Tracting and working hard!

Alright folks!

 

Get ready for the best email of your life.

First off, good news: IM ALIVE! No stomach flu can keep this tiger caged, no sir! Sister ferrel and I were up and running by Wednesday night because I literally could not handle doing nothing anymore. It was almost the death of me. So we went out and about contacting potentials since we didn't have any set appointments. It was so good to be out! 

 

So, as you know, I have the worlds most spiritually inspired mission president. His latest revelation goes by the name of "Finding Friday" which means every Friday from 5-7 I'll tracting, no exceptions. This also means no dinner, but President promised that if every missionary in this mission will be faithful to the very minute of these two hours, and coupled with fasting for that meal, we would see miracles in our area and would without a doubt find people to find, teach, and baptize in our tracting. Many missions in the US have cut out tracting, but that's where 19% of our baptisms come from in this mission and it hits home for me because that is how we found Devon and Gerise! So yeah, tracting is kind of a big deal.

 

Anyways this Friday was sister Ferrel's birthday and we had so many people inviting us over for dinner and birthday cake. Satan is cruel! But, sister ferrel, the gem that she is, withstood these temptations and we worked hard during our finding time. We seriously had the best tracting in those two hours than I've had my whole mission. We had a meaningful conversation with each person that answered the door, handed out a bunch of Book of Mormons, and found a lot of potential investigators and 2 new investigators! One of them is a young Mennonite boy. We knocked on his door and he looked so shocked to see us! He said he was just reading his Book of Mormon a few days ago that missionaries had given his family years before. So cool! It made me realize how important it is to get a Book of Mormon into every home! You never know who or when it will be read, but it will be! As we were tracting I was prompted to visit a former investigator that we had dropped. She was avoiding us like the plague for a really long time and we hadn't seen her in forever. I didn't want to go back because every time we try she just sits in her living room and stares at us but won't come to the door. But, I told sister ferrel we needed to stop by so we did. As we were walking up she was sitting on her porch and jumped up when she saw us and gave us both a hug. She brought us right in, sat us down, and asked us if we really believe that God loves us. This was the perfect intro to the restoration where we taught her all about the immense love God has for us. We are His world! We introduced the Book of Mormon and she just loved it! She said "oh good, so you're Christians with bonus material? I always thought that God had more to say than what was written in the bible alone. He knows everything! There's gotta be more!" So we told her that we continue to receive his guidance and counsel today through a living prophet. Goodness me, it was the best lesson ever! She has two kids that are 5 and 3 and a niece that is 15 and they all sat in on the lesson and loved it! We are going back this week to teach them more! 

 

If I've learned 1 thing on my mission, it's that God comes through. He keeps His promises. He's got our back. If we do our part, he'll never fail to do His. I know that to be true and I know He loves us. I am so happy to be with my new companion! She has the same sense of humor as me. She is my best friend! We get along so good and she always makes up raps to teach the gospel haha they're so funny.

 

Mom I loved the shirts and I needed them! You rock! Anyways, I love you all!
Work hard, pray hard!
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So Sick today and a new companion!

Hey mom!

Just want you to know, I'm alive. But barely! I've been throwing up non stop for the past 24! So on Monday I got my new companion, Sister Ferrel. She's from Maryland, which is refreshing, and has been out for 10 months. She is so sweet and really funny. She's short too which is nice.

While we were at transfer meeting two sisters came up to me and said that there is a brother and sister Udall in their ward that want to meet me. And now for the life of me I can't remember either of their first names, but brother Udall grew up in Eagar! He lived by the old Udall barn across from Arby's. He said I must be the granddaughter of Little Gay and Ann Bigelow and told me all about them! It was so fun. His dad's name was Joseph I believe. Not sure. Anyways I sent a picture of me with them so you'll have to ask grandma if she remembers him. 

Yesterday I woke up feeling completely awful. I decided to just muscle through it and do personal and companionship study anyways and then go to our appointments. Yeah, that plan failed. Halfway through comp study I was camped in the bathroom puking my guts out. Sister ferrel and I decided that i probably shouldn't go out, so I stayed with our relief society president while sister ferrel went out with members to our lessons. She is such a hardworking and faithful companion! She's excited to be here because we average about 30 lessons a week. This area is exploding like it's nobody's business. I need to go throw up now, but I'll talk to you next week! Love you mom!

 

It was so good to Skype yesterday!

Hi mom!

It was so good to talk to you and see you last night! Everyone in the ward kept coming up to us at church yesterday with watery eyes and asking if we've skyped yet. When we said no they got all sympathetic and offered their houses and computers. This ward loves missionaries. I am taken care of so well here! I wish I could stay in this area my whole mission. I hope I stay for a long time like Goodes did in his first area.

I'm super stoked for smellie Stellie's call! Korea! You and John are going to love kimchi together. I eat kimchi here at an Asian members house and it's pretty good so don't fret. 

Not much is new that I didn't already tell you over skype last night but I will tell you of an awesome experience we had with a man named Paul. Paul is the husband of a former less active that we helped reactivate in our ward. A few days ago we took them to the visitors center and had a lesson there. We are so blessed in this mission to have a temple nearby AND a visitors center. We started with the narration of the Christis which was amazing. Paul commented on how seeing the open arms of the savior gives him hope and helps him know that Christ's hands are always reaching out to us, hoping we'll grab on and come to Him. 

Then we watched Gods Plan for the Family, which is the tearjerkingest video known to man basically. Every time I watch it I think of the time cammie and I bawled through the entire thing at the Mesa temple visitors center. Anyways, Paul loved that too! We walked the grounds with him and talked about the sealing power that is only available in God's holy temples. He was so excited to do the work for his ancestors and he isn't even baptized! So, we invited him and he said yes! It was amazing! Leilani was so happy and so was Paul. 

I love this gospel so much and how happy it makes people. I know it's true. I know it's the most important thing in the world. In fact, coming to know God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent, is THE most important thing we can do in this life. I hope we never hesitate to share it. I love you all with my whole heart! Work hard, pray hard! 

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Cinco de mayo reminds me of Tell

Hola Mama! Happy Cinco de Mayo! I hope the high school kids in round valley are doing the cinco de mayo parade tonight! I feel like that should be done every year in honor of its founder, Tell Udall. He is the only person I can think of that would start such a wicked awesome and completely ridiculous tradition like that and have it catch on haha Tell will forever be a hero to me! I am so thankful to know that families are forever. That we are still a family in heaven and he will always be my big cousin. I look forward to the day he leads us all in Telga in its most perfect state!  I'm also so stoked for Kenny Cakes! My companions dad served in that same mission and loved it! He says it's the best mission in the world. I'm in favor of the OPM, but the Dakota's are like a sister to me or something. And I can't believe stellaphants papers are in! What a woman! Portland is my prediction and I'm almost never wrong. Things are going swimmingly here in Sherwood! Riley did not get baptized this weekend because she has decided to wait for her brother that we are working with to get the priesthood so that he can participate in the baptism. I am so excited and I love to see how this gospel brings families closer. This week I went to Portland for the first time and went into the world infamous Voodoo doughnuts. It was wild and semi-satanic but really funny. The people in there hate missionaries, both the employees and customers. The doughnuts are shaped like voodoo dolls and have strawberry jelly in the middle for their blood. They have pretzel sticks stuck in them everywhere too. Creepy right? Portland prides itself on being super freaky weird, but i love it! I never want to leave Sherwood, but if I must, I hope to serve in Portland! There's this family in our ward that has a million kids and they are all the most missionary minded family on earth! They are always finding us people to teach and they call us all the time to meet their non member friends. Anyways, we had the chance to teach one of their friends the restoration this week. She has two small boys and has been struggling. She told us that she wants the light that we have. She wants to know how Mormons can be calm with all that's going on in the world. So we taught her the restoration. About how God loves us so much that he has organized us into families and called prophets to lead and guide those families back to Him. We taught her that God is listening to her prayers and He will answer them, just like He did for 14 year old Joseph Smith. We taught her that through the prophets we've receive the revelation that our families can be forever if we abide by the laws Christ has set. We taught her that she has a savior that has paid the ultimate price because to Him she is worth it. The gospel is so simple, and these simple truths help us as members to be calm despite the chaos around us. We have a hope for brighter days to come and the knowledge that God will not fail us, nor forsake us. "Above all, never lose faith in your Father in Heaven, who loves you more than you can comprehend." - Elder Jeffrey R Holland. I hope you all are having missionary experiences! Don't forget, Elder Ballard challenged us all to find people for the missionaries to teach at least four times a year. That was a commandment from God through one of His servants, so it is not to be taken lightly :) I love you all so much! Work hard, pray hard!  Oh, and by the way, the pictures are of me at voodoo and of me lifting a tree out of the road so we could get to our appointment :)