The Bi-Polar Week

January 17th, 2012                         Hey Family and Friends,

You have NO IDEA how glad Sister Kearsley and I are that this week is OVER. Do you want the sad news or the good news first? Well, Monday we were floating on clouds with Diane and her excitement to be baptized when Tuesday night we got a text from her that read, "I am not ready to be baptized yet." That's it. Nothing else and she would not respond to phone calls or text back. We were panicking to say the least! Finally the next day we were able to talk to her on the phone and she was very short with me about how nothing we could do would change her mind. But that she wanted to talk to the Bishop so we set up an appointment and met with him the following day. The whole Zone fasted and prayed with us for her to have peace in her heart to know that God was with her and that this was right but her heart was not open. It was ugly. Needless to say, she did not get baptized on Saturday and this is the third date that she has set and missed with Sister Kearsley. It was really sad to see her deny the Atonement but we know that she will come around one day so we continue to pray for her and meet with her! But it really has been a pretty rough week and at the same time a really good week. We had the Montgomery family drop us because Dominic their dad say that his wife did not want to confuse the boys by letting them go to another church. That was another sad blow! They were reading the Book of Mormon together while praying together to know if it was true and God was answering them! But their dad will let them go to basketball and Boy Scouts at least. We could just picture them when they are older getting found by the missionaries again and responding, "Actually, yes I used to read the Book of Mormon when I was younger and I know that it is true!" We are the seed planters! We also had a man with a baptismal date have his roommate call us to tell us that he was not ready and did not want to meet for a while. Sad times. BUT here are the good news and happy stories after the sad ones! If you look on picture 2724 that is Denise, Maria, and Bubba (Edwin). They are the AMAZING family that I have talked about in the past emails. They were super nervous to come to church this Sunday so we met them at their house this Sunday and I let Maria borrow my shoes for church. Well anyways, we were getting them loaded up in the amazing member's car with all the car seats and I start smelling something stinky. I look down and our shoes are COVERED in dog poop. It was SUPER gross and I didn't know what to say because I knew that Maria would be sad that she got my shoes dirty but then we all just started laughing. Then we couldn't stop laughing because it was even all over my legs and we couldn't get it off our shoes so she had to wear flip flops after all of that. We were trying to hurry to church and we walked in a couple of minutes late to church to find President and Sister Clayton sitting on the stand. Sister Kearsley and I look at each other and go Uh oh! But then we got a wiff of dog poop and just started laughing again. We told them the story later and they thought it was funny too! But sadly they thought church was boring so hopefully that doesn't happen again! We explained that we teach each other so it is not always perfect but the important thing is taking the Sacrament! They will learn with time how important it is! I seriously love them sooo much! The picture of me with the Bonnet is when we go clean the Courthouse down in Old Town and everyone wants to take pictures with us because of our costumes. The Battalion helped to build the courthouse when they first got here so that is why we help to clean it and we send people up to our Historic Site. But guess what! I took a man on the tour who works in the church offices that helped to get me back on the mission! SOOO COOL! He was really excited to see that I was doing well and he couldn't wait to go back to Utah to the committee to tell them about seeing a success story because they never get to see the ending of their hard work! I almost started crying when I talked to him and I couldn't stop thanking him! But our new directors Elder and Sister Seegmiller are here and they are so cool! They are an older couple but he high fived me and pounded it when he found out I was a returning missionary. He also worked in the office to get missionaries back out so he was on the same committee too! Pretty neat! But Marie and Desiree are progressing along as well even though they were "too tired" to come to church. We had the Relief Society President come to the lesson and she made a really big contribution. The members make all the difference in the world so we are really trying to incorporate them in to the lessons! Well I hope that all is well with you and I love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Haggerty

P.S. The pictures are the lighthouse that is not as big as Cedar City's with Sister Kearsley. The four Sisters are us overlooking the ocean and it was beautiful. You can also see me cleaning the Court House in Old Town...

Aloha!

January 5th, 2012

Dearest Family,

If you looked in our apartment after last night, you would think that we were serving in Thailand. Sister Kearsley and I were doing service for one of our investigators named Marie (Picture of the lady in pink)and were cleaning out her room. Crazy messy and all sorts of needed to be dejunkafied. We found a big box of Asian fans and the really cool wall paintings. Mind you she is Hispanic so she wanted to get rid of them and I was all sorts of excited to take them home with us! We had way too much fun decorating our apartment and making movies in Thailand last night after planning. Sister Kearsley and I are having way too much fun. She is getting baptized on the 28th! She has had a really hard time trusting people and had a horrible car accident a while ago so getting around hasn't been the easiest since then. But she trusts us and let us help her! It is amazing what the Spirit of God can do when they keep their commitments! The miracles are tremendous and the work is great. We picked up 5 new investigators last week and after reading Christians letters that may not sound like a lot but that is a big deal in our area. Three of those were from the coolest family ever that are all African American and two of them are 9 and 10. We were already teaching there brother Ethan who is 12 and we also picked up the dad Dominic. It is so solid to be teaching families. We were sitting out on their porch on the ground while these boys schooled us on their knowledge of the Bible. They are ballers and are way in to robotics. They are trying to get on America's Got Talent so you will have to watch for the Montgomery family (Ethan, Titus, Miles, and Dominic). I gave Diane one of the necklaces from you Mom and she is in the picture with me. She is getting baptized on January 14th and is already going out to teach lessons with us. So cool! She commited to live the Word of Wisdom on New Years Eve. That was crazy hard for her but has been a big turn around for her. Love it! I do not remember if I told you about Denise last time but she is the one that heard us caroling to Diane and invited us over to her place. We have seen her a lot and she loves the Book of Mormon. Her brother is a member but is no longer active. She talked to him about the church and he is really supportive of her finding out for herself. She is going to bring the family back. She is awesome. Her husband died of lung cancer in 2006 so 18 months ago she decided that she need to give it up. She trusted in God enough and prayed to give it up. She went cold turkey and never looked back! She also has been drug free for 11 years because of her trust in God and she always talks about how prayer works. I cannot wait for her to have the fulness of the gospel. She is bringing her whole family to church on Sunday. :) Miracles all around. I am in heaven. We teach every single day and we are never searching for things to do. The members are working with us and feed us all the time. They come to lessons with us and I am in HEAVEN. There have been rough patches but I am with the coolest companion that we figure out ways to work through it with our Saviour. I feel so blessed to be back here and in this area. God is blessing me. We are even working with two recent converts Seth (age 12) and Tony (who just got rebaptized in the gospel). I will be forever blessed for the lessons I am learning today. I even had a drunk man sing to me about how Mormons are all about pizza and taquitos. Funny stuff. The church is true so keep spreading the word! I love you all way too much!

