Sister Abby Fillmore - Oregon, Salem Mission: 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