Week 61 (6/2/14)

I thought last week couldn't get any crazier... I was totally wrong!!!

But I'll tell you about my new comp first! Sister Gustafson! I love

her soooooooo much already! Surprise! I'm in a zebra companionship!

Which means we do Spanish and English work! She's an Hermana! Haha

that sounds so weird...,but I'm pretty excited! Hopefully she'll be my

last comp! She's my 12th! Crazyness...

I GOT TO SEE ERNIE ON TUESDAY! We drive right on his road when going

from Sebring to Tampa! I was freaking out cuz I wanted to see him

sooooooo bad. I dunno if you all even get how much I love this man....

But that's okay :) you'll probably get it when I get home :)

I jumped out of the car and I heard him yell "I gotta go bye!" (To

someone on the phone) and he yelled- "are you kidding me!?" He jumped

up and couldn't even get the locks open haha he was SO excited! He

said he thought he was hallucinating. Haha it was the best surprise. I

just gave him a bug hug and we talked for a while.

I love him and Ashley so much!

I'm so proud of Karl graduating! Gosh. The fam...I have the best

family in the whole entire world! I know it! I miss them so much! I

can't believe I'm in my 11th transfer! It's unreal. Especially seeing

my comp go home next week! There's no way this is real!

Here's the crazyness...

Basically, my comp got proposed to, by a girl. But, it's not what you

think. The family believes everything we've taught them! They were so

prepared! they know the bible like the back of their hand. They

mentioned polygamy, we didn't think Would be a problem once we

explained and everything. But last Monday the WIFE of one of our

investigators asked my comp if she'd marry her HUSBAND. What!? It was

at our huge BBQ on Monday so they were just talking and she asked her.

So we had no idea! Uh..... She told her she'd get back to her on

that...

2 days later we were at the church with them for mutual. We didn't

really see, but she pulls my comp aside and pulls out a RING asking

her again if she'd marry into their family! Oh, I did forget this

part. Since they really believe the bible they think we should still

be practicing polygamy since it was a commandment from god. They think

that our church caved when the government stepped in.

Anyways.... So they were dead serious. They love my comp so much that

they want her to marry into their family.

Never thought you'd hear that one right?

So my comp needed to explain to them, without them knowing that we everything.

 He said he'd be willing to wait till she was off her mission and

everything. The whole family was cool with it! They really believe the

bible. It's crazy.

So the plan was for me and my other comp to play outside with the kids

while my other comp talked to them. Of course, it's PORING rain after

45minutes of planning this all out.... Like hurricane bad. It was

actually kind of crazy. We walked maybe 15 feet and were SOAKED, we

needed towels.

Anyways. So we get in their and we don't even know what to do. Because

it needed to be brought up today, she needed to give them her answer.

We had a short lesson on tithing that they agreed to and everything.

Then heavenly Father just ended up working it all out. I helped in the

kitchen with dinner and I basically just stayed I their with my comp

while they were talking. So they STILL have no idea that we know.

Heavenly Father is the best :)

That was so scattered holy cow. I'm not sure if that even made sense!

The whole thing has been like a dream. Usually people have the

opposite problem I with polygamy... But this is just kinda crazy

actually.

When people ask what happened we just say- polygamy... And that

usually does it. But.... They don't even have any idea hahahahahahaha

We are still keeping in touch. We love them so much. They are going to

move out to Utah and join the f-LDS church or whatever one it is.

They believe EVERYTHING. Except for that. It's pretty sad :(

But hey! We move on!

We got 8 member referrals this week! In 2 days! The members here

actually get it! It's amazing! Ah! I love it so much! :D

Anyways. The work is true.

The church is true.

Sorry I can't really think of anything super crazy that happened this

week besides the big one. Everything here is just so normal! All the

miracles and everything it's awesome. :) normal meaning, being a

missionary is normal now :) and it has been for a while...haha

Love, Sister Calder :)

Proudly Serving Florida

The duck I caught…Yes. It's wild. 

Introducing Companion #12

I love her already! :)

Sister Gustafson

Week 53 (4/7/14)

General conference was THEE BEST!!!!

You all probably already knew that, but really! If you didn't watch

it... Well get off reading this email, and watch it! It will change

your life! I think being a missionary really helps you understand

better the significance of conference... I love it SOOO much!!! I

can't even explain how excited all the missionaries get ;) GC weekend

is like better than Christmas and a birthday party combined (it's the

on 19th.... My birthday... You can start sending your cards now in

case you forgot ;) haha also- my companions birthday is on the 24th so

I feel like everyone should send her a hilarious card as well :) it'll

make her day) We have a living prophet and apostles. What they say is

SCRIPTURE for our day. They are speaking directly from our father in

heaven! Ah! Talk about the coolest thing EVER. I'm pretty sure if

Moses or Abraham were here we would all drop everything to hear them.

Saaaaaammmmeeee thing :) I know I can't tell you how important it is,

you've got to figure that out, but i sure do have a testimony of our

prophet and the power that comes from hearing him speak and listening

to the things they say. It's so powerful! I went in with 3 questions

and the first 2 were answered within the first hour of conference and

continued to be answered as the sessions went on. I know I'm being one

of those missionaries right now, but I just wanted to make sure you

had a formal invitation. Remember- there's no excuses ;) watch them

all! If you don't watch every single one you'll miss something that

you need, or you might even miss Elder Hollands AMAZING talk. Pretty

much, he shattered my bones and made me want to cry, it was so

powerful.

Love. The world is all about love :) that is the main theme I got from it! :D

I'm gonna get off my little soap box now... Haha sorry I know everyone

just LOVES those emails from missionaries where they get chastised. I

promise I didn't want to chastise you! I just care so much about

everyone and I want you all to know how you can receive the peace and

answers you're looking for :) we showed one of our investigators a

clip from General Conference explaining to her what it was, and she

said their voices were so peaceful and brought her comfort :) we

explained to her that was the spirit because they were the Lords

representatives on the earth today :)

We had a cool lesson with Sister Maraj, our less active who's now been

coming back!! she's the greatest :) our little grandma away from home

:) I can't tell you how much I miss my grandmas by the way! But we

just sang hymns with her :) the spirit was so strong even though I'm a

horrible singer haha but music is just so powerful! It's like with

that one woman we got a referral for in Lakeland. We just sang to her

on her porch "I am a Child of God" the first time we met her and she

cried as we sang. At her baptism Sister Beck said she said 2 angels

were sent to her to sing to her and bring her comfort :)

We picked strawberries with Mikayla and the young women's president.

:) that was fun! I've never done that before! But both Sister Upshaw

and I did not have good effects afterwords from eating those berries

right off the vine... On or way there Terri Tadle texted us telling us

she wanted to move her baptism up to the 19th!!!!!! We were

ESTHETIC!!!!! Best. Birthday. Present. EVER!!! I cannot even explain

my love for her! She is one of the most amazing women I have ever met

:) she has so much faith! We decided to call Sister Lazenby (who is

actually my cousin Danny's aunt who's in my ward here) and ask her to

give a talk at her baptism cuz Terri said that she'd love that! She

was her visiting teacher a long time ago and Terri just loves her.

Sister Lazenby has been going through a really hard time lately. She

has a lot of Heath issues and it's been so hard for her. But she's

such an amazing example of pushing to the end and never giving up!

When we told her Terri was getting baptized she cried and said this

was the news that she needs right now to help her keep going because

she'd been really discouraged lately. You never know how much you can

effect someone else's life!

In conference they told you all to tell us (the missionaries) what

you're learning in Preach my Gospel :) I would LOVE to hear what

everyone's learning! I have studied it every single day of my mission

and I still get stuff out of it every day! It's helped me teach

simpler and with more power. It's the perfect thing for everyone to

study so we can all be better missionaries and not tell people we meet

about Outer Darkness, Kolob, and becoming Gods.... Studying PMG will

help a lot more with member teaching I think ;)

I hit my 1 year mark. Of course, we partied. That went by so quickly,

yet I feel like I've been here my whole life! While we were sitting at

our birthday lunch with our grandmas I was just thinking how normal it

all was and then realized that this was totally not normal and I

haven't been doing it forever. It's so weird.

