FEBRUARY 17, 2020 -- I AM GETTING A GREENIE

Hello Everyone! 

How did a transfer (six weeks) come and go already. I think my mission just keeps going faster and faster.

Tuesday February 11

Dentist appointment! Oh how I love the dentist. It actually wasn't terrible! I don't hate nor am I scared of the dentist! We also did some service at the Senior Center in town! I don't know if I have talked about what we do. We just put the food on the trays and make it look beautiful! From this experience, I have decided I do not want to be a lunch lady.

Wednesday February 12 

We did the normal day to day missionary stuff. After all that, we did some Service at CAPPED.  We counted tiles.  And let me tell you, it was not the most fun thing we have ever done! Later, we went to church and the priest activity and they were doing a "Girl Appreciation".  They were learning to do make up and they needed us as a canvas.  But luckily they had enough women from the ward to help!  We also made cute "Valentine's in a bag/heart attack in a bag" we made cute rice crispies in the shape of a heart with pink M&Ms and little pink sprinkles! It was so cute. We also put little candies and cut hearts out and wrote cute things on them. We went to the Air Force base and gave/left them for the families on base! It was so fun!

Thursday February 13 

Weekly Planning and also some more heart attacks in a bag to make and to hand out! What a fun day! Also, we got a call from President, and I found out that I will be training! I will be a mission mom! I am excited to get a greenie (brand new sister missionary)! 

Friday February 14

Valentine's Day and Jonathan's Birthday! 

We had district council and the sisters made cute valentine's for everyone! We made and gave them some of the rice crispy hearts! And Elder Carson brought a cake for all of us to share  He is a funny dude. After wards, Sister Huffaker and I went out to lunch with the Nielsen's at Dion's! It was very fun! I am glad they were our valentines! 

After we got home, we had dinner with two older women and they were so funny! Afterwards, we delivered our Valentines and everyone we gave them too, felt bad that they didn't have something for us. So we ended up with a lot of apples, oranges, goldfish, and cookies. Just a lot of left over valentine's or anything they could grab! It was super fun! 

Saturday February 15

Cloudcroft!

We had a hoot up there visiting members and people in Cloudcroft. It was a muddy mess. Everyone has dogs and the dogs jumped up on us a few times, we had muddy skirts. 🥴 not my favorite thing in the world but what can you do. I actually gave some dogs animal crackers to distract them. Wowey it was a long day!

Sunday February 16

Sister Huffaker is leaving me for El Paso! We said goodbye to ward members and others! We had a chill night filled with spanish and packing! 

Scripture of the week

1 John 4:8

"... God is Love." 

In honor of Valentine's day, this scripture is very fitting! When we love others, we love God! 

Keep on loving and choosing the right!

Love, 

Sister Susanna Tracy 

FEBRUARY 10, 2020 -- HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY JONATHAN! & MY SIX MONTH MARK!!

Hello Everyone! Another week has come and gone! This upcoming week I will be hitting my six month mark on my brother Jon's birthday! February 14! It's crazy to think that I only have ONE year left! It has gone by fast and I'm sure it will be going by even faster! 

Tuesday February 4

Zone Conference!

We woke up at 5 am, left Alamogordo at 6 am, and got to Las Cruses around 7 am! I always enjoy zone conference. I love seeing all of my mission friends and meeting new people! 

At zone conference, we went over and discussed the new Missionary handbook. There are a lot of new things and still a lot of things that are the same. One of the Elders in the meeting asked if naps were okay. What I have been told is that if you need a nap you can take a twenty minute power nap. But President said no naps. I am not implying I took lots of naps, but when you need a nap I say go for it. But it was a funny question and a lot of funny responses!

After zone conference we ended up going on exchanges. I stayed in my area and Hermana Humble came with me! Zone conference went over as usual. And we still had an hour drive ahead of us. We ended up having dinner at 7:30 pm! At dinner, I was wearing my white Roolee dress (the one all my sisters love and want) and I went to go open up a bottle of jalapeno sauce, and it explodes all over my WHITE dress. I was mortified. But luckily, I was blessed with an awesome member dinner that night. She gave me one of her dresses to wear and she washed and took care of the stains on my dress! #looksgoodasnew!

