Monday, April 13, 2015

Week 49

Today I start transfer 9 leaving 4 full transfers left. weird. it doesnt seem real. so sister wilson got transferred to mccall and sister ioane goes back to temple square on wednesday and is training i called it!  our trio was fun and not having 2 companions will be weird but im excited to just have one now. go i have sister longhurst she is a super sweet short red head form dallas and when i went to kuna i took her place! so its going to be AWESOME! not to mention our area got combined so we have the YSA meaning that we get a CAR! so thats bomb. literally my prayer was answered. so thats the best ever. and i have heard this YSA is kinda weird but thats totally fine bc im just the missionary not like im looking for a soul mate or anything so thats alright and they have a lot of work in it!
so this last week we had our pinewood derby race with the missionaries our car weighed 8 oz and we won twice so that was cool
i cant even remember most of what happened this week it was all a blur honestly but was had more lessons this week 16 and we contacted 3 of the referrals from the tracting blitz. so many people werent home again. we did service one day this week and worked on our talks for sunday. we had some awkward moments with people avoiding us... eh mission life. we had a good turn out for our wards come and see and had 3 non member youth there that we have been getting to know!
we have had a crazy week. we got transfers calls and cleaned and the sister packed on saturday and we started their goodbyes. here is my talk from church. i added a few things later but youll get the idear. we all matched on sunday for our last sunday and everyone LOVED IT. ohhh the trio.
well love you all! xoxo
sister wasden
talk below.

opening question: How can we more fully keep the covenants we have made?

→ most of us here in this room have made the baptismal covenant . so lets have a little refresher of what we actually promised!
in mosiah 18:8&9 it reads:
8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
 9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

elder zeballos said this last general  conference in his talk “if you will be responsible”:
What responsibility do we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ? President Joseph Fielding Smith expressed it as follows: “We have these two great responsibilities. … First, to seek our own salvation; and, second, our duty to our fellow men.”2
These, then, are the main responsibilities that our Father has assigned to us: seeking our own salvation and that of others, with the understanding that in this statement, salvation means reaching the highest degree of glory that our Father has provided for His obedient children.3 These responsibilities that have been entrusted to us—and which we have freely accepted—must define our priorities, our desires, our decisions, and our daily conduct.

→ he reminds us just as the scripture in mosiah says we have freely accepted these responsibilities. in mosiah alma is telling us we must be willing. so are we willing to live up to the promises we made and responsibilities we have accepted?
→ in preach my gospel it says: “A covenant is a binding and solemn agreement between God and man. God promises to bless us, and we promise to obey Him. God sets the terms of gospel covenants, which we either accept or reject. Keeping covenants brings blessings in this life and exaltation in the life to come. Covenants place us under a strong obligation to honor our commitments to God. To keep our covenants, we must give up activities or interests that prevent us from honoring those covenants.” When  I was younger my mom was called as the relief society president in our ward and  I remember thinking sometimes why does my mom have to be gone all time, why does she have to be in meetings all the time or constantly off to visit a sister in need. obviously it was a little dramatised because i was young but the principle is still the same, she knew the covenant she made with her heavenly father was important and she willingly did all that he asked.
elder zeballos gives us 4 points on how we can fulfill the desire to be responsible to our Heavenly father. he says
“1. Learning Our Duty
If we are to do God’s will, if we are to be responsible to Him, we must begin by learning, understanding, accepting, and living according to His will for us. The Lord has said, “Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.”5 Having the desire to do what is right is not enough if we do not make sure to understand what our Father expects from us and wants us to do.”
→ D&C 107:99 reads:
 99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

2. Making the Decision
Whether we have learned about the Restoration of the gospel, a particular commandment, the duties associated with serving in a calling, or the covenants we make in the temple, the choice is ours whether or not we act according to that new knowledge. Each person chooses freely for himself or herself to enter into a sacred covenant such as baptism or the temple ordinances.
3. Acting Accordingly
After learning our duty and making the decisions that are associated with that learning and understanding, we must act accordingly.
The path that we have chosen to walk is narrow. Along the way are challenges that will require our faith in Jesus Christ and our best efforts to stay on the path and press forward. We need to repent and be obedient and patient, even if we do not understand all the circumstances that surround us. We must forgive others and live in accordance with what we have learned and with the choices we have made.
4. Willingly Accepting the Father’s Will
Discipleship requires us not only to learn our duty, make correct decisions, and act in accordance with them, but also essential is our developing the willingness and the ability to accept God’s will, even if it does not match our righteous desires or preferences.

