Woot!! The internet works today!!

Hello Everyone.

I love that the internet works. It brings me joy. 

Okay... Week recap...

We went tracting on Thursday night. We went up to this guy who was
smoking in a driveway and told him who we were. He had this really thick
Greek accent. He told us that we didn't want to talk to him, and that he
was only a guest at this house. He went inside and got the guy who lives
at that house and it turns out he had a few people over because they
were gonna do a Bible Study... haha... It was scary.. He talked to us
for a couple minutes, then told us that he was having a Bible Study and
invited us in.. So we went in.. haha.. GONG SHOW!!!!! Not that I was
expecting anything different, but it totally turned into an attack the
Mormon's-fest. haha. It wasn't that frustrating though. They just kept
on asking us questions about anti stuff they've heard, but even though
we were telling them what we ACTUALLY believe and bearing our
testimonies with every breath, they still weren't hearing us. That's the
thing with most people here. They want to attack us and prove us wrong.
So we just smile, bear our testimonies and leave it at that, but they
keep on going and we say the same thing over and over. At one point at
this guys house, this older man looked me square in the eye and told me
i was wrong... ouch... but whatever. I know i came out the bigger person
because i just looked him right back in the eye and told him i knew what
i was telling him it was true. haha. So nothing really came out of it.
Except for this Greek guy. He was hilarious. I dont think he's actually
a part of the church that group was from... Pretty sure it was Baptist.
But there were things that we were saying that he actually said outloud
he agreed with, and everyone else gave him this evil glare because
they're trying to convert him to their religion. haha. At one point this
Greek guy told everyone... "Okay... You're in Jacksonville going to
Little Rock. Whether by bus or by car. Toyota or Honda. You all get
there. These girls (meaning us) are Christians. You (meaning the Bible
Study people) are Christians. You are all heading to Little Rock
(meaning Heaven) and will all get there. Just by different ways."
hahaha.... In a way he's kinda right... but all the other people were
like NO!!! And reminding him of the "awful things the Mormon's believe
in." haha.... So yeah.. That was my random highlight of the week.
hahaha...

Yesterday we visited one of the Zone Leaders investigators. Us and the
Zone leaders both serve in Cabot. They have the north side, we have the
south. So yeah. This lady, Sandra, is getting baptized on Sunday.
Yeah... They do baptisms on Sunday's after church here... weird... but
they do it that way so that more people will come. I think that's kinda
lame though. They have to wait another full week to be confirmed in
Sacrament meeting after being baptized. But since the next week after
this is gonna be Conference.. I dunno how Sandra's baptism and
confirmation is going to work out. Anyways... Basically Sandra is
crazy... haha... And sometimes i wish people didn't trust us as much as
they do. We were teaching her the Plan of Salvation yesterday, just Sis
Blake and I. The ZL's were on exchanges in another town so it was just
us. Anyways.. We asked her if the Elders had left her with any reading
assignments, and they did. So she told us that they gave her a pamphlet
on Chastity and started asking us all these really unnecessarily
detailed questions... yeah... awkward... Now i guess it wouldn't be that
bad if she wasn't a 61 year old asking us things that a 20 year old
party girl would ask us!!! UGH!!!!! I love Sandra and all... She's just
really crazy... haha... In fact.. The Elders were teaching her son who
lives with her first and they wouldn't talk to her because she scared
them! Then one day she asked to come to church and she did...So now
she's the one getting baptized and her son is trying to figure out why
the Elders wont let him be a part of our church and the Methodist
church.. haha... oh man... Sandra... Now i know why the Lord helps
Bishops forget the things people told them... hahaha.....

So yeah... Many eventful experiences have happened... But the work
remains slow... We went over to visit Rose and she hadn't gone to work
that day. She said she'd had a really really rough week and broke down
crying, so we asked her if she'd want a priesthood blessing, and she
said yes. So later that day we went over, and the Elders gave her a
blessing, and we committed her to come to Church on Sunday, but she
never showed up... She told us she's at a point where she knows God
wants her to change, but she's fighting it hardcore. She likes her life
and doesn't wanna give up the things she enjoys right now... sigh...
Everything will come together eventually for her though. The Bishop of
the ward is a firm believer that someone has to have 7 contacts with the
Church before they'll join. So when we update him about Rose, he tells
us that we're most likely the 5th or 6th contact she's had and soon
enough she'll meet someone in the church and she'll gain that desire to
change. Yeah... I've never heard that before, but it makes sense i
guess... If it took less than 7 contacts, it's prolly because they were
more prepared than others. 

I also wrote a letter home, family. I didn't have very many pictures,
but i had a couple i thought you'd enjoy so look for those coming soon. 

oh and hey!!! i forgot to mention this last week... YOU RENTED OUT MY
ROOM?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!! THAT'S SOMETHING THAT SHOULD
ONLY HAPPEN IN MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NEVER THOUGHT THAT YOU'D
ACTUALLY DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEESH!!!!!! SO
AWKWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some random guy in sleeping in my room for the
next 5 months... i'm not sure how i feel about this........... but it's
not like i had any say in the matter to start with..... 


Anyways... On a different note... Tomorrow is day 100 of my mission...
haha.. Crazy eh?? That means i'm almost 20% done my mission!!
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But i'd like to mention
that i'll also be finished my very first journal tomorrow too. My first
mission journal is of my first 100 days. I think that's cool, and i
never intended on making it work out that way, but i did, and I'm very
happy with it. haha.

Also... This next transfer, 3 sisters are going home, and we're only
getting one. That means that this whole mission is going to have a grand
total of 8 sister missionaries. They're going to have to close a Sisters
area, and Sis Blake and I are thinking that it's probably going to be
Cabot... Out of all 5 Sister areas, ours has the least going on... So
yeah... We'll see how that works out. I'm kinda scared for how that's
gonna affect mail.. haha.. i love how that's my number one concern..
Well... it isn't, but i dont wanna get moved to another area and have to
wait for a month before all the letters are sent from the old area to
the new area.. Concidering i got a letter from Mom that she sent to the
MTC and i just got it two weeks ago... Mail isn't exactly speedy on the
forwarding. haha.. Whatev's.... it'll all work out in the end... I guess
if people started sending letters to the 905 Kierre Dr address until i
find out what happens, the letters would get forwarded to the new area
faster than they would from the apartment.. I dunno... I'll let you know
what happens this upcoming transfer..

Yeah... So basically that's been my life this week. Oh and we also took
Jo tracting with us a couple days ago. haha. Jo as in the one Ian talks
to on Facebook. haha... She's awesome. I think it's fun taking youth out
tracting. Its good experience for them, and it's entertaining for me to
see them get all scared... haha... It took me a month before i started
being comfortable with tracting, so i guess its a good idea for kids to
get started early!! *cough*IAN*cough*... haha...

Hey this is a long email... go me! Our district is all going to the
church to play basketball, volleyball and dodgeball now. woot!!! Mostly
i'm excited because i get to wear pants. I LOVE PANTS!!!!! haha!!

Love you all VERY VERY much!!!! The Church is true!!!!

-Sister Dyer

Hullo... I'm alive. No need to worry.

So... because of the lameness of the internet/email site yesterday i
couldn't email and it was super sad.. the best day about p-days is
emailing... and since we couldnt do it yesterday, we're allowed to do it
today. woot!!! So I'm sorry for worrying you yesterday, and clearly the
prayers of many many missionaries worked. haha...

Anyways... Funny story... Remember Rose?? Yeah. okay. SO!! We set up a
baptismal date for her. hahaha... so... yeah... it was weird... we set
the date, she said she'd be baptized, but still Sis Blake and I were
both not really as excited as we felt we should have been... it was
weird.. So the next morning after that appointment, the member that came
with us, Vicky, called us. She had gotten to Rose's house 5 minutes
before we came, and when she got there, she caught Rose totally
drinking!!!! She was totally drunk when we set a date with her!!!!! So
yeah... I was pretty upset about it, but then i kinda started laughing
about it. lets be honest... she agreed to be baptized when she was
drunk. And we couldn't really tell because she's always really loopy.
That's just how she is. haha!!! Oh man... Rose... I love her and all...
but honestly... So i dont really know if we can count that as an
investigator with a baptismal date... haha.... We're meeting up with her
today hopefully... we're planning on talking about the Atonement, Faith
in Christ and Repentance.. It has the potential to be an awesome lesson
as long as she doesn't do anything dumb beforehand. hahaha....

Also.. We were tracting one day and knocked in this older man's door.
Apparently he's pretty hardcore Baptist. He was super nice, but he was
totally trying to convert us.. it was crazy. We were talking to him for
an hour. I was pretty much done talking to him after hald an hour, but
he kept on talking and really wouldn't let us leave his doorstep. Kinda
frustrating, but very educational. I finally learned what people mean
when they say they've been "saved"... So forgive my ignorance, but i'm
gonna tell you what they believe because it gives you an idea of the
kinda of people i talk to.

