1cef6f67-e0cb-4bdf-a1e3-7bdd0c22acc4 Sister Jamie Bundy Back to Missionary Letters Quarantine Week 22: Last one Well hello. I can't believe it. This is MY LAST weekly email. This last week was the week of lasts. I had my last District Council, my last service project, my last Zone Conference, my last correlation, my last weekly planning, my last sacrament meeting, and today is my last PDay. I had my departing interview and I gave my departing testimony. And throughout it all I have had so many sweet moments that have brought me some closure, which is something that is really important to me. I've been asked numerous times questions like the following: "What's the biggest thing you've learned from your mission?" "Whats the biggest piece of advice you would give?" "What are some of the best experiences you've had?" "Whats the first thing you'll do when you get home?" "What are your plans for when you get home?" HAHAHAHA WHAT? I think it was just yesterday that I was telling people that I was still just a baby missionary and only a couple months out. Lol turns out that it was actually last year. I can't believe its all coming to an end. The time I have left to proselyte is LIMITED. I am seriously just down to hours now and every time I think about it, it makes me a little anxious hahaha. There really will be so many things I will miss about serving a mission and being a missionary. I truly have gained so much from this time and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am so grateful for everything I have been able to gain because of it. I am excited to come home though. Even though it does make me sad to think that its almost over, it also just feels right. I feel ready. Don't know if I'll be saying the same when I'm boarding the lane lol. President Dunnigan gave me a promise about 14 months ago that leaving the mission would rip my heart out....I have yet to feel that so I'm sure there will be more emotions to come hahaha. But anyways I guess I can give you some updates on how my week actually went. It was a really good one to end on. We were VERY busy and it was honestly the best thing ever. On Tuesday I had my last district council. This last district I've served in has been a good one and I've been so blessed to be a part of it. They are all great missionaries and I've had a lot of fun with them. I will miss them. On Wednesday we did some service pulling weeds. It felt pretty good to DO something for once hahaha. I got all sweaty and dirty and even got scratched up. Twas the best. The best part though was when the service coordinator couple were so proud of us and sent the picture we took to President Dunnigan hahahahaha we got rebuked for not wearing masks and because we had more than two companionships there lol. I would say that I felt bad and that I apologized and all that, but then I would be lying to you haha. So yes that's the most rebellious I have gotten on my mission. On Thursday we had a mission tour with Elder and Sister Basset and we had a Zone Conference with them. It was really good and I really enjoyed it. I also had been informed earlier in the transfer that I would be giving my departing testimony at this Zone Conference. So the whole time I was just anxiously waiting for when they would announce for me to go. But then they didn't hahaha. So I was pretty convinced they had either forgotten about me or didn't actually wanna hear my testimony lol. I honestly would not have been surprised for either one of those. On Friday we did some service for the last time at the Food Bank of Delaware and it was really good. I've been goin to that place for a long time so it felt kind of weird knowing that I probably would never see it again. We also had our VERY FIRST, I N P E R S O N N O N M E M B E R lesson on Friday with this SUPER sweet lady named Rosemary! It was amazing! It seriously felt so good to have an in person nonmember lesson. And it was so good for me to be a part of Sister Kent's experience with it as well. It was awesome. She was happy to receive a Book of Mormon and we....well...the other sisters, look forward to meeting with her again and I look forward to hearing about it and eventually attending her baptism. On Saturday I had my departing interview! It was good. YES! President Dunnigan did talk to me about marriage hahaha, which I had no problem with. It was good though. Glad to be ending on a good note. On Sunday I gave a talk in our Zone Church service where I spoke about some different experiences from my mission and then I also finally gave my departing testimony at mission devotional haha. I lucked out though because instead of only doing it in front of my Zone I got to give it in front of my whole mission hahahah just kidding I don't think that was luck because I was dang nervous and didn't know what I was gunna say. But just Heavenly Father always does, He helped me out and gave me the words to say. Well ya'll I think that about wraps it up. Thank you all so much for the love and support you have given me. I can't believe I've made it and I can't believe who I've become because of it. I am changed forever and I'm so grateful because of it. SEE YOU ALL SOON! Love, Sister JAMIE Bundy Previous Letter Next Letter

