2 Weeks In!!!!

Hey everyone!!! So this is my first official email in the field and it feels crazyyyyy!!! Alright so here are some of the highlights of the past couple weeks!! 

FIRST DAYS

First day I flew in and met my AMAZING mission president and some people from my online MTC district it was so crazy to see them in person it was awesome!!! And that first day was seriously so fun. It was just a bunch of new missionaries hanging out at the mission home haha it was great. The next day was so fun too! We spent all day learning and preparing and getting things ready to meet our new comps!!! 

TRAINER/AREA

So my trainer is Elder Ordyna and he is just awesome!! He is super chill and easy going but is also such a hard worker and dedicated to this work! The area we are in right now is Molalla which is just this tiny town like an hour south of Portland. We have had soooooo much work to do!! So we whitewashed into this area and are also double covering the Molalla ward in english and the entire Spanish zone... So we have our work cut out for us haha!! We basically have to start from scratch getting to know people and also have to focus on both english and Spanish members so it's been a lot of work!!! Ohhhhh and also the sunsets here are seriously AMAZING. I love cali sunsets don't get me wrong but its just beautiful here!!! 

SERVICE 

We have had soooooo many service opportunities it is insaneeeee!! We have been doing everything from moving to cleaning gutters to hauling lumber!! About a week before we got to Molalla there were some massive fires that got really close to the town. Although no one's homes in Molalla got burned there has been a lot of other side effects. We helped this lady clean out her gutters that were just full of ash and super clogged up. Then a lot of our service has been moving! We've had about 3 different moving jobs over the past couple weeks. Also a big portion of our service has been towards clearing out this MASSIVE tree that was cut down because it was about to fall over on someone's home. My comp and I have been saying that we are literally turning into straight up lumberjacks out here hahah!! 

ZONE CONFERENCE!!! 

I had my first zone conference on the mission aaaaand oh wowwwww how awesome it was!! They literally recreated the king Benjamin stand and taught from up there it was soooo cool!! It was great to reconnect with some people in my MTC district and other people I had met on the first day! And we also made the besttttt flag ever! The flag was suppose to just represent us and our district and our flag had all the countries people had served or will serve in surrounding the state of Oregon so it looked awesome!!! 

Spiritual experiences

- Although I am only 2 weeks in I have truly felt the Lord working through me to bless people's lives and invite them to come unto Christ. Although a lot of our efforts these first couple weeks have just been to meet the new members and offer lots of help and service we have had lots of ministering opportunities as well. In our first week a lady in our apartment complex caught us right as we were heading out to an appointment. She mentioned she was a member and needed a blessing due to health problems and family problems. As we met with her and more deeply understood her very hard and sad situation it became clear that we truly were needed in her life at that time. As we exercised our priesthood to offer this sister a blessing the spirit was so strong. She expressed her gratitude and thanks for us and I knew that the lord needed me in that time and that place to bless this sweet sister. 

- One morning I just sort of felt off. Like I just didn't feel like I was doing enough in the work. I was scared to talk to people about the gospel and I didn't like getting rejected by people. And I just was sort of feeling ineffective in my teaching skills. So during my personal study I really tried to dig deep and find some answers and some ways I could be better and do better. And then as I was reading the Book of Mormon it seriously just hit me that this book was the answer. This book coupled with the power of a simple testimony was how I could be a more effective missionary. It hit me that as I strove to put this book in people's hands that miracles could work in their lives and the spirit could testify to them of the truth of it. So as I studied more about the power of the BOM I had the strongest impression that we had to invite this less active guy we were planning to serve to read the BOM. And as I told my comp my feelings about wanting to be more effective and using the spirit and BOM more in our missionary efforts I was overcome with the spirit and I got kinda emotional and just knew this is what we had to be doing. It truly is only through earnest study and prayer of the BOM that we can become converted to this gospel. Also I read a great talk about being a more consecrated missionary and I have been using that as a guide to really improve my abilities as a missionary. 

Overall I LOVEEEE being a missionary. I love missionary life and the opportunity to put all my efforts towards this gospel. As I have been trying to be a more consecrated missionary and lose myself in the work I have found true peace and joy!! I have found such a huge love for the people of Molalla they are just the most humble and loving people its amazing. I love this mission and I love this gospel!!!