December 28, 2009 Hey Ya!

Family!
So- Christmas was just wonderful! I’m so glad that I was able to speak with you! It was so weird to hear your voices- ESPECIALLY Daniel. What a crazy! He sounds so different! He’s not my little buddy sounding. Alas- I suppose everyone has to change and grow up. Blah blah blah. I really enjoyed all the packages I received. Thanks fam! You know just what to say to take a girls breath away! (this will take her breff away! Name that movie- please ) I especially loved the rubber ducky pj’s! Also- thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for remembering me- their little missionary I LOVED Uncle Joe and Aunt Sandy’s present. Cookies and this delicious popcorn stuff. I don’t know what was in it- or how it was made- but you know that all the missionaries chowed down on it! Also- the Lusk’s a missionary couple from Nauvoo sent me some tasty treats! I really appreciated that. It has been fun to hear from a lot of the Nauvoo sisters as well during Christmas. If I was a cute sister missionary I would’ve sent out little Christmas card pictures like they did- alas! I am not.
It’s kind of weird to e-mail you after I spoke with you just a few days ago. I can’t believe that it’s almost 2010!! What the cut the! And I am on a mission! Who would’ve predicted that in our predictions? Correction- mom probably did. She knows everything. 
So you may ask, what have I been doing with my life recently? Well- not too much. Being a missionary. One of my most favorite favorites is the Montes family. Sister Montes, she just understands me and I LOVE her. She is from Portugal and she served a mission and she joined the church even though her family is way hardcore Catholic and they pretty much disowned her and she even went on a mission! Oh I love her. She has two little babies Gracie and Coley (I LOVE them!) and we have been meeting with Gracie because she wanted to learn from the missionaries before she gets baptized. Her baptism is on Sunday so that should be lots of fun. I know it’s not a convert baptism or anything, but it has been really neat to see what Grace does understand about the gospel, even at age almost 8, and how strong her testimony is of things that are really important. It’s a good example to help teach our investigators. There is no way that Grace knows everything about the church, but what she does know, she knows is good and feels it’s good and knows that it’s what God wants for her. I need to be more like that. I think too often I think about myself too much. I blame myself for all of my inadequacies and think that my being inadequate is somehow going to ruin everything! That is pride. This is God’s work, and I am very privileged to be helping in it, even just a little bit. I love you all so much! Keep being good. Find people for the missionaries to teach- they need your help!
Sister Picard

December 21, 2009 "It's not about the lights, it's about the love"

Family-
Well. Most of the time I sit down at the computer to begin writing and I have absolutely no idea what to write about. That’s life I suppose. I love all the people in my branch. We have a veritable UN. Not even joking. There are people from everywhere. And I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it! I also love my companion. Sister Black is awesome. We have lots of fun. While working hard. Which is good. It makes life worth living.  Happy Anniversary to the padres! Happy Birthday to Joseph Smith, Jesus and Hann. I’m so sorry I’m so lame I can’t even think what to write about. It will be nice and exciting to be able to speak to you! It weirds me out though and kind of gives me anxiety. Or something.
This week we had several experiences where it was so evident that the Lord was guiding us to find certain people. I want so badly for everyone I speak with to get baptized. If they only knew! Oh that I were an angel status! I am really hoping that I will be able to do all the work that the Lord has for me to do in this area. I get nervous that I’m not working hard enough or doing enough or that I’m good enough. I guess that’s the humility kicking in I love being able to feel the Spirit when we teach. I love being able to see the difference in a person as they come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so apparent in both investigators and less actives when the light of Christ begins to come back into their lives. All I want to do is to bring that kind of happiness to everyone that I can.
OH duh. We went to the temple on Saturday! Wow. That was only two days ago. Weird. So! I was in NYC! Which was fun. Because we see it each day, but it still seems like it is so far away. The temple in Manhattan is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to stay there all day long forever and ever. We were able to go with some of the members of our branch. All of them are so amazing and are such awesome examples to me of how I should be a member missionary. They have extremely strong testimonies and a true desire to share the gospel with everyone that they meet. Literally. Everyone. It’s AWESOME! I was able to do the work for Grandma Marie which was a great experience. I’m glad that you were able to also go to the temple that day. That makes me happy. I love New York. It was so fun to be there. I love the temple. That was a good day. OH. Also of note before I end this little sesh. I was a musical number yesterday at church! Please stop laughing now. It was crazy. But our branch doesn’t do musical numbers so Sister Black and I decided to change that and the Christmas entertainment!  She played a gorgeous song on the piano (Silent Night and Still, Still, Still REMIX!  ) and then accompanied me. I only agreed to do it so she would play that beautiful song. I thought you might get a kick out of that. But! I need to go! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m excited and kind of nervous to speak with you. The whole concept just still weirds me out. I think I’ll be calling around 7 or 8 our time. And don’t worry- there are members here who are gonna love us right up! Oh! I have to tell you about this sweet game that we invented that we make the Elders play with us each morning at exercise. It’s called munchkins and minions. And the Elders totally love it…. Maybe No I think that they actually do. It makes you run around a lot. Which is the point of exercise you know. And it is just too frigid to go outside and run. Bleh. Ok- sorry for the side track. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk to you soon 

Sister Picard

December 14, 2009 "here I go here I go here I go now"

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well- this past week was kind of crazy! We had SO much going on. On Wednesday we had a Mission Conference which was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! You will be surprised to hear that I was in a musical number? What? Weird. I know. My companion is very musically inclined. The Spirit was SO strong during parts of the conference. I am so blessed to be in such an amazing mission! NJ Morristown is where it’s at! Wow- that sounded dweeby. I’m sorry- I’m a missionary. I feel like there is so much I could tell you about but that would just take forever so you’ll have to read my journals when I go home.  We also had a Christmas Brunch with all the sisters at the mission home. It was fun. I miss Nauvoo sisters though- there is just somethin special about those gals ;) Goodness I told you. I’m getting so lame! What to do what to do. We also had a branch Christmas party which was fun. We also had another mission musical fireside. This time it was in espanol. That was pretty neat.
Oh! I know what to write about. So! We’ve been really blessed because we are in an awesome branch. We’re trying really really hard to get the members more involved and they are starting to trust and love us now which is AWESOME! We’ve seen lots of miracles in that regard. I still feel like a clueless crazy a lot of the time. We opened here so I’ve only been here a transfer and now I’m trying to be the one that actually knows what is going on…… but! It’s Heavenly Father’s work not mine so I just have to try my best! So! You would think that I have lived in lots of cold places before in my life so that I may have been prepared for the sudden drop in temperatures here. Oh NO!!!!!! Heck to the stinkin no. So this week like I said has been crazy crazy and Sister Black and I need to get more finding in so we are going out to find and it said it was like 23 degrees outside on our little car thermometer but we get outside the car and it was sooooooo windy and soooooooo stinkin cold I did not even know what to do with myself! I mean- my face was literally freezing off. We would get up to doors and I would try to talk and just drool on myself while my nose was running (ok that might be a slight exaggeration.) But! We had set a goal that we needed to meet for finding so we were out knocking for a few hours and we couldn’t even walk right we were so cold so I’m sure all the people that saw us just thought, “who are you crazies!? What are you doing?!” In fact, you might think that they would have let us in easier, no no no. They just called us crazy for being out in the cold and told us to go get some coffee. Then we said we couldn’t and to have a WONDERFUL Christmas!  But! We were also fasting because we had been doing this 12 days of Christmas Branch Fast for Missionary work EXTRAVAGANZA! (good name huh? Good idea huh?  ) so it was our day this same day. And we get up to this one door and we smelled the food from outside. And it is an Indian family (not our kind of Indian- India Indian) and they open the door and let us right in and we started to unthaw a little and try to talk about the gospel but the person who spoke English had to go to work but the mother who was there wanted to know if we wanted to eat anything and remember- at this point in life we were about ready to keel over and it was amazing INDIAN FOOD THAT I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE and it smelled so stinkin good and we had to politely decline because “we have another appointment to go to” oh man. So yeah- that day was kind of crazy. We just laughed and laughed about it. But hopefully we now have a potential who can make us tasty tasty In dian food Since I know Daddy just LOVES it! Eat em up yum!
I am so grateful to be a missionary. It’s just crazy. I don’t even know how else to describe it. I love it so much and at the same time it can be crazy sometimes. Heavenly Father has just blessed me so much it blows my mind. It makes me want to cry sometimes (I know- quote me on that ) It’s really amazing how much you can just love people. Everyone needs to do missionary work. It’s what will make you truly happy I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! Thanks for being the best family in the WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously though- best. Family. Ever. And I get to talk to you soon! I just remembered that I got really happy the other day. Crazy business. Well- love you! Be good!

Sister Picard

December 7, 2009 "Racoon Pig thing?!?!?"

Family!

Well- I'm not exactly sure how long this e-mail is going to be able to be because all of these crazy little kids are now here from school and well- I might have to go because I'm kicked off the computer. Oh the wonders of public library computers. I am grateful though. I love listening to 13 year old girls talk about Twilight while I write to you.
So! What is new? It has snowed here. That's fun. It's starting to get pretty cold.
Ok I'm stressing out because I feel like I need to write but that I have no time because I have this little timer and this little asian kid is looking over my shoulder and telling me how much time I have left. Which is now 7 minutes. So! The work is going well. I'm obsessed with my new companion. She is amazing. She taught me how to do a gollum voice. So now we talk like that all the time. Also- we invented a new game that we play in the morning with the Elders. It's called fried chicken & pizza (kind of a NJ thing) but it's way sweet. She works so hard and we are always tired but we LOVE IT!
So really quick funny story since I have no time. We were out knocking and it was really cold and we get up to this door and as we're walking up the walk I see this animal thing and I was like "Sister! I think I just saw some huge animal thing!" ok maybe that is not what I said but it was something like that and she just thought it was a cat or something. So then we're standing up on the porch of these people and we hear this weird squeeling snorting pig like I don't even know what kind of noise and we see this HUGEEEEE O giant racoon pig thing and I was freaking out and almost started screaming because it was running at us but then it ran underneath this car. Pretty sure we stayed up on the porch waiting to see if it would come out for like five minutes. But then we decided we needed to man it out and keep knocking so we got off the porch and were running towards the next house and the house we come to has this guy who is a minister named Father John so they let us write in and talk about how much they love Jesus and then as we're leaving Father John's friend kissed me on the cheek. So! That was a really interesting event........................
I have three minutes! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! sorry this is lame. Curse those little kids. The Church is true. I didn't get to see the Christmas devotional because we didn't get the signal which was sad. But! Life is good. I love you all! I'll try to get back on a comp and maybe write more! AHHH I have no time. I love you. Be good.
Sister Picard

November 30, 2009 "Love me some mission"

Family!!!!!!!

Wow. My life is good. REALLY good. Thanksgiving was amazing. We had five different dinner appointments. Bless all the branch members hearts! They didn’t even make me stuff my guts. I was so grateful. My favorite thing that we ate was this corn bread stuff that a branch member made for us. That’s pretty much all I ate. Then I just picked at other stuff. Oh! I had a piece of pie at one place. Rolls at another. Weird- I really love yams?! Who knew. I love this Filipino yam fake ice cream stuff with coconut. And I like sweet potato pie? Who knew? Who knew.
On to the more important aspects of my life- missionary work! We just had transfers on Wednesday. My new companion is Sister Black and she is AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME! She is from Ft. Worth, TX and straight out of the MTC! I love her. SO much! We are going to get so much done this transfer. She is a really hard worker who loves to be obedient. She is my kind of woman! And she is also really funny. It’s been so funny because we will start to quote things to each other like I would quote with Hann and we totally understand each other! It’s amazing. We have fun. We do work. That’s all that is
Ok- My computer session is going to end so I’m going to send this and then keep writing.

Ok! So! Let’s get back to what I was writing about. Which I kind of forget now. I’ll try to bring it back though. Ok.
OH! This is a good story. So! Sister Black and I were going to go to an appointment with an investigator and the woman wasn’t home so we were walking back to the car and I just really felt strongly that we should go and knock this house. I am sure that it seemed pretty random to her, but I said, “Sister, let’s go knock this house.” So we did! We got up to the door and both of us had forgotten to take out our cards so Sister Black said, “Well, I guess they’ll just have to let us in!” (Don’t you just love her! She is amazing!) We got to talking to the girl that opened the door and found out that she and her mother were just about to leave. She sounded fairly interested to we asked to set up an appointment to come back. She told us that she is at her cousin’s house a lot and that her cousin is a member of our church. When we asked who her cousin was, we found out that it was a less active young woman in our branch who we have been trying really hard to help reactivate. It was a miracle! We are now working with the less active on coming back to church and are hoping to start teaching her cousin. I know that it wasn’t just a coincidence we happened to knock on that door. Something I have really been trying to do as a missionary is to always give God a reason to trust me. I would really hope that He knows that He can prompt me to do anything and I will do it. I know that as we act on those promptings, no matter how small or insignificant, we are showing the Lord that we are willing to do His work His way and He will bless us for it.
We had our Mission Christmas fireside last night. I was so blessed! I got to see the Bradshaw’s AND my good friend from school Brianna Haynie!!!!!! (Who is gorgeous and amazing and I LOVE her! And I loved seeing her. Oh- it just made my life.) The Bradshaws- oh goodness. I can’t even tell you how good it was to see them! It was so weird Becca and I both said that it felt like just yesterday we had seen each other. I guess that’s how it goes with certain people. I think the thing I loved the most about seeing them was it felt like I was seeing my family. And I love you guys! So it was neat to be around people like you. Maybe not quite as cool- but close Oh they are amazing! The Spirit was so strong at the fireside. We sang a bunch of different Christmas songs. The real focus was on Christ so we also sang one of my favorites, This is the Christ. It’s been a favorite ever since I’ve been a VC sister because of this one movie we have to show people (they show it in Temple Square.) There was definitely something really powerful about so many missionaries sharing their testimonies of Christ through music. I was so grateful to be a part of it!
WELL!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be good.
Sister Picard
PS- I have apparently totally forgotten my name. It sounded so weird to hear Brianna and the Bradshaw’s call me my first name. Weird- I can’t even type it ha. What a dweebo.

