Week 35- The one with two time zones in one morning!

Friends! 

The title of my email this week is no joke! We have been able to call a few people around the globe and it's been super fun. 

This week has been full of miracles and I am humbled in every day! We have had some random people message us on Facebook. There is this guy from India and he was meeting with the missionaries before they had to leave due to Covid and so he went out on social media to find missionaries! I am humbled that I was one of them. He is so prepared! We have had 3 lessons and he is ready to be baptized. WHAT?!? When we taught him the Plan of Salvation my heart grew!  He was so into it and he kept saying "this just makes sense!" That touched my heart because I have always said that my whole life and to hear someone else who is learning say that made me so happy. We are getting in contact with his Bishop over in India to see what we can do to get him baptized. So excited!!! 

Uganda! Yep I said it. We had a lesson with a guy from Uganda! He found Sister Carlson on Facebook and contacted us that way. He is a worship leader and musician there and has an amazing story! He asked us what we did before our missions and what our hobbies are. Because he loved our videos on our FB pages he wanted us to sing for him too. After we did he kept saying "Sisters you're messing me up!" Haha it was the best! After we sang he sang to us...for 10 minutes! It was the best thing ever, he has a really good voice! Just imagine the voice from black panther and that's his accent. It's awesome!! Anyways, I shared a verse from the Book of Mormon and he loved it so we are excited to meet with him this week. 

All of this happened Sunday morning between the hours of 8:30-10am people!! 

Lynn!

Long story short, he's back and after a few attempts from other missionaries,  he is finally is progressing and is reading the Book of Mormon!! That is big for Lynn so keep him in your prayers as he is reads and learns!

We have been able do have some lessons with people here in Bend because of Facebook stalking being successful so YAY!

This week God has helped me to see that even when it's tough you still have to keep the faith and to not give up on His children or Him! When life is tough we can't say "I see God this is a time to test myself" and then not involve him. This life is time of testing but God doesn't say to do it alone but with him. Use Christ's atoning power! 

KEEP THE FAITH PEOPLE!!

Also I invite you to read Ether 12 and Elder Jörg Klebingat talks called "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". SO GOOD!

I love you all so so much! Email me....I would love to hear how everything is at home! 

abigail.fillmore@missionary.org

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Old Mill shopping center field trip on P-day!

Always a beautiful view wherever we go!

Our new obsession - Spring Rolls.

Chick-fil-a breakfast, thank you Brother Argyle!

Us being funny! :)

Week 34- The one where we get hit on by our Muslim friends.

Friends!!

As from what you can see it's been a crazy, fun and interesting week. 

We have been able to contact a few people on facebook here in Bend and some have said yes's to hearing a hope message. So we are slowly finding success from Facebook!!

Funny Sister Fillmore moment:

Ok so one day I wasn't really listening while we were meeting with the Zone Leaders. They were talking about bringing back a crock pot that we lent them use and then switched to talking about bringing some caramel popcorn that one if the elders made a lot of. Soooo in my mind I thought he cooked the popcorn in the crock pot so I asked "wait he cooked the popcorn in the crock pot?"....just so you know you can't pop popcorn in the crock pot. :)

Wednesday was a little rough but we got through it....staring at a phone all day kind of makes a person go a little crazy!!! I really appreciated the closing prayer a member family gave at the end of our lesson that night.  It was just what I needed after a trying day.

J and E have been busy this week so we hope we can reconnect this week and start having consistent lessons again. 

So about our Muslim friends... after one of our conversations he said he wanted to create a relationship with Sister Carlson sooo we got off of that train really quick! But the other one is promising and is super interested in the Book of Mormon so that's exciting.  We hope we can keep teaching him.

Haha ok so we made another funny video of us dressing up like "Elders" ....meaning we put our beanies above our ears....I mean, what is that? But we made a video of things Elders say. It's pretty grand! And then the next night the Elders made one of what Sisters say. It was so funny! 

Our mission president and his wife have really gotten us in the spirit of having faith and seeing miracles! Ether 12:12 and Mormon 9:15-21 are my favorite chapters right now! Miracles are still coming and we can see them if we have faith and open our hearts to see.  I am so grateful to be on my mission and see how Gods work is continuing on and will forever! One thing that I learned is that God is loving his work forward with or without us so we have to make the decision to get on board and get to work. I am excited for this week to work and show God my efforts!

I love you all so so much!

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Dutch Brothers in Oregon = Swig in Utah. Love it!!

Using our creative talents while filming our short video.

"What the Elders Say" Funny District video in the making.

Don't judge - I was beat!

Rainy Day Ninja

Week 33 - The one with the interpreting dancing.

Friends!!

What a week full of miracles and learning!

I have some sweet updates on our people here in Bend. We are basically international Sister missionaries with all of the people we are teaching over seas. Ok not that much but we are getting pretty cultural out here. ;)

We passed off our friend Marin to the Bulgarian sisters and we are excited and happy to see where God takes Marin (aka) Emco!

We are taking a break from talking with our friends from Morocco until our Mission President gives us further instruction. They are so kind and understanding we love them! Love planting those seeds where seeds haven't been planted before :)

J and E are doing well. We are excited to see where our discussions lead this week! They are wonderful people and we love seeing them draw closer to the Spirit.

Sister Seaton one of our ward missionaries and is the BOMB! She gave us a referral for a hope message to her friends. Guess where they are from....ITALY! They moved here 2 years ago and their accents are literally the best thing ever! If you are thinking of an exaggerated Italian accent in your head that's what they sound like. It's the best! We were planning on a hope message but like the spirit pointed us in a different direction in the middle of the lesson. They are catholic but aren't super active. They started talking about the differences from our church and theirs since they have come to a sacrament meeting before and the husband said that we are more interactive with each other. He also loves that in our church we have a personal relationship with God and don't have a "middle man" like the priest, we go directly to God. He thought that was really cool. Anyways by the end we extended an invitation to pray more to God instead of only talking to Him once in awhile. They excepted and were very grateful for the opportunity to meet with us. So we are meeting again this week, YAY FOR ITALIAN FRIENDS!!

Ok MIRACLE OF THE WEEK...JUNE!

So if you remember June good for you because she has had lots of health challenges recently that has kept us from teaching her but she is back and GOLDEN!! We were going to ask her to see where she is at after our lesson and think about dropping her. Well the spirit had other plans and now she is praying about being baptized. WHAT?! I was not prepared for that. After talking about the sabbath day we asked her how her commitment for praying was going and she was like, "Ya I have prayed a couple of times. I have been asking God what he wants for me? And I can tell that He is saying this isn't the road He wants me to take. I asked him which church then?" She then went on to tell us all her past churches she's attended and how she doesn't feel good in them at all but every time she meets with us she feels peace and we don't turn her away. She even said she has been thinking about being baptized. WHAT?!?! PEOPLE I WAS FREAKING OUT IN MY MIND AT THIS POINT!  So we invited her to pray about being baptized and we will talk about it tonight! 

In my head I was thinking, "This is a whole new June! She has never opened up like this!" 

Friends do you know why? Because even though we haven't had a whole lot of contact...the spirit has and that's the most important kind of contact. Through this lesson I learned more about the importance of listening with intent and asking inspired questions that go along with what they are saying. That my friend is only through the spirit and I kind of finally got the hang of it and I am so BEYOND grateful! 

Dance off (in our eyes we won;))

I don't know if I have told you guys this but to keep our sanity we as a zone send in funny videos at the end of each day. It helps us laugh and keep spirits high. Since transfers are Tuesday we did a dance off Saturday to determine the best dancing companionship. We decide to put our professional dancing minds together, don't worry sister Hair, I was thinking the whole time "Is this what Sister Hair would do?" ;) 

We  made up an interpreted danced to "Colors of the Wind" and I think it was the best thing I have ever done in my dancing career, that career has been small, people, but I was very proud! The Elders in High Desert won which they deserve but in our eyes we were the best!

Lights Out

The power went out for 2 1/2 hours in half of our area on Tuesday which was fun, haha. We had to do our lesson at the church under the emergency lights but we did it! Then we came back to our apartment and it was starting to get very dark...and my phone was at 11% but luckily at 9:30 the lights came back on and I was so so happy to see light again. Made me grateful for electricity that's for sure! 

I got to sing with my bestie Sister Jun one last time before she was transferred! It was super fun since I haven't sang with her since my first zone conference back in November, crazy! We sang Amazing Grace and it was my favorite rendition of that song I have ever heard.  She is sadly leaving me AGAIN! But it's ok we will see each other soon :)

GOOD NEWS: I am staying here with Sister Carlson and I am beyond grateful and excited! 

Happy Mothers day to all of the best moms in the world (that means all). You are amazing in every way! It was so fun to call my mom and family yesterday. I love my mom with all my heart! She has supported and helped me in all my endeavors and I am so grateful for her and her endless love! I love you MOM ♡

I love you all so so much! 

Keep killing it back at home, I love you!

Love, 

Sister Fillmore 

Happy Mothers Day, Mom!

Lights Out!

I love all our trees!

Heart Attacking June's door for Mothers Day. She is single mother and needed some love.

Week 32- The one with our Bulgarian friend, Emco!

Friends!!

This week was full of contacting and becoming professional Facebook stockers... don't worry we aren't creepy. ;) Just finding new people to share our message with. But hey it paid off because we are now talking to a new person named Emco, and he is from Bulgaria! Like LIVES in Bulgaria! We got some missionaries over there to translate for us when we call him tomorrow. 

Here is our week in a nutshell: 

J and E are so wonderful! They are so close to being baptized people so keep them in your prayers! We had a powerful lesson with them last night on the priesthood. 

I have been taking advantage of our little porch by going outside and painting whenever I have the time.

Soooo my trail mix obsession has come back...my poor companion ;) good thing she is nice and doesn't hate me for eating all the M&Ms. 

It has been so fun making music especially the last one we post on Facebook. That song has a special place in my heart! AND from that one song we are finding people to teach!

Quotes of the week: 

"525 BC to 2020 and we are still struggling" me after finishing the Isiah chapters. ;)

"Cake over the sink" we are quarantined so don't judge. 

"Its called recycling people" me when I put the raisins, cashews and peanuts bag into the bag of trail mix and add m&ms....it works!

Me: "I know people who play Zelda" 

Eugene: "Thats like saying you know people who smoke weed and know all about it." 🤦‍♀️

Needless to say it's been a fun week full of laughter:)

Life is good folks and I am grateful everyday that I am here!

Thoughts from the week: 

We will be weak at somethings and good at others. But if we just keep going knowing that we will get better at it some day he will be able to strengthen us. We can't stop and ask "why didn't you help me?" Or "why am I not good at this yet, I am doing everything I am supposed to?" We need to keep going forward and be resilient and know that we will get better and be better. 

Love you guys!

Sister Fillmore

My obsession. :)

Who wants cake?

Painting on the deck getting some fresh Oregon air!

Doing lots of member lessons online. I love these times together with our ward family!