Email received Feb 22, 2010

Ephesians 6:12 I don't know if I like this verse because I like fantasy stories or if I like fantasy stories because they remind me of this principle, but...I can't begin to tell you - (well I could begin, but I don't know how it would come across in an e-mail, or even face-to-face) - the experiences that have happened the last 2 weeks and last night in particular have changed me and I can never be the same. I know too much of the love of God to deny it to someone else; I know too much of faith in God to fear what man can do. I can barely believe I'm even writing these words, but they're true, they are all true, it's all true. The Lord does unexplainable things through ordinary, explainable means - even three humble, seemingly inadequate missionaires.

In other news I've been sick all week. I got an 'upper-respiratory-tract infection' that knocked me out for three days and grabbed hold of my asthma so I'm left with a lingering cough (you should have seen the collection of cough drops I accumulated at Stake Conference yesterday.) We had been asked to sing in the Sat. night session and had been preparing for two weeks, I prayed on Tuesday that the Lord would move the illness along quickly so I would be able to sing come Sat. and, wouldn't you know it, I was able to contribute my voice without losing a lung on the stand. It did seem a little shaky at some points during the week if I'd actually make it, but the Lord knows what He's doing. We also found out on Mon night that the song we had been rehearsing was one of the songs the choir would be singing the next day so when we got together to rehearse on Fri night we whipped together a lovely arrangement of an arrangement you may know with another arrangement thrown in - have I mentioned Roger Sorensen, the amazingly talented musician-dairy farmer? Well, he's awesome, we couldn't have done it without him; it turned out pretty well, all things considered.

I'll send all my current medical receipts home today; I don't know if the prescriptions for sickyness need to be submitted to Missionary Medical as a secondary insurance, I don't think I gave that information to the pharmacy yet.

I love Sister Shrier.

I think that's about it for now. Yeah...Much love to you all, keep up the good work!

-Sister Cloward



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A Letter to Tasha

We received this letter, I wanna say mid-late February. It's dated the 11th, but I don't think we received it right around then. Tasha sent Katie a letter speaking generally about some struggles she was having, just your average sense of 'right now I feel stuck and I can't seem to make any progress.' In response Katie sent her this letter which came right at a time when a couple others of us started to feel that way, and right before we discovered a big change in our family situation. It brought comfort to all of us and Tasha has graciously agreed to let me post it here. I'm not going to transcribe it though because 1) Katie made it look cute so you'll just have to read the images and see it for yourself, and b) that's a lot of work friends. Anyway, here it is.

Second email received Feb 15, 2010

Did you get my email with all the attachments? It said it sent it so I figured it wasn't too big.

Item #1: I received a Christmas package a few weeks ago that had been sent to the MTC address, just wondering if that has been updated or if they were just using old info.

#2: Can you get an address for Pres. and Sis. Allen? Thanks.

#3: Did you take my scripture study challenge? How's it going? I just finished the Isaiah chapters today, they're GREAT!!!

#4: I've fully converted my companions to the magnificence of the Inst. study manuals, our study table is getting a little crowded though.

#5: On 2/6 I found out that I have eaten dinner three times with the Zeller's cousins. One of the daughters husbands served his mission in Australia and I mentioned I knew someone who had also served there by the last name of Zeller; the other daughter said "Kent Zeller?" I said "Yeah..." "He's my cousin!!!" Turns out the mother (Carolyn Bake) is Gene's cousin so the kids are second cousins, but the daughters met Kent up at BYU-I, so they started texting him that I was sitting at their table that very moment. He concurred with me that Jason would know me better, but it was still pretty cool!!!

#6: LOVED the Valentines!!! At our first Zone Meeting of the transfer we always introduce ourselves with the usual info and then answer some random question; I had just told everyone that I had no valentine, I almost claimed my sisters but little did I know I could also have claimed the house. (Editor's note: We tried to send one everyday from Feb 1 through 14. We did pretty good; occasionally forgot a day and had to double up the next day.)

#7: This week has been exciting again - from leaky water heaters to being tracted by the JWs (I actually had the presence of mind to offer an exchange - fun!) to more absolutely astounding spiritual moments that cannot be adequately expounded in writing (don't worry, I'll journal what I can and share when I get home.) I love my mission, I love my companions, I love the people, and I love all of you!

#8: Did you see that article in the Church News about the sister we met at Bob & Kathy's house (totally just blanked on the name) someone showed it to us and I realized Hey! I've met her!! It was cool.

We're at the family history center (we've got connections) so I had a bit more time to do other stuff on the comp, but I still don't feel like there's enough time for everything. We'll come again next week so I can do some more.

-Sister M'Friend

P.S. I like watching Celestia's videos, I miss all you people. And no we don't have a dvd player, I'd have to take it to the library and use the same amount of time or make everyone else watch it with me at someone else's house, so I'll just watch a few here and there. I would love more videos of all y'all, I couldn't get that youtube one to work, but it may have been the comp I was using so I'll try again.

First email received Feb 15, 2010

These are from the Christmas program at church. These are the choir numbers that I sang in, the first one we sang three songs right in a row so they are all on the same track. I don't know how the sound quality will be, it is a digital camera afterall, not a fancy voice recorder, and it was sitting by me so I may be slightly featured in most songs.




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Email received Feb 8, 2010

Okay, I finally got my camera connected to the computer, now here's the excuses: Celestia sent a bunch of videos that I will have to finish watching next time, we had to figure out how to transfer to the new ldsmail (they switched to a google server) so now I don't have time to organize and send all my pictures, but I figure I can at least start with the audios. Okay that didn't work...and I don't have time to figure out size limits. Oh, well, there's always next week. Sorry it's taking me forever to get these to you
Gotta run
- Sister Cloward

Email received Feb 3, 2010

Surprise - I have limited time again today. We're going to the temple right in the middle of the day and that didn't leave much room for email and shopping, but I'll be back again on Mon. Have you noticed I probably spend as much time apologizing for short emails as I do actually writing the email? I just did. Maybe if I stopped wasting time I could actually write more news. Okay, I sent the letter on Monday so you should get it soon. Alls pretty well here; this last week has probably been one of the craziest/weirdest/best weeks yet: case in point, we stole someone's scriptures and wouldn't let him read any church materials for three days. I don't think that's in any missionary idea handbooks, do you?

Thank you so much for the package, the photo album came just in time - on Sun someone chastised me for not having brought any pictures of my family. I spent all day just looking through and exclaiming "It's my family!" And thank you for all the notes from Maureen's funeral, it was wonderful to get the full effect, I only wish I could have heard the male quartet. Hopefully I will finally have time on Mon to stop taunting you and actually send all my pics and recordings.

Gotta go, talk to you in a couple days!
-Momma Cloward II