Sunshine!

I don't have much to say, at least lately, I haven't had too much to say. Sister Mortensen is my new companion and she, as well, is a Ute fan. Hmmmm, haha, she's awesome!

 I've been studying a lot on grace and I love this quote by Elder Oaks, "It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts."
This past transfer was the hardest transfer on my mission and Sister Mortensen is the hugest answer to prayers. Seriously. But I've also learned the most this past transfer of the enabling power of the Atonement and patience. Holy moly, this is the Lord's work and everything is done in His timing on His watch. On the mission we have to have patience for ourselves, our companions, for those we teach, and how the work goes. Patience is definitely one of my weaknesses and I am working hard to make it a strength. But that is something I love about grace, as I put in my best efforts, and am exhausted to the point of giving up, as I reach to God, He reaches back with much more strength than I have.

Well, there is my two cents for the day. Peace!

Love you!

 Transfers. I am holding Sister Tuhoe's ukulele and jamming out to it. I'm still really bad at this whole picture taking thing

Friday, March 4, 2016

Today we helped clean the church building. Each auxiliary is in charge for a certain  month and relief society is it for March. Nobody signed up for this week so we helped the Relief Society president clean the building. We then did service with the Warenton sisters at the Catholic food bank. We then did weekly planning, which went super well! We did most of it before dinner! We had dinner with the Davis family. I had met sister Davis. Brother Davis I had talked to on the phone before, but I thought he was one of the kids. I asked if I could talk to his mother and I got an immediate hang up. Oops! The Davis family is fun, though Brother Davis is going inactive. His testimony is being tested somehow. We have been teaching members the restoration and talking about why member missionary work is hard and so we did that as our dinner thought with them. Brother Davis had been giving us a hard time about a dinner thought and the kids had been rowdy, but when we started talking about the first vision, the sprint was so strong. I wanted to cry. The kids were all quite and listening and Brother Davis was listening, too. I hope he comes back to church. We then went home and finished up weekly planning. We went through the ward directory.  For everybody I have a face and name together, we highlighted . We are going to start visiting every family and sharing the message of the restoration with them and getting to know them, as they are better established in the community than we are.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Today was an awesome but exhausting day. We had 6 lessons with investigators and less actives. It was also sunny! We had a lesson with Billie. She told us how she and her husband-Richard met. It's cute. They've been married for 40 years. We also had dinner at the Bushing's. Natalee was there. She had a friend over and while we were talking to sister Bushing, I overheard Natalee telling her friend she was going to get baptized soon and become a missionary and then go to school to become a teacher. It was awesome! She then watched little Mormon messages with her friend on Sister Bushing's tablet. It was an awesome missionary moment. Though we still can't get Sister Bushing or Natalee to church, Natalee is looking forward to going on a mission and getting baptized. 

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Fast Sunday! I forgot to fast until we were in the middle of Ward council and people talked about the Ward fast we were doing. I looked to Sister Mortensen and just mouthed, "oops!" She smiled and she knew I forgot to fast. Haha. Oh dear. So I didn't fast. Oops. Ken shared his testimony on the stand though. It was awesome! We were able to teach the Restoration to the Erdts family and Sister Nebeker. I love these two families so much! Sister Erdts gave us waterproof maps of all of the hikes on the Oregon coast. We live really close to a trail head, so for exercise one morning we are going to wake up early and hike a bit. I'm excited! We are also going to plan a hike for the district to do on p-day. Sister Mortensen and I really bonded. She's awesome. She's an amazing teacher. So yeah, awesome!