Hello!

Well, I'm still alive, so that's good. Sister Chen is also still alive, so that's even better! This week has been a lot better than the last one. We finally got to go to church and meet some of the ward members, and we've been able to meet with the less actives that the bishop wanted us to see too!

The middletown ward is amazing. It's so much like a Utah ward. It obviously still has it's problems, but nothing too serious, especially compared to the last ward. The bishop loves missionaries and he encourages missionary work within the ward, so that's super helpful. We've had dinner pretty much every night! Some of my favorite people are Sister Phillips. Her house feels like home to me. she's super humble and loves to cook and take care of everyone but herself. She's going through so much in her life, but you'd never know it. Brother Santos is also amazing. He works for the NYPD and always has a story for us. I'm hoping that he can hook Papa Toone up with some sweet NYPD gear. He told us that his house is always a home for us. Sister Font LOVES sister missionaries and she always makes sure that we are getting fed and that we have groceries and everything. It's pretty much a complete 180 from the bronx :)

We had interviews with President Morgan on Friday. We had to drive to Newburg and on the way our GPS stopped working so we got lost-ish. I was about to have a panic attack (just kidding, but not really) The Elders drove by right as I was about to lose it. I was so grateful to see them! We followed them the rest of the way to the chapel. I was already on the verge of tears and then we met with the Sister Training Leaders. They asked how everything was going and I just started to cry. I've been so overwhelmed and I feel like I haven't done anything here. They gave me some awesome advice about the Brother of Jared. The Lord didn't tell him to find stones for light in the barges. The Lord trusted him to find a solution. Sometimes in missionary work you don't know what to do or who to visit or where to even start... but, the Lord has trusted you with that area. He can't light the path if you don't move your feet!

I pulled my crap together just in time to go see President Morgan. He asked how everything was going and you know me, I lost it again. I told him how grateful I was for the trust the Lord has placed in me with this area and I've never grown so much in such a short amount of time. He talked to me about the story of the loaves and the fishes. Sometimes we look in our basket and think 'this is not enough. this isn't even enough for me, how on earth am i going to share it?' but when we give up everything we have to the Lord, he makes it enough. He makes it enough and more. Then he told me that he knows I can do this. He said he has 2 reasons for saying that... 1 because this ward has been waiting a long time for sister missionaries. They haven't had sisters in like 5 years! The second reason was that when he and the ap's prayed about transfers, he said they felt very impressed that this is where the Lord needed me. He said that he expects me to find the reason I was sent here very soon. I told him that I sure hoped so!

We met with one sister that the bishop was concerned about.. We all sat down and I asked the sister to tell us a little about herself. She started crying before she even said anything. She told us about some of the struggles she was going through and she said 'well, i guess that's why the bishop asked you to visit me' I don't think any sister would have opened up like that to elders. Another sister we visited has only been a member a few months but hasn't been to church in a while. She told us that she feels like she got baptized too soon and that she wished there were sisters here before she got baptized because she would have felt more comfortable opening up to them. I guess time will tell, but hopefully we can help these sisters with their trials!