Silent Night. Grown Up Christmas List. Little Drummer Boy. Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem.

Just all the songs that I really have kinda stuck in my head... I can't remember all the lyrics to them so I get half-way through them and them I slowly kinda just start humming haha. Can't lie I even start singing Donkey's song from Shrek... I"m sure that'll be something I hum on the plane to Brazil once it get there. Speaking of Brazil the girl I came out with from my MTC districto got her Visa last Monday! She headed out last Wednesday during transfers! So EXCITING! And there's a family in my ward here that their daughter got her visa and left her temp reassignment for Brazil today. I don't know much about what is going on with my FBI stuff but I"ll get to Brazil when I need to get there. For now I need to kick some butt here. 

There's a lot of blessing for being here though. I get a package! Haha. I can renew my license in January easier too. And I got to go to Marvin Goldstein's piano concert last night ( no big deal or anything haha, like how I led into that... totally smooth). That's totally a bonus especially since he's in my ward :) And I"m not going to lie I wasn't sure who that was until I was assigned to this ward, but now that I know I"m totally a fan because the brotha is otimo!! Kid you not, that was most amazing thing ever. Made my night and you wanna know something even more amazing? There were so many non members there too! Oh my gosh it was great. The spirit was there so strongly and all I wanted to do was give Brother Goldstein a huge hug.... But I can't... cause I"m a missionary... a sister missionary. It was still amazing though, hug or no.

Friday night I was feeling better so we did some service for the lady that lets us email at her dance studio. She's great and was putting on her Christmas ballet at FSU so we went down and helped hand out programs. It was great because we handed out fliers for Sunday night in the programs too haha. 

Yesterday we were able to finish the missionary stocking/gift bags I was telling y'all about too! It was great. Got all the Elders and Sisters their own stockings and bag of gifts. I kinda want to see one of them open it. THey'll love it though. We have our Half Mission Conference this coming week and that's where Sister Smith will be handing them out to the missionaries. Exxxcccciting! 

I"ll get more info about Skyping next Monday. Love y'all.

Ficam firme na fe!

Com Amor,

Sister Irons

Blessings of the Spirit

This week is transfers and guess what? I"m not moving :) I get to stay in Tally 3 for a while longer! Which is great. But we did move apartments this past week. I made my companion do it in one day. There was no way that we would have gotten it done if we split things up so we got everything out. The Elders were a great help moved all the heavy stuff of course :) Bless their hearts. They were great though, made things move a lot faster too. We made them cinnamon rolls to thank them and I think we will always have willing help from them in the future lol! Getting kinda sick too blah (it's almost bad enough for me to get a really good laugh cough going...). So far just achy but that's why God created dayquil. Feeling a little bit better and was able to rest in between meetings yesterday.

Other than that this week has been totally busy! We got a media referral last Monday after I emailed, how freaking cool is that?!!! The referral came from a missionary serving in the Vegas area. His grandparents live in our boundaries and are guess..... Atheist! Challenge accepted! The grandma seems like a great woman. Totally not against the church, loves it in fact for the awesome support it's given her daughter and her daughter's family. Funnier story? We got the best feeling from these people. As we knocked on the door the grandma came up and was like welp come in! My companion and I thought that it was way too easy but hey we went in! Her grandson had sent a letter that he had put in for some missionaries to come by just to show her what he did as a missionary. She had just gotten to the part where he told her he had put in the referral as we knocked! Otimo? I think YES!!! She says she's not interested but that she wants to get some help with her family history work at the family history center. Of course my companion and I jumped on that so fast it's not even funny. 

Sunday was a super big day for us too. One of the less actives we are working with showed up again! YAY!!! Plus she brought her daughter who we are probably going to start working with for when she wants to get baptized next year  when she's 8. Plus we went to see a less active and her sister and grandson's girlfriend was there. Guess who is going to start taking lessons?! The spirit was so strong when we were talking with them it was fantastic. It'll be even better when we teach them since we'll be doing it at the less active's home and she'll sit in. This week was definitely awesome. 

This coming week we also get to fill in the missionary stockings with all the stuff that people from our stake bought to give to the missionaries not getting anything from home for the Holiday. 

This past week we also did a huge service project for one of our PI's. There were like 20 members that showed up to do yard work. It looked great after only 1 hour. We even had some people swinging in the trees... like literally. There's an older lady in our ward who was like, weellll that looks like it would hold me... Brother give me a push! Haha, she's hilarious even got it on camera. 

I also had to get and FBI clearance for my visa y'all. I'm a weapon... A weapon of the Lord! Teachin' the gospel! 

Fique firme na fe!

Com Amor,

Sister Irons

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we had dinner with a non member, Pam. She loves the missionaries but won't take the lessons, we even asked her again while we were helping get things together. We were like okay... You'll say yes one day so we'll keep trying. We've got a few people going over to her home Saturday to help her fix up her yard and cut down some trees so at least she can meet some more members from the ward. There's a family that is fellowshipping her now, the Marshalls, but they might be moving so we really want to get her to know more people. We've got a lot of great people coming and helping so that will be great!!

 

Something that really hit me hard this week was agency. We can choose to be so many different things. We can choose to be thankful for the things we've received, to be happy, discouraged, sad, upset, annoyed haha. I looked at myself and what I have been doing and feeling like on my mission... For a while I honestly wasn't feeling happy. I couldn't figure out what was wrong I mean really I am on a mission for the Lord preaching the wonderful gospel what would be the problem?!! I looked at what I was doing here, I was getting discouraged about all the little things. There have been some pretty lame moments (duh!) and I was getting down on myself for not getting something right the first time... I could tell I wasn't giving it all the positive-ness as I could. I know that seems kind of silly but I forgot really why I'm here! It's definitely not to be perfect, but to do the best I can to bring others unto Christ. We keep telling people that you don't have to be perfect but you do have to try and here I was beating myself up for the being perfect... Ironic huh?
For the most part we can all choose to be happy. I wasn't really choosing that I was kinda stuck on the bad, BUT good thing I can choose to change that huh?!?!?!? Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say in a not so short of a way, haha, is that even if things don't work and you aren't perfect choose to look at it in a good way. There's good in every situation. Obviously you can't always see what it is at first but maybe days, months, years down the road you will.

CHALLANGE!!!!: When you have a crappy moment try and get 2 positive things in your in and hang on :) Discouragement stinks and it weakens faith. SO try and stay discouraged for as short as possible... Or you know don't get discouraged.... BOOM problem solved! Haha :)

 

Anyway so while I was on trade offs we got into a less active's home! YAY! We were able to share a message and she wanted to take our photos for Christmas presents! Cool thing is that there's a less active in my ward who we're trying to get to do the same thing! Funny how that works huh? Her daughter has a friend that knows the sister I was on trade-offs with so she decided to record our spiritual thought and send it to the other missionary's mom. All I gotta say is that I don't do well while being filmed haha. If it's on youtube it'll be a good laugh for someone. 

Last night we get to sing a song at the Stake Christmas Concert. All the missionaries that were able to make it, there was like 50 of us. We sang Little Town of Bethlehem, we sounded awesome!! had a few non members show up from the place that we volunteer at, it's called the Shelter is like Marion House in CS. SO COOL RIGHT?!

 

That's all I can remember for now... I'll leave and think of something else... I'll just write it down :) 

 

Com Amor!!!

Sister Irons

Hello from Florida!

Hello all! I'm now officially in Tally since this past Wednesday. It's been good and I loved meeting the ward yesterday. It's awesome to see their excitement to do missionary work. We had our new ward mission leader come into RS and teach about missionary work and what we could all really do to get more involved in it. I really liked how he talked about the simplicity of it. All we have to do is to invite and be the example of what we say we believe. We have a nice full meal calender here so we hinted that we wouldn't mind making those half meals and half teaching appointments :D We've been getting a lot of referels which is great, gives us a way to meet more people. In this part of the mission we can't really trak. The neighborhood are all gated communities that don't allow soliciting and they count missionary tracking as that so it's amazing to have such an involved ward. 

My new companheira is Sister Mehew. She's great. We both got along well with our other companions so we're working really hard on strengthening our comp. Doing good so far. She's got that sense of humor where it took me a second to adjust to it, but after it's smooth sailing.

