Monday, July 8, 2019

It's been a WILDE week!

Hello everyone! 7 days later from when I last emailed, and it feels like a month! Not that this week felt necessarily long- many things just seemed to pop up here and there throughout the week! It was crazy, but we survived to tell the tale today!

Let's see...

So this past week, I had the opportunity to meet the new mission President and his family a couple times this week!

We had a big conference with a bunch of the missionary leaders of the church, and there President Wilde introduced him and his family. He has 2 kids still living with them and they are so cool.

I had the opportunity during dinner to get to know Brecklynn, their 12 year old daughter, and she is so cool! She reminded me of my little sister so that was pretty awesome tender mercy.

On Wednesday, there was a shuffling of sisters in the mission because there is an odd number, so my time in a trio was over for a couple of days!

Sister Men (one of my previous companions) came with me to my area from Wednesday till Sunday and it was super fun! It was cool to see how much we had grown since being companions and how much we had gone through. It was like old times, but also not! She has grown such a strong reliance on the Savior and her faith has kept her strong throughout her mission. It was so cool!

We saw a lot of cool miracles yesterday!

Aurora (baptized 3 Saturdays ago) had her interview with bishop and received her temple recommend! We are going to go to the temple on Tuesday and I am SO excited! She has amazing faith and such a strong desire to do good.

This past week, we also met with Ashley (baptized back in April) and we taught her about patriarchal blessings. It was cool because before we could even tell her about it, she expressed her concerns about having lack of faith when hard times come and how she worries sometimes about the mistakes she makes. When we told her about how patriarchal blessings are like "personal scripture" and are direct revelation from God to us, her eyes grew so wide! She got so excited and eager to learn more about it.

By Sunday, she had read several talks/articles about patriarchal blessings, and also scheduled and went to a meeting with bishop to receive recommendation for getting her patriarchal blessing. She took all the initiative in calling the patriarch and called us later that day, excitedly telling us that she will be receiving her patriarchal blessing NEXT Sunday!

We are so happy for her and this next step she is taking in the gospel.

This past week, we also had interviews and zone conference with President and Sister Wilde, and man- do I love them!

It is actually super cool to see how much love they have for each of us as well. You can just feel it as they talk to you, and I'm looking forward to every second I have to serve with them!

In zone conference, we talked about the difference between the "authority" and "power" we have as missionaries. As set-apart representatives of Jesus Christ, we all have the authority to preach the gospel, or permission from God to do so. But we all have varying power. Power comes from obedience and striving to do the Lords work with most effectiveness. I've seen how much more success you have as a missionary when you strive to be obedient and diligent. And success doesn't necessarily mean "higher numbers", but its seeing the hearts of those you teach change to be more in line with God, and working so hard that you know you did all you could to help others.

I am so thankful for the calling I have as a full-time representative and missionary of Jesus Christ. It is truly an honor and I love being here in Oregon! I know this is where I am meant to be and I love serving my Heavenly Father.

I hope everyone has a great week!

All my love,

Sister McCown

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