Sisters Collins, Welch & Jamison - January 12, 2014

These three lovely sisters were companions for a short while.  They spoke in Sacrament today in the Viera 1st Ward.

The Sisters at the Viera 1st Ward RS night

Sisters Jamison, Collins & Welch

Viera/Melbourne January 6, 2014

Hey, 

So this week has been pretty good. We have been working like mad to try and cover both the areas that we have.  It has been good though.  We have been able to meet a lot of LARC's and members in the Viera ward. Just trying to meet people and build up relationships right now. My new bishop is way awesome and has really been helpful with all the changes that have been going on as well as the ward mission leader.  But hopefully next week when the transfer ends and I get a new companion up here it will be a bit easier to balance the area and just focus on Viera and not Melbourne as well. 

We have had some great lessons this week though Sister Collins got sick and stayed at home with a member while Sister Welch and I went out.  We had a great lesson with a woman named Beatriz Garcia.  She is a Spanish lady who doesn't speak English to well, and so we brought a Spanish member to our lesson to help with translation.  We went in with the intention of teaching the plan of salvation, but after we said the prayer we went right into teaching about keeping the Sabbath day holy and the symbolism and importance of the sacrament.  The lesson was way powerful and during the lesson as we spoke about the atonement and how we access the atonement through the sacrament Beatriz started to tell us how that was one of her concerns, and how she was worried about taking the sacrament, because she didn't know if she was worthy or could.  We explained to her why we take the sacrament and that it is not for the already perfect.  She understood and started to cry as she realized the love that Jesus Christ has for her and that she could participate in the sacrament.  It was a very good lesson. She was able to come to church on Sunday with her daughter and she loved it so much.  She will be baptized very soon no doubt.  She really wants to get into the gospel, and going to church and learning about the gospel is already changing her life so much. I just wish she was in Viera, but that's ok. Well this week is going to be a lot of finding, we still have ton's of work to do in Viera, we don't really have anyone we are teaching there and so we are going to be tracting a lot.  That's always a joy; it will be good though, at least it's not too cold here. I am also on Facebook now, which is sooo werid, I always feel so disobedient when I am on.  The mission has it now and all the missionaries get an allotted time to be on.  Don't get mad if I have to delete any of you or not add you, P Ber is still trying to figure out exactly what he wants as far as the rules and our usage.  We are supposed to be on for an hour each day to do online proselyting, I still haven't figured out how to really do that, I am mostly still trying to remember how it all works and how to set up my own page.  But once things get rolling it should be better. But that is pretty much all for now! I love you all! 

Sister Jamison!

Viera and Melbourne - December 30, 2013

Hey family, 

I hope every one's doing well this week.  It was nice to talk to all of you on Christmas. I miss all of you so much already! I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and that Santa was good to all of you. Thanks for everything all of you sent me it was very nice.  Well I have been ET'ed again, just this last Friday; my companion has been struggling for the past few months and needed to be moved so that she could get some help.  So I was moved to the area right next to mine called Melbourne, the sisters in that area are great and we have been doing well so far.  We are currently taking care of Melbourne and Viera, and then in 2 weeks when the transfer is over and the new one starts I will get a new companion and the other sisters will stick to just Melbourne again.  So I'm just movin, movin, movin all over the place. We have been doing a lot of updating for our area book (which is a book that is records of the work you do in your area) so we have been working like mad to reorganize the Viera area book because it was a total mess and really out dated. We have also been going around to meet the bishop and ward mission leader, etc. to see what it is that we can do since we are basically white washing (that's when you and your companion are new to the area and neither one have any idea of what stage the area is at so you basically start over and refigure it all out) So it's going to be a lot of hard work coming up for us, we don't have any real solid investigators from what I can tell in Veira and a lot of the things have been falling through the cracks.  So we have been making a lot of plans to turn the area around and get things finally moving again. Of course that will be a lot easier once the beginning of next transfer starts and I will only have to worry about one area and we won't have to balance, but we are doing fairly well right now. We will also be on car share starting next transfer with the elders and so that will mean lots of biking for us.  Which is ok because I miss biking and I need the exercise really bad.  

As far as the area goes it is nice, we are fairly close to the beach but not right on it. The city is that Viera is in Melbourne if that makes sense haha, it is colder up here because we are so close to the beach, I haven't noticed that it smells like the beach though. A big zoo is right down the street from where the Viera apartment is, (because I am in the Melbourne one right now) and apparently it is pretty cool. Hopefully my companion and I can head down there on a P-day and spend the day at the zoo, that would be fun. 

