Looks like Martinez is in the Augusta Stake, right next to South Carolina.
Curitiba Temple
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Love These Mid-week Surprises!!!
Hi, my name is Candy S. Your daughter has been transferred to our area. She is not in my ward, but in the sister ward in our building the Martinez Ward. Her companion is another Brazilian visa waiter, Sister Evans, so they will have a chance to practice their language skills together. I saw them at the Book of Mormon class tonight and thought you might like to have a sneak peak before p-day. My daughter is serving in the Italy Rome Mission. I am always hopeful that someone there will send me pictures! Anyway, I hope all is well for you! Enjoy the pictures.
Looks like Martinez is in the Augusta Stake, right next to South Carolina.
Looks like Martinez is in the Augusta Stake, right next to South Carolina.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Being Transferred, Popping Sparkling Cider, and FBI Clearance Needed!
Well, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. I'm being transferred! All last week, I was super stubborn about transfers. All I knew was I didn't want to leave. I wanted to believe that Warner Robins still needed me. But deep down I kind of knew my work here was done. So Friday night when I was writing in my journal, I had this moment where I just gave my will to the Lord. I know that He knows what's best for me, and I ultimately couldn't control whether or not I was transferred. So the only way to be happy was to accept God's will. And His will is for me to move on! And I'm okay with that!
We had the conference call Saturday at noon, my heart dropped a little when the assistants called my name, but I was okay. No tears. Until... They called me to be a trainer. My first emotion was shock, then fear, then inadequacy. But Sister Madsen helped me realize that it will help me a lot to be able to train a new missionary. That means one of two things: a) I get someone straight from the MTC and we white-wash or open a new area, or b) I finish the second half of someone's 12-week training period. "A" is the scary one! But also exciting, cuz then we can start fresh. It'll be an adventure, and I am excited now! Packing has been crazy. It's kind of surreal, actually. My things are all over the place, like something exploded haha. So until you get my new address, you can send stuff to the mission office: 400 Northside Crossing, Macon, GA 31210.
In case the pictures can't be found on my card, Sister Madsen let me borrow her camera to get the baptism pictures to you!
Ana's baptism!!
In other news, Amy got her mission call! She wanted us to be there, which was such an honor. I'm really grateful it came before transfers!!! She's going to the Argentina Bahia Blanca mission!! And she's going to the Provo MTC. So it was cool being able to tell her a little bit about learning a language there. She's gonna be awesome, I'm super stoked for her! Oh, Happy New Year!! We were on lock-down at 6 New Year's Eve, so Sister Madsen and I ordered a pizza, popped some sparkling cider, and went to bed early haha. It wasn't too exciting, but we got some much needed catch-up time with journal writing, cleaning, sleeping. It was good!
I'm not sure if y'all know this already, but I just got some paperwork to fill out for my visa. Apparently I need an FBI clearance now? So we've already gone to three police departments today trying to get me finger-printed, and no luck yet! But the last one referred us to the sheriff's office. So we'll go there next. The instructions say it should take 6-8 weeks to process this report, so looks like I'll probably have two more transfers here. Who knows! The Portuguese is rough. I need to study better. I do know that there's a visa-waiter in training whose trainer just got transferred, so maybe I'll finish her training and we can study together? That would be cool! How are y'all doing? I hope everything is going well! I love y'all and hope to hear from you soon. Have a great week, loves!
Muito amor,
Sister Ramsden
We had the conference call Saturday at noon, my heart dropped a little when the assistants called my name, but I was okay. No tears. Until... They called me to be a trainer. My first emotion was shock, then fear, then inadequacy. But Sister Madsen helped me realize that it will help me a lot to be able to train a new missionary. That means one of two things: a) I get someone straight from the MTC and we white-wash or open a new area, or b) I finish the second half of someone's 12-week training period. "A" is the scary one! But also exciting, cuz then we can start fresh. It'll be an adventure, and I am excited now! Packing has been crazy. It's kind of surreal, actually. My things are all over the place, like something exploded haha. So until you get my new address, you can send stuff to the mission office: 400 Northside Crossing, Macon, GA 31210.
In case the pictures can't be found on my card, Sister Madsen let me borrow her camera to get the baptism pictures to you!
Ana's baptism!!
In other news, Amy got her mission call! She wanted us to be there, which was such an honor. I'm really grateful it came before transfers!!! She's going to the Argentina Bahia Blanca mission!! And she's going to the Provo MTC. So it was cool being able to tell her a little bit about learning a language there. She's gonna be awesome, I'm super stoked for her! Oh, Happy New Year!! We were on lock-down at 6 New Year's Eve, so Sister Madsen and I ordered a pizza, popped some sparkling cider, and went to bed early haha. It wasn't too exciting, but we got some much needed catch-up time with journal writing, cleaning, sleeping. It was good!
I'm not sure if y'all know this already, but I just got some paperwork to fill out for my visa. Apparently I need an FBI clearance now? So we've already gone to three police departments today trying to get me finger-printed, and no luck yet! But the last one referred us to the sheriff's office. So we'll go there next. The instructions say it should take 6-8 weeks to process this report, so looks like I'll probably have two more transfers here. Who knows! The Portuguese is rough. I need to study better. I do know that there's a visa-waiter in training whose trainer just got transferred, so maybe I'll finish her training and we can study together? That would be cool! How are y'all doing? I hope everything is going well! I love y'all and hope to hear from you soon. Have a great week, loves!