Awesome news?! There is the biggest flipping group of people here who served their missions in Brazil! Wha-hoo! There's a sister in our ward who is a little rusty so we're gunna try and only speak Portugues to each other... Hand gestures are a great thing haha. Don't know a word? Try and act it out. It'll be fun haha. 

One of our investigators is a stuntman... Interesting I know. Tried to see him last week but he was sick so we're hoping we can see him this coming week once he's feelin' better. Hope that all is amazing. Love y'all!

Here's my new address: 

1833 Halstead Blvd. #102

Tallahassee, FL

32309

Com Amor,

Sister Irons

It's WHAT week already?

     Yeah, it's almost time for the next transfer to happen. Maybe I"ll stay maybe I"ll move. I just have a feeling that my visa is close. So our potential investigator, Bill Knight, has decided to totally drop us. His wife wants no discussion of religion whatsoever... BUT in the area book he will go and we have perhaps at least planted a seed... And it will give other people the chance to contact him! We all had a good feeling about him, but maybe something else with someone else will happen. We still are thinking of ways maybe we could get his wife in a conversation... It's a work in progress :) Cheryl is kinda hard to get into contact with. We had a scheduled appointment but she wasn't there when my companions went by, happened during exchanges so I wasn't there :( We keep trying though. I hope that we can get in soon. We met someone yesterday Ainika, and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she would be at the library today while we were here so maybe we'll be able to talk with her some more. There are a few people that the Elders want us to go see. We stopped by yesterday and no one was home so we left a note. Going to go back later this week and see if we can get a hold of them. Best part is, no phone numbers :) Only addresses so we can't call and see if they're even home. Which is okay actually, because it gives me a chance to use some transportation called "Feet." They're very useful actually ;)

       We were able to meet some inactive members this week as well. Cora is amazing! Hasn't been active for a good many years but the Spirit in her home was great. She's a foster parent to three little kids. Cutest things ever. We drove up to her home and they all ran towards us. "PEOPEL!, Do you need Miss Cora?! Okay. We go get her!" Too cute. She went through the temple and was sealed with her husband there (George wasn't there when we visited). We asked if she would start reading the Book of Mormon again and told her that it is actually scripture and that it goes along with the Bible. She lives far away so when we go out we've already decided to get Brother Walker, the cutest old guy ever, to go out with us.

      Then we saw Candace. She's got a lot of health problems that she's trying to figure out right now and a little girl that drives her crazy haha. That kid has a lot of energy! Her sister actually lives right next to her and their parents. Crystal is looking for a reason to get back to church... She just needs a nice little invitation :). We wanted to see them all but Crystal wasn't home and neither were their parents.

They are all great people. It's hard when you know something is true and that it's really important but another person doesn't always want to act on what they feel.

       The other day we were able to teach the Relief Society lesson, which was about missionary work actually. Wonder why we were teaching? Haha. But I think it went well. We emphasized the fact that we needed the members help to get more people. We can contact all we want but it really does make a difference if they are friends with a member or are willing to be apart of the fellowshipping efforts before AND after baptism. I know it's sometimes hard to see someone and not judge them, but if they've taken the gospel in their lives we need to be more than willing to help them stick like glue to the gospel. I know that people have their own choice, but we can make the difference in if someone feels and sees what is preached.

     Cairo is smaller than Yankton... I'm not kidding, but it's an area that has so much potential and even though I don't really know what to do I'm praying for guidance every day! I hope all things are going well at home. And remember FIGUE FIRME NA FE! Stay strong in the faith :)

 

Com Amor,

Sister Irons

The South VS. The West

       Alright. So this week has been good. We are basically going around doing roster clean-up. There hasn't been much communication between the actives and the less actives so we really wanted to get in to see as many of them as we possibly could. Our goal is high, totally nuts, and yet completely possible: visit all 100 less actives before the end of our transfer (six week period). We usually drive into town and walk all over the place to see people.

       Something that I have noticed while being here is that the South is very different from basically everywhere I have been... Like very different. I'm used to a whole different kind of culture called the West :) Getting used to some things is a little bit different for me, but I love the people here so it's all good. Things are moving a little bit slow. We have been constantly trying to get back into touch with a woman we met a week ago, Chyral. She was really interested but we have either missed her/she wasn't home or she's been sick and had to cancel our meetings... My companionship is a very stubborn bunch however and are very determined to get in and see her! never put it passed a stubborn and determined companionship, whether it be elders or sisters!

Being out in the mission has helped me realize how "out-there" I need to be. I can tend to be more of a wave, say hello, and keep walking kinda person. My goal is to just walk up to people and start conversing with them. Wish me luck y'all!

       This work is true. I know that I'm here in Cairo for a reason and I know that as I go about doing what I should i will be able to do what is needed.

 

Love you all!

 

Sister Irons

Hello from Georgia..

Alrighty y'all,

   Love being able to say that and it be totally normal. For anyone that didn't know I"ve been reassigned to the Tallahassee Florida Mission until I get me visa. My first area is in Cario, GA. Great huh? It's a small place that has a branch of about 20 members with 100-120 on role. Met pretty much everyone yesterday at church. Everyone seems really nice. The Elders were able to have an investigator, BJ and his son Landon, come and they seemed really great.

It's kinda weird and a little bit hard not being in Brazil right now, but I know I'm here for a reason and can't wait to go meet all the amazing people that we get to :)

 

If you'd like to write me a letter my new address is:

Sister Samantha Irons

247 Hinson Rd.

Cairo, GA 39828

Week # 5 And there is some EXCITING NEWS!!!

Sister Irons has been temporarily re-assigned to the Tallahassee, FL Mission. She will be leaving the Provo MTC on September 17th and head to Florida. 

Mailing address update coming soon!

Week #4 Another day in the Neighborhood

Dear All,
Got your picture of you and Carter at the ocean! Looked like you two were having a blast. Sounds like it was all great fun too. He looks bigger... Guess that's what they do when you feed them huh?! 

Also received all your letters and Dear Elders! Looky at who knows her stuff! Sister Marriage and Family Counselor. Carter will be fine, he'll be great! The kid is the happiest darn thing that I have ever seen in my life, I've got a lot of faith in y'all :) 

So news!!!! I don't need to get up at 5:30 anymore!!! Schedule change and now all the Brazilians are on the regular schedule and can actually GET UP at 6:30. It is FABULOUS. I get to feel like I'm sleeping in every day now. Today is a mini P-Day so we did laundry and get to email (obviously). But for the next couple of weeks (ALMOST TIME!!!) I'll send things on Fridays. So You get two emails from me this week, yay!!  

So there is an experience that I wanna share with you that I've had these ppast few days.

There was a lot going on at home before I left on my mission. Everyone has there different trials and handles them in their own different ways. For the first few weeks I didn't feel like I had any time to actually think about anything except what I was teaching (anyone having been in the MTC, y'all know exactly what i"m talking about!). 

While in the MTC there are two things that you hear CONSTANTLY. 1) This mission is NOT about you, forget yourself and go to work. 2) Trust the Lord. The mission is a hard time, but we're on the Lord's side and He wants to help us. Give HIm all your worries and problems (because even though most of the time you're thinking about your investigators let's face it, we still sometimes think about the things we need to improve on and try to deal with the problems we have).

The past few weeks I've pondered on some things that happened before I came and was having a hard time with it. I usually can just pick up the phone and talk it out with mom or dad but hey it's the mission you can't do that! Which is fine but I wasn't really listening to the counsel given to me and totally stretching forth my hand to receive the help Christ could, and I know would, provide.

This last Sunday a lot of things helped me out but the one that I'd like to emphasize is Trust in The Lord. I was thinking about the blessing I had received before I had been in the MTC and the one I had received while being here. EVERY SINGLE one has said "Trust in the Lord, hold out your hand to Him and LET HIM help you." As you very well know I am stubborn and was all like yeahhhhh, okay sure. I told myself that I could do it myself... Cute right? I had to pull down my stubbornness and realize that the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is an absolutely amazing one. He knows what we go through but we have to ask for help and can't just assume that since He knows that He'll do something. Having the faith that He'll help you and humbling yourself to realize that this, whatever this may be for anyone, is something in that we need the help of the Lord.

I think in the last three/four days the lesson/spiritual thought/gooy feeling/whatever you want to call it is this; ONE other person knows EXACTLY how you are feeling. When you're sick, tired, exhausted, sad, frustrated, happy, confused, stressed, and all other emotions you can think of, Jesus Christ. It's the hardest lesson I've learned so far, and I know there will be a lot more harder things in the field and throughout life. 

I feel about 1.0000 times better now and I feel like I've grown so much ( I know only four weeks, think about how I'll be when I get back!). 

I absolutely love this gospel and I know things will work out how they need to, the journey there just get's pretty crazy.

Anyways that's what I have to say. Love you and I can't wait to email you again, on Friday :)

Te-Amo,

Sister Irons

Week #3 of Sister Irons' Adventure in the Provo MTC!

All,

   It's another week at the MTC and everything seems to be mushing together like days just kinda slide into the next haha. Still learning a lot. While I'm still working hard on the language I'm learning that I need to focus on gospel teachings as well. It makes tings easier to mix together when I've got a Portuguese PMG, BOM, and Bible to read along with your English one :) As always the language is beautiful! Learned how to say "I want" something. Which, let's face it, is great. I want to go to the bathroom is probably one of the top three most important phrases to know in another language. Say it with enough ergency and I'm sure someone will get that I'm gunna go, and go right then! Haha. Sang in sacrament meeting this past Sunday with the girls from my district. Did a great job on Come Thou Fount. Plus we only decided to learn it and practice it 12 hrs before haha. All went well.

Eduardo, one of our investigators, is really taking the gospel. Takes in what we have to say and is eger to learn more every time. Want to ask him a lot of questions and get to know him a little bit more but ya know the language block is problematic. I completely testify that the spirit makes up for what we may lack in language communication though. He knows what we want to say and have the investigator feel the way the spirit makes people feel :)

Landon, our other investigator... For this guy I really wish I was fluent. He's done a lot and just needs to understand that nothing cannot be forgiven. Always trying to find something that I could say tohelp him see that. He's had a total 180 turn around in the past year and has the ability to be so much. They weren't kidding when forgiving yourself was really hard. I know that I just wish I could help him. It's hard to relay that message when you aren't fluent in their native lang... AH! But love them both and like I said the spirit can do much more than we can so we both try to go in and teach by the spirit and not just with the spirit.

Keep writing because I love y'all and love hearing what's up.

Love you,

Sister Irons

Week #2 at Provo!

Kim and Co.,

hello there! So the shift key isn't always wanting to work so this while thing may be kinda mushed together :) (oddly enough it'll let me make smiley faces ).... So Miss Kim, you're going to be a fantastic YW leader. I mean for real Irma. i'm sure all will be great, you've got a sweet, strong spirit that those girls probably need a little of. 

life in the mtc is definitely not slowing down! Haha. we got our first investigator to commit to baptism, boo-yeah, that spirit works great. now my companion, sister stone, and i are working with two new investigators. one of them, Landon, i can see has the most amazing spirit but he's been through some rough patches in his life. he's changed a lot of things but he needs to feel loved. i have a pretty strong feeling that after we first taught him it was for a reason. the same things that Landon needs to hear are those same ones that i need to hear and accept, long story but the lord works in ways that we don't expect. our other investigator's name is Eduardo and we haven't met him yet but i'm excited and a little nervous. he used to be atheist and within the past year has come to believe in god and wants to do his work.... i just hope that doesn't mean he's a JW or something.... that could be kinda hard lol. 

Since everyone here that is going to Brazil is waiting for their visas they don't really have room for us so we have to be up and ready by 6:30 to get breakfast.... and we eat dinner at like 4. it's kinda insane but i love it anyway. this is the place where i'm supposed to be and the lord never let's met forget it. my district is amazing. along with letters from you and home we've been helping everyone with everything. plus we laugh a lot. i was so terrified that they would all be totally immature or overly serious, turns out they're a great mix of in between lol.

tell me about the peaches! i wish i was able to have some. i miss the summers when we made jam and canned peaches. tell me how my nephew is doing and how life is going :) One of my best friends from school is reporting tomorrow to Mexico mtc and i'm super excited for her. makes me so happy. this work is great, tell Brock not to give up, I'm learning how important his calling is for us missionaries. anywho, the language is still coming but I'm not freaking out like i was my first week. I'll get it and when I do I'll be rocking Salvador, Brazil ;)

Love you all,

Irma Irons

Sitster Irons' 1st Week in the MTC

Minah familia!!!!

