June 24, 2013

Here's the latest from Sydnie! 6.24.13

There have been A TON of thunderstorms, but it is so cool! It surprises me how fast they come in and how hard they can be. We are actually having a pretty bad one right now but they are so cool! I have been told that our area of Nebraska doesn't really get tornadoes, which is reassuring! The humidity has steadily gotten worse, but I have been told a lot that it is nothing yet (the people are usually laughing at me too because they know its killing me!).

Sister Harris has been out for 7 months and I am the 3rd sister she has trained. I don't remember where she is from, but I know that it's just a few minutes outside of Denver and that she went to Columbine High School.

I think both my mom and dad have my current address, but I don't know it. Sorry! 

The Bucksbee's house is great! They have a good exercise room for us. Brother Bucksbee is in his 70's and Sister Bucksbee is in her 50's. They were both married before, but I think both their spouses died about 20 years ago. We do sometimes have dinner with them, but it's just if we can't have it with anyone else. But they buy some food for us, which is so nice!

As of right now, I don't  think I need anything. If you do want to pray for anything, pray that the members of our ward will have missionary experiences! This is the first time they have had full time missionaries in years, so they don't really know how to help us and they aren't really sure what to do and how much help we really need. But our investigators are doing pretty well! We do have 2 new investigators that I hope will be able to stay for the long run. One of them we met tracting. She is from Africa and came here to go to school. She is religious (everyone is in Nebraska) and she just goes to a Christian church, but she sounded really interested in the church. She did think that Joseph Smith's story was a little crazy, but most people do. The other one is someone the sisters have been in contact with, but last week we went to her house and she asked a lot of deep questions about death and where we go after this life and about the veil which was awesome! We didn't get to go into it a lot but we are going back this week

The down part of this week was a meeting we had with a new investigator. My first day here we met a couple. The husband had investigated the church in the 70's, prayed about the church, and  felt the ‘burning in the bosom’ as described in the Book of Mormon. He was about to be baptized when a former pastor sent him a lot of anti material. He didn't get baptized, but went to bible school instead. His big challenge to us was to come back. We told him we would but were very anxious all week. Monday night we met with him and it was one of the best and worst experiences of my life. He started off just trying to explain his belief, that you just need to believe in God to go to heaven. We sat and listened but he would not listen to us at all. He asked us multiple times to leave the church. He told us that Joseph Smith was a false prophet and that we would go to hell for following his teachings and the church. We sat there and just bore our testimonies. Sister Harris warned him that he knew the church was true and the reason the missionaries didn't come back is that all the missionaries knew that he knew it is true. He really started to try and Bible Bash with us but we left. As we were leaving, he said that he hoped he gave us something to think about at least with our church and that he hoped we at least questioned some things now. I tried not to laugh as I told him that he actually just strengthened my testimony of the church and he was really mad; but we tried to leave on the best terms as possible. We left him with our phone number and said if they had more questions to call and we would set up a meeting with the bishop for him.

We felt horrible after, just because after that experience the Spirit wasn't with us at all, so we called our ward mission leader and he gave us blessings. It was amazing just walking into their house we could feel the Spirit. Our ward mission leader and his family are so great! His wife is just as much into his calling as he is and she has told us that she wants to be a missionary so bad! Whenever we don’t have a dinner set up he just says "Then you're coming to our house for dinner", and his wife is totally fine with it! Their kids are hilarious! They couldn't understand my name so they called me Sister Hush and yesterday when we were over they came up with Sister Hush and Sister Harry as our nicknames!

Sister Sydnie Huss

June 17, 2013

Here's the latest email we have gotten from Sydnie. Enjoy!

Hey so sorry it was so hard to get in to my Facebook, and the whole email thing has been a mess too! I wrote you an email last week but it looks like you didn't get it because it was sent back to me so again I am so sorry! Thanks for starting the blog I think that will be really helpful and great! I actually had a wonderful birthday all my district made a big deal out of it they sang and made sure all of our teachers in the MTC  knew about it and we sang again in one of our classes. I did get the package you sent as well thanks!
Nebraska is wonderful! I got in on Wednesday and we stayed at a hotel on Wednesday and Thursday, while we had orientation and  all sorts of meetings with the mission President. It is so green here it blows my mind! We were able to go to the trail center, Winter Quarters cometary and we took safe arrival pictures outside of the Winter Quarters temple, it is so beautiful, and it was weird cause I remembered all the pictures of you and your family that were in your wedding video so I felt like I had seen it before. We didn't get to go inside but we get to go to the temple every other transfer if we are close enough. 

My companion  is wonderful! Her name is Sister Harris, she is from Colorado, and we are really similar which so far has been great! She is soo helpful! We are in an area called Plattesmouth, the major town is called Plattesmouth which is about the size of North Ogden. It also has a couple other small towns in it and the South end of Bellevue which is where we live with a member family the Bucksbees. They are an older couple and Brother Bucksbee is in the bishopric. They are so nice and it makes it way easier on us to live with members. 

It is super hot here! The humidity hasn't been too bad yet but it has been pretty stormy. The first night I was in Plattesmouth there was a huge storm with a crazy thunderstorm and tornado warning but we thankfully had just gotten back to the house when all of that started.   

This is the first time our area has had full time missionaries for a couple years because they usually work half of their time at the trail center at Winter Quarters and Half Proselyting and we are the only missionaries in the area, so we have a lot to do but a very small ward. We do have a couple investigators and we have found a couple people we met the last couple days that seem interested, so we will just have to wait and see.

Thanks for everything, love you guys!

Sister Sydnie Huss

Letter from the MTC

Here is Sydnie's first letter in the MTC! We have been having some communication troubles, but hopefully everything will be sorted out now. She left early this morning (6/12/13) for Nebraska! Enjoy!

Thanks so much for the package! I absolutly loved it! and I loved

everything inside the water bottle is great and you cant imagine how

much I have needed one, I was so mad I left it. but the one you got

will be great. I love the bracelet and the meaning behind it, it is so

special, and the address book was so needed I had been wondering how I

was going to get all the contact stuff since I was already here but

you took care of that without me even having to worry about it. I had

a wonderful birthday. My discrict is absolutly amazing and they were

constantly wishing me happy birthday they sang to me during class and

even wrote it on the whiteboard so that all of our teachers would also

know that it was my birthday and everyone was making jokes about it,

but it was great. I dont think anyone realized how big of a deal

birthdays are to me and my family until I opened your package and they

saw all of the stuff you sent but I loved it! You said that you didnt

read Kolby's letter but it was so great I was already crying but what

he wrote made me laugh so hard! he compared having a companion to

having a pet, that you have to keep it living and make sure to feed

and water it. all my roomates were laughing and my companion asked

what I would do if she got thirsty, how I would water her. I am going

to write him a handwritten letter back to what he wrote me and

hopefully it will be there like saturday or latest monday. oh and

guess who I ran into. sister Lexi Redd, she actually has been super

amazing I ran into her last friday and we talked for a minute.she

found where i live and came and saw me that night and we talked and

she wanted to make sure i was doing ok and brought me some snacks.

then on tuesday night she left my favorite snacks and a note for me

for my birthday, then she came by last night to wish em happy birthday

again.

I leave on Wednesday but we leave the MTC at 3 am, which sucks but

from everything I have heard I can call but it will be from the SLC

airport and that flight leaves at 6 am so let me know if you want me

to call it would be between 430 and 530 wednesday morning. I will be

able to do laundry and email againg on tuesday so just let me know.

with the whole email thing. I dont think that my email has been

deleted since its working now. when i got on today I had some emails,

and I have been able to get some dear elder letters from like Alesha

and Corinna so I dont know what is wrong with it. so the letter you

wrote in the package was the first letter I got.

well this week has been such a long week! it has been probably the

longest week ever it has been so hard but also so worth it! my

district is absolutly fantastic everyone gets along so well! its like

we are a family away from our families, every day is so structured and

even in your personal time the teachers have suggestions and things

they want you to do and to read so that has been really difficult as

well as going to bed at 1030 and waking up. we actually wake up at 6

so that we can all get ready and do the things we need to in the

morning. I am pretty sure the time rules were written by a man because

any woman would know you need more than a half hour to get ready.

other than that all the things you have heard about the MTC both good

and bad are most likely true, its been interesting in one way I just

cant wait to leave but on the other I dont want to leave this

enviornment

I do need som things from home but I think I am going to wait unitl I

get to Nebraska to make sure of what I need. but if you could have

Cici get me a bag like one that they have a the sister missionary mall

in provo that would be great. they dont have any here at the bookstore

and I am realizing that I really do need one before I go out. I can

send them money or you can give them money out of my account but if

she could do that and just drop it off here that would be great! I am

staying in the MTC campus so i will be able to get it really easily. I

would just ask Hayden to do that but we both know that would be a bad

idea. if Cici can do that it would be great! and if you can send me

their address or their email that would also be great!

Love You

Sister Sydnie Huss