HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy thanksgiving to ALL of you! I have so much to be thankful for.

I am not feeling well.

I will write this email sometime later this week.

Love YOU ALL!!

Love, sister pamella jo black

ps. i am fine. no swine flu. just not feeling well! I am going to take a nap.

GRANDMA... I got your dearelder. you are the best! I am loving all the mail I am getting lately!

CONGRATULATIONS ROCKY!!! THE MARYLAND, BALTIMORE MISSION IS SO LUCKY!!!

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM on the 26th! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTANY And BLAKERS on the 30th and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATUM on the 1st!!!! I will be thinking of ALL of you!

FAITH

Hello Hello All!

What a week this has been! This week has been all about FAITH for us. We are striving to be like those described in Ether chapter 12 by Moroni... he explains all the miracles that faith has wrought among his people. In verse 15 he says, "Behold, it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites". We can be like Ammon and his brethren. Our faith can change people. In my scriptures I have "FAITH! my faith can change people" written next to those verses. I love Ether 12. read it... another favorite verse is 4... HOPE for a BETTER world... hope cometh of FAITH... which maketh an anchor, an anchor that will ANCHOR the SOULS of MEN... good stuff. I love Hebrews 11, Alma 32, Ether 12 and Moroni 7 ... they're all about Faith FAITH faiTH!

The elders we serve around are the best examples to sister Johnson and I of Faith. I am so impressed and inspired by them. They wake up early to get extra study in, they've fasted for us before an important appointment with an investigator family that we both teach, they have faith the size of a BASKETBALL [according to e. hatch!] they are just spiritual giants. We are blessed to serve in the same units as Elders Smith, Trauntvien, Petrie, Cambell, Warner, Stribling, Gates, and Vance! They are AmAZing! I love these eight elders. I see their willingness to be EXACTLY obedient and to do whatever it takes to help their investigators progress and I think of ROCKY and I just can't WAIT for him to go!!!

We are moving today. The Blake's are moving to Utah on Friday. SAD DAY! I will miss them so much. I've lived with them since june. They are a great family. I will miss have scripture study and family prayer with them sometimes at night... or hearing the hustle and bustle of children in the morning on their way to school. I will miss Jackson greeting me as I come in the door throughout the day. I just love the Blake's. They are already well aware that I will be a visitor when I come back up to school in the fall... especially for sunday dinner!!!! :) AND bishop blakes famous doughnuts! They're the best. [the elders came over for a planning meeting last night and got in on the doughnut action too, there is nothing better!] Bishop was just released yesterday. It was so sad! They're a great family and a great contributor to this RACINE ward! I will miss hearing Jackson cry when his mom vaccumes saying, "MOOOMMMMM, STOP that! I Don'T like it WhEN you DO that! MOOOMMMM stop DOING that!" It's hilarious to hear a 3 year old speak so perfectly. or I remember the time in september when the power went out at about 9:30 and Jackson and Madison were scared and NOT very happy. I gave jackson my BYU "torch" as he calls it [flashlight] and then we read books together on the couch while sister blake cleaned the kitchen. good times. i love that family, they're like my own!

We're moving to the Brigg's.

I must go now... my email next week will cover all the bases I missed. I promise.

Last piece of Good News... we set a baptismal date with Michelle Cabralles for December 5th! We're teaching her, the elders teach their parents who were both being baptized on Saturday, November 21st. ONly, sister cabralles' records were just found... SHE REALLY IS A MEMBER... haha so now just Hermano Cabrales is being baptized. I love him. He plays soccer with us twice a week. Now he'll be able to baptize his daughter on dec 5th. Michelle is 16. It was a good appointment. I have really learned about facilitating an environment for the spirit. The spirit was DEF there. I asked Michelle if she felt it... she said yes.


I love you all!


Have a good week!


Love, Sister Pamella Jo Black

ps mom and dad! I LOVED my package! and GPA and GMAX5 ... i loved my tape!! thank you!

One Year...

Can you believe it? I have officially been a sister missionary for ONE WHOLE YEAR... I can't even believe it. Time flies. This time last year I was in the MTC learning all about what I would be doing for the next 18 months of my life. Now I have only 6 months LEFT! What? I have so much I want to do in the next six months. This has been a great year in my life, like I always say, I never knew I would love it this much. While I have the time I just want you all to know how grateful I am to have such wonderful support on my mission. I get a great deal of mail for being out a year [in case you didn't know that's how missionaries measure love: the amt in the mailbox! :]. It means a lot to me!Thanks for all you do.

This week we have worked so hard. We have SEVENTEEN investigators... thats a 1 and a 7. Not all are progressing as fast as the others, but they are all coming along. We teach a lot, all day everyday. We are going to need some serious member help in the coming weeks. We plan to involve the relief society this sunday. We are going to set up splits once a week [that means we'll pick a time like 1-3 on Wed and have 2 sisters meet us at the church and we'll split up and go out with them]. We'll get twice as much accpmplished and our investigators will meet members... i love killing 2 birds with 1 stone! We have been trying to do this for a while now, but things have finally evened out and we are ready to set that up! It's long overdue. We need to have daily contact with all of our investigators. That is near impossible with 17 investigators... that's why we need the members. [i know i know, it didn't just happen overnight that we have 17 people in our teaching pool, but it wasn't until we did transfer planning the other day that we realized really how many there are] We are focusing the most on our most progressing, but all the investigators need our TLC ... they are all important to us.

[lunes]

pDAY. It was a good preparation day too. We played soccer in the morning. Then we went to Sister Birch's home. I LOVE sister Birch. She is in the Kenosha ward and she loves missionaries. She is so good to us. Her son Kyle is serving in Jacksonville, Florida right now. She will do anything for us, I really appreciate her willingness help us in any way she can. She made us cinnamon rolls and everyone played risk. Minus me [and elder smith who took a nap] ... I am just NOT THAT INTO IT... i played a lot in Green Bay at the Ribbens home, but that was different. So I wrote a lot of letters that were long overdue. I am ALMOST caught up. FINALLY! We were at her house forever, [she always has Jack Johnson playing in the background. my favorite.] then we emailed and went to target. We had a taco dinner, [my request, but dad... nobody makes them like you- yours are still the BEST!] taught her mom Deborah and then went home. It was a really good day.

[martes]

We had district meeting. Elder Petrie is such a great district leader, I always learn so much from him. He committed us to practice our Interactive Committment Based Teaching style and to role play that in companionship study & to make sure we were having effective companionship and personal studies. Those were good refreshers for us. After district meeting we went to eat at El Caporal. . . it's a good place, good mexican food. We taught Vicki at 3:30. Vicki is one of our spanish investigators. She sees a lot of dreams and tries to interpret them... we don't.It makes it really hard because so much of her decision making weighs on her dreams... I think she just eats too many spicy things right before she goes to bed. . . I know that dreams are a way the spirit can teach us. . . But God is a God of Clarity, Light and Knowledge. He does not work through confusion and doubt- that comes from Satan. We teach her about the spirit: how to recognize it... how to follow it and the teachings of the prophets in the scriptures concerning how to receive revelation from God.

We then stopped by the Nevarros home... they're also spanish investigators. They have been taught for about a year. The elders, Elder Trauntvein and Elder Smith... are AmAzing. They have so much faith. I just learned the other day that they wake up at 5:30 or 6 [at the latest] every day to study. No wonder they're so faithful. To get up early is a BIG deal, 6:30 is early enough for me. ANYWAYS, they just started teaching the Nevarros again, and by the end of the lesson the Nevarros were willing to stop meeting with missionaries from the Jehova Witness church. They recognized the spirit they felt and wanted to change. That was a week ago. Their lesson with them on Tuesday was also AMAZING. THey set baptismal dates with two of them... Bro Nevarro and one daughter Veronica. The mom was not home and Ericka wasn't ready to commit [elder smith said she told him she wants to read more of the BOM. He grew up with sisters and said, "I think actually she's just an insecure teenage girl, but instead of saying 'I'm an insecure teenage girl', she said, 'I need to read more of the BOM'" It was hysterical, i still laugh at that comment. THe thing is... he was probably DEAD ON!

Our lesson was short and spirit filled. We sang joseph smiths first prayer as well. It was wonderful, we set a return appointment and left.

[miercoles]

we taught english in kenosha with the elders...

many of our appts cancelled...

we had the BOMB.COM lesson with amy. [yes i just said that brittany, i am around 19 year old boys all day, give me a break] She knows she needs to be baptized. She is getting closer and closer... and now she's even PRAYING... woo hoo. She told us she has her "happy place" where she likes to pray. We taught her she could pray anywhere and especially before bed at night in her room. She said she'd try it.

Sister Johnson went on splits with sister Stephanie Aquino and taught Trinidad. It was our first lesson with her and it went very well. Then we all played volleyball... WE HAD 3 INVESTIGATORS THERE. . . marka, amy and jessica.it was amazing.

[jueves]

we did our normal study routine in the morning... 1 hour for each personal, companionship and language study. We took a break and went to Temika King's for a really good lunch. She made my favorite thing she makes... frozen fruit with chocolate melted all over it. AmAzing. Then we went home and did our weekly and transfer planning. We taught Janae at 4p at her house and then JEssIcA at the Brigg's.

