Week 36 (12/9/13)

This week we learned to laugh. A lot. Hahahaha we talked about "Come what may and LOVE it" in DM and we just made a goal to laugh at everything. It's been working out really well haha :) everything is hilarious and fun.

I am being transferred. I dunno why, and it's been really hard for me to accept. It caught me completely off guard (like the girls camp song). But, I guess I am needed somewhere else! Which is crazy to think because I love it here so much. I think I have a problem with change eh?

I love Sister Beck so much! We've gotten along so well and have really done some awesome work here! Our members called us the dynamic duo! They are kind of upset.... one of my favorite people here is a 9 year old named Maggie. We're best friends. She came into sacrament meeting just balling and we hugged for a while. That made it real, and it stunk :( huuuhhhh. Who knows where I'll go. I'll find out tomorrow.

Ernie got in a car accident this week. It actually was a miracle. We had been having a really off and kind of frustrating day. Then our ZL's text us and tell us that we have to go and take a survey that we had forgotten to take. We don't have a key to our family history library so after 30 minutes and a bunch of miles we were so frustrated cuz the GPS was leading us to a fake library we decided to just use the miles to go all the way up to the Lakeland Library. We did and in the middle of taking the survey we get a call from Ernie... he was in an ambulance and told us that he's been hit by a car. We were able to call him and meet him at the library which was literally a mile from where we were. His wife Ashley was at work and wouldn't be able to get there till a little bit later. So we went there and got there right after he arrived in the ambulance. Sister Beck sang to him as he got a shot and he said that it comforted him so much to have us there because no one else could get there till a lot later.

He's ok! He got hit on his bike... he bikes with us sometimes and says that he always prayes that he will get his and not us. So he says that it's an answer to his prayers... SAD! He's just my adopted dad. I love him so much. It was really hard to say goodbye. He even called right after we'd said goodbye and told me I needed to come back cuz I stole his heart haha ;) I love him and Ashley. He says I'm his adopted daughter. :) I love it.

Anyways. Miracle that we were right there by the hospital for some crazy reason. It was great!

I have facebook now... Sister-Nicole Calder... but I cannot add people from home. So please don't be mad if you see it and I dont' add you. It's really strict...

I love this work SO MUCH! I'm going to miss Lakeland/Mulberry so much and all the amazing member here!

Better things are ahead...

I love you all!

Love, Sister Calder :) 

Ernie(adopted Dad)

Maggie-I love her so much

Sister Beck and Me

Week 31 (11/4/13)

This work is awesome! It's SO TRUE! AH! There have been so many miracles this week! The work is seriously hastening! AHHHHHH! I can't tell ya'll how excited I am! :) :) It's working!!!! I have seen it first hand!

First cool news..... our mission is getting ipads :) apparently we were one of the first to get approved and they are ordered! :D Crazy right!? Also.... I will be able to get on facebook soon :) all of our ZL and STL are able to, so soon enough I will be able to as well!

INSANE.

The spirit is so real! I have found that I smile really big when I feel the spirit! I have been starting to keep a prompting journal so every single prompting I have I write it down and then what happened through following that. It's been helping me recognize them so much more! My awesome comp made me the journal cuz I'd been wanting to buy one. SHE'S THE BEST. Yeah. She totally put a mustache on it. Aahaha. People know me way too well. It's starting to freak me out! Danny and Lindsay sent me a package with Reese's, Almond Joys, stuff to make cookies, and mustaches. No joke. I love it!

We had left the saviors peace and blessing in a members home a couple weeks ago and literally every single thing we prayed for came true! No joke! They had been searching for a new job.

Found one.

They hadn't know what was wrong with the dads knee in 20 years.

He's having surgery in a couple weeks cuz they found out what's wrong!

The son really wanted to make the soccer team even though he had an injury.

He went to the temple trip instead of the very last practice, and by putting the Lord first HE MADE THE TEAM!

And tons of others things!

We have received 9 member referrals since I've been here! That's AMAZING! Hastening. Good stuff.

My new comp, as I've already said, is AMAZING! I honestly love her so much! She even trained Sister O so she's been helping me... recover hahaha. It was an answer to my many prayers! But we decided to fast for Sister O and her new comp. It helped us both a lot. I love her so much!

Our transfer meeting was HILARIOUS. 170 missionaries got transferred. I think we have around 230. SO! The biggest transfer we've had so far! I was in the biggest and the smallest one :)

Halloween was hilarious. Pres Cusick is hard core so we were still out till 9:00 biking around. People thought they were costumes... so that was pretty funny haha :) they even said- "bikers... for Halloween"

I'm in the south. It's hilarious. That's all I have to say hahaha I love it.

So Sister Greene, the LA that her husband died. I love her! She really likes me too... I know that's weird to say.... but she really really does haha. I can't even explain. She called me Sister Nicole, which is super weird! But that's ok.... she said sometimes she makes a list of things that "I need to tell Sister Nicole" it's hilarious.

But we've been helping her a LOT! It's funny how intune with the spirit I am because I told her I could feel her husband was still there.... then she told her friend in NJ and her friend called me..... I think they think I'm like psychic or something haha Sister Beck and I laughed so hard. So I talked to that girl for 30minutes about the spirit and spirit world over the phone. Pretty funny. Hahahaha IDK what they think. But they love it :)

I don't think I told ya'll about the.... ya'll... I just typed it. Weird. So we had gone to a house of these people who their son had just died. I have never felt the spirit SO strong in a non-members house. It was like a brick wall. Their son wants them to hear the gospel! It is so REAL and powerful! It was an amazing experience for me. I gave her a BOM with my testimony in it and we'll go back this upcoming week. It's crazy how many people I have been dealing with here that have had people recently die. When President interviewed Sister O last week she told him that I needed to stay here because I have people I need to connect with. I have seen that every single day this week! So much death, and I have just connected well with all of them! I am just loving everyone I meet! The Christ-like love I've been praying for really has been working :) my comp even told me that I have the ability to show my love for people around me and they know that I love them. That's something I've developed on my mission!

We have 3 invites to Thanksgiving dinner and it's the 4th...

I love you all! Keep hastening this amazing true work! :)

Love, Sister Calder :)

My new comp plays rugby for BYU. Yeah. She makes me so happy and I just love her so much! :) she has helped me so much though everything already! I LOVE HER!

Week 26 (9/30/13)

So. I am living in Duck Dynasty. Just to let ya'll know. Oh man. ya'll just came off the page. That was crazy. Apparently we are now in the bible belt. Being more up North in Florida is really fun :) it's very south! Nothing in Naples was South. But everyone and everything here is. It. Rocks.

We had a cool experience this week (let's be honest, what's new? I have one of those every single day). We have an investigator named Felisha. She is AMAZING. We taught her the first lesson and she said the spirit was like pins and needles stabbing her! She loved it! Then she texted us on Saturday and asked us if we wanted to come over! Of course we said YES! So we went over and she told us that she got this job she had been applying for! So she's a nurse right now. She has 3 kids and wants to spend more time with them. So she applied to be a bus driver cuz she did that a while ago and loved it. She applied right after our lesson with her and Tuesday and they called her on Saturday and told her that she got the job! She was so happy and wanted us over so that she could tell us. She said that we were angels sent to her and that she knows she was blessed with this job because of us and what we were teaching her! We told her that was exactly it and that she was being blessed because of it! Oh man. We love her so much! She gave us some pretty jewlery and we are going to her sons birthday party haha. She is honestly the best and I love her so much!

I absolutly love my mission! It's the best thing that I've ever done! This gospel is real and it is so amazingly true! It changes peoples lives. It's amazing. I love it more than anything in the world. I love seeing how people remember what we are teaching them. We have heard people say- "I've heard this before" more than once. Because they totally have! I am learning and growing so much every day! There is nothing that can turn you more Christ-like than going on a mission! Every day I am seeing more like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ does. I can't believe that I have been out for 6 months already! It goes by way too fast! I miss my family and everyone like crazy! But I would never trade this for anything! I know this gospel is true! And I know that Heavenly Father knows us each individually and loves us more than we could ever comprehend! Don't forget about General Conference this weekend! We are SO excited to hear from our prophet and apostles! I know if you have a question in mind that you go with, that it will be answered! Watch all sessions! Then watch them all again! This is the greatest opportunity we have!

 

Love you all!

 

Love, Sister Calder :)

 

P.S. This is the Florida Tampa Mission Facebook site! So instead of a blog like President and Sister Summerhayes they are doing this!

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/floridatampamission

Week 21 (8/26/13)

Short and sweet again. And hour and a half goes by quick! But i sent some pics so you can have fun looking at those I guess!

SO! This week Michella got baptized in Utah! I got permission to call her and talk to her before. She seemed so happy! I was just beaming all day :) She's so amazing! 

We played the skittle game on Monday. Third place. My jaw still hurts and all of us almsot threw up! We did it with dice.... it was harder than the 2 color one.

It's been raining way too much. We have been stuck inside most of the week. The thunder is lovely here. I will go home and think that the thunder and lightening is so lame. I'm still a frady cat (frady... weird word haha) about it here though.

We had an AMAZING lesson with an investigator named Danae. We taught her the first lesson. Sister Whipple recited the first vision in Joseph Smith's words and the spirit was overwhelmingly powerful! I could not believe it! I almost started crying! We both bore our testimonies on it and I asked her if she felt that spirit? She breathed a sigh of releif and said "OH good! It wasn't just me!" She felt it SO strong! She was amazed that she felt so happy and that was so powerful! We asked her if she'd take that as her answer that it was true and she said yes! She even committed to be baptized! She's amazing. That was the most powerful first lesson I have ever taught/been in. Everytime I hear or testify the first vision I know without a doubt that it's true! You can't deny the spirit you feel! It was such an amazing experience.

We taught early morning Seminary on Tuesday. We thought we'd be exhaused all day but Heavenly Father blessed us with the strength and energy we needed! It was really fun! The youth here are amazing for waking us so early!

I got asked to join a band on Satuday.... on of the Elders investigators came to a baptism where I was playing the piano and he asked me after if I wanted to join his band that he was starting... he said it was kind of Christian. Of couse. I said yes.

Anyways! An amazing week here! The mission is awesome! It not easy... that's for sure! But it's worth every single second!

I love you all!

Have an amazing week!!!!!!

Love, Sister Calder

Week 16 (7/22/13)

This week was GREAT! Well, to be honest, I had a really hard time actually. Homesickness about killed me. I never thought that I would ever have the thought cross my mind that I wanted to go home. But I thought about it. It really was only for like 5 minutes. But I was just so sick of being away from everyone. Don't freak out though.... one of the sisters told me that's completely normal and I shouldn't feel bad, just don't do it. And guess what, I won't ;) hahaha. It gets hard, harder than I ever thought. We have been biking like crazy and our bodies are exhausted by the end of the day. I would like to proudly say that I have not gotten sunburned in a while :) thanks to my mom sending me some great sunscreen :)

We had a cool experience this week. We always pray that Heavenly Father will lead us to those who we need to teach and that we will follow those promptings. I also know that thousands of other people pray for that as well. Well- I would like to let you know that IT WORKS. Every single day we are in situations that are only because we listen to the spirit! We were at a farmers market talking to people. We thought we should leave but as we did Sister Whipple said that she thought that we should stay a little longer for some reason. Neither of us knew why... but we did. Then after 5minutes we left and headed to Pollo Tropical for lunch. We went to sit down and before we did this man looked at us and said- "Hey? Are you Mormons." Of course we said yes and asked him how he knew. He said our faces and the way that we were dressed. We asked him if he even saw the name tag and he was like- "Oh! I didn't even notice." We basically gave him the first lesson while we were eating. We realized how amazing it was that the spirit told us to stay there a little longer so that we could meet up with him at that time. It was AMAZING!!!! We see these things happen every single day sometimes they just aren't as big. Dawn has a baptisimal date again for Aug 3rd! We are so happy for her! It's funny how much love I have for her. It's very christ-like (I hear) the way that you will come to love your investigators on your mission.

I really want to encourage all of you to go to the website Hastening the Work of Salvation. You can find it through LDS.org. I know I say this every time, but I cannot stress how important it is. My comp said it's kind of like the restoration. This AMAZING life changing thing happened with Joseph Smith and NO ONE KNEW. Same thing with the brodcast. This happened and we all need to see!

Anyways! I love you all so much! Hope you have an amazing week!

Love, Sister Calder :)

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:)

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!