Monday, December 30, 2013

Happy New Year <3

Hello Everyone:)
 
I hope you all had a great Christmas and I hope you all will have a super happy new year! 2014! I can't believe I have been around to see my 21st year. It's insane!! And I continue to grow and learn every minute. I never want to stop!
 
It's crazy where this past year has taken me! Going from questioning my testimony to giving up everything for it! I am so honored to be serving on the trail of the pioneers and for the chance I have had to study them and to learn of my family history and to feel their spirit SO STRONGLY out here urging me and reminding me of how IMPORTANT this gospel is! They gave up EVERYTHING!!!!!!! And there are many people out here who have sports to give up, houses to give up, and even family member relationships that have dwindled because of the conversion they had to the gospel. As I've realized lately, I would give up ANYTHING for it.
 
I know that Heavenly Father lives-- I have a witness of Him! I know that through Jesus Christ we can be forgiven of ALL things and strengthened through all our trials!! Even the greatest of heartaches! I know that they give comfort through the Holy Ghost, and I know that only through devoting ALL your time and effort towards the gospel, that you will receive the guidance you need to grow into who our Heavenly Father wants you to be! We all have SUCH potential!!!
 
I promise you that material things bring you NO eternal happiness. Learning and living the Word of God is the only way to receive enduring happiness and joy to the SOUL.
 
This week has been a great one:) Christmas was special and I feel so blessed to have spent it with the people I did. Sister Weber is seriously the best and the members in this ward are so generous!
 
Talking to my family was great! The highlight of the day <3  I do miss them:) But after hanging up the phone, I'm realizing that I wouldn't want to be ANYWHERE else that right here right now.
 
Staying with the Trendwood sisters was also SO GREAT!!! I have gained some amazing best friends out here <3
 
We were able to see our investigator family at church yesterday! They all came and the ward was WONDERFUL to welcome them! I seriously could go on and on about how much I love each person out here individually, but I wouldn't be able to express it.
 
Sister Weber and I have so much fun! I seriously am so blessed to have her!!
 
I really don't have much to report this week! I'm doing super well and coming out here has been the best decision I know I have ever made <3 <3
 
Fresh new year! Fresh new start!! Set goals (spiritual goals!) and make this the best year ever. I know it will be the best of MY life. 1 full year left in the mission field <3 <3
 
THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!! God be with you always-- I know he is!
 
-Sister Checketts
 
(we got a picture by a nunnery this week. There is one right by our house! haha. People always ask if we're nuns)

Monday, December 23, 2013

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

Merry Christmas everyone:)
 
I love you all sooooo dearly and wish you the very merriest of Christmas's this year. I do wish I could be there to spend it with you, but I am determined to make this the best Christmas and one that I will never forget:) I love it out here in the mission field and the sisters and ward I am spending it with, I could not ask for better <3 <3 The Lord truly answers prayers.
 
It has been a good week!! Despite many things that have gone wrong, we've seen many many miracles!! Sister Weber and I have this knack for forgetting/losing things and it gets difficult! But we find ways to laugh about it and have TONS of fun:)
 
So we did service on Wednesday morning- so we dressed in service clothes and packed our dresses&skirts to change into after. We did our service-- helping people move, and then when we went to go change at the church, I realized I had forgotten my boots. NEW MOST EMBARRASING MOMENT!! I had to go ALLLLL day with wearing my dirty tennis shoes with my khaki skirt... uhhhh We were laughing soooooo hard. So were the members and investigators that we saw that day. HAHA. Yes, I took pictures, but you're CRAZY to think that I would post it on this email that goes to my blog ;)
 
THENNNN (it gets better). We did service again on Saturday! We again wore our service clothes in the morning and brought clothes to change into after we were done. But this time, Sister Weber forgot to grab her bag of clothes. So she ended up having to borrow one of our members that lives nearby's skirt so that she wouldn't look ridiculous as we went to the trail center.
 
YES. We went to the trail center this week! We took a LA family that we're working with and they absolutely LOVED the history of the pioneers. She said that it feels good to know that she's no the only one who has sacrificed much for the truth. The pioneers sacrificed EVERYTHING because the KNEW that this gospel and church is true and they wouldn't trade ANYTHING for the truth. It was a cool experience. We were all able to see the gingerbread houses again, and this time we actually drove back into Iowa, into Council Bluffs to see the Kanesville Tabernacle as well! Here is where I saw the gingerbread house and Christmas tree that I helped to put together from when I was in Red Oak. It was awesome and beautiful:)
 
We had our Christmas Zone conference this last week! It was AMAZING!! The spirit was sooooo strong and many of us had to stand up and give a talk that we had prepared on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I got to see soooo many friends and like my whole zone from the MTC! I saw Sister Goldsberry, my VERY first companion. It was the first time I'd seen her since she went home with a broken ankle after day 5 at the MTC. So that was cool! President and Sister Weston are the absolute BEST! They put together a book of all the NOM missionary's conversion stories and it is absolutely amazing. That was a wonderful Christmas gift. Then we also did a Christmas gift exchange with all the other missionaries. We read a story and passed our gifts left and right with like 50 missionaries in a giant circle. I ended up getting 2 nerf guns (YES!!) of which Sister Weber and I have had fun shooting each other and nailing the members that we live with :) It's fun:)
 
There is also a sister in the mission whose mother knitted like 140 slippers for all the sister missionaries! HOW SWEET!! So we all have matching slippers ADORBS!!
 
We went to the temple this week! I feel SO LUCKY that I have gotten to go so often. This was the smallest group that I have gone with yet, and the drive with the elders to Omaha was QUITE the experience. Hahaha they crack me up so much! The temple was the best this week though, and always brings SO MUCH peace into my life. Especially since things this last week have been stressful and hectic.
 
We did get kicked out of our house this week though. Our members son came home for Christmas last minute, so out of the blue we had to pack up all our stuff and gifts and move in with the Trendwood sisters's apartment. Which was kind of sad at first but I ADORE the Trendwood Sisters and it's been a HUGE answer to prayers for all of us. It's going to be great to wake up Christmas morning with them. We're all seriously like best friends! Sister Curfew (love her! She actually went to USU with me, but we never met up there) & Sister Sommers (from Utah! Super close to home). I know we'll be friends forever! They're amazing.
 
The members in our ward are awesome! Often we go to dinner appointments and they have a little stocking for us to take home and a BAZILLION treats. Funny thing is though, ALL our gifts have tissues in them. What is up with giving sister missionaries tissues??? It's like we cry all the time or something!! I seriously have received like 5 things of tissues. HAHA
 
I finished journal #2 this week! I swear, when I get home I'm going to be sick of reading about my mission life. But I know it will be a blessing too. Everyone out here just laughs at me, but they're all secretly jealous too ;)
 
We taught one of our new investigators this week! She is 19 and up here for college. We had a super good lesson and during it, I truly realized the power and mantle that we carry as missionaries. We had a member join us, and it was just an amazing experience and she wants to learn more! We'll meet with her again after Christmas.
 
There have been lots that has happened though. Good and bad! We're seeing someone we love DEARLY slipping away from things and it's so hard to watch. We went to her house the other day begging for her to let us in because we KNOW she needs a friend, but she wouldn't budge. She is at a very rough spot right now and things have gotten so hard that she's ready to give up, it's hard to see her making that decision when we know that if she just holds on a little longer that things will get soooo much better! But God has granted us agency and we get to choose what we want to do. I wish there was more we could do to help. I feel so blessed to be feeling love for people out here like I'm doing and to be able to gain these relationships with people and to help them through tough tough times is a huge blessing!! I want nothing more than to see the Lord trust me enough to do His will THROUGH me. It's the best feeling in the world.
 
This morning, we had the opportunity to go and serve at a funeral of a lady in our ward that passed away this last week from cancer. We never got the chance to go and meet her, but felt honored that they wanted our help at the funeral. On Saturday, the bishop had asked us to come in and sing for them to demonstrate some of our hymns (they aren't members) and we sang some that they had picked out. I pointed out my favorite hymn #100 (Nearer My God to Thee) and sang it for them and they chose that as a song to add to the program. This morning as we sang it and as I listened to the talks given, I couldn't help but feel pure joy and comfort in knowing that no matter how HARD it is to lose a loved one, we WILL see them again. And there is so much craziness and stuff in the world that pulls us away from what is SO TRULY important-- which is love and family. And as we sang I felt that joy from knowing that Heavenly Father worked through me to bring that song to this family-- to provide them with comfort and knowledge that families are most important and that they WILL see her again. It was just one of the many small tender mercies that the Lord provides.
 
AND HE LOVES US SOOOOO MUCH that he even gives us the tiny petty little needs that are so pathetic!! We had an experience this week and once last week where we were SUPER craving certain types of food. We had spend the whole day talking about how much we wanted Asian food. The family that we were eating with had THE BEST compliments on them for the amazing cooks that they were and even though we were so excited to eat with them, we were craving Chinese food. We walked into the house, to see the mother apologizing over and over that they had just gotten to busy and stressed to make a big meal, and her husband was on his way home with Chinese take-out. Mind you, this has happened more than once with odd food cravings. The Lord loves us so much and will even satisfy our lamest wants. He's the GREATEST.
 
Anyway, as I begin to ponder this holiday season, I can't help but share a line of a story that I read. A boy is talking about Santa Claus and Jesus Christ and a line of his really stuck out to me. He said "I'd rather have Christmas without Jesus than Jesus without Christmas". I'd ask you all to ponder that line this holiday season and truly look deep into your testimony of our beloved Savior. And use this holiday season to celebrate His life and His birthday. He means the whole world to me there is no place I'd rather be (no matter how much I miss you) than to be out here, doing HIS will this Christmas season. Share His gift. As President Weston said this week " I hope this season will be a time spent with Him, doing His will, His work, and enjoying His glory in sharing the greatest gift!! "
 
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Sorry I rambled a lot today. I hope you all have the best Christmas!! Please let me know if there is ANYTHING I can do for you!!! Ya'll have done SO MUCH for me. I thank you for the letters, packages, and love that I feel from you always!!! <3
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Sister Checketts

Kanesville Tabernacle!!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Let the celebration BEGIN!

Hello my favorite people:)

Sorry I'm sending this in later than usual.... Turns out Sister Weber and I have the worst luck ever!! Haha everyday something major goes wrong.... but we're handling it:)

Today it was-- the carwarsh wouldn't take our card. Then Walmart took like 2 extra hours to print our pictures... but whatever. It's just worldly things.

Can I first say THANK YOU to the wonderful packages from my family?? Jordan & Carly, and Mom & Dad have kept with tradition and sent me the 12 days of Christmas. I get SO excited every morning that I get to open 2 presents under our tiny little Christmas tree:) It makes it feel more like the holidays.

You'd think that being out on a mission, the Christmas spirit would be like WILDFIRE in a missionaries heart. But it actually hasn't felt too much like Christmas except for the opening of my presents in the morning. We did a have a chance to run through the mall last P-day so that I could get a new coat, and the hustle and bustle of the Christmas shopping made it feel more like Christmas. But this year, it's just the peace and spiritual side of focusing on Christ and His atonement-- not needing to worry about all the craziness. It's really nice!

Tomorrow is our Christmas Zone Conference and I am stoked out of my mind!! President and Sister Weston have some big things planned I can tell and I know it's going to be a spiritual feast-- as well as a food feast :) He's asked us to all write a one page paper on The Atonement and as I've studied for the topic, the gentleness and meekness of Christ and the TRUE meaning of Christmas  has brought peace to my soul :) I love this time of year.

So Jordan and Carly sent me the CUTEST little poem that was in my package. It's called "The Littlest Christmas Tree" and I encourage you all to find it. It's a story and a message that we've been sharing with ALL our dinner appointments this month. (And BTW our meal calendar is FULL until the end of January-- yeah, we're pretty popular. Poor elders). They have all loved the poem-- so I thank you, Jord and Carly!!

We had many miracles this week and WE were immediate answers to peoples prayers. (hah, so the lady on the computer next to me right now is like blasting metal music in her headphones--- it's quite the day today.. hahaha) We're working with this woman in whom I love to DEATH. She is going through an EXTREMELY hard time right now. She's literally almost lost everything. Husband, kids, home, job, car-- like everything. And we had seen her a few times this week, but on Thursday, before our dinner appointment, we thought of her again and decided that we should go and see her. But thought we could wait until after our dinner appointment. We got done with dinner, then headed over to her house and we got out my hymn book to carol to her when she answered the door. When the door opened, she started BAWLING. We went inside and she explained that she had JUST gotten off her knees from praying, just pleading with the Lord to "hear him". She finished her prayers, blew her nose, and then *ding dong* the doorbell rang and there we were. It is the best feeling when we are answers to peoples prayers. She is amazing and I know she is on the right track in getting everything in her life straightened out <3.

