So, hey there!!
I'm officially a trainer! This is good stuff!
If you really want to learn how to be a missionary, you really have to
teach it. It has definitely helped me learn what I need to do better
and improve on. Being a trainer is super fun! Sister Khaled really is
amazing - she has an amazing happy personality and the cutest Portuguese
accent! Everything she says is so adorable - probably not so great
because it makes me not want to ever correct her English.
For Example:
Sister Williams: I love you Sister Khaled!
Sister Khaled: Me too!!
Haha!
We both started giggling :) Everyone loves Sister Khaled! Even
herself :) We then explained that if she said that to someone it
sounded like she was saying she loves herself - too funny!
The poor dear has been living off of our fine American Cuisine the
last several days - we've been kind of out of food and didn't even have
time yesterday to go grocery shopping because of our fun p-day
activity. So, we've been living off of Raman, Mac and Cheese, Burritos,
Toast, and luckily we've had a couple of member dinners too. Last
night we had a delicious dinner from Jenn - she's in LP1 and, surprise
surprise, she knows Sister Khaled! She went on her mission to Portugal
and served in Sister Khaled's ward! So they go way back and it was
really fun for them to both speak some Portuguese :)
Well, this email is a short one - I am afraid I spent too much time
on individual emails and on downloading general conference talks...I
LOVED general conference this weekend!!
I love you all so much and hope and pray you are all well and happy.
Best Wishes!
Sister Palmer
Oct 10, 2012
Oct 4, 2012
October 03, 2012 Letter
Howdy family and friends!! Another week (and a half) has come and gone! Times are changing. Another transfer is upon us. You will all be relieved to know that Sister Williams and I are staying in our area together. We are super excited to get the chance to keep working with our investigators. The exciting thing is that we are going to be getting a third missionary! A brand new missionary from the MTC! I get to be a trainer for the first time!
Now, in mission language, since I am going to be her trainer I will be her "mom" and she is my "daughter." So I'm going to be a mom tomorrow!! I'm super excited and nervous and all that good stuff. We met Sister Khaled last night - she got to come and have a slumber party with us right before she had to go right back to the mission home. She's spending all of today there doing training and stuff like that with President and his family. We didn't get much chance to talk because President finally let his two daughters come have a slumber party with us last night so it was quite the party and we were all pretty tired so we didn't stay up super late.
But, I can tell you that Sister Khaled is from Portugal and she's super pretty and seems really chill. She didn't seem nervous at all yesterday and seems ready to take on the world! Her English is really quite good considering she didn't really like it before her mission. This facilitated a lack of wanting to learn English but she's been in the MTC for nine weeks brushing up and she seems like she can do pretty well. The other good news is that she speaks Spanish so if she ever needs help with something in English, we should be able to work things out :) I'm super excited!! It's going to be a rocking good time. I don't know if I'm ready for another trio so fast, but ready or not, here it comes! I am very glad that Sister Williams and I will almost be co-training our new missionary. It will keep things hopping.
I love being a missionary! This week we've had a few pretty rad experiences. The most recent was yesterday. Sister Williams had a great idea last week for something we could do for Alex since she is so incredibly busy on the Romney campaign. She came up with an idea for a study journal. She doesn't have tons of time to read, but we thought it would be useful that she could write down what she learns so at least the little she does read, she remembers. She's also the kind of really smart person that likes to almost teach his/her self. So, we thought it would be a great tool. Well, we took it to her yesterday all decorated and with special notes in it from us. She seemed fairly happy when we surprised her with it but expressed that she was always SO bad at writing in a journal but has always wanted to start. We found out, secretly, from her friend that works there at her office that after we had finished telling her about general conference and gave her the journal, she was watching to/listening to talks online and furiously scribbling away in her new journal. Cool, eh?! We were SO stoked to hear that she was already using it!
One of our Chinese friends, Shanshan, met with us on BU campus and we brought a member along who speaks Manderin. It was a total success!! Shanshan has been pretty shy around us because of the language barrier and so she has clung to her 2 other friends for support in our lessons/at church. But at our lesson this week she really opened up to us a lot and is actually really good at English. She is just way harder on herself than she should be.
This morning as I was studying, I was reading in Preach my Gospel, chapter 10 all about teaching skills. I have been noticing that my listening skills are kind of not up to par so I read about that specifically. I definitely want to make listening a bigger focus over the course of the rest of my life. Listening, and listening actively and intently, really makes the difference in any relationship. With a missionary companion, investigator, member, and even with friends and family and random joes you meet on the street. I really want to become and expert listener. I think that therin lies the secret to really coming to know people's thoughts/desires/goals/hopes. I am going to be a better listener.
Drop a line if you haven't lately! I'm going to be better about writing back, promise!!
I love you all!!
Sister Palmer
Now, in mission language, since I am going to be her trainer I will be her "mom" and she is my "daughter." So I'm going to be a mom tomorrow!! I'm super excited and nervous and all that good stuff. We met Sister Khaled last night - she got to come and have a slumber party with us right before she had to go right back to the mission home. She's spending all of today there doing training and stuff like that with President and his family. We didn't get much chance to talk because President finally let his two daughters come have a slumber party with us last night so it was quite the party and we were all pretty tired so we didn't stay up super late.
But, I can tell you that Sister Khaled is from Portugal and she's super pretty and seems really chill. She didn't seem nervous at all yesterday and seems ready to take on the world! Her English is really quite good considering she didn't really like it before her mission. This facilitated a lack of wanting to learn English but she's been in the MTC for nine weeks brushing up and she seems like she can do pretty well. The other good news is that she speaks Spanish so if she ever needs help with something in English, we should be able to work things out :) I'm super excited!! It's going to be a rocking good time. I don't know if I'm ready for another trio so fast, but ready or not, here it comes! I am very glad that Sister Williams and I will almost be co-training our new missionary. It will keep things hopping.
I love being a missionary! This week we've had a few pretty rad experiences. The most recent was yesterday. Sister Williams had a great idea last week for something we could do for Alex since she is so incredibly busy on the Romney campaign. She came up with an idea for a study journal. She doesn't have tons of time to read, but we thought it would be useful that she could write down what she learns so at least the little she does read, she remembers. She's also the kind of really smart person that likes to almost teach his/her self. So, we thought it would be a great tool. Well, we took it to her yesterday all decorated and with special notes in it from us. She seemed fairly happy when we surprised her with it but expressed that she was always SO bad at writing in a journal but has always wanted to start. We found out, secretly, from her friend that works there at her office that after we had finished telling her about general conference and gave her the journal, she was watching to/listening to talks online and furiously scribbling away in her new journal. Cool, eh?! We were SO stoked to hear that she was already using it!
One of our Chinese friends, Shanshan, met with us on BU campus and we brought a member along who speaks Manderin. It was a total success!! Shanshan has been pretty shy around us because of the language barrier and so she has clung to her 2 other friends for support in our lessons/at church. But at our lesson this week she really opened up to us a lot and is actually really good at English. She is just way harder on herself than she should be.
This morning as I was studying, I was reading in Preach my Gospel, chapter 10 all about teaching skills. I have been noticing that my listening skills are kind of not up to par so I read about that specifically. I definitely want to make listening a bigger focus over the course of the rest of my life. Listening, and listening actively and intently, really makes the difference in any relationship. With a missionary companion, investigator, member, and even with friends and family and random joes you meet on the street. I really want to become and expert listener. I think that therin lies the secret to really coming to know people's thoughts/desires/goals/hopes. I am going to be a better listener.
Drop a line if you haven't lately! I'm going to be better about writing back, promise!!
I love you all!!
Sister Palmer
September 24, 2012 Letter
Well, hello there!!
How are things on the home front?
First thing is first, I promised mom for the story of how the article came about. Well, it all started a few weeks before I even got here to this area. Sister Williams and Sister Edwards had a great plan to throw an open house at the Longfellow Park chapel for nonmembers (and members) to learn about the historical side of the building and about the church itself. So, they organized everything, and got a bunch of missionaries to be tour guides, had "Mormon Messages" playing in the gym up on a cool projector, and had yummy treats. The whole shebang. They also called a bunch of local news stations and someone came from the Boston Globe. He really liked what he saw and got the missionaries' contact info. A few days later Yvonne Abraham called the sisters (she's the one who wrote the article) and asked them if she could do an article about them and kind of what it's like to be a missionary here in Boston. So, the sisters talked with President Packard, and President Packard took it to the first presidency, President Eyring. He gave it his blessing and plans started being made.
At this last transfer meeting, the first time I had heard all this was as Sister Packard started asking Sister Williams excitedly about when it was going to be. I had no idea what she was talking about - so Sister Williams filled me in and caught me up to speed. We had to coordinate the day and the time with the public affairs of the church and Yvonne just showed up to our apartment and we took her around for about 5 hours doing all our normal missionary stuff. She asked a TON of questions and we answered them all pretty well I thought. It was so funny to me to see the really random details she put in her article. It was a little disappointing to me that she didn't include more of our really good and uplifting experiences we had during those five hours.
At any rate, the outcome seemed rather positive and so we're not going to complain :) President Packard was really stoked about it and he went out and bought us each two copies of the paper so we could have one and send one home to our families which it sounds like you got this week.
This week has been super great. We've been working really hard and wearing ourselves out. It feels really good to know that you spent your time well. We had a really amazing lesson this week with Sherry. She's on her way to recognizing the Holy Ghost!! During our lesson with her she was able to recognize a prompting and now is just praying and fasting to know how to act. We are super excited for her. I feel like Satan is working SO hard to keep her from coming to church! She wanted to bring her roommate to church today but they got out to the bus stop and were waiting for half an hour. A passerby finally told them that the particular bus she was waiting for wasn't going to start running until 4pm because of a parade! Uh!! She definitely didn't have time to walk to church. We decided we are going to skip our ward council meeting this next week and just come to her house and take the bus with her! She needs to come to church!!
On Sunday we were blessed with some other amazing successes. I think I may have mentioned the new BU students that we're teaching - they are all three Chinese and are all getting their masters in different programs. They are super adorable and all, in the midst of their very busy schedules, made time for church. They even got there early to have a lesson with us and with a member who, we didn't realize, goes to BU too! It worked out really well. He speaks Manderin too so he was able to help us out in explaining new words and phrases to them. I seriously love our wards. They are really good at fellowshipping our investigators - at least they were this week. I think five or six people came up to the three girls to meet them and get to know them a bit. They felt really good and want to keep coming.
Our members are really good at inviting their own friends. Last week Trang, a member, brought her friend to church and she loved it! She even got signed up last minute and went to the ward camp out this last weekend and had a really good time! I want to be a cool missionary-minded-member!
I'm sure you all are interested to know that the Porter Challenge took place on Saturday. Almost our entire zone showed up which made it a lot of fun. With victory on our hearts, we learned that the stairs were very long...and we ran really hard...let's leave it at that. haha!
I'm realizing that my Spanish is kind of suffering. I need to do a better job this week at really making time to practice speaking - even if it's just to myself. Last night I was on the phone with the Lynn Hermanas and didn't fare so well with the old Español.
So, the official new word on music with our Mission President came out today - he is going to the white handbook for his inspiration and just...following the white handbook. This is what he quoted from it:
“Listen only to music that is consistent with the sacred spirit of your calling. Music should invite the Spirit, help you focus on the work, and direct your thoughts and feelings to the Savior. Do not listen to music that pulls your thoughts away from your work, merely entertains, has romantic lyrics or overtones, or dulls your spiritual sensitivity by its tempo, beat, loudness, lyrics, or intensity. Listening to music must never interfere with your personal preparation or proselyting.”
