The Lord has blessed us sooo much!

This week has been amazing!! We've had so many miracles! The Lord has blessed us sooo much! 

K so this guy Jesse. We met him the other day just contacting on the street and he was super sweet. We met with him the next day and he's set for baptism on the 26th. He's super prepared. Understands everything and really has a desire to learn more! 

Also! This girl, Sharay, coolest story ever. This random girl walks into church yesterday and we didn't recognize her so we introduced ourselves. Apparently her best friend just got baptized a couple months ago and told her all about our church. Sharay decided to start reading the Book of Mormon and she said she really liked it so she wanted to come to church and see how we worship. So she came! Now if only we could have more people like here! haha. But she's seriously so cool. We were combined 3rd hour because it was the 5th sunday of the month and we were talking all about family history and she wasn't bored at all!!! She loved it! She was like that's so cool that y'all do baptisms for dead people. We were like WHY ARE YOU SO CHILL? I love her! She's getting baptized on the 19th. She's sooooo awesome.

And those are just a few of the many miracles we've seen this week. Sister Wilson and I are working so hard and it's definitely paying off! Gotta love the mish. I never wanna leave! I hit my 10 month mark the other day! Gross. I feel like I just came out the of MTC. I still don't know what I'm doing half the time. haha but it's great though!

Ate logo! Amo voces! 

SISTER HALLMARK

MIRACLES MIRACLES MIRACLES

K what the heck. You will never believe what happen this week. Geez I don't even know where to begin. Okey dokey, so Sister Wilson and I were just walking around campus talking to people and we ran into this guy Brian, who was actually from Dallas, so obviously he's cool. Anywho so we're talking to him, and we see this guy like across the lawn from the corner of our eyes just staring at us. First of all, creepy. But we continued talking, obvi. So I'm literally in the middle of saying the first vision or testifying about the Book of Mormon, who knows but definitely testifying of something good. And he walks up to us and puts his arm on Brian's shoulder and goes "I hope you're not letting these girls give you any trouble." And I was like ah crap. He's like anti Mormon or something weird and he's gonna start bible bashing or something, clearly I just jumped to worst possible scenario. Then Brian looks confused and was like oh don't worry, they're not. Then he goes "well sister Wilson and I have had some trouble in the past." And I'm like ohhh he's probably from her last area or something, then I asked her if she knew him and she was like ...no. And I was like K SOMETHINGS FISHY HERE. Then he starts laughing and says I'm a mormon, I live in Colorado I'm just up for the weekend. GOOD ONE. I have never been so scared in my lifeeeee. hahaha. well maybe that was an exaggeration, but I was pretty scared. So Brian had to leave, we gave him a Book of Mormon and went along our merry way. THEN it gets better. So Zack (the member) was like so the whole time I've been here I've been carrying around 2 books, the book I'm reading, and the Book of Mormon. Smart man. He said that he met this really sweet girl named Candace who said she loved the Book of Mormon musical when she saw his book. Then he talked with her for a little bit, then gave her the Book of Mormon and she said she would read the introduction by the next day. We were floored. We gave him our card and were like well give her our number!!! Then he goes "well I'm going to meet her right now, don't you wanna come?" UM OF COURSE. So as we're walking over there, oh yeah, he served his mission in Brazil! When I told him I was going there he was like oh you're a visa waiter then kinda laughed. Everybody thinks I'm a lost cause. I'll get there eventuallyyyyyyy guysssss. Anyway that's completely besides the point. So as we're walking he turns to us and says "would you sisters believe that last night I was praying that I'd meet y'all so I could pass her off?" Instantly I got the chills. I wanted to cry. So we go into Berry Berry, this place she works and met her. She was the sweeeeetest girl I've ever met in my entire life! And so we had a lesson with her and she brought her boyfriend and her roommate was there. It was the best lesson ever! She was soooo awesome and so prepared! SUCH a miracle!

Ahh, missions are just GREAT! I love them! I love the gospel and I love the Lord!

Line of the week:

K so this was probably one of the most awkward lessons ever. So I'm talking about prophets and I was like "Yeah God called prophets like Noses Moah. Instead of Moses and Noa. Then I stopped, laughed a little bit, then said the same thing again! It was awkward because the people who we were teaching didn't laugh. I was like LAUGH PEOPLE THIS IS AWKWARD. Hahaha

Te amo voces!

Sister Hallmark

Charlottesville Round 4

SO. I'M STAYING IN CHARLOTTESVILLE YSA FOR ANOTHER TRANSFER. I'm PUMPED. I never wanna leave ysa, it's seriously the best! I can't imagine not teaching people my own age. for real. oh and Sister Wilson is staying another transfer with me! :)

So MIRACLE. So there's this new member in our ward, Morgan Tracey, and we'd been trying to visit her for a long time, not having any luck. Well, the other day Sister Wilson was like let's go try and see Morgan, so we did and not only was she there but her roommate, Maria was too! So her roommate opens the door and she has a really thick accent and Sister Wilson says, oh what a beautiful accent you have, where are you from? She was like oh, BRAZIL. I almost peed my pants. Long story short, she was super interested. Then we went over the next day to have language study with her and this other guy in my ward who served in Brazil and I taught her the restoration and she loved it! She's seriously GOLDEN. It was super rough teaching in Portuguese, but I'm sooo excited to go to Brazil now. Not that I wasn't before, but I reallllly am now. Haha

Line of the week:

Sister Wilson: Dude you have a dentist appointment tomorrow.

Me: Shoot, I have to floss tonight.

Then we stayed up late talking then realized it was 10:30

Me: I'm not flossing anymore. 

We were like delirious that night. Everything was sooo funny. 3 fillings from the dentist later, and now I will start flossing people.  

I am sooo happy to be a member of this church and to know about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is such a miracle. I am grateful to the Lord for everything. I love the Book of Mormon and am grateful to Joseph Smith for translating it though the power of God. I know this is Christs church. And I love it.

Ate logo! Tchau,

Sister Hallmark

K this week was happy and sad but mostly HAPPY! :)

So, I got a call from my mission president and I almost peed my pants, because I thought it was my visa. Haha, that's a joke. It was the exact opposite. My paperwork for my visa has expired so he told me I can either choose to stay in Virginia permanently or re submit my paperwork. So, after praying and fasting and talking with my mission president, companion, bishop, and the Lord some more, I finally came to a conclusion that I'm going to start the application process again. Give it one more go. I've got nothing to lose, right? I feel confident that this is what the Lord wants me to do. I am so grateful for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, I could not have made this decision without him.

Now! For the good stuff. SO Fatu graduated high school on Saturday and had this huge grad party with all of her friends. YSAAAAA AGEEEEEEEEE HOLLLLA. dude we talked to so many people about the gospel it was soo exciting! This week's gonna be great! Full of miracles! I just know it!

ALSO. IN OTHER NEWS. MY BEST FRIEND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD GOT HER MISSION CALL TO HOUSTON TEXAS SPANISH SPEAKING! I AM SOOO EXCITED FOR HER.

I am sooo happy to be here in Virginia right now! This is the best mission. The best area. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed my life so much and I am so happy to be able to share that with everyone!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Hallmark

Oi!

FATU AND GRACE ARE SET FOR BAPTISMMMM YO. K, you're probably wondering who those girls are, because I haven't mentioned them before. Yeah, it's because we met them less than a week ago. These people are so prepared it's INSANE. K so remember Lovert, the guy from Africa we contacted on the street? Yeah, well MIRACLE, because literally every single time we go to his house there's more people there! So we met Fatu earlier in the week and she and Lovert came to church yesterday and loved it! Fatu is 18, graduating high school this weekend and she's soo sweet! When we went over to their house last night after church, another girl we hadn't met before, Grace, same situation as Fatu, and they're both from Liberia. Well, after the lesson we committed everyone in the house to baptism on the 21st and Grace and Fatu accepted. Everyone else said they wanted a little bit more time to think about it. Which is totttttally fine! We're just so excited for them! Seriously this family is sooo cool! I love teaching people from Africaaaaaaa.

Well that was pretty much the highlight of our week. I know other stuff happen, I just can't think of anything. I will keep everyone posted though!

Keep reading the Book of Mormon, it brings BLESSINGS. Trust me! And if you follow it's teachings and have faith you will see MIRACLES. We've seen so many this week! The Lord loves us all so much!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Hallmark

Line of the week:

K just by the way this was probably one of the most embarrassing things I've said on my mission. With that being said here ya go..

Kristin (a less active we're working with) and I were talking about long distance relationships and of course what's the one phrase you think of when that subject comes up? Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? yeah. k so Kristin and I both started saying it at the same time except I'm retarded and I accidentally said "distance makes the fart go" then I stopped. Obviously I meant to say it the other way around. I really wish I could blame it on my Portuguese and just be like ohh I'm just not used to speaking English, you know, when RM's do that to make it look like they didn't mess up. Yeah, except I'm still in America. i don't speak portugueseeeeeee.. yet. hehe Anyway it was embarrassing and reallllly funny we were all like crying.

SISTER WILSON AND I

This week has been GREAT

Sister Wilson is my new companion and honestly I don't remember if I told y'all that but if I did, whoops. :) Anyway, she's GREAT. We seriously get along so well, a little too well sometimes. Hehe. I have been so blessed to be with companions who I get long so well with! 

So this week was graduation so it was madness everywhere. CRAZY. We pretty much worked with a lot of the less actives in our ward which I ALWAYS love doing! I just love teaching and serving and helping and really being a missionary. But we've also taught some bomb lessons to sweeeet people, the only bad thing is that they're all like in they're 40's or married, so we have to pass them off to the elders! :( I love being in a YSA but I just wanna teach everyoneeeeee. #missionaryprobs I was like you're welcome elders you have the best investigators in the world because of us. You owe us! They laughed. I was serious. They owe us.! Haha jk. Well, maybe not. ;)

Actually I lied. We did have the best lesson in the entire world with this suuuuper chill guy named Lovert, he's from Cameroon and his friends/family/we don't really know just the other people in his house are from Liberia. We just contacted him on the street on our way to an appointment. When we went back the next day for a lesson the spirit was SO strong! He was soo receptive to everything! And when we extended a baptismal invitation, he was like well, yeah? Like duh? I wanted to cry. Also all of the sudden we're blowin up and teaching all these people from Africa. And by blowin up I mean we really only have like 3 people from Africa we're teaching, but STILL! They're SOOO COOOL. I just wanna be bffs with them all. I'm on a secret mission. hehe

Lastly, we lost our car... So there was literally no where to park and we were in this random part of town so we parked at a laundry mat, yeah probably not the best idea.. Anyway, so we start tracting, and contacting people but as it got closer to our next appointment we tried to leave, except we couldn't find our car... We walked around for probably like 30 minutes and we could not for the LIFE of us find that dang laundry mat where we parked our beloved car. Finally we stopped and talk to, wait for it, yes, an AFRICAN :) And he gave us directions, man they're just so friendly! 45 minutes later we finally find it. It was so retarded. We felt sooo dumb. Hahaha

I'm sooo happy to be on a mission today! The work is really moving forward! Our area is poppin. I love our ward and everyone we work with! I have been so blessed! I know our Heavenly Father is so mindful of everything we're going through! I have such a testimony of that! He loves us and wants us to come back! I love you all so much and the support you give me!

Tchau tchau,

Sister Hallmark

I'm staying in Charlottesvilleeeeeee! :)

So transfer calls were this weekend. Clearly, I'm staying in Charlottesville, President made the right choice. :) Sadly, Sister Chipman is getting transferred! We got the call as we were planning for the night and I threw the phone across the room screaming NOOOOO. She'll do great wherever she goes. :) I'm just nervous to see who my new compy will beeeeee!

Okay, now for the good stuff. BEDNAR. Holy cow. First off, he is HILARIOUS. We were all cracking up the whole time! He's just sooo awesome! It really strengthened my testimony of prophets and seers when I saw him. The minute he walked in, I was like shut up, then started crying. Still to this day I can't believe we saw Elder Bednar. So the meeting started at 9:00, but we had to be there by 8:00. Now it only takes about an hour and 15 minutes from Charlottesville to get to Richmond, where the meeting was. Well we left at 6:00, and got there at 7:15. FRONT ROW. Literally. There were only a few missionaries there that early. It was a combined mission conference with Richmond and Chesapeake Mission, plus some members who drove. So needless to say, there were a ton of people there, I felt so privileged to be there first off, but then to be sitting feet away from him, literally. It was incredible. Kind of the overwhelming theme I got was about prayer and making sure we're agents using our agency and not objects waiting to be acted upon. He said when you pray, you need to do so expecting to act, not to gain knowledge. That really hit me hard. I felt like after I left that conference I became a new missionary. I better missionary. Also another thing he said was "you need to become a missionary, not go on a mission!" Which I thought was super cool too! Ahh the whole thing was just so cool! I LOVE BEDNAR!

I have truly been blessed this week! It's been a good one! Next Sunday will be fantastic! I get to Skype my family!! I am so excited for that! I love love love this calling. I never want to leave. I'm coming up on my halfway mark pretty soon and it makes me sooooo sad! Becoming a missionary has been the best thing in the whole world for me! I wouldn't change the things I've learned here and the friendships I've made for anything in the whole world. I love Jesus Christ. I love the sacrifice that He made for me and for the spectacular opportunity I have to share that with everyone I come it contact with. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. We've seen so many miracles this week and it makes me so happy!

I love you all! :)

Tchau,

Sister Hallmark

 1 day until Bednar!

They finally have watermelons! We literally at the entire thing in one day. Literally.

Beth, me, Sister Chipman and Kristin. They're so fun! Haha