Fake Laugh, Real Pain

got a couple days of fall now its over:(

​Mexican food in post falls which was way good

Yep.

skyyyyy

 my bruise from basketball and it just got blacker

I am soaked... 

​sister IRELAND

Oct. 31, 2016

Nicole's Letter:

SO I am here in Post Falls, Idaho.  Yep, I don't know what to say.  I haven't emailed in two weeks and so much as happened.  I will first tell you that my last wednesday in the MTC I had my most embarrasing moment.  I mean we all knew it would happen sooner or later.  My district was playing knock out and I was going to get the ball and I kinda tripped on my foot but then caught myself but then I moved my other foot and I went down like face planted straight onto the floor.  I didn't even trip over anything expect my feet.  And I went down hard.  It was so embarrasing and then I just laid there for a second, turned around and everyone was just staring haha. no one laughed which made it worst.  So i got back up, got in line and all the elders were like are you okay sister and I was like shut up.  it was not one of my finer moments but it was still super funny.  we all had a good laugh about it later.  And i got a massive bruise.  

But enough about the MTC.  Sadly that part of my mission is over.  Could have stayed there forever but I have been kicked to the curb now. 

So lets just start out with that my area is a bike area only.  We are one out of two areas that are only bikes.  We dont have a car and we walk everywhere.  I mean come on.  There were so many places I could have gone and I got the one that doesn't have a car.  THere is only one other area that doesn't have a car!! but it is all good.  We biked the first day and I think my trainer realized that I hate biking so we have walked almost everywhere so thats a blessing.  I might have sore feet but at least I dont have any scars yet.  My trainer is Sister Ireland and is from Boise Idaho! She is super nice.  I mean just really nice and fun and sweet.  I am glad she is my trainer.  She has been out a year and will go home in April.  

The area that I am serving in is Post Falls and lets just say I could be in Elko for all I know.  It is a different country up here.  But charity.  Charity. Charity.  Is the most heard word in my head these days.  Also, I think God decided to give me a little bit of England.  It has rained almost every. single. day.  and each time I get soaked.  The first couple days I didn't think would end and I thought they were pretty pointless but they are getting better and we are slowly doing more work.  Apparently, Post Falls esp. the ward that I am in is the area that no one wants to be called to in the mission.  The ward doesn't really do any missionary work and the work is just really really slow.  Yah, its the area that people just pass the time and can't wait to get to another area.  But i am determined not to have that mindset because its pointless.  I mean I am out here to do missionary work and if I have faith and work my hardest I will have no regrets.  This is the Lord's work and he knows what he is doing and I am confident in that.  

I am definitely in the real world.  Have gotten doors closed in my face, yelled and honked at and much more.  But who cares what people think.  I know that this gospel is true and one day they will know.  

We have had a couple lessons with people.  One was with a 20yr guy and he didn't know we were Mormons until we came back and taught him the lesson.  It was pretty funny because he was like yah you and the mormons are the only people that go from door to door and we were like yah we are the mormons.  But the lesson was really good.  He seemed really interested and we asked him if he would pray to know if it was true and he was like yah of course i am going to.  which makes sense but tons of people dont do that.  but we are losing him to the YSA missionaries.  All the missionaries have such cushy lives, with cars and investigators and we are over here walking in the pouring rain drenched from head to toe to a persons home and then they arent there or just getting yelled at by old ladies.

Then last night we had such a fun lesson with Larissa and Dennis.  They are probably in their 40s and they are dating not married but he is a less active.  comes from a really strong odgen utah family.  was going to go on a mission but then had a kid with his girlfriend.  But he shared how cool it is when you find out that all of this is true and told of his experience.  Before last night i thought that there wasn't a single normal person in post falls but they changed my mind.  I haven't laughed harder.  they both are so funny and then his son who is 13 was there and he is a sweet artist and going to make us a painting.  im excited. 

but all is good.  i have stopped praying that this will be the fastest 18 months so thats good haha

love my trainer, love the gospel learning to love post falls 

Part two:

sorry about the spam but i am just writing more until my comp says we have to go

so when i got to spokane and had my interview with president dymock he told me that my trainer was suppose to be sister birdie and i was going to go to SANDPOINT-ask dianna she said that is one of the prettiest places.  which apparently is beautiful, they cover 3 wards and they work is really good there! AND I WAS SUPPOSE TO GO THERE.  and then the next day at the stake center we were meeting our trainers and sister birdie and another missionary sister norman got called and I was really confused.  later president dymock came up to me and was like well the spirit just kept working on me and now you are in post falls with sis ireland.  I think it is because Sister Norman the sister that is now in sandpoint couldnt handle post falls.  I mean sister ireland said she was super surprised that president would put anyone here as a greenie because it is a really rough area but I guess I only can go up right?? and i dont have to get discourage about my teaching skills because we havent really taught anyone this week haha just kidding

Lane who is 50 is going to be baptized at the end of nov but we are teaching him the word of wisdom and he is a heavy smoker and drinker like everyone here.

we also met another guy this week that was like oh yah i have met with the missionaries before and heard all your messages.  we were like so... and he told us that he loved them and they were amazing! not expecting that at all but he doesn't have a phone so it should be interesting if we ever get in contact with him again.  

also, anyone have good door approaches?!

i need any and all advice please!!!

and how do you get members involved.  the ward doesn't do any missionary work and that is the key to missionary work.  Areas that are successful are areas where the memebers do their work so freaking help out the sisters in our ward and give me some suggestions please.

MTC ROUND 2

Sister Stevenson's Letter
Oct 19, 2016:

HEY! so yep you probably guessed it i dont want to leave the mtc;( i dont like change so thats probably why and also it is so "easy" compared to the outside world.  I mean its been the most challenging two weeks of my life but I know that it is going to be the easiest thing i do all mission.  I mean they give you a schedule, tell you exactly what to do (dont have to go just sit in picnic chairs at smith;) then they give you people to teach and if you screw up then one they are probably members and two if they aren't they have like 10 other missionaries teaching them.  and also you have teachers that you can ask anything and they will give you an answer or help you find one.  But i know that i have to leave because i cant progress from a certain point here but it will be sad.  Also, believe it or not i have really come to like my district.  The really talkative kid that never shuts up well apparently the other Elders think he is super annoying, surprise surprise and we got partnered for an activity.  He really poured his heart out and started crying and was really down.  He said that no one from home really cares that I left and no one here really cares that I am here.  So I started to share the clique you have a purpose and then I was like no he doesn't need to here that he knows that.  Instead I shared moroni 10 about charity.  It is all about charity and if you have charity then you wont have regrets no matter what anyone else does to you.  It was a good experience.  They are all like my little brothers which apparently is very offensive to them which i think is stupid.  We have had some good times.  It is so weird how much can happen in one week.  I wrote a letter and was going to send it in the mail but might as well just send it in an email.

and if you dont want to read the massive story of my inner thoughts here is a summary.

IT is all about Christ and Love.  Make those the center of your life and miracles will happen.  Charity never faileth. 

