Email 10/27/14

Ok, so some amazing news!!!! 

We have been working with Alex trying to get him to an activity or church! We stopped by his apt. to see if he wanted to come help the Youth decorate for the Halloween party and at first he was hesitant but then he talked to his Mom and she said he could go!!! We got a ride for him and we stayed at the activity to introduce him to the kids. They were playing dodge ball when we came in and as he got into it he immediately said to us, "I want to come every week" !!!!! We were so happy to finally see him interacting with the other kids and having fun. This was a huge step! Afterward we asked him if he wanted to come to the Halloween party to help with the Haunted house and he looked at us with a big smile and said' "Yes!!!" Another miracle was that when we went to make some calls to set up a ride, Alex said that he had already called one of the Boys from YM's and asked for a ride to Church on Sunday...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so proud! ^^ He really wants this and is willing to put forth effort himself! This is awesome!
He has another Game today so I might have to run off soon! There is a ton more that happened. AHHHH!

Oh, yeah and I got sick on Friday night which was not fun but I am feeling a ton better! Sister Standerfer acted as "Mom" for that time making sure I took medicine and rested. ^^

I love this area so much and the people have become my family!!!!

Sasha, has my Camera so no Pictures today and I made some voice recordings but I forgot the cord! Sorry! ><

Love you all a million non members at church!!!! (Truly though! We had a ton come and they all really liked church!)  We actually get a lot of students come in once in a while for there world religion studies for a paper.

Love,

Sister Patterson :)

Email 10/20/14

We found out about Transfers!!!!!! and the verdict is......

First, I will start out with Friday morning. While we were getting ready for district meeting and being anxious to hear what the Transfer Texts were going to say, we got another text from Sister Packard saying that the texts were not going to come after our District meeting because they were both at their Mission President meeting in New York and President wanted to prayerfully finalize everything. So we all would have to wait. haha! Oh, man!, everyone was going super crazy!!!! Sister Standerfer and I had been going back and forth saying things like, we only have been together for 1 transfer and then we get on the topic of how long I have been here...yeah, then after I say that I have been here for 5 Transfers they say, "oh! ...yeah, you're out of here!" The T-Texts ended up coming Friday night and.....

WE ARE STAYING TOGETHER!!!!!! This will be my 6th Transfer here!!!! haha!

I can't believe how time is flying so fast!!!!

Haha! Well here we go! and now Sister Standerfer says that she will be leaving the next one and I will die here! Well, we will just have to wait and see what happens. ;)

WE have had a drama filled week!!! so we are now teaching Alex's uncle and then we went back to their apt. to see if he would be coming to church and when the door opened.....AHHHHHHHHHHH ...jumping hugging and screaming!!!! MELANY!!!!!! yes, that Melany! We found her!!!! We haven't seen her since we found her when we went to see Alex for the first time! There is so much more to the story that I will have to just record or something but she was so excited to see us and she said that she thought she would never see us again and almost cried as we were talking to her!

We are working really well together and sometimes we even say the same thing at the same time which people think is pretty funny. ^^

Oh, so Sister Standerfer's Sister and her friends are super big Volleyball fans and would really like some audigraph pictures of Casey if possible. haha! I told her I would ask and see ;) There are 15 girls. If you could do that Casey, my Companion would be eternally grateful! :)

We also had a really amazing lesson with David and the spirit was so strong. We first had the Starlipers give the first part of the Restoration and then we had him close his eyes and visualize he was Joseph Smith as we read JSH 1:15 -20.  After we were done he opened his eyes and he had the most pure innocent and pleading look. Then we said that we wanted this to keep this sacred moment and then put on the Restoration video. Then we had him kneel down and say a prayer out loud. It was such a real prayer asking real questions and pleading for an answer. We prayed so hard in that moment that he would be able to let down the walls he has put up so that he could at least feel an ounce of the Love that God has for him. wW feel like he has progressed a ton throughout these few months that we have been meeting with him and we would really appreciate your prayers for our investigators that could really use them right now:

David
Adrien
Alex
Melany

I know we personally can let down our own walls and visualize a beam of light coming.

By the way I really like this link:

Plan of Salvation

We have so much going on and I really don't want to leave this area! I would be fine to die here! ;)

By the way I put a million pictures on the dropbox!!! Sasha and Sister Standerfer were good enough to be my models so I could practice my photography. haha!

