Email 8/25/14

Ok! so because Sister Wheeler and I used the church computer today we took turns. She went first and I just took a video of myself instead of writing so that we could get more done at a time!


We are having a Crafternoon with Kat and Sasha at the church so I will send the video's and I can check in a little later possibly. :)

I love you all a bunch.

Love,

Sister Patterson

P.S. I loved all the Pictures!!! and congrats to Casey on the Wins and to Cash for his first lost tooth!!! So fun!

Email 8/18/14

I miss you all so much! We have been working on following up with members a lot better lately and we are finding a ton of opportunities popping up through the members! We are excited!

We have been teaching a new Investigator and he has come to church 2 times already! He is really liking everything and we even talked to his roommate! He is working on becoming a minister and has met the Missionaries before and is willing to meet with us and talk some more! His wife was really nice too! :)

By the way I realized that I didn't say anything about all of your amazing missionary experiences!!!! you all give me motivation and new excitement for the work every time I get to hear your stories! Thank you!!!

I have been worried about the post Missionary time when I will not know what to do with myself but I feel like it will be easy to be a missionary still because we will all have the same goal!

I got a letter from Sister Wilson from your ward that you talked about! She was so sweet and told me how much she loved and appreciated you all so much and loved your enthusiasm for the work! She also said, "Your Mom is so sweet and cry's almost every time she talks about you" I LOVE YOU MOM!!!

It was such a nice surprise :) and now to hear that she is going to Santa Barbara makes me so happy! She deserves to go there. :)

Here are the last few Transfer dates of my Mission!

Sep. 10th
Oct. 22nd
Dec. 3rd
Jan. 14th

I have been hearing this a lot lately but we met this guy that I actually had an opportunity to respond to and this is how it went. A guy that we met on the street said this after we asked him if he was religious, "I decided to not be religious because all the wars were about religion".  Then I had the opportunity to finally say something about it when it came up again with a guy we met on the street. We asked him if he was religious and he said, "I used to be Muslim but not any more. Too much war is over religion". Me, Do you believe that there is a God?" Him, "Yes I believe in a form of God and I pray, not formally but I pray wherever I am." Me, "Do you think God wants us to have war in his name?" Him, "He shook his head" Me, "War is of man! not of God!" The guy looked at me like..."I guess you have a point". So we gave him a Book of Mormon and got his number. We could tell that he was one of those people that would need time but also that he was one of those who had denied falsehood and now we have given him and opportunity to find the fullness of truth. :)

Being a Sister Training leader is so fun! I was on an exchange with Sister Bower and she came to our area with me. The weather was so crazy that day and we were getting flood warnings on our phone! plus we couldn't find the umbrellas so we were pretty soaked at the end of the day! haha! Oh, man! it was so much fun! :D

Here is a picture (Dropbox) of the Zone right after our Training at Zone meeting! We had a really fun time planning skits with the zone leaders and sadly the one part I was in didn't get recorded :( So sad! Oh, well! Thank goodness we can watch our lives back after we die and see all the fun things that didn't get recorded :) haha!

Oh! Sister Bower also showed me D&C 130!!! I am so excited for what life will be like after this! She read this to me and I was enthralled! I know I have read this chapter before but I don't think I was listening the way I did then! Man the Gospel is AWESOME!!! :D

Love you a million crazy people that really need the gospel! ;)

Love,

Sister Patterson :)

Email 8/11/12

Well, another crazy week! We didn't have as many appt.'s as we would like but that's what happens when we have MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) all day to get what President Packard wants us to teach our Zones at Zone Meeting, preparing Zone Meeting with the Zone Leaders,Weekly Planning, having interviews with President Packard with a training from the Assistants and to top it off a Funeral...

I didn't write you about the loss because it was still a shock but the Funeral was for a Mom and her Daughter that were in our stake that got in a car crash on there way home from girls camp. It was a real shock to Sasha (we bring her out with us all the time, she is 16) she was close with the daughter so we were with her whenever we could be. She is doing ok and handling it a little better each day.

