Feb 16 2015 Trial and Error

Hey Family and Friends,

Haha what a false alarm! So I ended up NOT getting transferred and I must admit that I am very happy about it. It was quite a crazy night last Monday and President Cutler had called us a few times and decided that Sister Wood and I must stay in Elkhorn together this transfer. I figure this will be my last transfer here in Elkhorn though :( but now I will be more prepared for it. I definitely want to make the best of this last transfer! We are really shooting for a baptism and I think my faith has been the strongest on my mission. You need lots of faith when you are teaching an Atheist. I also think this is the most I have ever prayed as well and I can really see the miracles it brings. It was also so awesome to have one of our less actives, Liz, tell us she hates missing church now. She is really trying hard to find a better job instead of working nights at McDonalds. We are praying for her a lot as well. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Sister Wood and I both love Valentine's Day and we had a mission to be super busy that day because it is hard for both of us as we are away from the significant others in our lives :p Sooo...In the morning we went to a little cafe in Elkhorn for breakfast and it was soo good. I got bacon AND ham :) then we decided to "heart attack" our investigators and members in our ward. This is when you put paper hearts all over their front door and run! It was quite tricky as it was about 2 degrees outside and people were home during the day, but we made it work. We only actually rang the door bell of a few homes since with some homes we knew we wouldn't be able to get away with it with the ice and all. It was super fun though and we could not stop laughing. There were a few homes were it was hard to be quite about since the snow was so crunchy. I think only one little head saw us through their window. haha but we had a blast and it was a great way to spend our Valentine's Day.

The rest of the week went well. A lot of members and investigators were happy to see that Sister Wood and I were both still here. It was a confusing week, but I am so grateful to still be here. I really feel that I am meant to be here a little longer and baptize someone! I am excited to see what this transfer brings. We also have an awesome new district leader. Elder Oviatt was my DL in Green Bay as well and I am just so excited because he is a really awesome teacher, but he makes things fun as well. 

As far as my mail situation...Please continue to send letters and packages to my apartment address.

188 Lewis St. #6 Elkhorn, WI 53121

March 25th is the next transfer so please don't send any letters and packages 3 days before that in case I get transferred. That following Monday I will send out my new address.

Thank you everyone for all you do! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Feb 9 2015

Hey family and friends!

Guess what?! The unthinkable is happening! I am being TRANSFERRED! I was totally shocked! I was supposed to stay another transfer lol oh well. I will be transferring to Sun Prairie and my new companion is Sister Cosgrove. She was MTC companions with Sister Wood so I have heard a few things about her already. I am nervous as usual, but so glad I am not going too far north :p I will be by the capital which will be cool though! I am stressing with packing of course though. 

I am super sad to leave though because I have really liked the Elkhorn ward and I love this area. I will really miss Lake Geneva especially haha it is a cute little resort town. There is so much happening here, its crazy! We were able to set a baptismal date with Remi for March 21st! Sadly, I won't be able to go to it, but I wish him well and told him to keep up what he is doing and never stop reading the Book of Mormon. He is doing so well and I would hate for him to go a stray. I know everything is in God's timing so things will happen when they are suppose to. I keep telling myself that I am needed in my new area for a reason. I am doing better now. Thank you for all your prayers and support. It really does help me and means a lot. 

There has been a lot of good byes and on Saturday when I found out that I was being transferred, I couldn't stop crying. I just knew I would miss this place and I was bummed to leave because so much was happening here, but I know things will be ok. 

Sorry I don't have much to say today. I will have lots of news next week! For now just enjoy all my pictures! Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

Mailing Change

Hey everyone!

Just some few changes on the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission's mail...Please let all family and friends know. thanks!

Currently my address is

188 Lewis St. #6

Elkhorn, WI

53121

Good News!!  J  As of February 1^st, 2015, there will be a new policy in place effecting your mail delivery.

Mail should now be sent directly TO THE MISSIONARY, not to the Mission Office.

Email your family and friends on preparation day to let them know of the policy change and give them your CURRENT address.  Letters should be sent USPS First Class Mail and packages should be sent USPS Priority Mail.  Letters and packages sent this way may be forwarded at no additional cost to  a missionary, should the need arise.  (Standard B, Standard Post, Parcel Post, Parcel Select, and Media Mail cannot be forwarded).

Packages or letters sent FED EX or UPS cannot be forwarded. 

It is also the MISSIONARY’S responsibility to let  family and friends know of upcoming TRANSFER DATES  so mail will not be sent to an inaccurate address. I am hoping this new policy will ensure you getting your mail more quickly.

We love you!! Keep up the Good Work!!

Feb 2, 2015

Hey Family and Friends!

Sorry about last week how I had to cut it short! That was very awful of me and I hope none of you worried! Ok so to continue briefly from last week...I was able to get a blessing and it was so awesome! I have been doing better since. There are still the struggles and challenges of a mission of course, but I am able to face them better. So I am grateful for that.

We have 2 investigators that are really doing awesome! Remi, our Atheist, is starting to really love the Book of Mormon and he really loves watching the Mormon Channel on Youtube that we told him about. He feels he can relate to the people in the certain situations and he said he even teared up a little bit. haha He is doing awesome! Please continue to pray for him. He is enjoying church and is planning on coming now. 

Last Friday we met Brittney. She is 20 years old and lives in Burlington and she is just so sweet! She has a big heart and really puts her trust in God. She was a referral from the elders in Platteville. They ended up baptizing her cousin so she became interested as she had sat in the lessons with her and gone to some church. She is so ready for the Gospel and I am so excited. We have already been able to teach her about where the Book of Mormon comes from, the Restoration, and the Plan of Salvation. It went so well and she asked us to come back. We are excited for her and hope to get her a baptismal date soon!

We are so pumped for Remi and Brittney! Please keep them in your prayers!

Last night was super crazy! Sister Wood and I ended up getting stuck in the snow on our way to a members home for dinner. It was a way bad blizzard yesterday that church was even cancelled! But even though people are told to stay inside, missionary work still goes on. I really struggle with this because a lot of members will tell us not to come over anymore because it is too dangerous outside, but our mission president doesn't say anything about it so we still have to go and do something. I was getting frustrated as the members kept dropping plans and they would tell us to stay home and I had to tell them that we can't. Since they dropped the plans we had to find something else to do...I would rather be in a members home than be in the cold. 

Anyway...so we were stupid and took a back road...I just typed the address in the GPS so I didnt know if it was going to be a back road or not. Long story short, we got stuck in the middle of no where and our car was in 2 feet deep snow. Some members finally found us and took us back to their house and they went back and pulled our car out...it was pretty crazy and i felt so bad. They kept telling us not to use back roads when it snowed...how was i suppose to know. oh well. the good thing is we got out. So ya it has been a really wild 24 hours. Hope you all are doing well. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

The Power of the Priesthood

Hey Family and Friends!

I hope everything is going well back in the mountains! I miss my mountains :)

So this week was kind of crazy...I have definitely learned that the Atonement isn't just for repentance, but also for healing. I'm not going to lie, this week was rough. I debated whether to tell you all because I didn't want to scare anyone or sound overly dramatic, but I felt that I needed to share it. Don't worry, things are fine now. My anxiety had decided to kick in for the last month and this week I definitely had hit rock bottom. Sister Wood became very worried about me and she started to see signs of depression in me. It was quite a scary experience and I just remember wanting to just give up. I just didn't feel like I was supposed to be here anymore and I was tired of getting rejected and everything else that comes with being a missionary. I told Sister Wood that I just needed to go home because no one wants me here. The "hard" part of the mission finally hit me I guess you could say. 

On Thursday, Sister Wood and I sat down and talked about what needed to change and what we needed to do to help me get out of this horrible funk. The last time I had gotten this low was when I was 15 or 16 and I remember that my family really helped boost me up and get me out, but they weren't here so I didn't know what to do. Sister Wood mentioned a priesthood blessing and I immediately said no. Throughout my mission I had thought about a blessing, but I just kept pushing it aside because I only wanted my dad to give me one. I have always just had my dad do it with help of neighbors or family so I just felt weird asking people I hardly knew. Sister Wood looked at me and told me she was deeply concerned and wanted to just help. She asked about having Tim Crager and his dad give me a blessing because I am pretty close to the Cragers. I just sat and thought about it. Trying to come up with an excuse or something because I just didn't want help. I wanted to try to get over this by myself. The excuses just sounded dumb so I gave in and texted Tim to see when they would be available this week. We planned on meeting at the church Saturday morning so I felt a little relieved.

Later that night, a little before we headed over to correlation, Tim asked if our ward mission leader, Eli, would give me a blessing that night. I told him that I just didn't feel comfortable having him give me one and that I wanted him to do it. He told me that him and his family were really worried about me and that it would be best to get a blessing immediately instead of waiting until Saturday. I took a deep breath and replied back with an agreeable response. Tim thanked me for thinking of them first and told me that Eli would love to help as well.

We headed over to Eli's house a little before correlation and he had asked me what was going on. I told him a brief summary and he was able to give a great blessing. I am short on time now (sorry) but I just wanted to express my gratitude for the Priesthood and the healing it does. I am doing better now and continuing to remember to stay happy and positive! I love you all and I will finish the next part next week.  love you!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton

No super bowl for the packers

Hey Family and Friends!

It has been a great week! We had exchanges again this week and we also had interviews with President Cutler. My interview went so well and he said a lot of things that I really needed to hear! President Cutler just knows his missionaries so well and it's awesome!  One thing that really stood out to me that he said was, "Your homecoming will be a GLORIOUS day." That just was so awesome and I really needed to hear that. I have kind of been struggling the past few weeks. Lets just say homesickness has hit me a bit. I haven't told President anything about it though (Sister Wood might have) but he just knows and hearing him say that and other comforting things made me know that I can do this and I will finish my mission with no regrets! That is my goal for my mission. Have no regrets and to be better with patience and charity. 

It was so good to visit with President and Sister Cutler. Sister Cutler always reminds me of my mom and I love it so much! I feel at home when I see her.

Exchanges are always in interesting time. They aren't my favorite thing like I have said before, but I get through them. I was with Sister Asper this time. She is from Pocetello Idaho (hope that is spelled right...) and of course we talked about Idaho together. She will be going home in February so she is getting pretty excited. We had to do a lot of finding that day which is never my favorite but its got to be done at some point right. But sadly, no luck so far. Some guy told us he couldn't talk to us because he had to go feed his fish....hmm I guess he has a whole aquarium in his house. It was a good laugh. We also were so privileged to see a mouse mole thing. We were waiting to be let in a less active's apartment and there was a mole in the lobby. Then he totally squeezed under the door to where we were and Sister Asper jumped out of her chair. We opened the door to outside and it ran out. I couldn't stop laughing. I just sat there and watched everything happen. It was a pretty eventful day.

Sister Wood and I are also doing well getting less actives to come back to church! Please pray for us! So far so good!

Oh! and the Green Bay Packers lost last night...everybody is depressed today...crazy how peoples moods depend on football out here....oh well.

Love you all!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton :) 

1/12/2015

Hello Family and Friends!

It has been a crazy week! Last Monday we went and visited a family that was in our potentials list. They were pretty awesome and are really into scouting already so they know a lot of the ward members and are involved at the church a lot during the week. Mark and Gwen are big football fans and are excited for the upcoming Super Bowl. Gwen is a Patriots fan and Mike is, of course, all for Green Bay! It will be interesting if these teams play against each other in the Super Bowl. Last night Gwen explained to me all about the play offs and such...I got most of it haha but I was sad to not see the Niners as a runner up. Thats ok though. We taught them the Restoration last night and they thought it was interesting. They have started to read the Book of Mormon and our next appointment will be next Sunday, before the game of course lol. We hope things will pick up with them soon!

We also were able to discover some teaching records that the elders in our ward had that was for a girl that the sisters taught a while ago...Her name is Areli. we don't know how but somehow the elders ended up with the first 2 parts of her teaching record and we only had the 3rd part. They had been teaching her for a long time and she was really progressing and then she kind of just dropped off the face of the earth! Well now we have all her records and we hope to get back in contact with her. She seems like a sweet girl and it sounded like she was really ready to be baptized. She is about my age i think. I think her family is a little uneasy about her joining though so that might be a problem but we hope that the Lord will soften their hearts.

Our recent convert, Eric, is doing great as well! He loves the singles ward and is becoming really involved in it. He just had an interview with his bishop about preparing to receive the Priesthood and we are all excited to help him be ready. He is so excited and we hope his family will have their hearts softened and have a desire to investigate and join the church as well. We hope they are starting to see the blessings as Eric has joined the church. 

I am starting to feel a little sore throat coming on..yay...Love you all! Have a great week!

Love Sister Emily Sarah Eaton :)