Muito amor,
Sister Ramsden
Speaking Like a Hick, Two Baptisms, and TO THE WHALES!!!
Can I just say, Christmas was the best ever! I LOVED seeing you all and hearing your voices and feeling your love. You're the best family ever! Thank you for your support. It means the world to me. It was so fun laughing with you and praying with you and crying with you. I am so blessed! So, in light of Summer Jade's suggestions, it sounds like I may need to adjust the content of my letters home? So tell me what it is that y'all wanna hear from me! I definitely want my letters to hold your interest and for you to enjoy them. Maybe send me some generic questions that I could think about during the week so I have more of an idea of what to tell you when I email. I love y'all and I wanna make you happy :) Something you did say, Summs, is that you wanna know more how I feel and something funny that happened. So I did some pondering and made a list of funny things that happened this week, but I left it at home by accident :( So I'll tell you what I remember.
We were reading scriptures with A. and E. last week, and A. is hispanic, right? So she has a hard time pronouncing some of the names. Like Laban was LaVAHN, and Lemuel was LemanUEL. So E. was getting all worked up about her pronunciation, and he decided she needed to speak like a hick in order to pronounce the names correctly. It was just really funny hearing him try to speak with a southern accent. Then, we met a lady living at this house of a guy we had met with before, and we had to assure her that we were not Jehovah's Witness. She was relieved and she said, "Good, cuz those Jehovahs... they be lurkin'" hahaha. I love the people here, they're awesome.
One more funny story. We were at the Eubanks' for dinner (I'm so glad you got to meet them! They're the best!!) and Allan laughed or something, and I was like "Allan, when did you get your braces off?" And he just paused and was like "...Were you even here when I had braces?" Then I asked when he got them off, and he said back in April. I wasn't even on my mission in April! We split our sides dying laughing! It was kinda embarrassing, but it was really funny. Later, I realized why I thought I'd seen him with braces. Cuz he reminds me a lot of Skyler, and Skyler has braces haha. It was awesome.
Well, Ana and Michelle were both baptized AND confirmed this week!! It was a little stressful cuz Elder Clay really wanted us to combine their baptisms, but they already had their programs made and stuff, but we wanted to follow his advice and respect his leadership, so we combined them. It was such a beautiful service! People cried when Ana was baptized (it's been a long time coming!), and Michelle bawled when she was baptized! I was so excited, I wanted to dance and sing and do cartwheels. It was the best feeling! I felt so blessed to be able to work with them. They're incredible ladies.
Transfer calls are Saturday at noon, and I'm really nervous. I literally have no idea what they're going to bring. But I trust that President Cottle is so close to the Lord, and he will know where we need to be. I know Heavenly Father has a divine plan for me, and I feel so blessed to have been placed in this mission as I wait for my visa. There is absolutely a reason for everything! I love y'all, and I'm grateful to have you as my family. Y'all are the best :) Have a happy New Year! Make a toast to the whales for me :) XOXO
Muito amor,
Sister Ramsden
We were reading scriptures with A. and E. last week, and A. is hispanic, right? So she has a hard time pronouncing some of the names. Like Laban was LaVAHN, and Lemuel was LemanUEL. So E. was getting all worked up about her pronunciation, and he decided she needed to speak like a hick in order to pronounce the names correctly. It was just really funny hearing him try to speak with a southern accent. Then, we met a lady living at this house of a guy we had met with before, and we had to assure her that we were not Jehovah's Witness. She was relieved and she said, "Good, cuz those Jehovahs... they be lurkin'" hahaha. I love the people here, they're awesome.
One more funny story. We were at the Eubanks' for dinner (I'm so glad you got to meet them! They're the best!!) and Allan laughed or something, and I was like "Allan, when did you get your braces off?" And he just paused and was like "...Were you even here when I had braces?" Then I asked when he got them off, and he said back in April. I wasn't even on my mission in April! We split our sides dying laughing! It was kinda embarrassing, but it was really funny. Later, I realized why I thought I'd seen him with braces. Cuz he reminds me a lot of Skyler, and Skyler has braces haha. It was awesome.
Well, Ana and Michelle were both baptized AND confirmed this week!! It was a little stressful cuz Elder Clay really wanted us to combine their baptisms, but they already had their programs made and stuff, but we wanted to follow his advice and respect his leadership, so we combined them. It was such a beautiful service! People cried when Ana was baptized (it's been a long time coming!), and Michelle bawled when she was baptized! I was so excited, I wanted to dance and sing and do cartwheels. It was the best feeling! I felt so blessed to be able to work with them. They're incredible ladies.
Transfer calls are Saturday at noon, and I'm really nervous. I literally have no idea what they're going to bring. But I trust that President Cottle is so close to the Lord, and he will know where we need to be. I know Heavenly Father has a divine plan for me, and I feel so blessed to have been placed in this mission as I wait for my visa. There is absolutely a reason for everything! I love y'all, and I'm grateful to have you as my family. Y'all are the best :) Have a happy New Year! Make a toast to the whales for me :) XOXO
Muito amor,
Sister Ramsden
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