LOGAN'S BAPTISM!

Goooooooood morning!

As you can tell by the subject, Logan got baptized yesterday! It was a super fantastic experience! But before I get to that, I shall tell you a little bit about the rest of the week.

Wednesday we went to Young Women's and made ornaments with the girls. I attempted to make a Christmas tree out of wooden blocks, but it didn't pan out. Ah well, we still had fun.

Friday we met with a woman at the Alzheimer's Association to discuss doing volunteer work there. It was kinda cool how it all panned out, actually. A couple weeks ago we talked about wanting to find a place to volunteer in the community. Well, the next day we missed a call and the voicemail was from the Alzheimer's Association and it was in regards to missionaries volunteering there before and how they wanted us again. Both Sister Wright and I were like, "Whoa, this can NOT be a coincidence!" We called back and left a message, but we didn't get a response because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Well, we called her back two weeks ago and the woman said, "You know what's weird? I was about to call you guys..." Since the Lord directed us to help at this place, I really hope that we can see miracles come from it!

Saturday was definitely a different day. There's a man in the ward who was having a garage sale and he wanted to put all the funds towards missionary work. He invited us to come and talk to people about the gospel at his garage sale. It was neat because he bought cookies, cocoa, and cider for us to hand out to people. (On a side note: there was also hot lemonade, which, by the way, is my new favorite thing.) It sure was cold, but we brought some great Christmas music to play and we were able to talk to and meet a few people. The guy told us a story about his friend passing away and how after that experience, he was lead by the Spirit to where he was now. It's neat because the day that we stopped by (which was almost a month and a half ago) he had been praying about what to do to help the Lord. And when we showed up, his answer was to help the missionaries. So he did! And he's the nicest guy ever, too.

Saturday night was the Medford Ward Christmas party. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! The decorations, food, and entertainment was awesome. At one point we sang the "Twelve Days of Christmas" as a big group, but there were twelve different groups that had each different item. So whenever it was your group's turn, you had to stand up and sing as loud as you could. My favorite was Sister Lonegan's table with "Five Gold Rings" and Bishop Feuz's table of "Two Turtle Doves." It was hilarious to watch. It was so much fun, and I really, really love the Medford ward so much.

Story time:
The Medford ward doesn't really have too many baptismal suits, so we had to pick up one for Brother Mass from either Cherry Hill or Moorestown. Well, when we were talking to Brother Mass about what size he needed, he just said, quite seriously, "You're going to have to find a suit made by Omar the Tentmaker." I could not stop laughing.
 We were sifting through the suits at Moorestown and Sister Wright found one that (finally) wasn't super tiny. Turns out.... it was a 6x. 6X! Brother Mass definitely did not need a 6x. We texted Brother Mass and his response was, "Well, it will be big enough for both Logan and I." Hahahahah.
 

Well, now we're to Sunday. SUNDAY! Oh my gosh, I was so excited all of Church. I could hardly wait for Logan's baptism. And Logan was excited, too. The Cherry Hill Elders brought a smaller suit for Brother Mass, and when they realized that they had left their towels at home, we suggested they use the 6x... hahah.

On a more serious note of the baptism, it was definitely a wonderful experience. Brother and Sister Mass, Sister Mass's parents, and Logan's cousin all came. The whole room was packed with people from the ward, and the Spirit was so strong. I could barely keep from crying I was so happy for the Mass family. When Logan came up out of the water, he gave his dad a big hug. It was the most tender moment, and I teared up.

It's hard to think that less than a month ago Logan approached us and asked us to be taught the missionary lessons. It was such a whirlwind of an experience, and I am so humbled to have been a part of it. I am so, so grateful to be involved in this great work! Logan was so prepared, and I am so proud of him for his decision. Now I'm excited to see him continue to change and grow!!!

Love yous!
Sister Singleton

Selfie!

So.... here's where it shows the awkwardness of taking pictures with people you can't hug.

Snow & Stake Conference

IT SNOWED!

I don't even like snow, but it wasn't really feeling like Christmas. Now it does.

Hello everybody! I would like to start off by following up on what happened to Dobby (our car). We took him into Pep Boys last week and had to leave the car for a couple hours. So the majority of our Pday last week was spent roaming up and down the highway and going into random stores (Pet Smart, Staples, Kohls, 7 Eleven...). But anyway, there wasn't exactly anything wrong that they could find, but for some reason the car is running fine now. I'm convinced that there was some sort of mysterious animal living in the car and when it got discovered it scuttled away.

On Tuesday we had to drive to Philly yet again for Golden Retraining. It's a meeting where trainers and goldens (new missionaries) go for a small conference with President and the Assistants. It was really fun, and once again, we survived the drive. One thing we learned was how to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in eight minutes, and it was neat because you could really feel the Spirit very strong in the whole room. I loved it! Also, President was talking to us about "loopholes" in rules, or how some missionaries try to find exceptions, loopholes, or rationalize certain things. He asked about Christmas music and loopholes that one could find. One Elders' response? "Santa Baby." We all got a laugh out of it.

A lot of the week was spent teaching Logan to make sure that he'll be ready for baptism on the 15th. So we met with him almost every day and it was pretty awesome to see how much his testimony has grown. I'm so excited that he's chosen to follow Christ's example and that I've had the privilege of teaching him.

Saturday we went to the evening session of Stake Conference in Cherry Hill. It was announced that the new focus for all evening sessions (I think across the world, actually) was going to be "Hastening the Work." It was awesome because all the talks were on missionary work and how it's really not that hard to do.
 Elder Evans of the Seventy told a story of how he was assigned to a woman as a Home Teacher and her husband wasn't a member. He brought the missionaries with him and talked to the husband for just a little bit. For years he'd been visited by Home Teachers, so he was pretty familiar with the Church. Elder Evans just asked a couple questions about what his thoughts were and about his feelings of the Church. Elder Evans then said, "Well it sounds like to me if you knew this were true you would be a member, right?" "Yes! But I don't know how to know it's true." "Well, I know some people who are really good at helping you with that..." and he pointed to the missionaries. A couple weeks later the husband was baptized.

Missionary work is so simple. Just love and serve others. It's through our actions that the gospel is preached.

Sunday we had Stake Conference in which a new Stake Presidency was announced. President Corbitt was called to be a mission president, so our new Stake President is President Sikahema. I'm so excited because I was able to get to know the Sikahema's when I was in Moorestown and they're awesome people!

And back to the snow topic: yesterday it snowed all day, and we ended up with about eight inches. People in Jersey have no clue how to drive in snow, so it was interesting to watch.

Well! I love all of you. Be sure to remember Elder Ballard's challenge to "reach out to someone by Christmas." I know that if you take this challenge seriously and pray and look for opportunities to share the gospel, that this Christmas will be much brighter all around the world.

Love,
Sister Singleton

Snow pics

FOOD! Dobby's Dying. It's December!

Hello,

Before you ask about pictures (mom...), yes, I've got a lot to send this week. So there.

Thanksgiving! I do love Thanksgiving, and I'm grateful that I'm serving in the States because I got to eat lots of food and celebrate. Hooray! In fact, President Anderson made a comment on our conference call on Wednesday that he wanted all the missionaries to have "little fat stomachs."

Food stop #1) On Wednesday night we went to the Scheimreif's for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. It was tons of fun and full of hilarious company. They do Thanksgiving dinner the night before because people usually go to extended family the following day. We had a blast there!

Food stop #2) Thursday morning we went to the Mass's for breakfast and to teach Logan. It was funny, because when we showed up it was dead quiet. But here's the thing-- their house is never quiet, except when Brother Mass is gone, haha. So we helped with breakfast a little until everyone came back from the Turkey Bowl. We were able to have fun and also teach the Plan of Salvation.

Food stop #3) Our first official Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving. We had lunch at the Reeve's (which by the way, I'm related to through the Singleton side). We got to meet the Reeve's two sons who were visiting from Philly and North Jersey.

Food stop #4) The Casey's! This was complete madness, chaos, and fun. So......  just like home. We played games while we waited for dinner (air hockey, ping pong, checkers...), and it was tons of fun. We got to meet a lot of their family, and it turns out that Brother Casey grew up in Springville! In fact, his sisters still live there, AND one of them is in my Stake at home and she was visiting for the holiday!

But we had tons of delicious food, and I'm pretty sure by that point I should've just stopped. But oh boy, no need for self-control on a holiday.

Food stop #5) At this point, we're already past uncomfortable, but we had one last stop to Sister Guerrera's house. Sister Guerrera goes to the Spanish branch in Camden, so this was our first time meeting her. She gave us a call on Monday to invite us over, and it was a hilarious phone call because I couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying and it was the back and forth of:

 "What? Could you spell that? Uh... I didn't get that... could you spell that? What? Uh...."  But! We figured it all out and visited her. She gave us pie and apple juice, which was the final tipping point.

So, putting the food aside for a moment:

Thanksgiving really is fantastic. It is an opportunity to stop and be grateful for the things we have. I am so grateful for all the awesome people in my life, and I'm grateful for all that the Lord has blessed me with. Being on a mission is awesome, and I would never take the experience of being out here back. There's a quote that we shared with all the families we saw throughout the week:

"There are 86,400 seconds in a day-- have you used one to say 'thank you?'"

Show your gratitude to Heavenly Father and say thanks for what He's given you.

______________

As for the rest of the week, we went to Kyra's surprise birthday party. It was really fun because we got to meet the Mass's family and be there to support Kyra. She was so mad that everyone knew except her, because apparently she doesn't like surprises, haha.

So, next story: our car, Dobby. Well, Dobby seems to be sick or dying. There's a weird light that keeps coming on, it's making a horrible scraping noise, and the maintenance required light came on permanently on Saturday. We talked to Elder Jones, who's in charge of vehicles, and he told us not to drive it too much on Sunday. Which was going to be super hard, because our plans were all over the place! Well, on Sunday all of our plans fell through. Which ended up being a blessing to us, because Dobby sounded much worse. We ended up going to the Mass's to teach Logan, which was super awesome. I've never seen someone so prepared to hear the gospel! We're SO EXCITED for him.

Love yous!
Sister Singleton 

Brother Mass.

Thanksgiving breakfast.

Food stop #2 (of the day)

Food stop #3 (of the day)

Banners at the Casey's house! (This is for you, Katy!)

The Casey's have a tradition of smashing a chocolate turkey on Thanksgiving. 

We're full.

Kyra's surprise birthday (Monsters University-themed)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation rival house (that's what I call it).

Zone Conference & Gratitude

Greetings!

I honestly don't know much that happened this week. Probably because a missionary's brain can't remember things unless they're written down in a planner. And guess who left their planner at home?

Well, it looks like the best things are first:

We taught Logan this week! The lesson was awesome and he pretty much already knew everything. It was so amazing to see how much the Lord prepared him to hear the Gospel. I couldn't ask for anything better! And the best part is when Sister Wright invited him to be baptized, he said, "Definitely!" I am totally way more excited for his baptism than for Christmas.

And another great thing involving the Mass's (you'll start to notice that almost all awesome things in the Medford ward involve the Mass's): they got sealed on Saturday! I so wish that I could've gone, but we were so excited that Brother and Sister Mass could be sealed together for eternity!

On Thursday we had Zone Conference. We thought we left early enough to get to Philly on time, but we were wrong. We showed up right as it started, which is always awkward. But it was my first time driving to and in Philly, so my nerves were on fire. When we went across the Ben Franklin Bridge it was mass chaos and I was just like, "AHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Driving in the city is always kind of a crazy thing. Also, people park their cars in the turn lane. I will admit that I haven't seen that before. But we made it.

Zone Conference was amazing! President talked a lot about how we need to be more effective teachers. A lot of the time when we (missionaries and members alike) teach, we tend to over-complicate things. We add in stuff that doesn't really matter. And it starts to detract from the Spirit. in the scriptures the Lords says: "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." (Doctrine & Covenants 88:73) So shouldn't we hasten our work?

President Anderson had us practice teaching the Restoration in seven minutes. It was definitely tough, but the more we did it, the more we realized that people don't need to hear everything, they just need to feel it. And the best part is: we've already seen two awesome miracles because of it! The first was on Thursday night when we were heading to dinner after Zone Conference. We decided to teach the Restoration simply and it was so powerful! We were able to teach a less active family and the daughter's non-member boyfriend, and we ended up leaving him a Book of Mormon and he came to church! It was so awesome!

The next miracle was on Sunday. We stopped by a headquarter referral that we had talked to two weeks ago. We asked if they had 15 minutes for us to share a message and they invited us in. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the mom was very emotional the whole time. The Spirit was so strong, and we were able to testify, teach, and answer questions in about 20 minutes.  Needless to say, I love that President Anderson has been inspired to help us become better teachers. I challenge all of you to learn how to teach the Restoration simply and concisely.

On Friday I went on exchanges with Sister Haas, who came up to Medford with me. We taught the White family, whose son was technically a convert baptism, but only because he's 10. So we had a blast with them. I tried to make an origami parakeet, but the instructions were vague and I just couldn't make the beak. Sad day.

And finally, with Thanksgiving this week, I'd just like to say a few things I'm truly grateful for:

First and foremost, I'm grateful for the Restored Gospel. Without it, I would not be as happy as I am. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and for their infinite love for us. Everything that I have is because of them. I'm also grateful for the Book of Mormon, and for the fullness of truth that it gives us.

I am also grateful for an awesome family. I love every one of you wholly, completely, even if we drive each other nuts sometimes. I couldn't ask for a better family.

I am so incredibly grateful for every single person in my life. Everyone has played such a different role, and I know that my friends, the people I've served with and around, and all those who I've known have been such a help to me. Thank you all so much for your love, and for being you.

And finally, I'm grateful for love. There is no maximum capacity to love, and being on a mission helps me see a little bit more what Heavenly Father feels for each of us.

Love,
Sister Singleton