Hey hey hey

I haven't washed away...yet. But seriously guys the rain here is like insane. And the wind! Let me tell you! A few days ago we were leaving dinner and I looked out the window and screamed "Theres a hurricane outside!!!!" The husband laughed and said, "Well, not quite." And I almost said "WELL, YES QUITE!" And then they let us leave! We almost blew away out there! Good grief.

 

Speaking of near death experiences...Let me tell you a little story about a bear named Balloo...Sister Hewitt and I were doing service at this place called fortress of the bear. We were looking at the bears on the other side of this huge gate then suddenly we realized that there was a little combination lock that was open on balloos cage. I. Freaked. Out. Suddenly Balloo stood up on the gate and we heard a big creak and we BOOKED IT! Guys, I've never felt so close to death in my life. After waiting about 5 minutes in this little shed, Les (the boss man) came riding by on his little tractor. We frantically told him about the open lock and he laughed. Apparently that lock was for something else, it didn't matter that it was open. Balloo never got out. We just scared the pee out of ourselves. I had a terrifying dream the following night because of it. I DON'T MESS WITH BEARS.

 

 Well I have incredible news. Toby had committed to being baptized on October 12th. :) He is so excited. We cannot wait for him. We just love him so much! He's so prepared. We taught him the word of wisdom last week and he goes "yeah, I already do all of that. Sometimes I feel like I'm already a Mormon." Ahhhhhh. After every lesson he sends us a text that says something like "thank you for the incredible lesson, sisters. I means so much to me that you're teaching me the word of god." I squeal every time. And he gives the most incredible prayers. And he smiles every time he talks about him baptism. The other day we were setting up the details of his baptism and he asked him what time he wants and he goes "I don't even care. You could take me down to that lake across the street right now and I would get baptized." Everything he says just melts my heart. He KNOWS it's true. And he's in MOSIAH! He is flying through the Book of Mormon it's incredible. :)

 

 

 We picked up a new investigator. Her name is Cali! She is so amazing. She is a referral. She cried in our first lesson and just kept saying "I'm just soaking everything in." The spirit was SO strong. She is dating a member right now and she was like "Well I'm not doing this FOR him, but I'm doing this BECAUSE of him." She says he just has such a happiness and it's because of his religion. She says she wants what he has. She totally believes that families should be together forever. We talked about temple marriage and she started crying because she was married before and it was a really bad marriage and she just wants an eternal marriage so much. We are going to meet with her again tomorrow and commit her to be baptized on the 11th. :) She is so prepared to accept the gospel at this time in her life. 

 

Our other investigator Kristina is doing well, she wants to include her husband in the lessons now. Which is awesome! She totally agrees with everything we are teaching her. :)

 

I still love sister Hewitt to death. She is the funnest companion. We are always working together to improve our companionship and pushing each other to be better missionaries. I have learned so much from her. :)

 

I want to leave with my testimony of Jesus Christ. I've been focusing alot lately on the atonement of Jesus Christ, I really want to grasp it on a deeper level. I've been incorporating Jesus The Christ into my morning studies. I love that book SO much. It sheds so much light on his life. The more I study, the more love I develop for him. I can't even describe how much I love my Savior. He has truly become my best friend. I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that he lives. I know that this beautiful plan our father has established for us would never be possible without the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ and I am forever grateful to him. We are so blessed.

 

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

 

Sister Hallmark

Having fun with our grillz. ;)

The most thug sisters you'll ever meet.

Yeah...it's a liiiiittle pricey on the island.

It's pretty much a rainforest outside our window.

Just livin' life as a Sitkan!

Hello friends and family! 

I've survived another week without getting eaten by a bear. :)

I hope you're all relieved! I know I am. I've never been so paranoid in my life walking down the street!

And while we're talking about bears...I FED ONE THIS WEEK! Through a very strong metal gate. Its breath was on my hand. Yeah...SCARY. But awesome.

Serving a mission is seriously the coolest thing ever.

So this week was pretty good. Sister Hewitt and I still love each other. :) And I still just love the people here so much! My heart could explode! We met with Toby again last Wednesday and gave him a Book of Mormon. Then he came to church yesterday and we asked him how his reading has been going. He said he is almost done with 2 Nephi!!!! Can you believe it?! In only four days! He wants to be baptized, he told us. He just needs us to give him a date! We are meeting with him sometime this week to give him a date to be baptized. So excited!

Our other investigator Kristina is slooowly warming up. She will take a little longer, but is so willing to discuss the gospel with us. She has alot of the same beliefs and seems very intrigued by our church. :) She is reading the book of Mormon slowly and we can definitely feel the spirit so strong in our lessons. She is just the sweetest lady in the world, too. Last week when we were doing emails, she left us some warm banana bread on our car with a little note that said "thanks for the fellowship!" SO sweet! We both died.

The weather has actually been reeeeally nice. It's been in the 60's all week...sunny most days. Today is a bit rainy and chilly, but even that isn't too bad. Nothing I haven't endured in Texas. :) I mean, can't complain...I live on a lush island, the beauty that surrounds me every day in breath taking. The rain is the least of my worries.

I want to share a really sweet experience we had recently. Last Wednesday Sister Hewitt and I had a really long day just packed full of seeing so many people. We were DRAINED by the end of the night. Well we got out of our last lesson and it was 8:30 at night...we were both just so ready to go home but we knew if we wanted to be obedient, we needed to stay out until 9. We had this lady we had written in our planner to see at 8:30, but we didn't think she would be home. The missionaries had been trying to knock on her door for months and were never able to make contact because her schedule is so busy. And if she was home, we doubted she would want to see two missionaries sitting on her front porch at 8:30 pm after a long day of work. We sat in her drive way for a few minutes trying to decide if we even wanted to go knock. Finally we just decided we better just go try so that we could say that we did it. Well. We knocked on her door...and she was home. She was so excited to see us. She invited us in and told us about her life. Her husband passed away a few years ago and she works every day from 6 am to sometimes as late as 10 pm. She is completely alone... It brought tears to my eyes. We were able to share a little uplifting message about the love of God. She was so appreciative. She gave us the biggest hug when we left and thanked us. I felt the love of God stronger than ever. I realized that Sister Brown, who is completely alone in her life, who works so hard to receive so little, who is not able to even come to church because she has to support herself, is loved SO deeply and known SO well by a watchful Father in Heaven. He loves her with an infinite love.

No one is really alone in this life. We are all looked at with such incredible love by a our Father. We are CHILDREN of a king. Just think about how much worth we have. We are worthy of so much, we have SO much divine potential but Satan convinces us otherwise. We can't let Satan win. We are fighting a battle we agreed to fight before we even came here. Don't give in. We. are. worthy.

I love you all so much. I pray for you all every night!!! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Hallmark

Beautiful Sunset!

Found this cute little bridge outside someone’s house...

Cute little Sitka...love it.