What sets us apart?

This week we had mission tour [big name for zone conference w/ a gen authority]. Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the 70 came to visit our mission. He is AmAzing. He told some really funny jokes, he won our favor right away with those. I love him. He addressed that very question... WHAT SETS US APART FROM OTHER RELIGIONS? Well, we believe that man in born neither inherently good nor evil, rather man is born whole and innocent. We then use our God-given gift of agency to choose whom we will serve. I learned a lot from that talk. How grateful I am for the conditional and unconditional blessings of the atonement. The atonement is truly the greatest news we can share with anyone... that no matter what we will all be resurrected, we'll all live eternally with our bodies, and that we are all cleansed from original sin. Everyone will receive those gifts. Now we have the opportunity to do all we can to live righteously and Christ, being the mediator, will make up the difference. Heavenly Father wants us back, we must do ALL we can to go towards truth and light. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! The gospel is good news! I truly couldn't be a missionary for any other church. We have the truth and we have the proof... without the Book of Mormon and the knowledge we have of prayer, how do people really know things are true?

I loved mission tour. Madison, Milwaukee north and Milwaukee south stakes were combined. It was wonderful. I got to see all my former companions except for sisters roth and behrends, who were having mission tour the next day. There were eight of us sisters there. At one part of one of Elder Hafen's talks he was speaking about how we honor Eve. Eve paved the way, Eve took the first step. Then on a side note He talked for a minute about women and how we need not feel any less for not having the Priesthood and divine roles etc. It was at that very moment when the WHOLE ROW OF 8 elders [who all serve here in racine/kenosha] sitting behind us started DYING laughing. Why might you ask? Oh it's because EVERY little thing I do ends up being some kind of joke about myself not having the Priesthood. IT was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. The Barrett's were sitting right in front of us and sister Barrett asked what all that was about. I told her and she laughed too. funny elders. JUST FOR THE RECORD: contrary to popular belief I do not want the Priesthood. I love the Priesthood, I respect all those who hold offices in the Priesthood, but I do not want to hold it myself. I have enough responsibility thank you very much.

The sisters all sang "Nearer My God to Thee" as the special musical number, it was pretty. Elder and Sister Alder are going home this month. I can't even believe it! I called sister alder quite often before my mission asking her questions here and there about coats and luggage and boxes, etc. I will miss the ALderS. I have grown quite fond of them!

As for the rest of the week...

[mon] PDAY! it was a really good pday too! we played soccer in the MUD and RAIN. It was the BEST! We also went to Kohls, I got 2 cute new shirts, I think it is time for a few new things, I haven't shopped in FOREVER! We printed pictures at Wal Mart and we spent some time with sister calderwood. i love her. We emailed and then we had appts with Vicki and the Davis'.

[tues] we studied. taught Marka, she is doing really well. She know the Book of Mormon is True and Jesus is the Christ. She just needs to marry her boyfriend! :) I love teaching her. We had dinner with the Spanish Elders at the Abbott's and then went to Culver's for custard. We took the english elders some custard too, they were both deathly sick with colds.

[wed] we went and taught english in kenosha. then we taught elena. Elena speaks only spanish. She works at the Centro Hispano so she comes to english class twice a week. She started reading a Restoration Pamphlet the Elders left there. When we started coming we asked her if she wanted to be taught and she was game. She is learning to read as she reads from The Book of Mormon each day. I love her. We had dinner with the Seivert's afterwards, sister seivert is not a member [though her kids both go to BYU-I and her son is about to go on a mission and her husband has been a member their whole marriage] and committed to READ and PRAY to know the Book of Mormon is True. That's a BIG deal! Then we played volleyball. Our investigator amy came.

[thu] mission tour- see above. then we ate at Noodles and Company, go there... get Wisconsin Mac and Cheese with Breaded Chicken... YUM! Then we had an AmAzing lesson with Amy. She is so faithful, she's had a lot of hard life experiences lately, I can't imagine life without my mom. She now knows that her mom is being taught in the spirit world what we are teaching her here! I love that!

[fri] english class. we taught suzie about the importance of going to church. we had the trunk or treat for the Kenosha ward and the branch! so fun!

[sat] HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Cleaning day for us... but our house is for sale so we clean for showings and open houses EVERY DAY. so we played soccer with the elders [FREEZING COLD AND SUPER MUDDY. way WINDY TOO!!!!] and then went to the calderwoods and wrote letters for the day and just hung out. We met the elders [and octavio], all eight that we serve with here, for PiZZa at Ruffalo's... so YUMMY!, best pan pizza EvEr! Then we went to the church and played a game called speed ball in the cultural hall with them. It is unsafe for us to proselyte on Halloween so we were asked not too. It was a wierd day... but fun!

[sun] we only had 2 hours of church, as opposed to the usual 6! the building is under construction so we just went to our two sacrament meetings. It was great to fast! Then we went to the Calderwood's for dinner and afterwards to the Flores for "pan dulce" and "chocolate". YUM! it was NoV 1st... Dia de los Muertes! A mexican holiday. FUN! They celebrate their dead, wierd, but cool. Study it ... i learned about it in HS.

It was an AmAZing WEEK. but then again, when don't I say that! i love being a missionary! I love all of you! I love my family and all of you who I consider family! Thanks for all you do for me!

Love, sister pamella jo black

ps ... the Blake's are moving in the next couple weeks, thus so are we [only not to UT with them! :] send all mail here:

SISTER PAMELLA JO BLACK
5651 Broad St Ste1
Greendale, WI 53129

Have a good week! YOu are aLl in my PraYerS!

WE ARE...

... BUSY!

super busy.

we have more investigators than i have ever had in any area of my mission. AmAzing.

there is no such thing as downtime!

i love it. this is what this work is all about.


Today I don't have a whole lot of time to email... like 40 minutes as of right now. SO I may be brief... which i know many of you don't believe is possible. but oh, it is! [and if you wrote me an email this week or last week and i didn't respond... i am sorry! i just don't have time... expect a hand written letter this week!]

i just want you all to know what a hard time all of the elders give me for writing such long emails... post-mish i know i will be happy i did this, and i told them if i didn't my mom would get on a plane to be sure i was OK! they laugh, i'm serious. so brace yourself mom... when rocky is gone you may get 3 paragraphs on a good day (they say their paragraphs are at most 5 sentances! HA) PLUS i don't do a very good job of writing in my journal... so this is like my journal!

