8-12-13

Okay, so now it's time for the NY update! 

Wow, there is waaaaaay too much to write, but I'll do my best. So first of all, here is a funny story. Apparently I can prophesy death!! We had this inactive member that we did service for who is diabetic and his body is falling apart and he is miserable. He talked about how God doesn't seem to love him and he would rather just die and that he is considering suicide. Well, I tried to share some scriptures to uplift his spirits and I promised him that God loves him. Then, I felt inspired to promise him that he had something good coming. I said it a few times with such surety, even though I really didn't want to promise that to such a hopeless situation. Well, guess what....Webbie went to the hospital and died, but they resuscitated him! We all felt bad for him, because he was probably pretty mad to be alive (he has died and come back a few times). I was feeling pretty guilty, because I had promised him something good and now just look what happened! Then, the next day, we were talking about how I felt guilty and when I walked out of the bathroom, they said Webbie died. Honestly all we could do was laugh because it was such a  weird situation, and I couldn't quite decide if my promise had come true or not, haha, but I'm pretty sure that death was the best thing for Webbie. Now he can be free of mortal pains. So there you have it, I'm a prophetess! 

Okay, here's another one. So the F___s are this crazy couple who just joined the church and they are so great and sincere.....and really loving the church welfare system haha. We had dinner at their house, compliments of the church, which they love telling us with a smile. They really love and appreciate how much the church has blessed and changed their lives. So, anyway, Sister F___ was talking about her family and then explained that her brother was married to their first cousin!! I guess it's legal in Massachusetts. The best part is that she thought it was perfectly fine because it was legal there....not strange at all. ahhhh!! We all tried our best to act natural when she told us that, but all I could think of was children running around with 11 toes. They are such sweet people, just a little different and naive I guess. 

So, we have some awesome investigators. Dominique is staying with her grandma and in her 20s. She is such a deep thinker and loves discussing life and religion with us, but she thinks in these huge circles and always comes back to how Buddhism also brings us to enlightenment, so how do we know what is right. We keep trying to explain that the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the whole truth and doesn't negate the good things about other religions. She worries me though, because  her thinking reminds me a little of myself with the way she goes on these crazy tangents and gets really deep. Sometimes I think its a miracle I didn't think myself out of a testimony. We will see though. I have hope for her that God will touch her mind like he has touched her heart. 

We also have a super sweet investigator in assisted living who is a hoarder. So, we helped her clean her apartment for about two hours and she kept calling us angels. Jenny, you would have loved this activity, haha. We got to clean and organize and really turn her place around. She is so faithful and has a love for God. I think she is going to be easy, honestly, because she has such a believing heart. I really admire her courageous faith. She has deformed fingers and body and had cancer and two heart surgeries, but she assures us that God has always watched over her, even while homeless for a bit. Wow, so humble!! She is awesome and so sweet.

The B family is really struggling. Gary has totally relapsed and only seems to care about drugs and girls again. Its super hard on the family, especially Jerry (the brother who holds everything together). They love having us over though, and are always uplifted by our message. I can tell that Jerry is really gaining new hope and feeling  better when we come over. Sister B is about to give up though, and her cancer is getting worse. I really love this family. Please pray for them. Please pray that they will stop being angry at God so that he can comfort their wounded hearts. 

I'm realizing that church attendance is sooooooo important. The ward is EVERYTHING. We don't go to church just to take the sacrament. That's what I always thought and everything else was just fluff. But now I know that a ward is a family. We keep tabs on each other. We support and serve each other. A calling gives us purpose and more opportunity to grow. If we want to bring more into the fold, we must have the ward involved, because friendship and fellowship must exist within the ward family. God wants us all to be missionaries. Remember: "feed my sheep". Try to find ways to serve one another, both within the church and outside of it. I'm realizing that everyone's purpose in life is to take care of one another and be somebody's somebody, not romantically, just in general.

Okay gotta run. I love yall sooooooo much. Write Me!!...if you want.....but do....okay :)

Sister Huntington

August 5 from NY

WOW okay I have like no time and I’m so sorry that this will be short, but I’m doing my best, I swear. Okay real quick, how should I do pics? More memory cards? A flashdrive? Why am I just now thinking of this? I dont know haha. Just let me know what you think? Also, I’m sorry if I sounded short on the phone. I was crammed for time. I hung up and was like "I feel like I didn’t sound friendly and loving enough," but maybe that is because I am in super-friendly mode all the time haha. HAPPY BIRTHDAY dad!!! Sorry you’re just now getting this. If it makes you feel better, I barely remember when my birthday is at the pace my days go lately.

Dr. Holland, Thanks so much for your support!! You are truly the best and many people recognized me as their old TA and rave about your class haha.

The field is awesome!!! Wow, I have no idea where to begin, but here goes. We are flushing an area. I’m with two other sisters: Hovey and Adams. They are great, except Hovey got sick and was in zombie mode for a little bit. That was kinda scary, but she is good now. I’m in North Tonawanda area, which is right next to Niagara Falls. Cool! I’ve had some yummy NY pizza and wings, so that's been cool.

But here is the good stuff. Well, since we were flushing an area, nobody knew anything about anything, so it was a very interesting first few days. We were like private investigators looking through a poorly maintained area-book and trying to make sense of what we had to work with investigator wise. I have lost all fear calling total strangers. Actually, I have lost all fear in regard to strangers at all. You talk to so many people and they all think you're  all little weird, but nice and its fine. I'm so so so busy, but super happy. People are so great, even the not so great ones ahahha. We were walking down the street and this car yelled "SLUTS" at us and seriously it was funny because it didn’t make us upset at all. I just thought, "Oh those silly boys". It's weird, I just feel an even greater capacity to love others and not get frustrated. Of course, I’m still super imperfect, but being a missionary is just loving people is what I have realized. We love and show them that they can change and that they have amazing potential through our Savior Jesus Christ. I love it. 

So we have met quite the characters. New Yorkers are something else, I tell you what. First of all, they NEVER stop talking. I’m serious, it's an effort just to squeeze in a lesson, and I have no idea when they are taking a breath. But they are so loving and kind and enthusiastic and open. I have heard so many amazing life stories and they blow me away. It's like story time all day long as I listen to the lives of incredibly diverse people. One person that I want to highlight on is Gary. He is an inactive member and wants to get back in the church, but he has had a wild ride for a life. He was a drug runner and all that jazz. When he opened the door, he had a big purple shiner under his eye. He is so sincere and humble though. He really wants to change, but doesn’t know where to start. At the end, we had him pray and it was so simple and beautiful. When I told him he did  a great job, he just started crying and couldn’t believe we had gotten him to pray out loud. Sometimes I feel like we are working with children because the testimonies are so innocent, which is really how we should all be. Ahhh okay I have 20 seconds left so I better send this. christ loves us!!

continued later

Okay phew! I was able to get a little but more time so that's nice. I was racing the clock on this computer haha.

Anyway, I guess I can tell you more about my mission. So, we are in an area that is not really ghetto, but the homes that we visit are usually super cluttered and relatively poor, though probably not by Brazilian standards. We have a car, so that's nice. Oh yeah, a guy in my district who went through the Atlanta consulate got his visa, so that's promising. Honestly though, I know I'm here for a reason right now and I want to stay here as long as Heavenly Father needs me in NY. I know everything happens for a reason and that I’m here for a reason. This area needs that womanly  touch that hasn’t been here for many many years apparently. The Elders before were kinda negative about all the people and made it seem like everything was a dead end and like all the people were lazy or kooky. But so far, everyone we have met has been so awesome and great. Sure....there are some characters....okay they are all quite the characters, but it makes it so much more fun to love them. My companions are great and such great examples to me, but I've also enjoyed the fact that we all are starting from square one, because it has forced me to be the leader in many of the situations. I have grown so much faster because of the fact that we are all basically on the same playing field in regards to trying to get things going and find people to teach. 

Okay well I really better run now. I love you and know that God loves us all so much. It's really so simple. We just need to spend more energy loving and serving and we wouldn't have to endure so much of the bitterness that plagues our hearts. I love you all. Thanks for the prayers!!

Sis Huntington

July 26, 2013

Hello hello hello my fellow friends! So we got our reassignments today and guess what!!!! I'm going to Rochester, New York! AAHHHHHHHHH Im so excited. Seriously it's like all I could ask for. This mission has Palmyra and Hill Cumorah in it (yeah Dad, get pumped) and borders Lake Ontario. It also has Niagara Falls in it. P-day activity! Ahhh I'm so excited to be in such a beautiful place at such a beautiful time of year. I have felt like I need to be somewhere else before I went to Brazil and I know this is the place I'm meant to be. Honestly I could not be happier or more excited.

 

I leave on Monday Jul7 29 at 9:00 am and land in Detroit at 2:28 pm. I have a layover until 3:23 pm and then leave for Rochester. I am allowed to make phone calls, so I will either call you before my first flight in the morning or in my layover. Ill try for the morning. Does that work? let me know. My P-day is tomorrow, so I can communicate and plan via email.

Get as much dirt on the mission as you can and tell me about it :)

More pictures

Pictures from the MTC

July 22, 2013

Hey everybody!! Wow, time is just flying by and its a little overwhelming. So much happens in a week that its always so hard to know what to write in these emails. I'm gonna write SS a letter, because I'm so pumped for her. Also, MR is getting murried!!!!! all my friends are dropping like flies! But I love it. Everyone is making such great choices. So proud of my girls.

 

So I see Elder M every day. He is doing great. Also, dont worry, BY is getting lots of hugs and we have had some great talks. She is handling all of her adversity so gracefully, and I know this timing is happening for a reason. What a miracle that I was able to live so close to her and give her comfort. Such a tender mercy. Okay, so speaking of miracles, I want to share a story with ya'll. As sister training leader, Sister K and I visit all of the girls rooms at night to make sure everyone is doing well (we dont get a lot of sleep with this calling, but I LOVE it). We have a new district of girls that we just did orientation with and some of them were struggling with homesickness but they seemed relatively okay. Then, on Saturday night, we asked a sister how she was doing and she just broke down into tears. We took her out into a quiet place to talk, and she proceeded to tell us that she had never struggled with her testimony, but now she was suddenly beginning to doubt everything, and she felt awful and didn't understand why she should have this happen after making the decision to serve a mission. She was so distraught and Sis K and I kinda looked at each other for a sec like "okay.....what now?" Then, it was go time. I went and got some scriptures and then we just followed the Spirit.  It actually kinda reminded me of an investigator lesson a little bit. This sister said that she had never had a struggle, so I explained that everyone has to have a trial of faith at some point in order to grow (watch the Mormon message: The will of God) and that it doesn't make her a bad person. She had begun to wonder if maybe the gospel was all just a fairy tale and that feeling the Spirit is just our own mind convincing us that we are happy.

   At that moment, I was so grateful for my own trials of faith that I have had, because it allowed me know exactly how this sister felt. I was able to describe the feelings that she felt, because I had felt them too. I was able to testify that the Spirit is real, because I have felt what it is like not to have it in my heart and there is literally NOTHING else that can compare to the feeling of the Spirit. We promised this sister that if she would only cling to her desire to believe (Alma 32) then God would answer her prayers. For a moment, I felt a little bit like we were promising too much because we promised her that she would hear an answer tomorrow at church and that she would be able to feel the Spirit. That's a lesson I've learned here: don't be afraid to make a promise if the Spirit tells you to. We must have the hope to trust that God will answer a promise that is given by the Spirit. So, we made this promise, and she still felt so lost and doubtful, but then I told her to imagine the most perfect moment in her life. Then, I said " as you picture this moment, can you honestly say that this is a world without miracles?" which of course she said no. I told her that there are miracles every day, but we often fail to recognize them because of our lack of faith and hope. Remember we must have hope before we have faith. I promised that God would perform miracles in her life, whether she recognized them or not, but the more faith we have, the more we can recognize them. I asked her to search for a miracle tomorrow.

   So, Sister K and I plopped into bed late that night and prayed our hearts out that our Sister would receive an answer and see God in her life. Guess what! It was crazy, because the talk in Relief Society was dead on, exactly about trials of faith! Yeah, it was awesome and literally addressed all of the issues this sister was facing. I felt it was a huge answer to my prayers and hers and then every talk that day continued to address her very needs so specifically. Okay, now this may sound so small and insignificant. Some of you may be thinking, "a talk. really? that's just coincidence." But first, that topic has never been spoken about the whole time I've been here....and we have a LOT of devotionals. Next, how miraculous that a speaker who has been planning for weeks what she will say would speak the exact words that need to be heard to one sister in a room of hundreds at the EXACT perfect time in her life. In the very moment that she was doubting if God knew she existed, He reached out to her. But not only that, He had planned for this moment and inspired others and weeks ahead of time.....all for just one of His billions of children. Yes, that talked helped everyone I'm sure, but for her, it was probably life changing. Not because of the message, but because it was a direct answer to her prayers, which we had promised her...a bit tentatively, but boy am I glad we did.

  I want to promise you that miracles happen every single day. I mean it. Please, everyone, read the talk by Bednar "Character of Christ". It will change your life! But anyway, it talks about faith. We must exercise faith in order to recognize God's hand in our life. Note that I said "recognize", because God is helping us along whether we believe it or not, but it's our responsibility to recognize it. There are miracles in this world. I know it. I have seen so many tiny miracles since being here. God works in small and simple ways, but He truly does bring great things to pass. Look for the tiny miracles every day, and before you know it, bigger ones will happen. Hope for something better than you expect. We all know the saying that we cant have faith with fear, but even more, we cannot have hope if we are too afraid of being let down. Be brave enough to hope for something miraculous. Try to align your will with God's and we can become a part of those miracles. This world is so bright and beautiful. I'm so busy. I'm very tired, and sometimes I feel very discouraged, but these moments give me the realization that I absolutely must rely on God to do what He asks. I will not find happiness until I recognize that I can't do this life on my own. In our weaknesses, God can make us strong, not because we become stronger ourselves, but because when we recognize how weak we are, we also realize that we must rely on the Atonement. We must become one with Christ, and He will become our strength.

 

I love you all so so so much. Hey everybody at the beach!!! I miss you all. Cousins.....and aunts.....do something crazy and ridiculous in my name, since we all know I can't really do that right now haha.

 

Okay, gotta run. LOVE yall!

7-16-13

Hey guys! Okay first Im gonna crank out all the general news I have to share:

 

First of all, you guys can make your emails as long as you want, because sis Kunkel and I print them out in the morning so that we dont waste computer time reading them. Also, thanks so much for the package! So great to get stuff from yall....and thanks Claire for the cookies! Anyway, those socks that you sent are fantabulous and really helping me with my feet. They still hurt really bad in multiple places, but I mean the doctor said that I didn't have any lasting damage, so I guess just lots of ibuprofen is the way to go. He said he could do a custom insert for about 300 dollars...but I don't want ya'll to spend that much money when I don't even know how much it would help.  Also, Sister Mildenhall, guess what?! I went and gave Sister Nally a big huge hug for you. When you told me to keep an eye for her, I didn't realize she was the mission President's wife! haha I was kinda scared to go up to her, but she was so sweet and friendly. She seriously seemed like a clone of Carollyn. Also, as the new Sister Training leaders, we get of list of all the incoming missionaries in our zone. Guess who will be in my zone? TYLER MOLINARO. How cool is that? Get ready for an awesome time Tyler. Can't wait to see you :) Guess who else I see ALL the time? My dearly beloved cousin Bresia. Yeah, she is two doors down from my residence room. How cool is that? I see her every night and we talk all the time while we brush our teeth and get ready for bed. I even got to sit by her in choir practice. What a blessing. I am so happy to be able to see her often and we can support one another. That's what this life is all  about: supporting one another.

Speaking of which, I have a cool story about that very idea:

So, this week has been a bit rougher than the others. You definitely  have ups and downs as a missionary, which any RM can understand. I started to get really discouraged and felt totally inadequate as a missionary. I began to doubt that I was good enough to qualify  for the Spirit because of my pride and my huge inadequacies. I just kind of gave up on myself and it was a horrible feeling, because all I want right now is to be a good missionary. The thought of not fulfilling that purpose is devastating and so many missionaries go through it. Anyway, I wasn't myself at all and was way stressed, but I didnt really realize it. Luckily my teacher did and called me out of the class to talk to me. When she asked if everything ws okay, I just started crying (I know right? I don't cry very much in front of people) and told her how inadequate and unworthy I felt. She made me look her in the eye and tell her if I was trying my best to be a good missionary, which I replied yes to. Then, she said, "then you already are one", and I realized then that it was true. God doesn't want perfection, because we are all imperfect. We are only perfected in and through Him. All He wants is a sincere desire and a willingness to do as He asks. Then He can fill in the gaps, which I have many of those. My teacher also read us the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" which EVERYONE should read if they are feeling down on themselves. Then she told me to research the Gift of the Holy Ghost, so I did.

Here's the cool part. I had all these great scripture written down about the qualifying, inspiring power of the Holy Ghost from my research and I was feeling great, but then guess what. Sister Kiunkel started getting down on herself in the same way I had and I could see exactly what was happening. Luckily, I had all of these scripture that I could just whip right out. Even more, I could testify to her that the Atonement is real for all of us, because I had JUST experienced it's power for myself. Those scriptures really worked for sis Kunkel (Moses chapter 6 is the best) and soon we were both able to teach and plan by the Spirit again. I know Heavenly Father directed my teacher to have me research the Holy Ghost  so that I could then help my companion. You see, we are all here to take care of one another, and God has a hand in it all.

 When we are feeling down on ourselves, we don't necessarily forsake God. We just think we are unworthy of Him because of this or that. It's as if we think He somehow doesn't know that we are worse than He thinks or something. But you see, Christ has ALREADY suffered all of our shortcomings and pains. He ALREADY knows it all and He understands. He wants us to be perfected through  Him, not on our own. He is waiting for us and we are the ones pulling away. All we have to do is trust God and have faith. If we don't think He can save and fulfill and qualify us, then we are calling God a liar, and then we may as well not believe in Him in the first place.

The Holy Ghost is the Comforter. It can fill us with the love of God, and give us answers if we are willing to listen. If  we truly and humbly desire inspiration, we are ALL worthy to receive it, imperfect and flawed as we may be. Remember that repentance is a gift, not a condemnation. It lets us leave our shortcomings behind and step forward into a fresh new day. Yes, we will repeat mistakes. God knows this. But when we repent, we have a DESIRE to not repeat our mistakes. We have a desire to be better. If we let Christ change us, He will truly turn us into masterpieces, but we have to trust that we deserve it first, which we all do. Life is beautiful. People are beautiful. We are all worthy of love. I know that God will pour it upon us if we will only let Him.

Oh, one more thing on the topic of repentance. Watch the Mormon messages Youtube video called "Reclaimed". It's awesome. Watch it.

Okay I love you all sooooo much. I love hearing from you, and youre in my prayers. Keep in touch!

 

Sister Huntington