Sister Joni Putnam

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

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

Monday, October 28, 2013

10-28-13 Alligators/Crocodiles?

Joni Putnam

Today at 12:39 PM

Thank you so so so much for all of the letters I received in the mail this week! Wow! That was an amazing surprise. I enjoyed it very very much. Tell all of your school kids thanks as well. I don't have much time this week because we have to go home and pack because we are leaving to Virginia for Sister's Conference. It should be really good! I'm really excited (: So Halloween.. we don't have candy and I guess around 280 kids come to our door.. so we will most likely go to the trunk or treat with the branch/ward. Saturday night we helped Sister Downey ( The relief society president) with the ghost walk that she and the community were putting together in bath. She was very stressed because she is relief society president, ward missionary, visiting teacher, helping in the community, her friend just past away and now she is planning the whole funeral, it was her sons birthday and so she was cleaning the house and getting ready for that, her husband just found out that his cancer has come back and is all up and down his spine and in his skull and in his liver, she was doing the ghost walk and also Back to Bethlehem pageant, and the list goes on and on. So we decided to go and help her with that. It was fun but we didn't help much because she just ran around the whole time and wouldn't tell us what we could do to help..

I also found out from President Baker that I will not be able to play the part as Mary in Back to Bethlehem because I have to wear my name tag at all times and in all places because I am a missionary for 18 months and that is what I need to be doing. I couldn't have agreed with him more. Sister Currie is still on for her baptism date! Loretta and Tabby we are probably going to be dropping since they are not progressing at all! They won't commit to anything which is hard for us because when we teach them lessons they are super excited and want to be baptized and want to go to the temple but then they don't come to church. And.. well we think they are doing drugs.. so we are going to be dropping them this week.

President Deaver-our branch president- wanted us to go eat at his house. He lives in Kinston and we had interviews in Kinston so we ate at his house that night. Holy Cow.. He had us eat and eat and eat and eat.. I felt soooo sick! Then he brought out apple pie that his wife made. (A huge slice!) and then brought out cheesecake. Ya'll know I love cheesecake right? Well I couldn't even finish it I felt sooo sick! Anyways, the members here like to feed us.. and I think i'm gaining weight.. but don't worry I won't come home fat (;

We got 3 new investigators this week! We had a headquarter referral to go see this lady that lives really close to us. Her name is Angela Gibbs. We went and saw her. She was on mormon.org and wanted a bible so we gave her a Bible and a Book of Mormon and she was so excited! She told us that she will always want to talk about Jesus Christ. We went back that Saturday and her neighbor was there with her daughter and her niece. Angela's son and husband were also there but were just home and didn't join the lesson. They were so excited but then they got confused when we talked about prophets and how we have a prophet today. They were confused saying that their pastor is a prophet and so.. we have a lot of work to do with them.. anyways.. they are great. They shout Hallelujah! And yell the whole lesson because they are so excited about Jesus. haha When we say prayers they hold hands while kneeling and when we say the prayer they say "Thank you Jesus" the whole time. haha we have a lot to teach them but It will come. Let's just say that lesson was crazy with them because they were all talking and asking questions the whole time. The daughter ended up getting on the internet during the lesson and looking up Thomas S. Monson. hahaha she said people are saying, your a bad religion or opposing what you are saying. We had to remind her that every religion can be talked about badly and you have to go to the main source. So we told her to go to Mormon.org and Lds.org. Angela's son wants to be at the next lesson! I hope its not just for us sisters! haha

Anyways, we must look at the main source for direction and our answers to questions. That main source is our Heavenly Father! Angela was saying.. "I need to talk to my pastor about this Joseph Smith guy." We encouraged her not to do that and to just read the B.O.M and pray about it. Go to the main source for our answers. (:

Some talks that I really want ya'll to read are "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson and "The 4 Titles" by President Uchtdorf. I am working on not being prideful and being patient and meek and humble and kind and loving. Too many goals? Nahh.. haha One thing that I loved about "Beware of Pride" is that it says that Satan fell because of pride! Pride is the center of contention. Wow... Pride is a sin! Really.. read the talk! go to Lds.org and search it. It is on there (:

We saw a crocodile.. or alligator.. I dont know the difference.. it was in the water behind our house swimming.. unless it was a log.. no I'm pretty sure is was an alligator/crocodile.

