Weekly Report - September 30

Er'body...

 

Sorry I haven't written a long weekly letter for the past couple of weeks!! We've just been busy doing the Lord's work and trying to catch up on sleep! Even when I do get enough sleep, it still seems like I am just exhausted.

Anyways so a lot has happened since the last time I wrote! I got a freakin' haircut and I have no idea what I was thinking cause now I have straight across bangs!!! It is really different and a lot of maintenance! Yeah... I don't think they are going to last long!!

Then this week, we had zone conference!! So President Hermansen came from Reno to Elko to basically call us to repentance and talk to us about how to be more effective missionaries! It was actually a really good conference! And at the beginning of each zone conference, usually a junior companion and then a senior companion each give a 5 minute talk. Well guess who one of the lucky speakers was! If you said Sister Messervy, you'd be correct!! So I had to give a 5 minute talk on "talking with everyone" which was kind of ironic because talking with everyone is something that I majorly need to work on! And also, I was so not prepared at all. But it was a really neat experience and because I was so unprepared and didn't know what I was going to say, the Holy Ghost was able to speak through me and tell all the other missionaries of the spring creek and elko zones what they needed to hear!

At zone conference we talked about how to get more member involvement in our missionary work, about the doctrine of the Godhead, and we had vehicle inspections/a training on how to drive in the snow. So at each zone conference we have a training given by President Hermansen, Elder Smigelski (the vehicle coordinator), Sister Hermansen, and the Assistants to the President (other missionaries who assist the mission president of course). It was just so good and it made me realize that I have a lot to work on to be a better missionary.

Then on Friday, we had overnight exchanges. Thursday night, I had a sleepover with Sister Anderson at the member's home where she and her companion live. Going out with the sister training leaders is a lot of fun. I was in a different area so I got to meet and teach knew people. And Sister Anderson forced me to testify at everybody's home. (I've kind of been working on talking with new people.) So it was just a really good learning experience for me. I don't know why I struggle with being myself around new people, but I do. I am just really quiet and don't know what to say!! It is sooooo FRUSTRATING! But I'm working on it, and as my testimony grows, I am getting a lot better at being able to testify about my beliefs.

Saturday was probably the best day of the week!!! We set Ryan (our 9 year old investigator) with a baptismal date!!!!! He wants to be baptized and is so ready, but is just afraid of choking on water! So save the date for October 26th (haha). We are slowly working on getting Ryan's dad ready and worthy to baptize Ryan. And it was so awesome that he took down some posters in their garage!!! I love seeing the changes that people make in their lives for Christ.

Also on Saturday, we went to our stake center and watched the General Relief Society Broadcast!! And the broadcast was amazing. I felt like it was directed to me!! We had tritip with baked potatoes, rolls, and salad for dinner afterwards. What could be better than a spiritual pickup and food!?!?!

We saw one of our investigators this morning, and she was a bit tipsy. We had an appointment scheduled which she had forgotten about. She loves it when we pray with her because she is slowly getting over her alcohol addiction and is turning to the Lord for help with that. The prayer she offered this morning was so beautiful. She was asking for Sister Fellman and I to be protected and other things. I don't know why it touched me so but it did. I am so thankful and glad to know that the people we teach love us. It is a mutual feeling, instead of us just feeling a ton of love for them. One of the funniest things, but also sweetest, she said was that we would be able to find worthy men. I wanted to laugh and cry because, finding a guy is not my focus right now, but I am so touched that she has our interests at heart. I love her to death, she is such an incredible person!!

Not much else has gone on here! I can't believe that it is already week 5 of the transfer which means that next saturday, we will get a phone call telling us where the Lord needs us to be! Time has flown by so fast!! Can you believe that it is already October?! Nutso!!!

I hope all is well at home!! Mom, have a safe trip to Nebraska and tell everyone Hello for me! And I'm glad ya'll had so much fun in Boise! I can't believe that Seth will be out on a mission, then Ross, and Preston will be out soon too!! That is just crazy! I have realized that time is a precious thing, and it is so important to enjoy each moment of life, before it passes you by, because time will pass and quickly too.

I love and miss you all so much!!!! Thank you for being such incredible examples and support to me throughout my life! I don't know what I would do without you guys!! I promise to write some snail mail today, so expect the mailbox to be full this week!!

Peace and Blessings!!

Sister Fish

Lice, that's nice!

Dear anybody and everybody...

