August 29, 2011

Hello from Everett!

Wow Jonathan is driving now? Mom said he just got his wisdom teeth pulled...is that the best combination?? haha Glad to hear you're surviving though. I'll have to write him and ask him what he thinks about that.

I'm excited for football and I'm not even going to be watching it!!

This past week Sister Taua was pretty sick, so we thought we'd be doing almost nothing...but it turned out to be a great week anyways! We had a Relief Society dinner and activity last Saturday and one of our members brought a friend with her. She introduced us to her friend, Amy, and we sat with them and got to know her over dinner. We talked a lot about the gospel, and she said she'd love to learn more about the Church! She said her step-father was LDS and that she has always been impressed with how kind LDS people are. We invited her to come to church the next day...and she actually came! Amy had been really nervous about not having a skirt to come in, but we told her it would be okay, that people would still welcome her. She seemed okay, but then her friend was able to find a skirt of her own that would fit Amy, so she felt right at home! I love it! The members that we are able to work with are always sooooo helpful. All of our solid investigators right now were member referrals...it's so awesome!

We had an amazing lesson with Eric. We read Alma 32 with him...and he said that he's finally starting to understand what we're! The analogy of the seed really helped him. It helped him to see how the feelings he feels when he meets with us IS the Spirit that we keep describing to him. He made the connection all on his own to...so awesome! This weekend he's going on the regional single adults camp out with his girlfriend and her son (in separate tents...obviously. We keep having to specify that...like people think we'd tell them to do otherwise...sheesh...). That should be awesome for him! We're really excited to hear what he thinks of it.

Chris is just amazing. She just studies everything on her own and then teaches US the lessons. She's so great...!!!

If it appears that I'm using a lot of exclamation marks...I am! It's because we were so sure we were going to have a crummy week because we were doing so little work, but the Lord still blessed us so that the time we were able to spend out and about was GOOD time spent working! It was a miracle week!

This week we're having a special training meeting for using mormon.org in our finding efforts. We already are...so I'm not really sure what they're going to be teaching us, but I'm looking forward to it. We will also be getting a new ward mission leader...We kind of suspected it was coming after our last dinner with our Bishop (he talked a lot with us about what our area is like for missionary work and what it's like working with the members, etc...)...and we TOTALLY called it on who it's going to be! We're really excited to be working with him; we think he's really going to be a great help putting the finishing touches on getting this area back on track and alive again!

I am quite lucky to be receiving so many packages! Thank you for sending those! I definitely look forward to getting them!

Anyways...Mom's questions...

We don't teach any classes. We attend the gospel principles class with our investigators and returning members. Our teacher is really good at leading discussions from the manual, and a lot of times our investigators have said that's their favorite part of Church.

Have you gotten to see the new Relief Society book yet? Our Relief Society president said she only got 10 copies...I'm really excited to see what all is in it. It sounds like a really good book.

Our meals this week were really good. Some of our favorite members fed us this week, so that was really enjoyable.

For P-day today we don't really have anything planned. We're going to go into Bellingham to go to Wal-mart. Then we'll probably come home and take a long nap...then we'll go out to work at 6 as usual. Not too exciting.

The weather has been pretty good these past few weeks. It poured all day last Monday, and it's overcast again today, but other than that it's been sunny in the 80s. Sister Taua and I have certainly been enjoying the sun!

Well...I'm running out of time, the library is pretty busy today and they've got a really convoluted system for allowing people to reserve/use computers....anyways, I've got to go...but it was good to hear from you! Tell Kelly and Grandma I've been getting their letters and I'll try to write them back later today...I really appreciate all the mail I've been getting lately! =)

Love you all,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

August 22, 2011

I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday, Mom!

This week was pretty busy. The fair was fun, though we only got a few pictures. The picture we did get together is very cute though--I can get that in the mail soon. We enjoyed ourselves though. We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators, Chris. She came to church last Sunday and absolutely loved it! She said she felt right at home. She fell in love with the Gospel Principles book; she's been studying like crazy! She's reading the Book of Mormon, Gospel Principles, True to the Faith, Our Heritage...she just can't get enough. Now we just need to teach her about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity...then we'll all be set! haha We're not too worried though, she's really sure that the Church is the church she wants to be a part of. :)

We spent a lot of time tracting...lots of rude people home yesterday. Eh. On Saturday morning we spent an hour/hour and a half walking around Everson "down town" and found a GRAND total of seven new contacts....eh.

We also got a media referral from Headquarters. This lady had been learning from Elders in Fresno before she moved up here last week. I guess she's been investigating for about a year, and she says she still has questions she'd like for us to answer. We also picked up one of her sisters and a neice that she's living with currently, so hopefully they'll move forward well!

Our ward members have us fully stocked on homemade jam. We have a jar of raspberry, blackberry and two jars of strawberry...we just finished a jar of raspberry-loganberry, and another jar of strawberry...It seems like every day last week we were coming home with a new jar of jam! It's great though. Our members really take care of us and make sure we're well fed.

Our mission conference was really awesome. Got to meet the three new sisters; one is from San Deigo, and she's being trained in Arlington now. A few of the sisters asked Sister Wilson if we'll be having a sisters' luncheon soon, and she said probably within the next transfer or so. We also found out from the APs that we're getting three more sisters next transfer! That'll take us up to 18 sisters! How exciting!

We got to hear from Elder Clayton of the Seventy, Sister Perry and Elder Perry. Elder Clayton talked on ways we can live up to our potential as missionaries. He emphasized the importance of effective planning and effective companionship study; how those two things help invite the spirit into our companionship and help the work in our areas, etc. He also talked about the importance of inviting investigators to pray for themselves when we're with them for lessons.

Sister Perry then talked about how we can recognize the Spirit. It was nice. Not much that I can really remember other than that though....oh well.

Elder Perry talked about how our purpose as missionaries is to 1) find people to teach, 2) teach people the true principles of the Gospel, 3) baptize worthy converts and 4) strengthen members of the Church. So refreshing to have an apostle reiterate that our purpose is MORE than just baptizing; the elders in our zone tend to forget that it seems. We'll see if they caught on though. Anyways. Elder Perry also talked about how important studying the Gospel is; how important our own testimonies are, etc. We got to shake each of their hands at the beginning, and Elder Perry shook a few of our hands on the way out. I was on the edge of our row, so he shook my hand and wished me, "Have a good mission1" It was quite nice of him.

We don't have very many big plans for today. We're going into Bellingham to go to Walmart (woo! such a big trip...!) and then we'll probably just hang around the apartment until dinner. Sister Taua has an ear infection, so we'll try to take it easy.

Hope you and Dad are ready to keep me updated on BYU football; we don't have many fans out this way...

Glad you were able to attend Paul's wedding and that all went well. Too bad about your flight there, though! That doesn't sound like too much fun. Are you planning on going up next weekend? haha It seems like the past couple of emails it's been all about your trips to Utah! Are you going up for Hilary's wedding in September?

Anyways, I think that's all the news from me. Hope you all have a wonderful week! Don't forget I won't be emailing you on Labor Day!

Love you,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

August 15, 2011

Hello everyone!

Well...it figures you'd ask what we had for dinner last night...usually our members are really good at feeding us but last night the sister that had signed up forgot about it and made other plans...so we ended up eating leftover pigs in a blanket from lunch and leftover pancakes from breakfast...not the most healthy meal we've had. The night before we had roast pork, mixed vegetables, french bread and a barley casserole with homemade pineapple cheesecake for dessert. That's quite a bit more typical. I'm sure Elder Miller enjoyed his last meal with the Holdsworths. I'm sure you will all miss him.

This week was great. We had not one...not two...but THREE INVESTIGATORS at CHURCH!!! They weren't even investigators we were expecting would really come! One we hadn't seen in weeks, one was of our eternal-investigators that always says he'll come but never does, and the third was an investigator that has been saying she'll come for weeks...and she even had to cancel our appointment with her last week...but then she came! woohoo!!! We think this HAS to be a record of some kind for this area. Investigators to church THREE WEEKS IN A ROW. and THREE ALL IN ONE DAY! Miracles!!!!!!

(And Eric would have been there but his twin sister was getting married in Olympia. That's a pretty solid excuse. He'll be there next week.)

We also had another surprise yesterday: we visited one inactive single-mom last week and she said she had really been thinking about trying to get involved in the social activities of the ward again. Pretty convenient: we're having a ward BBQ this weekend! She seemed pretty sure she wouldn't come to church just yet though...but then Saturday night she texted us and asked us what time church started...and then she ACTUALLY CAME! With her two daughters and her niece! The ward members really embraced her and welcomed her. We could definitely tell that she appreciated it and she seemed really happy to be there. =)

Anyways, this week is going to be pretty exciting too...Today we're spending district p-day at the fair in Lynden. Sister Taua has never been to a fair. We're going to be matching in these lovely blue shirts someone sent to us...We were very excited to receive them!! We'll be sure to take lots of pictures =)

This week also marks Sister Taua's one-year mark on the 18th...and we're going to be celebrating that day in Everett by listening to Elder L. Tom Perry!! He's doing a tour through the pacific northwest missions, so we're having a full-mission conference this week! It's very exciting. I'm sure I'll have lots to tell you about that next week!

Well, that's about all the news I have for you.

Have a wonderful week! Love you,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

August 8, 2011

Hello everyone!

Well...the results are in...and...Sister Taua and I are both staying in Everson!! Woohoo! We're both quite relieved that we don't have to worry about getting transferred, our investigators are relieved, the ward is relieved...Everybody's happy we're staying. Actually, our whole district survived transfers in-tact...which is awesome! Unfortunately, the same can be said of our current zone leaders...which means we'll probably have to do another "blitz" this transfer.

Darn.

Anyways...transfer number four...my six month mark is coming up this next transfer, does it feel like I've been gone that long?

My shoes are holding up fine. They're still comfortable; and the rain boots are effective at being rain boots...

Sounds like you had a fun time in Utah. It turns out Sister Taua's parents were ALSO in Utah this past week for the wedding of one of her cousins...too bad we didn't discuss that before our emails last week; maybe you could have met up somewhere. But I'm sure you enjoyed yourself all the same. I'm glad to hear the bridal shower went well. How is Annette feeling, getting ready for two weddings? Make sure to send me pictures!

So far, I've gotten an Easter card from Sister Valinotti. No mail from anyone else in the ward (unless you want to count Alison). Grandma and Kelly have sent me letters though; Allison, Steph and Julia have been pretty good at writing me regularly, and I've gotten letters from a few other friends. I appreciate every letter I get! =)

This past week was actually a little bit frustrating--our investigators kept standing us up! Eric is still progressing though; he came to sacrament meeting! That's TWICE we got an investigator to sacrament meeting! haha We're SO glad that we're staying (and that Elders aren't coming in...) so that we can keep teaching him. He's learning a lot really fast; he'll be baptized soon, we're sure =)

Let's see...other news...I don't know...We got an unexpected new investigator last week. Heather (Eric's member girlfriend that introduced us) invited a friend of hers, Kim, to one of our lessons with Eric last week. She's really awesome! She's in the process of moving to Bellingham, but before we even got a chance to invite her to meet with us and learn more she just asked, "Can we do this again!?" So, she's really promising. Don't know why she didn't come to church on Sunday, but I guess I've gotten used to it...?

We also spent some time doing some land clearing for a member in our ward. It was very enjoyable. Mostly because I'm getting sick of all the trees and green...and more trees...and more green...(well, I guess up here we also have the occasional cow pasture...) The green is pretty...but it's also getting a little boring. Guess I'm just meant to live in the desert!

We've been spending a lot of time doing service for an older lady in our ward that has lung cancer. She's packing up her house trying to sell it so that her kids don't have to worry about it. She's a really sweet lady; we haven't called her yet but I know she'll be very happy we're staying also.

Well...I think that's everything! I hope you have fun going back to school!

Love you,
Sister Heather Holdsworth

August 1, 2011

Hello everyone!

It sounds like you're spending a lot of time with the youth; that sounds like fun.

This past week has been kind of dull: mostly just lots of tracting to try and get our 15/day. We had interviews with President Wilson on Friday; it's always fun to see President and Sister Wilson. Sister Taua and I both talked to him about how hard it is in our area, and he said that 15 was just a standard/average suggestion and that he completely expected us to adapt it for our area. Hm. Would have been nice for the Zone Leaders to tell us that. But they've made it very obvious they neither know nor care how different a rural area is from the sub-urban/community-college town they're in..............ANYWAYS!

So what else is new...oh, the rumor mill has started spewing out that President is thinking about closing our area to Sisters and putting Elders back in (Everson has only had sisters for about a year). President was especially impressed with the work we've been doing here though...in a "I don't want to move you"-esque manner. Eh. There's no trusting the transfer rumor mill anywhere. No one warned me about how much gossip goes around missionaries. I'm assuming it's not just our mission, but it's more than a little ridiculous.

Well, I don't remember if I mentioned it last week or not, but Eric (was on date for Aug.6) is no longer on date. He wasn't coming to church, and he kind of seemed to be avoiding us...when we FINALLY did get to meet with him this past week he told us it was because he felt really pressured (by the elders that had been with Sis. Taua on our ridiculous split/blitz night...) by being asked to commit to a date. But we explained to him why they felt the need to pressure him and that we didn't want to do that and that it was perfectly okay if he wasn't comfortable committing to a date and yadda yadda And now he's completely 100% on-track again and TOTALLY excited to be meeting with us regularly again. Tonight we're teaching him the Plan of Salvation, which he's really excited for, too...he even came to CHURCH on Sunday! This is our first investigator to church in this ward in THREE TRANSFERS!

KIND OF A BIG DEAL!!!!!

Plus, the sacrament meeting talks and gospel principles class were PERFECT for Eric.

YAY!

Needless to say...we're more than a bit worried for Eric if we DO get replaced by Elders, now that he's got this association of Elders:bad Sisters:good going on...not sure what we're supposed to do about that...

Anyways, it's funny you asked about funny stories. I actually have one that happened just this morning! And I shall tell it to in what is the the only way I've learned you can tell funny stories...with diagrams!

So today was the first Monday of the month, which means every missionary in our stake gets a $20 gift certificate to a grocery store owned by a member in Bellingham. Yay generous members! So, the zone leaders, another pair of elders and us were sitting in our cars waiting for more people to get there.

x (zone leaders)
= (empty parking space)
x (elders)
= (empty parking space)
x (sisters)

(We're all facing away from the store, towards the street, >> that direction.)

Then this homeless lady comes wandering through the parking lot, and as she's walking toward the street; she's looking at each of us....and looking at us....and looking at us...craning her neck so bad she's practically walking backwards...

x
= ------- (pathway of homeless lady as she's looking back at us) ----> (street)
x
=
x

She gets to the street and stops, staring at the cars going by....And then all of the sudden, she bends down, grabs this wine bottle (or something) and throws it towards the zone leader's car yelling, "Go eat your car!"

x <---(the bottle only made it about this far)---(homeless lady) (street)
=
x
=
x

Then she wandered off down the street like nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, we were all cracking up.


Anyways...I hope my beautiful diagrams don't get messed up during the sending process...

Yes, I've been getting getting Grandma's and Kelly's letters; and I also got a packet from Mary of the recent Holdsworth blog entries.

Hope you have fun at Dad's high school reunion and at Hilary's bridal shower! Did they plan that around your visit? That was nice of them if they did; and very convenient if they didn't!

Anyways, I think that's all the big news I have. Next week we'll know whether I'm staying or going or what's going on! Talk to you then, and have a great week!

Love you,
Sister Heather Holdsworth