Well Fed in Blackfoot

                                                                        Outdoor P-Day Activity

                                                            With Sister Brimley (MTC companion)
Transfer week is the longest week of my life, oh my gosh.

Well, this week was full of a heck-of-a lot of goodbyes. I hated it. But most of the week was okay, just really stressed about about packing and all (oh my gosh packing is a TERROR.) I didn't really start getting sad until Tuesday night, the night before transfers. Saying goodbyes to the last few families, and even harder was when Bishop Nickell shook my hand and with his eyes brimming, thanked me for staying with them and being a wonderful missionary.  After that, my heart ached as I looked around the house and reminisced of my time in Blackfoot.  My heart was and still is full of love for the people in Blackfoot.  Then Wednesday morning, we cleaned, took some pictures together as a companionship, and then headed to the transfer sight!

And now I am in Inkom! My new companion, Sister Le`on (lay-OWN) is from Houston, Texas.  She was born in California, though, and her parents are from Mexico. She just got done with her training, so she's still learning the missionary life and routine. 

In Blackfoot, every time I told someone I was transfering to Inkom, they said "Oh, Inkom Stinkom!" Apparently they call it that because there is a factory of some sort here, and factories usually put off a yucky smell. So I was expecting a teensy little town in the middle of the desert, maybe some oil fields nearby, foothills in the distance, and a smelly factory in the middle.  How wrong I was. Inkom is beautiful.  It's a small town in the mountains, so there are rolling hills everywhere, reminding me a lot of Ireland (except they are more yellowish mountains rather than the lush green ones in Ireland, of course). The views up in the hills are spectacular, there's winding roads and creeks everywhere...makes me really want to go hiking!  That might be a regular p-day activity around here :)

I forgot how hard learning a new area is.  You kind of have to empty your brain out of all the information from your last area to make room for all of the different names, wards, leaders, streets, and people of your new area.  The good part is that it's small, so there isn't quite as big of an area to cover and learn.  But we cover 4 wards, so there is still a lot of stuff to remember. I've met a handful of investigators. There is a lot of less active work here, a lot more than in Blackfoot. I guess when you're in a town this small, there are only so many new people to find and teach. But I have learned my new area in Inkom better in 5 days than in the first 4 weeks I was in Blackfoot. Which tells me that the Lord has really been answering my prayers to expand my mind and help me remember things. I pray all the time that I will be able to overcome my forgetfulness and my poor memory, and I've really seen it working wonders.  I feel more responsible than ever I have before.  I just hope the Lord will help me continue to expand my mind that I may keep it beyond just the mission. Prayer works, y'all. 

I think it was like the day after I got here, we were getting out of our car, and I stepped backwards to close the passenger door and tripped backwards over the curb, landing on my back on the rocks behind me.  As much as it hurt, it was more embarrassing than it was painful. I quickly stood up and made sure nobody was around. My companion laughed, but nobody else was around--phew! Then we turned around to go into this house, but a girl came out and asked, "are you okay??"  We all laughed, but I was so embarrassed. Haha missionaries aren't always composed and poised in their skirts and dresses and suits. 

We had a really great lesson with Kristy and Brett, a young couple, the husband is a returned missionary and his wife is not a member.  We mostly talked about their background in religion, asked them a bunch of questions, and read the intro to the Book of Mormon together.  They are sort of quiet, so it was a bit awkward at first, but as our questions began to be guided by the spirit, Brett really opened up at one point, expressing with tears in his eyes his desire to truly learn what Christlike love is.  The spirit was strong, and we can only pray that Kristy really felt that.  We set up an appointment for next week, can't wait!! 

Well, I will send pictures and things, but that's all I can really think about for now. I'm sure as I get to know the area and people more, I will be able to recount more of my experiences.  I know this church is true and that the Savior is there for us wherever and whoever we are!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

                                                                            Dawn Rae's Baptism

                                                                           With Investigator Michelle

                                                                             Best Place in Town to Eat!

Oh, mah goodness, what a week.

Okay, this will be a quick one because we have lots to do today. I'll just start with Monday.

Last Monday after emails we had a zone activity where we played basketball, had pizza, etc. Then the Nickells took us to their "island" which is really just a campsite by the snake river, but it looks really fun and we had planned to have a zone activity there today!!---unfortunately it rained last night and we're not sure if we're going to be able to start a fire in this...blek. 

