So transfer calls were this week.  I felt sure that I was being transferred. I've been in this area for 6 months, President Brinkerhoff said in his interview with me that "that is a perfect amount of time in one area!" and during our district meeting's "transfer games", where everyone votes who they think will be transferred, when my name was called, every other missionary in that room raised their hand, predicting that I would be transferred. After all, out of everyone in our district, I've been here the longest.  Which is kind of weird, I was such a new little greenie when I came! It's weird to think that everyone else in our district is more new to this area than I am. Weird. But anyway, we got transfer calls and I'm staying here for another 6 weeks. Which I'm really glad about because it means that I get to witness----

Joe's Baptism!!! Joe and his lovely family have been prepared for this moment for a long time.  We've been teaching the family since they moved into the area about 2 1/2 moths ago.  This week was kind of stressful because we had to fit in the last few lessons, plan the baptism, get a program together, get him interviewed, schedule the time around a funeral that is happening the same day....there's a lot to do. But we are so proud of Joe for taking this step and so grateful that Heavenly Father has led him to this point.  

We also set a baptism date with Natayla! Sister Leasi and I had prayed and felt that she could be prepared for March 28.  But when we were in the lesson with her, at first I accidentally made the mistake of inviting her to be baptized on "February 28th" instead of "March 28th". Natayla looked like a deer in the headlights when I said that, then her grandpa exclaimed, "Wait, next Saturday??" Then, realizing what I had said, I corrected myself, saying "Oh, wait, no, March 28th!"  We all had a laugh, and Natayla agreed to prepare for that day.  Now to help her come to church.....

We had some of the most bizarre weather this week.   On Friday, it was bright and sunny, but in the distance you could see that it was raining in other parts of the area. While driving around, we would get to a spot that was raining (but still sunny) and then drive out of it.  Then, for a random 6 or 7 seconds, it started hailing! Then after a few seconds, it just stopped. And was still sunny and warm. Haha, it was so weird.  Idaho, man. 

I am lovin the Lord's work!  I see the amazing effects that his gospel has on families every day. I pray for my friends and family always and hope you are all doing well!

God Bless!

Sister Moreland

What a great week!

This week was a really good one.  We saw lots of miracles. We were looking for a couple of former investigators that were in our area book, one of which was a family with over-aged youth.  When we stopped by the house, a man named Victor was outside.  We utilized some of the conversation skills we had practiced in a zone-training just the day before (yes, missionaries need practice with how to start a conversation. We are that awkward.) and ended up talking about the restored gospel and Book of Mormon.  Then, this man did something that I've never had anyone do in my 5 1/2 months of being a missionary--he asked for a pamphlet.  Usually we give materials like Book of Mormons and pamphlets to people, and many times they never look at it, and sometimes they won't even take one.  But nobody has ever asked us for one.  So we excitedly gave him a restoration pamphlet and a Book of Mormon, and he agreed to have us come back and talk to him about it. Yayyy!

We also had some fantastic lessons this week.  We taught the Crafts (girl who competes in dog shows) about the plan of salvation and they were asking so many questions and we were all getting really into it.  Hearing this teenage girl talk about her experience was really moving. She explained how she was starting to doubt and question the existence of a God, but then we we came and starting talking to her, and now she really likes the idea of God and Christ and a plan of salvation, and that is making her a lot happier.  Hearing that just made my heart soar. 

         Another lesson is one we had yesterday with the Johns family, who are a part-member couple with a blended family.  I was a bit anxious about this lesson before hand because it was on the word of wisdom and law of chastity, and we know that they have some coffee habits.  But both of them were totally willing to stop drinking it--even committing to quit cold turkey--and their motivation is to make it to the temple someday.  My friends, this family is amazingly on fire.  What dedication!

 That is what this work is all about.  And it's feelings and lessons like these that makes it all worth it.

We had a pretty normal valentines day, the only difference was that we made these cute little valentines for people. Just little hearts cut out with a scripture about God's love for us on it.  Gave it to as many people we saw that day, which wasn't very much, considering everyone was out and about with their sweethearts.  ick. 

I got letters and valentines this week, and I send a huge thank you for all the love that was sent to me this week! Love all of you and hope you had as great a week as we did!

God Bless!

Sister Moreland

Damage after the dog bite!

                                          What a big calf!  (And dad added, which one? haha)

Dearest Family and Friends,

What a week full of exciting adventures and shenanigans!

