Merry Christmas!!!

 Hello Family,

Well it was great to talk to you last night, I wish that Jake and Laralee could have been there as well! But, I guess I'll see them soon enough! But I forgot to mention something to all of my nieces and nephews! Something WEIRD happened and when I was opening my Christmas presents this morning, I found a bunch of presents for all of my nieces and nephews underneath the Christmas tree!!!! Santa must have forgotten to give them to you and accidentally left them in Nebraska! CRAZY!!! But, I will make sure to bring them home with me so you can open them!

Here are some pictures from this last week.

Do you remember how I was at one point going to go home on December 19? Well, it's been crazy because it seems like every single day after December 19 has been one of the greatest days EVER. Just when I think it can't get any better. It is so awesome. Heavenly Father knows us so well and knows what we need. I am so grateful for Him.

Elder Watson told me he called you. He said it was crazy at our house and that he could hear all of the grandkids screaming in the background. That's fun.

I also attached the script for the training we did this last Saturday. It was so SO SOSOSOSOSOSO good. There was such an incredible Spirit there it was incredible. There is so much love for everyone that is here right now, and that's really special. You should read it. It's called the Women Who Knew Jesus.

Oh my gosh, I'll have to send you another picture of me singing with this family band that came in. Elder Watson made me go up and sing with them- it was so much fun!

We went to South Dakota this week for Zone Conference. MY LAST ONE! Weird. It was a great meeting and so fun to be with all the missionaries for a special Christmas training. What a great thing.

I can't believe I will only send one more email. This doesn't feel real at all. But, when I look back to when I first got here, it seems like SO long ago! This has been the best decision I have made in my life thus far and I am so thankful that Heavenly Father knows us and cares about us. This Church is true and it has been such a great experience to be a missionary and representative of not only the Church, but of Jesus Christ Himself. He has blessed me and strengthened me in more ways than I can describe or even know.

I love our family. I love the time that we share with one another. I hope that when I go home that we can continue to progress as a family as we spend time together, serve each other and strengthen each other spiritually. Thank you for getting me here on this mission and supporting me the whole way. I will forever be indebted for your selfless service.

I love you all. I thank you.

Love,
Sister Proctor

I will see you on skype NEXT WEEK!!!

 Hello Family!

So, first things first. Skyping would work best for me if I were to do it on Christmas Day. But, if we can't get a hold of Jared, then I'll figure out how to do it on Christmas Eve.

I cannot believe Eve cut her own hair. And right before Laura's wedding. hahaha. Oh man, I'm sure Laura was freaking out.

We have had a great week once again. Things have been really busy at the Trail Center. Currently we have 6 school buses full of kids here. It's nuts. Everyone loves the Gingerbread Festival. A lot of the people from the clinic have come and that has been really awesome. I was able to take this one guy on tour on Sunday who was at the dinner that we sang at last weekend. He ended up taking a Book of Mormon and then asked when Church was. It was awesome. I really like being BOLD with people. It's awesome :)

I attached some pictures from that dinner that we performed at last week. We did a lot of singing. We performed at GB, and then again at the mall yesterday. But, with the exception of singing at the convent on Christmas Eve we are all done with performing, and I am kind of relieved!!! It's been an awesome opportunity, but planning them has taken a lot of work!

Thursday was my last time at the clinic. It was sad to say goodbye! I sure loved the service I was able to give there and the people I met. It was so great!

We finished the Official Mormon Trail Center Missionary Handbook. It's kind of a big deal. Just like we have the regular handbook, we now have one for the Trail Center. It's pretty awesome.

We had some great lessons this week. We taught Diane a lot about the Atonement. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful that it not only redeems, but also enables. I have felt that so much as I have been serving here. What a wonderful, beautiful gift from our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to know that we can always be made better.

Some members showed us this awesome video. I am sure that you have heard about it, but if not-- go on youtube and search "called to serve sisters unite" and watch it. It is so AWESOME! Deciding to serve a mission was the best choice I could have ever made at this point in my life. I am so grateful for the the blessings that have come and the lessons that I have learned. I know my Savior more. I know my Heavenly Father. I am more converted to the gospel. I know how to be a better friend, a better family member, a better disciple. What a great Christmas present to me.

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I have gotten so close to my Savior by reading the Book of Mormon.

I love my FAMILY! They are incredible people who have loved me through it all. I will be forever grateful for the love and service that my family has provided for me.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I am excited for everyone to have such a good Christmas. I am excited to skype with you all next week and then to see you in real life the week after!

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Proctor

P.S. Did you already do the chocolate dipping party? Because maybe all the chocolates you sent me got lost in the mail.... ;)

 Me and Ron the Pharmacist

 Saying goodbye to Larry, another Pharmacist

Me and Dr. Fischer - he is so great, he came

CHRISTMAS

Hi Family!

What a great week this has been! I say that every week... but that's because every day is great here! Some highlights from this week:

Our CDs came back from production. THEY LOOK AWESOME. I can't wait for all the Sisters to open them up on Christmas Eve.

December 7th was Pearl Harbor Day and I got to celebrate it with a Sister from Japan. You can see our "peace making" picture attached hahaha

We wanted to give the Senior Couples a nice gift, and Sister Arnold's Sis in law hooked us up with free books from Deseret Book! So awesome!!!

We had Zone Leader Council. That was a lot of fun and very cool.

We sang at another Gingerbread Performance.

Getting a package from Mom/Sister Graham, courtesy of Steve Scott. We loved the package PS.

Finding out that this one lady that I took on tour and offered a copy of Joy to the World is now a progressing investigator in Mississippi. Super awesome!

Awesome Lesson with Diane on the Atonement. She set her OWN commitments. So great.

We did service at the Catholic Convent.

We went to a dinner with the Commercial Club of Florence and accepted the "Community Betterment award." We also sang a few songs. It was really really cool! A lot of people felt the Spirit and said we were glowing as we were singing and talking to them. It was all in this really awesome old house called the Fort Crook house. It was a General's house and would be used for parties. It was so fun! I felt like I was in Little Women. This super nice old house. Dinner party. Singing. What a dream. We have such a cool way to do missionary work! I can't even stand it. We sat at the head table and everyone was asking us about what we do. So awesome.

Today we had Watson Wagon. We went and saw the GB at Kanesville Tabernacle. That was a lot of fun! Then we went shopping! Christmas shopping! All I got was wrapping paper... oh man. I'm not very good at shopping anymore :)

The pictures included are my Pearl Harbor peace picture and the pic of me and Sis Arnold in our matching Christmas PJs. They are the best!

I can't believe that everyone and their dogs are going on missions! That is so AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not going to LDSBC.

I want to Skype on Christmas at pretty much whenever works best for Jared.

I can't believe you got my flight plans. That is crazy.

Oh man, I'm so bummed about Disneyland plans being cancelled. Oh well. Hopefully it happens in September or October!

Yeah, super cool that I met that guy from Isaac's mission! He said he served in Khabarosk or whatever and so I asked if he knew Isaac. Way cool. It was nice that Isaac was a good missionary and that he was just spouting out all of these good things about him. It would have been so embarrassing if Isaac was a dud and I found out in front of all of my friends here :) Way to be Isaac! I'm sure people would say the same things about Jared and Jake. I've got some good brothers.

Welp, we still have to go do EVERYTHING for P-day. Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you all soon!!!

Love you all,
Love,
Sister Proctor

December 3, 2012

Hello Family!

Christmas is in the air and I am loving it!!! It hasn't even snowed here yet. It kind of flurried, but it's been great. It's like 60 degrees too, which is awesome. Awesome for missionaries, not awesome for all the farmers since Nebraska was in a huge drought this summer and probably will be next summer...

I got an awesome package from Michelle! It was fun to see some of those videos! I plan on watching them all today. They were pretty hilarious and fun to see the kids. Thanks to the best nieces and nephews in the world for that awesome shirt! I love it!

This week was great, we went to the eye doctor to figure out Sis. Arnold's eyes, and he couldn't figure out anything, but when we were in the clinic that night, one of the pharmacists said that when you turn the furnace on then it dries out your eyes and so we got a humidifier and all was well! Super convenient. We did a Christmas performance at the clinic. Everyone there LOVED it! Oh my gosh, the head doctor there is SO nice. He love Sister Arnold and I. He got us tickets to this Beatles tribute band because Sis. Arnold had mentioned that she liked the Beatles. Obviously, we can't go, but it was so nice of him.

We found an awesome part member family that is so great! They have two little boys who are so sweet and they have a bunch of Mormon friends and so they loved having us over there. Pray for them. Pray that we will be able to teach them and get them baptized!

On Saturday we had a super awesome training about Gratitude. We had several sisters share experiences about Gratitude. I shared Alma 26:16. I still can't get through that verse without bawling. Like Jared mentioned in his letter, we have SO MUCH to be grateful for!

I hope you all watched the First Presidency Devotional. It was SO good!!! Oh I love listening to our Prophet and Apostles. Their messages were so good! If you didn't watch it last night, watch it tonight for Family Night.

Speaking of Christmas, it is going to be our P-day so we can skype pretty much anytime. I would like to skype with Jared... in fact I was wondering what you thought about me just spending most of my time skyping with Jared, since I will see you 10 days later... :|

Let me have one moment of being trunky-- Yesterday was Fast Sunday, and I realized that next Fast Sunday I will be home and I will be able to make a delicious dessert!! ahhh! Crazy. Also, can we please go to Cafe Rio on the way home from the airport? Enough about that.

Sorry if my letter is really scatterbrained, I'm emailing back and forth with Laura right now.

Jared's letter inspired me to write one like His: Sometimes it gets kind of cold at night, and I have to get out of bed to turn on my electric blanket- but some people don't have an electric blanket. Sometimes, I get sick of eating out all the time, but some people don't even have Senior Couples to take them out to dinner. Sometimes, I don't like having to pay quarters to do laundry, but the Laundry Room is just down the stairs and it only takes an hour to wash and dry all our clothes. Sometimes, it's hard to fall asleep worrying that I'm going to roll off the bed, but then I realize, that some people don't have two mattresses to make their bed extra high and extra comfy. Sometimes, the iPad's screen gets really dirty looking, but some people don't even have iPads. Sometimes, it's hard to deal with all the fame and the popularity, but some people don't even get to sing in Malls once a week :)  Hahahah! Obviously it's a bit sarcastic, but oh what a difference between my mission and Jared's mission. And yet, somehow, we are still doing the same great work. Different conveniences, but the same work. That's cool.

Welp, I love you all! Keep up the good work!

When is the Christmas Chocolate party and do I get any of it?!

Do you have the Christmas tree up yet? please keep it up through January :)

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Proctor

1- Elder Watson bought a Popcorn popper then didn't want it, so he gave it to me. It's awesome and I'm totally bringing it home.

 2- My awesome Christmas present that I apparently opened up too early :)

3- Sweet Christmas house

 4- This car was in the parking lot at the TC

 5- It is so foggy here all the time!!!

6- A bad pic of us performing at the clinic

Hi Family

Hello!

Thanks for your letters and your pictures! I hope Isaac and Taniel get that house! It looks so cute!

It was so fun to see Uncle Steve and Aunt Kathy! Sister Pryde took them on tour and then called me and said there were some visitors there for me. Fortunately (for this situation, unfortunately otherwise), my companion was sick, so we were just down at our apartment rather than far away out in our area. So we came up and they told me to go into the theater. Sister Pryde wouldn't tell me who it was. I was figuring it would be some obscure person-- oh yeah-- Someone from Isaac and Taniel's ward came in this week too and said Hi to me.. anyway, so I walk into the theater and there they are!!! It was so fun to see them again! They are so sweet to come and see the Trail Center and see me. I think my favorite part was that it just was nice to have family around and to get excited to see all of you again soon! It was so sweet of them and I'm glad that they came in!!!

Thanksgiving was great! We started the day by "gratitude attacking" all of the Senior couples. For the last few weeks, every sister has made a leaf that says what she is grateful for for every senior couple, then we taped them on their doors on Thanksgiving morning. They all loved it! Then we came back and made some green bean casserole then went to the Trail Center. We got to watch the movie BRAVE! That was crazy!!! It was weird to watch real movies, but very fun. Anyway, then we had a big dinner with everyone- complete with nut cups. Then we had a musical performance by all the sisters and then we watched the Best Two Years. It was a lot of fun. It was such a great Thanksgiving!

Then the next day we had to make the new TC schedule with all of the Gingerbread and Mall Performances. It was so crazy to organize it! But it's all done! Woohoo! Then we were inside for the rest of the week because Sister Arnold's eye was going crazy! It was super swollen and hurt her pretty bad- we went to the Doctor this morning and it turns out she had a minor infection, but we've got some antibiotics and she will be fine.

