Sister Emily Elise Shill

  On the bus ride to Rangely I am in Rangely! It is as far into the middle of nowhere as anything could be! On Thursday I woke up at 5 am, loaded onto the transfer bus at 6 am, and drove about 4 hours to Rife, CO. There I met my new companion, Sister Sarah Craig from Lehi, Utah. We were given our vehicle, a 2022 Nissan Frontier (aka a fetchin' TRUCK!) and instructed to take the main road west until we saw a sign for "Rangely" from there it would only be about 30 minutes until we reached town.   So Sister Craig and I started on the journey, doubled back because I forgot one of my bags at the church, and then started again! When we arrived, we found our house; (Yes, an actual house. Like the whole thing. All ours.) ...which had a trashcan overflowing and trash on the ground outside. It was certainly not a great first impression from the Elders who lived there before, but I imagined that the trash outside meant they had cleaned up inside.  When we opened the front door,...

  I got a new haircut from a very kind member!

Heavenly Father works in small and simple things. An every day miracle is when a concourse of small and simple things line up all at once.  Maria was a miracle the first time we found her. When I came to this area, we walked her dogs for her twice a week. That kind of reoccurring service is not allowed in missionary work, however at the time, I didn't care. Though as I became more entrenched in this area, I started to have a greater desire to show God I was focused on finding people to bring unto Christ. On May 17th, the day Sister Friberg left for Spain, I was walking Maria's dogs with  Sister Cordova, my companion for the day until Sister Romney would arrive. As we talked, I made the final decision  to wean Marie off of our service and cease contact. As we returned the dogs home, Maria came out and talked to us for the first time in my 3 months in Centennial. She thanked us for everything we did for her, and offered to pay us. I declined, saying it was all part of ...

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  Sister Ellsworth became one of my new best friends. The circumstances of our companionship were unusual enough that we concluded it must have been inspiration. Sister Ellsworth was a Spanish speaking missionary who had been serving in a Spanish area for 5 transfers. She only had 1 transfer left, so no one expected her to move. Six transfers sounds like a long time, but the Spanish areas were few and sisters tended to stay longer than elders anyway. I, on the other hand, had been in Centennial for 4 transfers, and had been training Sis. Romney. No one expected either of us to move, however I was pretty sure I wouldn't get to train Sis. Romney in her second transfer. I just thought they would move me, not her. So in some strange twist of fate, Sis. Ellsworth was put with me- in an English area- for her last transfer and I stayed in Centennial for my 5th transfer there.  Upon meeting Sis. Ellsworth and I quickly discovered we had a lot in common, including our taste in folk ind...

Monica's story: Monica is a friend of mine who I have been working with since I got here. From the get go, Monica's strength was progressing on her own- she came to church regularly, read the BOM and prayed on her own, and attended the Church's Self Reliance: Emotional Resilience class with members. Her fellowship reached out to her without prompting; she was basically already a member of the ward.  However, she was not so good at making time to meet with missionaries. She was going through a myriad of difficult personal situations, and church was all the time she could make for the Lord. (Which is fair, cause that's usually all you need.) But as Sis. Friberg and I tried to reach out to her and set up lessons, we often felt that she was ready to be baptized very soon! Then time would go by and we wouldn't be able to actually get a lesson with her. We resorted to faithfully sending her scriptures over text for about 2 months. Finally, she came to church and allowed u...