Monday, September 16, 2013

                                                       Sisters Toyn, Cozzens and Roxane




                                                                       Tiarra and I



Just before the baptism!


(63) hey y'all

Alrighty so obviously like every other week I don't have much time but hopefully I'll be able to get everything in!
     TIARRA GOT BAPTIZED SATURDAY!! AHHHHHH! It was so wonderful! I can barely even explain it, but it was just so wonderful! She is such a wonderful person, and she was so happy and we were all so happy for her! Bishop baptized her and then afterward we asked everybody to write down their testimonies or just a note to her and we're gonna put them into a book for her and it was just so special! OH! and there were 84 people there! 84!!  It was crazy! But we were so happy for her and the fact that so many people came to support her and will continue to be there for her and support her! AHH! I just love that girl so much! (and it has nothing to do with the fact that she plays black ops... hahah well, kinda just a little... haha)  Roxanne is her aunt. I am so excited that you guys are friends on facebook! We love taking pics together for her to put up for you guys! 

    So yeah Tiarra's baptism was so wonderful! Stacie and Missy's are next! Not this week but the next! We are so excited for them!  It has been so amazing seeing the change that has come over Stacie while we have been teaching her. At first she wasn't sure if she wanted to be baptized, even though she wanted it, just becuase of all the things that she would have to give up... it was to the point where we were ready to back off... but about a week ago, she changed.  She came to us and told us she wanted to be baptized, that she knew giving up these things would be hard but that Heavenly Father would help her and told us about the happiness she has in her life now.  She reads her scriptures every night with her daughter Missy and comes to church and is teaching FHE tonight!! It really was amazing to see that change in her... and I know that it was all thanks to Heavenly Father.  We were ready to back off but He obviously knew better.
     Ah!! I just love it here! I love the people and I actually really just love New Mexico! I'm not gonna lie, I fell in love with New Mexico this past week.  It took me almost a month but seriously I was just standing there one evening, minding my own business, and BOOM! the beauty of New Mexico overwhelmed me! hahah I mean, I will have to admit, it is very, very brown, and rocky and very different from anywhere else I have lived but it is so  beautiful. I don't care what any of you say! =]
     Um let's see... funny things real quick. Oh! We caught a skunk! The elders found us a skunk trap and we caught one! It was just a little baby one though so we are pretty sure there's another one still chillin' with the human under our house.  Yes, we are still convinced there's a human under there, especially since we found a little cellar door thing that leads under there... seriously. so creepy. hahaha
     Alrighty I've gotta go! I'm gonna try and send pics with my remaining time! And then more letters! Thanks mom and dad for the letters you sent! they were perfect! Everybody else... step it up! =] Love y'all!!

