Relief Socity Broadcast

Bienvenue!

So this week was pretty much the same as last week, except with a few more exciting moments. We went to Philly on Monday and visited the temple site, the Rocky steps, Love Park, and Game Piece Park. It's been so long since I've been to Philly, so it was nice to go there again! I even got a piece of the granite that they drilled out of the site to build the foundation of the temple.

We had dinner with the Mass's (or is it Masses?), and let me tell you, they are the COOLEST family ever. They all joined the Church last year at different times, but they are just so awesome. It was funny because Brother Mass can no longer hug the missionaries, so every time we give him a handshake he makes a (fake) fuss out of it, haha.

We went to the church to go to Institute, but it had been cancelled without us knowing. So we ended up staying for Young Women and getting to know some of the girls in the ward. We sat and talked as we made magnets (so that the chalkboards don't look as drab). It was kind of neat because we had one of the girls (who isn't a member) comment and ask if we would be coming every week, because she thought we were fun.

Saturday was the Relief Society general meeting! I hope all of you got to watch it, and if you didn't, you should. We went to the Cherry Hill chapel for a dinner beforehand, and it was kind of neat because I got to see a few people from the Moorestown ward there, which was awesome. I also got to see quite a few of the other Sister missionaries, including Sister Grover, Sister Jensen (from Springville!), and Sister Meeks.

The broadcast was super awesome! I don't have my notebook here with me, but one thing that really stuck out to me was when the speaker was talking about covenants (a covenant is a two-way promise between God and us). She said, "we go to the temple to make sacred covenants, and we go home to keep those covenants." Our daily lives should reflect the promises we make with Heavenly Father, and we should act accordingly. She also talked about the sacrament, and how each week we're able to renew our covenants and show Heavenly Father that we're just as willing to follow Him this week as last week. Isn't that so great?

And to end the week, we went to the baptism of two kids in our ward. About an hour before the baptism we found out that one of the kids was 10, which means he's technically a convert baptism, and isn't under the direction of the Bishop. The whole third hour of church we were making phone calls, and we got special permission from President Anderson that he could be baptized as long as he was interviewed by the District Leader. So Elder Barker rushed over as soon as he could and interviewed him. But the baptism was really sweet because it was big brother and little sister being baptized!

I love all of you. And don't forget I exist, okay? Okay. Haha.

Love,

Sister Singleton

PS. General Conference is next week! Aren't you all SUPER excited??! Remember to prepare by pondering, writing down questions that you have, and remember to listen to the Spirit as you watch General Conference.

The Philadelphia temple site!

The Philly skyline and I.

Medford & Electric Yellow Popcorn

Guess where I am? MEDFORD, NEW JERSEY!

So this probably means nothing to you, but think about this: Moorestown, NJ was my first area, and Medford is right next door. In fact, Medford was in my first district.* When I was in Moorestown way back when, it was an Elders' area, in which Elder Bennett (who is also from Springville) served here. So you can imagine my surprise when at transfer meeting I saw my picture up on the screen for Medford. I was like, "Medford?? That's an Elder's area. Why's my picture up there?"

So my new companion is Sister McNeil, and she's the coolest person ever. She really likes Batman and superheroes and grew up with only brothers. We are both new into the area and we moved into the Elders' old apartment, which was dis.gust.ing. We've literally spent the last few days cleaning, and we've only made a dent in it. Everything is sticky for some reason... but hey, we found a Nerf gun hidden away and there's over 100 paper airplanes all over the walls and ceiling (thanks to Elder Bennett). Elders.

So I'm back in Jersey, and it's pretty awesome. There's a saying among missionaries that goes, "Once you serve in Jersey, you can't get away." And it's proving to be true, haha. But the Medford ward is awesome! Within the first few days, we had at least three people call us or talk to us and tell us that they were looking for people that we could teach. I was pleasantly surprised at their attitude and their willingness to help us. We have had so many people jump right on board to help us, and it's been awesome!

Since the area's new to us and nothing much happened, I guess I'll try to describe our stay in Medford a little bit:

In our apartment there is a stack of tubs of different popcorn kernels (blue, jumbo, ladyfinger, and yellow) and a bottle of "popcorn oil." We've been making our popcorn in a pot covered with a plate/jumbo pot lid, then spraying it with canola oil and mixing it with this weird butter powder we bought, which makes our popcorn electric yellow. I feel like the more I eat it, the more likely I am to get a weird mutation.

We eat sitting on the floor amongst papers, clothes, and random object strewn about the apartment.

There's a creepy ice cream truck that circles around our apartment at 9:00 every night playing its music.

There's a sad lack of lighting in our apartment, even with the lamps in the front room. One lamp periodically shuts itself off because the wattage is "abnormal," but we checked and the bulb is the correct wattage (?). That lamp is my fiend.

Despite how awful I've made the apartment seem, I really do love Medford already. I am grateful that the Lord has trusted Sister McNeil and I to be the first sisters here in quite some time, and I look forward to the growth and miracles in this area!

I love you all! Please email me and let me know how you're doing, because I love and care about all of you!

Love,
Sister Singleton

*A district makes up usually 2-4 companionships of missionaries.

Transfers & Roger Bannisters

Olo?

 

Big news first: I'm leaving Whitehall. We got transfer calls on Saturday night and I was shocked that I was actually leaving, although the past few weeks I had the thought that I would be. I've been here for almost six months, so it's weird to think I'm leaving. It's hard. But I know that the Lord wants me elsewhere, so I'll go. What's really odd is that I'm only halfway through training Sister Maybury, so I was surprised that I was leaving before I finished training her.

 

Awesome news: Elder Shane M. Bowen (of the Quorum of the Seventy) came to the mission last week! It was the first time that I actually was able to meet a General Authority, and I learned so much from the conference. We had to be in our seats at Nazareth at 7:30 am, which meant we had to wake up at 5:30 am. But it was totally worth it. Before the meeting started, Elder and Sister Bowen wanted to greet each of us personally, and we were going to go row by row, but then he stopped us and asked for the Sisters to go first. As us Sisters started getting up, Elder Bowen said, "Elders, if you're wondering why the Sisters are going first it's because they're better than you." Hahahah. Okay, I don't include this to be prideful, I just thought it was funny.

 

Elder Bowen talked about a number of things, one of which was "false limitations." He talked about studies of a jar of fleas. If you put fleas in jars and leave it uncovered, they jump right out. But if you put fleas in jars and cover it, they'll eventually learn to only jump to the height of the jar. And when you take the lid off the jar, the fleas will still only jump to the top, and so will their offspring. This is because there is a false limitation that has been created. We often tend to create for ourselves "false limitations." As missionaries it can be:

 

"Nobody will talk to us in that area."
"That less-active family won't listen to us."

"The members will never come out with us because they're too scared."

And so on.

 

So how do we overcome the false limitations? Elder Bowen brought up Roger Bannister, the first person to run a four-minute mile. Back then, it was "scientifically proven" that it was impossible to run a four-minute mile. But in 1954, he did it. Within the following year, six people broke the four-minute mile. Roger Bannister created a paradigm shift for the world, and he overcame that false limitation. So as missionaries we need to pay attention to the miracles we see in our areas and in others' areas. Elder Bowen said to "look for the Roger Bannisters in the mission. Then we'll begin to see more and more Roger Bannisters appear."

 

This lesson isn't just for missionaries, it's for all of us. Think about the false limitations you've created for yourself. ("I'm never going to get a high GPA," "I can never be worthy to go to the temple," "My kids are never willing to help me," etc.) Now find a way to overcome them. Change your mindset and you'll begin to see the "Roger Bannister" changes in your lives. I testify of that wholeheartedly!

 

I love all of you guys, and I'm so grateful for your support. Keep up the good work, the good lives, and always remember to look for missionary opportunities in your lives. I was reading in Alma 17 this morning:
"My brethren, be of good cheer and let us go in search of the flocks."

 

Love you!

Sister Singleton

 

Sister Lindsay and I on exchanges.

Elder Danner and I (with Elder Merkley photobombing).
This picture is for Becca Murdock, who knows him.
Crazy small world!

The Stofkos.

Me and Luis. He's the new Ward Mission Leader. He joined the church
last year and is a true example of a member missionary.

 

 

Member Missionaries & "The Harvest"

Hey Yous,

 

I hope you all had a great Labor Day! This week felt so much different than the rest of the transfer. It's been somewhat of a rough transfer, but after we started teaching Tracey on Monday, things feel a lot different.

 

Nothing big happened this week since Monday, but we've been able to see lots of miracles and tender mercies! A less active woman told us that after she prayed and read the Book of Mormon for the first time in a while, she immediately got a phone call for a job interview (she has been looking for a job for a while now)! When she was telling us what had happened, I knew that the Lord had blessed her with a miracle. I was so happy!

 

Sunday was a super awesome day. It wasn't super out of the ordinary, but it was just amazing and full of the Spirit! First off, I said the opening prayer (wahoo?), and Sister Maybury gave a talk on keeping the sabbath day holy. Sister Bryce also gave a fabulous talk on member missionary work, and it really was SUPER good. Here are some highlights:

 

"To not be scared is the biggest step in missionary work."

 

(On opportunities to share the gospel in everyday life) "The man at the toll booth said, 'Have a blessed day.' We drove off and my friend turned to me and said, 'See-- that was the perfect opportunity to share the gospel! I would've given him a pass-along card.' When things like that happen, we should say, 'You think it's a beautiful day? Just wait until you read the Book of Mormon and get more blessings in your life!"

 

"A lot of times people don't know [things about the Mormons], and that's party our fault. [We need to tell them]."

 

"We can make every excuse-- how we were too scared, or out of our comfort zone-- but in the end, it's all on us [to share the gospel."

 

I'll let you think about those awesome quotes, because they really stuck out to me.

 

We taught Sunday school, and our topic was on "service." It was pretty neat. But the third hour was really unusual-- we did something called "The Harvest." Some of you might know what it is, but I had never done it prior to Sunday. Basically what it is is looking at all the unknown names on the ward list (the people that noone knew) and we set out in companionships to go find out if they still lived there, and if they did, we were to invite them back to church. So we had maybe a dozen or so companionships leave during church to "rescue the lost." I went with Sister Sandoval to find a couple apartments in Allentown, and it was super fun. One miracle we saw from "the Harvest" was a woman that Brother Stofko had gotten a hold of. She was moving out of Allentown into Whitehall, and she would've been gone in less than a week. If we wouldn't have had "the Harvest," we would've lost track of her completely because she didn't have a phone. Isn't that a miracle??

 

Well, I love all of you guys. Please, please, please look for missionary opportunities to serve: whether it's sharing the gospel, visiting a less active member, or reaching out to those you don't even know. Missionaries cannot work without the members, and members just can't do it without the missionaries. We need your help!

 

Love you!

Sister Singleton

Labor Day Miracle!

Hola!

 

This week we had Zone Conference up in Nazareth. It's always really fun seeing other missionaries and getting to spend most of the day with them and President and Sister Anderson. (For those who don't know, Zone Conference is a big ol' meeting put on by the President and his Assistants, and multiple zones of missionaries go to it.) The focus of our meeting was understanding our purpose as missionaries even better. You see, we recite our purpose every day:

 

"Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end" (Preach My Gospel, pg 1).

 

I don't have my notebook with me, but I promise I learned more about why exactly missionaries serve, and it made me think about all the things I do in my missionary work and if they're helping to bring others closer to Christ.

 

This week, once again, was a trying week. We were still struggling to find people to teach, so it was no secret that I was looking forward to fast Sunday. I fasted so that we could just find direction in the Whitehall area and for someone who needs help. On Sunday night we were visiting with a less active member, and we were just telling her how we felt like we hadn't accomplished much in the past five weeks. She stopped us mid-sentence and told us that because we've been visiting her and helping her, we changed her life. It was a very humbling moment for me; I had been ungrateful for the things that we were seeing and had focused on the things we weren't seeing. I have seen many miracles in the past few weeks-- they weren't the miracles I wanted or expected, but they were there. And for that I am incredibly grateful.

 

I guess since Labor Day is included in this email, I'll let you know how awesome it was. We were just out and about in the morning when we got a call from Bishop Smith. He had been referred to a woman by a Bishop in Nazareth who needed financial help. Bishop Smith talked to her about helping with the financial aspect of things, but then told her about the missionaries and what we do. So lo and behold, we were at her house later that afternoon and taught her the Restoration. It was a very powerful lesson, and she was just so sweet. We invited her to baptism and she said yes! We are so excited to be working with her, and it was definitely an answer to our pleas for someone to teach! Miracle!

 

A quick message I wanted to share with everyone in lieu of Labor Day:

 

One form of work that we do is serving others. It is by far the most rewarding work, and I've never met anyone who has regretted an act of service they did for someone. We need to serve one another out of love, because that is how we show our love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

 

"35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25:35-40)

 

"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)

 

My challenge to you all this week is to look for an unplanned opportunity to serve someone. Service can take place in many forms, so don't feel like you have to organize a leaf-raking brigade. Then let me know how things went, okay?

 

Love yous!

 

Sister Singleton