Cool story- while on exchanges with our STL's we were contacting in

downtown Sarasota. We met these two super awesome gay men. They said

they had sen the BOM play and liked it a lot and then they had

researched Mormons a lot. We told them about the temple open house in

Ft. Lauderdale. They said they wanted to see it, you know.... A lot of

the time people don't do what we tell them to haha but we fb friended

this couple annnnnnnddddd they posted a picture of them at the

temple!!!!!! They told everyone how beautiful it was and they shared

how anyone could go and see it even when they were getting ridicule

from their friends comments. Ahhhhh :) so cool.

They mentioned Florida twice in conference.... Just sayin'....

Also- listen to the spirit. Remember my email last week? Well Sister

Upshaws mom emailed her and said that she needed to hear what I said,

even though I thought it was funny that I was writing that in my email

but I just felt like I needed to. I love the spirit :)

Also- we get to hangout with Ernie and Ashley all day today at the

beach :) we are pretty excited :)

The church is trrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuueeeeee :D

I love you all. A lot :) party whenever there's something to

celebrate... It will make you happier.

Love, Sister Calder :)

Picking stgrawberries

creepy

How we party. One year mark

I got to see Ernie and Ashley last night. :) They came down to see me! We are going to the beach all day today! I love them so much!

Old Lady Lunch

Florida Sunsets

Week 47 (2/24/14)

I learned SO much this week! It was probs one the most exhausting

weeks of my mission, but I learned SO much! Yep... I totally already

said learned so much, apparently I did though!

We did the "metro training center" from Monday to Wednesday. It. Was.

A. Party. We had sooooo much fun! Mainly because- both of our MTC

companions were there! Sister Lee was mine, and Sister Ormsby was

Sister Upshaws. Sister Lee and Ormsby have been companions for 5

transfers now! Crazy right!? Transfer calls are this Saturday and if I

get transferred then I might just haves little freak out. I've had a

different companion for the past 4 transfers in a row! I'm hoping I'll

get to stay with Sister Upshaw for a while cuz she's the best and I

love her so much! She reminds me a lot of one of my best friends, so

that helps a lot :)

Anyways. The metro training center is where you go to downtown Tampa

for a few days and just street contact all day long. We stay with the

"sister AP's" (as we call them, it's not like a real title, but they

basically are) and 2 other sets of Sisters :) and one of those sets

just happened to be the best sisters ever!

This was all made for the new incoming missionaries, but they are

putting all the missionaries who are already out through it to gain

some better contacting skills. So right when you get here to Florida

after you get your comp you just go straight there for 3 days. A

little crazy and intimidating for some people! But people down town

know us! It was really amazing to see! We could feel  more and more

how the work was hastening!! Cheesy right?;)

We had so many cool experiences. We rode the bus for about 3 hours one

day and taught 11 lessons!!!! I even taught one girl the whole plan of

salvation with the pamphlet! She loved it! We had some creepy

experiences as we'll just because it is downtown and there's a lot of

people, but they gave us some pepper spray so it's all good ;)

We just had a ton of fun and learned a lot about street contacting. It

was great! We couldn't walk the 3rd day at all though. I know that

sounds super pathetic... We can bike 30 miles no problem, but we can't

walk 15 haha. All of us were literally limping with blisters all over

our feet. It was really effective though! Like I said, we learned a

lot of cool tools to take back to our area.

I've really been seeing lately how the spirit works. The mission helps

you a lot with that. It helps you to recognize easier the promptings

you receive. I love seeing all the different ways the spirit works!

Even the other day we were driving and I had a prompting to go to

these peoples house who we haven't been able to get a hold of for

months. We said we'd go back later. 5 minutes later the Sarasota

Elders texted us they had a strong feeling that someone needed to

visit them. So! Of course, we jumped on it and they were home and let

us in! It was amazing! I love the spirit :)

Also... I got to talk to Ernie on Tuesday! He baptized one of his

friends on Saturday! He was so nervous and said he wanted to talk to

me to see if I thought he could do it! I love him!

I love you all so much! I'm really happy for my mom and Darren and I

support them 100% :) I'm really glad that everyone is happy! Happiness

is all that really matters!

Love you all!

Love- Sister Calder

Sent from my iPad

Famous Tampa Sign

MTC Comps Reunite

Maybe We Have Way TOO Much Fun

Eggplant Pizza

Waxing Time

Too Much Walking In Tampa

Sometimes We Find Gators

Testing Pepper Spray

Pepper Spray

Christina Face

Fresh Avocado MMMM