Week 39- The one with all the changes

Friends!!!

Well this week was good and tough all at the same time!

We had a lot of ward member lessons which was super fun to have. Since we can now go into members homes its a lot better to get to know them in person let me tell ya. :)

Update on our wonderful Italian friends....so we scheduled a day to go over to talk and get to know them more. When we got there I felt like I was in a movie! It was a super nice day and so they had the chairs out with a cute porch table with water for us and tea for them. We sit down and the husband was like "my wife baked a cake for us. It should be almost done." WHAT? Literally was so happy in that moment, haha. We talked and got to know them and as every good missionary does I was able to tie part of the conversation into the Gospel. They asked us a few questions about the church so we are hopefully going to be teaching them soon! :)

Our friend from India is so great. It was a pretty sad week though. So transfer calls were Friday and we got a email from President saying we now have to decide which companionship is going to continue to teach him between the sisters in Forest grove that we have been team teaching him and us. We came up with a plan that who ever stays with each other gets to keep him. Unfortunately since Sister Carlson is being transferred that meant I couldn't keep teaching him. Of course I didn't want that. I would keep him if I could. Teaching Deepak has been one of the most sacred experiences of our lives. We felt the Spirit so strong it was tangible as we called this man who lives clear across the world. Many times our connection would be poor and we would have to ask him to repeat himself multiple times - yet we hardly noticed because the Spirit was so strong that we all seemed to mutually understand each other.

Friday came and went and Sister Carlson is leaving us to go to Monmouth to TRAIN A GREENIE!! I am so excited for her. She will be a GREAT trainer! Needless to say it's hard to say goodbye to a companion that you've grown to love.

Guess what....I get my MTC COMP BACK, SISTER WHITE!! I was shocked and if you think it can't get any better, Sister Hair is coming over to be my STL! It was a wonderful call to get :)

Sunday morning came and we had sacrament with the Bishop and his family. We sang "I Am A Child of God" to them and they got emotional. The spirit was so strong it was amazing! Then we headed to the church to give our last lesson to our friend in India. We got there and I was dreading calling him because I knew it would be the last time. We both shared our testimonies and our favorite scriptures...of course there was tears from my end but you can always expect that ;). Deepak will always have a special place in my heart. His testimony is so strong and it amazes me how strong he knows this is true and how important the Book of Mormon, prayer, keeping the word of wisdom and the 10 commandments is. This experience with him has truly changed me! He is ready to be baptized but must wait (possibly for a long long time) because of the situation in India. Never have we met an individual with so much faith and who "hungers and thirsts after righteousness".

After I called my dad :) gosh I love him with all of my heart! There are no words to express how much I love him! I LOVE YOU DAD!!

After, life got alittle crazy! We had so many member lessons to give a quick message and a farewell song :) so happy we got to sing a ton before she leaves me!

Monday was a hard yet happy day :)

I got to see 3 out of my 4 companions at the same time and it was the best!

Sister Carlson and I sang one more scripture tune before she left. I am going to miss her so much but I know she is going to kill it in Monmouth!

To close I want to share our story with Deepak that we wrote up to share with our whole mission. Enjoy!

--At the beginning of last transfer we got a random message from a man living in India that simply said "Hi Sister". We learned that Deepak had spoken to missionaries a few times before in India and wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon, but the missionaries left India because of the Corona Virus. That same day he also reached out to Sister Child and Bateman serving in Forest Grove, and we both taught with him unaware of that the other companionship was for two weeks!

Weeks later, he is ready to be baptized but must wait (possibly for a long long time) because of the pandemic in India. Never have we met an individual with so much faith and who "hungers and thirsts after righteousness".--

I love this church and I love my Heavenly Father! I am so grateful for him know my strengths and weaknesses to put people in my life to help me! I love the scriptures, they give me so much comfort. I know they are the words of God and teach us how to get back to Him!

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love you!

Love,

Sister Fillmore ♡