That's kind of cool. Not sure what I can do with that since I got rid of all my non mo-tab or classical music...but now you know if you ever want to send me any music ;)
This week I have been doing some thinking about Spiritual Gifts and really trying to figure out how to cultivate those gifts. I know that the spiritual gifts we've been given are given us to bless the lives of others. It just comes down to our diligence in developing those gifts and practicing them righteously that really unlocks the blessings for ourselves and those around us. I really want to work on making a conscious effort to seek those gifts and use them more effectively.
I really do love being a missionary. We have a pretty cool job.
That is all.
wah eye knee (my lame attempt at saying "I love you" in Manderin...that's what it sounds like to me)
Sister Palmer
How are things on the home front?
First thing is first, I promised mom for the story of how the article came about. Well, it all started a few weeks before I even got here to this area. Sister Williams and Sister Edwards had a great plan to throw an open house at the Longfellow Park chapel for nonmembers (and members) to learn about the historical side of the building and about the church itself. So, they organized everything, and got a bunch of missionaries to be tour guides, had "Mormon Messages" playing in the gym up on a cool projector, and had yummy treats. The whole shebang. They also called a bunch of local news stations and someone came from the Boston Globe. He really liked what he saw and got the missionaries' contact info. A few days later Yvonne Abraham called the sisters (she's the one who wrote the article) and asked them if she could do an article about them and kind of what it's like to be a missionary here in Boston. So, the sisters talked with President Packard, and President Packard took it to the first presidency, President Eyring. He gave it his blessing and plans started being made.
At this last transfer meeting, the first time I had heard all this was as Sister Packard started asking Sister Williams excitedly about when it was going to be. I had no idea what she was talking about - so Sister Williams filled me in and caught me up to speed. We had to coordinate the day and the time with the public affairs of the church and Yvonne just showed up to our apartment and we took her around for about 5 hours doing all our normal missionary stuff. She asked a TON of questions and we answered them all pretty well I thought. It was so funny to me to see the really random details she put in her article. It was a little disappointing to me that she didn't include more of our really good and uplifting experiences we had during those five hours.
At any rate, the outcome seemed rather positive and so we're not going to complain :) President Packard was really stoked about it and he went out and bought us each two copies of the paper so we could have one and send one home to our families which it sounds like you got this week.
This week has been super great. We've been working really hard and wearing ourselves out. It feels really good to know that you spent your time well. We had a really amazing lesson this week with Sherry. She's on her way to recognizing the Holy Ghost!! During our lesson with her she was able to recognize a prompting and now is just praying and fasting to know how to act. We are super excited for her. I feel like Satan is working SO hard to keep her from coming to church! She wanted to bring her roommate to church today but they got out to the bus stop and were waiting for half an hour. A passerby finally told them that the particular bus she was waiting for wasn't going to start running until 4pm because of a parade! Uh!! She definitely didn't have time to walk to church. We decided we are going to skip our ward council meeting this next week and just come to her house and take the bus with her! She needs to come to church!!
On Sunday we were blessed with some other amazing successes. I think I may have mentioned the new BU students that we're teaching - they are all three Chinese and are all getting their masters in different programs. They are super adorable and all, in the midst of their very busy schedules, made time for church. They even got there early to have a lesson with us and with a member who, we didn't realize, goes to BU too! It worked out really well. He speaks Manderin too so he was able to help us out in explaining new words and phrases to them. I seriously love our wards. They are really good at fellowshipping our investigators - at least they were this week. I think five or six people came up to the three girls to meet them and get to know them a bit. They felt really good and want to keep coming.
Our members are really good at inviting their own friends. Last week Trang, a member, brought her friend to church and she loved it! She even got signed up last minute and went to the ward camp out this last weekend and had a really good time! I want to be a cool missionary-minded-member!
I'm sure you all are interested to know that the Porter Challenge took place on Saturday. Almost our entire zone showed up which made it a lot of fun. With victory on our hearts, we learned that the stairs were very long...and we ran really hard...let's leave it at that. haha!
I'm realizing that my Spanish is kind of suffering. I need to do a better job this week at really making time to practice speaking - even if it's just to myself. Last night I was on the phone with the Lynn Hermanas and didn't fare so well with the old Español.
So, the official new word on music with our Mission President came out today - he is going to the white handbook for his inspiration and just...following the white handbook. This is what he quoted from it:
“Listen only to music that is consistent with the sacred spirit of your calling. Music should invite the Spirit, help you focus on the work, and direct your thoughts and feelings to the Savior. Do not listen to music that pulls your thoughts away from your work, merely entertains, has romantic lyrics or overtones, or dulls your spiritual sensitivity by its tempo, beat, loudness, lyrics, or intensity. Listening to music must never interfere with your personal preparation or proselyting.”
That's kind of cool. Not sure what I can do with that since I got rid of all my non mo-tab or classical music...but now you know if you ever want to send me any music ;)
This week I have been doing some thinking about Spiritual Gifts and really trying to figure out how to cultivate those gifts. I know that the spiritual gifts we've been given are given us to bless the lives of others. It just comes down to our diligence in developing those gifts and practicing them righteously that really unlocks the blessings for ourselves and those around us. I really want to work on making a conscious effort to seek those gifts and use them more effectively.
I really do love being a missionary. We have a pretty cool job.
That is all.
wah eye knee (my lame attempt at saying "I love you" in Manderin...that's what it sounds like to me)
Sister Palmer
September 17, 2012 Letter
Well Hi!!
How are you doing? I'm doing GREAT!!! I'm really tired actually. We just finished walking the freedom - which ended in the Bunker Hill Monument...which has 294 stairs...which we skampered up rather quickly in an attempt to practice up for "the Porter Challenge" that I believe I mentioned last week. It feels really good to sit down and just let my fingers do the work for a little while. It was super fun to do the whole freedom trail altogether though. I really enjoyed the exercise. There are a bazillion tourists! It was fun to get to listen in on french conversations and pretend I know what they're saying. Probably the highlight was a street performer who was hanging out in front of Quincy Market. He was really funny and knows how to work an audience. At first it was impossible to tell what he was going to be doing - but as he went on he pulled out a 9 foot unicycle, a bagpipe, and some juggling machetes....and amazingly enough was able to utilize all three at the same time :) Quite the sight! Boston is full of funny people!
This week we were super blessed to get 2 new investigators! Elder Yim had received the referral from the AP's because he speaks Manderin and these girls do to, but he's going home in a few weeks and thought it would be better to just get some members involved (we have 5 or 6 members in our ward who went to Tiwain so that's pretty cool!). So, we went with Elder Yim and Elder Leonard to have kind of a pass-off lesson. It was really cool because most of the time it ended up being Manderin-time. It transported me right back to the MTC when I couldn't understand a single thing people were saying to me. It might be super useful to pick up a little Manderin - now 3/4 investigators we have are Chinese.
Porter Challenge is going down on Saturday. We're pretty stoked for it! We've been getting up at 5:50 to go running over to Boston College and go up a big staircase they have on one of their hills. 168 stairs or something like that. We're going to be ready! We are going to dominate!
Elder Hallick, the member of the seventy over our mission, has been here touring the mission and we're having a zone conference with him tomorrow - I'm really looking forward to that.
We had a funny lesson with Sherry this week. She is so adorable and sincere and sometimes just says the funniest things. This week we were talking with her about prayer and about how the Holy Ghost answers our prayers in different ways. She said, "I think I know why the Holy Ghost hasn't been answering my prayers - he doesn't speak Manderin." We had to assure her that that's not true :) Also, after I finished talking about some of my personal experiences with the Holy Ghost, she leaned close to me and was staring into my eyes, so I reciprocated and started doing the same thing jokingly. Then she remarked, "I'm trying to read the Holy Ghost in your eyes." She is seriously so adorable!
This week really has been super great - yesterday was super refreshing. I felt all sorts of energy and excitement to be a better missionary after all the meetings we had. Part of that stems from the overall topic I got out of church which was recognizing God's hand in all things. Another part of that comes from the really great Missionary Correlation meeting we had with our ward mission leader. He's really energetic and super excited about missionary work and is really going to get things moving this year. He gave us a cool homework assignment last week that I spent the week thinking about and working on. The homework assignment was to make a verbal sketch of what the perfect missionary day would look like if we were somehow miraculously turned into a really high-baptizing ward overnight. Then after we discussed all our answers yesterday we talked about how to make it happen. I am super excited to be working on that over the next weeks and months.
Last thing and then I probably really ought to go - I had a really cool experience on the bus this week. I sat down and the woman I chatted with at the bus stop sat next to me. I was pleasantly surprised because usually people who start talking to us and find out we're missionaries like to avoid us afterwards. I have been really taking a very natural approach to contacting on buses and so I just started asking her about her life and her experiences. She told me about how she went on a mission to Africa for her church and she's lived in Boston for 20 something years by herself just because she loves the diversity (her family is from Vermont). She's one of seven kids and is a breast cancer survivor and goes rowing on the Charles' river every week. My heart really opened to her and I just started feeling all this love towards her and sympathy for some of the sad situations she's been in. Then, right before she went to get off I just had time to give her a mormon.org card and tell her about the church website - she said, "Oh, that will be great! I already have the book but I'm just not sure where to start reading it. The website might be better. So I asked her about her experience with the Mormon church and she said she's had 2 missionaries visit her before, "because they were the only two people who would really ever take the time to talk to me"
The poor dear! It made me so sad for her! And it also filled me with lots of motivation to make sure that I don't know any people who feel that way - I want everyone I know to feel like they can talk to me and I want to be the kind of friend that is always reaching out to those around me. I definitely have learned a lot about being a true friend here in the mission and hope it will extend to my later life.
Thanks for staying tuned in despite this rather long and scattered email - I love you all!!
Have a fabulous week!
Sister Palmer
How are you doing? I'm doing GREAT!!! I'm really tired actually. We just finished walking the freedom - which ended in the Bunker Hill Monument...which has 294 stairs...which we skampered up rather quickly in an attempt to practice up for "the Porter Challenge" that I believe I mentioned last week. It feels really good to sit down and just let my fingers do the work for a little while. It was super fun to do the whole freedom trail altogether though. I really enjoyed the exercise. There are a bazillion tourists! It was fun to get to listen in on french conversations and pretend I know what they're saying. Probably the highlight was a street performer who was hanging out in front of Quincy Market. He was really funny and knows how to work an audience. At first it was impossible to tell what he was going to be doing - but as he went on he pulled out a 9 foot unicycle, a bagpipe, and some juggling machetes....and amazingly enough was able to utilize all three at the same time :) Quite the sight! Boston is full of funny people!
This week we were super blessed to get 2 new investigators! Elder Yim had received the referral from the AP's because he speaks Manderin and these girls do to, but he's going home in a few weeks and thought it would be better to just get some members involved (we have 5 or 6 members in our ward who went to Tiwain so that's pretty cool!). So, we went with Elder Yim and Elder Leonard to have kind of a pass-off lesson. It was really cool because most of the time it ended up being Manderin-time. It transported me right back to the MTC when I couldn't understand a single thing people were saying to me. It might be super useful to pick up a little Manderin - now 3/4 investigators we have are Chinese.
Porter Challenge is going down on Saturday. We're pretty stoked for it! We've been getting up at 5:50 to go running over to Boston College and go up a big staircase they have on one of their hills. 168 stairs or something like that. We're going to be ready! We are going to dominate!
Elder Hallick, the member of the seventy over our mission, has been here touring the mission and we're having a zone conference with him tomorrow - I'm really looking forward to that.
We had a funny lesson with Sherry this week. She is so adorable and sincere and sometimes just says the funniest things. This week we were talking with her about prayer and about how the Holy Ghost answers our prayers in different ways. She said, "I think I know why the Holy Ghost hasn't been answering my prayers - he doesn't speak Manderin." We had to assure her that that's not true :) Also, after I finished talking about some of my personal experiences with the Holy Ghost, she leaned close to me and was staring into my eyes, so I reciprocated and started doing the same thing jokingly. Then she remarked, "I'm trying to read the Holy Ghost in your eyes." She is seriously so adorable!
This week really has been super great - yesterday was super refreshing. I felt all sorts of energy and excitement to be a better missionary after all the meetings we had. Part of that stems from the overall topic I got out of church which was recognizing God's hand in all things. Another part of that comes from the really great Missionary Correlation meeting we had with our ward mission leader. He's really energetic and super excited about missionary work and is really going to get things moving this year. He gave us a cool homework assignment last week that I spent the week thinking about and working on. The homework assignment was to make a verbal sketch of what the perfect missionary day would look like if we were somehow miraculously turned into a really high-baptizing ward overnight. Then after we discussed all our answers yesterday we talked about how to make it happen. I am super excited to be working on that over the next weeks and months.
Last thing and then I probably really ought to go - I had a really cool experience on the bus this week. I sat down and the woman I chatted with at the bus stop sat next to me. I was pleasantly surprised because usually people who start talking to us and find out we're missionaries like to avoid us afterwards. I have been really taking a very natural approach to contacting on buses and so I just started asking her about her life and her experiences. She told me about how she went on a mission to Africa for her church and she's lived in Boston for 20 something years by herself just because she loves the diversity (her family is from Vermont). She's one of seven kids and is a breast cancer survivor and goes rowing on the Charles' river every week. My heart really opened to her and I just started feeling all this love towards her and sympathy for some of the sad situations she's been in. Then, right before she went to get off I just had time to give her a mormon.org card and tell her about the church website - she said, "Oh, that will be great! I already have the book but I'm just not sure where to start reading it. The website might be better. So I asked her about her experience with the Mormon church and she said she's had 2 missionaries visit her before, "because they were the only two people who would really ever take the time to talk to me"
The poor dear! It made me so sad for her! And it also filled me with lots of motivation to make sure that I don't know any people who feel that way - I want everyone I know to feel like they can talk to me and I want to be the kind of friend that is always reaching out to those around me. I definitely have learned a lot about being a true friend here in the mission and hope it will extend to my later life.
Thanks for staying tuned in despite this rather long and scattered email - I love you all!!
Have a fabulous week!
Sister Palmer
Sep 15, 2012
Boston.com Article
Andy found this link through the Salt Lake Tribune. We thought it was interesting!!!!
http://articles.boston.com/2012-09-09/metro/33698811_1_mormon-missionaries-young-missionaries-food-pantry
http://articles.boston.com/2012-09-09/metro/33698811_1_mormon-missionaries-young-missionaries-food-pantry
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
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
September 4, 2012 Letter
Hey there ya'll!!!
Just another week in Boston - no big deal!
It's super crazy to be here in the big city. It is SO diverse here - Sister Williams and I have very recently been noticing all the crazy different restaurants around and have decided that we're never going to the same place twice (when we go - we're also not eating out much because it's kind of expensive here in the big city). But, some of the places we've scoped out is an Ethopian place, a Thai place someone recommended, and just yesterday we found a Russian market/deli that had some delicious and greasy foods that we tried (eggplant wrap thing, sweet cheese pancakes, etc.). Let the food adventures begin!
So much to say! So little time!
Sadly, not much of what has happened this week has been with cool lessons - we really honestly haven't taught many lessons. This week has been all about service - we've been helping lots of people move - it's cool because it's helping us train for the "Porter Challenge."
For those of you who are wondering what the Porter Challenge is - it includes some insane stairs that are located at the "Porter" t-stop (on the redline? Honestly I have no idea where it is). My second or third day Sister Williams and I decided to run up them. It was good fun and very tiring - there are about 200 steps. So, we decided to have some fun - we've challenged our whole Cambridge South zone to a race. It's going down in a couple weeks. We're still working on the details, but we're planning on dominating. We've walked up and down lots of stairs - carrying rather heavy objects. We definitely have an advantage there.
My companion, Sister Williams, is seriously the best! She is so happy and positive ALL the time! It really makes it impossible for me to get down about anything for any real length of time.
So fun p-day experience of yesterday - we were rushing to the Science Museum on foot because we only had one more stop to go and we were waiting too long for the train - when we somehow got talking with a homeless guy in a wheelchair. To make a long story short, we got serenaded to for about 10 minutes before we could get away - our roommates were waiting for us. It was quite the treat - I think he's going to make it big :)
I can't believe that it has been one whole year! It seems pretty unreal to me. Just thinking about it is super surreal. Sister Williams (as an illustration of her greatness) made me a "Birthday" treat to celebrate my year mark - she surprised me with a delicious raspberry crumble dessert - and then made me a delicious, healthy, birthday lunch and the whole zone sang happy birthday :) It was quite the treat. I don't know that it's something to really celebrate - I'm kind of sad that it's going so fast, but it was fun to have a reason to celebrate a little bit.
Being a missionary is so great - people just open right up to you. Just this morning as we were on the way to help another member move, I was talking to a girl on her way to work as a staff assistant for some important people at Harvard. We started talking about how our relationships with God have effected our lives and how sad it is that some people just dismiss that sacred relationship. She didn't go into a lot of detail, but she expressed her very deep conviction that she knows there is a higher power who is guiding her and has felt His influence as she has worked with people in drug rehab and with people with disabilities. It amazes me how mindful Heavenly Father is of each one of us even there are SO many of us! That especially strikes me as very special being here where there are MILLIONS of people everywhere. Someone without the knowledge of the gospel might think, "I'm not special, why would God care about someone like me?" But with that knowledge we receive direction and guidance and assurance that we are here for a purpose. I think I have shared my testimony so many times this week with people about the Plan of Salvation - sometimes I don't realize how unique we are to have it so clearly laid out for us as members.
Wow, that was rambly.
I want to let you all know that I love you so much!!! If you haven't recently I would challenge you to be a good missionary - share your testimony! I never realized how easy it is to do until I came on a mission - but it's super easy. As we ourselves are more focused on an eternal perspective and on the spiritual aspect of our lives, the types of conversations where we can freely share our beliefs will be abundant.
LOVES!!
Sister Palmer
Just another week in Boston - no big deal!
It's super crazy to be here in the big city. It is SO diverse here - Sister Williams and I have very recently been noticing all the crazy different restaurants around and have decided that we're never going to the same place twice (when we go - we're also not eating out much because it's kind of expensive here in the big city). But, some of the places we've scoped out is an Ethopian place, a Thai place someone recommended, and just yesterday we found a Russian market/deli that had some delicious and greasy foods that we tried (eggplant wrap thing, sweet cheese pancakes, etc.). Let the food adventures begin!
So much to say! So little time!
Sadly, not much of what has happened this week has been with cool lessons - we really honestly haven't taught many lessons. This week has been all about service - we've been helping lots of people move - it's cool because it's helping us train for the "Porter Challenge."
For those of you who are wondering what the Porter Challenge is - it includes some insane stairs that are located at the "Porter" t-stop (on the redline? Honestly I have no idea where it is). My second or third day Sister Williams and I decided to run up them. It was good fun and very tiring - there are about 200 steps. So, we decided to have some fun - we've challenged our whole Cambridge South zone to a race. It's going down in a couple weeks. We're still working on the details, but we're planning on dominating. We've walked up and down lots of stairs - carrying rather heavy objects. We definitely have an advantage there.
My companion, Sister Williams, is seriously the best! She is so happy and positive ALL the time! It really makes it impossible for me to get down about anything for any real length of time.
So fun p-day experience of yesterday - we were rushing to the Science Museum on foot because we only had one more stop to go and we were waiting too long for the train - when we somehow got talking with a homeless guy in a wheelchair. To make a long story short, we got serenaded to for about 10 minutes before we could get away - our roommates were waiting for us. It was quite the treat - I think he's going to make it big :)
I can't believe that it has been one whole year! It seems pretty unreal to me. Just thinking about it is super surreal. Sister Williams (as an illustration of her greatness) made me a "Birthday" treat to celebrate my year mark - she surprised me with a delicious raspberry crumble dessert - and then made me a delicious, healthy, birthday lunch and the whole zone sang happy birthday :) It was quite the treat. I don't know that it's something to really celebrate - I'm kind of sad that it's going so fast, but it was fun to have a reason to celebrate a little bit.
Being a missionary is so great - people just open right up to you. Just this morning as we were on the way to help another member move, I was talking to a girl on her way to work as a staff assistant for some important people at Harvard. We started talking about how our relationships with God have effected our lives and how sad it is that some people just dismiss that sacred relationship. She didn't go into a lot of detail, but she expressed her very deep conviction that she knows there is a higher power who is guiding her and has felt His influence as she has worked with people in drug rehab and with people with disabilities. It amazes me how mindful Heavenly Father is of each one of us even there are SO many of us! That especially strikes me as very special being here where there are MILLIONS of people everywhere. Someone without the knowledge of the gospel might think, "I'm not special, why would God care about someone like me?" But with that knowledge we receive direction and guidance and assurance that we are here for a purpose. I think I have shared my testimony so many times this week with people about the Plan of Salvation - sometimes I don't realize how unique we are to have it so clearly laid out for us as members.
Wow, that was rambly.
I want to let you all know that I love you so much!!! If you haven't recently I would challenge you to be a good missionary - share your testimony! I never realized how easy it is to do until I came on a mission - but it's super easy. As we ourselves are more focused on an eternal perspective and on the spiritual aspect of our lives, the types of conversations where we can freely share our beliefs will be abundant.
LOVES!!
Sister Palmer
Aug 26, 2012
Transfer!
Hey there!!
It is another week - and I have some exciting news!! I am going to Boston! Well, kind of. I'm being transferred into the English program to cover 2 singles wards. That should be quite the adventure. I know that the wards are called Longfellow Park 1 and 2 but I honestly don't know where the building is, or how old the singles wards are or anything. My companion will be Sister Williams - she is so great! I'm really excited to get to learn from her. Also, another plus is that I will be in a walking area which means lots of exercise and we probably won't be being fed quite so much as I have been here in Lynn. But don't worry, the members have been feeding us a TON as we are saying goodbyes and such.
Sister Rivera is also headed out of town to be with Sister McKee (fellow vernalite) in Providence, Rhode Island. Sister Figueredo is staying here in Lynn and will be joined by Sister Love (who has served in Providence for a pretty good chunk of time - 8 months or so I think.
Oh, I got my hair cut today :) I have bangs :) Cool, eh?
This week really has been the best - I am super sad saying goodbye to all these people that have become my family, but I have had so much time this week to reflect on the many amazing experiences I have had in Lynn. I have so many good memories here in this area. I am definitely excited for whatever may be ahead, but it will be hard not to look back a little bit. I just have to "remember Lot's Wife" (Look up the Elder Holland talk about that scripture - dynamite!)
Anyway, this week has been totally crazy - despedidas aside. We had a baptism on Saturday! Why didn't you know that we were going to be holding a baptism? Because we didn't know either.
Long story short, Maritza got her answer - after her month break we gave her. She finally felt that witness of the spirit that she needed - we watched the John Tanner video with her from the Doctrine and Covenants videos and she told us she wanted to get baptized right away (just like he did). Catch was that she had to leave Sunday night to go on vacation with her mom to Florida and then to the D.R. So, we whipped up a baptism for Saturday and she was confirmed Sunday. She bore her testimony in sacrament meeting and then skipped town after church. Crazy! It was a really cool experience though. Just to see that she had the faith to do everything so fast. She's definitely a spontaneous person, but the way she approached her baptism really tells me that she is going to work hard to remain active in the church.
Those are definitely the highlights of the week. Transfer meeting is tomorrow. I've had kind of a hard time packing because of the large amounts of things I have accumulated, but our zone leaders are going to help us take all our stuff because we're moving two missionaries.
I love you all!! I wish you all the bestest most happiest week and I will talk to you very soon - Monday!
LOVES!
Sister Palmer
It is another week - and I have some exciting news!! I am going to Boston! Well, kind of. I'm being transferred into the English program to cover 2 singles wards. That should be quite the adventure. I know that the wards are called Longfellow Park 1 and 2 but I honestly don't know where the building is, or how old the singles wards are or anything. My companion will be Sister Williams - she is so great! I'm really excited to get to learn from her. Also, another plus is that I will be in a walking area which means lots of exercise and we probably won't be being fed quite so much as I have been here in Lynn. But don't worry, the members have been feeding us a TON as we are saying goodbyes and such.
Sister Rivera is also headed out of town to be with Sister McKee (fellow vernalite) in Providence, Rhode Island. Sister Figueredo is staying here in Lynn and will be joined by Sister Love (who has served in Providence for a pretty good chunk of time - 8 months or so I think.
Oh, I got my hair cut today :) I have bangs :) Cool, eh?
This week really has been the best - I am super sad saying goodbye to all these people that have become my family, but I have had so much time this week to reflect on the many amazing experiences I have had in Lynn. I have so many good memories here in this area. I am definitely excited for whatever may be ahead, but it will be hard not to look back a little bit. I just have to "remember Lot's Wife" (Look up the Elder Holland talk about that scripture - dynamite!)
Anyway, this week has been totally crazy - despedidas aside. We had a baptism on Saturday! Why didn't you know that we were going to be holding a baptism? Because we didn't know either.
Long story short, Maritza got her answer - after her month break we gave her. She finally felt that witness of the spirit that she needed - we watched the John Tanner video with her from the Doctrine and Covenants videos and she told us she wanted to get baptized right away (just like he did). Catch was that she had to leave Sunday night to go on vacation with her mom to Florida and then to the D.R. So, we whipped up a baptism for Saturday and she was confirmed Sunday. She bore her testimony in sacrament meeting and then skipped town after church. Crazy! It was a really cool experience though. Just to see that she had the faith to do everything so fast. She's definitely a spontaneous person, but the way she approached her baptism really tells me that she is going to work hard to remain active in the church.
Those are definitely the highlights of the week. Transfer meeting is tomorrow. I've had kind of a hard time packing because of the large amounts of things I have accumulated, but our zone leaders are going to help us take all our stuff because we're moving two missionaries.
I love you all!! I wish you all the bestest most happiest week and I will talk to you very soon - Monday!
LOVES!
Sister Palmer
Aug 13, 2012
August 13, 2012 Letter
Hey there family!!! So, exciting news of the week - today we're actually going to do something fun!!! We've been working really hard all morning so we will have time to go to Boston - our district is actually going to hang out together because we ran so far behind last week that we ran out of time - Pirate museum of Salem will just have to wait I suppose.
Well, that's not REALLY the exciting news. Probably the best thing all week was church yesterday. I was absolutely AMAZED at just how many people showed up unexpectedly. SO many people who we have been visiting and praying for just showed up and filled the church with such a great spirit. I was seriously SO happy. We had 4 investigators come and so many less active members come. It was like a Christmas miracle or something.
Gaby is doing so great! She got interviewed to accept a calling this next week and she told us she accepted it. Woot! She seemed very excited about it. I have a feeling she's going to get to help us out in the missionary department. I really hope she gets made the Gospel Principles teacher, because we really need one and it would be an incredible chance for her to learn more about the gospel. She has such a strong testimony. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it last week, she got a slight promotion to be a cook and is now only scheduled from Monday to Friday (unless they really need her on the weekends). Heavenly Father is so absolutely amazing.
We went and had dinner on Saturday with Hermana Cuevas - she was talking about her mission that she served in her home country - she's from the D.R. She was saying that she feels kind of bad for us that it is so hard to find solid investigators. She said that in her mission people would call the missionaries saying, "Aye Mormones! Vengan a mi casa!" (Hey Mormons! Come to my house!). They would have 15-20 baptisms a month! We're lucky if our whole mission gets 40 or 50 in a month - what a crazy difference, right?
Other good news for the week is that the Rodriguez Family (the ones we found while we were at a less active member's house last week) is super solid. They really want to come to church. Noel is talking to his boss to work something out and Amarillys really wants to bring the kids to primary. They're having us over tonight for their family's FHE and they really want to cook for us - yum! I really like Dominican food. I'm sure no one would have guessed it before my mission but I really actually love eating beans now. It just took 30 or 40 tries to get accustomed to the grainy texture :)
Things are really looking up here in Massachusetts. We are seeing little miracles here every single day.
"...but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
"And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."
Alma 37:6-7
I feel like I'm kind of living that scripture. What we're doing as missionaries isn't much on the big scale of things, but it can be if we are doing the Lord's will.
LOVE YOUS!!!!
Sister Palmer
Well, that's not REALLY the exciting news. Probably the best thing all week was church yesterday. I was absolutely AMAZED at just how many people showed up unexpectedly. SO many people who we have been visiting and praying for just showed up and filled the church with such a great spirit. I was seriously SO happy. We had 4 investigators come and so many less active members come. It was like a Christmas miracle or something.
Gaby is doing so great! She got interviewed to accept a calling this next week and she told us she accepted it. Woot! She seemed very excited about it. I have a feeling she's going to get to help us out in the missionary department. I really hope she gets made the Gospel Principles teacher, because we really need one and it would be an incredible chance for her to learn more about the gospel. She has such a strong testimony. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it last week, she got a slight promotion to be a cook and is now only scheduled from Monday to Friday (unless they really need her on the weekends). Heavenly Father is so absolutely amazing.
We went and had dinner on Saturday with Hermana Cuevas - she was talking about her mission that she served in her home country - she's from the D.R. She was saying that she feels kind of bad for us that it is so hard to find solid investigators. She said that in her mission people would call the missionaries saying, "Aye Mormones! Vengan a mi casa!" (Hey Mormons! Come to my house!). They would have 15-20 baptisms a month! We're lucky if our whole mission gets 40 or 50 in a month - what a crazy difference, right?
Other good news for the week is that the Rodriguez Family (the ones we found while we were at a less active member's house last week) is super solid. They really want to come to church. Noel is talking to his boss to work something out and Amarillys really wants to bring the kids to primary. They're having us over tonight for their family's FHE and they really want to cook for us - yum! I really like Dominican food. I'm sure no one would have guessed it before my mission but I really actually love eating beans now. It just took 30 or 40 tries to get accustomed to the grainy texture :)
Things are really looking up here in Massachusetts. We are seeing little miracles here every single day.
"...but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
"And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."
Alma 37:6-7
I feel like I'm kind of living that scripture. What we're doing as missionaries isn't much on the big scale of things, but it can be if we are doing the Lord's will.
LOVE YOUS!!!!
Sister Palmer
August 6, 2012 Letter
This time is just blowing by. One of the elders in our district, Elder Langford, was telling me that he feels like he's just watching the pages of a book fly by him as the time just goes and goes and goes so terribly quickly. I am definitely in accordance with his description of the time here.
I feel like this week I've kind of let myself get too comfortable just going with the flow. I'm not really consciously working toward any overarching goals of any true importance. With that said, I'm realizing a LOT of things that I can definitely work on. Now I'm just trying to decide what to do first. I don't know if that makes any sense...
The missionary work is going really well. We're working really hard and getting lots of new investigators. One super cool experience this week:
We were going with the Elders to one of our investigator's houses so that she could receive a blessing. When we got there, the door was open and her dad, who has Parkinson's, was having some troubles standing up so the Elders were able to help out. His wife showed up and we got him taken care of. We then found out that her daughter, our investigator, was actually asleep. Some of the medicines she had taken and some of the injections she'd had to get for some sort of back problem she has made her kind of out of it. So, the elders went on their merry way and we almost left too. But, we decided to stick around to talk to her mom, who is a member - she's inactive because she has to work on Sundays but she has a super solid testimony and is the sweetest person EVER! So, we were sharing a message with her, and her nephew and his family showed up. This member was so great, she just invited them in and turned the time back over to us to keep going on with our message (which is not something that people are usually willing to do...most of the time the change in dynamic means that our time is pretty much over). So, we got to know this young couple and their little 2 year old son and it turns out that the dad actually knows a lot about the church and really likes the church. So, we're going to go back to visit them again tomorrow. They're super excited to continue learning about the Book of Mormon. Lots of potential there :)
Other than that we've just been working away. One of our goals this week is to definitely have more experiences involving the member in our work. President Packard is so gung-ho about working with members in order to increase our missionary efforts and I can see, with the limited experience that I have, that he's on the right track.
I just want all my family and my dear friends to know how much I love you all!! It really amazes me just how much love one heart can hold. My heart feels like it's going to burst sometimes just thinking about how much I love so many people. Know that you are in my heart and in my prayers. Share the knowledge and the blessings you have with those around you - you will be able to experience even more of that love that you already have for other people. It's an incredible feeling.
Todo mi amor y cariño
Hermana Palmer
I feel like this week I've kind of let myself get too comfortable just going with the flow. I'm not really consciously working toward any overarching goals of any true importance. With that said, I'm realizing a LOT of things that I can definitely work on. Now I'm just trying to decide what to do first. I don't know if that makes any sense...
The missionary work is going really well. We're working really hard and getting lots of new investigators. One super cool experience this week:
We were going with the Elders to one of our investigator's houses so that she could receive a blessing. When we got there, the door was open and her dad, who has Parkinson's, was having some troubles standing up so the Elders were able to help out. His wife showed up and we got him taken care of. We then found out that her daughter, our investigator, was actually asleep. Some of the medicines she had taken and some of the injections she'd had to get for some sort of back problem she has made her kind of out of it. So, the elders went on their merry way and we almost left too. But, we decided to stick around to talk to her mom, who is a member - she's inactive because she has to work on Sundays but she has a super solid testimony and is the sweetest person EVER! So, we were sharing a message with her, and her nephew and his family showed up. This member was so great, she just invited them in and turned the time back over to us to keep going on with our message (which is not something that people are usually willing to do...most of the time the change in dynamic means that our time is pretty much over). So, we got to know this young couple and their little 2 year old son and it turns out that the dad actually knows a lot about the church and really likes the church. So, we're going to go back to visit them again tomorrow. They're super excited to continue learning about the Book of Mormon. Lots of potential there :)
Other than that we've just been working away. One of our goals this week is to definitely have more experiences involving the member in our work. President Packard is so gung-ho about working with members in order to increase our missionary efforts and I can see, with the limited experience that I have, that he's on the right track.
I just want all my family and my dear friends to know how much I love you all!! It really amazes me just how much love one heart can hold. My heart feels like it's going to burst sometimes just thinking about how much I love so many people. Know that you are in my heart and in my prayers. Share the knowledge and the blessings you have with those around you - you will be able to experience even more of that love that you already have for other people. It's an incredible feeling.
Todo mi amor y cariño
Hermana Palmer
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