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