Monday, September 29, 2014

The Sickest Week in the History of Like Ever...

Haha, I think I am so clever.
 But yeah.
 On Monday, I woke up with a sore throat and it turned into a NASTY head cold, that left me exhausted and my nose running like it is in a marathon. #HOLLA
But...IT DID NOT BRING ME DOWN!
It probably should have made me rest more but nah... 
So I left my planner back at home, so I am trying to remember what happened on Tuesday. 
OH! We visited a less active woman, and found out that us visiting her was the answer to her mother's prayers. Listen to promptings people! 
Wednesday was our planning day, which ended up with me being useless all morning so Sister Giblette made me sleep. Then we had Book of Mormon Night, which A came to along with one of the guys in the ward who is turning in his papers super soon and a less-active that Sister Giblette felt we should invite. It was great! We read the story of King Lamoni's conversion with Ammon. Ammon is a boss. Haha 'nuff said. 
These two weeks are Conference-palooza for us :) Last Saturday and Sunday were Stake Conference, then on Thursday we had Zone Conference, then Saturday was Women's Conference, then General Conference is coming up this weekend. Plus the Primary program was 2 Sunday's ago. #CONFERENCEISDA'BEST! 
Thursday's Zone Conference was up in Bloomfeild, CT which is about 2 hours north of us. I didn't really sleep at all that night because of my cold, and I had no desire to miss the conference because it was my first one and I felt that I could make it. I took an Alieve and prayed it would help and of course it did! I no longer felt like someone was jumping on my chest! Hallelujah for Modern Medicine!
The zone conference was themed on the Vision of the Mission, which is ZION. We are to be of one heart, one mind and one work. His work. I got to see Elder Lortsher and Elder Jones! We all just walked away feeling so uplifted but like we had so much that we should be doing that we haven't, YET! My favorite thing that I heard, summing up my 5 pages of notes haha, is that "You can't out give the Lord". The only thing that we can do is try our hardest and give him our will. My goal from now on is to Eat, Drink, and Breathe the Work of Salvation. And maybe some Vitamin C so I can get better... haha
Friday was our District meeting and then we had a dinner Appointment with the cutest family ever. We went on a scooter ride to the beach, and then had pizza. Then we had a lesson with A about Prophets and General Conference. 
Saturday was the Women's Meeting which was great. Like so stinking awesome. I loved the quotes: "Where much is required, much more will be given" and "In order to share your light with others, you have to glow yourself"
SO TRUE!
President Uchtdorf's talk was ON POINT. You are ALWAYS a Child of God. You are ALWAYS loved by the most perfect being with the most perfect love. What a wonderful message that we all have the opportunity to know and share?!?
Live the Gospel Joyful.
Gah, it was all so good. There is a darling little old lady in the ward who adored Uchtdorf, and Emily and I would glance over at her every now and them and see her just beaming haha. Presh.
This week was wonderful. 
This Gospel is wonderful.
You are all wonderful. 


Be good!
Love, 
Sister Alexander
 

 

Picture: The Beach that we scootered to :)

Monday, September 22, 2014

This Weeks Highlights!

Hello All!
This week was awesome! We had so much work to do and we got a lot of other things done too! I Wont bore yall with details of everything that we did but I will do my favorite thing done each day!
Monday- Sister Giblette's Birthday! We went to a local orchard and picked apples and pears and then went to Rita's and then went to the beach. It was a great day!
Tuesday- We saw soooo many people! We also saw the craziest kitten in the world. His name is Mikey and he attacked Sister Giblette's arm and my hair. But he was cute so it was okay.
Wednesday- I was feeling super ugh. My whole body was tired but I stuck it out and it was a great day! We went to the soup kitchen and we were there helping them for a really long time! It was like 4 hours but we did so much! We peeled and cut over 200 potatoes. If you know me, you know that the eyes of potatoes are like the yuckiest things in the world to me so they were all making fun of me when I would get grossed out. But we did it! They were very appreciative of it! 
Thursday-We were able to visit L, who is the most hilarious lady in the ward. She is older and she sits out on her porch all day and is seriously a riot. We were really worried that it would be hard to get her to have a spiritual discussion but she was intrigued and it was a wonderful lesson about the Holy Ghost and His role in our everyday lives. 
Friday- We had a lesson with our newest investigator A, and we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and The gift of the Holy Ghost and guess what?
He said that he would pray about a baptismal date!!! WOOHOOO!!!! We were so pumped driving home haha. He is seeing the gospel changing him and his life and he is just loving it all. 
I also had a Lobster Roll. Oh my goodness gracious, manna from heaven. Gah! It is making my mouth water all over again!
Saturday- We had Stake Conference and E came with us pretty much all day. We visited some less actives with her, and then went to C's house for an early dinner and to go to Conference. Conference was AMAZING. Elder Snow of the Seventy was there and the Spirit was so strong. President and Sister Packard also spoke. I love them sooooooo much. I was trying to put it into words in my journal and I couldn't! They are just so stinkin' wonderful! 
Sunday-Also Stake Conference. This area is just awesome. Everyone seriously wants to help with the work! Also, one of the less actives that we had seen on Saturday came! He said that he LOVED it and wants to start coming to church more often. WOOOHOOO!
The biggest thing that I got from Conference was that somehow the Lord works through imperfect people, to bring about his perfect plan and Gospel. What a blessing. 
Monday-That is today! We went on a hike with E and took a bazillion pictures! Woohooo!!!! 
Elder Snow also stated "It is true, It is worth it"
I add my "here here!" to that!
This Gospel is sooo true. Living it is sooooo worth it. Teaching and sharing it is sooooo beyond worth it. 
Also one of the Sister's in our District said something the other day that really hit home for me. she quoted someone saying that we can't compare ourselves to others.(I thought well duh, but we still do, then she said) It is unfair to us. We compare our weaknesses to their strengths. We cant see their weaknesses to compare, so don't do it. Think about it.... RIGHT!?! It is soooo true! 
Good Stuff. 
I hope that you all had an awesome week and that you know that you are all loved! 
Be good! 
Love,
Sister Alexander
 
 
 
 
 

1st pic- Sister Giblette and I today on the hike! I love her so much!!!
2nd picture-E, Sister Giblette and I and our "You did what?!?" Faces :)

Monday, September 15, 2014

Guess Who Is Staying In Madison?!

Guess who is staying in Madison?!
This Companionship!!! Woohooo! We are so happy that we are staying together! And guess what else? I am not a baby anymore! I am a toddler! So exciting! Elder Riberio is training his cousin... Elder Riberio... So funny. Oh! and it is pronounced "he-bed-oo" but you kind of roll the d. Yeah. And Sister Barney in our district is Training Sister Markert, who is HILARIOUS.
 On Monday, we went on a hike... in nature... yeah. Needless to say I got a picture or two. 
On Tuesday we went to the Family History Canter in our ward building and we were trained to use Family Search and a bunch of other sources which was the coolest thing ever. Family History is so awesome! We also met with E, who I really need to take a picture with and we went to dinner at the Young Women president, Sister A's home. They have a cat, named Larry, who is a good 35 lbs. He just comes up to you and drops down and stays there. I was dying! I love cats haha. Then we had a lesson at a restaurant with A, and E came with us. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and how we need to be able to have access to revelation to be able to return to live with God again. 
Wednesday is Service day. We went to the soup kitchen and they asked us to organize their pantry... so we were in heaven haha. Then we visited J, who is now in Relief Society with us and E! She has been sick, but is getting better! We then went and knocked the doors of some less actives and met L who came to church on Sunday! And also J, who is the cutest little old lady. We then had dinner with the Y's who are the Pathways missionaries in our ward. They are phenomenal, and they grow a huge garden that produces tomatoes out the wazoo and guess what? He hates tomatoes hahaha! He just grows them because the ward likes them and he likes gardening! 
Thursday was weekly planning day so we did  that and then we went and did some more knocking until our appointment with L. We ate pie and started to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but we all just ended up on a lot of tangents. Most were spiritual but they were still tangents haha. 
Friday was District meeting in New Haven. Then we went and saw P, who lives at the most elegant retirement home ever. It seriously looks like Pemberly. So cute. She is darling. We then went to dinner at J's house. She lives in a cottage on the shore. So cute. R, one of our potential investigators came. We had a nice time and we were able to talk to him about a lot of different things pertaining to the gospel.
Saturday, we went to the primary program practice at 8 am and served all of the kiddo's pancakes. We then went with N, one of the sisters in our ward who is from Texas and is a riot, to D's home. We had a wonderful lesson and N invited her to come to the Relief Society activity on Tuesday, I hope that she can make it! N also took us to help J move. We are really sad to be losing her, but she is a lot closer to the school that she teaches at now. We then went to the C's home and had the best spaghetti ever. He is obsessed with Family History and she isn't a member. They are wonderful. We are hoping to be able to teach her soon but she is having surgery soon so we are just going to be helping her with stuff :) She taught John Mayer in Sunday school! Totally saw a picture! 
Sunday was the primary program. It was adorable. The theme is Families Can Be Together Forever and they had a bunch of families sing together. L came and so did a bunch of the people that we saw during the week. It was an awesome day! Next week is Stake Conference, so the Stake president asked all of the Full-Time Missionaries and Perspective Missionaries to sing "We'll Bring the World His Truth". It is sounding good. Last Friday, I sang a solo in Zone Meeting. I was shaking like a chihuahua but it went well haha. I sang "Help me Teach with Inspiration". I like that song.
I love this place, I love this opportunity. When else will I ever have the chance to dedicate 100% of my time, effort and desires to the Lord? I hope that you all are doing well, and I love getting letters from you!
 
  
 
 
 
1st picture- The pond that we hiked near. It was really pretty and if you yelled it echoed like crazy!
2nd picture-My feelings about physically being in nature have yet to be changed haha. Sister Giblette says that this is my "Grumpy Cat" Look, I'll take it haha
3rd- Our "High School Musical" "Nature is awesome" Picture :)
 
Love, 
Sister Alexander

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Humidity Is Actually A Thing...

Humidity is actually a thing...
Like seriously.
You feel like you are drowning in air. I cant even. Just NO. Hahaha just kidding. I just end up sweating like a...n animal that sweats a lot... yeah. 
It is Tuesday! That is different! Yesterday was Labor Day, and on Monday holidays we get to go to the temple! I love the temple. We also got to go shopping in Cambridge mall, WooHoo! I love shopping haha. We also got to go to Harvard Stadium and play soccer, well... watch people almost kill each other playing soccer.  The Elders get really into it and there is one Sister who loves playing and gets in the middle of them all and I seriously thought she was going to be trampled a billion times. We had to wake up at 3 am in order to get to the 7:30 am session. So needless to say, we were all super loopy coming home.
We drove with our District Leader and his companion. They are hilarious. Elder Coulson (The temptation to call him Agent Coulson is soooo real) and Elder Ribiero. Elder Coulson was called Haitian speaking but he is super white and Elder Ribiero is from Brazil, but he has lived in Utah for the past 10 years, and he came Portuguese speaking, transferred to a Spanish area, then to the office, then to open the Chinese group and now is English with Elder Coulson.  So both of them together, represents all of our mission languages :) They are fantastic. They are also the only Elders in our District.
We had 5 non-members show up to church on Sunday. It was the best day ever. We have a new Investigator named A. He is awesome, and has no religious background at all so it is all new for him. Super cool guy. He loved church. On Wednesday we volunteered at a Soup Kitchen in our area which was super cool. I love the fact that we can help others come unto Christ just by serving them. I love love love it when I can see people reading my nametag. That is super cool. 
 So I don't know if I already said this but EVERYONE here has a cat. EVERYONE. It is FANTASTIC. I have become more obsessed. 
This is the last week before transfers. We find out where we are going/if we are going on Friday afternoon... so yeah. I cant believe that I have been here for almost 6 weeks. Sister Giblette and I have decided that I need to kill her (Be her companion when she goes home) and then stay in the area another 2 months after she dies (goes home). It is happening. 
I love it here, and I love this work. I have never been so happy to be so tired! 
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is True. I KNOW this with all of my heart. 
Love, 
Sister Alexander