WEEK 23: "Cheerfully Do All Things..."

Happy Monday, friends and family!

I hope things are well wherever you are! Sister Welch and I are doing well over here in Henderson. We have had a lot of really great experiences this week with our friends and with the members who live in our wards. First of all, we had dinner with the Willis family on Thursday. They're a cute family with 4 young kids. When we walked in for dinner, the 3 younger children greeted us at the door and ushered us into the living room, informing us that they would be acting as our "hosts" for the night. They led us to the dinner table and showed us that theey had prepared table settings for us--including a paper with our name indicating where we should sit, and a homemade menu. They were so sweet and excited to have us over, and were so excited to hear our Chirstmas message and participating in the #LighttheWorld campaign this month! Afterwards, they kids gifted us with stickers that they picked out. It was the sweetest thing EVER, and I have literally never felt more welcome in a home.

We had our first official lesson with our cute 10 year-old friend Paysen this week! She isn't familiar with the concept of God or Jesus Christ, and wasn't aware of the reason behind celebrating Christmas. but she is so curious and eager to learn, and her dad Mark is a great guy. We are really excited to keep teaching Paysen, and we're hoping that Mark begins to recognize the Spirit again and feels a desire to return to full activity in the Church.

We had a great experience with our frined Amanda this week! Bishop Cain, who we had Thanksgiving with, called us early this week and informed us that he had a brand new Queen size bed, bedframe, bedside table, and lamp for our friend Amanda, who has been in need of those things. He isn't even the BBishop for the ward she is in, but he knew she could benefit from the items and he selflessly picked them up and dropped them off at her home. We went over a day or two later and helped Amanda rearrange her home and assemble the bedframe and make the bed for her. She was so grateful. It was a huge miracle! God's hand was so clearly visible in this experience, and it was easy to see that this was a blessing tied directly to Amanda exercising her faith. God doesn't always provide such immediate blessings or answers to our prayers, but I testify that He does ALWAYS hear us and send answers.

This week President Rodarte joined Sister Welch and I for our daily planning session in the morning. He gave some suggestions for how we can improve, but was excited to see how we plan to be effective adn successful every day. He didn't specify if it would be on Zoom or in person, so we panic-cleaned our apartment the night before. Plot twist: it was on Zoom. But hey, at least our apartment was organized!

Because we live outside of our area and are limited on miles, we have our lunch break at the church every day. That means that we have to prepare our lunch in the morning and bring it with us. Our morning routine got a little bit scrambled when President Rodarte joined us for our daily planning on Tuesday, so I forgot to make my usual pastaroni dish featuring a salad and queso fresco (aka Hermana Wright's specialty). So we got to the church for lunch and I planned to quickly throw the pasta together and eat, until I walked into the church kitchen and remembered that they do not provide pots or pans to cook with. I searched high and low but to no avail. My choices were to either starve (not gonna happen), or get creative with the stove. So I did. I found an extremely rickety and slightly crooked casserole pan that somehow made the stovestop smoke slightly(?), and I figured it was good enough. Spoiler alert: it wasn't great. I wouldn't recommend this method of boiling water to cook pasta. It was a tragic sight (picture below). Now, I don't want y'all thinking that I can't cook for myself--this was just a fluke. It took some extra patience and hope, but the pasta shockingly turned out fabulous. Drained the water, threw in all the things, topped with the salad and quesco fresco, and boom! I had a scrumptious lunch. I highly recommend this meal to anyone. I have eaten it for lunch almost every single day for 7 weeks. It's a 10/10.

I want to be real and genuine in these emails home, and I've tried to not sugar coat anything. But there really hasn't been anything to sugar coat yet-- everything has truly been amazing up to this point. But in an attempt to be more honest, I am having a harder time this transfer than I have up to this point in my mission. There's probably a million things that are factoring into this, but long story short, I am having to adjust a lot more than I thought I would. I am struggling a little more than I'd like to connect with my companion and district and fall in love with my area. I know it is divinely directed that I am here with these people, and I know that there's something that I will learn in my time here that will benefit me in the future. But for now, it's hard. Missions are supposed to be hard! "Now, don't get carried away..." as Brother Price, a sweet older guy in our ward, says. There's no cause for alarm. I am doing my best every day to keep moving forward in faith. But sometimes it's just hard, and that's okay. We ARE seeing miracles with everyday, our friends are doing great, and it's a privilege to be able to serve others all day every day. I can feel the love and prayers from all of you, and that also brings a lot of joy and comfort to me. Feeling supported brings more motivation to work harder and do everything I can do be successful.

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

- Doctrine and Covenants 123:17

Have the most lovely week ever!!! I LOVE YOU. BYE.

Love,

Sister Malmstrom

231 W Horizon Ridge Pkwy #2226, Henderson, NV 89012

PICTURES

- Reunited with Sister Wood, one of my lovely trainers!!

- Waiting for our planning session with PRESIDENT RODARTE!

- After helping a woman move into a new home.

- My tragic pastaroni...

- Finally took some comp pictures...it only took a week!

- Went to an art gallery on our lunch break and bought cute cards!!

- Got hot chocolate from our dear friend Sherea at 7-11! She's so scary and has blatantly told me to my face about 15 times that she straight up doesn't like me...but she genuinely laughed at my joke when checking out our hot chocolate, so I think she's warming up. Pray for me just in case, though. Lol.

- Picture with Amanda and her mom, Susan, after setting up the bed!

- Sherea was sick this week so we dropped off oatmeal and orange juice, per her request.

- The most gorgeous orange tree EVER! Sister Welch has a gift for photography and took this beautiful picture.

- A duck that was just chilling in a little pool outside someone's house.