Well, it was another one of those busy Sister Training Leader weeks.... I packed my bag on Monday planning to be gone for 5 days! Like another mini vacation. We left Monday night. Got to the mission home around 9. Had a great time, as always, talking to Sister Cannon. Got to relax a bit and play the piano. Then crashed in their awesome comfy beds!
Tuesday morning we got up, got ready and went to MLC (Mission Leadership Training). It was fantastic! Talked about how the Book of Mormon is just not the same without the Bible, and visa versa. Having just the Bible is like having just one dot on a piece of paper. How many straight lines can you draw through that dot? Tons! But if you have two dots, the Bible and the Book of Mormon, how many straight lines can you draw through them? One! President Cannon assigned Sister Bailey and I to choose a favorite talk from conference and apply it to us and missionaries. I chose President Uchtdorf's talk, Finding truth and light I think it's called. It's pretty awesome. You should read it =) After MLC we went on splits with Sister Bowler and Sister Dijkwel again. I got to go with Sister Dijkwel again. She is great! She came out with me, and we were both blown away that we have been out for over a year. We went to a less actives house and chatted for a bit, figured out he is from Cove and related to pretty much all of the Allens there. So that was pretty cool. haha =)
Wednesday we took our time to get ready and study because we planned to exchange with the McCall sister's in Weiser, but they couldn't until 6:30. So we had a while. We went to lunch at Panda express... hadn't eaten there since January. It was so good! We then went to Weiser and did some paperwork in our area book. Finding things to do that are useful when you're not in your area is really hard! But we did it. Oh ya! We had to stop and get gas in Payette... which is in Idaho... which means you have to pump it yourself.... so on Wednesday I pumped gas for the first time in 9 months! haha =) Almost forgot how ;) Oregon is pretty great. I love not having to get out in the cold to pump my gas. Wednesday night we had dinner with the Weiser missionaries then exchanged with the McCall sisters. I went all the way up to McCall. Long 1.5 hour drive. I was so tired. But I didn't sleep very good that night. Probably because I was in a different place.
Thursday we visited people all over McCall. Met some pretty crazy people. But it was a lot of fun =) Learned about the book of Enoch. Which I had no idea existed until now. So that was fun. We went to the Pancake House and got their famous giant cinnamon roll. It's as big as my head. It was so good! After that we had a really good experience. We went to visit this less active, Courtney. Knocked on the door.. she wasn't home. So we walked around and started back to the truck. I noticed a Swiss flag flying in front of a log cabin. I said out loud, "Hey look! They are Swiss, I'm Swiss... lets go see if we are related." Not sure why that came out of my mouth, but we went and knocked on the door. No one answered. (so I don't know if we are related haha) We headed back to the truck again and I saw someone get off the bus. She walked around to wear Courtney lives so I figured, hey that's probably her! So I told Sister Colby and we decided to wait in the truck for 5 minutes so we weren't total creepers. We made a phone call then hopped back out and went and knocked on her door again.... no one answered! Lame. But then a couple Spanish ladies came out of the apartment behind us. We started talking to them and asked if they had met missionaries before. They had met the elders. We asked if they were interested in learning, they were a little hesitant at that. But we figured out they were moving and so we offered our help and they accepted! It's amazing how the Lord works. He timed that whole thing perfectly. Because they were all leaving. We probably wouldn't have knocked on their door, so if they didn't come out we wouldn't have met them. And now the sisters up there have a service project and possibly an investigator! It was awesome. I really saw the hand of the Lord in that little meeting =) I saw it again later. I really wanted to take a picture of the lake. So before it got dark we went and took a couple pictures then as we were walking back to the truck Sister Colby asked me if I wanted to go talk to this guy who was walking his dog. I said sure, so we went and talked to him. He turned out to be a less active member. His wife is active, he is not. So the sisters are going to go visit them. And hopefully he will start coming back to church! That was pretty cool too =) It was just a great day. Then we went home for dinner and had pizza. I was exhausted! Didn't sleep well that night either.
