President & Sister O'Riordan

The fiery Australian duo! I am so grateful that I was able to serve with the O'Riordans for the first half of my mission in the UPM.

President O'Riordan became like a best friend to me with his kindness and love, especially when I struggled at the start of my time in the mission. He always knew exactly what to say to lift my spirits and boost me to work hard. President's motto was "all in, all the time" and we saw so many miracles as a mission as we gave our all every day. I sure love President O'Riordan, his love, friendship, example, shiny bald head and of course the accent!! (the aussie accent..."Sister Dougall and her short sleeve tshirts!" the American accent..."are you TIRED??")

Sister O'Riordan was BOLD and showed us that women play a powerful role in the church. She always knew what was up and was ready to correct lovingly and inspire us to be the best version of ourselves. She taught us a lot of important lessons and this is what I remember best: 

-You are exactly where you need to be in order to learn the lessons you need to learn, to become who you need to become...if you choose. 

-There's power in shared experience. 

-Learn to love what the Lord loves. 

-Satan is all about hiding. 

-The real you is you at your best. 

-It's all about people. 

-The Lord loves you so much that He will give you what you want. You show Him what you want by what you do. 

-You own all of your choices and all of the consequences...be spirit led. 

-The Lord requires all of your efforts, but He doesn't require more than you can give. 

-When you choose Christ, you choose to change. 

-It will all be alright in the end, and if it's not alright it's not the end. 

-Search, analyze, apply, testify, questions

I love the O'Riordans and am one blessed missionary to have served with them!! I can't wait to visit Australia soon! ;)

week 37: somos las hermanas CAMINANDO

Our car went into the shop this week, so we were on bikes and foot for a few days. Wednesday night, we got dropped off for a lesson on the other side of town and when it fell through we decided to just knock and talk the whole way home. We did that for an hour and a half and then walked the last bit home until 10pm. 6 miles in total and only took 2.5 hours with stops haha. Real missionary work right there! 

We taught lessons off the walls this week! We found another 5 friends this week and are currently teaching 20 people!! My brain is constantly on overload trying to remember everyone haha. We had a zone challenge on Sunday to ask 10 people for referrals and our ward had only 15 groups, so we only asked 8 people. But Monday night we had a member lesson and asked for any referrals. Brother Lamb gave us not just 1 or 2, but 26!!! He told us basically all the Hispanics in his trailer park and said at least 5 would be baptized!! We started knocking them this week and already started teaching 3 people! The very first door to open was a girl named Maria. We walked in and she was SO excited because her sister had lessons from missionaries a few years ago and she had been praying that they would come back so she could be baptized! She is another 9 year old(I guess Heavenly Father knows I wanted to teach 3rd grade before the mish and is giving me the chance now haha). She was SO excited when we gave her a Book of Mormon stories and is so pumped to be baptized in August!! Our goal is to work with the whole family and get them all coming back to church. She is already setting a great example and it is awesome! Keep her in your prayers! 

On a funny lesson note, we started teaching a guy named Gustavo this week who is golden! He already had a Book of Mormon that was given to him by his friend from Nicaragua. Turns out that friend was our fellowshipper's son!!? #inspired! Well Gustavo flirted with Hermana Zayela during the lesson and ended up asking her out after. HA! As we left, she grabbed my arm and goes, "Don't leave me! He wants me!" We ran out to the car and I jokingly said, "Flirt to convert??" and she responds with a big grin and "That's how we do it!" Keep in mind this lady is 60+!!! Hermana Miller and I were DEAD!!! Missionaries or matchmakers?? Haha, but he is seriously awesome and that connection was the cherry on top of an awesome spirit filled lesson! 

Natalie Castillo's baptism was the best day!! The 6 hour road trip to Springville was so worth it to see Natalie and her whole family so excited for her special day! Her dad was also able to baptize her after working this month to becoming worthy again! That's what we love!!! It was also President and Sister O'Riordan's last baptism to attend as mission president! Talk about an awesome surprise! I gave the talk on baptism and used my hard boiled egg analogy (iykyk), but Natalie didn't really know what to do with it. First she just chucked it in the trash and then she crushed the egg instead of peeling it which totally threw off the object lesson hahaha. I was so embarrassed and trying not to die laughing like everyone else, but it was kinda a mess ngl. Classic Hermana Dougall move, especially in front of Prez oof. But Natalie loved it and she won't forget that part of the baptism for sure haha. It was a great evening though and made my missionary heart swell to see everyone so happy!! This is what missionary work is all about! 

