Hard Things and Delicious Food

 Well another week has gone by. I can't really understand how time actually goes by because ever day seems to never end and then suddenly I'm back to another Monday sending emails. It doesn't make any sense to me, but hey I'm okay with that. 

This week was actually really great. Sister Astorga and I made some wonderful progress in finding people who were interested and with one of the current people we are teaching. He doesn't have any religious background and doesn't believe in God... but wants to learn about why people read the Bible and why religion is so precious to so many people. And this week we had the best lesson with him of all time. He still doesn't believe in God but he is open to the possibility that maybe there is. He sees holes in the things he grew up learning and told us that we motivated him to want to pray and find out if there is a God. Can I just say there is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone that you really don't actually know that well, but love with more of your heart than you can explain says something like that?!? When they tell you they appreciate the effort that we are making to teach him and help him. There is nothing better. It's fulfilling, rewarding, and is the reason why I'm on my mission. It's amazing the way everyone just grows into your heart and you love them so much.

At the same time, this was the worst week of my mission. When Sister Astorga and I were sent to our area, the mission president told us that we would be opening a new area and that we should do that however we felt would be best. And since we live with another set of sisters and have to share a car and the current area was SO big, we decided to be an area by people. Well, this week, the President decided that he wanted a geographical boundary for our area... which meant that no matter how we split the area, we would have to pass our people to the other sisters. There is nothing worse than the feeling of leaving them. We found, taught and connected with them and loved them so much... and now with our boundaries being different, we have to pass them on to the other sisters. It is the hardest thing. And it breaks my heart. And now I know exactly how each time I'm transferred is going to feel. Except that it'll be worse because I won't be in the same ward as them if they join the church. Oh being a missionary is hard. But God is in it. I don't know why, but there are reasons for what is happening. Things that we don't know or understand are always in  the details for why things happen. And as hard as it is, all you can do is trust that God knows what he is doing and it'll work out.

There is one investigator that the other sisters found that is amazing and is a gourmet cook. So we get DELICIOUS food from him all the time. Probably 2-3 a week. It's incredible what he feeds us. He actually is getting baptized this month and we are more than excited for him. This is a picture of one of the meals that he fed us. It was so good as always. In our ward there are 4 sets of missionaries and so the ward members like to have all or some of us over at the same time.... so we get fed a lot. It's really great to see the members so excited to have us here(:  

Also, at our last district meeting, we had a contest and our district leaders had a bunch of old trophies from a ward member who was getting rid of them.... We won.... 3rd. But should have gotten 4th... because we cheated a little.... hehehe.... We repented. But it's a really cool trophy. It says "BEST IN BREED" across the front. It's really nice and is a fun memory(: 

Finally Getting Warm

Hello! 

This week has been pretty great! We are super blessed up here in New York. We've been very sloooowly finding people who either want us to teach them or like us enough that they'll allow us to come over a second time. It's a challenge, but I've found that if they talk to us once and are friendly in that encounter, they normally will talk to us again. Up here where we are, the church isn't known much (or at all) and so no one realizes that we are pretty much normal people. This is so sad to me because this is the place it all started! WHY don't people even know about us. That's why we are here I guess. 

In the last little bit, we found this perfect little lady and her husband while walking and I adore them. I can't get over them. She is especially precious... they both went to the Sacred Grove 10 or so years ago and both felt the Spirit so strongly and she told us that she knows it's true. Ah, I can't handle it. But alas, they currently are very involved in a biker church and by very involved I mean that her husband is an ordained preacher. So we really don't know where this is going to go. But they want us to come over and eat salads and baked goods with them and talk about God and since we love them and have very few people to teach we are all for it. I'm actually really excited to see what happens. I love them so much. 

I actually love everyone here so much. Especially the people we are teaching/contacting as friends right now. We are super blessed and I just can't handle it! This is why I'm here... for them and it's happening and I am so happy.

So these pictures... One of them is me on my bed as it was for the last three weeks. As a visa waiter to a hot place like Brazil, I have literally nothing to keep warm. No coats or blankets or sweaters or tights. Nothing. BUT when I go to the mission home, one of the Older couple missionaries gave me that wonderful coat up cuddled up under on my bed in the picture. And since It is as cold as Alaska in our house even when it's warm outside, I really had that and two small blankets to sleep with. So that was a fun adventure... curling up under that all the time. But then the mission sent us more blankets and every night is oh-so-cozy now. And slowly, I'm accumulating warmer clothes from Walmart every P-day. 

Also that is a picture of the biggest cupcakes in the world. We ate them at a Family Home Evening that the ward holds in a member's home for any one and they love it when the missionaries come. So we went that night and it was delightful. Those are all the four lovely sisters who live together.  This week certainly has been a food week. We have been given pies and cup cakes and the members always shove dessert into us after making us eat everything in their house beforehand. It's a pretty great life to lead. I love being a missionary.

Moroni 7:33 "If ye have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." Remember that! Whatsoever thing! What a promise is that. If we simply have faith we can do what God requires. And as a missionary, you realize just how much help you really do need to do what God requires, because talking to strangers isn't anything easy!

Love you and have a great week!

-Sister Damstedt

Drowned Biker?

This week the weather has been the weirdest. So I get here and the first day is sweltering. IT is so hot. And then the next night it's freezing. And it goes back and forth all over the place every few nights. Getting up in the morning is REAL hard when it's cold.... and I often fall asleep while I'm praying. It's a struggle every morning and I'm trying my best to repent and do better. But there was the first rainy day. And of course since I didn't plan to be a biker, I'm in a biking mission. Well Sister Astorga and I got to ride around in the rain and get all wet and dirty and talk to a few people and it was great. It rains A LOT when it decides to rain and the streets, sidewalks, and front yards get really flooded. Everything is uneven so there are some parts that are perfectly dry and others that have literally like 17 feet of water. It's pretty fun. In a wet kind of cold way.

Also, the first day of biking, Sister Astorga's bike likes to break... so we get to play mechanics and fix it. or walk home and wait for you upstairs neighbor from Tonga to help us fix it. That might have happened. 

Really though, other than the weather and the other small things like I wish I had my sweaters to snuggle into and that no one really wants to talk to us, things are going great. My companion is a doll and the two sisters we room with are something else. We are having as much fun as a missionary is allowed to have(; ha. Sometimes more though. 

Have a great day! D&C 6:36. I wrote it in my planner and don't know why or what it says, so hope it could maybe apply to someone out there(: Enjoy!

-Sister Damstedt

Well here I am in NEW YORK. Being a missionary and whatnot. I will tell you right now that this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and it has only been about 5 days. It is something else. The MTC doesn't prepare you for squat. Especially if you spend all your time learning Portuguese. BUt that is ok. I'm learning quick.

So I have a story about my companion: Sister Astorga. She is a doll and I love her to death. She is from Guatemala and is Fluent in Spanish. ANd wouldn't you know, Portuguese. (she says she isn't, but she can speak it) The cool part about this story is that my mission president didn't know that she was fluent when he assigned us together. This was SUCH a tender mercy from the Lord. We also are living with two other sisters, one who is going to The Brazil Rebeirao Preto mission just like me. So three of the four in our house can speak together. It is the BIGGEST blessing. Even if we don't always use it as much as we should. It just showed me how much God does love me and wants me to be successful in my mission, in New York and later in Brazil.

On my first day here, President Francis took all the new missionaries to a bunch of the church sites. It was a miraculous day! We went to the Hill Cumorah, the Joseph Smith houses, the Sacred Grove and a few other places. The Sacred Grove was my favorite. We always talk about the first vision and that it happened in the Sacred Grove... but I guess it had never really been real to me. I mean it was real but it just was one of those things. But then we went and I was there and it WAS real. President let us go off alone for a little bit and I cannot describe the way that place feels. We have the ability to bring in a testifying spirit when we talk about this experience, but to BE THERE was something else entirely. Sitting on a bench I was looking around and it was so clear. This happened. It happened here. And I knew it. More than I have ever known. Joseph Smith saw God and he restored the church. I cannot deny it. The coolest thing about my mission is that all the sisters who are called to serve here work as tour guides at all these sites, so I've been learning SO much about the early history of the church. There is a nickname for our mission and it's the Cradle of the Restoration. Everything that happened in the first few years of the Restoration happened in my mission. There is a Spirit in those sites that cannot be replicated. I know it is holy ground and I know that it is true. If nothing else comes from my time spent in New York, I will know that more than I ever have. But more things will happen for me than just that. They already are.

It's a privilege and a blessing to be a servant for the Lord. It is hard and it is tedious work, but it is not harder and it is not more tedious than what our Savior had to do while he was doing the Father's work. And I am here to find and teach those who are ready to receive this truth. Some days I don't know how that will happen, but I've been called to do it and I know it will. 

Here is a nother picture. I stayed in the house that Brigham Young's father built my first night in the mission. It was the best night sleep I'd had in 6 weeks and probably will be for my whole mission!

First Photo from New York

First photo from New York.  One of these other sister missionaries had her family come to pick her up and the mom sent me this photo of Carrie with these two other missionaries.
Suzanne

Reassignment While Waiting for my Visa

Hey friends and family,

Today was a great extra surprise pday. I got all packed and am basically ready to leave the MTC. Minus the fact that there is a day in between now and when I leave. So basically I'm going to be living out of the free bin because I don't know where any of my things are in my suitcases, I packed and repacked them like 4000 times to be able to make the weight in each. I'm ultra bummed that I had to get another bag... All of those books they give you really weigh you down, literally. And seeing as I'm still supposed to be able to communicate once I finally get to Brazil, I need to take them with me. But still I don't know where All the other stuff came from. I mean I picked up a few t-shirts from the free bin because I realized that I needed more work out shirts as a runner because I sweat a lot apparently. Since I've never been a runner, I never would have known that. I'm not REALLY a runner now... but for the majority of gym times, I've been working on it. And I am quite pleased to announce that probably three weeks into my stay, I successfully ran two consecutive miles without stopping. And I'm am proud of it.

Mostly though, other than packing, there isn't really much going on. Just waiting and still studying in Portuguese. Which makes sense since I'm not going to Brazil. But really, I do love Portuguese and I love how far I've come and how awesome I feel like I am. Sometimes during lessons I forget that I'm speaking in Portuguese. I forget that it's not English and that I'm not really logically supposed to be more comfortable in this language than the one I've spoken for the last 19 years of my life. I love how that happened. The other day I was asked to pray before our service project and I had to do it in English and it was the hardest prayer I have ever given. I seriously haven't prayed in all English for over a month. Praying is normal to me in Portuguese now. And I think I probably won't switch back. I mean I use English when I can't think of words or don't know them, but mostly it's Portuguese. 

Oh, I got to leave the MTC again. One of my companions had to get their wisdom teeth out yesterday because they didn't actually have room for them when her dentist said they did so it was infected and causing problems. So we went out and got that done and it was just as weird as the first time. I'm not sure how the world outside of this place works anymore. I'm going to have to adjust a lot. 

Well, here are some pictures: 

1) Me pointing at BOTH of my missions! How blessed am I?? I get two missions! And I couldn't be happier. I can't even believe that it was only yesterday that I got my reassignment. It just seems so normal that I'm going to New York. It seems so perfect and I can't wait! Fun possibility about my mission: the Sacred Grove might be in it. HOW GREAT would that be if I got to visit. Oh how I hope it is in my mission and oh how I hope I get to go. That would make me so extraordinarily happy. 

2)This is a rock that has been in our room for the last few weeks. It's kind of like a pet in a way. We love it. We found it while cleaning out a pipe chase for service and decided to keep it just in case we needed to give someone as a present again like we did for one of our Elder's birthday. But we didn't need to and we (mostly me) became sort of attached to it. It is a really nice rock. (sorry it's sideways. Computers are hard and I can't make them work) 

I hope that all is well wherever you are. Have a great day and know that you are in God and mine's thoughts!

-Sister Damstedt

Hey friends(:

I just looked at my reassignment(: 

I just can't handle how excited I am for this. 

It was like a second mission call except for this time I didn't want to open it. 

But as soon as I looked and as soon as I saw it, I knew that this is where I'm supposed to go before Brazil. 

So here is what you all are waiting for: 

I have been reassigned to labor in the New York Rochester Mission until my visa comes(: 

I can't stop smiling. 

I'll be leaving the MTC on Monday morning at 3:35 am to catch my 8:25 am flight. 

I can't wait to finally go out into the world and serve the God I love. 

This is my time and it's finally here. 

I am a missionary. 

And I know this church is true. 

With love to you all, 

-Sister Damstedt ~Now a member of the New York Rochester Mission ~(: 

(: