes later we get another text. 

 Brett: "Hey do you guys wanna catch a movie tomorrow?" 

hahahahahaha he asked us on a date. What gave him the idea that we wanted to go out with him? It's a little creepy...we didn't reply and told the Elders to go visit him and see just how interested in the Gospel he really is. 

 So a couple of nights later we were at another less actives home and her son came in and talked to us a little and then asked "So...can you guys go on dates?" We say "No" obviously and then he just like walks away and it was awkward hahaha... we got two date offers in a week! Great times. 

 So I wanna tell you a little bit about what I've learned from my study time! Me and Sister Lundell are reading the New Testament in chronological order and we are studying Jesus the Christ. It's awesome and we learn A LOT! I was thinking about temples and how we go there to become closer to God and to become more like Him. And then I was thinking about our bodies. How they are temples. I think that statement is a lot more profound than we make it out to be. Our bodies are GIFTS from God! God has a body and He gave us our bodies so we could become closer to God and become more like Him. Just like the temple. These bodies are so precious and Satan is so so so so so jealous that he doesn't have one so of course he would use our bodies against us to make us sin against God! This all kind of just hit me and you all probably realized it a while ago but I thought it was neat :) 

 Ian! How was Retreat?? I haven't heard from you in while! You better write me and tell me all about it!! Seriously, I want to know everything. 

And I hope that you all have a fun time on that super cool road trip. Every time someone mentions New York, I'm like "Oh my sister is going there!" haha they probs don't care but I do. 

 Me and Sister Lundell are still doing great as companions :) We love each other especially now since we're like cousins and stuff. :) We literally tell everyone that we meet. It's great. We started a quote wall in our apartment of funny stuff that we have said or done. 

 Okay so I forgot to do MIRACLE OF THE WEEK last week... how embarrassing. So I will do two!! MIRACLES OF THE WEEK! 

1. Okay so basically before my mission whenever a cat was in a ten mile radius of me, I would start to feel it in my throat and chest. We walked into a lady's house. She literally has ten cats. And there is cat hair EVERYWHERE. I'm gettin' a little nervous that I'm gonna like die or something. But I walk out completely fine. Nothing. I drenched myself in hand sanitizer after. And I know that I've already shared that my allergy isn't acting up but that was just one cat! This time it was TEN CATS. 

 2. Okay, I'm going to be honest here. We are in a dangerous place. We can't be outside after dark and we just have to be careful, and I'm not trying to scare you at all, just saying the truth. I feel like whenever I have been in a town like this where it isn't so safe, I get sooo paranoid and scared but I'm not here. I feel very brave. And not the bad kind of brave. After we found out that me and Sis Lundell are related, I received some revelation that our ancestors are with us. They are why we can be so brave because they aren't letting anything bad happen to us. So don't worry Mom, Grandpa Fredrick and Grandma Mary and definitely walking around with us. :) They were very happy when we finally realized that we are related :) 

 Okay I love you all sooo much! Keep the letters coming! (i'm looking at you Ian) 

 Go with love! 

 Sister Scott

Picture Post

 Sometimes there are peacocks in the parking lot of our church building. No big deal.

  Me and Sister Lundell drivin' 'round town.

I Love Being a Missionary!

July 27, 2013

Family and Friends! 

I get so excited to email each week and tell you things that happen! 

 Sometimes I have these moments where I'm like..... "Whoa...I'm a missionary." Haha, it's just really cool being out here serving the Lord. There is so much to do and so much to learn. 

 This week we've met A LOT of people. We've met a ton of less actives in the ward. Most of them are "busy" and then they tell us to try again next week and then they get really surprised that we come back. People don't realize that we are FULL TIME. 

 This is all that we do... so of course we are going to come back! haha silly people. This week a lot of appointments fell through. It's not really that discouraging because I feel that I am doing all that I can... and so we just keep going back and going back until the kick us away. People get "sick" here a lot... but persistence is key! 

 We went by a girl named Shanae's house this week. She is 19 and her mother is a member and her brother has been baptized. Sometimes her mom comes to church, but that's pretty much it. And so we were talking to her about the Book of Mormon and where it comes from and how we know it's true. She had questions of how it fit with the Bible because in Revelations it says that you should not add to this book. Haha classic question. We answered that the Bible is not organized into chronological order and Revelations is not the last book to be written and it is just talking about not adding to the book of Revelations. Then we said a prayer with her and after she said she wanted to take the discussions! Hurray! So we will meet with her this week. 

We were street contacting in the park and we approach a guy. His name is Glen. He was not interested in what we had to say so we steered the conversation towards something else to show that we are actually normal people and then we steered back to religion and then he was interested and he took a Book of Mormon! And he is also meeting with us this week. We also think he might be on drugs... maybe. We can't tell.. sooo we'll just see what happens there! 

 Also funny story, we were trying to find someone in a trailer park and we ran into a lady. We started talking to her and she was a little bit odd... and at first she was saying all these things and we're like we can help you! Read the Book of Mormon! And then she keeps talking to us and how she is ADHD and how she is self medicating and then she told us how she's trying to break her friend out of jail. And she told us about a lot of crazy stuff and finally she told us how her feet are messed up. (by this time we are not giving her anything and are slowly backing away) and then she takes off her shoes and socks and starts SHOWING THEM TO US. I could've barfed. Then she didn't put her socks back on and then she started crying (one of like ten times) and she used her sock to wipe her face... uhhhh just some advice...drugs are bad and they make you crazy. Literally crazy. 

 Me and companion still love each other and we are great :) We are in our ward with two elders. Elder Caruso and Elder Finley. Elder Caruso is great! Elder Finley... he just got here like me and he thinks he knows the whole world.... but we love Elder Caruso so it's all good :) 

 My mission president is awesome! I love him and his wife! They just had to jump right in and it's just been great getting to know them :) 

 Life is good and I can't believe that I've been out for almost a month! I feel like it was just yesterday that you guys dropped me off! So next transfer is at the end of August and we are getting like 27 new Sisters...what the heck... it's crazy. Right now we are at 34 Sisters in our mission so that will like double us! And there will only be one companionship of Sisters that will not be training and so it looks like I could be training after 6 weeks of being out.....makes me a little nervous...but it will be great :) Mainly I just want to stay with Sister Lundell haha we are so great together :) 

 Thank you for all your support! Love you and miss you all! 17 months until I see you! :) 

 Go with love 

Heidi