Love,
Sister Patterson

This is Sister Standerfer's Perspective of Saturday

Saturday was such a fun day! We started out with some service and then a birthday party. In the afternoon we went to Northampton and stopped by a few less active members' homes with Sasha. That night we went to go and stop by our new investigator Mario's to see if he was coming to church the next day. Instead, we found MELANY!!!! She is our investigator Alex's (the 15 year old) half sister. Sister Patterson and her previous companion, Sister Wheeler, had found her and began teaching her and had actually set a baptism date before Melany's grandma said that she couldn't meet with the missionary's anymore. We talked with her for about 2 hours on Saturday night and had made a few calls so that she could come to church the next day. While we were there her grandma came home and I knew that we had made a big mistake in staying so long.The next day a member in the ward went to pick her up and there was no answer at the door. Sister Patterson and I left church to stop by as well and there was still no answer. We had an appointment with her later that afternoon and she told us that after we had left that she got in really big trouble. When we came to see her that morning her grandma was home so she couldn't answer the door or come to church. It is becoming a great big mess!!! But the irony of the situation is that we are teaching the grandma's son Mario. In fact, she is more or less demanding that we teach Mario, but won't let us teach Melany (her granddaughter). It is a very confusing situation and it has been a crazy few days with this on my mind!

Email 10/14/14

 I am so excited to meet sweet Baby Ray! ;) there's a double meaning in that! hehe! ^^
She is is so stinkin' cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so happy! I want her to be the first baby I get to hold off my mission! XD

We got to go to Return and Report for the new Missionaries 

and then we got to go to the Temple!!! 

I feel so spoiled! :) It was a very sacred time. 

What a week! first off I am writing today because we got to go to the Temple yesterday and they told us that we can just write on Tuesday instead!

We are doing amazing and feeling pretty spoiled that we got to go to the Temple 2 times in the span of a week! We got to go on Wed. for return and report for all the new Missionaries and there Trainers! They gave trainings then had it where the Trainers and the Greenies split and had question and answer sessions. I couldn't think of a question because the thought I that if I had something I wanted to work on then I would just talk to Sister Standerfer about it...we work really well together and aren't afraid to talk things through. Don't get me wrong we aren't perfect. We have our little tiffs but we realized that in our minds we're thinking of the same things but in a different way or angle. As we have had heart to heart times we have become more aware of how each other thinks and it is helping a lot! :) 

"This was last P-Day we climbed to the highest point in Massachusetts!!!!!! 

it's not even as high as the Provo valley...ha ha. ^^

It was so fun! 

We have a Book of Mormon challenge from our Mission president to read the whole Book in 2 Transfers and to mark the Tender Mercies of the Lord! I personally added Blessings, Gratitude, Obedience and Faith.

I was looking at these two scriptures next to each other and saw them in a new light! 1 Nephi 8:24,31 how are they the same and different?

I loved pulling these verses apart and came up with all sorts of analogies!

Our Mission President has also been talking about consecration and how for instance when you set apart olive oil it forgoes any possibility of any other use to accomplish something greater. This also applies to how we have been set apart to be a Missionary. I so badly want to live a consecrated life even after the Mission! I love the scripture Helamen 3:35. I know that that is true Happiness! I love the Lord and all the opportunities I have to do for his children. :) Nothing is better then to know that through forgetting ones self you can become your true self!

I read the talk Beware of Pride by Ezra Taft Benson but President Hickley gave it and do you know what I realized?....I AM SOOOO PRIDEFUL!!!!! XP
but I am working everyday to be more humble! This talk even though chastising- it was what I needed! Just like Jorg Klebingat in Conference! He was sooooo good! "

Here is Sister Standerfers view of what happened this week!: 

"Saturday was so crazy!! Our day was pretty normal, we made lots of random calls to numbers that were in our phone and set up a few appointments. Though, most of those appointments weren't for our area sadly enough!! But we were helping the other Missionaries out right? But that night, we had planned to stop by and see if Alex and his mom were still planning on going to church on Sunday. We got there and Alex's dad answered the door. Alex wasn't home, but his dad said that he was at his Grandma's (the Grandma that wanted us to stop by her home and teach her family). We headed over there, and I was trying to remember the address from memory because I had forgotten it at home, but I was sure that it the apartment number was 56. We are searching doors and found 57 and 59 etc. but no 56. Sister Patterson and I decided that we would try knocking on apartment number 57 and get directed in the right direction. Well, this older gentleman answered the door. Come to find out he is a Muslim, but he was completely open to looking at lds.org, mormon.org as well as reading the Book of Mormon!!! He was GOLDEN!!!!! Then we headed to the map of the apartment complex, as I was looking I was sure that it was building 109 apartment B. I just knew! We headed over there and after knocking on the door and a Chinese woman answered the door. That was strike 2 (technically!). Well, she invited us in and it was 2 Chinese women living in the same apartment sharing the rent. They were really interested in learning more about what we believe and we are planning on going back on Friday to give them Chinese Book of Mormons!!!!!!! So that night we found everyone but Alex and his Grandma!!! But it turned out GREAT!!!!!!!!!"


Well, we have to go walk to the Church! We don't have our car again but should be getting it back tomorrow!!! We hope that we won't have to listen to our car binging because the car has majior electrical problems!!! I am amazed they haven't put me in an insanity ward! We had to listen to it for an hour on and off driving from Boston!!!!! yepeee! XP
Haha!

Love you a Million temple Trips and screaming Sister Patterson after getting to hear Mom's voice!!!! Best day Ever!!! Love you all soooo much!!!!

Love,

Sister Patterson ;)

Email 10/6/2014

Dear Family and Friends!

We have had an amazing week with Miracles and Tender Mercies everywhere!

First was that we went to get our cars electrical fixed and they were planning for us to get a rental in the mean time so we could still do our work. We were both excited at the idea of being able to save miles while not having to use our car. We were secretly praying that the car would take longer then expected so that we could use the rentals miles! The car guy came up to us and showed us the rental car. TRUCK! it was a new 2015 Chevy truck! We were so excited and even Sister Standerfer was asking if she could drive it just once! haha! but come to find out as we are working out the paperwork, the car guy asks me for my drivers license and of course..."Wait!" he says, "How old are you?" me, "20...Why?" ..."Oh, no! I am so sorry! you have to be 21." Me"...no, I'm sorry I wasn't born sooner!" He laughed and told me that that wasn't my fault. We went back to Pete the Car repair guy and when we got there he looked at us with a defeated look on his face. "I am so sorry Sisters! I would never had guessed that you both were under 21! you are just so mature!" I told him that it was because of the bags under our eyes and not to worry about it...haha! not really but that would have been funny! ^^ We were both flattered and tried not to make our heads not too big about it. We knew that it was the Spirit and the fact that we had our heads on strait when most 19 and 20 year olds are going to college and partying. Who ever is reading this- if you want a good way to raise your kids...join this church! ;)

As we were setting up an alternative they found that they had their own loan out cars that don't have the whole 21 requirement. The day we would get the loan out car would be the day before we go to Return and Report which is in Belmont close to Boston. So in the big picture, this is far better for helping us to save miles then the first plan!

Moral; of the Story is that even when you think you have made a good plan and things are flashy and exciting...when they don't turn out the way you think, it is probably because the Lord has a smarter path with a better out come! So don't get discouraged, always look to the future with trust that there is a reason for everything. Like last time when we didn't have our car for 2 1/2 weeks and were on foot/bus most of the time, there are so many things that the Lord needed us to do that we wouldn't have been able to do and people that we needed to meet that if we were in the comfortable confines of our car, never would have happened!

We had another thing happen this week with Finding a new Investigator!!!!

We were walking to save miles with it being the end of the month and as we got to the cross walk we started talking to this kid named Alex. He is a U-Mass Amherst Student and was open to learning more! We exchanged numbers and then a day or 2 later we asked when we could meet with him. He said he would really like to meet and so we brought a Young Single Adult. His name was Trevor and met him at a Pizza place :) We gave Alex an overview of the Restoration and a Book of Mormon and even though he is a collage student he said that he would do his best to read the 3 Nephi 11 chapter that we left with him and pray about what we have taught!...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We tried to keep our cool after the meeting but as soon as we got to the car where no one could hear...we started screaming like little girls with excitement!!! haha! We are so excited! :D
______

Then some exciting news about our Investigator Alex (Different Alex, this is the one that is 15 and from Cape Verde).

We met with him last night and his mother was there again! We talked more about his baptism and keeping the Sabbath day holy. As he was translating for his Mom he told us that she was going to be going back to their country for 5 months and then coming back. We paused and thought about this for a second... Alex's Date was set for Nov. 8th and his Mom leaves on Oct. 25th. We talked it over and he wants his Mother to be there so we moved his date up to the 24th of Oct.!!!! We still have a lot to teach him but we know that with the Lord we can help him be ready!!! He wants to be Baptized and we can see the light in his eyes that was there when we first met him but now is so much brighter! :)

AND!!! that's not all! His Grandma showed up at the end of the lesson and his Mom was talking to her as we were going over the Baptism questions with him briefly.  After the Grandma left and we were about to close our lesson with a prayer, his Mom talked to Alex and he translated to us that the Grandma wants us to come visit her too...!!!!!!! Oh, my Blessings Batman!!! This family is so prepared and we get to be the ones here at this special time and be apart of the Lords work!!!

Oh, my Goodness it is cold today!!! We had to scrape the frost off the car!!!! not again!!!! We are going to go hiking on a trail in Pittsfield with the District today that is why we are writing so early so I will have lots of pretty pictures with the fall colors!!! :)

Love and Miss you a Million Miracles and Gratitude prayers!

Love,

Sister Patterson :)