Manhattan Touring

Hello family! Sounds like you have had quite the epic weekend! I am glad your birthday party was a blast Allie! You know that you are a Chipman girl when sweat and mud are signs of a good time :)

So I have a new companion. Guess who it is?.......................duh duh duh! It’s Hermana Mortensen my MTC companion!!!! She just got called as sister training leader and we are now working together in the YSA branch together. It is SO good to be with her again, and the branch loves her too :)

We had an incredible weekend too. We were able to go to the temple with a recently returned Less-active member named Amalia. Amalia is wonderful! Our ward mission leader gave us her name about 2 months ago. We started contacting her and working with her a little bit. She had some big changes happen in her life, and it caused her to change her perspective and look more deeply for God. She one time pulled us aside at volleyball and told us that she wanted to come back and the time was now. She turned things around, moved her records to the singles branch, accepted a calling and went on the branch temple trip on Saturday! And we got to go with her and spend a day in Manhattan! Sister Mortensen lived in the city before her mission and so when we only had 45min to walk around central park, she knew just where to go! I loved it! We saw strawberry fields, the lake and the plaza. I felt like I was in the movie Enchanted! There were SO many people there. After that we went and got pizza at a tasty pizzeria just a couple blocks from the temple. Manhattan is incredible, so much energy, and a lot of fun.

However much fun the hour of Manhattan touring was, nothing beat being with Amalia in the temple. She just glowed and was so happy to be back. On Sunday she gave the lesson in Relief Society and said, "I am back and I am home." And it is so good to have her happy and back.

Also being in Manhattan was such an interesting contrast. Both things were wonderful. Central Park and walking through the "Upper East Side"...where some of the most powerful and most influential on this planet people live and where stands the incredible architecture and sights that attract the attention of every "nation, kindred, tongue and people." And then to walk into the Holy Temple of our God. Where stand the wonders of eternity, and where all those people may come, learn of Him and perform the ordinances they need to gain salvation and their exaltation. So interesting to walk through the streets of Glory which will only be Glory for a time, and then to walk through the doors of the temple and into the Glory of God which is Eternal and has no end. Really puts a perspective on things, and what is really important and how important our calling is as missionaries. How sacred and great is our calling!

As far as health goes, same old same old, but I still am keeping up and I count myself blessed :). Still no doctor. But, Sis Calderwood gave me permission to look up my own ENT if I need to, and can’t see a doc this week. I am also getting some tests done today. So the process is still slow but coming.

I love you all and miss you dearly!!! This work is hard, but I know its true, and that is what keeps me out here and gives me joy.

Hasta la proxima!!