Everything you've ever wanted to know about transfers....

the saturday before transfers. 

we had lunch as a zone and we got zone t-shirts.  "Eye on the Prize" was the theme.  

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLA!

Yes, transfers were yesterday and I was not transferred out of  G-stone but I got a new companion: Hermana Madeline Baker.  She is a Spanish speaking sister but got moved to be English for a little bit to serve in the Happy Rock. This transfer was a big one. Every missionary companionship in our zone had a change and we heard from the STLs (sister training leaders) that all but 16 companionships in the mission had a change. It was pretty nutty. How transfers work is we all meet at the Lake Oswego building right next to the temple and we have opening exercises, the new missionaries get introduced (they are sitting in the stand looking like a deer in the head lights) then the new companionships are announced. So on a projector screen in the chapel, your picture will pop up with your new comps picture, under the ward you are serving in. So President Ballard will say something like this from the stand...."In the Gladstone Ward, Sister Magnusson will be with Sister Baker."  Then every watches as you and new comp stand up and walk to each other to give a cute little hug then sit in the middle of the chapel pews. The Elders do a bro hug, they come together and give each other a couple slaps on the back and the Sisters do a Relief Society hug. Anyway, the nutty part about this transfer was companionships that were already companions got put back together, sisters that weren't called to the Temple Visitor Center got put in the Visitor Center...crazy stuff like that. A sister that I came out with me got put back with her trainer. Hope you like each other when that happens. President Ballard said before hand that some crazy stuff was going to happen but he said without a shadow of a doubt each companionship was inspired and the Lord was behind everything. 

Tuesday we visited with someone.  It was only my second time meeting her. We ran into her daughter at Safeway a few weeks ago and she said to come by the house. So we did and we had a good visit with her. She has sure been through a lot....most people in this area have. She didn't go to church the first time we saw her but the second time, she came that Sunday with her daughter! Her daughter is like her caregiver. The mother is like in her 70s maybe. Her health isn't good. People were talking to them after church which was good. 

We taught one of our investigators on Tuesday too! She is so awesome. She is 58 and always so happy, even when she is so tired. She loves us coming over. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she seemed to really connect with it. We had a great member present which is always great (folks, if you ever get a chance to go teach with the missionaries, do it! You will make a world of difference!) We asked her if she would be baptized Aug 26th and she said YES! Whew-who! We have someone with a date! But the thing is she was sick on Sunday so she couldn't got to church which means we will have to push her baptism back because you have to go to church at least three times before you are baptized. On Friday we came over and talked more about church and what happens there and she was really excited to come. She was like, "Wow, it sounds like this is one big church family!" YES! IT IS! Our member present said she would add great things to the Gladstone Relief Society. Everybody needs someone as joyful as her in their ward. 

So Tuesday night we are at the church updating our lessons to our iPads and there was Institute class and some other things going on.  A few people came up to us as we are sitting in the foyer all within like 20 seconds of each other and were like, "Hey look!   There are some missionaries right THERE! Some random guy just walked into Institute wanting to know more about the Church! Go! Find him!" We started gathering our stuff when another person would come up to us and be like, "SISTERS! There is someone here that JUST WALKED IN that wants to know...." Then we are like, "We know!" We are going!" We meet this dude in the hall with the Institute teacher and another YSA guy (institute just ended) and we start chatting. This guy is obviously distressed about something (31 yrs), says he came here for some spiritual guidance, we started teaching him the Restoration but I knew that's not what he needed but we didn't know what he needed. Turns out after I told him about James 1:5, he's like, hmmmmm, that's a nice scripture and then really starts to open up. Turns out he was high on Vicodin and Rockstar and went to 5 different churches looking for help because he lives in this house that will give him a urine test at the end of the night when he goes home and he will not pass it because cuz he was high as a kite at the moment. He is worried about different stuff. Turns out he just needed to talk. We gave him some info about the addiction recovery class, said a prayer with him, he said he felt better, and we made an appointment with him to meet him the next day. He didn't show up the next day so we have no idea what happened to him but it made for an interesting night. 

Wednesday we went on exchanges. I stayed in Gladstone, Sister Allen went to Clackamas and Sister Munger was my companion for the day. It was a good day. We went contacting by the river and picked up a new investigator! So lady was just chillin' on a bench and we said hi to her and she invited us to sit next to her! That never happens! She is very religious and has been on a few mission trips to Hawaii and Fiji and such. She had a Bible in her bag that she says she likes to read when she is at the river. When we started talking about the Book of Mormon with her I thought she was totally going to turn us off but she was very polite and seemed genuinely interested. Her husband walked up and started listening too. We gave her a Book of Mormon and some scriptures to read out of it and she voluntarily gave us her address and said we can come by anytime. Again, that never happens! Usually it is the other way around. We got to go back on Saturday to have a lesson with her and kind of do a review on the Book of Mormon and where it came from. Hopefully next time we can do the whole Restoration. 

Alright folks, I got to go! 

I love getting emails from everybody every week! The church is true! 

Love, 

Sister Magnusson