December 21

Howdy from Woodville- the best place to spend Christmas in 2010!  My planner is currently missing... a.k.a.: my brain!!! So remembering and telling y'all about my week should be an interesting task.  I do remember that our week was great and that it was filled with miracles.  I'll try to remember other stuff...

Monday we had a special Zone Preparation Day in Port Arthur which included a showing of "It's a Wonderful Life" which President Moldenhauer gave us special permission to watch.  I didn't actually get to watch the whole thing because we arrived a little late and did some other things too, but I enjoyed what I watched.  If you haven't watched it this Christmas season, I invite you to do so!!!!  That night we were fed dinner by Bro. and Sis. E* W* and L* O*, who remember my parents and loved seeing old photos of us.  We then hopped over to the Woodville Band Christmas concert featuring the Jr. High and Highschool bands of Woodville.  There were recent converts, active members, less-active members, and investigators performing and they all did an excellent job.  We were able to mingle with many of them after and it was very effective. 

I remember Tuesday being busy and wonderful, but am otherwise drawing a blank at the moment. Oh!! except I do remember we had our branch Relief Society Christmas party that night.  It was a yummy pot luck dinner and white elephant gift exchange.  It also included a surprise visit from Santa Claus- very fun times.

Wednesday we did exchanges with the Sisters serving in Jennings,LA... we're serving out in the sticks so the closest missionaries live 45 min. away and the closest sisters are 2.5 hours.  We got special permission to do the exchange though largely due to the fact that Sister Hawkins has been in Jennings since she started her mission nearly 4.5 months ago and has never had the opportunity.  Sis. Mapa went to Jennings for the day to work w/ Sis. Brosnehan, and I stayed here and worked w/ Sis. Hawkins for the day.  We saw SO many miracles and I was so grateful that Sis. Hawkins had a great experience and felt she learned a lot.  FYI- the Skinner family fed us delicious ribs that night.

Thursday we went to Baytown for our Christmas mission conference which was totally amazing.  (That was also where we switched back to our normal companionships)  All of the sisters sang a special musical # which is one of my new favorite songs.  ("Miracles" by Sally DeFord- if you want to look it up)  Area authority Elder Gifford Nielson and his wife spoke to us.  We enjoyed a slide show of our mission year, great food, and much inspiration from President and Sister Moldenhauer.  It was an AWESOME day :)  We got back to Woodville just in time to enjoy dinner w/ the Gibson family and watch "Joseph Smith- Prophet of the Restoration" w/ them.

Friday Sis. Mapa and I had to do our weekly planning.  After that, I once again remember it being a really good day, but don't rembember the rest...

Saturday was a very busy proselyting day, one filled w/ lots of trials, but even more small miracles.  That evening we joined the Young Single Adults of the branch for their Christmas Party at the Durr home.  It ended up being us, Bro. and Sis. D*, E* O*, and C* M*.  Despite the small turn out it was a successful and enjoyable evening.

Sunday at church, Sis. Mapa and I substituted in the youth Sunday School class.  It was not our finest hour by any means, but we certainly survived.  We were fed lunch and dinner by families in Odomville and tried to do some proselyting in between that was only mildly effective.  We met w/ J* J* that night and he's still just amazing.  It looks like he'll be baptized this coming Sunday the 26th and we're very excited for him.

Yesterday was spent at the doctor's office doing lots of waiting.  Sis. Mapa is having some mystery symptoms that we're trying to take care of.  We have to go back to Beaumont today to do some follow-up stuff w/ that.  The bright side is she is being treated by long time family friend Dr. Russ Stovall.  He gave us some talks as reading assignments and I got to have a good visit w/ his wife. 

I love this work and I love all of you!!! I wish you each an incredibly magical Christmas!!!

*~Sister Pilmer~*

Dec. 6

Howdy from Woodville where the Christmas season is in full swing!  I'm loving it!!

 

Monday was a pretty normal preparation day.  In the evening we had dinner w/ Bro. and Sis. R* and D* L*.  Bro. L* is our ward mission leader and he's related to some L* I got to know in Lake Charles, so that's fun.  They fed us a healthy balanced meal of roasted pork and stir-fried veggies, sugarfree raspberry jello w/ raspberries for dessert.  We watched "Joseph Smith- Prophet of the Restoration" w/ them and it was wonderful. 

 

Tuesday was a very miraculous day.  After making visits to some sweet members in the nursing home, we ate lunch at Brookshire Brothers because we'd been given a gift certificate for there.  It was pretty yummy and Sis. Mapa and I had a really good chat.  We then met up w/ Sis. E* O* who was supposed to come visit investigators S* and J* w/ us.  S* and J* cancelled so we went to go try a referral from the Fred elders.  His name is J* J* and Sis. Mapa had met him before, but it was kind of weird and we weren't sure if he was really interested or not.  Apparently he is, because the Spirit really guided our lesson and we commited him to baptism.  E* bore her testimony and it was beautiful and it was just awesome all around.  That same day we commited T* M* and his 2 friends T* and D* to baptism. It completely wasn't us- it was all the Holy Ghost.  He's so great!  all 4 agreed to baptized on Christmas day, but that is subject to change for scheduling purposes.  Our branch president and his wife (J* and M* L*) had us over for dinner that night.  They fed us a yummy casserole and green beans, w/ fresh baked choc. chip cookies for dessert.  We then headed up to Kingwood to spend the night in the Mission Home.  It was a fun little roadtrip. The J* sisters slept there too and it was really cool to spend some brief quality time w/ Pres. and Sis. Moldenhauer. 

 

Wednesday we had Sisters' training which was combined w/ Zone Leader Council.  It was a really cool training meeting, but of course, really long.  They fed us great food and it was fun to spend time w/ the other missionaries.  Overall it was very edifying experience.  We then headed back to Woodville (from Kingwood) and were really excited to get back to the country.  Living out in the sticks feels like home to us these days.  We met A* G* and her mother at Elijah's for dinner.  A* is an AMAZING investigator who is planning to be baptized.  We were a little nervous to meet her mother, but it turned out great and her mom is VERY supportive of her decision. 

 

Thursday we taught J* in the morning, and in the afternoon we went to teach J* J* w/ Bro. and Sis. L*.  It went really well and he comitted to living the Word of Wisdom.  That night, the G* had us over for dinner.  We built a gingerbread house w/ there grandkids and had a lesson and it was all quite awesome. 

 

Friday we had Zone Meeting in Beaumont.  I was in the Beaumont chapel for the 1st time since I was 10 yrs. old.  They re-upholstered (sp?) the seating since then- fyi.  The meeting was great.  We all went to lunch at Olive Garden after.  I'm still getting to know the missionaries in my zone.  It's pretty crazy being the only sisters in the whole zone.  On our way back we stopped in Spurger to visit a referral of sorts from the Fred elders.  That was effective.  That night we went to the Tyler County Christmas at the Courthouse and contacted lots of people.  It was pretty awesome and completely led by the Spirit. 

 

Saturday we did some more contacting at the county Christmas party, where I also ate the most delicious BBQ sandwich of my whole life.  Bro. and Sis. L* were there and bought them for us.  We attended a massive O* family Christmas party too out in Odomville of course.  There was lots of food and lots of people.  We got to see T* again that afternoon and that went well too :)  We finally got to do our weekly planning which went pretty well and didn't take too long- that was good because we had very little time to get it done.  We've been so busy!  That night we went to a Christmas service at Heritage Village that we'd been invited to.  Reverend Brian from the Methodist church gave a sermon and we sang lots and had a good experience.  It was very interesting.  Afterwards we got to have a good conversation w/ a less active member that works at Heritage Village.

 

Sunday was amazing!!! J* and A* both came to church and loved it and plan to be there next week.  We had a lesson w/ A* after church on the Plan of Salvation at the L*'s home.  It was fantastic and her baptism date is currently set for January 2nd.  They also fed us spaghetti and cheesy garlic bread and brownies.  We had all kinds of adventures in the afternoon, and in the evening we went to the D*'s for some food and to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  It was quite wonderful.  Our whole week was!  We're exhausted! 

 

Missionary work is the best!!!!

 

Nov. 29

Howdy from Woodville- the love of my life!  I LOVE serving out here in the country, and I have the best companion on the planet.  I'm so incredibly blessed far beyond what I deserve. 

Monday was of course transfers- WOOT!  We went to Walmart for groceries and met several investigators and members there... it's kind of the only place to go around here.  That was fun.  The awesome M* family fed us for dinner that night.  They fed us Taco Pie and I drank my Koolaid from a mason jar.  I LOVE the country :)

Tuesday we visited a young woman named R*. Her father is pentecostal/apostolic and was very hostile while pretending not to be.  The Spirit constrained us from arguing w/ him at all, and he suddenly had to leave.  (answer to our prayers!)  We were then able to bear powerful testimony to R* and plant a seed even though she's not currently interested in learning more.  She's a remarkable girl, and I'm happy we were able to have an effective lesson w/ her.  We went to the nursing home where I got to meet "Granny" and "Big Mama"- sweet members who love us to pieces.  We did some tracting and had some success.  We've been very prayerful about when we go finding, and the Spirit has been very strong as we've done so.  The D* family fed us fried Catfish and tater tots for dinner. They totally rock.  After dinner we also went to visit Bro. and Sis. L* (our ward mission leader and his wife)  They're totally fabulous.  Sis. L* gave Sis. Mapa and I mumus to wear in our apt. They're pretty awesome... we've taken pics in them.

Wednesday we had weekly planning which was incredibly spiritual and effective and under 3 hours- AWESOME!!!  We visited our investigator J*, and set up an appt. w/ her.  Then we visited Sis. M* while were in the neighborhood.  She's the seminary teacher for our branch and she's completely amazing.  We then decided to go knock doors, and felt good about a particular street.  We very soon ran into a former investigator who had just broken up w/ her fiance and had been contemplating suicide earlier that day.  It was exactly where the Lord needed us to be and we were used as instruments to comfort her and lift her spirit.  I met Sis. B* and we had a lesson w/ her- she's a sweet elderly member of our branch.  Bro. and Sis. W* and J* S* fed us dinner that night.  J*'s Bro. and Sis. in law were also there for Thanksgiving.  They fed us YUMMY Taco Soup.  We had a great discussion w/ them about Elder Holland's conference address. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving!!! I hope all y'all's was great!!! Please don't judge me for the TX grammar of that sentence :)  Ours was fabulous, but didn't involve much overreating.  We only had one meal appt. w/ Bro. and Sis. J* and W* K*.  Turkey, stuffing, Jello-fruit salad-thing (YUM!), Sweet Potatoe Casserole- never had it before and I'm in love!, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed veggies... and nothing else I can remember.  They sent us home w/ pumpkin pie so we could enjoy it after our food digested.  It was great that evening :)  In the morning we went and helped C* M* get started w/ getting her mission papers filled out online.  We chilled there and wrote letters and had our skirts nibbled on by goats and learned how to clean out a horse's water trough w/ dirt.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE Woodville?  A* G*- our recent convert and good friend from Baytown, came down to visit us that afternoon.  We went and hung out at the park and took pics and talked.  We had lots of fun and made a Walmart run.  That night we spent some time at the D*'s writing more letters and watching "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration."  It was a great day :D

Friday we had District Mtg. w/ the Elders in Jasper.  Elder Hugentobler is now my district leader which is kind of weird for me since he was my district leader in the MTC.  He's grown a lot since then.  He's training a brand new greenie, Elder Matthews and that's our whole district.  I've now been in 4- person districts for 5 months, I've learned to enjoy them.  It's weird being so far away from... everyone... while serving here in Woodville.  We visited some less-active members after lunch... that was pretty awkward.  We visited the S* who attend Fred branch, but live in our area... they're in their 90's and are adorable and love us.  We went tracting and once again had some fabulous spiritual experiences.  We ended up teaching a lesson on the street corner to A*, T*, and S* who were incredibly receptive.  S*'s grandpa had just died the night before, and we were able to comfort her through scriptures in the Book of Mormon.  We have a return appt. w/ them for this week.  The G* fed us pizza and salad for dinner that night.  They're so sweet.  Sis. G* has been a member for less than a year and has such a strong testimony.

Saturday we volunteered at Heritage Village. A historic museum village place- kind of awesome.  We helped them decorate for Christmas by making swags for building posts out of freshly cut pine, cedar, holly, and youpon branches.  TOTALLY put us in the Christmas mood.  We were quite helpful and had lots of fun.  While we were there, Bro. and Sis. S* from Baytown showed up!  They were in the area camping.  That was a fun surprise!  The Heritage Village people fed us tasty chili for lunch. 

That afternoon we tracked down the address of a former investigator, visited and set up an appt. w/ some other investigators, and went tracting.  While tracting a father answered the door w/ a little baby girl in his arms and a 3 yr. old girl at his side.  As soon as he opened the door, his 3 yr. old walked up and gave me a big hug... then proceeded to ask her dad if she could come w/ us.  After talking w/ him and him stating that he was comfortable in his church and such we turned to leave, only to hear more begging from the sweet girl to go w/ us.  It was clear that the man was totally shocked by his daughter's behavior.  It supports a theory we have that children totally recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ and are drawn to the Spirit they feel when they meet us.  It happens all the time, and it never gets old.  Bro. H* H* fed us dinner- turkey, green beans, rolls, etc.  His wife is actually the one who did the cooking, but Harvey's the one who ate w/ us.  Sis. H* is happy in her faith and is not a member- super cool woman.  Bro. H* investigated the church for like 40 yrs. before being baptized just a few years ago.  Good times :)

Yesterday was fabulous at church!  The branch is so sweet and welcoming.  The S* from Baytown joined us too :)  That afternoon we were able to teach some pretty awesome people.  The M* family fed us dinner.  They remember our family- pretty cool.  They fed us deer meat- first time I've had it.  It was pretty much delicious.  We had a great week and I love Woodville!

I love you all!!  Send mail- I miss it!  SMILE!!!!!!!!!!!