Sister Emily Hawkins' Mission: Sister Hawkins has a new companion

One of the things I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving is for the blessing of having a daughter on a mission. Miracles are happening and Emily is growing every day. Today was transfers and Emily has been very anxious about what was going to happen. Although it was really hard for her to say goodbye to Sister Smith, she knows the Lord is with her and she has again been blessed with a wonderful companion who will continue to help her grow. Sister Hawkins and her new companion will continue to serve in Jennings, Louisiana. There are many wonderful families and members from the branch that Emily has grown to love and who will help make the upcoming holidays very special for her and her new companion. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here is today’s email.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Hi Mom,

We did get some time to e-mail today, not much but I'll probably write ya on Thursday for Thanksgiving! Well we are going to eat at the Touchets house! Cool Uh! I'm excited.

Well I better tell ya about my new companion! Her Name is Sister Mary Brosnahan and she is from Utah and is super excited to be in Jennings. I'm excited to have her as my new companion. I've met her a couple times at Sister Training and at other events that we have had on my mission. She is so kind and loves to talk to everyone! She is so excited to be here with me. At the Elder Costa conference she talked with me and she knew I was struggling and I guess she talked with Sister Smith some too and so she knows a little bit about what I am going through and totally wants to help me out in anyway she can! She is so cool! I'm excited and she is excited to go run three miles in the mornings! I'm super stoked! It's gonna be fun! I hope I can continue to lose weight. It seems like I lose a little weight but not a lot. But I've been taking those vitamins you sent me and trying to eat healthy and eat less. So slowly it will be okay.

Well this last week has been a struggle just worrying about transfers. I felt like it was coming but I just didn't want it to come. But it did and I saw wonderful things happen. It was special to see the families here in Jennings say good bye to Sister Smith. They love her so much! It just broke my heart and it's like how can I help these people like Sister Smith helped them. It was hard seeing everybody saying good bye and it was hard to say good bye to Sister Smith! I'm truly going to miss her mom! She has helped me out so much these last two and a half months. She really has! She is amazing and I just can't wait to see her at Sister's Training on December 1st! It's going to be great and also for our Christmas Party on the 16th of December! So it's going to be great!

Anyways, it was cool this past Saturday. We watched a video with Robin who is a convert that Sister Smith and Sister Singleton converted. I love her. She is so amazing and she just finished the Book of Mormon and is starting to read it again! We watched the Joseph Smith the Restoration video, not the short version, its the hour long one. I felt the spirit so strong to just see what all Joseph Smith went through and how he stayed close to the Lord! During the whole movie it was just so amazing and I got a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith and how he was truly a prophet of God. He really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and he did translate the Book of Mormon. I just know it to be true. It's so amazing how my testimony is growing on little things. Yes I do struggle but my testimony is growing and I am learning little bits everyday!

The Houston Temple last Tuesday was so amazing. I just loved it. It's so beautiful inside. As I was walking up the stairs to go get changed into pretty white clothes, I was holding onto the handrail and I totally felt the spirit so strong. I felt peace and love and it was so amazing. I got teary eyed and I wanted to cry so bad but I kept it in so I wouldn't cry in front of the Elders! But it was so amazing. I loved the session and I was so worried that I was going to fall asleep but I didn't. We had to wake up early in the morning but I'm so thankful that I didn't fall asleep! I was so excited to be in the temple, OOHH Mom it was so pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just can't wait for you and dad to come back and go to the Temple in Houston!! It's gonna be so great! I just can't wait to go again! I don't know when I'm going again but I sure can't wait. I loved the temple. I felt peace and I prayed lots to have the Lord help me and to give me strength and comfort. When it was time to go my heart seriously just broke. I didn't want to leave but we needed to because all the Elders in our Zone were waiting for Sister Smith and me to talk to the Temple President. It was funny because his talk was basically about marriage and how our missions are preparing us for marriage and to be committed to marriage and how the Temple blesses families and that when we are married in the Temple it will bless our family! It was just so awesome to go there. And I took a leaf to put in my journal to remember my first day at the Houston Texas Temple. But man it was so amazing. I really can't describe it. I just loved it and it was so hard to leave. I love the Temple and I love to feel the peace that is inside the Temple. It was amazing and it's hard to describe in words how I felt that day. It was truly a great day.

My knee is doing better. I’m done with the medicine and I popped it the other day and lots of stuff came out. I'm still kind of worried because it is still hard but it looks like it's healing and people around here say I would know if it was a spider bite because I would still be in pain and stuff would still be coming out and so they think it's a staff infection and that I itched it and that my hands were dirty.

Last night I finished my first Journal ever in my whole life!! I was super excited! I couldn't believe I finished it. And it was super funny to read my first day as a missionary. It was silly but I was looking at my journal and flipping through the pages and just thinking to myself like wow! This is super crazy that I am doing this and that I have so many memories of struggles and of good times in my journal! I can't wait to start my new one tonight! I'm so grateful to keep a journal because there are some things that I have seriously forgotten but I'm so grateful to write it down and to be able to remember everything. Mom you should start to keep a journal and to write about special things or write about your feelings and then you can look back to see how far you have come in life ya know.

Mom I know that I'm growing. Sometimes I have doubts that I am growing and that I am changing but last night was cool to see one full journal all done and to know that I have cool, wonderful memories. It makes me sad to not have kept a journal when I was growing up. But ya know you can always start new everyday! So I'm going to continue to write in my journal. Yeah, I forget a day or two but I always go back and fill in the days so I can have an entry to remember every day of my mission! So I'm really happy about my journal. I just need to add pictures in my journal and it will be all good!

I hope this coming week goes well and that the pre-planning that Sister Smith and I did works out and that things will go through and that we will have a good week and that I can be able to show the area to Sister Brosnahan. But I know that the Lord will be there for me and that He will put me through tests but hey it will be okay. Right? He will help me. And the Touchets and the Skinners and lots of other people from the branch are there for me and said they would help us in anyway they can. So I know the Lord will be there for me!

Well I love you mom and thanks for the pictures that you are sending to me. You’re so amazing and I love you so much! You’re the best mom ever! I miss you lots. And I can't wait to hear from you soon! And thanks for taking such good care of Buddy and for letting him sleep inside. That was very smart of you to cover my bed, I never would have thought of that. I hope to write ya more on Thursday! I love you and I can't wait to hear from ya. Tell everyone hi and sorry for not writing anybody last week. I was too busy with other stuff. But love ya'll and talk to ya later!

Love Sister Hawkins