Words from Sister Elese Hauser in Illinios

"Well it looks like I will be staying in Oswego for at least another 6
weeks!!!!!!!! Sister Dias is being transferred and she is going to
serve in Ottawa. My new companion will be Sister Teerlink and I
haven't met her but I know who she is and it seems like we will have a
great time together! We were so sure that I would be the one to leave
that this came as a big surprise. But a very pleasant surprise from my
end:) I love Oswego so much! And i know that every missionary says
they love their area, but I really and truly do! I think being the
first sisters here has just helped motivate the Ward to do their
missionary work and since we don't have the car half the time, we have
no other choice but to rely on the members for help so it has been a
blessing in disguise to not have our own vehicle. I am so sad that
Sister Dias will be leaving me!! It's like being told you can't hang
out with your best friend anymore:( We were talking this morning about
all that we have seen accomplished by the hand of The Lord and all the
amazing miracles we have seen while we have been in Oswego. We also
feel like our knowledge of the gospel and our understanding of
everything has increased exponentially as we have studied and learned
together. So it will be extremely sad to say good bye to Sister Dias
as my companion, but the coolest thing is she's just going down the
road and she'll be in my District and Zone!! So I'm not too sad! We
will go to the Naperville stake center tomorrow, have a short meeting,
swap companions and come back home.
This past week we had Zone Training and it was really really good! So
last year we had about 400 baptisms in this mission. President Fenn is
a very inspired man and he feels that we can baptize 800 people in
this mission this year!!!! Can you believe that? We were talking to a
member in the Ward this past week who also served his mission in
Chicagoland about ten years ago and he said that they would baptize
probably about 50 people a year. If that isn't proof that The Lord is
hastening his work then I don't know what is. And so we were sitting
in Zone Conference and our Zone leaders announced that President Fenn
had the strongest impression that our zone needed to go to the temple.
So he calls the temple and an hour later had a temple trip scheduled
for our zone! We were beyond excited!!!! I hadn't been to the temple
since the MTC, 9 months ago. Never go 9 months without going to the
temple. Especially if you have the opportunity to go with it 40
minutes away. I promised myself that I would never go so long without
going to the temple ever again! And I have every intention of keeping
that promise. Our session was at 6:30 AM so that means we had to leave
Oswego at 4:45 AM!! It was brutal. But it was so worth the loss of
sleep! As missionaries we are always expected to have the spirit with
us so that we can touch other peoples lives. But it was so nice to
feel the spirit and strength coming from somewhere else. If you've
been thinking about possibly going to the temple soon, go now. If you
can't go inside the temple, walk around the grounds. I can promise
that the temple has a healing and purifying affect. It has a way of
making everything better. Of washing away all the sadness and
heartache and making it better. That was the highlight of my week!
Driving home from the temple we saw the Chicago skyline! It was so
pretty and I remembered being at the top of the Sears tower so many
years ago and looking out over all the land. It was houses and
buildings as far as the eye could see. I remember in my little 12 year
old mind thinking, "I never want to live here....." Ha!!!!!! The Lord
has a sense of humor:)
As for our investigators, they are all doing great! Carol came to
church yesterday and said she didn't have her usual cigarette the
night before! That was fantastic news because Carol really is ready to
be baptized she is just holding herself back. But when we first met
her she was completely hopeless and has changed so much. You can all
expect her to be baptized in the next couple of weeks! We also got the
most interesting investigator I've had in my mission. Her name is
Karen and she is 73 years old, and in love with this member in another
stake. She thinks that by being baptized it will help him love her
more. Okay..... People these days.... But we taught her twice this
week and she has definite potential. Except she has the strangest
misconceptions. Like she asked us if we knew that Joseph Smith was
killed! She thought it was some secret! When she first asked us that i
wanted to act all surprise and say "Why didn't anybody tell me!" But I
just nodded and said that we would explain everything as the lessons
went on. This week we went to dinner at this awesome families home and
on the way back she asked me if I would be a Nanny for her kids after
my mission!! I would totally love to do that:) Maybe I'll just go to
school out here, be a nanny, and live in the promised land!! I'll
definitely have to give that some more thought!

Well i got your "Hump Day" letters this week and loved them! Gosh, I
still can't believe it's half way already... And I loved seeing the
pictures from the play! Kirsten has changed so much since I left. She
looks so grown up! I guess I just haven't seen many pictures of the
family. I'm sure Lindy and Brady have changed as well but I bet Dad
has changed the most. He probably has white hair, more wrinkles, and
uses a walker all the time;) the picture I'm sending is of us making
homemade bread at a members house. It's a good thing good bread making
runs in the family because this bread rocked!!! Oh and Mom, any
pictures I send home you need to save because I have to delete them
right after I send them from my iPad. Thanks! So I hope that you all
have a safe and blessed week! I love you!"