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!

Week 61- The one all the faith.

 Friends!! 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I hope you had a wonderful week this week. I've been out 13 months as of this week.  My companions helped make it a special occasion with sweet notes about me! Today is Thanksgiving and our P-day so we are enjoying good food and talking with family! 

We had 2 exchanges the last week and a half with Sister Yorgason and Sister Johnson and in the next 5 days, I go on 2 more. Trying to cram them all in before this transfer ends which is in 2 weeks! So many mixed feelings because Sister Hawkes will probably leave me :( some of my besties are finishing their missions but the bright side is my cousin is coming!! I don't know if you remember but my cousin is originally called to my mission and he comes this transfer! The Oregon Salem Mission is ready for Elder Hasleton! 

I have been able to feel a lot of peace and happiness with doing the #givethanks challenge President Nelson gave us. His message was one that I needed. I have been really trying to put my faith in the Lord with the work I have been really trying to let the spirit guide the lessons.  We are finding so many great people that we have to send to transfer them to the missionaries that work in the areas they live in.  It's hard to give away someone who is SOOO golden but by trying to change my mindset and putting all my faith in God's plan I have been able to have a lot of peace and say, "come what may and love it."  It's hard, not going to lie, but I am grateful for the chance God gave me to be a part of their journey.

We found someone through our Facebook page!  His name is Asa, and I found him through a quick post that Sister Hawkes and I made.  I have been talking to him for a good month now and we had a lesson with him right before we listened to the message from President Nelson on Friday and it was amazing! We shared a hope message with a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he wanted to break down the verses which definitely brought in the Spirit.  He asked what the difference was with the Book of Mormon and so we taught the restoration briefly. He wanted to learn more so we had a lesson with him Monday.  It was so powerful! We had a member join our video call and he was so good for Asa. We taught the restoration and that was probably one of the most powerful Spirit-led restoration lessons I have taught.  To make a long story short he wants to learn more and get into the Book of Mormon! He lives in the Salem zone so we are going to pass him off soon to them. Yay for facebook!

One of my past companions shared with me something her grandpa shared with her and it has become such a testimony to me. He told her there are 3 phrases that are the most powerful phrases. 

The three phrases are:

I love you

Thank you 

I am sorry

I have seen that become so true throughout my mission especially this past week. 

We had zone conference and MLC this week and so much spiritual goodness came from both of them. 

**We talked a lot about distractions with being a missionary. One of them is Facebook and that's pretty self-explanatory. I learned that distractions can be good things. Just not what we are supposed to do at that time or in that way. When distractions come stop reevaluate and start over. 

"Will I feel the pain of discipline or the pain of regret?"

**We also talked about comparison and they gave us so many good quotes.  If you want them then email me and I will send them to you. We learned why we compare and some ways to stop the comparison. 

We have a natural desire to evaluate ourselves. In order to have something to evaluate ourselves with we compare. It's a natural man tendency. (It's easy to follow the natural man. It takes effort to follow God.)

How we can stop comparing:

1. Practice gratitude

2. Unlock the power of contentment

3. Don't compare your life to others

4. Focus on your strengths

5. Celebrate other people (Alma 29:14-15)

I hope you all got the chance to watch the message from the Prophet recently. If you didn't please go and do that. Please also go and share the video with everyone you know. Also if I could add one more please it would be to keep the #givethanks going. Even if it's just in your home. Gratitude shouldn't be a one-time thing. President Nelson said it's a remedy, not a one-time cure. 

 

Loves to you all!

Sister Fillmore

Look at what my sweet companions did for me this week!

14 reasons for 14 months.  Why we love Sister Fillmore!

Working on a Christmas song for our Sacrament Christmas program!

Companions X3!

Love splits!

Week 60- The one with four sisters!

 Friends!! 

This week was a great week but yay for a new one!

We had interviews this week with President and Sister Wilde which means I got to see two of my favorite people who I love and respect so much! President has continued to help me see how learning new things is essential in our progression here in this life. He has helped me understand more about my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ and it has brought me a lot of peace. 

I got our new sister this week! Her name is Sister Hinkle and she is super cute. It definitely is an adjustment going from 2 sisters my whole mission to 4 sisters. God has already shown me a lot of things that I can improve on and for that I am grateful. I do love them so much and I can't wait to get even closer to them. 

Tami is struggling so PLEASE pray for her. 

Kriss is a wonderful blessing in our lives! I think I have already said this but she is like Deepak (our friend in India) ...just so prepared. Her perspective with her relationship with God and science strengthens my testimony. Her baptism date is December 12th and we scheduled an interview for this weekend. It is so surreal for me...I have never gotten this close to a baptism! 

We are trying to find more people and we are seeing miracles!! I went on exchanges with Sister Jorgensen and it was so much fun. We came out together so it was fun getting to know another sister out the same time as me. We saw a beautiful miracle when we went out street contacting. We prayed that we would be able to give a Book of Mormon out. It's pitch black and freezing cold...but luckily this guy had a flashlight on his hat so we talked to him and man I have never seen someone look at the Book of Mormon so intently. We showed him a few verses and he just kept looking at it and said yes to meeting with us. Pray that we will be able to meet with him soon. 

Our ward is slowly becoming more missionary minded which is cool. Have 4 sisters help the work move forward in the ward so that's definitely a plus to have all 4 of us sisters to move the work forward together! 

I have learned a lot about hope this week. With the weather being gloomy and some struggle with keeping our people or having them progress besides Kriss (who is GOLDEN) my hope and faith has been tested this week. I started to study hope as a Christlike attribute and while I was studying I could tell how low my hope was. Just reading some talks and scriptures I could tell my spirit became a lot more happy and positive.  In PMG it says, "Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill HIs promises to you. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance."  

Positivity is something that I am working on more so if any of you have good quotes please send them my way!

I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and Him pushing me to become a better disciple. I am grateful for his constant love and support as I strive to figure life as a missionary out. 

I love you so so much!

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

P-Day hike to Silver Falls with the 4 of us!

Love it when we get to go out to do service!

Exchanges!

Always a good day when we the Chick-fil-a food truck comes!

The little things that make us happy!

Week 59- The one with all the meetings!

 Friends! 

Wow talk about STL life...this week was alittle crazy! We had a lot of meetings which means not a lot of outside finding. Which honestly has been a little hard since now it gets dark gotten at like 5:30 pm it's the WORST! But it's also been amazing to be in these meetings and hear from our amazing leaders in our Stake and mission. 

We had a wonderful lesson with Kriss! Man talk about being prepared throughout her whole life. Her story and testimony confirmed to me once again that the Book of Mormon is true and this church is true. You can believe those words!

Come Follow Me has also been amazing this week. Mormon 7-9 is amazing! If you haven't read those chapters PLEASE DO!! 

The trio life has been wonderful! Our trio will sadly end this week BUT we get to add another wonderful Sister to the area and we are excited to get her. 

I GET TO SING! Me and a couple of missionaries are practicing for some Christmas stuff so stay tuned for that ;) I am also going live with my wonderful companions and they are going to ask me questions about my love of music. So tune in at come unto Christ Woodburn Keizer area. I honestly am so grateful God has given me so many chances to share my testimony through song. Its my favorite! It also keeps me from getting out of practice. ;)

We are finding more and more people and it's been through some cool ways. We found someone for the elders in my district and it's all from service and now the women wants to learn more! Peoples hearts are being softened and it's so amazing that we get to be apart of sharing the message to them. 

Another cool story happened Saturday while we were in line for Dutch Bros. The guy who was taking our order started talking to us and and we found out he is from Aurora so we asked if he knew one of our members son's who also works at Dutch and he said yes and so we connected that we were at the same funeral for the members grandma. We gave him a pass a long card and he said he would be open to meet up. We are scheduling a time to meet! Yay!

Sister Hawkes and I are content managers for our area's Facbook page. So we are in charge of the content we put out and making sure missionaries video ideas become a reality. Yay for using my videography talents here on the mission! We are going to be making a lot of videos...love being a busy bee missionary! Wouldn't want it any other way. He he-  but if you could pray we don't get over whelmed that would be wonderful!  

Well I hope you have a wonderful week this week. I hear Utah has been getting snow...we are getting cold and rainy so PRAY for us! I'd rather have snow. :)

I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Fillmore 

Making mission videos. These Elders are too kind to me!

Love this girl.

And this one too!

Beautiful Sunset with my girls.

Clear face sheilds from the Pace's - not my favorite! ;)

Best bakery!

Nature walk. We wore masks the whole time except for this picture I promise!

Week 58-the one with the THREEE Mga Kaibigan!

 Friends! 

This week has been crazy but went by super fast. Lots of growing, surprises and miracles! You are probably wondering what, "Mga Kaigian" means...well its friends in tagolog. You're probably wondering why I know that. Well it's because I am in a trio for the a week and a half. Our new sister was reassigned from the Philippiens! Her name is Sister Yorgason and she is soooo cute. She was supposed to train but her trainee is delayed for 2 week so she is an honorary STL for now!  It's my first time being in a trio and we are having a blast!

We had a great lesson with Tami and guess what...SHE IS KEEPING THE WORD OF WISDOM! Woot woot! We saw her once after the lesson we gave her on the word of wisdom and she is like a new person!  It's the coolest to see how living God's commandments can change people for the better! I have learned the power of prayer, faith and effort. If we want our prayers to be answered we need to pray and then get on our feet and work and do the best I can!

Thursday was a crazy day, let me tell you! We had to be up in Newberg at 8:15am for the training meeting Sister Yorgason was supposed to attend even though she didn't get her trainee. While she was in the meeting we helped Sister Wilde make lunch, I felt like her assistant. New ASW (assistant to Sister Wilde) right here! ;)

          MLC was amazing in every way. I love being able to sit in a room with so many spiritual giants, it's the best! I am so very grateful for my mission president and everything he does for this mission and for all the missionaries. He has been helping me a lot with some things I have been struggling with. Even though he has 260 missionaries he is so amazing at ministering to the one. 

We have been meeting a lot of people and it's been fun teaching with three people! The apartment is small but we are making it work. 

Some thing I have learned from Come Follow Me:

In Mormon 5:2, Mormon says, "I was without hope". The Nephites were looking to him as a leader but he was afraid because they couldn't see the wrong and repent. It was so wicked at the time and he felt like nothing he could do would change anything because the hardness of their hearts. 

We were in our district church and I learned that I can't control the world but I can control my own world and my future so I can always have hope in my life. When we are humble and repent, that's a way we can always have hope. Jeffrey R. Holland's talk in April talked all about hope and how that's the last thing we can and should give up. So as long as we carry on and humble ourselves and turn towards God we can always have hope for the future, even if it's just our future. 

Assume positive intent!

I love you all so much! Continue to talk with God. He is your Father and He loves you... so talk to him!

Love, 

Sister Fillmore

The 3 Mga Kaibigan!

Halloween Trunk or Treat!

Missionary Fairies!

I got to see a lot of my wonderful Bend zone on transfer day.

The nicest lady stopped and gave us cold water on a warm fall day!

On a mission for Sister Wild - Chips and Rice!

Much too fun with these 2!