That Moment When You Turn 20

Hello Friends and Family!

Um... Can we talk about this for a sec here? I mean I'm glad I'll be forever out of the Teens and we are never ever ever getting back together, like ever. But STILL! I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling Twenty. It's weird. Just a bunch of blank space and I ain't about that style man. Lol sorry bout that. I had to get it out of my system. I've been on a T Swizzle rampage and I can't seem to shake it off. Lol ok NOW I'm done. Maybe.... Anyways, other than the fact that I miss music other than Christian stuff, I'm turning 20 this week. And a month from today I hit my year mark. WHERE IS THE TIME GOING PEOPLE?!?!?!? Anyway.

We had a pretty good week this week! We were able to teach a lot of people at the Temple as well as help get our Ward Council on track with our plans to help this area. They'll get us a map of our ward boundaries with points for everyone who lives in it and then we're going to go out and help them and they'll help us as we go and contact these members! It's been way cool praying about it and planning it as we've been helping in the Temple. The Spirit is so so strong and the people are so sweet. I spent some time with a tour guide while the hallway at the temple was backed up and we talked to the group about to leave. It was funny hearing how small our world is especially in the Church. We had fun though and the Spirit was definitely there. :) We had a great time even though we worked all day Saturday and enjoyed being so close to so many sisters and so many people excited about seeing the House of the Lord.

It was a pretty good week. We're on the mend and have been working on the little things we can do and being the best we can be given the time we have and the little things we do for this area. I'm excited to see what happens next transfer. Time is literally flying and I want to make the best of it at this point in time. It's been great to be serving in Crawfordsville and personally I would love to be here for a while whether it's with a new companion, Sister Anderson, or even training a new missionary. Whatever happens I'm excited to see this line of work get underway and take off. It'll be an adventure. :) I would love to train haha. It would be fun. Especially because we have a fun zone and amazing district. The elders have helped us so much and we feel like we can trust them tremendously. It's been great to have such amazing unity and have so much fun with them at zone meetings and district meetings. I would love to be here for a while with them but again, whatever happens happens. It'll be a great thing and this area needs it.

We do have a miracle this week! The sisters here before me gave a temple card to a random couple when they were tracting one day and the couple CAME to the temple! We didn't meet up with them again but the Sisters in the reception Tent told us about it and we were all like, "THOSE CARDS ACTUALLY WORK?!?!?" So it was amazing! I hope we can meet them again soon and actually help them progress! We have an idea as to who it is so hopefully Sister Anderson will remember! That would be the coolest thing ever! We're hoping it will work and praying for a miracle in Crawfordsville. :) I'm excited for this area. It's a different line of work we're doing and I'm STOKED to see what happens next!

Love,
Sister Halverson

Busy Bees!

Hello Friends and Family!

This week was EPIC! Like holy hannah! It was insane! It's been such a blessing working the Temple Open House Tours! We've already seen miracles especially in our own area. We took an investigator and his wife through last Sunday and then had a lesson again with them this last Thursday. It was so cool to hear their experience! Jim, our investigator, told us that when he saw the baptismal font he wanted to jump in right then! It was the coolest thing ever! We are so excited for them. We've been praying about a baptismal date for them and feel like August 8th would be good. However we still want them to set a date for themselves. That would be the best for this amazing couple. His wife Este loves the church and the message we bring and we have good conversations every time we go over and teach them. It's a learning experience for all of us involved. :)

Also when we were in the reception tent, a man and his wife approached us about being involved for the temple dedication. His wife had just been baptized the year before and the day the Temple is dedicated it will be her one year mark. They're so excited to be sealed in the Temple and are from Louisville, KY. It was nice to talk to them and help them. She seemed thrilled and he was so happy they were able to come up and see the temple.

In the Video room, I was watching a woman and her three children while they were watching the video. She teared up at a couple of things mentioned in the video and it was so wonderful to see the Spirit touch her. I don't know what happened to her afterwards but I'm positive she loved what she saw and was touched further. I hope she'll be inspired and follow her heart wherever it takes her. :)

It was wonderful this week to be at the temple so many times. It's been wonderful and crazy and exciting and a whole mess of emotions. But such a wonderful thing and I'm so so so excited to keep working there. It will be dedicated 4 days before I hit my year mark. That's unbelievable that time has passed so quickly. I'm still reeling from it. Sister Anderson just hit 8 months and that's been wild! She's grown so much and I feel like we work really well together. It's just a matter of getting better and handling the situation here in Crawfordsville. I feel like we need to get out and work but the work we need to do isn't what this area needs if that makes sense. We're going around and talking to our members and trying to find them as well as knocking on their neighbors doors. Several of the families here are taking friends and loved ones to the temple tour and we're going to be helping them so that's even better. The Temple is helping us in more ways than one and that's what's really special about it. I'm so happy for this. Also, the portrait of the African woman kneeling in prayer is the same one that is in my temple back home in Ogden. I love that portrait so so much. It's a special connection for me to see it. :) I'm super happy to keep on working here and things are getting super busy. I'm sure it can only mean to get out and go. It's good. :)

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Sister Halverson

So very happy

Sister Anderson and I

Temples and Tornadoes

Hello Friends and Family!

Well, we out ran quite the storm this morning on the way to email. We left our apartment to go to the church to make some schedule changes for our meal calendar when we found ourselves staring face to face with the scariest cloud I've ever seen. We kept driving thinking nothing of it when underneath became scarier. It was dark blue and rolling. So we decided to forgo our plans and headed right to the library to email. Turns out the area is supposed to have severe thunderstorms including tornadoes running through it. We're safe and the Lord is definitely looking out for us. :)

It was incredible going through the temple yesterday! I loved being able to go and being with our investigators Jim and Este. We had quite the miracle with them the other day too. The whole day we tried and tried to contact people and everything kept falling through. I had the feeling to go and visit them so we did. It was my first time meeting them and I was so happy to get to know them. We invited them to the temple for yesterday and we received a kind little miracle after a really hard day of no one being home. We were thankful that we had listened to the prompting and they were so excited to come. They had a great experience and we're excited to meet with them again. :)

We feel prompted to do a different kind of finding. Our area is at a point where we need to do a lot of work with the members. A 15 pg roster with only a quarter or less active. So we feel prompted to work strongly on finding and activating this area. If they aren't home, immediate back up is to 2-2-5 or tract their street. It's just something we feel is best for Crawfordsville at this time because everything else with our investigators is coming to a standstill. And so many members are part-member families. They have friends who are ready and waiting as well. We're looking forward to this and want to work really hard on finding this way. :)

Zone meeting was awesome as was being able to go to training last Wednesday. :) I'm really looking forward to serving here and doing a lot of work! Minus the tornadoes of course. :)

So that's my week in a nut shell. Still working hard. Still trying to at least. :) Haha Hope you have a great week! Love you!

Love,
Sister Halverson

Happy (late) 4th!

Hello Friends and Family!

How are things? I'm doing pretty good! I survived the week! I tweaked my ankle packing Tuesday night and then stepping off the curb in our new place I rolled it. It wasn't bad. Just hurt to walk on for the next couple of days but we iced it and it's fine now. My new companion is Sister Anderson from Lehi, Utah.  I love Sister Anderson! We get along great and have so much in common and spent last night just talking and talking. It's been great. I felt a little apprehensive at first but we're totally doing good. I have been transferred to Crawfordsville which is just outside Indianapolis.  Crawfordsville is cool! Cute apartment, awesome area, epic companionship already, and the members are SICK! I'm looking forward to working here and helping this area see a convert baptism! Which it hasn't had for like 3 years... Challenge ACCEPTED. I so want to see a baptism. Ten months a missionary and haven't had that opportunity. Hopefully my investigators in Warsaw will progress and I'll be able to go see them! That would make my LIFE!

It was hard leaving Warsaw not gonna lie. I love that place so much. I had withdrawals my first night here because it's practically isolation. The nearest missionaries are 45 minutes away. Which is lame. But we'll make it work! District meeting was a ton of fun! We have a MEGA district! It's the best! There are 10 missionaries and 1 District Leader who's also a Spanish Speaking Missionary. Can you say awesome? Yes. Yes it is. I'm also in a District with Sister Hofheins again! This is gonna be fun! She's comps with Sister Bileau who was with Sister Anderson like 2 transfers ago! Woo!

Well, this last week was a bit of a rough one. Sister Anderson and I get along GREAT. I love her so so much and we have a ton in common. I love our apartment, this area is awesome, met so many awesome people already, and I'm excited to get to work. The only draw back was Satan. I kept getting hurt this entire week, just needed to ice my ankle for a little bit, and we got dropped yesterday by one of the most solid people we had. So it stunk. We're hoping today will be a reboot and we can hit the ground hard and help this area see baptisms. We're going to drastically change that. I fasted for the new investigators and I've been praying for them at night too. I've got a lot of hope here and I'm excited to see what happens. :) We're looking forward to Specialized Training this week and seeing what work we can do to help with the Temple Open House.  We will be working at the Indianapolis Temple Open House which is a dream come true for me. 

I'm looking forward to working in Crawfordsville with Sister Anderson! Lots of Love!

Love,

Sister Halverson

Bat friend in investigator's apartment

Firefly!

Alicia and Sister Anderson and I on the 4th