k falls here i come!

Hey Everybody,

It was another fabulous week here Roseburg, but unfortunately it was also my last.  God and President have decided I had enough time in the promised land and will now be shipping me off too Klamath Falls to white-wash train another greenie. So here goes nothing. 

Klamath is a bit of a mythical legend in the mission. So we'll see if it holds up to all the hype that all I've heard about it! 

La Semana:

Monday night, for the first time in forever, we actually had a member sign up for a lesson! Wahoo! It was the Smiths, whom we see all the time anyway, but still!

I had only been there once before, and all I remembered was that they lived in their own little forest, and their driveway was insane; so with that in mind, we followed google maps, and low-key drove up a mountain while getting desperately lost...only to end up at a sketchy house and have a herd of goats start to storm our car slowly. 

Hermana Peterson had heard that the Smiths have goats so she started to get out of the car, and I had to lock the door on her! Hehehe. We got out of there and called Hermano Smith, and eventually got to their home safely. 

Maria came back from Mexico ready to get to work. When she showed up to family history on Wednesday she had three pages of notes from her father. Apparently she had some aunts and uncles she didn't know about!

She also handed me her phone and showed me all the pictures she had taken of her family members graves while in Mexico!! Maria is straight up blazing with the spirit of Elijah, and she must be passing it on to her whole household, because when we met with Karla this week she told us she and her mom were looking over the family tree together. We also showed her she could get the app on her phone, and she was SO excited! Because then she could just call her dad, and put in the information right then! 

Without a doubt that night was the most incredible family history session of all time. Maria added nine people to her family tree, and she was ecstatic! I'm gonna miss her so much, and I feel very robbed that she wasn't here almost all last transfer; but hopefully Karla will see the light, and I'll be back for a baptism soon!! ;)

My first companion, Sister Peterson- not to be confused with my current companion, Hermana Peterson- was visiting the mission this week and stopped by and bought us dinner! I saw her in jeans and it felt so illegal!!

It was so fun to see her though and reminisce over the adventures of Waldport together. She served here in Roseburg almost two years ago, so it's crazy how different things were for her here than for me. (Imagine knocking doors in this area, I'd pass away.) 

Hermana Peterson and I went to the dollar store for fun last P-Day...and ended up planning a funeral for the three Elders in our zone that are going home. It was a grand old time, and our tombstone decoration really come together in the end! :) All of their comps prepared eulogies and they were so good! 

This week it finally happened. I hit my quesadilla wall. After about three transfers of eating them almost everyday, the thought of one is enough to make me sick. Which has made it so Hermana Peterson and I had to get creative, and we actually made the most BANGIN' homemade pizza yesterday, and I think everyone should know about it! :)

Til Next Monday,

Hermana Shelton!

Fotos:

1 - Peterson sandwich :)

2 - Sis Peterson (or Angela I guess...)

3- wild care package from the future..:)

4 - FUNeral things!! - pic is awful because the Elders were in charge of taking it.

5 - the dearly departed.

THEY CAN CONTROL THE WEATHER?? (not clickbait)

Okay so low-key it is clickbait...but I'd still recommend reading. :)

Starting off strong with our subject line name sake, here's our Mike story of the week. Monday night after our P-Day portion had ended, we went on a walk with Mike. During which he told us that he whole-heartedly believes that the government- or "the people in charge" as he calls them, he's never been specific on who these corrupt leaders are- can control the weather. Apparently some very high-tec "geo-engineering" has taken place completely in secret, and now the people in charge decide what kind of weather they want us to have, and that's why we're in a drought. Because if we're in a drought, and the farmers can't grow as much food the people in charge will profit. Obviously. Super cool, so glad I have Mike to properly teach me about Poly-Sci and general science. Actually think I'll be majoring in geo-engineering when I get home, because this whole controlling the weather thing definitely seems to be where all the money is at.

On a brighter note, Homie Jose is still the best. He limped into English Class this week; and then told us about how he hurt his leg playing soccer; but he forgets the pain from 8-5 everyday, because he's got some work to get done. What an absolute legend, hopefully one day he realized he's an investigator. 'Cause right now this man is just straight vibin', he's super down with everything, shows up to ALL the activities, pretty much only hangs out with members, but I don't think he thinks anything is happening besides him making a lot of white friends all the sudden.

We also got invited over the Masner's for dinner!! This was Hermana Peterson's first time having a member meal!! Say what. Bless up! They fed us RIBS which was hecka epic, and before we ate Jose said, "I break my diet today, but it okay." In a very thick accent and I almost died. Huge s/o to the Masners for making INCREDIBLE ribs and also fellow shipping literally everyone of our Latino friends without us even having to ask!!

