SpRinG has SpRunG

Hello family! How are you all doing? Spring HAS definitely SPRUNG here in Wisconsin.

This past weekend was general conference... do you know what that means for all the sisters in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission... ?? NO MORE TIGHTS or NYLONS... yet another sign of spring! I already put all mine in the donation pile I've started in my room... I don't care that it is still really nippy outside. I am done with those things! I contemplated buying spring colored ones and then thought... WHY? there is NO point. so it's all about footie socks now! just trust me... ITS A BIG DEAL to me, ok?

General Conference was AmAzing. There is something to be said for being able to hear the counsel of prophets and apostles for 8 hours straight... AmAzing!!! I learned so much. I am so grateful for the visitors we've had in our mission lately... as I heard them speak in conference I was felt like i KNEW them... at least better than before. Elder Hallstrom, Elder Perry, Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson! They are good guys! I love that conference gives us that renewed desire to be obedient and follow the counsel of our prophet and apostles! How grateful I am to belong to the restored church of Jesus Christ: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am so grateful that I know the FULNESS of the gospel is here. This is a hard time in the world, this I know... BUT we are to have JOY! I find that comes as we do what the Lord asks of us and seek to find the good in every situation. Sometimes it's HARD... that's just life.

Here is the week in review...

lunes*

last pday was "operation skirt" for sister cousin. she said she was SICK of being amish... haha i do remember those days. we went to goodwill, maurices, jcpenney, walmart and payless. She ended up with a new skirt and new shoes and was happy with her purchases! We came home and took a nap and wrote letters. I am always so tired lately... i don't know what that is about. i think my body is telling me that it needs a little TLC! Later we heart attacked sam's car and then taught cathey at 8. She is amazing... she has a love for the gospel. She prays and reads faithfully. She is preparing for baptism April 11th. That night we got a phone call from abram. He is such a good kid. We were able to teach him a lot about faith and we decided we just need to start over with him... back to basics. He's got all the knowledge in his mind, but not in his heart. Well the gospel requires more of us than just knowing good information! It was so nice to be able to have that conversation with him. He is ready to reboot things! He'll be at BYU next fall with Scott... that will be so fun!

martes*

we studied. taught cathey. had district meeting. went to eat with our elders at the filling station [really cute burger joint... Amazing bread & great chocolate malts!]. Then it was off to ANTIGO... we taught joey and reviewed with him the baptismal interview questions. . . What a good little boy! he is SO ready for baptism! We then had a lesson with Gatton's ... their kids were so calm this time... AMAZING! After Antigo we went back to Rhinelander to teach Allen. He stood us up. SO we went to his house, Sam was with us and it sounded like he was about to drop us, then we talked about how even though he's really busy and his baby is really sick that he NEEDS the gospel. It will help him. Sam testified of the power of prayer. She is a single mom. He is a single dad. They really related to one another. It was AmAzing.

miercoles*

we stopped by the stevens... they weren't prepared for us to teach... we made an appt for tomorrow. then we did a little weekly planning. we taught cathey and then headed to minocqua to teach abram at Culver's with sister jones and her daughter allison. SO FUN! then we went to help sister sturma again, but she still wasn't home from the UP. We tried to see Allen to see how praying went, he was home... but downstairs. His mom told us he has too much going on in his life and that we need to get off her property, never come back and stop calling or she was going to call the "cops". Oh please! that was the 3rd time we've heard that schpeel in the past couple weeks. what do we look like? we're just girls in skirts!So we stalked Brian at his house and THEN... we tried to go home... we were LOCKED out. Our landlord said she was not coming in to town. She's real sweet. So we stayed at Sam's! SLEEPOVER! it was fun, but i think she saw how lame we were... she was talking talking and we were dozing! haha i love her.

jueves*

landlord unlocked apt. we went to the stevens home to teach them. it was good. Sam came with us and took little joshua [2] to the library so we could have more of their attention. Bro Stevens didn't come out... it was sad and frusterating. Sister Kagie came and taught with us... lets just say going in to some homes makes me so eternally grateful for the home environment/ family i grew up in! At 2 we drove to Antigo and had a meeting with brother schreiber... such a sweet old man. Then we had JOEY'S BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW... there was a little bit of drama with that. Elder Tracey and Elder Goldsmith drove from Marshfield to do the interview... that's a long way. THEN holly had a bit of an emergency with her friend so she wasn't around. BUT 2 hours and a couple mint chocolate chip blizzards later we finally were able to do the interview at Joey's house. HALLELUGIAH! all went well and he is ready for baptism! Elder Goldsmith is a great district leader, have I mentioned that yet? we had to cancel our evening appt and so we had dinner at subway with the elders and we headed for the hour drive home. President Barrett called tonight. It was so great to talk to him. He congratulated us for the good work we're doing up here in Rhinelander and said things like "Well I am proud of you, what a way to leave your mission!" I love him... he didn't know how much I needed to hear him say that! I got lots of mail in the mailbox today! thank you!

viernes*

we studied, then picked up sister adams, then we taught cathey about LEHONTI and about Staying on TOP of the MOUNTAIN... don't ever come down! that was good! She is so ready to be baptized. then we had lunch and then taught Ray and then Andra. Then we went to visit the lindners. sister lindner just found out that she has a cancerous lump on the back of her leg. OH i love that family, they've been dealing with so much lately... so we sang them "I feel my Saviors love" ... let's just say we only got thru two verses. MAN... that was hard. We all cried. I love her... it's scary to go thru things like that... but she has a good doctor and she'll be ok, I just know it. We continued on and went EASTER CAROLING... just because we can! I loved it... song of choice? "HE SENT HIS SON" from the primary hymnbook... same one we did last year... so good.

sabado*

CONFERENCE... the church building in Rhinelander had a problem with it's satellite so we couldn't SEE anything, but we had audio, so we HEARD it all! I was kinda sad at first, but actually I think I paid attention better because I HAD to listen closely. I love general conference. we got locked out again. no bueno. landord was evil... no surprise. the maintenance man let us in and we got keys made!!! :) today dan and genni officially went mia. they have baptismal dates for apr 11th, but we haven't seen them for a week. they moved to pelican lake and just stopped returning our calls... sad! i hate that. BUT THEN... Genni came to conference with Martha this morning and Cathey watched both sessions at home and Joey watched it too! We spent A LOT of time making sure all our people had a chance to watch conference!

domingo*

HAPPY EASTER [ i loved my easter box family! thank you!] we had breakfast [waffles] at the LINDNER'S... I LOVE THEM... I always laugh so hard there that I cry! THEN we watched [yes i actually go to see the picture] conference at the JONES'... I LOVE THAT FAMILY TOO! it was fun. Then we had easter dinner [lunch?] with them! SO YUMMY! My favorite was the desert! we Sacrificed a lamb! haha she had a lamb cake and cherries that we smeared the sauce on the top of our plates! so fun! i love them... and mom, we used ROYAL ALBERT CHINA... it made me think of you. I told them it was the same china used on princess diaries ... they didn't know that! ahh... uncle albert!! :)Then we drove to antigo and watched conference there. it was a REALLY small group... but holly and mikey came in at the end. she's a great mom. We had easter DINNER with the Bloechl's and dyed easter eggs with them! I love the Bloechl's! We wanted to spend more time there... but we had to head to the drivers in minoqua. It was kind of a crazy lesson, but we committed them to having family prayer. I know it will help them if they will do it!

Sundays are often our busiest days! We stress and struggle to be sure all of our investigators make it to church. Last week sister cousin even volunteered to sew a guys pants last week... HILARIOUS... we picked the pants up EARLY sunday morning and dropped them off before church... good thing the rip was on the seam!!! :) It's a constant effort to get people there. Last week we had 7 people there... this week 6! That is AmAZing! The most i have ever had! Satan works so hard to distract people on sundays. I love what elder Foster said yesterday... "distraction doesn't have to be evil, just effective"! so true. oh the work of a missionary! We're doing so well here! i love my life.

Our biggest concern this coming week is those that have baptismal dates... Cathey, Joey, Dan and Genni. Cathey and Joey seem to be fine... but Dan and Genni need a little TLC... They can still make it, but we need to meet with them. Last week we taught them the Law of Chastity. I love teaching that principle. We had them read the 2 paragraphs out of Preach My Gospel, its pretty straight forward there and then we talked about it and the blessings that come. When I committed them, "Will you live the Law of Chastity?" I first asked Genni and she said yes, then I asked Dan and he must not have heard her because he looked at Genni and said, "Did she say yes?" SO HILARIOUS! We all laughed. Martha, dans mom, was looking up a scripture and couldn't find it... irritated, she said, "WHAT CHANNEL" oh, it was SO FUNNY. we all cried... i love martha. I know dan and genni can do it. The Lord always asks his children to do hard things, but He always BLESSES US!

It was such a good week! such a good easter! such a good conference!

Grandpa! HAPPY BIRTHDAY APRIL 8th!!! I will be thinking of you!

MOM: can you get us tickets to the Gila Valley Temple open house and dedication? please? or get britt on that or something? i want to go to that!

I love you all!!! Love, Sister Pamella Jo Black

ps. great job on the mail this week! keep it comin' ... it still has plenty of time to get to me! :)