Sister Torgerson taking a whack at the accordion.

Silos and barns--they're all over the place out here.

And lastly...a real French braid! That I did!  I taught myself! And Sister Torgerson likes people playing with her hair, so yay!

Dearest Family!

Hope all is well out West! Things are good here. 

Not a ton happened this week. Kevin got stuck in Pennsylvania and had to cancel our appointment, so hopefully we get to see him soon. He just started college and we wanted to teach him about Word of Wisdom and Chastity before he left because college kids do dumb things. But hopefully he'll be smart and we can teach him that when we see him next. 

Speaking of Pennsylvania, I'll be going there this week! Some of our ward members live there, so we're getting permission to visit them! I'll have visited 3 states on my mission! Woof!

Dawn and Judy are doing well. They are almost done with the Gospel Principles book and say it makes so much sense to them. Bill was determined to come to Church this week, but he overdid walking on Saturday and was quite sore. Poor guy. He's also a little nervous about Church because he doesn't know what to expect. Dawn told him that she came the first time, loved it, and wanted to come back to learn more. The next week loved it, and wanted to come back. And so on. She says she just has to come because she just wants more and more every time. They're so great! I love them so much!

Eli is another fellow we're teaching. His mother is a member, but has basically 100% Alzheimers. She just mumbles and doesn't totally recognize anyone. He requested a blessing for her and for him. We brought our old ward mission leader over and he gave the blessings. It was really special. Eli has been listening to General Conference cd's and really likes them. He works full time helping his mother, but he says that when she either gets better or passes on that he wants to be baptized. He loves her so much and calls her "Supermom" and "the 100% best mom in the whole world."

 
The family who gave us the Mars products fed us chili this week and asked us to guess the secret ingredient. I guessed cinnamon, and that was indeed in there, but it wasn't it. Dark chocolate! I couldn't taste it, but he said he made some with and without it and it's totally different without it. Interesting... apparently Hispanics do that too.

 
We've seen a lot of people lately who for whatever reason have gotten offended and left the Church. It makes me so sad. They're cutting themselves off from so many blessings because of usually one person who said something dumb. There's so little we can do to help them, because we try to make it about them and their relationship with the Savior, not with that other person. Many times they realize that it's the person's fault and not the Church's, but they say they're too prideful to come anyway. Bah! So yes, all of you, don't do that. Just love everyone, and if you say something inappropriate, apologize. And if someone does that to you, don't get offended, but just love them anyway.

 
That's the gist of this week. We hauled wood again. And we sorted through another person's clothes to get rid of the bed bug ones. And we helped someone clean their kitchen. I like doing service. I think a service mission would be quite fun. And not so nerve racking. But of course, teaching is service too. 

Ok, well, I love you lot! Let me know what's goin on! Letters are lots of fun! Just sayin...

Love you!
Sister Melificent

Sister Torgerson repairing something that had come loose on our vehicle, with floss I happened to have with me! And it has held up quite nicely!

Sister Bell at the doctor's office.

Sister Bell doing something, I walked in and jumped then took a picture.

A cute little kitty we played wif this week, talking a wee nap on the fan.

The same little kitty, napping in Sister Bell's camera bag.

I saw this double-edged light saber at Wal-Mart and nearly dropped dead with excitement.

The blender exploded the other day while I was making my green smoothie--we've found green specs on our beds and in the closet.

Sister Torgerson taking a whack at the accordion.

Family Dearest!

Oh joy of joys, it's so fun to hear about the goings on over there! What with all the children and what they're up to. 

Thanks Vances for the cards this week, how fun it was to get a whole bunch of artsy cards from you! Elder Christiansen from the mission office called me this week and asked if I go by Missy, because they got a card for a Sister Missy this week and they weren't sure who it was for, but that it was from an Issac Vance. So they opened it to see if the heading of the card gave more clues, and still nothin. I said that was my name and he said that someone sure does love me. That was fun!

This week has been pretty ok. The trees are changing, which is just superb. And the clouds are really wispy, curly, and cotton ball-ish. Dawn and Judy are doing well, as is Bill. He's still recovering from his surgery. Apparently he walked around Home Depot the other day, and that was quite a to do for him. Kevin broke his phone, so we haven't been able to get in touch with him to teach him. His baptism will be moved back, but that's ok. We want to make sure he's prepared for it. We helped a lady with hauling wood into her basement again. There's a whole bunch of it in a half shed thing in her backyard/forest. There are all number of creepy crawlies in that shed, and the wood on the bottom is all moldy and squishy. Ew! So my companions hauled the good wood into the basement, and I hauled the bad wood to the forest and chucked it in there. All in all, it was a pretty good day. Until Sister Torgerson saw a huge spider on my bag and started whacking me with her gloves. I did get bit by it though, so maybe I'll get neat supernatural powers and be able to swing over to people who are too far down the street and give them Books of Mormon that way. Only time will tell! 

We also had a mormon.org referral from someone requesting a Book of Mormon. We met him at the Church, after him telling us he was disagreeable and we should just send the Book. But we were persistent and set an appointment. It's just so much better if we can explain the Book of Mormon and how one gains a testimony of it then bear our own testimonies. So we met him, and he was indeed quite disagreeable, but that's ok. He's staunchly Atheist, but enjoys reading religious books. He ordered this one because of Mitt Romney. For about an hour we talked to him about the Church, Gospel, God, Jesus Christ, the Plan of Happiness, etc. He was not gruntled, quite disgruntled in fact, but afterwards invited to buy us sandwidges. We agreed and continued our discussion. At the end of our rather awkward meeting, he told us he kept trying to find something wrong with us and our religion, and couldn't.

 
For fun, Sister Torgerson, Bell and I have been practicing comparing the Gospel to anything. So far we've succeeded with a box of chocolates, Cheetos, bug extermination, etc. And then it came in handy, because we were planning on teaching someone about the Restoration, specifically the Apostasy, and we weren't sure how to bring it up. She was talking about her cats and how they fight over the cat food she puts out. There you go! People fighting over plain and precious truths of Gospel and taking parts that they like best. 
Well, I love you guys so much. And I'm excited to see you again, but until then "Para Siempre Dios este con vos!" (God be with you til we meet again, in espanish. And it was neat, the Elders invited our zone to their baptism yesterday and we sang two songs in Spanish for it, it was quite fun!)

Love ya,

sister meeso

A very New Jerseyish bumper sticker. 

What's happening around here? Lots of cornfields.

And lots of sunflower fields, which are quite lovely.

Family Dearest!

 

How is everyone? Fun labor day? Ours has been quite eventful. We left at 7:45 this morning to go to Newark for a doctor's appointment for Sister Bell. We got there (mind you, it's about an hour drive, and Newark is a pretty sketchy place), and the doctor's office was closed because of Labor Day. She had a scheduled appointment for today, but they didn't call us to tell us they'd be closed today and to reschedule the appointment. So we drove to Parsippany, where some other sisters live. It's on the way home, and they needed help moving a couch anyway, so we'll make another appointment for later. Also, we went to Trader Joe's which is the best place ever! I got bagged kale for my morning smoothie, and tasty french lentils for cheap! Joyous day!

In other news, the bed bugs returned. Even Sister Torgerson is getting bitten, and she's on the top bunk! So we called the housing coordinator couple and they came with all sorts of spray stuff and a new mattress for this one. They drenched our room, we took everything out of our dressers and they got that too. Then we went to the laundromat and spent a whopping $13 on laundry (and we only get $20 for laundry). We had to clean all our bedding, towels, clothes, the works! But now it smells really good in our room! Oh, and at the laundromat X-Men was on and we were trying so hard not to watch or listen. Agh! Oh, and funny side note, we went to a member's house for foods later that day, and she saw my bites and said, "I have just the thing for you!" She spent the next half hour pointing a laser at my bites. And she'd say, "Yep, you can see that one going down!" Not so, they were exactly the same, but I'm glad she felt like she was accomplishing something.

Judy got confirmed on Sunday! Yay! And Kevin is at school down in Princetonish area, so we're having the Elders teach him down there. He lives up here on the weekends though, so he'll get baptized in our ward. I'm excited for him!

We also helped someone with their yard this week, and she went CRAZY with her hedge trimmer! She was waving that thing everywhere and cut her electircal cord a couple times! Then we'd follow behind and put everything in bags. It was fun.

 

Well, I hope you kids have a fun week! Let me know how everything goes! I love you all so much and I hope everyone's enjoying school!

 

Love,

 

sister mistipher

Sisters Bell, Healy, Torgerson, Coley, and Wright at Yogurtland!

Kevin and Karissa with some lovely cupcakes she made.

Not joking! A finch on top of a guinea pig on top of a skateboard rolling through Karissa's family's house.

Judy gave me a pattern for this homely yard dog after she heard I like crafts, and this poor thing was the outcome--but we had fun making it.

Sister Bell decorating a cake at a kid's birthday party.

Our mouth's after eating said cake because of the garish colored icing.

Dearest Judy before her baptism!

Elder Smith with Sister Adrian, our Italian Brooklynite.

Us with the Deans. The dad is a recent convert and the mom and son just returned into activity and they are the most awesome family ever--so fun!

Putting our double sliding doors to good use!

Note from Mom: This letter is from August 27, 2012.

Dearest Family!

This week was superb! The leaves are getting into warmer hues, and the cicadas are quite loud. As are some people on our street at night, I don't know what all the hullabaloo is about, but it's happening more often. 

Anyway, transfer news....I'm staying in Sparta! As are both of my companions! This is Sister Bell's last transfer, so it'll be interesting to see how all that goes when you prepare to return from whence you came. 

We've been teaching a lot. One kid, Kevin, is a boyfriend of a member. He is set to be baptized on September 15! He prayed about it and decided that was the day for him! He spends most of his time at his girlfriend's family's house because he doesn't have a great family life. They're well to do, and he has everything he wants, but not a loving family. His dad told him he cared more about his possessions and his money than he did about his kids. If he had to choose between the two, he'd choose the money. And Kevin's girlfriend's family are so amazing. They're a normal family, but they love being with each other and doing things together, and much of their closeness is attributed to the Gospel. Which is why Kevin is interested in the Church, because he wants to be able to have a family like that one day.

 
Judy got baptized this week! And she was so excited! She said she just couldn't wait! All of her family couldn't be there, but she wanted to do it now anyway. Her son Bill (husband of Dawn, who was baptized a couple weeks ago) is home from his heart surgery and is healing quite well. He wanted so badly to come to Church and to Judy's baptism, but Dawn told him he needed to stay home to heal. He has been asking for us to come over (mind you, before the heart attack, he'd only ever said "hi" to us), but sister Bell has had a cold, so once that's done we'll be over there. He has been praying with Dawn, morning and night, and he prays over his meals (again, a couple weeks ago he wasn't sure if God existed). He had a panic attack one day, and asked Dawn to come home as fast as she could and the first thing he said was, "Say a prayer!" and she did. She prayed the pain would go away and he'd be calm from his panic attack. He was calm afterward, and the next day all the pain was gone. Members have been bringing over meals at just the right times, when Dawn is too frazzled to cook. They've made sure they're heart healthy meals too. Bill used to think they were alone in life, but this week he said, "I guess we really do have family. God has been really good to us." We made him a sign with a heart flexing it's muscles that said, "Wishing you strength in your recovery" and we put a mustache on the heart (you know how I am about putting mustaches on things), and he said he appreciated the stache, as he's got quite a full one.

I'm so blessed to be here. I don't know what we did to deserve teaching this family, but I'm glad we're here. And I'm glad I get to see how all this plays out in the next 6 weeks!

 
The companionship is great, we do a lot of scaring each other as we come out of rooms. I usually jump the highest (how's that for worst jumper in the world Mikey!). 

Oh, and joy of joys! After the baptism, we happened upon a member talking with our Zone Leader in the hall. She found out he speaks a little Italian, and she was talking Italian so fast! And then she'd go back to her Brooklyn/Italian accent. And then, oh, and she's in her 70's by the way, she started rapping about being a Mormon momma and the Word of Wisdom. Then our Ward MIssion Leader came around the corner, and she grabbed his hands and said, "Let's do the coupon dance!" and jumped up and down for about 10 seconds. And earlier in Relief Society she was telling a community story about her conversation with a stranger in the grocery store, and said this, "We had an Italian moment without being around the dinner table!" Only in Joysey would this amazing stuff happen!

Love you! Hope you enjoy your schooling this week kids! If you wink at your teacher, maybe they'll let you go to recess early!

Squeezes!

Sister Mergle