Surprise!

Due to time constraints, Hermana Meise was not able to write an email to post this week so here are some highlights from her email to her dad and I...

She got a call from her Mission President Saturday telling her that she is being transferred tomorrow.  She'll be serving in the (Spanish speaking) Dayton Branch which is about to become a ward.  Her Mission President told her he received "a very distinct and direct revelation" that she should be given this new assignment.

She is very sad to be leaving Bend. She says, "I really love this town and this ward and I thought I'd be finishing my mission here." 

Because this new assignment is going to be challenging (for various reasons), she says, "extra prayers would be much appreciated."

Please keep Hermana Meise and her new companion in your prayers.

Here are some pictures she included:

Zone P-day at a Sports Complex owned by a member

After our District Meeting

 Jean's baptism

Flowers from the baptism

Cindy...we would walk with her every morning.

Memorial Day Pancake Breakfast...time to say goodbye

 Sister Rolie and Sister Hoover

The Webers

 Jean

 The Kinkades.  Sister Kinkade is the RS President

Sister Martin, the Ward Mission Leader's wife

Sister Rolie and her daughter, Sophie

With Lilly, after a hike we went on today

 

I just love seeing her laugh!

With Lilly's family

Good news and bad news

Hi everyone!

Some good news and bad news...

The bad news: Jean did not get baptized this past week but only because the people she wanted to participate and give talks were going to be out of town. Also, it was such short notice they didn't get to announce it in church.  

The good news: Her baptism is rescheduled for this week. She is so ready and we are so excited. We had the most amazing lesson with her this week. We had a "movie night" at a member's (Cindy) house and we watched "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration". I have seen that movie for what seems like a hundred times before but, for some reason, this time was special. As we were watching it, I just felt such a sweet spirit. I was filled with an increased love and appreciation for the prophet and all that he did. Afterwards, we had the most amazing conversation about priesthood and the reality of the priesthood power that has been restored upon the earth. It was so amazing to be able to reflect upon how much the priesthood has influenced my life and how grateful I am to have been surrounded by priesthood holders, first and foremost being my dad.

Another super cool thing that happened this week...There's this AWESOME recent convert named Lilly; she's 17, a senior in high school, and just joined the church in February. Her mom is very involved with an organization that helps women In Africa become educated. This week one of Lilly's friends, named Nelly, was visiting from Kenya. Nelly is AMAZING. She frequently represents Kenya in the UN and that's why she was in the states and just swung by Oregon for a visit. She was telling us how she's seen missionaries in Kenya, in France, and now in Oregon. We talked A LOT about the similarities between what we do. I seriously have so much respect and admiration for Nelly. And we ordered a Swahili Book of Mormon to give to her! We promised her we'd come to Kenya to see her and help out with the work she does in the schools and orphanages over there. It was so cool to be able to share in that mutual love of serving others with her and to feel of the genuine love that she has for others and especially those she helps.

with Nelly and Lilly

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Meise

More pics...

Okay if I had to sum up Bend in one picture it would be
this one. EVERYONE is OBSESSED with biking and dogs. Clearly.

 Benddddd!  That dark spot in the horizon is the rain that you can see from the distance.

Breakfast! These are fresh eggs a member gave us from their chickens
mixed with quinoa and vegetables, yogurt and granola, and tea that we
buy from downtown where you just buy the herbs by the ounce... This
one is called Superberry and it's my favorite!

And one found online from her Zone Conference this week...

After our Mother's Day Skype...

Hi everyone!

It was so nice being able to Skype yesterday. I feel like since I just talked to you, I don't really know what to say to update you on everything. BUT last night was a super exciting night so I guess I'll just tell you about that. 

After we finished Skyping, we went to dinner at a member's house. I think I told you yesterday that Bend is super outdoorsy and typically what you would think the northwest would be like. So, for dinner, we had trout fish the husband had caught on a recent fishing trip and, I kid you not, they literally just chopped the head off, stuck it in tinfoil, put it on the grill, and then served it to us with the fins and tails and skin and bones and everything! I have never seen anything like that in my entire life. We literally had to rummage through the fish and pick through the bones to eat it. I am deffffffinitely a city girl because I was struggling with it hardcore. It just blew my mind. A WHOLE FISH on the plate. I guess at least they cut the head off first, right?

