Water Balloons in Rainstorms

Hello Friends and Family!

So...tomorrow I hit 5 months. O.O Weird! I'm almost 1/3 done! That's crazy! Time has flown by! I don't like it but at the same time, it's cold. Time for spring. :) Ok. Best news ever. Ready for it? THE TEMPLE WILL BE DEDICATED AUGUST 23, 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've got chills just thinking about it!!!!!! I'm so excited for it to be completed!!!!! The open house will be in July and will end in August. I'm ridiculously stoked for this! The sisters will be able to work with the open house I think. Not sure but it'll be so fun!!!!!!!!!!

This week we haven't been doing the best personally but we are still working in our area. I've finally got my map!!!! :) So I'm going to sit down and draw out my "quadrants" that I love so much and work so well by. It'll be fun being able to put these lovely Children of God on the map to see how we can work better and use His time more effectively. :)

So nothing much to report on this week. We are working with a couple. Tim and Melissa. Tim is a member and Melissa is his wife who wants to be baptized. Tim wants to be able to confirm her and that is what makes their situation so unique. They don't have a car so they can't come to church. Everything will work out I know that. I've got the faith. Prayers never hurt either. :) They're so sweet and she's ready for it. It'll be awesome to see her come to church. :)

So we met with a less active 14 year old last night. She's crazy and rambunctious and very much an 8th grader. Manda this is where your expertise comes in! How would you address the situation? :) Laniaka. She's a crazy kid. She was trying to hit my umbrella with a water balloon from her apartment but missed. Then she missed again. And I moved my umbrella thinking she was all out. Nope! Hit my coat. I laughed too hard to care. I knew I should have worn my waterproof one! Haha :) It was funny.

I've become a lot closer with personal prayer. It's been good to see it's influence as I talk to my Father in Heaven. Studies have become more personal. So now I can turn them outward and have more questions for my investigators. It'll be fun to see the change come. :)

I hope you are all doing well! Thank you for keeping me in your prayers! I love you and miss you all!

Love,

Sister Halverson

New address:
Sister Alexandria Halverson
305 West 5th Street
Apartment C
Seymour, IN  47274

Seymour, Indiana

Hello Friends and Family!

Greetings from Seymour! I've been double transferred into the area and am Serving with Sister Hofheins from Orem, Utah. Out of the 6 missionaries in the Seymour and North Vernon areas, only one stayed. The rest of us have been transferred in. Two double transfers and one new Spanish elder. Crazy right?! Oh! And guess what?!?!?! Elder Busath is in the North Vernon ward too!!!!! He's my district leader!!! Crazy right?!?!?!?! We're in the same ward and serving together again! Well... Almost. He's 14 miles away in North Vernon. It's just the Spanish missionaries and us here in Seymour. We're in the southern most part of the mission as far as sisters can go actually. Our mission goes clear down to Linton and Bedford but sisters don't go there.

So! We have, Elder Porter, Elder Baird (Spanish) Elder Busath, Elder Owens, Sister Hofheins and myself. Baird, Owens, and Hofheins are from Orem. Busath is San Jose, China, and American Fork. He moved a lot as a kid. Porter is a Kaysville native. We have tons of fun! OH!!!!!!! Best. News. Ever!!!!!! Guess who is in my district??????

SISTER HOWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're together again! For the most part haha. She's with Sister Hathcock (All H's in this district) and they serve in the Columbus 4th ward. Sister Fenn is in our Zone too! So we get to reunite for the most part every P-day!!! Sister Smallcomb is in the Lafayette zone. :P Sad day. But I will see her again! One day! :) So excited.

We have no idea what's going on in this area. So we have our work cut out for us. :) I'm excited because I'm going to do a lot for this area. Need a newer/ bigger map to quadrant out the town, visit tons of people and invite everyone to do the 21 day challenge. Create a list of people to refer to us. Pray about it for 21 Days. God WILL let you know who we should meet with. It's pretty cool. We have lots of work to do!

Thursday we did service in Hope, IN and got to take home a BUNCH of free food after wards!!! All the missionaries got to take a lot of food home!!! It's so funny. Tons of frozen chicken, boxed food, and treats. Also a whole sack of potatoes for us!!! :) Yay! Mashed potatoes for days!!! So funny.

I'm ready to throw it down and get busy. Five months old this month! Crazy!!! Time really does fly by.  I'm almost 1/3 in to this!!! So weird!!!!!

Anywho! I love you all! I pray you're doing good and that everything is working out as you need it to. If not, RPP! Read. Ponder. Pray!

Love you!

Sister Halverson

Sister Hofheins is a scary driver!

Trunk full of food!

Sister Howard and I!

Elder Derek Nyman

Sister Hofheins and I.

Sister Hofheins relaxing after tracting.

 

Old abandoned high school gym.

Transfers...

Hello Friends and Family!

So this marks my 4 1/2 month mark and a coming transfer! We got the call and I'm being bounced out of Greenwood and into another area. No idea where yet. We aren't told until the day of transfers. I'm a little nervous but excited at the same time. It'll be good. I'll be sad to leave these members and the investigators I've come to know and love, but it'll be worth it to see what happens and see what I can do. There are 7 of us leaving this time and 12 staying. They'll get 8 missionaries because Elder Paskett went home two days before Christmas. So Elder Bus stop has been in a trio for the last 3 weeks.

We're working with a few investigators. We just got a new contact named Toby and he seems to be very interested. The Spanish missionaries referred him to us and they told us he loved the message! We also picked up a newish investigator named Miranda. We met her before but were never able to set up a return appointment until last Tuesday. We're teaching twins in a part-member family. It's been fun. We have a long way to go but I know that there are families here ready to come into His fold.

The missionaries here are good. They aren't terribly insane. Everything is kind of boring. Especially when you see us in our natural habitat at the chapel on Pre Day. Well, last week an elder kinda tweaked his knee and limped off the basket ball court but for the most part nothing gets too crazy. My camera decided to die last week. Got a new one though! A Canon Powershot! It's so cute! It's blue and I have a black and orange case! Gotta represent O-town somehow! ;) It's good. The missionaries give me flack for it but it doesn't bother me. :) Apparently my neighborhood (Crazy Neighbors on the east) is worse than Indianapolis. Lol.

This week has been good! It's weird to say goodbye to everyone. But I know I'll see them again someday. :) I've been out for almost 5 months! Time has flown! Where has it gone! 13 and 1/2 months left! Too fast! No likey! Gotta work harder now haha. :) I'm going to hit my new area running and just throw down into the work. It'll be good.

Alma 37:6-7 by small and simple means. Everything God does is by small and simple things. I hope you can find the small and simple things He does for you to help you move forward.

I love all of you! Miss you too!

Sister Halverson

Myself. Sister B. Elder Duve has the glasses. Elder Busath in the blue. Elder Havertz.

Sister Goodstein, Elders Diaz (Grey) and Rasmussen (Red)

Sister Astle and myself

Another beautiful sunset

One of the Davis Twinkles. (Twins.)

Elder Duve Painted a w on my Weber Shirt

2015!

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy New Year!!! It's 2015!!! Holy! Where did last year go? Oh yeah, it went by in Indiana. :) Haha it's ok. I love it here! Right now it's sunny and clear. windy and 15 degrees outside but still pretty! We've been doing good today! Shopping for food and the normal preparation day stuff. Always love it when I can talk to everyone. :)

So! How was everyone's New Years? Ours was awesome! We got to stay out until 10:30 on New Years Eve! Sister Bulman and I were at the Stop 11 Chapel with the other Greenwood missionaries after we got Chili's for lunch until 10:30 pm and the next day we were there with the entire Zone and the Beech Grove missionaries for a while too. There were over 40 of us it seemed! So many missionaries. It's weird to see them in their natural environment when we can relax and goof off haha. :) We had tons of fun.

This week was really slow. A lot to do with over sleeping on naps. We've both been so tired after this holiday season we over sleep and have zero energy. So we got out late and are kinda struggling. We did however meet some new people! Toby is a referral from the Indy Spanish elders and Josh is a neighbor to one of the members in our ward! They both seem interested and we're going to try and set up appointments with them this week. Terry is doing good. We're hoping he will FINALLY come to church on Sunday now that our schedule is at 1. Not too sure how I feel about that haha. On the plus side it takes up most of our day and gives us a lot of church with ward council and sacrament meeting. On the down side, we get home around 5 which is right in the middle of prime proselyting time. I'm so torn! Haha. :) It'll be a new adventure that's for sure.