MILAGRO: 2 parts to this week's miracle! (You might want to read this one folks) Utah has been dryyyyy this year and we finally got some rain this week! Not my favorite weather, but the storms were kinda fun haha. And it smelled like Vegas rain!! But speaking of rainnnn, I found out on Tuesday that I'm going to England on August 12!! When I saw the email, I started to cry out of nowhere. Totally mixed feelings. I'm excited to finally go to my original call, experience the British culture, and meet the people there, but I'm sad to leave Utah and Spanish and the amazing people I've met here! I know everything will work out for the best though, so in the meantime send British memes haha. 

We had the chance to listen to a super awesome devo this week about loving, sharing, and inviting others. It was really inspiring to hear people, especialmente kids, talk about their missionary experiences!! When we share the joy we feel with others, whether it be joy that comes from the gospel or joy from eating chocolate cake or running 10 miles, it helps to lift others!! This week we held a sports night to invite ward members and our friends and it was a HIT! We shared the joy we feel for sports and were able to make lots of friends in the process through spikeball, volleyball, and frisbee. Super easy, normal, and natural thing to invite someone to right?? Well my challenge for y'all this week is to extend an invite to someone for something that brings you joy! Invite a friend to go to a movie, invite a coworker to get ice-cream after work, invite your parents to go for a walk, invite a sibling to play a game of soccer. It's easy and it is the fastest way to build a good relationship! "Love, share, and invite!!" 

bueno, Hermana Dougall 

Also one last funny!! When we said goodbyes to president last night after the baptism he was asking me a question, but I couldn't understand with his Australian accent. All of a sudden he went full American and says, "are you TIIIIRED?" I think that was the first time I ever heard him make fun of American accents and it was by far the funniest thing he has ever said to me. Still laughing 12 hours later.

Natalie's Baptisms

Peace out from the O'Riordan's

Moonshine Arc p-day hike :)

2 miles into our 6 mile walk home lol

Our final goodbye's to the O'Riordan's

week 36: somos las hermanas CARCARJEARANDO

Hermana Miller and I are actual best friends and this whole week was another blast. So many people commented on how we seem like best friends, make missionary work too fun, and LAUGH too much. One of our new friends, Menio, even told us we seem like people who joke and make "chistes," so he taught us our new favorite word! "carcarjear" basically means to laugh out loud. Made us carcarjear on the spot at the end of our lesson. Facts, we like to laugh(but all good times haha)!! 

AND we are also obviously on that missionary work grinddd! We have been doing daily zone challenges to #makethebasingreatagain and have seen mega MILAGROS! We started teaching 4 new friends this week!!!

Epimenio y Juan Carlos: Their door was the last door to knock after an hour of knocking and we ended up teaching an impromptu lesson in their driveway! They were in their car after getting home from work and we came up to talk, make some jokes, and share our testimony of the Book of Mormon. Menio ran in the garage to grab us chairs and asked us to tell them more!! We taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave them both a copy to start reading on their own!! It was super awesome! We have a second lesson tonight and plan to invite them to baptism, so send prayers their way!! 

Luis: On Friday, our zone challenge was to get into 2 doors to share a message while knocking doors. Luis was the first one to let us in. He is 16, from chihuahua México, and has been in Utah for only about 10 months. His cousins are catholic(and told us multiple times before we left haha), but he let us in to share a message about Jesus Christ's atonement from the Book of Mormon. It was a slightly awkward lesson because you could tell his cousins made him feel weird, but it went well in the end. AND he is friends with one of the soliddd recent converts, Steicy, so she will be an awesome fellowshipper!! Excited! 

Miguel: Okay this was WILD!! Friday afternoon we were making calls and called Miguel. We talked for just a sec bc he was at work, but we asked if we could come over when he got home from work. He told us his schedule was weird and he wasn't sure when he got off and we figured it was just a blow off. WELLLL we were on a finding walk literally an hour later and ran into him outside his house!!! And we didn't even have his address before! It was such a miracle, right place, right time experience!!!! We shared Helaman 5:12 and talked about Christ and basically it was so awesome. We clicked super well, he made a ton of jokes with us, and he is excited to learn more about missionary work and the gospel! Let's go!!!

Milagro: We knocked a door last week looking for Johnifer, but his member wife Angie opened the door instead. She was on her way to work and asked us to come back on Monday at 8. We came back then and when she was gone, I figured that was a blow off. We tried knocking another potential in her apt complex with no luck and were about to head out to go walk somewhere else. As we were driving out, we saw a Hispanic guy working on his car and got out to offer some help. While talking and come to find out he is in our ward, Angie pulls in the parking lot. We went back to her house and she welcomed us right in. We talked and shared 3 Nephi 11:3 with her and she told us it was EXACTLY the scripture she needed. Her life was a hot mess, but she had been seeking the peace that comes from the Holy Ghost more in her life and was trying to better hear Him on a regular basis. It was such a spirit filled and inspired lesson!! The Lord kept us there long enough to catch Angie and led us to share the exact thing she needed to hear. #inspiracion!!

Our last zone conference with President and Sister O'Riordan and Blickenstaff was this week! TEARS!! There were lots of bomb musical numbers, testimonies, and trainings. One of my favorites was when Sister O'Riordan shared some of her "flags" that she waves and reviewed the lessons she has focused on teaching the last 3 years. One of my favorite quotes from her was, "The Lord loves you so much that He will give you what you want. You show Him what you want by what you do." It hit me hard because it is so true!! I have seen countless blessings while serving my mission and I know that it is because of my dedication to the Lord and by showing Him my willingness to work hard and serve His children. I'm surrounded by amazing ward members, friends, and other missionaries! I'm speaking Spanish, the one language I was dying to serve in! I'm in my favorite area in the mish for a second time! I have the best compa! The Lord blesses us when we show Him what we want and do what He asks!!! Go try it out if you don't believe me and put that faith in action!! 

I am out here loving life! I love my compa! I love vernal! I love Spanish! I love summertime! I love carcarjeando jaja! I love missionary work! Basically summed up, just living the dream! 

bueno, Hermana Dougall

The UB zone!! #makethebasingreatagain

Selfie w the comp and pres!

Provo road tripping

President and Sister O'Riordan

P day bowling @ Dinoland!!

President and Sister Blickenstaff (last week with 2 mission presidents haha)

Hammock planning at the temple grounds

week 35: somos las HERMANAS de VERNAL

The Vernal return in Spanish, aka covering the entire basin!! And summertime means there is grass and flowers and creeks, and NO snow! A whole world of beauty out here! I missed my country people!! It's been a danggg bueno week! 

Tuesday morning(literalmente 2 hours before transfers!!!) we were able to go to the Provo City Center temple with Paulo to do baptisms for the dead!:) It was a miracle to be able to pull it together, but man was it worth it!! He was as happy as his own baptism day and it made my little missionary heart so happy! It was the perfect way to leave Springville knowing that we were able to help him make it to the temple before he leaves for Perú so soon! Keep him in your prayers as he leaves the 17th of this week!! 

My new compa is Hermana Hannah Miller from Chino Hills, CA. She has been out for about 5 months and was originally called to serve in Uruguay! Her Español is still fresco, so it's fun to help her improve her skills and confidence. We clicked right off the bat and she is an absolute G! We are seriously best buddies! Missionary work should not be this fun haha. We are excited to grind this transfer and see lots of success and miracles!! 

De hecho, we already found one new friend together on Friday night named Silverio! We got a text from him out of the blue saying that he might be home soon for us to visit and then another text an hour later saying he was home and asking if we were coming. We dropped our plans and drove all the way across town to go teach him. We taught him about faith and the Book of Mormon which he told us he already had a copy of, so we invited him to read and pray about it before we came back. He was so friendly and invited us to hike and have dinner with him next weekend and to bring any friends from our ward, so that is actually awesome! He drives truck (Spanish Tim?!) between Salt Lake and Dallas, so he is gone lots but he told us he would text us next time he was home for a lesson and we def believed him because that's how that lesson actually happened haha. Bueno!

There was a ward potluck on Saturday night that was a blast and a half! Whitest Spanish ward I've ever seen(and none of the kids speak Spanish?!)! We ate and met some members, then Hna Miller and I pulled everyone together to play a huge game of kickball!! Talk about ward unity right there!! The members were all talking about it in church the next day and multiple members asked when we were going to do another sports night that they could invite their non member friends to! Vaminos!!! 

Other highlights:

-sis Taylor (my MTC compa) is in the district and serving in my old stake!!! makes me soooo happy!!!

-first two dinners were ribs and brisket! the Utah protein mission is real when it comes to the basin haha!

-we had district sports on Saturday morning and got to play ultimate Frisbee! I miss the old district, but we are already getting close through service, lunches, and sports together! 

-we have a neighbor that always smokes on his porch at dinnertime that we wanted to become friends with, so we always talk to him when he's outside and found out he's moving next week! we offered to help out and he told us he had people coming, but instead he brought us HOT pizza!! I think you can say we're friends now! we're gonna bake him cookies or something before he leaves...maybe slide in a Book of Mormon y'know haha!!

