Monday, April 11, 2011
Hey Mom,
Well today is the day!!! Yeah, we get to figure out what is going on and when to have the surgery! I just can't wait to ask questions and to get answers about a lot of things! I'm nervous though, wondering how they are going to do the surgery! But Sister Moldenhauer said that she is going to ask questions too and take notes and will call you after my appointment is all done! President Moldenhauer is not coming today, only Sister Moldenhauer and of course my awesome companion Sister Kinikini! But Sister Moldenhauer told me last night that President Moldenhauer will be there when I have my surgery! And it sounds like I will be having the surgery up at North Shore because that is where my appointment is today! But I sure do wish you were here Mom. I know I am a big girl and I need to do things on my own but when it's dealing with surgery you just always want your Mom around!
Well this week I was talking with the Relief Society President and I thought I should tell her what has been going on with me. She told me she wished that I would have told her sooner but she made me promise to call her today to let me know when I am having surgery so the ward can help out! I just love Sister Mitchell! She is just so awesome! She and her family is just my family here! I just love them to pieces! I told her I will more than likely give her your cell number to have her call you, to keep you more updated on some things, so you will probably get a call from her soon! She is just a loving, caring person and you will just love talking to her! Her daughter is up at BYU-I right now and I told her if Kristen needs anything to let me know and I will let my family know. But I know when you two talk that she will have your phone number and if her daughter needs help with anything, well I know you will be there to help her! Sister Mitchell is so cool and nice because she gave me these vitamin pills. I take two pills of fruit in the morning and then two pills at night that are vegetables and she said they are going to help my healing process more because it helps your body with the vitamins that you need from veggies and fruit. So I'm testing them out! So Sister Mitchell is really looking after me! Things are going to be okay. I will for sure get a blessing either from President Moldenhauer or the Elders before my surgery. It was cute because Sister Mitchell asked me if I was going to have a blessing before my surgery and I told her of course. She is just so sweet. You’re gonna love her mom.
Well Mom!!! Lauro is baptized!!!! It was such a long process and so much stress!!!! For real! Sister Kinikini and I got the program all ready after Lauro and his wife Madria told us what they wanted. Well our ward mission leader told me that Sister Singleton and I could not speak at the baptism and that we needed to have members do it. I told him okay and that we would try to call people and see if we could find some speakers. This was like Wednesday night this happened. Well all day Thursday, no lie, like we made so many phone calls to see if someone could talk at the baptism and like no one was home at all. So that night I called our ward mission leader and I told him I was sorry but we couldn’t find anybody to come and do the talks. He was not happy and said, “Well that doesn't cut it, you guys should have called me a week ago to help out so you could know this stuff and know that you needed to have members be on the program.” Basically mom I just had had enough, so I blew up at the ward mission leader. I asked him what he wanted me to do. I told him I had no idea what I was doing and that this was my first time organizing a baptism and that we had spent all day calling people and they were either not home or could not come. I told him I did not know what he wanted me to do and that I was sorry but we tried and that we were just going to have to go with the program we had planned. He was quiet and then I just said I was sorry again. Then he asked for the information again of who was talking and stuff and so I gave it to him. Then he said, “Well it doesn't cut it, the Bishop wants members involved to fellowship the new member because you missionary don't stay forever, we members do, and so I will take care of the talks. Don't worry about it anymore.” Then he asked for Lauro's full Spanish name and I told him I didn't have it. He asked me why I didn’t have it and I told him we were on our way home and I would call him when I got it. I told him I needed to call Elder Walker for the information because he was the District Leader and he was the one who interviewed Lauro. He told me to text him as soon as I had the information. Well I got off the phone and I was just so mad and upset. I called Elder Walker and left a message to have him call me back. Well a few minutes later Elder Walker calls me back and I told him I needed Lauro's full name and he told me the ward mission leader already called him and got it and I said, “Go figure.” Then that night Sister Singleton called to confirm stuff with me about the baptism and I had to tell her what had happened and she was sad and very upset that she didn’t get to speak at Lauro's baptism. So by now I was an emotional mess. I just had it up to my elbows with our ward mission leader. Well the next day we called in the afternoon, of course I didn't call, but Sister Kinikini did and she told me that he got it all figure out.
So that night was the baptism. We took pictures and we got Lauro all ready. We did have good speakers which our ward mission leader did well on but it was sad that Lauro didn't know them and it wasn't the program that he and his wife wanted, but Lauro didn't say anything about it. The Spirit was strong. And well, you know that Lauro is 75 years old and so when Brother Ruiz baptized him, he didn't get him all the way under the water because Lauro had a bad knee and he was kinda scared. So poor Lauro had to get baptized like 3 times and the 4th time he was on his knees and leaned forward and it was good! And he was like “yeah!” He was really happy! Then we had a cool lady from the ward talk about the Holy Ghost and she told Lauro not to worry about having to be baptized so many times because she herself had to be baptized three times because of her long hair and I think that made Lauro feel twenty times better. Lauro had brought his wife Madira and then his daughter and the daughter’s daughter and the husband to the baptism so he had a real good turn out! Oh but on Sunday mom, wow, when he got the Holy Ghost, it was a very beautiful blessing that Lauro received. He was blessed that his health would get better and that he would be an example to his family and teach them about the Gospel and that he had a great work to do in the Ward. It was just so amazing! The spirit was so strong and after Sacrament Lauro told us he cried and he said that he never cries. So mom he totally felt the Spirit! Oh and he told this funny story of how when he had knee surgery and was coming out of the anesthesia that the nurse asked if he was diabetic and Lauro said, “No, I am Catholic!” Then he said if he ever has to have surgery again and if that happens he is going to say it proudly, “No, I am a MORMON!!!” How cute is that mom! I just love Lauro and it's been so cool to be able to teach him from the beginning and to watch him progress. I know I missed the first lesson with him but still I have been there and it's so cool. I helped him come closer to God and now he is baptized and has the Holy Ghost and now he has a great work to do! It's just so cool to be a missionary!
