There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today . . . .

From Jan 20, 2009 email: Sorry for the delay! Apparently it was a holiday yesterday & all of the libraries were closed. And I hear as of today, we have a new president. Hopefully he'll try to do what's best for the country. Tuesday we had interviews with President Pehrson and it sounds like Sister Jones & I will be staying in East Providence another round. Yay! I love it here. And I have a lot more that I need to learn from Sister Jones before she heads home in April. It never ceases to amaze me how fast time is flying by. This has been the quickest transfer ever. Friday I'll be hitting my big 6 month mark. But no burning ties for me.

(Left: companion, Sister Jones) This past week has been bitterly cold with temperatures sitting around the 10s or 20s. Ick! I thought I got away from those when I left Rexburg. Yesterday it climbed up to about 33 and we had to shed our coats because we were getting too hot. Church was cancelled once again on Sunday, but for a good reason. We got at least 10" of snow Saturday night/Sunday. I keep singing "There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today," and "Scatter Sunshine," hoping that springtime will come a little bit faster.

One dreary part of the week was Thursday when Angela said she didn't want to waste our time teaching her. Last week she was just about ready to commit to baptism, but apparently she read some anti-Mormon things on the internet & perceived them as truth. Plus her husband was giving her a hard time about meeting with us. It's sad to see someone reject the gospel & the blessings that come from it, but we tried our best with her. Hopefully she'll come around someday.

Out here I've realized how important families are. I've seen how much sorrow & pain comes from the lack of a strong family. I'm so thankful for the family that I do have, especially Mom & Dad. Everything that I've become is because of you. Thank you all! I love you!

There have been a few times this week when I've felt like I'm not a good enough missionary & that I don't have all the necessary "skills" to be successful. But as I was reading the January Ensign at breakfast this morning, I came across D&C 1:23, 28. It says that the "weak and the simple" would declare the gospel to all the world. I would definitely consider myself one of the "weak." Verse 28 brought me a lot of comfort as I recognized one of the stumbling blocks in my path & the blessings that come from overcoming it: "And inasmuch as they were HUMBLE they might be made strong, and blessed from on high and receive knowledge from time to time." So I'll be working on humility this next little while. I do know that Heavenly Father has so many blessings in store for me & he knows the missionary that I can become once I set aside my pride. Tah-tah for now! Keep on the strait & narrow!

Once there was a snowman

From 12 Jan 2009 email:

We got more snow Saturday night, but only about 4 inches or so. We had heard that it was going to be a big one & they even canceled church ahead of time, but we were disappointed when there was just a tiny bit. New Englanders really freak out when it comes to snow. They cancel school, work, etc. at the first hint of it. Quite a difference from back home!

This past week has been so much better than the weeks previous. And we were so busy! We got 3 member-present lessons and picked up a new investigator which is pretty good for our area. Our new investigator, Christine, is truly looking for something that's missing in her life. She wants to strengthen her family relationships & I know that it can happen through the gospel. She was disappointed that church was canceled on Sunday. I think good things will happen with her. Another investigator, Angela, almost dropped us earlier in the week. We found out that her husband has been feeding her a lot of negativity about the church & discourages her from joining. We decided to plan a time to sit down with him and let him ask us all the questions he has. We feel that he doesn't know much about the church, which explains the attitude he has towards it.

Tuesday we had zone conference in Groton, CT. President Pehrson has shortened the conference to just about 4 hours, instead of the usual 7. He thinks we are just wasting a lot of prime proselyting time. He's making a lot of big changes to the mission, but they are good ones. They will all help us to become more obedient missionaries & more successful. Zone conference is always a big spiritual uplift & a great motivator. Plus it's good to interact with other missionaries who are going through the same things. It's hard to relate to normal people!

Friday afternoon we walked around Providence & talked to whomever the Lord placed in our path. We walked around RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), Brown University, and a few shopping streets. It's kind of a dead town right now because school is still out for break. It's a new experience for me to have so many colleges in one area.

Ever since I got to East Providence, I've felt that things have just clicked for me. I feel like a real missionary! The first few months were spent figuring things out & learning the lessons. Now I can get to work & teach. It's a wonderful feeling! I'm glad that I can bring the light of the gospel into many lives. I've enjoyed these blessings all of my life & I want others to have them, too. I'm going to commit all of you to pray for missionary experiences. It is our duty to share what we know with others & raise that voice of warning to our neighbors. You never know whose life you can change.

Happy 2009!

City of Providence

Rhode Island snow

Jan. 5, 2009 email:

Things are still a bit slow here because of the holiday season. All but 2 of our investigators have put us on hold until all settles down. We've been trying to use new, creative ways to find people. One is to do family history tracting, meaning we talk about genealogy instead of sharing a message of the Restoration. We've tried it down in Barrington, which is primarily older, retired couples. It's gone over quite well! They are more willing to listen to us when we talk about family history. We also volunteer at the seniors' center in Barrington so we've shared a bit about family history with them there. One lady wants us to come over and help her out with it. Yay! Once we get them started on that, we can share why families are so important to our Heavenly Father's plan. We've also tried other random subjects because we've had LOTS of time to tract & try new things out.

