Malmstrom, Sara

Hello hello, all! Another great week has passed in the McCullough Hills Stake! Transfer day is TOMORROW!! Our news came last night and --DRUMROLL PLEASE--Sister Wood and Mudrow are staying together here in the McCullough Hills Stake, but I am being transfered into East Las Vegas! AHH I'm a little bit terrified, but I know it's what I need. In my interview with President last week, he asked what I was struggling the most with and I told him my biggest problem has been street contacting. It's just awkward and I can't figure out how to approach random people on the street and guide the conversation to their faith in Jesus Christ. So when I told him that, he laughed and jokingly said, "Well in that case, let's just send you to east Vegas where that's all you do all day long, and that'll be taken care of!" Turns out, he actually wasn't joking. I think my new area is up by the temple, so that is really exciting! My new companion is Sister Van, and I...

Hello hello!! Im pretty sure I say this every week, but I can't believe it's Pday again! Time goes SO. FAST. in the mission field. I cannot even express the time warp that missionaries live in. I passed my 1 month mark in the field this week, and next week will be my 2 months since being set apart! Transfers are coming up next week, so we will see if I stay here in McCullough Hills stake or get moved to a different area! It's exciting but nerve-wracking to think about the potential of starting over in a new area with a new companion. So we'll see what news will come next week about if I stay or go! We've continued to reevaluate our teaching pool this week, even though stopping teaching our good friends has been difficult. We've been seeing a lot of miracles because of it, in finding new people and them having a strong desire to learn. It's been really exciting to meet and plan for people who are excited to grow their relationship with Jesus Christ! A random ...

This week was a tough missionary week. Other people's agency and decision-making is really frustrating sometimes, and pretty much all of our people flaked on us at some point this week. Our teaching pool has stayed the same the entire time that I've been here, and it's hard to try to plan how to help them when they just don't accept anything you try. Missionaries feel a lot of emotions, and I think we've felt every single one of them this week.... We had Zone Conference with President and Sister Rodarte this week, and they really encouraged everyone to prayerfully shake up our teaching pool, stop teaching those who aren't progressing or responding to us. They promised that if we would, we'd find new people to teach. So now we're in the uncomfortable stage of phasing out people we've been teaching forever who aren't progressing, but we haven't really found enough new people to make up for those we've put on the back burner. That being said...

Happy Monday, friends!!  I can't believe it's been another week, time is FLYING out here. Not a lot of big things have happened this week, we've had quite a few meetings so we haven't been out and about in lessons as much as we usually are. But that's okay, because it provided the opportunity for me to reflect a lot about myself and how I'm doing. It's been a harder week but still really incredible. We've seen a lot of miracles! One of them being that our good friend Lavonne has decided to work towards baptism! She is incredible, and has the strongest belief in Jesus Christ that I have ever seen. We feel so lucky to have finally found her! I've been learning a lot about patience and charity this week. We have a pretty tight schedule (there's lots to do when you cover 7 entire congregations in a large area), and when lessons with chatty people go overtime, I struggle to stay focused and relaxed. And then I see my wonderful companions who are still...

HELLO!!! Disclaimer: I don't even know what format I wrote this email in, it's a little scattered and chaotic. Hopefully one of these days I'll figure out how I want to format these, I'm just trying out different ways to write these. But anyway, onto this week..... We have had the CRAZIEST storms this week!!! Monsoon season is no joke, and I'm absolutely obsessed with it. The days are still a roasting 110⁰ with not a single cloud in the sky, until the late afternoon when dark clouds appear on the horizon. The clouds move in over the valley and by the time the sun has set and it's dark, the lightning starts. It's constant, and is so far away that it illuminates the clouds. When I say it's like a strobe light, I'm not kidding. And it's all around on every side. And then by 9:30 or 10pm, the wind picks up and the rain starts absutely POURING. It's torrential, and the lighting lights up the entire sky for literal hours at a time without any break...