New companion and the work is going forth!‏

What a week! So this is what a new transfer feels like. It's pretty AMAZING so far.

My new companion Sister Stewart is just literally the BEST! I love her so much already and we connected immediately. There's been a lot of changes, though! For instance, I don't drive anymore! I'm co-pilot which means I have to do all the backing up outside the car now, ha! She's the senior comp so she drives. She's 22, from Vernal, Utah, and a Vet Tech graduate! So cool! AND EVEN COOLER, she was my MTC Comp's trainer. So she was with Sister McClellan last transfer. Now she knows both of us! She said she's the luckiest missionary in the mission to get both of us back to back as companions haha. So now Sister Stewart is my follow up trainer and I am learning a TON. She is great at talking to people and keeping the gospel so simple and straight forward. The work is going forth so fast now that she is here; it's amazing. We have seen a lot of miracles already. 

One day, we just had one miracle after another. First, we were going to see a potential named Jake. We weren't sure what was going to happen, but it was super weird, every time I went to talk about Jake, the name "Russell" would accidentally come out. Even when I was praying before going to the lesson! I would accidentally say Russell! Now, Russell is another potential we tried to set an appt with a few weeks ago, who was a media referral from a few years ago that said he is ready to have God in his life now that he is getting clean from his addictions. Super cool! Except he didn't show up to his appt and we were sad and didn't have his # and couldn't get in touch again... But I knew we needed to keep trying. So anwyay, we're going to Jake's, but I kept feeling like we needed to go see Russell. We go to Jake's and he's not home, so I know for sure we HAVE to go see Russell. And we drive all the way there and BAM, he's just pulled up to his house and we catch him!!! And he apologizes for not being home last time, honestly forgetting he had another appt and we immediately set up a new appt! And got his # this time. He had a friend there too that was interested that might come to the lesson, too! MIRACLE! Finally got an appt with him! It's this tuesday and we hope it happens this time! 

Next, we felt prompted to go see a less-active who has goats and Sister Stewart loves goats cuz she's a farm girl that has goats at her house in Utah so that made her happy. But, while we were there, we got a text from a member, Sister Hawken, that asked us to drop off invitations for the ward's Easter activity the next day at a former investigator's house that is starting to get interested in studying again. We said sure! But then she said, "actually she's at my house if you want to come her!" We happened to be literally right around the corner from her house... And so we did! And we saw this investigator we have also been trying to get in touch with forever! It worked out so perfectly... Miracle! And even more of a miracle, we got to watch the #Hallelujah video with her at Sister Hawken's and leave with a prayer, and it was so powerful. Then, Sister Hawken invited her to our dinner appointment we have with the Sister Hawken on Wednesday. Ahhh so awesome! So we might actually get a real lesson with her! Woo! It was a miracle. 

Want to know the greatest miracle of that day? We went to Randy's after that with a mission in mind... to encourage him to "bury his weapons of rebellion" (referring to the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's) and get rid of what was holding him back from his baptism (namely, certain magazines). And HE DID IT. He simply left the doorway with the trashbag we brought, put them in there, and BAM, they were GONE! MIRACLE! He was initially not wanting to change at all and not interested in getting baptized anymore because of it. But, he changed. The magazines are gone and in the TRASH! YEAH! That's faith right there. Things are progressing with Randy and we are in touch with his daughter to FOR SURE get a date that works for his family to be at his baptism and she is all for supporting him in his new faith and helping him live it (how legit is that? missionary opportunities for her now!). 

Sister Stewart and I have decided that if we strive to be exactly obedient, that we will see blessings and miracles. And we so have! The hardest way it has been to be exactly obedient this week is we only have 50 miles left for the car for the rest of the month and this area is HUGE and it's a normal day to go drive 30 miles a day. So it has been TOUGH, but we have just been getting rides and parking and walking a LOT and using our bikes. We are trying our very best not to go over on miles and be exactly obedient! It takes sacrifice, but the Lord always blesses us for sacrifice. I love working together with Sister Stewart! She is so solid! We have been seeing success. And we are having fun!

Easte Sunday was lovely. I played I Believe In Christ on violin with Sister Vach on piano and it was incredible... the spirit was so strong and I was SO grateful to share my testimony through music. It's the best way I know how. The ward was all in tears... I love music so much! We had Easter dinner at the Toomey's house and it was the BEST! That family is so dang funny, I love them! Sister Toomey is the YW president and is awesome. She has 3 boys and they are hilarious. Brother Toomey said something SO FUNNY! He was telling us he shared the #Hallelujah video on facebook with his testimony (yes!) and he goes, "Yeah that video is great! Pound Hallelujah!" And I said..."Pound Hallelujah??? You mean, hashtag???" HAHAHA! He goes "In my day # is called pound!!!" Oh my gosh we all died laughing! POUND HALLELUJAH! :) They made our day and even made our night better, because Sister Stewart and I had a TOUGH evening of nothing happening even though we tried so many people. We did however, meet a less-active that said we can come back in two weeks! But we were bummed and cold and we were walking around in icy rain and it was hard. But then Sister Toomey texted and said, "Come back you forgot your Easter treats!" Ahhh little tender mercies...She gave us homemade filled chocolate eggs of all flavors. It was just what we needed after a long day. 

The Lord loves us. The Savior lives. He suffered, he bore the burdens, and he overcame them, even death. Death is not the end. We will all live again. Everyone! What a gift! 

I am doing well now. All adjusted into missionary life. We'll see what happens this second transfer! Wow, time goes fast. I've been out for 2 months already. 

Take care, all! 

Love,

Sister Eldridge

PS: PICSSS! Sister Loeak and I at transfers. Our last pics together! 

And Sister Stewart and I after a tough Sunday night, but we got eggs!!! 

Sister Juliann Marie Eldridge
Washington Federal Way Mission
23175 224th PI SE Ste E
Maple Valley, WA 98038
United States

TRANSFERS

Wow. My very first transfer of the mission is over?!?! That's insane. 7 weeks already. That went so fast. And I still don't know what's going on most of the time! Haha. Just kidding. I know what's going on like....10% of the time...

FIRST OF ALL: Thank you SO MUCH FOR THE BOX! I LOVE the MCO CD and I listen to it like every day. I am in love with it. Can someone find out what time signature "Alleluia" is in because I've been trying to dictate it in my head and I feel like it could be in 7/8 but I could be way off (my mind just keeps going 1-2,1-2,1-2-3 and I've been conducting it in 3). HAHA MUSIC NERD MUCH?!?! Anyway, thanks for everything! Loved the Easter card! And the Robin Eggs! AND THE FLASHDRIVE! Thanks Adam! And everything.That box made my day. Thank you thank you thaaank you! <3

Gosh, I feel like it's been forever since I've written since P-Day is on Tuesday this week with transfers and all. SISTER LOEAK IS GETTING TRANSFERED! :( But it's all good, cause she's gonna be a Sister Training Leader in Renton, which is like, right next to Maple Valley, so that means when we do exchanges I'll see her. I'm staying in Maple Valley another transfer (mixed feelings) and my new companion is Sister Stewart! She trained my MTC companion, Sister McClellan, and I've met her. She's super solid. I hope she brings big changes to Maple Valley, cause the work is kinda slow right now! (In terms of finding new investigators.) So, huge changes ahead. I am nervous for a new comp, but ready to learn from a new perspective and new missionary. It'll be a positive change. But change is change and change is hard sometimes. But it's good. Ya know. 

So quick update on Bro Work. He is working through some stuff right now he needs to resolve before he can be baptized, but he still wants to! He is so immersed in the ward already, it's awesome. He stood at the door and helped greet and give out programs on Sunday. He goes to all 3 hours and reads the Book of Mormon and does all the homework we give him. He is doing all the things he should, he just has a little hiccup. But, we have high hopes for him. His daughter is on board. It's all up to Bro Work. Sometimes we find commandments we don't understand or see why we need to follow. In that case, faith needs to kick in and we just need to be obedient, trusting that God will bless us for our sacrifice and compliance to His laws. His ways are just. Anyway, we are working towards a date in April. Fingers crossed! 

We have a couple other investigators, but not too many. We really need more. However, we are doing service for Bishop's next door neighbor this week, who apparently Bishop has been trying to have over for the lessons forever. We just happened to start talking to her while she was doing yard work and she's super nice! We hope to be able to teach her in the close future. It was a miracle for us to get an appointment after Bishop trying for so long. But, sometimes things just work out at the right time and place. Her heart was ready this time! So cool. Little miracles like this happen all the time on the mission but I sometimes don't even realize they are little miracles til later and I go, "waaaiiittt...." Haha. God is so real. Believe in God. Believe that He is. (Mosiah 4:9)

I went on my FIRST exchange this week! I went over to Renton and was with Sister Bailey. I learned sooooo much! She is the personification of charity. She just loves everyone and beams in the work. It was such a good example for me! She talks to EVERYONE! Even people working on a roof that obviously can't really talk. She just emitted love and charity. It inspired me so much. Sometimes charity is hard for me, especially with people I've never even met before. But, from her example, I left beaming and carrying a little more charity with me than I had before. :) There's a picture of all 4 of us after the exchange was over! Sister Bailey is the blonde one. Sister Goodman is the other Sister Training Leader. She just went home!!! She was a great missionary. 

We had an amazing training this week about Personal/Comp Study. Basically, it revolved around the importance of the Book of Mormon. President and Sister Eaton exhorted us with all energy of heart to always, always, always read the Book of Mormon, every day, every day, every day. It is the #1 to stay on the path and the #1 way to fall away if you stop reading. It is the KEYSTONE! We just feast upon the words. The Book of Mormon is the manual to life. Everyone always says, "There's not an instruction manual to life, you just gotta figure it out." Meh. I don't buy it. The Book of Mormon is TOTALLY the instruction manual for life. It is the blueprint, the rule book, the advice book, the book that contains the secrets to salvation. The key to happiness! However, as King Benjamin tells us in Mosiah 4, after we believe all we do, we must ACT! The Book of Mormon tells us a lot of things, but the second it starts working in your life is when you WORK. When you ACT on what it says in there! Right now, I am working on acting on this scripture: 

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

This scripture. Is. Amazing. It's the essence of the gospel in one verse. I've been ponder submissiveness lately. And temperance. And self-mastery. It's all interrelated. And all made possible through the Atonement. Isn't it amazing to have a knowledge of this Infinite Atonement? That we can change our very natures? Change our bad habits? Become saints? I AM SO GRATEFUL! It, indeed, makes me want to scream, HALLELUJAH! 

SO here's some pictures. Our area is super rural. So, we run into animals and stuff all the time. Like this horse. :) 

WHILE I WAS ON EXCHANGE IN RENTON, we met this man named Willie who volunteers for a food bank and because of that brings home a TON OF EXTRA FOOD! And while he wasn't interested in the gospel, he gave us an ENTIRE BOX OF FRUIT! It was a HUGE tender mercy because we didn't have time to go shopping on P-Day so we have zero food. Oh my gosh. And you know how much I love fruits and veggies. I couldn't help but just smile and laugh about it. LOOK AT IT ALL! Thanks, Willie, random, kind stranger!! :D

So one last cool this is that Sister Loeak got her Young Women's In Excellence award/medallion for the FIRST TIME this weekend! She worked on it for a year on her mission and JUST FINISHED! It was way cool, Bishop presented it to her in Sacrament. She never did it because back home in the Marshall Island they just don't do Personal Progress cause they don't know how. It's not really translated into Marshallese. So now she is going to take what she has learned and done back home and help the Young Women there. SO COOL! I'm happy for her. :) She would ask me questions about my personal progress and man, I just  couldn't remember haha. It's been sooo long! 

ALSO: MOM! GUESS WHAT! I got asked to play violin in the next Missionary Devotional that's once a month! And guess what I get to play? Yup. Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. The same arrangement I played in Stake Conf years ago. YUP! I'm pretty pumped!!! That'll be April 17 or something like that. So excited! YAY! And since I'm staying in the same ward, I already have a violin I can borrow. I think I am also playing an Easter song this Sunday in Sacrament for Easter in the ward! Cool cool. I love being able to use my talents. 
Welp, here's to transfer #2 on my mission. That's just crazy! Transfers happen at 2pm today. Sad to see Sister Loeak go! But I'll see her around. This is her LAST transfer!

Take care,

Sister Eldridge
Also, here's some fun pictures from a service project on saturday! We worked on a baseball field in Kent. I love other missionaries!!!

Sister Juliann Marie Eldridge
Washington Federal Way Mission
23175 224th PI SE Ste E
Maple Valley, WA 98038
United States

HAPPY BDAY MOMMM! Week 6 update

FIRST OF ALL, HAPPY BDAY TO MY MOMMAHHHH! On Wednesday! I am glad you got my card! :) I love you!

Hi, everybody. This past week was a wayyy good one! Albeit, the work was slow, but I am doing much better emotionally and physically. I am feeling more adjusted! It's amazing how just a few days can make such a difference. 

We took Randy to the Family History Discovery Center and the Seattle Temple this week!!! Since he's on date to be baptized, we had permission to go (since it's out of our mission). It was SO COOL! The Discovery Center is super high tech and amazing. You're given an iPad when you walk in and you log into your family search account and then you connect the iPad to all sorts of different gadgets and things to tell you about your family history! So high tech! Apparently this is a pilot thing the church is doing, as this is the only Discovery Center outside of Salt Lake right now. It's SO cool! I attached some pictures from it! 

And I got to see the temple! Oh my gosh... The Seattle temple is just breathtaking. I just couldn't believe. Sooooo pretty. I wanted to go inside so bad! I hope I will get the opportunity to come do a session some time throughout my mission. It'll be up to the new mission president how often we go, but the missionaries already went for this year in January. There's some pictures from that, too!! Randy thought the temple was incredible, too. Just amazing. 

The work is pretty slow in Maple Valley, we haven't found any new investigators. We thought we had one that was totally willing to learn, but when we went to the appointment, he wasn't home. :( We are trying hard to work through members right now, too, as that is a huge part! There are some great potential referrals from members, but the work is still pretty slow there, too. Just can't give up. Actually, Sister Loeak and I have decided to "white wash" this area starting today. Meaning, we're just gonna clean up the area and knock on literally every single door in the entire area. Spring cleaning at its finest. Haha. We'll see how it goes! We'll start at one side of the map and make our way to the other. 

Some other news around here is they split our stake (Maple Valley) and created an entire new stake (Enumclaw). It's pretty historic! We had two members of the 70 at our stake conference Saturday and Sunday. Which was incredible. I received so much revelation at that conference. One of it being that doing the Lord's will is hard sometimes, but it's always better. We may have completely amazing and righteous desires that we are going after that are really good things to ask and pray for and work towards. We may feel really good about them, too! But, if the Lord has a different plan for us, He will divert our path (much to our dismay). He has something much better in mind. But, we don't always see it that way. We may see it as he is taking something away from us. We may be confused and think he withholding blessings from us. But, if we truly understand the nature and purpose of God (which is to make us happy and lead us on the path that leads to becoming like Him and return to Him), we know that He isn't withholding anything, but is leading us towards something even greater than we had in mind in the first place. This doesn't mean his path is easy. Not at all. But it's always, always better. It's for our eternal well-being and salvation. Think of it, He loves us enough to redirect us when necessary to ensure the greatest happiness for us. He sees the big picture. He is all knowing. We have but a small, short perspective. We are selfish, too, and want what we want! Perhaps the hardest thing to do in this life is to trust God completely and giving our life completely over to Him (for it is not our life to begin with, anyway). And when we find that his path his harder than the plan we thought we had, that's actually good. That means we're growing. And, you know what else? That's why we have the Savior. We have the enabling and healing power of the Atonement to carry us through the hard and every moment in between. And when we divert the path, the Atonement is the ticket back. It's really an amazing, perfect plan God has created for us. Eternal perspective is key. And, if we are bitter and think God took away blessings we were so close to having, He WILL repay us for the sacrifice and WILL grant us all blessings we desire. It's just in HIS timing. That's also hard. Trusting in God's timing. But, perhaps we just have a little more to learn before we're even ready for the blessings we so desire so much. Remember, He only does things that are for our good and that will make us happiest, if we will only just follow Him. :) 

Trust God. Trust Jesus Christ. He will carry you. The Atonement isn't just the light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light leading us through the tunnel. 

So something funny that happened yesterday was there was a huge wind storm that knocked the power out, but it came back up quickly because of the generator. However, when Sister Loeak and I went to go out to work, we couldn't leave because since the power went out, the electric gate for the property wouldn't open hahahah! The power outage messed it up and we were literally stuck. It was so funny, but frustrating too, because we had things to do! Eventually we just got a member to come get us for our dinner appointment, because we couldn't get ahold of anyone to figure out the gate, haha. It was just silly... :) 

The new Easter video is our for the church! It's soooo amazing! Make sure and watch it, but don't just watch it, SHARE IT! On facebook is easiest. It's at followhim.mormon.org. #Hallelujah! (Note: It's pretty cool that they're quoting the messiah for the holiday it was actually intended/written for. Haha. BUT BESIDES THE POINT.)

Oh, so quick update on Randy... Might need to push off his baptism because we have been in touch with his daughter and she can't make the 19th and she really wants to be there, so we are trying to make a date that works for everyone. Also, some interesting info has come to light. She emailed us and informed us that Randy actually has Alzheimer's and is concerned  whether or not Randy actually understand what he is doing and the decision he is making. We honestly didn't know! But to her, she can't seem to get a real reason from him why he wants to get baptized because he can't explain himself well. It's tricky. We know he has had such a change in his heart and has felt the spirit and knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he struggles with answering things because of his memory. Explaining this to his daughter is tough. But, the good new is she is SUPER supportive of him finding a new faith. She just wants to make sure he really knows what he's doing... Valid concern! She'll be speaking to bishop soon, too, to discuss it. We have done all we can from our end, so now we just pray a lot... Haha. Kinda a weird situation. Prayers, please! 

Mkay, well, til next week! 

-Sister Eldridge

PS: The group pic is my zone. Solid missionaries! However, my zone is different now since the stake split! This was the Maple Valley zone, but now I am in the Kent Zone. The other pic with all the papers is when Sister Loeak decided to go through ALL her old papers and throw them everywhere... HAHAHA! I couldn't help but take a picture. My comp is so funny.

juliann.eldridge@myldsmail.net

Sister Juliann Marie Eldridge
Washington Federal Way Mission
23175 224th PI SE Ste E
Maple Valley, WA 98038
United States

Miracles happen every day

Well, hey hey hey, everybody. Week 5 of this transfer is over and it was probably the hardest of my mission so far, but best week, too.

First of all, Randy is COMMITTED TO BE BAPTIZED! He made a date for himself! We said sometimes with investigators we make a date with them to work towards as a goal, not to force anything on him. In this gospel, you have to do stuff, ya know? Not just think about stuff. So anyway, we told him that and he surprised us, he goes, "How about April 2? My birthday? Wait no that's too far away..." And we were like...wait....WHAAT! Oh my goodness! So we said, "What about March 12 or 19?" And he said, "March 12." The EARLIER date! Haha! So awesome! Turns out it actually has to be March 19 because we have stake conf March 12 and so he'd have to wait a week to get the Holy Ghost in sacrament meeting so that's not so bueno, so we just pushed it a week. But, wow. The change that we have seen in him is amazing. He comes to church on his own. He even made comments in sunday school. And in priesthood meeting, he BORE HIS TESTIMONY on his own! Wow wow wow. He's doing all these things all on his own (becoming an agent). We are thrilled. He said with a twinkle in his eye he is excited to be baptized, but very nervous. There's still a lot he obviously don't know, but that's the thing, you don't have to know every single thing about the church to be baptized. It's a life time journey. As long as you are developing that faith in Christ, knowing that only through Him can you make it to the celestial kingdom (and baptism is the first step to that). Soooo yeah! Full steam ahead. We are going to take him to the Family History Discovery Center this week and walk around the Seattle Temple grounds!! You can do that once people have a baptismal date. We are going to get names of his own family he can take to the temple after he is baptized. So exciting, one step closer to being with his wife for all eternity, just like he wants. :) 

You never know what the Lord is doing to work with people... I tell ya. 

So that was the greatest part of the week. Other than that, the work is prettyyyy slow. Randy is basically the only person we are working with. We are striving to work with members to help them be revved up for missionary work, as well as helping them with the people they are working with. Tracting in Maple Valley is soooo hard. I'm super humbled, because I got exactly what I wanted: I came to a rural place with beauty all around, not a big city!!! But...that makes tracting so hard... Hahaha. Not a lot of places and it feels like every single door has been knocked on. But, I need to have faith in the knowledge that the Lord IS preparing people to receive us. Sometimes putting in the tracting time is hard, though, we don't always know where to go! We pray a lot. Prayer is so important... This is HIS work and we need to do it HIS way! 

I struggled a looooooot this week, though, emotionally/physically. I was sick most the week (weird stomach thingy, idk) and it really made the work hard because I just wanted to sleep. I felt so discouraged and didn't know if I could go on. I didn't know if I could muster up the emotional energy to go out and interact with people all day. We had a lot of adversity, too, just people rude to us and a lesson going down hill and super off topic (when a lesson just goes completely the wrong way digging into unnecessary deep doctrine, I call that "orbiting kolob"... ha ha... Our lesson thursday night definitely orbited kolob and was not effective at all), and just overall feeling overwhelmed. It makes me feel selfish when I am worrying about myself and my own issues, cause it takes away from the work. But, at the same time, you gotta take care of yourself, right? The notion of forgetting yourself and going to work is a lot more complicated than it initially sounds. But, I made a decision this week, to resist the urge to go fishing. I got super caught up with things at home and the past and all that and I was more focused on that than the work, and I figured out real quick that I can't do that. So, in referring to Jesus Christ calling his apostles when he asked them to drop their nets and follow, I will do the same and not look back. We know that a few of them did look back and went right back to their old life of fishing. But, Christ asked them to follow Him. So, on a mission, I have dropped my net and am following Him, but I must also resist the urge to go fishing, whatever my "fish" may be. It's soooo hard sacrificing your will to the Lord, especially when you're just physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted. Resilience is not always the easiest. But, I know I must do it. And we all know that sacrifice is a part of living the gospel. We are asked to sacrifice all to follow Christ, to build up the church, to serve our fellow men. Essentially, we are asked to sacrifice our own will; the only sacrifice unique to ourselves that we can give to the Lord. It's just so stinkin' hard, isn't it?! But, dude, a mission is like the greatest thing I could be doing with my time! So of course I'd be willing to do anything for Him! It's just hard when you're tired. 

Ah, life. It's never going to be easy. But, hard things refine us. They help us become something. I was reading in my old Book of Mormon I brought (actually it's Jenna's copy) and it's the one I used up at school when I had a religion class at BYUI and in the margin I had written something my professor said, "We're not here just to do stuff, we're here to become something." That simple little statement reminded me of so much truth. We're sent to this earth to experience adversity, to give us a chance to choose the better part. We're here to become like the Savior, to prepare ourselves to become as Heavenly Father. It's not an easy process becoming as a god, though, is it? It's suuuuper hard. But we know why we are doing it and why it's hard. When we keep that in mind, we are more able to keep going and keep trying. But, hey, want to know the coolest part? Heavenly Father knew it would be hard, and that's why He sent the Savior. He is our constant support. We need not suppose that we are to do this whole life thing alone. We literally cannot. We NEED the Savior. Let me reiterate that. We NEED the Savior. It's not just a good idea, or something we can recommend a friend that they should try when they are having a bad day. No, the Savior's Atonement is essential for salvation. We cannot do it or make it without Him. To think we can do it on our own is selfish, because then we do not utilize the incredible gift we have been given. There is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved. It is only through Him.

It's a blessing to be celebrating the Resurrection of Christ this Easter season. I think it's so cool that my mom was baptized around Easter, so symbolic. :) May we remember that because He lived again, so will we. Not only physically, but spiritually. What will you do differently this Easter season with that in mind? 

Take care, friends and fam. 

Love, 

Sister Eldridge

ps: forgot my camera cord! no pics. :(