Our New Year's celebration was just like any other day. We went to bed at the usual 10:30 and slept right through the new year. We had some confetti poppers that another missionary left behind so we took advantage of that in the morning. This was also a day of lots of food. We ended up having a meal appointment for brunch, lunch, & dinner. Boy, were we stuffed! And they weren't all with members; one with a member, another less-active, and the other an investigator.

For my big 22nd birthday [Jan. 3], we took our break at the infamous Johnny Rockets diner. YUM! They sell mainly hamburgers, which are very yummy! And their onion rings are amazing. The rest of our break was spent shopping along Thayer street. It's quite the lively place even though Brown University is out for break. We didn't get to make my birthday brownies on the 3rd because of fast Sunday, but we made them today so we can share with the Elders at our Preparation Day activities.

We had a wonderful fast & testimony meeting yesterday in the Central Falls ward. They are such a humble group of Saints and their testimonies are so strong. The ward mission leader, Bro. Barbosa, shared his testimony of missionary work and how we all need to share the wonderful blessings that we have because of the gospel. He only speaks Portuguese so we had it translated into English by the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. The testimony that hit me the most was by a girl who was home from BYU for the Christmas break. She spoke of her singles' ward in Utah and how she would take Central Falls over that one any day. She had seen the struggles of the Central Falls members and their commitment to the gospel had strengthened her. It's hard to put in words the power by which she spoke. It was awesome!

That's about all of the exciting things that have happened this week besides the big dump of snow we got. Ugh! Will it ever end?! I hear there's another one on the way so I guess I can just bundle up and get out to work. I'm going to try to attach some pictures that I've taken recently. One is the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean & the snowy beach. I took it last night while in Barrington. It's so beautiful!

Well, I wish everyone the best back home. Stay outta trouble & keep doing those things that Heavenly Father has asked us to do. That's where we find the greatest happiness & peace in life!

Pictures

Barkhamstead Reservoir (Connecticut, Oct. 2008)




Anybody
home?













Mark Twain's mansion

New experiences!

Dec. 29, 2008 email: Sounds like there was a lot of excitement over the Christmas holiday [snow, wind, closed roads]. I'm glad to hear that everyone is safe & that they had a great Christmas. Christmas morning we went to a member's house for breakfast, the Macks. They're a cute, little old couple. We had a white elephant game afterward which was fun. We had previously planned on going ice skating in downtown Providence that afternoon, but we opted for a nap instead. Yay for two hour naps! Then we headed off to another dinner appointment with a recent convert & her family. Her name is Isabelle Fortes & she was baptized just about a year ago with her son & daughter. She's originally from Cape Verde (islands off north west coast of Africa). And guess what...her daughter is going to LDSBC! I gave her some tips on teachers & fun things to do. We had thought that this dinner company was going to be few, but we were wrong. Cape Verdians love to have parties! We had up to 20 people in the apartment, us Sisters being the only non-Cape Verdians. It was a lot of fun & I even tried out some octopus. It was quite good, except for the little tentacle hanging off of it. I almost couldn't do it, but I'm glad I did.

Sunday was a new experience for me. Central Falls is an inner city ward...much different from anything in Idaho or Canton. About half of the ward speaks Portuguese. I was practicing the piano after our meeting with the bishop in the morning & he said that all of his piano players were out of town for the week. He told me that I was playing the sacrament hymns, which happened to be the hardest Christmas songs in the book. So I was pretty much scared to death. I played two or three hymns over & over for the prelude music, but nothing could calm my anxiety. Sacrament meeting started & I was just praying for a miracle so I didn't have to play with my meager one-handed playing ability. The bishop announced the opening hymn & also introduced me...as Sister Lima...and said that I was our last resort. But thankfully at that second, Brother Wood walked in and saved me. He can play the piano a lot better than me! Whew...my prayers were definitely answered in the nick of time. But that didn't get me out of saying the closing prayer in Sacrament Mtg. or playing for Relief Society. Now I wish that I would have made myself practice the piano so I could be of some benefit to the ward here. Later that night we met with two Brown students, one from India & the other from Thailand, who were interested in learning more about "Mormonism." The Indian had a roommate a few years ago who was LDS & had given him a BOM. The lesson went very well & we're setting up another appointment to meet with them.

This week has been slow with our investigators because of the Christmas holiday. They are all out of town or swamped with so many activities. Not many people have been home while we were tracting, either. But things can just go up from here!

Now I feel that I've caught the true spirit of missionary work. I love being out here & sharing the gospel with so many people. I feel that my testimony has grown leaps and bounds. My knowledge of the scriptures has increased more than I ever thought it could. I definitely feel the Spirit more in my life & recognize the promptings of it. I'd like to thank Dad & my brothers for setting such great examples for me by going on missions. I look up to you all so much! It's not an easy experience. Much, much harder than I thought it would be. But so worth it. Thanks to everyone for all the support & love! And thank you all for your wonderful Christmas packages & cards! Sister Darrington

Winter Wonderland

Dec. 22, 2008 email: New England got dumped on with snow! I honestly don't know how much we've gotten in the past few days...but it's been a lot! It all started Friday afternoon while we were in the middle of our Christmas Mission Conference. It was a good program besides the fact that I have a cold & I couldn't sing! But our 3 songs still turned out pretty good. It took Sister Jones & me 2 hours to get to Bloomfield, CT...but 4 1/2 hours to get back home! The roads were VERY snowy and we crept along at about 30 mph. Luckily we made it back to East Prov. without any problems. It continued to snow up until last night. Church was cancelled yesterday so a member invited us over for dinner...yum!

So I didn't get my packages before I left. SAD! Luckily the Bristol Elders were checking on our apartment & mail so they let me know that I had 3 packages waiting. They're going to forward them to me today. Hopefully they get here in time for Christmas!

Now on to the actual missionary work related things. I love Rhode Island. It's a totally different world over here, but its a good one! Our area covers East Providence, Barrington, and the east side of Providence. We've got downtown Providence (all those big buildings!) and the famed mall in the area. Plus there are quite a few colleges and universities around. I love all the activity and people out and about. Much different than "sticksy" Canton. My first night in RI & the very first door I knocked on, some guy let us in, which is a very rare occasion! His company has offices in Salt Lake City & the head of the company is LDS. We had a nice little chat with him & taught a watered down Restoration lesson. He claims to still be non-religious or spiritual, but hopefully our words will spark something inside of him. I've only met one of our investigators, Angela. She's in her 50s and is progressing along well. We just have to repeat things over and over until it finally clicks with her.

Our ward (Central Falls) covers our area & also Pawtucket (pronounced without the W). Rhode Islanders drop letters and add ones that shouldn't be there, such as "ideer" for idea & "South Afriker" for South Africa. Crazy people. Pawtucket is mostly Portuguese speaking so we have some Portuguese speaking Elders in the ward. Elder Lima & Elder Gonzales are both from Brazil, but Elder Lima has lived in Utah for quite a few years. Elder Gonzales didn't speak a lick of English before he came, but he's doing great now. I guess the sacrament meetings here are split with some talks in English & some in Portuguese. But I have yet to experience it!

The work is progressing along good here & I'm seeing many miracles happen. I love working with Sister Jones. She's got a great attitude & an amazing work ethic. Maybe I can pick up on a little of that. I hope you all have a WONDERFUL & MERRY Christmas! I'm glad things are going well back home. Remember the real meaning of Christmas & carry the spirit of Christmas in your hearts all year long. If everyone did that, the world would be a better place. Love you all! Sister Darrington

Christmas in Connecticut?

Dec. 15, 2008 email: NOPE! I'm getting exiled to East Providence, RI! I'm super excited about it. I hear that it's the "big city." My new companion will be Sister Jones from SLC (in red sweater vest below). She's a hard worker so hopefully I'll pick up on that. Sister Haueter is going off to Windsor...they're closing Canton for a short time. I guess there hasn't been much progress the past few years. The sad thing is this past week has been our best ever. Oh well. President knows what the Lord wants. The Bristol Elders will be taking care of the area for the time being.

Thursday was probably our biggest day. We had a great district meeting & then went out for district unity because that was our last time together. The zone leader that was there on exchanges (because Elder Bodily was at the temple...going home Wednesday!) asked me if I knew any Cranneys from southern Idaho. I said I did...he says that Bryce Cranney is/was the ward mission leader out in West Warrick, RI or somewhere around there. Crazy!

We had a lesson with Lillian after that. Our main focus was on prayer & finding out if the Book of Mormon was true. We got off on a little tangent because she wondered why a loving Heavenly Father would let so much suffering happen. We explained that sometimes we don't have all the answers. Some suffering occurs because of the agency of others, but sometimes, such as in the case of cancer, things just happen. Heavenly Father can see the big picture. He knows what's best for us. She committed to read the BOM, which is a huge step. We're slowly softening her old, stubborn heart. :)

The Perdomos were later that night, too. Our main focus was prayer & scripture study. It was a great lesson! We read passages from the BOM out loud with the kids. They are such special kids. They are very ready for the Gospel. We've tried to get the family to church ever since I've been here and it finally happened this week! Four investigators at church! I'm going to miss that family very much. They hold a very, very special place in my heart. Friday we had a "Sisters' Seminar" (right) at the mission home in West Hartford. It was great! The assistants did trainings on how to find investigators & how to improve our teaching skills. Its nice to get an outsiders opinion on those things because us Sisters have been trained by the same people and we are all stuck in the same "box" of thinking. I truly felt the Spirit there & it got me excited about the work.

We got a tiny bit of that ice storm, but most of it was just rain. And I mean RAIN! The next few days were bitterly cold, but today is beautiful! I wish the whole winter was like this. If you come across any good object lessons/stories/etc. that I can apply to the missionary lessons, send them to me, please! I need to spice up my teaching a bit. Thanks to all of you who have sent me letters & packages. Thanks to grandma especially for the scarf & money. They help so much! Love you all and hope you have a great week!