October 1, 2023

Is it okay for me to admit that I am tired? It has been a busy 3 weeks or so with transfers, zone conferences, new credit cards, and a quick trip to Utah. I was hoping for a quiet Conference weekend but so far Saturday was just as busy as the previous 3 weeks.

When we came back from Utah we decided to take a longer route home around Mt. Hood in the hopes of seeing some pretty fall colors. We did see some pretty colors but the highlight of the detour was a stop we made at Little Zig Zag Falls. It was the perfect stop! A short .6 mile hike to a beautiful waterfall in an absolutely gorgeous old growth forest. The pictures just don't do it justice!

And just to prove we really were there here is a picture with us actually in it :). The forest really was that lush and green with moss growing everywhere!

As we travel around Oregon we have discovered that they like to borrow names from other places. On this trip we had to get a picture of the sign for Sandy, Oregon, not to be confused with Sandy, Utah.

And then we had to make note that we were on the Road to Damascus......

This week we had the opportunity to sit in on (2) teaching lessons with the missionaries. What great experiences those are! One lesson was with a sister about 40 who has had a rough life. Multiple children by different fathers, drug use, and lonliness. The other was with a man about our age who is at odds with his family and has no one in his life. He said he had accumulated a certain amount of wealth and is looking for a church whom he trusts to do good things with his money. I have no idea if either one of these individuals will end up joining the church but as I sat in on those lessons I couldn't help thinking how the gospel of Jesus Christ would change and bless their lives. I also thought about charity, the true love of Christ. It would be easy to dismiss these individuals and think they were not ready for the gospel. But if we truly love as our Savior did we will see them as beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and want the blessings of the gospel for them.

We also got to participate in District Council which we LOVE! We have grown to love these missionaries so much. Afterward we went to a local food truck for lunch, Hutch & Lucky's. It turns out that one of the local members is neighbors to the owner of the food truck and if the missionaries eat there the bill is put on tab and the neighbor pays it. No one knows who the neighbor is as it is kept very confidential. The generosity of people amaze me! We Sr missionaries paid for our own lunch though. We didn't want to take advantage :).

On Friday our Zone had the opportunity to volunteer at the Oregon Air Show in McMinnville featuring the Blue Angels. It was a fun time mingling with the crowd and seeing the air show ourselves was an added bonus. So fun! Pictures don't really do it justice but I will post a few anyway.

Saturday we had the chance to run over in the morning to watch Tracey's cross country team, with Danica, participate in the Nike Invitational in Oregon City. It was a huge event with over 100 teams participating. We are so grateful that we are close enough to Tracey to be able to do these from time to time. I caught some good pictures to share.

Finally, a word about General Conference. How grateful we are to be able to hear the words of our prophet and other church leaders. So much to digest in the days ahead! We are especially grateful that we were able to hear from President Nelson. "Think Celestial!" he said, "Spending more time in the temple builds faith. And your service and worship in the temple will help you to think celestial. The temple is a place of revelation. There you are shown how to progress toward a celestial life. There you are drawn closer to the Savior and given greater access to His power. There you are guided in solving the problems in your life, even your most perplexing problems." How can we not want that? What does it mean to "Think Celestial." In the days and weeks ahead I am sure we will hear more and be able to consider what it means to us personally. President Nelson also quoted the scripture from 2 Nephi 9:39, "Spiritually-minded is life eternal." Recently a friend of mind posted about this scripture and pointed out that the first letters of each word in this scripture spell out "SMILE." :) The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true way to happiness! I bear testimony of that. I know it to be true!