Hair Cuts

Hello! It has been such a good week here in South Riding! 

So President Matos (counselor in the mission presidency) called us on Tuesday and asked us to be Facebook group specialists. We didn't know what that was for a little while. But what it entails is we look for groups to join on Facebook and we see how many members there are in a specific area and we send the group to the missionaries that has the most members in their area so they can message people and start gospel conversations. We haven't officially started looking for groups yet because we are still doing training on it but it goes against every safety conversation I had with my mom about friending and especially messaging random people on Facebook. But then again, we used to walk around and knock on random stranger's doors so it can't be that different! We are actually really glad to be doing this because we only have 64 numbers in our Area Book (contact book) so we can call everyone in about 2 hours. And yes, that's counting those who have blocked us. If we take out people who have blocked us, we probably have 30ish people that we can call. 

The Caplins leave this week so we took videos of our district saying how they would describe the Caplins and what impact they had had on our missions. Sister Wiscombe loves to make videos so she is working to put it all together so we can send it into the Caplins. 

On Friday we had in-person interviews with the Caplins and it was so wonderful to see them again!! We got to the church at 1:30PM and were told to start counseling together until the Caplins got there. Well, we finished counseling together at 3:30PM and the Caplins got to the building just before 4PM. There are 11 people in our district and we got done at 7:30PM. We had a lesson at 7:30PM so we didn't actually get home from the church until 8:50PM. We spent a loonnggg time at the church! But because we were last, the Caplins bought us all Chick-Fil-A, so we were spoiled a little bit. 

Before interviews we got to serve at House of Mercy but instead of sorting clothes, we actually got to work in the food pantry! It was fun! We got to bag cereal and package diapers, sort breads, and all that. We had a lot of fun! 

Saturday during our lunch break, we went over to a members house to let her trim our hair. That was a little scary because she wanted to practice on us but she hasn't trimmed anyone's hair for 10 years. Sister Smith was the one who volunteered us. We said lots of prayers on the way over and turned out our member was nervous too so we prayed again! Since Sister Smith volunteered us, she got to go first! It took an hour but Sister Smith's actually looked pretty good! It's a little diagonal so she is getting it evened out today by a salon but Sister Wiscombe and I both got really even trims! Our member was so excited she kept giggling and telling us how much fun it was to trim our hair so we were glad we let her do it.

Yesterday we had our recent convert, Brother Tobias, give a talk. But there was a mix up. He thought it was at the church but it was actually over zoom so he called us right as they announced his turn to speak and so we jumped on the zoom and explained that Brother Tobias wasn't even on the zoom meeting. Then Brother Galbraith said to have Brother Tobias drive over to his house to join the meeting because it's like 3 minutes from the church so Brother Tobias did. While he was doing that, the bishop called on us to bear our testimonies. It was a little crazy for about 10 minutes. But it was all good! Brother Tobias did a good job! 

I think that's it for this week! 

I love you all! Have a blessed week!

Sister Creager 

Busy Week!

Hello! It has actually been a crazy busy week for us! I don't even know where to start! We will go random and to how I remember.  

Yesterday we had a mission-wide zoom call with Elder Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder McCune, Elder Nielson, and Elder Caulderwood of the Seventy. It was sooo good. We got to have a question and answer session with them for two hours! Then we had a multi stake broadcast so we got to hear them speak for another hour! We loved it! It was so uplifting and incredible! 

We also had a fireside devotional last night with the youth asking us questions about missionary work and it was really fun! We spent a little over an hour answering their questions.

Friday we went to do service again at House of Mercy. Von asked us to sweep out the back of a red semi trailer. We got push brooms and a garbage can and went to go sweep it out when we saw that there were still a lot of bags filled with clothes in the trailer. We told Von and he came out to look and told us to throw them all away because they were moldy. Keep in mind that we are in our proselyting clothes which means skirt, nylons, nice shirt, cardigan and church shoes. We were not prepared for the wet moldy mess that included animal feces and things like that. It was sooo gross. We were getting water and mold and pee all over our clothes and we decided enough was enough when Sister Wiscombe and I heaved a bag into the dumpster and water and... other things rained down on our face, masks, hair and clothes. We went into the back of the warehouse where we sort clothes and grabbed a pair of Jeans and a t-shirt so that we wouldn't have to get our nicer clothes trashed. But we finished the job and because it was $5 Friday, we got to pick out a few other things and put them in a bag with our newly found clothes. 

On Thursday we had an in-person lesson at the church and I got to play the piano!!! I miss playing anything musical. We got to play for 30 minutes and let me tell you right now, I have lost a lot of my skill but it's okay. I enjoyed being able to play. 

We got to have a district activity today!! We played volleyball and for those of you who have played with me, you know I'm terrible. But I actually wasn't the worst at volleyball this time. That was a new feeling! We had fun getting to know each other better. 

We are a little desperate for finding since our contact book is so small so Sister Wiscombe plays her Ukulele and we sing to people over the phone. It's actually a lot of fun! 

That's all I can remember for now! I love you all!

Sister Creager  

Piano Time!

Hello all! Things are glorious here in South Riding! I love it!!

I got to play the piano yesterday!!!! I was soooooooo excited! I haven't been able to play the piano for MONTHS! Our ward mission leader and his wife have a piano and asked if anyone could play. I volunteered and I didn't know how much I missed music until I started playing. It was so nice to accompany people as they sang hymns. But it's okay, because I get to start playing at district council!

We got to do 10 hours of service this week! We went and served at House of Mercy again and sorted books and clothes. We did a split companionship because Sister Smith is learning Japanese and the other sisters there speak Japanese so she went with them. So it was just Sister Wiscombe and I. It was a lot of fun. We got to put a nightstand together and wow I didn't realize how much I love putting things together until that moment. Service is the best! We also helped out at a blood drive. We took temperatures and signed people in. We had fun! 

We taught our friend Rose the word of wisdom this week and she loved it! We were really worried because we didn't know how she was going to take it but she liked it and even pointed out the blessings you can receive from living it!

We have a recent convert, Brother Tobias, and he LOVES the gospel! He literally studies the scriptures all day! It makes me so happy to know that he loves them as much as I do! The doctrine in the scriptures is amazing and truly shows how we have a very loving Heavenly Father! 

We go running every morning and last week it was in the 60's, nice and cold! But then the last few days the humidity has hit us hard! I've started to feel sick when we run because it feels so hot from the humidity! But I must be getting used to it because I haven't had to stop running yet! 

Okay here is my thought for the week. I love the gospel. I love being a missionary. And, surprise! I love being obedient! The gospel can truly change our hearts and desires. I used to hate being obedient. I hated following rules and I didn't care to become better. If it was mischievous, I wanted to do it. But the gospel has changed my heart. Mosiah 5:2 says (and I'm going to paraphrase for a second here) "The spirit of the Lord Omnipotent has wrought a mighty change in us, that we have no more disposition to do evil..." This is what the gospel does. It's about joy. Not happiness, but joy. Happiness can be temporary, but joy? Joy is lasting! We receive endless blessings from the gospel! God loves us so much! I have changed so much that I don't want to do anything that would take away from the joy that I receive by being obedient to my Heavenly Father. I know He loves me and I know He loves every one of you! Alma describes my feelings exactly in Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me..." I am so grateful the Lord called me as a missionary. There is nothing I would rather be doing! I wish I could be a missionary forever! 

I love you all!

Pictures this week are few. Sorry! I forget to take pictures throughout the week. We have Sister Smith, me, Sister Wiscombe, Sister Nelson who came out with me, and Sister Lungren! 

Sister Creager 

South Riding

Hello everyone! I apologize for not writing last week! It was a crazy day with transfers and figuring out where to go to drop off and pick up new sisters! 

I got transferred to the South Riding area with Sister Wiscombe and Sister Smith! I'll be finishing Sister Smith's training and Sister Wiscombe leaves after this transfer. I love them both so much!! 

South Riding has AMAZING members who are able to teach as well as the missionaries. I was astonished in our first lesson with our friend Rose and the members we had there. Side note, one of the members actually served in my sister's mission! So that was a fun connection. But they are all amazing! 

Alright, Monday was wet, rainy, and cold. Just like every transfer day. Sister Jones and I got to meet up with my old MTC companion Sister Paas to pick up Sister Jones' new companion, Sister Newton, and drop me off. It was so fun to see Sister Paas again! We then left and went to a different spot to meet Sister Wiscombe and Sister Smith who didn't realize that transfers were that day so we waited 45 minutes for them to come. We then realized that Sister Newton had left her phone in the car so we called them and told them to meet us at the spot we were currently at. It was quite the mess with us all waiting and looking around for each other and getting soaked. But that's Monday.

We got to do 9 hours of service this week!!!!!! It has been so fun! The drive to go to the thrift shop is about 40 minutes so we turn the church music up and jam out in the car. It's so much fun! At the thrift shop we sort clothes, books, and price items. 

Sister Smith is reassigned from Japan so she gets to do language study for an hour. I have zero motivation to learn a new language so I just spend the time studying my scriptures or writing in my journal. But I am picking up on phrases here and there! 

My new district is really nice and I found out the Elder Tahi from my last district got transferred to the same district so that was exciting! He is a lot of fun to be around and I'm glad for a familiar face. 

The AP's (assistants to the mission president) asked our companionship to demonstrate how to effectively use media using the screen sharing feature over zoom. We were surprised because Sister Jones and I just gave a presentation two weeks ago and Sister Wiscombe and Sister Smith had been called on a few weeks prior to us. So after two hours, we finally settled on what we wanted to teach, this presentation only had to be 5 minutes long by the way, and what we wanted to use. Then, 3 HOURS LATER, we finally figured out how to share it smoothly without any problems. We were really glad we had taken the time to practice and figure it out because once we met with the AP's, we had to record it 4 times before we got one good enough to send in for inspection. It would have been a lot more times if we hadn't worked out all the glitches! 

I know this has been really long already but one more thing then I'm done! I tend to be a little private with my spiritual thoughts throughout the week but I have one I wanted to share this time.  A lot of the time we excuse ourselves by saying "this is just the way I am"  but as I was reading in 3rd Nephi 27:27 Jesus asks a question. "... What manner of men ought ye to be? ... Even as I am." I thought about that and realized that we can change the desires of our hearts. "This is just the way I am" is a lame excuse to not become better. We can change who we are becoming. In 3rd Nephi 27:21-22, Christ tells us how to do that. And in 3rd Nephi 12:1-12, Christ teaches us how to become like Him. I have learned that it is impossible to do something without becoming. We can't watch or listen to something without it affecting us. This is why we are asked to watch our thoughts, words, and deeds. We are trying to become like Christ. Becoming is a lifelong process. It is understanding the "why" and becoming One with God and His Son Jesus Christ. We can do that by submitting ourselves to the will of the Father.  Who do we want to become? 

Being a missionary is the best! I am loving every minute of my mission and it is SO WORTH IT! I love learning about the gospel and all the blessings that our Father in Heaven has in store for us! 

For pictures this week there is Sister Jones and I, Sister Pass and I, my old district, and my first card tower! And then Sister Smith, Sister Wiscombe, and I goofing off last night.

Love you all!

Sister Creager