My NEW Area!

HEY EVERYONE!!! Read below to find out where I was transferred to!

Btw, sorry this is a day late...libraries were closed yesterday for memorial day!

Last Monday - last pday with my district!  Had a great dinner at the Gestewitz's and a great lesson / goodbye with them and the Joyce's. The Joyce's ended up giving me a beautiful necklace as a goodbye gift! super sweet!

Tuesday - I went around saying goodbye to everyone. I'm surprised I didn't cry. Everyone had really sweet things to say! The elders called before bed to wish me a farewell and had really nice things to say.

Wednesday - TRANSFER DAY! On the way to transfers (Newtons took us - who also gave me a beautiful wolf necklace and some pretty jewelry and a small mumbo bear) I felt SUPER nervous to find out where I was going and who my new compnanion was going to be! Excited, but super nervous! I didn't know what to think! I knew I would REALLY miss Sis. Blau!

When we got to the transfer meeting, I got to see Sis. Gifford! That was awesome! During the meeting, to my surprise, there wasn't a musical number. During the departing missionaries' testimonies, I got really teary eyed, as I knew how much I was REALLY going to miss Sis. Blau! Sis. Blau ended up getting Sis. Mulloy (Sis. Wheelhouse's daughter). Good luck Sis. Blau! Keep me updated! love you!!! Send me pictures!  Then it came time for me. Pres. Griffin called my name and I stood up; and I guess my emotions were showing on my face (have never really been transferred before) 'cause Pres was like, "Don't look so nervous!" haha!

DRUM ROLE PLEASE!!!

ATHENS NORTH, TN! The apt is actually in Madisonville, TN, but yeah!

Here's my new address: 710 N. Tellico st. #3 Madisonville, TN 37354​
What's funny is this is where Sis. Wheelhouse was trained! With SISTER VERDEJO! She was believe it or not in Sis. Blau's MTC district in the MTC! We were talking before the meeting even started! I even asked Sis. Blau what her name was! CRAZY! We sat next to each other and she was just trained, so I'll be trainer breaking her. She's 19, 1/32 Mexican (but doesn't know Spanish), super sweet and super beautiful!

After many pictures, hugs, and goodbyes we headed out to lunch with the Elders that were in our ward (Houghton and Shaw), Halie (Recent Convert - 3 months - also our ride), Trisha (RC) and Bro. Ward (who treated us all to lunch). It was a grand o'l time! loved it!

When we got to the apt we unloaded all my crazy / heavy stuff (I lifted some stuff I prob shouldn't have) then went straight to planning for our LA friend, Ellain. Halie was going with us! It went great! Super sweet lady!

Afterwards we went and met a woman named Krystal. She's in her 40's. Halie really connected with her! Was wonderful!

After Krystal  on our way home, we saw fireflies in a field. Halie was awesome enough to stop! We got out and tried to catch them in our water bottles! Sis. Verdejo is already AWESOME! I eventually caught one in my hands, but as I was trying to put it in my bottle, it got away!To watch the video, go to:

They are SO cool! I have never seen them before! If I don't help anyone here, at least I saw fireflies (they call them Lightnin' bugs here) JK! ....but seriously, they're awesome! They're like shooting stars in the fields!

Thurs - WEEKLY PLANNING! WHOOOO! It's really hard to help when you don't know ANYONE! haha! There's some really weird / different / fun names here! E.i - Bro. Ward, Sis. Moses, etc. LOTS of potentials! two with Baptismal dates! awesome!!!

We have seen a lot of awesome people the beginning of this transfer! Everyone here is super sweet! We've had the opportunity to get some new potentials and investigators!

Sunday finally rolled around  and I got to meet so many great members! It's a little backwards. Relief society is the first meeting, then Sunday School, then sacrament meeting. And guess what?! I GAVE A TALK! Yes I did! They asked me to introduce myself and then give a talk...FOR 20 MIN!!! That's the longest I've EVER done one! Read my other email to read what I talked about! I added more stuff when I actually gave the talk...but the email I sent is the gist of it. Everyone in the ward LOVES how I'm from the east / south coast! It's awesome! Had a great lesson with Tiffany and her member fiance, Mike on tithing!

