Email 7/15/13

This week has been a bit stressful. I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing here. I feel completely ineffective and like I shouldn't be here. I have just wanted to hide in a corner or just have my mom and dad with me this past week. I miss you both so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just don't know what to do.

 

We were teaching a few but we ended up passing them to the elders. which is frustrating because it seems like we are passing all of our investigators to the elders and they are keeping all of theirs who happen to be single women. Who would be much easier for us to teach but oh well I guess. I really makes me start to wonder if I even want to get married when I am home because these elders are on my nerves and I don't even want to be around them. I feel like I am going to snap at them every time!!! Which I know is not good but it is how I feel at the moment. We have tried most of those ideas but they just don't seem to even have faith that any one will show up or they just don't put any action into them. I love this area and it just kills me that they don't see their potential and it seems like they don't even want to at all.

 

Yes they do have small flats. The houses are small as well. They are as big as the apartments that you live in. But as a house.

 

Oh I wish I would have been able to go to the Tree family reunion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There better be one next year. Haha you do have good parents!!!1

 

We have done a lot of service this past week. One of our investigators owns a Chinese Chippy and has offered us Chinese food anytime we want because we are out here helping people and she wants to help us. Well on Thursday night she called us and told us that none of her drivers showed up. Well we were at a members house getting ready to do service for her. Well that member ended up helping us do service for Winnie. We ran food for her chippy for 3 hours. It was so much fun and it gave Winnie a chance to know that when we say that we will help her with anything we really mean it, and she got to meet a member of the church.

 

I had to give a talk in church this week. It was on missionary work. I mainly focused on Moroni 1:3 and Moroni 10. In Moroni 10 it was exhort 8 times. Exhort=Strongly encourage. So we are strongly encouraged to do 8 things. It is a wonderful chapter.  We also taught the relief society lesson this week as well.

 

We sanded chairs and a table for a member. Painted chairs for another member. Worked in the garden of the member who ran food with us, and washed her car. It has a service filled week.  

 

I love you tons

 

Sorry the email is short this week.  

 

Love

 

Sister Ballatntyne

Email 7/8/13

This week has been great!!!!!

Yesterday I was at the mission home fireside after it was over I was going to talk to Karl (my recent convert). He was talking to another man so I waited until he was done. He was telling this man that as long as he had faith, took his medicine, and prayed every night he would be able to take control of his epilepsy. Karl has been a member for about a week and he was bearing his testimony to someone who has been a member for about a year. So I started talking to Karl and seeing how he was doing and how his family was doing. Then the man that he had just been talking to showed me a picture and asked if I knew the person in the picture. Can you guess who that person was??? It was none other then Elder Ballantyne. I told him yes I knew him that he is my cousin. He told me that Elder Ballantyne was the one who found him, and he was baptized. It was so amazing to be able to meet him and to hear his story. He really loves Elder Ballatyne. His name is Tom Spencer. And his girlfriend was just baptized I think. I was able to get a copy of his testimony that he shared last night and it is absolutely amazing. I love this mission!!!!!!!!!!

We have been teaching a few people. I just wish I really knew how to help this ward. They don't seem to have faith in themselves and I am at a loss of what to do to help them. They are great and have so much potential but the way it is going I can see the ward going in to a branch in a few years. With all the youth that have gone less active, and they seem to be content with that. It is so frustrating. Do you have any insight???

How is mady doing??? There is a young woman in this ward that reminds me a lot of Mady it is scary!!!! She ended up adding mady on facebook because I told her that she reminds me of my cousin. It is like I have a little piece of home when I see her.

Oh I miss thunderstorms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss dancing in the rain as well that was always great!!!!! We have had the heat here and it is only about 60 degrees and everyone is complaining that it is too hot. I am loving it. I have a tan on my feet. HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE. It is great!!!!!

There are so many miracles all around us! All we have to do is open our eyes and look for them. Keep your eyes open, keep them on the Lord and he will help you through!!!!

I hope everyone is doing well!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you so much!!!!!

Love

Sister Ballantyne

Email 7/1/13

Haha. President means that after transfers a lot of people ask him to bring missionaries back to the previous areas. They don't like that they get taken away. He loved how much the Rhyl ward loved me on Saturday!!!.

 

St. Helens is going alright. It is hard work but it is getting better. Nothing that is worth a lot was ever easy to get right;). We have one chinese investigator who owns a chippy and told us that since we were out here helping people she wanted to help us and said that we could come to her chippy anytime and get free food. She is really nice. We have another investigator who was a former investigator two years ago. She seems really good!!!! We are also reteaching someone who asked to have their name removed from church records a few years ago. But she is ready to come back. She is so sweet. She is just waiting for another sign that it is right for her now. We have not had the FHE as of yet. It doesn't seem like they are two excited about it. So I think that we just need to start planning it and then tell them about it and make them set a date soon. It is really hard when the ward doesn't have faith in themselves. We are not getting I pads yet but it is a possibility. I don't want them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can just see how missionaries will miss use them and I just don't want the temptation. The mission will provide them. We won't have to bring dvd's around with us we will just be able to pull them up on the internet, and we would be able to show them mormon.org instead of just showing them.

 

Haha I hope that they have fun. Tell daddy to catch a really big one for me;) Hehe. I can eat it when I come home!!!!!!

 

I wish I could say that about here but it has pretty much just been raining. There are a few good days of sun but just goes back to rain. But I absolutely love it. Friday was a down pore and I was as happy as could be. I looked like a drowned rat but I just made the best of it and tried to make others happy around me. We would ask people if they wanted to know how they could be happy in the rain. And they would tell us no. It is just so sad that they don't even want to know how they too can be happy in gloomy weather. Oh well at least I gave them a chance right.

 

I love you all so so so so so so so Much.

 

Love you mostess hostess toastess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love

 

Sister Ballantyne

Email 6/24/13

Good Morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so glad that everyone is home safe and sound, and that they had a good time. I miss her too. I hope that you are all enjoying your summer. Oh good I am glad that you got the package, and that you liked it. I wish you could have been there with me. You all would have loved it. It is just like home except with the ocean. I hope that they enjoy spirit lake. 

Ya we are getting to know our way around. It is hard to find people because they don't really want to listen to us. But we have found a few. And sister Embley found a Chinese person that she can talk to. So that is exciting. Who knows I may come home speaking Chinese ;) The ward is alright they are nice. Just not as unified as they could be. We have come up with a few ideas. We are going to have a Ward FHE. Something that they can invite their non member friends to. Hopefully it works. Oh I love stake conference. I am glad that Lexie went to the Adult session. I hope that she enjoyed it. They have a Youth session now. That is great. I am happy that they both went to that. I wish they had that when I was growing up!!!! I am sure that the youth sounded amazing!!!! I would have loved to hear that.

It is so hard not to hold the little ones here. They are so cute and precious. I am going to need to hold every baby I see when I come home;) Hehe.

Oh good I am glad that you are able to talk to her again. She is great. She has sent me so many pictures from her phone. I get to see them on Saturday when I go back to Rhyl for Karl's baptism. I am excited.

We get to go to the Temple on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH my goodness I am so excited. I have really missed the Temple. I need it so much. I am starting to get a little discouraged with how slow things are going here. So I am excited to go to the temple to get a little more guidance. I really miss being able to go once a week. I have come to the decision that I am never going to live somewhere that you have to drive forever to get to the temple. I need it way to much in my life.

Oh just so you know President has told the missionaries that we can not chat with our families online. So I am really going to miss talking to you!!!!!

I love you so so so so so so so so much.

I hope you have a great week.

Love you tons!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love

Sister Ballantyne

Email 6/17/13

I hope you are doing well.

My new address is:

18 Melbourne

St. Helens

MERSYD

WA9 5QY

Sorry I realized after I got home on Thursday that I had forgotten to give you the address.

I am doing alright. We have a lot to tracking and street contacting that we do here. It is really good. A lot different from Chorley and Rhyl. The ward is really nice, but not very unified. That is something that we need to work on. I am excited. We are going to be planning a ward activity to see if that will help. There is a young women in this ward and she reminds me so much of Mady. It is crazy!!!! We went to their home for tea on Thursday. And she looks like Mady and acts like Mady. She even talks like Mady. It is unreal. I have a little piece of home here. Ya I am getting used to this area. I was able to find some of our tea appt. with out a map. Yes she was in Liverpool. The first time I went on exchange with her I went to Liverpool. But the second time she came to Chorley. There are only a few areas for Chinese speaking missionaries so they usually stay around them. She just came from Lancaster. That was when I was serving in Bolton those 2 weeks.

Oh I am so sorry. At least she got to finish her mission. She sounds like she was an amazing missionary!!!

I am glad that he liked the message. He really is my Hero. You are too. You have both been great examples to me. You have helped me become the person I am today and I will forever be grateful for that. I love you both so much and could never ask for better parents.  Thank you! I was so nervous. But I am glad that I did it.

Tell them all hi for me. Also will you tell Sister Brown that I have handed out both of her Book of Mormons that she sent. The people were really touched when they received them. Sister Clawson will be following up on them. Tell her thank you so much for them.

Tell me how that messages go in stake conference. I wish I could be there. That is so cute. Sister Embley and I were in Primary yesterday. Those kids are so cute.

I love you so much!!!!!

Love

Sister Ballantyne

Sorry it is so short this week. Not much to report.

Email 6/13/13

Mom I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!

I love being able to hear from you!!!! I have been transferred to St. Helen's. It is in the Liverpool Zone. It was hard but I have had a feeling for 2 weeks that there was nothing else for me to do there. Sister Embley and I are whitewashing a brand new area. So we get to do a lot of finding!!! So we will see how it goes. She has been out almost a year. She is from Michigan. She was my first and third exchange on my mission. She is a Chinese speaking missionary. So this will be fun. Sister Embley and I are the only sisters that are not training except the Sister Leadership trainers. But they don't count because they are training us all. There were either 28 or 30 new missionaries from the MTC all together there were 13 sisters.

