Yup yup =D

Thanks for all your emails! I love hearing from you. This week really hasn't been too exciting except that I talked to President about losing my ASL and he has granted me 30 min. everyday to do language study!!!!!!! I can't tell you how much of a difference that has made! I'm really grateful for that. Transers are coming up this Monday again (can't believe I've been here in Maryland for 3 months already!) and I think I'm gonna stay in my same area, but with a new companion...but I guess I'll find out Monday night, and you'll find out next week when I email again =].Ok, so I have to announce this over the main email cuz I know you'll all be proud of me. I have STOPPED BITING MY NAILS!!! I know, I can sense how proud of me you are through space and time, no need to say it, I know. Funny how before I tried so hard, and here I just decided I'm not going to do it anymore, and I didn't, so my nails are growing and I've hurt myself many times because I forget about them and I'm not used to them yet, but it'll be better. Interesting how the spirit helps you form good habits and get rid of bad ones, it's so much easier on the mission I'm not gonna lie =].Well, that's all I got for now. I hope you're having a wonderful week! Take care

~Sister Witbeck~

Mish mish mish

Ok, so the crazy investigator is still crazy...I'll have to fill you in later on all that stuff. Thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes...and the others who were thinking about it ;-]. Thank you soooooooo much (Sara) for the tape. I really enjoyed it. It's weird how fast time flies! I didn't realize how much I miss all of you till I heard your voices on the tape. I mean during the week all I think about are the people we are teaching and how we can find more people, then p-day comes and goes with shopping, emailing, and writing letters that I hardly have time to even think about home long enough to remember it, and then another week of missionary work dawning, and it's back to work work work. I can't afford to Waste the Lord's time much less my thoughts in anything I do. I'm not gonna lie, I DO think about home, but not long and it's just fleeting thoughts. Anyways, I'm trying to fill up the chip of pics before I send it home, but I may just send it home next week anyways so you can have your deepest desire of seeing my face again realized =]. Thanks for the prayers sent my way! I know I'll serve ASL eventually, it just makes me sad cuz I have no way to use it right now and frankly I'm losing a lot of it. I saw the deaf elders last week and I could definitely tell the difference...I really had to think about how to sign things. That's really weird for me. Anyways, I'll gain it back when it's needed. I talked to Pres last week about giving me language study time cuz right now I don't have it, so we'll see how that pans out. So, we have a program here called "Message of love" and we can call anyone in the world. Basically when people come into the VC we tell them about it, they write down the names and phone #'s of their friends and we get to call them, read the message and offer the BofM or a free video (ie: finding faith in Christ, etc.). It's a lot of fun! So, if any of you have friends you would like me to call just send me their name and phone # and I'll invite them. I've called people in Africa, Australia...all over really. Anywho, so think about it and share the gospel. Besides, Heavenly Father didn't bless you with the knowledge you have for no reason! You have a responsibility to spread the good news, so go to it =]. I hope you all have a wonderful week!! I love and miss you!!!!!

~Sister Witbeck~

Yay for conf!!

I just got back from sports day. It was the BEST thing ever!!!! Some of us played ultimate frisbee (I'm super out of shape now!) and we ate hot dogs and hamburgers cooked by president Mansell himself. I got to see the deaf elders and we chatted pretty much the whole time. First time I've signed in a month; it felt good. It was so much fun! I don't have much to say this week. Same ol' same ol'. I LOVED conference. President Eyring....doesn't that just roll off the tongue =]. So many talks were amazing. I really loved how much member missionary work was mentioned....a lot. It is soooo important for the members (that's you =]) to do missionary work! This work succeeds best when the members are involved. So, do it. If you truly love the savior than no one could stop you from sharing the gospel. Think on that. This gospel is full of miracles! We have a prophet on the earth! We have scriptures that we can carry around with us at all times! We know who God is, and that he loves us! We know what eternity is about! We know we can repent and be forgiven! Those are all wonderful miracles that are passed off as everyday nothings, but we need to be grateful for these miracles in our lives! All of you should do as Pres. Eyring suggests and write down the miracles in your life at the end of each day. Recognize them and be grateful for them. That crazy lady we met last week...Barbara. Well, we taught her last night about the Word of Wisdom and she wants to be free of the stuff that she's doing, so we took her lighters. She had smoked her last cigarette before we got there, so she promised she wasn't gonna buy more. Anyways we called her today and she was so happy she decided to quit, and wants us to call her everyday to check up, and she wants to go to church on sunday. There a lot of things she doesn't understand cuz she used to do drugs and that really messed her up, but after following the W.o.W. her mind will clear up, and she'll start to understand the gospel more. It's so exciting to see someone who really wants to change their life. The Lord loves all of his children so much! He always watches out for them, and supports them.Thank you so much for all you do! I love you all =].

~Sister Witbeck~

Yet another week =D

Ok, so this week has been....interesting to say the least. We've have had a hard time finding people. I mean, our district only had 3 new investigators the whole week. We usually have about 8 or 9. Finding people is the hardest part of the mission so far. We go about it by tracting (A LOT lately), going to parks (where people tend to condemn us, so we don't go there as much anymore =]), going to parking lots of big stores, or bus stops....really anywhere a lot of people gather or pass through. Anyway, we've found plenty of people who are semi-interested (at least enough to give us their phone number and address) but none that live in our area, so we keep getting referrals for other missionaries. We taught the craziest woman this week! It was hilarious =]. Previous missionaries have taught her before, but we got an apointment so we went over. She had been taught the first lesson about 3 times but seemed not to know anything about it (besides the fact that her apt smelled of smoke and marajuana)...I'm pretty sure whe was just high on lots of stuff. She had all the characteristics of someone on drugs, so we taught her the first lesson again, and are planning on going back this week. We told her to go to church Sunday and she said she wanted to but had to see what the schedule would be with her husband and blah blah blah (all the normal excuses) so I just asked her "Do you want God to bless you?""Oh yes, yes!""Then you need to go to church to get those blessing, you're not going to be blessed now until you make it to church." And she just went on about how much she knows that, and wants that.....but I'm not fooled by her druggie self. She needs to get free of that before she's going to understand what we teach, so we'll see what happens this week. I'm super excited =]. I like people who are crazy cuz I get to be way more bold with them than the people who are all stiff and get offended easily, and I like promising blessings for people when they keep their commitments.At the VC we hardly ever get to see the end results of the people we talk to, but this week I got to see the end of a story! This girl came in about a month ago and she looked pretty troubled, so I went to talk to her and she ended up spilling her life to me, and was thinking about meeting with the missionaries, so I just talked to her about how the gospel has blessed my life and the lives of my family, and by the time she left I was pretty sure I ruined her, but it turns out that she met with the missionaries and is getting baptized next week! Yay for the spirit. Mom had a few questions that I'll answer real quick. All the missionaries get transfered every 6 weeks, but all the sisters stay at the VC. There are 36 of us right now. I have the opportunity to play the piano at the VC every now and then for training meeting, and one of our investigators has a dinky little organ...thing, so I played it the other day and sister Sankoh and I sang a bunch of hymns for her. She's really old so she enjoyed it =]. As far as ASL missionary goes, the sisters that were at the MTC with me are in different missions. One is in the ASL program in NY and the other is in the ASL program in Portland, Oregon. I am the only one out of my district (I think....there may be an elder as well) who is not in the ASL program. I have no idea why, but I'm sure the Lord is trying to teach me a lesson cuz it is super hard to be patient waiting for deaf people to come into the VC when I know that was my calling. I was reading my call again the other day and it says that I was called as an ASL missionary with the added opportunity of being at the VC, but right now it's the other way around, so I just focus on what's been given to me right now, and continue to hope for a deaf sister to be sent here someday. I got your packages the other day! Thank you so much!!!! I'm pretty sure I'm not going to need to shop for another month =]. I'm saving the little one for my birthday though so I have something to open up and celebrate.Anyways, time is up so I'll have to write hand written letters. I hope all is well with you. I love you all!!!

~Sister Witbeck~

Do you ever have the chance to play the organ or piano?