Hey hey hey! It’s that day! How is everyone? I hope you’ve all had a stellar week filled with joy and success! And if it’s been a tough week, I’d encourage you to take the time to write down the things that did go good this week!

Yesterday was my 1 month mark of being out on a mission! I feel like I’ve been out here for 6! So many missionaries out here will tell you how fast the mission goes by, but so far, I’m not convinced. But let me tell y’all about my week.

We started the week off on Tuesday with Zone conference. There were actually 3 zones there and we met with the Mission President and his wife and a few other leaders. It lasted the whole day and it was awesome but so boring at the same time. It was nice though to talk to the missionaries in our zone and others we hadn’t seen in awhile. Sister Minson already knows just about everyone, so for the most part I just hang out by the side while she goes around talking to her friends. I know I know, I’m working on being more outgoing, but I tend to struggle with that at first. So I really appreciate those who go out of their way to talk to me, missionaries are sweet. No worries, I am making friends, so it’s good. We had dinner later that evening and it was quite the experience. After we got our food, one of the guys working at the restaurant asked us if we were nuns. So I said, “YUP” and walked away. Nah, just kidding, but it did make my chuckle a bit. We told him about who we were and what we did and he said things like “Oh cool, well I don’t agree with your church.. like, I think dancing is fine” and lots of things similar to that. It just makes you laugh, some of the things people hear about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are just straight silly. In case anyone was wondering.. we CAN dance. But we gave him our number and asked him to call us if he had any more questions. We have yet to hear from him.

I have an interesting calling as a missionary in my area. In the area of Decatur, where I serve, they are doing a pilot program with Facebook. My companion and I are asked to spend a great deal of time on Facebook reaching out to people through our page. This makes it so I don’t always have many opportunities to go knocking on doors or do others forms of face-to-face contacting. So we have the chance to make and post content to reach people via the internet. We made our first real video post on Wednesday! We shared how Christ has done so much for us and loves us and then asked what we can do for him. We added pictures and text and all that fun stuff. It took awhile, but we are proud of the outcome. Now we just gotta come up with more stuff like that…

We had another baptism this Saturday! It wasn’t in our area, but we drove down to support the recent convert and the missionaries who teach him. It was a lovely service and there was so much joy. It is truly amazing to see people become pure and clean again and enter that gate. It is the start to the rest of their lives and all eternity and it’s something really special to be a part of.

That same day, we visited a sweet old lady in our ward who was recently baptized and told her about patriarchal blessings. She was in awe of the idea and telling her about the promises and blessings that come from it was amazing. I treasure my patriarchal blessing.

But the biggest part of the week! We received a message late Friday night from two Sisters from the Hawaii visitor’s center. They had a referral for us! The first one of my mission! There was a young woman in our area who had requested to have her own copy of The Book of Mormon. We had the opportunity to visit her the very next day! We were a little nervous, but it was so lovely to meet with her, get to know her and share our testimony of The Book of Mormon with her. She wants to know which religion is best suited for her and she was very interested in learning more about ours. It’s so interesting, while in these situations, sitting down with people like this, getting to know them, you feel such an overwhelming sense of love and compassion for them. You barely know them, and yet the spirit is able to help you feel of the perfect love our Heavenly Father has for them. These people have been through tough things. They’ve struggled with family, choices, accidents and tragedies just like the rest of us. All I want is for them to experience the true joy that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and feel the love from Heavenly Father that I feel for them. It’s truly amazing being a missionary and having the opportunity to be a witness of the infinite and perfect love God has for his children. The lesson went well and she told us she would read from The Book of Mormon and she seemed eager. I struggled a little though, throughout the lesson. I didn’t know what to say. There were moments of silence when I wasn’t sure what to add or ask. Sister Minson spoke most of the time and I just wasn’t sure. That was kinda frustrating for me. While I didn’t say much during our meeting, I was able to find the words to bear my testimony of The Book of Mormon and the joy it has brought me. I testified that it is the word of God and the principles taught inside bless all those who choose to live them. It testifies of Jesus Christ and I know it to be true. The spirit was very strong in that moment and I knew that that was what I needed to say, even if it was one of the only things I said. 

That evening, we helped set up and put together the Ward’s Young Women’s dinner and Personal Progress recognition ceremony. It’s crazy to think that Personal Progress is going away, but I know that the new program is going to bring about miracles and strengthen the youth of today. It was a lovely evening with lots of joy-filled tears and good food 😉 

Sunday was a tough day. Church was fine except someone we invited to come didn’t show up and she seemed pretty set on going. But after church we decided to visit some people and that was kinda fun. We drove on the back roads of Decatur, passing cows and horses and a whole lot of grass. It was a lovely day, so we rolled down the windows and it was such a nice little drive. Refreshing. We went to dinner that night and that was super hard. I felt a little out of place being the new missionary and all. It’s hard for me to feel like I fit in. We’ll get there, it’ll probably just take time. Just like everything else. 

Overall, it’s been an okay week. Yes, I have my moments of feeling embarrassed, unloved, lonely and discouraged. I’ve felt at times like all I wanted to do was give up and go home. I’ve had to hold back tears and put a smile on my face. But I have also felt joy, peace, encouragement and love from my Heavenly Father. I’ve experienced mercy and seen miracles. I have witnessed the Lord’s hand in my life and found success in many things. I know he lives. Even this far into my mission has been a very humbling experience and I know I have much more humbling to do. I couldn’t be more grateful. I thank God for “loving me enough to cut me down” and sending me every and all the experiences I’ve had. I know that all these things shall be for my good. 

Have an awesome week! Thank you for all the love and encouragement! It means the world! I love you all!

Scripture of the week: Doctrine & Covenants 122:7

Get Busy, Get Lost!-Sister Oldham

P.S. IT’S MY BROTHER OLIVER’S BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK! If you know him, please send him some love on the 5th! I love you Ollie!