Wednesday. Wednesday was April Fools. That morning, I recounted to Bishop Nickell the hilarious April fools joke that Mom and I played on Chase that one year, where we wrote a fake letter from the "court". (Chase got in trouble for throwing eggs at age 10, so we wrote him a letter from the "court" saying he would have to pay a $1500 fine and two weeks in jail - really had him going!)  Bishop Nickell thought it would be similarly amusing to do something like that to the zone leaders, especially since we had Zone Training that day. He said that it would be fun to make a letter to the Zone Leaders from the city of Blackfoot that said due to poor contact of the missionaries for the Church, proselyting by full-time missionaries would be prohibited within city limits.  Haha the Zone Leaders would have freaked. But, unfortunately, a rouse like that would have taken time, and we only had an hour before the Zone Training, so we decided against it.  However, I did pull a much simpler prank on one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Cook. I always bring popcorn to our missionary meeting, and this day I also brought a plastic spider, and slipped it into the popcorn bag, right on top. When Elder Cook saw that I had my usual bag of popcorn, he excitedly reached his hand into the bag without looking, and pulled out a handful of popcorn along with the plastic spider. He brought the handful to his mouth to eat, saw the spider, screamed, and flung the popcorn all over the place.  I didn't know until then that Elder Cook is almost as afraid of spiders as I am. It was pretty funny though, we all got a good laugh. 

That night, we went to see "Walk with Christ" with Natayla and Joann, which was really good. It's this thing that they put on in Pocatello where you walk through the church building and see scenes of Christ's life, or more the account of events in his life from people that were there.  As a theatre major, I couldn't help but critique the acting the whole time, but for a non-professional production, it was pretty impressive. Joann and Natayla really really enjoyed it, too, really felt the spirit.  It was a really great night. 

Thursday. During weekly planning, which we do every Thursday, we waited in anticipation for the phone call. Transfer calls. around noon, we received a phone call from President Brinkerhoff, who informed us that I will be transferring to Inkom! Which happens to be Sister Leasi's first area that she served in! Also, that was Sister Brimley's last area! My new companion will be Sister Le`on, originally from Mexico, more recently from TEXAS! So this will be fun.  The new Sister taking my place is Sister Whalen. I've never met her, apparently she's been out over a year.  I will miss Blackfoot so much. I've basically been running around like crazy trying to get ready for transfers. Packing, Updating the area book, packing, cleaning, saying goodbye to everyone, taking pictures with everyone, packing...yeah it's nuts. 

Sunday. HAPPY EASTER! AND DAWN RAE'S BAPTISM.

This was it, ladies and gentleman. The moment we had all been waiting for.  The moment that Dawn Rae had been waiting for for almost 4 years. She got BAPTIZED! 

She had been working towards this for so long. Like we have records for this family in our Area Book from 2011.  And she finally did it--kicked the habit, and through the merits and Grace of the Holy Messiah, was prepared to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood of God.  And when we showed up to prepare for the baptism, guess who was there? SISTER WORRALL. aaaaahhh I was so excited, I hadn't seen my trainer for four months. It seemed like ages, though. We talked each other's ear off, and I forgot how much I had missed her.  She was ecstatic about Dawn Rae, and Dawn was so happy to see her. I'll send some pictures later.  

 

Conference was awesome. As usual. Elder Holland tore it up. I think his was my favorite talk this Conference.  He can talk about so simple a subject and yet makes it just so powerful. I was in awe of the wonder of the Atonement as I listened to his talk yesterday.  I also really enjoyed Elder Wilford A Anderson's talk on the "Music of the Gospel". I loved all of the musical metaphors to our lives and the gospel. Also, President Uchtdorf did a great job on his talk on Grace. I think that would be a great one to show to those who misunderstand our interpretation of Grace.  

Tell your friends and family who did not get to see conference to watch it on lds.org. It's right on the front page!  You can even reference them to specific talks that you think might be inspiring to them.   There really are so many things we can gain from listening to the Lord's servants.  

Also, we had and Easter lunch between sessions with the Boyds, and an Easter Dinner after the session with the Arves (ward missionaries!) and they were both delicious!

 

Well that's it for this week! Love you all so much and I'll talk to you in INKOM!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

                        Sister Moreland likes to draw comics about missionary life.  Here is a sample:

                                                                                    Critters

                                                                                 Doing Service

                                                                              Haha, Potato!