It sounds like ya'll are doing great! By the way.. SEND PICTURES! KEEP WRITING ME LETTERS.. i love the support and encouragement (: I got letters from Grandpa and Becky and also Aunt Jenni. That was fun (: Keep reading and praying and going to church. Do the little steps that will be big in the end. Remember that God has a plan for us and to lean on him for everything! I love this gospel. I love Jesus Christ. I love sharing this gospel and I love meeting all these wonderful people out here. Keep doing good things. Choose the Right! Hold to the Iron Rod!

I love you all!

Love Sister Putnam

P.S. There are mosquitoes and squirrels all over. Big bugs and spiders as well. We or should I say I killed 2 huge cockroaches in our house.. gross. It's not cold yet.. and we won't see snow.. but it should start raining soon.. The leaves in the trees are barely starting to change.. hopefully colors will come soon!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Sister Putnam's letter 10-21-13

How are you all doing!? The work out here is still going. Only Sister Stratford and I live in the house.. yeah its big but we like it haha. We have a room that is just empty that we work out in in the mornings and we have a big kitchen and a study room and our room. So it's nice. The train tracks are right behind our house and we hear the train every morning while we are studying but I am starting to get used to it. Thank you all for your prayers and the love that i feel through out my day.

Our exchanges were with the Sister Training Leaders. It went pretty well except that I pretty much talked to everyone the whole time while the other sister didn't really say much.. but she was really nice. haha It was nice to have someone else to be with for a day even though I love Sister Stratford. Sister Stratford and I have learned so much about each other. We laugh and tell funny stories because we are so much alike. We are great together. I have a strong testimony so during the lessons we both try and teach but sometimes i just bare my testimony and she teaches and answers more of the doctrine and hard things that I don't know yet. We have united. It is so fun! I feel like we are really great friends.

So we had 2 baptism dates for Nov 9. But Loretta didn't come to church so now she doesn't have a date. Sister Currie is still on for Nov 9. We just have to stay in contact with her because she (83 years old) forgets things a lot and will drink her wine or coffee because she forgets. We know that she knows that these things are true. She didn't come to church yesterday because she wanted to go to her church to say goodbye to her minister and her friends. We totally understood that.. well kind of haha. She is really excited mostly about being with her family forever. She doesn't have any family around here and she never had any children. She knows what is true but has a hard time being committed to it.

Yesterday in church I gave my first talk. I talked about the atonement and how it changed my life and how once I had a strong testimony I grew a desire to share it with others. I told the ward that we have that wonderful opportunity to teach others about the gospel. They will see in us a light and wonder how we got it and they will have that desire to get it. We need to share the gospel with them and they only way we can do that is if we use the atonement so that we can have the spirit to be with us. How wonderful the gospel is! After my talk we went to sunday school and Brother Baldwin (our ward missionary president) told me and the rest of the class that he has heard multiple missionaries speak on missionary work but none of their talks were as effective as mine because I bore my strong testimony and I had the spirit with me. He told me that I had everyone's attention. After me the branch high counsel guy spoke. Brother Baldwin told us that he gave a great talk but it wasn't as effective because he didn't speak with the spirit. People were falling asleep and didn't care about what he had to say. It made me feel really good to get such a compliment! I know that the spirit can direct my words when I study and have a plan. And then the spirit may change what I have to say. I had my notes with me when I gave my talk... but I didn't use them! It was so cool!

Sister Stratford and I have talked about many things and as we study together I learn new insights and I am able to gain a stronger testimony than before. We have talked about sharing your testimony and how when you share it, you tell people what you KNOW to be true. Not what you are thankful for. A testimony is about the truth of the doctrine of Christ. We told stories and laughed about what some people say. We just all need to be taught and learn what a testimony really is.

We met with Loretta and her daughter Tabby last night. Loretta was busy running all over the house trying to fix her hot water thing. So we tried to teach Tabby. She is 15 years old. We showed her the picture of the SLC Temple and she thought it was so beautiful. We told her how she can go in there too. But first she has to come to church with her mom. haha. Anyways. we also showed Loretta. She knows these things are true.. there is just something bigger holding her back and she wont open up to us.. Loretta's ex boyfriend was there and his name is Santos or something like that. He is Hispanic. He doesn't speak English very well so i told him i don't speak very well in Spanish. But I told him the one sentence I do know in Spanish that Brad taught me. "Why are you a fat pig?" They laughed and laughed. I hope i said it the right way in Spanish haha. We are going to try and get him to be an investigator even though he says he's catholic.

Sister Stratford and I were also discussing how the atonement is a beautiful wonderful thing. When people tell us they have talked to the bishop or they can't take the sacrament or they can't go on a mission, or they can't enter into the temple for a certain amount of time... we should be excited for them because they are trying to change! They are working hard and doing what they know they need to do to have the spirit be with the. We should help them get to where they want to be instead of looking at what they did wrong and how they made a wrong choice. They are trying and that is all God asks of us! Repenting is a wonderful positive thing! I know this church is true and I love sharing the gospel with people here in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission. I love you all so much!

I hope to hear from you all next week! I love you all so much (:

Keep Sister Currie in your prayers (: I know she can do it!

thanks for the love and support

-Sister Putnam

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Sister Putnam & Sister Stratford Picking Cotton in North Carolina

Oct 14 at 1:16 PM

Oct. 14, 2013

Sister Stratford and I picking cotton. No mom they come right off but they have burrs in them.. maybe I will send some home for ya'll! (: I am trying to pick up the southern accent.. yeah its not coming along yet. maybe when i get home (: Oh btw.. the members here are getting us furniture and stuff for our house. The elders helped us move along with 2 ward members. It was super nice! (: I love this church! I love this gospel! We are so blessed, do not forget it! Have faith, work hard, be positive and do the little things in life to build your foundation! Helaman 5:12 (:

Sister Stratford

Sister Joni Putnam picking cotton in North Carolina on P Day! :)

Letter Oct 14, 2013 WE MOVED!

Joni Putnam

Oct 14 at 12:44 PM

new address: 716 East Main Street

Washington, NC

27889

We MOVED! We now live right in Washington NC. We live right on the water and have a huge house for the 2 of us. We cleaned and moved all day Saturday. We now live in town and can save several miles. We eat at members homes for dinner a lot and it is always usually good. I have now had fish sticks and shrimp. It wasn't too bad.

We have like 70 people in our branch.. so yeah we are def. working with the members. it is rough. Thank you for the advice though because i do need to remember my purpose. People out here get their feelings hurt by everything..and people in the ward hurt their feelings so they don't come back to church. we have to remind them why they come to church haha.

funny story, One investigator we have named Sister Currie, she is 83 and we asked her to come to church. we set up a ride for her and she missed it and then she came to church after sacrament and told us that she knocked all her neighbors doors to get a ride to church she was so determined. Members don't even do that! We need to be determined to go to church and determined to see miracles and have faith in the Lord! Do all we can do and don't stop! (: She is so funny.

We have plenty of people to see but not so many investigators.. our investigators are slacking.. and we are trying to drop some and clean out our pool of investigators.

Thank you all so much for writing me! Thank you for the advice and everything I really do need it just as much as you all do!

Remember that God doesn't count sins, he measures your heart. Also that even when we sin if we are trying to do what is right that we will be further to Christ than we will be to Satan.

Tomorrow we have exchanges with the Missionary Training Sisters.. It will be stressful but I know that I can do it even though I don't know people or the area well yet. It will be okay. Sister Stratford and I are going to start the 40 day fast where you write on a list everything that is poking or taking away from the spirit and then in the morning pray for strength to overcome these things and then work on them all day and then at night pray and tell God how you did and what you need extra help with. This is going to be good because we need help out here on our missions. God is the only person who can help us. We need the spirit with us every second and by having the spirit with us we must act in such a way every second.

