Transfer 5 Week 1

'Tis all rather exciting this week! 

We got 3 new Aussie Sisters this week! Which is so exciting! We now have 3 from Melbourne, 2 from Sydney, 1 from Perth, speaking, English, Mandarin, Tongan and Samoan, and our beautiful new Senior Couple Elder and Sister Moore! We are taking over Temple Square and it is so exciting!  

Start of the new transfer with a new companion! All week the Assistants to the President and Office Assistants have been telling me how exciting my new companionship is, how they would love to be room mates with this Sister, yet alone companions with her and how she is one of their favorite sisters in the mission and how I'm going to love it and everything! So, Monday came along and it was early morning transfer conference, because we were South 1 District 1, my companionship was the first to be announced obviously with Sister Turro going outbound that was easy and then I hear... "Sister Ryan!" they tell me everything about my apartment and Pday and everything and leave my companion for last and they say "Your new companion is sitting in this room!.... She is SISTER PIPE!" I looked over to her and we were both so excited! Sister Pipe is a highly beloved sister in this mission, she is from Montana and she is Native American (5/8), really tall, super funny, is famous for saying "bye now!" and it just a beautiful spirited sister who has accomplished so much in her mission. We are 3 days into the transfer and we are already seeing so many miracles. I love it so much, we have so much unity in this companionship and I am seeing a massive contrast to this transfer and the last 2 that I had, and we have truly been blessed to be put together, we know it was inspired and we are so excited! 

This is her last transfer, so I'm killing her off but I'm going to make sure she ends her mission with a bang, the Lord knew what we both needed in a companion and we got each other! Everyone just loves this companionship, people can't believe that we are together but they love it and they can see how many great things are going to happen this transfer! I feel like the real Sister Ryan is back, that I can be myself and that I can just do what I need to do to make the most of our time, to truly have our investigators in our hearts, to focus on them, to be faithful, to use time wisely, to be the missionary that not only I know I can be, but also who the Lord called me to be and needs me to be. 

I am going to learn so much from her and I am so grateful that President felt inspired to put us together. I was told that when they put our 2 photos together it was like "it has to happen!" we are both what each other need and it's just been amazing. I can't even express how truly happy I am. I haven't felt this much happiness in a long time and I know it's because there is love, friendship and unity in this companionship, I can be me again, I'm back, SISTER RYAN IS BACK! - sorry no photos yet, but next week I promise and you are all going to laugh so much at the height difference! 

Brenda is going awesome! We called her last week and she was like "I have great news, are you sitting down?!..." In my mind I was thinking, YES SHE HAS A BAPTISM DATE! YES! and she continues "I'm going to church tomorrow with my niece who is interested in the church!" and I was thinking, well, not what I was thinking but that is still awesome! not even baptized and being an awesome missionary! we talk  a little more and then I ask "so, have the missionaries talked to you at all about a date you could be baptized?" and she said "oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, I'm getting baptized on the 28th!" IT IS SO EXCITING! You can't even imagine, she is awesome and she is changing her whole life to come unto Christ and have the gospel in her life, to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. 

Also, I'm going to a baptism tomorrow! Sister Turro and I took these Elders and this beautiful family (The Stark Family, yes they are related to Iron Man, or so they wish anyway...) around 3 times, we had such great love for this family and just wanted to help in anyway we could after we met them for the first time, the mother, is a less-active coming back and her husband is not a member, they have such a beautiful spirit about them and just need the gospel so much, we all had an instant connection and the Elders continued to bring them to Temple Square so we could be part of the lessons, this week when we were in Guest Services, they called to invite us to the baptism! They said how we had such a key part of their conversion and wanted us to be there for his baptism, the rule is, one investigator lesson baptism a transfer within a 30 minute drive, we looked it up... 33 minutes... This is an exactly obedient mission and I was thinking "No! it's 3 minutes! I'm not going to be able to go..." but then I had a feeling to ask President and some others suggest that I do... we are so blessed to have our mission president so close and so I knocked on his door "Hi, President Poulsen" he looks up from what he was doing "Sister Ryan! Come on in! How can I help you today?" I explained the situation and he said ever so kindly "for the sake of 3 minutes, I think it would be wonderful if you went to the baptism" I thanked him so much and I'm so excited! I love them all so much and they have expressed their love for us as well and so I'm really excited for tomorrow, they are already aware that I'm going to take so many photos and are so excited that I'll be there. 

This Wednesday was transfers and so the first day of Sister Pipe and I being together, we planned like a normal day and felt that at this certain time, we should go to Scriptures and Revelation, we walked down and we heard sisters saying "We have a Native American Sister here, she is... right here!" as we walked past, we stopped to talk and then it was us and him, his name is Lyleand he is Navajo, super sweet and you can see his great desire to come unto Christ and become a better person, he had a rough life and is really doing all he can to change, he left the reservation he was on and got picked up by a truck driver who is a member of the church and he has been looking after him, we had an instant connection to him, he shared his story with us and we felt such great love for him and a desire to teach him, help him, we know that he needed us and was ready, he just needed the assistance to get there. He doesn't have a phone but we agreed to meet him the next day.  So we met the next day and started teaching about the Restoration, a whole lot of fears and concerns came up and we talked a lot about the atonement and how this will help him, how through baptism, he can have all his guilt swept away (3 Nephi 27:14-16). He told us that he met so many Sister's the day before, but he felt like he could open up to us more, that we wouldn't judge him and just have that desire to help and we do! He is incredible and though he has a rough past, we know that he has such a great future ahead of him. We know that this gospel will set him free from what holds him captive, we know this gospel can change lives and it will as we let it, as we let the savior mold us into who we need to become. 

It has been Sister Pipe's dream to teach a Native American and to also teach someone (an investigator) on the Square and we get to do that with him!   

 

Too be honest, I don't have much more to write about other than these few things, but this week has already been incredible, and I know this transfer will be so amazing, that Sister Pipe and I will behold many great things as we strive to be obedient, faithful, diligent, hard working and use every second of time the Lord has given to us, this is His time, not ours and we need to make the most of it, because we are all given the same amount, it all depends on what we do with it.  It has only just begun but I never want this transfer to end!

My testimony continues to grow each day of something new, today I just had the best and most inspired personal study and it increased my testimony of studying for our investigators and I continue to see these little increases of testimony in all that I do, I love this work, I love my companion, I love my investigators, I love seeing the Temple everyday, I love walking on this Holy ground, I love being able to bear testimony all day every day, I love seeing little miracles every day, I love this gospel and the knowledge and peace that it brings me, I love being a missionary, I love the Restoration and all the blessings it has brought into my life, but most of all, I love my Savior Jesus Christ and all He has done for us, all that He is doing for us. He has strengthened me so much more than any one will ever know, I have had to purely rely on His strength through my mission to get through some days and it has helped me come so much closer to my Savior than I ever imagined.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, thank-you for all that you do. 

Love, Sister Ryan xx