Tuesday, June 25, 2013

A Couple Three


"A couple three" is one of my favorite “Hoosier" sayings, and guess what!!! Now it's true! I am now officially in a 3-some companionship. Sister Cordner and I got a visa-waiter for Brazil on Friday :D Her name is Sister Ware. She is super cute and works really hard. We all stay in an extra hour now and do language study...... so maybe I will pick up some Portuguese (probably not since I am sooooo good at languages). On Saturday morning she taught the first discussion to me in Portuguese and it was amazing how much I could understand. It is so cool how the Spirit works and can testify of truths. We say the first vision every morning and even in a different language the Spirit is just as strong! I love it!!
My companions!! Sister Corder is on the left and Sister Ware is in the middle

On Tuesday, we had an exchange with the Sisters in North Vernan. Come to find out, a lady in their ward randomly found my blog online and has been reading it for a couple of weeks..... CRAZY!!! North Vernan was super fun! It is a cute little town just full of Hoosiers! Actually I have been learning a lot about Hoosiers. Let me tell you a couple three 'bout them.
1) I love the way they talk!! While we were in North Vernan we volunteered at The Good Shepherd food pantry. As you can imagine the place had quite a few Hoosiers. They sounds a lot they southerners- sometimes when we teach someone who is real Hoosier I find myself starting to talk like they do. I hope they know I am not making fun! I just love me some Hoosiers!
2) Every Hoosier has them an Indiana doorbell- and by this I mean a dog. Good thing I got over my fear of them.... just saying
3) Sadly, most Hoosiers smoke. Sometimes I am afraid that I smell like smoke by the end of the day. We teach the Word of Wisdom a lot. It is amazing to see the power of the Lord and how he will bless those that are able to turn to Him and help them over come, well anything!! The Atonement is so real and I love it!


Me and a Member


On Wednesday, we got in a car accident. Another car backed into the passenger side of the car in a speedway parking lot. We had been tracting for a few hours and decided we needed some cold water before we went to our next lesson. Yeah, not the best idea apparently. I got a pretty bad headache afterwards and was pretty sore for a few days. Sister Collins made us go in pretty early to rest- so benefit of an accident- we did get out of the heat. Sister Cordner was pretty shaken up and we both got blessings the next day from our district leader. I am so grateful for the priesthood. It was so comforting to know that all I had to do was ask. I felt a lot better after that!! Hopefully this coming week will not be quite as.. ummmm exciting.

On Saturday, I got to go on an exchange in Seymour, another very cute little Hoosier town! And Sister Jones was my companion for the day (she was in my district in the MTC). It was so fun to work with her. We taught a few lessons and got return appointments on all of them! I love exchanges because in order to be unified when we teach (since we only have 24 hours together) we both have to rely so much on the Spirit. These are probably some of my most favorite lessons and they are received by the investigators or less actives the best! I did have to sleep on the floor, which was, well interesting.....
             Sister Jones and I in Seymour :)

Naradah is just amazing. We are still meeting with her and she is going to start coming out with us a couple of times a week as she is now preparing for a mission. Her testimony is so strong. It is amazing to see how her faith and testimony have grown and what the gospel can do for someone’s life. Teaching her was probably the highlight of my week
(the letters were pretty great too- not going to lie!)

Hopefully next week won't have any car excitement. We are going to be doing a lot of "finding" seeing as we just had to drop a lot of investigators! I love sharing my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon on doorsteps. Hopefully we can find more people to teach!! This is definitely hard work, but I love being a missionary!!

Love,
Sarah

Sunday, June 23, 2013

PBS and Mormon Tabernacle Choir


This week was kind of crazy! and super exciting!! Sister Cordner and I went on two exchanges this week, so we weren't in our area a ton. It was so much fun to get to spend time with other sisters. They were both in 3 somes, so I got to go with and spend 2 days with 2 different sisters. It was cool to see how different the trainers were and how different missionaries do missionary work. I think they are super fun because it is just nice to mix things up and I am able to take away what I like about how those sisters work/tract/teach together and apply it to how I work. So from my stand point, win/win situation!  