Anywho...

I am so tired and all I want to do is take a nap :)

I'm impressed with Jared for sending such a long letter. And, yes, Mavis Beacon typing games did help- a lot hahaha.

This week in pictures:

1-Last week we dyed Sis Arnolds hair- for the first time and made Monster Pops- courtesy of Michelle

2- One of the nut cups :)

3- Sis. Arnold and I sitting down to watch Brave



Mom asked about what I want in a Christmas package-- I don't totally want any Christmas presents, I rather just have money to pay for my phone bill when I get home or buy new clothes. I won't really be able to pack a lot of it home anyway. But, if we're talking PRE-Christmas packages, then I would love matching Christmas jammies for me and Sis. Arnold. That's really all I can think of.

On Sunday, we were asked to perform a musical number for one of the nearby wards. They've never had a musical number so Sis. Arnold and I went and she played the piano while I sang. The ward LOVED it. We did a medley of If the Savior Stood Beside Me and Teach Me to Walk in the Light. It was great. The Bishop went around afterwards asking for people to volunteer to have a musical number because they liked them so much! Awesome.

I'm sorry this letter isn't better... I'm super tired and I still have to write a letter to President. I love you all a lot! Please keep emailing me and sending me letters/pictures :) You're the best family in the world. This gospel is true and I have never been happier.

Love,
Sister Proctor

 4- Sis. Arnold's eye

 5- Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve!

6- Someone's investigator gave a ton of hot chocolate packets to all of the Sisters here. It was just like being at home having so many delicious hot chocolate options.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hello FAMILY!

Another crazy week! We have had a fun week with things going on a t the Trail Center! I got to go on exchanges with Sister Atkin, which was so fun because she actually went home this morning so it was fun to spend time with her before she left- she was honorably released... hahah it kind of sounded like she just peaced out. This week is transfers week, but we won't actually hear what is happening until tomorrow. I think I might actually stay with Sister Arnold! AHHH! I had a dream last night that we got transferred though and that I had to be companions with an Elder. I was really mad because I didn't want to have to be surrounded by an Elder all the time hahaha. Anyway, pretty funny.

We have performed in a lot of places this week. We went to a homeless shelter on Friday night and sang there. They loved us! We performed in Gingerbread and then at the mall! hahaha It was so much fun!

Oh, some one that I taught in Millard got baptized on Saturday! That was exciting!!! His wife was baptized just a few weeks after I left and now he came around! How cool! They are excited to go to the temple. How awesome!

I was sick again. Ugh. On Sunday after church when we were coming back to the TC to work I started feeling it. It was awful. I feel a lot better today but I have been pretty sick these last couple of days. It's super annoying. I feel like I have never gotten sick more in my life. But, that happens to a lot of people in Nebraska for some reason. Weird. Also, I'm running around like a chicken with it's head cut off for most of the time so maybe that has something to do with it. haha.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am SO excited!!! We are not allowed to go out and proselyte, so in the morning we are going to go "gratitude attack" the Senior couples with little notes that we have written for them. Then, we are going to come to the Trail Center and help set up for Thanksgiving, maybe watch some movies, play games, eat dinner- I am making Green Bean Casserole... yummmm... I am excited. It should be a lot of fun! There will be about 60 people there. Oh- this week while I've been sick, Sister Arnold and I made nut cups- Sarah would be so proud of me ahahah. They are so great!

Pictures:

1- Singing at GB

2- Sis. Arnold made muddy buddies for the first time!!!

3- When I was sick, Sister Arnold would blow dry my hair for me. This looks freakishly like the back of someones head haha

4- Sister Atkin and I last night at the testimony meeting for the departing missionaries. I am going to miss her SO much.


Um... this news about Disneyland sounds like the best thing in the WORLD! I wish everyone could come though! That will be so much fun!!!!

When does Laura come back from Italy? I am so jealous. That lucky girl.

This week has been really great and I am excited for this next week. I love Thanksgiving and I can't wait to share with everyone that I meet the thing that I am most grateful for!!! The Restored Gospel!!! What a great thing!

Remember that I am so grateful for all of you and that I love you!!!

Love Always,

Sister Proctor

 5- All of the Sisters