Transfer News!

Talofa!

It was GREAT talking to you yesterday!!!! Mom wanted me to write my thoughts down about the first couple of days here in the Cockeysville area and my last days on Kent Island.

There were many miracles which occurred during my last week on the island. On Friday we were able to get FIVE people on date for baptism. Janene Schnieder committed to get baptized on May 29th and Cliff Johnson committed for the 29th as well. On Friday we were able to also spend the day with the Zone Leaders. They wanted to see how the work is going on the Island and because they are elders and we are sisters, we couldn't go on exchanges with them so they decided to come on our appointments with us. We had 20 minutes before our dinner appointment and decided to check up on a potential investigator that Sis. Lindsey and Sis. Dean knocked into, her name is Anna Jackson. We have tried a number of times to catch her at home but were never successful. We finally caught her on a good day. Anna was home as well as her college age daughter who was moving home from college for the summer as well as her 19 year old son. An hour later they all committed to be baptized. It was such a humbling experience to be lead to the Jackson family and witness this miracle. I am humbled to be in the service of the Lord. Kent Island has been such a blessing. I love the members and the people I have met here. It is going to be hard to leave. The area was "dead" for a very long time now it is on fire! We have 5 people on date plus many other progressing investigator. The Lord will provide a way if our desires to serve Him are righteous.

Oh my goodness I feel so blessed to now be in Cockeysville! It is extremely different than Kent Island or the country and I LOVE IT!!!! Pretty much Sis. Baice is the coolest companion ever. She is legit Samaon from Samoa, so she is teaching me Samoan which is tons of fun! She has a solid testimony of the gospel and is very diligent. There is a lot of good things that are happening right now.

When I found out that I was going to Cockeysville, the closest Sister's area to Baltimore City, I was a little nervous. Could I handle the city life and the people who are not as friendly as country people? How would I be able to adapt to the new changes? All of my concerns were washed away as soon as I arrived to the area. The spirit comforted me and I knew that this is were I am supposed to be. It was extremely sad to leave Kent Island after recently committing 5 people to baptism but this is were the Lord wants me to be at this point in time. I am humbled by this new assignment to serve in the city.

Yesterday we had a great appointment with Jared. Sis. Baice and Muehelstein knocked into him a couple of weeks ago and he accepted a BOM. He was raised Catholic but hasn't been to church in a number of years. We had a great lesson on the importance of the BOM. He kept his commitments of reading Mosiah 10 and even highlighted verses that stuck out to him. During the lesson he had a lot of questions about the BOM and we were able to answer them. He took notes and was highlighting verses during the lesson...it was GREAT! We are meeting with him next week and are planning on committing him to baptism. Justin said that he likes meeting with us because of the good, happy feelings he receive. I told him that those feelings are the spirit of God testifying to him of the truths of the gospel. He is a great guy who is in need of the gospel.

There is a lot of potential here. The ward is HUGE compared to the branches I have served in it up to this point. The members are willing to help out with missionary work, so that is so great. There are going to be a lot of miracles happening as long as we remain diligent. I love this work so much!

Love to you all, Sis. Bridges or "Uso Vaitafe"

Kent Island

My cute Sister Bridges FINALLY sent some photos on a CD this week--although one of the CD's WOULDN'T OPEN any of the photos...grrr..... I am going to send Lerin a flash drive this week for her to use instead of the unreliable semi-outdated CD! 
Enjoy.....

I found my brother's own road!

The US Naval Academy

The McIntyre Family - Stevensville, MD -- FHE!

A Cool Hat I found in Baltimore

Eating OYSTERS for the first time with a member family -- No, they were NOT GOOD!

Bill's baptism -- Stevensville, MD.  What a great day!

A few snipets of Lerin's latest letter....
Oh my goodness I love missionary work! We had such an amazing week! I am so humbled to be a part of this work of miracles. What a blessing it is to serve in the Maryland Baltimore Mission at this time. The success of the week is in large part to the council received at Zone Conference this past week. Every day we made it a goal to update our area book and that has made all of the difference. We have been making it a point to have kneeling prayer every time whenever possible and pray on behalf of our investigators. It has made all of the difference. I know I have been negative in the past about our area with the different issues but I love serving on Kent Island. There are great things that are happening. We are gaining the trust of the members and have received many referrals this past week with some team-ups planned for later this week.
 

Something exciting happened on Saturday. We were asked by our Branch Mission leader, Bro. Bishop, to attend a community Easter party held by Kevin Philpot. Kevin has been doing this Easter party for 20 years out of the goodness of his own heart. Bro. Bishop writes for the local newspaper and was asked to do a story on the event. While interviewing Kevin, the topic of religion came up in conversation. Kevin indicated he is looking for a church to take his grandchildren to. Bro. Bishop immediately bore testimony of the gospel and told Kevin that we as missionaries could come and teach him more about the church. Kevin accepted. We met him at the Easter party and were able to get his contact information to set up an appointment for this week.  Yippee!!!

