Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well, tomorrow will be the new year but I won't be there to say it tonight so I'm saying it now! :)

Cheyenne's baptism is this Saturday and we're really excited and she's really excited as well. It should be a good experience for her and I think she really is ready to be baptized. I'll be giving the talk on the Holy Ghost and it just reminds me of the time I gave the talk at Emily's (Jodi's daughter) baptism. It won't be as good this time because I don't have all the stuff to do it and Cheyenne is 23 and not 8. :) But hopefully it will still be good.

We don't feel like James is progressing anymore. He doesn't seem to be working super hard on quitting smoking. He tells us he is cutting down but the member that he lives with says that she thinks he is smoking more because she can smell it a lot more now. So we're kind of bummed about that but we'll continue to work with him and see what happens.

On Christmas Eve we met with Brother Ash and he expressed to us how he didn't want to be alone again for Christmas and if there was anything we could do or anyone that we knew he could spend it with. So we did some magic and called up the Gibson's. They were more than willing to have him come over so he spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Gibson's and us because we were with the Gibson's for both of those days too! :) It was so great to see the Gibson's fellow shipping him and they even got him presents! Bro. Ash was so happy and you could tell that it was probably the best Christmas he's had in a long while!

It was so great getting to Skype you on Christmas! We were pretty lucky! Our last mission president didn't allow skyping but our current one does, as I probably mentioned when we talked, but yeah, it was exciting! We also got to watch G-rated Disney movies on Christmas Eve and Day as I told you so we went and saw Monsters Inc in the theater and we watched Cars 2 and it was both Sister Reeves' and my first time watching it. I loved it!!! I might even like it better than the first one. But anyway. Taylor and Keira have both changed so much and they will continue to change over the next while before I come home! It's like I'll be coming home to new siblings!! It will be weird to get used to!

Last Wednesday we got to go to Tulsa for a special Christmas Conference. I thought it was really fun and I had a great time! For the first half they split us into groups and we went around to different rooms and played human futsol, watched 'The Phone Call', had a contest of who could make the best paper airplane(they were in the shape of a straw and you had to blow it off of the straw), and played some minute to win it games. The second half was full of instruction from President and Sister Shumway. I just love them. They're so great and I'm really grateful that they've been called out here to the OTM on their missions. They are the funniest couple ever and it is hilarious to watch them and listen to them sometimes.

On Saturday, we had the privilege of being a part of a "Mini-MTC" for the Joplin Stake. They invited all the YSA and Youth ages 16 and up and had an all day training center for missionaries. Sister Reeves and I got to teach Chapter 10 from Preach My Gospel - Teaching Skills. It was pretty fun. We started it off with having some Elders do a "role play" and be bad missionaries. It was so funny. They did a really good job of doing the opposite of what a missionary should do - they didn't have a well prepared lesson, one of them pulled the phone out and start texting, they got off subject, etc. Basically opposite of what Chapter 10 teaches. What is even more funny is that some of the people thought they were being serious and one of them even said, "I can be a missionary right now!" It was pretty funny. So yeah. The Mini-MTC opened with about an hour of a guy who organized it talking and a recently returned missionary talked and shared a really cool story from his mission. Then there were 2 one hour classes. Then a 'missionary lunch' including PB&J and cold cereal. Which is NOT what Sister Reeves and I eat. We eat the leftovers we get from members that our fridge is full of!!! Then an hour of some missionary games, two more classes and then a closing session that was open to everyone to bear testimony. I thought it was pretty cool and that all stakes should start doing this because it really will help them prepare for a mission and get that in the front of their minds. It was a great experience.

Well, I think that is all for now. I love you!!!!

See you soon then.

Love, Sister Pahl

Christmas is here!!

Hello family!!!

It was an okay week. We didn't have too many lessons but it was still alright.

We started going through the Addiction Recovery Program with James. I don't remember what I've said before, but he's cut down on smoking from 1 1/2 packs a day to 2 cigarettes a day. That's pretty good! But we hope he can continue to improve and be able to stop completely so he can be baptized! He's practically a member of the ward. He's even singing in the Ward's choir! He has a testimony but now he just needs to quit smoking and then we are good to go!

We have been having a harder time meeting with Cheyenne. But we went to her son's 1st birthday party on Saturday and we were able to meet a lot of her family and her husband and her brother who is a member in another ward. Hopefully meeting her husband softened his heart a little bit towards us and he'll be more accepting of her meeting with us and coming to church! I guess we'll see what happens.

We're also trying to work with Brother Ash. He came to church last week and he said he liked it a lot and we even set up an appointment with him for last Wednesday but then we could never get a hold of him and so on Saturday we stopped by and he was home. He said he wasn't trying to avoid us, but we think he was. Then he said he would come to church yesterday but his ride went to pick him up and he wasn't ready to go, so he didn't come. We'll continue to try to work with him and get him coming back to church.

I'm FINALLY going to tell that story from zone conference. Honestly, it probably won't be very funny to you all, but it was funny when it happened! So it happened during lunch. All of the sisters were sitting at the same table. For some reason, Sister Hanshew was talking about wanting to learn how to whistle real loud with her fingers in her mouth, you know what I mean? Dad can whistle real loud but he doesn't do it with his fingers in his mouth...anyway, my companion, was like, "Oh, I'll teach you." So she was trying to teach her and she did it really quietly and at the same time that she whistled, a louder whistle echoed through the gym. All of us sisters were like, "What??" And the whole gymnasium went absolutely silent (there were probably about 60-70 missionaries). President Shumway was standing in the middle of the gym wondering who just whistled. Turns out, one of the Assistants, Elder Davies, saw us trying to whistle and then he saw President looking around like he was trying to get every one's attention so he thought that we were whistling to quiet everyone down, so he whistle really loud. Well, President wasn't trying to get every one's attention. So Elder Davies went really red and was super embarrassed. Our whole table started laughing super hard. I was even crying because I was laughing so hard. After everyone started talking again, Elder Davies came over to us and he said, "Just so you all know, that was the first time that that has ever worked for me." So that was the first time the room went quiet due to him whistling. It was so funny! President Shumway also came over to us and jokingly told us to stop causing so much trouble. So yeah, that's my story. I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense or doesn't sound funny. It really was! :)

I can't believe that this time of year is here again! It feels like it was just yesterday that I was home last year getting ready to go on my mission! The last year has been a rough go, but it's been great! Heavenly Father continues to bless me as I go through trials and try to to the best that I know how to do.

This time of year is so special and we all should remember the real meaning of Christmas. If you haven't seen it already, go to mormon.org/christmas. It is a really good website and I'm pretty sure you can download some free music! You should tell all your friends about it and put it up on facebook! Invite everyone to go to it and feel of the real meaning of Christmas!

I'm so excited to talk to you all next week! It'll be great!

Love you all!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl

D&C 54:10

Hello!!!!!

Transfer calls were on Saturday and Sister Reeves and I are staying in Miami!

We had a fairly good week. There was a Ward Christmas Party on Saturday and so all day on Saturday, Sister Reeves and I went around to all of the less actives in Miami and gave them invitations to the party. There were a few less actives who came and there were a lot of people. We even had to set up more tables and chairs as a result of there being so many people. The members say that it was all thanks to us but it really wasn't. They are the ones who fellowship and made the party happen. As a result of the party, we had about 5 to 7 people who are less active that came to church yesterday. It was a great time and we didn't run out of food at the party, which was good! Sister Reeves and I love the Miami Ward and are glad that we get to be here for another transfer.

This week we had the privilege of meeting with a less active named Darla. She has lots of health problems which stop her from coming to church. As we were talking with her, she was able to really open up to us. She mentioned that she's never been to the temple, even to do baptisms for the dead. She has been doing some family history work and has reserved some names so that she can go and do them but she can't go to the temple because she hasn't been coming to church because of her health. So we talked some more and told her to meet with the Bishop and see what she could do about it. We really think that she'll be able to come to church, regardless of her health problems. She started crying and said that she really misses the fellowship of the church members and that she really wants to come back. So we are going to start working with her some more and see what we can do. It is so great to see less active members realize the importance of church and want to come back!

We also think James is moving right along. He really wants to stop smoking. Not because of the church, but because of his 4-year old daughter, Eden. Being able to be baptized because of it is just an added blessing. He now has an "Addiction Recovery Program" book and a copy of the "Stop Smoking Workshop." So hopefully with these resources he'll be able to stop smoking and be baptized! He doesn't want to set a date yet, but we will keep working with him!

We are also working with Cheyenne. She's having some resistance from her husband. She feels like he's trying to get in the way of her joining the church. She wanted to come to the party on Saturday but didn't end up being able to because her husband was stalling and trying to do other things. But she still wants to be baptized! She's praying that he'll soften his heart. We are also praying for that! She's supposed to get baptized Jan 5th but has only been able to come to church once. Her work schedule prevents her from coming. She works every Sunday. She's only had two Sundays off in the last long while and she came to church for one of them. She has a pretty strong testimony of the gospel though! She could read the Book of Mormon a little more but her life is crazy, as is everybody else's lives, so she doesn't read a lot. Hopefully things can change, the Lord can work a little magic, and we'll be able to see miracles happen in her life!

On Friday night we were in the store getting some supplies for a district outing and guess what song came on the radio??? I don't remember what it's called, but it is the really popular one from the Nutcracker. AND it was playing at the SAME TIME that Nani, Taylor, and Keira would have been performing in the Nutcracker. Coincidence? I think NOT!!! So I stopped and listened to it and pretended that I was at home watching the Nutcracker with all of you! :) It was nice and so now I look forward to actually being there with you next year!

So I attached some pictures:

#1 - Sister Reeves, Maggie, Me. Maggie is just being.....maggie. that's not how she looks all the time....

#2 - some of the sisters at zone conference.

#3 - our district - Elders Gurney, Tangen, Beard, Steadham, Park, Sister Reeves, Me, Elder Hokansen.

#4 - Sister Reeves, Kimi, Me.

Again, thanks for all your support, I love you all!!

See you soon then!!!

 Love, Sister Pahl

 

 

 

 

D&C 52:11

Hello!!!!

I hope you all are having a fantastic week!!! I'm pretty sure I have the best family in the world! Thank you so much for the December package! I'm sure I'll enjoy opening the presents throughout the month! Ya'll are great!

We had a pretty cool experience happen this week. So last week we were going around to less actives homes and trying to get to know people. Well, we went to this one house and knocked on the door and someone said, "Who is it?" So we replied, "The missionaries." They opened the door and it was this girl and we started talking to her as if she was the person we were looking for. She asked us what church we were from so we told her and asked her what her name was and she was not who we were looking for....so we asked if we could share a message with her and she said maybe another time. So we left her a Restoration pamphlet and went on our way. Then this last Tuesday, the day we told her we would come back, we went and knocked on the door and the same thing happened - "Who is it?" - "The missionaries." - an older lady opened the door this time and we said we were looking for Mercedes. She said that she wasn't here and so we asked her to tell her that we stopped by and we would try again later. We turned to go and the lady said, "Wait! Don't go yet! Where is your church located?" She invited us in and it turns out that she is a member that hasn't been to a church in years and was wanting to come back but she didn't know where a church was at. She came home the other day and saw the pamphlet and asked her daughter where she got it and Mercedes told her that some missionaries stopped by. She saw it as a sign that she needed to go back to church! I almost started crying when she was telling us this story. I was so excited and knew that Heavenly Father had a hand in that miracle! What is even greater is at our last district meeting, the zone leaders had promised us that a miracle would happen for us this week if we looked for it. I was lacking a bit of faith because I didn't feel like we were worthy of a miracle happening to us. But it goes to show that Heavenly Father watches out for His children and will do whatever is needed to help them come back to Him!

This week we also found out that James is ready to get baptized! Remember what I shared about him last week? Well, turns out that he saw that as his answer that He knows its true. He said that that wasn't him talking when he told his neighbor to read the book. So he took that as his answer! He wants to be baptized and so now all he needs to do is quit smoking and we'll be good to go! It is really exciting!

Zone Conference also was this week. I got to go back to the roots of my mission - Bentonville/Bella Vista, Arkansas!!! It was great to go back and see that area again! I miss it there so much! President Shumway had some great insight that I'd like to share. He started with drawing his life on a whiteboard. He started when he was 17 and went on from there. He pointed out how there were many different roads he could have taken due to different choices he could have made. But because of the correct choices, he was now with us in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. The point of this demonstration was to show that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us. BUT ALSO that Satan has a plan for all of us and it is just as written down as Heavenly Father's is. It is up to us to figure out which plan we are going to follow and how we are going to live our lives, according to Satan's plan or Heavenly Father's plan. Who's plan are you going to follow?

He also talked a little bit about the Atonement. He shared three scriptures that I really liked. They all mention what the Atonement covers. 3 Nephi 1:13 - His Atonement covers the WORLD. Isaiah 9:6 - His Atonement covers US. Luke 2:9-12 - His Atonement covers YOU. I love talking about the Atonement and what it can do for us. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and how I would love to know exactly what it covers and what it doesn't. I want to know the boundaries so I don't step out. Then I was thinking about how everybody is different and we all have different trials that we have to get through. There is no way that the Atonement has one set of "rules" for everybody. Since we are all different, I think the Atonement covers different things for everyone. THEREFORE, we need to stop comparing ourselves to other people, whether we are comparing our strengths or weaknesses. Everybody is different and we need to remember that. We need to focus on being our best selves and do what we need to do to be worthy of being in God's presence. Just because somebody else is sinning a certain way, doesn't make it right for us to do that. It's really kind of hard for me to explain this concept. Sorry if it doesn't make sense. It makes sense in my head! So if you don't get it, wait until I come home and then ask me about it! It would be easier to explain in person!

I was going to write about something funny that happened at Zone Conference but I don't have time and ya'll might not think it's funny anyway....so if I remember, I'll try to write about it next week. It was really funny. My abs hurt pretty bad after laughing so hard for like 5 minutes!!! :)

Well, I love you all and hope you are doing great! Thanks for everything you do for me!!!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 51:20

Hello family!

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was just grand! We had a pretty good one here in Miami. We went to two different houses. One for lunch and one for dinner, so it was pretty good.

We had a fairly good week with Thanksgiving. We taught a lady named Gail. The lesson was kind of crazy because of her daughter and nephew that were there but other than that it went well. We watched the Restoration DVD. The spirit was there and she liked the movie. She says she still has some things to overcome and then she'll be able to be baptized. She keeps telling us that she's just used to "hearing the word" in church instead of how we do things. She likes it, but says that it's different.

We were able to meet with Cheyenne yesterday and we talked about tithing and fasting. Her brother, who got baptized recently, seems to be a big help in her conversion. When we were talking about fasting she told us of an experience that her brother had shared with her about how he fasted once. It was pretty cool to see that he is being a help to his sister. She also texted us last night and asked us about something that her brother had talked about. It had to do with keeping the sabbath day holy, so we are going to talk about that this week with her!

Then there's James. We aren't quite sure what to think about him just yet. When we met with him this week, he told us about how he gave a Book of Mormon to his neighbor. Last week he just barely finished the Book of Mormon and didn't really say if he believed in it and then this week he tells us that he gave a copy to his neighbor and told him to read the last chapter and ask if it's true. He told us that he's not even quite sure why he told his neighbor that but that he felt good about it so he did. We think he subconsciously knows that it's true but he doesn't recognize that quite yet.

I wanted to share a little bit from what I've learned in my studies this week. It has to do with being happy. I was reading Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from this last conference titled, "Of Regrets and Resolutions." It is a fantastic talk!!! One of my favorite sections is where it talks about letting ourselves be happier. He says, "The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don't really matter or determine our happiness. We do matter. We determine our happiness. You and I are ultimately in charge of our own happiness....We shouldn't wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available - all the time! Life is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect....there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it. Perhaps we should be looking less with our eyes and more with our hearts. Let us resolve to be happy, regardless of our circumstances." We can determine to be happy no matter what we are going through. I testify of this truth. Being on a mission is not an easy thing to do, but I have to be happy doing what I'm doing no matter what trial I'm going through on my mission. I urge all of us to be happy now. No matter what. Let's not live with any regrets. Pres. Uchtdorf also said, "many of the deepest regrets of tomorrow can be prevented by following the Savior today." I second his words. Let's all more closely follow the Savior so we can be happy today and not have any regrets tomorrow.

