D&C 43:17-18

Dear family,

Well, we had quite the eventful weekend! Unfortunately, Bro. Elliott's baptism didn't happen. There was some miscommunication that went on and he ended up not showing up for his baptism. Sister Boone and I drove around trying to find him. We tried at his apartment but he wasn't there, we called his work but he wasn't at work, and so we didn't really know where else to look. We prayed for inspiration to know where to find him (at this point, people were still waiting at the church for us to find him and bring him to the church to be baptized). I felt like we should go look at the store to see if he was there. As we were driving there, we saw him walking down the street, walking back home from the store. We stopped and talked to him for about 5-10 minutes and he said that he had been at the church when we told him to be there but that nobody was there. Thing is, Bishop Murray was at the church when Bro. Elliott said he went past. Then he said that the guy who interviewed him said a few things that made him think that he was not allowed to be baptized because of his past. We were kind of frustrated because we've met with Bro. Elliott several times since his interview and he didn't ever tell us this and we talked to the guy who interviewed him and he said he had a good experience with Bro. Elliott and he even signed the baptism record paper saying that he could be baptized. What was even more sad was that Bro. Elliott didn't come to church yesterday. It was the first time he hasn't been there in probably 8 months. We went over to his house last night and he wasn't home but we could see inside his apartment and could tell that he really wasn't ready to be baptized. I've learned so much from this experience but most of all, things will only happen when Heavenly Father is ready for them to happen. I've learned a lot more but I'm short on time today and there are other things I need to talk about! I just know and I have lots of faith that Bro. Elliott will eventually be baptized. He has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and he LOVED conference!! He's just not ready right now.

On to other news! I'm being transferred to a place called Miami (Miam-ah), Oklahoma! This was quite a shocker!!! Since Sister Boone is going home I was 100% expecting to stay in Nevada and just get a new companion. But I'm moving to Miami, where they've never had Sisters, just Elders, and the Miami Elders will be coming here to Nevada. My new companion is going to be Sister Reeves. She's pretty cool! Really outgoing and really talkative. We will be "white-washing" the area. Which means that Elders have been there for a while but now they are putting sisters there. We had quite an experience with getting a ride to Joplin for Sisters Conference, to the point that our Mission President called our Bishop to talk to him about the issue.....so I guess that Pres. Shumway felt that Nevada needed Elders.... :) so they are getting Elders now. Miami is still in the Joplin Zone so I will get to be in the same zone which makes me really happy because I really love this zone and all the Elders are so great and so hard working but so funny and fun to be with at the same time. We always have a good time but a spiritual time when we get together!

We are doing a 'cottage meeting' tonight a member's house. She's wanted to do one for a while but never set one up and then yesterday she found out that we both are leaving so she wanted to do it before we left. So yesterday she set one up and we are going to do that tonight! I'm really excited but nervous. I didn't even know that people still did these things. I thought that it was just something they did back when the church had barely been organized again, but I guess not! It will be a good experience for me and a good thing to end Sister Boone's mission!

Well, this email is super short but like I said earlier, I'm super short on time so I will try to write more next week! :)

I love you all! Thanks so much for everything you do for me!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 41:4

Dearest Family,

I'm sad to say that Sister's Conference is over. It was nice to get acquainted with the rest of the sisters in the mission and it was especially great to see Sister Knutson. I sure do love her and miss her as my companion. It was great to see President and Sister Shumway as well! It was a great experience for all of us missionaries and a lot of work and preparation was put into it to make it so great. I wish we could do it more often!

Unfortunately, we received a call from Eve yesterday and she said that her and Tony did some research and found something that they like better and that they don't want us to come over anymore. They also thanked us for the time that we spent with them teaching them more about our church. It was a huge bummer because we were really excited for their lesson yesterday and they seemed so prepared to receive the gospel. But, everyone has their agency and I guess the adversary got the best of them. I hope and pray that in the future they will accept the gospel. It is for everyone and it can make everyone happy if they let it and accept it.

In Ft. Scott we are trying to see a lot of the inactive members and we were successful this week in meeting with one of them! Her name is Sister Damgar and she is great. She wants to come back to church, she just needs a ride. So we let our Branch Mission Leader know, and he said they would get on it. Unfortunately, he was not able to get one for her for yesterday. Had we known, we would have gone to get her with the members that we rode to church with. It was in Sacrament Meeting that we realized that she wasn't there and we were super sad because she really wanted to come. We felt really bad. But, she'll have a ride for next week and she can come then!

Chris came to church though! He missed Sacrament Meeting because he overslept but he called Bro. Eyring and said that he could come get him. It was great! We will get to meet with him and Bro. Eyring on Thursday! Sis. Eyring will be cooking dinner for us again. She is a great cook! Last time we went over there, she made tilapia and it was SO GOOD!! And that's saying something because I don't like fish, but I've had it a couple times on my mission and I'm growing to like it a lot if it doesn't have an overwhelming taste of fish! Anyway, it should be good! Chris is a great guy and we're excited to get to talk with him more!

We got to go to the open house for the new Joplin Stake Center on Friday night. That was fun. There were quite a few people there but I don't feel like we did a whole lot. The members had it pretty taken care of! I think we should do more church tours like that. They made posters and they were really well done. It would be sad to see them used only once.

We are also excited because Bro. Elliott will be baptized this Saturday!!!! President Montague from the Stake Presidency came yesterday and interviewed him. We talked with Pres. Montague and he said that he had a really good conversation with Brother Elliott and he seems like he is ready to be baptized! We couldn't be more excited. Brother Elliott just wants to do everything the right way! He even asked how much it cost to get baptized so he could have the money to do it. When we told him it didn't cost anything, he was surprised and excited. It will be a good experience for him! It will be a really spiritual Saturday, I'm sure! I can't wait!!!

While Pres. Montague was in Nevada, he was also able to interview a couple people for their temple recommends. One of these lucky people was Sister Padley. She's been inactive for a while but we've been working with her and now she has her recommend and is planning on going with the ward when they go this Friday! She is so excited to get to go back to the temple! We are excited for her as well!!

It was a pretty good week. It went by really fast. But I'm glad that this transfer is almost over. It's been a hard one and it continues to be a hard one every day but I'm trying to continue to push through it because I know that I can do it and it will only be a short time in my life that I'm going through this certain trial. But if I endure it well, I'll be exalted on high. I keep referencing back to D&C 121: 7-9. I love those scriptures. Everyone can find such great comfort in reading those. We can know that whatever we are going through, it will only be for a short time but we have the Lord on our side and He can help us to get through it! He knows everything and so He knows what we need to help prepare us for the future and what we will go through then.

Well, I think that's about it for the day! I love you all! Thanks so much for everything! I will hit 6 months this week....weird.

LOVE YOU! See you soon then!!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 39:17, 21, 24

We get to go to Tulsa for a Sister's Conference this week and I'm so excited! It will be a blast to get to be with the other sisters in the mission and to do some service and receive some training from President Shumway and the others we will be hearing from! I am really excited to go! I will get to see Sister Knutson again before she leaves! I loved being her companion and I will miss her dearly. We will only be there for about 24 hours but that's good enough for me! :)

We had a pretty good week. We didn't teach as many lessons as we were hoping but we are shooting for 20 lessons this week! We really want to reach that goal! Even though we are going to be in Tulsa for a day and a half, we are hoping to teach 20 lessons! We should be able to do it. Teaching 20 lessons is the goal that our mission president has set for each area and so far, only two areas have been able to accomplish that. Hopefully we can make it three!

We're so excited for Bro. Elliott to get baptized! He is so ready and he is so excited to make this step in his life. Sister Polk is a lady who has been coming to lessons with him for a while and she is excited as well! She is 94 years old and still comes to lessons with us! She's a pretty amazing lady. President Shumway was supposed to come and interview him on Friday but he got ill so one of the Stake Presidency is going to come and interview him on Sunday! So the plan is that he will be baptized on October 27th! We are so excited!

We also found some more people to teach! As a zone, the Joplin Zone is working on obedience this month and we are seeing the benefits from striving to be exactly obedient. On Tuesday we were seeing some less actives and we both felt like we should knock on a couple doors. So we did. We went to the left first because there were more houses with lights on. After we knocked on a few doors with no success, we went the other way. As we were walking down the street the people that live at the next house pulled into their driveway. We started talking to them and followed them up their walkway. It was kind of awkward at first because we were following them to their house but as we got talking to the lady it got better! She seemed kind of interested and we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and asked if we could come back. She said that we could stop in if the truck was there. So we left and kept going down the street. A few minutes later we heard someone say, "Sisters!" We turn around and it was this lady, her name is Eve. At first I was thinking, "What's happening right now??!!" She wanted to ask us where our church was so we gave her the address and our phone number. Unfortunately, they didn't come to church but we did stop by Sunday night and we had a GREAT lesson on the Plan of Salvation. As we were talking and getting to know them a little bit I was having a debate on if we should teach the Plan of Salvation, like we had planned, or teach the Restoration. She'd say one thing and I would be determined that they needed the Plan of Salvation. Then she would say something else and it would apply to the Restoration! So we kind of taught a little bit about both. We talked about prophets and how they can help us in our lives to know how to get where we want to go - back with our Father in Heaven. Then we went through the Plan of Salvation. They said it was different but a good different. Eve said that she grew up just believing that after we die we don't get another chance. So I said that if that were the case, and there were no spirit world, God would not be a fair God because that would mean that people in Africa and China wouldn't even get a chance to hear the gospel and they would have to be punished for something that they weren't aware of. Tony, Eve's boyfriend, said that that totally made sense that that would have to happen for God to be the God that He says He is. We also introduced the Book of Mormon and they said that they would be very interested in reading it. Eve said that she didnt' believe in coincidence or luck so I said that I didn't either and then gave the example of: what are the chances that you pull into your driveway as we are walking down the street? It was a really good lesson and I can't wait to go back there!

We are also starting to see some success in Ft. Scott. We have been able to contact a few less actives and actually started teaching the boyfriend of a girl that is less active! There's also a man, Brother Lewis, that wants to come back to church but his two jobs keep him from doing that. So hopefully we'll be able to work with him and get him back to church!

Our zone meeting on Friday was really good! They gave us a talk called, "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary." Sister Boone and I read it and I have a lot to work on! It seems like once you notice some things you need to change as a missionary, they become worse and harder to overcome. It has been super hard but I'm continuing to pray and try to work harder to become a more consecrated missionary!

I'm grateful to be our here and I continue to learn new things everyday! It has so far been the hardest thing EVER, but I know it will also benefit me and the other people that I come in contact with!

Love you all!

See you soon then!!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 38:8

Hello!!!!!

ELDERS CAN GO AT 18 AND SISTERS CAN GO AT 19???? WHAT????? How cool is that????? We were so excited to hear this news! I'll be honest, I was a little jealous, but more excited than jealous! I think more girls will go on missions now because of the age change! I seriously couldn't keep my chin off the floor when Pres. Monson announced it! How cool!!! And I LOVED Elder Holland's talk!!!! SO GOOD!!! Probably my favorite one! What talks did you guys like?

So it was a pretty good week this week. I can't believe it is week 3 of the transfer and that Sister Boone goes home in 3 weeks and I'll be left to teach Nevada to someone else! I don't know if I can do it!!! Thankfully I've been driving so I know the area better than I would if I wasn't driving. It is also a tender mercy to me to have the Elders in the zone that we do. We had a zone outing this morning and it was so much fun! It has me re-energized to do missionary work! When we got together, we talked a lot about our different areas and it was so great and made me so happy to hear the other missionaries talking about their areas in a loving way! I could really tell that the best missionaries are sent to this mission! It is so true! I'm so happy to be here!! A few of us went to lunch after and one of the Zone Leaders said a prediction - that I was going to train after Sister Boone got sent home. That's like three or four people that have said that already! I hope it doesn't happen! I'm SO not ready to train! But, I guess if Heavenly Father thinks I can do it, then I'll do it. It will be hard but it will also be good.

WE ARE SO EXCITED RIGHT NOW!!!! We as in Sister Boone and I. You might recall a Brother Elliot in the last few of my emails. Well, this week he is going to be interviewed by President Shumway and then probably be baptized on October 20!! He's had a long hard road to get to this point! It will be AMAZING to see him get baptized!!! We seriously couldn't be more excited!

So we started teaching and proselyting in Ft. Scott this week. We had a lesson with a guy named Chris. It was amazing because when we went to church last Sunday, a member came up to us and said, "My husband was just wishing we had missionaries because he has someone he wants to share the gospel with!" What a miracle that we show up right when he has someone ready! And Chris really is ready! He had to go out of town this week so we don't know for sure if we will see him but if we do, we will probably be setting a date with him! It is so exciting to be here and have the work progressing! We are being so blessed!

Sister Gilkey is also on her way to be baptized! We had to push it back another week because she hasn't stopped smoking yet. She came to conference and we could tell that she liked it! Her daughter is also a member and has been less active but is going to start coming back with her mother! She's also related to some other less actives in the ward and they were at the same session that she was at. We had a lesson with her after and all of a sudden the guy that she is related to came in and said that he just talked to the Bishop and he has a few things he has to straighten out but then he can baptize her! So essentially, she is getting baptized and bringing 3 people back to church that haven't been coming for a while! If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is!

We are also teaching a man named Bro. Riley. He's been less active for a while but he just got his temple recommend! Now he just has to get the Stake President to sign it and he'll be on his way to the temple again! We usually meet with him on Sunday nights but there was one night that we were not sure what to do because it was now dark and the plans that we had fell thru. We didn't know what to do so we prayed and I thought that we should go see him. So we did. At the end, we said we were sorry that it was so last minute but he said that it made his day and that God must have been talking to us to come and see him. So, I'm not telling this story to boast about myself but to say that I am so grateful that I can receive revelation. It was weird to feel that we should go see him on a Thursday night instead of a Sunday night, like we usually do, but it was a miracle because he said that it made his day!

I love serving a mission and it truly has been hard but I know that it will be a huge blessing in the end, both for me and my family and my future family.

I know this church is true. Not just for me, but for everybody in the world!!!

I love you all! Thanks for all the support and the prayers you send my way. I can feel them!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 36:8

Dear family,

We've had quite an interesting week! We have been informed that we are now covering the Ft. Scott, Kansas Branch, along with the Nevada, Missouri Ward. We were quite excited about this news because we were hoping for a change in work and what we can do. We were also excited because both Sister Boone and I never thought that we'd get to serve in Kansas because there are no sister's areas, only elders, but now we get to serve in a Kansas Branch! It is pretty exciting! So we were able to go to the Ft. Scott Branch this last Sunday. We were only there for PEC and Sacrament Meeting and we already have a few people who attend the Branch that want to get baptized! And a lady came up and talked to us and told us how her husband was wishing they had missionaries in the Branch because he has someone he wants to share the gospel with - then we show up at church! What a small miracle! We couldn't be more excited to serve there! There are only about 40 people who attend, at most, so it's really small compared to what I'm used to at home and back in Bella Vista. The building is SO SMALL!! I will have to take a picture of it because you would never believe me if I told you how small it was. I couldn't believe my eyes when we drove up. It's so cute.

On Saturday we had an appointment scheduled during the Relief Society Broadcast but they cancelled and so we were able to go. I'm so glad that we were able to go because I needed it. The talks given were so good! I can't print them out yet but I'm excited to read them again so I can always remember what they said. When we were watching it, the lights were off and it was too dark to take notes. Plus, there was so much information that I wouldn't have been able to write down everything I wanted to if I was able to take notes. So that was good and it amazes me how four talks can touch thousands of women's lives, and they are all going through different things. It absolutely blows my mind how Heavenly Father can work! It's great! I'm so glad that Heavenly Father loves us all to answer our prayers! We are so blessed!

We met with Bro. E twice this week and he is just amazing. He is so ready for baptism and it is just great to see how the Gospel can change people's lives -how it can make them better. It will be a glorious day when he is baptized, and I absolutely can't wait!

On Wednesday we went to Rich Hill to meet with a couple of people but they cancelled so we ended up tracting a whole bunch. It was getting late so we were heading back to our car but I said that we should go to one more house. So we did. No answer. We kept walking to our car and Sister Boone said we should to go to one more. So we did. They let us in! We were able to do a quick Plan of Salvation lesson and then had to leave because it was getting late. But we will go back! They are the Millers and they are retired. They are Nazarene and they go to church up in Butler. We hope that we'll be able to testify of the Restoration of Christ's Church and that the Spirit will testify to them! It will be good.

We also tracted into Carl about a week and a half ago and we were able to meet his wife this week. She was really nice and seemed genuinely interested in learning more! We gave them Plan of Salvation pamphlets. They have a two year old son who is so cute. They don't go to any church here in Nevada but hopefully they will go to ours soon!

One more small miracle that I want to mention. It might not sound like a miracle but it was a tender mercy to me. Yesterday we were tracting. I'm not the biggest fan of it. But we were tracting and the first house we went to, the people weren't very nice to us. So as we were walking to the next house I was looking up at the sky and I thought of the movie Charly and the part where she looks up to the sky and says, "God are you up there?" So I said that to myself and I thought of how Jesus Christ's name is on my badge. He really is always with me, right there on my badge, under my name to hold me up. I thought that was great. And then the rest of the people we talked to that night, they weren't necessarily interested in our message but they were at least nice to us!

I'm so glad I'm on my mission! It is going by quickly! I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it. Sometimes that is hard, but I'm still trying! I've seen many blessings from trying to do the work the best that I know how and I know I'll continue to be blessed throughout my life for the service that I gave these 18 months.

I love you all and hope all is well in Utah! I miss it but I'm loving the Mid-west.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is truer than true, whiter than white! We all can see God's hand in our lives everyday if only we look for it! Thanks for all the support you give me and the prayers that you offer up in my behalf. I truly can feel the strength from those prayers!

I love you all!!!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl