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