Lots of work to do!

From email of July 27, 2009: Things are going great here in Windsor Locks. Yes, things have finally settled down, but we are still so stinkin' busy. I love it! Windsor & Windsor Locks are both quaint little towns and there is lots of good work to be done.

We had another musical fireside last night in Woodbridge, but this time I actually participated. It was AMAZING! There were over 300 people in attendance and the musical numbers were so touching. I think all who were there could feel the presence of the Spirit. One Elder sang, "I Stand All Amazed" and couldn't make it through it without choking up. That set the rest of us off. Luckily I didn't let any tears fall, but they were definitely welling up in my eyes! Many in the audience were touched to the point of tears. It was so powerful! I wish you all could have been there to enjoy it. We received a standing ovation (which was kinda strange in the chapel), and I do know that hearts were touched especially mine.

Earlier on Sunday we had the confirmations of two recently baptized members, Myles and Nya. They are part of the Mejias family: the wife was recently activated, the older boy baptized a few months ago, and the husband a non-member. They are such an awesome family. The older son, Jon, remembers having the Elders around a few years back and wants to be just like them. He initiated contact with the missionaries and didn't take long to get baptized. They are such great kids, and I'm so glad to have them a part of our ward. We're hoping to help them make the step towards an eternal family.

We're working on building up our teaching pool here in Windsor Locks as the Sisters before me just baptized most of their progressing investigators. It's tough work, but I love it. There's always a sense of accomplishment after a long day. People are really kind and listen, but most don't see the need for organized religion. We know that there are people out there who will accept it. We've had some good lessons with Orlando, a former investigator that we picked up again last week. He has been through all of the lessons, but doesn't accept that Joseph Smith was the only one called of God at that time. We tried to explain that there were inspired men, but there is just one person on the Earth who is called of God to lead the true church. But he is reading the BOM and praying about it so I know that he will get the answer he is looking for.

The ward is good here, but they aren't as thrilled about member missionary work as was the Groton ward. So we're going to work on that. We're planning to get into their homes and teach them the message of the Restoration to help them remember their testimonies and fuel the desire to share it. We just have a very small portion of the ward in our boundaries and the assistants cover the rest. This transfer we have three assistants because Elder Brand is going home next week. He is the one who put together the muscial fireside and he definitely will be missed by the mission! The assistants love to pull pranks on us Sisters so we're plotting some way to get back at them.....any ideas? :)

I realized that we do have ancestors in the Windsor/Suffield area. Bro. Buck, member in the Hartford ward (who lives in Wethersfield), still lives on a farm that has been in the family for generations. I wonder if we're related. I'll have to catch him in the hallway at church and compare pedigree charts.

Yes, all of my companions except for my trainer have been from Utah. And I will definitely be keeping in touch with them. I've made SO many great friends here on the mission and I plan on continuing those friendships later on. The sisters out here are so great!

I want you all to know that I KNOW that the gospel is the way to happiness in life. I KNOW that the message I carry as a missionary is our hope in life. I KNOW that the true church has been established once again on the earth. I KNOW that we have a living prophet here to guide us. And I KNOW that our trials are given to us for our good. We are being purified just as silver, as Pres. Buck demonstrated a while back in a lesson. I love this gospel...I love being a missionary!

Happy One Year Anniversary!

From email of July 20, 2009: Can you believe it's been a year since I entered the MTC? I sure can't! Time has flown by so quickly. It is just hitting me that my time out here is VERY short and I have to make the best of it!

So now I'm in Windsor Locks, CT. It is a totally different area than what I'm used to. It's a poorer area, but the people are definitely humbled! We are so stinkin' busy each day...I've never been busier! We have a pretty large teaching pool, but none who are in the running for baptism yet. The previous Sisters just had 7 people baptized so we've got lots of recent convert lessons to teach. We are going to start working with the ward more closely as they aren't too missionary minded. Hopefully things will start to turn around.

My companion is Sister Monson from Centerville, UT. Joel used to home teach her back in the days of Old Farm [in Logan, UT]. Crazy! We get along really great. We're both a bit shy so we're pushing each other to do better each day. I'll have to write more about our experiences later as I don't have much time left on the computer!

Transfers!

From email of July 13, 2009: Last week I forgot to mention that transfers were coming up. And so...suprise! We're getting doubled out of Groton! It was a big shocker to us. Sister Mortimer is headed to Newport (getting doubled in there) and I'm off to Windsor. I had a feeling that I was going, but I had no idea that it would be both of us. We're spending a lot of today packing and saying goodbye to all the wonderful people here. I'm going to miss it so much! We have Jayde's baptism this Saturday so the Elders will have to be on top of things to get it done!

