WEEK 17 Beaches, Pies, And Chickens

Hey hey! This week has been a crazy week, full of so many amazing things!!! The work is going great and I truly love being a missionary! My companion, Sister Ward, is seriously one of my best friends! We get along so well and are very alike!

Highlights and miracle!

-We dropped bye and visited Vera, a sweet old lady who has been taking the missionary discussions for almost a decade and a half! Holy guacamole! I know! One member of our ward who is now married with kids was one of her missionaries. Crazy. She is so sweet and we had a great time talking about God's love, and she enjoyed reading the scriptures with us so much. Past missionaries left a note in our areabook saying she doesn't like the Book of Mormon at all but when we read it to her she kept asking us to read more! It was a miracle! She also does Thai Chi and wants to teach us! We are stoked!

-Dinner with the Dennings every Tuesday night is always a blast! The sunset was stunning and they let me play with their chickens which was so so fun :)

-We had our comp study at a cute Cafe called "Kaffe 101" which was so fun, and then we did some facebook finding there and on the Boardwalk... until it started pouring rain....typical Oregon! Vitamin D pills are my best friends;)

-A sweet little girl named Misty requested to do a Book of Mormon study with us! She was baptized in 2019, but moved and lost contact with the church. Her family dynamics are a little interested but she has a true desire to know if this is the true church. She is so awesome and it was so great to get to know her and her mom better. I think she's one of the most intelligent 14 year olds I know!

-THE BEACH! I finally was able to stick my toes in the sand! We went to the beach to pick up trash with the Dennings! We were able to watch thr sunset and we saw dolphins!

-I had a sweet, little tender mercie with Phyllis on Friday. Before leaving the house I couldn't decide if I wanted to bring my coat or not. It was a warmer day but you never know with the Oregon weather. I decided against it until I walked out the door. I decided to go back in and grab it! When we were teaching Phyllis she was holding my hand. They were ICE COLD! She apologized for her hands being so cold and told me that her doctor said she would start getting a tingling and cold feeling in her fingers due to her chemo. She then said her doctor said she needed to be wearing gloves anytime she gets cold but she doesn't gave the money to buy them. I quickly remember I had gloves in my coat pocket that I brought, in the car! I never wear gloves, in fact my mom know I hate wearing gloves but still sent them to me for Christmas anyways and it just so happens I had them in my coat pocket. I was able to give my gloves to her! It was such a small and simple thing but it just goes to show that God is in the details of the details of the details of our lives!

-I had the best pizza I have ever had! We went to our ward mission leaders house for some brick oven pizza (dad please put a brick over in our backyard before i get home!). We were there to try to work on reactivating a recent convert who doesn't have the nicest feelings towards the church anymore. Trust was earned easily and we had a great conversation about church and how ward members are imperfect, but the Gospel and God's love is not. He finally warmed up to the idea of coming to church and (because he prides himself in never breaking any promises) we shook on it and he said he would come to church! And he was there...but he brought his dog...he says it's a service dog but we arent so sure ahah!

-Saturday was our temple trip!!!!!! We woke up early, got ready, packed ourselves up, and then met at the church for a little car pool. The sweet old man driving us was by far the scariest driver of my life, and (I'm not even saying this to be dramatic) really I thought there was a chance we were going to die! It's ironic because he owns a mortuary and obviously drives dead people around...we joked that no one's every complained about his driving until now because no one's been alive in the car to complain. Lol! It was terrifying but in the end we did (by a miracle) survive. We had a great time chatting with the ward members in the car and had a blast spending so much time talking with our recent convert, Brenda, who was going to the temple for the first time. She is hilarious and got us rolling with laughter. I'll share one of the funny exchanges below :) Being in the temple was amazing, and baptisms were wonderful. Brenda loved the peace she felt and it was such a tender experience that I am so grateful I got to be a part of. After the temple we convinced everyone to go to Chick-fil-A! If you know me you know I am literally OBSESSED with it. I was one happy girl considering there is only one Chick-fil-a in my mission and it's three hours away! We also were able to go to Costco and again most of you know I LOVE Costco...mainly for their rotisserie chicken;)

-We met with the Meads! We moved Paul's baptismal date up because he is progressing so well! Not smoking and not drinking coffee has been hard for him but he said he feels strength from God!

-We made buttermilk pie with the cutest lady in our ward, Ellen Nora Riley! A lady names Nettie lives with her who is not a member. She really wants to meet with us and learn more about the Gospel!!! So exciting! And making the pie was so fun, even though we had a little bit of a spill when we were putting it into the oven. We shared a message about God's love for us, which was exactly what we all needed to hear. Especially Nettie. It was awesome!

Spiritual gist!

This week's little message is a little shorter but I taught young women's on Sunday and as I was teaching a little saying came to my head to tell the young women and I thought I'd share it with guys too! "Graditude gives us hope and helps us cope." You can replace the word gratitude with any word that helps you:) example :Jesus Christ, love, the gospel, etc.

Now for the long awaited exchange from the temple trip:

Brenda- "I would love to live in a big house on a hill looking over a big a** city!

Us- *laughing*

Brenda- "oh shoot, I just I just said a cuss word"

Us- *explaining that we are all sinners* *and joking that she might get struck by lightning*

Brenda- "well d***!"

Us- *laughter*

Brenda- oh man! I did it again!

She is absolutely adorable, and is trying so hard! She cracks me up!

I LOVE YOU ALL and I am so grateful for this gospel! Have a wonderful week! Remember when you can't see God's hand look for His fingerprints.

♡Sister Parry

- CHICKENS!!