They gave us some cake and pie to take home. All of our lessons fell through for the night so we were wondering what to do. We thought of our investigator, Jean. We decided to take our dessert over and see if she'd let us come inside and share it with her. Usually, she never wants us to come inside because she lives in a trailer and doesn't feel like she has room for guests. When we got to her house, it started pouring outside so between the rain and the cake, she let us in which was a miracle in and of itself. I'm not sure if you remember but while we were Skyping yesterday, we got a text from our ward mission leader saying that Jean had said she was ready to get baptized whenever. When we asked her about that she told us the whole story and then went off on this tangent about something else. We were like, "Wait, wait, wait Jean, so are you serious or are you kidding?" and she said, "No I'm totally serious!" So we said, "Well do you want to pick a date?" and she said, "Well the fireside is on Friday so maybe Saturday?" Hahaha it was the craziest thing ever because just two weeks ago she said she was NOT ready to pick a date. We had an awesome lesson with her on Saturday about recognizing answers to prayers and how sometimes we don't even realize that we already received our answers; we're so busy looking through the trees that we don't even see the forest. That really struck a chord with her and she decided she really has already received that answer through the way that she feels about the gospel and the Book of Mormon. So exciting!!!! So now we're throwing together a baptism for Saturday and it's going to be awesome!!!! Welp, that was our miracle of the night!

With Jean

Love,

Hermana Meise


More pics...

Zone picture...the senior missionary couple, the Abrams, were leaving to go work in the office and this was their last district meeting

We drove to Newberg the day before our MLC and stayed the night with the Newberg sisters and their mini missionary

An awesome lunch we made for ourselves one day. (She is very happy to be eating more healthily in her new area.)

One of our dinner appointments had to cancel so they gave us an Olive Garden gift card instead!

We taught the Sunbeam Class yesterday.

More pictures I took while Skyping...

 

 

 

 

Note from Mom:  I realize this is probably "Hayley picture overload" for most of you reading this but I love having all these pictures that help me relive every moment of our Mother's Day Skype call yesterday. So I guess this "overload" is really for me :-)

Good thing we're missionaries...

Hi everyone!

This week was pretty eventful. First things first: my companion hit me with the car! Let me just say I am totally fine and practically uninjured and it was probably one of the funniest things ever. So, there's this rule where if someone is backing the car up, the other companion has to stand outside the car and "back" the other person up, basically giving hand motions telling them to stop and go. We were leaving an appointment the other night and I was backing Sister Rosado up. It was kind of a tight squeeze because there was a rock half-wall. I was trying to get her as close as possible so she could get around in one shot. I got her pretty close and then gave her the signal to stop and I guess she didn't see the signal because she was watching the cars on either side to make sure she didn't hit them. We're not exactly sure how it happened but basically, long story short, she hit me and I fell back into the rocks and then got pinned between the car and the rocks. We were blessed because the only thing that happened was that my hand got cut up. Other than that, I'm totally fine. Good thing we're missionaries and the Lord protects us! I could not stop laughing afterward; I don't even know why I thought it was so funny. Sister Rosado just kept saying, "Did I really just hit you with a car?!?!?"

We were able to teach Johnise again a couple times this week. She is so awesome. It's hard to describe her, she's this really fashionable, young, kind of person that says the funniest things, but not even on purpose. The first lesson we had with her earlier in the week, her fiancé Giovanni came again and we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ which basically outlines the pattern we need to put into our lives in order to progress: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We had asked her to read 2 Nephi 31 in preparation for the lesson and she had so many questions about it. (She was especially confused about the concept of baptism by fire...don't worry, we clarified and she was relieved ;) ) She's still on track to be baptized in the beginning of June and she'll be getting married up here as well. She doesn't have very much family or friends up here so we're serving as her bridesmaids! That is definitely one thing I did not think I'd do on a mission but I'm super excited. The Relief Society is taking her under their wing and she's actually going to have the wedding in someone's home. She isn't able to come to the Cascade Crest ward because of her work schedule so we go with her to the other ward that meets in the morning. I've been really touched to see our Relief Society sisters really band together around this woman they barely even know. Most of the people who have offered to help with things haven't even ever met her. I love this ward. They are so amazing!

Well here's some pictures-- last night we had dinner on a seriously ranch mansion in the middle of nowhere and they let us hold their chickens.

Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Meise