So on Wednesday, I hit my half-way mark of the mission...WHAT?!?!
I can't even fathom that nine months ago, I was in the MTC. In a way, it feels like forever ago as if I had been a missionary for my entire life, and in another way, I still feel like I just came out to the mission field.
All in all, I have loved my mission so far. The experiences that I have had are irreplaceable. It is hard to be on a mission...so hard- physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. I miss what is back home and there are times where I miss being a normal person, but I wouldn't give up being a missionary! I love it too much out here- I've never learned so much in my life in such a short amount of time. I've never learned so much about the gospel and my Savior, others that we meet, and even myself. I've never felt so strong and ready for what lies ahead, and I've never felt so tired and inadequate at times. I've never felt so prepared for the challenges I have yet to face, and I've never felt so daunted at times by the questions marks looming over my future.
I have experienced so many emotions on opposite sides of the spectrum, but it gives me comfort to know that the negative emotions are only felt..."at times"!
I love what I have experienced on my mission so far and I am even more excited to see what I have yet to experience!
BIG NEWS:
I'm in a new area with a new companion! It's been a super crazy week with transfers, but it's also been really good!
I am now in Forest Grove, which is only about 45 minutes north of where I was before. I've actually been here in Forest Grove three times before, so I already knew the area a little bit.
I've also met before the Sisters that I'm with now, so it was pretty exciting to get the call last weekend that I would be coming here.
My new companion is Sister Leifson and she is from southern Utah! She's only been out for a transfer, so it's been really fun to work with her. We work well together and we've had a good number of lessons this past week to practice teaching together.
We live in an apartment with two other sisters, Sister Anderson and Sister Child, and we have a ton of fun together! We share a car between the two of our areas, so we see each other pretty consistently throughout the day.
Sister Leifson and I have seen so many miracles this past week- two of which were people that we came into contact with!
One was a girl named Ashley that we met on the street. When we started talking to her, she mistook us for missionaries of another religion and instantly said, "no thanks, I already have a Bible". Many conversations go like this when people turn us away because they already practice another religion, but as we tried to continue the conversation, we introduced ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She instantly became curious and asked where our church building was.
It was amazing to see her entire countenance change as we showed her The Book of Mormon and began to explain what it was about.
She thought it was really cool how it taught many of the same things as the Bible but with different characters and stories. The Spirit was so strong during that conversation as she flipped through it even before we left. We texted her the next night and she had already read 17 chapters!
Sister Leifson and I were absolutely blown away and we set up a lesson with her for this week (she plans to finish the Book of Mormon before we visit her on Thursday!).
Another miracle we saw together was Aurora! Aurora referred herself by going on the church website to get into contact with us. She is amazing!
She's been learning about the gospel since middle school and just received permission to meet with the missionaries.
Her knowledge and testimony of the gospel was so bright! She asked good questions that allowed the Spirit to overflow the room. We also had a young couple there that put the icing on the cake- the husband was a recent convert of a year and he was able to relate to Aurora a lot.
I'm so thankful for the gospel and I am so thankful for each of you! Keep shining and keep being you!
I love each of you and I hope you have a great week! I would love to get a letter from anyone! :)
Sister McCown
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