I keep trying to type this email, but the only tho 12-29-14

I keep trying to type this email, but the only thoughts that are 
coming to my mind are "hmmmmmm" and "AHHHHHHHHHHHH" yup that about 
sums up my week and my thoughts. Well I love you all and hope you had 
a wonderful Christmas! 
 
Love always, 
 sister Upshaw 
 
Just kidding, but seriously this last week has been a complete blur 
and I may be having a slight anxiety attack at the thought of coming 
home in two weeks... Is that normal? I promise I love you all and I am 
excited to see you, but.... Ahhhhhhhhh I'm just nuts! 
 
On another note... Christmas was incredible! Skyping our families took 
up a good portion of the day because the church's wifi only allowed 
for one person to Skype at a time. Whenever a second person tried it 
messed up the connection, but that is okay. It was fun to talk to both 
sister Blain's and sister Yellow's families. We spent the rest of the 
day visiting people who we knew were alone on the holiday. It was 
another incredible mission Christmas. :) 
 
Oh and the Welch family came to church! The kids were all crying 
because they had to leave early. How cool is that to have kids be so 
upset about leaving church that they cry!? I seriously love them so 
much! So far everything is still on track for their baptism on January 
10th, but I would absolutely love it if you kept them in your prayers. 
Goodness we seriously have been having so much success lately. 
Yesterday we had no appointments so we literally walked for three 
hours and just talked to people that were outside. Almost everyone 
listened to us and even the people who didn't were still nice about 
it. We had one guy that we gave a card to and he very quickly ended 
any opportunity for a conversation, but as we walked away he called 
after us and said, "ladies, I just want you to know that if God could 
have chosen anyone to represent Him, then He made a wise choice in 
picking you." It just made my day! I guess the spirit of Christmas is 
getting to people, but this has been one of the best transfers of my 
mission! 
 
I absolutely love being a missionary! I love everything about it. Even 
the days that absolutely no one gives you the time of day or when 
adults push their children away from the absolutely 'horrifying girls 
in their 20's that approach their families with a friendly smile.' 
Seriously though sometimes I feel like some people think We are mass 
murderers or something.... The point is I just love everything about 
Florida and the people here. 
 
I love the people in Vegas too! Have a wonderful week and a happy New Year! 
 
Love, 
Sista Upshaw 
 
 
Oh we also got a hug from a Jehovah's Witness! She thought I was one 
too and when she saw the badge she had a look of sheer horror! It was 
a little funny, but we talked for quite a while and I think she left 
the conversation not hating us so that's a plus! 

                                              Teaching the kids how to make ugly faces

                                                               Skyping with family

                                                              Some of the siblings

                                                               Nieces and nephews

                        Playing Qua at a district meeting

🌿 How to properly eat a grasshopper 🐛 12-22-14

Here in the land of bugs-the-size-of-your-head, we have grasshoppers that are large enough to actually provide enough substance to sustain a person! So one of the members here decided to try it out. He and his wife have been collecting giant grasshoppers over the last two weeks to eat and when we came to their house for an appointment he proceeded to show us his collection that he had frozen. I somewhat jokingly told them it would be a fun thing to try out and before I knew it we had a return dinner appointment to eat fried grasshopper... That dinner took place this week and I did in fact eat one. It wasn't that bad actually. The only nasty part was looking into its creepy little eyes, but once I grabbed it by the head and bit off the bottom half it wasn't half bad. :) I only have a picture of them on the plate, but brother Jeans said he posted the ones of us eating them on Facebook. I love that family! 

In other adventures I chopped my hair off and lost my voice all in the same day! The chopping of the hair was kind of spontaneous. I tried to trim it myself and failed miserably so Sister Blain helped out and then we decided that I should probably just go to a salon and after three people "trimming" it my hair is now 6 inches shorter. I actually like it though so that's awesome! Later that same day I came up with the brilliant idea to challenge my companions to see who could scream the loudest. Let's just say I won and because Of that I have spent the last week sounding like Johnny Cash. 

On a more reverent note... We had an incredible experience with a family we are teaching. About a month ago I asked Mom to order me a couple manger scenes that I could give to families we were teaching. I wanted to share our Christmas Eve tradition of reading Luke chapter 2 and setting up the nativity. Well we went over to the family's home and taught them for the first time as an entire family. It was awesome! At the very end we pulled out the box with the nativity and when they opened it the 10 year old girl clasped her hands over her mouth and then ran over and hugged each of us. Apparently it was the first manger scene they have ever had. I have always known Christmas isn't about the presents and what not, but seeing how happy this little girl was over a nativity just melted my heart. 

