week 15: we are the ROAD TRIPPIN' sisters!

Sooooo we may or may not have experienced a safety zone moment of our own...a week after we get trained SPECIFICALLY on car safety at zone conference. Long story short, the truck has to go into the shop for a 4 day, $1,700 makeover bc we backed into a hip high pole and dented the front right tire cover. I'll take the blame as a bad backer and happily bike, but sadly sis gill has to suffer the consequences and get rides next transfer when I leave her. Oops! (pic below)

But that's not our road trip story haha. We went on an ACTUAL 8 hour road trip to Provo and Payson this weekend! We took a little detour and found out one canyon was closed, so we added an hour and a half to our drive down. Miles will be close this month, but we got to see some BEAUTIFUL mountains and crank out some Hank Smith talks which was fun! Then we spent the night at the mission home with President and his wife. We talked with them all evening, got some insight on next zone conference, learned more about the transfer board and the work president does, aaaand they told us some stories from their lives. It was so so fun and really good to get to know them better!! Alsoooo I am OBSESSED with their Australian accents! 

While the drive and hanging at the mission home were a blast, the reason for our road trip was to go to the Payson temple!! Sis Gill's recent convert from Huntington was being endowed and sealed to her family, so we were both able to join!! It was such a blessing to be able to go in the temple again while they're still closed and to feel so much peace and joy watching this cute family go inside together for the first time!! I love the temple!!

Sadly, our baptism that we had set for Tim this weekend had to be cancelled. He drives trucks and has a lot of time alone to ponder and listen to the scriptures, but also for the adversary to sneak up on him and cause him to doubt. We met with him a few times this week and he had some struggles and doubts come up that we are working through, but the ward support has been so so great as members call him throughout the day and have really become his friends. We are working to put him on date again, so keep praying for our fav guy!!!  

MIRACLE: mini tender mercy this week!! We have the BEST zone in the mish and the elders really have our backs! While we were in Provo, it snowed a foot overnight back in vernal so we came home to a driveway thick with snow. We came inside long enough to drop off our stuff, grab dinner, and run to our lesson and in those 20 minutes, the elders were there and shoveling our driveway. They had stopped in to drop off a package and make sure we had made it back safe and just went above and beyond in serving us!! S/O to Pebbles and Huskey!

funny story: Speaking of awesome elders...they got 2 baptisms for our zone last week!! Or so we thought when they had a baptism on Sunday and another on Monday, until we realized it was the same girl in both pictures. The poor baptizer(won't name names hehe) is left handed and raised his left hand to the square instead of his right hand and didn't get told he had messed up until after the entire baptism! Kinda frustrating, kinda funny, but definitely memorable for everyone involved. #doubledunk 

Anyways, ONE last week of training in vernal before transfers!! Love you all!! 

<3 sis dougall

 Pretty sure there's not shakes...maybe snow cones?

 The dent-not sure why we are smiling haha

Our fav Madsen kiddos!

My new fav hobby is organizing Tupperware lol

Payson temple!!

My mom and grandma (sis Gill and sis Laney...mission lingo haha)

I miss these Provo mtns!!!!

week 14: we are the SMOKY sisters!

We had a goal to find 2 new people to teach this week, so we spent lots of afternoons and evenings knocking doors. On one particular night, we had 3 guys open the door shirtless, 1 in a swimsuit, 1 tell us, "I've met missionaries, but never kissed any" and another ask us, "do cowboy butts drive you nuts?" Not super successful when the only 2 people to let us in were heavy smokers (we came home and had to wash EVERYTHING, hence the subject) that were very much not interested. But planting seeds is what it's all about, so the funny people really spice up the rejection haha.

"ok boomer!!" (this one's for you Jake!) We met a guy named Chick this week who is a fellow shipper for our friend Tim. He wanted to meet us before joining our lesson the following night. We got to know him and discussed the lesson we would be having and how we planned to involve him. We told him that Tim was out of town, so we would be doing the lesson over zoom and would just call him the next morning to go over the lesson plan. Chick then proceeds to ask how to use zoom, how Tim will be able to be part of the lesson from San Diego, how he would get the lesson, etc. Before leaving, he says he will check the mail to get our lesson tmrw morning. I had to stop and pinch myself to not burst out laughing, but a laugh still came out. After 30 minutes of explaining how we would CALL to explain the zoom lesson, he still resorts to snail mail.🤦‍♀️ Needless to say, the lesson went over well. Tim had his last lesson and received a priesthood blessing last night. He is on date to be baptized this Sunday and we are so excited for him, but he is really getting every trial thrown at him right now!! Please keep him in your prayers!

