It's here...O.O Snow!

Hello Friends and Family!

This week we had a great week! We taught 21 lessons and have done so much with our ward. The trust is starting to be there. We're still struggling to find service and doing our best to find it in the community but it just isn't happening the way we need it too. We were told to go to the Chamber of Commerce to ask for service opportunities and once we can find that we will be better. But we've decided to just go and do service for the ward members or even go service tracting. That seems to have worked really well for the Carmel missionaries and we're going to go do the same. It'll be nice to get out and shovel walkways. Get our hands on some shovels and GO TO WORK. Once it starts coming down and anything we can go and do, we'll do it.

I'm so excited for this week. It's Thanksgiving! That means preparing for Elder Nash to arrive as well as spending time with our members. We've been invited to 3 dinners and we're STOKED. This is Sister Eralie's first Thanksgiving as a missionary and she's pumped. It's been a great week last week. We went to the Temple and enjoyed a morning session, the first snowfall of the season hit, (I love tracting in the winter. More families are home staying warm (than out and about in the cold.) and we're going to perform in Sacrament meeting for the members. It's been a wonderful week and we're really trying to get out there and tract more. I'm super happy. :) I love Fishers.

I'm super excited for Lisa and Cheyenne. They both want to be baptized and more realistically Lisa doesn't want to do it alone. We're hoping to start teaching her daughters this week and get them on board too. She wants her family to be involved. Cheyenne wants to change so badly. She's going through a lot especially as an 18 year old and we're helping her see how she can do it through Christ. It's been a wonderful change and the Spirit is always SO strong. It was last night too at dinner with Carl and Linda. They both want the New Member Lessons (her missionaries didn't teach them to her) and we really emphasized Joseph Smith and the major role he played in bringing the Gospel to the world once again. It was amazing. :) I'm so happy we get to go out and be doing more with our members and this area. It's needed some much deserved TLC and we've been seeing that and have been doing our best to plan and take care of this area. :) It's been a good week. :)

Love,
Sister Halverson

 

November at the Indy Temple with Sister Eralie

I love the Indy Temple!

 

Smoothies, Sunset, Leg Lamp and Sickness...

Hello Friends and Family!

This week was interesting. Got sick again. Haha. So close as a companionship we got each other sick! Well, not really. I had it a couple of weeks ago and so did Sister Eralie. So we just managed to get the virus at the same time. YAY! No but seriously. This week was so slow! Got so gosh darn sick we couldn't get out much. We tried and when we tried we crashed. So managed to get SOME lessons but didn't want to get others so sick.

This week will be better. I'm sure of it. :)

Monday we decided to go to the Fashion Mall in Indy because we got our car moved someplace else and are now sharing again. I felt so very poor going to the rich people mall. Some stores I felt I couldn't even step into everything was so expensive! Like the Saks on Fifth Avenue. Yes. They had one here. Looked at all the fancy dresses, much cheaper than I thought they'd be! And then this really fuzzy vest was like $800!!! Really?! For a VEST?!?! It was gross. Let's not forget the Louis Vuitton store in the BASEMENT of this place. Ridiculous. But that was an adventure. Got a blueberry pomegranate smoothie and enjoyed the sunset on the drive home.

We were also attacked by a flying squirrel perched on the roof over the door. We realized he wanted to get out as we wanted to get in. So he decided to jump off the roof and into the tree over our heads. We both thought we were going to be squirrel chow. These Hoosier squirrels are something else! Have we learned nothing from the vicious man eating black squirrels of the north? Warsaw..... Man I miss that place.

We're hoping to go to the temple this Friday. Sister Eralie hasn't been in a long time. So we're going to get permission to go this week. :) It'll be good. :) I'm excited. :D More family names!!! Yay! :) Maybe I can do initiatories too. That would be fun.

Well, that's my crazy week! Oh yeah. We visited a member last night and they showed us the leg lamp shade hanging in their window. It was awesome haha. Hope you all have a great week!

Love and miss you all! Won't be long now.

 

Love,

Sister Halverson

Another Indy Sunset

Blueberry Pomegranate Smoothie

Leg Lamp

Um...Can Time Rewind?

Hello Friends and Family!

Time is going by way too quickly. As my mother pointed out I only have 4 more months left from today.... :P I don't know how I feel about this..... I want to stay in Indy forever. Didn't think that at the beginning of my mission...but now I've determined to stay in Indiana and live here forever. Man I love the Hoosiers. :)

Anyway, It was a great week. We're together flipping Fishers on it's head. :) Haha. We have a lot of goals and plans we want to see come to pass and we're having a ton of fun doing it. This week will be experimental and we're going to tract like mad. We decided we need to work with members and build up trust. And the way we can do that is through tracting around them, getting them involved in the different aspects of missionary work, and inviting them to share the Gospel with their Friends. I think the one way we'll be able to see and get more out of this area is as if we treat them as investigators and get them excited about Sharing the Gospel. I think it'll be a great way to shake it up and also to talk to our recent convert friends about their friends. That's another great way we can get solid investigators. It's all a big process.

Sister Eralie and I have created this plan to work harder with our members. We took our plan we had created to the Bishop and Ward Council and have asked that they make use of us as well as give us lists of names they want us to get in contact with. There are less actives and part members alike on this list. These wonderful people are in the Lord's hands and HE wants us to get in touch with them and work hard to strengthen the House. Keep the Ward strong, keep the family strong, keep the work Strong. It was a great start to a new transfer and we're going to dominate. :) I'm stoked. We still have every intention to work hard and experiment with tracting in this area. We did a bit on Wednesday and it felt phenomenal. People were open to us and kind. It was a great experience and this is how we began to formulate our plan. I'm so excited for this week and to see what kind of works we can bring to the table.

I learned a lot this week about repentance and learning to rely on the Spirit. To me it means to change. To want to become better. Not just the superficial but the super deep as well. Anything, everything is an aspect that we can change. It's a great feeling KNOWING I can be cleansed from sin and help others on their way. What does Heavenly Father ask? Live like His Son. This is how we can live like His Son. We can give our weaknesses to God in earnest prayer and hope for a better future. Don't forget the action side of things. This is our faith. If we can push ourselves to ACT and act openly, we can see the miracles unfold in our own lives. You don't have to be a missionary to see miracles. God is hyper aware of us as we seek to earnestly change. This all comes back to full circle. Hope. Have Faith. Change. Seek to be clean. Hope. Have faith. Change. Repeat.

It's a cycle. A pattern. A pattern for the welfare of God's children on the earth today, tomorrow, and in the future.

It's truly been a great week. We're having fun we're working hard. We got ukulele's and have been practicing fun songs for trainings and maybe even the Christmas conference. Lol. It'll be interesting to say the least. No idea what we're going to do but it'll be good. :) (Performing in front of 200 + Senior and FTM's? Sure! Why not!) "Why would we not brothers and sisters?" - President Cleveland. :)

The work is good. The plans are good. The time is wonderful. I'm stoked. :)

Love and miss you all!
Love,
Sister Halverson

Another gorgeous Indiana sunset

District Meeting with Sister E and me

Sister Eralie and I

Two New Members :)

Hello Friends and Family!

This week was so hard. It was ultimately rewarding as two people I have come to know and love became clean from their sins and received the precious gift of the Holy Ghost, being confirmed members. It was so rewarding. And that's what I'm grateful for. It was difficult in send a companion home. It was hard dealing with feelings of discouragement as the week progressed. It was hard feeling homesick and realizing I only have 2 transfers left after this one. Kind of a smack in the face. I'm not ready to go home. There is still so much more I can do and NEED to do 4 months fly by too quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was barely starting and now I've been out for 14 months...

It passes too quickly and I have work that needs to be done. I'm ready for a new transfer. I'm ready for change. I rearranged the furniture in the apartment and cleaned everything. It felt good to vacuum and get everything so clean. I feel so much better knowing things are changing this time. Which is weird. I originally hated change. Now it's an everyday constant. It's been wonderful to see the change in my atmosphere and mindset. I know things are getting to where they need to be and I earnestly want to seek improvement. I've made goals with my STL and I'm going to make goals with my District Leader too. I want it. I want to see Lisa and Cheyenne baptized. I want to see Joe come to church and actually want to make this a priority. I want to find new investigators and have the ward surround them and hold fast to them. I want to go through my ward roster and have a ward wall established in my apartment.

I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure the Lord's work is done in Fishers. I want 20 lessons EVERY week this transfer. I want to improve my exact obedience. I want to improve my communication skills and also my study habits. I want to delve deeper in to the scriptures and listen to more talks. There are so many things I want to do and I understand I need to pick a few goals that I can work on steadily. That's where I want to be. I've got a desire to see this work done before I leave or go home. If I stay in Fishers the rest of my mission I wouldn't be opposed to it. There are people here I need to see to the baptismal font. Whether it be in the Temple or accepting the Gospel for themselves. I'm going to do it.

Heavenly Father has helped me through difficult times and has helped me feel the peace and comfort I've needed to in turn reflect my good feelings on these amazing people. I'm going to sit down with my WML and ask him what he wants to see us do for the area, what the area needs, and how we can improve to be the vessels of the Lord. There is so much Potential here. Let's see how much we can tap. :)

Love,
Sister Halverson

Baptism - Mike

Baptism - Carl