Tuesday, April 28, 2015

8 Months!

Hello Friends and Family!
Today I'm kind of frantically writing an email. A lot happened this week and I'm none too sure where to start! I guess for starters I'm 8 months old today!!! Crazy right? How am I? How's my area?

EVERYTHING IS SERIOUSLY SO FANTASTIC I'M ON COULD 9 IN MISSIONARY TERMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does that answer your question? :) Things couldn't be better. It's a blast with my district. I could cry. Totally happy. I don't want to leave Warsaw EVER. Like, EVER. I could serve the last 10 months here and be 100% ok with that. We're seeing so many miracles it's ridiculous. We're out working hard. Teaching tons of appointments. Have 10 new gators and we're finding a bunch more. We have 3 progressing and hopefully will have all three on a date by week's end! I'm so so happy to be here with all of them and I don't want this district to be broken up. EVER. It's great! Everything is going great! Tracting is fun. Teaching is fun. Learning and studying and hanging out with the missioanries in my zone is fun! EVERYTHING is just...epic. :) So many people and so many new faces and so much Spirit it's a blast! Just aweosme!
I can't even spell I'm so excited to get it out! :) We had a really cool activity with the Stake on Saturday. Had a relief society activity that was about getting to know one another. Played human version of hungry hungry hippos. Totally fun.
Sorry this one is so short!!!!!
Love you!
Sister Halverson

Monday, April 20, 2015

4/20/15!

Hello Friends and Family!
Wow! This week in Warsaw has been INCREDIBLE!!!!! Oh man we've seen miracles left and right!!! It's been so cool! We've been committed to going out and finding about 2-3 hours DAILY and the efforts have paid off! President Cleveland is adamant that we find the Children of God who are searching for the Truth. I'm glad to say that I've gotten sun burnt from being out walking around all day! Nothing terrible haha. Just enough to show the work we've been doing. :)
Speaking of! We've had so many lessons this week! I know numbers don't really matter but we had like 25 ish lessons and have 5 new! Brandy is really sweet. She's a home health aide for Arty and we have an appointment with them this coming Tuesday. We were walking past the house and he waved to us and just came to the door and invited us in! It was cool! She started asking us all of these questions about what we do and we ended up sharing a message with her about Temples and how we can have families forever. It's so cool. I'm excited for her. We've been busy and things are going great. Summer is just around the corner which means we'll be PC ing at central park and helping people with yard work! Yay! Oh! And s'mores. It means s'mores. :)
We've been doing great things here. I'm so stoked about the work that's being done and that I'm a part of it.
President had a conference call with us on Wednesday and he had us commit to building our faith in the work and that he knows what we can do for this mission. President loves doing things that have never been done before. So we're doing things that have never been done before like praying for our faith to be strengthen in daily studies and throughout the day. I've seen my prayers be answered and my faith increased. I've also decided to start reading Preach My Gospel to help me better understand what it is I need to do as a missionary to be successful in helping other come to know Jesus Christ. It's amazing to see the transformations within us as well as within others. I've come to love Warsaw even more than I already did clear back in February when I got here and I really really don't want to leave. There's so much that needs to be done here. But I'm sure if I go at the end of the Transfer, I'll be ready and able to help the next area progress and get some hope pumped in. It'll be awesome. :)
This ward is the best. They're so willing to help with missionary work and we're going out with members more and more. We even went around with Sister Kelly the other day and she took us from one point of town to the other to talk to these wonderful people. It's become fun rather than scary haha. Well, still a little scary because I'm not sure who will be behind the door. But still really cool! :)

Monday! Played soccer in Elkhart. Got nailed in the head by the soccer ball. That was fun...
Tuesday! We went out and tracted and talked to Brooke who is making more commitments and is coming closer to baptism! We tracted around Warsaw for a while and saw a ton of people!

Wednesday! Did family history at the library! So WAY TO GO FAMILY! There are more connections that have been made and I was able to trace it back clear into the 100s!!! How cool is that! I'm sure there are more lines that go back even farther! I'm excited to trace them and also make sure that they're correct!

Thursday was weekly planning! As per usual haha. We still went out and tracted a ton! Helped Sister Kelly with her indexing and had dinner with her. It was really good! She made the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits and this amazing soup! It didn't agree too well with my stomach that night, but it was still good!

Friday we had district meeting and the elders went on a double exchange. Elder Conradt (one of the Zone Leaders) came down with Elder Blood (Elkhart Spanish Speaking) and then they split up with the Warsaw Elders. It was interesting. But fun! We played Ninja down by the beach and had a picnic in Central Park. Enjoyed a beautifully sunny day!

Saturday we went with Sister Kelly for the day and she drove us around Warsaw and we saw a couple of people we met before. No new investigators but it was still nice seeing them! Also had sports night!

Sunday was Sunday! I always love going to church. As well as spending time in the rain walking through town! It poured. And is still raining today. It's supposed to rain for the next couple of days. :( Then it will get super humid before it evens out again. Fun times!
Well that's it for my week! We're going to play a bit more soccer and hopefully no one (Me) will get hit with the ball again!
Love and miss you all!
Sister Halverson





Roasting marshmallows!




Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Go Big or Go Home!

