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.