6 Months and a Transfer Call

Hello Friends and Family!

How are things back home?! Work is going good here in Seymour! I'm being transferred out this coming Wednesday. No idea where to. We'll never know ahead of time. Only at transfer meeting haha. :) It'll be an adventure. So far I've been with a different companion every transfer since Sister Mckendrick. It's been quite the adventure and I now know the secret to packing! Send home stuff you're not going to use for a while and then get a tote to carry the rest. We should be fine from here on! :) No issues with transfers anymore! And it won't be like last transfer when I had to carry a million things. Just 4. :) Everything fits too! We'll figure out what to do with my bed spread and pillowcase. I'm not worried about it though. :) It'll be a fresh start and an exciting change. I'm looking forward to it!

We've seen some pretty cool miracles here in Seymour. We had a very full week of lessons this last week and have seen Matt make leaps and bounds with progress. He isn't reading which is not good but he wants to come to church and so do his kids. And we finally met Bobbie! We didn't know where she lived and she wouldn't answer our calls because she didn't know it was us. So we met her last week and we've had a lot of success with her. I'm excited for Sister Hofheins to see them progress.

I'm determined to see a baptism next transfer. Or in April at least. :) I think it'd be cool to see right before my halfway mark! So it's going to happen. :)

Weather has been insane here! As per usual actually. It decided to snow even more on Saturday and we were grounded. Didn't leave the apartment until 5! I made sure the house was cleaned top to bottom and I started packing. President wanted me to call him earlier in the week so I called him Friday night. He told us transfers right there so I packed almost everything right then and there. Saturday I finished everything as much as I could for the following days. Sunday they cancelled church... That was BIZARRE. Never had that happen in my life. EVER. And they have snow days here? What are those? Whenever we had tons of snow we still had school. We got sent home once because of the windstorm in November of 2011. My junior year in High School. That was about it though. Too weird... Kids have been out since last Monday. What's worse is I'm as far south as you can get in the mission for sisters. It's only North from here... More snow. More cold. More of everything haha. Hope this Norwegian bloodline of mine helps handle the cold haha. :)

Speaking of bloodlines, did you know I'm related to Amelia Earhart?? Funny how family history works! I'm also related to every single one of these elders and sisters in the Indiana Indianapolis Mission except those from foreign countries like Canada. Haha JK we have Brazilians and Asians too. They're great missionaries. Go and do family history! :) Fix it and take our ancestors to the temple! I love the temple. :)

Anyway! I hope you are doing great! Love you all!

Love,
Sister Halverson

District Meeting

Elder Busath

District meeting again! Sister Howard. Love this girl!

We had lunch at Chipotle!

Samantha Bayles decided to steal my boots

The Bayles Family

Indiana is 20.....

Hello Friends and Family!

Indiana weather is officially the age of 20. No longer a teen but still not quite an adult. Can't decide if it wants to be sunny and warm or as frigid as Elsa's House. It's irritating. It decided to be winter on Monday. The skies opened up and buried the ground in a blanket of white. We went driving around in it because we couldn't go up to Columbus in the weather. So the Spaniards and us stayed and went store hopping for our Prep Day. The library was closed too for Presidents Day. It was a bit boring. However we made it through the mundane day with close calls and Dollar Tree Fairy Wings. Long story...

Last week was great! We had Zone Conference on Thursday and after the trainings had some fun with March Madness. I'm a swimmer. I don't run around with a big orange bouncy thing bigger than my head. It's just not what I'm capable of. Turns out I can actually keep my feet moving and the ball within my reaching distance. Did good!

I've learned a lot since being here. I've learned that 6 months flies by in a matter of seconds. O.O Yes. I said it. 6 months!!!!! It's February. In one year I'll be home people. ONE YEAR!!!!! Also, in one year my awesome cousin will hit his halfway mark! Way to go Elder Holmes! He's on his way to Mexico. :) I've also learned my finger lags behind on the shift key so the next letter is caps too. Annyoing. But it's ok. :) We've been doing our best to stay busy and warm. I'm trying my best to make sure I'm not having headaches or frostbitten toes. Haha. :) We're in a bit of a rush this week. I've procrastinated getting this thing done so now I'm scrambling. It's always an adventure in missionary land. :) I love you all! And I hope you're taking me seriously on the Familysearch thing! We are able to have a free ancestry account because of it! Sign in! Hurry! Family members need a tree to be added to! :) I love you all and hope you have a great week!

James 1:5-6. What did prayer do for Joseph Smith? What does it do for you? How can it help us all come closer to God?

Love,

Sister Halverson

Temple Trip!!!!!

Hello Friends and Family!!!

Exciting news!!! I went to the Temple on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!! IT was so nice! We went down with Sister Ollmann who works in the Louisville Temple. It was quite the blessing. So grateful I had my Temple clothes! As well as Sister Kerby letting us do names for her. It was so cool. We had fun. The feelings from being in the temple were so nice. Such peace and the Spirit was so strong. I'm blessed to be able to go. I have to wait 6 months now before I can go again... but it's ok. :) The Indy temple will be done in 6 months! Well, dedicated at least. It'll be done in July. :) I'm so excited for it. :)

We've had many a miracle this week. We had a lot of lessons and met TONS of potentials. Now it's just up to us to whittle down to the A gators. It's a lot of hard work but we feel Seymour is filled with gold nuggets.

