A Baptism, a live Bear, a desire to play the Piano and a beautiful Sunrise! PS....singing in Sacrament Meeting!

Thank you for all of your letters! 

As for Sister Downey.. Brother Downey passed away Sunday. The funeral will be this Wednesday at 6 oclock. 

I feel for Sister Downey. We just don't know what to do for her. Pray for her please. She is still doing the Back to Bethlehem nativity. We went to her outdoor theatre and helped get things ready with her. Sister Stratford and I put the letters up on the sign like at Kirts back at home. That is what it reminded me of. I really liked doing it! (: 

Sister Currie got baptized!!! My first baptism! (: She did such a great job. She had to be dunked 3 times because she kept sticking her foot out haha and Brother Cayton (the one baptizing her) kept saying the words wrong. After she wanted to swim in the water. We told her no and to get out haha. Sister Stratford and I sang at her baptism. We sang, "Lift up your heart." By Sally Deford. Sister Stratford sang lower and I sang higher. It was pretty good. I was super nervous.. But I guess I did alright because they want us to sing it again for sacrament. I wish you were here Mom to play the piano.. But yes, Sister Currie got baptized. She will be confirmed this Sunday because it was Stake Conference last sunday. 

Saturday was stake conference and all of the missionaries in the stake sang Called to Serve and We'll Bring the World His Truth. We have 42 missionaries in the stake and 18 are sisters! (:  They talked about missionary work and how the members need to work with the missionaries. They had some converts share their stories and their testimonies. The spirit was so strong at stake conference! President Baker and his wife also spoke about the importance of missionary work. Our goal was to receive 1,000 referrals from the members at stake conference saturday. Well we reached our goal! We received 1,013 referrals. Then Sunday we received an additional 56 referrals just from our branch!!!! Sister Stratford and I have 33 people to contact this week. This is so great because we need more investigators! We have one progressing investigator which is Sister Herwig. She said she would get baptized once she received an answer that it is true. She feels like it is true though. We have only taught her like 3 times though. Now we just need to get to her husband! (: 

Sister Stratford will be singing at Brother Downey's funeral. That is why I wish I could play the piano better. I guess I will start taking lessons again from you mom when I get home. haha 

We taught a lesson in Quarter Deck the other day. Brother Baldwin (ward missionary leader) owns the gas station/store thing and was working when we went in there. His friend walked in and Brother Baldwin told us to teach him. So we did and we gave his friend named Ruben a Book of Mormon! There are so many to teach! We just need them to want to meet with us (: 

We saw another bear. It was alive this time! It ran across the street in front of your car when we were driving home from a lesson with Robyn and Wayne Keech. It was so dark that you could hardly even see the bear. We are truly being watched over because we could have hit it but we didn't! (: 

Sister Stratford and I go jog/walking in the mornings. It wasn't cold at all this morning. We dressed warm thinking it would be chilly and then we were so hot the whole time haha. We ran by the water/river. It was so pretty. We always see the sun rise in the mornings and one morning we took pictures of it. I will send some (: Then we run pass a park so we stop and swing for a bit haha. The park is right up by the water like our house. It is so beautiful. Our work outs are getting better. We just have to motivate each other (: Maybe I will start working out with you when I get home when you go walking in the mornings. 

Well I have been reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma. I just read about Alma the younger talking to his sons and to Helaman about sharing the gospel. Everything I read in the Book of Mormon relates to missionary work. Before at home, Everything I read in the BOM would relate to just life in general. It is so cool how the BOM always will relate to you no matter who you are or how old you are. So cool! Anyways, It talks about faith a ton and how to act on your faith. Share the gospel with everyone! I heard in stake conference that Sharing the gospel should not be a burden to you and to others. It should be exciting and a wonderful opportunity. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE THE DAY OF YOUR REPENTANCE. We have the opportunity to use the atonement. We know about the true church and we know the doctrine and we know so much! Don't let it go to waste. Share it. Use it. I know this is the true church. I know the BOM helps with whatever trial or problem that we are facing no matter what the problem may be. The book of mormon has all of the answers along with God. Ask God and read the book of mormon everyday. It has truly blessed my life and I know it can bless yours as well. I am so proud of you guys for all you do and the testimonies that you have. Don't let them go to waste. I know prayers work. Sister Stratford and I had daily contact with Sister Currie before she was baptized. The day after her baptism she said she doesn't even have the desire to drink coffee anymore. How marvelous. Miracles are everywhere. Prayers work. Don't give up. Be thankful and look for miracles through out your day. You will find plenty I promise. 

