We were able to go to the Portland Temple today and the visitors
center. I love the temple. I was having a rough morning to say the
least and I could have started off my day better. But when we got to
the temple everything started to look and feel better and I am so
grateful for that! I love that I was able to go to the temple with
Sister Mecham. She is such a spiritual leader! So I am sorry that I
was not able to write yesterday but that is why. I am so very sorry
that all of my letters lately have been super short and uninformative
as to what is happening. I am very grateful for this week! We had a
Specialized Training and Interviews this past week and I loved being
able to see both Pres. and Sis. Greer! I love them both so much! This
week was pretty great. Although we were not required to do exchanges
this transfer, we were grateful for the opportunity to still do one
with Sisters Brown and Ireland. They are great! I was able to return
again to my former area of Mountain View and Clark YSA wards and
Sister Ireland came over here to work with Sister Mecham. Sister Brown
and I both thought it was a good idea for the two newish sisters to
work together and since Sister Ireland has never left here area yet,
it worked out great. Sister Brown and I had a wonderful day together,
we were able to chat and catch up as well as teach 4 lessons and talk
to new people. It was good to be able to talk to Sister Brown. We were
able to share our concerns we had about training and how we felt about
it. It was good to hear about some of the trials that she has had in
training as well even though this was her second time. I was always
told that training was hard and a really big responsibility but I
never thought I would actually feel the way I do about it. I love
training even though it is difficult. I love Sister Mecham and I know
that I was supposed to be her trainer. She is so different from me and
yet we are so similar at the same time. On exchanges, Sister Mecham
and Sister Ireland had a good time too. They taught some and found
some. They actually tracted in an area that Sis. Mecham and I had been
planning on tracting and they were able to talk to a woman that had
Sisters knock on her door two years ago and she wanted to learn more
but they never came back. So we have an appointment to go back and
teach her this week! I am so excited! I know that Sister Mecham said
that it was difficult at times not having me there but I think it was
a valuable learning experience for everyone involved. Some other
things that have happened lately are we have been teaching this lady
named Katie and she is an absolute joy to teach. She doesn't really
read like we want her to, but she soaks up everything that we tell
her. She has the sweetest son Skylar age 9 who is so adorable and so
obedient to his mom. The husband Joe is not interested in the church
but doesn't object to Katie looking into it. We hope and pray that she
starts to keep her commitments so that the Spirit can touch her heart
even more than it already has. On a sad-ish note, we have been
teaching another lady and we have taught her and her mom since Sept.
Well her mom was baptized the end of December. Last week we went to
meet with her and she ended up (though us trying to figure out how we
could help her find answers to her concerns) telling us that she
didn't know what love was and that she didn't love anyone. She told us
about how she didn't love her family, her mother included, and how she
didn't love her friends and the only thing she loved were her pets. I
asked her, "What about Jesus Christ?" She said that she wasn't even
sure if she loved Him. We were dumbstruck. We had no idea what to say.
I was hurt! I can't believe that someone who professes to believe in
Jesus Christ can say that they don't love him. It still kind of
bothers me that she said that. All I could do was bare my testimony on
the Atonement and how much the Lord loves her and all He asks in
return is for us to love Him and if we love Him then we will keep his
commandments. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a
missionary and to be able to show my love for my Savior through my
actions. I know that it is hard sometimes and that I am not perfect,
but I keep trying. I pray that everyone just keeps trying their best.
I LOVE so much because there is just SO much to love. Thanks for
everything you all do for me. I love you!
P.S. Sorry for the run-on paragraph :) and I will try to send pictures
next week! and transfer calls are on Saturday and that means transfers
are next Wednesday and I am predicting that I will get transferred to a
new area and open it for sister missionaries and probably train again
at the same time. I also think that Sister Mecham will be training a
new missionary...I am not sure but those are my guesses. We will just
have to wait and see. :)
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
So lets talk about what has happened lately. Last p-day we went
hiking at Multnoma Falls with the Elders and Sister Combs drove us. It
was SO cold! There were signs up that said to hike at our own risk. It
was freezing outside! It was drizzling/snowing the whole time. And
well we decided to go anyway, haha! I had forgotten how hard this hike
was for me the first time, when I went in the summer with Sister
McGhie. Sister Mecham and I hadn't eaten anything all day except a
protein bar that Sis.Combs gave us. I am not used to the altitude nor
actually hiking mountains (thank you flat Oklahoma) and I am out of
shape so needless to say I had a very hard time with all of these
circumstances bringing me down. We finally made it to the top and back
down safe and sound. It snowed the rest of the way home so we had a
white New Year. Keep in mind that this is white in Vancouver
Washington so it means a quarter of an inch on the tall stuff and no
build up on the roads. We ran out and did our shopping real fast after
we got home and came back by 6:30pm when we had to be home with the
car parked in the garaged. So we were able to have a fun time with the
Combs at their New Years party till we went to bed. We played
wallyball with a couple couples from the ward. We played 5 game and it
was tied 2 to 2 and we played a tie breaker and my team won. I was the
server and it was game point. I served straight at Sister Mecham
because she is not that good at actually hitting the ball. My team
won, surprise surprise. LOL! It was so funny! What was even more funny
was for the 1st serve of the night, someone on my team hit the ball
and it hit the back wall so I when to hit it and it came straight to
me and smacked hit on my face. It went back for a second as I tried to
catch myself on the wall next to me and reach to find the other wall
(which ended up not being there) so I fell on my knee and jumped right
back up again and continued to play as I saw stars for almost the rest
of the night. haha! I was just thinking the entire time, what would
Sis. Greer say if I had to call her and tell her that I was playing
wallyball and I got a broken nose or blew out my knee. It was not a
fun conversation in my head. So I was grateful for Heavenly Father's
protection the rest of the night.
I know that I said I would include pictures this time but I am
not exactly sure why the computers are not working for me lately in
order to send attachments. SORRY!
We have found this awesome new lady to teach. Her name is Katie
and we tracted into her before Thanksgiving and have been trying to
get in to meet with her since. We finally had an appt. with her on Thursday and I absolutely love her. She has the sweetest 9 year old son
and I look forward to teaching them more of the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ.
I love being a missionary and seeing the teachings of our Savior
change people's lives. It is a real power that comes into peoples
lives as they begin to apply the Doctrine of Christ. To have faith in
the Savior and his atonement, make changes in their lives to repent
and realize that they need to be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood authority of God, and then to receive the wonderful gift of
the Holy Ghost to help them to endure to the end. The Doctrine of
Christ is real and it is THE ONLY WAY (2nd Nephi 31:21). "I know it, I
live it, and I love it"! I hope you all do the same. Jesus lives and
He loves us, and all He wants is for us to accept His sacrifice and
"come unto Him". Of this I testify, in His sacred name, even Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Have a fantastic week! I love you and I miss you! :)
hiking at Multnoma Falls with the Elders and Sister Combs drove us. It
was SO cold! There were signs up that said to hike at our own risk. It
was freezing outside! It was drizzling/snowing the whole time. And
well we decided to go anyway, haha! I had forgotten how hard this hike
was for me the first time, when I went in the summer with Sister
McGhie. Sister Mecham and I hadn't eaten anything all day except a
protein bar that Sis.Combs gave us. I am not used to the altitude nor
actually hiking mountains (thank you flat Oklahoma) and I am out of
shape so needless to say I had a very hard time with all of these
circumstances bringing me down. We finally made it to the top and back
down safe and sound. It snowed the rest of the way home so we had a
white New Year. Keep in mind that this is white in Vancouver
Washington so it means a quarter of an inch on the tall stuff and no
build up on the roads. We ran out and did our shopping real fast after
we got home and came back by 6:30pm when we had to be home with the
car parked in the garaged. So we were able to have a fun time with the
Combs at their New Years party till we went to bed. We played
wallyball with a couple couples from the ward. We played 5 game and it
was tied 2 to 2 and we played a tie breaker and my team won. I was the
server and it was game point. I served straight at Sister Mecham
because she is not that good at actually hitting the ball. My team
won, surprise surprise. LOL! It was so funny! What was even more funny
was for the 1st serve of the night, someone on my team hit the ball
and it hit the back wall so I when to hit it and it came straight to
me and smacked hit on my face. It went back for a second as I tried to
catch myself on the wall next to me and reach to find the other wall
(which ended up not being there) so I fell on my knee and jumped right
back up again and continued to play as I saw stars for almost the rest
of the night. haha! I was just thinking the entire time, what would
Sis. Greer say if I had to call her and tell her that I was playing
wallyball and I got a broken nose or blew out my knee. It was not a
fun conversation in my head. So I was grateful for Heavenly Father's
protection the rest of the night.
I know that I said I would include pictures this time but I am
not exactly sure why the computers are not working for me lately in
order to send attachments. SORRY!
We have found this awesome new lady to teach. Her name is Katie
and we tracted into her before Thanksgiving and have been trying to
get in to meet with her since. We finally had an appt. with her on Thursday and I absolutely love her. She has the sweetest 9 year old son
and I look forward to teaching them more of the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ.
I love being a missionary and seeing the teachings of our Savior
change people's lives. It is a real power that comes into peoples
lives as they begin to apply the Doctrine of Christ. To have faith in
the Savior and his atonement, make changes in their lives to repent
and realize that they need to be baptized by someone holding the
priesthood authority of God, and then to receive the wonderful gift of
the Holy Ghost to help them to endure to the end. The Doctrine of
Christ is real and it is THE ONLY WAY (2nd Nephi 31:21). "I know it, I
live it, and I love it"! I hope you all do the same. Jesus lives and
He loves us, and all He wants is for us to accept His sacrifice and
"come unto Him". Of this I testify, in His sacred name, even Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Have a fantastic week! I love you and I miss you! :)
Happy New Year!
Hey Everyone! Can you believe that it is New Year's Eve already and
that tomorrow on the 1st of the year it will be my 11 month mark in
the amazing Washington Kennewick Mission!?!? Crazy! I am absolutely
loving it!
It was so great to see and visit with everyone on Christmas. I am
sorry if I seemed weird. It was very hard for me to talk to you and
see you and want to be with you all, but at the same time I wanted to
be here and not thinking about home (for the most part). I am so happy
to be able to tell the people here when they ask me how my family is
doing that I can say that they are growing physically, spiritually,
and eternally! I am so happy about the babies and I want to scream
with excitement every time I think about it. I am even more happy that
they are being born into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage
sealed by our loving Heavenly Father! I rejoice when I think about
Jakob and Sara getting ready to be sealed in the Temple! It is getting
so close! :) I love families and I love that they can be eternal. I am
giving up my family for 18 months but I get to have you forever and so
it makes everything worth it! I often tell people that most
missionaries and their families are blessed when their missionary is
serving, and while that is true in my case as well, I also feel like I
needed the blessings that I received before my mission to get me out
here so now I am paying it forward to my Heavenly Father.I love that I
have the opportunity to share this knowledge with families here in
Vancouver, WA!
Okay, enough with the sappy stuff...I got some pretty amazing stuff
for Christmas I am will thank you all personally for it in handwritten
snail mail letters, but I wanted to say THANK YOU one more time via
email/blog!
Our Christmas was great! We ate too much and had a great time with
some families in the wards. We were able to play a couple games
(apples to apples and uno attack). It was lots of fun! I got to hold a
life size barbie doll Cinderella so it made me feel like I was holding
one of my 3 princesses. It was a great way to ease my longing to hold
a child. lol. I am telling you this rule is killing me slowly! I told
Sis.S, when I saw her yesterday to invite their family to the New
Year's Eve party, that I would be breaking that rule when I get
transferred out of this area because I WILL be hold baby girl C and
taking pictures! haha! She is just so darn cute and I love that
family!
So about the New Year party and the baptism! The Combs are inviting a
bunch of people over to play wallyball in their court and we are
invited too. I am so excited! We played for about 15 minutes on Saturday night to let off some stress that had built up about Sondra's
baptism. The baptism was great and it went perfectly (kinda) we had a
few mix ups with the speaker and the piano player and it didn't go
quite like it would if I had planned it, but the Elders did a great
job and I am grateful that they are taking care of Sondra in their
ward. The Brother that baptized her said that it was like trying to
baptize an air mattress she was so buoyant. It was so funny! But
he got her all the way under the first time! Playing wallyball I must
say was quite hilarious because Sister Mecham is not a good volleyball
player. Tonight should be a blast. We will be going to bed at 10:30 as
usual and we have to be home with our car parked at 6:30. We will
probably set the alarm to go off at 11:59 so we can say Happy New Year
and go back to sleep. haha! Gotta love being a missionary! :)
We are also going hiking today at Multmulma Falls again. It is about
37 degrees outside so this should be exciting I guess. Sister Mecham
is terrified to go because I had already told her how hard it was for
me the first time. We can do it though. I am excited to see it in the
winter instead of the summer... I am sure it will look completely
different! Sister Combs is driving us, so that will be fun as well!
Well I gotta get going! I love you all so much and I am excited to see
you again on Mother's day! I am still praying about the date I will
come home on, so don't make any plans for July or August just yet...
I will send pictures next week! Love you!
that tomorrow on the 1st of the year it will be my 11 month mark in
the amazing Washington Kennewick Mission!?!? Crazy! I am absolutely
loving it!
It was so great to see and visit with everyone on Christmas. I am
sorry if I seemed weird. It was very hard for me to talk to you and
see you and want to be with you all, but at the same time I wanted to
be here and not thinking about home (for the most part). I am so happy
to be able to tell the people here when they ask me how my family is
doing that I can say that they are growing physically, spiritually,
and eternally! I am so happy about the babies and I want to scream
with excitement every time I think about it. I am even more happy that
they are being born into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage
sealed by our loving Heavenly Father! I rejoice when I think about
Jakob and Sara getting ready to be sealed in the Temple! It is getting
so close! :) I love families and I love that they can be eternal. I am
giving up my family for 18 months but I get to have you forever and so
it makes everything worth it! I often tell people that most
missionaries and their families are blessed when their missionary is
serving, and while that is true in my case as well, I also feel like I
needed the blessings that I received before my mission to get me out
here so now I am paying it forward to my Heavenly Father.I love that I
have the opportunity to share this knowledge with families here in
Vancouver, WA!
Okay, enough with the sappy stuff...I got some pretty amazing stuff
for Christmas I am will thank you all personally for it in handwritten
snail mail letters, but I wanted to say THANK YOU one more time via
email/blog!
Our Christmas was great! We ate too much and had a great time with
some families in the wards. We were able to play a couple games
(apples to apples and uno attack). It was lots of fun! I got to hold a
life size barbie doll Cinderella so it made me feel like I was holding
one of my 3 princesses. It was a great way to ease my longing to hold
a child. lol. I am telling you this rule is killing me slowly! I told
Sis.S, when I saw her yesterday to invite their family to the New
Year's Eve party, that I would be breaking that rule when I get
transferred out of this area because I WILL be hold baby girl C and
taking pictures! haha! She is just so darn cute and I love that
family!
So about the New Year party and the baptism! The Combs are inviting a
bunch of people over to play wallyball in their court and we are
invited too. I am so excited! We played for about 15 minutes on Saturday night to let off some stress that had built up about Sondra's
baptism. The baptism was great and it went perfectly (kinda) we had a
few mix ups with the speaker and the piano player and it didn't go
quite like it would if I had planned it, but the Elders did a great
job and I am grateful that they are taking care of Sondra in their
ward. The Brother that baptized her said that it was like trying to
baptize an air mattress she was so buoyant. It was so funny! But
he got her all the way under the first time! Playing wallyball I must
say was quite hilarious because Sister Mecham is not a good volleyball
player. Tonight should be a blast. We will be going to bed at 10:30 as
usual and we have to be home with our car parked at 6:30. We will
probably set the alarm to go off at 11:59 so we can say Happy New Year
and go back to sleep. haha! Gotta love being a missionary! :)
We are also going hiking today at Multmulma Falls again. It is about
37 degrees outside so this should be exciting I guess. Sister Mecham
is terrified to go because I had already told her how hard it was for
me the first time. We can do it though. I am excited to see it in the
winter instead of the summer... I am sure it will look completely
different! Sister Combs is driving us, so that will be fun as well!
Well I gotta get going! I love you all so much and I am excited to see
you again on Mother's day! I am still praying about the date I will
come home on, so don't make any plans for July or August just yet...
I will send pictures next week! Love you!
Merry, Merry Christmas
Feliz Navidad! Howdy everyone, So I don't have much to say today because I am so excited to talk to everyone tomorrow! WOOHOO!!!! I love Christmas, and Christmas on the mission is the BEST!!!! We had Christmas Zone Conference on Friday last week and it was AWESOME!!!! We spent the first half learning about the gifts that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given us. I was going to write about them today but I forgot my notes at home. Sorry! Then we watched the Christmas slide show...AMAZING!!! :) Then we had Christmas dinner for lunch and sang the 12 days of Christmas. We were divided by the months of the year for our birthdays, so of course I was in a group of all Elders and we were the 9 ladies dancing...it was rather hilarious as we got up each time it was our turn to sing and they picked each other up as I danced around. Then we had a wonderful experience and we got to watch a movie...not just any movie...it was a REAL movie. haha! We watched the movie "Brave"!!!! I have wanted to see this movie since before my mission and I finally got to see it! I was so excited I almost threw up! lol...not really! But it was great...it felt weird watching a real movie though...and some of it was awkward to watch with the Elders, they can be quite immature sometimes. Anyway, after the movie, we ended on a spiritual note with some musical numbers and testimonies of the departing missionaries. It was such a great day! I love President and Sister Greer more than words! They truely are like our mom and dad here in the WKM! :) I wish everyone had the opportunity to meet them! So I gotta get going but I love you all so much and I am so stinkin excited to see you tomorrow! Merry Christmas to those that I will not see and I am grateful for all of you! Never forget the true meaning of Christmas. Keeping the Christmas Spirit alive all year long, is keeping us in tune with the Spirit of Christ always and forever! :) See ya tomorrow and Happy Birthday to Kristi and Noella and Happy Anniversary to Memaw and Papaw! :)
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