D&C 88:87

Dearest family and friends,

Holy moly! Looking back at it, we had a pretty eventful week this week. There was something exciting that happened almost every day! We'll start with:

TUESDAY: We had a special Stake Training that all the missionaries were invited to. There were three different rooms and we were in a room with all the missionaries, bishops, and ward mission leaders. We were instructed by President Shumway and President Martin, the stake president. It was so good! I always get super pumped about missionary work when President Shumway talks about it! That's why he is a mission president! He has such a love for the work! It is amazing to be in the same room as him and to be instructed by him. President Martin was also really good! I feel like he helped to get the bishops and ward mission leaders pumped about missionary work. They talked a lot about how the ward is supposed to work right along side the full time missionaries. It was really good. When I come home, I'm going to miss meetings like that.

WEDNESDAY: We had District meeting in Gore, OK. It is a tiny little town and everybody in the ward is related to each other. In our meeting, we played jeopardy - plan of salvation style. It was fun! Naturally, the sisters beat the we got some snickers and a bag of m&ms - which is great because I was needing some for my popcorn! ;)

THURSDAY: Oh boy. This day was really interesting. So on Wednesday, my right ear was giving me some problems and I couldn't hear hardly at all. I had called Sister Shumway and she told me what I could do to help it. So I did that. I was up a lot that night missing my mom. I was crying because there was nobody I felt comfortable to wake up or anything but I knew that if I was at home, I could wake my mom up. But I wasn't at home, so I just prayed and cried in the bathroom hahah pretty pathetic now that I think about it, but I was hurting! So Thursday it was still really bothering me and so I called Sister Shumway again and she wanted to send me to an urgent care but we don't have one in  Muskogee. We ended up having Bishop Grooms look at it. He is an orthopedic surgeon. He ended up flushing my ear out with a syringe and got A TON of ear wax out. When he looked in my ear, the first thing he said was, "How is your hearing in that ear?" I told him I couldn't really hear out of it at all. I think it was because I was kind of sick and my sinuses were doing weird things so my ears were draining as well. It was not a pleasant experience. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

FRIDAY: Sister Shumway came out with us for a few hours. She came with us to see Marsha Disney and then a member's sister who we picked up as a new investigator. She has read the Book of Mormon before and we feel like if we do a really good lesson on the apostasy, then she'll understand. We were supposed to meet with her today, but she cancelled so we'll meet with her later this week.

SATURDAY: I guess nothing super exciting happened this day. We did go tracting and found a few potential investigators! So I guess that IS pretty exciting! :)

SUNDAY: Bro. Russell's baptism!!!!! It was so awesome! He is such a great guy! Too bad he is moving away from Muskogee in about 6 weeks. Silly guy. He bore his testimony and it was really good. He definitely knows the church is true and I hope that he can work towards going to the temple! One of his friends from the Oklahoma City area came to baptize him and his friend's wife gave the talk on baptism. It was really special for them to come and be a part of it because they've known him for quite a while. Overall, it was a good experience.

Another cool thing that happened on Sunday was I ate shark for the very first time in my whole life. It was alright. I need to try it again in different circumstances. That's all I'm going to say. :)

Well, I've officially been out for a year! It is so crazy to think about that! It doesn't feel like that long!

I love and miss you all! Have a great day!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl