Week 46- Flying solo and Flying birds

Hiiiii Family

The mission has been going good. Haha trying to mesh two areas together for only three weeks has been pretty ineffective and frustrating but also a really good learning experience. Never pray for
patience.

 We are teaching right now our ward mission leaders mom and she is really old and tiny and cute. Well we were teaching her the word of wisdom and she goes off telling us about this one time a few years ago when her family all got together for a big party and how they had brought some beer and she decided to drink one and then iN the middle of the lesson she starts to imitate what she felt like and she
squinted her eyes really tight and started stumbling around the room. It was so funny just because she was this tiny little grandma. Moral of the story is that she said she didn't like when she felt like that
so she was going to follow the word of wisdom haha. And then in that same day we went and viSited someone else and they fed us goat milk suckers. It tasted a lot like Carmel that had gone bad from a few
halloweens ago. But we conquered them and it was just a crazy day.

The next day was nice because we got to spend a whole day working in my area!!! My companions had to spend the whole day at a meeting in   newberg so I got a temporary English companion named sister palanite- she is from Tonga and learned English here in her mission. It felt so good to just be working all day and we had an amazing lesson about the restoration with an investigator named Marcela. It was weird to be translating in a lesson but it was one of those times that as you were teaching the lesson to someone else the lesson became so much clearer  for yourself. We talked a lot about authority and about how God would not give authority to something that wasn't absolutely true and His doctrine that was going to bring us all His blessings. It gives me comfort to know that we can trust in something with authority straight from Christ. Well that same day we went and had another lesson with an investigator named Concepcion. And she has this parrot that makes this noise like a fire alarm beeping whenever we come over. And it was out of its cage during the lesson and then all of a sudden we here thisloud screech and the bird comes flying straight at us from across the room! And me and Sister Palanite both ducked right in the nick of time or else this bird would have literally ran right into the side of my face. Then it landed on Concepcion's hand and said "pretty bird" about a thousand times with its head tilted at us. You could say the Spirit flew away with the bird. And then everyone you are NOT going to
 believe this- we left the lesson and came outside and there was a few people standing beside our car and it turns out that someone had ran into our car and then drove away!!! Haha make that car number 4 for me while I have been in Salem. It is also pretty funny because I have not
been driving for about a month due to obvious reasons and it was my first day back driving. But don't worry mom, we don't have to pay for this one.

Sorry this is so long- eventful week. But then on Thursday we had zone conference and basically I got talked into doing a musical number where I was going to sing a solo in Spanish! Haha so I was obviously
thinking I was going to be the next American idol until I got so beyond nervous that I couldn't breathe and we were going to sing how great thou art and I got to my verse and was so nervous my voice came
out way high and shaking! It was slightly funny but mostly tragic and it was in front of like a million people. Haha so I have come to the conclusion that singing is not my cup of tea. Like mom told me in 7th
grade soccer, "you're pretty bad, Kate, you should quit" I did then and I will now :) but something we talked about in zone conference that I liked a lot is that healing of anything emotional and spiritual
personally comes from serving someone else. They showed a video called Lift and I love it so much where it just talks about how physically healing comes by turning inward but emotional healing comes from turning outward. Serving others is easy when it is something that doesn't require much of us-like helping someone carry their bags to their car. But the real trick is serving when it is demanding in every
sense of the word. When it takes of our time, maybe our money, maybe even our emotions. Someone that has been always a great example of service to me has been my mom. I can recall many times when my mom has done things what she has assumed she did in secret but I was snooping in the background. She is truly giving- I can often remember times when she could see that someone was struggling to buy something and she would suddenly ask us to go and do something else so we wouldn't
see her pay the bill. Or not to mention the many children and big kids too who have come home to our house so my mom could take care of them. I know she doesn't want any credit for these things but she is a motivation for me and I hope she is for all of us to look around this week or this month and do some service for someone who needs it. I know and I can promise that it will provide some spiritual healing
that we are all in need of.

Not too much else exciting this week other than the Hermanas that I am with right now had a baptism last night of an investigator Aurelia. Baptisms are awesome- they make you feel really good!

Love you so much. Sorry I wrote you a chapter book!
Hermana J

Got to be in Woodburn for a day this week and this is Alejandra- she was baptized in January. Best person ever and I love her so much,

Week 45- When It Rains It Pours ha

Well this definitely goes down as one of those ridiculously crazy weeks that missions seem to be infamous for. It's a whole new challenge almost daily it feels like. It is exhausting and rewarding
and humbling. I feel frustrated often and struggle at times but I feel like at every small and big trial I am forced to be patient and see the small tender mercies that come after. I wish I was better at recognizing those mercies but what can I say- I am a work in progress. This week we gave Juvenal to the Elders and it was a pretty emotional lesson when we took them to meet him. It was so sad to see him go, and good to hear him say that no matter what happened he would be baptized, that not one thing or person would get in the way of him following what he has come to know is true. Sometimes I get really grateful to God for the small time He gave me with Juvenal. In just over a month and a half God allowed me to feel a love for someone stronger than I have ever felt before, to feel the spirit warm me from head to foot nearly every lesson, he allowed me to see a miracle unfold before my eyes- from saying hello to Juvenal on the street when he told us he lived by "that tree over there", to watching him begin to understand that God really, really loved him, to having him set a date to enter into the waters of baptism because he had come to know Christ and wanted to follow Him, and to finish having that last lesson
I would teach him out in front of his little house. Juvenal was a big answer to a lot of small little prayers. I spent maybe only 30 hours with Juvenal but it made the other thousand hahaof hours being a missionary totally worth it. He will be baptized September 26th. Send your most heartfelt prayers his way, he is definitely the rock and example in his family and is going through a lot right now.

Soooo the crazy of this week is that we got a call from our mission president early in the morning on Friday telling us that Hermana Tuisaula needed to pack her bags because she would be getting emergency transferred because another Hermana had to go home and that I would be in a trio with the sister training leaders that live in our apartment for the rest of the transfer. It was the saddest thing ever because Hermana T and I have really gotten so close during our time together. She never stopped making me laugh. But the good and funny part is that she got transferred to McMinnville :) so I know they will take good care of her there. It has left our area a little disheveled though because we just opened the area a few months ago and they aren't closing it because we have a new Hermana coming in this next transfer...so I am kinda trying to keep the area going on my own and we have to split all the time between the other Hermanas area as well. Plus trying to figure out different teaching styles....safe to say it has been a busy weekend :) but my new companions names are Hermana Holt and Hedges. Hermana Holt is literally 6'3" and she loves giving hugs and I feel like I am hugging the back of her knee caps every time. Hermana Hedges is luckily slightly shorter at a whopping 5' 8" but if I hear one more short joke in the next three weeks I will fly of the handle haha.

Not too much more interesting going on here other than I haveliterally hurt myself so many times this week. I was trying to get a cap off of some hairspray and the cap came off faster than expected and I punched a wall and bruised my hand. Accidentally smashed my head onto the handle in the car and then right after shut a screen door on my foot and cut up my ankle! It has been too funny.

Well I love you so much.
Hermana J

 Too many short jokes!

 Companions