April 28, 2014

This was QUITE the week. I won't be able to verbalize the magnitude of all that occurred….but here's my semi attempt.

Tuesday night we went to another mission presidency meeting at the Christensens. We went to show them one of displays and give them an update of our progress. They were all really impressed. We've been having a debate about having a Christus - President wants a 6' one (apparently there's a replica of the real ones that are hollow inside so it's not as heavy). We had a discussion about if the size changes the magnitude of the message it conveys. We are having a Book of Mormon roundtable that you see at other temple visitors' centers and S. Wagner and I thought it would be sweet to put the smaller ones you can get at desert book at the very top. What better way to say the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ? Everyone's all up in arms in this discussion while in the mean time President Christensen keeps getting up and walking out of the room doing something. In my mind i think "what the heak is he doing? Only President Christensen can just walk in and out of conversations and get away with it". He comes back in with a table (still in the mean time everyones talking), places a 19" Christus on top, and puts it in the center of the room. He sits back down. 10 minutes later - back up, adjusts the Christus, sits back down. It seemed like no one else thought it was as hilarious as I did in my head. Looks like we all need to calm down and remember who's at the center of all that we do. 

IT GETS BETTER…..

President tells us that he is picking up Elder Perry and Elder Rasband from the airport to take them to a couple meetings and that the chances are very small that they'll have time to stop and look at the PVC but to be set up at the LP chapel for the day just in case.

We drive down with the assistants and sit in the LP chapel literally almost all day with no further update. Good thing our work is portable so we could still get stuff done. We knew they had to leave at 3 to make their flight and my watch now said….3. Chances are getting slimmer. 10 minutes later…in walks Elder Perry, Elder Rasband, and the head of Public Affairs in Salt Lake. Considering Elder Perry is the one in conference that pushed chapel tours, Elder Rasband was the one stoked at the missionary meeting about the PVC, and then add head of Public Affairs…we got the right people in the room. 

I got to shake (most likely) the future prophet's hand! Woa. And they loved it. Shocker. Hopefully this will get things rolling in Salt Lake faster.

Last Main Display DONE!

The Restoration board has caused us some major problems. Satan has attacked the restoration since….forever….and apparently he thinks our board is important enough to attack as well. We've never started from scratch so many times. We really wanted a picture of the first vision but there are NO good versions out there. We searched far and wide…even got connections with the people who were involved in making Prophet of the Restoration. NOTHING. Come on people - this is kind of a fundamental belief…lets depict it….in a not lame way. After going over draft over draft we feel pretty good about a version. It's not the first vision, it's a boy (who looks like Joseph Smith) reading…the board looked pretty awesome. We showed it to President and Sister Packard and they did not like it. Blast. But they said we could send it in to be printed anyway. We've exhausted every resource possible - we got nothin left! I was ready to call it quits and print the one we had but diligent and faithful sister Wagner was still convinced there was a way. At this point I may or may not want to throw myself in front of a bus. The assistants have been helping us with this problem board and they saw the vision that didn't exist as well so we were like what do we do?? It doesn't exist! We have approval to send in the board but it's just not right. One of the elders was like well then just take the picture you want yourself…….it gets quiet. We had thought about that…but couldn't think of a way or a person to really depict it without mocking it or having it look tacky. Then I was like "well….YOU kinda look like Joseph Smith…"

Then it gets quiet again…."guys lets do it."

We didn't even tell President Packard - we knew he was bummed at the board and didn't want to propose false hopes if it didn't work. 

We called our most patient and perfect graphic designer and proposed the wacky idea. Next thing we know, the next day we're taking a road trip to New Hampshire! 

We were messing around making fun of the idea on the way up..but we said an opening prayer before we started and as soon as we got going there was a huge shift of atmosphere. As soon as sister warner (our graphic designer) would get ready to take the picture, light would break through the clouds. I'm not sure what it would actually feel like if we were able to look on at the simple prayer…but I think I got a bit of an idea. It was…..incredible. When has there ever been an easy way to describe the spirit? 

THE BOARD LOOKS INCREDIBLE. We sent it to President (still not telling him who the real joseph smith was) and he and sister packard almost died over the phone. They were SO happy. You have to know President Packard to understand but he always has the motto of saying yes first….and then figuring out how to do it. He always says 'There's only one grade in the MBM. Premium grade.' We were like "President, we thought we'd have to let you down and not find a solution…..and we were right..there were no pre-made solutions. so we just created one ourselves! The last board was a B+ and as we know there's only one grade in the MBM…." He was like a little boy in a candy store it was too hilarious. He still doesn't know who played Joseph Smith because you can't even tell but we told the APs they could tell him today. Can't wait to hear his reaction. 

Hopefully that gives you just a sliver of the reality of my week. You'd think it would feel like there were more hours in the week if you were awake in more of them than usual buuuut apparently not. 

Love,

Sister Bell

keepin it real! 

1.Proof of Elder Perry

2. Behind the scenes photo shoot fun

 

 

April 21, 2014

Happy Boston Marathon Day!!

There was such a strong spirit in Boston today. The weather was PERFECT. As a zone, we went to the temple this morning and then into downtown to go watch at the finish line. Security was crazy. Im redetermined to one day run in the Boston Marathon. Tamara, Jared, Linds..you in? :) 

This week was Sister Wagner's Birthday and members she knows took us out to lunch and dinner. We go to Cheescake factory for lunch - yummay and then for dinner with another member we pull up to cheescake factory and the member said, "i hope cheesecake factory is ok!" Sister Wagner and I just looked at each other....trying so hard not to laugh. Tried like 3 kinds of cheesecakes in one day. Probably why im getting so chubby. Thanks to Sister Wagner for being born. 

It was also a very stressful day considering the next day, President and Sister Packard went to a mission presidency seminary with a couple apostles in attendance. President asked us to put together a hard drive to give to them. We had to film a lame 5 minute WAY embarrassing instructional video of what the displays include and how easy it is to put together for them to watch. President Packard said they were really impressed and want to look at the app. We are excited to talk to him about the details. We have been working with the programmer on brainstorming all these amazing outlets and directions the project could go in and it's getting in the gray area of scary. It's kind of frustrating. We have an amazing programmer that thinks long term and has a vision for the actual app that the church can take on, which is good but at the same time it is scary spending a TON of time and a TON of money for something the church is going to look at and say "hmmm..love that idea..we'll have our people whip up an upgrade version to that". 

We are printing the last display of phase 1 - the Restoration. The most difficult board to work with. The adversary has always fought against the Restoration and he still is. It's starting not to be funny anymore. The board is so close to being great...but it's not quite there. Our blessed graphic designer has had to deal with our scattered brain and switching ideas back and forth. Between the stories we hear from her, us, the programmer, and President Packard....we could create a 500 page novel on the literal miracles and witness of God's hand in this work. 

This weekend the displays went to Providence, RI and Merrimack, NH. Told ya i was goin everywhere! One of the programmers and the graphic designer lives in Merrimack and was able to see the displays in person for the first time. We then went over to the programmer's house for dinner. The Parkers - the most amazing family. They have 12 kids and are superheros. Surprisingly I think their Easter dinner was more calm than the when the psycho Bell family gets together. It was great to be in a member's home. It's been a while since I got that opportunity - it felt so good. It was nice to sit back and just watch all the tender moments that go unnoticed because we are so busy checking kitchen timers and putting ice in water cups. We had an amazing family devotional where we bore testimony of the Savior. Listened to the cd Lamb of God all day - so great - and I'm in 3rd Nephi where the savior is administering the sacrament. This easter season I think one of the things that has stuck out to me the most about the savior is his obedience. It says repeatedly in the scriptures that he is just following the commands of his Father. We are sometimes asked to do things that we don't understand all that well, or that is hard, or that seems to be at the bottom of the priority list. I hope we can be better at following the example of Jesus Christ by following his perfect example and confidence in obedience to our Heavenly Father. He loves us and is so eager and willing to bless us. I feel like I dont have enough buckets to store all the blessings he is giving me...and that's probably the whole point...to share the blessings that overflow our buckets. Being a better follower of Jesus Christ is an active choice. 

Love you all. Hoppy Easter. Can't believe you made the famous cake without me. Second thought - I can believe it. 

Sister Bell

 

1. Made crepes for sister wagner on her b-day!

2. Temple

 

 

 

April 14, 2014

Don't even know where to begin! Last week we went into Boston and set a baptism date with Don! How exciting right?! I hope I can go!

The rest of the week we've just been sprinting and this weekend was our first trial weekend of our display boards!!! Back to back to back events - friday, sat, and sunday. We are booked the rest of the transfer. We have 2 official large displays done, 2 more done by next week, and by the end of the transfer we will have 5 smaller boards on the auxiliaries and programs of the church. 

We were getting people to look at it and asking for their feedback as there's some bugs we have to fix and such. My two favorite responses: 

1. "Well, they say it's testing, but Salt Lake never sends things out without them testing if first."......

"Lady, Salt Lake didn't make this" (ok I said it a lil bit nicer :) )

2. "Have you had the chance to check out any of the displays yet? We would love your feedback!"

"No, I was just at Washington DC Visitors Center and we saw the exact same thing."

"really? the EXACT same thing?"

"Yeah, the videos and everything, pretty sure its the same." 

"Thats interesting...because these have never been made before" 

(ok i probably said that a little bit nicer too)

We are really happy with how they turned out and actually got some great feedback and new ideas we want to try. We can't take any credit for the beautiful graphics which is what MAKES it - we have the best designer ever. It's so wonderful to say "This is what we want - place this here and that there...and make the rest look pretty". We have a really spiritual experience of how we found and chose her - and man are we glad we did.

I feel like the luckiest human being on the planet - I get to go to the most amazing musical events and spiritual firesides at least twice every weekend. I get to travel anywhere in the mission. This also means I also don't get any sleep but man it's so worth it. I feel like i'm on an adrenaline high every day. This thursday President Packard is attending a mission presidency seminar and we are creating videos and pictures for him of the displays and how easy it is to set up to give to salt lake. They are very curious at what we're mixing up over here. No pressure.

Didn't you love conference! We spent one session at the church, one at a senior missionary's home and one with our sweet surround sound we set up in the office. I can definitely agree with Elder Bednar's talk. I feel like i've experienced some of the greatest loads in my life...the other day when we were driving in the car i was thinking about his talk and the words were going over in my mind and I felt so empowered, so excited. Our physical bodies can only handle a certain capacity...but our spiritual bodies have endless capacity. Endless. We can do, be, and conquer anything. We were designed with the capacity to do so and have been blessed with the gift of the Savior's atonement so that we can fill that capacity. What a loving Heavenly Father to give us loads to provide traction to bring us home, to prepare us to help other's loads, and trust us enough handle and respond to the loads in a way that draws us closer to him and not away. 

Happy Easter! What a great reminder to ponder and study what the atonement really means and what it can do for us.

Love you!

Enjoy a flood of pictures!

Sister Bell 

1. It's like Christmas in the office these days :) 

2. Boston!

 

 

1. Boston w/ Don and Audrey..got to see sister barney too! 

2. Boston Library - looks like a museum inside - so pretty

3. Sisters Conference - got to see Sister Crane :)

 

Ill send better ones next week but here's a sneak peak!!

April 7, 2014

Family,

This will have to be short as I leave to get on the T pretty soon. We are heading into Boston to meet Don and Audrey from Ellington!! We get to play and then have dinner where he said he wants to plan.....HIS BAPTISM DATE!!!!!!!!!!

Traveling with the PVC, we have the power to travel wherever we'd like...we'll try to plan accordingly :)

Next week I will have pictures and videos to send ya'll so you know what im really doing. I would show you the mock ups, but i know they wont do it justice...so ill wait.

So many miracles continue to happen of course. Remember last week when I said thank goodness missionaries have a required bedtime?.....I found out this week that that rule actually doesnt apply to us. Not sure if thats what I wanted to hear because my hours of sleep diminish by the day. The Lord definitely sustains us though. Im not sure i've ever run so well on this kind of schedule. We were invited to the mission presidency meeting this week - what a special, treasured, and spiritual experience that words cant measure...also an experience that keeps you out until 1 in the morning. President Packard is spreading the news of the Visitors' center like wildfire.....thanks to him the calendar is booked. Our first event is this weekend. We will just have 2 displays done. by the following week we will have 4. By the end of the transfer we should have it all done!

We also get a truck soon :) Rollin in style.

MY FAVORITE BOOKING SO FAR: Stake Conference with ELDER HOLLAND. Uhhh sir, we just might be able to put you on the calendar. p.s. wasn't his talk phenomenal? Holland for the win.

I am sorry this is such a lame letter - i can't put into words what is going on over here. It doesnt help that my hands type faster than I think and i'm running on a few hours of sleep. LOVE YOU ALL!

Sky is blue and the church is true!

Sister Bell

March 31, 2014

It's been one wild day considering its 8pm and im pretty much just starting my preparation day. I mean wild.

We are in a tight squeeze to make our first event, april 12th! All the graphics have to be in by wednesday 3pm. We've been on the phone all day with the graphic designer - - poor thing probably wont sleep tonight. #3 pro of being a missionary?: forced bedtime. Good call when they made that a rule.

We felt scattered with our videos and by now i've seen every bible video and every little message the church has ever produced in the history of ever. Mormonchannel - oh palease. lds.org search? done. You can safely assume they are all running together. Thank goodness President came in to help us today - it was so nice to have him sacrifice his time. We were able to make some solid decisions and get good feedback on the videos. I wonder every day how mission presidents do it - ill never look at them the same.

The Lord's hand is literally in this work. Its amazing the people he's guided us to and the thoughts, words, quotes...and that video we watched 35 videos ago that he will recall to our minds. It's the most spiritually exhausting work seeing how real God is, and also how real the adversary is in putting up and taking down barriers. 

The Womens Meeting over the weekend was...different wasn't it? Not going to lie, couldnt handle the beginning. I was looking around thinking "is this really happening right now?" I was trying SO hard not to laugh. I couldn't handle it. My companion probably thinks I have no heart. Buuut the videos were awesome! (of course id notice them) and I loved how the videos and speakers reminded us of the power that comes from being covenant women....women that make and keep promises to God, and how we build upon that. We are given the most unique opportunities to serve, to teach, and to lift than any other women ceo or PTA parent, as great and valuable as those opportunities are. 

My favorite was when they told the greek definition of perfect: that it is being complete. How wonderful and relieving it feels to know that God's not asking us to be perfect - he's asking us to realize the strength we have, to realize who's on our team, to realize we can BE whole and FEEL whole despite all the marks we make in ourselves and marks that the world makes without our choosing.

It's one thing to know of Christ and go to church and say you believe in Jesus Christ but then to learn how to recognize answers from God, to have a conversation with God instead of just repeating the same thing each day is a different ball game.

 To see God's hand is not an exercise of self-delusion. It's not a cop out. It's not not considering the patterns of science and natural results. 

Not having enough trust to admit God's hand is self-delusion. Not trying to see it is a cop out. Failing to realize how God is the ultimate scientist is not considering. 

"We would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most."

Love,

Sister Bell

Keep it real...because it is real...still.

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