Graffiti and Miracles!

Another week has come and gone. I just hit my 2 month mark (not that I'm trying to count) so time is seriously flying! It's so bittersweet.

I'm still a little trainee though, so I'm a baby in the mission field. (aka a greenie).

Last P-Day we went to take pictures by this sweet graffiti in downtown Bridgeport (which is kind of sketchy. well actually that's the whole city) because Sister Hamblin (our roomie in the English ward) was being transferred out on medical leave and wanted some cool things to remember BPT by (see pic1). If anyone comes to Connecticut, go look for the graffiti! There are some talented people out there.

So, little story for the week:

As missionaries, you are supposed to get home at 9pm each night, unless you're at an appointment then you can get home at 9:30, but no later.

On Thursday, we visited an inactive lady in our ward. The lesson we taught her about being prepared for trials and temptations and how to stay away from them started out rough, but by the end she started opening up more.It was amazing! She told us she knows she needs to come back and needs help. We were so excited to hear this. We just wanted to jump for joy and say, "Well, that's why we're here! To help you!"

However, we ended up leaving her lesson at 9:30, past curfew.

On the drive home, Sister Laudie and I were talking about how since we were helping one of the Lord's sheep come back into the fold, it was okay that we were going home late. We were sitting at a stop light and literally as we are saying that, the light turns green and a second later, we get rear-ended! (If they had been going faster, it would've been deathly...sorry mom-we're okay I promise!).

As we pulled to the side, they car drove into a parking lot and sped away. We got out to look at the car and there was not a single scratch nor dent on the car. We could've sworn we heard the metal crunch but there was no evidence that we had been rear-ended. It was a miracle and a little tender mercy from Heavenly Father. If we had been home on time, this wouldn't have happened. We were so grateful for the warning that we need to be exactly obedient. It's a mission rule that the Lord's asked us to follow and if we do, we'll receive blessings. We promised we will try our best to be home on time from now on!

Before I die I want to...

Three Family House

A sweet little break on P-day!

I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

The Difference Between a Hobo, Tramp, and Bumb.

Dearest friends and family,

Hello from the east coast. So, this past week we met a hobo at McDonald's. He asked us if we were mormons and if we'd like to talk. He told us Mormons always love to talk, haha. Then, we sat down with him and our Elders and he told us the entire history of Bridgeport in the 1950s. It used to be a booming town back then! It was alive and popping. Times have definitely changed since then. He told us he planned on writing a book about it. If he ever does-I'll let you all know. He also told us the difference between a hobo, tramp, and a bumb.

Hobo: Will work for food

Tramp: conman

Bump: someone that is a good guy, but he won't work for money. Or anything.

There's a good lesson for everyone today! I didn't ever think about the differences between those before! Haha.

Then, I went on exchanges with the Hartford sisters again! I was also with Sister Hieleson, again! Except for in her territory. Hartford is a huge city, and the sisters live right in the middle of it. When we were studying in the morning, the sun was rising and I got kind of a cool picture of our view from the 19th floor (pic1).

Then Elder Treseder is leaving us today because of Transfers! (each transfer is 6 weeks and you never know if you'll switch areas or companions. Since Sister Laudie and I are new to Bridgeport and I'm being trained-we're safe! And we're both in Bridgeport for at least another transfer). We all got along so well, so it's sad to see him go off to Rhode Island. (see pic2)

Well, this week I've learned so much about life. I was feeling down because sometimes we work so hard during the days and I feel like we don't make any difference. Then Sister Hamblin showed us this quote. (pic3) I hope you all have a beautiful week! Work hard! Stay happy! Life is good and God (and I) love you :)

Hermana Sutherland

Hartford

Everyday Missionaries Serving Our Neighbors

WDR Necklace -- Choose the Right in German! :)

Hola!

Can everyone believe it's Monday already? The weeks are flying by (says the missionary who's been out a month and a half)! I remember disliking Monday's when I was in school. It just meant another long week ahead of studying and homework. But as a missionary we get to prepare for the week, email home, and go shopping and stuff.

So, one of our investigators, has decided to meet 2 times a week with us! She is progressing so well. She is only 17 but reads the Book of Mormon almost daily, prays, and is so eager to learn more about the gospel. She talks about the church with her friends at school and her mom (who was not open to the idea of her taking the lessons)! She is just beaming with light ever since we started teaching. Sister Laudie and I are always so happy after we leave her lessons.

Wednesday we drove to Belmont (right next to Boston) for a meeting with all the new missionaries (and their trainers) in our mission who arrived since December. Our mission president, his wife, and the Assistants talked to us about adjusting to missionary life, meetings we go to as missionaries, and then President Packard gave us a talk about what we do in the temples. It was amazing. Anytime he speaks I just hang on every word he says-that's how good of a speaker he is. That took the whole day Wednesday, so by the end of the day we were pretty tired.

The POINT of saying why we went to Belmont was actually because we got to drive through downtown and Harvard!! It is beautiful and is red bricks everywhere. Also, their downtown is way cooler than in Redding, Chico, AND San Francisco. Hard to believe right?

This weekend we had Stake Conference-Christen Clayton spoke. The author of The Power of Everyday Missionaries. (Members and non-members: if you don't know what this book is-check it out. You will get so motivated to talk to anyone and everyone about missionary work. It's not even long!) President Packard spoke here too so I got to hear him twice this week! We also got to sing in a missionary choir. I love singing with all the missionaries-the spirit is really strong and everyone just sings their little hearts out.

Friday we passed through Yale! It was sweet! 

Want to know why I loved it so much? Because it was like Hogwarts. NO JOKE. I hope one day I can go inside and take more pictures, it was that cool.

I hope all is well with everyone! I'm keeping you in my prayers and I definitely feel all of yours for me. It gets tough sometimes being on a mission, and not seeing your family or close friends. But, it's definitely worth it. I've never received so much joy from helping others see their potential in God's eyes as well as bringing them unto Christ and sharing our gospel with them. If any of you are feeling down, go out and serve others! It will make such a difference in your life. Enjoy the warmer weather for me!

Thanks members for all the food! We feel so loved!

Love, Hermana Sutherland

 We were able to go to the Boston Temple this Saturday. (Feb 22, 2014) We thought we were only going to watch baptisms but we were able to do a session. We were really excited about that and the Boston Temple is beautiful.

St. Pattie's

Hola!

Can everyone believe it's Monday already? The weeks are flying by (says the missionary who's been out a month and a half)! I remember disliking Monday's when I was in school. It just meant another long week ahead of studying and homework. But as a missionary we get to prepare for the week, email home, and go shopping and stuff.

So, Emily, our investigator, has decided to meet 2 times a week with us! She is progressing so well. She is only 17 but reads the Book of Mormon almost daily, prays, and is so eager to learn more about the gospel. She talks about the church with her friends at school and her mom (who was not open to the idea of her taking the lessons)! She is just beaming with light ever since we started teaching. Sister Laudie and I are always so happy after we leave her lessons.

Wednesday we drove to Belmont (right next to Boston) for a meeting with all the new missionaries (and their trainers) in our mission who arrived since December. Our mission president, his wife, and the Assistants talked to us about adjusting to missionary life, meetings we go to as missionaries, and then President Packard gave us a talk about what we do in the temples. It was amazing. Anytime he speaks I just hang on every word he says-that's how good of a speaker he is. That took the whole day Wednesday, so by the end of the day we were pretty tired.

The POINT of saying why we went to Belmont was actually because we got to drive through downtown and Harvard!! It is beautiful and is red bricks everywhere. Also, their downtown is way cooler than in Redding, Chico, AND San Fransisco. Hard to believe right?

This weekend we had Stake Conference-Christen Clayton spoke. The author of The Power of Everyday Missionaries. (Members and non-members: if you don't know what this book is-check it out. You will get so motivated to talk to anyone and everyone about missionary work. It's not even long!) President Packard spoke here too so I got to hear him twice this week! We also got to sing in a missionary choir. I love singing with all the missionaries-the spirit is really strong and everyone just sings their little hearts out.

Friday we passed through Yale! It was sweet! 

Want to know why I loved it so much? Because it was like Hogwarts. NO JOKE. I hope one day I can go inside and take more pictures, it was that cool.

I hope all is well with everyone! I'm keeping you in my prayers and I definitely feel all of yours for me. It gets tough sometimes being on a mission, and not seeing your family or close friends. But, it's definitely worth it. I've never received so much joy from helping others see their potential in God's eyes as well as bringing them unto Christ and sharing our gospel with them. If any of you are feeling down, go out and serve others! It will make such a difference in your life. Enjoy the warmer weather for me!

Love, Hermana Sutherland

Pic1- The Book of Mormon musical is coming to Hartford (1 hour from Bridgeport), haha. 

Pic3-proof of being in Harvard

Everyday's a Good Day

Hello west coasters!

How's the weather? Probably not as nice as it was here this past week!

Average temp: 50 degrees.
Snow/rain: none
Wind: 5mph? Maybe. Some days it was strong, others..hardly any at all.

Okay funny thing: The weather man is almost always wrong about the weather! It's so weird! 2 weekends ago, grocery stores were packed full of people trying to stock up for food and emergency items for the big storm on Sunday and Monday. The whole week everyone was freaking out about how awful the storm would be. Missionaries were talking about the 99% chance that we'd be red-dotted those days (red-dot: weather is so bad we aren't allowed to leave the apartment).

And guess what happened?

NO SNOW. This whole past week! I found it hilarious. At least all of the east coasters were stocked up on food for a life-time.

This weekend, the Sun was visible through the gray clouds AND some days I hardly wore a coat because it was such beautiful weather! Yesterday, a lot of members kept saying "There's going to be no more snow. Spring is here." Those are exact, quoted words. Us missionaries got really excited. Finally Spring was coming...or so we thought.

Guess what the weathers like today? Overcast. And snow!! Haha man, I just have to look outside each morning to see the weather instead of trust what the people say-it's not their fault the weather is just bipolar!

I hope everyone enjoyed that. Alright, now on to the real missionary stuff.

Remember Jose? His wife just got baptized and he has 2 little boys who are adorable and are the ones who run around without pants on a lot? He told us at an appointment last week that he wants to be baptized! I almost jumped out of my seat from excitement because he chose this all on his own. We asked him to be baptized officially on Saturday for April 26!

On Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the Sisters from Hartford. This is where we switch companions for a full 24 hours. It helps us learn from other missionaries and it mixes things up a bit. I was with Sister Heileson who's from Iowa and came out on the plane with my group to Boston-so we've been out the same amount of time. She is very sweet. She's just learning Spanish but during all of our appointments it was a little hard for her to understand (the Hispanic people speak very fast) but she was still able to speak a little with them and get the jist of what they were saying. She really tries to learn it so I know she'll pick it up fast.

Every night we come home and talk with the English sisters about life, missionary stuff, families, etc. and mostly about our days. I asked Sister Hamblin (the red hed) how her day was and she responded, "It was a great day! But, I always have great days. Everyday is a good day if you make it one."

I loved this! Bad things are bound to happen in our days. Our days are never going to be perfect, just as us humans are not going to be perfect, but that doesn't mean life is bad! In fact, life is amazing! So, we should just keep a positive, "glass is half full" (or more) attitude and plan on being happy no matter what happens in the day! Yes, that seems hard to do but I believe it's possible. This thought could go on forever. But I will leave you all with that for now. Just remember that everyday is a good day. :)

Keep the letters coming! Love you all and have a great week!

-Hermana Sutherland

pic2- cute houses in Bridgeport

pic3- making platanos - fried bananas-you have to buy the ones that are really green though. You eat them like chips!

It's Cold, Again!

Friends and Familia!

I hope you all have had an amazing week! It has warmed up this past week until today-18 degrees this morning. Outside for one minute and my hands were FREEZING. They were burning. And then I get inside and have to lotion up like crazy. It's lovely.

Well, I don't have a lot of time but let me fill you in on missionary life and how I finally feel like the work we are doing here is progressing:

We visit AND teach our current investigators every week. We invite members to visit us because they reach out to the people in a way we cannot. I love visiting out investigators because the ones who are progressing in their conversion really have a sincere change of heart and want to become better people. It's amazing to see them become closer to God and they just look happier! I have developed a Christ-like love for all of them-this kind of love just makes me want to serve and love others all the time and I hardly have time to think about myself.

We talk to the people in our ward, the Bishop, Ward Mission leader and our other Elders to find out other people we need to meet with such as inactive members of the church. We call those people to try to reach out to them in service and invite them to activities or see if we can visit them throughout the week.

We repeat these things over and over again. Though it might seem dull and boring, but each person we visit with and teach has a new story to teach us and we always ask them if there's anything we can do for them. Asking them this opens up opportunities for us to serve and I love it!

Here on the mission we just serve others a lot. We open our mouths and talk to anyone and everyone who we can-not even about the gospel! Just about how they're doing, and some people really open up. We meet people in the stores, on the streets, and through members and investigators all the time.

Now you can all kinda see what my days are like out here in Bridgeport, CT!

Oh! Friday, we got a new investigator-Emily! She is G's boyfriend (G is our Bishop's son-the family we go to every Friday night for dinner). She is golden. So prepared and ready to hear the gospel. She's already started reading the Book of Mormon-we are just hear to teach her principles of the gospel. Hopefully I can tell you more about her next week after her first lesson. I'm pretty sure she'll be baptized.

Well, I wish this letter could be exciting but oh well. Just to let all of you know-everyday on the mission I laugh like crazy. The people I'm with a lot (the sisters I live with, my companion, and the Elders we work with) are so fun to be around. So I hope no one thinks this work is boring. It's not! It's quite the opposite and PLUS we bring joy to people's lives each day by sharing the gospel and message of Jesus Christ with them. I love it!

And thank you for the support and emails and letters! I love you all! Also, if you want to send emails..you can! But I definitely enjoy letters more :)

Okay-have a beautiful week!

Hermana Sutherland

pic1-tights from Grandma and Grandpa Hunter

pic2-At a restaurant, La Mexicana

pic3-Gloria Moreno-a member (only one in her family) from Venezuela.

others: learning how to tie a tie

pic4-eating pozole from the Sanchez family (bishops fam) from Puebla

pic5-bathroom pictures.

pic6-Bishop haha look at his slicked back hair