Sister Emily Elise Shill

Dear Friends and Family, Merry Christmas! Sorry it's been a while since I've written.  Thank you for all the Christmas cards and packages! They truly made it a merry season! Fruita is fantastic for Christmas! Although we haven't had any snow, the people here go ham for Christmas lights! One of the members in our ward wraps his trees like temple square. He had a crane out so he could reach every branch and a block he used to measure the gaps between each wrap. :'D  My new companion Sister Campa is wonderful to be around. Together we revel in the wonder of frozen meals and Bath and Body Works Wallflowers. :'D Our neighbors smoke something awful so we've been enjoying the stronger flavors of eucalyptus mint and clean laundry. :'D  We went caroling with some of our Members and it was the most wonderful thing.  We went to the lady we are teaching named Carrie.  After we sang to her and left, she immediately texted us saying she hadn't had carolers in years an...

 

  Dear Friends and Family, Transfers happened! I have a new companion named Sister Campa! She's great! She's probably going to finish her mission in this area, so she's been gung-ho about improving the apartment! I've been trying to help. It feels like a different apartment with all the weird junk we've been throwing out. And I managed to fix the vacuum! Took it all apart and found a belt had fallen out of place. Put it back on and the vacuum went from stinks to sucks. ;D  Anyway, our area is getting better. Member lessons are starting to spike with Christmas, and we have been instructed to base them around light the world. Pretty fun.  The people we are teaching are struggling to progress, but I'm hopeful that they will all come closer to Christ at their own pace. I also hope to find again soon. Sister Campa and I are going to go through former investigators. See if we can't find someone whose interested. And of course we are doing our best on Facebook. I...

Oh what a week! It felt like a million years long. No particular reason of course, it's just been long.  I had a particular experience yesterday I thought I could share. We invited one of the friends we are teaching to come to church. He declined, but invited us to come to the potluck his church was having to celebrate Thanksgiving. We thought it would be a good way to show support of him going to church whether or not it was ours, so we agreed. Yesterday morning in Sacrament meeting a sister from another ward gave a talk on heeding the "uncomfortable promptings of the Spirit". She told a very vulnerable and powerful story about a time when she chose not to follow a prompting to check on her neighbor every day for a week because it was inconvenient. Then on Friday afternoon her neighbor came to her, told her about the horrible week she had, and said she was sure God didn't love her. She had been praying all week that someone would come alleviate her loneliness and no ...

  Once Upon a P-Day Today was an exquisite P-day, truely. Sister Bealer and I went shopping at Old Navy and found a few cute new dresses to wear! It was wonderful! But on the way there, we saw a little car on the highway with a sign in the window that read, "Ask God. Listen!" So OBVIOUSLY the only proper response to that was to make a heart with my hands as we passed the little old lady driving the car. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise as she saw me smiling at her. Then a few minutes later, she sped up to pass us and gave a big thumbs up and approving nod. It was the funniest little exchange and it made my day. Something about this little old lady was so endearing, I still can't help but laugh looking back on it.  Later we got Del Taco for lunch and even indulged a trip to our favorite soda shack ever: Quench! (The Bishop's wife owns it so we get free drinks on Fridays. But lately, we've been going even when it's not free. :'D) But good cakes aren't ma...

  About Working with Members Working with the members has become my passion. After all, I don't want to just find the one and move on. I want to leave my area better than I found it. I want the missionaries who come in afterward to have a slew of hard working, missionary-minded members to support them and help them. I want finding in the Fruita 1st area to go from "No one finds there" to "They get so many member referrals!" That's my vision. That's my dream. But in the meantime, I feel like I'm finally understanding how to find on Facebook. It's a really slow process, and there is a lot of nurturing involved, but you CAN find on Facebook.  About Homesickness  About homesickness, I've learned some pretty significant stuff. The "Adjusting to Missionary Life" section in the missionary guide wasn't really helping me much, unfortunately. The homesickness described in "Adjusting..." seems to be rooted in change issues. That...