Merry Christmas! 12/22/14

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wow I can't believe it is already the week of Christmas! This last week went pretty crazy! I was able to send off Sister Smith back to good old Rexburg, Idaho. It was bitter sweet, but I was happy for her. She will be the second comp I have sent home and somehow I survived through it haha. My new comp is pretty awesome. Sister Wood is from Ogden, Utah and is a year younger than me. She has been out for 10 months and is a super good missionary. We have had lots of fun so far for the 6 days that I have been with her. We have been able to go around a lot this week and have her meet a lot of the members and less actives. She is so pumped to serve here and knows there are going to be lots of miracles here. We get along pretty well. Guess who finally gets to drive!? Thats right this girl does :) It has been a pretty good and busy week. 

Last night we decided to go contact a former that I have never met before and it turns out she is totally golden! Sarah is ready to be baptized and on board with everything. The only thing that is holding everything back is that her work won't let her take Sundays off so we are going to work through that and pray a lot so we can get her baptized! She really loves sisters and told us we can stop by anytime. 

I am so excited to be able to talk to my family on Christmas! I can't believe how quick it all came up! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember to #Sharethegift. Also, if you haven't seen it yet, go watch the Piano Guys latest video on YouTube about Sharing the Gift! We got to see that video and I thought it was so cool. I am sure you all have probably heard about it since it was filmed in Provo, Utah, but go watch it again because David Archuleta is in it! 

We have a few families we will be going over to for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Please pray that we will be able to fill our day up more. We are kind of struggling with that. Merry Christmas everyone and I will see you on Thursday! Love you all

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Lake Geneva... One of my favorite towns

Sister Smith and I before she headed home!

Oliver Cowdry's brothers grave in Elkhorn

New Comp. Sister Wood from Ogden UT

8 MONTHS DOWN

15 months down for Elder Taylor

Christmas! 12/15/14

Hello Family and Friends!

Christmas is sure sneaking up on us fast isn't it?! I can't believe it is already the Christmas season. A year ago, I was anxiously waiting for my mission call to come and it has already been a whole year! ha I remember running up to the mailbox and having my brother, Aaron, film me as I open the mailbox and me hysterically laughing that it wasn't in there...it ended up coming the next day which was December 19th 2013...I am weird how I remember this stuff haha 

But that day was a really cool day. I remember bringing it inside and it was all wet because that week it had snowed really heavy. As I came in with the big envelope, i just stared at it. I was home alone and didn't know what to do with myself. I left it on the counter and went to watch a movie on Netflix to distract myself. Ha I was too anxious to focus on a movie. My mom came through the front door with some groceries and I ran up to her with the envelope. We were both so excited. I texted all the party that would be coming over that night and let them know the party was on. I remember my mom had seen the garbage man outside gathering the garbage. She felt she needed to make them some hot chocolate and thank them for their service on this awful snowy day. I had never seen anyone make hot chocolate faster. She quickly ran out side and used all her awesome skills to not slip while making it to their window before they left our street. Well she made it and there was no slips involved. I just kind of stood there in aw as my mom had shown this amazing Christlike act. If I had blinked I would have missed it! 

Now a year has gone by and look where we all are now! I am on this crazy and amazing mission and I have been able to teach so many people about this message that is more than just a couple of pamphlets and a book. It is the key to everyone's salvation. I heard a quote a long time ago somewhere...."If you had the cure to Cancer would you keep it to yourself?" Absolutely NOT! That is what I feel this Gospel holds. It is the answer to all our questions. It is the key to happiness. It is the only way to be with our families for eternity. I am just so grateful for the spot I am in my life right now. I am grateful for the friendships I have and have been able to make stronger. I love my family and I love that we are so close now. People have been asking me lately who my favorite sibling is and who I get a long with the most. I honestly can't pick just one. I have been able to become close with all of them before my mission so I can't say I have a favorite. I am close to them all, but in different ways. I just think it is kind of crazy how it all happened. The one thing I never thought would happen would be Matt and I to become best friends haha I still laugh at everything we did as little ones...I am so grateful that we finally matured..somewhat :) I guess this email is just me saying that I love you guys so much! I am so excited to talk with you on Christmas and I am so happy that Jon and Clarissa get to come home for Christmas as well. 

As I am preparing for a new comp this Wednesday, things are becoming crazy. A typical last few weeks before a missionary leaves for home is quite crazy. We have been running around everywhere so Sister Smith can say goodbye to everyone and get pictures with them. It is really cool to see though. The members adore her and some even weep...a lot. At this time it is still hard for me to understand why they all have a hard time when everyone has Facebook nowadays and that the moment she leaves they will all be able to talk with her an hour later, but at this time I am really learning how to endure to the end. I know I won't quite understand until I get there, but I really do hope that I will be able to have a wonderful friendship with the ward that I will leave. It is so cool to watch. I hope to become that wonderful example that the members look up to. Well, guess I will talk to you all on Christmas! I will get you the details soon!

love you all

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Share the gift 12/08/14

Hello Family and Friends!

This week was pretty good. We went on exchanges again with the Sister Training Leaders and that went really well. I was able to be with Sister Silcox again and we had a lot of fun. She is super nice and really listens to me. She will be going home December 18th just like Sister Smith so I will miss her as well, but I was grateful to be able to serve with her for a little while as well. 

On Wednesday, Sister Silcox and I had an awesome lesson with an investigator, Vicki. She lives in Lake Geneva. We asked her what holds her back from reading the Book of Mormon and she had told us that she just can't really get into it. I had a thought for us to read about when Christ came to the Americas after his Crucifixion. So we ended up reading that and she really loved it! She told us that now because of that story she wants to know more and read it! Yay! I didn't think I was very good at listening to the spirit in these kind of situations, but this helped confirm to me! We will be going back over there this week so I am excited to find out how her reading is going. 