We got our transfer call last night while we were teaching the Taggarts. They are so awesome! Seth said he didn't want anything less than a temple marriage now so his kids can be sealed to him. We also committed Kelsi to accept nothing less than that...in a few years! We took our departing pictures, some of which are included in the email. Seth's little boys said they wanted us to be their "big sisters" and they attached themselves to us pretty quickly. Its been good for them to be exposed to church because they don't get much of that with their mom in Louisiana.

We had a funny thing happen to us the other day. We were just about to leave for service at Gerts when Sister M. decided she needed to go to the bathroom. I'm sitting on the couch in the other room when I hear "HELP!" Sister M. got locked in the bathroom because the handle was messed up. So after a bit of fussing, we got her out and I thought I got it fixed. But then I get locked in the bathroom and the handle falls completely off! We had to do some more fumbling around until I was out. We were laughing so hard that we were struggling to get out the door. A little comic relief doesn't hurt every once in a while!

Interesting holiday

From July 6, 2009 email: It sounds like everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. Mine was quite interesting...a wedding, baptism, and a BBQ! Friday afternoon, Pres. Pehrson left us a message on our phone saying that he wanted us to be witnesses for a wedding he was performing in the Groton chapel on the 4th. We called him back and got the full story: a sailor in the navy and his fiancee’ were going to get married in Utah, but the Navy wouldn't let him go. They had the reception and everything all planned out. How stinky is that?! So they decided to do a quiet ceremony here in Groton. However, Bishop Mason was out of town so they got a hold of President Pehrson. It was quite the experience. Ruby, the bride will be in our ward in the next three months. Phil, her Tongan husband, should be coming whenever the Navy will let him go.

Then we headed to a baptism that the New London Spanish Elders were having. Everything was in Spanish so I didn't understand a single thing of it, but the Spirit knows no language. The Spirit was very strong there. I stumbled through the Spanish versions of "I Am a Child of God" and "I Need Thee Every Hour" but I still felt that same burning inside. That is a huge testimony to me of the truthfulness of the gospel. It feels the same no matter where you are.

The Harpels took us in for a BBQ since no one else offered to feed us. They are so good to us! I can't remember if I told you that Sister Harpel made us each blankets that folded into pillows and also bought us a Navy shirt to remember Groton by. Plus they are always feeding us when other people fall through. They have a son out on a mission in Peru/Bolivia who gets home in December. I think they're so good to us because we remind them of him!

We dropped by Kelsi and Seth this week. They are doing AWESOME! They came to church along with his two other boys and stayed the whole time! That's improvement. He said that while they were in Utah, his cousin said something in a talk that hit him. He wants to change his life around. Now he's completely given up smoking, drinking, swearing, etc. He is so much happier! We are so excited! This makes all the hard missionary work worth it! Kelsi is excited for this change in her life. She is such a sweet girl!

We are seeing a slight change in Gloria. She is being humbled, which is exactly what she needs. She fed us last night and we also had a wonderful scripture study lesson. She committed to read the entire Book of Mormon since she has never done that before. We promised her that she would get the answer that she is looking for...as long as she is humble. We got a picture of her and her husband, Russ.

There was a crazy storm that rolled through here on Wednesday. It poured...and poured...and poured...and poured! Streets were flooded, cars were stranded, and many basements were full of water. I've never seen so much water come down in so short of time. We had our interviews with Pres. & Sister Pehrson that day in Waterford and the water was running off of the building like a waterfall! There was more booming thunder and lightning. Crazy, crazy storm!

I'm glad that the Durfees [sister & brother-in-law] are moved back to Idaho! That makes visiting a lot easier when I get back! I'll be either getting home for Christmas or on February 10th...hopefully the former! I have to talk with President about it to see when he'll let me go. I'm enjoying my mission so much, but I realize that it will have to come to a close some day. I've learned SO much out here and I've had amazing experiences. I can't wait to share all of them with you when I get home!

Baptism!

From email of June 29, 2009: Kelsi got baptized this weekend in UT! She gave us a call not long after it happened and she said she felt good. She is such a special girl! She's being such a great example to her father, Seth. He hasn't smoked since getting to Utah...yay! We are excited that he is making those necessary improvements to his life. It is hard to pull yourself free when you get wrapped up into the things of the world. You'd be better off just staying away from them!

We took over an investigator whom the Elders in North Kingston had been teaching in Westerly. They had said that she knew the Book of Mormon was true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and they had set a baptismal date with her. This week we met her and found out that she was no where near baptism. Elders, Elders! We tried to teach her a watered down Restoration lesson, which got her thinking a bit, but her huge yellow lab was being rambunctious. This lady absolutely LOVES her animals and treats them like her kids. A lot of our appointments this week fell through or were rescheduled. It's frustrating to work so hard, and not have people follow through. I guess that's the missionary life! We are focusing a lot on finding new investigators since our teaching pool is dwindling baptisms or moves. We figure we can't convert all of Connecticut, but those who have been prepared by Heavenly Father.

Our talks went very good on Sunday. Sister Mortimer was the first speaker so she stood up, took about seven minutes and then passed it on to me. Can you believe that I spoke for over 20 minutes! I used to be scared to death to speak in church and always look forward to the day when I was comfortable with it. This Sunday was it! We elaborated on Elder Perry's talk in the last general conference, which was about member missionary work. As a missionary, I've really come to know the importance of members in this work. We can't do it without them. I'm going to be a much better member missionary when I get home. This mission has been the crowning point of my life. It has changed my way of thinking and my desire to serve the Lord. My testimony has been strengthened immensely--it couldn't have happened any other place!

Exchanges & more rain!

From email of June 22, 2009: Sounds like a very eventful week! I'm a tad bit jealous that you were able to go to the Manti pageant and see the beautiful temple there. We will most definitely have to go when I get back.

Let Holly and Trenton [sister & brother-in-law] know that they will not be alone in speaking in church. Sister Mortimer and I have to speak with the high councilor this Sunday. Ugh! This will be the 3rd time since I've been in Groton. And the subject is...of course...missionary work. Hopefully that goes well. Yesterday we had a recently returned sister missionary speak about her mission in SLC. Sister Park moved to Connecticut to live with her sister for a while and then decided to go on a mission. Her parents live in Ukrane right now so CT is closest to home. After the meeting she found us and referred a friend of hers, Alex. Apparently she had referred him to the missionaries about a year ago, but not much happened. Last week we were looking through our old referral records and ran across his name. We had planned to stop by him sometime this week, but Sister Park beat us to it. What a coincidence...or was it? Later that night we taught him about the Restoration with Sister Park and he accepted to learn more. He is really searching for something more in his life that the gospel can fill. The spirit was VERY strong in the room and I know that most of what we said was put into our mouth. I loved to see Sister Park still actively engaged in missionary work even after she was released. That's what I want to be like.

My baby, Sister Mortimer, left the nest for the night as we went on exchanges with the Fairfield Sisters. It was our first time being apart for so long! But it was good. I stayed here in Groton with Sister Thomas, from SLC. She's only on her 2nd transfer, but I still learned a lot from her. One big thing is talking with everyone. There are times when I let my shyness get the best of me and I chicken out. But with Sister Thomas, we talked with EVERYONE and saw great miracles happen. We were out contacting in the morning and took a little detour from our usual contacting route. We ran across a guy who was setting up for a car wash to benefit the Relay for Life. At first he wasn't too excited to listen to us, but as we shared our testimonies and recounted the First Vision, he softened his heart. He already owned a BOM so he promised us that he would pick it up when he got home. It was crazy to see the change in him just over a span of a few minutes. We just happened to be at the right place, at the right time.

We have also been floating away from the extreme amounts of rain. I heard that there was a flood warning issued somewhere in CT, but I don't know for sure. I'm looking forward to some sun, too! I do like the cooler temperatures, though.

I want everyone to know that I love them very, very much! I'm blessed have the greatest family. I see so many families broken up and wrecked, which makes me appreciate the love and closeness that we have. And it is because of the gospel that our family is so good! I can't imagine it any other way! The picture is of us sisters on exchanges. Mortimer, Baird, Thomas, & Me. I look a little funny because I had to sprint back to get into the picture. Enjoy! :)

Hard times & rain!

From email of June 15, 2009: I'm glad to hear that we aren't the only ones floating away. It has rained SO hard these past few days that we thought about building an ark. But of course the New England weather is so dynamic that we had rain/fog/sun/hot all in one day. I thought Idaho weather was bad.

This week hasn't been the best. A lot of our appointments have fallen through and things just aren't working out how we'd like. These are the times that missionary work is hard. We go out and talk to people all day long, but get rejected. Most everyone is "all set" and they don't give us the time of day. Some of our investigators aren't progressing along as they should which is frustrating. If I would have known that missionary work was this hard, I probably wouldn't have come. But I know it is for my good. I'm a better person because of it. Plus the joys of seeing someone accept the gospel and enter the waters of baptism overshadow these tough times. It makes it all worth while! I'm also appreciating the little blessings that I'm given each day from Heavenly Father.

Kelsi is leaving this week for Utah to get baptized. Yay! I'm excited for her. She's being a great example to her father and is key to getting hime reactivated. He knows it is true, but just can't make the effort to change. We see that a lot. People believe, but laziness and habit get the best of them. Gloria is doing good, but is as stubborn as ever. We pray for her daily so that she will open up her heart to the gospel. Keep her in your prayers!

Hopefully I'll have lots more to report next week! We're still trudging a long in the rain and the sunshine. We know that the Lord promises us and our families great blessings for our service. That's what keeps us going. These hard times usually mean something good is around the corner!