Sister Juliann Eldridge: Animals and pretty views‏

Pretty good week! We saw a lot of beautifulness and met a lot of animals this week. Such is life in Maple Valley. I can't believe I've been in Maple Valley for 3 months now. It feels like I've been here for much longer!

Well, the big, giant, sad highlight of the week is that Russell, our only investigator, who is super solid and progressing and on the road to baptism... Dropped us this week. Pretty hardcore. After having an excellent lesson with him in a member's home, in which he made a plan to quit smoking and overcome obstacles to baptism, he texted us a few days later and said he is taking an "indefinite break" from the church. We have no idea why. We asked if we could meet again to discuss it, but he said "no meeting, and don't just drop by either." We are heart broken! Worst break up ever! As sad as it is, since we know he knows it is true, I feel at peace somehow... I know that we did what we could have done as missionaries. And what we can do now is continue to pray. He is on his own journey of conversion. That's something that's hard to realize as missionaries. That even if we do our part, and do it well, following the spirit exactly, the investigator still has their agency and are on their path to figuring this all out. There are many stories of people who investigate for years and years before their truly come to realize and know for themselves (or even find the humility) that what the missionaries have been telling them is true. And I know it's true. It absolutely is. No one can change the truth of God. We hope that Russell finds his way. Until then, we will pray.

We must never give up on people. We never know what the spirit is doing to work with them or what could touch their heart. The Atonement and God's wisdom is more powerful than human grit and human wisdom. So often we forget that and do not allow that power to do its work, even in our own lives sometimes.

We did a considerable amount of area book work this week -- finding former or potential investigators. We found success in doing so! We set up three appointments for this week from doing so. A family, the Kim's, who we have an appointment with tonight, and two other former investigators, Nathaniel and Cindy. Cindy was so excited when we stopped by! She really wants us to come! She is the sweetest. We have high hopes that all of these appointments will go through and that we will find new people to teach. :) Since we don't have any investigators! Haha! But, you know, we have much work to do in the ward, even if we don't have new people to teach the gospel, too. We are working with less actives and they are progressing! Really! One of them is getting their patriarchal blessing on Tuesday! Ahhh yeahhh! And the other, Beth (who I LOOVE!) asked us to start giving her the new member lessons! Miracle! So we are doing that now. We are going to start working even harder to work in unity with the Bishop because one of our responsibilities as missionaries is to lift where we stand -- to build up the ward where we are. If we all increase our testimonies of the Atonement, our desire to share the gospel increases. Some members just honestly don't realize that missionary work is most effective when missionaries and members work together. That's how it is meant to be. I just didn't even get that before my mission. At all. It's a joint effort! We are all enlisted in the work of salvation. Some of us are just devoting 24/7, 100% of our time to it for 18-24 months. We know it's exhausting and scary! We do it all day every day! So any help is great for us missionaries. :) #soapbox

SO WE SAW SO MUCH WILDLIFE THIS WEEK. This lady we stopped by to see that is super kind (albeit un-interested in lessons), has 2 miniature deer... and I got to feed them! They were sooo cute! And then, we saw a snake in the road the same day. Then, on the property we live on, literally like 10 feet from us, we saw 4 deer. Right in the planter. It was incredible. I got terrible pictures, because it was dark, but. Look! Annnnd, we had such an incredible view (which is actually pretty normal, but it was a pretty day) from tracting the other day. Seriously, this is like my normal life here in Maple Valley.

We had ZONE CONFERENCE on Friday! It was soooo good! It was about repentance. About how repentance is not just a "check list" of things to be forgiven of, though that is definitely part of it all. It is change. It requires clean hands (our actions) AND a pure heart (our thoughts/intentions/desires/etc). This life isn't just about getting back to Heavenly Father, or else why did we ever leave? It's about changing our very natures and becoming like Him and His Son (paraphrased from D. Todd Christofferson). What are we becoming? A good way to measure this is to look at what direction our faith is taking us. Repentance is a positive thing. It is an opportunity for us to utilize the Atonement, which is the Plan. The Savior IS the plan. Come unto Him. He wants to help us. He can alleviate all guilt, all heartbreak, all hurt, all sin. May we all take a personal inventory and identify if our choices are taking us closer or farther away from the Savior and becoming like Heavenly Father. It helps me to remember that Heavenly Father promises us wealth untold; something greater than anything we could possibly imagine in this life. Repentance is the price. And it's not repentance that gets us salvation -- it is the grace of the Savior's Atonement. I'm super grateful for repentance! Because I need it. And I am grateful for the Sacrament that cleanses me weekly and brings the spirit into my life more fully each week. These gifts are vital for our salvation. To not use them would be a hindrance to our eternal progression. More happiness awaits by living the gospel than by anything we could do ourselves. The gospel will always and forever be the thing that people think are "missing" from their lives. It is the love of God and living the Savior's gospel! And it is available for all, not matter who. God loves all of His children, not just the "righteous". He can only invite, though. It's up to us to claim the blessings He wants and is ready to give us.

On a non-repentance related note...funniest story of all time on the way to Zone Conference...

So, I made a green smoothie and put it in a mason jar. I brought it with me in the car to drink on the way there. I stuck it in the cup holder for just a minute while I was getting situated and did a few things before getting ready to leave (can you see where this is going?). Well, we sit down and get ready to leave and the music is playing all peacefully and we feel the spirit and, "ah, yes, time for zone conference, this is good." ...And not 2 seconds later, Sister Stewart takes a right turn and.... "AHHHH! IT'S COOOOOOLD!" My green smoothie spilled ALL OVER SISTER STEWART'S SEAT! EVERYWHERE! There was green everywhere! And it was COLD! In not so happy places! Hahahah! We frantically drove back to the house (we weren't even out of the property yet, it's like .1 mile to the gate) and screamed and ran upstairs and got towels and I was freaking out because I needed to be there early to play prelude because I was asked to play piano and I was like "We're gonna be late!!" and it was just chaos. All before 9am. Hahahaha. It was just the funniest ever... So we cleaned it up best we could and zoomed to conference and actually got there on time, somehow. Haha. Yup. Leave it to Sister Eldridge to get green smoothie all over her comp. Classic. There's a picture of her poor skirt. Hahaaaaa...

Oh, and I had a great birthday! I had 3 birthday cakes throughout the week, plus cupcakes from Bishop's family! They were so sweet! We showed up for our Bishop's meeting Thursday night and when they opened the door, they surprised me!! They starting singing Happy Birthday and had cupcakes with lit candles on the table!! They are soooo sweeeeeet!!! It made me so happy! :) So I had 3 sets of candles to blow out on my birthday. Thanks for the funfetti cake, mom! I made it and put the candles on. :) You are the sweetest! Loved all the birthday goodies! Tell your YW thank you for the card! :) I felt very loved this week! We had dinner at the Holt's on my bday and she made me a chocolate cake! And the Roxtrom's made me a strawberry cake. SO MUCH CAKE OH MAN. Need a sugar break... :) So, yup. Who would have thought that on my 25th birthday I'd be on a mission in Washington? I certainly NEVER thought I would be... But here I am! A missionary! And at Zone Conf they sang to all the May/June birthdays and they let us choose a present from a basket. I got this legit temple recommend holder with Mt. Ranier on it and the mission name. :) One of a kind!

Well, hope you all have a wonderful week. The rain has returned here and it's pretty coooold!

Love you all. :)

Love,

Sister Eldridge

I FORGOT ONE MORE MIRACLE STORY!

Woah woah woah!

So on Saturday, we had a pretty crummy day. We walked for hours and talked to maybe 3 people and didn't really do much of anything, we thought. It was raining and cold. Just an eh day. But, first miracle, just as we were discouraged and about to take dinner early at 4:30, one of our FAVORITE members, the Vach's, called us and asked if we had a dinner appointment and we said we didn't and then they invited us over for taco soup! They saved the day!

That's not the greatest miracle, though. It's what happened later. At 8:40, we decided to do phone contacting, where we just called random numbers in our phones of old investigators or potentials and try to find someone that way. It was interesting because we both had the prompting earlier in the day that we needed to do phone contacting. So Sister Stewart scrolls down in the phone and comes across the name "Dianna". We thought, why not, let's call her.

So we call her and she seems nice and we ask if she met with the missionaries and she says, "yes." and she asks, "Where are you calling from?" And we say, "Washington..." and she goes, "Ah! I moved to California." And we were like ah okay so she moved, oh well, next person. But then, Sister Stewart asks, "Did you find missionaries in California?" And she goes, "I have been trying to! I have been searching for them for a long time and can't seem to find them! I went to the church and there is no one there and I just can't find the missionaries! I want to!" And we were like what! Oh my goodness!

And she says,

"It is a miracle you called... I have been praying for someone. I am just so alone right now and then you just called me! I am struggling with bone cancer and I feel like I'm fighting it alone..."

Oh. My. Gosh. It was a miracle. MIRACLE! She was so grateful we called her and it was seriously an answer to her prayer. We felt the spirit fill the car. It was INCREDIBLE! We immediately said we will send the missionaries to her and we got her address and such. It was even more a miracle because she has a California number now, but her Washington number is forwarded to her new number. Or else we would have never found her! Those missionaries in Bell Gardens California are about to get THE golden referral! Dianna was just so sweet. She kept thanking us for calling and she started crying and then at the end of the call, she asked if we could pray with her, and she said the sweetest prayer, thanking Heavenly Father for sending us to her.

You guys. It doesn't matter that Dianna is in our area or not. We helped her. The missionaries are going to find her now. Her life is going to change. All because we made a simple phone call. All because we followed the spirit. It is amazing.

This work is amazing. It's moments like this that make me go, "This is why I'm here. It's for people like Dianna."

JUST HAD TO TELL YOU ALL THIS!

OKAY LOVE YOU ALL!

BYE!