# heisthegift #sharethegift

Hi everyone!!

Wow it was a week full of spiritually uplifting meetings! Yay for stake conference, the spanish conference and zone conference!! Stake conference was on saturday night and Sunday and the member of the 70 that spoke was Elder Arnold and his wife. THEY ARE AWESOME. I loved it because it seemed that one of the main themes was missionary work and getting the members involved. They talked a lot about how easy it is to start a gospel conversation with people everywhere you go. Its something we do every day as missionaries but as members it can be kind of scary or intimidating to bring up the gospel... but as Elder Arnold said "fear is the opposite of faith." The gospel brings so much joy and happiness into our lives that there should be nothing stopping us from sharing it with those who aren't a part of the church! Elder and Sister Arnold both gave a bunch of examples and stories of how they turned conversations about random things like quesadillas or dirt into a gospel conversation! It was so great and I think it really got the members fired up about sharing the gospel with their friends! 

They showed a mormon message called "I'll go where you want me to go" which just shows how easy it is to do acts or service with a missionary mindset, I recommend looking it up!! 

Also Jesus came to stake conference and he LOVED it. He totally started crying because he said everything they said was just so beautiful. what a gem.

The Spanish conference was all the way in Pasco which is really only like an hour and a half away haha but it felt super long because I drove. All of the Spanish branches and stakes from the south side of Washington, and all of the Spanish missionaries were there from the south part of the mission so I got to see Hermana Mohun!! It was so fun to see her! The conference was with Elder Arnold and Sister Arnold again and it was pretty much the same as the stake conference about missionary work which was awesome!! They did do a couple of really neat things that I want to invite all of you to do. They passed around a piece of paper to everyone and had them write down all of the nonmember and less active people that they know. then they said you can either give it to the missionaries if you feel comfortable, or take the list and pray for each of those people. Pray for them that you can find a way to help them, and pray for opportunities to share the gospel with them. How powerful is that?! so that is your challenge for this week! And I expect to hear stories of miracles that happen :) 

Zone conference yesterday was in Richland so we had to drive about an hour and a half again to get down there. It was also with Elder and Sister Arnold!! It was incredible. Our mission has so many things that we are trying to work on and improve so that we can create a culture of high expectations and personal righteousness. Sister Arnold emphasized the importance of us as members of the church, that "our voices are important because we know spiritual truths." Ah I wish I could have just recorded all of the meetings we had and sent them to you because it was like a mini general conference haha. 

I AM SO PUMPED about the new video that the church is launching on thanksgiving!! it is called He is the Gift. and it is SO GOOD. so thanksgiving day you will have to look it up!! We were laughing yesterday because we got to see meet the mormons before it came out and we got to see He is the Gift before it comes out and we were like missionaries are like VIPs for the church projects haha. I guess its only funny if you are a missionary hahaha 

anyways I hope all of you have an amazing thanksgiving! Don't eat too much... LOVE YOU ALL.

oh my... I can't believe Katelyn comes home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are a rockstar hermana st. john. 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

pic#1 the crew that drove down to richland together yesterday! 

pic#2 one of THE funniest people I have ever met.. sister faulkner! I cry of laughter every time I am with her.

The mission is "cool"... Literally it's freezing up here!

Well another week has gone by faster than the last!

I am happy to say that hermana bailey and I will be staying together another transfer here in Moxee!! For some reason I was panicking that I was going to get transferred and all day Saturday I felt like I was going to be leaving which would have been terrible because I don't feel like I have done all I need to do in this area... and apparently the Lord felt the same way! Hermana Bailey and I are SO pumped because this transfer is going to be the greatest and we also get to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together!! So yay!! Its weird to think that when this transfer is over I will have spent over one third of my mission here! crazy. 

Anyways this week was interesting haha... there are some super cool things happening in our area but also some not so super cool things. First off we were able to find a ton of service this week which rocked!! We are going to be going to a food bank two times a week to pack boxes and what not. This week we packed apples and carrots and I wish so bad that I had brought my camera because no joke there were carrots thicker than my arm and some pretty crazy shaped ones too! We also did some service at an assisted living place. Old people are the best. Hermana Bailey played hymns for them and they were singing along (very loudly hahaha), it was so great though because what better thing can we do for them than share the gospel through music! 

Oh yeah... IT'S SO COLD. First of all it gets dark at like 4 so people think we are straight up nut heads for knocking on their doors and we just laugh because we're like "its only 6:30." but yeah its been fun! Hermana Bailey has been dying because she is an AZ girl and this is her first winter haha but we are trekking forward! 

So Jesus.. well he is still progressing! He didn't come to church because it was his wife's birthday.... yeah we didn't know he was married until yesterday!!!! hahaha and we had a lesson with him Saturday where he told us that he has been baptized 9 times so he doesn't really know if he needs to get baptized again.. WOW. The poor guy is trying so hard to find the truth and to follow Christ! We are still working with him to explain things, its just hard because he accepts everything we teach him which you would think would be awesome.. but the hard part is that it doesn't sink in, he just accepts it and doesn't necessarily understand the importance of applying it. So he is still on track for his baptism but he still has A LOT he needs to learn/understand/do before! 

We had a GREAT lesson with Lisa and Mario last Monday and they LOVED church! They said that there was a reason that they went that Sunday because the whole lesson was directed at them and their questions. We started teaching their nieces Jasmine and Sabrina this week and they are great. We also had to drop a ton of our potentials this week because none of them were willing to make this a priority, but APPLE SEASON IS OVER!! so we are hoping to find the elect people who are willing to make this a priority! 

I have been reading in Alma this week and a verse that I really liked was in Alma 44:5. This verse talks about how Moroni's army defeated the Lamanites but I found it really applicable to not just missionary work, but every thing we do! It says that by our faith, religion, rites of worship, church, wives (or husbands), children, lands, country, that is how they were able to overcome the lamanites or for us these are some of the things that can help us to overcome Satan. I especially like the line that said "and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness." Isn't that powerful?? No matter who we are or what we are doing with our lives, everything good in our lives, our ability to overcome satan comes through the sacred word of God or the scriptures! Our happiness depends on our reliance on the Lord! Those were just some random thoughts...sorry if none of it made sense! haha I love the Book of Mormon. 

This is going to be a good week and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this transfer! Thanks for all you do for me!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

pic #1 our district..painfully awkward

pic #2 some of the girls in the branch! I LOVE THEM.

I bet none of you made Christmas tutus last week

Hi

It was a week of miracles!!!!

Ok one of the best things ever happened... Lisa and Mario came to church! I don't know if you remember me talking about Lisa like forever ago when I first got to this area, but anyways she is great. We decided to try by her a couple of weeks back and she was so excited to see us! She told us that her and Mario (her fiance) wanted to come to church and that they were going to make time to come, but last week they didn't come and we were pretty disappointed. We also tried by them a bunch of times this week and no one was ever home so we figured we might have to give them some time before we could go back since no progress was being made. BUT church was just about to start and we were super excited because Jesus came for the 3rd time (more about him later :)) and then all of the sudden we get a text from lisa saying that they were lost... So we hurried and called her and she said that her and mario were on their way to church but they got lost, so we ran to the car (literally we ran and it was probably hilarious) so we could go find them! We found them and got back to the church just as they were singing the opening hymn!! THEY CAME TO CHURCH. Ok it was the best thing ever. There is nothing better than seeing someone you love start to make changes in their lives for the better. Sunday school was a pretty intense lesson on the plan of salvation, but they seemed to really like it! 

Also good news about Jesus.... really good news!! He is working towards the 29th for his baptism! We are so excited for him. It was so awesome because we went over Saturday to kind of go over with him again the importance of the restored gospel and priesthood, because he has been baptized before in another church and we wanted to make sure he understood it, and he is just so willing to make these changes in his life!! He is a miracle. He also said the BEST prayer at the end of the lesson about how happy he is to be learning about the church and that we care so much about him. Ah he is so ready... and he also told us after church yesterday that he was going to start inviting his friends to church! He is already doing missionary work and he isn't even a member (yet)!! 

I think something that has really helped us this week to keep focused is recognizing these miracles as blessings for our diligence. This area has been pretty rough and it has been hard to find people that will keep their commitments, but despite all that, we haven't stopped trying. It just goes to show that in order for us to recognize the Lord's hand in our lives we need to show him that we want his help, that we NEED his help in everything that we do! Wow the Lord is a miracle worker and I feel so blessed to be even just a small part in this incredible work!!

Something Hermana Bailey and I have started doing this week is writing down things we are grateful for. We got a big piece of paper and wrote, "Estamos Agradecidos" on the top (we are grateful) and every time we walk by the paper or think of something, we write it! We are so blessed and have so much to be grateful but it really makes you recognize those blessings as you write it out and think about them! 

As for the title of my email... yes we made Christmas tutus this week! hahaha we started going over to an assisted living place twice a week to do service aka do crafts with them and play the piano for them and help/get to know them! Old people are the best. We also started eating with the English wards in our area this week because of the new rule of only one companionship per dinner. The branch doesn't have enough members to feed 4 companionships every night so the english wards in the area offered to feed us on the days where we don't eat with the branch! At first it was kind of weird being with English members haha but it was also SO FUN! And you're never going to guess who we ate with on Saturday.... some Featherstones (yes they are Hannahs cousins)!! It was so fun and a tender mercy to run into some fellow Utahnzzz :)

Well this is the last week of the transfer so I may find out that I am leaving this area but WOW did this transfer go by fast!! I am so excited for this week, this is my favorite area that I have been in (and only one haha) :) I hope you all have a fantaby week!! I LOVE YOU

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

#1 dinner with the Featherstones!!

#2 the many apples of washington

Jesus came for the 2nd time!!!... (This is not a 2nd coming joke)

Hola familia! 

Things are great here in the good ol' Moxee and union gap area! This week went by so fast!! I feel like I just barely sent my last email. But it was a good week! Oh did you guys know that yesterday was daylight savings? WE DIDN'T! hahaha it was hilarious because we were up and ready for the day and brother Mitchell comes in and was like, you guys know its only 6 right? well lets just say we got an extra hour of personal study yesterday haha. 

Well I will start off with what happened last Monday. For P-day our zone went to a members house (or should I say hotel). no joke I have never been to a bigger house! they have llamas and cows and horses and a tennis court and just a ton of things to do! I was in heaven playing tennis for like 3 hours haha #tendermercy. but yeah just a fun side note.

So President Ware is wanting all the companionships to try and get at least 10 hours of service each week in the community and so this week we have tried a bunch of places and have been looking for service but people are so hesitant to let us serve! they are like.. you want to do service? YES we want to do service haha. Anyways this week was a little better and we found some very unique service opportunities! We were knocking in this trailer park and we knocked into this old guy who had a room full of his girlfriends clothes who is now in a retirement home... and he wanted all of the clothes gone! so we offered a helping hand haha! it took a couple hours but we got all the clothes out and in our car (which then smelled like a nursing home/old people (not that all old people smell haha s/o to those old foggies back home I love you!)) It was actually really fun! we found some legit ugly sweaters that we may or may not have kept for ourselves and the rest we hauled off to goodwill because no one wanted the clothes from the branch. But unfortunately our car smelled for like 3 days haha! 

Thursday we had interviews with President Ware! We headed to the chapel at about 9 for a training by the APs on the Book of Mormon. It was really good and gave us some great ideas about how to apply the Book of Mormon into our lessons and teaching! So the training lasted until about 1 and hermana bailey and I didn't end up having our interviews until about! It was a long day but a good one nonetheless! It is always fun to be around a bunch of missionaries! 

Halloween was just like any old weekly planning Friday except that we had to be in at 6! Hermana bailey dressed up in some of the grandma clothes and I dressed up as harry potter for dinner with our ward mission leader haha the elders in the branch said they were going to dress up but they didn't. It was hilarious though! 

So yesterday hermana bailey and I went to branch correlation (we take turns with the other missionaries in the branch because there are so many of us) and it ended right at 10:30 when church starts so we go in to the chapel and look for Jesus because he said he was going to come... but we couldn't see him anywhere! So we went out in the hall to call him but no one answered. we walked back into the chapel kind of depressed that he wasn't there and that's when I saw him!! he had been there all along! and turns out he was actually like 15 minutes early! It was the best!! To tell you a little bit about Jesus, he is an old guy probably mid to late 60's and he is so great and so open to learning more about Jesus Christ! He really likes church and the members of the branch! 

I am really excited that its November because this is the month of thanksgiving (which should be all the time am I right??)! but anyways I was reading in doctrine and covenants this morning and came across the scripture D&C 98:1 which says:

"Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything GIVE THANKS"

how perfect is that scripture for this time of the year?? First of all this is Christ speaking in the scripture and He is calling us His friends which is so awesome right? Anyways I just really love this scripture and as we get closer and closer to thanksgiving I am going to work on being more aware of the things I am thankful for because I have SO MUCH to be thankful for!! I am so thankful for each and everyone of you. For reals I am so blessed!!!!!!!! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

con mucho amor

hermana wortley

#1 our halloween costumes

#2 my legit suitcase that I got from the grandma clothes service project