week 11: we are the SERVICE sisters!!!

We have eaten wayyy too much sugar this Christmas, but we are now on a "health quest" as sister Birchell calls it. "Not a diet- bc that has the word 'die' in it- but healthier patterns." So funny! 

This week was FILLED with service! On a-day we got together with our district to paint a member's house. They just moved wards and wanted some fun wall colors in their new place, so we offered to help out! But when I say "fun wall colors," I am not kidding. Lime green living room, aqua blue kitchen wall, pink and blue master bedroom, neon orange and yellow boy's room- the whole nine yards! And we didn't see the end result, but apparently the elders went back the next day to apply stickers! Yikes! To each their own, but it made us laugh at how the house looks like a brand new box of Legos haha. 

We also did lots of gift wrapping and that has become my new favorite hobby! The elders were given probably 50 gifts for a couple families in need in their ward, so they dropped off bags of gifts to our place all week and I spent meal time wrapping every day. Total blast! 

On Wednesday, we were knocking doors and a grumpy guy, Kassey, covered in tattoos and piercings opened the door. We introduced ourselves and asked if there was anything he or his family needed. He mentioned being behind on wrapping Christmas gifts for his kids and so of course I offered to wrap them! We showed up the next day (very much to his surprise bc he did not think I was serious haha) and spent an hour wrapping his gifts and talking with Kassey and his wife. We watched his heart completely soften in that hour and by the end, he was sitting crisscross applesauce in the doorway telling us about his life. The power of service is real!!! Pray that we will be able to get back in and start teaching their family!!

 

I'm sure you are all dying to know how we spent our Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It was normal days, so we had a couple mission devotionals, then spent the day making cookies to deliver to our friends and doing ward visits. On Christmas, we got to sleep in(best gift BY FAR!), call our families, eat lunch w a family (IN PERSON!!) who had an awesome farm and we ate one of their pigs and spaghetti squash from their garden, and then continued doing ward visits and meeting people. By the end of the day, we were EXHAUSTED!! But it was really enjoyable to be able to focus on Christ all day and bring the true meaning of Christmas into people's homes. One ward member called it, "the best worst Christmas away from home" and I think that sums it up quite nicely haha. 

We were knocking doors Saturday night for an hour and it was FREEZING! I was in my rubber rain boots and literally could not feel my toes. Everyone was super friendly and talked with us, but not a single person let us into their homes. Before our last door, I burst into tears because my toes were completely numb and hurt so bad. I said a prayer that the people at the last house would either not be home or would let us into their house. And heavenly father heard and answered my prayer! They let us into their house, asked us lots of questions, and even sent us away with popcorn! It was such a blessing!

And finally! We had roommates for a few days and it was a blast! 2 of the other sisters got bed bugs in their apartment(ON CHRISTMAS!!) so while their place was getting fumigated, they stayed with us. The mission housing couple were gems and made everything come together quickly with new beds and sheets at our place for the girls. It was super nice to have more people to talk with, but sadly they leave tonight:( 

MIRACLE: On Monday night, we were calling part member families to see if we could stop by and introduce ourselves. We called the wife of this nonmember, Tim, and she told us they were going through a divorce and he wasn't interested. She gave us his number and told us we could try calling him, but he would most likely cuss us out and hang up. WELL low and behold he did not. He talked with us for about 20 minutes about some of the hard things he has been dealing with and how he wanted something to hope for in his life. He agreed to meet with us in the Bishop's home and we were able to have 2 lessons with him this week. Tim is a major drinker, but he really has a desire to study the scriptures and he LOVES the gospel library app. We have already seen him feel so much more peace in his life in just a week and we are hoping to get him on date for baptism in our next lesson! Pray for our sweet Tim!!

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and your new year starts off with a bang!!! 2021 is gonna be dang good!! 

Love you all!!! 

sis dougall <3

Painting walls

Christmas gifts from the senior couples

Cookies on Christmas eve to the Cunninghams

Christmas eve lasagna lol

Caroling with the Rusts

 Fluffy leg chickens lol

week 10: we are the VERNAL sistas!

One week done here in vernal and let me tell you, it is a whole different WORLD than Provo YSA!!! 
-everyone wears denim and overalls and boots and I LOVE it! I DIED AND WENT TO COWBOY HEAVEN!

Here's a little rundown of what we have learned so far:

-half the town has lived here their entire life and owns family property and livestock(average cattle count is 300 family w LOTS of land!!! and our freezer is full of some nice meats from members!)

-lots of old people...they struggle to hear us with our masks and don't get out much bc of "the covid"

-there actually are dinosaurs all over. statues, murals, museums, and even a city named Dinosaur haha 

-weather is pretty similar to Logan so we bundle up and run in sub 10 degree temps, but also freeze knocking doors

-our house is HUGE! we took the place of the 4 previous elders, so we have 2 showers, 2 huge bedrooms, a nice family room, and lots of space! I sleep on a queen bed and my comp has a fat walk in closet haha. 

-there is SO much work to be done and SO much potential! once we get organized, we will be teaching off the wall! Vernal is a gold mine!!

So far, we are teaching 3 people:

KARLEE- she is a WILD child! 17 and graduating early to join the army. She has a bit of a bad language issue and a very confident personality for good and bad. She called the previous elders by their first names and that was funny to finally figure out who she was talking about when we asked who "Spencer and Jacob" were haha. We are trying to reign in her energy and help her to focus and feel the spirit in our lessons. 

TRISHA- super sweet lady who is living with a member boyfriend and their daughter. She is ready to get baptized and is super receptive to the gospel, we just need to get her and her boyfriend married first. 

GARY- honestly the coolest guy! His wife and kids are all members, but he says the cowboy religion of mountains, hunting, and trucks are more his thing. He hunts a TON and has deer, bears, moose, etc. all over his house. He wants to spend his time on earth enjoying the country life and then do "the heaven stuff" after he dies, but we are working with his family to encourage him to commit to scripture study, prayer, and church NOW haha. Great guy and great family! 

We also walked into a baptism again(I seem to be good at that) for Kayli. She is the sweetest 13 year old girl and her family is half members. We are going to try teaching her 10 year old brother when we start doing her after baptism lessons. Her family is the sweetest!

 And finally a good funny for y'all! We are sitting in church yesterday and look over to see this lady scrolling amazon for smart watches. Little odd, but nothing crazy. But then halfway through the meeting she pulls a red bull from her purse and starts downing that thing. I could smell it through the mask and was trying so hard not to laugh!! She introduced herself to us after as, "Mama Sunkees," so she may become a friend of ours lol. Gotta love these people!! 

MIRACLE: We had a list of some people the elders had been previously teaching this year, but hadn't contacted in a while, so we decided to start calling. We called a 16 year old named Hunter and introduced ourselves and as soon as we said we were missionaries, he hung up. We started to call the next number and the phone started to ring. It was Hunter calling us back to apologize for answering the phone with a weird voice. He talked to us for about 15 minutes and mentioned that he was freezing from shoveling snow. SOOO we changed and went over to his place to join him! He opened up to us a ton while we helped shovel his driveway and we got a return appt to teach him some more!!! Great kid and can't wait to work with him in the coming weeks! 

Merry Christmas!! Love you all!! 

Sister Dougall :)

We drive the mission truck!!!!

Matching PJs- thanks krista!!!

 Haha iykyk

 Iguana lady!!! 

Kayli's baptism

Our view!!!

week 9: we are the STICKY RICH sisters!

"what you sisters are doing is gonna make you STICKY rich in heaven!" -tom  

What a FULL week!! Last Monday feels like ages ago bc we did so much this week! But first, why did it feel so long? It was our last week in Provo! Both sister Gilliland and I are being transferred to vernal tomorrow! Cold, county vernal...too bad I didn't bring my denim jacket and cowboy boots bc the culture there will be much different than Provo YSA and I am super excited! 

We spent our week doing lots of goodbyes to our friends, ward members, and recent converts. Such tender moments and so hard to say goodbye after only knowing these amazing people for just over a month! You make fast friendships when you're doing the Lord's work!! (We also got fed ribs, filet mignon, Indian curry, and sushi this week w all of our goodbyes!!! Def won't be eating that good in vernal haha)

The best Christmas gift from the mission was IN PERSON zone conference!! 1/3 of the missionaries got together to hear from a member of the seventy, Elder Schmutz, to have a real thanksgiving meal, enjoy a talent show, and play sports all afternoon. It was a blast and a half! Our mission President's wife spoke on the gifts that we receive at Christmas bc of the savior's birth and we got letters from our parents. Never seen so many 19 years old crying in one room-such a sweet morning! And then 9 square for 3 hours? SO FUN! I have a reputation now after slamming my president in the face when I whipped out my competitive side and volleyball skills. Such a fun day!!!  

We had real life exchanges this week(only bc we live in the same apt but still haha)!! Sister McDonald and I did a few member visits and then knocked doors for an hour. On the first floor or the apt complex, we thought we had knocked all the doors, but sis M decided to look around the corner and we had missed one. We knocked the door and the kid we met said he may have some non member friends! It was a first floor last door miracle hehe. 

 

Technology came in clutch this week when we had nobody to teach. We filmed 2 of our recent convert's stories last week and it was so powerful putting them together this week!! I attached the link for Karim's, so go check out 3 minutes of his awesome testimony!! He texted us after watching the video to tell us how much joy and peace the video brought into his home after a day of some hard stuff and it was such a tender moment for us missionaries!

 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=428609358310045&id=100034829521583

Also we officially maxed out our speaking when we spoke in 5 wards yesterday AND in a RS activity. It was a full day of church from 9am to almost 6!! But now we are more than confident at the pulpit haha. And we beat the elders by speaking in a good 7 wards more for the transfer haha. Elder Lykins only response was, "WHAT THE!?" hahaha!

And finally!!! CHRISTMAS IS HERE IN UTAH!! The snow came on our run Friday and it has just been coming down slowly but surely since! I may lose my running buddy though since the ice scares the other sisters haha. A winter of chapel loops let's goooo!  

MIRACLE: Walk of faith this week. We were praying to find a place to go walking and talk with people and I immediately pictured the cemetery in my mind. So we drove there and walked for a while until we saw a guy get in his car. We ran after him and asked for directions and then just kinda chatted and found out he was a 19 year old non member. He had some questions about the after life too! Not a coincidence that we happened to cross paths with one of the FEW non member YSA in our area! His mom got COVID so he cant do lessons before we leave, but he is a good potential for the elders coming in this week! 

merry Christmas everyone!!! 

love sis dougall:)

Forgot my tag for our day of speaking so we twinned haha

Snow angels post run hehe

First snow!!

Our fav bishop Fry!

Family tree...my trainer and her old trainee and trainee haha

One month in Provo!

Street of lights in Springville:)

Met my MTC comp, Sister Taylor!!! She is the BEST!!

week 8: we are the SPONGE sisters

I love fast and testimony meeting for many reasons, but one of those reasons is for testimonies that start out like this:

"I was talking with my girlfriend and she asked what my love language was. I told her I was a sponge. I take what I get and soak it all in, just give me love!"  Haha dead! 

December came and brought Christmas to missionary work!! We did a whole new wave of member calls and visits to share light the world and 3 Nephi 12:14-16. It has been so cool to share the SAME scripture with everyone and all of them have different insight. We have had some of the coolest conversations with return missionaries, converts, less actives, people from other countries, and so much more. I'm starting to love YSA because I get such cool insight from people just a couple years older than me. And all the BYU students seem to have connections in some way to Wilsonville, my USU friends, or my family. It's pretty fun to play the name game for the first 5 minutes of lessons haha. 

December also means lots of awesome devotionals!! I highly recommend watching the light the world music fireside devotional that came out on December 1. We have probably listened to it 20 times this week, especially the first and last songs. The music is GORGEOUS and will totally get stuck in your head! And while I totally miss my classic Christmas music, I am grateful to have some new Christmas hymns to jam to haha. The first presidency Christmas devotional on Sunday night was tender!! Becky Craven spoke on heavenly hugs and swaddles and it not only melted my heart, but also the prophets!! He spoke on the birth of Jesus Christ in more depth and brought special meaning to the reason for the season. 10/10! Go watch them both this season!! 

We also had the chance to film 2 of our recent converts stories this week. One of whom I met for the first time this week, Ian, told us he wants to serve a mission! He was baptized a few months ago in the Provo river and has had some fire spiritual experiences. Our second video was of Karim who also shared some AWESOME one liners about the gospel and his testimony. I am excited to put them together and will post them to FB if you're interested in checking them out!! 

Finally, we found one new person this weekend(literally Sunday night at 8:45)! We had been told by a handful of people of this nonmember, josh, living in one of our apartment complexes, but he had never been home in the past. We went to knock his door with a member we had met on a walk last week and he was not only home, but he talked with us for 30 minutes AND invited us back next Sunday night! He had lots of good questions and thoughts about God, the after life, and families so we are excited to answer those questions and teach him some lessons. He's also on the BYU track team so that's cool hehe!

MIRACLE: Araceli, the one we baptized my first week in the mission, works in Utah and sends money to her family in Argentina. we had someone anonymously give us $200 to give to her for Christmas for herself and we had the coolest experience. she texted us after we dropped it off and said that she had had lots of extra expenses this past week and had been praying for things to work out and then we dropped off some extra cash! she said she has seen so many blessings since her baptism and it made us so so happy!! 

Merry Christmas!!!

love sis dougall!!

ALSO! All I want for Christmas is a ton of letters, so if anyone wants to make my year and send me a cute letter

Sister's zoom night was to dress as a snowman with household items hahaha

Cute Christmas package from the fam

Dinner at Zupas with some cute RMs from Germany

Golden hour mountains! (Not well represented by the android camera RIP)

Friday night self time jumps

Peppermint brownies(thanks mom) and mint ice-cream(thanks members)