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