being transferred to Portland. The Portland East Stake and Columbia
River Ward to be exact. I have so many mixed emotions about it, I just
don't even know what to do with myself! I am getting a marvelous
companion, Sister Duff, and I'm so excited to be among "the weirdos."
That is what Portland is known for, ya know. Land of the freaks. Haha
so really they're all my people! ;) I'm excited to go to a new place
and have new experiences and meet new people, but Lacamas Creek is my first area! My baby area! I was born here, so naturally it's very difficult to leave. But what a wonderful week to be my last here! Let
me tell you about it:
Monday night was awesome! We had a fantastic Family Home Evening with our sweet investigator, Eva, at her neighbor's house (who are
members). We watched "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration,"
the hour long video for FHE. After the movie was over, the parents and
5 daughters all bore testimony about Joseph Smith. It was touching. :)
Eva is such a sweet spirit, and she is definitely progressing towards
baptism in the church, she is just going at her own pace. I am so
happy to know her! She is a blessing in the loves of every single
person who meets her. She brought me and Sister Rasmussen flowers that she cut from her yard! What a sweetheart she is.
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On Tuesday night, we went to the Skaugstad's house. We have had a hard
time teaching in that home because they are kind of FORMER
investigators, but we haven't given up, and on Tuesday we made
strawberry jam with them! We took a sweet sister named Katie Burbank
from the ward with us that night. She had just turned her papers in
(and she now has her call and is going to Bangkok Thailand), and has
been coming with us to appointments to get ready for her mission! It
was fun. To share a spiritual thought, we sang songs while Sister
Rasmussen played her ukelele. Hymns of course. :) What a fun night!
And it was rewarded with yummy homemade jam!
paint the house for a long time. I'm sorry I don't have pictures with
them yet, they are some of my absolute favorite people in the whole
world. I'll be sure to get pictures for next week. That night, we had
a phenomenal lesson with the Rodriguez family that happened because we
followed the promptings of the spirit. We read a chapter in the Book
of Mormon, Alma 32, and afterwards I asked if we could
go around and all bear our testimonies. We had another potential
sister missionary from the ward with us that night too, and she said
all the right things. Isaac, the nine year old, bore his testimony
first and said simply, "I know the Book of Mormon is real." I could
have died and gone to Heaven right there and then. Everyone bore
testimony, and it was a perfect night. Oh I love what the Spirit does
for people. It just makes them all so happy!
Friday was magical. We woke up super early in the morning and drove
with Sister Archer to the Portland temple. It was amazing. There is
not a better feeling than being in the house of The Lord. I felt so at
peace in there! The mission is wonderful and I love every second of
it, but it was so nice to just relax in the temple for a few hours and
feel close to my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that we got to go
on Friday. It was such a blessing! I wish I could just live at the
temple! It is always so perfectly clean and pure and peaceful and I
love it so much!
On Saturday, we had a mission conference sort of a thing. All the
missionaries in the mission seemed to be there except the ones in very
faraway places like Seaside. It was fun to see the missionaries from
my MTC district! It was only 2 hours lomg, but it was good.
Brother Randall L. Ridd and Elder Robert Call came and spoke to us. I think one is of the Sseventy and the
other is in the General Young Men's presidency. I'm not sure. Anyway,
it was a really good meeting filled with lots of insight about
missionary work. I quite enjoyed it.
Lots of miracles happened on Saturday too. We now have 2 people on
date! The first is Tony, who was supposed to be baptized last month
but didn't want to put in the effort, and the other is our 17 year old
investigator named Sam. That one was cool. We went to her house to
teach her, and before we even started, she said, "Ya know what's
weird? I've never been baptized. I know it's really important though,
and I'd really like to be baptized eventually." We kept our cool and
said, "We can definitely help you get there." She is on date for
August 23rd! It was awesome. We also ended up contacting some less
actives in the ward that nobody else has been able to contact. They
are sticky situations, and not even ward members have had much contact
with them. We thought maybe we should stop by and leave a stickie note
on the door or something, but they both answered, and they both
invited us to come back! It was cool.
Yesterday, we went to a baptism with our investigator, Sharon. Oh I
love her. She asked some really good questions, took a Book of Mormon,
felt the spirit, and felt like the only difference between our
churches seemed to be Joseph Smith. Haha she is the best. The baptism
was incredible! The speakers were awesome, and everything they said
was just perfect and exactly what Sharon needed to be taught. I loved
it! God knows exactly how His children learn and feel, and He helped
those speakers prepare their talks for Sharon. I know it.
This really was a wonderful week to end on! So many awesome things
happened, and I had some lovely goodbyes with my sweet Lacamas Creek
people. I'm going to miss them, but it'll be good to start a new
adventure in Portland. I hope everyone had a good week, and that this
next week is even better! Remember to keep Heavenly Father close! And
for those of you who took up President Taylor's Book of Mormon
challenge, that ends on Wednesday! I hope everyone is reading the Book
of Mormon! It is truly inspired. I love you!
Love,
Sister Nicole Guilott
P.S. Here are some more pictures from this week. Cool things and
wonderful people!
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| "Prepping the chicken to feed to some wild hawks!" |
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| "The meat sitting on top of the post waiting for the hawks to eat it." |
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| "A sweet retired horse named Duke" |
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| "HORSE SELFIE! Haha!" |
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| "I just love Weasley...and clearly he loves me too!" |
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| "Bettie Grange. The sweetest woman on earth!" |
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| "The Treasure's. So cute!" |
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| "Sister Fanning! The hawks are in her backyard. I love her!" |
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| "Sam Bessas from Laous. She is the angel who introduced me to Rambutans. I adore this sweet woman!" |
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| "Rodger and Yvette. This picture says it all." |
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| "The Combs. Such a blessing to have lived in their home for the past 4 1/2 months. I will miss them!" |
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