Olmstead #5

Hello most lovely family :) well this week has been awesome! We had a challenge from our ward mission leader to reach a standard of excellence he felt we could reach. It included 15 other lesson, 50 street contacts, 3 baptismal invitations and much more. Well, we took the challenge and this week has been great! The last two days we have had 12 lessons! This week we have 2 new baptismal dates and 3 new investigators! We are so close to meeting our 15 other lesson goal! It has been exciting to see this area progress and to leave it with some really great things happening. That was my goal-to leave the area better than I found it. 

Well for my last my email I wanted to share My Mission Experience paper that we were asked to write at the end of our mission. In this paper I wrote about insights and wisdom I have gained and my testimony. I couldn't write all that I have learned and experienced, but this paper is a good summary. I hope you enjoy! 

My Mission Experience

By Sister Emma Lounsbury

Sept 27th, 2014

Introduction:

2 years ago on October 6th, 2012 the age for missionaries to serve a full time mission was lowered. Boys could serve at age 18 and girls at age 19. The news changed the course of my life. I prayed, fasted and attended the temple, seeking to know if I should go on a mission. So many were going just because they could. I wanted to make sure that my desire to serve a mission was also the Lord's will. On November 28th I knelt down and once again prayed to know if a mission was right. I had already started my mission papers, but hadn't received an answer. I opened up my scriptures to 1 Nephi 20. Verse 6 read "Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye not declare them? And that I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things and thou didst not know them." When I read that, the thought came to me—I have been blessed with the gospel, a knowledge of God's plan, my purpose, my divine nature, a knowledge and testimony of my savior Jesus Christ and so much more—"Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye not declare them?" The footnote took me to 1 Corinthians 9:16 "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" This answer was crystal clear. A huge grin came across my face...I was going to serve a mission! Now at the end of my mission, I am overcome with emotion. I am filled with gratitude and sacred reverence for the experiences I have had and for the people I have met. I have learned and grown in ways that I never would have anticipated. 

     1. The insights I have gained, especially by teaching others:

•The most important thing I have learned is how to apply the Doctrine of Christ. I have heard about the principles faith, repentance, covenants, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I didn't know that the Doctrine of Christ was a pattern of living that would enable me to access the power of the atonement in my life. I have seen that one can not live the Doctrine of Christ and remain the same person. It is impossible to not be changed and improved if you are living Christ's teachings. I have seen that miraculous change in those I teach, but most importantly, I have seen that change in myself. I have been promised: "You will have a great testimony of the gospel. It will burn bright in your heart. You will know for sure the gospel is true." 

 I truly feel that my mission has helped me to gain that testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Time and time again we have been instructed on the Doctrine of Chist. I can now say that I know for sure the gospel is true. This truth and testimony is most precious to me.

•To invite someone to come unto Christ means committing someone to change. I would do this over and over as a missionary. As I invited others to change, I realized that I too needed to make change on a lesser degree in my own life. For example, if I committed someone to overcome an addiction, I would realize that there are reoccurring weakness in my life that I need to overcome. As I committed someone to come to church, I would realize that I need to do a better job of preparing to be instructed at church and truly setting the Sabbath day apart from the other days. This perspective constantly challenged me to improve and be better. I love what my Mission President would say: "To invite someone to come unto Christ implies that we are already there."

•I have learned the importance of partaking of the sacrament. The sacrament is crucial in my spiritual healing and growth. I have come to understand that the sacrament is the time when I can be sanctified and cleansed from my sin. It is the time when I can reflect again upon all the covenants which I have made with God. It is a time I can set goals to once again improve. As I have reflected on what my investigators must do to prepare for baptism, I have realized my great need to prepare for the sacrament weekly. 

•I have felt a need to do missionary work, even before my mission, but I didn't know what I could do to be a good member missionary. Coming on a mission has helped me to understand that there are many, many ways I can be a missionary. When I return home, I now have a good idea of how I can continue to hasten the Lord's work. I feel that I have learned how to be a good member in the future. Being a part of the leadership in the mission has helped me see how The Lord uses councils. I feel I have a greater understanding of God's vision and how councils are used in the church to help accomplish His vision. 

•The strongest impressions from the spirit on my mission have come as we have talked about how the Lord's work is being hastened. I remember feeling the spirit so strongly as our mission received iPads as a tool to spread the gospel. I was able to feel and catch a glimpse of the Lord's vision to bring the gospel to every last one of His children. I felt the spirit witness to me that we truly live in the last days and that the work is being hastened to prepare for the coming of Christ. I have been able to feel and see that the Lord's ancient covenant to gather Israel is being fulfilled in our time. We live in the time that has been prophesied by prophets since the beginning. (Jacob 5:70-71) 

  2. I have learned a lot about Relationships:

•I never thought that on a mission I would end up learning so much about marriage. My major in school is marriage and family studies. On my mission I was able to put to practice a lot of things. I have learned about relationships, parenting, and working with different personalities. I was able to draw a lot of parallels with my relationships here. Working together with a companion gave me practice for working together with my future spouse. Praying, planning and teaching investigators taught me more about my future relationship with my kids. I was especially able to see that agency plays a huge role in God's plan. All we can do is teach, testify, encourage and set an example. 

•The mission has allowed me the unique opportunity to get to know a lot of different people with different personalities. In particular, working with companions has taught me that there are so many different personalities, ways of thinking and ways of accomplishing a task. I think that there is no one way to do things. My eyes have been opened to new ways of getting things done. I have been able to see that we all have more in common than we have differences. I learned that you can get along with anyone if you really work at it. 

•I've learned how to resolve conflicts with others in a good way. (Companionship inventory) I have learned that avoiding problems does not make it go away. The best thing to do is to be honest and to kindly address the issues so they can be resolved and you can move forward together. 

•I have had some difficulties on the mission. I have learned to not be deterred by the challenges of those around me. I have learned of the power of hope. I know that I can remain hopeful and positive even when others around me are not. I've learned to endure trials well. There is no use in waiting and longing for challenges to end.  Instead I must stop,  remind myself that my loving Heavenly Father wouldn't give me more than I can handle, and then I must learn and grow from it.

 3. Weaknesses identified and worked on:

•I have learned a lot about myself on my mission. My mission President always told us that the closer we come to Christ, the more He will show us our weaknesses. That has definitely been the case for me. I know that many weaknesses have been shown to me so that I could work on them and turn them into strengths. 

a) One of the first things I learned about myself was that I had a lack of patience with myself and others. I have noticed that my inward attitude and frustration with myself was perpetuated outwardly onto others. I have been able to learn the principle of "line upon line, precept upon precept." (2 Nephi 28:30) I have been able to see that growth takes time. I have come to be patient with my own progress and the progression of others. I have learned to be happy with being a work in progress. This has also helped me to not be so overwhelmed and stressed out with the tasks ahead. There is only so much I can do in a day and if it doesn't get done today, I can work on it tomorrow. 

b) I came to realize that I struggled with a lack of self-esteem—a continuing unwillingness to accept oneself. I have always been very hard on myself and have harsh critical thoughts about myself. Over this last year and a half I have realized how destructive those thoughts truly are. I have learned to push out negative thoughts just as I would push out immoral thoughts. I have learned to replace every negative, destructive thought with a positive, uplifting thought. As I did this, I was able to gain greater confidence. (D&C 121:45)

c) I have always had a hard time forgiving myself and receiving forgiveness from God. But I learned that when I refuse to forgive myself, I am turning away from the gift that Christ freely offers. I realized that if I sincerely repent and then refuse to forgive myself, then I "denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at naught the atonement of him and the power of his redemption." (Moroni 8:20) Any thought that puts me down, or make me feel unworthy of forgiveness, I know come from satan. Christ will never turn us away. "Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price. Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay." (2 Nephi 26: 25-26)

d) I also came to see that I struggled with "perfectionism—an attitude or behavior that takes an admirable desire to be good and turns it into an unrealistic expectation to be perfect now. Perfectionism sometimes arises from the feeling that only those who are perfect deserve to be loved or that we do not deserve to be happy unless we are perfect." 

One of the greatest truths I have come to know and treasure is that God loves me. I have come to understand His nature. I have learned to trust God's mercy, love, grace and forgiveness. I have learned that I am eternally indebted to God and I can not pay him back.(Mosiah 2:19-25) I am undeserving of His love, yet He gives it anyway. If weaknesses and imperfections disqualified us from his help, then no one could receive His help. I now know that God can use me to do His work dispute my weaknesses and short comings. I feel that this knowledge has helped me to overcome feelings of discouragement. I feel that I have a greater understanding of God's true characteristics. I have come to believe that He accepts me, so I have finally learned to accept myself as well. 

I now see weakness as part of mortality and an opportunity for growth. I've learned to be patient with them. I've even learned to be happy for them and to trust in God's time to help me overcome them. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) One of the greatest testimony builders for me has been seeing the gospel of Jesus Christ change others, but even more miraculous to me is that slowly but surely, it has been changing me as well. I am fully aware of many of my weaknesses and who I am, when left to my own power.  "God showeth [me my] weakness that [I] may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions into the children of men, that [I] have power to do these things" (Jacob 4:7)  I know that I am who I am today because of God. I have the strengths, gifts and power to do what I do because of him. I can happily acknowledge that "I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things" (Alma 26:12)

     4. Christ like attributes I have worked on: 

•Patience is an attribute that I have had plenty of opportunity to practice. There is a quote I like that says: "were you never wearied by the annoying behavior of another or the repeated failures of someone else, you could never become patient." There were many I taught as a missionary who failed to progress or keep commitments. I had the opportunity to love them despite their shortcomings and to be patient with their progress. God blessed me with this love and patience for them. As I prayed for patience and love for others, I was able to develop greater patience for my own failures and short comings. 

• I have learned to have greater hope and optimism. There are so many times every day as a missionary when your plans fall through. People cancel, don't show up, or have to reschedule. As a new missionary I remember being so disappointed when lessons that I had prayed about, planned for, and prepared for, fell through. I wondered what I was doing wrong or if I wasn't doing enough. I studied about hope and optimism and I learned to have hope that all thing shall work together for my good. (D&C 98:3-4) When my plans fell through, I learned to trust in God's plan for me. No matter what happens, I learned to see the growing opportunity and positive outcome from every situation. I gained greater hope in God's promises for me. I know this attribute will be a great blessing in the future when life takes a crazy turn or when things don't go according to plan.

• I have felt my faith grow on the mission. It was a leap of faith to come out on a mission. It took faith to trust that God would take care of my loved ones at home. On the mission it took faith that God was involved in my work even when our plans fell through or we had few people to teach. It takes faith to know that God has the power to do all things and to help me accomplish any goal "but if not," (Daniel 3:17-18) then his will be done. It takes faith every time to open my mouth to the stranger next to me and to talk about God. It takes faith to trust in God's forgiveness and mercy. I'm grateful for every opportunity I had to walk by faith and not by sight. I love this quote: "you must learn to walk a few steps ahead into the darkness, and then the light will turn on before you" (see also Ether 12:6) 

•Coming on a mission has helped me to turn outward and to develop greater charity for others. As I have prayed, planned, and pondered on the needs of those I taught, I came to truly care for them. As I studied for them and served them, I developed a deep love for them. My heart broke when people I truly loved rejected the message that I knew would save them. It hurt me when they didn't appreciate all my many efforts to reach out to them. I was tempted many times to give up but I tried my best to be long suffering and to continue to reach out in love. I feel that I caught the smallest glimpse of how the Savior must feel when we reject him and his healing grace. Yet, with his perfect love, his arm of mercy never wavers. His arms is stretched out still in love and mercy, waiting for us to turn to him.  

•I have learn about what it mean to be consecrated. Consecration is a topic I haven't studied before and I am so thankful it is one I was able to learn about on my mission. Christ sacrificed everything for me, and now I understand what I can put on the alter of sacrifice for Him. I'm so grateful that consecration has been a focus in our mission. I feel that I am living on a much higher plane. I feel like I truly have been sanctified from the world. (Helaman 3:35) I feel that my thoughts and language have become clean and pure. I have no desire to go back to things of the world of such little worth or value. (Mosiah 5:2) I now treasure all the time Christ has given me. I truly believe and feel in my heart that "time is one of the most precious resources Heavenly Father has given you." (Missionary handbook pg 13) I will not waste the time that I have to be here on this earth. I will not waste that gift. I plan on using my time wisely when I return home. I hope to spend my time on things that matter most. I will consecrate my life to God.

My call letter it stated: "You will also be expected to devote all your time and attention to serving The Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs." When I was in my pre-mortal home looking into the eternities, I know that I did not make an 18 month commitment to give my all to Christ. I made a lifelong commitment. 

"What I need, [Sister Lounsbury], are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world." -Elder Jeffery R. Holland "The first great commandment Oct, 2012"

I know that God has a plan for me. I know that if I commit myself to be his disciple forever, that he can use me to bring about much good. In my mind, I feel that my mission is not really ending, it is just beginning. The work I have done here in New York I fully plan to continue when I am home. I will continue to find ways to bring those around me closer to Christ. 

5. Conclusion 

In closing, I want to write about a few things that I hope to carry on after my mission. 

•VGPA (vision, goal, plan, accountability): without a plan, it is just good intention or a good idea. I will continue to set goals for myself to help propel myself forward. 

•Daily studies, studying in behalf of others. I truly believe that there are other brothers and sisters in my influence that God wants me to strengthen and uplift. There are family, friends and people under my stewardship in callings that I will continue to seek out revelation for.

•Frequent prayer, seeking for guidance in all things. I want to be better at confirming with God that my plans are aligned with his.

•Seeking to truly live the doctrine of Christ. I want to always be thinking of what principle of the Doctrine of Chist I could be applying more. I want this doctrine to define me. I want it to become who am I—my character.

•Companionship inventory. This is a skill that I will be able to use in all relationships with people I care about. It is a way to let people know you love them and to resolve conflicts and set goals in a positive way.

•Getting to know ward members and missionaries by name. I will continue to pray for those around me and to love and serve the the best I can. 

•Putting God and others before self: J-Jesus O-others Y-yourself. This is the formula for joy. I want to keep doing this when I get home. 

My testimony

I would like to share my testimony of the things I know. I know that God is our Father and that loves each of us with a love that we cannot comprehend. He is always there, whether we recognize it or not. His love for me gives me confidence that I can be forgiven time and time again. I know He is patient with our weaknesses. He is our biggest support. He is always on our team, cheering us along. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ lives and loves me. Standing as a representative of Jesus Christ for a year and a half has helped me to understand the nature of his work. His whole life was about selfless service. Every act, every thought, every deed was focused on others. He taught us his doctrine and showed us the way to live. I know that because of his love for us, he suffered for the penalty of our sins. He took that pain and suffering upon himself so that we can be freed from the bondage of sin. I know that he was resurrected and that one day we too will be resurrected and united with our loved ones again.

I know that the Savior and his teachings—the gospel can help anyone. The gospel brings hope, light and joy that can not be found from any other source. Christ can heal any broken heart. He can fill any emptiness. He can lift the person in the lowest, darkest, scariest place. He can take away hate, anger, hurt, pain, despair and fear. He can fill you with love, light,  healing, hope and faith. You can not live the gospel and remain the same person. It will transform you and slowly heal you. I know it because I have seen it every day here on the mission. And I know it because I can see miraculous changes within myself. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives. 

 I know that God has a specific and purposeful plan for each of his children. He is ever mindful of each one of us. His love is always there. This I testify of in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

I love you all! I will see you next week :) 

Love Sister Lounsbury

Olmstead #4

Hello lovely family! 

It was another great week here in the Bronx :) I had my last split as a missionary! I went with sister Westlund in my old area...it felt really weird...like I have never left at all. We taught sister smalls and all other appointments fell through. We ended up contacting a media referral and teachi him about the Book of Mormon. He talked to us as if he was a member. He is super prepared for the gospel. He works so hard to provide for his family. He studies from the bible and prays. Ephesians wants to be a good husband and father. I am amazed sometimes by the people we are led to. So many of them are so, so ready for the gospel! We will give him over to the Spanish elders to teach

So sister Rasmussen and I were on a fairly empty subway cart, caught up in conversation. I was asking her the date she enter the mission field. We realized her 4 month mark would be in a few day. I start chanting "4 months, 4 months, oh yeah" while doing a little dance with my arms. We hear laughing coming from the corner and see an old man who was missing a few teeth say "that is real cute! No I'm not making fun of you! That was like right off a tv show!" He then says "you aren't from around here are you?" We tell him no, that we are missionaries and that we are from the west coast. Then he felt the need to give us advice on how to survive in Ny. So he came from his corner and sat down next to us. His advice was 1. Trust no one. 2. To not talk to each other or others or "they" will recognize you as someone from out of town. 3. To take off our name tag because it makes us a target. Haha we thanked him for being concerned about our safety but we told him we weren't going to take off the tag. We reminded him of his daughters and so we started talking about our family. Some other guy across from us who was listening in and laughing at our conversation also came over and starting. It was a fun interaction and we left them both with our card. I was reminded again of how much we really do stand out and how people are always watching.   

STORY: the other day we were walking down the road near a busy intersection. We hear a man on a blow horn preaching on the street corner saying things like "Turn your life to God. He is the only way" then as we come within eye shot his message starts changing..."Beware of false prophets! Joseph Smith will burn in hell! The church of Jesus Christ of later day saint is not Christian! The Mormon religion is a cult! Only born again Christians will go to heaven!" 

Sister Rasmussen and I just look at each other with gaping mouths and laugh. It wasn't really funny but I guess it was so awful and blunt that it was a little humorous. We brushed it off and continued on our way to go teach those who were prepared for the gospel. :) 

So this week Jessica brown, our investigator is getting baptized!! He boyfriend is a member. She is flying to Minnesota to have him baptize her. She is super knowledgeable because she already learned just about everything about the church from her boyfriend already. So receiving the lessons from the missionaries was more of a review. It is sister Rasmussen first baptism and we are super excited for it :) 

Oh! One last funny story! So there is missionary lingo that goes on the mission. 

Ex. "Where were you born?" Means, where was your first area.

We got juked means, our appointment cancelled on us. 

Trunky is a word to describe a missionary who is always thinking and talking about home. 

A dying missionary is a missionary who is going home in 1 or 2 cycles. 

So, this leads into my story. So sister Rasmussen was emailing her family about me. She had said: "my companion Sister Lounsbury is dying in 5 weeks, I am really sad about it, but she is working really hard" 

So her family, not understanding missionary lingo replied: 

"Carlee was also wondering why, if your companion is dying in five weeks, is she still there and what is she dying from?" Hahah we got a really good laugh over the whole misunderstanding!  

Well that is all for now! I love you all so much! I am excited to see you soon! 

Olmstead #3

Dear family, 

Sorry, but this one is going to be short! 

We have been spending the day cleaning, doing laundry and I have been organizing letters/papers I have collected and so on. I am trying to do a little organizing at a time so that I won't be crazy stressed out at the end of the cycle when I have to pack up. 

To answer your questions mom, we have an escort because hunt's point, and a few other areas are not safe. So we get picked up and dropped off to our appointments in those areas because we are not allowed to go in alone. It is just a precaution. 

Anyway, this week has been fantastic :) I saw Sister Raine at church! She is back from her trip! It was super fun to see each other! How crazy that we would both end up meeting up in NY in the same ward. It was fun to talk and to catch up with her. She teaches gospel principles and does a really good job. I'm glad I'll get to spend a few weeks with her :) 

Well summer ended abruptly. It went from hot days where you are sweaty and thristy, to chilly windy days with misty rain. The leaves have been falling for a while, but now they are really coming down. Fall isn't so pretty here like it was in Newburgh, but I'm still liking it. 

This week we were able to meet with an investigator named Maxine from Jamaica. There is a bit of a language barrier so we have to teach very, very simply. Which is good, because that is what we should be doing anyway haha. We used pictures and any other visual we could and that seemed to help. We can only teach one or two principles at a time or it is too much. We are trying to have short frequent visits. She is very nice lady and I would appreciate it if you could keep her in your prayers that she can receive an answer. 

The ward here has improved a lot. It was hardly functional but things are picking up. We have a ward mission leader now and just started to have ward council. There really are so many aspects of missionary work, and our main focus here is strengthening the ward members. We are focusing on visiting teaching right now with the Relief Society Sisters. 

I'm not keeping track of how long I have left, but everyone else does a good job of reminding me haha. I guess I have to come to terms with it and start preparing for the upcoming change. I just love the mission. I know there are good things ahead and that God will continue to use me to bring about His work. But I will always, always cherish and love the time He was able to use me as a missionary here in New York. 

Well I love you all. I hope you have a lovely week! 

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Olmstead #2

Hello lovely family! 

Well it has been a fantastic week here in Olmstead with Sister Rasmussen! For a while I had wanted to stay in Kingsbridge, but now that I am here I love it! I truly believe there are people here I need to meet, things I need to learn and things other people need to learn from me. It is cool to see how God's plan for me is way better than what my plan is for me. I thought it would be hard to be motivated to be in an area for 5 weeks, but I have actually never connected faster with a ward or with the people. I have been working really hard at remembering names (something I have always been bad with) and so far I am doing really good! I have actually surprised myself by how many names my brain actually can hold. You just have to really put forth effort. 

Well every area you serve in is a little different with a little different focus. In this area we are working to strengthen the ward. The relief society had a work shop on visiting teaching on Sunday (they put on a little skit that The missionaries got pulled into). But it went well! So we have been following up with everyone with their assignments and teaching the what it means To visit teach if they don't know. We have an investigator who will be baptized on the 26th so that is really awesome! Natasha (from my old area) will be baptized on the 14th. I'm hoof to get permission to see it. We have a lot of media referrals we have been trying to look up. Yesterday we met a referral and she is awesome! She is searching for truth in her life and has been mislead by church pastors she thought she could trust. We reassured her that the message we will teach is one we want her to pray about instead of taking our word for it. We told her that if she prays, she can know the truth through the power of the Holy Ghost. By the end of talking with her at the door she went from being hesitant to wanting us over on Friday! 

I am so happy to be serving here. It is so fun to serve around all the sisters I got to know by being a sister training leader. I love Sister Rasmussen. She is so much fun and she works hard! I am follow up training her, so she is still new. I love being able to share some knowledge and experience and to see her excitement. This is still new for her, so it is fun to see her learn and grow. The ward is pretty small, which I like. The people are friendly and welcoming. And there is still a lot of diversity, which I love. Oh yeah! And we are a model district which is new for me. We still have an area, but if there is an investigator that is found that could be taught better by a certain set of missionaries, then they are reassigned. We still teach any single sister. The thing I don't like is that we need Elders to escort us into any appointment we have in Hunt's Point or above Allerton Ave. They have to pick us up and drop us off. I feel bad and like it is a waste of time for them. But..it didn't take too long for me to find out why we need an escort. So I'm glad they are there, but I still feel bad they have to babysit us. 

Well I just got done seeing the Statue of Liberty with all the missionaries going home this cycle and their companions. It was fun to see everyone and to see the sights. There is so much to see and do here in NY city. I have been a good amount of times but feel like I have barely seen anything at all! There is so much to explore and see! My last trip to the city will be to go the the temple with President Morgan and the missionaries who are going home next cycle. That should be fun. 

Well, I love you all so much! Thank you for being so good with staying in contact with me :) it is so great to hear from you every time! I love you lots!

Olmstead #1

Family! Hey! 

So, I got transferred. 

I will be spending my last 5 weeks in Olmstead (which is the other side of the Bronx) I am actually really excited to be here! Ever since zone conference I had the feeling that I would be leaving. Then again at MLC I was almost sure I would be leaving. I was a little sad at first and then I got really excited about it! I am excited for one more area! I am way excited to be with sister Rasmussen! It is actually really cool because I was a Sister Training Leader over Kingsbridge and Olmstead. So from splits, interviews and visiting for district meetings, I am already really familiar with this zone! I even already know some of the member and people they work with. Sister Wilkes took my place and is a STL with sister Westlund! They are going to be great together! 