Wednesday February 5

When we woke up in the morning to go workout. We opened the door to four inches of snow. Holy moly! It was a Christmas miracle! The first snowfall of the winter! I loved it! Of course most of the snow was gone before the day was over! #desertlife 

We had a great rest of our exchange. We went and served a local shop in town and had a lesson with a cute old man. Hermana Humble helped the Nielsen's and I learn a little bit of Spanish as well! The only thing I can say is that we are trying our best to learn!

 

For dinner we ate with the Nielsen's the Senior couple here in Alamogordo and our recent convert Steve! It was super fun and Steve is super great at the guitar and played a lot of his songs for us. It was like a mini concert! 

Thursday, February 6

Weekly Planning our absolute favorite! Everything kinda didn't go as planned this day beside weekly planning! Our dinner canceled on us and we delivered us Pizza to make up for it! I love pizza but I am getting tired of all the heavy foods! 

Friday, February 7 

CLOUDCROFT 

What a long day, let me tell you! Cloudcroft is so cute and really fun! They have a little strip with lots of cute shops and little hole in the wall bakery and restaurants! We went up with the Nielsen's and visited a lot of people! We are still trying to build trust with the members of that Branch and help out in the ways we can! Hopefully we won't get transferred and we will be able to get to know the area better and get more work finished!

For dinner, we ate with a family that has eight kids and the ninth is on the way! It was fun being with lots of kids. The only difference was that they only have one girl, and the new little baby is another boy! They are a fun family!

Saturday, February 8

We did a lot of things on Saturday! We helped serve at a Catholic thrift store. We were trying to find one of our investigators who works there and we ended up doing two hours of service! We never got to see him -- so that was a bust, but still super fun to help out! Then we went out to the boonies of our area! We visited a lot of people that were not home! That's always fun. But it was an over all successful day! 

Sunday, February 9

Church was great, we didn't have any investigators come to the White Sands Ward, but we did have an investigator go to the Cloudcroft Branch! That was super awesome! We had dinner with a family that has ten children! It was fun! They weren't too interested in knowing I was from a large family as well, but hey they were still fun! Later in the evening we spoke at BYD! (Bishop Youth Discussion) we talked about missionary work and did our best to get the youth excited!

This week we have done a lot! I can't even remember half of the things we have accomplished! So I apologize for the long email but also be glad it's not even longer!

Scripture of the week

Alma 31:34-35

34 O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ.

35 Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee.

Here in Alamogordo, the work is slowly moving along. We don't find the most interested people and it's hard to find those that are truly ready for the gospel. We just keep trying and keep searching! These scriptures are super applicable to where me and my companion are right now. We just need to have faith in Jesus Christ and in His timing. Not everything is going to happen when we want it! I have definitely learned a lot of faith this week! D&C 6:36 is one of my favorite scriptures as well! I invite you all to Look unto Jesus Christ no matter what your situation or problem! He is always here to love and support us!

Love, Sister Susanna Tracy 🤠

1. Snow with Hermana Humble!

2. Chalk art

3. This was taken in El Paso at my last apartment before I was transferred up to Alamogordo!

FEBRUARY 3, 2020 -- SISTER TRACY NOW TRACTS IN SPACE

Hello family and friends! 

What a crazy week it has been! Honestly, I can't remember what happened. 

I traveled down to El Paso Saturday, and I was able to see some great families! I wish I would have had more time to say hello to more people, but duty calls. 

Tuesday January 28 

We went up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico! Here in Alamogordo, we don't have snow but thirty minutes north there was snow! We made snowballs and had fun! It was the first snow that I have seen all winter. Also it was the first time I had to wear my coat! 

Wednesday January 29

Today was pretty normal! We did a lot of service! We helped clean up batting cages and paint lines and clean up a sand volleyball pit. It was hard work! 

