Letter #28 - Greetings from Arlington

January 30, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

There have been a ton of new changes this week including a worldwide
change to the missionary schedule and key indicators. But first things
first. I made it safely to Arlington. I live in a nice apartment and
my companion, Sister Day is great. She just finished being trained, so
I've been out twice as long as her (still not very long).
Unexpectedly, I am the driver in this area. Luckily my companion knows
the area really well and has been able to get us to everywhere we need
to go. We have a ton of restaurants, apartment complexes, and
neighborhoods in this area, so it's a good mix of everything. I drove
past the stadium the cowboys play at (AT&T stadium, I believe). I am
currently typing this at the nicest Laundromat I have ever seen, haha.

This week we got together as a mission to watch the Worldwide
missionary broadcast (or something like that). In it, new schedules
for missionaries were released, designed to give us more flexibility.
The most significant changes are probably that we have more time in
the morning to get ready (personal study ends at 10:00), companion
study can be anywhere from 30-60 mins and can be whenever we want to
have it, lunch was cut from a hour to a half hour, nightly planning is
now in the morning, and we can go to bed as early as 9:30. P-Day is
also longer now and begins at 8:00.

As for key indicators, we now report 4 instead of 9+. We used to
report all the different lessons we were having and now we report
whether we had a baptism that week, who has a date, how many
investigators came to church and how many new investigators. This was
done is hopes that our focus can be narrowed to those things which are
most important. Obviously we still need to incorporate all the same
things we were doing before to get there. Overall I am pleased with
all the changes they have made and think they will help missionaries.

Well, I think that's all for this week!

Love, Sister Prue

Letter #27 - Goodbye, Denton 4th

January 23, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

Finally the news has come that you've all been waiting to hear: I'm leaving my first area and going to Arlington.

I'll be serving in the Arlington 4th ward there. My companion served there, but I mostly refuse to hear anything about it so that I'll get to make my own opinion of the place and come in with "fresh eyes". I've loved serving in Denton and the ward here has been so good to me. Yesterday I gave a 10 minute talk on missionary work, and it was well received. I'll miss living in the barn (literally an hour ago I was helping to contain an escaped horse and her newborn baby). We often feed Joy (the horse) peppermints and her baby was born almost a week ago. In the next 5 or 6 weeks, five other baby horses should be born, which I'm sad to be missing out on, but I'm glad to have gotten to see a couple.

Our investigator never made it to church, but she has been having some health problems that wound her up in the hospital. I feel like this is often the case for investigators. Maybe we missionaries are dangerous. There are a few other investigators that will be met with this week, but I will only meet with one of them. I am excited for new adventures!

Love,

Sister Prue

Letter #26 - Sunburnt in Texas

January 16, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

I did indeed get sunburnt this week. No ice storms though. Thanks to
everyone who was concerned. We had many exciting things happen this
week, but the most exciting thing this week was that we set a
baptismal date with an investigator. My first time ever being involved
in that situation! :) Yay! We were also able see how the Book of
Mormon answers many of the questions that investigators have. She
wanted to learn more about Adam and Eve and we whipped out 2 Nephi 2
and it was awesome to see the Spirit teach her!

Love, Sister Prue

Letter #25 - Five Months in Texas

January 9, 2017

Dear Friends and Family, 

Today marks five months in Texas. 

I think one thing I'm learning the value of is asking others what they want out of a relationship/partnership. A member who has recently been assigned to visit teach a less active said that she had asked her what she wanted from her as a visiting teacher. The woman said that she didn't want to be forgotten. My companion mentioned how I had asked her several times at the beginning of our companionship what she wanted out of different things (such as companionship study, weekly planning, etc.) and how that has been helpful. A couple of months ago, I asked a sister what she wanted from the missionaries for her new family (she is recently married to a nonmember). We were finally able to have dinner with her and her husband this past week and it went extremely well. She knew the needs of her family and because she was given an opportunity to voice those needs and concerns, we were able to cater accordingly. Sometimes all it takes is asking :)

We got snow this week! It even stuck for awhile and there was a bit of ice on the roads. My companion was very happy that I was doing the driving (we are also still driving the Malibu -Woot!). At the end of last week the temperature was in the 70s. The next day - BAM - in the 30s and then it got a bit colder and hung out in the high teens, low 20s for the rest of the week. This week however is supposed to stay in the 70s. Crazy. I never know what to wear and it's hard because we don't have constant access to information about the weather. Sometimes we go out and it's warm in the morning and then freezing by the evening and we are wearing all the wrong clothes. We have managed to stay fairly comfortable and I have discovered the product Hot Hands.

We have also finally picked us up some investigators and we are very excited about that. One of them is moving at the end of the month (typical for this area) and the other is going to do extensive traveling over the next few months, but we are excited to finally be able to teach some lessons and help build a few foundations for the future. As always, thanks for all the support and love. You guys are the best (I almost said "Y'all", but can't bring myself to do it yet). 

Love, 
Sister Prue 

Letter #24 - Happy New Year!

January 2, 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

The beginning of a new year gives us all the opportunity to reflect on the events of the past year and to think of changes that we want to make for the following year.  This past year consisted of preparations for going on my mission and then my actual mission. I entered the MTC July 20th and am still serving in my first area. I am grateful for this opportunity and privilege to serve. Many of the experiences that I have had here have led me to believe that one of the purposes God had in calling me on a mission was that I might more fully learn to use the Atonement of his son, Jesus Christ.   

One of my resolutions is to memorize scriptures throughout the year, which is something that I am terrible at and struggle greatly with. I have also chosen a scripture to focus on throughout this year which is Proverbs 3:5-6. I have enjoyed my study of this scripture so far and will send pictures later this month to show how. 

Life in the barn is fun this time of year. There were seven baby horses to be born in the next couple of months. One was born earlier this week, but we found out today that he died several hours after his birth. We did happen to see him before he died though, as we have a window in our kitchen that looks over an area where the horses sometimes stay. I had named him Eggnog because he was pure white. 

This week I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas temple for the first time. We didn't have time to look around the grounds or see very much, but it was nice to go. It was my fifth time going to the temple and my third temple. We had a wonderful lesson in Relief Society this past week that reminded us of all the beautiful blessings that we receive from regular attendance at the temple. If you haven't gone for awhile, or do not attend regularly, or have never been that could be a New Years resolution that you make ;)

Another fun thing is that our car is in the shop for some repairs. In the meantime we get to drive a brand new car that the mission just purchased. It is a 2017 Chevy Malibu and had less than 300 miles on it when it was handed over to me. It is its own wifi hotspot, so that has been nice to have as a missionary. Unfortunately we probably only have it for another day or two and then it will be handed over to another companionship that needs a new car. It has been fun to drive though :) 

On New Years Eve, the family that was feeding us took us to a Chinese Buffet, and that was the extent of our New Years celebration. We went to bed at 10:30 as usual, and honestly it feels like the day never happened. One thing the bishop has asked us to do this week is to help all the members/families in the ward update their family/personal mission plan for the upcoming year, so that should take a good chunk of our time for the next couple of months or so. 

Well, I hope you all are happy and healthy and safe and enjoying the last of your holiday breaks. 

Love, Sister Prue