milwaukee north & south zones
[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
No comments:
Post a Comment