February 11, 2019

Okay I cannot explain why I have become such a klutz since I left on my mission. I have another funny story this week. So we were at the church for our weekly correlation meeting with our ward mission leader, and it was at like 7pm, so it was dark outside. After we finished with our meeting, Sister Yates and I needed to go outside to take a picture of the schedule for the family history center, which is posted on the glass door outside. You have to go through two glass doors before your outside, and I kinda forgot about the first glass door. The glass was just so clean! It didn't look like there was anything there, so I just kept walking and slammed right into the glass like one of those birds on the Windex commercials. My brain didn't understand what was happening at first, so my legs tried to keep walking, which made my body slowly slide down the glass. I felt so stupid, but Sister Yates and I laughed sooo hard about it. The first counselor was walking behind us, so he saw me face-plant in to the glass too, which he said was very entertaining.

Oh, ya, Sister Yates! Well, I got a new companion this week! We had transfers Tuesday morning. She's from Falcon, Colorado, which is outside of Colorado Springs. Her dad was in the military, so she's lived in a bunch of different places. She is just the best! She'll hit her year mark on Valentine's Day, so we're planning on going out to get pizza for dinner on Thursday to celebrate. She has taught me so much this week, it's insane! Sister Gatchalian and I were kinda learning together because being here in Ohio was new for her, too, and we weren't totally sure how to plan for all the different things we do here, but we tried our best. So Sister Yates is teaching me how to plan more effectively, which has made a world of a difference in how our day goes. I don't look at the clock as much anymore, because everything we plan to do is productive and really keeps us busy.

Last Monday night we had Family Home Evening at the Ostler's house with Katie and a recent convert, McKaylee. McKaylee taught the lesson on the Iron Rod/Lehi's vision, which Katie had already gotten past in her Book of Mormon reading!! She understood everything we talked about and made a ton of awesome comments. She said she had a lot of fun, and it was so good for her to get to know some of the ward members. She's been texting McKaylee all week, and says they're planning on starting a scripture study group to help each other in their reading. Wednesday night we visited Katie again, and she and Sister Yates clicked immediately! Plus Katie's kids, Alena and Everly, love her too! We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Katie, because we'd only briefly talked about it before when we introduced the Book of Mormon. She'd already done a bunch of research on everything about the church on lds.org, so she knew everything we were talking about, and said it just made so much sense to her. She even asked us questions about the Word of Wisdom and the temple garment. We invited her to church, and she was so excited to come, but Saturday something kinda crazy happened, so she didn't come, but hopefully next week!! It's amazing to see how much Katie's life has turned around since we met her. When we knocked on her door and she let us in, you could just tell she wasn't in a good place mentally, she was just really struggling. But now, she's totally different! She smiles all the time, her house is super clean and newly decorated, and she says it's easier for her to deal with all of life's struggles. She says she can't deny that God has led us to each other so that she can learn about Christ's church, but she can feel Satan trying to fight against her. During our lesson, Katie brought up a comment someone had made at dinner last Monday night at FHE. Someone had said "So when are we dunking you?" and everybody just kinda laughed really loud and awkwardly, and then someone changed the subject super fast. She knew that meant baptism, but we hadn't talked about it with her yet. We read Mosiah 18 with her, and asked her if she would follow Christ's example and be baptized with the priesthood authority we had talked about. She accepted without hesitation, and said that was something she was so excited for! AHHH! I can't wait I'm so happy for her. We gave her the date of March 30th to work toward, and she said she'll do all she can to be ready.

Lately we've been focusing on working with the members of the ward and helping them to do missionary work on their own, because President Nelson is really pushing missionary work. We spent a lot of time during our weekly planning working on how we can help the members to be motivated to share what they know with others. A lot of members tell us that they don't know anyone because they are home-schooled/work from home, or that they just don't feel comfortable sharing their testimonies with others. We planned for how we can work with each member where they are at, and push them (in a loving way) to share the gospel. Most members are willing to at least pray for missionary opportunities, and we can't wait for them to see the blessings that will come when they choose to act on promptings that come. It's definitely going to be a process helping them to be bold and loving to be able to share the knowledge that has come to bless them, but we're excited to see the ward grow.

Sorry this email is so short, but Sister Yates and I are so pumped to keep working hard and hopefully find new people to teach this week! I hope y'all are staying safe out there and having fun! I love you all, and I'll write more next week!!

At exchanges

This was at FHE last Monday. Katie is in the
middle, Alena is in Sister Gatchalians lap,
and Everly is in Katie's lap.

We got to hold puppies at the Ralph's
(the ones who had us over for dinner
on Christmas Eve and breed dogs)

Such a cute picture I almost died.

Oh my goodness I love dogs!