and you can just skip down to the bottom as well

This was on friday i wrote it

Dear fam, 

I am sitting outside under the yellow fall leaves.  Fall is really beautiful here.  It is crazy to think that I am on a mission right now.  it is my time to play and hopefully i am ready.  the mtc is such a nice little bubble and a part of me never wants to leave but i know i can only grow so much.  I was super sick yesterday (THursday), voice completely gone and light headed type thing but just kept going, cause thats what you do(I have actually noticed that compared to other people I am not a baby when Im sick bc I know that it can always get worse so why pull the sick card until you are completely passed out ;) but yestday was definitely a reality check for me and a lit of soul searching.  I want to be better but its hard work and i have to realize that i have only been out a week, I shouldnt expect to be the greatest person or missionary yet.  Its just hard because i know i have the potential.  It takes time to be christlike.  It only matters that i am a little bit better today than i was yesterday and sometimes you take two steps backwards or maybe even five but thats okay.  my comp and i had a terrible lesson and we weren't in sync and it just threw us off because the night before (last wednesday) we were in fire in class.  one of our teachers brother neilsen taught about the plan of salvation and it was so amazing.  He is the kind of teacher that teaches in a way that you teach yourself and se we were going ovet the steps of the plan and he crossed it out and was like this is not the plan, this is just the diagram.  the pan is jesus christ and that really struck me that the paln is all centered on christ.  i know that seems like a basic cincept but it we truly all believed that our lives would change. and then in class we precceeded to go step by sxtelp and ask ourselves where is christ in this part and then have to come up with a real question and then why that it central to us.  like the creation it says "Under the direction of the father jesus christ created the earth" we all know that but why is it important to know that jesus christ created the earth.  And i never really thought about it but how nice is it to know that the eorson that realy knws you, know your thoughts, has experienced what you have gone through also knows what you live in.  I mean mom and dad know me the best but they dont know where i live righ tnow where my rrom is or calssroom is but how nice would it be if i knew that they created it (now that i am typing this out this doesn't really seem like a big deal but honestly it was so crazy to me finding the importance of christ in each step like adam and eve and the fall everything.  Go through each step of the plan and ask yourself how does this change my view of my life, it was really powerful to me.  then after calss i was so pumped.  i mean i haven't been more excited.  we went to the trc, which i know is basically a sham and false reality but we had such a great lesson with emi apparently she posted a pic of us on facebook. And it was the first lesson that i really felt confident about.  But that was wednesday, in my journal i wrote "BEST DAY EVER IN THE MTC ( which it totally was i mean it was pday, temple, mary, email, class, lesson).  however thursday like i said was the worst day.  woke up with my voice completely gone and our lesson was terrible.  After our lesson our poor teacher, we totally unloaded on him.  We just came in and started going at it.  I could care less who was listening, one of those moods that mom and natalie knows haha like cant stop talking, saying anything in my brain haha.  then i was really struggling with where i am like i want to be better and be a great teacher and i know i am but i just wish i knew how to do it.  Also, i am scared that when i come home that i will have never reached my mark of where i want to be, i mean then i would have wasted the last 18 months (that was my thought process on thursday).  Also, i just feel like i could be a better person.  Then Brother Neilsen, after probably just thinking how crazy we were/me had us turn to the scripture of not running faster than you can.  and said sometimes we have too high of expectations for us.  and then i just looked down because that was me at that moment.  i mean i have only been out a week now two.  it so stupid to think that i should be like our teachers.  also i am not even learning a language so what do i have to complain about ha.  so yah that was a good reality check for me.  but of course i couldnt stop thinking and turning off my brain so i ask what do you do when you have a bad day or just dont feel spiritual because you always have those days.  Brother neilsen listened to us again and just sat there.  he didn't really have anything to say which is the first time i swear he is going to be an apostle one day.  but then he had us turn to enoch.  but i had no clue how that applied to me haha so stupid.  he just said that and left it at that and i thought yah finally he doesn;t have anything to read or say to us.  little did i know that it totally applies to me.  Elder Holland taught me that, a video we watch, he told us the story of enoch and i felt stupid haha.  then brother neilsen had us wrote some goals.  All of them related to charity.  because honestly without christ and without charity we all are pointless.  It doesn't matter how elegant you speak or how well you know the scriptures(though that does help a ton) without charity it doesn't matter.  And he had us take the christ like attribute test but i havent yet...too scared haha;) But honestly, it is all about love and making christ the center of our lives because it will truly change who we are and how we interact with everyone around us.  We will all have bad days but with ove and christ those bad days will be better and christ will carry us through.  

there is so much to write.  i mean i need to perfect this email thing because this was just one day haha.  i will learn and wont be offended if you dont read it. 

and know that I am doing much better because I realized that I am being ridiculous when I think that I should be an amazing missionary.  Greatness takes time and hard work.  So that is what I am doing, working hard and relying on God and Christ's atonement to make me better.  So don't worry about me...well not yet- i leave Monday morning at 4:30 from the MTC and my flight is at 8:50 and then I will be on a bike so prayers will be needed haha.  

love to all

sis steve

 ​me recreating natalies first day image

 sorry its so up close on my face but first pic with my comp!

 typical Sunday pic

​me and sister mitchell again

​sis brandt wanting us to look cute ha fail

 sister farnsworth- (a person i went to brazil with)

​we got pumpkin stickers!

 ​when sister mitchell realized that she isnt going home for 18 months

  in case you dont know where spokane is...

​england...enough said

and of course fiji!

MTC WEEK ONE

The District 

sis mathias, brandt, mitchel, me

Hey!

one week down probably the longest week ever but apparently its the longest week out in the mission or at least that is what my teachers say (if that not true then just get it to your self because i dont think i could do another week as long as the last).  everyday or at least at the begginning was just a roller coaster there would be some highs and then lows.  but now it is slowly evening out which is good.  Also, it feels like i havent talked to you guys in forever which kind of scares me because it has only been a week.  but i will try to include as much as i can remember.

so wednesday the dreaded day...finally learned how to roll my suitcases haha that was embarrassing but what did i expect if i wasnt going to trip it would be somethings stupid like that.  and then i put my stuff away and then went to my classroom and i was the last one and was super out of breath because my classroom is on the 5th floor of 18m.  my district is good.  the first couple days were rough because all the guys are 18 years boys but now we are all good.  all of them are so different but it works we all get along.  they are mostly all from utah.  one of them looks like scott bush and honestly does not stop talking haha his companion was talking to me and was like good thing my mom is a talker because he truly never stops talking but he remembers everything so well and is really good at teaching people.  then his companion is super nice and from las vegas plays volleyball and is really sweet.  those two are our zone leaders then we have another elder from delta utah and he is our district leader.  he is a farm boy/butcher and really funny.  then another elder is really into musical theater and his companion is this short white 1/4 mexican who loves anthing mexican and american yet he is going to ghana on his mission.  and then the three other sisters are all going to spokane washington.  sister mitchell is my comp and she is super nice and funny like dry sacrastic but def knows when to be serious which is good.  we are a good team and we get along really well. we dont over power each other and are really good in our lessons well not good but not terrible haha.  its weird having someone with you all the time.  you cant even my selfish about going to the bathroom. and then sister mathias is excellent at keeping us in line and making sure we are doing what we are suppose to be doing and following the rules which is really nice because at promptly 630 she turns on the lights to make sure everyone is getting up so thats helpful.  then sister brandt is from sparks nv and is nice.  she also is gf so its been nice to have another person to get food with.  but that is enough about my district that probably was super boring to read and pointless but whatever...

my teachers are brother bryan and sister greenall.  they are both super nice and good teachers.  sister greenall is just really nice and loving.  she served in texas and got home almost a year ago.  brother bryan just got back from his mission in july and is a really good teacher.  he pushes us more and makes us do more role plays and makes us more accountable.  we are teaching him now as a fake investigator named carlos, someone from his mission so we will see how that goes.  i honestly dont know what else to write about but there has been so much that has gone down.

on saturday i was getting ready for bed and i was like i dont feel joy and then all of a sudden it struck me...I have the joy and I am sharing the joy of the gospel.  That doesn't mean that we will feel happy everyday or everyday we will feel like singing but we are so lucky to have the eternal joy and I know I might sound like a cliche missionary but it really struck me in the mtc bathroom.  Sunday was by far the best day of the week.  It started out really early for me and my companion.  We got called as the sister missionary training leaders so we had branch council at 7am and then sacrament and then another meeting training us and then we had sunday school with our district then relief society.  then im not really sure what happen next honestly my memory is fading it so scary haha.  then our district did choir but my comp and i sat in the soprano section and we learned real quick we are not sopranos so we just mouthed the high parts.  then we had devo and it was about repentance.  at first i was like oh bummer not that good of topic but i was wrong of course it was really good.  He really just focussed his thoughts on how lucky we are that we can repent and repenting is nothing more than turning away from worldly things and turning toward gods will.  it was good.  then we watch character of christ by elder bednar and it was amazing like life changing it was about conversion.  It was like mic drop and a boom kind of talk.  He said that about 1/4 of you probably will not be active in 6 years because 1/4 of you only have testimonies and that is not enough we have to have real conversion in order to stand against the world.  but it was elder bednar so it was said much better.  and it was all about becoming like christ and how that is what the gospel truly is, it is becoming closer to our savior.  i hate to think that people stop believing in christ just because of some things but if we truly knew what the gospel was we would all want to stay and try our hardest to stay and become converted.  and what really stuck out to my was when he said if you are trying to for the end result it wont happen but you just have to lose yourself.  i was super stressed thinking about coming home and not being different and regretting not being the best missionary ever and then after that talk i was like what am i doing.  this is pointless.  one i am not out here to change myself i am here to help others come unto christ and i am being completely selfish so in that instance i just stopped thinking about the end result and trying to live in the present as much as possible and trying my hardest to see everyone as children of god, another cliche but really if you think about what that really intails its is amazing.  we are all children of god and if we truly believe that we would all treat others a lot differently.  we would see there talents and possible things and we would not see there weaknesses but we would see there potential.  so i am really trying to act the way i believe.  on monday we had our first trc and thats just say its was really rough and that is an understatement.  her name is emi and she is a legit investigator which completely freaked me out.  she is from japanesse and she came here to learn english.  she wouldnt let us teach her our lesson because she was like oh the missionaries before gave us that and then she kept bringing out other missionaries lessons which is like a no no in trc rules.  book then i asked her if she had a bom and she was like yah in japan but not here.  so i was like okay here is one and i gave her a trc book of mormon that had big writing on it that said trc RETURN but then i was like no no totally take it haha whoops.  but all the other missionaries told here that they would find one but i thought that was pretty pointless becasuse everyone gives her reading assignments.  but one teacher here, brother neilson, like he is going to be an apostle one day talked to us and gave us really good advice about emi bc he was like yah she is really hard so we will see how that goes tonight.  we arent going to get slapped around like we did last time haha. also, guess what.  ELDER BEDNAR came to devotional last night.  CRAZY!!!! his talk was about general conference it was really good and how we can dig deeper into the talks.  i really wanted to see chris and mary but i didn't.  also, i have seen so many hawaii people here and it is honestly the best part of my day.  its so nice to see fimialr faces.  i love it.  today we got to go to the temple which was amazing.  brought back so many good memories.  i really hope we can all go when i get back.  Also, while we were sitting in the chapel i was praying about how amazing it would be to see someone i knew in the temple just to know that i was loved and then i walked out and saw mary stevenson.  it was the best thing ever, i almost cried.  I def know that was a tender mercy and i saw god's hand in my life.  i love mary stevenson and it meant so much to see here.

thanks for all the dear elders!!! makes me so happy when i get them best part of the day.  it is the best so thank you so much

okay sorry this probably didnt make sense and really pointless but love to all

next week i will have my thoughts collected 

love love

sistercobb    

Goodbyes!

Oct. 5th marked the day Nicole entered the MTC! 

Here are pics of her farewell sendoff and arrival letter. 

We miss you already Nicole!

Nicole's Letter: One Day Down!

 Hey,

I am here at the MTC.  And I have a little bit of time to just write that i made it to my district and i am still alive and i have not tried to run away yet.   my comp is super nice.  there are 4 sisters in my district and they are all going to spokane washington mission.  My teachers seem super nice havent really actually gotten to know them that well but they seem they will be great.  And natalie the japanese elders are way better than the english just so you know ;) i have actually talked to a lot of elders going to japan and they are so glazed eyes haha.  dont have that much time becasue my comp wrote her letter yesterday but my pday is on wednesday and yah thats basically all i know.  and thats it.  last night was so cold.  i couldn't sleep it was so cold.  i was covering up and shivering. and then this morning we realized our thermostat was turn to the lowest setting.   but its all good.  day two is good.  love to all!

hope everyone made it home safely

and sorry this is doesnt make sense and has no spiritual content:))))

Sister Stevenson