Balancing 2/29/2016

Dear Family,

It was a great and busy week full of miracles and funny moments. My last transfer starts next week. This transfer when by in a blink! I realllllllly need responses from my brothers for gift requests. I have the girls covered. 

Alright so first updates. Hugo is doing really well. The brothers from the church are stopping by Hugo this week to help him with his land. That will be so nice of them. He is progressing well but his little sister is in the hospital and not doing well so he couldn't come to church on Sunday.

We are teaching a woman named Elizabeth (good name). She is the mother of a member in the branch. She is the sweetest lady. She hasn't been coming to church because she has been sick but this past week she said she will come to church no matter what and she did! She really liked it. 

Giovanni CAME to church! He also brought his friend Romario that we teach. Romario really liked church and said he could feel the spirit. Our appointments didn't work with Gio this week so I was really surprised to see him walk in. Everyone was really welcoming. I think most people just thought Gio was an investigator haha. 

We got other cool investigators but those are the main ones. The branch has been doing some service projects for Lucille which has been really nice.I went on an exchange with Sister Parker this week and had a great time.

Funny moments. We were teaching this member. He's about 19 and a total punk of a kid. His parents are going to the temple this next month to be sealed so we have been trying and preparing him to go so we've been meeting with him. We had a pretty good lesson with him and he was saying how he wants to change and involve Heavenly Father more in his life. At the end we ask him to say a prayer and we get on our knees. At first it's taking him a while to start. I'm thinking he's emotional or it's hard to start but then he still isn't saying anything. So then I start thinking he's praying in his head so I begin to just wait. All of our heads are bowed and eyes closed on our knees. AFTER a long time he still isn't saying anything. My legs were hurting! Haha. I look at him and he kinda peeks and we make eye contact. Silently I give him the thumbs up like are you done? He looks confused and points to my companions. I then say something. Turns out he didn't know he was supposed to pray and he thought we were meditating or something. He said, "I wondered if we were gonna be here all night!" He went on to say a very non-heartful prayer. That's more like him haha.

We came home one night and there was water everywhere! Turns out in our laundry room there is a bathroom that we never use. I guess there was a leak in the sink and water was going everywhere! We spent the night cleaning up. Pretty funny and thankfully no damages. Missions are always an adventure.

Also breaking news. No more 7 o'clock curfew. Thank goodness! It's a big relief actually and nice to fit in more lessons with our two areas. 

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. Thanks for the updates and pictures! Love you all!

Love,

Elizabeth

Het Gaad Verder Verder Verder Verder 2/23/2016

Dear Family,

It was a crazy week that went by in a blur. Do I say that every week? Probably! Time just flies! It was a fun and busy week. This week it was more of trying to balance time between both areas. We do a pretty good job of planning out. But the Kwatta area has SOO many members and less actives that need to be seen but we don't have time to see them all. 

Our time to find new investigators has gone down, thanks to the two areas. We only get to really focus on the investigators that we have. I'm still having a great time with Sister Vernes and Zeegelaar. They are both awesome missionaries with strong testimonies. Sister Zeegelaar sometimes worries about her English but it is really good! She'll do great. I'm secretly hoping that she gets to Utah after I do so I can take her through the temple and to the MTC. For her own sake I also hope she can go. She is great though! I hope you get to meet her!

Gio is doing really well. We are having really good lessons with him but he still hasn't come to church yet. I hope he will soon! 

Hugo is doing great! We brought one member this week and they got along super well too. He loves the brothers of the church haha. He wants to be baptized and learn everything. I hope he understands it all too. He came to church again. He is a really nice man. 

I went on an exchange with Sister Walsh this week. It's always fun to connect with her again. I can't wait introduce everyone to her too. She is one of a kind. She is a terrible biker- haha. One time she didn't have brakes that worked and I literally saw angels protect her as she rode into traffic. On our exchange though we were biking and some dog started chasing us and Sister Walsh pretended to grab a stone and throw it. In the meantime she got distracted and almost missed her turn so made a quick turn, cutting me off (I didn't know where we were going) and we crashed. Not surprised!

We went to Over B

Visiting someone with Sister Walsh.

ridge today which is this lake thing with a beach. We played lots of beach volleyball and playing around. It was a lot of fun. I'm happy to be here. It's just a good time. 

Something cool I learned this week was studying about forgiveness, mercy and grace. It's really interesting how they are all connected with each other. We always think of how without justice God can't be God. But sometimes we over look that God couldn't be God without Mercy as well. Pretty cool.

Love you all!

Love,

Elizabeth

Back to New 2/16/2016

Hello Family,

Thank you for everyone's prayers and fasting. I was all the way better this week. I really didn't get as sick as most people do. The thing about Zika is that there is nothing you can really do about it besides rest it off and take pain medication. The doctor gave me pain medication that is basically tylenol, vitamin c, and some muscle cream. I really felt fine this week. I felt a little like I had done a work out that was non existent but that was about it. It really wasn't anything serious. 

I forgot a funny moment from last weekend district conference. The Saturday night session in the middle of Sister Linger's talk a bat flew into the room and kept flying around. Everyone was so distracted by this bat. I was scared I was going to get hit in the head. All of a sudden it hit a fan at the front and landed on the stand. Then a brother went to the front and stepped on it. Sister Egbert's face (who was on the stand) was priceless. It was pretty funny. 

Well, sad news this week is that Sister Jensen went home last M

I am with my friend Fallon, from Wanica
at District Conference.

onday. She was sick and had to go home to get it checked out. So now I have Sister Vernes back. Only difference is that this time we have two areas. Luckily they aren't too far from each other but still it adds a lot more biking time. It made for some interesting days but still lots of fun. 

Some cool stories from this week. First Giovanni. He is 24 and hasn't been to church in about 4 years. His extended family are strong members of the church. However none of his immediate family are members. We have been trying to get his family involved. This week we were able to have a cool lesson with Gio and his brother. His brother is really interested to learn more. He was taught but the elders in the past but never got baptized. And Gio finally started reading a little bit in the BOM.

Hugo is doing good. We were only able to have a short lesson with him today but he is just soooo excited to learn everything about the church. He came on Sunday again and loved it. He is also making friends in the church which is cool. People like him. 

So my hair is very long now and children love touching my hair. This week we were having a lesson and two little girls were fighting over doing my hair. One runs in the house and brings out a fine toothed comb and starts going at it. Needless to say it hurt. 

I have been studying more about the devil this week. I know it's kinda a funny study topic but it's been really interesting. I feel the more you know him, the easier it is to recognize some of his evil tactics. It is foolish to deny his existence but better to strengthen yourself to deny him. 

We are with Shenelva

I'm so grateful for the church and for the experience I have had on my mission. It's something I would never take back. I have a lot more work to do but it is good to know that there is a light somewhere in the distance :) I miss you all!

Love,

Elizabeth

I Promise I Won't Get Pregnant! 2/9/2016

Dear Family,

I will try and put into detail my crazy week! Last Sunday I woke up with a rash all over my body. I had pain and just didn't feel like myself in my body. Overall though I have handled it really well. I've been feeling happy and good. I went to the doctor and am getting better and better. Still have some side affects and my legs still feel jello-y but I'm getting better.

It was an exciting week. Besides being sick we were still able to have some cool lessons and experiences. First is with Hugo. He is a newer investigator. We had a great member with a member that he connected with. Hugo is really excited to learn everything he can. He came to church this week and really liked it. The member took care of him and introduced him to other people. It was great. We also got to see a less active named Gio. He is my age. Hasn't been to church in 4 years and really doesn't know much about the church. His extended family are members but no one in his immediate family is. Hopefully we can start teaching them too. Gio has so much to learn and basically has to start from the beginning but I think that'll be great to discover his testimony again. Another cool experience was our lessons with Shenelva this week. She didn't come to church though! She really wants to get baptized this month but the fact that she has to do some more progressing isn't clicking yet. 

We had zone conference this week. It was all about the atonement and so interesting. I've loved learning more about the atonement on my mission. You come to realize there are so many different aspects of the atonement. It is so personal and you can never know or understand enough. The AP's talked about Article of Faith #3, Sister Egbert talked about the sacrament, and President talked about the different powers of the atonement. I bore my departing testimony this zone conference as it is my last one. It felt silly to give it because i still have 10 weeks left. I talked about how I used to hate how as a missionary you see all your faults but I've come to realize that it is a good thing. It means that I am becoming more like Christ. You can't change your weaknesses until you accept and humble yourself that you do have them. Only then can God change your weaknesses into strengths. I have seen myself change and grow to become more like Jesus Christ. Still got a long way to go. I'm so grateful for the missionaries down here in Suriname. I wish you all could meet them. We have such a cool group down here.

Sister Jensen left yesterday to go home and get her sickness figured out. I really hope she can take care of herself and get better. It was really sad to let her go. 

We also had district conference this week. It's always fun to see everyone. Everyone was so scared that I was home now too because they saw Sis Chris was. I was happy to tell everyone that I still had time haha. 

Love you all and thanks for the prayers. 

Love,

Elizabeth