Thursday, August 27, 2009

Lark 8/25/09 We will be blessed

Dear Family,
First off, I need to address some things that I neglected recently, and for that I´m truely sorry,HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARRY!!!!!!! It´s your big day!! Your 20! I can´t even beleive that you´re that old.... but then again, I can´t believe I´m this old either! I hope you enjoy your birthday every minute you can and don´t think that I forgot about you!Happy ANIVERSERY!! MOM and DAD!! .... last week. I remembered before I wrote and I remembered after I wrote... I failed in remembering WHILE I wrote. But I´m SO glad you are married and sealed in the temple. I´m so grateful for you bot has my parents and your patience and support for me. You both always support and trust me, and I´m so grateful for that. But most of all, that you taught me in the gospel and that not only I am a member og the church, but that my family is aswell. Thanks. I love you TONS!!!!And I know there are other things too... birthdays of brother in laws, wedding anaverseries, and probably other things that I don´t know or remember, but felizes for todos!So school stared yesterday... craziness! How is it? Even Spring is taking classes at CSI? Rockhard must be very lonely.. poor kid. But good for Spring. Those classes are a lot of fun. I remembertaking weight training and ceramics. I thought about taking a Jazz dance class at BYUI... but it never happened. Good luck. I never was any good in my modern dance class. I can do ballroom and swing and latin, and I can try really hard just about any dance with a partner... but those solo dances I´m a reck at. I have no grace or flexability. So, I was thinking this week about something a companion of mine in the MTC told me. Her family does monthly news letters. Every member of the family writes a letter and tells what´s going on at the time nad such, including the young ones, bueno, not EVERY MEMBER, but every sibling writes for their family and life. Then they send one to everyone else. The rule is to hae it writen by the 1st of the month....or something like that. That way the fmaily all knows the latest on each other and no one´s left in the dark. The family is also a lot closer that way. I really like that idea. We could do it by email. We could keep up with each other a whole lot better. I know before my mission, I wasn´t good at all keeping in touch with everyone. I remember it was a year that Crystal and I never talked to each other because I neer thought to call her. a year is a LONG TIME! Any way, it´s just an idea. I personaly think it would be really good to do.Mom, I can´t really think of anything right now that I need. I don´t need measuring cups anymore, but the stamps I still do. I have a few left... but there´re not going to last very long. When you do send me a package, just make sure to send LOTS and LOTS of photos! Thanks for trying so hard to do that.It´s that time in my letter to talk about my area.... my golden area! Portezuelo! That´s now Portezuelo ...2... I think. One of the hermanas wanted ot split the area last week, so she talked to us about it and called presidnet. We had a meeting yesterday with our Zone leader, and the decision was made. Of the four of us, one wanted to split... the rest no, and the area was split. We can still continue to teach what ever investigators we have no mattter what part they are in until they get baptised or stop progressing. I´ll be completely honest, I don´t like it, I feel sad every time we talk about it... even before the split. I don´t see the benifit in it. It was really hard to split it becasue there´s really only one part that´s really good. The others are extremely rich, city central with stores, or dangerous. The way we split is was the only way it could be split.... but I don´t see any benefit in it. After Prsednet aproved the split, the choise was what companionship would be in what part. We already knew that both wanted the same one... but I chose the one we have be two reasons. 1, I wanted to avoid conflict. We´re all four here in this area because we´ve been called to be here at this time together. I don´t want to fight and I don´t want a seperation within us. We live together and have lunch together everyday.... I don´t want tention. and 2. something told me to chose this one. a small feeling. So our area is still huge. It´s still city central, it´s the rich and dangerous part of the area. But I´m going to work hard. I´m going to do my best. Right now we don´t have any investigators progressing, we don´t have any with with baptismal dates, nor really any close at all. We have some people we´re excited about if we can find them and help them progress! I know in this area I´m probably going to work the hardest than in my whole mission, but I´m going to do it and I know the Lord with bless us with investigators. I was talking to my comp last night to see what more we need to do. We´re being obedient. We´re waking up on time, we´re exercising, we´re studying, we´re working hard all day long, we´re talking to hundreds of people every week, we´re completeing our goals. We were sick last week and lost almost 2 days of work for everything...in cluding the dentist, but we still completed our goals.... mostly. Last week I felt that we weren´t working good as a companionsips. I´ll be honest, I didn´t hink that highly of my comp and I was guilty. One night while walking we had our comp inventory and a lot came out. Things are a lot better now. I´m actually thinking of her more as a friends than before. We´re working a lot better together too. So, over all, we´re doing our best and I don´t feel that there´s something I´m doing wrong. I still can always improve and work on more stuff that I´m trying to, but I know for our hard work and diligence, the Lord will bless us and help us. We´re going to see baptisms this transfer!! I just know it! I was reading a talk last week from General Conference by Barbra Thompson His Arm is Sufficient. I was thinking about that song, the Time is Far Spent, and it´s true... especially verse 4, Satan is working so hard. We were walking the other night, we were trying to contact a reference that we received for some one in a hospital. We found the hospital... walked to the door.... then when we got to the ramp to enter, I stopped dead. I did not want to go in. I don´t know if it was because I had just been in another hospital the day before and had the feeling of deaht and filth that I didn´t want to enter another one, but I really did not want to go in. It didn´t feel right. I asked my comp, and she said that we probably shouldn´t. We went back the next morning with a member adn it was amazing the difference in the feeling. It was so extremely different! We found out when we tried to contact the reference that it isn´t a normal health hospital, but a hospital for crazies and adictives. Not only that, but they can just come and go as they please, they come be out wondering the streets and whatever, pretty much the hospital gives them a place to sleep and get food. I couldn´t beleive it. What if we had entered the night before, what would have happened? What would we have found? I don´t want to know. I´m just to thankfull for the guidence of the Spirit who protects and guides us. Many times I don´t feel that I have the Spirit. I feel so far from it that that I´m not being guided by it like I should. That I´m noit seeking it like I should. But in moments like that, I know He really is close to us. Even when We don´t feel that He is. `His Arm is Sufficent´ Satan is real.... and trying really hard in these the last days and I felt that really strong the other day. Stay close to the Spirit. What ever you all do in your days and work, in school, with friends and family, stay close to the Spirit. We don´t have much more time to wait for the coming of our Lord... not much more time to prepare.
I love you all dearly and pray for you frequently.Love Hermana Waters

up date on Lark

I thought some people might be interested in what Lark is doing in Argentina, if you want I can post her letter each week just let me know. Sorry it made for a pretty long post, Hope you enjoy!
This is the one we got this week and last week.

8/18/09
Deasr Family.
Thanks for your letters! This week has been an interesting one and I was glad t ohear from you all! So I have a funny for you all . One day there were two missionaries walking down the street headed to an appoi ntment. There wasn´t any people around to contact and they were done wit htheir doors. So one of the missionaries had gum in her bag... and as you know it´s against the rule for missionaries to chew gum. But this missionary said that there wasn ´t any people around, she wasn´t going to talk to people and c hew rudely around them, so she put the gum in her mouth.... and within 5 seconds with the gum...her cavity filling fell out. It´s pretty funny what´ll happen when we´re not obedient...even in the samllest unimportant way no? So for the next p.day, the missionaries had to go to the Argentine dentist and it´ll cost 320 pesos to fix it. I´m glad it wasn´t me! That´s a lot to pay for disobedience. the Funniest part is, this missionary is deathly scared of the denrist and will actually be going home, ending her mission in 5 weeks. So close to being done and going to her own dentist.Wow, I´m excited for the new shake out in Idaho Falls, maybe I´ll have some where to work a few hours a week when I g oback to school...?! And what are some of your ideas for the place if you go for the biggest one? Sounds like you could have a lot of fun with it all. Hitt and Sunnyside is on the side of tow nclosest t oRexburg. :) We don´t have to rule not to eat with members.... or any rule about the food... only not to drink the water. But the food´s not bad really. I like just about it all. As for sharing with the other hermanas, it´s pretty interesting. They have their investigators and we have ours. we haven ´t split it at all, and I don ´t know if we ever will. when we get references, it´s who ever takes the references follows it. We have almost all our meals together. It´s almost as if I forget at times that we share the area ... until we run into some one contacting that has already talked to the missionaries today or last week or are already having the lessons... the n it´s funny. I´m not sure weither I like sharing an area or not, and I´m trying not to make up my mind. If it turns out I don´t like it than I´ll have a bad aditude about sharing areas from here on out. So I´m thinking I´like it! Which is a good think because there´s 3 hermana areas in the mission that are being shared... that I know of, there might be more. that´s 6 or more hermanas.... it´s a pretty good chance I´ll share again somtime in the mission. The Sabbath day is actually a big thing here.... meaning it´s a big problem. Since members don´t have food storage and they go buy the food for the day morning and night, they don´t think far enough ahead to plan Saturday to shop for sunday, so MANY MANY times the members are shopping on sunday. I haven´t figured out how to help them understand that Sunday is a special day and you treat it differently. Many times I see the memb ers shopping for our meals on sundays. Actually, I have a funny story teaching the sabbath day . Sunday we were walking through a park contacting... and it was some kind of a carnival or something... it happens every weekend I guess. One guy was walking towards us and I contacted him. I asked him what day it was and he said something about día de niños.... but that was really last week. So we stared talked about the sabbath day and taught a lesson. I was being daring and after we had taught that we should go to church, we asked what he was going to d onext sunday. He said go to church, So I said, yes, he´s going t og ot ochurch with us, feel the spirit, learn lots, and walk away with an