Well, It's Definitely Winter!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO MEGAN! 

You're awesome. Be happy 

Every week with Hermana Landa gets better and better. We are best friends and I love her to infinity and beyond. We have so much fun. She is also the hardest worker. I admire her beyond all description. She is teaching me so much. 

I had been struggling this week as a trainer. Feeling really inadequate and kind of blaming myself for stupid mistakes and such. It was really self-destructive. I was talking to the STL's one night on the phone and telling them about how I felt, and seeking guidance. One of the sweet sisters explained to me how trainers are picked - the AP's and the President fast and pray before choosing the trainers. It's a very spiritual process. It really is the Lord who calls people to train. 

Having that knowledge has really strengthened me as I try to combat the negative feelings coming in from the Adversary. I know that this is what the Lord wants, and if it's what He wants then it's what I'll do. 

"I'll be what you want me to be..." 

This week I finished a journal and started another one! I write a lot. I want to be able to remember everything when I get back home and I just don't know if the weekly letters will be enough for me. I'm kind of greedy. My memory is also not the best, so I know I will forget the bulk of the things which are not written. And so, I write. 

We had zone training this week which was awesome. We learned about how to better work with the ward. Our Bishop wants the main focus of our work right now to be in Retention and Reactivation, so we are focusing on less actives and recent converts. As we do what the bishop asks, I know that he will trust us more and more, the ward will improve, and we will receive blessings for doing things the Lord's way. Awesome how that works, right? 

Our investigator Joe has been progressing really well. I actually just saw him a few minutes ago, he is in the library reading some books. He's a funny guy. He loves to chat with us and he adores the Gospel Principles manual. We are still struggling to get him more interested in the Book of Mormon . He is working towards his baptismal date and he LOVES coming to church, which is incredible. He says the gospel brings him peace. 

We have Sebastian fellow-shipping him and kind of taking charge. It's good that he's in a position of responsibility in the ward now. I told him that falling away is not an option. He said I don't need to worry ;) He has passed the sacrament the last two weeks. He is reading in his scriptures and making friends in the ward. He is such a good kid. He is the biggest blessing in my life. 

Waleska is also doing really well. She is preparing to go to the temple some time soon. We're so excited for her. 

Merv is doing really well on cutting back his beers every night. I am still struggling to feel motivated to exercise in the morning. If anyone has any good tips, I welcome every single one of them! PLEASE! 

Matt is doing so well. He's going through a crazy amount of stuff right now but he still just feels his faith growing and growing. He says that he knows there are NO coincidences, and that everything happens for a reason. He tells us all the time how grateful he is to be headed down the right path. He is incredible. He's come so far. 

This week we were blessed to attend the Relief Society Christmas party. It was a little early, I know. But it was so touching. The theme was "Angels among us" and they had people reading off anonymous experiences of simple service. It was so touching. I'm such a baby at those types of things. I cry all the time. I just love it when people choose to follow Christ and choose to be changed. Service is so fun and awesome and I love when other people express gratitude for service they have received from others because it is so tender. 

A member family took Hermana Landa and I out to eat at La Placita. It's authentic Mexican food and it makes me grin like nothing else. You should all come to Lebanon JUST to eat there. Plus there's this little Mexican man that works there and he is a hoot. So that was a highlight from this week. 

The work is going so well here in Lebanon! Although sometimes I struggle to know where to go and what to do, I feel so close to the Lord and I know he is helping us out here. 

We have so many funny stories. I will try to remember to tell some of them next week! I'm having so much fun!

Thank you, everyone, for your love and support. I hope you feel mine for you as well. You are incredible people! 

Besos! 

-Hermana Bills

Promotion!

Hey everyone! Happy November! And happy 4 months to me yesterday.  

Guess what? I'm done training! Today is my very first day as a non trainee. 

Guess what else? I got a call from my President yesterday... and I am now a trainer! Now, who thought that was a good idea, we can't really be sure. But ready or not, here it comes. 

The good thing about this whole situation is that I get to go to Pittsburgh tonight. Road trip! 

The bad thing about this is that they've asked me to train someone, and we all know how much of a struggler I am. 

I am just a little bit nervous, that's all. 

After we got the call, all I felt was excitement. But then somehow fear managed to creep it's way in and that was no bueno. I started getting really scared. "I can't be in charge of an area. I can't train a missionary. I'm not good enough for this job."

Satan is very good at what he does. 

Luckily I have one of the best district leaders in the whole world. Seriously Elder George just blows my mind with his quiet example of Christlike leadership. We were at a dinner appointment with a family in our ward and the Elders were giving the dinner thought. Elder George started sharing 2 Nephi 8:12 and something just stuck out so powerfully: "Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid?" 

It hit me like a train.

Elder George shared about what impressed him from this passage of scripture was the phrase "Who art thou?" because he knew the answer was, "I am a child of God." 

We have so much potential to become so much more than we are right now if we will just have faith in Him and His Son. I know that. I know that if I just put my faith in Him, I can be a great trainer and that I can help this new Sister  to be a great missionary. He trusts me and I will not let him down!

So... This week was a little rough because Pennsylvania is weird. Different towns celebrate Halloween on different days. Lebanon had trick or treating on the 30th. But it was a mission rule that we had to be in by 6 on the 30th and the 31st. I was so bummed! It was really hard, because you just really want to be out proselyting! 

Luckily, we were able to get a lot done around the apartment. It's very very clean.  I bet the new Sister will appreciate that. 

In other news, Hermana Tolman said goodbye to everyone this week. Saying goodbye to Samantha and Matt was especially powerful. They have come so far already in the past six weeks. They came to church last Sunday and were also able to make it to the ward trunk or treat on Wednesday. The boys had a great time and Matt was even able to remember and make friends with some of the members. We swung by their house one morning to snatch a picture with them and they were on their way out the door. 

Matt was finally able to see his kids for the first time in a really long time. His ex wife is kind of... mean? And doesn't want him to see his kids. So that has been hard for him. But he told us, "You guys are starting to freak me out. I read the book and I come to church and I finally get to see my kids." 

They told us about how their families are both freaking out that they've been investigating the mormon church, but they don't care. They love it. They looked at us and said, "thank you for finding us." and I got warm chills all up and down my body. It was so powerful. I almost started bawling haha. 

I know that there are people out here that are looking for what we have.

Another family that was hard for Hermana Tolman to say goodbye to was Xiomara and Ismar's family. Xiomara, Yolanda, Waleska and Angel all brought presents for Hermana Tolman to tell her how much they love her. We went over for dinner and a lesson and we spent time with Ismar and Ismael playing "don't let the balloon touch the floor". It was so funny. We were laughing so hard. Then, we were taking pictures and saying goodbye and Xiomara was just so emotional. I mean, I wasn't even saying goodbye and I got emotional. So we were all messes. We love them so much.

We've been working this week with one of our less actives named Mervin. He's the coolest person ever. We love him. But he likes his beer, and we've been trying to help him with that. He says that he can't sleep unless he drinks at night. So here's the deal I made with him.

I've been struggling a lot lately to have the energy to get up right at 6:30 and do cardio like a good missionary is supposed to do. It's hard. I don't like be energetic that early. Frankly, I think it should be illegal.  But I knew that something needed to change because unless I was willing to get up and exercise, I was not being a 100% obedient missionary.

So I made a deal with Mervin that if he cut back on his drinking, I would wake up at 6:30 every single day and do cardio.

Haha, he agreed to that. He laughed and said, "Just think about how bad you'll feel when you come back next time and you haven't done it." and I told him, "You underestimate me. You keep your end of the deal and I'll keep mine." 

And I have done it every day so far! So we'll see next week how Mervin has been doing. 

I would seriously do anything for these people though. I love them so much. The ward, the investigators... these people are my family. They're incredible. I've never felt so powerfully the willingness to sacrifice anything and everything for anyone ever before in my life... It's crazy how the love of Christ just comes into your heart and radiates out of you. It's kind of a nice feeling. 

When I first got out on a mission, I asked Hermana Tolman what the best thing about serving a mission was, and what the worst thing was. Because really, I didn't know.

I think I know now, though. It's that love. It's the best and it's the worst! It's the best because you get so close to the people and you do so much for them and you are able to build these lasting relationships that are priceless. But it's the worst because I am not good at goodbyes. Tomorrow, half of our district is leaving... and really, half of our zone. In a few transfers, I will leave this area and then I'll go to a new one and then I'll leave that area and go somewhere else... and all along the way there will be these heart-wrenching goodbyes!  and Ihate goodbyes! Haha. They're so rough.

But in the wise words of Tara Lynne Wells; "If you're comfortable somewhere, you can't do any growing!"

How true that is. 

So I'm hoping that's all these tears are this week...

Growing pains. 

I guess we shall see...

-Hermana Bills

Well, October is just Chugging Along like a Champion

I cannot believe that October is over this week. How even did that happen? What is November? Is that a real thing?

This week was so crazy. We met some of the funniest people. 

Let me tell you about Bob the porch dweller. First I have to explain to you all that people in Lebanon dwell on their porches rain or shine. They have like full living rooms set up. These people do not fail. Doesn't matter if it's 8 degrees outside. They are always posted up on their porches, judging the world. It's excellent. 

Bob is one of these fine people. We met Bob last pday briefly while we were doing our grocery shopping at the local Walmart. I just smiled and said hi to him. It wasn't anything unusual. I smile and say hi to everyone. But later that night, we were out on the streets contacting some less actives and we passed by his house and he called out, "Hey! You're that girl that said hi to me in Walmart earlier today!" and I said, "That's me. " we had a conversation, I met Bob's wife Pat. He told us that it meant a lot that we had smiled at him and to keep doing the work. He already had a church and wasn't interested in changing, but he was just so nice to us. 

Those are the fine kind of people that Lebanon provides for us to teach. Wonderful people.

