October 28

Hello!  Oh my goodness this last week has just been crazy!  I am so grateful to be finally serving with a sister who has been out longer than me and has experience because Sister Heiner is totally changing the face of this area!  As STL's, we are expected to have higher numbers than the rest of the zone and also to go on 2-4 transfers a week.  Pretty stressful especially because the numbers in this area haven't been all that high although we are working with some pretty solid investigators.  However, Sister Heiner came in and told me the numbers that we are expected to receive and somehow we're well on our way to reaching them. Heavenly Father has definitely blessed us tremendously this last week!  We've been busy teaching a ton of lessons to members and also some lessons to investigators and also had the time to knock on doors and exceed our goal for how many new people we contact weekly.  I don't know how it happened except that the Lord was totally the one in charge.

We're going on exchanges this week and I'm looking forward to getting to know the sisters and seeing what we can do to help them progress as missionaries in their effort to do missionary work.  I'm a little nervous because I don't feel super qualified for this but I know that I must be or else the Lord wouldn't have called me to this!  It's pretty exciting to be able to go and meet sisters and get to know them one-on-one. Hopefully we can help them out!

Dad, that's awesome that you had such a great missionary opportunity!  I will definitely pray about this and see what the Lord wants me to do with this information.  It is pretty hard and scary for a member to send missionaries to their friends and family so I will definitely remember that as I pray and ask Heavenly Father what He wants us to do for Linda.  Thank you for following your spiritual promptings and being bold!  That is something that I've been striving to improve my entire mission because being bold but loving is the best way for the Spirit to come and testify to both members and non-members alike.  It's exciting to hear about everyone's missionary moments because it testifies to me that members are so important in this missionary effort!  Members and full-time missionaries can't do missionary work as effectively without each other!

We are pretty excited about our investigators.  We have 2 that are definitely getting baptized which is exciting.  One of them is a husband of a less-active woman and he is just so excited to get baptized next month!  The other is the woman we've been working with for a while now.  She's so solid and excited about her baptism too!  It's a slower process because of her work schedule but we're hoping that she'll be able to get baptized before Thanksgiving, it'll just depend on her work schedule!

Haha no mom, I did not receive a Halloween package from the Moore's.  In fact, I haven't received anything in a package from anyone since August.  Honestly, I love receiving packages and such, but it also doesn't bother me if I don't receive one.  The only time I get annoyed is if people say that they're sending one and they take forever to send it because then I'm just waiting in anticipation and that's what is distracting for me.  But usually I don't even really think about it.  I just like hearing from you guys on occasion!

Being a Sister Trainer Leader is kind of like a District Leader...but not at the same time.  The sisters still report and discuss the missionary work with their DL, but the STL goes on exchanges and counsels with the sisters because the sisters can't counsel with their DL.  Basically we don't have any stewardship over anyone but we are there to help and assist in any way that's needed.  It's awesome.

Sister Heiner is the trainer I had when I got emergency transferred to Leesburg.  We struggled while we were together because I was super prideful so I was excited to be able to have another chance to redeem myself!  ;-)  She's just great and is doing so much for this area that I couldn't do in the past!  I'm super excited to see how things go.

We did service on Saturday for an elementary school in our stake boundaries.  The picture is from that.  We loved wearing the Mormon Helping Hands vests!

I'm so sad that President Trevort is leaving!  But I know that the new stake president is going to be just what this stake needs.  :(

Anyways, I'm out of time.  Love you all and I hope that everything is going great!  Thanks for the updates!

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October 21

So big news!  I get to serve with my trainer again!  They just called me as a Sister Trainer Leader and my companion is Sister Heiner again!  I am so excited to redeem myself and serve with her again.  I'm not getting transferred which is nice so we get to continue to serve here in Olympia.  I am so excited for this incredible opportunity and I hope that all goes well this transfer!  I'm sorry, I am too excited to be able to think clearly so this email is probably going to be really short today.

I'm looking forward to having this experience and learning from the other sisters!  It's more responsibility and stress but I think that this will be really a benefit for the sisters and for this area.  We've been seeing so many miracles lately and I'm excited to see where this goes!

I'm sorry, this is so short because I need to get going and let my companion pack, but I love you and I'm so grateful for all of you!  I hope that all is well and that you're enjoying your lives right now.  Love and miss you!

With love,

Sister Ward

October 14



Hello from warm, sunny Florida!  It's weird that it's October and the leaves are still green outside.  Kind of a bummer, but I love that it's still warm so I don't have to wear a coat or anything like that.

The other day, we were biking to the church and while biking, I looked to my right and noticed that there was a plane writing words in the sky!  Naturally, I stopped my bike because I have never seen that before and I wanted to see the message that was being shared!  ;-)  The pilot had written "LOVE GOD" in the sky.  I had no idea why it was written on that day and how we were biking right at that time, but it just made my day all day long!  It reminded me why I am a member of this church and why I'm serving a mission; because I love God so much and I want to do whatever He desires of me.  It made me look at myself and ask what I do to show Heavenly Father that I love Him?  And now I'm turning the question to you, what do you do to show your love for your Heavenly Father?  How can you do more for Him?  

I am so grateful for inspired leaders!  We went on exchanges this week with our Sister Trainer Leaders and it was just what my companion and I needed.  I am so grateful for leaders who receive promptings from the Spirit and then follow them constantly.  Heavenly Father truly loves each of us and has a plan for every individual living today.

I am also grateful for the inspiration that we can receive!  Last transfer, Hermana Allred and I were prompted to drop by a less-active member's home and see if there was anything that we could do for her.  When we got there, we realized that she had just had a baby 2 weeks ago.  There wasn't anything that we could do for her at the time, so we left feeling like we did what the Lord wanted us to do even though we felt like we didn't do anything.  We told the Relief Society presidency about this woman having a baby and as far as I know, they dropped off a gift for her and did what they could to serve her.  Yesterday, this woman came to church and told the missionaries that her husband wanted to take the discussions!  I felt very strongly that it was because we had followed the promptings that we had received 2 months ago and the Lord worked in His mysterious ways after that.  It truly was a miracle.

I love all of you!  I truly do feel your love for me often.  When times get harder, that is usually the first thing that I feel.  However, I have been feeling it more often this week.  As I've told my companion stories about my family, I can't help but feel the love that I'm sure you've been asking Heavenly Father to help me feel.  I hope that you are feeling my love for all of you as well each day.  You are in my prayers right alongside with our investigators!  I love you all and I thank you for the Spirit and love that you help me to feel each week.  

With love,

Sister Ward

October 7



Wasn't General Conference just wonderful?!?!?!?!  Don't worry mom, I talked about your doughnuts to many missionaries and they were ALL envious and decided that they would just have to come to my house for Conference someday so they could enjoy that deliciousness.  I especially loved basically all of the Saturday sessions (can you guess why?).  Most of the talks were about member missionary work!!!  As a missionary, I definitely know that it is much easier for ALL parties when the members and the missionaries come and work together in the missionary effort!  We as full-time missionaries are not on our missions to find those who are ready to hear the gospel.  We are here to teach.  We are here to help the members learn how to do their missionary work and then teach those that the members are working with.  The members are supposed to find those who are ready to hear the message of the restored gospel.  Coming here, I realized that I had sorely failed at this before my mission because I used the excuse of "I'm from Utah, almost everyone's Mormon and those who aren't don't want to be."  That's SO not true!  Being from Utah doesn't mean anything.  There are still people we come in contact with all the time who aren't members and we should be fearless in sharing our testimonies with them and inviting them to repent and come closer to Jesus Christ.  Not only are there people who aren't members, but what about the less-active members or the members who are struggling in staying worthy to hold a temple recommend?  They need missionary work as well!  A lot of the work that we do as full-time missionaries is work with the less-actives and serve those members who need a little extra help.  Shouldn't the members be helping with that as well?  What's great, is that if you don't know what to do for missionary work, you can always ask you Bishop, Stake President, or the full-time missionaries for opportunities that they may know of for you to serve.  That, or they will help you develop and refine the skills that you already have in sharing the gospel to those in your daily life.  There is always more that we can do than just being a good example.  It is time for the members and the missionaries to be bold but loving at the same time (Alma 38:12).  But always remember to follow the promptings of the Spirit.

We only have one investigator, but man she is so ready and excited to be baptized!  Oddly enough, she was referred to us by a member and they have been working very closely with us to help her progress.  She is so excited!  She is a very intelligent woman and she's going to a Seminary right now and is very knowledgeable in the Bible.  It's amazing to see how throughout her studies, she's been feeling more and more like she was missing something big, and she has now found that through the message of the restored gospel.  It's so contagious to experience her excitement.  My favorite comment that she made was when she was holding my Quad combination and she said "This feels whole!  This feels so right."  At our next lesson after she had accepted a baptismal date, she asked where she could buy a quad combination and the member told her that he'd buy her a nice leather set with her name on it.  She jumped up in the air and yelled with joy.  How incredible it was to see her excitement over a set of scriptures!  I realized in that moment that we should ALL be that excited!  We have truth in that quad combination that nobody else has!  Shouldn't we be jumping for joy at having the fullness of the truth right there in our hands?

Mom, to answer your question, yes I have to remind myself everyday that I need to let the Lord take charge.  It's hard to have that same desire that He has sometimes though.  Oh my goodness, but that's why a mission is so wonderful because the Lord is so good at humbling us to a point where we simply know that we can't do it any other way.  But I guess that it's a lesson that I still haven't learned because He has to remind me constantly that this isn't my way, it's HIS way!

I got Kenna's email this time from you!  No pictures, but that's OK.  I am glad to hear that she is doing so well along with everyone else.  I missed ya'll while watching Conference, but I hope that you had questions and prayers answered along with revelation received while watching it.  I know that I certainly did and I am excited to get my hands on the upcoming Ensign to re-read the talks and learn even more from those.

I love you all!  I hope that you strive to be member missionaries!  You've been called to build the kingdom of the Lord, are you ready to accept that call?  I would love to hear what you plan on doing in order to be missionaries and serve the Lord.  Love and miss you!

With love,

Sister Ward

September 30

I never did get Kenna's email.  But I'm glad that she emailed.  I hope that she's doing OK and I miss her so much.  She's basically awesome.  But that's great that she gets to go to London!  Yes, I am SUPER JEALOUS that she gets to go!  Ooh a little envious, but that's OK.  I hope that she totally loves it.  When does she leave again?

Oh I hope that Savannah does well today!  It is a bummer to end your high school experience with a poor sporting year.  Trust me, I know how she feels!  But I hope that she did what she could to make it the best experience possible for her this year.  Did she get my letter?  I felt so bad for her last week so I hope that she got it.

How are all of the kids doing with school?  It's amazing to me how old and big they're all getting.  I was looking at our family picture that we took last year and it amazes me that that was already almost a year ago!  It doesn't seem like it's been that long!  I'm honestly a little scared about coming home and seeing how much everyone has changed by the time I get home.  Especially the 3 little ones because they grow and change so quickly!

We got to bike in the dark and in the pouring rain this week.  As we were going along, I couldn't help but smile.  In that situation, I knew that there wasn't anything I could do except have a good attitude.  If I stopped or complained, how much would that help me?  It wouldn't.  So, instead, I started singing Called to Serve while we were biking.  I'm sure that my companion thought I was crazy but what else could we do?!  I was smiling because I noticed that right then, I was living in a missionary moment.  No one else would be as crazy as us to bike in the rain when it's dark in a skirt!  

Mom, did you get to go to the Relief Society broadcast?  I thought it was so good!  I especially loved Sister Reeves' talk and of course President Monson's talk.  I thought that they were so good and I felt the Spirit so strongly.  I think that my favorite quote was the one by Thomas S. Monson; "God's love is there, even if you don't deserve it."  I loved that so much because I knew that God loves us no matter what.  To Him, we always deserve it.  However, it is us who feel like we don't deserve His love.  But that quote told me that even though I may not always feel like I deserve His love, it's always there nonetheless.  

God works in the most mysterious ways.  We are His children and He loves us so much more than we can ever imagine.  I had the privilege to watch a 9-year-old girl bear her testimony yesterday and basically all that she said was that she gave a Book of Mormon to her friend last week at school and that missionary work is easy.  Out of all the testimonies that were given, this one touched me the most.  That little girl knew that her Savior was on her side and because of that knowledge, she was fearless.  She knew that He would bless her if she shared the gospel to all she knew.  With the Savior on our side, missionary work is easy!

Anyways, I'm basically all out of time.  But I love all of you, and thank you for being awesome.  Today's my 8 month mark, and I can't believe that the time is flying by so quickly.  I love you and I miss each and every one of you.  Thank you for your strength and your testimonies.  They are a blessing.  Love and miss you!

With love,

Sister Ward

September 23

 

 My goodness what a bad week for Savannah!  I'm sorry about the loss of both cars but I am glad that Savannah is OK.  Sounds like someone up above is watching out for her and I'm so grateful!  Actually, I know that this might sound crazy and maybe a little prideful but I don't mean it to be.  As soon as I read that, I said a quick prayer thanking Heavenly Father for keeping her safe and I felt like the Spirit was telling me that one of the reasons that she was OK was because I'm out serving a mission (yeah I teared up when I got that feeling).  I am so grateful that she is OK and that nobody else got hurt in the process.  I hope that she will drive a little more carefully from now on and I'm sorry that she had to have such a bad week.  That's NEVER any fun for anyone!  Maybe I'll see what I can do to send her an extra letter this week in hopes of brightening her day.

I am in the Olympia Ward.  It's funny because one of the members (Brother Herzog) keeps talking about Brother Sonnie and every time he does I realize who he's talking about.  It's cool that they know each other and we have that connection!  I hope that one day you get to meet Brother Herzog.  He has so much knowledge about the temple and I could easily spend hours with him just listening and all of his tales about the symbolism of the temple and what everything means.  He's great.  In fact, the whole ward is great.  We found out that the reason why ..... decided to go ahead and get baptized was because of how wonderful the ward was and how well they treated him.  I was suddenly even more grateful to serve in this ward where everyone is so eager to fellowship and so kind to those they don't know yet.  The baptism was a success and he was confirmed the next morning at church!  He was so happy and I loved just being able to see his beaming face.  The baptism was a little unique though because he breathes through his throat so he didn't plug his nose when he went into the water.  Our Mission President was there and he was pretty excited to meet .....

Now that .....'s been baptized, we're focusing on finding people to teach again.  We are teaching 2 people who both want to be baptized but we know that we need to find as well in order to bring the gospel to everyone in this area.  It's actually pretty fun to knock on doors and meet all kinds of different people.  In just this area alone, I've met people from 26 different countries.  Talk about diversity!  I love being able to talk to everyone and learn about different cultures and how people act and think in the different places they've lived.

My companion is doing well.  It's always an adjustment to have a new companion and I have to be a lot more patient with this companion.  It is always a very humbling experience to get a new companion because you have to re-adjust your styles in order for them to work together.  Plus, every companion reacts to things differently so it takes a lot of compromising with each other so we can all work together in unity.  But we've had some incredible lessons that we've taught together and we are slowly adjusting and compromising with one another.  It's working out well!  Our  Mission President told me that she was assigned to be my companion so I can help her with some things and I am so grateful for the fact that I graduated in the degree that I did because it is helping me a lot with getting this sister to open up so I can help her.  I am so grateful for all that Heavenly Father has done to prepare me for this mission and for the things that I will be doing in the future!  Sometimes, we don't understand what or why we need to learn certain things, but then they become apparent later on in life in ways that we never expected.  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father is playing a hand in my life!

We had an incredible lesson earlier this week.  We taught a woman who is friends with a member in the ward.  We taught her the first lesson and all that she could talk about was that this all felt complete.  What we shared with her answered the questions that she had and filled the void that she was feeling.  Afterwards, the members were talking to us and complimenting  us on how well we did.  However, all I could think about was the fact that we didn't do much of anything.  It was all the Spirit!  This investigator was so ready and so open to just knowing what she needed to know in order to come closer to Christ.  Because of that great desire and her willingness to do whatever she needed to do to achieve that, the Spirit was able to testify to her as we spoke.  Probably one of the greatest things that I've learned so far on my mission is that we as missionaries can't do anything or accomplish anything without the Spirit!  This missionary work would be useless without the Spirit on our side.  How wonderful it is to know that the Lord is on our side as long as we are living according to His will!

Well I need to get going, but I love you all and I am grateful for your prayers.  Thank you for your love and support.  I love being able to hear from you each week and see how you're all growing over this time.  It's amazing how fast time is going by.  It's a bittersweet feeling.  Love and miss you all!

With love,

Sister Ward

September 15

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I'm doing much better this week!  I'm sorry that last week's letter was such a dud.  We had just gotten the text that morning and I was still trying to process it along with realizing the fact that my companion was getting transferred.  Basically, it was just a bad day and I'm sorry that you all had to deal with that.  But after a day or so it got better.  I'm actually doing really well, I just ended up having to email on a particularly bad day.  No need to worry I promise!

And then on Wednesday he texted us and said that he changed his mind and actually wants to get baptized. We got everything taken care of and his baptism is scheduled for this Saturday.  Hopefully it all works out! I'm so excited for him and his excitement about the gospel.  I'm really noticing that I don't really even care about whether or not it counts as someone that I "taught and baptized" because in all reality, it isn't the missionaries at all.  He is just ready to commit to our Heavenly Father.  I'm so proud of him and his diligence in overcoming the temptations and trials that he has and still committing to being baptized and coming even closer to our Savior in that way.  What a big yet exciting step for him!

I'm sorry that everyone's getting sick!  That's SO not fun!  I've been pretty fortunate to not really get sick lately which has been really nice.  Some missionaries have gotten super sick here because of all the stress and such so I'm feeling very fortunate that my companions and I haven't gotten sick yet.

I'm OK with you giving out my email.  Although I can't promise anyone that I'll respond to them regularly due to the fact that there just isn't a lot of time that we get to email and I kind of want to spend most of that time emailing you guys.  :-)

I remember Big Papa and Bedstemor writing me and telling me about how they're planning on visiting you guys!  I'm so excited for you!  That's going to be so much fun.  And you'll be able to practice some of your piano skills with your mom which I always enjoyed about them coming to visit.  I think that it's things like that that I miss most about home (No worries, I'm not homesick, I love being here!).  I loved hearing you play duets with your mom and just hearing the piano playing in the background while everyone else is just going crazy and making lots of noise.  I loved all the chaos!

I hope that Kenna takes that trip to London!  Ooh I'm super jealous that she gets that opportunity though! Yes mom, I'm still TOTALLY planning on going to Europe with you as soon as I can when I get home! That is kind of a priority to me before I get married and can't afford it anymore.

That member in my ward who texted you was probably the Ward Mission Leader's wife Sister Swasey. She's basically the greatest woman on the planet.  I love her so much!  She's done a ton for us and I was excited when she asked if she could text you.

I figured out how to bike with no hands!  We've been biking a ton this last week and I love being able to get the exercise!  Don't particularly like the heat or biking in a skirt, but that's OK.  We've been trying to contact a lot more people on the streets because it's kind of hard to tract in gated communities.  It's been fun to do it though!

I got a new companion.  Her name is Sister ........  She's been out 3 months and she's a little sweetheart. I'm almost intimidated though because President Berry specifically wanted me to be her companion because she's struggling with some things and he asked me if I would be OK with helping her out with her struggles.  I think he's crazy for trusting me with that responsibility but I can't argue with the man who's called of God to lead this mission.  It's been really good so far and I just hope that we can continue to get along and learn how to teach together.  It's a new experience for me to be with someone who isn't just learning everything.  We're learning to adapt to each other's teaching styles and make them work together.  It's actually kind of fun!

Well, I'd better be off but thanks for all of your love and Spirit and prayers.  They really do help out a lot here and I greatly appreciate all of it.  No worries, I really am doing great.  I am happy and I love being a missionary.  I can't believe that I'm already creeping up to 8 months.  I'm almost on the down slope! CRAZY!!!  Love and miss you all!

With love,

Sister Ward

PS: The picture is an epic one of the shirts that my last companion Hermana Allred made for us!  The symbol is what we use for the word baptize so it's basically her made up logo for baptizing all of Orlando.  Isn't that awesome?!

September 9, 2013

So...the investigator that we were teaching?  We had his baptism planned for this Saturday, his interview planned for tomorrow, and he just dropped us this morning.  We taught him a lesson yesterday and it was a commandment that he just couldn't commit to.  We're really disappointed about it, but we will just keep moving on I guess.  We're going to try and see him tonight and see what else we can do but I don't know how promising it's going to be.  But just keep praying for him and for us!  I'm trying really hard to not let the discouragement get to me.  

The dentist went well.  Sad news is that I'll probably have to get a crown on the tooth when I get home.  But the dentist I went to is a member and he fixed up the tooth the best he could without putting a crown on it.  And he didn't charge me anything which is a huge blessing!  He was really nice and it really didn't hurt.  Thankfully it was in the back so I was able to go and work without anything swollen or distracting for me and everyone else.

That's cool that you had the missionaries over!  That seems like it was so much fun.  I remember the missionaries saying prayers in their native language!  Funny story, we're teaching a guy from Iran (crazy right?!) and he said a prayer for us in Farsi!  It was so cool!  It helped me remember that tradition that we had with the missionaries in the past so that's funny that you had the missionaries over in the same week.

Congrats to Collin on his mission call!  Funny story, my companion Sister Allred's boyfriend is serving there!  He's apparently an incredible missionary so have him look for an Elder Silas Olsen.  I guess that he just became a District Leader or something like that.  Anyways, that's awesome!  He's going to love it.

So transfers are today!  My companion is getting transferred to a Spanish area so I'm getting a new companion in Olympia.  No, she's not brand new.  We get to just be missionaries and do normal missionary work which is pretty exciting.  We'll be biking a lot more because they cut back our miles so I'm excited to get more exercise!

Anyways, I need to go and help Hermana Allred pack.  I"m sorry that this is shorter, but I love you all, and you're in my prayers!  Love and miss you!

With love,

Sister Ward

September 2

OK I'm sorry that I didn't answer many questions from the last email!  Yes I got it, I just didn't really know what to say.  But I will do my best to answer your questions this time!

Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to open the pictures you sent!  But I can only imagine how beautiful the rainbow was and I'm SO grateful that I didn't have to see the spider picture!  We do have some incredible thunderstorms here, Utah is NOTHING compared to the ones here!  Florida is widely known for the lightning that's here.  The likelihood of someone getting struck by lightning in Florida is really high actually.  So whenever we see lightning, we all go and take cover underneath something or in the car.  We had a nasty lightning storm yesterday that made me really nervous but we've been pretty safe so far.  When it's not hot and humid, it's pouring rain and full of lightning.  It rains almost every day for about 15-30 minutes and then gets hot and humid again.

Oh the good old Onion Days!  I was thinking about that earlier today...I remember how much fun it was to go watch the parade last year with the kids!  I can't believe that was already a year ago!  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago.  Let me know what you think about the guard!  Is Rachel still coaching?  I thought that Camille was taking charge but I don't know for sure if that happened or not.

The bowling picture is a picture of the missionaries in my district on our district prep day.  And no, I didn't do very well, but it was still fun nonetheless!  It's fun to take some time to just hang out with other missionaries and just have fun with each other.  Last week, we played soccer and it started to pour while we were playing and it was so much fun!  I didn't get any pictures unfortunately but we had a blast.  We usually have District Prep Day once a month.  Last week was just a bunch of missionaries who decided that they wanted to play soccer and it basically turned into a big zone activity so there were a lot of missionaries.  I forgot my tennis shoes so I played barefoot which was an interesting experience.  No, there weren't any members, just a lot of 18-26 year-old missionaries being human beings.  SO fun!

OK, here's a rough draft of a normal day for us:

6:20-wake up and exercise

7:00-prepare for the day

8:00-personal study

9:00-companion study

Since Sister Allred is in training and learning a language, we have training at 10, and language study at 11.  After that is lunch for an hour and then we go out and work!  If we have teaching appointments, then we make plans for what we'll teach them and then in the free hours, we go and tract on specific streets that we prayed about the night before or we'll go and talk to people in the parks.  Sometimes we'll go and bike and just talk to everyone we pass by.  We also have a list of less-active people that our bishop wants us to work with so we will plug them into our schedule and try to meet with those people and share messages with them and commit them to start coming to church and strengthening their testimonies.  Next week, we're going to a less-active/part member family's home and holding FHE with them.  Hopefully we can start working with all of them to get them to come to church again and baptize those who aren't baptized yet!

Also, since we're in the stake boundaries that has the temple, we get to do temple service every other week for 3 hours!  We get to do work on the grounds for 3 hours and it is such a blessing to go and do that kind of service and feel the special spirit of the temple.  I think that we are more blessed than the temple workers are!

Oh the dentist...I am hoping to go and see the dentist tomorrow and get the problem fixed.  We found one that might even do my dental work for free so I'm really hopeful!  But I loved the message that Sister Berry gave to me from you.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting it so I teared up a little bit knowing that it really was from you and that Sister Berry was able to talk to you!  It was a smidge distracting for like 5 minutes and then we went back to work.  It just hit me how much I missed you guys!  It's weird knowing that I've been gone for 7 months and sometimes it's really hard knowing that I still have 11 months to go.  But I also love being here and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

OK, BIG MIRACLE OF MY MISSION SO FAR!!!!!!!!

We were on exchanges with the Sister Trainer Leaders this week and I stayed in our area with one of the STL's.  She is the BEST at talking to everyone!  We decided to bike all day (got the nastiest sunburn but it's getting a lot better now) and contact people on the street.  We contacted this guy who looked like he was from India and gave him a pass-along card with a picture of Jesus Christ on it.  Nothing spectacular happened or anything and we went on our merry way talking to more people.  While we were talking to someone else, he passed by us again and we reminded him to look at the website on the card.  Later, my companion's bike chain fell off and we had to stop and fix it.  While she was fixing it, he came by us again and he stopped and asked, "Where is your church located and when does it start?  I want to come to church every Sunday!"  I about fell off of my bike!  We are now teaching him and he has a baptism date for next Saturday the 14th!  It was one of those situations where I know that the Lord put us where we needed to be in order to find this man.  He is so ready to be baptized and make that commitment to our Heavenly Father.  So please pray for him!  He is a great guy who just wants to come closer to Christ and we are so excited about him!  Some missionaries have to work with their investigators to get them into the font, but sometimes there are just people who are ready and the missionaries don't have to do much to help them along the way.  Don't get me wrong, we're still working with him and helping him, but he is so ready that he doesn't need a lot of coaching from us!  We still have to teach him some lessons so we'll see how he does by next week, but Hermana Allred and I are very hopeful that this works out for him.  This experience has strengthened my testimony in the fact that there are people out there who are simply waiting for the right people to come along and invite them to hear about the gospel.  I don't know what we did to deserve this marvelous blessing but I'm not complaining!  I only hope that the Spirit continues to testify to him and help him come closer to Jesus Christ.

We're still working on finding and trying to tract and talk to everyone about the restored gospel.  This experience has given me a new-found hope as a missionary and I am excited to see what the rest of my mission has in store.  I'm glad that you're all doing well and I look forward to hearing from you soon!  Peace and blessings to all of you, love and miss you!

With love,

Sister Ward

August 26

To respond to Dad's offer for adding me to the Gold's Gym membership when I get home...YES I would LOVE that!  In this new apartment, we have a really nice gym so I get to lift weights and I'm starting to use the treadmill a lot more often.  A gym membership once I get home would be great so I can continue to keep the habit of regular exercise.  We'll see how it goes with the altitude change.

And don't worry about buying a GPS for me.  They can get expensive but I'm not going to buy the most expensive one.  I want to buy a new one because the road names here change and I want to have one that is up-to-date.  I am just planning on getting one at Walmart that's about $100.  Besides, if you send one from Amazon, it just sits in the mission office because they don't send it VIA USPS and the missionaries in the office don't like that.  But thanks for offering anyways!

I'm glad that you guys got your school blessings!  Sometimes I wish I could get a blessing like that again.  I guess that I could ask someone for one...Anyways, no big deal though.

You know, it's hard to go through 7 months on a mission and not only never see a baptism, but to also go through the last 4 1/2 months or so and not even see an investigator.  I keep hearing all of these missionaries talk about these great experiences that they've had just fall into their lap after a lot of diligence, patience, and obedience and it gets discouraging because I feel like I haven't seen that in my mission.  After some time of this, I feel like I'm wasting both my time, and the Lord's time.  I don't want this to be a complaining email, but I've been really frustrated with it lately and I've been pleading a lot with the Lord asking Him why this is happening.  I feel like I'm obedient, I know how to teach a lesson in a way that is for the person, and I know that the Spirit is in those lessons.  So why aren't we having any success?  Why aren't we seeing any investigators come out of all our hard work?  I have no answer to these questions.  However, I know that God always has a reason for the trials we go through and I know that I have to trust that more than myself.  It's been frustrating, and extremely discouraging, but I am deciding to place my trust in my Savior.  I am so grateful that I can just give it all to Him and not have to worry about it anymore.  Please keep praying that I can keep an upbeat and faithful attitude.  After some time, the frustration and the discouragement can take its toll, but I am striving to remember my Heavenly Father and continue to not think about myself and just go to work.  Isn't the Atonement great?!