Oh my gosh. My brain hurts! In a good way though! I have been practicing Portuguese like a mad woman because we had an investigator the second day and he only speaks Portuguese.... I want to say so much to him, Pedro, but I havne't a clue as to how to say it so lessons are really simple. Learning to teach more by the espirito and less of just frekaing out and putting a lesson together! It's hard but I love the language, and I have such a love for those in Brazil that i havne't met yet.
My district is amanzing!! All the sisters and eldres are being great and we laugh a lot... I think it's practically the only way we get through some days. It's so great to have this amazing support system here, and I love it. 

So story time. right after dad dropped me off for my first day, I went and set my things in my room and then went to get my books..... I flipping lost my key card, ID and lets you in every building, and then my actual room key. Smooth yeah I know. I was running around for about 20 minutes until I found my card and then I realized I had actually left my room key in my bag... in my room.... Embarasing or what???! Plus my companion didn't check in until 8 that night so I couldn't get in to get it. I got a spare though so all is well.
What they say about getting to the first Sunday and then all will be well is sssooooo true! I felt after two days that I had been here for months..... AH! Sunday was great in that I was able to just relax and listen to others teach me lol. 

I also went to the temple today (get to do that every single Tuesday, since it's my p-day) and it was fablulous. Was able to see the new video for the session and I really liked it. 

I have to admit that I have seriously been freaking out about learning the language. I have been able to get to the point to where I can hear things and understand what is being said and I can read it, but I can't respond... I've been praying to know what to do so that I can receive some help (everyone is doing great... :P) Said a little orarcou in the Celestial room and got my answer that I will learn it and have the gift of tounges... When that'll be I haven't a clue lol. BUT like it said in my blessing when I was set apart i WILL learn the language. It's just nice to have that reasurrance since that's half of what I really need! That and to learn the lessons in Portuguese haha.
My companheira is great! Her name is Irma Stone and funnily enough I know her cousin from school. Her cousin, Natalie, told me Irma Stone was going to the same place as I was and BOOM we're compaherias!! 

I keep getting your letters, got one everyday so for I"m proud to say! Keep them coming, they seriously helped me get through last week and I love hearing about what all is going on. It's kinda funny because some of the Elders in my district have started taking "bets" as to who get a letter or who'll get the most letters, they all say me. I don't even say anythingbut our district leader will always come in after lunch and dinner with the mail and just kinda laugh and give me my letters... The sinker, I've had to say shooooooosh a few times. I don't want to be publically known as 'that' missionary, but really and honestly I don't care :) Keep sending them!!!!! Haha.  I love you all. The gospel is true and I hope that things are going well.

Mais Amar,

Irma Irons

P.S.

Hope you all are having fun by the ocean! Tell me how it is and what y'all did! Miss you guys like nuts and love you like crazy!! Was going laundry today and looking at my camera ( you'll hopefully get pictures next week... I have to get this converter thing.... only for the MTC.....) and saw all the pictures we took at the Smithsonian. Most of them were of Carter of course lol. Found a lot of you, Amanda, and I though. Give the baby a big hug from his Auntie and I'll write you guys an actual letter soon :)

Oh... and forgive my typing errors... 30 minutes to email isn't a lot so I just kept going!!!! Plus I have yet to see Brother Voss anywhere! My schedule is so busy i don't really have time to look though haha. Annnnd sorry if some of the words are in Portuges.... My brain is starting to kinda do that lol....

Sister Irons, Reporting for Duty!

Tomorrow Sister Samantha Irons officially reports to the Provo MTC. As her sister (and blog manager) I want to ask everyone following this blog to please keep her in your prayers. Change is always hard, even good change, and I know that our prayers will be a great help to Sister Irons as she begins this new adventure in her life.

I want to say that I love my sister so much and I'm so excited for the journey she is starting! I will forward all comments on to Sister Irons on this blog for the next 18 months. I hope you learn and grow from Sister Irons adventures in Brazil, just like she will.

~Kim~