Going West with West

email 27 Oct 2015

Well Sister Manley is now in Brazil! I haven't heard from her yet but I'm sure she made it there safe and sound. :) I hope she has a great trainer and isn't being swallowed whole by Portuguese too much.

Wellllllll time for transfers!!!!!!! DRUM ROLL ............ I am LEAVING. This was a HUGE surprise! I'm so sad I have to leave this wonderful area. I have to leave some people we've been teaching and leave the beloved Hadley's (my senior couple). But I am going to Farr West in the same zone I just left, haha, It's right next door to West Weber. My new companion is Sister West! She's from Australia and she has the voice of a hipster Angel! Another fun fact about transfers is that I am in a Young Single Adult area!!!! So I'll be teaching people ages 18-29! I'm SO excited! Maybe God is trying to help me not fight going to YSA when I get back home, haha.

This last week had a lot of fun activities working up to Halloween! We got together as a zone to have a Family Home Evening. We went to a member's backyard and we all got to sit around a fire and had a very spiritual testimony meeting. We ended with roasting marshmallows and attempting to play kickball in the dark. (It didn't work as well as we thought.) On Wednesday, we got to all carve pumpkins for the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk! This is where the whole community carves pumpkins in all different ways and they light them all up and put them in a football stadium. The whole city comes to tour all these pumpkins every year! I'm telling you, Utah and Halloween is really intense. But it's fun! Also we went to a ward party and wore wigs. It was a hit and everyone loved it!

Since Sister Manley left to Brazil, I've been staying with the Spanish speaking sisters that cover my area. They cover half English wards and half Spanish. So I figured it wouldn't be TOO bad. For the most part it was good. Then we went to a lesson with a family they were teaching English. They caught on rather quickly that I did not speak Spanish. All of a sudden they all were laughing and looking at me. I could feel myself turning SOOO red, haha. Just another testament that high school Spanish helps with NADA.

President Jaggi has asked us to teach at least 3 lessons every day. It's not too hard to do in our mission, but sometimes just NO ONE wants to hear from you. We had one of those days where we were going around and knocking doors, visiting people we teach, trying to find people to teach. And there was NO ONE. No one answered their door. So we stopped riding our bikes and said a prayer. We told Heavenly Father that we wanted to have a lesson that day and we asked Him to place someone outside who's life we needed to touch. So we got back on our bikes and saw some kids playing outside. They were crying. (I think one of them took a toy.) We told them the rules for wishing on a dandelion and we challenged them to a contest who could do it. Soon enough all tears were gone and it resulted in a dandelion fight between 4 boys and the sister missionaries! It was a blast, haha! At the end of our fun, we were able to share with them the Mormon Message "The Shiny Bicycle". It was amazing how these boys' faces and attitudes changed as we were showing them a video centered on the atonement. I'm thankful that God answered our prayers and sent us someone who's life we could touch and uplift.

I've been thinking back on how fast this last transfer went. I think if I chose one thing I've learned this transfer it would be in Mathew chapter 7:

3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, butconsiderest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

It's easy to see and tell people how they can improve. But we never know how much of the beam people have already taken out of their own eye. We never know how much people have already changed. And it's not our place to say how fast they need to change. Praying is real. And it can definitely change hearts. It can turn our will to the Father's. I've loved this transfer and all its taught me. And I can't wait for the next one. :)

Love you all,
Sister Sarlls