Email 12/29/14

Ward Christmas Party

I have loved serving with Sister Ng! she has helped us be able to communicate with people that we would have never been able to otherwise! We have a 2 potential Chinese families and one of them said that they would visit our church this Sunday!!!

We are hoping to start an english class her so that people that normally come can have exposure to our church!

I have loved serving here in Amherst and have made lasting relationships! Sister Ng has asked me so many times why I haven't asked why I have been here so so long and I say, "I don't know!" I feel like it's not really a question. Every companion, person and experience I have had I have felt like I was needed and had a purpose! :)

I can't believe time has gone by so fast! I can't believe I am going to see you all in just a matter of weeks!!!!!!! I have tried to think about my future plans like college and such but then I start to feel guilty and say this is so prideful!!!
I have loved my Mission and have become a new person! I am so excited for my future! :)

I want you guys to make sure my homecoming is filmed! I will try from my end as well but I don't know how that will work if I am pulling a ton of stuff but it might be before I get my stuff! Let's hope!

Oh, my goodness! Only 2 more emails then I will be home!!! Just so you know I am still super focussed on the work! Coming home just feels like another transfer! haha! ^^

Love you a million things to pack! and not enough time to baptize all of Amherst!!!

Love,

Sister Patterson!

Email 12/22/14

Mission Christmas Conference

I feel sooo bad! I haven't talked to you in forever!!!

I have loved your letters and and I have so much to tell you about when we Skype.  We have had the a ton of really cool experiences! We taught 3 1st lesson's this week!!! One of them is a for sure new investigator and the other two were awesome but we need to have another meeting to confirm there interest moving forward! 

Sister Ng is so funny and I will have to show you some on Skype. haha!

The Lord has been showering us with blessings! We have been opening our mouths like crazy and giving out the He is the Gift cards and it feels so good to contact people more then I have been! 

I am doing ok. I was struggling a little bit feeling like I haven't given my all in parts of my mission but after hearing one elders Testimony at the Christmas conference where he openly said he had regrets of things I didn't do on his mission, I felt like I let a load off my shoulders and started to cry. It felt good to hear so much vulnerability and see his actual growth in saying how the Mission has changed him. He also said that he used to not have a testimony but now he does! Man it was good! Then President Packard told him to stay up there and he ran up and grabbed him by the shoulder and said, "Yeah! his calendar could have been fuller in the beginning and he didn't know where the book of Jacob was but even though he didn't know those things that isn't what matters...because now he has experienced true conversion!

I have been thinking about what I want to share when it is my turn to share my Testimony at my last Transfer meeting!!! I have so many thoughts and not enough time or words to share them... Well I will do something and end it with "and I'm a Mormon!" haha!

I feel like things are real and yet fake. I have come to love so many people here on the mission that I can't imagine my life without having met them! Now the home sickness is turning towards the people here! I can feel it already!!!  :(

I just want all the people I know to be all in one place!

We are going to be at a members house at 2. We will eat then I can Skype so maybe around 3ish here. I will call first to make sure you are ready and set up the computers! 

It is so weird that you are meeting people I have served with! I love Sister Bell!!! :)

We are very busy and running around like crazy people! haha! Love you all and talk to you on Christmas!!!

I got the Packages by the way! I will make sure to keep them cool! haha!

We are going to a FHE at the Whites who is one of the stake presidents counselors and President Packard is going to be there!!! so exciting! :)

Love you a Million He is the gift cards to give out before Christmas!!!

Love,

Sister Patterson :) 

Email 12/15/14

Sorry we are filming the video for the Mission Christmas Party and were not able to write anything! I will voice record and respond to your emails that I printed out!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Patterson

Email 12/8/14

I have a new Asian (Chinese) Companion, Sister Ng. She is so sweet!!! I love her to pieces but sometimes I get frustrated because of the language barrier but we have a community opening up to us that never could have been before!!! We are excited!

She is nervous because she has only one transfer with me to learn the area but I know that she can do it!

We have a lot of fun together as we have gotten to talk about shows and manga and other things! She is so blunt and funny! She even said that I am more Asian then her! haha! Oh man! It is good :)

Hope everything keeps going well!

LOVE YOU A MILLION AMERICAN ACCENTS THAT MAKE SISTER NG LAUGH! HAHA

Sister Patterson

Email 12/1/14

So.....Thanksgiving was good! :D haha! I know you are dying to know if I am being Transferred and so I will not delay it any longer!
We had to wait a little longer to get T-Texts this time because President didn't want to take away from his sacred family time at Thanksgiving so instead of Fri. afternoon they came on Sat. night at around 10pm!

All I remember was that we were getting ready for bed and writing in

our journals/prayers when right

before I started my prayers I saw a blue light...I grabbed the phone and.....AHHHHHH! T-Texts! I tried not to make a noise and threw the phone and said the craziest Prayer ever...it was so bad! ^^

Dear Heavenly Father...Thank you for this Day and all my blessings....and for T-Texts... they just came and I am excited and nervous!...Sorry this is so short! Then I wrote down some quick thoughts for our lessons we would be teaching the next day and then said sorry again and closed my prayer! I looked at Sister Standerfer phone in her hand and yelped out wait for me!!! I jumped on her bed and she read out loud the texts as they came in! Sasha then called and we read them to her live time! She read then paused...AHHHHHH! One of us is getting Transferred!!! It says that a Sister NG (Chinese Sister) is getting Transferred here to Amherst!!! We had to wait for our Zones turn in the texts and low and behold!!!!.....

Sister Standerfer is getting Transferred to Belmont!!!!!

That's right folks the Old Steam Boat is staying and Dieing here! ;)

I am sooooo excited to have an Asian companion!!! and this is really exciting because we have a ton of chinese people here that we can't communicate with!!! I had the thought at one point that it would be really cool to be able to start a Chinese group out here and now that might be possible! :D

She looks really nice and has cute hair! (bangs) ;) a little like Erin's hair! haha!

I read page 76 in The Power of Everyday Missionaries this morning and it is a story of staying desperate and that things didn't happen until the very end because he wasn't as desperate in the beginning! I hope that this is like my getting close to the end desperation that will help this area prosper! I really don't want to be the thing in the way of it's progression!

Thanksgiving was really busy actually! Considering the slower pace of people being gone for the Holidays!

We went and had Thanksgiving with Melany and Aliuska (Her friend in the apt. complex) it was really fun and they told us all about the boys they like and then they would ask us if we had anyone and of course I got really awkword because I am a Missionary! Is this even legal? but it was fun! ^^ haha! I told them, "Ok here are some really cute stories about how my Mom and Dad met." They loved the stories so much and asked if this was real life or a movie story! Then they told me to make it into a movie because they wanted to watch it! haha! ... We then shared a scripture Alma 26:16 and they really liked it as well!

We took pictures with them so you can see them!

We had Dinner at Sister Vargas's and it was sooooooo goood! She is a master in the kitchen! :) and we got to meet her daughter! She is the coolest and she lives in New York!

We went to Church and were in the clerks office before Church started to finish our progress report when Bishop popped open the door and said, "There is someone here that knows you Sister Patterson!" ....at first I thought it was someone from another area but then I remembered.....Oh man, it couldn't be.....no..... we walked over to the chapel and.......Oh, my goodness!!!! He turned to look at me and the water works came a flowen! "That's my uncle", I muttered after I saw the confused face on Sister Standerfer's face. I could tell I was making him a little teary eyed as well which didn't help me at all! By the way Dad, you have a twin! It was so hard to look at him and not see you Dad! I clung to him the rest of church and it felt so good to have a person that I could sit next to and not worry about saying something wrong and offend someone! He teased me and I felt right at home...haha! I now remember the humor that I will return to...haha! I love you Dad! He gave me a huge XXL bag of peanut M&M's and a pack of gum! haha! so funny! I made sure to ask how his missionary work was doing and no worries that I can see! He and Michelle are doing a wonderful job being a Missionary just like you 

all! :)

After we found out that Sister Standerfer was getting Transferred she got really nervous to tell Melany...She and Melany had a really fast connection that was so powerful!

We stopped by on Sunday night and as we walked up the walk way we could see Melany in the Stair well window pacing.

Sister Standerfer nervously walked in front as Sasha and myself walked calmly behind.

When we got to her Sister Standerfer broke the news to her. Melany was silent. We told her that this is not the end but that Sister Standferfer would be able to keep in contact! Melany was pretty upset and didn't understand why she had to leave! She even mentioned that she wanted to talk to who was in charge and say that what they did was wrong! Aliuska was there too and understood that it really wasn't in our central. Melany left the room and we thanked Aliuska for being here for Melany but we had to get going to our next appointment. We asked here to take care of her and to tell her that we love her.

We are so sad to not be companions anymore but we are also excited for the future!

Oh, Man so much more but we have to go get Sister Standerfer's hair cut by Sister Degrasse! :)

Love you a million snow flakes! and only 6 1/2 weeks left!!!


Love, 

Sister Patterson

Email 11/17/14

We feel the excitement of the Mission and the Blessings that have been pouring out upon everyone! We are at 39 Baptisms that have happened and 100 to go.

I have seen so many things happen here in Amherst that are amazing but at the same time the adversary is trying to hit us too!

Some of the amazing things that happened was that we Got to see Melany the 17 year old girl. We saw her on Saturday. When we went to the door...no answer and as we were walking out the front of the apt. we hear a little voice say, "Hey, come up here!" We turn around and see Melany's head poking out of the stairwell landing window one floor higher. We went up and she looked really solemn. We asked her what was wrong and she put her hands in her face and started to cry! We hugged her and told her that we loved her and told her that she is a beautiful daughter of God! We continued to console her as best we could. We just sat at times and let her cry out her tears. We shared a scripture about the Atonement and how Christ knows how she feels. A look in her eyes sparked and I could tell that was what she needed to hear. Sister Standerfer paused then asked..."Do you want a blessing? She looked up and said, "Yes!" do you even know what that is?" Melany, "No but you said blessings and I need that!" We smiled and told her a little about what they are and she really liked the idea even more!. We sang her some hymns that we could tell calmed her spirit and then she told us, "You guys always come at the right time! Just before you got here I was praying that you both would come so I could see you. Every time you guys are there when I start to feel sad...Thank you!" We were relieved because we didn't want to seem annoying :) We just always think about her and want to make sure she is safe and happy. Anyways, the sweet part is that we were able to get her that blessing! She was waiting for us and we had our YSA Ward Mission Leader Jarron give her the blessing. It was sweet and the spirit was so strong.

Alex our other Investigator is not being allowed to be baptized this month and his parents want him to wait until his Mom gets back from Cape Verde...that is in March... we are so sad but we know that as we continue to make efforts to get to know the parents better that things will turn out the way the Lord needs them to.

A special moment that we had with him just last night was that we talked about the Plan of Salvation again and we had him tell us what he remembered and he did awesome! We told him that we should give him a name tag and he should teach our investigators! He just smiled and looked all shy but at the same time proud of himself! ^^ He is so cute! We really want to take him out with us to teach! and we will soon! ;) but anyways we got talking about the after life and started talking about the Temple! We talked about how we can do baptisms for our ancestors in their place so that they can have the same opportunity that he is having right now to prepare for baptism. He thought that that was really cool and that he liked how God was so good to make it so that people can have a 2nd chance to hear and accept the Gospel! and that it made sense! That's because it totally does Brother and Sisters! The Lord is kind and wants us to have every opportunity to live with him again! Alex said that he was excited that he could do that for his deceased family members and for the first time in forever I got to teach someone to the point that I can teach about Temples and see the light go on in there eyes in excitement! Thank you! I feel like I am always wanting to teach about the Temple and help people see that there is more here then just for you! This is the Lords work that is needing to be done for those who have had to wait far to long for the blessings of baptism and other sacred promises!!! I could see that he was a little sad after he realized that he had to be baptized before going to the Temple and that he would have to wait until March but I feel like he is going to get stronger and stronger as time goes on! :)

Random Fact! Tuesdays are the worst to schedule!!! Really though!! They are always a struggle!!! This week we tried super hard to make it really full and it was looking really good when suddenly everything but 2 appointments fell through! Oh, man! We will get there! but there are always those days that are rough.

Pictures of us in Pittsfield for District meeting with the first snow!!!

Oh, man,  Sister Standerfer made me laugh so hard today!!! We have been emotionally drained the past few days and that it made me think of the time when Mom and Dad were building the house and the basement flooded and the kids ran in with their swimsuits saying it's a swimming pool! There was a choice to be made! and that was to cry or laugh...I have chosen to laugh! Sister Standerfer thought I was crazy or something. haha! Oh dear! but she is really funny so the tiredness just made it even more so.! haha! ^^ Please pray for our investigators! They need it!

Love you all a Million snow flakes! (it is raining right now and Sister Standerfer is upset because if it is cold it should be snowing so there is a reason for it to be cold! haha!)

Love,

Sister Patterson

P.S.
By the Way Baby Ray is stinkin' CUTE!!!!! I love her!!! I can't believe she is already 1 month!!! :D