Oct. 3, 2022 Update from Rangely




 Hello friends and family!


This week has been wonderful! We met and had a lesson with the Hagins- an inactive family in our ward. They were so sweet. I played "I am a child of God" on the harmonica for them and we sang it together. They are a super sweet family and we are hoping to help them become more active. We also had a lesson with the Bradys. The Brady's are two of our ward missionaries and just the sweetest people. In our first few days here, we filled the back of our truck with trash to take to the dump- wherever it may be. Well on day three, Br. Brady texted us and invited us to help move Sis. Robertson. When we arrived, he noticed there was quite a pile of junk in our truck. Turns out his wife drives the trash truck in town, so he talked to her and arranged for us to dump the trash for free later that day. So just the sweetest people. Our lesson with them included a less active convert, because they are just that good at being missionaries. However we spent most of time just talking about members of the ward and people we know who needed the missionaries! It was like a Missionary Coordination meeting only with the Bradys! 

On Thursday we contacted people from our areabook, and found a former who was delighted we had reached out. She wanted to talk with us as soon as she could! Then Friday we had a lesson with Corina, one of the people in our teaching pool, and her original source referrer, Sister Katie King. Sister King was amazing in the lesson, sharing insights and testifying of the truth of the Book of Mormon. We spent the lesson just talking about Corina's experiences with religion, her progress in reading the Book of Mormon every day, and her needs. The Spirit was so strong in a unique way. We often recognize the Spirit when it is testifying of the truth, the distinct feelings of warmth, light, and clarity that it can bring. However the fruits of the Spirit are varied, and this time, I was privileged to watch as the Spirit filled the room with love. Love for Corina from her friend Katie, and her new friends, me and Sister Craig. Additionally, Corina's love for God and Jesus flowed from her stories and her testimony of prayer. It was so beautiful to behold. 

Later that day we went with Br. and Sis. Hazelbush (Br. Hazelbush is our ward mission leader) to have a lesson with Bryan Turner. He is a less active who we had contacted earlier that week. To our delight, he responded very well and accepted a lesson. When we arrived, we found he was a medically retired marine and self-proclaimed "Dad joke" hobbyist. A delightful man in his late 30s, I thought, "gosh we need to get this man working with the young men." The Hazelbushes were delighted to meet him; the Elders had apparently never mentioned him, and they didn't need fellowship like we did. It was clear that more than anything, Br. Turner needed community. And THAT is the Hazelbushes' expertise. 

Along rolled conference Saturday, and we spent the morning session in Craig with our district. Saturday afternoon we watched by ourselves and Saturday evening we watched with Sis. King at the church. She didn't have anyone to watch with, so it was really fun to watch together. Between Saturday afternoon and evening sessions, we had hamburgers with the Hazelbushes and the Websters. Sunday we spent at the church again with Sis. King, Sis. Whitworth, and Sis. Parisi who simply came to church to go to church not realizing it was General Conference. 😂 The final session it was just me and Sis. Craig at the church. We brought blankets and laid on the pews as we listened together. It was good recharge for both of us. After that, because our ward members are dedicated like no one else, we had a Missionary Coordination meeting. It was awesome! Then we had dinner with Dr. and Sis. Morwood. They have the cutest little baby! 😍 

All in all, it was a wonderful week full of many blessings. Best part about this companionship, we both like hugs and we both give pretty good back rubs! 😂

Hope you each had a wonderful conference weekend!

Love Sister Shill 

P.S. My favorite talk of all was by Elder James McConkie III. I have decided I am going to study the "five gospels" (Matt, Mark, Luke, John, 3 Nephi) and try to get to know Jesus in this last part of my mission. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Two Weeks in the Field

Image
Dear Friends and Family, I don't know what to say! So much has happened and I ran out of time to write last week so now I have twice as much to cover.  When I arrived in the Grand Junction West Zone, I got to say hello to my old friend Morgan Bledsoe from Helaman Halls. She got on the bus I got off, to go to Denver and then to fly home. This was a sweet tender mercy to me. Following that I met my companion/trainer, Sis. Milaya Bealer. Sis. Bealer is a very kind person, and an easy person to be around. I think God knew we'd have a lot to teach each other.  On the other hand, I really struggle with keeping the rules. Sis. Bealer is very obedient and so she's been helping me in that category. It's a bit of a slow process, but I get better everyday. Another thing I struggle with is our Mission President's terminology. He's a delightful person I'm sure, it's just that he uses a lot of phrasology that is very difficult for me. Thankfully, I came somewhat prepa...
Read more

Brief Note: Feb. 14, 2022

Image
  Hey everyone! This last week has been a crazy one. We filmed a church ad because the Elders who were supposed to do it couldn't follow instructions. We had some wonderful lessons with members of our ward we hadn't been in touch with recently, and we've found some sweet ward members who have been willing to befriend the women we are teaching. So just little good things.
Read more

RANGELY, COLORADO!

Image
  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,...
Read more