Sister Abby Fillmore - Oregon, Salem Mission

Week 57- The one with miracles!

Friends!!

This week was full of miracles and it was amazing!

We got to meet with Kevin, the Pastor, this week and it was really cool to meet with him in person. If you don't remember he is the paster that I met on facebook a while back in Bend. We had a few video calls and then he got busy. When I got called to North Marion I found out he is in my area...definitely meant to be! We met with him and their youth pastor from his church and they were both so nice. We all shared a spiritual thought and it all correlated nicely so that was so awesome. We were bold and asked him if we could teach them both more about the Book of Mormon and what we believe. He said yes!! So I am so excited and nervous but it will go well, I know it!

Ok so Sister Hawkes is a certified beautician and right after talking with Kevin, we went over to Abolita's house. She is the cutes little older woman in the Spanish branch (don't worry she speaks more English than Spanish somehow haha) she is soooo cute and HILARIOUS! I had to contain myself because she was so funny. I wrote down a few things she said, here you go:

"It's like I put cow poop on my head."

"And he knows when I am ticked off, MALICHI!" (that's her cat)

"I am style'n and don't forget it either."

She is my favorite!

MIRACLES!

Ok, so Wednesday we got a message from our Relief society president saying that she sent a lady our number because she wants to be baptized....WHAT?! Sister Hawkes and I couldn't believe it! We called her the next day and she said yes she wants to and since she lives in Aurora with her dad (who is a member) we can teach her! God is amazing, I love Him!

We taught Tami a lot this week. She has been struggling with the Word of Wisdom and then she said that her heart is softening so that was good. We talked about going to church and it has been a struggle for her because she doesn't feel worthy and she feels like she doesn't know enough to go to church. We got her to commit to coming to a church tour but that day she had a panic attack and so we calmed her down and then later she said she can't come. We were so bummed but during dinner, I had the impression to say a prayer and ask for a miracle that Tami will come, so we prayed and honestly pleaded so much with God to have it happen. I know that we can all have the faith like Nephi, I learned that early on in my mission, so I told God that with the faith we have and the effort we will put in we know Tami can come. I got the impression to go to Aurora and either call or knock on her door at 5:30. We did and it took some talking but she said she would talk to her kids and see if she could get away. Our member pulled up to give her a ride and so we were talking with her and then the door opens and Tami comes walking down the stairs with her purse...WHAT?! I was so so excited to see her and just so grateful to have our prayed answered. She loved the church tour and felt total peace. God knows her and wants her to come to Him. With our faith and effort, God performed a miracle!

We have been able to talk to so many people and many are letting us come back so PLEASE pray things go well! I love being a missionary. Honestly, there isn't anything else I would want to be doing right now. I am so grateful for this time where I can submit to the Lord and have Him use my talents, strengthens, and weaknesses for His work.

I love the Book of Mormon and I know it is true. I know God calls living day prophets and that they lead and guide us and THANK HEAVENS because the world is having a hard time right now...those are only the nicest words I can say. ;)

I LOVE YOU!

Love,

Sister Fillmore

Visiting Abolita while Sister Hawke's gave her a haircut!
I think I laughed off 5 pounds!

Beautiful sunsets here!

Doing service!

Bun Heads!

After our day of MIRACLES!

This book means everything to me!

Teaching Kevin and Hope. They are so great!

Week 56- The one where we talked ourselves out of quarantine...

Friends!!

Yes the title is real...we almost got quarantined because we were with someone when they got the call that their family members got COVID who they were with that weekend...we were so nervous that we would have to be quarantined too! We called our DL and then called the nurse and after some talking and telling her that we were only there for 5 minutes and wearing masks she said ok letting us not be quarantined. THANK HEAVENS because I can't be stuck inside again!!

ZONE CONFERENCE!

I LOVED zone conference! It was fun but very long too! We got to go to Monmouth and train the Monmouth zone and then we drove back to our zone and sat in on our zone conference while the Hermana STL's trained as well. It's so fun to train!

We exchanged twice this week! One with Monmouth and Oakdale and I exchanged with SISTER CARLSON!! It was so much fun to be with her and do a little singing video :)

I saw one of my big weaknesses turn into a strength this week and it was so cool. As you may or may not know, going outside and talking to people has been a struggle for me. I can talk to people just fine. It's the initial going up to a total strangers is what KILLS me! Well ever since being with Sister Hawkes my confidence with talking to people has gone up because she is so good at it. I have seen that rub off on me. On Saturday I had an exchange with a sister who literally had the exact struggle I had a few weeks ago. So to be able to help her be confident and have her tell me that really made me realize of how FINALLY God has made that struggle and weakness in me turn into a strength. I thank God for showing me that and how Ether 12:27 is real which means the Book of Mormon is real which shows that God is real and He loves me!

I had my wonderful friends from back home and come and visit me for a few minutes on Sunday morning. It was so good to see them, LOVE YOU JARDINE'S!

Things I learned this week:

-Patience is the purifying part of His work.

-Choose today to be 100% obedient

-A mission is temporary but discipleship is forever.

-There is no middle ground. Choices have to be made.

-Obedience brings JOY

ECL 12:13, "13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

☆Make getting a temple recommend as or more urgent than finding a lost wallet.

-Lift where you stand!

-Assume Positive intent (we all are not perfect, assume they are trying to do their best like you.)

☆Priesthood power helps us persist in righteous living.

Well I love you all!

Keep loving and showing love for everyone.

Love,

Sister Fillmore

Zone Conference day!

Sister Carlson! Love this girl! Did you see our latest song?

Treating ourselves to dinner at Sharis after ZOCO. YUM!

Halloween Socks!!

Sister Atwood on Exchanges.

Week 55 - The one with the "Sister - Merries"

Friends!

This week was really good here in the North Marion area!

Some fun things that happened:

-More meetings

-LINCOLN CITY with Sister Mullen for exchanges...she taught me some spanish, say hello to Hermana Fillmore ;) JK!

-We wanted eggs so we called a member who has chickens and she gave us FRESH eggs!

-Started to rain A LOT so I am trying to get over it ;)

-Weekly CHICK-FIL-A food truck for the win!

-We went LIVE on our page, go check it out!

-Lots of finding and lots of canceling from people which stinks but I just need to continue with patience...

-Wonderful members who I love and appreciate. One little boy calls us the "Sister-Merries" - Ha Ha. Also, fun birthday celebration with a future missionary - See pictures!

-Pumpkin carving and sushi for district p-day!

This week I really learned about patience! Coming from 6 months in an area with people I knew well to only being in Woodburn for 2 1/2 weeks and wanting to know everyone right away, I've had to slow down and take things one step at a time and have patience. But I love the ward and have gotten to know a few that already have a special place in my heart. I just need to have patience and realize that success is in the effort not the outcome.

I love you so so much!

Email me....I MISS YOU ALL! (Abigail.fillmore@missionary.org)

Abby

Future Sister Pace! She always tells us how much she wants to be a missionary so we
made her little name tag for her birthday so she could look more official. :)

Hermana Mullen - absolutely love her! We had so much fun going on splits in Lincoln City!

Ah... the beach!

One of the best things about being an STL is that we get to go on splits and I get to meet
some amazing Sisters that will be my lifelong friends.

Fresh ombre eggs from Members!

Chick-fil-a food truck for the win! ALL the missionaries know when the food truck is in town!

My new motto - thank you President Nelson!

Love Sister Hawkes!

We LOVE our ward members that take good care of us! They know us as the "Sister-Merries". :)

Week 54- The one with General Conference!

Friends!!

This week was so much fun! We went out alot this week and talked to people and everyone is so nice!

As an STL we have a lot of meetings which I wasn't expecting but it is fun to train and meet with other missionaries and get new ideas!

I went on my first exchange as an STL and it was the best thing EVER! First off I went with one of the sweetest sisters ever, Sister Cloward! Her love for the Lord and His children is beautiful, definitely a great example for me. The second best thing was getting to see my sweet companion, Sister Carlson again! It was a great reunion, she is the best. ♡

We are trying to get consistent lessons with people so for right now lots of finding but I am excited for the future. Tami is doing well...she is understanding more of how important this is and how she needs to make it more of a priority, yay!!

General Conference was amazing in every way! Some of my questions were answered and I am excited to put it into action. I loved so many talks! The topics of love, unity, the temple and our Savior Jesus Christ was what I and the world needed to hear.

I loved what Jeffrey R. Holland said, “Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable. The path to holiness and happiness here and hereafter is a long and sometimes rocky one. It takes time and tenacity to walk it. But, of course, the reward for doing so is monumental.”

Life is hard! But God has given us the tools to endure it well so let's use them. We have the prophets of old and the words of the prophets today...please everyone read past General conference talks. Study them, apply what they say and God will magnify your efforts. This is something that I have realized and that I am going to start to do more of.

I love this work and I love my Savior and Heavenly Father!

Love,

Sister Fillmore

Saying "HI" to the Sisters in India. This is a worldwide church -
Thank goodness for technology to help us teach people half way around the world!

I saw a Cow!

Going on Exchanges

So excited for General Conference!

So good to see my cute Sister White again!! Love this girl!

Week 53- The one where I feel like I am back in Oregon again.

Friends!!

Holy cow this week has been full of changes but I am loving it! I went back over the mountain into the beautiful valley of North Marion. To say I was sad to leave Bend would be an understatement...lots of feelings of withdrawals having to leave my ward friends and investigators. I guess it goes to show how much of my heart I gave to the people of Bend.

I said goodbye to the WONDERFUL Argyle family who I will miss dearly...seriously they were my family away from family. I also said goodbye to the Seatons, I LOVE THEM! I basically love everyone from Bend!

The drive was a long one but we had a very spirit-led conversation which was much needed. Sister Johnson asked what were some of our most spiritual experience on the mission. We all went around and shared and then it turned into a wonderful gospel discussion, which makes me so so happy! I have been so lucky to serve around such wonderful missionaries and I can't wait to serve around so many others!

I new companion is Sister Hawkes and I am so excited to work with her!! Fun fact she saw me in Secret Garden in my junior year of high school. Who knew 3 years later we would be companions, yay! AND she lives in my Aunt & Uncles ward in Alpine. Small world!

So if you were to ask me what Bend is like I'd say its like Utah and North Marion is definitely more of the typical Oregon climate...it rained the first 3 days I got here. Ha ha! It wasn't light rain my friends...I was definitely soaked to the bone. But for some reason walking in the rain is a really good bonding experience for missionaries so, in the long run, I am grateful. ;)

We are meeting a lot of people and we are teaching some solid people. We have someone already on date and her name is Tami. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and man I have never felt the spirit led the lesson like it did that night. Since I didn't know her at all I really relied on the spirit, which made the lesson 10 times more amazing!

MLC was amazing, something I really needed amongst this change. Every time there is a change there is always a time where my testimony of how God is MY loving Heavenly Father gets strengthened. I don't do well with change but change is important to life especially missionary work. Every time transfers come around and there is a change God puts something in the path to ease the heart ach. MLC and being Sister Carlson's STL was and is definitely the answer. Tender mercies have been so fun and cool to find throughout my mission.

I HIT MY YEAR MARK!!

Honestly, I can't believe its already been a year....I have no words to describe the joy I have felt on my mission. Joy meaning it's been good and hard but Christ is joy so therefore for I have felt intense Joy. My friend also hit his year mark and he describes being on a mission perfectly! I just had to share...

"I really can't believe it's been a year already. Ive been reflecting on the time I've spent here in Jersey and what it's done for me. I've thought an awful lot about how and why a mission can change people like nothing else can. It's a really interesting concept as to how a mission changes people. I wish I could explain how it works but this email would be too long so I'll just put it this way, when you come on a mission you immerse yourself in a culture of serving others and learning about The Savior with absolutely nothing else to worry about but those 2 things. And by doing those 2 things, you come to realize those are the 2 most important things in this life. And naturally, along the way, the true nature of yourself changes. It's really an interesting thing to think about.

The Savior said whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it (Matthew 16:25) that actually doesn't make any sense if you think about it. Why and how is it that when you stop caring and worrying about yourself, you find yourself and you make yourself the best person you can be. I wish I could give you an answer that me and you as mortals could understand. But the real answer is, that's just how God works. Pretty amazing stuff." -Elder Kay

Ok sorry it was such a long email but it was full of miracles and love from God so I have to share it all!

I love you all so much! Email me because I miss you! (Abigail.fillmore@missionary.org)

Love, Sister Fillmore

My new companion, Sister Hawks, and I enjoying some Chick-fil-A!

Saying goodbye to our friends in Bend!

So glad Sister Hair and I got to serve in the same area again!

Goodbye Sister White! LOVED being your companion - again!

Best District missionaries!!!

Woot Woot!

Hitting our 1 year mark together!

Feels like Oregon again with all this rain!

Lunch with the Hermanas!

Family History time!

Week 52- The one where change is good!

Friends!

This week has been a little crazy but it was full of miracles as always. ;)

Transfer calls came ... and I AM LEAVING BEND :( but good news is, I am becoming an STL (Sister Training Leader) in an area near Salem! I am super excited to go back over the mountains again and meet more of God's wonderful children. Going back will definitely be different sense half of the state is burned now.

We've had to stay inside until this past Friday and we were anxious to get out of our apartment!!!

We have seen countless miracles this past week with the individuals we have been teaching. So grateful to see the Lord's hand working in their lives as they prepare themselves to accept his gospel. :)

Stake Conference (via zoom) was a blessing in every way, if I had time I would share more!

We cut lavender and it was the BEST day! They even shared some of it with us!

I love being a missionary and I cant wait for what is ahead!

Love,

Sister Fillmore

Cutting Lavender!

We had the BEST zone!! Hard to say goodbye.

We've sure love teaching Ken and seeing him progress this past while.

The Argyle family has taken such GOOD care of us while we have served in Bend.
I am truly going to miss them!

Other great families that have blessed our lives while serving in Bend.

Final dinner for us Sisters at a yummy Sushi place!

Week 51- The one with the trial of my faith.

Friends!

This week was a very interesting week for everyone in the state of Oregon. As you probably know...the whole state basically went up in flames in a day and it makes my heart so so heavy.

Luckily, in Bend there are no fires (knock on wood) but seeing the devastation and people losing everything, including family members of our ward breaks my heart.

It started out smokey on Monday and then it cleared up a little and then Thursday we got the call that we were to stay inside because of the bad air quality. When I mean bad air quality I am meaning hazardous. For a comparison New Delhi, India AQI was 124 and we were at 425 on Friday. So... basically we were put back into quarantine but I would say this time is a lot harder because we can't even go outside because we can't breath the air out there. Let's just say I got a little stir crazy in our little tiny apartment. But I am counting my blessings: no fires close, plenty of food, fans blowing and I am safe! We have the best ward members and are so kind and care for our well being.

But miracles still exist even during trying times!

We got on a zoom call with the whole mission and President and Sister Wilde are so wonderful and helped in building our faith to know that there are miracles ahead. We just need to have faith to make it happen!

I really took that to heart and wanted to see those miracles even during this chaotic time. So we went to work with facebook finding...doing that all day is definitely monotonous! But we push through. We made lots of videos and had video lessons. (thank you technology!)

Here is a fun thing that happened for us this week:

On Friday someone messaged me and asked me why the Book of Mormon is so important to me? I WAS SO EXCITED TO GET THIS MESSAGE! I bore my testimony and talked about how I feel Gods love. After some conversation we got on the Godhead and he couldn't understand why I believe the Book of Mormon and the Bible to go hand in hand if they don't teach the same thing about God. I told him I would love to answer that over video and he said yes.

The video call was yesterday and man it was not what I was expecting. I had a impression to get a ward member to join who is good with the Bible and knows their stuff. I am so glad I listened to that prompting because this guy brought his friend who is very well versed in the Bible and half the time he wanted to debate. In a way they were wanting to save us and saying some unkind things about Joseph Smith that broke my heart. I boldly invited them to read the Book of Mormon and they boldly told us to read something they found on our church website and pray and ask God if we believe in the same God thats talked about in the Bible. We said yes and then ended the lesson. Ya that was an intense lesson and my mind filled with questions and I was just so confused.

We did some family history afterwards but I couldn't stop thinking about everything and reading the thing they sent us. I was certainly curious. Luckily Sister White went into the other room to break her fast and I went on my knees and then looked up at our "Jesus wall" and thought to myself, "I just can't imagine my Father in Heaven and my older brother Jesus Christ being one being. It breaks my heart and makes me kind of sick." My eyes just filled up with tears and then went into the other room to pray to God. Talk about a wrestle. I kind of now know what Enos felt when he said "I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God,' And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul."

I got this overwhelming feeling of love and peace and God helping me to know that everything that I was feeling was ok. I felt total comfort while I was on my knees. Hard to explain but I hope you get what I mean. I know God loves me and helped me strengthen my faith through the recent young adult Face To Face broadcast. Everything that was said I needed, the testimony of a recent convert and the music that bore beautiful testimony of Christ and His restored gospel calmed my heart.

(Ether 12:6)

I learned something very valuable that night. Joseph F. Smith said it perfectly, "He intends to try us and prove us, and He has a right to do it, even to the death if need be, and only those who endure to the end, who will not flinch, but will maintain their integrity at the risk and sacrifice of their all, if need be, will gain eternal life, or be worthy of the reward of the faithful."

God has the right to try us and that's because it helps us become more like Him. I do know that God is my Father who loves me and I am made in His image. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and has felt everything I did and will go through. I know that in the fall of 1820 Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ as two separate beings.

One more miracle ;)

We made a video yesterday on a prompting sister white acted on and I am so glad she did. It was a message to everyone in Bend to message us if they need a message of hope or if they know of someone that does. Well we got 4 likes from it and so I messaged all of those people. Two responded and one of them said yes to meeting with us. I was able to bear my testimony to him of what I have found in the Gospel and how its given me purpose. It was really cool!

I love my Savior Jesus Christ and his mercy for someone so imperfect like me. I am grateful that this is a church where we learn and become what God wants us to become. Being a missionary is hard but rewarding which is so GOOOOD!!! I am grateful that God shows me my weaknesses because that means I am coming closer to Him. ⬇️

"If you’re seeing more of your weaknesses, that just might mean you’re moving nearer to God, not farther away." -Bruce C. Hafen

I love you all

Love,

Sister Fillmore