The ABC's of being a Missionary

Dear family And friends

Many things happened this week and we will just begin with the ABC'S

A and B are for AppleBees!
This thursday was Sister Shumways 20th Birthday so we went out to
Applebees with our carpanionship. (I have decided it was a pretty
clever name for them.) When we got there one of the sisters gave us
both gifts. Mine was a key chain of a bee to always help me remember
that one time that I was stung by a dumb bee.

C is for CAKE!!
I think a week ago I sent you a picture of that pink and yellow cake I
made? Any who this week I made and ate a lot of cake, judge least ye
be judged. ;) I made Sister Shumway special pancakes made out of
funfetti cake mix. They were pretty tasty. Then with the left over mix
i made cup cakes.
Her favorite type of cake is Black Forest cake. It is chocolate cake
with cream cheese and cherry pie filling. I must admit though that I
am getting pretty great at making cakes. This one was really tasty. I
liked it because there was no frosting on top that would sit really
heavy in your stomach, so you just felt like you could keep eating it.
Then on Saturday we had a meal with a member and guess what they gave
us... cheese cake, which is still in the cake family. And she gave us
some to go. I think I am getting all caked out!

Besides that we had a very busy week this week.

Monday- We had a lesson with our Gator Betsy and brought a member
along with us. The member was stellar and just invited Betsy over to
her home for dinner with us on saturday and to watch Joseph Smith
Prophet of the restoration.

Tuesday- We had lessons with our little Rosie before she went to young
womens, and also we have another gator also named Betsy who came and
watched finding faith in christ with us at the church. Oh also we
walked 3 miles to a lesson from the church, and 3 miles back. It was
really hot and we were really tired.

Wednesday- Our ward mission leader came out with us for a lesson. The
lesson fell through so he went and walked around the neighborhood with
us. We introduced him to some of our investigators and were able to
have two lessons. One with Denise and one with Mike. We even scheduled
another lesson for this upcoming wednesday. We also introduced him to
Bill (the wwII vet) (oh and Dad I did shake his hand and say thanks
for all he has done for our freedom).

Thursday- We had a zone meeting, and it was pretty swell. I love those
meetings because it brings the spirit more into the work and I have
noticed that each time I really feel the spirit stronger it makes me
want to work harder and do more! :) Also this was Sister Shumways
birthday! We just ended the night with tracting and looking for more
people to teach.

Friday- I felt really really really sick when I woke up. We took the
carpanionship sisters to a meeting that they had, then we went to
another room to study and I fell asleep on the ground. Later we talked
to the Mission Presidents wife and it turned out I was just really,
really, really dehydrated. She made me drink 3 water bottles right in
front of her. That seemed to help a lot, but now everyone is on my
case about how much water I am drinking. We planned for our week and
then took off to tract. We were walking a street we usually walk on
and then I noticed that another street stems out from it. So we
decided to go down it. The first 2 houses were duds. The third house
we knocked on a man came to the door and then said that he was going
to get the lady of the house. When she came walking up she was
carrying a load of laundry and seemed a bit frustrated that someone
was at the door for her. She threw the basket down and then turned to
see who it was. Surprisingly we knew her and she knew us!! She is
actually pretty good friends with a member and a less active. We had
met her about a month ago at the hospital when we went to see our less
active and her new baby. So instantly perked up and invited us in. We
were able to share with her the message of the restoration and invited
her to be baptized and read the Book of Mormon. She said yes!! We are
meeting with her next friday and a member (her friend) might even host
it in her home!!! Oh God is Good! It's more then just good luck that
we knocked on her door.
After we realized that we had given her the last copy of the Book of
Mormon in my bag so we headed back to the car for more. On our return
back there were some people out smoking and drinking in their drive
way so we went up to talk to them. One man invited us to a bbq and to
the beach on Sunday. He also invited us to partake of items that are
against the word of wisdom. We declined. He then asked if we were nuns
and we told him we were missionaries and then he de-invited us to the
bbq. He said other interesting things that I may just need to save for
stories when I arrive home. The best way to put it was that he was way
drunk. Maybe when he sobers up he will find out card and check out the
website. I guess we can only hope.

We then continued down the street and saw one of our gators out
smoking with one of our potentials. She seemed to be having a rough
day. We went over and talked, and she had some great questions about
the plan of salvation. We taught the second lesson and found out that
she really does want to stop smoking. We told her about the power that
the Book of Mormon can really give her, a power that could even help
her overcome her weaknesses. She was pretty intrigued by that. I hope
she puts more effort into reading it!

Saturday- We helped said gator with a garage sale in the morning. She
then introduced us to some of her neighbors and it was the sweetest
thing because she introduced us as her sisters. I love her and I am so
sad that her house sold so she is moving in a month to wyoming. She
said that after our missions we have to come visit her, so we are
already mapping out a road trip!!! Maybe she will be baptized by then
and we can go to the temple with her soon after!! :) Please keep
praying that Denise will read the Book of Mormon!! :)

We had correlation with our ward mission leader who seemed to be very
impressed with the work me and sister Shumway are doing. Which is kind
of abnormal for him. He seems to look for your faults and point them
out. It's all in good work though because he wants to see us work like
a finely tuned machine. I was also flattered a bit when he told me he
is going to be really upset when I leave and that he will call
president craig and give him a piece of his mind if he decided to move
me. (also mind you he is a welch man and everything he says is in a
British accent, I'm getting pretty good at mimicking him)

Following our meeting we had dinner with the other sisters at Sister
Davelines along with our investigator Betsy. She really enjoyed
watching Joseph Smith: prophet of the restoration, though she seemed
to gain a lot of questions, like what where with the oxen in the
temples, and what where the swoopy  nosed creatures (the sun stones on
the temple)

Sunday- We went to the Fort Lauderdale Temple dedication! It was so
wonderful. Uchdorf spoke and he was pretty comical. He said that he
was so glad to see all the young people that were in attendance, and
that some of them were still awake. He said that it was ok that others
were sleeping because a church sleep is a healthy sleep, that they had
come there to find peace, and peace they found. One thing he said that
I really enjoyed was that things of the temple can not be explained,
they can only be felt. He gave the example of a boy asking his parents
how they knew they loved him, when they tried to explain their answers
the young boy was not pleased with the response. The parents then
asked him how he knew that he loved them, he said I feel it here, in
my heart.
I have learned that one of the biggest things of this gospel is not
necessarily knowing, or learning, but feeling. The Spirit will always
testify of truths, so all we have to do is become so in tune that we
will be able to hear him testifying to us.
We stopped by and saw Betsy and were able to read the first chapter of
the Book of Mormon with her. She is the sweetest little old lady that
you have ever met. Except for my grandmas of course.

But any who I have big news!!
On thursday I get to go to the Orlando Temple!!! YAY!
1 yr ago on the 3rd I received my own endowment.
1 yr ago on the 4th I opened my mission call.
Now I get to go back to the house of The Lord. It seemed like this
would never be a possibility for me on my mission because Orlando is
not within our mission boundaries. But now we can attend twice on our
missions, our half way mark, and right before we go home. It will be
so wonderful to see everyone from the MTC there with me. We were
unfortunate to not be able to go to the temple together when we were
at the MTC because the provo temple was closed for cleaning. But now
we get to go and I am sooooo excited!
Also next Mother's Day I get to talk to mi familia! Wahoo! Can't wait,
this is the best week ever!!!


So here are some requests of ya'll this week.
Pray for Betsy, Denise, and Jennifer to read the Book of Mormon.
Pray for Mike's heart to be opened.
And pray that Rosangela will pick a day to be  baptized this month.



Also I would like to hear your "Ah Ha" moments from the Book of
Mormon. Our mission Presidents wife has been asking for us to share
these with her for all of my mission and it has been really neat to
read some of them. But just this past week our mission President and
his wife had the opportunity to meet with Elder Holland and some other
Mission Presidents. Elder Holland said that we as a church need to be
having more "Ah Ha" moments with the Book of Mormon. These will come
as we truly search for knowledge from the Book of Mormon. So please
share your insights with me! They may just be inspiration that will
help me with my investigators.

Well I love all of ya'll!
I love ya little, I love ya big, I love you like a little pig. However
that much is...? :)

I hope you make this week just as awesome of a week as mine is looking
out to be!
Love,
Sister Chambers