70 - Legacy of the Williston Sisters

Another week, another string of events to talk about!

Sisters Lewis, Awesome and Sanderson

This is us with Sister Awesome. The dress that Sister Lewis is wearing is legendary. It has come full circle.

Once upon a time, there were two sister missionaries. They were called to serve in Williston. This was the first time in a great while that sisters had served here in this land of oil workers and man camps.

These sister missionaries lived with a member family. They lived in the basement. The Member's names were Sister and Brother Awesome. One day they drove out towards Minot and a house on the side of the road caught their eye. They pulled over and found the house abandoned. They decided to explore and they found things that were left there that were still of use. They took some clothes from that abandoned place because, why not? They were abandoned.

Sister Awesome wore on of the old ragged dresses a few times. But then she put that dress in a give away basket of clothes. Well, one of the Sister Missionaries jumped right up and dug that dress out claiming it as her own!

That Sister later got transferred, as happens with missionaries. She was in time placed with a companion named Sister Lewis who really liked the dress. The sister gave it to her. Sister Lewis sewed it up a bit and wore a belt to modernize the old dress.

Sister Lewis then got transferred to Williston shortly after that companion who gave her the dress went home. She then met Sister Awesome, who commented on her dress. And so the dress has come full circle. A picture had to be taken.

Also, Brother Awesome is the king of nicknames. If he calls you by your real name, something's very wrong. 

Sister Lewis was christened with her nickname. Lyle. Reasoning: Lyle Lewis is a baptist preacher. 

My nickname is Kale. Don't ask me the reason behind that one. It was just a good name I guess.

But as much as I like the name Kale, I also like my name of Sister Sanderson. I think that will be the most culture shocking thing when I do go home, to be called my first name again!

We had a really good lesson with grizzly about the plan of salvation. Grizzly is staying with a member up in Luckenbill right now, an area where actually a lot of members live that is just takes about 15 minutes to get to, involving a stretch of dirt road and the passing the lone pumpjack.

I have always wanted to take a picture next to a pumpjack. 

But the one time we were out in the oilfield, we got busted before we had the chance! 

So this I would say is the next best thing.

Sister Lewis has been not feeling well off and on and she has needed extra sleep about every other day. 

During her sleeping, and speaking of the first sisters in Williston, 

We did some missionary snooping and figured out from other missionaries the history of the Sisters who have served in Williston and I made a transfer history board!

The legacy of Sister Gogan and Sister Aiono will live on forever! And a history of the rest of the Sisters! Sister Aiono started her mission in Williston and is now just gone home. What you see is almost two years of transfer history.

Planner for Sister Lewis

Planner for me

It was rather ironic, one of the only days that Sister Lewis was actually feeling good, I was having an off day... But I was able to make cool planners for Sister Lewis and I respectively!

Cuz in this upcoming transfer it's general conference! Woo!

Sister Lewis and I are both at the same point in out missions and, though I took this picture before I made this planners that you just saw, these are all our mission planners... 

A full collection of planners for a sister... aaaaahhhhhh.... 

Going home, why!? 

I'll be excited when I see my family. Till then, I'll be a bit sad and not wanna leave.

Elias was not able to come to church because he had a weird sore appear on his face! We asked him if he wanted a blessing, to which he replied: "Indeed." 

And when we told him the Elders would come, he sent us this text.

Haha, he's still learning. But hey! He knows the First and last names of two very important prophets!

We had a zone meeting again in Bismarck. That's right. Another one. We are making LOTS of trips there lately! The reason we needed to go this time was because we are going to be meeting as zones with a member of the seventy in September and President Hess isn't able to do interviews with the missionaries when he is here because he needs the whole time, as well as he was instructed to meet with all of us before the member of the Seventy comes. SO. We went to Bismarck again.

We stayed the night with the Minot Sisters in their apartment and then left in the morning for Bismarck. It was so pretty!

Look at how pretty the sun against lake saccaguwea (sp?) is!

