A Clown answered the door!

Hey mom! 

Life is going good, thanks for asking! It's been a great week here in Gresham. Oregon forgot that it's supposed to rain every day so it was super dry the last few weeks, but don't worry, it remembered. It's been raining and windying (that one is for you cammie) all week! It's been nice, but cold. We did a ton of finding this week. We spent a few hours a day tracting in the rain which has become one of my favorite things to do. I thought people would feel bad for us and let us in, but I think it makes them see us as crazy Mormons battling the elements to drag them to our church. They can't believe we are out in it. But I have seen so many blessings as we have put our trust in The Lord and worked hard. We were tracting one neighborhood this week and no one answered. We were about to leave but I had another one of those test promptings that urged me to knock one more door. So we did.

We waited and waited. I could hear people inside so I didn't understand what the big idea was. So I peaked through this little window by the door and BAM! Clown face! Ha, the clown face then opened the door and talked to us for a minute. It was getting dark and I won't lie I was shaking in my cold, wet boots. My skirt may or may not have been a little wet too. Seriously I was scared! He had the paint and make up on, not a mask, and his teeth were sharp! But, I remembered that this clown is also a child of God and God expects me to say something to him. So we started talking and he said that the missionaries used to come by all the time and teach his mom when he was a kid. He said he always liked them and told us a few memories he had of them. We taught him a Book of Mormon and he accepted it. Then we set up a return appointment with him and his mom. Don't worry, he's normal. I guess he just wanted to scare us haha.

We had another funny experience too. During our prayer one night I got he distinct impression to visit a certain less active lady in our ward at 6:30 the next evening. So we did. We got up to the door, knock knock knocked, and she answered almost immediately! She was so happy to see us! She welcomed us right in, told us to take off our boots, and then introduced herself as Kyle's mom. We were like, who's Kyle? And then she saw the tags. Apparently 6:30 is when her son Kyle's girlfriend and her mom were going to come over, and she thought we were them. So she let us in. And at this point we were standing in her kitchen in our sock feet. I have learned on my mission that I am really good at getting into strangers kitchens. You could tell she was so mad at herself for what she had done, but we seized this opportunity to talk to her and her family. Her son plays center field on the baseball team at his high school so we talked about that for forever! And her husband told us he died on the operating table twice last week. So yeah, it was a miracle. The funniest part is that as we were leaving his girlfriend was pulling up, so it looked like he was two timing her. Ha it was so awkward but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

We had an awesome lesson with Tina this week where she committed to be baptized. We had such a great week I wish you all could be here and experience the amazing things that I get to experience. I feel like the luckiest person in the world. My mission is without a doubt the greatest thing I have ever done in my live. It surpasses any diving catch I've made in the outfield or any volleyball game I've ever won. The uniform isnt as comfortable, but I never wanna take off this tag. I love Jesus Christ so much. I hope you all know how real He is and how aware He is of your situation. I know that this is God's church and I know that Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. Love you all so much!

 



hi mama bear!

you and the doctor are besties now huh? Ryan is so awesome. I love hearing things about him. how tall is he? if he's taller than me now I will be shocked. im proud of baby kate for making the volleyball team! she better wrap her head in pre wrap for a headband. keep the tradition alive.

Gresham is exuberant! of course I still love it here. its the promised land! this is the place moses and the children of Israel spent 40 years wandering looking for! too bad they never found it. its a gem. transfers are two weeks from now. everyone tells me that time flies by so much faster when you're training and they would be right! I feel like sister Russell just got here! we are having a great time though! this has been a pretty good week. its had some ups and some downs. i'll explain a little of both.

