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