WEEK 12: You Won't Believe What Happened...

Happy Monday!

A LOT has happened this week. One big thing, specifically. Something major. Something exciting. The biggest thing that happened this week was that (drumroll, please).....

WE GOT A CAR!!!

It's true! You read that right. We have a car now!! The APs (Assistants to the President) called us Thursday morning and told us that we would be receiving a car! Did we start jumping up and down and crying as soon as they hung up? Yes!! This is such a huge miracle for our area! Of course we're not going to stop biking, there are plenty of miracles that come from biking. But now we can make it to the furthest ends of our areas consistently, and can drive ourselves to church, and Zone Conference, and all the good things! This is truly going to hasten the work in our area. It's already accelerating, I've seen such a difference in the 3 weeks that I've been here. Things are moving quickly! And this is such a blessing. By the way, our car is named Ruth.

It's been a great week. Our friends Roy, Johnny, Megan, Cheryll, Carola, and Alex all came to church on Sunday! It was definitely a miracle. We worked really hard all week, and it paid off when we got all of them there! I love them all so much, Sister Van and I are very excited about the progress they're making. A sad thing that happened is that we called Roy after church to ask him how he liked it, and he told us that he did not enjoy it. We asked him why, and all he said was that he doesn't want to come back, doesn't really want to keep reading the Book of Mormon, and doesn't want us to come by.... Ouch. That's a heartbreaker. We hung up and I cried. It was very sad and very disappointing, he's been so eager to learn and has made so much progress! But I believe we've planted a seed, and I think he will come back to it in the future. It's just not the right time right now, and I have to be okay with that. You just have to pick yourself up and keep moving forward. And never give up on people. 

Something really big happened within our mission recently: the Havasupi native American reservation has missionaries again! The Supai reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon has been completely isolated from tourists and anyone outside of the community since the start of the pandemic. It's been two and a half years since our mission has had missionaries down there, and last week a companionship got permission to go down! It's an 8 mile hike, 2,000ft elevation change, and the elders stayed down there for a couple days before coming back up. There's no cell phone reception, so they lost contact with President Rodarte while they were gone. They reported that there is so much work to do, and there are people in that community who are ready. President and Sister Rodarte called it "historic," and the whole mission is so excited about it! I won't make it there as a Sister, but it's definitely a bucket list after my mission. If anyone wants to go, let's make it happen.

If you know me at all, you might know that yellow butterflies and hummingbirds are very special to me. This week, I've seen so many of both! It always makes me smile, and there was one butterfly that followed us up the road. It would disappear and then cross our path again, or would land on flowers nearby when we stopped to knock doors, and then take off down the street again. It was really funny to watch it, I tried and failed three times to catch it...

We had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders, Hermana Jacob and Hermana Moyano. They are amazing, and I learned so much from them! My soul definitely felt uplifted and encouraged after they left, and I've tried to keep that energy through the week. The morning after they left was one of the best days of my mission so far. Nothing huge happened, but I just felt happy. The weather was AMAZING, we had a lot of plans for our people, and I felt strong and healthy mentally and physically. It was just a great day. 

It's been a really good week! We've been working hard and we've seen a lot of miracles. We are excited for this next week. God is doing great things in this area!

Until next week,

Sister Malmstrom 

2110 Los Feliz St #1004 Las Vegas, NV

Pictures:

- "Alexa, play 'I Love to See the Temple' by Paul Cardall." It's such a blessing to see the temple often!

- I made a tiny little bee friend! He let me have my photo opp and then flew away.

- We have Zone Conference this week, and it reminded me that I never sent the Zone picture from last month! This is the Railroad Pass Zone picture from August. I'll send the Sunrise Central Zone Conference picture soon!

- "Give my best to your missionaries." - Elder Uchtdorf to President and Sister Rodarte when he visited our mission this week!

- Good old desert picture