12/27/10- Letter to the Word

Hello World!

I hope ya’ll had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We had a very busy week!

Monday, we went to the airport and dropped Sis. Owens off to fly her to Brazil!  Then Sis. Gibson moved in.  We’ve been covering both areas all week and have been in the car for at least 60 miles every day.  Crazy!!  Most days were even more than that!  We got to watch The Restoration with a less-active family at the end of the day.

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Tuesday we volunteered at the Lancaster County Council of Churches.  It’s a food bank.  That was fun.  Then an older Sister in our ward took us out for lunch at Bob Evan’s.  SUPER good!  Then we went and did service in the Lititz area (the other sister).  We went to a Lutheran Retirement Center and got to talk to residents at a Christmas Party.  It was really cool.  Next we went to the Jones’ for dinner.  They were baptized just over a year ago.  We then taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation.  ‘Twas awesome!  Then we went to the SMITH’S (I love them!) and watched Mr. Krueger’s Christmas.  They gave us more of their extra Kellog’s food (he works for them) as well as some other food.  Then we went to the Karchner’s, but only the mom was home.  Right as we were about to teach the lesson, her foster kids (non-members) and less-active husband came home, so we got to teach them!  Awesome!

Wednesday we tried to go sing at an old folk’s home after district meeting with the elders, but the place was booked (we went back Friday).  We had an appointment in Lititz, dinner in Mount Joy, and an appointment in Mount Joy with an AWESOME less-active couple.  They are SO cute!  They were married like 7 months ago, and are working towards the temple.  The thing is they need to come to church…we don’t know why they don’t come yet.  We taught an awesome L2 and the Spirit was definitely there as the wife talked about her brother who died who she wanted to invite to church and how she wants the work done now.  It was so cute, though…they had the fireplace DVD in on the TV w/ Christmas music, hot bread and candies ready, and cookies in the oven.  LOL.  Such awesome homemakers!

Thursday we had part of P-Day since the last P-Day was spent helping Sis. Owens get off to Brazil.  We went and got our hair cut at the Jones'.  Next we went to teach Brittney—an investigator in the Lititz area.  She is a 7^th Day Adventist.  She’d been looking for truth for a long time and finally found that church.  They have many of the same beliefs, so she doesn’t really understand why we would ask her to try our church.  We taught her L2 and asked her to continue praying about it and reading the Book of Mormon.  She had a pseudo-grandson come home and it was cool to hear her tell him about Joseph Smith.  She believes he’s a prophet, she just doesn’t understand what that means.  We had to go on splits to cover dinner appointments and then we met back up to teach Tyson.  He’s AWESOME!!!  He’s been asking about the temple, so we watched Between Heaven and Earth (phenomenal).  Afterward, we asked if he had any questions.  The only one he had was “How do I get in?”  Ahh!  Sweet :D  He got the Priesthood Sunday and will get a temple recommend next week!

Christmas Eve we got to go caroling with a couple of Elders at an Old Folk’s home.  We did it for an hour or two and it was SO fun!  We stopped by a few houses on the way to our dinner appointment at the Bishops.  He had two non-member neighbors over, so that was cool.  After dinner, his kids each played a song for us on the piano and then we had a little Christmas program—reading passages from the Bible and Book of Mormon and singing.  Afterward, bishop asked me to play something and then one of the non-member women played something, too.  We had a request to carol at a specific house and did that before driving home.

Christmas was awesome.  We opened our presents in the morning (thank you!) and then went to one family for breakfast, another for lunch, and another for dinner!  ‘Twas fun.  We also contacted a referral who seems to have TONS of potential.  She was SO happy we came.  The best part was calling home :D  I got to talk to my bros, too, which was AWESOME! 

Sunday we got snow—just an inch or two.  We were in the Litiz area after church and contacted another referral who wants to meet with us again.  We also got to teach Tyson again!  We watched Joseph:  Prophet of the Restoration (the one that’s been playing at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building).  It’s AMAZING and really brings the Spirit and you can now buy it on DVD!  Woot!

 

Well, that's it!  Today we're going to Harrisburg again to pick up Sis. Green--the new Sister!  We'll be back to just our area :D

 

Love ya'll!

 

Sister Denton

12/20/10- Letter to the World

Hello World!

I REALLY don't have much time today.

We have a new companion!  Here's how:

We're in the Lancaster 2nd Ward and Sister Villa and Sister Bleazard were in the 3rd Ward.
Sister Villa got transferred and Sister Rogers came.
Sister Bleazard got sick and Sister Gibson came.
Sister Rogers went home at the end of an awesome mission.
Sister Owens came out from the MTC while waiting for her visa to Brazil...should be 3 or 4 months.
This morning we dropped Sister Owens off at the airport!
We are now a tripanionship!  Woot!

We have a less-active part-member family--the Richards and we did a soft baptismal commitment to the dad--he said yes!  We're going to keep working with him.

The Millers told us that our church was one of the worst they'd ever been to because of irreverence.  We had a really good lesson and they MIGHT come back, but it's not too likely.  More on that lesson next week (someone remind me please :D)

Well, I love you all!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sister Denton

12/13/10- Letter to the World

So...this was an AWESOME week!

Really Spiritual
Really Cool
Really Funny

Monday--I received music for the musical number for Wednesday at the Mission Tour.  It was What Child is This  and Carol of the Bells.  Elder Duron had rewritten Carol of the Bells to be in the same key as What Child is This and we worked for 30 minutes or so to try and make an arrangement of the two over the phone.  It actually turned out REALLY cool!  I'll hopefully send the video so people can see it :D  It was SO fun to work with music like that again--arranging it and changing it and having to use my music theory knowledge.  I LOVED and while thinking about it after definitely felt like the Spirit was leading me to enlarge my mind to be able to do that to make an awesome musical number.

Wednesday--MISSION TOUR!!  Elder Gavarett of the 70 came (see this month's Ensign in Christmas Traditions).  He was AMAZING!  Right from the get-go, he started making changes to the program and kept quoting D&C 46:2 which says the Elders should conduct meetings by the Spirit.  It was so cool.  I was in the second row and he kept teaching from in front of the podium, so I was WAY close!  I got to talk to him a few times and Sister Longmore got interviewed by him!  Crazy!  The meeting was WONDERFUL :D

Thursday--We taught Mandy for the first time since her baptism and it was amazing to see how much more in tune with the scriptures and the Spirit she was!

Friday--We had a meeting planned with the Millers, but they canceled right before.  Bro. Jacobson had come with us, so we ended up going to a PM/LA family.  We teach to the children to avoid offending the father, but the lesson was GREAT and ended up with a discussion with him and what his reservations toward the church are.  He doesn't think there IS a true church, and as such doesn't believe our claim that we are that church.  Sister Longmore gave him a copy of the 17 Points of the True Church.

Saturday--The CHRISTMAS PARTY!!!!!  It was AWESOME!  I had a blast and we had lots of NM and LA there!  One of the coolest parts was the 12 Days of Christmas.  They'd laid the parts around the room and those near the sign had to sing their part.  It left us all in peals of laughter.

Sunday--THE MILLERS CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!  We were just a little excited about that :D  AND they asked if they could sit closer next time.  NEXT TIME!  They were fellowshipped really well and our ward really stepped up to the plate.  We also had a phenomenal lesson on the Restoration with a family in the ward that evening.  The Spirit was strong as we testified of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Cool Message from Paul for the day--1 Cor 1:  12-13

"Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

Is Christ divided?  was Paul crucifed for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"

Read that last verse with the emphasis I included.  Was PAUL crucified for you?  Was Mary?  Was Job?  I don't think so!  So why are there so few churches with Christ's name?

I love Paul.  Just sayin'.

Love ya'll!

Sister Denton

O ya--Sister Longmore and I are staying in the Millersville area until at least Jan 26!

12/6/10- Letter to the World

Well world, you're lucky.  I forgot my fabulous things calendar and my journal, so I don't know much of what happened this week lol.

The most amazing things is.......drumroll please...........MANDY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!  After over a year of study, she entered the waters of baptism and made the first step along the path to return to live with our Father in Heaven!  It was a BEAUTIFUL baptism.  There was a mini-miracle that happened, too!  Brother Johnson, a former ward member, was really close to Mandy and agreed to fly out from WASHINGTON to baptize her!  He had a layover in Chicago where he was delayed for 1 1/2 hours.  One hundred flights were canceled.  His, to an airport that isn't even that big, was not and he arrived at the baptism about 20 minutes before it started. You could really feel the love the people and Heavenly Father had for Mandy at this baptism.

Last week we had our first lesson with the Miller family and they agreed to come to church.  They didn't, and we were pretty bummed and worried they'd been antied, but we called and they're still good to meet with us tonight AND go to church next week!  The dad is a cage fighter who used to be a Jehovah's Witness and the mom used to go to Church of the Brethren.  The children are super amazing--especially Anna.  She had read the introduction by the time we got there (she's 8) and no one else had.  She was also very excited about going to church.  I have this feeling of excitement about this family.  They are going to be amazing and it will bring about great things.

I'm reading the New Testament right now and let me tell you, Paul is a stud!  (lol..Mandy always thinks it's funny when I call prophets studs haha)  Today I was reading in Romans 6 and he had just told the people that it is through the grace of Christ's Atonement that we are saved.  SO many people tell us that we are wrong for thinking we need to do good works and try our best to go to heaven, they think it's ONLY by grace while the Book of Mormon adds "after all we can do."  We KNOW the grace is necessary and we'd be nowhere without it, but these people think you only need to claim Christ's name to be saved.  Well...check out what Paul says after he talks about the importance of Grace.

"What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid."  haha...isn't that awesome!  And again in verse 15, "What then?  shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?  God forbid."

This gospel is amazing.  Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God who truly saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father in a grove of trees on a spring morning.  I know it and I know that God knows it and I cannot deny it, neither dare I do it.  The scriptures have so much to teach us if we but take the time to truly study them.  President Monson leads this church today under the direction of Jesus Christ.  What a miracle!  So many people know there's a pope, know about Jesus Christ, and even know about the intricate details of celebrities' lives, but they don't know that there is a modern-day Moses who speaks for Jesus Christ!  What a miracle.  The church is true, the book is blue!

Well, I guess I'll leave it at that for the week!  I'll try to send some pictures :D

Love you all!

Sister Denton

11/29/10- Letter to the World

Well hello World!!

Since my letters are really long, I'm going to color code them so you can pick and choose what kinds of things you like to read :D

Blue for really important or cool
Yellow for really funny
Green for really spiritual

So, when I opened my call and read Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, I thought COLD!  Yay!!  You'd think that'd be associated with snow.  We've yet to see a single flake!  Crazy!  My hometown, it seems, is being overrun with snow!  It'll come, they tell me.  It apparently DUMPS in Jan and Feb, but rarely before Christmas.

Monday--A sister in our ward. Sister Rogers, took us to Amish Country again!  This time it was much more authentic.  It was SO cool and I got an AWESOME thing for my grandma :D  She also took us to Deiner's, a really good buffet!  The servers are Mennonite and Amish.  'Twas cool.

Tuesday--While walking along the street, we heard someone from a van call, "Sisters!"  It's a woman from DC.  Her NM husband lives up here and they go back and forth between houses, but she might start coming to our ward.  She was excited to see missionaries from her church!  On the way back, we OYMed (Open your mouth) a woman who was walking and smoking.  As we said we were thankful for the BoM, she said, "Oh!  I'm a Mormon!"  We were like WHAT?!  lol.  She was from NY and had come to Lancaster County to get her turkey.  What are the odds?!  In Utah they're pretty high, but when our ward takes more than an hour to drive from top to bottom, the odds are pretty low to meet two Mormons!  Sister Longmore says that's always a testimony to her that we're in the right place at the right time doing the right things.  We also met a LA family that night who has two foster children.

Wednesday--We got to teach YeYang today!  We went to a member's house to share a message.  As we walked in, she said, "It's my girls!"  Cute :D  Her husband's way nice, but he's not a member and usually doesn't sit in.  As always, we asked if we could do anything.  She was stressed about Thanksgiving, so we helped her cook!  She is like the best cook in the ward!  We cored, peeled, and sliced apples for her apple pie and learned tricks on making a pie crust!  It was fun. 

Thursday--Thanksgiving!  We were going to tract, but it was rainy and cold, so we went to two LA families that we'd been trying to teach.  Both were home!  We were able to share our Thanksgiving message with both of them!  Then at 12:30 we went to the Clarks.  They are AWESOME!!  They have two adorable little boys.  There was another ward family there with five kids.  And her cousin with husband and two kids in tow.  And a family friend and his roommate.  It was crazy awesome!  Dinner was supposed to start at 1, but with everyone coming, it was more like 3.  We had a "wall of Thankgiving" where we wrote on the window with dry-erase markers things we were thankful for.  I got to talk with the kids a lot.  I taught some ASL and showed them my pictures and just talked.  Before the meal started, Sister Longmore and I shared our Thanksgiving message, then we had a DELICIOIUS meal!  We each had cute nameplace turkey made out of Oreos, Whoppers, Reeses, and Candy Corn.  We had mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (which was PHENOMENAL!  I'm so glad I decided to try it!  It had walnuts and brown sugar on top), fruit salad (which was like frozen and good), rolls, turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, gravy, green bean casserole, and probably more!  It was way fun, too, because Yeyang was there!  It was her first Thanksgiving!  Then after another hour or so, we had pie....it was almost all homemade!  The Dutch Apple was my favorite.  Yum.  Then we went to another LA for Thanksgiving.  Were we ever glad when we got there and found out that they ate early and didn't wait!  We just had a piece of pie there and shared another message. 

Friday--This morning we met with one of our investigators from a PM family.  I don't know if I've talked about her before.  Her husband is LDS and she goes to the Church of the Brethren.  They go to both churches every week.  She even comes when he's out of town!  We taught her the third lesson and it was awesome.  She was talking about how she thinks the Priesthood shouldn't just be given to every worthy male.  Her husband had offered to give her a blessing once and she thought it should be from someone she could respect more--like higher with more "spiritual umph."  She also asked how a blessing differs from praying for someone.  I shared my experience from when Cody gave me a blessing the day he received the Priesthood and how awesome it was to feel him really be in tune with the Spirit and to see him realize that he was and to feel of God's love for me.  After I shared that, it was silent for a couple of seconds, which feels like eternity.  Afterward, Sister Longmore was like, "Dude!  Your testimony was AWESOME!"  So that was cool!  Benji and Lucy canceled on us, so we went to another LA after having dinner.  We tracted before dinner and this one guy let us in.  We were talking about how there's only one church and he said "absolutely."  Then we said that after Christ left the earth, the foundation of His church crumbled, and he said, "Oh no it didn't."  And we were like, "Are you Catholic?"  lol.  It was funny.  We talked for awhile.  He doesn't know anything about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He kept saying the Catholic church is the only one that encompasses every aspect of the bible.  I said that actually I had heard it said that the only two churches that have a claim to authority are ours and the Catholic Church.  He couldn't get over the fact that we don't believe in transubstantiation, though (the belief that the Sacrament literally turns into Christ's flesh and blood after we eat it).  He did say that the Book of Revelation is like code for the Catholic Mass which is interesting.  I'd be interested in learning more about that!  Another woman told us, kind of under her breath, that she believe we were a cult.  Lol.  I don't know if I'd have the guts to tell someone that!  We corrected her and told her that we were indeed Christian.  She said she had learned some things at her church about ours, but she couldn't remember.  I think it's funny that the churches around here indoctrinate their members against us.

Saturday--We finally got a hold of Mandy after a couple of days of not hearing from her.  She finally talked to her dad.  He is completely unsupportive of it and will not be at her baptism.  We asked her what she's going to do and she said, "What I've been planning on doing for a year."  She's getting baptized!!!! We heart attacked her door with scriptures, pictures, and encouraging notes.  We love her SO much and are SO excited for her to receive the blessings of membership in Christ's church and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  She is going to be SO blessed.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to make this decision against the wishes of your aunt (who's like your mother) and dad.  I am so amazed by her.  She is such an example to me.  We also got to talk to Yeyang again.  We taught about Lehi's Vision.  When we talked about the Great and Spacious building and the symbolism, she said that when she told her friends she got baptized, they laughed at her.  When she says she went to church, she said their faces change and they say, "The Mormon church?"  She feels that they are evil and felt that she shouldn't be friends with them anymore.  She also noticed that they only call her when they need her.  I didn't really realize all of the opposition she was receiving too!  We told her how awesome it is that she is staying at that tree and ignoring the voices in the Great and Spacious building.

Sunday--We did a hymn testimony meeting for part of church.  It was cool :D  Sister Rogers took us down to dinner at her kid's house.  Then she took us out to meet some of the LA older woman.  One in particular is SO funny!  She's from England and is like 73 in a wheelchair with a brain tumor, but she is a HOOT!  She was talking about how the Elders couldn't come in without another guy and was like, "What am I going to do?  Attack them?  Rape them?  Make a pass at them?!"  haha.  I was laughing so hard.  She told her conversion story and how the Elders came like every week for a year. She said they were like, "We've got a live one!"  haha.  She's awesome.  I want to be like her when I'm old! 

Well, that's the week!  Another novel haha.  Oh ya...at the Rogers for dinner, they had a DB Catalog!  I pointed it out and Sister Longmore held it hostage because it's something I love so much.  After looking through it twice and taunting me a little with, "Oh..this is new!" she let me look through it.  It had a picture of the store with the temple in the view.  I forgot how close it is!  It was SO cool. 

Time's up!  I shall talk to you again next week!  Love ya'll!

Sister Denton

11/22/10- Letter to the World

Hello World!!

This week wasn't NEARLY as exciting as last week lol.  We did find out that the alarm that went off was apparently just well timed.  In these little cities, they have volunteer fireman, so when there is a fire they sound a siren to let them know to come to the station.  You catching where I'm going here....ya....

This week we went to Urgent Care for some bloodwork for Sister Longmore.  They tried to draw blood 8 times!!  They told us to come back the next morning and after 4 more times, they finally got some blood.  She has a crazy bruise now!  The waiting room was the worst--the TV was on!  Since when does Dr. Phil have a reality TV show?  It was on at Pep Boys too!  It's weird to sit and try and read and completely ignore what's on TV.

One day we were in E-Town and walked by this office and it said "Church Educational System."  I did a double take and saw our church name under it!  Who knew this office was here?!  It was way cool.  On the way back, we were walking and all of a sudden heard a man yell, "Hey Mormons!!!"  We were both way scared and turned around only to find Bro. Austin!  He's the CES coordinator in the area and is AWESOME like all other CES employees!   So that was a little scary/funny haha

For those of you who are pronouncing Lancaster as Lan-cast-er...you're WRONG.  That's a city in California.  It is lane-kissed-her with the emphasis on Lane.  That's the County I'm in :D

You should google the Lancaster prison.  If I ever went to jail, that's where I'd go.  Just sayin'.  It looks like a CASTLE!!

There's this shop in Mountville called "Subs and Six Packs."  Every time I pass it, I think it's like a gym/sandwich shop.  Ya...six packs in PA are not rock hard abs lol.

This week Sister Longmore felt prompted to visit a family in the ward.  We went and one of the family members was super sick and had been at the ER all day, so our message was really needed.  On the other hand, they gave us three HUGE grocery bags of food.  We were both at the end of our money for the month and this food will help us SO much!  It was amazing.  This family has a heart of gold and is absolutely incredible.

We didn't get to meet with YeYang this week because she was SUPER busy with school, but she still made it a priority to come to church!  She's doing great :D

Mandy was really close with a family that moved to Edmonds.  The father is actually flying out to baptize her!  We're shooting for December 4!  She is SO ready.

Well, time's up!

I love you all and will talk to you next week!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love,

Sister Denton

11/15/10- Letter to the World

Well Hello World!!

I have SO much fun stuff to talk about this week!

    I forgot to tell this story before--Sister Longmore and I went to find a place of service.  We found this GREAT Christian mental home type place and thought it'd be great.  The head guy was out of town, but they let us come that night and help with wrapping presents for kids in the Ukraine.  Two weeks later, when the head guy was back, we went back and he sat us down and talked to us (we went back a week later and talked to him too...this is kind of a hybrid of the two discussions)  Apparently, we shouldn't have even helped that first time--they thought we were nuns, not Mormons.  They've had problems with volunteers of other faiths telling patients to stop meds and stuff, so they had to ask their Board of Directors if we could help there.  As we were talking to him that second time, a woman came in and said he had to go help with meds.  He said he was almost done and she demanded he go then.  She wasn't real thrilled we were there.


    So...we decided we'd better find another place to serve.  There's another mental type place even closer to our home, so we went there and they took our info, called us back, and set up a schedule!  We showed up and kind of mosied until the room was ready.  We were chatting with the residents as we waited for the activity to start and all of a sudden, this man across the room said, "Can I help you ladies?"  We said we were doing service and he said, "We have volunteers and they are not from the Church of Latter-Day Saints."  We said we had talked to Christie and he said, "I'm the owner and I overrule any other decisions.  I'd appreciate it if you didn't 'stop by' again."  He said sorry as we grabbed our stuff to go, but what the heck!?

    We actually got a call from the first place saying we could apply to volunteer.  They sent us the forms, but they needed like references and social security numbers and things, which really isn't the kind of volunteer we should do with the possibility of people changing every week.

    So that was my first experience with discrimination for religion :D

Tuesday

We have certain days of the week where we can only drive 10 miles or less.  We were running late from one appointment to the next and couldn't walk some parts we had planned to walk, so thought we'd be over by a mile or so.  As we pulled into the complex, Sis. Longmore looked down and it was RIGHT at 10 miles!  We parked at the bottom of the complex and walked home to keep it at 10 miles.  Woot!  The Lord blesses us when we're doing His work!

The appointment that ran long was Claretta.  We were SO excited to teach this family, they already seemed Mormon!  Apparently their goal in having us over was to make sure WE had Christ in our hearts...so ya.  We tried to teach the Restoration, but they wanted biblical proof for everything we said.  We showed them the scriptures that we use and they wrote them down to show their pastor (the husband's dad).  We set up an appointment to go back, but are kind of hesitant to.  It doesn't seem like they really want to learn. :(

Wednesday
Once upon a time, there were two sister missionaries taking their hour lunch break on the side of the road.  It was a residential area, but not as many houses as a neighborhood.  Sister Longmore was in the back seat memorizing scriptures and eating carrots.  Sister Denton was in the front seat with a scarf to block the sun, trying to take a nap.  All of a sudden, a man's voice was heard at the window.  They turned to see a cop asking for their identification!!  He asked if there was anything they should be worried about in the car and Sister Longmore said, "...I'm reading my scriptures..."  He thanked them for their honesty and took their IDs and registration.  About five minutes later he came back and said they were clear.

Really!?  Really!?  We're missionaries!!!!  Someone had called our vehicle in as suspicious.  Oh. My. Heck.  So....ya missions are fun :D haha

Thursday

Zone Conference was this week and was AMAZING!  We won 2nd place for the clean car award--100 extra miles this month!  Woot!  Also while there, I got a package from Hong Kong!  Megs made me an AWESOME calendar!  Totally made my mission!  President came up to us while there and showed us an e-mail he had received.  Our Bishop e-mailed him and told him how much they loved having us in their ward and requested that we stay there for forever :D

Afterward we went to an awesome dinner appointment and tracted their neighborhood right before--three other lessons!  That's like a record for a half hour for us!  And one potential!  We also got to meet our new investigator on Thursday!  His girlfriend is a RC (recent convert) and he had some questions.  He had been looking online and decided that the best place to go for answers is to the missionaries :D  He said he didn't plan on joining, but by the end of the lesson, he agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon!  Woot!  We meet with him again on Thursday.  His mom sat in, too, so hopefully we'll be able to teach her!

Friday

As Elder Denton II mentioned last week, even though we ALWAYS ask what we can do for people, they rarely allow us to serve.  This day, we got to!!!  A sister is moving and needed help moving her hay bales.  I felt like a cowgirl!  And got to wear jeans!  We drove to her new barn and put it up in the loft.  Then we cleaned out the horse's stalls.  Who knew that could be so fun!? I had tons of fun :D

Saturday

We had a craft fair that we went to at our church.  First, they sent us down to a clothing exchange.  It was like DI, only free!  Loved it!  I got some awesome clothes, including a 100% wool skirt and a trenchcoat!  We also picked up clothes for a less active family that we were visiting that day.

We taught YeYang her first new member discussion!  She'll hopefully be able to get her patriarchal blessing and temple recommend before she heads off to BYU!  Woot!  I am SO excited for her!  She'll be living with Sister Longmore's family over Christmas break--her first Christmas!  She's spending Thanksgiving with us at the Clarks.

Sunday

Sunday evening, we were trying to find some less actives.  We always follow Josh's (the GPS) instructions.  Well....we came up to this road that said Private Drive and Josh wanted us to go up.  We decided to turn around.  It was pitch black and kind of forested around, but I got out to back the car (mission rules).  As soon as I stepped out, this SIREN went off!  Like imagine a jailbreak at a prison!  I expected floodlights.  It was like waaAAAA  waaaAAAAA.  SO scary!  So I finished backing and hopped in, but as I tried to shut the door, the cellphone flew out, so I had to try and find it on the dark ground.  I grabbed it, shut the door and we left quickly.  As we were driving on the next road over, we saw flashing lights and heard sirens and this truck w/ cop lights was coming, so we pulled over and I was like FREAKING out and then it passed us.  So ya, it was way funny, but WAY scary at the time!

Other

    While tracting, we tracted into a Jehovah's Witness!  Turns out we're pretty similar in beliefs and structure.  We also tracted a woman who said her husband was a member of our church.  Turns out he's a LA (less active) and we didn't even realize they lived there!  We got to talk to her for awhile.
    My dreams seem to be my entertainment out here.  This week I dreamed about getting transferred to do service for Josh Groban's mother-in-law (he sang us a song, too!) That's what we get for listening to his Christmas CD ALL the time lol.  I also was able to watch a new episode of Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place with Danial in my dreams.  Dad of course was angry we were watching it haha.  Dreams are funny.
    Mandy's baptism in now set for November 28.  She seems solid on it, so hopefully it will go through!  She's so awesome!  We'll totally be facebook buds when I get home :D
    Daylight savings is my favorite day of the year, I think.  Just sayin' :D  It's like waking up at 7:30am for one precious day!!


Well, that's my crazy week!  The work is good!

Sister Denton

11/8/10- Letter to the World

Well Hello World!

Last week we went to Intercourse, PA.  It was pretty cool!  We went to some Amish shops.  I got a REALLY cool t-shirt for Chazz for Christmas.  I hope he loves it :D

This week we had a baptism!!!!  YeYang was baptized on Nov 3 and it was AMAZING!  The Spirit was SO strong.  The whole Relief Society room was filled.  We had to set up more chairs!  Our whole district came and one of the elders said it was the strongest he'd felt the Spirit on his whole mission!  It was awesome.  During the Welcome to Relief Society, the woman mentioned how the heavens are smiling on YeYang and her ancestors are SO excited at the work that can now be done for her!  People later mentioned how you could feel them there....so exciting!  She was confirmed Sunday and it was awesome, too!  She leaves for Utah December 20 and is staying with Sister Longmore's family in Riverton.  Her friend in Sandy doesn't know she was baptized or that she's coming to BYU!  She's going to show up and surprise them :D  How awesome would it be to get her a temple recommend by then and she can go to the temple with them!?!

We taught Mandy right before the baptism and then she attended.  She had never been to one in the year she's been studying with missionaries and really enjoyed it.  She said it quelled a lot of fears she had.  She went home this weekend and we fasted for her as she was planning to talk to her mother-like aunt and dad about getting baptized.

Since one of our investigators is now a recent convert, we've been working on finding this week.  Tracting in PA is rather unproductive because people know about us, or think they do.  A lot of churches out here specifically preach against us.  You can tell who is what religion sometimes because of what they pick a fight over--modern revelation or additional scripture or "working your way to heaven."  To be a lesson, it has to be 2 principles and a prayer.  We usually talk about how the Book of Mormon is a record of people and prophets here while bible is people and prophets in the east, so it covers prophets and Book of Mormon.  If they let us keep talking, we talk about the pattern of prophets, apostasy, and the Restoration.  This is all on the doorstep.  And then we ask if we can say a prayer at the end.  We have some potentials from tracting this week (people we left a Book of Mormon with or didn't have time, but said we could come back).  We also received two referrals this week!  Yay!  Referrals are the best!!!

We're especially excited about Claretta this week.  We met her a few weeks ago.  She homeschools her 5 kids and they are very active Christians.  We kept stopping by to set up a return appointment and finally we got with her.  She said she'd like to set one up so she could read from the Book of Mormon and watch Finding Faith in Christ before she meets with us.  She asked if she could feed us dinner!  Um...yes!!  So we're having dinner there tomorrow and hopefully teaching them!  Her husband's dad is the pastor of the church they go to, but they didn't seem anti, so at least he doesn't preach against us!!  If they honestly pray about it, Heavenly Father will witness of the truthfulness of it. They are so Mormon already!  She acutally just told us she's pregnant with her 6th!  They are a CUTE family.

Another thing we're working on is 3 Part-Member families.  Last night we went to one.  The wife is active in our church and even has a calling, but is not a member.  She and her husband go to both her church and ours every Sunday.  She's kind of hesitant about having the lessons, but has a hard time saying no, so we're going to try and teach.  We don't want to offend her, but at the same time, this is the truth, ya know!?  So we'll see how that goes :D

The other part member family we started working with is nice.  We stopped by their house (after many messages) and they let us in and let us teach.  The wife recently was sealed to her parents and her son said "I want to be sealed to Gammy and Poppop."  She said, "You'll have to talk to dad about that."  He sat in on our lesson, so we're going to ask if he'd be willing to listen!

There's a LA (less-active) family in our complex that we have been getting to know, too.  Yesterday, we got there and we showed them some origami and then were able to share the Plan of Salvation.  The girls (8 and 6) were TOTALLY into it.  When we said that Jesus set the example by being baptized on earth, the 8 year old asked "Can I be baptized?"  SO CUTE!!!!!  I hope we can get them back so her dad can baptize her!

Anyway, missions are awesome!  One of my old roommates, Carolyn AKA Lizzle, just got home from hers, so shout out to her!  I can't believe she's back already!!!!

Love you all!  I'll try to send some pics of the baptism and Amish place.

Sister Denton

11/1/10- Letter to the World

It's November?!!  Today is my 2 month mark!  16 more to go!

Tomorrow is transfers, but my companion and I are staying together and staying here in the Millersville area!  What transfers mean to you folks is that you don't get a novel--I got a new planner and my old one is at home...with my schedule for last week.  Here are some highlights of the week.

We have a lady in our ward who does irisology (I think).  Basically, she took a picture of our eyeballs and read the lines and colors to see what's wrong with us.  I was kind of skeptical, but she listed some things that I knew I had.  For instance, she said I have high acid levels, and I've always claimed to have acid reflux.  Apparently I have beautiful genetics, but have been taking horrible care of my body.  Is anyone shocked?  Lol...who knew you actually had to eat healthily? She listed a bunch of other things too, but apparently all can be fixed (and this is true about pretty much anything that is wrong with you I guess) by eating lots of raw vegetables and stopping the intake of milk (gasp!!).  Who knew milk was bad!?  Well..I'll try to eat more raw vegetables, but I can't promise anything in the milk department.  Maybe I'll try to just drink a 1/2 gallon this week....we'll see.

The Trunk or Treat was on Wednesday!  The kids were SO cute.  My favorite was this little boy who dressed as Napolean Dynamite.  He pulled it off beautifully, walking around and asking who took his tots, etc.  We had 2 less active families, a less active spouse, and a non-member spouse there!  Rock on!  If only we could get that attendance at church!

YeYang is doing great.  She LOVED the BYU shirt and cookie from Over the Top!  She's SO ready for her baptism on Wednesday!!!

Mandy's doing great as well.  She went to a young single adult conference this weekend, so we haven't seen her in awhile.  Last time we met with her though, she shared an experience she had had late at night.  She was watching some paranormal stuff and just felt dark.  She tried reading her scriptures and praying and then felt prompted to read a certain section.  She recorded her experience in her journal and shared it with us.  It ended with her awesome testimony.  She knows this church is true!  We're shooting for Nov 21 for baptism!

O ya...and last week we were leading the zone for investigators with a baptismal date!  Woot!  Sisters rock!

Today we get to go to Intercourse (that's really a city's name...).  It's an Amish town.  I'm excited!  I'll send pictures next week hopefully.

Love you all!

Sister Denton

10/18/10 - Letter to the World

Well hello all!

Thanks to my mom who reminded me of things I needed to write about!  Also, congrats to her for finishing radiation!!!

Congratulations to the Lambert Family on their little girl!  I'm excited to see her in 2012 :D

Now story time!

So, our first P-day in Lancaster, we (us and the Elders) were trying to find parking at HACC, a college in the area.  There was none in visitor parking and we couldn't find any other place to park.  We were following the Elders (the Senior Comp always drives) and they turned left, so we followed them.  I noticed a giant sign we were turning left in front of that said no left turns, but didn't say anything because we were following the Elders.  At the bottom of that hill, a cop was standing there and directed both cars and one other over to the side.  He told the Elders it would be like a $200 or something ticket and because we weren't students it was from the city, etc.  For whatever reason, he let us off with just a warning!  Apparently there are no left turns between 9am and 3pm.  Random.  Pennsylvania signs are weird.  Many stop signs have a sign under them that say "except right turns."  There are random rules here.  Anyway, we made it safe to e-mail!!

Investigators

• We haven't followed up on Benji and Cait yet.  They told us they were pretty busy in Oct, but hopefully we will this week.  We need to see them again!
• We didn't see Lynnda this week either.  We called and left a message and she called back (a rarity), but we got no service (something that happens often in Lancaster county :D).  We tried calling back a couple of times and left a message, but haven't heard more.  I hope her friend in Utah prods her to continue meeting with us!
• Mandy is doing well.  We still need to get her to agree on a date!  We're hoping for Nov 13 and 20.  She's going to pray about the two.
• YeYang is got accepted to BYU this week!  That was our super exciting news!!!!!  She leaves Dec. 30.  We keep teaching her and she keeps keeping all of her commitments!  She is golden!  Sister Longmore keeps saying that she thinks Ye Yang will be like the General Primary President in China! 
• This week we finally met Cynda.  She is a referral from the Elders.  She knows SO much about the Bible!  She seemed super distracted with her son while we were teaching, but responded very intelligently to all questions.  She was actually quoting bible scripture that supported what we were teaching!  Woot!  She said she'll read the Book of Mormon and she knows God will tell her if it's true.  He will :D
• We got another referral we haven't met yet...Andy.  He does ghost tours in Lancaster!  Just brings people around the city telling ghost stories!  Cool :D  His wife seems nice, so maybe we'll get to teach her too :D
• A potential that I REALLY hope we teach is Ryan.  He is SO funny.  He's a college student.  The first time we met him he totally accepted the Book of Mormon and agreed to read.  The next week, he said his roommate who he wanted us to meet wasn't there, but to come back another time.  When we came up the steps though, he was like "Ladies!  How have you been!"  It's a big contrast from other people we visit lol.  He said he had read some of the Book of Mormon too :D
• Another potential is also named Ryan.  He's older and just got released from a Rehab center, so we're hoping to get him to go to the ARP program the church does at our building and then teach him from there.

A lot of the work we do is with less actives.  The problem is, they don't answer calls or return messages, so we have to just show up at their houses to talk to them and often they aren't home.  A lot of the time, besides lessons, is spent driving between LA members homes.

Something AMAZING this week was interviews.  I usually dread them and was dreading this one as well.  President Summerhays is so amazing, though!  The Spirit was so strong during the interview and he really lifted me up and reminded me that I, specifically, am needed at this time in this place.  He pointed out the tender mercy that Ye Yang was to us as we doubled into this area that the elders kind of messed up.  (The Elders were just going to members houses and playing games and hanging out.  They actually got evicted from their Apt for having noisy sleepovers.  That's why we were doubled in.)

Also, we have an Area Authority coming on Friday!  I can't remember his name though :(.  But, I got a call from an Elder who plays the violin and guess who gets to accompany him?  That's right!  Me :D  I'm SO excited to play the piano!!!!!!

Love ya!

Sister Denton

10/25/10- Letter to the World

Hello World!

This week was awesome!  We'll go day by day, shall we?

Monday--P-Day!  The Holland in our ward took us and YeYang out to lunch for her birthday.  We went to a Chinese buffet and taught the Word of Wisdom afterward, at the restaurant.  We thought it'd be fitting :D

Tuesday--We tracted some and got some potentials.  We taught a LA (less active) lesson and the whole family sat in!  It was especially exciting that the 16-year-old joined us because last time we were there, she came right as we were leaving and acted like a complete brat.  This time, she listened and asked questions!  Also, I think this was this day, we had a way cool experience!  We took the car in for an oil change and while we were waiting for it to be done, a member called and asked if we had jumper cables.  We were at an auto store!!  So we bought cables and drove out to meet her.  Some clients of hers (not members) needed a jump so we were able to help them, refuse the money, and give a pass-a-long card :D  And thank goodness for Sister Longmore who knows about cars!!

Wednesday--Our walking day.  We were walking for awhile and as we approached a house to tract, we were talking about all of those stories of missionaries who go to a house and the people are like "We prayed you'd come!" or whatever, so I said I hoped this would be that way.  It was way different than I expected.  The guy was certifiably insane.  He was nice and stuff, but for instance, we asked for his phone number and he said,. "Honestly, if I give my phone number to the Mormon church, I think they'll kill me."  Okay....then as we were leaving we went to shake hands and he said, "I don't feel comfortable touching you, but we can do an air five!"  So that's what we did.  Ya.  We tracted into some other fabulous people that hopefully will turn into more!  Gregorio doesn't currently have religion, and was just running out the door, but said we could come back.  Claretta is a mother of five young kids who listened to basically the Restoration on the porch and took a Book of Mormon.  Ardith is in nursing school and doesn't feel she has time for religion, but took a Book of Mormon.  A concern we often here is that with so many people claiming visions, how can we know Joseph Smith isn't just a cook.  We just testify and tell them they can ask God :D

Thursday--We called the Bishop to ask if he could baptize YeYang on October 30th and he brought up some concerns about the date and some other things going on.  Between him, the building scheduler, and YeYang, we tried the 23rd, 24th, 27th, 30th, 31st, 3rd, and 6th, none of which worked.  Satan much?  He's such a terd.  We ended up getting Nov 3rd to work, so that's when she will be baptized!  Right after mutual :D  We taught a recent convert who's doing great and Mandy, another investigator.  We're shooting for the 18th, but it depends on her dad's job and her aunt, who is like her mother.  Her aunt doesn't want her to be baptized, so we're praying for her and encouraging her to fast for the inspiration on how to approach her aunt.

Friday--Today was the Mission Tour!  Unfortunately, the GA couldn't come, so we had training instead.  It was great.  Then we began exchanges.  I was with Sis. Rogers for 24 hours.  I learned a lot!  It was really fun.  We taught a less active and YeYang that night.  It was also the first time I've seen someone talk until the door was shut in their face :D  haha

Saturday--We taught YeYang again and then went out to lunch with her at a cute French Cafe which may or may not have been legit...probably not...We went to follow up with a referral/former and had met quite a few potentials that I really hope are potential!!  Sis. Rogers makes people PROMISE to read and pray if they want a copy of the Book of Mormon.  We got phone numbers and these women seem excited for us to come back!  Hopefully we'll be able to teach Davina, too, the referral.  We had dinner with some recent converts and then taught Mandy again and then switched back to our regular companionships.

Sunday--I knew a fam in our ward had lived in West Jordan awhile ago, and I found out this week it was in the Oquirrh 3rd Ward!  Say what?!?  They know the Boyer and Dunlap and Clarke and Bray!  It made me happy to talk to someone who knew my deacons (albeit they were like 3 yrs old then haha).  That was pretty cool.  We also got to teach 2 less actives lessons, which was good.

The work is good!  Sorry for the novel!  Love you all much!

Sister Denton

10/11/10- Letter to the World

This'll have to be SUPER short.

I wrote some lyrics this week for a friend that I want to share.

Sometimes in life, I wonder
Did I really know life would be hard?
Could I really have agreed to come down here
if I knew these things were in the cards?

Did I know that I'd have to struggle?
And sometimes feel oh so alone?
And feel like I can't ever do something right?
Or do anything but whine and moan?

I know that I am a daughter of God
but sometimes that isn't enough
When for days on end I feel so overwhelmed
And think all that I do is fluff.

On days when I just want it easy
I find myself slightly chagrined
When the Spirit itself beareth witness to me
that it never was easy for Him

In Gethsemane I might spend a moment or two
To Calvary a step or two climb
Christ did so much more and He suffered for me
He gave His life so I'd have mine.

I added this the next day

So life up your head and be joyous
Whenever it's hard, think of Christ
and live your life as His disciple
with all of your heart mind and might.

Anyway....ya missions aren't easy, but neither is life.  Hopefully that'll help someone, because it helps me when I'm feeling overwhelmed.

YeYang is doing GREAT!  This week she said how much she misses church and was excited for it Sunday and after church she said she felt it was so short because everything is so interesting!  We had an addiction recovery combined RS/Priesthood and she said how much she loved it because it really made her think about how people are suffering.  Her testimony strengthens mine SO much!!

That's it for today!  Sorry, I had LOTS to respond to in my inbox.  Time's up!  Love you all!

Sister Denton

10/4/10 - Letter to the World

Hey World! 

I'm going to try and actually write this time!  It'll probably be just a bullet point type thing again, but we'll see :D

We got here Sept 20 and were picked up at the airport by the Mission President, his wife, and the APs--one of which is none other than Elder Clark!  He knows Cody and Kyle from school and is the son of Jeff Clark--my boss at Deseret Book!  I told him how amazing his dad is, but I'm sure he already knew :D  (The next day I met Elder Winters, a grandson of a coworker and a kid who graduated my same year from BHS that I didn't know)  We all went out to a buffet restaraunt and then home to their house.  We had milk and cookies.  I went to drink the milk and it was disgusting, but I figured it was just some weird PA brand--kind of like Winder Dairy in Utah (yuck!).  Then I watched Elder Willes make a really weird face.  I just kept trying to drink it--taking a bite of cookie and then some milk.  When President drank it, he asked what was wrong with it.....apparently it was WAY old!!!  So I drank sour milk for the first time :D

We all went to bed at like 8pm--we were exhausted.  The next morning, Sis. Quijano woke me up saying it was 7:30am.  Woops.  That's when we were supposed to be at breakfast downstairs.  Typical Sis. Denton.  We then went to training and met our companions and found out where we were going!

My comp is Sis. Longmore from Riverton, UT.  She has been out almost 10 months.  We are whitewashing this area--elders were removed after being evicted from their apartment for being too loud.  We drove for 5 hours to get here.  We were following Tom's directions (the GPS) and all of a sudden I saw a sign that said "Welcome to West Virginia."  Crap.  We decided to just keep driving and then saw a sign that said "Welcome to Maryland."  Double crap.  So, we had dinner in MD at a place called Penn Alps.  We did end up in Harrisburg, where we were supposed to. We waited for our luggage and then headed another 45 minutes to Mountville.

We got to our brand new, 3rd floor apartment at about 11:30pm.  It is beautiful and it's great that it is brand new, but brand new doesn't mean stocked.  We had 0 food and a couple of boxes of pots and pans.  Our beds weren't even put together!  The mattresses were leaning against the wall.  And no toilet paper.  Just sayin.  Luckily, I found some 48 hour kits that had toilet paper in them, so all was well.

The next day, we scoured the area book for information.  Turns out the Elders didn't keep records.  Great.  So we've been working like crazy in this area to find out anything and everything about the investigators.  We had two recent converts that we didn't even have a confirmation date for, but we're working with one of them now.  The other we can't get ahold of yet--she's been out of town.

Wednesday, our first real day, we called Bro. McBride, who we had met in Harrisburg.  We asked him who the bishop was and he said we could meet him at the church that night at an eagle court of honor and go to institute in the meantime.  Sweet!  So we met the bishop and as soon as he realized we were in his area, we were introduced to YeYang.  She is awesome!  She had a friend in China who was LDS--a foreign exchange student.  She spent the summer of 08 in her home and went to church all summer.  She now wants to go to BYU, so went to mormon.org to find Bishop Kenley.  She wants to be baptized!  How awesome is that!?  Because she has no Christian background, we are really starting from scratch.  We taught her for the first time Saturday night (though she came to church and the RS Broadcast last week).  We said we'd start with a prayer and she said she didn't know how to pray.  When we said we end in the name of Jesus Christ, she asked who He is.  While explaining, we said "Savior" and she asked who He was.  It's really cool, though, to teach these basic things I've always known.  It's amazing to see her be taught for the first time that there was a God who came to the earth 2000 years ago and performed miracles and suffered for your sins.  Like--it's a lot to take in, but she's loving it!  Last night when we met with her, she said the closing prayer and in it, told Heavenly Father she believed us and knew that what we were teaching was true.  So cool!

While tracting, we met Ben and Cat.  Cat is a Jewish Catholic who is now a Protestant Vegan.  Ben is Protestant.  They let us in and we taught the whole first lesson!  We went back this week and they fed us a delicious vegan meal and we taught the Plan of Savlation.  Ben asked a lot of great questions and we asked if he would be baptized when he knew these things were true.  He said if he converts, he'll convert.  We then went to schedule another meeting and they dropped the bomb.  They said that they felt two meetings is enough for now and we'd gvien them a lot to chew on, but that we could check up on them.  We will most DEFINITELY check up on them.  I hope beyond hope that he really does just want to study it out for himself and is not just trying to send us off.  They are an awesome couple!

On 9/30, it was POURING all day!  We had a little pond and puddle in our backyard that became a lake.  I have pictures to prove it.  I didn't have rainboots or a coat or an umbrella, so we stayed inside and worked on the area book (which REALLY needed work).  As we were about to go out, we got a call from our district leaders.  President said we had to remain inside the rest of the evening because of a tornado warning.  WHAT?!!?  Tornados in Pennsylvania!?  So...we didn't leave the house all day except to take out the trash.  We did get the area book organized though!

While tracting Saturday, we met two more potential investigators.  One is Brian.  He was just released from Rehab and is doing the 12-step program at another church.  He seemed interested and took a BoM, so we're going to give him the info for the 12-step at our church :D  We also met Andrea, the mother of 3, who was interested in learning and took a BoM. She is friends with one of our ward members, so that was a great help, too!

Well, hopefully this novel makes up for the shortness of the last two weeks!  I probably forgot tons, so ask questions.  I try and write exciting things on a post-it note throughout the week.

Love you all!

Sister Denton

9/27/10 - Letter to the World

Sister Denton had a whole bunch of stuff that she wanted to write today, but she spent all of her time today at the computer trying to get it to load the pictures she wanted to send because the computer was soooo slowwww.  She gave us her physical address....she is in Millersville, PA, which puts her almost into the Philadelphia mission bounderies.

She did want me to post that her friends can email her at whitney.denton@myldsmail.net.  She's pretty excited about that!  Until next week!

9/20/10 - She's on her way to the Mission Home!

Let's see...you have your medical forms? Yep.  You have all your luggage?  Yep.  You don't have your cell phone.  Ummm...Yep.  (She said today that she still checks her pockets for it when wearing regular pants.)

Dropping off Whitney at the MTC on Sept 1, 2010

We received a call from Sister Denton this morning at 5:37.  She was at the airport and they had no sooner got past security when the people in her group spotted payphones and flew to them.  She is flying out with 3 elders and no other sisters.  She is the travel leader of the group and said that in their packet they had pass-along cards AND none of them were sitting together.  She figures that their goal is to speak to somebody.  It's time to be a real missionary, and she is super excited. 

She did finally go to the dentist last Thursday to replace a filling.  When she and her companion came back to class, half her face was sagging (total of 8 hours, she said) and they were making a little bit of fun with her, making her smile her awkward dentist smile.  They happened to pass out information that day so they could keep in touch after their missions on facebook and another sister put her face on the board as a novacain face.  She thought it was hilarious.  The side of her face is still tender to the touch.  She said the dentist wasn't the most gentle.

Elder Chang, a young man that Whitney knows from Kirland, WA (when visiting her cousins, the Loveless') was called to this area on his mission.  One of his first areas was right around our house and he stopped by to say hello.  He is a spanish speaking missionary in this area and he ended up taking Kyle out several times on splits after Kyle found out he was going to Argentina.  It is now near the end of his mission (he goes home in Oct 2010) and he has been called back to our area.  He and a split companion stopped by this past Saturday and when Grammy answered the door he said, "Sis Whitney Denton?" as in, was she home.  Grammy thought that he was caller her Sis. Whitney Denton.  I got to the door and told him that she had left on her mission.  He thought that she had a call, so he wasn't too surprised.  He asked how Kyle was doing and I also filled them in on how Cody was doing in Nicaragua.  It was good to see him...nice young man!

She may call later today from her 1 hr layover in Detroit, MI.

9/13/10 - Letter to the World

Hey all!

I made a huge list of things I need to write and only have 11 minutes, so I'm just going to go down it with bullet points.

• I've seen Elder Devey twice. The second time we were passing and he was like "Hey Whitney" and it was SO WEIRD because I'm Sister Denton now!
• Ysabel Whitney is here and I've seen her a few times now. In fact, her younger sister Rachel served me my French Toast this morning too! I thought it was weird that she'd work so far from home when I realized she's probably old enough to be down here at college! Anyway, that was cool
• There's a guy here that sounds like Channing Tatum and another one that looks like Joe Jonas with a mission haircut.
• I got to talk to some more Nicaragua Missionaries. They were so excited to hear stories from Elder Denton II's adventures.
• Congrats to Casey!! That's SO exciting :D
• I lost a filling earlier this week and haven't been to the dentist yet...hopefully soon. It'll be my second time to the outside world! We also got to walk over to the BYU Health Center (by Wymount) to pick up some Sudafed for my companion.
• Thanks to all that have written letters! I'm trying to write everyone back! I promise!

I still absolutely love it here at the MTC still. It's an amazing spiritual adventure every day. I've loved practice teaching in the TRC. This most recent teaching experience was beyond cool--I've never felt the Spirit so strong while teaching! We have AMAZING teachers that just make class fly by. I'm going to miss class the most from the MTC.

I got to go to the temple today, which was cool. It was closed last week from Labor Day.

Anyway, I've got to go, but I hope everyone has a great week! Next time I write I'll be in Pennsylvania!!!! YAY!!!!

Remember....DearElder is free this week only! Just sayin' :D

Sister Denton

9/6/10 - Letter to the World

(We did receive a short letter in the mail on Saturday...This is her first email home)

Woot! I'm here :D

The MTC has been absolutely amazing. I 100% love it! Some funny things from the first couple of days:

I was the first one in the room and decided to be nice by letting them all choose beds first--bad idea. I was left with the top bunk in the corner without a way to get up. I have to climb on a chair, lift one leg up and then pull myself onto the bed. It's rather comical.

The first day I lost my meal card before dinner and got called over the intercom to the front desk. The second day I lost my meal card before dinner. Ya...story of my life. Haha.

The food is great...a little too great. I've decided to stop drinking milk to help me better empathize with those that are trying to overcome addictions to join the church. I love it with breakfast and dessert, so it'll be hard but worth it. The wraps are really good!!

I LOVE my district! Elders Jex, Willes, and Heinrich are going to PA with me. Elders Hanson and Potter are going to Orlando with Sister Worwood (my comp that I went to high school with :D). Sister Tall is going to Lubbuck, TX. Sister Mousseau (moo-so) is going to Salt Lake (used to be Salt Lake North)

I met an Elder going to Cody's mission and told him a bunch of stories.

Our teachers are absolutely amazing. I love them to pieces!!

I forgot my camera cord, so I'll upload pictures maybe next week (I don't know if it really works here anyway).

I've had a bunch of fabulous experiences here. I love learning about and experiencing the gospel! My testimony of fasting, prayer, and God's love for me increased this week a TON. It's amazing.

I can't wait to learn more! I'm trying to not spend a ton of time in here because all of my roommates are waiting for the internet. They let me go first :D

Love you all!!

Sister Denton

43 Hours!

Hey all!  I will be set apart as a missionary in just 26.5 hours and enter the MTC in 43, but who's counting? 

My addresses are posted on the side.  There is a wonderful site called Dear Elder where you can write me for free while I'm in the MTC!  On the main page, select Provo MTC and click "write letter."  In the boxes you will put the following:

Sister             Whitney            Denton
214                PA-PITT          0920

Then you just write a letter and I get it that day or the next!!


See ya'll on the flip side!!

Mission Call