A Month Gone By So Quickly

Hello Friends and Family!!!

Has it really been a month?! It seems like yesterday that I just got here! Crazy! Time flies when you're working the Lord's Vineyard. We've had a slower week this week. Mainly because we had Mission Conference on Tuesday with Elder Perkins of the Seventy. He and his wife came and spoke to us on having questions in meetings and not calling meetings meetings. They are now called Revelatory Experiences. Meetings is such a dreary word. Haha. So! Other than that things are good! Our investigators are asking a ton of questions about the priesthood and I consider myself very lucky to have elders in my area to explain more to me. I mean I know about it but there's always more to learn.

The Gospel Principles book has become my new best friend. I look to that book side by side with the scriptures. It has a lot of insights and gives me more to add to my arsenal so I can be prepared to answer the hard questions. Love it!

So as we were tracting this week, Sister McKendrick and I were walking across the way to another house. I saw something on the ground and thought it was a pinecone. NOPE! Not a pinecone. It was a rabbit's torso. O.O Just the bones at least. It went "crunch" and I was too grossed out to look down. Sister McKendrick just looked at me and we both kind of squirmed/screeched. Coyotes live in the area apparently and lots of little dogs go missing. Sad but it was so funny. 

 

We have a whopping total of like 13 investigators! Many of them are in families but that's even better! We have a focus on finding families to teach and baptize. The mission wants a goal of 400 by December and we have 250+ so far! Awesome. :)

We share a car with the elders which is weird but it works. We have hardly any miles left because we are only allotted a certain amount each month and someone *cough* the elders *cough* used them up. So out of 1225 we are left with 15 for the next two days. Luckily our zone leaders are awesome and helped us get 50 more until Wednesday. Which is awesome! Now we can actually drive!

Out of everything that has happened this week Women's Conference really stood out to me. We heard from some pretty amazing women and the conference was centered around the temple and the things we can obtain from doing work. I would like to challenge all of you to find at least one name and do the work for them. It's IMPERATIVE we do work for those on the other side. Everyone deserves a chance to fly. :) Also, God wouldn't give us these beautiful buildings if He didn't want us to do the work. He loves us so much so that we have temples. Love them! We're trying to get a recently converted family into Family History work and getting them to the temple. Sister Davis wants to do the work for her mother. :)

We've been given many challenges this week and I want to give my family and friends some challenges too. :) If you know what a church tour is, go on one! It's really cool to be taught by the missionaries! It's cool for me to give one! Listen/watch General Conference with questions that you want answered. Pray about them. Write them down. And listen! :) Pray for someone to refer them to the missionaries. We LIVE off of referrals. Plus not to mention, it keeps us from tracting. They don't like us to tract as often. They want us to have appointments and be busy. I know it's a lot of challenges but you don't have to do all of them. Pick a couple that really stand out to you and work on them this week. As for the names challenge, please do this one. Out of all of the ones I've given you please do this one. It'll not only bless you for being in the House of the Lord but will bless them with the opportunity to accept the work.

Thank you all for writing me!!!!! I know I don't get to write back very often individually and so far haven't been able to but I truly appreciate it! It makes me want to go out and work harder! I WILL write back eventually! I'm determined! I love you all so much!

Things are great other wise! House is clean, we have GOOD groceries, and are busy at work. I love you all!!!

Sister Halverson

Inspiration Wall

The Washing Machine of DOOM! Sounds like a freight train.

I love to receive surprise boxes in the mail! 

Week Two In Indiana

Hello!

This week has been so awesome! We have an investigator on date for baptism! And we kinda blew the standard of excellence out of the water. Our district was super happy/shocked to hear the work that's been going on. And boy do we have a lot of work to be done! We are teaching several families and many people. It's exciting to feel the Spirit so strongly and guide us. The other day we were trying to visit an investigator from the previous elders and I saw this guy walking down the street. I had a feeling that said to give him a Book of Mormon. I wasn't sure what to do then it said we'll get him next time. Well the next time came sooner than I thought! Sister McKendrick does the driving because she's senior companion and went around the block when this investigator didn't answer. I saw the guy again and made her stop. The feeling was so strong! It said GIVE HIM A BOOK OF MORMON!!! So I made her roll down the window and ask if he wanted one! Haha the look on her face was priceless! Needless to say he accepted. Haven't heard much from him since but we planted the seed anyway.

Other than that we've been pretty busy. We have to share a car with the elders in our area and we only have a certain number of miles we can go. The elders have been racking up the miles pretty quickly and our stipend is down to 15 miles a day. We corrected it yesterday by not even using the car. So now it's up to 20 miles a day. We have lots of kind members in our ward and they feed us almost every night. It's nice to get to know them and learn more of how the Spirit works in our lessons. We love church too! Plus I found out that one of my friends from mission prep is companions with the daughter of one of the ladies in my ward! It was so cool when we found out!