We also met a random drunk man during our lesson with Kathy this week. They kind of live on an alley that's a little bit... well. It's just busy I guess. There's always a lot of people yelling out there. Anyway. In the middle of talking about the Book of Mormon with Kathy, this drunk guy just walks into the house. He starts mumbling on about how happy he is and how lovely it is that we're having a bible study. Then he starts talking about how much he loves us all. At this point he's getting ready to leave and we're just trying to stifle our laughs. He attempts to point at me and says, "Hey. I wanna see you guys again." 

"Um. Probably not." Was my response. Then he just walks away.

 We turn to Kathy for some sort of explanation. 

"I have no idea who the heck that guy was!" Kathy cries out. 

We all burst into laughter. It was quite the experience.

Unfortunately, we also found out that Keith and Kathy have bedbugs and so we can't continue teaching them in their home. We would teach them outside but it's just getting too cold. I don't know what we're gonna do. They also can't come to church because then we run the risk of spreading bedbugs to the ward. 

I HATE BEDBUGS. Why did Noah even save them? 

In other awkward news, we were able to serve our investigator Hector this week. He got sick so we ran some soup over to him. He was a little bit out of it though and he just kind of grabbed me and Sister Tolman for what can only be described as the most awkward hug of my life. It was so funny. Cause like... we're not allowed to hug him back or whatever! so we just stood there while he rocked back and forth and mumbled about how much he loves us in Spanish. 

Then we walked back to the car and looked at each other and then just burst out laughing. It feels so good to be best friends with your companion and to be able to laugh through awkward moments. 

I don't know how to transition into my next thought so we're just gonna jump into it. On Wednesday it was district meeting and we found out that we have to do weekly inspections on our cars. So we went out to inspect the engines and whatnot and then Elder George is like, "Okay let's check your blinker fluid."

Because I'm a trusting person and didn't think that my district leader would tell me to look for something that wasn't there I just kind of went with it and started looking. But after a few seconds it finally registered, "you moron. He told you to look for blinker fluid? That doesn't even exist." And then I just turned and gave them the glare of death and I swear they didn't stop laughing for like 11 minutes. 

Elders are unbelievably rude. :P 

But I promise I'm not usually that clueless. I'm actually very capable. Last week we had a lazy pday and I cleaned the whole house and did some minor repairs to some things that are broken and it was very cool and I felt very domestic. I even baked something for pete's sake. 

Blinker fluid.

The nerve. 

Besides the awkward and funny things that happened this week, we actually had a super big miracle that happened. 

So on Saturday we were having this big stake event in Lancaster for the Hispanic members and investigators that we were really excited to go to. We'd gotten permission to leave our area from the zone leaders, called and found a ride with a member, and even had an investigator coming. Everything was set to be an excellent experience. 

Unfortunately, everything fell apart at the last minute. The member was feeling sick and didn't want to go. So we couldn't go either.

At first, we were feeling really sad. We even through a pity party and went to Wendys for dinner hour and kind of just sat there and ate greasy food to try to help us feel better.

Then we realized that we were having bad attitudes! we realized that the weather was really nice, so we set up an appointment to meet with one of our investigators who is really hard to get in with. We met up in a park, taught the plan of salvation and even set him with a baptismal date. He was so excited about getting baptized (cause he's never been baptized before) and getting the gift of the Holy Ghost for his birthday in January that he decided to take us all over Lebanon to meet tons of his friends. He introduced us to a bunch of people he knows and some of them were even interested in learning about the gospel! So hopefully they can become investigators really soon! 

It was so cool. I love how the Lord takes things that are hard for us and, if we are faithful, he can turn them into things that are beautiful and beneficial. He is so wonderful and perfect at what He does. I'm so glad that he's in charge of things. 

We also had Samantha and Matt come to church for the first time this Sunday. They were there with their four little boys, Joseph, Bryan, Braxton and Brayden. It was so incredible to see them there. The ward was so welcoming and the boys had such a fun time playing with the kids. My heart was seriously brimming with joy. I had tears in my eyes virtually the whole 3 hours. I'm a baby, I know. But it just touched me because I was reminded so powerfully that this work is about families. It's about individuals too, yes. But we can only experience the fulness of the joy that our Father has to offer us as family groups. 

And now I totally get it. 

I love this Plan. It's so stinking cool.

It's incredible how much I'm learning every single day and how much these people blow me away with their knowledge and their relationships with our Father in Heaven. These people will knock your socks off. I wish you could all meet every single one of them. 

Speaking Spanish is a nice bonus, too.

Missions are so fun. :) 

I miss you guys! Thanks for all you do. Happy Halloween this week!

-Hermana Bills 

Just Call Me Font Filler

Shoutout to my HARDCORE baby brother who turns 16 this week! Tomorrow, actually!! How is that even possible? How are you that old? I thought I just turned 16? 

Somebody keep those pedestrians off of the sidewalks ;) 

I love you, Druwby dooby doo! You're seriously like the coolest kid ever!! :)

So along with that news, I am so grateful for the knowledge that families are forever and that I get to spend ETERNITY with my family who I love very very much. How cool is that. This week, we got to take part in a wedding. They were able to be married for their life on this earth this week, and a year from now they will enter the temple to be sealed for eternity. How incredible is it that we have that power restored to the earth today?

So yeah! This week was awesome because we got to see our investigator get married on Friday so that she could enter the waters of baptism on Saturday. What dedication. She has the most incredible testimony. 

Filling the font was interesting, though. I didn't know something could take so long. It takes almost four hours to fill that puppy. So we had to get to the church super early. We left the house with all of our things for the day - our study books and our makeup and our lunch and even a curling iron so that we could curl our hair during lunch hour. It was funny. We basically camped out at the church all day. 

The baptism was incredible. It was all in Spanish. The hymns were a little bit of a struggle, but other than that it went really well! She was so happy to finally be baptized after three years of meeting with the missionaries. She's worked so hard to get to this point! We were crazy happy for her. 

Some other cool things that happened this week include:

-Holding REAL Mexican jumping beans for the first time

-Meeting a stray kitten outside the church building during district meeting and naming it Moses

-Going to the music store on pday and being able to play guitar for an hour. That was seriously so incredible. I miss that so much

-Purchasing a dinky little harmonica and having the elders teach me how to play it. (best day of my life)

-Meeting a super cool person named Elise who shares my love of fried pickles

-Doing some service for a less active member by helping her clean out a shed. We love to get down in the dirt, even in our skirts!

-And then, of course, the highlight of any week is meeting with Mervin. He's the coolest, funniest less active ever. He calls us his lady friends and shares his spicy chicken with us. He's awesome.

Alright. I have a funny story to share with you. 

We have this investigator named H.G. and he's super excited about learning. We've taught him twice, but his phone got shut off cause he doesn't have a lot of money and he couldn't pay his bills. He also lives on the fifth floor of an apartment building and the outside door to get into the building is always locked, so unless he's outside when we go to see him, we have NO WAY to get a hold of him! Super frustrating! During weekly planning, Sister Tolman and I prayed very sincerely so that we would be able to see him walking on the street so that we could contact him and set a time to meet with him and get him to church. We promised that no matter where we were or where we were going, we would stop the car and get out to talk to him. So it was Saturday and we still hadn't seen him. We were on our way to a dinner appointment with a member in Jonestown and we were stopped at a red light. All the sudden, I look across the road and cry "Oh my gosh! There's H!" Sister Tolman jumped and yelled, "Oh my gosh oh my gosh! PARK THE CAR!!" So as soon as the light turned green, we turned and found a place on the side of the road to park. By then, we had lost sight of him but we thought we knew which way he was walking, so we started heading in that direction, too. We saw somebody walking that looked the same as him but we weren't 100% sure if it was, haha. Sister Tolman leans to me, "Do you think that's him?" I shrugged my shoulders. "Only one way to find out!" Haha I called out to him as loud as I could, "H!" 

He turns around with this GIANT grin on his face! "Hermanas!" 

Haha, we were able to invite him to come to church and to set a return appointment for next week so that we can teach him again. Unfortunately, in our flurry and zeal to share the gospel and to keep our promises with the Lord, somehow Sister Tolman had dropped the phone in the street. We didn't realize that until we were in Jonestown. But neither of us worried about it. We knew that we had done right by our Father in Heaven and that everything would be okay. 

After the dinner appointment, we drove back to Lebanon to see if we could see the phone nearby where we had parked. It was right there! Just sitting in a pile of leaves, completely fine! No one had taken it or run over it or anything! 

I KNOW that when we keep our promises with the Lord, he blesses us. It was a simple thing to have our phone be okay, and I know that even if it wasn't that everything would have been fine. But it was our little miracle for the week and I wanted to share that with you guys. :)

There have been so many other miracles in this area. We recently started teaching two new people - J and F - and both of them during our first lesson expressed that they had been praying for truth to find them and for the Lord to set them on the right path. It's incredible to hear that because then, as a missionary, you just know you're in the right place! 

The work is awesome! This week, we had a little setback because I got really sick. :( That was so dumb! It's hard not to, though. A lot of the people that we're teaching have the flu and bronchitis and all sorts of nasty stuff and they still just let us come over to teach. I mean, that's really cool of everybody because we love teaching appointments. But it was hard for Sister Tolman because when I'm sick, she doesn't really have anything to do. She was so sweet about it this week though, just telling me, "No, don't worry. I needed to catch up on my Ensign reading anyway." So she just let me sleep. Thursday was the longest day. I slept until three. I mean, I wasn't feeling better after three, but we had appointments and I was sick of laying around. Ain't nobody got time fo dis! So I've slowly been returning to health. :) It's hard though cause I don't really get a lot of sleep at night. Sister Tolman has been having allergies and so she's congested pretty bad and so she's got this tremendous hibernating bear snore that rocks the streets of Lebanon with it's intense vibrations. I mean, usually she doesn't snore at all. But it's been pretty bad these passed few weeks...  

