Week 38

ALOHA!
This week went by so slow yet somewhat fast at the same time, I really dont understand time on the mission, its hard sometimes because you look back and think woah ive been gone 9 months and then you look forward and you are like how the heckle am i going to do another 9 months of this and then its like what oh no i only have 9 months left. so many emotions in such a small time period. so this week on:
Monday i waited in my car for 2.5 hours so i could get my new companion because as per usual the assistants were LATE. but its all good. i am with sister nelson she was in the MTC with me so that was nice because it was like getting an old friend as your companion.

Tuesday we saw harvey and dorothy and got dropped by an investigator. we went with president myers to a less active families home, their mother in law is on the verge of death so they had the elders give her a blessing then they gave the husband(dad) a blessing  for his injured hip and then he told his wife he needed a blessing and pres myers told him he needed to do it, he hadnt used the priesthood or been to church in 30 years but with some help gave his wife a priesthood blessing. it was one of the most heartfelt and spiritual blessings i have ever heard. we went to the open house and that was okay not too bad.

Wednesday we had a good district meeting. we played a game called the probability game i challenged elder lines to lick a puddle and he lost so he had to lick it it was sooooooo gross! BUT HILARIOUS!

thursday we planned and tracted. got no where tracting but it killed time.

Friday we made a list of people to see and some were home we go to have some good progress. we went to sports night which was pretty fun, i accidentally kicked the soccer ball right into this elders face... oops.

Saturday we visited a part member family and then had dinner with our ward mission leader and his family. after that i felt no bueno we we went home and we watched a few church movies on Joseph Smith. it was awesome one was a documentary and pretty interesting.

Sunday was a busy day as  per usual we were at church from 7-4 had a quick lesson with brandi and then dinner with the a fun part member family. the dad will sit there but doesnt interact much. we watched the restoration dvd and you could see that he is thinking in there. one day he will just blow our minds and tell us he wants to get baptized when i have no idea, but he is progressing. slowly. well not much else to tell but NO ONE WRITES ME ANYMORE I AM NOW REBUKING YOU IF YOU CAN NOT TELL!  love you,
Sister Abby Wasden

Week 37

crazy how time has flown by im starting my 7th transfer today which means i only have 6 more left. weird to think about. so sister branham left super sad but im with sister nelson who came out with me from the MTC so its awesome!

this week was super super crazy we had a lesson with a less active and our investigator we found out that they are moving to payette so lost our 1 investigator with a baptism set:(

tuesday: we saw a few people but it was a slower day trying to see people that sister branham wanted to say goodbye to.

wednesday: we had interviews with president, we helped out and painted harvey and dorothys bathroom after that we taught a lesson to frances and she wanted us to read the book of mormon we went on rides and saw a few less actives members

thursday: we had to take sister stevens to nampa for her temple trip and we knew sister branham was leaving so we were trying to see all the people we could after our rounds we went to the mission home to pick up sister stevens

friday: we had a combined district meeting and went to lunch with everyone sister branham said goodbye to more people and we had dinner with a cool less active family it was super good, we stopped by harvey and dorothy and said goodbye:(

saturday: we had 2 breakfast appointments and we did service moving bales of hay they were 70 lbs and i was super sore it was cool though i felt like a boss. we got ready for the baptism afterwards and then we went to middleton for kevins baptism it was awesome!!!! i had to give the talk on baptism and it was kinda scary but it was awesome! we went to dinner on the way home and it was so fun!

sunday: was busy bc we were trying to see a billion people we had dinner with the bishop and his family then we taught a lesson to brandon and wyatt they are a riot and had been avoiding us for like weeks and FINALLY agreed to do a lesson, they even SHOWED UP EARLY to the lesson it went great and we had a lesson with a PMF and talked about eternal families which went great. here are some pics, of my week well I gotta go! Love you all!
Love
Sister Wasden

Week 36

one week left then we get put in a blender and then we get thrown everywhere... im a little nervous because sister branham has been here for 7 1/2 months so she is 99.9% leaving so thats sad
this week was busy but not really.
we played volleyball monday

tuesday we tried pretty much everyone and no one answered we tried more visits and went to the open house for the church

wednesday we had district meeting and then we tried to visit more people but no one was interested then that night we helped out with the youths mutual

thursday weekly planning so fun sister branham and i have a good time every day we had a deep deep comp study about the millennium someone brought us chickfila for dinner it was the BEST we taught our 7th day advenstist friends and we taught our investigator frances she just WONT PROGRESS

friday we taught a few less actives and had some awkward run ins with YSA that dont want to be found... we went to sports night and had an investigator there so it was awesome! we played soccer indoor #thebest

saturday we had bfast with a less active lasy then we did service all day long we cleaned out horse stalls and moved wood chips over their poop. then we taught a lesson to a PMF and we cant give the dad commitments because it doesnt really work out well  but he listens so thats good

sunday was busy with church from 8-4 then we taught a lesson to this girl who has such a strong testimony but she wont get baptized until after she gets married in the summer:(

im sorry if my letters seem boring or with out any details but there really isnt much going on right now... i wish i could have my letters filled with stories of baptisms and new investigators but obvi thats not what god has planned for me. im learning patience slowly but i guess its what i need to learn. love you all
have a great week!
love
sister abby wasden

Week 35

Hellooooooooo Youtubeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! So everyone i have now passed my 8 month mark this week! weird.
on monday we played volleyball all day

tuesday we tried 11 people and not a single soul home. it was a little rough. just a smidge depressing but its okay

wednesday new years eve what what???? we had district meeting and then we visited some people and after dinner we had permission to play games with missionaries because there was no work on new years eve so we played fun games

thursday we weekly planned and taught a few lessons afterwards

friday we tried all morning to find less actives and we taught a few lessons and invited a bunch of investigators to a baptism and went to it but no one showed up that we invited:(

saturday we  ended up seeing a ton people today and mom you would be proud but i made a super good pasta it was to die for sister branham accidently ran over a flower pot it was soooo funny i almost peed my pants we got it all figured out we went around delivering our christmas thank you cards and taught a bunch of lessons we had a good dinner with our ward mission leader and saw a few people

sunday we had church from 7-4 and i got hi on in the ysa 3 times. 3 times people i was like what the heck man im a missionary and i felt like i needed my tag tattooed on my forehead we contacted some people and taught an awesome 1st lesson to a new investigator so hopefully that will go some where
well i gotta go love you all email me back peeps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<3:)
love
sister abby wasden

Week 34

so this is gonna be short because we skyped this week buttttttttttt this week was pretty slow because of the holidays but we had secret santa with our district and i had the elder that this is his last transfer so i made some super cool presents pics below. 

wrong tag but you get the idea!

this is the beanie i made for daddy

elder christensens fave phrase

christmas eve was  so fun we were able to stay at home for that evening with the people we live with they had an italian soda bar and it was sooooo good. we had a bunch of fun on christmas morning we woke up and studied a little and then we opened presents it took us an hour to open them all #spoiled we visited a few people and skyped our families and went to dinner with a fun family. after we played games with missionaries

friday: we planned and visited people and taught a lesson on how important the book of mormon is 2 nephi 29 is so good love it!

saturday we taught a lesson and went to a baptism and then taught another lesson our ward mission leader got us thai food and i almost cried i missed it so much 8 months with out it and it was soooo good. we had a great lesson with less active saturday night

sunday we had church and a less active lady invited us over for lunch #progress we taught a few lessons on how you get a testimony and what it truly is. you have to pray about something or else its not really a testimony. you must have a spiritual confirmation that what you are questioning or learning is true so that was a neat thought we taught a couple more lessons that night and the lady we had dinner with went to high school with mom she is just a few years younger than mom sooo weird
have a great week love you all!!
Love
sister abby wasden

Week 33

So this is gonna be sups short because we are skyping in 3 days but AHHHH I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS
MONDAY we did our christmas shopping and then i played soccer with the elders, im a #beast jk but it was super fun i miss playing:) We have some investigators that are sick so they didnt want to put up their tree so we bought a tiny glitter tree from the dollar store and delivered it to them. they were soooo tickled that we thought of them it was so sweet:)

TUESDAY we had zone conference and it was super duper fun! our musical numbers went super well. mom and caity you can share it with who ever you want but i couldnt get it to email bc its too big. but it went really well and president and sister cannon were crying:) adn NOT because it was horrid bc it sounded lovely im sure.

WEDNESDAY we had district meeting and i had the miracle share and i thought aobut all the miracles in like that lead to me being on a mission starting with mom moving to AZ getting  baptized and the rest is history but thats a miracle to be bc if that hadnt happened then i wouldnt be on a mission sharing the gospel right now. we drew names for secret sants and its gonna be AWESOME i will show yall pictures next week of it. we saw a bunch of people and then GUESS WHAT we had dinner with a family and their brother in law was in town and he knows brad really well! SO WEIRD but cool. #connections. that night we went caroling with the youth and stopped by a few of our investigators homes

THURSDAY we weekly planned  there wasnt much interesting our dinner cancelled so i got to work on my secret santa gift and we went on rides and had a good talk with a less active sister whose daughter wants to come to church and so they decided that would start coming back #progress!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):)

FRIDAY we dropped off some christmas presents to less actives and we ended up chatting with a couple for two hours  that we have been working with they have a LOT of hang ups, the dad wants to come back to church get sealed to his family have his daughter baptized and the wife DOESNT. so its been hard but trying to break down walls and its slowly starting to work. we went out and invited the ysa less actives to their christmas party and then we saw our favorites harvey and dorothy, and of course harvey told us again how because he is adventist he doesnt eat pork its so funny this time he told us he would NEVER wish it upon anyone to eat "that stuff" and his wife goes whhhhhhaaaat harvey you used to LOVE bacon and eat it every day ahahaha then we contacted a potential investigator and had a good chat with a less active and his girl friend.

SATURDAY we taught a recent convert who used to be JW and he was asking about christmas and how and why we celebrate it so that was fun we invested more less active YSA to the party, had lunch with our Ward Mission Leader and then helped an older couple make bread and pass it out to their non member friend neighbors after was raced to the YSA ward party which was fun

SUNDAY was great a BUNCH of less actives came to church today mostly because it was the christmas program #mormoncreasters we had a good lesson on how mary adored the savior and i never really understood the definition of the word adore and i have been using it wrong all along and now it makes perfect sense. we had a long visit with a part member family and then the relief society president gave  us some cute christmas presents:) we had dinner with the bishop and his home teachers stopped by so we joined in on that and he asked the question why did mary swaddle jesus and that was super interesting he talked about the jewish traditions and why people swaddled babies so that was cool we then had a lesson with a part member family about how we get testimonies and what a testimony REALLY is and we had a little testimony meeting with their family it was super cool and sweet for the dad to hear what his wife and children truly believed in
today aunt stacey took me out to much and it was so much FUN i was not expecting it at all they surprised me and it was soooo fun:) i was 100% shocked

well i gotta go
ok ttyl love youuuuuuuuuuuuu
love
sister abby wasden

Week 32

Lets just say this was a nuts week. i never thought i would cry on my mission as much as i have. i have never really been a crier but someone this last week i have cried three.. THREE times. once out of sadness and despair.(dramatic) once out of pure joy(not dramatic at all) and once out of love for a saddened soul (OK pretty dramatic there but partially true)
now yall are curious another zone choir?? why yes the last one for thanksgiving was so good and sister cannon LOVED it so she is having us do another one, we are doing still still still. she is having us also do another piece so me sister branham and the zone leaders are doing a song called in the mid bleak winter and its sooo pretty i will send a video of it later! zone conference for christmas is tomorrow! so excited! i am happy i get to sing all the time and direct a choir its fun and for a bunch of people that dont read music we actually sound really good! #blessings
ok my week

MONDAY we played soccer inside and ate dinner with the sisters and i sent out my christmas cards! i shouldve gotten more but alas i didnt. but they were funny.

TUESDAY i was sick. it was no bueno but i studied and slept almost all day and made some beanies yes people i can now knit beanies with a loom #SUCCESS, i felt a little better at night so we went out and saw some YSA less actives and had some good connections! one girl used to go to Utah State and loved it so that comforted me!

WEDNESDAY my study this morning was really good! i am in 2 Nephi 28-30 and it talks all about the book of mormon and how it will come about and people will claim that all they need is a bible and that God doesnt talk to people anymore or perform miracles anymore and how people who say they ONLY need a bible are foolish because if that were the case God would cease to be God because if God is the same yesterday today and forever he would have more scripture be revealed and the priesthood would be here to continue to preform miracles. it was really good! we tried to see a bajillion people that morning but no one was home:( we had lunch and then choir practice and hten rides with YSA and taught a new member lesson we talked about how if no one accepted callings bc they "didnt want to " we would have no church because we are dependent on everyone teaching and learning from everyone and doing their part to live more fully the gospel of jesus christ and be a part of His church. we had THE BEST DINNER oh goodness baked ziti italian salad bread sticks it was mom quality cooking. so good and looked like it was pulled RIGHT OUT OF pinterest  after we read the christmas story on christmas.mormon.org with a part member family and they really liked it. i invite (classic missionary word) ALL of you to go read it and #sharethegift of christmas and the video its sooo good!

THURSDAY weekly planning. this was the start of the tears. the work in Kuna is so slow. i feel like im giving my all and praying constantly and it is as though there are never results. it really makes me look for the small blessings my heavenly father gives me. they havent been big lately we have no baptisms in the near future and its as though none of our investigators are progressing. infact one of our investigators dropped us this week. i decided i would rather have more investigators than getting fed by the ward every night i would eat a PB and J every meal if it meant i could have more investigators  i couldnt take it so i was like companion we are going for a run thats what my dad does when he is super stressed and so we did i ran a mile and it was SO hard thats so sad i need to get in better shape i will do it! but it helped clear my head a the  breaking point, what is really getting me is that people get so caught up by the unimportant things in life and listen to the crap that their pastors say about us. its sad that so many peoples sermons consist of hating mormons. we are all claiming to be christian so why dont we all rejoice in christ " 2 nephi 25:26   And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ,we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies,that our children may know to what source they may look for aremission of their sins." it makes me sick when people dont listen to the spirit and they just blindly follow their pastors, we quickly saw another investigator that has actually been regressing bc she wont read or pray or go to church hmm i wonder why there is no PROGRESSION we still have to follow Gods commandments. and then a little miracle happened. so there is this less active family in our ward and the wide was SUPER offended many times and swore that she would never step into a church building again but she came to the ward party and we helped finish their roof and she invited us to go to dinner we couldnt go but she said she will have to feed us some other time!! her heart is slowly being softened and its so great! we taught a lesson with a recent convert and a less active so that went well!

FRIDAY I actually exercised this morning #ballin we had zone conference and it was all about christ like attributes and how we need to really focus more on being like christ if we are going to be teaching about him all day err day! we went on rides with a super cool sister that just got home from her mission and we taught a lesson to one of our YSA investigators and he talked about how he gets this feeling like he should pray but then he doesnt and so we were like you need to PRAY!!! and he did so hopefully he can keep it up! AND i got a letter saying wait everyone remember kevin? the one that used to be a drug dealer my toughest investigator that was taking forever wel..... I GOT A LETTER THAT HE FINALLY SET A BAPTISMAL DATE FOR JANUARY 10th AND THAT IS WHEN THE TEARS CAME! I WAS SO HAPPY i was jumping up and down and screaming and so so so happy january 10th cant come fast enough

SATURDAY well sister B was struggling bc she didnt want to sing the second piece with me and the ZLs bc of self confidence issues so i talked with her for a while about that, we have meetings and tried to see some people then we saw some people and sister b was still having a hard time and i realized something. i am where i am today singing wise because of practice and hard times. there isnt a SINGLE time i have practiced a piece with my sister that didnt involve screaming yelling crying and self doubt but everytime i went through with it and learned a piece and sung it and grew and got to a place where now i can practice a piece 3 days and sing it in front of half the mission but it was hard getting here and took a lot of years and tears. and everyone loves it even if i think i sound like crap.

SUNDAY ward councils went well and we tried to see some people we had 3 lessons with investigators and some are starting to progress we practiced our song in the bleak mid winter and it went really well. it was a long week but i made it. now only a week and a half until we get to skype!!!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY send me Christmas things i miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! love you!
sister abby wasden