This is Sister Bills reporting live from my swivelly library chair in Hanover, PA. Breaking news this week: my companion and I spent three hours mulching trees outside a state park office on Saturday and now our backs are really sore from shoveling and wheelbarrowing up and down the treacherous hills of Codorus, PA.
Other services that we provided this week included: playing games with a less active family so that their mom could get some work done around the house, weeding an older sister's garden, helping a partially paralyzed brother do his exercises and build his strength in hopes of him making a full recovery, and getting our ward mission leader's home ready for a yard sale.
Consequently, we're feeling slightly exhausted and definitely achy.
The good news is, we're heading to Fairview tomorrow afternoon when the friendly chiropractor lives and we are going to get realigned and then we're going to rub the knots out of each other's shoulders and be good as new :)
The other good news is, we feel very accomplished and spiritually happy. It was a good week!
It's crazy to think that transfers were just this last Tuesday. I feel like that was ages ago. Everyone is in their new areas now, and we were able to see the transfer boards and it's so exciting to see where all my friends are serving and who they're serving with! One of the Sisters that I was just an STL over (Sister Aston) got transferred to Pitt 6th and is now serving in a trio with Courtney's little sister - Sister Crockett. Also, Hermanita Landa is now serving with someone that Sister Talbot used to be companions with! I think it's so fun to find little connections like that. 
Maybe I'm just weird. I always like to see where my peeps end up.
But, as you know, Sister Talbot and I were unaffected by the transfer and are so happy to be serving together for another six weeks. We are just starting to see our area take off and we're working with quite a few very promising people. We're hoping to be able to take a temple trip soon with Mammaw and help her get some of her family names baptized. That will be really cool.
I was able to make some really good friends this week. One, I found in a field a Codorus. It was just laying in the middle of the field... a little dead fish. About 300 feet from the nearest lake. It was actually a pretty cool neature moment for me because the park officers were telling me about how the eagles had probably caught it and were taking it to their babies and had dropped it. So I just kind of felt a connection to the eagles. You can apparently watch the live feed of how they're doing online somewhere. I wouldn't know.
My other friend was a hissing goose. I was in the middle of telling him how wonderful of a day it was and he just started hissing at me? It was the greatest moment of my life. But I started to feel bad when he walked over and pecked at the sleeping goats. I felt like it was my fault. I am the scum of the earth.
We actually had a really awesome moment on Wednesday. I have been working at getting better at recognizing spiritual promptings.Wednesday was a struggle because we had so many appointments that were set and that were supposed to work out. We had so many that we were worried how we were going to make it to all of them. But then, seemingly simultaneously, everyone decided to cancel. So we were really sad. We were trying to figure out what the Lord wanted us to do, so we decided that we just needed to act. So we started just stopping by and trying to visit people... nothing was working out. So, we went home to have dinner and we were feeling a little frustrated and not able to motivate ourselves to go back out. A quote from "Ephraim's Rescue" came to my mind: "You can't move mountains while you're sitting on your backside." So, I told that to Sister Talbot and we both decided to go see this Less Active Sister who we hadn't been able to have any luck with previously.
Well guess what?
Bet you can't guess what happened!?
I'll tell you.
WE GOT IN.
Not only were we able to visit with her, but we also met her daughter who has been inactive for several years. They both expressed a desire to come back - told us that they've been talking about it for a while and they both feel like they're ready for it. We shared a message about sacrifice and about how we can be sanctified and receive blessings as we make sacrifices for the Lord. The spirit was so strong and it was so much fun to be there with them.
We had similar experiences on Thursday and Sunday, as well - both with families that we had previously not been able to make any progress with. It has been so wonderful to see how, if you just give all your faith, will, and best effort to the Lord, He will somehow make it enough. Just like He did with the loaves and the fishes when He fed the 5,000. There was no way those things were ever going to be enough, but He just made them be. He has the power to do that with our efforts, as well. When we are sincerely putting forth our best effort, and giving all our faith to following Him, we will see miracles in our lives.
I know it. :)
Love,
Hermana Bills