Speaking of ROCKY and MISSIONS... his papers are IN! MY BROTHER, ROCKY LEE BLACK... is WAITING for his MISSION CALL! Hallelugiah! I am so excited for him... it makes me so excited my heart beats fast when I talk about it... Are you having people guess rocky? I will tell you my guess next week. I need to think about it.

[lunes] we spent pday last week in milwaukee. we had to take our car in to get so recall thing on the brakes fixed on our little corolla... i am not sure, i just drove it to the dealership. SO we got to spend a whole day with the milwaukee sisters. We emailed at the Muskego library, ate lunch at Kopps.... it was Russian J's first time.. yum yum!!! [sister warner and i have a perfect system when we go there... we share a burger and fries and custard. it's perfect] Then we went to wal-mart... sister warner and i let the other sisters stay together and we did our own thing. oh how i love her. it was good to have that hour with her. THEN.. we went and took fall pictures at a park in milwaukee... so BEAUTIFUL! I love the wisconsin fall! EverYday I say at least 5 times... it is SO beautiful here... There is a tree lined street that we always drive down to see colors of RED, YELLOW, GREEN, PURPLE... it's AmAzing. Best SEASON ever! After pictures we went to the mission home for a bit and visited with sister barrett... then we were back in Racine to have a dinner appointment with Mitesha. We met her non-member mom and she is making us Tacos in two weeks... YUM!

[martes]
district meeting... we also took more fall pics. We were on our way out to contact a referral in Caledonia when we saw a beautiful place so we stopped and took pics on our way back. We taught janae and julie and tyra for the first time [more on them next week] and then saw Vicki. Vicki was the first person I ever taught here in Racine... She is great. Since that time in june her daughter Leslie,11, was bapitized and her son Luis,9, has a date for november 14th. The spanish elders are teaching him. Vicki has had so many life experiences ... she is great. She has remarkable faith. We ended our night with a meeting with president calderwood. We, all 6 of us missionaries, set a date with him to have 10 more baptisms in the branch before the end of the year. I know it is possible... I love president calderwood, he has a lot of faith too! I love associating with so many people who have SO MUCH FAITH... it strengthens my own faith.

ps i taught vicki in spanish with sister russian johnson... it was AMAZING. i feel so blessed to be able to be a spanish missionary. i was shocked with what came out of my mouth... AMAZING!

[miercoles] highlights: we taught english. [ i love teaching english. it's so fun. the students always tell me i am a good teacher... it's nice to hear that sometimes! I know being a missionary has greatly improved my teaching skills. I loVE teaching.] we played volleyball.

[jueves] weekly planning. taught vicki and the kids again. we went to the Silva's to help them "tract" their neighborhood. It is the third time I have been tracting on my mission. It was at night in the RAIN... they were trying to collect supplies for the salvation army warehouse that is depleated here... we were there to teach them about the church! I think it was fruitful. We passed out many pass-a-long cards and bore testimony.

[viernes] we taught english. visited daysi's BRAND NEW BABY GIRL, Leah Michelle.. the name Leah is so pretty in spanish. she is a doll. we taught elena the plan of salvation... I TAUGHT AGAIN... LIKE MORE THAN ONE PRINCIPLE... i was shocked myself... this language is COMING! then we had dinner with tyra, janae and julie... talked about commandments and keeping the sabbath day holy. we visited vicki again and called it a day.

[sabado] We played soccer in the mud and puddles... fun. then we volunteered at the zoo for the BOO at the ZOO event, service with the elders. we stood outside and passed out candy. it was freezing! FREEZING. the wind was blowing SO hard. Longest THREE hours of my life. We then went to a baptism... ANGEL. he is such a cool kid elders petrie and campbell taught. To end the day the Racine ward had a Trunk or Treat! so fun! I wore the halloween stuff you sent us britt, so did my companions! I love our Johnson, Johnson and Black TRIO! [ps elder stribling was wearing a pretty cool ghost tie!! :] happy bday gma!

[domingo] we had church starting at 8:30 ... it was the Kenosha ward primary program combined with spanish branch! so fun. It was the BEST primary program I have seen in a long time... One little girl got up to the mic and said, "When your family repents, they are clean, when they don't, they're dirty!" and sat down. HILARIOUS. One little boy got up to the mic, said his schpeel about temples and forever families. at the end he said, "we should all go to the" [in normal voice] "TEEEMMPPLLEEE" [in a low creepy wispery voice really close to the microphone]. I was dying laughing. It is so touching to see those kids sing and testify, in their own words, about what they know is true. Families can Be TOgether Forever. made me cry when all the kids sang the 1st verse in spanish and the 2nd in english to accomodate both language needs in the congregation. i love this area! then we had church with the racine ward. then we taught amy at the farleys... and had dinner. bro farley is a great cook!

Just in closing because I must go... last week I was having a rough time. I was STRESSED out... we have SO much to do, so LITTLE time, i have less than SIX months left on my mission and so much i want to do, i can't communicate near as easily in spanish as i can in english and i was frustrated ... etc SUNDAY i was just seeking a little peace and comfort. President Calderwood came in to our sunday school class in the branch right when elder smith asked me to read. I read the two paragraphs and didn't think anything about it. As i was leaving after class he pulled me aside and told me my spanish was "greatly improving" ... just what i needed to hear... no more than 5 minutes later i was in the chapel getting spanish hymn books for relief society and a ladyfrom the kenosha ward that i didn't know came up to me and said, "I just have to tell you, you remind me of my sister who served her mission in Argentina. You are always so bright and happy and your face just looks lit up! Thanks for serving your mission." It was SO nice of her! I really need just those two little comments. it made me day to say the least.

I am all good now!

it was an AmAzing week!

I hope it doesn't rain all this week like it did last week!

I love you all!

Love, sister pamella jo black

PS... MEG: Congrats your new arrivals... TWINS... I want to meet those sweet little babies! Ruby and Lucy... I LOVE THOSE NAMES, I can't wait to hold them... they'll be so old by april!!

Cleave unto ChArItY...

Do you remember my mission scripture?
Well here is a refresher! ...

Moroni 7:45-48 ...

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

I absolutely LOVE these SCRIPTURES!!! Charity is where it's at! I want to be described as one who is kind, not puffed up, not easily provoked and thinketh no evil! SOme DaY!!! It's a SLOW process! HA. As true followers of Jesus Christ, I know we can PRAY [with all energy of heart] to be filled with that love and WHEN HE SHALL APPEAR WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, just like Moroni says! what a blessing that is. I love the power of prayer.

This week went by so FAST. Every week seems to do that lately.

Here are some short updates before I get into the nitty gritty of the week:

*Tina is no longer one of our investigators. She has many problems in her life that are beyond our expertise. She is not psychologically, mentally, or emotionally able to meet with us. Sister Crowther has been so AmAzing in helping her to receive the help she needs, but she won’t even accept that. She is living in a shelter now, we think, we don’t really know where she is at. Sister Crowther keeps contact with the family and after all of the testing and things is done and Tina has overcome some addictions, or at least is on her way to doing that, we will be able to meet with her again, Sister Crowther said she would let us know.

*Suzie is doing well… except she didn’t come to church on Sunday. She, however, cannot be baptized until she either marries Adam or moves out. Moving out just isn’t going to happen… she just had a baby four weeks ago. They can’t get married because Adam was just recently divorced and they have to wait six months, by Wisconsin law, to marry again after the divorce. I HATE SATAN. SO, we will continue to help her recognize the blessing of living the commandments and following the gospel of Jesus Christ and keep her working towards her baptismal date… IN 6 MO… ugh.
*We had SIX new investigators this WEEK! Diante, Marka, Janae, Tyra, Elena, & Fransisco! The work here is going SO WELL… we can hardly keep up with member referrals and media referrals [people who call in to the MTC call center after watching a commercial, getting a pass-along card or seeing a billboard] We also have some new SPANISH SPEAKING INVESTIGATORS for English classes! Quick FUNNY AmAZING story. We got a media referral for a lady named Tiffany for a Book of Mormon. She called in after reading CJANE’S blog post about how the Book of Mormon helps her thru EACH day! She has been a faithful reader long before the crash, but has fallen in love with the family and makes it a daily read. Well, I called her to set an appointment and we DEF had a bonding moment about our love for the NieNie Dialogues, Cjane’s blog and Mindy Gleadhill… did you know that Stephanie Nielson HIKED THE Y? Yes friends, and she was on Oprah, ok, I have thoughts about Oprah, that I will keep to myself… but NIENIE STRUTTED ACROSS THE STAGE ON TELEVISION! …. So cool, Tiffany filled me in … anyways, maybe only my family and Steph will realize how AmAzing [I am thoroughly convinced there is no such thing as a coincidence when doing the Lord’s work] it is that I get to teach this lady, but we are meeting her in a coffee shop later this week. I can’t wait. [Apparently, the elders got a text about her too and visited her and they “just didn’t get it”. Well I did. And this lady is SO READY!]

ok ok…

MONDAY
We played soccer with the elders [my favorite thing EVER!] Had breakfast at the flores at about 11… tacos yum! Then DISC GOLF… I am not too bad at it… only I don’t go chase my Frisbee if it flies into the brush, I go get, come out … then THROW. It’s like golf… you are supposed to stay where you are at and throw.. ya right. That is so not going to happen. We then emailed, taught Susie, then had the golden arches for dinner, first time in a long time. They changed their chocolate shakes, I didn’t really care for them…

TUESDAY
We had district meeting. I know I say this a lot, but I have had some of my most productive district meeting down here in Racine, Elder Petrie is a great district leader. [he also told me this week that I speak before I think… burn! … perhaps it is true sometimes, if anyone else had said that I would have been mad, but for some reason from him it was ok…so I have tried to THINK … BEFORE I speak.] We then had some appointments in Kenosha with the elders. One was their investigator, Marta Garcia, who we are trying to help them with… she has no obstacles to getting baptized… she comes to church EVERY week… when we asked her WHEN she planned to be baptized she said, “Cuando Dios Quiere…” Meaning, when God wants…. AHH! Drives me nuts… it’s a phrase Latinos use ALL THE TIME.

Later on we taught Raven and Diante, referrals from Temika, her family. The lesson was AmAzing. I love to teach the Restoration.

WEDNESDAY
We taught English, saw Daisy and Hma Martinez [all 3 things we do IN SPANISH] then we taught Marka for the FIRST time, she is related to the Briggs…Ariel taught with us. It was a great lesson. We had dinner with a new family in the ward, the Murdock’s [they are great people, they’re going to be a great help in missionary work] and then we played volleyball… so fun.

THURSDAY
We did weekly planning at the church. Spanish Class with Sister Calderwood. We taught Michelle Cabrales with the elders, She is a great young girl, her parents are investigating too. Then we taught the Sura’s and had dinner with them. Afterwards, we had hot cocoa at the Petriceck’s. Their daughter, Sarah, was visiting from UvU and wanted to talk about going on a mission. She went on Splits with Little J [brown haired sister Johnson] and taught Susie while we were at the Sura’s.

FRIDAY
We taught English again, then taught Marta Garcia, then Had lunch with Elena and Fransisco, people we met at English class…Sarah Petriceck made us a salad, so we stopped by there and visited her and her family [her dad is not a member, but is reading the BOM and the elders teach him] then had dinner with Ted and Cheryl. They let us choose dinner. So we chose Salad and something with Pesto… she made us THE BEST Chicken Pesto sandwiches, they were hot with red peppers and provolone cheese.. yum! And a caesar salad! Oh sarah… she reminds me SO much of you! Then we visited Janae… we met Janae at the beach 2 months ago [when I was still with sister Behrends] and she knew who we were, she said her mom used to meet with missionaries a while ago. So I got her info and we’ve just never been able to touch base again with them, until Friday! Her MOM is a MEMBER! It was a great night. We sang, upon her mom Julie’s request, Joseph Smith’s First Prayer and ended with a prayer, her mom cried the whole time. It was AmAzing… the Lord really does put people in our PATH… Janae needs the gospel, her mom has forgotten the blessings that come from living the commandments.

SATURDAY
We played soccer, we cleaned the Martinez’s yard… since I got here to Racine, IN JUNE, I have noticed their yard needed a little TLC… well it finally happened. The elders flaked out on us, so we did it ourselves. It took us about 3 hours. We raked and mowed and trimmed bushes and cleaned windows. They fed us afterwards; it was a surprise to them. They were so happy! Sister Martinez is doing so WELL… she is overcoming her depression and they’re getting her meds straight. Afterwards we were TIRED and SORE … we came home, showered took a little nap and studied. Then we Taught Elena and Francisco with Octavio Garcia [he’s amazing, more on him next week] and then had dinner with the Silva’s. . . members of the Kenosha ward.

SUNDAY
…church… long… then a potluck for OctaVio because he just got home from his mission in Ogden Utah. We contacted one referral and then came home…

WHEW… a good week… lots more to tell you next week! We must go … we are in Milwaukee today… our car has an appt at the dealership!!!

I love all of you!

GRANDMA HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON SATURDAY! I WILL BE THINKING OF YOU AND MISSING YOU! just another year younger! Ps I got my Halloween card from you and grandpa… you guys are the BEST!

LoVe, sister pamella jo black

Nobody ever said...

... I would LOVE it this much!

I LOVE MY MISSION. I LOVE IT. I feel like Rocky, in his last letter [yes folks the boy sent me a HAND-WRITTEN letter, happy day!] he said, "I just want to shout it off the roof-tops, the gospel has been restored!" I too feel that way. On Friday I will only have six months left to share that message. I LOVE being a full-time representative of Jesus Christ. It is truly an AmAzing experience. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 4 talks all about our work as missionaries, it says:

1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

I love those scriptures! Especially verses 5-7. I truly feel like I am learning to posess those qualities as a missionary. Sometimes I have to really REALLY stretch to have TEMPERANCE or PATIENCE with certain people or certain situations, but I feel a power beyond my own helping me to be CALM and to RELAX and speak and act as the Lord would have me... even when it's REALLY REALLY hard and I could easily be irritated or angry. The spanish elders often say to me "CALMATE or TRANQUILA" while we play soccer... haha. I am learning to incorporate those in to all allys of my life. It's good for me... but sometimes stretching HURTS!

This was one of the best weeks on my mission. It started and ended well. I truly have been so HAPPY in this work this week!

[MON] play soccer. i was DYING Of sickness [a cold], but i HAD to play.. so I did. We then made breakfast [pancakes] at the FLORES for them and all the elders and helped her plant flowers. we emailed. we went to Target. We had ENCHILADAS with TED and CHERYL and then I went to bed.

[TUE] I did not get out of bed. I was SO sick. I slept the day away. It felt so WIERD... but so good. The wierd thing was, no matter how long I slept, I was STILL TIRED!! I planned on going out that night, but then I just couldn't, so the sisters had dinner at the Ngorney's and taught AMY without me. I stayed home, slept, showered, and ate homemade chicken noodle soup courtesy of sister blake. Kassidy was sick too, she's the Blake's oldest daughter, so she was my companion. We both went to bed early.

[WED] we had district meeting and interviews with President and Sister Barrett. I love them SO much! They both expressed to me how much they love me, how grateful they were to have me in the mission, but specifically how grateful they were to have me in Racine. President mentioned the first time he met me, oh how I love that he still remembers street contacting with me in downtown Milwaukee that COLD November night! He loves that I was so bold, which is true, but i was SO new I didn't know there was another way! haha He says I haven't lost it! He said I am just so happy and enthusiastic in the work! It was a great interview, one of the best I have had. Sister Barrett made me a CD! I love it... I DEF needed new music! I love the Barrett's. It's so good to hear you are loved and appreciated sometimes, that is what I needed. It has been a little stressful having the Sister JOhnsOn's here... they are both great, but both new to the area. Russian Johnson is BRAND NEW... I always have to be on my A GAME! ... which is good... but stressful sometimes.

Elder Petrie gave us great training at district meeting. He committed us to PRAY with pen and paper and write down inspiration/revelation we receive, to update our area book EVERY night and use it in planning and to practice ROLE-PLAYING teaching scenarios in companionship study. We role-played during district meeting too. We did finding ideas. At one point I was paired up with on of the assistants, elder carter, he was the missionary and I was pretending to be a girl walking on campus. He did SUCH a GREAT JOB of bringing the spirit and testifying! Even in a role-play the Lord will bless us with the spirit as we bear testimony of Him.

[THU] we painted our room at the Blakes to make it more generic so it would sell... it was brown and TEAL... BRIGHT TEAL OR AQUA OR SOMETHING... my luggage colors!... NOW it is a beautiful brown. Then we taught TINA and SUZIE. We set a baptismal date with SUZIE for OCT 31st. It was a great experience. Suzie just had a baby. Her boyfriend is a less-active member who is coming back. They are a great couple, good hearted people. I am excited for Suzie to see the fruits of repentance in her life over the next couple weeks as she prepares for baptism. We had the Sura's for dinner and we had a GREAT lesson with Dave. We found out his concerns for not being baptized and remaining the "most non-mormon MORMON" [as he calls himself] we know. We gave him a calendar. I hope and pray he prayfully considers this decision and makes a plan, we can't do it for him.

[FRI] we taught english in kenosha with the elders. It was really good, we had such a good turn-out. It helps my Spanish so much. We are even going to begin teaching the gospel to some of those whom we teach english. Elaena is one of them- she is older and has a really big family. we left the RESTORATION pamphlets in English and Spanish in the classroom. She works at the Centro Hispano, where we have class and she has been reading a page a day, reading is really difficult for her, in both english and spanish. SHE IS SO PREPARED! We taught Suzy again and Tina too. We set a date with Tina again, [she had a date when I first got here] for NOVEMBER 1st. I know she can do it! We had dinner with Vivian Maine, a sweet older lady. I love her.

