Area Wide Conference With Elder Holland

This photo was taken at a very special mission-wide conference held on Tuesday, July 2, 2019 with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife, Sister Patricia Holland in Wilmington, North Carolina. Do you see sister Kimball Wastlund in the center, 2 rows behind President Holland (behind the sister in the yellow shirt).

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Today I am very sick. My voice sounds like a smoker, it hurts when I swallow, my face is congested, I am fairly certain I have strep. Blah! Tonight we are supposed to be meeting with Michelle for the first time at the Hamner's and meet with the Juarez family tonight. I am praying for healing because we really don't want to miss this opportunity to teach. 10 minutes later. I said a prayer that I would be healed before tonight if it was God's desire for us to teach tonight. I then swallowed and there was no pain!

Elder Holland came and spoke to the entire mission in Wilmington yesterday. It was pretty incredible to see all 210 missionaries there. The 2 stakes from Virginia, Chesapeake were absorbed into our mission so they were there as well. We found a companionship from the new missionaries who is currently teaching a deaf woman and got permission from their President to have language study. They have a member who is an interpreter and has been helping them learn for the first time. I can feel that God is preparing to work miracles with the Deaf community in this mission. I am going to ask President Holland if I can begin having language study for these people whom Sister Denning and I are teaching. I want to be a better signer than I am now to teach these people, yet I know God has called me as I am now, and simply asked me to seek improvement along the way. 

After hearing from Elder Holland yesterday our zone is feeling a great need for seeking revelation. Our goals are higher than ever before. As a district we want to find 12 new people, 9 to church, 1 person with a baptismal date. We are going to try to get Dago, Nestor, and Michelle to church. Michelle with a baptismal date. And we are going to reach out to Shawn again to see if she wants to come to church and begin being taught. 

Heavenly Father is teaching me a lot about me, my Savior, and my need to lean on Him. He is not our source of strength when our tank is empty, He is our CONSTANT source of strength. I am definitely being stretched thin. I am definitely seeing God's hand.

Elder Holland asked to shake each of our hands and wanted us to say our name and where we are from. He then explained later. "I wanted to know how you were doing." That was his mini interview with each of us. He then said that there were only 1-4 of us that were not doing well, but it was not fatal, and it would get better. Tears streamed down my face throughout the meeting. People were laughing and I was crying. I came to that meeting broken and I have been realizing that I may feel broken throughout my entire mission and that is okay. He has to break me down to then build me back up into what He needs me to be. This year and a half is going to be a very refining experience. I will be placed in the Refiner's fire throughout and then pulled out to be molded and changed. I will then have a moment to cool and the process will begin again. I am really learning to trust Heavenly Father. 
Throughout the meeting I was directing my thoughts and questions to Heavenly Father and then they would be answered by the spirit taking Elder Hollands words and applying them to me. Perhaps the words that stood out the most to me were this, "I want you to be tender. I want you to care...this is the most important thing you will ever do...You signed on for an excrutiating experience. You are being reborn...You can never ever ever ever again be who you were before (as he pounded on the pulpit :))...what will be different about you when you return home after 18 or 24 months? You will be wonderful!" It was instilled in me that I "can never ever ever ever again be who [I was] before." I need to decide how I want to be different when I return home. 

Side note: Elder Holland skyped with his granddaughter on a mission in England. So I feel totally good about having extended family members over every once in a while. :) I really want to talk with Danielle and Scott sometime. I miss them buckets!!!! And Daniel and Rebecca!

Saturday 6 July 2019

Today I FINALLY felt physically capable to go out and work my missionary butt off! And wowza I really had to kick it into high gear! We did yard work for 4 hours and this humidity brings on the sweat. 2 hours at the Januzik's, who is a part member family. Sister Januzik is the family history consultant who can't walk without a cane because of a hip deformity. Her husband is not a member though fully supportive of her and drives her to church and family history night. He is a tattoo artist and painter. I would love to ask him to paint the red rock for me someday. I feel like we need to call him tomorrow and ask if he we can come and share the discussions with him. I'm fairly certain he has already had them, but it is time to invite again. They don't have the opportunity to grow if they are not invited. An invitation simply means giving someone an opportunity. 
We also went to Kathy Newcomb's house to do yard work for 2 hours (the million dollar church house next to our apartment). We racked up all of the pine straw out of the mulch. I WILL NEVER HAVE PINE TREES AND MULCH IN THE SAME PLACE!!! 

We watched some of the bible videos during lunch and dinner and they are so good! It is still my dream to be an actress for the church; at least once in my life. 
Later we taught Dago about fasting via text and then dropped off some quotes to a few potential people to be taught. I specifically have been feeling very strongly about reaching out to Shawn the past few days. She answered the door and it seemed to mean a lot to her that we stopped by. We wrote out Ether 12:4 all cute like and a note on the back saying, "We hope you and your boy have a wonderful day! -Sister Wastlund and Sister Denning". We left her with a card and the Book of Mormon. I shared a short personal testimony of why I read the Book of Mormon. We invited her to church and she seemed to be planning on it. She has such a light about her. 
Currently I am looking forward to seeing Linda and Michelle tomorrow (hopefully Dago, Nestor, and Shawn at church) as well as seeing Madison Clark at transfers because I assume one of us is getting transfered. 
I was saying a prayer at the beginning of Sister Denning and I 's companionship and I began to pray that we would be able to stay companions for a while. Mid sentence though my words stopped abruptly as I felt that was not in accordance with God's will. I then recognized that truly prayer is meant as a tool to align the will of the child with the Father. It is not God's will for us to be together for a season, but a time. I am grateful for the time which I have had. 

I am 14 days away from my 5 month mark!!! Oh, and I did the math today. I am on my mission for 18 months and 20 days. Some people don't count the MTC, but I realized I NEED to count that. The most important convert on my mission is myself and by golly I was becoming more fully converted during that time as well as preparing myself to help others in their conversion process.

I love Jesus Christ, my Savior, Lord, and King. He lives!

Sunday 7 July 2019

Today was the lesson on the Plan of Salvation with Michelle. She lost her husband George when he was fighting in Afghanistan. Already I was so excited to teach this lesson because the plan of salvation is my big tree in my testimony forest, but I was even more excited knowing how much hope it would bring her. In the midst of the lesson she began talking about her late husband as we were talking about the spirit world.  Michelle expressed how key that part was because that meant that George had the opportunity to learn about this gospel. I was then overwhelmed by the spirit and tears filled my eyes. My heart felt full and suddenly the veil was thin. I could feel of an immediate presence in the room. George's presence. I reached over to Michelle and said, "I need to tell you something". Her eyes then welled up with tears as I'm sure she could already feel it and she said, "Oh no! Sister don't make me cry". I then told her, "Michelle, I can feel George here. He is learning with you." And then Sister Dickerson, Michelle, and I shed a few tears and Michelle said, "Thank you for sharing that."

Michelle also said during that lesson that the Sunday when I sang was a pivotal day for her. It was not solely following the prompting to sing that song, but multiple people following the promptings given them. The speakers, the musical number, Sister Dickerson inviting her to sit next to her, Brother Bacalski inviting her to sit and talk with him, Sister Hamner reminding her that she is always welcome at church. EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the process MATTERED. I MATTER. YOU MATTER. 

Dago also came at us with a lot of intense questions today. It all comes down to the fact that he needs to kneel and pray with a sincere heart to know if the Book of Mormon is true as he is gaining the secular knowledge concerning its origin and background. He is reading, but needs to begin applying.

I feel that I need to share some words on Sister Hamner. I don't think she will ever realize the impact she has made on me. She is the mother of 4 kids (one stillborn) and wife of a man on the front lines every deployment. She is an incredibly strong woman. Not simply because of her role as wife and mother though. Rather I have been most impressed and inspired by her faithfulness; her steadiness; her rawness. She lets people see her true colors and they are beautiful! She doesn't allow others to negatively affect her testimony. Her testimony is firmly rooted in truth. I will always remember when she spoke up in Relief Society and talked about how we are agents unto ourselves. We should never hand over our agency to someone else. NO ONE has to right to take away your agency. That is a God-given gift. For example: don't hand someone your agency by not coming to church because someone treated you unkindly. Don't hand them your agency. Now that doesn't mean you need to go become best buds with them again, but it does mean you still choose to live your beliefs whether they are there or not. I'll always remember that lesson that Sister Hamner and the spirit taught me.