It’s a Sign!

photoMy darling Kelsey…my “Dream Come True” received these three water bottles all within a week of each other.

She won two of them in a contest and the third one was given to her for reading with the kids at the elementary school.

I told her, “It’s a sign!! You’re not drinking enough water!”

Don’t you think??

 

Out on a WIM #63

EmilyStVincent

#63

HI EVERYONE!

Welp. I am so glad to hear about all the fun you guys are having. You are all the best!
Mahm. Thank you for sharing that experience with me. That is very touching. I am so glad you had that wonderful experience 🙂 Sometimes I forget how similar we are. I feel that way often! You are amazing.
Tell Natasha Bear that I say Happy Birthday and that I love she bad.
To answer your questions: Side story: Right now I am emailing here in my area, then I leave… Never to return again. So everything has been really busy and crazy..
When I come home: Transfers take place on Wednesdays and so I will spend a day at the mission home and come home on a thursday!!
So my new companion is Sister W.! I am an STL for her right now.. So I know her very well. She is a doll. I cannot wait to get to St. V. and get to work!!! We are going to tear it up. My new area is called C. I will let you know the address when I get there. I will still be STL for where I am going, Suriname and St. Lucia. I will be able to come and help the Sisters coming here because they are blanking the area!! So that is a blessing.
This whole week I have been trying to prepare the area for them. It has been hard!!!! Because I pretty have to do it all by myself. There isn’t much Sister S. can do to help! So it has been a pressure filled week! But awesome!
Yesterday Elder R. (my DL(district leader), who is going home) Sister S. and I all spoke in church! It was nice. We were saying goodbye to a lot of the members and our investigators. It has been really good.
Ya know I am so glad that I am a missionary! Sometimes it is a wild experience but I have to rely on the Lord completely. Which I love! I am grateful for all the lessons I learn daily and hourly.
Honestly I am going to miss this place a lot. It seems that being here has built me more into the person Heavenly Father wants me to be and so a piece of my heart will always stay here.. I also am going to miss the missionaries I serve with, they are like my family. And Sister S. and I are best buddies. She knows things about me that not a lot of people know. I tell her everything. Hahah the other day I said “man I feel like I am losing my other half…” And she goes “I feel like I am losing my soul!!” Haha! It is funnier if you know her. She is so much fun. You’ll see MANY videos when I get home.
Well! Do you have any other questions for me?? ALL IS WELL IN THE WEST INDIES!!!
Anyway Mom I hope you have the best week and keep being the great person you are. I am grateful for your example you constantly set for me. Thanks for always pushing me to be better and loving me. I love you wiff all my heart! I know Heavenly Father is proud of who you are and the things you do.
Daddy! Hey My Pops! I am glad to hear the garden is going well. What’d you plant this year?! You should send me some! 😉 I have been doing a lot of gardening here! I can help you out when I get home. I bet you did great in your lesson with the kids! You are so good with kids. You and mom both. No wonder you have the best kids ever right?! Anyway I love you Dad. You are awesome. 🙂
Well that is all for now. I will have lots to tell you next week.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! 🙂
Keep reading from your scriptures everyday, that’s our armor!
Love always and forever, Sister Emily

Sunday Best!

Christus

I testify to you that there is no greater and no more thrilling challenge than to try to learn of Christ and walk in His steps. Our model, Jesus Christ, walked this earth as “the Exemplar.” He is our Advocate with the Father. He worked out the great atoning sacrifice so we could have a fulness of joy and be exalted in accordance with His grace and our repentance and righteousness. He did all things perfectly and commands that we be perfect even as He and His Father are perfect. (See 3 Ne. 12:48.)

“What would Jesus do?” or “What would He have me do?” are paramount personal questions of this life. Walking in His way is the greatest achievement of life. That man or woman is most truly successful whose life most closely parallels that of the Master.

I know the Lord lives. I know that He loves us. I know that apart from Him no one can succeed, but as a partner with Him, no one can fail.

I know that God can make a lot more out of our lives than we can.

That we may all have the moral courage from this moment forward to more fully strive each day to think on Christ, learn of Him, walk in His steps, and do what He would have us do is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. -Ezra Taft Bensen

Hope your Sunday is the Best! Love, Joy

Family History Friday: Speaking of Indexing…!

Last week for Family History Friday I talked about the indexing program the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is doing. Well, it turns out the they set a record for the number of records submitted.

“FamilySearch indexing volunteers broke a record this week during the first Worldwide Indexing Event. FamilySearch International, the largest genealogy organization in the world, was hoping an unprecedented 50,000 contributors would participate in the 24-hour effort to submit genealogy records, beginning at 6 p.m. MDT on 20 July 2014. A total of 66,511 indexers and arbitrators went online to submit records, surpassing the goal by 16,511 people.”

Read more about it here!

and here!

