I got to be at the Coast again today!! It was a beautiful day in Florence! It was a nice little breeze, the sun was shining, and not a cloud was in the sky! We got to shop in all the little shops. It reminded me when we would go to Cali in Seaport Village or Sedona. One of the missionaries, Sister Wood, came back to visit, so she wanted us to go to the coast with her and Theran Wilson- a recent convert! The 4 of us girls had so much fun!
We met with Stephanie this week. We had dinner with her and Omar, her boyfriend. She made us yummy spaghetti-- btw no one feeds us spaghetti, I think that was one of the few times I have had it since I have been out, shocker huh? Well Omar left early so he could go play basketball and then we could finally talk to Stephanie about what is going to happen with them. They told us that they were going to plan on getting married in the summer and then next October go to the temple! It was fun to talk with her, without him there, cause that would have been a little awkward. Before we left she gave us a little present. It was a beautiful heart necklace with a nice note! I seriously love her so much. I hope that I am near this area in the summer so I can attend there wedding and maybe even be allowed to go to the temple in a year with them... so cool!!
Last Monday we had our Watermelon eating contest! Oh man, those Elders loved it! It was kinda gross though. They were spitting the seeds all over, smashing the water out of the melons and other weird things that boys do. S. Stoehr and I had a good time watching it all. This is one of the pics from it. We also got to tour Autzen Stadium. Wow that is a huge stadium. They told us that it is one of the loudest stadiums. They broke the record a few years back for the loudest stadium... louder than a jet plane! We got to run on the field and take as many pics as we wanted. When we entered the field, we got to go thru the tunnel the players run thru before the game. After the tour we got to watch a 10 minute clip of all the Ducks football highlights over the last year. It was so cool, but it made me want to watch a game!! Not aloud.
We taught Sara about the Plan of Salvation. She doesn't really believe in a lot of the things that we say, no commitment at all. We went to Cindy Anderson's house last week. We taught the Plan of Salvation to her too. She is really searching, praying and reading from the Book of Mormon. I love being over at her house! She is such a sweetheart. Tonight we are teaching her again. We are going to invite her to be baptized. Please pray for her! Finally saw Brad and Jackie for a few minutes this week. Jackie's step mom has only about a month to live, so they have been busy with all that family stuff. We set up a time to meet with them on Thursday.
On Tuesday we are going to be trained by President MacDonald. I can't wait!! His b-day is on Thursday, so S. Stoehr and I wrote in the sand and took a pic for his b-day. He is the man!! After we are trained I am going with my tongan sister, Sister Kaufusi, to Springfield. I am kinda nervous cause I hear it is kinda spooky and creepy over in that part of town, but I am glad I get to be with Fusi for the day!! She is so awesome!
We had a combined District Meeting on Friday. We spoke about Agency and the Book of Mormon. When we have meetings we do so many role plays. I love doing them, some of the most special experiences come from doing these! We practiced handing out the Book of Mormon. As a mission we are focusing on this, because that is one of the unique things to our church. I am glad that we are doing this. I love the Book of Mormon. I am so passionate about sharing it with everyone. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has increased so much as I read from it everyday. Just as Joseph Smith said, it will draw anyone nearer to God by reading it and by abiding by it's precept. We can read it, but when we actually live what we learn, it becomes so much more! I love being able to show the pictures in the soft cover copies. It draws people's attention. Love it!! S. Stoehr and I made a goal of handing out TONS of Book of Mormons before the end of the transfer. We are excited about reaching and going over our goal. :) In preparation for giving people them, we both read the talk, Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon by President Benson. It was given in a Conference talk the year and month I was born-- November 1988. This talk will blow you out of the water!! He is so bold and it still applies to today. If you haven't read that talk, I invite you to read it, then start opening your mouth and pass out some Book of Mormons!! (for Chase--- Book of Mormons, or Books of Mormon?? haha love ya buddy!!)
We got a new ward mission leader in the Santa Clara 1st ward. I am so stoked about it!! Bro. Hentzley is so excited to be apart of the missionary work and he is gonna help us out so much!
This week we weren't sure if any of our investigators were going to come to church. We were kinda bummed, so we have been praying that we would have a miracle- we do that a lot. Oh yeah, side note--- Jackie got a new work schedule, she doesn't work on Sundays anymore!!!!!!!!!!! YESSS!!! Our prayers were answered :)!! Back to Sunday.-- So during the Sacrament I notice a man poke his head thru the door and then leave. I recognized him as the husband of a less active member of the ward. Well we went to the Sunday School and in comes this man, he is not a member! Score- he was our investigator at church! He came in late, so I couldn't talk to him till after the class. The whole class I was praying that he would not bolt out so I could catch him, say hello and invite him to take the lessons. The closing prayer was said and I went over and said, "Brother Clark!" I didn't know his first name, but I thought it appropriate since he would soon be a member :). He then says hey and that his name is Robert. He told us that we could stop by and visit with his wife if she is ever available. Well I wasn't going to take that as an answer so I told him that we wanted to teach him and asked if he was interested. He told us that the other missionaries were intimidated, but we could go if we wanted to. The ward mission leaders wife was overhearing the conversation, comes over and asks him kinda laughing, "hey when are you gonna be baptized." He just laughed and said, we will talk when you come over on Thursday. Yippee!!! So cool. Another story- A lady that hasn't been to church in the last 6 years came yesterday. She has 3 kids and 2 of them want to be baptized! She is a sweet lady and is very excited to be back at church. I guess she just ended a really bad divorce and is looking for some guidance and direction-- what better way to do that then at church..... remember Elder Bednar, we come to church and our meetings to have a revelatory experience. I am looking forward to teaching the kids!
Last night we had an appointment with a less active family, but they canceled on us. I was really bummed and I didn't know what we were going to do. It was about 7:30pm and it was really dark out, so tracting or OYMing were out. We decided that we needed to see the Fransens, they are also less active. When we knocked on the door, Sister Fransen flew open the door and let us right in. She was so happy to see us!! She then told us her story-- Basically she hasn't been to church in the last year and is so upset that she can't get herself to go back. Her 3 kids aren't active and she feels like she failed. I was so grateful to be there for her right then, we shared the scripture in 2 Nephi 26: 23-24. She just cried while we were there and after we were finished we asked, "so, how we can we help you." Her reply "I think you just did." I felt so grateful that we had listened to the promptings we received so that we could be the listening ear she needed.
Quick funny story-- we had a correlation meeting on Sunday with the Ward mission leader and his wife. None of the ward missionaries could make it to the meeting, so it was just them and S. Stoehr and I. Well the wife went to throw something away and on her way back she accidentally tooted. I tried to not draw attention to it as she politely said "excuse me" and sat down, BUT my comp was another story. As I looked over at her about a minute after it happened she was bright red and couldn't hold in her laughs any longer. That made me laugh. Haha, all 4 of us were rolling on the ground. It was hilarious. Ha!
Welp, that's is mission life for ya!! I love it here so much. All the leaves are falling from the trees and it is usually foggy in the mornings and clears up by the afternoon. No rain yet, but I just take it one day at a time!
I love you all! Be happy and safe!!! Talk to you all next week!!!