Week 45: Joy filled week (July 25, 2016)

Week 45: 

My joy was full this week as I......

Went to the temple twice this week. One of the trips was with my zone. It has been 7 months since I have been and I have been looking forward to this trip for quite some time now. It brought me so much joy to enter those doors and feel try spirit so strongly through the whole session and then just bask in the spirit of revelation. It was so re-energizing to my spirit. I am so grateful we have a temple so close which gives me the opportunity to go and also take investigators again!!! The other temple trip was two days later with a less active who I taught in Hazel Dell. Her name is sister Burke and we re-activated her and taught her the temple prep classes and did so much to strengthen her. It was such a tender experience as I watched her for the first time go through. She was so ready and I know this experience will lift her up and keep her steady. 

I got to see sister Davenport and sister batey. It was such a fun little reunion being able to see these amazing women. It was so fun to catch up and just have some time together after the temple to go grab a bite to eat before they took me back to my area. Our mission president's new rule with the temple is that a companionship can go but their companions can't so sister batey's comp hung out with mine in our area until we got back. It was kinda weird, but it made it special because we could focus on sister Burke. We took her aside and had a moment where we could answer some of her questions, point out the symbolism and teach her alittle more about what will happen as she keeps coming back and how she can tap into the temple's spirit more in the celestial kingdom. This was her day and it was spent focused on her, so I was grateful for that experience that I will always remember. 

Had a lesson with a new gator named Vikki. It was an awesome lesson because we invited her to be baptized and she accepted! The problem is she is in another area so we had a hand off lesson with the elders in her area and it went really well. It was awesome to see her so excited to get the spiritual nourishment that she has been searching for. Her mother adores sister wilson and me so Sunday night we went by a less active who has permission to come to our ward (who is neighbors with Vicki) and we dropped off some banana bread a member gave us and it was so good to get that face time with her mom. She defiantly has been touch by the light of Christ and the spirit and it's fun to help her recognize it. 

Met an investigator in this area that we have been trying to see for awhile . Her daughter (age 11) just recently got baptized and her mom is on date. Sister Wilson and I felt like we had a really rocky lesson with them and we challenged them to read the Book of Mormon more. They expressed their concerns of not understanding it and getting frustrated and just giving up. We decided we were going to send them a scripture of the day and expound alittle bit on it and asked them to expound back. The mom did and it was awesome. We sent her a scripture that talked about being temperance(at the end) and she went ahead and expanded on that by reading an awesome talk called "being temperate in all things" by Kent D. Watson in the October 2009 general conference. It made sister Wilson and me so happy to know she took our challenge to heart and that she was able to learn and expound on the scriptures to the point that she can apply it in her life (which was our goal). We decided to make a list and send our scripture texts everyday to those who could benefit from it!! 

Worked all week with sister Wilson in finding those who are ready to receive the message of the restoration for the first time or the second or the third. We had some downs this week but they are completely washed away as I have pondered on this week and the things that I have learned and seen the ways in which I have grown. I am still SO awkward at the door, but we have worked hard and laughed hard. I know the savior is standing right next to me as I invite those children of God on the other side of the door to come unto him. I would love to share a quote with y'all that I have just loved and internalized. It is of course about missionary work and it is of course it's by elder holland, "I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary. Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him--the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

His words have supported me and lifted me during my service out here. I know that this quote not only pertains to missionary work but also our membership in the church and our lasting conversion to our savior and father in heaven. How grateful I am to be learning so much about the atonement, true repentance and how important this is for our people we are teaching to know, internalize, gain testimony and be converted in. There is a talk I want to challenge y'all to read. It's by elder renlund. It's in the October 2009 general conference called "a hearts mighty change." It is a powerful talk given about the Atonement and true, long lasting repentance that turns into conversion. I was touched by the analogy and I know how important it is to humbly ask for forgiveness and call upon the powers of the atonement to aid and assist us all in every aspect of life. There is so much to learn and find joy in. I hope y'all have a joyful week! Keep striving and never give up! 

Week 44: Birthday week🎁🎉🎂 (July 18, 2016)

Monday was a crazy day!! We had a BBQ with the zone and then I went
and pack all my crap. We drove to seaside to get some present and
shirt before I left this beautiful place. We had sown lessons and then
we booked it up to the CHRUCH to say goodbye to a less active
fam--caulders. They gave a presents and pictures of the Fourth of July
with them. I am going to miss them a lot.