More and more miracles like this are starting to happen. I have a firm testimony that the Lord will bless us as we show our diligence and love for our brothers and sisters. I love serving and am grateful for the blessing that the Lord has given me this week and hope and pray that He will continually help us as we remain worthy of the spirit.

Conference was Amazing!

HELLO EVERYONE!


Oh my goodness it has been such a great week! It started off a little depressing but it has gotten better and better as it progressed. Here is a breakdown of the week (I'm going to start doing this from now on):

Monday: Since we were over on our allotted miles for the month we had to stay on the Island for P-day. That evening it was Sis. McIntyre's birthday so we had a party for her. We went over early to help Desiree cook dinner and make the cake. It was so much fun. We all sang happy birthday and decorated the house. It was the first time in many years that the house was decorated for Sis. McIntyre's b-day. Later that evening in the dark after it had been raining all day we jumped on the tramp in our skirts and played with their new pit bull puppy. Man it felt good to jump on the tramp.

Tuesday: It was very cold 44 degrees and raining cats and dogs. We had district meeting as normal then we had to park the car because we were over on miles. So we walked in the rain of course! I had a 3/4 lenght shirt on with a long sleeve shirt and a sweater under my rain coat and I still got soaked down to the garments. It was FREEZING but tons of fun. I kept telling Sis. Vaughan if I wasn't on a mission I would be in the crappiest mood right now but we were laughing the entire time. We were not able to talk to anyone on our list.

Wednesday: We had to do some planning in the morning then we were on foot the rest of the day. Something amazing happened...the sun came out and it was 68 degrees. Walking wasn't as bad that day. We even got a little sunburn. Even though we were walking all day the results were the same as the day before..no one home and no one interested in the gospel.

Thursday: What a great day! We were able to have breakfast at our branch mission leader's home and go out on two appointments with him that morning. After two days of no teaching it felt good to visit people and invite the spirit in their homes. After the appointments we found a new investigator and were able to set up an appointment with them this week and we had contact with a former investigator but it doesn't end there...We went tracking in a nearby town and were able to meet some nice people. Then we visited with some members and were able to have dinner with them and share a message with their little kids. On our way back home we said goodbye to the McIntyre's before they left on their spring break vacation to Florida. That evening we visited with some members and played with their cute little pug puppies. Oh my I have never seen anything so cute in my life. They were Little fur balls and were running around EVERYWHERE! I wanted to take one home with me. Amber you would have loved them. I took plenty of pictures of them for you, Ams.

Friday: We met with Charles and Vivian in the morning and received some bad news. Charles is renting an apartment in Pittsburgh for 8 weeks while he is receiving radiation treatment. Vivian will be with him on the weekends. Charles is going to be fine but it will falter their progression in the gospel. We were really working hard with them to have them on date for next month. That evening we were able to have dinner with the Schneider. It was a great visit with Karl and Janene. I just love them so much. We had a great conversation with Janene about the temple.
Conference: There were numerous times throughout conference were the spirit touched me so much that I got goosebumps throughout my entire body. I loved it so much. I could talk about it all day. Unfortunately I only have 2 minutes left on the computer.

All in all it was such a powerful week. I love all of you so much!

March 2, 2010

This week has been crazy! We had a very humbling experience to say in the least. The week started off pretty good then Wednesday hit and everything went downhill. We had four appointments set up for Wednesday and all of them were no-shows. The appointments we set up just two day prior were cancelled due to health issues. Even our meal appointment had to cancel. For 3 days in a row we visited over 15 people and they were either not home or not interested in learning more about the gospel. The funny thing is that I studied about the Christlike attribute of Patience this week. I guess the Lord was wanting to test my patience. I apologized to Sis. Vaughan about that. She was funny and told me not to study that topic again!

Even though we had a tough week we were still able to keep in good spirits. Sis. Vaughan is fantastic! I love her so much! We are working well together. A positive of the week is that Bill's baptism in getting closer and closer. This Sunday we will be teaching him his last lesson and his baptism in on the 13th. He is so excited and we are too! This past week he has been sharing the gospel with his family. He is going to be a great member of the church.

Sorry this letter is so short but there is not much to talk about this week. Next letter will be very detailed because we already have lots of appointments lined up. The Lord was just testing us on how committed we are to sharing the gospel.

You asked about Kent Island and how far we are from Annapolis. We are about 10 miles west of Annapolis and the Naval Academy. We are in the Annapolis stake and the Annapolis district so every Tuesday we cross the Bay Bridge (a 4 mile long bridge that leads to and from the Island) to go to district meeting and most of the time we get together as a district or a zone on P-days. It is great to get together with the Elders to play on Mondays! Also one other cool thing is that the Navy football coach is a member of the church.

There is another fun thing that happened this week. Every Monday we go to FHE at the McIntyre's house. They are so much fun! Last week we had a carnival. They decorated the house and each member of the family was in charge of a game. They have had a rough family situation with Sis. McIntyre almost ready to divorce her husband who is not a member and not supportive of the church. A year ago they were less active and now they are fully re-activated and enjoying the blessings of the gospel. Sis. McIntyre is preparing to enter the temple this summer with her oldest daughter Desiree who is preparing for a mission.

The gospel truly does bless our families. How grateful I am for the blessings of the gospel. I love all of you so much!
Love,
Sis. Bridges

Snow, Snow and more SNOW!

What a crazy couple of weeks. Sorry about last week. All of the libraries were closed due to the snow and then I never had a chance to e-mail the rest of the week.

Monday morning was supposed to be call-outs. Call-outs are when we find out about transfers, who is going and who is staying. We had a good feeling that Sis. Byers was leaving but I was a nervous wreck all day. Due to the snow, call-outs didn't happen till monday evening. Then monday night at 9:15 we found out that there was going to be an emergency transfer meeting the next morning at 9. Sis. Byers didn't have time to say goodbye to anyone. It was sad for her. Then at 10:15 monday night President Belliston called me and extended the call to serve as a trainer. I accepted the call then FREAKED OUT. Training at 6 months is nuts! I had a feeling that it would happen but never thought it would REALLY happen this soon. So Transfers were Tuesday morning and the greenies flight got cancelled and re-scheduled for thursday.

President Belliston let Sis. Lindsey and I spend a few days together before she headed back home to STG. Due to the huge snow storm that was coming our way tuesday evening and all of Wednesday President didn't want the both of us to be stranded in Kent Island so he had us stay at the mission home. I was so excited but the only problem was I didn't have a change of clothes. So all week I had to borrow Sis. Lindsey's clothes. It was tons of fun to be stranded at the mission home for a few days but at the same time it was hard. I was there with 4 missionaries who were going home.....which was great for the morale...NOT! I felt like my mission was over and I was flying home with them, it was weird! President and Sis. Belliston kept on asking me if I was okay then I would give some funny remark back. I just LOVE both of them dearly. Although, it was very weird to see President in sweats!

Tuesday evening we went to Baltimore City. We went to the famous Lexington Market and had some crab cakes. I LOVE seafood (what is up with that?)!!! Wednesday we were stranded all day inside. The snow kept on coming and coming. It was INSANE! The snow was well above my waist. We would jump off the deck and land in it. One of the Elders was doing back flips off of the deck and landing in the snow.

Friday I finally got paired up with my new "daughter"....SISTER VAUGHAN. She is so cute! She is from Great Falls, Montana and is a twin! She has a twin brother. We are getting a long so well. She just turned 22 in the MTC and is going to be a nurse. She is completely fearless. Knocking doesn't bother her. We have had some good times already. I can't wait to see what we can accomplish this transfer. I love her already!~! Yeah!

Just to let all of you know it is snowing right now again. I am starting to get a little sick of the snow. Oh well!!!!

I would like to thank all of you for the cute love notes that were found in my Valentine's package from home!!! It was so great to hear from so many friends and family!!! Thanks so much for the continued support. Serving a mission has been the best decision I have made thus far in my life. It is such blessing to be the Lord's representative.

Love you all, Sis. B

Transfer and Christmas in West Virginia

Washington D.C. Temple

SNOWED IN -- Shoveling for our neighbors

Sister Lindsay (my companion), Sister Kimble (Bishop's wife in Petersburg) and Sister Bridges

A new convert from Petersburg, WV

One of our favorite members from Petersburg

Christmas Eve with the Schreve Family

The PHONE CALL HOME!

Lerin is in her new area on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland.  The city is Stevensville and it is an area with a small branch of members. 

First Transfer!

Sister Bridges was transfered out to a new area this past week.  She had a hard time leaving Petersburg because she loved her companion, the members and the investigators and the small town feel.  Here is part of her latest letter about her new circumstance.

My new area is KENT ISLAND!!!! Yes I'm on a legit Island in the Chesapeake Bay! It is so cool! My new comp is Sister Byers from Enoch, UT. She came out a transfer after me so now I'm suddenly a Senior Companion.... SCARY! There is a Branch here of about 50 active members. Sacrament meeting was so powerful yesterday. The spirit was so strong. The members are AMAZING!

Sis. Byers is very quiet and kind of awkward in a way so it is going to be interesting in the least to work together. I know the Lord has placed me here for a reason. Maybe it is to get me ready to train. I have already had to rely on the Lord more than ever. It has been hard for me to be so far away from Sis. Lindsey and be in a new area. Adapting to change is not one of my best features. We live with some members which I think will be such a blessing considering my companion is going to be difficult.