Las Vegas #1

HELLLOOOO VEGAS!!

This has been the craziest  5 days of my life! So much going on, and no idea how to do any of it. The MTC was wonderful but honestly it only gives you a small taste of what the work is really like! Walking off the plane was shocking......you knew you were in Vegas, let just leave it at that. Slot machines everywhere! It was so funny; I turned to the elders and said "I don’t think we are in Utah anymore".

I traveled with 3 elders; I was the only sister coming in so they were my companions for a day and a half.

I love President Snow and his wife and the entire presidency! They are amazing! When we got off the plane we headed to the baggage area, as we came down the escalator we saw two elders standing there and two sisters. It was kind of like seeing family except you've never met them before. They took as to the mission home where we got interviews, lunch and a nap! (we had been up since 1:30am Nevada time). Then it was off to meet our trainers!!

SISTER HARRISON! She is amazing! She is a hard worker, exactly obedient, and just wonderful! She has taught me so much already, and I learn more from her every day! We got double transferred  into our area, also known as White Washed. So basically we are both new to the area. There used to be Elders in this ward, but they took them out and put us Sisters in! (and yes we moved into their old apartment...and yes it involved a lot of cleaning!!)

 

We are in the Warm Springs ward in the Warm Springs Stake right in Las Vegas. At night we can see the lights from the strip. Our ward is amazing, they are SO EXCITED to have sisters, and they haven’t had sisters here in about 10 years or so. Our Bishop is so excited, and he is awesome! Bishop Whipple, he is young and has a vision for this ward. He says that his vision for the ward is to become Zion! Our ward is small, almost branch size, there are a LOT of less actives. So our goal is to go and visit everyone personally! 

The unfortunate part is that because we are both new to the area, we have no information about anything....the Elders did not leave us any notes or keep records very well (like at all) so we are basically starting from scratch. We have one investigator, but she doesn’t want to get baptized until her husband comes home from basic training in June. But the Elders did do a good job at tracking, I will give them that. Everyone we talk to has already met the elders. EVERYONE.  There isn’t a single person who hasn’t seen missionaries before. So it’s good and bad. We have had lots and lots and lots of doors shut in our face (in just 5 days mind you) and out of everyone we have talked to we had 3 people agree to let us come back. One wouldn’t answer when we came back and the other we are meeting with tonight!!! And then there was this guy named Eddie...I love Eddie, he was like "yea sure! I don’t see why not, I’m always up for learning new things!" So I’m super excited about him!!

This whole being a missionary is really weird.  However I’m learning a lot and fast. My poor trainer is stressed out, because she has to train me and we are in an area that we know nothing about. We are just trying to get our feet on the ground. Things have been going wrong with everything that we have tried to do this week, the kind of things that are out of our control.  It’s so funny! We have learned to just laugh about it! We have gotten lost sooooo many times.  Our keys wouldn’t work., we drove 30 min out to the U-Haul place to get a hitch on our car only to find out that the time we were told was the wrong time. It’s just been everything! It’s our joke now that if it doesn’t go wrong we must be doing something wrong! Sister Harrison and I were talking about it this morning and we decided that all  these weird thing keep happening because Satan is trying really hard to keep us from the work, because we are a good companionship and we have a lot of potential to do good in this area. 

I love it here, and I can already tell this will be the hardest thing I will ever do, but it will be amazing! I just have to keep a good attitude and not let Satan get me down. When you let him put negative thoughts in your head it makes it so much harder to work! 

 I love you all and I miss you like crazy!!

Love

Sister Loveless 

 

                         She Has Arrived!

Dear Brother and Sister Loveless, 

I am happy to inform you that Sister Loveless arrived in Las Vegas with a smile on her face and a wonderful spirit. Thank you for preparing her to serve the Lord. We will do our best to build on what you have taught her by incorporating the principles of missionary work found in Preach My Gospel. When her service is finished she will be a stronger person with a deep commitment to the Lord.

                                            President D. Jack Snow & Sister Snow
                                              NEVADA LAS VEGAS MISSION

Week 2 at the MTC

Oh my goodness!! These past two weeks have been the hardest, most rewarding weeks of my life! When I imagined going to the MTC I imagined the most amazing peaceful place where I would learn the gospel and feel nothing but Joy. And yes this is the most amazing place to learn the gospel and I love it SO MUCH, it has also been a challenge!

After Mom and David dropped me off, I met my district and we jumped right into the work. I love my District with all my heart, I never thought that we would become so close in such a short amount of time, but these missionaries are like family to me! I love the gospel so much and I wanted nothing to do but study my heart away, but the Lord decided he had other plans. He wanted to soften my heart and prepare me for the mission field by preparing my heart. I have learned the law of sacrifice more now than ever in my life.  My companion has Asperger’s, which has been a bigger challenge than I first thought. There have been many days where we would miss half of class or other activities like the temple, because my companion needed a break or got too stressed out so she would just shut down. At first I was having such a hard time because I thought that I was not getting all the information I needed to from my classes, because we had to go take a walk so she could distress. Sometimes it was only 10 min, but there were other days it lasted an hour or more. As I have been praying for help to be able to put my companion first, the Lord has blessed me to see her as He does, and to be able to Love her unconditionally, and to serve her. Every day I learn something new from her, whether it be, patience, sacrifice, or love and humor. She is a convert to the church and has a very strong testimony, and she has been through more than I could ever imagine.  She is so strong and that is something that I am trying to learn from her.

  

Sister Barlow is another sister in my district who I just love.  She is deaf. She has had cochlear implants so that she can hear pretty well. Her strength amazes me SO MUCH!! Every day I strive to be more like her. She is also from Las Vegas! I promised her that I would go and find her family; she is from a family of 14 kids! So I really hope I get the opportunity to serve in her ward. Oh and the funny thing is, she and sister Morgenthaler are going to serve in Florida!  So we have all been swapping stories! And Sister Peabody, my companion is going to Idaho, so I have lived everywhere that everyone else in our district is going!

We have the Best Elders! Elder Patterson reminds me a lot of Michael; he is just the biggest sweetheart you will ever meet. And Elder Onkst, who is going to Vegas with me, is a surfer from Hawaii. He amazes me, he has been through so much in his life and he gave up everything to come out on a mission.  Anyway, I could talk about my District for hours. They are the best! 

We have been though a lot together, and I mean a lot!  Everything with Sister Peabody, and just all the stress of learning everything, we wouldn't have been able to do it without the power of God, the Holy Ghost, and each other. 

Elder Nelson came and talked to us on Tuesday!! It was amazing! Sister Morgenthaler and I sang in the choir and it was suuuchhhh a spiritual experience. We also got a new MTC presidency this week, President Burgess! The old president was President Nally. Both of them are amazing, and it’s been interesting to see the change. 

Our Branch President

We had our departure devotional last night, it was so good! We are the first group of missionaries to leave with the new MTC presidency. 

All of the other sisters leave tonight at 3 am for the airport, and I don’t leave till Wednesday morning with the two Elders who are coming with me. I am the travel leader....ooooo so fancy ha-ha. We leave at 4 am on Wednesday morning so I will be a "solo sister" for a day, my companions will be the two other elders in my district, and we will just join the other district in our zone for classes that day. 

The MTC has been amazing, and the relationships I have made here I will cherish all my life! I can’t believe I am leaving this week. It feels like I got here yesterday, but at the same time if feels like I have been here for a month!

Teaching has been an interesting experience with Sister Peabody, because most of our lessons result in me teaching and her reading whatever I ask her to read or chiming in when she feels comfortable.  But over these two weeks as she has learned to trust me and confide in me she has allowed me to teach her and help her, so I was overcome with joy when the last lesson we gave together on Saturday she taught 1/3 of it!! I am so proud of the progress she has made, and I pray that she will always have companions who are kind and understanding and patient, so that she can have a great experience on her mission.  

I feel like I have grown SO MUCH these past two weeks that it’s indescribable. But I know a few things for certain; Heavenly Father loves us, we are his children, Christ died so that we could use that precious gift of the atonement, and Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon! It’s all true! Let the gospel change your life! 

I am so nervous to go out into the field, but I am excited. I know that if I do the best I can the Lord will take care of the rest.

My District and the new elders from District B they are awesome

I love you all!!! 

I miss you like crazy,

Know the Lord is watching out for you!

Love,

Sister Loveless

First Week at the MTC

 

 

The MTC is amazing!! But it is also like someone opened a fire hydrant of knowledge and forgot to turn it off!!  This week has been crazy, we are so busy here you don’t have time to miss anyone or be sad. You are just being filled with knowledge and doctrine. It is wonderful but it can be overwhelming.

