Arrival at the Mission home

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I love it... I'm so happy...It's beautiful...

Sister Riggs, Sister Stucki, President Riggs

Lincoln Memorial

Provo MTC

Calling home during travel...She needed to speak with littlest brother!

First P-day in DC - Sister Stucki & Sister Schramm.

Family...

Tell Eli I live right next to a train...literally...it 'honks' is that what you call it? honking? every single hour. gotta love it.

What are y'all doing for Christmas? Please send me pictures! and letters and stuff....

I did get three packages...super tempted to open the presents. I'm excited for Christmas now! 

Tell me about back home????

So Monday is my new p-day. My first area is Virginia. BOOM.

Crazy stuff. my first week here...the weather has been in the high sixties and seventies. That's abnormal. They say i brought it with me. Just so full of that st. george sunshine. So I've been running around in the usual cardigan &  no top coat. It's like spring time here. Well today it rained. .and the temp is droppin. But the first week was fuN?!  I can't complain about those trees man. so pretty. And dad, would LOVE the homes here. Makes me wonder why he has never moved out here? so cottage 'y....all hidden in the trees and the apartments are super cute too. All vintage looking.

Today we are going to Old town for preparation day to check it out...go thrift'ing and stuff. they have a cool old book store so i'll see what i can find there. I'm excited for that! Old town is super pretty. and old.

Anyway so a little about this past week...

I'm still not all up to date on the facebook missionary stuff. we don't get i-pads and i-phones until January now. but yeah. as for skyping on Christmas? we are going to a members house and we will skype you between ten thirty and twelve thirty YOUR TIME. i'll probably call you before hand to get your skype name or whatever. we'll figure it out but yee ha that is that. keep a look out.

So Wednesday morning at two thirty a.m. we got on a big massive bus and drove to SLC airport. we flew first to Minniapolis. i met a little girl who was four and talked to her the whole flight. she was cute. but kind of obnoxious.... i also fell asleep..it was early.

We had a quick layover and then flew out to DC. we flew into the Reagan airport which fly's over DC so it was super pretty. there were Assistant's to the President there waiting for us, they were nice.  The President came. HE IS SO COOL. i love him. and his wife. super friendly, super nice. we checked out Lincoln Memorial in DC and (i'll send pics in an sd card tonight) and just got a quick tour of DC. DC is actually outside our mission boundries but we can still go there sometimes w/ permission.

The car ride back to the mission home NOBODY talked. it was so awkward. everyone was tired i'm assuming?  Super awkward first experience. President Riggs kept asking questions and everyone would just sit there. so i talked to him the whole ride back. about random stuff? just whatever i could think of. one on one with a buncha dead heads in the car. just kidding. i love my district. old district. but seriously  guys??? it was interesting. that night we had dinner/interviews/testimony meeting. That was nice. i put my salad making skills to use (thanks Pine View Pizza Factory) 

We slept upstairs, the elders in the basement. breakfast was Amazing.....i've been craving Sister Riggs buttermilk syrup ever since.......... then we went to transfer meeting. oh wait, my interview with President Riggs? ha ha the first thing he said was THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE CONVERSATION ALIVE IN THE CAR. yeah no prob. so good first impression right? i guess? woohoo.

Alright so we drove to transfer meeting which was quite funny. my companion is Sister Schramm. shes adorable. and i'm so excited. President promised i would get a companion that wouldn't hold me back and boy was he right.....shes Incredibly Obedient. which is what i need, right? and we ALWAYS wake up at six thirty and ALWAYS stay out until exactly nine o clock. so the days are long but we are doing work! I LOVE HER!  shes awesome (pictures to come)

Really though, quick insert, i was really bummed at the mtc about all that went down and i prayed and prayed and prayed i would get a good comp because...i'm gonna be stuck with her for the next..three months probably with training! and BOOM first prayer, ANSWERED. because she is SOLID. such a gem. she was once engaged! so that's interesting. but she's here. shes twenty one, and from utah, and is really good at ...analogies. so our lessons are awesome. i feel like i'm the holder backer now just cause i don't know anything about the area / people! but i'm trying my best and we are making a pretty rad 

S- team (sister stucki & sister schramm you get it? cool)

President told us if we are exhausted by the end of the day we are doing it right. 

So clearly...we are doing it right.

He also told us never to Criticize, Complain or Compare. Its true!

Our apartment is by our zone leaders and they have been super helpful.

funny moment?

