Last week in Pavillion!

大家好！

This week has been so fun and so busy! So I'll just get right into it.

On Wednesday we had our last district council. It was pretty sad but also so much fun! Sister Steiner and I got to teach a short training about praying with faith and it was awesome! It honestly all comes down to D&C 42:14

14 And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.

We need to pray so we can have the Spirit because as missionaries, we are teachers and the Spirit is the source of our teaching power. I love this verse so much and I think that if I can continue to remember this, I will have more Spirit led prayers :)

After district council, we had an early celebration of my birthday because when it's actually my birthday I'll be in quarantine haha. Sister Steiner told everyone to bring lemon stuff because I like lemon cake. So she made lemon bars, Elder Keenan and Nicholls made an awesome lemon cake, Elder Hedquist and Nichols brought some lemon pound cake they bought at Walmart and some super sour lemonade, and the ZLs who didn't get the memo brought a funfetti cake and some candy. We didn't have a lighter so we couldn't light the candles we brought, but we still sang happy birthday together. It was a fun time and it was so sweet of them to do that for me :) Also Elder Nicholls just bit straight out of a lemon and that was kind of scary but cool. AND BTW IT WAS HIS 20TH BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY SO TELL HIM HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We also met SO many cool people this week! We had a big finding goal as a mission and have been praying to find new people to teach and it sure has paid off! The first person we met is named Babara. We went to visit a lady in the ward who lives in a motel, but when we went to see her we saw Barbara outside and said hi to her. We got talking and apparently she has a daughter living in Utah who's a member. She herself is Catholic but she's very open to different religions. We asked if we could come back and see her and she said yes so we gave her our number! It was so random but so nice and the lady we meant to visit ended up not even being home!

The next person we met was named Nancy. We met her because we were looking for an inactive member's house and were lost so we knocked on a house to ask for directions and found Nancy! She said that she was actually related to the member guy in some weird way which I thought was funny. We chatted with her a bit and she was actually really talkative and didn't just tell us where he lived and said goodbye haha. She started telling us about her house which was this really cool log cabin looking thing and she even invited us in to look at the inside! It was a beautiful house. She also said she was friends with one of the members in the branch so I thought that was pretty crazy. We ended up getting her number and we don't know how interested she'll be but hopefully the next missionaries can go over and visit her! Later that day we were trying to find another guy and when we knocked on his door --and mind you, Sister Steiner said no one has answered that door for the past 6 months-- someone answered! She was also related to this guy in some obscure way and he doesn't live there anymore, but she said she would send him our number so he could contact us. We got to talk with her more though and she was so friendly and awesome! Her name was Debbie and she was so sweet! Her niece pulled up while we were talking to her and we got to meet her too! Her name was Lily and she was in a wheelchair but she is so cool! She drives herself and trains horses and used to show goats and played basketball and did track. I was amazed. She was really nice too. We were able to get Debbie's number though and hopefully she can be reached out to soon!

Another person we met was named Antoria. She was actually working in this donut and ice cream shop we went into (Sister Steiner and I go get ice cream everytime we do weekly planning). When we walked in it was around 4:15 and she was like, "hey guys since you came after 4, you can get free donuts." We were like huh?? Apparently the store closes at 5 and she has to throw away all the unsold donuts so she said we could just take a box for free. We were like heck yes. So first we got our ice cream and it was so good! All of the ice cream was homemade. Then we got to pick out a whole box of donuts and we honestly didn't even know what to do with them all but we ended up giving most of them to the ZLs and our district members. We got to talk a lot to Antoria while we were in the store though. She literally looked like she was 21 but she was actually 17 and a senior in high school! We were so shocked. She's so talented though! She said that she's a party planner and she's planned her school's homecoming and prom and stuff like that. She's even planning her teacher's sister's wedding. Like whaaaaat?? She doesn't just do that though, she's also an amazing artist (specifically portraitist), AND she makes wedding cakes, AND she cooks amazing food. I honestly was so impressed by her talents and ambitions. She was just such a sweet person! We also got her number! I hope we can stay in contact with her even if she doesn't take the lessons.

The last new person we met this week was a cool guy named Jaden! Sister Steiner and I were deciding that morning whether or not it'd be worth it to try and go street contacting and we ultimately just decided to try it. We went to the park and there was only one guy there who looked to be around teenage age. We walked around the park before approaching him so we didn't seem too forward and then we just walked over to the bench he was sitting at and Sister Steiner said, "could we sit here?" He said sure so we took a seat and then just started talking about life. Apparently he just graduated high school and is taking a year off to save up money for college. He was so cool though! He said his dad is in the army and so he's moved around a lot his whole life. He's lived in Germany and Sweden and in many places in the US and he even knows Swedish almost fluently! We talked to him a lot about travel and then we started telling him about what we do as missionaries. He didn't know much about our beliefs but he apparently knew about mission calls and the language training in MTC haha. He thought it was crazy that they have us learn a language in 9 weeks but commented on how effective it is. I was like gift of tongues yo 😎. He actually knew a lot about other religions though and was curious about ours. We talked about what the Book of Mormon is and then I pulled out the extra one I had and said, "well I actually have an extra one if you'd want" and passed it to him. He said, "would you mind?" and I was like no of course not! He thanked me and said he's been wanting to read it and learn more about our religion. We were super excited about that. We swapped numbers with him and hopefully he can be contacted soon!

Other than the miracles we saw this week in finding people, we also saw some great miracles with those who we invited to sacrament! I did a musical number in church this week and that was a great way to invite people! Sister Steiner and I invited Pastor Matt and his wife Candi (our friends at the Methodist church) and they joined the zoom to watch! I also invited this guy named Kaiden who I've been messaging on Facebook and he came! It was such a crazy experience because so many people in the branch actually knew him! Most of the people in Pavillion work at the school and they know Kaiden from going there! He's only 2 years older than me so he graduated not too long ago. So many people that day were like, "did you see Kaiden came to church?? I wonder what got him to come?" I was like, me haha. It was just such a sweet experience and I'm so happy to see that there are people at church who know him and could fellowship him!

The musical number itself went really well honestly. President Walker thanked me personally for playing and said that he could've listened to just that for the full 30 minutes. He also said that he leaned over to the next guy speaking and said "good luck following that up". I love President Walker. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to play in church though and use my talents because I know God gives us them to be shared and I wouldn't rather use mine in any other way :)

If you're wondering, Dan's doing great! We had a lesson with him on Thursday and went over the Restoration Proclamation and he is just absorbing it all like a sponge! Now that he is a member, I know he's going to find so many blessings come so quickly as he continues to grow his faith. And soon he'll be able to watch his first General Conference! I'm so excited.

As for the other people we're teaching, we invited this lady in the sunset park ward to be baptized. She said she wants to continue praying about it and talk to her kids about it, but I have hope for her and I can definitely see her becoming a member in the future. Roland is still Roland and he moves at his own pace. One thing we have been trying to get him to do is to say the closing prayer at the end of our lessons. He's not comfortable doing it yet but I'm hoping he will eventually become more so.

As for other news this week, T doc came out!! (That's the transfer document that says where everyone is going) Sister Steiner is going to be going to Casper and will be an STL! I knew she would be, she'll literally be the best STL there is. She was really sad though because she's been in Pavillion for 4 transfers (about 6 months) and she loves the people here so much. We spent Sunday night stopping by different members' houses and saying goodbye. It was a very teary night and I know how hard it must be for her but I also know that she's going to touch and help so many more people in Casper. As for the rest of my district, Elder Nichols and Elder Hedquist (they were comps) are both going to be training! It's crazy because this was Elder Nichols' first transfer and now he's going straight to training! I know he's going to be a great trainer though and he'll be staying here in Riverton! Elder Keenan is going to be the new District Leader here in Riverton! He will be great of course and Elder Nicholls will still be his companion. As for where Elder Hedquist and his new greenie will be going, he's going to Casper too! Sister Steiner has been in the same area with Elder Hedquist since she first got into the field and now they still will be! It's crazy!

For me, Sister Steiner and I drove down to Fort Collins with Sister Graham and Sister Tanner (the sisters in Lander) yesterday. I had my covid test and then we all went to Chick Fil A. There's no Chick Fil A in Riverton so everyone was really looking forward to it. After that we went to the mission office, I reunited with Sister Johnson (!!), and then I had to say goodbye to Sister Steiner. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do and I most definitely cried. Sister Steiner has quickly become one of my favorite people. I am so grateful for her spirit and insight and most especially for her instruction. I wouldn't rather have had any other trainer or companion.

After that Sister Johnson and I just hung around and walked around the lake outside until the sisters we would be staying with showed up. Their names are Sister Afoa (from American Samoa) and Sister Stuart (from Utah). They serve in the Windsor ward here in Fort Collins but Sister Stuart will actually be moving into Sister Johnson's area in place of her which is pretty cool. They are really fun people and really sweet! We stayed with them last night and will be with them today as well as tomorrow morning and then that afternoon Sister Johnson and I will head to the airport!! We are both so excited. This will be a crazy and new part of our lives and we are just interested to see how everything will pan out!

I love you all and I hope everything has been going well for you! I'm sorry my emails are so long but I know that if anything, at least my mom enjoys them haha. Shoot me an email if you have time!

Gāa yáu!

丁姊妹

Mosiah 3:13

13 And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them.

This is a verse that has especially stood out to me this week because it really reminds me of the importance of prophets in our modern day. I love how it says that by following the prophet we can have joy as if Jesus has already come among us because I know that it's so true. Following the prophets and living the gospel brings such a unique light in our lives and I am grateful for that every day.