Monday, December 22, 2014

December 22, 2014

Uh. surprise highlights of this week:
On Monday... we had zone p-day. played lots of volleyball (which my team won) and ultimate frisbee (which we won. haha I play to win) and what not. It's been really warm here lately. All the snow has melted and I don't even need 2 layers of tights!!

Tuesday. Got a call at 8:00 from mission president. Sister Jacklin got transferred to Anoka. I'm now training.
yeah. I'm totally not joking. It was a surprise. but things were going too well and mission life was just too easy so I knew something had to change soon. I'm now training again. her name is sister Neville. she is from California in a city that starts with a b and is 2 hours north of LA. (We are going to go with Bakersfield) I can't remember what it's called right now.
Wednesday: New mission meeting and Bloomington. Oh, and sister Jacklin's last gift to me was to get me sick. haha so I spent all last week on my death bed carrying around a box of tissues and what not because I am too prideful to stay at home.
and then some other days where we did boss missionary work and preached Christ crucified and where I tried to memorize the Living Christ but it has a lot of words so I'm only like 3 paragraphs in.
SATURDAY!! the Mkwapatira's got baptized!! HOLLA! it was so great! Antionette and Reo are a stellar couple! I love them so much and am extremely excited for them! It was a great baptism. Oh mom, you'll be pleased to know that I played the piano for it! I've actually been working on my piano skills and can play.... like 10 hymns. small small.

Decorating a fern for Christmas

Mkwapatiras Baptisms

Saturday, December 20, 2014

December 15, 2014

Mom,

Well, in answer to your questions, We had a balmy 50 degrees the past few days. get this, -I'm not even wearing tights today! woot woot! What a gift from God. it's been splendid. It'll probably get freezing cold soon so I'll just enjoy the warmer weather while it lasts.

TEACHING!! AND FINDING! well due to.... unfortunate circumstances our finding time was cut a little short when Sister Jacklin fell ill. It was unfortunate really. But I did get to crochet a lot of stuff while watching the district. And make some fudge for our less active sisters.

Speaking of -funny story. So you know how I always make gravy in a glass pan? so I pulled out a glass pan intending on making fudge in it. So in goes the sugar and the evaporated milk, it's boiling (oh and this is Monday evening after nightly planning. so we have about 40 minutes or so before bed) and all of the sudden....! it EXPLODES!! Shards of glass when everywhere and the sugar liquid oozes all over our stove and oven. haha it was a hot mess. literally. I joke you not I had such adrenaline after that I laid in bed for 30 minutes just saying, "I'm really glad we didn't die Sister Jacklin." She as a good sport about it and helped me clean it up though. And then we made some delicious glass-free fudge. YUM!

Oh, but back to your question. Finding and teaching are AWESOME! This area is ON fire! so far I have met 2 Liberian families :) haha so great. But also Reo and Antoinette are getting baptized this Saturday!! We are so excited for them! and then I found out that 2 of my investigators from med lake are getting baptized the Saturday after that! God is truly hastening his work of salvation in this area! We are working hard on finding new people to teach, and helping them progress towards baptism. Lots of awesome potential and the spirit is just guiding us to really great people! it's awesome. Sister Jacklin is very in tune with the spirit so she just guides us to the street we need to be and I just show up and talk to people. I love it :)

uh, Christmas plans. not sure yet. Probably see a lot of miracles. Invite at least 10 people to be baptized. and maybe Skype my family. :) we will see.

Here's quote I like a lot

"It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; It is hardly possible for him to think too deeply or too often about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight or burden of my neighbors glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible Gods and Goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may be one day a person which, if you saw now you would be strongly tempted to worship.... It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities; it is with awe and circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all our dealings with one another. All friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. But it is immortals who we joke with, work with, marry, snub, exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses." -C.S. Lewis

I love the beginning where it talks about the load being so heavy that only humility can carry it. If I have learned anything on my mission it is to be more humble! Which was probably necessary since I was SO prideful before! I love mission life. It has taught me how to be invested in the salvation of others. Not because I need crazy high numbers, but because I LOVE THESE people! they are fantastic. And I love you too.

love, Sister TERRY

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

December 8, 2014

This week was FANTASTIC!! Ahh God is too good. It's amazing.

We had a slew of miracles this week, but my favorite happened on Monday: We had been trying to get in contact with a recent convert named Yer Xong who had gotten baptized about a year ago and gone less active. No one had been able to get in contact with her for the past 6 months or so. We went by and talked to her non-member husband who told us Monday would be a good time to visit. So we contacted her fellowshipper, Sister Miller, as she was investigating and she agreed she would come. We got to the apartment building, (and I have worked in areas with lots of apartment buildings. They are wonderful, but a huge hindrance as it is sometimes difficult to get in. And it was definitely the case with this one since their telephone box was broken and sometimes you just have to wait till someone walks out and opens the door for you.) So we prayed that we would find a way to get into the apartment building, and we even got there about 15 minutes just so we would for sure be in there before Sister Wallace came. But it was to no avail. The door was locked and there was no sign of anyone coming. So then we sat and thought. And decided to go around to the back door. Which was still locked..... but, a little broken. So we whip out a credit card and I remember my hoodlum days in Brooklyn Park... And we broke in. haha #livinthethuglife. We'll say the spirit prompted us to do that.

Since we were there a little early we decided to stop by Sister Rojo, a less active who lives across the hall from Yer. We sat down with them to do a quick fhe and our joint teacher texted that she was here. We told that to the family and they were SO excited to see her, so the kids ran down the stairs to go get her. Of course, being kids they made a lot of noise and commotion which brought Yer and her adorable kids out the door. They were so excited to see Sister Wallace and everyone said a lot of hellos and introducing and finally we got them all to come in to sister Rojo's place. We shared a fhe with both families where we made them title of liberties for each family, they had to gather together and write down things that are important to them. The kids got So into it and would tie their title of liberties (tank tops) around their necks and pretend it was a cape. It was amazing to see how well it had come together. We got to know both of them a little better, and it invited the spirit into their lives and their family as well. It was AMAZING! and so fun. I'll have to send you a picture of it a little later.

Then, later on this week we were out finding and we felt prompted to go stop by this potential investigator. We knocked on her door, she was uber busy but we got her phone number and agreed to set up a time with her. As we were leaving we saw this lady out in the hall and I was like, "I got to talk to her." So as we walked past I tried to strike up a conversation (and you would think after 1 year of doing this I would be a pro) and all I could think of saying was... "I like your.....pants" (she was wearing basketball shorts.) But the cool part was she is from Liberia, and nearly cried when she said that. I miss my Liberian friends! She has been asking God to help her find a church, she wants to get baptized, and when we went back to share the restoration with her She started breaking down and crying during the first vision. The spirit was so powerful! It was awesome, she definitely is a prepared soul! So sister Terry's conversation skills:0 The spirit:654682 Pretty cool.

Then a funny story: We were, once again, trying to find a less active (this ward has like 20% activity rate. It's outrageous.) and as we stopped by her nephew answered the door. Oh my goodness the smell of marijuana in the room was crazy ridiculous. but he wanted to talk about the gospel so we talked to him for a little bit. He started talking about how demons are following him around and all this crazy satanic stuff, and then said that when he talked with his pastor about it his pastor said that they are following him because he can do great things but he needs to give his life over to God. And then he turned to us and said, "what does that even mean?" Without missing a beat I just go, "Well there are certain things that keep us from living the life that God wants for us and obtaining his blessings and protections. For example, when people smoke pot it prevents them from feeling the spirit in their life and feeling the love of God." He was a little caught off guard by my brashness but did invite us back because, "he would love to hear more about the Norman's, and what Norman's believe." haha I am never going to get sick of hearing that. Hilarious!

Ahh I just love being a missionary. It is too good. It's such a joy to spend time laboring on God's behalf for the salvation of his children! And oh how he loves his children! We got to watch the 1st presidency devotional last night (we have a couple, Antionette and Reo that watched it with us. They are getting baptized Dec 20th!!) And I was particularly touched as they repeatedly emphasized how humble Christ's birth was. He really was not looking for recognition, worship, praise or anything else. He came simply to be obedient to God's will, and I am ASTOUNDED at how selfless he was. He never cared how he looked to other people, or anything. Ahh one day I hope to be more like him.

My name is Sister Terry,

I break into locked apartment buildings,

I testify of the evils of smoking pot,

And I'm a Norman.

happy Holidays!


Love, Sister TERRY

Monday, December 1, 2014

December 1, 2014

Dearest Mommy,

Um so my new companion is... Sister Jacklin. First name Sister. last name Jacklin. hahah I'm hilarious. She's related to Cade, and TJ Jolley. Isn't that uber cool? She is from AF. her brother runs xc. so she knows Timo.   This is the Jacksons. Caroline. And her mom Corrine



This is my wml's family. They are SO cool! Joe Wright and Naomi Wright


She (Sis. Jacklin) has been out for 3 months. Literally Sister Tingey just barely finished training her. 

This is Sister Renee Nunally. She's crazy. And less active. But always gives us tootsie rolls. She calls me her little gypsy. It's ridiculous. But we're best friends.


This is Sister Henstrom. Bishop's wife. She's a saint. literally. She's SO AWESOME



We live in an Apartment.
This is autumn ridge. Where all the Africans live. We're going there someday. And I will teach you the African ways. But it's also really gross, sketchy and unsanitary.


This is Musu. She's really cool. less active.


We went over to the relief society president's for thanksgiving. (I don't remember her name.... haha) we ate a LOT of food. Did I tell you that I love pie? Pumpkin is my favorite. So I ate a lot of that. And mashed potatoes.

And of course, the Coopers. my favorite family ever! They are supposed to come to Utah next summer. So we'll see them. and take them to the TEMPLE! woot! 


This is grandma Massa, and Tennah. They are the best! Grandma only speaks Pelle, which is an African tribe language. And both of them are scheduled to get baptized in January! WOO!


The area.... Well it has a lot of potential. Literally. There is a couple that the sisters were working with. They now have a baptism date for Dec 20th. And we were spending a lot of time finding. Lots of new transfer miracles! Last transfer they only taught 1 or 2 people the restoration a week. But this week we taught 8 people!! WOO! so we are excited to find new people especially the Lord's elect. So for right now it was dead. But underground God has just been preparing a lot of people and we need to find them! There are a lot of people from east Africa. A lot of Muslims. Which are my favorite people to teach! So it's perfect! But it's a wonderful blend of apartments, modest housing, and rich people. So I like it a lot. I am very blessed to be here! 

This is Tylene. Hopefully she tagged me on facebook! Her daughter is the cutest biggest punk ever! One time, she was playing with my hair and scurried off for 2 seconds, came back and started putting globs of hair grease in my hair! I had to wash it 4 times before it all came out!


Sister Smith. My old companion


Sister Jacklin has been here for 41/2 months. So I lied. Sister Tingey did not just finish training her. She finished and then spent another transfer here.

Melia Gruber. She came home for thanksgiving. She goes to UVU and is supposed to call you to cook her a home cooked meal soon! :) thanks mom



This is Rose. And her sister Muna. Which is why I might have Ebola. Her sister just came from Liberia a few weeks ago. Cross your fingers!


Burnsville is South of Bloomington. Medicine Lake is north of Minneapolis. They are on opposite sides of the city. SO no. We didn't cover here. I've never been here before. Everything is very foreign and new. but that's okay! 

This is Ellen Nounea, and her mom, Martha. BEST FAMILY EVER! they are members, from Liberia. Super awesome though! Very stalwart!



Sorry this picture is so lame. Shaharrah couldn't stop crying so we didn't get a good one. But this is Shaharrah. She's getting baptized Dec 27th. I'm SO excited for her.


This is Brother Quaye. AKA Mufasa. He's my idol. I literally just recorded a meeting that we had with him, and he just speaks with crazy POWER! ahh, a quote from the last time I talked with him "You decided to subject yourself to discomfort and follow Jesus" See what I mean? 


And then sister Teuscher, and Fifi. haha on exchanges. Too good.


This is the family that we found last Saturday. We taught the dad a restoration lesson while he was out walking. And he asked us to pray that he can find food and start providing for his kids. 3 minutes after we prayed with him, a lady pulled over to him and handed him a bunch of frozen meats (I joke you not. I can't even make this stuff up. welcome to the hood)
He was SO anxious to come to church, and Everyone LOVED them! We taught them on Tuesday and they asked us how long before they can join our church. Ahh God is so awesome. I love it. 


This is Kammassah Quaye. She's pretty rad. Also, her home is infested with potential ebola. ( I like to live dangerously. and might have given ebola to the entire cities. oops.)



Well, I hope you enjoyed all the pictures! Information overload perhaps? haha but life is so very good in Burnsville! It's a frost -1 degrees and the only veggies I have eaten this week come from Salsa. But that's okay! haha Sister Jacklin is super rad. She likes to run, and is very chill. She's super down for everything, and I’m going to teach her how to crochet today! As stated before, not much work happening right now as far as gators, but there is SO much potential. And I love finding people to teach. So I'm anxious to get to work and start saving souls! Burnsville is a relatively tiny ward. It's activity rate is a meager 30% with even lower home and visiting teaching rate (I'm going to sneak that in here every week. I have truly become converted. Do your home and visiting teaching PEOPLE!) But the people are wonderful! So much diversity and everyone is so welcoming, especially in the frosty weather. I am no longer a sister Training leader. So that gives me opportunity to study good things and focus on my people! It's a great relief, haha I loved it while it was going on. But I do like being able to sleep and focus on my area too. It gives me a chance to focus on leading in a more subtle way and hopefully just being that missionary that everyone forgets about cause you don't even need to worry about them. President did tell me that next transfer I'll be training, so I'm anxious to build up the ward and practice my patience! Hopefully this time around things will be much better!

I love you lots and lots. hope you had a great Thanksgiving week. And that you have an enjoyable time during this Christmas holiday!

Love, Sister TERRY

November 23, 2014

Wow! Time has certainly been racing by, and other transfer has come and gone! Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to sneak by another transfer in Medicine Lake. The time has come for me to leave and go to Burnsville. It is so bitter sweet to say goodbye to all these wonderful people! I am so excited to meet the people in Burnsville and be in a new zone for the first time in a year. But I am SO SO sad to have to leave! I feel like in my life I never had a hard time saying goodbye in school, or even after college. But for some reason on my mission being transferred has been the hardest, most difficult thing in my life. I have come to love these people so much. And I certainly hope that I have made a difference in their life. But no matter what small change I might have caused for them I know that they have made a huge impact on my life. I have never met a more devoted people, humble and pure. They have taught me how to love, how to sacrifice and to keep our eyes on the temple no matter what.

In my studies this morning I came across this quote,

"You cannot develop respect for someone who does not utilize his talents to the best of his ability. This is one of the great problems in the mission field. No matter how good you are, in every mission there are young men who take their callings as missionaries altogether too lightly. For every act of indifference, for every degree of laziness, for every failure to live up to the highest capacity which is ours in the performance of our missionary duties there is a penalty. I cannot tell you what the penalty is, but I am conscious of the one great penalty. That penalty is that when you leave the mission field, you take with you the standard that is going to be yours all of your life. If any of you elders feel that you can rise above the standard you fix for yourselves while you are laboring in the mission field after you get home, I am sure you are in for a very, very sad disappointment. I have had the privilege of watching returned missionaries come home from the field for over fifty years, and I have yet to see the first case within my experience where a missionary ever did anything better than he did his missionary work. It is very popular though out the world to seek to get something for nothing. As far as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no room for such philosophy therein."

Even though it is so hard for me to say goodbye, I know that i will continue to grow in the gospel as I am moved to Burnsville. And that doing God's will is so much more important than doing my own. I feel like I am finally starting to figure out what missions are all about. And I certainly hope that I can do everything that God wants me to in the 3 short transfers that I have left.

But on to better and funner things!

We have an investigator named Musa that we are teaching, he is from Sierra Leon and he is AWESOME! He came to stake conference last week, and as we were talking to him about the holy ghost he was telling us about how it spoke to him during that conference that this is something of God and he needs to be a part of it. AHH! and he was Muslim when we found him! How cool to see such a huge change happen in his life in just a few short weeks. Him and his daughter will be baptized on Dec 20.

Then there is also Shaharrah, who is 13 and a friend of the coopers. She is doing so good and is set to be baptized in December! She is the cutest thing, and she cares about the gospel so much! We went through baptism interview questions with her this week and it was amazing how much she knew and how diligently she has studied so she can make this a part of her life!

also, on Saturday we were walking around trying to find people to teach and we saw this man Lester walking down the sidewalk. We talked to him for a little bit and asked him where he was going, which he replied, "nowhere, I just felt like I needed to go for a walk." we shared the message of the restoration with him and he was SO excited! he loved everything and then asked if he and his wife and 2 boys could come to church with us. and we told them we would get them a ride and give them a call. Later on that night we hadn't got him a ride yet, and he called us and was like, "Hey I really want to come to church, do you have a ride for me?" and that NEVER happens. but he came, and Everyone LOVED him, and just lit up when he talked with them. Ahh it was so good. This area has just exploded. When I first got here there was no one to work with and we were struggling to find people to teach, and this Sunday we got 7 people to church, we have 5 people working towards baptism in the next month and there is so much goodness going around. AHH i am so sad to be leaving. But I am so excited for Sister Smith and everything that is going for this area! It has been such a blessing to be here. I love seeing how much can change in such a short amount of time. And I have really found that attitude is everything. If you want to share the light of the gospel, you have to be shining yourself.

and of course, enjoy this picture of our crazy district. Hooligans. all of them.

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Love, Sister TERRY