Week 12 (6/25/13)

So I would first off like to point out... for those of you who were watching the brodcast, and for everyone who wasn't either... the the Florida Tampa mission is THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD. I have been trying to tell you, but now you all have proof. Elder Anderson said it himself... I'm pretty sure. I saw some people I know on there. :) I even saw my sweet mission president and his wife who are leaving next week :( BUT! Like I said, it is very clear what the best mission is. ;) haha and I have already set aside that the second best mission will be Sister Calder #3's (Ash's) mission :)

The brodcast was AMAZING! We all had our guesses on what it was going to be about. We really thought it would be member missionary work... and ipads. Our other guess was that they were gonig to make every mission a service mission (which would be the BEST). But it was about memeber missionary work! It was SO good! I loved seeing all those missionaries in the MTC. They are always telling us that this is such an exciting time to be on a mission! I truly believe and know that! I am in the middle of this happiness!!!! I am loving every single second of it!!!!

So Dawn didn't get baptized... she had to move like an hour away. But once she can get back into a homeless shelter down here she will get baptized :)

On Tuesday I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. We had a conference cuz my mission president was leaving. It was a zone conference, so it wasn't everyone. We did a musical number (Love is Spoken Here) I played the piano for it. It was so beautiful. Everyone was fighting back tears afterwords. We had tons of departing testimonies that made me tear up as well. Our mission president showed us a video. I wish I could youtube it cuz I really want you all to see it. It's about a man who was running a 400 meter dash. He was expected to win. He tore his hamstring in the middle of the race and fell to the ground. He didn't want to give up so he started hopping to the finish line. A man broke through security, it was his dad. He ran next to him and helped him the rest of the way. At the end he let him finish the race by himself. Of course. We were all balling and it doesn't help that it had Josh Groban you raise me up playing in the background. Oh man. Then he read us a quote that I loved- "All you have to do to finish the race is rise each time you fall." and he also said- "If you never give up, you can never fail." SO TRUE RIGHT! I love it!!!!! I cried a lot.

But here is what really got everyone. Our closing song for the meeting was God be with you till we meet again. We all started to stand as we sang it. It was already hard to fight back tears, but the last verse the Haitianaries started singing it in Haitian Creloe and the Spanish missionaires joined. I couldn't even sing! The spirit was SO strong I literally cannot even describle it. If you can only imagine this... all the Elders and Sister with tears running down their face in complete love for our missinon president. That's really what gets the spirit so strong... pure love. That's really what it was. We love them so much! I said the closing prayer and I still don't remember what I said and we all just cried together. 

In our mission to say thank you to people we sing Love one Another. It's our mission presidents favorite song. So when someone does something nice for us we all sing that song to them. As President and Sister Summerhays walked out we all stood in silence and then sang, without even planning it before hand, Love one Another. We all cried as we walked out the door hugging Sister Summerhays and shaking Presidents hand. It was a moment that I will never forget :)

Really nothing else is worth saying after that! I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me! I cannot even tell you how much I appreciate all of you!

I love you!
Love, Sister Calder

 

WAIT! The one peice of advice that my mission president has give us is-

"GET THE SPIRIT, AND KEEP IT"

Don't you forget it :) that the best life advice right there ;)

Week 11 (6/17/13)

Dear... everyone...

Honestly I don't even know who reads this, I think I'm just barely realizing this....

This week... it's funny. I always start these emails with this week and every single day in my journal I say.... well today....

It was pretty good. It's been a little rough. We have lost some potential investigators that we thought would be pretty solid. So we are back to square one... finding. We had a tornado warning this week. So.... warning is way worst than watch and for the watch we were inside ALL DAY long. That one was also a tropical storm though. OH yeah and on Tuesday we had a Lighting warning as well. Good thing that one wasn't for too long. It's crazy what staying inside will do to your mind though! All you want to do it get out and do missionary work. It made me a lot more appreciative that's for sure. Dawn is supposed to be getting baptized this Saturday, but we have to get her living situation figured out first, it's been kind of a mess for us to figure it all out, but it is totally worth it in the end :)

We had to get some of Sister A's letters out of that dumb mail box.... so 2 pieces of gum and my awesome skills later we got them out of the box:) the hardeset part was finding a stick... there are only palm trees here.

I think I'm having a brain fart... I really don't remember what we did the rest of the week.

Well, we finally were able to meet with Rafelita who we have been trying to visit for weeks. She was so happy to see us and now calls us her daughters... (a lot of people do that.... don't worry I'm really safe with lots of moms here). We  had a lunch with a potential. She cried as we recited the first vision, but says she loved her religion so much that she doesn't think she could do another. Plus she's moving... huh. Seeds planted. That's just what we keep saying ;)

Fathers day was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I just had to pretend like I was happy and not wanting to burst into tears all day... that only works for so long....

We are doing a musical number for our mission president and his wife. They are leaving really soon. Our district is doing "Love is Spoken Here" at our conference with them tomorrow. I'm playing the piano for it ;) (love that I get to do this because I get out of singing). It reminds me of my grandpa's funneral and when all us cousins did that beautiful musical number :)

We just got done making a huge batman pinata for one of the Elders. It's pretty legit! Actually... it's way more than legit. I don't want to break it.... I am pretty proud of my artistic ability on this one, espeically because I actually have none ;)

Anyways. Sorry for boring you with this one. I'm boring myself writing it.

I love all of you so much!

Love, Sister Calder

Week 10 (6/10/13)

So this day has been bitter sweet. Today it has been 5 years since my dad has passed away. I am so grateful and happy that I have this amazing gospel and the knowledge of The Plan of Salvation and the knowledge of each of our individual plans. But it's also hard being away from those that I love most to share this day with. My dad was the greatest example to me. He taught me to work hard, never give up, and always trust completly in our Heavenly Father. He never once complained about his life. He taught me that this gospel and our family are the most important things and we should alway cherish the good times in life. He was always smiling and could make anyone laugh. I never doubted that he had a firm testimony. I can feel him helping me every single day on the mission. I don't know what I would do without him and my father in Heaven helping me every second of the way.

This week reality hit me. As I got mountains of mail from my sisters and mom on Monday I felt homesick for the first time in my life. I cried as I read the letters and realized everything that I was missing. It was one of the hardest times that I have probably had in my whole life. I felt like I was being ripped in half. All I wanted to do was get on a plane to come home so I didn't miss anything else that has been happening in my sisters lives. But I wanted to stay here becuase I love my mission with all my heart and I love the people here. I prayed to have the comfort to fight and make it through. After I balled for a while I felt this immediate comfort and peace that I knew I was supposed to be here, and I could never deny that. Heavenly Father will take care of my family. If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be such a sacrifice and I would never grow. He let me have a little bit of home for a while and then brought me right back to where I know I am supposed to be.

 

Sorry. Whew. Sometimes we need to share of hardships with others so they can learn and grow :)

 

Let's get happy...

This week was FUN! On Thursday morning at about 3:00am our weather radio went off. YES! We had been waiting to hear what it sounded like, but it was pretty scary too... it was a flood watch. We were like ok. Went back to bed, 10minutes later it went off AGAIN! This time is was a legit tornado watch. We freaked out for a sec (like happy freaking out) and then went back to bed. In the morning we got a text from our mission presdient telling us to stay inside ALL DAY. We were not to leave our apartments. It was stormy and windy all day long!!!!!! Sometimes we freaked out, and sometimes we laughed and coudln't stop talking about how this really was happening. We made a whole video sequnce of the events :) I will send that soon haha. We also built a fort and watched some movies. It was a party. :)

Friday DAWN committed to BAPTISM! She is getting baptized on June 22nd AT THE BEACH! We invited her to a beach baptism some Elders in our zone were having and she didn't make it for the ceremony, but she was like oh well, I'll just have to wait for mine! We are SO excited! I seriously cannot explain my JOY!!!! She was the one who just walked into our church off the street. So we started teaching her and will get to end teaching her as well! Oh man. Seriously guys. This is the best!!!!!!

Then we vistited a referal that we got from HQ. Her name is Mikelle. She is AMAZING! So sweet. She actually got a gymnatics scholarship to SUU so that's where she's been going for the past 4 years. Her parents live here, but she was introducted to the church by an RM at SUU. She's so interested and even came to church with her mom on Sunday! :)

Mom- I had my first FRESH Mango off a tree. Nothing compares. They are SO GOOOD!!!!

 

R.I.P. Pip Steve Williamson. A squirrel that Elder Rowan ran over, who is still living. He was in the middle of the road, we went to touch him so we could bury him.... but he moved. It's really sad.....

 

Every single day I have convincing evidence that THIS is EXACTLY where I am supposed to be. I love my mission and I love all of you so much!!!!

 

Love, Sister Calder

 

Week 9 (6/3/13)

This week has been AMAZING! I seriously cannot tell you how much I love my mission!

I have really developed a strong testimony on prayer. I have had so many prayers answered and have really learned to listen and know exactly what my Heavenly Father wants me to do.

We have gotten caught in LOTS of rain storms. Welcome to Florida summer and hurricane season :)

Sister Miles left and it makes me want to cry every single day. I love her so much. :(

I love p-days! I had to buy a volleyball cuz Sister Miles left and she was the only one that had one! I used a whole bag of m&m's and threw them in the Elders mouths. That was fun. Plus we had a nutella party cuz Elder Langi was leaving. I brought pickles for it and people loved it! It really is good. Everyone go and try it now ;)

I left my first Saviors Peace and Blessing! It is just a mighty prayer on peoples homes. The woman was in tears by the end. We felt the spirit SO strong! It was amazing!!! The new people in our zone are pretty cool! Nothing compares to our old zone though ;)

It's funny how much comp inventory helps! Sister A and I are getting along better than ever!!!

We were going to visit a referral that the Spanish sisters gave us. We visited the whole house twice and when the wrong person answered we were shocked, but we decided it was good cuz then they have a chance to hear the gospel! Looking on the bright side :) that's what we are working on.

Sorry this one is so quick. It's been a crazy p-day.

I almost ran over a baby bird, but then we saved it's life instead.

I have decided that fasting on the mission is hard. I had a really hard time with it last week. So this week I prayed that I would be able to focus on what I was fasting for and not my hunger. IT TOTALLY WORKED. Imagine that :)

Anyways. I love you all so much!!!! :)

 

 "The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for the better ones ahead. The grand and the simple. They are equally wonderful."

-Sister Hinkely :)

 

Love, Sister Calder