No Lions, No Tigers, Just One Big Bear! Oh My!

"Transfers were so fun! The sun goes down at like, 5 here now, so we were driving to Roanoke in the dark. We got to the Roanoke stake center, and picked up our car. We drive a 2013 Ford Fusion again. They're really nice cars. Im trying to get used to it. I had to drive us to our apartment in the dark, 20 miles from Roanoke using the GPS. I had no idea where I was going, but we eventually got there."

 

"There are 2 sets of sisters in Bedford, no elders. Sisters' area! Woot! We live in a duplex with the other set of sisters. The area isn't formally divided, so we just kind of share all of the ward members. Our area is Gargantuan. We cover 4 or 5 extra little towns on only 1100 miles a month, but we've seen a lot of miracles and success in our area this weekend!"

 

"Church on Sunday was definitely a different experience. There are about 130 people on the ward roster...enough to make a ward. Only about 60 are active/semi active, and maybe 50 show up every Sunday.  There is so much potential in this area though!!! We have a lot of member referrals and so much work to do here in the Bedford area."

"So the music..are you ready?? I am in the ward choir, playing half the music for our Christmas program...and teaching group piano/music reading classes Wednesday nights at 5:30 starting the 4th of December. The branch president at this point says, "if it will help the branch progress, do it." I am so excited to start teaching!! It will be open to the public, non members and members."

  

I absolutely LOVE my companion!! She is so sweet and she knows how to have fun and work hard and bring the spirit into lessons. She's from WA. She loves Disney movies, so we do a lot of quoting and singing during the day. She wants to learn to play the piano, so I am teaching her as well"

 

"So our miracle this week is pretty..well, WILD. Our duplex is right on the edge of a really forested area. Last night, we hear the sisters come running up the back deck stairs, and slam their back door. I heard a lot of running footsteps and squeeling, so I went next door to see what was up. They were standing in the bathroom with the light off, and the window open listening to something in the bushes. They told us that they pulled up to the house, and their trash was EVERYWHERE, and all the bags of trash ready to go out this morning had huge holes in them or were missing. They heard rustling in the bushes, and got scared, so they skipped their mile report for the day and ran inside. They called our landlords (they live across the street) and he came over with his flashlight, We all anxiously stood on the back deck waiting to see what the animal was digging in our trash. Leaning against a tree with a bag of trash in it's paw...was a full grown Black Bear. It was HUGE!!! It had come up on the deck earlier that day, because a bag of trash on the deck had a huge hole in it. It was so crazy! I almost sent Sister V to the car to get the ward directory, but I got a feeling that I wouldn't need it anymore...so I told her not to worry about it. We did some time math and realized that the bear was under our deck during our dinner hour, and if Sister V had gone out, she would've seen it, and maybe invaded its space without realizing it."

 

"Thanksgiving will be different. I don't know anybody here. Apparently Bedford is the Christmas capitol of VA or something...so maybe/hopefully lots of lights! There are a lot of older folks homes, and even a retired veterans home here that we want to go carol to with the other sisters. Christmas in Bedford will be so much fun!! I'm really looking forward to it!"

Drum Roll Please. . .

"Transfer news...We are being tripled out, which means all three of us are leaving. It's complete chaos. Our apartment is the biggest disaster. BUT! We are all going great places to do great things."

"I am going to BEDFORD, VIRGINIA (: Merry Christmas to me! The area is supposed to be really nice. I am serving in a branch, but our boundaries are enormous. Hopefully we can pick this branch up a little and get a few more people to come, reactivate some people. My companion is Sister V. She is super short, like me (: She is the sweetest sister I have met out here. I am so thrilled to be serving with this sweet sister this transfer (: "

"There's a few things I am so grateful for (during this holiday season especially) but I am extremely grateful for the chance I had to be in Special Needs mutual. It taught me a lot about handling situations, and being a friend to all."

"I don't have a whole lot of time. Our P-day is packed today. I will email more about happenings in the mission on Monday. I love you so much! I am looking forward to hearing from y'all soon! (: "

 

She is on the move again. Bedford is about 40 miles east of Roanoke, VA and about 3 1/2 hours from Charleston, WV. Bedford has a population of just over 6,000. In comparison, Riverton's population is listed at 38,000. If you plan to send her a letter, email me (cindy6@softsolutions.com) for her address.

Stake Conference and a Family Reunion

"Yay for p-days! I'm emailing from Sister Pitt's iPad today. The library is closed. Again...I hate Monday holidays. So a lot has happened this week! I have so much to tell you, so my news will be somewhat brief. Monday last week we went hiking in the Kanawha forest. We hiked up a way steep trail, that we thought was a different trail. I about died. Hiking the hills of West Virginia is not as fun as it sounds...But the leaves were way pretty and we all had a good time. We took the sisters serving in Teays Valley."