Well my week has been sooo different, haha I would write about it to you and everything that has happened with the ET's and such, but I don't exactly have time to write you all a novel.... ha so I will work on writing to you about it or something.  But I would say that it was probably my least favorite week of the mission, besides talking to all of you. Well I love you all and I hope that things are going good for all of you. Hopefully I will have more exciting things to tell you next week! 

Adios! 

Sister Jamison

Week of the 16th-23rd - Pictures

 Just chillin' on the couch in the apt.

 Sitting by our Christmas tree.

 Me and Elder Delgado

 Me, Delgado and Agor /District Caroling

Jeff, Jessy and son came to church!

December 16, 2013

Dear Family!

Hello Hello! I hope all of you are doing well this week! My week has been pretty dang good! Sister Salvesen and I worked so hard this week I feel like I could sleep for the next month! Well let’s see!

This past week was our Zone Training Meeting and I trained the missionaries on key indicators and how to weekly plan more effectively.  Key indicators are basically just data that shows someone for progression, for instance investigators at church, or member present lessons so they can form a fellowship, etc. It went pretty well, I still get sick nervous to talk in front of people, you would think I wouldn't have the problem anymore but I do. It was good though. We also had a super awesome lesson with Sammy our 14-year-old investigator.  We talked about getting things together for his baptism and also talking with his guardian/older brother Omar to get permission to get things rollin', Sammy is scheduled to be baptized on January 11th, so pray your little hearts out that nothing will stand in his way! He is so ready and just wants to be baptized but has had so many hoops to jump through that it hasn't happened yet with the other sisters that taught him, but Sister Salvesen and I were like heck no! We are doing everything in our power to help him, and we know it's going to go through! We also had a great lesson with our other kid investigator Kaitlyn, we talked to her all about the church, young women's program and mutual and she was way excited about it all!  It was nice to because a way cute Beehive who will be in Kaitlyn's class came to the lesson with us, Emma Wettingfield, (Her mother is the YW President) it was so good and Kaitlyn was excited to meet a friend that she will have from the church and she will be there this Sunday! Woo hoo!

K so we also had Brenda's funeral this week and it was so not what I expected ha - so, the morning of, Sister Slavesen and I went to Geniva's house and we waited there for an hour before we actually left.  We ended up catching a ride with some of their family and on the way of course we got lost and arrived 20 minutes late.  But they couldn't start without us because the parents and brother and sister were in the car with us and so they were the main people to be there, so they delayed it until we got there.  It was obviously way different than I am used to, being they’re in an Episcopalian church, but hey who am I to judge.  Right as we got there the organist man called me over and asked what we were going to sing and I showed him the music for God be with you till we meet again, and then he started to asked me what key to play it in and I just said oh well we are going to sing it acapella, well he refused that answer and proceeded to tell me how he thought we should sing it, I then said how about you just play what is written ha, he said don't worry darlin I will add some flare and it will sound real good.  From that point I knew it was going to be disastrous, the funeral then started and after a few prayers were read it was our turn, the priest lady called us up (which bothered me because she said the missionaries from a latter day saint church) ummm Hello the church of JESUS CHRIST!!! Anyways we got up and the man started to play on the piano, it supposedly was our song but sounded nothing like it. He started the beginning of the musical number with a fancy solo and then we started to sing, he played it all wrong and our voices didn't match the music half the time.  At the end of the 1st verse he played another solo and then started to play the second verse, well ok then at the end of the 2nd verse we expected him to play another solo thing so we stopped singing and he just went right into the chorus again, but we thought he was going to start from the beginning of the song.  So we began to sing God be with and he started playing till we meet, then we all stopped, once again we started to Sing God be with and he started to play Till we meet... We all stopped again... Then.  So we waited to see if he would just start again from the beginning so that we could finish and then he stopped right at the chorus turned around and yelled, "did ya want me to play verse 3 again??" we nodded mortified and he said Ok "I’ll do that" Then we went on to sing the last verse trying not to laugh of embarrassment...  I couldn't believe it, it was so terrible, and thank goodness the family realized that it wasn't our fault because the organist also messed up the other musical number as well... It was so odd I felt bad that they had to pay for that guy, he butchered the opening and closing hymns too as he played them all to quickly, changing keys and organ sounds every verse, and very, very loud no one could hear themselves sing or think for that matter.  Gosh the whole service - musically speaking did not go well ha. I think it was hard for the family. But after they all had a nice lunch and I was able to play some calm hymns, which was nice.  Then Ralph (Brenda's brother, Geniva’s husband) came over and started to play some black solo music it was so cool and they all gathered around and were clapping their hands and singing, it was fun. I was glad to see that they could lighten up a bit.  One of the cute, cute granddaughters Yana ( Yah- Nay) came over to me as I was clappin and singin with them and hugged me real big and said you are my best friend, I bent down by her and hugged her and we danced and clapped together it was fun.

Last night we had Stake Mission Training, for all the missionaries, bishops, Ward missionaries/leaders and the ward council members.  It was really good, all about coordinating our efforts better.  President Berry and President Wood were there speaking to us all and we got some really good advice! It was a good week and this week my district is going to go around to the whole district different nights and carol and try and contact many people who are our for the holidays!  It will be very fun! Well that's all for now! Love you all! Merry Christmas and I can't wait to talk to you all next week!

Sister Jamison

December 9, 2013

Dear Family,

How are you all this week? I hope really good!

Well this week has been a roller coaster! haha to say the least! Sister Salvesen and I have been doing really well together which is great, we teach really well together and just really know how to vibe off one another, so that makes things really nice for us! This week while we were out to visit some of our investigators who didn't' happen to be home we ran into a huge miracle.

                     So Sister Salvesen and I went out to visit and investigator who ended up canceling on us so we decided because of the extra time that we would stay around and tract in that area. We walked to the end of the street and started to knock. A woman named Princess from Jamaica opened the door and we asked if we could leave a blessing on her home, she said that is was not her home but a friends. So we asked if we could leave a blessing for her anyways.  She said yes and invited us in to sit down. We then asked her if there was anything in specific that we could pray for and she hesitantly told us that her husband back in Jamaica past away the week before. So we offered her our blessing and after shared Alma 7:11-12 with her and talked about the atonement and how Jesus Christ knows perfectly what she is going through and is there to help her feel solace at this time. After we were done sharing we asked if she had a few minutes that maybe we could share a quick message with her about our Heavenly Fathers plan for us and how we are going to see our loved ones again. She said yes we could, so we started to teach the Plan of Salvation. At first she tried to test us a little bit, asking us what does faith mean and so we explained it to her using Alma 32 and she said yes you are right, you are the first people that have ever come to preach to me that is right! We then were able to talk about faith a little bit with her and she expressed that for so many years she has had people preach at her, and tell her what to do and how she never felt that the motivates of those people were very honest and trying to help her get closer to God.  She said that, that is why she was never baptized because she just didn't feel it was right, but then she said that she could feel something different about us, she said she felt like there were angels in her home. We explained that it was the spirit and that the reasons she was feeling these things was because her Heavenly Father sent us to give her this message and so that she could feel the holy ghost in her life at this time when she needed it. As we taught the lesson we also received the prompting that we needed to back everything we said with scripture, especially the Bible, as we did so and explained, Princess interjected again and said I know what you are teaching is true because it is in the Bible and I believe the Bible, (also explaining that it was true even if she hadn't read it before, she still believed the Bible).  The lesson went very well and the spirit was very strong. We know that the Lord led us to her at this time for a reason, and we know that the spirit that was there in that home and the words we spoke were not our own. It couldn't have been it was to perfect. Sister Salvesen and I haven't been together long and we taught as if we had been together for years, I know that it was really the spirit teaching the lesson and we were merely the instruments to be used. I also know that if we would have let ourselves leave that area and not tracted because it was hot and we were tired that we would have not been blessed to find Princess. This was a miracle that is truly hard to explain, the work of the Lord is happening!! We are excited to go back and visit Princess this week, she is so prepared and ready for our message, and it is so exciting. 

         We also had our ward Christmas party on Wednesday, it was fun and there was a ton of food and yummy treats.  The church was decorated nicely and there was a spot for Santa to come and sit with the kids.  There were also little booths set up for the kids to make Christmas ornaments, ginger bread houses and Christmas bags.  I made a ginger bread house, but it ended up looking more sad like the our little cottage we live in, that's ok they matched, spacey walls, cruddy foundation and all!:) It was a fun little party and our investigator Geniva came so that was a plus!

    

        K so, very sad this week, on Wednesday we went and visited our investigator Brenda (Geniva's sister-in-law) so that Sister Salvesen could meet her and so we could share a little message with her, and it was nice. Brenda looked very ill, and tired. She has had both her kidneys transplanted and some major liver surgery, and ever since then her health has not been good, and she can't eat without throwing up, ect. Very, very sad. But we were able to go and visit her and I could tell that she was very happy to see us and give her the company because she lives alone.  Then on Sunday morning as I was sitting in sacrament meeting, and Geniva called me and told me that she had passed away the night before. I was terribly sad, but very grateful that I was able to see her one last time. 

       

       Oops I didn't realize that my time was up on the computer. Well I have to go! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

-Sister Jamison