I'll start with the most exciting event of the week. So it was just a normal day of proselyting, hitting the streets, knocking on doors, etc.  I wanted to go see Rebecca, an investigator who lives way out in the midst of the potato fields.  So we went, and Rebecca's got these 5 huge dogs.  A few look like some sort of big German Shepard mix, one is a Great Dane-St.Bernard mix.  So they're some big dogs.  We've gone to her house a few times to knock, she's not home very often, but the dogs are always running around outside. They always bark a lot and aren't particularly loving or friendly dogs, but they usually just bark, and they let us pet them. This time, we went up to the door as usual, knocked, nobody was home, so we turned to leave, walking calmly and carefully through the crowd of big, protective dogs.  A few of them started barking at each other and getting riled up, and one ran behind me as I was walking, and I felt a sharp pain on the back of my right leg.  It felt like the dog had kind of jumped up and clawed my leg with his paw, but I just kept walking to the car.  Once safely in the car, I realized that my leg really hurt.  I pulled my boot off and my tights up to see that I had been bitten.  Badly.  Seeing the hole and the blood begin to come made me panic more than the pain did.  But I stayed calm as I drove off, having to use every ounce of self control I had not to drive the car over the dog that had just bitten me. Luckily, home (the Nickell's house) wasn't too far, so we went there and Sister Nickell bandaged me all up while I called the mission doctor. He gave me instructions and I was to receive antibiotics, which Sister Nickell picked up for me while we went out proselyting again. I was limping the rest of that night, but luckily it healed pretty quickly and now I'm walking just fine again :) But I've got a battle scar now! haha. 

So Sister Leasi left the incident unscathed, but now she is the one afraid of every dog we come in contact with. She asks everyone "does it bite?" "will it bite me?" like there was this teenie cute little labrador puppy, and she was like "aahh does it bite?!?" I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm the one who got bitten, I should be the one afraid. But I'm just not. I've never been afraid of dogs. In fact, I really want to go back to that one house with the dog that bit me. For revenge, of course. A baseball bat would do the trick. SORRY,  that was really violent and un-Chrsit-like.  But Christ did say, "Love thy Neighbor". He never said anything about the neighbor's dog. lol.

The weather here has been so nice! Yesterday it was super windy. We saw a baby cow!

Yep, 6 month mark coming up soon. It's a tradition to burn an article of clothing at 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, etc. Don't ask me why. That's a waste, if you ask me. But nevertheless, I'll think about doing it. Maybe I'll burn a hair tie or something.

Some of the baptismal dates that we have with investigators are starting to look uncertain....but we will work as hard as we can to help them progress towards Christ!  The longer I'm here, the more I'm realizing the amazing power of God and also the startling power of the adversary.  Satan wants nothing more than to stop people from gaining a testimony and coming to Christ.  He does everything in his power to stop people from coming to church, praying, reading scriptures, all of those essential things.  But he only succeeds if we let him.  It's up to us!

I just finished the most delicious Wendy's bacon blue-cheese burger. I highly recommend it. 

Thank you for the letters, emails, treats, and love. I am so grateful for the wonderful people Heavenly Father has put in my life.  

Report: I haven't bitten my nails in THREE WEEKS. Be proud of me. Hardest thing of my life. 

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

Hello my loves,

Man. Talk about a roller coaster week. 

Sometimes I think that a mission does to your testimony what digging with a shovel does to your hands. At first, your hands are all soft and smooth and strong. Then you start digging for a long time, and makes your hands really hurt, maybe even blister or peel.  But a few days later, the raw skin turns into calluses, strong and tough and able to take more shoveling the next day.  A testimony can be much the same way.  You never really know if it's strong unless it's challenged, tested, even put through the wringer just a little bit.  But I know that when I come out of it, I'll have a rock-solid "callused" testimony that will be able to withstand the challenges that I will face later in life.  Maybe if I had never decided to serve a mission, I would really struggle later in my life.  The thought of that is difficult, and makes me very grateful that I had such a strong prompting to serve.

Had a few miracles this week. We had a bishop talking about this one less active woman with non-member kids.  We knew that she was good friends with Michelle, another investigator, and we had been talking to Michelle about her, but so far had not been able to meet this woman yet.  One day we were walking up to Michelle's house when this same woman pulls up. She was there to pick up her kids, who were playing with Michelle's kids.  So we got to go in with her and meet her and her kids! It was pretty great. No such thing as coincidences. 