6a58ed1c-683a-41ff-9d60-07a7934d87ae Elder Isaac Iverson Back to Missionary Letters Weekly...eh more like Monthly Email Hello friends and family!! I am bored enough today to grind out another group email. Let's jump into some highlights! Collin and Corinna: The Lord works MIRACLES!! We scheduled a lesson with this sweet part-member family. Collin is the member. We were doing some How to Begin Teaching, pretty much overviewing what we do as missionaries, and they start telling us how they were praying for an answer on how we could draw closer to God and me and my previous companion Elder Ackerson found them out front of their house! They talked much more of ways the Lord had prepared them for us. We taught the message of the Restoration and it was powerful. There was tears and warm fuzzies. It was a super bien lesson! We have another man named Franco who said he's ready for a baptismal date as soon as he gets his COVID vaccine later this week! I don't know what else to write about. Things are going great here in Boerne, TX! I love the mission and all the blessings it brings. OH! I hit 18 months on the 25th, so I'm an old Elder now! It's going way too fast. I would just like to leave y'all with my simple testimony that the church Christ had established while on earth has been Restored. We are living in the last dispensation and the Lord continues to love, bless, and work miracles in all of our lives! He loves you. I love you!! Have a great week or month til I right my next one!!😁😊😊😁😆☺🤪😝🤩☺😀😁😊😃😊🙂😊 Previous Letter Next Letter

9c3e0cfe-3587-4d10-b5f5-ed8f18988e2a Sister Kylie Cannon Back to Missionary Letters Gorditio We were blessed to eat good food with good company this week. The Hughes are the cutest couple. They made the best homemade meal and kept me laughing the whole time. At one point I had to eat more so I wouldn't laugh.. They are in the second picture. We volunteered at the food bank again. It is always something to look forward to. Such nice people! We met a couple of people at a apartment complex and one of them was telling us how she would go to seminary in high school with her friend. Hope something happens with her! Met with some awesome members this week. The first pic is of Caden. He's 13 and we do weekly zoom calls with him. The last picture is of us and the Boyers. They had us over for dinner Sunday and Gorditioed me up. Well I did that to myself because it tasted so good. Steak chilli and cornbread. This week I've been studying spiritual gifts. We all have gifts. And if we want another gift we can work to develop it. How cool! My mom has the gift of faith. I apologize for the times I have represented my calling as the Lords representative poorly. I know that I affect the reputation of the church. I know the Savior lives. I know his gospel changes lives. And anyone can change for the better. Love yall. Sister Cannon New life motto below! Along with Helman 12:23 ❤ Previous Letter Next Letter

b72be85f-1ca0-48fc-9137-99811e7d2b81 Elder Ty Brayant Back to Missionary Letters Ghana may be my new favorite climate. We have not had very hot days here in the last week and it has rained most days for about an hour which really cools it down a lot. I am stationed in a rain forest area with lots of vegetation and farms. I do not miss the desert heat I left at all and I will probably roast like a pig when I get home. I love seeing all the green around my area but It is sadly soiled by the trash along the ground. I really enjoy going to the villages we cover because there is much less trash and much more vegetation. The town itself is splashed haphazardly around with no real sense of organization. The shops are very small and surround the street. The shops themselves are like very small Konnex boxes and all sell pretty much the same products. The houses are just 4 concrete walls and a roof with a door and maybe one window. It really humbles a person when they see how much they really have and how little the people here have. The people themselves are wonderful. They all walk around with scowls on their faces until you greet them and then instantly they become much more friendly. They smile, ask you how you are. It isn't ever a long interaction but they are much happier the friendlier you are with them. Truly Ghana is a wonderful place to live. My companion Elder Williams is from Idaho and is a very hard worker, yet at the same time has managed to adjust to the Ghanaian lifestyle of going with the flow. He teaches me a lot, what I really had to learn right off the bat was how to simplify the gospel so that the people here can understand what we are teaching. The people we do teach have some very insightful questions and are usually attentive and inquisitive. They are so incredibly generous. It is not hard to tell that the people here have almost nothing, but about half of them offer to give us water or other small things. One lady gave us small bags of ground nut paste (peanut butter) which was all she had to give. One of the families we visited are pineapple farmers and they gave us fresh pineapple right off the bush and It was extremely delicious. I am not usually a fruit guy, but I wanted to eat a million of the pineapples. They skinned them and made handles out of the top, then we ate them like a giant Popsicle. We have an interesting mode of transportation here in Ghana. Unlike some missionaries who have cars or even buses we have tro-tros. 20 person vans that drive around and pick up passengers. Roughly half of them feel like they are on the verge of falling apart and seem like they are 30 plus years old. Not only that the drivers are crazy. If a driver wants to go somewhere he is going to go and nobody is going to stop them. everybody crams in like sardines and goes for a ride. The other mode of transportation we use is motos (AKA motorcycle taxis), You flag a driver down tell him where you are going and hop on the back. Sometimes they can fit up to four people on one motorcycle. They may be the most skilled drivers of all time if you ask me. They dodge and weave by potholes like prize fighters. Definitely not what I am used to but very enjoyable rides through the jungle. We spend most of our time teaching lessons and very little time tracting in the towns. We get a lot of referrals from the members here. Our hands are very full to say the least. I still have a long way to go when it comes to learning everything about teaching and the culture but it is all coming along bit by bit, or as they say in Ghana small small. The lessons are usually pretty simplified and I have to talk very slowly for people to understand my accent. Other than that we keep busy busy busy teaching and walking teaching and walking. It is the missionary life every missionary dreams of having. No awkward conversations with random people and lots of lessons that are ready to go. Our apartment is very nice. It has 4 rooms and a bathroom which for 2 people is a massive amount of space. It is nothing like we have in the U.S. but it is more than sufficient for our needs. I have attempted to eat the local food but the texture of it all is very foreign to me and does not agree with my gag reflex. I will get better at eating it, but for now I stick to the foods I know I can eat for sure. I am doing well here in Ghana to say the least. I am happy, I am teaching, and I am not starving. Thank you for all the support and the love. Elder Bryant Picture: Previous Letter Next Letter

a0397ff6-953e-4f87-90cc-467fea17486f Sister Alyson Cook Back to Missionary Letters Decision making Good (Insert time of day you are reading this) Everyone! I hope you're having a fantastic time wherever you are. And if you're not, I hope that you can change it! This week has felt like I ran a marathon spiritually/mentally. We are so blessed to be busy in this area. We are all so tired, and it feels so good! It means Ive been accomplishing the task of serving the Lord with all my heart might mind and strength and there is truly no better feeling than that. Ive decided I want to have a berry farm. In our outside time, we have been exploring the wooded PA terrain, and with me being a desert dweller, I am largely captivated by the lush foliage that seems to grow on every surface that holds still long enough. (My companions laugh at me during walks because I'm picking flowers and leaves to press) One of the many miracles of nature is wild berries! We've found wild black raspberries, wild black berries, and wild strawberries. And with a bag of frozen berries costing close to $8 at wally world, we've taken it upon ourselves to take advantage of what God has given us. Ive been living my best hunter-gatherer life and picking berries! (Before anyone emails me yelling at me to be careful about what I eat in nature, I promise these berries are good. We've eaten so many we surly would have been dead by now if they were poisonous.) Ive also decided I want to be as cool as the dude we saw on our way to the store. Everything was normal expect one thing. This man had an iguana just chillin on his arm out of the open window. Just sitting there basking. When asked what the name of the said iguana, he replied "I don't know. I call him a different name everyday." Ive decided that I need to have more Charity. I was reading in 1 Corinthians 13, and the first verse really packed a punch. "1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not a charity , I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." Nothing I say as a missionary matters unless I have Charity. That's some pretty powerful stuff! It legit felt like I had been slapped across the face. It's something I need to have more of, for the rest of my life! Thank you all for all your support and patience. I love you all! Previous Letter Next Letter