Hello Friends and Family!
It's that wonderful time again! Transfers! Well, they already happened...But it was still pretty good! I got some cool new missionaries to serve with me here in the Lovely Warsaw! Elder Jones is our new DL. He's literally a new DL. Elder Thomas is his companion. They're pretty fun haha. :) My new companion is Sister Hathcock! She served with my MTC companion Sister Howard and also Trained Sister Smallcomb from our MTC district too! Crazy right?! I'm so excited to be here with her. We're going to have a blast up here. Played Soccer Saturday night with a bunch of people from the area and the Navarro family as well as Sister Shafer who is our beloved Ward Missionary. I love it up here. Weather has been good! No Tornadoes. Well..Not yet at least... (Cross fingers and pray NO!) I've been working hard and am grateful for missionaries who are just as excited as I am to keep the work going! So much fun. :)
Monday went to South Bend to play soccer with the South Bend Zone. It was indoor soccer and I never thought I'd be playing soccer like EVER in my life. But I even bought a soccer ball to practice and play with. It's a blast! Totally smoked the Elders too! Elder Hansen locked us out of the car when we went up to Goshen to catch a ride with the Zone Leaders. We went up. Played soccer. Came back. Realized we were still locked out of the car. Called the lock smith. Waited for three hours. Got it unlocked after eating dinner with the Zone leaders and the other Goshen elders and got home at like 10:50 that night. Quite the Adventure.
Tuesday took Bradshaw around to say her goodbyes.
Wednesday woke up at 4 in the morning to get down to Fishers by 9 because Elder Hansen is training and trainer meetings happen at 9:30. -.- Got new missionaries and have been having a blast ever since!
Thursday fell asleep on the floor while we did weekly planning. Lame...
Sunday was fun! Met the ward. Taught a lot of people and have been waiting rather impatiently for P-DAY!
Haha that's my week!
Taught Corinna and we're going to keep teaching her! Brooke came to Church!!!!! YAY!!! Kylie will be back on date soon! So stoked! Love you!
Love,
Sister Halverson
Sister Hathcock and I

The Elders


Beautiful

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Easter and Conference

Hello Friends and Family!
So, how was conference??? I loved being able to hear from our beloved Prophet and the Apostles. The other Authorities were amazing too and I loved the talks given! It seems the family was one of the central focuses for this years conference. I enjoyed that as well as had some really good notes. I'm looking forward to the next Conference this October to hear from them again! It's a blessing to be able to know of the will and plan God has for us and what He wants us to learn through the mouths of His servants. What an amazing Gospel we have!
Monday was so much fun!!! We gathered with the Goshen elders and had a Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler! Elder Day made it and it was sooo good! We had fun by the lake even though it was super duper windy. They had quite the adventure trying to start the fire. :) It was funny. But the end result was worth it! Definitely love spending time with others and just having fun. Got some great pictures of Elders T Rasmussen and Hansen trying to capture a duck! Too funny!
The rest of the week went by without too much action. We prepared for Conference and helped with what we could. Friday was Sister Bradshaw's birthday! We celebrated with a cake I had made the day previous (with whipped cream cheese frosting I made! totally proud of it lol) and the elders decorated the Relief Society room where we have our District meetings for her birthday. It was nice. Then we had some Peking Chinese food with #Mormanda (Amanda Pilz, a Recent Convert in the ward) and got ready for first Friday. Man, Friday was busy!!!
At First Friday, we set up a booth and shared the Ensign, New Era, and Friend magazines with the people of Warsaw. I was asked to do a radio interview so people could know what our booth was about. That's a tall order for me! I didn't know what to do so the ward mission leader did it. I have no idea what to do in that kind of situation! It was funny. They had a Frank Sinatra like singer who was there and he was awesome. Some couples danced to it. So cute! We had fun.
Saturday was conference! Totally loved it and the Navarros who let us stay all day with them. We made Jello Eggs and Easter Eggs and had fun.
Sunday we hid the Eggs for the little Navarro kids and Sister Navarro also gave us Easter Bunny Bags! It was fun.
I'm excited for transfers coming up this Wednesday! I'll be staying in Warsaw and preparing the Area for three new missionaries being transferred in! It'll be a fun new change and we're going to see many many miracles this transfer!
I hope all continues to go well and you've learned a lot from Conference!
Love,
Sister Halverson
Birthday cake for Sister Bradshaw


Birthday decorations for Sister Bradshaw



Sunset after the rain on Thursday
Sister Bradshaw and I



"Frankie"

Dancing in the street

Decorating Easter Eggs


Hide

Seek

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Hail on Sunday!

Hello Friends and Family!
This week had been just plain weird. Weather wise at least. From snow to sunshine, back to rain, then more snow, and sunshine, hail is thrown in there too, oh and can't forget the wind! -.- pick a season Indy! Mother nature thinks we've missed the crazy cold. Nope! This can only mean one thing... TORNADOES. There will be tornadoes and there will be tons of them with the weather fluctuating so rapidly. It's annoying. But we deal with it as best as we can! Hopefully we get some normal weather here soon and we can warm up!
This week we've seen lots of interesting things! From the squigga eating pizza to the 10 year old investigator deciding her own baptismal date (MAY 9TH!!!) to Women's General Broadcast! It's been crazy fun!
We're working hard with Kylie (another investigator) to see her to her baptismal date! Also we've been trying to find new investigators and helping the ones we have now to progress. A new church Easter video came out called "Because He Lives"! Check it out on Youtube or LDS.org! It's great!
Anyone excited for conference?! I AM!!!!! I like to think that we're all connected when we can watch it! Me in Indy and you wherever you are! :) I'm so stoked to hear from our beloved prophet and the apostles!!!
This blog update is a little all over the place today! I'm doing great, working hard on doing what the Lord needs me to do and trying to decipher what this area needs to help people come closer to Christ. We're working hard to try and find a family as part of the 120 Miracles for this quarter (April, May and June). We want to see 120 baptisms in these months!
Anywho. Life is crazy and awesome and fast and I'm loving it!
 
Love and miss you all!
Sister Halverson

This is a field in Atwood, IN which is close to Warsaw, IN

A Squigga (black squirrel) eating pizza!