Happy p-day #5781239781236

I feel like time is flying SOOOOOOO fast! It feels like yesterday I that wrote you last. I saw Art Badger again, only this time he came in with Mabel =]. They sat down and talked to me for a while, and took a pic. I'll send it to you when I can. I also went to the city today for the second time. I love the city!!!!! There's so much to see and not enough time on p-days.I sat down with pres last CDM (when we have our interviews) and talked with him about the ASL program. Basically it all came down to: I'm working well in my area. He doesn't want to take me out of my area (as well as another sister) and put me into an area where 5 ASL elders struggle to find work. A little faithless but understandable. I just told him my feeling on the matter and am leaving it in his hands. He's my mission president, so he will know what to do. He gave me some time to think about different things (like teaching deaf referrals that need sisters), but the more I thought about it the more I realized it either has to be in the ASL program or out. The Lord doesn't work 1/2 way. The reason why we have an area to begin with is so we can work with the ward, the less actives, the ward missionaries, the potentials, the former investigators, there's no way I could teach someone then throw them off to another ward to go to church. So even though my desire is deep to work with ASL (that being my calling and all) I'm exercising a LOT of faith and leaving it in Pres Mansell's hands, and waiting for the Lord to bless me in other ways for he knows my heart, and how I can grow best. I only hope to give my best efforts in where I can help the kingdom grow most, even if that means giving up my deepest desire to serve a people I've been called to serve, and blessed with a gift of love for. It's hard to accept (I'm not gonna lie) but this isn't my time, it's the Lord's, and he'll inspire and direct Pres. Mansell to do what's best.That's the update. Transfers are next week!!!!!! Crazy. This one flew by like a jet plane at full speed. I'm learning a little French and S. Trehet says my accent is really good =]. I'm excited to learn more.Jet'aime (I love you) and miss you!!! Never gat discouraged, God is over all. \lml

~Sister Witbeck~

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I have had the coolest days as my p-days =]. We're back in the 20's and 30's for temps and it's COLD with the windchill. We were outside the other night in 30 degrees with the strongest wind I've ever felt. It was probably close to 15 degrees. However, those of you who know how I feel about the wind will sympathize with me =]. I'm learning to control it. That same night at the VC the wind blew the door completely off! I dunno what happened cuz I wasn't there, but we heard the next morning. Crazy and dangerous. The other day we had another storm of freezing rain. That was scary! We drove for 2 1/2 hours through traffic just to get to the VC. We also hit some ice, but luckily nothing horrible happened. Just a cracked hub cap (really I just like telling parts of scary stories to freak everyone out. It really wasn't anything to worry about....or was it???).We have dropped everyone we were working with, but have some new people so we're working on finding those with pure hearts. It's going to be a good week.I'm learning some French =]. Confession time. I used to hate French and Spanish, but now that I've been around it alot I really like those languages and want to learn both later. I'm kind of learning a little of each as I meet people in the street. I can testify in Spanish, English and ASL, and I'm learning how to do it in French, Chinese and Portuguese. We have sisters from all those places, so eventually I'll figure it out....hopefully =].Other than that things are still fantastic. I'm not cold. I have a huge coat that was left here from a previous sister that I just wear and will leave here when I don't need it anymore. Mom--I got your packages. Thanks! Sweaters are good.I love and miss you all!!!! Take care,

~Sister Witbeck~

Happy Birthday to.....

SARA!!!! I think it's cool that my p-day happens to be on Sara's birthday. I'll eat some ice cream for ya =].Well, another week on the mission and another letter from the frozen chosen. However, this week has actually been wonderful as far as the weather is concerned. Yesterday it was 65 and today it feels like it'll be about the same. A perfect Arizona winter day! It feels so good! No heavy coat needed. Kinda weird considering last week was in the bitter 20's, and we were out trying to find people. People are so crazy to be out in that weather, but I'm sure Mark understands their warped minds =]. I'm starting to get used to it. I went outside one day to see if it was cold, determining it wasn't and I didn't need to wear my coat to the VC my comp and I preceeded to grab our stuff and head to the car. Inside we have a temp gauge and it happened to say 38 degrees! I guess 21 degrees really puts 38 into prespective and it really didn't feel cold. Don't worry, I still like the sun shining on me, so I'm not going to turn into Mark who freezes his home just to get comfortable...hopefully ;-). I can't wait for the cherry blossoms in the springtime!Ok, this week we have let all our investigators know we are here to prepare them for baptism. Some have been dropped (because they're not ready for that) and some have stayed and are willing to make an effort. 2 of them are sisters. We'll see what happens with them. We are going to teach them again tomorrow.We had zone conference this week and I am now in the same zone with the ASL elders. That was fun! I got to terp for some of it, but because it's my meeting as well, I wanted to listen and take notes, so I made their hearing comps terp as well =].Dad, thanks for the French. Sister Trehet laughed at it, then translated for me. Good job. I told her about your email last week in how we can use her accent as a magnet to start conversations, and 2 nights ago we started talking to this guy on the street and she bore her testimony about how the BofM will help him in his life etc, and his face kinda changed, she thought maybe he felt the spirit or something, but when she asked him for his info he promptly replied that he's not interested, and it was obvious why he listened so intentively before (the French accent). We wished him a good night and walked away. Both of us started laughing and mentioned your email. It was really funny!Anyways, I was sad to hear about Pres. Hinckley's death as well, but excited to see a new prophet take that mantel upon him. I was lucky enough to be at the VC the morning they announced Pres. Monson as prophet and Pres. Uchtdorf as counselor, so I got to watch it, and some of the question/answer stuff afterwards. This is the beginning of a new time and I'm so excited to see what miracles will happen under the influence of Pres. Monson. It's also really cool to feel the spirit witness to me his authority as a prophet of God. I'm beginning to recognize the spirit so much more than I did before and I love teaching cuz every time I testify of something I feel the spirit again witness to me what I already know to be true, and strengthen my testimony so when I bear it the next time it's stronger. I'm also starting to see the people react differently to my testimony as I bear it to them and it's exciting to see what my faith can do to soften their hearts. Faith is so powerful and I'm so glad to have this time to focus on how I can use it better and actually change things around me by the influence of it.We taught a man last week and invited him to be baptized, he declined, so we dropped him. However, one of his friends was there as we were teaching (he always has 4 or 5 new people there every time we teach him) so we gave him a pamphlet with our names and number on it and told him to call us when he wants to know more. 3 days later he called us back and told us he read the pamphlet and wanted us to meet with him. He felt something different and wanted to know how he could be better at following Jesus. Ok, so obviously this screams READY!!!! so we set up an appointment and took a member who's preparing to serve her own mission with us. It was an awesome lesson and we invited him to be baptized, he said yes, then told us about his family back home in Camaroon. We thought he was young a single, but apparently he's 31 and has 2 children! So, we passed him to some very excited elders who will teach him and baptize him. It was awesome though to teach someone who really has a desire to live the gospel not just talk about it. Awesome.Well, I hope you are all still alive and nothing dreadful has happened =]. Take care. Love ya!!!!

~Sister Witbeck~