Malmstrom, Sara

Hello everyone! It's a short email today, it's been a long week but I honestly can't remember most of it. Here's just some highlights: - We took the bus system this week. It was a mess but such an adventure! - I got sunburnt. - We had an exchange with Sister Meyer and Sister Jenks, and it went so well! It was a major success, and it was a fantastic day. - Sister Sena made Brazilian cheese bread and it was delicious. - We had New Missionary Training on Tuesday and it was a spiritual feast! - We had an invigorating weekly planning session and got ourselves so organized and we're working hard with our goals and plans! I love the talk by Elder Carl Cook from April 2023 General Conference called Just Keep Going--With Faith. (Please go read it, it's wonderful). He begins with this powerful statement, and I just love it!! "Elder George A. Smith, an Apostle, received counsel from the Prophet Joseph Smith at a time of great difficulty: 'He told me I should never...

Well, hello! This weekend Las Vegas was smacked with the after-effects of Hurricane Hilary, which moved up the coast of Mexico and then California. I never thought I would hear the words "hurricane hits Las Vegas", but here we are! Friday through Sunday we just had masses of dark clouds, wind, and pouring rain. All day. Every day. The humidity levels were off the charts, and it was an interesting experience for this desert wasteland that I love. Thankfully none of the missionaries have been affected too badly, and we now have clear skies and sunshine! But there are many who are suffering from this aftermath of storm, as well as those on Maui who are dealing with the devastation after the wildfires. Please continue to keep them in your prayers. This week was a little hard, but we saw miracles. I've spent time thinking about how Christ always turned outward, even when He was struggling and suffering. That is an attribute I am trying to develop, as it's so easy to shut d...

Hey!! We gained a third companion, and her name is Sister Broberg! She's so cute and we're already having fun as a trio! It takes me back to when I was trio trained by STLs, and it's crazy that it's been over a year! But all is well on the home front today. We have had quite a few Portuguese speakers fall into our laps recently, and it's exciting! We have new potential friends, and it's always fun to start teaching new people.  This week I'm trying to focus on just simply testifying more, to break things up a bit. It's so easy to get caught into the same routine as a missionary, and this week I really want to focus on improving the small and simple things, one at a time. I'm relying on the fabulous talk "One Percent Better" by Elder Michael Dunn, from the October 2021 General Conference. I highly recommend reading and/or applying it to your life! Funny moment from this week: Sister Vance is a firm believer in taking brisk 5-10 minutes walks...

Hey friends!! Our preparation day was changed to Thursday this week, because the upcoming transfer schedule is different. It was a long stretch with no preparation day since last Monday, but we're here now! It feels illegal to send an email on Thursday, but that's just how it is this week. Crazy. Speaking of transfers, Sister Sena and I are staying together and we will be training a new missionary!!!! We're so excited! We have a lot to juggle, but it's all good. The past week and a half has been so fun. This week I got to check off one of my official mission bucket list items: teach an English class! With Sister Sena speaking Portuguese, we're getting English classes up and running. We started teaching a woman who knows practically nothing, and it was such a sweet experience! Audelene is the cutest lady, and she was so humble and willing to learn, and I was so touched by it. It was so fun to just be there while Sister Sena taught the basics, and I felt the Spirit in...

Oi!!  (That's Portoguese for "Hey!") Sister Sena's trying to teach me some basic Portoguese. Spoiler alert: I'm not catching on quickly. We had a couple cool experiences with following the Spirit this week! Our mission has been challenged to have each missionary talk to/offer a message to at least 10 new people every day. If there's not 10 people out and about, we've been Spirit-led knocking on doors to talk to more people! As I've been focusing on that and concentrating on listening to even the smallest signals from the Holy Ghost, I can definitely feel my sensitivity to His promptings increasing. This week we were led to 2 doors in particular: one that was the home of a member who was needing our help and direction back to church, and the other door was a young Portoguese family who is interested in the gospel! It was so cool noticing those doors and choosing to knock them, and being instantly rewarded by people who we could help. Heavenly Father tru...