Yesterday I bore my Testimony of how much I love the Gospel and how much I love being a missionary and that it isn’t easy but it's so worth all the work that you have to do in the Gospel to learn and to grow and that what is so cool about the Gospel is that you learn and grow every day. With the Restored Gospel you totally change and grow into something the Lord wants you to be! And it was cool because the Elders and Sister Kinikini said that the Spirit was so strong when I got up there and bore my testimony. I was really nervous and just said things from my heart! But I knew the things I said were so true and it's such a blessing for us to have the Priesthood restored back on the earth to help us in our lives to give us direction and to receive revelation and to get blessings! It's so cool! I didn't realize before just how important is was to have the priesthood in my life! That is for sure the #1 thing on my list to look for in a future husband. I want to have the priesthood in my home to bless me and my family! The Gospel is just so amazing!!!
Well mom, you asked if I am still riding bikes now that I have a new companion. Yes we are still riding bikes. We try our best but some days it gets cancelled because we need our car to go somewhere that is far away and there is no way we can ride a bike! So it's been fun riding bikes still but we haven't done it very much with Sister Kinikini as these last few weeks have been so stressful and hard. There were a couple of days were Sister Kinikini was feeling really crummy and so we came in so she could sleep. I know the Lord gave me a Tender Mercy one day and that was the day I received your letter about Roger's funeral with the program and life sketch. It was a blessing that we had come in for Sister Kinikini to nap as it gave me some time alone. It allowed me to read the letter and I was able to cry and to be by myself and to remember all the good times I had with Roger and just have that time to really morn over Roger. I haven't really let go yet, it still hits me every now or then. But it was a wonderful blessing to have almost three hours to myself to cry and to think and to catch up on my journal and to just be by myself because as a missionary you are like never alone. If I had come in that night and got your letter about Roger, I wouldn't have been alone and I would have had poor Sister Kinikini trying to comfort me and trying to help me which I would have been grateful for, but I'm glad I got the time to myself! But mom, don't worry, I'm doing okay with Roger. It's going to be hard still for a bit but it's just a process that I am going through, because, it kinda doesn't seem real that he is gone because I wasn't there for his funeral to really see that he is gone, ya know? But I know that when I get home I do want you and me to go to his grave and to see the pictures of the funeral and to really have that time to say good bye. I think I will see that he is really gone then, but mom I am F.R.O.G! (Fully Relying on God), so no worries! I love you!
Well Mom I got your package and thanks for the skirts, they are the best! I love them and they are just like the brown skirt length wise so they are awesome!!! And mom thanks for the cool address stickers. You are the Bomb!!!! You’re gonna have to do that with every area that I am in. It's gonna make letter writing a lot easier and much faster! And I love the flat fruit bars! I love them!!! Yummy! I would always eat them at Melanie's when she would get them! So I will for sure let ya know when I am getting low on them!
Well I saw Ken this last week and it was good to see my friend and to talk with him. He was very proud of me of how I handled the ward mission leader because he said most people like me would just hunch back and just take it in, but he was like, “You didn't do that!” He said I'm improving so much and he wishes I could see how much I have grown since the first time I met with him. And ya, I can kinda see a little but not a lot I think. I know I am growing so much in the Gospel and doing better on relying on the Lord, but maybe he's right because I have come a long way. And do you know what is sad Mom? There is a Spanish Sister Missionary and she is going home at the end of this transfer because she can't do it because of emotional break downs and she needs medicine to help her so she needs to go home. I came here a transfer before her and look at me … I am still here and not coming home. It's hard to see how sad she is because she wants to be here so bad but she knows she needs the medical help to help her get better. And this made me think of the time I got that letter from Salt Lake telling me that I couldn’t go on my mission for a year and it reminded me of how that made me feel. So it's like all the memories and feelings are coming back and I'm so grateful for all the help the Lord gave me to help prepare me for my mission! Man without all that counseling, I would most likely be coming home too! Wow!
Well Mom I love you and thanks for raising me in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you to dad. I'm so grateful to know the truth and to be a missionary and to be doing the Lords work and becoming more like Him! It's the best thing ever in the whole world right now. Even though I am going through so many struggles as a missionary I know the Lord is just preparing me more for something bigger in my life. Well I love you all and I miss ya tons! And no worries, you will know what is going on by the end of this day! K, well I love you and I need to write President and also Ken today, so I will write ya soon and I'm gonna send pictures of Lauro's baptism so ya'll can see! Well I love ya!
Love Sister Hawkins!
Sister Singleton, Lauro, Sister Hawkins
Friday, April 1, 2011
Sister Kinikini, Sister Hawkins, Lauro, Sister Singleton
Sisters, Lauro, Elder Walker and Elder Hunt
Brother Ruiz and Lauro
Us with Lauro and his wife Madira
First day with my new companion Sister Kinikini
goofing around in a store
Me being cool!
I came upon this while tracting and
just had to take a picture!
Elder Walker's hat and blanket, Elder Hunt's tie,
and their weight ... we were just being silly!
Me and Sister Kinikini at a service project helping
Sister Mitchell with a school thing. We got these cool shirts!
Me at service project
Do these make me look wise?
No comments:
Post a Comment