D&C 88:126

Hello!!

Holy moly! We had a fantastic week! We were able to pick up 3 new
investigators in just one day and they are all amazing! We are so
excited for the work to be picking up here in Muskogee! We are relying
on the Lord to lead and guide us to the people that are prepared for
the gospel!!

Tuesday night we traveled up to Claremore, OK to have a
"sleepover"(which are not allowed by President except for this time)
with the sisters there - Sisters Magness and Lawrence - so we could be
in Tulsa by 6:30am Wednesday morning to go to Bentonville, AR...my
home roots!!!! I miss it there so much! It is such a beautiful place
and I just absolutely love it! Lots of wonderful memories there! We
went there for a Sister's Training. I probably told you about it last
week. Well, it was really good! Sisters are now going to have an
opportunity to have a leadership position in the mission field. They
will be called "Sister Training Leaders." They will be over several
areas of sisters and will go on exchanges with them. It is pretty
great but I'm not too excited about exchanges. I like just staying
with my companion. :) But, I'll make it good! The "STL" over us right
now is Sister Magness and I love her so it will be fun to go on an
exchange with her. That's pretty much all the meeting was about. They
taught us how to do an exchange and what happens during it. There was
a lady that spoke to us that was deaf. She got cochlear implants in
2009 I think. She's a convert to the church and had a pretty hard
life. She told us her conversion story. She left right after she spoke
so I didn't get an opportunity to talk to her. I was kind of bummed
because I wanted to practice my ASL with her! :) Oh well. Overall, it
was a great meeting!

On Thursday, we had a girl named Sister Palfreyman come and go out
with us. She went home from her mission about a year ago. She served
in Muskogee 2 years ago and was here for 9 months! So she took us
around to a bunch of people that she used to visit and teach.
Hopefully it opened up a few doors for us. It was kind of surreal to
have her with us. She was companions with Sister Reeves and so Sis.
Reeves told me a lot about her. Plus, everyone in Muskogee talks
about her because she was here for 9 months and is really outgoing and
loud (in a good way) and so everyone remembers her. So it was cool to
be graced with her presence. Her and another girl that used to serve
in the mission came together. We got to meet the other one, Sister
Stallings. It was weird to meet her too because she was companions
with Sister Reeves for 6 months so I heard a lot about her as well.
They are really nice girls. They are going to Cambodia next week to
help build an orphanage. Cool, right?! I want to do that! It would be
an awesome experience!

On Friday, we had an appointment in the morning with John and Yvonne.
We tracted into them last Saturday. I might have told you about them.
She was having a rough day and so they asked us to come back. We took
their number and said we'd call them in a few days to set something
up. So we called them on Tuesday morning and they were headed to the
doctor so they said to call back later that day. We called back twice
and they didn't pick up so we thought they really just weren't
interested. BUT they called back and wanted us to come over! So we
went over today and Yvonne told us a lot about what's going on in her
life. She recently went through a very traumatic experience that has
affected her health. She said the only other people that she's opened
up to is John and her therapist. She said she trusts us and that we
make her feel calm and happy. Their four dogs also loves us...which
means that we are good people...that's what Yvonne said. :) Anyway, as
she was telling us everything that happened to her, I got this HUGE
impression/knowledge/testimony that she truly is a daughter of our
Father in Heaven and that Jesus Christ went through everything that
she went through. It was a really spiritual experience for me. So we
testified to her that she is a daughter of God and that our message
will change her life for the better. We went back on Sunday and talked
about the Restoration. They said that they believe that it is true!!
The only problem with them is that they're not married. They're
planning on getting married in July or August so they won't be able to
be baptized for a while, unless we give them a good reason to get
baptized before.... :) The situation is difficult and it's hard to
explain without getting too personal. So they are great and we are
excited to be able to teach them! Yvonne said that she believes that
we were sent here to help her through this time in her life. John even
said that she's been happier since we came. They said that they day
after we came, it rained and she just felt clean and like it was a
fresh start. It was really cool to hear them say that!

Then also on Friday, Christina got out of the hospital after being
there for almost 3 weeks!!!!! We were so excited to see her and so we
went over to their house, I didn't even knock on the door, I ran in
and gave her a huge hug! We have really missed seeing her! While she's
been in the hospital, her Uncle Joey moved in with them. He introduced
himself to us and then went to the other room. Christina told us his
situation and that he was looking for a church to go to. ;) So we told
her that he can come to ours! She said that he had one that he was
looking at going to and trying out. So later on, he came back in the
room and sat on the couch. We really were just talking with Christina
and catching up so I turned to Uncle Joey (as we call him :) ) and
said, "Hey! So we hear you're looking for a church!?" He said, "Yeah,
I am. You got one?" I said, "Oh boy, do we ever!" :) It was kind of
funny. So we told him a little bit about it and gave him a Book of
Mormon. The next day, Saturday, we went over for a "movie night" and
we watched the Testaments. He LOVED it! He was even making fun of the
hat things they wear in it...it was pretty funny. He's one hilarious
guy. So then we talked to them about coming to church the next day. He
said, "Yeah, but I gotta find me a hat..." hahahah oh man, we laughed
so hard! I can't even begin to explain how funny he is! They didn't
end up coming to church on Sunday. Christina is still exhausted from
her stay in the hospital and Joey was sick. We went over Sunday night
and he was asleep on the couch. They said that he'd been laying there
all day which is weird for him because he's usually up and doing
stuff. Joey said that he woke up that morning at 7 with the greatest
intentions to go to church but then just felt super sick. So last
night we talked with Christina about setting a new baptism
date......(the night before, we told her that her and Uncle Joey could
get baptized together but then she said that she didn't want to push
him into it and neither do we).....and Christina turned to Joey and
said, "Hey Uncle Joey, we could get baptized together!" Uncle Joey
said, "Yeah, I've been thinking about that. That'd be cool!" So, they
both have a date of June 1st! We are so excited. Tonight we are having
family home evening with them. It'll be cool to help them build their
testimonies so they can get baptized! :) We're soooooooo excited!!!

That's pretty much the excitment of the week. The Wagoner meetings are
still being held every week. Right now they are being held in the
Wagoner Civic Center but starting on the 19th, it will be held in an
actual church building that Bro. Mobley found. It's a stone's throw
from the Civic Center and it will be nice because it's a church
building that is not being used. It's not one of our church's
buildings, but it's one that hasn't been used in a while. The pastor
of that church died and it hasn't been used since. I wish we could
work up in Wagoner more! I feel like there's so much potential up
there but we don't have the miles to do that! Maybe with all these new
missionaries coming out, President will put missionaries in Wagoner!
:)

Speaking of new missionaries, we have 9 sisters coming out this next
transfer and 11 coming out the next! I don't remember if I told you
that before or not but it is so exciting! I'm not excited to train
again, but it will be good!!! :)

Sorry if this was just one big rambling story! Especially the
paragraph about Christina and Joey! I hope it all makes sense! :)

Well, I think that's it for this week! I'll talk to you guys on
Sunday!!!! :) Yay! :)

Love you all!!!!!!

See you soon then.

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl