Week 4 (4/29/13)

I cannot believe that I have already almost been on my mission for a month. The time has flown, but also gone super slow. I don't know how to explain it... but all of you that have been on missions know what I am talking about.

I have a lot of random stuff to say, so this might be intersting.

I get to play the piano... a lot. I'm super grateful for my not-so musical ability... but I'm glad that I can help out. I am even doing a musical number with an Elder from our Zone! It's pretty awesome!

I forgot to tell you when we went through training the first week they gave us gator training. That was interesting. They told us if we feed a Gator we go home... I really wanted to feed one... but oh well.

I will be sending a once in a lifetime picture to all of you... meeeeee..... holding a snake. It's a miricle. We went to see gators on our pday and on our way home one of the elders had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at this gift shop place. We were talking to the owner and asked if he knew about our church, he said that he didn't really but remember that during a hurricane we were giving out toothbrushes. So because of that he let us in the back where they had TONS of disgusting animals. We got to hold a gator, hold a 200 pound disgusting snake, and hold and play with birds and stuff! It usually costs a bunch but he let all of us do it for free! Pictures to come! It was such a fun time!!!!

A skill I developed in the MTC that I have carried on here.... sleeping wherever... whenever. I seriously fall asleep in the weirdest places. 8 hours is not enough when you are doing stuff for the rest of the day! But it makes for good nights sleep :)

I was reading an Ensign article and one story was about a missionary who was discouraged. He missed his family. Then he looked at his name tag and realized that he had not only his name, but his families name, and most importantly Jesus Christs name. He said that we need to act a way that would be pleasing to them because we are representing all of those people. It's that amazing! I loved it.

I was on a rain streak. It rained every single day that I had been in Florida... then it stopped on Tuesday. It was sad. Anyways...

If you are confused why everyone is getting letters right away our mission president has said that we can write our families and friends every single day after 9:30 because that is our time. So don't think I'm naugty. ;)

I have come to love and respect the priesthood more since I have been here. It's amazing too see Elders worthily use their priesthood for good :)

Going along with that... we were visiting part member families and come to a house. Her mom was the member once upon a time and so her daughter knew nothing about our church. We have been teaching her and she loves all of it! We were teaching her about the priesthood and told her it was the power to act in God's name she said, with confidence, "so it's a SUPERPOWER!" It was the cutest thing so now Sister Andersen and I call it that :) it's been amazing to see how close children are to the spirit and to see that they remember the things we are telling them! 

Yesterday we had an investigator just walk into our church. She said that she saw a church and believes in God so she came in. I truly belive she was lead to us! She stayed for all 3 meetings and was writing a bunch of stuff down that we explained to her and was reading from the Book of Mormon. Her faith is strong, we are meeting with her tonight and can't wait to share more about our gospel! Plus, the topic of Sacrament meeting just happened to be the restoration! And we talked about Priesthood in Sunday school and blessings in Relief Socity! We can't wait!

So on Wednesday... or some day... all of the days go together... we did service and laid sod for Habitat for Humanities. It was super fun! The only thing..... the red ants here are EVIL!!!!!! SUPER EVIL! They bite and it feels like a bee sting times 20! Then they left these blister things all over our hands and arms. Good thing the smart Elders who have been here almost 2 years gave us some stuff to put on them. They looked like big nasty puffy zits all over!

Anyways...

wecanputt.blogspot.com is our mission presidents wife's blog. Check it out! I think there are pics on there! :)

I have learned to close my mouth when I bike. They like bugs here.

The crickets sound like an alarm. The first night we were driving and I was like what the!? So I opened the window and I thought the gas station was being robbed. My companion laughed and said those were crickets. It took me a while to believe her....

I have almost been hit by 2 cars.... I'm not even going into detail, but we were being safe. That's all I'm gonna say. Heavenly Father is protecting me!

We are not aloud to listen to music here yet I have heard Stayin' Alive twice. It doesn't make sense I know....

I love you all so much! I am loving it here more than ever! Every day I become more confident in this work!

D&C 123:17

Love, Sister Calder

Week 3 (4/22/13)

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! It was fun to be here for my birthday, but a lot different. 

We left in snow on Monday. It was heavy snow as I'm sure you all woke up to on the ground. I thought it was amazing and totally awesome, others did not. Hahaha optimistic attitude comes in handy a lot of the time. :) 

The plane ride was great. We had a lay over in Atlanta and I was tempted to go run the streets looking for Elder Miller.... that was our reality check though. We went to get some food and all people would do was stare at our name tags. It really scared us. One woman almost ran into the person in front of her she was staring so hard. We were treated differently. Not in a bad way, but just really really different. It was really hard for me. I almost just wanted to cover my name tag and lose the skirt. But I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and I do not take the lightly. I always said that I wanted to have a sign on me and said I'M A MORMON. Now I do, and it's not what you would expect. Or, it probably is because ya'll are much smarter than me (did you see that? I used that word again...). 

Ok... I'm going to fast again.
For Relief Society on Sunday we had a speaker. FMary Edmunds. Look her up. She is Carrie Neal EXACTLY! It was almost creepy. Slap 30 years on her and they are twins. Now you all know that is a really good thing because we love Sister Neal so much. You can imagine how spiritual and entertaining it was.

One of the things she said was- 

(while holding up her super large missionary journal with tears in her eyes) "Think of how many people and experiences you will miss." That hit me hard. If you are called to serve and you don't fufil that duty to the best of your ability, you may miss people. That is on your head. If they don't hear the gospel from you, who are they going to hear it from?

She also said- 

"If you've thought about going home do what President Uchtdorf said and STOP IT!"

"You will NEVER regret this mission if you put your heart into it."

I wish you could look it up somehow. It was just amazing. 

For music and the spoken word they played A Sound of Music song. I thought of you mom and Kathryn :)

On Sunday we left. We cried for a long time when we had to say goodbye to our Elders. A handshake is just not enough when you come to love these amazing Elders so much. They gave us beautiful blessings and we all just sat and talked. It really was heart breaking. Sister Lee and I cried for a while.

Oh Sister Lee. I miss her so much I cannot even explain it. :(

Also- doesn't Sister Lee look like Sister Kingman? You know she does.

This word is WAY too small I've decided. I don't even think I have time to go over all of the coincidences that I have found already here.

After our first night at the mission home we had a huge long meeting. At the end of those meetings we got to meet our companion. It's very dramatic and special. It's almost like a reaping. They call your soon to be companions name (but you have no idea) then everyone waits in anticipation and they call your name. Dramatic. I know. The Elders hug and I swear they get hand prints on their backs. The Sister Smile and Giggle. Hunger Games, but happy.

Everyone knows Jordan! I can't tell you how many good things I have heard. Someone needs to tell him, someone tell Danny to tell him. Then someone watch as Danny does it because he probably won't. They love Jordan here ;)

I rode a bike with a skirt on for the first time. That was interesting. I did it though! 

My 3rd day actually in Florida we went to a members house for dinner. She is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Her conversion story will blow your mind! I don't have time for it though! I started off meeting people in the right house!!

I am serving in Naples. I forgot to mention. It is as far South as you can get in our mission. My first day was different. We drove for 3 hours with the bishops wife to get to our area.

Everything is messed up right now. We aren't even living in our area and since they just split it all up we are opening a new area. It's been hard and messy work. I haven't even tracted yet because we have so much work to do.

I'm loving it here though! It's amazing the love that you can feel towards people you don't even know yet!

I don't like being 20. It's way too old. Hopefully I'll get over it by the time I turn 21.

My companion made me cupcakes and we had district meeting so everyone sang to me. It was pretty awesome :) 

I still feel like I have so much to say!

A few more things-
They had a speed limit that was 19... weird

EVERYONE HAS DOGS! You could even say everyone and their dog has a dog. That would work. 

We have gotten Lemonade with every meal! 

My milk in my cereal goes lukewarm before I'm done with it.
I saw my first cockroach. 

Got my first bug bite.
Got my first sunburn (I was outside for literally 5minutes) 

And it's HOT and BEAUTIFUL here!

I love you all!

Sister Calder

Week 2 (4/14/13)

I cannot believe how much I have to tell all of you! I feel like I cannot even explain how much I love this work! 

Thank you all for your prayers on my behalf. It's amazing how much we can all feel the prayers. They were telling us that we are probably the second most people to get prayed for next to the prophets and apostles. That's pretty special! And we can for sure feel them. As you know our week was pretty crazy at first with Lawanna on Monday. We were very discouraged and could feel Satan working on us. As we tried to prepare better for our other investigators we only became more discouraged. It was hard. At first they started to tell us to teach with the spirit, then teach a lesson. We did both, and neither were working for us, we had to learn how to do both of them together.

Rewind.

I get really off track. So, Monday... Lawanna... discouraging.

Tuesday, I seriously do not remember what we did on that day. Probably lots of classes and teaching our other investigators Rob and Kirk (who are actually our teachers).

Wednesday was the worst day. I don't even know how we could have a worse day than this.

We had been preparing to teach Lawanna since Monday. We even pray about our fake/real investigators. We searched the scriptures and PMG to figure out how we could help her feel God's love for her. We went in ready to teach, but very humble.

I had the impression that we should teach her about the Atonement because that is how we can all know for ourselves that God loves us (don't worry, in our last lesson we had already tried to teach her to pray but she wouldn't have it).

We started teaching her about that. It wasn't going well. She was still looking off and was acting like she didn't care about what we were saying. Sister Lee started to share a quote that she had hear in one of our devotionals- "If we want to know answers we must get on our knees and pray. If we want to find them we must search the scriptures." She wasn't even done saying the quote and Lawanna interrupted and said- "ya'll aren't teaching me anything" she then started to go on about something and then said- "never mind"

Ok. Break. 

I just got back from dinner and such... but we SAW Lawanna walking as we were coming down here to do our laundry. Scariest. Moment. Of. My. Life. NO. JOKE.

Ok. Now that we are over that... let me continue...

So we didn't actually know what to say after that. Sister Lee finished her quote and then she just stared at us... very.... freaky. Then Sister Sliger chimed in and started talking about God's love for her (again... yes... this is like the 7th time). She wouldn't look and me and Sister Lee for the whole rest of the time. But Lawanna listened and her face got really soft. She told Sister Sliger that her answer was exactly what she needed to hear today. She then told us a personal experience about her friend being murdered... After she was finished both Sister Lee and I told her thanks for sharing that story with us and that it touched our hearts. She looked at the both of us straight in the eyes and said- "ya'll (me and Sister Lee) didn't have patience with me" she then turned to Sister Sliger and told her how much she appreciated her answering her question and told her that she would remember her name.
Talk about slap in the face. I could barely hold the tears back as we told her goodbye.
We got into the hallway and just cried. Wait, balled actually. The kind where weird noises come out of your mouth and you just can't control it. Sister Sliger had done so good, and we were so proud of her, but we had literally been crushed. We thought this time we would do better, but really it was a million times worse. 

Both of us questioned why we were even here. It was so hard to hear that you don't have patience for someone when all you've been doing for the past couple days is been praying for and about her, and searching fervently to find her answer. I cannot even tell you how sad we were.
Everything and anything would make us cry. We literally cried for an hour straight. I'm not exaggurating. Everything set off the tears. People in the hall, sitting in class, our Elders, thinking about it, talking about it in class. Right when we finally thought we had control, we would start thinking about it again and couldn't stop crying. So imagine me and Sister Lee in class doing this. We just went on with class and us crying. Our Elder's were so sweet, but they thought we were freaks. Let's just say, only Sister Lee and I truly know how it feels. Others tried to help and understand, it didn't help much. We just needed to cry. 

We didn't know what we had done wrong. We know that others connect with certain investigators, but she just shot our confidence even more than it already was. We didn't even think that was possible. I felt like someone had just yelled in my face and asked me why I was even here because nothing was working. And it was true, none of our investigators were doing well. The Elders would come in cheering saying- "they committed to baptism" and other things. While we just sat there and cried. All I wanted was my mom to tell me everything was ok. But, Sister Lee and I had each other.
We realized after our teacher gave us a lesson that we cannot teach by the spirit alone, or a lesson alone. We need to plan, and listen to the spirit. The first time we had only taught our lesson. The second time, we had only taught by the spirit. 

The rest of our day was not good. We tried to be happy like everyone had said, but I cannot even explain how hard it was. 

I finally realized the "hard" that everyone was talking about. 

We weren't doing much better for the next couple days. All our teachers and investigators kept telling us, "confidence Sisters. Confidence."

We just couldn't do it! All we needed was a time where we did good on our lesson. That just wasn't happening.
Today it FINALLY DID! We cannot stop smiling! We planned our lesson and taught by the spirit! BOTH of our fake/real investigators commited to baptism!!!!! They aren't real, but they just seem so real! We finally feel like we are ready to leave to Florida on Monday!!!

Now.... This is the good stuff....

Sister Sliger wasn't feeling good Tuesday or Wednesday. Elder Morse finally convinced her to go to the clinic after we passed him a note under the table at our infield training on Wednesday. 

We went to the clinic. She thought nothing was wrong. Neither did the doctors. They took her temp and it was a little high. They still weren't concerned. They decided to look at her. 

10minutes later they call us all back (Sister Lee and I and Elder Morse and Busch. The other Elders were in a different room in infield and had no idea what was going on). We see Sister Sliger sitting in a room. They tell us to look at a picture on the wall. It was of the Winne the Pooh charecters. They all had masks on and were pushing Pigglet away on a raft with a stick. We started to laugh and then were like.... wait what? They told us she had Influenza B and that they were going to put her in isolation for a few days. They they gave us all this medicine to take so they we would not get it since we had all been around her. It was pretty sad. Elder Morse and Busch went and got Elder Raia and Edwards to tell them to come and get some medication and to get tested because Elder Raia had been sick. Luckily, he just had a head cold. He was glad though cuz they told him to take naps haha. 

We laughed because we had to take her back to our room to get stuff for the white wall place. We had to wear these awesome masks. We felt pretty cool. Then she drove away on this golf cart thing.... 

It was pretty eventful. We are all fine. We basically just pop our pills all together at lunch. She just got out of isolation today and we were able to go into the real world (to Rite Aid) to get a perscription. I know we've only been here a week, but it feels like it's been eternity.

This week has been eventful and hard. We finally feel prepared and confident. Our teachers that we taught today as fake investigators said there was a night and day difference in our teaching. They also said that we've come as far if not farther than the missionaries that were here for 3 weeks. We are so sad to leave our Elders. We want to convince someone to send them to Florida with us, but we also can't wait to get out and do real missionary work!

This church is true! 

Thank you all for your letters and packages!

Wait... I forgot some stuff...
So I just came back for the 3rd time... We were at gym. My favorite thing ever. 

Story time... 

I beat all our Elders in speed... twice... and so did Sister Lee. We know it's because they are really good, but we are just really that much better. Annnnnnnnd just told I bet a whole other bunch of Elders.... yep... it's still here.

Remember that time I told you about how we laughed so hard we almost peed our pants? That was what happened 2 days ago, but it was for the whole entire day. Me and Sister Lee were on crazy pills I think (Sister Sliger still in the white wall place...).

Everyone said that we would laugh the hardest here, and cry the hardest. Let's just say, that is 100% true.

Sister Lee is the bread (if you only knew that bread is a million times better than best).

Mom- will you please send me some dry shampoo Kenra is the brand Sister Lee uses and I love it! You might be able to find it at Sally's. But don't worry if you don't.

Quote from Sister Lee-

"Without faith there is no power."

Now we shall see the other side of her-

Another quote-

"Sometimes, I wish I was black."

-Sister Lee

Also- Sister Lee and I have so much in common that when we say something and we don't have it in common, that is when we are surprised. But that has yet to happen. We pray we will be companions in the field. Haha I can't even tell you how much I love her! She reminds me of my sister Ashley and one of my best friends Amanda :) Let's just say, that's pretty much the best combination ever!!!! 

I love ya'll more than you know (just practicing... besides... I don't really know how to spell that....haha)! Thanks for you letters and packages.... wow... I'm repeating myself. Must be a combination of the food, the pills, our crazy Elders, and my amazing companion and our late night talks (we know each others whole lives... and we learned how importance obedience is).

Never forget how much our Savior has done for us and how grateful I am to be representing Him as a servant of God!

Love, Sister Calder :)

*Mom, will you please proof read this, I didn't have time, and the spelling thing is being weird... 

Week 1 (4/03-4/09/13)

Nicole Calder <nicole.calder@myldsmail.net>	11:25 AM (2 hours ago)
to me, wlbball33

To my amazing family and friends-

I don't have a ton of time, but I feel like I have so much to tell you!

This experience so far has literally been indescribable. Every day I find another reason that I was called to serve at this time and place.

The MTC spirit is crazy.I feel like we are always in a temple. I've only felt the spirit leave twice. Once when our district was having a meeting and an insane (but hilarious) comb-over Elder from our zone came in and started telling us things about another Elder in his district. It was probably the worst feeling. We all laughed and had fun, but then realized how the spirit was completly gone. We said a quick prayer to get it back. Then the other time was yesterday. We hadn't noticed till Monday that we had immunization notices in our packets (don't worry mom, we just hadn't submitted them right and since I had that paper it was all ok) and we went to the nurse. She was kind of scary,and mean. She yelled at us for not paying attention. We felt bad, becuase we were so scatter brained our whole day we didn't notice them. Luckly we had gym right after so we took our anger out in volleyball :)

I feel like I need to start from the begining. I just have SO much to say!!!

The first day wasn't too hard. Yeah, I cried when I left my family, but I was able to pull it all together because I had prayed that I would be able to. We got our name tags, looked at some papers, put our bags away and then did some online stuff with our district. The first time I met Sister Lee we literally could not stop talking. It was so funny! We knew we were meant to be!

Everyone kept saying- "the first day is super overwhelming, but if you make it till Sunday it will be ok."

Honesly, I did not feel that. I felt very at peace and haven't felt overwhelmed... until Monday. I'll get to that later.

We had a little orientation in a room full of hundreds of new missionaies. We sang, "We'll bring the world his truth." Can you imagine? I don't even know if you can. The spirit was... oh man. I don't even know. We were all chocked up by the end, plus we change the words to - "We are NOW the Lords missionaries. It's giving me the spiritual goosebumbs just talking about it. That's when I really felt like a missionary :)

The first night was AWFUL! None of us could sleep! I think we all got like 1 hour. I layed in bed.... thinking.... and staring at the springs. We have to be in bed by 10:30, you would think after a long day you would be able to sleep? Nope. We didn't even know, cuz we didn't dare talk, but all of us were awake all night.

Oh! Sydney Ackely is my roommate!!!! Crazy right?! We could not believe it especailly because she is going to Mongolia! There are 6 Sister in our room. 3 are going to Florida and 2 to Mongolia. Sister Sliger was the other Sister in our room. Her companion didn't show up so adopted her :) All us roommate get along so well. I can't tell you how much we've laughed :)

We are in class all day. It's amazing though! We love our teachers! Our district is probably the smallest anyone has heard of. Our AMAZING Elders are going to South Dakota. There names- Elder's Raia, Edwards, Morse, and Busch. We seriosuly could never exaplin our love for them. They were like family right from the start. Which is good and bad... we could not stop talking.... ever. They feel like our brothers. We tease each other and laugh so hard!

Conference was indescribable. I can't tell you how much more it means when you are there with everyone who is on the same page as you. Not to mention, it is the conference after they made the change and it's still really close to all of our hearts. Everytime they would talk about the missionaries we would all get huge smiles, point to our name tags or laugh. I wish they could have show our reactions to some of the things they said. We have so much pressure! When ever they would say something about missionary work you would see all our heads go down to frantically write what they had to say. Cedar City! That's for you Kailey and Jackie!!! We all gasped as we heard that! Right when President Monson got up to speak I wanted to cry because I was so happy and the spirit was so strong! I loved when they all said they were a witness. It gave me chills and I knew, with all my heart, that it was completly true!

Were ere thou art

Act well thy part.

They said that to us on the first day to so it was cool to hear that again!

I wish I could share everything about conference, but I don't have too much time!

Stay on the Lords side. You WILL win EVERYTIME

-Elder Scott.

CATCH THE WAVE! I can't tell you the laughs we all chucked (wow, I'm speaking like an old person) when he said again, "ASK THE MISSIONARIES"  the funny thing though, it was totally a nervous laugh. Hahahaha. The people here are awesome. Some sisters were sitting behind Elder Busch kicking him every time he dozed off in the very last session.

THEE coolest part of Satuday was when we came back from watching the Young Women broadcast and our Elder came back from Priesthood. They were beaming. I don't think I've seen a happier person in my life. They were literally jumping up and down because they couldn't wait to tell us what they had learned in Priesthood. You have NO idea how happy that made us Sisters. They shared so many things with us. They all wanted to talk and once and just couldn't contain their excitement. The funny thing is, that's how people here are. They gospel is so exciting and fun that we literally shout it and can't wait to share it with others. But that's what it's all about, and that's why we are here so it's pretty much amazing. 

Us Sister's went to be the night with huge smiles and we couldn't stop talking about how much we love our Elder's! Sunday they finallly admitted that they liked us too haha. The love here is amazing!

First session of Sunday was my all time favorite! I think our district would agree. I have so many notes! I loved some of thse quotes-

"A mission is a family afair"

-President Monson

"Missionary work has always been the identifying work of the church of God"

-Presdient Monson

OK! I'm running out of time!

We watched a re-run of a devotional on Sunday with Elder Holland (speaking of, in conference when they said he was going to speak we all cheered. Haha).

It was one of the most powerful and funny things I have EVER watched. I wanted to cry laughing and because it was so spiritual. We were all falling off of our seats. Nothing could be so funny I promise you that Haha I'm still laughing about it.

He said things like- "do you think us old crochity men just sat down, drank a quart of pickle juice and wrote the white handbook." That one had us going for hours and days afterwords.

He also said something like "standing on our tootsie feet." What the?! hahahaha oh my goodness.

The most spiritual thing that hit all of us was (imanine Elder Holland saying this, I promise you willl get chills) "The last words of of my mouth will be, Jesus is the Christ" Oh NO! I can't cry in the computer room. Embarissing. Seriosuly Though!

Oh man. I wish you could all just come here and then this would be heaven. I do not want to leave next Monday at all.

Everyone sings in the showers here. Everyone. It's like a chorus of people. It's so amazing! Also, we sing everywhere else too. And, we talk to each other in the stalls because we have so much to say. TMI I know. We just love each other.

We also pray. All the time. It's so amazing how our prayers have changed. We always pray for investigators. We kneel as a district when we pray and we always sing. We love our district so much. I don't think I've said that yet ;)

Anyways. Monday was when it hit. We were getting better with our investigators. Our confidence was finally up. We went in to meet with a non-member Lawanna. She scared us. A lot. We didn't bring the spirit like we should have becasue we were so concentraed on how well we had been doing. The lesson was a disaster. I was in tears. In the meeting. I pretended like it was the spirit. Perfect timing to share about Joseph Smith, but I had never been so terified. Our hearts were pounding out of our chests as we taught her. She critizized and us and kept asking us why we were there. We shared our purpose, testimonies, and FINALLY she like that Sister Lee said that God loved her. We had already said it a coulpe other times but it must have stood out to her. It's amazing how real these investigators are to us. We think about they all the time and are constantly praying for guidance on how to teach they. She told us to get out of her house, but that we could come back on Wednesday if we found out how to help her know that God loved her.

We cried afterwords. We were terified. The Elders tried to helpe but we felt so embariseed and inadiquite. We then decided to look on the bright side thanks to Sister Lee. We realized that was an amazing experience and that we reallly actaully needed it. We needed to know that this is Heavenly Fathers work. Not ours. That we always need to have the spirit. That we are going to get the door slammed in our face. It was such a good thing we realized that now, instead of later. We have been working hard ever since to find answers to her questions. Really- a lesson on Christ and His Atonement helped us calm down. Thank you to our teacher Brother Lester for that. And for humbing us.

This work is going forth. I can testify of that.

One more thing- funny experience that we are still laughing about today.

We were all in a really good mood after we had calmed down about the whole Lawanna thing. We couldn't stop laughing. EVERYTHING was funny. So funny we were falling out of our seats and coulnd't breath (I'm not exagurating). Then Elder Busch said something funny in an accent that is an inside joke that you wouldn't understand even if I explained, but we all started laughing and Sister Sliger fluffed (it was by far not a fluff, but I feel that is more appropriate) the Elders didn't hear it, but us Sisters rawred with laughter. For at least 5 minutes we laughed. Everytime we would look at her or the Elders we would laugh. The Elder's were laughing at Elder Busch, but we were laughing at something funnier. Then everything triggered that again. We could not control outselves. I have never been like that! We could not concentrate we were dying. After about 10minutes of on and off laughter resulting from everything out teacher told us we needed to take 2 laps around our hallway. We fell over laughing as we walked and every time we saw the Elders. It was so funny. But it made me realize how stressed we were, and that we needed a good laugh so badly. It was a moment we will treasure, and that we probably shouldn't bring up today hahahaha. Oh man. I wish I could put that in a bottle and never forget it. Heavenly Father loves us to laugh though, and I know he laughs with us :)

 My companion Sister Sliger doesn't get much mail, so if you could all go to DearElder.com and send her letters. It doesn't matter what you say, we just want to make her feel loved. Her info is the same as mine except her name! We want to overflow our mailbox with her mail. That would mean more to me than you writing me. If you could all do that, it would be much appreciated. :)

I love it here. I love my companions, our Elders, our teachers, our zone, the friends we've made and the experiences that we've had. I wish everyone in the entire would could feel as happy as I do now.

This work is true. This church is true. Nothing could ever make me deny that fact in my life. We are told to ask people on the FIRST visit/lesson if they want to be baptized. At first we were really sceptical of that, but then our teacher explained that everyone should have a chance to be asked. We should NEVER keep that from anyone. Even if it is weird, some do say yes the first time. Our goal is to help others come unto Christ. I can't wait to find those people that have been prepared for me. I want to teach them and shout all I know about this amazing gospel! I love my savior and the oportunity that I have to be a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ. That is such an honor that I hold so dear to my heart. This gospel means everything to me. I have already learned so much here than I have probably learned in my life time. Share the gospel with others! It will bring you more joy than you can even comprehend!

Also- we are trying to memorize D&C 4. We almost have it, we made up a song to it with the tune- "Called to Serve." We sing it on the way to meals and things.

I love you all more than I can even explain!
I will send you pictures later today :)

Oh- the 15th at 4:00am is when we head to Florida just to let you know. DearElder.com is probably the best option right now for letters!

Oh and thank you Sister Miller for the AMAZING package! We downed the chips and salsa and cookies in one day! :) A letter is coming your way!

With all my love and whole heart- Sister Calder :)

*I need ADDRESSES! And emails please!