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Showing posts from September, 2019

Messages of Love and Further Witnesses

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I want to make an account of the love and further witnesses I have already received that this is a good and right thing. Heavenly Father has a beautiful plan for me. I believe that, finally, I really do. Sister Goodman invited me to sing with a few sisters at the mission conference with President M. Russell Ballard on October 12th, 2019. Usually I feel terrible turning down any performance opportunities, yet I felt completely fine and at peace. :) Sister Wastlund: Good Morning Sister Goodman! Due to some serious struggles with depression and anxiety I will be returning home before the mission conference with Elder Ballard and therefore will be unable to sing. I thank you so much for your immense love and faith in me. Love you Sister Goodman!  Sister Goodman: I love you too, so very dearly. I want you to know how much I love and admire you. I know the Lord will bless you and that your life will unfold in beautiful and miraculous ways. You will learn and grow from this exp

Sister Sleepover!

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I am writing this entry on July 1st of 2020, but the sleepover happened in September of 2019. My second to last night in North Carolina President Holland called Sister Barnes and Sister Farnsworth (our STL's) and told them they were bringing me to Raleigh with them the next day. So after their day's work the J2 sisters (Sister Rowell and Starr) picked Sister Cobb and I up (along with my suitcases) and we went to their apartment for a sleepover. The STLs made the hour drive to join us. Then we would be able to hope in the car and head to Raleigh the next day. We all gave each other back massages and laughed and simply enjoyed each other's company. I still remember looking around at all of my beautiful sisters and thinking, "Wow. These are some of the greatest women and I get to be their sister". How thankful I am. Father in Heaven,         Thank you for the sweet experience of meeting such stalwart and kind people in North Carolina. For so long I have felt bitter t

In God's Eyes It's Right On Time

For a moment I thought, "Am I really going home early?" And the Spirit reassured me immediately, " Not early. In God's eyes it's right on time." I have had witness after witness that this truly is right on God's time. • Sister Farnsworth "I have goosebumps" • Heagy's gave me priesthood blessing and opened their house to me to come and relax and enjoy simply being in a home filled with the Spirit. • Priesthood Blessing "Your Sacrifice is Sufficient" • "You are assigned to labor in a new area. You are assigned to labor at home." • "And there was no contention in the land....there arose a little pride". Let your pride go. it does not matter what others think. Though they do think highly of you. • Brother Anderson called my mom and said that we need to have more faith. It is all going to work out. Heavenly Father has a beautiful plan for me. • Immense feeling of excitement and peace in going home. No guilt. • A fe

Going Home

I tend to feel like lately that I'm wasting the Lord's time and money by being on a mission right now because I feel like we are teaching no one and no one is progressing. But then I'm reminded that this, me being on a mission,  is my wife and motherhood boot camp. I am not only on a mission for the people I will meet in this year and a half. Perhaps more importantly, I am here to help in the conversion process of my family: my husband, my children, my parents, my siblings, myself. In the most recent face to face Elder Christensen said something that I loved. He and Elder Soares were taking about the importance of having the temple, the Lord in your marriage. a phrase that really stood out to me was, "commit to take each other home to God". On my mission I am better learning how to take myself, my husband, and my children home to God. 10 hours later After reading my patriarchal blessing, studying the Book of Mormon, talking and praying with my family, talking with

God Knows His Children

Sister Cobb and I went to Brother Moore's farm again this morning with Sister Starr and Sister Rowell. We helped Connie clean out one of the storage stalls. It was inspiring to see her reaction when we found two boxes filled with pictures, filled with family history. I was inspired to have a well kept history. Connie was only seeing pictures and she was smiling from ear to ear as she took a walk down memory lane. She began introducing us to everyone in the photographs. I hope my children are able to find joy in our family books. I know I find it when I look through the ones my mom has put together. Today Sister Cobb and I were planning to go serve at Finders Keepers thrift store. As I was doing personal study prior I began to feel very anxious. We are on bikes this week which meant we had a long bike ride ahead of us, but I love biking, especially when it is on flat roads like Jacksonville. I continued with personal study, Sister Cobb and I carried our bikes down the stairs, we beg

Brianna and Ryan Hendricks

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I had the opportunity to decorate for my niece Brianna's wedding.  It turned out to be a blessing because Kimball came home and got engaged so quickly.  Having just done Brianna's helped me not to freak out doing Kimball's :).

Patience for sure!

We traveled home from Raleigh today with Sister Starr and Sister Rowell. I'm going to quickly write down some random thoughts. Sister Smith came up to me randomly during the temple open house yesterday and said, "I think you're going to train". I feel like I am either going to train or be combining the J2 and J3 wards with Sister Rowell. Only God knows though! The unexpected is always what seems to happen. Today Sister Cobb and I dived into member work. We finished weekly planning extremely quickly as all of our people are out of the state/country for military, have been dropped, or are about to be. To say the least the work right now has been teaching me patience. Patience with myself, patience with the Lord, patience with my companion, patience with the world. I was praying with all I had left to Heavenly Father asking what He wanted us to do. I was at a loss. In response I had the quietest thought to simply open area book, then to go to my calendar, then to add in

Spiritual Bonds

We are staying with a sweet older couple: Heidi Martin and Brother Vicks. They were married this past May. It is a second marriage so they both kept their last name. Heidi was divorced and Brother Vicks is a widower. The Spirit is abundant in their home. I began a fast last night. I had just fasted from Saturday to Sunday, but then felt that I needed to also fast from Monday to Tuesday. I had already been feeling prompted and then my sweet sister Gracie sent me an email sharing her testimony of fasting. She began to fast and pray concerning whether to get her patriarchal blessing now or when I returned home. Well, she went to church and in young women's they announced that the lesson would be about patriarchal blessings. After reading that I began to realize that I did need to fast again. There is an incredible added measure of power that comes from fasting. Similar to how getting baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost brings an incredible power--the action of fasting brings an i

Happy Birthday Hinckley

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I took the girls out of school early, and we got the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center all to ourselves.  Hinckley wanted a party with just her sisters.  Later that evening we invited the family over for Durangos (her favorite) and Unicorn cake. We love you Hinckley, so glad you were born!