Ohhhhhh do I have some news for all of you. Buckle up.
Utica Uniques
---> We had 70 degree weather this week. It was fantastic.
---> I ate GREENS! A NY specialty.
---> The author of Wizard of Oz was born in Fayetteville, NY. The side walks there are painted YELLOW!
TRANSFERS
Transfer calls came early for this tripanionship of ours.
President called to inform us that our Triple Trouble Trio is soon going to be split. Sister Love-landdd is heading back to Liverpool and will be follow-up training another visa waiter that is waiting to go to Brazil.
Okay are you ready?
Sister Thao is..... STAYING IN UTCIA.
Which means....
I am getting booted! :(
hahah and guess where I am going! SARATOGA SPRINGS! haha! How ironic huh? I giggled and thought of C Dizzle. :)
Oh, and there's more. I am going to be a Sister Training Leader with a Sister Seader. haha what Presdient?
I was completely and utterly shocked. I WAS NOT EXPECTING EITHER OF THOSE THINGS. I had a mini panic attack and then felt the Holy Ghost calm me down and tell me there's something more that I need to be doing right now somewhere else.
I am SO sad to leave Utica and the ward here. I didn't realize how attached I was to this place and the people here. This will definitely be my place of birth in NY forever. I am also sad that I won't be here for the baptism on Saturday for Alieanna, but I am happy that
Sister Thao gets to stay and see it happen because I know how important that was to her to be here for it. I am super pumped to go to Saratoga and be an STL. The past couple weeks I have felt like I have been dragging my feet a little, so I think that Heavenly Father knew
I need a bit of a push to get running again. I don't have many details about "Toga" as the natives call it, other then IT IS SO PRETTY THERE. Haha that's what people keep telling me anyway. So, yay for prettiness!
LAST SUNDAY IN UTICA
A sister from the ward who was supposed to talk in Sacrament yesterday called us Saturday night around 8:30 ish asking if one of us would talk for her because her back was killing her and she didn't think that she would be able to come to church. Sister Thao spoke a couple of weeks ago and Brother Mueller (2nd counseler in Bishopric) asked Sister Loveland to speak. ( I was a little butt-hurt over that since she had literally only been here for 72 hours prior to him asking her ) hahah so anyway, I told Sister Banas I would cover for her. She's so funny she said, "I thought to myself, well I'll call the missionaries. They always know what to say!" haha it was cute.
So. I had pretty much the morning before church to prepare for a 15-20 minute talk on Jesus Christ.
You could say I was a bit stressed out about it.
I decided to talk on the many names and titles that Jesus Christ has. President McConkie would always give a "Jesus thought" at the end of trainings so that is where my idea came from. When I went through the Bible Dictionary and a talk by Boyd K. Packer I came up with 25 titles. I decided to talk on just 3 of them. Rock of Heaven, The True Vine, and Light and Life of the World. I honestly couldn't tell you what I said because I was relying primarily on the Spirit. hahah I was SO nervous! I was shaking and my hands got all clamy and I just felt so sick! hahah so to calm my nerves I started off with a joke. "WHAT DID ONE BEE SAY TO THE OTHER BEE?" "WASABI" bahahahahahahahahahahah. I got sooooooo much beef for that after sacrament. hahahahahah! It was quite funny. I ended up speaking for 20-25 minutes and all was well. Elder B, one of the AP's said, Job well done. So that must mean that I did really good. ;) ha nah, I am just glad that I had the chance to speak. It was a perfect ending to a perfect two months with some of the best humans and members on Earth. Some tears were shed.
5 STAKE YOUTH CONFERENCE
We had a really really neat opportunity to attend a youth conference on Saturday. The theme was Mission Possible. When the youth checked in they all received mission calls for a period of 12 hours. heheh and then we had 6-8 different workshops set up for them to get a little taste of what missionary life is like. It was such a cool idea! We worked the language workshop. I got to teach the kids how to say "I believe in Christ" all day. I miss speaking Czech so much.. so I LOVED IT. At the end President and Sister Rogers got up and said a few words and then they opened it up for testimony meeting. I was just amazed and dumbfounded by how strong the youth are out here. I know for a fact when I was their age I was not bearing testimony like they did. WOW! One boy named Derik got up and testified about out his teacher asked him if he was mormon one day. And she said I knew it. You are different. Because of that small conversation, word spread through the grapevine and at the end of the day Derik had, "taught the entire school the Gospel" hahahah It was the cutest thing ever. We sang "Called to Serve" for the closing song and as we all stood, chills (the spirit) overcame my entire body and I felt so strongly that this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so true. period. And as I glanced out amongst all the youth I just pictured them all on missions, a part of Gods Army. I know with all my heart that God is preparing the youth of this church and we so desperately need all the "soldiers" we can get. Those kids taught me more then I taught them today.
GATORS
All of our investigators are doing well. Mark in the Park, Nate the Great, Alieanna Lynn (yeah we have the same middle name!), Jean Palmer, and Flavia. I didn't write much about the others, but I can tell you all about them when I come home. ha Just know that they are all spectacular! :)
The Lord is hastening His work and I am so grateful to be a part of it! He lives!
I love you all so much. Have a fantastic week!
Elizabeth Heiner has my heart.
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