I have seen in my own life how these steps apply.  in college i had righteous desires, to continue my education, hopefully soon get married in the temple etc. yes they were all good and i need to do them but a mission wasnt in my plan. i prayed and searched the scriptures but my desire to serve wasnt quite there yet. i knew my answer was i needed to serve a mission so i first learned my duty. and made the decision to serve, submitting my papers was the 3rd step to act accordingly and finally accepting the fathers will. i came on a mission to be obedient to what god had in store for me rather than what i wanted although they were still all good things.
elder zeballos concludes his talk saying:
“Over time, I have come to understand that the condition he gave me—to be responsible for that decision—meant being responsible to my Heavenly Father and seeking my own salvation and that of my fellowmen, thereby becoming more as my Father expects and wants me to become.”

→ sometimes being responsible might not always seem fun or enjoyable especially in high school and college, or when raising children, but elder sitati reminded us in his talk that “Laboring in the spirit of charity is not a duty but a joy. Challenges become opportunities to build faith. We become “witnesses of [the goodness of] God at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death.”
In our day, living prophets and apostles continue to lift their voices to invite each one of us to become fully engaged in the work of salvation according to our abilities and opportunities.
The starting point of a response that yields much fruit is to “be meek and lowly in heart.”4 We can then more fully come unto Christ as we yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and keep all the covenants we have made.5 We can seek and receive the gift of charity and have power to invite our own families, our ancestors, and our member and nonmember neighbors and friends to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.

→ he goes on to say “All of us can and should become fully engaged in the work of salvation. The Savior has given us the following responsibility with a promise: “I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

→ so how can we be fruitful, develop charity and obedience and do as both elder zeballos and sitati tell us to help others come unto Him and seek salvation?
→elder sitati said that “We become fruitful as we abide in Christ and as we “take upon [ourselves His] name [and] … serve him to the end”3 by helping others come unto Him.
that answers how we can become fruitful to serve Christ and helping others come unto him. but how do we develop charity?
I feel like a lot of times we don't know where to start to develop attributes such charity, obedience, patience and to accept the fathers will. sister silvia allred gave some good counsel for developing charity in her talk charity never faileth. she said “We must first have the desire to increase in charity and be more Christlike. The next step is to pray. Mormon exhorts us to “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that [we] may be filled with this love.” This godly love is charity, and as we are filled with this love, so “we shall be like him.”
→ if you dont have the desire to increase in charity and be more christlike then skip step one and pray for the desire then restart with step one. once we have the desire and pray, the third step is to read our scriptures. She says”
“Reading scriptures daily can bring our minds to the Savior and to a desire to be more like Him.”
→ i promise that daily scripture study and prayer will help us be able to share what we learn and god will bless us and help us as we do his work and will.
→ so now we know that we need charity and how to begin to develop it, but what is charity?
→ LDS.org defines Charity as the pure love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for the children of men and that the children of men should have for one another. It is the highest, noblest, and strongest kind of love and the most joyous to the soul
→ elder holland said in his talk The Cost—and Blessings—of Discipleship says:
“Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world. I testify that the true and living gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth and you are members of His true and living Church, trying to share it.

→ elder holland goes on to say:
“Be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don’t live it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them. A long history of inspired voices, including those you will hear in this conference and the voice you just heard in the person of President Thomas S. Monson, point you toward the path of Christian discipleship. It is a strait path, and it is a narrow path without a great deal of latitude at some points, but it can be thrillingly and successfully traveled, “with … steadfastness in Christ, … a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.”

→ are we seeking and living the gospel? our devotion and love of the gospel is shown by our outward devotion to share it!
in preach my gospel it says:
“Members who share the gospel experience joy and have the Spirit of the Lord more abundantly. As we share the gospel, we appreciate how precious and meaningful it is to us, and we feel a greater love for God and others. The Lord commanded His followers to preach the gospel in all the world, giving every person the opportunity to accept or reject it. When people are baptized, they make a covenant to always stand as witnesses of God. They are commanded to share the gospel with those who have not yet received it. As they live the gospel faithfully, they will set an example, showing their family members and friends the great blessings that come from living the gospel. They should also take advantage of opportunities to answer questions, share printed or audiovisual materials, and invite others to learn more about the message of the restored gospel. Members should pray for those who are not members of the Church. They should pray for missionary opportunities—to serve those who are not of our faith and share what they believe. The Lord promises to help members know what to say and do as they share the gospel.”

→ i promise that as we live and share the gospel we can more fully keep our baptismal covenants.
when i was little my parents taught me to be a member of the 10% club, my mom told me that often times 10% of the people do 90% of the work. i want to challenge all of  you to become members of the 10% club. its not always easy but i know that its worth it. lets all be in the 10%s club especially when it comes to sharing and living the gospel.  i challenge you to truly feel the missionary spirit and actively share the gospel. i know that as we develop charity, obedience, willingly accept god’s will for us we will become fruitful and be better disciples of our savior, jesus christ.






Week 48

everyone please know that i am on the verge of being a pioneer. i walked 9 miles on friday. 9 MILES PEOPLE. thats a lot. this week was a good week but mostly because of conference. we walked EVERYWHERE and NO ONE WAS HOME was 9 lessons this week. 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats horrid. well at least for our mission. the standard of excellence in 20. that should be our minimum we were all bumbed but we talked about it and realized that God sees us and knows we are trying our hardest and that no one answered their doors but we kept walking and our success is based on our commitment to spreading and teaching the gospel not necessarily if it gets done. just that we are committed to doing it.
tuesday we had interviews with president and they went really well. we had a lesson planned with someone who seems super promising in wanted to learn more but she cancelled last minute so hopefully this week!!!
Wednesday we had district meeting and saw a few people from the tracting blitz follow up
thursday we weekly planned and made our pine wood derby car for our race today with our zone! we had dinner with the Honns! They are sooo sweet!:) <3 we saw an investigator who had been avoiding us and caught her at home and it was sad but she was obviously drunk and told us to come back the next day.
friday every appointment we had was a bust. it either took A LOT less time or they just werent home. thus we walked 9 miles. its hard having 1 ward because you are just looking for things to where as if you had more you always had something to do. and walking is the worst because by the time we get down to the other neighborhoods we have time to see like 3 people and then have to walk back for something else. its dumb. but we met a cool 7th day adventist that just moved here from maryland and he knows a lot about the church and said we could come back so that was neat!
saturday we had a meeting before conference for the stake and WOAH general conference was AWESOME but it was SOOOO SAD when you heard that big crowd yell oppose. come one people if you dont like the church or whats going on, leave! but dont ruin it for everyone else. you could just feel the spirit leave the conference center. but the brethren handled it very well. and the music brought the spirit right back.
sunday we were at our bishops for the morning session and watched with his family a less active returning to activity and had breakfast and the afternoon we watched with a cute young couple. it made me miss my caity and brad because they are very similar in lots of ways. but the conference talk about less actives really hit home for me and both of my companions. we all have less active siblings and other family members and it breaks our hearts and we just want to yell youre ruining your life come back to the gospel and you will be sooo much happier but we dont. we need to be patient and keep loving them just as christ would and one day they will realize that the only thing that brings true pure joy and will help them get back to their father in heaven and Jesus Christ is making covenants with him in HIS church. we had dinner with a cute family and then we tried to see some people but they werent home. we picked up our pinewood derby car and then planned. i will let you know how we do in our zone race. the only restriction is that our car must be powered by gravity
well i gotta go but i love you all! write me! transfers are next week! pray that i get a car! you think its a joke but im not joking i pray for that daily hahaha
xoxo
sister abby jane wasden



Week 47

woah woah woah i am 11 months old today. (in the mission) its so weird i feel like i just got here but at the same time that i never really lived any other life than mission life. idk its a a strange feeling. and there are only 2 weeks left in the transfer. time FLIES by.
monday was a good pday we got lunch at freddys and got paid for! :)we played sports the usual, i think im getting better at basketball. maybe. we are getting tshirts made for our district so thats exciting they should be done this week! after pday was done we contacted a do not contact because no one knew why she was a DNC. well it was so crazy because we just stopped by and told her we wanted to get to know her and she broke down and told us this super personal story about how the church has helped her family so much and before she would just shut the door in our face but bc she has seen how the church has helped her family she wants us to come back!!!!!!! it was so cool:) oh it was super awkward tho because when we were out walking around the neighbor hood going to see people there were 6 JW companionships, they tracted out our WHOLE ward boundaries this last week so everyone thought we were the JWs most certainly NOT we like holidays.
 tuesday we saw a few people and planned for our tracting blitz and then we had a meeting with the bishop and ward mission leader going over the 2015 goals for the ward and talked about the tracting blitz
wednesday we had another zone meeting that went over the new easter video #becausehelives and talked about how we can use it and share it in missionary work go to: http://www.mormon.org/easter AND SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE! i had a doctors appointment after and i am mostly healed my sinus infection gone so thats good! we had more work to do planning the blitz so we finished that too! its a lot of work boy ill tell ya
thursday we got a call and this lady needed help with the ladies 55+ luncheon bc no one in her would could help so the sister missionaries to the rescue it was really fun old ladies are CRAZY tho. and super picky. i want to be a sweet old lady not a grouch. we weekly planned after and then had to stop by president and sister cannons to pick up our box of cards for the tracting blitz and got to chat with them for a little bit. i have to admit it is pretty fun being in heir ward you get to see them a lot more than usual!
friday in the morning we went to help a family move in and the son wouldnt let us help bc we were sisters and told us to talk to him mom. so we did? it was weird but we found a ton of anti things printed off the internet, there was this ridiculous quiz "how well do you know the book of mormon" and all these questions that had nothing to do with the BOM and were all just dumb misconceptions ppl have about our church it was so dumb. we saw this less active guy and made us eat these super spicy deer meat tacos he made and boy they were so hot my mouth burned for like 30 minutes
saturday we had our district meeting and talked about why we came on a mission and what we want to get out of it. and i thought about it and shared how i never wanted to go on a mission but i came out trying to just be obedient to god bc i knew he wanted me out here but since iver been out i have really come to realize why i needed to be on a mission not only for other but for me ive grown so much (no i am still 5 foot tall) but spiritually for sure and it will help me be a better mother missionary wife sister daughter EVERYTHING after our meeting we made all the missionaries lunch and then we had our tracting blitz, we had 17 missionaries come help and each companionship split up and was paired with a member we covered almost our entire ward boundaries and they all shared the new because he lives card and invited people to watch the video and testify of Jesus Christ! It was a huge success we had over 67 lessons in 1.5 hours and we got 11 referrals from it! holy cow it was soooo awesome! that night we had the general womens conference which was super good. a great reminder that we need to defend the family and it truly is of God.
sunday we tracted a little and then we went to church, all the missionaries bore their testimonies and many people shared missionary experiences they have had lately and bore testimony of how easy missionary work is and some talked about the great experience it was going out on the blitz it was soooo cool! the bishop talked about how he always asked president cannon to just keep the missionaries and whenever he asks they always get changed but he was so thankful the president doesnt listen to him because the sisters he has now are exactly what the ward needs so that was  cool. we had a lesson about becoming perfect and how perfect really means complete in the scriptures and how we are constantly working on becoming complete and how no one is perfect or complete until they have been sealed in the temple and are striving to keep thier covenants that they made. it puts a whole different spin of the scripture "What manner of men ought ye to be, perfect even as I am." because the greek translation for perfect is complete so it was changed when the bible was translated cool huh?? we had a meeting with our ward mission leader after church and then dinner. we tried visiting a few people and then came home! we walked 8 miles that day! thats a lot.
well i gotta go! talk to you next week! love you all, i can feel your prayers, keep it up;)
xoxo
sister abby wasden
p.s. see you all in 7 months.



Week 46

Reading the headline I hope yall dont freak out. or do that would be funny too. This week was SO CRAZY.
monday we shopped and played kickball and basketball it was awesome my team won both games! That night we had FHE with a super fun family, for the treat we had cast iron skillet smores oh my gosh SO GOOD.
tuesday we had exchanges. i really dont like exchanges. nuf said. but we tried to contact formers and not a single one was home. we tried contacting a potential and the sister we were on exchanges with went up to this lady in her car and the lady just shook her head no... it was actually pretty hilarious. we went to activity days dinner and then our stakes come and see and exchanged. for everyone who reads this. if your stake does an open house GO and INVITE. thats what they are there for. after that we exchanged back
wednesday we had district meeting and then went on rides with the young womens president and it was awesome so much success in an hour when member join you. we had dinner and then we went to play basketball and taught a little lesson to one of the youths friends about repentance. sports and the gospel. its great. gotta get my steps in haha
thursday we tried to contact some people in the morning and we walk past this older man and say hi, sister wilson had shared the he is the gift with him at christmas time but not much came of it so we thought hey lets just say hi he is outside he was really nice and was like im cutting my tree down but can you ocme back at 3? well yeah! so sister  sessions from kuna came and took us out to lunch, oh how i love hawaiian food. when we came back we started planning for our tracting blitz we are doing with all the missionaries in our district and a bunch of members from the ward!  then it was time to go to our lesson at 3, we got there and they were like we really respect the mormons so you have 30 minutes of our undivided attention so tell us your scpheil(spelling) so we got to know them taught the restoration and they started asking questions and we gave them a book of mormon and the wife goes i dont understand why my friends hate mormons so much we pretty much believe the same thing. it was SO COOL. after that we had dinner and then went to contact some less actives with a member and we had 2 really good experiences with them
friday was sisters conference! oh my goodness it was soooo fun! seeing all the sisters we had my fave chicken salad sandwich on crossiants a lemonade bar we made planners and had really good training/talks given, that night we tried to contact some people and got a referral for the spanish elders and then had dinner. that night we weekly planned
saturday we contacted less actives and invited them to stake conference we had lunch and then we went to a baptism sadly our investigators we invited didnt show but it was a cool baptism this man that had been in and out of jail and all tatted up but he just knew it was true and needed to baptized. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! we had some members bring us this bomb thai food for dinner bc they signed up to feed us but couldnt have us over bc something came up, it was sooo good.  we headed to stake conference and sister ioane starts to have this horrid asthma attack and her inhaler wasnt doing ANYTHING so we called the mission nurse and the other sisters took us to the urgent care place. they took her O2 levels and they were too low for them to help her to we quickly got over to the ER and they got her in asap, her levels were below 80 and they are supposed to be around 95 so that was so bad they gave her a bunch of drugs and we were there until about 9:45 and president and sister cannon came to get us and take us to get her prescription the ER doctor gave her, the walgreens said it would be a 45 minutes wait (keep in mind this is 10 oclock at night) so president starts driving and sister cannon goes where are you going?? and he goes FREDDY'S we are getting ice cream! so pres starts explaining his favorites and all the kinda we can get so we got ice cream we concretes and then got sister ioanes prescription and  they took us home. OH and sister wilson got a letter from her grandma turns out her mom is from lompoc/solvang and grandpa wasden was their dentist and they were in the same stake and their families were good friends her moms name is dana foulger so that is was cool.
sunday was stake conference sister wilson and i sang in the choir and the stake presidnet gave an AMAZING TALK about how we need to do more missionary work god trusts the missionaries already but the real question is does he trust the members to bring his children into the gospel i talked to him after and told him how amazing it was and he goes well sister wasden i hope you know i could feel your eyes on the back of my head the whole time hahaha it was funny but i felt like he really listened to me the other day when we were talking about missionary work and my experiences and what i had seen so far. i want a copy of his talk it was so good. he used the power of everyday missionaries book a lot as a reference. we had a meeting with our ward mission leader  and finished most of the details for the tracting blitz. we had dinner and sister ioane got a blessing from the zone leaders and a girl in our ward who was home alone needed help burying one of her dead chickens so we got the ZLs to help bury it for her and had a little chicken funeral. and that was my week!
love you
xoxo
sister abby wasden
















Week 45

Can i just tell you how crazy this week has been? I made a lot of cool connections this week!
monday pday as per usual we played basketball and ultimate Frisbee and soccer, we had a fun FHE with a family and played sneaks which is like spoons but with little sneakers!
tuesday i was feeling horrible so we rested and then later that day we went out passing out fliers to the ward for the missionary fireside we were having on sunday
wednesday was day 2 of sick people. our whole compnaionship is sick gross. we did a puzzle and we finished it in 3.5 hours needless to say we were sore from sitting on the ground for 3.5 hours.  we got dressed and then headed out to pass out more fliers before dinner. after that we joined the youth in basketball after mutual and there were 5 nonmembers there so that was awesome!
thursday we studied and then i had a doctors appointment and sister wilson went to the temple so sister ioane and i headed to the doctor and let me just tell you i had the coolest doctor he is from ghana but went to rutgers for school in new jersey and i told him i was born in NJ and he was like where are you from? and i said south orange and he was like oh yeah ive been there and i was like do you know that bakery there cait and abbys by the train station and he is like oh yeah its super popular and good and i go, i am the abby in cait and abby my parents started that bakery and he freaked and was like ah i cant wait to tell my wife she will be jealous i met you! so that was cool we came back and i napped and then we went to walgreens to get my medicine for my sinus infection oh yeah by the way i have a sinus infection so im glad i went to the doctor to get that figured out haha that night we  passed out more fliers
friday we had a really good zone meeting and it made me want to go out and work more and they usually do. it was sad to think that i only have 5 more zone meetings left and then im home:( after the meeting our whole zone did service together which was really fun #zoneunity, we saw some people after service and then we had korean bbq which was sooo good! after that we went to sports night and we had a nonmember there so that was good!
saturday we had out stake missionary meeting and apparently it was the best that they have had yet. so thats good, we invited the stake president to come and he did so that was good! it made the difference! ater that we headed to weiser for kalebs baptism he is the ysa kid i taught in kuna that moved to payette and the elders finished teaching him! it was a great day i love going to baptisms! after that we had lunch and then came back and went on rides with a girl that just got back from her mission in brazil she is awesome we contacted 2 referrals and then we went on splits sister ioane and i went out together and we contacted 7 people in an hour so that was super cool! after we had a meeting with the ward mission leader
sunday we had meetings and church we helped teach a lesson and at dinner the family had their daughter come for dinner she has a family but she went to byuh and guess where she worked the religion  department for auntie anna! isnt that crazy!! connection part 2 then we went to a mission call opening for the bishops son and he is going to pittsburg spanish and a family came up to me and were like wait you are from CT do you know where ridgefield is and i was like yeah its in my stake and they were like do you know the kellers?? they are my cousins! i was like what the what thats awesome so connection 3
now its pday gotta go!
love
sister wasden






Week 44

So sorry this is going to be super short this week,
I LOVE transfer pdays because people get to play together we came home after and i unpacked
tuesday we did service visited some less actives and went to activity days with our investigator, it was fun. after we helped set up for the relief society dinner and then had dinner with them. after that we went to the stake open house which was poorly attended. so that needs to change!
wednesday we had district meeting and then visited more less actives and had dinner and then went to mutual there were 4 nonmembers there!
thursday we weekly planned and taught a lesson to an investigator sad tho bc she said she doesnt feel any difference in our church or scriptures as she does at her community church that openly preaches against the mormons so thats sad:( then we went to the primary talent show and my companions did a tahitian dance and i manned the music everyone loved it
friday we visited more and more people and passed out fliers for a missionary fireside we are having on sunday. good thing tho i think im getting used to walking. dad/mom can you send me a fitbit dont yall have an extra one?? my comps and i want to start tracking out steps and calories burned! PLEASEEEE kthanks
saturday we passed out more fliers and cheered on some potential investigators at the church ball game then we saw more people and then we had a hilarious dinner wiwth an old lady it was a crack up, the myers picked us up from there and we went to tonys baptism in kuna it was awesome! number one his baptism and seeing his family there and 2 being back in kuna it was so refreshing honestly. i dont feel like i even sound like myself. everyone said welcome home sister wasden we have missed you so much! Ah its been a week! hahaha i missed it too tho.
sunday was good its weird only having one ward but we saw president at church and chatted for a little while. After church we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and i helped him get a ward mission plan going. then we went to dinner at the bishops house for his sons homecoming and the stake president was there. we got to chatting and he asked me about myself and then we got to talking about missionary work  i told him what ive seen work what hasnt and what i noticed in the last week was good and bad in my new area and he took it really well i had a lot more bad things than good, and i said im sorry if it was hard hearing this but this is what i have noticed over the last year serving in 6 different wards and he was like no it was so helpful you were the missing link you are helping me solve all these problems that i see but i havent had anyone tell me to help me figure them out. it was a really good chat we talked for about an hour and a half i was very nice and polite but honest. i feel like im off to a good start. i just want to boost this area like crazy. something cool is that I really have started to feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for his children as we watch people make covenants. It was special and great being back in Kuna if only for a baptism:) I am getting used to walking and working on not complaining haha. I have a goal to make this area way better when I leave from now. I hope my ambition can keep me going. I am also excited I get to attend Kalebs baptism in Weiser this weekend. He was a YSA I helped teach in Kuna and wanted me at his baptism! That will also be a special event! well love you all! ttyl
love
sister abby wasden










Week 43

This week was nuts. we had a lot of busy things going on including we hatched 34 baby chicks. monday as per usual we play sports and then that night we had an awesome lesson with our investigator in the ysa, tony.
on tuesday we went out visiting people with the young womens president we had to talk to the new office couple and guess who they are.... the stauffers, mckinleys grandparents! its awesome! we went to the ysa activity and played games
on wednesday we had district meeting and all went out to lunch, and elder sulca the brown kid doesnt speak spanish and the lady kept trying to speak spanish to him it was hilarious. we went on visiting people and had another lesson with tony
thursday sister nelson was sick so we were home all day but i went out on rides with a sister in the ysa ward
friday we were home for a while and we went on rides with sister croft but no one was home. that night was the blue and gold and sister nelson and i made a cake to donate for the cake walk we made a missionary tag and frosted it 100% homemade it was super cute!
saturday we had transfer calls. i am going to nampa east 9th ward ( president cannons ward) with sisters wilson (our mission) and sister ioena (temple square) im trying to be positive about being in a trio and nampa i know itll be a struggle but im sure it will turn out fine in the end. i need to learn something obviously. we had our meeting with our ward mission leader and then we headed to nampa for our mission conference. it was awesome to see all my missionary friends and get to catch up with them. we heard from elder brent nielson sister neill marriott and elder l tom perry we got to shake all their hands and it was amazing to be that close with an apostle of the lord. at the end of elder perrys talk he let us ask questions. sister nelson and i really wanted to ask one so we raised our hands and hey jack we got picked. i asked how should we should encourage members to help in missionary work. at first i thought he was rebuking me from how he said his answer but he said we ALL need to be more creative members and missionaries in how we shared the gospel we dont need to knock doors but we do need to be more creative. it was a great conference and that was a special experience to be able to ask an apostle a question. i had a bunch of missionaries come tell me i had that exact question thank you for asking it. we got back and went to a baptism and had some investigators there! that night we cleared the air with some issues with other missionaries and helped inform them on how things are run in a young single adult ward because there was a huge miss communication with lead to other problems and hard feelings. it was a good learning experience though.
sunday we had a special broadcast with elder brent nielson sister neill marriott and elder l tom perry to the whole state of idaho. it was great to hear again from our church leaders. the rest of the day i spent visiting people and saying goodbye. i never thought i would say this but i love kuna. it was great. slow but its starting to pick up. presidnet myers gave me a blessing and i packed. the myers were like my family and and harvey and dorothy were like my grandparents i cried for days and i am so sad to leave but it will all work out! i gotta go but i love you all write me please i know these next 6 weeks will be hard!




Week 42

Aloha Fam Bam + extras
well well well we have had yet another cray cray week. I really love Kuna for realz even though its chalk full of eternigators (eternal investigators) and most of the less actives arent very happy that we come by. But living with the myers is truly like living at home their kids in a weird way are kinda like siblings or cousins and their grandkids are just like my nieces and nephews. so in all honesty i kinda want to leave. that sounds twisted doesnt it? but its so much harder to leave when you have deeper connections then if you dont, the wards just feel like a home ward, and i get homesick easier because it feels so much like home but yet its not. so sadly i hope this next week i get transferred. The only thing that I dont want to get transferred for is our YSA investigators baptism on march 7th. he is so prepared for baptism and i am so excited!!!!!!!!!! this week we went over the bapitsmal interview questions with him and they all start with do you believe... and he goes i only have  1 problem with those questions and we look at each other and are like uhhh okayyy what is that? he goes well, i dont believe... I KNOW all those things are true. *mind blown*  he is crazy awesome the definition of the term: golden investigator, he also tricked us on sunday, he was late to church and so we texted him asking if he was coming and he was like nope and we kinda freaked out and asked why and he said bc i dont wanna and our hearts sank, like 2 minutes later he walks in the door to the chapel and whispers tricked ya! oh i was so annoyed i truly thought he was regressing but silly me because he has such a strong love and testimony of the gospel
we had a ward activity this week volleyball it was fun but not very many people came we spent all day inviting people to come but not a single soul we invited came, we probs gave out like
 20 invites:(
zone conference was pretty great we had some hilarious skits on how to give a solid commitment and how a ward council shouldnt go and what to do at dinner appointments. we all made them pretty hilar. we had good training on the atonement and how it is infinite and on giving solid commitments. we spoke in church on sunday in the 1st ward and i spoke on how we can do missionary work through service. every one said it was a great talked and they were "floored" so that was comforting, i felt like it went well but wasnt positivo. the ward counsil was super impressed with the "work" we have been doing because our progress record was filled front and back, but i still feel like im not very busy so i think to myself what would they do if i really felt like i was off the wall busy? which like i said i love kuna but i think it goes back to the lord trusting the ward. i feel like for the most part i mean im not perfect and can always work on my self to be better but i feel like im am doing everything i can for this area right now, and we still dont have any investigators that are wanting to make that commitment in the 1st ward. the ward is great but it just makes me think if i feel like if they feel like the work we do is phenomenal and we are like WE NEED MORE WE ARENT DOING AS MUCH AS WE COULD maybe god doesnt feel like they are ready to take care of those investigators that need to be found yet so still i plant seeds every day hoping one day some one else will be able to harvest. just like we get to do with Tony, our YSA investigator.
Family, (quote from my talk) "The Lords work will go on whether you choose to be a part of it or not, so be a part of it, and if you arent change today and help the Lord in this great work and bring those around you into the fold of God"
I have to go but i love you all so much and you should write me and email me!
Have a great week. Be jealous that iget to meet an apostle and shake his hand saturday! our day with Elder L. Tom Perry!
Love
Sister Abby Wasden

Week 41

What a crazy week. it has been totes cray cray but good. SO monday we literally played volleyball for FOUR hours but im getting better. usually i cant serve more than 2 or 3 times in a row and i have a 22 serve streak it was unreal every one was freaking out like WAZZI or Walsquad (dont get that one) KEEP IT GOING. finally i messed up my own streak, when i went to set the ball i did it funny  and my hand went back weird and we lost that round. but hey it was sick. after p day we had dinner and then we made valentines day sugar cookies with a lady in our ward to give out to our investigators and less actives!
tuesday we had exchanges and i havent really had a great time on exchanges ever but i went to nampa with sister breen for the day and boy ill tell ya we had a BLAST she lived in hawaii for a few years so we reminisced about our island life and went to the phenomenal hawaiian food in nampa it wasnt papa oles but it was pretty good. its called island kine grinds. we had a blast. then we went out contacting former investigators and this one lady was like oh sorry im not interested i found my life path number in this other church and we were both like uhhhhh a life path number? it was super weird. #stories but we took a bunch of pictures that day!
wednesday we had district meeting and that was pretty fun as per usual and taught our YSA investigator that is getting baptized soon, we drew the plan of salvation on the white board and it looked so detailed and AWESOME so that was cool.
thursday was the temple and can i just say it was awesome. im kinda sad that we cant go more often but i think i appreciate it more now. we got to sit down with the temple president and ask questions and just talk about the temple. that was pretty cool too. i just thought a lot about the missionary i am and thought about how i can be better what i need to do to be a better missionary person and disciple of christ. it was so nice. we had dinner with all the missionaries that went and a testimony meeting at President and Sister Cannons house, i bore my testimony about progression and testimony vs conversion how we need to be converted not just have a testimony and how slowly but surely im being converted and i came home and got my package from mom and dad it was AWESOME i loved it they know me too well. clothes never let me down
friday i woke up ill so very ill so we stayed home that day and i rested and more sleep but i worked on my talk that i have to give next week. saturday we went back to work and wished people happy valentines day gave out cookies and had dinner with a part member family and had a good lesson.
sunday 6 hours of church but one of the high counsel speakers in the YSA went crazy talked for 45 minutes about stuff that really shouldnt have been said gave ridiculous examples and i and many others felt very uncomfortable and i was a little upset about it bc we had our investigator there.( like he gave an example about this RM sister that went to go put on short not long garments to try clothes on and he was like my opinion of her forever changed and he was appalled that she would even think like that so she could wear shorter clothes. guys dont understand that girls have all different lengths of garments and we had investigators there! i was so annoyed but i figure that the lord will take care of anything wrong that happens)  later we taught our 7th day adventist grandparents but even when you show them scriptures that back up sunday sabbath he STILL says like well they probably just couldnt get together on the saturday so they moved it to sunday a few times hahaha they crack me up but its all good
well gotta go sorry about last week!
love ya
sister abby wasden









Week 39

Woah Guys Woah. We have a crazy story for this week, its pretty awesome!
we had zone meeting on tuesday and found out we are having a mission conference at the end of the month and a zone conference right before that. We are having elder l. tom perry come!!!!!!!!!! ahhh we are sooo excited! after our meeting we went tracting for a few hours what i gathered is that now i know the members neighbors more than they do. they have some work to do getting to know their neighbors. we went on visits with the young women and it went pretty great
tuesday we tried visiting less actives and some investigators but everyone is sick so they said to come back next week. :( we taught a lesson to our eternal investigator frances and found her son told her not to join the church which is why she is fighting getting baptized and going to church so that was sad. we taught the restoration to an investigator thats had quite a few missionaries but she is coming closer to fully accepting that this is true
wednesday we were sick of our room being cramped so we re arranged it but i forgot a picture! so next week! but we have a TON more space now!  we weekly planned and went on rides. oh and president myers got a puppy! but it wasnt the kind he wanted, he sent his son to get it but didnt realize it wasnt a pure bred so he didnt really want it so now he has a dog hahaha but we are enjoying it until he gets a real german shorthair puppy ( for hunting)
friday we had a missioniary breakfast with the stake and talked about our areas with the stake president we saw some less actives and tried more people that really just didnt want to see us:( we went to sports night and ate our hump day cake
saturday all our plans fell through so we did service for sister myers and then went on rides with the ysa. we felt like we had done nothing all week but come to see when we counted up our lessons that night we had 25 lessons already for the week
sunday we had meetings and more, at the ysa there was a newly returned missionary who served in the las vegas mission guess who was his trainer.... JARED MURPHY small world. and he knew Justine Tucker (my freshman roommate) too! such a small world! a kid in the YSA came up to us and said so i have been to church 2 times now and want to take the lessons and work towards baptism. HEAVENLY FATHER ANSWERS PRAYERS!! he really does because finding someone with a baptismal date is our goal and was the highlight of our prayers. i bore my testimony in the 1st ward and then there was no one to teach the gospel principles class so i just got a book and started teaching its amazing normally i would be nervous and think omgoodness i am teaching right now but it went really well and people thought that i had prepared the lesson so that was kinda cool. oh how the lord blesses his missionaries. 2 of our lessons cancelled but we had one that went really well with a part member family. OH one last funny story. so i was reading in mosiah for my personal study and i was so into the story in chapters 15-20 and i had this thought oh abby you probably shouldnt be unapproved books and i PUT IT DOWN and then i realized that silly me IT WAS THE BOOK OF MORMON! sooo funny i have really learned to love the book of mormon and reading the scriptures. i just want you all to know that i know we have a loving heavenly father and that because he loves us he sent us jesus christ and that our savior died for you and me so that we could live with our families for forever. i know that the church of jesus christ of latterday saints is the same church that christ established here on the earth and that joseph smith was the prophet chosen to restore the gospel and saving ordinances here on the earth. i know that thomas s monson is a prophet of god and will lead and guide in a direction closer to christ. i love this gospel and i love that i get to share it with those that havent heard it even if i get shut down 90% of the time. at least im planting seeds. i love you all!!!!
love
sister abby wasden