Helloooooo!!!! So I have happy news, I am staying in my area and I'm so excited. I couldn't sleep a wink last night because I knew that transfer calls were coming in the morning. I'm so stoked to stay in the Indy YSA and continue to help the area grow. I am sad though because I'm taking Sister Summers to the mission home tonight:((( We have been crying all week, but all is well. I will find out who my companion is on Wednesday at transfer meeting and all that good stuff. It's been such a great transfer and I have learned so much. I'm going to miss Sister Summers but oh we have had great times that's for sure!

We had an amazing testimony meeting yesterday called 'Why I Believe' and it is something that I look forward to every month. It's a great place to bring investigators because recent converts and investigators bear their testimony of the gospel. It's so inspiring and I love it. Renee spoke and she has such a solid testimony and she brought a friend as well so she is already doing her missionary work:) It was fun to see President and Sister Collins and be around a lot of missionaries, we had a little too much fun with the camera last night. Sister Summers and I did a musical number for the fireside and she sang, while I played, my favorite childrens song, 'When He Comes Again.' It turned out so well. We also had stake conference yesterday and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake and Elder Perry and Elder Eyring spoke. I thought they would have talked more about the temple and plans for it but they didn't.

Summer semester started this past week and there are a lot of people on campus and the weather is beautfiul so we have been able to talk to more people and it's great. I was a bit worried for summer with everyone leaving but I know that there are people that are prepared for our message. It has been so blasted hot here, and the humidity, oh my heavens, I don't know if I am going to be alive by the end of summer. Apparently the weather now is nothing compared to what it will be so that will be interesting:)))

We have had some great lessons this week and the members of the branch have been so helpful in coming to lessons with us and we have been encouraging them every chance we get to invite a friend to church next week. We have put a lot of work into this day and I know it can be fantastic and the members are getting excited too. Ahhhhh I'm just so happy to be here in Indy YSA for another transfer because I know that this area has so much potential.

Well my letter is kind of short this week, we have to be at the mission home in a little bit but everything is wonderful here and I know that this gospel is a way that we can experience that true joy that Heavenly Father wants all of His children to have. I'm enjoying this work and being a disciple of my Savior, it's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be but seeing that joy and teaching this gospel helps me to endure:)

Love,
Sister Erica Lamb

Hellooooooo!!!!

So they announced where they are building the temple today!!!! A girl from the singles branch texted us this morning:) It's going to be in Carmel about 3 miles from the mission home. Groundbreaking will start this Fall and will be done in 2013. We are all so excited!!!! It has been a hectic week, I went on exchanges with some other sisters in Brownsburg because s. summers was at a training. It was so fun and I had such a blast with sister haefley. She is from california and is going to byu hawaii, she leaves in 4 weeks so I'm sad to see her go but we definitely bonded as we tracted for hours in the worst snow storm and no one was answering there doors or being very nice to us but we endured happily. The other morning it was a high of 11 degrees and it was mostly 5 degrees throughout the day. It was ridiculous and they don't plow roads here so our little mazda 3 had a struggle but we were safe.

I love serving with a YSA branch, they treat so great. One of the members took us to Benihanas the other night and then another member took us to texas roadhouse. It was so nice. I am getting to know the members better and it's fun to giggle with the girls about their boy drama. There are a couple of girls preparing to serve missions and we are so excited for them and they have been coming with us to lessons which is great!

We had three new investigators who are incredible. Kristen was a refferal and she used to be catholic but wasn't happy. She met a guy that was a member and she went to church with him in D.C. and wanted to learn more so she is so motivated and will probably be baptized in the next few weeks. Renee came to church yesterday and the members fellowshipped her and so she wants to continue meeting with us and knows that baptism is something that she needs to do to continue to feel the happiness that she has felt as we teach her. Lindsey isn't a YSA but she wanted to meet with sisters so we went over there and she is so sweet and has the cutest kids. We are going to go to the family ward with her on sunday and she wants her family to come too and she is so fun and I just love her.

Oh my goodness it's so cold here and we are freezing in our little apartment but we are making the most of it. We have figured out if we turn on the heat vent in the bathroom, open the oven door and bundle up when we study, it is bearable. The work has been picking up and the members are helping so much. I'm exhausted but loving the work and the people that I get to meet. I have been so humbled and thankful to have grown up and raised in the family that I have. My eyes have been opened to a whole other world here.

Sister Summers and I are doing awesome and she has been such a blast to be with. I am praying that we get to stay together for this next transfer. !

