Our Friendly Neighborhood district leader!

Hello everyone! 

It's been another wonderful week here in State College, Pennsylvania! 

We certainly got a lot done, that's for sure, haha. We had transfers this week which was super duper wonderful! I spent the day with Sister Draper while she waited to meet her new companion. I got to lead out for that whole day and it was so good for me. Leading out basically means that I took charge for the day. Scheduled where we went, how we would get there, and other things. It was super great! Sister Draper is so sweet and I love her a lot. 

I got to see Sister Hill, Sister Willes, Sister Peterson, and Sister Green this transfer! Sister Green is in my district now I will get to see her a whole lot more often and I am so pumped! I still have yet to see my sweet MTC companion Sister Skinner, but the day will come. It will indeed!

Also, Oregon has failed me when it comes to pumping gas.. Jessica made me pump gas in her car this week because she thought it would be hilarious. Well, it most definitely was. I am super pathetic, haha! 

We had our last district meeting of the transfer with Elder Wang as our district leader on Wednesday. Elder Wang wanted to have a bit of a party so he asked us all to bring food for lunch AND to dress up. Like, cosplay? Yes, like cosplay. 

So, Sister Cutler and I did what is called, "Disney bounding." Basically, we dressed up a like Elsa and Rapunzel (casually and in a mission appropriate way) and took pictures. 

Elder Wang had another plan though. He wanted to go all out. So, he dressed up In a full on Spiderman suit. YUP. He brought his costume with him out on his mission! He wore it underneath his missionary attire, but after the meeting was over, he took his mission attire off and BECAME Spiderman. We got some great pictures, I'll make sure to attach one. 

I've learned a lot this week. 

I think often we set a pretty high bar for ourselves, both as missionaries and as children of God. I found this week that I was slipping into old habits of expecting so much of myself that I simply cannot EVER succeed. When the bar is too high, you'll never reach it. Therefore, in my mind, I failed a lot this week. 

It's important to remember that we are not called because we are qualified. We become qualified through our callings. If God only called the qualified to complete his tasks, the unqualified would never learn, grow, or experience the opposition necessary to bring us joy. 

So, my weekly goal is to rejoice when I fail. To be proud of my insecurities. I have a lot of them, but if I dwell on all that I lack, I will never be effective. We should think God every day that he gives us weaknesses. 

Ether 12:27 is a popular verse in the Book of Mormon, and for good reason. We are given weakness for specific purposes. 

May we be humble and accepting of the refining that is taking place when we make mistakes. 

I love you all so very much. 

Talk to you next week! (Thanks for the love and the emails!)

Sister Westover 

10 Vairo Blvd #32B

State College, PA 16803

 

The Good, The Bad and the Spicy

Okay so... 

I already composed a really detailed weekly email for all of you and somehow it deleted I think. I hit send, double checked that it did send, and now it is nowhere to be found. So, if it did send. Great!

Otherwise, here is a short concise version because I'm lazy..

Happy Monday!!

We had a wonderful week this week. So many amazing things happened and we are so blessed to be here in this area at this time! Missionary work isn't easy at all, but there were so many moments this week that makes it all worth it. 

One of our investigators is getting baptized!! We are so so excited for her! 

We also had our branch activity this saturday! 

 We have been planning this event for over a month now and as missionaries, we really wanted to get as many investigators there as possible. 

Our event was called, "The battle at Cumorah, " haha. It was a series of competitions and games split between two different teams.  The Sisters had a team, and the Elders had a team as well. We had so many awesome activities. 

We got so many phone calls this morning from members that had to cancel on us and couldn't come. The YSA branch is super tiny anyways so if too many people said they couldn't make it, no one was going to be there. Almost all of our investigators told us they couldn't come which was really worrisome. After having put in so much effort and time into this project, it would be really difficult if the turnout wasn't very good. 

We got there and it was a really small group. It was a little disappointing at first but, we started to play the games and everyone had a blast. The games were hilarious. We played a game called Egg roulette ( taking turns smashing hard boiled eggs on your opponents head until one person smashes the only egg that isn't hard boiled, LOL ), Wiggle worm racing ( inching across a field being encased in a sleeping bag, So funny!), Balloon hugging relay ( popping a certain number of balloons with your teammates by hugging people with the Ballon in between you ), Spicy pepper eating contest (Elder Lu, Elder Wang, Ethan, and Christine volunteered. Every participant was in tears by the end of this one. The peppers were so hot they were all sobbing hysterically...like, rolling around on the ground. It was SOOO funny.  The last game was finding a quarter in a pie tin filled with whipped cream using only your face ( This one is self explanatory. I was nominated for this one, simply because I am the recipient of the quarter curse and the whole branch knows it. As I was doing this one, Jessica kept adding quarters to my pie tin! What a mess it was. Got some good pictures though, haha)

It was a really wonderful evening. We had so much fun!

I know this is a short email, but again, I already typed one up and I really want to take a nap, HAHA. Napping on a mission?? Who does that? 

.. I do. 

I love you all so very very much!

Send me emails! I love hearing from you!

The gospel Is true brothers and Sisters. I LOVE my savior so much. God is so good to all of us. What miracles have you seen today?

Sister Westover