3/8

Things in Jersey are going pretty well. We've had some unusually warm weather--it probably won't last. But we're enjoying it while we can and I am wearing the most spring-ish thing I could put together.

Sister Greenwood and I are working really hard. I'm really grateful for her experience! Apparently our area book was in revolting condition, so she whipped it back into shape and we are setting goals and getting to work contacting former investigators, visiting referrals, supporting members, asking for referrals fellowshipping less-actives, and talking to everyone we meet inbetween! We have some fun activities planned to do with the members in our area in the hopes that it will encourage them to share the gospel more. The longer I am here the more I realize what is meant by that phrase we've heard so much--"Every member a missionary!" It doesn't mean that members should be missionaries. It means that members are missionaries by definition! As soon as we are baptized and make covenants to take Christ's name upon us, we become missionaries, because it is part of our covenants. In the Book of Mormon there are countless examples of people who were converted, repented, were baptized--and then started preaching. The two go hand in hand.

After Alma and the sons of Mosiah had been visited by the angel and repented of their sins, their first desire was to share the blessings of the gospel with others. I don't have enough time to tell you all about it, so read Mosiah 27:1-4 and Alma 36:17-30. I love the Book of Mormon so much! It has taught me more about being a missionary--being a member--than anything else.

Letter 3/1

I was so excited to be able to flip the page on my calendar, I couldn't wait til this morning. I did it last night. Yes, there is still snow EVERYWHERE, but we are looking forward to spring and enjoying the snow while it lasts. Sister Greenwood and I have had a couple epic snowball fights with the Elders. They may say differently, but I think we kicked their trash.

This transfer is a transfer of LEARNING. Technically speaking I am still pretty young on the mission, but after three transfers I'd have thought that I sorta kinda knew what I was doing...WRONG! I am finding that I still know absolutely nothing! But I am really grateful for Sister Greenwood. The experiences she's had in her previous areas have prepared her perfectly for being here. She is teaching me a lot, and we both feel like things in Fair Lawn are about to turn around. We sat down last night and made plans for everything that we want to accomplish for this transfer. It's great to have a vision! It's going to be grueling, but it'll be great to be busy, and we are already seeing the blessings of working hard, doing whatever it takes, and being obedient.

More baptisms in the Branch! And hopefully some more next week as well. One of the Branch members' aunt is here visiting from England, and it just so happens that she is staying with her sister in our area. We had a really good lesson with her about the Restoration, after which she told us that she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet! We have another appointment with her tomorrow, and we are hoping to set her with a baptismal date, maybe even to be baptized before she goes back to England!

We had interviews with President and Sister Bahr last week. I love them more and more every time we see them. Sister Bahr had us teach her a 15-minute lesson on Priesthood and auxiliaries. I'll admit I was shaking in my boots a little. As the mother of 15 children, Sister Bahr has a reputation for striking the fear of God into people, more particularly 19-year-old boys...but still. I was intimidated. Sister Greenwood and I worked really hard on her lesson, and we sought the guidance of the Spirit in knowing how we could meet her needs. Success! It went really well, and she said that we met her need that day. And President Bahr is probably about ready to be beamed up. General Authority, grandfather and friend all rolled into one.

Howdy! Holly's letter from 2/15

Well, it was going to happen sometime. Sister Picard is being transfered :( I am SO sad! It's kind of a bummer to start your mission with such a wonderful companion because it makes it really hard to imagine anyone else even coming close. But--the reality is that I am going to have quite a few more companions over the course of my mission, so I need to chin up and get excited about the things I'll learn from someone new and different. Hopefully I'll still see Sister Picard a couple more times before she heads back to Nauvoo.

12. INCHES. OF. SNOW. Did the whole country get dumped on? I think I jinxed us. Last week I told you that the weather has never kept us from working--WELL.All of Wednesday we were snowed it. We got around 18 inches. Suffice it to say that we studied a lot. We also did weekly planning and cleaned the apartment, which I thoroghly enjoyed. I am always wishing I could clean more.

Zone Conference was Thursday. Exceedingly enlightening, as usual. We've been given a new challenge to take a clean copy of the Book of Mormon and hiighlight every time Christ is mentioned as we read it, whether by name or pronoun. I LOVE this challenge! I am only to 2 Nephi, and let me tell you. I've always believed it or known it intellectually, but never has it struck me so strongly as it does now what a testament the Book of Mormon really is of Jesus Christ. He is on every page. Every story, every chapter surrounds and points to Him. Its whole purpose is to bring its readers closer to Him. I love this book more every day.

I wish there was more I could say. Sister Picard needs to pack--and quickly. We are going to Newark tonight to help with Fearbuster (we pick up the new missionaries and take them street contacting--FUN!!!), and there is a lot to do before we go!

2/8

Yesterday was the Caldwell Stake Conference. All the missionaries were invited to go and sing Go Forth With Faith at the English and Spanish sessions, and since I was the accompanist, Sister Picard and I went to both sessions. Four hours of conference! It was wonderful, though. Elder Spencer Jones of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy visited and gave a wonderful talk. We aren't part of the Caldwell Stake, so it was still fast Sunday for us--I fasted for Jonathan and Becky. All the speakers at conference had good things to say, but the majority of my notes were thoughts and impressions I received about Jonathan and Becky.

Our last lesson with Jonathan was okay. Becky, who was pretty stand-offish when we first met, actually came and sat down this time and participated in the discussion! I had prayed and studied so hard for that lesson and tried my very best to follow the Spirit in knowing what I should say to them--but they continue to "look beyond the mark" and pick apart things in the Book of Mormon that they think are incorrect. They also seem to quote the writings of Paul and regard his teachings as superior to everything else in the Bible, which is very perplexing to me. Meanwhile I have been studying the New Testament a lot and continue to find that the Book of Mormon and Bible really are perfectly aligned, that they do not teach conflicting doctrines--but I cannot seem to help them see that. It's almost as if they really are blind, as the scriptures say. Sister Picard and I are both frustrated and at a loss, but we also feel that we need to continue teaching them. We decided that we will go one more time, and if there is no change, we will drop them.

So I fasted for them yesterday, and I felt impressed to teach them in a way that we have not taught them before. There were lots of questions that I felt they needed to be asked. I cannot remember everything that came to my mind, but I wrote it all down--so I will be studying my notes and continuing to develop these ideas this week.

Holly's letter 1/25

Sister Picard is doing much better! The mission doc prescribed some medicine that helps her sleep and relieves the headaches. We were doubting Thomases the first time she took it, but the next morning she woke up and said, “It’s so weird not to have a headache!” She is much more chipper and happy—much more like the Sister Picard I remember. By the end of the day she might start to get a headache again, but every day it gets a little bit better. She’s getting better at knowing when she needs to eat and balancing her diet with everything that she needs. I’m still adjusting to the healthier diet. I have a harder time giving up the “good” stuff than Sister Picard, she was a really healthy eater already before her mission, so she hasn’t found it difficult.

We finally had an investigator come to church! His name is Ariv. He’s from India, his English is…not good, and he only reads Hindi—but he loves “the Christian religion”, as he says, and he said he enjoyed church. He stayed for all three meetings! All I can figure is that the Spirit was talking to him the whole time, I don’t know how he could have understood it otherwise.

Holly's Letter 1/11

Sister Picard is much better, I was able to take her home from the hospital last Monday evening. She looked and sounded much better, and even though the doctors hadn't figured out what was wrong, they did eliminate stroke, seizures, and bleeding in the brain, so that was good news. They diagnosed her with "severe migraines and acute dilirium" (we had a good laugh at that) and told her to take Tylenol. That night we stopped at a library so she could email her family and let them know she was alive--apparently they'd been notified of the situation, but all they knew was that she'd been hospitalized, eek. Sister Picard had told her mom about the symptoms the week before, and in the meantime her mom had done a TON of research. After talking to a nurse on a follow-up call and analyzing the symptoms more, we are almost 100% sure Sister Picard has hypoglycemia. SO- she has been following a hypoglycemic diet for the last week, and the symptoms improve every day. HAPPY.

Since then we have been trying really hard to get back on track. Our numbers last week were pretty poopy despite my efforts to keep things going. I probably could have done a much better job, but after this experience I will be much better prepared if something like this ever happens again, and I think I understand better now than before all of my responsiblities as a missionary. We had a really good Zone Conference on Thursday (President announced that baptisms for 2009 TRIPLED from the year before!), we had a lot of good speakers and some great training on planning and accountability. We talked a lot about how important it is to plan and set goals, to be continually stretching ourselves and increasing the boundaries of what we can do and the standards we can reach. It was tough to hear sometimes, especially because Sister Picard and I often feel like we are doing everything we know how, and yet we continue to fall short of our goals. So we have repented a lot this week and have been working really hard to make our planning more detailed and more effective. It's hard, but we already feel a difference.

Pray for Sis. Picard!

Tidbit from Holly's letter this week (1/4):

So things are a little crazy right now. Sister Picard woke up the day after Christmas not feeling well, she said she was very nauseous and had a headache. We chalked it up to overeating on Christmas, worked most of the day and let her have a nap, but the next day it didn't improve, and every day her head has hurt worse and worse and other strange symptoms have cropped up. We spoke a lot to the Bahrs and the mission doctor, she's had two blessings--finally I was told to take her to the ER on Saturday.It took a long time and a lot of questions and examining from the nurses before the nurse practitioner and ER doc decided to bring in a neurologist. She was admitted that night and is still there today undergoing lots of tests. For the time being I am in a trio with the Spanish sisters and have been going to all their appointments with them. So this week has been hard. It's been difficult to see her suffer and not be able to help. The hardest part was when Sister Bahr told me that I had permission from Salt Lake to leave her alone at the hospital and go home. I tried to refuse, but was basically commanded to go home and stay with the Spanish sisters. It was very strange to walk out of the hospital without her. But she's been blessed that she will be healed, so I am confident that she will. I'm only sorry that she has to go through all of this in order for it to happen. We're planning to go see her today and the Bahrs have been pretty good at keeping me up to date (President Bahr was a neuroradiologist, so he's been talking a lot to her doctors). Please keep her in your prayers! I hope that I can keep the work going while she's recovering. My one comfort is that the transfer fax came last night (can you believe it's time for transfers already?!?), and we are staying together! My anxiety would be so much worse if they transfered me before she got better.

So, not much else to report. Taking care of Sister Picard has been the focus of nearly all my time, but Sister Erickson and Sister Bushman have been taking good care of me, we are hoping to visit some of my investigators this week.


Holly would also appreciate any letters, notes, etc, that you would send her! Also, any comments on her facebook page I try and pass along. For example, I was logged on to her account recently and a friend popped up trying to chat, and he asked if she was a nun. I didn't have time to respond, but thought it was funny so sent the question on to Holly. Her response? "Tell whoever made that comment that for all intents and purposes I AM a nun. :D" Gotta love her!