November 29, 2010--AGH!!!!

So my package said not to open it until afternoon on Thankgiving. Needless to say my interest was peaked because I would squish the package but had no idea what it was. Becoming an aunt was the LAST thing I expected. It was 12:15. I grabbed the package and said I couldn't wait anymore! I opened it and saw the tiny snaps on the shirt and froze. I was just like, "Oh my gosh." Sister Katterfeld, "WHAT??"
Me, still staring out the window, standing frozen, "Oh my gosh." Jaw dropped.
Sister Katterfeld, "WHAT???!!!??!"
Me, starting in a regular tone to almost screaming, "My sister is PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Sister Katterfeld, "How do you know???"
I pulled it all out and was like, "I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!!!!!!"
Needless to say all I wanted to do was shout it from the rooftops! Holy Cow! I am so excited! I can't stop thinking about it. Next time I see you all Mal will be like 5 months pregnant!!!! I always dreamed of it, but when I was at home and no one was pregnant I just figured it would happen after I got home the second time... I always thought it would be cool to see my sister pregnant when I walked off the plane. Oh my gosh. It's going to happen. Thinking about it right now I hardly have any words to say, except, "I'm going to be the coolest oldest aunt on our side EVER!!!!!!!" Haha I want to go to doctor appointments and help shop and I would be so honored to quilt the baby's room stuff! Holy Cow I'm about to cry right now!!! Tearing up! After being out here and seeing so many broken families (to put it mildly) I can't wait to have all these neices and nephews and the some of my own. They'll all be so blessed to be born and raised into the covenant. Okay, I'm officially crying in the public library! I don't care.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving was the best day ever! You all know how much I don't care for the dinners. We eventually got invited to two different homes. Elder and Sister Martin made a whole Thanksgiving feast for us Nova missionaries. Force feed #1. Then we went over to the Perez family's for dinner. Amber, their daughter in the YSA, is leaving for her mission the same day Sister Katterfeld leaves. Sad. But I love their family a lot. Brother Perez is the high councilman for our branch and he is there just about every week. Alex, from the branch was there. He baptized Hannah, so you can look back in the pictures (see October baptisms). He's the red head. He's the funniest kid ever. It made dinner a hoot! Force feed #2.

It was so fun to be with Sister Katterfeld for her first official American Thanksgiving. Obviously they don't celebrate it in Austrailia.

Last night we got to go to a members home that his mom is from Austrailia. She cooked us a leg of lamb. Sister Katterfeld was in Heaven. It was good, but I wouldn't order it for a menu item. But the dessert was awesome. Pulmova, or something like that. Fabulous! Not too sweet.

I hope you all have a fabulous week! Thanks so much for everything!

Love, Sister Denson

November 22, 2010--I've found the cure!!

Hey guys! Sounds like you've all had a good time this week/weekend. I have too!!!!

My new companion ROCKS! She's actually a temple square sister and she's from Austrailia! Yes, she sounds just like they do in the movies. Lol she has a lot of funny words though.... She got here while I was at home, so she only has three weeks left. She goes back to Salt Lake on December 8th. And we're pretty sure I am getting another Temple Square sister. Should be interesting! I'm excited! She's great though! We are a lot a like and where her weaknesses are are my strengths and vice versa.

It was a great first teaching experience for our companionship to teach Rev. Graf's classes. I can't tell you how much fun it was and how much I learned. Dad, it too will be one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. You just walk in there with confidence and tell them you purpose and what we have to share. They had a lot of great questions and a couple from each class was really excited to go to mormon.org.

Between that day, teaching and driving all day, packing Monday, p-day Tuesday, Transfers and moving Wednesday our week was pretty much consumed. It was great though. We have had a lot of fun. We live with Hermana Barros and Hermana Guzman. Hermana Barros and I were joking this morning that we've only got 2 foreign sister in the mission and we have both of them. Lol awesome!

Thanksgiving will be interesting this year, being in a singles ward and all. We aren't going to any homes. No one has invited us. We just joke that we're going to go hang out with the IHop workers. Lol it'll be interesting this year.....

Mom, I got the package finally. It's weird that the mail lady didn't catch that you didn't have a zip code on there. But they get a zip code from the computer. Oh well. I got it. My favorite part though was the pictures!!! They are so awesome!!!!! Is that the family one that you are buying? Because I don't like me in it. I look like crap. At least my head. Maybe you could switch mine out?? PLEASE!!!!! The sisters even told me I look way more "laughy" than every one else.....

I bought another Christmas Tree ornament this year. I got it from Macy's, but it's totally Florida appropriate. I'll send if off today.
I found a cure for my hair to become curly. Black girl curlers. My hair was so curly yesterday and STAYED curly!!! I felt like Goldielocks when we first took them out. The best part is is that I sleep with a slumber cap on. Every time we knock on a door and a black girl answers, she has a slumber cap on. It's to help keep their hair looking nice. It doesn't get messed up with one on.

I love you guys! Have a wonderful week!!! LOVE YOU!!

Love Sam
 

Sister Christensen, Sister Barros, Sister Felton, Sister Denson

Not sure of the Elders

November 16, 2010--Transfer #12

As I sort of mentioned in my email to President, Sister Christensen was sent home this morning. She has severe carpal tunnel in both hands and can't hardly function anymore. She is off to get surgery done, but we know she will come back a stronger, better missionary. As I too have. Please keep her in your prayers.


Hermana Felton came to us late Friday night and it has been SO fun to have four sisters in one companionship. LOL. We split all different ways. I have loved having her back and we have had some fun talks. And reminissing on the good ol' times of Kendall. I love her and admire her so much! I am going to miss her a lot!!! She's hopefully gotten into BYU Provo, and if she has, I'll see her in February! Yay!

We had a great day on Friday! We were able to have a member present lessons, get new investigators, extend and set baptismal dates, and help improve our members' faith. It was so great!!! Saturday though, of course, was hard. We went back down to 0 goals accomplished. That's the life of a missionary though. :)

Hermana Barros is also being transfered from this area, so tomorrow I get a new companion. I have NO idea who it will be, but I'm sure I'll be senior companion. That doesn't mean much, but I honestly don't know hardly any of the sisters in the mission any more. It's so weird. Sister Pirotta always said to me, "You know you're getting old in the mission when you don't even know half the missionaries." I never thought I'd get to that point, but it has officially come. I probably won't know anything about the sister that I get to serve with. So interesting!

Anyway--this Thursday is going to be a great way to start off the new transfer! We get to teach two World Religions classes at Broward College. Reverand Graff (the professor) has had the assistants teach these classes, when they get to Mormonism, for years, but this time he wants sisters. HAHA! The power of Sister Missoinaries!!! Woot woot! Anyway, it'll be a great way for me and my new companion to adjust to each others' ways of teaching, and we'll most definitely have to put our faith in Heavenly Father and pay very close attention to the spirit.

I am going to miss Hermana Barros so much! She makes me laugh ALL THE TIME!! She says the same about me though. LOL I just love her and admire her. I've wanted to serve with her since day one. We flew out together and I'm really glad I got to meet and serve with her.

I hope you all know how much I love being a missionary and how much I have a passion for The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know with all my heart He is MY Savior and Redeemer of the world. I have grown so much and it is only through Him that I have become a better person. The Book of Mormon changes lives. I've seen it change MANY lives, but most importantly my own.

I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

LOVE, Sister Denson

November 8, 2010--It's SO cold down here!!

BRRRRR!! We have been so cold this week! It has been raining and raining and pretty much all we have done this week is walk and bus. It's been fun, but none of us are prepared for it! We don't want to turn the heater on in our apartment yet, so I had to buy an extra blanket for my bed. I didn't want to buy it, but knew it would be good for the coming "winter." So mom, yes, I would like it if you could send me a couple more sweaters. We're going to Plato's Closet today (I've never been before, but the sisters love it) so I'll see if there is anything cheap there.

Just to let you know we will be moving apartments at transfers. I'm pretty sure I'll stay in Nova YSA until February, but I think you'll be able to send packages straight to the apartment. It's just 5 miles east of us. On Broward Blvd and SR 7/441. They're super new apartments and really nice! President Hale kicked the elders out and put them in a dumpy apartment and is putting us sisters in there because the it is more centralized to our work and chapel. The Plantation apartment is clear up in the north west corner of our area. We're working in Ft Lauderdale and Hollywood alot lately.