"Friday Elder Joseph Sitati of the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was amazing! I learned so much about my purpose as a missionary. His wife is a cutie pie, her accent was very thick and sometimes she was a little difficult to understand, but she still had a great message. Of course I played the piano :)"
 

"This weekend was stake conference! Saturday night two of the missionaries in the stake were speaking in the adult session so we all got to go to the adult session of conference. The Beckly sisters were staying with us all weekend, and going home Sunday afternoon, so we had an extra companionship staying at our apartment. Saturday morning I woke up not feeling well. Apparently several other sisters have felt the same way that I have felt this weekend, so it was some bug thing going around. It felt like I had mono again, and you can't get mono twice, so I knew this wouldn't last too long.  It got worse throughout the day, and finally I had to ask to go home and sleep. I slept for a good two hours, and Sister K and one of the Beckly sisters came back from Beckly (we were doing exchanges Saturday before conference) and I woke up and felt well enough to go. The first person I saw walking in to the chapel was Aunt Linda. Aunt Linda and I basically ran to each other from across the chapel haha we were so so SO excited to see each other! We sat next to each other during conference. Towards the end of the meeting, I started feeling like I had that afternoon. Uncle Seldon was sitting behind us, Uncle Gerald was running electronic things, and Uncle Jim was with Aunt Linda. I asked them to give me a blessing before they left. Uncle Gerald and Uncle Seldon gave me a blessing. It was a real treat to get a blessing from family. I woke up the next morning with a little bit of a stuffy nose, and I felt great the remainder of Sunday. Sunday was way neat! I saw a ton of people from Teays Valley (her first area)."
 

"We picked up a new investigator this week! He's totally elect, so ready for the gospel!  But he was so funny at our first lesson we had with him. We were teaching him about how God only has one gospel, and he totally agreed that God only had one gospel. After we said that he laughed and said "God's probably thinking, 'you idiots!" We laughed forever, because occasionally we ponder whether or not Heavenly Father face palms it every once in a while, with everyone thinking what they do out here hahaha :)"

Halloween, training and a baptism!

She actually did write a letter last week but it didn't arrive until Saturday. Here is how her week has gone.

"The Pitts (Mission President and his wife) live in our area, so we "dressed up" and went to their house to say hi.Sister K was an Indian, Sister E was a spy, and I was a hillbilly/native West Virginian haha (:  Well, I hope you are enjoying your fall weather. It rained last week, and finally the trees gave one last push of color before they are all starting to fall off. The sky is the bluest blue, and the air smells like fall. It's so wonderful (:

"So the training story...there was a sister in Parkersburg that was having a really hard time and her trainee was Sister E.  So in order to help her, the Pitts pulled both of them out of Parkersburg, and I am finishing Sister E's training. Training is a much better experience this time. All three of us get along so well! It's kind of a party when we drive places, we have AMAZING morning tri-panionship studies, and training itself is really kind of a miracle. I remember having a desire to train, but it was all totally for the wrong reasons. I thought I knew better, and that I could mold the trainee the way I thought a missionary should be, but I was SO wrong. I think that's why me and Sister H's experience wasn't as amazing as I wish it had been. But I have had to pray for the Spirit so hard this transfer, because I have never even looked over the back half of the training booklet. So I just go by what the Spirit asks me to do, and we all have a great time! We have some really amazing experiences together."

 
"This week I have "caught a glimmer" of what true Charity is like. We were in the car driving to a less active member's house, and we were listening to this CD that reflects the life of Christ on it. There are piano/cello arrangements, and it's just this wonderful CD that just reminds you of the Savior. One of the songs is titled "The Pool of Bethesda" and when you listen to it, it totally reminds you of the new Bible video, and pictures of those people waiting by that pool to just be healed. But then Christ comes and triumphs as usual over man's vain thinking that just stepping into motioned waters can heal them. Then Christ heals the man, and it happens to be the Sabbath, and the Pharisees (which I have really grown to dislike) try to accuse him, etc. You know the story. But then I also kind of thought of the painting by Greg Olsen called " O Jerusalem". Christ is sitting on this hill overlooking Jerusalem. I put myself in the position of Christ, and I thought to myself, "O Charleston...Wilt though not repent and come to the Savior? Wilt though not cast away thy sins and be baptized by water and by fire?" and while I was sitting in the front seat of our little car, driving through the trees and fall foliage, I mourned for the city of Charleston. I mourned for the state of West Virginia. I mourned for those in other places that wouldn't accept the gospel if they were offered it, because their heart wasn't open to it's promptings. I felt the way Christ does! It was the neatest thing! I had never felt that way. I mourned so much that I cried for the people here. It was totally unreal."

"So do you remember that media referral/golden investigator in Bridgeport? She's getting baptized this weekend, or was baptized on Saturday...either way, she's been converted!!! So I have officially been a part of someone's conversion (: "