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!

FULL WEEK!

milwaukee north & south zones

Hello ALL! prepare yourselves! this is a LONG EMAIL.... it was a really FULL WEEK! Things here are SO GOOD! I love Racine/ Kenosha! and my Spanish is getting better each and EVERY day!

[mon] LABOR DAY … PDAY… that’s why my email was a week late last week! … it was actually kind of relieving not to have to email and know I could do it on Tuesday because that gave us like 3 more precious hours in the day! It was AmAzing! We had all these plans, which I told you about… but they changed a little bit on Sunday. Elder Petrie invited us to come play soccer in Kenosha with all the elders and members from the Spanish Branch… of course I was all over that. We played from 9-11:30a. We were all disgusting after that; hot, sweaty and tired!

Sister Flores invited us to her home to have lunch… there are SO many of us missionaries here in Racine/Kenosha! Just as many as we had in green bay, I never realized that. So all 10 of us [Racine English: Elders Stribling & Julian, Racine Spanish: Elders Trauntvein & Kelly, Kenosha English: Elders Hutchins & Ross, Kenosha Spanish: Elders Petrie & Campbell (bka e. SOPA :) AND US] went to her home just around the corner for lunch. She ran to the store with her mom so we stayed and hung out with their kids [I tried to tell her in my make-do spanish way that she didn’t have to do that, but she didn’t get it and insisted… I said in my little sarcastic, “Where are you going? Then… “Adonde Vas?” She understood both, but just said, “the store, would you like to come?” HAHA] so I gave up… they have 4 and they will all be sealed in the Chicago Temple in October. What a special day that will be! I hope we get to go! We just laughed and laughed with the kids, they loved having all 10 of us in their home, we loved it too. When they came home we helped her make a feast, a great little Labor Day picnic, sandwiches, chips, salsa, watermelon, lemonade… the works! We had a great time with them… and I got to practice my spanish a lot. I love serving here.

We then headed to the Abbott’s. I LOVE the Abbott family. They will do anything for us as missionaries. Sister Abbott has 11 kids and they all live in Racine now, first time in a long while. There are a lot of them and they’re loud… and I love them. I am still trying to figure out all the people in the ward that belong to the abbott clan, I only know about seven of the kids right now. Their son, tommy, just got home from his mission, provo, spanish speaking… they are so proud of him and his missionary spirit has really inspired them… it’s cool to see that.

After the party at the Abbott’s we headed to Grafton, Wisconsin… it was a little far from us… but we HAD to go! Natalia Kahmann, a YSA from MIL, lives there and her sister, AnnaLisa, cuts hair. She went to VICI hair school, assisted for a long time, and has been doing it on her own for about 5 years now. OH how wonderful it was to be there… first they made huge dinner… after we were stuffed she went to town on my hair. Nothing big… the cut I had wasn’t horrible, I just have A LOT of hair, and when it’s short it appears I have 10X more on top of that! It just didn’t lay right. She took a ton of weight off, evened out the sides, stacked the back and gave me bangs… yes, at first she said I didn’t need them, then she said, “It will open up your face.” I said do whatever will look best. I was desperate… I am glad she did it. My hair looks ADORABLE now. It is SUPER short… but my hair grows like a weed. I plan to let it grow grow grow til I get home now! I can’t tell you enough though… this is the most AmAzing hair cut I have ever had… I don’t use any product. I don’t use a flat iron or a round brush… all I use is the blow dryer and my paddle brush. I DON’T EVEN HAVE TO TEASE IT! It just goes… it’s hits just below my chin… yeah, AmAzing! [I pin it up sometimes still on the sides and it looks really cute! I could get used to short hair… [GMAX5: don’t worry… I am GROWING it out! Haha] Sister Behrends got hers cut too and I played with Anna-Lisa & Peter’s baby, Tyler. He’s a cutey. She is pregnant and due in January, she’s a great mom. THANKS ANNA-LISA! YOU ARE A LIFE-SAVER!

This was by far one of my favorite Pday’s on my mission.

[tues] life here in Racine is really good. We had district meeting in the park... on top of the play equipment... my idea! haha so fun. . . until all the kids came at the very end. It was hilarious... one of the really new elders, he’s been here almost 6 weeks now… said, "LETS GET OUT OF HERE, THEY'RE GOING TO THINK WE'RE CHESTERS!" ahhahaha (as in chester the molester!) Maybe you had to be there... but i was DYING LAUGHING. HE was SO uncomfortable... but as we were ending with a song, then praying, just six of us missionaries [4 elders and us two sisters, our little spanish district] a whole group of kids ran by us and were yelling and one kid said, "SHHH they're PRAYING!" it was hysterical... their parents must have thought we were lunatics... haha i didn't really care though. the park was at north beach... right on the sand. you could see lake michigan perfectly on the tower we sat on... the sand, the low rolling bright blue waves and the lighthouses... i love it in racine... it's so beautiful. [i never want winter to come! haha the leaves are already changing though... i am excited to see a fall here... i hear they are the best. .. i've loved summer... it was so perfect and mild.]

After district meeting we headed to Kenosha to the Calderwood’s. Sister Calderwood teaches Spanish at a college nearby, I don’t know the name, and she interprets. She is from Argentina, so she has that accent. For example, hispanics would say this phrase, “Yo me llamo Pamella.” , phonetically as, “yo me yamoh pameyah” … she says it as [just like all people from argentina do] “jo me jamoh pameja”. I LOVE HER. She is going to be SUCH a help to us; she is going to teach us spanish once a week and give us homework etc etc… next week she is going to give us a test to find out where we are at and then go from there. Oh how I love her.

We then came to the library and sent our emails. As we walked out of the library you again could see the lakefront in front of us. It was such a beautiful sight, I said, “Sister Behrends, we are serving in the most beautiful place in the mission.” She agreed.

Now if we had turned around, and looked behind us that would have been a different story- Racine has some SUPER ghetto parts. [The Sura’s are both teachers in the school district here and they send Abby, their daughter, to a private school… it’s just a rough area… we learned that Racine is stuck- there is no room for the city to grow, the economy here is really tough… no room for new developments or anything] BUT we didn’t LOOK behind us!

UNTIL we went to Joannie Farley’s for our dinner appt!!… on our way we saw the BIGGEST cat fight I have ever SEEN in my WHOLE LIFE! We drove on to this street… and in the really ghetto parts of racine the houses are so close together so the streets are so NARROW….. a stoplight behind us and one in front of us about 6 cars or so. WE WERE STUCK… as were were turning on to the street we saw a MOB of black girls just going at it… fighting like crazy. Sister Behrends asked if we should call the police, but everyone on the street were outside of their houses watching, even out on their third floor balcony’s listening to the yelling and screaming, and people standing around also could have called… there were at least 50 girls and probably 20 boys [the boys just stood on the outside of the circle laughing.]

I was starting to get really mad [because everyone was just watching these girls kill eachother, when I realized that they were just pulling eachothers’ hair. Head to Head just pulling as hard as they could.] The girls in the car in front of us got out, and went to join the excitement. It was crazy. When two girls would fall to the ground the next two would start. I have NEVER seen anything like that in my whole entire life! Finally, FINALLY the fight ended… mind you we couldn’t go anywhere bc every now and then the fight would shift over into the street… so all cars just had to stay still. The mob dispersed down either side of the street and people got back in their cars. FIFTEEN minutes later we finally could continue on! AND the street and sidewalk was littered with all kinds of hair pieces in all kinds of lengths and colors… some straight, some curly. So gross! I was a little scared! You never know if things like that could escalate.

SO we continued on to Joannies. We had a great dinner there with her family and 5 kids, and she invited her BFF Amy. Amy is such a cool girl. We invited her to be taught and taught her lesson one[Heavenly Father loves us, There have been Prophets in every dispensation, The life and mission of Jesus Christ, Apostasy, Restoration and The Book of Mormon] Amy loved the lesson, she is looking for something more in her life. I just love Joannie for loving her friend so much so that she would want to share with Amy what makes her so happy. That’s how missionary work SHOULD work!

[wed] We taught Simeon with the spanish elders, Elder Kelly and Elder Trauntvein. That was such a good experience for us. It was so funny because Simeon saw sister behrends and started talking to her right away, because she looks latina… which she is, but she is still learning the language. You should have seen him when I responed. He was so confused! Haha He was making fun of us the whole time because sometimes we responed the wrong way… it’s such good practice. I love to hear the spanishes [that’s what we call them… haha] teach. It helps me so much. Simeon was just baptized about two months ago, we want to meet his daughter Deena, she’s in her twenty’s… she has an interest and we’d love to teach her.

Then we went and taught Stefani [Fani] Aquino’s friend, Nancy. Nancy went to girls camp, youth conference and to nauvoo. She is quite familiar with the church. I love those two girls, all they do is LAUGH and GIGGLE. It is hilarious! She loved lesson one. She wants to be baptized, but is afraid her to tell her mom so she wants to wait til she is 18. That is not really going to solve any problems though, she’ll still be living with her mom. We’ve have seen that it is SO much better to have the parents acceptance NOW… it helps new member STAY. So we plan to challenge her to talk to her mom. If she let her go to all the activities… why not let her be a member? I’ll keep you all informed!

We met a few less active members and then we ended our night teaching another new investigator, Samantha. We met her at the corn roast last week, she is the neighbor of the Davis’s. She is 13 and is so cute and fun. She lives with her mom and they are from Mexico. Her mom was at work so we taught her outside on the trampoline, lesson one. She was very receptive, we will be teaching her again soon. We invited her to church, but she’ll be at six flags this Sunday.

[thurs] today was planning day! We went to Jimmy John’s for subs [sister behrends absolute favorite] then went beach, ate lunch and planned all afternoon on our little green blanket. It was beautiful. Heavenly. . . just us and the seagulls…. Everyone else was at work or school ;]The elders came for a while and we talked about the investigators we share.

At 4:30 we taught Cheryl Johnson about 2 Nephi 31…

15 And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.
17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.
18 And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.
19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.

She was telling us how she was struggling a little bit, post baptism… she was shocked to hear us say that is NORMAL! Yes it’s true, Satan know us well and he will NOT give up, even after we’re baptized. . . after we’ve entered the GATE and know that it is NOT ALL DONE! We must still PRESS FORWARD, with UNSHAKEN FAITH, FEASTING UPON THE WORDS OF CHRIST… ENDURING ALL THINGS to the END… until we too hear the voice of the father saying, “Ye shall have eternal life.” Isn’t that exciting!? We have HOPE in our Savior who is “MIGHTY TO SAVE”! I love teaching people that… we will be “struggling” our whole lives. God will always ask us to do hard things! … However, He will always help us too. He has provided a way. Elder Holland always says, “Jesus Christ knows the way because He is the way. He is the way out and the way up.” Love that.

We ended our Thursday with an AmAzing dinner at the Costabilles. They are a part-member family with a grown family. Sister Costabille has been active in the church for a really long time. We had lasagna and all the sides, so yummy. Then the elders taught about sharing the gospel with your family, Elder Julian and Elder Stribling are such good misisonaries. I learn so much from them!

[Fri] We taught ENGLISH in Kenosha with Elder Petrie and Elder Campbell… I think we learned more spanish than we taught english… but it was SUCH GOOD PRACTICE! At the end Jaime asked if we’d come ever y time… “por su puesto!” of course! I am happy they invited us.
WE then went with the Racine elders [all 4] to the County Fair Grounds to help with the Sportsman’s Fair. We helped with Fishing For Life… It was a lot of fun! We helped set up and helped kids catch fish and have minnow races and shoot rubber band guns at targets etc etc… we actually did most of the playing though because there weren’t a lot of kids… they were all at school!

We ended the night teaching Janelle with the Elders. She has them wrapped around her little finger. It was HILARIOUS. They taught her Helaman 4, about king Lamoni’s father. . . like I said they’re good teachers. We played referree, keeping all the kids settled and happy and not interrupting janelle’s lesson. It was fun.

[sat] we played soccer in Kenosha. Lots of fun. A good work out. Whew… I am sore to be honest. We played hard! For like 3 hours too! So fun! We spen the rest of the day contacting people we needed to meet or get appts with. Saturday night was also transfer calls! Sister Behrends is LEAVING! It was a shock, because she only has 6 weeks left on her mission… but the man upstairs is in charge… so we go with it! It is His work… so we do it His way! Also, Elders Ross, Kelly, & Julian are being transferred too… I Hate transfers, people I love always leave!… but such is life… we find out where everyone goes either Tuesday or Wednesday night.

[sun] we had the normal schedule. Mtgs starting at 8am at the kenosha building. Spanish Branch 10-1. Racine ward 1-4. Then we usually get out of the church about 5. We stopped by to try to see a less-active branch member that we’ve been TRYING to see for WEEKS, she is NEVER HOME… so it was no surprise she was gone… then we went to Temika Kings home for a big dinner. She invited EVERYONE. She is such a good missionary. We met her family, almost all of them, and her neighbors etc etc. We will be teaching some of them soon I am sure, I love her. We were there a long time. She has so much faith… such a good example to me. We took pictures with the kids and the elders and went home! [tired, her children get SO wound up when we’re there… it’s a workout!]

… another good week!

Ps.. we met a lady at zone conference last transfer named Joanna, she was an investigator. We then met her again at Mexican Fiesta. She was baptized AUG 29th with her 3 kids. She is AmAzing and I just need to document that! I love her! I am so HappY she found Happiness, her faith is truly AmAZING.

Also, Leslie, who was the FIRST person we EVER taught here in Racine with the spanish elders, was baptized in August… she is 10 and I love her. She is such a good example to her mom and siblings… her faith will be a great support to them… she is a trail blazer for sure. Her mom is still meeting with the elders.

This is such a SACRED time in my life! I am so thankful for it. I get to be surrounded by people like Leslie and Joanna! I learn so much each day and I have the BEST support EVER! Thanks for all you all do for me!

I love you! Love, Sister Pamella Jo Black

PS… sorry this is so late… it was a LONG … but really FUN… PdAY

...by small and simple things...

Hello hello!

I first want to tell you that it is the LITTLE things that really make my day! [notice ALMA 37:6 … Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. I love this scripture… I am the small and the weak! … the Lord makes me strong… and through me great things can and will come to pass! What a blessing!] SOOO… they make baby goldfish… yes it’s true… try them… they taste better than the others, i promise… made my day a few days ago… they’re the best!


[mon] PDAY! What a great pday it was too… we went up to milwaukee to email, I like the library there so much better in muskego… the one here in Racine is SO willy tango [that one’s for you steph:] then we went to VALUE VILLAGE… the bane of my existence… a thrift store. Now I am NOT above thrift stores or think I am better than that… I am freaked out by them and they make me feel dirty, ok? And I have ZERO patience to find that GEM among the clothing… sorry I just don’t. but my compy was set on going so we went with the milwaukee sisters and Mom and Brittany Kozlosky [BK]. It made it worth it that I could walk around with the warner, I love her, her new compy is a crack-up… [oh ya, I bought a skirt there for $1.50, I know… against my whole plight… but warner tried it on.. it was a little big for her, I tried it on… it fit JUST RIGHT… and it’s cute… so I washed it in HOT water and dried it a long time… I don’t want LICE or something you know? Anyways, it was funny] then we went to president orne’s for a BBQ with all the missionaries in the north and south zones pretty much. We played sand volleyball and ate a good lunch and visited a lot… I love milwaukee…. It was nice to be there!

[tues] district meeting… ALL IN SPANISH! … lots of fun. . . then Daisy Betonka, she is from Honduras, it was good spa practice there…. Then we taught CHERYL with ted and natalie… I love them. We taught Janelle with the elders… man, she has SUCH an attitude… I love watching them with her… sometimes they don’t know what to say… she’s 10! Haha oh how I love her!

[wed] met with Joanie Farley, love her like a sister. She has 5 kids; 3 boys and then twin girls Kate and Addison… they’re adorable. She schedules our meals for us now… it’s amazing. Then we met a new investigator, Nancy, she went to girls camp and youth conference wit h stefanie aquino! Then we played volleyball at the church… it was a good day!

[thurs] I got a haircut by tina hansen… cute girl… then we had lunch at Christina Davis’s with Tamika king… that was fun but I was itchy from my haircut… I went home and showered…. Then we did weekly planning.

[fri] we visited tina… what a GOOD VISIT… she was doing good, made me happy, she hasn’t been like that for a while. Then we met the nevarro family[spanish speakers], really great family, really strong, they’ve been taught before… we have a return appt with them this week… I hope they keep it! Then dinner with the Sura’s at charcoal Grill… Abby turned 6! It was a lot of fun, we met lots of their friends, they’re such a great family.

[sat]we went around inviting people to the ward corn roast that night… we met some people as we were walking up and down the street. It was cool, they invited us to come back and teach them! [more spanish appts! Woohoo.] Then we went to the ward corn roast at the davis’. I dare say I love this ward as much as the GB 1st ward. It’s so fun! I ate some REALLY good SWEET CORN! Yum yum!!!! We played volleyball til dark, jumped on the trampoline and then met the neighbors, Betty and Samantha, [spanish speakers] who are now our new investigators!

[sun] church … mtgs mtgs and more mtgs…. 8-5!! … then dutch oven dinner at the Calderwoods! [he’s spanish branch president] … we were supposed to have a mtg and homemade doughnuts at the blakes and the racine english elders, but we were too late! Bishop called us when the first hot doughnuts came off and left us a message about how good they were and that they ate all ours! So mean! Haha luckily when we got home at 9:30 … he had saved us a FEW!!! they're the BEST thing you've ever tasted.


Whew… what a week!

I love you all! You are all always in my prayers!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH ON AUGUST 29TH! I miss you! I hear you had a great experience at the temple! Write me!

DAD… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW… I love you!!!!

Love, Sister Pamella Jo Black

I'll be a day late...

... but not a dollar short!!!

hello family.... today is saturday... i ran in to the library here in Racine to let you know that I will not be sending an email on monday because it is LABOR DAY! so don't work... PLAY!

On monday we are going to go to milwaukee [with my s.warner!] to play in the north vs south zone football game... then at 3 we are going to go to a YSA's [young single adult... from the YSA ward we used to serve in there] house in Milwaukee, Natalia, for a BBQ and her sister, who cuts hair, is going to fix my haircut because i got a bad haircut on thursday... i sacrificed my hair to meet a girl who's family is active but she doesn't come anymore... she is 20 and in beauty school. HAHA [mom and especially YOU grandma... don't be mad! i can see this upsetting you!] i wanted it short... like to my chin, which she did... but it looks REALLY BAD straight... it just lays wrong... so i have curled it and pinned it up both yesterday and today... it looks really cute like that [some kind of prom hairdo]... but i don't want to have to curl it like that everyday. i just sent some pictures home of that. Anyways, natalia's sister will fix it, whew... i am contemplating bangs, we'll see... now that i just typed that I am thinking NO! they'll take so long to grow out... which brings me to the next point. I am now letting my hair grow til the end of my mission! woo hoo!

ok... well i am excited to hear from all of you. . . this gives you plenty of time to send me an email before then! Gma... i just got ANOTHER letter from you yesterday! you are on a roll!!! thank you. did you get the one i just sent you? Mom and Dad i sent you out letters today... i hope you get them soon... before wednesday for DAD.


k we are off to a corn roast... yum yum... it's a ward activity. CORN. HAMBURGERS. HOTDOGS. CORN. MORE CORN. ICECREAM. YUM YUM!!! We have invited a lot of people and lots of our less-actives and investigators... i hope they come. it's so nice and warm today... finally, i was scared winter was coming sooner than expected.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! I'll be nice and chatty on tuesday and give you a FULL update!

love you!

SISTER PAMELLA JO BLACK