PDay update 8/24/15

Hello everyone!  

To start off with transfer news I am staying in Amherst and Sister Troutner will be my new companion.  I don't know her, but everyone says she's awesome. =]  Sister Mangelson is going home!  Crazy!  She's solid.  She'll hit the ground running when she gets back to good 'ol Utah.

OK! Let me tell you of the heat.  LET ME TELL YOU!  Ah!  My least favorite thing in the whole world is officially humidity.  Our apartment is the top level and we don't have AC.  (Most mission apartments don't.)  It's been fantastic.  Really. haha   But today it is cold and rainy.  (Hence the humidity for the past week.)  So I am enjoying the break from the horrible heat.
   I have decided that I am going to be a big baby when I go home because it's only around 30 C here which is like 86 F and I am dying.  And back home it's like 100 F!!!  Yup.  I'll just stay inside.  That will be the bonus.  I won't HAVE to go outside and knock and street contact. hahahah
    So yeah, that's me complaining about the weather here. lol  

SO GUESS WHO GOT TO GO BACK TO NEW GLASGOW THIS WEEK?!?!  Haha well, yeah, me. =]
IT WAS SOOOOO WEIRD!  I loved it so much though.  As for the amount of relationships I was able to build there, it has been my favorite area for that.  I just got to love SO many people there.  I have loved people in every area, but not as many as I got to know in New Glasgow.
   I got to see old friends and talk with them.  I also saw HEIDI again!  And I got something set up so that she will start meeting with the New Glasgow missionaries again. =]  Ah.  She is still so solid.  I made her promise me to start reading the Book of Mormon every day and I followed up on facebook and she has been doing it!!  Man, I love her. =] 

  I saw Tracy again too!!  I was going to ask for the shoulder rest that I bought and had left with her violin, but she let me borrow the whole violin!   She saved me a lot of money if I had rented a violin.  It was actually too much so I wouldn't have done it most likely.  She is so nice for doing that.  I'm not too far from New Glasgow, so that it nice.
   I also enjoyed time with the Rushtons.  They are so sweet.  They know the Mcarthurs!!  And a few other people that are here in Amherst!  Isn't that crazy?  They even know our investigator, Peggy. =]
   I really enjoyed my time in New Glasgow.  And I will have to send the picture of Sister Odo in another email, but she is a sweet 92 year old lady in New Glasgow who has recently been admitted into the hospital.  And we went to visit her.  She didn't remember me and she felt really bad about it.  But I told her, "Don't worry about it because I still love you."  And her face just lit up.  She said, "You do?  You still love me?"  And you could just tell how much that touched her.  =]  She is so sweet and loving.  I miss New Glasgow.  I could finish my mission there.  I really could.  

  Something else we did while in New Glasgow was we went to visit a member.  The story is that Brother Hodder's wife has had dementia for the past 16 years and it has just progressively gotten worse.  He is the sweetest husband.  He visits her every single day, multiple times a day.  He talks to her, feeds her, and tells her he loves her.  While, he's out of town right now to Utah for a granddaughters wedding and he asked the missionaries to visit her.  When we got there she was in with the nurses for a moment, so since I had that violin with me, I pulled it out and I played hymns for everyone that was there.  They eventually rolled Sister Hodder in too, and I stayed and played for about an hour.  I have found that I thoroughly enjoy that.  I love playing in nursing homes.  I really loved it. =]

   We see the Mcarthurs all the time, and they really enjoy it.  I really enjoy my time with them.  We saw them yesterday though, and this was just a more serious visit.  He said that it's getting hard.  He said he just wants it to be over with.  It's getting on his nerves.....
    I didn't enjoy hearing him talk like that.  But it was only for a brief moment because brother Mcarthur isn't serious long before he's up to no good again. hahaha But yeah.  I love them so much.  When we got into the car I told Sister Mangelson, "In all seriousness...I don't know what I'm going to do when he dies....."   Guys....really...what am I going to do??


But anyway.  Done with that.


I just want you all to know how wonderful missions are.  Yes, we miss home.  Yes, it's hard.  Yes, not everything is always peachy keen.  But I love it.  I've gotten to the point in my mission that I don't really even miss anything too much from home besides the people back home.  (well, maybe music.)  haha  But really.  There is a reason why the Celestial Kingdom is heaven.  It's because there is nothing that brings more happiness than being so close to Heavenly Father and living the principles of His gospel.  His work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  (Moses 1:39)  and that means our happiness!  His whole point is to make us happy.  And therefore, everything He asks us to do is for our benefit to bring that happiness.  We might feel it is restrictive at times, but I have never felt more liberated.  The gospel doesn't restrain, it releases.  It frees.
  I encourage you all to do something.  (I'm a missionary, I'm going to leave commitments.)
Pull up Preach My Gospel, and go to chapter 6.  Fill out the Christlike Attribute activity and evaluate which attribute you would like to focus on.  Once you have done this, make a plan of how you would like to improve.  Set goals of how much improvement you would like to see and a time-frame in which you would like to accomplish it.
   I know that most of you probably won't actually do this, but I really would like you to.  Just because, I really love how it feels to study these things out and to see myself reach higher potential.  It's fulfilling. 

I hope you all have enjoyed your week.  I love you. <3

Sister Creager