Hello Everyone!
Wow, I know I said this last week, but I can't believe it is P-day again! Time flies! I love the letters and emails! I look forward to reading the emails each Monday! Thank you so much for everything! I love hearing about everything that goes on at home! I am so grateful that we can communicate weekly!
Well, as I told you last week, I was in Hillsboro all this week. Sis. Perez had training each day until 4, so when she was gone, my companion was Sister Young. She is a hard-of-hearing sister. Honestly, this week was hard but good. It was good, because I LEARNED A LOT!! It got me out of my comfort zone to be the leader, especially because we tracted 16 hours! Sister Young had never tracted before, plus, she can hear only half of what is going on, so I did most of the talking. She would chime in, but it was hard to not have that constant backup! I don't blame her though...anyway it honestly was a great week. Sis. Young is a sweet person who has a strong testimony. Each night, Sister Perez and Sister Weise (Sister Young’s companion) would come home and train us on what they learned. Man, missionary work is really being refined! They didn't make changes to Preach My Gospel, but mainly they are just training missionaries how to FIND THE ELECT! We are learning how to find someone, determine if they are willing to put forth effort, and if they are elect, and how we can teach by the Spirit. We have learned a lot about how the Spirit is the only way we can teach. WOW, I tell you our leaders are so inspired! Each night, we reviewed training, and I felt the Spirit so strongly! I had a wonderful experience Tuesday night when Sister Perez and Sister Weise were training us. They told us that to practice we were going to extend a baptismal commitment and resolve the concern with a scripture being led by the Spirit. In my head I got a tiny bit nervous, because I am not super great at remembering scriptures. As Sister Weise began to tell us her concern, I told myself to focus on her and her only and that by doing so, the Spirit would help me know how to help her. As she was talking, I had the strongest impression to read John 14:15 to her. At first, I wasn't sure if this was the one I should share because it wasn't super specific to her needs...or so I thought. But I realized that the Spirit was prompting me so I shared it. This was a role-play, but the Spirit touched all four of us! After, Sister Perez and Sister Weise told us that they could tell that we truly had been led by the Spirit. It was a very wonderful experience that certainly strengthened my testimony!
I was weird to be in the city and to be able to walk door to door in a matter of seconds! It was also weird to see stores and traffic and PEOPLE! Ha ha ha, you gotta love Rainier!
We picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is Judy Brown. She was a media referral and we had stopped by several times only to find her gone. On Saturday, we both had the feeling to stop by. It didn't look like anyone was home, but we still decided to go see. Well, she was there! We sat down and taught her part of lesson one. She told us of her experience on Temple Square and how she LOVED the Joseph Smith movie. She told us this with tears in her eyes. We explained to her that she was feeling the Spirit testify to her the truth of Joseph Smith. We extended a soft baptismal commitment to her and she ACCEPTED! Wow, we can already tell that she is elect! I am pretty sure that Sister Perez and I floated out of her apartment!
Transfers are today! Luckily, Sister Perez and I aren't being transferred! I am so grateful to have another transfer with Sister Perez! She is such a wonderful person! I feel like I have been blessed to have such a wonderful trainer! She truly cares about me and about our investigators! I love being trained by her, because she follows the Spirit! I LOVE SISTER PEREZ!
So, a little bit of detailed things I want to tell you: Our church starts at 10, which with the time difference, is the same time as yours. Sometimes while I am in Sacrament Meeting, I will just think of how you are in Sacrament Meeting, too! The Rainier ward is amazing! I finally feel like I know most people! The people here are so great! They are so welcoming to new investigators! We have A LOT of support as missionaries! So, I have time to write you today...I will write you a big letter about some of the members! I PROMISE!
On P-days we usually do something with the district or with a ward member. We were going to go to the coast today, but the member (Sis. Erickson, who is one of my favorite...I will tell you more about her in t he letter) was sick, so we are going to plan to do that another p-day. Today we are just going to write and take it easy because we haven't done that for awhile:) There is one place to shop in Clatskanie...Safeway. Since it is the only main grocery store for Rainer as well, the prices are SO HIGH!!!!! Everyone here crosses the Long View Bridge to WA to go shopping, but we can't do that, so we are working hard to really budget our money on what we spend.
The first picture is of me and Sister Perez of course....she jokes about how she has all the dark features and I have all the light features...
The one picture is a picture of the Painters! They are amazing! They like us to call them Grandma and Grandpa.
The next is a picture of us and Frank at his baptism!
The last picture is of me and Cameron. Her mom is Sarah Miller who is a less active. Sarah’s parents are the Jones who I think I told you about. Sarah is really sweet and is coming back to church along with her parents!
The last one is a picture of Sis. Perez and me one night on our way home. We stopped to take a picture. Sister Perez tripped and started laughing, and of course I started laughing as well....I like this one.
One more...this is sis. Goodrich...she is willing to do anything for us! I will tell you more about her in my letter!
I love you so much and miss you a lot! You are all the best!
Sister Willmore
