September 10, 2009 "Proper Picard"

Family-

So, I was reading in the white handbook that I'm supposed to be more professional in the way that I communicate with my family. To be honest, I have actually read that section several times. I just now started feeling guilty about it. So I will try and remedy how I usually express myself in e-mails. Instead, I will try and be more "sister mish" and when I say sister mish I mean sister missionary. Since I was also scolded for my excessive use of "slang" or "abbreviated terms." So! Let me see, how do I write to you now? Well, first of all, life is good. Life is great. Life is WONDERFUL! Everything here in Nauvoo has slowed down. We only get a fraction of the visitors that we used to. We are still staying busy doing a lot of calling and what not. We also teach the senior couples every night usually two or three appointments. It's been a really good experience because I really needed practice on actually sitting down in someone's home and teaching a whole entire lesson. Usually I just try and teach principles from lessons while giving tours. Which is definitely different. Well, I'm trying to think of anything terribly exciting to write about with out saying any slang terms or abbreviations. I love speaking with non-members. We have had a lot of them come into the Visitor's Center (not VC :) oh man this is killing me) lately. I most of all like showing people that Mormons are definitely not weird. OH! Did I tell you about this? I forget. I went to this place in Iowa called New London on "Nauvoo on the Road." We load up a whole bunch of pioneer-ish type things in this big trailer and go to county fairs and such in the surrounding area. Two weeks ago I think? I went with Sister Alexander and some of the senior couples to New London. It was pretty SWEEEEEET! Oh I mean it was a very nice experience. Well- it was a funny experience and I'm just going to speak from my mind about all of this ok? Ok. So! We get there and first of all I had to be wearing my pioneer dress which a) already makes the situation salty (right hann? :) I'm sorry I'm a dweeb) and then b) I totally didn't do my hair and I just put on mascara but I told everyone I was trying to look "historic" AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHA and lets see what else. Ok. So I'm not sure if I was ever aware of how hick this part of the country is. Example one. So we were talking to this family. They kind of reminded me of the Duggars because all the girls wore skirts and the mom had big poof hair. Except they were more farmer version of the Duggars. And they thought that we were all polygamists from Salt Lake. I vote that having to wear a pioneer dress probably didn't help their perception of us at all :) HA! Anyways- so after we were telling them about the Gospel (since that is what we do) they sounded pretty good with all of it and we gave them pass along cards and everything. But! Oh yes. Man- I have to tell you about this you are going to love it. So out here- at all of these little city/county gatherings or whatever they have what are called "tractor pulls" and in these tractor pulls they have this mini-tractors that are kind of like a tricycle or big wheel or something but you pedal it. That's the point. So they stick little kids on these tractors and then they strap on weights to the back and see who can pull the most. That's what they do. And it's a HUGE deal. The pseudo-Duggars came from like 2 hours away just to do the tractor pull. They like go all over to do these things. The kids get trophies. It's a big deal. And let me just tell you- it's crazy. There was this like 8 year old girl who was pulling like 260 pounds. And this 10 year old boy who broke 300. And this little baby pulling like 200. Whatever. It was crazy. I figured that back in the day I probably coulda just thrown weight around with my man thighs and everything. I was probably built for tractor pulling glory. Too bad we didn't live out in the mid west...... :) Ok. That was a big tangent. I'm sorry. My comps still writing though.... so let's see what else. We find out where we're going on our outbounds in about 2 weeks? I think. I'm not good with time anymore. It just.... all runs together. Oh I know. This is a big deal because my prep day might be different next week. They are having the mission president conference for the central USA and so we're having 18 mission presidents come in and three 70's and L. Tom Perry. I'll write more about that next week I think though. It's a pretty big deal. We've been planning it for years.... hahaha name that movie. Well we have known about it for awhile. I can't remember if I told you about it or not. But! That's what I'll write about next week. Should be AWESOME!!!!!!!! I'm excited:) And now you all probably think I have even more of a cushy never do any work mission. Well- think what you will. I've officially decided that no one will ever know what my mission is like unless they've served here. And everyone else will just mock me the rest of my life. Alas:) OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just even remembered! BYU STINKIN BEAT OKLAHOMA!!!!!!!!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!? DUH!!!!!!!!!! Where am I at even? Goodness. I just have to tell you. I was so just having to try SO hard to focus all day Saturday. And I resisted the urge to call any of the senior couples on Saturday night and find out the score. So I walked into church on Sunday and Pres. Reber comes up to me and says, "have you heard yet" and I was very anxious and said "no what happened?" and he has this really dead serious look on his face and goes "well Oklahoma 13.... byu 14" and then I flipped out in the middle of the foyer and started doing a happy dance and doing some air punches and I didn't scream or anything which I thought was good. But! I was. very. happy. And then like 8 other Elders came up and made sure I had heard what the score was. Apparently word has gotten out that I like BYU football?? What? Weird. Anyways. I did hear that Bradford got messed up. That's rough- he's such a cute little indin heisman winner. But! Win some lose some right? I'm going to really have to try and focus myself when we play FSU. OH man. I'm going to try very hard. We'll see what happens. Well! Much love! I need to jet! Isn't that Jimmy Neutron or something? I don't know anything anymore. Oh shood. I totally did not meet my goal of writing eloquently. Dang. Well. Next week:) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Picard

September 3, 2009 "Rise and Shout"

Hello everybody! It's so good to see ya- we hope that you enjoy our shoooooooooooow!!! That's the opening song from Sunset by the Mississippi. It's stuck in my head right now. SO!!!!!! What has been going on this past week may you ask? Well- let me just let you know. Life has been AWESOME! That's right- AWESOME! But- isn't it always when you are a missionary? I was actually just speaking with one of my girls Sister Johnson yesterday about how if you would've asked us a year ago if we'd be on missions we would be like "heck stinkin no" and then if you would have shown us a pic of what we were wearing we probably would have passed out of shame:) hahahahahahah You should have seen me yesterday. I was in rare form. So I have this favorite outfit of mine- it's a black skirt with a white shirt and that black J Crew like wool jacket thing and I wear it like 5 times a week. And I look absolutely shapeless- like the white handbook tells me to:) hahahahah but! It was really cold in the VC yesterday so I had to put on another sweater. And it was this total old lady sweater that was this pukey shade of brown that is way wide and short and boxy looking and all crocheted looking and pretty much if I were to see it I would say "cat-lady" So I was wearing my sweet outfit. And I've been doing this thing lately- I think that my hair has gotten curlier in the humidity or something. So I never have time in the morning to get ready. Correction- I don't want to get ready in the morning so I've just been diffusing my hair and yes mom- I still do wear makeup. At least eyeliner and mascara. But! I will say my hair has been looking pretty "historic" as of late (that was for you papi:) ) So---- I just know I was lookin pretty good yesterday:) AAHAHAHAHAHAH I'm sorry. I don't know why I felt the need to just tell you all of that. It's not really important to the work. The work by the way is AWESOME! We're almost there with all of our calling. We still call at least 3 hours a day. I don't know about you- but I will never want to talk to anyone on the phone ever again in my whole life. And the thing of it is- every time you call someone- you HAVE to take it seriously. Because you know how much the person that referred them loves and cares about them. And I just think of how I'd want missionaries to treat any of my referrals. So that's helpful in keeping perspective. OH man. So I got this one ringback tone- and let me just tell you- ringbacks tend to be the highlight of your night when you're in the call center. And I think it's a new BEYONCE SONG!!! And I'm pretty sure I would love it if I ever heard more than just the chorus. So I just had to dance it out. My comp was like "Sister! Sister!" and I was like "I'm sorry I just have to dance it out right now" So- if that song is any good- I'll be obsessed with it in a year when I get home:) Ok! This was a sweet experience! So- I'm pretty sure that I got a wrong number or was calling the wrong thing or I'm not exactly sure what had happened but! I just started talking to this guy named Jose who had no idea about Nauvoo or anything and so I just started talking to him about the CD and guess what?! He totally wanted the CD. I am really coming to terms with my calling as a VC sister. Which is a good thing. I realize that right now, my biggest responsibility is to get these people I'm calling to accept missionaries- and then I just need to put faith in the missionaries that will go and actually get to teach them. So I just do my best at what I'm supposed to be doing now. BUT! Let me just tell you. Ok- so! We go on our outbounds on October 7th. Yes- that would be a month away. CRAZY! So- what they are doing here is a program called "Angels in the Outfield." ps- things here have slowed WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY down. We are lucky if 200 people come through the VC. Crazy crazy. Summer is definitely over in Nauvoo:) anyways. SO! Angels- what it is. All of the senior couples sign up for appointments and then all of us young sister missionaries go over and teach them every night. They are given different scenarios and then we are teaching them as if they're progressing investigators. So- it's pretty much like the MTC for three hours a night where we just go and have teaching appointments all night! IT'S THE SWEETEST THING OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It gets me SO excited to actually be able to teach people. I just like do little dances walking up the sidewalk to their houses. And then I do little dances coming out of the house. And then I sing songs about how much I love teaching the people in the car. It just feels so good to teach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man. So good. And I know that it's just a "role play" but at the same time I know that I'm getting important practice in. And that I can really still teach the senior couples as themselves. And that it's still my job to strengthen their testimonies. I just love it. I will also admit- it is weird to not be going back to school. But! Have no fear!!!!! I've found my kindred spirit here in Nauvoo. Sister Sandstrom is probably the only woman in a thousand mile radius who might love BYU football as much as I do. And she's going to be keeping me updated:) She wanted to say she had important business in Dallas this weekend to go down for the game. But then she figured the camera would pan the audience and there she would be sitting with her little black tag on waving:) hahaha. I just love all the senior couples here. They are amazing. Well! I need to get to getting. BUT! I love you all!!!!!!!!!!! Be good. I'll try and get some pics in the mail today. We're going to wal-mart- so I may actually print them off:) love you lots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Picard

August 27, 2009 "Just two kids having a good time"

Well Familia- let me just tell you something. Today has been CRAZY!!!!!!!!! But SOOOOOOOOOO fun. We went to Hannibal MO with three of the senior couples. These senior couples are seriously my three favorites. Or I should say three of my favorites. But really- my three favorites:) Hannibal is Mark Twain's childhood home (his name is sam clemens you know! bodee ba john-o bodee bodee! --my girl hann;) ) It was pretty sweet. I made everyone hike up and see this lighthouse with me. We went and saw Mark's "childhood home." We saw a lot of touristy stuff. We went and ate out for lunch that was SOOOOOOOOOO tastay! I had the best salad. OH man. It was so good. Real food. SOOOOO good. And there was this cute little boutique/salon that I got to go in for like one second. But it was just fun to feel like maybe I was a girl again for just a minute:) Then..... we went to the Mark Twain caves! I have to admit- I didn't know how much I was about this whole cave business. I don't like the thought of being underground. It creeps me out when I think about being 30 miles under the ground or whatever we were. Actually maybe that was more like ft? Miles seems a little bit much now that I'm thinking about it:) ha! well! Yes. And my equilibrium was all off- like I was almost sea sick or something. My sense of direction was just all whacked out- even though I'm native:) And then! They did this thing where they turned off all the lights so we were in complete darkness blackness whatever and we first had to make the comparison to the gospel being a light in our lives - ha we're missionaries:)- but then! They were telling us that if you were to be in complete darkness for 6 weeks you would go blind. So then I started thinking about Gollum. And how he would have gone blind just chillin under that mountain for hundreds of years. But... then I also thought that was fictitious :) Anyways! So that was a neat experience. I'm SOOOO grateful for the senior couples here. It was such a fun day. All three couples are such an example to me. The elders are seriously just the funniest people ever. They know how to have fun and how to be serious. And the sisters are just amazing. I love them all so much! But! In other news- we've just been calling calling calling calling!!!!!!! I did have a way sweet tour the other day. I was tag teaming it with Sis Aston again for some reason. Good things happen when we do that though:) And we taught this guy from Fort Madison and his friend from NORWAY!!!!!! It was SO good. We didn't get them to fill out a referral here- but they did take cards. Which was an improvement. Because they were so hesistant at first to listen. OH YEAH! I had this SWEET tour yesterday with a mom and her son (who was like in his 40's) from NC. I love talking to people from the south:) And they were so good to talk to about the gospel. They were really good to hear me out- which I really appreciated. And I always try to be very respectful of other peoples religions as well. They were baptist. I always try to highlight more of our similarities than to focus on our differences. Like Pres Hinckley talked about- bring what good they have and let us add to it. I felt SOOOO close with getting to them to have missionaries over but they didn't feel that it was a good idea. They did say at the end of the tour that I was just the person they needed to talked to them and they were glad they talked to me. It was good because SO much of the time I just feel like I don't do anything here. And I keep trying and trying and trying and I always feel like I should be doing sooooo much better. At everything. And that I'm very inadequate. And I think I still am. But I was glad to have that tour. So yesterday I was in the Call Center for 6 stinkin hours. That is a looooooooooooooooong time. Especially if you know me well enough to know how much I love being on the phone :) But! THe work is good. I'm pretty sure we've passed the thousand mark for missionaries being sent. I know the other night we sent out over one hundred. It makes me feel good to know that even if I'm not the missionary getting to teach- I'm at least giving some other missionary the opportunity to. Which is a neat feeling. So! Just pray for me. Sometimes it's hard to keep calling. But I just have to psyche myself up "I love being in the call center I love talking on the phone I love talking to the people I love talking to the people I LOVE talking to the people" and then just do work. I have to be diligent. It's easy to get distracted. Sometimes when I start slurring my words or being incoherent I'll just go run around out in the hall for a couple minutes to make my head start thinking again :) Well! I have to go- sorry. We got back way late. And pday is over in 8 minutes! And then I'm going to go call for three hours:) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! I'm SO proud of Daniel. He sounds like he's tearing it up in football. Well duh:) How's the eating? Thanks a bunch for the letters from Baby and Daniel. It made my day. The pics are awesome. The pic of baby doing her thinking pose I think one of the sisters saw and said "that's SO a sister picard thing to do:) " so they all think she's little mini-me. I also liked the pic of baby and daniel in the front of the boat "just two kids and they're having a good time" :) and dad in his superman cape!!!!!!!! it is... his superman cloak! I love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!

