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