Me and sister Cordner
This week we also had a special training, specific to the entire mission, but they did it by region (so a few zones together). It was on finding people (which is good because Sister Cordner and I don't really have a ton of progressing investigators right now, but we are not in our area a ton so it is kind of hard to find more people too. but we are working on it!)  I think the training was mostly it was for President and Sister Collins to say goodbye to everyone. All of the sisters got to give President a hug, which was kind of cool, but Sister Collins called me Elder Mumford (which was kind of hilarious). I have been meeting a lot of new missionaries, and for some reason Elders always think they are being super originall when they call me Sister Mumford and Sons. I try to keep a straight face and tell them about playing the banjo around the campfire at family reunions with Uncle Marcus.... it’s harder than you would think.



Sister Cordner and I, since we are only 20 minutes south of downtown, got the awesome opportunity to help out at PBS Kids in the Park. It was pretty hot and humid and I had to wear a t-shirt with a skirt (weird) but it was really fun!! It was nice to be able to serve those in the community and it was nice to look forward to it all week. I was crowd control to the meet and greet of Daniel the Tiger (no idea who that is) but I was actually really surprised at how rude some of the parents were. Looking back it was really funny some of the things these people were doing to meet a person in a furry costume. It was really fun to get to see Sister Vidmar (from my district in the MTC). She is in the Fishers 2nd ward-- I am pretty jealous because her apartment complex has a gym, so crossing my fingers for Fishers area.. hahah!! ?


Our whole mission had a bunch of tickets to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance (to take investigators). They got tickets a few months ago and that is when investigators had to commit. Sister Cordner and I though, got a call on Thursday night that said we could go because they had extra tickets!! I ran into the Cannadays there too!! So excitement all around. It was so good! They sang a lot of fun songs. My favorites had to be the African American folk songs. But I mean come on, really, who gets to go to a concert on their mission?!

I wanted to tell you a little bit about Naradah. She is amazing! She has been less active for awhile low point and decided to meet with missionaries. Long story short we are teaching her now! It has been so exciting to see her apply the atonement in her life. She has such a strong testimony. She actually has been out to teach with us a few times this past week. We have also discussed with her the possibility of serving a mission. She said that she thinks that she really wants to because she wants to share the gospel with others. Anyways, she pretty much made my week!!!

I love being a missionary. There are days that are tough, but I know that I am here in this area with these people for a reason. I love that everyday I get to put on my name tag so everyone knows that I am representing Christ. Thank you all for the emails!! I love you tons <3
Love,
Sarah 

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Indy first ward


Wow!! I still can't believe I am in Indiana some mornings. The MTC flew by!! After traveling all day on Tuesday, and staying in the mission home overnight (17 sisters in the basement- they shipped the 20 some elders out with other missionaries for the night) we had training until about 3 on Wednesday. All of us were so nervous to see who our companions would be. Especially since they started a twelve week training program a few weeks ago and we found out we would be with these companions for 12 weeks. We were also nervous because we knew that the Muncie and the Fort Wayne zones would become part of the Ohio mission effective July 1st.  So, if you got put in one of those zones you would be changing missions. So drum roll please-- just kidding :) I am in the Indy South Zone, Indy 1st Ward, so no Ohio here!! (not that Ohio would have been bad- but now I get President Cleveland in July)!


Me and my Mission President. 

Since there were so many of us, President Collins wasn't able to interview all of us individually. We met with other members of the mission presidency. I feel awful now, because I don't remember the name of the brother who interviewed me, but I do remember what I said. He actually sat down and read to me what Bishop Eddy and my Stake President at BYU wrote about me in my mission papers. He said he would read them to me because they were nothing like what he had seen before. I don't remember exactly what they said. He pointed out that I would be an example to those around me and would be a good leader.  Then he also pointed out that it said that I carried myself with dignity and modesty- which distinguished me from others. The stake president said close to the same things.  The brother interviewing me went on and  said that he knew from meeting me that I would train several sisters and that I would for sure be a sister trainer leader. Knowing this (I mean besides making my head big) let me know that I have a lot ahead of me. I mean I need to learn enough that I will be able to train other people how to be a missionary.... kind of intimidating....

Turns out that my companion is a Sister Trainer Leader! So far she is super fun and a good trainer. I can tell that she works hard and that she understands what it takes to be a good missionary. For some reason she loves tracting... I don't yet. As Sister Trainer Leader she is over 2 zones and has to go on exchanges with all of the sisters in these zones every transfer (which is 6 weeks). Which is 10 sisters, so 10 exchanges in the next 10 weeks. So tomorrow and Wednesday of this week I will not be in my area because I will be on exchanges with the companion of the sister she goes with. I am actually really excited!!! I will get to know a lot of the sisters and I will learn how they do missionary work. Only scary part is sometimes I will exchange with sisters who have been out the same amount of time as I have... which is not very long....... 


You know what is super de duper exciting!!!!! We had 2 baptisms yesterday!!!! It was Wanda and one of her sons Andrew. I taught them once, haha, but they were so ready to be baptized. It was really cool to experience this goal for investigators so soon in my mission. The baptism was super sweet and the spirit was really strong. I just hope they will be "accepted" into the ward. From what I can tell so far, the ward is not super strong. Over half of the ward members are currently not active. There are about 6 young women and about that many young men. The primary consists of about 3 families’ kids. Other than that it is older people. There are so many older people they have an "empty nester FHE". Not much like my home ward where there are tons of youth and a huge primary and only a handful of retired members. It will be different from what I have experienced so far.

I am so excited to work hard! I don't love knocking on doors, but it is getting better. I am so grateful for such a wonderful companion. I have noticed a change in myself. A lot of things that were really important to me before seem less important. I love teaching and I am so grateful that I came on a mission! I am so excited to find more people to teach and share this amazing message of the gospel with them!! I had a cute picture of me and my companion and one of the baptism yesterday, but I forgot my camera cord :( So next week!!! 

Love, 
Sarah


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Ready or Not~~ Indiana Here I Come!



                                                                        May 31, 2013
Hey!!

So to answer a few questions from everyone, I got super lucky and my entire district is going to Indiana, in fact, almost my entire zone is!! So there will be a lot of us new bees. It is nice to know that I will fly with friends and that hopefully out in Indiana when we do zone conference I will see some familiar faces :) My district has been working really hard this past week to keep the challenge from our branch president to keep our classroom sacred. This makes it a way better learning environment. We often take breaks to talk in the hall and as Elder Craven likes to say "get our wiggles out". Sometimes Sister Blacker (my companion) will say something really super funny to me (or vice versa) and we have to leave the class room because of our laughter. In doing so we are following the other piece of advice from my branch president to enjoy to the end (not endure, but enjoy). Laughing does make the time go a lot faster during class. I am really glad I didn’t get a boring companion. I would probably be going nuts.... but anyways Sister Blacker ROCKS!!!
 
Me and my companion Sister Blacker. 


The MTC has the strangest time warp. The days are so long and we are so exhausted mentally by the end, but it seems like I just got here yesterday. What everyone keeps telling me is that days are super long, but the weeks fly by. Yesterday was In-Field Training. This made me super excited to actually get to Indiana, but nervous at the same time. Right when I think I am getting the hang of the lessons and such, I realize that there is SO MUCH MORE!!! (experiencing a little bit of fear.. well fear of the unknown). It's crazy! Most of it is kind of common sense stuff- like work with ward members and such, but still there is a lot that didn’t even cross my mind.  I really only have two days of class left, Friday and Monday, because my flight is at 7am on Tuesday. So ready or not, Indiana here I come!!  This past week, I have come to understand (as well as make up) my role as sister training leader. Last night I trained the new sister training leader as well as presented to the new districts in our zone. It was kind of fun, a good change of pace. We were able to answer a lot of the new Elders and Sisters questions. It is crazy to consider how far I have come in just a week!! I mean now I know (mostly pretend I know) what I am doing.