Thursday January 30 

Weekly Planning! The same old same old. We also had dinner at Chili's. Hi, welcome to Chili's. (If you know you know)

Friday January 31

We taught Seminary! 1 Nephi 18! Then we had District Council! We traveled down to Las Cruses and had our missionary meeting! We also went to Jimmy John's later that day, and oh how I miss that place. 

Saturday February 1

I got to travel down to El Paso for one of my investigators baptisms! It was so awesome! Afterwords, I had lunch with the Barmores and I was able to visit with the Gilmores, Jesters, Crawfords and a couple of other awesome Families! I love and miss El Paso so much! Our Senior couple, the Nielsen's drove us down and after visiting with the families we were able to go to Costco. We bought new pillows and tried them out on the way home!  

Sunday February 2

Super Bowl Sunday!

We were able to have one investigator come to church! It was awesome to have her. Later that day I had three different ward members texting me and updating us on the score because of the Chiefs and me being from the Kansas City area! It was so fun! We had our own "Super Bowl Party" with the Nielsen's. We had spinach artichoke dip and Girl Scout cookies! 

This month I will hit my six month mark! It's crazy that it has already been that long! It's going by so fast! 

Scripture of the week

1 Nephi 16:16

And we did follow the directions of the ball, which led us in the more fertile parts of the wilderness.

I really like this scripture because as we are obedient to the Lord's commandments and faithful, He will lead us to the more fruitful parts of life. I also like to think that He will lead us to the more fruitful parts of our trials. He won't take the trial away from us, but He will help us see the positive in it! I love that He still gives us the opportunity to learn and grow. 

Keep trying and keep looking for the positive in all things! 

Love, 

Sister Susanna Tracy 🤠

1.The Mechams! 

2.The Jesters!

3.Snow in Cloudcroft!

4. The Gilmore Girls

5. Sister Huffaker and me!

6. Sisters Erickson, Willson, Luis and Sister Huffaker and me!

7. Sister Huffaker and me at the Space Museum. You're welcome.

8. The Barmores! 

JANUARY 27, 2020 -- GOT CHALK?

Hello everyone! Yes it is that time again where y'all get to read the good and the bad of my week! It was actually not a bad week. A lot of funny things happened, but not a bad week. 

Tuesday January 21

We were told that Zone Conference was today! We woke up early to get ready and we had an hour drive and a lot of miles ahead of us. Once we got to the church building, not a lot of people were there yet and only our zone was on time! Twenty-ish minutes go by and the Zone Leaders call all missionaries into the building. Zone Conference wasn't actually happening. They canceled it at the last minute but forgot to tell our Zone!  You can imagine our faces once we realized we used all the miles to come down here and nothing is actually going to happen. But to make the best out of the situation our whole Zone went out to breakfast and we instead had a Zone Council! It was fun! Afterwards some of us went to Chick Fil A. It was a fun day! 

Wednesday January 22

We did service at a place called CAPPED. We helped clean individual tiles to be used for crafts and then to be sold for a fundraiser. It's an interesting place to help out! We also had the usual work for the rest of the day. Finding! We also were able to go to New Beginnings for the Young Women! 

Thursday January 23

Weekly Planning! 🥴

Service at the Senior Center. We helped serve food! Thursday was a super busy day. I guess it was the thing to do. We were trying our best to shovel all the food on trays and making it look somewhat delicious! I have made my decision --  I don't want to work in a kitchen. Don't get me wrong it's fun and all but I don't like working with food or smelling like food afterwards! 

Friday January 24

We were able to go out finding today and we chalked out the Plan of Salvation very simply! 

It was super fun and people were looking and asking lots of questions! Our dinner appointment canceled on us, but we were able to go to a super cool family's house that loves the missionaries. They were also having a birthday! We were able to hangout with them and have an enjoyable day. We ended the dinner by playing apples to apples with everyone! Birthday party's rock!

Sunday January 26 

Sunday is my favorite day! I love being able to chat with the ward members and to get to know them a little more! 

