"WELCOME TO DALE CITY" (Week: 21: 1/25-2/1)

What a crazy emotional week! Who knew that leaving your first area
would be this hard. I know there are people throughout Virginia who
need me, but I honestly miss Harrisonburg so much! It was my family
away from home and I know that family is where you hang your coats,
but still!

Monday: it literally flew by so fast! Sorry if the emails never came
through! Our side was down... Which was a bummer. But it's all okay!
We went to the Spray's to email because the Hermanas who live with us
were being foot zoned! So we emailed from there. Then we went to
Cinnamon bear Cafe! Cute little restaurant to eat! After that we went
sledding in the snow! So that was fun! We went over to the Crosby's
because they have a large hill! After that the DeMastus family took us
to dinner for our last night. We went to Chili's. After that we met
around and said goodbye to a few of the people in the ward. And then
it was time to head home.

Tuesday: transfer day! 😭😭 I really did not want to leave
Harrisonburg. But it's all okay! I guess! Well Sister Spray drove me
down to Transfer meeting down in Richmond. Lexi Crosby went down with
us and of course we had to stop by Cafe Rio! 👏🏼😍. YUMM! Well once
we got to transfer meeting, we were getting called to go to our new
areas. I am now in Dale City which is like a big city and very
congested. Well we got there around 4 pm and then went straight to the
apartment to drop off my bags. It was a crazy night! We ate dinner and
had a couple of lessons! Then we headed back home.

Wednesday: we went shopping for food! Because I didn't have any! And
then we tracked all day and tried to find people to teach!

Thursday: we had some awesome lessons! They were all sooo good! And
very spiritual! We also did weekly planning!

Friday: we had some awesome lessons. One lesson we had was with an
investigator named Ann. She lives with her Aunt and Uncle who are
members. We also had a lesson with a recent convert and she is sooo
sweet. Then we had a lesson with a referral named Nana. He is super
cool and wants to learn more. The people here in Dale City are so
humble! Then we went to the church to have Richard who got baptized,
try on a jumpsuit. Of course we then went to dinner. After dinner we
walked around our complex and knocked a lot. We found this lady whose
name is May! She is super nice and we asked if we could come back and
she said yes!!! She is super cool!

Saturday: in the morning we had Zone Meeting. We went to breakfast
with the Hermanas and guess who I am with again! That's right Hermana
Hala'eua!!! It's nice seeing a common face. Oh and my MTC Companion is
in my Zone and Sister Tibbits is also in my district! Crazy! Well
later that night we had the opportunity to have 2 baptisms! And it was
a,asking to see how happy they were when they got lifted out of the
water! I was so excited to be here and experience that. The Spirit was
sooooo strong!

Sunday: one day closer to P-Day! Aha! Words can't describe how weird
it is to go to church when you didn't have it the last week because of
snow! Crazy! But it felt so good. And everyone welcomed me in! So
awesome to see that!

Monday: today we are going to go to the Quantico Marine museum with
the Hermanas! So that will be fun.

So many pics! Where to even begin!

Oh Harrisonburg what a nice goodbye present!

Sister Ngosha! She's from Tanzania! 

Two baptisms this week! Christiana & Richard!! So amazing!!

Having fun in the snow! ❄️❄️


By the way email wasn't working for a lot of the missionaries last week! 😭 so I will be sending some more snow pics!

I am so grateful for all of the prayers and blessings. I can definitely feel the strength. I am so grateful for this gospel and the strength that it provides. I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week!

NEW ADDRESS: 4402 Worchester Drive #12, Dale City, VA 22193

Love,
Sister Pewtress

"NOT A GOODBYE, BUT A SEE YOU LATER" (week 20: 1/18-1/25)

"NOT A GOODBYE, BUT A SEE YOU LATER" (week 20: 1/18-1/25)

First off I can't believe that there is only one more week of January,
where is the time going?? Second off.... It's been a crazy week!

Monday: it all started with emailing all of y'all! So that's always
cool! Then we went shopping for food! Because who doesn't like food!
😂😂 after that we went bowling. It was so much fun! Let me just say I
am not a great bowler! Aha! But we had a bet that whoever lost, had to
buy everyone a frosty from Wendy's! So good thing I didn't lose! We
then came home and one of the Hermana's made us some real Hispanic
enchiladas! They were good! We then went out tracting!

Tuesday: we had house checks and car checks! So we did that, and then
we went out to Birdgewater! We do a lot of less active work out there,
and that's always fun! Later that night we had a relief society
enrichment activity, it was all on visiting teaching! It was soooo
cool!

Wednesday: we had the opportunity to hear from apostles... O watch an
all mission conference. Everyone around the world was able to watch
it. We watched it live, but some of the others missionaries around the
world weren't able too!


Thursday: of course we had weekly planning!! That's always fun! But
sometimes it's extremely long and boring. After that we tried visiting
some potentials and some other people.

Friday: the day it started to snow! 😍❄️❄️ so pretty! We literally
drove all day trying to find people who would let us in to teach them
about the restored gospel!  But no one really allowed us really in! We
taught a really nice women of the Brethren church. Her faith is so
strong and is wanting to  strengthen her faith even more. Then it
started to snow really bad! My first real snow living in it. Yes I
would go up to Cedar City, Utah and have snow, but this is just
different. You actually get to walk around in it. So much fun but so
cold. The snow storm was so bad that we had to park our car and walk
to the Spray's house because we would get stuck from how much snow
there was, and the plows couldn't come out. It was a crazy experience!

Saturday: we tracked for pretty much the whole day, but the funniest
thing that happened that morning was this guy was trying to get his
car out of the snow, well it took him a good 5 hours to get it out,
but while he was doing that he hit a car. So that was crazy! But our
car got "grounded" and so we had to walk everywhere. We contacted
potentials and a lot of other people. It was a crazy day and that was
a huge memory! We also stopped by the Walton's and we stopped by at
the Crosby's and they were willing to feed us and keep us warm! Thank
goodness for great members!

Sunday: well church was cancelled because the snow was so bad and
people couldn't get into church, so we went out and shoveled people
out of spots. We also went over to the Walton's and helped shovel
their elderly neighbors yard.. Man was that a work out, but while we
were doing that we started having a snowball fight and they had some
sleds so we went sledding! It was a very successful day!


Saturday I got some sad news! I am actually being transferred out of
Harrisonburg! Nota quite sure where I will be headed but I am
extremely sad! I am so grateful for the members here and all those who
were willing to help out with missionary work!

I love this gospel and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to
hasten the Lord's work!

Until next week... Here are some snow pictures!!

Love,
Sister Pewtress

"High Five......... Toooo FAST!" (Week 19: 1/11-1/18)

Well we didn't have a baptism this week. But that's okay! Bill Should
be getting baptized sooner than later. He's waited almost 2 years to
be baptized...

Monday: P-Day always seems to fly by. And I hate it. Not cool or fun.
But while my companion was sleeping the Hermanas and I did face masks.
It was soooo fun and it felt so good! That morning we got foot zoned
by a member in our ward. It was so cool, she basically rubs her
knuckle into your foot and gets the toxins out. I hope y'all don't
think I'm crazy, because I'm not. She hits this one spot right by your
big toe and it hurts like crazy!!! Well guess what that means? That's
the snore spot. So I hopefully don't snore anymore! 😴 😂 that night
we visited with a less active or I should say inactive and we are
trying to get her back to church. She is just very hesitant!

Tuesday: we raked our baptismal guys leaves up. And man was it cold.
We got bishop and his wife to help us! It was super fun. And I was
talking with the bishops wife and decided that I want to go into
dental hygiene! But honestly it will probably change! 🙄 but while we
were there we saw our baptismal person not living the word of wisdom.
So we weren't quite sure what to do.. 😳 later that day we went and
talked to potentials and tried figuring out if they were interested or
not. Some were and some weren't. But later that night we visited with
an inactive member who is trying to come back to church! She is super
sweet and just a really awesome lady!

Wednesday: we went out to Grottoes which is this really small town on
the other side of town. Super fun place. Sister Walton actually drove
us out there. She is sooo much fun! We talked and talked and had
smiling contests and so many other fun things. We headed back into
town and we went over to the church to have Bill Payne get his
interview for baptism. Then later that night we had an awesome lesson
with Laurie. She was the girl who wants to be baptized but can't
because of her mom. Long  long story. Hopefully she can be baptized
soon!

Thursday: weekly planning day! We visited again with another inactive
member. Lorna is soooo soooo funny, and we aren't quite sure why she
doesn't come to says it's her husband, but we know she can totally
come! That night was just tracting and finding people.

Friday: we had Zone Conference down in Charlottesville. And it was all
day! It is always good to see some missionaries that have come out
with me. So so fun! And then we came home and had dinner with the
Sprays! That family is sooo awesome! We had pizza! I feel like we
never ever get pizza. Later that night we had an awesome lesson with
Laurie again and we read from the Book of Mormon. So good. The Book of
Mormon is soooo powerful! But while we were at Zone Conference we get
this call saying that this guy met some member at Walmart and that he
wanted to learn more. So we had an awesome powerful lesson and he said
he wanted to be baptized!!!! Crazy!

