Transfer 5 Week 6, July 5, 2010

Dear Fammawee,


Angela, you said you've got baptismal dates set. Who are your investigators? How are they doing? Well, first our baptism dates have been postponed, they didn't come to church yesterday, and I don't think they'll find a good reason to, unless we teach them with more pure doctrine. They were/are Kenny Priest, we met him contacting, (it's kinda like tracting only we don't knock on doors---tracting isn't my favorite thing in the world, it doesn't get many people to water's edge). Though one person that I met tracting did get baptized on Saturday . . . finally. For those of you who know Wanda Kelly, (Sister Blackham and I first set the date with her for January 16th, but it fell through because of her family).


The other is Linda Presley. We also met Linda contacting, there isn't much to say there. I feel bad that I don't have any good feelings about them, I know they're children of God, and that one day they will be baptized, but I'm just not feelin' it lately, I really hope I'm not getting into a funk.


How did Sister Hutchings happen to be with you for setting one of those dates? We had interviews that day, and President Hutchings, Sister Hutchings and one of the APs, Elder Hare (a Spanish elder) went on exchanges with us from 6-9. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome that she came with us.


Are you scorching in the heat or getting along okay? When our AC went out Sister Winder and I were drenched in our own sweat, and the apartment gave us no relief, in fact in the morning it was cooler outside than in.


Is your apartment air conditioned? FINALLY! We have our AC back on, and I can't tell you how happy I am! Though one nice thing about no AC for the weekend it helped Sister Winder and I get used to the heat, so being outside isn't as bad as it once was.


Have you been getting the snail mail letters I've been sending okay? Yes, I have, and if I could, I'd like to make a request for a talk, it's by Neil L. Anderson, it's called, "Repent that I may heal you." I really like it and would love to read it from time to time, like I do with the other talks I have.


Tell us anything you can think of to share. It's all interesting to us! Well, it really isn't that positive, but I feel that I need to get it off my chest so that I don't think about it anymore and I can focus on the work at hand. The ward here seems nice to us, but they would much rather help the elders than the sisters, and I'm not just talking about meals, we can handle the no meals thing. This ward is just so worked I think they need to remove the sisters for a time, I know that there are some less actives/excommunicated members who wouldn't like that, but the ward, in my own opinion, needs a swift kick in the rear. I know that those that we've been teaching haven't been to church, and honestly I don't blame them. In Gospel Principles the members trash other churches and at the same time they aren't, saying somefing like, "In other churches they don't have the priesthood authority of God," or they talk about things that only members would know, things that are too overwhelming for people looking into the church. I hope all of you try not to talk too in depth of the doctrines of the church when in R/S or where ever you may be. We are told in Preach My Gospel that we are not to teach all we know to our investigators. I honestly think that every member should have a copy of "Preach My Gospel."


Sister Winder and I must get our food for this week before one so that we can be ready for the mini-missionary that we'll be getting later today I'll write more later, but for now,


Love!

Transfer 5 Week 2, June 7, 2010

Q&A:

Angie, I'm anxious to hear more about you and Sister Winder. You knew her back in your Cookeville days, right?
Yup, Sister Winder and I knew each other in Cookeville, Tennessee before Sister Goff and I left for Dickson (I miss Dickson ) but I'll work hard here in McMinnville.

I'm especially wanting your local address. If you don't know it by heart already, I bet she does, so be sure to send it.
103 Main Street Apt 203 McMinnville, Tennessee I don't know the zip code (sorry) [It's 37110.]

How's the work in McMinnville? Have you got people you're teaching? How's the Ward and the members?
The work isn't really moving. There have been sisters in McMinnville for at least two years and the area is just worked to bits. There are a few people that we have in our teaching pool, none, however are progressing. The ward is . . . well I don't want to sound harsh or anything, but the ward is exhausted. They've had missionaries here forever and I think they just need a break for a litttle while.

I sent you other emails earlier this week, so be sure you answer ALL the questions!!

We heard about Meagan (CA Spanish speaking mission) and Tyler (MI mission) yesterday—Meagan is doing really well and is also learning Korean and teaching in that language. Tyler is also doing really well and shared how he and his companion are sometimes using sidewalk chalk to contact. They write a question on the sidewalk and then write: Want to know the answer? Call: (cell phone number). Sister Harrison said they got more than 20 phone calls after that! Can you believe it?!
Yeah, I can. Makes sense—get them thinking then they call, set up an appointment then we have them hooked. hehehe.

What's Sister Winder's first name?
Sister Winder's first name is Alexandra

How long has she been out?
She's been out for about a year now.

Did you have any other baptisms before you left Dickson? (I think John's was the last you wrote about.)
Anthony was the last baptism we had in Dickson before I got transferred. Anthony is John's great-nephew. He's a really good kid.

Did you take your bike with you or loan it to the Sister who needs one?
I loaned it to a sister who has just come. She didn't have a bike and she needed one so I let her have mine. I want to use it after the mission so I'm sure I can get it back.

Did Sister Winder already have a car or did you take the one from Dickson with you?
McMinnville already had a car, so Dickson still has Jose Jr.

How was the trip to McMinnville?
Long, It took over two hours to get here, and it shouldn't've taken that long. Those that brought Sister Winder and I to McMinnville took awhile to get us here.

What ward are you assigned to?
The McMinnville Ward (That really isn't a surprise, is it? The ward is named after the city.)

Transfer 4 Week 6, May 24, 2010

The following letter was mailed home:

Dear Family,

The site isn’t working so we cannot email our family or President Hutchings so I’m snail mailing this to you. I don’t know what to do about President Hutchings though. Perhaps ya’ll could help me out and give me some suggestions. :)

Jennifer got baptized on Sunday, right before church, so she was confirmed a member shortly after being dunked. She was a little scared, but after some coaxing from Sister Goff and me, she went to the water’s edge and was baptized by her fellowshipper, Brother Fredrick Bradley. It was awesome. I love being a missionary and seeing the change people make in their lives in order to come closer to our Savior.

I’m also grateful for the members in the wards I’ve been blessed to serve in. It truly is the member that helps with missionary work. No wonder President David O. McKay said every member is a missionary.

I’m so sorry that I haven’t been able to email. Something is going on with the server or the computers at the library. I’m not sure which one it is, but either way, Sister Goff and I haven’t had much luck with emailing people we need to.

Something else that happened on Sunday—we saw a family that we had been teaching (though really, they had just anti-ed us, and really it was him, Mike, that did it), they were at the church building to let our bishop know about Michelle’s mother, who had done some pretty horrible stuff to their kids. We realized why they tried to "save" us from our horrible church that the devil established. I’m sad that they would allow one person’s bad choice overshadow an entire church. Mike even claimed that it wasn’t his mother-in-law’s fault that he didn’t like the church, but it was how he responded that makes Sister Goff and I think differently. He spoke too soon; he didn’t pause and give it thought.

I would still like to receive talks from y’all; the first time I asked wasn’t the only time I wanted them. Also, please send me letters. I don’t like getting the mail and having it all be for Sister Goff. I too would like something in the mail. And if you could poke and prod my friends into writing me, specifically Amanda, that would be great. [I've cut a section about her feeling neglected by her friends.] Now however, let’s talk about something better.

President Hutchings is a man called of God. Last week he gave a challenge to set one baptism date, and though as hard and Sister Goff and I tried, we weren’t able to set a date with the two people we could think of setting a date with. On June 12, we will be having a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, he’s going to come to our mission and teach the whole mission; it will be Elder Ballard, who was President Hutching’s mission president in Canada.

I don’t like having to write y’all like this, it’s really rather lame, and I just don’t like it but when it’s the only other way, then so be it. I will be sending Lisa something for graduation, so enjoy it. :)

Sister Goff is working on her Southern. It’s funny because she told some members of the ward and they laughed whenever she said "y’all." I don’t know why that would be so funny, but I guess to them it was.

Mom, if you haven’t already would you put my mission address on my FB page. I’m sure you have but I just want to make sure. Thank you and I love you all.

Hopefully my next letter won’t have to be sent like this one and the one before.

Before I forget, transfers are next week and I’ll know hopefully by Saturday night if I’m being transferred to another area. I love you all. :)

Love,

Sister Angela Elizabeth Whitehead

Transfer 4 Week 2, April 27, 2010

I know I'm a day "late" in emailing y'all, but yesterday when we went to email, the internet was down. One thing I don't like about using public computers—you can't really rely on them—well, not as much as you could one that belongs to you. This week we had a baptism. And we set two, count 'em two dates, for April 16, and the 23rd. Both were referred to us by members. Members help us out a lot. I love getting referrals from members because if the person is interested they have an instant fellowshipper. Now on to your questions:

Angie, did you receive the package I sent you?
Yes, I have and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Are you still feeling pretty good?
Yes, I'm feeling great! I don't feel 100% yet, but I'm getting there.

Have you had a chance to look at your bike yet? Where is it, exactly?
Nope, I haven't. My bike is in the shed/garage thingy underneath the house. I'll try to check it tonight at dinner.

Did you cash the checks yet? If you are having trouble getting to a bank, then send them home and we can deposit them for you here. Whatever works best for you.
No, not yet We haven't found a national bank yet so I'll most likely be sending you them before long.

How did the baptism go yesterday?
The baptism was wonderful. John's fellowshipper, Brother Ford, was the one who baptized him. He (Brother Ford) was assisted by Brother Thomas. John has Parkinsons, so he needed assistance with his balance.

Were both John and Matthew baptized?
Nope, just John. Matthew isn't ready and our bishop has told us that we aren't allowed to teach him any more. We've given him to the Fairview Elders to teach. I don't think Matthew is liked in the ward very much, or at least his fellowshippers don't really like him. I never really cared for him—his only redeeming quality was the fact that he's a son of God. He joked one time that he had gotten into a bar fight and had gotten hurt pretty bad, he called us, and his two fellowshippers. He was joking, of course.

Who else are you teaching?
Jennifer and Dana (our baptism dates), Linda Sutton, Bo Kirby (Sister Kirby's son). These are our "good" investigators; the others we'll see if we are in the area. We really only cover Dickson, even though the ward covers more than just one town.

What kind of shopping are you going to do with Sister Carlson?
We didn't go shopping. Sister Carlson wasn't feeling good so we postponed it for a couple of weeks.

Harvester April 2010

Here's a link to the mission newsletter Harvester for April 2010. Both the bike accident and the baptisms of Sophia Barger, Angie Clauss, and Otto are mentioned.

Transfer 3 Week, 4 March 29, 2010

Saturday afternoon Lisa and I went up to Salt Lake to have dinner, visit the Fuchs, and go to the YW General Meeting in the Conference Center. Afterwards we visited with the Fuchs a little longer before heading home. So it was 9:50 p.m. when we rolled in and Bart was on the phone with someone. When he got off the phone we learned he had been talking to Angela’s mission president, President Hutchings, and that Angela had been in an accident on her bicycle. She and her companion were riding home after a baptismal service and she hit some loose gravel and took a bad fall. Maybe a tumble? I don’t know. She was in bad shape though and an ambulance was called. Apparently the hospital in Dickson did a scan on her and found a small tear on her liver. They determined she should be sent to a bigger hospital and in a second ambulance ride she ended up in Nashville in a hospital 20-30 minutes from the mission home. She was doing well, wasn’t particularly in any pain, and the hospital was keeping her over night.

Then I called Sister Hutchings Sunday morning and learned a little more. Angie had hurt her wrist. The tear on the liver didn’t appear to bleeding, or if it was, it wasn’t very much. They expect it to be able to heal on its own. The hospital was planning to do a full body scan on her sometime during the day and we’d hear more later. From a mission perspective, Angie won’t be on a bicycle any more during her mission. She’ll be in a full-time car area. Oh, and of course Angie was given a blessing and the entire mission fasted for her yesterday. And, she missed two additional baptisms Sunday night. It was quite the weekend for her!

I didn’t get a call yesterday afternoon/evening, so I called a little while ago and talked to Sister Hutchings again. This time I learned that Angie has broken bones in the wrist that’s messed up and Sister Hutchings was pretty sure it was the left wrist. There was some discussion about whether or not the wrist needed surgery and she would find out about that later on. [I later learned that she did break the left wrist and her left elbow. She was given a removable cast so she could work/exercise the elbow. And it was determined she did NOT need surgery.] In the meantime, she’s supposed to be picking up Angie this afternoon. In the full body scan they found some bones in her back that appeared to be broken and healed--must have been from a fall she's had. Anyway, that’s all I know for now. I faxed our DMBA insurance card to the mission home. It’s gonna be fun to see what kind of expenses we have from this! The important thing is that Angie is okay, in good spirits, and not in pain.

Transfer 1 Week 2, 28 December 2009

Questions to answer:

Did you find your check from Grandma and Grandpa?

So you had two breakfasts Christmas day; how did the rest of the day go?
How did everything go with Bill's baptism on Saturday?
Did your "grandma" companion get off to home okay?
Any people you are currently teaching, or are you in search mode?

Reply:

No, not yet. I'm still looking though.

We had dinner at an investigator's house it was really good.

Things went ok at the baptism. The water wasn't high enough so he had to be dunked twice. First time he almost hit his head, second time he almost didn't come up. Renee (Bill's wife) is really happy, they can now be sealed in a year, they're both really happy.

"Grandma" went to NC to teach her grandma the last lesson. so that she could be baptized today, she had slipped and had some coffee five days before, she won't be baptized for another two weeks. Sister Dickson won't be home until next Sunday, but I know she got to NC safely because she called last night when we were over at the Manley's (a recent convert family).

We're in both teaching people and search mode. We have one new investigator who we taught Saturday and she wants more scriptures to read, we left her with Enos that night. She called us yesterday asking for more to read.

I must get going love.