[SAT] WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE... sister Blake dropped us off in Chicago at around 7 am... we left the house at 6... we got up at 5! BUT it was SUCH a GREAT day! We did initiatories... IN SPANISH... then an endowment session at 8am. At 10:30 the FLORES family was SEALED together for TIME and ALL ETERNITY. I love the Flores family. They have been members for a little over a year. They have 4 children Fernanda [15], Lupita [13], Sofi [9], & Brian [6] . They are such a wonderful family! I have grown really close to them. We play soccer with them every saturday and have breakfast at their home every PDAY. The last time i was in a sealing room was when I was Sofi's age...that's 13 years ago. It was a very spiritual experience for me to remember my family and my own sealing. THe last thing the Sealer said to them, after the children left was, "Your children don't have to make covenants, they are yours forever!" WOW! What a blessing that is as members of the church. How grateful I am for forever families. My favorite thing to teach when we teach the Plan of Salvation is that God allows us to learn about our relationship with Him as our Heavenly Father by giving us families. We love our parents and our children unconditionally, thru that love we come to know His love for us.

I love the temple. Doing initiatories [it was my first time since I did my own initiatory last year this time] in Spanish made me pay attention better, what blessings come from attending the temple and making and keeping our covenants there! Heavenly Father desires to bless us SO much, I always think of that when I am at the temple. I am so grateful for parents who LOVE me and brittany and rocky SO MUCH... and for their willingness to keep the commandments and live the gospel in order to bless us as an eternal family!

Speaking of FAMILY... it just happened to be GREEN BAY STAKE TEMPLE DAY! Right before the sealing we came out of our session and I got to see EVERYONE I LOVE from green bay! [President Kreihbl, P. & S. Biolo, S. Doucette, S. Roberts, the Carlsruh's, and MANY MANY MORE] WHAT A BLESSING! If a year ago someone told me I would love the people this much I wouldn't have believed them. My companions were laughing at me because I was so excited. Practically our WHOLE ward was there! They all hugged me and we caught up. I love them. I pray I get to end my mission serving there... we shall see. I was looking for Lisa Robertson, she wasn't there though. After the sealing I was changing in the locker room out of my temple clothes and someone put their hand under my door and said "Watcha doin' in there?" Oliva Robertson used to do that whenever we went to the bathroom. I was ecstatic to see her... Little J said she was the same to see me! THOSE PEOPLE ARE MY FAMILY IN WISCONSIN. OH HOW I LOVE THEM!

The rest of the day/night was filled with partying. We came back with Hermana Calderwood, went to her kids' soccer game for like 10 minutes, it was FREEZING... then we went to her house and had HOT CHOCOLATE AND BAGELS... then off to the church for the FLORES FIESTA. She wore a wedding dress, he a TUX, There was TONS of GOOD mexican food and a HUGE CAKE! Strobe lights and LOTS of dancing... so fun! I LOVE SERVING IN THE BRANCH!

[SUN] We had FOUR INVESTIGATORS at CHURCH! Suzy, Tina, Tiana [tinas oldest daughter] and Marka! IT was a really great fast and testimony sunday! After church we had SOUL FOOD at Temika's cousin's house here in Racine. They were having a big family party. I didn't know what SOUL FOOD was until last night... yum. When we came in the house everyone just stared at us... there were at least 40 people there... we were the only white people! haha they thought it was HILARIOUS my name was Sister Black. They had all kinds of jokes. None of them are members but we had a great time. We are teaching two of temika's cousins who live there, Raven [15] and Darneesha [11]. We teach our first formal lesson to them tomorrow. They asked me to bless the food and to keep it short, no discourses! haha it was funny! It was a lot of fun, AND I LEARNED WHAT collard greens are! I even ate them... and fried fish! ya i know, AmAzing. . . and i liked it. haha

The rest of the night we spent at the Crowther's with Tina. When we got there Sister Crowther said there would be no lesson; tina confided in her about a lot of problems in her life and couldn't make any kind of cognative decision. She just cried a lot. All of the kids were there too. We sang her Abide with me 'tis Eventide. That calmed her down and then she was willing to accept a blessing of cousel and comfort from Bro. Crowther... IT WAS AMAZING. I really know that the Lord loves Tina SO much. He blessed her to have strength to make hard decisions... it was so specific. He told her to move out of her mom's, get a job, find stable housing, work peacebly with her children's fathers and to not live with another man outside the bonds of marriage. AmAzing. It was SO specific and she was counseled to pray and ask specific questions and wait for the answers. I love the Priesthood! I am pretty sure Tina stayed at the Crowthers last night with the baby. She has no heat or electricity or food at her apt. The members have really stepped up again. Oh how grateful i am that Tina has realized that strength in her life and will now accept help and begin to repent. We hope to teach her tomorrow.

That is the FULL scoop! I love my mission. I love all of you! Keep the mail coming!

Love, sister pamella jo black

The Heavens are NOT closed!

[this is definitely a theme of conference.. more on that to come! ... The Heavens are NOT closed!]

Hello HEllO!

How are each of you? I want you all to know that I pray for you each often! I hope that you are all enjoying the wonderful fall season... ok it's more fall for me than you- but you can pretend and enjoy the cute decorations. The leaves are changing colors and it is simply beautiful, I have been looking forward to this season for a long time.

This email is going to be significantly shorter than other weeks. I have a cold and honestly just don't even feel like emailing... i think i could have passed on playing soccer this morning... BUT WHY? It is a highlight of the week! Now I am just all tuckered out.

We have dinner with Ted and Cheryl tonight, it's like my Bobby and Sarah here in Wisconsin. She is making enchiladas, one of my FAVS [britts usual request!] so that is sure to make me feel better! we are teaching her the new member lessons now, the ward is supposed too, but they're just getting the hang of it, so we will start. Tonight we teach the restoration- so powerful, i can't wait! Didn't you love Elder Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon yesterday? I thought, do I testify of the Book of Mormon like that? WELL... i will sure try from now on to be SURE that those I teach KNOW how much I LOVE that sacred book! I know Cheryl loves The Book of Mormon.

The HIGHLIGHTS... September 28- October 4th!

monday:
*President called and said little j and I would be getting another companion!
*we had breakfast at the Flores, courtesy of Elder Petrie and Elder Campbell.... hotdogs and Eggs... i am not such a fan of the hotdogs, but loved the eggs, beans and tortillas!
*we emailed then drove to milwaukee and had Kopps with the Milwaukee sisters [sisters johnson, pluim and warner]
*we went to the mission home and picked up sister.... JOHNSON! I have 2 sister johnsons now! Red-headed J is from Washington, the Seattle area [Burlington to be exact] . She is visa-waiting to go to her mission in MOSCOW RUSSIA! She is a BYU student and is pretty fluent in Spanish. I have so much confidence teaching with her. We have done quite a bit of teaching in spanish. . . it's a lot of fun. She is also pretty fluent in Russian, thus she was only in the MTC for 5 weeks... so she'll get her visa in about 4 weeks, when she should have been leaving the MTC [she was supposed to stay for 12 weeks, but was put in the native class, because she can speak it, thus they LEFT to RUSSIA over a week ago, but she'll go when she was supposed to in NOV] I love her. She is a young missionary and very green! ... but so excited about the work. She is a nice addition while we have her! We had testimony meeting and dinner at the Barrett's ... then drove home to Racine. Three girls in one room = fun.

tuesday:
*district meeting
*lunch at culvers with elder bratt and his companions [they're in a trio with a visa waiting elder to russia too. it's good for him] i just love elder bratt... he is a good elder from my mtc district.
*Appts with Tina, Daisy Christina, Abbotts (dinner), Temika

wednesday:
*english class [a real highlight in the week] we taught SO many people there, not only english, but the gospel too! Jaime, Oscar & Claudia are my favorites... they play soccer with us on saturday too! Last week I invited Jaime and him and his wife and son came to church! so cool!
*Tina
*Sura's for dinner
*went to mutual: it was at the furner's: night games and a bonfire...fun!

thursday:
*ted & cheryl
*tina
*contacting referrals

friday:
*english classes
*appts with daisy, nancy herman, & tina

saturday:
GENERAL CONFERENCE
*session one at BLaKe's [crepes with nutella, bananas and whipped cream, YUM!]
*session two at the Sura's... so fun.
*dinner at Culver's
*contacted Tina and referrals

sunday:
GENERAL CONFERENCE
*session one: davis's. I love them.
*session two: at the Crowther's with Adam and Suzy and their BRAND NEW BABY! so fun. Suzy is our investigator. Sister Crowther made us lunch too... yum, stew and rolls.
*we visited amy at joanie farley's... they watched conference together! what a good friend joanie is, she doesn't even know!
*dinner with the Cluphf's... he is our new ward mission leader, we had a good meeting/dinner with him and the elders

I don't know if you can tell [because there was a bit of brevity in this email]... but we are SO busy! There is so much work for us here... it is AmAzing. We got FIVE new investigators this week. It's so wonderful how the Lord is blessing us as we are faithful and do ALL he asks and Put are Trust in HIm! Almost every single one of our investigators is progressing, that is wonderful. i will make a point to tell you about each one of them next week! I love them all.... My mom tells me every week, "Keep loving your investigators!" I love that. I think of her saying that each time one of our investigators does something to frusterate me.

I loved Conference... these are some themes I saw: LOVE, REVELATION/LISTENING TO THE SPIRIT, PUTTING OFF THE NATURAL MAN, and the MESSAGE OF THE RESTORED GOSPEL. I can't wait for the Ensign to come out. I feel so uplifted and inspired ... I love watching conference AS A MISSIONARY. I am grateful for the prayers of so many all over the world for us as missionaries! It is the BEST CALLING in the WORLD! I am convinced.

The work here is going really well, it has really picked up in the past two weeks. I love my companions, i feel like they have both been here with me forever. THey are really good missionaries and love their calling as well! Here is a quote that describes our work lately:

"When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed... The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take the people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christs changes men, who then change the environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."
-Elder Ezra Taft Benson

This is what we've been teaching a lot lately to the people here in Racine/ Kenosha... we can't take these people out of the slums, but we can help them allow Christ to take the slums out of them, giving them the POWER TO CHANGE for GOOD! In turn, I too feel Christ changing me!

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love, sister pamella jo black

CHANGE...

Alma teaches us all about CHANGE...

In Alma 5: 12- 15 He says, speaking of his father, Alma, and his hearing the words of Abidinadi and acting on them, he says,

12 And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true.

13 And behold, he apreached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

I love the way Alma so PERFECTLY asks those thought provoking questions... I also like that he teaches us CHANGE is a GOOD THING... apparently that is something that I am supposed to learn on my mission!

SO, here it is... the latest change: President Barrett called this morning, love those phone calls!, and asked us if we had room for one more sister! HA we sure do! So i guess we are going to be 3 now and not just the 2 Racine Hermanas! Who she is, where she is from, how she shall get here... we know NOT! We know there is a visa waiting sister coming in today, but we don't know if we will get her, or a different sister in the mission! I will let you know next week... and in case you are wondering, as I was, no, my mission will never be NORMAL! What is normal anyways?

OK... so here is the DL...

[MON] WORST PDAY EVER... those stinkin' elders don't get to plan pday anymore! we emailed here at UW parkside, then went to the church and made the lasagna sister KASPAR left us in the fridge! It was so cute, she even had garlic bread and instructions... so we put that in the oven for it's alloted time, 45 min, did our language study and then got excited to go play with the elders... well they were on hole 15 of the 18 hole disc golf course here at the university. are you kidding me? so we wanted to go play games or something afterwards, ya they had to finish emailing, but promised it would be fast. Ya, it so WAS NOT fast, by the time they were done pday was over and we wanted culvers, we invited them, they had an appt. SO basically we waiting for them in Kenosha ALL day for no reason! LAME SAUCE! never again! that night we had an AmAzing visit with Tiffany McGee who is starting to come back to church. She realizes the church = stability in a not-so-stable world!

[TUES] We finally saw Tina, man, it's been forever. She is doing good, still struggling... but she is MOVING! yeah! It's a really GOOD thing! She needs to get AWAY from her mom! Tina has a lot of faith, she just needs to understand the added strength making the covenant of BAPTISM will give her. God promises us power from on high, even the Holy Ghost, when we fully accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and are baptized. We me a new investigator, Kim, one of Temika King's friends, I LOVE THE MEMBERS HERE. The elders were able to give Kim a blessing of counsel and comfort. It was good. i love the priesthood. 4:30pm: dinner with the abbotts ... then off to Union Grove to contact some people that nobody knows on the ward list. It was so sad to hear some of them say that they wanted their names removed from church records, devestating actually. Do they know what they are giving up?

[WED] sister calderwood taught us spanish at nine am. i love her. She is the BEST. I learn so much from her. we taught english at ten am, which really = we learn spanish. Jaime and Oscar took us out to lunch after at a chinese buffet [it was a nice one, AND i didn't get sick, AmAzing] We went and helped Tina clean/ pack. We had The Farley's for dinner at 4:30 ... we taught Amy the Plan of Salvation there, so good ... then we went to the church to play volleyball. my favorite.

[THURS] We again helped Tina. she needs a lot of help, we really want to get a member involved, she's not up for that yet though, we keep asking. We then did weekly planning and caught up on the area book. Afterwards we had the LONGEST dinner appt ever with Brother Jones and Sister Barrett [married- she didn't take his name, long story] BUT The food was YUMMY and the CONVERSATION was good. I love meeting converts of the church. Their Strength is Commendable!

[FRI] ZONE CONFERENCE with the Milwaukee north and south zones, here at our Kenosha building. [i got to see the milwaukee trio: sisters WARNER, pluim and johnson] it was amazing as expected. the spirit was so strong. we learned out to make this work the members work and how to make our investigators their investigators, i learned a lot. Then we taught Tina about holding to the rod, staying out of mists of darkness and HOW to partake of the fruit. We had culvers for dinner. yum.

[SAT] we played soccer at nine. i get better every time... man, it's been FOREVER since i have played, but these people are intense... and they coach me in SPANISH... so it's like killing two birds with one stone. I learn spanish AND how to play. Elder Smith is like a gazelle or something, he can get down the field SO fast in like 5 strides [haha a vampire maybe?] anyways, i got the ball away from him a few times, it was fun! It does so much for me to get dirty and sweat and play hard- it's a must!

At 2:30 sister wren picked us up at the Blake's and we drove to the stake center in Milwaukee for Stake Women's Conference and then to watch the Relief Society General Broadcast afterwards. It was a great night. I LOVE BEING A GIRL! I LOVE BEING A SISTER MISSIONARY! We saw the milwaukee sisters again, and i got to see all the people i worked with in the two wards in milwaukee. it was a good time. Each ward did a presentation of some sort, sister johnson and I were in three musical numbers! so fun! did i mention... I DON'T SING! haha ... i am starting to think I DO though... ahaha The broadcast was amazing too. On sunday, when President Calderwood asked me what happened at the broadcast, what was said, i said, "oh they taught us women are better than men." HAHA it was HILARIOUS. He always teases me. He like that comment though...

[SUN] LONG DAY AT CHURCH... on top of that... I HAD TO SPEAK! ... IN THE SPANISH BRANCH! IT was a GREAT opportunity! I wrote my talk Saturday morning and sister calderwood edited it saturday night at the broadcast. She wrote me the cutest little note afterward, she is so encouraging... I LOVE HER. did i mention that?

My talk was on missionary work, I addressed these 3 questions, Por que es importante hacer la obra misional?, Por que queremos hacer la obra misional? y Como podemos hacer la obra misional? ... It went well... elder petrie spoke too.

After church was FLIGHT 409 with the english ward. We went on a flight to Hawaii,it crashed, and we visited each of the three kingdoms. AmAzing. so good for the kids! they loved it and learned alot. it was a great spiritual experience for me. At 6:30 we had dinner with the Furners, yum yum... and then taught Michelle Cabrales with Elders Petrie and Campbell at eight, it was a full night, but it was a GREAT DAY! We ended the night making doughnuts at bishop's with Elders Stribling and Warner. I love being a missionary.

Sister Johnson and I are trying to get through the Book of Mormon in Spanish as fast as possibe, it's fun, we read it every spare moment.

I love this work! I love being a missionary! [do i say that enough?!] I love my family! I am so grateful for eternal families! LIfe is GOoD here! I pray for you all constantly!

Love, sister pamella jo black

Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es Verdadero!

[translation: I know The Book of Mormon is True... too bad myldsmail doesn't let you do accent marks or cosas como asi! ...]

That truly is my thought this week! The Book of Mormon is SO powerful!

I couldn't be a missionary without it.

seriously.

Here are some excerpts from the Introduction of The Book of Mormon:

The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting gospel.

The crowning event recorded in the Book of Mormon is the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ among the Nephites soon after his resurrection. It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.

In due course the plates were delivered to Joseph Smith, who translated them by the gift and power of God. The record is now published in many languages as a new and additional witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that all who will come unto him and obey the laws and ordinances of his gospel may be saved.

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10: 3-5.)

Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.

...

How could I help people come to know their Savior without The Book of Mormon? I couldn't. Through this AmAzing book people can come to know, by the power of God, thru the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is a prophet and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true.

I love the Book of Mormon.

Recently, I have been choosing a story a day to study out of the BOM. I have studied Lehonti, Nephi and the Boat, The Brother of Jared, Alma the Younger, Korihor and many others. Each time I study a story I think about how I can apply it to my life and how I can apply it to the lives of those we are teaching, it's SO effective. I am learning so much from stories I have read time and time again, that's what makes the Book of Mormon the best, you'll never learn everything, there is always more to gleen [sp?] from it! Even one phrase can make a profound impact in someone's life! [remember elder bednar and "tender mercies" from 1Ne 1:20?]

This was such a good week. So many changes. So much good...

[mon] pday. our last pday with our district... :[ ... we went to the library, emailed. played disc golf with the elders in Kenosha at UW Parkside [we want to start working there on campus... it would be fun. we need an LDSSA there] Disc Golf was a lot of fun, 18 holes, and surprisingly, i am not too bad at it! it's all the ultimate frisbee practice! Then after we were hot and sweaty from disc golf we went to the church which is like 2 minutes away and watched the Joseph Smith Movie: Prophet of the Restoration. One of the elders had a copy. I love that movie! Then we headed back to Racine for dinner at the Konieczko's [she is an abbott] and AMY was there! I love amy. We had a really good lesson with her talking about nephi building the boat and the plan of salvation and how all her questions/ concerns were answered and talked about when she attended church the day before. amazing. God really does hear and answer our sincere prayers.

[tues] combined district meeting w/ the english district. We talked about D&C 4 and the qualities a missionary must possess. It was a really good meeting. I love elder petrie and elder hutchins, they're really good district leaders. we then had lunch and went and tried to visit a part member family. . . they live on jacato street. IT WAS BY FAR THE SCARIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TOO! it wasn't 'til later on that i found out that people say DON'T GO THERE... we won't go there again. the apt building we went into was FREAKY! Trash lined the stairs and it was dark and the carpet was NASTY... anyways, we learned our lesson- and the people weren't even there, thankfully! We had dinner at the Abbott's, love that family, visited Tiffany McGee and then had our last appointment with elders stribling and julian and Temika's house with janelle.

[wed] we taught english in kenosha with elder campbell and elder petrie. so fun. i learn so MUCH. way more spanish than they do english, that's for sure. then we came back to the Blake's so sister behrends could pack to go to RHINELANDER [out in the boondocks!] [[ps... did i tell you the BLAKE'S are MOVING? ya they announced it last sunday! so SAD! He is being transferred to SLC with his CO, he works for CASE, the tractor company, he's an engineer. They are sad to go, but happy it's SLC... they've lived all over. I am happy they are going there... i told them I will be having sunday dinners at their house when I go back to the Y! The ward is devestated though. They will move before thanksgiving. He starts traveling next week. ]]We went out to Pizza with the SUrA's at 5:30. I love them. They are so good to us. Then we went to volleyball at the church... amy came. i love playing volleyball.

[thurs] sister behrends last day in racine. we went and said goodbye to s. calderwood ... then JAIME and his wife, from ENGLISH CLASSES, made us and the elders POPUSAS... YUM! They are like the best thing you have EVER eaten in your life. It's a tortilla with beans and meat in the middle, then you put cabbagge and salsa on top and eat it ... YUM! It's a food from El Salvador... SO GOOD! being a HERMANA has it's pluses! I said the prayer to close... en ESPANOL! [ e. petrie was trying to make me give the scripture/ thought in spa! i am not quite ready for that yet!] then we met the racine elders for lunch at the beach and they played scrabble... LAME! i took a nap with my blanky on the sand.... heavenly... we said goodbye to ted and cheryl and joannie farley and then janelle and then headed to the Crowthers for a relief society dinner! yum yum! [ i love the racine ward sisters! we had such a good time! ]

[fri] TRANSFER DAY! We drove up to Milwaukee... sister behrends left on the transfer van [aka the fun bus] to go to GB to meet sister roth there to be her companion in RHINELANDER... sianara sister! ... I hung out all day with sister WARNER... it was the best!, while waiting for my new companion sister johnson [little j] to come! I was so excited. Warner trained little j two transfers after she left me... i got to know little j pretty well because they were down 45 minutes away in appleton and i was in GB. [we call her little j bc there are 2 sister johnsons in the mission!] While waiting for j to come we went to KOPP'S for lunch... mm mmm my favorite. Then we stopped by at the Kozlosky's and i got some pics off of warners camera and vice versa at the library ... then sister warner had to go to the church to pick up the NEW MISSIONARY she's be training... THIS IS HER FOURTH TIME TRAINING!... we stayed with her [we meaning me and BIG J, who will be in a trio with warner in MIL] and listened to the training, helped the assistants track down their backpacks etc etc... it was fun. I love the spirit of new missionaries. Then we went to the mission home and helped sister barrett make dinner for the missionaries going home... i miss that- the mission home being SO CLOSE! FINALLY sister J came! I LOVE HER... we drove back to Racine and had dinner with the petricecks... poor elder STRIBLING was VERY sick, so we ate and left promptly so he could go home... He's training a new missionary too, elder Warner. [e. julian went to Onieda. .. sad] ps i am the driver now... no more CAR SICKNESS... sister behrends was the WORST DRIVER I HAVE EVER MET IN MY WHOLE LIFE... it was a challenge. I am learning to look at the GPS... sometimes i forget about it.

[sat] SOCCER AT NINE AM! so fun... elder Trauntvein's new companero, elder smith, is AmAZing [elder kelly went to mil, again... sad.] ... between him and elder campbell and the hispanics, we can barely keep up... I LOVE PLAYING SOCCER.... but... i was SO SORE AFTERWARDS... good sore. Hermano Cabrales came up to me afterwards and said in his thick accent, "wow, you play better this time!" haha it was funny, it's only because i stayed with him, even knocked him down once [i thought i was kicking the ball... didn't know it was his ankles :] I love little j, did i mention that- we had a great first full day together. we went to a baby shower in the branch for daisy betanko, then visited some people, invited lupita, a RC, to come to the branch. THEN PLANNING... and DINNER AT THE DAVIS'. . . i love that family! we had fajitas... yum yum.

[sun] we spent from 8 am 'til 7 pm at the church. we lived there yesterday. president calderwood made me report on our area in spanish. . . it went well... we practiced our three different musical numbers we will be singing at womens conference next saturday [GO TO THAT... it's the ANNUAL 1st Presidency broadcast to the RS before general conference!]... remember how i don't sing? doesn't matter when you wear a teg!! they think you can play the piano too! we studied a little at the church... then we went to the calderwood's for dinner and dessert with the elders to celebrate the beginning of Yom Kippor [his mom is jewish] good day. long day. lupita came to church. amy came to church.

i love little j! it' so great serving with her, she's been out six months.. finally a breath of fresh air! sorry this email is so choppy. i am starving.. i must go eat, i forgot to eat breakfast! a member brought us lasagna yesterday, she made it just for us, so nice... it is in the fridge at the church... then we're playing disc golf... i love pdays like this, busy and fun! we gotta make the most of this good weather while it lasts! we are emailing today at UW parkside... first time, i LOVE these computers, we play disc golf here too and the church is less than a mile away, why didn't we think of this before? It's way better than the ghetto computers at the racine library!

i love you all! You're always in my prayers!

Love, sister pamella jo black!