Well, I should probably end because I'm running short on time.  But thank you all for the support!  I love you all and I am truly blessed to have you for eternity.  Thank you for all that you do.  Love and miss you!

gust 26

August 19

This week has been one amazing miracle after another!  Since we're opening an area, it's been a lot of tracting and finding people because there aren't any potential investigators, and not really any former investigators either.  We are in an area the missionaries basically haven't ever touched!  However, it's a more wealthy area with a lot of gated and "No Soliciting" areas (granted, we're not technically solicitors because we're not selling anything, but whatever).  We have knocked on doors for 3 weeks with no success and no teaching appointments.  However, this last week we've finally had 4 people who are allowing us to come back and teach them!  Will they all keep their appointments?  Probably not...But this is a start and we're so excited about it!  Plus, we got a referral that sounds really promising so we're hopeful that we can work with this family and help them as well!

Here's my favorite miracle though...I love it when the Spirit is direct and we just KNOW what we need to do!  After dinner one night, we had plans to go and tract on a street.  As we were driving there, we felt like we should pull over and pray about which street we should tract on.  We had several planned and we felt like we should actually go on a street that we had planned as a back-up.  So we turned around and started heading to that street.  About 1 mile later, we saw a family that was re-modeling their home and we felt the strongest prompting to pull over and offer to help.  Conveniently, we had work clothes in the back of the car (can't really do a lot of service in a skirt so we've started to make a habit of keeping the clothes in the car so we can be ready for any service opportunity that might come!) so we grabbed our bags and marched to them and offered our help.  They said yes but realized that they were almost finished for the day.  So no, we may not have actually done anything, but we knew that we HAD to go and talk to this family and that the Lord made sure that we were guided to them.  They were very appreciative of our offer and then we found out that they knew a member of the ward.  We will probably end up helping them next weekend and we are very excited about it.  I love it when the Spirit just tells us what to do and we don't have to second guess ourselves!

I can't believe that school is starting already.  School started today for most students here and it just baffles me that summer's already almost over!  I swear it just started!  What grade is everyone going to be in now?  I may have everyone's age, but I never remember what grade everyone's in.

Is there any way that you could send me another pedigree chart?  I seem to have lost mine in the process of moving to Olympia and I can't seem to find it anywhere!  Online, I don't have all of the information from mom's side and I would love to be able to do a little bit of genealogy when I can because we're trying to get better at it so we can use it as a teaching resource!  But we kind of need to know what we're talking about so we don't act like robots.

Is it OK if I send a check that grandma and grandpa sent to me and you put it in my checking account?  And could you please pay my tithing on it as well?  I want to use the money for a GPS because it's hard to maneuver around Florida without one thanks to the fact that it's not a grid system and there aren't really ANY mountains to use as a reference!  I would greatly appreciate it if you did!  I'll make sure to send it today.

The Savior is truly amazing.  We aren't having tons of success, we aren't teaching anyone, but we are still seeing miracles every day.  He truly is blessing us for the work that we put in to being a missionary.  We are trying to work harder on always being a representative of Jesus Christ.  We literally wear His name on our chest and we want to honor that name.  However, just because members don't wear a black name tag doesn't mean that they don't have His name in their heart.  We are all His representatives, and we all need to live up to that calling.  It's amazing to be able to have this experience and share the gospel.  I love my Mission President and all that he does for us, I love my companion who pushes me to be better.  I am an obedient missionary, but Hermana Allred has taught me the difference between an obedient missionary, and an exactly obedient missionary.  How grateful I am for her and her diligence.  I love being a missionary.  I know that the gospel is the greatest gift that we are a part of.  Without the gospel, we would have nothing that would sustain us into eternity.  We are truly blessed in many ways that we feel like we don't deserve.  But in our Heavenly Father's eyes, we deserve all that He has if we choose to accept it.  

Well I love you.  Thanks for being awesome!  Good luck in school, and thank you for the love and support.  Be safe, and I'll hear from you soon.

With love,

Sister Ward

PS. Here's a picture of me and Sister Allred and then just a really cool picture of the Orlando Temple.  I love that we get to serve in the area with the temple!  We are incredibly lucky to have this here and we are blessed to have the chapel just across the street from it!  What a blessing.

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August 12

Hello hello!

I'm so glad to hear that the trip was so much fun!  It's great that you guys were finally able to go and see Mt. Rushmore and have that awesome experience.  I love the pictures!  And I totally loved the pink shirt that Levi was wearing as well.  ;-)  

My birthday was great.  A member was very kind and made sure that I was able to have a birthday cake and everything which was great.  Also, the Elders in our ward got wind that it was my birthday and they doorbell ditched us and left a cupcake on our doorstep that morning.  The missionaries who are in my district also all made sure to call and wish me a happy birthday and the Elders in our district who speak Portuguese sang happy birthday in Portuguese as well which was a lot of fun. I enjoyed my birthday a lot.  

But I think that the biggest miracle was the fact that it was just another day!  When I woke up that morning, I knew that I didn't want to make the day all about me.  Usually, our birthdays are all about us and I love that!  But as a missionary, I remembered that August 9th was not a day for me, it was a day for my Savior.  So I asked Heavenly Father to help me to remember that I was not the main focus that day.  I had volunteered myself to serve the Lord full-time for 18 months, and that counted birthdays and holidays and I wanted it to stay that way.  Heavenly Father greatly blessed me because of that.  We recognized people that we could serve and we acted on it.  It's really hard to explain, but I was so grateful to forget myself that day and just serve those around me.  My favorite part of the day wasn't eating cake and celebrating my birthday, it was when we were able to do a small act of service for someone in need.  I loved doing that.

OK here's a funny story of the week.  We got the cops called on us!  We were tracting and I guess that there were a lot of burglaries in the area recently and apparently, we seemed suspicious so a home owner called the police.  They found us while we were walking back to our car actually and they had to stop us and give us a quick background check.  Let me tell you, I was SO grateful to have my proselyting card!  But it was hilarious because the police officer knew from the start that we weren't the burglars, but he had to do the background check anyways to appease the people around the neighborhood.  It was really embarrassing but our District Leader just thought that it was the greatest thing ever.  So, if there are missionaries going out, make sure to carry around your proselyting card even if people say that you don't really need it because you never know if the cops will end up stopping you while you're proselyting!

Yeah Sam just got married on the 10th!  I was so excited for her.  She sent me a letter last month telling me about the postponing of the wedding and I'm glad that they're now officially married!  And Savannah told me about Chloe getting engaged but that's all that I've heard!  I don't even know the guy's name!  My friends are totally FAILING at keeping me in the loop!  But I'm glad that she's getting married and I'm glad that Emily and Ben's baby is cute and healthy.  I'm glad that Landon's getting back into the groove of things and such as well.  How's Katelyn doing?  And Storie?  I should probably write her again.  I do hear from Tyler so I know that he's doing well.

I'm glad that you got the card I sent you mom!  Sorry that it came so early.  I didn't want to risk it not getting to you in time by sending it this week so I sent it last week.  But I hope that you enjoy it.  Also, Grandma and Grandpa sent me a birthday check, is it OK if I send that to you and you put it in my checking account and pay the tithing on it?  I think that I'm going to use some of the money to buy a GPS because the map is just not working.  My poor companion gets car sick really easily and having to look at the map isn't helping her.

I'm so glad that Dad's starting work today!  It's great that he has a job but can still try to work on his business and do tennis and such on the side.  That's exciting!  Good luck Dad!

It truly is a gift to be serving the Lord full-time.  Everyone says that it's a great sacrifice on our part, but in reality, it's more of a gift to us from our Savior.  Going out on my mission, I thought that I was making a sacrifice to the Lord by giving 1 1/2 years of my time.  But actually, He is giving us such a gift!  This is a great opportunity to learn and grow, and then to also bless the lives of the people here!  How wonderful it is to serve the people in Orlando!  The mission truly does teach us so much and it is a miraculous blessing.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve my Savior and to wear His name on my chest every day.  There are two names that are big on this name tag, my own, and Jesus Christ.  How wonderful it is to have my name next to His and be able to say that I'm a literal representative of Jesus Christ.  

Thank you again for the wonderful birthday wishes!  You all are just awesome and I am so grateful for you and the love and service that you've given me.  You are all truly blessings and a light in my life.  I love and miss you all!  

Oh, and Mom,  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  I know that it's not until Friday, but happy birthday on Friday!  I hope that the kids treat you well and that they spoil you on your special day.  You deserve to have your day!  Love you lots, and I'm thinking of you!

With love,

Sister Ward

August 5

Dear Family,

My goodness, it sounds like everyone is having a great summer!  I can't believe all of the fun things that you've been doing over the past few weeks!  I must admit that I'm a little envious of the fun adventures that you get to experience.  But no matter, I'm glad that you all get to do these things before school starts later this month.  This summer has just FLOWN by!  Congrats to Tatum and her swim meet, that's totally awesome.  And also to Levi for the award he got at the Jamboree.  So cool!  And that's AWESOME that Booker touched the stingray in Mexico!  And the swimming with dolphins is always a fun treat to experience.  I loved doing that!

Olympia is awesome.  We have a ward that spoiled us rotten with the apartment and they are really excited to have both Elders and Sisters in the ward now.  They are very excited about the missionary work and we have a ward council and ward missionaries who are very involved with the missionaries.  I just love it!  Plus, it helps that we have the temple right across the street from the chapel.  The spirit here is just so strong with the temple in the ward boundaries.  We are trying to get a feel for the area, we don't have a GPS so we're using a good old map that's 6 years old so I'm getting REALLY good at 3-point turns and U-turns!  But we really enjoy it.  There's a lot of hope and potential here so we're excited.

My companion...So she's named Hermana Allred.  Oh yes, I am training a Spanish speaking sister!  That's a wonderful adventure!  She's my first 19-year-old companion so that has been interesting but she's great.  Just younger, but that's not bad and I think that it's going to help me to remember to have fun and not serious and boring all the time.  She's from American Fork, Utah and just loves being a missionary.  She's extremely obedient which I hope she keeps with her throughout her whole mission.  I don't have a picture of her yet, but I hope to have one that I can send next week.

The biggest miracle that I've seen is the miracle of the gift of tongues!  I didn't think that I remembered ANYTHING from my 9th grade Spanish class but Heavenly Father has been gracious with me.  Hermana Allred is great with her Spanish (the Spanish Elders say so as well) and has been teaching me while practicing and improving herself in her language studies.  I may not know any of the vocabulary, but I remember almost all of the rules on pronunciation and such.  Basically, the Lord has helped me to remember how to read the language correctly and how to speak correctly.  Now I just need to learn vocabulary words!  But it truly has been a miracle over the past week to see what the Lord has helped me to remember.  It's nothing new, just a lot of things that are coming back to my memory.  It's so weird!

I got the package, and I'll probably get the other letters either today or tomorrow.  Thank you for everything that was sent!  They were great and I love all of them!  I especially loved the pants you sent, they were super comfortable and my companion was pretty envious of that.  It was great though.  Mom, you cut your hair?!?!  You totally need to send me a picture of this!  I'm sure that you look great!  And I hope that you have a fantastic birthday next week as well.  To answer your guys' questions, I don't do anything special for my birthday.  It's just another day of missionary work!  But that's OK because I am not here for me, I'm here for my Savior and His time is short and precious.  But a member found out that my birthday's on Friday so she signed up to have us over for dinner that night and is planning on making a cake for me so that'll be fun.  I just hope that they don't make it all about me because we're supposed to be in their home to help strengthen them and their testimonies of the gospel.  So we'll see how it goes!  But thank you for all that you do and thank you again for the birthday gifts!  I truly feel blessed and I know that the Lord has a lot of miracles in store for all of you because of your righteousness.  Love and miss you all!

With love,

Sister Ward

July 29

TATUM!!!  Happy birthday yesterday!  I can't believe that you're now a teenager and just getting prettier and prettier by the day!  I hope that you had a great birthday yesterday and you were definitely on my mind throughout the day.

My goodness family!  What a great past few weeks the mission has been!  It's amazing to realize just how much influence the Lord has in our lives.  It truly is a miracle and I love that He is in charge.  It's so much easier to depend on the one who sees the finish line and the pathway to it than to just depend on myself and go the direction that I think is best when it really isn't.

I'm getting transfered.  I just saw in President's email that I'm getting transfered to Orlando in the area that has the temple!  And I get to train again this next transfer so she and I will be able to open the area together which will be really interesting!  Super nervous, but really excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in this new area.  Although it's really sad to know that I'm leaving both of my companions and so many great members in the Leesburg Ward.  I've come to love so many of them and they have made such a great impact on me.  I am so grateful for everyone in this fantastic ward.

Thanks for the email from Mike!  It looks like Mexico is gorgeous and it seems like you guys all had SO MUCH FUN!!!  I'll admit, I was super envious about the zipline and the driving through the mud.  It looks like that would be a total blast!  I'm glad that you were all able to spend some time together as a family and create memories from that. 

It's amazing how much happier a person can be when they just trust in the Lord!  I've seen that dramatically over the past 2 weeks and I am just amazed by it.  Trust me, going out and knocking on doors with no success in 100+ degree weather not including the humidity isn't my ideal activity to do.  But I have found the time to just fly by when I know that I'm doing this for the Lord and that it's what He wants me to do at this present time.  When you finally just accept that He's in charge and just go with it, fully trusting in Him, things just go by much smoother and you don't get discouraged.  I have no idea what's going to happen in this new area and I have NO idea what we're going to do first, but I do know that the Lord is in charge.  Therefore, He'll guide us in the direction we need to go. 

Has anyone read Jesus the Christ?  If not, I HIGHLY recommend that you use it for your studies!  I was challenged to read and study about Jesus Christ for 30 minutes of my personal study.  I have used Jesus the Christ as I've been reading the New Testament and it is incredible!  Something that I've been trying to do is study Jesus Christ more in order to know Him better.  If we know our Savior, then we can have a stronger relationship with Him and strive more to be like Him.  I've seen this happening in my mission and I pray that it continues to grow.  

So what's going on back home?  Haven't hear from y'all in a while and I'm hoping that everyone's doing OK.  How's the business and how's everyone doing personally?  I hear that Bedstemore and Big Papa are planning on visiting.  When is that going to happen?

Well, I don't really have much more to say.  I hope that everyone's doing well though.  I'm expecting a report from you guys on miracles that each of you have seen over the past week!  Are y'all still recognizing miracles and talking about them every day?

Well, I love you guys.  You're all in my prayers and I am so grateful for each of you.  While here, I'm really starting to recognize how each member of my family was meant to be a part of my life.  You've all made a difference and I wouldn't be the person or the missionary that I am without all of you. You're all amazing!  Love and miss you!

With love,
Sister Ward

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Monday, July 8

No worries, pictures are totally allowed.  In fact, I love getting them!  Sounds like there's going to be a super fun vacation this upcoming week!  I hope that you all enjoy Mexico with the family.  Also, thanks for the update on the other family members, I can't believe that Rachel is already almost done with her pregnancy.  That's just amazing.

For the 4th of July, we got permission from our Mission President to stay out late to go to parks, contact people, and watch the fireworks.  There was a big city celebration in Leesburg that night so we went to the park where it was happening and got to talk to a lot of people before the fireworks show on the lake.  It was so much fun and it was something different which was nice!  However, it rained like 3 times and it was a thunderstorm for one of them.  We're starting to ride our bikes more because we want to have more exercise and also try to contact people on the streets more often so we got soaked on the way to the park.  One thing about the weather here, it rains almost every day for about an hour and there's tons of lightning and pouring rain, and then it stops and gets super hot and humid to a point where the streets are steaming from the recent downpour.  It's pretty sweet.

So I've been in Leesburg for pretty much my whole mission so far (5 months).  I love the area but I'm also expecting that I'll get moved in about three weeks when we have transfers.  Most people don't stay in an area for more than 4 transfers so I'll be surprised if I stay.  Plus, we were told that our tripanionship wouldn't last for very long so most likely one of us is getting transfered out in a few weeks.  But I like having three girls because it's so much more entertaining!  Sister Peterson is just a great addition to an already great companionship and I have never laughed so much in my life because of her.  My companions are starting to keep a quote book of all the hilarious things that we say/hear.  Plus, it's really fun to mess with our District Leader with 3 girls as well.  He always says "Tri's are the worst!  Especially with sisters!"  Although we know that he secretly thinks that it's a blast.  We just love going out and working.  We're working a lot with less-actives and it has been quite successful.  Our Bishop is pretty excited because a new less-active comes to church every week which is a great improvement.  Now we just need to work harder on getting investigators to teach!

Something that I've noticed as a big change for me is my study habits.  I've really noticed how much mroe I take out of the scriptures now that I'm reading them every day for an hour!  I love reading my scriptures!  I've never marked so much in them as I have over the last few months and I love it.  I have noticed how much my testimony has grown because of it.  The scriptures really are from God.  I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and its added testimony to the Bible about Jesus Christ.  I'm starting to read the Doctrine and Covenants backwords and I hope to do that with the Book of Mormon too once I finish reading it all the way through again.  I'm doing this because I want to be more familiar with the scriptures. I want to know them frontwards, backwards, and in-between.  How interesting it is to be reading the scriptures this way and see the new things that come out!  I have also grown a lot in my testimony about the Priesthood.  Without the Priesthood, our church would just be another church!  The Priesthood is what allows us to be different, it is what makes us have the fullness of the gospel, and it's what made the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation possible.  How grateful I am for the Priesthood and God's everlasting love for His children!  Even after His Only Begotten Son was killed, He was still loving and merciful to His children enough to give us the gospel again on the earth.

Thank you for the emails and such.  I'm sorry about the complaining last week.  I sometimes get down because I don't really write and email anyone which is fine and usually doesn't bother me.  But last week was just harder for me especially because both of my companions get a lot of letters, packages, and emails and it was hard to not get any letters and then no emails either.  I'm sorry for the complaints.  I know that you guys have busy lives and that writing me isn't a main priority nor should it be.  I had a selfish moment and I am sorry for that.  But I love you guys and I hope to hear from you again soon.  Haven't gotten your letter yet but I'm guessing that it'll come today.  Love you all!

With love,

Sister Ward

3-4-2013



I can't BELIEVE that I forgot to add the alligator picture!  I don't have an adaptor this week so I can't send it to you, but I'll send it next week, I promise!  I'm sorry that I haven't written back to your last emails yet, last week was crazy busy and I ran out of time before I could write you guys.  But this week, I have a little more time so you should DEFINITELY expect a hand-written letter this week.

So sad news, I got transferred.  One of the girls went home early so I was placed in a different zone than before.  I am now in a city called Leesburg and I'm still trying to adjust but I'm finding it to be harder than last time.  I LOVE this area and I'm in a family ward that is just awesome.  The members are so loving and they feed us every night.  Most of the members are older couples and they are just so sweet and fun to talk to.  I love hearing about all of their stories.  Plus, just yesterday the missionaries were given easily ten pounds of food for the month which I am so grateful for!  The members are just so giving and loving towards me and my companion and the elders that are also serving in the ward.  There is a couple that reminds me so much of Bedstemor and Big Papa!  They are just so sweet and caring.  I loved it!  Plus, I'm now learning to tract which is NOT easy, but definitely a new and humbling experience.

I'm working on getting along with my companion which is a bit harder.  I went from a trainer who followed every rule exactly to one who doesn't really follow rules and that's a hard adjustment.  Plus, I feel like we're not fully teaching by the Spirit which is SO frustrating!  But I'm still trying to improve our relationship and hopefully is gets better as time goes on.  I know that there's a lot she can teach me and I hope that I can learn a lot from her over the next 9 weeks.  She's pretty nice, we just think differently.

Levi, that's so great that you are trying out for so many things!  Good luck on your tennis and choir auditions, let me know how they go!  I am so excited for you!  You are such a wonderful example to me and I brag about you all the time here!  My companions all think that you're just such a great priesthood holder!

Tatum, thank you so much for your great email!  Sometimes I forget those things that you said and that was a great reminder to me.  I am praying for you every day!  You are beautiful and wonderful!  Everyone I talk to about you thinks that you're just the sweetest girl ever!  And they're right!

Booker, I sent you a 5 star treatment kiss today!  It's here in this email so you'd better stick them on!  You are so sweet and I love you SO much!  I talk about you and all of the other kids all the time, especially to members that we are teaching.  You are awesome!  I love and miss my little man!

Savannah, YEAH I HELD AN ALLIGATOR!!!  This is kind of the state that has those.  But I do want to hear about your boy stuff!  My companion and I don't really talk much so I would LOVE to hear from you!  I don't see the beach at all, however, I'm in an area that's surrounded by tons of lakes, so I get my fair share of watery views.  I miss my gorgeous sister!  You're pretty much the best ever!

John, that's so cool that we were so close!  But that's OK that you didn't stop by because I was transferred to another area by Wednesday last week which was kind of frustrating.  But oh well, it's what was supposed to happen, right?  I'm sorry about the picture not showing up!  I can't send it this week because I don't have an adaptor, but I'll definitely buy one today and send it next week!  How was the seminar?  That's kind of a bummer that you got homework, but hey, you're that much closer to becoming a golf pro!  I'm so excited and proud of you!  I've bragged about you to my companions because of your golf talent, but none of them really play.  :-(  I now have a new companion and I'm trying to get her, but it's a little harder than the last ones, but I'll work on it!

