Sister Ficklin is awesome.

Dear family and friends, Yes, Sister Ficklin is awesome. I didn't know what to put in the subject line so, naturally with every decision I make, I asked her what she thought and that's what she told me to put and so, I did. :) I really couldn't do it without her. She is a trooper! Especially for being out for a few weeks, she goes on as many exchanges as I do, and most of the time she stays in our area and has to work here with someone who doesn't know the area. I know that I couldn't do that when I was out for only 4 weeks. So I know that God sent her to me to be my companion for this transfer. She's amazing and I love her!!! Last Monday we went and had dinner and 'game night' with the Whatcotts and the Crocketts. Bro. Crockett is one of the Elders' investigators and his wife used to be an investigator but she got pushed a little bit and got turned off by it. So the goal of the night was to introduce us to her and hopefully get her a little more interested again, but I don't think that it worked very well. We had a good time trying to do it though. We played this game called "Heads Up." It's a game they had on their iPad and it was like charades (spelling?). It was pretty funny. One of the Elders, Elder Bauer, was with Mark Whatcott and they had to act out "belly flop" and it was so funny because he did it so perfectly! He went up in the air and then down on his belly he flopped! What was even funnier was he was the one that didn't want to play the game. He's the one that got most into it. Anyway, it was fun and I think Sis. Crockett had a good time but I'm not too sure what will happen with her. We want to introduce her to family history and see if that will spark an interest but we will have to see what happens! :) We've started volunteering at a Nursing Home and playing Bingo with them. It is so much fun! I work with this one lady where every day we play, I have to explain to her again how to play it. Then by the end, she doesn't need my help any more. But I just love elderly people. They are so much fun to work with! :) We are still trying to work with the Staton family. I told you that they know Pres. Martin, the Stake President, right? Well, they do. It is pretty crazy! Last time that we met with them, Bro. Staton was giving the girls a bath so we just talked with Sis. Staton. She said that she had read the pamphlet and that she didn't think it was crazy and that it could be possible that it happened. We then talked more about the Book of Mormon and what it is and challenged her to read it. She said that she would read and prayed about it! :) Earlier that day, Pres. Martin had texted us and asked how they were doing so we texted him back and told him that and he said, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you! This is totally in my prayers. Asking for the Lord's tender mercies here!" So Sister Ficklin and I are thinking, "He's the Stake President, God HAS to listen to his prayers, right?" hahah but we're just being funny. We know that the Lord will provide and then they will have to choose for themselves whether they want to accept the message or not. That's what agency does to ya. Sometimes it can be frustrating but we just have to remember that it is a part of the plan. Bro. Henry is still doing great!!! He came to church again yesterday and there's been some people asking us to change his baptism to sunday so that they can just stay after church and so everyone doesn't have to make a big trip on saturday as well as sunday - since we are such a spread out ward. So we are trying to see what we can do! :) He's as amazing as ever. He loves church and he is actually been able to talk to his family about it a little bit. His mom is still not on board with us coming to the house and teaching him but his dad and sister are. We're praying that his mom's heart will be softened! His dad is great though, he tied Bro. Henry's tie for church yesterday! And Bro. Henry said that the other day his dad hugged him and told him he was proud of him because he was going to church. Apparantly that was one of three times he has ever said that he was proud of him so that was a tender mercy right there! :) I went on an exchange this week to Mena, Arkansas. It is such a pretty place!!! They have pretty big hills! They're so big I ALMOST consider them to be mountains. They claim that they are, but I'm not sure if I agree. :) Anyway, I was with Sister Daines for the day. She is so great! She has 9 nieces and nephews!!! Her oldest sibling is 12 years older than her. So it kind of reminds me of Keira and I but we have 5 more years between us. :) I always ask people in that situation how their relationship is with that sibling because I want to have a good relationship with Keira even though we are 17 years apart! I just like to know how people do it. :) Her and her sister have a really good relationship though, so it's doable! :) The Rileys didn't come to church yesterday but they were dealing with a family situation. We were sad because Pres. and Sis. Shumway spoke in Sacrament Meeting and did a fireside after the linger longer we had after the block. :) It was so good!!! Sister Ficklin and I and the Elders did a special musical number for Sacrament Meeting called "How Great Shall Be Your Joy." It is kind of like "A Child's Prayer" where they boys have one part and the girls another. It was so funny because Elder Young was trying so hard not to disappoint us that he came in at the very beginning when he wasn't supposed to. The good thing, he was hitting the right note! So we had a rough start because then Sis. Ficklin was laughing and trying to compose herself. But it ended up being good. Elder Young said, "I was trying so hard not to disappoint you and then I completely messed up!" We felt bad but we had a good laugh over it. It is super interesting serving in the same ward as other missionaries but it's good! :) I love you all so much! Next week I have Mission Leadership Council on Monday again so I won't be emailing until Wednesday. I can't believe a month has already gone by and it's time for MLC again!!! Time goes by much too fast these days! :) I love you and I will talk to you next week!!!! Have a GRRRRREAT week!!! :) See you soon then! Love, Sister Pahl

Meeting, Meeting, Exchange, Exchange

Dearest family and friends,

 

The subject line of this email pretty much describes the week. It was quite an exhausting one.

