November 27, 2012 Letter

Hey there Ya'll!!! 

This week has been...well...a little less productive than most.  Sad news is that my poor dear companion has NOT been feeling well this week :(  For 5 or 6 days now something has been going on in her stomach that has got her curled up a lot.  It hurts her to walk and the worst part is that we don't know what is causing it!!  It keeps getting worse every time she eats, but she still gets hungry and needs to eat...so it seems a little hopeless right now.  We went to an urgent care place yesterday and they sent us to the ER to do some more tests to try and got some conclusive results.  All they were able to do was to rule out several things like Appendicitis.  So...now we have made a follow up visit this Thursday - hopefully that will give us some more concrete information.  If any of you are talking to her family in Portugal - don't tell them yet!!  Sister Packard wants to wait until we have something to tell them about what it actually is :)  I'll keep you updated.

Other than that the week has been grand.  I've learned a lot (as most missionary weeks may go)

Well, that turns out to be all I have time to write - the AP's are waiting outside - they're giving us 4 roommates a ride to our destination of fun.  I'll have to update you more next week.  SOOOO sorry for the lack of update. 

Thanksgiving was AWESOME!!  So much food and delicious pies. 

Danielle got confirmed and now she REALLY wants to come to other lessons with us with other investigators so she can share her experiences and insight. 

I think I could apply to law school - we've been helping Shanshan with her Harvard law application to make it sound more "native" So after this I could totally apply for law school!  Good to know.

We talked a lot this week about what we're grateful for - my favorite response was Elder Reber's in our district meeting: "Toothpaste and paved roads"  Apparently those are the two things he thinks of every time Thanksgiving rolls around.  Haha!

We went contacting in Harvard Square on Thanksgiving and even ended up teaching a quick lesson before this girl had to run off with her friend.  She's from DC so I doubt we'll see her again, but it was a memorable lesson just chillin' in Harvard Yard.

Love you all!!! 
Sister Kate

November 19, 2012 Letter

Our fearless zone leaders - we had the best get to know you activity ever at zone meeting - each person got 20 seconds to blurt out as many adjectives as they could that describe their companion.  Then E. Leonard would strum his ukelele and we all sang "oohhh" to note that time was up.  So fun!!  They also got a little excited about Christmas and decorated the fake shrub in the Relief Society room like a Christmas tree...with icicle lights.  Good times! 

Danielle's Baptism!!  Jonathan was the one to baptize her.  Such a great day :)

BIG turnout.

Hello there!!  It seems like it hasn't even been a week since I last wrote ya'll...oh yeah!  It hasn't been :)  haha! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY!!!!   I'm really excited for Thanksgiving and hope more than anything that it will be a good day to warm hearts and find out what people are grateful for. 

Right now my mind is very tired...I'm having a hard time of thinking of the week and what we even did.  I'm sure we did something...

Oh yeah!  We had a baptism :)  Can't forget that.  Danielle got baptized yesterday!  The whole service was pretty special.  Our Ward Mission Leader for LP1 is good at his job and helped us organize it really well.  The thing that I really do love about this baptism is how supportive the ward has been.  Sometimes it has been a problem with our investigators because we become such good friends with them that it's hard for them when the missionaries leave.  I do not foresee that being a problem with Danielle at all!  She loves the members, and the members all love her.  This last week her social life has been pretty awesome.  She went to FHE, to institute on Wednesday, and then to a birthday pizza party for a member on Saturday.  I'm so glad she's letting the ward be involved in her life - she's really busy studying for the California Bar exam (which I found out from another law student in the ward is one of the hardest and only has a 40% pass rate). 

I love baptisms because everyone who attends and certainly the person being baptized have a chance to really feel the spirit so strongly.  It just washes over me every time I witness a baptism.  The spirit was palpable during the service itself as well as the well prepared messages and musical number were delivered with love.  Definitely a great way to start off a lifelong membership in the church. 

We had one of those moments that missionaries always pray to have: Sister Khaled and I were teaching a lesson to one of our Chinese friends Kathy :)  It was the first lesson we'd had for a couple of weeks. Sometimes those lessons can be scary because there's no telling who they talked to or what they've been thinking about.  But this lesson was absolutely amazing.  We had just planned to review some stuff we had already talked about and ended up talking a lot about the scriptures, prayer, and about how we get answers to our prayers.  As I was testifying about how I get answers to my prayers and how important the scriptures are to me Kathy stopped me and said as she seemed almost out of breath or scared, "Wait!  What is this that I am feeling?"  Sister Khaled looked at each other and honestly thought she was having a heart attack or something as we asked if she was okay.  She just explained that she felt SO happy and full of emotion that she just wanted to start crying. The Holy Ghost was testifying to her SO strongly that it seriously took her 5 or 6 minutes to get calmed down.  She now has had at least one experience recognizing the spirit.  We were really excited because it made her want to come to church to see Danielle's baptism and see if it's something she wants to do.  She sadly didn't make it, for a still unknown reason.  Hopefully she will recognize how to act on that prompting she received.

So, Sister Edwards has now left our apartment :(  We were all pretty bummed to see her go.  Sister Stevens is super awesome though :)  I feel like we kind of look alike...I'll have to send you a picture once I get one with her and let you see for yourselves.

I'm thankful that I get to be a missionary.  I am thankful for my dear family and for all my friends.  I'm thankful for warm tights and leggins :) I'm thankful for an amazing companion who pushes me to be better.  I'm thankful for times I can practice Espanol.  I'm thankful for blueberries!  I'm thankful for my health.  I'm thankful for the plan of Salvation.  I'm thankful for buses - even late ones.  I'm thankful for nice people.  I'm thankful for pictures.  I'm thankful for a living prophet.  I'm thankful for music.  I'm thankful for my testimony.  I'm thankful for happy mornings that lead to happy days.  I'm thankful for strength to turn not so happy mornings into happy days.  I'm thankful for my life and for all of your lives.  Thank you!!!

Love,
Sister Palmer

November 14, 2012 Letter

Sis. Khaled's first snow!!

The mission!!

Bro. Ramagli and Sis. Hensel

Well hello there!!  It's been a crazy week and a half to be sure.  This last weekend was a party!  Our ENTIRE mission attacked Connecticut with service!  It was a lot of fun and a great excuse to have an unofficial Mission Conference (they're against the "white handbook" but we got the go-ahead from some people in high places that it would be okay to gather the night before because it would be too dangerous to try and get everyone driving there and back in the same day - thank you Nashua zone!)  It was really a treat to see all my companions and everyone.  We had a great meeting Friday night at which President Packard and family all spoke and made us all want to work really hard.  President Packard is super passionate about building Zion.  He has done a lot of study about it and has even tried to build a mini zion among himself and his family and friends.  He has experience really living the law of consecration and during that time of his life he was the very happiest he's ever been.  So, he's trying to help us create Zion here in the mission.  I love hearing that man speak - super inspiring!  I wish I could just send you a transcription of the entire thing! 

After the meeting we actually got a mission picture!  Cool, eh?!  I didn't think that was ever going to happen - the cooler thing is that they chose my camera as one of the ones they used so I've got the originals - enjoy!

All the Elders got to have a big slumber party in the church in Madison CT.  It was apparently quite the event! All the sisters got assigned members' homes to stay in so we got to stay with Brother Ramagli and Sister Hensel.  They are the sweetest couple!  Bro. Ramagli has only been a member for 5 years and they have a huge painting of the Salt Lake Temple above their fireplace because that's where they got sealed four years ago :)  They are so tender! 

The Madison ward and the stake where we were serving were super amazing - they fed us all on such short notice!  They only had a couple days to get food organized for 200 people.  I was super impressed.  After breakfast back in Madison, we drove over to the stake center where we organized into groups of ten and got our supplies and headed out on to our jobs.  We only started out with one work order that we couldn't fill because the woman wasn't home so we got to practice our missionary skills and knock on doors to find people to help.  There were plenty to go around :)

During the day we mostly helped with sand removal.  We were right along the coast in Milford...I think that's the name of the city.  Talking to a couple of the people that had been going to do service almost daily told us all the real tragic stories of houses being beaten beyond repair by the winds and the waves.  Earlier in the week even the roads had still been filled with sand - 3 or 4 feet of it in some places.  We mostly got to help with sand removal and general cleaning as we tried to get some of these houses in order.  We also helped take lots of furniture and debris we collected on the beach to the curb where the city was making daily trips to try and dispose of all the ruined stuff.  It was really neat to be in a position to really make a difference for some of these people - they were SO grateful even if they didn't need more help. 

We worked hard all day and made lots of friends along the way.  When we met back up at the stake center for dinner (put on by the YM/YW) we got to hear the stories from the Senior Missionaries (Elder/Sister Simmons and Elder/Sister Paskett - fellow Aggies!!) about the people who came into the city offices where we'd set up a booth where people could come find information about how to receive help.  Lots of people came in to tearfully thank them for all that we were accomplishing.  Throughout the day our force of 250 Missionaries/members did a little over 100 work orders and made a pretty big difference.  We all left feeling very happy! 

Some great news for the week - we are going to be having a baptism on Sunday!!  We've been working hard to make sure it's well planned and that it's a super spiritually uplifting experience.  LP1 has been amazing - they're all rallying behind her to accept her right into the ward - she's been going to activities and FHE and it seems like she is truly happy and very content with her decision.  I'll definitely let you know how the baptism goes :) 

Theresa landed herself in the hospital this week and we tried to run around to different hospitals but couldn't find her and her son wouldn't answer his phone or hers.  Just got word from a member that she's back at the rest home but not feeling that great :(  Poor dear! 

I love the opportunity to be on a mission.  I've had a lot of little and seemingly very simple experiences this week that have let me know just how aware and mindful Heavenly Father is of me.  I love life!! 

Just want ya'll to know how much I love you!

Have a super d dooper 5 star week!!

Sister Palmer

November 5, 2012 Letter

Hello there friends and family! 

This will be short - I spent too long on individual emails.  But, it will be a nice break I'm sure from the novels that sometimes ensue.  I am super glad to hear that grandparents' surgeries went well and my prayers are certainly with you all. 

This week has been super exciting!  I think I mentioned our new investigator Danielle last week.  We had another lesson with her on Tuesday and she actually said that she's already gotten her answer that this church is what she needs to do with her life and she has accepted a baptismal date!!  Woot!!  We're so excited for her!  The now that we have a date we may have to push it back.  She just started studying for the bar exam that she's going to take in February but hopefully the baptism will be soon.  She's already making some good friends in the ward and seems to just be soaking in everything we give her. 

Other cool thing - Theresa got baptized this week!  The Theresa here, not the Lynn Theresa (yet!).  It was so exciting to witness the binding of such a sacred contract.  The spirit was so strong as she was confirmed!  She was radiant with happiness.  Her son Ryan, true to his word, came and my prayer is with him that he really felt the truth and importance and beauty of what he witnessed.  Sister Khaled gave an awesome talk at the baptism!  The AP's asked her the night before and she pulled it together beautifully.  Our investigator Danielle who actually came with some members remarked that it was very sincere.  I love Sister Khaled.  She still feels like she has a language barrier but she certainly has NO spiritual barrier barring her from bearing her testimony and changing lives.  She's amazing! 

We just got news from Sister Packard!  44 new sisters will be arriving in our mission over the next several transfers - how exciting!!!  Yay!!  That's going to mean that we will all be training in the near future once they start rolling in.  Lots of fun!  There's going to have to be lots of new areas and new apartments, etc.  We're hoping to get another set of sisters for the LP wards - there is plenty of work for two sets of sisters to do.

Boston was virtually unhurt by the big hurricane.  There is obviously a lot more clean up going on in Rhode Island and Connecticut.  Our stake and the entire mission is supposed to be headed down to Connecticut this weekend to help out - should be lots of fun! 

Thanks for all the support and the love you send :) 
I love ya'll!!
Sister Palmer

October 30, 2012 Letter

Well hey there ya'll!! 

It turns out that the hurricane didn't really hit Brighton very hard.  After all of our preparations to be without power and/or water for a week, we had a 30 second power outage in our apartment....and that's all :)  But we were very prepared and ready for the worst.  It was kind of fun: Sister Packard was texting us updates throughout the "storm" last night.  It sounds like several missionary's apartments were without power for a good chunk of time and there were also some accidents caused from lots of cooped up missionaries doing silly things.  My favorite was that some elders playing Risk left their food in the toaster oven too long and practically filled the entire apartment with smoke!   No severe damage done though :)  ....elders.

We obviously didn't get a chance to email yesterday because we were stuck inside from 6am yesterday until this morning.  Best P-day ever!!  Well, as much as I thought I would look forward to a "break" from missionary work I really hope that doesn't happen again.  We didn't do much of anything productive apart from text a bunch of people that Bishop Thomas asked to in order to make sure they had everything they needed.  After that I used my time very foolishly.  Basically we had an early Halloween with all the junk food we broke out.  It was our great idea to ford the river in our street (not literally a river, just some gutter overflow) to get a pizza from Papa John's across the street from us right before they closed.  So we had pizza for lunch and made an apple crisp for dinner :)  And there may have been s'mores at some point during the day as well.  Sister Khaled is in heaven!!  In Portugal their desserts aren't really all that sweet so she is loving the American desserts. 

We had lots of time to get to know each other and it was a really great opportunity to really learn more about our roommates who I apparently knew very little about. Overall a very fun and unproductive but very safe day.

We got good news this week that Theresa (not Theresa from Lynn, different Theresa that we've been visiting) is getting baptized!!  She'll get baptized this Sunday at 12:30 and we get to come!  We are SOOOOO excited!!  I seriously love her a lot.  I don't know how much I've told you about Theresa but she actually does remind me a lot of Lynn Theresa - she has lots of health problems and just wants to get her life in order before she dies.  She LOVES to talk and just having good, sincere friends.  That's what she has loved about coming to church - everyone loves her there!  She quit smoking 2 weeks ago and has been going so strong!  Her son Ryan who is an Atheist has even agreed to come to support her and cheer her on at the baptism.  It will be a great day!

We had stake conference yesterday which was really amazing!  We saw a lot of miracles - the biggest being that 3 investigators came!  One of them, Danielle, is a girl who just showed up at Sacrament Meeting last week because she once had a roommate that was LDS and has felt super, "drawn to the Mormon religion" lately.  So, we gave her a call and invited her to stake conference.  The surprise was, for me, that she came!  Usually that doesn't happen.   But she came and really loved it.  She even met with us and a member afterward to learn a little more about the Restoration which she apparently already understands fairly.  Something that has drawn her so much to the church is that the Book of Mormon is like "another testament of Jesus Christ in addition to the Old and New Testaments.  We felt the spirit very strongly with her as we were guided to know what questions to ask and how we should approach the different parts of the lesson.  She's so ready for the gospel! 

I honestly admit that I was distracted during the conference itself - Bishop and Sister Iverson from Revere 1st ward were sitting in the row in front of us with their 8 month little boy making googly eyes at us during the first half...but I really did feel the spirit.  There was a change in the stake presidency because Pres. Haight is going to be joining the Mission Presidency as the 2nd counselor to President Packard so we got to hear lots of very special testimonies of these great leaders and their wives.  My favorite part of the whole conference was what President Packard had to say though.  He can certainly command an audience's attention and knows how to channel the spirit.  He taught us about the proper way to have more meaningful prayers.  He went on to basically mirror President Nelson's talk from conference about all the great things missionaries can do. It certainly impressed upon me, again, the importance of living worthily of that serious and sacred responsibility we have to guide our fellow men closer to our Heavenly Father. 

I love you all!!  Thanks for all the delightful Halloween wishes :) 

All my love,
Sister Palmer

October 09, 2012 Letter

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

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

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

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

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