April 28, 2014 - Lecanto, FL

Hola!

Hey well it sounds like everyone has had a pretty good week! That's good.

This week was pretty good for Sister Murphy and I. We had Sarah's

baptism of course. And that went very well. She was so happy and so

light during the whole meeting, and a lot of people from the ward

showed up, which was very nice too. Sister Murphy and I made a little

book for Sarah that had a bunch of notes in it that people wrote to

her during the baptism. She loved that so much! It was so cute her

little five-year-old daughter as she was watching the baptism when her

mom came up out of the water she said it's my turn I want to go next!

It will be fun in three years when Brianna gets to be baptized too!

This week we were also able to meet with our investigator Sylvia. Her

dad is in an active member who is just starting to come to church

again, but Sylvia was never baptized. She attends a Lutheran school

and has many questions that have gone unanswered. She likes meeting

with us because she feels that we can answer the questions that she

has. This last week her dad and her went to the Fort Lauderdale Temple

open house, she thought it was beautiful inside, unfortunately there

were a lot of people standing outside the temple that gave her

anti-Mormon literature. But she brought it with her to meet with us to

ask questions about it. She said that it all is very mean and that she

didn't believe any of it. We were able to talk to her about the

importance of temples and why we have temples. Sylvia is very

interested in this because her mother has passed away. She also asked

us about the 10 Commandments and what our definitions were for them.

We explained to her that we do not have definitions for the 10

Commandments nor do we add to them, but we just go off of what the

Scriptures say and how the prophets explained how we should live them

and what they need. Sylvia liked that because in her Lutheran

school they had added a bunch to the 10 Commandments and she doesn't

believe that that is how it should be. She is very smart and she

studies the Bible a lot so there is not much that will ever get past

her when it comes to discussing the Gospel. Everything we teach her we

are able to back up with scriptures from both the book of Mormon and

the Bible and she really likes that we are able to do that. She knows

and believes that the gospel is here and written in the plain text of

the Bible but that people don't understand how to read the Bible, and

she is right.  The hard thing is that Sylvia is 13 years old and so

it's hard to meet with her as often as we would like. But we are

making progress with her.

We also have met a couple named Keri and Frank this week. We were able to teach them the message of the restoration. It went pretty well and

we are hoping to meet with them again very soon. They are both working

and are very busy so this could be a challenge too.

This next week Sister Murphy and I will be tracting a lot. We haven't

had much time to do any finding because we've been teaching so much.

It's been nice to be so busy teaching, but we do have to find more so

that we don't run out of people to teach. Haha

This Saturday we have a service opportunity as well. We will be

helping to build a habitat for humanity home. It should be fun.  We

will be building all morning on Saturday, our whole district is coming

too so it will be nice.  I will be sure to take some pictures for you

all.  So I'm pretty sure I am the least lucky person ever when it comes to

cars. This morning we took our car to the Chevrolet dealer because our

car is on recall. A lot of the Chevy cruises, which is what we drive,

are having broken and fractured axles. Not such a good thing for us,

seeing as we are off roading in the dirt half the time trying to find

people out here. We got a rental car today and it's pretty nice. It's

a Chevy Malibu though, so hopefully it doesn't have any problems with

it as we’re driving. Today Sister Murphy and I are going to stop by

Payless to look for shoes. She needs some new ones because hers are

falling apart, and my black ones are falling apart as well, so I might

look for some I don't know if I’ll  get any now though.

So mom you asked about the skirts that you see in my pictures, well

recently we had a sister's conference; I think I talked about it in

another email. But they had a bunch of donated clothes there and we

were able to pick out some skirts and things to have. It was really

nice. Sister Murphy and I also went to the thrift store last Monday

and I found three skirts for three dollars. There actually all very

cute considering, and I only got them for a dollar, each which is nice.

There isn't much else going on here this week, we have a busy week

ahead of us though. We have a few potential investigators that we will

be meeting with, hopefully we can start to teach them on a regular

basis.  I hope you all have a good week as well, love you and talk to you soon!

Quilting Service Project

Sister Jamison

April 21, 2014 - Life in Lecanto,Fl

Hey family, 

So this week was shy of crazy. We did have a good week though!:) Sarah is doing pretty well. She ended up relapsing the other night with her smoking and that was such a bummer, but she hasn't smoked since then and we are praying so hard that she won’t relapse again this week so that she can be baptized. I think she will make it though, she is strong! I also went on exchanges this week with the STL's and it was way fun because Sister Parker, my roommate from the MTC, is my STL and we had a blast haha it was like the good old days being in the MTC. We had a lot of catching up and it just blew our minds how fast our missions are going, last time I slept in the same room with her was a year ago haha crazy! We met some fun people as we went out tracting. We went to find a potential investigator and they ended up not being interested at all, so as we were walking back to the car we saw a 90 year old woman trying to power wash her driveway, well the machine wasn't working and she was getting super frustrated and threw it to the ground and so we ran over to help her. We fixed the hose connections and everything and then I ended up power washing her driveway in a pencil skirt haha so I have never power washed before and I didn't expect it to be so strong when it came up and so when it turned on it about flew out of my hand, but I got it under control, my arms are super sore now though haha I also spoke in sacrament meeting as well. That went pretty well I think, they had me speak on the apostasy which I thought was super random seeing as it was Easter, but I ended up tying it back into the atonement because no one wants to hear a talk about apostasy for 20 minutes on Easter or ever for that matter. Our ward mission leader also got released yesterday, which was a shocker because he’s been in for less than a month. Well let’s just say that was all MEGA DRAMA. He has a problem sustaining his leaders if you know what I mean and he wants to do things his way and he was sort of destroying missionary work here.  He also called the area 70, Elder Munns, to complain and President Berry, wow it was crazy but he's released now and we have no MWL. But they should call someone soon I would think. Well its getting to be summer here ( lol no such thing all year is summer here) but it is raining everyday and by raining everyday I mean massive stormy hurricane with rain so heavy the whole state of Florida no longer needs to pay their water bill because they can shower outside without being seen, everyone all of a sudden has a pool in their back yard around 3 in the afternoon, and Beverly Hills turns into Florida’s state water park with worlds largest downhill slip-in-side... The humidity is bad too, I always feel like I'm suffocating when I walk outside. But good thing I only have to live through a summer here one more time! Well I am sorry this email is a tad short, but I gotta get going! Love you!

 The main roads are paved - the smaller ones, off the main roads, are dirt.

 This is why we have a car - everything in Lecanto is very hilly.

My morning view.

Sister Jamison!

April 14, 2014 - Lecanto, Florida w/Sister Murphy

Hey family how are you this week? Well as you know I have been

transferred! I am now in an area called Lecanto. It's way out in the

countryside and it is beautiful out here! It's very green like being

out in the forest (literally) and it's all rolling hills. We don't

bike out here because it's way to hilly and it would take a life time

to get anywhere. We also cover 3 cities - can you believe that?

Beverly Hills, Clearwater, and Inverness and part of Lecanto area are the cities we cover. There is a very small chunk of nice homes out here

but pretty much all the rest is just very run down. A lot of the

people that live here are very old so that's a little weird too.

Everyone out here is a total country bumpkin too. The other day when

Sister Murphy and I were tracting we kept getting comments on how nice

our teeth were, well that's because everyone out here is missing half

of theirs. It was quite surprising haha. Our ward is nice too, but

very old. About 90% percent of the ward is over the age of 75, there

are 3 or 4 youth in the ward and 2 babies. I was way surprised by that

I didn't think such a ward existed. Our church building too is out in

the middle of the forest, you drive down a long street that winds

through the trees and them boom huge church building haha my companion is cool too. Her name is Sister Murphy and she is from Utah of course.  She is 19 and has been out for 3 months now, so super new! She is already such a good missionary though. We get along great so that's nice.

This week was pretty awesome; we had a lot to do! We have a girl we’re visiting named Sarah who wants to be baptized so we set it up for April 26th, she has a smoking habit, but we are helping her to kick that. She is doing really well. I think she will make it on the 26th, it is just going to take a lot of prayers! She has a way cute daughter named Brianna , she is so rambunctious. Every time we go over to visit she runs into me full force and wants me to swing her around. It's so hard not to be able to play with little kids! So I always have to tell her no.

We did have a cool experience this week. We had a lesson with an investigator and we were on our way to the park to meet her and she ended up canceling at the last minute and so we decided to stay and contact at the park even though there was only like 4 people there.  We ended up meeting a guy named Darien. He is 20 and a nice kid. He thought that it was cool that we were on a "missions trip" and he started to talk about how he would like to do one but that there are so many churches that he doesn't know which one he would do it for. He says he is confused as to why there are so many churches, which lead perfectly into Sister Murphy and I being able to testify of the Restoration. We showed him the Mormon Message: the message of the Restoration and then talked about how Joseph Smith had many of the same questions that he has and how he turned to his Heavenly Father to get the answers that he was looking for. We were able to set a return appointment with Darien for later this week. So we are excited for that!

 We also had an awesome Sisters Conference this week, where all the sisters in the mission gathered. It was fun. They had different workshops were we learned how to eat healthy, exercises, hairdos, how to do laundry better and remove stains, etc. and then how to do simple mending things when our clothes tare. So that was nice. Then after that we ate lunch and had a Sister Missionary mall set up where people from all over our mission donated old clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc. So that we could shop and get a few things. I got 2 way cute skirts and a dress, so I was pretty happy about that, and then Sister Murphy and I loaded up on soap and tooth paste, things  like that  because it is so expensive to buy so that was nice. It was really fun and I got to see all of my companions and some ward members from the Lake Reams ward was there so I was happy to see them!

Well I think that I am going to like it out here in Lecanto. The ward is kind of hard to be at, but the area is cool and very big, and it is very pretty out here, and Sister Murphy is great so that will be fun! I am way glad that I have a GPS though so I won't get so lost, everything is just trees and then all of a sudden there are buildings in the trees haha the main stores like walmart are more out in the open, but everything here really is just super hidden, I kind of feel like I am camping out here, even our apartment is out in the trees. I still can't get over the people here, everyone is always half dressed and has a gun strapped to their hip, I feel like I am learning another language too, I haven’t decided what its called yet, but I'm pretty sure its not English, just a mix between old person, hillbilly, southern, and throw in some Spanish and there ya go! And everyone out here thinks Sister Murphy and I are 60 pounds underweight which is so not true haha and they all want to feed us feed us feed us! Ah gosh I am going to have to work at not gaining weight especially since we don't bike! haha

Well anyways that's the fun for this week. Remember to say your prayers and don't walk out the door without your testimony. love you all!

Sister Jamison

P.s. Tyler is way super the cutest I love him

April 7, 2014 - Last day in Viera w/Sister Kreiberg

Hey family,

Wow this week sure passed by quickly. Well this is the first week of the new transfer and I am getting shipped out of Viera tomorrow. I am pretty sad because I have loved Viera so much. Honestly probably my favorite area that I have served in (ironic right?). The ward here is seriously amazing and serving with Sister Kreiberg has been a blast. We have been saying by to the members for the past few days and that is the worst. It is so sad because I will never be there again in the same way that I am now. It is so crazy how fast time flies by. Sister Kreiberg is going to stay here and train, she will do a good job. Last night we went over to Bishop Grover's home to say goodbye, he is such a good bishop and just all over great person and so is Sister Grover. I love them and their family very much. Tonight we are going to eat dinner with the Muller/Schafer family.  Brother Muller is originally from Brussels, Belgium, he met Sister Schafer over in the US and they had all their kids back in Belgium. They are probably the funniest family that I know, Brother Muller gets his words and phrases mixed up all the time, kind of like Sister Kreiberg does its way funny. They also have 2 really cute little girls that they adopted from China and they are seriously beautiful and so sweet. I am excited; it will be a good way to end my time here in Viera.

How did you all like conference? Wasn't it great? I liked how Elder Scott talked about how to teach the gospel simply, I think that is one of the most important lessons that I have learned as a missionary. Is that the gospel is simple. Something very cool about conference too is that in my Book of Mormon reading I have just read through Alma Chapters 17 to 35 this past week and it is crazy to see how hard hearted the people are in the Book of Mormon, they did not want to hear the truth.  And when they did they would get so upset and chase out or kill those that believed in God. As I was listening to general conference all I was thinking was yes I agree with the messages and yes I can see that what the apostles and prophets are speaking is truth from God. After one of the sessions of conference a member read something to us that was online about a person who did a report about the conference. Hearing how the reported view this conference was more than shocking to me. It is so true what the apostles have said. So many people want a comfortable God, one that doesn't make them work hard or push for anything. I am so grateful for a living day prophet and apostles. I know that they truly were called form God to help lead and guide us in these last days that can be so confusing! I hope that you all had a chance to watch and if you didn't go online to LDS.org and watch it!

This morning we had some fun as a district, we went out to Cocoa Beach and to Ron Jon's surf shop. That was fun and the weather was perfect. We had to get there at 6am because we can't be at a beach past 8:30. We played Ultimate Frisbee and soccer and then the elders had a sand throwing battle, obviously none of the sisters got in on that. I still need to go home and pack, that's going to be a big job haha but we are going to Nathans later for a pizza party to say goodbye that will be fun too. Well I better go for now! Talk to you next week! Love you all!

Sister Jamison