okay first off, we had transfers!!!! on wednesday night, i said goodbye to sister pancheri (tear tear) and hello to sister decker!
i love my new companion. her name is sister Decker. when i first met her i thought she was going to be mean because she was so pretty haha but she is one of the nicest souls ive ever met. i love hanging out with her! sister Decker is from queen creek AZ, (near gilbert) and has a fun family. her little sister has down syndrome and her dad is in a wheelchair- and their family pictures are literally the cutest thing ive ever seen. sister decker has such a sweet spirit to her. 24/7 she is working hard to follow the spirit, love the guests and serve others. i feel like shes always reading the scriptures and that she genuinely just loves to serve. our first night talking to each other we washed the dishes together. another super cool thing about her is that she already has a testimony of pageant! she was in the family cast for pageant when she was like 16 years old and she said it really helped her testimony of the restoration grow. and now she got called here and she can help with pageant in an even cooler way!!! cuz now she gets to be the missionary at pageant! so neat. so we are both super hyped for pageant and we want to give our all. its really cool because God keeps blessing me with the companions i need for whatever the next step is on my mission.
another thing about transfers is that i am now a district leader. so there are 8 girls in my district that i have responsibility for: me, sister decker, sister mitchell, sister robison, sister young, sister pulido, sister norton and sister mckenzie. as a district leader i lead district council every week, keep the district updated with mission news, plan pdays with them, and just minister to them. its super fun. our first district council i felt impressed that we just needed to get to know each other and build friendships, so we did a game night. we played the flour game, grunt piggy grunt grunt, signs and werewolf. it was quite the evening haha but everyone loved it. i just made sure to tell them that the reason we were playing games is because we arent just a district, we are a family(: super cute. im excited to keep learning with them and growing with them this pageant season. (cuz we wont transfer until pageant is over) pageant begins this upcoming sunday sort of. thats when one of the first performances is, and then the actual pageants begin on july 3. so excited!!!!
tuesday sister pancheri and i served in the bakery and we had 49 tours. it was a crazy day if you ask me! best part was there were 2 teenage kids who came while their parents were at the temple and we gave them the bakery rap- we even taught them part of it. we told them to bring their family back for a final performance haha and we didnt think they would but they actually did!!! so funny. plus also with all the youth groups i felt inspired a couple times to mention depression - that maybe lucuis experienced that but he was able to rely on christ by going to the temple. not sure who needed to hear that but it was good to follow the prompting.
wednesday we served at land and records! i love that place. its all about family history. i was able to research william gheen more! i found out that he visited joseph and hyrum in carthage just before they died, and also helped take their bodies back to nauvoo. it was pretty cool to learn that. also it was pouring that day so sister pancheri and i ended up doing a lot of biking in the rain. i thought it would be miserable but we had a good time, lots of laughs haha.
Plus also that day I pulled the victory of all victory pranks! I put mayo in sister gublers conditioner hahahahaha she came into my apartment with sopping wet hair and pointed her finger at me saying YOU. hahaha we had a good laugh about it tho. She swears she will get me back But idk if she can top that one!!
thursday was my first full day with sister decker and we spent it in the post office!!! also we spent friday in the post office as well!! it was actually like the coolest thing ever. we had so so so so many miracles!!!
First, we met these two guys, and they kept coming back to visit us and ask us questions. They told us they trusted our insights so they would only go to sites or shows that we recommended hahaha it was so funny. But we like planned their whole trip for them. And they loved it!! They brought us fudge before they left and told us that their trip was amazing because of us. They told us that we strengthened their testimonies and that they were so grateful for us. Cute right!!
Another cool experience we had was with a young man who is on leave from his mission because he has a hand injury and he can't go back into the field until it heals. I could tell he was struggling. The spirit told me to testify of Carthage and invite their family to go in with questions, because it is a place of revelation. He was like the spirit is so strong. I got my testimony in carthage. Then I just looked at him and the spirit put the words in my mouth to say "what you have been praying about will be answered at carthage." It was SO COOL!!!
We also met a couple who met and got married because of their missions and so that was cool too. We really connected with them because in the first 2 seconds of them coming into our site we were quoting the emperor's new groove together haha. We had lots of fun with them!
Another family we loved was one who had a daughter about to put in her mission papers (: we felt prompted to tell them to look for the whys at the sites. Like why did the saints go west. Why did John Taylor stay with Joseph at carthage. Why is the post office important. Why did Browning gun set up a shop in winter quarters. We told them it would make a huge difference in their trip! So neat. They were so grateful for our insights! We also met a friend from the pre-mortal life! Haha linda is the sweetest and we just had some really tender moments with her. She told us she just wanted to adopt us. How much she could see the light of Christ in us and how much she felt she was supposed to come to Nauvoo to meet us. How cute!!!
And to top it off, at the post office we discovered a copy of a letter Joseph sent to Emma when he was in liberty jail. Our hearts were so touched by his words- he only was concerned about his family, the church and didn't even mention how hard it was. It was a sacred moment to discover and read that letter together. So inspiring, and it gave us such a fire for the post office!!! Even the sites that seem insignificant are huge testimony builders. Every shop, store and home in nauvoo is important. I love it.
On Saturday we were roving, so we were kinda all over the place. We were serving at the visitors center, boot shop and Browning gun. I can't remember much else haha. We also watched some of the ypm shows! So fun.
Sunday morning I woke up like normal, got ready for the day and was excited to go to church. When i went to the bathroom after waking up, i felt aching in my lower abdomen and a burning. In my mind i was like please no, not another UTI. but it faded away and i quickly brushed it off. As I began to eat breakfast, i recognized some nausea in my stomach. As I finished getting my hair and makeup ready I also noticed some slight pain increasing in my lower abdomen and lower back and also a spot in my back.
We drove to church and the pain intensified so much that it consumed my thoughts entirely. My whole focus was on how much hurt I felt and trying to figure out why.
I went to the bathroom before church began but nothing helped. The spirit encouraged me to talk with Dr Bingham. I quickly found him, told him my symptoms and he invited me to schedule an appointment with the doctor here in town, and if it got worse to go to the ER.
Well, it was getting worse. My body was trembling with pain as I sang the opening song and heard the opening prayer in the chapel. As we got through the announcements and started singing the sacrament hymn I felt like I was going to throw up. All I could do was pray and ask God for help. I expressed to him my desire to take the sacrament and asked Him to help me be able to do so.
The sacrament hymn finished, I was still in a lot of pain. As soon as the priesthood holder said the words "O God the Eternal Father" into the microphone, my pain faded into the background. Though I still hurt a little bit, I was able to focus on the Savior. I was able to pray. I was able to renew my covenant. And that was a huge miracle for me! It showed me just how much the Lord cares.
And then, right after that an elder began speaking of times in life when we have to rely completely on the Lord and how we should do that every day. It was so cool. The spirit was strong and I was full of such gratitude for my Heavenly Father!
Now I'm just waiting to see what's wrong with me haha. But I'm not freaking out, not really any pain at all. Except for those 2 random episodes. I have faith that whatever is happening it will all work out!!!
Also Sunday night was awesome because I got to attend a youth testimony meeting, where they all shared experiences from Nauvoo and how they've been changed from their time here. I loved it.
Right after that president Lusvardi invited us to watch a live devotional of elder holland addressing new mission presidents and their wives in the mtc! So cool! Almost the whole quorum of the 12 was there. It was such an inspiring amazing event!!! We felt so lucky to be able to tune in
Also I'm including quotes I've liked this week because I knew mom would love them! Haha
Also I cheered when I heard Utah county sent you payments! Yay!
Glad the packing is going well!!! Love you both so much!!!!!
