Sister in Spokane: Going to Canada!

Note from Mom and Dad: This post includes the last couple of weeks of emails from Sister Worthen.

September 12:

We got our transfer calls last night. I will be going to.... Grand Forks, Canada!!!! :) Sister Jackson will be my companion, and I'm SO excited! First time out of the country. :)

This week has been different for me than usual. I knew it was pretty likely that I would be transferred, since I’ve been here in this area for a while. So, whenever we met with someone this week, I felt like I was telling each person goodbye. I’m really going to miss the good people here in this area, and the people that we’ve been working with. I am really going to miss Sister Lott too. She has been a great companion!

This week we met with a less active lady from the Foothills Ward. We taught about temples, and she is returning to church and attending temple prep class, so that is exciting! We had a church tour with a guy from the Foothills area, and that went ok. He is still super skeptical, but he committed to come to church on Sunday, so that’s great! We also “heart attacked” Charlene’s door. She texted us later saying it made her day. We saw Sister K. and read in the Book of Mormon with her. We also taught B__ this week, who is a less active member. We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that went well. We had dinner with the Hansen family and they prepared all items that are on my diet, which was a blessing! Oh, except the dessert, which was cotton candy ice cream. My second favorite flavor, right behind bubble gum. I may or may not have had a few bites. I was like a 5 year old again! :)

This week we had dinner with the Fullmers and they had Jocelyn over for her new member lessons. I am going to miss them all! The Fullmers are wonderful to fellowship the people here, and they have been really great to us missionaries. I love that family! We also were at the Fullmers another night for dinner, and to teach Charlene and her two girls. They came to all three hours of church this week! We gave Alayna and Macy copies of the Book of Mormon and watched the 20 minute restoration video. The lesson went well, and I want so much for them to be baptized, and continue to have the blessings of the gospel in their lives!

We also went to the Sowards to say goodbye to Rick and Mary. They gave me military dog tags with a scripture engraved on it! :) They made me promise to call them as often as I could. I’ll miss them so much!

We are doing a really cool challenge that I wanted to invite all of you to do with us as a mission! Our mission has been a bit lower on baptisms lately. President Dymock felt inspired to do a Book of Mormon reading challenge to help the work pick back up. We will be starting tomorrow (September 13th) and reading five pages a day. We will finish the Book of Mormon on December 25th, and it will be our Christmas present to the Savior. As we read we will be marking any tender mercies we find. We will be doing it as an entire mission and asking our friends and family to do it back home with us! That is a ton of people reading the same sections of the Book of Mormon at the same time. We know it will help the work pick back up and baptisms will follow! :) So that is my invitation to all of you! :)

Love you all! :)

- Sister Worthen

My new address is:

Sister Worthen

P.O. Box 344

Danville, WA

99121

PS: So, I guess we pick up our mail on the U.S. side of the border at the post office in Danville. That’s why we have a U.S. address.

September 6^th:

Hey everyone! This week has been a great week. We have an “on-date”! We had a church tour with Charlene and she brought her ten year old daughter Alayna. Sister Fullmer was there as well with us. The church tour went great! :) We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and Charlene committed to be baptized on October 8^th! So excited for her! Charlene was also able to switch to a new job that allows her to come to church, since she doesn’t have to work on Sundays anymore!

We visited Virginia in the Regency Nursing home, and taught her a message. We shared the Law of Chastity with her and committed her to live it. She said “Honey, at my age, if I broke the law of chastity, I’d probably have a heart attack and die!” :) I couldn’t stop laughing! I’m going to miss Virginia, and the others here at the Regency.

We had an awesome lesson with N__ on Saturday. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she accepted to live it! She read four chapters in the Book of Mormon and committed to coming to church. I know that eventually she will get baptized. There has already been so much progress in her, and Heavenly Father has prepared her so much!

I got a text today from one of my neighbors back home who was on a business trip here, and wanted to take us out for dinner! Sadly, that’s not allowed in our mission. I’m not even allowed to visit with him. But he was able to drop off a package to the Fullmers that parents had sent with him, and I was able to pick it up from them. That was really kind of him!

That’s about it this week! Love all you guys! Have a great week! :)

Love,

Sister Worthen