Tuesday was even crazier!! I packed the rest of my junk and then we
ran around all over to say goodbye and have lessons and tie everything
up that needed it. We stopped by the cheney's, then we had my last
lesson with terry. I told him sister Wilson and I would send him a
card and pictures from the baptism because he didn't have any! He is
going to get a lot of fan mail from us!! We saw Halden for the last
time and put him on date for baptism! And I got to see Fred for the
first time sober. It was a really neat experience. We said goodby to
his daughter and the brown family. So sad to be leaving.

Wednesday, it finally came, transfers. We woke up at the crack of dawn
and drove and drove and drove some more all the way down to the
mission office. Then I had to drive to Portland!!! I thought the
driving would never end. Sister Wilson is amazing and I am so excited
to be companions with her. We are going to be epic together and I am
pumped. I unpacked. We had a couple Lessons. I was running on 3 hours
of sleep so I was tired and it was a pretty long day because of that.
I am now officially burnt, I have blisters on feet because we got a
flat tire on our bike so we had to walk and princess was not use to
that much walking I guess.

Thursday was a good day we met with the Jimenez family who have 3 kids
who are getting baptized soon!! We did service for a lady who needed
some gardening. We did some drop by's and went to Adrian's lesson who
is a kid who is in a half way house. He is 16 and trying to get his
life back together. then we went to dayna's lesson (already am in love
with her!). She has been getting her life back in order as well and
she is working towards getting back to CHRUCH fully and back to the
temple. We tried by Gary and he was home!! We talked to him for a
little bit about his health and his heart condition. He is doing
better and the doctors have him on a different medication. We talked
about the blessing and about the baptism he went to. He enjoyed the
baptism and talked about how he knows he needs to get baptized. He
mentioned he wanted to have the lessons over at bishop's home and so
we are going to try to set that up. We talked abo church and committed
him to come this week.

Friday we weekly planned and man oh man it was so long. I have never
planned at the CHRUCH because all the areas I have in so far have
allowed me to get to wifi so we could just plan at home....well not
anymore so to the church we went. I swear the Whole zone was
practically there so it was very distracting and frustrating. We made
it through though and this area is going to kick my butt because it
needs so much work, but I am excited to work hard. We Saw Vicky a new
investigator and we also met her mom. It wasn't a very good in
environment for is to be in because by the time we got out of there we
smelled like the biggest drug dealers on the block. She is interested
so we set up a time to see her at the chruch because that is not my
choice of perfume every week. We Scurried on by Gracie's house for a
lesson. She wanted to reschedule and gave us every excuse known to man
but we just stayed there and talked to her for about 30minutes and
guess what! She really enjoyed it and felt the spirit and thanked us
for not giving up on her and her kids. She then went in and gave me
these white Hipi pants that I am sure Hannah would love! They are so
funny looking and she just wanted to give them to me for some odd
reason. It was funny because neither sister wilson and I were
expecting that.

Saturday we had a  zone comp study and I am super excited because it's
going to be a good transfer. The Portland zone has a bunch of really
fun missionaries. We did Service for a member in our ward who is
moving. We then had a Lesson with an investigator named brother L with
our member sister red wick. The lesson to say the least was very
interesting. He is a very nice person who is very religious. He is
interested in our beliefs but he worships some interesting things so
we will see how it goes. We had a lesson with Gloria a def lady in our
ward. She dosent know sign she only reads lips. Sister Wilson is too
quiet so her hearing implant dosent pick her up. It's really funny
because she can't hear anything when sister Wilson talks so I have to
translate everything. We were laughing the whole way to our next
appointment. We walked to another less actives home. It was a long
walk, but we got blackberries on the way so that defiantly made up for
all the aches. I had my first missionary correlation with our ward
mission leader. He is a very nice man and his wife if the relief
society president. They are very involved and love helping. They also
just recently got sealed in the temple so they are really into helping
so many experience what they did in the temple which is perfect
because that's the church's goal "get them to the temple, baptism is
the first step on their journey." The rest of the evening we did drop
by's and met Aton of crazy people. It feel so good to be back in the
"hood" again. It's been too long.