Monday - my first pday here in TN! Was amazing! Went to a park with the elders THAT ARE IN MY WARD! (two sets of missionaries!) and with Mike and Tiffany. We hiked a small trail (mile long) and ate subway, then got treats at sonic. Happy Memorial Day! I absolutely LOVE it here!!! I do miss Sis. Blau SO much....and Abingdon...(it was like leaving my home ward)...but I do love it here! I can't wait to get to truly know everyone. Had a great lesson at Leanne's house (one with Baptism date) and she committed to live the W.O.W (word of wisdom) and chastity! whoop whoop!

Alright...well, there's my big news! Again, my address is always in my signature below in every email, but here it is again for ya: 710 N. Tellico st. #3 madisonville, TN 37354​

Thanks again love you all!!!

 Love,

Sista T.

710 N. Tellico st #3

Madisonville, TN 37354

Sister Gifford and photo bombers

Last P-Day with district

Lunch after transfers

Sister Verdejo and Me on trail

Sister Carter's Dogs and Me

Sister Verdejo Sister Me and Sister Blau

Sister Malloy Sister Blau and Me

Day of Transfers

My Grandpa's Message GMM-Get More Mormons!

Sister Verdejo Elder Shaw and Elder Houghton

       

May the 4th Be With You! 5-4-2015

May the 4th be with you! It's deff been a better week! On Monday - Happy birthday Papa Don! 

Tuesday We visited the Delps. That was fun. We tried Compton and talked with her and helped her with some organizing. At Lina and Juans we watched Pres Uchtdorf's GC talk then read out of the BOM. 

Wednesday - We talked with Terry - Patrick wasn't there and she said that they weren't going to change religions, but they love having us over any time. They also haven't read any of the BOM yet either. We told her to give us a call when they have read it. And guess what? SHE SAID THE PRAYER! And in the prayer she said that if HF told her they needed to change she would! EEEEPPPP oh man...I wish we knew how to get Patrick in the same mindset she has. 

Shawn Phelps called and said he's cut way down on smoking!!! HE really wants his temple recommend back! I'm SO happy! He also said his friend Allison wants to take the discussions! 

Thursday - Had an appt every hour!! first was weekly planning, then lunch, then Juan Diaz, then the Salyers, then Allison then James Gobble, then so on. When we went to Shawn's house for Allison we were showed her three week old baby. After talking for a bit we started the lesson on the POS. We figured it would be good since she just had a baby. Shawn said a nice prayer then we begun. WE started with Christ and the atonement. We then talked about the pre earth life, and then about the Holy Ghost. She didn't really understand what the HG was. Once we explained it to her, you could see a light turn on in her eyes. We didn't finish the POS lesson - but we talked about what she needed. Guess what?! SHE SAID SHE'D COME TO CHURCH AAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNDDDDDD...... as she was talking, Sis Blau half looked at me and did the sign for baptism! I nodded with a good big smile. When Sis. Blau extended the invitation....SHE AGREED! SHE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED! Blau and I did everything we could not to bounce in our seats and scream! So EXCITED! What a BLESSING! I KNEW there was a miracle around the corner from all that crazy week last week! When we got in the car to leave, as soon as the doors shut, we screamed and danced! 

Friday  - FIRST OF MAY! Can't believe it! we met a LA that wants to come back! 

Saturday - got some AMAZING news from a friend! She's taking the discussions with the missionaries!!! AAHHHH!

Sunday - ALLISON CAME TO CHURCH!!!! 

I have gained so much patience and so much love on my mission already. In the 6 1/2 months I've been back on my mission I feel I have grown a lot! I feel like a much better teacher, more mature, more confident. Yes, I still struggle with certain aspects, but I'm 10 times stronger! 

This has been an amazing week! I have about 2 1/2 weeks left in this area more than likely - at the end of this transfer I will have been in Abingdon for 7 months...wayyyy lot longer than anyone usually is. 6 is long. haha. So if you're planning on mailing me something, send it to 11320 station west drive suite 101 Farragut, TN 37934-1774 and it'll get to me wherever I am. 

Love ya!

Love,

Sista T.

Sister Blau, Scarlette and me

Sister Blau and me

District Meeting at Chesters

Sister Blau, Grace and me

Elder Wadsworth and Smith, Sister Blau and Sister Me

Oh, Whatta Week! 4-27-2015

So....last Tuesday on our pday we went and played disc golf. I remembered I needed to text sis griffin about the tests at the doc, so I texted her when we got to the park then pt the phone IN  MY POCKET! We pulled names for teams then had a really fun game! We went back to the church when the game was all over. We rechecked our emails then headed home. On the way home, I realized the phone was GONE! That was the BEGINNING of the phone catastrophe! The Marion Elders told the Dl hoping he could search his car and the church for us. 

When we got home we raced off to the Burlett's for dinner. We were going to teach Terry and Patrick that evening and even though we had a very detailed plan, we felt very unprepared. Thankfully, Brother Gestewitz was there. The lesson went alright. Terry is the only one that is truly open. Patrick's heart is hardened. WE don't know what to do next with them. 

After the lesson we called the DL from Bev's phone to see if they had found it. No luck. Not in church OR car. Maybe the disc golf field? We went to bed exhausted and stressed.

On Wednesday we went and had a blast at Feeding America, came home, had some lunch then went to the DL's apt. They took us to the disc golf field. WE searched for a few hours. No luck. No one had turned it in either. What was weird, was that I felt perfectly calm about the whole situation. As we're driving to the church to look again, Elder Dillard has me call Elder Collins in the mission office to let him know about our phone. I did and he told me to exhaust all the places one more time, then call him back the next day if we still couldn't find it. When we got to the church,  the Elders researched their car as we re searched the church. No luck.  At 5:30 we had dinner at Olive Garden with Kat and Dan & Kat. They are so awesome! 7pm we taught the YW how to make mormon.org profiles. I practiced the piano a little bit for Nikki's wedding before we went home and searched everywhere there for our phone. 

It was really hard to do our weekly planning on Thursday without a phone. You never know how much you need / use something until you lose it :p We drove ourselves afterwards to the disc golf course. Our GPS died so we had to use mapquest. I have one GPS that I was sent that leads you astray and is old and doesn't know how to work haha and then there's the one I got from the elders that was doing GREAT...and then decided to die and not recharge....ohz wellz. We searched as much as we could when we got there - I tried to recognize the Holy Ghost telling me where it was - no luck. Why? I don't know - but I did feel at peace still. We weren't able to find it by the time we left. WE ate at Bev's for dinner with Hunter. We used her phone whenever we needed to contact someone. WE called Elder Collins and he ordered us a new phone. At 6:15 Bro and Sis Gestewitz picked us up at our apt to take us to the Kingsport Stk Center for exchanges. On the way there, Bro. G told us about hte visit he and bro Salyers had with the Williams Wed evening. Hopefully things will work out. They talked for two hours straight. They went over the questions they had and explained how they shouldn't look to google for answers to their questions. Mormon.org and LDS.org are the places to look online. 

When we got to Kingsport I went with Sis. Smith and their Greenie, Sis. O'mera. Sis. Lundberg went to Abingdon with Sis. Blau. 45 min drive both ways. We went straight to a LA's house and talked with her. When we went to bed that night, I was VERY grateful neither of them snored! 

Friday the 24th at 9:30 we left to sing at the VA with the ZL's, Watauga Elders and Johnson City Sisters. It turns out the Elder I met at the temple is the Watauga Elder, Elder Johns. Was cool! I looked at him after he said he was from FL, "Did you go to the Orlando Temple?" He agreed he did for his endownments. I then asked if he met a girl there that was coming to this mission. He agreed he did. I told him I was that girl. He was surprised, "Well hello there!" he tuck out his hand and I shook it. SMALL WORLD! After singing there we went and visited some people, went home and had some lunch, went out again, met some really nice people - then went back and had dinner. 

So, I was thinking about why HF wouldn't allow us to find the phone. There was a lesson in there I believe. BOTH Sis. Blau and I were prompted during the Disc Golf game to check the phone - but did either one of us listen? Nope! Maybe next time we'll be smart enough to pay attention, listen and act! We exchanged back in the evening and went and saw Catherine Miller. 

That's pretty much the exciting stuff! Hope everything is going well!!! Keep me updated with pics! LOVE YA! 

pics - disc golf and car fun! 

Love,

Sista T.

helives.mormon.org - Easter Message

P-Day Fun Frisbee Golf