Tuesday, July 23, 2013

LONG over Due!!

Hello All!

Erin and I have been hit and miss the last, well since the end of May. She has sent some letters to include in her blog, but I have been home or haven't had the time to sit down. So... to catch those of you who are actually reading you up.... I will start with the most recent and then add the others from earlier.

If you choose to send things for Erin's birthday.. which is actually now past. But, she could use gift cards to Wal-Mart.

Also, Erin has been in the hospital. A few weeks ago she was throwing up blood. Her companion insisted she go to the hospital. In the hospital they gave her medication to help counteract the overabundance of acid in her stomach. Not long afterwards she had an upper GI. She still has stomach aches. At this time, we still have not received word what exactly is going on. We have our suspicions. I personally believe a bleeding ulcer. Please keep her in your prayers so she can become healthy and still serve the Lord. They need her there.

Anijanette (mom)

July 8, 2013
 
"Monday the onka ball died once more. I got better at throwing and catching the football. We went to Texas Roadhouse with the Owens. We then played volleyball for FHE.
On Tuesday I got way sick before and during a lesson with Adam. The lesson was a disaster. We meet with two friends of a member of our branch - Ryn and Heather are friends of Rob Ross. They are interested. Heather said that she wanted to pray about what we were talking about when we began talking about prayer. We ended up having to reschedule Candice's lesson as she was out apartment hunting and had forgot about it. We had a lesson with Yong and we went over a couple of baptismal questions and set him an assignment.
Wednesday we had district meeting about prayer. We had a lesson with Candice - a mock baptismal interview. We had a lesson with Shawn and his girlfriend, Clarissa. We then attended institute - there was a substitute.
Thursday was 4th of July. We breakfast with the branch. We ended up marching in the parade - we were carrying the football. Sister Hanseen got way burned. We had dinner with the Leavitt's - it was amazing! Then we watched 17 Miracles later on that night as we had to be in by 6.
Friday we had a lesson with Yong - it was amazing! He still has a struggle to work on but he is getting closer. We then had another lesson with Heather. She was happy to discover that we believe in the Spirit world. Then we were walking downtown and a guy gave us black raspberries from the Amish - his family are members of our church but he is not. We then ran into Candice on the bus - she was on her way to check out an apartment. We ended up having to start our exchange late as Sister Ferrin got back from her meeting later.
Saturday was brilliant! Candice had her baptismal interview - she is getting baptized this Saturday. We gave her a church tour and was able to find baptismal clothes for her. We had a lesson with Michael - he is very open minded and willing to work on knowing.

Sunday we had 3 investigators, 1 potential investigator at church. Heather loved church and was participating. Candice was flirting with Yong at Break the Fast. We found out that Candice will be able to get a limited use temple recommend for when she goes to visit LA. She also asked Yong to pray at her baptism in Mandarin and he said yes. Normally it is a struggle to get him to pray in lessons.
 
Sister Erin Candice Logan Kingsford"
 
 
July 5. 2013
 
"Hello everyone,
 
Its me again. First up we have Tuesday. The day of many firsts. We saw the other set of sisters and the state college elders (they were on exchanges so Elder Bartlett - an assistant to President Topham was there.) Neither of them heard or saw us. After lunch we did street contacting. We then went to Eric's appointment until forums. Forums are area scheduled time and place so that we can legally proselyte on campus. We were out there for a couple hours but they went by way too fast. During that time we got a profuse apology from Eric for not showing up. We said it was okay and asked when would be a good time to reschedule. He hasn't responded yet.
 
After dinner we tried to meet people on our way home and then met with the other sister missionaries for a monthly planning.
 
Wednesday. The day of "that didn't go as planned." We had studies and then we had district meeting. Our zone leaders were one of them, Elder Platt, used to date a sister in my district before coming to the MTC. We talked about the Doctrine of Christ in our meeting. I felt very inspired and took lots of notes.
 
As we were headed to the library, Eric called. We set up an appointment for Thursday. We were thrilled that he called. We had dinner with the Williams, they took the other set of missionaries and the Elders at the state college to Texas Roadhouse.
 
Thursday we met Shawn at the public library. He is a less active member, we ate a quick lunch with him and then quickly headed to meet Justin. We did have a lesson with Shawn about the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. We then headed to forums. The weather was so hot, and the humidity is so high, I started feeling sick. I tried to ignore what I was feeling and meet a lot of people, many people came through, but after a half hour I could  not ignore how bad I felt any longer. I rushed to the bathroom and threw up. I sat down and drank some warm water and had pringles. Elder Vassallo came over and gave me a hand hug. A hand hug is where the pinkie and thumb wrap around the other person's hand. Not too much later we headed back to the apartment. After we got home, I laid down, and was not there long, and had to run to the bathroom and throw up again. We stayed inside and relaxed until we were picked up for dinner.
 
After dinner, another member Monica picked us up and we headed to Bellefonte for a lesson with Destiny. But she wasn't there and we talked to Susan instead. We committed to going back and helping Susan and her boyfriend to pull out weeds.
 
Later on we took a bus from campus and spotted Manela who was working with us to teach Candice. I started off Candice's lesson and we talked about fasting, about the Book of Mormon and emphasized the importance of it.
 
We went and met Brother Owen and his family which he happens to be in the bishopric, they took us out to Olive Garden.
 
Sunday we met with Candice again. She was better able to get a grasp on how to keep the Sabbath day holy. In Relief Society we talked about three different topics, Visiting Teaching, Service and Convenants, Candice did come to church with us and dressed really nice in church clothes.
 
We did talk with Elder Davidson, our district leader and reported our success for the week.
 
Monday we had the chance to go bowling and I scored a whole 63 points. Later on we got to play with all the missionaries a game called Onka. Elder Howell kept nearly hitting me in the head despite the fact I was on his team.
 
We were able to schedule an appointment with a lady named Ellen, her first lesson is Tuesday.
 
I am having a great time, and really enjoying serving.
 
Sister Erin Logan Candice Kingsford"
 
May 28, 2013
 
"Hi Everyone!!
 
Its me again! I am going to start out by introducing who is who of the missionaries. First up is Sister Robinson who is my trainer/senior companion. She is from Oregon but attended BYU-I before coming out here. Her major was horticulture which means I am learning a lot about plants, trees and flowers.
 
Next up is Sister Hanseen. She is from Provo Utah. She attended BYU for a year before coming out here. She was accepted in the Public Relations program before coming out here.
 
Next, Sister Ferrin who is Sister Hanseens trainer/senior companion. She is from Arizona and was attending a University out there but she had not choose a major yet.
 
Then there are the elders. The State College Elders are Elder Howell and Elder Vassalo. Elder Vassalo was in the MTC at the same time I was. However until we got out here we had never met. Elder Vassalo is 24 and attended a year of college in Utah ( I don't remember the school) before coming out here.
 
Elder Howell is 18 and has not attended any college yet but will attending BYU when he gets back. He will play football but I do not remember what position.
 
Next up are the Bellefonte elders. I don't know much about either them as I don't see them as often. Elder Olsen builds cars and then sells them, that's what he did before he came here. Elder Clark is 20 and when he gets off his mission his parents will be in New York.
 
Then there is our district leader - Elder Davidson and his companion Elder Bowies. I really do not know anything about either of them.
 
Tuesday was really stressful! We were supposed to meeting with an investigator named Sam, the lesson seemed to be doomed from the start. Throughout the lesson all I could think was, "what I am doing wrong?" At the end of the lesson he told us that he had talked to his pastor and he didn't want to read the Book of Mormon if it wasn't true. We asked him to pray about it and to read a chapter if he found out for himself if it was true. As we took the bus home, Sam sat next to us on the bus. The whole way back we talked about a variety things, some related to the gospel, some not. I do not remember everything we talked about, but he did ask many church related questions.
 
We did have to reschedule another appointment with a lady named Loretta, we were headed back from zone training when we were supposed to have a lesson. The next day, a guy named Stephan called and cancelled on us. It made me feel so bad.
 
Later on as we stop to visit the ladies room we ran into a lady named Clarisa, who happens to be the girlfriend of another investigator named Shawn. We taught Shawn and Clarissa.
 
We went to Institute and we had dinner, Sister Robinson asked a branch mission leader Justin to give her a blessing of comfort. It was the longest blessing I have ever heard. Heavenly Father had a lot to tell Sister Robinson.
 
We later were able to teach Candice and about the law of Chasity, and the word ofwisdom, enduring to the end, obeying and honoring the law of the land, and baptism and confirmation. After we headed to our apartment and went to the lounge to meet with May. May speaks Chinese, we did have a translator but, the translator had a family member die and could not make it. Because May has a husband, Elder Olson and Elder Clark will be teaching her. We did try teach May but the lesson did not go well because of the language barrier, it was our biggest challenge. All we could do is give her a Chinese Book of Mormon and Chinese restoration pamphlet.
 
We did meet with a lady named Destiny. We did teach her abut God and prayer, she did seem interested.
 
We got a call from the Elders asking if we like to visit with a non-member who was having a birthday. John is an elderly man who is a widow, who is approximately 93-95. Just visiting him brightened his day. He likes to have people over as it reminds him of when his wife was alive and he gets really lonely.
 
Candice was able to come to church, she brought a friend with her named Amber. We were thrilled to see them.
 
Sister Erin Logan Candice Kingsford."