December 1, 2014

“Has the day of miracles ceased? Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved? Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought… (Moroni 7: 35-37).

Sister Layton and I have had a miracle filled month. We've never set goals with such faith and we've never seen the faith of President Dusty, our branch president, increase as much..as well as our members. It's been touching to watch the way he made announcements in the beginning of the month about these goals to the way he's talked about them this past Sunday. It's funny how most of the time we don't even see the impact we are having on ourselves. We've practically tripled our teaching pool and tripled the amount of members that have gone out with us. We had a baptism date but we rescheduled it for December for multiple reasons, which we know was the right things to do. As a result, North Brookfield didn't have a baptism this month. However, we are still so grateful for the miracles that god did give to us. Sister Layton and I woke up November 30th, last day of the month, and there's are still 3 people i can think of that we will see at church that are ready and able to be baptized. I turn on the primary song titled Baptism and we both agree that we have no choice but to wear what color today? Blue of course. We've fasted every Sunday of the month for miracles, and they have occurred, just in unexpected ways. This time we fasted not just for miracles, but for understanding of why we didn't meet our area goal this month. I feel like i've received that answer and probably through out my life i will continue to learn more about what really happened this sacred month.

The even betters news? The mission's goal was to assist in having 70 individuals enter the waters of baptism this month. Something this mission has never even touched. 2 years ago we were in the monthly 20s. We have significantly increased since then, but still have never been able to meet the 70. President Packard has had a vision ever since he got in the mission that there would come a day that we would be able to baptize 100 people in one month. As the month went by, we quickly realized that 70, while still a miracle, was becoming more and more doable. A lot of us started praying that we'd be able to get to a 100 with the faith that we knew we'd get 70.

The result? At the end of November 30th...the Massachusetts Boston Mission has had EXACTLY 100 individuals enter the waters of baptism in the month of November. We had a mission wide mass telephone call last night to have the number announced and said a prayer of gratitude all together praying for each of those individuals by name. EXACTLY ONE HUNDRED.

On a funny miracle note, this week we had our own little miracle...we got struck by a wicked awful snow storm - storm Cato. We text Sister Brown because we have dinner at their home that evening - she said her roads were plowed so we should be ok. We start driving but this hilly new england means cute little Corolla aint gonna make it up that slushy hill. We get stuck in the middle of the hill. I try reversing and going up again but at this point its too late, we'll never make it up. We turn around but long story short...we end up getting stuck in someone's driveway. We call brother Brown - good thing they live a minute away. The miracle? -- we got to be rescued by not only Brother Brown but his new Toyota Tundra!! God really does show us in small ways his love for us sometimes. :) I am convinced that purchasing a Toyota Tundra is the most selfless thing you can do in this life..think of the emergency preparedness factor! Cough - Brandon!  I got to give my last lesson at the Browns with hot chocolate and a sweet teaching and going home lesson given in return by Brother Brown. Thank you storm Cato.

I'll love my last week full of more miracles because we have an appt with all of my favorite investigators stacked right before I go! This new christmas inititive the church has of He is the Gift is awesome. One of my favorite last memories will be knocking on people's doors asking them right then and there if they want to watch the video on their doorstep. We're probably the only missionaries in the misison that get to do that....thanks to the handy dandy laptop. It's so fun and has put a new twist on things.

I feel so grateful that because of the MBM, I know a little bit more now of what Zion looks like. What it looks like to have successful relationships with those you meet and work with. What it looks like to joyously live the law of consecration. What it really looks like and feels like to bring people closer unto Christ. What it means to be baptized by the proper authority. What it sounds like and feels like to receive direction from the Spirit. To know what it looks and feels like to be literally in an unfolding miracle. I know what it feels like to have prophets and apostles pray for you. I know what it feels like to be worthy for the Lord.
I am more ok with things that don't have words now. How do you describe your mission? Great? Awesome? A learning experience? Fun? Sweet? Cool?

I think ill choose Sacred. Sacred things are things that are impossible to describe with words. Sacred things don't need words because thats not how they're understood. Sacred things are more than just things.

I'm so grateful to God for this sacred experience, something that I know is just preparatory for more sacred things to come. I'll think about these 18 months every single day for the rest of eternity. I hope I can work even harder when i'm the Lord's servant at home. I hope I know now how to run even faster. I look forward to going to god's "AP" style of living for his students.

Much Love for the last time,

Sister Bell

Kept it real....because it is real and will always be real. All of it.

1. When weekly planning gets desperate, and so do your cupboards - kraft mac and cheese. gasp.

2. Baking pies at the youngs last p day

3. Before the strike of winter and storm cato

November 17, 2014

God's Thanksgiving Letter to the North Brookfield Sisters:
"Happy Early Thanksgiving. I won't just give you ONE humble pie, but i'll give you SEVEN - one for each day of the week. And because it's the season of giving, you can probably continue to expect one more each day until Thanksgiving. Enjoy. Let me know how it tastes Love, God."

As a result, it was quite an unexpected week. I always knew the importance of working with members - I am a firm believer, but this week in the coolest way...our members totally showed us up!!! It's actually the most exciting thing that can ever happen. It was a reminder to me that this really is the Lord's work - not our work. Sometimes we think we know better, well you know what, we just don't.

We had dinner at a member's home - the Browns for the second time this week. Rare. Best Christmas gift from God. I am convinced that one of the reasons why I was sent to North Brookfield was purely just to learn from the Browns. Bro. Brown taught us principles of teaching and helped us with some concerns we had with our investigators. The spirit was so strong in their home, it literally leaves my mouth empty for words. We were so excited because we were going to try some of these principles at our next lesson that evening with our investigator, MJ.
I don't know if i've ever taught so bad. It's not because the principles were inaccurate, it was just our lack of skill set or spirit or something. We brought a member who we have recently discovered how incredible she is. When the lesson went a different direction, the member knew exactly what scriptures to pull out. It fit MJs needs exactly. She kept apologizing and later apologized if it seemed like she took over the lesson and I was like are you kidding me? You were 110% inspired. And 200% extra bonus points that it came from you and not us because now you guys are best friends. While the lesson ended well, I still left feeling there wasn't a good sense of direction moving forward.

That night we went to bed and I just felt so sad inside. So happy that Jessie was inspired to fill MJs needs, but so sad that I'm the missionary that needs to know how to bounce off of that and work it towards progress for Mary Jane, and not a temporary fulfillment, and i felt like i just didn't do the job. I felt sad that here we had left the Browns - who have so much horsepower of knowledge and skill set, and yet we failed to deliver.

Sister Layton and I talked the next morning and discussed together that we needed to repent as a companionship to Heavenly Father. I've been okay at following the spirit but it was evident to me this week that I have not been filling my capacity. I needed to more frequently do as President Packard always says, "Work like everything depends on us and pray like everything depends on the Lord." We had a shift in ourselves that morning. We went back to a potential investigator's home - she let us in and while our teaching skills are still weak, the discussion was guided by the spirit and we left having a new investigator. The facts just didn't add up on that one, and yet, a miracle happened. Her name is Kim - she has a family, and she said she will invite her kids to sit in on the lesson the next time we come. We left thinking ok, what member should we bring to Kim's? Instantly we both thought, 'yes! sister brown would be perfect with her!'. Then, we look at our calendar and Sister Brown had already signed up to go out with us that day. We felt so blessed from the Lord, especially considering our recent promise to him of our change.