d6f036d4-fd06-4f0f-ad99-260d6b5301c4 Sister Mariam Leavitt Back to Missionary Letters FEASTING 🦃😋 HAPPY late THANKSGIVING! i hope you all ate lots of yummy food!! This week went by way too fast! We get transfer news tomorrow which is insane?! This transfer flew!! This week was so good! We made a lot of friends who are progressing super well which is such a miracle! This area needs some friends! Its getting really cold so knocking can be rough some days but we distract ourselves with some pretty funny conversations lol! Language studies were super good this week! I can read in persian now so thats exciting! Ive been actually learning for a week and a half now so I'm very proud of myself because symbols are SO confusing! We had YUMMY thanksgiving dinners! Our first one was with a couple in the ward and they invited to of the single older members who are actually so funny! One of them is a school teacher so she brought thanksgiving games like true or false, would you rather, unscramble the words... it was very entertaining actually! They are all VERY GOOD cooks so we ate like queens! And they gave us leftovers!!! As a missionary i Literally love leftovers hahah. We had a persian thanksgiving on friday! Literally think of good food and times it by 100! Yalda makes THE BEST FOOD!! I will try to get some pictures from it because it was a FEAST! The elders came and it was just a party! SO MUCH FOOD! vianna made sure i was on her hip all night so we could do everything as "best friends" 🥹 i made pomegranate salad!! Gram and grandpa would be so proud of me!! Ive been having some pretty bad stomach problems lately and its been causing me to not sleep or eat so i got a blessing this week! I am SO THANKFUL FOR PRIESTHOOD BLESSINGS!! i think id be dead without them! I'm not all the way healed but i've felt lots better since! MERRY CHRISTMAS SEASON! remember the reason for the season!! I watched a video this week of why we need a Savior and why we celebrate Christmas that is so good! One of our favorites to share so everyone needs to watch it!! https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2015-12-1000-why-we-need-a-savior?lang=eng&alang=eng&collectionId=e71f1a9300689e1d56532e9dc7e0ddb2299232b3 I LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE THE BEST WEEK! AND DO THE LIGHT THE WORLD ACTIVITIES!! 🎄❤️ https://photos.app.goo.gl/S2KwiGxpSdFowZuA6 Previous Letter Next Letter

d631ed93-39c2-49c8-a37b-076dd2dc32c2 Elder Booker Wakefield Back to Missionary Letters No es changa It has been a great slow and busy week here in Fray Bentos. Which is good because time was moving to fast in Oregon, and I need to most out of these last 7 months. When I first got here I could hardly understand any Spanish that I was hearing and it sucked🤣 but!! I can understand people now and talk enough to get my point across haha. I feel like I've come so far then I remember it's my first week. We've had milanesa almost everyday since I've been in Uruguay. Which is good cause it's way good! It's basically either chicken or beef flattened out, breaded and baked. So a giant chicken nugget. Then mayo the Uruguayans love mayo, it's insane. When we were doing Facebook we saw this gigantic spider, we tried to take a picture but it bolted and is currently hiding in my comps desk, so that's fun. We've had 12 lessons this week which is nuts compared to Oregon where lessons were pretty rare. I was reading Moroni 6:4 in Spanish the other day where it calls the Savior "the author and finisher of our faith." But in Spanish it is "el autor y perfeccionador de su fe." This little difference is so cool, through Him our faith can be made perfect! Anyway super short but a super cool distinction between the two languages! Have a faithfilled week! Love Elder Wakefield Previous Letter Next Letter

c30e07fe-3973-4c78-9571-e1b0af16194a Elder Booker Wakefielk Back to Missionary Letters First week in Salto Well our phone finally started working on Saturday. We had a few lessons drop because the streets are so messed up and we couldn't call them to find them😪. But we found a few and had some fun lessons. Elder Hopkins doesnt understand hardly any Uruguayo Spanish, but he speaks really well so I will translate for him sometimes then he can teach jaja. We took 1 whole photo since last pday so yeah. Our bishop is a police officer and he laid out all the areas where we can't be at night(like half of our area) and said to keep your phone in your pocket as much as possible. So that's been fun, we're in a pretty poor area here but the people are really humble and want to learn, it's been different than any area in my mission. I studied an awesome BYU devotional called, "Putting off the Natural man and becoming Saints." It's by Elder Cook and I love it! He relates a story about 2 horses he bought, Bob and Stubby. Bob was super friendly and stubby not so much. But after riding him for years he became a good horse and changed for the better, and how we need to be meekand to change. He tells is a LOT better than I just did so go read his talk. Have a great week!! Previous Letter Next Letter

7a18b778-c539-43cf-bec7-c828d7cb05cf Elder Jaxon Sna Back to Missionary Letters Recaps, Wrecks, Transfers Week 30: Hello everybody! I love you all! I hope your week was awesome! I pray for you all! I am staying in Lander for a but longer! Week 29 Recap is down below! Tuesday- We went to some awesome pioneer sights! Wednesday- We had a meeting with all our zone! We did some service and met with some members! Thursday- We had our studies and then did service for Tom Watkins! We had a weekly planning session! Area calls with the zone leaders! We had great burgers at the Stigers! Friday- We had a mission wide devotional! We filmed some videos and helped some people move! Saturday- we had our studies and then lunch! We called the family and worked on facebook! We are seeing some success! We got a new Elder that was serving in Fiji Sunday- We had a great sacrament! We had some lessons with people from Facebook! I love Sunday! Monday- our studies and then we had Lunch and companionship study with the Zone leaders! We had two more lessons! Tuesday- Basketball and card games! James 1:5 Thank you guys for everything you do! ! love you all! Previous Letter Next Letter

dabfd6b9-1a72-4b9d-aadc-6acb60144b03 Elder Hayden Johnson Back to Missionary Letters The Power of the Book of Mormon Gonna be a quicker weekly email due to the District on Rarotonga wanting to bike around the whole island on electric bikes. 😂🏝️ In this email I could share about all the days and events that have taken place, but I will leave most of that for my journal. Today I want to testify of The Book of Mormon and share some awesome experiences that come from the power within these pages. Recently in preparation for the April General Conference I have been studying heaps about the Restoration, Joseph Smith, and The Book of Mormon. The more and more I read everyday from the Book of Mormon, the more I understand its contents and am thankful to have in these Latter Days. I began to study Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel to find other ways I can share this love of The Book of Mormon with others as I am tracting. The first cool event that happened was during an exchange with one of the Elders in my district. We were in His area and scheduled to visit a man they have been teaching for a long time named Simran. Now Simran comes to church and seems to love the church, but the Elders have always been curious if he actually understands what they are teaching. It makes it hard to teach him due to his wife (who is a returning member) that loves to talk. So during this lesson we felt prompted to read from the Book of Mormon. Moroni chapter 10 to discuss receiving answers to questions. During the lesson we went slow, we asked Simran if he believed in The Book of Mormon... He paused then immediately began flipping through the pages of The Book of Mormon and turned to 2 Nephi 29. Simran began reading these verses '3 And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. 4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles? 5 O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord have not forgotten my people.' He then said that he use to believe in just the Bible like many others, but then through prayer he has come to know that God has spoken to others in the Americas as well, that God has not stopped speaking to His people. That the Book of Mormon is true....... My jaw just about hit the floor. My heart was full of love and awe for this man. The other experience was on another exchange during a couple hours of Door Knocking and contacting people. My companion for the day felt pressed to go knock on a house I have already contacted a couple of times without them being interested, but this time another man came out that I have not met before. He talked about religion and how he was the only one in his family that didn't go to any church and didn't believe in God too much. He discussed about faith and how it had a different meaning to him than to others. Thankfully I was holding the Book of Mormon in my hand so I felt impressed to open to Alma 32:21. I gave him the book and asked him to read it out loud. '21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.' My companion and I shared testimony of faith. That we were both young and didn't know everything, but we have gained a spiritual witness of the truth of who God is and that our Heavenly Father loves us. That for himself he could also gain faith and gain all the joy and happiness that comes from following God. He told us that he had never read anything like that before and it made sense to him. He wanted us to come back next week to teach him more about Faith and who God is. Well I love this mission and I am still so blessed that the Lord has allowed me to stay here in the Cook Islands another couple transfers! The members and people that live here have such a different lifestyle than back in America, it makes me grateful that the gospel if for all the people around the world. Hope you all have an amazing week! Ka Kite -Orometua Johnson Previous Letter Next Letter

6e5470a9-c0cc-4f7b-aeb0-45344ccae1aa Sister Resha Bunker Back to Missionary Letters This is the most bittersweet email I will ever send. For the past 18 months, I have spent every hour, day and night, laboring in the vineyard of the Lord. I've devoted all of my time, energy, might, and soul to my Savior and my God. To say that I've seen miracles would be an understatement. No words will ever adequately describe the love I have for my mission, for this Gospel, for my brother, Christ, and for my Father in Heaven. I want to bear pure testimony of a few of the things I have come to learn to be absolutely true throughout my mission. First of all, I know that The Book of Mormon is true, and I LOVE this Book. I only know that The Book of Mormon is true because I took the time to study it, and then I asked God to know if it was true. I receive a reconfirmation of this every single time I read it because when I do, I feel GOOD, and good things come from Christ. I know that in the Spring of 1820, a boy named Joseph Smith knelt in prayer, and he saw God the Father, and the Son. Joseph Smith restored the Gospel to the Earth. This leads to my next point. I know that the Gospel truly is the good news of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the way to have true peace and joy not only in this life, but also in the life to come. Living the Gospel better helps us feel of the love that our Heavenly Father and our brother, Christ, have for us. Love is the essence of the gospel, that's what it is all about. Thirdly, the scriptures use the phrase, "There never was a happier people". This phrase occurs periodically when the people are being obedient, and heeding the words of the prophet, who was teaching of Christ. I know that there never has been a happier time in my own life as this time which I have had to serve the Lord. This happiness has been because of my obedience to the Gospel, and because I have been trying my best to exemplify and embody Christ. With that being said, none of us are, or can be perfect. BUT.... we can ALL try to be BETTER. I know it is challenging at times, but you can't grow without getting out of your comfort zone. Push yourself a little bit harder, and God will strengthen your efforts, and turn your weaknesses into strengths. I know that Heavenly Father LOVES us, and that's why He stretches us. Lastly, I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the true Messiah, the Redeemer of the World. He is the Son of our living and loving Heavenly Father. I truly know that with faith in Christ, there is absolutely nothing we cannot accomplish. Let Christ heal you and strengthen you. He will help you become the person God knows you can become. I am eternally grateful for this name tag that I have gotten to wear, and I'm grateful for who Ive been able to represent. I love my God, and I love my Christ. These have been very sacred days that I have spent on holy ground. I say all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our healer and our advocate, amen. Love, Sister Bunker Picture: The Bayview District, plus the Zone Leaders, plus the assistants. Previous Letter Next Letter

1aa2efb4-ac39-4293-a352-90055254c293 Sister Alyson Cook Back to Missionary Letters The first half of my mission was spent doing normal missionary work. I was knocking on doors, I was talking to people on the streets, and teaching in peoples homes. When I came back out the second time, the new normal became calling formers, messaging people on facebook, and teaching online or over the phone. It was quite the transition, and it definitely took time to get the hang of, but for me personally and compared to the rest of my mission, I was the busiest in isolation. There's a lot of factors that go into being 'busy' as a missionary (like the area, people in the area, ect) but I can say with only gratitude in my heart that the reason I was so busy was because the Lord was hand preparing people to receive the Gospel. It may have taken something big like a [insert whichever 2020 crisis you would like to cite] to make it happen, but He made it happen if it meant that just one person would benefit from it. Hello everyone! Its been a while. for that, I am sorry. But! I have a good reason. We were just so incredibly blessed in the area where I served that we were just so busy with the work so writing my weekly fell by the wayside. So I wanted to send one last email to all of you to update you on what went on the last couple months. I am currently sitting at home in Bunkerville Nevada, and have completed my mission. So I guess this is an update and a wrap up. I guess the first thing I want you all (Yinz) to know is how aware the Lord is of all of us, and is willing to cause all sorts of ruckus if it means our wellbeing is accomplished. I saw this in my own personal life, in the lives of those I've taught, and predominantly in the recent case of this Covid pandemic. I was able to witness significant miracles almost daily, reaffirming my testimony on the matter. The first half of my mission was spent doing normal missionary work. I was knocking on doors, I was talking to people on the streets, and teaching in peoples homes. When I came back out the second time, the new normal became calling formers, messaging people on facebook, and teaching online or over the phone. It was quite the transition, and it definitely took time to get the hang of, but for me personally and compared to the rest of my mission, I was the busiest in isolation. There's a lot of factors that go into being 'busy' as a missionary (like the area, people in the area, etc) but I can say with only gratitude in my heart that the reason I was so busy was because the Lord was hand preparing people to receive the Gospel. It may have taken something big like a [insert whichever 2020 crisis you would like to cite] to make it happen, but He made it happen if it meant that just one person would benefit from it. Amazingly, I had a lot of 'one persons' come into my life. I'd like to take a moment to talk about a couple of them. For the sake of the length of this email, Ill assume you all read my past weeklies and are aware of all the magnificent people that I met 5 months ago and will just include the new to you peeps. Anita. You may have heard of her, she has been fantastic since day one we called her. I have some great news! She was baptized on October 17th! Her testimony grew like a wildfire, and she shares it with us any chance she gets. Her story is an interesting one. She sat next to a return missionary on the plane and learned about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She thought it was interesting, and took her card and forgot about it. Well, covid happened, and Anita was really hit hard by it all. Then one day, she was scrolling on facebook, and saw a post about our church. Everything she heard came flooding back. She reached out to us and we talked 3 times a week until she was baptized. Her favorite point about the gospel is the fact that God talks through prophets in days of old as well as today. The circumstances of her finding the light of the gospel were specifically tailored to her by God, and each domino was meticulously placed. The cool thing about Anita, is that although I taught her for close to 6 months, I only ever saw her in person twice. Once when we accidentally ran into her while dropping off a Book of Mormon for her and then on her actual baptism day. Jimmy (not actual name) is another person who comes to mind. He has been through a lot in his life, and moved to Pittsburgh as a new start to get closer to his children. Well, covid turned his life upside down. His once prestigious job offer was withdrawn upon arrival in Pittsburgh. He was left desolate, his kids he moved back for refrained from contacting him, he was at a pretty low point. Like Anita, one day he was scrolling on Facebook and came across a post from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In his own words, He said that the post "radiated light and love" so he clicked on it. Jimmy later was baptized on October 3rd. His life was filled with a sense of hope and joy he didn't have before. Although some things have improved in his life, He attributes the blessings to come from God. He has always been an amazing example of faith to me! Never did he turn his back on God. In fact, his first instinct when things got hard was to turn to God with full purpose of heart. Which is how we were able to get in contact with him in the first place. There are so many more people that are currently being taught, but this is getting lengthy. Just know that there were so many people that we were able to come in contact with that were such precious souls of our Father in Heaven. If you were to ask me what my favorite part of missionary work is the first part of my mission, I would probably say something cliche like 'the people' or something like that. Now, I have a better answer. My favorite part is watching someone's eyes the moment that the Gospel made some sort of impact in their soul. That moment where something clicks inside of them. You can watch it as it happens! Their eyes sparkle, and they sit a little straighter. If that moment happened away from us missionaries (which it often did) there was no need to worry. The residual sparkle was just as good. What that sparkle meant is that they were starting to gain a testimony and grasp the marvelous concept of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the beginning notes of the song referenced in Alma 5, when the prophet Alma described the effects that feeling the Saviors Redeeming Love can have in our life. (verse 26) These moments mean so much, because I have felt to sing the song of redeeming love many times over the last 2 years. My life has changed in ways I've never thought possible. I was overwhelmed by the grace that my Savior has shown me. I understand more the plan that my Father in Heaven has for me- and for all of us for that matter. I know the purpose of this life we have on earth. I recognize the love that my Father in Heaven has for me, and just how far He was and is willing to go for me. I know that Christ is my Savior, and has paid the ultimate price for me. He has suffered complete and utter anguish on my behalf. Knowing all these thing causes my heart to sing, and the only thing better than that feeling was hearing others start singing the same melody that you are. I love you all! Thank you for joining me on this crazy adventure of mine. Please reach out to me either on this email, alyson.p.cook@gmail.com , on facebook, on messenger, heck whatever platform you like! The invitation is to everyone. I would love to talk with you!! Love Sister Alyson Cook Previous Letter Next Letter