Week 34: "Why Are You the Same Person?!" (February 25, 2019)

So did you think the weeks couldn't get weirder or more crazy? Well think again, because this week took the cake for my mission thus far. I absolutely love it, and wouldn't trade any of the crazy, blizzarding days!

We received our transfer news this week, and I already knew I was staying, but we (Me and Sister B, the service sister that lives with us) were anxious about who it would be. And I got Sister Howe (one of my favorite people to exist). Have we had one of the most fun weeks ever? That answer would be a definite yes. You've seen her in some of my pictures before, she just hopped over to a new stake and here we are. 

We recieved all of the new missionaries this week, and had a crazy blast driving them around and helping ease some of their worries. We had the opportunity to Skype them into some "lessons" (they were with other leadership in the mission, but shh don't tell them that), and to witness and help them teach. The Spirit was so powerful and so present, and their testimonies were so strong. There is something special about a missionary new and untainted, and how innocent they are. I am so grateful to serve in Billings and to be a part of it all. 

One special experience we had was in teaching the family from Micronesia, who we found last week. Both of them, who barely speak English, read with us from the introduction to the Book of Mormon. We asked them what they liked about it, and one of them, PJ, quoted, "To ask God the Eternal Father..." Sister Howe and I looked at each other, feeling the Spirit burning within us all, and it was incredible. They invited us back in the daytime, so that we "wouldn't have to walk at night". It is so fun and special to be a part of their lives. 

We also had a baptism! Well, not really. It was someone my companion was teaching in her last area, so it was really her areas baptism, but we ran the baptism because her area was doubled out. Another set of missionaries also had a baptism at the same time. But no worries, as our bishop says, "We know the missionaries can do anything." It was like no one knew they were sharing the font. It was so fun and sweet to be a part of! During the craziness of running around, we realized to a crazy extent how alike Sister Howe and I are. Our Zone Leader practically yelled at us as we were running around, "Why are you the same person???" You just get lucky sometimes I guess!  

There are a lot of crazy things I am leaving out. Like our mission president in a black beanie and a NASA jacket with a hammer taking out a TIWI, our car air broke causing our windshield to fog over and I drove in a Blizzard at -4 degrees with my head out the window to safety, fell into the splits on ice, the whole works. We also got a mattress stuck in the back of our car and the Elders had to come save us. 

We also got told by the AP's to unplug a TIWI in sweats and beanies in the dark after curfew so that we could exchange some sisters cars around. So there we were, me on the bottom of a car floor, when our mission president walks up and says, "Whatcha doing sisters?" Most awkward moment of our lives, but he wasn't mad, and now just makes fun of us for being in sweats in zero degrees. 

Ya know, another week in the life. 

And I wouldn't trade it for any thing in the world. Every experience is fun, exciting, and a good time. It is a Spirit filled party, 365 days of the year. 

"We all have to endure. There is no getting around that we all have to 'endure to the end'. But it is how we go about the enduring that matters." -Brother John Ahl

Look for the joy in the black ice and foggy windows of your life, and I promise, the laughter and joy can be there. It can be there in the really real ways that it was for us, in what could have been bad memories left on snow covered hills. I look back on it all in fondness, knowing these are the adventures we were meant to have when our Heavenly Father sent us here to gain experience. 

And oh how very real is our Savior, who made the aftermath of our experience a benefit to us, and paved the way to make it home.

Sister Walstad

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