Sister Emily Hawkins' Mission: Only one year left!

Sister Hawkins has been out for six months! She has one year left! What amazing growth and blessings we have seen since she first entered the MTC last August. Enjoy her latest letter and some fun pictures.

Monday, Febrary 28, 2011

Hey Mom!

Well what a week it has been! It's been a long week! Max Febbo's funeral was really good! It felt good to go to a LDS funeral because the last two I have been to were not and were just so different. It is just hard to see all the people sad and devastated because they don't see the big picture in life and know they will see their loved ones again! At Brother Febbo’s funeral the Elders sang their song so beautifully and Sister Singleton played the violin with them. A letter was read from Brother Febbo’s son who is currently serving a mission in the Philippians and it was cool how upbeat he was! So with the letter and the Elders singing, wow, the Spirit was just so amazing! Elder Walker and Elder Hunt are really good singers! You could listen to them all day basically! It's pretty cool to hear boys sing! And Sister Singleton played her violin at the grave site and it was beautiful. It was sad to watch the family say good bye to their father for one last time but I know that he is with them in spirit. I just keep thinking of how hard it will be if someone that I know and love passes away while I am on my mission! It will be so hard. But I know that the Lord will be there to help me but it will be so hard. But that is where the Atonement comes in to play to help you with your burdens that we have! Isn't that a cool thing to have in our lives; to have the Atonement to learn from! I'm still learning how to apply it but it's amazing when you learn new things about the Atonement everyday!

Well guess what! This week we went to go visit an inactive family who has a son and we were all outside having fun with them talking and shooting some hoops. Then I saw something in the garage….I saw a…RIP-STICK!!!! I was so excited!!! I asked to try it out and boy I still have the talent to ride that rip-stick!! Ya, I looked really silly riding a rip-stick in a skirt but it was so fun! He is letting me borrow it today for P-day to ride it some more and I just can't wait for later on today to ride it! It's gonna be so much fun! I love rip-sticks! So that was a fun thing about this long week! So I will for sure take pictures when I ride the rip-stick! It will be sweet!!!

This week we rode our bikes again including all day Saturday! We rode about 15-20 miles on Saturday! Boy that was a long day! I'm so glad I have a big seat for my bike. I feel bad for Sister Singleton because she has a small seat and so her bottom hurts a lot. So today for p-day we are going to go shopping to get her a bigger bike seat! I love riding bikes because first; it is very good exercise, second; we get to see lots more people than we do being in a car all day and third; its fun even though I am in a skirt. But hey, when I come home and me not having a car, I can ride my bike even to church until I get a car because it's possible to ride a bike in a skirt! I just hope we can continue to ride bikes to be able to experience new things. Even though it was so funny, Sister Singleton and I almost, and now I say almost, got in a bike accident. She was behind me but I wasn't going fast enough and so her tire kinda went next to mine. She tried slowing down and she was turning another way. I looked back and she is hopping off her bike because she was trying not to make us both go down. But no accident luckily; she was just practicing hopping off her bike! LOL, so hopefully we both never have a bike accident. I do need to get a spare tube though in case anything happens to one of my tires and also a bike pump because we don't have one in the apartment. But other than that, my biking has been fun! I am enjoying the weather but it's starting to get hot so it's gonna be so miserable when that HOT weather comes soon! Then biking won't be so much fun anymore!

Well this last Friday we had Zone Meeting and it was cool because our Zone Leaders and other leaders got to hear from Ken in a meeting for Leadership. I got to hear and remember some stuff that Ken has talked to me about. The whole meeting was about the work not being about numbers but that it's about the people and us showing our love and wanting to help them come closer to Christ. We should just not worry about if we are going to make our numbers for the week. And it's interesting because when I first came out on my mission I put in my head at first that it's not about numbers and some of my companions do get disappointed that we don't reach our goals that we have set from our Mission President that he wants us to do every week. But it's really about the people and the wonderful work that we are doing that week to help them come closer to Christ. So the whole meeting was awesome to be able to learn more and to remember the things that Ken told me at the beginning when I first started meeting with him.

Also on Friday I personally got to meet with Ken. It is always exciting to go and see him and to talk with him. He really helps me out so much and now he is going to be helping me a lot to learn to love myself more and that will help me let go of some of my anxieties that I have. So it's going to be cool to see the process that's gonna take place with Ken helping me! He is so cool! Awesome Counselor! Easy to talk to and he just loves to help anyone he can. I don't know if I told ya but his son is going on a mission to Mexico and he doesn’t leave till June I think so he is pretty excited about his son’s mission call!

Well let's see what else I want to share with ya! Well my district is fun most of the time; I still kinda feel out of the loop sometimes but I try my best to fit in. Sister Singleton, Elder Hunt and Elder Walker do lots of singing in the car and then there is me! lol. But they are cool; they are all nice and caring, but sometimes it's hard to be around them because I feel so different from them. But when we are doing something that we all have in common we just have a really good time!

Well the mission work has been hard because it's the south and there are so many churches down here but all we can do is our best. We do lots of tracting and we teach lessons and we try to commit baptism dates and when we do it just doesn't work out sometimes. It's hard because when you, yourself knows about the gospel and all the blessings that come from having the gospel, you just want them to enjoy it too. It's been a long time since experiencing a baptism and feeling that Spirit that I felt at the Skinners baptism. But I know the Lord will place those people into our hands when they are ready for change in there lives and want to come closer to their Heavenly Father. But it's their choice. It's their free agency. It's a gift that we got from our Heavenly Father when we accepted this plan. But I'm hoping miracles will happen soon so I can experience that wonderful feeling again. But it's on the Lord's time, not mine time!

Well things are going good; still trying to figure out my stomach pain. Someone from back home e-mail President and told them that I might have a gall bladder disease and it's an unknown, so I don't know who it is, but I'm still having weird pain off and on. So we are keeping our options opened and so Sister Moldenhauer is keeping a close eye on me and we will figure out what's going on. But let’s hope that I won’t have to go the road of surgery. But I'll keep ya updated on things with my stomach.

Well I got to run. I love ya'll and miss ya tons! I hope to hear from ya soon!

Love Sister Hawkins!