Also, we are teaching a part-member family where the man is a member and wants to get back to church, his non-member teenage granddaughter is curios about God, and his wife could care less about religion and doesn't like us to come over.  We've been trying for quite a few weeks to get them to come to church, and so far they haven't, as much as the man really wants to make it.  But this Sunday, who comes to church? His wife! Not him, nor his granddaughter, but his wife! They were all going to come to church together, they were all dressed and everything, but then the man and his grandaughter were feeling ill, so they stayed home, but his wife came anyway! Wow. Impressive. And shocking. That's a miracle if I've ever seen one.

Can't wait to hear from all of you! Love you so much :)

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

Another exciting and adventurous week in the life of the average Idaho, Pocatello missionary!

So -- not yesterday but last Sunday -- we were told by one of our bishops that there was a child in the ward (his name is Tason) who's family was active and they were planning on a normal, child-of-record baptism when he was 8, but things happened that caused the family to have to delay the baptism, so he is now 9. Any youth 9 or over is technically a convert and then the responsibility of the mission.  "and the baptism is planned for this Saturday", said the bishop. Oh dear. We really didn't know what needed to happen. There was a possibility that we needed to teach the child before baptism. We definitely needed to interview the child before baptism. But after a bunch of shinanagins and phonecalls between us and the district leader, zone leaders, APs, the bishop, President Brinkerhoff, and the stake president, the whole situation was finally approved to continue the way the family had originally planned. Whew! So we had a surprise baptism this week, which went great! Yayy!

So we were walking up the pathway to an investigator's house and Sister Leasi and I were joking around, I called her "Fe'e" (which means Octopus in Samoan, it was her nickname back home) and she laughed and kind of punched my arm.  Well, we were walking on slick ice at the time, so the force of the punch caused my feet to slip out from underneath me and I fell on the ice on my side. Painful, but soooo funny. It was a perfect America's Funniest Home Videos moment. 

Also on Saturday, Maddie---the 8-year-old of the part-member-family we've been teaching---got baptized! yayyy! She was baptized in a joint baptism with 2 of her friends from primary. All 3 of them sang "When I am Baptized" together, which was super cute. 

"A God who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a God who does not exist." That is my quote for today.

Well that's all for today! Gotta get to Walmart, you know. Love you!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

Helloooo my family and friends! 

Unlike last week, this one flew by rather quickly. This week was transfers, so we had some missionaries in our zone leave and some new ones come in. Last Monday was two of the sisters' last day in the mission field, so we had a sisters lunch together, which was super fun.  So now, Sister Brimley is in my zone! Yayy I'm excited to serve with her again! 

Sister Leasi and I have been working pretty hard to find new people, especially in our wards that don't have as much work right now. It's proving to be more difficult than I thought.  People just aren't home! Not even on Saturdays! And the few who are really aren't interested.  We came across an especially nice lady that said "Oh, I'm not mormon and I don't wanna be" and started to walk back inside, so we said "Okay, well have a great day!"  to which she replied, "I will once you get off my driveway".  I had to chuckle when I heard that one. When most people see that we're leaving, they just respond with, "you too", but I guess some people just gotta be honest. I found that the phrase "Kill 'em with kindness" is pretty accurate. Often, when people are rude to us and we respond with kindness, you can tell that they regret being rude. Hopefully that will encourage them to be nice in the future :) So just some wise words--be kind, even to strangers :)

I think my favorite day was yesterday.  After church, we went to the the Eppoch's house, and I made chicken pablano for everyone! I wasn't sure how spicy everyone liked it, so I went light on the spice (but then put extra spice on my plate, and after adding a ton, it tasted just like Mom's :)  

After dinner, we went to the fireside in Pocatello.  Lindsay and our other investigator, Shelby were both there! One lady who was supposed to bare her testimony didn't show up, so last minute they asked Lindsay if she would bare her testimony in front of everyone. She accepted! She was so nervous but her testimony was beautiful. It made me so proud to hear how strong her brand new testimony is. Also, Lindsay told us she has pics of the baptism printed out for us, I should be getting those soon! Me and two other missionaries, Sister Stewart and Elder Gross, sang our own arrangement mix of "I Stand All Amazed" and "I Need Thee Every Hour". Ended up being really pretty. The rest of the fireside was awesome--there were some really good speakers who talked about change and starting a new year in Christ, as the theme of the fireside was "Look Not Behind Thee: Starting a New Year in Christ".  Great Sunday!

I always have been a big believer in change.  Anyone can change, and through Christ, anyone who comes to Him can abandon sin and turn over a new leaf.  We shouldn't, however, "wait for God to come to us"--or wait for some life-changing experience to force us to change--we can come to Christ! It's like that painting where Christ is standing at the door with no doorknob.  Christ is always at the door to our hearts, knocking.  We just have to open the door. This year I really want to make an effort to be a Christ-like as I can. In all times and in all places. 

Well, I love you and hope you are doing well! 

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

                                                                       Baptism of Lindsay

                                                              Yay, got a gingerbread house!

Helloooo mi familia!

This week was the longest week of my life. No particular reason, I just feel like Wednesday was about 2 weeks ago. weird. 

I pet a kangaroo this week! We went to this member's house, and she has a pet kangaroo. This was a younger one, so he was about 4 feet tall and just hopped around the kitchen.  She had him on a leash, and could even pick him up and put him on her lap, but he didn't seem to like that too much, haha. He was very soft, but very hyper, so wouldn't really stay still long enough for you to pet him that much. So that was interesting.

Saturday. Saturday was quite eventful. It was Lindsay's baptism!!! Yayy!! So we got there at 10:00 am, an hour before it started, only to find out that one of the other wards had a baptism for an 8-year-old scheduled at 11:00 as well. Oh, no. Apparently somebody was supposed to inform the stake to make sure there were no conflicts, not sure who though. SO, some rearranging had to be done--we agreed that the other ward would have their first talk in the relief society room while our baptism was performed at the font, and then we would switch places. So it all got worked out. 

 

Lindsay was really nervous, and honestly I was nervous, too, just out of concern for everything to go smoothly.  Now I know how you feel, mom, when you're worried about everything going smoothly for the 8-year-old baptisms.  I was fretting that somebody who had a role in the baptism would forget to come or that there wouldn't be towels or I don't know, I was just being little miss Tobi :) But it went really well. Lindsay's best friend talked, Her friend's dad baptized her, and she was just beaming with happiness afterward.  I really am so proud of her.  The baptism really made me see just how important a super solid fellowshipper is.  A convert needs a good friend to be with them throughout the process--the discussions, planning the baptism, after baptism...Lindsay really had that, and it puts me at ease knowing that she is in good hands.  After the baptism, the bishop came up to us and told us that Lindsay had talked to him about how much she appreciated us. She could really tell that we loved her, and that really touched her. Hearing that really touched my heart. Love really is so important in teaching, and I'm glad that she could see how much we care about her. <3

So after the baptism, the primary president of one of our wards, Sister Erb, took us to the Idaho Falls temple to meet the Riders at the Visitor's Center! We had a great visit. They really enjoyed all the things to do and look at in the visitors center, and we all felt the spirit really strongly there.  They want to come back again to watch "Meet the Mormons" which is playing there this month.  We left the temple, and about 15 minutes into the 25 minute drive back to Blackfoot, we received a phone call from the temple visitors center, informing me that I had left my bag there. Oh my gosh. My bag. The thing that has my entire life in it.  The thing that never leaves my side ever. I left it, and what's worse is that I didn't even realize it! Sister Erb was kind enough to insist that she would drive back and get it after she dropped us off at our dinner appointment. I felt horrible. Pray that God showers blessing upon generous Sister Erb.

Then we had a church tour with the Diaz family. The husband, who is the non-member in this extremely quiet family, asked a question for the first time in any of discussions. It was the most I have ever heard him talk. Woo-hoo! Hooray for questions and getting people to open up! 

 

Also, I had a weird wave of Texas homesickness one day this week. I heard "Tennessee Waltz" at someone's house and all of a sudden I just wanted to ride in Mimi and Papa's car and listen to country western and have cactus jelly and wear cowboy boots and shoot guns. Also tell Papa that I went to the family history center this week, and I really like the features they have on family search. You can put pictures, stories, memories, etc.  It made me want to get to work photoshopping old pictures to put into the system. A project for when I get home, perhaps?  That would be cool and fun.

Well, that's all I can think of for this week. I'm having a great time and working hard out here! Love you all so much!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland