Monday, April 16, 2018

April 16, 2018. Transfers from Bellingham to Oak Harbor, Widbey Island









 Transfers with sister Lund, Murdock, Porter, Me. Sister Lund and Porter were mtc companions and sister Murdock and I were mtc companions and they were both our trainers! 
 Coming into the Town of Oak Harbor 
 Sister Nordstrom and I




 This was a very expensive painting that I just took a picture of haha. That is mount Baker in the back
 Ze in his new Mercedes Benz!
 Our ward mission leader Aaron on top, Aaron Johanason in the middle, he just got back from his mission in Colorado springs about a months ago and Jacob Meaker, Aaron's older brother.
 Went to schuh Farms today after seeing the tulips again in the rain and they sell fresh baked pie's and Brother Ray bought us a Marion Berry pie! it was so good. I bought this Tayberry Jam, it is somewhere between a blackberry and raspberry!
 Went to the Tulips this Morning, was real wet.

 Sister Harris and I
Coree, and Ze with one of his Cats named Greg haha

My Second Area: Oak Harbor!! (the island)

Well, This past week has been crazy! We had transfers this Wednesday, it was so great though because it's like a big missionary reunion and I got to see Sister Porter!! 
Well, Before transfers, on Monday, we went to the Tulip Festival down in Mount Vernon with our friends Alex, Tawny, and Charlotte! It was so fun. we went to Parana afterwards:)

Tuesday was great, we had a lot of lessons and people to see before I left. We had a lesson with Charlotte and finished teaching her the commandments. She is almost done with the lessons and is going to be baptized on May 5th! I am so excited for her. Aaron (our ward mission leader) took us out to Olive Garden and we shared this 1 pound meatball with 2 huge stuffed noodles. Then we had a lesson with Ze and Coree, our other investigator and Alex came with us! Ze has been saying how he wants to adopt a cat, and so he surprised us on my last day and he adopted two cats! He is so cute!
We had a great lesson with him, and Coree shared so much about how he has come to know of the truthfulness of the BOM. They are best friends haha.

Transfers!
My new companion is Sister Harris and this is her 3rd transfer! We are in the Oak Harbor 2nd ward! It is a really big military town and there are always military planes flying! To get onto the Island you can take a ferry, which is expensive, or you cross deception pass, which is a super huge bridge (look it up). Our Ward mission leader is so amazing!! He does so much for us. I love this ward so much already! This area is doing so well. They have hit standards every week other than two weeks since sister Harris has been here. We have already met so many amazing people! 
There is this really amazing family that we are teaching named the O'Hara's. The parents got baptized on saint Patrick's day, the three kids, who are 12, 14, and 16 were going to be baptized this past Saturday, but there dad just went on deployment to Keaton NV and wants to be there. So they will be baptized on May 12th! They are the coolest family you would ever know! They drove down with another amazing family in our ward, the Marriott's to Utah and went to Conference and went to Temple square! We are teaching such great people.

I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve in this area, I know the Lord puts us where we need to be, and I already feel at home here. I am so grateful for this gospel and how much it blesses families. I know that this is God's work and that we all can be apart of it as we strive to be examples to those around us and invite others to come experience what we know to be true. I love you all, I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Sister Stokes