Indexed: 4,682,746

Arbitrated: 941,932

Total Records Processed: 5.7 million

Great job, all you indexers and arbitrators!!!!

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

On Pioneers and Pilgrims!

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On this beautiful Pioneer Day I would like to share a post written by my Dad.

Here you go!

____________________________

On Pioneers and Pilgrims

“Of logs we built our houses, of shakes we made the doors, of sod we
made the chimneys, dirt we had for floors.” Joel William White wrote
that in his journal. He was my wife’s 2nd great grandfather and one of
the early pioneers. Another one stated that; “We swept our dirt floors
with a sage brush and when we were done we threw it in the fireplace
to heat our home.”

On the 24th of July, we will again be celebrating ‘Pioneer Days’ with
a parade, rodeo and fireworks; it is primarily a Utah holiday and
rightly so. That is the day, in 1847, that our first Utah pioneer
forefathers drove their covered wagons down into the Salt Lake Valley
after a thousand mile trek across the dusty plains. They had been
driven out of their homes in Illinois because of religious
persecution. They came here looking for peace and safety from the
intolerance of the, so-called, civilized areas of our then young
nation. A nation that had recently instituted a constitution that
guaranteed religious freedom.

Each year on this celebration day, do our minds ever leave the
parade, the rodeo and the fireworks long enough to contemplate what
those early pioneers went through to get here? Do we try to
understand, on that day, the 24th, the many things they had to do in
August, September and October in order to survive their first year.
They had to plant crops late in the summer so they would have food to
eat through the coming winter or they would actually starve to death?
For them, it wasn’t a matter of, well, if the corn doesn’t mature
we’ll have to run down to Albertsons and buy some. Theirs was a matter
of, if the corn doesn’t mature we won’t have any. It was a very
difficult life for them; unlike us, they had very few choices in terms
of what they could do. And when you don’t have choices, what you have
to do must be done with energy, hope and a prayer in your heart that
it will be a successful effort. One interesting way of trying to put
ourselves back then was stated by an unknown author this way; “If we
were put back in that time we would not be ourselves.” We would be put
into an entirely different dimension, a dimension not unlike the
popular TV series of several years ago, called the ‘Twilight zone’.

Some of the first settlers made a pilgrimage to this country from
Europe where they were persecuted for their religious beliefs. They,
too, struggled to prepare for their first Winter and many did not make
it. They were referred to as Pilgrims. The early Latter Day
Saints,also made a pilgrimage to the Salt Lake Valley and for the same
reason, religious persecution. They, too, arrived at an awkward time
of year and they, too, could be referred to as pilgrims.

When I was a young person, I read, “Pilgrim’s Progress”, a story about
Christian, a young man who supposedly was representing all Christians.
While venturing through life he ran into one moral obstacle after
another, each having to be overcome, before he could move on toward
his goal of eternal life. From that perspective we are all pilgrims
with the same challenges.

Those of us who have embarked on a search for our ancestral families,
are also pilgrims. We are often required to seek information from
distant lands. Like a quest, seeking old records, from  places, and
languages that we may have had no previous experience with. Searching
here and there for clues that will lead us to a name, a place, a time,
with the hopes that to find one ancestor we will be lead to another.
Do we not wander through time and to new places, even cyberspace. We
are truly pilgrims. We, too, are on a sacred quest with a prayer in
our hearts that we might weather the storms of failure until we find
success. -Emil

Out on a WIM #62

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#62

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RI AND CHELS(Emily calls Kelsey Chels sometimes.)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kelsey Jo! It’s your birthday and I love you so very much!
Ok so thanks for the email everyone!
And thank you so much for the pep talk! You made me cry! Honestly I needed it this week even more than last week so I am glad that you sent me those things.
SO this week was quite good. We are still unable to get members out with us… It’s a process! The work this week was slow.. Suddenly lots of tings (things) are falling through and a lot of our progressing people have decided to drop us or not progress and stuff. It’s been a little bit tricky! But nevertheless, there is always good in everything!!! The Lord is blessing us and I feel of His love everyday. I am so absolutely grateful for the gospel in my life. It is my rock.
Something really interesting happened this week… And by interesting I mean sad… So! We were teaching this family, A man named L. and D. and their kids. We love them bad and saw so much potentially in them. Everytime we left we’d always say “awww they are such a fun family, I can picture them being such a strength in the branch and the dad being the new BP(Branch President)” and stuff like that! Their cute kids would just come gather around for lessons (which is rare here)! Anyway long story short there had been a couple of miss communications and we went to see their family and we knocked on the door. The mom came around to the side and started yelling at us and said some mean things and said that we had offended her and that we were vicious people. She then came after us and threw the Book of Mormons/Books of Mormon/Copies of the Book of Mormon at us and then threw them on the ground………. We didn’t get the chance to say anything. Honestly and truly we cried for a little while. Then I decided we need to discuss what we can learn from this..
Things I learned from this experience: We always have to be really really really careful the things that are said. Even if you don’t say something bad it could be taken that way. From this situation it broke my heart to know that we had hurt her. It didn’t matter that she was saying mean things. I was sad because I know she needs the gospel. It broke my heart to see something I love so much as the Book of Mormon, the word of God to be thrown on the ground. I will always remember this experience and I am grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me so many opportunities to learn and grow and to become better through Him.
I am so grateful to be a missionary! There is nothing more in this world that I’d rather do than to serve the Lord. I was reading from Alma 8 to Sister S. after our experience and we were like “hey Alma was feeling the same way as us… And at least we have not gotten spit on yet like he did!” Haha! What a blessing. Also every night we say five things we are grateful for and that helps us remember the good things through out the day!!!
Ok so update: There are still sisters coming here and I am for sure going to St. V.! I will get you the address and let you know all of the details when I find them out!
Sounds like you guys are having a blast up at Bear Lake and I am glad you brought me along! (Kelsey has a shirt with a picture of Emily on it)
Mama thank you so much for your words. You are the best mother I could ever ask for. I always say when we find young people here whose parents don’t take care of them “I wish I could take them home so my mom can help them” You have always been, are and always will be a wonderful light and example to me. You really are my special friend. I love you always! Have a wonderful week and keep being amazing.
Pops: I am glad you are having fun up at Bear Lake! Thanks for your love and prayers! I am doing just fine and dandy! Just keep swimming right?! Anyway all is well. This will be my last week here in this area. I will miss it but it’ll be a nice fresh start for the next sisters! Love you daddy thanks for erything.
As for the rest of the week I will be getting everything ready for the sisters and also packing up my stuff for the second to last time. Next time I’ll be packing to go home!! AHHHHHH what!!?? Anyway it’ll be an awesome week. Thanks for all you do and for your prayers!
Let us all press on in the work of the Lord!
Love, Sister Emily

Family History Friday: Indexing!

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What is indexing?

Indexing happens after:

1- A document is scanned and prepared for the indexing program. If you want to be an indexer, you can download the program for free here.

2-You download a batch of records and then type the information you see in the records. Someone else is working on the same records. Then the an arbitrator looks at yours and the other persons to see if there are any mistakes.

3-The arbitrator clears up any information that was typed up differently.

4-The name and data are added to the FamilySearch database, where everyone in the world can see it and do research on their family.

5-Someone finds information about their ancestors in Family Search.

6-They perform ordinances for their ancestor in the temple.

What a blessing to those who do genealogy and family history research. They can find the information they are looking for much easier than if they had to search the whole document, or source to find what they need.

Those who do indexing are heaven sent! If you would like to find out more about it, and watch some videos and tutorials, check it out here.

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

Everyone Has a Twin?

IMG_0309We were at a dinner recently celebrating our niece getting ready to serve an LDS mission. As we sat around in a group eating, I noticed this friend of our niece (the guy on the right).

I said to family, “Hey, he looks just like Corver, as a grown up! Don’t you think?”

They all agreed!

So we had to take a photo, because this is amazing. Maybe we really do have a twin somewhere out there in the world!

Out on a WIM #61

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#61

Woah! Hey mi familia! How are you all? From what I hear it sounds like you are doing so great!!! 🙂

Well……………………..…………………………………….. this week was very interesting. So we had heard that there was not enough sisters and so he had to send us out. But I just found out that there are going to be sisters coming here to replace us… So he is “blanking” the area… The only sad part is that this whole week we have been trying to figure out how to split the area and I have been getting the area organized ready to hand it over to the Elders.. But now that all changed! That’s ok. Whatever the Lord sees fit.
Ok so honestly now I am not really sure if I am actually going to St. V.. I might be but I am not sure! All I know is that I am leaving. So. I will let you know when I find out for sure. But I wouldn’t write any letters for here in because I will be gone in two weeks.
The Branch is still the same! We are struggling to get members to come out teaching with us… We had one member lesson the whole week. So this week was a little slow on numbers because of how busy we have been. I may or may not have felt a little discouraged last night after totaling up the week. But then I prayed and prayed and read from the scriptures and watched a mormon message and I felt better after that. I know Heavenly Father is proud of what I am doing and I am doing my best under a lot of pressure.
Yes I did get a bag! I don’t know how long it’ll last.. Everything here doesn’t last that long.
Sister S. is from a small town in Guyana . She is a doll. She’s actually not feeling well right now 🙁
Crazy things from this week:
We walked all the way from very far, from one town to another!!!!!!!!!!!!! You probably have no idea how far that is.. But it’s far!!!!!!
Ummm… there really isn’t much to report on this week.
Thanks to one and all for your prayers and things you do for me. I hope everyone has a great week and that we all continue to recognize the Lords hand in our lives 🙂
Love always, Sister Emily