"I hope y'all have a wonderful new year!"

"So, all I have to say is that it was SO amazing talking to y'all on skype (: It was fun to see faces and joke and just have a good conversation "in the living room". What a blessing- definitely a good boost for the rest of the transfer."

"Christmas was nice! We had dinner with a member family. We spent the next few days trying to clean up our apartment and pick up our numbers a little bit. We had a disaster for a living room, and our numbers for the week were, well, Weak. So we rallied up some of our former investigator sheets and went a-searchin'. We picked up a couple of potential investigators, and are trying to find more people to teach. Our investigator that is progressing is in Roanoke for the holidays. It sucks- but we'll teach her again soon."

"Saturday night we got a phone call telling us that one of us will be leaving, either me or Sister V will get transferred, and then one of the other sisters will be leaving as well. I'm pretty sure it's going to be me...considering I have been transferred every 6 weeks anyways...jus' sayin'."

"I will miss serving with Sister V. I will tell you- this transfer has been a blessing, a privilege, and a trial all in one package. I have learned that sometimes the Lord gives us assignments that we don't understand until the end of the experience. One of my "stories of the year" that Sister Pitt talks about in president's email is the chance I had to serve with someone so unique and special. Only a select few sisters in our mission had the chance to serve with her. I feel almost honored to be able to be one of her companions."

"I can't believe it's pretty much 2014. It blows my mind a little bit. I will be 20 in a month. WOAH. I will be home in (doing math)...167 days, 8 months, whatever you want to call it. I realized that I only have 4 transfers left of my mission. It passes faster than you think. I'm sad it's come and almost gone, but for the time I have left, I have some serious work to do, and I am excited to finish this with a bang."

YAY Christmas!!

"So this week has been really eventful. We got in a car wreck after a district meeting last week on Friday. No one was hurt, but the other sisters' car looks great with its new facial...we're excited for its plastic surgery. We ended up giving the man that we hit a Book of Mormon. He was excited- he said "it's been a long year" for him. Unfortunately, he isn't in our area by a couple of streets...so the other sisters in Vinton are going to contact him. We're excited to hear what happens!"

"We spent our Christmas day at a member's home! They made us a lovely chicken dinner with potatoes and the whole Christmas dinner works. It was really wonderful."

"We all woke up at a 6:30 to open all of the presents under our tree. Thanks for all who sent gifts!! You all are fantastic!"

"Merry Christmas!! I love you all!"

Merry Christmas!

We received a quick email on Saturday letting us know that the library in Bedford will be closed Monday to Thursday so she won't be able to email us. She was allowed to use a member's computer to let us know about calling on Christmas. Next week is transfer week so technically P-day would be on Wednesday but that is New Year's Day so I don't know what they will do about that. I'll update the blog when I hear from her.

Thanks for all the prayers and support that you give to Elizabeth. She really appreciates it. Merry Christmas!

"What a Week!"

"The two programs we had went really well. Wednesday was the specialized training (super inspirational, I learn so much from President Pitt every time I listen to him speak), and the musical devotional was Sister Pitts portion of the training. It was really neat. I was super nervous to play a piano solo. I haven't played a piano solo, like in a recital or anything for a long time, but the Lord was with me and I played the song I practiced a brief 4 or 5 times almost perfectly. All the singers and participants did a very good job. The musical fireside at the church was so much fun! I love how relaxed it all was. We had a full house! I have never seen so many people sitting in the chapel until the program. It was such a treat. We didn't get any referrals from it, but we found an inactive church member from it. We had several nonmembers attend, and one performed in the program with Sister M- she plays the flute, so we are having a field day playing together! Our investigator came with her inactive mother, and her two nonmember siblings.She is doing really well- she is progressing quickly, and we're hoping to set her on date again soon."

 

"Searching for lost referrals is quite an adventure, but that's where the miracles and tender mercies come. We were at a HUDD apartment complex looking for a potential of 2 years ago, but people move in and out of those developments, so we just thought we'd clean up the list a bit. We went to knock on her door, and the door across the hall and one over opened and told us she wasn't there. We met a lady (: she's so sweet- we took her cookies the next day and we left her with a pass along card. We added her to our potential investigators list. The tender mercies of working hard!"

 

"We did get our tree set up this week! Sister V's mom sent her a late birthday package with every single Disney princess ornament she could find...so we have a Disney princess tree this year. Sister V LOVES the Disney princesses."

 

"The weather here is so strange. It's nice some days and others it's not. It's been overcast with a cold wind (the humidity does NOT help...) but we live on the border of the warm southern weather and the cold northern weather, so some days it's 25 and others it's 50. December here isn't like Utah. It doesn't start feeling like Utah December until late January. February is the worst winter month out here."

 

"So we have a cute sister in the branch that is older. She can't leave the house and she has a lot of medical problems. She's home alone all the time. We go visit her every week, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She got the Forgotten Carols CD from the branch president's wife for Christmas. I took the book and I am reading it out loud for her. Then when we come to the songs, I play the song on the CD so she can hear what it sounds like."

 

"Sunday morning I woke up feeling really sick. We stayed home from church, and I started to feel much much better throughout the day. I got a priesthood blessing from the branch mission leader and another elder in the branch. They gave me a blessing of healing and of comfort. The blessing was incredible. It was what I needed to hear exactly! I am feeling MUCH better today and everything is going well. I love the blessings I get from serving a mission. (: "

Ice Storms, White Elephant Gifts and Ninjabread Men

"What a week! Yesterday I did get to see the Christmas devotional- SO GOOD! Ms. B is back in the choir! Well, now its "Sister M"...They did a couple of close ups on her last night. It was fun to see her again! I loved Sister Wixom's talk about children and Christmas. Elder Nelson's talk was really neat! All the video clips in it were really cool. I taught one of the older Primary girls in the "I'm trying to be like Jesus" video at APA. The little boy that winked killed me. Elder Nelson reminded me of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood in his cardigan and tie haha (: What a great message each speaker had to share! Because of the weather, we were late, and completely missed President Monson's talk, so I am going to watch it over again. I took a lot of good notes."
 

"Ok, so you're probably wondering about the weather. Holy bipolar! Living on the south/north weather boarder is a trip. Tuesday and Wednesday were almost 70 degrees. Totally no tights weather. It was hot- we had to turn our AC on in our house. Saturday night the branch auxileries called and canceled church because they were expecting ice and snowstorms in Bedford county. Because of the humitity, ice is what gets everyone out here. When it decides to rain and freeze, the black ice is so hard to see out here, and it gets everywhere when it does do this. Our back porch steps were frozen over. I was almost scared to drive. We stayed in most of the day yesterday and worked on area books. It finally thawed enough to work a little, so Sister V and one of the sisters next door went to an apartment complex I've been dying to work around, cause we have so many formers and potentials that live there. They also went to see some less active members. I stayed with the other sister and helped her clean up her area book and potential investigators lists. The four of us do a ton together, and we've all developed a great friendship".
 

"We had a zone meeting on Friday, and then exchanges Friday and Saturday with the Sister Trainer Leaders. One of them I went to school with haha. I think we had an English class together, too. We totally hit it off! I absolutely love Sister W! Sister V trained Sister W, so Sister W took Sister V to Vinton, VA and Sister W's companion Sister S came here. I love Sister S, too! Geez, I make so many good friends out here! I have a list of sisters I need to serve with before I go home Bahah. PS- I absolutely LOVE Bedford. I want to stay here the rest of my mission- so much work! I LOVE the branch! I love the people! This place is Zion (:"
 

"At the zone meeting, we had a white elephant gift exchange.  I got the most amazing thing ever- probably the best white elephant gift I have ever gotten...(see picture). We're going to cut the face out so that we can stick our own in. It's oil on VELVET. EW. The elder that gave it to me got it at a goodwill store. He said he couldn't keep it in their apartment because it gave him nightmares. He said that he talked to it...and it talked back. I could not stop laughing. The elders in our district are so great! Our district is just so much fun! It was the funniest district meeting I have ever been to."
 

"Our investigator is doing well- but she dropped her baptism date because she feels like she is not ready. We picked up a new investigator this week. She was a member referral and has so much potential!! We love teaching her (: We have a big list of former and potential investigators that we are going to crack down on this week and see if we can't get any new investigators out of it. This area is about to explode! So much to do! I LOVE IT!"
 

"I sent in a referral today of someone I went to school with. I love thinking of people at home I could send the missionaries to. Now that I feel for the missionaries and their referrals, I'm going to be the best member missionary ever when I get home haha."

"I'm excited for Christmas in the field!"

NinjaBread Men

Thanksgiving was great!

"Thanksgiving was great! Definitely different. A family wanted to feed us before they went out of town during Thanksgiving, so we got dinner twice, just on different days. The first meal was more of a traditional dinner. We had turkey, potatos, stuffing, gravy, rolls, etc. The one on Thanksgiving was super different. We had ham (my first year ever having ham on Thanksgiving), potatos, something equalivant to stuffing, but I dont think it was, and rolls, but no gravy.  The new food tradition I picked up this year- EVERYONE has green beans (alone, in a casserole, whatever), everyone has deviled eggs, and everyone has some kind of baked macaroni and cheese dish (both of which I had were SO good). We went and raked leaves at houses where there weren't cars. The house we mostly did was a vacant house with a thick blanket of leaves over the lawn."

 

"Last night after we went to bed, Sister Pitt called and asked that we be in charge of pulling together musical numbers for a musical fireside our zone is having on December 11th. On December the 14th, the branch is also having a musical nativity fireside. One of the other Bedford sisters put it together, but I am playing the piano for it. The history here with firesides and such, we always have a full house. There are always crowds of non members, members, investigators, etc. There will be a lot of people here, and we are really excited!"

 

"This past Friday, all the sisters in the south half of the mission got together with President and Sister Pitt and had a special sisters' meeting. We talked about the divine role of women- and holy moley was it powerful! I had never thought about it, but God created his creations from lowest to highest in divinity or importance. Human was created last of all...but who was created last of all?...EVE was! We as women are God's greatest creation! We carry with us very special gifts, both seen and unseen that are essential in the moving forward of God's plan. So cool huh?! I was mind blown at this conference".

 

"We've seen a lot of miracles this week- including setting our top investigator on date for baptism. She's hestiant about it, but we have a lot of faith that this will be our white Christmas baptism.  She is the daughter of a less active member. (Part member family baptisms are the best!) She's 13 years old, but doesn't seem like it at all- her spirit is so mature, and she asks really mature questions about the gospel. She is set for baptism on Dec 22nd. We just have to let the Spirit manifest to her. She knows it's all true. We have lots of referrals and potentials from the last sisters to follow up with this week. "