FAREWELL VAN BUREN January 14, 2019

TRANSFERS!!! I am..... leaving! I am going to Mountain Home Arkansas where I will spend my last 6 weeks on the mission! Crazy!! I'm sad to leave Van Buren, but excited to go and make the most of this last transfer. Sister Buhler is staying and training so that's super awesome! I'm going to be with Sister Chandler (I haven't met her yet so that's exciting!) But I'll also be in the same district (area) as my MTC companion sister McNeil!!! I'm so excited about that!

In addition to transfer calls, it's been an adventure of a week! So much I feel like has happened. We sang at Bob and Wanda's last Monday and the Vines and Yannick from Prairie Grove came down to see me!! It was so awesome! Another thing that happened was we got a lot of referrals! We had our meeting with the other missionaries on Wednesday and we set a challenge for each of us to find 3 new people to teach before Sunday and so we all were out and working hard to find people and all of our people came through referrals. They ordered a Bible and we went and taught and then want us to come back! So amazing!!

We have been working with this one guy named John for a long time and he has always been so open to learning and coming to church, but never comes. We had a movie night on Friday and went around inviting everyone to come to it and we stopped by to invite him as well. We thought that if he didn't keep this next commitment we would give him some time before we would go back. Then on Friday he didnt come to the movie night and we were bummed about that. Then yesterday at church we looked over and he walked in! He decided he would come and he even had to stop at dollar general on the way and ask for directions. So amazing!! Then as he was sitting next to us he said he felt like he was surrounded by Angel's and felt the Spirit so strong. He said he really wants to bring his whole family next week and said he really loved it. It was such a spiritual experience for me because I was at the point of giving up on him. I didnt think he was going to actually come or let us teach him. But then after being diligent and continuing to invite him. He came! And it was such a special experience and I felt so bad that i wanted to give up. It reminds me of Joseph Smith when he said "the worth of every soul is great in the eyes of God." The worth of John is so great in the eyes of God and as we continued to reach out to him, he eventually accepted and was able to feel Heavenly Fathers love for him. I never want to give up on anyone! I learned so much from this experience and I want to help others get to that point.

Another thing we talked about this week in Relief Society was the talk from Elder Uchtdorf that he gave this last General Conference called Believe, Love, Do. It was such a wonderful discussion! We talked about the solution to find hope is in Jesus Christ. As we turn to Him, believe in Him, love as He loved, and Do as He did, we will become more like Him and it will bring us great joy, peace and happiness. I love it so much! Sometimes we tend to over complicate things like, saying that if I just did this, then I'll be happy. Or if I just lost some weight then I would feel better about myself. But what we really need to do is find the joy now. It comes through our Savior Jesus Christ and as we focus on Him. We are going to feel a lot better about who we are. It was such a great hour talking about this!

I'm so grateful for the people here in Van Buren and the memories I have made here. I look forward to finishing my mission strong in Mountain Home. Off to new adventures! (:

I love and miss you all!!