We had to drop MJs baptism date for Nov 21. She was our only date we had set for November. We have a lesson with her this evening, and we hope that the spirit is such and the timing is such that she'll still be baptized in november. Sister Layton and I talked about our goals and at our current state, what our possibility is that we'll meet our goal. We are praying for a miracle...praying like everything depends on the Lord and trying to act accordingly.
We got to teach a different investigator with Brother Brown on sunday. It felt so good teaching with him. He asked everyone in the room what the spirit has been telling them to do during this lesson, and then he said, "the spirit's been telling me that on my way home im going to stop by my friends, the Buzzles, becauses sisters, we need to find more people for you to teach."

I've learned so much about being in tune and listening to the still small voice more this week than the past 3 months combined. When you act and feel like that, it doesn't matter if you meet your goal because you have the faith the Lord still needed you to set it to raise your sights.

Here's to another learning and humbling filled week!

Love,
Sister Bell

p.s. we had our first snow fall this week! YIKES!

AND how could i forget - S. Layton went into the E.R. almost died, yeah its fine.
that felt like a month ago. really dont know how i forgot that.
here is a picture of her getting pampered. The other is a picture at multicultural night - only in north brookfield.

November 10, 2014

Im pretty sure that dumb singer got it wrong - love isn't like a battlefield...LIFE is like a battlefield. Someone has to correct her lyrics.

What a miracle filled week! Not just for us, but the entire mission. As I said last week, Elder Lawrence from the 70 and his wife visited. We had set a goal as a mission to do what we has never nearly been done before in the history of this mission.

President & Sister Packard went to a mission presidency seminar the week before E. Lawrence's visit where he promised the mission presidents that what they promise their missionaries in faith and gods will, will happen. President Packard wrote Elder Holland to tell him about what the mission's goal was and that we were praying in every private and public prayer about this goal. Elder Holland responded "I am so proud of your challenge to the missionaries. I am praying for the mission goal with every morning and evening prayer…. I am fully confident you will reach it.”  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

With great blessing and great out pouring of the spirit however comes the adversary with just as hard of a force. One of our investigators who has a baptism date for Nov 21st was all lined up to come to church and she did not show. On the flip side, the unexpected showed up to church. We are in the biggest tug-a-war match of our lives. I had the opportunity to speak in church. My topic was 2 Nephi 31. If only we comprehended the sacredness of that most simple chapter! It is the chapter that was the catalyst for the prayer that led to the restoration of the Priesthood. All of the available saving ordinances we have is because a young man read that chapter, asked a question, sought prayer, and was spiritually prepared to receive the answer and heavenly visitation. How appropriate that in this month of November the talk would be about baptism. Shocking. Not. It's taking every ounce of spiritual energy we have. I feel like we are shooting at a target, have our eyes on the bullseye, and are even equipped with the right arrows, but sometimes I feel like we are missing the target every time. Archery really does take a lot of practice - and I feel like I'm running out of time. Im learning things about missionary work and who I am in a way that I haven't practiced before. I'm pretty sure I've been doing it all wrong. But ya know what, life wouldn't be fun if you didn't learn a thing or two.

The answer is always the spirit - if we help provide experiences for others around us to help them feel the spirit, recognize the spirit, and teach them how to act on the spirit - it really does solve everything. Well, almost everything :)

It's like mom's best friend, Julie B. Beck said - that the greatest thing we can obtain in this life is the ability to recognize and follow the spirit.  

Good luck on the battlefield this week troops.

Love,

Sister Bell

November 3, 2014

Hello family!

What a special week we had with Elder Lawrence visiting. I wish I could describe just a small portion in words - but you're just going to have to bear with the fact that my letter will probably completely miss the mark. What else is new.

For one, we had a great Mission Leadership Council. For the past few months, President Packard has felt inspired to set a goal as a mission - something that we have never reached before in terms of baptism. We had set the goal for a month over the summer and despite our diligence and the outpouring of the spirit, we didn't quite make it. It was still a revolutionary mark for the mission. As we discussed as a council, we knew that November was the month to complete this goal of 70 baptisms. We created a plan of how we are going to work with the missionaries and wards to bring unity and facilitate this miracle. We were interviewed as companionships by Elder Lawrence which was neat, but not as life shattering as you'd think.

The Lord has been preparing us for November. It was not a coincidence how everything is lining up like clockwork. We had Elder Lawrence's visit, MLC at an unusual time, it's right before November, and we had Zone Conference where it was a good time to announce the goal. In Zone Conference we learned some literally remarkable things about the gospel that I had never thought about as deeply before. Changes everything about the way and the why of my missionary work. If only I would have known this a year ago. Sister Layton and I are of course beyond excited about this goal and experience - I tell ya, the spirit works perrty quickly around here. In less than 24 hours we had prayed and laid out a plan individualized for the branch, met with President Dusty for his counsel so that it could come from him when he announces it, printed inserts of our unit goals for the programs, and invited a family to fast for the first day to kick it off. Oh the powerful things the spirit can allow you to do in less than 24 hours.  We feel so confident that these ideas were directly from the spirit to solve the branch's concern for unity and sharing the gospel. We don't need to please one or the other! Both are knit as one!

So we are calling it the North Brookfield November 3. The 3 things each member of the branch is going to do in the month of November to assist in bringing about a branch baptism this month.

We woke up to November 1st and we knew that the spirit and the devil were already awake. It has been an emotional contemplative weekend. The power of the adversary is real. The harder we work, the more weapons he seems to try. We are praying harder than before and helping our investigators understand this as ever as before too. I've never felt like I had to be more on my guard. It will take more faith than I currently have, more work than I currently give, and more sincere prayers than I currently offer. In fast and testimony meeting I bore my testimony about the power of these goals and the promise that we'll have a baptism conditional upon our obedience to these goals that President Dusty has asked us to do.

Elder Lawrence taught us 6 steps of faith. I invite you to apply these principles to what you are working on or know you should be working on. I wont go into depth on each one - ill let you do you own homework on that. He reminded us that righteous goals are those that have a gap - those that require divine intervention in order to be accomplished.

1. Choose a righteous desire/goal

2. Be believing

3. Plead your cause to the Lord

4. Commit yourself fully

5. Expect trials and obstacles

6. Expect the Lord to preform. [Jacob 4: 6-7]

We don't have quotas - but we do know that so many people right in front of our eyes are looking, waiting, and ready for the gospel. We do know the Lord preforms when we do our part and set worthy goals by the spirit. Doubt and fear can't reside in the same room as faith. We can be doing so much more in our lives that we currently are. Not more as in adding something to the to do list - but it may require that we change some of the things on the to do list, or change the way that we do them.

Please keep the MBM in your prayers this month. See, I told you I couldn't accurately snap shot it!

Love,

Sister Bell

Don't forget your sword and shield at home folks. Ain't nobody got time for that this month.

