Idaho Summers

So Idaho summers are coming and and so are the awesome sister Missionary tan lines!! YAY!! 

(Ill send pictures next week there are getting really bad!) So here is the overview of the week!

MONDAY! We all went down as a zone to go on a hike in the canyon. It was really cool and there were a ton of waterfalls and it was beautiful. The only unfortunate part was on the way back out sister Martineau got heat stroke and dehydration so all of us had to carry her out of the canyon and then we had to take her to the emergency room since her blood pressure had dropped significantly so the sister training leaders and us all took a trip over to St. Lukes. so we were there until about 7 then we has to pick up prescriptions for her so we didn't get home till around 9. It was a long day and super exhausting and we smelled pretty bad!

TUESDAY! We had an appointment for sister Martineau so we spent like 3 hours there and then she wasnt feeling well so she came home and slept.that night we got to go over to the Christensen's in the ward they has a massive barn and horses and all sorts of animals (#IDAHOLIFE) so we went over and helped them clean it all out for the summer and we actually had a lot of fun doing it too.

WEDNESDAY! We had to weekly plan because of zone conference and so we spent most the day doing that then we went and helped out a mutual. All the girls here are getting ready for camp so we have been helping them with there certification which I loved

THURSDAY! We had Zone meeting and it was really great I learned a ton. i think my favorite part of all these meetings is getting to hear other testimonies at the end and hear how much everyone is growing and changing and we aren't in it alone!

After Zone meeting which we didn't get out of there till like 5. Then we had to go and pick up more prescription at wal-mart so it was a super long day! We went top the relief Society activity that night and we did some crafts with the ladies there and learned how to make really yummy bread. The also did Zumba which I really wanted to stay for but we had to get going because the elders came over and fixed my bike since it has been broke for like ever! (Finally fixed though)

FRIDAY,SATURDAY,SUNDAY! We were able to get out and meet some more of our member and get to know them more. I love this ward thought he people here are amazing and are so kind and willing to help us out! It has been a struggle to find people to teach but we are working hard and have a lot of things we are starting to implement and we are super excited for! 

Love you guys lots and hope all is going well back home! 

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

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The road to success has a few speed bumps...

This week has proven to be a real test for me. Coming into an area that you don't know anyone or where anything is has its challenges but it also bring a lot of opportunities! We are really struggling with finding people to teach we have put a lot of time into planning how and we are working now on executing those plans. We have less than 1 square mile and that makes for longs days... not going to lie. We walk everywhere and everyone we talk to has already been contacted by missionaries. 

Twin in WAY different than Mountain home and it has its challenges. But we are determined to keep working hard. I don't really know what else to include in this email. I know the Lord is preparing people here and We are diligently trying to find them. I know that there is a reason I am here and I am so happy for the Lord and the blessings He gives me on a daily basis. I love him and I am so grateful for the blessing my mission has been and I am loving it! I cant believe that this time next year I will be home it makes me sad because it is going by so fast! I love it here and love the work that it is! I love you guys and sorry there isn't much more to report on. We have been helping this member family lately and they are super excited to do missionary work they have a massive house that looks like it came out of a Disney movie (ill send pictures) that's about it though. Love you guys 

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

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#TWINFALLS

This week has been crazy busy,  started off the week in Mnt. Home and ended it in Twin Falls. I am loving it here! It was really hard to leave because I love the people there so much and I grew so much there as a person and a missionary. It was such a blessing to be able to be there. Its amazing looking back and understanding how much the Lord really knows where we need to be and who we need to be with. I feel so blessed for the opportunity to serve there and to know so many people who have blessed my life!

 So we got to our new area on Wednesday. I am serving with Sister Martineau and she just came form the other sisters area in Mnt. Home so we both had to leave there she has been out for 6 weeks so I get to follow up train her and she is from Shelly, ID. ahah so we are white washing the area and it has been so much fun. I love it! It helps me keep so focused because there is so much to do here! We cover the twin Falls 11th ward. Its funny because we both went from 2 of the largest areas in the mission to the smallest... 1 square mile! So basically everyone in the area has already been contacted at least once by missionaries so we have a challenge ahead of us and I am so excited to conquer it.

We live in a duplex here so its a little different than living with members. Honestly I like living in the members homes better but we are so blessed to have this place and it is huge! We live about 2 blocks from the temple and you can see it from our house! Its so cool!

I am really excited though because this ward just got a new bishopric and a new ward mission leader. So they are super on board to just start this work moving in the ward and the members here are awesome they help us out so much and are so kind. Some of the difficulties we are having though is that we have no investigators so we are working really hard to try to find some! And the ward is huge its about 70% active and there is about 2/3 members in our area! We are determined that there is work to do here or else Heavenly Father wouldn't have sent us here! We are so well taken care of here and it is such a blessing we have an amazing district as well we cover all the areas around the temple and the Canyon so it is beautiful  here!