There are so many people who don't have all the ✨sparkle✨ that comes with the holiday season, but they are just as happy as those who do. Even though I have spent the last two Christmases away from family and with not very much of the glam of Christmas, they have been the most memorable. I know without a doubt it's because they have been so focused on the savior. I think the key to a memorable holiday season is serving others. I hope this is a tradition I can keep up throughout my life. I love you all and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! 

Love always,

Sister Upshaw

 

 

🎅🎄CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE!!! 12-15-14

 Jamming crickets this was a great week!

 We had our mission Christmas party this week! It was a blast to spend the
 whole day at the beach! We made a sand man, complete with a seaweed scarf
 and seashell eyes and a Mohawk! President just laughed at us... I seriously
 love the beach. I promise my mission isn't a vacation! This was one day out
 of the 365 we have in a year. (Wow I just had to double check that there
 were in fact 365 days in a year) #WhyWontMyBrainWork

 Thursday we had interviews with President Cusick. Interviews with him are
 always the best! He started off our interview by asking,"what can I do for
 you Sister Upshaw? If I had a magic wand or was a genie and you had one
 wish what would it be?" It made me laugh so hard because typically he is a
 pretty stoic man. I can't tell you what I wished for though because then it
 won't come true! Later in the interview he asked me if I could go anywhere
 in the mission where would I want to go... I told him I would want to stay
 exactly where I am with the companions I have because I love my area and my
 companionship, then he just looked at me and said, "you love all your areas
 and every companion..." It's pretty true, but I don't want to change it up
 for the last 4 weeks of my mission! I told him I would be happy wherever he
 decided to send me though, but we received our transfer information Sunday
 night and all three of us are staying! Yay!

 Saturday was Debbie's baptism and it was the most perfect baptism
 ever! We had so many members come out to support her and the talks and
 songs were perfect and she felt so loved! Ahhh it was just the best! One
 year ago her roommate Pat was baptized and Debbie has been meeting
 with missionaries off and on for a year now. At the baptism their third
 roommate came and she absolutely loved it! Her name is Sue and quite
 frankly she was pretty sure Mormons were a cult until she came to the
 baptism. She loved the way the speakers used the Book of Mormon and the
 bible together and how they truly go hand in hand. She said it was
 completely different from anything she had ever felt before. Her heart
 definitely softened and she is interested in learning more. Oh and Debbie's
 favorite song is "Ave Maria" so my incredible companion, Sister Blain, who
 sings like an angel, surprised her with singing that song acapella! It
 was all around just an incredible day!

 So much more happened, but I am going to refrain from making my email long
 and boring. Just know that miracles happen every day! Here in Florida and
 with each of mine and my companions families!

 Something I finally got through my head this week was that the most
 important thing we can do as missionaries and in life in general is to
 develop Christlike attributes. If we are striving to follow His example
 then everything else just falls into place. God doesn't expect perfection.
 He loves each of us so stink'n much! I hope everyone is having an amazing
 Christmas season. Don't get too caught up in all the craziness.

 I love you all!

 -Sister Upshaw

                             Merry Christmas from Sis. Upshaw, Sis. Yellow and Sis. Blain

 

Oh and at the baptism they forgot to pull the plug on the drain as they
 were getting out so Sister Blain had to put on one of the jumpsuits and get
 in to drain the font! IT WAS SO FUNNY!!

                                        Christmas Party on the beach

💃💃💃A week in the life of the Hudson sisters! 🐊😺💂🍫🍪🚫🚬 12-8-14

 I hope you all were able to see the emojis in the subject line of this
 email because they are such an accurate depiction of the events that
 took place this week!