On Friday we went to Burlington and tried this new way to find people to teach...It is like a survey of some sort and instead of tracting that no one likes, we have this paper that had 10 questions on it about people's beliefs and stuff. (it is kind of hard to explain sorry. I will try my best though). So we just go door to door or we can street contact as well and we ask people these 10 harmless questions. it is pretty cool and because of it, we were able to meet a 95 year old lady. she was so healthy and still up and active! it was crazy. but sadly she didn't care to learn more about our church. she was really nice though. 

Overall it was a pretty ok week. nothing too exciting..yet haha

hope you all have a wonderful week!

remember to #sharethegift :)

love you all

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Happy Thanksgiving! Hello December! 12/01/14

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving :) We were able to have 3 Thanksgivings...haha not exactly what I was hoping for since my stomach isn't that big! haha but it went well.

The first family we went to are the Hellers. They are a part member family. The parents are members and the step kids are not. They struggle a lot but we are continuing to build them up and help them know their Savior. The food was delicious of course. We shared with them a cool little Thanksgiving Mormon message and they all loved it. We all went around the room and asked them what they are thankful for and every time someone said "Family" all the kids would go up and hug that person. It began to be very cute to watch and the spirit became so strong. It was awesome to see this because there has been a lot of contention in their home between everyone. We were so happy to bring love and the spirit of Christ into their home. They made a Turkey cake out of Twinkies so we grabbed a Twinkie and were off to our next ward family home.

Tim and Joleen Carson are recent converts to the church. I think She joined about a year ago and he joined maybe 6 months ago. They opened up their house to us and the elders. Their dinner looked delicious, but sadly I was coming down with a migraine so I laid down on their couch while they ate dinner. But it was good to see them and Joleen is very nice. She knows like everything from candle making to beekeeping! haha

We had a dinner with a Hispanic family in the ward, but my migraine was not going away sadly so we went home and I went to bed. I felt bad for Sister Smith for ruining her Thanksgiving, but she said it wasn't a problem.

Yesterday at church for 5th Sunday, us missionaries and the ward missionaries gave a lesson about member missionary work. It went really well. I wasn't too excited to be talking in front of everyone though. I was super nervous and I didn't know what to say. When I got up there I ended up sharing about why I decided to go on a mission. I told about how I prayed about what to do and that I got a great confirmation to serve a mission. It went really well and I ended up becoming really confident later in my story. It brought back a lot of good feelings and helped me to stay motivated. It felt really good to share that and a lot of the adults came up to me later and thanked me for sharing. 

I hope this week goes well for you all! I love you guys!

This bird came and sat by me during my studies!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

My first Baptism 11/24/14

Hello Family and Friends,

Well I officially have a baptism on my mission and it only took 7 1/2 months! haha But that is ok. Sorry if the picture isn't a good one. I could barely see if that was the one where we weren't closing our eyes lol

The people from left to right are Tim Crager (a member that became really good friends with Eric), Eric Bain (the new member! ), Christine Bain (Eric's sister..not a member..yet), Sister Smith, and me. After the baptism we had an awesome after-party at Eric's house with Pumpkin pie and the famous Cheeseburger soup! Its a rave here in Elkhorn, everyone loves Cheeseburger soup made by The Eric Bain. It was a good time and then he got confirmed Sunday by Tim. 

The baptism was a great spiritual experience! His family was there and they said they loved it afterward. We hope that will spark their interest to start taking the lessons as well since they have been able to see the joy that it has brought Eric. While Eric was changing we shared 2 videos to everyone and it made the spirit so strong. They are a couple of my favorite videos. Go watch them when you get the chance! If you have already seen them...watch them again!

http://easter.mormon.org/ and https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-11-018-a-book-of-mormon-story?lang=eng

I am excited to go baptize more! Love you all!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

I love the Temple! 11/21/14

Hello Family and Friends!

I know its Friday and I am emailing..weird huh?! :) Well today Sister Smith and I had the opportunity to go to the Chicago Temple with some members and it was a blast! We actually just got back from it all and it was all so renewing and wonderful. Sadly, I forgot my camera cord today so no pictures will be sent out today :( mybad.

The experience was so amazing though and Sister Smith and I stayed in the Celestial room for the longest time. We were trying to soak all we could in before we went back out into the world. It was so wonderful to be able to sit in peace and quiet and just listen to the spirit. Inside the temple was beautiful and we could have stared at the chandelier forever. The Chicago temple is pretty small. It is about the size as a Utah stake center, but it still holds up to its beauty. Although it isn't my favorite temple, I still will have a special place for it in my heart as our experience was so renewing. I truly needed it on my mission. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to go and it was a wonderful and beautiful day to go as well. We also got to stop at a place called the Oasis which had a bunch of fast food places that are inside a bridge over the freeway. I was able to get Panda Express which I have been craving since I left home...That was the last meal I had at home for breakfast haha Thanks Natalie :)

Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day as well. My first baptism and I am so excited! Eric is 22 and he is the first one to be baptized in his family. We hope to start teaching his family too very soon. He is so prepared to be baptized and he has such a great testimony. Pictures will be included on Monday :) I know I have already said it before, but gosh I just love this gospel! It is sad when people don't accept it because there are so many things they have no idea about that they are missing out on. I want to help those people to be able to open their eyes and see that things can be better even in this evil world. I know I am on a mission to do that and I am so grateful to be here. I love you all!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton :)

 

Week 30 Baptism and the Temple! 11/10/14

Hello Family and Friends!