Saturday: we had a lesson win Bill Payne in the morning, and then
after lunch we headed out to Bridgewater,and we did some work out
there. We also helped sister Cason with some of the food. Then we
headed out to bishops house to have dinner. Guess what we had! PIZZA!
Haha! Papa Johns pizza! YUMM! And later that night we visited with
some less actives!

Sunday: the best day of the week! Sunday was great! It always is! We
also had missionary coordination meeting at Brother Mathusek's our
ward mission leader for 2 hours! And we just figured out some things
on how to help the ward get involved in missionary work! Super awesome
day! Well crazy, but good week!


I love you all! And I know that this church has the fullness of the
gospel and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet who has restored Jesus
Christ's church for our day!

Have a great week! And REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

Ohh yeah, we made Cafe Rio pork salad last week! I guess you could say we were missing it. 😂

It snowed yesterday while we were at church! ❄️😱 not enough to stick, because it's gone today, but it's 18* 

Compy and I!

Oh and transfer calls are this week! Pray that I don't get transferred! So that means don't send anything this way! 😘
Love,
Sister Pewtress

"Another Month down!" (Week 1/4-1/11)

Monday: we had zone p day. Woop woop! Oompa! And chair soccer! So that
was fun! But zone p day is always super stressful! Then after 6 we had
some awesome lessons. One with an Arabic family, who we are trying to
get baptized! It was awesome!

Tuesday: we went knocking until lunch! And we then went on exchanges
with the Stl's! I went with Hermana Wilson! It was such an awesome
time, and we set someone on date! HE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS
SATURDAY! That was the biggest miracle that happened! We got carded
because we carded the Hermanas! I love when we pull pranks and have a
lot of time.

Wednesday: we were still on exchanges till after lunch! It was so
awesome! And then we had district meeting!  And then we had some
awesome things

Anyways the rest of the week isn't very important!

Thursday I received a priesthood blessing and let me just tell you!
The Lords works are sooo powerful! Never in a million years have I
felt the priesthood work in mysterious ways! I know and have prayed
about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint, and the
priesthood. I know that the Lords Kingdom is here on the earth today
and the fullness of the gospel is again restored in this church! I
know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it does go
hand in hand with the bible! I wouldn't be out here if I didn't know
that it was true! I am so grateful for this gospel!


Saturday: happy 4MONTH! Woop woop! So we ate at Benny's!


BENNYS!



Oh the pranks we pull!! Haha with Hermana Wilson!




I love you all!! And hope you all have a great week!

Loves and kisses! 😘😘❤️❤️

Love,
Sister Pewtress

HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Week 14: 12/28/2015-1/4/2016)

Monday: well that's the day I last emailed you all! Nothing really
happened that night. Except that we were trying to contact a for,we
investigator who doesn't live in the house anymore. So we knocked on
the door and it was a girl named Shannon, well we talked to her and
invited her to read the Book of Mormon, well we set up a return
appointment, well she wasn't there at the return appointment. 🙄 but
it's okay! Monday's are always stressful! P-DAYS! 😂😂

Tuesday: we headed out to Bridgewater! We taught the Zimmerman's and
invited Elijah  to come to church. We then raked leaves for an
inactive family named Annick Dupal, yeah well I got another blister.
It's gnarly. Lol! But it's all good. I love doing service! It's the
best medicine!

Wednesday: we found a really really cool inactive! He is so cool! We
also went and served at Avante and as my companion was calling
numbers for Bingo, she swallowed a mint, a whole breath saver. So she
thought it got stuck. But we went on through out the night, teaching,
then it was New Years, and fireworks kept me up as well as my
companion because she kept saying how she thought it felt like
something was in her throat, well we texted our missionary medical
doctor, and he said to go to the quick care if it didn't feel better
in the morning. Well guess what we did on Thursday!

Thursday: that started out at a quick care for a good 3 hours. She was
x-rayed and told that nothing was in there, she said that there was,
so they took some more x-rays and found something swollen in her
throat, so they referred us to the emergency room at the hospital
where we spent another 5 hours there. They gave her an IV and cat
scanned her and then we waited for a while till they got the results
back. All in that time I watched Mormon Messages and did a few other
things. But let me just tell you hospitals are sooooooo boring!!!!!
Everything is okay with my companion, nothing is wrong. The mint
wasn't stuck it had just scrapped her throat and left it basically
like when you swallow a pill and it scratches your throat up. But all
is well!

Friday: we had zone meeting and then we did Weekly Planning. Not a lot
went on. I love zone meeting because we get to learn how to be better
consecrated missionaries! 👏🏼. Some of the things were to set goals
and have visions!

Saturday: more tracting! We have this awesome family that we started
teaching, they really only speak Arabic, but the kids speak fluent
English. Two of the kids came to church with us on Sunday! And they
are just wanting to learn more.

Sunday: we got some devastating news........ Susan was researching on
the internet about our church, well that lead to some crazy things.
She decided that this church wasn't for her and that she now would
rather stay with the Catholic faith. My testimony is always
strengthened!! But I am so grateful for Fast & Testimony meeting.
Heavenly Father just knows exactly what people need!

Monday: OKAY!!!!! Today is starting out great! Hermana Beckstead was
looking out the window and was saying how she thought she saw snow!!!!
Well GUESS WHATTT!!!!!!!! ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!! ❄️❄️ okay well it's
actually just little flurries, but I live in a place where it snows!
And I'm honestly freaking out! My other roommates are laughing at me
because I'm so excited! Well today is Zone P-Day!! So exciting!  Love
you all!

All of us! Happy New Year!!


Mana Beckstead!

Uhhmmm! We have to have fun too! 😂😂

Well I love you all! STAY STRONG! 💪🏼
Love,
Sister Pewtress

"Feliz Ano Nuevo" (Week 12/21-12/27)

Well all y'all! Long time, not see! Well this past week was filled
with miracles and fun! And just overall tears! Some good tears and
some bad tears, but I have grown so much!

Monday: we did a lot of tracting! We started knocking and found this
girl names Jessica! She is super nice and has a daughter named
McKenzie, and just is super cute family. Her parents were there as
well, and we taught them a restoration, they really enjoyed it, and
when we asked to come back, she said that we could MAYBE, come back!
But that's okay! Heavenly Father has a time and a place for all of His
children! That was the end of the day!

Tuesday: we had an All Mission Christmas Conference down in Richmond!
It's where we all meet together and remember our Savior and get to
hear musical numbers and different missionaries speak! It was truly an
awesome time. Sister Tadd (she is from Las Vegas and her dad and my
grandpa actually worked together, who would have thought that we would
of seen each other)! There was so many good things at that meeting and
it's truly a blessing to be a missionary at this time of season!

Wednesday: we were tracting in this family area, and we decided to go
down this one street. We just started knocking, but there was one door
that stood out to me. Behind this door was a mother who was going
through a hardship, and she has another religion and definitely is
strengthened by peace. Well we start teaching her and she says that
she wants us to not only come back, but to come back and teach her
kids! CRAZY! That's what I'm thinking. So we have an appointment set
up for tomorrow! We then went and served at Avante and played Bingo
with the old folks! And then we basically went tracting the rest of
the night! Except for dinner, we ate at the Mathuseks! They are such a
fun family!

Thursday: Merry Christmas Eve Day! It's both a day and an eve, it's a
Christmas miracle! Haha! It was definitely weird not doing the normal
things you do for Christmas, but I honestly enjoyed it! That day was
filled with rain, but we ended up finding people to teach and
strengthen! We visited a lot of less actives, or at least one and
strengthened them! And then we went over to the Crosby's home with the
Spray's and had Christmas Eve Dinner! It was so good! We had Chicken
Cordon Bleu, and mashed potatoes, and rolls, and so much more!it was
delicious! We then played Apples to Apples with their family ! Then we
had the opportunity to watch them open their Christmas Eve
presents,which consisted of there pajamas, and they told us that we
even needed to have a Christmas that we could remember and they handed
Sister Baker and I, a gift bag. In the gift bag was a cute scarf that
sister Spray had made and a mason jar of peppermint bath salts. I
honestly love both of these families so much! We came home and got
into our pj's and took some Christmas Eve pictures! And then my family
has a tradition of making cinnamon rolls, so I bought some pills bury
cinnamon rolls on Monday in order to have some. Definitely not the
same as homemade ones! 😂😩 but that's okay! Then it was time to go to
sleep, because "Santa" was coming in the morning!

Friday: on the mission Christmas is just another day! It is somewhat
different, but not by much! We still have our regular schedule of
getting up at 6:30 and working out, but today we were able to just
visit with members and basically kind of chill. But one of the
greatest things about today, was the fact that we were able to Skype
our families. We were at the Crosby's for dinner and we skyped them!
Honestly before I started skyping I thought it was going to be super
awkward and just crazy, but it ended up being the best thing that I
needed. I miss my family, don't get me wrong, but I don't miss them
enough to come back! I told my family during Skype that I was never
going to come home. Virginia is just so beautiful and green and you
all on the west coast NEED TO COME OVER HERE!  The rest of the day was
filled with seeing members and uplifting them on Christmas Day!

Saturday: let's just say it was a shock that Christmas was just
yesterday!😳 but we found people all day! And we visited with some
less actives and some former investigators!

Sunday: coolest thing happened! So sister Baker was thinking to  go
and visit this new family we were teaching. And so we decided to go
see if they wanted to come to church and the mom let the little girl
come with us to church! It was so cool! So thankful for members who
drop everything to come and pick up our investigators. Oh and we
taught a primary class yesterday! That was super fun! Made me miss my
primary kids! The rest of the day was filled with lessons and lessons
and more lessons!


I just want to leave you all with my testimony, that I know Jesus
Christ is our Savior and Redeemer! That He was sent to do the Will of
the Father! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in
Virginia serving a mission!

I love you all and hope y'all have a blessed week!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!



Making cinnamon rolls!



From the other end!




From my end!!



Sister Tadd!






The MTC Clan!

Love,
Sister Pewtress

"I Miss you! I miss your smile! Miley Cyrus song)"

(Week 12/14-12/20, Week 13)

Monday: let's just say I hate transfers! Not only is P-Day already
stressful, transfer P-Days are extremely stressful! Sister Johnsen and
I got up at 6:00 and went to the church to start working out. Then we
came home, cleaned and got ready for the day we were about to have. We
then had personal and companion study. After that we went to the
church to email all of you! Yes crazy! After emailing, we started
shopping for Christmas presents and started writing letters and a lot
more. We ended our P-Day at 6 pm that night, but then we went to the
members houses to get Sister Johnsen's transfer journal written in. It
was a super stressful day!

Tuesday: well that was the day that sister Johnsen was leaving to be
transferred to a new area, and the day that I would receive my new
companion! But before all of that happened, I was with Hermana
Lichfield and Romero. ALL DAY! Because my companion was down in
Richmond! Well my new companion came back to Harrisonburg at 5:30 that
night! Her name is Sister Baker and she is from Cedar City, Utah! She
was actually Sister Johnsen's companion in the Missionary Training
Center! CRAZY?!RIGHT!  She is super super nice and just so loving.

Wednesday: we had to go get my new companion FOOD! So we spent a
little bit of Wednesday shopping for food! And all of that fun stuff!
We then came home and had dinner. Wednesday afternoon was compiled
with service at Avante again! That place is so much fun! Then after
service we had an awesome lesson with SUSAN! She is on date for
January 16th! So exciting! Hopefully all works out so she will be
baptized! She is so awesome and like I said last week, she received
answers now 2x! The first about if this gospel was true and the second
time we had asked her to pray about Joseph Smith and Thomas S.
Monson,and she again received an answer! So that lesson was great! The
rest of Wednesday was just a blurr!

Thursday: it was raining, okay it was actually POURING! But that
doesn't stop us from getting ice cream! 😂 Hermana Beckstead and I
both got ice cream! It was so good. But then we came home and did
weekly planning! That was fun! Okay kind of. We then went and visited
with an inactive member. In my 3 months I have never met her and we
finally met her! CRAZY! That night we had little lessons but it's
okay!

Friday: we had an awesome lesson with Susan again in the morning
before she left for her home town. We invited her to go to church
while she was down there! it was such an awesome lesson! After lunch
we headed out to Bridgewater! We had a lesson with a less active and
then we had service at Sister Casons. That's always fun! After that we
area Dairy Queen and met this really awesome Mennonite, and we invited
him to the ward Christmas party that was on Saturday!

Saturday: we contacted potentials all day, and we also had a lesson
with Bill Payne and he just needs to be baptized but can't!  Later
that night we had the Ward Christmas Party! But the Mennonite came to
the ward Party!!!! So cool! Then we had a lesson with the DeMastus
family (less active).

Sunday: my favorite day! We had meetings all day until the time where
we had church.! We were praying that Susan would go to church down in
her hometown! GUESS WHAT! SHE DID! She even went by  herself! She is
also going caroling with the ward down there! LIKE WHAT?? I'm so
happy!!!! She is so awesome! THAT WAS THEEEE HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY!

I love you all! I miss you all! And I can't believe it's Christmas
this week! T-Minus 4DAYS!!! Ahh.

Oh and we have Christmas Meeting conference with all of the mission!
Whoop whoop!

Love you all!



New Compy!



Merry Christmas from Rocco Ave!

Merry Christmas!


Feliz Navidad! from Hermana Beckstead and I!




Photo shoot!

Love,
Sister Pewtress