Ice-cream Soup, Bangs, & a Bible Bash

Hello again folks!! It is I, your (obviously) favorite missionary friend!! XD 

This week was quite the busy one! We barely had time for personal and companionship studies daily, and we had to split comp several times to manage. Crazy times!!

Monday!!

Yet another pday where I did not get to have a second to sit down and watch my favorite TV show! (Aka The Chosen!) We didn't end up leaving to go shopping until like 3:30p, so yet another scrambled day. I wrote a lot of emails in the morning! Got some chores and stuff done! Otherwise super chaotic as usual haha.

We actually had a lesson that morning, as well as a member lesson! (We call them SPFs! Short, Powerful, Frequent) The lesson with the new person went well, but they ended up actually being in Sturgeon Bay's area, so we passed him off to those Elders! They were super pumped!!

...I also got a haircut, and I accidentally got bangs. What I wanted was not what I said, so it's my bad really, but.... you live and you learn, I guess. XD (pictures included)

Tuesday!

We had in person District Council, which was awesome! We kinda have a bomb district, and I love them! The district leader and his monkey son, (trainee that's comps with a district leader) made us homemade ice-cream!! They found an ice-cream maker in their apartment for whatever reason, and decided to make some for a yummy snack for district council! ...the only problem was that it didn't get cold enough, so it was ice-cream soup, but we still enjoyed sipping our ice-cream soup from the plastic bowls we found in the church kitchen XD. It was still pretty good for being soup.

The other districts in our zone were actually there at the same time holding district councils in other rooms! So the zone ended up having a Zone ice-cream soup day, and it was pretty awesome XDXD.

We taught the law of Chastity very successfully for the first time that night, so tHAT was a blessing!! XD it helps that it was to a member and their fiancé, but still!!

Wednesday!!

We had our first call to talk about one of the Facebook Lives we're hosting on the 8th, and let's just say... it's going to be chaotic. XD We're filming it tomorrow, and it's going to be rather entertaining XD.

We had a call with the ZLs right after that to talk about our area. Our area is popping off if anyone was wondering haha XD. (That's a great thing btw)

We tried to go knock on a door of someone we have been trying to get into contact with. Before we could even get to the door, we ran into a guy who only spoke Spanish, and he asked us if we spoke Spanish, (in Spanish) and I said "un poquito" which was the wRONG thing to say, let me tell you, because he went OFF in Spanish. My comp is sitting there having zero education in Spanish beyond what Dora can teach you, and me understanding, but not being able to formulate the words to respond. At one point he asked if we were from "la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los últimos días" and I emphatically responded "sí!!" And then he told us to come say to his wife who only spoke Spanish. We said hi, but she said she was cooking and to come back another day (in Spanish of course). We nodded and said goodbye to both of them and headed off to the house we had planned to go to in the first case. XD

Moral of the story, if someone asks, no I don't know Spanish. (My bad). We sent them the Hermanas' way so they could talk to them in their language. (Why does this keep happening to me?? XD I love Spanish, but I do not speak it well enough for anyone. Maybe God is trying to tell me to learn it. Might pull out the good old Duolingo one of these days haha)

Unfortunately, the lady we went to talk to didn't even answer her door, so instead we decided to go knock some doors! It was absolutely freezing outside, and after 20 minutes we decided we would have died as missionaries 5 years ago. We did have some semblance of success however! Someone told us they were headed out of town for a couple weeks, but to come back mid February!  So we plan to take them up on that as soon as mid February arrives! :D

One of the people who came to church last week is super solid, and we have been teaching him ever since! We had a lesson with him Wednesday, and it went really well! We taught him the Restoration, and he said his desire to read the BoM has only increased after that lesson! (We gave him one on Sunday!) He's super awesome, and we love our calls with him!

We also had mutual that night, which was pretty fun! It was a sort of dessert potluck, and we were instructed to bring the recipe as well! We copied down recipes (or at least we were supposed to haha, I never actually got a recipe passed by me so I didn't get any. XD) to take home and have! It was really unfortunate because the girls inSISTED the Sisters get their food first, told us they Would. Not. Have Any until we got ours, but we're still under our "no unmasked interactions" rule for at least another week, so we can't eat unless it just the people we live with there. 🥲 so uh... we had to decline. They were sad, but insisted we take to go at the very least. Which we did!

Haha we actually had had a member "dinner" right beforehand, they gave us to go food, and we just taught a lesson and headed to mutual. We had to eat our food in the car, and by now we are very used to the whole "to go" thing.

That night we had Zone devo as well which was awesome! It's always fun to hear from the zone. The calls always make me laugh which is much needed after the long days we have haha!

Thursday we had four lessons planned, but we only ended up having 2 of them. The other two were cancelled, which honestly isn't that unusual. We have backups for every lesson in our schedule, so we just continue on with our day, albeit a bit sad. Especially because these are two of our friends who are progressing. We just rescheduled, and those lessons did happen. The two lessons we did have that day however, were really good! They were with our friend on Baptismal date, and our most solid friend who can't be baptized yet for personal reasons. He's practically a member already haha XD. We love him, he's so awesome. Lessons with him are always something to look forward to! Also! It was his birthday, so BONUS POINTS!!! XD

Friday! This is where we found out that we had yet another week to hold off in person meals. Again, (might've mentioned this last week) I'm not particularly upset, I 100% understand. Just sad that we can't have meals XD. I'm not mad about the rules, and I intend to follow them. Just a tad bit sad. Next week! (Maybe?? 😅)

This was one of our more chill days this week as far as lessons go, we only had 2 planned, and only one happened. However it was still pretty busy. The lesson we had was with this really funny middle-aged man who calls us "his surround sound friends" XD we have a habit of saying the same thing in the same tone of voice at the same time, and it gets picked up on XD. The lesson was awesome as usual!

Ok, this story is minorly embarrassing, and majorly hilarious. So basically, we were doing this thing called creepy calls. This essentially means we find people on Facebook and we look in their added information and get their phone number from that, and then call them. Terribly creepy thing to do, but so goes the work of a missionary XD. Most people don't have their phone number on there, but you have the occasional person who does, so we get to make a list of names and numbers in our notes XD.

K so the funny part about this, is I did the first one, which I had never done before. We were doing this as our stretching our faith/get uncomfy idea of the day. Let me tell you, I was majorly uncomfy by the end, that's for sure. I guess in my mind, when you call something a "creepy call", that means you have to make it as creepy as freaking possible obviously, right?? ...so I called this girl, I picked up phone and I proceeded to say this absolute monstrosity:

"Hi! Is this Tia?"

"Yes?"

"How are you Tia?"

"I'm...good? Who is this?"

"Oh! My name Hannah Lovell, but right now I go by Sister Lovell because I'm a missionary. We're friends on Facebook and I wanted to call you to ask if you wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ! Is that something you'd be interested in?"

"Uh.... no? Sorry 😂😅"

"Okay! Sorry... have a great day!"

And hUNG UP. We were all three laughing. Me, my companion, and this poor Tia girl. It was the most awkward call I have ever been on in my entire life. I guess it all looks up from there XD.

Moral of tHIS story, don't tell people you know them from Facebook when you've never interacted before, especially if you're being a creepy person and got their phone number off said Facebook. Sheesh. XD

Saturday!!

Ok so Saturday was pretty awesome! We got to go to a convert baptism for the Oneida ward and we brought our friend who is getting baptized in March! The ZLs (who were the missionaries with the baptism) told us our friend was crying a bit when they put on the Restoration movie while we were waiting for the brand new member to change back into dry clothes. So we were pretty excited for him and his fiancé to be there. :) One of our other friends was able to watch it over zoom as well, and she said she liked it. Her husband even watched it with her!

I think my favorite thing ever is the drive we took to get to the Oneida church building. It's on the Oneida reservation, which I've never been on a reservation before, so that was also cool! But the best part was just how pretty it was. There were hills and nature and sO many treeeees! It was the closest thing to mountains I've seen in ages, and I about cried. It was gorgeous. I'm totally jealous of Oneida now. XD (when I get home imma need a solid wEEK in the mountains. You hear that, dad? We're going backpacking asap)

Anyways, after the baptism we had an SPF with a part member family. The whole family joined in this time!! Usually it's just the mom, not all 5 kids and the dad! It was awesome! We're going back next Saturday as well! :D

We had a couple more lessons that afternoon which were pretty awesome as well! We also had our second meeting about the live, and yet again! It'll be quite the experience. XD y'all should watch it when it goes live!!