I hope I don't snore. I've asked her if I do and she says no. But I don't know if she's just being nice! Haha. I just pray every night that I'll fall asleep before she does and that I will sleep through the night. I've never had to pray for that before. It's so stinking funny. I try not to laugh while I'm praying but it's just so humorous. "Please, Heavenly Father, let me fall asleep before my trainer so that I don't have bags under my eyes tomorrow." Hahahaha.

Ah, the struggles of missionary life. :) 

It's going awesome, though. I'm super stoked for General Conference this weekend. I learned so much from the Women's Conference. some incredible talks were given that day.

I'm so grateful for living prophets! I'm grateful for the organization in this church, which is the same as when Christ lived and established his church. I love the gospel. I am so grateful for righteous priesthood holders who can give blessings of comfort and healing to those in need. 

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! :) 

And I love all of you. 

I hope you had a great week, everyone. So good to hear from you from time to time. 

Keep the faith! And make sure to watch General conference :D

Love, Hermana Bills

TRANSFER NUMERO DOS

So this transfer is going to be SO RAD! We have 3 baptisms and a wedding planned. It's going to be an incredible transfer. 

I can't believe I've already completed a whole transfer in the mission field. I still feel like the baby in the district (I mean, I AM but... like... I feel like I should be fresher or something. Not a whole transfer old.)

It's so funny how the mission works. Everything is a family. Like Sister Tolman is my trainer so that makes her my mom. And Sister Chavez trained Sister Tolman so that makes Sister Chavez my grandma. Then how "old" you are depends on how many months you've been out. So I'd be 2 and 1/2. Is that crazy? 

Missionaries are so weird. 

But a new transfer means that I get to drive now! I was driving around this morning! I am so happy and so is Sister Tolman. She HATES driving. Wins all around. 

So here's some of the things that happened since last week. 

Pday was legendary. We went to the Chakmakov's with the Elders and played catch phrase for an hour and a half. It was so funny because we couldn't stop laughing. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. I don't know how many of you have played the game before, but I highly recommend it. So one round we were playing boys vs. girls. Brother Chakmakov had the word and it was "dress" and to describe it he said, "Something a girl wears." A good description, right? Well to this day we are still unsure about what Elder Cluff THOUGHT he heard but heimmediately answered with "GROCERY STORES!" 

I couldn't stop laughing.

I'm still laughing. 

Later that night while we were eating dinner, Sister C. was describing what she had cooked. It was a traditional bulgarian dish, kind of like a meat loaf. I'm still not sure what the real name is but I misheard her when she said it. "It's called Little Stephanie? Don't you think that's kind of morbid?" 

Everyone at the table was silent and just stared at me for what felt like an eternity. Then we just bust out laughing. The whole night they made fun of me, "Sister Bills, would you like some more little Stephanie?" "Who can eat another slice of little Stephanie?" hahaha. I can't even describe to you how red I was. 

Then (Because Sister C is a winner every day of her life) we made s'mores indoors. She lit this little flame thing and we roasted marshmallows from the kitchen table and listened to Christmas music because we're that awesome. We love the Chakmakovs.

After that, Sister Tolman and I went for a bike ride in our skirts... just to try it out. 

Let me tell you. If any of you want a real workout, go for a ride with flat bike tires and you will be feeling the burn for days. 

I had a picture but I left my camera at the apartment. Whoops. I'll have to remember to bring it next week. 

In other news, we've been doing our family history this week and I followed one of my lines back to ABRAHAM and Sister T was able to go back to ADAM. It was so incredible! We caught the spirit of elijah hardcore. 

We got 4 new investigators this week! It's been incredible to see the Lord hastening his work. I won't go through all of them, but one is named H. and he is so cool. I might have written about him last time? Now I can't remember... the weeks all blur together. But he was super hesitant about coming to church. He said he's tried numerous other churches and didn't like them. But at the end of the service, he leaned over and said, "Can you find me a ride every week?" It was so cool! Through him, we are hoping to start up a class where we can teach English to him and his friends once a week. We're planning to use that as a way to find more Spanish speaking investigators! We feel very confident that it will work. 

In other news, S. is busy being awesome and he's so excited to be baptized on October 11. We are having a baptism for W. THIS SATURDAY! She's getting Married on Friday and then baptized on Saturday and Confirmed on Sunday. She's so excited. She's been struggling with the law of chastity and wouldn't keep it for the past 3 years and they finally decided to tie the knot and live the commandments! She's so excited! She's pretty much been an active member for the past 3 years. The only thing that's missing is the baptism. ;) 

Thursday this week was crazy. We had back to back to back appointments, and somehow we accidentally scheduled someone for our dinner hour, so we didn't even have time for dinner! I had the first opportunity that I've had on my mission to sing during a lesson and that was awesome. I was really nervous, but it went super well and now we'll be singing every time we go over to that less active's house. I'm happy. :) Then we kept on going through the day and we were starting to get really burned out when something fell through so we ran to a pizza place really quick and ate super fast before our next appointment. 

When we got home that night, our DOOR WAS OPEN to the apartment! I don't know how that happened because we always lock it when we leave. But we were a little scared and didn't know what to do. So I said a prayed in my heart and told Heavenly Father how tired I was and how I just wanted to plan and go to bed so we could have another good day on Friday. I felt this incredible sense of calm like "You must not have closed the door all the way when you checked the mail. Your apartment is safe." 

But Sister Tolman was still scared so haha I kicked the door in super hard and flipped on the light and yelled "POLICE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!" and then I grabbed one of the crutches that was by the door (don't ask me why we have those cause I totally don't know) and I searched the apartment. It was clear. Haha, it was so funny. 

I just have one more story for y'all from this week. We were over with the elders (George and Cluff) at a members house last night for dinner and their daughter was sleeping on the couch (remember this for later). They fed us this awesome copycat recipe of a soup from Olive Garden. I was in heaven. Anyway, we shared a though with them about member missionary work and were just getting ready to leave when their little girl (her name is Varsity...) woke up and walked over to the table. But you know that state where you just woke up and you're not really awake? Yeah, that's where she was. 

So haha she walks up to Elder Cluff and just snuggles right into him, thinking he's her dad. Elder Cluff's face went BRIGHT red... it was hilarious. Brother Jones was trying not to laugh and he was like "Varsity, honey, that's not me. I'm right over here." But it was just not registering and she like tucked her little face into Elder Cluff's shoulder and he got redder and redder and at this point we're all just laughing because of Elder Cluff's reaction. Like... the situation wasn't even that awkward but his reaction was just so priceless. We finally managed to get her to go over and snuggle with her DAD. 

We were still laughing as we walked out the door. We renamed him Elder Cuddles. 

So it was a really good really busy week! I can't believe how fast that flew by! We caught another mouse! (UGH) and I have some pictures to send that I hopefully will not forget next week.

I want you all to know that I have a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I know that we can receive personal revelation every day through our faith in him! This mission is so good for me! You are all so good to me! Thank you for your support and prayers and, as always, I love you all very much! :)

Love, Hermana Bills

Not a Creature was Stirring. . .

Except for the mouse. 

This week, the most exciting event was the arrival of mice to our apartment. #notcool. It's been getting colder and colder. I don't think that we're going to have a fall season out here in Pennsylvania. I guess it's just going to go straight to winter. So the mice started making their way into our house. At first, Sister Tolman told me that she saw one run across the floor. But I didn't believe her because she said it went under her bed and there was nothing there. But when we woke up the next day and her bad of bagels had been nibbled through, I knew I had to take action. So we went to our local Walmart to get a couple of sturdy mouse traps. I'd never set one before in my life so it took me a while to figure out how to get the kill bar to stay... but after I set that first one, it was a breeze. So we set four and left the apartment for a dinner appointment. When we came back, 

THERE WAS A DEAD MOUSE.

 I was horrified. There was blood all over! I didn't know there was going to be blood! We cleaned up really well and had a funeral for the mouse. He was a good man. I seriously felt like the Lamanites or something! So wild and ferocious. Bloodthirsty. Killer. Murderer. 

But then that was over. 

In other news, we went shopping last pday for Sister Tolman. It was rough because I don't like shopping but I knew that she wanted to go so I tried to act excited. She got a couple new things. It's hard sometimes wearing the same things over and over but I guess it's better than proselyting naked. Ha. Today we have plans to go for a bike ride down a path. Some of the trees are changing colors so maybe I'll get some good pictures! 

We had the awesome opportunity to attend zone conference this week and it was seriously incredible! I love my zone so much. We got to listen to a bunch of speakers and play games and be with other missionaries from two other zones. We saw our monthly numbers for our zone and for the whole mission. The Lord truly is hastening His work! I got a little emotional because our STL is leaving at the end of this week and so she gave her goodbye testimony. I love her so much! She's such a good girl and an awesome missionary. 

After the conference was over, a bunch of missionaries went to Infinito's Pizza in Harrisburg. It's like Pizza Pie Cafe except not as good. We all got to sit for an hour and chat and get to know each other and talk about our investigators and stuff. It was awesome. It's so refreshing to be with other missionaries sometimes! :) 

For zone conference we had to have our cars inspected and so I learned how to check tire pressure and felt like a major boss! Our car was awesome and we passed the inspection with flying colors. We also found out that I am allowed to drive next transfer "until Sister Tolman thinks that I am a capable and comfortable driver". Haha. So only one more week and then I can start driving around. That will be nice. I won't be as afraid for my life ;) 

Our work in Lebanon this week was awesome. We had 4 new investigators! 

The first was a couple - S. and M. I've never met people who were more prepared for the gospel. M. grew up Catholic but some of the doctrines just didn't make sense to me. When we were talking to him about baptism and the restoration and everything, it was all just clicking so well! He was like "Oh yeah! That makes SO much more sense than the Catholic church." So we're hoping that they will choose to be married so they can both be baptized. We are going to see them tomorrow night. They're super nice. 

Our next investigator is a Spanish speaker! Yay! He's the cutest old man. He reminds Sister Tolman of her teacher in the MTC. His name is H. He came to church yesterday and was a little skeptical. He told us that he'd gone to churches before and just didn't think it was for him. But he ended up staying all three hours and before he left he said, "Will you find someone to pick me up and bring me to church EVERY week?" It was so cool! 

Our next investigator is Y. S. She is really cool and we set her with a baptismal date and everything. But for some reason I think she thinks that we are a welfare program or something. She just moved here from New York and she was asking us to give her food and furniture. So we'll see what happens with her next week when she realizes that that's not something that we're allowed to do. She was really receptive to the lesson, though. And we know she felt the Spirit. So it will be interesting to see. :) She's so funny. 

S. is still doing well. He's progressing and still coming to church every Sunday and keeping his commitments. He is right on track to be baptized next month! He's our golden investigator. 

I'll leave you guys with two funny stories from this week. The first was from tracting. We were just walking around Lebanon, OYMing people, trying to get referrals and maybe potential investigators. We talked to this guy named Henry outside of a Hookah bar for about 10 minutes about prophets and he said he'd stop by our church some time. So as we were continuing on down 8th street, there was a group of guys and they asked us what we were doing. Normally I would have just kept going, cause some people can be pretty iffy out here. But the Spirit was just like, "Invite ALL to come unto Christ." So we talked to them about Jesus Christ for about 15 minutes. They told us that they thought we were cool. Then one guy went into his shop and brought us out these diet cokes that said "Go-Getters". He said, "You girls get these because none of my cans say 'hermana' and you are definitely go-getters! Preach the good word, girls!" It was so funny! They were really nice. They didn't want to have us teach them about the gospel, but it was still a good conversation. And free diet coke! I felt like Taylor Swift!

The last story was just kind of really cool and helped me realize how serious this whole missionary business really is. ;) We were walking to our car from an appointment that had just fallen through and there was this old man standing on the side of the road. I decided that I'd stop and offer him a pass along card. I told him that we'd love to teach him about Christ's restored gospel on the earth today. He answered with, "Oh honey. I know all about Christ. I'm a minister." and he pulls out his ministerial certificate and is all proud and stuff. I got all excited and I was like, "Oh my gosh! That's so cool. We're ministers, too!" Haha his face when Sister Tolman and I pulled out OUR certificates.... money can't buy things like that, folks. Priceless. 

So we just had a conversation with him for a little while and he finally did accept the pass along card and we told him we'd come volunteer at the Salvation army. But I can't forget the feeling that it was just us three ministers, chatting on the sidewalk. 

Like... I'm a minister. Called to preach to the Lord's children. I don't know... it really hit me hard right then. It was really cool. 

The gospel is so true and really awesome! I was learning about miracles this morning and realized that there are so many miracles all around us that we take for granted sometimes! The Lord blesses us so incredibly. I love Him.

I love y'all! Have a good week! 

This spider rode on the windshield for
about 30 minutes! So funny!

Home sweet home!

Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite!

This week was madness. 

To any of you who are like I was and thought that bedbugs were just a made up creature that your parents used to scare you at night... THEY ARE NOT. They are real and they totally bite you. Like a lot. Like... all over. 

Luckily, I am not speaking from experience. Here is the story.

The elders in our district (our District Leader and his companion) got bedbugs somehow. Somewhere. We found out last Tuesday that they had gotten them when we got a call from the mission home. Mine and Sister Tolman's reactions were so different, it was hilarious. I had tears in my eyes. I legit was crying for them. The mission has turned me into such a baby. Sister Tolman on the other hand was flipping a lid. "IF THOSE ELDERS GAVE US BEDBUGS I WILL NEVER SPEAK TO THEM AGAIN." Yelling and getting mad. It was so funny. 

so anyway, most of the day Tuesday was spent cleaning and doing laundry and taking mandatory precautionary measures to make sure that we didn't end up with bed bugs, or that if we did have them, that we killed them before they got to us. Poor Elder George (the DL) had 81 bites as of yesterday night. So they're not something that you want to mess with. I was praying so hard all week that we wouldn't get them. We didn't get a lot done as far as missionary work was concerned, so that was frustrating. But hey, our clothes and apartment are all really clean, so that's nice. :) 

It was a horrible scare, though. The elders are not allowed to go into members or investigators houses for the next several weeks and are only allowed to come to sacrament meeting on Sundays as they receive treatments from the exterminator in their home to get rid of the bedbugs, because they don't want to risk spreading it. I feel so bad for them! They're such good missionaries and their work is kind of forcefully being slowed because of the stupid bugs! Poor things. 

So the bedbugs took up a lot of our time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But we were able to get some work done! 

We found one incredible young woman named V. She actually stopped us on the street one day as we were walking to the home of a less active. She said she used to be a member but she left the church to be Catholic. We asked her if we could come by and talk with her. When we followed up with the appointment, we found out that she is bisexual and doesn't know if she wants to come back to church cause she is afraid that she'll be really judged. We told her how cool the ward is and how we know her Heavenly Father loves her so much and we encouraged her to look at mormonsandgays.org. It was a really good conversation. She's awesome. We're going to see her again this weekon Thursday.

We also have two new investigators this week - T. and A. We found them OYMing and they invited us back. They're really awesome. T. has this friend that just got out of jail that always seems to show up right as we're trying to have lessons with her... fishy? I think so. But A. seems sincerely interested. She has three little boys. She's such a super hero. 

We also met two families who are ready to take the lessons, we have appointments set with them this week and we're so excited! S. and W. have 6 little boys collectively (from different marriages). We OYM'd them one night and apparently after we left they talked to each other and they had both secretly been wanting to go back to church and work on their relationship with God, but hadn't known how to tell the other. How cool is that? 

Then we received J. and M. as a referral from a referral. They have two daughters and they "are looking for a church." M. is finishing up clinicals to be... an LPN? I think? I could be wrong. Where's Savannah Widm.. ah, DAWSON when you need her? ;) But they're really nice. 

We're finding a lot of people who are interested. We have an investigator who just moved into our area from the elders' area. His name is C. How classy is that? We went to see him on Friday and while we were there A TREE IN HIS FRONT YARD GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING!!

WHAT THE WHAT? 

It had this wicked scar like all the way down the trunk. It was so dang flippin legit. Like something off of the Hunger Games. Survival of the fittest. And we survived.

What I don't know if I will survive is Sister Tolman's driving. Haha. Let me just tell you some fine stories about this woman with whom I am serving. 

The other day we are just cruising down Cumberland on our way to an appointment, posting up in the right hand lane (there are a lot of one way streets in Lebanon. Cumberland happens to be one of them). I hear her turn the signal on and slow down. Remember, we're in the right hand lane so I look to the right expecting her to turn that way. BUT NO haha she just whips out a left hand turn from the right hand lane like a madwoman. She totally didn't even realize it, either. So she's just driving along and I'm all... (quietly from the passenger seat): "Um, Sister? That totally wasn't legal." So she gets so scared and slams on the breaks in the middle of the street and she's like "What wasn't legal?" Panicking. Hahahaha It was so funny. 

Then on Friday we were driving with a member to an appointment and she is driving in the turning lane but she needed to go straight so she just swerves in front of this hardened thug that was just getting ready to pass us. The light turned red though so we had to stop.

Oh my gosh I thought we were going to die. He pulls up to the side of us, rolls down his window, starts screaming all kinds of profanity at us. We were looking straight ahead, I am like trying not to laugh at the situation so I have this dumb smile on my face... the hardened thug starts to reach for his door handle to come out and MURDER US I am sure... but just then the light turns green, the member and I shout "GO GO GO GO" and we speed off.

Holy adrenaline. 

Lebanon, though. 

Luckily, next transfer she said that I can drive! So hopefully we won't have anymore crazy stories. Hahahaha. We always have a good time though. 

In other news, we got dumped this week by one of our investigators - L. (I swear though, there are only 3 names in Lebanon for guys. Luis, Hector, and Jose. There's nothing else.) He just sat us down at the table and was like, "Yeah, I don't think you guys should come over anymore."

Haha so funny. Cause right after he dumped us his sister said she wants to take the discussion. TAKE THAT L. We'll still be over every Thursday night! 

Wahahaha. We're like the crazy ex girlfriends that never leave. It's awesome! 

In other news, we had two of our less active members get up in Sacrament meeting yesterday and bear their testimonies. It was incredible. I cried like a little manchild. 

So since it was Fast Sunday yesterday I will end this email with my testimony that this gospel and our Heavenly Father are perfect! I love that we never have to go through trials and tribulations alone because of our Savior Jesus Christ and His suffering in the Garden. I know that He loves us. I know it. I can feel His love for the people that we are teaching. It washes over every inch of me. It's an incredible blessing to me to feel of that love not only for myself, but for others. What an incredible gift His gospel is to every person who will accept it. 

I have a testimony of this work and the importance of members participating! We love our members here in Lebanon. They're the best! Please help your missionaries further the work!

I have a testimony of family history work and it's importance. That's missionary work, too! Work that everyone can have a part in. If you can't go to the temple, make it a goal! Find names of your ancestors in your free time and offer them the incredible gift that they didn't know about when they lived! How cool is the plan of salvation, eh? 

I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and it's truthfulness, and consequently I have a testimony of Joseph Smith, and of our living prophet, Thomas S. Monson. They are great men. But they do not direct this church.

I know that the reason that our church is a living church and that we can receive revelation because Jesus Christ is at the head. He directs the affairs of His church. We will never be led astray. 

I delight in the scriptures. I love my Savior. I know that His words bring peace that will last us not only until the end of this life, but throughout the eternities.

I know these things. 

I know that if you do not know these things, that you can. I emphatically encourage everyone to do so! :) It is the most wonderful knowledge and gift a person can have in this life - to know that they are loved by their creator and that He has a plan specifically for them! To have the drive and desire to help others and to do the will of the Father because of that love! It's awesome! 

The church is true! 

I bear you my witness! In Jesus' name, Amen.  

Love, Hermana Bills