Called to Serve: week 41: we are the PINKWASHING sisters

In missionary lingo, "pinkwashing" means the elders left and we took their spot. So we know nobody and are starting over fresh in the area. Fun times! My new comp is Sis Hartley. She is from California and has been out 13 months. We are also STL comps, so we stay busyyyyy! We live with Hermanas Holt and Nicol from Springville which is sooo fun and Sister Jones(my exchange comp from vernal) is serving in Provo too! Lots of fun friends nearby which makes being out of Vernal slightly less sad. :/

Speaking of Vernal, we said our final goodbyes on Tuesday to all our friends there. Leyla is all ready for baptism this week and it was sad to leave knowing I probably won't be able to go back for it. She is so ready and will be a great addition to their YW! Menio was a sad goodbye because we just barely started teaching him again after he was gone for forever! We even met his mom when we said goodbye who made us homemade cheese and quesadillas. Sad we couldn't teach them both more, but I'm praying he gets baptized in the near future! Another reason leaving was harddddd!!

We are teaching one kid here named Nathan...wait sorry WERE teaching, we'll see how that goes. We taught him and his family the restoration on Thursday and he was super involved in reading and both he and his mom answered all the questions we asked. The dad was a little off though and didn't say much, but whatever. We ended the lesson and Nathan was excited to read more of the Book of Mormon and the mom invited us back again Tuesday when they get back from Moab. We were excited until we met their bishop on Sunday. The first thing he asked is if we heard about Nathan. Apparently his mom had called the bishop to let us know the dad didn't want us to come back because he wasn't ready for his son to be taught. What the?! The bishop told us to still go over tomorrow even if it is just to talk and also invited us and them over for a BBQ this weekend, so we'll see where things go! Fingers crossed and prayers up for the dad's heart to be softened!

miracle: We were knocking doors on Friday and finished our list, but had time to hit one more. I looked at the map and felt drawn to one dot in specific for a kid named Johnny Tuttle. We knocked and his grandma opened the door excited to see us. She asked if we we had just chosen their door of ward members to knock and we told her we were looking for a Johnny. She told us to sit on the porch and then just unloaded all the tea on us. Long story short, J's mom had just passed away from a long-term illness and lots of other stuff came into play but she and her husband had been praying for a way to help the kids out and bring the gospel more into their lives. And not 24 hours later, we showed up. Talk about inspired revelation! Apparently the kid's hearts are a bit closed off now because of their mom's history with the church and her passing, but the mom had wanted all her kids baptized after she passed so we know it'll happen with time. We are planning to start slow with some family game nights and dinners and then start helping Johnny to learn more. The whole family situation is a bit cray cray, but I know that the gospel will truly bless their lives and I am excited to see that happen over the next few weeks!

This week, one of my favorite people in Vernal passed away. Paul Justice was in a mountain biking accident last weekend and experienced serious injuries that led to him in the ICU in Salt Lake. He was there for a week before he passed away on Friday morning. That was a HARD call to get from multiple missionaries that evening spreading the news to everyone that had served around him. He was seriously awesome and I am so grateful for the last 6 weeks of his life that I was able to spend serving with him. I was kinda shaken up about it and talking with my comp about how he didn't deserve to go because he was just so awesome. He was doing such good missionary work and his ward and neighbors needed him! But as we talked it really hit me that Heavenly Father had a plan for each of his children. Bro Justice is needed in heaven to be a rockstar missionary in the spirit world and to help up there. As hard as it is to lose loved ones, I am just SO glad I get to study the plan of salvation and teach it to all our friends! I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and for our happiness. This mortal life is not the end and one day we will get to meet our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ someday!

love y'all!! sister dougall :)