appointment with us for the next lesson...then my comp said and he´ll be baqptised. So I took the opportunity and set the baptismal date for his goal. He said he would be baptised when he knows that it´s true. So we have an appointment with him tonight t oteach him again adn hopfully he´ll progress. We really don´t have anyone progressing. We worked really hard last week and all our numbers are really high....except investigators in church and investigators progressing. I ´m really sad about that , but they have their agency that they can choose how to use it. We j ust do all we can to help them and pray that they´ll use that agencey in the right way. Family, I want my letters to be uplifting and encouraging, I don´t know how well I´m doing with that, I´m not sharing any scriptures or any thing I´m really learning. But I know as I testify everyday that this is the sacred work of the Lord. Everything we do in this church is for the worth of souls and is so important. I never knew before my mission how important the Apostacy was, it was a huge thing that I never thought about. That there is only one God adn He is a jealous God, and when people worship other things, He is very sad. People here think they are so close to God because the y worship idols and virgens....dolls really. Mary was an amazing women, choise about all women in the wolrd... but she can´t do anyhtign for our salvation. She knew who her God was and who her son was. She prayed to her God in the name of her son... not to herself. I´m pretty sure she doesn´t like it how people worship her instead of God or her son Christ. It makes me so sad to see how the people worship her and act with their virgens and saints....dolls. I´m so grateful for the knowledge I have. I´m so grateful that I´m a member of the church. I know this is true and I hope I never part from it.
With my love to my family, thanks for e erything, Love Hermana Waters

Monday, August 17, 2009

This is Awesome!!!

This hits close to home, where I have family on both sides that have seen the hardship of the economy on small buisnesses and I can't help out much, but I am willing to do what I can.
Scentsy a little while ago did THIS in Boise. Heidi and Orville Thompson are so giving and generous. So Scentsy wants to encourage everyone to give back to their community and let's help each other out. See the following link to check out Scentsy Contribute 2009 and make your pladge today. This is so AWESOME!!! Make your pledge today.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Great Grandma & Grandpa Ellis

Grandma & Grnadpa and Cory and Joanna came down this weekend, and Coby got ordained an Elder. Awesome. It was good to visit with them for a while! We also got a picture of all the grandkids minus V. We will have to photoshop her in. :)



Sunday, August 2, 2009

Visitors

We've had 3 nieces and nephews visit us in the last 2 weeks. Thought I'd post a picture of the cute kids they brought :) Sorry Ashley---you weren't here long enough that we got pictures of your kids....but it was really fun to see you guys! Mark and Aki stayed on the 23rd, Ashley on the 27th, and Dustin and Darcie on the 31st and 1st. Who's next???

When Lexie and Linzie came over for the evening,I asked Lexie during dinner if she missed us a ton since moving to Washington. She sat there for a minute and said..."um..not really". We have laughed over that lots this past week. Linzie didn't even seem to remember us at all...sad.

Ella and Kaylee


Leilani and Shawnee

I guess I did get one picture of a mom and dad...usually it's all about the kids :) Here's Dustin and Darcie. It was fun to see them since we missed them at the reunion.



Even though this isn't a great picture of Jaycee and Ella---I thought I'd better get one of her on here too. She's the one that absolutely loves the babies and carts them around the whole house and plays with them. She's going to be a great little babysitter in a few years.