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| Exchange in McCall with Sister Colby |
Friday we got up at 5:30, which is actually 4:30 La Grande time, and because of the time change and all the traveling I don't think my body knew what time it was. haha. I was so tired! We drove an hour (longest hour of my life) down to Council to get a ride with the Masters (Senior missionaries) to Baker for zone meeting. Needless to say, I slept almost the whole way. Zone meeting was great. Talked about the Bible and Book of Mormon supporting each other again. Went to lunch, got my awesome companion back and finally went home! It was so nice to go home. We went home and dropped off my stuff and took a potty break. I crashed on the bed while Sister Bailey was in the bathroom and she didn't wake me up. So... nap time! I had a good nap. I obviously couldn't stay awake. We made a couple visits that night, but I was so tired I can't remember them. haha
Don't fall asleep reading this... I'm almost done! Sorry, it's pretty long. Crazy week. =) Saturday we helped someone move their storage unit. It was kinda fun. The Elders helped. She was moving her unit from upstairs to downstairs. Luckily the place had an elevator. Then we had a fantastic scripture study with Katie and Kaydon. Katie has a hard time understanding the scriptures (who doesn't). So we brought a member along with us, Sister Isaacson, and had a really good study. Even Kaydon was interested. He was in time out, then Katie had him come down and read with us. So he was grumpy at first, but he was the one that suggested we read another chapter. Reading scriptures really does change attitudes. Next time we will invite Katie's husband John who isn't a member to read with us. Hopefully he will join! After that we went to the walk in clinic for Sister Bailey. She has been having stomach problems for three weeks and she finally gave in and went to the doctor. Not sure what it is yet, but we are figuring it out. We spent most of the rest of the day there. Then went to Sarah's for dinner. She was the one this time that suggested the prayer! That was exciting because she never does that, and never even participates in the prayer. One step in the right direction! then we went to stake conference. They talked about missionary work of course, which I assume was talked about everywhere. The cutest returned missionary spoke. She loves sharing the gospel. She just got home from Japan. I want to be like that when I get home! Just happy, and excited, and cute! She is a great example for me. After conference I saw a bunch of people from Enterprise!! I was so excited! =) They all bombarded me with hugs. It was great. I even saw the Lowes! Me and Sister Lowe both screamed and hugged and hugged and hugged. haha I miss them! =) So great to see them!
Sunday was cool. Interesting... and someone is going to have to tell me if stake conference has changed for everyone or just Oregon... I assume everyone. So we went to stake conference. We were in the choir. President Chadwick announced that there will be 3 stake conferences from now on instead of just 2. 2 of those will be the regular, and one will be a broadcast. Yesterday's was a broadcast. So we started out with a prayer and a song with our stake. Then for the next 20 minutes President Chadwick spoke to us and the choir sang a song. Then we went and sat down and all the stakes in Oregon watched the broadcast of President Monson, Neil L. Andersen, and a couple others. It was pretty cool =) Elder Andersen talked about FATIH in Jesus Christ, DILIGENCE in keeping the commandments of God, and PATIENCE in our trials and afflictions. I loved it. Later we visited a couple people. Had a good scripture study with Jessee. She wants to study the Pearl of Great Price with us. Then we went and saw Becckie. She was having a really hard time and we were able to comfort her. She now wants to take the discussions for herself, not for her family. She has a really hard life and a lot of health problems and we know our message can help her, so we are really excited to help her find Christ! Then we went and saw Cleo. Had a really good discussion with her! She hasn't been interested in us teaching her because she says she loves everything about the Mormons, but can't believe the Joseph Smith story. So we invited her to continue to read the Book of Mormon. Turns out, when she started reading the Book of Mormon she thought Joseph Smith had wrote it and that it talked about Christ coming over the seas to talk to him.... so we cleared that one up fast! Now she seems a lot more interested =) We will be having Book of Mormon studies with her now. We are super excited!!
It was really a fantastic week! Even though I wasn't home for 5 days I had a good time. We felt the spirit. We were led by the spirit. We had great discussions and scripture studies. And it was just all around one of the best weeks on the mission! Sister Bailey is determined to finish her mission strong. So even though she is excited to go home and talks about what she will be doing at home she does her best to use every minute of the rest of her 4 weeks to do the Lord's work. I love her! She is one of the best companions ever. We have so much fun. We laugh a lot, and tease each other, and work together well. We just have a great time. I'm sad she has to go home! Wish she didn't have to.
Wow... talk about long winded today! Sorry if I bored you. Didn't know I had so much to say. Guess I was making up from last week's short email.
Hope you all have a great week. Remember that the Lord loves you. He is aware of you and what you are going through. He is sending someone your way to help you through any and all of your trials. You just have to be patient, because he has to find someone who is trustworthy and is willing to follow the spirit. have FAITH in him and in Christ, be DILIGENT in keeping his commandments, and be PATIENT, he will help you. Just let him! =D
Love you all!!
~Sister Radmall
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| Jake, the dog, who snuck onto my lap. |
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| The Andersons |
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