D&C 68:35

Hello!!!

Holy moly! A lot went on this week! It was pretty busy! Again, we
didn't teach as many people as we were hoping, but it was still pretty
busy with other things!!

Last Monday, we came home from dinner and the Parkes were having
Family Home Evening with some of their children and grandchildren and
so we joined in with them. They were making supplies to go "egg"
people for Easter! One of the families that they did were the Nau
family. They are less active and so we had suggested them. What they
did is got 12 plastic eggs, put scriptures and candy in all of them
except for one and then they had a paper that you put on the door that
said, "You've been egged! There are 12 eggs hidden in your yard. Try
to find all of them but don't be sad when you find one that is empty.
It represents the empty tomb." Something like that. So we went to do
the Nau's and Sister Hatch and I drove with the Parkes' son and
daughter-in-law. I had my wallet with me and I had put it in my pocket
so I wouldn't forget it in the truck....WELL, when we were hiding the
eggs, it fell out!!! So Sister Nau texted us after and said, "Thank
you so much for the eggs! The kids really enjoyed finding them...we
have Sister Pahl's wallet." I was so bummed! I had pretty much ruined
it for everyone! I was seriously on the verge of tears!!! But it all
turned out okay because we were able to tell them that it really
wasn't us, we were with a family who was doing it. Maybe it will reap
greater benefits, knowing that members of the church are thinking
about them. :)

Throughout the week, Sister Hatch and I did it for 4 more families.
The Fergusons, who are active members but have been super sick lately,
they loved it! The Jordans, they are less active and one of their boys
just recently got baptized but haven't really been to church
since....they don't know who did it...we did a really good job at
getting away. Plus, we've never met them, so when we did a drive by to
see if they got it, they were outside looking for them and it looked
like they were having a fun time. The Oneals, they are investigators
and we got caught....we were hiding them and I went to put the paper
on the door and Sis. Oneal was right there on the other side of the
glass door....so I said, "Sshhh!! Pretend you didn't see me!" It was
pretty funny. The last one was CJ Peterson. He is less active and
lives with some other people and there is a little girl that is about
6 or 7. They weren't home when we did it but we drove by later that
day and they had gotten it. We haven't heard anything from CJ so
hopefully they got it! :)

Wyneeka!!! We were able to meet with her. She didn't want to have a
lesson that day because we hadn't seen her for a while and so she just
wanted to talk to us and see how we were doing. But we were able to
get a lesson in without her really knowing it. Since the Young Women
Broadcast and General Conference were coming up, we invited her to
those and then taught her a little bit about prophets. We also invited
her to the Ward Talent Show that we had on Friday. We were able to
kind of bribe her into committing to come. She said she wanted to come
but then I bribed her with some chocolate covered peanut butter bars
that I got the recipe when I was in Bella Vista. We had brought her
one before and she was wanting some more. So we said that we'd bring
some to the talent show if she came. The day came and we didn't know
how we were going to get a hold of her because she doesn't have a
phone, but she texted us and asked if we were still on for that night!
It as great to see that she really wanted to come! Even if it was for
my cookie bars hahah then she was going to come to the Young Women
Broadcast, but she ended up not being able to. That was pretty sad but
okay at the same time because I guess she's had some issues with some
of the other girls in the ward. But we've talked with the Young
Women's President about it and she thinks that it will be okay. So
hopefully we can get her to come to some other activities. We were
pretty sad that she didn't come because the broadcast was really good!
Especially Pres. Uchtdorf's talk! It was amazing!!!

We had our Train the Trainer meeting this week. Plus we had interviews
with President Shumway. I always love talking with him. I wish we had
interviews more often. I think it would help me out more. I always
feel super energized after my interview. He knows what to say to make
me feel better and helps me know how I can become a better missionary.
He is truly called of God!!

We had a super good lesson with Bro. Russell this week! He really only
has one more lesson before he is ready to be baptized but we can take
it pretty slow if we want which is what we are doing because we have
to get permission to baptize him since he had his records removed. So
this week we were planning on going over the Gospel of Jesus Christ
which is faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to
the end. So we started off with talking about faith and from there we
got to the topic of prayer and then it came to tithing. He says he has
a hard time with the tithing principle because he doesn't have a lot
of money and he doesn't want to do anything just because he is
expecting a reward. So we were able to talk to him about those things
and there was more to the lesson but it was just really good. We've
never really had a spiritual lesson with him but this week's was
really good! I think he is ready to be baptized so we just have to get
permission and then it can happen! :)

We had another really cool experience this week. We had a lesson with
CJ P....I mentioned him earlier...and we planned to watch the
Testaments because he says he hasn't seen any of the new movies that
the church has out. So since we can't be alone with him, one of his
roommates watched the movie with us. At the end of the movie, I looked
over at her, and she was bawling! She said that she'd been crying ever
since Helam went to go find Jacob in the big storm. The spirit was so
strong, regardless of the environment. I knew that she was feeling the
spirit and CJ told her that that is what she was feeling. It was just
super cool to see that our planning for CJ was really planning for his
roommate. She needed the movie, not CJ. And as it turns out, he had
actually seen that move before hahah so that was a really good
experience! :)

We got to have Easter lunch with the Parkes'! When we came to the
table, there was an Easter basket for both me and Sister Hatch! So the
Easter Bunny visited us as well! :) We are well taken care of here in
Muskogee! I love the Parkes so much! They're amazing!!

Well, conference is upon us again!!! It really seems like just
yesterday that we heard the great news about the lowering of age for
missionaries! This weekend we'll get to see how many missionaries
there were in the field at the end of the year! I wonder if it will be
a big difference from the year before. I always love conference! I
hope we will all really pay attention to the speakers and look for
answers to our prayers! I know that Heavenly Father truly hears and
answers our prayers but it is usually through another person that he
answers us! I'm super excited for this weekend! In the words of Elder
Nelson, "it's going to be historic!"

I love you all! Hope all is well! I pray for you every day!

See you soon, then!

Love, Sister Pahl :):)