Snow day....Which was really an Ice day!

You know you're a missionary when you plan and plan and plan, but you have no idea why because your day never ends up going even close to how you planned it would go...

Hello everyone!

Guess what?! I have glasses now! In other news, we had a snow day last week. We couldn't drive at all on Tuesday until about 6 because there was literally a quarter inch of solid ice covering EVERYTHING. So we did lot's of phone calls, drank hot chocolate and organized our area book. And, I ran around the apartment singing songs from Frozen. Finally, when we could leave it took us half an hour to dig out Maximus from all the ice. It was pretty amusing. All we had were butter knives. On some places on that poor car there was more like an inch of ice, and at the bottom of the windshield there was a good solid 2 and a half inches.The song from the beginning of Frozen was going through my head the entire time! Unfortunately, Sister Hansen has never seen Frozen because it came out after she left for her mission! So, she had no idea what I was talking about all day long.... It was all quite an adventure!

We got 4 new investigators this week! That was super great, lot's of crazy miracles! I'm trying to think if anything else exciting happened this week... Not really. Transfers happened and we're still both here in Greenville. I didn't think I would get moved, but you never know! Also, I'm half way through training! Woot woot! That's about all I have to say this week... Have a blessed week!

Hermana Fields

Glass trees

I got glasses!

See all that? That's not a light layer of snow, that's actually 1/4 inch of solid ice covering every surface of Greenville.

Mission Miracles - Week 12

Hello!!!

What a crazy week we had here! Well, on Tuesday we had a big specialized sisters training in Virginia. So, we got to go up to Virginia Beach on Monday, and then go out teaching with the sisters there. That was really cool. It's great to see how the work is in different areas of the mission. Then, on Tuesday, we all drove to Portsmouth for the meetings. They were AMAZING. I loved it! And I got to see all the Hermanas from the CCM!!! That was one of the absolute best parts of the entire training. I miss them so much! But it's alright, because I'll probably end up companions with one of them at some point in my mission. There are really not many Hermanas out here, like 14 maybe. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and learned A LOT:)

We have seen so many little miracles this week. We have been very busy because we had to push all our appointments from Monday and Tuesday back to the rest of the week. But it's good, because a busy missionary is a happy missionary! Really tired, but happy. And, even when we are so tired, and have completely messed up our scheduling and doubled booked an hour, if we keep pushing through and continue to work hard, Heavenly Father blesses us. That actually happened this week. We accidentally double booked an hour and so I was freaking out because I didn't want to cancel either appointment. Sister Hansen somehow kept a cool head through the entire thing. She just has more faith than me, haha. So we called and texted around the ward to see if anyone could go on splits with us. Only one person replied, our trusty ward missionary Sister Cartin. Then, Sister Hansen looks at me and says, " We should call Sister Andrews." And so we did, and guess what? She cancelled our appointment! So we took Sister Cartin with us to the other appointment that we had scheduled. The other appointment was with a potential investigator. So we went over to the house and the lady that we were going to teach wasn't there. But, her husband was, and he asked if we could teach him. So we did! It was a really unorganized, scrambled restoration lesson. But, the Spirit really stepped in and testified. He is really interested, and we are meeting with their family later this week. The best thing is that he had actually already picked up his wife's Book of Mormon, that we had given her, and had started reading it. He had it at work one day, and it turns out that his boss is LDS and talked to him a little bit about the Book of Mormon! I'm excited. Anyway, the real miracle here was that we had Sister Cartin with us. If that whole crazy, double-booking, madness had never happened we wouldn't have had her with us and we wouldn't have been able to teach that man, because mission rules say that we have to have another female with us if we are teaching a man by himself. The Lord really works in amazing ways. I love it! So, even though we were so silly and double-booked, Heavenly Father used that so that so we could teach someone! If any of you are thinking about a mission and aren't sure yet, I highly recommend it:)

Let's see, what else happened this week? Valentine's Day happened, and so we heart attacked and brought chocolate to some of the sisters in the ward. That day was a bit of a struggle because no one wanted to meet with us all that day because they had plans! Dear Sister Quasbarth had us over for dinner though:) 

Anyway, I hope y'all have a lovely week! 

Love y'all! 

Hermana Fields

You know you're a missionary when your desk starts out looking like this...

And ends up like this, an hour later!

Week 10 - Exchanges

Hello Everyone!

Well, to say the least, this was a busy/weird week. I went on my first exchanges this week! I was so scared at first, but it really gave me so much confidence. The sister training leader I was with is from Highland and it was so nice to talk to a Utahn again. It's weird how you don't even realize there is that much of a difference, until you talk to a Utahn again and you realize how much you missed it. While we were out on exchanges we could not meet with anyone all day! Everyone that we had an appointment with canceled, and then no one else was home. And then, we finally taught an investigator! She has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now, but couldn't settle on a date for baptism and we hadn't been able to get the real reason out of her. We finally did! Inspired questions are real things, people. We addressed her problem and she is now praying about Feb. 28th and I'm so excited for her! Anyway, so after a long day of nothing &  running around, we finally saw a miracle. :) Nothing else really super exciting happened last week though... Except, I am apparently going blind! My eyesight is doing some weird stuff, so I am going to get that checked soon so I can actually study... Also, I started seeing/hearing a bunch of doves again... I think I'm mental, but I'm pretty sure that Sister Hansen sees them, too. Oh well, Hermana Earl just told me that whenever I see or hear a dove it is a reminder that God loves me. 

So, for "you know you're a missionary when..." this week: You know you're a missionary when the pronoun I/me no longer exists to you. It has to be us/we. This week we had dinner with the Evans and I asked Brother Evans where he went on his mission and he told me and I said, "Oh yeah, you told me that." I felt so weird saying me instead of us.... 

Have a great week everyone! Love y'all! 

Hermana Fields

I love the South!

Country store

Old, abandoned houses. (Soni will appreciate these.)

Sunset

Guess What! I've Been Out for 2 Months!

Hola!

Guess what!  I've been out for 2 months! It's super weird... Oh how time flies! So, I've decided to add a new section to my letters called: "You know you're a missionary when..."  So, this week you know you're a missionary when you start introducing yourself as Sister Fields in your dreams. That happened this week.

 

Anyway, this week was a pretty good one, full of adventures both spiritual and just us getting lost. We do that a lot even with Elder Darcy, our trusty GPS. For example: this week we set aside a day to go out to the towns of Farmville and Fountain. We headed out, determined to find a brother that the bishop asked us to visit out on a road called Pocosin. Well, we know a sister that lives out there that we just recently had dinner with and so we put it into our GPS and headed all the way out to Pocosin. Once we got to the road, Elder Darcy said that we were at the house... and there was just a field there..... so we just started driving up this road that is really just out in the middle of nowhere with only maybe 10 houses on it. And then, we got to the end of the road and we still couldn't find the house! So we started driving back to look again and then we started talking about Veggie Tales and before we knew it we were once again at the end of this 5ish mile road! So we decided to try one more time... and we still didn't find it. We decided to just knock on a door that we thought might be it and so we parked by the house of the sister that we knew. When we parked she came outside to see what we were doing so we told her who we were looking for and she said that she didn't know who that was. Then she asked, "Does he live in Greenville or Fountain?" And that's when we found out there is a Pocosin Dr. in Greenville and a Pocosin Rd. in Fountain..... So that was awkward. It was a really pretty drive I guess. Funny story, anyway.

I just love being out here. As much as I don't like talking to people, I just love everyone that we teach! Last week we started teaching so many new people that I can just see have been being prepared for this gospel for a long time. I just hope they accept it! One example is a lady named B*. She is an older lady that we started teaching this week. She is some kind of Baptist, I think, but she said that if God tells her she should join our church that's what she'll do even if it takes all her faith. She really is amazing and already has soooo much faith! That was such a great lesson. As I was telling her about Joseph Smith being visited by Peter, James and John, and John the Baptist, I felt like I was talking to a sponge! She was just soaking it all up and the spirit was so strong! At the end of the lesson it somehow came up that we volunteer to come out on missions and she just looked at us so shocked and said, "God is looking down smiling at you right now. He is so proud of you." And I just wanted to cry. Heavenly Father really works through people to send you messages he wants you to hear. Especially when He knows that you are having a bad day. The night before we had had a kind of rough lesson with a lady that was very firm in her Pentecostal beliefs and I really needed our good lesson with B to remind me that people actually do want to hear this message. Being a missionary is super great. 

Something else I have learned this week, the opposition really really doesn't want people to get baptized. One of our investigators was set to be baptized this week and then this crazy thing came up with her mom in Philadelphia, and so she missed her interview and so we have to push back her date. She is sooo ready to be baptized, but of course something had to come up... She is doing really well though and is still reading and even went to church out in Philadelphia! Another time this week we were teaching another investigator that has been being taught for over a year and so we had a big talk about faith and right when we were getting to baptism her dog freaked out and started running around barking... I've heard stories about stuff like that happening, but I didn't know it was real! Sister Hansen and I just have to remind ourselves, in the words of Veggie Tales, that "God is bigger than the boogie man" and that everything will work out! 

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

Hermana Fields

*I'm not sure about posting names on Hna. Fields' blog - so, that's why the initial B instead of a name. [~Angela]  :)

Week 8

Sorry! This is going to be a short one today, and I don't have any pictures!

 

     This week was pretty great; a little rough, but good! We had interviews with President Baker and that was super nice and insightful. We have been teaching a lot of member lessons this week and that has been super fun. The ward here is awesome! We have had dinner every day this week! And through members we got 18 referrals last week! And just all together, Southerners are my favorite. 