It was such an amazing week and Sister Smith and I are both so excited for our baptism coming up this next Monday or Saturday the 22nd...we still need to figure some stuff out, but that's beside the point! It will be my first baptism!!! geez only took 7 months! Which reminds me! I hit my 7 month mark yesterday and it was awesome! 7 month still is kind of little compared to those 14 month people haha but I am growing so much and I love it :) Also President Cutler thought it was funny to give me another companion that would be going home....So I get to send Sister Smith home Dec 18...its not that it is bad, but my trainer was going home as well and it just makes things 10 times more hard, but this time I know how to be stronger. Sister Smith isn't too trunky anyways though so I guess it could be worse. I know everything will go well though and we can't wait for Eric's baptism. Also we are most likely going to the Chicago temple Nov 21 with an awesome member, Vicki Crager ( by the way Mom, I have found more Star Valley people that you might know! I will get the info and get back to you). The plans aren't finalized yet, but if we do go it will take out our pday..I don't really know how all that works yet though. But I am excited because I really miss the temple!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and it really went so well! I was able to invite a family in Kenosha to baptism and I didn't mess up! Sister Smith stayed in Elkhorn with Sister Reed and I went to Kenosha with Sister Silcox. I feel like I really was able to grow a lot more and Sister Silcox and I really hit it off. She is going into Fashion as well and she has a missionary in Mexico! It was so awesome to be able to relate to her. I asked her where in Utah she found a fashion program and she said she was doing a program though Utah State that lets you kind of create your own major and then she is able to finish up her fashion classes at Salt Lake Community College with a Bachelors in Fashion. I was so speechless when I hear all about this...I had no idea that there were schools that offered this...I am going to still think about it and when I get home I still want to research out other things too, but I want to look into it. But besides all that...My testimony strengthened so much on this exchange. I was able to experience being a true BOLD missionary. I have always struggled with being outgoing and such, but I really saw the change in me this time. I felt like this was really a successful exchange and I have been trying better at being that same awesome missionary in Elkhorn. I am excited to be here and work. Elkhorn is such a great place and there are so many people that are ready here. It also is such a small world here where everyone knows everyone so we find ways to teach more people that way and soon this whole town will be Mormon! :)

This weekend was also Stake Conference for the Milwaukee Stakes and it was so good. I love the way they do the talks now. (Maybe they have always done them this way and I never paid attention though :/) The recent converts will always speak in both sessions and it is so awesome for our investigators and us to hear their strong testimonies. I have just noticed that doing this really strengthens and builds everyone's testimony even more. We were able to hear so many strong testimonies that haven't even been in the church a year.

 

I know this church is TRUE! I really can't imagine not having the gospel in my life, probably because I have always been in it, but seriously I wouldn't be able to stand on my own two feet if it weren't for Jesus Christ and what he did for each and everyone of us. I really love this gospel! It is truly the key to happiness in this life and even after that. I hope my family knows that I really have a firm belief in this church. I want them to know that I really love them and I know that this whole "eternity" thing is real. I want to see them all in that Celestial Kingdom :)

Thank you everyone for the support and love you have given to me! This mission is so amazing and it is just what I need. I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton :)

 

My district 

Sister Eaton on far right and comp. Sister Smith next to her 

7 months down for Sister Eaton

 14 months for Elder Taylor 

Week 29 Enduring to the End 11/3/14

Hello Family and Friends,

We had a good week this week, but it was a bit of a struggle. I have been sick now for about 2 weeks and it wouldn't go away. Mom, I tried everything! But today I am finally starting to feel better and so things are looking up now!

We were able to get a baptism date last night and we are all excited! Eric has been investigating the church since July I think. He really loves the Book of Mormon and is so excited to be baptized. We all decided that he will be baptized on his birthday, November 17. It is a Monday, but we decided to make an exception since he wants to have a "Re-birthday". We are all so excited and think it will be an awesome and spiritual baptism. Eric already has such a strong testimony. I love to see the changes people make out here! Its so awesome to see them from day one to day 100! The progress that is made is so amazing. With God's help anything is truly possible! 

Halloween went well, I mean it isn't exactly the funnest on a mission, but we manged to have some fun and get candy. Thank you family for the package you sent me! It was perfect and just what I needed. I will send pictures of it. Rachel, those pictures of Ruby were priceless! I was dying laughing. Our ward had a Trunk or Treat Halloween Party on the 29th so we went to that and had a lot of investigators and potentials there. It was good to have everyone there and to be fellowshipped. Sister Smith and I tried our best to have a Halloween costumed put together. She was Ana from Frozen because all the little girls here think she really looks like her and I was Little Red Riding Hood because of my red coat. 

We have some bad news :( Our mission president emailed us and announced that there are some complications with the iPads so it will be a while until they arrive. I am pretty bummed because I was totally feeling that they would be here this month, but he said to not even count on anytime before January...so darn it, but oh well. It is just annoying that they keep saying things and then they don't happen. I guess this is where patience comes in :p

Right now the work is booming in Elkhorn though. People are ready and we are getting the Lord's work done here. We have an investigator, Heidi, who knows EVERYONE! So we get a lot of investigator referrals from her. I am doing well and learning a lot. This mission has been such a great experience for me and I have gone through many challenges. I know there are more to come as well so I try my best to look for the good and be positive. I miss you all so much and being sick has been pretty crappy because I have become a little homesick, but I know that if I keep going I won't regret it and many blessings will come from it. I love you all so much! Thank you for all the letters and support. Have a great week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Halloween- dressed as Little Red Riding Hood

 Looks like she got our package, zebra footie jammies! 

