Sister Emily Hawkins' Mission: Last transfer ... only six weeks left!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Hi Mom,

Well guess where the Lord wants me to be for the last six weeks of my mission in the Texas Houston East Mission! It's.......Baytown! Yep, I am finishing my mission in Baytown, Texas! Everyone in the ward is super excited that I am still here in Baytown! So I still have work to do in this area! I have a new companion and her name is Sister Jeana Cochran and she is from Logan Utah. She loves scarves and she loves the music by singer Justin Bieber! Yep for real, she is lots of fun. She loves to laugh and have a good time! Yesterday was kinda hard for her because she was in her last area for only six weeks and she gets attached to people easily so it was hard for her to leave!

New companion, Sister Cochran

Some more news about this transfer … well on Friday night the Elders in our area, Elder Tracy and Elder Taney, got a call from the assistants and were told that they are getting FLUSHED OUT OF THE AREA and that the area is getting CLOSED! They were told that the Sisters are taking over their area! Yep for real! So lots of stress on my shoulders. I was totally in shock when I heard the news from the Elders Friday night; I couldn't believe it and I didn't know yet if I was getting transferred or if Sister Higley was so Saturday was the longest day waiting to hear about transfers. We finally got our call at nine o'clock that night and were told that said Sister Higley was getting transferred and I was staying. A whole bunch of stuff went through my head. I have to take over the Elders area and also do work in our area. The Elders have a baptism this weekend and they have been working hard with this 16 year old kid Roman and they worked with him for three transfers and now they are leaving! So I was thinking, “How in the world am I going to do this?” I was like, “aahhh!” Well you know me, I called up Sister Kinikini. I called her to say goodbye but also to ask for her advice. She was a big help and a great encourager and said, “Girl, this is going to be good for you for the last six weeks of your mission.” She said I am going to be so busy and working so hard that I am not going to have time to focus on how much longer I have on my mission! So that was really cool to realize! I did also go to my Heavenly Father in prayer and just asked Him for help; help to lead this area and to be given a companion who is a hard worker, likes to have fun, is outgoing and someone who is going to help me stay focused and not get sidetracked! And the Lord really answered my prayer! I am really looking forward to working with Sister Cochran; we have had fun the last 24 hours so it's gonna be super good!

Well this last week was super busy and crazy! First I want to let you know that Brother Stone and his wife went and bought me shoes and we had a fun time shopping for the shoes. So last Monday on our P-day after our e-mailing and shopping, I called up Brother Stone and he and his wife were grateful that I called and finally agreed to let them get me some new shoes. They wanted to get me good shoes to last the remainder of my mission so I won’t have to worry anymore about my shoes and so we went to store after store looking for some really good shoes. It was fun but a crazy fun at the same time. We found shoes that I liked the style but they didn't have any in my size. So we stopped shopping for a bit and did FHE with them and then we drove to Channelview and still found no shoes down there either. Finally we went to good old Payless Shoes and just bought the same kind of shoes that I have been wearing my whole mission. I just hope they can last me six weeks and still look nice for my final day! But the weather has been super crazy and every other day has been rainy and so I wear my boots one day and then my shoes, so I think that is a blessing from the Lord!

The Temple last week was just so amazing and guess who got to come again! She drove the missionaries up to help save them miles! Yep, Sister Smith from La Porte! It was so good to see her! And it was so cute because she got emotional before we went in when she realized that I am going home soon and that she won't see me anymore! And it got me thinking like wow, it's just around the corner and that I am coming home soon! But the Temple was amazing! I got to see Sister Kinikini one more time (she flies home today), and I just sat in the celestial room to ponder and think and pray about things. l just looked around and just enjoyed the peace and didn't think about much but I just wanted so badly to stay inside forever! I loved it in there!

Me and Sister Higley

The Sisters in my Zone

Me and Sister Kinikini

Me and Sister Smith

We are really going to miss each other!

I love the Houston Temple!

It was a fun trip and I got to have some JAMBA JUICE!!! Man I miss that store; in my entire area they don't have that kind of a store and so on our road trip back from the temple Sister Higley and I got JAMBA JUICE! And man that was just so delicious! I loved every sip! So mom when I come home and get off the plane we are going to get me some JAMBA JUICE!!!! Hmmmm.... Or just have one there for me … I love the pomegranate one! Get me the biggest size! Yummmy!!!! :)

Love my Jamba Juice!

Well I had a great lesson with Erika and Silva, a family we are working with in the ward to brighten their spirits and help them come closer to Jesus Christ. We are working with them on their scripture reading. I was bearing my Testimony to Erika and Silva about how important it is to read 10 minutes a day and how it can really help their lives so much and how it will help keep our minds from always thinking about the worldly things! I just felt the spirit so amazingly and I haven't felt that way in a long time, but I just know it's true! Reading your scriptures every day just really helps you have that connection to our Loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ! It's so important to learn the stories and to apply them to ourselves! So powerful! Loved it! So I hope all the family is reading their scriptures 10 minutes a day! It's going to bless your life so much more!

Tracting this past week was really cool. We met this awesome lady named Melissa and there was something about her that was different. We were on her street trying to see a less active member and while we were driving by she was just smiling at us and we waved. Well things fell through with the person we went to go see so we parked the car a ways up from where we had waved at Melissa and I just felt like we needed to go tracting. We haven't done much of that lately and so I told Sister Higley we needed to tract. I suggested we do the street we were on and not waste miles or waste time finding another street. I said, “Let’s do this one!” So we did and we met a guy that knew about us Mormons. He told us he had a friend who was Mormon and at their wedding this friend gave out Books of Mormon as Thank You gifts … pretty sweet uh! We met another lady named Rachel who had just moved into Baytown so we are going to try her this week. She was a little shy and going to be busy with school but she said we could stop by.

But then came the door that belonged to Melissa. She was so nice and she had questions for us. She was busy with her grandchildren when we came but she told them to do their homework and we visited with her for about 10 minutes. Sister Higley gave her a Book of Mormon and I explained where the Book of Mormon came from. She admitted to us that she is scared to open the book and read it. I just bore my testimony that the Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ and it testifies of Him and there are prophets in the book that teach us of Jesus Christ. I told her that we don't take anything away from the Bible but we use them both together! She was excited for us to come back next week to teach her more and I was excited we got to meet her! Well today we stopped by to see Melissa before e-mailing and she was sick and she said she was sorry. We told her it was okay and that we would try next week because Mondays and Tuesdays are best for her! When we were walking off, she opened the door again and yelled to us, “Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it!” So I am hoping and praying for Melissa that the Lord is preparing her to learn more and we also invited her to come to church so we shall see! So I'm excited about that!

We are working with this lady named Theresa and she is awesome. She has had missionaries forever! She has been dropped and then picked up again to teach and dropped again and we have picked her up again. She had questions from the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants and so we asked the 1st counselor in the Mission Presidency, President Pomeroy who lives in our ward to help us and it was just a great lesson. He answered all her questions and he started where he needed to in the Book of Mormon because she had a question in Jacob and it was so good. Then Sister Higley and I had kinda prepared a lesson about Enos and about prayer and the spirit was just so amazing! She was tearing up and she loved the story about Enos and it was so cool and we all bore our testimonies and it was neat! The other times that I have met her and have taught her, she hasn't cried so that was just really cool! Can't wait to teach her again this week! We are going to take a different route teaching her the lessons and just take certain points and really focus on those certain points and take time for each point because she has had the lessons a lot and so I think if we go in a little more detail it's gonna be better for her and she will know the truth and want to be a member of our church!

Well something funny happened with one of our members whose home we eat at a lot … the Harris family! Sister Harris is the one that trimmed my hair! So we had dinner plans with them the other day and we asked them if they could pick us up for dinner since we are limited on miles and we had used a lot to go to the temple. They picked us up and on the way to their house they were telling us about the lasagna Brother Harris had made and how good it was gonna be and how they left it on low for a while to continue to cook. They made a joke like, “Yeah hopefully we don't go home and the apartment is burning down!” Well guess what … we pulled up to their apartment and Sister Harris heard this beeping sound outside! She wondered if it was their apartment and ran to the door and the beeping was from their apartment! She opened the door and all this smoke comes out of their apartment and I mean smoke! Lots of smoke! She ran inside and turned off the oven and opened it up and the lasagna had boiled over and burned on the bottom of the stove. The Elders quickly helped open the windows and took the batteries out of the fire alarms. They put fans in the windows and we all went out to eat instead and we all smelled so bad! We were all laughing about it and we had a good time at dinner though! But it's something I'm never gonna forget! It was so funny!

Well I hope you enjoy this e-mail … that is pretty much all I have for this week. I could write more but I still have to write to President Crawford and some other people before we have to go and I want to send ya'll some pictures! But I love you mom and thanks for all you do! I hope to hear from you soon. Let everyone know I am still in Baytown with the same address and I will let you know about my flight information as soon as I get it. I don't know anything yet but they did call last week asking what airport I am flying in to and I told them Idaho Falls! So any day I think it will come! So yep! Ya'll have a great week! Love ya lots!

Love Sister Hawkins!