Christmas in Green Bay

This week was so great. It was so wonderful to skype you all! I loved to see all your faces, and I loved to see the dogs and to see all the snow you have!!! I can't believe that! I hope you all had a good rest of your Christmas(: I had a good day! After skyping we went over to this families house, the Rs with the Elders and hung out with them for a bit and sang some Christmas songs. They have 2 girls home that went on missions so it was fun to talk to them. one of the girls served in Eagle Mountain City Center!! SO it was fun to talk to her about home(: they were all so nice. When we walked in they still had all their presents laying around in the family room and it looked just like our house always does on Christmas so it made me smile(: they are a really great family, and always willing to help out with missionary work. they always give us referrals and are really great at fellowshipping those we teach. So thankful for that wonderful family.
We were having troubles meeting with people bc everyone is so busy with the holidays, but yesterday we got into 2 houses right in a row, which was amazing. One house was a potential and the other house we got into was a less actives. We met him and his wife, and they invited us for dinner sometime! they were so nice and we got to know them, and they told us to come back and teach them some lessons and they gave us their phone numbers and got ours, which was awesome!! We are having an FHE with the B Family  tonight, and their home teacher is coming with us so we hope that goes well!! we are really going to try and get them to church as a whole family! We want so badly to get them to the temple, and they want it too they just aren't willing to do what it takes, so hopefully we can help them have a stronger desire! Hopefully that will go well!!
we also got an email about our new mission president coming in July! President Williams from Californa. I'll forward you guys the email! I'll have a new mission president almost halfway through my mission! 

there isn't really anything else new right now, but I hope you guys have an awesome New Year's! we are going to change our clock so we can pretend we aren't missing midnight. hahha. I love you all so much, and I hope you have another wonderful week. (: 

Dec. 21st, 2015

This week was really great, and it actually went by so fast! We play volleyball a lot for our exercise time, and also on Friday nights, and now I really am getting better! It's so much fun to be with the other missionaries and just get energy out and have a good time. So thankful we can do it so often!
We also have been having dinners with members like a lot since it's Christmas time. We had enchiladas at the Bishops house (the one who sent you guys a picture) and they were so good! Mom, they were up there with how delicious yours are. Also one day we had sloppy joe's. Also people just place dessert in front of you so you can't really say no, because that's really rude. I had cheesecake twice this week, I don't like cheesecake either! Although it wasn't too horrible, thankfully. 

Today we are going to make treats for our investigators and the people in our ward that will be alone for Christmas, and we will visit them on Christmas, I am so excited. Also for Christmas we are going over to the Bishops house for lunch, then calls so I will call around 1 here, so 12 your time. But be logged on in case it's earlier or later than that bc I don't know exactly how long lunch will take. I can't wait to skype you guys! It'll be so fun(: Also then we are going to visit people, and then we have dinner with another family in the ward and with the set of Elders in our ward. It'll be a great Christmas! I was worried, but really focusing on Christ makes it so much more meaningful, and serving others also! It'll be a great day. 

This week we had to speak at a funeral!!! Oh my. A lady that got baptized almost a year ago passed away, and she wanted the sister missionaries to speak at her funeral, we had visited her before her stroke she had, so luckily I had gotten to know her a bit before she got sick and then passed. Her family isn't ok with her religion so they wouldn't give her a mormon funeral, so we were very not welcome.. they only let us talk bc that's what C wanted. So we just shared a scripture and short testimonies, it went well but wow it was crazy!

Also the weather here is so warm. we had one day where it got down to 15 degrees in the morning and that was cold but it still didn't snow. Every other day it's like 40 degrees and raining. I shouldn't complain though, I am glad we don't have to be outside in the negative temperatures and snow yet, that doesn't actually sound fun at all.... 

Also like every single missionary here either went to BYUI before their mission, is going there after, or both. There are a few that aren't, but mostly everyone is. It's crazy... it'll just be our whole mission up there! i don't think i'll end up there though. 

Our investigator S is getting so excited for baptism! Her and her dad came to church yesterday and loved it! we are meeting with their family tonight to see if their dad will baptize them. He is a less active member, but he has the priesthood so he can do it with a little effort, so we really want them to work towards that, and we want them to work towards the temple! they are such a great family, and you can really see them learning a lot, and wanting the things they learn. I hope it all continues to go well in the weeks to come. We have one investigator who is so cool, and so smart, and she loves our teachings and loves the concept of agency, and loves the restoration and everything else but she won't come to church. We want to get her there so bad, but she feels you can just have God in your home and that's good enough. We will keep working with her on that! 

Also we went on exchanges on wednesday and that was awesome but i was so nervous, bc I had to be in charge and plan the day, and wow that's hard to know what you should do all day! but it was awesome! I love Sister straight, (the STL i was with) She was so nice, and made me feel not nervous, and the day was wonderful! I was so thankful for her and how much she helped me! She was just so nice. 

We have an awesome ward mission leader, and he is the nicest! At our correlation meeting he brought us donuts and chocolate milk, and a present from Santa(; it was really nice of him. I love the ward we are in, the members are so awesome and SO willing to help. We have one RM that got back like a week ago from Guatemala and she comes with us to lessons sometimes and she is so great! we appreciate people coming with us so much, it really helps investigators to have friends in the ward, and make relationships there. 

I am just loving the mission. It's so great. It's just so amazing to be able to spend all your time focused on others, and we have so much help from our Savior, it's amazing. You can feel it all the time, and the spirit really puts words into your mouth, and sometimes even keeps you from saying things. He keeps us safe, and I am so thankful for that!! I hope you guys are doing good, I can't wait to skype!!!!! have a wonderful Christmas week and I'll see you on skype soon, I love you all(:

This week was so great! Living with Sister B (we call her Mama B) is great. Last pday we played rummikub and that was fun! She cooked us dinner last night and it was delicious and she had the yummiest rolls and I ate 4 because they were so GOOD! Also she let us help decorate the Christmas tree last night which made me so happy! We also volunteer on wednesdays at this place called St. Vincent's (it's like the DI) so we bought ourselves a small Christmas tree for like 80 cents. It's great. Someone gave us a bunch of cupcakes with santa and reindeer rings on them so we used those as the ornaments. I'll send a picture of it next week. I forgot my camera today... But it's the cutest little tree. everyone keeps giving us treats, so for a while we had a bunch of cookies and brownies and cupcakes and so much stuff but we gave a lot of it to investigators and they loved it so it was great. Also last week at a dinner we had enchiladas a lot like how mom makes them, they obviously weren't nearly as good but it still made me happy and made me feel more at home. Also I love Wisconsin bc there are squirrels EVERYWHERE. I see so many everyday and it's the greatest thing ever!! But there is still no snow and I think everyone lied about Wisconsin being so cold bc it's like 50 degrees everyday. It's so weird!! I want snow already. It's just been raining all weekend and I am sad that it isn't snow! But oh well. I will probably wish I hadn't said that once it finally does get really cold, I should be thankful for this warmth and I am! 

Also we are teaching a lot of really great people. I think I talked a little bit about S and T last week, I can't remember. But they are brother and sisters and their parents are less active. We set baptism dates with them this week!!! The problem is their parents aren't involved at all and they don't really care so we have to get them on board in order to make it happen. They are great kids, and I love them so much. They really want to be at church, and S is scared to get baptized but the more we teach her the more she understands and the more excited she gets. T just cannot wait to be baptized! Everytime he prays he asks to be baptized and it's so cool. Also we are teaching this girl M, she's an x-ray tech so she has been telling me about that bc that would be something cool I might want to do! She is really cool. We taught her about temples and family history, and eternal marriage and she loved it! She even said she knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God and she believes Joseph Smith is a true prophet, but she declined our bapstismal invite! she is catholic so she wants to piece it all together so we are trying to help her understand. She is loving everything we teach though, so that's great. Also we are teaching this family, the mom is named C and they have the cutest little kids i have ever seen. Seriously. But C is SO smart so she just picks up everything we teach. We taught the plan of salvation yesterday and she wanted to know what the root words are of all the kingdoms of glory so we had to look in a dictionary and figure it out with her. It was actually kind of cool. Then she wanted to know if Jesus and God cry, so we showed her scriptures where they do. She just asks questions that we have never even thought of! But that's good, it means she wants to learn! On saturdays we go read the Book of Mormon with this sweet lady, C. Her husband is passed away and her son is in jail, so she needs the company. It's really cool to read with her. She learns a lot and understands it really well also! She lost her job recently, but is so positive and giving still. She got me and Sis Adams-Hart Christmas presents. She is so nice, we want to go visit her on Christmas and bring her cookies. We decided that's what we will do on Christmas. Make cookies, and take them to the widows in the ward and spend some time with them. It'll be great.

Also I have been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot, and holy cow does it say a lot of things pertaining to a mission. I highlighted everything that is doing with my mission and yeah, it's a lot. I never would have even known  that's what a lot of things were talking about if I wouldn't have come on a mission! I never thought it said anything about a mission but boy was i wrong. 

This morning we were playing volleyball with lots of the Elders in our zone and we had the door in the church gym open bc it was getting hot but it was raining so the floor was a little wet by the door and one of the Elders ran by the door and slipped and sliced his leg open. My companion told everyone I was a medical assistant so they made me look at it. They all were freaking out and saying he would need stitches so I was scared to look! it was really bad, and pretty deep but he definitely did not need stitches. It sure looked like it hurt though! Poor kid. hahah. 

Also mom wanted to know what my schedule was like, so here it goes.

We wake up at 6:30 and exercise! I don't have anything specific that I do, but I usually just do like push ups and sit ups and squats and things like that. Sometimes we go play volleyball at the church for that hour, and that's really fun. 

We get ready and have breakfast at 7:30. I usually eat a bagel, or a poptart, and I also have chocolate milk lots of mornings, or hot chocolate. So pretty much normal.

We have personal study at 8:30 and that's my favorite part of the day! I love the Book of Mormon. there are just so many wonderful things in there. I also study for our investigators, and study about whatever we are planning to teach them.

At 9:30 we have companion study. We share what we learned, sing a hymn, and recite our memorized things. (D&C section 4, the Standard of Truth, Our Purpose, a paragraph of the living Christ(that's different every week) and our scripture of the month) Then we plan our lessons and role play a lot too. ugh. hahah.

Then since I am a new missionary we have a additional hour of training, sometimes we do it at another point in the day if we have a lesson or something else going on. So then we have lunch, and I usually have mac n cheese (velveeta), pizza rolls, a frozen pizza or well yeah that's about it. So again, the normal stuff. 

We then go teach lessons, tract a little or do missionary things. hahah. We do have one recent convert, who had a stroke last week and is unresponsive and could die any minute really, so we have been going to see her. I met her once before her stroke and she was so great. I guess she told someone before her stroke that she wanted the sister missionaries to do a reading at her funeral. SOoooo.. yes. we have to do that whenever the funeral happens. hahah, wish me luck! 

We have dinner at whatever time it fits, sometimes with members, but sometimes just at home. I eat well you know. the same. bahah, I know I eat the dumbest food but it's delicious so oh well. I did have culver's once this last week! it was really good, and you should all try it. 

then we keep doing missionary things and at 9 we get home and do our nightly planning, plan for the next day! then we get ready for bed and sleep. Sleep is so wonderful, although I never feel like I get enough. But somehow I make it through everyday!! Heavenly Father is definitely helping me out. It's so cool, I feel the spirit so strong, and I have learned so much. I love being a missionary! it's hard, and a lot of work, and sometimes it's weird, but it's just so cool to be able to dedicate every minute of my life to doing the Lord's work. What a privilege!! 

I just focus on Heavenly Father and rely on the Spirit. Really, that's the key to this all! If you focus on all the help Heavenly Father is giving you, then it really isn't hard in that way. It's hard in the way of not being in your comfort zone, but having the Holy Ghost always with you and helping you is so wonderful. Also meeting everyone here and seeing how hard some people have it makes me so grateful. i have it so easy, so why should I complain about what i'm doing now? All I'm doing is serving, how hard is that? I have had a really easy life, and I am thankful for that. I can give up this short amount of time to help others find how much the gospel can help them in their truly hard and difficult lives.

Also I have almost been out an entire month so that's really cool! it's gone by so slow but at the same time I am like wow it's already been a month!! crazy. 

well that's all for now. I love you all tons, have the best week ever!!!

1st Week in Wisconsin

Hi Everyone,

So my companion is Sister Adams-Hart. She is great! We had to drive to green bay on Wednesday so we drove for like 2 and a half hours and then we had to wait for them to drive some of my luggage up here since it didn't all fit in the car. (we were driving other sisters also) so we waited at the church, and then they had a stake activity there so we were just at the church that whole first night which was actually really nice. But since pday wasn't until today I had to just eat the food my companion has and so I ate toast for breakfast everyday and it wasn't that good but oh well, because I can go buy my own food today! We did go to Jimmy John's for lunch the other day so I was really happy about that! Also we live with a member. Sister B. She has a daughter in the Salt Lake City mission and she served in Eagle Mountain for a little so weird we just like switched places!  I like living with a member. We share a kitchen. I sleep on the top bunk and the bottom of it is cardboard and it's like cracking and breaking and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna fall through one of these days!  Our address is 2033 London Road Green Bay Wisconsin 54311 so write me some letters! Also we had another ward party on Friday night and that was so much fun! I got to meet everyone in the ward and even one of our investigators (a 15 year old girl named S) came and she brought her friend V, and V's mom and they loved the activity! We got her mom’s number but she isn't in our ward so we will have to refer her to the other missionaries but still, it was awesome. We were going to invite S to be baptized last night along with her little brother T but they cancelled our appt last minute bc their dad wanted to go out to eat for his birthday. But we are going to meet with them on Friday now so hopefully that goes well! Also everyone in Wisconsin has a dog. Also I thought Jed would like to know they do have skiing here. But only ski hills. They have ropes to pull you up the hills and then you can ski down but they like aren't even as big as the silver lake hill so that's sad. There also isn't any snow. Everyone says we have a mild winter in store. It hasn't been colder than like 40 degrees and it isn't supposed to snow for another little while. Also for exercise we get an hour in the morning. We went for a run one day. Then we play volleyball some mornings with the other missionaries which is so fun! We played after the ward party Friday night also. (I am getting pretty good(; ) ok, not really, but I am getting lots better! hahah. It's really fun. Also It was so nice to have Elder and Sister Reed that are in grandma Killian's ward there at the airport and with me my first 2 days. They are so nice and Sister Reed gave me hugs and it was so nice. Also there is an Elder here (I forgot his last name) but he is also in Grandma's ward! He is companions with one of the elders in my MTC district so that was cool! I also love morning studies. Really, I wish we could just study all day sometimes. I have just learned so many good things. The Christmas Devotional last night was amazing! I am so glad we got to go. We watched it at the church, and only the missionaries were there so that was funny. But it was just so wonderful and the spirit really taught me so many things that they didn't even say in the actual talks. But it was everything I needed to hear. The spirit is so cool that way. It helps me so much and I am so thankful I have it as a companion here. It can get really hard at some moments, which is why I am so thankful for prayer and the Holy Ghost, because that's how I get through the days! I really am happy and loving it, but in moments I really struggle. Fasting yesterday helped a lot. Which is saying a lot bc I hate fasting and I like never do it. But it was really good for me. I fasted for Jake also (so did my companion). I hope his surgery coming up goes well, and I hope he is doing well. Well I think that's all for now, but I love you all so much!!!

Love, Sydney

Sydney is in Wisconsin now. We received an email from the Mission President  to let us know she got assigned to Green Bay. They included some photos and a letter from Sydney. She said she was a little tired from not sleeping much the night before they left and getting up at 2am. She was pretty excited to meet her trainer and get settled. We can't wait to hear from her on Monday!

Sister Killian and Sister Adams-Hart

 

Sister Killian with President and Sister Cutler. 

Transfer lunch where Sydney met her trainer.

Sydney's last day in the MTC

This week has been so wonderful. First off, we got chick-fil-a last monday for dinner so I am really hoping we get that tonight because it was so dang good. Also Thanksgiving was like the best day ever. They kept telling us that we will remember that day for forever, and I wasn't so sure, but I know I will. Since me and my companion are sister training leaders we spent a lot of our wednesday and thursday learning about and setting up for the big service project. Our goal was to make 350,000 meals for families. We made 357,000. It was so much fun! I loved doing service for my Thanksgiving. What better way to spend the day? I also saw Elder Wilson during Thanksgiving dinner so that was nice (: We actually see each other a lot and it makes me so happy. We took a pic yesterday, but it was on his camera so hopefully he will send it out on his Pday. Also I will send pics later today. So also we got to watch 17 miracles on Thanksgiving and it was great. I think everyone is really movie deprived because we all laughed our heads off and the stupid jokes and all the girls awed and the cheesy romance. It was hilarious. We also had Elder Oaks of the Twelve Apostles come to speak to us!! That was the best ever. The spirit was so strong, and I loved everything he said. Also the very best part of the day and actually probably the most spiritual experience I have ever had was at night, after we had a little gratitude devotional we sang I Believe in Christ. The spirit was SO strong. A few lines into the song we all stood and sang and wow. We all got so much louder, it felt like there was a million of us in the room. Seriously, I could feel Christ there, and I felt like angels were there singing with us. It was amazing. I don't think I have ever had such a powerful moment like that in my life, but wow it was wonderful. This church is so true. Also Sundays are the best days ever. They totally refresh you after a long week. And everyone is so right, once you make it to the first sunday the rest of the time just flies by. This week went so fast and I loved every minute of it. I'm sad it's time to leave tonight! But I can't wait to get out and share the gospel with others. I know the Lord has prepared people for me to teach, and I can't wait to teach them. I know more than ever in my life that this gospel is true, and I am so thankful to be here. Also my district is still the best and I am so sad we have to leave them! I'm extra sad that 3 of them aren't even going to Wisconsin! We have all gotten so close, it'll be sad to leave them, but there are more great people to meet so it'll be ok. Oh also, my companion loves to sing so I went to choir last week and sung in the Tuesday devotional. I had no clue what was going on so I just pretended. Also last night we had a wonderful devotional, and the speaker told us that when we receive personal revelation, or the Holy Ghost tells us something, that we should write it down, and then ask Is there more? He challenged us all to do that during his talk last night and I learned so much from the Holy Ghost. I just kept getting more and more things last night, and it was so cool. If you really listen and are willing to do what's asked of you then you will learn more and more what you should do. Also in my district, we kept playing four square at gym, because everything else gets taken so fast so we are all now pros. It's great. I also learned (kind of) how to play basketball. (again, I didn't really know what was going on so I just pretended) The MTC is so great, but I'm glad it's time to head to Wisconsin tonight. I love you all so much and I hope you have the best week ever!

                                                        Sydney with her companion Sister Tidwell.

A drawing of the missionaries in her district. We think it's funny Sydney has a halo!

Sydney's district

Sydney and her cousin Caderik. She loved seeing him at the MTC. He is learning to speak Albanian so he will be there a little longer than Sydney. 

Sydney Loves the Missionary Training Center!

Ok the MTC is so much better than I thought it would be. I can't lie, it really is so hard and sitting in the classroom almost all day is the worst. But my district is so wonderful, I feel like we have all been best friends forever. We have so much fun together and seriously we all laugh so hard we end up in tears most nights. There are 5 elders in our district and 4 sisters including me and my companion. Me and my companion Sister Tidwell get along so well. She's from Hunstville so she went to Weber High School which is so cool! We have so much fun together and we make a good team. Teaching investigators is really hard, because I know it's not real, so I kind of feel silly but it's so cool that even though it isn't real The Lord really helps us know how to help them and the spirit is still so strong in our lessons. Role playing in class is the one thing I really don't like, but I know it helps so I do it anyways. The spirit is always so incredibly Strong here I can't even believe it sometimes, but it's really awesome. Also I hate to beg for this but dear elder letters are seriously the best things ever so keep sending them to me while I'm still here in the MTC!! Also I always find something I like to eat so thank goodness for that, and we have ice cream on sundays and wednesdays so that's the best thing ever. I had mint chocolate chip. YUM. Sometimes I get discouraged thinking about how long this mission will be but I know I have the help of my Savior and that always helps me get through the day. Also the Elders are hilarious and they never go to bed until like midnight because they play hide and seek and they have residence olympics.  Seriously I could talk about my district for hours, everyone is so hilarious and so great. I love them all so much. It's crazy because we are all so different but we all get along so well and we don't even care about our different backgrounds or anything we just have so much fun together. They have really strengthened my testimony so much too,  just hearing about all the things that helped them go on missions,or even just hearing their testimonies is so amazing. Well I don't really know what else to say, but I love you guys so much! Just keep sending me dear elders,because I love them!!!