Week 66- The one with Christmas craziness!

Friends!

I know it hasn't been long since my last email but I have to be consistent ;)

Thank you again for the sweet emails and message, they help me a alot!

I got back to Oregon on Christmas eve and I am super grateful that I am back. We did some planning and then the rest of the night we did some caroling and went to a members house to share a Christmas message. These members are amazing and provided so much strength and comfort for me since being back.  Later, went home and watched a Christmas Devotional that Elder Anderson and his wife sent out for missionaries. After 9pm our wonderful Sister Yorgason made a program where we acted out the nativity and that was a sight to see- haha. It lifted my spirits and helped me to feel so much better about being back. 

Christmas morning we did a group study and then played games. We had a member drop off cinnamon rolls and then opened presents. I called my family which was so great to to see their faces again even though I'd just hugged them the day before. Later we went to a members home for dinner and it was so much fun to be with them!! 

We had MLC Saturday and moved into a new apartment... needless to say it was a busy day!

God has continued to help me see why Maddie is on the other side of the veil. She really helped me bear testimony about eternal families to someone we are teaching. It was so powerful! 

Even though I have a little more anxiety about certain things, I feel like I can connect to people and understand certain doctrine better because of this experience. Some days are better than others but I am grateful for the comfort and peace and strength I've felt from my Heavenly Father.

Jumping back to MLC (mission leadership council), we were asked to read a talk in advance and this talk was meant for me!!

☆Do We Trust Him? Hard Is Good

By Elder Stanley G. Ellis

One quote that I really like from it is, "We see that hard is the constant! We all have challenges. The variable is our reaction to the hard."

What I took from this is that - hard is hard - and it's not bad to feel emotions BUT don't stay there and let it consume you. I found myself staying too long in the consuming emotions this morning but with the resources that have been given to me, God is helping me through it.

If you all could pray for miracles to happen in the North Marion area that would be amazing. We are ready to work hard but we need heavens help. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and new year! God will help you as much as you put forth effort.

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Oh Christmas Tree...

Love serving with these Sisters!

Santa and his Elf (aka our Zone Leaders) delivering our Christmas presents from family!

Love my sweet companion, Sister Porter.

Merry Christmas 2020!

Week 65- The one with a lot of healing

 Friends!

This week has been a very hard and sacred week. A lot of you know that my best friend and sister, Maddie Fillmore, was killed on Thursday, Dec 17 in an automobile accident on the slick and snowy freeway in Provo. I am incredibly grateful for all of your love and support. Honestly I don't know what else to say, besides thank you! Thank you so so much for helping me and my family heal. Your prayers of  love and kindness has helped all of us during this hard hard time. 

One thing that I want all of you to know is that this doesn't change my testimony and knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Fathers plan! Just because we are members of the church, just because I am a disciple of Jesus Christ with a missionary purpose doesn't mean we are exempt from mortal experiences like loss, physical and emotional pain and heart ache. So we shouldn't harden our hearts when these things come. We should actually be the ones to stand tall with all we have even if it's not a lot of strength and lean on God and Christ's power through his Atonement. So when trails come, which they will, turn to God. I hope you'll make a  promise to yourselves and your Heavenly Father that when hard times come that you will get on your knees and ask, plead, petition to Him for help! Also allow in the support from family and friends. 

Slowly God is helping me see why Maddie needs to be on the other side of the veil and not here. It's still hard!! But like I said in my talk, by and by God is helping me see reasons for his plan. Maddie is also helping me see why she needs to be on the other side of the veil and its been so sweet! She is hard at work as my constant missionary companion and I am already seeing it change the lives of a few people and it confirms to me that the Plan of Salvation is real. Which in turn helps me get my head focused on the work here in Oregon. I am grateful for my 3 days I had at home to cry, love, laugh and pray with my family but I am so grateful I could return to being a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

☆Please also pray the Edwardson family. Jake Edwardson was my sisters boyfriend who also died in the accident and they need your prayers too. 

Feel free to reach out, I would love to hear from you! And thank you for all the kind words and messages. They strengthened me more than anything!!

I love you so so much!

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

What a blessing to be home with my parents and family for three days. I needed their arms around me.

 I got to see my cousin who is serving in my mission the day I found out about Maddie. What a miracle from God!

My Uncle Jeff flew up to Portland just so I wouldn't have to fly home alone for Maddie's funeral.

My best friend and beautiful Sister, Maddie.

My forever mission companion, Sister Maddie Fillmore, with her official name tag. 

One of the highlights of being home was to get to be with my great grandma Hirschi.  She is 96 years old and can still recite the Standard of Truth by memory with me!

Happy Birthday Maddie! The view from her place at the Cemetery is perfect with the mountains behind her.

I am so grateful to be a missionary right now!

Time to go back to where I feel most at home... in the mission field. #oregonsalemmission

Week 64- The one where I'm quarantined inside AGAIN...I don't even know how many times this makes.

 Friends!

Well the title is real...we are quarantined and have been quarantined for the last 6 days and still have 4 more days to go. The cool thing is, is that we don't have to panic because we know what to do. But man, cabin fever is real and its tough- especially in the winter - in Oregon. You'd think I'd be use to it but it's still hard. But there is opposition in all things. We have seen a lot miracles.

To name a few:

-I got to meet my new comp and shes is a cutie!

-I am back with my old comp, Sister Hawkes because we were one of the companionships that had first contact with the missionaries who tested positive for COVID on Transfer Day. So they want to keep the first contact missionaries together. 

-We had 5 online lessons this week with people we are teaching and they are progressing well!

-Sister Hawkes is an angel and I love her patience. 

-Lots more time for bonding with the other sisters ;)

-A lot of pondering about my mission

-Memorizing, "The Living Christ" 

But Sister Hawkes said it perfectly:

"Blessings to receive, lessons to learn, Christlike attributes to attain, and miracles to witness are all gifts our Father in Heaven gives us. But they often come wrapped in a trial that we have to go through first before we can have them. I came to the realization this week that many times God gives us gifts! I pictured it as a literal gift under the Christmas tree, and the wrapping paper is a trial. We simply see the trial and wonder why He has sent us another one when we have gone through so many already. But that is the way for us to receive those gifts!

I invite everyone this week to unwrap the gift, rather than just reject the wrapping paper and never open what is inside."

We got to talk to someone new and introduce who Jesus Christ is.  That was a very sweet and special experience for me. This time of year is always my favorite to teach about our Savior who has felt our every sorrow, pain, disappointment and frustration. She isn't ready for lessons yet but she appreciated the message and will contact us when she is ready. 

I hope you have a wonderful week. 

Send me an email if you get the time ;) abigail.fillmore@missionary.org

Merry Christmas 

Love you,

Sister Fillmore 

Saying goodbye to Sister Hawkes - the first time. :)

My new wonderful companion, Sister Porter from Arizona!

Just ignore the fact that I look like a little boy and that I am in my workout clothes. But I cracked an egg and instead of waiting until I let it fall in the pan it fell directly onto the stove top perfectly, haha! 

Christmas socks!

Week 63-the one with the dreaded transfer call

 Friends! 

Yep the dreadful transfer call day came. And Yes my comp is leaving me and yes I am very sad. BUT! I get one of her old companion, Sister Porter, and I am really excited :) yay for new experiences and ways to grow. 

This week we were able to find some good success in finding and teaching. We met 2 new people and one of them is in my area, yay!!! His name is Josiah and he is really prepared. He had member friends that he met through this scouting camp and they invited him to watch General Conference this past October and it helped him a lot. We met him while we were walking down a street in Donald (we call it the miracle town) and saw him so we introduced ourselves. The short of it is that he said yes to meeting with us and the lesson went so well. He invited his member friends from Salem and we taught him the restoration and it went so great. These teenagers are amazing. Way better than when I was their age. 

We also met a guy named Jessie on Facebook and he too is prepared. We had a video call with him and we brought a member with us. We got to know him, established some expectations and said a prayer. Soon after we shared our scriptures our service was getting pretty bad to the point they couldn't hear or see us. But we could hear and see everything. Our member just took charge and taught the Book of Mormon and why we have it and gave a beautiful testimony. It was definitely a humbling experience for me and Sister Hawkes. We love our member missionaries!

I had a fun exchange with Sister Brooksby. Man I love that Sister. She is so patient, kind, selfless and humble. I learned a lot from her. That's one of my favorite things about being an STL. I learn so much from the missionaries that I get to serve with! 

Spiritual thought:

Sister Fillmore (insert image of name tag in your brain) 

There is a lot that goes into this tag that I honorably wear everyday. It means I believe and know that the Restoration of Christ church happened, priesthood power is back on the earth, families are sealed for time and all eternity (thank heavens), we have a living prophet (boy do we need one) and I know that Christ lives and I love telling that to everyone every single day! Yep I am lucky, I know. There is one thing I will boast of and that is my God. He is my everything and He gets me through everything. 

I love becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I love you all! Sure would love to hear from you! again.fillmore@missionary.org

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

    I've sure loved serving with Sister Hawkes!

Same cow - Different season.

Loved going on splits with Sister Brooksby!

We got a live tree! 

Chick-fil-a and a Sticker - BEST DAY!!

Week 62-the one with Vitamin D

 Friends!

Well the title says it all. No sun means....we all need more VITAMIN D up here! Not having the sun is the only thing I hate about Oregon winters. But we keep going and God keeps showing us His hand even through this gloomy weather. BUT- THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY and it felt so good!

Since it's been 4 days sense I last emailed you, my letter will be short.  This weekend was really good! We got to do a zone council training on friday for all the wonderful things we learned in ZOCO. I love training with Sister Hawkes. It's one of my favorite things to do, yay for trying new things! 

I went on exchanges with Sister Johanson and that was super fun. We saw a beautiful miracle on this exchange. We were walking down this street and we saw this guy so we started talking and he was not interested and I asked if we could give him a pass along card and he said yes and then he said, "I have 2 questions for you." Thats when the miracle started. We answered his questions and then testified of what we know. The spirit was so strong and his countenance changed and we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he was shocked we were giving him one. He really appreciated it. I love it when people get so surprised when we give them one. It shows how powerful the Book of Mormon is even to those who don't know it. 

Life continues to be good. I am grateful for this experience God gives me. I know all of you know that and I am glad you do. Because God has blessed my life in every way. It's not easy but its worth it, which is basically life in general. It's not easy but WORTH IT! 

Have a wonderful week! ♡

Love,

Sis. Fillmore 

The sun never felt so good!!

On splits with Sister Johansen. Love her!

So grateful for such wonderful company and food on Thanksgiving! Love this family!