 

The first day here we were in classes all day and by the end of the day we all looked at each other and were like "you have got to be kidding me!" but each day it gets a little easier. There is just so much to learn that it feels like I will never learn it all. But I love being here so much, the spirit is so strong and I have the best district in the world! There are 7 of us. Our Elders are in a tripanionship. They are amazing young men who have fiery testimonies! You can just see the light glowing from them! We have two sets of sisters, me and Sister Peabody, and then Sister Barlow and Sister Morgenthaler. Everyone is unique and different, it’s so fun getting to know each other and studying together. We have three different missions in our District. The other companionship of sisters is gonging to Jacksonville Florida, Sister Peabody and Elder Patterson are going to Napa Idaho, and then Elder Onkst, Elder Whited and I will be serving in Las Vegas! It’s sad to think that we won’t all be going to the same place. Two weeks together is not long enough. We have been together 4 days and we are already so close, I can only imagine how hard it will be to say good bye! They have these MTC computers so secure now a days that I can’t manage to attach pictures. So hopefully we will figure that out by next week. 

Sister Morgenthaler and I have been assigned as Sister Training Leaders. Our Branch president is President Brown, and he is AMAZING!!  I love him; he is so funny and so wise. He is truly a man called of God! Sundays here are amazing!!! I can’t wait till next week!!! Oh and on Tuesday we will have a devotional with multiple general authorities, I’m kind of REALLY excited!!

Okay well I am out of time; this week has so much exciting stuff happening. So I will write a letter with more information and send it home so then mom can type it up and send it out, okay mom ;)

Well I love you all so much!!  Wish I could say more!

Love,

Sister Loveless 

From Seattle to Las Vegas

 

First Night Together
 

Sisters Loveless, Barlow, Peabody & Morgenthaler

First Day at the MTC

So it's the first day and we get to write home tonight so that you know I made it and everything is great!  After Mom and Dave dropped me off at the curb and hugged me goodbye, the Sister escort brought me inside, I got my name tag, my key and all the important stuff.  Then we dropped our bags off and went to meet our companion and district.

My companion is Sister Peabody,  she is from California and will be serving in Idaho.  We are very different, but she is such a sweetheart...I can tell there will be some interesting times ahead, but I love her already.

There are only seven of us in our District.  Sister Peabody and I and then two other sisters, Sister Barlow and Sister Morgenthaler.  And we all share a room.  The other Sisters are both serving in California.  Sister Barlow is from Las Vegas though!  Oh and Sister Barlow is also deaf, so that's really cool.  We are going to practice some ASL together.  Both of them are great and we all get along really well.  That leaves the three Elders.  There are in a trio.  Two of them will be serving in Las Vegas Nevada with me and the other one will serve in Idaho with Sister Peabody.

Today was crazy!!  I loved it but by the end of the day it all was a little overwhelming.  It's hard to imagine that I will ever be able to learn it all in 13 days.  But I will give it my all.  Oh and fun fact, one of my Sister District Training leaders used to be part of a gang before she joined the church.  The other one likes to talk in an Irish accent just for the fun of it.

Also Mom...I'm pretty sure you put back into my suitcase half of the stuff I pulled out.  I keep finding things I put in my "keep home" pile.  I love you Mom!  You are too funny!

Well I am super tired and I can only imagine how crazy tomorrow will be!

I love you all so much and I already miss you like cray!

Love,
Sister Loveless

Time To Rise!

Well the time has come its 12:02am which means its January 7th 2015. The Day I report to the Missionary Training Center. I cant believe how quickly the time has flown, it seems like just yesterday I was opening my mission call in Orlando Florida. And now I'm here in Utah curled up on my grandmas couch the night before the rest of my life begins. I've got all sorts of feelings that I don't really know what to do with, and that 'aint all I've got....I also have a cold that would give jack frost a run for his money! But setting aside the fact that I sound like I smoke 50 packs a day, and my head feels like it might actually blow up....I am excited! I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me.
I guess I have been waiting for this day my whole life, even though I may not have realized it. But ever since I was a little girl sitting in church singing primary songs I have been preparing for this. To be honest though I am more than a little bit nervous. Yet at the same time I feel completely calm. I know this will be the greatest experience of my life, and more than likely the hardest. My biggest fear is that I wont be good enough, but as I was sitting in the temple tonight with family all around me I remembered...The Lord qualifies those He calls. So its time to quit worrying and just turn it all over to the big guy upstairs.
Tonight was perfect, I got to go to the Temple with my Uncle Clay, Aunt Rhonda, Josh, My grandparents and my Mom! Then grandpa read to mea about his experience getting ready to serve a mission, and we all sat around while he read some good poems! I love my family!

Now I've gotten all my shots, my suitcases are at the door, I've made my Mother cry.....so I guess there Is nothing left to do but rise up and have faith that Heavenly Father knows what He's doing!