Letter #45

Sent:	Mon 1/13/14 12:44 PM

Hello!

I'm glad you liked the poem I sent! And I'm super glad you received the letter at Aunt Kathie's house!! I thought I was being pretty clever ;) The poem truly does express exactly how I feel as a missionary though. And it's true what Sarah said about how you can't really explain or put into words your mission experience. I'm glad that little Josh was able to read it before he left for the MTC. I still can't believe he's going that soon! So Crazy! Anyway, it looks and sounds like you and Chels had a great time in Salt Lake. That gymnastics competition looks like it was a blast! How was the seminar? OH!!! And is Stacie pregnant again?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! That is SUPER exciting!!!! If she is, when is her due date?? It better be after I get home! Lol! And do you happen to have Sarah's e-mail address? How is she doing? 3 jobs? Crazy lady!

This week was a pretty good one for me as well! We had interviews with President and Sister Young and I just love them so so much! President asked me how I feel about training again so I have a feeling that's might what happen this next transfer. He also said some other really great things about the future that made my heart really really happy!! :D It seems like the weeks keep flying by faster and faster. A lot of our appointments fell through but the incredible lessons that we were able to have with our progressing investigators, made up for those that didn't happen. We met with Holly again and she is honestly the most prepared investigator I have ever met! We taught her about the Word of Wisdom, and she was very accepting of everything and has set a goal date to stop smoking by the 25th!!!! She is seriously SOO golden and SOO excited for her baptism! We also met with Dan again and he was so excited about all the things that he found while studying the Book of Mormon and the pamphlet that we left him. I'm pretty sure he said "I'm getting goosebumps" like 30 times! He is just AWESOME! Another lesson we had was with a Recent Convert. She's 13 and during her lesson she stopped us and started telling us all about the drama going on at school and her little crush on a boy... It made me super grateful that I'm not in High School anymore. Haha! Last night we had a few minutes until our dinner appointment so we decided to stop by one of our Potential Investigators that we found while tracting a while ago to tell her about a class that we are having at the church. We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and the Spirit hit so strong. She totally broke down in tears and thanked us for coming into her life and that this is what she really needs right now. It's moments like these that really build my testimony that Heavenly Father truly does place us in certain situations and places at just the right time. I love this gospel more than anything else and I feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to share it with everyone I come in contact with each day. I honestly don't know where or who I'd be if it weren't for this gospel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that He is there for us no matter what. He wants us to come to Him and partake of the peace and happiness that only He can offer. I love him so much and I love the person that I am becoming because of Him.

I hope that you have a wonderful wonderful week! You are the BEST!

I LOVE YOU!!

Love,

Lynds :)

P.S. TODAY IS MY 11 MONTH MARK!!! Crazy stuff!

P.S.S. Does it seem to be going by fast or slow at home?

 

View From My Back Door

The Coast

 

 

Letter #44

Sent: Mon 1/06/14 12:28 PM

Happy New Year!! I hope that it was great! :)

I definitely had a good one! New Years Eve, Sister Opheim and I got some games from a member and we were allowed to play them, so that was fun! Then on New Years Day we went to Coos Bay to  watch a movie and play sports with our Zone!! It was such a blast! We played volleyball, dodgeball, and gatorball! It was a great time and it seemed like our whole zone was able to get to know each other better. I also went on Exchanges this week to Bandon. It's right on the Coast and GUESS WHAT?!?!?!? I almost died! Not really, but I most definitely almost threw up! We went to a members home for dinner that night and they fed us FISH :/ I have been super lucky my whole mission so far in people not feeding me seafood up until Friday night. I of course ate it and pretended to like it, but it may have possibly been the hardest thing I've ever done. Haha! Pathetic, I know but you know me and my feelings about seafood. I was literally dry heaving... It was NOT okay. And my companion for the day knows I don't like seafood and she was the one dishing up the food, she looked at me and was trying so hard not to get any of the fish on my plate.. the member then said, be sure to give her lots! She was watching Sister Miller the whole time and when she didn't give me very much the member was like, "here let me do it". It. Was. Horrible. But other than that, it was a good week! We met with Janet again (she's the one from Ghana!) And she is so ready to be baptized! We almost set a date with her, we are just waiting to see what her husbands schedule is. We are so so excited for her! She's been waiting for quite some time to get baptized so we feel super blessed to be the ones to help her on her journey. One thing that i've seen lately that has been a struggle for me is when some of our investigators know that the gospel is true but their family or spouse doesn't want anything to do with it. We have these really wonderful, great, and spiritual lessons and then the family throws a whole bunch of anti-mormon stuff at them. They are doing good at ignoring the anti stuff but it seems that they are very intimidated by their family. It just breaks my heart because you can see in their face that they want this so bad. Sometimes it's hard being a missionary because you love and care for these people so much and you want so badly for them to know of the peace and happiness that come from this wonderful gospel and then the world gets in the way. But we never lose hope :) On the bright side, we may be planning a wedding soon! Our investigator that has a date attended a baptism on Saturday and it made her even more stoked to get baptized! She's already engaged, they just need to seal the deal and get married :) She is seriously so great! She called yesterday and asked if she was allowed to feed us dinner, she thought she had to be baptized first. And her baby is so stinkin' adorable. He kept laughing all during church yesterday :)

You asked why we can't hold babies and it's just one of the rules in the missionary handbook. Something about legal complexities- I don't know exactly.  Also, LA mean Less Active. I am planning on writing a letter to you today cause we have some time to do that (weird, I know) so I will answer more of your questions in my letter home. I hope you know how much I love an appreciate all that you do for me and for your constant love and support. I feel so blessed to have you as my mom and don't know what i'd do without you. I hope that you have an incredible week!
Love Ya!

Love, Lynds

P.S. Thank you so much for taking care of Petey!

 

 

Letter #43

Sent:

Tue 12/31/13 11:52 AM

Hi mom!
So this past week was pretty great! Christmas is much different on a mission but I absolutely LOVED it!
It was also really great to see you and the rest of the family on skype! And HOLY CANOLY!!! Carter and Roman are SO big!!! I can't believe how fast they've grown and how much they are talking! It's just nuts! Anyway, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you'll all have a great New Year as well! I still can't get over the fact that tomorrow is 2014 and I come home in 8 months... So, last night a member took us out to this place in Charleston called Shore Acres. It's a Botanical Garden that they decorated with over 400,000 lights! It was incredible! Almost as cool as Temple Square but not quite :) I will have to send pictures!
Oh! So there's this little part member family in our ward who's from Guana and we just started teaching his wife last week! They have the cutest little girl and they have one on the way! We are super excited to be teaching her and she already said that she would be baptized! We also set a baptismal date with Holly! She is such a great girl and her baby is so stinkin' cute! He's so chubby and has the biggest brown eyes! There are like 4 other ladies in the ward who just had babies or they are due soon and I am dying not being able to hold them!!!        It seriously is the worst!  Anyway, I think I got you all up to date on everyone that we are teaching last time. There are tons of great potential here in Coquille and I feel like it's about to explode! Also the 4 of us missionaries in the ward have this awesome idea about starting a branch in Powers!!  We called President Young and told him our thoughts and hopefully we will be able to get that up and going. We have lots of LA member out there and it's about an hour drive to our chapel here so I think that if they had a chapel to go to that was closer they would probably become active. The only thing that we're struggling with in starting a branch is not having enough priesthood holders out there. We have the faith and determination though to get this little branch up and going so prayers would be greatly appreciated! :) Thank you again SO SO much for all of the gifts! I loved every single one of them!! And thank you for all that you do for me. You honestly have no idea how much it truly means. I love you so much and hope you have a great week!!!

I Love You!
Love,

Lyndsie :)     

          "Holy Canoly! lol  Lyndsie, your couch looks like our old couch, the one we had in LaVerkin..."

 "Haha I know! It's so weird! Another reason it was like I was at home for Christmas!"


A gift from the Twelve Days of Christmas! 



Another one of the 12 days...



And another!

 

 




Letter #42

Sent:

Tue 12/24/13 11:58 AM

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

 
I cannot even believe that it's Christmas time already!!!!! It's absolutely crazy how time is flying by. This past week was pretty great! We were able to meet with lots of our investigators and we had great lessons with all of them! We got a couple on date for the 25th of January so we are super stoked for that! They have had a rough life and it's such an amazing thing to see them progress in the gospel and the way they are changing their lives. I just love it so much! Also, Holly, one of our newer investigators came to church!! She's the one with the cute little 4 month old baby! She's engaged but her Fiancé hasn't seemed all that interested. She told us that he was a foster child growing up and was always forced to go to different churches so he's never wanted anything to do with religion at all BUT on Sunday she told us that her Fiance told her that he wanted to maybe come with her sometime. She said it was a total shock to her and that he may even start sitting in on the lessons!!!!!! OH! And Blue is no longer drinking!!!!! There have been so many miracles this past week that I can't even count them! It is so incredible to see how the Lord is working and how he is softening their hearts. We've also been meeting with a man named Dan. He is so awesome! He told us that he read the Restoration pamphlet that we left him over and over and when we went back he said he agrees with and believes everything!! There have been instances that have happened like that with 2 other people as well.
There are seriously so many miracles and tender mercies that Heavenly Father has placed in my life and I am so grateful for each one of them :)  I am also grateful for this time of year that I have to share about Christ's birth and his life. I love that as missionaries we don't have any of the worldy things to worry about, just the most important thing.. which is Christ. If it weren't for Him we wouldn't have this wonderful Holiday Season to enjoy. I love sharing with people all about Him and all that He has done for us. I can honestly see the change that it's making in me :)
We also went over to Sister Hatch and Sister Herrington's home the other night for a little "party" Haha! They are the ones we're related to. They wanted to have us over for dinner and watch a Christmas film (don't worry, it was church approved) and to get to know us better! They are less active but still have such strong testimonies of the gospel. It was such a fun night and they have the most beautiful Christmas tree EVER! They also gave each of us a gift and we took pictures. Maybe she will send it to you... So we found out how we are related. Sister Herrington's mom is Pearl Vilate Tobler! Crazy, huh??? Anyway, I hope you all have the best Holiday! I cannot wait to see all of you and see how big Carter and Roman have gotten! I will hopefully be able to call tonight really fast to let you know what time. Plus I need Dad's number. I really hope that I can skype with the whole family! OH!!!!!! One last thing!! Last night we went out to Bandon which is on the Coast and had a Christmas Family Home Evening with President and Sister Young and their whole family!!! It was SOOO great!! It was such a good time and the spirit that was there was so sweet! I JUST LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!! See you tomorrow!!!! I love you!!

Love,

Lynds :)

P.S. Thank you so so so so so so so so so much for the Christmas packages!!! The 12 Days of Christmas with the Scriptures has been so much fun! You and Chels are quite clever I have to say! Thank you again! You don't know how much of a difference you have made! I love you!



 

P.S. This is for Trevor if he is reading this......................  
Merry Christmas Trevor!!!!!!! And Happy 30 months!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you and hope that you have the best Christmas yet! Enjoy the Holiday with Elder O'Neil. I just know that you two are going to have a blast being companions! I LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!!!!!! :)  

Giant Burrito at a roadside deli :)

It was GINORMOUS!!!!! Look at it compared to the size of my quad!! - Trevor would be proud! Haha! :)

It was GINORMOUS!!!!! Look at it compared to the size of my quad!!

- Trevor would be proud! Haha! :)