Elder G: "hey sister stucki. .how far away do you think that plane is?"

uhh...hmm...probably like.. a thousand...

"EIGHTEEN MONTHS AWAY!!!!"

....oh......

Yup. i've never heard that one before. it was... pleasant.

People, are crazy. I've had a lot of lessons and talked to a lot of people so i can't even go through them all. One that was i guess my first little miracle was with E. mom you're going to have to make up names or change it to E or something for me okay?  before you publish on blog. thanks! cause i'm just saying it how it is on here, so you be the privacy protector agent..thanks. 

So E  is... out of money. she is a recent convert and has a miracle baby. she wanted us to come over and talk / pray because she was going to "lose it". when we got there..."she lost it". just went off on everything. it was rough. i felt bad. they needed food, & money, but we knew we couldn't do that. me and sister S. listened... finally we role played with her  about saying no to other people (her friends had stolen from her) anyways we talked for a while she vented the whole ten yards. 

What it came down to was...we asked her to pray. Out loud and to just poor her heart out and ask God for help.  it was crazy. she did it! it was a beautiful prayer, she was honest. and she ended it. and we opened our eyes thinking "WHAT NOW??" she still didn't have food to feed her baby. but as soon as we looked at her, she looked up and said 

GUYS. I HAD AN IDEA. we were like uhh what??

and she was like "i just remembered....the relief society gave us all envelopes...and S (her friend) opened her envelope...and there was a gift card in there...for Walmart!"

we just  kind of sat there and she just began to just remember everything. anyways we told her to text us if there was one. and there was. she had just enough money to get food and stuff on the card.

God answers our prayers!! he really does.

i had no idea what we were going to do.

Because we cant just go and buy her food every time she needs it. we don't have that kind of money! and boom. we all had faith God would provide a way, and he did! he brought the cards to her Remembrance. It was Perfect.

We've ran into so many people. i've already been dropped and ignored and turned down and...etc etc. All of it. we are awkward people. lots of lessons have distractions that are really awkward. and people? have lots and lots of problems. but... we know the gospel can help resolve them. it's just crazy how much people open up to us ya know???? idk. maybe its not. i think its crazy though.

I've met tons of people and i love them already. we work a lot with less actives. and youth. there are a lot of youth. a lot of people are very closed minded because they already have a religion.but there's always some people that invite us back. and okay...i really need to work on MY faith. because every time we talk to someone who has a religion i just am like welp, okay, later. because i have zero faith they will care. but sometimes they DO CARE. and its crazy. and i think to myself  MAN. good thing i am a member because if i wasn't........i would NOT have enough faith to invite missionaries into my home and let them teach me about some religion i've never heard about?! is that bad? well it's true. these peoples faith, Amazes Me. They are awesome. watching them progress is amazing. I'm so blessed.  and they are blessing me and PROVING to me that its true...people do need this, the gospel is real. I never saw that before this. ever.

I really hope this is all making sense. still kinda in a hurry here. I just can't even tell you about all the experiences i've had in an email it doesn't do it justice.

So mom. 

cool story. 

lst night...we visited with S & T they are our neighbors. we are actually not allowed to proselyte to the neighbors because it could be against the apartment complex policy.  However they have previously befriended them and they invited us in so we are allowed to. The lady T. received a Book of Mormon  a LONG time ago but never really got anywhere. and she recently had a still born baby. and the elders gave her a bom. because they saw her outside her apartment ...sad or something?  

Anyways. now we teach them. they are a little older, but so nice. and they have a little girl named ...  anyways it was my first lesson w/ them last night. we talked forever, they are super friendly i love them. we planned to teach the Restoration but ended up following up on their bom reading and starting the bom with them. and talking just a little bit about the basics of the gospel. 

But here is where it gets interesting...she brought up her still born, and how depressed she was, and how  shes just starting to come out of it.  She seemed very happy to me so this was interesting.  Also mom i hope you don't mind this next part.  she kept talking about it so i just really felt like i should kind of briefly tell moms story? SO I DID. I just gave a brief little story about your experience and how hard it was for you...come to find out!!!  Teresa actually has five kids too from a previous marriage or something so BOOM so much in common. already. Anyways, after the story i just basically told her (i hope you feel the same way because i said) that there is no way our family, especially my mom could have gotten through that trial without the gospel. i told her i knew it was true. and i knew and you knew that you would see your baby again. and i told her I KNEW her baby was safe, and that she would see him (it was a him) again. her and her husband were both just dead silent. it was crazy. the daughter was even silent! and i told her about how their baby was perfect, and hadn't yet reached the age of accountability, and he was okay. and that is a testament to me. because i want to live my life in accordance with Gods plan so that i can become perfect too, and see my family again. and S. just said AMEN. it was neat. 