(haha sometimes I just have to pat myself on the back.. ;) lol jk. The Lord just SO puts prepared people in our path!! So we're at the library and I overheard this man talking to the librarians about family research. They refurred him the the LDS church down the road. I whipped out my handy dandy pass-along cards and went and introduced myself! He's going to give us a call to come to the family research center-- YAY!)

So I got extremely sick this week. I woke up on Friday feeling like death. I hadn't really felt this way in over a year! Flu symptoms.... I was in bed ALL day on Friday and it was SUCH a bummer because Friday was our ward party. We missed it because of me :( I was changing temps from BURNING hot to cold like every 20 minutes. But our ward missionary and the Elders came over to give me a priesthood blessing, and RIGHT after it, I stopped changing temperatures. That night, Sister Weber and I had a party-- we watched The Restoration!! dun dun dunnnnnn!! Haha being sick as a missionary is the greatest-- hah! funny. But we still did have a good time!

I went to bed Friday night and felt 10x better Saturday morning. So Saturday we went out and it was a SUPER productive day! we committed 2 LA families to come to church and 1 of our investigators too!! We had some really progressive converstations with them!! And then Saturday night, the stomach ache came. I felt like something was ripping out of my stomach. :P Since then, I've felt SO much better, I just can't eat a lot or else I hurt again. I'm getting over it. But my testimony of the priesthood just continues to strengthen <3 <3 God's power IS REAL and IT'S ON THE EARTH!!!

Sunday was so funny..... so ALL the people that we committed to come to church-- CAME!!! MIRACLE!!! Some were families that haven't been in years! And our investigator came too. She has a 4 year old son with Autism, cutest little guy ever:) During the sacrament it was funny. We all closed our eyes for the sacrament prayer and then her little boy went RUNNING up to the podium up front, she went chasing after him and caught him and sat back down with him, JUST as everyone was saying "amen." So nobody saw it!! hah it was so funny:)

Anyway, it's been another trying week, but it's been the best:) we're having so much fun and meeting so many wonderful people!!! I can testify that obedience to the things that the Lord asks us to do, brings MIRACLES. If we do what He says, he will bless us more than we can comprehend!! And God does know all. If we are living righteously, and seeking for opportunities to serve, He will put thoughts in our minds and give us things to do that will lead us to being answers to peoples prayers. He WILL give us service opportunities if we but ask and look for them. And through service, comes infinite happiness. I promise you that. So think about that during this holiday season. Seek to live righteously. Ask Him for opportunities to serve your fellow man. Open your eyes to those around you. And then follow through with the thoughts that enter your mind and hearts. That is the Holy Ghost!! And by following through with these promptings, you WILL become happier and feel closer to Christ this holiday season. He is my world.

I love you all!! I hope you all know just how much I love you--- it's A LOT!!!!

I want to give a shout-out to those wonderful people in my last area of Red Oak! Sister Carpenter called me today and informed me that you're all stalking my blog ;) I love you all and miss you tons!!!!

Also, GREAT Christmas surpise?? TEMPLE TRIP THIS WEEK!!! I've been SOOO lucky to get to go so often!!! The temple is seriously the best.... oh gosh I'm excited <3 MERRY CHRISTMAS

I MISS YOU GUYS!!!!! Stay true <3
Your missionary,
-Sister Checketts

Monday, December 9, 2013

It's Beginning to FEEL a lot like CHRISTmas!

Hello again everyone!

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was typing ya'll a letter! Well, here I am again! Another crazy and fun-filled week in the mission field.

I stress out wayyyy too easily ;)

It's been an exciting week. I am glad to inform you that we now have a phone AND a car!! So that takes a load off :) We're still getting things organized and getting to know all the members, less-active, and seeing out all of our referrals. Let's see...

I LOVE THE COUPLE WE LIVE WITH!!! I don't know whyyyy the Lord has decided to spoil me soooo much with these people we live with. This couple is the CUTEST and every morning we come upstairs to a fun little surprise. "Good morning sisters! Have a banana if you'd like!" or "Here is some coupons- lunch is on us!" They are the sweeeeeetest!

ANNND they have a treadmill. YAY!!! Our workouts have been the bomb.com

It felt so good to drive this week. It's been about 5 months since I've driven, so it's a sweet sense of accomplishment:)

So our ward missionary is hilarious. I have a joke for ya'll. "Hey look! I guess a train has passed through here! See, you can still see it's tracks!"
Hahaha there are lots of trains through Lincoln and we laugh at the stupidest things:)

We TOTALLY followed the spirit from finding our first investigator in this area. His name is Evan and he and his wife know a lot about us already. They are SUPER smart and totally are loving the idea of learning more. We're excited to continue teaching them.

Crazy stats for ya'll too. Our ward has 573 members. HUGE!!!! And we get an average of 250 members arriving every week. We have LOTS of work to do!!!! And us with the awesome Elders in our ward are seriously going to do it:)

The Elders in our ward are the BEST. They're our zone leaders too and they're hilarious. Last night after the Christmas devo, they were jumping on the ramps and sliding down them, totally falling on their faces.... haha Ohhhhhh Elders. But they're incredible missionaries.

Speaking of which, WE HAD A HUGE SNOWFALL YESTERDAY... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! It's super slick and Christmas is in the air!! I love it:) Everyone this time of year just seriously has Christ in their hearts. The people of Lincoln are some of the nicest and the members of our church in Lincoln are some of the strongest I have ever met. Our ward is FILLED with RM's-- both brothers and sisters and they all have such strong testimonies. EVERY sunday is just the biggest spiritual uplifter ever. Yesterday was incredible.

The elders had a family of investigators at church yesterday and I have never met anyone so prepared. The father was actively participating in gospel principles and was SO excited for the activities the ward has planned and he just felt the Holy Ghost SOOO strongly yesterday. We all did. It was AWESOME talking to him after church. All the sisters went out of their way to make the wife feel comfortable. Now you know what I mean when I said last week that this is every missionaries dream ward!!

They are ALLLL young families with TONS of kids. Our primary is overflowing!! It's sooooo much fun.

So funny story of the week... we were going around visiting the lesser active people of the ward and we came across this one couple that we wanted to visit. We called them up, stated that we were from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and they told us to come over right away! We went in and had the NICEST visit with this elderly couple. She can't move around much and is getting bad with her memory, and he's SUPER tall (every in Lincoln is tall<3) and the sweetest man. They gave us ice cream, told us all about their kids. And said that "even though we aren't from their same church, they were super happy that we came to visit".... Sister Weber and I were wondering if they had forgotten they were baptized. Then later in the conversation, they started talking about the temple and the people from the ward that would come over to help them and kept saying, "we're Mormons! And you're from the church of latter day saints!"..... Finally we just came out and cleared up the air and said "We're Mormons too!" And then they FREAKED out and totally loved us 100000x more. They thought we were from a different church. Hahah it was the most confusing and most funny meeting. I love old people <3

We did a lot of walking on Saturday. We found out how many miles we have for the month, and had a little panic attack. We've already used a lot of miles trying to find our way around this huge area. So we decided to walk on Saturday and found out later that it was -5 degrees. It was cold! But now we can say that we're real missionaries ;) \

We went with a single woman member in her 30s out to Red Robin this week to meet one of her friends from college. It was the most fun dinner appointment I've been a part of. Her friend was sooooo funny and while we were eating, this woman and her two little girls came over to our table and said "hey sisters! My daughters just wanted to come say hi, they have never seen sister missionaries in Lincoln before!" And we got to talk with them. I totally felt famous and felt like a princess. It was the cutest thing ever.

Anyway, it's been an exciting week to say the least. It always is exciting:) We're still getting used to everything and figuring out what we are doing, but it's fun. Sister Weber is the BEST and she is already sooooo on top of it. I don't feel like I'm even training her!!

