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