Craziness never ends. But at least its exciting!!

We had Zone mission conference this week! Instead of regular zone conferences with just a few zones at a time, they decided to do a 3-day-long mission-wide conference over zoom. It was kind of boring to be honest, but I got to do one of the musical numbers which was sick.

We had a super fun find night with the Zone where we basically just crack down and try to find as many people as possible, but there is a twist. For this Find Night in particular, every time someone found a new person, they flipped over a paper to reveal a random word. Then you had to use that word in all your contacts until the next paper gave you a new one. SOOOOO fun! There were some weird ones.. like “greasy”, “hypothermia” and more.

We knocked some doors this week! They are people in our area book who only have addresses and it went pretty good! We made cookies and some people took them, some didn’t. Some people were nice, some weren’t so nice… but it was a good experience overall.

So you know how I just got my new companion, Sister Gilbert? Okay, get this… we got a call this week from President Chapman. Which I will say is becoming a regular thing for me. He asks to speak with Sister Gilbert and as he is speaking with her on the phone, her eyes get super big and she grabs my hand and starts squeezing it. As soon as she does that, I know exactly what is going on. She is going to Chile, her original mission assignment. And LEAVING ME!! She leaves on the 4th of February and I’m soooo sad!! But also super excited because she is going to be amazing.

P-day was actually on Tuesday this week because Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and it was a day the mission dedicated to serving the community! So we spent the entire day serving people. We raked leaves, cleaned out a house, painted a house, took down a big shed, trimmed trees and way more! Service is my favorite so that is exciting!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Atonement and the eternal and infinite nature of it. As many of you know, I have a lot of anxieties and struggles I’m going through. Mysteries, concerns and possibilities that really terrify me. A little while ago, I reached out to my father and expressed to him my feelings and worries. He gave me some profound advice that I have to say makes all the difference to me. While giving me tips about what I can do to overcome my anxiety he told me this:

“Hyper-focus on Christ. Try to teach yourself to use anxiety as a trigger. When you feel it coming on, stand in front of the mirror, and say out loud “Jesus Christ is amazing!” and “The Atonement is awesome!” or “The Atonement covers even this!” (meaning your anxiety). Every single time. After doing this repeatedly it will become second nature and it can become a defense against doubt.”

Those words mean everything to me. “The atonement covers even this!” And not just my anxiety. It covers the absolute worst outcome I could possibly imagine, anything and everything. It has been covered, my price has been paid and the suffering is over. I don’t have to worry because His Atonement covers EVEN THIS! All will be made right. I can smile and find joy in the midst of mystery.

I love y’all so much. Thank you for all the love and prayers❤ Have a fantastic week!

Scripture of the week: Alma 34:10

Get Busy, Get Lost!
-Sister Oldham