We got there, and it was an awesome meeting, but one of the most awesome things was...

I got to see Sister Barrett again!!! So that was awesome.

So I think that's about it. Until next week!

69 - The Progress of the People Here

I have two weeks of stuff to tell you about since last week I just told you about Elias's baptism!

Great stuff has happened. We had a zone training meeting in Minot on Friday and we did exchanges as well right after the meeting, and we exchanged back right before the baptism, so that was kinda crazy!

Perhaps my favorite part of zone training meeting was the last training, the one that the zone leaders gave. They taught all about finding, specifically tracting, and the spirit was one of the strongest I've felt at a zone training meeting in awhile. AND THEN the closing song. Sister Clegg is so inspired for choosing it.

"Go forth with faith to tell the world

Of Jesus Christ, the Lord.

Bear witness he is God's own Son;

Proclaim his wondrous word.

Go forth with hope and courage strong

To spread the word abroad

That people of all nations

Are children of our God.

"Go forth with love to tell the world

The joy of families—

That we may be with those we love

Thru all eternity.

Go forth to serve and do your best

With no thought of reward;

Then you shall know the boundless joy

Of serving Christ, the Lord.

"Go forth with pow'r to tell the world

The gospel is restored,

That all may gain eternal life

Thru Jesus Christ, the Lord.

Go forth to preach his glorious truths

Of peace, of joy, and love,

That all who heed his holy word

May praise the Lord above."

-Hymn 263: Go Forth With Faith

This song is all about tracting! And after we had just had that training, I couldn't handle it. The waterworks started and I could only sing half the song darn it! But it's ok, the spirit is worth it. haha.

Sister Training Leader Clegg got to come to Williston with me! 

Again! 

Only this time, we were able to visit two of her favorite people during our lunch and dinner hours. 


So that was super awesome for her.

On the way to visiting one of the members though, we realized her entire street was torn up! 
What?! 
MAJOR construction. 
And it's been torn up for like, a month now. Come on construction people! 
So that was an adventure walking down that street.

Favorite moment ever though. Sister Clegg got to meet Elias before he was baptized! We had already taught him all the lessons, so we opened it up to any questions he had. It's always really funny to me that people never usually ask about doctrine when they are given the opportunity to ask any question. Instead they always ask about our missionary life! haha. So we explained the process of us getting called here and why we wanted to serve missions. lol

But then! This is the actual favorite moment. We walked out to the car and Elias showed us out like the gentleman he is. And little pre-explanation. We as missionaries, whenever we need to back up the car, need to have someone back us, to direct the traffic, even when there is absolutely no traffic or obstacles. Just one of those missionary rules. Well. Sister Clegg went to go back me and Elias told her to get in the car. And he went out into the parking lot and totally backed us!!! It made our lives!!!

Speaking of Elias, he's doing good still. Sister Lewis made him an awesome collage to give him so he can always remember his baptism!

He was so appreciative. He absolutely loved it. But he's so funny. 

He looked at the top left picture and said: "I look like a refugee boy! My hair, too long!" What?! hahaha

And I promise, he totally does smile! 

He's so serious in all his pictures.

He really liked the review lesson we did on the restoration. 

The restoration cups are such a good visual! 

I love it when people take pictures of our visuals.

Korwa holding Baby Enoch

Updates on Korwa. She's been coming to church, yay! Her husband is still out of town working. Working working, always working.

While we were on exchanges, we tried to see Korwa, because Sister Clegg brought up that it would be great to invite her to the baptism! 

SISTER CLEGG! YOU ARE A GENIUS!! 

That's exactly what she needs to help her understand what baptism really is! So we stopped by and she just was getting in the shower, so we stopped by later, no luck, and third time's a charm and she let us in, we read a scripture and told her we would get her a ride to the baptism, and it WORKED OUT AND SHE CAME!!! AAAHHHH! So awesome! And we got her a ride and she was there in church for Elias's CONFIRMATION too!!! YES! So that was super super awesome.

TXT from Korwa...missing S. Barrett

That same Sunday we learned about the Word of Wisdom in Sunday school, and she loves to follow along with whatever we are reading on her ipad. So she basically was taught the Word of Wisdom. So we went over and officially taught her the Word of Wisdom instead of our usual scripture reading, and she doesn't have a problem with it at all! Not even with tea! So awesome!

And members can be the best ever! A member who has wanted to develop a better friendship with Korwa texted us out of the blue wanting to do an FHE and invite Korwa! HOW AWESOME IS THAT! We told her about it and it wasn't for sure going to work, it depended on how fast her cousin got her home, but IT WORKED OUT!!! They picked her up, and we met there too for an awesome dinner where we has rice and alligator meat in the rice (not expecting that! It was good.) and a family night that they gave after that was very enlightening and sooooo good for Korwa. And Korwa got to hold their little baby. She is so baby hungry, but her husband is never home, so she doesn't want to have kids without him being there more regularly.

So she's doing great!

This is our Russian investigator, the one sitting, and his fellowshipper, the one standing. Vaasa and Bob, respectively. 

Bob referred us to him. It was super cool because he just called him up and he was home and we propped the door open (to obey the missionary rules) and taught him the restoration. And he really is awesome. He's a funny and very independent old man with a heavy Russian accent that refuses to speak Russian. He's set on English and always wanting to improve his English.

We had a couple really cool lessons with him. When we taught him the plan of salvation, we had a member with us and Vaasa likes to talk. 'You don't understand.' 'Believe me.' He likes to talk. But 'it is ok.' (He said those phrases a lot.) But man, he was talking about some horrible stuff that happened to his daughters and how his x wives have just used him and just super sad and he started tearing up so we started tearing up, ah! And he was then saying how he's not perfect so he deserves this misfortune! No Vaasa no! We got to testify of God's love for him and how through the atonement all that is unfair about life can be made right.

Bob is a Character!

And then, crazy lesson. We actually brought Bob with us to teach Elias, but Elias forgot about the fact that we were seeing him earlier in the day as opposed to the usual 7 or 8, so he wasn't there! But Bob said that a former investigator that we haven't taught in months because we haven't been able to track her down with all her moving etc was at his place and we were like WHAT!? We are going over there! And he totally called Vaasa up too, and we had a crazy lesson on the Book of Mormon, crazy because it was a very Russian man, and very African lady, and a very white guy all in the same room! It was super cool. We've been working with Vaasa on having him say the closing prayer at every lesson because he's very self conscious about it still and doesn't think his is a good prayer, but he is awesome, so awesome that Bob was totally crying. The spirit during that was awesome.

And then, crazy beans. There was this guy who called up randomly. He's from California, he called the bishop and he's less active so the bishop told him to call us, and he was living just in his truck, just the clothes on his back pretty much, and hadn't showered for days, but has a plan of action work wise. And the spirit didn't tell us he was a bad guy, so we referred him to the one member who is a single male who we ate that awesome steak dinner with to ask him for a shower. And as we suspected, he took him in, because he has a plan that is being executed to get his own place. Just crazy. We'll call this guy from California Grizzly, because he kinda has a grizzly bear look going on. But man, the spirit just guided this whole journey of his. He's had a rough rough life. And he's glad to be finally giving his heart to the right kind of people.

Saturday it was really stormy. Rain, wind, cold. We tried to go out and work. Didn't last long. We've actually spent a lot of time inside, Sister Lewis and I, because Sister Lewis's body has been very broken ever since she was young. She thought when she was little that it was normal for people to see the doctor every week. So we stay inside sometimes, but when we do go out, we do good awesome things. Woo!

So yeah, it's been a great two weeks! Till next Monday!

P.S. Sister Lewis and I have been nicknamed Black Hammer and White Lightning. Pretty awesome.

Interesting fish tank at one of the members.  What, BLACK Clown Fish?  Yep! And they are expensive!

68 - Elias's Journey to Baptism

"And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church," (D&C 20:37).

It all began in a humble home in Africa. Elias was always a good boy and has always believed in the goodness of God.

It was hard in Liberia. Family meant everything to Elias. But families aren't forever... His brother died most tragically and he helped bury him. He gained many insights in this time of grieving from the elders of his country, old souls with much experience. But with a body to match the soul, soon all of his elder friends had passed on as well.

This was too much for him. He needed to leave. He needed a fresh start.

So he traveled to America, landing in the same state his step aunt had a few years earlier. In Philadelphia, things were very different. But there was still a lot of death seen there. He needed to find a church.

His step aunt, who he calls his sister, told him to check out the Mormon Church. She had become a member and kept telling him the good things it had done for her and would do for him. But Elias was Catholic. So he went and found a Catholic church.

He went to mass. He shook the father's hand. He told the father that he wanted to join this church. He pointed him to a room, telling him to go and fill out a form.

He did so, and the lady that retrieved his form from him said something very strange.

"You need to pray hard."

What? Elias was confused. But, he still went to church.

After a few weeks he began to realize that he was not accepted here in this church. This church was not good. So he left. And he left the state as well.

He heard that Williston, North Dakota had work. So off he went, and he was greeted on 4th of July with fireworks. Was this what it was like every night? He could hardly believe the noise!

He remembered the words of his Sister. He would go check out the Mormon church.

He found it and walked in. He found... that is was... good. They believed all of the same things! They worshiped the same Christ! This church was very good, and very warm.

Some Elders approached him, but these elders were different from the elders in Africa. These Elders were young, and they had suits and black badges, and were very very white. The Elders talked to him, and they told him about how there were Sisters who could teach him. Elias was intrigued. He was excited about this church.

The Sisters called him and told him the appropriate time to attend service. 

Elias had his friend take him and that Sunday the 19th to church, where he met the Sisters. He was invited to stay for classes. In one class they were bearing testimonies. He felt like he should get up and speak, but he wasn't sure if he was allowed. 

As if reading his mind, the Sister next to him told him he could get up. So he did, and poured out his heart, telling his desire to join this church. 

The Sisters looked at each other. He was ready to be baptized.

The Sisters came over that night and taught him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and they decided he should be baptized on August 15th. He was so excited! 

Elias was so excited that he didn't even want to be taught in the same room as his friends because he wanted to be focused.  He wanted to be taught everything so he could answer questions if people asked him.

So the Sisters continued to meet with him, teaching him, about the word of wisdom, the temple, family history, many many things. And members of the church would always come with them. And members would be always so kind and willing to give him rides whenever they were needed. Elias was so impressed with the people in this church.

He was invited over for dinner once. What a nice family. The Sisters talked a lot about the temple after dinner.

The one of the Sisters that were teaching him for so long was getting transferred. It was sad, but he understood. 

"God knew from the beginning that you would not see the end," he told her faithfully.

But the new Sister was a good teacher too. The Sisters saw him every day the week of his baptism. They needed to finish teaching him the lessons!

But finally, 13 lessons later, it was the big day. All of his friends from church showed up. His heart was so touched. One of this Sisters, the sister that stayed, sang a beautiful song. It set the right mood for the baptism.

In their white suits, they went into the font. The brother doing the baptism was nervous. He had only been a member for two years. He had never performed a baptism before. But he uttered strongly the words of the baptismal prayer.

"Elias. Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

And by immersion, Elias was baptized. Everyone was smiling. The spirit was there so strong. And the moment was so quick, but so great in the spectrum of eternal life.

"That was fast," said the one who baptized as they stepped out of the font.

Elias changed into dry clothes and he had tears in his eyes as everyone shook his hand. He had the privilege to bear his testimony.

"My brothers and sister, I just wish that my mother and my son were here today. They would love to see and join the fellowship of this church. This discussion is much past due. I am touched. The people here. They make me feel so big. I give my life to the Lord today. I give everything to him. Thank you so much."

The day following when he was confirmed, it was said in the blessing that his son would be well and that if he just prayed then his problems of employment would be solved. What an outstanding promise.

The Sister who got here was not there for the confirmation because she was sick. But she was thinking about him, and very proud of him.

Everyone is so excited for Elias to continue on his journey. All in the church knows that this is the greatest decision he has decided to make yet in his life. And the Sister that stayed is so grateful that Heavenly Father allowed her to teach Elias all the way to baptism, the first time she'd taught someone all the way to baptism ever. What an incredible blessing.

67 - Bootin' the Gluten

So, it's happened, Sister Barrett got transferred off to Dickinson, but not before a bunch of goodbyes and definitely not before she got a picture in front of the big Williston Boomtown sign.

And not before Elder Reynolds exposed the inside of this not real baseball.

And when we both finally did get to Dickinson, then we had to wait for the other transfer train to come rolling in for a good few hours. 

So we went and got something to eat at Wendy's.

It was cool to see Sister Gray again, and to see Sister Lewis and just talk with everyone.

While we waited we played hangman.

Sister Cavu is "it" in Super Frog
/ Do You Love Your Neighbor

Then a good hour plus of Super frog, which is like signs, but with ranks like four square. The object was not to mess up so you could work your way up to super frog. I was swagdraggon for soooo long, (2nd to Super Frog) must've been thirty minutes at least, and then I became super frog for awhile! Man, it was so fun!

And we finished off with 'do you love your neighbor, which is what the picture is of.

And finnally the transfer train got there! 

And my dying wish, being as I have two transfers left, is to be in Williston with Sister Lewis for one transfer, and then to finish training Sister Gray's new greenie in Montana, Sister Severe, because Sister Gray goes home after this transfer! 

I could do it. 

It could happen.

Sister Lewis is great! We get along very well! BLESSINGS! 

Aaaand why is there no time left. Darn it. 

Well she met a lot of people, and we taught a few lessons, and we went out to eat at this Chinese place just the two of us and the guys in the booth next to us started talking to us and they are both less active members, and we got their information for the ward list, since they weren't on there, and they totally paid for us! How nice of them!

And our African investigator is totally going to be baptized on Saturday! Yaaaaaaay! This is the first time I've found someone and taught them all the way to baptism! Too bad Sister Barrett can't be there. Sad face.

And had another sweet thing happen. Super effective member referral. This old guy who gives us tons of referrals that don't always go anywhere, just called this guy up when we were standing there and he is his neighbor turns out and he's this old Russian guy (with the same exact accent as Sister Stephens and I always imitated during the second half of our companionship lol) and we taught him the restoration and he understands it pretty good and he came to church! Ah! So many investigators! We can't keep up with them all! But what a good problem to have!

But the biggest change of this week is well, where the title comes from.

That's right, Sister Lewis is gluten intolerant. She JUST confirmed it not even a month ago. She was feeling stabbed and malnourished and awful for so long and she tried cutting gluten out of her diet and she felt lots lots better. SO! This will be an experience going gluten free. It's already been an adventure, what with being out of food practically on Sunday and not being able to go to the store and calling a member that we have an awesome relationship with as far as inviting ourselves over for dinner and her setting up to feed us. So yeah!

That's all I have time for! Till next week!

P.S. This is SIster Lewis, smashing a rock.

P.P.S.  The young women kidnapped George... lol

66 - Rockin' the Bakken

Holy cow this has been an awesome transfer. This transfer we taught 84 lessons total. That's the most lessons in a transfer I've ever taught ever! The Bakken is rockin'! In other words, this North Dakota area of the oilfield is awesome and has just gone up and up it seems!

I think we at least had one big event every day of the week this week.

Monday.

We watched 17 Miracles on P-Day at the church on our bean bags that we both bought. It was sweet.

And we made a sweet liahona for our lesson acting out 1 Nephi 16. 

Super awesome. 

And we met a new super awesome less active with that family night!

I also got my trunky papers...

Aka, papers that you need to fill out and mail back telling the mission which airport you will be flying into, etc.

Tuesday.

We actually had to take our car into the shop. 

And. It was oddly windy. 

Like, super, duper windy.

IT WAS CRAZY WIND!
It was blowin' hair straight up and everything! 

Went to our dinner appointment and three of their shingles blew off as we were walking to the door! 

IT was insane!

And we didn't have a car! 

It was stormy all day!

So we relied on awesome members who were willing to brave the 60 mile per hour storm and give us rides.

Wednesday.

Still no car. But we finally contacted this one referral, finally caught him home, and got two new investigators! And GASP! They are actually not African! haha.

Thursday.

"Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts  of the children of men," (Alma 48:17).

Here's how the Bakken really comes in.

That's right, we totally did service in the oil field. There's a member who works at Cache Trucking. Found out lots more about the oilfield doing service!

Before getting suited up, we gathered round and had a safety meeting conducted by this member. Seriously, this was like, the oilfield version of the Mormon Battalion I feel like.

"Alright everyone. We're going to start here. Sisters! What's that scripture about Moroni, the kinda man he was!?"

"Uh, that if everyone was like Moroni the powers of hell would shake?"

"That's the one! See, Moroni, he was a guy that would get the job done, even if it made his boss mad. There was no stoppin' him! If he was doin' work in the oilfield, it would always get done! We need to be like that. Today is an A+ day. Yesterday, lets not talk about yesterday, that was a D-. Go out and do your best today! Be safe!"

So we got suited up and headed out. The pad/site/location (the land that the pump jack is on) that we went out to was inbetween Williston and Watford. Thirty minutes away. And our assignment: Clean Mud Dog. Equipment: Tisee (Or something), a heated high pressure water sprayer that can sever toes. Also, we had a cleaning brush.

You know what's funny though? We totally got busted by the head honcho safety guy. He was like, "Do you have steel toed boots?" 

"...No."

"Who authorized you to do this. You're not supposed to be cleaning on this site. We need to be keeping water off the ground. This needs to be sucked up."

"Uhhhh.....:I)

Luckily the people who were with us, the members, took care of it. So we got half the vac truck done! We got it's good side.

When we got back to the shop, he was proud of us. And he said that the apostles have told us that the recipe for failure is trying to please everyone. He said we did good.

So that was our adventure in the oilfield! We were sore for two days after the fact, that thing is hard to continue spraying!

And we got our car back! Woo!

Friday.

Well, we had district meeting. That was pretty cool I guess.

Saturday.

The Black dot on me from hitting that snow covered curb has officially faded! Now that six months has passed, I can drive again!

Sunday.

We had good Sunday. Charity and her husband came to church! Finally, yay! And our African male investigator who is on date for the 15th!

And we had a super stressful time trying to work out rides to an awesome dinner.

Ok, this couple who are new ward missionaries... are AWESOME! 

They just invite everyone over, and everyone to church and fellowship amazingly, and this sister has really taken Valorie and the kids under her wing.

I mean, look at that pizza party that they had early in the week!

Our on date African investigator was able to make it to dinner on Sunday and we got a picture with their awesome African/White mixed family!

Monday.

Transfer calls happened. Sister Barrett will be going to Dickinson. And I'm going to be companions with Sister Lewis, who I actually came out with. Though, like Sister Edwards, she was not in my district, so I don't really know her. Again, it'll be good to get to know her.

I do have pictures of her though, from Sister Gray, who is serving now with her in Rapid City.

Sister Barrett and I are very sad... But it will be ok, because it's what's best. The Lord knows.

Good things await us! Until next week!

P.S. I made a new planner cover. :-)