 

On Tuesday, we had a meeting in Tulsa called "Train the Trainer." It is pretty much an instruction from President Shumway on how to better do the "12-week program" that we use when training new missionaries. It is always really good. This is the third one I've gone to. First when I was training with Sister Knutson, then with Sister Hatch, and now with Sister Ficklin. I really just love President Shumway and his passion for missionary work. He also has such a passion for the Book of Mormon and it is so cool to see that! It makes realize that I feel the same way! I love missionary work and I love the Book of Mormon so much I cannot even begin to describe it! We are so grateful to be living with the Vendels. They are so good with driving us to places that we need to go to. They drove us 3 hours to Tulsa for a 2 hour meeting and then 3 hours back and they also took us to Parley P. Pratt's gravesite on our way home. We love them so much! They are taking good care of us. They also feed us whenever we don't have a dinner appointment. They're great!

 

We also had a lesson on Tuesday with the Statons. We tracted into them last week. They are super nice and we are so glad that we have met them! They know the stake president of the stake that we are serving in - Ft. Smith. It was pretty funny to hear that. Bro. Staton could even name all of Pres. Martin's kids in order, so they must know each other pretty well! On Friday, I saw Pres. Martin while I was on an exchange and I told him how we met them and he was just so excited! They work together and it was just cool to see his reaction. He was so glad that we had tracted into them and was grateful that we are serving in Charleston. It was actually a tender mercy that he said that because I was really needing to hear that we are needed in Charleston. We've been having a hard time with finding effective and efficient things to do with our time and so I just needed to hear that I was doing a good job and that I was appreciated. Anyway, Sister Ficklin and Sister Breaux were supposed to meet with them again on Friday, but they went over there and Bro. Staton had the stomach flu so we are now going back on Tuesday to meet with them again. So hopefully I'll have more to report on with them! :)

 

On Wednesday we had District Training Meeting (new name...used to be District Meeting). Then we switched companions and I brought Sister Harris with me and Sister Ficklin went down to Mena, AR. We went and saw a few less actives that live pretty far away. We had Laura Whatcott drive us around. She just graduated from high school and wanted to come out with us as much as possible before she goes to BYU in a few weeks. So that was pretty fun!

 

Thursday we switched back - yay! Then on Friday we switched with the sisters that are serving in Van Buren, AR. I went up to Van Buren to be with Sister Wilson and Sister Breaux came to Charleston with Sister Ficklin. It is quite interesting all of these exchanges. I like it though because I get to know a lot of the sisters that are out here serving God! :) Friday was fun being in Van Buren. We were able to find a new investigator named Alexis! She is pretty great! We were just walking through some apartments walking back to our car and she had just come out of her apartment and was looking at the sky seeing if it was going to rain. I felt like we should go talk to her and we did. As we walked up to her, she had this kind of scared look on our face because she didn't know who we were. But we explained who we were and what we were doing and she said, "Yeah, you can share something with me right now." It was great! :) We went through the Restoration pamphlet and she thought it was the coolest thing every. She just soaked up everything we said. I just love the way that God works! Had she not stepped out of her apartment at that exact time while we were about to walk past, we might not have found her! I love being a missionary! I just love it! :)

 

Saturday we switched back. That night a member, Bro. Hinderliter, that lives in Charleston set up a cottage meeting for us and the Elders to come to. We went and nobody showed up! We were pretty bummed but oh well. Bro. Hinderliter's son was there and so we shared a message with him but the situation is difficult because his son has some mental issues. So he can't talk and he get up and left in the middle of it but we don't know if it was because he was mad or if he was having a hard time breathing. Anyway, we are going to try it again and invite more people to the meeting!

 

Sunday we went up to a town called Lavaca. We met with Sister Moore. She is a less active member but she is super awesome! She comes to church maybe once a month but we think it is because of her husband. He is a nonmember and we think that she doesn't want to always leave him at home on Sundays. He doesn't have anything against the church, but I imagine it would be hard being married to someone who was a member of the same church as you. We are hopefully going to start teaching her nieces that live with her. They love coming to church and the one that is older than 8 hasn't been baptized. Sister Moore is going to talk to their mom. Hopefully it works out! :)

 

We also had dinner with a lady named Dolores. She is the friend of one of our ward missionaries. So Bro. Carter, the ward missionary, the Elders, and us went over to her house for dinner. We didn't have a spiritual message, we just went over for fellowship. She is really nice and is a painter! Sister Ficklin was able to connect with her really well because she is an art major. So that was cool!

 

Both Bro. Henry and the Riley family came to church yesterday! We were super excited! Bro. Henry has a baptism date for August 17th and the Rileys are still wanting to change and get to the temple! They said that they are trying to read everyday together and pray together as well! We are going to have a lesson on patriarchal blessings because the lesson in Relief Society talked about those and Sis. Riley didn't know what it was. So we are excited to see them this week! We are hoping that Bro. Riley will be able to baptize their 8 year old son! :)

 

We hope that this week we will be able to continue to improve in our work here in Charleston! We love it and hope it continues go get better like it did last week! :)

 

The Church is true! God loves all of us, His children. He wants the best for us, that's why we have the gospel - so we can know how to get back to Him. We can't do it without the help of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for us because He loves us! How blessed we all are! :)

 

I love you all! Do great, be great, live great.

 

See you soon then!!

 

Love, Sister Pahl

I'm out of scriptures!!! :)

Dear family and friends,

 

I'm sad to say that I've run out of D&C scriptures to share with you! I hope you enjoyed looking up the scriptures about how the Lord said that he will "come quickly." I really enjoyed doing that study while I was reading the Doctrine & Covenants. Now I'll have to figure something else out. I've never been too good with subject lines.

 

Anywho. It has been an interesting and long week! I took a much needed nap after studies this morning. Since the library doesn't open until noon on Mondays, we have about two hours to do whatever before we email. This morning I choose to take a little nap. It was great! I think it was my meeting at the beginning of the week that wiped me out. It was so spiritual and such a great meeting that I was just spiritually exhausted! That's what you get for being a missionary I guess. :)

 

Wednesday night we had dinner with the Safranek's here in Charleston. They're Italian. At least Bro. Safranek is. They are super nice! They've helped us a lot with getting to know the people on the ward list. They've given us lots of information. Then they took us to the church and we were able to do some things there. We met with the Bishop and he helped us to know who else we could focus our work on. Then while Bro. Safranek was at the church doing his calling, Sis. Safranek took us to our Ward Mission Leader's house. He had called us the day before and told us that if we were in his area to stop by because his wife's children were going to be in town. His wife is also a non-member. Little did we know, it would be an adventure just getting to his house. We had a GPS but he lives waaaaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere kind of in the mountains but they aren't mountains, they're hills. ;) Anyway, he is working on building a house up there and it was interesting finding his place. As we were driving up their long driveway, his wife and her kids were going on a walk. So we stopped and talked to them for a little bit - Sis. Safranek had talked to her before when she has come to church. Then we went up and saw the house that Bro. Pitcock is building. It is quite amazing! We were sad that we didn't get to talk to his wife more but hopefully we will another time.

 

Thursday was pretty great. We had received a media referral for someone and so we called and set up an appointment for that day. He works at McDonalds in Booneville so we met with him after his shift. Turns out that he started taking the missionary discussions 23 years ago when he was 17 but his grandma told him that he couldn't do it any more because she didn't want the missionaries around. Since then, he still has been reading the Book of Mormon, has received an answer that it was true, and now he is starting to read the Pearl of Great Price. He downloaded the LDS tools onto his phone so that's how he has been reading and studying. It was pretty amazing! He really wants to be baptized but he is worried about his family because he hasn't told them about it yet. So we are going to pray and hope that his family is okay with it. Even though he is older, he lives with his parents because he has some health issues and they help to take care of him. But he is pretty golden! His name is Bro. Henry. When we were teaching him, he was practically teaching us the lesson about the Restoration! It was amazing!

 

That night we also had a lesson with the Riley family. We had it at a member's house so their kids could play together. We had dinner and then we talked a little bit about their goal to go to the temple. We talked about having family home evening, family prayer, and family scripture study and how that would help them to get to the temple. They are super amazing and we love them already. Unfortunately, they didn't come to church yesterday because one of their sons has some mental issues and he was having a really bad day. But we are having family home evening with them tonight at the Safranek's home. It is going to be good! Sis. Safranek said she would do the lesson and she told us that it is going to be on "Families Can Be Together Forever." We are pretty excited! :)

 

On Friday we had a meeting in Ft. Smith. It was our Zone Training Meeting that we have at the beginning of the month. I always love being in these meetings! I just love being with all the missionaries! It's fantastic.

 

After the meeting, I went on my first exchange as a Sister Training Leader. I got to go back to Muskogee! I was with Sister Stockhoff. She is from Oregon and I love her to death. It is amazing the way that the spirit works because I was going to go on an exchange with her companion first but felt like I needed to go with her first instead so I did and it turns out that that's what was needed at this time. We went and met with a few people that they are still teaching from when I was there and then we also met with a guy that the Bishop found. He is pretty golden and Sister Stockhoff did an amazing job with teaching him and committing him to a baptism date! I love Sister Stockhoff and I think we'll be friends for a long time. Her and her companion have only been out for 6 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me how much I see that the missionaries that are coming out right now have been so prepared. I've seen it both in my companion and in Sister Stockhoff. They are just ready to teach people and bring them to Christ. They are much better missionaries that I was when I was out as long as they've been out. I know they've been well prepared to serve at this time.

 

On Saturday we changed back. Before dinner we ended up going tracting because we didn't really have much else to do in this little tiny town without using a TON of miles (we are limited on how many miles we drive a month). But it was really good because Sister Ficklin and I are working on Diligence as our Christlike attribute of the month and so it was good to know that we were being tested. We were blessed too because we found a few people that invited us to come back and they all seem pretty promising! We are excited to go back and teach them!

 

On Sunday we had a special Ward Council where we just focused on missionary work. We had a little brainstorming session on how the ward can better do missionary work. The Elders and us were in charge of it. That was pretty nerve wracking. But we showed a video from the Hastening the Work website at the beginning and then had the little brainstorming session. It was really good because we were able to get a lot of good ideas from everybody and we'll hopefully be able to put those ideas into action pretty soon.

 

I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this time! I could not have asked for a better experience. My mission has been super duper hard at times but I've been able to get through it with the help of my Father in Heaven. I could not be more grateful for Him and His influence in my life and in my mission. There's no way I'd be able to still be out here and doing the things I'm doing without His help. I've truly been able to see His hand in my life on my mission. I'm excited to see what He has in store for me in the next few months! I really cannot express how much I love being a missionary. It's the best thing ever!

 

I love you all and hope you all are doing great! I pray for you all the time!

 

LOVE YOU!

 

See you soon then!

 

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 133:2, 11, 17

Hey everyone ... sorry this is so late.  Ashley just sent us the letter yesterday, and I haven't been able to get it posted until now.  Thanks for your patience!!  ~Tricia

 

Dearest family and friends,

 

Some pretty crazy things have been going on! With my new responsibility, I had the opportunity to participate in what we call Mission Leadership Council. It happens the first Monday and Tuesday of every month. That's why I couldn't email until today. We would have emailed on Monday but the library doesn't open until noon and we had to leave Charleston by 11 to get to Tulsa on time. My new companion, Sister Ficklin, stayed in Claremore, OK with another missionary while Sister Magness(serving in Claremore), a few other Sister Training Leaders, and myself went to Tulsa for the meeting. It was an amazing meeting and I had no idea how much the Zone Leaders had part in what is going on in the mission. We really help all the training meetings that we have and what goes on there. It is pretty sweet. On Monday night, we had a devotional type thing and Elder Southward, the Area Seventy, came and him and his wife did the devotion. He is a great guy and we are going to see a lot more of him in the next transfer. He is going to go around to all the stakes and help with the special Zone Training Meetings that we are going to have that involve even the members in the stake. Usually these meetings only involve the missionaries but we are trying to implement the things that we learned from the meeting on the 23rd. It is truly a great time to be a missionary and I'm so excited to be serving right now.

 

So my new companion, like I said before, her name is Sister Ficklin. She is 19 and is from Las Vegas. She is truly fantastic! I love her so much and am so grateful that she is my companion! I could not have asked for a better trainee! She pretty much already knows what she is doing and what she is supposed to do. It is great! We think we are only going to be together for this transfer though because President Shumway is going to try and get every STL with another STL in the same companionship - like Zone Leaders. So that will be nice, we won't have to do as many exchanges and we will get to share the responsibility instead of having it all on one person.

 

I am going on my first exchange on Friday to Muskogee!! I am so excited! I think it will be good to help out the sisters that were just moved there. I just hope that I know what I'm doing as a Sister Training Leader and can do what I'm supposed to do. :) But I get to call the other STLs whenever I want for support or to answer any questions that I have, so that is great!

 

In Charleston, we went and tried to visit all the Less Actives in the area. We met the Riley family who haven't been to church in about two or three years. We asked them if they have the goal of going to the temple and they said yes so we told them that in order to do that they need to come to church! So on Sunday, after Ward Council, we walked into the room that we have Sacrament Meeting(more like a gym than a chapel), and Sis. Riley and two of her boys were sitting on the back row! We were so excited to see them!!! Her husband would have come but their youngest boy was up all night and so her husband stayed home with them. Their oldest child is 8 and has not been baptized yet so we are excited to start working with them!!

 

Our assignment is to work specifically with the less actives so that's what we are going to try and do. Everything is so spread out here that we are going to do some major praying to figure out how we are going to effectively work with all the members. But, I know that the Lord will provide and He will guide us to do the things that we need to do.

 

I met a lady at church on Sunday. Her name is Marsha Qualls. She knows Grandma Wilberg! She is Melissa Anderson's aunt I guess. So that was SUPER cool to meet her!!!!! I was so excited I pretty much started crying! We are going to try and have dinner with her this week. Her husband is a nonmember and was really receptive last time there were sisters here but when they got elders, he kind of backed off so we are hoping that he'll be receptive again!

 

The work is so exciting!!! I know I say this like every email, but I truly am so happy to be a missionary right now. I know that it is what I need to be doing right now! I can't even describe my feelings!!! I'm so happy!

 

Well, I love you all! Thanks for everything!!!! I only have an hour on the computers here and there is so much to do so sorry if I am terrible at responding to email!

 

See you soon then!!

 

Love, Sister Pahl

:D Transfers!!!!

Dearest family and friends,

This week has been crazy!!! It started out pretty slow, it was probably the longest week in a while and the work was pretty slow but we got through it and have moved on to a good and hopefully a better week!!!

We picked up two new investigators this week. Their names are Shelby and Victoria. They are 12 and 10. We have quite the young teaching pool! But who better to teach than kids? They are already so teachable and humble and want to learn everything you have to give them. We found them through a member's boyfriend. They are his kids. He's taken the discussions before but hasn't been baptized yet. We'll work on him too. We love them so much! They didn't have any church clothes so Sis. Lee (the member) took them shopping on Friday and bought them some dresses! It will be so good because Sis. Lee hasn't come to church in a while and so this will get them all coming! All four of them ended up coming to church on Sunday! It was kind of because Sis. Hatch and I were speaking in Sacrament Meeting, but hey, they came, right? :) We went to Primary with the girls (Shelby wasn't comfortable going to Young Women's) and it was a lot of fun! We just sang songs the whole time and one of them was about baptism and they asked us how you get baptized. So they are excited about coming to church! We also had dinner with them on Sunday night. We love them all so much!!

Sister Wall took us out to see Yvonne. We haven't been able to see her for a while because we haven't been able to contact her but we finally did and she moved to the outside of town. We had a good time catching up with her and her and Sister Wall seemed to get along really well. They were going to come to church yesterday but they didn't make it. :(

We also had lunch with David again. It is so frustrating when an investigator doesn't understand!!! He says that he probably will get baptized and join our church but it will take him a few years to do so. He has to accept that the Priesthood still exists and that we have living prophets on the earth again. We'll have another lesson with him tomorrow so hopefully that goes well! :)

On Saturday we went to Wagoner for the last time. :( We saw the people that we've become close to. We had lunch with a girl named Hailey. We went and visited her and her family a few months ago and she is starting to come. We've only met with her for a few times but we've gotten pretty close. She's only 20 and really wants to come back to church! It is amazing to be a part of such an important thing in people's lives. I love being a missionary! :)

On Sunday we spoke in church. We both talked about missionary work. I think it went well. I focused my talk on how the members can do missionary work because sometimes we just don't know how to do it. WE are told to do it but we don't know how.

We also met with Christina on Sunday. She isn't very happy at this moment because.....

BOTH SISTER HATCH AND I ARE GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!! We were super shocked and sad that we both have to leave all of our investigators and this amazing ward/area! But it's okay because there will be more sisters coming here. :) I am going to be staying in the same zone/stake. I'm going to open an area called Charleston, AR. It is in the Greenwood, AR Ward. I'm going to be working specifically with less active members in that area because there are a lot of them. I will also be training a new missionary AND I will be a Sister Training Leader! So, I've got a lot on my plate and need lots of prayers and letters! :) That would be very much appreciated. :)

I absolutely love being a missionary and I am excited for this new adventure/responsibility. I am sure that I will learn a lot from it!!! I know that the church is true and am so happy to be a part of it and to be a missionary sharing the gospel!

I love you all!!

See you soon then!!

Love, Sister Pahl :):)