Milagro: A girl that Hermana Miller and Esko had been trying to teach the last 2 weeks, Layla, came to church yesterday with her friend! We pulled her aside and asked if we could talk after church and she was down. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to be baptized July 19th! She is 17 and already friends with the YW, so she should be solid!! Completely impromptu miracle lesson!!

alma 34:38 dice, "That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." We read this in a meeting this week and talked about the benefits of being positive and grateful in our lives. When we are focused on the good and giving thanks for the blessings that we have, our days are exponentially happier! Factos!! We were challenged to do prayers of gratitude throughout the day and to really express heartfelt gratitude for our blessings. It has been awesome to see how truly blessed we really are! I want to encourage each of you to do the same prayers of gratitude and see how happy you can feel when you watch for the mercies and blessings that God is wanting to bestow upon you!! You'll feel it, I promise! 

"les quiero mucho, cuídense"

-hermana dougall

Goodbyes to the Toronto family

Sooo we won a Springville piñata at celebrarte haha

Familia de Obispo Rosales...LES EXTRAÑO!!!

Miller and I already blowing up vernal hehe

7 months in the field wowza

TEMPLE W PAULO !!! 

Goodbyes to Hermana Garrido 

Why have a truck if you can't see it...?

El nuevo barrio

week 34: somos las hermanas CALIENTES

Holy heat wave it got hot this week out of nowhere! It hit 100 two days in a row and we were kinda melting. We went to a meeting on Thursday and they told us to be outside more doing walks to talk to people, but a few hours later they messaged us all to stay out of the sun because it was a billion degrees haha. I knew I would miss swimming, but the pool in our area is killing me!!!

Luckily after some hot days, we had a little sprinkling of rain Saturday that felt sooo good(even if it was still 90 degrees oof). Springville has Art City days this week, which is a city wide celebration with tons of activities and they kicked off with CELEBRARTE. It was a Hispanic culture event with Zumba (I was told I can't move my hips...factos lol), dancing and music performances, food trucks from México, Venezuela, y Él Salvador, vendors for free classes, and a bunch of stuff made my Hispanics. It was super awesome and we were able to do some volunteering as well as talk to a ton of people! It made me so grateful to be able to experience so much culture even if I am just serving in Utah and not some foreign Spanish speaking country. Best of both worlds right?!

We struggled to meet with many of our friends this week with their work schedules, but we had a lesson with a girl we started to teach right before Hermana Gomez left in early April. When we found out Natalie turned 9 the end of June, we just encouraged the family to work towards having her be baptized soon. 2 months later, nothing had happened, so we decided to visit them again this week! We taught the first lesson and then asked how Natalie felt about being baptized right after her birthday. She said she has been wanting to be baptized but her mom just hadn't known how to make it happen with all the changes to COVID. We put her on date for June 26 and she is so excited(the transfer of birthday baptisms haha)! Sadly, Sister Holt and I only were able to teach half the lessons and will be passing them off to the elders tomorrow. Cross your fingers that I can come back to Springville for her special day!!  

Oh let me back up.. Spring is over, so I guess that means it's time to leave Springville! Transfers happen tomorrow andddddd YEEHAW! IM GOING BACK TO VERNAL!!!!!! I screamed when President told me on Friday! VERNAL but SPANISH this time. I. AM. SO. PUMPED!!!!(can ya tell?) We cover the entire town this time, so all my old friends plus 7 other stakes! Best. Transfer. News. EVER!!!! I am incredibly sad to leave this area, but I am too excited to dwell on that fact. Hermana Holt is going to North Provo in a trio with an Hermana that was in our district before and our area is being bluewashed (elders are taking over). 3/4 times my area is being taken by elders and one of the same elders that came into my BYU area is coming here. Wild!! 

Milagro: Paulo got the Priesthood yesterday in church!!! And we got a temple appointment (thanks MADRE!!!) for Tuesday morning literally 2 hours before transfers. Talk about miracle timing! What a blessing to have been able to knock Paulo's door, teach him, baptize him, and now take him to the temple! And a year from now, he wants to be on a mission. All I can say is that Paulo is the reason I was here in Springville the last 4 months and I am so grateful to have seen the joy that comes into someone's life because of the gospel. Christ's gospel is light. It is truth. And I can say 100% that it is straight up HAPPINESS!!! Idk about you, but I find joy in Jesus! 

nos vemos en el otro lado de las montañas!! 

Hermana dougall :)

Jeremy y el evangelio de jesucristo

My cute primaria

Dry Creek stake is the best stake!!! 

Familia Avilez!!

Glenda Owens, my 3rd grandma

Jeremy and Annie Hidalgo

Annabelle...heart attack on her would be baptism day aww

 Natalie and Nicole Castillo

Familia Castro!

Hermana Ashcraft (from my old stake but she is practicing Spanish and helped us find Paulo!!)

Hermana Moreno...hit up Totonacos in Spanish Fork bc her fam owns it!!

Sister Olsen

Familia Gomez