February 24, 2014

Sydnie's new address is listed below!

Hey!

Thankfully I haven't lost my driving privileges...yet! Hopefully I won't, but the rules are really strict and as I have been talking to other missionaries a lot of it is because a lot of people weren't being very careful or following the rules for cars, so one of those situations where one person ruins it for all of us. :( But it will all work out!

So to answer the  question, I was transferred! I am now in Red Oak, Iowa, and I am serving in the Shenandoah ward. It's the farthest east ward in our mission. I am with a different Sister Harris than my trainer and it honestly has been really fantastic! We were in the same district for the last 2 transfers and the first day we met we (and everyone else) said that we would never be companions because we were too good of friends and we wouldn't get anything done, and we would burn the town down. Naturally the Lord has a sense of humor. I think when we first found out we would be together no one believed it would actually happen. But so far it has been really great, and yes we are getting stuff done!

Anyway Red Oak is a really small town but it reminds me a little of inner city Ogden but without the Crime problem. It's mostly really old houses, on the grid system.

But there aren't a lot of stores and it's pretty far from any other town. Even to the church it's about 25 miles and we have a lot of other really small towns in our ward.

There are also Elders in this ward and we pretty much just split up the ward and each serve in a couple towns I guess, still trying to figure that out. I have never had to also work with Elders in an area before.

We live with an older couple, the Nix's. They are in their 60's and actually remind me a lot of the Bucksbees! Haha they are really nice. I guess they sent a picture to both mom and dad. I don't know them really well yet though, but I am working on it. They both work a lot and are only really home weekends, which is when we are busiest...

Saying goodbye to Plattsmouth ward was really hard. I truly felt like they were family. It's weird because I do miss it and it's hard just moving on so quickly, but I got to say goodbye to a lot of people which was great but really sad, some were worse than others. Sister Reveillac was probably the hardest, along with a lot of the less actives that we worked with. And with a lot of people I couldn't say goodbye but we just talked about how Stake conference is in a couple weeks, and we will see each other then instead. There are definitely a lot of pros and cons to being in an area for such a long time. Funny thing is Shanna Goldsberry is now going to be in Plattsmouth with Sister Bynum. It's really weird!

Thanks, love you guys!

 

This is my new address:

700 N. Broad Street

Red Oak Iowa 51566

February 18, 2014

Enjoy Sydnie's most recent email!

Hey!

The weather here has been amazing too! We just got back from having a lesson outside! It was 65 degrees! And it is supposed to be like that all week here, and most of last week we walked around with our coats in our arms lately, or just not even bringing them. It's so nice to have a break from the cold! For however short the break will be. The only bad thing is all the puddles from the melting snow but even that's not too bad. The other night it snowed like 2 inches but it was completely thawed by the time we left the house in the morning!

We usually go to the retirement center once a week. In fact, last week we were there and one of the residents, Eloise, (she is one of my favorites) came up to us and just said "They have you working again today?...Slaves! " It was so funny! I love the service we get to do. Sadly lately a lot of it has been helping people move.

This last week was actually really great! We have a couple new investigators. A family in our ward invited their son's friend and his family over for dinner, the Ramos's. The interesting part was that they are from El Salvador. Rare in Nebraska! The family in our ward has spent a lot of time in Portugal because the dad is from there so most of them know Portuguese and the Ramos family speak Spanish. The kids speak fluent English but not the parents, so we had 3 different languages going all night. They had actually met with missionaries before but it had been a long time ago. We had a lesson about the Book of Mormon and we offered them a copy and one of the kids asked if they could have a copy too. We had to get a Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon for the mom but we are going over tonight to give it to her. The Spirit was so strong during the lesson. We were all teaching in a little of each language so they could hopefully understand. It was so cool!

We also met a family that is wanting to talk to us more. They are pagan, druid, and definitely interesting. They believe in nature spirits and the wife believes in elves and fairies. They are the nicest people! They have 2 little boys, like 5 and 6 years old. We were trying to teach them and one of the boys kept wanting to show me his toys. He finally just came over and gave me a hug and then a couple minutes later he came over and just asked "Can I give you a kiss?" We all were dying, we were laughing so hard!

There was also a little boy getting baptized this week, so mostly we were just trying to get our investigators to come to watch the baptism, but no one made it.

The biggest news: they changed our miles rules. Now we get a weekly allotment and if we go over our miles for the week once, we get our driving privileges taken away for 2 transfers. And if we go over two weeks, we get our driving privileges taken away for the rest of the mission. So we have been crazy stressed over that; it's definitely an adjustment.

The sad part this week one of my favorite families in the ward is moving to Japan with the Air Force and our ward is so small that they had almost like a receiving line on Sunday to say goodbyes. And everyone in the ward was crying. And it was so hard to say goodbye to them. Then I thought how hard will it be if I have to leave this week? We find out Thursday what happens, but I know that whatever does happen that it will be what needs to happen, whether I stay in Plattsmouth of whether I leave. We shall see!

Love you guys!  

February 10, 2014

This week's email! Enjoy!

Hey! 

Sounds like the Olympic party went great! That is one thing that I am really missing right now. Sister Reveillac has been watching it and we just have to tune it out but she does update us, which is nice.

The weather has been pretty crazy but it's been like that for a while now. I never thought I would get acclimated to 5 degree weather!

This week was pretty good. We had the chance to do another mutual activity. We showed a missionary video and talked a lot about the resources that they can use to be missionaries at school and with their friends. I love when we get to do stuff with YM/YW. They are such great kids and since the ward is so small, they are a really tight-knit group of kids. It's so cool to see.

We also had the chance to watch the Joseph Smith movie with a family that we have been working with. He is not a member and she is less-active. He has had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and was taking the lessons but has kinda dropped off taking them, so hopefully this will kick-start it again.

We have done a lot of service this week too: shoveling driveways and helping people move. Two families in our ward are moving out this week so we have been doing a lot of service and we did get to go to the assisted living center. They don't know us by name but they do know we are missionaries and that we come to help with activities. It's pretty much the same group all the time so we get to know them pretty well. It's lots of fun and always entertaining.

Love you guys!

February 3, 2014

Here's this week's email from Sydnie!

Hey!

Glad you liked the car wash story, the whole thing was really funny. Slightly terrifying while it was happening, but now i'ts super funny. However, I don't suggest trying it.  

The weather has been in the 40's like once last week. The problem is the day before and the day after are in the teens or 20's but the windchill is about 15 degrees colder than the temperature. Once it gets to about 0 degrees you can't tell the difference between that and -15. It's just cold.

I love working at the assisted living center. I have really been able to get to know them and it's been lots of fun to get to know them so well.

This week we were able to have exchanges and with fast and testimony and other experiences this week, my testimony of the scriptures has grown so much! There are so many people that need the scriptures (doesn't matter if it is the Bible or Book of Mormon). They just need to hear them so much. We were able to meet one less-active that we have been trying to get a-hold of my whole mission. She isn't interested in the Church, so much, but she really wants to do a Bible study with us. You never know what will help someone. Then on Sunday, a sister that was less-active (but has been coming back) bore her testimony about a lesson that we had with them the previous week about family scripture study. Even in our interviews with President Weston a couple weeks ago he told me to read the scriptures the rest of my life daily for 30 minutes, that it will bless my life more than I could imagine. It was really cool. Even on exchanges, we had the chance to read the Book of Mormon for the first time with one of their investigators and she loved it. The Spirit was so strong! It was so cool.

Thanks, love you guys! 

January 27, 2014

Here is this week's email from Sister Huss!

Hey!

I do have another companion. Her name is sister Bynum. She is from Oregon and also doesn't like the cold nor is used to it. The way temples work is way different here, I just wish that we got to go more often. But I just have to be grateful that there is one in my mission and that we do get to go!

I also wish that our less-active's husband would at least let us in, but at least we get to keep coming over. She is really pretty strong. She really wants to be really involved with the Church but she also has a lot of faith that eventually he will come around. No one knows what the sudden shift in his views are all about. Actually, last summer it was him that would talk to us and she would try to ignore us but now she is the strong one and he avoids us as much as possible. It's so weird but the Lord has a timing for everyone!

This week was a pretty regular week. We did have interviews with President Weston, which was really good. We have them every other transfer just to make sure that everyone is doing okay and to check if anyone needs anything. He is really amazing and so close to the Spirit! He said answers to questions that I didn't even know I had and he is just so understanding.

Super funny story. So, we are supposed to get our car washed every week even if it's super cold. So we went in and got a car wash. This car wash has 2 garage doors: one to go into the entrance and one to exit the car wash. We got done with the car wash and were trying to go through the dryer, just waiting on the garage door to go up. We even did an emergency back up (we are supposed to have our companion help back up us always) and tried to get a sensor or something to go off. We literally got stuck in the car wash! I got out and found out the exit door had gotten stuck about 6 inches up. We tried to get it to go up and it wouldn't. We didn't want to call 911 because it wasn't yet an emergency. So we called the ward mission leader... the only person we could think of. And he told us to call 911. We called and they called the gas station and came. They tried to get the door up. They ended up pushing an emergency door to get the entrance door up and Sister Bynum had to back me up out of the car wash...  

We are still helping out at the assisted living center and today actually got to help out with a winter carnival with all sorts of carnival games. They are so funny and it's been a great opportunity to get to know all of them and see all of their personalities so much! It's fun to see the regulars that you know well too.

Well, thanks! Love you!