Love,
Sister Erica Lamb

I just wanted to share some things that I learned from zone conference. Oh I wish we had zone conference every transfer instead of every other but I walked out feeling a bit overwhelmed but I really want to do my best and this mission is doing some amazing things and I'm so happy to be a part of it. President Collins is so inspired and truley is in tune with what the Lord needs each of us to do to be successful. One thing he mentioned that has stuck with me was when he was telling the story of Peter, after Christ was resurrected, and he didn't know what to do to continue the work, so he went back to fishing and Christ came to him and told him when I asked to leave your nets behind I meant forever. So President was just trying to emphasize that we have been called disciples of Christ forever and that we have promised him that we will leave our nets behind and continue to go forward. I can't believe how many pages of notes I took for this zone conference, I love it so much.

I did 2 exchanges this week with Sister Freer and I went to her area in Brownsburg and then Sister Latu came to my area!!! It was a blast and I learned SOOOO much on these exchanges. Sister Latu only has one more transfer left and so I was able to learn a lot from her and she gave me some great advice for the journey ahead. Sister Latu is tongan and she goes to Hawaii every summer to work at the Polynesian Cultural Center. She wants me to come join her when I get home, so I think that would be pretty sweet! I can't believe Sister Summers goes home next week, I'm going to miss her so much. I was so happy to be able to serve with her again and it's been a blast that's for sure. We have had some incredible experiences together and I'm so grateful for those little miracles that we have been able to see.

Hilary got baptized on Saturday and she was so nervous to tell her parents about her decision but she finally did and they ended up coming to the baptism. I know that meant the world to her and I was so happy they came. She is just so sweet and she got a lot of support from the YSA branch and she is going to do great things. It was a bit chaotic at first because everyone was there except the people that were speaking and giving the closing prayer. We were worried for a bit but luckily they finally showed up and it was all dandy after that. She had Sister Summers and I do a musical number and she sang Where Can I Turn for Peace? and I played the piano. I'm so grateful for the many opportunities that I have been having to play the piano. I truly have felt the Lord using that talent on my mission and I have noticed that I am improving a lot.

The weather is continuing to be beautiful and I love it!!!! I have a busy week ahead of me but I love it cuz our week is full of teaching appointments and that is something that the Lord is helping us with and people are continuing to progress so it makes my heart smile. I love you all so much and I'm so happy that everything is just swell back at home. You are all so wonderful and you are in my prayers daily and I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3<3<3

Love,
Sister Erica Lamb

It's been a really great week! We spent a lot of time on campus and had some great short little lessons with some students. We were talking to this one girl and we mentioned the Book of Mormon and she got so excited because she had always wanted to know what it was about. So we started to teach her about it, she didn't want to meet with us so we could teach her even more, but it was a great experience nonetheless. It's finals week and so a lot of people will be leaving soon from the branch which makes me so sad, but it's an awesome branch and hopefully we can continue to find new people that are taking summer classes or something. A girl in our branch, Kristy, just received her mission call to Utah Salt Lake City South Mission. She is going to love in Utah, I just know it. She leaves in August and she is going to be an amazing missionary!!!!

The weather finally straightned up for a couple of days so we did a lot of service outside this weekend. We dug weeds for Sister Leonard, and then we went and cleaned up another lady's yard, and then the branch got together and cleaned the church yard up. It was so nice to wear pants, I'm like I have legs!!! Then of course it started pouring again yesterday when we were out PCing so that was lovely to go to church completely soaked but oh well. We taught the gospel principles class yesterday and I'll be honest it was super awkward, it was on the law of chastity and I've taught that tons of times and it's never been weird but for some reason yesterday it was just uncomfortable for everyone apparently, oh it was funny!!!!!

Hillary is doing awesome and we had the best lesson with her the other night. We asked her to bear her testimony to us and it was beautiful, she is so solid. She is getting baptized on May 7 and so Sister Summers and I have a lot to do this week putting it together, but I know it will work out. Hopefully we will get a lot of branch support. We taught her about fasting and she is going to fast today that all will go well, oh she is just so awesome and just gets it and knows that this gospel is bringing her happiness and she is starting to see her potential.

We have just had some great lessons this week with the coolest people!!! We met with Lindsey and she is doing so much better and is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We met with her outside cuz it was such a beautiful day and her little boy who is 18 months was so excited to be outside but then he got upset and started throwing a tantrum and threw himself on the ground, it was so dramatic and funny. We just let him cry it out:) Last night we watched a conference talk with Carolynn and she loved it so much that she sent it to her dad. It was Quentin L. Cook's talk about the role of women. We each got something different out of it and I think she is seeing how she is a daughter of God. Then Sister Summers and I went to go PC on the canal and we saw this lady sitting down and we went to talk to her and she just started crying. She told everything that was going on in her life and promised her that God has a plan for her. We talked to her for about 45 minutes and she was so sweet and she started to light up again and wasn't sad. We went to visit her the other day and we are going to have the elders in her area start teaching her because I know that will help her so much.

Love,
Sister Erica Lamb

Hey there!!!!!

Oh me oh my I have had it with all this rain I tell you! The weather is supposed to clear up by Thursday hopefully, but oh it's tough to try and find people on campus that's for sure. We had a lovely tornado again luckily we got in right when the torando sirens went off. Sister Leonard came downstairs and we had a slumber party with her, oh I just love her. Everyone was safe though, nothing to crazy. We got a call from our zone leaders the next morning and they were making sure everyone was safe:)

Chris Yim received the priesthood yesterday and got to pass the sacrament!!!! I was a proud mama:) We got to watch the Joseph Smith movie with him the other night to help him continue to understand and gain a testimony of Joseph Smith. Sister Summers and I felt like temple square sisters introducing the movie and everything...we giggled. For FHE with the branch we watched the Testaments and oh that movie just makes me so happy and I love reading the Book of Mormon and visualizing what it was like back in the day:) There are some really funny parts in that movie that I guess only Sister Summers and I found funny, the rest of the branch just laughed at us, but I mean we are VERY limited out in the mission so we take what we can get with movies:)))

We have had some amazing lessons that have just been over flowing with the Spirit. We went to visit Lindsey Brown who is going through a very hard time in her life and is a single mother and it seems like everything that could go wrong is going wrong. We began teaching her when I first here and then it broke my heart to tell her goodbye but I was so excited to see her when I got transferred back. We had a couple lessons with her and she just wasn't herself and it was so sad. We have been working the elders in Beechgrove and they came with us to our last lesson and she had that light again in her eyes. The elders gave her a blessing and it was amazing. Elder Enslow explained blessings so beautifully and said that they don't make all of our trials disappear but give us the strength to keep going. He also told her that the warm happy feeling she felt when he was giving her the blessing was Heavenly Fathers way of showing her how much he loved her. I know that helped her so much and she will be able to be receptive to the gospel even more now.

We are meeting with Hillary a lot more now and she is loving the YSA branch!!! We had an incredible lesson with her and a member of the YSA branch came with us and shared an amazing testimony. There were so many moments in the lesson as we were reading from the scriptures that the spirit was guiding as to what she needs and how we can help her understand. She has so many righteous desires and she is definitely on the right path!

Easter was wonderful yesterday!!! Our dinner appt. fell through so we went to our apt and had our own Easter dinner, we were quite proud of ourselves. We wanted to do breakfast foods, even though we didn't quite have all that we needed we improvised:) We had french toast, eggs, chocolate peanut butter banana smoothie, and we didn't have any bacon so we had chicken nuggets:)

A member of the branch is taking us to the childrens musuem today!!!!! They have a new exhibit that is movie costumes and it's supposed to be pretty cool so we are excited to do that! This branch is amazing and we are having a special sunday in may where everyone will invite a friend and we are going to focus the lessons on the lessons we teach. I know it's going to be a great day! We had to move it up a week because we had originally planned on May 29 but that is race weekend for the Indy 500 and it's pure madness around here. I live about 1 mile away from the speedway and so I will probably have to leave a couple hours early for church:) I guess people will sell parking spots on their lawns for outrageous amounts of money. So that will be an interesting weekend for sure!

Life is good and Sister Summers and I are just making each day count because I know I will never get another opportunity like this ever again!!!!!!

Love you all
Sister Lamb

Hello my lovely family:)))

It's been another exciting week here in INDY! We have been doing a lot of tracting especially on campus and on the canal walk that goes through the city. The weather has been wonderful here and so lots of people are out and about so we are able to contact a lot of people.

Renee was baptized on Saturday and it was wonderful. She had tons of support from family and friends. Her brother flew in from India with his wife and so it was so special for him to be able to baptize her. I know her parents were touched and I hope that they can see the influence of the gospel with their children and take that step too. Sister Summers and I did a musical number at the baptism, she sang and I played the piano, "Come Unto Jesus." A lady came up to me afterwards and told me that I must have had an amazing piano teacher and she was shocked when I told her that I taught myself:) It was quite the compliment. It was such a good day and the YSA branch were very supportive too and I know that she is going to do great things! She was confirmed yesterday in church and her blessing was awesome. Also in church yesterday, Chris Yim, who was baptized last friday, he received a calling and is going to receive the priesthood next week!!! Oh I just love them so very much:) We are going to keep helping them progress and endure.

At institute the other night, Kristy, a girl from the branch, brought a friend from school, Terance, and we were talking with him afterwards and he wants to meet with us. We have a lesson with him on Thursday and he came to church on Sunday! We also have a wonderful girl that we are going to start teaching, Hillary, and she is so cool! She loves church and is hopefully going to come to the activities this week. Sister Summers and I taught the lesson last sunday in gospel prinicples and she was particiapting the whole time and really loved learning about eternal families. She is going to be baptized on May 7. We have been meeting with a student that goes to IUPUI, and at our last lesson we taught him the plan of salvation and afterwards, we were walking back to the church and we just were so happy because we both just looked at each other and we both had felt the spirit so strongly testifying to us during that lesson of the plan of salvation and the happiness that it brings.

We had an amazing district meeting on Friday, Elder Eames is the best district leader. Oh he is so awesome!!!!! We learned a lot about teaching people, not lessons and we role played and the spirit was there and I learned some things that I think can really help some of our recent converts. We have a few recent converts that we are so worried about and we are continuing to try to contact them because they are in various stages of less activity and we want to help but it's been a struggle.

I have never seen a spring like this before!!!! Sister Summers and I took tons of pictures of all the beautiful flowers and all the trees that have huge blossoms on them. There is one type of tree that is our favorite, it's called a red bud and it's just full of purple blossoms!

Sister Summers and I are just making everyday count and trying to work hard. We have had some hillarious moments that's for sure. Last sunday we were driving to church and all the sudden our car started making this horrible squeaking noise and it wouldn't stop unless we hit the brakes. Some of the branch members thought it might be the belt or something, but we took it in on Monday and apparently a rock got stuck and some part of the car was rubbing against the rock. Luckily the place where we took it, they were very nice and didn't charge us. It's been great to be back here. I am living in the same place I was when I was here before. Oh how I missed Sister Leonard, she is the member we live with. I was so excited to see the pictures of the Brigham City temple. I think they are going to break ground this fall for the temple here! BAAAAAA I'm so excited for it to be here, it's in such a beautiful area, Carmel.

I love you all so very much!!!!! Thanks for all your support and your love:)

love,
sister lamb

SO GUESS WHAT????????????????????? I'm with Sister Summers again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it when President announced it at transfers. We couldn't stop hugging and laughing. It was a great transfer meeting and a bunch of us went to lunch afterwards, oh I love all the elders and sisters in this mission, they are just top notch. So I'm back in my first area, Indianapolis Young Single Adults. Oh I'm so happy to be back, I missed everyone so much. A guy that I taught when I was first here, he got baptized on Friday and it was wonderful and then another girl that I taught here as well is getting baptized this Saturday. It's been such a blessing to be a part of their lives and see the amazing progression they have made. Chris was baptized on Friday and we got to meet his family, they are from Hawaii and his step mom wants me to come and stay with them when I get home:) Oh his family is amazing and they took S. Summers and I out to Olive Garden before the baptism and they gave us lei's to wear, oh they were real and beautiful purple flowers. It was such an amazing experience to be there and see how happy Chris is. The next day his brother and sister got baptized in Boston and so they flew there and then flew back to see Chris get confirmed. Of course it didn't go smoothly, their flight got cancelled and so they didn't make it to Sacrament Meeting but they were able to finally find a flight to Cinncinatti, Ohio and then they just drove to Indianapolis. They made here about 6:30 last night and we were able to get him confirmed and then he spoke at our mission's fireside, "Why I Believe" and gave a beautiful testimony!!! He is such an amazing kid that is going to go far in this life. His dad is catholic and Chris said that one day soon he will be able to baptize his dad. I totally want to be there!!! Renee's baptism is this coming saturday and Sis. Summers and I are going to be doing a musical number and so we are so excited for that. It's been amazing to be back here and see the change that so many have made and also help those that have been continuing to struggle. The Lord definitely knows what he is doing:)

The weather is getting absolutely beautiful here and it was 80 degrees yesterday!!! I can't believe how gorgeous the trees are, there are these magnolia trees everywhere and everything is just getting to be breathtaking. Sis. Summers and I have been fasting to find new investigators, and I know if we are obedient and keep putting in our best each day that we will find those that are ready to hear our message. An elder told us that our mission is going to be even harder because of the temple coming and so we are just praying to help those be ready.

We had an amazing testimony meeting in church yesterday, and this branch is just ready to do their missionary work! All the testimonies were focused on missionary work and they are going to help us so much, I just know it. We are also planning an 'Invite a Friend to Church' day where we will teach the basics of our beliefs and we are all so pumped to start inviting all those that we come in contact with.
I just love you all bunches!

Love,
Sister Erica Lamb