 First snow on Halloween 

Week 28 Cough Achoo

Hello Family & Friends,

Oh wow this week had been pretty crazy. Guess who has a lovely cold!! yup I do..ugh this is like the first thing that had made me homesick. Last night I got no sleep at all. We went and bought medicine today so hopefully i will feel better soon. Mom, I miss you taking care of me and I really miss being able to just stay in bed. There is no time to take breaks. Too many appointments! Aw oh well...guess it will help me become tough right? Like Mom would always say..."just buck up!" I still wonder where she got that from..

So I hoped you enjoyed the flower boy story from last week. Don't worry, everyone here thinks I am 12...so I am pretty safe. I told Sister Smith that she needs to start dumbing down and acting more immature because she just got asked out AGAIN last night by another investigator....he thought she was much older...like 20 years older...haha 

We are staying safe though. I promise we are never alone with these sketchy Wisconsinites. I know we have to be smart and be cautious of people. Mom and Dad, you know how paranoid I am about people kidnapping me. So I still put up my guard. We also pray A LOT. 

We are hoping to get new baptismal dates this week. We have an investigator named Eric and he is really close. He really has enjoyed the singles ward and he actually went on a date this week with a Mormon girl and he told us it was "wonderful" so thats good. :)

Yesterday morning I totally biffed it down the stairs of the apartment. Sister Smith thought I passed out because i haven't been feeling well. It pretty much hurt a lot and I got some scrapes but we keep laughing about it. I am so clumsy sometimes. 

Last week for Pday we went and strolled around Lake Geneva! It was wonderful and beautiful. I got a cool Lake Geneva hoodie! Hallelujah for warmth. No more souvenirs for me for a long time.... :)

It was fun to look in all the shops though. I felt like I was back in San Francisco again :)

Today we are just going to relax and let my body rest...I would much rather have my head chopped off at this point. Mom I bought bean with bacon soup today:) Hopefully that will help me feel better. I just want you all to know that I have been able to maintain my weight so far! :) hehe 

Ok sorry for no awesome story today. I must go and feel better.

Pray for me.

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Countdown for Sister Eaton

 Countdown for Elder Taylor 

Week 27: Flowers at Church

Hey Family and Friends!

Wow where do I begin?! Well this week was pretty full of events haha Sister Smith and I have had a lot of fun. I wish she wasn't going home so soon because she makes things fun, but we also get things done here. Elkhorn is definitely moving along faster than Green Bay was. We were able to have some really good and spiritual lessons this week. We do have 2 baptismal dates, but we most likely will move those back since the two girls we are teaching aren't quite ready yet, but we have a lot of potential here and I am just so excited to see a baptism here and my 1st one on my mission! It is going to be awesome and it is going to happen soon. The members here are awesome and love us all to death! They really use us (in a good way haha) and they love to feed us too <3 My family must be putting me in the Temple prayer roll or something ;) Thanks guys :)

I have met so many people and we give Book of Mormons out like crazy. It is just so cool and I love that people show genuine interest in it here. On Saturday we were like 10 minutes away from the border! It was so cool and we almost drove down there to take a pic, but we didn't have enough time. On our way back we saw this guy on the side of the road and stopped and talked to him. He has traveled all around the country and it was so cool. He was pretty nice but a little crazy too ha but we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that it could help find his way. Then on our way home we stopped in Fontana. Fontana and Lake Geneva are those most gorgeous cities around this time! We were driving home through it all and we just had to stop and take pictures! These two trees were the most gorgeous things ever! Sister Smith was able to take some panoramic picture and it turned out amazing!

On Sunday we had quite an adventure...So a guy, Miguel, that the sisters met before has come to church twice now, which is great, but he is a little flirty and has a huge crush on Sister Smith so we have been trying to pass him off too the elders but he wont meet with them. So right now he just comes to church. We can't really teach him. Well....Sunday, (get this, it was ward conference so all the stake presidency was there) Miguel walks in late with a BOUQUET OF FLOWERS in his arms and walks all the way to the front where we were sitting and gives them to Sister Smith...EVERYBODY SAW THIS! Oh my goodness, I couldn't hold my laughter in, but I had to because there was an investigator sitting by me as well...Sister Smith did exactly this...Threw them under the pew in front of us and turned the color of her hair. She told Miguel to sit down and probably started freaking out in here head...they were totally roses too...

The ward mission leader offered to talk to Miguel for us about all this...Hopefully that will help, but he will still want to investigate...guess we will know if it was just because of Sister Smith. I told her to stop dressing cute. Everyone else told me I didn't need to worry it for me because I look like I am 15...ugh its a blessing and a curse...Good thing I already have the One though :)

Anyways after Miguel left and church was over...everyone had a laugh and we were all excited to have journal worthy stuff to write about.

Today we went to Lake Geneva and it was so beautiful. A lady in the ward gave us hair cuts and my hair is so soft again! yay!

We should be setting some new baptisimal dates this week so I am excited :) 

Oh! on Friday we also got to see "Meet the Mormons"! I bawled and bawled and I loved it! If you haven't seen it yet...go see it!! 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Week 26: Elkhorn!

Hey Family and Friends!

This is so weird...I am not in Green Bay anymore and the things that we do down in Elkhorn are way different! haha but i am surviving. So wow a lot has happened and I don't even know where to begin, but everything has gone by so fast and I can't believe I am in a new area and I have already been out for 6 months! Yay! (Dang i don't have the countdowns ready yet :( I will get those soon Rachel and Cody haha).

Anyway so I am like so busy now, its not even real. My new companion is Sister Smith. She is from Rexburg Idaho and we like to talk a lot about Idaho :) Turns out that her dad is best friends with Kendall Christiansen! So we had a a long conversation about Rorie and Kendall. By the way where are they now? Last I heard, they moved to Florida. I would love to get their email or address mom. thanks. 

Sister Smith is 20 just like me, but she will be going home in December so she is towards the end of her mission. We have been getting a long quite well. Last night we had a long conversation about our lives and we were able to talk a lot about our families and how we grew up and stuff. She listened to me babble on a lot haha I was surprised she didn't fall asleep. 

Elkhorn has a lot of people they are teaching right now and it really is booming! Because of the challenge the whole mission did to pray for a baptism before GenCon they have been able to receive a lot of baptisms. The missionaries here are very obedient and they don't let any time fly by without getting something done. I have a lot to adjust to because Green Bay was pretty slow and struggling a lot...so no more tracting for me! haha the best part...I get to finally live in an apartment :) its one of the best things ever! I love it so far and i sleep great!

Since Wisconsin can be sort of a gloomy state in the winter, we get an hour worth of exercise in the morning now. It started after GenCon so now we will be going out about a half hour later, but that is ok. Also as you can see my pday is a little different now. I probably wont be on every Monday morning at 9:00 (Mountain time) anymore. Most likely it will be later in the day now and some other bad news...I only have an hour and a half for emails now!!! ah i am still panicking because I dont have my usual 3 hours....so we will have to adjust to that...speaking of that...running out of time. gr oh well. i will all see you in about 12 months anyways...so i will just tell you more when i get home haha i am sorry if i am horriblel at answering questions now...the time ticks faster in Elkhorn haha

but oh well. i will get over it. I am doing well here. I hope all is well at home. I love you all and will see you soon! 

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

ps i most likely will get to go to the Chicago temple while i am down here :) if it is an hour or less then we  can go every 6 months!! love you all

Week 25: Transferring Finally!

Hey Family and Friends!

Wow it has been a bit of a crazy week! Lots of anxiety and being nervous! I just can't believe I have already been out almost 6 months and now I am finally getting transferred! 

Here is how transfers all go down here in Wisconsin. So the Saturday before, so this last Saturday, we all get "the text" of who all is going to be transferred in our zone. President sends it to the APs who send it to the zone leaders who send it to the District leaders then to us. If your name it on there you are going! Then Monday (Today) they send out a picture of the transfer board with all the missionaries in the mission and the yellow highlighted ones will be the ones who moved and are new. That is when you find out where you will be going and who your new comp will be. Then you scramble for the rest of the weekend to pack and make sure you get everything. Then Wednesday you drive to the transfer point you are assigned to go to. Green Bay Stake center is a transfer point so we just drive 5 minutes to the church. I will go on another bus with all the other missionaries and probably go to the next transfer point and so on until i get to the city and i am supposed to go to. So that is a little bit of how it all goes down. I dont exactly know how riding down to everywhere else will go because i havent gotten that far, but i will let you all know how it goes. I am so nervous but everyone gets through it right? i am just excited to see a different part of the mission. i have been in Green Bay long enough and I need to see how missionary work is in a new area. sometimes areas just get into a rut and it is time to move and change things up. so that is good i guess. i just hope my comp is nice and all. soo now that i have made you all wait long enough i will tell you all where i am going! My new comp will be Sister Smith...dont know anything about her except that she is a red head...ha thats it. And i will be serving in Milwuakee South zone in Elkhorn. I believe it is outside of Milwuakee. Well wish me luck..bet yet pray for me. I am so grateful that i am going south for the winter haha Make sure to send letters, packages, ect to the mission office.

General Conference was pretty awesome as a missionary! It really made me miss home and some people thought i was weird when i was glued to the screen when they would show Salt Lake. I really miss that place. ha but everything was good and i really wish i took advantage of the peace and quiet at home when we would watch it. We went to the church and watched it all there but it just wasnt the same without my family. We did have an investigator (Amanda) come to the first session on Saturday and Sunday. She kept talking to me and asking me questions...i thought about how i would do this to my mom when i was little...it got kind of annoying...sorry mom. We told her she could take notes and that we could talk about what she wrote down after. she liked that idea so we gave her a piece of paper. Amanda is kind of a sketchy person though. We have a lot to find out about her because sister Olsen and i have had a weird feeling about her. hopefully things will get better though after i leave. 

So here i go. moving on to the next part of my mission. I have so many mixed emotions lol we will see how it all goes. 

Tonight we are going to have REAL burgers for sister olsens birthday at a members house! yum! it will have cheese and bacon in the middle! 

I love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Pictures

Mine and Ellen's last volleyball

A member in the 2nd ward, Angie, and I before I left

Week 24: Tracting in slippers and stepping on frogs

Hey Family and Friends!

This was a pretty crazy week and I am so excited to tell you about it! First off we have this new investigator! yay! We thought her name was Melissa, but then we asked her how to spell her name and she started to spell Miranda...err now we need to go change all the papers we wrote her name on...Anyways she is so nice and is actually married! Her and her husband, Dan, have a cute little daughter named Charlotte. It is hard for me to get out of the baby holding mind set...I haven't really dealt with any little ones since i have been on my mission so it was so weird when we were teaching her about the Restoration and about every 5 seconds I had the thought of asking to hold Charlotte and then I stopped myself...haha it was really strange. I did that the whole lesson :p They also have 2 Siamese cats and they are so sweet. One of the cats is blind and deaf, but he is the cutest ever and I just love to hold him through the whole lesson. He does pretty well getting around and stuff. He is a trooper! We love going over there though and teaching Miranda. Dan hasn't been home, but we told her he is welcome to sit in the lessons as well. She is very open to letting us teach her, but there are still a few things holding her back. She is Lutheran so she is still pretty set in her ways, but we are going to help her resolve her concerns :) We are going back over tonight to teach her about the Plan of Salvation (My favorite!) So please pray that it will go well!

