Hi Momma!

I can't believe Dustin and Stormy are going to neighboring missions! That's so wild! and im so pumped for Brook and Joel! My pitcher and my home teacher got hitched. that should be some kind of cheesy LDS movie. I'm glad Truse and Trev are moving back home! Eagar is a million times cooler than Logan. I also would like Bishop Bluth's email mom :) and why should I apply for BYU? I still have a long time on my mission. Or is that a normal thing to do? You tell me because I don't know about college stuff.

So, Sister Sparrow and I had a pretty good week! We went up to Mt Hood on p day, and no dad that is not in Washington, its in the beautiful state of Oregon! It was really fun. We went down the alpine slide and did some batting cages which was a dream come true for me! I've had to put softball on the altar of sacrifice because i miss it so much when the weather is nice like this.

I had the awesome opportunity this week to go through the temple with the sweetest lady ever, Sharon, who I taught in Sherwood. I got to sit by her the whole time as she went through the temple to get her endowments. It was a miracle. I just wanted to cry because its coming up on a year when I first got mine and that was such a great day. The temple is the house of the Lord and that becomes obvious when we enter in and feel His love. As we left Sharon told me that she felt 100 pounds lighter and she was just glowing! One of my favorite people of all time, Lisa Dillon from Sherwood, picked me up so I could go to the temple and it was so much fun spending time with her. we are like kindred spirits.

We had another great lesson again this week. We wanted to help our investigator gain a testimony of our prophet, President Monson. We started teaching her about prophets and that we had one today and she was super sketched by that concept. So we whipped out our handy dandy iPads and watched his most recent conference talk with her. She bawled through the whole thing and asked for a printed copy of it so she could read it with her husband. It's so cool to watch people gain a testimony. At the beginning of the lesson she did not believe in modern day prophets but by the end of the lesson she knew that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God! It was amazing! I was so grateful for the iPads at that moment. I know God gave them to us to spread the gospel in a more effective way and it is working!

So on Friday we wanted to do some service for our old lady neighbor, so we set out in jeans and on foot to weed her garden when this young man started running up to us. He was hispanic and in his early thirties at the oldest. He was like oh good you stopped, can i use your phone? So we let him and he was so grateful! He said that everyone was being so mean to him and he got thrown off the bus this morning. He told us so many weird things. he showed us all his stab wounds and talked about how he was raised catholic but he wouldn't mind switching over. He said he'll miss the catholic religion though because apparently that's the gangster religion. We talked to him for almost two hours about the most random stuff. he thinks we are the coolest people ever and he really wants us to go on a pic nic with him. The people you meet on your mission man. We taught him the restoration on the side of the road and afterwards he said dang y'all did a good job preachin to me. haha it was a strange week. and a hot week! My clothes are all way too hot and I don't have time to shop! I pray for rain every day. I love you so much mom! I loved all your letters! oh, and can you believe how fast everything is going by? I've been out for 7 months now. It's going by so fast! love you all! :)
Work hard pray hard.

Dear Mom,

Hey! How's the family? I'm doing great! Things are bumping here in Aloha. We had some awesome experiences. We did some tracting and we found this lady that had just moved here from Iraq! It was sweet. We prayed about where to go and felt really impressed to tract a certain cul-de-sac and we found her! She was so excited to see us and welcomed us right in. We taught her all about the Book of Mormon and about Jesus Christ. She was so sweet and really appreciative of us being there. We wanted to stay longer but we felt impressed to visit this recent convert, so we did. She started crying when she saw us! She had prayed us over that day. She didn't want to ask us to come because she knows we're busy so she asked God to send us. She was going through such a hard time and we had the opportunity to help her which I was so grateful for.

So last week we had a had a competition to see which zone could pass out more book of Mormons. We passed out 216 and we still lost! It's amazing how fast the Book of Mormon is spreading!
It's the word of God though and I know that all men will have the opportunity to read it. I hope they do read it because it's the best and most effective way to come close to our Heavenly Father. The elders in the ward had an awesome and funny experience this week. There's a lady in our ward that is super close to the spirit. She prays every day to know who she can serve that day. One day she felt impressed to bring the elders meat and they were in need of it. Elder snow was telling elder McKee that story and elder McKee, jokingly, said well I've never met her, I hope she feels impressed to bring us something. A few days later she showed up and said she felt impressed to bring them a watermelon! Haha this lady is so sweet! Well that's about all I have today. I miss you all a lot! Love you so much! Work hard, pray hard!
Love, sister U

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

 

I have something to send you but i haven't made it to the post office yet. It's my companions birthday tomorrow so we spent all of today doing the things she wanted to do, which is good cause its been really fun! This has been an awesome week! We started this Book of Mormon challenge in our zone to see who could pass out the most book of Mormons in a week so we'll see how that goes.

 

I don't have much time but I do want to highlight one miracle this week. So we went to our investigator Judy's house this week with the intentions of setting a baptismal date of August 9th with her. We taught her the plan of salvation and she had so many great questions! At the end of the lesson we extended the date and she flopped down on the couch. I thought she had passed out. She's really goofy that way. She was in shock! She was like isn't that a little soon? What do I need to do before then? She is so willing and ready to change. I absolutely love her! 

 

We spent a lot of time tracting this week and it was so hot that after awhile we just got deliriously tired. Sister sparrow said something really funny to me and I could not stop laughing. I just laughed and laughed and even when the guy came to the door to talk to us I was dying laughing. Then everything time i tried to hold it in i would have one of those weird laugh explosions and laugh some more. The guy invited us back though so that was good!  

 

On Saturday I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting. I spoke on faith. We had interviews with our mission president this week and the first thing he said in my interview was "The Lord is hastening His work. We are not. It is His work. Will you keep pace?" you all know how competitive I am, so of course that just got me fired up! I am so grateful and humbled to be part of the Lord's work. I know that this is the most important thing. I wish I would have understood that more growing up. I could have been a much better member missionary and example to my peers and siblings.I have learned so much and I learn more everyday. I love my savior and I know He lives. Happy birthday mom! I love you so so much. You are the greatest gift God had to give and I'm glad He gave you to me. Stay sweet! work hard, pray hard!

Sister Udall

Fourth of July Fireworks with The President and his Wife

                                                                                      This is for Dad and Stella!

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there!

Sorry, I'm feeling Disney lately. How are you Family? Life is great here in Aloha! This week was really good!

 

So Monday night we got to meet with Evelyn! I told you about her right? She's the one that was lead to the church by the spirit. Anyways, we taught her the restoration this week and it was awesome! She has been through so much and lived such a hard life. 

 

We also taught Judy this week, twice! She is amazing! So we went Tuesday and taught her that God is our loving Heavenly Father and she loved it! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she asked if we could come back on Thursday. So we did with the intention of teaching the restoration, but she had so many questions that it was impossible. Get this: she had read through alma between 12 on Tuesday and 4 on Thursday. This lady is legit! So we wanted to teach her the restoration but she really wanted to understand what she was reading even more so she whipped out her Book of Mormon (which was filled with markings and sticky notes) and asked us question after question. She just soaked up the information. Her eyes start to water every time we bear testimony and she always says that this is what she has been looking for and that she has a long way to go but she is excited that she is finally on the path. We invited her to be baptized and she is going to pray about it. 

 

Speaking of prayer, On Tuesday we asked her to say the closing prayer but she felt uncomfortable doing that. On Thursday she said girls I'm saying the prayer this time! She cried during her whole prayer and it had sister sparrow, the member that came, and me all in tears. It was amazing! I love her!

 

So the fourth was pretty good. President wasn't sure what to do, so he pretty much told us to make it a service day and develop relationships with our members. We did so much service, including taking out a a sea of blackberry bushes aka the Black Death. Those things are awful. We had a barbecue with the members that we live with and played games with their family. Then we went to oak hills and watched fireworks with our mission president! I really hate emailing so I'm going to end there. I love you with all my heart! Work hard, pray hard!
Sister U