Jessica is a cool girl. We met her one day after leaving Marka's house after an appt. We were walking really fast to the car, we were late to our next appointment. I saw her and another girl walking a little puppy in their yard out of the corner of my eye. I felt like we needed to talk to her, but we were LATE so I tried to just keep going. BUT I HAVE DONE THAT BEFORE AND I LOATHE THAT FEELING so now that I was already at our car with my companions close behind I stopped and turned around ... i think they thought i was crazy [later i found out they felt it too]. I thought "think fast, think fast" I needed an "in" for this conversation so these girls who saw us leave and now come back didn't think we were creeps! SO I said, "CUTE PUPPY!" haha I told them I just couldn't get in the car withought talking to them. Jessica was very interested. She said she had been looking for "churchy people". It was amazing. HOw thankful I am for the Holy Ghost. What a blessing it is in my life.

SO we taught Jessica the Restoration at the Brigg's home. She loved it, didn't accept a baptismal date, but came up with the idea of reading a chapter a day from the Book of Mormon on her own.

After that lesson we visited the Cobrales Family. I love them.

[viernes]

we taught english....

WE TAUGHT VERONICA and ERICA NEVARRO with the Flores girls and it was such a powerful lesson. The elders left them Jacob 7 to read. We reveiwed that and then taught about the For Strenght of Youth Pamphlet. THe promises the First Presidency leave for those who follow those standards are amazing. Erica committed to be baptized November 28th. This is a BIG deal. Having the Flores girls made all the difference.

we taught vicki. she's the same. we need to do something different, we just don't know what yet.

WE had DInnER with the Sandovall's. He is from Guatemala, he is the principal of a spanish immersion school. pretty cool idea those immersion schools. Him and his mom made us some good Guatemalan food. I love his family... he has cute little girls.

[sabado]

we played soccer. we had the best turn out ever. so many people there! the nevarro girls came!!!

WE then spent some time with sister birch. Sister johnson is going to russia on wednesday so she took us to the Milwaukee Art Museum to see the Andy Warhol exhibit [sister johnson's choice]. We then had lunch at the Milwaukee Public Market... yum yum. I love milawukee. We came home in time to go back up to the Adult session of Stake Conference. Sister Sievert, our investigator came. It was such an uplifting conference.

[domingo]

we fasted today ... the elders had another great lesson with the nevarros saturday night and committed them to fast that their mom/wife would accept the gospel and allow the family to be baptized together. THey agreed. I'm telling you- these elders are AmAzing. They said at the beginning of the lesson they thought the Nevarro's were going to drop them... by the end they were FASTING... that's faith my friends. I love fasting with the purpose. I felt the spirit so strongly all day today. The gospel is AmAzing.

WE had stake conference in milwaukee. Jessica came and loved it. I loved it. THis is a great stake. WE had dinner with the Petriceck's after. Our time was short so we left a homework assignment instead of teaching our lesson. Brother Petriceck has been investigating for a long time. His wife is a member. We hope to bring a SpArK that he hasn't felt before.

We ended our night with a Chapel lesson tour with Amy. It was Amazing. We taught her lesson 3: The Gospel of Jesus Christ using the Baptismal Font and the Chapel. She loved it. The spirit was so strong. Sister Johnson gave an amazing invitation from the savior, Matt 11, to be baptized. Amy knows she needs to commit. She is scared to give us her WOW issues : coffee, cigarrettes and alcohol. I know it will not be a problem once she makes up her mind. I love LOVE love being a missionary!

I love you all... thanks for all you do for me! YOu are THe BEst!

Have a Good week!

Rocky I am DYING to know where you get your call to! YOu Better OPEN that SUCKER the same day you get it!

Love,

sister Pamella Jo Black

PS

dad: you dead mon? [said in cool runnings accent] email me

grandma! i loved your letter! I will write you back!

Reg... loved the email... there is a letter coming your way too!

What sets us apart?

This week we had mission tour [big name for zone conference w/ a gen authority]. Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the 70 came to visit our mission. He is AmAzing. He told some really funny jokes, he won our favor right away with those. I love him. He addressed that very question... WHAT SETS US APART FROM OTHER RELIGIONS? Well, we believe that man in born neither inherently good nor evil, rather man is born whole and innocent. We then use our God-given gift of agency to choose whom we will serve. I learned a lot from that talk. How grateful I am for the conditional and unconditional blessings of the atonement. The atonement is truly the greatest news we can share with anyone... that no matter what we will all be resurrected, we'll all live eternally with our bodies, and that we are all cleansed from original sin. Everyone will receive those gifts. Now we have the opportunity to do all we can to live righteously and Christ, being the mediator, will make up the difference. Heavenly Father wants us back, we must do ALL we can to go towards truth and light. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! The gospel is good news! I truly couldn't be a missionary for any other church. We have the truth and we have the proof... without the Book of Mormon and the knowledge we have of prayer, how do people really know things are true?

I loved mission tour. Madison, Milwaukee north and Milwaukee south stakes were combined. It was wonderful. I got to see all my former companions except for sisters roth and behrends, who were having mission tour the next day. There were eight of us sisters there. At one part of one of Elder Hafen's talks he was speaking about how we honor Eve. Eve paved the way, Eve took the first step. Then on a side note He talked for a minute about women and how we need not feel any less for not having the Priesthood and divine roles etc. It was at that very moment when the WHOLE ROW OF 8 elders [who all serve here in racine/kenosha] sitting behind us started DYING laughing. Why might you ask? Oh it's because EVERY little thing I do ends up being some kind of joke about myself not having the Priesthood. IT was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. The Barrett's were sitting right in front of us and sister Barrett asked what all that was about. I told her and she laughed too. funny elders. JUST FOR THE RECORD: contrary to popular belief I do not want the Priesthood. I love the Priesthood, I respect all those who hold offices in the Priesthood, but I do not want to hold it myself. I have enough responsibility thank you very much.

The sisters all sang "Nearer My God to Thee" as the special musical number, it was pretty. Elder and Sister Alder are going home this month. I can't even believe it! I called sister alder quite often before my mission asking her questions here and there about coats and luggage and boxes, etc. I will miss the ALderS. I have grown quite fond of them!

As for the rest of the week...

[mon] PDAY! it was a really good pday too! we played soccer in the MUD and RAIN. It was the BEST! We also went to Kohls, I got 2 cute new shirts, I think it is time for a few new things, I haven't shopped in FOREVER! We printed pictures at Wal Mart and we spent some time with sister calderwood. i love her. We emailed and then we had appts with Vicki and the Davis'.

[tues] we studied. taught Marka, she is doing really well. She know the Book of Mormon is True and Jesus is the Christ. She just needs to marry her boyfriend! :) I love teaching her. We had dinner with the Spanish Elders at the Abbott's and then went to Culver's for custard. We took the english elders some custard too, they were both deathly sick with colds.

[wed] we went and taught english in kenosha. then we taught elena. Elena speaks only spanish. She works at the Centro Hispano so she comes to english class twice a week. She started reading a Restoration Pamphlet the Elders left there. When we started coming we asked her if she wanted to be taught and she was game. She is learning to read as she reads from The Book of Mormon each day. I love her. We had dinner with the Seivert's afterwards, sister seivert is not a member [though her kids both go to BYU-I and her son is about to go on a mission and her husband has been a member their whole marriage] and committed to READ and PRAY to know the Book of Mormon is True. That's a BIG deal! Then we played volleyball. Our investigator amy came.

[thu] mission tour- see above. then we ate at Noodles and Company, go there... get Wisconsin Mac and Cheese with Breaded Chicken... YUM! Then we had an AmAzing lesson with Amy. She is so faithful, she's had a lot of hard life experiences lately, I can't imagine life without my mom. She now knows that her mom is being taught in the spirit world what we are teaching her here! I love that!

[fri] english class. we taught suzie about the importance of going to church. we had the trunk or treat for the Kenosha ward and the branch! so fun!

[sat] HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Cleaning day for us... but our house is for sale so we clean for showings and open houses EVERY DAY. so we played soccer with the elders [FREEZING COLD AND SUPER MUDDY. way WINDY TOO!!!!] and then went to the calderwoods and wrote letters for the day and just hung out. We met the elders [and octavio], all eight that we serve with here, for PiZZa at Ruffalo's... so YUMMY!, best pan pizza EvEr! Then we went to the church and played a game called speed ball in the cultural hall with them. It is unsafe for us to proselyte on Halloween so we were asked not too. It was a wierd day... but fun!

[sun] we only had 2 hours of church, as opposed to the usual 6! the building is under construction so we just went to our two sacrament meetings. It was great to fast! Then we went to the Calderwood's for dinner and afterwards to the Flores for "pan dulce" and "chocolate". YUM! it was NoV 1st... Dia de los Muertes! A mexican holiday. FUN! They celebrate their dead, wierd, but cool. Study it ... i learned about it in HS.

It was an AmAZing WEEK. but then again, when don't I say that! i love being a missionary! I love all of you! I love my family and all of you who I consider family! Thanks for all you do for me!

Love, sister pamella jo black

ps ... the Blake's are moving in the next couple weeks, thus so are we [only not to UT with them! :] send all mail here:

SISTER PAMELLA JO BLACK
5651 Broad St Ste1
Greendale, WI 53129

Have a good week! YOu are aLl in my PraYerS!

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