Wednesday- It was a lot of u packing and getting settled in we had a lot of stuff to do around our apartment and so we walked around our area just trying to get to know it better (since we both were clueless)

Thursday: We weekly planned and tried to make sense of everything in our area book and get some names of people we could contact. We spent most the day doing that... then we had dinner with a sister in the ward who is super excited to do missionary work and she is so excited and helped us out so much.

Friday- we had district meeting and it was really cool we have 11 missionaries in our district and they are all awesome. After that we went and helped a recent convert move and it was really neat because her son who is 18 just got baptized last week so we were able to meet him and help them out! We had dinner with the new bishop that night! Bishop Perry is awesome and he really want to make this ward a preach my gospel ward, and we are really excited top do just that!

Saturday- we spent the morning contacting around noon we came across this Part member family Gary and Bobbie who we ended up helping them clean out an RV for a few hours. We were really excited because we have been trying to find investigators because we have none and everyone here has already met with missionaries so its a different dynamic than Mnt. Home. We had dinner that night with a family that just moved into the ward from Salmon just 1 week ago and they were so nice and they have a son on a mission right now in Arcadia, CA

Sunday was great we were able to go to church and meet so many more people and we were able to meet with our Bishop and really talk about what he wants us to accomplish and we were able to talk with our Ward Mission Leader.

I am so excited to be here, it is presenting a challenge and I am excited to make this area amazing and to really get the work going here I know it is possible and the Lord has really been preparing hearts here I am excited to be in the service of my heavenly Father. I know that this work is true because if it wasn't It would have made it a whole lot harder to leave mnt. home!

 Love you all and hope you week is amazing!

#itsnotgoobyeitscyalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

Transfer!!!!

So I really have mixed emotions right now and I don't really know what to say.

SO I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED....

I am going to Twin Falls and I am actually going there with Sister Martenu who is one of the other sisters here in Mnt. Home.

I am really really really sad to be leaving. The people here have become like second family and they have helped me through so much! It has been such a blessing to me to be able to know people here that could help me so much. I will really miss them but I will say I am pretty excited to be in a new area. Both sister M and I have no clue where anything is so I am really grateful for that. We get to learn it together so there is a lot of excitement there and I already know my companion so we are pretty stoked to get out there and work. Funny thing is that one of the Spanish elders here is actually going to be Elder Stoddard's companion.... he is a really great elder who works really hard so hopefully they get along well. Its hard to leave but I really have a good feeling about this and I am excited to start over and get to know some new people.

 Well In the news regarding Mnt. home we have so many new investigators (which makes it even harder to leave). We have really been working on filling up our teaching pool and having a lot of people to teach and contact. Now the thing is getting them to progress. We have been struggling with that lately and have been working really hard and getting them to church and everything. We did have 4 investigators at church this week which was a huge accomplishment and we were super stocked about it!

Really I have no clue what else to put in this letter... its been really cool though reflecting on how far I have come these past 6 months and how much I have grown. Its exciting to think about how much more I can grow in the next year. (Weird to think that this time next year I will be coming home Right??) I feel so blessed to have gotten to know people here and I can honestly say that they have become like family here and I will come back and see them after my mission! (DAD) I love this work and I trust the Lord and know that wherever I go is where I am needed. If I didn't this would be a whole lot harder!

HIGHLIGHTS and NOTE WORTHIES FROM THIS WEEK:

1. Transfers! Going to Twin!!

2. Lost my camera :(  (poof gone! What should I do?!?!!)

3. Get to take my awesome sweet beach cruiser to twin which in now equipped with a basket!

4. got an Arabic Book of Mormon from an investigator family

5. and there was something else but now I cant remember... oh well...

p.s. what was Adams big news the other week he never told me.. :(

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater  (even Mountain Home)

Love,

Sister Owsley

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1 more week- June 2nd

That's right folks                                                                                     ! One week more till transfers!! AHHH haha this part always makes me super nervous! haha I don't ever want to leave but I also know that wherever the Lord wants me will be the best place for me.. I mean look I would have never picked Twin Falls Idaho and now I love it here! haha But This week has been a little scatter brained so sorry if the Letter reflects that!

Monday was P-day and we had to give the car back :( sad day but a really cool thing was that we were able to talk to this guy at the car wash (he helped us because we could not figure out how to work the Dang Machine!) but we ended up talking to him for an hour and he is in the military and he left for Dubai this week. He told us that his mom and sister are LDS and that he really enjoys everything we teach the spirit that we bring. It was a really cool experience being able to talk to him and hear his testimony of Christ.

Tuesday we had so cancelled appointments and but one of the tender mercies of our horribly broken phone was that one of our investigators Lisa texted us 5 minutes before we got there to cancel on us but because our phone is broken we didn't get it till 3 hours later! haha so we showed up and we were still able to have a really awesome lesson with her! We also went and helped on of our investigators Jeff out and help him with some of him plants.

Wednesday we had weekly planning because of our exchanges the following day. I also had my last appointment in Boise (and I think It has gone really well) We had dinner with one of our part-member families that night and there 2 kids who aren't members came to mutual with us and we got there daughter Maedena all signed up for girls camp and she is so excited! And I am so jealous I want to got to girls camp with all of them so badly! Thursday we had exchanges to the STL's (sister training Leaders) came down and we swapped for 2 days. I went to Filer with sister Harris and sister Bautista stayed here with sister Dodds. Sister Harris and I had a blast in Filer They didn't have a ton to do so we contacted a lot of different people and I was able to learn a lot form her and about perseverance and never giving up. we were going to head home, but instead we went back to this one lady who told us we could come back later and talk to her roommate. We went back right before we were going to go home and we were able to set an appointment with her and she told us she wanted to come to church too. If we hadn't gone there that night it could have ended compactly different than how it did! Its amazing the miracles that can happen when we listen and follow the spirit.

Friday we met back up with the sister and traded back. we went right into Zone meeting where we talked about working with members and how we can better fellowship our investigators I really got a lot out of it and we have been really excited about implementing a lot of our new ideas! Friday night we met with a new investigator Rick, he has just recently gotten out of jail and before he got out he asked us if we could help out his mother and so we have been going over there and helping her out since she is elderly and not as mobile but we went over there on Friday and we were able to talk to him and ask him what he learned ( he had been talking the LDS class that we have been providing in the Jail) he said he really like what they talked about and would like to come to church! Later that night we met with Jaqui who we were able to reset a baptismal date with and we found out he mother and son both want to take the lessons too! So we are really excited and she told us that her husband doesn't really like religion but she talked to him about it and her told her that we can come over and if she really wants to be baptized he would come and support her! So it was a huge blessing when we found that out!

Saturday we Went and visited a lot of people we went over to Mary wests house bust she and been busy with her grand kids that day so we reset an appointment. we went and talked to a referral we got for this lady named Goldie Ashford she had had all the lessons and has read the Book Of Mormon and she told us that we could come back! we also invited her to church We went to a baptism later that night for the Elders and we had a Book of Mormon study group with some of the youth in the stake who are preparing fro missions.

Sunday we Went to church and it went well Goldie was our only investigator that came but she left half way through sacrament meeting. She was crying the whole time and we had no clue what to do. Later that day she told us that a family friend had just passed away and she was struggling. We talked to her for a little while and them we were able to set a time to come by and talk with her. So somehow I got roped into singing this coming Sunday I keep telling people Owsley's don't sing and the wont believe me! So we had to got and practice yesterday and I told them I am not guaranteeing anything. We had dinner at the Ogaurds and then we had to finish some planning and stuff so we went home and finished then to our meeting.

It was kind of a crazy week and we have been doing really well with finding people to teach we are just really working on helping the progress and keep commitments. But Its all in the Lords time and we have been working really hard! I love it here though and am so grateful for the blessing that it is to be here! Hope all is going well back home Love you all lots!

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

Interesting things from this week

1. Brother Giles' brother in in our ward! Crazy it was really funny when we found that out!

2. President Owsley was just called to be in our mission presidency, we are still attempting to find out how we are related! haha they lived in Hagerman and apparently there is a bridge here named after us Owsley's (Were pretty famous and loved here) We were laughing though because everyone I meet here that knows Owsley's tells me I look like on! Pretty funny

Progress- May 26th

This week has been crazy for us we had Gabe's Baptism on Saturday so we spent a lot of time preparing for that. It went awesome by the way! We are finding more and more new investigators and its super amazing!

So Monday We finally got the car from the Elders and we were able to go and contact a new family. Rachel is actually the sister of Ashley one of the girls that we baptized! so she was really hesitant at first she said they didn't believe in the Book of Mormon but after we talk to her for a while her and her fiance changed and we set a time to go and read the Book of Mormon with them. It was so amazing to see people change and so quickly too! We also went over to the Fosters and finished teaching Gabe his lessons and he was so excited!

Tuesday:We had to go to the Optometrist in the morning so Sister Bautista could get her vision checked because it has been bothering her so bad. Luckily one of our bishops works there! We had district meeting after that and we went and did some service with the other sisters and help someone in there yard. We then went and did more service and helped one of our investigators scrape off wall paper in there kitchen.. my arms hurt so badly.

Wednesday we went a volunteered down at the animal shelter and we went and walked the dogs which was actually really fun. We went to a referrals house after that and ended up talking to him for an hour. His name is Richard Martinez and he is 20. His mom just passed away not that long a go so we talked to him about a lot of what we believe and he invited us back! He is really awesome and super into learning more so we are really excited about it.We also went to the Clark's and met with them and we ended up talking about overcoming trials , sister Clark is trying to give up smoking and she had started that day so we were trying to give her some encouragement. It was really funny because the topic got around to MMA and I have no clue how it did, but Sister Bautista is awesome and was able to relate it back to the gospel which was really funny. 

 Thursday we had weekly planning nothing to exciting but we were able to talk to one of the part member families we have been working with and its amazing there dad is actually changing his life around and really taking those steps to come back. We also Met with the Watsons and had a really good discussion with them about where we go after we die.

Friday we did a lot we were helping out the Chung Hee's in the ward. There was graduation this week and so a lot of people had family coming from out of town and they had rented a house to let them stay in so we helped them clean and get it ready for them to use. We went a visited a really awesome member family, We went back to help sister parson out with some of here house stuff and then we went a contacted more referrals and investigators. So it was a busy day full of service which I love.

Saturday was crazy we had a lot to do for Gabes baptism and we were helping withe he Chung Hee's Graduation party. We had Gabes baptism at 4 though and it went to well there was almost 50 people there showing there support for him! He was so nervous but i he did so well. His mom was crying the whole time and there whole family did a musical number! which was beautiful! After his baptism we went to the Graduation Party which was in the stake center too. The Chuing hee's are Hawaiian and so they had a massive luau. I think they planned on 400 people! It was a huge part with really awesome food. After we went and contacted some people. Madison we visited and she moved away this weekend so we are hoping to get in contact with the missionaries where she is going. We also went and contacted a referral and it went amazing! She is a former investigator and she is awesome. They invited us in and were super friendly and nice and invited us back. The best part was they texted us later that night and told us that they were really glad we came by and that they wanted us to meet there daughters because they felt like they could use what we had to say! It amazes me each and everyday how many people the Lord is preparing the Hearts of.

Sunday was awesome. Gabe was confirmed in church and in 4th ward there was a ton of people. The bishops twin sons came home from there missions and they both spoke this week, and they did a really good job! We had so much food yesterday though we kept being invited over places and we ate so much!!! We had a really awesome experience and we were out contacting people and there has been this referral we have been trying to get a hold of for a while and we finally did yesterday. We went in and talked with her and she ended up being a member and so she all the sudden unloaded on us and it was so amazing to see the spirit work on her heart she is truly an amazing child of God and she invited us to come back and help her out and I am so excited!

The Lord has really been preparing the hearts of the people and it has been so evident to us this past week! I love serving and I was able to do so much of that is week and I feel so good when I can get up and help people! I love the Lord and am so grateful for the strength he gives me each and everyday!

Love you all~!!!

# itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

What a Week- May 19th

Well.. This week has been anything but normal we were hoofing it this week. No Car! :( but we did have an amazing member donate us bikes which was way awesome so we don't have to go buy bike! I am now the proud owner of a green beach cruiser with I know Sarah is probably totally jealous of right now! (I will send Pictures next week!) We have gotten a lot of new investigators so we are really focusing on working with them and trying to help them progress and get to church and what not. but we have been using the members a lot here and a lot of them have been begging for things that they can do to help and we are running out of ideas so... if anyone have great ways that you love getting involved in missionary work PLEASE let us know! because we have some awesome members who are wanting to help.

We have been working with this family the Fosters who I adore (they have adopted me into there family haha) and their son Gabe who is 11 is getting baptized this weekend and I am so stoked on life for it! we have been working with he Fosters for 6 months now (since I got here) and I have grown to love them so much and I feel so blessed to watch them all grow in there faith and testimony although for some it has been slower that others they have all gotten to be even stronger than they were before and It is truly on through Christ that it is possible.

 This Sunday we had Gabe at church and we also had a newer investigator of ours at church her name is Mary West and she is amazing her and her un-adopted adopted daughter came with us to church and they had to leave early but it was a really good baby step to help them get there!

Its amazing how much people are alike. We are all different I know that we all have unique qualities about us but its amazing that we all struggle with the same things. that's one of the blessing al least for me on my mission. is seeing that we are all here and we all have trials but that we all also have that grace of Christ and that we all can strengthen each other!

I know its kind of a short letter this week, nothing super exciting happened but we did see people grow and change! It amazing what the Lord can do. Something that I thought about the other day was the fact that the Lord could call anyone of any age on missions. He could have called all the people with PHDs and who have all this vast knowledge but He call the 18,19,20 year old to come and I am coming to understand that he probably did that on purpose because he knew we would need it the most an that more than anything it was going to benefit us! I Love you all and am Glad you are all safe back at home! Love you Lots!

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley