O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

But beheld, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me. 

----> Alma 29:1-3

I may or may not have forgotten to tell you that our P-day was switched to today because of zone conference and zone p-day. And the entire zone has to email in the family history center so we only get 30 minutes so this shall be quick.

But I just want to share amazing miracles that we have had.

Brittany is going to have a crazy busy schedule this year with full time school and cross country and a job. With all that she needed to work on Sundays so we committed her to pray about it and she did before she came to church and then as soon as she went to went to work she starting puking and she said that Heavenly Father answered her prayer and she is going off faith and isn't going to work on Sundays! She is getting crazy family opposition so if you can ALL please keep her in your prayers it would be much appreciated. 

 BBBrittany!

18 month mark baby!

Our gator B committed to live the WofW and handed all her goods over.

The Davis Family! Sister Davis, Sophie, and Rachel

Brighton Beach

Huge nasty spiders

what happens at zone sleep overs stay at zone sleep overs.

LOVE YOU ALL! PEACE AND LOVE

Let me be Negative Nancy here for a minute...my allergies hit me like a ton of bricks this week. I can't breathe. I wake up in the middle of the night and have to ungunk my throat and blow my nose so I can breath. But onto better things...

We went on exchanges to Virginia this week and it was a PAR-TAY! I worked with Sister Mccullough and we had a real good time. 

Let me paint you a picture:

Northern Minnesotan. Less active. Hoarder. Cat lover. 

We helped her clean a corner of her house and we were digging deep into dust and cat hair. NNNNAsty. 

Poor Sister Mccullough is allergic to cats and everyone and their dog owns a cat in Northern Minnesota. She has to use her inhaler like it's life support.

Anyways, her kids are addicted to the lottery and we were going through stuff and throwing stuff away and we found a bunch of lottery tickets and grabbed one that was sitting on the desk and threw them away.

 Long story short when we were all done the LA was telling us how her son won a ticket for $100. That ticket being the one on the desk that we threw away! 

We then had to dig through the big garbage can outside until we found it and then we snuck it back into the LA's house without her knowing. 

It was hilarious. We were laughing so hard. Well I was laughing, Sister Mccullough was sucking on her inhaler and trying not to die. 

And the LA had Ensigns clear back from the early 90's and she let us have them. Missionary Heaven! The word of God is the word of God even if it has a layer an inch thick of cat hair and dust. 

There is a really really old sister in the ward named Sister Marling. She isn't able to come to church because of her health but she is a righteous righteous lady.

 Every time we visit her she says "by golly I can't believe Heavenly Father has kept you in Duluth for so long."

We visited her this last week and she was telling us about when she lived in Salt Lake. She lived in the same apartment building as President and Sister Hinckley.

 She said she ran into Sister Hinckley all the time in the hall and elevator bring meals to people that were sick in the building. 

And one time they were giving food out to homeless people and President Hinckley gave the coat off his back to one of the men who didn't have one. 

Okay I know I say this every week but BRITTANY IS ELECT! 

She brought her roommate to church yesterday. We teach her and she just soaks everything up. 

The church is true people. 

Amanda is doing much better! The Sisters in St. Cloud have been taking good care of her. She is thinking about going to BYUI and I really hope that she decides to. 

We are going to the aquarium next week for a Zone P-day! We get to have a sleep over with the sisters and we are excited! 

I love you all! 

Love, Sista Szabo

 Sister Mccullough! 

  Marsh. Simpson. Szabo. Mccullough.

 ​HEY DREW....

 The Elders are having weekly themed district meetings "Terrestrial Thursday"

 Patriarch and Sister Clark.

 Sweetest most righteous couple that I know. 

They helped build the church building in Duluth with their bare hands. 

I told them we should have an open house and let our investigators walk through 

their home because the spirit is so strong.

My eternal companion: Ralph 

AKA the only man in Minnesota that I'm allowed to give more than a handshake to. 

He's a little hard on the outside but he's got a soft heart.

 ​This is G. G was taught by sister missionaries and baptized 7 years ago. 

He went LA and then moved to Duluth in February for a welding job. I dragged his butt to church every week.

He moved to Virginia for a job and a week later I went on exchanges there and I told him I will always find 

him and make sure he's going to church. 

Hey There,

First off, Drew's email made me laugh really hard. That's all.

Sister Simpson is still not 100% better but we are getting there.

Sister Newton is an ANGEL! I will forever praise her name.

Her son and cute pregnant daughter in law are in town from AMERICAN FORK!!

B is a kingdom builder. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for giving me the opportunity to not only know her

but to be able to teach her the gospel. Ah I love her so much. She is getting baptized on her 20th birthday... September 6.

She went home to tell her family and they aren't happy. But she saw some really neat tender mercies over the weekend that

strengthened her testimony. She is going to be an amazing young women's president someday.

And I'm really excited to go to her sealing someday.

Do I say the same things every week? Probs.

We are going on exchanges to Virginia tomorrow and we are excited! P.Forbes closed Askov so we only work with one set of

sisters now. (I know Jamie, wo is me :)  

I feel like I'm living in a weird reality versus consecration battle at all times.

The church is true.

Minnesota is the best place in the entire world. No battle.

"To many of us try to serve God without offending the devil."

Peace.

-Sister Szabo

Szabo. Simpson. Quilter

 Sister Simpson's one year mark! Celebrated with Mackers Smoothies.

 We have THE coolest family in our ward called the Raneys.

We helped her sew curtains and pick raspberries. They have the five cutest little blonde kids who

say "the sissy mishys are here, the sissy mishys are here"

So Sister Simpson is still sick. 

And it spread to one of the Elders. 

We went to the doctors again this morning. She had hand foot and mouth and then it turned into a secondary infection and they think she had bronchitis and something else. 

So that's been my week.

We went to MLC and my world was rocked a little bit. 

President Clements had VERY rigorous rules that I have been striving my hardest for my entire mission to align my will and follow.

President Forbes starts MLC and wipes them all out. Rules that I have been trying to live by the minute are out the window. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with it. It just rocked my boat big time. 

We pretty much have a pet. I always forget to close the bathroom window after I shower (I know Jamie I know, nothing has changed) 

and we got new neighbors down stairs and she lets her cat out every morning and it comes in through the window and knocks over our garage can.

I call the cat Quilter. 

Anyways I like to harass the cat and Sister Simpson loves it and it has been causing a wedge in our companionship so my personal goal for the week is to remember to

shut the window. Our companionship goal is to be nicer to each other. We've had a little to much one on one time together stuck in our apartment.

We decided I will stop cracking jokes that offend her and she's going to stop talking about Wyoming.  

The coolest part of my week was seeing Sister Smith (my last comp in Andover) at MLC. We got to sleepover with her and Sister Shurtz and it was really fun.

She was struggling BIG time when I was with her in Andover so it was really really neat to see how far she has come. She has been in Andover since I left!

We had an incredible lesson with B this week. A new couple just moved into the ward for Med School and she ran track at BYU and her and B are already best friends. 

She is from Arizona and she is going to die out this winter (she is already wearing long pants and cardigans) but we are super glad Heavenly Father sent her and her husband up here! 

After the lesson we were walking with B back to our cars and she said "Sister Szabo, you've been up here for a long time and I hope you know that it's for me!" 

She is elect and is going to be a powerhouse kingdom builder. She went home this weekend to tell her family that she is getting baptized. Scary! I'm excited to go to her sealing someday and

be friends with her forever. 

I love the Duluth ward. 

I love Lake Superior.

I love Northern Minnesotans. 

Oh you betcha!

I love the gospel and 

I love The Book of Mormon.

It changes lives and it's changed mine.  

Love you all! 

Love, Sister Szabo! 

 Road Trippin to MLC

 Sister Shurtz.

 Heather & Cameron. THANK YOU AUNT SUSAN!!!!

We helped Sister Ryker pick raspberries and peas in the community garden. So fun!

Well this is going to be a short one.

 We did nothing this week.

 Absolutely nothing. 

Sister Simpson was on her death bed. 

It all started at the end of last week but we kept working and then she got worse and worse.

The medical lady is kind of a stickler about missionaries going to the doctor so Sister Simpson just laid in pain for days.

By the end of the week (after her her fever had sky rocketed and she had the chills)  I talked the medical lady into letting us go into urgent care.

I knew it was bad when I was cracking Wyoming jokes and she didn't care to respond. 

We thought she had a bad case of tonsillitis because she had huge blisters on the back of her mouth but it turns out she has hand foot and mouth disease. 

NNNasty. 

We couldn't even go to church yesterday. 

Let's just say my patience was tried this week. I do not do well with clingy touchy sick people.

On a brighter note I read a ton of the Book of Mormon and I have the movie The Testaments memorized!

We did meet with B earlier in the week and she has been praying about getting baptized and she was looking on a calender at home seeing which day her Birthday was one and she saw that it was on a Saturday and then the spirit said 

"Hey baptisms are on Saturdays, you should get baptized on your birthday." She's excited. We're excited. Life is good. 

Sister Simpson still isn't 100% but we have to drive to the cities tonight for MLC tomorrow. Heaven help us. 

Thanks for praying for Amanda. She is at home in Becker with her mom now. 

 scripture pictionary. We literally played until we ran out of scripture stories. 

 You know it's bad when I am taking selfies for entertainment

 seeing how shiny I can get my face to look in the picture.

 Doctor. Doctor. 

This picture sums up the experience. 

Her dying.

Me being overly joyed to be out of the apartment.

Okay people. The Priesthood is REAL. Really really really really REAL! But I'll get to that in a minute.

First off some funnies. 

1. We were in Two Harbors (really cute small town along the shore line) and we were riding our bikes and having a pretty rough day and these four boys probably about 9 or 10 years old pass on on their bikes. They all have ice cream buckets full of water balloons hanging from their handlebars and we became their targets. To their defense they asked if they could throw one at me and I said "you can try" and then I pedaled away. My companion wasn't to happy with me but long story short they spent the rest of their day trying to hunt us down with water balloons. It was hilarious! And they were fast little buggars. I officially broke the record of how fast anyone has ever pedaled in a skirt. Only Heavenly Father would know to send 4 little twirps our way to cheer me up. 

2. We went to meet with a less active and we were waiting for him and his girlfriend to come outside and these two really big pit bulls were chained up outside. They were really nice but we were trying to get to the front porch to talk to a guy sitting outside and the dogs were all up in my grill. They were jumping up on me and licking my face and one got it's paws under my skirt and the dog and my skirt came up to my face and I was full on flashing the world. I had spandex on so it wasn't like my covenants were showing but I still putting on quite the show for the guy sitting on the porch. It was pretty embarrassing and I'm trying to make a joke out of it because my companion is more embarrassed for me then I am. But get this. The less active comes out and we find out that the guy sitting on the porch is BLIND. I flashed a blind guy. I should have gave him more of a show. 

I should have ended with the funnies because this week was pretty depressing. Amanda has depression really bad and she went haywire with her meds and she had a bunch of seizures and she was in ICU all week and her family is 3 hours away and only us and Brother Faerber knew she was in there and it was really scary and traumatizing. She didn't even recognize me the first couple of days and she had wires coming out of everywhere and wires hooked to her head. I was freaking out and her mom didn't know she was in there and we couldn't figure out the passcode to get in her phone and it was really stressful because it was all on us. But things are a lot better now. I've never spent so much time in a hospital. I sat in the ICU and held her hand for hours. She is going home to go to the St. Cloud hospital so that she can be with her family. Which is good but sad to see and scary because when she goes home she hangs out with her old friends and does things she shouldn't. But if you could all just pray for Amanda I would really really appreciate. I love that girl. I've cried a lot this week and said a lot of prayers.

Now on to the Priesthood part. I got a blessing from Brother Faerber and it was perfect. It answered everything thing that I had been praying about and it was just what I needed. Things were said that only I and Heavenly Father knew that I was going through and it was divine. And later in the week Brother Faerber and Brother Newton gave Amanda a blessing and she started coming to and getting so much better after the blessing. 

Heavenly Father is real and He loves each one of you PERFECTLY! 

The Priesthood is real. 

I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and that it is only through Him that we can live forever and spend eternity with our families. 

These things I know to be true! 

Hold to the rod people. The iron one. 

Oh and I'm staying in Duluth :) And Brittany is going to get baptized!

LOVE YOU! 

Love, Sister Szabo 

 DULUTH! B. Faerber. E.Te'o. E.Weese. E.Garrett. E.Wilcoxson. S.Simpson.

If you are all wondering if I wear the same clothes everyday you would be correct.

 Duluth is upgrading in the world and has policeman on horses. 

It's quite the sight to see. 

Effective? Debatable. 

Out of the ICU!!

Well this has hands down been one of the hardest weeks of my mission. I felt like I was back in Andover. But no worries. All is well in Zion! 

We had zone training and interview this week. Things are getting mixed up around here! President Forbes is pushing member work and no one knows what to do because all we know how to do is knock and contact. But things will be good once everyone gets the hang of it!

My favorite part of my interview was when President Forbes found out how long I have been in Duluth he said that the ward might as well give me a calling. 

Thanks everyone for the letters from Camp. I opened it and got a big whiff of smoke and it made me really happy. 

 The Virginia Sisters slept over after interviews and we celebrated Sister Marsh's birthday. 

 Brian and Whitney caught a huge fish on Lake Superior and they invited us over for a fire. So fun!

 Same spot different season. and a whole lot less layers. 

Holy moly this week was crazy and so good!

Some nights I still have nightmares that I have to go outside again until I can't feel my fingers but then I wake up and hear the birds and remember that I don't have to live through another ice age!

 MLC was really different but things will be good. President and Sister Forbes jumped onboard a train going a million miles per hour.

We exchanged with the Askov sisters on the way home and we had a good time. We found a lady who went to her son's and daughter in law's baptism a year ago and she didn't know there was church in the area. She let us in and we taught her and it was really cool.

The 4th of July was SO much fun! We had a ward picnic and then we hung out with Amanda and Rachel and went to Brighton Beach and had s'mores!

The best part of the week was when we knocked on a guy named Charlie's door. Rewind back to the winter when I was on exchanges with Sister Naylor and we were trying to get into an apartment complex and Charlie was waiting for someone and we started talking to him and we taught him but he wouldn't accept a return appointment but he said "It's okay when the time is right God will bring us back together." So I told him if we ever ran into each other it meant that it would be God telling him that this was right. Long story short we knocked on his door this week. I got really excited when it all came together in my head and all he said was "oh no." It was pretty funny. Him and his kids are moving so we are going to help them pack.

We have zone conference and interviews this week so that should be great!

And nothing else is coming to me. We are still teaching Brittany and Heather and Whitney.

Life is good.

The church is true.

Say your prayers and read your scriptures.

Love, Sister Szabo.

 Sister Richardson bought me a loon for my birthday!

Hogal Zoo anyone? 

 Hermana Flickin, Sister Noe

Sometime we play fun games while we are tracting like who can find the biggest and smallest leaves

Brighton beach! My favorite place in Duluth!

Rachel has this really cool fishing pole marshmallow roaster. I was in Heaven!

Can anyone tell me what's up with Texas and Wyoming pride? I do NOT understand!

Hello one and all,

Time is flying by like crazy. July? Say what? I keep accidentally inviting people to be baptized in the wrong month because in my brain there is no way it's June!

"We will be holding a baptismal service on January I mean July..."

Sister Simpson got pretty sick this week. She kept saying she felt better so we would go out and work and then she would start running a fever again. So I would 

make her lay down and then she would be old cold for hours at a time. But thankfully towards the end of the week she got feeling better! I've made it my goal each transfer

to more fully convert my companions to the gospel and to Doterra Oils :)

She is the most sheltered person I have ever met and it is really entertaining. Yesterday she saw an ice cream truck for the very first time hahahahaha

We rode the bus this week. It was quite an adventure. We are now bus pros. But thankfully we have more miles starting tomorrow! There are lots of sketchy people

on the bus and the best part is they can't go anywhere so they have to talk to us.

Everyone crucial in our life is going to be out of time for weeks on end. Our RS president, and brother Faerber, and the Newtons are all gone on vacation. 

We have MLC with President Forbes tomorrow. It's going to be weird without President and Sister Clements but we are excited. 

And let's be honest what I'm most excited is that I get to stay with Sister Richardson tonight :) 

Our Bishop's mom got back recently from serving a mission and she is obsessed with taking us out to eat at Culvers. 

We are at a constant battle between how delicious the custard is and how much we don't want to gain 50 pounds. 

We had an entire training on using Elder Ballard's talk from conference to pump ward members for referrals, I mean to help the ward members share the gospel.

We haven't been having the most success from it but this week two of our investigators asked us to teach their friends. So that was pretty cool. 

We found an awesome family last week that came to church yesterday. And it turns out E the nine year old is already best friends with one of the kids in the ward from school. 

Duluth is beautiful. I still can't say being here in the winter was worth seeing it in the summer but I'm getting there. 

I'm pumped for the 4th of July! It's my favorite day of the year! We get P-day and our ward is having a BBQ at this really cool Lake in Superior. Typing that I just realized how funny it 

is that we live by the biggest lake and we are going to a totally different lake for the BBQ. #Minnestoa 

I love you all. 

Search, ponder, and pray are the things that you must do. 

Love, Sister Szabo

we ride this to town

Hey Oh! 

This week was super good and super hard!

Highlights: 

B is back! Say what? She reached out to a member (Sister Davis) on Facebook and one thing led to another and Sister Davis invited her over for cookies. They talked and B asked what she needed to do. Sister Davis told her to reach out to us. Fast Forward to later that night. Sister Simpson is inspired to walk down a street and we started teaching these two UMD skater kids and B rode past us on her moped. We didn't know it was her but I commented on her cute yellow moped as she drove past. She took seeing us as an answer from Heavenly Father and we met with her the next day at Sister Davis's house. The spirit was incredibly thick. She has been praying about the church since she stopped meeting with us and she said that everything has been leading her back. She is also going to be nannying for 2 families in the ward. Holla! 

I found out that Kate that got baptized while I was in St. Cloud went through the temple last month!!!

We have been riding our bikes. ALOT! I love riding my bike. Sister Simpson... not so much. 

S.Simpson: "Sister Szabo, I can't ride up this hill"

S.Szabo: "You moved pipe for an entire summer. This hill should be a walk in the park"

S.Simpson: "Come to Duluth, they said. It will be cooler, they said. You will love it, they said"

Me and Sister Simpson get along reallllllllllllllllllllllllly really well! We laugh a lot. 

We figured everything was going to be okay if the biggest obstacle in our companionship so far was white or wheat bread and 1% or Skim Milk.

(Yes mom, I'll admit it. I love wheat bread and skim milk)

The Marathon was SO. MUCH. FUN. 

It was a much bigger deal than I thought it was. Thousands and thousands of people come to run it.

It is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon and they get points to qualify for the Olympics. 

A Kenyon beat the Grandma's Marathon Record. Our water station was at mile 22 and he was still sprinting. No joke. He averaged a 5 minute mile. He threw his water cup at my feet and we grabbed it and took pictures with it. There was a newspaper reporter near us and she wrote about us being excited about the cup in the newspaper. AKA we think we are big deals but we are really not.

