Slack Lining and Temple Trip

July 5, 2013


Hello! 

This week has been AMAZING :) !!

Sister Stoker & Sister Cusick

Picture taken after dinner at the Bishop's Home

TEACHING

 Almost all of our investigators are progressing!!!! We went from having none to having them all keep their commitments! It's been so great :) I love the people here! Here are some interesting things that have happenned:

-One family we have been teaching for a while are beginning to read the scriptures :) they have been meeting with missionaries for 3 years and they are finally starting to keep commitments. It's been amazing watching them get answers and learn more from reading on their own!!! Yay!!!

-We met a new family! They live on a 'ranch' out in the country behind acres of groves of lemon and orange trees. They gave us fresh eggs from their farm and were super awesome! The story of how they met and got married is CRAZY. Basically he was on his mission in Australia and they both saw each other one day at church and knew they were going to get married. Crazy!

SLACK LINING

-So we were visiting some potential investigators when we starting talking about slack lining. Slack lining is basically like walking on a tight rope (SCARY) (Sister Stoker had tried it at school) and all of a sudden we see a big group of college students doing it in their yard! So we start to watch and they invite us to come over and watch. We are all watching when they are all like, "Try it! I'll hold your Bible or whatever!" And so after a lot of coaxing and reassurance I agreed to do it!! It was so cool!! They made sure there were people holding my arms but it was awesome! Sister Stoker did it too, we made sure to talk to them about the gospel and missionary work but it was just really cool :) Sister Stoker got a picture of it that I will get to you sometime! We invited them all to come to church :)

-We met a guy who kept calling us the "Church of Saturday's Today's Saints." It was really funny, ha ha, he couldn't get it right.

FOOD

-Has anyone ever had chicken pillows? We had them for dinner at a members house one day and they were AMAZING :) so I suggest looking them up ha ha.

TEMPLE TRIP

-WE ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE! Its official! We are taking the Temple bus on Wednesday and going to the temple! We will be doing two sessions. Ah!!! :D

-Tomorrow is zone conference!! hooray!!

-I am feeling better, I am still sort of sick but I am slowly getting there!

 Thanks for all the love :)

Avocados, Oranges and Country Music

Dear Family,

I love you!! How was the cruise? I love the pictures! Dolphins are awesome ha-ha.  How was your birthday mom? What did you guys do? How was the 4th of July?!  Thank for sending the cables, I will try it next week.

 Mom!!!!! There are like four women in my ward from Holland!  Do you know any cool phrases in Dutch that I could show off? Ha-ha.

 And YES SEND MUSIC. We can listen to anything that brings our thoughts back to the work and Jesus Christ, which is mostly hymns and country/acoustic.  I never thought in a million years that I would be listening to Christian Country in the car but here I am!  So feel free to send music! By the way, the CD "The Work" is really great. I love you! :) 

This week:

-I am getting bolder! I knew that I was kind of shy before I came on my mission but holy cow did being here make me realize it.  But, I am getting more confident and bold in talking to people every day, which is a huge blessing :)

-I am sick!  I have a pretty bad cold that I got on July 3rd; I'm mostly just been kind of in a fog.  But I am slowly getting better! It just isn't fun.

-On the 4th of July Sister Stoker and I wanted to make Rice Crispy treats and deliver them to the people that were teaching BUT we couldn't find Rice Crispy’s anywhere!  So we made them out of honey nut cheerios.  Then we used Sister Stoker's blue and red marshmallows so they looked really funny but they still tasted yummy! :) 

-A lot of people here have fruit trees in their backyards so guess what that means!?  We get LOTS of fruit :) especially avocados!  A lot of people have avocado trees here so we have like 4 avocados in our kitchen right now.  Some of the ward gave us oranges also, and these are the good oranges!  The oranges that we have in Florida are mainly for their juice but these are the kind that you can peel and eat. They are really good :)

-I met a Jehovah's Witness!!! Apparently they are really common in California, so I was kind of excited to get to talk with them a little about what they believe.  Everyone was really surprised that I had never met one before ha-ha.  That's one of my favorite parts about missionary work though, being able to talk to so many different people and learn about all kinds of different beliefs.  It's really cool!

-Each week we write a letter to the mission president talking about what we did this week and what we have been studying, so I am going to send that to you so that you can know what I'm up to! :)

Afterward from Erin's Mom- She asked us not to include any information about people she is teaching because she doesn't want them to come across themselves on the internet, so we won't be sharing those things in the blog. That's what was in the letter to the mission president.

Learning More Myself

Hello Family!!

 Thanks for all the letters, getting mail is really exciting ha ha, I can't explain it. I love hearing about what is going on there! Emails are great and I love reading them :) Just keep me updated!

One thing: I want to send you guys photos but I need the camera cable to be able to do that, so if you could send that it would be great :) I have the black Sony cyber-shot. If we don't have a cable for it I can just send you guys the SD card. And I'm alright on cardigans right now, there is a mall nearby so if there is anything I need I can probably buy it. Thank you!

This week has been interesting! We met a lot of interesting people and talked to a lot of people of different faiths. One of the cool things about being a missionary is that you get to learn a lot about what other people believe! It's been really interesting :) we are hoping that we can get the members more involved at church with befriending people that we visit. Mom, did you watch the broadcast by any chance? Missionary work is changing! Its crazy, they are going to be on the internet so much more. Much less knocking hopefully!!! Being a missionary is really hard, but the blessings SERIOUSLY outweigh the sacrifices :)

 Some interesting things that happened:

-We have been doing A LOT of knocking. Like a lot.

-A woman that we were doing service for gave me a TEMPLE DRESS!!! We were helping her move and she had just bought a new one so she gave me me one that she didn't really use. It was so nice of her!!

-We met a guy who has seen all kinds of visions.

-Sister Stoker and I try to stay focused on the work, but sometimes it is hard! So we made up a game. Whenever we see a random person walking or doing something we make up a story about how the gospel entered their life or something. It is hilarious, I highly recommend it :)

-Sister Stoker and I taught Relief Society this week! It went really well, we are trying to get the members more involved in missionary work. Our lesson was on the broadcast.

-We get to go to the temple next week!!!!! We are sooooo excited and cannot wait!!

This week we have been working hard to find new investigators. We have been knocking on doors, contacting people on the streets and asking for referrals.

 

This week we met with the seven different families and individuals. We taught them about modern day prophets, the plan of salvation, another the restoration, one family committed to read the Book of Mormon, we referred one girl to the young single adult ward and she is meeting with the Elders.  Some visits go better than others but all in all we are excited to be teaching the gospel to these wonderful and interesting people.

Learning More Myself 

I have been learning a lot this week about how the lessons should be taught and how to try and bring the investigators attention back to what we are trying to focus on. Sister Stoker has been extremely patient with me as I make mistakes and learn from them. I am trying to remember everything that I learn and the people that I meet but it's kind of hard to. I have been forgetting a lot of little things lately, but I'm sure that is just how being a new missionary is. You are having a lot of information thrown at you.

This week I have been studying a lot about recognizing the spirit and the Light of Christ. The Light of Christ was something that I had heard of before but never knew exactly what it was and learning about it has been so interesting. It is the desire to learn and do good because of Jesus Christ. Since I have been learning about it I have been trying to notice the Light of Christ or that desire to know when we start to teach people about Jesus Christ and his gospel. I have loved learning more about it.

 I thought that I knew a lot about the gospel before I came out on my mission but there is so much I didn't know and can learn! I am constantly learning. It has been exciting learning new things and receiving revelation about this gospel through scripture study and prayer. The more that I learn and study the more I realize just how perfect this gospel is and how much it can bless the lives of the people that accept it. It just motivates me more to share what I know. I am so grateful for this gospel and the Book of Mormon, everything that I study just builds my testimony stronger and stronger. 

This next week should be a great one, I am excited to see how our lessons go and who we meet! 

I love you guys so much!!

-Sister Cusick