August 20, 2009 "I love the Indiana Pacers"

First and foremost most important thing of the world. AUBREY POTTER IS THE COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So! Right on Monday after transfers and just everything crazy I was needing a little pick-me-up. I didn't get home until like 10:15 and what was waiting for me? A lil package. And what was inside that package!?!?!?!??!?! AN OFFICIAL STINKIN MUG FROM THE OFFICIAL STINKIN NBA STINKIN DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And what was also in that little box (I'll put that box inside of another box... and then I'll smash it with a HAMMA. sorry- it was just in my head) TYLER HANSBROUGHS OFFICIAL LITTLE NAME PAPER THINGY THAT HE MOST DEFINITELY TOUCHED!!!! aaaaahahahahahahahahah. I peed my pants. I loved it. I still love it. I drink everything in that mug. No one else is allowed to use it. Because I don't want it broken. And everyone thinks I'm crazy. As if they didn't already:) Well well well...... What to say about the last week hmm? It was actually kind of crazy now that I think about it. We had transfers. I'm staying in Nauvoo. My prep day is still Thursday- obviously:) The YPM's all went home on Tuesday. It was kind of a big deal for everyone. I'll miss some of them I'm sure, but! just as a general rule I'm not much into goodbyes and being emotional:) They had a YPM Talent Show on Monday night which was pretty fun. One of the Elders sang "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof. He even did the Tevye shimmy thing. And one of the sisters just about peed her pants she could not even handle it. It was fun watching everyone watch. Ohhh such awkward sister missionaries- gotta love it! It was good laughs though. You need to laugh like that every once and awhile. I will tell you what was really sad though. Two of the 2nd summer sisters went home this morning :( Two of my most favorite sisters of all time ever!!!!!!! Sister Granja and Sister Ahrendsen! Granja is my cute little Brazilian. And Ahrendsen was one of the Assistants. So- it was a pretty big deal. I will admit I even got a little teary-eyed this morning when they left. It was just sad knowing I could never see Granja again. Don't worry- I gave her a sweet present. And I gave Sister Ahrendsen one of my bows. I told her it's super lucky and will get her lots of dates :) It's kinda crazy knowing that we'll be going on our outbound soon. It's actually really crazy. I guess President maybe already knows where we're going? Crazy business. I try not to think about it. It's just- I just don't even want to have an opinion so that I can just be happy wherever I go. I have lots of places visitors have told me I should go:) Tacoma WA, Mississippi, Louisiana, Colorado...... so I have friends everywhere now:) I got to watch part of Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration in spanish yesterday! We had this family from Chile come in- of course they thought I spoke spanish- and then part of my heart got ripped out like it always does when I had to tell them I don't speak spanish- but! I did get the spanish Joseph to work for them. It was sweet. Probably the coolest thing of my life continues to be calling. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE calling. We're trying to get through all the referrals and it's coming along! I don't know if I'm allowed to say or not but Sister Brinkerhoff was saying yesterday that we've sent out about 800 referrals so far. That's INSANEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! That's 800 people that are having the missionaries over. Do you even know what that means!?!?!?!??!?!?! 800 PEOPLE ARE HAVING THE MISSIONARIES OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we're no where close to be done with actually contacting everyone. The hardest/most frustrating thing is trying to get information from the members of the church. A lot of times they just put down their own contact information and then a name so that we have to call them and get their friends phone number so we can then call the friend and make sure it's okay that the missionaries are coming over. Wow- long sentence. Sorry. So! Actually getting the non-member info can sometimes be a pain. So! now you know when you refer- just help a sista missionary out. And if she leaves you a message- call back. Thank you very much. Things have slowed down a lot here with all the shows being over for the summer. It's kind of weird. I've just been so busy for so long. And we still stay really busy with calling- but still. It's different not talking to a bajillion of people everyday. Instead- maybe only like a million:) The thing that makes me happiest is when people say yes to receiving the CD. The thing that makes me saddest is when people tell me I don't believe in Jesus. Another thing that makes me happiest is thinking about my family. I'm trying really hard to get all prepped for the outbound. I need to know the lessons better. I don't want to be a total dweebo when I go out in the field. I mean- I'll have been on my mission for 7 months by then. It's not like I'm a total greenie. But I'll still be trained and everything. Because it will be very different. But! I want to make the learning curve as easy as possible. So I've really been trying hard to practice lessons and study them and memorize all the scriptures I can! Because we all know- when I finally get a chance to be out in the field........ daaaaaaaaaaang:) Well- hopefully by then I will just be able to do whatever it is that God needs me to. So! I need to be as prepared as possible. I'm not sure of anything else cool to tell you. Oh. Here is a story for you. So! Last night as a farewell/departing treat some of the sisters- we decided to have a little dance partay. And we dressed up like idiots. We always tease Granja about not being American- so I got plastered in this American flag streamer business and was lookin pretty good. We were just being crazies. It honestly doesn't happen very often. Mostly just because the sisters were leaving and we needed to just dance it out one last time to our favorite jam here on the mish----- that would be "The Light" from the stand in the light efy cd. I'm telling you- classay!!!!!!!!! It was fun. You just have to have fun sometimes. Especially if it's to prevent you from being sad:) Well! I love you all most dearly. Keep up the good work. Do work. :) I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!

Sister Picard

August 13, 2009 "Hoping to make-up for past lameness of not writing"

OK!!!!!! Well. First of all, I am very sorry I haven't written in forever. I know that everyone is just dying with out my sparkling personality shining through my weekly e-mails. So yes- I am still alive and kickin. More than that really. I can still kick streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch and KICK! I have no idea where to even begin my e-mail. Because I really don't remember what the last thing I wrote was even about. Probably something sweet like pageant I think. Pageant was amazing. SOOOOOOOOOOOO busy though. For that reason, I am okay with it being over. But I miss the bagpipes:) ha! Well- now we just spend all our time calling all of the bajillion of referrals that were received during pageant. That is FUN! Remember how much I loved calling in the MTC (which is a LOT if you don't remember) it's like that all over again. Except better. Because we're giving out sweet sweet CD's from Pageant. And people are usually pretty excited about that. It's fun too because we're supposed to try and keep the conversations concise so we can get through them all. So we're just very to the point and spiritual and you know- all the good missionary business :) So we call for at least two hours a day. On top of everything else. Which is still sweet. We've had some way famous people here lately- like for instance David Archuleta. AAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHA That was fun. Funny. Fun. He came at a time when there was a bajillion of youth groups here and got mobbed by everyone. I didn't get to meet the little popstar or anything. I just saw him at pageant. Oh and where was I? Oh yeah- being a sister missionary:) It's funny because one of the YPM's kinda resembles him a little bit so he'd get mistaken for him all the time:) So there was that fun experience! One of the members of Jericho Road was here too (the black one). I gave them a tour at Carthage. I just LOVED his wife. She was amazing. Is amazing. She is an RM too. It made me feel good about being a sister. LIke- you can be normal and be a sister:) And their little babies were SOOOOOOOOOOOO cude. So let's see what else has been happening. Oh- I get eaten to death by chiggers every day of my life. That's pretty sweet. But I really can't complain. Because it has been a really really mild summer from what we hear. So! You win some and you lose some I figure. Vocal Point is here. They are "an international award winning men's acappella group from Brigham Young University." We don't watch their show- because we're calling then. But! We greet for it. Which means we hand out programs and make people feel happy and loved! But! It's been sweet having them here because they bring in a lot of non-members from the surrounding areas. Which is always a good thing for us:) But when I hear them sing they sing all these apostate songs that I get stuck in my head. Especially Thriller. Or "triller" as Sister Granja says:) I just want to get up and dance!!!!! But I can't! Ok- speaking of crazy. So my comp got her hair highlighted today at this salon in Ft Madison so I was just sitting there and had brought in my Ensign to read conference talks and maybe write in my journal or something but they had the radio on and let me just tell you- Satan must have been controlling that radio because pretty much every song I even loved came on. The most ironic "Babylon" by that one guy- I forget. I love it though. And!!!! Coldplay came on. duh. And then! The icing on the cake..... yes. you guessed it. SEPTEMBER BY EW&F CAME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was just like "oh Sister Picard, just don't lose focus right now. I know this is your best dancing groove but you just have to not.. ok.... focus." so! There's a funny little tidbit about today. Oh! I know what has been cool. So every night when we're calling there is a lady that comes in a cleans the Visitor's Center. So I've talked to her and stuff before but the other night I was like "ok. weird. we're calling all these people about cd's but has anyone ever thought to ask her?" So I did. And she was interested. So she just kept talking to us. And we kept telling her more about the Church. And she wanted a Book of Mormon. Go figure right? :) I love times when I feel like I get to teach a little bit. It's just different here. It's hard though. It's hard to try and incorporate principles of the lessons into the script at the bakery or Heber C's house. BUT! You just do it. And you just pray you're saying the right things. And Heavenly Father is so wonderful to give me SO many things to be happy about on a daily basis. My most happy things these days are when people accept having the missionaries over. Then I just pray lots that they're good missionaries. I'm sure they are. It's SOOOOO cool to be able to see how close people are to our beliefs. Or when they accept having missionaries over. It's AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I love it. I LOVE it. Oh. EFY has been here lately. The past two weeks in fact. That's been interesting. What a sweet place to have EFY though. Also- Granja, Ahrendsen and all the YPM's leave next week. After that everything here is going to get REALLY slow I hear. But! We're still calling! So there is this line from pageant that Parley P Pratt says and it goes "When you're here, we're here." Our sister mish motto is now "when you're not here... we're still here." :) OH MY GOODNESS I ALMOST FORGOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And this is the thing that Daddy is going to love the most!!!!!!!!!! So! I'm just in the VC you know just doing what I do and then! In walk these people so I go to talk to them since that is what I do and they see my name tag and just start to flip out! So get this. They are legit FROM France and their last name is PICARD!!!!!!!!!! How sweet huh? They just loved me after that:) And told me that I should speak French. I agreed with them. I'd love to speak a different language:) hint hint *cough* outbound. But! They were just awesome! And gave me all their information and told me to come visit! They are temple missionaries in the Madrid Spain temple right now though. Cool huh? AWESOME! It's so fun to see how people literally talk to the people that they should. That was a dumb sentence. What I mean is that over and over again in the VC especially certain sisters will talk to certain people that come in for specific reasons. Well!!!!!!!!!! I just love my mission. I'll try and do some cooler stuff to tell everyone about. But- the gospel should be pretty cool. Cool enough for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) I LOVE YOU!!!!!! Be good!!!!!!!

Sister Picard

July 16, 2009 "When you're here, we're here" quote from Nauvoo pageant

Oh HEEEEEEEYYYY!!!!! Ok. So I have like a minute to write to you. Literally. So I will try to make it fast. And informative. At the same time. Yes. Well! Pageant is going on! OH! First of all! Transfers were on Sunday. I still have the same prep day so here I sit on this wonderful Thursday morn. I am comps with Sis Lukens. She's tight. We served out in Carthage together my first transfer there. She's from CA. And she even knows and loves Sufjan. I appreciate here. And we like to shake it to the bagpipes here during pageant. So that's fun. In case you weren't aware- there is this big bagpipe band thing that they have here for pageant. They are SWEEEEEEEEEET or prime as Hann would now say I suppose. But- they can drop a beat:) ha! Oh mission. Ok. So! I'm back in the Hatch House which is kinda a lot crazy. 14 girls in one house. But! We manage. Our schedule is just insane right now. Isaiah 40:31. All I can do when I wake up each morning is pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him to please let me be able to get out of bed and go running. And please let me not fall asleep when talking to visitors. And please let me stay happy. :) So! He's been helping me out a lot in that regard. We have to be out the door at 8:15 and we don't get back until after 11. It's funny because we'll see the same people throughout the day all over Nauvoo and they're just like "where are you coming from?!?! you're everywhere!!!!" ha. But! It's fun to stay busy. And it's SO fun to have this many people in Nauvoo. I served at the VC (visitor's center) yesterday and I guess we had over 1400 people come through. Which is a lot. If you think about it. I am absolutely LOVING pageant. Sometimes I have to kind of give myself a little prep talk before I go out to greet or contact or whatever and just say over and over in my head "I love talking to people, I love talking to people, I love talking to people" because if you know me at all, a lot of times I don't like talking to people. Let alone, LOVE talking to people:) But! Heavenly Father blesses you when you are trying your very hardest, I know He does. And He has helped me SO much. And has given me so many good experiences. And I just know that there are SOOOOOOO many things that I can be doing better. So that gets a little frustrating. Because I just want to be wonder missionary right now and always know what to say to everyone and to do everything right right now. So- there is my need to work on patience a little more:) We have the elders from the Peoria mission coming in to help out with the pageant. They help us in getting referrals and what not. I've definitely noticed a difference in how we contact. The elders bless their hearts are pretty just "here's your referral card fill it out" and you know what? it works for them. But the VC sisters we are more about I guess you could say "buttering people up" before we slip the referral card:) K- that sounded kind of bad. What I mean is that. Ok- well here is my goal. I NEVER want anyone who I talk to to feel like the only reason that I talked to them was to get a referral. I want everyone to feel like I genuinely care about them. And I want to genuinely care about them. And I've noticed that as I've done that, referrals just kind of come. But it's just awesome. I can't tell you how awesome it is. I wish I could just bottle up my happy and send you some. Because it's SWEEEEEEEEEET! I mean prime. And the happier I am in the gospel- the greater desire I have to just share it with EVERYONE. Seriously. OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I totally almost forgot! I got your package on FRIDAY! So I didn't get to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! Everyone was totally jeal. IT was the BEST packaged in the entire world. That is not even an exaggeration. I never exaggerate. Or lie:) Seriously though. It made my life. I've been wearing all those shirts. Everyone thinks they're way cude and wants to borrow them all the time :) Oh I just love it. Everyone thinks my fam is the coolest. Because they are. I can't even tell you how much I love you. Or thank you enough for all your support. Because you are just amazing. And I miss you lots- but it's really a good kind of miss. It makes me want to be a better missionary kind of miss. If that makes sense. So don't you worry your little heads about me. I'm doing good:) OH! Also! I finally got a letter from Cass which was sweet. And! I need Claire, Becca, and Kaiti's addresses to write them back because I don't think that any of them are at the last address I have for them. So! I love them- but currently cannot write them back:) LOTS O LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep it classy. Be good. Just- read the Book of Mormon everyday. And have quality FHE's. That's my "invitation" to you:) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Picard

Sweet Headbands!

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