Called to Serve: week 38: somos las hermanas BUSCANDO (LITERALMENTE on the hunt)

Bueno !

Happy 4th of July!! I've have God Bless the USA stuck in my head all weekend, so I hope everyone blew some stuff up and swam lots for me!!

This is a story you're gonna want to read mis amigos! It all started out on our crazyyyy Thursday night!! We were knocking doors with our friend Chelina and got a call to go to a chapel where a Hispanic guy was waiting for someone to come help him. We went over there immediately, but he was gone. We gave the lady a call back and she said she had given him money to go buy food, so we said a prayer and then drove around town looking for a guy in all black named Trent. After an hour peeking in 7/11, the bar, the rec center, and the temple grounds, we decided we probably needed to get home. We went to the chapel one last time and, lo and behold, he was outside by the AC units eating dinner!! We got his story (basically traveled from Kansas to SLC to Vernal by bus/foot and was just looking for some guidance), called up the bishop to help out, and then taught him about the Book of Mormon. Also we don't always have English book of Mormons on usually, so #MILAGRO that we had one that night!!! All Trent could say about the entire evening was, "oh wow!" over and over again. We went back to the chapel the next morning to bring him some breakfast and teach him the restoration with the elders (sadly had to pass it to them bc Trent is NOT Hispanic, but from Micronesia!!!). He told us that he had slept poorly and woken up at 3am to read the Book of Mormon! He told us he felt so much comfort and peace and after reading to Lehi's dream, he could finally sleep again (haha kinda memes on the story I know). He loved everything we taught him and when we invited him to be baptized on July 24 if he found these things to be true, his response was, "Why would I not?" Right?! It was literally legendary!! His original plan was to spend a night here and head to Denver the next day, but after meeting us and getting some help, he is planning to stay and work here for our WML and live with another Micronesia family in the elder's stake. The Lord is working mighty miracles in this guy's life!!! Keep him in your prayers por favor y gracias!!!!

We had exchanges with the STLs and I got to go work in the Uintah Stake (my old area in vernal!!). We planned to teach one of my friends, Derek, but sadly he wasn't home. Instead, we dropped in on a couple of my other friends to say hi and it led to some awesome miracles! We stopped by Hannah Rich (we used to knock doors with her) and she wasn't home, but called us after so excited that I was back in Spanish because she has been bunch of Spanish friends she has been waiting for good missionaries to visit!! We're going to go visit them this week with her yay!! We also visited the Breen twins and they were also gone (bummer!!), but talked with their parents and little brother. Bradley gets baptized next spring and invited me to come if I'm home (fingers crossed!!) and their dad is now working in vernal so he can hopefully start being taught by the sisters again! Let's go!!!

4th of July weekend was a BLAST! We had morning district sports and right after I ran loops around the 5k finish until I hit the 5k and earned a sweet dino medal haha. We went to the parade and got to watch with our WML, then wandered the streets with our friend Eduardo introducing him to anyone that called out to us(He told us we knew everyone and I said it's just bc of the missionary tag, to which he replied, "I need one of those!" I said, "You gotta get baptized first!!" and he told us on the DL he is not about that oof). We spent most of the afternoon and evening at the park talking to people, having a BBQ with a ward member, got our nails done, and played some volleyball w a family of an RM that got home this week. At 9, we ran home to change and then went back to the park parking lot to watch the fireworks from on top of the car while on a video call with our STL. It was seriously such a fun holiday!!

other funnies:

-people are setting me up left and right out here in vernal-I'm only going to England, not going home!!

-i got my hair stuck in the fan when I attempted to use it as a blow-dryer

-more luck at sports night and had 2 friends come this week...we do better at that than getting our friends to church oof

-helped clean the NASTIEST home I have ever seen this week and I almost threw up multiple times

Milagro: On Monday night, we had another lesson with our friend Angie. She said her week had been rough with so much going wrong with her marriage, her job, home life, and on top of that, her dryer just stopped working so none of her clothes were clean. After sharing a message and inviting the elders over to give her a blessing, we left and promised we would find her some help. We called our friend Brother Justice to tell him the situation and he goes, "you're kidding! my neighbor is giving away a dryer for free!" We were shocked!! And the next day we go help a family move and they're giving their dryer away too!!! So we had 2 dryers for Angie! When we called to tell her we were bringing one, she was speechless and told us she felt so blessed by the gospel! Facts!! It was awesome!

President and Sister O'Riordan are officially down under back in Australia!! We had interviews with President and Sister Hendrickson this week and they are amazing. Sadly no aussie accents, but it will be great to serve with them for the next 6 weeks before I get my 3rd mission pres haha(also their fam is all huge runners so that's cool!!). Something I liked that President shared with us after kneeling to pray at the start of district council was that, "Dropping to our knees leads to miracles." It's facts! The first vision and restoration of the church is a mega miracle from kneeling in prayer! It may not always be that way, but I can promise you that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers when we pray sincerely. The Lord is waiting to bless us with miracles, we just have to ASK! So my challenge to all of you is to kneel in prayer this week and pray for miracles and then look for God's hand in your life. He WILL answer your prayers and you WILL see miracles if you look for them!

les amo mucho!! Hermana Dougall