Day 40 Hermiston, OR

Halloooo!!

 

Holy poop. It has been a crazy week. To start off, we had our first baptism! I'm not really counting it as mine since the previous Elders were the ones teaching them, but we taught them for a couple weeks and organized the baptism and everything. Kayson (9 yrs old) and Hailey (8 yrs old) Cimmiyotti were baptized by their father Jeremy. It was a huge deal for their family...they were less active and Jeremy had been chewing tobacco and had other problems, but they shaped up and he became worthy to baptize his kids!! It's been cool to already see how the gospel changes lives. I'm stoked for them.

One other thing the mission has already done for me (and I'm sure will continue to do) is make me SO grateful for the way I was raised and for the blessings I have. Two of the girls we are teaching have parents who are meth addicts/drunks and are pretty abusive...and there's nothing we can do about it. Which sucks. But those girls have such strong faith and strong testimonies that they know how to get through it. They're freakin warriors. Coolest girls I know. And the one is hopefully getting baptized on the 23rd. Keep her in your prayers!

But we have had a TON of new investigators these past couple weeks that we're really excited about! One is this lady named Shilo who lived in Utah for a couple years and was really impressed by our church and how it's so family oriented. So we'll start teaching her more this week! Another is a kid named Efrain who has been taught by missionaries in the past, but has been wishy washy about keeping things up even though he believes what he's been taught is true. So we'll see if he's ready now. One of our favorite families we are teaching are the Jensens. They've been taught by missionaries since like 2000 but apparently haven't cracked at all. So when our ward mission leader heard we got in to see them he was surprised. The Jensens LOVE us. I don't know why, but they just do. So we've been able to teach them a few times this last week and are stoked for future lessons. Things will be slow with them, but at least they'll have a foundation of things. But we've been really surprised at the amount of people we've been able to talk to and they've been really receptive.

To answer questions:

We did get the water fixed, no worries! :) And yes I'm plenty warm up here...we haven't had any snow and the weather is just perfect for this winter-hating girl. It's only rained twice since we've been here...so I'm sure I'll see more if I get over to western WA.

I got Jared's letter!! He's so great. Tell him I'm sending him a reply today, and I'm working on writing Alex one too.

Also for anyone who reads this: Today in personal study I read this talk called 'Our Identity And Our Destiny' by Elder Tad R Callister. It is SUPER good. It's all about our potential to become like God and how we are His literal offspring. Look it up. It's a good'un.

I'm sending you pictures of the baptism and of our ward. ... :)

 

Miss you, love you, all that stuffs.

 

Sister Too Cool For School Ashley Smith

Kayson & Hailey Cimmiyotti baptized by their father Jeremy

Cow country! Hey Grandpa Harris, do you recognize the shirt you sent me?