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Sister Stephanie Holm
MTC Mailbox # 179
TAIW-TAI 0616
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793



WRITE ME PLEASE =D

I leave Wednesday... 4 days!!!!
text/email/facebook me your addresses and emails!!!!!

Auntie Heffer

Yep.
I found out right as my parents and I landed in St. George on Sunday night.
Jaime is PREGGERS! and I'll be gone =( and won't get to see him/her until i get home about a year later!
sad sad day.. but I'm also really happy for them!!!!!
Congratulations Steve & Jaime! Love you guys =)

Rochester, NY

I wish i could post the pictures i've taken for the past 3 days!!

but unfortunately the cord that connects my camera to a computer is on my mission "to buy" list.

Anyways . . .

I'm in ROCHESTER, NEW YORK right now!

I've been here since Thursday night visiting my big sister Julie "Sister Holm" (we've been struggling this whole time.. we keep saying "juj.... i mean sister holm" haha and i think her companion is a little annoyed about it.

Sister Holm is serving a mission here in Rochester (the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center mission).

She gives tours and proselytes.

But the tours are for not only the visitor's center, but all of the church history sites here in Western NY.

We've seen TONS and TONS of stuff here since we got here.

When we first landed, we went straight to a chapel where she was giving a book of mormon night with a few other companionships. i literally ran down the hall to see her because i could hear her talking haha. she was in the middle of a thought and then just went "ohh my gosh....!!!" and ran over and hugged me and cried and hugged my parents and cried haha.

we've been with her and her companion going to all of the sites and visiting people and cool places.

*The Sacred Grove

*The Hill Cumorah

*The Moroni Monument

*The Smith Family Farm

*The Whitmer Farm

*The printing press where the book of mormon was first printed <<>

*and the LDS bookstore next door.

*The Palmyra Temple

Her companion's name is Sister Van Den Berghe and she's way cool.

New York reminds me a lot of Georgia, but all of the houses are so cute and small and victorian looking.

Sister Holm hasn't changed a lot. But she has a lot when you get her in her missionary mode. Things still feel the same with us and everything feels normal, except we hug each other ALL the time and are really cherishing our time together right now (i won't see her for a year and a half almost exactly).

Tonight my parents and i with Sister Holm and her companion visited their mission president. They talked a lot about the mission and gave a lot of advice to my parents for their mission.

We talked about how I don't want Sister Holm to get married until i get home, but that she really wants to ha and so i'll be ok with that if it's absolutely necessary haha.

Visiting with the mission president (President Christianson) was amazing. He just had a heart attack a few days ago and he definitely had taken some resting time away to be able to visit with us. He's an amazing man.

but all of this has gotten me SOOOO excited to go.

I am sick and sick and SICK of the anxiety!! i just want to go!!

I can't wait to see how i like the MTC because i've heard everyone else's opinion and it's time i had my own.

I can't wait to see how i get along with my companions. and i can't wait to start my schedule and be more organized and to try my obedience and work ethic.

I can't wait to meet my mission president and get to know the language and culture of Taiwan.

I can't wait to ride my bike and visit people and have fun learning the language.

I'll have to remind myself constantly that the little things that bother me aren't a big deal.

I'll have to pray all of the time until i love the food.

My patience will be tested a ton with the language, but i want to work hard and make it fun.

Anyway.. i just got home and i'm just all excited!

I know it's 18 months that i could be dating, getting married, going to school, going to the beach, watching movies, and hanging out with my friends. But i feel like this opportunity is a huge blessing. My life is about to change almost completely and i cant wait!!!!

Way Cute

{There's Gold Ahead, There's Gold in Dreams.. in Life's Hills and Valleys}

I've been getting a ton (A TON) of stuff ready for my mission guys.

I am quite stressed and busy.

My life is a stress case in slow motion right now.

But you can also see me driving around St. George in this beautiful beautiful weather (its almost as great as hawaii right now... almost.) with the windows down, my sunglasses on, singing the Rocket Summer. and relaxing my time away.