We started to do family history with Haylie this week! It was a bit interesting; so, it turns out her Grandpa had children with like four women, so that was a whole mess for us to find out. We were adding wives and moving mothers, for almost an hour. I also want to point out that her anti-parents talk a lot of smack about polygamy considering the family tree I saw that night. I'm just sayin'.

Also Haylie just texted us and told us she got poison oak for the 5th time since I've been in Roseburg, someone get this girl an immune system or something (but actually your prayers would be VERY much sufficient and appreciated).

We went back to Polly's again this week- the lady with the trash can...- and it was yet again an experience. She wanted us to clean up what was supposed to be her back patio. I'm not gonna lie to y'all, it took a lot out of me, emotionally and mentally that day. At one point I was throwing away a pile of underwear, that looked as though it would fit a four year old boy...? I also was sweeping up chicken feed and animal pooh for quite a while. I also had to put all of the garbage in the aforementioned garbage can... I actually ended up telling Polly that we needed to leave 20 minutes before we actually did, so that I could have a minute to rediscover my will to serve others before our next appointment. I found it...after I went back to the apartment and threw away a few things. ;)

☆ miracle of the week:☆
Yesterday, during sacrament meeting the doors opened and in walked Maria!! I was so excited, it's been over a month since we last saw her! Apparently, they'd been driving back from California-where she flew into from Mexico- ALL night. But she still came for the sacrament! Maria is amazing, and legit the backbone to the Spanish work here, so we are VERY excited to have her back! She already asked us if we have time for her tonight, and then told us she'll be at English class Tuesday, and Family History on Wednesday! She is  without a doubt one of the most amazing, and dedicated people I've had the pleasure of meeting. ♡

☆tender mercies:☆
We were at a member lesson with the Reads and they were saying how they wish they could feed us, so we told them that they actually can now...and they invited us over to eat on Saturday! Wahoo! During which they told us they hoped to many people weren't feeding us hamburgers, and we told them that this was actually only the second time we'd been fed this transfer; so they quickly invited us back to eat on Sunday. Which we tried to decline, because we didn't want them to have to feed us twice in a row, but they INSISTED so we got fed three times this week, and that my friends, is a miracle. :)

Brother Forsloff was playing some music in the garage one night when we were coming home; and one of the ones I heard was from Billy Joel. I think it was New York State of Mind? I don't remember, so we started talking about Billy Joel, and I told him Vienna was my favorite song by him. Brother Forsloff had never heard of it, so he played half of it for me, and I almost cried. I can't believe it's been over eight months since I listened to Vienna and cried while cancelling my Spotify account. :)

Also how am I almost half-way done? I'm pretty sure it was three weeks ago that I flew into Oregon, and had to sit at the airport baggage claim for two hours while Hawkins tried to find out where her luggage went. :)

Much love from the 'Burg,
Hermana Shelton.

Fotos!!

1 - me y mí compie
2 - 'burg sisters
3 - family portrait
4 - photo op with the Masner girls
5 - selfie post a hot mess of a sacrament meeting which a random
non-member we've never met attended. sadly the speaker talked more
about their pioneer ancestors than Jesus Christ.... :/ big sad. But
the youth speaker Evan was amazing! :)
6 - pic with the Reads!
7- zone pic that would only send as a screenshot

Haylie is officially a member!♡

Heyooo! Hope you have the best week! I had a pretty great one! :)

Last Monday all the Sisters in the Zone went through an escape room together. It's owned by some members, so they let us do it for free. :) It was HECKA fun! And the member that was the host- or man behind the curtain that gave us hints when we STRUGGLED- was having a grand old time. We beat the room by one minute, so proud of us! 10/10 would
recommend!

On our way to the escape room, and eventually Haylie's confirmation- #Spoilers for below- I had the pleasure of driving on the freeway. For those of you that don't know, I had somehow finessed the system my entire life- until being called to the fabulous OEM- and never had to
drive on a freeway. Luckily the freeways here in Oregon are diet freeways compared to those in my home state. The speed limit is 65 miles per hour, and there are only two lanes, the only issue is the merge lane is about 20 feet. All was well though, but I only 3.2/10
recommend that one.

It wouldn't be a week in Oregon without a homeless person encounter, so here's this week's. Some homeless man on a sit-down-motor scooter came sliding up to Hermana Peterson, our friend Eve, and me. He asked to borrow our phone to check his food stamps balance, but that's not really the point, I couldn't stop wondering how a homeless person ends up with an epic scooter? This is gotta be quite the story.

Something gross that happened this week: I finally had enough of our shower and sink not draining and snaked them both...with a zip tie...it was QUITE the process; but now they
drain. Adapt and overcome, I guess.

This week I had my first interview with President Weeks without a mask on! It was actually super weird, because I've never really seen his face before, so it felt like a whole new person talking to me. Sister Weeks was telling me many stories about last year's fires...hopefully the two we have here calm down and my poor mission President and wife don't have to deal with that for a second time...:/ From what I can gather from my VERY limited news sources, there's a fire east of Roseburg that's growing quite rapidly, but for some reason I don't understand, no one seems to think it will ever affect us...? There's also one raging in Klamath Falls. It's a great day to be a missionary.

We went on a walk with one of our recent converts Maria (not the one that speaks Spanish, the other Maria). We were walking and talking with her for quite a while, and right when we were almost back to her house, we got stopped by her neighbor. He seemed to just be getting out of his car, and holding a part to a toy plane, just behind him I could see a flag he had hung on his house...a profanity filled statement about our current President. Classy. :) Also, every time the wind shifted we got a strong whiff of alcohol from his breath, which
was pretty alarming, because as I've previously mentioned, he was getting out of a car. Like I said, classy.:)

He - later we learned his name was Glen- eyed our name tags, it's wild how often people stare at the tag, and then asked, "Do you girls believe in Jesus." And we were like, "Yes we do," because we do, that's why we were his name on our chest.  That was probably the best
point of this conversation, because the rest of it was a roller-coaster that only went down, and down, and down. Maybe down some more. He then told us that he loved talking about God, and we told him that we did too, because that's what we do FULL-TIME with no pay. He then told us he had some thoughts and insights that would blow our minds, I was highly doubtful of this, because I have a knowledge of the restored gospel, and have also read D&C which is mind-blowing in itself. Spoiler alert, I was right, the only thing I couldn't comprehend was this man's inability to form a coherent thought.

Pretty much Glen is convinced that joy and surprise are the same emotion, and you can't feel one without the other. He went on this whole rant about how great it would be if we could surprise God, because God would be way happier for us if He was surprised when we do good. I've managed to say the entirety of his thoughts in less than 30 words, but it took him almost 20 minutes to get to this point.

At one point I tried to explain agency- because he was talking about how we don't really have free will?- and I asked him if he'd ever heard of that. He pretty confidently said yes, and then stammered around not forming a word for an entire minute before I said, "It's the ability to choose," thinking that was simple enough. I was wrong, his eyes looked SO blank! I tried to explain it again, but he was not getting it; so finally I just said, "It's what gives us free will," and then that recognition passed across his face, apparently he didn't know other words but that one.

Anyway this went on for a while, him saying over and over about how we aren't as close to God if we can't surprise him, and at one point he told us we'd be closer to Christ if we saw things how he saw them, which I highly doubt. He didn't really let us get a word out, which was fine, because we were just trying to leave. Eventually after his fifteenth bad example- how God would be so hyped if we surprised him with straight As- I got a little impatient and said, "Well my dad always knew I was going to get straight As, but he was still happy when I did it." That pretty much ended the conversation, and we left very shortly after that. Finally!:)

BUT ANYWHO... Here's the good stuff! Haylie got baptized on Saturday, Wahoo!! So happy for her, she was so excited! It was amazing, about 15 missionaries were there, and quite a good turnout showed up from the Sutherlin ward! She's legit amazing, and is best friends with every missionary she meets!

We also went to Sutherlin and saw her get confirmed into the ward. During which I straight up almost died!

Context: during the sacrament an old lady walked out of the chapel, and with every step she took she farted!!! It was dead silent in that room aside from that, it was just the sound of the sacrament cups hitting the trays, and her wind. I thought I was going to die! I was
trying SOO hard not to laugh, but that was undeniably hilarious. Haylie and I were in tears!

We also high-key got confused on the way back, took a wrong turn, and ended up driving the wrong way on the freeway!! :) Big RIP to us, but mostly big RIP to the miles. All was well though!

Much much love,

Hermana Shelton

Also the pics from Haylie's baptism, were all taken on Haylie's phone, and she used a nasty snapchat filter, so big sad there. But it's her day, so she gets to make the decisions.
1 - escape room con las otras hermanas
2 - all the missionaries w/ Haylie!
3 - pic with Haylie
4 - part 2
5 - my compie
6 - selfie in the bathroom, waiting for Haylie to get dressed
7 - windy selfie
8 - heart attacking !!!
9 - Haylie's confirmation
10 - part 2

finding our future b.p...?

Hello everyone, this email probably won't make it to you until Saturday at the earliest because my entire family is at Lake Powell, so my dad can't forward it on. So all this will probably be old news by the time you read this, pero está bien.

This week started out with a solid service referral from the zone leaders. Her name is Libby, she has a fun little southern accent. :) She had us build a temporary fence so her dogs couldn't get out; and it was most definitely the most ghetto looking fence of all time. We held that sucker together with zip-ties, but Libby seemed really satisfied. She was super funny, she worked along side us, and talked to us the whole time; and at the end she even asked us if we wanted to pray with her! :)

We also did service for Polly again this week. She had us take out some garbage right when we first got there, and IDK what died in her garbage can, but something most definitely did! It smelt as though death and sin had a baby, and then didn't want it anymore, so they left it in this women's trash can. Hermana Peterson and I were gagging and a few times, I thought it wasn't going to be gagging anymore. The wildest part was that the trash can was practically empty when we got there...so I think this smell is a permanent fixture on this
trash-can...

We had both zone conference and exchanges this week as well, so the week feels like it was only three days long. I yet again had the honor of doing exchanges with Hermana McLean! Yet again it was a good time. This time we we stayed here in Garden Valley, and taught English Connect together! :) McLean is the most adorable human, below you'll see a picture of us post rocking out to "Change" by Taylor Swift for the fifteenth time. I'm honestly thinking she might even be more of a Swiftie than me. Our Mondays consist of us sharing news from our "sources"-aka her mom and my cousin, Abby. 15/10 would recommend! Plus we got to spend 10 minutes teaching our English Connect homies how to say "fork"! :)

Our lesson with Jose went SO good! We talked about about Jesucristo and his mission while on this earth. His comments were on topic and he shared a lot of his insights! It was awesome, but the coolest part was when we asked him if he had done the invite from last week (read Alma 32). He said yes, and that he read Alma chapter 30...so, he sort of did. We asked him what he got out of his reading. He started out by explaining that he only had had the time to read it once, pretty much preparing us for him to have no answer...then he POPPED OFF! He went on for almost ten minutes all about Korihor and Alma and said the entire story in INCREDIBLE detail!!! Hermana Peterson's jaw and mine were on the floor. I've never been more impressed by someone's reading comprehension in my entire life. This week we invited him to read 3 Nefi 11, so hopefully he'll do the same thing this time, except read the right one.

Our lesson with Karla also was so cool! Monsterrat was sick. :( So we only met with Karla, Hermana Masner ended up calling us and asking if we wanted to have the lesson at her house! So we went over there, and spent some time with Karla and the Masners! It was so fun, and Klara seemed so happy, and more comfortable than when we meet at the church! Hermana Peterson and I even treated them to an AWE-INSPIRING number on our dollar-tree kazoos! ;)

During the lesson we asked the Masner girls- ages 7 and 9- about Jesus' time on the Earth. AND THEY POPPED OFF! They bore there testimonies is some intense Spanglish and Karla had this small smile on her face! It was so powerful, primary kids are so amazing! I think everyone almost cried! :) Hopefully, this can help give Karla that little nudge she needs. She's been taught everything, there's just a little doubt we need to overcome! Give it time and she'll join her mom and brother as the third Latino member in the Roseburg stake! :) Pioneering the Spanish work here is so cool! It's crazy to think that no one was working with these people until a few months ago, soon enough we'll have our own branch here though! ;) We might need to have some members that aren't all related first though!

Speaking of this amazing family and the future Roseburg Spanish branch. The stake president here is 100% convinced that Javier (Monserrat's dad, view diagram we drew on the board to explain things to our district leaders below) will be our first Branch President (like him and Brother Smith fasted for Javier to have an experience to bring him to the gospel). Which is probably straight revelation, and I agree with him. The only issue is...Javier is not a member, in fact he's never even had a lesson; but our stake president simply said change that; so we're we're pretty much having planning sessions to figure out how to get in with Javier!

His family would be the key for sure though! He's a manager at one of the local vineyards, so he works around a lot of other Latinos. And pretty much every Latino I know is already taking lessons with us...so we need some fresh blood. Luckily his daughter Monsterrat, is already being taught, and just had an incredibly spiritual experience at girls camp! To quote Hermana McLean, "I think the Celestial Kingdom will be like Girls Camp. It was so spiritual." - and honestly I think Montse agrees.

Anyway, moving on from that mess, here's another mess. Haylie. Haylie as we all know is getting baptized NEXT SATURDAY!! Say what? Only issue, we don't know into what ward. Here's the predicament, she's taught by us- Garden Valley Ward-, attends Sutherlin ward EVERY week, and lives in North Umqua Ward...yeah...these last Sisters really left me to clean up a MESS. The Stake President is still yet to reply to us about this issue, but he had a lot to say about my man Javier. Oh well! All will work out, God is on our side; but if it's not Sutherlin she gets baptized into she just simply will never attend her real ward. She LOVES that ward, and that ward LOVES her! I think we might have to have a standing section at her baptism with how much of that ward that's asked if they could be there! :)

Anywho, those are my current small issues! But the work of the Lord is amazing, God is good, and Roseburg in the promised land. Til next week, which by the time you receive this email might be three days,

Hermana Shelton! :)