TEMPLE!!!!!!!

Well, if you were all dilligent in conference, you would have heard the greatest news that they are BUILDING A TEMPLE IN HARTFORD CONNECTICUT!!!! I cannot even tell you the excitement we all had who were sitting in the chapel. We didn't even hear where the 5th temple was going, because we were all cheering and crying. It is funny that I already love this place and the people so much that I cried when the prophet announced where the temple was going to go. It is wonderful to see the spiritual members being blessed. They have wanted this for so long, and now they are going to get it. This makes me want to teach more and more so that people can enter the temple when it is finished. I am sad though because I most likely won't be here when it is finished.

Anyway, although I wasn't able to sit in my pj's with the family with T Ring and watch conference from the couch, I absolutely loved it and soaked up every word. When the prophet walked in, we all stood up and it was amazing the reverence that was present. I am so grateful for a living prophet. People find it so hard to believe that God would send a prophet here today, and it just makes me even more grateful for him. Right before conference, we were eating dove chocolates, and the saying inside the chocolate said "it is ok to slow down" and I thought on a mission its not! Then Pres. Uchtdorf told his talk about simplifying things and it hit home. It is good to think that we need to simplify our messages to people and slow down and get the basics down so we can teach others. So many wonderful talks were given, and I am so grateful to be here. I was also thinking of how grateful I am that in our family, every member has such a strong testimony of the gospel. This is so rare, as I have come to see while I have been out here and I am so grateful for that. You are all such great examples to me, and your testimonies are a reflection of what I want to be. I love you all so much.

So last monday we got to go eat at a members house and have FHE. They had 7 kids, all of them completely different and all very insane. There were 4 different conversations gonig on at the same time and I just laughed so hard because it reminded me of our family. I loved it, because it was us on sunday nights with kids running around everywhere.

Well, I had my first drop, and it is the worst feeling. He called and just said he didn't want to come to our church because he hates it when people cry haha. But still it broke my heart because he really loved learning about Christ, but he wanted a preacher typer person to teach him.

So we were at district meeting and we were doing car checks so the hoods on our cars were up and this lady pulled up and said do you need help? we said no becuase we were just checking cars. so she drove away, and I was like shoot why didn't we teach her? So she drives away, and we see her stop and turn around. she comes back and says, "so who are you guys? what is this building?(church building)" So of course the 2 elders closest to the car start talking to her about everything. She then turned on a carrie underwood song (temporary home) and started singing to the elders haha that was funny but then she started crying. She turned to them and said, "I know this is my temporary home." Elder Furness (went to brighton, ironic we are in the same district), turns to her and says, "can we help you get home and return to heaven with your Heavenly Father?" Tears streamed down her face and she said yes. So as you can guess they have an appointment with her this week. So amazing how events happen and we are where we need to be at all times.

Well I hope you all have an amazing week and I am so grateful for your emails! I love you all so much!

Love, Elizabeth

TAWANDA!

Lil's visit to NY

Another wonderful letter from Lil. I love reading these. It really makes me realize what is really important in life.

This week was awesome! On Tuesday, we went to visit a lady named marie who was a referral from temple square and we walked in and she said, "now i'm not looking for religion, but I just want to hear more about this story. The feeling at temple square just resignated with me and I love it." GOLDEN! So she asked how you start the book of mormon, and my companion just explained to her the bom like nephi and his family went to america etc., and by the time she got to moroni, the lady was in tears!!!! The spirit was so strong! I testified of the thruthfulness and how she can find out for herself if it is true by reading and prayer. It was incredible. She is coming to conference and we are meeting with her tomorrow. I cannot even express the joy I felt by the end of that visit. The gospel is true and the Holy Ghost testifies of that! I am so grateful for that experience.

So we decided on friday night that no matter what we were going to give away a book of mormon yesterday. By 6 p.m. we hadn't placed one yet and we had a dinner appointment at 6 so I was frustrated thinking we would be out all night. So we went into this dinner appointment and told them our goal and just said if you know anyone that would want one in your neighborhood, let us know! So we started our lesson with them about missionary work, and the doorbell rang. Sister Diaz went to get the door, and it was Brother Diaz's best friend's father. He was just stopping by and she said the missionaries were there, so he asked if he could come and listen because, "he was so confused on which church to join because there are so many and he didn't know how to find out which was the right church." Sound familiar? The only problem was that he didn't speak english. Luckily we had a spanish book of mormon in the car, and I literally ran to the car to get it. I ran back in and we taught through the Diaz's that if he reads and prays about this bookwith a sincere heart, he will know it is true. Luckily the elders in the next area speak spanish, so they are going to go teach him. He had been searching for a while of the truth so he was so excited. Wow, once again the Lord blesses us and puts us where we need to be at the right time.

