(no subject)

Well well well, mi familia. ?!Que paso?! I just left my zone activity. It was awesome pants fun. We played broom hockey first with a balloon as the puck, then with a dodge ball thing for the puck. So fun. I'm so out of shape! I got so tired, but it was totally worth it =]. This week has been good. Tako came to church and loved it! She's going again this Sunday. It's so hard to find people a ride to church in the deaf branch, cuz everyone lived so far away. Most of our branch live in VA, so we have to find someone who can pick them up on their way to church. Hopefully that'll get better as time goes on. Luckily we have a ride coordinator who tries to find rides for our investigators. Last week we were supposed to have 3 people come, but because of rides only one could make it. EEEEK! Christmas trees are being set up at the VC as I write this. The magic has begun!!!!! We started training all the new sisters for festival...really they won't know what's going on till they see 7,000 people coming at them wanting to watch the free program downstairs. HA! Can't wait to see that =]. Hey mom and dad, sorry I didn't get that list out last week, I'm doing it as soon as I get home today so you should get it in the next few days. A few people have offered their homes for us to stay in...if you want to . I'm down, but I dunno what you think. I know you prefer staying in hotels...it's up to you. Transfers are coming up in 2 weeks and because I'm a VC trainer I get to be involved. Mwa ha ha ha! We start discussing where all the sisters can be transferred then give a few options to Pres. and he makes the final decision. It'll be interesting. Oh, by the way, I'm still eating the granola Beth sent me. I have been talking about it for months, and when we finally got some my comp said "this better be as good as you say it is" then she tried it and wants the recipe. Oh I've been craving that my entire mission! Thanks so much for sending it. I even bought some goats milk to eat it with and it was so good! Just like when I was younger and wrinkle-less =]. I hope you all have a fantastic Halloween! We are going to the temple in the morning with all the sisters, then we are going to sleep over at some sisters home more north, so we can work in that area the next morning. Saves on miles. It'll be fun. AND we are going to buy some pumpkins today to carve. Nothing like going all out. Well, love ya, and hope you are getting along =]. Take care,

~Sister Witbeck~ lml/

--Don't be lazy, be CRAZY!!!--


----Moroni 8:3----

What a week!

ai yai yai! we have spent a LOT of time at the VC this week, and not a lot of time in our area, but we still got some things accomplished. One of our investigators (Mike) has a baptismal date for Nov. 9th. He's awesome! He's from Camaroon, and really wants to be baptized. He's a professional soccor player AND wants to be a professional dancer as well. He performs with a group from Gallaudet and loves it. It's been great teaching him because be seems like a boastful/never humble kind of person, but when we bear testimony he changes, and becomes more serious. We'll see what happens, but pray for him. Also, we have a few other investigators who we are teaching which we are going to invite to be baptized. Tako (she's from Africa too...somewhere), Bridget (from NY), and Cristhian who is 12. He wants to be baptized, but his mom won't let him. Please pray that his moms heart will be softened! She wants him to continue learning for another year, and "then we'll see", but he's ready now. He loves it, and goes to church even though he thinks it's boring =]. Other than that, life is good. I got your package (mom and dad) THANKS!!!!! It was really great. Exactly what I needed. I think I've celebrated my 23rd b-day more than 5 days =]. It just keeps coming up, and we do something else to celebrate. Makes for a great month! We have started preparing for festival at the VC. Christmas lights are being put up by volunteers (they started back in Sept.) and us trainers are trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the schedule (cuz it's COMPLETELY different) and how to make everything run smoothly. I'm not exactly looking forward to 1/2 p-days, and 2 or 3 full VC days a week, but the magic makes up for it, and so does the dinner every night that is brought to us from different wards =]. We are well taken care of during Dec. I'm excited to see what will happen at that time. Even though it's a month away, it'll go by so fast! I'm so grateful for a good comp! She really takes care of me, and is learning ASL fast. She uses her Spanish a LOT because most of the people we talk to are from South America and their families speak Spanish. They're either Hispanic, or African =]....funny. It's the same way in the English program. We hardly ever teach white Americans. Darn prideful people ;-). Well, I love you all and am grateful for your prayers in my behalf. Thanks for all you do! Te iu besc! ("I love you" in Romanian....I think that's how you spell it)

~Sister Witbeck~ lml/

--Don't be lazy, be CRAZY!!!--

----Moroni 8:3----

Happy birthday to me....=]