So.. According to the Baptist point of view... Being "saved" is when
someone decides to repent of their sins and accept Christ into their
life. They believe that at that moment, they become a child of God, and
they dont need to repent again for the rest of their lives. They belive
that before they're "saved" they're children of the devil... uhhhh....
yeah... So this guy we were talking to told us that if someone is
"saved" and decided that it wasnt the life for them anymore, they could
go and sin and still get into heaven. They believe that they receive
rewards in heaven for their obedience.. but still... they say that if
someone is "saved" and then murders someone, they still get to go to
heaven because they still accepted Christ at one point in time...

Yeah... It's weird... and from what the guy was telling us, that's what
i got from it. but it kinda gives you an idea of what i have to deal
with. People here think that because they've accepted Christ and
repented for a mass of sins all at once, they dont really have to watch
what they do anymore. if they want these rewards in heaven, they just
have to do the occasional good thing... CRAZY!!!!

Man... I'm so thankful for a prophet to make everything clear... And I'm
also glad to know that our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, is called of God
and actually has the authority to lead and guide us. And to know that
Christ Himself is the head of this Church is pretty much awesome.
Without a prophet today, nobody would believe that we are all children
of God from the start. I love that the gospel pushes us to do better,
and I'm soooo glad to know that as long as i continue to live a
Christ-like life and repent OFTEN, I dont have to worry about my
standing with Heavenly Father. Seriously.. The gospel is true. I love
it. I also love knowing the power of the Atonement. Repentance is
necessary EVERY day, we're not perfect and we make mistakes everyday.
but as long as we try to improve each day and recognize our mistakes,
we're pretty much doing all we can to return to live with our Heavenly
Father. Also... I never realized how much stronger your testimony gets
when you bear it often. I've decided that tracting is SOOOO awesome
because i get to bear my testimony at every door step. It seems that the
more you bear it the stonger the spirit witnesses in your heart that
what you're saying is real. I'm starting to learn how to let the spirit
speak through me. I open my mouth and the words come out and they come
with power. Man... I love recognizing that I'm growing and that I'm
improving. I'm doing what i came out here to do!!! WOOT!!!!

So yeah... Not a lot has happened this week, I got to tract a lot, so
that's where all that came from..

Also... there's a senior couple serving their mission here. The
Koltermann's. I was talking to Sis Koltermann, told her where I was
from, and she said that she had a daughter that served in Edmonton!!!
SOOOO COOL!!!!!!! She talked to her daughter after that, and the next
time i saw her, she told me that she actually served in the Forest
Heights ward!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and what's even
cooler is that she was one of the missionaries that taught Grandma
Mo!!!!!!! SO NUTS!!!!!!! But seriously... The world is so small and
there's connections everywhere. There's even an elder in this mission
who's from Red Deer. Go figure.. haha..

Yeah.. So yesterday was Sis Blake's birthday. She's 23. Crazy eh? I was
totally realizing that I'm gonna be 23 when i come home... holy moly...
i'm still only 21!!!! it seems like a long time, but when you realize
i've been gone for 3 months already, you'll realize that time is
actually FLYING!!!! I'll be back in no time!!!! man!!!!

So for her birthday we highlighted eachother's hair. haha!! I'm really
blonde now. haha. I love it. She's got awesome highlights too.
*cough*mom should do it*cough*highlights are pretty*cough*... 

Also.. Dad... So since you told me that i can use my credit card and
you'd pay for it... haha.. dont worry... i've decided that you can help
me purchase a summer wardrobe. All i really need is t-shirts i can wear.
So a bought a few already... I really appreciate your help, and i love
you alot.

It was really cloudy a couple days ago because it rained for 2 days
straight, but then it got really warm so it was really really really
humid and was only 70 degrees but i was dying.. man... summer is gonna
be brutal... apparently last summer sister blake would go tracting in
the morning, sweat so much that she had to come home and shower at lunch
and change, and had to do it again before she went to her dinner
appointment... So yeah... basically i'm gonna melt, and I'm gonna need a
lot of shirts to change into... blech... but at the same time... I'm
kinda excited. because i've started gaining weight... I'm just gonna
sweat it all off this summer! haha!! win win win!!!!!

Okay. That's all I've got time for. The ZL's are taking us out for lunch
for Sis Blake's birthday. Woot!!!

LOVE YOU ALL VERY VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sister Dyer

Surprise!!!! Early P-Day!!

So.. 

Tomorrow we have this big huge Zone Conference all day, so we get to
have our P-Day today. Woot! So it's good in that I get to email you a
day early, but it sucks at the same time because I have to wait an extra
day next week. haha... but whatever. I think I'll manage...

So today is day 84. haha. I keep track in my journal. The only reason I
do that is because Randi wrote me a letter that i have to open on my
215th day. There was no way i was gonna figure out what day that was by
counting 215 days on a calender, so i'm just counting up each day in my
journal. I win.

Yesterday we were trying to find someone's house.. like a former
investigator that we called who said she wanted us to teach her again.
So we called her in the morning a couple hours before we left, but she
didn't answer, so we just decided we were gonna find it on our own. She
really lives in the middle of nowhere.. We eventually found the road she
lives on, but she lives BEHIND the road... it was weird. We had to drive
on this gravel road that was flooded over at a bunch of places, and our
car got REALLY muddy. haha. It was funny. The gravel road went right by
a pig pen too, so these pigs all lined up at the fence and watched us as
we drove. The pigs actually kinda freaked me out. Seriously.. I'm still
not a big fan of nature. Sis Blake on the other hand wanted to take one
of the pigs and cook it!!! I guess in Tonga it's a big thing to cook
whole pigs in the ground. it's like a big eventful thing to cook a
pig... haha...

On Sunday we had a Cottage Meeting at the President's house. Every
second Sunday of the month, all the missionaries that can, take their
investigators to this meeting, and its a big huge 2 hour long testimony
meeting. It's pretty awesome. However... Since all our investigators
like to cop out of things with pretty much no notice, we just ended up
getting a ride from one of the members. But yeah. It's totally super
powerful. I love Fast Sundays for the testimony's and I'm always sad
that it's not longer, but Cottage Meetings make up for that.

Also.. I've aquired a cold... blech. It totally came out of the blue
too. Saturday I woke up and sounded like a man... worse than i ever have
before. It was brutal! So now, I sound like me, but i just can't breathe
out of my nose. The frustrating thing is that they apparently dont have
Buckley's here.. so I have to deal with the gross cherry flavored cough
syrup which A) doesn't work nearly as well, and B) I've discovered that
I'd rather deal with a cough syrup that tastes like pine trees instead
of dealing with a cough syrup that TRIES to taste like something good
but fails miserably. So. Boo urns is all I've got to say about that.

Oh and Dad... Our Church meetings start at 11:30 on Sundays. It's
perfect. We have to go to Ward council at 9:30, then we usually have 45
minutes-ish to study and stuff before church actually starts. It's
pretty awesome.

I'm really excited for Clarke for applying for jobs in far away places..
Well... far ish... and Banff... aww man... I actually really miss that
place more than I thought I would.. Well... Mostly just the Branch
there. They sent me a Valentines Day card last month. I was so happy.
Everyone signed it and I thought it was pretty much the best Valentines
day gift ever. 14 Banff.....  So Clarke.. I really hope you get the job
there, so i have another reason to go back and visit. haha. And they
also need all the Priesthood holders they can get. They barely have
enough to function in that Branch. Thank goodness for visitors eh?

I read Our Search for Happiness this week too! Woot!! It is such a good
book!!! I never realized that it was meant for non-members to read to
help them understand the Church better. Some missionaries here like to
take that book with them tracting, and if they feel prompted, they'll
loan out a book to someone they tract into and ask them to read it and
come back to pick it up, and for the most part people have questions for
the missionary. Pretty much that's a genious idea and I shall start to
use it. 

It also snowed again here. Apparently snow twice a year is a crazy rare
thing. haha. On Friday it snowed no more than 2 inches. The night before
i guess snow was being forcasted so everyone flocked off to Walmart to
buy bread a water and stuff because i'd swear they all think its the end
of the world when it snows. School got cancelled here for 2 inches of
snow... yeesh.. it was all gone the next day anyways. Really i just
think the teachers didn't wanna have to go to work of Friday, so they
just called it off. Seriously... Southerners....

I'm also learning how NOT southern Cabot is. The more I'm here the more
i come to find out how this place is like a freak town or something. I
guess within the last 10 years, the people here have become slightly
less racist and have stopped chasing everyone that's not white out of
the town. Literally... people we being chased out of this town 10 years
ago for not being white.. it's kinda scary...But yeah... Everyone's from
somewhere else it seems, and the whole "Southern" hospitality or
attitude is completely foreign to everyone here... well they're not from
here so that's prolly why. The ward members who have come here from
Texas or places like that say that this place is weird... So yeah... I'm
apparently not getting the real feel of the South yet. Good thing I've
still got 15 months to experience it though... Crazy... I've been out
for 3 months already... 

Yeah.. So I think that's all for today. I love you all very much. Thanks
for the support eh? Also remember that the Church is true. :)

-Sister Dyer *woot*

ps... did ian ever find out who gummie beared the front door?? haha...

