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!

 

PICTURES!!

These adorable little girls call me sister Noodle, and I Love it!  They are taking the Lessons!

This week rocked my world! let me explain why. so Tuesday morning started out so rough. all out appointments called and cancelled and sister Lawson and I were both discouraged and just not the happiest of campers. so we decided to say a prayer to know what we should do that day. not even an hour later we get a phone call from president morby saying that if we had time we could go to the temple! it made so much sense that all of our appointments cancelled! we needed temple time! so we went! it was my first time inside the Portland Temple and it was amazing! i received so much peace and knowledge and ideas for our investigators and sister Lawson did too. we really needed to be in the temple that day.

so last week we were tracting and this young couple chewed us out so bad! they were completely ruthless. just keep that in mind. so on our way home from the temple our ward mission leader calls and says to go to a certain address because a less active family had moved in and they needed help. the street sounded so familiar and when we got there, lo and behold it was our friends that chewed us out last week! it was awesome! neither of us brought up the incident. it remained an elephant in the room the whole time but we got to know them pretty well and they invited us to come back! so we're seeing them again this week! the Lord has a way of softening hearts i'll tell ya that much.

 on tuesday a lady in our ward volunteered to come out with us which is the best thing in the world! she was so sweet and kind and knowledgeable in the gospel. you would never guess, but she is from St Johns, Arizona. her name is sister Rasmussen but her maiden name was LeFevre. i guess i better admit to sister nicoll that not everyone from st johns is all bad. that felt awful as i typed it though.

The whole week was just miracle after miracle. sister Lawson is so spiritually in tune. we were driving along the other day about to go tracting and she stopped the car and said we need to visit the simmons. the simmons are a recently converted family and they are awesome. the only people that hadnt been baptized was micah and his girlfriend alex. well, when we went over there alex was crying and hugged us and said we were an answer to her prayers. long story short, her and micah are getting married in two weeks and baptized shortly thereafter! Bishop calls sister lawson and I cupids because we keep getting everyone married haha.

so on friday we did service for a woman who is quite seasoned if you're catchin my drift. she has been all over the world! she was cleaning out all of her stuff and we went to help and she gave me a little glass bird from norway! its awesome and you're supposed to fill it with potpurri so that will be fun for me.

 that night we took D&G to the visitors center. it was amazing. they both cried as we watched God's plan for His Family. The portland temple has an atrium on the inside thats garnished with beautiful plants and we took them in there and they both bore their testimonies to us! then they said they want to serve missions when they are retired. keep in mind, they are 24 and 22. i was just awestruck. i looked at them like where did you come from? they are amazing and so prepared by the Lord! ahh!

 but, lets get down to the nitty gritty, shall we? I SAW ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON! yes! he came to our stake conference! he also did a special missionary meeting and spoke to us all there. then he came to the baptism of a twelve year old boy in our ward! it was awesome. i saw him in the hallway and he came up to me and shook my hand and said good morning sister udall. yes. he said my name. i said hi back but i accidently said it really loud.

I love everyone!  Thanks for all the letters and the support!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa and Mom and Christie and Rachel and Chris for the awesome letters!  I love getting letters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So send more!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These pictures are of the sunrise in Portland.  I love it here!  It is so beautiful!

I Love my Mission!

Hiya, pal!

 

This week has been so crazy busy i don't even know where to start!

 

So you inquired about the man i gave my BOM to. He is awesome! we went over and as we were walking in he looked really sad. he told me he read the first few chapters and really liked it but his kids yelled at him for it and told him to give the book back and never see us again. so i took the BOM in my hands and it was seriously burning me! i couldnt take it back! i wouldnt take it back! anyways we kept talking to him and ended up teaching him the plan of salvation and he asked us to come again next week! what a miracle! so we're praying for his kids to soften their hearts. they're trying to get him to move to california so he won't see us anymore. anyways i left the BOM behind on the couch cause there is no way i was taking back the first book of Mormon i've ever passed out! but yeah he's awesome.

 

That night we went to a recent convert/ less actives house. she seriously told us her whole life! her daughter, named kylee, made me a purse. i thought they were just really nice and open people but after we left sister lawson was freaking out and said they usually don't let us in the door and they are usually very quiet. but they offered to feed us and kylee has a baptismal date of february 8th! so im stoked. she's fourteen but twice my height im pretty sure.

 

on wednesday we met a multiple personality narcoleptic lady! the elders gave us her as a referral and didnt tell us she wasn't all there so we had no idea! haha i loved my life in that moment. ask stella, i love narcolepsy. but anyways, she told one story, three times, from three different perspectives, without taking a breath. so that was interesting. then she fell asleep haha.

 

also, i met a woman named evie who was married to a wiltbank from springerville! we were so busy every day this week, especially friday. at least, we planned to be busy. besides D & G, all our appointments cancelled! so we went to D & G and just read scriptures with them. we wanted to talk about faith and the first book of scripture to come to mind was alma 34. then i remembered alma 32 was the chapter that said a gillion times but i couldnt get 34 out of my mind so thats what we read. i didnt really think much of it until that night. we gave D & G a tour of the church because they committed to come on sunday. we showed them all the rooms and at the end we took them into the chapel and explained the sacrament and the atonement. as i bore my testimony i was overwhelmed with the spirit. when i stopped speaking D was like, how did you do that? after inquiring of what he was referring to, he said every time you and sister lawson come and start talking about Christ my heart burns and the air feels heavy. and how did you know to read that chapter in the scriptures today? you don't know anything that we're going through, but that fit our lives exactly. after you left we sat down and talked so many things out and our family has become stronger since we've met with you. then they set their own marriage and baptism date! it was awesome! and they asked me to walk with their daughter down the aisle. i was so stunned. they both started crying and said that they feel like they have come home. i can't describe to you the love i have for this family. they have been so prepared to hear the gospel its insane!

 

so we had three nonmembers at church not including D & G's kids. it was the best day ever. they agreed to come to stake conference next sunday and guess who else is coming. ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON! he's even holding a special meeting for just missionaries! im so pumped! i love it here so much.

 

Dad remember how i would always call the man Lot from the scriptures Podifer? well, i taught a member that story and called Lot Podifer again haha. but, the story of it still applied. she is less active and said that she's been gone too long and can't come back because she thinks she lived too bad of a life. so i talked about that story. don't look back. God is providing her a way to escape those things, just like He does for all of us. you've sinned? so what? who hasnt? "God doesnt care nearly as much about where you have been as he does where you are now and, with his help, where you are willing to go" those sins are old news. as we think about them and "look back" like Lot's wife, we get stuck. she turned into a pillar of salt and in a way we do too. we don't allow ourselves to move forward. no one is a lost cause! i love this work and i love my savior Jesus Christ and His atonement. the atonement is a gift from Him to us and i've learned how important it is to use it every single day.

 

mom, guess what. i did a backflip today! i went to a members house and their kids are in gymnastics so they taught me how. i landed it and everything! it was awesome. oh, and i ate vegan food and it was really good! i love you all so much! work hard, pray hard!