Hey family!!!
What is happening in this world?? Fires and tornadoes and floods? Stay safe please :)
Transfers are this Wednesday. I am going to be staying in Knoxville as a Sister Trainer Leader AND a Trainer. whew! A tad overwhelming, but I know for a fact that the Lord is there by our side and wants us to learn and to grow. Besides, we have 28 missionaries coming in this transfer. So there has to be more threesomes. A lot of the zone leaders and the sister trainer leaders are going to be training. President told us that when he first came here, there were 98 missionaries. That was about the same number when I was here as well. And now we have 217! We have doubled our numbers. It truly is growing.
So this past week I got attacked by a dog. Okay, don't take it as seriously as it just sounded. ha. bad happened, it's just a funny story. so i was on exchanges in Sevierville and they stay with the relief society president and her family, which means they of course have a dog because everyone in Tennessee has a dog. Well, we walk in and the husband is holding the dog by the collar. We walk in and he says, "Are you ready?" say what?! ready for what!
He lets the dog go because he was supposed to come up and smell us and get to know us or something. Well, ya'll know how short I am. And this dog is no chiuaua. It's a big dog. So he runs over and decides I am an easy target, so he jumps up to get at my face. I turned away and all at once he starts barking and showing his teeth and tries going at me again. At this point I was a little bit scared for my life. Sister Holsclaw grabs him by his collar and pulls him away and the member takes him into a room where he was going to stay the rest of the evening. So Sister Holsclaw and I go upstairs and I hear the dog barking. I turn to her and ask, "So that dog doesn't come upstairs does it?" She just laughed at me. I thought it was a reasonable question...
But he doesn't go upstairs and I never have to see him again. :) Happy ending to that story if you ask me :)
as you can probably tell, I really am not the biggest fan of dogs anymore. Tennessee does that to ya.
Michael is getting baptized this Saturday!!! So hopefully everything will go well!!
So you kind of asked me about any experiences or about my mission for Dad's talk (which he should send to me by the way. i want to hear it :)
Well, I have actually been thinking about that throughout the mission. I occasionally look back at where I started and where I am at and where I am going. Growing up in the Gospel I was happy and enjoyed life in the iceburg of Idaho. I definitely went through trials and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was always there to help. However, it was when I came out here on this mission that I really began to see how great this Gospel truly is. God Gives us so many opportunities out here and I was able to truly apply what I knew to be true. the mission has been the hardest opportunity that God presented to me and for that I am grateful because I would definitely have to say that my greatest convert has been myself. I hope that doesn't sound selfish. But the only person I have been with my entire mission is myself. We teach people and we get transferred, hoping that we helped them gain a strong enough testimony or planted a seed that will help them to continue throughout their own personal journeys. Sometimes we get to see them actually take the step into baptism. But we are constantly with ourselves, being able to see ourselves improve in the Gospel. I can now say that I know with all of my being that this Gospel is true, that Heavenly Father loves us enough to give us everything we need to return back to Him. I have given this mission everything I have, I have turned myself over to the Lord and have spent 18 months in the refiners fire. I know that this is true. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Roman 1:16
Thank you for asking me that, it was nice to be able to reflect on my mission. That was only a spec of what I have learned out here. There's plenty more to come ha. You don't have to use that in the talk but it's there for the families enjoyment and upliftment and for the ward if you want to use it.
Well family, stay SAFE, happy, and healthy. I love ya'll so much!
Love your daughter, sister, and friend,