  

     We were meeting with an investigator on Saturday.  She is in her 60's and is just hilarious. A little way into the lesson she looks at me and says, "I feel like I'm in a room with an Indian princess. You are Indian, aren't you?" I said, "Yes" and she said, "I knew it! I'm goin' to call you my little Indian princess! And, you are prettier than a Georgia peach, too!" It was hilarious and also very different because I haven't ever had anyone guess that I was Native right off! 

 

     There was another time we were meeting with a less-active sister. She was an absolute crack-up. She's an older black lady who is a recent convert. During our lesson she kept telling us about all these crazy superstitions that her mom had. One of them was that you can never wash clothes on Fridays. Why? She doesn't know, but she has been following that tradition of her mother's her whole life and then that day she had spilled juice on a rug and she had to put it into the wash on a Friday! The member that was with us said "That's okay, because it wasn't clothes." The sister was so relieved that she hadn't broken the tradition! She kept saying, "Oh, thank you! That is SUCH a relief!" None of us could stop laughing. She then said that she liked to keep people laughing because, "When you frown, you ugly." She is hilarious. At the end of the lesson she asked us if Sister Whitley was taking us out to dinner that night and then she said, "Miss Elizabeth said you had something with gluten? Or something. You got something wrong with you!" I wish I could just record the way she talks... 

 

     This week was very spiritual, too. I have seen so many little miracles and I have really seen Heavenly Father's hand in my life. We were working on trying to get the lesson on the Restoration down this week. It's crazy how the Lord has helped me learn and helped me teach our investigators. I also know that He definitely has a plan for me. I was pretty bummed and frustrated when I found out that I wasn't going to train in Spanish, but I have really started to see why this week. Heavenly Father knew that I needed to improve my teaching skills before I move on to teaching in Spanish. This English thing has been such a blessing. I would be sooo overwhelmed if I had had to just dive into teaching in Spanish, and God definitely knew that! That's another thing I have started to learn. Heavenly Father knows us all perfectly and loves us all more than we can even imagine. I have seen that and felt that as we have taught our investigators and members in the ward.

I hope everyone has a marvelous week! Love you all! 

Hermana Fields

Hermana Fields in Virginia!

Hermana Fields made it back to the US on January 6th, woot!

Chesapeake! I made it!

President and Sister Baker

Hermana Fields and Sister Hansen

Hola from Greenville! (Weeks 6 & 7)

Hola from Greenville!

After two weeks of waiting, here I am finally writing again! Sooo much has happened, so we will see what I can fit in in the next 15 minutes... 

I finally made it to the actual mission field! I am currently serving in the Greenville NC 2nd Ward and I love it.  The people here are incredible! As some of you may already know, I'm currently just English speaking. We got here to find out that there were only two Hermanas available to train. So, some of us are doing all our training in English. I have no idea what will happen after my 12 week training.  But I will continue to have my hour of language study every day and keep faith that the Lord has a plan! Which I know He does. I have seen in it countless times just in the last week, so I know everything will work out! 

So, before I get too ahead of myself, I'll tell y'all about my last week at the CCM! There isn't a lot to say, but it was a good week! The hardest part was saying goodbye to my district, we had all grown so close! We are planning a reunion in two years though... and we have a Martinelli's bottle that we all put our mission goals into and we are going to break it at the reunion! 

Oh, but guess who I met, though! So, one day I was standing in line for food and an Elder that I had seen around a lot suddenly stopped me and said, "Hermana Fields! Do you have family in Virginia?"  I told him yeah, and that I have an aunt out there. Turns out he is from Aunt Val's ward! Apparently she had told him to keep an eye out for me and it took him 6 weeks to finally find me! It's funny what a small world the church is. Anyway, so that is who Elder Padilla is! 

Saying goodbye to the CCM was hard, but I can't describe how happy I am to be back in the States. I absolutely love it here in Greenville.  Their accents are the best. There are so many things that I have heard of as being stereotypical Southern things, that I never knew were real things until I got here! It's just so Southern! There are literally churches on every corner, and EVERYONE is religious. I have not met a single person that doesn't already have a strong belief in Jesus Christ and it makes me so happy! The people here are so receptive to the gospel, and it really is such a joy to share it with them. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell y'all about my companion! Her name is Sister Hansen and she is the greatest. She's from Arizona and she has been out for 15 months and so she is a great trainer:) We live an apartment and we have a car named Maximus and a GPS named Elder Darcy. :) He always saves us damsels in distress when we get lost... so all the time, haha.

Anyway, it's great to be out here. I have already seen so many little miracles and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for next week. I love you all! Be good, say your prayers and read your scriptures!

Sister (for the time being) Fields

 

 PS - Sorry for the lack of pictures of North Carolina!

 

Christmas lights at the CCM

District 12C

District 12C

Elder Padilla

Me and Hermana Reed

Me and Hermana Arnaud!

District 12 Hermanas

 

Package from home! It says "baby girl" on it... that made for a good laugh!