Lists

This week I am just really liking lists...so, I thought I would share one with ya'll of noteworty occurances this week.

1. There's a guy trying to make it big in the street-dancing scene and we see him all around Lynn jammin' out to some music he's got playing on his headphones - sometimes he even starts yelling out the song he's listening to...it's kinda funny :)
2. Sometimes it pays to try a different doorbell. We had tried visiting an inactive 3 or 4 times and had apparently been ringing the wrong doorbell every time. I'm so glad we finally got to meet her! She's SUPER awesome!!
3. I have fallen in love with plantain chips...yum!
4. We only have 10 minutes now! The library is hoppin this afternoon.
5. This week we had lots of extra time to go tracting and contacting. While we didn't have very many appointments, we found 3 inactive people whose records we don't even have - we just contacted into them. Crazy stuff!
6. We got to go to the temple yesterday!!!!!!! It was such a blessing to get to go - it was open for the missionaries and our stake yesterday for 6 sessions and so we went early (by way of Kane donuts in Saugus - delish!) and had a very spiritually uplifting experience. I miss being able to go every week.
7. My mom taught me how to frost really well - our cake we decorated at the relief society activity wasn't completely finished (see #8) but the base layer of frosting sure looked good.
8. We had dinner with the Familia Fuentes (Branch President's family) on Saturday. We had to leave the activity early to get there on time but we got there and then had to wait for Presidente so we could go out to eat. We were following behind their car but they didn't tell us beforehand where we were going. We got a text as we started driving through Revere that we were going all the way to Chelsea! (It's a 30-40 minute ride from Swampscott/Lynn area depending on Traffic). So, we had to hurry and call our district leader to get permission, but it turned out okay and we got to eat at Pollo Campero (Guatamalan Fast-food chain that is delish but probably not worth all those miles we had to spend...oh well - we live and learn :)
9. I got my hair cut yesterday! Just a little trim so it's not really very noticably shorter. It's not the best hair cut, but we got a good deal and I really don't think it matters that much seeing that I'm on a mission.
10. This is definitely a no-snow type of winter here in good ole' MA. We seriously lucked out.

Sunday was really good for me because I feel like I learned a lot about having faith through Tribulation. A member gave a talk (her first in Sacrament actually I'm pretty sure) and shared her personal experiences. She has a little 3 or 4 year old girl that is an absolute DOLL!! Everyone at church just loves her! But she looks like she's more like 1 or 2 years old max. She's gone through lots of health problems though and the reason she and her mom are even here is just for her health. It really helped me remember in a very simple way that Heavenly Father does try us to help us grow stronger and to learn from our adversities. I remembered something that I thought about a month or two ago about how every experience has a purpose and even when it seems like all my trials are for naught, they're not. At the very least they will help me understand other people who have been in the same situation.

I love this gospel!! I'm so lucky to be so immersed in it. I feel like I'm really starting to undersatnd my responsibility as a member of this Church now that I'm a missionary - better late than never I suppose.

LOVES!!

-Hermana Palmer

 

 

 

February 13, 2012

Time flies when you're having fun! I feel like I've only been in this area for 3 days and it's already been 3 weeks! I don't understand how time can be so tricky sometimes.

 

Sad news, I was talking to Sister Hales at Zone Conference this last week and they haven't been able to track down Dxxxxx anywhere since I left Revere. How sad! She was SO close to getting baptized too!! I really hope she turns up somewhere.

 

Pizza at Santarpio's last week was DELISH!!! It's such a dumpy little hole-in the wall with the waiter yelling in his "Bawstun" accent but the pizza is super famous in E. Boston and for a good reason. I ate my half of the pizza rather quickly :)

 

We're honestly having a hard time getting our investigators progressing right now. We only have 6 or 7 investigators and we're having a hard time contacting some of them and with the rest, they just seem to think they are so busy that there is absolutely no time to do any of the things we ask them. It's disheartening sometimes, but I just remember that we're planting lots of seeds and even if some of them don't blossom right now, they're there - ready to grow if they'll just feed it.

 

We had zone conference last Thursday with 2 other zones in Cambridge. The Cambridge chapel is SO cool! The parking garage is below the church and then there are three levels upstairs. One level is all classrooms, one is the chapel and cultural hall and I think on the third there's another Chapel (we didn't go up there at all). It's always really fun to get to meet new missionaries and see our whole zone again. This transfer we're having to get to know a lot of new missionaries in our zone because ours got really shook up with transfers.

 

Anyway, the conference was awesome! The focus really was on baptism and making sure that the people we're teaching know that's why we're there. It's something so simple, but something that I forget to bring up in the first lesson so many times. The other focus was on personal worthiness and really striving to do the best we can. We've really tried implementing what President Evans said about talking about baptism so we've been doing that for the last few days and it has been changing our teaching for the better left and right. We had an appointment with Bxxxxxx on Friday - her daughter Cxxxxxxx is a member but semi-inactive and her mom got all the missionary lessons with her daughter and has heard all of them three times but just didn't feel ready to get baptized with her daughter. So, in our lesson we really talked about baptism with her and how it can bless her life. She said that she would like to get baptized - she just still seems to think she needs to know everything beforehand. We're going to keep working with her to set a date and really try to help her progress.

 

Our branch is great :) We got invited to the relief society activity on Saturday and we learned how to make Biscocho (Dominican way to say pastel which means cake. It was DELICIOUS!! It's also really complex. So, for the class this Saturday we're supposed to make the cake and bring it to learn to decorate it...but I think we're just going to buy a mix today because it took way too much time (and Hna. Lxxxxxxx used a mug to measure all the ingredients - I don't know if I'm that comfortable eye-balling it haha!

 

Tomorrow is Valentines day - I hope you know that I LOVE YOU!!!

 

Mucho Amor!

-Hermana Palmer

Another week in Swampscott...but I call it paradise :)

This week has been delish :)

The Lynn branch is pretty awesome. They could totally be a ward if they would just get the less-active and inactive members to church. So, a lot of our work, as I have found out this week, is with members. Our big success-story has been with a member who came to church out of the blue last week for the first time in a while.   We were really excited to see her at church last week so we set up an appointment with here the following Tuesday. Tuesday came, we went to her house, but she wasn't there. We left a note with her daughter and went on our merry way to tract in the cold. We were in her area again on Wednesday or Thursday and so we thought we'd drop by to see if she was home. The same daughter answered the door but her mom was busy at the moment and couldn't come to the door. So, we left and visited some other people we had been planning to visit. We were rather disheartened by the turn of events, but it's nothing new. It happens to us on a regular basis that people don't keep appointments with and then we can't get back in contact with them.

So, Friday night we were going to a lesson with two of our investigators that fell through. As we were deciding what to do instead, we got a phone call from an unrecognized number. Usually Hna. Hildenbrand refuses to pick it up for un-recognized numbers because of a former investigator that still keeps calling...long story. But I really felt like we needed to answer. So, I did and it was Hna. Xxxxxx! The same Hna. Xxxxxxx that we had been trying to get in touch with. It turns out she lost our phone number and had to call around to get it to tell us she was so sorry for missing the appointment. She's taking a U.S. History class every Tuesday night that she had forgotten about. We came and met with her on Saturday and it turns out she is quite the "Bromista" (someone who teases and jokes a lot). She kept trying to trip us up on our Spanish, and told all sorts of stories of her tricking missionaries into thinking she was a non-member and giving them all sorts of grief about not believing in the Book of Mormon because we worship Joseph Smith and all that nonsense. She's quite tricky :) But, we got to know her pretty well and, what do you know, she came to church again yesterday and participated more than the whole relief society put together during our member missionary work lesson we taught. It was awesome! I really hope that her coming to church becomes a pattern.

Yesterday, during the Super Bowl, we were at a loss as to what we should do. We tried knocking doors, but everybody who answered was very rushed and all decked out in their Patriot's gear. They were cordial, but they certainly didn't want to talk to missionaries as the game was getting ready to start in the next hour or so. So, we did a little street contacting and luckily had a dinner appointment with the Xxxxx. They are the best! They live on the second floor of our building and like to have us over on Sunday nights for dinner. They are a young couple that are called to serve in the branch. They have an adorable little boy. They are Aggie alumni and Xxxx actually did the two-year piano pedagogy program right before they did away with it so we had a wonderful chat about our former lives as USU piano majors.

Well, we have to head off to Santarpio's to get pizza. If anyone has any ideas of fun touristy or non-touristy things to do in the greater boston area, we would love to hear them :) I think we'll try Harvard next week.

Loves to all!
-Hermana Palmer