December 26, 2011

Hello! It was good to hear all the family yesterday. I'm glad you're all doing well; sounds like you had a fun Christmas. I hope Grandma enjoyed Church with you all yesterday.

Mission Christmas was kind of hectic. I heard from Sister Wilson around 10pm the night before that our district leader was supposed to have gotten me the music for a Silent Night piano-organ-flute piece........so we had a slightly frantic time trying to find a flute last minute. I only got to practice for about 15 minutes (by myself without any of the accompaniments!) before the program started, but it all worked out. Half the congregation couldn't hear me competing with the organ anyways...it worked out pretty well, all things considered. Several missionaries sang and read the birth of Christ story from the Bible...President and Sister Wilson talked a little bit. One of the wards in Bothell spent their ward Christmas party stuffing stockings for all the missionaries in the mission, so we also got those. It was really kind and thoughtful of them. Then we went to the mission office to pick up all our Christmas packages.

I like the snowmen sheets; they're quite cute.

Sister Alberts and I are starting to feel the pain of having two and a half days "off" from missionary work though. We've pretty much been doing nothing since 6pm Christmas Eve......No proselyting on Christmas Eve or Christmas up here. No one in Washington wants their Christmas celebrations interrupted to hear a message about Christ. One more p-day to go through.........All the missionaries we've talked to have just talked Christmas up like it's the most fabulous thing ever on your mission..............We just were bums the past two days....it feels SOOOOOOOOO blah..............I'm really REALLY grateful I only have to have one Christmas on my mission.

Christmas dinner was ham.

I have been really blessed to have a really good string of good companions. I love being with Sister Alberts. She and I spent the bulk of our bum-time the past two days talking. It's been really great to get to know her better, especially since we suspect we'll only be companions this transfer (she's been here in Woodinville almost six months, as long as I was in Everson).

Well.......I think that's about it from me .........I'll look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love,

Sister Heather Holdsworth

December 19, 2011

Hello everyone!

Today I am writing you from Woodinville, Washington. I'm serving here in the Woodinville 3rd Ward, with Sister Alberts. She is one of 9 children from Missouri (around Springfield, she says). She is a twin. Her birthday was on Tuesday, she turned 22....she's worked as a roofer for the past few years....hm...anything else you'd like to know about her? She's very fun; we get along really well. She and her last companion were the first sisters to serve in our ward, 5 months ago, so it still feels pretty new to us. The ward/area reminds me a lot of Chaffey ward. It's the exact polar opposite of Everson in a lot of ways, and in a lot of ways it's the same.......I really like it here though...we actually have more resturants than just one, little, out in the boondocks Subway =D and there's actually STREET LIGHTS!!!! In our OWN area!!! =O

It's weird being in the southern part of the mission. We actually see other missionaries =O The Elders from Woodinville 2nd ward actually live in our area; they're on bikes, so we see them occasionally going to and from their home to their area.

So far the majority of the ward seems very friendly to missionaries (well...SISTER missionaries....)

We have some pretty neat investigators. Sarah is a single mom of four kids...she's super nice! Their dad (he and Sarah have seperated, but he's still pretty involved with the kids) wants to start coming to Church with them when the time changes in January. Bruce is going through a hard time right now, but he seems realy motivated to meet with us and prepare to be baptized. Scott is married to an inactive member of our ward, and he's also really trying hard to get his life on the right track. Tiem is from Vietnam and the sisters have been teaching him and his wife Lin English for the past couple of weeks. Our last meeting with them, Tiem has progressed with English enough that we were actually able to have a gospel discussion about the Holy Ghost with him. He's a really neat guy. Lin understands less of English than he does, but they say they practice all the time when we're not there. It's great!

This past week we also had a miracle referral! Lora just moved to Woodinville from Bothell, where she was learning from some Elders. She seems really excited to keep learning. We stopped by at a busy time, but we have an appointment with her for tomorrow, so it should be fantastic!

This past week we also got to go caroling with the Young Women from our ward. That was pretty fun.

Next week we have church at 10 for an hour/hour and a half, then on the first we switch to 1pm church. (Our investigators are very excited for the change, since now church meets at 9am...haha).

Love you!

Sister Heather Holdsworth

December 12, 2011

Hello, glad to hear from you all!

Well...transfer calls took forever this morning...don't know why, but we finally got the official word that I'm leaving Everson! =D Sister Beckstrand and Sister Niu will both be staying. We thought for sure that the number of sisters would be evening out, but one extra sister is actually going home early because she's sick....that means four are coming in, and two are leaving, so we'll be at 21 sisters...so there will still be a triship somewhere! There will be one more sisters' area opening, most likely in the Mt. Vernon stake, we suspect. I kind of want to open a new area...at least, I think I'd prefer to stay in the north end of the mission.

Other than that, we don't know anything. We'll find out tomorrow at transfers, same as usual.

I'm also glad to hear that the Living Nativity was a hit. The Arlington stake decided to do a nativity festival this year, and we got to see it when I was down there with Sister Beckstrand last Friday. It was really well done (there was this one, really cute snowman nativity that made me think of you! Unfortunately, none of the nativities were up for sale, otherwise I totally would have gotten it!). In the Relief Society room, they had it set up all with pictures from Christ's life from His birth to His resurrection that was INCREDIBLE!

So, probably the most exciting part of exchanges last Friday was going to the living nativity and being able to see Amber (she was baptized in June while I was there)!! She was volunteering at in the kid's "dress up" room. That was really nice to be able to catch up with her. =)

Sister Beckstrand and I were in Arlington with Sister Anderson. She joined the church 2 years ago (she's 21), and she is from Sandy, UT. We mostly spent the day inviting people to the nativity festival they're having. We got to have dinner with Bishop Vaughan (he the branch president while I was there) and his family; that was really nice to catch up with them as well.

Well....I actually think that might be everything for now. Talk to you later! I'm looking forward to calling you on Christmas!! =)

Love,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

December 5, 2011

Hello! Glad to hear you all survived the windstorm.

I'm glad you got my photos.

Dad said the Choir was great. I'm glad you both liked it. Have fun participating in the living nativity. Our stake isn't really doing anything....well...they had a community breakfast that we didn't hear about until the night before...(maybe they were doing it for just the immediate community around the stake center...) but I might be transferred somewhere I'll get to participate in something like that. We're having a Christmas devotional for the mission the Wednesday before Christmas. I told Sister Wilson I'd love to play if she can find me a flute. She hasn't said anything yet, but it's two weeks away, so she still might ask me to play something.

Glad to hear Jon did so great last week at bowling! Good job, Jon!

We were allowed to watch the First Presidency Devotional in members' homes if we didn't have investigators to take to the stake center. We watched with two cute old ladies in our ward--our favorite people. It was really good. We had dinner with them before hand and then talked about it afterward. My favorite was probably President Utchdorf's talk, for his Jenga analogy. I learned that I need to be patient with learning line upon line and look for daily blessings, not just for the ones I've been promised in my future.

This past week I really enjoyed reading President Eyring's talk from the Priesthood session. I liked how he emphasized that love is the most important leadership attribute you can develop. During mormon.org time, I also enjoyed watching the El Salvador temple dedication video (https://lds.org/youth/video/temple-blessings-in-el-salvador?lang=eng). It's a good one!

We got the two packages addressed to the three of us. We all love our scarves! Sister Niu has been wanting to buy a black one, and I've been wanting a blue one, and Sister Beckstrand's favorite color is purple (don't know if she's been thinking about buying more scarves though) so they were all perfect! All my companions have really appreciated how much you think of them. We liked your clever notes on the soap and whatnot, too. I haven't gotten the Deseret Book or Kohls packages yet, though. They might be holding them until transfers, since it's only next week. I don't know when they start the mail hold though (they hold our mail a few days before transfers and give it to us at the mission office in case we DO get transferred and the mail doesn't get to us before hand.....it's kind of fun when you get a lot of mail all in one day).

This past week has been pretty great. Chris' knee surgery went great; she's well on the mend, and attributes it ALL to the blessing she received, which is wonderful! We also had five of our focus families/less actives we've been working with regularly at church on Sunday! No investigators (hey, Chris just had her knee replaced!!) but that more than made up for it. Fast and testimony meeting was pretty good. Probably the best one since I've been up here. In a lot of ways I'm going to miss this area, I think.

ALSO recently been allowed to do sisters exchanges again! (they were taken away for a few transfers because President wanted to figure out how we could have 24 hour exchanges instead of just a few hours) and we're exchanging later tonight...and we have dinner with our Bishop in about 15 minutes...and we have a lesson at 7:30......and our WHOLE week is like that. We've been working SO HARD....and we're SO EXCITED to see it paying off this week. It's going to be SO AWESOME...but Sister Beckstrand and I are both just kind of..."AHHH! WE DON'T REMEMBER HOW TO BE THIS BUSY!"

Anyways...we had our first exchange last Friday. Sister Anderson came to Everson from Arlington with Sister Niu and I and Sister Beckstrand went to Arlington to be with Sister Everett. She's been put in charge of the exchanges for our grouping of sisters' areas. Tonight Sister Everett is coming up here to be with me until tomorrow night and then on Friday Sister Niu will be here with her. That means Friday I get to go back down to Arlington.....which.......something ELSE......REALLY EXCITING...................


THE ARMAR BRANCH* IS NOW A SINGLES WARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woohooo!!!

as of TODAY! It's SUPER exciting. and SUPER cool. Their branch president has been trying so hard to get them to be a ward...and now they are! We suspect he's been called as Bishop, but we don't know for sure until tonight when we see Sister Everett and Sister Anderson. So that'll be fun to hear! =D

Anyways...times' up, as usual.

Love you all!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

November 28, 2011

Hello! Sounds like you've all had a happy Thanksgiving.

The library is quite loud today. I guess they do ukulele lessons at our library now???

We had p-day on Thanksgiving...since we'd already emailed on Monday last week and we didn't really have any shopping to do we actually did get a day to relax! It was so nice! We studied until 10 like always, and then we played finger football (we made a full field on our coffee table and everything!). Unfortunately, BYU lost to Utah 20-18. Our kickers just weren't with it.......Then we went to one of our members' homes. We had a wonderful meal, and then we played some games. I won scattergories...I warned them when we started that I was going to!

Transfers are coming up on the 13th of December. I'm anticipating that I'll be transferred. I've been in Everson forever...It'll be good to be in a new area. I will miss Sister Beckstrand and Sister Niu though. We're having a really great time together. Next transfer we're getting four new sisters though, and one is going home...So we'll have 22 sisters!!! (With more coming still!) So we know at least one of us will be leaving, since there will be an even number in the mission again.

The highlight of this past week was probably starting to teach Jessica. She's the friend of a member in our ward we've met a few times. In the past she's been lukewarm, but last Monday when we were all at our member's house for dinner she said she'd been reading out of the Book of Mormon earlier that morning and that she was curious about it! She said her son's grandmother is also a member. We talked a bit about what the Book of Mormon is and how we came to have it. We asked her to read it and she said "But...I feel like I'm cheating on the Bible!" So we gave her some examples of how we use the Bible and the Book of Mormon together when we're studying (quite convenient that Sister Beckstrand and I are both in the Isaiah chapters of 2 Nephi right now, so we DO actually study out of both every morning) and she said she felt better. So we're excited to be teaching her now.

Love you all!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

November 21, 2011

Hello everyone! It has been snowing (just a few inches still on the ground in the mountains) a bit this past week. We are being careful...with all the stories from the missionaries in Texas and the sisters in New York. Both my companions are from Utah, and they say that they're impressed with how well I drive when it's snowing (for as much as I complain about the snow being unnecessary, being from California, etc.)...so I guess that's good?

Glad to hear Michelle is doing well! I'm assuming Adam is the boy she's been dating?????

This past week we celebrated my 8 month mark by having another great lesson with Chris about scripture study and prayer. She's having her knee surgery on Friday, so we talked with her about getting a blessing from Joe's (her boyfriend) home teachers. Hopefully all will go well! =)

Yesterday at Church was the primary program. It was wonderful, as always. Chris loved it, and we had a lot of less active members come as well. It was really great to see. Erik (former investigator) even came to support Heather's son, Jaden, in the program. We're going over to Heather's for dinner tonight, so maybe he'll be there and we can begin teaching him again.

Right now our ward mission leader is out of town. The first counselor in our bishopric runs his own non-profit that builds orphanages in Africa...so he, and Brother and Sister Packard left for a trip to Africa on Tuesday. They should be back in about two weeks. (It was pretty interesting too, because at our stake conference, Elder Clayton was using an analogy about the way one of the African tribes protects their flocks, and they're actually going to be spending a few days WITH that same tribe...they're even more excited now!) For now, our assistant ward mission leader, Brother Jensen is running the show. We had to wash our car for zone conference last Friday, and so he let us borrow his hose and such. We got first place between our zone and one other that was there!! We got 50 extra miles for the month! Which is much needed, since we have an investigator all the way out in the boonies of our out-in-the-boonies-already area! Woohoo!

...oh, the highlights of being a missionary....

We also had a memorial for one of the members of our ward on Saturday. Sister Bennett--I may have mentioned her....she was the lady with lung cancer that we were helping get ready to move to California....? Anyways, she passed away a few weeks ago. A lot of non-members came to her memorial...no one was interested in learning more about the Church, but a lot of people expressed how grateful they were that the Church helped her so much. So, that was really good.

This week p-day is moved to Thursday for Thanksgiving (we get to email still today, though, since the library will be closed). We'll be having dinner with the Brainards. Sister Brainard is possibly one of my Most Favorite People Ever. She wanted to have us over for her birthday last Wednesday, but the primary program practice interfered (she has three kids....I think her oldest is 6?? can't remember at the moment.) So, she was very glad to hear we hadn't had anyone for Thanksgiving yet. We've gotten a lot of offers since she signed up, though, so don't fret: we'll be MORE than well fed and loved on Thanksgiving. =) She says Brother Brainard will be doing the cooking (Sister Brainard is a great cook, but she says her husband is even better, so we're quite excited...he's also the second counselor in our bishopric...I guess that might be pertinent?? haha I don't know)...I'm sure his stuffing won't measure up to Grandma's though!!

Anyways...I've got a few minutes left....we'll see how fast I can be grateful....

I'm grateful for the chance to serve a mission for the Lord.
I'm grateful for the investigators, less active members, active members, and companions I've been blessed to know, love and teach.
I'm grateful for everything all of those people have taught me.
I'm grateful for my current companions,
I'm grateful parents that support me in everything I do; for encouraging me; for teaching me to appreciate the Gospel, education and service towards others.
I'm especially grateful that my parents raised me in the suburbs.
I'm grateful for the Atonement.
I'm grateful for all the blessings the Lord has promised me if I endure to the end in obedience to His will.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!! Love you all!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

November 14, 2011

Hello! It was good to hear from you.

I got your package! Thank you so much for sending the heating blanket, my medication, etc...Especially the Ensign! Good thinking, Mom, before I even asked you! =) I studied Elder Perry's talk this morning (pre-assignment for our zone conference coming up Friday...what can I say...we have lots of conferences!)...it was a little weird having the Aussef family smiling up at me during my personal study...but it was nice at the same time. I loved all the notes from the family...thank you all for writing!! Sorry I've been neglecting writing back.......the past few p-days have been WAY TO BUSY! we're determined to fix that today though. Cleaning and letter writing. That's the plans for today. (so the stamps will come in handy too! =) ) The cookies are probably half gone already...Sister Niu and Sister Beckstrand both say "thank you!"

The other highlight of this past week was, of course, our conferences with general authorities! On Saturday our mission conference was with Elder Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, Bishop Edgely of the Presiding Bishopric and Elder Merrill (not sure if I've been spelling his name right...), an area seventy. It was wonderful.

We started off with Sister Wilson bearing her testimony of prayer and then President Wilson bore his testimony. What really struck me from his talk was that the big push for senior couples now isn't just for those that could serve immediately, but it's also for those of us that are younger and serving now to prepare now to serve another, as a reminder that a mission isn't THE defining experience of a life, just one of many.

Then Elder Andersen got up to speak. He started out joking that Elder Perry stole his thunder by visiting just a few months ago. It is really so rare to be visited by one of the Twelve anyways...to have two visits within three months of each other!? Anyways...He spoke about our role in the conversion process. It's so nice to hear so many of our leaders discussing how baptism isn't the end goal of missionary work, but true conversion, temple attendance and eternal life are the end goals. He spoke a lot in terms of "this is what I've learned from Elder Bednar" or "this is what I've learned from Elder Scott." Sister Niu, Sister Beckstrand and I were talking about it, and we've really noticed that the Brethren seem to be referencing each other, directly, more and more. Something else we've noticed is that they've been using their titles as apostles and prophets more to introduce their testimonies. The other day during our mormon.org time Sister Beckstrand was watching a video of Elder Oaks speaking in the Senate, and even there he said "I'm here to speak to you as an Apostle of the Lord..." etc. It was pretty interesting. Elder Andersen really bore strong testimony of our work, and how we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.

Then Elder Clayton opened up for question time. A few good questions were asked....one of the better questions was about the urgency to preach the Gospel and accept the Gospel in this life rather than in the next. Bishop Edgely answered that question. He said the main reason is for our posterity. He gave some examples of some members in his wife's family that didn't stay strong, and it was four generations that fell away from the Church until his wife was contacted by missionaries and she accepted the Gospel herself. Then Elder Andersen spoke on it a little. He said it's not "just" that the "same spirit" will remain with us from this life to the next, but that as a member of the Twelve, he'd learned and seen many things, and that he knows that it is easier to learn the Gospel on this side of the veil. He said (as best as we could piece the quote together, between the three of us...) "Learning on this side of the veil is more enduring. A person is so much better off if he learns faith here. Learn to live for others. The person that says he will wait until the other side fools himself. If he will seek to turn himself out [towards others] in the role of the Master...[these] principles are much easier to learn on this side of the veil." It was really powerful. Elder Clayton had started with the question period reminding us that this wasn't the time to ask deep doctrinal questions that we'll have new revelation told to us...and while what Elder Andersen isn't new I felt like it was a little bit close...Very interesting.

We expected that Elder Andersen would be at our stake conference yesterday also (he was our stake president's mission president) but he didn't. The stake meeting was with Elder Clayton and President and Sister Wilson. It was all about missionary work. The three of us had been talking about what we expected from the conferences the whole week before (well...weeks really...). We were kind of expecting the mission conference to be this smackdown that we needed to buck up and do better work...but really, our conference was all about "You're doing a great job! Keep up the good work! Be patient! Don't get yourselves down!"

But then the stake conference....the members kind of got reamed. Basically, it was all about how if the members aren't doing their jobs to find and fellowship, what we do as missionaries won't make any difference. In a very nice, loving way, of course...but from a missionaries perspective it was kind of harsh...We're really hoping the members in our stake (and our ward especially) will really take the counsel they received to heart. We got a few ideas of things we can try form it also...but really, our conference was Saturday, and that was what was directly for us. We're here in the stake as guests...while the principles apply to us, the direct counsel applies to the members more...The after-effects will be interesting to watch.

Elder Clayton issued a challenge for the stake to set aside a FHE (Family Home Evening) to study the Proclamation on the Family by dividing a paper in half and on one side writing "Christ's Doctrine on the Family" and on the other "What the World Believes About the Family." He said that the Twelve had given that assignment to the Seventy, and it took several FHEs before his family was finished, but he promised that doing so would give added strength to our families, and it would help us "see where the Adversary is hidden" to combat him better. We're going to do that for a companionship study one of these days, I think. We're looking forward to it.

Chris and her son Derrick were both able to come. They actually even got to shake Elder Clayton's hand before the meeting started. They didn't know who he was, but when we saw them afterward they were SO excited to tell us about it. They're both really awesome investigators. They're doing so great =) They LOVED the conference...they said it was even better than watching general conference on TV!

Well...I'm out of time to really write anything else, but I hope you enjoyed reading about our conferences...I have some pictures to send you that I'll get printed and in the mail soon. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love you all!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

November 8, 2011

Hello! Sorry for the late email...the power went out yesterday at the library. It was also district p-day yesterday, and BGOs day (BGO's is the Bargain Grocery Outlet. It is owned by a church member in Bellingham, and he gives each of the missionaries in our zone $20 there on the first Monday of the month)...so it was busy! Our district had lunch together and then we played games at our church building. It was interesting I suppose.

Saturday was Katie's baptism...it was really great. About half of our active members came out to support her, she really felt loved, and we were all very pleasantly surprised: we weren't expecting that many people! We loved it and appreciated it though! We had a meeting with her this morning; she's doing really good, getting ready to move and whatnot. She's really excited to be able to do baptisms for the dead in Provo. =)

My new companion is Sister Niu--the one I was having dreams that we would be companions! How funny! She is from West Valley, UT. She's 6th of 8 kids. Her parents are both from Tonga, but she was born and raised in Utah. (Sister Beckstrand is from Heber to answer your question...She'll be going back to Snow college when she's off her mission next March.) We're getting along really well. We can't believe we've only been all together for a week!

Let's see...what else is going on...Our investigators seem to be dropping like flies now that Katie is baptized......Erik dropped us...bunches of others, too.....Chris is still doing really well...except that she needs to have reconstructive surgery on her knee and so that's probably going to postpone her baptism until next spring so that she can recover!! =( bummer!

This coming Saturday is our mission conference with Elder Anderson--don't know if I mentioned that in my last email or not...if not...hey! guess what! Elder Anderson is coming to our mission...He's having a conference with the missionaries on Saturday and then on Sunday our stake is having a special stake conference with Elder Clayton and President and Sister Wilson...we're curious if Elder Anderson will be in attendance as well...Maybe! Who knows!?

Other than that...it's pretty much business as usual. Just trying our best here in Everson...The sun was setting around 5:30...so now it's setting at 4:30. Still taking the vitamin D.

Love you all! Miss you!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

October 31, 2011

Hello and happy Halloween!

So...the big news is......Sister Beckstrand and I are staying in Everson! Yay!...but! That's not all! We're going down to Mill Creek tomorrow to pick up another sister.....my first tri-ship since Sister Donaldson and Sister Swensen in the MTC. So exciting! I think we've narrowed it down to two or three sisters that it might be.

So...naturally, the other exciting news is KATIE IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!! Her baptismal program is shaping up to be quite wonderful. Then on the 15th she is off to Provo to attend UVU in January. She's super excited.

(Speaking of January, have I told you that Sister Beckstrand and I share Jan. 9th as our birthday? Maybe we'll be able to be together for our birthday as well........ :D And we just had a new lady move into the ward that was ALSO born on Jan. 9th. Her first Sunday there, and she even signed up to feed us already. She's so sweet: Sister Williams, from the Philippines.)

Yesterday, we had a FANTASTIC sacrament meeting, a GREAT gospel principles class (all about temple work, we were sure to tell Katie about the walk-in policy in the Provo temple :D ), and a WONDERFUL, STUPENDOUS, MARVELOUS 5th Sunday lesson from Brother Packard (wml). It was a really powerful, spiritual lesson. He talked mostly about how we can overcome fear as missionaries, and how we can do missionary work by doing service. He mostly used three talks: "Have I Done Any Good for Someone Today" by President Monson, "Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear" by President Eyring, and "Finding Joy Through Loving Service" by Elder Ballard. I really like all of those talks; he read my favorite part of Elder Ballard's talk, about how Preach My Gospel has really changed how we as full-time missionaries do missionary work and how it's different from the days of tracting twenty-four-seven.....and it's OKAY and GOOD and PROGRESSIVE (i.e. progression is an eternal principle, and applies to missionary work as well...) that it's changed with the times =)

Katie really enjoyed Church...then we took her to our stake cottage meeting, and she loved that as well. She gave us a ride, and we all had a really great time riding there together. She said she couldn't stop smiling, she's so excited for her own baptism. It's going to be great for her, great for us, great for the ward.....just great, great, great!!!

So...the exciting news just keeps coming.........so we found out about two transfers ago that we're having a special stake conference on November 13th with a general authority. Last Monday, at sister's luncheon, President told us we're having another mission conference with a general authority on November 12th.

We asked him who it was...to which he promptly responded: "I know who it is and I can't tell you neener neener neener" like a little five year old. Haha. President Wilson is SOOOOO funny!

He did give us a hint though: "Well...it could be one of twelve people......"

That's TWO apostles in the same year.........it'll be FOUR general authority visits this year for our mission total....the usual is just about 1 or 2!!! We're so blessed in this mission....we must need all this extra help for some reason. We're definitely getting the focus of the Brethren with so many visits, and the mormon.org campaign going on here too....it's really a great time to be a missionary in this area!

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed my mormon.org profile. I'm glad you shared it with people as well. You can make a profile in any area...it doesn't have to be exclusive to areas where the campaign is going on.....(*obedient missionary plug.....)

It's quite sad to hear that we lost to TCU.....I had high hopes for that game. My district leader (also a BYU fan) is leaving our district (he's been called as a zone leader)...so I may be left alone again...at least I have Brother Packard. We heard that we lost...but that was all we heard about this week....

I'm glad the trunk-or-treat turned out well. We participated in ours. I dressed up as Sister Beckstrand and she dressed up as Sister Holdsworth....then we decorated our car as the "Missionary Treat Center" (haha...get it?) and we made a few little Halloween characters and stuck little missionary name tags on them....it was pretty darn cute. (Pictures will be on their way I'm sure...) We had a HUGE turn out to it...172 people or something like that........tons of inactive members came--some people that I hadn't even met yet!

I hope mom's new calling goes well. We've been doing a little bit of studying about the Millennium as well....not too in depth, but it's very interesting. Usually, I'm focused on studying the Book of Mormon. I may have told you: I finished my "missinoary work" theme for reading the Book of Mormon, so now I've started over, highlighting each of the Christlike attributes (Ch 4, PMG) in a different color. It's been very insightful so far. I've also started reading Jesus the Christ, and conference inspired me to begin studying the Old Testament. It's quite enjoyable. Sister Beckstrand and I usually end up using our whole companionship study hour telling each other what we learned...we love our studies!!!

Anyways....I think that's all the big news....I just sent off my talk on charity from a few weeks ago...I hope you enjoy that as well...

Love you all!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

October 26, 2011

hello....sorry it's taken so long to write. You were right: we weren't able to email on Monday because of the luncheon (or "Sisters Training" as President decided to rename it...I guess the Elders are getting too jealous ;) ) It takes two hours to drive down to Mill Creek, so we had to leave at 9am...and then we didn't leave until 4pm...p-day is only from 10am until 6pm, so....no time to e-mail. Then, yesterday morning (around 3am) Sister Beckstrand woke up with the flu, so that meant mormon.org time didn't happen until...well...now. (She's feeling much better...we went to the doctor's for my excema break out (he knew exactly what to give me! It's already clearing up! Dermatologists are quacks...Dr. Moore knows what's going on!!) and so he gave her some medicine also, and then the Elders came to give her a blessing last night...)


So....anyways...that's probably all really jumbled...but yes...sorry it's taken so long!

But speaking of mormon.org...my profile is finally up! http://mormon.org/me/5YRW/ woo! so exciting...A few of the Elders in our district have been having some success through the media campaign. We've had one less active family ask us about it, but other than that, no bites in Everson yet...

So...yes...I can't take too much time...but I did want to say good job with your missionary experience two weeks ago! I forgot to mention that in my last email until I hit "send" and was kicked off the computer...

Also, thanks for all the updates about football and the band. It sounds like Mr. A is getting things together more. That's good.

Anyways...I love you!! Sorry this email is so sparse :( I guess that's just what happens sometimes when you're up North in the boonies like we are...

Love you,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

October 17, 2011

Hello! Sounds like you had a good week.

I got a letter from Jolie this past week; enjoyed hearing from her. =) Today is district p-day (we're going to go out to lunch and then to peace arch park up in Blaine) so I probably won't have time to write too many letters today, but I'll try to get one in the mail soon. My companions all say that I respond to letters faster than most missionaries........so that must be a good thing right?

This past week was exciting, last p-day we went on an epic adventure looking for new windshield wiper blades...we finally found some, after several stops and many miles spent...Apparently we have some very unique wiper blades.....?

Then we had a joint lesson with Katie and the Elders over the YSA ward up here (our zone leaders). She's been thinking she might want to check it out before moving to Utah to get used to what she might expect when she gets to Provo....but she wanted to go to our ward to listen to Sister Packard and myself speak (yes...again! this time my talk was on charity. Sister Beckstrand will be speaking next week on honesty.)....but then she was sick so she didn't go to EITHER ward...so...........we've decided to just put where she gets baptized in the bishops' hands. They can have a duel over who gets the number, so to speak. haha.

It'll all work out, that's all Sister Beckstrand and I know!

We had an amazing lesson with Chris on Wednesday. We read The Family: A Proclamation to the World with her paragraph by paragraph. We talked a lot about temple sealings, and she's really excited to learn more and prepare for the temple after she is baptized. We talked to her about how she and Joe will need to be married before she can be baptized (Joe has been on a hunting trip with his brother and nephews this week)...........we asked her if November 12th would be a good day to plan for her baptism! She freaked out at first that that wouldn't be enough time to get married, too (!) but then we talked about how she and Joe could marry privately first, she could be baptized, and then they could have a bigger, vow renewal/celebration/etc. later in the spring when they had originally planned....and she really liked that idea!!!! She said they would talk when Joe gets back (so we've been praying, literally! that they get a deer sooner rather than later so that Joe can get home sooner....hahaha!!).

Then, yesterday at church, she said she'd told Joe about our lesson and he said "Sounds great, we'll talk when I get home." She was expecting a "WOOOOOAH!!!" haha! So great! We've been fasting for them and that the Spirit will help them in their decision process for the past two fast Sundays....It's such a blessing to see our prayers being answered!

Gospel principles yesterday was on eternal marriage (talk about perfect, right?), and then between GP and Relief Society Chris and I were talking about temples more, and I mentioned temple work for the dead, and how we'd talk with her more about that later (as the lesson was starting...)...and what do you know...the Relief Society lesson was all about temple work and genealogy. Isn't Heavenly Father just perfect?? haha Chris loved it. We loved it. Church was just fantastic yesterday!!

Anyways...so backup to Wednesday again....Sister Beckstrand got to do the best. mission. service. EVER!! Joe found two litters of abandoned kittens over the past week (9 kittens total....all about 2 weeks old) and so we got to help Chris bottle feed them all before our lesson. It was the most adorable thing EVER! Sister Beckstrand and I both wanted to keep one...but alas, the missionary handbook................haha, we're hoping we get to feed them again next Wednesday. We're also looking forward to bragging about our Best Service Ever at the sisters' luncheon next Monday with all the sister missionaries at the mission home. Should be fun. =)

(We're getting two more sisters next transfer, November 1st! That'll make us 19 in the mission, since one of the sisters is going home then, too.)

Anyways....I think that's all the updates from me. Thank you for telling me the scores for the San Jose St. game and the Oregon St. game. Glad that they seem to be doing better with Riley at the helm. Hope the Idaho St. game goes well this Saturday!!!!!

Love you all,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

October 10, 2011

Hello Everyone!

So....exciting news from the week.................................

KATIE IS ON DATE FOR BAPTISM ON OCTOBER 30TH!!!

This will be the first baptism in Everson since February!!!

We were planning on passing her on to the YSA Elders...but we just found out that she's moving to Utah to go to UVU early November...(we knew she was going to be moving, but we didn't realize it was that soon)...and so now we have to worry if we transition her tomorrow, is that enough time for the YSA ward to fellowship her and make it a positive experience for her. She already knows everyone in our ward....she's really close with the Packards (wml and yw president) and will probably want Brother Packard to baptize her anyways.......So now we're worried about transitioning her. It's hard...because Sister Beckstrand and I have both served in Arlington in the YSA branch there, so we know what it's like to have other missionaries "poach" on the ysa investigators....but the Elders have been aware of us teaching her the whole time...they know that we HAVEN'T transitioned her yet because she wasn't really interested in it...........urgh. It's a little frustrating...but she IS on date, and she's really excited. WE'RE really excited. It doesn't really matter where she's baptized....just that she has a good fellowshipping experience. Our district leader said he'd talk with the zone leaders (the Elders over the ysa ward) for us and explain the situation to them. He thinks it would be best if we keep her in Everson ward...who knows what'll happen though.

Anyways...yes....we had a great lesson with her yesterday at the Packards all about the doctrine of Christ. She's doing so great. She loves the Church.
Anyways...other news....

Chris is doing really well. She also wants to be baptized (she and her member boyfriend she's living with need to get married still....). We also finally picked up her son, Derrick, as an investigator. He's YSA age, also. We gave him the information for the YSA ward right away. We don't know if he went yesterday...but he wasn't at our ward, and he said he's been loving Church when he's been coming with his mom, so hopefully! =)

So...once upon a time there was a rumor in the mission that we were getting white-washed and Elders were being put into the Everson Ward. That did not happen at the time....

Recently, Sister Beckstrand came into Everson Ward.

Sister Beckstrand shares my same passion for well-organized area books (our records of investigators, members, etc.).When she was transferred up here, the Everson Ward area book was a little above the travesty it was when I came into Everson Ward.

Sister Beckstrand and I have felt very frantic and passionate about the need for us to update and beautify the area book.We have spent a lot of our proselytizing time doing this. We don't feel guilty. It is something very essential to the success of our area.

This week, (as we are still far from done with the area book) we noticed how obsessed we've become with the area book, and we have come to wonder why this is.

Also recently, Bishop has become very concerned for the split-language families we have in our ward (one spouse speaks Spanish and one English, and so the Spanish speaker does not attend the Spanish group to keep their family together for Church, but then is left out a bit during Church because they don't speak English...).

He has decided to call and assistant ward mission leader over the Spanish-speakers within the ward. He will be teaching a Spanish Gospel Principles class.

Bishop, Brother Packard, and this awml are all very inspired in their callings......and they seem to have been inspired that this should become a "big deal" and we should encourage people to discuss this with their non-member friends.

Sister Beckstrand and I are very concerned that this sounds ridiculous because any Spanish speaking non-members must be transitioned to the Spanish Elders and the Spanish group. We are very concerned that this sounds like the Everson Ward is trying to start it's own Spanish group. We are very concerned, but we are also very aware that the Everson Ward leaders doing this things ARE inspired to do them.

So we don't know what to do.

Then, Saturday night, we put all the pieces together.

We have a very strong suspicion that we are getting ready to be white washed and the Spanish Elders are going to be moved into our apartment with a set of English missionaries and the Spanish group will be moved to the Everson Ward building and..........................yes.

We do acknowledge that it is a suspicion.....but we really don't know why all this Spanish work is becoming such a focus of the ward and we really don't know why we're so obsessed with our area book and we really don't know why Katie is being baptized earlier than we originally felt prompted to comitt her to (we were planning for mid-November before we found out that she was moving before then!).

It just seems like too perfect of a set up.

Anyways...so that's what's going on in Everson. I'm out of time...so can't really respond to too many of your questions atm.....ask 'em again next week I guess! haha sorry!

Love you all!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

October 3, 2011

Hello everyone!

Well, today has been a busy p-day. We ended up going to four different grocery stores over four hours....we spent SOOOO many miles today going into Bellingham...

Anyways....Conference was great! My favorite talk was Elder Anderson's talk on motherhood and eternal families. I also really enjoyed President Utchdorf's, Elder Packer's, Sister Dalton's and Elder Arden's (I think that was his name...the Seventy that talked about the Bible and the Book of Mormon working together...?). Did you notice how Elder Perry mentioned about the mormon.org campaign? That was pretty exciting for us...hoping our members will pick up on it and get more excited for it. It kicked off today...hopefully a lot of good will start happening!

Conference was really the highlight of our week. We spent the entire week leading up to it telling people about it and teaching about prophets...Pretty exciting stuff. The night before we were talking with our district leader and we were telling him how it felt like it was Christmas Eve and we were waking up for Christmas the next morning!

Sister Beckstrand and I are SOOOO excited that the tabernacle will be rebuilt as a temple! We couldn't believe it! That's so amazing! We're even MORE excited because we'll both be home by then, so we'll be able to volunteer for the open house and attend the dedication!! It'll be so nice to have another temple so close by...the Provo temple IS really over-capacity. I've waited upwards of three hours to do baptisms before....between the Tabernacle temple and the Payson temple, it should get much more efficient (and the Provo temple probably IS the most efficient temple I've been too....so that's saying something) =)

What we're wondering is: what are they going to call it?? The Provo temple is the Provo temple..."the South Provo Temple"? We were discussing this yesterday...We completely ruled out "the Utah Lake Temple" because we decided Utah Lake is the exact OPPOSITE of the temple, haha, but we couldn't decided on what would be the best name..."Y Mountain Temple" perhaps? haha

And isn't that 5 or 6 temples in Africa now? So exciting!

Another shocker: they released President Samuelson! Who is the new BYU president?! I was really surprised at a lot of the Seventies that they released...I mean, obviously they were supposed to be released...But Elder Costa? Elder Hinckley? And Cecil?!

It's good to hear that BYU won! I thought Riley graduated...guess I'm glad I was wrong!

We did quite enjoy your last package. The packaging was a little much...it made me crave Anthony's.... Loved seeing the pictures from Hilary's wedding! She looked gorgeous!! Loved her dress! =) We moved some stuff around so we could hang the decoration up in our study/kitchen area. Sister Beckstrand appreciated the YW values bookmark. =) Looking forward to the next package! Thank you so much!

Let's see...oh, other exciting news from this week...we no longer have to report on our new contacts of the week! Which is good....the week before last we had 6 and last week we had 2. haha. Now we can focus on Recent Convert/Less Active work...which is what we NEED to focus on in this area. So glad!

Coming up this next week we're going to have interviews with President Wilson. I'm interested to hear his reaction about the tabernacle temple (they're from Orem, if you didn't remember).

Anyways...I think that's all for now...We'll see you later!

Love you!
Sister Heather Holdsworth

September 26, 2011

Sounds like you had a fun week! Glad to get a good update from Dad finally! I'm sure they did win just for Michelle. Too bad about LOHS, though.

Do you remember me mentioning Sister Beckstrand being my temporary companion between Sister Townsend and Sister Blackburn? Well...we're official companions now! We were both ecstatic to get the news!

Sister Beckstrand and I get along great! She is from Heber, UT. Oldest of 4 kids. Her dad works on carpentry (pulpits, sacrament tables, etc.) for the Church's buildings. Recently he worked on refurbishing a room in the Palmyra temple. Sounds pretty neat! She is a beautiful photographer. Our Church is in front of a very big, open space (rare in Washington!) and so last night we went so she could take pictures of the sunset. It was very stunning! Very fun. We're really excited for the way the work is going in Everson; we're really looking forward to helping it progress and helping the ward meet it's potential when it comes to missionary work. I love our companionship studies; we both really study hard during our personal studies, so when we're sharing what we've learned it usually takes the full hour haha...but we learn a lot from each other! =)

Who is senior companion doesn't matter at all. If you were to ask the Elders in Chaffey ward now they might tell you differently, but that's just the difference between sisters and elders. Sister Beckstrand is senior; she's been out for as long as Sister Taua (13 months, they were MTC companions) but that doesn't mean that you're senior always based on seniority, or on being in the area longer......it's just whoever President decides should be senior and who should be junior. We're missionary companions. That's our philosophy anyways.

That's silly that your Relief Society is keeping the books until Christmas! It's such a great book! I guess they're trying to save on the budget??? Sister Beck's talk Saturday was basically a summary of the main points of Daughters in My Kingdom. I really enjoyed her talk. I really liked how she talked about how the discipleship of women was lost during the Apostasy, and how we need to increase our faith to become the rightful disciples we are as Relief Society sisters. It made me think of D&C 25. I also liked how she emphasized the eternal perspective of Relief Society--focusing on helping families be sealed in the temple.

I also really enjoyed the quote from Sister Allred: "Don't be limited in your views of your neighbor's virtues"

President Utchdorf's talk was my favorite though; it seems like it was everyone's favorite! His testimony of God's love for His children was very touching.

It really made me more excited for Conference this weekend! We'll be watching it in our building; I'm really looking forward to it. While it might be like the Super Bowl for Mormons everywhere....it's REALLY the Super Bowl for missionaries.

Yesterday at church we taught the gospel principles class on the chapter about eternal families. One of our members brought a coworker to church and he really participated and asked some very good questions. We asked him if he'd like to meet with us, and he said not yet, but he did say he enjoyed church and would like to come again, so that's still sounding pretty promising! We had another investigator come...but we're wanting to transition her to the YSA ward (she graduated from high school in June and one of the other girls in the ward she knows has moved closer to town and will be going there as well, so it seems like a good time to hand her over). No Chris or Erik* though! We just saw Erik on Saturday. We have a lesson tonight...we'll have to discuss this with him!

We were also asked to come into senior primary for a little bit and talk about preparing for our missions and the blessings of serving a mission. Our primary is very small...only about five or six boys in senior primary, but they were very well behaved and participated very well.

I'll try and remember to make a copy of my talk from last week when I can. It was very stressful to have to hand write the whole thing...I wasted so much paper with all my drafting for it...

Last night we had dinner with our previous ward mission leader and his family. We had soup and garlic bread and whoopie pies (kind of like cookie sandwiches....they were quite delicious). It was very fun.

This past week we had two investigator lessons and six less active lessons.

I'm doing pretty good of keeping up with my journal. There's a few days from last transfer I need to finish, but so far I've been doing well with this transfer. (I was getting towards the end of my last journal and wasn't going to have room for my conference notes, so I just decided to make the transition at the beginning of this transfer.)

I haven't gotten the package yet. I'm sure it will be soon. Thank you for sending it! (Also, Sister Taua didn't wear makeup, so I didn't give her one of the makeup wipes, but Sister Beckstrand is enjoying them and she says thank you! Sister Taua says that she really appreciates that you always thought of her, too, when you sent me a package!)

Anyways, I think that's all the exciting news from this week...Have a good one!

I love you!
Sister Heather Holdsworth