Scripture of the week 

3 Nephi 18:24 

Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed.

We have been sharing this scripture a lot with the members down here in Alamogordo, NM. We love the scriptures that talk about shining our light for others to see! We should be always shining our light. If that is through our words, actions, and our example. People can see the light we have! I invite you all to shine your light more fully! Brighten someone's day by sharing the light you have! 

Love, 

Sister  Susanna Tracy 

1. Sister Huffaker and me by a HUGE cactus

 

2.  Sister Huffaker and me at our canceled zone conference

3. Sister Huffaker and me by some petroglyphs!

 

5. Sister Huffaker, myself and Sister Peterson

6. Sister Huffaker and I after playing with chalk! 

JANUARY 20, 2020 -- THE ALAMO

What's up friends! This week has been crazy. Sorry for the late email, usually I am very on top of things. The weeks are going by faster and faster. I hit my FIVE month mark last Tuesday! My mission has gone by crazy fast. 

Alamogordo is treating me fairly well. It will take some getting used too! 

Tuesday January 14

My FIVE month Mark! Woohoo! We went out to breakfast with a member of the ward. He always takes out the new missionary that comes to the Alamo to a small, hole in the wall, breakfast diner. It kind of reminded me of the Cinderella story with Hillary Duff. The tradition is that I don't order and he orders for me. The thing he ordered me was HUGE, thank goodness I didn't have to eat all of it. It was a big piece of chicken, hash browns, eggs, toast, ham, and bacon. All covered in green chile sauce. It tasted good. It was something I would never order myself but it was good. 

Later that day we helped serve food at a Senior Center! It was fun being able to brighten people's day and talk to them!

The rest of the day was a lot of finding. We are trying to increase our teaching pool here!

Wednesday January 15

Same old same old. Studies and finding! We also did service at a place called CAPPED. Some more finding and then dinner and a lesson! We found these people last week and we went to their house and we were not expecting a Halloween life sized clown at the door. It definitely gave us the creeps. But all was well and it was a great lesson!

Thursday January 16

It was a great day! We helped make cookies with the Cloudcroft Branch Young Women! The branch only has one young women.  We went and became friends with her! We went to the Nielson's house to make cookies! Elder Nielson used to work in a bakery so it was super fun to watch him make the cookies and watch him hand drop the cookies on the pan! 

We also got to go to a members house and have him help us with our Spanish! It was super fun and awesome! It was our first time getting together so it was a lot of getting to know each other and what level we are at! We definitely got some good things learned! 

Friday January 17

District Council! We drove down to Las Cruses with the Nielsons! We gave a training at District Council over testimonies! We talked about when to share them and how to grow our testimonies! It went really well! After council we went to Sam's club with the Nielsons because they needed groceries and we got some pretzels and looked at pillows! Then on the way home we napped. It was awesome! I love naps that are longer than fifteen minutes.

We had a couple lessons. It is great to be teaching people! 

Saturday January 18

We went to a community yard sale and tried talking with people and finding people to teach! We ended up hanging out with a person we know and we got snow cones! The snow cone place was called Swamp Donkey. Isn't that an awesome name hahahah. I got spicy apricot and sour apple. It didn't taste as bad as it sounds. But my mouth was a little on fire afterwords. But #worthit 

We had a lesson with a bible basher. We have been running into a lot of them recently. But we did our best being nice and getting out of there without arguing with her! 

Sunday January 20

Church was great! It's hard getting the members to feed us out here. I started walking up to people and handing them the dinner calendar and almost forcing them to sign up 😂😂 .

Later that night we had a scare with our oven. We thought we smelled something burning and something was. It was the parchment paper that we put on the pan. It was really spooky! But the cookies still tastes good and we are still going to hand them out to people! 😂👍

This week has been crazy! I left out a lot of details! But wowey missionary work is very rewarding. It is very special to see the Atonement work first hand in the lives of the people we teach. 

Scripture of the week 

1 Nephi 8:15

And it came to pass that I beckoned unto them; and I also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me, and partake of the fruit, which was desirable above all other fruit.

This week in Come Follow Me, we read about the Tree of Life. This verse talks about how Lehi wanted to share of the tree's fruit with his family! What can we do to beckon unto those to come and partake of the blessings of the gospel? How can we be better examples of Christ?

I invite you to ponder on that this week, and think of someone you can share the message of the gospel with. Because it can truly change lives for the better!

Love, Sister Susanna Tracy

I have been not very good at taking photos of myself this week! But here are some photos I did take this week or pulled from the Internet! 😁🤠

JANUARY 13, 2020 -- I'M NOT IN TEXAS ANYMORE!

Hello Friends and Family! 

As you can tell from the title, I am not in Texas anymore! It was sad to say goodbye to some of the great people I have met, but I am so excited to be in this new area and for all the new opportunities that are ahead of me!

I am now in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico! It's about a two hour drive from El Paso, Texas. It feels so homey, it's almost like I am back in Harrisonville!

Monday January 6

I was able to go out to lunch with some of the best girls in El Paso! The Gilmore Girls! I love them lots! We went out to sushi because I really wanted some and where I am at now has no place to get sushi! It was super fun hanging out with them! Later that night I was able to say goodbye to some awesome families! The Jesters and the Barmores! I love them so much! They made me feel like I was at home every time I came into their home! 

Tuesday January 7

Another Crazy Day full of goodbyes and see you laters! We had breakfast with the Barmores! It was so much fun being able to fellowship with them one more time! I was able to have one more lesson with a super cool girl we are teaching! It was hard to leave but I will be hopefully going down for her baptism! I was also able to say goodbye to Sister Sullivan and Sister Dihan. I love those two! They are like my grandmothers! ❤

We had dinner with the Mechams and I put on their roller skates after dinner and rolled around the kitchen before we had to go! They also sent me off with some Costco Chocolate muffins! They most definitely know the way to my heart! (I held them the whole car ride up to Alamogordo!)

Wednesday January 8

TRANSFERS

I was so stressed out while packing. Like whole moly I have a lot of stuff. I just keep reminding myself that I am not gone for the weekend, I am gone for 18 months. We packed all my things into the car, said goodbye to all the Hermanas in El Paso and headed to the transfer site! Like I said earlier, I held my Costco chocolate muffins proudly ha ha. Once we got to the the transfer site, we unloaded everything, switched companions and I was on my way to Las Cruses. Once we made it to Las Cruses, I found out I still had an hour drive to my area! Alamogordo is an hour away from Las Cruses! I met my companion, loaded my thing in the car and headed off. 

Thursday January 9

My first full day in the area! Everyone was so nice and welcoming! We unpacked, met lots of people and got to know the area a little better! 

Friday January 10

Zone Council! We drove an hour to go to Zone Council. It was fun being able to meet all the new missionaries and to set new goals for this transfer! We set some pretty high goals --  me and Sister Huffaker! (My new companion) It was as awesome meeting! One of the best Zone Councils I've been too! 

Saturday January 11

Finding and Contacting! Being in a new area gives me a confidence that is unreal 😂 I hope it stays for ever! I love my new companion Sister Huffaker, and we are killing it here in Alamogordo!

Sunday January 12

Church is at 11:30! It was great! I love this ward! After Church we went to the senior missionaries house for lunch! We had pancakes, bacon and eggs! They are so nice! 

Alamogordo is definitely different but it will be good! Hopefully we will be able to find the elect and share the message to everyone! 

Scripture of the week 

Alma 29:14

But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi.

Missionary work can be hard and sometimes discouraging! But we have to keep our head up! My favorite thing to hear is when another companionship has had success! I love being excited for them and with them!

Have a great week everyone! 

Love, Sister Susanna Tracy 

Sister Huffaker

Hermana Hymas

Me and Sister Huffaker

The Young Women from 8th Ward, El Paso, TX

The Young Women from 8th Ward, El Paso, TX