Week 43- The one where the Book of Mormon is the golden book!

Friends!!!

This week went by super fast and slow, if that's possible. But a week full of learning is a week well spent. 

Alot happened this week but to start it off with we had zone conference and it was much needed!  Sister White and a couple of the Elders and I sang Homeward Bound so that was so awesome. I could sing all the time! :)

BIG NEWS we can go outside and street contact again! Yaaaaay! I am a little rusty on it but hey, the first night we handed out a Book of Mormon and so it went pretty swell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE BROTHER! HE IS 17!! I LOVE YOU ZACH!

Many miracles have happened this week:

•Gave out 9 copies of the Book of Mormon THIS WEEK!

•Tracted into my aunt's childhood friend from Salem...follow promptings my friends!!!

•Our Italian friends want to learn more about the Book of Mormon! Yay!

•We gave Ali AND Kevin a Book of Mormon 

•Got to do lots of service! 

The Book of Mormon is the best and it draws people because of the truthfulness that is found on its pages. I am grateful for this book and what it teaches me and the power that it has in people's lives. 

Change is hard people. But it makes us better and helps us grow. The best part of all of this is, I have my Savior to help me and He gives me strength when I have none. He is my friend and I love Him with all of my heart. 

Sister Carlson's ( my last comp) friend wrote a song that I listened to like 6 times yesterday and the lyrics gave me so much strength and peace. 

"We're all broken things to mend. In the hands of our greatest friend, and He carries you on His shoulders home. Your the one for whom he atoned."  -Hanna Ockey

Christ loves you everyone. He loves you so intimately. All of our feelings, our pains (physical, emotional, mental) and everything else matters to Him. 

I am so grateful for my Savior. I honestly can't do it without Him. I wouldn't be able to do this without Him. His love is something we truly can't understand with our minds, only our hearts. 

I love you all so so much! 

Have a wonderful week ♡

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Tumalo Falls 

I was truly guided to find my Aunt's childhood friend!

Using my video skills to make a Family History ad!

Tumalo Falls  with Sister White

  

Sharing a Book of Mormon with Ali was a highlight of my mission!

Week 42- The one where June is on DATE!

Friends!! 

Well the title says it all....JUNE IS ON DATE!

On Wednesday we taught June the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we asked her if she would  be baptized at August 22 she said, YES!!! She is learning to trust in her Savior more and more as we teach her. It's been amazing to see the change in her. I AM ONE HAPPY MISSIONARY!

Ali is progressing so so much! Last week we taught her about repentance and how it shouldn't be a scary thing but something we do to make a positive change and she really appreciated us helping her understand the positive side of it. When we talked to her yesterday her countacne was totally different! It was full of light and she was more focused on the lesson. It was wonderful  to see this change. We taught her the rest of the restoration lesson and she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon! She is the best!!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! MY COUSIN IS COMING TO MY MISSION! NOT A JOKE! JAKE YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE IT HERE!! President Wilde and Sister Wilde are excited for when you get here!

We had in person interviews with our mission president for first for first time in 3 months! Oh man what a treat it was seeing my mission president and his wife! I LOVE THEM!!

The Wilde's joined in with our lesson on Sunday with Pastor Kevin and it was amazing! We ended it with the invitation to send him a Book of Mormon and he said yes!! After President and Sister Wilde called us and told us some ways how we can help him understand our religion more so I am excited! 

For P-day this week we went caving today at Boyd Cave again with the District and it was the BEST!! Since the Wildes are in town Sister Wilde joined us and it was so much fun to be with her. She has all of us wrapped around her little finger :)

After we went to the park had chick-fil-a ;) and then played spike ball! The Elders taught me and Sister White and it was so much fun! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

I love you! ♡

Sister Fillmore

Caving in Boyd Cave with the District and Sister Wilde.

Exchanges with Sister Leifson

Love cards and packages from home. This one is from my 1 year old niece Ellis.

Church Mirror Selfies!

Lesson with members....it involved digging through flour...with your nose ;)

My new favorite quote. ;)

Week 41- The one with the Jesus wall.

Friends!!

Hello everyone, this week flew by! We got a lot done and and had so many great teaching moments. 

We had a wonderful lesson with our friend, Kevin! He is a senior pastor and is so nice! You might be wondering how I met him. I probably talked about him a few weeks ago but here is a recap: Initially he didn't want to hear a message from us but the next day he messaged me and said he had been thinking about it and thought, why not? I am glad he said yes because we are now best friends. ;) We have wonderful discussions and share uplifting messages about Christ. He says he prays for us and even though we don't fully agree on things BUT we both are doing the same thing which is to bring others closer to Christ! I love our Tuesday night visits! 

It's been great to set tentative baptism dates for a few of our investigators to work towards.  It's always important to have a goal in sight! Please pray for them!

We had a fun 4th of July! We had a picnic with the sisters in our district and went for a little walk to see one of many beautiful views in this area. We had to be inside by 6pm but we had a lesson with June and then celebrated together...while working hard of course ;)

On Sunday we made a Jesus wall and I LOVE IT!  Basically it's just a bunch of 5x7 pictures of Christ and how He has blessed us here on earth. We are going to make a video for the zone page so look out for that. 

This week I had my first experience being bashed for my religion and what I believe in. This is where your armour of faith really has to be strong to withstand Satan's power. It all happened in the nicest way possible yesterday...if that is even possible, I don't know. It made me sad and was a little scary. Afterwards I took some time while my comp was using the restroom to kneel in prayer and look at my Jesus wall.  It helped me remember my purpose and what my focus should be on, my Savior, Jesus Christ! The quote from my favorite talk, "Lord I Believe" by Jeffrey R. Holland came to my mind last night. 

"In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited." 

People aren't perfect and God has had to work with imperfect people...in the words of Jeffrey R. Holland "that must be terribly frustrating for Him but He deals with it." :) I love this church, I love how I have always felt safe and loved by my family, church leaders and the General Authorities. 

Can I just say how much I love my zone! We had zone devotional yesterday and I seriously was in awe of everyone. Their insights and their testimonies make me know that this is true and I am the luckiest missionary EVER to learn from them! I love being a missionary and I am so grateful for the chance God is giving me to become more like Him!

Anyways, I love you all! Email me and update me on your lives! abigail.fillmore@missionary.org

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Our beautiful wall!

Meet Kevin!

Hiking at Lava Island.

Happy Independence Day!

All the sisters in our district.

Love serving with Sister Hair again!

I highly recommend this talk!

Week 40 - The one with the HUMP DAY!

Friends! 

This week was a wonderful week of learning and becoming more like my Savior. He showed me charity, humitily and understanding doctrine. Best thing ever!

I live for the car and church AC, haha! It was in the 90's and we don't have any AC soooo it was a little rough but we slept with fans in our room so we made it through.

We got all adjusted as a new companionship and I KNOW Sister White was supposed to be sent here! She has already helped the area so much and I am so excited to see what God has instore for us!

Some more facebook finding which is always fun. Some people are wanting to hear more hope messages which is awesome! 

We did some service which is always a high light in our week!

I hit 9 MONTHS THIS WEEK! It's weird to think I am half way...I feel like I just came out ;) but I am trying to soak in all the time I have!

It's so fun to be with Sister White again. She is a powerful missionary and so kind and loving to all she talks to. Makes me more motivated to be better and better :) she helps me in my weaknesses and I with hers. 

We had to give Bo back to the YSA elders yesterday but MAN is he prepared or what! 

We had a lesson with him on Tuesday and before he wasn't  going to keep the word of wisdom but towards the end he said "I can't just taper it down I need to just stop once and for all." The spirit hit me so hard and said "invite him to do it then." So I asked if he will stop cold turkey and he said yes! In Bo's own words he lived a "Mormonism week" haha. 

It was so cool to see his perspective change with Keeping the Sabbeth Day Holy and the priesthood at our lesson on Sunday. His prayer at the end is the one thing that got me. He started praying and in the middle he said "please give me the strength to resist temptation. I thank you for guiding and directing Joseph Smith." Him saying this strengthened my testimony and knowing that this is God's true church. We don't force people to believe but after studying and praying people come to know for themselves. Even though I don't get to keep teaching him, I am grateful for God giving me the change to for at least this week. 

Like I mentioned before, God has given me a lot of opportunities to learn humility, charity and remembering who to put my focus on this week. ♡

I love 1 Corinthians 13: 2-6

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and      though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

 Truly if we don't have charity all we have is for nothing. We need to be humble and ask for charity and the ability to truly LOVE people as Christ does. Don't forget to involve God with trying to be like Him. 

I have been able to have God help me understand that I need to choose who I am going to focus on. Either Him or the worldly people....to be honest I would rather focus on Christ, like everyone does but are we? Are we more focused on what's happening with all the crazy things or are we focusing on Christ with a firm hope for a better world? (Ether 12:4)  

Something I have been thinking about and something I recommend all of us to consider. 

I love this Church so much and I know its Christ church back on the earth today. I am grateful to be apart of Gods army to help bring back the knowledge they once knew. 

I LOVE MY SAVIOR AND I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Have a wonderful week my friends, I love you all!

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

I sure have loved these last months in Oregon!

9 months!

I love having Sister White as my companion again!

SOOOO love having Sister Hair as my STL!

Finished my puzzle of the SLC temple finally!

Hey! Sister Hair and I are in an ad!
Go get your Book of Mormon bandaids at  Latter-Day Armor!

I Love my Savior.

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 ♡

I love being with my MTC companion, Sister White, again!

                                                                         Yummy visit with investigators.

                                                                    I could listen to Sister Carlson play all day!

                           All my former companions! Sister White, Sister Carlson and Sister Hair, together again!

                                             

                                            Saying goodbye to Sister Carlson ripped my heart out.

                                                 But hey! She left me a guitar to learn on!

                                         Saying Goodbye to Ward members with Sister Carlson.

                                                        Lucky for me this isn't goodbye yet!

                                                                        I love the members in Bend!

Week 38- The one where we need to be doers of the WORD!

Friends!!

This week has been really fun! We have been talking to a lot of people online and they want to learn more about the church! 

A lot of our lessons cancelled but the upside is that we have been able to go in members homes. In the words of my companion, "it has been celestial!" it is so true though! We love the members here and the people in Bend are so nice! 

Our friend from India is doing wonderful. He is continuing to understand and wants to be better! We are going to talk to our mission president to see what the next step is. 

I have been able to figure out family history a little bit this week and it's so awesome! We had our ward family history guy help us and it made a world of difference. We will hopefully be calling him every week.

Saturday was busy yet so much fun! Sister Carlson has wrote a beautiful original song. Literally amazing people. Look out for a music video in the near future on the Bend page ;).

We have a Sister in our ward, Sister Swanson, who sings professionally so she has some recording stuff in her home. We asked if Sister Carlson could record her song and she said yes so we spent an hour and a half doing that then drove over to the spots where we were filming the video. 

Sooo side story with Saturday... We were going to have dinner with Sister Swanson but time got away from us so she cooked the salmon (SO YUMMY) and then put it in a container. After running all over the place we drove to the bishops house for a lesson. We were 20 minutes early so we parked a little past the house and ate the Salmon....with our hands! We didn't have any utensils but we were starving so we just ate with our hands. It was great. The food was SO GOOD! 

Again I can't tell you how much I love going into members houses. It makes a world of difference!

Transfer calls are this week and I don't know how I feel.....

One thing I learned from our missionary devotional we get as missionaries each week, is we need to learn the WORD of God in our lives daily. Study it and then ACT and apply! God cares more about what we do with the knowledge we gain than just reading it and not applying it. So whatever you learn from the scriptures or from a conference talk then apply it in your life! Be a doer of the WORD!

I love the Lord and I love being apart of His work. There is nothing better! 

Keep praying, keep reading your scriptures and always follow the prophet!

Love,

Sister Fillmore

Salmon in the car! YUM!

Making of my WHY movie!

I LOVE dried Mangos!!

 

                                                             My soon to be famous companion!

                               Thanks Elders for throwing this nasty muffin at us...its thought they counts ;)

Week 37-the one where we all have divine potential!

Friends!!

 This week was a lot of fun and kind of slow but I'm so grateful to be here!

 Our friends are doing well and we had some really good lessons with them. 

 Our Indian friend is STELLAR! Man, talking about fasting and the priesthood with him is seriously the best :) he knows how important it is and that it's something that we shouldn't take lightly!

We had zone conference and it was so good :)

I love my mission president and his wife so so much! Their love for God's work and children makes me want to be better and better. These past 2 weeks I have felt the importance of understanding who I am and whose I am. 

We are God's children and he loves us with all of His heart. I have understood that more this past 2 weeks than at any other time. That has helped me understand the love He has for everyone of His children. Makes me want to work hard and tell everyone their worth! 

One of my favorite quotes from this week:

President Benson, "Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar His face is to us." 

We read in the Book of Mormon with Lynn and we are so excited to see how this book is changing him. He has many questions and a lot of them I can already tell the Book of Mormon is going to answer. :) 

One thing I learned this week, friends, is the importance of reading the scriptures every day.  Elder Klebingot said was, "I would be scared the stop reading my scriptures." I 100% agree with that!

This week we were pretty busy in the mornings so we couldn't have personal study....big mistake! I could tell the difference and it helped me realize that the Book of Mormon isn't something they suggest to read once in a while....EVERY DAY! 

My favorite quote is "when you read the Book of Mormon everyday, you will make better decisions everyday." -President Nelson. Please please please read your Book of Mormon every day!

We have done a lot of service and it's the best being outside!

The Big News is that we FINALLY get to be inside peoples homes if they are not high risk and if they invite us! We had our first face 2 face lesson in 3 months with Jill and Eugene! It was the best! Nothing like looking into peoples eyes when sharing our testimonies!

I love my mission, I love my Savior and I know He loves me and everyone of you!

Have a wonderful week my friends go give them heaven!

I love you!

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Week 36- The one with the hot week with no AC...

Friends!!

This week came and went so fast that I am having a hard time remembering what we did. But it was a good week and full of miracles. 

Our people are doing well! June is doing AMAZING! She is understanding how much God loves her and she is praying more. We started the lessons over and she is grasping the principles a lot better! Those we have been teaching are starting to read the Book of Mormon and gaining a spiritual witness. It's been a miracle to see this change in their lives. Please keep them in your prayers!

We got to talk with our friend in Indian and gosh he is the best! He has blessed my life and has given me a new perspective and I am so grateful! We taught him the principle of tithing and usually people have a hard time with this but not him! He said, "Paying tithing is an honor!" While waving his fists. Ya I have never heard anyone say it in that way. Totally changed my outlook on this important principle! I love it when I learn from those we teach. :) 

We were so excited to be able to now go out and do some service which was a fun way to switch up our schedule. We raked pine needles which is trickier then you think, but it was still fun!

We had our mission tour meeting with Elder Klebingat from the Area Presidency, and man it was AMAZING! That man does not beat around the bush and it was good for all of us. 

He helped me see my purpose as a daughter of God and how important this work is. 

Some notes: 

-We need to read the Book of Mormon every day or we won't be fully converted. 

-Don't doubt what you don't know 

-There are no excuses. 

-Gods only hobbies and thoughts are getting us back to Him. Where is our focus?

Over all it was eye opening and something that I needed to help me move forward in my mission. 

We helped a lot of our people understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon and it has been so fun to see the change in peoples faces when we talk about the blessings when we read not only the Bible but also Book of Mormon. I love seeing the way it's changed how I teach and share!  can't wait to continue to get better. 

FB LIVE! 

Sister Carlson and I did a Live on our zone page and that was so fun! You can still go watch it on "Followers of Jesus Christ, Central Oregon". We do some fun things ;)

Let me just say Sister Carlson and I laugh all the time, it's the best! I am so blessed to have her as a companion right now!

So we dont have AC....and it was pretty hot this week. All those who have served in hot and humid missions...I have alot of respect for you because we almost died, haha. It has cooled down a bit so it's been better but it makes me dread the upcoming summer!  

I love you all! My testimony of the Book of Mormon as increased so much this week. When we make a serious study of the Book of Mormon we will understand Gods plan more and the sacrifice Christ made for us it will become delicious to us like it says in Alma 32. The scriptures have been so delicious to me and I can't get enough of it. It is definitely a love letter from our Heavenly Father!

Love you all!

Sister Fillmore 

Hiking in the caves.

Only took me two months... but it's done!

FINALLY a district P-day!! A super fun hike into the caves!

Ready for Tie Dying some shirts!

My new favorite talk - check it out!