Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Week 6 - Two Months Down


Today is P-day. Yesterday was transfers and I am staying in Sumner with Sister Hollingsworth. I am so glad I finally made it through a transfer and that I am not a brand new missionary anymore. 

Things are going...

One of the highlights of the week was the relief society activity. It was so much fun. The activities here are outstanding. We had a garden party at the farm we went to on the 4th of July. Fancy hats were encouraged. So of course we went to Gramma Conine and got hats. We also prayed she would give us more salsa and she did - 2 jars! The power of prayer is real. haha 

Cody isn't getting baptized this week. We went over the interview questions with him though and he is so close. So we are focusing on him getting baptized this transfer. 

We also are teaching 3 boys - Tate (10), Riley (7), and Issac (4). A lady in our ward Sister Fry's daughter and her sons moved in with her. The daughter is LA (less active). Sister Fry convinced her daughter to let us teach the boys. They are reading the BOM everyday with their grandma. So that is exciting. 

Sorry I didn't have a lot of detail. But those are the highlights of the week. 

Love you,

Sister Wynder 

Bryn with her new mission president and his wife - President and Sister Rasmussen
















Bryn's zone and district


















Bryn with her garden party hat





















































Mason's Blog

Monday, July 18, 2016

Week 5

This week has been kinda rough but good. We have seen more sun this week but as I am writing this email it is raining... G'ma told me I need to take my vitamin D so I am starting today! The Peery's sent me a package this week. It was a Box of Sunshine! I loved it and it made me so happy.

So this week....

Things have been a little stressful with our investigators. G'ma sent me an email talking about how everyone has their agency. Sometimes it is so stressful because I just want to make the right choices for our investigators but cannot. Cody's situation is interesting and there are some questions about getting permission from both of his parents. We fasted with them and some other families in the ward yesterday. We still have Cody set forJuly 30th. We are hopefully talking to the Bishop more about it today. I have faith in them though.

This week we had dinner at Gramma Conine's and for dessert she had chocolate covered strawberries and a few other things. She put the plate right in front of me - I ate so many and she wrapped some up for me to take them home. I was thrilled.

We also had lunch with Sister Dorsey (ward missionary) she is in her 70s but is a hoot. She loves us and we love her. She fed us toasted PB&Js - so good! She feeds us often!

We also had a new missionary training with President and Sister Rasmussen. At the end we prepared lessons for role plays. It was funny because President Eaton was super strict about Elders and Sister communicating with each other. After we prepared lessons, President explained that 2 companionships would come up and trade off teaching each other in role plays. He picked Elders and Sisters to role play with each other. You could tell the older missionaries were freaking out because they have never role played together. It was kinda funny to watch because I role played with Elders in the MTC so it wasn't that weird to me. At the training Elder Duncan told me his mom asked how I was doing. While we were talking I felt the other missionaries looking at us thinking "why are they talking to each other?" Elders and Sisters barely talk to each other. It may change with President Rasmussen though...I don't know. Also Sister Rasmussen said that we probably won't be getting iPads for a long time.

We went on splits with Sister Linker and Sister Wright for about 2 hours. I was with Sister Linker and we found 2 new investigators and Sister Wright and Hollingsworth found 1. So it was awesome.

Last night we had a missionary devotional. I sang in the choir again. I was next to Sister Linker and she is an amazing singer so I tried sing quiet to blend with her...so people thought I was a better singer than I am.

Also Pokémon Go is everywhere here. We see people all the time playing it but it is good for us because more people are outside to contact. There is also little kids running around the library right now because they have Pokémon balls on the walls and stuff.

Overall, it as been a good week. Some days are rough but I just can't wait to be past my first transfer.

Love you,

Sister Wynder

Psalms 37:3-9


Sister Wynder, Sister Linker, Sister Wright, Sister Hollingsworth
















Package from the Peery's
















Arts and crafts with Bryn - a temple cut out of moleskin
















Monday, July 11, 2016

Evergreen . . . more like Evergrey


Week 4 complete!

Bryn's second family - the Peery's - are traveling through Washington and last night they made a little detour through Sumner and stopped at Bryn's apartment and left a letter and some treats on her doorstep. Yes, I got a surprise on my doorstep! I couldn't believe it when I read the letter. I was freaking out thinking "they were literally here, and I missed them?" It's okay though it probably would be so hard to say goodbye. It made my week. 

I got to see the Rasmussens (her new mission president) - they remembered me! I was pumped to see them again and I am so excited to serve with them. I love them!!!

This week was rough on our teaching pool. We only taught about 2-3 lessons. Things are frustrating with Cody and Sam but I can only do so much. A lot of the times its either a cry or laugh situation and I pick laugh because missions are hard enough who wants to cry? Not me!

So random facts. . .
- Gramma Conine gave us more SALSA!!! I was so pumped. Sister Hollingsworth tried to hide it from me but that didn't fly with me. Haha!
- I have been on a PB&J high this week, they taste so great with Gramma Conine's jam!
- I love watermelon now.
- Weed is the perfume of Washington, good thing it isn't very strong in Sumner.
- It is July and it feels like March. Grey skies basically everyday and little sun.
- Everyone has a dog! I haven't gotten bit though so that's a plus.
- Sister Hollingsworth hates seafood  so I feel bad when members feed us fish because she hates it but on the inside I am jumping for joy!
- I got a "Twilight" picture. We were at a members and they live in the straight up forest. I was so pumped though. Sister Hollingsworth hasn't seen Twilight so she thought I was so weird. Ever since Bryn got her call one of the first things she said was that she wanted to do a picture that looked like she was running super fast in the woods in Washington like she was a vampire in Twilight - so she got to do it. The picture is below . . .

Love you all! 

Here are the pictures that Peery's sent to me while they were at her apartment.


















And here she is with the bag of treats and the letter they left for her.
















 
Twilight vampire picture!!!










 




Mason's Blog 

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Everyone and Their Dog

Week 3 complete

This week we found a new investigator. His name is Sam, he is from Puerto Rico, divorced, and has 2 kids - 7 & 10. We contacted into him and he told us that he wanted more in life and wants to know what to teach his kids. He is so prepared for the gospel. We had two lessons this week and a stop by. On the second lesson we committed him to baptism on August 6th. 

Brother Whitman was out of town this week, but he said he would pray about his date. Cody is doing good. His mom and sister are members but they need the lessons too. Whenever we give him a high five he just dabs instead. Haha. 

Mike and Jordan are in the process of moving and they work so much so we didn't teach them this week. but we went over to help them move.

Have I told you about Everett? If I haven't he is a middle aged man that has had a lot of trials in life. Heavenly Father led us to him two different times this week(unplanned). He is a contractor and when we were finding we ran into him at the house he was working on. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and committed him to baptism on August 13th. However, he doesn't live in our area so we had a pass off lesson with the Elders in Clarks Creek. It went really well and the next time we see Everett will probably be his baptism.

The 4th of July was a little rough. We didn't have any appointments and no one wanted to talk to us because of the holiday. We didn't feel very motivated but we were invited to the Paynes for a BBQ. A big chunk of the ward was there and the Paynes live on a horse farm. It was so cool. They had horse rides for the kids, delicious food, and fireworks. It was the coldest 4th of July I think I have ever experienced, but it didn't rain. It was such a fun night. I felt like I was in the Hannah Montana movie or something.

Also there is a lady in our ward named Gramma Conine. - she makes the best salsa. One night we were contacting in the area and had to use the restroom so we stopped at her house. She is the most crafty person ever. Her craft room puts Michaels to shame. She has a garden in her backyard and makes all kinds of jam and salsa. Her salsa is called sweet and sassy. She let us pick out a jar of salsa and jam. When we got back to the apartment we ate the WHOLE jar of salsa. IT WAS AMAZING!

Love You,

Sister Wynder

Sister Wynder and Sister Hollingsworth after eating a whole jar of salsa . . .  

















Fourth of July Party























And one last video from the MTC - one of their district handshakes -