Like I said in President Hales email we met this cool girl Azley yesterday. I was able to go to the baptism with her and fill her in on things and ask/answer questions. It was so fun. Then she came to the CES Fireside by herself! That's HUGE!! No one does that! She sat with us sisters and as we pulled out our notebooks to take notes she did the same! She was writing the entire time! It was so amazing! I'm excited to meet with her on Friday! I'll for sure let you know how it goes.

This week has still been slow, but we've met some really cool people. We know we are going to be blessed with all the referrals we are finding and sending and with all the people we talk to, but sometimes it's hard to remember that. Heavenly Father is testing our faith right now, and we are all supposed to be learning something, but it just hasnt' happened yet. I know tought that as we stay strong and have a good attitude through the hard times that we will see the blessings come.

My studies have been so great lately! Preach My Gospel is so amazing!! You all need to make it part of your own study. Brother Watson told us that we always need to be studying Chapter 3 because we always need to be able to answer questions for others. And he doesn't mean always as just missionaries, but always for the rest of our lives. With each calling in the Church we have the opportunity to teach. We need to become master teachers.

Maddi--and all of you. You need to watch the CES fireside from last night! It was so good! I want to print it off, but they only have the broadcast online right now. Maybe next week.

Mom, in the box that you are sending can you send those DVD's that we got at Deseret Book at Conference. I assume you guys aren't watching them... if you are, don't worry about it. We just want to watch some of the videos that they added to it. Namely, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. The sisters were way excited when I told them the Church released it.

BTW yes, we are in a new trio. Hermana Barros came with us two weeks ago today. She is SO funny! Holy cow I love her. We all laugh SO much everyday and it just makes these hard weeks that much more fun!

Funny Story of the Week: We met God this week. His name is Joshua. He told us that the earth was created by bodily functions. As you can imagine--the land is the poo and the waters are the pee. Haha it was so hard to keep our composure as he was so serioulsy telling us this. He told us that his family wrote the Bible. They travel on the Nile, which is just east of us (as we were standing on Broward Blvd. AKA The A1A) and that he communicates through the television. Oh, and that Christ was crucified in Georgia. Man us missionaries have it all wrong! We're grateful we met him so he could clarify all these things for us.

That was Tuesday; Wednesday was super eventful too. This is how I described Wedesday: We rode 7 buses, walked 5-6 miles, talked to MANY crazy people, a lot of cool people and some very prepared people, our laughs were unlimited and the overall experience? Priceless. Man I love being a missionary!!! Only doing this are we able to have the experiences that we have.

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the snow! After the weather being down to the 60's this week I am SUPER nervous for February! I FROZE!!!!!!!!

Love, Sister Denson

November 1, 2010--One Slow Week!!

How are you guys??? Other than cold? Nanner nanner! I'm glad I'm not in your position! It's been a beautiful, sunny week! It only rained a couple of days. I believe this today we are officially out of hurricane season. I think.


This week has been slow, but fun. We've done a lot of finding. That's when we have our greatest/most hilarious moments. You NEVER know what kind of person is going to answer the door!! We've taken the bus a lot too. I don't know when it was approved by the mission, but we buy bus passes for the month with our missionary funds, and then they reimburse us. I remember that when we tried that in Snapper Creek President hadn't agreed to it yet. Anyway. So we were on the bus the other day and we talk to all sorts of people. We've found so really AWESOME ones! But we were waiting for the bus and Sister Christensen was like, "I don't think anyone is talking to us because of the way we look. Come on, we're three girls, all blonde hair, blue eyes. We have long 'praire' skirts on, and each of us has a bun in our hair. We look like poligamists!!!" Hahaha it was so funny! You probably had to be there, but just think of it.

We've had a slow week investigator wise. We only have one and she isn't in contact with us right now. She's buffed us on 3 appointments and now her mom is in the hospital, so she is focusing on that. It's tough, but we're learning a lot and have set a lot of goals. Oh, on the 18th of November we get to go teach a theology class at one of the local colleges. Reverand Graff has invited us. He said the elders (the assistants) have done it before, but he wants us sisters to do it this time. He likes the sisters better, but we don't know how or why he likes us better. This'll be the first time sisters go. We're excited! I'll let you know how it goes!

Sorry this is such a short email, but I emailed a lot of different people today and there isn't a lot to reprort on.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Love, Sister Denson