Week 9

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been another amazing week here at NOM.  I sure do love it here.  We had transfers this week.  You all guessed it I stayed.  I am so grateful that I have another week with Sister Belka.  She is so amazing.  I learn so much from her.  She is always doing something to serve me each and every day.  She is the most Christ like person I have ever met.  I love her.  She will be my forever friend.  I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving.  It sounds like you all got food poisoning.  Funny thing is that I was sick myself ha ha!! I was puking my guts out Friday Morning as well.  Now that is funny.  I took a Fish Oil pill without eating anything, and within 10 minutes I was in the toilet, but the worst was it smelt like raw fish.  Ah I thought that I was going to die.  So I was so sick all day, but the work never stops.  Luckily we were here at the Trail Center and it was crazy busy so I couldn't stop and think about how I wasn't feeling very good.  I am glad we were all puking together.  I had a great Thanksgiving.  We spent this first part of the day writing Thank You letters, and decorating the senior couples doors with leafs.  We then went over to a members house for dinner.  It was so delicious.  No one in her family is members and so we had a really powerful lesson with them.  It truly made me realize what Thanksgiving was all about, and how grateful I am for the gospel in my life.  It made me want for them to be able to experience that happiness that we have.  We then went home, and cooked some mashed potatoes.  We had to cook 10lbs of Potatoes.  It was quite the task, but dang were they good.  We then headed over the Trail Center and had a feast with all of the sister missionaries, the Senior Couples, and our Mission President, and Trail Center Director.  It was so much fun.  All the sisters put on a singing performance of songs that they have all wrote about the pioneers.  They are all amazing!! Your all going to die, but I totally sang a solo in my opera style.  Heavenly Father all of a sudden gave me this beautiful voice.... OKAY OKAY we all know that I can't sing AT ALL!! I am so grateful for all of their talents though.  We then got to watch the Best two Years.  It is so much funnier when you are a missionary.  I was rolling at some parts.  Oh the life of a missionary.  So that was Thanksgiving!! It was a great day! I sure missed you all, but I am so grateful for the family that I have here. I feel like I have 20 sets of Grandparents, and 26 Sisters.  It is the greatest.  Especially during the Holiday season when I miss my REAL family. 

This week started off a little rough.  I was struggling.  People say missions are the hardest thing that they ever do and this week I truly believed that.  I have been fine since I have been here, but for some reason this week was super hard.  I lost my confidence again.  I miss people loving me for me instead of who I am going to become.  It was just a rough week.  Elder Watson pulled me into his office, and told me how much he loved me, and that great missionary I was.  He told me exactly what I needed to hear.  He told me some personal experiences that he has had, and we both just sat there and cried together for over an hour.  I was so grateful for a Heavenly Father who has put people in my life for a reason.  Elder Watson then gave me a blessing.  The spirit was so powerful, and just what I needed.  It was good to be able to know that Heavenly Father was proud of me, and that he does love me.  Elder Watson is amazing.  I have learned so much from him, and will be forever grateful for all he has done for me.  He knows that I love my Diet Coke, and Diet DP.  So he always sneaks me some.  Yesterday he brought me one over to the house, and said I better keep my mouth shut haha!!  Ah I love my Caffiene, and he is the best!!! 

The Trail Center has been hopping since the Ginger bread started.  We have had so many non members come through the door.  I love it!!! I am amazed at all of the people who have come for gingerbread, and have come up stairs to get a tour.  There is one tour that I will never forget.  This couple came in to talk to Sister Lattey about their family history. She had to figure something out first so I talked them into coming on a tour.  They were both non-members, but will soon be members.  I just know it.  They were from a church called the Nazerians.  I started the tour off by just teaching them about the Restoration. He told me that he had a really hard time with knowing that there was a prophet on the earth today, and that Joseph Smith really saw God the Father and Jesus Christ.  Words were just coming out of my mouth as I told him how I was able to gain a testimony that there was a living prophet on the earth today, and the blessing it is each and every day.  I then told him that he could receive that testimony for himself that we have a living prophet on the earth.  It was so powerful.  Our tour continued.  We didn’t talk much about the pioneers instead he learned the whole first lesson.  They asked so many great questions.  At the end I was able to bear my testimony of the temple.  I was able to tell them that they could be sealed together for time and all eternity. I was able to tell them the blessings that have come into my life because of the covenants that I have made in the temple.  They truly want that, and desired to know more.  They left with a Book of Mormon, and I got all of his contact information.  He said that he knew there was something special about our church as I told him about the living prophet, and was able to bear my testimony to him of what I knew to be true.  It was so powerful.  I turned to him and told him that he didn’t come here just to find out about their family history, but to know where he could find happiness, and it is only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am so excited to start working with him. I love the Trail Center.  I love being able to give tours to people and watch them feel of the spirit for the first time.  There is nothing greater!! 

Sharon is set for Baptism on December 8th now.  We are so excited, but what is even greater is that Ramsey is going to Baptize her.  Ah I am so excited!! I wish you all could have seen his face as we told him.  He was beaming.  There family is truly converted.  They have changed, and are going to do so many amazing things in the gospel.  I love this work and am so grateful that I get to be apart of it.  There is no place that I would rather be then here!! I hope that you all had a great thanksgiving and will get better soon!! I am so sorry that you have all been sick.  Know that I love you, and pray for you always!! This Gospel is true so SHARE IT!!!

Love always, 

Sister Whitt