Sep 15, 2012

September 10, 2012 Letter

Hello there!!

How are you all this week?! I sure do love when I get to hear from friends and family. Thanks so much for your emails and for your updates on your busy and fun lives.

Being here in the big city has been a really great experience for me so far - to see what exactly people my age are having to cope with in their daily lives as we talk to members here has been really good for me. There are many good examples around me for which I am very grateful. Some of the single adults here have gone through a lot and are still here, faithful, fulfilling their callings, and sharing their joy. It is really cool when a member comes up to you and says, "Hey, I've got a friend who I'd like you to meet, can you come have dinner with us this week so she can get to know the missionaries and ask you some questions?" That is a wonderful thing! Members who are actively making these natural, simple invitations to their friends and getting us involved unobtrusively is amazing. I've never had this experience until this transfer - and now we've had it 3 times! One of those dinners, with a girl named Alex, has turned into an investigator.

I don't know that I've told you about Alex. She's super cool! She and her friend Jake (member) both started as interns on the Romney campaign and were hired on full-time at about the same time. They work up to 80 hours a week - super crazy! They are both covering different swing states and are busy setting up events and doing lots of other things. Anyway, so as they've gotten to know each other, Alex has kind of started to have questions about the church and Jake has been answering them. Then he invited the elders to dinner and brought Alex along - she really enjoyed talking about the gospel over food so the next week (last Tuesday) Jake invited us too! We had a really good little discussion about personal revelation and gave her a Book of Mormon which she was super excited to receive! She enjoyed our meeting so much that she wanted to meet again on Saturday (2 days ago). We had dinner at Quincy market and explained a little more about the Book of Mormon - she was a little more closed off because she wasn't having the best of days at work (they usually don't actually take a break for lunch or dinner - but they've been taking breaks to come eat with us so work is still very much on the brain for them I would imagine). But she was still super happy to get to talk to us and share some food. Things are looking up :) We have 2 investigators now! Woot!

We had a very fun treat on Sunday - President Packard and his whole family spoke in LP1 Sacrament Meeting. It was super great! It amazes me how much Michael, his 12 year old son, understands about the gospel and how simply and clearly he can explain. It's quite incredible. He talked about a really cool experience their family had with a guy going door to door selling magazines. He knocked on the door of the mission home and they declined buying magazines but invited him in for dinner and to talk about the gospel and he was super touched by their kindness. Something that is hitting me as more and more important is just making the gospel the very core of who I am so that anybody that even knows who I am knows that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is starting to be an integral part of me and once it really does I will have no problem sharing the gospel with absolutely everyone I come in contact with.

Anyway, life is super great - I got to teach our district a little Spanish on Friday at our district meeting - just enough for them to make a street contact. Some days I feel like I'm forgetting Spanish and other days I feel like I'm still struggling teaching in English mode.

It's starting to get a little bit chilly in the evenings - fall is on the way! I'm so excited for the colors here! We'll see if it's everything the "pirates who don't do anything" have sung about.

I love you all SOOOOOOO much!! Truly, I do!

All my love and adoration,
Sister Palmer

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