Sister Jamie Szabo

HELLO FAMILY!

This is going to be the best and the worst email I ever write. I'll write the bad first..I got in a car accident on Monday. Yes all of you who told me I was a bad driver (MICHAEL!!) can now tell me "I told you so." We were driving to our dinner appointment and the traffic was BAD and I looked to see if I could change lanes (I was going less than 5 mph) and I couldn't slam on my brakes fast enough and I hit the car in front of me. Good thing Sister Anderson was there or I think I would have lost it. I'm not even the driver for less than a week and I already crash..of course. but luckily the damage was very very minimal and I'm not sure how the church insurance works but we'll see when they get back to me. The damage on the other car was just minimal paint chips and the damage on our car was just the license plate frame cracked. BOO for car accidents and driving period.

Now for the good part.. The Bishop called us and told us that a new family had moved into our ward and that they had a 10 year old daughter who was being taught by missionaries in their old ward and just because they've been moving and had a crazy few years she hadn't been baptized yet and that they wanted her to get baptized on Saturday. So, we went and met them and they invited us over for breakfast (yes, that's how much the sister missionaries are loved in this area, we had our first breakfast appointment) and we helped them clean their old apartment and we played a game with Carrigan (the 10 year old girl) to review the baptismal interview questions with her and she knew everything so she had her interview with Elder Gremmert that night and on Saturday she was baptized!! BIGGEST MIRACLE EVER. Sister Caldwell and I tried soooo hard to find someone who was ready to be baptized in August and little did we know she just hadn't moved into our ward yet. She's the cutest little girl and I'm in love with her family. They're the best people I've ever met. I felt like I was at home when I was at their house. They have a son who's a sophomore this year and he's just like Ang. He's all good at football and he brought a girl to his sister's baptism. hahaha I was dying.

This week really has been hard but our schedule was packed full and it was such a miracle because at the beginning of the week I had no idea what we were going to do. We had 10 LARC's this week which I think just shows how much the Lord's hand was in the work we were doing this week. I love everyone that we're working with. It's cool that our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ" whether they be investigators, members, our companions, or less actives. This ward is really a Less Active area and once we figured that out, the work started moving forward.

Another cool thing that happened this week was the Zone Leaders gave us a referral of these people who were moving by the end of the week but to go over and teach them so we went and they were awesome! We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon with them (this was on Thursday night) and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and gave them the information to look up where a church is in San Diego (where they're moving to) and the wife really is going to do it. She was all for it and had even already started reading the Book of Mormon. So, although it's a bummer that they're moving and we can't teach them, we're convinced that they're going to be baptized in San Diego. She goes to a Christian church right now and so I think that this was the perfect time for missionaries to meet them because she's looking for a new church when they get to San Diego and little does she know she's about to gain a testimony that it's the only true church. Some day I'll meet them again and hear their awesome conversion story :)

I have a lot of time left today so yay for y'all I'm just going to keep writing until Sister Anderson is done..

Some fun facts about Virginia/things that I love about it:

- they have the best rain storms! they come and go so quick but they're awesome! and the thunder and lightning is incredible. sometimes there's just thunder and lightning and no rain and it's weird but I like it. And I don't do my hair here so that works out when it rains :)

- there's so many trees here and it's so green and I love it. if only there were mountains here..

- the people here who are active in the church, are active. They have to be and it's super cool to see. It makes me want to be a better member when I go home.

- even though I don't really ever get to see the ocean, I love that I'm so close to it.

- there's fireflies here at night. it's like they're from a movie. It's cool.

- the colonial houses here are awesome and I want to bring one back with me to Utah. They have porches and shutters and everything that I love about houses.

Dad, to tell you about the ever so interesting details of my everyday hahah..we do our laundry at our apartment! yay. We were so happy when we finally got a washer and dryer. best thing ever. We go shopping at Wal-Mart for groceries but we do have a target in our area which is actually no bueno because whenever we go I think I have to buy things..basically we don't go there very often anymore :) and I'm not sure what DA's are??

There's so many amazing people here. So many times in the week I think "If I didn't come on my mission I would have never met..." I love them all. People are so nice to the missionaries. It amazes me. Yesterday our bishop found out that we didn't have dinner appointments for yesterday or today so he invited us over for today and this lady in our ward that was nearby heard and invited us over last night. I'm amazed by the kindness that people have.

I've been having a hard time living in the moment. Every day is HARD but every day the Lord gives me a scripture or a boost right when I need it and it just goes to show how much He loves each one of us and also how important the work is that we're doing. Sister Anderson and I decided to make it our companionship goal for the transfer because both of us are planners and we find all these cool things that we're doing now that are going to be SO cool when we get home and then we get caught up in being home and doing good there, so we're practicing living in the moment and loving our time here. I have a sticky note on my desk that has all these little sayings that have got me through the hard times. I should have known that when I was having a hard time living in the moment and SNOW that it was only preparing me for my mission and that now my mission is preparing me for the rest of my life because the rest of my life is going to be just as hard as it is here.

This week I've learned how important it is to really rely on the Savior, because sometimes even though I'm with a companion 24/7 I feel like I'm completely alone and that no one understands me, not even me, but He does and I know that it's only through the strength that He gives me that I'm able to even make it through every single day. We watched "Mountains to Climb" with a less active in our ward and it was cool because it was exactly what she needed but that one is soo good that it even made me cry. I can't imagine going through life without the knowledge of the Savior and all that He does for me. The church is so true. Now it's just finding those who have been prepared and who are ready to accept that right now.

I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic Labor Day! Thank you for the letters and the prayers and the support!

Love, Sister Szabo

Carrigan's baptism