Week 17

Hellooo friends & family! It was a GREAT week to be a missionary :) First week in Tooele!! (Technically we live in Lake Point & we cover Lake Point and Stansbury) its way colder over here.. but we have a car! So no complaints about the cold anymore haha! But it really is so beautiful and super fun I LOVE it here already! 

☆MIRACLES IN TOOELE !!!!!☆

-We experienced so many miracles this week! Literally on my first day we had a 45 minute block of time between some lessons and we didn't know what to do but have a very big stake goal so we need to be finding lots of people and obviously baptizing them, so my new companion, who I LOVE already, was like let's pray. We prayed to know where to go or what to do to be able to reach that goal and we met 3 people who just moved from Mozambique (who speak mostly Portuguese) and put them on date right then and there for 2 weeks from now. And they felt the spirit so strong with us like they believed everything we taught. The mom held her heart as we shared the first vision and said she felt so happy and warm and everything we said felt right! We felt it too! All 3 of the lessons we've had with them so far have gone SO good and they went to church and LOVED that too:) It really helps strengthen your own faith and testimony when you see how valuable the gospel is to people who have searched their whole lives and finally found it. Like when we ask if they have questions they usually say no it makes perfect sense or its just so perfect. How awesome! Our whole week was so busy and great like that! We exceeded ALL our goals this week:) And obviously everything didn't go perfect... we had several extremely rude encounters, several WEIRD encounters like one CRAZY dude who said he can open portals and see colors?? Haha we had to try so hard not to laugh that entire interaction!... canceled appointments, exhaustion one day, and other frustrations haha.... But the good DEFINITELY outweighs any negative event this week.

☆NEW ZONE☆

-on Friday we had Zone council, so i met my new zone. I honestly didn't know most of them so that was super fun. They are all such amazing missionaries and super fun people! We have a zone activity today (monday) so i will get to know them all more:) I loved my last zone... but this transfer is gonna be amazing I can just feel it. I love my zone and district and companion and area. I'm super happy for all the changes that were made and excited for these next 6 weeks! 

☆NEW COMP☆

-my new companion is Sister Atkinson! she has been out for a year and is an amazing missionary. we've never really met until now, but I love her already! whats funny though... we've both heard some things about each other that weren't the nicest (we were both super surprised to find out who those comments came from...) so we were worried about being companions, but since day one we have been super good friends and we get along really good. we have similiar enough lifestyles and personalities and cultures that we get along well. we both keep a super clean house, wake up on time, are considerate to each other, enjoy eating fairly healthy and staying fit. we both are so willing to work hard and stay busy and be led by the spirit and because of that, there has been miracle after miracle and the work is great and busier for both of us than we've ever been. and we get told daily that we could be sisters or cousins haha... I think everyone is just used to seeing us w/ polynesian companions because we both came from poly companionships. so thats kinda racist if you ask me... jk. but she is great & I'm super excited for these next 6 weeks:)

☆ANIMALS☆ 

-we saw tonsss of animals this week. theres tons of horses in our backyard, we played with tons of puppies, and we got to hold kittens during one lesson and they were ADORABLE! mine fell asleep in my arms and was like purring the whole time. I'm not a cat person at all.... like i literally hate cats... but I genuinely wanted to keep that kitten! one interesting family we meet with (i mean like crazyyyy people... the wife has an ankle moniter because i guess she barely got caught after being on the run from the law for 10 years....) has some crazy pets (and stories haha). they have 6 big dogs (all husky and heeler mixes and all somehow related because they all keep getting each other pregnant and their parents and grandparents did the same thing....) and a tank of HUGE goldfish, and 2 young raccoons, and they just recently sold around 12 ish? husky puppies but one is pregnant and due in December sooo we will probably see more. crazy crazy family and yet my allergies haven't been bad in any of those houses even tho I'm definitely allergic to most pets, 

☆"THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SIDE CHARACTERS TO JESUS CHRIST."☆

-this week we attended a school seminary class one afternoon (yeah, seminary is during school for these spoiled utah high schoolers...)to meet a nonmember we had been trying to teach and someone in the class made a comment that struck me SO hard. he talked about all the "side characters" in the Bible stories. and how God had plans for them too and genuinely cared about them just as much as the main prophets and people talked about in the stories. And then he said the most powerful comment ive never even thought about. "There's no such thing as side characters to Jesus Christ." Wow. Just wow. Read that sentence again. he loves each and every person, and your story matters SO MUCH to him. there may be some moments in your life where you feel more like a side character. less important, less popular, less needed, less loved maybe like you have less purpose or impact or even direction in your life. but no one is EVER a side character to Christ. each person's story matters to him and each person is the MAIN CHARACTER to him. each person is SO important, loved, valued, needed and has a purpose in their life and their story. he suffered and died for EVERYONE. Always remember that. You have a purpose, you have a plan, and your story and life are SO important.  

p.s. You can get through ANYTHING you may be going through right now 

"Heaven is cheering you on TODAY, TOMORROW, & FOREVER." (~Jeffrey R Holland)