Darling Family!

I hope all is well and that everyone had a splendid Christmas! I was surely happy to talk to the lot of you!

Christmas morning I woke up around 6 and asked my companions if they wanted to get up, considering the joyous day, but they grumbled at me. But eventually they woke up at 6:30 since they have to, and we quite enjoyed opening our gifties! Thanks so much to all of you for your family Christmas cards and gifts and such! We had Christmas brunch at our ward mission leader's home (that's their tradition, to have the missionaries over for breakfast on Christmas every year). We ate eggs benedict (we had two plates, but past Elders and Sisters have taken down six plates, eek!), sparkling orange juice, and ended with pulling Christmas crackers! It was a lotta fun! We then booked it to Mina's house, a Muslim lady who enjoys coming to our ward. Hopefully we can start teaching her officially, but she needs an interview by President Jeppson first, for her safety. She made two chickens, beef, rice with dried fruit in it, pickled jalapeno vegetables (I was not warned that they were spicy), yogurt with beets and garlic, pasta, and almond cookies. It was a TON of food! Later we visited Dawn and Judy for a nice evening.
 
The rest of last week is as follows:  

We drove to Pennsylvania to visit the Europeans in our ward, the King family. They are amazing! So talented! I attribute the cool kids to their not having their own cell phones. Instead of texting all day they develop artsy, sciencey, and musical skillz. Their mother, the Young Women's President, asked me to accompany the Young Women on guitar for the Christmas program on Sunday. Woof! I haven't played in months, but I took the guitar, practiced, and come Sunday I played classical Silent Night, while they sang it in German (Stille Nacht). My companions and I also had to sing in the program, so we practiced Joy to the World half in English, half in Portugese (Mundo Feliz, Naceau Jesus).
 
We suprised little Peter with a visit, and in his prayer, about three times he said, "And thank you for the lovely surprise of the Sisters coming to visit!" I want to adopt him!

Alex Boye came for our Missionary Christmas Party. He sang and told crazy stories! Get this: the night before he came to sing to us he was singing at a company's Christmas party. The boss, a Mister Nielsen, served his mission in Alex's hometown in London. As a missionary Elder Nielsen visited a Ms. Wells to bring her to Church. They knocked on the door, and two big young men stood in the doorway. They told him their mother wasn't going to Church. "Why not?" "Our car is broken." "If we fix it, can she come to Church?" "If you fix that car, we'll come to Church!" they said, laughing uproariously! Elder Nielsen took the car's keys. Neither he nor his companion knew anything about cars. He sat in the driver's seat, prayed a really heartfelt prayer that the car would start, closed his eyes, and put in the key. Nothin. Again! Nothin. Finally, ch, ch, ch, vroom, ROAR! The doors of the house flew open and the two young men came out wide eyed! They grabbed their mom, hopped in the car, and drove to Church. The car was missing pieces from the engine and shouldn't have worked, but it did! One of those young men who answered the door introduced Alex Boye to the Church when he was sixteen, which answered Ms. Wells prayer that there would be more Black choir members in the Motab, a large concern of hers. Crazy!

We met a man named Isaiah Mormon and gave him... a Book of Mormon. And we got a return appointment!

Little Peter got confirmed! It was all in Spanish, but it was amazing and the Spirit was so strong! I'm so excited for Little Peter and the things he's going to accomplish in God's Church. He's gonna be such a great missionary!

We visited the Izquierdo's, one of the best families of all time. They told us to write down our gift to Jesus this year and put it in a box. On Christmas we opened the box whilst singing Happy Birthday! Sister Izquierdo grew up in Nauvoo and her father's job was restoring old Church sites. He got to keep an item of his choice from the town general store. He chose the door handle. Six prophets, including a young Joseph F. Smith had used that door knob, and she let me touch it too! I've basically shaken hands with six prophets!

On Christmas Eve all the utilities were closed, so we gathered with our zone to play games. We came up with a Book of Mormon adventure game (which we'll be playing when we get home!), some other games, a white elephant, and gaddianton robbers (mafia). It was a blast!

Well, I love you guys! And I love this Church and I know it's true!

Sister Mugglesby

Sister Dorneles hid Clarence the Curious Elf in the best spot yet--that hole in our map!

 Elders Glasses Smith and Silva upon first seeing a mormon.org add!

The corner of Times Square is too good to be true--Harry Potter AND The Hobbit!

Yay! The real meaning of Christmas!

Ha! We're even on a taxi! Mind you, that's for the play, but hey, it's still making people think of the Scriptures!

Me and four of my eight companions in the Temple!

A smattering of our Elders in front of the Temple.

  

Sister Morrison and I in "the City"! (A high five for whomever spots the mormon.org poster first!)

This was my favorite of the adds--it's just cute.

We made it onto a screen!  If you see Sister Torgerson in the red skirt, I'm the head that's almost on top of her head! I'm famous!

Our last lesson with Little Peter--doing Alma 50 and comparing it with prayer, scripture study, Church, and following the Prophet.

The Deans! They would fit right in with our family!

Little and Big Peter and Sister Dorneles at the Ward Christmas Party!

Peter's Baptism. Isn't he just glowing?

Darling Family!

I sounds like you've had a lot of fun recently, I sure hope so! I've also had a lot of fun! Yesterday was dear Little Peter's baptism! This past week we saw him nearly every day to get all the lessons in. But he remembered everything, and really enjoyed everything he learned. He's a star pupil! I so wish everyone we taught was like Little Peter. At Church he was just glowing! 

We had a debacle filling up the font, thinking it filled more slowly than it actually does. We were sitting in Relief Society and I jumped and thought, "We need to go check the font!" Then I just decided we had time so I didn't do anything about it, but it kept nagging. Then Sister Torgerson recognized her prompting for what it was (from the Holy Ghost) and made us go check it. And just in the nick of time! It had about a centimeter before it would started flooding past the rim of the font and into the bathroom and gym! Woof! We got the water down, and proceeded with the rest of the preparations.

A youth spoke about baptism, and I spoke about the Holy Ghost. Peter's dad baptized him. Little Peter's toe--ding!---popped up out of the water, so they needed to redo the ordinance. "Oh, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to put my feet up!" The second time it went perfectly! He described himself as feeling "fresh and new!" Oh, I wish I could just give him a hug, he reminds me of Danny. Such a polite gentleman!

 

We also went to the Temple this week! It was so amazing! I love the Temple! We drove to Union City, like last time, and took a wa-wa (bus) in to the port authority. We disembarked the bus, and continued on foot, through Times Square. Now, there were lots of neat billboards for new plays like Cinderella, and adds for a swell Harry Potter exhibit. And, yes, Hobbit posters that I nearly fainted upon seeing. But the best part, were the five or six billboards featuring mormon.org Christmas adds. We were jumping up and down, pointing and shouting with glee (we weren't a very composed bunch)! It was so cool to see all the meaningless fluff of Times Square, but then something really special and of the utmost importance flash onto the screens! 

We continued our jaunt past Central Park, and into the fancy artsy district, past Julliard and into the quiet confines of the Temple. We arrived a few hours earlier than the time we'd arranged, so we did initiatories.  It was so neat to remember things I'd forgotten. When I get home, you guys will have to come with me to the Temple, because I love that place, and there are so many and so close to where we live! We saw the Manhattan Mission President and his wife there with their departing missionaries (since the Temple is in their mission, they get to go every transfer!). I only have one more trip left, and I'll probably be bawling like those missionaries were. Woof!

Let's see, otherwise, we had a lot of down time because Sister Torgerson has been sick and needed lots of sleep. I don't know if I mentioned this in a past email, but I'd been praying for an opportunity to catch up in my journal after an Elder told me he'd done so. Then his companion got sick, and he got caught up after being a month behind. I thought I'd be able to catch up during an exchange with a sick sister, but I only wrote a days worth. Anyway, since we were in for two days I got caught up on about a transfer's worth of my journal! That takes a load off my back, yes!

 

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed The Hobbit, I asked a member about it and we nerded for about 15 minutes before I got myself together and started speaking about more applicable to the Gospel things.

 

I love you guys and I hope you have a lovely week! I'm excited to hear all of your voices next week! I love you!

Sister Mistletoe

Sister Torgerson putting together our festive decor!

Yours truly, decking the halls with our wonderful paper chain!

The fluorescent rocks!

A fluorescent quartz teacup!

The rocks in daylight disguise.

Mister Geology with seemingly innocent fireplace.

Family Dearests!

Well, this week was tops! We met Peter and Little Peter, who just moved from Quebec into our ward boundaries. Peter is a member, but Little Peter isn't, so we've started teaching him! On our first meeting we set him with a baptismal date of Dec. 16th and he is so excited! I got halfway through the baptism invitation and he said, "Yes! I really want to be baptized!" He's just so sincere! He's twelve years old, Cuban, and speaks Spanish, French and English. When we asked him about God, he said, "He's my best friend! I can tell Him anything and I know He'll answer my prayers. And I know He loves me!" Goodness, I wish everyone could be as humble and teachable as L'il Peter! Adults just put too much fluff and unnecessary stuff in the way, but kids just know the simple truths. I'll let you know how his baptism goes! Oh, and on our second visit we asked him how his Book of Mormon reading was going and he told us about the Lamanites, Nephites, Ishmaelites, etc. We looked at each other confused. "Peter," says Sister Dorneles, "did you start in Nephi or Mormon?" "You said to read the Book of Mormon, so that's what I read!" So cute, and he really enjoyed it and highlighted a lot of things, but now he's back in Nephi, and I think it will make more sense.

 We got a referral from the Primary President this week about a less-active family who's kids are old enough to be baptized, but would still need the lessons because they're over eight. I really hope we get to teach them because kids are the best!

We got invited to support an elderly member of the ward with her society's glowing rocks display. It sounded..... really..... well, we weren't too sure what to think. But apparently in Franklin New Jersey, there are fluorescent and phosphorescent rocks that don't exist anywhere in the world (I know Mom, you're probably jumping out of your seat right now. "Rocks! Oh boy! Ah! Gee!"). We were ushered in to an old museum, into a room with a ceiling high fireplace built with various types of rocks. It looked nice. And then the man giving the tour turned out the lights, and turned on a UV light. IT WAS AMAZING! I don't know how these rocks glowed, but it was crazy! Unfortunately the mine where these things live isn't opened on Mondays, so we can't go through a tour of the mines. I was hoping we could, as you guys get to go to The Hobbit to see dwarves in mines, so I should get a similar experience. Oh well, maybe in the future. Speaking of which, one of the companionships in our district called to give us a referral, and said, "We have good news and bad news. The bad news is... The Hobbit has been cancelled." I just about fainted, it was so devastating. And then they said they were joking and that they had a referral for us. That part was indeed good news! But really, the first thing should never be joked about. Ok, enough of worldly stuff!

Also, we were walking about, like we do, and ran into a lady. I offered her a card for our website. "Oh! I'm not going to be a Mormon!" "Ok, nevertheless, the website has some really touching videos about Jesus Christ and we know it would benefit you." Then in comes Sister Torgerson with, "Why don't you want to be Mormon?" The lady said we were false and believed in different things. We asked her what beliefs of ours differed with hers. She didn't quite know, but just knew that we did. Oh, people, you and your "knowing what we believe" but not actually knowing anything. It ended with her asking us questions, us answering them, her being befuddled by our ways not being as weird as she'd heard, and ultimately in her accepting a Book of Mormon and saying she'd pray about it. Yay, I just hope she does it sincerely and with an open heart.

 We also met a Pagan man who has altars and idols in his front yard. He was interesting, and said he had "Mr. Kreuger's Christmas" and a Book of Mormon, and enjoyed them, but wasn't interested in anything else. He hadn't prayed about the Book though, as he said our God was different from his gods and communication is different too. We've been focusing in our visits with members on the Book of Mormon and committing them to re-read it and pray about it. One member told us he'd committed about 400 people to do it, and yet he had never read it all the way through, and never prayed about it. And he had served a mission. Woof! He said he had a testimony of it, but with concerns he brought up about it, I didn't think he'd told them truth. Sister Dorneles was very bold in telling him he didn't have a solid testimony and that the only way he would is if he took our challenge. We knelt down and prayed, and as she prayed we all felt so strongly about the truthfulness of that Book. When we were walking back to our car she said, "Did you feel that?! Man! That "freaking'" Book is true!" Yes, that word is on the buried words list, but she's from Brazil and says a lot of funny things. She's great.

 
Also, Dawn has been struggling, as I think I already wrote about. But this week she and Bill were going out to pick up her son from wherever he lives, sort of far away. She's driven the route numerous times. Bill said to her, "I'm getting a really big feeling that you shouldn't drive." "What are you talking about, I've done this so many times!" "I know, but I just feel like I should do it this time." Annoyed, she got into the passenger side and grumbled throughout the trip. Then, out of nowhere on the freeway, their brand new back tires both blew. Bill has had that happen to him before and knew how to handle the car. Dawn says that if she was driving she would never have been able to control the vehicle and they both would have died. When they got their car to a stop, Bill turned to her and said, "We need to pray. That Holy Ghost thing you keep talking about must really be real!" Bill doesn't pray, but they said one together. Then a kindly semi-driver turned his truck so no oncoming traffic could pass (I don't know if that's legal, but hey, safety first) and called his friend who tows cars, and his other friend who replaces tires and got them all fixed up. What a blessing that Heavenly Father answers our prayers, and that he answers them through other people! Dawn said in Gospel Principles yesterday that now she sees God hasn't forgotten her or her family but has been watching over them during all of their trials. It was so amazing! I hope we can start teaching the rest of her family soon. 

Also, speaking of recent converts, Kevin got his interview for the Aaronic Priesthood and is passing the Sacrament next week!

