6/21

Transfers were last night and Sister Bean and I are staying in North Bergen, glory allelujah! HOWEVER--in two weeks there will be a mini-transfer when the Cherry Hill missionaries come, and then nobody knows what's happening. It's gonna be crazy! But we're all really excited for them to come and are determined to make them feel at home and happy in the Morristown mission.

This week was absolutely nutso. We went to the temple, had all-mission conference, AND had the fireside w/ the Osmonds! The temple was wonderful. I have never felt such a need to go before, nor have I felt so good being there. It was very renewing, peaceful, and comforting. All-mission conference was great--I always love conferences. It got us really pumped for Cherry Hill, and for missionary work in general. Not to mention I got to see all my favorite sisters! Being on the far-east side of the mission we don't get to see the other sisters very often, so that was fun. I think we have the best sister missionaries in the world! Thursday night Jay Osmond and his son Jason gave a fireside. They are HILARIOUS. I was a little disappointed that they didn't sing, but they had wonderful stories and testimonies to share. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures with them--there were several older ladies in the audience who swamped them as soon as "amen" was spoken, and it was past curfew. BUT, some of my favorite members from Paterson came as well, just to see me! I got pictures with them instead. :) Cici, you said that my blog is your homepage, so if you're reading this, HI! I LOVE YOU!!!! Say hi to everybody for me. :D

Coolest thing happened Friday at Ellis Island. So there's something crazy going on with the parking on the island, so we had to park in Liberty State Park and walk a mile or so, and there was a huge air show going on over the Hudson, between the island and Manhattan. Took me back to the shows on the base when I was little. I kept thinking of Dad and knew that he would be drooling if he was there.

So time is going by way faster than I would like it to. I'm nearly halfway through my mission, which has led me to ponder a lot on what has happened for the last 7-ish months, who I've met, how I've changed, etc. I'm so grateful for the experiences I've had, especially the hard ones. It has made me realize just how precious the gospel is, and how incredible blessed we are to have it. How few people enjoy/have enjoyed what we take for granted every day! I think more than anything I've learned how to pray. You cannot survive one day on the mission without praying your little soul out. President has practically threatened each of us with certain doom if we don't continue to pray like a missionary for the rest of our lives.

6/14

Sorry, it's gonna have to be short today, but first of all THANK YOU FOR MY PACKAGES!!!!!! I've been listening to the motab CD over and over and over and over all week long (thank goodness Sister Bean likes it too, hee hee), and I've been "really" disciplined witht he mango, so I still have some left. :) Caroline, that cake was perfect! I don't know how you managed it, but it came out of the box flawless, and it was absolutely delicious! I don't know how you knew to make a coconut cake, but I've been super obsessed with coconut lately. Weird. Monday I bought all my favorite foods (including Cap'n Crunch, yogurt pretzels and ingrdients to make Bang Bang), and I bought a coconut. It was quite an adventure to open and I've been munching on it a bit at a time all week. I tried really hard not to let anyone know it was my birthday, but the word got out and after district meeting the zone leaders threw a mini party. I was actually rather impressed with the cake they made (definitely didn't compare to Caroline's, but it was good!), and the district leader and his companion bought me a case of rootbeer. They heard somewhere that it's my favorite. Don't know where that came from, but I was delighted all the same!

Had a slight scare w/ Ray this week. His best friend of many years passed away and when we went to visit him he was so distraught that we thought he might drop us. We worried about it all week, but then Sunday rolled around and he came to church! He heard a lot about Preach My Gospel there and is now begging for a copy. Last week we found two young men from the Dominican and Cuba and taught them a lesson outside their apartment, just to find out that one of them, Rochet, had a copy of the Book of Mormon and had read the whole thing. I thought he was joking, but then he said something about "Nefi". I asked where he'd gotten it, since he claimed never to have spoken to missionaries before. Story goes that someone gave it to his grandmother, who gave to his father, who gave it to him. We had to turn him and his friend over to the Spanish Elders, but they called us a few days later to report that they had gotten four new investigators from that one referral! We ran into Rochet on the street after that, and he happily reported that he is meeting regularly with the missionaries. So! Even if the person you give it to doesn't accept the gospel, you never know who will be affected by the Books of Mormon you place!

Time's up. Again, thanks so much to everyone who sent packages and so many lovely cards and letters in the mail this week, it was so fun to hear from so many people I haven't talked to in FOREVER!

I love you all, keep being good.

Love love love love love,

Sister Black

A note from Caroline: Thank you to everyone who sent the "lovely cards and letters" for her birthday. As you have read, she really enjoyed them and I'm sure it made her birthday that much more awesome! Thanks so much! :D