November 23, 2009 "Bird Poo"

Family-

I have a confession. I have a slight sinking suspicion that my letters from here on out in my mission will be getting lamer and lamer. Is lamer even a word? Perhaps. I just don’t even know what to write about. Everything and nothing. Time is slow and fast. Mission is crazy…….. but I LOOOOOOOOVE IT!
We are teaching sweet people. I really do just love the people here more and more. They are amazing. Being in my branch is AWESOME! I’m so glad that I am here. Transfers are this week- so we’ll see what happens. We have been working at really serving the members in the branch. It’s been awesome. One of the less actives that we visit a lot has a friend that wants us to start teaching her because we do so much for her friend. You just have to love people I’ve decided. I may just start singing all you need is love as I walk down the street now…… except I guess that is kind of apostate.
OK I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED Rachelle’s e-mail. I can just see her chastising all the Elders and telling them to be obedient. I love her. In other news, we were contacting in the park the other day and I was strolling along and my hand brushed up against my side and I felt something sick and disgusting and I look at my hand and there is goose poop all over my hand. SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK. To this day I still have absolutely no idea how that bird pooed on me. I almost started crying. I didn’t know what to do. So we had to walk and find a bathroom. And then whole time I was trying to NOT think about what was all over my hand. Sick. That same day someone asked my companion if she was my mom. Ha.
I don’t think that I can ever thank Heavenly Father enough for letting me be a missionary. I know that my purpose as a missionary is greater than anything else I could be doing right now. I am not saying that being a missionary is super fun all the time but it is SO worth it. I love it when I can help people feel more of God’s love for them. I love teaching people how they can be happier in life. I know that it’s only through our Savior that we can be with God and our families for forever. I am SO grateful for how much closer I’ve been able to come to Him since I have been out. I’m sorry that I am not sharing more cool stories. My head hurts from looking at this computer too long. My birthday was great. Thanks Kaiti for the letter. You’re the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (said like Nacho) I love you all. Keep being good. Spread the gospel. Do work. Etc etc 

Sister Picard

November 16, 2009 "5 more days til my Birthday!!!"

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Well. To be honest, I never have any idea what to write to you anymore. New Jersey is awesome. I am just so in Jersey I forget that I'm right by New York except for when I see the skyline sometimes. The weather here (yes, I am writing about the weather.....lame) has been pretty crazy. It will be raining and freezing then it will be 70 degrees out the next day. I don't really understand, but I like it when it's warm. We went out knocking for a looooooooong time in the pouring rain. I think I was hoping that looking like a drowned cat would make people want to let us in. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Maybe they were just nicer about saying "NO- get off my porch." :) So! I almost was going to get sick. But! In my wisdom I had purchased Emergen-C just for times like that and I started popping those little packets like crazy. And drinking tons of water. Like, gallons. My poor comp, I had to use the facilities a ton. But! I did not really get sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 So take that!
My branch is really the sweetest branch ever. I love all the people that we get to work with. They are so willing to do missionary work. If they're not, then we get to kindly remind them:) We've been really blessed in the amount of lessons we've been able to teach. I have been really good about not being bossy, but I've started to do more scheduling and the Lord has blessed us SO much is being able to get more lessons in this week than we ever have before. I love teaching. I am really trying hard to be better about teaching by the Spirit, it's something I can always improve on. Even if I think I am a really good teacher, what I say doesn't mean anything unless the Spirit is present. So! That's always nice and humbling:)
So! We've been doing service at a part members house the past few weeks. Her name is Sister Weber. Her husband Hans is straight from Germany. They are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them. We've been raking a lot of leaves and helping with the gardening. Which I love. Since I get to be outside. And not in a dress. And I love raking leaves for some reason. So she has this big oak tree in her yard and as a result has 20 billion acorns that need to be removed. I was trying to rake them, but I got too frustrated because the little rake comb things had too much space in between them so I sat down and started making piles of them with my hands. My companion was laughing at me but duh it was a more effective way of doing it and I filled up like 2 buckets full of acorns. Then she started picking them up my way too. Take that! :)
On an interesting side note- I got bangs. Full on bangs. My most favorite Sister Montes cut my hair and I got bangs. I haven't had this much bang since I was like 5. But I love them. It's exciting.
I love my life. I love the gospel. I love that I have absolutely nothing to do with anything but it's really just how much God loves his children. If I can help them to feel that love, then I feel blessed. Everyone should serve a mission. It's good for your constitution (? I have no idea- it sounded good in my head:))
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be good. Do work.

Sister Picard

PS!!!!!!!!!! IT's my birthday I just remembered! Olde folde. 22..... ugh. Make sure and tell Claire Russell how old I am. Because I am SOOOOOOO much older than she is:)