Well, I think that's it. It was a good week, and this one will be too! We're going to the Temple! Best place ever (!) besides our home on Sundays, but that's the best in a different kind of way. I love you all and I hope you're all safe! Give each other snuggs and kisses from this one!

Sister Mistipher

The ravishing Sparta sisters in their matching Christmas turtlenecks.

The sisters of the New Jersey Morristown Mission at our Jingle with the Jeppsons--and we'll be added to by 75 more sisters, we just found out!!

Our caroling crew. 

A small sample of what the creche looked like (memories of Uncle Tim and Aunt Collette)--isn't the chandelier thing neat?

One of my favorite displays.

The zombies have arrived!

Sister Rittenhouse and I finding joy in this dalmatian in the rubble.

Part of the goonish crew by the garbage heap.

If all parking signs were like this, I feel more people would obey them.

We stoped by to see what the Jersey Shore was like, and it looks like this.

The crew enjoying their labor--we really do have so much fun, in a tactful way, and the people around us notice and it makes them happy.

Family Darlings!

I surely hope all is well over in the West. We've received some snow, and much fog. I hope the expecting mothers are doing alright. Any baby names in the mix for Tim and Jamie? 

This week was all over the place! I had to go on a two day emergency exchange with the Parsippany Sisters as one of their trio is sick. So they snatched me and I got to see what serving in Morristown is like. And actually, it answered a prayer. One of the Elders and I were discussing journaling and how it's hard to keep up in our journals. He said he prayed for an opportunity to get caught up and lo and behold the next day his companion was sick so they had to stay in the whole day and he got caught up. So I prayed for such a situation, and then I got to stay in for a few hours with the sick Sister and didn't get caught up, but got further. I'm now only a month behind! We switched off teaching and staying in the house. And then come evening we all went to the Stake Center for the Christmas Creche display. It was quite beautiful! We were given the assignment to carol as people came into the building. The music coordinator made us practice a bit first, and he seemed less than enthused about our musical abilities, but it turned out ok. And it was fun to sing, even if people weren't coming in. We just kept singing to the trees and the stars and keeping our thoughts focused on our Savior's birth. I felt the Spirit quite strongly. 

My companions joined me at the Parsippany apartment that night, and we all carpooled to hurricane clean-up in Keansburg the next day. Amazingly, there is still a lot to do down there. Our zone worked all day at Jose's house. Originally just taking out sheet rock, and then he told us to just take everything out. When we were finished there was only a frame and the outside walls left. The kitchen had, not joking, seven plus layers. We'd clear the tile and lo and behold: wood! Clear the wood, and: tile! It took us a while, but it was fun. We have a rambunctious zone, and I think it lifted Jose's spirit. He and his wife gave us a bunch of pies as we left.

In the middle of service we left to find foods, and happened upon an Episcopal Church that was feeding victims and volunteers. They were so kind and gave us chili and rice. They made us sit down and then took our orders and bustled about seeing what they could do to help us. So cute. After we finished eating they asked us to sing-- random--so we sang "Called to Serve." It was quite powerful. The Sisters had to leave service early as we were scheduled to carol again at the Creche. Again, we felt the Spirit strongly, I love hymns for that reason.

 
We've been looking for more people to teach, and found a former investigator who has a lot of Plan of Salvation concerns, so I'm excited to teach him again. Also, Dawn's step-daughter Ashley called her father and asked if Dawn was coming to Church this week. She asked if she could come too. Dawn has been struggling, so we took her to the Bishop and they talked things out and he gave her a blessing. I love the priesthood! Afterwards Ashley asked us for a Book of Mormon. We gave it to her and read part of the intro with her and asked her to pray about the things she reads. Dawn later told us that on the way home Ashley told her that, "I feel something good every time I go to that Church." When they got home Bill rolled his eyes, and said, "Now you're reading the Book too?" To which she replied, "Yeah. And you need to get with the picture dad."

Also neat, remember a month ago we helped someone with a tree in their backyard and the neighbor said if that's what Mormons do he might want to be one? Well, we left him a note saying that the next week we'd be doing service in Staten Island and if he'd want to join us he'd be more than welcome. Well, we just found out he did go! And he rode with members for three hours and got to talk Gospel with them. And he enjoyed serving with the Ward. And how! I think the Bishop is inviting him to the Christmas party, so we'll see if we can talk to him more then.

 
Also, kind of funny: While I was in Parsippany, my companions visited a sort of investigator and she fell asleep mid lesson. They didn't know what to do. Should they leave? Should they make a loud noise? She jerked awake a few minutes later and that scared Sister Torgerson into asking, "So what did you think about that verse?" Needless to say, she didn't remember what they'd been talking about.

Well, I love you guys and I hope you're all safe! Let me know what's going on round those parts!

Love, 

Sister Mister