"ONE BY ONE!" (Week 76: 2/13-2/20)

Okay... that's it. Time is flying way to fast. I don't understand.... this is way to weird. I feel like I seriously said goodbye to you all like 2 weeks ago. I do NOT want to come home. I am having mixed emotions all over again about leaving the place that I have called home for 18 months. 

This past week we started my last transfer and with that we got some new additions. You all ready for the craziest week that we had. 

So Tuesday! Happy Valentine's Day! I hope it was a great one! I hope you ate lots of chocolate. For a Valentine's Day we cut out a bunch of hearts and went to grounds and passed them out. On the hearts it said, "you are loved." It was so fun! We even handed out a Mormon.org card with it. People loved them. We also went heart attacking with a member of the ward. Her name is Ali! She is soo awesome! Then we headed down to Richmond later that night so we could be there for our training meeting on Wednesday! So we stayed with the Henrico Hermanas. It was pretty fun! 

Wednesday was the day where our whole next transfer was going to change. We got to the church building at 9:30 and we got trained on how to be a good trainer. Lol! We then received our new companion. we are training together! Our new companion is Sister Lefevre. She is from Bountiful, Utah. She went to school at BYU for a semester before she came out. She is super awesome and is so ready to work! She is so fun! 

This week we saw so many miracles. It was so crazy! 

A cool miracle that we saw was from a referral we got from Church Headquarters. We had put it into our plans pretty much everyday for the past week and it just didn't feel right to go and see them. Oh and they live quite a few miles away! So it would take up a ton of our time/miles. So we kept putting it off. Then this past Saturday, I had a prompting to go and see them. We get there and it's basically in the boonies, and we first off knocked the wrong door at first, because numbers are very different here, and so instead of driving we decided to walk to their actual house. We didn't understand why we got this referral either because it was pretty close to another areas boundaries... but we went and started walking to their house. As we are walking this mini van starts driving up and is like beaming with a smile. We were like what the heck. They actually pull into the street right across from our referral and they get out and say, "SISTERS!" We were kind of confused.. anyways we started talking. The mom ended up being a member of the church, went on a mission, and is basically inactive. She hasn't been to church for about 4 years. Crazy! Anyways. Missionaries, visiting teachers, bishops.. haven't been by their house for about 4 years. Crazy to think that the Lord used us as an instrument for this work. If I never followed that prompting we would have never met her and we would have never been able to talk to the other missionaries. It's just soo crazy how the Lord works. 

I know that as we are open to the spirit we won't need to ask, what we should be doing? The Lord will put us where he needs us to be.  I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us each individually and that He knows our needs. 

I invite y'all to.. if you haven't just be a friend to the people you home teach or visit teach. We are with those people for a reason and it is because the Lord needs us there with them. Find someone who you haven't seen at church for a while. And go pick them up! 

I invite y'all to also read a talk! It was given in the Priesthood session of General Conference of October 2016.  I will put the link right here!....   (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/10/emissaries-to-the-church?lang=eng) I know it's for home teachers, but it can be applied to visiting teachers as well! 

I am so grateful for the organization of the church. It is truly wonderful! I love y'all sooo much! :) have an amazing week! 

Pictures: 

1: Happy Valentine's Day! 

2: with Ali! 

3: last Monday, Zone P-Day! 

4: training meeting! 

5: Bo-Berry biscuits from Bojangles! 

6-7: Trio timin! :) we all matched too! Didn't even plan! 

8: red door  

Love,

Sister Pewtress

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"I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE! 💕"(Week 75: 2/6-2/13)

Wow! What a fun, crazy, busy, packed week it was. I seriously don't think I even took a chance to breathe. But that's okay. Who even needs air. Haha! This week was soo amazing and I am so grateful for all of the miracles that we were able to see and all of the opportunities that I was able to have this week. 

There were so many cool things that happened, but I am going to try to keep them all pretty organized. 

• Tuesday!! Wow! That was probably one of the longest days, but ONE OF THE BEST DAYS! Though I am really sad. At the end of our missions we are able to go to the temple. At the temple we do ordinances or we make special covenants with our Heavenly Father kind of like baptism for us to be able to return to live with Him again. The temple is one of THE MOST sacred places on this earth other than our homes. The Lord literally is there all of the time. Well as we go slowly down to the last 6 weeks of my mission this week, my mission president combined two transfers of missionaries, into one so that we could all go up together. It was really cool.  I had about 4/11 companions there with me at the temple. It was a pretty neat experience. I seriously love the temple and the feelings that I felt there were so so specials. I could literally feel the spirit there throughout the whole time. I was even able to take some family names with me to help them with their temple work because they have passed away. It was seriously one of the best things. I love the temple and the Washington, D.C. Is seriously my favorite one (other than the Las Vegas temple). I seriously was in love with it. We spent most of the day there and then we headed back our separate ways. It was a wonderful break from the real world of stress and what not and I received a lot of answers to questions that I have been having. 
• Thursday was my 17 month mark! Can you believe that? It does not even feel like I have been on my mission for 17 months, let alone 2! I am  so grateful for the opportunity that I have been able to grow and serve here in Virginia. It has seriously become holy ground to me and I just love the people here. 
• The rest of the days we have been just meeting with people and helping them all draw closer to Jesus Christ. John, Josh, and Sam are all doing pretty well. Ohh but a cool miracles happened. A long time ago, when Sister Olson was here we found this guy named Joseph. Well Joseph he was struggling really bad and didn't really feel like he needed to change and so he basically stopped answering our texts and our calls and never answered the door at his house. But on Thursday night I got this really weird prompting to try him. DONT KNOW WHY.. I kind of pushed it off, but we had some time so I informed Sister Caswell of what I had received and so we started heading there. We ended up knocking on his door and he was there. The Lord truly knows his people! :) it was a really cool experience of following the spirit. We are now teaching him again and we are going to help him change! 
• Saturday was the day that Sister Caswell and I were dreading...... we didn't want it to ever come. Reasonings behind it are; 1) it's my last transfer! Kind of freaking out... okay REALLY FREAKING OUT, and 2) it was transfer day! One of the hardest days ever. We weren't really sure what was going to happen, as I have been here for a while, so we just went through our day. Well we knew something was going to happen but we just weren't sure. Well it gets sooo stressful around 6pm, because that is when calls come in. Well we went through the whole night waiting for a call and never received one, which was good... until 9:30 when one of the Assistant to the Presidents called, saying that there was good news and bad news. He asked us which one we wanted first and we said the good news.... well he said there wasn't any bad news, but that the good news was that we were both staying and that we were getting a third sister in the companionship. We are both going to train this new sister!!! It's sooo exciting. And so she is literally a brand new missionary right from the Missionary Training Center! Sooo cool! We are both super excited! 

I know that the Lord knows each one of us and that he is aware of what we go through! There are days when life gets int he way, but I know that the Lord seriously shows sooo many blessings to those who keep the commandments. Remember to align your will with Heavenly Father's will and you will seriously be the happiest person in the world! 

I just wanted to share this quote with y'all! Remember that everything is going to work out in the end! 

"Keep trying. Keep believing. Be happy. Don't get discouraged. Things will work out." - President Gordon B. Hinckley

I am so grateful to be here in Virginia, serving the wonderful students of Charlottesville and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here one more transfer and to work my hardest! I love my mission and I am so grateful for the person that I have become. 

I love you all! I hope y'all have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Pewtress

Pics::

1-8; temple pics! The one with 4 other sisters around me were all of my comps.

9-; heart attacking members and investigators! 

10-; finished the Book of Mormon again for the 5th time on my 17-month Mark! 

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"MAPLE SYRUP AND CHILI 💕!" (Week 74: 1/30-2/6)

Okay I have no idea where the month of January went, but February is going even faster. Where is time going?? Does anybody have the answer to the question??

Well there have been soo many miracles this past week! I am so grateful we had a better week! We worked soo hard. Not that we don't any other week, but sometimes it is just different. So we have been working more with the Ward this transfer. Which is really good. We have been having a lot of less actives/ recent converts just not come to church, and a lot of students just not show up. Not a good thing. So we got together with the Relief Society and we started to go through them all and started talking to all of them. HUGE SUCCESS! We were able to find a potential investigator through one of them, which is really cool! So we had a lot of lessons this week and a lot of getting to know you.. it was really productive.

We also had someone hit our car last Monday. Our car was sitting in a parking spot and one lady was turning left into her parking spot and she hit our back left bumper. She dented it and scratched it. So we have been doing a lot of paperwork and a lot of insurance kind of things. Crazy!!!

We are teaching 3 really cool people right now..... I will kind of give you a detail of how we they are all doing..

• Josh: he is amazing!! We were visiting one of our past investigators and he was outside going to his apartment. We decided to stop and talk to him. He didn't seem quite interested at that time, but we just shared a quick thought and went on our way. We then go and visit our past investigator again. And guess who was outside again? JOSH! Crazy! So we talked to him again, and now we are teaching him! He is definitely progressing, which is really good. 
• Sam: he of course is awesome too. During winter break, (when I was with Sister Olson) we decided to text all of our potentials/some former investigators. And he was one of them. Crazy enough, he was actually reading a Book of Mormon when we texted him. How amazing! (The Lord knows his children!) well we set up an appointment for when he got back from winter break, and we had our first lesson a couple of weeks ago. His light is just super dim. He doesn't look very happy. We told him that the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring you happiness and joy. He seemed pretty interested. We had another lesson with him this week and he is doing pretty well. :)
• John: super cool miracle. A couple of weeks ago, we saw a less active and we invited him to church. Well he didn't have a car so he decided to have his friend bring him. Well we took that as a, "Go talk to him!" We set up an appointment and well we have another person we are teaching. Super awesome. He is slowly progressing, but I know that the Lord had some miraculous hand in that. 

We also had interviews with the mission president this week. And wow!! I am sooo very grateful for him and all that he does to help us in our work! You can tell when they love you so much! And I am seriously so grateful for him and what he does. I know when I leave, I will greatly miss President and Sister Smith! They are just soooo amazing! I love them dearly! 

I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the power of the scriptures. I know that as we take the time during the day to study them, that the Lord will give you more time during the day to do other things. I invite y'all to open your scriptures to be edified! 

Ohh quick thing! So we had lunch with a member on Friday! So we went over and we were helping her put everything on the table, and we see this maple syrup on the table.... so I asked her, "What is that for??" She said "well my mom is Canadian and my dad served his mission in Canada. And well they put maple syrup on pretty much everything. And so my dad started putting it on his chili!" SAY WHAT! She put it on the table because she also eats maple syrup with her chili. Craziest thing in the world. Well you know me, I try pretty much everything.!!! I put it on my chili! IT WAS SOOOO GOOD! You should all try it! 

Thanks for all that you do! I am so grateful for you all and the prayers! I love y'all! 

Love,

Sister Pewtress

Pictures:

1-3 you know just The District

4- the Chapel on grounds

5-6 lunch at a Hispanic stores, real Mexican coca-cola! 

7-my cute companion! I just love her

8- Teressa! A member of the Ward! 

9- a sweet wall downtown at the Corner! 

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"FAITH IS NOT BY CHANCE, BUT BY CHOICE🌸" (Week 73: 1/23-1/30)

This week seriously flew by. As does every other week in the mission, and it's honestly so sad to think. I have thought back recently about how much the Lord loves each of us and how much He is aware of our lives. 

Honestly, this week was the fastest, yet hardest weeks of my mission. Sister Caswell and I seriously worked our hardest to focus on our transfer goals. We talked to everyone, but we had many lessons that were "set up." 

So the first lesson was on Tuesday, where we had set up this lesson with a guy named Stuart, well he came and brought his girlfriend and his girlfriend brought her friend and they seriously bashed us. We even had a recent convert come and it was honestly the most non-spiritual lesson that we had. 