Mom, The alligators actually aren't that bad!  So far, I've only seen one.  I've seen some pretty massive bugs though, but it's nothing that I can't handle.  ;-)  Before I was transferred, I lived in an apartment that was made for one person, but somehow three of us fit in there.  Now that I've been transferred, I live in a small home which is super nice.  Now I have my own bathroom and closet!  I'm now living in a city called Leesburg and my companion and I work on the east side of the city and in other cities around here.  The ward is fantastic, and I know that I will NEVER go hungry in this area!  That's cool that you're in the other church building!  How do you guys like the change?  I'm SO jealous that you guys are going to California!  I'll be thinking of you guys while you're there.  Oh, btw, we can't go to Disney World while we're serving, so we need to go when I get back!  Disneyland works too though!  And yes, that mom that you talked to is one of my now old companion's mothers.  Sister Conant is awesome so I'm sure that her mother is too!  I've only heard great things about her!

I miss ALL of you and I hope that things are going great for you back home!  You guys are my biggest support and I'm so grateful for you all and all that you do.  I hope to soon send the younger kids a random gift that was given to me by one of the members.  It's weird, but funny at the same time.  I don't know when I'll be able to send it, but I'll do my best.

Elders of Leah's MTC district

Leah's MTC district

Leah and her MTC companion

Leah and her current companion (right of Leah) and trainer (far right)

I keep getting an error message when I try to post the pictures Leah sent with this email...I'm probably just suffering from computer-stupid-itis.  Anyway, I'm sorry, but they aren't included with this post.  When I figure it out I will post them.  FYI, though, the picture she mentioned about the alligator?  Wasn't in her email!  So, at least that one wasn't my fault. :) -- Leah's Mom

2-23 

OK, I'm sorry you guys, but I don't have a ton of time to write back because I had to take time to write my mission president.  Therefore, I probably won't respond to everyone's emails in this email, but I will write my responses later today.  Is that OK with you guys?

 

OK first off, I'm in a tri-panionship!  I am getting trained with another girl I knew in the MTC by one of the best trainers EVER!!!  Not only that, but we're in one of the hardest areas of the mission.  It's actually an area where the mission president swore he would never send trainees again.  But now there are two of us!  Our area is basically the UCF campus (University of Central Florida).  We bike there every day and proselyte to all of the students!  It's super hard, but it's so much fun at the same time!  We're outside basically all day, every day because of the area that we're in so I'm going to have a SPLENDID tan after I'm done in this area.  It's funny because all of the missionaries know who is in the UCF campus area because they are the darkest missionaries of them all. 

 

I'm adding some pictures also in this email.  I hope you like the alligator one!  The one with me and another girl is a picture of me and my companion Sister Sheffielt at the MTC.  I'll also send one of my MTC district because they're all awesome, and a picture of my new companionship. 

 

Oh my gosh I am LOVING it here!  It can be really hard and stressful but the people here are wonderful.  The ward that I am serving in is a YSA (young single adult) ward and they are CRAZY but awesome at the same time.  I'm definitely not in Utah anymore!  The humidity might kill me off, but I also love the sun and the warmth at the moment.

 

I am so grateful for my companions!  Sister Conant is the sister training with me and she is such a wonderful, funny woman.  Sister Staley is our trainer and she is just so great!  She pushes me, but I don't feel overly stressed because that's just how she is.  She is funny and loves her life.  She's been out for a while now and only has three transfers left counting this one.  Also, she may end up leaving us after this transfer because there are so many sister missionaries that are coming out that there aren't enough trainers!  It is very likely that I will be a trainer immediately following my own training and I am so nervous about that!  If Sister Staley has to leave after this transfer, then Sister Conant and I will finish our training by training each other.  Also, my trainer is going to the temple on Tuesday so she's actually leaving Sister Conant and me to teach so many people by ourselves!  We have several appointments set up already and we also have on the spot contacting.  It's intense but I am so grateful for these experiences!

 

I'm sorry, I'm out of time, but I love you all and thank you for your letters and emails!  There are definitely appreciated!  Family, I'll send you hand-written responses today.  I love and miss all of you!

 

With love,

Sister Leah R. Ward

2-19-13

Oh my gosh I made it here!  My mission president and his wife are incredible and I have heard that they spoil the sisters rotten which is comforting to hear.  ;-)  I am so excited to be here!  I'm sending an attachment to go along with this as well.  This is my mission president and his wife the day we flew in.  Love and miss you all!

 

  1 Attached Images

2-15-13

Leah wrote a bunch of family stuff that you probably won't be interested in reading, but I thought I would include the end of her letter:

I just want to end this with my testimony.  Family, I am so grateful to be here.  As I've been in the MTC, I can clearly see why the Lord wanted me to serve a mission.  I know that this gospel is true.  The Spirit has testified this to me countless times in the past 2 weeks.  I could never deny that this gospel is true because of the experiences that I have had here!  Joseph Smith DID restore this gospel in this last dispensation.  He saw our Heavenly Father and His Son, my brother, Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon is ANOTHER doctrine of Jesus Christ and I know that it speaks the truth.  Lastly, I know that Heavenly Father loves me, and He loves ALL of His children.  The trials and tribulations we go through are because God wants us to learn and grow, but He will NEVER give us more than we can handle.  He knows us, and He knows our deepest desires and needs.  He truly loves us all.  I hope you all know this too.

I love you all and I miss you so much.  When you write me next, I would recommend you mail the letters to Florida since I'm leaving the MTC in 4 days!!!  I hope to hear from all of you soon!

Love,

Sister Leah R. Ward

2-8-13

So I have to share with you an amazing experience!  It was so great and I just continue to grow in my love for the Priesthood.

So this past week, I've been sick with a horrible cold.  I started feeling symptoms last Thursday and it's just been getting worse.  Anyway, on Wednesday night, I was so frustrated because I knew that I was unable to learn and focus to my full capacity.  Don't get me wrong, I was progressing, but I knew that if I was healthy I would be doing even better and progressing further.

Finally, on Wednesday night, I was just so frustrated, I hadn't had a full night's sleep in the last week, and I was STILL sick!  I finally broke down in tears and all the sisters in my room were super concerned (it was so embarrassing!).  Anyway, the zone coordinating sister is in my dorm room and she asked me if I would like for her to arrange for me to receive a blessing.  I ended up telling her that I would like two of the elders in my district to give me the blessing.  The next day, those elders approached me and gave me a blessing.  My favorite elder (Elder Carter) annointed me and his companion (Elder Mayberry, my other favorite elder) blessed me.  Both of these boys are 18, and it was just so cute.  They both took a minute to allow the Spirit to be with them and I loved how they weren't experienced.  But here's what was really amazing; they blessed me to get better and all, but my favorite part was this:  "Leah, turn to your scirptures.  for not only will you be strengthened mentally, but also physically."  How cool is that?!  It was just so powerful to me and I HAD to share it with you!

My companion is awesome, she's a great example to me and she pushes me when I don't feel like it anymore.  I think that we even each other out.  What I'm weak at, she's strong and helps teach me.  The same goes the other way as well.  Plus, we are now comfortable enough to tell each other what we think the other needs to improve on.

I love you and I miss you so much.  But I am so grateful to be here and experience this.

Love,

Leah