October 27, 2014

The good news is there's a baptism this week! The even better news is that it's in Uganda! One of the first people Sister Layton found during online proselyting was this guy Josh from Uganda. He has been more than prepared. We skype with him sometimes and chat online to keep supporting him as his baptism is this week, but the Ugandan missionaries did most of the teaching which is perfect and how it should be. The week after he started taking the lessons we asked him what his favorite lesson was with the missionaries. He said, "The restoration of the gospel. Man, that is powerful. I realized if I love Jesus Christ, I have no choice but to follow the 2nd commandment - to love my neighbor. and I wouldn't be showing God I loved them if I didn't share that message with them. The missionaries came and taught my sister and my friends today. They are coming back tomorrow to teach them more."

Yeah, close your jaw from hanging wide open, we can hardly believe it either.

We are mostly grateful not only because it's great that he's chosen to be baptized, but how kind it was of Heavenly Father to be willing to work through the means of the digital mission. Kind is the lamest word to describe how generous of a blessing. Josh was so ready that God would have and could have worked through other means - it would not have been hard to have the missionaries find Josh on the street. But God knew that Josh was already on the internet and has blessed the faith of now hundreds of missionaries by having him be found first on there to show that God is behind the work we are doing here and that he knows the digital mission can work. Isn't it amazing that sometimes God goes out of his way to accomplish a simple act so that hundreds of more people can be effected? What a kind, supportive, and loving Heavenly Father we have.

Miracles are happening left and right in North Brookfield too and are just as evident as the miracle of Josh. What miracles are occurring right this very second that are effecting us that we don't even know God is orchestrating? And then you decide to use a phrase like 'how kind'?? Pathetic.

Elder Lawrence of the 70 is coming to visit. For this month's leadership meeting we get to hear from him and he has planned so far to interview all of the leadership that day, wednesday. Ooooo scary. Then we get to listen to him for an investigator fireside on thursday and then zone conference on Friday! What a spiritually fed week this will be!

Hope you have a miracleous week!

Love,
Sister Bell

October 20, 2014

Oh relax, of course I’m staying in North Brookfield! I get to stay with Sister Layton too! The lucky little dog gets to kill me off. This week I feel like a lot more internalized. The more I internalize and understand what it means to be an effective missionary, the more frustrating it is because now I feel like I have to race the clocks. I’m trying to work the hardest and smartest that I can, and even then I know that the glass is still only ¾ of the way full. I feel like I finally know what it means to pray, what it means to teach to someone’s needs, what it means to have effective visits with members, and how to really plan and schedule. There’s a lot I still have to learn and improve upon in each of those categories, but I definitely see the hand of the lord in helping my eyes and ears to be less foggy. I think President Monson accidently left his ‘changing missionary service to 2 years for young women’ talk at home on the printer this past conference.

Mary Jane has officially gone a week living the word of wisdom! We committed her last Monday…well…really she committed herself. When we explained it to her she responded with, “yeah, I know it’s time for me to start. Ok, I’ll start tomorrow.” Uhh…yeah, good choice? By a miracle we had an amazing member attend that said exactly the points we wanted to cover, even the ones we didn’t even tell her about. We couldn’t do it without you members I tell ya. She bore powerful testimony of how reading the Book of Mormon everyday helped her overcome her addictions. In my mind i was like, "Uh, what addictions?" Turns out she had been struggling back into activity and had her feet on the ground only since about March. Woa. We asked MJ what would be helpful for her to be a good support and person to check in with. She said that the hardest time is in the morning when she first wakes up and that we could text her then or some other point in the day. So we’ve been waking up at 5am every morning to send her encouragement right as she wakes up. The example of Mary Jane just goes to show when people put their mind to something, they can really do and overcome anything when using the Atonement.

We had 2 surprisingly amazing lessons with Tara this week. Attending the Joseph Smith fireside turned out to be revolutionary for her. We had a sweet appt planned with a member that rarely comes out with us and so we were really excited. The appt ended up canceling which ended up being the biggest tender mercy of the century! Last minute we were like shoot! We gotta still take this awesome member with us somewhere! What are we going to do?? Hey, Tara said we could come Friday to do a Fireside lesson review but maybe she'll let us come tonight! We called her and she said yyyess! It was a tender mercy to know how the Lord works in weird ways sometimes. If we didnt have that original appt, we wouldn't have thought to bring that member, and we would have never been led to go there that evening with that member and then Tara would have never had the opportunity to ask solid questions about Christ's restored church. Is God's Church on the earth? If so, why is it necessary to be apart of it to receive salvation? What is my purpose in this life? Who can help me fufill that. Shes been taught the answers to these questions - what she is asking is if the church is really Christ's church on the earth and if she should be apart of it. 

Tender mercy #782: We have a few minutes before our dinner appt so we look up this woman on our potentials sheet. Her name is Kim. Knock knock. 

"hi are you kim?"

"yes"

"Great..ladi da introdctions..we saw that you've had contact with our church in the past and wanted to know if you were still interested."

confused look

"I dont think i have actually."

"You're kim?"

"yes."

is she lying like the other 1500 people? 

"Oh, but you know what, the woman before me's name was kim too. I just moved in like 2 weeks ago." 

Bust up laughing.

"Well we share a message with people that brings hope and a deeper relationship with God. Would you be interested?"

"yes. yes, actually, i would. Give me a week or two to unpack."

WOA. 

Tender mercies folks. If you claim you dont got um, it's probably because your hands are over your eyes. Wake up kids. 

Love,
Sister Bell 

Pictures: Be jealous of fall. You haven't even seen the half of it.

October 13, 2014

What a magical day. No, a magical week.

Fireside

TEMPLE TODAY! HOORAY!

AND - got to watch Meet the Mormons today. SO GOOD.

The day was topped off with MJ committing to live the word of wisdom.
I swear, I have the BEST life ever!!

This past friday we had President Packard's Joseph Smith Fireside roll into town. I have been to a ton before because of the Visitors' Center, but it was interesting viewing it in a different lense. The area has spent months prepping for this fireside - getting it out in the community, inviting friends. It was all we talked about. The fireside is a presentation about what answers we have because of the restoration of the gospel and what revelations Joseph Smith received like what happens when I die? What's heaven like? Why do bad things happen to good people? You name it.

Miracle story:

We've been working with this man John. John is my favorite - he's taken the lessons before and knows more about President Benson than 90% of church members. We were fightin to get John to this fireside. We knew itd be a game changer. So we follow up with him - wednesday he says hes coming. Thursday - says hes coming. We get a text Friday afternoon a few hours before the fireside starts that says he woke up at 3am with a fever of 101.3 and that it hasn't broken so he doesn't think he'll be able to make it. Sister Layton and I want to pull our hair out, yet it also made us extremely happy because if the adversary was working this hard..it means something good was in store for him. Instantly, Sister Layton and I drop to our knees. We prayed and talked about what we needed to say to him. We decided that we needed to promise him a number. We need to give him a bar line to hit so that when he hit it, it would be a sign that he was well enough to come. After praying, we looked at each other and both agreed upon '99 degrees'. Fireside started at 7, we knew that if he was at 99 degrees by 6pm, he could come. We call him and the words just flew out. We told him that he knew exactly why he had a fever. He said, "I do?" We said, "yes. this isn't a fever. this is a delusion of Satan. You're not contagious and you're feeling fine. You will break to 99 degrees by 6pm, and if you do, you can know that you're well enough to come. Go take a hot shower, and say the most sincere prayer you've ever said. Tell God what you're intending to do. Then call us back immediately." He agreed. 20 minutes later we get a call. "I took a shower. I feel very enlightened. I think i'll come."

He does come. Just as the firesides about to start he leaned over and said, "It was weird - i checked my temperature right as I was leaving the house - it was exactly 99 degrees." While I was overjoyed, I wasn't exactly shocked. We knew that he would be! I said, "John, we prayed right before we called you because we knew that we needed to tell you a number. We knew that God would break your fever to 99." He was like, "are you serious?!?!" Dont act so surprised John. We told you there was a war going on up there while you were running around trying to decide if you were going to come or not.

I know that God is aware of each one of us - he does care about what we do. He does know if we go to church on sunday or not, and if our heart's in the right place when we are there. He knows exactly when we choose to watch tv before we choose to study his scriptures. He also knows that we have the gift of making our own choices and he will never ever stop us or force us into decision making. However, when we listen closely, are in tune with the spirit, and have the courage to make the right choice, we will be able to see the Lord's hand and his miracles VIVIDLY.

We have been hearing a LOT about prophets lately. it seems every where I turn it's about prophets. Even when we skype taught the man in Uganda, his main question was: "How can I tell between a true prophet and a false prophet?" You are asking the right question my friend. It's amazing that a random man with no context of the church is still spiritually aware of the main topic going around. Are we prepared to follow the prophet at his next command that may require more faith than we currently have? What are we doing now to follow the prophet? What kinds of activities fill our time that will help bring in the right spirit to discern between a false prophet and a true prophet. How lucky we are that we have the promise that our prophets will NEVER lead us astray. What a steady anchor in a shifting world. Who wouldn't want that spiritual security? 
Choose to listen. Choose to follow the prophet. Choose to act on faith before you act on the natural man.

And as the glorious Sister Crane would say - CHOOSE CELESTIAL :)

Love,

Sister Bell

Pictures:

1. S. Laytons B day on general conference!

2. Apple picking with the coolest branch missionary

September 29, 2014

Highlight of the week was an awesome lesson with Mary Jane and Zone Conference. The energy you receive from Zone Conference is almost comparable to the strength you feel after leaving the Temple. Almost because nothing can compare to that, but it is pretty close. You leave more charitable, more focused, more confident, and more excited about the work. The asked the Youngs to drive us to save miles - the coolest members in the world. They were cracking us up the entire way down to Hartford. Brother Young stumbles out of the house with 3 ties around his neck. We said, "Good morning brother young!!! We're so excited!! Our vote is the striped tie." He says, "Oh no, you're bright and cheery this morning. I can't believe we are doing this." He probably repeated I cant believe this is happening like 15 times that morning. It was hilarious. Bless their hearts for spending all day with us. Good thing service brings blessings - keep serving the missionaries around you! :) 

Sister Layton and I felt like the spirit taught us additional ideas of how we can work in the area and how to improve some of our lessons at Zone Conference as well. I also felt like I received guidance to create some personal goals for myself. Sometimes when we feel like we aren't receiving the answers we're looking for it's because we've already been given them. Sometimes its because we're not ready for them. Sometimes it's because we're not doing our part to receive them. As a society we are really good at being busy and it's really easy to feel tired at the end of the day. These are some results we are looking for in feeling validated for our success. I'm grateful for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost that is our true source of checkpoints to guide the success of our work.
We've been very busy in North Brookfield. And I hope that we haven't just been busy but that we've been productive. I feel like we have, or at least working our way there. I'm gettin more and more in the swing of things - I feel like I have it all - I have the knowledge, we've been trained on the skills, and I have the energy. I just have to review review and do do do. We prayed and set some large goals for the month - not impossible, but definitely a lot of work. We're so excited. Miracles are occurring left and right.

Love you all!

Thanks for the prayers and always the fun fun pictures of the kiddos. Congrats to the newest member- Brayden!! He's adorable!

September 22, 2014

Winter is quickly approaching - it's quite scary. I hear rumors about California being 80 degrees and I want to scream. The leaves are changing really fast which is GORGEOUS, but they are turning a little bit earlier than they should. We live in the best spot for fall by far.

North Brookfield is quite the funny and quaint place. The members are all related to eachother. S. Layton has created this hilarious family relations chart - i swear, it practically dates back to Adam. As a result it provides quite the branch family drama sometimes and we love it.

Apparently I can't keep myself from investigating all these potential projects and getting everyone else around me sucked into them because per request we are now also digital missionary extenders which means finding people online to teach through pinterest, facebook, blogs, etc...yes it's true, I said pinterest. People engage on online conversations and begin skype teaching people and connecting them with local missionaries. It is the sweetest thing since boston cream pies. We have the opportunity to do it in the morning when it is a slower time. It's mostly S. Layton that's surfing the web while I work on another project. Apparently, the Book of Mormon has not been translated as an audio recording in Haitian Creole. There's a ton of haitian creole speaking people here and there's an elder here who translates live general conference in haitian creole. The combination of having an innovative mission president serving in a very innovative place seems to blow up too many creative projects. We have a goal for him to finish recording his voice reading the entire BOM in HC and I'm editing the audio and piecing it together as he goes just by following along reading a copy of a HC BOM. A joke right? Not this time. Maybe i'll get to be like the guy from the Other Side of Heaven and be fluent in Haitian Creole by the end. Probably not.

We've had so many miracles this week - we are trying to get a member with us at every single appointment to help build lessons and help build unity in the branch. One day we were picking up a member for an appt. and Sister Layton is outside the car backing me up. At one point I thought of telling her to get in the car because we were backing up on kind of a busy road, but then I thought, 'eh, its probably ok'. All the sudden I see her talking to someone crossing the sidewalk at the end of the driveway. She runs to the car, grabs her planner and goes back to the woman. Blessings of having a backer!!
She said the woman said, "You look so cute!"

S. Layton, "Thanks, do you live around here?"

Woman: "Yeah, about 5 minutes that way. Do you?"

S. Layton: "No, i'm from Utah."

Woman: "What are you doing all the way out here?"

S Layton: "Serving a mission for my church - want to hear more about it?"

Woman: "Mmm, i can't right now, but I can tomorrow!"

S. Layton: "4:00 ok?"

Woman!: "yeah!"

I'm tellin you - my companion is the ultimate champion. She is so natural at sharing the gospel. The studies of S. Layton and S. Bell statistically show that when you take members out with you, be yourself, be outgoing, and have a backer.....the combination creates unexpected miracles.

Love you all - thanks for your prayers!

Sister Bell

September 15, 2014

Well hello dearest family!

Quite the week we've had! I'm all settled in the adorable quaint land of North Brookfield. I tell ya, this ain't no Weston or Belmont. I though Ellington was in the boonies - boy was I wrong. What an unexpected...but happy change.
Sister Layton is my new companion and she's practically perfect in every way. She's only been there a transfer so it's been fun to still get to know a few things together for the first time. We are both really really excited about the area and the potential the branch has. They just built a building about 6-10 years ago and it is designed to have 2 wards in it. There is a very very special spirit here. I can't imagine what's in store for this land even just 5 years from now.

We cover a million towns...ok more like 15. But still. And it may or may not have taken us almost 2 hours to get to district meeting.

The people here are incredible though. President Dusty, the branch president, has all eyes on missionary work. The members are the best member missionaries i've seen my entire mission. Sharing the gospel isn't what they do - it's who they are. We've already seen so many miracles in the short time i've been here. The sisters last week asked the Branch mission leader to pray about his vision for the area and this week he said he did and that he got an answer. Sister Layton said this was very much an unexpected miracle coming from him. He said the branch needs to be more unified, that people are so incredibly friendly when they come to church but people feel disconnected when they go back to their homes. One of our main focuses will be to help with Home and Visiting teaching. The members love the missionaries and love to help in any way, so hopefully when they're out with us on more of a regular basis to both our teaching appts and those they ht/vt, even more miracles will unfold. Sister Layton and I are really excited.

This past week we saw our own miracle. President Dusty texted us and invited us to his home for lunch and correlation Saturday afternoon. Sister Layton said, "Hmm, we've never met with him at this time during the week, this is awesome!" We had most of our saturday empty, so it really was awesome in that regards. Then all the sudden she says, "Oh! I remember seeing a name on the potential investigators list that lives in that same city. We can stop by while we're over there." After an amazing correlation, we stop by this person's house. The dad was mowing the lawn outside. We go up to the house, sister layton reminds him of who they were from a couple weeks ago and he says, "actually, we're all set. sorry." We said, "well we love to be a resource to the community and help any way we can. Can we leave you a card with our number on it in case you change your  mind or need anything?" Very hesitantly he said, "mm, you can give it to my wife in the house." We ring the door bell - she answers with a very cute little girl at her side. We tell her that we had met her husband a couple weeks back. She said, "oh well what did he say? We're not very religious" We said, "He said we could come give you this card with our information on it." I thought No, no we're not letting this one go. She doesn't even know who we really are. The spirit was evidently there on the door step with us because we then said something to the effect that we share a message with people about Jesus Christ and how their families can become closer together, and that you probably think you're not interested but thats because you dont know what our message is. Is there a time this week that your family would be available that we could come share it with you? She looked at us and then said, "Well, the kids have a lot of activities after school during the week....but...we dont have anything on wednesday."

WE ARE SO EXCITED. PLEASE pray for this family. It was too much of a miracle for President Dusty's timing, S. Laytons remembrance, and te fact that they were home for it to be not meant to be.

It has been quite the adjustment. In a lot of aspects I feel like a brand new missionary again and surprisingly it hasn't been too frustrating...only a little frustrating :) Since this time they have a slightly adjusted reporting system. Last night for reporting I asked sister Layton how to do it. She laughed and said, "woa they changed that a long time ago." I said, "Yeah I know - I told you you're training a greenie!" She's been incredibly patient and fun about all the things i'm remembering. Im mostly just grateful because I know that the spirit has brought back loads to my remembrance. I may not have all the practice down of the missionary skill sets, but I think in this gap i've grown to have more trust in the Lord, more confidence in the Lord and the talents he's given us, and become even more excited about the work of the Lord - so in that way its probably a blessing I had a gap. Its also a blessing that I get to go to bed on time! :)

Love you all. I hope you are still doing and being the work of the Lord when you return home on Sundays. I hope you're reaching out before you reach in. I hope you listen before you talk. And most importantly, I hope you stay patient with God's timing and his unexpected plans...sometimes..very unexpected plans.

Love,
Sister Bell 

Keepin it real in the boonies

Pictures:
Red Sox game! My last gift of grace of being the spoiled missionary in grand weston before kicking it to the curb.

September 9, 2014

Last week as a PVC missionary - quite the internal mix of emotions.

The perks, or down side, of being in the office all the time is that you get to see the transfer board before the texts come out if the assistants update it soon enough..so I got to see it early! To be honest, the result was a bit surprising. But so has every other transfer on my mission so far so it shouldn't be that surprising. 

NORTH BROOKFIELD, MA. 

It is an adorable branch about 2 hours west of Boston. I'm getting banished to the boonies! I've actually stayed the night there once before because of a Fireside we brought the PVC to and my new companion, Sister Layton I hear is AMAZING so I'm very excited. We are called as the Sister Training Leaders for that zone/stake which is good - it'll give me a chance to hopefully redeem myself from the last time I had that assignment. I was probably the worst in the history of the worst so thank heavens God's letting me go up to bat again. It will be interesting to see what the Lord wants us to do there. 

It hasn't quite hit me yet that I'm leaving the PVC but I can imagine if it did sink in, it would be really really hard. So, thank goodness it hasn't sunk in. I feel like i'm giving up my first born child. I've had the most amazing opportunities that most people can't afford - literally the experience i've gained, people we've established relationships with, and professionals we've received indirect training by are very expensive in the real world. Most importantly, I feel like I've learned even deeper the language of the spirit - how to listen and how to follow. In the Book of Mormon, God chose Nephi, someone who didn't know how to build a boat I believe for partly because he knew he was humble and receptive to follow God's plan instead of relying on his own experience and intuition. The Lord was then able to supply him with instruction and he was able to use his experience of drive and desire to execute it. I feel like lucky Nephi who said, "You want a miracle, but I've never done it before. But I want to do it, so if you just give me a few stepping stones, I'm willing to jump to each one!" 

My last event we went out with a bang. We got to do church tours in New Haven. One of the members sent out a mass email to all of the Yale divinity students - and people came because of it! So many members brought friends and it was a touching experience knowing it was my last time doing church tours on the PVC. 

The PVC is flying in so many new miraculous directions of possibilities. It's beyond incredible. The teaching app that we are creating with the programmer is done! At least the one subject tester one! We are gearing up so when the missionaries get iPads we're ready to roll. 

Today was strangely mirculous. Things fell into place - things you just really can't plan for or expect when you are looking at your planner in the morning. For example, President Packard oddly decided to cancel his lunch appt and work in the office today which meant we could film him for a side project we were helping the stake RS with thats due..tomorrow. We had THE best lunch with the stake RS president who is my new idol - she taught me so so much in such a short amount of time of our interactions.Then a senior couple that we have been trying to get a hold of 'accidently' called the wrong number. We said, "did you get our message?" He said, "No I really accidently just hit your name in the phone. But yes we can meet today because im leaving out of town tomorrow". Oh in Cambridge? We just so happen to have to go there anyway!! While in Cambridge walking through the chapel doors out pops the next person we've been trying to meet - the institute director at LP that we're trying to correlate doing a weekly-biweekly PVC visit for the building because its such a high traffic area!! Then 15 other weird happenstances - including Brandon being 10 minutes away from me! I'm tellin you...God is in the details. You just gotta look up from your facebook every once in a while to notice them! 

We also had an amazing Sunday - the lessons were...incredible. The testimonies were all about the change of moving and the lessons were conveniently all about change. I thought about the changes in our lives - why we have them and how we can respond to them. The teacher pointed out beautiful scriptures and talked about change and perfection and what it means to become perfect in Christ. Did you know that in hebrew there is no translation for perfect...the closest thing that translates is merciful. Perfection in Greek is to make full, to complete, accomplish. We don't seek perfection as an end goal, we seek it as a current state. If it was an end goal for after we die, that would be mean there is no learning and we know from the sciptures that that is not the case. So what does perfection really mean? We practice becoming perfect in Christ - we let him fill us, complete us. We have a balanced partnership in our lives and just like any other relationship, we work on healing it, growing it, and seek to further understand the communication. Because of His atonement, we can become a new creature. 

I told God before transfers that He could give me a challenge - I said go ahead and lay it all out on the table buddy, it'll be fun. I am very excited to be transferred to North Brookfield but it definetly wasn't the change and challenge I was expecting by far which i suppose makes it the true challenge. 

I hope that we can each evaulate the change that is occuring in our lives and seek to become perfect in Christ as we develop in our new changes.

Eclesiastisies 3:11, 2 Corinsthians 5:17, Ezekiel 36:25-27

Love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support. 

Sister Bell

And as always, don't forget to keep it real. 

September 1, 2014

I wish there was one word to sum up this week, but since when does that ever happen? We went to a couple amazing baptisms and the missionaries are really starting to utilize the PVC effectively. We were invited to do a 3rd hour training on How to Use the PVC effectively in Central Falls, RI. Sister Hurst was so cutely excited as she served over 7 months there. It went INCREDIBLE. The spirit was really strong and there was a perfect balance of spiritual (so they'd get a feel of what we teach/how we teach) and tangible 'how to' helps. The members participated and guided the lesson as if we had put plants in the audience.

Afterwards we went to a member's home there who fed us. We are like ravenous travelers who don't have a home. Yet, I never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from - something always pops up! 

At the woman's home we shared Because of Him and our recently made Christ's Church video. If you haven't seen either one - ya need to go look at it..now.

http://easter.mormon.org/

http://www.reallifeanswers.org/everyday-faith/what-is-the-restored-church/

Because of Him is one of the standard videos in the tour that we show so lets just say I see it.....ehhh approximately 4-8 times a week. Each time it's good, but it starts to become a habit of sound in the background. This time since it was in the woman's home she held the iPad and so I couldn't see the imagery, just heard the music. The blessing of seeing it 15,00 times is that you don't need to see it to know what it looks like, I can imagine every single clip in my head at each point of the song. It transforms a bit differently in your mind when you imagine it yourself, in a very real way. We've been so busy and honestly I've been trying to push off thinking too closely about how the PVC has impacted my life because I just....i just don't have feelings. This time when watching Because of Him, I felt a washed over feeling that tingled to my toes. I thought about all of the times I've watched this video and the process of creating Christ's Church....the process of being apart of an amazing discovery. There's no real word to describe the experience with the Visitors' Center either. People always say 'oh wow what a great learning experience' ,'oh wow i'm sure that'll look good on a resume', 'oh wow, how unique', 'oh wow, what a special experience'. 

No. No, I don't think that accurately covers it. I think it actually does it an injustice. Unique it is. Learning, without a doubt. Special, yeah you can say that. But above all, it has been a SACRED experience. A HOLY experience. If you let your mind wander to a fraction of the experiences that have occurred, you would refer to it as Sacred. As we traveled home from Central Falls following the woman's house, shoot man, a couple tears came down my face! And I ain't a crier! I find out where I go this Friday. It will be very hard to leave the PVC - I feel ready - and I'm SO SO excited to sprint in proselyting again. I watch the shortest clips about missionaries or working in ward councils and I am soo missionary trunky. My poor next companion is going to have to train a greenie again with more fire than all the newbies coming out combined. 

This morning we were able to go to the temple. What a holy place. I learned new things, as always. And very exciting, I was able to do sealings for the first time. Families can be together after death - and what makes it possible is doing what's called 'sealings'. You go into a room and act in behalf of a family who has passed on. They say a specific and sacred prayer using the priesthood authority of God, this is the sealing power that allows families to be together after this life.  Hermana and I were able to act in behalf of daughters. 

To top it off we had a STELLAR primary activity with the PVC - a visit from angel Moroni, sugar cookies, coloring, oh yeah you name it! 

A holy week. Ponder, pray, watch those videos. 

Its all real guys, It's all real.

Love,
Sister Bell

August 25, 2014

Please forgive me for not writing last week! My letters are annoyingly lengthy enough that they make up for it, right?

In the past 2 weeks we've conquered the world. I'll try to keep it to just a few highlights - just know the highlights could go on for hours.

First off, we have the best trio. Enough said. I think we defy all the stereotype fears that come in trio life. Sister Hansen is a star and she reminds me of Caitlin Blickenstaff...so needless to say I adore her. It's been a blessing to have another friend that is very chill and easy to relate to. We picked her up halfway from her old area, New Haven, CT...which was so conveniently the exit that my favorite members from Ellington the Kravetz family lives! Of course we stopped. She gave us provisions for the road like a true Saint which turned out to be quite the miracle considering the weekend we had on the road. Thanks for answering our prayer Holly! 

That night we took sistah Hansen in for top gun PVC madness. We had been doing that temple filming and on our 'extras if time permits' list we figured we'd put Elder Calvert on the list because he's elder Taits companion (the missionary that helped with filming) so it'd be convenient. We'll time didnt permit, but we made it permit. We wanted to film him in the perspective of the word of wisdom and a 'how I live my faith' video with the neat perspective that he's on the BYU Basketball team. Yeah, I know. 

We were going to film him at a random outdoor basketball court buuuuuuut come on now. Outdoor basketball court?? Give me a break. Danny Ainge lives in our area and is literally the man. The rare spirit of non awkwardness veiled my identity enough to call him to see if we could use the IPF. It helps that he's seen the Vistors Center and loves it......but.....it's probably mostly just because he's the man. 

One of the summer practice league players was there shooting when they opened it for us. 

What'd up, sorry, want me to turn off the music? Oh no it's cool man, would hate to throw off your shots. But since you asked, yeah we'll need it off for filming in a half hour. Let me grab you a Gatorade. Why thank you, my favorite flavor is 'cool blue' but no why would I feel cool right now? This kind of stuff usually happens in a normal missionary life, right? Right. 

That weekend we had church tours in Providence again-land of the promise. SOOO MANY LESSONS....SOO MANY REFERRALS. It was madness. Let's just say Hermana Hansen got a good first few days. We were like "we want to say this is really rare and we never get this good of a life buuuuut we seem to say that every day so you can probably assume it's the norm". 

Don't think I just live at Disneyland all day, it's really hard but I think what makes it great is that I love the kind of hard that it is. I feel like my mental and physical capacities and exceedingly unnormal. I just feel more and more desire everytime I wake up - more of a desire to feel the spirit, to be kinder, to be more patient, to work even harder, to serve others, to be obedient, to trust God. As a result I like myself even more each day. Although I still struggle with deciphering the promptings of the spirit and the normal tests of patience like we all do, it's more of a happy process. I'm more patient with myself, more ok with screwing up, more willing to set aside the little things. 

The displays are getting printed in Spanish as I type. The letter was sent off to Salt Lake. They responded. Woa. Evaluations of what events more most effective are getting better. We are very busy. We are very happy. 

This week should be another rough week as I we attend the BYU football fireside where the players, coach, and new BYU pres will be there. Devastating, really. Absolutely devastating. 

Love,

Sister Bell

Keepin it real

 

PICS:

Celtics IPF

Boston Trio

Throwing tea in the Boston Harbor :) 

Old North Church

Kravetz House!!

 

 

 

August 11, 2014

The Boston Mission has happily gained in numbers - since the ebola outbreak in Africa, we've received 2. The experiences that these missionaries have gone through is amazing. One minute you're in a teaching appointment and get an emergency phone call saying go to your apartment immediately and don't leave. Throw all your food away. Oh you did, shoot well now you're going to be stuck there for 2 days. Ok go to Ghana...just kidding! turn around in the airport - consider yourselves permanently reassigned to Boston! Oh the faith of missionaries!

I also went to a funeral this week. It was kind of tragic - a mom and a daughter will killed on their way back from girls camp. They left a husband and 2 other kids. In a weird way it was kind of neat to go to a funeral the same week as Grandpa Bell's funeral. It was one of the best funerals i've attended - the husband/father's talk was amazing. He stood up and said "to stand up here and rant for an hour about all the wonderful things they've done and who they were would do them an injustice. So i wont. We all know what kind of people they were otherwise you wouldn't be here. So I have a more important message that they would want me to say." He went on and talked about God's Plan for us, that not only is this life not the end, but all the things that we get to be apart of in the next life. "All that they were and all that they did doesn't stop being apart of them. They are still serving and learning and becoming better. They are so so happy. So don't you dare be sad. We all go through forms of greiving, and in the quiet nights when I feel alone, I still miss them and weep for them, but we can't be sad for them. They deserve more than that. Go home and set aside time and ponder how you met my girls and how theyve impacted your life, and who you are because of it." It was really inspiring how bold he was. I hope we dont dare question our loved ones happiness or even existence once they've passed on. And I hope we don't dare be sad.

The other exciting news is that we had interviews today. President Packard called this morning and we have a lot to prepare for in preperation for his letter being sent off to Salt Lake about the visitors' center. He's like "Uh, I figured we'd write the draft in your interview time, so you may not get one....but i figure you're doing fine." In fact, it was the best 'interview' i've ever had. Sister Hurst and I were in it together - we spent half the time laughing and the other half very excited. Its like preparing for Christmas. Speaking of which, sister hurst and I may be able to stay 2 weeks longer than normal so we can help with all the PVC Christmas nativities...... :) We'll talk about that later.

THE FINAL NEWS!!!! WE GET A THIRD COMPANION THIS WEEK!!!!! We've known for a couple weeks but now its official. Sister Hansen - shes currently serving as a Spanish assigned missionary. She also looks like a perfect disney princess - its about time we have a beautiful face for the PVC. We are SOOO excited to have her and we will be able to triple the work and of course triple the fun!

Try to have as fun of a week as I will....but thats a pretty high standard to beat. Get to teach the coolest haitian man, drive someone to the airport at 5 in the morning, pick up a new companion in New Haven, CT, and have 4 events. Can you top that? I dare you. 

Lots of love,

Sister Bell

Keepin real....and keepin it with 3!

August 4, 2014

WHAT THE WHAT?!? The following includes excerpts from glorious Sister Hurst's letter home - she depicted our experience ten times better then i ever could. 

Who'da thunk when I turned in my mission papers that I would be directing film and editing movies and supervising translations and whatnot? Cah-razy. 

This weekend was super fun and a bit stressful and I don't think I can do it justice in words. But I will say this. I saw MIRACLES this weekend.

Here is the main one. We have been planning on going to the temple to film outside and interview people and we were planning in Cambridge with a member from Cambridge who is a harvard grad and she suggested that we at least give the temple president a heads up of what we were doing. We thought that would be the cordial thing to do so I called and the temple president was like 'you aren't allowed to do that.' I don't think it was so much that he didn't want us to do it, he just didn't feel that he had the authority to let us film on that property. We were kind of shocked. So we found out on Thursday that it was a no when we were in the mission home helping to serve dinner to the departing missionaries. We were like uhhhhh...... 

Through out the week I felt impressed that I should fast on Friday, so we fasted that we could submit our will to what heavenly father had instore and if it be right that we get permission and proper weather. 

We have been trying to capitalize on Ashley as much as possible since she is moving soon and leaving her work and so she a.) won't be here and b.) won't have access to borrow the equipment.So we were trying to get EVERYTHING done this weekend and really put all our eggs in one basket. On thursday night, president said he would try figuring things out for us but it didn't really end up happening so there we are on Friday night at like 9:30 with nothing. President said he would ask the area 70, Elder Bennet. He called. No answer. 

So it's like 11 on Friday and we haven't heard back from President about the area 70. Ashley told us how to write out the scripts and manage the day and, according to her instructions (and because we are both over-achievers) I had scheduled out the day in 10 minute increments.Literally you should see our excell sheet - almost embarrassing. We had pages of interview questions/shots we wanted. We had emailed questions out to participants and requested families to wear complimentary colors. We had permission forms for people to sign. We had another missionary (Elder Tait who is really good at filming) coming to help. Ashley had borrowed all the equipment from work. We had a food supply - apples, oreos, and cheez its. Brain food. And to top it all off there was about an 80% chance of rain from 8 am to 8 pm.

We started making back up ideas. We could go to the Rollins house where they have a pretty yard that we could pretend was the temple. We could film at the Belmont chapel right next door to the temple. In the back of my mind I almost thought that if it rained we would have an excuse to call off this non-sense altogether. We had correlated so many people's schedules to be there and I didn't want it to all come tumbling down because we didn't have permission in the first place. So we came up with some ideas but figured it would be what it would be (we had spent a lot of mental energy dreaming up shots for the temple...it seemed like our minds would be able to work quickly enough to think of new shots at new locations). So we left it up to the Lord and went to bed. 

We knew that the Lord could perform miracles-He could make it so we had permission, he could keep it from raining. But the real question was whether this whole thing was according to his will and in his timetable. So it's not like our testimonies would be shaken or that we would think that our fasts hadn't 'worked' if it didn't go as we had planned. We would have just been really disappointed. And confused--because as we had picked out the people, and planned the topics and the shots it had felt like we were doing a good thing.

Well. We wake up at like 5:45 the next day. Drive to Watertown to pick up Ashley about 7:40. Still no word from Elder Bennett, the area 70. We decided that if we didn't hear by 8am we would just call him ourselves. Sounds rash, but hey, when you have Christmas brunch at the man's house, you get a bit of a more appropriate excuse. Pays to know people man, pays to know.  So we pulled over on a side neighborhood connected to the highway just down the way from where the temple is.Literally we have the camera out, we are like little puppy dogs waiting for christmas morning. Ring ring - elder bennett answers! He tells me that he gives us his blessing and is willing to give us permission as long as we don't show it to people outside the editing process until we have more official permission from someone more official in the church. 

Let me repeat that. 

ELDER BENNETT (our area authority) GAVE US PERMISSION AT ALMOST THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT!!! One thing I learned from this is that we need to move forward in faith. We weren't going to film inside the temple gate if we didn't get permission. But we still had everything planned as if we did have the permission and it didn't rain (pretty much the most we had done was tell a family that we could let them know if we called it off due to rain and ignored their question about whether the temple president knew we were filming).

So yeah. We got to the temple and I felt so blessed that the Lord had heard our prayers and was willing to let us try to do this project to glorify Him.I just wanted to tell everyone about the miracle we had just experienced! 

Well, we got to the temple and low and behold it was raining. Not really RAIN raining but drizzling. Enough to make us nervous with the cameras. But we kept calm and carried on. At some points we covered the cameras with umbrellas. Everyone showed up who was supposed to. We interviewed a Haitian family, a family from Central Falls, a family from Framingham, Sister Kendall, Sister Belchior (a msisionary from Mozambique with an amazing story and amazing faith), and Elder Calvert. We filmed for the first part of the day at the temple and at the church next door. Then we went into Cambridge and filmed at the LP chapel (where my momma and papa met!) and in Longfellow Park and near the Charles River. It was so much fun! 

It was a really fun team to work with. It was great to see some people from earlier parts of my mission and Elder Tait and Elder Calvert were SOOO fun / hilarious to work with. They talk like they are 50s gangsters like all the time. It's ridiculous. And Sister Belchior is so lovely and we got to talk about international law stuff. And Ashley was such a gem. She volunteered so much time and talent to help us. 

MORAL OF THE STORY. Revelation is a process. 

I love the Lord and I have loved learning more about His holy house, the temple. I'm so thankful for the power of prayer and fasting and consecrated individuals who are willing to donate of themselves to help spread the gospel. 

Love,

Sister Bell & Sister Jenny Hurst 

July 28, 2014

My article is on reallifeanswers.org - you should check it out! Same with our most recent video Sister Hurst and I made a few weeks back. If its not on the main page, you can search Lorianne. The video you can search 'restored church'.

This week we had Zone Conference - we have the most amazing leaders to learn from. We get to soak in all this knowledge from men like President Haight and President Christensen. People pay for that kind of time. We learn how to help people engulf in their own spiritual experiences, personally, in our lessons, and while they're at church. It's amazing what impact you can have outside of lessons to help people have a spiritual experience. Sometimes it's hard to step back and apply the same principle to ourselves.
My favorite PVC event of the weekend: a family baptism in Boston. The elders knocked on their door and asked if they could share a message about Jesus Christ. The mom said no. A few minutes later she ran outside the house, apologized and felt guilty for saying no. She invited them in - the dad was at first hesitant and as they progressed the little boy would ask 'Dad are you going to come to church this week?'. They've had an amazing journey and it was neat to get to see them get baptized. We set up one of the displays in the chapel and played videos during the between time while they were changing. The spirit was incredibly strong. It's amazing to see what impact God has on our lives through small ways that we can barely recognize sometimes. 

Its amazing to think the trust God places in us to make our own decisions - that we dont need him to bat us on the head every day or come down in person to help us make the right decisions. We've been given everything we need.

This week is also transfer week.....I GET TO STAY ON THE PVC!!! WOO!!! Sister Packard pulled me aside at Zone Conference and asked how I was doing and if I was still surviving. She apologized for them keeping me this long - I was like, "Are you kidding?! This is a PRIVILEGE!" We talked about what would be best with this critical timing of sending things in to Salt Lake..and evidently you can see what was determined. This will be my last transfer on it though so i'm trying to make the most of every millisecond! Happy days in the MBM. 

Sister Crane leaves for home this week!! That's kind of weird...Sister Hurst and I are already going through withdrawals without her.....weird weird weird.....

Love,
Sister Bell

July 21, 2014

We just got home from a long, successful week in New Haven, CT! Literally - just lived there for the week. Im quite the master packer..and youd be surprised about how little you can live off of too!

We are just testing the PVC in all kinds of lights - wednesday night we did a combined mutual activity using the Visitors' Center in Trumbull. It was invite a friend night. We made a fun scavenger hunt worksheet where they had to look of answers in videos, look for a specific BOM on the BOM table, etc. The first team completed with the  most correct answers wins. We were a little nervous about it...missionary cool and other people cool are two very different types of cool....but the youth loved it! Or so it looked like! They brought about 5 friends who weren't members sooo yay!

Thursday we kept it set up in the building and did chapel tours. We did an investigator lesson that night that was my favorite - our last stop (Temples) was the most touching. We talked about her deceased grandmother and the blessings that temples provide - the opportunity to be with our family members forever. In addition to that, how temples can allow her to get baptized in place of her grandmother so she can choose to accept those blessings. We watched videos of inside the temple and she started bawling. Not that we measure our success by tear drops...

Thursday night we took down and drove to New Haven to stay with Sister Barney! We did church tours all that next day. We put the Jesus Christ display outside and put Because of Him on repeat. That chapel is in the heart of Yale campus (pretty sweet) and gets tons of foot traffic, plus conveniently at a stop light. When cars were lined up at the stop light everyone's head was turned over watching Because of Him. Sister Barney was a champ knocking on people's windows giving them pass along cards car after car. At one point, one person rolled down their window and asked for one. Yeah, I didn't teach her that. So proud.
We did 9 tours (which ended up being about 30 people total). A third were non members. A third recent converts. It's pretty exhausting. You have to be that stimulated happy face on the hour, every hour...oh and by the way remember to teach people, not lessons. The great news is, Sister Barney and I got to take Susan Duclose (a friend of ours from our time in Ellington) through the tour and teach together - she loved it. We didnt realize till after but that day was Sister Barney and I's one year mark of when we were first day companions! Special special day!

Saturday we went to New Haven Stake family day where we didn't do tours, it was just self play. Had a great experience there - almost thought I was going to make headline news. Apparently the expression "gun wavin' New Haven" isn't a joke. On the way home we got to stop at the Hartford temple site! Oh how i'm in love with that place. It's walls aren't even up yet and it is so beautiful! There was such a spirit there.

Oh how lucky we are that God loves us enough to let us enter His house even when we are still imperfect mortals. We get to feel needed in building up his work by getting to unite our families and other's families forever. We get to experience a peace that literally is offered no where else on the earth. And the best part? Anyone can go! Sure you have to do a little preparation - but you wouldn't want to put muddy shoes on white carpet either would you? What a special place.

Set up. Take down. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

Love,
Sister Bell

Keepin it a realzy breezy

1. Sister Barney's classy mac n cheese - celebrating with Susan

2. Visiting Hartford Temple Site!