We had many more lessons like this, this week. And you know people are just so hard hearted on the message of the restored gospel. 

I have been wondering why the Lord has made Sister Caswell and I go through such a hard week. And that question even goes through asking why we have to go through hard things through life?? 

Why is that? Well we have to have opposition in all things....

2 Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

We have to opposition to know the good from the bad. 

But I was having a hard week and I decided to pray. And I had one of the most powerful, most spiritual prayers of my life. I prayed to know if Heavenly Father was there and prayed to know if He loved me. Words can't describe what I felt, but I know that Heavenly Father is there and that he is aware of me. 

I know that you to can know if Heavenly Father loves you, by praying and asking if he loves you. But don't get up until you receive the answer. I know you can receive it! 

I am so grateful for the gospel and for the opportunity to share it with so many people. 

Sorry it was a kind of crazy letter, but I know this is the Lords true church and that it has the Fulness of the Gospel. 

One question that was said this week was, "Where else would you go...... if you didn't have the gospel??"

Ponder that this week and let me know what your answer would be. 

I love you all and pray you all have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Sister Pewtress

The Snow

Yummy homeade pizza

Healthy Noodles

Car Selfies

"Zeitgeist 🕰👻" (Week 72: 1/16-1/23)

Y'all are probably wondering what that word means up there in my subject line, well you see it comes from the German vocabulary. Hopefully I don't get this wrong, lol! It means, the time of the spirit. The English dictionary also mentions it as the mood or spirit of that particular time. 

So speaking of spirit and time.... I have really loved my mission and this week was one of the better weeks of my mission. Sister Caswell and I have really made it a goal to be more consecrated. Though we already are, we are choosing different things that we need to work on to be even more consecrated. One goal we set is to listen strictly to hymns/ Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It has been really good and it has allowed our spirits to stay high! You could say that people have been staring at us a lot, probably because we are seriously carrying the Spirit with us, even more than just when we listen to other music. It has been a good change. :) we have also been trying to align our wills' with Heavenly Father's will. It has been a really hard week, especially with everyone being super busy with school starting back up again, but we have been able to see the people who are truly prepared for the gospel message that we share.

One of the people who we have truly found, with the Lord's help is Deanna. Deanna is a student at UVa, and she is studying English. We met her a couple of weeks ago at Barracks Road Shopping Center which is a place where a lot of people shop/eat. It's basically a street mall. Super nice! :) anyways one night we were walking along the sidewalk, and we try to talk to everyone. There was no one else around and we introduced ourselves to her, and what not, and she basically says that she is looking for a church and wants to start coming to church. We exchanged contact information and soon got to meet with her. We met with her on Wednesday this week and we had such a wonderful lesson. We could all feel the spirit so much and she keeps telling us that we came at a time that was most needed. She is really focusing on her relationship right now with Jesus Christ and is taking a semester off of studying. HOW AMAZING! Well we invited her to come to church and she came yesterday! The only down part was that she ended up leaving early. She didn't feel to well. But hey she came and really liked it at the beginning. Please pray for her, so she can continue to feel Heavenly Father's love. 

Other than that we had some really cool days with lots of miracles. Some of those miracles happened on Exchanges. So because there is only 2 sets of Sister companionships in the area that I serve, I was asked to kind of help the Hermanas in our Zone. So with that I still kind of have my old calling of being a Sister Training Leader, but now I am also training Sister  Caswell. You could say that I am kind of overloaded. Well with that, we still go on exchanges with the sisters here. And so that meant that they would be coming into Sister Caswell's and I's area. We had to plan double the activities and make sure that everything worked out. It was probably one of the most stressful days of my mission, but it allowed me to really turn to the Lord. 

One other cool miracle that happened, was yesterday! So we had a less active come to church and he even brought his friend, John. He isn't a member, but we called the less active to see if we could meet up with him and talk to his friend because he showed interest. And so we were trying to find a place close to where they lived, and I thought of the Panera. There are 3 Panera's in the Charlottesville area. (Quick back story! So we have an investigator named Maya, I probably have mentioned her before. We have been trying to get in contact with her and we haven't been able to. We have stopped by her apartment and she is never home. We have emailed her, because she doesn't have a phone, pretty much every day. And we have even stopped by the Panera where we thought she worked.) well during the phone call with the less active, I asked him if he wanted to meet somewhere for dinner... not thinking about it, I received a prompting to go to the Panera (that I forgot was over by his apartment/ Maya's apartment) and that's when it hit me. I realized that we had been looking at the wrong Panera. Haha. We went last night and we found Maya! Finally after 3 weeks of no contact and basically stalking her, we found her. The Lord truly provides miracles to help His children come back to him! 

The Lord is amazing and he helps us so much. As I have been reading from the Doctrine and Covenants, I have been able to see how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly are aware of our times. There is a scripture that I would love to share with you from one of the sections I read recently. 

Doctrine and Covenants Section 67 verse 10:

"10 And again, verily I say unto you that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, that inasmuch as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears, and humble yourselves before me, for ye are not sufficiently humble, the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am--not with the carnal neither natural mind, but with the spiritual."

I know as we truly humble ourselves before Heavenly Father we will be able to overcome the natural man and be able to not fear. I know I have many weeks till I come home, but I am honestly freaking out, the future is unknown for me at this moment, and this scripture truly stood out to me in my studies. I know that as we are aligning our will with Heavenly Father we will be able to know that He is there with us, helping us along the way. We won't need to fear, or be jealous, or be scared, because He will always be right next to us.  "..... I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88)

Hopefully this email makes sense! There were just so many wonderful things that happened! 

I love you all and thank you all so much for the support and the prayers. Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Pewtress

Exchanges with Hermana Eddington

Add caption

BEST JUICE EVER!

We come in PEACE!

Thanhan, Sister Caswell, and I

Exchanges with the Hermanas

Face masks!

"BLESSINGS OF BEING A MISSIONARY!" (Week 71: 1/9-1/15)

What a wonderful week! We killed it this week. Sister Caswell and I have been trying to stay super productive. Which is super hard because the students are still gone. Thank goodness they come back this week! I am soo happy!!! I have missed having the students around. You really get to know them, and really work hard to try and help them with the rest of their lives. It's such a blessing to be able to do that. 

So this week consisted of soo many meetings. On a Tuesday we had our Zone Meeting, which was suppose to be two Saturday's ago. So we had it on a Tuesday. It was really good. We focused a lot on being unified. Not just as a companionship, but as a Zone, and as districts. It was really good. Later on that day, we went to apartment complexes to contact some potential investigators. It was really good. 

Wednesday we had Zone Conferences. It was soo wonderful. We also got to see President and Sister Smith. It's always great to see them. We also did some unity games as we had a little break in between the two times. :) pictures below.

Thursday we of course had weekly planning. And other necessary things. But the most amazing things are when we see so many miracles and blessings. We had a member sign up to feed us, and he honestly forgot, and he called up one of his friends (who is a member as well!) and he took us out. MIRACLES. And then Sister Caswell and I were really craving like a milkshake or a Starbucks drink... and so I was like we don't have a ton of money left over for the month, so let's not.. and so I was like okay let's just run to the bathroom. So we go into this grocery store, which also has a Starbucks in it.. and while we standing in line one of the workers (sp) offered us a Double Chocolatey Chip.  It was sooo cool! Soo grateful.

Friday is the day I woke up with a sore throat. It has been going on for like 3 days now and I am still sick. But the Lord is so aware of me and the things that I am going through and He has seriously given me the energy that I have needed for the days. 

I love this work. The Lord is so amazing and I know that He is aware of each one of us. I am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary and to be part of this wonderful cause. 

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

GOD SPEED!

Love,

Sister Pewtress

Zone Conference with President and Sister Smith

Zone Conference with all the Sisters! <3 td="">

We are TOOO CRAZY! Lol!

me through mouse traps! Ahhh! That's some real trust there! Aha

Little notes from my cousins! <3 br="">