Monday was my first P-Day and boy did I have a hard time just sitting there and not doing anything missionary related. We woke up and cleaned and I mean cleaned. I deep cleaned my gross bathroom (had elders in this apartment before us...no offense to any boys reading this). I will never complain again about Utah state. After we cleaned we went over to the church and met our zone there. We all did emails and did stuff in he gym. Sister Okerlund and I sat outside. No one does stuff here, but that's going to change real quick ha. Then we went shopping and went to a lesson. P-day went by so fast, I had a loooong list to do and I did about three things on it haha you were right mom...you always are. Tuesday was the day we had a training meeting all morning and afternoon. We drove with another sister companion and I about died on the way here. Ah I hate being the back seat passenger and having no control over the situation. The training meeting was awesome! I learned so much and I am so pumped. President Taylor said in his letter to sister Okerlund and I that we were "THE DREAM TEAM" what an honor! I was speechless haha but it is true we really are going to be(: we hurried back to Portland and went to see an investigator named Chris. He has been through a lot and when I say a lot I mean A LOT. He is a hard core fighter and is proud of everything he has done. He said he had a desire to change his ways for his kids because he hates living the way he is right now. We are hoping and praying he will actually act on his desire. Then we stopped by some other people's homes and then went to a dinner appointment with the relief society president and her husband. They are awesome! They got married at 17 and 19 and they have been married ever since. I haven't laughed so hard in a while (relationship goals). Today was a long day in the fact that I feel like a missionary therapist. So many people have so many problems and they just start talking to us about them. I was worried no one would want to talk to missionaries when I got out here and now we are worried about making the next appointment because we can't get them to stop talking. We even have ward members break down in front of us and it just breaks my heart. I want to just help and solve everyone's problems but it just isn't possible. We are just having such a hard time balancing out teaching and finding those people ready to be taught. It is good and better to help but it isn't best. Sister Okerlund and I have gotten so many answers to our questions and now we just need to figure out how to apply this. It is fun to figure out things together. My companion is seriously and answer to a thousand of my prayers. She is new but experienced, therefore she is training me but still allowing me to grow with her. She is exactly what I needed in my first companion (in the field) to set me up for the rest of my mission. I can just feel in my heart the great things we have yet to accomplish and words cannot describe how excited I am for us. We are already teaching in unison which I hear doesn't happen too often this quickly, but it's because she is amazing and we both are determined and work so hard. The only thing that's hard with sister Okerlund is that she is fragile, I just have be careful what I say and check up on her constantly. She is a high stress person all the time and being on a mission has made iota little worse because it is what we face everyday so it's just a little bit of a roller coaster. That's okay though everyone has their struggles. I just don't know how to help her. I try to talk to her but she feel a lot of pressure to be the best for me as my trainer. I try to let her know she is teaching me so many things and that its okay to not be perfect at everything! Anyways on Wednesday we had a district meeting and we talked about some of our investigators. We learned a lot and are working at teaching the people who have the elite time right NOW to be taught and baptized. Sister Okerlund and I have a hard time dropping people and putting them on our back burner but we decided to put our faith in the lord and we did just that. One of our lessons went really good. John our investigator is so close to baptism, so we are just pumped. Then we met with clay which was just a disaster within another disaster. It started out strong. We had two members with us (Brother Collins and Joni) who both shared their stories with clay about their drug addictions and how they found the church. Clay loved hearing their conversion stories, but then it just went downhill from there. Brother Collins is an awesome intellectual dude (who we use a lot when we need help on the intellectual side ha) but today was not the day for that. Anyways long story short sister Okerlund and I left very overwhelmed and really frustrated (me more than her because I didn't feel like a missionary, I had felt like a spectator...I only had the chance to say two words in that lesson). I love having members out with us but often times they forget the purpose of why we as missionaries asked them to come along (to fellowship and to be able to add to our testimonies, we are all suppose to work together and that day we were not.) So sister Okerlund and I said a prayer asking got to help us find the strength to get back up and keep working. After our dinner appointment we decided to go out tracking to find more people. Our goal his been 10 OYM's which means 10 different people we talk to and open our mouths about who we are and what we teach. Well we didn't get 10 but we got one new investigator and one referral for the Spanish missionaries. It defiantly was an answer to my prayers! I said hi to both of these men and it just went uphill from there. Yep basically got myself the first two investigators ever, so I was pretty pumped!! Okay well I many have spoken too fast becauseThursday we found out that one of our investors thinks we are cute so he probably won't work out....bummer about being a girl I guess and just having really good genes ha jk. But Thursday was awesome we got to go to a birthday celebration with the president because it was his birthday. He is so awesome and all his kids flew into town with their families to celebrate it. We got to meets his kids. Then we went out tracking and got two new investigators. God know we are trying and working so hard and he rewarded us today! This lady didn't seem nice. We just said hi because our goal was just to say hi to everyone we saw. We were getting frustrated because we would walk down a street and no one would be on it, but the one across from it would have a bunch of people. So we would cross and they would all disappear. Anyways this lady asked what we were all about and the next thing you know she wants us back to talk to her!! We had 13 OYM's and we were so proud. Friday is our weekly planning day. We did so much during that time period. We figured out our focus list and our back burner list. It was long and hard but we prayerfully figured it out. We are out here to touch people's lives. I have realized we may not be THE touch but we are still A touch. So we are out here to touch and find the ones ready to be "converted touched" haha great word hu. We went and did some service and made some Oreo truffles which was fun. Then we went to a lesson with Matt and rowen. Matt is the dad, he is hard in the way that he likes us coming over but he does nothing really about it. He thinks things "could happen or have or that it may be true" but we just haven't see that desire out of him. Rowen is his 13 year old daughter who asked if she could just sit in one day. Both sister Okerlund and I feel like there is potential but she is too shy to tell us much. We were going to put them on the back burner but our lesson today was awesome! Then we had a dinner appointment with the Mann Family. They have an awesome story about the husband being converted. We had a great conversation on the question...what does it take to change the essence of a man? It's a awesome question that I think everyone should think about. Of course there is the answer of time can change anything but I challenge you to think deeper
Saturday was another great day. We talked to a lot of people and listened to their belief and what they thought Mormons were. It really is fascinating to see what they have picked up about us. Whether they think we worship Joseph smith or think we believe in the trinity. Then we had an awesome lesson with a less active and an investigator. He wants to take it slow but he has a desire to change. They are Tongan so they are so funny and so awesome. He said that he has been through a lot of elders in the past, but we were the first to actually make sense haha so cool! Go sister missionary power
🏻🏽. Then we went to women's general conference, which was awesome to see. So weird to think my family was watching it the same time I was and that conference is in Utah where I use to live. Then we stopped by one of our investigators homes and talked to another potential investigator. We have so many teenage girls who are interested and it's incredible! We stopped by at the end of the day to see our neighbors Betty and Titus. They are moving which is so sad because they have been too busy to meet with us and now we don't know if they will move into our area. Sister Okerlund and I are tying not to get sad but it is a sad situation. We had such high hopes for them....pray for them. Sunday sister Okerlund and I were with the YW to let them know we had 3 investigators their ages coming to the YW activity this week. I am so excited and I cannot wait to introduce them into this amazing program. I have a feeling it will go really wellI, and help us in the process of converting them. These three girls (Rowan, Sonide and atyia) have all asked if we had a youth group all on their own. I got the epic update that the Utes beat the ducks!
🏻 the young women keep me updated haha so awesome. It is very interesting to see the difference between my church at home and the church here. I am so blessed to have grown up in Utah and it reminded me of the importance of never taking anything for granted. I have been given so much and I have been selfish growing up. It is awesome we have so many temples so close and that the conference center is so close to us as well. I love my Utah culture and my Utah family. So Sunday actually a lot happened. Sister Okerlund and I along with out while ward missionary committee fasted for new investigators and the strength and knowledge of what to do with the investigators we have now. It was an awesome experience and I know the lord will help us. He already has been when one of our less active members (who has to be driven around because she is in a motorized seat) couldn't come to church because she didn't have enough number of rides( she had a limit of 7 rides) to get to church. We committed her to pray and call to see if she could get more and they bumped her up to 15. We were so excited because now she can come to conference with us this weekend. Then she called us that night freaking out over the blood moon (which was really fascinating to see) because she had read online that it was the end of the world. She wouldn't calm down, but I finally got her to. Ha she is a hoot! So ha the world hopefully isn't going to end any time soon
. Our investigators Titus and Betty are moving on Wednesday. We are helping them move out. I just hope and pray thaT the lord will let them be taught because they are ready! We had another cool experience while we were at the church later Sunday night. Another bishop came over to us while we were trying to download something. He said he was in another ward but has asked permission to have us teach a family because he feels the elders are not the right fit for this investigator mom. I am so pumped for this experience in sister missionaries being needed. It brought me a lot of confidence knowing that there are people out there that only we can touch. No offense to any elders, it was just something I needed to hear.
I am out here for a reason, I know being a girl does not give me a crutch but an extra strength. I am honored and grateful for these miracles and experiences I am experiencing every day. I still cannot believe I am out here, but I sure am glad I am! I will never regret this....not ever.
Dad I have a question. Do you get training in your area as ward mission leader? If so how? And what kind? If not do you wish you did? If so what would you want to be trained in? Our ward mission leader is a convert and didn't go on a mission. He wants to be trained to better help us which is awesome! So I was just curious.
This is our ward mission leader. He is a total hippie and loves essential oils haha moma me Han you will love this. the cats loved his smell of mur that they just kept licking him during our lesson! So funny!
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