The coolest part was there was over 10 people who said "hey missionaires, or Sisters!" as they ran past. One guy in a BYU shirt ran by us and was trying to shake our hands but my hands were full of water cups and I didn't know what he was trying to do so I kept trying to hand him water. 

B and our other investigator W both ran the half so we woke up super early and rode our bikes to cheer them on. It's quite a thrill when someone grabs the water from you.

And let's face it. I'm in love with anything that I get to wear basketball shorts to. And it's decided. I'm coming back next year and I'm going to run the half marathon. 

My birthday was really fun. It's been super rainy this week. And it gets really foggy. So we rode our bikes in the rain to our appointments. We looked and smelt like wet dogs but it turned out to be a really fun day. 

Thanks for the package! I loved it all. I especially loved the letters from everyone. THANK YOU!!! I felt super loved.

Sister Simpson: "I will know when I've been a missionary for a long time when I get overly excited about razors and a new journal." :) 

The Faerbers had us over for dinner and they made Cafe Rio and we had Key Lime Pie (thanks dad!) It was so good and so fun.

And Jamie sent me the COOLEST piggly wiggly shirt. I am in love with it. 

Hands down I have the best family in the world.

God's work is the greatest.

The church is true.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Elder Wilcoxson, Garrett, Te'o, Weese (he lives in PG right on the other side of the hosptial. small Mormon world)

 Jack. It's probably a problem that all of my favorite ward members are under the age of 5

Jack: "Sister, SO many people are taking water from me"

Me: "They like taking it from you because you are so cute"

Jack: "no, it's because they are thirsty"

Helmet/wet dog hair birthday picture. 

Sister Simpson "23 isn't that old"

Me: "yeah but in Utah age it's like 53"

Simpson: "good point" 

Me "Hey!" 

Cafe Rio! 

HELLLLOOOOO!

I LOVE Duluth.

My new companion is incredible. She is from Star Valley Wyoming. If I had to describe her in one word it would be Wyoming. I knew everything was going to be A-Okay when she got in the car after the transfer meeting and said "Tell me all about who we are working with." We have been working our tails off. We went contacting downtown and she got really sketched out and it was really funny. Afterwards she said "I'm think I'm going through cultural shock, I'm from a really small town"

We got a new zone leader up here and his name is Elder Te'o and his dad is Big Buddha. As in the news guy Big Buddha. Legit!

We said our goodbyes to President and Sister Clements. We had zone training and then had a big luncheon. It was a good time! It probably won't seem real though until President Forbes gets here at the end of June. The MMM is baptizing like crazy! We had a mission fast yesterday to thank Heavenly Father for all the success He is pouring out among the mission.

We went on exchanges with the Virginia sisters. Usually I look forward to exchanges but it was craziness. We blitzed our area and Sister Simpson doesn't know the area yet so I had to plan double schedules and get double the joint teachers and it was a lot. It all worked out but lets just say planning is not my strength.

This week is going to be so good! Grandma's marathon is a BIG deal up in these parts and it is this Saturday. Our ward does one of the water booths so we get to help out!  Heavenly Father is once again letting me wear pants for my birthday.

And B wants to meet with us again :) :) :) :) :) :) She didn't know I was still up here so she messaged a member on FB and asked if she could come to church with her!!!

Amanda went to a big YSA weekend they had down in Rochester. And this boy in our ward has a crush on her and they held hands and it makes me really happy. #time&alleternity

Funniest part of the week: Contacting down town

Homeless looking lady: "Oh are you the church that baptized animals?"

Me: Giving S.Simpson the lets get out of here look "ummm no."

Lady: "Are you sure? I heard that there is a church in the area that baptizes animals and I've been meaning to get my cat baptized. I've been putting it off because I know he won't like it but what is necessary is necessary."

#apostate #onlyinDuluth #catzrule

I love you all! And you'll just have to come and visit me in Duluth because I am never leaving.

Have a good week!

New Companions: Flickin, Noe, McClough, Marsh, Simpson

Priceless. 

 Sister Simpson!

 AMANDA!! A.K.A. the reason I'm still in Duluth.