Final Letter From the Washington Spokane Mission!

Hi everyone!

Well, I guess this is my last letter from the Washington Spokane Mission!  :)  Transfers are tomorrow and I’m staying an extra week and will be home on the 17^th.  My current companion (Sister Lilley) is getting a new companion, which she will be training, and we will be in a trio until I go home next Monday.  Sister Lilley will do a great job training!  I’m excited for her!  :)  She gets to send a missionary home, and start training a new missionary all at the same time! I’ve really loved having her as a companion, and I’m going to miss her.  I’m thankful for this last week to let it sink in that I’m really going home.  So weird!

We taught M___ this week about tithing and fasting, and he is excited to do both.  I’m so excited for his baptism, and so excited for M___!  I’ve never taught anyone more prepared.  His baptism will be on Wednesday, April 12!  :)

We also met with C___ this week, which was good.  He hasn’t been to church for a few weeks, so we were starting to get worried.  We were able to meet with him though, and he’s planning on going to church this Sunday. :)

Last night we went to the mission home and had dinner and a meeting for the departing missionaries.  We had what we call the “tie cutting ceremony”.  Just a fun thing to do where we cut off a piece of a tie to signify that we are wrapping up our missions.  We also had a testimony meeting, and I totally had a hard time giving my testimony.  Yeah, pretty much cried through the whole thing.  :)  I’m really going to miss the good people here in this mission, the companions that I’ve had, and the Dymocks!  I’m so glad for this extra week that I get though!  :)

Today is my last P-day since I fly out next Monday!  It’s going to be a great week this week, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all when I get home!  Thank you so much for all of your letters, packages, your support, and your love!

Love you all,

Sister Worthen

PS:  This is what Paul had to say in Timothy:  “….and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith”!  :)

The "cutting of the tie" ceremony!

All the missionaries going home, with
the Dymocks

New missionaries coming in, with their trainers.

M___ at his baptism!  Note from parents:  A ward
member there sent us this picture this week!

When you haven't had time to eat anything but
oatmeal, cereal, and soup, the only
dirty dishes you have are bowls.  :)

General Conference and Peanut Butter

Hello from the Washington Spokane Mission!

Had a great lesson with M___ this week.  He prayed about the plan of salvation and getting baptized, and he said Heavenly Father told him “yes!”  :)   Yay!!!  I was so happy.  We pray that he can following through with it.  We did a church tour with him and taught another lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The spirit was really strong!  M__ wanted to move his date for baptism up because he was so excited!  We had another appointment with him and taught him the word of wisdom and the law of chastity, and he committed to live both.  The only concern he had with the W.O.W. was that he ate too much peanut butter.  :)   I guess that’s a physical trainer for you.  He’s decided that he wants to get baptized on April 12^th!

We had district meeting this week, and President Dymock came to our meeting.  He and Sister Dymock live in our area.  I hope the District Leader didn’t feel extra pressure. :)  He did a great job though.  President also showed us the new first vision video that Britt told me about.  It really is amazing.  President also gave us new pass along cards.

General Conference was this weekend, and it’s been amazing!  It cuts into our proselyting time, but I totally loved watching it.  Five new temples announced, including one in the Philippines!  And the former mission president of the Spokane Mission spoke!

I love serving with Sister Lilley!  She’s a great missionary and an awesome companion!  I’m going to miss her and the other companions that I’ve served with here, and the awesome people in the Washington Spokane mission.  So weird that this will be my second to last letter to you guys! :)

You all have a great week!

Love you all,

Sister Worthen

At Mission Leadership Council this week

With Sister Lilley

A member of our ward has a dog that had six puppies.
German shepherd and lab mix

Cute!

Bob Ross Painting, a "Golden" Investigator, and Peepholes

Hi from Spokane Valley, Washington!

I hope everyone is doing great.  This has been a busy, busy week here.  Here are the highlights:

On Monday, we had a YSA Family Night, and we had a Bob Ross painting activity.  It was a ton of fun.  I haven’t painted in forever, but I was reminded how much I love it.  I didn’t finish my painting, but got a good start on it.  And A___ came, which was great!

We met with M___ for the first time this week, and he is golden!  Literally golden.  He was the one that called and asked us how to get baptized last week.  We taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong!  He had a lot of questions like “why do I get chills when I go to church or pray?”  He’s already been reading the Book of Mormon.  He committed to be baptized on the 15^th of April and to meet with us twice a week!  :)  We taught him a second time later this week on the plan of salvation.  He actually bore his testimony to us about being an instrument in God’s hands to help his family.  :)  Missionary work is such a beautiful amazing work!

Sister Spackman (from the Ponderosa sisters) spent a little bit of time with us this week.  We taught a less active guy in their area named B___, and he strengthened my testimony so much!  He is like a Mormon that uses nondenominational wording.  :)   He talked about becoming worthy to go to his niece’s wedding in the temple, because he baptized her when she was eight. :)

We also had another appointment lined up with C__ and T__, but they didn’t answer their door.  We could totally see them looking through the peephole though!  :)  I don’t think that people realize that you can see the peephole go dark when someone is looking through it. :)

So, this week was my 18-month mark here in the mission.  That’s super weird for me!  We got to go to the temple this week, which is here in my area.  It was so needed, since it’s been awhile since we last were able to go.  I got the impression when there that I should prepare and pay close attention to General Conference coming up.  I am excited for Conference!  We were able to see the General Women’s conference broadcast, and it was awesome.

We’ve been planning and practicing for a Missionary Musical Fireside, and that was last night.  It was a full house, and a ton of people came.  It went amazing.  The spirit was so strong, and it definitely made us sound way better than we actually were.  Sister Wagstaff is our choir director and she has helped us so much to actually sound good!  It hit me a couple of times while we were singing Joseph Smith’s first prayer that I’m coming home soon.  I love this calling and the spirit and consecration that comes with it.  I’m scared to not have that once I go home. 

Thank you so much for all your letters, packages, and love that you’ve sent my way.  I really appreciate it!!

Love,

Sister Worthen

With Sister Lilley and the Ponderosa Sisters
(Sister Spackman and Sister Mathias)

Making treats

Week of Highs and Lows

Hi everyone,

This week has been a mix of highs and lows.  On the low side, we had a day that was so bad that it was almost comical.  Two of our lessons fell through.  When we tried the second one, as we were walking back to our car, a guy who was super drunk starting yelling at us.  He kept yelling really derogatory things as we were walking across the parking lot.  Later, we were trying to find a referral who lived in a maze of apartment complexes, and found that his apartment number doesn’t exist.  What did exist was the giant bird that pooped on us.  As we were walking back out of the complex, a car swerved to hit a mud puddle that splashed all over us.  Right about then it started to rain really hard.  Luckily by that point, the day was pretty much over.  :) 

On the high side.  We started to teach a new YSA investigator named A___.  He was a referral from the South Hills YSA ward.  He is super cool!  He is a Christian, and has really strong faith.  He said that he feels the spirit when he talks with us.  He even accepted a baptismal date for April 28^th!  He also came to church this week!  Also, out of the blue, we got a call from a guy named M___, he asked us how to get baptized!  :)   We told him that there were a few things that needed to happen first, and we have our first appointment with him on Tuesday.

So yes, missions are full of highs and lows, but the lows make the highs so much sweeter!  Like my mom says, you gotta have some clouds to make an awesome sunset.!  :)

It’s been raining a lot here lately, but it’s starting to get a little bit warmer.  It feels like winter is finally starting to change to spring.  I’m really looking forward to general conference coming up soon!

Thank you for all your letters and support!  It has meant so much to me!

Love you all,

Sister Worthen

Spokane temple

With Sister Lilley

PJs that Sister Lilley's mom sent to us

Lights over Spokane Valley

Free treats from a member owned treat shop
in the mall.  :)

The members treated us to a nice dinner

Got to see Sister Olsen at one of
our training meetings

Social Media and in a "Finding" Phase

Hello from Spokane Washington,

So, this week I picked up my new companion, Sister Lilley.  She is so awesome!  She is funny and a hard worker, but doesn’t get uptight about things and is laid back.  I just love her!

Since transfers take place in our area, we helped on transfer day helping missionaries move stuff and get with their new companions.  Then we took Sister Lilley’s stuff home to our apartment and to get her all situated.  She about died when she saw our apartment.  :)  It is a pretty nice apartment.

This week we didn’t have many lessons with investigators.  We are in a “finding” phase right now.  On one day, we were trying to visit some potential investigators that missionaries had come in contact with in the past, and we found a YSA investigator.  Her name is W___ and we set up a church tour with her.  I’m excited about that!

We met this week with C___ and J___, two active YSA members (who totally like each other, but aren’t dating yet), and did the social media referral lesson with them.  It went pretty well! :)  I’m excited to use social media for missionary work.  That’s what is was created for in the first place.  :)  I wasted way too much time on social media before my mission.

I did have one evening this week where I was down.  We went to dinner with the U__ family, and I felt so bad because my stomach was not having it and making these super, super loud noises.  They all just kind of stared at me. :)  Needless to say we had to come home after that and Sister Lilley did some admin work while my colon decided to hate me.  :)  Sister Lilley is awesome though, and I love her.

This week was mainly a lot of searching and finding.  I know the Lord will bless us if we keep working hard!

You all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Worthen

With Sister Lilley

One Companion Going Home, and a New Companion Coming In

Hi family and friends,

My email this week is going to be shorter because it’s transfers which is always a busy time.

So, I get a new companion tomorrow.  Sister Blauer finished up her mission and went home today.  I’m going to miss her.  My new companion will be Sister Lilley!  I’m excited to serve with her this transfer.  When I was in Kellogg, Sister Chugg and I lived in the same apartment as Sister Lilley and her companion.  So, I got to know her when I served in that area.  She’s great and I know that she will do well here!  I pick her up tomorrow.

I don’t have a whole lot to report on this last week.  It was a busy week with exchanges and also trying to find new investigators.  Not a lot of success to report this week, which is a bummer.  We met a guy named D___ in the parking lot and we set up an appointment for him to come take a church tour.  He didn’t keep his appointment though, and I’m pretty sure he gave us a fake phone number. :(   Nice trick.  Also, you know how it’s just really, really low when a girl and a guy are girlfriend and boyfriend, and one of them is low enough to break up with the other by doing nothing more than sending a text?  Well, the same thing is just as disappointing when an investigator “breaks up” with you by sending a text.  :(   Yeah, we had an investigator text us saying that they didn’t want to meet with us anymore.  Bummer.  :(  Some weeks are that way though on the mission, and you just keep working hard and the Lord will bless you at some point.

We did have a great lesson with a less active member named J__.  She served a mission and everything.  She is super cute and bubbly.  She got married to a guy who she thought was great and treated her well, but literally the night they got married he started abusing her.  She got a divorce from him down the road, but it’s taken a toll on her spiritually.  We had a lesson on divine worth and repentance.  It was great and the spirit was so strong! :)  She asked a couple of hard questions that I really didn’t have an answer to, so I just said a prayer and shared my testimony, and the words were given to me.  It was a great experience.  :)

Thanks everyone for your letters and support.  You all have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Worthen

The missionaries in my zone

We played "mud" soccer on P-day in the
mud, snow and wind

Small Miracles and Meeting an Old Friend

Hi everyone!

Happy Valentine’s day (from this last week)!  I hope everyone is doing well!

This week has been a good week.  The first thing I want to tell you about is about some Social Media training that we were able to use.  We were trained on how to do social media referrals with the members.  So, before we started to meet with all of them, we wanted to demo it with Eric (our Ward Mission Leader in the YSA ward) and Alina.  We say a prayer with them and then have them pull up their friends list on social media.  Then we have them listen to the spirit and pick a friend that stands out to them.  Then right then and there we have them send a Mormon message and a personal message to them.  So cool!  The spirit was so strong, and Eric and Alina got fired up with it.  I literally love serving in a YSA ward so stinking much as a missionary!  :)

I went on exchanges this week with Sister Spackman.  She actually looked at my blog when she got her call!  :)  Go Mom and Dad for keeping the blog updated.  She’s been out about 4 months and we worked in her area in Ponderosa.  She had two lessons set up, but they both fell through.  :(   So we did a lot of finding today.  We saw a really cool miracle.  It was raining hard all day and was pretty cold.  We were completely soaked and pretty done with the day.  The last ten minutes of the night we decided to knock on one more door.  Total miracle!  We met R__ and T___, who let us right in!  R___ is family ward age and T___ is YSA age so found investigators for both of us set of sisters!  They’re roommates, and really open.  We invited them to a Relief Society activity and a church tour and they said they would be there tomorrow!  :)

The next morning, we were still working in Sister Spackman’s area, and I got to meet some of their investigators.  We went to meet one named V___, and it turns out that I had totally taught her before!  Back when I was covering the Foothills Ward in a trio with Sister Lott and Sister Olsen.  When she opened the door, I was like “V___!”  I think that totally surprised Sister Spackman.  V__ remember me, and gave me a pair of knitted slippers.  :)

We had another awesome miracle this week.  Our ward mission leader asked us to set up an appointment with a less active guy named J___.  Since we are both new to the area, we had no idea who J___ was, so we contacted the only one in our phone.  Turns out it was the wrong J___.  But this J___ that we contacted set up an appointment and met with us!  Turns out he was baptized at age 16, but when all of his Mormon friends moved to BYU, he stopped going to church.  Anyways, it was a super powerful lesson!  We watched Finding Faith in Christ and paused it now and then to talk about the video.  McKay and Jewel were both there and they were awesome fellowship to have with us!  YSA is the best!  J___ committed to come to church on Sunday!

I’m really enjoying this area, and I’m finally starting to feel like I’m getting the hang of the two wards here.  I’m enjoying working with Sister Blauer.  She will be going home this next week though, and I will miss her.  I will find out who my next (and last) companion will be on Sunday.  I’ll keep you posted!

Love you all!

Sister Worthen

With Sister Blauer at the temple grounds

The beautiful Spokane temple

With Sister Spackman, Sister Blauer,
and Sister Griffith

Valentines package from the Hekkings

Valentines package from Alyssa

First week in Spokane Valley

Hello from Spokane Valley!

So, crazy thing happened last P-day.  We were at the apartment getting ready to go out (p-day was almost over) and we got a call from President Dymock.  He said that he needed to make a change.  He said he realized that me and Sister Chugg had only been together for a short time and we were doing really well together.  But he says he’s been praying and praying about it, and needed to make a change in a couple of other places.  He said that he needed me to go to Spokane Valley, and had a sister that was going to take my place here in Kellogg.  He asked me and Sister Chugg what we thought, and we said we’d go and do whatever was needed.  So, on Tuesday, I went to Spokane Valley!  I’m going to miss serving with Sister Chugg.  She is a hard worker and I learned a lot from her.  I know she’ll do well here in Kellogg. 

In Spokane Valley, I am companions with Sister Blauer.  She actually goes home this next transfer.  Fun fact:  Sister Blauer and I actually went to elementary school together!  :)    Sister Blauer and I served in the same zone when I was in Cheney, Washington.  She’s a great missionary, and we are already close, and I love her to death!  She’s kind of intense like I am, so we are all kinds of intense all wrapped up into two sisters!  Look out Spokane Valley!  :)   Here in the Valley, we cover a regular residential ward, and we also cover a YSA ward.  Because we cover the YSA ward, we actually have a pretty large area that covers three stakes.  But in that large area, we only work with the YSA age people.  In the residential ward that we cover, we work with everyone there.

I love this new area!  We have a nice apartment, and we have a car since we cover a large area.  It’s probably the most populated area that I’ve served in so far.  The temple is here in our area, and the mission home is actually in our area as well.  The area is a little slow right now as far as teaching, investigators, etc., so we are definitely working in building our teaching pool.  One of the things that I love about serving in a YSA ward is they aren’t afraid to invite everyone to church!  :)  Our ward mission leader is a return missionary and is on fire.  :)   It’s nice to have a supportive mission leader who magnifies his calling.

Well, I hope you all have a good week.

PS.  My pictures from this week are mixed, some from Kellogg and some from here in Spokane Valley.

Love,

Sister Worthen

Me and Sister Lilly on exchanges

Sister Hsiao found this weird statue....strange

Sister Blauer and I outside the temple

Saw this funny sweatshirt in a store
window in Kellogg

Me, Sister Blauer, and a YSA named Jewel.  Jewel
went on visits with us as we taught.

Sister Blauer in the car

Our apartment in Spokane Valley

A miracle, Young Women's, and transferring to Spokane Valley!

Hi everyone!

This week has been a busy one.  We had Missionary Leadership Council this week, and President and Sister Dymock trained.  They always do such a great job training the missionaries!  The AP’s also trained on the new changes to the missionary schedules and the new 4 key indicators.  I saw a lot of my old companions there:  Sister Jackson, Sister Lott, and Sister Olsen.  I also saw Sister Blauer there.

We met with D___ this week to teach her.  I just love her, but Satan is really working overtime on her though with her decision to be baptized.  We’ll keep working with her and supporting her.

We had a miracle happen this week.  :)   We went tracting this week in Kellogg.  We prayed first and then picked a random street after driving around for a bit.  Then we tracted half the street, and after meeting a couple of people that were a bit mean to us, we decided to randomly cross the street and tract the middle of it.  The third door that we knocked on, an older lady and this high school aged girl answered.  We gave our little door approach and she says “come right in, I’d love to chat!”  Okay….. that has only happened to me maybe three times on my whole mission.  She got us some chairs and then flat out asks if we can give them both Books of Mormon to read!  She has a friend who is a member.  We gave a brief restoration lesson right then and there!  That doesn’t happen often at all!  She said she was from out of town and was just visiting her granddaughter, and the she was leaving the next morning.  She told us that us coming to the door was no coincidence and that she had prayed for it.  Her granddaughter wanted to take the lessons so we set up an appointment for next week.  Such a tender mercy.  Probably the coolest tracting experience I’ve ever had!  :)

We got a lot of snow this week, and in the middle of it, we went on exchanges, and I went with Sister McNeil to the Hayden Lake area.  She’s been out about three and a half months, and she did great today.  We taught a lesson with one of their investigators.  We got about a foot of snow overnight, while we were still on exchanges, so I stayed with Sister McNeil overnight and we shoveled a bunch of driveways for service the next morning, and then went back to Kellogg that day.

This Sunday, we taught part of the Young Women’s lesson in church.  When we all got up to recite the young women’s theme, I teared up in the middle of it.  It hit me how blessed I was in young women’s to have such good leaders and friends there!

Well, I better sign off.  I hope you all are doing well!

Love,

Sister Worthen

NOTE FROM MOM AND DAD:  On Tuesday (the day after this email), we got a text from a sister ward missionary in the Kellogg ward saying that Taya was being transferred to Spokane Valley in what they call an “Emergency Transfer”.  Apparently, there was a sister that needed a companion there in Spokane Valley, and the mission president needed to move Taya there.  We don’t know all the details yet, but look forward to finding out on Monday.  We’ve updated this blog with her new address.

At MLC with four of my companions: Sister Jackson,
Sister Chugg, Sister Olsen, and Sister Lott

Companions and friends at MLC

With Sister Chugg and Sister Olsen

All the missionaries and President and
Sister Dymock at MLC

With Sister Lott at MLC,
my companion in Green Bluff

With Sister Jackson, my companion
in Grand Forks

Hello from Pinehurst!

Hi everyone!

Well, I’m in my new area now in the Kellogg/Pinehurst area.  It’s just east of Coeur d’Alene about 30 miles up in the mountains.  We cover Kellogg, Smelterville, Pinehurst, and Enaville, which are all little towns in the mountains along I-90.  Our area is pretty “booney” to be honest.  And things are a bit spread out.  But not as spread out as my last area.  Luckily, we drive an Equinox which is nice with the snow and all.  There isn’t anyone scheduled right now for baptism, but we have a pretty good teaching pool.  Our ward mission leader is Brother Grahm, and he is the best.  He’s a real go-getter.  He’s about 75 and has had such an interesting life.  He and his wife support the missionaries here really well.  We had a coordination meeting with him this week, and when we went to the door, we could hear him blasting a reggae version of Adele and playing his bongo drums!  Super cool.  :)

I’m enjoying serving with Sister Chugg!  She is a great missionary.  She is so efficient, which is a skill that I admire.  She goes home in about 5 weeks at the end of this transfer, and then I go home in April.  So we are both helping each other stay focused and not be trunky.  :)  We also live with another set of sisters that cover the Wallace area, Sister Lilley and Sister Hsaio (from Taiwan).  They are great!  Our apartment is tiny, but cozy.  Our bedroom is actually in the living room, and the bathroom is tiny which is a bit of a struggle with four women.  But we make it work.  :)

One of the highlights of this week was T___.  He is a recent convert, and we are teaching him the new member lessons.  Actually, he prepares and teaches us the new member lessons.  :)  This week, he taught the Law of Chastity, and he did a solid job!  He had written out three pages and he taught it perfectly.  It’s awesome to see new members continue to embrace the gospel like that.  And Tim is so nice!  He let me borrow his old family Bible to look through.

We have also been teaching a lady named D___.   We taught her this week about temples, and she loved it.  She highlighted the whole pamphlet and was so excited about baptisms for the dead and sealing ordinances.  She drinks a lot of coffee, so we are working with her on that.  She is so great though, and I’m excited about her progress.

This week we had training on schedule changes to the missionaries schedules.  We can now do our planning in the morning instead of at night.  And companionship study is more flexible now.  Also our P-day starts at 8am rather than at 10am.  So two more hours of P-day!  :)  We can also have more flexibility when we exercise in the morning, which is nice.

Next week should be busy, as we have MLC training and some other meetings, and some additional lessons.  Looking forward to it!

I hope you all have a great week!

Sister Worthen

Sister Chugg and I

For some reason, there are a lot of abandoned, junked
vehicles around our area.

Our church house in Pinehurst

Our apartment

Our study area

This is our bedroom in the living room.  We don't
really need a living room though, so we might as
well use it as a bedroom.

Transfers!

Hello from the Spokane Mission!

I hope that everyone is doing well.  Things here in Grand Forks, BC are going along pretty well.  We are teaching a couple named D___ and R___.  I’ve enjoyed teaching them, and I think D__ would be ready to be baptized right now, but she is working on quitting smoking and coffee.  We’ve been praying so hard for her and R___.

We’ve also been teaching another couple named D___ and C___ and this week we had dinner with them and then taught them about baptismal covenants.  They are both progressing really well, and I think that D___ would also be baptized now if it wasn’t for her being in a boot and in a wheelchair for two more months.

I’ve learned how to pronounce some more words like they do here in Canada.  For instance, the Canadians pronounce “about” as “a-boot”, and “process” as “proh-cess”, and “sorry” as “saw-ree”, and “lever” as “lee-ver”.  I’m starting to use the pronunciations in my speech now. :)

It’s been really cold here with highs in the single digits.  My eyelashes literally froze, and when they thawed, my mascara dripped.  :)  I wear two pairs of leggings, 3 pairs of socks, a big thermal ski coat, thick gloves, and a hat and scarf.  I also put hand warmers up in the shoulders of my coat.  :) 

I’ve decided to read the four gospels in 100 days.  That’s 2 pages a day.  And I’m doing it side-by-side with “Jesus the Christ”.  So far I’m loving it!  I’ve learned so much and I’m only four days in now.  If any of you want a new idea for your scripture study, you ought to give that a try!

So President Dymock called this week and told me that I’m being transferred to the Kellogg/Wallace/Pinehurst area.  That is east of Coeur d’Alene about 30 miles, and up in a mountainous area.  My companion will be Sister Chugg who goes home in 6 weeks.  I’ve served around her in the North Spokane Zone, and she’s a really good missionary!  I’m really going to miss serving with Sister Olsen though, and I’m going to miss Grand Forks and the great people that are there.  But I’m looking forward to my new area and serving with Sister Chugg.

Next time you hear from me, it’ll be from the states again!  Talk to you all next week.  Have a great week.

Thanks for the letters and emails!

Love, Sister Worthen

This is the basketball hoop on the side of our apartment.
A pipe froze and broke inside the wall and dripped
down on to the hoop.

We decorated our room for Sister Olsen's birthday.

Goofing around with our investigators D___ and C___.

With D___ and C___

The planner I got for Christmas from Kenzie!

Christmas PJs from my family.

My Christmas presents from home.

With Sister Olsen

This is at the Missionary Leadership Conference

Facials on P-day

Sam, Tobias, and Jordan opening their Christmas gifts.

The Colville zone with Pres. and Sis. Dymock