I love you all and I love this gospel! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 50:45-46

Dearest family,

We had a pretty good week this week! We were able to pick up two new investigators. One of them is Gail. She's been coming to church every so often. She is the sister to a member of the ward. She's a single mom which is why we think the elders didn't get a very good chance to teach her. So we met with her this week and she seems pretty promising. She's already given up her coffee. Somebody also told us that her sister said that she is trying to do better because there are sisters here so she can get baptized if she wants. Of course she could do that with the elders here, but it will be easier with us here.

We also picked up a girl named Brandy. Her parents are inactive members and she used to come when she was a young woman. She would go to the Wednesday night activities and participate there but we have a record that says she hasn't been baptized yet. She seems really nice. She said she's been having a hard time right now. She got in a car accident and so she's pretty beat up from that. She loves reading the Bible and already has a copy of the Book of Mormon so we asked her to start reading it again. She seemed pretty excited!

We had dinner with a recent convert and her mother. The mother has never been really receptive. She's really supportive of her two daughters that joined at the beginning of the year, but she's not interested for herself. Some members believe that we were sent here to help her get baptized. As of right now, that doesn't look too promising, but you never know, Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways and everything happens on His time.

We are also still looking forward to Cheyenne's baptism in January. She was able to come to church yesterday for the first time! She usually works on Sundays and it's really hard for her to get it off, but she had yesterday off and so she came and brought her 11 month old son to church. She seemed to enjoy it! She's still excited for her baptism. We are just hoping that her husband will also be interested in the near future. He's really supportive of her but doesn't want to be involved in the lessons. He's pretty shy so whenever we go over to their house for a lesson, if he's there, he will go back in their room and stay there until we leave. So we'll see how that goes.

As I'm out here on my mission it is crazy how much I am blessed, even when I don't feel worthy of the blessings! As a missionary, you have to love everyone you come in contact with, no matter their situation. This past week, as we come out of lessons and dinner appointments, I feel so blessed because I have only been in Miami for almost 3 weeks and I already love the people here! The people in the ward are so great and they truly care about and love us missionaries. It is a super small ward but we still have dinner appointments every night. Some members feed us multiple times a month and some feed us once a week. It's a huge blessing to be here in Miami and I'm excited to continue to be here and to see more people come unto Christ and change their lives! I love this gospel and I love this church and I love being a missionary! I still can't believe that I'm actually on a mission!! It's great!

Well, I think that's about it for the week! We are hoping to get some more new investigators this next week so the work can continue to progress here in Miami!

I love you all. Thanks for all the support you give me!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 45:37

Dearest family!

How are you all doing?? I'm doing pretty good out here in Oklahoma. It has definitely been an interesting but fantastic week!!

Last Wednesday we had a Zone Meeting combined with interviews with President Shumway. Those are always fantastic! You get to talk with him about anything and everything you want and he will just help you with whatever you need. I got a blessing from him and it has helped me a lot and will probably continue to help me as I continue to try to work hard and be the best missionary I can be! Our Zone Meeting was pretty funny. So our Zone Leaders were instructing and we were talking about appearance as missionaries and one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Nordine, had just gotten a really bad haircut and so the other Zone Leader, Elder Atkin, started to use him as an example and Elder Nordine punched him in the jaw! I think he was just trying to be funny and not hurt him but he punched him pretty hard. He went bright red. It was pretty funny. Then yesterday, we had a zone outing in Joplin. We played flour ball again! It was so much fun!! Afterwards we went to a place called Steak&Shake...so good!!....and as we were all in line to pay, Elder Nordine asked Sister Reeves if she'd ever punched someone. She was like, yeah. Then he asked if she'd every punched someone on her mission, then I said, "In front of the whole zone?" It was so funny! He went bright red and everyone started laughing. So now it's like the zone joke. But Elder Nordine is cool with it and just laughs right along with us! :)

Anyway, back to missionary work. I feel like things are starting to pick up here in Miami. Last week we were able to see one of the investigators that the Elders had been working with. Her name is Cheyenne and she is really amazing! Her brother just recently got baptized in the Grove Ward and her mom is also investigating somewhere...not sure where exactly. But she is progressing pretty well. She hasn't been able to come to church yet because she works and can't come but she said that she has the next couple Sundays off so she'll be able to come to church. It will be so great to see her there! We are also having a lesson with her today. She has a baptism date for January 5 and so we will be giving her a "map to baptism" and probably talking about the Word of Wisdom.

We also have an investigator named James. He's read the Book of Mormon a lot but never read the book of Moroni. So when we met with him on Saturday, we challenged him to read it. On Sunday we asked him if he had read it and he said he did. We asked him if he prayed about it and he said he hadn't but that he would. So that's promising! The Elders said that he just needs to be asked to be baptized but we don't feel like he is ready for that quite yet. So we'll see how he progresses. He comes to church every week. The people he lives with are members so it's easy for him to come. He has the second cutest 4 year old ever - Eden. She is second just after Keira! :) She is so funny and reminds me a lot of Keira.

Last Wednesday, our District Leader and his companion, Elders Beard and Gurney, asked us to come to their ward's Young Womens and talk to them about personal progress and preparing for a mission. It was really great to stand there in front of a group of girls and help them know how to prepare for their missions. It was a cool experience!

Well, I love you all and hope you are doing great!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 49:28

Dearest family,

I am in Miami, Oklahoma!! My time in Miami has been interesting so far. It is definitely not going to be easy to be in an area where sisters have never been before. However, we are getting a lot of good feedback from the members and they seem to be excited to have sisters in the area. They are ready for a change and I just hope that we can live up to their expectations. Some of them say they've had a hard time with the elders that have been here and that they're excited to see the work pick up with sisters here now. So I hope that we can work hard and make the work progress here in Miami. Not a whole lot happened this past week. We are still trying to get our feet on the ground. Let's just say that I feel like Heavenly Father is preparing me to open a brand new area that hasn't ever had missionaries. It started with Sister Boone and I covering the Ft. Scott Branch and now with whitewashing an area. We are about to get a lot more missionaries and so areas that have never had missionaries are going to get missionaries! It will be super exciting but hard at the same time. Missionary work is work, that's for sure! But I'm trying to love every minute of it!

We have interviews with President Shumway this week, it should be good! I always enjoy having interviews with him. I cry every time but it is still good to be able to have 1 on 1 time with him so you can ask him anything you want and nobody else will know. Mission presidents are such a blessing, I feel, because he is like my dad out here. I can't just call my dad up and talk to him and tell him everything, but I get to email my Mission President every week and tell him anything I want. If I'm feeling bad enough I can even call him up. And we get to have interviews! They are so great!

I'm really sorry this is so short but there isn't a whole lot to report on. Hopefully this next week will be more exciting and more things will happen so I can have stuff to tell you next week! :)

The work keeps on going and I try every day to strive to do my best. I can improve every day and so I try to do just that - improve. It's not the easiest thing, but it is important and necessary for us to grow in this world.

I love you all!!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

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

D&C 35:6-15, 27

Dear family,

We have been super blessed this week in finding more people to teach! We go tracting a lot and even though I don't think it's the most productive way to work, we have been able to find a few people through our efforts in tracting. We also have received a few referrals from the members that are going pretty well!!

We are teaching a lady named P.G. She was a member referral from Sister Thompson. We have the lessons at her house! I mentioned her last week but this week we had another miracle happen with her! We were able to invite her to be baptized and she accepted a batism date of October 20th! She also came to church yesterday and seemed to love being there. A lot of the members know some of her family members so they were able to connect with her and fellowship her a little bit! It is great when the members reach out to the people in the ward that they don't know. That is how people feel loved at our church, is by being talked to! She also said that she's seen many blessings since she started meeting with us! She mentioned her house bill and how she owed (x) amount of money on it and she got her bill in the mail again this week and she owed a lot less than she thought. She sees it as a gift from God for doing the right thing and telling her that she is doing what He wants her to do. I think I might have shared this last week but she is the one who said that after her husband died a few months ago, she heard a voice through the radio that said he was in a better place and that he goes to a classroom and learns things about God that he didn't know before. We were able to testify of the Plan of Salvation and how her husband was in the Spirit World learning what she was learning. She thought that it is really great that she can live with her husband forever!

Another one of our investigators, Bro. E, has been going through some hard times in his life but we found out that he might be able to be baptized sooner than previously thought! That will be super exciting. He's been meeting with missionaries for a while now. We see him twice a week and he comes to church every Sunday, as long as he has a ride, and he also participated in the lessons and is Gospel Principles class and has great insights to things. He has a great testimony and has also been prepared to receive the Gospel! It is cool to see how Heavenly Father is preparing these people to receive the Gospel, even though sometimes it means they have hard trials and temptations in their lives.

Yesterday we were also able to attend the dedication of the new Joplin Stake Center. Last year, in the Joplin tornado, the stake center was swept away! There were even some members inside at the time of the tornado. But yesterday, Elder Tad R. Callister came and dedicated the new stake center! I even got to shake his hand! I felt so privileged to be able to do so. Two of the people that gave talks were in the stake center at the time it was swept away. They went into the bathroom to stay safe and then all the walls and the whole building just disappeared; except for the bathroom that they were in. Pretty amazing how Heavenly Father kept them safe! It was a great service!

I'm sorry it's super short this week but it's been a hard week and I'm short on time.

I love you all and pray that Heavenly Father will keep you safe until we meet again.

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 34:7, 12

Dearest family,

It has been one crazy week! As you know, I was transferred to Nevada, Missouri. It is VERY different than Bella Vista! However, we are being blessed immensely for our service.

I got to Nevada on Wednesday. We cover about 15 different small towns. Most of them don't have a hundred people living in them. We mainly stay in three main cities: Nevada, Rich Hills (don't be fooled by the name :) ), and Butler. My experience here is going to be a very humbling one. I am amazed at the condition the people here live in. It helps me realize how truly blessed I have been to be born in the place that I was, to the family that I was. Every day I grow more and more grateful for the upbringing that I've had.

I'll tell you about a few of the people that we are teaching that I've met.

Sister Swarnes. She is a less active lady who is struggling to come back to church. This last week, we read "Mountains to Climb" by President Eyring. I absolutely love that talk! The word 'faith' is in it a lot of times and it just goes to show that we really need to have faith in order to get through the things that we are going through. Heavenly Father will never allow us to have a trial that we can't handle. If we think we can't handle it, then we aren't having enough faith in ourselves and in our Heavenly Father. Sometimes people think that the Atonement of Jesus Christ will take away all the pain that we have and will take away our trials. In reality, it helps us get through them. If it took all our trials away, we wouldn't learn anything and then we would have no purpose of being here on this earth. We are here to gain a body and gain knowledge. If we don't have hard times, we won't learn anything or gain any knowledge. The Atonement allows us to have a friend who knows EXACTLY what we are going through and He will help us get through anything we ask Him to help us with.

Since I've been transferred, I'm now in the Joplin Zone. As you should remember, last year, a massive tornado hit Joplin. Well, that's the Stake that I'm now serving in. We had a Zone Meeting on Friday in Carthage and it was really great! When I left Bella Vista, Sister Knutson told me that I'm going to the best Zone in the mission. I believe her. The missionaries in this Zone are willing to work really hard and do what we need to do in order to complete the Lord's work while we are on our missions. Every transfer they work on a different Christlike attribute as a zone. This transfer we're working on diligence and next transfer we've decided to work on obedience. We are striving to obey even the little miniscule detailed 'rules' we've been given as missionaries. Like President Uchtdorf likes to talk about, if a plane is one degree off in it's travels, it could end up somewhere completely different than it wanted to be. It is exactly the same with missionary work and in our everyday lives. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass. If we are disobeying the simplest commandments like reading our scriptures and saying our prayers, we could end up on a path that we don't want to be on and that we never intended on being on. BUT if we are reading our scriptures everyday and saying our prayers morning and night and always have a prayer in our hearts, we are going to become the people that our Father in Heaven wants us to become. He didn't give us commandments for nothing, they aren't to control what we do, they aren't there to stop us from having fun, they are there so that we can become like our Father in Heaven and qualify to live in His presence again. We should not think of commandments as a fence that is keeping us in, but rather as a guardrail that is there to keep us safe and from falling off the edge of the cliff.

So something pretty cool happened last Friday. We had received a referral from Mission Headquarters so we went to their house Friday afternoon. They weren't home. After the Ward Activity we went to another lady's house but she wasn't available right then so we got in the car and almost at the same time, Sister Boone and I said we should go try the referral again, INSPIRATION! :) So we went and tried again. But again, they weren't home. The Assistants to the President in a recent training told us that if we get a referral and they aren't home, we should tract around that house and see if anybody else is interested. So there was a house across the street that had lights on so I said to Sister Boone, "Let's go to that house." She agreed and we went over and knocked on the door. As a surprise to us, they let us in! A guy by the name of Tony lives there with a roommate and they have some challenges so they have 'staff' that is working there all the time. Tony was interested in what we had to say so he wanted to listen to us. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he thought it was great! We also gave him a Book of Mormon to start reading and he said he would do so. After we left and were walking to the car, Sister Boone said that earlier she thought that we should go to that house but we had somewhere else to go. It just goes to show that God works in mysterious ways! I love this work and am grateful more every day that I decided to come out on a mission!

On Saturday we taught another lady. Her name is Sis. Gilkey. Sister Boone and her companions have been trying to meet with her for a while. She was a referral from a member but they hadn't been able to teach her. So finally we were able to meet with her! Her husband passed away in May, so we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. While we were talking about death, she shared an experience that she had with her husband passing away. She said she was listening to he radio one day and she heard a voice through the radio. It may sound weird but she said it was either her husband's voice or Heavenly Father's voice. They said that her husband is in heaven and he is alright. They said that he goes into a room and learns things about God that he never knew before. Once she said that, my mind said, "Spirit world!!!" And that's what we were going to talk about next! We were able to tell her that her husband was in the spirit world learning about the things that we were teaching her about and that he would have an opportunity to be baptized! She thought that was the coolest thing and she thinks the Salt Lake Temple is beautiful! She also accepted a baptism invitation! We call it a "soft commit" where we ask them to be baptized when they come to know the truthfulness of the things we teach. She's great!

We also had Stake Conference this weekend and it was AMAZING! The adult session was held in the new Stake Center in Joplin. It hasn't been dedicated yet and they are still working on some touch ups on the outside but it was amazing!! I don't have a whole lot of time to say what I want to say but let me just highlight on the importance of taking notes in meetings like that. It is super important to take notes. We should go into church meetings expecting to receive revelation and if we don't write them down, we won't receive as much as Heavenly Father wants to give us.

I love this Gospel and am so grateful that I've been blessed to be apart of it!

Thanks for all the support you give to me!

Love you all!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 33:3,18

Can I just say ... this girl is amazing!! I am learning so much from her example every week!  Love you all!

Dearest family!

We've had quite the morning! This morning as we were starting our companion study, Sister Knutson said, "This time next week, one of us could be packing to go to another area." Not even a minute later the phone started to ring and it was President Shumway. He had us put it on speakerphone so he could talk to both Sister Knutson and I. We were going to get a transfer call this Saturday night but things need to happen this week instead. Sister Magness will be Sister Knutson's new companion on Wednesday. She is currently serving in Nevada with Sister Boone, my new companion, and has been getting really sick. He said it was going to happen in two weeks anyway but he felt it needed to happen sooner. President and Sister Shumway say that there must be something that she is allergic to there so they are bringing her to a new place to see if things will clear up. I'm super sad to leave! I don't want to. But missions are all about submitting your will to Heavenly Father's. There is so much faith required in transfers. We have so much faith and complete trust in the Lord that He has in fact called our mission president. We have to have faith that our mission president is actually receiving revelation from Heavenly Father on where we need to go and our response very much is, "I'll go where you want me to go." We know that this is the will of Heavenly Father and you have sometimes a week, and in this case only a few days to know that this is what Heavenly Father wants. It is an unusual feeling having complete submission to one of the Lord's chosen servants. I think about being a member of the Church, you are called into the Bishop's office and you are asked to serve in a certain calling. You have the opportunity to say yes or no according to the agency that we have been blessed with. You can think that you are not qualified. You can be scared of what is going to happen. You can be afraid that you are going to fail or that people are going to think differently of you if you mess up in the calling - no matter how big or small. But its ultimately your choice to know if God has called that leader. As a missionary, you are asked to pack up everything you have, leave all that you know, leave the ward that you have come to love and serve, leave the investigators that, in this case, are getting baptized this Saturday, you are going to need to get to know a new area, new people, new challenges, new miracles, new blessings, a new companion, a new rhythm of doing missionary work and in our case, I only had a few seconds to say yes. There is no saying "no" to your mission president in situations like this. You still have all of those feelings that you had before you were called to serve the Lord full time but you have to learn complete submission - real quick. In emergency transfer situations, you very much feel a bit like the called apostles in the early days of the Church. They dropped their nets and left, they didn't get to be there when their father was buried....I won't get to say goodbye to very many people. I need to pack up and leave...I feel so blessed that I was able to serve with Sister Knutson. I hope throughout my life, I can continue to have the faith that I have in my mission president now. I want to continue to be able to sustain my leaders, the way that I sustain and follow President Shumway.

SO! I'll be going to Nevada, MO. Pronounced, knee-vae-da. Sister Knutson has served there before so she has already listed a bunch of people that I'm going to love right off the bat. It is so funny how Heavenly Father works! As I mentioned in my email last week, I've decided to work on faith for my Christlike attribute for the month. And well, my faith is being immensly tested right now! Change is scary, especially on your mission. When we were talking to President Shumway this morning, he said it takes a lot of faith to be up and moved like this. After he said that, Sister Knutson and I looked at each other and shook our heads because we both knew my faith was going to be tested and you never know how it's going to be tested until it happens!! Sometimes it is the most unexpected thing - like being emergency transferred!! Although, I'm excited to go serve with my new companion, Sister Boone. She came out with Sister Knuston and so she only has one transfer left but President Shumway said she really wants to finish strong so I'm excited to get to serve with her and finish our her mission strong!

My new address will be:

1204 W. Cherry #4

Nevada, Missouri 64772

Other than that crazy event, we've had a pretty decent week!

Kate is still amazing as ever! Sister Knutson says she has never seen an investigator have so much opposition as Kate has had! Even though she has opposition from her family and friends, she still knows that the church is true and that she needs to be baptized! I love her so much and am sad that I won't be there for her baptism but I know that we will stay in contact. The Lord has a huge plan for her! If she wasn't going to be such an asset to Heavenly Father, i don't think she would be having so much opposition from the advesary! She's going to be a huge tool in the hands of our Father in Heaven! I can't wait to see the amazing things that she is going to do in her life!

Brother Sandford is GREAT!!!! He still is getting baptized as well! His date is September 28! It is amazing the differences I can see since he decided to be baptized! I've known him my whole time here in Bella Vista! He has just been very different since he's chosen to follow what Heavenly Father wants him to do! I can't really explain how he is different! He just seems happier!!! Which is great! That's what's supposed to happen!!! When we follow the will of Heavenly Father, we know that we are doing what we need to do and that should make us happy!!

I guess not a whole lot more happened this week. We had 4 appointments set on Saturday and 3 of them cancelled! They were all going to be at the church and they all cancelled withing 10 minutes of thier appointment time! So we were at the church with not a whole lot to do because we thought our appointments were going to show up! So we were able to catch up on some stuff while we were at the church!

Yesterday, Sunday, was an AMAZING DAY!! There are two people that we know of that want to be baptized! And they aren't even investigators yet! One is the boyfriend of a girl in the Young Single Adult Branch. He has been coming to church for about 4 weeks now but has said that he doesn't want to take the lessons yet. Well, yesterday morning before church, he told his girlfriend that he thinks he wants to be baptized but he's not 100% sure yet. So then the talks in Sacrament meeting were all about making important decisions and praying about them and then just making the decision! So after Sacrament Meeting, he leaned over to his girlfriend and said, yeah, I want to be baptized! AHH!!!!! We were so excited to hear the news!

Another girl in the Branch has a friend. I mentioned it in my last email how she called us and left a voicemail saying she had a friend that wants to be baptized. Well, being the amazing returned missionary that she is, she has taught him the first three lessons and we are getting together with them this week to teach him! She says he believes it all! How cool is that?! The Lord works in mysterious ways and it is amazing to see that He is preparing people to receive His Gospel! I love this work and seeing the Lord's hand in everything I do!

Then there was the CES Fireside last night with Elder Holland! I don't know how many of you watched it, but if you didnt, you need to! It was an amazing talk about how we can't "check our religion at the door." There are many other things that I could say about his talk but I'm just going to say, Go read it or watch it and find out for yourself how amazing it is and how amazing Elder Holland is! I love him and all the other General Authorities so much! I know that they are called of God and truly receive revelation for the whole church and, ultimately, the whole world.

Well, it's been a crazy week! I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

See you soon then!!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 27:5

Dearest Family!

I am pretty spiritually exhausted right now! Today we had the opportunity to have what we call "Mission Tour." It is where a General Authority comes and does a training for all the missionaries and "tours the mission." We had Elder Yoon Hwan Choi and his wife come! He was great! Usually all the missionaries would meet together and they would do one big meeting but since our mission is the 3rd largest geographically in North America, they had like 4 different meetings. So today it was just two zones out of nine in my mission. That made it nice. More of a personal situation. He's able to focus more on the missionaries that are there instead of being spread real thin because there are 200 missionaries he is instructing. Today there was probably about 50-60 missionaries there. There were 4 sister missionaries there, including myself. So we sat down to have lunch and Elder Choi and his wife came and sat by us and ate lunch with us! We felt pretty special! It was really intimidating though because he is a General Authority! He said to ask him questions but we couldn't think of any because we were so scared that he was going to look in our eyes and see our deepest darkest secrets! But it was good. He has a son that is serving in the Sydney Australia Mission at the moment! So they know what it's like to have a child on a mission!

It is super amazing how Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Every month, we are encouraged to choose a Christlike attribute from Preach My Gospel and work on it. While I was praying the other night, I was considering what attribute I should work on for the month of September. I felt like I needed to work on faith. So I prayed that I would be able to work on my faith and build on what faith I do have. It's hard choosing an attribute because once you choose one, you know you are going to have some trials that are hard and they have everything to do with the attribute you are trying to work on. It's like you are signing your own death trap or something, saying you are willing to go through any trial that Heavenly Father sees fit to give us so we can work on the attribute we chose! So I've been praying that I can work on my faith and guess what Elder Choi instructed us on for 2 hours? Yep, faith! How perfect was that for me and it was a definite answer to my prayers!

I took lots of notes but for lack of time I'll just share the analogy he gave. So, he is Korean and they LOVE what is called kimchi. You might know what it is. I'd heard of it but I didn't know exactly what it was. It is boiled cabbage made with red peppers, garlic, and onion. It can be fermented and it makes it an anti-cancer food. It is really spicy! He said that it takes time to like it if you haven't grown up with it. So he applied this to growing our faith by mainly reading the word of God! Particularly to Alma 32:28 where it says it becomes delicious to me. So our faith can be built by reading the word of God and then it will become delicious to us. I didn't do a very good job at explaining how he did it! But it made sense in my head! :)

Now that that has been explained, I can tell you about our amazing week!!

Last week I told you about how Sister S whispered in Sister Knutson's ear that we need to ask him to be baptized again! Well, we were driving home from the church Wednesday night and we had a text from her! It said: "girls, Jim says give him a date and he'll do it...." WHAT??? We were SO excited!!! So we met with them on Saturday morning and we asked him what happened...little background if I didn't tell you already, Sister S told us to not push him and he would do it when he knows he needs to. They also pretty much told us that we could stop teaching them if we had more important things to do, like teach someone who is progressing. So we told them they were not wasting our time and since then we have really just been reading the Book of Mormon with them. SO he has been looking for a new job and he got one! Then a friend of his called him up and asked him if he wanted to do some consulting work. Brother S could see that he was being so blessed and that it was Heavenly Father blessing him and so he decided that he needed to do what God wanted him to do - be baptized! So that's what made him make his decision to be baptized! We are so excited! His baptism date is on the 28th of September. When they texted us saying that he wanted to be baptized, we told them that he needed to be living the Word of Wisdom 3 weeks before his baptism and he stopped drinking coffee right then and there! He used to have a cup every morning! So even though he gets headaches a lot now because his body wants the caffeine, he still doesn't drink coffee!! How great is that? That is something Sister Knutson and I were hoping for. On our way to their lesson, we were like, "How great would it be if Bro. S had stopped drinking coffee without us begging and testifying of the blessings it would bring?" Well, that's what happened! It's amazing what Heavenly Father can do for people! He touched Bro. S so much that he stopped drinking coffee without a second thought! It's so great!

Another amazing thing happened on Saturday! We came out of our dinner appointment and we had a voicemail from a Young Single Adult. In her message she said that she had a friend that she talked to the night before until 5 am. They were having a gospel discussion and she said she basically taught him the first lesson (she's a returned missionary) and he said that he wants to get baptized!!! We were more than excited to get this news! So we are hoping to get in contact with him super soon!!

As I am out here on my mission I am coming to more of a realization that I have nothing to do with any baptism I will be a part of; I didn't cause any of it. I'm just "the finger of the Lord." In our instruction today, President Stout, the Rogers Stake President, talked to us and he related the story of the Brother of Jared and how he saw the finger of the Lord. He said that us as missionaries are the finger of the Lord and that we need to live accordingly. I've been pondering that and how it really is true! I'm just here to guide people and get them through "the gate" on their journey back to their Father in Heaven. The Spirit is what testifies, convinces, and changes people and makes them want to become better. I'm just here because I have to be here in order for them to know what they need to do once they want to change and become better. I'm not making anybody change. I can pray as hard as I want and share my testimony as much as possible but that doesn't make people change. I'm only inviting the Spirit into the situation and that is what causes the people to change. I'm so grateful that my Father in Heaven saw me fit and worthy and called me to be out here helping him save souls. That's truly what missionary work is: saving souls. I'm humbled and grateful to be apart of His great and marvelous latter-day work! 

I love you all!!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl