It's Birthday Season!

Happy Birthday, Sister Newman!

  I got peeps for Sister Newman's birthday.  She's never had them before.  

She wasn't too impressed.  Oh well, it was for the American experience.

The next day:

Happy Birthday, Sis. Magnusson!

  What every missionary needs:  Stationary, stamps, and blue painter's tape.... 

...You know, to put quotes, pictures, etc. on their apartment walls.

Well, hello there family!

Happy birthday to Sis. Newman and myself! Sister Newman, yesterday and moi, today. Oh, and of course, our dear JMAG! JMAG, it will forever and always be an honor sharing the same day of birth as you.

Janelle and Kristine...ages 5 and 2

Sis Newman and I have spent pretty much all the holidays together....Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, St. Patty’s day, our birthdays....I don't think we'll make it till Easter though. Transfers are on the 7th. If we did, that's gotta set some mission record.

A big thank you for all the presents! Loved them all! Loved all the pictures! I will used every single thing that you guys sent me! A big thank you for sending Sis. Newman stuff too. With her being from Australia land, its harder for her family to send her stuff. She really appreciated it. You guys are so great!

The Gaudreaus family and their neighbors

So last night we had dinner with some members and they were so great. They asked us what kind of food we wanted for our birthday and we told them Pad Thai and they got some for us! And strawberry short cake! Remember how me and Jmag always had strawberry short cake and spice cake for our birthdays? And check out this cool story....so the Gaudreaus (pronouced Good-row) gave the Elders their keys to their house so they can use their computers to do online proselyting, facebook, email, etc. They have two computers right next to each other in their house so they can do that. Anyway, the Gaudreaus neighbor would notice the Elders coming in and out of their house a lot and sometimes the Elders would talk to them. The neighbors talked to the Gaudreaus and said how nice the Elders were. Then the neighbor wife said that her brother and sister-in-law are Mormon. When the Gaudreaus were telling us this story, they said that they were shocked. They knew this couple for 17 years and never once did she say she had any connection to Mormons. Anyway, the Gaudreaus told them that they also had sister missionaries serving in the area and the lady said she never met sister missionaries. The Gaudreaus said that they were having a birthday party for us Sunday night and invited them to come as well! And they did! It was great!  They were so nice. She is from Hawaii (score, we had a connection going on) and he is from Texas, with an awesome Texan accent even though he has lived in Oregon for 30 years. Great Christian folks. For our after dinner message we showed them Earthly Father, Heavenly Father, which you can view by clicking here. They really liked it. They had some questions about Mormons and we were able to answer them....like about the Book of Mormon and stuff. Their neighbors were telling us about their church and said, "I don't want it to seem like we have turned the tables on you, but would you sisters like to come to our church?" We said we'd love too! It probably won't happen till after transfers but, we are going to try to make it...at least one of us. I think that would be so fun. I asked if the members of their church would mind if a couple of Mormon missionaries were there and they said they wouldn't mind at all.

We also had two REALLY good lessons that members were able to come too! I have a testimony of members being present at lessons. The first was with the 13 year old we’ve been meeting with. We brought Sis. Gold and her 14 year old daughter to be a fellowship for her. We taught her the Plan of Salvation at some benches in their apartment complex. Her apartment situation is not conducive to the spirit...so luckily it wasn't raining and we could have the lesson outside even though it still was cold. Sis. Newman has some great Plan of Salvation visuals that I'm really going to miss when we split. We used those for the lesson. The Plan of Salvation is a pretty heavy subject with a lot of stuff and she wasn't talking much so I was wondering how much was actually sinking in. But when we asked her at the end, what the pre-mortal life was, why we were here on earth, etc, she knew all the answers. We also talked about Mutual and Young Women’s and stuff and her face absolutely lit up! She said, "I would love to do that on Wednesday nights!" Yeah, you would! That's why it was key that Sis. Gold's daughter came because with her home situation the way it is, she can't go to church unless "she is invited by a friend." Missionaries don't count. It is Spring break is this week so no YW’s. Hopefully she can come next week.

We also had a great lesson with  our other investigator. We finally got her and her 10 year old daughter to a lesson.  Sis. Keanani'ina came with us. (I love that family too.)  We answered a lot of her questions about the Book of Mormon, tithing, and the temple. She thought if she joined the church they would force her to hand over her pay stubs and take out her money....no, it doesn't work that way, tithing is actually voluntary.  And she also thought that Mormons don't tell you stuff till after you are baptized.  She and Sis. K. hit it off really well. She is actually the primary chorister so that was good that her 10 year old daughter met her.

Our investigator is the activities director at Rosewood, the old folks Alzheimer's home that we volunteer at. She REALLY appreciates it when we come over and it's great because we have time to kill because we still can't tract with Sis. Newman's foot. We played t-ball with the residents the other day. That was A LOT of fun! I was pitcher. We played it inside. We used a McDonalds ball and a plastic bat. Some of the residents stood and swung, some sat and hit it off a construction cone. I have been able to play some hymns there too. It's so cool to see some of the residents who don't say much but they came hum and "sing" along to some of the classic hymns. It's great. Reminds me of grandpa.

OK, I should probably go. Today we had a  Goodwill run (I got a new bag, wallet, and purse for 11 bucks. Score), Old Navy run (new black shirt for 5 bucks. Score), Norstroms Rack, library, then Winco after that. Pretty awesome birthday I should say. My 22nd birthday I spent in Hawaii, 23rd in the mountains of Utah, and 24th in good ol' Oregonian land :)

Life is good, the church is true!

Love,

The birthday sista'!

Elders Walters and Gray... The other Reedville missionaries