Can you say HUMID!!!

6-28-2010

I hope you are doing good there and having fun with this new stage in your mission. I am sure it is a little scary. I would be scared at least a little bit. Do you like the people there so far. Do they have a really weird accent? Have you had any interesting stories that you want to share with us? How is the weather there so far? Are you dying? Is life different there in Kentucky than it was in the MTC?

Right now I am enjoying Tell City, Indiana. It is very hot and very very humid. I am used to the hotness but not the humidness. It is so so so so very very very green here and there are tons of trees. They are super tall also. Much different I would have to say. I love the peeople here in Tell city. Well, I like most the investigators and all of the Branch. They don't have wards so it is a branch. The branch is just so nice. We are teaching alot of less active members. There was a branch president that was bad and basicaaly destroyed the branch so there are lots of inactives and we are trying to get them to come back. We are teaching quite alot of people and we taught a total of 32 lessons this week which is pretty dang good. We have three baptisms coming up and trying to get another person to get baptized. My companion is Sister Graham. SHe is great. She has been out for three months and is a trainer already. She is doing great. She is hardworking and so am I. We have fun with each other.

Okay. So monday, I left at three in the morning to go to the airport. Then flew at 630 and went to denver and took a flight to kentucky from there. We landed about 1:00. The president issued a challenge and we had to give out a book of mormon. THat was an experience. The third person was rude to us. We were walking up to her, and asked if we could have a second of her time and she stormed off and said in a really blunt and rude voice said no. Man that was mean. My thought was...So this is what it feels like to be a missionary. Then after 30 min of looking, we found two boys that took the book of mormon.

Tuesday is when I met my companion and it was awesome. We went tracting and the first door I got to do, the person accepted the message and we have a return appointmnet on friday!!! So exciting. We went to an investingators house. Her name is Debra and she looked at my name and said," I don't like you already." THat took me by surprise because that is the first thing she said. But, she likes me now. Her ex-boyfriend or someone is named ralph. So, she calls me Red.

people still think that my hair is red. I guess we didn't get all the coloring out. :) oh well. Did you know that Ralph means Wolf Pack Leader? A 'gator told me that.

Wednesday was fun. We went to a place where old people live (can't think of the name). Nursiing home? Anyway, we handed out popcorn to people. THey loved it. THere is a person named Arnie and he is so full of life. He draws alot and he makes up stories about what he did in his past. He is funny. He is drawing me some pictures for me. I can't wait to see them.
Also on this day, we got two new 'gators. We were going to visit someone but ended up visiting two other people and they wanted us to come back. However, we came back on friday and they were not home. Bummer. I was especially excited to see Sylvia. oh well.
Peggy is an interesting person. She complains alot but this time when we visited her, she was having such a hard time and she was almost suicidal. That was pretty scary. We got her happy though and she started reading and praying again. She went to church on sunday as well. The lord it helping her now becuase she doing what she needs to do.

Thursday was a planning day. We planned out lessons and talked about 'gators. We got our keys locked in the car though. I am not the only person that does it. My companion did it. She is the driver. it was so funny. good thing we did not have to much planned that day or else we would have had to walk to appointments. But we called a locksmith and got the door open. Whew.

Firday was so much fun and so frustrating. Appointment after appointment kept falling thorugh. We tracted alot and we got one person somewhat interested which is good. THe best part was my Greenie Meal. Julie made it for us and we got there and it looked like normal food. Normal mashed potatoes, meat, bisquites, green beans, green punch, green beans. But something happened. We put green food coloring in the mashed potatoes and meat and on the bisquits. It was awesome. If only I could but pictures on it. We had green tongues by the time we were done. So fun.

Saturday I shoveled more rock! this time I didn't get really dirty. Just really sweaty. Beads of Sweat rolling down my face and falling to the ground. We got 3/4 of it done in 45 min.

