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

                                                             Sledding on New Year's Day.

Hello Everyone!

Well, New Years was a hit! On New Year's Eve, we all got together at the stake center and watched movies! We watched How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Megamind. And our curfew was extended by an hour, which was nice.  Then on New Year's Day, we had all the missionaries in our zone over to our house, courtesy of the Nickells. We went sledding, had hot chocolate (I made your hot cocoa, Mom, and it was a hit!) ate a potato bar dinner, snacks, played games, sled again...most of the missionaries stayed until about 9:00. It was a very fun, very relaxing holiday.

The next day, it was back to work! We had a lesson with the James's, and it's kind of weird how much their family is like mine. I feel a real commonality with them, and it just makes me desire even more for them to find happiness in this gospel. She was even saying how her ultimate goal is to be sealed as an eternal family.  You can imagine how our hearts lept with joy at hearing that. 

So I've got some new year's resolutions.  I'm going to have a better personal study in the mornings. Really get deep into my scripture reading.  Or rather studying, not just reading.  My other one is to exercise daily, because I haven't been doing very well with that.   haha.  Part of the word of wisdom is keeping your body healthy by exercising, so hopefully the fact that, in a way, it's a commandment will help get me motivated. 

Any NewYear's resolutions? I hope one would be to share the gospel more! :) So most years those resolutions get written down, put in a drawer somewhere and don't get looked at again.  What I've found out here is that when you make goals, there are a few good ways to keep them. The first is to make the goal super specific. "eating better" or "sharing the gospel" are really broad goals. A more specific example would be to "give away at least one Book of Mormon" or "invite so and so to church" or "eat at least one serving of veggies a day".  Specific goals along with constant follow-up.  We always have our leaders checking in on how we are doing with our goals, we are constantly looking back on our goals to see how we can better achieve them. That helps a lot with keeping those goals on your mind so you don't forget them.  Anyway, that's my schpeil on goals for the day. I know this church is true. Love you!

God Bless,

Sister Moreland

                                                      At the Temple with Sister Leasi

                                           Thanks for the Lion King shirt!  I love it!

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas was joyous and wonderful, and the New Year ahead is looking bright!

This month has been so great. It's felt more like Christmas than ever before.  We've been focusing so much on "He is the Gift" and the birth of Christ this season, it's just been nothing but Christmas for us all December long! And I got my White Christmas!! :D

But it's still snowing. and cold. I think I'm ready for spring now. 

Sooo, for Christmas we had a delicious breakfast with the Bishop, I talked with my beautiful family, we delivered a few Christmas gifts, had dinner with the Osegueda family, then went to the Eppichs house, where I read "The Three Trees" to them.  It was a lovely day :) Much thanks for the gifts and the love that was sent to me this Christmas :) I love you all so much!

Please pray for Evelyn. One of the hardest things as a missionary is to see people so broken and feel like there is nothing you can do.  Some trials strike some more than others.  But that doesn't mean that some people are "better off" than others. We all have trials, and they are all for reasons, even if we can't see them yet.  At the time it might just feel like we are being punished for trying our best, but at the end of the day, the Lord will bless us more abundantly than we could ever imagine for enduring our trials well. It makes me think of the Lord's counsel to Joseph Smith when he was in Liberty Jail, "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all they foes.  Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands." -D&C 121: 7-9

We went to the temple visitor's center with Lindsay on Saturday, which was really great! There were like 3 weddings going on at the time, so it was a bit loud because there were a bunch of children there, but the spirit was still felt as we talked about eternal families and temple covenants. I love the temple!  

The Riders have decided to try and quit smoking again!!! :DD We are so excited for them to begin to progress towards baptism again. I know that through Christ, they can do all things! 

Well, the new family that just moved in, the James, came to church yesterday, and they brought the whole family!  It seems like they had a pretty good experience, which was good. There are so many amazing people that are prepared for the gospel.  It just makes me have the same wish as Alma: "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with he trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth...yeah, I would declare unto every soul...repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth."  <--solution for world peace, right there. 

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful, White Christmas! For New Years Eve, we are watching movies. Then for new years day, we are getting together as missionaries at our member's house and sledding! :D

Love you and God Bless!

Sister Moreland