Mom, I don't think I need anything else. We are going grocery shopping today. I did call and get my card figured out. Thank you! yeah so maybe just send like more allergy pills so i dont have to buy them.. or if it costs to much to send i can buy them.. i take an allergy pill every morning and night. so yeah haha

Will you please keep praying for me? I need all the prayers i can get as days are sometimes hard. also tell everyone to send me letters and packages since i haven't gotten anything since i have been out in the field! I would really appreciate letters since i can only email once a week. thanks for your love and support! (:

Love Sister Putnam

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Sister Joni Putnam's 1st letter from North Carolina! (Yes, this is part of the Virginia Chesapeake Mission!)

Oct 7 at 1:11 PM

So I got to Norfolk (pronounced Norfik) on Wednesday. We went to the church and had some meetings and interviews with the nurse and President Baker and his wife. We then stayed at a hotel that night. The next morning we went back to a different church for Zone Conference and I met my trainer/companion. Her name is Sister Stratford. She is 22 and is from California. I'm her 3rd baby (trainee). We live with a member named Sister Yonalie. She is a sweet lady, but we have no room.. It is two rooms and two baths.. but she has a dog.. and I'm allergic as you all know. I have been taking allergy pills every morning and night though so I haven't broken out in hives yet. We live by the water right now. It is so pretty out here and I love it. I learn so much everyday still. haha I still fall asleep during studies or for general conference since I am not used to the time change still. But I only fell asleep for one speaker during conference so I don't feel too guilty. Conference was amazing! The church talk was super good. And I loved Uchtdorf and Holland.

Here in my mission it is more country land and there are bugs everywhere! Huge spiders! and you are outside at night for literally two minutes and you get eaten alive by bugs! We drive around since everyone lives far away from each other. I feel like I really relate to people here though. We have about 10 investigators but only like 4 are good and dedicated. I gave away 2 Books of Mormon the other day! I just love sharing the gospel so much (: They have cotton fields and tobacco fields here as well. We went to Brother Baldwin’s Quarter Deck shop out by the water to get free ice cream and there was a drunk guy there. He came over and started talking to us and Sister Stratford wouldn't say anything so I talked to him the whole time. He was telling me that he is giving up (swearing the whole time, bad bad words and then was like sorry) and then saying that his wife took everything and his kids left him. So I told him to go talk to Heavenly Father about everything he just told me, that God wants to hear from him. He told me heck with that that he tried and God doesn't answer him. I told him to keep trying and it's not in his time, it's in Gods time. Then he said that we are all good people and we don't really have trials and we were called to do what we do because we are good righteous people. I told him that we had to work for it though. We all have to work for it. We aren't just handed things. He pointed at me and said, "Ya know, Thank you. You really made me think for a bit." I touch people here, Sister Stratford tells me.

Some days are really stressful but I do need to remember to keep going forward with faith. Thanks Skyler for reminding me to hit my knees hard every day. We say a lot of prayers every day and they seem to not matter as much as my first prayers. I need to remember to say each prayer with a sincere heart.

Thanks Logan for telling me that it will be hard but not to be discouraged. You all have great impact on me. Thank you for the love and support you all give me.

So it's hurricane season. Don't freak out Mom haha. I haven't seen or heard of one yet to come. There is also a little rumor going around that people have seen crocodiles! Good thing we can't go swimming anyway. Since its P-Day Sister Stratford and I are going to go pick a cotton ball from the cotton fields because I told her that’s what I wanted to do. She laughed at me, of course.

I feel like I am starting to get an accent. They say “idear” instead of idea and “ya’ll”, “ya know what I’m sayin”, “baby”, and they talk really fast and mumble their words together. haha Anyways..

General conference was amazing! Please remember to go to church and attend ALL 3 hours of church! Remember not to procrastinate repentance! Dress modestly. Remember that just because it is okay in the world does not mean it is okay with God. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Remember that! Everyone here lives with their boyfriend and calls him their husband. DO NOT LET THAT BE ACCEPTABLE EVER! PLEASE! I love sharing the gospel here and seeing people change. It hasn't happened a lot but I know I can make a difference.

Thanks for everyone’s love and support! I feel so thankful and appreciate all you do!

Sister Putnam

114 B Goose Creek Drive

Washington, North Carolina

27889