Sunday!

Church was awesome as always, one of our new friends came again! We definitely didn't have as many at church this week, but we don't yet know how many watched on zoom, so we will see! This week was a 5th Sunday, so all the adults plus senior primary (8-11 yr olds) were in one meeting for second hour, and we talked about goal setting based on the children and youth program, and how it applies to adults too!! It was awesome, I've got some good notes!

We had some lessons again! They all went well! (Mostly. But we'll get to that). We also had another "member meal" which was actually just a lesson and they gave us muffins to take home. XD they apologized for not having a meal to take home, but it was totally fine. Besides, even tho they warned us the opposite, the muffins were pretty good! I had two XD.

Okay, so the lesson that didn't go so good. There's this guy we've been kinds teaching who always has a lot of questions, and today, he very calmly... bashed us in the face with his Bible. There was no yelling, just "this is what I believe, so how could what you say be true?? It obviously goes against that." It was the worst ever. Also he didn't make any sense. He kept talking about how the Bible is FACTS, but then later he said "but you can't take everything in the Bible to be facts because Job is fiction. That never happened." And we're just sitting there like, ...what. 

In the end we just bore testimony about the Restoration, which he disregarded, and then hung up. It was so much fun. Getting Bible bashed sucks, but hey! I can check that off the list of common missionary experiences. Not that I don't expect it to happen at least a few more times during my mission. Do not worry, my faith cannot be shaken. But it was rather disenheartening. 

MOVING ON FROM THAT SUCKY EXPERIENCE!! We had mission prayer that night as a whole mission again, and that was awesome. Before going to bed all of us in the quad had some fun conversations. XD Being in a quad was the best thing for me in my first area I think. Also our zone chat was pretty active last night, the ZLs had everyone send in a meme when they were finished with a specific task, so I got to use the archive of missionary memes I have access to. >:D (Thank you MTC District Meme chat!!)

Today! We have plans to leave for shopping at 10:00 am so we make sure to get everything done! I am hoping that I can have a bit of time today to watch my favorite TV show (reference third paragraph^^^). My family is already on season two, probably finished with everything released by now, and I'm still on episode 7 XD. Not really a surprise; I've got other things to do, and even if I didn't, I'm only allowed to watch it once a week. However! I am allowed to, and have been, watching the Book of Mormon videos during lunch and dinner hours! (Ya know, when we actually get a full one) That's been pretty fun! :D

Anyways! I hope y'all're having a fabulous day, and that y'all have an amazing rest of the week! :D

We can do this!

¡Sí se puede! 

Peb Yeej Ua Tau!

Love
Sister Lovell

Link to the photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hH8UuZNVov71FYot7

Link to the blog:
https://sisterhannahlovellwisconsin.blogspot.com/

1) On the Oneida Reservation

2) Bridge to the skyyyy

3) Amusement park we can go to in the summer (on pdays with permission) :o

4) Meme 1 I sent to the Zone chat

5) Meme 2 I sent to the Zone chat

6) Bangs T.T XD

7) decent hairstyle with barrettes Sister Talakai gave me (Thank you!!)

8) picture I want to make a meme out of

9) Ice-cream soup with the district

10) eating dinner in the back of the car

There Can Be Miracles, When You Believe

Why hello again folks! This was yet another week of highlights!!

Monday! 

We did not! In fact! Do anything we had planned to do. XD mostly cause peeps were talking to families earlier in the day, and took a hot minute, so we didn't leave for shopping until like 4:30... yeah... pday ends at 6?? It was chaotic. XD I also received a lot of emails from people! That was probably my favorite part of the day! Hearing from y'all and being able to respond is one of my favorite things to do! Being able to hold email conversations?? 10/10 favorite thing right there! I love y'all!!

Tuesday! We helped one of the members clean out their trailer home! I got to scrub and organize the fridge, (anyone who knows me should know that I had a grand old time doing that, I adore organizing) and Sister McGary vacuumed! (She said she has no opinion either way, so it worked out for me haha!)

