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.

Did you know....

That there are more bears in Sitka than there are HUMANS?

Fact.

Yeah I saw bears this week, no big deal. Okay...it's a big deal. I've only been waiting my whole life.

Sitka is the most amazing place in the entire universe. I'm not kidding. Like...I am SO blown away that I live here. It's incredible.

My companion is the GREATEST person ever. I love her so much I can't even believe it. We laugh ALL the time. She has this incredible drive to be a good missionary and she is so focused. And she's such an incredible teacher. I will learn SOOO much this transfer. I am so happy I can't even handle it. Life is so good!

We picked up TWO new investigators this week! What a blessing! I have seen so many tender mercies in my life in just this last week. One investigator we found by actually knocking on a less actives door...I guess there's just this giant house with a bunch of different rooms and when we knocked, he answered another door. We asked for the person we were looking for and he said it looked like she wasn't home. We told him thanks and then told him who we were. He said he recognized that we were missionaries and had been to our church several times in Juneau. He then asked if he could come to ours here. We were like UUUMMM YEAH! We had a lesson with him after church and he is just solid. Ahhh so excited. He has such a desire to be a good person and to change his life.

The other new investigator is a mother of two kids who is pregnant...she is a referral from a ward memeber. We initially went to go do service for her but she started asking so many questions about the church. We were able to give her a Book or Mormon and she said she would read it. We are meeting with her again this week...I can't wait to see how she progresses.

There are people being prepared right here in Sitka! I love how the Lord works. We are recieving so many blessings.

I love being a missionary with all my heart. This is the best decision I could have ever made. People are waiting to hear the message we have to share.

I love you all a ton! Thanks for all you do!!! Have a great week. :)

Love, Sister Hallmark

                                          Got to sit in the pilots throne on the plane ride here to Sitka!

I'm here!!!   

Oh hello Mr. Bear...

The most beautiful sunset I've ever seen!

Doing service at the Raptor Center! They take in injured eagles, owls, and other kinds of birds.

WHAT THE HECK!!

Transfer calls came...I'M GOING TO SITKA!!!!!!

 

Oh my goodness I made my mission president repeat it like 5 times. I actually LAUGHED when he told me because I thought it was a joke.

 

They're sending me to an ISLAND!!! I am so excited I can't even type right now. I can't believe that's where I'm going.

 

And my companion will be Sister Hewitt who I looooove with my whole heart and am so incredibly excited to be serving with her.

 

So...you should know this is a big deal. They don't send sisters out to islands a lot. They don't send MISSIONARIES out to islands a lot for that matter. I can't believe I'm being trusted to go there.

 

I don't feel worthy!!! I seriously love the people so much already. I can't wait to me them all. Ahhhh!!!

 

Although I'm super excited to go...this week has been pretty sad because I've had to say goodbye to everyone in my area. :( I'll miss them all so much!!!

 

Well I have to run I don't have much time today...love you all!!!

 

Sister Hallmark

Saying goodbye to some of my favorite people!!! Margret and Vili :)