Miracles

im staying! thank goodness! this week has been awesome!

so right after i finished emailing, sister lawson and i went to vacuum out the car. while we were suckin up that mission grime, this woman pulled up and said are you missionaries? and we said yes and she said sweet! when can i go to church?! i almost passed out. i had no idea things like this actually happened. turns out she had taken the missionary lessons a long time ago but her boyfriend no longer allowed them in his house. now she broke up with that loser and told us she wants to be baptized! so we will begin teaching her this week! miracles i tell you! we were really pumped. we jammed to "ye elders of israel" on the way home that night to celebrate.

the most amazing couple in the world is getting baptized in a month and they've been really struggling to quit smoking. in our ward, we are blessed enough to have elders and sisters, so we asked the elders to come and give this couple a blessing to help them. we explained that the priesthood works according to our faith and the faith of the blessing giver. i have never experienced such tangible spirit. there wasn't a dry eye in the room the second elder ogden and elder meredith laid their hands on the mans head first and then the womans. the cool part was that these elders know little to nothing about this couple, and yet the blessing was tailored to fit everything these people were going through. i know that God was speaking through them at that moment literally blessing this couple with the strength to overcome their addictions. I know that God loves them, he manifested that through the spirit in the room that day. it was simply amazing. 

we went on exchanges this week with the sister training leaders and it was really cool. sister christiansen and i tracted this random street. we were supposed to tract a different street, but im still new and don't know how to get around so i took us to a random road. but we tracted anyways and saw miracles! we were able to find a less active family that was ready to reintroduce the gospel and a non member family that had previously investigated the church and wanted to try again. its amazing how seeds that were planted thirty years ago by missionaries that are home and married are beginning to sprout. i cant be more grateful to these missionaries who tracted and worked dilligently to share the gospel. they don't even know the impact they've had!

alright one last miracle. we went to this inactive man's house that we call "grandpa Tom." he has the most beautiful property known to man! i need to go back and take pictures. he left the church when his wife died and has a hard time with the fact that God loves him. He was companions with a Udall on his mission in central america. mike or mark udall, not sure which. anyways, i was sent here for this man. we connect! he knows all about eagar and he is cowboy as they come! he showed us his property and we talked about his life. at the end we asked him to share his favorite scripture and he said its "Jesus Wept." i told him that Jesus wept because he lost a dear friend. Jesus Christ knows God's plan better than anyone and even He had a hard time when His friend passed away. Christ wept because He loved His friend and He suffered because He loves each of us just the same. we told Tom that Jesus Christ truly loves Him and grieves just like Tom does when things don't go right. i can't explain the whole experience, but both of us cried. Tom even tried to hug me! i was sad because i really wanted to hug him too! he's an awesome man and im so excited to continue helping him. our ward mission leader skiis with him every saturday and he told me that Tom talked about me the whole time on the lifts. so i guess you could say im kind of a big deal.

im pumped because its P day so i can finally buy more juice! i drank 4 things of it this week! we dont eat sugar but i think drinking it is okay haha. i love you all so much! mom, thanks for getting me out on this mission. i feel so blessed to be your daughter and i know God gave me you so that i could have these experiences and become the woman He knows i can be. i know with all my heart that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real. stay sweet folks! work hard, pray hard!

Courage isnt something that just chill's inside us waiting for an opportunity to showcase itself. In most cases courage runs from us!

Hey mom and dad! 

 

Honestly this week went by so fast I can hardly remember what happened! All the days seem to blend together. It was really good though!

 

On Wednesday we went to zone conference and they challenged us to invite everyone we teach to be baptized. Even if we just barely meet them. Our zone leaders are awesome. They get me so pumped to share the good news of the gospel. So sister Lawson and I have been doing that and we committed someone to baptism! So now we have six people preparing to make a covenant to follow their Savior Jesus Christ. It's awesome how powerful it can be to invite people. When we're bold, Heavenly Father makes things happen. I've realized too that when we are bold in inviting it shows people how important this message is and reminds them that they've already chosen this plan. We all chose this gospel long before we came to Earth. That's why I know that no one here is a lost cause.

 

 Anyways we had an awesome girl drop us this week which was so tough because she seemed so prepared! But I know that she will find her way back to the gospel. We spent a lot of time tracting this week and met some awesome people! This one woman told me that our church is not of God because God wouldn't ask people to leave their families. So I got to pull out the family picture I have in my scriptures and show her the people I love more than life. I told her about each one of you and how much I love and miss you all. I then told her that I left my family for eighteen months so that others could be with theirs for eternity. We ended up teaching her the entire plan of salvation! It was so awesome and the spirit was almost tangible! Her heart was softened quite a bit and I ended up talking to her for half an hour while sister Lawson was on the phone with our relief society president. She's a talker haha. But when I invited her to be baptized she said no and asked me to leave. But, a seed was planted so I'm not discouraged. In fact, I'm the opposite!

 

All throughout the Book of Mormon it says that someone "took courage."
I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Courage isn't something that just chills inside us waiting for an opportunity to showcase itself. In most cases, courage runs from us! It flees when we most need it. Especially in missionary work, I have learned that courage is something we have to take! Just like when the game is on the line, victory doesn't just walk it's pretty little self over to us and sit on our laps. We're working and fighting and chasing victory every second the clock is running. Courage is just the same. Many of us are downright afraid to share the gospel, myself included. But we need to remember that this is God's "work and glory." He wants us to share it.
He needs us to share it. So step up, take courage, and give someone this gospel, which is most precious of all gifts. I love it! I have put courage to practice by talking to everyone and I've seen God use my efforts. 

 

We saw a woman walking her dog so we stopped tracting and talked to her. After some good conversation we found out that she was a member but she hadn't come to church in over thirty years! So we invited her to come Sunday and she did! I could feel Gods love for this woman. It just goes to show that He is constantly reaching out to us, yearning for us to come unto Him. He put us in her path to help her come back and I am so grateful for that.

 

Anyways, happy valentines day! Mine was so good! The young women came over and decorated our walls with pictures of themselves so now we look ultra creepy. They also gave us flowers and candy which is such a struggle because I'm on a sugar fast! I have been almost my whole mission! A couple of investigators have been working to quit smoking and it's been really hard for them. So we decided we would quit sugar to support them. They make sure we're not slipping, we make sure they aren't. It's awesome but so hard! Especially because I love candy and it's the holidays!
I'm dying! But, it's worth it. And I've lost weight so win win.

 

So one last story. We have two sets of missionaries in our ward, elders and sisters. Well it was elder ogdens birthday on Saturday and sister Lawson and I wanted to get him some doughnuts. All the beehives in the ward are in love with him and so we pretended it was from them!. We wrote that it was really us on the bottom so he didn't find out till the end. He was so creeped out but he laughed really hard when he found out it was us. This week was just awesome. I love this gospel so much and I know it's true. Work hard, pray hard! I love you!

I got an IPAD!! It is so AWESOME!!

Hey mom! I'm typing this email on my iPad! Holla! These things are nuts! I'm still getting used to them but they're definitely nice to have. We have so many resources on these bad boys that are really useful in teaching. We can be sitting in a lesson and pull up a conference talk or a Mormon message right there on the spot! Things like iPads and Facebook were invented for the hastening of the work of The Lord. I'm fully convinced of that. The inventors might not know it, but got planted these ideas in their minds so that one day He could use them for His righteous purposes. For years satan has had free reign over the internet, corrupting websites and creating almost unavoidable temptation. Now, the Army of God has been unleashed and is taking over things like Facebook so that God can build up His kingdom.

Ahh I love it! So many things pertaining to missionary work are exploding right now. This is the most important thing any of us can be doing. Alma 37:6-7 talks about small and simple means bringing great things to pass, and I know that in some sense this is what that scripture is referring to. Think of the missionary age change. People say that we shouldn't be sending out 18 year old young men and 19 year old young women because we are young and immature, but God has a wise purpose behind this. We may be small and simple, but as we serve faithfully, God will make great things come to pass. Our efforts will not be wasted. I just love it. This work is for everyone. This Gospel is for everyone. Don't be afraid to share it or leave it up to someone else. This is a marvelous work and a wonder and it's our work to do!

 Plus, God has given us endless resources (Facebook, lds.org, Mormon.org, etc) to accomplish it. We got our iPads Wednesday and already I'm seeing the work Hasten. And I sat by Elder Beus at the training for it! He is the son of my institute teacher in thatcher so I thought that was kinda funny. This week has been... Interesting.

Sister Lawson had a lot of doctors appointments to figure out what's wrong with her shoulder. We still don't know. But I got to talk to a lot of people in waiting rooms and placed a Book of Mormon and showed a Mormon message on my iPad! I showed "earthly father, Heavenly Father" and left the guy with my card. That's right, I have cards. I'm kind of a big deal.

 

Anyways, we also took a little girl that's investigating to activity days! It was so fun. We learned how to braid, which is good cause I don't know how to. Ha so I learned with all the eight and nine year olds. It was way fun and they all wanted to braid my hair so I'll send some pictures of that. It was a really slow week because we got two feet of snow! Global warming my butt! We weren't allowed to drive or ride bikes. They said we can stay home, but we went and tracted instead. It was freezing! We thought that people would be more likely to let us in because it was snowing, but we were wrong. Haha we still didn't get let in. But it was fun. We ended up teaching quite a few lessons over the phone which was really weird but pretty cool. I prefer face to face.

 

Our couple did get married on Friday but almost no one came!(weather) It was still super cool and I had a lot of fun. Kylee's baptism got rescheduled so that was a bummer but the show will go on! It was a really good week. We went to a recent converts house last night for her birthday party and that was a blast! She is married with seven children and they all got baptized a few months ago. She spoke in stake conference in front of elder christofferson! Needless to say, this woman is a stud. Remind you of anyone you know? But I asked about her conversion and it's the most amazing story. So she turned 42 yesterday, a pretty young lady. We'll last year she had a stroke that left half her body paralyzed. A friend of hers that is a member of the church offered to send her husband over to give her a blessing and she agreed thinking, what's it gonna hurt? Well, he went over the next morning and gave her a blessing and by the end of that day she could move her arms and legs. The next day she was walking. Now she spends all her time in the gym and you would never know that she was paralyzed. The day she got the blessing she asked for the missionary lessons and was baptized shortly thereafter.

 I can't even tell you how strong the spirit was as she, her husband, and their seven children rehearsed that story to me followed by their testimonies of the power of the priesthood. They were all crying, feeling blessed to have their mother in good condition and that they have the gospel. Now they share it with everyone! That is how we all should be. Sharing the Gospel because we are so blessed to have it. I know that the priesthood is the power of God and I am so blessed to be part of this gospel that has the true power of the priesthood. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World. I know that God lives and loves each of us perfectly no matter what we have done. I love you all so much! Share the gospel like there's no tomorrow! Work hard, pray hard!

Sent from my iPad

 

The Oregonians are Amazing!!!

This week went by so fast! it feels like i just emailed you yesterday! but it has been so so good! sister Lawson had some deaths in her family this week and it was so hard for her but she is so strong! so to cheer her up, we went "swinging in the rain" on monday. clever, i know. it was so much fun! we just swung on the swings and talked and laughed. it was good.

Then we went to a part member family to teach their 22 year old daughter. she is so awesome. we immediately clicked and i clicked with the mom too! we made so much headway with them and taught for what felt like 20 minutes, but in actuality it was 2 hours! ahh this was so bad. let me explain. so we got to her house at 8:30. we began teaching and time went by so fast! i kept checking my watch to make sure we didnt go over time and at 9:20 we closed and left. little did i know that im still not an expert at watch reading. it was 10:20! we turned on our phone once we got in the car and we had a million texts and voicemails. people were looking everywhere for us! haha it was so bad! so i accidently broke curfew. on a high note, we taught the restoration this week and committed the girl to baptism! she is 21 and it was the most powerful first lesson in the world!

Then we took Kylee to the visitors center. she is getting baptized this saturday and we had a really good experience with her and her mom, who is a recent convert. they are awesome and im pumped for Kylee. On thursday the oregonians showed their true colors. the weirdest things happened to me that day! to start the day, one of our investigators dropped us. we were pretty bummed. so we went and tracted to lift our spirits. not one single door in the entire neighborhood went untracted and all of them went unopened, except for 1. and this 1 will forever haunt me. haha im kidding, but it was pretty weird. we went to this house and saw a man sitting in his garage so we went and talked with him. he accepted a book of mormon and it went great! then his 16 year old nephews came out and they were awesome! super interested in the message and we were pumped. then their dad came out. sister lawson continued to talk to the boys while i addressed their father. he was really nice... but insane. he told me about a vision that he saw on april 20 of last year. thats national weed smoking day mind you. he told me about the whole thing and i listened very intently. then he told me that because of this vision, God gave this man His powers. and now this man is God. this is the second person i have met on my mission that thinks he is God! haha its wild! but he said that he can command the birds and everything that resides on earth. a man rode his bike by us and he said he commanded that man to do that to prove to me that he is God. Then he told me that i am God's wife. so yeah. i was confused and sister lawson just laughed and let it all happen! then he tried to convert me to catholism and said he commanded me to come here so i could be edified. so basically it was a conversion war and everyone lost. ha it was funny though and we are going to go back for the other three.

On the way home that night we saw a naked lady! Dustin Phelps will appreciate this story. So we live in a sketchy apartment complex. as we pulled up we saw this lady holding a cell phone, butt naked, running for her life. then we saw a teenage boy running after her. he tackled her to the ground, retrieved the cell phone, and walked away. needless to say, we called the cops. haha it was awesome though. he leveled her!

On saturday when sister lawson woke up, she was hurting really bad. she thinks she tore her shoulder again so she had to go to the hospital. but i really wanted to keep our appointments so i went on splits with a laurel named meta claus while a ward member took her to the hospital. it went so good! we found a potential investigator, committed a woman to working towards the temple for her endowment, and taught kylee. it was so much fun and now im the driver in the companionship! which makes me feel awesome.  

Yesterday was fast sunday and i bore my testimony so that the ward would know who i am. it went really well. i love the ward im in. they all call me sister goober cause they learned that i worked at goobs pizza. so yay. my life is awesome. my pride is nowhere to be found.

This 79 year old woman in my ward, who i totally identify with, calls me sister hips. she danced for 2 weeks straight at a dance marathon and only got second! that was a long time ago but last night she taught me all the ways to dance when you're really tired. it got weird haha. she so funny though and an awesome ward missionary.

This morning i was reading in 2 nephi 31, which is essentially Nephi's last words. the most important things to him are written in this chapter and coincidentally, they are the most important things for us too! i encourage you to read that chapter cause it rocks so hard. it speaks of the doctrine of Jesus Christ: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. there is nothing more important. these are the steps to eternal life. plain and simple. after we do these things, it is so important that we continue to do them! don't give up, don't quit. endure to the end! i see so many people every day that have done it all but have not endured and they all say the same thing: i did everything i was supposed to do. why am i not happy? the happiness comes from the experiences we have after baptism. using our gift of the holy Ghost to uplift us. i won't say much more because i want all of you to read 2 nephi 31 and think, what does this mean to me? what is nephi trying to get across? why are these his last words? what can i do to come closer to my savior. the answer will always include the healing and changing power of the atonement, which is the most important thing in this life. i have seen it work in so many lives but mostly my own.

There is a wedding on friday and a baptism on saturday. neither of which would be taking place if it wasn't for Jesus Christ and His atonement. His gift to us all. I love you all so much! work hard, pray hard!