We also went on exchanges this week and boy was it an adventure! I went with Sister Brandley and we were able to have a lot of success.That night Sister Brandley and I were saying out personal prayers. I had finished before her and so I just laid in my bed and waited for her to finish. Time went by and I just thought "Wow she has super prayers...she is praying for like everyone! All her investigators and family and even the members probably....--" Then I hear a big loud snore. I giggle to myself and realized she totally fell asleep in her prayer...and she continued to sleep for about 15 minutes more in a praying position. Ha too funny. I just couldn't stop laughing. The next day we went tracting! When we got to the street we were going to tract on, we parked and got out of the car. We started walking towards a house when I noticed that my feet didn't quite feel right...I looked down and gasped! Sister Brandley looked at me and asked what was wrong. I began to be embarrassed because this was the Sister training leader! ah! I didn't change out of my slippers into my shoes and now I would be tracting in them...They are my moccasin slippers so luckily they look a little more like actual shoes...maybe if i was on an Indian reservation lol...We didn't have much time so we went with it. No one commented on them so hopefully it wasn't a horrible thing. haha Now I tell Sister Olsen to never let me leave the house with my slippers on.

Later that night we had sloppy joes and I asked Sister Brandley to relate the sloppy joe to the gospel because she is really good at that. I thought what she said was so deep! "A Sloppy Joe is like Repentance. It's messy, but it is wroth cleaning up". Wow I was shocked. I couldn't top that.

Sister Olsen and I went to go help one of our investigators pack up because she is moving soon down to Florida. We had so much fun and we really hope she will want to continue to learn from the missionaries in Florida. We have built such a great friendship with Ellen and she really loves the Sister missionaries. We are going to get her address there and write her and also hopefully send her other cute sister missionaries! She needs the gospel in her life! While helping her pack she maybe sort of gave us a little bit of piles of clothes...I couldn't resist. But It took all of me to not take all of the clothes. Her daughter is just my size. She also gave me some boots and some really good snow boots. I am hoping maybe I can just use these instead of buying new ones. We will see. 

Sister Olsen totally stepped on a dead toad on Friday. That was gross, but I couldn't stop laughing. She is scarred for life and hates frogs and toads. I don't blame her though. 

Thank you mom and dad for the books you sent me! I look forward to sharing one of them with a member too. They got here safely but i had to pay extra for postage because the mission office had to forward it. I really appreciate packages but i ask you to either address them to where i am staying or to always use flat rate or priority boxes and envelopes when sending them to the mission office. They can forward those kind of boxes and envelopes free of charge. If you do plan on sending me a package please let me know so i can look for it. Also Since it is close to transfers and i may be transferred please send everything to the mission office for now. I will let you know if i get a new home address.

My mission President also sent this to all the missionaries: 

The Church has produced a 90 minute documentary film called “Meet the Mormons” and has asked that it be shown to all of the missionaries in our mission. You will see it as part of your Zone Training Meeting in October. The missionary department has provided the following instructions relative to the release of the movie, which will open in select markets (not in our mission yet) on October 10th.
• Meet the Mormons was created to help others find greater understanding of the Church and our members. It is not intended to be a proselyting tool.
• Missionaries should not see the film in theaters or proselyte near theaters. 
• Missionaries should invite or encourage members, less-active members, and investigators to see the film. They also may encourage members to take friends to see the film. 
• Missionaries should not use the film as a means to make initial contact with individuals during the theatrical run. 
• Following the theatrical run, the film will be shown in visitors' centers, missionary training centers, and on digital platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, and YouTube. 
• A special pass along card will be provided for sharing with investigators and less-active members. Missionaries may use these pass along cards to continue inviting new contacts and investigators to watch the film on Netflix, iTunes, and YouTube. 

President Cutler

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! please continue to keep the missionaries in your prayers.

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

 "I love my camera!"

ooops, was I not supposed to share that one?

Week 23: Why do people live here?

Hey Family and Friends!

This week was pretty much awesome! Sister Olsen and I were able to tract in the rain! yay! We decided that we just needed to get it done this week even though we have been dreading it for a long time. Here in Wisconsin it is starting to get cold and we are so not ready for it! I put my tights on again and they aren't coming off! Probably until next May! I don't mind tights though because they are just another fashion accessory haha. But the cold can stay in Canada :/ People here are telling us all that this winter will be worse than last year and I really don't want to hear it! That makes me more frustrated, but I am so grateful I only am here for one winter! Sister Olsen and I ask the same question everyday..."Why do people live here!?" I don't think we will ever find the answer to that one. 

But overall I am doing pretty good. Sister Olsen's family sent me a package on Saturday and I was so surprised! Her mom is too sweet and she just likes to spoil us. 

It is now football season and the Packer fans are pretty much crazy. We have been asked not to go tracting when the games are going on because people get really mad if you interrupt their game. Especially here in Green Bay. 

I am so proud of myself as I have reached the end of Alma in the Book of Mormon! I am still loving it and I look forward to read it and know what will happen next everyday! There are a lot of things I didn't catch the first time I read it for Young Womens...Probably most of the whole book so I am really enjoying it now and usually don't want to put it down. Sister Olsen will catch me reading it when we come home for a bathroom break...heh heh I told her that I don't have my iPod or my phone so what else am I supposed to do? But really I love diving into it all. I started also reading "Jesus the Christ" this week and I cannot put it down! It is seriously like a Harry Potter size book, but I haven't gotten bored yet! I love all the deep doctrine stuff and things that I have over looked so much. 

This morning I got soap in my eye in the shower...that wasn't fun. I was worried I was going to go blind so I took my contacts out right away and have been wearing my glasses ever since. Its weird. 

So I heard the new Costco is ready and open! I am so stoked about that! it will be there when I get home :)

One more story. So when we tracted in the rain the other day we met this lady at her door. We started to tell her about family history and such and then she interrupted me (3rd time that day...I didn't think that was very nice) and was more worried about us being out in the cold. She told us she wasn't interested and that we needed to stay dry. I didn't really have a response for her..I thought to myself.."Well we can't..we are being obedient". That has been our motto ever since. I don't know why people like to interrupt me though...I promise I am giving the Reader's Digest version!  :p

Love you all! Have a good and safe week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Before and After the rain 

Week 22

Dear Family & Friends

Boy, this week was rough, but Sister Olsen and I are going to make this week better! 
We did have an awesome lesson with Jack :) He seems to be accepting everything we taught him about so far. I bore my testimony and it was soo cool! Sister Olsen looked blown away when I did. I was surprised myself! It was like the most amazing testimony ever. If that didn't convince him I don't know what will! Unfortunately, We have to give him to the second ward elders because he lives on their side... :/

We stopped by Debbie's house the other day and tracted around it..kind of peeking to see when she would get home. We needed to set another appointment with her because we totally failed last time at the church. We tracted for about an hour and had not much luck with that. Then we saw Debbie outside and we walked up to her and asked how she was and all that stuff. Then she sighed...I could tell it was coming...She apologized for not calling us back to make another appointment. She told us that she has "too much going on faith wise" and she feels she is comfortable where she is at. My heart literally broke and I just couldn't believe it. She was so golden and all we needed to do is get her husband on board and everything would be just grand. We smiled politely and told her if she ever needed us she could just call us then we walked back to our car. I turned to Sister Olsen and asked her what the heck we were doing wrong?! I was getting so fed up with this whole mission prayer about having a baptism in each area. Everyone was getting one EXCEPT us and it was driving me crazy. We sat in the car in silence. We didn't know what to do next. Tracting just wasn't effective and the appointments we have always get cancelled. We discussed that we know we definitely need to be better at being exactly obedient...ugh ya I am not a perfect missionary :/ and I know I need to do a lot better. Sister Olsen and I have struggled to wake up on time and exercise the full 30 minutes we have. These have always seemed like little things to me at the beginning, but now I am definitely seeing the difference and its pretty big. I feel so awful and I know that the Lord's work isn't something to just be thrown around and to be taken lightly! This is Salvation here and I need to wake up (literally) and realize that! We still have a chance to make the mission goal, but it is going to take a MIRACLE and Sister Olsen and I are going to have to work our butts off! Please pray your hardest for us! We are going to be busy busy busy! I love you all and I hope you have an excellent week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

One year down for Elder Taylor! 

Week 21: God knows everything...especially when we will get our iPads...‏

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has gone by way fast and I love it! Everything lately has (for the most part) flown by like crazy and I am still amazed that Cody has been out a year (in 9 days) already! It is so wonderful how much we have both grown and will continue to grow as we keep moving along. I just think it is such a blessing to be going a long side with my best friend. The experience is total awesomeness!

This week, Sister Olsen and I were grateful that none of us got transferred. We know we have way too much work to do in Green Bay and they need us specifically. I was very happy that I stayed because I am not ready to leave..if I could stay here my whole mission that would be great too...but who knows what will happen haha. Usually President Cutler has sisters stay in each area for about 6 months at the most so who knows what will happen next transfer. But I really wouldn't mind having Sister Olsen and I stay too :)

Anyway, we were able to have the opportunity to give a church tour to one of our investigators, Debbie. That was the first time I had given one so we didn't exactly know how it was all going to go. The spirit was really strong there though and she really loved the architecture of the building. My favorite part was showing her the chapel and the baptistery because we didn't have to even talk much. The spirit totally did all the work! We were able to talk about the sacrament with her and how special and sacred it is.  We invited her to church and told her to "come and see". Unfortunately, Debbie didn't show up to church this week, but I know that sometimes things just take time. I am really learning how to be patient with people. I get to thinking that "oh we can just teach this lesson and then this one an then this one...then they can be baptized and it will be easy!" I forget that the whole Mormon religion is a whole different world for them. That some have to change their whole lifestyle for it and it will take time. I need to learn to just slow down and learn to be at the same pace as the investigator. I tend to get frustrated when they don't get things or won't keep their commitments. At times, I won't understand why things are so hard for them to do because I know the blessings that will come from it all. I know that I need to just be more patient and that everything is in God's time. It makes me sad that people would rather not partake of the blessings that our Heavenly Father offers to us, but in time their hearts will be softened. We failed to get a return appointment with Debbie so we will cal her this week. We do get to meet with a family this week (fingers crossed that they won't cancel) and I am excited because Sister Olsen still hasn't met them! They are such a sweet family and they love when we come over. 

This month the missionaries are all excited about the iPads because supposedly for my mission this is the month that the leaders will learn about them and hopefully will be passed out soon after their big meeting. It is supposed to be at the end of the month, but I am still excited. We don't know much information about it though so if any of you in the outside world find out any more news please let me know! haha There are a few missionaries that don't think they will be here until they all go home though so I don't know...I want to be excited, but I don't want to get my hopes up...We will see!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay safe please!

I love you and miss you all!

See you soon.

Love, Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Week 20: Prayer

Hello Family and Friends!

