Ava's Mission

This is my last email as a set apart authorized representative of Jesus Christ. I will probably send an email out next week once I get home with a little more of how I feel about my mission coming to an end because this week I just wanted to share a miracle with you all. On Wednesday we had a lesson with the Landes girls, Andrea, Emily, and Melissa. My companions and I woke up that morning with the strongest impression that we needed to invite them to be baptized next weekend. We studied and went about our day and the prompting only increased. So we planned a lesson where our reading from the Book of Mormon would lead to us asking them to be baptized next weekend. During the lesson, after us asking them how they felt about it all they told us over and over again how they weren't sure if they wanted to be baptized and definitely didn't feel ready yet. Sister Zolligner, my newest companion in the most lovingly bold way extended the invitation anyways. She challenged them to pra...

What a week. God never ceases to give me opportunities to keep me on my toes. Mid week President Collins called and told me we would be picking up another new missionary who is in training! Her name is sister Zollinger and she was originally assigned to the Montreal Canada mission, but covid. It is so fun to have her and sister Emery new at the same time with me so close to the end! This original dynamic and situation has made for some pretty increddible miracles and experiences come from God to teach and bless us. Basically we are the 3 most accident prone people I've ever met. It's a miracle we have no broken bones yet. We went on a quick little hill climb to get sister Zollinger a picture by a cactus for her new facebook profile and something poked her foot! (It could be been anything from a stick, to a cactus spike, to a scorpion...) we weren't too worried about it, until 3 days later when her foot was swollen and red and hard as a rock! We called our mission nurse who...

If you all haven't seen some of the videos we've been making, be sure to check out our facebook page! And SHARE THEM! Believe it or not I actually love this new way of missionary work and know I was supposed to be a "covid missionary" because I get to use the love I had for making videos back home and combine it with the love I have for the gospel! More good videos are coming! Here is the link if you haven't seen them. https://www.facebook.com/ChurchOfJesusChristThunderbird/ God and Jesus are always ACTIVE in our lives, whether we recognize it or not. The restored gospel invites us to be ACTIVE in building our relationship with them. Just like any relationship, the more you put into it, the more you will receive from it. If you're reading this, I challenge you to ponder on ways that you can be more ACTIVE in strengthening your relationship with your Savior and Heavenly FATHER. What a gift that would be for Him to receive for Fathers day. I love you all. It...

The subject line of this email comes from a prayer that sister Fairbanks said after quite possibly the wildest day of our missions. She thanked God for the many miraculous mishaps that lead us all to be here right now. I thought that was beautiful. That brings me to my favorite happening this week! The other sisters ended up locking their keys in the church at 9:30 at night and nobody would come bail them out, so at 10:30 pm Sister Collins had us pick them up and have them spend the night at our place. I don't have time to tell you all the reasons why this was a miracle, but I will tell you that it was a far better experience than the last time we had 6 sisters sleeping in the same apartment. It's a good thing that my clothes are big enough to fit anyone! We all went to bed in my Pyjamas and about our labors the next day wearing my dresses. We recieved an update from our President the other day to drop everything and get on a Zoom call at 12 because Elder Soares wanted to s...

What a week. Highlights: I GOT TO SPEND AN ENTIRE DAY WITH SISTER FAIRBANKS AND SISTER WEED my two favorite people ever while I was waiting for my new companion to arrive. I trained sister Fairbanks back when I was 6 weeks out and it was so cool for us both to see how far we've come since then. And Sister Weed is forever my soul sista so I'm so happy that they are companions. They are both my STL's at the end of my mission and that might be the best thing to have happened to me. Sister Emery, my new companion is a boss. She is from Orem Utah and is tall and clumsy like me and between the two if us we've only tripped over our own feet about 7 times this week, so we are winning! Her personality reminds me of a mix of Sister Abbott from the MTC and my roommate Hannah Thayn from BYU so you already know I love everything about her original quirky fun loving personality! She has got this insane amount of fire and desire and has thrown herself unto this work full force. We w...

What a week. Here's the highlight reel: Got to be part of a broadcast with Brad Wilcox. He talked to our whole mission about the gathering of Israel and then asked for a convert who was recently baptized who was the father of a family and the missionaries who taught him to be part of a WHY I BELIEVE broadcast to all the Stakes in the mission. Our mission President called on Will and us, so Will, who was baptized last week is now buddies with Brad Wilcox... not to mention he became a platinum member at Deseret book as he dropped all his money on some books and nice paintings for his home. This broadcast was a special experience and there were over 700 people on it, most of them non members. The purpose of it was for missionaries and members to invite their friends who were not of our faith to come and see what we were all about. And Will got to share his story and we got to testify of the great work that we are a part of. I will never forget it and I was so humbled by and grateful ...