I hope you all had the chance to see the Christmas Devotional last night. Russel M. Nelsons talk was the sweetest thing ever!! (and did any of you notice the little boy that winked to the camera when the children were singing?" Us and the Elders totally laughed so hard in the chapel.) But it really started to get me in the mood of Christmas this year. I am determined to make this Christmas special since this time in my life, being on a mission, is the closest to the Savior I have ever been. Doing His work has caused me to get soooo much closer to my goal of KNOWING Him. He LIVES. And ONLY through Him can I receive the satisfying rest and peace that we all NEED in this world because of how crazy it is! The Savior is the way and I PROMISE you that by going to our church, by reading the Book of Mormon, and by praying to our Father in Heaven EVERY DAY, you will FEEL the Savior in your life. You will FEEL Him in your heart and He will give you rest. Matt 11:28-30

We all need rest, we all need His love and we all need Him.

I hope that you do all that you need to to feel Him with you this Holiday Season, I know that if you do that, that this Christmas will be a VERY special one to you. It's not about the gifts we give and receive from each other. It's about the gift that our Heavenly Father has given all of us-- which is His son, Jesus Christ.

I love you all! Know that I miss you every day, but I am so grateful for this decision to be out here on a mission that the Holy Ghost helped me to make. This will forever bless my life and the things I am experiencing has made my testimony so strong that I will never be able to deny that God and Jesus Christ live. Joseph Smith IS a prophet. "I know it, and I know that God knows it". I cannot deny it <3

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! See ya'll next week :)
-Sister Checketts

Monday, December 2, 2013

Fun day at the Trail Center!


Amazing Gingerbread!!


New Address

So of course you can always still send stuff to the mission home at 11027 Martha Street.

But this is where I am living now!!

2901 SW 80th Street
Lincoln, NE 68532

This is where you will want to send packages:):)

LOVE YOU ALL


Craziest Week of my LIFE

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY COW I HAVE SO MUCH TO WRITE!! I hope I can explain to ya'll how CRAZY this week has been <3 <3 <3

First off- last Wednesday!!

It was tooooo good!! It's ALLL tooooo gooooood:) Soooo... we were staying with the Glenwood sisters and had plans to go back to Red Oak to have one of my FAVORITE members take us out to lunch before thanksgiving. We went to this little Mexican Place in town and we talked with her. She recently had her dad pass away and so she really just needed us to talk to and we just love her soooo much. I also ate frog legs... I did it.

Then we went and had a Thanksgiving dinner at our favorite families house! They are members & nonmembers and we love them ALLLL it's a crazy family, but it felt like home ;) They have lots of drama going on, haha but there were 18 of us all together in this super small house and we helped make dinner and played with the kiddos and just laughed our heads off! It was so fun:)

Then we drove back to stay with the Glenwood Sisters.

THANKSGIVING DAY!!!! We knew that it was this day that we would find out about transfers. President always calls our phones in the early morning to let us know who is training the new missionaries, but we were freaking out because out where we were staying, there was no service. If someone called us, it would just say "one new voicemail" and then we'd have to call them back. So we were in the middle of getting ready, stressing out, wondering what the day would bring, when us and the Glenwood sisters both got "one new voicemail" that popped up on our phones. We were like screaming.. haha we threw on some boots and hoodies and ran out the door with our make-up half done. Jumped in the car and drove down to the post office where we could get service. We listening to the voicemail and heard Presidents voice on the other end saying "Hey sisters, give me a call back" Eeeeeeeek We knew something big was happening at least 2/4 of us were going to be training.

Sister Carpenter called him back, then she said hello and looked at me and said "it's for you!" I talked to President and he gave me the knews that yes, I would be training one of the new missionaries, but I would ALSO be opening up a new area. WHAT?!?!

I said "okay!!..." I didn't really know what to say! HOLY COW.

So the rest of Thanksgiving day was full of text messages and calls saying goodbye to people. That morning we were able to serve at the Red Oak YMCA a Thanksgiving dinner to some people in town. It reminded me a lot of my Youth Council days <3. We had Thanksgiving dinner at one of our SWEET SWEET investigators houses and it was super hard to say goodbye to them :( They gave me a gift with a picture of them and a cute little hot chocolate mug <3 After I said goodbye to them, the rest of the night was filled with us driving around to say goodbye to all the people I love so much in that area! It was sooooo hard to say goodbye to the family we lived with... ahhhh so many tears :(

On the drive home, I had to be a part of a conference call with President and all the other missionaries that would also be training. He informed us that there were 31 new missionaries that had arrived this week- the biggest number of newbies this mission has ever seen and probably the biggest number it will ever seen. WE'RE GOING DOWN IN HISTORY!!!

We got advice on training and all of a sudden the stress started to sink in. I would be training AND opening a BRAND NEW AREA for sisters.... I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing and now I'm training! Haha :)

So I finished packing and got everything loaded into the cars, and Friday morning we drove to Omaha. Sister Carpenter would be staying in Red Oak and working with a sister that has been out for a while, and I would be training Sister Weber, and opening up an area in Lincoln, Nebraska called Mahoney.

TRANFER DAY!!! I walked into the mission office and who did I see?? ELDER DANO ADAMS!!! It was so great to see him!!! I love going to transfer point and seeing everybody again and it's awesome to have Elder Adams here in Nebraska now.

I looked around for the new missionaries and couldn't find Sister Weber anywhere! All the new ones lined up on the line and they each announced where they were from and who their trainers were.

SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! Holy Hannah I love her to pieces! She's this model of a blonde from Amarillo, Texas (so now I'm REALLY going to pick up the "ya'll";) ) She's so cute. She's actually 2 months older than me and it's crazy! We already have so much fun together and she's relieved that I don't really know what I'm doing either ;) haha

It was SUCH a hastle trying to get all of our stuff to our new area.... But we made it!! We live with more members. They are the Fergusons! They're so cute. She is this beautiful Asian woman and he is wayyyy cool too:) It's a SUPER nice place and so it's crazy jumping from Red Oak to here in Lincoln:)

Problems though... we're on a car share with some other sisters and we live way out in the middle of nowhere... AND we don't have a cell phone because they didn't get shipped to the mission office in time. So until Friday, we're without a car and phone... it's going to be an interesting week :)

We got all settled and started calling the bishop and the ward leaders to get things rolling. THEN Saturday morning we get a call from the zone leaders... "Uhh.... you guys are the Mahoney Sisters, and the members you live with are actually in the Yankee Hill ward." WE HAD CONTACTED ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE!!! how confusing is that?!? I called President and he was thrown off too because he thought that the members we were living with were in the Mahoney ward. Saturday morning for like 3 hours we were just calling SO many people trying to figure out what we were doing. President ended up calling back again saying "Hey, wild idea, how about we just make you Yankee Hill Sisters? We've been trying to get sisters in that ward anyways" So all of a suddent we had to switch district AND zone leaders and it's just been ALL sorts of confusing. BUT now we have it all figured out!

We went to our ward yesterday and they are the BEST!! It's a HUGE ward!!!!!!! HUGE. Like my ward growing up in Layton Utah, but even bigger! SOOOO many primary kids and probably 25-30 young men and 25-30 young women. It's sooo fun! Our building is the stake center and they filled it RIGHT up!! We got to go and introduce ourselves to the primary and RS and YW and I already love these people so much! It's a wealthier part of town, and they are SOOOOO missionary driven!!!! We had people like begging us to have them come out and work with us. It's the best:)

We went to the trail center again with a cute little family in our ward that recently got baptized. And the trail center is GORGEOUS!! They have decorated it all Christmas-ey and THE GINGERBREAD HOUSES ARE INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took so many pictures... haha

Anyway, it's been such a great week I've barely had time to breath. I was soooooo stressed out at first, but sister Weber is the greatest and we truly have so much fun! I took her out tracking last night (cause we had no car;)) and she just about flipped. Haha she was so nervous. I was like "okay, it's your turn!" and then someone would start walking to the door and she would be like "sister checketts.. you do it!!" haha We'll get her over the fears:) She is soooo good at just instantly loving people, it's amazing. I am soooooo excited to work with this ward. I feel like this ward is like every missionaries dream ward!!

We have so much paperwork and stuff to get organized and stuff with starting the new area, but I am soooo looking forward to it.

It's amazing how much I have noticed the Lord with me this week. Calming me down and helping me to know exactly what I need to teach Sister Weber. At first I felt so scared because heck, I'M still new and I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing, but each day, as I teach her, I gain a stronger confidence in myself, and I recognize the Lord helping me as I help her. It's incredible and I feel so thankful and grateful that the Lord trusts me enough to put me in this position. Only with Him could I ever do this!!

Mission life is the best<3
I hope you all had JUST as crazy of a week ;)

Love you all!!
-Sister Checketts