I can't believe this is my last area and companion, but I feel really excited about it. I thought that a transfer for the last cycle would be hard to keep motivated, but I feel a renewed energy just because it is a new area, new people etc. It should be a really great cycle! 

Also, to answer your question, yes I would love to teach a special lesson for YW. That would be way fun :) That is so cool that President Morgan wrote you. I have been blessed more than I can ever know by the Morgans. I truly, truly love them. 

Ummm... Ok, I cannot believe how big Caleb is!!! He is like a little man!! What the!? Seriously I couldn't get over his picture... He has done some serious growing there! Also, I can't believe he started High school and is playing high school soccer!!!! Ahh!! And it sounds like an awesome first game! Will I be able to see a game when I come home in October, or will it be over? Oh I really, really want to see him play!! 

I loved all the pictures you sent of the boys. They are all growing way too fast! It sounds like they had quite the experience camping! I a so excited for Whitney! I am so sad I am just barely missing her! She is going to be a fantastic missionary. She is very hardworking and has a great testimony. I am so excited for her!! Lucas writes me every now and then so we have been in touch. I am so proud of him for choosing to serve a mission. It is so, so awesome! 

This week was a lot of goodbyes and packing. I also had my last Mission Leadership Council on Friday, went on a split right after til Saturday, planned for zone meeting Sunday  and then presented Zone Meeting Monday. So we stayed plenty busy! I am excited to have full time proselyting as a "normal" missionary haha. It should be good. Well now I need to do some grocery shopping and unpacking! But I love you all so much! 

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #25

Hello family! Well this week has been a great one! 

On Thursday we had zone conference about going back to the basics. We received a commitment as a mission to read the Book of Mormon in 120 days. We started on Monday and will finish on Christmas Eve! I know today is Wednesday and we are three days in, but I think it would be awesome if as a whole family we joined together in this! What do you say? Right now I am trying to cram and finish my 75 day Book of Mormon read that we are doing as a ward. I'm in Ether, so I'm almost there. We were also committed to read more from PMG and to study and ponder on the simple, fundamental basics. It was a refreshing and awesome conference. 

We had a split Friday and Monday. That makes the week go by so much faster! They were both fun splits and I came away with a lot of insights. I think that is my new favorite part of being a sister training leader—you are able to learn so much from the sisters you serve. 

The rest of this week will be busy as well. Friday we have MLC in Scarsdale and then right after we will go to Olmstead to do a split. I will be staying in the area with sister Wilkes (my ex companion from Newburgh) so that will be fun :) 

Sometimes in the Bronx you feel like a celebrity because lots of the men makes comments as you walk down the street. But this week we had some stories worth telling. So we were walking and this guy stops us and asks who we are. We told him we were missionaries, told him about what we teach and asked if he'd be interested. He said yes, IF we were the ones teaching. We told him he wasn't in our area and it should matter who would teach him. He refused to be taught by anyone else and Then he walked into the shop he worked and told us to come by when we were in the area. The same exact thing happened the next day. We were stopped by a man from Jamaica. He said "hey! Do you have a book for me?" I told him we did and pulled out the Book of Mormon. But when it came down to meeting with missionaries, it was the same story. He didn't want to meet with the elders. I told him that the Book of Mormon would change his life and it shouldn't matter who taught him. He then agreed to give us his info to give to the elders. And then there was a boy we met and invited to church. He came last week and again this week. He asked me if I had a boyfriend. I told him no because we don't date on the mission and then slipped out of the conversation. Then he asked my companion the same thing in which she also told him that she doesn't date as a missionary. Haha I felt bad, but he said he would come back next Sunday.

So last Sunday I was sitting in correlation and hour before church. Bishop said a speaker fell through and asked if one of us could share a message. Somehow I was nominated. So I put together a talk on seeing the good in others and resisting the temptation to judge. I talked about charity and lifting those around us instead of tearing each other down. I had a lot of people approach me and tank me for the message, so I guess I pulled it off even with little preparation :) 

Well family, it is good as always to hear from you! Thanks for you love and support! 

Love sister Lounsbury

Ps we find out this Saturday if I will finish my mission off here in the Bronx or if I will go somewhere else. So we'll see what happens! 

Kingsbridge #24

Hello lovely family! 

So this week has flown by like no other! We have been keeping as busy as ever. This week we have 24 SET appointments and two splits in which we have to travel back and for from Olmstead. We picked up more new investigators and more referrals. We have way more work than we can keep up with. Several people complain that they don't get to see us as much as they would like. We apologize and show them our schedule and tell them we would see the. More often if we could! 

We had a really fun ward BBQ. I are way too much food and then played soccer right after. But despite feeling like a was going to burst, I scored all our teams point but one. And that point was assisted by me. I've still got some soccer skills in me :) 

I had a super fun split this week with sister Anderson who is a brand new missionary. She is Spanish speaking, serving in Olmstead. We laughed so hard the whole day. It was a blast. :) I love my calling as sister training leader. It is so much fun to get to know the sisters. It is really rewarding to help newer missionaries progress, gain confidence, and understand what it means to be a successful missionary. 

So exciting news, sister Lopez and I bought tickets on Friday to see wicked today!!! We bought tickets for 91 dollars that were originally going for 250+ dollars!!! I am literally the front row seat! (It is the furthest swat to the left, but that is nothing to complain about!!) it is also a blessing because I don't have glasses still and can't see. I thought I would just be listening to a play, but I will get to see it!! :) 

Then Thursday we have a zone conference about going back to the basics. I am super pumped for it. I love President and Sister Morgan. I truly, truly love them. I love having any chance to hear from them and to be uplifted and inspired. Then Friday/Saturday we have another split then church on Sunday and then BAM we are into the last full week of this cycle. I literally cannot believe it. It's gonna go super fast because we have two splits this week and two next week. 

Natsha is progressing super well! She is the most excited investigator I have ever had for baptism! She looks up things on LDS.org in her spare time, comes to service with us Tuesdays, meets us three times a week, she wants to serve a mission and do temple work and she is just awesome. She will be baptized sept 13th :) 

Novella and her daughter are also progressing well. We had the most hilarious lesson on the law of chastity with them. Hahah it is really hard to describe over email but we had a really good laugh during that lesson. 

We aren't able to get in with everyone else as often as we would like, but we can only do so much. The biggest struggle is fitting everyone into our schedule. We have people organized by their area. It is difficult because the Bronx is big! It probably takes 1.45-2 hours by bus,train ect to get all the way across. So we group the appointment by the area and you hope they can meet at that time! It is a good problem to have, I just hope no one slips in between the cracks. 

Well family, I love you a whole lot. I hope all is going well with everything! 

Love a Sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #23

Family!!

Hello! How is life? Happy belated birthday Caleb! I literally cannot believe you are in high school this fall. And getting your permit soon? Wow.... Just wow. That blows my mind a little.

Well, It has been another lovely week! We were able to attend the temple trip for the ward. While at the temple I was members from the Yonkers branch! That just filled my heart up to the top. It was a tender mercy for sure. Then later I was sitting waiting to do baptisms and a couple comes in. I am super blind but I could tell they were starring at me, the wife mouthing the words "do I know you?" I go down to them and find out that it is stephanie blackham's sister and her husband! They were just visiting New York and happened to bump into me! What are the chances!! So that was really awesome! 

Unfortunately the date originally planned for us to go to the temple with our returned less actives from Yonkers was moved. Alberte and Fabienne will gothis Friday. Mitchelle needs to set her dates till. Angela (my Jamaican mama) will go this Saturday with sister Matthews as her escort. I am so sad I will have to miss it because we have scheduled appointments we can't move. But I am still just as happy that they will all be going through the temple!! That is just so incredibly awesome for me to hear about while I'm still here in New York. It makes me feel like I have accomplished more the I realized. Truly a missionary cannot see or know the full effect they have on the lives of others. This work is just so awesome! 

We have been keeping busy like crazy. I don't know if I told you but novella and her daughter taniyah both accepted baptism for sept 27th! They were grinning when we extended the date. It is really cool to see how their desire to be baptized is really motivating them to make changes in their life (such as living the word of wisdom) they love having us and we love going over. They have us laughing every time. We just feel so comfortable with them. They feel like family to us :) Natasha also accepted a bap dat for sept 13th. She is progressing so well! We meet about two times a week and she does service with all us missionaries on Tuesday. She is super excited about baptism. She added us on FB and I saw she had posted several statuses about being baptized and how excited she is. It is amazing to teach people who are so excited about baptism! They are so prepared and so ready for this message!! 

On a random note, a bird totally pooped on me yesterday. We were hurrying to the bus and once we were seated, I realized there was poop all over my bag! Then I felt my hair and realized it pooped on my head. We were laughing as sister Westlund was trying to get it Out with hand sanitizer and her used sweat rag...not sure how much that really helped. Then we look down and realize that sister Westlund had stepped in gum and it was on her shoe. We were laughing quite hard at this point because this was just the biggest series of unfortunate events (we had to carry around these massive bags from our split all day, we got caught in a down pour, we didn't have time to eat lunch or dinner and now the poop and the gum) but then to top it all off I look down at my tan skirt and there is even more poop smeared across the front of it. We both look down at the poop and at this point we just lose it. We were laughing so hard! It was just extremely humorous at this point of how unlucky it all was. We had to teach gospel study right after so luckily I had a pair of jeans in my bag I was carrying around from service earlier that I could use. The after that we taught the Addiction Recovery class and finally for home to have a late dinner at 9:30 (when we should had been done with planning) whew!!! Are days have just been so packed! It is good to be so busy,but I hope we can keep juggling everything and not feeling too overloaded. Pray for our brains to keep up!! Haha we will be happy when our area splits again and we have two sets of sisters here inthe Bronx again. 

Well we are going to the city today! We will to the temple to do an endowment session. That will be awesome. Sister Lopez and Arquero will be there! And hopefully we will see sister Nielson as well. 

Welp, I love you all so much. Have a great week! 

Love Sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #22

Hey family!! 

So it has been a great week with lots of things going on. I am going to write a little bit about everything. 

So the most eventful thing this week was that I got to go to Queens! The NYNY N Mission and the NY NY S Mission leadership was able to join together for Mission leadership Council. It was so cool! I got to talk with missionaries from the south mission and bounce off ideas for finding activities. We also talked about online proselyting, talked about barriers and how we could move forward with this tool. My favorite part was hearing their mission President talk about the Doctrine of Chist. He taught a principle of what he terms "real time". He taught us that rather then having repentance being an event, it can become a part of us. In the moment we make a mistake, we can repent right then and make it right. Repentance shouldn't be an event or a check list, it is a continuous way of living, we are continuously repenting and making things right. And we can in the very moment we repent, feel the burden relived and be made clean. I really liked that. 

The most exciting thing this week was that I found out that 4 less actives I was working with in Yonkers are going to receive their endowments this Saturday!!! Angela, alberte, Fabienne, and Michelle are all going to the temple! Sister Matthews and I were the ones who found Angela and Michelle. I am just full with joy that they have continued to progress and are worthy to enter into the temple! And the best part is that I and sister Matthews both got permission to go to the temple this Saturday to be with them!!!!! This is the greatest birthday gift I ever could have received!!! 

It was Elder Griffiths birthday this week so the district went to little Italy which is in our area. There I have the best pizza in my life. Literally, I didn't know pizza could taste like that. I feel like my whole life I have never actually eaten pizza....if I ever come back to NY, we are not getting NY pizza, we are getting little Italy pizza :) 

Novella, her husband and her daughter came to church! That was really exciting! They stayed for the whole time so that was awesome :) Tee. Menafee, her boyfriend and daughter also came to church came to church. She stayed for two hours but had to take something out of the oven. She was sad to miss relief society, it is her favorite class. We met with Natasha this week and invited her to a service project. It was great to get to know her better while doing service. She wants to be a missionary and go do baptisms for the dead and to come with us as a member present...we told her she needs to be a member to do those things! She is eager to take all the lessons so she can be baptized!! Her niece came along to service and we'll invite her to take the lessons as well. 

We had our first gospel study class. It is designed for new members to come and receive the new member lessons. We have so many new members and they all need to be nourished by the word of God. We had a good amount of people there, so it was a success! 

This week we got our interviews done. There are two new sister missionaries in the zones we are over. It was fun to get to know them better. I find that I have really learned to love getting to know people. It is something that is much more fun for me now. I really enjoy my calling as STL because it allows me to get to know more of the sisters on a more personal level. In interviews we talked about being positive. 

We read D&C 98:3 which teaches us that all things we are afflicted with shall work together for our good. I want to share some of my thoughts.

1>there are bad things and good things that happen to us every day. Most people judge a "good day" to be one where the good things that happen outweighs the bad things. But there is a way to make every single day a good day. The secret is understanding that good can even come from things we think are bad (D&C 98:3) 

Here are some missionary examples: 

•you get lost & are late to your appointment or your appointment cancels....maybe you needed to bump into someone else. Maybe there was someone else God needed you to meet. Or you could see getting lost as a chance for you to learn the area better. 

•someone calls you a name and mocks you for your beliefs....you get a chance to defend your faith. You have an opportunity to go through the smallest portion of ridicule that Christ went through for you. 

•you can't communicate what you want to in Spanish in your lesson....This is a opportunity for you to exercise faith in the gift of tongues, that God can communicate the message you're trying to teach to the hearer. This is an opportunity for you to use what talent you do have and to develop more. 

•you get sick and have to stay in...You can learn to be more compassionate and more understanding of others who are sick. This experience can help you be more grateful for your good health.

I went through with these example and more and without fail I was able to find something positive that could come. Truly all things that we are afflicted with can work together for our good and for the glory of God. Then I started thinking about life experiences outside of the mission and tried to apply this principle. 

Real life example

•you fail a class... This is a chance for you to learn the subject better a second time! The second time through you might be able to help others in the class. 

•you Lose your job... Maybe God has a better job in store for you. Maybe you are needed somewhere else.

•you have no friends at school...this is a chance for you to develop greater empathy for those without friends. You can learn how to reach out to others mores stead of expecting others to reach out to you

With every circumstance there is either despair, or hope. We should choose to be hopeful. 

Of course after we did our interviews in Olmstead everything went wrong that day. We waited an hour for our bus only to find it had been re-routed. We missed our appointment. We got lost. We had a member come to an appointment out of their way only to find out the investigator wasn't home. Hahaha I was literally laughing by the end of it all because God was giving us plenty of opportunities to practice the principle be positive and seeing the good no matter what our circumstances. 

All in all it was another great week. We actually picked up even more investigators this week. Everything is going great! Well I love you all a ton! Have a great week :) 

Kingsbridge #21

FAMILY!!!! 

Well it has been another great week! We have been teaching lots of investigators!! I have never had so many progressing investigator in my whole mission! Let me tell you about them all. :) 

Linda Gonzalez and kids. Linda randomly came to church one Sunday and we have been teaching her ever since. She is from Bangladesh and is so ready for the gospel. She and her kids are soaking up all that we are teaching. We taught her two times in the furniture store that she works at! Hahah so we have been sitting on un-purchased furniture while she Has to get up every now and then to tend to customers and answer the phone. But it is the only time she can meet. 

Jennifer and kids. We met with Jennifer for the first time this week on Monday.  She was someone who was handed off to us once the sisters left. She has met with them for a few weeks. She didn't seem to remember too much so we are starting from the beginning. She wants to meet at least 3 to 4 times a week! But our schedule was so packed we could fit her until 5 days later. This week is really busy with interviews and mission leadership council. So hopefully next week we can meet with her more often. She came to family history on Tuesday which was awesome! It is so cool to see how willing she is to keep commitments. You can tell she is really ready for change in her life. 

Novella and daughter. We met her at a word of wisdom APF. We've been teaching her ever since. She met with missionaries a few years back and went to church for over a year then fell out of contact of missionaries. Now she is meeting with us again. We have taught the restoration and the Plan of Salvation. She seemed hesitant about baptism, but now she is opening up more and more to the idea. She and her daughter are such much fun to teach. We are already good friends with them. The daughters asks a million and one questions. It is really great teaching them. 

T. Manafee. We met her knocking doors. She met with missionaries a few years back for a little but lost contact. Then we met her :) she seemed hesitant about the idea of meeting frequently or being baptized. But after each meeting she grows more open to the idea. She is now willing to meet weekly. We saw her monday and she also came to family history on Tuesday which was so awesome!! She really understands the message of the restoration and knows she must seek to come to know truth. She knows baptism is a commandment from God and she knows she must receive an answer to know if she should be baptized. Her daughter miracle (4years old) LOVES church, so that is awesome as well :) 

 Cecilia. Was a referAl from the elders. We taught her and her family once. Cecilia is from Ghana. She told us about how there are 13 tribes where she is from. She told us about about her tribe and how they all interacted with each other. That was really fascinating. I seriously serve in the coolest mission in the world. I love teaching people from all over the world and with so many different cultures and backgrounds. We have only had one meeting with them so far so we'll see if they really start progressing. 

Natasha is a referral from the elders. She is 15 and she wants to be baptized! She has come to church twice and has already made some great connections with the 

Young women. We haven't had a solid lesson since they handed her off. We've been so busy! But we hope to get her in for next week. 

Genisis is a referral from Mormon.org. She requested a restoration DVD after randomly visiting palmyra. We had a great first lesson with her. It was great! She is 20 years old and we have fun when teaching her. She feels like a friend we are sharing the gospel with. She is very intellectual. We taught her about the difference between tangible knowledge you can see and spiritual knowledge you feel and receive through the Holy Ghost. It was a great lesson. 

Soon Denise and sister Gonzalez (single sisters that are recent converts) will be getting back in town. So now we will need to start meeting with both of them about 2 times a week as well. 

And there are other recent converts like Miriam we meet twice a week with. Then there are all the other active members we meet with regularly like the Abrahams who we committed to prepare to enter to temple and to be sealed as a family. Then we have the less actives we are working with and helping to get to church and help them progress. 

Needless to say, we are being kept very, very busy.

I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel so blessed to be here one more cycle. I am going to give it all I got, because these people deserve it. Seriously, I know these people are all so prepared. The Lord is preparing them and I want to make sure I am obedient and giving it my all so they can continue to progress and be baptized. Teaching them humbles me and makes me want to be better for them. I love this work! There is no feeling like it!!

Well family, I sure love you a lot. I hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #20

Hello family! 

So today is transfers and I am staying my 5th cycle here in the Bronx! I am really happy to stay because there are so many great things going on :) after this cycle I have one more. I wouldn't mind staying here in the Bronx til the end of my days :) 

This transfer we lost 33 missionaries. It included the "baby boom" of sisters in particular who flooded out mission after the age was lowered. It was the biggest group I have ever seen leaving. There were many missionaries I was close with who left today including my trainer Sister Awerkamp. I cried to see them go. Because so many English sisters left, our mission had to close 3 areas, including our roommates area. sister arquero and sister Nielson left so we don't have roommates anymore. So we will be taking over their area this next cycle. We will b the only English sisters in the Bronx, so we will be taking everyone's single women investigators and less actives. And we will continue to do splits and have our Sister Training Leader responsibilities. So that should be fun haha. Needless to say, we will stay very busy. We need to be very organized or we won't be able to keep track of everyone. My biggest fear is that people are going to slip under the cracks. But The Lord thinks we are up for the task, so I know that he will help us. 

So, I wrote this song called 18 months one preparation day when I was in Newburgh. I recorded it of my iPad and gave a recording to my companion. Since then I have found out that it has gotten around all over the mission! People keep approaching me and telling me that they love my song and listen to it all the time in their apartment! I discovered just how many people had actually heard it today. An elder from my MTC district said he heard about my song and he asked me to play it. So I sat down and started playing the song. All the sudden heads turn, missionaries come around the corner and I hear people saying "oh! I love this song!" One guy was even singing with it and knew all the words!! Haha so that made me feel really good :) 

Well I am sorry I didn't write more. Transfer day never leaves you much time to do all you need to and preparation day. But I love you all! 

Kingsbridge #19

Hello family! 

How is everything going? Mom, Caleb and Isaac- that fun run looked fun :) Haha way to go! And Caleb, way to win it all! I'm excited to get to see you run when I get home you speedy Gonzalez! 

Things this week have been great! The weather has been a little crazy! It has been raining cats and dogs. It comes we you least expect it.on,mot it is sunny and humid as usual, and the. The next moment BAM!!!! The clouds wash over the sky, the heavens open up and dump massive amounts of water. If you are outside for 3 seconds (we times it) you are soaked. If you stay out any longer than 3 seconds, it is like you just jump in a pool of water. You are dripping wet.  Flash floods run through the street and clean off all the poop and trash. The Bronx needs a good washing every now and then. (Actually, it could always use a washing) Normally in these storms, it is still warm out and there is lightening that rips through the sky and thunder that is deafening. 

I like the storms, except when you have to get to a appointment. I really don't have the shoes or coat for rain. And unfortunately I lost my umbrella. But we've been pretty lucky with being inside teaching or having lunch during these downpours. Or we are on our way home, so it doesn't matter if we get soaking wet. In fact, we like to run and jump in the puddles and play in the storm :) it makes things fun.

SO,

The work here is exploding more than normal. We were blessed with two FAMILIES to teach this week!!! Some people will go their whole mission without teaching a family. It is a very, very rare thing to find a family with a husband and a wife and children here in NY. And we were blessed with two!

One family is from Bangladesh.  This are super solid. This is the mom and son who showed up randomly at church asking to be taught. She has a husband and a daughter as well. They invited us over this week and we talked about the Book of Mormon. They love, love, love learning anything more about Jesus Christ. They were fascinated in hearing about how the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. She thought it was so amazing that Christ went and visited the people in the ancient Americas. We taught the mother Linda who was translating in Bangla to her sister. Linda kept turning to us and saying "and the what?!" We would teach her, she would stop us and turn to her sister to translate what we said. They had the best questions and the spirit was so strong! The mom and kids want to be baptized! We will meet the father next time. And once again, it's another person who found us, we didn't find them! 

The other family was found at a word of wisdom APF by Yankee stadium. The mom wanted to stop smoking so we got her contact info and set up an appointment. It turns out that her, her husband and kids were taught by missionaries and went to church for two years and the fell out of contact! So teaching them will be like a refresher course. They seem hesitant about baptism, but once we get into the lessons, I think that will change. 

We also received 4 new media referrals this week. One of them the other sister visited and taught. I haven't met them yet, but it is another family that wants to be baptized!! I feel overwhelmed with how many are falling into our laps. I feel so blessed and trusted of The Lord. Transfers are coming up next Wednesday, but I am hoping that I will stay. I could stay here til the end of my mission. Maybe The Lord will let me even though I have already been here for 6 months. :) 

Oh! Something else cool happened this week! We did a zone APF where we showcased our talents on the streets on New York. For example there was people who sang, people who were doing soccer tricks, people who were roping (like in a rodeo) people who did arm wrestling, and I was able to sit and play songs on the keyboard. We all had "I'm a Mormon" posters. Other missionaries stopped and contacted people. It as a really good idea,it could have been organized a little bit better so that there was less talents and more contacting. I think a lot of people stopped and saw us, but not enough were contacted and were able to find out who we were. I think we will try again but doing it a little different. But, it was definitely fun :) 

I am loving my mission. I love serving The Lord. I love seeing lives change for the better. I love seeing change within myself. I love that I am coming to a deeper understanding of Jesus Christ and what He has done for me. I love what Hannah Downs said to me once "it's the best job, with the best pay, with the best boss ever" I truly feel like I have the best job in the whole world with the best pay. It is so rewarding and I am being so blessed by The Lord. I want to soak up every single moment of it. :) I love you all. Thank you, as always for all the support and love. Not just from my family but also from the Turner Ward. I have received many letters and emails through out my mission from ward members. Time is pretty limited as a missionary so I haven't had time to thank all of you personally, but I am truly, truly grateful for you all. Thank you for thinking of me and taking time to show me that you support me. I am so blessed to have such wonderful Ward Members and friends :) I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Love Sister Lounsbury