Love, 

Sister Haggerty 

Poopy Adventures and More!

Familia!
DIANE IS GETTING BATIZED ON SATURDAY! This weekend it going to be one really good weekend and I cannot wait for the miracles to come. Diane is going to get baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday. Seth is getting the Priesthood on Sunday and is so excited. Ethan, Miles, and Titus will be able to come to church with their dad Dominic to see Seth get the Priesthood. Denise is bringing her family to church on Sunday for the first time. Marie is bringing Desiree to primary once again. I have faith that it will work exactly like that! :) This weekend was exactly that smooth sailing but it was pretty close. Marie came to church for the first time on Fast Sunday and the Lord surely is good. The exact members that got up said exactly what she needed to hear and spoke to her heart. She also brought her granddaughter Desiree that is 9 years old even though she didn't want to come at first and then she didn't want to leave primary when Marie wanted to leave before Relief Society. Desiree is going to make sure she keeps coming back and I can just feel it that she is going to get baptized with her grandma. I am so excited for her family to have the Gospel! They came to the Battalion and LOVED IT! Denise also came to the Battalion with her daughter Maria who brought her sons. No one in El Cajon has the normal family set up but it works. We are a companionship of SERVICE. We are constantly doing service for people every week and I have done more service in these couple of weeks then in the whole 7 months that I was here before! One of the members asked us to help with weeding their pool when we asked them if there was anything we could do for them after they fed us a delicious dinner. Well we put on our pants one day of the week and headed over to get er done. Well they had essentially filled in a pool with septic tanks, dirt, and had not dumped them or weeded it for two years. We were the clean up crew and Sister Kearsley didn't exactly comprehend what that meant yet. As we were weeding away and jumping into the mud, I was still a little hesitant but Sister Kearsley was getting right in there. Half way through it, Sister Kearsley looks at me and says, "What is a septic tank?" I start laughing hysterically and respond, "A poop tank!" She says, "SERIOUSLY!? No wonder you weren't jumping in there and I was just jumping right in!" We laughed and laughed until I sides hurt. Anyways, one of the family members who just returned from a mission was helping us the whole time and he left us with a poopy hand shake as he called it. But really it was pretty funny and we even got oranges and lemons from there tree out of it. It wasn't too gross until one of the tanks overflowed and then we decided it was time for us to leave laughing all the way! Thank heavens our next two appointments cancelled because we smelled awful so instead we did more service for Diane's friend Rodrigo. He is always drunk and sings us songs about how the Mormons are all about the pizza and taquitos. But we made a deal that we would help him move if he wouldn't drink! I think it mostly worked and we were able to help out a lot. It is a pretty sad situation but we are hoping that the service will help his see that God still loves him! We then showered like crazy to serve some amazing tours at the Battalion. We had a smile on our face all day! I even took a dream tour this week with an amazing senior couple from Texas. He was an Air Force pilot for 6 years and then flew for Delta the rest of his life! They were really cool members that decided that their retirement wasn't fulfilling enough so they would spend it serving mission and working at the Temple. They are currently waiting for the next mission call and I am hoping they get called to the Battalion since we are losing the Woodburys and Brenchleys in February. It is going to be sad to see them leave! But the wife is a San Diegen and she said that when she was in Elementary there were five students that were randomly picked to go the Battalion Statue dedication up on the hill. Anyways, when they were there she said for the first time in her life she felt prompted by the Holy Ghost to let the group know that she was a Mormon. After the field trip, one of the girls that came along started asking about the church, joined, and has been a life long friend! The Battalion's story has touched so many people's lives in so many ways! We really do take the coolest people on tours and this story ALWAYS touches the hearts of the people that come through the tour. I sometimes imagine having each one of you on my tour and it will be fun to have that happen one day! But we are getting a new director of the Historic Site this week so this week is going to be a week of changes for the Mormon Battalion. The Evans are leaving on Friday and the new couple will follow. You will hear more about them next week. I continue to be grateful that I am here. I think that having had it taken away has made me really appreciate having it back and has made me a thousand times more grateful for the moments that I have here. It has been easier to not look behind me but it is not always easy that is for sure. I know that I could not do this with out my Savior's Atonement. He makes this all worth it! The church is true so keep spreading the word!
Love,
Sister Haggerty

Ahloa from San Diego!

Are we in Thailand?