-Sister Rice

Monday, September 9, 2013

(56) HEY THERE

Alrighty. So this week was pretty awesome. ummmmm... I don;t know... I'm having trouble starting this email.... which is crazy since I don't have that much time left... so  I guess we'll just dive right into my favorite parts of the week...
      So this week was great. We had 12 lessons and we have 3 people on date for baptism in the next 3 weeks! We are so excited! One of them, Tiarra,  is getting baptized this Saturday!! I think I mentioned her in my last email,  but we are just so excited for her! She's 15 years old and just so awesome.  She enrolled herself in seminary 3 days before she told us and just loves the gospel so much! And we are so excited for her! The bishop got her tickets to go see conference with her aunt up in Salt Lake and then the stake is having a stake youth temple trip a week after that and she is going to get to go to! She is so excited!
      We are also teaching her Aunt and cousin, Stacie and Missy.  They are getting baptized on the 28th, and her aunt Roxane is one of our recent converts that we have in our ward, so basically we are over at their house all the time, and it's wonderful! I love their family so much, and they are so fun! Oh and actually Tiarra and Roxanne added me on facebook, so  if you could accept their friend requests tha would be awesome!
     And it's so cool that you got to talk to Sister Shrum! Her and Elder Shrum were the couple that picked us up from the airport! They are so sweet and nice.  And yes we got all the paperwork done and Sister Shrum sent it out to you.  If you don't have it already then it should be getting to you soon! Yay!! I am so excited to get my visa going again! haha
     We also started teaching a girl named Kashley this past week.  She is so great! Our first lesson we had with her we spent a lot of the time talking about her favorite scriptures, all of which were in the Doctrine and Covenants! She has been going to church for a couple of years but couldn't get baptized until she was 18 because her parents wanted her to wait, but she is so ready and so excited! And we are so excited to get to teach her!
     We had a game night this past Saturday! It was so much fun! There's a baseball field right next to the church building and so all 5 sets of missionaries got together and invited all our investigators and families from our wards to play kickball! It was so great! We had a bunch of people show up! We're hoping to keep doing it and to get more and more people each week.  It reminded me of the volleyball nights you guys used to do... do you guys still do that?? you totally should.
     And can I just tell you another thing, I am loving New Mexico.  The weather here is actually pretty decent surprisingly! It's monsoon season (hahah yeah I know, who knew that new mexico had a monsoon season??) and so it storms here all the time and we get lightning storms and it's just fantastic! I don't think I would ever move here permanantly... especially since the summers here are apparently killer, but I am really enjoying it out here.
     But seriously, I really am loving it here. I love being on a mission.  Every now and then it hits me that this is what I get to do for the next 16ish months (!!! can you believe that it's already been 2 months!! ahhhhh!!!), that I really am a missionary, and that I get to study for 4 hours a day (yes, we study for 4 hours every morning... personal, comp, 12 week, and then lang. our day doesn't start until after 12) and I get to teach people all the time and it's just amazing and such a blessing. I know I've only been out on my mishh for 2 months, but I have already changed so much from the person that I was when I said goodbye to you all and I can't wait to see the person that I am going to be by the end!
    Ok , ahhhh i am running out of time! Alright. Funny stories... So basically pretty much everybody in the town of Kirtland, NM lives in a trailer.  We live in a trailer... it's a double wide and it's huge, but it's a trailer, and it's kind of weird... But apparently it's just the thing to do here in kirtland... but  so we are kind of convinced that something is living under our trailer/house.... and it's either a skunk or a human... We actually almost got attacked by a skunk the other night! It was slinking around in our yard when we pulled up for the night and we freaked out and didn't know what to do and we ended up calling the other sisters who live with us  and told them to make sure that the door was unlocked and made a mad squealing dash for the house.... the squealing probably wasn't the best decision if we were trying to avoid scaring the skunk...(is that how skunks work?? I don't know... hahha) but yeah it was terrifying.  And we  are pretty sure that it lives under our house and sends it's stink up through our vents every now and then... which as you can imagine is just great.... and then there are all these awful loud bangings that go on at night... so I am pretty convinced that there's a human down there too and that they're best friends who've bonded over making our lives miserable... hahah
    I'm out of time... I'm gonna write another letter later today so look for that! It's gonna have all the scriptures that I enjoyed and thought were funny, in it!  I love you guys and love hearing from you and can't wait to talk to you again next week!!
-Sister Rice

Thursday, September 5, 2013

This is an email sent to us from one of the members in Sydney's ward.

Brother and Sister Rice:

Just a quick note, your daughter and her companions had dinner with us last evening.  Which we celebrated their picture on the front page of the local Newspaper.  I asked them to give me their parents email address so I could send the picture, the article doesn't say anything about them, only under the picture.  But it was a cute picture and we wanted to share it with their families.

Sister Rice is new to our area, but we look forward to getting to know more about her.  As we sat around the table, I asked them what the news was from home.  And they each shared the news they received that day.  Sister Rice Loves Her Family!!   What a sweet young women, your daughter is, Kirtland Area is blessed to have her with us.  

We will take especially good care of her while she serves here in Kirtland.

Love,
Sister Colleen Wethington

PICTURES FROM MY FIRST WEEK IN NEW MEXICO!!!!!

                                                                       Our house!!!


                                                    I found this at Walmart...haha!



 Our picture was taken while walking on Main Street on Labor Day and it was put on the front page!


                                                            Sister Cozzens and I


                                                                My two companions!


                                                                  Sister Toyn and I


                                                               Our study area

(49) HEEEEEEY!

HEY! OHMYGOSH! It feels like I have been waiting weeks for this! This has easily been the longest week of the mishh so far, most likely cuz I haven;t heard from any of you, cuz none of you had my address or anything. I am so used to getting DearElders almost every day in the MTC! But that is so gonna change now cuz I can finally give you guys my address!! It's the mission address just because it's the best way to make sure that I get all my mail for sure just in case i get transfered or get my visa... 400 W Apache St. Farmington, NM 87401. Y'all better write me!
     SO! Here I am in New Mexico! It's so crazy! The flight last Monday went really well, just two short, one hour flights into Durango, Colorado and then a 45ish minute drive into Farmington to the Mission Home. President and Sister Batt are so amazing! I love them! They fed us lunch when we got there and then gave us all pillows and told us to pick a spot and nap! It was so fantastic! There were missionaries everywhere just passed out! hahah I got up at one point to go to the bathroom and found the hallway leading to it completely blocked by a sea of snoring elders, completely out and dead to the world! hahah But yeah it was so nice to get to nap, especially since we had been up since like 3 in the morning.
     Well... except for one thing... I was kind of sick the whole time... It was so horrible. I felt like such a loser, the new missionary sick and puking (yes, puking, i know, what the heck??!) on her first day...( yeah yeah yeah laugh it up) but Sister Batt was so nice and took really good care of me so stop worrying mom. Everybody all went to a testimony meeting that night and Sister Batt brought along a pillow and blanket and had me sleep in the back of the room... so I totally selpt through my first official mishh testimony meeting... lame, I kow, but I am so not ashamed... I felt so bad... hahaha
     I also kinda slept throught most of my first full day in the mishh too... Which was totally lame and upsetting but my new companions were so great about it and took good care of me! Yup, that's right, I said companions! I'm in a trio! My new comapnions are Sister Cozzens and Sister Toyn.  Both have been out for six months  and Sister Cozzens is actually a Visa Waiter too!! AND her mission is the same as mine! Brazil Sao Paulo Sul!! We are both so excited about it! But seriously I am so loving havning both of them as my companions, it's so much fun!
    For example. Funny stopry.  So both of them watched Glee before coming out on the mishh (I know right?? blahhh) but neither of them knew that that one guy, Finn/Cory Monteith, or whatever his name is, had died... So I told them and they totally freaked out and were really sad but now we totally talk about him all the time. Sister Cozzens and I actually somehow managed to convince Sister Toyn that he actually died of a hot dog overdose at a hot dog eating contest... as in like eating himself to death with hotdogs... and she straight up believed us for like a solid 20 minutes!!! It was so funny! We were dying over that for so long!
     Sso I'm with both of them in this little town called Kirtland, New Mexico.  It's about 20 mins outside of Farmington.  It's pretty cool. I mean it's really brown and really new mexico but cool. We're in the Kirtland 1st Ward (there are 5! in this little town! it's crazy! and all of them have a set of missionaries, it's so awesome!) But  we have the smallest area in the history of the world... I'm pretty sure at it's widest it's maybe a mile... it basically just consists of only 4 main roads... It could easily be a walking or bike area but we get to drive around in a little truck... I have no idea what kind of truck it is, but it's pretty cool and I love it.
   This past week has been amazing! Even with the being sick the first couple of days.  We've been teaching this 15 year old girl Tiarra who is on date for baptism Sept. 14th,  who is just the most amazing person I have ever met.  And we're also teaching her Aunt Stacie and her daughters. They are such an amazing family and we all love them so much!!
     Let's see what are some other things that we did this week... Oh! We worked in a greenhouse! The Kirtland 1st Ward Relief Society Pres and her husband own a bunch of them and we went over and did service for them helping them pinch flowers and stuff so that was pretty fun.  We also taught mutual and relief society this past week, both about missionary work.  That was pretty cool/nervewracking...
     Sorry I didn't get to email yesterday... the college that we email at was closed for memorial day... but it was so awesome to get to read all your emails today! It was great hearing about all your escapades with Shane this past week, it sounds like it was a lot of fun! The pansy still hasn't written me yet... and EMILEE PUGH! IF YOU ARE READING THIS I NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE GOING ON YOUR MISHH RIGHT NOW!!! I NEED TO KNOW!! AND MADISON DENNIS AND MIRANDA MCMAHON! WHERE ARE YOU?!?! I REALIZE YOU ARE STARTING SCHOOL AND ALL THAT JAZZ BUT I NEED YOU TO EMAIL ME RIGHT NOW/WRITE ME SOME LETTERS STAT!.
   love all you guys so much! Can't wait to talk to you again next week!!!
-Sister Rice