Justin! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! This is the most exciting yet aggravating time ever! It's a long wait but it's worth it! Read your scriptures, buy a Preach My Gospel, and get involved with missionary work now! You'll be thankful you did. I didn't very much and regret it. It's cool to see full time missionaries at work and to be with them when it happens. So go on splits with the elders! Challenge your friends who aren't members to read the Book of Mormon or to take the discussions or to go on a church tour! Get involved!!! And then your transition won't be so hard. I mean you'll still have to learn Spanish but that will come to you. I have to learn and I'm not even on a Spanish speaking mission. We've got Portuguese AND Spanish families here! Thank goodness for French class too! So congrats again and let me know how you're doing so I can help you! Oh! And the Missionary Portal will be your best friend and worst enemy. Do the activities before you head into the MTC but don't go on it to only look at the count down. No Bueno.

So! I think that's about it for this week! Finally got to vacuum and we're continuing to make it feel like home!

To answer some questions!

1. The weather here is fabulous! Not humid at all. Maybe because it's fall but it's still not humid. We've had storms the past couple weeks on and off. Lots of cloud cover. Sunrises are GORGEOUS! I'll have to get pictures.

2. I get along with my companion wonderfully! Some days are bad personally but I find ways to make them good and let go of whatever is frustrating or irritating me.

3. I feel a lot more settled in. My suitcases are put away and we're getting into a routine which is nice.

4. I'm doing just fine!!! Not gonna lie. There are days where it's difficult and all I want to do is go home to the apartment and stay in. But we keep going and laugh off the struggles. Yesterday was super windy! And we were wearing flowy skirts. The wind only blew mine around but Sister McKendrick wasn't so lucky. We laughed ourselves silly.

I love you all!

Sister Halverson

P.S. Get used to calling everyone Elder and Hermana Justin! Including yourself! :)



MTC District



The Indianapolis, Indiana Temple

First Week In Indiana

This week has been amazing! Lots of miracles and tender mercies. We've met with so many amazing people like our district and zone and families in this area. We are working hard to give them everything they need and teach them as best as we can and let the Spirit do the rest. We've seen a couple agree to be baptized already! We just need to keep teaching them and set a date. It's great they are such sweet, humble people. But I've quickly come to learn that people are mean. And rude. But they have their choice and that's fine. Heavenly Father has His hand in everything. 

We are the first sisters in this ward in EIGHT YEARS!!!!!  You can tell too because our apartment needs a lot of work.  I'm doing my best to clean it but we have limited supplies and not a ton of time.  Like no time at all actually.  So we make do and do what we can.  The ward members love to feed us!!!  We get such good food and they really like having sisters.  It's a novelty to them I guess because they haven't had any for a long time.

My companion's name is Sister McKendrick.  She's been out for 15 months and will "die" in this area.  (I don't like some of these mission terms.)  And according to the other missionaries I'm going to "Kill" her or send her off.  (Again...no likely!)  So all in all things have been great and we've been off to a good start.    Hit the ground running.

So these are some of the thing that happened this week which is a lot better than last week.  I love all of you!  I'm getting pictures but I'm having a hard time remembering my camera.  :( Mom I'll send it home soon so you can upload.

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love
-Sister Halverson

Picture of my companion, Sister McKendrick

Week Two

Hello!

So we received our flight plans last week and we are getting ready to go out tomorrow! It's kinda sad leaving half of our district (they are headed to Georgia) but it's exciting to go! We are doing laundry today and just getting ready to go. I have to leave here at like 4:30 a.m. so I'll be getting up early tomorrow morning.  So all is well! I'm a lot better this week. I got sick. But now it's over and I don't sound gross as often. This week was pretty cool. We taught a lot of "investigators". I really learned a lot from it. WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE TODAY!!! I'm seriously on cloud nine! The Provo Temple is Gorgeous! I don't think they need to redo it because it's so pretty. These past two weeks have kinda been a blur. It's like drinking from a fire hose. You get some water but it mostly hurts your face. I can't attach photos. :( It won't let me. They turn out to be too big. I'll keep figuring it out though.

I'm sorry this one is short! I'm trying to remember what I did haha!

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Halverson

 

 



An "investigator" we taught at the MTC
 

First P-day

I'm doing great! We finally have a chance to do laundry and only one hour to write everybody. There are four girls in my room, Sister Fenn, Sister Smallcomb, Sister Howard (my companion) and me. I left my camera back in the room so I can't upload photos this week. I will for sure get them up next week. We got our travel itinerary on Friday! We are headed to MN next Tuesday (September 9th) for an hour layover then headed to Indianapolis. I'll write next Monday about when I can call Mom.

This week to be honest was really hard. I was struggling to feel the spirit which is hard considering it's practically everywhere here. I had prayed for the entire weekend to find a way to feel the spirit within myself. It wasn't really answered until yesterday when we went to choir practice. We sang "Where Can I find Peace". LOVED IT! And then our district leader was able to give me a blessing. I immediately felt 100% better. We went to the Sunday devotional and heard from Brother Richard N. Holzapfel. It was powerful and made me that much more in tune. Then we saw a film called the Characters of Christ by Elder Bednar and it is my new favorite.

So. My district. We had ten total but and elder went home due to medical. So now there are nine. Elder Williams is our District Leader. Elder Fiefia (Fee ya fee ya), Elder Critchfield, Elder Lamb, Elder Reber (Like Webber but with an R. Not ree ber) and then the sisters. We went on a temple walk yesterday which was a blast! Love our teachers. We are learning so much here! I am learning SO MUCH here!

Hugs to everyone.

Sister Alexandria Halverson