11/28/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

 

'Twas a good week!

 

Monday

We got to go see a returning active family and share a message.  I love seeing families come back to church!  It's the absolute best! 

 

Tuesday

We had leadership training in Harrisburg.  It was really good--about aligning our goals to achieve power.  Power is something I've been studying a lot lately, so it was neat to hear it talked about by our President and Assistants.  After dropping the sisters off at their apt, we headed to the Stones for Taco Tuesday.  I love the Stones family!  They are SO funny!  Afterward we went to Don and Laura's, a couple we're teaching.

 

Wednesday

After District Meeting, we went to the Cannons for lunch.  It was great!  As we went out to the car, I realized that I'd put the keys in my coat pocket, and then took my coat off and threw it in the back seat.  Our remote doesn't work, so we manually lock the car.  Bro Cannon tried to get them out, but couldn't, so we had to call the locksmith.  We gave him a card for a free Joy to the World DVD :D  lol.  Afterward, we went to try and find some referrals and less actives.  We went to the Bushda/Ramos and taught the 10 Commandments with the Brintons.  It went well!

 

Thursday

Thanksgiving!

6:30-11am--getting ready/studies

11am--Luthercare--visiting with the women.  Then we went with one of them to the Catey's Cafe and had Thanksgiving dinner.  We'd been given a free dinner pass.

1pm--Mickles--this is a family in the ward that invited us a few days ago.  So good! 

3pm--Bushda/Ramos--they'd invited us the day before.  They'd already eaten, so we had a plate of leftovers.

4:30pm--Stones--Super good food!  Good thing, or we may not have been able to keep it down by this point lol.  It was really fun, though! I love this family!

7pm--Fitzsimons--we went over to share a message and have pie..delicious!

8pm--Don and Laura--luckily this was just a lesson!  Sis Brandon came with us.  It was good!  Don and Laura are now set with Jan 21 as a baptismal day!

 

Friday

Highlight was getting into the Day home!  We haven't been able to for awhile.  We actually ended up eating leftover Thanksgiving food with them :D  I love this family!  Sis Day just started another job, so they're going to be SO busy, but we'll make time!

 

Saturday

Beautiful day weather wise!  Our first appointment was with Juanita.  It went well.  She has lots of questions, which I love!  She doesn't attend a specific church, but is saved.  One interesting conversation we had was whether or not the 10 Commandments are still in affect after Christ came.  Her side is that grace is what saves us and we don't have to do anything.  We read Matthew 5 with her.  After trying to contact some referrals, we stopped by Burger King for dinner.  We had a few minutes left in our break and were just sitting in the car looking at pictures and talking.  I'd turned it partially on to have heat.  When we went to back up, I realized it wasn't all the way on, so I tried to turn it on and it wouldn't start.  We called our Fleet Coordinator (who was actually in my MTC district!) and explained the problem and he confirmed that we had a dead battery.  Our district leader was nearby, so he got some jumper cables from an investigator and came and saved us.  Gotta love car trouble lol.  Our last lesson was with the Bushda/Ramos family, although only Mariam came.  We taught the Word of Wisdom and she committed to live it!  She is really progressing :D

 

Sunday

In the morning, we stopped by some investigators to encourage them in getting ready for church and it helped!  Don and Laura came with their girls and two of the Day kids came!  Woot!  We had dinner with the Zinkes, a fabulous family in the ward.  Then Sis Wright came with us to teach Bro Hancock, who became a new investigator.  He was raised baptist, joined non-denominational and currently doesn't practice with a church.  He agreed to read and pray!

 

The work is trucking along and time is flying by!  I can't even believe it's December this week!  That's crazy!  I hope all is going well with everyone!

 

Love ya!

 

Sister Denton

11/21/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

It's been a fabulous week!

Monday
We got to teach Danial and Alexis!  He wants to be baptized!  We watched the Restoration and they fed us an amazing dinner and we talked about the Priesthood.

Tuesday
We walked a LOT this day!  For 5 hours!  We walked to the hospital to see a less active member there and then continued on.  We tracted some mansions (and I mean MANSIONS) for about three hours with no success and then walked home.  On the way home, we walked by a person riding a horse and I "open your mouthed" her.  O ya.  We got to go to the Stones (recent convert) for Taco Tuesday, and that was awesome!

Wednesday
District Meeting!  Elder Vellinga (who looks like Chazz for the record...he even said it was way weird when I showed him a pic of Chazz) is the new district leader and he's training a new elder from Alaska--Elder Cluff.  It was a wonderful District Meeting.  We taught Anton that night with some very boisterous members.  Anton said he wants to just go through all the lessons!  He's still willing!

Thursday
We got to go to Luthercare (the nursing home we volunteer at).  It was ice cream day, so we took one of the women down and ate some with her.  The activities coordinator gave us free meal tickets to come on Thanksgiving!  So nice!  We'll come in the morning and visit with some of the women and then eat with them!  We got to teach the Bushda/Archer family.  They're doing well.

Friday
Walking all day again, but it was AWESOME!  We finally had some success while tracting!  We got a new investigator--Juanita.  She let us right in!  I'm so excited to teach her.  She GETS it.  We went to dinner with the Ward Mission Leader--I love their family to death!  Their daughter gave us two referrals!  Rock on!

Saturday
This day was AWFUL until about 4pm when we met with someone we'd set an appt with the day before--Janell!  She is another new investigator!  She is SO wonderful!  She's half Native American.  We went to the Bushda/Archers and read the story of Ammon with them.  Sis Bushda likened the scriptures!  They finally clicked and she really got it!  It was great!

Sunday
After a wonderful church service (two of our investigators came), we went to see Sis Bell, who's not been feeling well.  We dropped by Alexis' and talked about tithing.  Then we went to the Wong's.  Bro Wong agreed to the bishop's invite to officially take the lessons!  They fed us an AMAZING dinner and then we taught tithing.  The rest of the night was studies.

Monday
We went to York today for a turkey bowl.  We ended up playing at an AWESOME playground while the Elders all played football lol.  It was fun to watch for awhile, though.  I LOVE football!

Love you all!

Sister Denton

11/14/11- Letter to the World

Well Hello World!

I don't have my planner, so I'll do a people report :D

Bushda/Archer
This is a family we're teaching--a mom and three kids.  They came to church this week!  That's probably the most exciting news!  Daphne is really progressing--she's been reading from the Book of Mormon when we ask.  We gave them all reading charts, so hopefully that will help.

Sis Hammond
Sis Cain had us, a bunch of other women, and Sis Hammond over for dinner, so that was great!  She came to church this week as well.  Her sister is a convert and her other sister is taking the lessons.  We also got a media referral this week, and it turns out it's her daughter's family!  Hopefully we'll start teaching them, too!

Bro Wong
He's doing great as well.  If you didn't know any better, you'd think he was a member!  His wife is a member and they have an ADORABLE little girl.  He's keeping commitments, coming to church, and is even helping the elders quorum with a move this week!  The only problem is he doesn't know he's investigating lol.  The Bishop is going to formally invite him on Wednesday.

Zach
His wife (the member) is out of town this week, so we didn't get to see them.

Danial and Alice
They are going to get married!  Woot!  This is a big improvement and will help Danial work toward baptism!  Alice is a member who's recently come back.  We're having dinner with them tonight.

Day Family
Bernard has been going to scouts, but that's about the only progress.  We'll keep working with them!

Tomy and Laura
We taught the Law of Chastity last week and they are going to get married!!!  They've been engaged for years, but they're thinking about marriage like next month!  Sweet!  And their 7-yr-old reads the Book of Mormon every day!!

Well I'm out of time.  Love you all!

Sister Denton

11/7/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!!

First of all, I got SUPER exciting news today!!  There was a 20-year-old Chinese kid that I was teaching in State College.  I'd "open your mouthed" him on a bus and we'd started teaching him and I just love him to pieces...he and Zack were two of the hardest people to leave.  Anyway, HE GOT BAPTIZED LAST MONTH!!!!!!!  We don't have communication with other areas, so I didn't know until President sent the list of baptisms for October.  SO exciting!!  Oh I love this work and I can't wait to congratulate him when I get home!  The gospel is amazing!

On to this week :D

Monday
Halloween---nothing really lol.  P-Day and then in at 6pm to deep clean.  It is really nice to have the apt organized, though.

Tuesday
We went on exchanges!  I got to go to Elizabethtown (my first area) with Sister Samuelson (another new missionary who came out with my companion).  It was great!  I got to see some less actives I used to teach and help get appointments with them.  I also got to see Emma, a woman I taught and got to see baptized back in March.  She's not been coming out, but she wants to start again.  It was a good day!

Wednesday
After District Meeting, we went to teach a less active who forgot to call and cancel.  We had dinner with the Meza/Huffman family and started teaching the lessons to Zach.  Afterward, we went to teach Sis Hammond at the Stone's home.  It was a great lesson!

Thursday
We got to have another Spa Day at Luthercare where we give manicures to the residents.  We had dinner with the Knapps--best baked potatoes of my entire life.  Pretty much everything else fell through.

Friday
We got to go and do service with the Meza/Huffman family--yard work.  I've done more yard work on my mission then ever before in my life!!  It was fun, though!  We pruned bushes, raked, and used a leaf-blower.  They also fed us a delicious lunch.  Afterward we went home for dinner and then walked up to Main St to "open your mouth" a little before seeing Sis Heaton.

Saturday
We started the day by going to help Sis Hammond with her newspaper route again--good idea for some side income when I get home!  lol  We taught a lesson afterward--she's doing really great.  We stopped by and saw Sis Bell and got to teach her a lesson on prayer and scripture study.  Afterward, we went to the Cannon home to teach Alexis and Danial, though Danial wasn't able to make it.  It was a good lesson anyway!  Afterward, we did more finding time.

Sunday
Church was phenomenal!  I love Sundays :D  Afterward, we went to find Winford, but he wasn't home.  We tracted for an hour and then went to see the Stones since they'd not made it out to church.  We taught a lesson on family history and temple work that went really well.  I love that family!!!  We had dinner with the Fosters--one of my favorite families on earth.  It was DELICIOUS and we played a rousing game of "Stump the Chump" where you ask questions about church that day and whoever answers, asks the next question and it continues until someone can't answer.  We did it with gospel questions too.  Ross (age 7) taught us a story to remember all of the apostles in order.  I'll try and recount it:

President Monson was walking on the beach when he saw a man get hit by a ball.  He noticed a ring start to form around his eye and pointed, saying, "Eye ring....eye ring."  President Eyring continued on until he came upon a dwarf and he pointed saying, "Dwarf!"  The dwarf saw his face and said "Eww!"  They continued pointing and yelling "Eww!"  "Dwarf"  "Eww!"  "Dwarf".  I can't remember the thing for Packer, so I'll continue on.   President Packer came up to a pear tree (Perry).  Oh darn I can't rmember Nelson either...it had something to do with yelling again "Nels"  "Son" etc..Then someone came up to an Oak tree.  (Oaks) and as they continued walking, they saw a Mallard duck (Ballard).  They noticed then someone royal coming toward them and said, "Great Scott!  Hail (Hales) the King of Holland!"  As they continued on the path, they went into an inn and found a pirate.  The pirate pointed to a bed and said "Bed!  NARRRR  Bed!  NARRRR"  (Bednar)  They continued into the kitchen and asked to see the Cook.  The waiter came out and said, "Hello!  My name is Chris.  Our special today is Tofferson."  (Christofferson)  And then I can't remember how Anderson came into play.

Anyway, they told this story, and Sis Foster was like, "This is what happens when Bro Foster and Daren are in charge of Family Home Evening."  Haha love that family!

We taught Laura about the Law of Chastity and then went in to finish our studies.

Love you all!

Sister Denton