January 27th 2015

hey fam! 

how's your time? mine is flying by! we had an amazing week! im writing today because yesterday was transfers but not to worry, sister jensen and i are staying together here in west linn. this week was so good. we had so many miracles and amazing lessons that im not sure if i can include them all but i will try. okay so on thursday we went to the food pantry to do service like we always do. its all part of the Just Serve initiative put out by the church. we are a test mission for it. we're a test mission for everything actually.

we have been instructed specifically that we are not to proselyte at these service projects. just serve, and if they approach you then you can teach. so thats what we do and we have made some amazing friends there! some of the best people in the world work at the little food pantry in the Methodist Church in West Linn. so we were working this Thursday and my favorite guy there, Phil, came up to us and said that he has been trying to read the book of mormon but it just has too many words and he's rather just go to church with us and see what its all about. AMAZING! then him and Lonnie, my other favorite guy, offered to take us out to dinner with them and their wives. we went and they asked us so many questions about what we believe and our missions in general. they asked about the temple so we offered to take them to the visitor's center and they said YES! not only that, but after we got side tracked on something else the wife, Kathy, pulled us back because we hadnt set up a time. they are so prepared and excited to learn more. Lonnie is the sweetest man ever and he bought us a present. we opened it and it was a picture of the temple and a bracelet that says "be your best self." he had bought them at deseret book. he literally googled it and went there because he wanted to see what it was all about and then he bought us gifts. it was so sweet! it was such a huge miracle and i am so grateful that God inspired His prophets to have the missionaries serving in the community.

we met with Misa again this week a couple of different times which was awesome! Misa is progressing so well and she loves the Gospel and learning about Jesus Christ. we have translators in all of our lessons which is really nice for her and us. last sunday a less active man and his wife who is not a member came to church. we got to talking with her and she wanted to take us to lunch. so last saturday we went out to lunch with her and got to know her pretty well. she is from Romania and is a anesthesiologist here in Portland. she is sooo smart. she told us that when she came to church with us she was touched at how sincere all the members were as they bore their testimonies and spoke from the pulpit. she loved it. she said that we have something that she doesnt have in her church and she wants to know more! so we were able to teach her in the restaurant and we gave her a book of mormon which she is really excited to read. she asked if we can start teaching her family ever saturday. um, of course we can! we have seen so many miracles this week! this has been my hardest but most rewarding area. i feel like i have put more of my heart and more hard work into this area than ever before and for awhile we weren't really seeing the fruits of our labors, but last week we saw so many miracles. i have firm testimony in the power of prayer. our prayers dont change the will of God, they help us to know what we can do to "be our best selves" and become what He has planned for us. God is so aware of us, especially when we are doing His work. i havent seen huge miracles on my mission. ive never seen an angel or any of that. my mission has consisted of small daily miracles, and because of the miracles ive experienced i know that this truly is the Lord's work. this week has been kind of scary in that we live in a sketchy apartment. it all started a couple of weeks ago when people started meeting by our window to sell drugs. specifically, meth. we had the cops and our apartment manager come by and ask us about it. it was pretty scary. apparently we live right by a suspected crack house. so thats been wild. on wednesday we went outside to go exercise and the big blue trashcan thing was on fire! haha it was so weird! on top of that we havent had hot water for the last 2 weeks. we have either been showering in the icy water or going to members homes. but the worst of it all is there is a creepy guy that lives upstairs. he is constantly texting and calling and telling us super weird things and he occasionally knocks on our door. it was getting a little out of hand, so we told him he cant come to our door anymore. that only made it worse. now he leaves weird books on our doorstep about not nice things and he is constantly begging us for money. needless to say, we no longer felt safe in our apartment, so we moved in with the White's! they are the greatest people in the whole world! the first night we walked in with all of our stuff and she started screaming and saying yay we're gonna have a slumber party! its so cute. we love them. okay, i best be off, but know that i love you very much! 

sister udall