Malmstrom, Sara

Hey everyone!! It's transfer week, again! Time is flying by, and unfortunately Sister Sena and I are finally being separated. After a wonderful and eventful three transfers as companions, she is leaving to serve in a nearby Spanish branch, and I am staying here and will be recieving Sister Gariety!! I am stoked! It will be my fifth transfer here, but I absolutely adore the members, and I'm excited to work with Sister Gariety! It's the start of my last transfer, so there's a lot of strange feelings going into these last six weeks of my mission. We had a fun week full of exchanges and ward trunk or treat parties. I love consistently seeing how service allows us to forget ourselves and feel joy, even when we don't think we can. I see it over and over again when I'm asked to serve or sacrifice somehow and I selfishly want to do nothing. But the advice from Gordon B. Hinckley's father to "Forget yourself and get to work" always comes to mind, and I some...

HEY Y'ALL This week was chaos. I feel like I say that fairly often, but I actually mean it this week. We had four exchanges this week. Enough said. It was exhausting but so, so fun and so, so good for my soul. It felt like the longest week of my life, but I absolutely loved it! It was a good remimder to focus on others and lose myself in service. I love our sisters and I'm so grateful to have the chance to serve with them and get to know them! The exchanges were the focus of our week, so not much else happened. We found a few new people, but haven't had the chance to see their progress, yet. Pat is still doing well, other than a few health challenges. We are going to have a lesson with Sister Swint again this week, so we're excited! In regards to the title this week... We've become a trio again, thanks to Jeremiah, the local neighborhood rat. Yes. He's a rat. He's attempting to make a home out of the water heater closet on our patio, and he made way too many...

Hey everyone!! This week was busy but good! Elder and Sister Dunn did a mission tour in Las Vegas this week, so we got to have them at Zone Conference and MLC, which was so cool! Zone Conference was amazing, and it really focused on resilience, endurance, and diligence, which were much-needed messages for me. Sometimes I get into the rut of missionary work and I lose the joy and excitement, so Zone Conference was a good reminder for me to be all-in and intentional in everything that I do. Something that stuck with me was the idea of running without knowing the length of the race--just keep moving forward, no matter what.  Elder Dunn taught from John 5, the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda and relating it to diligence and faith. If we pick up our mats and move when the Lord tells us to, we will be healed and made whole. It was an amazing way to see that story in a different light! How can you pick up your mat and move ("take up thy bed, and walk") after the Savior this...

Well friends, we had a good week. Unfortunately I am low on time, stories, and pictures, so I apologize in advance.  We had a few exchanges this week, so that was a lot of fun! I love the sisters I work with, and I'm so proud of their spiritual growth and so excited for the people they teach! We had the opportunity to take quite a few members to lessons and out knocking doors this week, and it was a lot of fun! Usually we forget to coordinate things and then we just never take people knocking with us, but this week just worked out and we saw a lot of miracles from it! One of those miracles is Cecilia--an incredible referral from a member family in our ward. They invited is over for dinner to meet her, and she is truly an elect lady! She was so eager to ask questions, and with every answer she grew more and more excited. Each person has questions of their soul, and it was amazing to talk to Cecilia and teach her how we find answers. She was soaking it all in like a sponge, and when ...

What a week! The obvious highlight of the week was General Conference! We watched it with Pat, Kathleen, Ginger, Kathy, and the Jensens! It was so fun spending a session with each of them. Conference weekend is always an amazing weekend, and I loved watching it. The answers and feeling that I recieved to come of the questions I've had werent quite what I was expecting, but I also know that "Wait patiently" is also what the Lord asks us to do sometimes. Answers come according to the Lord's timing, and that was one of the takeaways I had. We had miracles in finding people this week--a Portuguese woman who is elect, and a family!! We hadn't found anyone by Saturday, and we were desperate. Then, we recieved a phone call from some missionaries who needed portuguese interpretation, and we ended up finding the woman they were with over the phone! Then on Sunday, we prayed to find a family and we were led directly to a family who needed us. The Lord prepares His children ...