So other than that things are going great! I'm re-reading Do Not Attempt in Heels and I'm getting tons of good insights on how to keep myself going even when the going seems impossible. It's wonderful and has helped A LOT knowing that others have gone through the same exact problems and worries as me.

Also! Wanna know what I woke up to this morning??? ICE! Inside our house on the windows! :P No fun. I spent my morning cleaning that off and getting rid of all the nasty mildew that's been building up. We also have no blinds. So I'm going to talk to Elder Smithhart (The Office Senior Elder in charge of missionary housing) and see if we can get rid of a few things in our apartment, like the stained carpet, the old beat-up recliner loveseat, and the curtains. Well not totally get rid of those but put some blinds in.

Alma 34:17-27. Always have a a prayer in your heart. In all that we do let us have a prayer of thanks to God. :) I've seen prayer play a big role in my life out here. In everything I do, in all I am, everything revolves around prayer and asking God what He would have us do. I'm so greatful for the prayers said on my behalf, they do help. Also I'm thankful for prayer because I know it's what gets me going in the morning and sustains our work throughout the day. I love you all and I want you to know I pray for you too!

Love you and miss you!

Sister Halverson

It's New Year's!

Hello Friends and Family!

I can hardly believe that it's been four months since I entered the MTC! CRAZY!!! It's been such a crazy adventure and I'm loving every second of it. I look back and I can see the difference it's made in my life from beginning this journey. I've got lots of work ahead of me but I'm excited to see it to the end!

This begins a new year!!! HOLY HANNAH! I can't even begin to believe that!!! It's so crazy thinking I'll move into 2015 here in Greenwood! That's crazy. I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I loved being able to see my family and see how they were doing! I really was super happy! Mom thought it was a good idea to surprise everyone at Mammy's house! LOVED IT!!! :) I got to see my Bubby (Finn) too! That made me happy! He's still a dork but he's my dork. :) From 1300 miles away... Anywho!

This year I want to start some New Years Resolutions:

1. I've decided I'm going to figure out why writing in my journal is so important and begin to write something every day. No matter the day.

2. I'm going to find ways to keep myself from stressing out! :)

3. I'm going to do something a little different with my studies each morning.

and 4. I'm going to learn 2 new songs on the piano before asking for my Ukulele. :) Everyone and their name tag knows how to play out here and I want to learn so badly! But I want to make sure I'll be dedicated enough to sit down and play it. Already figured out the cup song. Onto bigger and better things!

I would like to invite everyone to do something to increase their spiritual knowledge/testimony/all around well being in this wonderful Gospel and do something you've wanted to do but haven't or just something to give you increase. Will you do that? GREAT! :) Haha.

I had a good week this week. Getting back up there and trying to move forward. This transfer has been very slow, in large part because it's winter and not many people are out and about. It's ok. We will move on! Put your shoulder to the wheel right?

I love each and every one of you and my prayers are will you always. :) I hope you have a great New Years day and also a safe one too! God be with you!

Love,

Sister Halverson

Christmas Eve

After the mayhem Christmas Day

It's Christmas!

Hello Friends and Family!

Just an update! I'm doing well! The Doctor said everything came back normal so that's a relief. I'm assuming it's all stress. Missionary work is hard. Rewarding, but hard. So Sister Bulman and I are figuring it out! We've got lots of work to do in this area. It's already week four! There's 6 weeks in a transfer. O.O I don't want to leave Greenwood. :( But I'll go where I'm needed.

This week is Christmas! Crazy! I'll hit 4 months this Saturday! Which is even crazier! I get to call home too! Which is the best!!! So excited! :D

A little about my week: We had a normal week for the most part. We had some more lessons than we've had in the last week which is great! And we had the Christmas Conference on Thursday! That was so fun! We had a training first, lunch, Christmas bingo, then a talent show. And we also had Santa come and raffle off some presents. We then went to Olive Garden with three zones combined. It was so much fun! Friday was good, Saturday was good, and Sunday was the Ward Christmas Program. We combined with the Franklin ward. I got super sick in the morning and they told me to go home and rest. So we did just that. I made cookies, we updated, and prepared for the week. It'll be a great week. Today is only half P-day because of Christmas. Christmas day will be an all-day kind of thing! I'm stoked!!!!!

I love you all! And I challenge you to read Luke 2 for Christmas and really reflect on what it means to you! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Sister Halverson