"Make all the boy Moose go. WHAAAAAA!!"

Downtown Mackay, Idaho

Sister Coats- half the Summer Clan- Sister Owsley

(sorry for all the typos hope this all makes sense)

So to explain my title. Sister Coats and I went up to mine hill to go hiking this morning. well first off we totally did not follow the trail, but my awesome mountain women skills came in handy (dad would be proud) and we made it back safe and sounds. The coolest part... WE SAW A MOOSE!!! ya like a legit real moose it was huge and it ran..like fast! haha We were busting up and screaming it was so funny! 

so rewind.....

Monday last week: We had dinner with an investigator couple, Jim and Evelyn Ippiloto. They are from new Jersey and have the accents to prove it! (It hilarious how people end up here) but they are awesome! . Jimmy though makes the best food ever and they understand why people live in big cities ... so it was good to talk with them! Evelyn is so sweet and Jim is a crazy goof ball who loves to make fun of us! :) But he did school us in Uno! haha

Tuesday: ST. PATRICKS DAY!!! (No corned beef and Cabbage) We did however have district meeting. We also went over to the Bells (btw she totally reminds me of mom:))We visited a lot of people and had dinner with our ward mission leader in Lesile, Brother Jones is awesome and him and his wife are so sweet!

Wednesday: we went and painted a Potential Investigators house. Her name is Jennifer Quinn and she is the mom of another Potential here in Mackay. But we painted and talked to her for a while. she is so funny and just sweet! She took us out to lunch in Moore afterwards. We did get talking and she said they just bought a new BBQ with a smoker on it so I told her dad did that so she went out and bought all the meat and want us to come over and teach them! (so going to need you recipe dad!) anyways she was so nice and offered to come let us work and her bed and breakfast during the summer! had Book of Mormon class that night and had a good turn out. read over Mosiah 18 i think and talked about sharing the gospel which was great for the people we had there! 

Thursday: We had weekly planning, Did service for an elderly Less-active lady, and had the Relief Society Activity in Mackay that night. Nothing too exciting.

Friday:I think I lost my brain that day. We were everywhere doing everything and it was CRAZY! We had to leave early to go to Arco which is 30 minutes away to go pick up a new car from Elder McQueen So that occupied our morning. Yes got a brand new 2015 Subaru legacy. it white therefore we named her Blanco! haha  Then we went over to the Ivies and made cookies and Bread to give out to people. Weird I know but people will let you in here if you have food! :) Sister Ivie is awesome and while the cookies were cooking she took us up mine hill here and took us to gravity hill! Craziest thing you drive down the hill and then put you car in Neutral and it pulls your car back up the hill. Totally tripped me out! they were all laughing at me!haha after that we went to Fay Hansens, We were going to cook her dinner so we bought a stoffers Lasagna thinking that would be easy to do. We go over to her house and realize its not thawed so its going to take a 1 hr 45 min to cook. ya so we go and put it in now freaked out at how long its going to take. So we go out and start racking her leaves for her. Sister Coasts goes in and turns the heat up, and I go in and pull the timer back a little so she doesn't notice. Well we finished the yard work but the food was not done at all. So we sit down to watch " A priceless possession" (Which BTW is a great church movie!) and we keep pushing the timer she set back. in which she says " I could have sworn that it said 35 min 10 min ago" Sister Coats and I just laughed and nodded out heads. Ya no worries though it all finished and was actually pretty good! haha Stopped by some more people that night and really was everywhere!

Saturday: SERVICE! We went out Lesile in the morning and helped Bishop Summers put in a fence. We had to pound in the posts. ya. WAY harder than it looks. He made it look so easy! Dang it then I get up to do it and look so dang weak! haha But it was good to get out and help them. After that we went to the rogers in Mackay and helped them with there horses. So tempting to just get on and ride them. they kept offering and it looked so fun. So I told them we would be back up to ride them after my mission! We had Dinner with one of our investigators that night. Michelle, she is so funny and cooked the best mashed potatoes ever! she even taught us Japanese which just made me laugh! Ohai yo (good morning) has been my new catch phrase the last few days. had an ice cream party with the Henney's that night. in which I vicariously live my dreams of going to the UK through her. Her Husband is from England and they lived there until this year! Ya dream life! 

