Change is Certain!

Hello all,

I have not had much time to write the last two weeks because I have had so much change going on with my mission. As I reported in my last email my companion was going home to take care of some medical issues and I was getting a new companion. My new companion Sister Pritts came out the same time as me. We were together for a little over a week and I LOVED being her companion. We got along so well and were very similar. It was a great week in the mission, and we have been teaching so many people and the work was going strong. However, she made the choice to go home and so after only 10 days I am being reassigned to being in another trio with the Sister Training Leaders or STL's. I was so sad to have Sister Pritts leave. These new companions will be my 5th and 6th companions since being here in March. That is a lot of change for a girl that has always struggled with change. However, I am taking it in stride and staying positive!

Sister Pritts and me enjoying one of my favorite places!

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to write to me. You have no idea how much that has buoyed me up the last few weeks with so much change. We also get a new Mission President the first week of July and let me tell you I am so so so sad about this. I could not have asked for a better Mission President and his wife. I have been telling my mom that I feel so blessed to have served under the Zimmerman's. They have taught me so much! They truly love all of us and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will miss them so much! President and Sister Black from SLC will be replacing them. They are coming from SLC, Utah. Fortunately, the Zimmermans live in NSL, Utah so I will be able to see and visit them again.

I had to have my apartment all packed up and my things together without much notice and moved into a new apartment until July when we will get new missionaries assigned to our mission and I will get yet another new companion. The night I sent Sister Pritts off to the airport and met up with the STL we were all tired and had to unwind. My mom Door dashed us Indian Food to the church where we were. It is amazing my mom can order food in Utah and it shows up her in California! There are definitely advantages to being stateside on a mission!

All the girls in my family back home, Grandma, Aunts, Cousins my mom and sisters went to Paris, but strangely I was not sad to miss the trip because there is so much to do here, and I thought I would be sad but there will be trips later in life. I did think about them that week. See below.

You may be asking about what has been going on. Well, a lot and we are combining our two areas right now. But one of the most exciting things to report is ROY HE IS GOING TO GET BAPTISED- we really want to start teaching his wife and son soon! I came up to him at church and was like “Roy I'm so sorry I didn't send you the Come Follow Me reading for this week so you could prepare! “

He responded “well, if you go to the link that you sent me a few weeks ago and just swipe, it shows the next week… so yeah I already studied it!” What? I could not believe it, he is so cool.

Taking the time to go to church on Sunday is hard for all of us. We can always think of other things that we could do with our time. Roy is no different. He has been working on finishing his bathroom remodel for almost two years. He is doing all of the work himself. I promised him if he came to church that he would be able to finish his bathroom construction faster than if he didn't come to church and not work on the bathroom on Sundays. I bound that promise as a representative of Jesus Christ…. Well guess what… The next Sunday, it rained and was super humid which meant he couldn't lay tile in the bathroom…. It did this on both Sundays for 2 weeks. I had faith and so did Roy… we got the text this Sunday that said “looks like you and God are winning this bet. I've made more progress the past 2 weeks than I have made in the past 2 years.” Now that is power and authority. God truly is a God of Miracles. The infinite and enabling atonement of Jesus Christ is so VAST!!!! Through it, even a bathroom can be finished!

What have I learned this week and continue to learn is that a mission is hard? However, a mission is Godhood in training. If I truly want to become like Jesus Christ I must suffer and walk a hard road… yet because he already walked that road, he can walk it with me. I never want to go home… that's what I keep telling myself… but that would be saying I don't want God's will to happen! I wish I had time to write more but these past few weeks with everything that has happened has made my extra time on P-day nonexistent. Thanks for checking in on me. Love you all!