 so sister Russell was pretty sick this week, which resulted in both of us spending a lot of time in the apartment. president ballard said that all day every day we should be asking ourselves "what is the best thing I can be doing with my time right now?" well, I asked myself that and the answer I decided on was I needed to be finding more investigators. one problem. we were stuck in the apartment. so I looked through our cell phone and started calling everyone in there that I didn't know. I ended up teaching a few lessons over the phone and got five or six return appointments! I was so stoked! that's better than any day ive ever had tracting. we will be seeing a lot of those people this week and im really excited. especially because we had to pass of 3 progressing investigators this week. they moved out of our area so they have different missionaries now. it was bittersweet. i get really close to the people i teach and then poof! they're gone. this next week we are dedicating our time to finding new people to teach. its going to be great.

 we had our ward Halloween party this week. it was awesome because almost everyone brought their friends and neighbors! we talked to so many people and found some cool families from that as well. we had dinner with one of my favorite families this week. we ate some chicken and then they said they wanted to take us for dessert but the place was a surprise. they took us to the one and only salt and straw! if you haven't heard of it, look it up. it will save your life. they have so many different kinds of ice cream and theyre all really weird: pear and bleu cheese, Hawaiian (with real pork bits inside), honey lavender, mince meat pie, apple pie and cheddar, and many more. its weird. well they had one kind called dracula's blood pudding and i asked to sample it. the lady got me a spoonful and said it has real pigs blood in it, is that okay? i thought about it for a quick minute, and decided that since ive eaten steak medium rare, this isn't much different. so i tried it. it really wasn't bad! it was pretty good actually. so yeah, that happened. i'd love to stay and chat but i have to go have a nerf war. to answer your question mom, i desperately need new boots. mine are all ripped up . i love you forever!



All is Well!!

okay is dad lazy rafter R? or who is that? im going to trust that its dad because thats his favorite brand other than flying box. family i am excited to be emailing you today. its been a great week, but also a really weird one. we have had cancellation after cancellation. no love for the sisters! but for some reason its still been really fun. im so proud of Ryan. and as for the Round Valley St Johns thing, i know of another instance when someone was falsely accused and slandered. in John 15 the Savior warns His disciples that this may happen to them and He explains why. 

 

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 

19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but i have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 

 

those that follow the example of Jesus Christ are often hated because of it, and i know that Round Valley folks are good people. the Savior sets the example for us of what we can do as we endure persecution in 1 Nephi 19:9

 

"wherefore the scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men."

 

Christ endured a lot of persecution, and as disciples of Christ we should expect to endure a portion of that persecution, too. But, the good news is that even though the battle between good and evil is still raging on, the winner has already been declared. we know that God's team will come off conqueror, and Round Valley already beat St Johns. all is well :)

 

its been a really great week! we went on an exchange this week so i spent all day on wednesday with sister halgran from colorado. tuesday night i got a strong impression that we need to visit melody, a former investigator. now for all you who, like me before my mission, think promptings are constant in missionary work, i am here to tell you that they are not. God usually makes us earn them. so for me, its always really exciting to get a prompting and have it work out for me. have i ever told you about the 3 different kinds of promptings?

 

i decided that there are 3. 1) homeruns. the kind that when you walk up to the door the person had actually prayed you there. or some kind of miracle results from them. 2) indirect. when you feel you need to see someone in particular, but really God just needs you to be headed that way so you can meet someone else He has in mind for you. and last, and certainly the most common in my case is 3) test promptings. you feel strongly that you need to go somewhere or see someone and no one comes to the door. those happen to me 99% of the time, and the other two kinds make up .5% each. well, i guess i was having a .5% kind of day, because i felt prompted to go, and melody burst into tears when we got there. she said she had prayed us over. she lost our number and didnt know how to find us, but her mom had just passed away and she instantly felt that she needed to speak with us. AMAZING! we were able to teach her the plan of salvation and we had the elders come over and give her a blessing. it was so great and she really started feeling better after that. the spirit was almost visible! if i can try to describe it, it was like when youre sick and you get that weird, clear, filmy goop that covers your cornea sometimes. thats basically how the room looked when we all opened our eyes.

 

 it was really funny though because afterwards she wanted a picture with all of us and while we were standing there smiling she grabbed each of the elders butts! i didnt even know it. shes like 60 something so i didnt expect it. but later elder robinson looked at me and mouthed the words "she grabbed my butt." then elder alatini said the same thing. it was hilarious. i laughed the rest of the day about that.

 

 we also had the opportunity to watch meet the mormons this week! it was awesome! i laughed, i cried, and i really felt the spirit. its an awesome movie and goes through the lives of 6 people from around the world. i encourage you to invite a friend to go with you. they'll like it! i am grateful to be a missionary in the OPM! i love it here and i love all of you! mom, youre in trouble cause you didnt update me on your breasties. but i still like you. tell cammie happy birthday! i have a really funny card coming her way. well, i love you all! work hard, pray hard!

 

sister Udall

 

Embarrassing Moment For Sister Udall

 



Mom!

 I got your letter! And insanity! I love that you told me not to lend
it to my fat friends haha.

I'm glad we smashed St. John's! Glad, but
not surprised. I knew baby Boey was the biggest stud in the whole
world. Proud of him!

This has been a good week but it will be a short
email because I'm running out of time. So, I had one of those moments
that only happen to me again this week. I was trying to be all big and
bad because I'm a trainer and I told sister Russell I didn't need the
gps and I knew where our appointment was. So we drove down there,
parked the car, said a prayer, and headed up the steps. The front gate
was locked. I didn't remember them having a front gate, but I
rationalized that it was probably open last time and I didn't notice.
So we started trying to jimmy the lock and get in there because we
knew this family and they knew we were coming. It was our dinner
appointment. Then some guy walked out of the house. I didn't recognize
him, but the first thought that came to my missionary mind was "oh
good! They invited friends for dinner! Hopefully we can teach them!"
He came and helped us with the gate and we followed him up on the
deck. He started talking to us and then he headed inside, so naturally
I followed him. I was standing in his kitchen when he said sorry
ladies but we're in the middle of dinner. I replied "that's what we're
here for!" He looked so confused so I asked if this was the bardi's
home. He said no. I continued to stand in this strangers kitchen. It
was so awkward. Haha I had no idea what to say and we were late for
our dinner by this time so we left. I'm still laughing about it though
because I know he was super creeped that I just walked right into his
house. Haha it was so great. We are going to go back though because he
seemed super open and we already got our foot in the door, pun
intended.

We had a real miracle this week though. We have this
investigator couple, kami and Kevin, who rock so hard! We taught them
the plan of salvation this week and they both told us that they
already knew it. They said they believed this all along but didn't
know there was a church for it haha. It was awesome! They both just
said it makes complete sense. I love hearing those words. They're
praying about baptism right now. I love them so much! We had other
awesome things happen, but I have no time! I love you very much!

The crowning event of the week-- Lois's Baptism

hi mom!

 

This has been a crazy week! i dont even know where to start! i think i will talk about lindsay and scottie first. we had a great week with them. we took them to the visitor's center where we watched "God's Plan for His Family." that movie always reminds me of cammie because of how much her and i cried that one time we watched it in the mesa temple visitor's center. anyways we did that and we showed them a ton of other things there as well. by the end of it they were so excited to be married and then sealed in a year. and, get this, scottie has been cigarette free for 4 days now! he is so dedicated! its so hard for him and the cravings come strong and often, but he carries around a bottle of grapefruit juice and takes a swig of it ever time he gets the urge to have a cigarette. he is doing so great. he told me that i have to give up sugar and peanut butter if he has to give up cigarettes, so yay for me! this is my third sugar fast on my mission! i never realized how hard it is to give it up because its just part of my life. people offer dessert to me all the time and i swear sugar is in EVERYTHING. even though its not the same as giving up smoking and nowhere near as hard, im grateful to do it because it helps me get a small taste of what Heavenly Father is asking them to do and how hard it must be for them. 

 

We had a mission tour this week and elder Johnson of the seventy came and spoke to us. it was amazing! he talked a lot about "becoming" disciples of Christ and how we do that. he invited all the bishops, ward mission leaders, and ward missionaries of the wards to come to the conference and in the middle of the meeting he paired us up with one and had us teach them any one of the 42 principles in preach my gospel. we got paired up with a man in our ward that we know pretty well. he is extremely active and i couldnt help but feel silly teaching him a lesson on things he knows all about. i got the impression to teach the atonement and sister larsen said she had the same impression come to her. so we shared a lesson with him and it was easily one of the most spiritual experiences i've ever had on my mission. this man was in tears for a minute talking about the trials he was enduring and how amazing it was that we were able to know what he needed to hear. i was so thankful for the spirit at that moment because i know that there is nothing i couldve said to help him, but the spirit can always testify to their hearts if we'll just get out of His way. it was great and i learned so much about teaching people, not lessons.

 

the crowing event of this week had to be Lois's baptism. let me tell you a little about Lois. she is 78, completely blind and has been for quite some time, mostly deaf, is in a wheel chair, and has no family other than her niece. she had a really rough life full of experiences you cant imagine. despite all this she is happier than anyone i know, loves more than anyone i know, and has the faith of the brother of Jared. she cant swim and is terrified of water, so naturally baptism wouldnt be her cup of cocoa. but as we taught her the doctrine of baptism she understood that Jesus Christ requires it of her and the blessings far outweigh any fears she may have going into it. the day of her baptism she started to cry because she was so nervous. we told her that she didnt have to do it if she didnt want to, but she said she knew Jesus Christ wants her to. so we managed to get her in a white jumpsuit and just before she walked into the font, she gave us her hearing aids so they wouldnt get all wet. most people have the privilege of having all 5 senses as they make this covenant, but Lois did it with only 3! she was baptized by her neice's  husband and both the elders were in the water as well to help her up and down the stairs and make sure she could get all the way under. it took her awhile to get down the steps into the font, and after about two steps she said "Jesus is making me work hard for this one" haha it was the sweetest thing ever! they eventually got her baptized and after she came out of the water she said "jesus got my hair all wet, but i know he's with me in my whole body," haha it was the cutest thing ever! it was the most moving baptism ive ever witnessed. talk about blind faith. there's a quote and i cant remember who said it, but they said if we teach the doctrine of the gospel clearly that people would crawl over broken glass to get to the baptismal font. well, to me, that basically what Lois did. she's amazing and i absolutle love her!

 

So, here's some big news. I have a daughter! my firstborn daughter in the wilderness, as Lehi would say. im training a new missionary. he name is sister Russel. she is from Las Vegas. she is a lot of fun and im really excited to be her companion. im super nervous because i feel like im still being trained myself, but one thing that elder Johnson told us this week is that there is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone. i think you can guess what zone im in. im really excited though! i love her so much and im excited to work hard alongside her. mom, i love you so much. im sorry that you have to have chemo. i pray for you daily. my companions think im weird cause i call you mom in my prayers. i dont say my mom, just mom. thats just who you are! you're mom! you're the best mom in the whole wide world. you're a million and two times greater than anything i could ever dream to be! i love you with all my heart momma! i better get going, but i want you all to know and to never forget that i told you that God lives. He loves us. those are facts. spread the word. 

 

sister udall



His Gospel is a Pearl Of Great Price

Dear Family, 

 

Hey! How is Arizona? It looks like it's all underwater! That's wild! We had a super good week!

First off, we set a baptismal date with our blind investigator, Lois, for this coming Saturday. We are pretty pumped! Did I already tell you that people from her old church were coming to read her anti Mormon material? Can you believe that? Why I oughta! But I won't. She told them to bag their groceries and get out of her life. Haha I'm not even sure what that means, but I'm Glad she said it

We had a really cool miracle this week too. We had been introduced to this girl, Kami, by her foster mom, who is a returning member. She wasn't interested AT ALL when we first met her, so we left it alone. Last week while we were at wal Mart we saw her working there so we went up and talked to her for awhile. We had some good laughs, me and her had the same bracelet on, we left her with our number and told her to call us of there was anything we can do for her. She had told us that she had been disowned by her foster mom and was pregnant and looking for a place. They had been living out of their car for a little while. We didn't expect to hear from her, but this week she called us up and wanted to meet up with us! We were both excited .   We decided to meet with her even though there wasn't much we could do for her. We got there and had a good time getting to know her and her boyfriend. They are both so much fun and we got along great. Sister Larsen and I, thinking we knew everything, started telling them that we couldn't do much for them financially. Kami responded by saying she doesn't want money, she just wants answers. She told us how ever since she got pregnant she's had this strong desire to know Gods plan for her and her family. She told us how she just wants to find something she believes and she wants to know more about our church. I felt like the lowest piece of dirt around. I had some major repenting to do for that one. I was so humbled right then and I learned an important lesson from God. The message of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His gospel is worth more than anything we have to give in this life. It is the pearl of great price talked about in the New Testament. It's the treasure found in a field that a man sold all his possessions for. It is the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. This entire life is for us to "prepare to meet God" so regardless of our financial or physical situation, a testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon is the most important thing we can have. This mortal life is just a knot on the rope of eternity, and the suffering that we will endure will all be for our good as we continue to rely on the merits of the savior.

We had the chance to teach Kami and Kevin the restoration this week and the spirit was incredibly strong. I think what added to it most was the members. We taught in a members home and they all testified of what we taught. People, have the missionaries in your home to teach discussions. It helps. A lot. Sorry this email is long, but to wrap it up I want to tell you that Richard got baptized! It was amazing! I got to go back to Aloha to watch him be baptized. He was so happy and I am so proud of him. We also went to the visitors center this week and I met some Vancouver missionaries that knew Rex! Crazy! Well, I better close this long and crazy email. Sorry my thoughts get jumbled. I love you all very much. Mom, will you still send me insanity? I would greatly appreciate it :) work hard, pray hard! 

Sister Udall 

Modest is hottest

Dear Dad

 

That's weird. I never email you. It's always mom! How are you?
I can't believe everything you told us! So you find out tomorrow huh? Make sure you call my mission president and have him tell me the results. If I have to wait till next Monday I will probably die. I'm not worried though because I know that mom is really athletic and she can conquer anything that comes her way.


Tell me who is getting baptized back home! That is fantastic! For some reason I hate that you said the word breast dad haha you should never say that word again.


This has been a really great week. We have taught a record number of lessons for this area this week! We were really pumped. We found a new investigator. She told us to call her auntie Helen. She is so sweet. She is a horse breeder and she is trying to give me her little Australian shepherd to take home. The way we found her is kind of funny. So there is this guy named Mike in our ward. He is the nicest guy in the world and he's not all there mentally. He gives us two big bags of kettle corn a week, and he gives me peanut butter and peaches since I love them. Well he invited a friend of his out to lunch with us. She is catholic and pretty old. She is the coolest lady ever. We started teaching her and she was really excited when we mentioned forever families. And get this, she loves the principle of tithing. She knows that the true church will have a set tithe. She's totally right about that, but most people struggle with the thought of tithing. We have another appointment with her this week and we are pretty excited.


Today this guy named Woody took us golfing and that was really sweet. I'm not very good haha but it was fun. We were in a trio this week with my MTC companion, sister porter! It was so fun to be with her again! We taught some sweet lessons, including one on virtue to this young girl. We taught about being modest in our clothes and our words and actions. Then we had a fashion show where we made modest outfits out of toilet paper. That was really fun. It's been a really great week, but I feel like I don't have much to say. I love my area a lot though. I hope everyone is doing good back home! I love you all very much! Work hard, pray hard!