So, the shower is pretty interesting. We shower with a hose. :) It is not as bad as it seems but we have to hook it up to the spout and then take a shower and sometime when we turn the water on, the part we hook up the spout, falls off. It is pretty easy most of the time though. I am definatly glad to be moving though. We will be moving in one week. It is fun.

I love my mission and love the people and am enjoying every moment. Preperation days are on monday now. :) I more time than I did at the MTC to write. I have an hour to write instead of thrity min but now my time is about to expire. I hope everything it going well. I still have not gotten a email from Jaden yet. Maybe next week I will hear from him??? :) :) :) I love you all so very very much and still cannot believe that Bubba is Bishop. Bishop Bubba. :) I love you I love you I love you.

Amandas second mailed letter home

This letter came after we got her first email. It was also sent in the mail hand written that I typed up. She also sent some pictures of her and her companion. Enjoy!

Dear Family,

Here are some better pictures of me and my companion. We have a temple walk every Sunday.

There is something funny in Mosiah 12:1. Read it and see what the mistake is. If you give up tell me and I will tell you later.

I had a pretty bad teaching experience the other day teaching a person in class. I was not prepared for it. We were supposed to use only questions and scriptures. I did not pick the correct scriptures and I was stumbling over my words and my brain was going a million miles an hour. It was so bad. I was freaking out and I had tears in my eyes afterwards. It was hard to not cry but the tears did not escape. I learned a lesson though. If I want the spirit to direct me, I can’t “make” the subject make sense. The spirit is only with me when I am calm and collected. If I did that, then I would have done better. Then I thought of my patriarchal blessing and what it said and I know that I will be a good teacher some day.

I taught Arnold after that though and it went tons better. I felt the spirit and it was awesome where the spirit took the conversation. Some questions I did not know how to answer but I did through the spirit. It went much better this time.

I get to critical when people share their musical talents. I realized I try to look for mistakes. Maybe I should try to stop that.

I thought of an analogy with the spirit. Think of the holy ghost as a piece of fabric. When we sin, we wear a hole in the fabric making it not as strong. When we repent, we get to patch up that hole and make it new. So remember to repent to keep the Holy Ghost whole.

I also thought of something with Adam and Eve. So Eve was made of the rib of Adam. I was thinking about our bodies and how we have floating ribs. I was thinking…maybe we have floating ribs because Eve was made out of the part that connected them to the other ribs/sternum. Did that make and sense? So if Eve was never made of a rib, we would not have floating ribs. Just something silly I thought of.

The rest of my thoughts are in the email I sent. Hope you all are doing great! I miss you.

Sister Amanda Ralph

Amandas first letter home

This is a letter that Amanda hand wrote home. I typed it up and am putting it here along with the picture she sent with it. This letter was received before the first emailed letter. So if you look back you can read the letters in order. Sorry I will try to keep the letters in order as time progresses.

June 6, 2010

My family,

I know you have missed me so much. I have missed you. I just wanted to say… I had the opportunity to miss a p-day. I got here on Wednesday and my districts p-day is on Thursday. I don’t know how I feel about that. A week and a day, no talking to you, no me time. The branch president allowed me to write and say that my p-day is not till Thursday. Just so you know. You can do the dear elder website and write to me. Now that I know more about it, you will be able to email me, the office people put it in my mailbox the next day and I get to read it that day. Just so you know. :D

It has been a good experience so far. No…it has been a great experience! Yesterday (Saturday) was hard but I will tell you about that on Thursday.

I realize that I forgot a couple things. I was wondering if you could send them to me now so it won’t be so expensive later. I forgot my tennis shoes and y stamps that I believe are in my purse. That is all I forgot though. Gym is fun… not really. They have 4 square, basketball, and volleyball courts and since I don’t have tennis shoes, I can’t do any of that. I am stuck with flip flops and a jump rope. It is good but I wish I could do something else while I have the chance.

Tell me about life mom. I have gotten 2 letters but not from you yet. I am sure you emailed me though. How were finals? How is grandpa and all the business with the house going? Are you, Tessa, enjoying your job still? How is my brother? Tori, you have not read all those quotes I gave you yet right?

Time to get back to studying. I love the spirit I feel here. All the boys are already beginning to turn into men. Everyone is here for one and the same purpose. We are all connected. I teach my 1^st investigator on Tuesday.

Wish me luck.

I love you all,

Sister Amanda Ralph

Second Letter Home

So, I have time to write for 28 min! This is going to be so much better I think. I am not as stressed as last week when writing. Sorry that i sounded discouraged and upset but totally did not mean to sound so rushed. I was just freaking out because the computers were being stupid and keyboard was weird. Anyway...

I just thought I would say something that was cool. It would be cool if, when we die, Heavenly Mother would come up to us and wrap her arms around us and welcome us home. THen take us to Heavenly Father and announce us to Him. I thought that would be totally awesome.

It has been so cold the last couple days. I don't get utah weather. So it has been so hot since Sunday. But there was a storm that came on Saturday that made the temperature drop down way low. It was so cold. The storm brought rain and it was freezing. I went out in a light jacket because that is all I had but that was not enough. We go on temple walks on sunday, and I ended up borrowing Sister Stapp's jacket. I wanted to keep it because it was so cute. I got to use my umbrella already that day. SO, Monday was cold, tuesday it was hot and it is cold again. Weird weather. No wonder michelle is always in so much pain.

I wrote you about a negative experience I had in a letter so you will get that in a couple days. Just know that I have recovered from that experience and that I grew from it. I want to share something cool my branch president said to me and my companion. He said that we were some of the best missionaries out there and that we inspire the Elders to be better. I was so happy when he said that. I had no idea we did that to them. We set a goal to do 120 contacting, which is just going and talking to someone for thrity seconds about the gospel, and the Elders decided that their 20 contacts were not enough. So, they all decided to do 200 each companionship. Crazy I thought but I was glad they did it. But, the next day, I got pretty comfortable with contacting that I thought we were wasting our time doing it. We ended up doing 61 contacts and then we stopped. We told the Elders they could do the 200 contacts but we were not going to do it. We would much rather focus on lessons. They also agreed and then that was it. Now we all have to do 16 lessons in four days. Can we do it? Sure we can. IF we work hard.

So, each day is busy busy busy. I will tell you my schedule for tuesday.

630-700 is get up and get ready.

700-745 is personal/companion ship study.

745-815 is breakfast

815-1230 is class time.

1230-115 is lunch

115-330 is perssonal/companionship study

330-530 is class

530-615 is dinner

615-700 is going to the devotional

700-800 is devotional

800-900 is talking about the devotional

900-930 is planning for next day

930-1030 is getting ready for bed.

So, yeah. I am busy all the time. Doing one thing after the other. There is no time for messing around. I am here to learn and study and eat. I have developed a good friendships with some elders and my companion.

I have done some more teaching. Arnold is who I thought on tuesday. It was amazing. I loved it and felt the spirit so much. There were times that I had no idea how to answer some questions but the spirit directed me in what to say. I also talked alot more about baptism than I thought I would. His wife came and that was awesome. She was more receptive to the message than he was. I issued a challange for baptism and the wife accepted automatically. It made my day. Arnold was funny because he was like, "What?? We will?" :) The work is great and I am loving it.

The rooms are like the dorm rooms in thatcher. Small with lots of stuff. The showers are the same too. It is just like I am in the Mark Allen Dorms.

I leave on monday for Kentucky and am so ready for it. I am kind of getting bored of the MTC. I am so ready to go out and do. I am so excited!

My sleep has not been all that good here. I keep waking up in the middle of the night. I think it is because my room is so cold. I wake up at 1200, 300, 500, and 630 when i am supposed to. It is crazy. Maybe that is why I have bags under my eyes.

I am so glad that you are doing scripture study. It really is amazing. You should really try to do something while reading. Put yourself it their shoes. Put yourself in the shoes of others. Look at all sides of the story. It will better help you understand.

Oh, this dear elder is alot better. I got to write alot more. It was weird though. I got my shoes on tuesday (thankyou so much) and then that night I got a letter from you saying that you had not sent my shoes yet...but I got them before I got your letter. Kind of weird. Oh well, :)

Hope you are all doing great! How is tori doing? Holding up?? Happpy Father's day on sunday!

I have no more time now. I love you all. Thirty minutes goes way to fast I think.

LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Amanda

First Missionary Letter

This is Amanda's first letter she wrote home. Hope you enjoy!!!

Okay i only have 23 min to write this..... The MTC is absolutely amazing and I love every min of it. Surprisingly i don't think much about you all during the day.. There is just to much stuff to do to think about it all.. I do think about you alot though when i am going to bed.. So, I don't completely block you out of my life.. I love my companion.. I don't really know how to joke with her yet but we are getting there.. Her name is sister Stapp.. I cannot remember her name for the life of me sometimes.. Um, The food here is pretty good.. Better than i thought it would be.. I think they put magic stuff in it.. I am never hungry when it comes time to eat so I think they put magic "fill me up" potion in it.. haha.. This is not letting me enter for some reason.. Anyway.. Life is just a blur now.. I don't know what days are which.. I missed a P-Day and so I have not been able to talk to you for a while.. However I sent you a message through mail.. I asked if you could send me my tennis shoes.. Please.. I leave not this coming monday but the following.. :) Some cool things i have learned: The book of mormon was really written for our times.. All the prophets and kings that wrote, didn't know why they were writing and they passed it down.. Nobody saw it until Joseph Smith.. He translated it and now we have it to read.. Read mormon 8:23 I think.. It is saying that I knew thee before I wrote to you.. I saw you or somthing like that.. Um, i have really felt the love of God here.. Pres.. Eyring said this.. He was dealing with a boy who was very bad.. He was in court for something really bad.. Pres.. E.. said that He could feel steam from his head because he got so mad at this boy.. But then God opened his mind.. God told him this......The person before you in my child.. i know of him.. he so wants to be good......I loved it! God really is there for us.. He really does love us.. He wants us to communicate with him.. He wants to know of our trials and hardships and joys in life.. He wants to know everything about us.. If I left the MTC today and learn anything else, I would be happy to leave knowing that God loves me.. Just think about it.... I got locked out of my room my first night here.. I just HAD to go to the bathroom and didn't think about the door being locked.. I then knocked ever so gently for 10 min until someone let me in.. The room is just like my dorm room.. It is bigger but not.. There are three bunks, three dressers and that is it.. So, it is bigger but it has the same stuff making it seem like the dorm room again.. I don't mind it though.. Mother nature was not nice to me at all my first day.. All i have to say is.."I was glad i was wearing a black skirt that day.." um, I like my district.. four girl including me and six guys.. the three girls and two guys are going to South carolina and me and four guys are going to Kentucky.. It is pretty exciting.. I love it.. I have grown to love my district and the guys are maturing every day.. Their testimonies are so sweet and precious.. there were a few iffy ones but I like all of them now.. i tought my first lesson and it went pretty well.. My companion likes to talk alot when she is nervous.. When I was about to say something she would say something.. I felt kind of cheated.. She thought she was pressed for time so she just took over.. I felt cheated out of the lesson though.. We planned the Restoration but the spirit said Plan of salvation.. I was going to get into the plan but she went into the restoration.. i guess next time (tomorrow) we will be better.. I have to go now.. Temple time.. There is not enough time to do all this.. can you send me letters instead so I have more time to write to you all instead of reading for ten min and talking for twenty min? I would love that.. And then i will be able to read the letters over and over.. I love you ALL.. Much Love, Sister Ralph