Week 67 (7/14/14)

My companion fell off her bike this week!
It was at 6:30 in the morning though.... So I guess that's why it was
not hilarious. 9 months out and she's finally not a greenie. Good
thing I had that covered in my 3rd transfer.... twice in one day ;)

Weird that that is the first thing I put haha...

We did an awesome service this week where we planted trees! We had 42
people from our ward show up (well, and the new Lake Placid branch
that was just made last week) and we planted 2,500 trees!!! It was so
much fun! We were all sweating like beasts in the middle of the
"Florida desert" and a couple people got heat exhaustion, but it was
totally worth it. Now when I come back to visit in like 20 years I can
drive a million miles in the middle of no where and look out with my
big proud head and be so proud of all those awesome trees we planted.
I'm adding it to the bucket list. ;)

We got a new ward mission leader!!!! Of course it's our favorite
person/family in the ward!!! We are STOKED! The work here is going to
take off! He was called yesterday, and already had a couple new sets
of ward missionaries and we had a big meeting with him, the elders,
and the ward missionaries.
We are totally going to ROCK this ;)

Here's the REAL excitement for this week!!!!
Remember John? Our miracle guy?

Well we haven't been able to get a hold of him for 3 weeks!!! The last
thing we did was give him the Book of Mormon right after church. He
had texted us once telling us he loved the Book of Mormon and that it
brought him so much peace. He also said he knew that the prophet was
true as well! Then we didn't hear from him for another 2 weeks. We've
just kept on praying and praying that he'd get in contact with us. We
were planning on dropping him on Thursday if we couldn't get a hold of
him.

On Wednesday randomly HE CALLED us!!!! We freaked out... And then
answered it. He said he had some time and wanted to meet at the church
for a lesson. So we dropped everything, grabbed a member, and went.
He told us that he was in Alma 2!!! People, WE GAVE HIM THE BOOK OF
MORMON 3 weeks ago!!! He LOVES it! He said that he would just lock
himself in his room and read it. His little brother noticed him
reading it all the time. One day he couldn't find it, and found that
his little brother (he's 8 btw) was reading it!! He said that he saw
him reading it so much that he wanted to read it too (of course we
sent him home with another copy for him)!!
He's just been so busy so he hadn't gotten back to us. He drove up to
Alabama to buy an RV. The guy selling it to him was a member and saw
the Book of Mormon in his back seat and told him who he was and asked
if he'd gone to church. He said only once, and the member said-
"once!? Well you've got to go more than that!" He ended up selling him
a much nicer RV for REALLY cheep because he said he needed to go to
church with it hAha. Cool right!? He is noticing the blessings from
reading it!! And we are noticing the blessings from constant,
heartfelt prayer.

Who's going to make this movie?? Seriously. It's amazing to watch all
of this happening! The gospel TRULY does change people lives! :)

The mission can make you REAL homesick. It doesn't help that I haven't
had a real Calder roast and mashed potatoes in over 15 months! I've
just been scarfing down deviled eggs with miracle whip, and that
onions are in everything... (The fam will get this one... And Danny)
I haven't been so homesick my whole mission combined as much as I have
these last couple weeks.
It's really helped me grow.
It makes me realized how important our families are in this plan, and
how essential it is that we spend every single moment we can with
them. My family means so much to me! I know I know, I say this every
single time, but it love my family more than I can even explain, They
are the reason I am here. The gospel, combined with my amazing family
is what brings me true, everlasting happiness. And that is what I
yearn and crave to share with others. :) it the best. ;)

A lot of mushy love, Sister Calder :)

P.S. Don't forget Ash and I at the gorge! Our heads better be there
this year ;)

Week 6 (5/13/13)

This week has been cray-cray to say the least. 

We moved into our new apartment on Wednesday. So Tuesday was mainly spent packing and cleaning. Sister Andersen has more stuff from her 6 month mission than I did in my house for 10 years. It was very frustrating... but I found my favorite shirt of ALL TIME in our graveyard. So I'm trying to be ok with it. ;) 

It's weird being called Nicole. I've only been out a month... imagine how it is going to be in a year and a half! 

We had a cool experience with 3 prayers being answered in one day. I can't tell you how much my testimony of prayer has changed!

On Wednesday we met with an investigator. His wife was baptized 1 year ago and he just hasn't come along. He's had all the lessons, but doesn't think he should stop drinking coffee. He made that very apparent. We tried our best in the lesson not to argue, and to just answer his questions and bear testimony, but it was a rough go. I went home very discouraged thinking that not everyone is ready and we should just give up. Advice- never think that. It's not a good idea. But I had been praying like a crazy person that his heart would be softened. 

The next morning we get a text from his wife telling us that he said he would try drinking less coffee for her. And that if she wanted to go to the temple, he would take her there. I can't tell you how amazing this is. He is very stubborn and was not having any of that the day before. It was such a huge blessing! We screamed when we got the text and we were beaming the rest of the day. We knew it was an answer to our prayers and his wife's prayers.
Later that day we decided that we were going to visit one of our other investigators in the hospital. She was the one that just walked right into church. We hadn't been able to get a hold of her, and were feeling really discouraged about the whole thing. But then we got a call from her from the hospital explaining everything. She had been wanting to learn more but with all the hospital stuff she couldn't get a hold of us until then. So we biked 10 miles in the middle of the day (we were determined to see her) to the hospital.
We couldn't find exactly where we were supposed to go once we got there so we stopped at a desk to ask someone. The lady was very nice in giving us directions. After we were done visiting our investigator we needed to fill up our water bottles so we went back to that same place we had asked for directions. As we were walking in we asked that same lady if there was a place we could fill up our water bottles, she said yes and then immediately after said, "I think you are the Sisters that are teaching my daughter Gracie." We both looked at each other and started freaking out saying telling her that we were. We had been praying to get in contact with Sister Hilton for weeks so that her daughter could come to church. The father wasn't ok with us teaching her after 2 lessons but Gracie wanted to come to church to learn more.
We found Gracie when we were visiting part member families (I can't remember if I have told you about her). Her mom was a member when she was young, so she knew about our church. But we couldn't call Sister Hilton because she didn't want her husband to get mad. So we prayed that she would call us so her daughter could finally come to church. Seeing her there was an answer to our many prayers. It was such an amazing experience! She is going to start bringing Gracie to church because she begs for it every week. We are still beaming from the experience and can't wait to start teaching her more. :) 

The last experience of the day was a woman who the Elders have taught all the lessons to, but now that she is in our area (we switched with the Elders when I got here) We had been praying that she would set a date and know that she needed to be baptized. She had never been overly excited about it, but she teaches her 3 year old son about the stories in the scriptures and he loves it! So we had been praying for her. We met with her and she was just glowing. We asked her about the date and she was so excited. We still aren't firm on it yet because she has to check and make sure her boyfriend (who is actually a member... he's usually at the lessons, but he couldn't make it there this time) would be off of work that day. Also, beach baptism might be in the picture ;) but she was even talking about the temple! She was asking things like when can she go to the temple and what she would have to do for that. It was so amazing. We couldn't stop smiling that night. That was the best day of my mission so far, and I know that I'm never going to forget it :)

We have been doing service projects about twice a week for 4 hours. Someone recent converts in the Naples Ward (the ward right next to us, but it used to be our ward until they split it right before I came out) is doing habitat for humanity and the mother is pregnant so they asked the missionaries if they could help. They need 500 hours to get a house and it's just the two of them. So when you combine all the missionaries (there are usually 16 of us that come) times that by 4 and then that by 2 that's how many hours we can do for them in one week. We love doing it! We have painted the inside and outside of houses, laid sod, put sticky stuff on the floor, done molding things. We love doing it. This week it was funny because we got there late and all the missionaries were cleaning off all the paint stuff. The guy in charge told us they painted the outside of the house the wrong color. Luckily they had only done half of it. So we took a break to let it dry and then came back and started paining again. We thought it was the wrong color after we had painted about a 1/4 of it. So we asked the guy and he just said to paint it over with this other paint. Turns out it was the same paint, we were just painting it all over again with the same color... lots of paint and time because we are a little clueless ;) it was super fun though!  

On my mission so far one thing that I have learned is that I need to rely on others. We always are needing rides and food, and help with things. I have never been the kind of person that likes to ask others for help... but my mom always taught me that it is ok to ask for help from other people. So that's something I have been trying to be better about. I think all of us have to remember that. We need to let other people serve us. We can't deny them those blessings. We are here to help others and learn from each other :)

I love you all so much! I hope you had an amazing mothers day!

"Be a beacon to the whole world!" 

-Elder Perry

I'm loving the letters! Keep them coming :) they help me more than you can even imagine!

Moroni 7:31 (this is not just a missionaries calling) ;)

Love, Sister Calder:)