We should be getting Ipads in like April .. hopefully we will be able to use facebook then as well. (:

Keep leaning on the Lord. He loves you! 

Read Pray Always by David A. Bednar. Read the ensign for this month. I really enjoyed the talk A Broken Vessel by Jeffrey R. Holland. Read it. Love it. Apply It. 

Love you!

Love Sister Putnam

P.S. I heard a cool quote. "Work Will Win When Wishy Washy Wishing Won't."

Sister Currie is getting baptized!

11-11-13

Hi All!

Washington is pretty much like North Ogden.. it is really small. But we still use the GPS because all the streets are names so thats confusing. It is so pretty here though with the sun shining off the water. Some days it's cold. It is starting to get colder but won't get as cold as Virginia Beach I have been told. 

So Sister Downey wanted Sister Stratford to sing again for her family. Her whole family was pretty much over there and so Sister Stratford sang, "Be Still My Soul." Yes she has a good voice. She teaches piano lessons too and played the organ for her first time during sacrament. She makes up her own versions of songs. Its really cool. She was going to make a CD for everyone for Christmas but Chris Downey was going to record her and now that his dad is dying he doesn't have time or doesn't want to now. So she is a little bummed about that. Hopefully we can find someone that has a MAC computer that will record her so that I can have a CD too! Brother Downey is now on oxygen and weighs probably like 115 or 110 pounds. He is going downhill fast. They don't think he will make it much longer. It has brought the whole city of Bath together though. Many people are wondering what Judy Downey believes and we are trying to meet with some of them. This really is a huge missionary opportunity right now even though Brother Downey isn't even a member. Everyone's hearts are softened right now and it is cool to see the mysteries of God. 

Sister Currie drank coffee 2 times now but we called our mission president, President Baker and he said it's okay. He is more concerned with people being addicted to those things. She had her interview yesterday during relief society and is good to go on Friday! The only bummer is that stake conference is sunday so she has to wait until next sunday to get the gift of the Holy Ghost. It will be okay though. We figured out her program and everything for her baptism. She is really excited and knows this is the right thing even though she has a bad memory she is starting to remember a lot more. God is so great! Our prayers have literally been answered concerning Sister Currie. When you ask in faith and then act marvelous things seem to happen! Imagine that (: We showed her the baptism font and she was scared and was confused mostly because she thought it was only a couple drops of water that she was going to have put on her head. We have told her how a baptism works and how we perform baptisms from Christ's example. She forgot and them remembered after we told her again. We went over the baptism questions with her before she had her interview. She is so funny. When we asked if she has problems with the Law of Chastity or Homosexuality or abortions she immediately would reply with a strong, forceful, NO! OF COURSE NOT!  haha she is so funny. When we asked her about the Word of Wisdom she says, "It's the wisdom from God because he has great words of wisdom." We tell her that is great but it is also the health code. She goes, "oh yeah! No coffee, No wine." haha. The other day scammers were calling and she answered and started speaking spanish.."hola, hola, who is this, who is this" well kind of.. she doesn't speak great. Then she told us that she is going to start preaching to the scammers and tell them that God doesn't like what they are doing. She told us that they will be terrified because they are from Jamaica and fear God. haha. She makes my day. 

Transfer calls were last night but Sister Stratford and I will not be transferred because I am still training. I train for 12 weeks. So I have 6 more weeks. I am happy because I love Washington and Sister Stratford.  We have our ups and downs but most days we get along fine and have many inside jokes. We are both pretty hilarious if you ask me. (: 

Brother Cease helps in the wards with the missionary work and came to our last coordination meeting. It was great because he told our ward missionaries what they need to be doing and that we (missionaries) shouldn't be doing everything. It was good for him to tell them because now we think things might start to pick up with the members. We really need the members to come out with us because now we have to have members come with us at night to our appointments or we can't go out after dark. Members are really important! If it weren't for members.. we wouldn't have hardly any referrals which means we wouldn't have anybody to teach. Or we would be tracting all day everyday. I have only tracted like twice since I have been out because there are better ways now to find new investigators. We have been calling former investigators out of our area book and we have an appt with Mona tomorrow! We hope it goes well! We called this guy named Stacey one night. Then when we woke up we had a voice mail from him. He called us back at 3:30 in the morning. Sister Stratford thinks he was drunk.. but I don't know haha. We called him back and he wants to meet with us but is having back surgery tomorrow so he said he would call us and schedule an appt. We are excited and hope these will work out because we don't have hardly anyone to teach besides Recent Converts and Less Active members. We are trying to teach the active ward members as well.. 

We have new goals that when we teach we are going to really focus on the how to be teaching lesson with the investigators for our first lesson. That way they won't think we are just having "Bible Study". I hate that people think that we just study with them. OUR PURPOSE IS TO INVITE OTHERS TO COME UNTO CHRIST. Did you see how it says OUR? That means you too. Not just the missionaries. I heard something really cool the other day from Brother Cease actually. He said that the missionaries are here to assist the ward and the ward members. The missionaries are not there for the members to assist them. But we do need help in assisting the ward. We need referrals from them. We need them to come on exchanges with us or just to lessons with us. Members help so much! We need members help! 

We are trying to focus on teaching Sister Currie how to recognize the spirit as well as why the Book of Mormon is so important. Reading the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY will give us the strength to avoid temptations that Satan has planned for us. We will be able to receive guidance from the Holy Ghost and we will also be able to learn lessons for ourselves through the Book of Mormon. We will have a stronger desire to read it as we read it over and over again. We will have a stronger testimony of this gospel and of the Lord as we continue to read the Book of Mormon. I just read in Alma how Amulek and Alma are preaching to the wicked people and the men that believed in Alma and Amulek's words were thrown out of the city and their wives and children were burned to death. How awful of a thing people would say! I think it is awful too! But we must remember that, "all that is unfair can be made fair through the atonement of Jesus Christ." How wonderful a blessing. Those wicked judges that killed the wives and children will be judged of their works. There must be opposition in all things for the Lord's plan to work. Those wives and children were taken right up to heaven and the wicked will surely be judged. Now doesn't that give you comfort? It reminds me of people in todays world saying that all these wars, or people being abused, or on and on .. they say thats not fair.. they are right. its not fair for those victims.. but remember, it says in Preach My Gospel, "all that is unfair can be made fair though the atonement of Jesus Christ." That means everything that is unfair! How great a blessing (: The Book of Mormon is amazing. Use it. Read it. Embrace it. 

This week I am studying Asking in Faith with prayers and Hope. I hope you will all strengthen your testimonies. I hope you will have Family Home Evening and have family scripture study. I hope you will all have sincere meaningful prayers. Pray everywhere and anywhere. Pray all the time. Pray quietly at times as well as vocally. I know this gospel is true. Continue to bring others into this amazing plan that God has for us. Preach and Teach. 

I love you all!

Love Sister Putnam

PS......Things that I would love.....Music CDs (church ones)...banana bread, poppy seed bread or pumpkin chocolate chip bread...granola mix (I really like Mandee's but any will be fine)...Stephens hot chocolate mix.  Any of these things would be great for Christmas too.

Photos of me and my mission Family!

                          Sister Putnam & Sister Stratford!!!!  First Companion.....First Area!!!  :)
                                                                          9/13 to......?  :)

                                                                Joni's first District!  10/13

                                                       Our District having fun together!  :)  10/13

                                                First night of being an official missionary for
                                     The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!!  9/17/13
                                               Sister Putnam with Jerry & Wendy Putnam

Sister Putnam's letter 11-4-13 Goal: to see a bear

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Joni Putnam <joni.putnam@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Sisters conference was really good! We drove up Monday afternoon. It took about 3 hours to drive up to Virginia. Then Sister Stratford and I stayed with the Hermana Sisters in Virginia Beach. It was kind of awkward as they didn't really talk to us and they talked in Spanish.. that's when i wish i could talk in Spanish! haha but that's okay. No mom. I don't drive. Sister Stratford drives and here in Washington the traffic isn't too bad. When we drove with the elders to zone conference this week though we almost got in a car accident. Sister Stratford was so scared and thought she was going to die.. hahaha It was funny now that I think about it. So back to Sisters Conference. We carpooled up with some other sisters and drove back with them too so Sister Stratford and I got to sleep in the back! yay! While Sister Stratford drives I have to stay awake and be the second driver. The first day when I got here, I was so tired and told her I was going to to sleep and she sad, "Umm.. well the missionary rule is that you have to watch and be the second driver." haha I was so bummed. Oh well. So at Sisters Conference we had Sister Bennion speak I don't have my notes with me but it was a great talk! She talked about confidence and the Ap's spoke about teaching with Boldness with the spirit and when the spirit directs us to be bold. Bold but Sweet they say (: Some sisters sang and then we had lunch. Sisters conference is with all the sisters in our whole mission. It was pretty fun. We had a clothes exchange where sisters brought clothes they didn't like and then we just switch. I didn't bring any but I picked some up that I liked.. only like one cardigan worked though.. haha.

Then President Baker and Sister Baker spoke. It was really good.

Yes, so Sister Downey is amazing! She is doing so much work and they just found out that her husband Gary has cancer all over now. He was given 2 months to live but Sister Downey doesn't think he will even make it to Thanksgiving. The sad thing is that he is not a member and has had missionary lessons but won't be baptized. She is very sad that she will not be sealed to him in the temple on the earth. Sister Stratford and I went over the other night and Sister Stratford sang I know that My Redeemer Lives. Brother Downey had his brother and his brothers wife and children there (they are baptist) and they could feel the spirit so strong as well as the rest of us. It was sad but brought their family closer together. Sister Downey said that is her favorite song and later told us that she was thankful for the song that Sister Stratford sang because Brother Downey's Brother and his family think that we believe Joseph Smith is our Lord and Christ was a prophet. It is crazy what people think and how they don't try to figure it out for themselves. They have believed that for 20 years because Sister Downey was forbidden to ever talk about her religion with his family. Sister Downey came up to me at church yesterday and handed me a picture of Brandt and his wife and baby and told me that Brandt was a wonderful missionary and that Brother Downey would always cook them ribs and steak or something like that and that Brother Downey loved Brandt and his companion. What a small world it is! It is exciting to know that someone I know was here though haha

It sounds like you all had a fun halloween.. as for us it was alright. We went to the church and Sister Stratford and I switched name tags since we couldn't dress up. Then we had to switch them right back as people that we didn't knew kept coming in haha. It was a great missionary opportunity though! The kids would come to our trunk and get candy and then come back and get more and did that until their bags were full. Greedy little children haha jk. It was alright. I felt sick because of the candy I ate.. even though I didn't eat a ton!

Mom.. laundry.. well we don't have a washer or dryer yet.. hopefully soon.. so we have done laundry at some of the members home.. but it takes all our p-day to do it so today we went to the laundry mat and got it all done at once. It was nice.. but spending the money wasn't fun. As for cooking.. well we don't have any spices or anything to really cook and we only have a certain amount of money each month.. so we try and buy things that are fast to make.. salads, sandwiches, yogurt, apples, soup. Most nights we have dinner with the members so its not that bad. As for ironing.. I tried that once and it made my skirt different colors.. umm.. i don't know what i did wrong.. for the most part though i don't need to iron because it is pretty humid out here. It is starting to get cold and all i have are my sheets and the Green flower blanket grandma made me one year for Christmas. so we are going to ask members if they have extra blankets. I almost bought one today at Walmart but i wanted to ask around first. Grocery shopping is the worst... Sister Stratford gets really stressed and I feel like she is mad at me.. We are trying a new thing actually. Instead of having companionship inventory every week.. we have that every week still but every night we are going to have a little companionship inventory to see what we can work on and what bugged us but more in a positive way. Going and noticing our mistakes and what we did to upset the other person instead of just blaming our companion. We tried it once last night and will continue to do it so that our feelings don't build up and then explode during the weekly companionship inventory.

Sister Currie didn't drink coffee or wine for 3 days! We pushed her baptism date back to November 15 at 6 pm. we were so excited for her! She came to church yesterday and everyone knows she is getting baptized. Saturday when we went over she told us her throat was hurting and that she bought a brand new bottle of wine.. so we tried to figure out what she could do to not drink it. She really wanted it bad! I then had the idea to ask her if I could take it back to the store and get her money back and maybe buy her cough drops or herbal tea. She decided that would be okay. So we went to the grocery store and returned her wine. Can you imagine us Sister Missionaries carrying wine into the grocery store hahaha anyways.. I guess its a law here in North Carolina that you can't return wine.. But the owner or boss guy knew about sister currie and her circumstances and told us he would do it just this once. We then bought her some cough drops and lemon herbal tea and bought honey for her to put in it. She was excited about it. Then this morning we called her to see how she is doing and she told us she went to Pat's house this morning (her friend). She said Pat had already made her coffee and made it the way she likes it and drank it!!!! UGGGHHHH!!! Sister CURRIE! we were so disappointed! We told her to keep trying since she was doing so good and that God will bless her for her righteous decisions. She said she wants to be baptized and will try. She has dementia and forgets everything..  She has been an investigator for years and is progressing, even though it is slow she is still trying.

We dropped Loretta and Tabby. Well not formally but we kept going over to see her and she would be home because we could hear her but then she wouldn't answer her door. So we left a note saying that we were sad that she didn't want to see us and to call us when she wanted to meet again. She has been lying to us about everything. We saw a guy go up to her door to sell drugs.. She tells us what we want to hear. Man.. It was hard to see her choose the wrong path.

We have been getting referrals but the members won't help us to meet with their referrals. We got 4 ward missionaries though! We have Sister Cole, Sister Kukahiko, Sister Downey, and Sister Baldwin. We want Sister Keech and Sister Obrien to also be missionaries because then we would have 2 in each area that we could work with. 2 in Williamston, 2 in Bath, and 2 in Washington.

This week I have been working on consecrating myself to the Lord and being the 4th missionary. The first missionary is the one who goes home early. The second one is the missionary who stays in the field but does what he wants and doesn't really care about a mission and the work. the 3rd missionary is the one who cares and works hard and does all he can but his mind and heart aren't in it. the 4th missionary has his heart, might, mind and strength in it and not just his might and strength. at times I will find that I am the 3rd missionary but I am continually striving to be the 4th missionary.

Read your Book of Mormon everyday! Prayer Everyday! Share the Gospel! Fast! Go to Church! Pay your tithing and fast offering! Serve Others! Be Christ-like! Be the best you can be! I just read in the Book of Mormon about Abinidi and how he preaches to King Noah and his people and tells them that they are wicked and they are going to be destroyed. Then he is killed because he won't deny what he has said. We should share the gospel with everyone no matter how they react! I know this gospel is true and I know there are people in your pathway that you can share this gospel with. Don't let your knowledge go to waste. Help others come unto Christ. They are our brothers and sisters!!! This work is fun! Let it be in your heart and mind and just do it! WE CAN DO HARD THINGS (:

One last thing. Sister Stratford told me when I first came out that she saw a bear once run across the street. I was so jealous and decided that was my goal, to see a bear when I am out here. We were driving and on the side of the road we saw a bear! I told her to turn around so we did and she drove very very slowly up to the bear.. we were mad and said, "how rude!? someone tricked us and put a stuffed bear on the side of the road! So mean!" then we got closer and closer and it was real! But it was dead. But i saw a bear! I saw a bear! (: I was really excited. My next goal is to see a hurricane (: jk mom.. but kinda haha

Love you all so much! CHOOSE THE RIGHT-RETURN TO CHRIST! SHARE THE WORD!

-Love Sister Putnam