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