Sunday: we had to give talks in the Lesile ward this Sunday. Our topic was on Christ (ya really broad!) haha but they went well. I focused a lot o grace which has been my theme I guess for the last week. And how His grace really is sufficient for us all! We had lunch with the Fullmers and dinner with the Wainwrights (who there daughter just got back from a mission in Australia) Pretty good Sunday though. the most amazing part was we got out of church and had a text from Kevin Hennesy. He said he had found my name tag in the park. Which the weird part is I have never been to the park there. I had lost my name tag on Friday and was really sad since it was my first name tag. Well i know its silly but I prayed that i would find it. Well rewind... A few days prior we heard that Kevin doesn't really want us to pray at there house anymore so we had kind of gotten discouraged from that. So when we found out hew found my name tag in a random spot we knew it was a way to tell Kevin he was an answer to prayers. Funny how Heavenly Father works that way! 

I know Heavenly Father is truly looking out for me He has carried me so far and I and so grateful for his love and the grace that he has given me. It been rough but I have learned so much here already and its been a worth it! 

Here are my Funnies for the week...

1. Evelyn Ippilito found out I have never dated a boy and here was her quote to me... " You have been hanging out with turkeys, what you need to do is be with the eagles" made me smile!

2. Totally almost hit another deer this week I think Im just going to start a running total. Barely misses: 3 Hits:0 

4. We were getting a new car this week since our cd player in it didnt work. well we get in the car and get on our way and guess what... yup. cd player doesnt work. Sister Coats was fuming haha it was slightly funny.

5. dinner with Fay... enough said! 

6. So we were driving down the Highway and we see this black thing in the road. yup a bay cow got out of a broken fence. Well in an attempt to help it we go to Brother Ticherts whose cow it is. We tell him and he then askes if we put it back and fixed the fence.... we tell him no then he asked well did ya just hit it then.... we said no.. to which he replied why not? Ya 2 city girls here!

7. Sister Coats caught some serious air in our new car this week.... ya you heard right new car. we were laughing pretty hard

8. This Sunday because we had to speak we were sitting on the stand where everyone could see us.. not a good place to catch the giggles which is what happened. here the reasoning behind it though. you know when they choose a song that no one knows. ya it way more evident when you can hear everyone and no one is singing the same tune... ya busted up laughing!

love you all!

#itsnotgoodbyeitsc-yalater

Love, 

Sister Owsley 

The Lost River Valley and the Very Lost Sister 3/16

Last night in Burley

So Needless to say one of the craziest weeks of my mission ever! Started out pretty normal and in Burley, Idaho and ended in Mackay, Idaho about 300 miles from where it started! haha ya I'm just glad I'm back to laughing now. So in order to get the full spectrum of what happened, I will start from the beginning.

Monday: We had P-day it was awesome we all played a really intense game of volleyball which was a blast, and during the game we got a call from President Curtis that one of our investigators got approval to be baptized! he has been waiting for a while and so we were super excited. We had dinner at the Dowdles where we had pufferigists (totally don't think I spelled that right) I'm glad we did though so I could have them one more time! We went over to our investigators next and told him the good news so it was a happy day. 

Tuesday: I was getting ready that morning in my room and for some reason the thought came to me that I really didn't want to be transferred again because I have so much stuff! haha but then quickly following that thought was the impression that I was leaving soon. Well I finished getting ready and we were driving to district meeting and I started to hink about Mackay, Idaho. I had no clue why until now but I just felt weird I guess is the best way to explain that. Well we had an awesome District Meeting and went to lunch at Taco Bandido (ya... not my choice haha) but then we went on with our day well we got as call from president Curtis (who was at our district meeting) saying that he needed to help a sister and so I was being Emergency Transferred. It kinda of stunk but honestly at the time it didn't hit me and i was really ok. I got to say bye t some people and we were able to see some people that night that we had appointment with so it all worked out. But packing took FOREVER!! haha

Wednesday: we finished up something and I finished packing we went out and visited some people and it was good. President and Sister Curtis came with the other sister and SISTER BLY!!!!! to come and pick me up! Gah tender mercies of the Lord that I was actually going on exchanges with sister bly before i went to Mackay! Seriously best thing ever!  drove back to Twin. Which was weird because we both felt like should go right back to 11th ward haha. Well we didn't and we headed back to Jerome for the rest of the day. Heavenly father Knows just what we need in our lives ad he knew i would need that transition period to help me get through all of this. Well we had a good time in Jerome needless to say. I got a blessing that night from Elder Fleck and it really helped comfort me in knowing that all was going to be okay even though it was going to be hard. 

Thursday: Well since I hadn't gone to the temple that transfer President said we could go with sister bly and Sister Drapers District to the temple. So that morning we headed to Twin to lunch then to the temple. Which I can honestly say was another huge tender mercies that before all of this I got to go to the temple and collect my thoughts and be closer to the Lord. After that we went shopping because well there is nothing here in Mackay and so we needed to "stock up" and sister coats put it. So we did and then we made the journey (and I mean that) to Mackay and we made it back bu 8:30 so LONG day! haha Sister Sayer was the one who drove us up and she is amazing and bought us dinner too. it was so sweet of her! 

Friday: Well we had some appointments and service so we were out most the day and visiting people we got a new investigator and I was able to meet so many people which was awesome. We had dinner with the Haroldsens. They are an older couple and they were so sweet. Well we went home in an attempt to do weekly planning but I had to unpack because my brain was going crazy!! so I did that. Ya long day but a productive 1st day here! haha 

Satuday: then the BOMB hit! ya all my emotions caught up with me on Saturday Well I got hit hard with a cold so I was really sick on Saturday then I started missing Burley. So I was a mess. Sister Coats was awesome though and she really helped I slept most the day and was able to finally pull myself together enough to get up. Well we also have great members here that dropped off dinner and brought us ice cream so i was feeling better haha but still not feeling well and still sick. 

Sunday: I swear was a 180 for me spiritually and emotionally. I was still having a hard time physically being sick and all but it was good to get out. We had ward council in Mackay and then we went to the Lesile ward for a missionary homecoming. Oh my gosh the church building here are so small!!!! like a 1/4 the size of our chapel. haha CRAZY! Well i met a lot of people and it was good to just get names down. Were getting there. We correlated with our Ward Mission Leaders and went over to Bishop Summers who is over the Lesile ward. He is awesome and really funny. We were standing at the door and sister coats looks up and tells me to say right there and i look at her like ok your weird but then bishop summers opens the door and scares me so bad and they all just busted up laughing. it totally made me feel at home! haha 

over all this week was crazy but ive learned a lot in the last few days, and I have a felling I will continue to learn a lot here. It kind of is like a foreign country up here but I am excited to be here and to learn whatever it is that the Lord needs me to. I kind of feel like its my final testing point on my mission. I hat change and I REALLY hate spontaneous change so its kind of like my final here on mission and I am ready to do this. Dont get me wrong it still stinks but the Lord has truly carried me the last few days when I have felt like I couldn't do it anymore. I know that he loves me and is looking out for me! 

Congrats you made it to the end of this probably slightly boring sad letter... Well here are the funny thing and fun facts of this week:

1. Mackay, Idaho Population 517 ya........

     ya they have like 7 graduating seniors this year..........

2. The Largest mountain in Idaho mount Bora resides in here in this "valley"

3. Yes everyone here refers to this as the " blessed valley" in every prayer, testimony, or comment its was pretty funny

4. We were driving from this members house yesterday and sister Coats was driving haha and there dog kept running in front of the car so she would accelerate in fear of hitting the dog. ya that went on for about a mile down the road until she finally did and while doing so screamed " PLEASE I CANT KILL A DOG" ahah

5. There are deer her EVERYWHERE. so on our way home last night in the dark. we saw a deer in the middle of the road. so Sister Coats slammed the breaks on and honked her horn so the deer would move.. well im pretty sure the deer was under the influence because it couldn't decided which way it wanted to go for a good 30 seconds. Ya we busted up laughing.

6. there is one grocery store here and its the size of a gas station....... oddly no Target haha

7. sister Coats and I started a new hashtag #onlyinmackayidaho 

 this week it consisted of the ice cream the member brought us was call cow tracks not moose tracks, but the funniest part was that it had miniature chocolate cows in the ice cream... ya only in Mackay...

hahah well hope everyone has a good week! Love you all

#itsnotgoodbyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

Looking Up 3/9

This week has been really good actually! We have been finding a lot of potential, nothings turned up yet but we are keeping out hopes up that it will. We had some pretty awesome experiences this week that Ill share but I guess as for the whole it was a good week.

Tuesday this week we had Zone conference here in Burley with both the Burley and Rupert Zone. It was  a great conference that covered a lot of topics that have been on my mind lately. One of the themes of the day was about the Atonement of Christ and how we can better use it in our lives and about how as we study the atonement we are better able to use it and it helps us in our desires to share the gospel. They also talked about "Hastening the Work" and using members and leaders to help us in the work. It was perfect because that is exactly what we have been needing in our wards and it was an answer to prayers and I think a lot of what lead us to success this week.

Another Highlight from this week was on Wednesday we planned on going to Highland Estates which is a retirement home. we have a few members in our wards there so we decided to stop by and visit them and introduce ourselves. It was so sweet and all of them asked us to come back and read the Book of Mormon with them. There was one man in Particular. Brother Loyd, we knocked on his door but no one answered so we went down the hall to see if this other lady was there and she wasnt so we turned around and walked back. He has poked his head out his door and asked if we were the ones who knocked on his door we told him we were and introduced ourselves her then proceeded to look at sister Pohahau's name tag and then asked her what nationality she was. She said Tongan, he got a big smile on his face and told us he and his wife had served a mission in Tonga in the 80's he asked us to come in and we were there for 45 min. Sister Pohahau was in heaven and she was so excited they shared stories and he knew where she live. But the kicker to all of it was when her talked about the first Germans to settle Tonga a few minutes later sister Pohahau asked if it was this certain family. He got a huge smile on his face and said he knew that family. well that is her great grandparents, he then told her that he was the one who baptized all of them! CRAZY!! haha so because of that man sister Pohahau and her family have the gospel. who would have guessed that would've happened hundreds of miles from home! haha It was such a neat experience and he asked us to come back. He is 98 years old and has the greatest memory ever, he was pretty sharp still too! But seriously can't wait to go back! That night we also had an amazing lesson with Joe and Jeanine Maybe. and Joe told us that he wants to be baptized. He still has somethings to work through but he has so much more of a desire now than the 1st time. We are going to re-teach him the lessons and start reading the Book of Mormon again with them. Seriously Wednesday was the best missionary day possible. We saw so many people and weer able to really follow the spirit and get the Lords work done. Just one of those "happy" days on a mission!Thursday we had a new member lesson with Ali and it was awesome! he is really progressing and working towards reviving the priesthood and going to the temple to do baptisms.

This week we also were able to come up with some ideas to help our wards with missionary work. We are going to start a 40-day fast in both out wards to help them with missionary work. Our bishops were both on board and we presented in ward counsel yesterday and we all felt like it was a good idea. So we are excited to see what come of it.

This are really looking up here though. Still have hard days but we have a direction to move in right now. Something I have learned on my mission is just to MOVE! some time there are hard days. where there is nothing to do, or your REALLY lazy or no one answers the door, and those days stink but even though you go home and think "what the heck have I even done today to help?" its ok because even though you weren't perfect it helps you to have that change of heart and helps you to be better the next day to change and do better. Without hose hard days we would never want to change, same with the good without the good days we would never want to have another good day! both are needed in order to become like our Savior. That's an important lesson that I will forever be grateful my mission has taught me.

Love you all and hopr you week was amazing!

#itsnotgoodbyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

Busted! 3/2

ha ha Sooo..... ya last Monday to say the least included a lovely trip to the Er!  Ya we were playing ultimate Frisbee at the Farfans in their backyard. I went running to grab the Frisbee and wasn't looking ahead and one of the elders jumped up to grab the Frisbee and nailed me right in the mouth with his elbow. I started laughing at first and everyone elder was laughing so I thought I was fine. Until one of the elders came up to me and was like " are you okay?" I laughed and was said yes. He looked at me funny and was like " your bleeding!" I proceeded to touch my face like a idiot. I was like no im not, he was like "no your mouth!'

then said "No your lip" which is when I put my hand to my lip and looked down and just saw blood coming out. It would not stop it was bad! haha So I start walking inside and grab a paper towel and go to the bathroom to look at it. Sister Pohahau came in and I freaked it. My lip was busted open and I was almost through the back side. So I go over to the Farfans to see if Jen is home but she wasn't so we got in the car and drove over to see if Dr. Dowdles was home and to no luck so we go to the Tolleys and They luckily were home. So Sister Tolley see what's going on and is like lets just take you to the Er. Apparently I was in pretty bad shock (I don't remember anything) So we get the and we get back. Well 1st off it took forever for the dr. to get there and they gave me nothing for pain!?!? what the heck hahah Im sure dad knows the reason behind why the didn't but all I can say was it was painful. So basically what the Dr. said was that it was border line needing stitches and he wanted to wait and if the swelling didn't go down then they would need to stitch it up. So Lucky for me (since stitches sounded painful when i found out they would give me a shot in my lip!) the swelling went down. It was pretty gnarly looking for the next few day. today its mot even bad. It pretty back to normal but it does have a slight scar. haha Mission battle wounds. When President called that night to see how I was doing he promised to give the elder a hard time when he saw him. so no worries president was on top of it! the poor elder felt so bad. Its become the running joke now and I don't think he will ever hear the end of it (especially since it was a girl he hit!) haha So that was probably the most exciting part of the week.After we got home though you will be happy to hear mom that the Farfans took great care of me. I love them seriously it the best living with them. Miguel went out and got us all blizzards from Dairy Queen, Since that was about all I could eat my lip was so fat. You'll be glad to know that there are people looking out for me here!

We have been trying to contact a lot of people but just haven't been finding success. We are doing pretty good with Less-active work here and helping with that. The ward members are finally warming up to us (after 3 months) but hey not complaining. Burley is he strangest place ever. we came to that conclusion. I don't know what it is...must be the air or the water or something but. there is always an odd story, or person, or event just around the corner. Hey keeps it interesting though! I do love it here and I would really hate to leave being incompletely honest! The people here are kind. I think that's just Idaho in general though. They have the sweetest people and the most genuine people who really want to just help.

Something else that was pretty exciting this week was the fact that we had a sate wide conference broadcast yesterday for church. It consisted of Elder Perry, Sister Marriott and Elder Nilson(of the 70) It was so inspired and just what i think a lot of people needed to hear. Elder Nilson talked about change and Conversion and how we like the Anti-Nephi-Lehis have to lay down our weapons of rebellion and become changed. Sister Marriott spoke on 3 Nephi chapter 11 and how we have to avoid contention (she is one of my favorite people by the way). But she talked about loving others and how we can be the one to change the situation! Then Elder Perry spoke and boy is he funny! He talked about trust and confidence int eh Lord and ourselves. he said that " We are responsible for our character. no one else can define that and we cant fake it" It was so good! Except that we missed out on the last 10 minutes of his talk DANG IT!! haha oh well we got most of it. 

Over all pretty exciting week. Its been good and time goes by faster and faster. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

#itsnotgoodbyeitc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

Fire in your Belly! 2/23

Hey everyone! 

This week has been pretty good. Kind of a refiners fire of a week but its been all for the good! We did have a baptism this week, for Ali Chavez. We have been teaching him since January, he is 16 years old and he had been coming to church with a family in our ward and one day they came up and aske if we could teach him the lessons! Love That! So we satrted teaching him and He was just amazing he knew so much and was so great. I mean a 16 year old boy and he was telling all of his friends about what he was learning and even with his Family. It was so cool to see him so excited about the gosple. I think one of my favorite parts of a mission is when people see how much the gosple can bless there live and the get the fire in there belly so to speak and they share it with everyone around them. Seriously I think the only way to be happy, truley happy is to serve others by sharing the gosple with them. I just love it and let em tell you this week has been a test to see just how much that means to me! I love it here, Burley is hard, dont get me wrong but I am so glad to have people around me thta love me and care for me and want to help me be better. #Blessings. We are still trying to find people to teach and its still be a struggle but, I can feel it right around the corner we just have to push a littler hareder and a little farther and we will see Heavely Father open the windows of heaven! I love it hear dont get me wrong it hard but I know in the end I will be blessed. Love you all and hope you have a awesome week! 

#itsnotgoodbyeitsc-yalater 

Love,

Sister Owsley