If you know me, you know I love family history work!! It's like a puzzle trying to find work that needs to be done, doing indexing, and learning about ancestors. This week, after reading in D&C 2, I decided to spend some time on familysearch.org learning about my great grandparents. I read some of the coolest stories from my family members and it really made me feel so much closer to them. I could talk for days about the cool stuff I read, but I'll just share one thing I found! There's a thing where you can map your ancestors and I found out my family comes mainly from 2 places: Utah and Birmingham, England!! Coincidence? I think not! Super spiritual experience and fun to learn more. Go read about your ancestors and tell me what you find out!! 

other highlights from the week:

-zone conference was Tuesday, so we got to road trip to Heber!! It was fun to see the old district, but my MTC comp was sicky which was a sad bc I was excited to see her!! Get feeling better sis Taylor!!!

-tried deer meat for the first time in taco soup...tastes like beef but yummy nonetheless

-weather hit a balmy 34 degrees this week!! I was able to write my talk in the sun for an hour and knock without a jacket in the afternoon! 

MIRACLE: We taught a lot of chaotic lessons this week, but in every single one we were able to feel the spirit so strong when we testified of Christ. In the twin's lesson, we were teaching the plan of salvation and it got a little wild with candyland and the dog and little brother. But when we talked about Christ's atonement, everything calmed down and all 3 kids were totally focused and were able to share what Jesus meant to them. So cool! And in Kasey's lesson, the mom had tried to send us away bc of the crazy night they were already having. Sister Gilliland offered to clean the dishes while the mom made dinner and I taught Kasey solo. He was distracted by the noises as we talked about the godhead, but when I asked why he chose to follow Jesus Christ's example, he tuned all the noise out and shared a really awesome story of how he had felt prompted to serve a boy at school that day and how it made him feel. It was spot on! I know that Jesus Christ really is our ultimate source of peace, so watching that happen in our lessons was awesome! 

Alma 60:36 reads, "...I seek not for power, but to pull it down. I seek not for honor of the world, but for the glory of my God, and the freedom and welfare of my country." Remember that this week w the craziness of the new president!! God is greater than the world and He is definitely more powerful than politics. #prayforamerica

love sis dougall!!!

p.s. anyone want to hit the DI or goodwill for me and find some size 8.5 cowboy boots???(it's closed on our p-day) I'm trying to not look like a city girl here(someone GUESSED I was from Oregon bc of my rainboots and Columbia coat hahaha) in Vernal and the braids just don't cut it when I cant wear jeans haha. Send help (or cowboy boots lol)!!!

Tim!! He hit San Diego and sent us this selfie HAHA

morning run sunrise (note the melting snow)

writing talks in the backyard

road trip!!

week 13: we are the BUSYYYY sisters!

Vernal is keeping us on our toes! Lots of people to teach and find and January has been successful so far to say the least. Our district has been blowing this place up and have high goals for the month!

With MDC this week and zone conference coming up next week, my STL companion and the other STL were busy busy planning trainings all week. And that means EXCHANGES for sister Jones and I!! She is my favorite and we have so much fun together visiting both of our areas, getting the chance to drive and listen to our gospel country music, speaking in Spanish and French in lessons, and have some nice variety to our week. She was originally called to France, so she speaks French to me and it is so cool!! We have prayers in Spanish and French in one lesson and the kids loved it haha. 

COVID rules are the worst. They are so random and make no sense and it is truly just a test of our obedience which kills me ugh. One rule is that we can eat restaurant food or home cooked meals from members, but can't eat WITH people(diff from Provo where we couldn't eat home cooked meals, but could eat with people as long as it was restaurants...so confusing!!). Anyways, we had a member this week tell us to pick a restaurant and he would cover our meal cost. So we go to Sloppy Pig, assuming we will get food to go, but he had set up our food at a booth across from him and his wife and we just ate our food and yelled across the seats. So funny and Brother Pratt is my new favorite member haha(but def not my comps). He totally worked the system and it kills me watching his brain work. I also died when Sis Gill went to the bathroom after dinner and he asks, "Do you ever get tired of her?" You could tell he sensed her annoyance with his attempt to work the system, but it was exactly what I needed that night lol. 

Our guy Tim is a crack up! Ok actually he is so stoic and we don't know how to connect with him at all. BUT we saw some personality come out in our lesson this week! He is a truck driver, so he was out of town all week and we had planned to do a zoom lesson while he was on the road. We called to schedule a time and he excitedly told us he would be driving through vernal and could do an in person lesson. We were as pumped as him!! We taught him the commandments and here's where his humor comes in. We are reading exodus 20 and get to verse 17 about "thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house...nor his ass"(its a DONKEY! Tim knows this!!) He starts laughing and I could not contain myself. Good thing we were wearing masks because I died!! We are teaching a 40 year old, truck driving, smoking and drinking, 13 year old boy. So so sooo funny!!!

We are currently teaching six 9 year-olds and to get creative in our teaching, I came up with a little game I like to call Plan of Salvation Candyland. Sis Gill got a candyland game for Christmas from the elders("GILLI-land") and we revamped it to add the components of the plan of salvation. You start in the premortal life, gumdrop land is the creation/fall, licorice man is Satan and the gingerbread grandma is the holy ghost for good and evil and earth, lollipop fairy is the spirit world, the rainbow space at the end is judgement, and the castle is the celestial kingdom. Super cute if you ask me and it helps keep the kids occupied. Feel free to steal the idea my missionary friends! ;)

MIRACLE: To knock doors, we have to always take a member with us. One day this week our member flaked, so we couldn't go tracting. W sat outside the first house we had planned to knock and were just making calls when the dad of the house came out to smoke. We jumped out of the car to ask for directions to dinner and then introduced ourselves and bam, he let us inside to meet his family. Their 9 year old daughter, Breesa, has been wanting to get baptized and we were able to set her on date in the first lesson for January 31! (Same day I got baptized which is dang cool!!)

Quick spiritual thought comes from alma 2:12. It says, "Therefore the people of the Nephites were aware of the intent of the Amlicites, and therefore they did prepare to meet them; yea, they did arm themselves with swords, and with cimeters, and with bows, and with arrows, and with stones, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons of war, of every kind." Reading it this week made me think of the world we are in right now and the fact that we are so AWARE of the intent of the adversary. What are we doing to prepare ourselves spiritually to meet Christ and defend ourselves in the process? Scripture study, prayer, and church are the things we teach our people to do and it really is that simple!! I love the scriptures! The book of Mormon is a LIVING book! Every time we read it, we gain new insight for where we are in our lives. Prayer is so personal and helps us strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ. Arm yourselves with those things and put in the prep to defend yourself in the battle that is raging!! 

Lots of love to you all!!! <3

sis dougall:)

P day pickleball

Reptile house!!

Mirror selfies w sis jones

Devils house??

The Uintah basin zone

Knocking w missionary Rick

 2 months baby!!

This is VERNAL

Sunday sunny car selfies

week 12: we are the KNOCKING sisters!

We have knocked doors so much this week!! It's as if COVID wasn't a thing on that one for good and bad haha. It is great to talk to people from literally all walks of life, but it is also FRIGID and hard to be motivated when it's so cold. On Saturday, we were knocking at some trailers and I was not wanting to stand out in the cold, so when we saw a family unloading their groceries we ran to them and started talking. Sis Gill was just chatting out in the cold, but I grabbed some grocery bags and just walked right into their house to help. And guess who got a return appointment to meet with the 10 and 12 year old boys?? That's right, we did!!! Service and boldness are the key! 

Our guy Tim who we met one of the first days here in Vernal is progressing great! We brought him dinner a couple times this week bc he is living alone in a trailer home and had a cool experience Wednesday night. We dropped off dinner with our friend Rick, but Tim was on the phone and couldn't talk with us. He texted us later that night to say thanks for dinner and apologize for being on the phone, but that he had a family emergency. His dad was diagnosed with COVID and is a 78yr old diabetic, so things aren't looking good. He told us his life has been rough and there's not much he can do, but have faith in God's plan for him. He wants to be baptized on January 24th, so we will be working hard with him the next 3 weeks to break some word of wisdom habits and get him baptized! We've seen so many miracles with this one!!

On New Years Eve, we had a mission fireside and our mission president talked a lot on how we can be better missionaries as we focus on being disciples of Christ and not just 20 year-olds with nametags. It was a good reminder and inspired us to work hard to see miracles in our lives and the lives of those we are teaching! With the new year, I was able to restart the book of Mormon and also start D&C for come follow me! Reading the two together has been great so far and I'm excited to dive into both! 

MIRACLE: Knocking doors on Friday afternoon, we had a family in our area book with a member wife and nonmember husband. They answered the door and invited us inside and asked if we could help them take their Christmas tree out and clean their living room. We helped with that and then started talking about their twin girls(who we didn't even know existed!!) that mentioned recently that they want to he baptized! They are turning 9 in February and want to start taking missionary lessons so they can get baptized as soon as they have their birthdays!! Super golden family! (The 6 year old boy also told us, "when I get a phone, I want to call Jesus" which had us dying and we were happy to tell him about prayer haha!)

Happy New Year!!! We officially made it through 2020 and 2021 is looking up! Set some new years goals and work to make this year the best one so far!! 

love sis dougall :)

the key to staying warm while knocking ;)

Dinosaur land! 

Our cute fridge! Thanks for the cards and pics fam!!! 

Free pizza from our member that owns a NICE pizza joint

Mirror selfies when nobody answers the door

Driving in the LITERAL middle of nowhere!!