                                                              Baptism of Natayla and Joanne

Hello everybody!

Well I definitely had a humbling experience at the very beginning of the week. On Monday night, we had a baptismal interview with Joanne and Natayla, and I was honestly pretty worried. I think I really forgot that the Lord is the one who prepares people for baptism, not me and Sister Leasi. And she had had a pretty miraculous experience the day before that confirmed to her that this was all true, and that she was heading in the right direction.  It was really a testimony to me just how in charge God is. He knows what He is doing, and I shouldn't try and interfere with that.  It definitely put me in my place!  But it was very exciting to be a part of their journey to the waters of baptism.  They had a death in the family just a day after the interview, I think the Adversary was really trying to test their faith, but they pulled through the hard time and made it to the gate called baptism. 

 They had asked me to speak on baptism and S. Leasi to speak on the gift of the Holy Ghost. A few hours before the baptism on Saturday, Sister Leasi and I are driving around going to our usual Saturday morning correlation meetings when we suddenly receive a text message. It was from President Brinkerhoff. "Sisters, what time and where will your baptism take place this afternoon?"  My heart stopped.  Oh man. President and Sister Brinkerhoff were coming to our baptism.  We texted him back the time and place of the baptism (a little reluctantly, I hate to say).  We arrived at the baptism early to make preparations and such, and our nerves were quite on edge.  But when the baptism started, we looked around, and no President or Sister Brinkerhoff. *Whew!* I don't know why it feels so nerve-wracking to have the President come to your baptism, but it just is.  You want to make sure everything goes perfectly.  And sometimes at a baptism, not everything goes totally smooth. 

 Anyway, I got up and began my talk on baptism.  I based a large part of my talk on Elder Bednar's talk "Ye Must Be Born Again" where he compares conversion to the process by which a cucumber becomes a pickle.  Everyone was quite puzzled when I brought out a giant pickle jar and a cucumber, but it made a lot more sense once I started comparing it to baptism and life-long conversion. About halfway through my talk, guess who snuck in through the back? Yep. The President and his wife.  Well I finished my talk and all went well.  Both Natayla and Joanne were baptized and everything went as planned. The President and his wife talk to us afterwards, congratulated us, gave us a few suggestions on the baptismal service, etc.  It was a good day. 

DawnRae is preparing for baptism this Easter Sunday! What a great way to celebrate the Resurrection of the Savior--with a baptism! :D She is still going strong with the quitting and is getting excited for the big day.  We are making plans and such and everyone is really excited.  Can't wait for this week and all that it will bring!

Love you all so much!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

                                     Relief Society Birthday Party with Natalya and her Grandma!

                                                  Teaching Plan of Salvation with the Primary President

Dear Family,

Had kind of a crazy week. We are preparing for a baptism this weekend...honestly not sure whether it's going to be one or two people being baptized...I'm unsure of how the baptismal interview will turn out. We will see. But I know that God prepares his children on His own time and on their own time.  Our time really isn't important in the larger scheme of things.  

Exciting news for Dawn. She is quitting! Like it is for real this time.  She went from a pack a day (20 cigarettes) to 6 cigarettes in 3 days.  That is incredible. Today is her quit day, so please pray for her.  We have a baptism scheduled for her on April 6th! I am ecstatic. She's been waiting for this for so long.  Her family will be bountifully blessed, I know.

There's a lot that goes on within ourselves, I think, when we are repenting and really trying to change.  We can think that we are changed or that we are better people than we used to be, only to be smacked upside the head and feel like we're right back on square one again. Oh well.  I won't stop trying to change myself until I never turn back. I want this mission to so extremely change who I am that there is no way I can ever be the same person again.  I want it to change me from the inside out.  I want people to be able to see it.  I want to be able to keep the things that I have learned with me for the rest of my life.  I will never stop putting myself through the fire of purification until I can look in the mirror and see the savior staring back at me. That is my goal. That is my will--to align it with God's.

Sorry this is a short one this week. We've got a lot to do today.  Shoot me an email! Let me know what you're up to!! I love hearing from you all :)

God Bless you all,

Sister Moreland

                                                                               Zone Luau

                                                       The Polynesian dancers (sort of!)

                                                               Aiden's Baptism
My Beloved Ones,

Oh, my goodness, what did we even do this week? I don't really even know. The weeks are all just sort of blurring together. I'll try my best.

We taught a new member lesson to Joe and Daisy. Their kids were not present, unfortunately, but it was a great overview of the restoration and a good refresher for them. It was also great for us to see how much they really understand about the restoration of the gospel. We had this lesson at the Bishop's house, and the Bishop gave them tickets to general conference.  I am extremely jealous.  But they are SO excited to be able to go and see the prophet speak! Yayy! 

Zone meeting on Tuesday was very powerful.  Our Zone Leader Elder Jordan gave a very powerful training on giving everything to Christ. He gave a really great quote from C.S. Lewis, but I just asked him for it and he doesn't have it. But it was something about not just giving Christ a branch here and there from off your "tree", but giving Him the whole tree. It struck me pretty deep, and I'm really trying this week to focus everything I have to why I am here, and being willing to give up all I am for His cause.  

  

Remember the very first baptism I had in the area? Ethan and Emily? They moved this weekend :( luckily, they're not too far from the family history center that we email and do records in, so I'm sure we'll see them around. We helped them move this week, and that was fun. 

So we've been teaching this little boy named Aiden the lessons even though he's only 8.  He only gets to go to primary every other week because the other week he's with his dad, who doesn't take him to church. So it was really nice to be able to get to know his family and really teach him the discussions.  I honestly think it's a good idea to do that with all 8-year-olds, just to make sure they really know the gospel and understand the commitment they are making when they get baptized. So he got baptized this Saturday, and it was neat to go to that.

On Saturday, we had a Luau! It was a missionary activity for our entire zone. All of the missionaries in our zone invited all of our investigators and less active members to come to this huge Luau and enjoy island food and a performance by we, the missionaries!  Unfortunately, even with all of our inviting and encouraging people to come, we had 0 people from our area show up. Bleh. But it was still fun.  We did a couple different dances; the Elders did the Haka, which is a New Zealand Maori dance (led by our own Elder Teokoti from New Zealand) the sisters did a Hula dance, and all of us together did a Samoan Sasa.  There were a couple other solo numbers done by some of the other Polynesian missionaries in our zone and from other zones.  It turned out really good, and it was fun to perform. 

On Sunday, we took  Natayla and her grandparents to the temple visitor's center! We love taking people to the VC, it's always a very spiritual experience.  

Alsooooo....I found my package!!!! Thank you, Chase, you are the best!! :D

I love you all so much and hope you are having a wonderful week. Please pray for Natayla and Joanne, who are striving towards baptism but are struggling to gain testimonies of the Book of Mormon. 

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

Helloo!!

So, I haven't been keeping up with my journal writing at all. Which is making it really hard to do emails because I can't really remember what all we did this week...but I'll try my best.

We've been focusing a lot on Natayla, our baptismal date.  In order to preserve privacy, I usually change the spelling or change slightly the names of people...and by now I'm pretty sure I've used like 3 different names for Natayla so now I can't keep track haha.  But she is doing really well; reading the scriptures that we assign her, having family prayer....her grandparents, whom she lives with, are progressing right along with her.  We went over to their house on my birthday and they made us dinner.  They made this sweet chili which was delicious, and Natayla made me a birthday cheesecake! :D They are so sweet.  Then we had a lesson on the word of wisdom. Her Grandpa, who is a less active member, really had some concerns about the word of wisdom, but hopefully his struggles won't affect Natayla's commitment to follow the prophet's counsel.  Her grandma is quite an example of the fact that we really shouldn't judge who will and will not accept the gospel. At first she seemed as though she would never accept any kind of religion into her life.  But she now goes to church more than Natayla and Dan.  And although she is blunt and sarcastic about many things we teach, she follows right along with us, highlighting scriptures as she goes.  We are all seeing a really incredible change in her, even her family is surprised.  The baptismal date is for March 28th, and we can't wait! 

Now that Joe is baptized, we've been making arrangements to set up new member lessons with other families in the ward.  Hopefully that will be a success! 

uhhhh, man, that is really all I can think of.  Not a whole lot of exciting or unusual things happened this week.  I received a couple packages this week for my birthday. Thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday and who sent me things! You guys are so sweet and make me feel so loved! I hope you are all always praying for opportunities to share the gospel in your own lives. As Preach My Gospel says, "You are surrounded by people.  You pass them on the street, visit them in their homes, and travel among them. All of them are children of God, your brothers and sisters.  God loves them just as He loves you. Many of these people are searching for purpose..."  We all have so many opportunities to help others feel the spirit of God.  I hope you will search for an act upon opportunities to do so. 

 

Oh! and I forgot something. We had zone conference this week! That was fun. And very inspiring. We have some amazing missionaries in our mission, and some of them gave really good talks.  

Love you all so much!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

 I FLIPPED OUT at the Lion King watch.I've been wearing it all week. I love it. Best birthday present ever.

                                                                All my Lion King stuff!

     I LOVED the card, that was so thoughtful of everyone!! Made me tear up a bit to see everyone in the family sending their love.

                                                   The fields are alive, with the Sound of Music!
                                                                   ...or is it about to be...
                                                  Auntie Em, Auntie Em, it's a twister, it's a twister

                                                               Joe's Family at his Baptism

                                                                             Joe's Baptism

                                                           "Make your own birthday cake!"

Man. Long week.

 We were excitedly preparing for Joe's baptism this week, so we saw them a lot this week.  After Elder Cox interviewed him for baptism on Monday night, Elder Cox said that he was one of the most prepared people he'd ever interviewed for baptism, and congratulated us for teaching clearly and helping him get prepared.  After all the hard work we do, it was really nice to hear that.  But it's not us, really. Joe had such a strong desire to search for what he was missing in his life.  He knew that he wanted an eternal family, and through prayer and scripture study, the spirit testified to him that this was the way to get it. 

Wednesday was rough. But your birthday package came just in time! On Thursday morning, I got the package, and my week was immediately made.  Thank you so much to all of my family members who included their bit! I love you guys so much!! 

On Friday, we had one of the most welcoming dinner appointments ever.  This Sister in the ward has a daughter out serving a mission, so she really took care of us.  She was telling us that her daughter experiences some of the same trials that we do, even when serving on the other side of the country in Mississippi.

  One of those things in common is really trying to encourage the members to make sure the welcome in the new converts with welcome arms. 

 So just a little pep talk for my family and friends back home: Gordon B Hinkley said in a talk that he received a letter from a recent convert about her experience with becoming a member of the church. "My journey into the Church was unique and quite challenging. This past year has been the hardest year that I have ever lived in my life.  It has also been the most rewarding..." She goes on to say that when she joined the Church she did not feel support from the leadership in the ward. "Church members don't know what it is like to be a new member..." President Hinkley said to his listeners "I challenge you, my brothers and sisters, that if you do not know what it is like, you try to imagine what it is like.  It can be terribly lonely.  It can be disappointing. It can be frightening. We of this Church are far more different form the world than we are prone to think we are." The recent convert woman says in her letter "When we as investigators become members of the Church, we are surprised to discover that we have entered into a completely foreign world, a world that has its own traditions,culture, and language...At first the trip is exciting, our mistakes even amusing, then it becomes frustrating and eventually, the frustration turns into anger.  And it's at these stages of frustration and anger that we leave.  We go back to the world from which we came, where we knew who we were, where we contributed, and where we could speak the language."

President Hinkley eventually goes on in his talk to explain that every new member of the church needs three things:  nourishment by the Word of God, a calling, and (maybe even most importantly), a friend.  Please be that friend to new converts.  Please let them feel the support and welcome that they so desperately need. There are too many people that get baptized and fall away from the church shortly there after.  It is so extremely sad to us as missionaries when we see someone feel the spirit, progress in the gospel, and get baptized, only to feel lost and alone in this new, foreign world without the love and support from individuals in the ward, and eventually fall away.  Please help us in this effort. Missionaries will be transferred away, so we can't continue that support system on our own. But as the members, you will stay in the area, in that ward. You can be the friend that these investigators and new converts need.  

Okay. That's the end of my soapbox.

What a wonderful experience Joe's baptism on Saturday was! Thank you, mom, for sending me the talk and telling me about the ensign article, I used both of those for my talk on Baptism! I made little cut-outs and everything, I think it went pretty well! It was wonderful to hear Joe and Daisy bear testimony of the truth they have come to discover. 

Well that's all I can think of for this week! Love you all sooooo much!!!

God Bless!

Sister Moreland