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! :) 

New Year, New Transfer!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend some time finding Christ in Christmas! I know that I sure did! It was just wonderful to be a missionary at Christmas time! I was able to focus so much more on my Savior and the wonderful gift that He has given me! It was a wonderful day and we were shown so much love from all the great members here in the Indianapolis 1st Ward!

So....with the new year comes a new transfer, and for me a new transfer brings a new companion and a new area! Yep, that's right, I am leaving Indy and headed off into the great unknown of Indiana! I am headed off for "bigger and better things" as President Cleveland told me, whatever that means! I get the feeling that they will be sending me to the middle of nowhere Indiana, but hey! If that is where I am needed, I will gladly go! I always am down for a new adventure!

The biggest news of the week however is Marybeth! Marybeth is our new investigator!!!!!!!! She is awesome  and it was really cool how we came to start teaching her! She is a friend of a less-active member who we have been working with. This less-active invited her friend to stay for our lesson! #awesome!!! (yes, I still use hashtag's!) So we read Alma 36-37 with them and Marybeth just loved the Book of Mormon! She told us how interesting it was and how she is excited to read it! She is so prepared and by the time we left that lesson, we basically had our next lesson planned! It was such a cool experience! She told us that her daughter met with sisters before and over the years she has had missionaries come to her door. After our lesson with her, she kept saying how she wished she would have met with us sooner! She grew up Catholic but by the time she was a teenager, she felt like she didn't really belong anywhere. She has talked with people from lots of different churches but has never talked with missionaries from our church before. It is seriously the perfect set up! She is really good friends with this less-active. This could be exactly what the LA needs to get back to church! They are the perfect fellowship for one another! We meet with them again on Tuesday, so I am very happy that I get to have one more lesson with them!

It has been such a good week and transfer! I am so glad that I have been able to serve in this ward, with these amazing members and missionaries! I am so lucky to be a missionary!

I love you all and hope 2014 brings you lots of joy and happiness!

Love,

Sister Abbie London

The Indy 1 district!

A Whole New World

Hello Everyone!

I hope you have all had a good week! I know that I have! So, I am sure you are all wondering where Sister London has ended up?! Well, I am now serving in the Indianapolis 1st Ward with Sister Jeffery. We are reopening the area to sisters, so we were double transferred in, which really stressed me out at first! I am more calm now since I have been able to meet some of the ward members and have become a little more comfortable with the area. I named this a whole new world because that is exactly what it is...I feel like I am in a completely different world than I was in last week. When people told me Fishers was a bubble I thought they were joking...nope it is a bubble! I mean I am technically still serving in a city but it is completely different! I really like the area so far!

We are working with lots of less-actives, or at least the sisters here 6 weeks ago were. So that is where we have kind of started here. Meeting with ward leaders, visiting less-actives, and just trying to get in some sort of contact with the investigators that the sisters were teaching. It is definitely hard work and is going to take a lot of patience and diligence to get the work back up. I am excited for the challenge however and am enjoying the experience!

Sister Jeffery is pretty awesome! She is 22 and from Mountain Home Idaho. She has a very calming personality, which has helped me become a little less stressed about the area. She is tall but most people are tall compared to me. I have enjoyed getting to know her better the last couple of days and can tell that we are going to have a good time together over the next 6 weeks.

So Wednesday was a very crazy day! That was the day of transfer meeting. All of the missionaries in the mission except for 40 were in attendance. The majority of areas were double transferred and it was a very exciting meeting with the creation of 12 new zones! Funny story time! President was going through and giving the new assignments. How he does it is he says the area and then says the new companionship. So he is up there and says "Serving in Indy 1.2, Sister London serving with Elder...(everyone laughing or "ohing", with me standing there laughing but really nervous because he still hasn't said my companion yet)...well that is one way for me to get sent home early." It was something along those lines that he said, but it was pretty funny! Now the other missionaries either ask how it felt to almost be put with an Elder or they ask if I was the one that almost got put with an Elder! It was funny! So I am glad that I am not companions with an Elder!

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving this week! I love you all! My new address is:

8622 Hay Meadow Ct. Apt F

Indianapolis, IN 46227

love,

Sister Abbie London

PS I don't know where to plug my camera in on this computer so if I figure it out I'll send a picture of me and sister Jeffery...I'm very confused right now...

Luckily she figured it out-Abbie and Sister Jeffrey!

Transfer 3

Abbie and Sister Francis

Howdy Ya'll!

I'm not really in the south, but sometimes it is just fun to act like it! So this week I started my 3rd transfer out in Indiana! Crazy, right?!?! Anyways, that means that I am done with being trained and am now with a new companion! Her name is Sister Francis. She has been on her mission for 4 1/2 months, which means she came out the transfer before me!!!!! There are so many exclamation points because that is rare! They usually put a new missionary with an older missionary, but because the mission is becoming so young now, they are switching it up! Some of the Elders I came out with are companions with other Elders that came out with us! It is so great to see the hastening of the work! Sister Francis and I are very similar! We both love pink, Disney, and Chick-fil-A!!!! There are many more similarities but we are on limited time, so stay tuned! 

This week has been great! We started off the week by going bowling last Monday with the Fishers district before 3 of the missionaries got transferred! It was really fun even though my ball spent more time in the gutter than on the lane...but let's just say, without my 61 points, Fishers 1 would have lost to Fishers 2 by 62 points...so yeah...I kind of rock it! We had a lesson with an investigator, Becky, Monday night! It went so great and the spirit was so strong! It was a great lesson! We spent most of Tuesday going to various members homes so Sis. Knight could say bye.Wednesday we went to transfer meeting and then spent the majority of the day getting Sis. Francis familiar with the area. We were supposed to have a lesson with Amber on Thursday night however, she had to cancel. :( So It has been probably a month since we have been able to have an actual lesson with her...not good. We will keep trying though. I know that she is still interested, she is too solid not to be! We spent most of the weekend trying people except on Saturday night we were able to get a lesson with an investigator! The absolute best part of the week was yesterday though!! Sacrament meeting was so great for a couple different reasons! First, Becky came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is only the 2nd time that I have had an investigator attend sacrament meeting! She wants to keep coming too! Woot woot!!!! Another reason it was so great was because of the talks. All 3 speakers spoke on charity but all had such a different approach. They shared different experiences and told different stories, but they all tied together and the spirit was sooooooooo strong! I am so blessed to be serving in this ward for another 5 weeks! I love Fishers! We had a missionary fireside last night, which was also amazing! The spirit is so strong there as well! It is a testimony meeting where recent converts share their conversion stories! It is my favorite time of the month! 

Life in Indiana is great! Like I said, I am still loving Fishers. The work is hard and it is probably one of the more difficult areas but it is great! I have learned so much in the short 3 months that I've been here! I hope you all are doing well! Know that I love you! 

-Sister London

Fishers family bowling

One Whole Transfer

Hello Everyone!

I cannot believe that I have already been here for a whole 6 weeks! It has felt like forever since I was home, but I still cannot believe that it has gone by this fast!! I am still in training so will be staying here in Fishers for at least another 6 weeks to finish that! Then we will see where I go from there! So since I'm still in Fishers that means that my address is still the same and I really would love to hear from all of you! Letters give me something to look forward to at night when I don't get to be out working!

This week has been good! Nothing too exciting to report on though. Pretty much the same old stuff that we usually do but we did get a new investigator this week! She is pretty intense and has had some family issues lately so it is really hard to get through a whole lesson because she is telling us all of her problems. When we met with her on Saturday our member showed her this awesome Mormon Message that helped invite the spirit back and made her feel something. It had Elder Holland telling a story and at the end she said, "I want to meet that guy! Who is he?" We told her that by coming to church she would be able to have that same feeling, but sadly she couldn't make it. I have a feeling that unless she starts letting us actually teach, we might have to drop her. We are missionaries, not therapists.. She is really sweet though and makes scarfs! I bought a cute light pink one (real shock on the color right?!) I hope she continues to feel the spirit because this gospel would help her so much in her life right now! Hopefully things go a little better tomorrow when we meet with her.

Other than that, we haven't had any other big things happen. Just the small everyday miracles that make everyday out here worth it!

Love you all, 

Sister London

This was my district last transfer! 3 of the people in this picture are leaving. The one on the far left w/the sunglasses is being transferred, same with the Sister next to him and the Elder next to me folding his arms is going home tomorrow. This is the Fishers/Indianapolis 2 district!