D&C 101:64

Dearest family and friends,

I'm a silly one and since we just started a new planner, I forgot to bring my old planner and so I can't go through what we did last week and decide what I want to tell you, so I'm just going off what I can remember. It might be a short one because I have a headache right now so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to remember! :) Hopefully it's not too bad.

First, I'll update you on the tornadoes. I'm sure you are all wondering, I've gotten a few emails regarding them. The tornadoes that happened in Shawnee and Moore did not affect Muskogee, at least not the missionaries here. Those two towns are not in our mission boundaries so we will not be helping with clean up as far as I know. The Stake I'm serving in has been asked to take a turn in helping with cleanup but that will not include me. I would love to help clean up but that probably won't happen with these ones. I might get a chance later in the tornado season... :s hopefully not though. :) In Muskogee, we've just had some bad lightning and thunder storms, nothing too bad though.

We were able to pick up some new investigators this week. Becca, Hannah, and Destiny. The latter two were in church last week with their dad, Jimmy. He was a referral from a member and we've been trying to contact him so it worked out that he just came to church. We had an appointment with him but when we went, he wasn't home and Hannah and Destiny were being babysat by their cousin, Becca...not like they needed to be babysat but that's okay. Unfortunately, they did not make it to church this last Sunday. We have another appointment with them this week though so that will be good!

We had a little miracle happen this week. Sister Hatch thinks it's a big miracle.  We were going to go on splits on Sunday with members so I could go up to Wagoner for their meetings and Sister Hatch could stay here in Muskogee for thier meetings. We had a ride set up for both of us and everything. We woke up Sunday morning and had a text from the girl that was going to be my "companion/ride." She said that her car got a flat tire and so she couldn't take me anymore. We were pretty bummed about it at first but it turned out to be a blessing. We went to Ward Council and Sacrament Meeting and then we were going to Gospel Principles class, we walked in and found out that the teacher wasn't there! Plus, our Ward Mission Leader wasn't there because he was in Wagoner. So we ended up teaching the class! Sister Hatch was so grateful because she said that she couldn't have done it by herself. Since we were in Wagoner last week, we didn't know which lesson they were on and nobody in the class could remember either. So we just guessed based off what lesson we had been there for. At first, I thought we should do it on baptism since there was an investigator in there, but then felt we needed to do it on the chapter before, repentance. So we did it on that. It turned out to be a GREAT lesson! We had a lot of participation from the class and after it was over, while I was talking to someone else, Pico (the investigator), came up to Sister Hatch, shook her hand, and told her that he really needed that. He had asked the specific question of how do we forgive ourselves. We opened it up to the class and just had really good imput. I don't think I"ve had a better lesson. :) He isn't officially an investigator yet but we saw his wife (they got married like two weeks ago) who is a member at Walmart yesterday and we are going to go see them this week and hopefully he'll be able to become an official investigator.

Yesterday, we went to the Renaissance Festival. It was really fun and we ran into a few members, active and less active. We got our tickets for free because a less active we are working with works there and so he got our tickets for us. it was super nice of him, he even showed us around when we got there! As we were leaving, we ran into him again and he was with two other guys that were less active. We talked to them for a little while and we'll hopefully get to talk to them some more soon! The festival was really fun and I would love to go again sometime.

Well, I best be going! I love you all! Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers! They are very much appreciated!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl