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!

Notes from the field 12/28

Excerpt from her last letter, and she wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

1. Manhattan Temple! We went the Saturday before Christmas. It was awesome to get out of New Jersey, even though it doesn't really look any different in NY. The city is just as bustling and crazy as I remember it, and it was COLD. The buildings create insane wind currents. But it's just as everyone says. The instant you're inside the Temple------silence. We walked in and out a couple times to hear the effect. Yes. We're dweebs. It's a beautiful temple. Definitely near the top of my list.

2. Jonathan. One of our investigators, and one of the most unique people I've ever met. He works with computers as some sort of analyst...I don't understand what he's saying when he describes what he does. But he studied philosophy in college because he finds it interesting, and he definitely looks at everything from a philosophical standpoint. He is a challenge to teach, but more fun to teach than anyone else. He takes notes on our lessons, reads all the assignments we give him and more, and always has a list of questions waiting for us at our next appointment. Once we quoted a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he said, "Isn't that in 2 Nephi 2?"..............jaw drop.

I thought at first that he would never really internalize anything we were teaching him because he questions everything so much, and he looks at everything very factually. But as we have taught him I have come to realize that no one can read the Book of Mormon as much as he does, no one can study it the way he does, and not change, not come to know that it's true. When we began teaching him he would not pray, and now he frequently volunteers to, and the last time he prayed he was so sincere, and he closed in the name of Jesus Christ (he had not done that before). He is definitely progressing, but Sister Picard and I have had to really think outside the box when preparing lesson plans for him. We really took a gamble last time and gave him a PDF copy of Preach My Gospel on a disc, so that he can see where we're going with the lessons and understand why we teach him the way we do. Who knows, when we meet next he might instruct us on how to teach better!

Notes from the field...

Holly and her MTC companion, Sister White.

(The following are exerpts from Holly's last two letters, dated 12/14/2009 and 12/21/2009)



Sis. Picard and I won the obedience basket!!! We had a mission-wide conference on Wednesday, and all month Sis. Picard has been preparing me for the obedience basket. Every mission conference Sis. Bahr has all the missionaries stand up, and she begins to name different mission rules. If she names one you haven't kept, you have to sit down. Some of the rules she named were making your bed in the morning, brushing/flossing you teeth, taking you vitamins, staying under your allotted miles in the car, exercising every day, etc. Well, Sis. Picard and I were the last ones standing, and we won a HUGE stash of food! We probably won't have to shop until transfers! Our favorite item is the nutella. :)

At the mission home with all the sister missionaries.

Saturday President and Sister Bahr had all the sisters over for a special Christmas brunch. I thought I was going to explode, they made us eat so much. It was lots of fun. We decorated their Christmas tree with homemade ornaments. Sis. Picard and I made a sleigh. Little miniatures of ourselves rode in the front, and behind us was a big bag full of Books of Mormon instead of presents. It was fun and super cheesy. :)

Holly and her trainer, Sister Picard.

There are times when Sister Picard and I are tracting and we can't talk when people open their doors because our faces are numb. We will tract until we simply can't bear it anymore, then we will go to the car and thaw for a little while, then head back out. There's a thermometer in our car, and we can't believe it when it says it's 22 degrees outside. It feels much colder than that. They it's because of the humidity. The cold goes right through our clothes and our shoes. It's not easy, but somehow we get through it and manage to stay happy, too. It's a great motivation to work really hard for appointments so we can spend as little time knocking as possible! And it makes us really grateful to have a car. There are some missionaries in walking areas, and I can't imagine how they spend all day outside! We also have gotten really creative with our clothes. I usually wear a sweater over my tops, a fleece vest, my coat, a scarf, nylons, leggings, my wool socks, another pair of leggings, my boots, and two skirts. I'm getting ready to break out the sweatpants pretty soon--the natives say it doesn't get REALLY cold until January. :)



The work is going well. It's difficult with the holiday season to get a hold of people and keep reliable appointments, but we feel very blessed. I am amazed at how much I love all these people I hardly know. Yesterday Sis. Picard and I were asked by the Relief Society president to visit a less-active sister. She came here four years ago as a refugee from Sierra Leon. She has been a member since she was fourteen and served a mission in Ghana. Here mission lasted more than two years because the war was so bad in Sierra Leon that she couldn't return home! When she finally did, the war had not ended, and both her mother and brother were shot and killed before her eyes. Shortly after that she came to the US. She knew no English, but the Church helped her find housing and put her through school. She now works as a nurse to support herself and her little boy. Her husband works in Europe and can only visit once a year. She is lonely and worn out, but in just another year she will be a citizen and her husband will be able to come to America. I was so overwhelmed by her faith! She is so determined to stand on her own two feet, and is proud to no longer be living by the welfare of the Church. Although she cannot come to church very often, she is a wonderful member missionary and shares the gospel with everyone.

As Sis. Picard and I sat and listened to her amazing story, I was filled with love for this wonderful woman, though I had only just met her, and I was overwhelmed with a desire to help her in any way that I could. Sis. Picard and I will be making regular visits and will begin teaching two of her friends soon. It's amazing the way that being a missionary makes you love people! It's a wonderful feeling.