August 18, 2014

TRANSFERS HAVE ARRIVED!

Sister Steck and I got call at church yesterday and were told that I am getting transferred to Great Falls and Sister Steck was getting transferred to another ward in the Missoula stake.  Worst news of my life.  We both cried.  There are a few families here that I will miss dearly and hope to keep in contact with.  I will really miss Sister Steck. A LOT.  She has become a Sister to me and a very dear friend.  I think that is the hardest part is leaving her.  We have had an amazing growing experience here in Missoula together and I am so grateful the Lord brought her here to me.  They are taking the two sets of missionaries out of our ward. Steck and I are leaving so the other set is taking over.  I am a little worried about the transition of work.  These Sisters are great but they don't have a lot of urgency in their work. I hope and pray that the ward can step in and work with those we have worked with and really take them under their wing.  Although I am sad to leave Missoula, it has been really hard here.  The work was and is slow, but I am thankful for the experiences I have had to help my faith grow and expand.  I told Saryn this in an email, but I have learned over and over in my mission that what the Lord has planned for me always has and always will be better than what I could have ever planned for myself.  Sometimes it is harder, but it is always worth it. ALWAYS. I trust in Him.  

We went over to April's the other night and she cried to us as she expressed her frustrations she was having with her ex husband at that time.  We all cried together. I love that woman!  What a strong person she is.  And the faith taht she has in God is incredible.  I will really miss her.  She just moved here and has no friends, no family, and doesn't really know or connect with anyone in the ward.   We really have been the ones to take her in and visit her and make sure she is doing okay.  It was funny becacuse when we told her the transfer news at church yesterday she totally swore. Hahaha she grabbed her mouth and was like, " I cannot believe I just did that in the church."    ......maybe you had to be there. But it was really funny.  Haha 

Rewind and try and remember Ed.  We talked with him and Matt in their garage. Matt was studying to be a Lutheran pastor and we had a really neat discussion. Well we met with Ed last night and had a phenomenal discussion. We brought a member with us and it went so good.  They clicked right off the bat and the member was a convert himself so he was able to pitch in and give the insights he had as an investigator.  Ed is a believing man and told us that he wanted to meet with us again because he saw only good things coming from meeting with us. OF COURSE! And we are getting transferred.  I have to remind myself that I trust God.  hahaha He has his finger on everything. It will all work out in His timing.  

Last transfer I had dinner with a Less Active member of our ward who invited her personal care assistant. Her name is Lori and we had a great discussion.  After dinner and the lesson I asked if there was anything we could do to help her out.  She said that there was.  She was moving from an apartment to a house and had no one to help her load the boxes in the truck.  We got her address of where she was moving to and got the Elders in that area involved.  They brought a member and we got to work. We had a good gospel conversation through the whole thing.  After that the Elders stepped in and got her all moved in with the member in the ward. She was one of the 1 million people we found for other missionaries. And guess what.  She got baptized on Saturday. :)  Sister Steck and I got to speak at her baptism. There was an amazing Spirit there.  And get this. We met another guy named Tony and gave him to the Sisters in his area.  Turns out Tony is her son.  AND! Another man just recently got baptized into another ward, and that was her son as well.  All three of these family members independent of each other found the gospel and have been or will be getting baptized. Incredible.

I NEED EVERYONE'S HELP!  Sister Steck's Birthday is this Saturday and I am really mad because I won't be here to celebrate it with her. She is sad because she will have a new companion and be in a new ward where no one knows her. WOULD YOU PLEASE WRITE SISTER STECK A BIRTHDAY CARD! Just send it to my address here in Missoula.  I just want her to have a wonderful birthday! And I know that it would make her day if you all wrote her a little something and she got a lot of mail.  

THANK YOU

I must say I have always wanted to serve in a little Montana town but after exchanges with week in Ronan and St. Ignatious I am so happy I haven't. THe Lord obviously knows me better than I know myself.  Haha. We went to the Dentist while on exchanges and all anyone talked about were their steers and cattle entering into the fair and all this talk about chickens and pigs and their weight blah blah blah.  I was so unbelievably lost.  Plus, everyone lives in the middle of NOWHERE! I am talking you have to squint to see where your neighbor is.  Crazy.  We went tracting and contacting while on exchanges and man was it different.  Finding in small towns is totally different than in the areas I have been. I wanted to say big citites, but they really aren't.  They are just big for Montana. hahaha I am thankful to go Great Falls.  It will be good.  God is good to me.  

Another side note! We got to go to an Osprey baseball game with the stake! The stake put on a huge BBQ that we served at and had tickets to the baseball game and we got permission to go! It was really fun! I had no idea what an Osprey was...and they played against the Chuckers....what the heck is up with these strange birds as the mascots?  

Anyway, I better go. I have a lot of packing to do and a lot of goodbyes.  I love you all!  I want to leave you with a quote that I found and fell in love with. 

"The Gospel might be likened to the keyboard of a piano.  A full keyboard with a selection of keys on which one who is trained can play a variety without limits; a ballad to express love, a march to rally, a melody to soothe and a hymn to inspire. an endless variety to suit every mood and satisfy every need.  How shortsighted it is, then, to choose a single key and endlessly tap out the monotony of a single note, or even two or three notes.  When  the full keyboard of limitless harmony can be played."  - Boyd K. Packer

We are capable of so much more! Through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ we are capable of so much more! How grateful I am for my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ for giving me the ability to do things I would and could have never been able to do on my own. I have seen that day in and day out on my mission.  The Lord sees greatness in each one of us and through Jesus we become great.  Let us all give more place for Him in our lives each day so that we can take full advantage of the "keyboard" god has given to us.  God is good.  He is literally my everything.  Without Him I am nothing.  I am thankful for my knowledge of this Gospel. It has changed me.  I am happier than I have ever been before and I know it is because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

I love you! Miss you! 

Sure love ya! Moline's rock! Missionaries rule!

Sister Mo-Line