We also got a ticket.... that was a good time XD. Apparently parking on the side of the road is highly discouraged and pretty enforced during the winters. Adieu 20 dollars. (No I wasn't driving, I'm not allowed yet XD)

For dinner we made Hawaiian BBQ pulled pork sliders! They were kinda delicious XD. The other sisters were on a call with the ZLs earlier in the day, and they [the Zone Leaders] had jokingly asked for some, so we took them some!! XD we knocked and "ran" but they saw us out their window and looked at us confused XD we pointed at their door then took off. They called us two minutes later to thank us and inform us that they had "straight up" eaten all of them already. XD completely plausible as there were only 8 rolls and there were two of them. Our ZLs crack me up XD.

I had my first emotional breakdown! The reasoning behind it was!! ...I lost my scripture marker. XD But I found it like two minutes later in the back of my scriptures, and I was mostly laughing while "weeping" on the floor. XD Sister Williamson claims it was my turn for a quad council (even tho it was just her there). It was close enough. Haha I'm a pretty happy person, so I don't think I'm going to have that hard of a time. Maybe later. XD 

Wednesday! It was Zone Conference!! It was my first "real" zone conference. (Not Christmas ZC, because apparently that doesn't count. Being on the other side of it now, it really doesn't XD) It was a tad more intense, and much more like a conference meeting vs a Christmas celebration.

President and Sister Murphy spoke to us, as well as the APs (Assistants to the President) Elder Herschi and Elder Smith. It was really good!! We received ZC prep a couple days prior, and we had listened to/read a talk called "The Peace of Christ Abolishes Enmity" by Elder Renlund, as well as studied in the PMG (Preach My Gospel) in chapter one. We were able to talk about and have a really good discussion about it, and honestly, idk why my trainer was so stressed about Zone Conference, XD it was really good!

The only slightly stressful part was called "Dominating Preach My Gospel". Basically it's a quiz on a bunch of stuff in the PMG. I got out on the 2nd question. 😅 I'm going to have to study the chapter sections further. I thought I was set because I knew chapter one, but it was the whole book. I'm too green to know that XD. I'll try again for next ZC. XD

Thursday! We got an online referral at like 9:45, and we called him immediately XD. He picked up and was impressed with the speed of our call. He is sO ELECT! He has not only read the Bible, but also the Book of Mormon! He said he knows it's true, and that he has been thinking about joining our church for a while now! His online referral request was a prayer, so we prayed with him, and then shared a scripture because he just kept asking questions!! He is coming to church on Sunday!! We are so excited for him! It was a huge blessing because for the past week and a half we haven't really been able to find any new people. The Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission truly is a mission of miracles guys!! God is good!!

We also went over to an older member couple's house. They are the absolute sweetest!! She told us practically her entire life story; we were there... definitely too long. She just kept going tho, and we could barely a word in edgewise until the very end where she was like, "enough from me, I want to hear your message now" so we hurried on with it while we had the chance. XD it was awesome tho! I have adopted her into my heart as one of my many adopted grandmother figures. I absolutely adore talking to sweet little old ladies. They make me laugh so hard.

We had Friday Finding Forum, which is where the whole mission gets together and a few previously assigned zones talk about a few of the miracles they had seen in the past week! It is always incredible to hear about what miracles people are seeing!! 

In the meeting President Murphy also asked us to continue having zero unmasked in person interactions. Which means zero member meals T.T [crying emoji] for at the very least the rest of this week, if not longer. I 100% understand why, and I'm not particularly upset about it, but it is a bit disenheartening that we have to tell members that we can't eat at their houses when they invite us over. :'(

We got to attend our training/all admin council and kinda get an idea of what we're supposed to be doing with this calling. XD It went well! Side note: Sister McGary and I both randomly remembered that we might be more qualified for this calling than we initially thought. I took a social media marketing class, and she was the admin on her school's FFA page. God is good and knows us and our strengths well, guys! Never forget that!

Come Follow Me with Sister Doucette again! Won't go too far into details because it is a weekly thing haha. But I love having that to look forward to! She always tells us fun stories about her life as well! She's pretty awesome! :D

We were also on exchanges with the Hermanas starting at 5:30, so Sister Williamson was temporarily replaced by Hermana Smith! We ended up doing something called a prayer call where we make a group call and just all add random people we have friended on Facebook to the call. When someone gets on we stop adding, and the person who's friend it is speaks up and says a prayer with them, and then invites them to hear a message and set up another time for that!! It was pretty effective, but got a bit chaotic at one point because 2-3 people joined all at the same time and there was a lot of "what's going on here??" "what is this?" "who even aRE you???" going on, but that was to be expected XD. It went well otherwise! We got an appointment set up out of it!!