I hope everyone is doing well! This week Sis Olsen and I worked so hard to have 2 baptismal dates, but the two investigators we asked unfortunately declined for now. We are praying more than ever now to make this possible as we only have about a month until October General Conference and our mission has a goal to have at least 1 baptism in each area before General Conference. We do believe it is possible though and we are very excited!

I hope Le'a has a wonderful birthday this week! I sent her a card with my love in it :)

Sister Olsen and I had an interesting experience last night and it really strengthen my testimony even more about prayer. We needed to get more lessons for the week because we had made a goal and hadn't met it yet. We decided to go tract a street we both have been thinking about for a long time. Sister Olsen offered the prayer before we got out of the car. Then we got out and knocked on the first door. It turned out to be a group home and they couldn't accept anything from us so we went onto the next house. This one was a group home as well! We were so confused and Sister Olsen said, "Ok if this whole street are group homes I am going to be mad". I didn't think all of them were...I figured one was a girls group home and the other was a boys group home and it ended up turning out that way. At the boys group home we were able to talk to a guy that worked there. He said he had a copy of the Book of Mormon at home and he thought it had good teachings in it, but he wasn't able to accept anything from us so I figured we were done there...but then he asked us if we had anything to give to him. I was really confused with what was going one, but luckily Sister Olsen isn't as blonde as me so she handled it all. She ended up giving him a card with Jesus on it and our number on the back. She told him that he could contact us if he had any questions. He thanked us and shut the door. I didn't really think much of that visit because usually people don't contact us from being given a card, they usually just throw it away later. We continued tracting the rest of the street and didn't find any other promising people...luckily they all didn't make us waste our time by opening and shutting the door haha. We drove home and started making dinner. 10 minutes later our phone buzzed and it was a number we didn't recognize. It was a text about wanting to know more about our church. They wouldn't say who they were though so we didn't want to make plans to meet with them yet. This person simply asked things about the Word of Wisdom first so we answered them to the best we could over text. We were excited but scared at the same time...we kept asking who they were but they would never respond so eventually we stopped asking that and answered their questions. We couldn't believe it, but this was how Heavenly Father was answering our prayers. This person seemed genuinely interested so we made plans to meet up and teach them at the church with a member..for safely reasons of course. They did end up telling us who they were and that we me them at the group home...well took ya long enough! It was so cool though because he had a lot of questions so we are excited to help him and hopefully help him progress as well. We hope it all goes well Tuesday evening when we meet with Jack.

This morning was a hard one. Things with Sis Bartell (the member we live with) have gone down hill again and I am really struggling with it all. Last night she just kept being negative about how Jack was interested in the church. She kept telling us that he isn't going to care about the church and he is just playing a trick on us. Her comments about it all were just bringing me down while Sis Olsen and I were trying to be happy and excited about it all. This morning was sort of tense and we just felt like we were in her way again. We will continue to be Christlike the best we can though. I want to do what Heavenly Father wants me to, but if his answer is to move into an apartment I am all for that.

I hope you all are doing well. I miss all of you very much and this past week I went through all my letters I have gotten so far for my whole mission and I must say that those are so much comfort to me. I really appreciate all the letters I have gotten. thank you! I love you all!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Week 19: I love The Book of Mormon!

Hey Family & Friends

This week was really awesome! On Wednesday we had the privilege to go to Mission Tour in Neenah, Wisconsin. Elder James B. Martino was there to speak to us and give us a new perspective of missionary work and working with the members. I was so proud of myself because I took a lot of good notes and I got such an amazing spiritual uplift. Elder Martino is so awesome and really just said what we all needed to hear. He was blunt, but in a loving way. He taught about how we really need to get members and less actives involved and how that will ultimately strengthen the ward all together. It was such a good meeting and I wish all of you could have been there! He really got into the Book of Mormon and talked about Alma and Amulek and "entering the city another way". I loved this because I was exactly there in my Book of Mormon reading and I really am understanding the Book of Mormon so well! I love reading it everyday. My testimony for it has really strengthened on my mission and it is just so awesome! I don't think I have ever been so excited about a book before...Well maybe the Hunger Games...but other than that...haha the Book of Mormon is so awesome and I encourage each of you to read it! Mission Tour was a wonderful blessing and I can't wait for next year to see what will be taught then.

Last night we had a wonderful lesson with one of our investigators, Ellen. She had us over for dinner and we had a lot of good talks. She doesn't seem quite ready yet to dive into the baptismal font, but I definitely know she will be able to come to know the gospel is true very soon. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and I really felt the spirit in the lesson. She had just finished writing a book about her parents during WWII and it was just so perfect because we were able to comfort her and let her know she will be able to see her parents again someday. Her friend's daughter just passed away in a car accident last Friday and so she has been grieving about that as well. Sharing the Plan of Happiness was such a blessing for her and all of us. While we were talking about the Spirit World, my cousin, Blake, popped into my head...it wasn't just a small thought that "oh ya he is there too", but it was more of like "YOU NEED TO SHARE THIS BECAUSE HE IS HERE WITH YOU!". The Holy Ghost was definitely there and I know Blake as well as my Grandpa & Grandma Eaton and Grandpa Strebel were all there too. I told Ellen that Blake had passed away in a car accident at a very young age as well. I told her that I knew with all my heart that Blake is in the Spirit World on a mission teaching people about the gospel just like me. I know that that is his mission. Someone in the Spirit World needed specifically him to teach them. It was such a cool experience and I love that the veil is thin between earth life and the spirit world. I have such a testimony of the Plan of Happiness! I love teaching it and sharing with people that they can be with their family for eternity! Why would someone say no to that?! I love this gospel and I know it is so true! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Work with the missionaries as much as you can ok! Miracles will happen and you and I will be blessed tremendously! :)

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton