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!!