Week 21- The one where we "heart attacked"!

Friends!!

It's been a good week but I am glad we are moving on to the next!

It wasn't super eventful except towards the end of the week. We had transfer calls and I will so I will tell you now... I am STAYING IN FOREST GROVE! I couldn't be more excited to be here for another 6 weeks and help others come closer to Christ, to be with Sister Hair and to PARTY on our birthdays! :)

Sadly alot of the people we are teaching have been sick with the flu so we have had to find new ways to fill our time but it's been good!

Our teaching times with Floranna has been super good! She was sick this week but we had an over the phone lesson with her about the Word of Wisdom and it went really well! She was already trying to stop smoking before so that will make it easier. She understands how important it is to be healthier and wants to stop drinking coffee too...slowly but at least she is willing!

We had 3 people come to church this Sunday! The two was Alanna and her mom Lynn. We were so so happy! At the end Lynn took 3 old church library books that were up for grabs. We also gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so so happy! The third person was Art, short for Arthur. I dont know if I have mentioned him yet but we met him 2 weeks ago while tracting and it was a really good conversation! He basically believed everything we believe and grew up kind of going to our church. But he came AND stayed for both hours. He really enjoyed it and was happy he came! We will should be meeting with him this week, we are so so happy!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

If you didn't know Valentines day is basically my favorite holiday. I know I'm weird but I've always loved our family traditions and it's just a simple holiday all about LOVE. So Sister Hair and I decided we would ALSO make it a day full of love! We went around and heart attacked some of our friends we are teaching and those in the ward! It was definitely the highlight of the week besides getting to stay :)

We spoke and taught!

Sunday was a busy day and we were on a spiritual high the whole time! Sister Hair and I spoke in our sacrement meeting and I love every minute of it! We got to talk about how missionary work and service has blessed our lives. We got to speak with a newly returned missionary so it was full of love about missionary work :) We had a great turn out from those we are teaching and the ward really appreciated all of our talks, so it was a good kick start to our Sunday! After church we rushed home got everything ready to head over to the stake center to teach YSA gospel doctrine. We were super excited and not really nervous....but while we were waiting for people to come in the Stake relief society comes in, some more Stake people and then the Stake Presidency comes in! We finally realized that it was branch conference today for the YSA. So our nerves and our excitement got a little crazy. But MAN it went so well!! We focused on the The Atonement of Jesus Christ! Even though it is the most talked about in the church it is the least understood topic, did you know that?!?! So we really wanted people to understand it and go deeper into the subject. Afterwards, the Stake President told us thank you and that some people who were in the class really needed it! I was on cloud 9! I am not the best teacher when it comes to teaching in front of the class but the spirit took over and it was amazing!

ELLIOTT GOT BAPTIZED!

Guys if you can remember back from my 8th week group email I talked about my first exchange and the cool experience I had with a young boy and his family. He is 10 but has a mind of a 17 year old and had deep questions. Well Pumpkinridge continued to teach him and then all of a sudden Pumpkinridge texted our group for the district on Friday and said "Elliott is getting baptized on Sunday! This is not a joke people, in 2 days!!" I was so so excited! So that was probably the coolest part of Sunday for me. The spirit was so strong and my love for Elliott grew! He has more faith and bravery I think we will every have as life long members. He was super excited to see me and glad that I was there. So so happy for him and his sister and the love that they have for being a brand new member of the Church!

May we all be like Elliott and always be happy and grateful for being a member of Christ's true church every day!

So many missionaries are leaving from our zone and district, it is so weird. Yes that also means my sweet MTC companion, Sister White is leaving me too. She is training though, so she is going to be awesome! Again I am so grateful to be staying in such a beautiful area and meet more people who need to be reminded of their Savior Jesus Christ!

2 talks that I read this week and loved and hope you can take the time to read/listen:

Walk in the Light" President Eyring (April 2008)

The purifying power of Gethsemane Bruce R. McConkie (april 1985)

That's pretty much it for this week! Every day I am so grateful I am here and helping flood the earth in Gods word! Pray that you can too :)

Love you all

Love,

Sister Fillmore