Happy Independence Week

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy Independence Week! I have to say week because we still have like 4 days until it's the 4th...and it's technically still June! Haha!

Well, it's been another week here in Indiana doing the same old missionary work. Knocking doors and trying to teach some people the gospel! This week we had some pretty funny run ins with some of the Terre Haute crazies! We had only heard stories about them from the Elders but finally were able to meet a couple the other night! I guess you could say it's an accomplishment making it 5 months in the Haute without meeting some! YAY! haha and it wasn't actually me who talked to the crazy guy, it was my companion...I was talking to a relatively sane one. Anywho, it was funny! We taught a drunk guy who wasn't interested at first but the more we talked, the more interested he got. He said we could come back, so we are going over to teach him tonight with some members. Hopefully he isn't drunk and remembers we are coming over! We had been praying all day to find a new investigator and it was like 8:30 at night when we found him, so we saw it as a miracle and have high hopes that it will work out!

This week for dinner, I got one of my favorite meals! Yep, that's right, I got some chicken roll-ups! I love when members ask what we miss from home and I can just give them mom's number for her to give them the recipe! It was like I was back at home! I ate way to much obviously and left feeling fat and happy! Thanks for passing on the recipe mom! Loved it! 

We had a fun day Friday. We had district meeting in Linton, middle of nowhere Indiana..., and had to take the Brazil Elders down with us. It was a fun car ride and a pretty fun District Meeting. I really like our district, we are some fun missionaries! We got to sit in on a lesson with the Brazil Elders since it was on the way back and we finally got to teach a recent convert who we haven't had contact with in a couple months! It was so great to be able to see her again! 

On Saturday night we got permission to go to a football game for someone in our ward! He was on an All-Star team for the surrounding high schools. It was so fun to be able to watch football again! It was an exciting night and we had lots of fun with the members and other missionaries!

It was a great week and will be another great week this week! I am excited for the adventures ahead! Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

love,

Sister Abbie Paige!

1. After the football game

2. The best meal of the week! 

Little Moments of Laughter

Hello Everyone!

This week has been a good one. It was still a really slow week. We didn't find any new investigators or get anyone on a baptismal date. We actually had a hard time getting in contact with some gators, but we were able to find many moments each day to just laugh and enjoy the work! It was wonderful and I would like to share some moments with you today! Some are random, some have things to do with the gospel and some don't, but they are all pretty fun! 

So the week started off great on Monday! Once P-Day was over, we headed over to a less-active family's house that we have been working with. They are awesome and we really enjoy going over and meeting with them. As we were walking in, the youngest, who is 7, comes running out telling us about the 8 kittens they have. So she shows us and we hold them for a bit and they are adorable. We started talking to the family inside and they are talking about their pig, so the older daughter goes down to the barn and brings up the miniature potbelly pig! It was cute, but he was kind of freaking out and when she tried to pick him up, he pooped everywhere! It was pretty funny! Then later that night after we had finished our planning, we got a text from a ward member who lives a couple blocks away telling us that the fireflies, or lightning bugs, were out! So we took out our trash and saw the field across the street lightning up! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen! I wish we had lightning bugs like that in Utah...It was magical!

Tuesday was the day before transfers and one of the Elders from Brazil were getting transferred so we had lunch together with the missionaries in the ward one last time before he left. That was pretty entertaining and then all had dinner at the same members house which was also fun because they let us play with their kid's toys as we wait for dinner! So we were in a circle hitting a beach ball around...it sounds lame, but it was so fun!

My companion gave an awesome training in District Meeting this week! Sister Faleono is a rockstar! She can play the piano and the organ and she is a great singer! In her training she made up some new words to the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and sang it for us all! I had a proud mom moment! :) She was so great!

We taught Sunday School yesterday and taught about baptism. We knew none of our investigators were going to be there but we did know that some of the elders would be. The majority of the people the elders are teaching have very unique views on things, so we were a little worried about how the lesson would go. It started going away from normal and towards awkward when we got thrown off by a question meant to prove us wrong. Luckily one of the missionaries in the class came in with the save, but the gator wasn't satisfied with the answer and just kept shaking his head. Later he started talking about how we all came from the womb and how Satan and his angels came down and seduced the women...there was more but he talked quietly so that is about all I heard....this part was very hard for me to keep my composer. I almost busted up laughing...to make it worse, I could see the elders faces and the reaction of the rest of the class, which were even more funny! It was an interesting lesson and I was apparently making pretty funny faces. Some of the people there told me that I looked like I was biting back some sassy comments...that is a miracle! Who ever thought I could hold back the sass!

It was a good week and I'm sorry it these experiences aren't as funny to you as they are to me...too bad, it's what happened so I shared it! I love you all and would love to hear how things are going with all of you!

-Sister Abbie Paige

1. Me and Bacon (that is what the little girl says his name is)

2. The elders got a basketball stuck on top of the hoop! T'was sick!

6 Months in the Haute

Hello my lovely family and friends!

So we had transfer calls last night and Sister Faleono and I will be staying together for another transfer! Yay! Which means that Terre Haute is now now my longest area! By the time I leave her when Sister Faleono is done with her training, I will have spent 6 months here! Which is just crazy to me because it doesn't feel like I've been here for almost 5 months already! We are both excited to keep working together and to work on getting an investigator to baptism!

We have a mission wide goal of "121 Miracles" going on that will end at the end of this next transfer. The goal is to have each of the 121 proselyting areas have a baptism. So we are both working hard to try to meet this goal. We have a couple investigators who could meet it, but are facing some hold ups right now. So as well as meeting their needs, we are trying various ways to find new investigators. I am very glad to continue to work in the Honey Creek ward and get to know more people!

This week was pretty slow. We didn't teach as much and didn't find any new investigators. We spent some time trying different ways of finding though! We went to a Strawberry Festival and got to talk to a couple of people there, which was good! We met with less-actives and did some service. our zone meeting this week was almost a repeat of the specialized training we received two weeks ago, but it was really good to hear a lot of it again in a smaller group. We were lucky and got to hear it twice, so hopefully we should remember it better...

I am trying to think of something funny that happened this week but I can't think of one...we didn't have too many funny awkward missionary moments this week so I will share one from one of the elders in the ward! hehe...while beginning a lesson with their 22 year old investigator, she asks, "Is it hot in here?" and the elder responds, "No, it's just you....(they all look at him and laugh) oh, I just called you hot! I'm sorry!" HAHAHAHAHA it reminded me of a similar moment in Disneyland a couple three years ago while we waited in line for the Haunted Mansion....ring any bells family?

Well, sorry there's not too much to report this week! Hopefully this week brings more adventures and miracles for me to share next week! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

love,

Sister Abbie Paige

1. A cool helmet one of the members has...Megan would get along well with the majority of the Hotians...they all love Dr. Who and Star Trek type things...

2. the infamous Indiana cornfields are starting to grow! :) 

Trainings, Exchanges and Patience

Hello, Jello!

We got to go to primary yesterday because Sister Faleono played the piano for them and they sang a nice little welcome song to all of us visitors! It was the Jello song...a different jello song that I was used to...I thought they were about to sing the "Jello pudding yum, yum, yum..." that we sang at Girl's Camp. It was really fun to be able to be in primary again and see the little kids singing the songs for Fathers Day on Sunday!

This week was a pretty busy week. It was one of those weeks that flew by but by the end of the week, you can't remember anything that happened! It was very fun though! So on Wednesday, we had a specialized training for all the missionaries in the training program, so all 3 sets of missionaries from our ward went. It was pretty funny actually because as we were driving up to Fishers, we missed one of our turns and then ended up right behind the Elders from our ward! The training was really great! We received some cool trainings from President and the Assistants on prayer and contacting people. Then we had lunch and had a chance to talk with the other missionaries there. Sister Faleono had a great time catching up with her MTC friends! After lunch, we had some more trainings on the church tours we've been practicing, which was great! It was a good day and I received lots of cool revelation!

Then the next day, we had exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I got to do my exchange with Sister Vidmar. It was fun to be able to catch up with her and talk about our crazy times back in the Fishers apartment! It was a fun day and we met some cool people. I don't have a picture from that day yet, we were in a rush at the end of the day to switch back and I had left my camera inside but it was a fun day!

The last couple days have been a test of my patience with a couple different things. First off, on Saturday we  had a lesson with an inactive we've been meeting with. She doesn't really want much to do with the church but we have been doing service for her for a while now. So we were meeting with her and her daughter came to visit, who used to be a member. They kept saying little side comments about the church but the most awkward part was when the two women started arguing about the Bible...we were literally in the middle of this mother and daughter's bashing! They weren't bashing the church, they were bashing each other and we were sitting in the middle of it...it was pretty funny but it also really aggravated me after. So that was a test of my patience and Sister Faleono and the Elders heard me vent about that for a bit. Then another test has been yesterday and today.There is an Elder, who I'm sure is a wonderful person but for some reason, he just irks me so much! It has been so difficult for me to be patient and try not to get bugged every time he talks. So trials happen no matter who you are or what you are doing! Luckily the Sassy Abbie in me hasn't crept out and said some snarky, sarcastic comment...there is always a plus to every negative! :)

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic weeks! Happy Fathers Day to my favorite dad! :)

love,

Sister Abbie London

1. A little bit of Indy for you! Look familiar dad?
2. Our Crazy district

Howdy!!

Here is Abbies email from June 2nd:

Howdy!

It's been another week here in the Haute. Nothing really super exciting happened this week. We had a really cool thunder and lightning storm yesterday when we were teaching a lesson. We were in an investigators home and the thunder was directly above us...it was so loud that the house shook! Seriously! It was insane! We saw a really awesome lightning bolt as we were driving to the lesson too! It was so clear and I wish I could have paused it for a second to pull over and get a picture of it...too bad life doesn't work like that!

We taught some this week and we tracted some! We spent 3 hours tracting Friday and met some awesome potentials. This one guy was really nice and after we left came back out with some ice water for us so that we didn't melt in the crazy Indiana heat and humidity! It was pretty fun tracting this time though and the 3 hours went by pretty quick. We have been trying to find some new investigators because the people we are teaching right now don't really have a desire to learn for themselves. It is mostly listening because they like us and want a friend. We have one or two who do really want to learn but aren't taking the necessary steps to progress. Their desire has been tested a little these past couple of weeks too. It is really hard to have to just sit and listen to the people you love tell you about their struggles and not know how to help them, especially if they won't accept the one thing that you know will give them all the peace, comfort, and joy that they need. No matter how hard I testify and how strong the spirit is, it is still up to them on whether or not they choose to listen and follow that spirit.

Things are looking up though. The Honey Creek Ward just got a new bishopric last week and yesterday the new bishop challenged every one in the ward to pray for missionary opportunities in EVERY pray they say, as well as to have missionary work centered fasts every month for their purpose. Many amazing miracles await the people in Terre Haute and Brazil and there are 6 eager missionaries here ready and willing to help! It is an exciting time to be here, even if we aren't super busy right now.

I am excited for this week and know that great things will happen! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

love,

Sister Abbie London

Saw this while tracting! It made my day!!

Tracting selfie!!