The Service was beautiful and the talk given by the Husband was VERY inspired! There were a ton of non members there! He was comforting everyone at a time of great sadness. He talked about the gospel and how that is the reason why he is able to have so much strength and he said that he wasn't talking but that his wife and daughter were talking through him. One thing I love that he said was, "My Wife and Daughter are NOT in some mysterious, unknown limbo! I know that they are in a place of happiness! and that I WILL see them again!"

Man that was good!!!

I do have to say that it was pretty mind boggling because I had met the Mom before and to suddenly see her casket put me at a mental pause. But after hearing the talks that were given it was impossible to sink deeper because the Spirit was so strong testifying of Gods Plan. Boy am I glad to have the knowledge of the gospel!

I was just looking at all the people there and wondering why they weren't running and asking to be taught!!! I know that that's what I would have done! but I know that this has prompted thought in quite a few minds and that many seeds were planted.

President Packard told me in interviews that I would be transferred this next one because of how long I have been in Amherst but he always says, "But we will do what the Lord thinks when we get there." :) He is so fun :)

We are going to be making Zone Meeting really fun! and we might be doing a really fun skit as leaders....haha! Hopefully we will get a video ^^ I'm so excited!!!

Well I have to get going ;( we are going to look for some wigs...hehe!

Love you a million things happening all at once!

Love you!

Sister Patterson!


There is a Zion Report that our Mission President wrote for this month that I will send you next week! It is sooooo goood! alright, until next time :)

Love you!!!!!!!!

Email 8/4/14

We had a fun and crazy week... as always ^^ haha!

We had the experience with our investigator that I forwarded to you. haha!
He told us that he would be at church but he was a no show. :(

I really feel like the adversary is hitting our people right as they are about to progress!!!

We are going to have a Baptism!!!! Pray that we will be able to meet with our investigators and that they will be protected so that they can progress to True Conversion!


AHHHH! Sister Vail just sent me a message that said this,

Hello Sisters!

I know it's WAY too early to think about this, but I need to start making return flight arrangements four months ahead of time. President Packard asked me to contact you regarding your release dates. You all have your 18 month anniversary dates fall between transfers, so the Church allows you to decide when you want to go home. President is happy to visit with you about it, but the decision is yours, working it out with the Lord and your families. So please consider whether you would like to return home on December 5 or January 16, and let me know in the next couple of weeks. You can email me at this email, or call the office.

Thank you. Have a wonderful day!
Love, Sister Vail


I can't believe it is time to think about this! I know just like it said that it is still early but time is going by so fast!!!  Let me know what you think but I will pray about it and plus talk it through with president in interviews we have this Friday!

I had my 13 Month mark on Sunday!!!

I got a crazy text from Elder Sutherland (I think I spelled his name right?). He used to be my Zone Leader here but he is now in the Connecticut area...this is what the text said!,

"Sister Patterson, I am sitting in the car with your Uncle Donald right now!"

...AHHHHHHH! My worlds are colliding....again!!! haha!

I told him to tell him I said hello! :)
So crazy! haha!

Sister Wheeler and I have been working well together and learning a lot!
She has been especially good to me as I was not feeling well these past few days. My left ear started to feel funny and then Friday night to Saturday night I had a bad head ache on the left half of my face...I called the Mission nurse and she said to take Sudafed so I did that and it never really changed anything but now I feel a ton better. She is having me try putting a warm cloth on my ear to see if it is wax build up/sinus stuff.

Sister Benjamin was like a mother hen fussing over me^^

The people are so funny down here :)

I love them so much!

Our ward is starting to grow again which is nice and normal for a college ward. We are about the size of a branch but we have 12 new move ins!!! yay! :)

We had a District P-day in Gardner where they used to be known for their furniture. 

Hence the giant chair we are standing on. :)

Oh, then I love Sister Wheeler and my Model shot! haha! ^^ That's right, we just climbed that chair in skirts! ;) We had some help from another Sister and had the Elders turn around. ^^

                               

 Then we had to take an awkward "Take picture with Elders pose" haha! ^^

They are so Fun!

Then us with some YSA that did spits with us. Starr on the left and Kat is on the right. 

I got Casey and Lexi's Birthday card and it was so sweet!!! I am sending them a snail mail today to say Thank you! :)

Love you all million pictures on a big chair!

Love ya!

Sister Patterson

P.S. Here is the letter from president that I think you will like and go perfectly with what you all are going through. :)

Enjoy!


President Packard

Dear Elders and Sisters,

As you know, we feel strongly about helping you self-discover the language of the Holy Spirit. A few months ago, we spent at least three hours exploring how to receive and recognize personal revelation in a mini-zone conference devoted entirely to that subject. We have our notes from that discussion on the Google drive if any of you want to review and study them. There is one nuance of the topic that we wish we would have explained at that time, so we will share it now.

The Spirit Often Reveals The Way Incrementally As We Act.
Occasionally, the Lord will provide us with the solution to a problem in a single burst of revelation. After an experience like this, we will usually rush to find a computer or note pad and write everything we can in an effort to capture all the ideas and insights. However, this is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, we will feel the Spirit pressing us in a certain direction and the Lord waits for us to act. As we move forward and start to act, not knowing all the details or how things are going to end, the Spirit reveals additional information to us. When this happens, the Lord does indeed light the path, but only after we start walking and only one step at a time. Perhaps two examples will help illustrate the point. The first example happened only a few days ago as we planned transfers, and the second example is from our early church history.

In our last transfer cycle, we were sending more missionaries home than we were receiving. Thus, we were required to close several areas. However, we did have a few missionaries who were not going home for a few weeks. In the past, we have left mid-transfer missionaries in threesomes because we don’t like to transfer someone to a new area when they only have a few weeks to go. However, this time, moving mid-transfer missionaries would allow us to keep two areas open. Of course, the problem was that this only delayed the closure for a few weeks. We didn't know what to do after these elders went home, but we felt the Spirit prompt us to move forward. After our transfer meeting, one of the affected elders asked, “What is going to happen to my new area when I leave?” We could only respond that we did not know but that we felt that things would work out. We had already asked Salt Lake for a few visa-waiters, but this did not pan out. However, we received an e-mail yesterday from the missionary department informing us that, for reasons totally unconnected to our situation, we would be receiving two elders who had been permanently assigned to our mission and that they would be arriving in the next few days. The solution came after we started to act.

In the 1870s, Brigham Young sent an expedition of saints to colonize Arizona. The group was led by Brother McMaster and consisted of several hundred people equipped with teams of horses and cattle. After traveling deep into the area (forty-five miles past the Little Colorado River) the group ran completely out of water. Even the Little Colorado was completely dry. Brother McMaster, went out alone and begged God to provide water. Shortly after his prayer, rain and snow followed, which allowed the saints to fill their barrels and canteens and save their livestock. They then turned around and headed back to Salt Lake, rejoicing because of the miracle the Lord had provided. When they reported to Brigham Young, they explained that the area was simply uninhabitable. Dan Jones was in the room when the report was given to Brigham Young and later wrote, “I was sitting near by and just in front of Brother Brigham. . . . He said nothing for a few moments, but sat looking me straight in the eye. Finally he asked, ‘What do you think of that Brother Jones?’ I answered, ‘I would have filled up, went on, and prayed again.’ Brother Brigham replied putting his hand upon me, ‘This is the man that shall take charge of the next trip to Arizona.’” See, Daniel W. Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians (1890), 234–35. Dan Jones did lead the next group and successfully settled what is now Mesa/Phoenix Arizona.

We pray that each of us will have the faith to act when prompted by the Spirit even when, perhaps especially when, we do not know the whole picture and the revelation is incomplete. As we do, we will find that the Lord opens the way and teaches us line upon line and precept upon precept.

Love,

President and Sister Packard