March 26, 2014

Family! I forgot to warn that it was transfer week, which is why p-day is on wednesday, not monday. Sorry!

We went into Boston this afternoon with a couple other sets of missionaries, which was fun! We walked around with all the harvard smarties on campus and got THE best and probably one of the most expensive cups of hot chocolate in the world - LA Burdicks. It literally tastes like purely a chocolate bar melted with a lil whip cream on top. A chocoholic's dream. The day was topped off with a delicious bowl of New England Clam Chowda. :) I get to live in a suburb of the most beautiful..and delicious city. 

Our project is starting to become very tangible! The Lord puts miracles in our path daily. I feel like we aren't doing anything - we just know the right people to call. It has been great practice to learn how to recognize the spirit and how to make decisions. Im becoming a much better decision maker. I used to be the person who couldn't even pick out a box of cereal at the grocery store and would go back and forth with Julie "i dont care", "no I dont care". Right Jules? :)

We spent the night on the phone with the graphic designer whom heavenly father gave to us as a miracle..again just knowin the right people. She sent us all these color palettes and geometric shapes to choose from...im telling you, it was just as OR MORE stressful than picking out paint colors and carpet swatches for a house. It's like putting a downpayment on one too...

All these people are doing the dirty work and we sit back and pick color palettes? Heavenly Father also guided us to the perfect programmer. We had several options in both of these areas in whom we chose and have had very spiritual experiences in doing so. They send us mock ups and just sit on the phones and say "do you want this, or this? what style button do you prefer? to scroll or not to scroll? language options? how bout i put the referrals into an automatic excell document when sent from the iPad?" uuuuhhh yes? to all of the above.

I have taken the stamp off my forehead as being titled the indecisive cereal picker of the past. Sometimes the work is fun and sometimes the work is very frustrating...and sometimes i want to shoot my eyes out...but then it turns fun again so I put that thought to the wayside.

We also got to buy our first round of iPads! That was a fun phone call to make. I ended up talking to the man on the phone about his experience going to a mormon church before and his friends who are on missions than the actual purchasing time - it was great!  

This past week we also got to go to the regional public affairs training meeting. Elder Bennett the area 70 (i knew him from Belmont) knows about the project and 'personally invited us'. woopdie do - dont we sound soo special? We were like "President Packard, what do you even want us to do there?"...He said, "Just go learn". Not sure how beneficial it was for our assignment..but it did connect us with a couple more people. It was in Belmont and I got to see my old Bishop and a few members i adore, including Bro Sivers, the member we taught the National Geographic friend with if you remember that...and seeing them felt felt really really good...really good. I also got to see sister Kendall because she was at the church for something else!!!!!! The training was also great - I just sat there and thought "oh boy, i hope i can remember all this". Probably won't - that's ok. 

The coolest moment actually was when they mentioned the PR theme and mentioned how we are defending our faith, family, and freedom. It took me a second and then I realized....woa, i'm in Alma 47 right now. Moroni - faith, family freedom - title of liberty. How true is the Lord's church?? The Book of Mormon is totally our day. I love imagining them gathering together in little meetings brainstorming their defenses and what strongholds they needed to build - then he erects the title of liberty and states they are fighting for faith, family and religious freedom. Here we were in the training meeting, being taught and brainstorming how we can build walls as a community and with other religions to bind together to protect our country and our faiths - our faith, family, and freedom. I thought "they really need to cite the Book of Mormon in these power points. they're kind of almost plagiarizing. " - im not sure how many people in that room caught onto that. HELLO PEOPLE! WAKE UP!! SMELL THE TRUTH! God's being funnier than we think right now and you all are missing it! No time to waste! 

Hope you all have a super stellar week. Or a wicked awesome week. 

Super excited for the general womens meeting - hope ya'll are inviting all your woman friends - itll be interesting to hear what they talk about. 

Book of Mormon is true. Read it and itll change your life. But really. 

Life is pretty hard in case no one got that newsflash. But living the gospel makes it worth it. 

Be a good boy and a good girl and you'll be following the spirit without realizing it half the time. 

Much Love,

Sister Bell

 

1. I make my companion classy smoothies

2. In return, my comp makes me healthy juices with her classy juicer. #healthylife.

 1. serving with famous sister patterson on the right

2. crushed in the back of the truck

3. The elders make sure we're loved. How shaweet.

1. The Vails anniversary :) of course we made them a cute banner.

2. What does breakfast look like when you're out of food..and ideas? Wheat tortilla with natural peanut butter, homemade jam (crushed strawberries, blueberries, lil honey, and chia seeds..all mixed up. yum) and apple slices on top. Breakfast pizza. mmm

 

 Boston fun!

March 17, 2014

What an amazing week!

We now have a new deadline for the PVC - we want to get Phase 1 out by Easter so that we can have it for the easter fireside. We are under the hot press and constantly feel behind. it will be an outright MIRACLE if we get it out by then. outright miracle.

This week I also got to go on an exchange with Sister Crane. We laugh all the time about how I am always just a day behind her in what she learns. Heavenly Father always know the perfect timing to put the perfect people in our path. I was able to talk through some of the things I've been feeling and working on and she was able to teach me a lot. It was also nice to have fresh eyes on the project and Sister Wagner enjoyed being out in the real world again for the day.

Highlight of the week was on friday. Sister Wagner and I got to spend half of the day with president and Sister Packard. We went to look at dispays (Bre - does Mark still work for skyline?) That was our favorite that sister wanger and I found so the packards and us got to go on an hour roadtrip to go to their showroom. We picked out the displays and were able to make some solid decisions to move forward. What a special and unique experience to be able to have a personal lunch with your mission president. woa. Also, on a hilarious note, the city had a huge prom dress warehouse and S. Packard promised their daughter who is going to prom that we'd stop by and see if it was worth coming back to. President and Sister Packard have the funniest relationship 'whatever the queen bee says we do' is the way president works...so needless to say we made a stop. The packards and us in prom dress warehouse with our nametags on....just picture it. Hilarious. I turn to President, "Hmm...I dont think ive been prom dress shopping on my mission yet."

Pray for us as we have a lot to do and not enough time to do it all. Love you all! Count your many blessings!

Love,

Sister Bell

March 10, 2014

Hi family!

Great news this week on the project! Salt Lake called President Packard back - they're of course really busy with the Rome Visitors Center and a few other new ones that are top priority but really want to help. They said they've really wanted to do what we're talking about but just don't have the man power at the moment. President's like well you give us a few things and we'll be your man power and then you can take what you want and change it and make it better if you dont like it. So supposedly they're supposed to send us almost any video content and such we want from visitor centers. As always, we have to keep moving forward assuming we're not getting anything which is annoying. 

Other great news is, guess who got the lead designer who works for Covenant on their team? Woot woot - 2 points for the sistahs. Of course we did. 

It's a hard balance working on this project - we want it out there as soon as possible but at the same time we want to make sure we get it right. Yesterday in church this guy gave THE most amazing talk and we thought "he'd be so perfect for one of the videos." Do we get a videographer to do a few videos? That would take longer but it would help bless the lives of those that are working on the project....Do we just use the content the church has already published so we can get it out faster? See how screwed my mind is now? Im starting to have psycho missionary dreams.

Want to hear a few other miracles? You may want to go grab a plate of cookies and glass of milk to get you through the rest of this letter.

1. We are grocery shopping and walking down one of the aisles this guy keeps looking over. He just looked like he wanted to talk, it was almost too weird. We said, "Hello" and just as we're about to cross paths he turns to s. wagner and tells her that she looks like a friend who passed away almost 30 years ago. Welp, thats a statement to stop us dead in our tracks. He pulls out a picture of her and good ol S. Wagner testifies on the spot and tells him that we have a message that is evidence of the truth that he will see her again. We pulled out a card but i realized all the cards I had was Belmont's phone and email on it. But I was like eh  what are the chances he's gonna call anyway. He laughed and said he'd think about it. We grab his name and talk about how cool it was but nothing more. Belmont texted us and asked us if we knew I guy named Ernie? That some guy emailed thanking for the conversation and left his phone number. I was thinking of when i was in belmont and i thought "no, i dont remember anyone we met but we had lots of random conversations i dont know" I didnt think about anymore then yesterday in sacrament meeting it was the most random thing ever. Not even thinking about anything and then all the sudden 2 words pop into my head. Ernie - grocery store. Ok thats 3 but you get the point. I turn over to sister wagner "Ernie is the guy at the grocery store!!" I've never had a thought like that so simply and so fast. Right then we texted Belmont to have them forward us the email. 

2. The second is when the guy gave his talk - Bro. Farmer. He shared a recent experience - he just finished his physicians assistant schooling. He said he was so busy that it pulled him away from church. He had just moved into the area and started getting emails and phone calls from the bishop. He's like "eh, i can dodge this for a little while longer." He then was working at a military base and in the clinic was stuck inside for one of their practice lock downs. He ended up having a conversation for over 1 1/2 hours with this patient who was of course a member of the bishopric in another ward. despite this, he still was reluctant to go back to church. While this is all happening his brother in NYC was moving and needed help. He said, "I just sent him $3500 and called it good because thats all i could really give, not that it can get you that far in NYC anyway..." He then begins to cry. "That was the last contact I had with my brother". He said he got a call from his sisters of his missing brother and he's like "just file a missing persons report, he'll come up - its fine. i felt kinda bad about how i responded but at the time it was just easier to shrug off" 

He decides to drive to NY to check on his brother..on the way there he gets a phone call saying the report came up...instead of going to the apartment, he now had to go to the police station to identify his brothers body. He now drives to Louisiana to take the ashes to his family. On the way there he gets a phone call from his home teacher and says "the bishop really felt like we needed to call you." now he's thinking "do i tell them what just happened? i dont even know them." He decided to tell them and the bishop called immediately. He said, "Brother Farmer, do you need a blessing? Turn around, come to my home." Long story short, since this past fall, now he's come back to church and realized what he was missing from skewing his priorities. Hes realized that trials are for our good and necessary for us to return to our father in heaven. 

 At the end of the talk, before i could even think about what i was going to say i turn to s. wagner "He should be the video for the 'do challenges bring us closer to god' button." Turns out his wife who was came to hear him speak is less-active and his parents visiting aren't members. "If he was in the video, think about what it could do to their family!"

3. Last example i'll share is the silver bullet of the chocolate chip cookies principle. We decided to take a new route to the office and this lady on the new street we walk on stops her car! She introduces herself and says she doesnt really go to church that much anymore. She asks what ward we're in. We say that we work in the office and attend the 1st ward (not the ward she lives in). Shes like "well i live in house 11 and you can stop by anytime if you ever need anything!" Yesterday i thought, "Bring cookies to janette." (the woman we met). Not sure if it was inspiration or the fact that chocolate chip cookies sounded pretty good on a sunday night. :) Sister Wagner who served in the ward she lives in said she was impossible to get ahold of and everyone said that missionaries wouldnt be a good outreach right now. We drop by, and they let us in. turns out her husbands not a member of the church. We talked for quite a while - shes a return missionary. She asked how our day was, and what we did. Perfect lead in, today we went to church. We shared brother farmer's story. She was pretty open about why shes stopped coming to church and just had the best gospel conversation with her. I thought "this woman has forgotten the doctrine of the gospel! if only she heard the missionary lessons again from a new perspective!" We invited her to do so. And she said she wouldnt be actively opposed but she's not quite ready. We bore our testimonies and i said, "Youre right, you have to be ready. Because it's a lot of work to seek answers to questions. It requires going on a bit of a spiritual diet. When you want answers bad enough to spend the time to seek what truth is, you know where you can go." The spirit was so strong. It ended really well and we left our phone number and said if she needed a cup of sugar or just someone to talk to, the office sisters are always looking for real human contact. she laughed and said "i actually might take you up on that." 

1st lesson in 3 weeks. I feel more like a member missionary referrin all my friends at the grocery store and my neighbors who i give cookies to on a sunday night to the missionaries. And im like wait IM the missionary...tables are a little turned these days. 

It was a blessing to feel the spirit so readily. I feel like it hasnt been as noticeable lately even though its always there. I felt the blessings not only of a full time missionary but a member missionary. i get the best of both worlds. 

Also, Sister Crane is my STL these days and we get to go on exchanges this week which means i get to be her compy for the day again. so excited. WOO gonna be a good week. 

Love ya'll - spirits there

Sister Bell

March 3, 2014

GUESS WHAT?

So after running sprints in the parking lot one morning, I am lying down on the floor out of breath and hear the phone ring. So glad I decided to get up and get it because it was Sister Barney calling saying Don (Remember Don from Ellington who we taught) is getting baptized - in may probably! The other week they had a great sunday school lesson and the sisters were at their house afterwards and he's like "so what does it take to become a mormon anyway, just get baptized?" the sisters light heartedly said "yup, basically. so when do you wanna do it?" It spun onto a conversation about the word of wisdom. He's like, i just dont get it. I could never ever live that. Audrey his wife who is a member but has been less active for quite some time said "well if you dont believe the word of wisdom is true then you dont believe the church is true!!" This is interesting considering she has trouble living the word of wisdom. The spirit must have really worked through that one. A week later, Don said that he wants to learn more about the commandments and wants to get baptized in may. What was interesting is I felt like writing them an email last p day and gave them a little mini spiritual thought based on my family email about recognizing answers and how god's answers dont have to be grand. Im sure it would have happened regardless but id like to think that i was able to bring in the spirit to their week just an inch more. Definitely the highlight of my week.

I miss my ellington family so much, but its so exciting to hear of their progress. 

PVC is coming along. We met with some people this week that have a lot of insight and made 1 display similar to what we are looking for just on a smaller scale. We've hit a couple roadblocks with trying to figure out the video content situation and gathering the right pieces. I feel so inadequate to be working on it. I have no idea what i'm doing. ever. We meet with a couple more people this week so keep us in your prayers extra this week. 

We've been doing a Book of Mormon challenge as a mission, highlighting references to Jesus Christ and his attributes. Its been such an amazing experience focusing on Jesus Christ and realizing what an impact he had on the people in the book of mormon regardless if they attributed it to him. I think of how that's so relevant to our lives - how often God is intertwined with our lives and what few times we acknowledge him for it. immersion in the book of mormon brings miracles! 

Love,

Sister Bell