Sunday was a very wonderful day. Everyone was so nice to me at church
and welcomed me in with lots of hugs. The ward here is really small,
which surprises me why we need two sets of missionaries here. Maybe
double to help will get this ward rolling. I have already been warned
I will be speaking soon, so I look forward to that haha. After Church
we had a little celebration for my birthday. Sister Wilson was taking
lots of pictures so everyone can whiteness our celebration. She is a
gem. We had lessons after church. We met with one of our less actives
named Gracie who has two boys that are potentials for getting
baptized. They are so cute, lots of freckles and mullets (dad you
would love their hair). They are also extremely hyperactive, so the
beginning of the lesson was rough, but then we started to get into the
groove of things and it turned out really well. Gracie was stunned at
how well we did with her kids because I guess she has been struggling
with them for awhile. I just had to laugh because she has no idea how
much time I have spent around kids. Afterward we went to dinner and
those stinks didn't tell me our members were going to surprise me with
another small celebration. They sang to me again and we had cake and
ice cream. I was almost in tears of just how grateful I was for
complete strangers loving me, but I'm 20 now so I had to act my age
(just kidding) (:  after dinner we dropped by a couple more people and
had a couple more lessons with some less actives. One of the lessons
sister Wilson got a whole outfit from a girl named Tera who loves
getting sister Wilson things (which she does not feel the same way
about haha) at the garage sales she goes to. Of course they were too
big on her and she looked so funny in them. It couldn't have been a
more enjoyable birthday serving the lord and getting love from my
family and new ward members. I truly am so blessed and thank you to
everyone hat sent me a birthday wish!! Have a wonderful week!!!

Week 43: Going going.....gone (July 11, 2016)

So on Monday we had an epic day of happy chaos. We started out the morning by going to help set up for the ward breakfast. We stayed for about two hours and then ducked out. We had a less active family there that we had invited but other than that no one showed up that we set our flyers around. We were kinda bummed but that's okay! Next on our list was to go to the store to meet up with terry and get out ritual corn dog with him. We talked some more about his service in the military and other family stories. Then we finished our shopping and hurried to go pick up Rachel to take her shopping for modest clothing.
It took FOREVER and I was so tired by the end of it. She tried on so many clothes I thought we had the whole store! We found a lot of awesome things she could wear to church that were both long enough on the bottom and had sleeves on the top! We were so excited. Then we rushed her home to go to our next thing which was to meet up with the Barbics, a family in our ward, to go golfing. Brother Barbics is the pro at his work so he took us out and showed us the ropes. It was fun to be with their family and to laugh and giggle at all the dumb things we were doing. I was just grateful I had some experience from the past so I didn't do that bad! Afterwards they fed us and we had a great time sitting around and talking about life. The parents have an awesome story and it was such a neat experience to listen to everything they have gone through that has gotten them to where they are now. We had to unfortunately leave even though we wanted to stay longer. We went to go pick up Rachel again so she wouldn't be alone on the 4th. We took her with us to the Mckee's house for another dinner (lucky me). We ate and played some games as we waited for it to get darker. Sister McKee drove us all to Astoria to meet up with a less active family and we all watched the fire works by the water because they did them over the river. It was a cool sight to see but honestly I missed all the fire works back at home. We do way more things then they do up here. If you can't tell we were running around with our heads cut off but we made it through and I was so surprised and so thankful that so many wanted us to spend the Fourth of July with them.
Here I was thinking we weren't loving the members enough, but I got my answer by all the invites. I love being a missionary!

Tuesday we were dragging our feet alittle because we got back around
11:30 and man was I not use to that! Ha but we made it through the day! We saw two less actives in the morning and had wonderful lessons with them. Then we went home to finish our planning that we were suppose to do last week on Friday, but we didn't have enough time because that was the day we met our new mission president and Sunday we were booked and so was Monday. So we took some time and dismiss planning so that we could have a successful week. Then we went and saw terry and read the Book of Mormon with him and then we went to dinner.
After dinner we saw another less active who has some interesting views about science and religion. He said some really funny things about Jesus being a vegetarian and all this science stuff that went right over my head. Man I just can't believe that people can get so far off the straight and narrow that they believe the crazy things which they hear or find. It's so important to remember how simple to gospel is.
That the lord with reveal in his own time what we need to know and that the small details don't matter if we are grounded in the gospel and have faith.

Wednesday we had some lessons that almost got canceled because sister McKee was landing on going to them with us and then she got sick!
Sister Heath and I were so excited because we were sure we were going to get 20 lessons which is so rare for this area and we were looking like we were going to make it. So when this happened we started to freak out! Satan was driving his forces in another way because he know he can succeed this week because we are determined to reach our goal so he is getting everyone we had planned to go out with us sick! We were frantically calling people and of course everyone is busy....if only they knew! Haha just kidding but really I had no idea missionaries went through things like this but know I am understanding. I feel so bad for the Utah state missionaries and all the crap we put them through. So at the last minute we found two priesthood holders to come with us and trust me they were people we thought would never come out with us so it was an incredible experience. We saw Fred our drug/alcoholic who has started to make a lot of changes in his life. His brain is so fried so we are reading the children's Book of Mormon with him, and we read the first vision chapter. The two men that came with us was exactly what we needed. I am so grateful for the lords help in giving us a way to accomplish our goal but most importantly his goal.

Thursday was a good day but it was long. We woke up really early so we could make it to a doctors appointment for sister Heath in Portland.
Sister McKee took us. It was a good experience and on the way home we got to stop at Krispy cream and  Chick-Fil-A. After we got back we went and did service at the food pantry with the hermanas. I love this service every week because I get to talk and interact with so many people. I love when they ask what church we are from because I get the chance to boldly and confidently say who I represent. We went to a less actives home for dinner named the lords. We haven't seen them in a while so it was so much fun to catch up. We were booked the rest of the night. We went to halden's lesson with another member because sister McKee was still sick. Sister Heath and I were nervous but felt at peace. We had an incredible lesson and the spirit was so strong there. We all had the desire in the lesson to put him on date but non of us did. So I don't know why but I am hoping we will get another chance to do so because it obviously wasn't the right time. There was defiantly a different change that we all saw in Halden and he had a different glow about him. We were able to set up the expectations that we have been trying to for so long and we finally felt we had the correct foundation to keep moving forward.

Friday was the day transfer letters came. And of course I was so stressed the entire time. Sister Heath and I had a long talk about what we thought would happen and we both came to the puzzling confusion that we had no idea what was going to happen. So when they came it was a big sigh of relief just to get them. We found out that I will be leaving and sister Heath will be staying. She will be getting a wonderful companion that will add to the area. I will be going to Portland to be with sister Wilson (Emily nydegger's sister-in-law) I am so excited!!! She and I talked at Terry's baptism about maybe one day becoming companions so I was in shock when I read her name. I am excited to go back close to my stopping ground and to be traveling to my next adventure. I am excited for the growth I will have and for the things I will be learning in my new area. From what I hear it is an awesome ward!

Saturday and Sunday we had lessons and we stopped by members homes so I could say goodbye. Although I am so so sad to be leaving this area I know that I will be able to come back and visit one day. This week has been so spiritual and I am so grateful I am out in the lords vineyard at this time. I know this gospel is true because I get to live it and teach it every second of my life. I am so grateful for the sacrifice my savior made for me so I could find joy here on this life and I know he loves each one of you because he did the same for you! I love you all immensely!! Have a wonderful week!

PICTURES:
1. Sister Radich. The oldest lady here. She and her family came up and started the first CHRUCH meeting and she built this building herself.
Also a WW2 nurse vet. She is pretty awesome! (age 94) 2. Selfie of a recent convert and my comp 3. My "goodlookin" man terry 4. District (us girls) and the funks
5 and 6. My adopted family in this area! The Barbics(:

Week 42: The Fourth of July 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (July 4, 2016)

I am just going to apologize now. This is going to be a very short because so many things have happened today. Good things that needed to happen for a long time but that means I have sacrificed my time to write you all. Please know I love you all and I a, so happy and filled with joy. I will hit the highlights because this week was so fantastic!!

This week leading up to the Fourth of July we made it a goal like all holidays I have been apart of on my mission to make flyers and to reach out to the less actives to see if we could love them out to the activity the ward had. So most of our week was spent visiting our less actives. We found much success in a non threatening way and it was really fun all at the same time.

We met our new mission president and his wife this week as well. It was so exciting to hear what they had to say and get to know them better! President macketeer is a real hoot. He has such a fun personality and he is so devoted to find joy his entire mission with us. He has such a positive attitude and he will make every joke he can in an appropriate setting. He is determined to be more involved with us on our studies and when we go out teaching and tracking haha should be really fun.  Sister macketeer is just a sweet heart and loves everything life has to offer. We are so excited to be under them they are going to be a great asset to our mission

We had so much success this week and I am slowly learning more and more about how to be teachable in the mission, humble, find joy in everything and remembering in persona study. I have grown so much this transfer and I am so sad it is coming to a close but I am excited to see where I go or who I get next! Sunday we had some surprise investigators and less actives. We even had less actives go up and bear their testimonies on their missionaries in their ward. It felt so good to be so loved and to see the fruits from our labors. There is so much joy to be found everywhere and I am so grateful for the opportunities to see and find joy in every aspect of my mission.

I love you all and am so grateful for all your support and love. I am having a wonderful Fourth of July!! I hope you all do as well. Our freedom is a gift from God and we should never take it for granted.
Our freedom in agency is a great blessing as well because we have the choice to celebrate everyday for a new day to grow and find joy.
Without freedom and agency we would be in bondage and slaves, but because we do we don't have to. Our Heavenly Father truly loves us and he asks us to love ourselves and others to help them find joy in this life with us. I love this gospel!!