Sister Emily Hawkins' Mission: Transfers today ... Still serving in Baytown!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Dear Mom,

Howdy ya'll! LOL. Well just to let you know I am still in Baytown, pretty crazy uh! I think I am going to finish my mission in Baytown. Sister missionaries seem to love to stay 5 transfers here and I'm on my 4th transfer now in Baytown so we will see what happens if I stay or leave at the end of this transfer! But I'm in Baytown and Sister Higley is still my companion. It's been a rough road for the both of us but it's a work in process and things are getting better and I think this transfer is going to be great! :)

This last week was kinda rough and kinda hard trying to find myself again and to make those steps to be that happy person again but it's also been great! So this week was good; we did fun things and helped out people with service but I want to tell you something crazy that I experienced this last week. So do you remember me telling you about the Gladys Knight and Saints Unified Voices Fireside I went to? Well there is a lady whose name is Laura and she is in the Baytown 1st Ward. She had a friend who isn’t a member and they went to the fireside together and after the fireside he signed up to get a Book of Mormon and a Restoration DVD and a cd by Gladys Knight with some of the songs she sang! His name was Gene and well we met with Gene and Laura and did a 1st lesson and well it didn't go to well and this was at the beginning of last transfer! Well this last week we went to Gene's funeral … he died about two weeks ago of a heart attack. His friend told us Gene had started to read the Book of Mormon and that he wanted to meet with us again to talk to us and ask questions but he never got the chance to because he was sick and in and out of the hospital and was busy with work. So this last Monday we went to his funeral and it was different but it was good to hear about Gene and his life and about his family and his kids. We got to meet one of the kids because Laura introduced us to him and he was nice and he thanked us for coming to his father’s funeral! I was kinda bummed out because we didn’t get to talk to Gene again and teach him more but I know that we started to prepare him for the Gospel and that he is being taught it on the other side which is cool! Now I just hope that the Book of Mormon that Gene had will be picked up and read by one of his kids and that they will learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and know that they can be a family forever and that there is joy and happiness in this life! But we will see!

Well mom I don't know if I told you but our mission is having a Choir! Yep, I'm in a Mission Choir and we have practices and we are going to do firesides for different things and even do recordings from my understanding over the year and put the recordings on the internet so everyone can hear us and print posters off. Of course I probably won’t be in recordings or firesides because we are just starting and I go home soon but I know I will be in pictures lol, because we did pictures this last week so that was pretty cool and lots of fun! So if I get a picture I will for sure send it home to you so ya'll can see it! We have our Christmas Conference coming up and we have to practice some Christmas songs to perform in front of our mission so that will be fun! I'm excited! I know I'm not a good singer but the people in charge are helping our singing improve and I love to sing so it's been fun!

Also I have been working with a part member family this week and they are struggling right now with a daughter who is having a tough time. This daughter wants help and wants to be stronger in the gospel and so we told her that we would come to her home once or twice a week to check on her and to read the Book of Mormon with her. The first night when we went there, man it was tough to hear about the daughter and the life she was going through and the hard time she had growing up and it made me think of all my trials that I have been through and all that I am going through right now. I just bore my testimony to her that I know that the Gospel is going to help her and that the Book of Mormon, if she takes the time to read it 10 minutes a day, will help her and that her life will start to change and that things will be better and that she will feel a lot more happier about herself and that she will grow closer to God and Jesus Christ. It's been neat to work with her and to help her. We told the family that there was transfers coming at the end of the week and when the daughter said the closing prayer she prayed for me to stay! No Jiving it was cute. Afterwards I told her not to be disappointed if I did go and I told her I would still be in contact and things would be okay. Well they weren't at church on Sunday so we are going to go try to see them tomorrow or tonight to surprise them and let them know I didn't get transferred!

Mom do you remember me talking about the Walter Family? Well we have slowly been working with them and this is the family that owns the mailing and shipping place and helps us missionaries with mailing stuff. Well we offered to help them set up this nativity scene that is pretty big and it took a couple of hours. Their daughter Delana wasn't there and Robert was at the shop and so it was just us and Denise. We just bonded so well and it was totally awesome! We talked and had a good time getting to know each other. Then when Robert came home from work he helped us out. They kinda live on a farm and they sell fresh eggs. While we were there, some members in our ward pulled up in the driveway to buy some eggs. They haven't seen us out of our church clothes so they were looking at me weird because they really hadn’t met Sister Higley yet and when I said, “Hi Guilbou Family,” then they knew it was the missionaries and they asked us why we were at the Walters. I told them that Brother Walter is a member and then Brother Guilbou asked Brother Walter, “Why haven't I seen ya at church?” Brother Walter said, “Well I'm less active or inactive, whatever ya'll call it.” It was neat because then Brother Guilbou was like, “You should come to church, it's great!” :) So that was neat. Then we saw the Guilbous on Sunday and asked them more about the Walter family and they told us they are going to keep buying fresh eggs from the Walters. We have a Ward Christmas Party coming up soon and so I asked the Guilbous the next time they go over to buy eggs to ask the Walter family to come and they said they would so that was cool! So the work is just starting to get moving again! It's cool!

Well Mom I saw Lauro on Saturday, we had a Stake Christmas Concert and Lauro came because he knew I was in Baytown. He told me he loves the Ensign you ordered for him and that he was so surprised when it came in the mail! I told him it's gonna keep coming for a year and that it's a gift from us to them! And he was just glowing and was just so excited to see me and thanked me! I hope you get to meet him mom, he is pretty awesome! I miss Lauro! I miss all the people I taught and saw in my last areas and it's so nice to hear from them to see how they are doing!

I sent you some pictures; I hope you get all four e-mails. But I'm gonna run and email some family but I love ya'll and good luck with the Santa Night tonight and have fun and take lots of pictures okay! I will be there next year to help out for sure! I love ya'll!

Oh I'm almost forgot to tell you, I got my hair trimmed and layered. I know you can't really see it in the picture but it looks cute. My hair was really long; I cut 2'' off, just a lot of bad ends, but I like it! I trust her with my hair! LOL! Well love ya!

Love Sister Hawkins!