The week started off great, we went to the Elko County Fair with a family of investigators, who had box seats for the horse racing. That was a lot of fun!!! I really wanted to get cheescake on a stick because where else can you get a piece of cake on a stick... I'll tell you where, only at the fair!! I restrained myself and settled for a sno cone instead which was equally as delicious since it was strawberry and peach flavored!!

The weather on monday was nuts though, it was pretty stormy and there were flash floods. We were on our way to dinner from the horse races when it really started to pour and seriously every street became a river. I got some cool pictures from this awesome week that I will send next week.

Then on Tuesday, we had dinner and went out for ice cream with the little boy who we are teaching and his Dad (who is a less active member). Since we've taught him a lot, we decided to do like a recap lesson and just review all that he has learned. It is awesome how much the son is remembering!! For dessert we went to an ice cream shop called Cool Beans (they do coffee and ice cream). I love it! It has some just weird and random pictures painted on the walls. It is a chill place and if I ever come back to Elko, I am going there!

This week was insane. Sister Fellman and I set pretty high standards for ourselves last week. We were starting to feel like we weren't doing all that we could to be the best missionaries we know we can be. So we've set a number on how many lessons we would like to get each week and such.

Yeah, our standards were in the toilet this week... wanna know why? (Hem, Hem, throat clearing noises) We got lice. You know those bugs that live in your hair, and just try to lay more and more eggs on top of your head?!?!! They were living on Sister Fellman and I for like a day!!! We found out this week that one of our investigators has lice and I don't think they know where it came from and we were in their home, helping them clean and touching everything!!! The night we found out was hilarious, as soon as she told us her boyfriend/fiance had lice, Sister Fellman set the blanket she was folding down and said so quickly, "It is getting dark so we better head home!" I could tell that she just wanted to book it out of there. As soon as we walked into our house, we checked each of our heads for lice, but luckily we didn't find any.

The next day, we weren't so lucky. After we had been out and about all day, and had stopped by that same investigators house to help her again, we decided it would be best to lice check our heads again. We found one egg on each of our heads. It was nasty. So the next day, we got permission from Sister Hermansen to stay home and clean. We had to clean everything!! Every inch of the Simons' basement is now sparkling. We vacuumed every inch of carpet, scrubbed the floors, used clorox wipes to clean EVERYTHING, got lice spray and sprayed a bunch of things with it, vacuumed and cleaned our car (p.s. since wednesday, we have been traveling around Elko by car!), and washed every piece of fabric (clothes, sheets, etc.)

It took us two whole days to do all that! It took two days mostly because of laundry. We were washing everything on the sanitize setting which took like 2 hours a load. We had so much to wash that we got up every two hours to change loads. And because we were cleaning and washing everything, we had to stay in the same disgusting clothes for both days. Since we were so nasty, we didn't want to sleep in our beds, we put blankets on the treadmills and slept on those!! It was so stinkin' hilarious. I have a picture of that that I will send you! After everything was cleaned, we had to wash our hair with lice killing shampoo. It was a fun couple of days. Pretty much now we are pros on knowing how to get rid of lice!

Moral of the story though, don't get lice cause it is a pain in the bum to have to clean everything to kill it so it can't keep showing up in your hair!!

Don't worry though, we are lice free and are able to leave the house now other than to go to walmart to get cleaning supplies!! Thank goodness!! Yeah it was a fun weekend that I hope never to repeat!!

Love you guys!!

Sister Fish

Faith

This week has gone by really fast. Sister Fellman and I have decided that we need to start working harder! We spend a lot of time with less actives, so they tend to just want to visit with us! So we are going to make sure that each time we visit with someone, we share a spiritual message! We are going to help the work along, just by making small changes to how we teach and serve.

This week I learned a ton about faith. I think one of the prophets said something like, "Everything you do is done with faith. Just waking up in the morning is an act of faith." Isn't that so powerful?! You just have to put your trust in the Lord, and recognize that He knows better than you, how everything will work out. If you are working towards a righteous goal, He will bless you.

Since I've been on my mission, I have discovered that if you have real faith, you act. I always thought that just saying, "I believe in God and Jesus Christ" was faith. Boy was I ever wrong. Faith is action. If you really trust in the Lord, you just act. If you trust that the Lord has a plan for you and a path already set for you to travel on, He will show you the way. You just have to be the one to step on a path. If it isn't the right path, the Lord will let you know and then you just adjust. And everything happens for a reason!! It is hard to put your trust in something you can't see though! I am working on it!
Love ya!
Sister Fish