Mar 30th Da Last Email

I'd like to start this email with a Poem: *clear throat*

When God first made me,

I wonder what he said.

I look and think and ponder,

till it hurts my little head.

When I was sent here,

I wondered every day...

How can I help these people?

What could I ever say?

My purpose I knew

To bring others to Christ,

But what can I ever do?!

This was Satan's whispered fight.

When God first made me,

He gave me different gifts.

My mission helped me find them,

Within every transfer trip.

Every heart I meet,

And every prayer I voice...

Strengthens my testimony,

That our blessings stem from choice.

This choice I've made to serve 

doesn't end on a certain night,

I'll keep on choosing good,

And fighting the good fight.

Well... this week has been crazy! We set a wedding baptism date with Nancy and Wiley for the 18th... but Nancy had a heart attack... so we're waiting to see if we need to push it back, she's had some more stints put it and stuff... Yeah. OH!!! we're moving, yup. A gang spray painted our back porch and stapled a target there too... which apparently means "You're next" yeah... so we're moving! Yeah for safety! Not yeah for last Monday... but hey, ADVENTURE TO THE END!!! :) 

Okay so back to the poem... basically I just am trying to fit in the emotions of my change on the mission. It's not that I've changed a ton, but my view on myself and my future and who God see's me as has changed a ton. I don't really know if I fit that in there and I don't really know if that's my final draft... but well I feel really strongly that my mission isn't ending... it's just changing to a different area and dress code. I know that I won't be set apart or have a tag, but this isn't the end. I'm sure tons of missionaries say cheesy lines like that... But I REALLY mean it. This work has no end, I'll just be the member in the Member presents... or something, but the work will go on in my life... cause it's my work. To quote Disney "Keep moving forward!" :D

Well have a blessed week! See y'all soon!

Sister Foster

Mar 23rd People to find, and gorillas to hug

So this week was basically super fun in a productive push through to the end kind of way. Basically the work has been a lot of finding recently and not a lot of it has seemed very effective, but well "Just do it" from Nike kinda sums up our motto. BUT!!! Not all is lost because... Da dada DAAAAAAHHHHH

Cool story time: So once upon a time Sister Mathison and I really really have wanted to teach a family, so we've been praying super specifically to find elect families... then a few days after this started we were walking down the street and this guy was across the street, don't worry we crossed the street and started talking to him... and he was super interested (he has 3 girls 13,11,an 9) good prime numbers eh? And so we were super excited to go teach him and got a member to come with us in case there were no other female adults... well he was a no show, and so we got to go finding with this member!!! Both doors we knocked on had people that were interested... the Second door belonged to a guy named J___ he and his Step sister and her boyfriend and their son are now taking the discussions. J____ came to church and loved it. Their neighbor A___ and her 3 sons are also now taking the discussions!!!!

Basically teaching families is the best!!!

All we've found is families this past week, I've been getting a lot of encouraging emails about digging in till the end. I promise that I am, that I've not given up, nor will I. Thank you for any and all the support you've shown in the past and any you plan on showing in the future. :D I really do appreciate it.

As for the gorilla.... please enjoy a glimpse into Sister Mathison and I's adventures (this was done on the way to a dinner appointment... we saw him at a park)

His name is Kendrik

Random Gnome Village we came across on our way to a dinner appointment!

Mar 16th Sister Mathison

Well, this week has been a week of crazy!!!

But then again, when isn't the work crazy? Haha due to some crazy circumstances with one of our investigators my companion Sister Hepworth was emergency transferred to Maumelle and one of the Maumelle sisters was transferred here. Her name is Sister Mathison! Basically she's hilarious and we both love being weird. She can make a frog face and a perfect dolphin noise... not to mention she's a great teacher!!! :D She's just fabulous!

We had an absolute miracle happen on her first day! So when we were going in to eat dinner almost all the neighborhood kids that helped us make our snow sister were outside playing and after going in I found myself saying "Hey, you wanna go and play with the kids?" she said "Definitely!" so we spent our dinner hour cheering the kids on and jumping over puddles... then there were these girls who asked us to come over and meet their parents... so we said "Okay yeah!" So we went and met them, they just moved from Arizona City, AZ and are trying to do better with their lives and agreed to let us come over and teach them!!! We're so excited! They seem super nice and their girls are just the cutest ever!

Other than that it's just been trying to find people and do our best. Sister Mathison is so enthusiastic though. I'm super excited to continue to work with her :D

Hope all is well on the home front, be good, be safe, and have a blessed week!

Sister Foster

St Patrick"s Day Cookies!

Mar 9th Snow Week

Well this week was also full of snow, and bike week, and being stuck inside. I know I know, y'all be jealous of my many card game skills... and my ability to quote the Restoration word for word... BE JEALOUS OF MY AWKWARD SKILLS ;) haha jk jk

Anyways, there's not a lot of news... except I kick bum at card games (especially suerte or poophead) 

OH!!! We made a sister missionary snowman with all of our neighborhood friends!!! It was super fun. And sister hepworth made a super-de-duper awesome snow-missionary-angel :D That's about it... So yup yup. Life is good :D I'm just chilling and training and doing my best. :D

Never give up, never surrender

Sister Foster

Enjoy the pic

Mar 2nd Weekly

Okay y'all... I'm in Jacksonville, AR training Sister Hepworth... I don't have a ton of time and there's not much to report... but we have an investigator getting baptized this Sunday and a lot of awesome things are going on... :D But yeah... Here's a pic of me and her. 

 Basically life is good :D :D 

Feb 23rd *drummmmm rolllllll pleasssse* (email from Taylor's companion, Sister Taylor)

Taylor sent this for the stories she missed: it is from Sister Taylor (her companion) to her family

I get to stay in Paragould!!! Seriously guys, I didn't sleep at all last night. Patience and I are yet to be tight. Now I just have to wait till Wednesday to meet my new companion/the sister I'll be training. There are a bunch of new sisters coming in this transfer and a handful of them are waiting for their visas to serve in Taiwan. So there's totes a chance I'll have to study a new language for an hour each day my new companion is going to Taiwan. Weirdness! 

Ice, ice baby ~ Like I mentioned last week, Arkansassers don't know how to drive.....at all. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday we were told to stay inside ALL day. Oh dear....Sister Foster played so card games and were so bored that we had hour long reading discussions on the Old Testament. Yep, 'twas super boring. But the apartment is squeaky clean and I can tell you random definitions from the Bible Dictionary. Church was cancelled yesterday and the temple trip today was cancelled....:(

On Wednesday the Hansens took us down to Searcy so we could go with the Searcy sisters to our Zone Conference in Little Rock. Normally from Searcy to Little Rock it takes one hour........THREE hours, 2 semi trucks in the ditch, tons of fish tailing, and infinite prayers later....we made it.

Zone Conference was fantastic! And guess who's in my zone??? Elder Christopher Argyle :) It was beyond fun to see FAMILY! He actually spoke and it was very powerful and awesome. Fun stuff! They just had a baptism with an awesome dad and daughter. 

President Wakolo's talk was fantastic. Most of the meeting we go to focus soooooooo much on baptism, and you normally leave feeling like crap that you haven't set a baptismal date with everyone you've ever looked at. Haha but President Wakolo got up, put his arms in the air and said like a Baptist preacher, "Slow is fast! Fast is slow!" He went on to share (with tears in his eyes the entire time) that he was a man who would not let his wife even have a Book of Mormon in their home. He finally let a pair of missionaries into their home, hoping to Bible bash. Over 20 missionary pairs later.....his heart softened, when a missionary who was literally on his first day mission, shared a scripture in the Bible and how it worked with the Book of Mormon. He went on to teach that spreading joy and service to everyone we meet is just as important as baptisms, and to absolutely never give up on anyone. It=amazing.

D. S. heard that we were stuck inside so she came all the way down from Rector in her ginormous truck and took us out for Mexican Food and then to get groceries. It was the sweetest thing ever! The poor girl had to have 2 of the same procedures I had last year, earlier this week.....so we mega bonded. While she was going through all the sucky medical stuff she finally turned all the way over to trusting the Book of Mormon. Since then it's been even more miraculous with her! She had a light in her eyes before, but this time she has a purpose. it's hard to explain the difference, but it's been outrageous to witness. 

Remember that family that we felt impressed to see last week all the way in Piggot?? Well Saturday we felt like we should see them again. It.Was.Fantastic. They are super solid and know that they've had a wake up call. We get to start teaching their kids and her husband this week :) Sister Vaughn also sent us over to her friends house. It was the best door knock I've ever experienced! He told us that he and his wife and three kids have felt a difference of doctrine in their own church and were literally just searching for something new and asked us to come back this week so we could teach his whole family. We have hit the gold at the end of the rainbow, my friends!

Well today will be a busy ol' day saying goodbye to lots of people for Sister Foster, so I better get going, but there wasn't a ton of stuff to do this week. Mainly studying, card games, and trying not to fall on our faces in ice :) 

G= absolutely amazing. 

C + T = fantastic. We're going over there right now! Terry is teaching us pool on PDays. 

A+ B = we didn't get to see them this week because their street was covered in ice! But we'll see them this week :)

V family = going over there for dinner tonight :D

F. A. = Came back for the weekend!! We got to see her yesterday and she was hilariously wonderful as always. I've forgotten how much I absolutely love and miss that girl. It was such a fun surprise.

And to close - here's the newest Arkansas joke of the week:

Did you know that it was an Arkansas man who made the toothbrush?

Cause if it was made by anyone else it would be called a TEETHBRUSH!

Have a super happy week!!!!! 

Love,

Sadie

Feb 23rd oooootay....

Soooo this week starts on last monday... but then now that I think of it, that's how it always starts out.... haha whoops. #aca-awkward.

Okay well, last Monday we really did have a crazy storm (for Arkansas, this is all relative). So, when we were walking home (... well for those of you who know me well, and have seen me try to walk on ice, you know that it's a miracle I didn't break every bone in my body... ) Sister Taylor and I saw this SUPER nice escalade #skinnerluvs . It pulls up next to us and this lady (who I truly believe was Sandra Bullouk's inspiration in the Blind Side) yells out in her beautiful southern accent "What are you gurls doin?! Where are you headed?!" I yelled out the name of our complex past the wind and she said "Get in!" The spirit told us that all was well so we bolted (as carefully as possible with several inches of snow under our feet) into the car which sported seat warmers that were so beautiful I wanted to cry. She asked us again where we were going and we gave her directions. We told her that Monday's were the only day that we could email our families and told her who we were and what we did. She accepted our card and blessed us for all we did, though she wasn't interested in learning more. I really hope that she'll change her mind eventually, but either way... super miracle!!!

(P.S. the reason we had to walk is because there was too much ice on the roads so they forbade driving.)

Then Tuesday and part of Wednesday we were stuck inside... aka super bonding. 

Wednesday D_____ came and picked us up and took us for lunch and we had a lesson with her at the restaraunt #ktmemories. It was awesome. Then we found out from Cathy that her sister's house burned down and Sister Taylor { the ultimate saint} used her Dominoes gift card to buy the sister and her 3 kids pizza... yeah, she's really that cool. It was so great. She was like... oh it's really no problem but the kids were obviously like FOOD and the mom was like MIRACLE... aka giftcards and sister Taylor are the dream team.

G____ is doing good (the older lady). 

THEN!!!! Okay, so once upon a time... the roads were still kinda bad on Thursday night... but you see, we were supposed to have Zone conference on Wednesday. But... ain't nobody got time to die, so they changed it to Friday.Since Sister Taylor and I were both training, we had to be in Little Rock at 8 am. The drive from Paragould to Little Rock is 3 hours soooooo we went to Searcy to stay the night with the sisters (Sister Thompson was one of them HOLLA!!) and honestly I took some games and soda cause everyone told us that Thursday night we were gonna have another real bad storm of sleet, then freezing rain.  Sooo, I was getting ready to bunker down... and then the storm didn't hit Little Rock,  so the meeting wasn't cancelled. It did hit Searcy (*insert 2ish inches of black ice* YEESH!!!! ) We left the apartment on time to get there with time to spare... but then our ride cancelled and there was drama loading this bike and stuff... and then our ride decided to let us ride with her anyways, even though the roads were super crummy... and a 1 hour ride became a 2.6 hour ride. We arrived just for Zone Conference but completely missed out training.... *EEK* but yup, God will prepare a way. 

Umm I'm sure there are other stories but I'm honestly real tired and I need to pack cause I'm getting TRANSFERRED... for those of you who haven't served a mission, since I'm training and getting transferred, that either means me and my trainee with both be new in a different area or I'll be follow-up training in a new area for me (which is what I did with Sister Taylor) so yup yup. Pray for me and my new companion whoever she is and wherever we may go. :D

I hope that all is well with y'all and that life is good :D God bless every aspect of your lives and know that I pray for y'all. :) ;D Be safe! Remember who you are!

Sister Taylor Foster

P.S. they cancelled the trip to the Temple today cause of the weather. :(