Some have sent emails asking me a few questions and since most are the same questions I'm just gonna answer them here. The only people I teach now are deaf. S. Schoney had a little ASL in high school but is pretty good, and because of this new calling has improved immensely over the last 2 weeks! Wow, it's amazing to see that. The Lord really does qualify whom he calls. Pres. says I will die in this area (die=end of mission....mission lingo), so yes, S. Schoney will be my last comp. I go to the deaf branch every sunday for church and it's hard to find deaf people. However, right now we're just teaching teaching teaching, because of the time we spend at the VC we don't have a lot of time to find. The Lord does bless us though. In fact last week just after I wrote you all an email I was sitting with another sister missionary and signed something to her, while I was signing a deaf guy saw me and began conversation. He's from Peru and understands Spanish, English, and ASL. Cool! We were going to teach him last Saturday but he didn't know his address so he gave us his email. We are waiting for him to get us his addy so we can go over and teach him. That's one thing I get annoyed with is trying to contact people through email and texting. It's cool and all, but you never know if they got it, or have read it....you just have to wait for a reply when you don't have their address. Lame. But it's cool because you can have multiple conversations at the same time with LA's and investigators. Thanks for the birthday wishes =]. It was pretty much the best one ever! We drove up to Frederick (which is outside mission boundaries but in our area boundaries because we have all of MD) to do some service for a member up there. She had TONS of pears that needed to be decored, peeled and put away, so we helped her with that and made 4 pies. One of them we took home with us. It's incredible! I don't like pies, but this one is a winner. Then we had shift at the VC so we spent the evening there. My comp (who's basically the best person ever) took another sister with her to go to the store and buy some ice cream (of course with permission =]), and had a little "party" in the kitchen for me. I also got the package Beth sent (THANKS! by the way) and had fun with that. Well, I think that's it. Love and miss you!

~Sister Witbeck~ lml/

--Don't be lazy, be CRAZY!!!--

----Moroni 8:3----

ASL week 1

Adventures are a brewin. We haven't had a dull moment since transfers! First we moved into an elders old apartment so it was DISGUSTING!!!!! We spent all p-day and some of the next morning cleaning it. There's roaches everywhere so we had to buy some bug killer stuff too. It was really nasty, but now it's better. I'm also now a trainer at the Visitors' Center (there are 4 sisters who are incharge of the other sisters there, and kinda lead in doing stuff. Also, we plan and prepare training meetings for the other sisters which we have every Friday morning), so that means even less time in my area. The Lord is blessing us though. We have 2 investigators who want to be baptized, and a bunch more we haven't met yet. One investigator is 12, his family doesn't really speak English, so thank goodness for S. Schoney and her amazing Spanish skills. He wants to be baptized in 3 weeks, we are going to finalize that with his parents tonight... The other is a guy from Camaroon, and loves what we're teaching him. Instead of asking him to be baptized, we almost have to slow him down so he doesn't run into the water without being taught anything! He's AWESOME! We just met him and taught him about the restoration, and we're going to see him again Sat. then he'll go to church and we'll finalize a date for him as well. I forgot how much I love ASL and deaf people. I tried to leave it aside when I was told not to teach them, so I focused on English, but things are slowly coming back to me and I'm in heaven! I love it. My district is GREAT, my comp is great, and the people are great...so far =]. Today we went to Arlington Cemetary for all the dying missionaries (those of us going home between now and March). Pres does this every couple months. It was cool. My whole district right now went (we only have us sisters and two elders. One is deaf and he goes home in Feb, and the other goes home next year, but he terped for his comp). We took a few district pics =] It was way fun. Well, I love and miss you all!

~Sister Witbeck~ lml/

--Don't be lazy, be CRAZY!!!--

----Moroni 8:3----

Dreams really do come true =]

Well, the long awaited day is come. I have been transferred to the ASL program!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no idea what I'm doing....signing or with the area because we'll be white washing (where neither of us know the area) and I'm not sure where to start, but we'll figure that all out today and tomorrow. I'm so excited!! I knew something was happening I just wasn't sure if i was going ASL or not, so I was ready when we got our call out (telling us where we're going) with a tape recorder. Yes, I recorded it, and have listened to it a few times. My comp is Sis. Schoney from Utah and this has been a dream since the beginning of both of our missions. She was called Spanish speaking, but knows a little ASL so here we are! I'm sad to leave Bethesda but I was only there 6 weeks...not very long at all. We passed the area (which has been melded with another area) to 3 elders. Thank goodness I organized it last transfer. You will hear all about our crazy adventures next week =]. Love all of you so much!

~Sister Witbeck~ lml/

--Don't be lazy, be CRAZY!!!--

----Moroni 8:3----