So in January before I decided to go on a mission, I made a list of things I wanted to do before the year was over. I accomplished them all but one thing: go to New York. I was sad but knew that one day I could go there. Well, we have a lady in our ward by permission that lives in New York and has cancer and needed help from the missionaries with cleaning because she is on chemo. SO, as you have probably already guessed, I GOT TO GO TO NEW YORK!!!!!!! I was SO EXCITED!!! We stopped by another member's home in NY and she owns an adorable bed and breakfast, so we stopped there and visited with her. When we come back here, we have to stay there because its so cute! She fed us some treats and we headed over to Sister Donegins. She is really weak because of the chemo, but still managed to make dinner and 2 homemade pumpkin pies from scratch for dinner (dad, stop drooling! but the pie was AMAZING and I don't even like pie!) I felt so great when we left because she put us to work. She was such a great example because although she had no hair, was sick and exhausted, she still worked hard as a mother to her daughter and husband. By the way, her daughter is named Lily and they call her Lil. I loved it! I seriously couldn't have had a better day in New York fulfilling one of my dreams by doing service and giving a message about how the worth of souls is GREAT in the sight of God.

I don't have very many funny stories here, but I am so happy serving. THe work continues and it is so beautiful here! I love you all so much!

TAWANDA!!

Love, Lil

One Month!

Hello Family!

Well, my one month was 2 days ago and I can't believe it! I feel like it has gone so fast but at the same time so slow. It feels like forever since I have been home but last week FLEW by! Here are some awesome things that happened last week.

First off, the COOLEST thing happened!!!! So we went to eat dinner and give a lesson on monday night at a couple's house named the Tillinghast's. They are a newly wed couple of a year and their story is so cute. This is both their second marriages. Well, come to find out, she moved from L.A. because oh no big deal she was CHRISTINE IN PHANTOM ON BROADWAY!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH I FREAKED!!!! I WAS SO EXCITED!!!!! I couldn't even begin to tell you how happy I was! She sang "wishing you were somehow here again" for me and I was the happiest person on the planet. My comp thinks I am psycho because I am obsessed with her now. She converted about a year ago and turned down wicked (she would have played Glinda) to get married and move out here. Wow. It was seriously the coolest thing!!!! It was so ooooo cool!!!!!!!! I told her of the story where I sang in the car and everyone was pretending to kill themselves because I sounded so "good".

As you can imagine, it is even more gorgeous here because the leaves are starting to change even more. Just driving is so wonderful because the trees are everywhere and gorgeous!! One morning we ran to stillwater pond and it was completely gorgeous. I cannot even tell you how pretty it is here. It is starting to get cold though.

So we have an investigator that can't quit smoking and we asked him to come to church and he said no. So yesterday in the middle of sacrament, I hear someone whisper to us, and I turn around and he had come!!!! I was so excited! I never thought I would be so happy for someone to show up to church. I can tell you I am loving these people so much and am so happy when they choose to do the right things. We made a plan for him to cut down smoking and met with him and he said, "ya know what is funny, I was sitting here this morning and suddenly I could hear God saying 'ok mike, its time for you to stop smoking', so this is great that you have brought this". It is so wonderful that the Lord works through us to help others. Just another answer to someone's prayers.

So for our service, we get to go to the old folk's home and play bingo. It is literally the highlight of my week! I sit by Paul, Irma and helen. I can't remember if i told you this already. Anyway, their faces literally light up when we come! They love our company. So last week, they started singing this old song and they were all swaying and happy it was so funny. Helen always swears at me because she can never hear what I am saying. She will say TALK LOUDER I CANT HEAR WHAT THE H*** YOU ARE SAYING! Then ernie who sits at the next table says YOU ARE HURTING MY EARS TALK SOFTER! Then helen will swear at him. Lets just say no one likes helen. But for some reason she loves me. The people that everyone hates are always the people who for some reason love me.

Hope to hear from you all! Love you so much.

TAWANDA!!

Love, Elizabeth

Lil's first letter

Here is a shortened version of Elizabeth's first email:

I am starting with a funny story. So I am on the bottom bunk and to hold the top bunk up, there is this bar that kinda hangs low. So last night I woke up in the middle of the night and shot up and smacked my face on the bar. Hahahahahhaha it hurt sooooooo bad but it was so funny. no one noticed until this morning when I woke up and my entire eye was swollen. Pop eye is my nickname today.

I officially did my own laundry today.

Ok so I hate to say this, but I love it here. I constantly have the Holy Ghost bearing witness that this gospel is true and that I am out here for a reason. I have been so incredibly blessed with everything here. When I walked in with Aubree, we were together until I found my companion and she is so awesome so I am so grateful for that. I thought for sure I would have such a hard time, but my companino has been so caring and thoughtful that I have been great.

I have had so many incredible spiritual experiences out here. I never thought it was possible to feel the Holy Ghost 24-7 but it is. I was asking patrick and timmy what I could do to stay awake in class because I was having problems with being exhausted every day. The next day in class my teacher was talking about Joseph Smith and when he worked so hard and had the spirit with him at all times he was exhausted because it is spiritually exhausting. After a while he became used to the exhaustion and Oliver Cowdry was always so tired. Everyone thought he didn't feel the spirit, but Joseph said that he was just used to it and Oliver hadn't gotten used to it yet. So the reason we are so exhausted is because we aren't used to having the spirit with us all of the time yet and we aren't used to the spiritual work. It was so great to have my prayers answered as well.

I love the atmosphere here. No one ever has anything bad to say about anyone.

I am so grateful I am on this mission. I miss you guys all so much.

Love, Princess Lil