Transfer 4. Week 4.

We had a mission tour this week!! Elder Daniel Johnson, a general authority came and spoke to us missionaries! It was basically an all day meeting. The overall message that I got was obedience brings miracles.

I got to see Sister McFarland!! She is in my stake back home and she has been out for a little over a year now! We got sent to the same mission! She told me that her little sister is preparing to go on a mission soon, so they might have 4 missionaries out at once!!!!!

We have been helping with the hot air balloons every Friday, Saturday, and Monday morning! It's so much fun! The process of setting up and taking down a balloon is so exciting every time!

Our fire alarm went off 1:30 in the morning on Friday. I got up and tried turning on the light in the living room/dining room and it didn't turn on. So I thought the light bulbs burnt out. So I pushed the couch to the fridge and got on top of the fridge so I could turn the fire alarm off. It never occurred to Sister Williams and I that there might actually be a fire and we are supposed to evacuate. We were talking to the Cluffs after we all woke up and Papa Cluff went out and checked everything. The power was out and the alarms were just letting us know that. Everything was fine except for the 2 hours of sleep that were lost that night. All in a great week! Until next week!

Transfer 4. Week 3.

We have a mission tour this coming week! A general authority comes and teaches the missionaries!! Unfortunately we don't get to all gather together, we meet in smaller groups. So there will be 3 different conferences! I'm excited!

I am going to the doctor tomorrow to see if Kaiser will let me do a little more physical therapy. I need to learn some new exercises to strengthen my left leg. I instinctively use my right leg more than my left, especially when standing. The problem with that is my right hip now it feels like it wants to pop, kind of like when you want to pop your knuckle but it won't pop. I spoke to a member in the ward who is in grad school studying physical therapy and she said the problem is probably stemming from the knee and if we were to fix or strengthen the knee, then I would be able to fix the hip problem and prevent other future problems, So hopefully, Kaiser will let me see a physical therapist, of course I have to get a referral for one.

This week was good. We were able to do a lot of service which is fun! I mowed a lawn for the first time. I wasn't able to use the riding lawn mower, but it looked like a blast! I got a sunburn on my arms and I have a cool watch tan now!

We had a lesson with a family who was baptized a year ago and their son's friend was there. I've met her before and she has kind of taken lessons before but her mom made her stop. Anyway, the nonmember was telling us that she wanted to be baptized and that she can now because she doesn't live with her mom and then he asked her if he could baptize her! She is going to be baptized at the end of this month! How awesome! So exciting! I love the gospel and I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for each of us! :)

This is me and Sister Williams and Carrie! We were a crew of 3 setting up and taking down a balloon!!!!! It was fun! We got training on everything!!! 

This was on sister Harry's desk in forest grove. I have also found
out that surprisingly enough, I am not the oldest sister missionary
out here, there are a lot of young sisters, but there are a lot of
older ones like me.

Sister Williams and I went on exchanges with our sister training
leaders: Sister Hardy and Sister Mower. I went to forest grove with
Sister Mower and Sister Hardy stayed with Sister Williams.

Transfer 4. Week 2.

We are official balloon chasers now! Pretty cool! We got to help twice this last weekend and we are going to help this next weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Monday!

Sister Williams and I focused a lot on service this week. We got to do a lot of fun things like help with the hot air balloon chasing and cheering on participants in a triathlon. We helped take care of the mail in the office and we pinked up trash on the side of the road and we helped someone move. Then it was really cool because the topic for church yesterday was service! 

One of our investigators came to church with his daughter. They might come again in the future, but it was their second time and kind of thought it was boring, again. It was a slower week, but that's okay. 

I learned how to can things last Monday. That was fun! It is a lot of hard work though, but it can definitely save money.

I studied the talk: "Latter-Day Saints Keep On Trying" by Elder Renlund. He says, "God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were. He cares that we keep on trying." I know this to be true. God wants us to be the best that we can be. He wants to help us and that is why He provided a savior for us. When we make mistakes, we are able to fix them through the Atonement! God created the perfect plan for all of us to return to Him. His plan takes effort from us, we have to keep trying. "If we don't try, we're just Latter-Day Sinners, if we don't persevere, we're Latter-Day Quitters; and if we don't allow others to try, we're just Latter-Day Hypocrites."

Have a great week! :)

They have Redwoods here!

Picking up trash for our own service project!

It is rumored that this is the type of tree that they used to make the
crown that went on Christ's head. It has really long and sharp thorns
and they are already red, the color of blood.

Hawthorn Tree

Transfer 4. Week 1. Day 1.

Sister Williams and I get to stay for one more transfer together! It is Sister Williams last transfer and there is no better place to spend it than here in Newberg with me! :)

We are very excited to stay! We thought we might be in a trio. Sister Williams thinks that I will train next transfer so that I will be here for at least 6 transfers. Time will tell. So we found out early on Saturday. The AP's called us and said they have some things they want to tell us. "The first thing is that you both are leaving." Sister Williams said he is joking, then he said, "you both are leaving" and my mind started racing a mile a minute, thinking of all of the things we need to do to prepare our area for new missionaries! Then Sister Williams said he is totally kidding and then he said, "yeah, I'm messing with you." I wanted to hang up on him so bad, I'm surprised I didn't.

Anyway, they are giving us 2 sister missionaries from the Mexico MTC for a day on Tuesday. We are going to take them to visit our investigator. Speaking of whom, we stopped by his place yesterday to invite him to a ward bbq and softball game.  We were talking to him and we said, "Oh, by the way, they caled us and told us that we were both leaving Newberg." He was pretty upset, he said, "they can't take you out of Newberg yet. We got him so good! We told him we would be here for the next 6 weeks and he was surprised at how short a time that is.

We had a lesson with another guy! He got baptized a few weeks ago. We let him and his older sister be the missionaries and we got to pretend to be them. We did such a good representation of them! We were getting in each other's space and irritating each other just like they do in a normal lesson. So Norris has this ball called a Bubble Wubble Ball. Sister Peter, Sister Williams, and I were playing with it as we were pretending to be Norris and Maddie. Well, we accidentally popped it and Norris seemed to be pretty upset about it, his mom was able to calm him down. Thankfully his Bubble Wubble Ball has a lifetime guarantee. They just have to send it in and they will send him a new one. The thing that was so funny to us was that if we were the missionaries and they were themselves, the ball still would have popped.

We went to see one of our investigators and he was showing us his birthday present for his 10 year old son. It was roller skates, but you put your show in them and there are 2 wheels in the back and one in front. We got to try them out for him. They are really heavy and then he tried them out too. It was pretty hilarious! 

We had a bbq and a softball game with a few families in the ward. We had a blast! Sister Williams was going to play softball in college before her mission. She would still like to. Anyway, I like playing with baseballs better than softballs. I feel like they are easier to hit and throw and they go farther! So we were playing of course. I've never really played before, so I was third baseman and was terrible at it. We mostly let the little kids bat and the parents were catching. Anyway, the parents would occasionally bat, on one such occasion, one of them members who likes to joke around was running to third base and I totally got him out. Well, he knocked the ball out of my hands and then continued running/ Well, I picked the ball up and tossed it at him and it was kind of a lob so it went up in the air a little bit and it hit him right in the back of his head. We were all laughing, himself included! (So I think its okay, lol.) Don't worry, it was an accident, I threw it, but did not expect it to hit him. It was a perfect throw too!

Well this week was fantastic! Hopefully we'll have more stories next week!