I LOVE all of the people I've been able to see.

There is this sister missionary from L.A. who i knew at BYU Hawaii, and she is called on her mission here in St. George at the temple visitor's center.

This past summer she came over to eat dinner at my house and it was AWESOME. it was a total surprise when she walked in haha. but i ran into her when i went to lunch with the amazing friend that i have named Liz Egbert at Cafe Rio the other day.

Her name is Sister Mariano, and she is awesome. After lunch, i stopped by the visitor's center and chatted for over an hour with all of the sisters there. I was surrounded and given so much advice from all of them. I left soo happy and excited!

I had set this goal that i was going to start my sleep schedule (10:30 - 6:30) 21 days before i entered the MTC so that i could set it as a habit. They told me to enjoy not having to wake up at 6:30 and maybe a few days before i should do it just so my body doesn't get shocked.

and i agreed anyways because I have too many things that i want to at night to be able to go to bed that early.....

I leave in 17 days!!!!!!!

can you even believe that?!

i know, right.

it is the craziest feeling ever.

i know that it's normal. but somedays i wake up and i'm just like "oh my gosh... i CANNOT do this. there is no way that i can do this."

Missionary work isn't about me. And the less i think about me, the happier i am. =)

Saturday was a hard day for me.

let me tell you why.

SOOOO Many people got married. there was a girl in my ward who went to get her endowment, and there were i think 6 or 8 people going through for the first time. and 30, THIRTY, weddings. It makes sense because it's right before (or during) Spring Break. But listen,

i'm a girl. I'm about to leave on a mission. I'm not going to be able to date, to cuddle, and to really even think about boys. For the most part it's a good thing.

but i DREAD coming home. because even now i wish i was married even though my mission is without a doubt what i'm supposed to do. What if my wedding day never comes? what if i really do turn out to be a cat lady? I'm gonna work hard on my mission so that hopefully the harder I work, the more awesome he'll be. I don't want to come home and have to wait very long before I'm married. I know that i'll be tired of being alone after a while.

=) Happy Sunday!

PS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to visit Sister Julie Holm on THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{Happy}

I walked downstairs to say goodnight to my little nephew Camden,

i said "i thought you were 3 little kids walking in the door so i came down here to see who it was,

but it's just you. and you're just one"

and he goes

"nu uh there's 2 cause my dad counts too."

and then he tried to make the wii work, and i told him it wasn't working because he hadn't given me hugs and kisses goodnight.

so now i have a fat lip.

because i gave him a kiss on the head, and he kept wiping away my kisses, and leaning back and forth. and banged me in the head.

but it makes me happy. haha

I've been sick for the past couple of days.

And its still like every single day is a roller coaster

some days I'm still so excited to go and just want to leave tomorrow

and other days I ask myself what the heck am i getting myself into.

I think everyone feels like that though.

I kind of regret not finishing another semester at BYUH.

I look back at the past couple of months,

I've traveled a ton

but i've only seen my family a little.

I really don't spend all that much time with my parents

and they were the whole reason I moved home.

I even go mission shopping by myself ha

that's how busy they are.

It reminds me of my senior year when i did all of my graduation stuff by myself.

I bought my cap and gown, i submitted pictures for the young women's slideshow,

i cut and put together my graduation announcements,

and now i'm buying skirts that go past my knee,

and shirts that cover my garments,

cute headbands,

closed toed and heeled shoes,

raincoats,

belts, and hair flowers,

extra make-up and shavers,

a plethora of american fever-reducers,

suitcases and a sweet mission backpack,

pens, pencils, a mini hymnbook, a notebook,

bed sheets and 2 pillowcases,

towels and shampoo,

and figuring out how i need to best prepare.

it's a lonely, and stressful process.

and I miss the people who made me laugh all of the time.

I could really use a good laugh

and a talk about how crazy this decision feels sometimes.