Monday we had fun in North Vernon. We haven't been able to go to Columbus for 4 weeks now due to miles. We have to go clear up to Greenwood on Thursday for Zone Conference. I get to go back to my stomping grounds!! :) Lol here we call your first area your "birthplace". So I get to go to my birthplace! :) So excited to see everyone there in the Stake center again. :) We're going to play basket ball... I'm not much for sports other than swimming. You know me and my lack of hand eye coordination/arm strength. It should be interesting. We have a lot of role playing to do. As awkward as it is, we need to do it before Thursday comes otherwise it will be a face full of awkward. Especially role playing with Pres if we're so lucky. Scared out of my mind. O.O Oh well. C'est la vie.

Tuesday we met Brenda! The sisters taught her since Thanksgiving and her daughter has been sealed in the Temple. She wants to be able to know what's going on for her Grandson since she is the only nonmember. For now.. ;) haha not to be cocky. But I know she will be baptized. Sometime down the line. We're going to try and meet with her sometime soon again.

Wednesday was much of the same. Scripture study class, trying out referrals, MCM, and dinner with the sick Elder Busstop and Elder Owens who wasn't sick. We went to Wendy's. It was really good. :)

Thursday = Weekly Planning! All of our lessons actually worked as planned! And unplanned but hey! They still worked! :) Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. :)

Friday! Best day ever! Temple trip!!! We worked really hard before we left and we left at 4. So we made the 6 o'clock session. It was amazing. After the Temple Sister Ollmann took us out for Dairy Queen treats. It was fun. :)

Saturday. Had a lesson at 10:30. Walk in and what do we find? J Dubs. Jehovah's Witness' with our investigator. I'm really hoping he's not an eternigator. Also, we may have gotten the younger boy excommunicated..... He took an Indy Temple Card. Oops... This was the day we saw miracles. Lots of lessons in one hour, lots of contacts, lots of potentials. It was so cool. :)

Sunday was nice. I wasn't feeling too well but we did a lot of work with the WML and got everything taken care of for the new rosters we received. We came home and I took a nap for about three hours... I felt much better though and we saw miracles! It was cool. Talked to our neighbors and taught two lessons and they could potentially want to learn more! It's cool! :)

Well that's my week in a nut shell. We had some adventures and some really cool experiences. I hope you are doing well and looking up names for the family tree! We're all part of one big one so it helps to get the info right. :) Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Halverson

Miracle At Church!

Hello Friends and Family!

This has been a crazy transfer! Already half way done! We had a miracle at church!!!!! Plus my hair is getting SOOOOOOO long! I'm super happy about that! :) We had some adventures this week.

On Monday we didn't have enough miles to go up to Columbus so instead we went with the Spaniards to North Vernon to hang out with Elders Busath and Owens. It was pretty fun. We had fun hanging out.

Tuesday morning Sister Hofheins and I had to drive up to Franklin, sniff, for exchanges. I miss it up there so much! Got to walk through the chapel a couple of times. It was nice being somewhere familiar again. We had exchanges all that day and Sister Goodstein and I saw MIRACLES. We taught 9 lessons and got to hang out. We made it so much fun! She didn't judge as we kind of had a party in the car and danced to some appropriate music. It was way fun.

Wednesday we had a mini Zone Conference with the Franklin and Columbus Zones in Franklin which is why we stayed over the Tuesday night. We had a really good training from President. Also, we're losing half of the missionaries currently here serving in the next 6 months. It's insane. So there will be lots of opportunities to get to know new people as they come in left and right. It'll be interesting. After the trainings we drove in a large missionary convoy to a Chinese Buffet and ate with the other missionaries. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday we actually did our weekly planning and got it all done. Shocking I know right? :)

Friday we did Family History and it was pretty cool! I think I found someone on my Dad's side to add to the tree! I'm not sure if it's correct or not. So I want everyone to get online and go to Familysearch.org and if you know anything about our family, add it to the tree! The Spirit of Elijah is VERY important with the Temple being opened up in August. They want family names in there. But I think it'll be really cool to see the trees grow. I've already added my uncles and aunts and cousins to the best of my abilities but go and update it! :) Add more! Update the trees! It was so cool to see the one person who could or could not be a relative come up and match up! Go! DO! :) Ok that's my rant for the moment haha.

Saturday we met with a guy who wants to be taught more of the LDS faith so he can discover for himself. Also we met a man who was a referral from HQ and we went and talked to him and then shared with him the Book of Mormon! We asked if he'd come to church the next day and he said he'd think about it. Then we committed him to read the introduction and he told us he would and that we'd see him in the morning.

Sunday! He came to church!!!!!!!!! It was so cool to see him there! It was fast and testimony meeting but it was a GREAT meeting! I got up too haha. :) A little scary but hey it's worth it if I can help the Spirit help someone come a little closer. :)

That is my week! Go and do! And enjoy the things while you do it! Alma 26:16. Great scripture that I randomly opened up to last night. :) And the Patriots won??? Well then.... (No I did not watch. I just know who won.)

Love you all!

Sister Halverson

Sister Goodstein and I!

In the car!

Lunch after training

Me and Sister A! Ignore the curly Q.

The moment when.....ELDERS!

The Leaning Tower of Missionaries and Recent Converts. :)

M