Anyways, i told her we are allowed to have skype conversations with our family to teach, so mom maybe we can do that sometime. me, sister S. you and S. & T.?  we will have to see how things go with teaching and get permission but its a possibility. we need to teach them about priesthood authourity because shes already been baptized so that's the next step.   i'll keep you updated if we do it or not. but it was so cool. you'd love her.

Also my first day in the field i got ANTI-ED. its where one second we are teaching and then out of no where a seventeen year old boy just runs into his house, grabs a file and hands it to us with all this anti info / questions. we gave it to the zone leaders, and didn't read it because it seemed like ever since we picked it up...we just had bad luck. Plus the theory is...anti stuff doesn't help! it just questions. if you want answers you have to go to the source, not the anti source. and a testimony can't be built on facts or it won't stand so we just chucked it.

Oliver  Cowdrey had facts. He had seen angels, he had seen artifacts. He had facts, but he didnt have faith and his testimony didn't stand. Same with Lamen and Lemuel! They SAW an angel that they couldn't deny. It just DOESN'T WORK. Its all about faith, and conversion. Plus the zone leaders said Satan was just trying to stop the work because there's a new missionary out (whadup) and its true!!! he's definitely tried to discourage me but its kinda cool because i'm not at all!  

Mostly because i got a desk today and its so cute...kidding...also being serious though....

My first day of church i was 'invited' to give the opening prayer...

how kind....

we get attacked at church!

i have more stories but idk. idk how appropriate they are to share on this wonderful little blog of mine. and how personal they are. but...basically..it is just sad seeing people head off in the wrong direction and KNOWING that. and knowing you can help but They Won't  Listen. that's what i've learned. i've learned a lot about myself. and time is already flying by. its crazy. i love my companion and my area and the people i work with. i love Heavenly Father!! he has blessed me so much, it is UNREAL.

I'm so happy!

I love being a missionary! 

My advice to future missionaries...oh boy. 

It's not what you expect! its way different than the MTC. The thing that has helped me most is understanding.... that I am on the Lords errand meaning...it's not about ME anymore. 

Prepare to be uncomfortable!!  Get awkward. awkwardness humbles people. 

It does!! Weird right??? just get used to it now. also keep an open mind. 

People are different. 

Rules are different...everything is different. 

Just get used to it. it's the Lords time. 

I'm so blessed. and i'll do whatever it takes to fulfill what the Lord has in store for me! 

It's whats most important, right now.

Also for all y'all back at home..be member missionaries. im almost convinced the work is EASIER without the badge. no, i know it is. people wont know whats coming. just attack them with love and the gospel. do it. thats my invitation to you homebodies.

And remember how blessed you are. There are a lot of people who are REALLY struggling here. I'm the third transfer (of sisters) in this area EVER. It's a new area. People just simply don't have all that we have. in a Spiritual sense or a Temporal sense. Our homes, our families, our religion.  Amazing. we are so lucky. 

Don't abuse the privilege, and don't take it for granted. D, E, T, M, & E!  Ya little nuts. Seriously. Our house is a stinking mansion compared to some of these places. and its new.  and its nice. and its clean. (thanks to mom) and its ours (thanks to dad) and WOAHHHH. that is huge. like if you don't understand the importance and relief of that??? figure it out now!! because it is a struggle out here. Seriously. it's crazy. and we have Food. that's huge. And we have the Gospel. just Remember that. Not all people have that. And This Is America. i can't imagine what it is like elsewhere. Just wow.

Well that is enough of me!! I'll send pictures on an sd card after we take some during p-day in Old town. I love you all! 

please please please send handwritten/printed letters in the mail.  I can read them whenever and they make me smile. and pictures! and tell the family i say hi! and...........................that is all i've got for ya at the moment. 
Stay awesome. 
i brag about you guys all the time. you're all just so stinking cute. 
also if you want your picture on my desk or wall...ya better send it ;) 

k. bye have a Merry Christmas.  Talk to you on Wednesday?!?!?!??!?!?!?!
sister stucki:)

December 23, 2013 (via email in Virginia)

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