Week 59 - "It's time to turn up the music."

Welcome to the new recipients of Sister Pew's weekly emails, including Elder Shumate and my Inman family <3

It's been a pretty great week!

Monday was a good day. We mostly just took care of some stuff. Buying groceries was rough because transfers always deplete your missionary savings fund, and also it was the very tail-end of the month, so that was stressful. But $5 of personal funds later, we had some (not lots, but some) food in the fridge, which is much better than when I first arrived. This week we have enjoyed chicken and broccoli, plus some much-needed member meals :) Anyways, so after we went shopping I made cupcakes and Sister Hamilton did something else. I really actually don't know what she was doing. And then I real quick cleaned the apartment while she showered, and then we made the long trek up to Columbia so we could stay the night before our morning session of Missionary Leadership Council! We spent the night with the Columbia sisters, Sister Mock and Hermana Chappell, and the Florence sisters, Sister Ranada and Sister Janke (who was my MTC companion, yoohellooo!). It was lots of fun, except that we had to sleep together on an absolutely atrocious air mattress, and so anytime either Sister Hamilton or I moved, we both woke up because it made a very loud noise that sounded like an elephant having a bowel movement. I'm serious. It was terrible. Also the Columbia apartment is pretty old, and it gets FREEZING in the nighttime. And all I brought was a little thin blanket. *siiigggh* so neither of us slept super great, but that is okay!

Because MLC was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAN it just was a really awesome experience for me. I learned a couple things there:

1. Obedience is important. Like super duper important. But also, it is not part of God's plan that we are commanded in all things. We should be in tune with the Spirit enough to know what God would ask us to do.

2. PRESIDENT INNES IS AN INSPIRED MAN AND WORKS SO HARD TO HELP US GROW AS MISSIONARIES AND I LOVE HIM.

3. We as missionaries are too focused on the little technicalities of the gospel (the dance steps) and not focused enough on the beautiful doctrines and applications thereof (the music). President Innes said that it's time for us to "turn up the music". And I couldn't agree more.

Man, it was just such a good meeting. Halfway through we roleplayed a couple different finding scenarios, and we were supposed to just sit down randomly in groups of 3, and my companion and I were the first two in the room, so I just sat down in a chair. And who decides to come sit by me? Why, Elder B of course. Elder B, formerly of Boiling Springs, who is now in West Columbia, who is the greatest ever in the whole world. And then who joined us? Why, Elder P of course. Elder P, formerly of the Ridge Rage district, AKA the ringleader of the KungPao Buckaroos, AKA ALSO the greatest ever in the whole world. So I got to roleplay with 2 of my favorite people in the mission and that was lovely. I felt the Spirit super strong. It's just so nice to get to learn from other (better) missionaries and take their teaching skills into my area. After MLC we went to the mission office to pick up mail and stuff. We also saw the Shumates (who are my absolute favorites) and I was confronted by Elder Shumate about why he was not added to my email list. Right as I responded, "because I'm a fetchhead!" the whole room went silent. Like all of MLC was there. And they heard me tell Elder Shumate that I'm a fetchhead. It was pretty awkward, but Elder B and Elder E thought it was really funny. After that we went out to eat at a place called Groucho's. It was pretty good.

Wednesday we had a great district leader meeting in the morning. We basically caught the district leaders up to speed on what went down at MLC. It went really well. Then we had DDM. My new district leader is Elder W and he's a real homie. We basically talked about why numbers are important and the core of missionary work, which is Christlike love spreading to our brothers and sisters everywhere. After DDM we went to see a member named C. She's active but her husband is not a member. She is super sweet though and has 3  young boys. The oldest, M, is 6 and he is HILARIOUS. He's one of those kids who knows waaaaay too much for his age. Like, he asked his mom if their neighbors attended the Church of Christ. It was just cute. And then N, the second oldest, spent the duration of our visit in a Chewbacca suit, so I knew we were going to get along just fine. He was really sweet. And the youngest is R and he was wearing Christmas pants with a Minions shirt. So that was wonderful. We had a short lesson with the boys about how we can follow Jesus better, but they don't have the largest attention span so we mainly just talked to their mom about her experiences in the church. That evening we had a bomb.com lesson with our investigator K. She is so beautiful! We taught her the Restoration and after we talked about living prophets, she asked, "Well, how do you know that this Nelson guy is a prophet?" Sister Hamilton and I were able to just bear our testimonies to her about how the Spirit confirmed to us that he is a prophet of God. She was super impressed and said something like, "That's a really good answer because no one can tell you differently if the Spirit told you it was true." She wants to know for herself. After that we had ward coord and we were super hyped up about our lesson so it went pretty well.

Thursday was one of those days where you work super hard and nothing happens. HAHAHAHAHAHA. But it's okay. We started our day by singing at a nursing home, which was my favorite. Then we went out to the middle of nowhere and tried to see some people. But everywhere we tried was a dead end, literally like there was no houses there. It was just crazy! Luckily we had a great member meal that night with a family named the Gs. They are super sweet. Brother G is a convert and his wife brought him into the church. Both had opportunities to bear their testimonies to us about the Restoration, and they wept. It strengthened my faith in a latter-day prophet and that God directs His church.

Friday we did some service at Habitat for Humanity. We hung up some very stylish clothes and stuff and put them on the racks for people to look at. We also got to plan Zone Conference, which is next week, over Messenger with the zone leaders, Elder E and Elder H. For your information, those two have long been said to be the sweetest elders that have ever walked on planet earth, and it is not a lie. They are probably 2 of the most Christlike people I've ever met. And now they're companions and it is wonderful. I'm serious. We asked Elder H if anything makes him angry, and he thought for a minute, and then just goes, very seriously, "sin." I just really am not worthy. Anyways, so that was an experience from start to finish. They are both very concerned with making sure the Spirit is with us at all times, so it was really good and we got a lot done. We then planned for our week. After that we went to see the V, a family whom I actually visited multiple times when I was in Moncks Corner and would come here on exchanges. So that was super awesome. WE ARE GONNA GET THEM BACK TO CHURCH. Mark my words.

Saturday we started out the day serving one of our members, the Bs. Brother B is less active, Sister B is active, and their daughter E just got her mission call to Vietnam! They are in the midst of redoing their house so we were mainly packing up a lot of kitchen stuff. The elders came with and helped out, and afterwards they fed us really good sandwiches. Except I may have spilled avocado all down my front. But hey, they were good. I'm just happy we had avocado to spill on my front. After that we went and sang for a bedridden member in the ward, and then we went and tried to do some finding with no success, but possibly I did one of the most awkward door approaches ever my whole life. We were like, "Okay sweet have a nice day" and then got in the car and laughed our heads off. We also had a great lesson with K, the investigator who drove us down to our area. Basically she told us that if she were to be baptized now it would be for other people and not because she has a testimony of what we're teaching her. She also doesn't know why we would ever need to know all the things that we know about the Plan of Salvation. She just trusts that God will work it out. Which is good, but it does answer some major faith questions like "What happens to people who never get the chance to hear the gospel" and "what is our personal responsibility as God's children". Anyways, we were able to just discuss stuff. I'm pretty sure K and I would have hung out with each other in high school. She is my type of person.

Yesterday we fasted for the finding efforts of the missionaries here. We are all struggling to find people to teach. K came to church all by herself, and the ward is so good about being welcoming and kind. They treat her like a member, and that's great. We did a lot of study, practiced an upcoming zone conference musical number and coordinated our stuff for zone conference with President and the ZLs. 

I just love being a missionary! I love it so much! There is literally nothing better.

I LOVE YOU!!!

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love,

Sister Pew

From MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) with the Shumates

MLC-President is in the middle Sister Pew far right

Goofy picture

Sisters they stayed with

Elder Shumate--he helps with mission things

New friend

Week 58 - "OKAY"

HI !!!

Yep, I'm back in the southern part of the mission! I'm SO PUMPED. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW.

So my new companion is Sister Hamilton. She might be the funniest human bean ever in the whole universe. My abs are actually sore because I have just laughed so hard. Oh my goodness. It's been so fun.

So, most of Monday-Wednesday was spent saying goodbye to people. I LOVE the INMAN WARD. OH MY GOODNESS. And my district -- that was rough.  And then we got to sleep at the Hermanas because Sister Larsen was staying with them while Sister R and I went down to transfers. So we had a really fun sleepover, briefly interrupted Elder E and Elder B while Elder B packed, got a plant, told a bedtime story, and didn't really sleep all night because I was FREAKING OUT.

So the next morning was uuuuuber sad. We got all my stuff out of the car and just waited outside for Sister R for a little bit. The saddest thing in the world was watching Elder E and Elder B say goodbye to each other. I couldn't even. It was too much. It was also hard hugging Sister Larsen goodbye. That little missionary is going places. As we were leaving Inman I said a little prayer of thanks that I got to serve in that beautiful place. Oh my goodness. Sister R and I talked the whole way and I'm glad she was there or I'd probably have just cried for the whole 1.5 hours it took to get to the Irmo building. 

So I showed up to transfers and we had a new STL and ZL meeting with the assistants. They were basically like, "be obedient, be cheerful, have faith and baptize everybody" and we were like, "alrighty sounds like a plan stan" and then they let us go into transfer meeting. I slowly watched while everyone got their transfer calls. They did my zone last. So I was like, one of the last people called. And it was pretty anti-climactic because my companion wasn't even there. But it took me forever to get out of transfers, because 1) SISTER HAWS WAS GOING HOME AND I HAD TO LOVE ON HER 2) so was Elder R and I had to say goodbye, 3) SISTER GOETTSCHE WAS THERE AND GOING TO TRAIN IN SENECA 4) I just know this whole freaking mission now because I GO TO ALL THE TRANSFER MEETINGS and 5) there were 2 of us riding home in a tiny little Sonata with 6 suitcases between the 2 of us and 4 people in the car. Our ride home was one of my new investigators, K, and her member RM husband T, who are the cutest ever. Yep. So then I got down here and it's just been hectic and wonderful since then. A couple of things I felt like I should note:

-one of our sisters got put in the hospital. What a great way to start my new assignment. She had a kidney stone. Which she passed. With no pain meds. We went to see her in the hospital and it's a good thing she's fetching hilarious or I probably would have started crying.

-I BROKE SISTER HAMILTON'S GLASSES IN HALF ON ACCIDENT. I was trying to look at her pictures by her bed and did not notice that she had put them down there...

-We have been listening religiously to Hank Smith, who always says the word "okay" really funny.

-Sister Hamilton LAUGHS AT EVERYTHING. I feel like I'm really hilarious. It's great.

-Sister Hamilton is additionally my soulmate and everything I've ever wanted in a companion, so that's the best. 

-I have been taking pictures of trucks and stuff like crazy. Shoutout to Sister Larsen and Elder H and Elder C

-I met a dude yesterday at church who knows Sister Larsen's sister because they served in the same mission. I don't remember his name but I'll take a picture with him the next time I see him.

-We got to go to R and E's baptism, who are Portuguese investigators that the hermanas down here have been working with. In fact, when I met E and showed him a picture of Hermana Crofts, he said, "SHE IS MY DAUGHTER IN THE HOLY SPIRIT." He was so excited and it was adorable. He also saw Elder C in the same photo and said, "C!" really loud. He then proceeded to add me to the legendary Language Class group chat on Facebook. Also, apparently my last name in Portuguese means "shut up" or something, and E tried to tell me this soooo many times and I couldn't even understand. And I haven't stopped laughing about it. 

-Also, there is this LEGENDARY member of the Spanish branch down here named J. Everyone who has served in the zone knows J because J is the best. I'm serious. I love this guy. I got to meet him at the baptism and I showed him a picture of Hna. Crofts and Hna. Jensen and he went, "ah yes, Seester Crofts and Seester Jensen." I used some of my paltry Spanish to somewhat communicate and he got really excited for me, but I had to explain that I'm not actually a hermana and I can't really speak Spanish, and Sister Hamilton just thought the entire conversation was hilarious. It was a really great experience. Man, I love these Spanish people, and I can see what the Spartanburg hermanas were talking about when they said it was the promised land!

-We had a couple really good lessons this week. I found my new 5 or 6 year old boyfriend (I have at least one, maybe more in every area). His name is A and he is A's son.

-THIS WARD IS GREAT TOO. I am just blessed I swear.

This is kind of a weird email because I don't know enough about this place or my job to tell y'all all about it, but I promise when I get more in the swing of things these emails will get better. We did have call-ins with the zone leaders, call-ins with President and the APs, and call-ins with the sisters in the zone. We'll have missionary leadership conference (MLC) tomorrow, I'm totally singing for it. And I go on my first exchange next week after zone conference!

I love my life, I love the gospel, I love being a missionary, and most of all I love my Savior!

As a last, quick note -- I was sad to hear that my good friend Cameron Keetch's dad, Von Keetch (who was a general authority) passed away this week. Cam is still on his mission in South Africa and I know he would appreciate your prayers for his family as he is trying to help his family come closer to Christ during this difficult time. 

ALL THE LOVES.

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love,

Sister Pew

last time with district 

on her way to the new area

New companion

broken glasses, oops!

New companion

visiting a sister in the hospital

Week 57 - We are never answering the phone when President calls us, ever again.

HI EVERYONE.

So I apologize that no one but my mom got emailed last week. That was so long ago. Let me tell you about it!

So we actually hung out with the hermanas and they are a blaaaaaaaaaaaaaast! We heart attacked the elders' apartments. The ZLs were pretty normal, we just taped up all the hearts and ran, but then we remembered at the espanol elders apartment that the elders had mentioned that they don't lock their apartments. So we heart attacked the door of the Spanish elders...but on the inside. They felt so violated. It was pretty funny because the next day at DDM they were like, "Man oh man that was weird" and we just like, shrugged. After the heart attacks we went to the Spartanburg building to hang out with the rest of the sisters. I read their fortunes in cards. It was pretty entertaining. That night we saw D & P which was bomb. 

The next day we had DDM and we mostly just discussed our investigators. That day we had to go it alone on Golden Age because the other missionaries got out of one of their meetings late, and so we went by ourselves, which was a good thing because we ended up giving the zone leaders a referral for a guy we met there named T. T is a pretty nice guy who was just visiting his mother in law. So that was pretty cool. Then we went to see B and that night we had dinner at a members' house, the Es. They are awesome and fed us probably the best steak I have had ever my whole life. I'm serious, guys. It was delicious. And Brother E used to be less active and Sister E has only been a member for 2 years, so it was really cool to get to know them and their faith journey a little better.

Two Wednesdays ago I really don't know what happened very well. I remember I practiced with Sister S for a musical number for our regional conference we had that Sunday. We also had Book of Mormon class and the zone leaders taught about Isaiah. It was quite the lesson.

That next day, J forgot about MMA. I was really sad. Also we tried to take the elders to see Sister M because she loves her some elders, but she wasn't there, and I was really sad about that too. But it did rain which was good, but that day just sort of kind of...stank a lot. We did get to see P that night and she gave us both pep talks, which was really great, that woman is a better Mormon than I am and she's only been one for like a month and a half. Aaaaand then that night we got a terrible phone call from President telling us Sister Larsen's aunt had unexpectedly passed away. This is twice in the 2 transfers we've been together. She joked that by the end of this whole mission thing she won't have any family left. She's handling it like a pro. You'd never know. And she is so faithful that something wonderful is about to happen. I just am so proud of her. You guys don't understand. She is so strong and talented and wonderful. So we just decided to not answer next time President calls us.

