Group E-mail 9/15/14

Just the normal missionary stuff to report for this week. Visiting less-actives and recent converts. Teaching investigators. Finding new people to teach. I practiced some of my Spanish with Sis. Diaz. I can understand it pretty well, I just can't speak it. We got to know some more members in the ward. They are all awesome and hilarious. 

Highlights for this week include, but are not limited to:

• Eating a fish. One of those fishes that is cooked, but it looks like a real, live fish with the scales and the tail and the head, including the eyes. It was really good. I love fish. I ate the fish's eyes. They were pretty good, but the thought of eating eyes kind of threw me off. It was weird.
• We visited a member couple in our ward and talked about all sorts of stuff like how much we love Idaho, floating the Boise River, cool spiritual experiences, wayward children, and prophets. And during this whole conversations, I definitely had the coolest seat in the house -- a horse saddle set up on stand. The closest thing I have to riding a horse on my mission. And I felt like a true Texan -- sitting on a horse saddle in the living room.
• We had dinner with a family and some of their friends on Friday. Delicious food. Delicious. At the end we shared a message on following the prophet, after which the husband said, "Oh we were just with the prophet 5 weeks ago." What?! Yeah he has known President Monson his whole life and they are good friends. That is so cool!
• We are teaching two siblings of a recent convert. And they all came to church yesterday. The two kids love the Book of Mormon stories book and keep it in their backpacks so they can read it at school.
• Met an Irish guy and gave him a Book of Mormon. I love how diverse Houston is. So many people from everywhere.
• One of our investigators moved -- that isn't really a good highlight, but thought I would mention it. She moved to Cut 'N Shoot. And yes there is really a town in Texas called Cut 'N Shoot. It is kind of sketchy.
• We got a new investigator. Guadalupe. We started teaching her about the Restoration -- correction, Sis. Diaz taught. It was all in Spanish. I tried to use my not-very-existant gift of tongues to understand what they are saying. Sis. Diaz taught me how to bear my testimony in Spanish. So I can now bear my testimony in 3 languages -- english, spanish, and texan.
• Officially met and got to know the ward mission leader and his wife. They are awesome. 
• This weekend the weather was really nice and it was cool and so great. I even wore my red jacket Saturday night just because I could without getting super hot and sticky with sweat.

This week I'm especially grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that allows and helps us overcome our weaknesses and shortcomings. Through it we can change and become the sons and daughters that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. Without the Atonement trying to change or become better would be so much more difficult and pointless. And I can't imagine a world where change and improvement weren't possible or worth it. I''m grateful for how much I have learned and grown on my mission because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His beautiful teachings that we can find in the scriptures. And I look forward to continuing to learn and grow during the rest of my mission and life. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.I know that His Priesthood, Gospel, and Church have been restored to the earth. I know He lives. And I know that he speaks to us today. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 9/8/14

A ton of stuff has happened in the last couple of weeks, but I don't have much time, so this will be pretty short. 

I got transferred. I am now serving in Montgomery with Sis. Diaz who is from Honduras and has been out for 9 months. Montgomery is absolutely beautiful. I am head over heals in love with it. It is the country and Heavenly Father is so kind to let me serve in the country before I go home. 

To wrap up stuff in Bear Creek:

Leila got her patriarchal blessing and loved it. 

A less-active, Sis. Smith, who had been starting to have a stronger desire to come back to church and finally came a couple of weeks ago, decided she wants to go to the temple. We went over to her house on Thursday and she told us she was meeting with the Bishop that night to see what she needs to do to get to the temple. It was so out of the blue, but it was awesome! We were so excited for her. She has never been to the temple before and said that she feels like it is time. She has been doing so great and she is going to prepare to go the temple in November. 

I loved serving in Bear Creek! Everyone there was so awesome and I love them all! We had a lot of success and I feel like we did well in carrying out the Lord's will in the area. 

Things here in Montgomery are great. The ward is awesome! Everyone is really welcoming and hilarious and loves the missionaries. We have quite a few investigators to work with and one of them is supposed to get baptized in a couple of weeks. And we are trying to start working with some less-actives, since the ward has a ton of them. Things are going well.

I hope you all have a great week and I love all of you!!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 8/18/14

This was the week of exchanges. I got to serve with four different sisters, all at different times, this week. 

On Tuesday night we swapped companions with Katy 2nd sisters. Sis. Hassell stayed in Bear Creek with Sis. Peterson, and I went to Katy 2nd with Sis. Lusk. However, I ended up spending most of the day with Sis. Williams. I shall explain in the least confusing way I can. So I was in Katy 2nd for the day with Sis. Lusk. Over in Nottingham Country, they were also doing exchanges. Sis. Williams, who usually serves in Katy 1st, was there on exchanges with Sis. Colton. During companion study on Wednesday morning, Nottingham sisters called us. Sis. Colton needed to go to the mission office to do some stuff, and they don't have a car, so she needed Sis. Lusk to drive her. Which means that while Sis. Lusk and Sis. Colton went to the mission office, Sis. Williams and I were left to cover two areas, Katy 2nd and Nottingham -- two areas neither of us new anything about. So we hopped on the bikes they left us and made it up as we went. We went tracting in the morning. Ate some lunch. Then went to an appointment that Katy 2nd, had to paint nails at a senior assisted living place. Just in case any of you didn't know, I don't paint my nails, and I stink at it. I'm really. bad. at it. Sis. Williams is a pro (she paints old ladies nails every week in her area) and did 4 ladies faster than I did 1. The lady I was helping, Jane, was so cute and she had some good stories. She was wearing red nail polish. So I cleaned it off, and cut and filed her nails. And then what color did she pick to get her nails repainted? Red. Okay. That's fine. Why did I take it off in the first place? So I started painting one hand and it didn't look very good, so Sis. Williams finished it. I don't do nails.

Then we decided to go contact some potential investigators that Nottingham was going to check in on today. We plugged the first address into the gps. It took us in circles and kept telling us to turn around and go back the other way, no matter what we did. It was ridiculous. So we gave up on that one and tried another one. They weren't interested. Sis. Lusk and Sis. Colton got back at around 4 pm, so we rode back and Sis. Lusk and I spent the rest of the night together. We visited one of their investigators and went to a meeting. And then we switched back. It was fun. Sis. Williams and I both enjoyed white washing an area for a day. And it was fun to get to know Sis. Williams and Sis. Lusk.

I came home Wednesday night. Sis. Hassell hasn't been feeling well for the past week or so. When I got back she was feeling worse, and then Thursday morning she woke up and was really sick. So we were out of commission for a couple of days. Thursday and Friday we spent in the apartment. Sis. Hassell slept and I read Jesus the Christ. I love that book. Saturday, she still needed to rest, but we were so sick of the apartment so visited a couple of people and went to the library to do mormon.org time. That night, the Katy 2nd sisters (the ones we just went on exchanges with) called. They had heard that sis. Hassell was sick, so they wanted to do exchanges again. So I stayed in Bear Creek with Sis. Peterson, and Sis. Hassell went with Sis. Lusk to Katy 2nd. Exchanges on Sundays are a little weird, but fun. We just spent most of the day in meetings and at church and then visited a couple of people at night before switching back companions. It was fun. Everyone at church thought we had a new sister. 

Church was really great though. One of the members that is being reactivate, Sis. Armstrong, spoke. She is awesome. The Sapps have been teaching her, preparing her to go to the temple. And we have visited with her a couple of times, but mainly left it to the Sapps. She is going through the Temple on Saturday. We are going with the Sapps and we are all very excited. Another one of the less-actives we meet with, got pulled aside by a member of the bishopric to talk about receiving a calling. Woohoo! And Leila came to church, which is great since she hasn't come in a couple of weeks. And she met with the Bishop. She is doing so great. Things are going really well with all of the less-actives in the ward -- ours, the elders', and the Sapps'.

I am so grateful for Jesus Christ -- for all that He suffered so that we can repent, and be forgiven, and live with Him and Heavenly Father again; for the example He gave us in the life that He lived; for the love He has for each of us; and for the relationship that I have with Him. I love Him so much. I am so grateful that His church and the fullness of His gospel have been restored to the earth. And I know that He will one day return to earth, and what an amazing and blessed day that will be. 

I hope ya'll have a great week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 8/11/14

Sis. Hassell wasn't feeling well all week, so we had a pretty chill week, but it was still awesome. 

Tuesday we both had a first on our missions. We got to meet with a Muslim family! It was pretty cool. There are a lot of Muslims in Houston and there is even a mosque in our area. We knock into a lot of Muslims and they are usually pretty nice. But on Tuesday we were tracting before going out with the Sapp's, and a Muslim lady answered and immediately invited us inside. She made us icees to cool down with. We had some small talk when she was in the kitchen making the icee, but it was kind of awkward because she was far away. She told us she was from Pakistan, etc. When she sat down the first thing out of her mouth was, "So we're Muslim." So we started talking about what she believed. Pretty much we believe a lot of the same things except they believe Jesus Christ is just an awesome prophet and A son of God, and not THE Son of God. She told us a lot of things that would take forever to explain, but she was so nice. Then she started showing us a video of guy who used to be Catholic and converted to Islam and he was giving a lecture about what Muslims believe about Jesus Christ. We had to go, though, but then her husband and kids came home and her husband started telling us a bunch of stuff. They talked a lot so we couldn't get much out. We evenutally were able to say "We have very similar beliefs." He said "Kind of. We are the same until Jesus Christ and then we go in different directions." And then we told him we were Mormon and then he liked us more and agreed that we had paralleled beliefs. In the end they gave us a Qur'an. And Sis. Hassell loves those Indian outfits and has always wanted one, so she asked the lady where she bought her clothes, and the lady ended up giving Sis. Hassell one of her outfits. She was so excited. 

The visit was cool and unique. But it was interesting to notice the Holy Ghost and when it was there and when it wasn't. When we first walked in, I had a thought that I should pay attention to when the Spirit was and wasn't there. And that the beginning the Spirit was there, and we were just having a nice conversation. But once they started talking about what they really believe and about how Christ isn't the Son of God, the Spirit fled. It was gone. And then at one point we were able to tell them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (we left them with a copy in exchange for the Qur'an), and instantly the Spirit came back. It was pretty awesome. And the whole experience definitely strengthened my testimony that Jesus is the Christ. He is our Savior. And He is the Only Begotten of the Father. And it makes me so sad to think of all of those people who don't know that and don't know and understand His love for them. 

We started reteaching a lady named Stephanie. She started meeting with the missionaries 1 1/2 years ago. We would go over every now and then, but now missionaries and really taught her in awhile. We asked if we could reteach her and she agreed. She originally had referred herself on mormon.org, so we asked her why. For a few years she had been really depressed and just in a slump, and somehow she stumbled onto mormon.org and started watching all of the "I'm a Mormon" videos. They made her happy and helped her feel at peace (the Spirit!) and she was impressed at how happy and peaceful all of the people in the videos were and wanted to be like them. She asked us some questions about different things. We showed her some more videos and she loves them. She said the thing she struggles the most with is Joseph Smith. We can definitely try to fix that. She reminds me a lot of Megan when we first started teaching her. We just need to help her realize that what she is feeling is the Spirit and what that means for her.

This weekend we had stake conference. It was legit! An Area Seventy, Elder J. Romeo Villarreal, was there. He is hilarious and awesome. The Spirit was strong the whole time. The Sunday session was really cool. All of the missionaries in our zone sang "The Spirit of God" and President and Sister Mortensen both spoke. They are so awesome! I love them so much! It was great to be able to see all of the missionaries. We got to see our zone everyday this weekend (zone meeting on Friday, and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday). I love being with other missionaries. The Spirit is always so strong and I just always feel so uplifted and reenergized. And they are all just so awesome and fun and hilarious. It's the best. I love being a missionary. And I love this special missionary spirit that I get to feel all of the time. It is the best feeling in the world. Nothing can beat it. I am so grateful for this wonderful chance that I have to serve the Lord and be edified by this missionary spirit; for everything that I have learned; for all of the experiences that I've had; all the people I have met; how much I have grown; and most importantly my strengthened relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 7/14/14

This week went by really fast, but at the same time was forever long. We were totaling up numbers last night, and kept saying "that happened this week?!". But it was a great week.

Monday, we went to dinner and then were going to go have family home evening with a less-active family. It was pouring rain! Pouring! There were huge puddles on the sides of the streets and puddles in the grass. We ran to the car after dinner, and Sis. Hassell, in an attempt to step over the giant puddle on the street, she did a little hop into the car, and slipped and ended up biffing it into the car. Slamming into the side and then falling into the seat. It was hilarious! We died laughing! And now she has a big bruise on her arm. Anyway, we went to family home evening with this less-active family. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how ridiculously important it is to read it and to read the scriptures everyday. The lesson started out a little slow, but it ended up going really well. The Spirit was so strong, and I think it hit them that they need to read the Book of Mormon. One of the things we talked about is if Christ came tomorrow or next week, how embarrassed and disappointed would we be, if we hadn't done those things we know we need to be doing -- reading the scriptures every. day; praying every. day; going to church every. week. And what would our excuse be when He asked us why we didn't read the Book of Mormon yesterday. I don't think any excuse we could come up with would be a good enough excuse. Christ suffered everything for us. Can't we sacrifice at least a little bit of time everyday for Him? To do what He has asked us to do.

We had a lot of really powerful lessons this week. Started teaching girl named Katie, who is a friend of a former investigator. 

Thursday morning we had interviews with President Mortensen. We were excited for them. And then we were at our gym Thursday morning, and one of the hermanas who lives in our complex, and who I love (we decided we are the same person and therefore "besties"), said that another hermana called her last night and said that President Mortensen was going to rip your soul out during interviews. Well isn't that comforting. So then we were pretty nervous. My poor companion was a wreck. So we pulled into to interviews at 8:15. They were supposed to start at 8:30. The other missionaries were all there, sitting in the parking lot because the building was locked and nobody had a key. Pres. Mortensen pulled up and didn't have a key either. It was at our  church building, but Sis. Hassell and I were not with our district, but with a spanish district. So it was up to us to get a key. We called our elders at least a million times as we were driving to their apartments, but they never answered. We ended up borrowing the Relief Society president's. Anyway, we were going as fast as we possibly could. Sis. Hassell was so stressed. Then we were heading back to the church with the key, and the assistants, texted us asking where we were. They had found the key, and didn't tell us. It was quite the adventure. But, it was all better once we had our interviews with President. He is so awesome. I'm really excited to be able to serve with him over the next little bit. He challenged each of us in our interviews to extend 25 invitations to learn (ITL's) everyday for the rest of our missions. It has not been easy, but we've been doing well so far. We pretty much run around everyday trying to get the 25 and visit everybody we need to. Eventually we will get the hang of it. But we have definitely seen blessings coming from it and we are grateful for this challenge. 

One more thing quickly. So on Friday night we got a text message from the Sam Houston 2nd YSA ward sisters saying that they were having a baptism at our church building on Saturday night, if any of us had investigators that we wanted to bring. I served in that ward for 6 months last summer, so I momentarily entertained the thought of going so I could see everybody, but quickly decided it wasn't a good idea. Then Friday night, those sisters called us and asked us to come because they were going to have a potential investigator in our area, there. Their ward mission leader, James, who I served with when he was first called and who is awesome, ran into a lady, Jennifer, in our area while he was selling pest control. The two of them had a long talk about the church and gospel, particularly the Plan of Salvation - that wonderful plan that God has created for each of us that maps out our eternal life. They were both crying the whole time, and Jennifer finally felt like she was home. Anyway she came to the baptism and we went to meet her. She is amazing and so prepared! She couldn't come to church yesterday because she had a previous commitment, but she is coming next Sunday. She loves everything she has learned and the Spirit she has felt so far. She felt the Spirit very strongly at the baptism. Sis. Hassell was the one mainly talking to her because I was talking to all of the old friends from the YSA ward. But Sis. Hassell told me about their conversation, and the whole thing was excellent. Anyway, we are extremely excited to start teaching her. And it was great to be able to see some people from my old area. They are awesome.

And actually one more quick thing. I don't know how many of you have heard about the family of 7 that was murdered in Spring, Texas. The family were members of our church. Only one of them survived -- the 15 year old daughter. As members of our church their family has been sealed -- or "glued -- together by somebody holding the priesthood authority of God. Because of that, they are an eternal family and will live together forever. This situation is a good example of the strength and hope that the doctrine of eternal families can give to us. Although what the daughter is going through the unimaginable, she takes strength and hope from the knowledge and testimony that she has that she will one day, not only see, but live with her family again -- and they will remain a family for all of eternity. I am so grateful for the knowledge and testimony that I have of eternal families. I know that they are real, and I am eternally grateful for that blessing that God has given us. Just another testament of His everlasting love for each of us, His children.

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Pictures from June/July 2014

Just a few pictures from Texas June to July 2014

Downtown Houston
                                     
Sister H and Sister S having a good time

Sister Sylvester scores!

Texas burgers for the 4th of July

Group E-mail 7/7/14

I hope everybody had an awesome 4th of July! What a huge blessing it is to live in a free country that is blessed and guided by God's hand. 

On Wednesday we had a mini zone conference to meet our new mission president, President Mortensen and his family. They are awesome! We love them so much! They are like the perfect family -- funny, nice, loving, talented, beautiful, and most importantly strong in the gospel and their love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We are very excited to get to serve with them. We have interviews on Thursday so we will be able to get to know President a little better. 

For the 4th of July we spent the night with 3 less-actives and a nonmember. It was really fun and simple! We had texas shaped hamburgers because is there any better way to celebrate America than have Texas-shaped stuff? They were really good burgers. And we had s'mores. The two guys that were there had never had s'mores before! Crazy. One of them liked it, and the other one thought they were weird. I don't know how somebody could not like s'mores. It's just ridiculous. Then we did a few fireworks and sparklers that they had bought and just watched all of the other fireworks in the sky all around us. It was awesome! 4th of July is so much fun!

We meet with a less-active lady every Thursday evening. She hasn't come to church in forever because she has anxiety issues and stuff. Anyway, two weeks ago we took a laurel in the ward with us and taught her the Restoration and this week we talked about the importance of prophets. They were both powerful lessons, and she is now talking about how she needs to come to church and is going to try harder to come. She didn't come yesterday, but we are praying for next week.

And we have had some other success in getting less-active members to church or at least them starting to have that desire to come. It is going well. And we are starting to use family history more in helping reactivate people and focusing on using the Book of Mormon more in finding people to teach. I love the Book of Mormon. It is just so pure and powerful. There is an article in this month's Ensign about the gathering of Israel, the Second Coming, and the Book of Mormon by one of our apostles, Elder Russell M. Nelson. There is a line in there that has been going through my head all week. It says "It (The Book of Mormon) is the only book the Lord has testified to be true." This testimony can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 17:6. Now this isn't putting the Bible down. I love the Bible and it is truly irreplacable and invaluable since it contains a record of Christ's earth life. However, we all know that there are errors in the Bible because of mistranslations and things that have been taken out or changed over the thousands of years. The Book of Mormon is pure in that it doesn't have those errors. It's purity allows you to feel the Spirit of God so strongly and it's simplicity allows us to better our understanding of Christ and His role as our Savior and Redeemer. 

I hope you all have a great week!! 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 6/23/14

First of all, two cool miracles that happened this week. On Tuesday we were visiting a bunch of people -- investigators, potentials, less-active members, active members. Everybody. And nobody was answering the door. Eventually we decided to go visit Sis. Black, who is a less-active member that we both had never met. She was in her front yard when we got there. She has cancer and had just gotten home from chemotherapy and was about to go to bed. She was excited to see us and let us inside. We got to know her and shared a message. When we said the closing prayer, Sis. Hassell prayed and after she finished, Sis. Black started praying. She thanked Heavenly Father for answering her prayer that she had offered just the day before to send the sisters over because she hadn't seen us in a long time. There are few things more humbling in this world than being an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands to answer one of His children's prayers. 

For the second miracle I have to recap. The sisters here have been teaching a girl named Bridgette for quite awhile. She wasn't really going anywhere, but a couple of weeks ago we had a couple really great lessons with her and things were going to start moving. But then she texted us and told us she was moving to Florida for the summer. We were so bummed! Things were going so well. So, after Sis. Black on Tuesday we went out with some senior missionaries that are now in our ward and then went to dinner. Then we visited a member family that we see every Tuesday night, and after that I really had to go to the bathroom. Walmart was close by, so we went there. We had just gotten in front of the bathroom entrance and all of a sudden somebody ran up behind us and gave us these huge hugs from behind. And it was Bridgette!! What the flip?! Apparently she thought Florida was lame and had come back a few days before. We talked to her and her best friend, Katie, who has sit in on a lesson with her before. And we have an appointment to meet with both of them tonight. We are so excited! Heavenly Father's timing and placement is so amazing!

The rest of the week we spent visiting less-active members that other members in the ward have referred to us to visit. Our stake president talked at our district meeting on Friday. He pretty much talked about how our ward was the weakest in the stake -- but that is okay! -- and that we need to focus on helping the ward leaders in the rescue effort -- helping reactivate less-active and inactive members. So that is what we have and will continue to be doing. Lots of work to be done. And the rescue effort is going to be how we find new investigators along the way. It is all part of the Lord's work. 

I love being a missionary. The longer you are out, the more focused you become, and the better it gets. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really do love us perfectly and God's hand is in every aspect of our lives, we just have to keep our eyes open. And when we are diligent and obedient, the Lord always blesses us. Even if it doesn't come when we want or expect it to. "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82:10).

I hope you all have a great week! You are all amazing!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 6/16/14

We had a really good week. The Lord definitely blessed us. We finally found a new investigator. It's taken awhile. Thursday morning we were doing weekly planning. I was feeling a little down because it seemed like nothing we have been doing was working and nothing has really been going anywhere. I went into the bedroom to grab something and when I walked out Sis. Hassell told me that we got a Mormon.org referral. So we went to go see this lady that afternoon. She answered and told us to come back Friday at noon. So we did and had a really great talk with her. We got to know her and answered some of the questions she had. She is very active in her church. A security sale guy was talking to her the other week and talked about his mission and asked if he could send the missionaries over and she agreed. We gave her a Book of Mormon and taught her about it and the promise that if we read and pray about it, we can come to know it is true. She really liked it and was excited to start reading it. One of the best things about Houston is that no matter how interested people are, most of them love God and love to talk about Him.  It is so great to be able to hear about their love for Him and how they choose to show it. And as we talked to this lady, Jackie, you could feel of the love that she has for our Heavenly Father.

We were also able to meet with one of our investigators that we haven't seen in a long time. We stopped by a few weeks ago and he told us that his wife had left him. We were out with a member and went to visit him. He is doing much better. We were able to talk to him about spiritual awakenings and how we can get them when we read the word of God and take an act of faith. We read some Book of Mormon passages to him about how the words of Christ can guide and heal us.

We were also able to meet with a lady  named Courtney. She lives close by one of our members. Sis. Hassell and her last companion met her when they were bringing something to the members and they knocked on the wrong door. We visited her and ended up teaching her a brief restoration lesson and about the plan of salvation. The Spirit was so strong. And she definitely felt it. She is very prepared. We just have to get her to take that step of faith. She has had a very hard life and told us about her experience with learning about Christ and coming unto Him. It was amazing. The power of Christ's Atonement is so real. It really can heal everything.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 6/9/2014

Sorry I didn't send out an email last week. Ran out of time. So let me do my best to fill you in on the last two weeks. 

We got to go the temple a couple of weeks ago. It was amazing as always. I love the Temple. No matter how you are feeling before you go or what is going on at the time, you can always come out of the Temple full of peace and righteous confidence and the strength of the Lord. I am SO grateful that we have the Houston Temple in our mission and that we are able to go so often. I'm pretty sure none of the missionaries here would be able to survive without it. It is an irreplacable source of strength.

Two Friday's ago we had a really great power hour after dinner. We decided to go tracking, but we weren't exactly sure where to go. We had been having dinner at our apartment, so we decided to tract a street in one of the areas closest to our apartment to save some miles. Sis. Hassell started randomly moving her finger around on the map and told me to tell her when to stop. I told her when, and her finger landed on a road. It was a really little road, and we weren't really sure about it. Then we thought that we should probably pray and ask God where He wants to go instead of leaving it up to chance. We prayed and asked God to lead us to His prepared children. Then Sis. Hassell moved her finger around again because we couldn't come up with any better way to do it. Her finger landed on the same street. So we prayed again and asked Heavenly Father if that was where He wanted us to go. We felt good about it, so we drove over there and started tracting. We found so many potential investigators. We are teaching one of them on Wednesday. One guy and his wife, we taught last week. They weren't interested in continuing to meet, but it was a really great discussion about the Restoration of the Gospel. They really love God, but they were too hung up on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Then there was a lady we met named Irma. She is awesome. When we knocked on her door, she said no because it was all the same God. But she asked us where our church building was. We told her and she said that she drives by it a lot and has always wanted to go there to see how it feels inside -- see if the Spirit of God is there. We invited her to come and gave her all of the information and she was excited. At the end she told us that she has felt like something in her heart was missing. Then this last  Friday, we were on exchanges. I was here with Hermana Woodward. We knocked on Irma's door again. She answered and said she was sorry she hadn't come to church that week. Something had come up and she wouldn't be able to go this week, either because she has a family thing. But, she said, it was still in her heart to go to church. We had a really great talk with her. She let us inside. We got to know her and ended up talking a little about temples and eternal families and what missionaries do. She was impressed and we are going to go teach her this week. 

Last Saturday, May 31, Tim got baptized!! A member drove Sis. Hassell and I all the way up to Oak Ridge so that we could attend his baptism. It was so great. First of all, Megan looked great! She was so happy and is doing so well. Tim looked great as well. He was very happy and excited to get baptized. And he even teared up a bit during one of the talks. They are just so awesome! And it was great to see everyone. My whole old district was there, so that was really fun to see all of them. And it was great to see some people in the ward. I love them so flipping much. They're just fantastic and I miss them like crazy. 

They are a couple of things I have been thinking a lot about this week.

1. The Priesthood. So I mentioned the lesson we had with the husband and wife who couldn't accept the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith, no matter how many times we told them they just had to pray about and ask God. One of the things they kept going back to was what made Joseph different from other pastors/preachers and their interpretation of the scriptures. We talked about how the Priesthood was the difference, but it didn't really do anything. Ever since that lesson, I have just kept going back to how it really is the priesthood that makes all the difference. Joseph Smith didn't claim to be just another preacher. He claimed to be a prophet of God, and as such he had authority from God to do His work, to lead Christ's church, and to interpret the scriptures. He had the priesthood. And either he was a prophet of God with that authority, or he wasn't. And as we read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and pray about Joseph Smith, asking God, the source of all truth, if it is all true, we can come to know for ourselves that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God with that Priesthood power. And because of that, his interpretation does matter.

2. Acting vs. being acted upon. We decide how to react to different situations and if we are going to let those situations define us or if we are going to define the situations. A situation either brings us closer to God, or further from Him -- we decide. In my Book of Mormon class at BYU, our professor talked about Alma 62:41. "But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility." They each chose whether to let the war bring them closer to or further from God. He then said "Boiling water hardens eggs and softens carrots." Same trial -- boiling water. Different reactions/outcomes.

I hope you all have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Tim was baptized! 5/31/14

Group E-mail 5/19/14

Well this week was really slow. I was recovering from a cold and Sis. Hassell got sick this weekend, and pretty much all of our appointments fell through. But that's okay. This week will be better. We spent most of this week trying to get to know the area and the members better. So we cleaned up the area book because it was a mess and organized the area. And we visited lots of members trying to get to know people -- since neither of us really know anybody -- so we can start building relationships with them. 

Wednesday morning, after studies we walked to our car to go visit a less-active, and one of our tires was flat. I was kind of excited to change the tire. I was just glad that I knew how to change a tire, since my dad taught me how about a year ago when we got a flat tire on the way home from BYU. So we started changing it and then a guy named Mario came over and offered to help. He's a mechanic so he did it a lot faster than we could have. And then we spent the rest of our morning at the car shop getting our tire fixed. A nail had popped the tire. And we gave Mario a Book of Mormon. 

That is pretty much it. Not much to say. 

Something I have been thinking a lot about this week is how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always by our side and God's hand is always guiding our life. He has a perfect and personal plan for each one of us. All we have to do is let Heavenly Father into our life and let Him guide and help us. He loves us so much and everything He does is to bless us, even though we might not be able to see how in the moment. 2 Nephi 26:24 says "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for He loveth the world, even that He layeth down his own life that He may draw all men unto Him. Wherefore, He commandeth none that they shall not partake of His salvation." The littlest things that might not seem to make a difference, matter. Things that happen to us and decisions we make everyday. For example, Megan, the lady who got baptized a few weeks ago in my last area. We started teaching her in December. February hit, and we stopped meeting with her because she was so busy. We were still texting her trying to meet with her, but it wasn't really working. We were thinking that she was done with everything and that we would probably be dropping her sooner than later. But then, we accidentally pocket dialed her. That pocket dial changed everything. She called us back, not knowing we hadn't meant to call her. So we talked for awhile. She brought up church and how she needed to start going again. She told us that she was still reading the Book of Mormon. And all of a sudden we knew that we couldn't give up on her because she was ready, even though she was busy. So we kept trying until we finally met with her and a few weeks later she got baptized and she is doing great. If we hadn't have pocket dialed her, there is a good chance she still wouldn't be baptized. Little things like that can make a big difference. God is always guiding us. 

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much. They will always be there for us. Their arms are always outstretched toward us. We just have to reach out to them. They will never give up on any of us. We are never alone. 

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 5/12/14

First of all, I loved talking to my family yesterday. It was so great! I love all of them so much and I am so grateful for all of their love and support!

Well transfers happened this week. Monday was a great last day in Oak Ridge. Like I said last week, I'm really bummed to leave Oak Ridge because it is such a great ward and I love everyone there so much. But that's okay because I know that I will love my new area just as much. We had a busy P-day getting everything done. We had to go the mall and send off mother's day packages and hang out with our district. And then we went and said goodbye to some of our favorite members in the ward. I miss all of them. The ward was the best. 

Tuesday, Sis. Colton and I drove to transfers. Sis. Colton is still in Oak Ridge and I know she will continue to do great there. I am now in Bear Creek in the Katy zone and my companion is Sister Hassell. She is from Oregon and she is really cool. We get along well so far and I think we will have fun and be able to get lots of work done here in Bear Creek. 

So a little about Bear Creek. We live in really nice apartments. Really nice. And we have a really nice gym. And we are in a car again, which I am kind of bummed about because I wanted to try a bike, but I know that I will love that car when it starts getting really humid. We have a lot of investigators and less-actives we are working with. And apparently it isn't very hard to find people to teach. There is a lot of work to do here and I think it will be really good. 

Megan and Tim are doing really well. On Monday night we had an appointment with them and we had to say goodbye. Tim asked what he needed to do to get baptized and asked about the Priesthood. He really wants to do this. He is starting to read the Book of Mormon, again. We went through the baptismal questions with him and set a baptismal date for him at the end of the month. So we are excited for that and I'm glad I will be able to see them again, soon.

Anyway, there isn't much to say so far, yet. I hope you you all have a great week and I hope all of you mom's had a great mother's day!!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 5/5/14

This week was a really, really long week. It seemed to drag on forever. There's nothing wrong with that. It was just long...

We went on exchanges this week, and that was fun. Sis. Colton went up to Montgomery with Sis. Bonner and I stayed down here in Oak Ridge with Sis. Bowden. We did service with our district for most of the day. And then we visited a couple of people. We visited this one less-active family that we've visited a couple of times. We shared a message on prayer, and we asked them about their testimony of prayer and the husband started to cry while sharing his feelings. The Spirit was really strong. You can tell that they love Heavenly Father so much. And they have a strong testimony of the gospel and church. We just wish they would act on that testimony and come to church so they can be even more blessed and have an even stronger testimony.

Megan is doing awesome! We weren't able to meet with her this week, but she called us on Thursday and we talked for quite awhile. She told us that the week leading up to her baptism was a really terrible week and she was depressed and annoyed and nothing was going right with her family, with work. And then she got baptized and that was great. And then the day after her baptism, Saturday, she said if felt like her whole world was about to fall apart. And then on Sunday she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. When she received the Holy Ghost, everything just melted away and all of her worries were gone. She felt so great! And then the whole rest of the week was great. She felt so happy and calm and peaceful. She had more patience. Things were going really well. Her husband told her that her whole demeanor had changed and that he could tell she was much happier. She just went on and on about how great she felt. And she said that she knew everything wouldn't always be so smooth, but that it was ok because with the Holy Ghost she could continue to feel that peace. She is almost done reading the Book of Mormon. She's been reading the Gospel Principles book and the Relief Society books that she got when she was baptized, and they make her feel great, too. She told us that on Thursday morning, she was having a rough morning, and she saw one of the Relief Society books on the table and thought she should read some of it. She read a chapter and said she felt so much better. And then at the end of our phone call, she said "And that's my testimony." It was the best phone call! I love the gift of the Holy Ghost so much! The Holy Ghost can bring us so much peace and comfort no matter what is happening in life and it is so amazing. Definitely one of the best gifts God has given to us.

Not much else to say, that I can think of. We got to hold some baby bunnies. Ate a lot of delicious food, including my favorite, Chicken Tetrazini.

I'm getting transferred to a new area tomorrow. I have mixed emotions. I'm really excited for a new adventure and I'm sure I will love it, but I am also really sad to be leaving Oak Ridge. I love this area so much. The ward is so amazing and I just love all of the members. And they are just starting to really catch the missionary spirit. We've been able to work hard and have a lot of fun. A lot of good things have happened here. I love it so much and I will definitely miss it a ton!

I hope you all have a great week. And HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 4/29/14 (Her Birthday was 4/24)

Birthday and a baptism! It was a pretty great week!

My birthday was really great! Definitely a great start to my 20's. We ate a ton of food to celebrate. Sis. Colton filled the shower with balloons. And a member decorated our car with sticky notes and made me my favorite meal, chicken tetrazzini. It was so delicious! And the member loved it so much that she is making it for us again this weekend. I won' complain :) Please. Make all the chicken tetrazzini you want. Thank you so much to everybody who helped out with the video that was made for my birthday! You guys are all so great and I love all of you so much! It made me so happy to see all of your beautiful faces!

But the best part of this week was Megan's baptism! It was so great! Lots of people came and the Spirit was really strong. She received the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday and was confirmed and it was really great. Her son, Tim, said that she looked really peaceful during it, and Megan said that she felt really peaceful and that all of her stresses and worries melted away. She is so great! I've been meeting with Megan for almost 6 months now, and every time I talk to her, I get more impressed. It's ridiculous. For example, last week when we visited her a couple days before the baptism, we were going to talk about family history. She pretty much taught us the whole lesson. We've never talked about it at all before and she already knew everything. She's so great. And she's excited to do family history. She even went to the class on Sunday.

Anyway, I love all of you so much! You are amazing!! And I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 4/21/14

On Tuesday mornings, our district does service at a Nature Center. This week we went, and after being there for awhile we decided to go walk the trails and pick up trash because we hadn't done that in a long time. As we were walking I found this really long trail of fire ants carrying leaves. I was following and watching this trail, and all of a sudden I looked over and there was a snake a couple inches from my foot. I bright, black, red, and yellow striped one. It was scary looking. Anyway, I jumped really high and ran a few feet. Sis. Colton said that I made a noise that sounded like Scooby-Doo. It was pretty funny. That has been our story for this week. 

Megan is getting baptized on Friday! We are very excited about that! Tim isn't getting baptized this week. He isn't quite ready yet. He still has some lessons left and stuff, but he will get baptized in a month or so. Megan is excited about her baptism and its going to be great.

This weekend we started teaching a girl named Sarah. She is the sister of a lady who was baptized last year. She said that she just found God, and wants to learn more. So we met with her and answered some of her questions and gave her a Book of Mormon, and then the next day taught her the Restoration. Her sister is very excited about all of this. Sarah came to church yesterday and told Sis. Colton that she was really glad she came and she really liked it. We're glad she came, too.

We did more service this week for members, nonmembers, and inactive members. It was great. On Wednesday, we helped a potential investigator with her yard. She is an elderly, single lady (never been married) and is the neighbor of one of our members. We met her at dinner at their house about a month ago. Her name is Mary Ellen. She is hilarious and really nice. She loves it when we come over. She really appreciated our help with her yard. We ended up stopping by again on Friday night, and she ended up telling us about how she feels like God hates her and He is punishing her and has just left her all together. He doesn't have any hand in her life anymore. It was so sad. PLEASE never forget that God loves you perfectly and that He will never leave your side! He will always be guiding your life with His hand. Anyway, it broke our hearts and Sis. Colton started crying a little bit. She says that she likes her church and isn't going to get baptized into ours, but goodness, she needs the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. She has so many questions and is confused. We assured her that God loves her very much and that He will never leave her alone. And talked about the Atonement and taught a brief restoration lesson. She was really touched by what we had to say.

I hope everyone had a great Easter! It was so great to be able to focus so much on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for His sacrifice. He loves us so much. He suffered all that He did because He knew that we were all worth it. He knows how great of a potential we have as sons and daughters of God.

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 4/14/14

We did lots of service for people this week. On Tuesday we did our usual service activity with our district, at a Nature Center. That is always fun. On Wednesday we ended up helping a member with yard work in the morning. Her family's relationship with the missionaries kind of got ruined last year, so it was good to build that back up. We ended up having dinner with them on Thursday and we are having dinner with them again next week, so I guess they like us, which is good. Sis. Colton weeded and I raked up the yard. In Texas there are a bunch of brown, spikey balls that are all over people's yards. So I picked up all of those. And then on Thursday we ended up helping a potential investigator, Caleche, with her yard. She is friends with the Relief Society president, and we have been trying to set up another time to get together, but she has been really busy. Anyway, Caleche is pregnant with twins and hasn't been able to do her yard. We called her to offer our services, and she said we could help, but her lawn mowers weren't working. So we borrowed the Relief Society's president's lawn mower and did her lawn. Sis. Colton weeded again, and I mowed the lawn. It was quite the adventure. Her backyard consists of a ton of really tall weeds, and so. much. dirt. And I got covered in the dirt. You know when you are on trek, and you get covered in a thick layer of dirt all over? Yeah, that is what I looked like when I finished.

After being in Houston for almost 11 months, I officially feel like I have experience Texas because this weekend I ate crawfish. Our stake had a huge crawfish boil on Saturday night. I think around 2000 people were registered to come, and I'm pretty about that number of people came.So many people. And lots of nonmembers. It was really great. We got to try crawfish. I like it. It was really good. The only problem is that I'm not very skilled at getting the shell off of the crawfish, so it took awhile for me to eat it. I was really hungry, and it was taking a long time, so I didn't eat very much before I went and got a hamburger to fill me up. They had activities for the kids going on inside of the church, and so we had missionaries roaming the halls the whole time. Lots of people asked for church tours and a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon and other materials were given away.

We met with Megan this week and taught her a little bit more. Tim wasn't there because he went to Mutual. Apparently, at Mutual they decided to ask Tim to give the spiritual thought, and he did a really good job. He shared what he learned from General Conference. Anyway, Megan is great. We went over the baptismal interview questions with her. We have never officially taught her about the Word of Wisdom, but we found out she had already been cutting back on coffee and tea, and so we invited her to stop drinking it all together, and so far she has. And we had never talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy, yet, but a member in our lesson last week had talked about how they had made an effort to not work or do school work on Sunday, and so Megan decided that she should do that, too, and she has been working on that. She is so great. She had her baptismal interview yesterday and passed, so she is getting baptized on April 25th. We are really excited. Tim will have his interview next week.

I hope everybody has a great Easter this weekend. I'm so grateful for the chance that we have to focus on Christ and His Atonement this weekend. I am so grateful that Christ loves each of us so much that He was willing to suffer not only for all of our sins so that we can repent and be cleansed, but also for all of our temptations, afflications, infirmities, etc. so that He can help us and strengthen us. Jesus is the Christ and He is our Savior and Redeemer. Only through Him and by living His gospel can we be cleansed of our sins, and live with God again.

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail 4/7/14

Sister Colton and I had a pretty great week this week filled with laughs, adventures, living prophets, and miracles.

So April Fool's day was really funny, but kind of a fail. I shall explain. I will just skip to the afternoon. So we went to service at the nature center in the morning and afterwards we went to Sis. Farnsworth's house. Sis. Farnsworth is a member in the ward who is Carrie's age (a lot of people in our ward are Carrie's age and it really throws me off) and she is hilarious! She is one of my favorite people. We were going to her house to role play with her so she could practice answering questions about the gospel that her friends have because she has a hard time with that, and asked for our help. When we got there, she said that she had to go and take dinner to somebody, but that we should just stay and wait there because she would only be a few minutes. So she left. Sister Colton and I were really in sync that day and didn't even have to talk. We just looked at each other and ran out the door. We parked our car on another street, ran back to the house, hid all of our stuff, and shut the blinds and turned off the lights, so that it looked like we had left. Then Sister Colton hid on the stairs and I hid in the pantry. And we were going to scare Sis. Farnsworth when she walked into the kitchen. When she got home, she took the one path we didn't plan on her taking, and went up the stairs. Sister Colton scared her and Sis. Farnsworth got a really big kick out of it. She really likes to get scared.

Then we went to our original plan that we had come up with. Cockroaches are a problem in Houston. We have had a few conversations with Sis. Farnsworth about how she really doesn't want cockroaches in her bathroom. So what did we do, on Monday at Walmart, we bought fake bugs and then painted them all black so that they looked like cockroaches. We had just come straight from service, so we needed to change into our proselyting clothes. Sis. Colton went into the bathroom to change first and hid all of the bugs in the bathroom. We've also had conversations with Sis. Farnsworth about how she is embarrassed when we use her bathroom and there is no handtowel. We don't care, but she does. So, Sis. Colton took the handtowel, so that when I went into the bathroom, there wasn't one for me to us. So I had to ask Sis. Farnsworth for one, thinking she would come into the bathroom and see the bugs. She just threw the towel at me and didn't come into the bathroom. I changed and when I came out Sister Colton made another attempt to get her into the bathroom. That didn't work either. So we gave up, thinking that she would find the bugs in a couple of days. We started role playing, and then Sis. Argyle, another lady in the ward, came over to drop something off. She told Sis. Farnsworth she needed to use her bathroom and went in. Sis. Colton and I just started cracking up laughing. When Sis. Argyle came out of the bathroom, she told Sis. Farnsworth that those bugs got her for a minute before she realized they were fake. They both got a kick out of it.

Then we went to dinner at the White's house. Our plan there was to tape one bug to the inside of their toilet bowl. So after dinner and a message, Sis. Colton went to use the bathroom. She was in there FOREVER! It was so awkward. And to make it even more awkward, you could hear her getting the duct tape. It was hilarious. We left and Sis. White texted us a little while later and told us thanks for the present. We asked if she had gotten at least a little freaked out. She replied, "No. Sis. Farnsworth posted a picture of what you did in her bathroom on Instagram, so I went to go check my bathroom." We tried. Sis. Farnsworth did text us later that night and told us that her son went into the bathroom and said "Mom! Come here. There are big bugs in the bathroom that will get us."

Anyway, it was a pretty humorous April Fool's despite us not be very successful.

General Conference was awesome! I loved it! My favorite talk was probably Elder Holland's. I also really liked Elder Rasband's, Elder Andersen's, Elder Scott's, President Uchtdorf's, Elder Ballard's, and Elder Bednar's. What I personally got out of General Conference was the importance of being obedient and living the gospel. I also thought a lot about how we should treasure up the words of the living prophets, as well as the scriptures. There was a quote that I noticed was used in last October's conference and this conference. It is from President  Harold B. Lee: "The only safety we have as members of this church is to … give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through His prophet. There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your [personal] views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; … and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name’s glory’ (D&C 21:6).”

When we follow the words of living prophets, we will not be led astray.

Elder Hales in the last conference said, "The greatest blessings of general conference come to us after the conference is over. Remember the pattern recorded frequently in scripture: we gather to hear the words of the Lord, and we return to our homes to live them." And 1 Nephi 19:24 says "Hear ye the words of the prophet [...] and liken them unto yourselves." Now that General Conference is over, make sure that you take what you heard in conference, then notes you took, and the feelings you felt, and make a game plan for how you can become better. Listening to their words doesn't mean much if we don't become better because of what we heard.

And to wrap up this long email, an update on the Guidry's. We haven't been able to officially meet with them in a long time because they have been so busy. Megan told us two weeks ago that she shouldn't be too busy this week so that we could meet with her then. I texted her on Tuesday, but she again said she was busy. On Thursday morning I texted her and told her "It would seriously only take 20 minutes and the Lord will bless you." And then told her that if she didn't want to meet with us anymore, that she just needed to tell us. She responded and said, "Tonight's good. We can meet tonight. How about 6?" So we met with her that night and it went really well. They've still been reading the Book of Mormon. We talked about how the gospel can bless our lives and invited them to watch General Conference. Sis. Noorda was their with us and invited them to watch it with them. And we set another baptismal date with them for the end of the month. So yesterday they went to the Noorda's and watched the Sunday morning session of conference. Megan texted us last night and told us that she really loved conference. And Sis. Noorda called us and told us all about it. She just kept saying "It was so awesome. It went so well." Megan and Tim both really loved it and they played Conference bingo, which they also enjoyed. And Megan went up to Brother Noorda and started telling him about how she was getting baptized this month and asked what she needed to bring and what it would be like. She texted Sis. Noorda later that night and asked if there was a way she could watch the whole conference. So the Guidry's are doing great! And General Conference is amazing! You can always count on the power of a living prophet and apostles.

I am so grateful for a living prophet and for the chance that I have to be a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ. It is a remarkable blessing.

I  hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Group E-mail March 17, 2014

It was another great week! Things are picking up in the Oak Ridge area.

This week we visited lots of different people -- members, potential investigators, and less-active members.

So first of all, Tuesday night was quite the adventure. We were supposed to meet with the Bishop on Tuesday night at 7:45 (key word being "supposed"). It was about 7:35 pm and we decided that we should go tracting for a few minutes before going to the church. So I open the back door to get my bag, and decided that if we were just tracting for a few minutes, I didn't need my whole bag, and my shoulder could use a break every now and then. So I grabbed a Book of Mormon, some pass along cards, my planner, and a pen, and shut the door. And then I realized that I just locked the keys and the phone in the car! Smooth move, I know.

Me: Uh oh

Sis. Colton: What?!

Me: Uh... I just locked the keys in the car. And the phone.

Sis. Colton: Seriously?! Well let's just call Brother Widdison (our ward mission leader).

Me: We can't. The phone is in the car.

Then we decided that we should say a pray. Obvious. So I said the prayer and we asked Heavenly Father for a big miracle. Then I felt like we should still go tracting.

Me: Let's go tracting.

Sis. Colton: Tracting? To ask somebody for help?

Me: No. To invited people to learn about the gospel, like we always do.

Sis. Colton: Are you sure?... Okay...

So we went tracting. We knocked on 3 houses. The first guy wasn't interested. The second house, nobody answered. The third house, a guy named Brent answered. We asked if we could share a scripture with him, and he agreed, then started quizzing us on our Bible knowledge. Sis. Colton was trying to look stuff up in her scriptures. My Bible was locked in the car. I apologized to Brent and told him that it was locked in the car. Brent said "You locked your keys in the car? Do you need me to call one of my detective friends to come unlock your car?" I love Heavenly Father. So he called one of his detective friends, who sent a police man and a tow truck and they unlocked our car for us. And while we waited we had a long conversation with Brent. He is a really  nice guy, but lets just say, I think it is hilarious when people try to convert missionaries. We gave him our number and told him to call us if he needs any service because we owe him one, and he gave us his number in case we ever need his help again. I'm sure we will be seeing him again. Heavenly Father sent us an angel, and we were very grateful. Anyway, we did not meet with our Bishop that night, but we did meet with him on Wednesday night, instead. He is so nice and was very understanding. He was excited that he had gotten extra scripture study time.

This week, Sister Colton and I really focused on praying more often through out the day, especially at those times when we aren't exactly sure what to do. The results have been amazing. The quality of our days have been much better. We have been able to become better at recognizing and listening to the Spirit, and it has been much easier for the Lord to guide us to where He needs and wants us to be, and to the people who need a message of His love. I love prayer. It is one of the best tools that Heavenly Father has given us. And when you add the gift of the Holy Ghost to it, you are able to do all that the Lord needs you to do.

James is doing well. We talked to him about the fruits of the Spirit this week, to help him recognize what is good and bad in his life.

And I also got to milk a goat this week, which was absolutely fantastic!

Love,

Sister Sylvester

Happy New Year 2014

This week was a great week! Especially compared to the really slow weeks that we have had the last few weeks. The beginning of the week was a little slow as we had to work through a few things and we did a lot of talking. But the last half of the week was really great and we got lots of work done. We also had a lot of fun this week and did lots of fun activities.

First of all, I learned how to play the harp.... Kind of. Sister Parker is this super cute lady in our ward who plays the harp beautifully and teaches harp lessons. We had dinner at her house one night and she taught us how to play a little bit. We felt pretty cool.

We also got to play ultimate frisbee twice this week, which was great. We played on Saturday, like we normally do, and we also got to play new year's morning because everyone was off of work. It was a lot of fun. There were lots of people on Wednesday, so the teams were huge, but it was still lots of fun. And I'm getting pretty dang good at it. I'm good at catching and I'm getting pretty good at throwing the frisbee, too. And seeing as we just run up and down the field the whole time, we get a really good work out, and so I'm getting in pretty good shape. It is my running for the week.  I have forgotten how much I love sports and I wish we could play frisbee every day.

 New Years Eve we spent a lot of time doing service. Every Tuesday, our district does service at a nature center. We pick up trash and weed and do a bunch stuff. It is fun. And that day was also transfers, so we got to know all of the new missionaries in our district while we were doing it. We ended up going on a trail that we didn't really recognize. Our district leader said he knew where he was going, but he didn't, so we got lost and walked a really long way in the wrong direction. Then after that we helped a family move out of our ward. We were at dinner that night, at the Knight's house, and a less-active that we have been visiting recently texted us. She is 21 and just had a baby girl about a month or so ago. She is having a rough time. She hasn't been active in a long time and doesn't seem very into anything religious. But she texted us on New Years Eve and asked if we could find somebody to give her baby a blessing because she has been sick and hasn't been sleeping at all. That was really cool. We turned to Brother Knight and asked if he knew who her home teachers were and it just so happened, that Brother Knight was her home teacher and he had been trying to get into their house for months. So he went that night and gave her baby a blessing. It was really cool how it all worked out so perfectly. The Lord knows what He is doing.

New Years day was fun. Not much missionary work happened. Like I said, the beginning of the week was slow because we were working through some things. My companion was having a really rough day and so we were trying to do things that would lift her spirits so that we could work hard the rest of the week. So we ended up spending most of New Years day at the Mann's house. The Mann's are a family in our ward who are awesome and we love them so much. They are Sister Liljenquist's favorite family, so spending time with them definitely lifted her spirits. Their son had just gotten married in Las Vegas and they were having an open house for him and his new wife on Saturday. So while we were over there we asked if they needed any help getting ready for it. So we ended up helping for awhile. Sister Liljenquist helped their daughter, Allison, make oreo balls. The two of them are best friends. And I ended up polishing leaves -- which by the way is a ridiculous job, on the ficus tree in their living room. Their 14 year old daughter, Sarah, came over and we did it together. We had a lot of fun and were cracking up laughing the whole time. It takes a lot of energy to polish leaves. We were completely exhausted by the end. We kept losing track of what branch we were on and what ones we had already done. And I kept hitting my head on the corner of their mantle. It was good bonding time. It was a lot of fun. We also had dinner with them. In the South they have a tradition that if you eat black-eyed peas on New Year's you will have a prosperous year. So we had black-eyed peas for dinner, as well as chili, macaroni and cheese, and corn bread. It was a really random dinner. But really good. It was a good day.

The end of the week we got lots of misisonary work done. We were able to visit recent converts, less-actives, and investigators that we haven't been able to see in a long time. We visited a recent convert, Amy, on Friday. She was having a really rough day and was very stressed and worried about a lot of things going on. She really appreciated our visit and said that we helped her morning be less miserable. A member told us that she even posted about it one facebook because it just made her whole day. It always feels good to know that people appreciate your visits and that we helped people feel the Spirit more. We also started teaching a less-active that we found a few weeks ago. We taught her the Restoration yesterday. She is really excited to read the Book of Mormon since she didn't read it at all when she was baptized in the 90's.

Things are going well. We are really excited about this week. Its going to be a great and succesfull week.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Sister Sylvester