Everything is Going Well!

Sister Whipple & Sister Call

Everything is going well in Dubuque (pronounced Do- Buke) !  I am really starting to love this area and the people I meet.  Everyone is so nice, even when we are tracting and they are not interested! We didn't have the car this week so we walked a lot, but the weather was great so I didn't mind walking at all, in fact Sister Whipple and I enjoyed it.  But I'm not sure I will be enjoying it come winter time.  So, a little bit about my companion Sister Whipple.  She grew up in San Jose, CA.  She is the middle of 5 siblings.  She attended BYU for three years studying accounting before coming on a mission.  Her family now lives in Mesa, AZ.  Both of her parents served missions.  We are serving in the Dubuque 2nd ward.  The ward was created a little over a year ago.  We have a great ward that is a decent size.  The family we are living with right now are the Beytien’s.  Brother Beytien is in the bishopric and Sister Beytien is the Relief Society President.  They are such an amazing family and I have loved living in their home.  On Thursday we are moving into a Sister's home who is going to be living in California for the next 3 months, but then after that they will have to find another place for us to live.  Dubuque is a great town. John Deere is a huge employer in the area.  The majority of people here are Catholic.  It's very green and has lots of little steep hills. 

 

Figuring out our area.



The Large Dogs

Just a few tidbits of what happened each day.  Monday evening we were tracting and there is this house that has these two huge dogs and the owners were outside enjoying the evening so Sister Whipple commented on their dogs and then I asked if I could get a picture with their dogs.  It was so great, we ended up talking to this couple for like an hour!  Tuesday was Sister Whipple's 21st birthday, and we spent some time looking for volunteer opportunities, which we still haven't been able to set up, but since we have the car this week, it should be a lot easier to solidify service opportunities.  Wednesday was great and we were able to teach a couple from our ward who is preparing for a mission and has the missionaries come teach from Preach My Gospel each week! Thursday we had district meeting and then an appointment with a recently reactivated sister in our ward.  When we got to her apartment she was having a terrible day and thought she was getting evicted in three days and so Sister Whipple and I changed our lesson plans and taught about Alma's people in Mosiah 23 and 24 where they had so many burdens placed on them and yet they still cried to the Lord and their burdens were lifted.  Well get this.  So shortly after we get done reading and talking about Alma's people, the sheriff knocks on the door and what this sister thought was going to be an eviction notice, ended up being a subpoena to act as a witness for a car accident she had seen. It was so perfect because this sister came back to the living room and announced that we needed to say a prayer!  The Lord really does answer our prayers. 

 

The Davenport Stake, which we are a part of, has done a "Called to Serve" program for at least the past 30 years where young men and young women at least 16 years old choose to serve a mini mission.  They get a call letter that tells them which area they will be serving in.  On Thursday evening they go to the "MTC" (aka the stake center) where they received a brief training and then were set apart as missionaries.  They stay with members, but they are with us all day Friday, Saturday, and go home Sunday evening.  So Friday morning Sister Whipple and I got Sister Barton from Genocio, IL as our companion. She is 16 and it was her first time doing the “Called to Serve” program.  It was so neat to participate with this!  It allows young men and young women to see what the life of a missionary is like.  So Friday we went to several members homes and taught them and then went and tried contacting potential and former investigators that lived downtown.  

Sister Call, Sister Barton, Sister Whipple

On Saturday we saw our biggest miracle so far here in Dubuque!  Earlier this week the Elders gave us a list of potential investigators that they had come in contact with in the previous months.  Well we saw one that we wanted to contact.  Her name is Sylvia and so Saturday afternoon we went to stop by her apartment.  We went to knock on the door and then saw Sylvia.  So I asked if she was Sylvia? She said, “yes,” but gave us the look of "who are you?"  We proceeded to tell her who we were and that the Elders had met her back in April.  She remembered meeting the Elders, but then asked if we had a card with our number on it.  We handed her a mormon.org card with our telephone number on it, and then headed out.  I thought for sure I had blown our chance and we wouldn't be hearing from her again.  Well we continue until dinner time and when we got back to our apartment we had a voicemail on our phone from Sylvia!!!!!  She mentioned it was Sylvia and asked that we call her back.  Hallelujah!!!!! Best Voicemail received yet!  Well, we immediately called her back and got to her voicemail, but before I could finish the voicemail she was calling us.  We talked and she mentioned that she was very interested in learning more so we set up an appointment for tonight! She also mentioned that she wants to come to church so hopefully we can get her to church this coming Sunday!!!!!  

 

I was so excited after the phone call I started to jump up and down!  Finally, someone called from a mormon.org card and is actually interested in learning more.  Plus I was so excited that Sister Barton was able to be a part of a miracle that happened!  These little miracles make everything worth it!  

 

Church was great yesterday, but we didn't have any investigators there.  Hopefully next week that will change!  Sister Barton headed home yesterday, so it is back to Sister Whipple and I!   

 

Thanks for all the prayers and support!  I love serving here in Dubuque and am excited for more miracles to come!  

 

Love you all!

Sister Call

 

It’s a Small World:

Hey mom,  Do you know if one of Marion's brothers served a mission in London???  Because a member of our ward has a remembrance journal from an Elder Robinson from Star Valley who was bigger built and was a wrestler.  It would have been about 10 years ago and he hasn't been able to find Elder Robinson. (Hannah)

Yes, I just talked to Marion's Mom and Marion's brother, Robert, served in London, England.  He is currently living Spokane, Washington.  His phone is xxx-xxx-xxxx.  You can also give them DeeAnne and Marions's address and home phone. (Mom)

 

Haha I have to laugh at myself because as I come to different houses I notice their cement or their garage doors, or nice wood front doors,  haha wow you would have thought that I have spent time around a lumber yard or something. J  

Again, Love you all!

Sister Call

Dubuque, IA with Sister Whipple

What a crazy week!  The last couple of days in Carthage were great.  I was able to say my goodbyes to some wonderful people as well as try to cram as much information that I needed to know to be a trainer. On Tuesday we spent the afternoon and evening visiting the homes of former investigators and others in Warsaw which actually went really well.  And guess what, the other night I was talking to Sister Thompson and she said she received a phone call from an unknown number around like 11:00 p.m. and so she silenced it and they left a voicemail.  She decided to wait until the morning to listen to it, but the number called back and left a second voicemail.  So she listened to the voicemails and at one of the homes we stopped by the night in Warsaw, no one was home so we left a mormon.org card with our number and a brief note.  This guy found the card and was way interested, so Sister Thompson and her new companion were able to go and teach him the other night! Wednesday was a great day, it was our p-day and so we spent the day getting ready for transfers and then had lunch at some members home and spent the afternoon in Nauvoo.  We had dinner at a members home in Nauvoo, and then were able to work pageant one last time before I was transferred.   

Before I knew it Thursday was there and we were loading my suitcases into the car and heading towards Iowa City.  We arrived around 8:30 and had a trainer's meeting before transfer meeting. There were 34 missionaries who came out this transfer!!  We had brief trainings and then it was time to find out the "transfer doctrine."  There were only 5 new sister areas opening up this transfer so we were able to limit my options to these 5 areas.  I was assigned to be companions with Sister Hannah Whipple from Mesa, AZ!!! And we are assigned to serve in the Dubuque, IA 2nd West area.  There have been elders here for a while, but both wards in Dubuque were getting sisters this transfer.  

Once transfer meeting was over the Assistants took our picture together and then we grabbed our stuff to head to Dubuque.  There were 7 missionaries heading to Dubuque that had been at transfer meeting so members from Dubuque 1st Ward came and took us all back.  Currently there are 9 missionaries in Dubuque and each ward has a car, so we are in a car share with the Elders. (Five elders, four sisters, a senior couple, and we found out Saturday that two Marshallese speaking elders will be coming in two weeks, so it is crazy.  We will have 11 young missionaries and 2 cars.)  There are 2 wards in Dubuque; they were split last year, so I think we average about 160 people at church each week.  It has been very interesting trying to figure out all the little details of opening a new area.  So we've had to spend a lot of time creating our area book, and finding out what families/members/investigators are in our area.  But slowly and surely we are getting there.  

As of right now we are living with ward members, but we will only be in this home until Aug. 1st where we will then move into another members home for 3 months.  Yesterday was wonderful we were able to meet more of the ward members and we had an investigator at Sacrament Meeting.  After church we had a meeting with Bishop and I guess the Davenport Stake does a program titled "Called to Serve"  where priest and laurel aged youth sign up to go on a three day mission within the stake boundaries.  So starting Friday morning we will have  a young woman with us until Sunday evening.  Hopefully we will help her have a wonderful experience and are really going to rely on help from the members since we do not have the car this week.  

One of the many tender mercies of the Lord this week has been that I was assigned to an area that Sister Thompson is the Sister Training Leader over, so whenever I've needed help or had questions I've been able to call her.  Also last night when we were tracting we found an awesome potential investigator!  So we are praying that we can teach him and his wife sometime this week!

One of the best parts about this week and being a little overwhelmed about all that is happening is that it has allowed me to put my trust in my Savior and allow Him to help because I cannot do it without His help.  

Love you all!

Sister Call

P.S.  since my address will be changing a lot the best thing to do is send it to the mission home and they make sure it gets forwarded to wherever I am at.  

Hey guess what?  Today marks exactly 2 months since I entered the MTC!  haha who would have guessed all that has happened?  Anyways I really do love being a missionary despite not always sounding positive in my letters!  So I will work on that!  

Love You

Sister Call

 Editors Note:
Dubuque, Iowa borders the Mississippi River where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet.  It is a town with about 60,000 people and has two wards in it.  It must be part of the Davenport, Iowa stake.

Crazy Week of Curveballs!

So much happened this week that no one could have expected! 
 

To start with Sister Cox received her visa a week ago, which came as a huge surprise to all of us since we were all expecting her to be here until the end of the summer.  Since it was our p-day when we found out about her visa we made sure to tour the Carthage Jail because it was the only time we could go before Sister Cox left.  I love the spirit that can be felt at the Carthage Jail.  The feeling at the jail is one of mixed emotions.  It is so heartbreaking to know and reflect on the events that took place there, but it is so amazing to have the blessings of the restored gospel in my life and to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called by God to restore the fullness of the gospel back on the earth. 

Sister Thompson, Sister Cox and Sister Call at the Carthage Jail 8 July 2013.

On Thursday we had district meeting in Keokuk which was really neat!  It was our last district meeting before transfers, and Sister Cox's last district meeting in the Iowa Des Moines Mission. Both Sister Cox and I had been asked to train.  I learned so much as I prepared for the training, which was great, so hopefully the district members were able to learn a little bit.  I trained on "we invite, they commit, we follow up" and related it to the story of the apostles at the end of Christ's earthly ministry.  How when Christ was crucified, the apostles were young and inexperienced, so instead of testifying of Christ they went back to fishing.  When Christ came and told them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat, and they recognized it to be their Savior. They went back to shore and Christ had a meal prepared for them and then asked Peter "Do you love me?"  And so the same should go with each of us as we are asked to do something, or if we extend the invitation for others, each individual needs to ask themselves "Do I love the Savior enough to do what He asks of me?" 

 

Thursday evening was the first time we worked pageant.  We work pageant two nights a week and what we do is go around and talk with people before pageant starts and then see if they have any referrals for the missionaries.  We head back to our apartments after pageant starts, but pageant is such a fun place to be.  Friday night we were able to watch pageant. What an amazing performance!  The spirit is so strong as they testify of the restoration of the gospel.  I haven't seen anyone that I know up at pageant.

At the pageant.

Saturday morning we were having our companionship studies and we thought that since we hadn't heard from President Jensen by that time that Sister Thompson and I would be staying as companions in Carthage.  We were studying about praying with faith when we received a call from President.  He first talked to Sister Thompson and asked if she would train a new sister in Carthage.  Then President asked to talk to me, which threw us all for a loop, because he asked if I would train a new sister and open a new area!  Umm can I just say CURVEBALL!!!!  I had been planning on taking over Carthage since Sister Thompson is finished with her mission at the end of next transfer, so she would have finished my training, but instead I am not even done with my training and will be training a brand new sister.

 

Needless to say ever since Saturday my mind has been racing!  I am trying to cram and learn everything I can from Sister Thompson before transfers which take place on Thursday.  I won't find out where I will be serving until the meeting, so just wait until next week!  We thought it was interesting how we had studied about prayer before this call, because I know with certainty that all of my prayers are going to be so much more sincere with all the help needed.  Anyways after that the next thing we had planned to study talked all about how change is good and that through change we grow so much. 

 

We worked pageant Saturday night as well and  Sunday was fairly normal except for the fact that we dropped off Sister Cox, since she flew out today.  I loved serving with her and am so excited to hear about her adventures in Brazil!

 

Anyways so long Carthage, and next week I will be in a new area!

 

Love you all

 

Sister Call

 

Look at how much the corn has grown since we first arrived

Just a reminder of what the corn fields looked like when they arrived in Carthage :)

 Pageant was great!  We talk with people and see if they would like to fill out a referral card.  The Pageant takes place below the temple by where some of the historical sites are at.  The performance was written based off Preach My gospel, so not even kidding it teaches the full restoration and plan of salvation lessons.  The Spirit is so strong!  I decided that we will have to come out as a family after my mission so everyone can experience it!

Please do not send mail to the Carthage address.  Send it to the mission home because you know how I said most likely I would be here for months?  Well, Mission life is unpredictable and I am transferring Thursday.

Love you,
Sister Call

Best Week in Carthage So Far

This week has been the best week in Carthage so far!  It all started off last Monday.  We didn't have a dinner appointment so we decided to go tracting in Carthage for the evening and take dinner at 8:00.  Early that day we had each chosen five streets that stood out to us and then narrowed it down to ones that we had that were similar and that felt like we needed to go to.  We drove to the first street that we had felt strongly about and it was non existent.  Where it was supposed to be, ended up being a corn field and there were no houses along that road.  So with a little bit of discouragement we offered up a prayer and explained our situation and discouragement to Heavenly Father and then asked for His guidance as to where we should try next. After the prayer we pulled out the map again and the road that we felt like we should try next was completely on opposite ends of the town.  We went and luckily Carthage is tiny so it only took us a few minutes to get to the opposite side.  Once again the section of road that we wanted to try once again had no houses on it.  So we decided that we would try the homes on the surrounding block.  The first house we tried there was a woman who adopted two highly handicapped children, and one of her kids will be going to a group home near the end of the summer so she told us to come back in the fall.  The next house we went to there was a man mowing the lawn so we briefly talked to him and his son is the one who lives in the house and he told us they were inside.  We went and knocked on the front door and Megan (who is engaged to the man's son)  was super nice and told us to come in.  Just a quick note we have never had someone allow us into their home while we have been tracting!  So it was a nice surprise!  She is probably no older than I am and has a 3 year old son named Riley.  She grew up in Quincy, IL has never heard of Joseph Smith or of the Book of Mormon!  We taught the entire first lesson and she was way excited about learning about the gospel and has been looking for a church to attend, since she has only lived in the area for 3 months.  After meeting with Megan we continued to tract the area and were allowed to come into another home!  They were so kind to us, devout Catholics and not interested in learning about our church, but they love the missionaries and what they do, so we were able to share a brief message with them and invite them to pageant.  By this time it was past 8:00 so we could have gone back to our apartment for dinner hour, but we decided to continue to knock on the rest of the doors.  We came across Chris who is probably in his early 20's and is very open to what we had to say.  Well we basically had the best evening ever on a p-day! 



Cool sunset from the other night.

Tuesday was a typical day.  We had service at the city hall, taught a lesson to Carolyn during lunch, had service at Montebellos Care Center where we paint the ladies fingernails.  Which the first week when we did this service I thought for sure  I would dread this every week, but it is actually a lot of fun!  Especially since the same ladies come each week, so they recognize us and we know which colors to use.  We visited with less active members of our ward during the evening and when I got home I had received the package with the recipes and the letter from Ben with the CTR ring in it!  Thank you so much for putting that together!  I loved it!

Elder and Sister Price from Shelley Idaho.  They are going home this week.

 
Wednesday we had Training for the Nauvoo Pageant and learned about what we would be doing there.  Pageant starts tomorros so Nauvoo is getting way busy!  It is exciting!  My companions and I will be working pageant twice a week!  After training we went and visited some more of the members in the Nauvoo area since we can't proselyte in Nauvoo.  We stopped by one of the members homes and they were not there, but one of their friends was there and had us come in.  Well it ended up being Kimberly Smith who is the great-great grandaughter of Joseph and Emma Smith who is a convert to the church and was in Nauvoo holding a few firesides telling her story about after the martydom of Joseph down to her conversion story.  She was taught in the home of Merrill Osmond so she knows Travis.  It was really neat to visit with her and she then gave each of us a CD that has songs that her and her son have recorded that tell the stories.  That evening we had a lesson with Sarah and she has not had any coffee since last Friday!  The lesson went great!



Sister Thompson and Sister Call on the Fourth of July

Thursday was awesome!  The weather was so wonderful and it was Independence Day!  I went for a 3 mile run that morning which was amazing. Nothing compared to the miles that you or Justin are putting in right now.  Anyways, we had a lesson with a member who is being reactivated.  After the lesson we went to the town square and there were a lot of Fourth of July activities going on so we went around inviting everyone to come to pageant!  I loved it, because I was in a great mood and the people were in a friendly mood!  We then went back to our apartment and held weekly planning.  Afterwards we went and visited a group of members and less actives that were having a picnic at the park.  We went over to another families home for dinner and fireworks, and then came back to Carthage and visited another group of members who were watching the fireworks as well. 

Fourth of July outfits.

Friday we had Zone Conference in Ft. Madison. We arrived early to do some last minute cleaning before car inspections as well as to get our assignments for the nights we work pageant.  Zone conference started at 9:30 a.m. and it was with the Nauvoo and Quincy Zones.  The first thing we did was each meet President and Sister Jensen!  They are so great and full of smiles and love. I do feel bad for them because literally one hour after the Jergensen's left the mission home and so the Jensen's had taken over was when the car accident took place.  A car ran into the driver's side of the car, so the Elder that was driving is the one that was life lighted and spent a week in the ICU, but is now out of the ICU, but is dealing with major trauma and still cannot recognize some of his family members.  The Jensen's were literally thrown in as mission president and wife immediately, but they have handled everything so well!  After we met the Jensen's each missionary shared his or her testimony.  The spirit was so strong at that meeting.  We continued with the meeting and had trainings and what not. I had an interview with President after the meeting which was really neat to get to know him a little bit better.  On Saturday we helped out with a children's parade that took place in the morning and that evening we had a lesson with Sarah.  The spirit was so strong because we threw out our lesson plans and helped her to understand the scriptures that we had left her to read the previous time we were there.  She had read them at least twice and so we went through the scriptures and helped break it down so she could understand them.  At the end of the lesson Sister Thompson invited Sarah to church for the following day.  Sarah sat and thought about it for a while and then said that she would come!!!!!!!!!!  The spirit is amazing and works miracles!  Well as always the following day we had curveballs trying to figure out rides to church and how to prevent her from being overwhelmed by the large number of visitors at church.  Well she stayed the entire three hours of church!!!!!!!!!

The gospel is true and works miracles with people!

 Love you all!

 Sister Call

  

P. S.

Sister Cox just barely got news that her visa came and she will be flying out on the 15th.  One week!  It is such a bitter sweet moment.  We thought for sure she would be here for at least 4-6 months.  It will be so sad to see her go! I seriously love her, but am so grateful that our paths have crossed and that we will both be attending BYU-I when we get back!  It will be interesting to see what happens to our companionship and what changes will all happen in the next 7 weeks of my mission.

haha Oh so the water in Carthage isn't great so we have to get our water from the Family Search Center in Nauvoo.   So this is the picture with me and the water jugs.

 Did Matt and Lori move to Arizona already?  If so that is way exciting for them!  I work pageant the following nights in case they haven't left for arizona already and want to make a stop in Nauvoo.11, 13, 17, 19, 25, 27, 31, 1.  They are subject to change but that is what it is right now

Love you,

Sister Call

 

Interesting Week

This last week was interesting! On Monday we had dinner with a non member family that are basically Mormon's they just don't know it, and we taught them how to hold a family night.  They have a really cute family and have many friends that are members, but they don't seem super interested in the gospel so we'll see what happens.  Also, after the dinner wih that family we were knocking on doors and the last house we went to we knocked and rang the door bell, and we were about to walk back to the car when a lady named Heather opened the door.  We talked to her for a litle bit and found out that she and her family don't attend a church regularly so we set up an appointment to return and teach her Saturday, but when we went no one answered.  Bummer, but we will stop by again another day.  On Tuesday we had our normal routine with our studies in the morning, volunteering at the Hamilton City Hall, lunch at Brother and Sister Hunt's, service at Montebellos Care Center where we paint the ladies fingernails as they sing (not exactly up my alley, but I'm starting to get to know some of the ladies there).  Once we were done at Montebellos we drove to Nauvoo, because the Peoria zone went through the temple because as of today they are now apart of the new Chicago West mission.    President and Sister Jergensen were in Nauvoo and so we got to see them one last time before they headed home.  The Sister Training leader that Sister Thompson works with is in the Peoria Zone, so we picked up Sister Rowbury and dropped off Sister Thompson, because Sister Thomspon and Sister Little were going on exchanges with 4 different areas this past week.  Well Sister Rowbury is from around Pocatello Idaho, and has been out one transfer longer than Sister Cox and I, so three brand new missionaries were running the area from Tuesday evening until Saturday afternoon.  It was nerve racking not having our trainer to depend on but it made us each step up to the plate.  Wednesday we had service at the hospital and the home health clinic and then spent the rest of the day visiting less actives, recent converts, and knocking on doors.  haha It is amazing the excuses people use while we are knocking doors, but I just have to keep thinking of how sad it is that these individuals do not realize the happiness that comes from the gospel and what they are turning down.  I also received my package, so thank you for getting that sent!  Thursday was quite the day.  We had district meeting in Macomb so we rode with Elder and Sister Warner (couple that serves in the Nauvoo 1st ward but are in our district).  The district met for lunch at an Asian Buffet which was fine but not somewhere I would choose to eat if I had the choice. We then had district meeting which went alright, but the classroom we were in was like a thousand degrees and we could not get the air to work, but we all survived.  When we returned back to Carthage we went to our dinner appointment which ended up being very interesting.  It was one of those times where you don't know what the person is trying to accomplish.  Like the dad was basically playing devil's advocate, but we weren't sure what he was trying to get at, because he knew we were all brand new, and still don't know everything that goes on.  So by the time we were done with dinner we all discouraged and felt like failures, which normally is not the case at all.  Also, to make that day even better when we got back to our apartment we received a text from President Jergensen asking for Sister Thompson to call him. So we relayed the message to her and she called President who went on to say that our investigators Herb and Carolyn were going to be taught by the Warners since Carolyn feels pressured since the girls are always being transferred.  So the cherry on top of our day was that our somewhat promising investigators are now not our investigators. 

 

Thank goodness for laughter though, because without it I would be a wreck and life would be miserable.  Despite all that happened Thursday, when we were about to fall asleep I just started laughing at all that happened that day and the mere fact that we survived it was a miracle, but I was so grateful that it was night because the following morning would be a new day and we could start over.  Well then Sister Cox and I started doing "remember when . . . "  about our entire day and we were laughing so hard I was crying.  So despite everything that went wrong we were still able to have a good attitude abou it.  

 

We are still teaching Sarah, so we taught her on Friday and the lesson went well and she really wants to find out if the church is true and she really wants to trust Heavenly Father, but it is taking time for each little step.  Well we are working on the Word of Wisdom with her so Sister Cox and I decided to give up something this week if Sarah would not drink coffee.  So I am giving up candy for the week which is hard because I have the package  with the candy that you sent right next to my bed and it sounds so good each day, but I promised Sarah I wouldn't eat any.  After our lesson with Sarah we went over to a members home who needed help moving some book shelves, because their health is not good enough to move them.  It was really nice to have some one call and ask for our help!  I loved being able to help them.  When we got done helping them we had a little bit of time before our dinner appointment so we went tracting and it was really neat.  We went to several homes and as we were walking there was a college aged kid from Champain, Illinois that was doing door to door insurance or something of that sort.  So we started talking to him and he was in Hamilton for only that day, but asked if we were in Champain as well.  We explained that there are missionaries there even though we won't be there.  We continued to talk and were able to place a Book of Mormon with him, so hopefully the missionaries will find him in Champain. 

 

Saturday we were helping out with the 100 yr celebration of the Keokuk Dam which was the first dam across the Mississippi River.  So we helped run a booth for the town that sold items commemorating the celebration.  When we were done there we traveled over to Peoria to pick Sister Thompson back up.  It is great to have her back with us!

 

Church was really good yesterday and we had dinner with the Smiths.  They had invited two girls that are here for the summer working at the hotel, over for dinner.  One of them looked way familar, so it turns out that she was in my ELED 1010 class at USU and she lives in the same neighborhood as the kid that Sister Cox was dating before she left on her mission.  What a small world!  Anyways, it was yesterday when it hit me that Townsen was coming home this past week!  Crazy!  Tell him hi for me!  I am positive that he was a wonderful missionary and that his report was fantastic!  I'm glad to hear Brianna is loving the MTC,  I received a letter from her this last week, but she wrote it before she was at the MTC so I haven't heard from her since she's been at the MTC.  I also heard from Marci and she is being trained by Sister Southam (from Star Valley),  crazy, but she is loving North Carolina.

 

Can you believe the half marathon is coming up?  I was running the other morning with Sister Cox and was talking about if I was home I would be running a half marathon in less than 2 weeks!  I hope it goes better this year than it did last year.  That is way neat you won an entry for the Soda Springs half.  Are you going to do it?

 

Haha I'm glad the heat has found you too, and I am not the only one who gets to experience the heat.  But we do have humidity and the hotter it is, the more the humidity is. The Pageant starts July 9th and runs through August 3rd.  We have our training on July 3rd so I will find out more about what I will be helping with, but Sister Thompson suspects that we will be up there approximately three nights a week.  We don't have any progressing investigators and so we do a lot of tracting, so keep praying for hearts to be softened in this area. 

Sounds like Dad and the boys had fun riding!  Did you have to clear any of the trees off of the trail? It is always fun to read what things the family did each week!  Thank you for always making family important and spending time doing things fun with us.  It breaks my heart to see people who's family doesn't spend time together.

As of right now I don't think we have any plans for the Fourth of July, but we will see what comes up.  On Friday we have zone conference so we get to meet President and Sister Jensen, and I was notified this morning that I would be one of four individuals interviewed by him after the conference.  I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.  It will be great to get to know him better through the interview.   

Oh f.y.i on Saturday night there was a set of Elders that were in a serious car accident and were life flighted to Des Moines.  I feel bad for President and Sister Jensen because this happened on their first night in the mission home. 

Anyways enjoy the fourth of July!   

Well I love you all and thank you for your support!

 

The Gospel is real and is here for everyone!

 

Love Sister Hannah Call