Rhyl was so good to me!!! After church on Sunday we had a meeting with the Ward Mission Leader. During that meeting people kept coming in and saying thank you for the work I did in that ward and that they were going to miss me. After the meeting the Ward Mission Leader and the bishop both said that they had never seen so many people interrupt a meeting to say good bye to a missionary before. I am really going to miss that ward. Barry Donaldson bought me flowers to say good bye and that it was not good bye for ever. Graham and Chez just kept buying me things I told them to stop but they wouldn't. I love them so much!!!!!! It was really hard on them to see me leave Graham started crying during the lesson he was giving in Gospel Principles on Sunday as he was telling me thank you for making the decision to come on my mission and to stay. It really made me grateful for the Power of prayer and the Temple. 

Sister Clawson is training this transfer. She is nervous but she is going to do great!!!!!!! I love her so much!!!! There are now 4 sisters in Rhyl. When the ward found out that there were going to be 4 sisters they kept saying that I was so good they had to bring in 3 sisters just to replace me. They are so funny. I do feel like a missionary though. It took me going to Rhyl to finally feel like one. And I will forever be grateful for that. It has a really soft spot in my heart!!!

It is so weird to me that they are home already!!!!!! It good to hear that it has had an impact on his life. I can see what he means. This mission has had a huge impact in my life. I love it so much!!!! He will love it there. Tell him to look of an Elder Morris and an Elder Williams from Wales. They probably won't know me but I have heard a lot about them from their families. They are great Elders. And I absolutely love their families!!!!!!!

Well here in St. Helen's we are starting from scratch. But we already have a few potential investigators and Elder Donaldson gave me a few referrals that might be in our area. And I just have a feeling that this is going to be a wonderful transfer!!!!!

 

I love you so much!!!!! Thank you for being such great examples to me!!!!

Love you mostest

Sister Ballantyne

Email 6/3/13

I hope you are all doing well!!!! I miss you all so much. I was so glad to hear that you were talking to chez.  She really likes talking to you. She is so funny. She reminds me a lot of you. Liverpool was alright. Every time I go there I mostly just sit around because I do not speak Chinese. But it was really good. I got to get to know Sister Merrill. She is really cute and sweet. I like her a lot. But I had a revelation while I was in Liverpool. Sister Merrill asked me why I came on my mission. I told her the whole story, but when I came to the part about the blessing and feeling that I needed to come to Wales to help a distant family member. Sister Clawson popped into my head. I don't know why I did not make that connection in my head the first day, but I have now and I am so humbled that even before my mission Heavenly Father already knew where I needed to be and who I needed to be with. What a wonderful thought to know that our Heavenly Father really does love and care about us!!!

 

Both Bishop Donaldson and his father Elder Donaldson have called President Preston and told him that they would like us to stay. As well as the rest of Elder Donaldsons brothers have told us that they do not want us to leave yet. It is crazy. We have been able to help Elder Donaldson's Brothers Barry and Glyn come back to the chuch. Last week in our lesson the spirit was so strong it sent Barry into tears and he told us that every time he thought about it that week he would start crying again. He even went to his brother Glyn's home and told him that he needed to get his act together and that he was going to pick them up and go to church. It has been so amazing to see the Holy Ghost work with this family. Barry has been a member for 40 years and has never had a testimony or desire to have one. Until he came to Rhyl. Glyn got up and bore his tesitmony yesterday. He said that we were magic. They keep asking us what we have done. We keep telling them that we have not done anything. We are just here to help them remember what they already know. The spirit in this area is just so strong. 

 

Sacrament meeting this week went from 98 to 131 people.

 

Oh I am so proud of both of them!!!!! They seem to be doing really good!!!! That is really good to hear. I love you all so much!!. Ya I am not too happy that he is still growing, but maybe now she can know how I felt when she passed me up. But now both of them have:( Can you do something to make them shrink before I get home???

 

Your Primary class sounds like a blast!!!!! Enjoy it!!!!!!!

 

I am doing alright just sad because I only have 11 months left. The time has flown by so fast.

 

Ben's baptism is on the 8th of June and then we should be having another one on the 29th of June. And I am praying and hoping that another one of our investigators will have a date soon. He knows it is true he says he just wants to know more.

 

Mom will you do me a favor??? I was reading this talk where she was talking about how mothers have insight to their childrens devine destiny. What would you say mine is???? What do you think I am destined to do???

 

I love you so much and I am so greatful for the wonderful examples you all are to me!!!!! Thank you for everything you have done and keep doing for me. Just so you know I am going on another exchange this week. I am going to Chester to go on excange with one of the Sister Leadership Trainers.

 

I love you to the Moon and Back

I win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love

 

Sister Ballantyne