One down, seventeen more to go

Hey, everyone!

This past week has flown by! Time really does blend on a mission. It
doesn't feel like I have only been here a almost two weeks, it feels
like I have been here for three months. :) Oh! I hit my one month mark
on Saturday! One down, seventeen more to go!

I forgot to tell you a little bit more about Sister Malphrus. :) She
is from South Carolina. She goes home in January, so she has been out
a year. She loves to tease, but she is really patient with me. I have
learned so much from her!

We have been keeping busy, teaching a lot of lessons. We have three
investigators on date (cross your fingers...) as long as they keep
doing what they are supposed to.

Rylee is 15 and adorable! As long as we get her parent’s permission,
then we can go forward with the27th. Then there is Deb, who is goaling
for the 30th and Tasha who is so ready, and we are planning hers for
the 24th of September. All of these people are amazing, and have gone
through some really hard things. It is just amazing how the gospel has
blessed there lives!

Kellie is working on coming back to church as well and I love her so
much! She also is an amazing person!

On Wednesday we (and the other Sisters) run a Family Home Evening, and
it is great fun. We played the human version of Hungry, Hungry Hippos
and was it hilarious. :)

Anyway, I just want to let you know that this church is true! That is
something that I have really come to know. Joseph Smith is a prophet. The Spirit truly works in our lives for the better, and leads us and
guides us. :)

I love you all!!!
-Sister Waite-a-second

Here is a picture of Sister Waite and Sister Malphrus at a dinner appointment

Hello from Richfield!

Hey everyone!

Wow, it has been a busy week and a little bit. :)

I had to say good-bye to all the wonderful people from the MTC this
week and that was hard. I really grew to love these people (especially those in my district) and it was very bitter-sweet to say goodbye.However, I am luckily enough to be able to serve close to my dear companion Sis. Kirby. In fact were are serving in the same town, Richfield. My new companion is Sister Malphrus and I love her already. But yeah, we actually just switched companions. Sister Brown is now serving with Sis. Kirby. I hope that that made sense. :)

The wonderful thing about Utah, I have learned, is that missionaries
get free food. It is so nice! But yeah. During certain day, some
restaurants allow us to eat for free so go Utah!

So much has happened, I do not have time to write it all! We got to
here Elder Anderson speak on Tuesday, which was also his birthday so we sang happy birthday to him. That was amazing to hear him speak. I got to spend most of Wednesday hanging out in the visitor Center and that was really cool. The St. George temple is AMAZING! Sis. Malphrus and I got to dish the ice cream for ice cream eating contest at the fair, so that was funny. I am half convinced that all of Richfield is actually members pretending to give me practice because Sis.Malphrus has lined up members to pretend and be investigators to give me practice and they usually end up with doors getting slammed in my face. :) I know that there are still at least two more out there....

Our senior couple did it to me and Elder Johnson just started
screaming CULT! In my face as soon as I mentioned the church. That was actually really funny because he looked the part. :) But it has been great! I am doing well and Sis. Malphrus has bee really patient with me. We will see how next week turns out...

I am staying in a members home (the Chappells) and they have a
reaaaally nice house. We have an in-home theater that we cannot use. :)

We have been teaching several people. I love them and if I had more
time I would tell you more about them. They are wonderful people. We did have to drop Max... He thinks we are a cult. That is kind of funny story, but we have no time... :(

OH! I remembered what I wanted to say. It is so true that Utah and
Wyoming/Montana just trade missionaries because I have meet several people who have sons/daughters serving in the Billings, MT mission so yeah. That has been fun.

Anyway, I am out of time... But I love you all and miss you all!!
-Sister Waite
Or as the other wonderful Sister Waite thought of:

Sister Waite-a-second

Time Flies

Hey, everyone! 

It seems like so much has happened this past week, I don't have enough time to say everything! 

By the way, when I first got here, people kept telling us to make it to Sunday and then time would fly and I thought they were joking...No. It was true. Every. Single. Word. This is my last few days here at the MTC before I head off to St. George and that is just the weirdest feeling because I just got here. But no, it is actually happening.  I leave about 4:30 AM Wednesday to fly down there. (I can see why they don't want to drive us. Being stuck in a car with 12 missionaries would not be a fun experience for anybody involved). 

We had in-Field Orientation yesterday which was really, really good but also really long. 9 hours long. But as we were moving around, role playing with different people I ran into Elder Oakely. He is serving in the Billings, MT mission and I may have freaked out. Look out for him, I told him that my parents would feed him well if he ever got to go to Powell. But that honestly made my day. (Another thing that was awesome was when I ran into Elder Shakespeare and Elder Batman. I am not joking, these are their actually names.)

Also, during in-Field, they had some really good thoughts about how lowering your expectation lower our efficiency. We have to believe that we will baptize people and that the Lord as prepared people in every single area that we are going to go to. We have the Lord on our side, we shouldn't be doubting that we can't get baptisms. Yes, there won't always be a lot of baptisms and that is alright, but we shouldn't go in there with that mind set. The Lord is already preparing people and we need to forget that stereotype that people don't want to listen to our message. I really loved that part, which was in the morning. If I am being honest, I was so done with it the last few hours. :) 

Oh, I do have to mention though that one of our instructors served his mission Boston and he talked about driving through downtown Boston after getting picked up from the airport in a fifteen passenger van and how he thought he was going to die...  I could relate to that. No, thank you Dad for getting us through that safely. ;) 

Sister Keeney (our old STL) is also going to ST. George as well. She ships out with us next Wednesday! I love Sister Keeney, she is amazing. Because she is a Visitor Center Sister, she has to do any extra week of training but her companion, Sister Beals, and the rest of her district left on Wednesday, so we have adopted her. :) I don't think we will ever give her back either. . She is actually a solo missionaries, so she doesn't have to have a companion, but she did move rooms so she is now in our room. It has been so fun to have another Sister hanging out with the four or us! We all love her. 

There is so much I want to say and so little time! Oh, before I forget. If you can find it, go watch Bubba's Mormon Message. I don't know exactly what it is called, but it is about how he changed from being a Gang member to being a Mormon and he is kind of one of the 'celebrities' if you want to use that word, around here. He is a TRC (he role plays being an investigator) and he is *known* for making missionaries cry.... I have gotten the chance to meet him, sort of, a few times and he is actually really nice and sweet outside of the classroom. I think the fact that he did the Mormon message is one of the worst keep secrets here because we aren't actually suppose to know that he is a member, but oh well.  He is really cool, watch his message if you can find it. :)

Anyway, I love you all!!! 

-Sister Waite

P.S. Oh, I keep forgetting to answer those who have asked. We do get to go the Provo City temple every P-day. :) I am super stoked to be going back this afternoon though also slightly heart broken because this will be out last time to go through together as a district.