A Birthday, a Marine Coin, and No We Are Not Nuns!

Hi everyone!

Well, I’m officially 20 years old now.  :)  It’s weird to think that I’m 20.  Mom and Dad, thank you so much for the birthday package.  I got it on Saturday, and it was the cutest thing ever!  I loved that each gift was individually wrapped too.  :)  The Hekkings sent me a wonderful gift as well, and it was so nice of them to think of me.  The Sowards treated us to an awesome dinner that Mary made, with cake and ice cream.  It was great!  And I have to admit that I teared up when I opened Rick’s gift.  He served in the Marines, and he gave me his Marine safety coin!  It was the one that he carried with him during the time that he served in the military.  He told me that when I carry it, that Marine angels are walking with me to make sure that I am safe.  :)  He also gave me some advice:  “Don’t let anyone doubt you, and never let them see you sweat.” I love the Sowards!

Sister Lott is awesome!  :)   I love her so much.  So easy to get along with, and the sweetest person I’ve ever met!  She’s obedient, and hard working.  We laugh all the time.  She decorated our room with birthday decorations, and it looked great!  She also made chocolate cupcakes, but made sure I only had one so I didn’t get sick.  :) 

As far as the missionary work here in this area, unfortunately we have a low number of investigators right now.  There were several that we had to drop because they weren’t progressing at all, and several that dropped us. :(  So we are really working hard in trying to find those that are interested in learning more about the gospel.  I don’t think I’ve tracted this much on my mission before.  :)  We’ve also been trying to visit our recent contacts and seeing members for any referrals.  We also try to do service for others when we can.  We did some yard work for a potential investigator named Kay, she is Joe’s landlord.  It was good to do some “physical” work for her.  :)  We are working with some of the less active members of the ward too, in hopes to help them progress.  And we’re teaching the new member lessons to some of the recent converts like Virginia.

We had a really great lesson with Joe this week.  He’s our new investigator, in his 50’s and does tile work.  He’s pretty passionate about it, and does a great job!  Anyways, he sat right down on the grass and we taught him the whole restoration.  He said he would read the Book of Mormon and come to church! 

Brother Fullmer, our Ward Mission Leader, got called as a High Councilor.  :(  We’ll miss having him as our Ward Mission Leader.

We left a candy bar and note at “N”s house.  Hopefully we hear from her soon!  Her Dad doesn’t care for us that much, and last time we met with her, he came out and saw us and said “I haven’t had women in my home for 20 years, and now I get two of them, and they are nuns!  And they aren’t even old fat nuns either.”  I guess I’ll take that as a compliment.  Maybe we’ll make him some cookies or something.  :) 

On Wednesday night, I started feeling super sick.  Sister Lott said I looked as white as a ghost, and had me call the mission nurse, and we had to go in for the night.  It turns out I had a fever, and the nurse said that there was a 24-hour virus going around the mission, at it looks like I caught it.  We had to stay in the apartment for Thursday as well, which is the most boring thing ever.  I’d much rather be out working!  Thursday I had fever and chills all day, and dizzy as well.  But I slept for 16 hours, and was feeling a lot better by Friday.

District meeting this week was really good!  Elder Christensen is a good district leader.  He had us set a district goal for this transfer of finding three new investigators a week.  Sounds like a low number, but it’s pretty hard actually.  Last month we only found two new investigators total.  But we’ll work really hard, and I know the Lord will bless us!  Sister Lott and I also made a companionship goal to use every minute that we have effectively, and we’ve been working hard at that.

Thank you for all your support, kindness, and letters.  They mean a lot to me!  This is an awesome work to be doing, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now!  It’s great to be in the service of the Lord, and doing his work!

Love you all,

Sister Worthen

With Rick and Mary, and the cake
Mary made

Opening up Rick's gift

Rick's Marine Safety Coin that he gave me

We didn't have a cakepan, so
Sister Lott made cupcakes.

Gift from the Hekkings

So kind of Sister Lott to decorate

Sister Lott and I

My Sort-of Halfway Mark, Beautiful Area, and Attacked by a Dog

Hi everyone!

So, some sad news first:  We got a call from Alyce’s daughter Rhonda saying that Alyce had been in the E.R. for two days and was going to have to spend the next ten days in the hospital. :(  So we drove up to Holy Family Hospital to go see her and share a message.  She has a pressure sore infection and has a hole about the size of a grapefruit on her side now.  :(  Poor thing!  I love Alyce to death though.  She is one of those special people on my mission for me, regardless if she gets baptized or not.  She won’t be able to get baptized for at least three months until that heals.  After being in the hospital, she will need to stay at a rehabilitation/nursing center.  It’s out of our area, so we introduced the elders to her (that cover that area).  They will continue to work with her.  They are really good elders, so I’m not worried about her.  But I will miss her so much!

I love Sister Lott.  She is awesome!  Literally the easiest person to get along with. :)  July 4^th is her birthday.  I think that would be an awesome day to have a birthday!  We made her a cake and decorated the apartment.

We went to teach “N” this week.  I’ve never met anyone more prepared before.  She had read the introduction in the Book of Mormon, the testimony of 3 and 8 witnesses, and Joseph Smith’s testimony along with the first chapter of Nephi.  No one ever does that!  :)  And she was talking about how much she loved it and related to it.  We taught her the plan of salvation and she just soaked it all in well.  We’re not sure if her dad will let her go to church though, so that might be a road block.  Why is it that the most prepared people are always the ones put into the hardest situations?

To help us save miles on our car, Sister Dixon (one of our ward missionaries) drove us around to some of the more far reaching places of our area.  No one was home, or had locked gates at the end of their driveways, but holy smokes our area is so beautiful!  I got to see parts of our area that I’ve never seen before because they are so far out.  We have part of the Mt. Spokane State Park in our area, and it’s so pretty.  My heart falls in love over and over again with the land up here. :)  It’s going to be so hard to leave, when that time comes.

I’ve sort of officially reached my nine month mark now.  It’s been nine months since I went into the MTC.  But with the time that I was home for my health problems, and extending my mission a bit because of that, I still have about ten or so months left.  I still went ahead and celebrated my halfway mark though, since everyone that came out to the mission celebrated it as well.

The work seems to be picking up more this week.  We’ve had some more referrals and taught some new investigators, so definitely a better week work wise.  It has been an interesting week though, between being blessed by a Catholic Priest that we tracted across (he waved his cross across us on his porch), being attacked by a dog in the trailer park which we had to run from, getting lost in the mountains and having to ask for directions in an Asian bar, it’s been a bit different.  :)  Sister Lott and I just laugh together at everything.

We had some great lessons with the Sowards this week.  I love them so much, they are just the sweetest!  Rick made a comment that the pathway to Heaven is probably guarded by U.S. Marines.  :)

Well, I love you all.  I’m healthy and doing well.  I’m loving the work, and it’s the best thing ever to be in the Lord’s service!

Love you,

Sister Worthen :)

Sister Lott and I getting festive
for the Fourth of July!

Decided to wear red, white, and blue for the holiday

I don't think we can drive with these glasses!  :)

We decorated the apartment for Sister Lott's birthday

Picking raspberries on the farm for breakfast

Hump Day!

Nine months out

Just goofing around

Another pic in front of the Harvest House

My tan line is now just hilarious