Me and the Sisters from my district.


Me and the Elders from my district. 

Teaching has gotten a lot better. It was unsure at first what exactly it was suppose to be like. I think that I am really coming to better understand the Spirit better. Sister Blacker and I have been able to more successfully teach our progressing investigator. Sometimes it is hard to really put full effort in when I know that it isn’t really real, but I have come to understand that the Spirit is real. As long as I am willing to listen and I do all that I can to invite, the Spirit will be there to teach. I mean it might not be teaching the investigator, but it sure will be teaching me!! The spirit was so strong in a lesson wite our TRC investigator (Hely) that by the end we were all in tears (yes I know cry baby....). Last week my branch president promised that if we worked hard and were obedient that our testimony would grow as much as it had since we were baptized. It is crazy to look back at who I was a week ago and see the difference. I definitaly have a long way to go, but I know that my understanding and testimony of this gospel is SO much stronger already.

I have been trying to focus this week on having a positive attitude. When I come out of lessons, it is easy for me to recognize right away what I need to work on. This sometimes can be discouraging because I focus on the bad, and not what I am doing well. Sister Blacker and I, once we realized we were both doing this, decided to try to focus on the good and then make a plan on how to improve the bad. I know and I love the scriptures, but I have a hard time remembering in the moment what scriptures to share. Scripture mastery has been a blessing. I am grateful that I have an entire hour to spend on personal study, because it doesn’t just have to be Preach My Gospel, but I have spent a lot of time in the Book of Mormon. I started it again and this seems to be the time that the Book of Mormon has been the most different from before. Knowing the stories has made it easy to focus on Christ and how the doctrine can apply to my life as well as future investigators. Oh and my entire district thinks I am "spiritually insightful" or something like that...... not really sure what this means and I don’t really think its true, but I guess I will take the compliment.. hahah

Now for the funny stories.... well at least I think they are kind of funny.. maybe not-- okay probably not, but thought I would give it a shot :)
1) I led all of the sisters in my district in "work outs" the past couple of days.... I guess they saw me doing pushups and wanted in on the squats. Kind of funny to see a bunch of girls who don’t work out a lot and then me trying to tell them what to do.
2) I always get ice from the cafeteria in my water bottle. I LOVE IT! and then I take it to class and drink water for a few hours and the chew what ever ice I have left. I try to wait until the ice is small and mostly suck on it, but sometimes I forget and just chew it. Some of the Elders have expressed jealousy in my ice supply. Little do they know that they could be doing the same thing, if they just remembered a waterbottle.
3) Max Jensen was in my ward at BYU and I see him EVERYWHERE.. literally. I seriously see him at least five times a day. Sometimes we pretend to get really excited to see each other just for fun. I will try to get a picture with him so you can see who he is, cause chances are I will run into him again!!
4) I have worn pink almost everyday. I did not realize I brought this much pink on my mission. I got dressed in a blue shirt and a cream skirt and the girls in my district were like "Sister Mumford! You aren't wearing pink today!!" It was kind of weird... so I put on a pink watch.
5) We shorted out the power on our floor because we all blew dry our hair in our room at once... it didn’t come back on for five more hours..........
6) As a district we played volleyball on the sand courts one day during gym time. We all played on teams opposite of our companions. My team was the Lamanites and the other team was the Nephites. My team, of course, won.

      Selfie with the name tag upon Nathans request. 

I have run into A TON of friends here at BYU. I counted 16 people that I bumped into this week. Hopefully I can get pictures with a few more before I leave. Anyways, I love you all. Thank you for the Dear Elders. My entire district has been jealous that I get mail almost every day! Patten family- Thank you for the sweet package!!!! The dried fruit is all so delicious! Thank you for thinking of me :) I hope my e-mail wasn't too boring!! Sorry if it was! I will try to figure out pictures in the time I have left on the computer! So hopefully maybe pictures and if not hopefully next week!!

Love,
Sarah