Hi.

Hey everyone.

So.. This week was full of visiting less active members... We had an
appointment with Rose, but i guess she was sick so we had to cancel, so
we're going to teach her tomorrow. But yeah... Lots of visiting less
actives. It's kinda frustrating. They tell us they want visiting teacher
and home teachers, so they're upset that they're not getting the
attention they feel they deserve from the Church, yet they dont come to
Church... So i'm learning from all this that YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR
VISITING TEACHING AND HOME TEACHING!!!!!!!!!! Less active members dont
come to church because they dont feel like anyone cares. So it's all
coming together for me now that visiting teaching and home teaching is
more important than we will ever understand. If every person visited the
people they were assigned to each month like they're supposed to, we'd
have a lot more active people coming to Church every week because a lot
more people would feel more welcome.

Yeah... So. This morning President and Sister Batchelor came to visit
Sister Blake and I to do our companion study with us. I was scared when
they called us to tell us they were coming to see us, because i really
thought that they were gonna ream us out for not having enough
investigators or something, but it turns out they actually just wanted
to come visit us and to encourage us to keep us doing as good as we're
able to. *whew*

Also... It snowed yesterday. I made a snowman. But all the snow was
melted by mid afternoon, and my snowman was all gone by night time. I
was sad.... I found out that lots of people let their kids stay home
when it snows because it only snows here literally once a year and is
ALWAYS gone before the end of the day. So they let their kids stay home
to play in a cm of snow. haha... I got a letter from my missionary
friend serving in the Atlanta Georgia mission right now (Irena Smith. We
were Canadian MTC buddies.) Yeah. She told me that her first week in the
field they cancelled church because of a cm of snow. REDICULOUS!! When
it snowed here, we weren't allowed to drive anywhere... Seriously...
people freak right out when it snows. and as if that's not random
enough, the day before it snowed, it was POURING rain the entire day.
Man... I've decided the weather here isn't fun. It's different EVERY
single day, and it cant make up it's mind, and it makes wardrobe choices
difficult every morning.. haha...

On Monday, we went to a funeral for a recent convert's husband. It was
held at another church, so we totally stuck out like sore thumbs when we
went in. haha... Of course the recent convert was happy to see us, but
nobody else could figure out what we were doing there. The preacher
wouldn't even shake my hand. haha... I couldn't figure out what Church
it was though... The name of the Church said "Grace Fellowship" but i
dunno what denomination it was... yeah... There was a drum set and 5
guitars at the front of the church too, so i was a little afraid that
there was gonna be a rock show or something at this funeral, but luckily
that wasn't the case... I can only imagine what their Sunday worship is
like. man... Anyways... That was my experience with going to another
church... It was kinda fun... but awkward...

Yeah... I think that was the most eventful experience this week.. All of
our appointments with our investigators were cancelled, so that was
sad... but whatever. One of the appointments, we had a member and her
daughter come with us, but the investigator wasn't home, so the
daughter, who is 9 years old, wanted to go tracting with us. haha. So we
took this 9 year old girl to a few houses and it was fun. She totally
looks at us like we're these perfect missionaries and i laugh... i'm way
not perfect.... as demonstrated by my lack of punctuation and
capitalization... haha... that's just for you Clarke... By the way... i
still haven't heard anything about how your student teaching is going.
yeesh. get up on it will ya?

I'm sorry i dont really have much else to say... My week is full of
tracting and not much else... I'll update you on Rose's progress next
week. So continue praying for me... well... not so much for me.. More
for the people in Cabot, that they'll listen to us... I'm pretty sure
they've all been brainwashed by their own churches.. Sis Batchelor told
us this morning that preachers go out of their way to tell people not to
listen to us and ESPECIALLY not to pray about what we teach them..
haha... it kinda just goes to show that they're fully aware of the power
of prayer, and that there's something special about us. 

Yeah.. So i know more than ever that I am a Daughter of God. Not even
really because of one specific experience. I just know it. We had a
District meeting on monday and we were taught that we should picture
everyone in White... like.. baptismal clothes and temple clothes. Then
we're seeing them as Christ sees them and all of the sudden we're less
afraid or intimidated by them and we do a better job at talking to them.
Yeah... So if anything... never forget that we're all children of God,
and that we never get out of being a missionary whether we're serving
full time or not. yeah. Basically just do your visiting teaching and
home teaching and talk to everyone about the gospel, and make sure to
invite them to things. People dont change unless their invited to do so.
It says so in Preach My Gospel. Love you all.. Thank you for thinking of
me.

-Sister Alison J. Dyer