The next day we got to see President Monson's funeral. It was so great. I got a selfie with my daddy, first one in a long while too! And then we practiced my musical number for Sunday again, and then we went to have dinner at the Suns' house. It was awesome. And then we got home to find that the other missionaries in our district had heart attacked our door. It really helped Sister Larsen to feel the love. Man, our district is the greatest.

Saturday we mostly did service. We went to see S and baby C it was a great time. We also dropped off a birthday gift for Sister A, who is the best human on the whole planet. That night we had an appointment with S and ward coord with the very bests, the Rs.

Sunday we had a regional broadcast for the North America Southeast region. It was so awesome! Elder Bednar spoke and just roasted us all for not repenting correctly. I definitely needed to hear that! Also, I got to sing the musical number for the local portion of the meeting, and survey says it was good. I'll hopefully send it on down. We also went to the Hs for lunch, and then to try to deliver a Bible to a house in a town five miles away from the North Carolina border. The guy wasn't there, but his weird roommate was. It was pretty interesting. Then we went to see J & K. They mostly just pep talked us as well. We had multiple good pep talks this week.

The next Monday we hung out with the hermanas again, this time at the home of la familia H. J, M and T H were all recently baptized, and they are working with A and G H to hopefully get them baptized as well. (Their boy T is too young to be baptized, but he wants to when he's 8.) G pays his tithing, has a testimony of church attendance, but doesn't understand why he needs to be baptized again because he was baptized as a baby. A is on date, so hopefully soon their whole family will be members! But they are the very best, a super duper awesome, family oriented group. T gave Hermana Crofts and Sister Larsen trims on their hair and we talked to the girls. It was just so fun.

Tuesday we had our last DDM before transfers. We watched President Nelson's address and had tacos. It was pretty good. We also went to Golden Age with the hermanas, saw Sister M, and tried to deliver a Bible but ended up knocking like the whole street and not finding the person, but running into a couple of good potentials. Snow was in the forecast, so people kept telling us to be careful and stuff. That night we went to D & Ps and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with them. They were impressed with the story of the early church.  They just love it so much, and I love them so much. We talked about prophets and priesthood, and the spirit was so strong! And they fed us pizza, so that was wonderful also.

Wednesday we woke up in the morning to snow. Everywhere. It was nuts. This is the second time this has happened, and I was equally excited. That morning all work at the soup kitchen was cancelled, but we showed up anyway, and the pastor and his wife made us sort out moldy potatoes from good ones. IT WAS AWFUL. Mom, Sister Goettsche, EVERYONE WHO KNOWS ME SUPER WELL, remember my mold problem? Imagine. 3 hours. Of touching. Moldy. Hairy. Potatoes. And you could smell them. Ugh, I feel sick thinking about it. EWWW. It was terrible. But anyways, in the middle of our moldy potato adventure, the zone leaders sent a text to the zone being like, "please stay productive but don't drive your cars" and we were like, well shoot we have no bikes so I guess we're walking five miles on the main highway with no shoulder or sidewalk because we don't live close to anyone. And Sister R was like, Nah, I got you. So we went to the R's (Sister R drove us) house and Sister Larsen finished all her online stuff for training. We had planned to shovel people's driveways but they all froze because the temperature dropped once it stopped snowing, so we decided to go out. Sister R took us to see a recent convert, and S. She was doing well, and baby C looked better. He had been pretty sick when we went to see them before and her doctor keeps telling her not to feed him because he's too big. ...can you just stop feeding a baby? I feel like that's not a good thing to do. I'm not a mom, but it sounds like a bad idea. Anyways, it was a good day. We were as productive as we could be and had fun in the snow along the way.

The next day we had MMA at 1. The no car rule was lifted at 12. So we went to MMA and it was great. That night we had a meal with the W. They taught me how to play 5 crowns, which is a very fun game that I am also excited to beat Carol Rice in. ;) All this trash talking is going to cost me, I'm sure of it!

Friday was...so strange. We went finding most of the day, but we also had a bomb dinner with the Kennedies and went with the YSA elders to have them give S and C blessing.  Afterwards, we were on the phone with the Spanish elders for some reason I have definitely forgotten, and whilst on the phone with them, they asked if we'd received a call from President about transfers. We scoffed, knowing that we wouldn't be notified of transfers until the next day. And then like 3 minutes later, literally, we were still on the phone with Spanish, and Sister Larsen looks at the phone and goes, "NEVER MIND PRESIDENT IS CALLING US BYE" and she answers the call. It went like this:

President: Hi! Don't worry Sister Larsen, no bad news this time. This is a good phone call.

Sister Larsen: Oh good!

President: Sister Pew, are you there?

Me: Yeah President, what can I do for you?

President: I hope you enjoyed your time in Inman.

Me: Oh no, President!

President: I want you to be a sister training leader, and help the sisters in your zone to reach your level.

Me: (outside) Oh.

Me: (inside) kjsngirjnfgkjdbauhakdjnroisuerngkdjfngjdsbfgisrngdsjfnlkjhbdsikfnglkjdnfoigudsnrwekfldskjnkdsjnfgkdsjfngkdsjfngiudsrsierjnfskfdnkjnfksjfnhldjfpodsngkfsnhlskjd

President: Will you do it?

Me: Yeah.

And then we exchanged a few more words, none of which I remember very well. And then I hung up and cried. I may have also called the zone leaders and cried, the Spanish elders and cried, and the hermanas and cried. It was just very overwhelming and unexpected. For those of you unfamiliar with the mission lyfe, sister training leaders are like the female versions of a zone leader, responsible for all the sisters in the zone. They train at zone conferences, conduct exchanges, and attend missionary leadership conference (council? I don't know. Some word with a c that means a group that meets together to talk about stuff). Anyways. My mom knows, but President made me promise not to tell anyone where I'm going. I'm excited though! It should be a fun adventure. But I'm also ultra sad because I'm leaving. I love the Inman ward. I have changed so much here. I'll miss it for sure. 

Saturday was full of weirdness. We didn't get to weekly planning on Friday because of some stuff that came up, so we did it, and then we went to a baptism for a cute lil 8 year old named A, and then we got the zone leaders airplane journals (that is a mission yearbook, in case you were wondering. Everyone writes nice things in them when you leave your area.) Then we saw a couple members and stuff.

Yesterday was hard. Saying goodbye to the people I couldn't visit personally was rough. I also sang my last musical number in the Inman ward, with one of my 4 or 5 newly adopted fathers. I will hopefully send that one on down too.  I also bid farewell to the Ss, J & K

I'm just really really really glad I know that God knows everything. He is in charge. Here in Inman I have learned that for sure. I have learned that even if things don't work out how you hope, they always help you somehow. I have let go of a lot of worries, a lot of negative thinking, and a lot of self-doubt here. I feel like I'm becoming the queen I was meant to be -- slowly for sure, and with a lot of trial and error, and I'm definitely nowhere close, but I'm moving forward and it has been transcendent and joyful for me to feel that change taking place. Inman will always have a special place in my heart because here I learned how to really give of myself -- and see how God gives back when you do.

I love y'all, and I'll email from somewhere new next week!

Don't let the muggles get you down!

All my love,

Sister Pew

Snow in South Carolina!

Lady who has a beautiful singing voice

Saying good bye to this fun family

Saying goodbye to another family

Week 56 - oh dear I lost everyone's emails

Hi mom!

I'm mostly just writing you to let you know I didn't die. We don't have a lot of time and I have to write off my tablet because the libraries are closed for MLK day. But I'll send pictures. And I'll write more next week about this week. So sorry.

Just an update - Sister Larsens aunt passed away. My poor baby is just going through a whole fetching lot and is handling it very well. But please pray for her.

I know that God is real and He's looking out for us. Keep the faith, be strong, and read your scriptures. He will take care of you.

I love you.

Don't let the muggles get you down. 

Love,

Sister Pew

This is a picture of Sister Pew holding a picture of her dad in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing in the funeral of Thomas S. Monson, Her district behind her.

Looks like they got heart attacked.

Sister Pew's companion and a local kid repping different universities

A lady and her cute baby, someone they must have visited

Week 55 - Seatbelt Sniffers

Hi everyone!

This week was a really weird awesome week. 

Really not a lot happened as far as the work. A blow-by-blow recap would just not do anything for you. It'd be super boring, trust me. So let's do some highlights. 

-Those closest to me are in uproar because I won't tell them my favorite sports teams, mainly because I get made fun of. So this week D bet me that if he beat me in skip-bo, I had to tell him. But if I won, he had to bear his testimony. And I won. So, wahoo.

-We had our first and last district meeting with Elder K, who just left halfway through the transfer to go to BYU I. It was awesome. I gave a training and so did Elder H, and I got to role play with Elder C. He told me I was the most genuinely loving person. That helped me a lot!!!

-We got to drive Hermanas and the Greenville 5th sisters to Columbia in the zone leaders minivan. THAT was a party. I told them all how they're going to meet their future husbands. Apparently I will meet mine shopping for Timo's birthday present in sportsmans warehouse. So next November I get to meet my husband. HAHAHAHAHA.

-Elder G, Elder W and I sang When He Comes Again. It was wonderful to see them both again.

-Mission tour was just the greatest. We got to hear from President Innes and his wife, and Elder Wilford Anderson of the Seventy and his wife. There was so much spiritual knowledge gained. Probably the coolest thing that happened was to literally feel my desires change. I didn't realize I could be more committed to the gospel, but I came away from that meeting a better missionary for sure.

-Sister Anderson is a crazy good piano player and she had us all stand and sing "We Thank Thee, Oh God, for a Prophet" and it was super powerful.

-I GOT TO SEE SISTER GOETTSCHE AND SISTER JULANDER AND SISTER KNIFFEN. I need to stop having lots of companions. I love them all. It was seriously so good to see Sister Goettsche and Sister Julander because they were there during my childhood. I just really love them both. They are my sister soldiers. 🥇🥇🥇 And Sister Kniffen is momming everyone as usual. She does so good.

-our vehicle coordinator hugged me. I'm his favorite. It's fine.

-Yesterday everyone LOVED us. Seriously, the ward was so nice to us. Brother A bore his testimony about us and that was nice...but then everyone else was trying to get us to come to dinner and hug us and stuff. It was awesome.

Guys, this is the Lord's work. I love it.

Don't let the muggles get you down! 

Love, 

Sister Pew

Forgot to mention that the zone leaders told us their car smells like girl now,  specifically the seatbelts. So now we lovingly refer to them as the seatbelt sniffers. 

***Sister Pew shared that it was 10 degrees on January 2nd!!! Colder weather than her home state of Utah

First time in camo--helping on the farm

This is from Christmas Day, forgot to post bishop has baby goats

Sister Pew driving the sisters down to mission tour

Trampoline park with other sister missionaries on P-day

A flower arrangement Sister Pew made

Sister Pew and a donkey

Her companion, Sister Larsen with the donkey

Heart attacking

Sister Pew, her companion and the Hermanas
(Sisters who teach Spanish investigators)

With the Hermanas 

Week 54 - we have been deceived.

Because it's sunny! Not a cloud in the sky! Aaaaaand it's colder than the 9th circle of hell. But happy new year everyone!

I seriously cannot believe I was a missionary for the entirety of 2017. It was legit the hardest, most heart breaking, funniest, happiest, best year of my entire life. It's just blowing my mind that it's over, and I come home 5 months from TODAY (June 1st). Life just zooms on by. It's crazy stuff.

Anyways, steering sharply away from my imminent mortality...

MONDAY! Was Christmas. Best day ever. Got to see my cute fam and my nephew. He's the most adorable human. Ugh. And also, they sang for me. My family is so cute. We also saw the Bishop and his family and held their baby goats in the morning (even though it was also VERY cold that day), had lunch and Christmas stories with the F family, hung with the Ss (which is where we skyped) and arrived at the S's house in time to take their family pictures for them. It was fun, exhausting and a great day.

Tuesday we had p day. We went to the mall and got some fabric to make a tie for the new elder, Elder C. We also ate at Papas and Beer (restaurant), and then I went on exchanges in S with Sister Jensen. This was round 3 with her. We're basically companions. We went to the ghetto at night. It was great! I missed the smell of marijuana (not). It reminded me of W (shout out to Mrs. P over there). Ah, good times.

Wednesday was a great day. Sister Jensen and I got to plan with President. It was definitely inspired because I was wondering how to plan better for the people we have to work with. It helped tons. We attempted to contact some people and had a boss comp study, and then it was back to the promised land for me. I love my area. That night we had Book of Mormon class. 

Thursday we helped the Ws cut down a tree. It was pretty scary because Brother W lopped off a lot of the branches before we brought the tree all the way down, so he climbed a tree holding a chainsaw. #sketchy anyways, I also got to wear camouflage for the very first time and it made me a happy lil redneck. Afterwards we did MMA with the zone leaders. We actually committed J to do something and that was good. He came to church Sunday so we hopefully can get him rebaptized soon. Everyone pray for him.

Friday we had interviews with President in which he told me that he thinks I am a great missionary because he is President and he is the best. I also got a blessing in which Heavenly Father told me that he thinks I am a great missionary because He is Heavenly Father and He is the best. And then we went out with Sister F (hygienist's mom--note our dental hygienist here in Utah parents are in Sister Pew's ward) and set up 2 return appointments and taught a lesson. So you could say that it was a pretty good day.

Saturday was good. I don't remember much but I do remember one thing: we received a call from the man, the myth, the legend Elder G, who said, "so y'all are coming down for the mission tour next week, and I was asked to put together a musical number,  and the first person I thought of was you." And I am pretty sure that I cried a little bit. So next week I get to perform with Elder G again, and I just want y'all to know that God answers prayers. 

Yesterday for New Years we got to go to a member of the stake presidency's house with the hermanas, los elderes, and the zone leaders. His name is President F and he is pretty nice, except he's a Utah fan. He tried to get me to wrap myself up in a Utah flag so he could take a picture and send it home, but I figured that y'all are already on the brink of disowning me because of the country music thing, and that might just have tipped things over the edge. So I wouldn't even touch it. We played corn hole, which I am definitely getting better at, and it's also Sister Larsen's family game. We took second place, losing only to the zone leaders. We even beat President F! PS - It's so fun hanging out with other sisters. I haven't had that my whole mission. We're grateful for the hermanas. Also I found out that I get to drive the zone leaders' minivan down to Columbia with 2 other sets of sisters. Repeat: I GET TO DRIVE THE MOM WAGON. I have never been so excited to drive a minivan.

Well, that's all for this week! Tune in next time to see ...welll.... something, probably.

Don't let the muggles get you down! 

All my love, 

Sister Pew

Pictures from Christmas that we didn't post last week!

The moose and the yeti

Opening Christmas Eve jammies

Wonder Woman jammies because they are Wonder Women!

Opening gifts on Christmas