Progress

So this week was nothing really exciting. I was really sick at the beginning of the week which is NEVER fun on a mission! It been a week of learning experiences for me and I am so very thankful for that! 

Monday we went to Shoshone falls here and had a BBQ with everyone in our zone it was really fun. Shoshone is like the Niagara Falls of the west is what the call it! so we had a blast and the elders brought a grill and cooked for us and some people went hiking. I however did not due to my respiratory system killing me! :) So after that we went home and I rested and we didn't do much else!

Tuesday We had district meeting which was really good. We talked a lot about what it takes and what we need to do to be better missionaries. I was thankful that they decided on that topic because it was the best thing I could have heard. We had lunch and then we went home and I just about died, I was coughing so bad. so we basically stayed home that day. The other sisters come over and sled to us for a while and wee had a good time. I crashed most the time! 

Wednesday I started feeling a little better.Sister Bly had Physical Therapy in the morning so I sat a read a few talks that I have been needing to read and it was really good because it helped me to get some motivation under my belt.:) later that day I got a blessing that morning by one of the elders in our district. I was exactly what I needed to hear. especially the fact that I had my appointment at the nerve doctors after that! So as too my Dr. appointment. Worst thing!! basically what he did for a hour was shock my arms then they stuck needles in my arm and made me flex my arm so it was pretty painful! so We treated ourselves to ice cream afterwards! then i went home and crashed again because I started to get really sick! Later that night we went and helped out the Young women set up LDS.org accounts for mutual and we helped them figure out family search, we always have fun with them and Natasha was there so it was good to see her!

Thursday morning started out really bad... I was getting in the shower that morning and so I turned it on for a minute then went and got something, when I came back there was a huge spider in the corner of the shower. So being the smart person I am I got up on the sedge of the tuba nd had one foot there and one on the toilet. I grabbed a shampoo bottle and leaned over to try yo kill the thing and my back foot slid out and i went head first into the shower that WAS ON! and got soaking wet. When I stood up I saw that i had completely broken off the toilet seat... so ya! I am really graceful sometimes. I came out and layed of the floor. Sister Bly started laughing and was like what the heck was that noise! So I told her and she about died laughing I brought in the toilet seat and she just kept laughing at me! So we had to take it down to the mission office to tell them, and everyone heard and started laughing at me it was great! haha Good thing Dad taught me to laugh at myself! haha we went over to the mission home after that and helped them clean. the mission home flooded last week and they had to completely gut the whole basement and so there house was disaster so a ton of us sisters went over and helped them clean it. We had dinner with the Manning and then we had a lesson with our investigator David. It ended up being really good. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ... so Like Faith, and repentance and baptism. We asked him about baptism and he said he really wants to he just wants to make sure he knows enough. So we told him to pray about a date and he was really excited! it was great and we are so excited for him, he is truly one of Gods elect!

Friday was crazy We went and helped out sister Billing with her trailer that she is re doing. Then we went over to the Mclaws and made some treat, because you cant watch a movie without treats, and we we got to go and see Meet the Mormons! woot woot! It was such an amazing movie! Seriously go and see it it is so funny and it was so well done! After that we went over and made more treats with sister Albrecht to take over to some people the next day! I swear it is treat season!! haha Saturday was crazy as well I was feeling better so we had a lot to do. We had choir practice again and it was pouring that day! We went over to sister Albrechts and we went out to deliver some treats to people. No one was home and we were kind of disappointed. But we decided to go drop off a plate to Kay one of our investigators, and she was home! She invited us in and we talked to her for a while and sister Albrecht just became her best friend! As we were getting ready to leave sister Albrecht mentioned the women's meeting later that night and invited her to it and she said YES!!! We have been trying to get her to come to somethings for a while and we were over the moon excited! After that we went to a baptism and had dinner. The we went to the W omens meeting and Kay came. It was funny because the whole thing was about the temple and covenants and not going to lie we were kind of nervous at first but as I sat there I prayed that she could hear what she needed too. At the end we turned to her to see what she thought and she was so happy! she had a lot of questions but she was happy she came! MIRACLES!!! She even took a Family: A proclamation to the world home! It was just an amazing DAY!!

Sunday Was great too We had 2 investigators at church. Shyla a girl we just started teaching came and both her and David stayed for 2nd hour gospel essentials! she really listened and we had dinner with her at the Hamiltons and we were able to talk to her. She had a lot of really good questions and she really seemed like she got a lot out of church which is always the hope! We tried to contact a few people after they weren't home so we went and visited a few new families in the was because I am pretty sure we have had like 50 new people move into the ward! It was good though because they are both kind of less active families and so we were able to talk to them about meeting and helping them! 

I just love this work so much and the fact that although I wasn't feeling very good at the beginning of the week we were still able to do so much! Its really hard sometimes but I am learning to appreciate where I am at and be grateful for it! I know there is still a lot to improve and work on but I know its progress that counts to Heavenly Father NOT Perfection! Love you all and hope you week is good!!

#gettingreadyforconfrence?

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

AHHH...normalcy 9/22

So this week has been pretty normal... in missionary terms I guess. We have been keeping busy with service and tons of contacting that we have been able to do. Monday we hung out and we had dinner with the Stewart's. Our ward was doing this "treats on the street" thing. So each neighborhood was divided into areas and basically they did  block parties on Monday night for family home evening. It was good we had a blast and tons of non-members showed up. Tuesday we had exchanges with the sister training leaders. I went with Sister Ramsey into her area. It was great i learned a lot from her that day and we taught so many lessons which is always fun. It really motivated me to pick up and do more in our area! The fun thing was one of the girls that I taught in Mountain Home she was baptized and she moved out here into there ward so i got to see her and teach her again and it was so cool to see how far she has come! Wednesday we got back together and sister Bly had a physical therapy appointment and so we were there for a good 2 hours haha its really good for her though she has been needing it for her knee. After that we went and helped out one of the sisters in our ward with a party she was doing. We had dinner with the  Robinson in the ward and we finally got to talk to Bobbie and Gray who we have been trying to see again since I first got here! Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was really amazing though they talked a lot about teaching and different ways we can improve ourselves as missionaries. Definatley got a ,to out of it though. Tried to contact more people that night again. Friday we did a lot of weekly Planning to get ready for the coming week. I swear the weeks keep going by faster and faster and they keep getting more and more busy! Saturday was jammed packed with so much we have been practicing this choir piece for when Elder Golden comes. We had a lesson with Kay and Donna who are back in town and Sister Christensen came with us and she was a huge help and we were able to teach they more about the Plan of Salvation! This week was our stake conference here so we we went to the Saturday night session which was all about missionary work! WOOHOO it was really powerful. Sunday morning we had to be up for the Priesthood meeting that they wanted us at by 7am. EARLY!! it was really great though. We had general session at 10 which was amazing! I love all the conferences that we had this week and I am so grateful for inspired people and people who are willing and have the courage to follow the spirit.! It truly blesses the lives of those people around them. I am so Grateful this week for the spirit though and its guiding influence in my life and the live of the people I get to talk with. I love you all and hope that they week is going good!

#itsnotgoobyeitscya-later

Love, 

Sister Owsley

I don't know music....Like at all!! 9/15

So this week has been crazy to say the least. Everyday was full and we had so much going on! Its so good though I love being busy and I love even more being busy with missionary things :) It was a really great week and its amazing to me how much the Savior lifts us up when we need it and how much joy comes from living like Him and close to Him! It been such a great week though:

Monday: CRAZY! we went and emailed at the library and then I got my hair colored... red yes! love it though! We then went and finished emailing... We went and played basketball at the church. Our Zone has this thing going for this really cheesy WWE belt that they got and whoever wins the basketball game that they play gets the belt so... it get pretty funny and we all have a good time :)After that we went to the college and played sand volleyball. Went shopping then we went over to Sister Petty and elderly widow in the ward and she has 2 peach trees in her backyard and so we went over and helped her pick some (there were so many!) we loved it though we got some peaches out of it though and they were so good! We had dinner at Cafe Rio ( yes I have gotten over the fact that I don't really like it because everyone here eats it) we ate with sister Lynch and we got to here all of her amazing stories of when she joined the church! We then helped out the other sisters for the rest of the night delivering stuff they needed help with!

Tuesday: We had district meeting that morning. It was fun as always and we did a get to know you activity since its the beginning of the transfer, After we left and us sisters picked up pizza and frosty's. healthy I know and we had lunch at the temple, Because we had a session at 1 that we had to get to. It was a blast though and we had fun! I always love going to the temple and the peace that is there. I was really just a great time and brought a lot of peace to my mind and helped me to focus on the eternal perspective! After that we went back to the temple with Natasha and had her new member lessons it was good we are planning on going with her this Saturday to do baptisms at the temple. It was good to see her though because we haven't seen her in a while she has been out of town and then all of our craziness happened with sister Bly. After that we had dinner and went back to the stake center behind the temple and had a meeting with the stake president and we went and tried to contact some people. We finally got a hold of Vicki who has been on our list for a while. She invited us in and we ended up talking to her for and hour and a half and she was so nice. Found out she has a daughter who is a really active member of the church, we invited her to come to church and she said she would try, she was so sweet and kind and really willing to listen to us!It was really like the best day!

Wednesday: Was a long day! We had a ton to do, we went over to Delsa's she is a Less Active member and we visited with her. She is 92 and she reminds me so much of Nana! haha she is a hoot though and we visited with her for a while and talked a lot about how Christ helps us over come our trials and she said she would try coming to church some time this month she just has to " get the courage" After that we went and got some sheet music for a conference in October for a general authority who is coming... somehow no one here got the memo that Owsley's don't sing, so we are working on that! We helped out Sister Billings in our ward she is redoing a trailer they bought and we were painting for her (mom I will have to send picture you and Sarah would Love It!)We helped pick more peaches that night, Then we had a lesson with David, we taught him the plan of Salvation. He understood it well but now we are just helping him understand that prayer is so important to knowing these things are true! but he is reading scriptures all the time and loves studying them so much! He motivates me to be better about studying! 

Thursday: Had another busy day we went over to the mission office early to get may bag that I had left there talk for a with the senior office couple who I love! (they are seriously like grandparents love it!) had lunch at Culvers! Went over to the Physical therapists so sister Bly could her her Knee thing figured out. (I think I told you she tore her ACL in February?) so that took a while We Weekly planned for a while then we got a little stir crazy and we went over to the Mclaws in our ward and helped her out. Had dinner with the travellers that night. I pretty sure they emailed you some pictures :) they were so excited to do that! :) but they served a mission in the Manhattan Temple so we heard all their really cool stories! Then we had choir practice for this conference we are having. Kind of of crazy getting a lot of missionaries to sing... never again will I volunteer to help with anything music related ( had no clue what the heck I was doing haha!) 

Friday: had Choir practice that morning again. Finished some more weekly planning The we helped out sister Petersen with the High priest social that night. We got to go and it was so funny reminded me of the felicita ward back home! :) Not too much that day though.

Saturday: Was crazy... Paperwork in the morning. The we had set up a time to do church tours during the day so people could bring there friends. Ya no one showed up for the 1st hour. went home for lunch and then went to Barb martin in the ward she signed us up to sing in church and she had a song she wanted us to sing ... still not sure how the heck I am getting roped into all this music stuff I think people assume that all missionaries can sin... NOT TRUE! We then went back to the church to be there for more church tours...no one showed up for the 2 hours... ya... Picked more peaches that night. had Dinner with the Albrechts who I love and I had Navajo Tacos for the 1st time and they are so so so good! Then we went to the Mclaws and mad cinnamon rolls for Ward Choir the next morning.

Sunday: Great day! it was the stakes "invite your friend to church day" and thy had the whole sacrament meeting based on Christ. It was great best part the youth sang the theme song for this year and it was beautiful. David came to church and we also had a few non-members and less actives there too! so it was good. Had dinner with the Hamilton and they has there friend Shyla over and so we taught her and we wants to take the lessons! #miracles. Went and tried to contact some people after that and we got a hold of Rosa's family who we also have been trying for! And they told us they want us to teach there daughter as well. So it was a good ending to the day! 

 It was such a busy and crazy week but so worth it! I love this work and its crazy to think I don't have a tone of time left. it all goes by so fast. I love the joy that comes though with this gospel yes its hard but its so worth it a the end of the day! love you all and hope you have a great week! 

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater

Love,

Sister Owsley

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Hump Day! 9/8

So this week was pretty normal and what not. Nothing too exciting happened which I guess in our case is a good thing. We were in desperate need of a normal week! haha Tuesday we went and we got caught up on a lot of things that needed to been caught up on since we had been gone for 2 weeks. We went down to the mission office and we talked and helped them out down there since all the new missionaries had just come in that morning. We had lunch at culvers (which they need to get one in CA). We went and helped out sister Pohahau and sister Bigelow and went on exchanges. Sister Pohahau and I went to a lesson with a family in there ward who invited this man to meet with the missionaries. He is 70 years old and he is a amazing. He had a stroke at 39 years old and had lost almost all his ability to speak, his son was killed when he was 44 and his wife died soon after that. It was so amazing though to hear that he had been struggling a lot and one day he went to church with some friends and they prayed that he would be able to speak and from that day on his speech kept getting better. Its amazing to hear so many stories of people faith and there experiences that they have and the miracles that they have all seen! Sister Bigelow is still sick so on Wednesday we did an exchange with them so that Sister Pohahau could got to some appointments that they had. It was great I got to go with her and Sister Bly stayed with Sister Bigelow so they could both rest. We went and taught Luke who is 19 years old, he is seriously dating this girl who is a sort of less active member of the church and they said that they both decided they wanted to raise a family with values which is amazing. We had met with him a week prior and committed him to read the intro to the Book of Mormon and we asked him about it,. he said he read it on his walk home and when he got home he prayed about it and he said he felt so much happiness that he knows this is the right thing! It was so cool he said that he kept reading and he was in 1 Nephi 5 when we met with him a week later! It so amazing top see the change that happens and when people find the happiness that the gospel brings So Thursday was my official half way mark! CRAZY! I cant believe I have been here for nine months! Thursday though was probably the longest day of my life. We did however get to see some of our favorite people. We went over to the Mclaws house and had dinner with them and they are always a hoot! and we got to help out with a wedding, which I was pretty sure I had died and gone to heaven when they asked us to help! haha But I was so much fun a beautiful! Friday we had Zone meeting and we talked about getting people to sacrament meeting and the blessing that come form attending sacrament meeting. We then had lunch with the sisters which we all have a blast all the time ( I swear missionary life is way too fun!) Went on exchanges again on Saturday sister Pohahau and I went and visited with a less active man who is trying to get to the temple he told us all of his war stories and what not (Dad would love him... so would Adam!) We found out that he is actually moving into our ward so it was inspiration that We were on exchanges! Sunday was good. I had been sick the whole night prior so I wasn't feeling well but I was good. David our investigator came to church and ended up staying for the 2nd hours which he hasn't done. I was really neat and he is such and awesome guy. We had dinner with the Hamilton's who always feed us well other that that I slept a lot because I still wasn't feeling good and we were able to make a lot of plans for this transfer too which will end up being great! I love this gospel so much and I have found such a great desire to share the gospel and I love this work so much! Love you all Hope you have an amazing week! #itsnotgoobyeitsc-yalater Love, Sister Owsley

Embers

So this week I think has been one of the longest weeks on my mission... I think I also have been doomed to break every companion I have! This week Sister Bigelow wasn't feeling super great. She has been having really bad headaches this week and it just kept getting worse and so the Dr. was prescribing stuff and it kept making it worse. So we are still at square 1 but the bright side is that she is sleeping better. But we are waiting to see what they will decide next to do. Also Sister Bly came back yesterday so we switched back and we are now back in our old apartment ( 650 Eastland) and We got transfer calls yesterday and SHOCKER! (not) We are both staying... and we have a car which is fantastic!But this week has been long sister Bigelow cant be out in sun or in bright lights so we hung out in the basement a lot..  but despite all that we saw a lot of miracles this week. We taught a 20 year old Luke. He has been coming to church with his girl friend and he wanted to be taught so we had the 1st lesson with him this week. It went really well and he really understood a lot and has such a sincere heat. We were talking to him though about how we all aren't perfect and we all make mistakes and he was like " ya we're not perfect and neither are platypuses..." we all died laughing it was so funny! But it was really a great lesson and he was really genuinely excited to learn more! We also taught a lesson to another lady, she was looking for a job and she applied at the D.I. so she had to meet with the bishop in her area and so when she did, he asked her if she wanted to learn more and she said she did. We have been trying to get in contact with her for a while and we finally did  (#miracle) and we set up an appointment with her. We went over there and met with her and asked her if she wanted to take the lessons and she said she did. She has a 6 year old son and she told us she really wants him to have good standards. She also told us that she had a friend who was a member of the church and when he came home from his mission would always talk about the church and he gave her a Book of Mormon and she remembers it and she remembered his example! Member Missionary Work!!!! But one of the Best lessons this week was with David. he has been a potential investigator in our ward for a while now. He thought he was baptized but we found out he wasn't. we finally were able to meet with him this week at a members house in our ward. I was really nervous to meet with him because he is a really intelligent man and I didn't know what to expect. So we prayed before going in and wow I could ask for a better lesson and a better person. He is the most humble prepared man I have ever met. He is recently divorced and he has a 13 year old son. But he is amazing he has read the Koran,the Bible 3 time and he is on the his 2nd time reading the Book of Mormon.He is a plastic surgeon and a Lawyer and he was in the military. It was crazy how much he knew yet he was so humble and he listened to us and wanted to study everything we gave to him! it was truly amazing to see the spirit work on him. He is truly one of God's elect! There were so many great things that happened this week despite the crazy sicknesses and the freak accident that have happened this transfer I have been so blessed to learn so much this transfer. I have been able to have 3 amazing companions who have taught me so much. It has really been a humbling transfer for me and a time to me to recommit myself once again to this work and to the Lord. I love my mission I am not a perfect persona and Heavenly father Knows that but what matters to him isn't that I am perfect its that I make progress. He expects us to take the mistakes we have made and not look back on them with nothing but to look at them and learn from them. I pretty sure it was Elder Holland who said that we need to take the embers of our past and not the ashes. The only way to make a fire is from the embers nothing will happen with ashes! I love that and I know that it is true. I love this work and this gospel and I am so grateful for the opportunities I have been given. Love you all!! 

#itsnotgoobyeitsc-yaleter

Love,

Sister Owsley