Week 2 in the Field!

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL...

Hello Hello Family~ how are you all? Well Life for me is SO good! really it is just amazing. I am so blessed as a missionary! There is nothing else I would rather be doing right now! However, I do miss my family! It's a different kind of homesick though... I miss you all, but I know you're taken care of and I know that you're receiving blessings for supporting a missionary. Today is a busy day for us... we are here at UWGB (university of wisconsin... GREENBAY!) emailing and stuff... then we are going to go visit a man named Robert Gay... he was a media referral. We took him Joy to the world and talked with him a bit. He lived in Milwaukee before he lived here and the missionaries taught him for about a year. I am excited to get the opportunity to teach him. After we visit him, we are going to do a little shopping... target, again! haha, a sports store for sis warner to find some boots (i love mine by the way... i bought them at columbia and they will keep me warm up to -25* which is so good! They are the custest possible. i am learning to redefine my style requirements... 1st necessity:will it keep me warm... 2nd necessity:is it somewhere scratching the surface of MAYBE being cute? OK DONE AND DONE... i'll take them! haha, now these are cute. they have buttons on the sides and fur too... it's just the bottoms of them, like the bottom inch or so is all rubber and sometimes i feel like i should be out chopping wood or something. whatever, they keep me warm!!!) and for both of us to get earmuffs that go behind your hair! yeah... bc hats and over the top earmuffs make my hair SO staticy.... then we are going to the church to play volleyball with the elders... that's always fun! (and my thumb is almost completely healed so it will be lots more fun this week.) then we are going home to eat this amazing chicken and rice soup and rolls and then going to visit some referrals from the Millet family in our ward! Busy busy day! but so good. I love to be busy.

Last week was SUCH A GOOD WEEK! I love Greenbay. I love missionary work! Tuesday we had district meeting. It was my first one! so good. Did i tell you there is an Elder Black in my district?! ya... from Kayesville UT. I sat right next to him not knowing and we started introducing ourselves and everyone made the connection. it was funny. He felt awkward, like we were a couple or something..... i am so happy i never had to be a 19 yr old boy! Sometimes they're just so AWKWARD! haha he said he gets some of my mail bc sometimes my family puts ELDER pamella Jo Black on my dearelder things! haha my district leader in the mtc (who is in charge of checking the mail there) would always get SO mad bc he'd think the mail was for him bc it said elder... then it was for me! so make sure you always put SISTER when you do dearelders... otherwise elder black gets my mail! :) He said he's just been sending it to the mission office in milwaukee and then sis alder in the office is forwarding it back to me... but i told him from now on just to bring it to district meeting and give it to me. We learned ideas for contacting people in these bitter wisconsin winters! And that if we're not having fun ... we're NOT doing missionary work! I love this mission. Afterwards we went to eat at el serape. I thought i'd be on an 18 month fast from mexican food, but it actually wasn't that bad! it was pretty good! After not having mexican food for about a month It was great. the elders chose to go there just for me! haha After that we visited some Less active members and then went to "Soup 4 the Soul" here on UWGB. It's at the Ecumenical center, kind of like an institute building, for all faiths. It was fun and the soup was really good. I was able to teach the whole first lesson to my table because they just kept asking more and more questions. it was great. Sister missionaries have only been in this area for 5 months, that was when it was opened to them. AND we have only been on UWGB campus for 3 months. the progress here is immense already. We are making friends here on campus and really have a presence here. People recognize us! This coming tuesday we are doing a Mormon Mythbusters activity here on campus. We have been advertising it all over campus and put out question boxes for people to submit any myths or questions they have about our faith. Right after soup 4 the soul this tuesday we are going to have a panel of members answer their questions. It is going to be good. we already have lots of questions... mostly to do with polygamy. the church is so new here that SO many people have false ideas. I think that this is going to be great. Also, we might have Brady Papinga (He plays for the packers?) come and be on the panel as well. However, they are still in season and they lost yesterday so he might be busy. He is LDS and a great contact for us. The missionaries do a lot of service with them and work with them a lot. They love the missionaries, because they both served missions.

Wednesday we woke up and went to the church and played volleyball with a bunch of women. There are like 4 members and 10 non members. One of the women, a member, started the group like 8 years ago. She wanted to play volleyball with women, but there weren't very many people interested. so she put an ad in the paper and 8 yrs later they're still going. The women are SO nice, but VERY competitive. SO here i am the new girl, thrown in with all these women and have NO idea how to play... but they taught me and I am going to get good. I still need a lot of work but hey... i am improving! :) I had to... i was afraid they'd get mad I was making us lose!! haha They all said I act like i have played before, I told them it was my fight or flight insticts kicking in! haha I either had to play hard or get out... they were scaring me! haha well one of the girls... Ellen.... (good name eh?) CAME TO THE WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY SAT NIGHT... THEN CAME TO THE SPANISH BRANCH (even though she doesn't speak spanish!) AND SANG SILENT NIGHT (in spanish) WITH TWO OTHER MEMBERS THAT PLAY VOLLEYBALL! that is huge. she has been playing volleyball for 8 yrs with these women and someone invited her to come.. .and she did! So great! The women ask us a missionaries lots of questions and we really have a good thing going there! i am excited to see the progress that is going to come of that activity. Since sisters have only been here less than 6 months, we are just getting started there. It's so fun though. i actually like volleyball! :)

Later on Wednesday sis warner and i went with the spanish elders to teach a girl named Brenda... she is 17 and has investigated the church for a while. then stopped. Now she is interested again. She was our investigator,,, but then the spanish elders tracted in to her so we taught together. it was a good lesson. She is just afraid to make changes in her life. that's hard. Because we can see how much better her life could be if she stopped doing some things and started doing others. she'd be SO much more happy.

K... so thurs was pretty uneventful... we did a service activity with a couple old ladies for the Greenbay Newcomers Club. We did it in the basement of this ladies house and put together packets for new people. it was fun.. the ladies asked us lots of questions. they didn't know there was a mormon church her in GB! haha Then the rest of the day we spent inviting people to the ward christmas party on saturday. we invited investigators, less actives and recent converts ... it was good. I was able to meet a lot of people. OH.. but thurs night we went to the trujillos house with bro robertson our ward mission leader. he teaches their two daughters ESL in elementary school (this ward has lots and lots of school teachers! elementary, HS and College). They are the sweetest family. they live right around the block from him,... He made us walk there ... I WANTED TO KILL HIM~ IT WAS FREEZING COLD! HAHA I TOLD HIS KIDS TO DIG A HOLE IN THE BACK YARD FOR ME! HAHA But.. when we got there I fell in love with the trujillo family. The dad speaks both spanish and english (but his english is shaky) and the kids all speak both, but the mom only speaks spanish! I got to use my spanish SO much! I loved it~ they are SO great. We stayed there for like an hour and just talked. they have 5 girls. 1 who is 14, twin13 yr olds, then a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old. They are so adorable! Beautiful girls... and I lvoe the parents! I lvoe how excited they were that i was from phx, they used to live there and that i could understand them! haha the mom talked to me forever and was so patient with my spanish! SIS warner was not a fan of the fact she couldn't understand anything we were saying. we are going to start reading the B.O.M. in spanish outloud to eachother. it will be good. she is determined to learn. I think the spanish elders will still teach them, but we won't lose contact either. I think the girls would do better in our YW program, but the mom needs to go to the branch! but the moral of the story is ... I GOT TO USE MY SPANISH!!! a lot.

Friday we went to the west side... across the fox river. It was good. we were able to visit a few potential investigators and go to steve and barrys (which is going out of business... every store. It's the store that carries Sarah Jessica Parkers line... so good. cute stuff. I got 2 new skirts and a shirt..... i am sad it's going out of business... but she is looking for a new store to carry her line) We bought my boots at columbia (sis brudnicki works there and gave me an amazing discount) and then we went to teach Corry. I love Corry. She comes from a home that is kinda rough. She is the strong one there. She does the cleaning/ decorating for Christmas ect... She is getting baptized Jan 12th. I am so excited for her. it is going to be good. Then we went to teach/eat dinner with the huntleys and the elders. It was good... but we didn't get to teach. Mr. Huntley is all about us teaching him... sis huntley always talks about HER church, thus i think she is trying to send us a message. we'll keep working on them though. When i met them i thought they were mormon... Missionaries have been working on them for years... but they keep their commitments, they read and they have questions... so it's good.

Saturday we did a service project here at UWGB. We passed out soup and bread (this is where our yummy chicken and rice soup is from) for the Arthritis Foundations's Jingle Bell Walk/Run. People are CRAZY IN GB!!! They ran a 5k outside in a snow storm! seriously! the trail had a foot of snow on it. the runners were mad bc their times were slow! GAG ME! haha they were in a blizzard. (it's just like that run we helped with on thanksgiving... it was SO cold. i don't know why people do it!) But we were inside the gym so life was good for us. We were able to talk to a lot of people. So good. After that we went to the YMCA... we teach the youth strength training there. its and hour and a half class with about a7 kids. they have to take the class before they can get their own pass to the Y if they're under 13. we teach them about eating healthy and exercizing and how to use all the machines... plus we get to work out too! it's great! and people see us with our tags and start to recognize us. Its fun. Being a missionary is SO fun!

Then we went and taught diane anthony. She is pentecostal but WAY in to "learning more truth". (that's a phrase sis warner always uses and its so perfect. people here are very religious, but usually open to learning more truth) We taught here about the restoration and committed her to reading the book of mormon. I told her to find out for herself she has to read and pray. She said, "and i want to!" haha she is so great. she was a media referral too. It was fun to teach her. I can just feel the spirit working in me... sometimes i have no idea what i say... but i know it was good! We teach her again next saturday. We're going to watch the movie the restoration with her. She already said she wants to come to our church and wants us to come to hers. I was way excited at first, but the elders are freaking me out now!! haha oh well... we're going. My nametag and the spirit will protect me!!! :)

Saturday night was the ward christmas party. I LOVE THE GREENBAY 1ST WARD! I feel like i have been in theis ward forever. ANd i have been here less than 2 weeks! We had lots of investigators come. The Trujillos (the spanish fam) came... i sat with them. Tons of less actives and recent converts came... plus the elders had some investigators too. I was SO all over the place. I sat and ate (kind of) with the trujillos. I couldn't really eat because Heidi, the elders investigator, came with her 3 boys and they were a total handful. haha we were trying to make it a good night for here so we refereed the kids. It was intense. I love to see the elders with these little boys though. They are so good with them. The kids love the elders! By the end of the night little sam (2) fell asleep on me as we sang christmas carols! it made me miss sophie and chloe SO much... but, i was also so happy to be in wisconsin as a missionary. After dinner the primary kids put on a live nativity scene with narration and we all sang christmas carols. it was so good. Corry was there and it was the 1st time she'd ever sang them! I loved it. I loved seeing heidi sit with her oldest son, who's 7, (who i am guessing rarely gets attention bc the other two are so dang demanding) holding hands and singing songs about the baby Jesus. Meanwhile Reese, her middle son was climbing ALL over Bro. Carlsruh, who later told me the elders take him along to all their visits to be the human jungle gym for the kids so the elders can teach Heidi. too funny. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL... I love to see from a missionary perspective how important ward members are. It's a team effort!

Yesterday we went to church... then we went to Bishop Huzzeys house for lunch. I love sis Huzzey. They have 2 missionaries out right now. Their daughter is in Argentina, she went out in may, and their son is leaving the MTC this tuesday to go to San Fransisco, he is spanish speaking! She said it is hard having two missionaries out at the same time, but it is also SO good. Mom- that will be you this time next year! Bishop Huzzey never made it home for lunch... he couldn't get out of the church and then had other meetings. Being a bishop is a lot of work! The huzzeys have us over for New Years Eve. I am excited.. they have the youth all coming too. Of course we'll leave at 9:30, but we'll get to play with them for a while. It is SO important to build good relationships with the ward members.. especially the youth! they will be the ones to introduce you to their friends! After the Huzzeys we went and took our Christmas Card Pictures. The elders met us, we took theirs, they took ours. it was fun. we took it on Baird Creek Road, here in GB. Google Map it. It is the most beautiful street you have ever seen! tree lined...snow on all the branches! there are cross country ski trails all over that start and end on this road! AND get this: there are two big hills that people snowboard and sled on. they have 1 designated for snowboarding and 1 for sledding. BIG hills! they both have pull ropes on them so you don't walk up the hill!!! even the sledders sit on their sleds/tubes and hold on to this rope that is really low to the ground and it just pulls them right up the hill! crazy! AZ needs to invest in those! I get so jealous when we drive by. the snow here is so perfect all the time! powder powder powder. almost every day there is fresh powder! too bad they only have hills and no mtns~ haha but the hills would work for me. After taking pics in the FREEZING COLD all four of us went to the Robertsons to drink hot chocolate, make sugar cookies and decorate their tree! I love the robertsons. there are 6 of them. the oldest is 16, the youngest 3. All girls minus, Jed who is almost 8. THe youngest Olivia and I are best friends ... she always sits with me, at the ward party, church whatever. She is the cutest. When we walked in Sis Robertson was it the recliner with a blanket. She said sis black you are in charge. haha so funny . I felt like I was at HOME! I told her that! she was like queen bee or something! haha Elder Pulley did the dishes, i made hot chocolate with the kids and sis warner and elder jolley decorated the tree with some of the other kids. We were only there for a couple hours but it was so good for me to get to know them, he's the ward mission leader, and they are such good missionaries. all of them. By the end the little kids were running around like wild (probably due to the amt of sugar they had: starbursts dipped in hot chocolate?? that was so NOT my idea. & sugar cookies!!!) Sis warner was singing hymns with the older girls while the oldest played piano, elder jolley was stringing popcorn on a stringfor the tree and elder pulley was helping little eliza put the angel on the tree. Bro Robertson was making up some christmas poem for their christmas card and I was playing referee with Jed and Olivia and laughing with sister robertson (who was still in her chair)it was the perfect moment. like one where you just want to freeze and replay over and over again. it made me think of home SO much! but also made me so thankful for eternal families and for the christmas season. all that came to mind was "this is what it's all about." SIs robertson was laughing at how i was with all the kids. i told her i used to babysit/nanny alot. haha it just comes second nature now. I LOVE THE ROBERTSON FAMILY. Olivia is my favorite! she knows it too!

After that fiasco we went to the church for the YSA Christmas party. i feel like all i do as a missionary (especially at christmas time!!!) is eat! and everyone these days is serving ham! I HATE HAM!!! but they had pasta salad and mashed potatoes so i was fine. Lots of inactives and a few investigators came. Some had to travel really far since the YSA program here covers lots of land. ps did you know that we are the largest land mission in the united states? yep. we are. (MY HAND HURTS! THIS IS THE LONGEST EMAIL EVER! i am so so Sorry. goodness. you'd think i don;t get to talk to people or something! haha maybe grandpa is on to something with that vow of silence talk) We played bingo, i filled my card out wrong, the only one in a room full of people... bro torbenson proceeded to call that to EVERYONES attention!!!! haha lame. I won some cute baskets for my apt though... then we watched the 1st presidency christmas devotional. Did you all get to watch it? It was SO good! The robertsons came for that part and little olivia came and sat next to me. so cute. I loved the devotional. It helps so much to remind you of what christmas is ALL about! its about sharing with others something you have... that they need.. whether it be a meal, a batch of cookies or a gift! If you didn't get to watch it watch it on the internet or see when it replays on the BYU channel. it was so good for me to hear. Being a missioanry i really get to do a LOT of service. it truly does make me SO happy. Are you guys doing the 12 days of christmas again? You should!

Well that was my week in review! Whew! seriously i might not be able to play volleyball today due to the onset of arthritis! I love my companion... she's great! i LOVE being a missionary. The church is SO true. i know it more now that ever before. Heavenly Father loves us and hears and answers our prayers. I know that. Joseph Smith lived to restore this gosel, the true and living gospel of Jesus Christ. I know the book of Mormon is true. I find I can never have enough time to study it! I love this season. It is my most favorite time of the year! I love that i am having a white christmas! (remember our white christmas in Taylor!? we woke up and it had snowed christmas eve? oh the memories!) I LOVE MY FAMILY.... and i hope you each know how much I miss you! and so many things each day remind me of one of you. I talk about you all the time! I am so thankful i come from such a GOOD family! Ok before i wrote this sentance this email was 3,897 words like! that's almost essay length... that IS essay length! Iove you all! -Sister Pamella Jo Black