Saturday!! We went to the church building to post a video that we needed more internet bandwidth for than our apartment allows XD. We did our personal study while we were there as well! It was pretty awesome! 

The coolest part of that, was that on the way home from the church building we decided to go through the drive through for the other Sisters' "get uncomfy" goal from the APs at Zone Conference. The reason it was uncomfy was because they also were giving the window attendant a Book of Mormon! I got to vibe in the back seat and get good food, so I had zero complaints XD. (I got to take notes for future ideas tho, so it was at least a little productive for me XD)

We held our first Facebook council as the Admins, which was pretty good! Getting people to talk when you're the ones in charge is like pulling teeth ngl [not gonna lie], but it was still a good council! We talked about some plans and goals we have for the page and got everyone's input on them! Overall a success!!

We had a call with all the missionaries who came out at the same time as me and their trainers so we could receive further training on Social media use as missionaries! Sister Barrus' companion said the closing prayer which was pretty cool! I got to see her! :D

We had Zone Finding!! Through the [Facebook] page too which was pretty awesome! I don't think we found anyone in that time period, but we did find a few people through the page this week, but more on that later!! At the end when we all hopped back on the call, we were having a good old time, and we took a few screenshot pictures! (The only companionship missing is the Spanish Elders in the everyone picture.) They're pretty fun so I'll drop them in my picture album for the week!

OKAY! So Sunday!! We had sO many people come to church this week! We saw literally so many miracles!!! Our goals for the week were to find 4 people, get 4 people to church, get one person on Baptismal date, and no baptisms (just cause we didn't have anyone on date, so that would be unreasonable).

Our actuals!! We met Every. Single. Goal!!! We exCEEDED our church goal by tHREE!! 

So just to be specific:

New friends - 4/4

Church attendance - 7/4!!!!

On date - 1/1

Baptisms - 0/0

It was iNSANE!!! Like.... we haven't actually met our weekly goals since before Sister McGary has been here, so this was a big deal!!! Our entire zone was just popping off this week! I think we set like 6??? 7???? Baptismal dates??? Found like 44 people, and got 25 people to church!!!  There are 22 missionaries in our zone, and 10 companionships (I cAN do math, there's two trios), so that means each companionship found like 4 people each on average?? (K so maybe I can't do math that well, but OH WELL!! ¡¡Muchos mILAGROS!!) It's literally sO crazy!! God has truly blessed us this week, and we are determined to work even harder next week!!

I think the coolest part about this, is that the few weeks beforehand we were really struggling to get anyone to church or to find anyone. God has seen how hard we have been working, and has truly given us an outpouring of miracles all in one week!! And as we like to say here in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission, we do not put a cap on God's miracles or blessings!! He has given us these miracles, and if we continue to work hard! We will be able to see even more!! 

2nd Nephi 26:13

"And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith."

I have truly seen what this scripture shares and I know that you can see these blessings and miracles in your own life!! If you will just but believe and put your faith and trust in Him!! I love my Savior and how He has truly given us the greatest call. The call to follow Him!! The second call is to feed His sheep. 

We can do this by lifting where we stand!! You don't have to be on a full-time mission to feed His sheep! Serve and love the people around you!! I promise you you will see the blessings this brings!!

As far as the rest of the day Sunday, church was fabulous of course, and our members are darling. We had mission prayer that evening, as well as a mission wide devotional we could invite recent converts or friends on date etc. to watch over zoom. That was really good as well; I definitely enjoyed it.

Today our plans are to take it easy, go shopping at some point, and get some stuff done at the apartment. Maybe go out to get ice-cream if we're lucky haha. XD

Anyways, that's about all that's happened for me this week! I hope *y'all're having a great time no matter where you are in the world!! :D

I love you guys!!

(Btw I hAVE AN OUTRO NOW GUYS!!) 

[outro= noun. In music, a portion of music at the end of a song; like an intro, but at the end instead of the beginning.]

We can do this!

¡Sí se puede! 

Peb Yeej Ua Tau!

Love
Sister Lovell

Link to the photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hH8UuZNVov71FYot7

Link to the blog:
https://sisterhannahlovellwisconsin.blogspot.com/

1) Necklace I got from Zone Conference (and the inspiration for my outro)

2) Massive grape I got from Zone Conference

3) Y'all already know I gotta have a sunset picture 

4) adorable gif sent in the chat! (I want to make oneeeeee T.T)

5) Zone call pictures x3

*Ps, before y'all come at me, y'all're is a word ok?? The ZLs already made fun of me for it. XD that's already been done, don't feel inclined to pitch in.

Pps, for all you Spanish speakers, I know that "Sí se puede" means "yes we can" and not "we can do this", but our mission president does not XD. It's okay, it works out in the end: "We can do this! Yes we can!" 

"Judo Flipping is Also Acceptable"

Hiya folks!!

This week was a pretty great one! Kind of a rollercoaster, but we'll get to that!

Starting from the beginning, Tuesday evening! After I sent my email, I had a pretty chill rest of the day! I got to watch an episode of The Chosen, and all together just got to vibe in the apartment! It was great!

However, a little later in the day, one of the other Sisters was kinda having a hard time, so we got to have a quad council with her, and talk it through and just let her kinda cry it out.

After we were able to talk for a bit, we went back to work for the last three hours of the day! 

After 9 we had our last call with our District Leader before he moved areas! So sad! We'll miss him!

Wednesday Sister McGary and I went to one of the older ladies houses whom we visit a lot and shared a message with her as well as just talked! She's very sweet, and she has two cats which are dARLING!!

When we got home, another Sister was having a hard time, and we held another quad council to try and help and comfort her as well.

Wednesdays we try to go to mutual most of the time, and we were able to do that! They were making vision boards for the year and invited us to join!

We ducked out in the middle tho, the Zone Leaders had arrived to give the two Sisters having a hard time blessings. While they were receiving theirs, I felt prompted to ask for one as well, even though I wasn't planning to. It was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment, and I'm sO grateful for promptings as well as worthy priesthood holders! We love our ZLs!!

While we were there, I also finally gave them back their pants I had finished fixing a week prior XD. They were excited about the drawings I did of them and the popcorn I gave them! XD ...I'm kinda intolerant to popcorn and corn in general which sUCKS cause it's my favorite, and I had bought a box of it, plus I have some from home (which I wILL be eating) just not all 20 bags I have currently XD. But yes they were excited about those.

That evening we had a Zone call where we got to meet all the newbies! There are 6 new people. 3 new Elders, and 3 new Sisters! 3 (two Elders one Sister) of them are greenies and just got to the mission! I think all of them are reassigned XD. I know for sure 2/3 are.

In the zone call we played hangman while waiting for everyone to get on the call (classic Elder Graper), and then did a show and tell of something that represents us! I showed my Kalimba and my MTC District drawing. (Music and Art!!) It was pretty awesome! I'm excited for this new zone!

Thursday we had an in person lesson with some members! We got to meet their darling 9 month old daughter! They are big hunting fans, which was cool to see the decorations around their house haha!

We also had a Zoom lesson with a new person who knows the Bible in and out and as we talk about the Book of Mormon (which he has a copy already) he brings up connections that they have and likes to talk deep doctrine and is super genuinely interested in learning more! He says he likes his church, but is super open to taking lessons! Which is super Elect of him!!! We're pretty excited haha!

Friday we worked on our fb post which goes up today!! Exciting!! Definitely check it out because it's very much got my touch on it! I'm super excited!!!

We also went to Sister Doucette's again which is always awesome! Come Follow Me is awesome to always have at least one day of!! (I do more than that but still XD)

Saturday while we were on a Zone video call, we got a phone call from President Murphey! We were like, uhhh... 👀 but we picked up and he's totally awesome!! He did however extend a call to us! Sister McGary and I are now the admins for the Facebook page of our area! Basically we make the schedules, put up the posts, make sure people get theirs in on time, etc etc! I'm super excited about it!!

Later that evening the oTHER Sister had a bit of a day, and we held another quad council. 

So yes, we've had a bit of a week. It was pretty good altogether tho!! I have yet to need a quad council, but I'll keep y'all updated. It's really nice to be in a quad.

SUNDAY!