 Holy mackerel I found a Lindor Truffle the size of my HEAD this week!
 (See end of this email for picture...) of course I bought it because
 as 99.9% of you know I LOVE LINDOR TRUFFLES! It is actually a bowl
 inside that wrapper with 40 normal sized chocolates, but it was still
 heaven! Also... I ate the whole thing pretty much by myself this week.
 #BestChocolateEver #SpiritOfGluteny

 As if that discovery wasn't enough of a miracle, we had an incredible
 experience with D and The D family. Remember last week
 how N promised he would come to church and that nothing would stop
 him? Well he and his entire family were at church! His mom and the
 three other kids all came and they absolutely loved it! His mom and I
 were talking before church and she was telling me about how hard it
 had been for them in the past and how strained their family
 relationship had been. I asked her how she had overcome that and after
 thinking about it she said, "honestly, it has been since Nick has been
 meeting with you guys." She said he has changed and that has made her
 want to change. They both pray every night and sometimes they even
 pray altogether as a family!

 The next miracle definitely strengthened my testimony of modern day
 miracles. D is getting baptized next week! She is so excited, but
 she was struggling with giving up smoking 100%. She asked for a
 blessing. We had the elders and a ward member go over, but we had
 another appointment so we only heard from her how it went when we saw
 her the following day. She just said that she had never felt anything
 like that before. As soon as she said that, I felt such gratitude for
 priesthood authority. I testified that she felt the power of God in
 that blessing. That is exactly what the priesthood is. We checked in
 with her the next day to see how she was doing and she told us she had
 completely given up smoking. She felt tempted to smoke one, but as
 soon as she picked it up she said she felt sick instantly! She is
 officially smoke free! Ahhhh I am so excited for her.

 In other news... I heard from the Sister Skeem who heard from the
 sisters in my last area and this is the incredible update I received
 from her.

 Paula, the sweetest lady alive, was baptized last week and so
 was Sophia! Sophia was the 9yr old girl in my favorite Colombian
 family! :)

 Oh and there was a man we taught who was inactive and then became
 active and he was just called to serve in the bishopric! Ahhhh so many
 miracles! It was such a blessing to get that update from Sister Skeem
 because I was just thinking about how hard it is to not always get to
 see the end result of what we do as missionaries. I don't know how to
 fully explain that thought, but sometimes I just wish I could stay
 with the same people my whole mission instead of moving around. It
 just made me remember how much God loves me that he answered my prayer
 to know that my efforts are never wasted. I love this gospel and I
 love this mission!

 I love you all and can't wait to see you again soon! :)

 -Sister Upshaw

Scorpion Sucker 12-1-14

 Okay so Thursday was our P-day so today I only have a really short
 amount of time to email. So sorry in advance, but I guess it works out
 seeing as Danae is the only ones that sent me an email today! (for some reason my email never sent) *Cough
 cough*
 
 This week has been CRAZY! Tuesday it poured rain and we had decided to
 go finding in a nearby park. Well long story short we ended up walking
 about an hour north of our apartment and then it poured rain and we
 looked like little pathetic cats after a bath. We knocked on a members
 door and she took us home to get dried off. I have pictures, but don't
 have time to upload them...

 Wednesday we received a new companion! We are a trio! I am so excited.
 Her name is sister Blain and she is fantastic! #bornInATrio
 #DieInATrio

 Thursday was Thanksgiving! President moved our P-day to Thursday
 because he wanted us to spend the Holiday with members and to just
 relax. So we spent it with the Carroll's and we went out to the train
 park and rode the train! Again, I have pictures, but I will send them
 next week.

 Coolest experience of the week.... We have this investigator who is
 preparing for baptism. His name is Nick. Nick is awesome and is always
 talking about how badly he wants to be baptized and how much he wants
 to come to church, but when Sunday roles around he always has some
 reason why he can't go. We decided that maybe he wasn't really as
 interested as we thought so we were going to stop meeting with him. We
 decided to go one more time. As we taught we talked a lot about the
 importance of church and how we feel the Spirit there. The lesson went
 so well, but when we invited him again to come to church he said, he
 would "try". I wasn't convinced. I offered the closing prayer and in
 it prayed that Nick and his family would have the desire and the way
 to come to church this Sunday. As soon as we said amen he looks up and
 says, "you know what? I am going to church this week! As you were
 praying I just knew we all need to go. We WILL be there. I'm a TANK
 nothing is going to stop me!" Ahhhhh we biked away and I was so happy
 I danced on my bike all the way home!

 On a less spiritual level of coolness I ate a sucker with a scorpion
 inside of it! (This I do have pictures of) I couldn't get myself to
 put the scorpion in my mouth, but here are the attempts at doing so...
 Lol

 I love you all and hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!

 Picture number one is of me after a crazy day... I'm pretty sure I
 have lost any shred of sanity I once possessed...