Sunday was pretty great! We went to Sister Cooks house before church! They are having a missionary stay with them rn. She's a convert and she came home for a couple days for family reasons, and the cook's offered to let her stay at their place. Sister Young is super darling! I'm happy I got to meet her!!

Church was great! We had two people come! Bob, and a recent convert who hasn't been in ~6 months. It was pretty sweet to see the members just swarm them to say hello!

There was also a pretty great talk given by one of the bretheren in the ward! It was about where we can turn for peace. These are my favorite parts:

Upon being questioned, "Where can I turn for peace?" the speaker's 3 oldest kids said this:

"I punch walls"

The next, wanting to one-up their sibling said:

"I punch pEOPLE! ...judo flipping is also acceptable" 

The oldest:

"I throw a plate on the ground, and then I have a lot of pieces" 

... sound familiar Mom and Dad? XD totally sounds like answers my brothers and I would give.

It was pretty funny XD. I love our members!

Sunday evening we were back at the church building for another priesthood blessing for the other sister who hadn't gotten one the first time. It was a beautiful blessing. Again, we love our ZLs, and we are so blessed to have Elders who are willing and able to give us priesthood blessings when we need them.

As for today, we plan to go shopping, and treat ourselves out. It's been a week for us, and we kinda deserve it we think. :) Likely it'll be ice cream and similar shenanigans. XD

I'll probably also watch an episode or two of The Chosen. XD

Anyways, that's about it for this week!! I love y'all!! Never forget it!!

Mosiah 18:21

"And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another."

I was reading in Mosiah this week, and I love this verse! We are all so different as members of this church, and even tho we are each individual and unique, we should "look forward with an eye single to the glory of God" (D&C 4:5) and to this faith which we are blessed with! We should love and serve one another, and I testify of this! It makes such a difference!

Again, I love you all! Thanks for tuning in again this week!!

Love
Sister Lovell

Link to the photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hH8UuZNVov71FYot7

Link to the blog:

https://sisterhannahlovellwisconsin.blogspot.com/

1) TURKEYS! (Video)

2) Cool red sunset!

3) Verse I read this week, gave off Kuzco vibes 

4) Preview of a little ✨project✨
I've been working on!
(It goes up today [Wednesday] on the fb page)

solo tree for FB project

[Special blog preview of Facebook project video. Visit "Church of Jesus Christ in Northeast WI" Facebook page to view, comment, and share!]

5) Greenie Buddies!

6) Me with the Elders and their [mended] pants

7) Last district call before we lost Elder Largey!

8) Screenshot of my parents I took XP XD

9) Vision board I started making at Mutual this week,
and will ...eventually... finish! (Probably XD)

It's.... been a week alright XD

Why hello again my dearest friends and family!!

This week has.... been a week. XD

Monday last week!! District P-day! I finally found out what we were doing XD. We played pickle ball, volleyball, and some really intense rounds of apples to apples and Uno XD. ...when I say intense, I am not kidding. Last week I said I didn't think I'd ever laugh harder, but that's a LIE! This week has proved this to me. XD

This week was also the last week before transfers, and so the group chat got even a little more chaotic than it was last week XD. I adore this district, and now I know that if I loved my MTC district so much, and this district so much, that I will just continue to love each and ever district I am blessed to be a part of. (Don't worry MTC district!! Y'all are still way up there on my list of favorites!! :D)

Tuesday was CDC last week, which I now know! means Combined District Council XD. Sister McGary and I did a musical number! (Yes I sang Alto again XD.) We sang "I Believe in Christ," which made it easy for me because I sang that at the MTC with the other sisters in my MTC district for Sacrament meeting! Thus I already knew the Alto part. :D

DC which means District Council was also this week, but Wednesday, and that was pretty good too! Sister McGary and I did a training for that XD. We had to study and teach about the technology safeguards. It went well! Our District is pretty fun.

Thursday we got to do some service and shovel a member's driveway! She broke her arm this week on the ice, :( so we agreed to shovel it for her! It was extra fun cause Sister McGary is from California, and had never done it before. (Coincidentally she is also our driver XD. Don't worry tho, she's a great driver, and the Lord is protecting us)

Friday was New Missionary Summit!! Basically thats a meeting where all the missionaries who are super green (brand new) as of this transfer, all hop on a Zoom call and get some extra training from the Mission President! He's super funny, and we all love President and Sister Murphy! We talked about making power stances, and I bet some of you can guess what mine was when we got to choose for the last one! (...yes it was a dab)

We also got to visit Sister Doucette for Come Follow Me this Thursday! It was super cool to talk about the differences between the three different accounts of the creation. I've never read the old testament, so I am thoroughly enjoying the topic of study for Come Follow Me this year. :)

Okay, so Saturday.... was a day.

In the morning, we got to help some of our apartment neighbors to move a bunch of stuff out of a U-Haul and into their garage, which was fun! It was kinda cold, but we were working, so I wasn't particularly frozen. XD 

The rest of the day... to spare the details, we had some fun experiences, and needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot done after that. Although we definitely laughed a crap ton. XD This week was a week of laughing for sure.

Church on Sunday was good! Our friend Bob came, he's always there, he's awesome, and we got to talk to him a bit. We went to relief society, and afterwards, we got to talk to Sister Cook again! They're moving soon, which is sUPER sad. We love her forever, and everytime we talk to her, we end up laughing our heads off. This time, the Hmong Elders were there as well, so they got to be privy to our chaos XD ...Not sure how much they enjoyed that XD. They were laughing... not sure whether or not it was at or with us, but that's okay XDXDXD.

Covid has boomed over the holidays, so the mission president has invited us to have 0 unmasked interactions with anyone we don't live with. We had a dinner planned with a family in the ward for Sunday, and we had to cancel on them. We still shared a message with them, and they sent us home with food which was super sweet. ❤ Unfortunately, we forgot to text them that we were coming, so they totally forgot we were going to even be there *face palm*. 

So! We shared with them a message, and then chilled and played a card game as they prepared food. We said they didn't have to worry about it and we should probably not take any more of their time, but they insisted. We love members ❤. It was really good food too! It was steak and potatoes, and it was delicious!! 

Funniest part is now that I think about it, my family back home (NO SHAME I PROMISE) has definitely made missionaries wait while we finished making food. That's not too big a deal, but now that I'm on the other side of it, it's so different!! I'm sure the missionaries enjoyed having members to talk to and hang out with, (I certainly did) but it's way different being the missionary with a schedule to keep XD

And then last night!! We found out who was being transferred! The only person leaving from our district is our district leader Elder Largey, which is sAD, but he's gunna do great in his new area. We have one or two others from the zone who are leaving, and we have a couple extra new people and stuff. Good times! Definitely going to miss the missionaries who are leaving tho!

Extra stuff that happened this week!

I have been dubbed as the district seamstress XD. I have sewn up a hole in one Elder's pants, fixed a hem on another, and I'm receiving another pair of pants to fix a hem on now that the news has gotten out that I know how to sew XD. One of the Elders who is transferring had a pair of pants I was going to fix as well, but he's leaving tomorrow and I don't think he has time for me to before then XD. 

My absolutely aMAZING mother has sent me a Kalimba!! Which is an instrument I have been dYING to own and learn, and I now have one as my singular instrument I'm allowed XD. It's totally awesome, and I will include a video of me playing it! (No! My comp isn't annoyed by my practice, why do you ask? XD) I have been playing during off times only! Don't worry, I'm still focused on the work!

I have also decided to paint the watterbottle I bought at the MTC because the color was boring. (Again, only during off hours) the only picture I have of it before is... fun, but I'll include a before and current WIP [Work in Progress] pic.

Our district continued our "Most Likely to-" polls, and the amount of finger pointing going on is absolutely hysterical. XD We had to keep it up for the last week of the transfer obviously! 

I think that's about it, but this week was fantastic!

I love you all! Thanks for reading my emails!

Love
Sister Lovell

Link to the photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hH8UuZNVov71FYot7

Link to the blog:
https://sisterhannahlovellwisconsin.blogspot.com/

1) District Pday chaos! x3

Just the District

District pday

District pday chaos

District pday chaos x2

2) CDC chaos! x2

CDC chaos!

CDC chaos x2

3) Me eating Spaghetti w/ chopsticks, which is apparently weird XD

4) KALIMBAAAA!!! (video)

["I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" -Primary song]

5) Waterbottle before

6) Waterbottle WIP pic

7) District Nicknames XD