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| I caught my first frog!! |
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| Sis K on her year mark - lol! |
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| Us at the temple :) |
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| Us at the temple :) |
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| Missionary friends! |
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| Pretty fluffy clouds. |
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| Abby and Sarah did our hair . . . |
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| and I did Abby's hair :) |
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| Andrews Cross Monument |
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Week 13: PHOTOS
Week 13: Even the Rain is bigger in Texas
Monday, August 29, 2016
Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a wonderful feeling! Everything's going my way!
. . . Okay, maybe not that last part because that's life, but the rest of it is true!
We have had so much rain lately! Normally, Andrews gets about 7 inches of rain a year and we have gotten almost 4 inches just in the last week! That information may or may not be correct - I was told this by a member :)
So, on Monday, We had rain. and more rain. But we had a good P-Day! We ended up going to Odessa that day because we were going to have District Meeting in Andrews this week, so we wouldn't have the regular opportunity to go to Walmart that day, so we went on Monday. We ended up eating at a restaurant called Cheddar's, which is a scratch kitchen, so they pretty much have everything there. I got a REALLY good bacon burger with some fries and I was finally able to make fry sauce with the mayo they gave me for my burger and the ketchup on the table! Yay! Just like home <3 Our waiter was awesome - his last name is Stergeon, so I guess his nickname is Fish and he is Mexican, but he was born in the USA, so he was basically teaching us all the proper slang to use in Sister Kynaston's Spanish - lol! He was great. He gave us both a huge discount on our meals and was talking about Jesus the whole time :) It was awesome.
Tuesday, we had a little more rain, but not as much as Monday. We had District Meeting in the teeny little chapel of our teeny little branch building in Andrews - that building is seriously tiny and so adorable. District Meeting was awesome, though :) I learned a cool new trick to teach to people about the importance of going to church, reading scriptures, and praying (CPR - lol). You take three cups (doesn't matter what kind as long as they're all the same) and place them in a spread out triangle on a table. Then you take three butter knives and you put each one of the knife handles on the end of each cup, the actual knife part all pointing towards the center of the triangle you created with the cups. You then interlace the three ends of the butter knives together in the center, each one supporting the other and it creates a really strong bond! You can put several quads on it, there was one Elder who said he put a two year old on there and it held, it's great. So, each one of the cups represents church, prayer, or reading. Which one is the least important of the three? You take one cup out and the whole thing falls apart. You can never get the strong foundation you had before with only two cups! It's pretty great. I haven't used it in my teaching yet, but I'm planning on it this week!
That day, we also met with the most amazing family ever! I'm sorry if this is a repeat, but this family is just plain awesome. Veronica is the mother and her daughter Ariana, 15 years old, has accepted a baptismal date for September 10th!!!!!!! She is so so so solid and She loves the church and she and her Mom came to church yesterday and they both loved it so so much! She also brought her friend Osbaldo to church yesterday! He is from Midland and he also enjoyed it! Veronica's boyfriend is Albert and he has two little kids, Xavier and Jasmine, 8 and 9 years old. Albert is absolutely amazing and they already refer to each other as husband and wife, they just need to get married so they can be baptized! That is pretty much the only thing holding them back right now. Both Veronica and Albert say they want to be baptized soon! I'm so happy for them. We have already seen them get closer together as a family as they have grown closer to God! It is truly a testimony of this fact: if a family strives to get closer to God by following Jesus Christ and His teachings in the church, they will grow closer together! I know that is true more than anything right now!
Wednesday was when the rain got BAD. It started thundering and lightning-ing (?) really hard at about 4:50 AM Wednesday morning. Finally there was a HUGE CRACK of thunder and our power went out! The fan turned off and the thunder woke both Sister Kynaston and I up and we weren't able to sleep very well after that. . . And, of course, we had interviews with President Heap that morning at our church building in Andrews, and we had no power. Both of us were planning on curling our hair that morning for interviews, but we both instead had to shower and get ready in the dark and by flashlight and we ended up showing up to interviews with wet hair! Luckily, the power wasn't out at the church, so we went inside and had AMAZING interviews with President Heap. He showed me D&C 100 verses 1-6 about not worrying about my family at home and opening my mouth and it will be filled "in the very hour, yea, in the very moment". I cried. A lot. It really is a great scripture and is so true. To all the missionary Moms and Dads, don't worry about your missionaries! They are being taken care of by the Lord and he will bless you in ways you can't even imagine because of your sacrifice and because of your son's or daughter's sacrifice to serve the Lord!
Thursday morning was a little rough. Sister Kynaston had some sort of cold thingy and ended up sleeping in until about 10:30 AM, so I just got up like usual, somewhat exercised, showered and got ready and did my personal study hour and they watched movies and ate cereal until she got up :) It was very lonely, but I'm glad she was feeling a TON better after she got up! We went and did service at the Andrews Food Bank that day and there was a man there named Mark. He is actually from Pennsylvania, but because of his wife's work, they come to Andrews a lot and they are members of the church and apparently love to spoil the missionaries! He took us to lunch after the food bank and then took us to the local grocery store and bought us almost $80 worth of groceries for us! He then gave us each $20 for next time we had to go shopping and then said goodbye! Afterwards, we got in the car and said a gratitude prayer and asked for many many blessings to be given to Mark and his wife because of his service for us.
Saturday we went to the temple again!! Sister Kynaston got to see her old companion and we got to eat lunch together at Golden Corral! Sis K doesn't like Golden Corral, but she also got to see a family from her last area and they were all so happy to see her! By the time we got home, it was 5:30 PM and another member of our branch offered to take us to dinner and then wanted us to go to her house and shave her cat some more with her - so we did! Topaz the cat is officially shaved and has no more huge mats in his fur! Yay!
Anyway, I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week. I also invite everyone who reads this to have a family prayer. I have an incredible testimony of that. It doesn't matter what it's for. Kneel down with your family and pray and you will see miracles happen! Heavenly Father is waiting to pour down blessings from Heaven, just talk to him as a family and I PROMISE you, they will come! I love you all!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a wonderful feeling! Everything's going my way!
. . . Okay, maybe not that last part because that's life, but the rest of it is true!
We have had so much rain lately! Normally, Andrews gets about 7 inches of rain a year and we have gotten almost 4 inches just in the last week! That information may or may not be correct - I was told this by a member :)
So, on Monday, We had rain. and more rain. But we had a good P-Day! We ended up going to Odessa that day because we were going to have District Meeting in Andrews this week, so we wouldn't have the regular opportunity to go to Walmart that day, so we went on Monday. We ended up eating at a restaurant called Cheddar's, which is a scratch kitchen, so they pretty much have everything there. I got a REALLY good bacon burger with some fries and I was finally able to make fry sauce with the mayo they gave me for my burger and the ketchup on the table! Yay! Just like home <3 Our waiter was awesome - his last name is Stergeon, so I guess his nickname is Fish and he is Mexican, but he was born in the USA, so he was basically teaching us all the proper slang to use in Sister Kynaston's Spanish - lol! He was great. He gave us both a huge discount on our meals and was talking about Jesus the whole time :) It was awesome.
Tuesday, we had a little more rain, but not as much as Monday. We had District Meeting in the teeny little chapel of our teeny little branch building in Andrews - that building is seriously tiny and so adorable. District Meeting was awesome, though :) I learned a cool new trick to teach to people about the importance of going to church, reading scriptures, and praying (CPR - lol). You take three cups (doesn't matter what kind as long as they're all the same) and place them in a spread out triangle on a table. Then you take three butter knives and you put each one of the knife handles on the end of each cup, the actual knife part all pointing towards the center of the triangle you created with the cups. You then interlace the three ends of the butter knives together in the center, each one supporting the other and it creates a really strong bond! You can put several quads on it, there was one Elder who said he put a two year old on there and it held, it's great. So, each one of the cups represents church, prayer, or reading. Which one is the least important of the three? You take one cup out and the whole thing falls apart. You can never get the strong foundation you had before with only two cups! It's pretty great. I haven't used it in my teaching yet, but I'm planning on it this week!
That day, we also met with the most amazing family ever! I'm sorry if this is a repeat, but this family is just plain awesome. Veronica is the mother and her daughter Ariana, 15 years old, has accepted a baptismal date for September 10th!!!!!!! She is so so so solid and She loves the church and she and her Mom came to church yesterday and they both loved it so so much! She also brought her friend Osbaldo to church yesterday! He is from Midland and he also enjoyed it! Veronica's boyfriend is Albert and he has two little kids, Xavier and Jasmine, 8 and 9 years old. Albert is absolutely amazing and they already refer to each other as husband and wife, they just need to get married so they can be baptized! That is pretty much the only thing holding them back right now. Both Veronica and Albert say they want to be baptized soon! I'm so happy for them. We have already seen them get closer together as a family as they have grown closer to God! It is truly a testimony of this fact: if a family strives to get closer to God by following Jesus Christ and His teachings in the church, they will grow closer together! I know that is true more than anything right now!
Wednesday was when the rain got BAD. It started thundering and lightning-ing (?) really hard at about 4:50 AM Wednesday morning. Finally there was a HUGE CRACK of thunder and our power went out! The fan turned off and the thunder woke both Sister Kynaston and I up and we weren't able to sleep very well after that. . . And, of course, we had interviews with President Heap that morning at our church building in Andrews, and we had no power. Both of us were planning on curling our hair that morning for interviews, but we both instead had to shower and get ready in the dark and by flashlight and we ended up showing up to interviews with wet hair! Luckily, the power wasn't out at the church, so we went inside and had AMAZING interviews with President Heap. He showed me D&C 100 verses 1-6 about not worrying about my family at home and opening my mouth and it will be filled "in the very hour, yea, in the very moment". I cried. A lot. It really is a great scripture and is so true. To all the missionary Moms and Dads, don't worry about your missionaries! They are being taken care of by the Lord and he will bless you in ways you can't even imagine because of your sacrifice and because of your son's or daughter's sacrifice to serve the Lord!Thursday morning was a little rough. Sister Kynaston had some sort of cold thingy and ended up sleeping in until about 10:30 AM, so I just got up like usual, somewhat exercised, showered and got ready and did my personal study hour and they watched movies and ate cereal until she got up :) It was very lonely, but I'm glad she was feeling a TON better after she got up! We went and did service at the Andrews Food Bank that day and there was a man there named Mark. He is actually from Pennsylvania, but because of his wife's work, they come to Andrews a lot and they are members of the church and apparently love to spoil the missionaries! He took us to lunch after the food bank and then took us to the local grocery store and bought us almost $80 worth of groceries for us! He then gave us each $20 for next time we had to go shopping and then said goodbye! Afterwards, we got in the car and said a gratitude prayer and asked for many many blessings to be given to Mark and his wife because of his service for us.
Saturday we went to the temple again!! Sister Kynaston got to see her old companion and we got to eat lunch together at Golden Corral! Sis K doesn't like Golden Corral, but she also got to see a family from her last area and they were all so happy to see her! By the time we got home, it was 5:30 PM and another member of our branch offered to take us to dinner and then wanted us to go to her house and shave her cat some more with her - so we did! Topaz the cat is officially shaved and has no more huge mats in his fur! Yay!
Anyway, I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week. I also invite everyone who reads this to have a family prayer. I have an incredible testimony of that. It doesn't matter what it's for. Kneel down with your family and pray and you will see miracles happen! Heavenly Father is waiting to pour down blessings from Heaven, just talk to him as a family and I PROMISE you, they will come! I love you all!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
Monday, August 22, 2016
Week 12 - Happiness is a disease we all should spread!
NOTE from Sis. O's Mom: Some of this is from a letter Heather sent earlier in the week that I wanted to share with you!
This week has definitely been hard, I'm not going to lie. But it has also been one of the most incredible weeks ever because we both (Sister Kynaston and I) have been able to see God's hand and be so much more grateful for Him and His help more than ever!
Tuesday, we had quite the incredible District Meeting! We have a new District Leader because the last one just went home at the end of the last transfer. The new one is Elder Meza (pronounced Meeeesa, if you say Maysa he gets pretty upset). He did a really good job with his first District Meeting and he set some expectations for us and we set some expectations for him - he's been pretty amazing so far! We've been able to randomly call him about things we're struggling with or things we wanted to tell him because they were so spiritual!
That night, we went to dinner with Sister Smith! She is an amazing example to me because she is so SO strong. Her husband is not a member of the church and they have two daughters together. So, because of their different faiths, her husband takes one daughter to his church (it's literally called the Cowboy Church - Toto, I don't think I'm in Utah anymore) and she takes their other daughter to our church. Of course, they're both older and going to college now, but they've been strong in the faith they were brought up in by each parent separately. Luckily they don't give each other grief about the others' faith etc. But that would still be hard! She also works at the hospital here in Andrews every single day and probably has about 60 hour work weeks! AND she is the relief society president AND she does her visiting teaching every month AND she finds time to do service every week AND she takes us to a restaurant called Mi Pueblo just about every week! She is just so amazing!
After dinner we went and saw some of my favorite people in Andrews - Patsy (like Barbara Crebs, but with a southern accent, and who makes her own dresses); Carnel, Patsy's daughter (my mom's age); Sarah, Carnel's daughter (13 years old and plays softball), and Abby, Carnel's youngest daughter (10 years old, hilarious and just barely baptized. Patsy gave Sister Kynaston and I handmade dresses, just like she wears! (We went over again yesterday and she had made us both skirts!! How incredible is that? She told us that it's been really nice to have someone to sew for.) I always LOVE going to see them! I'm really grateful they have welcomed us into their home, because we've been able to feel the Spirit there, and hopefully we make their day a little better. We left them with an uplifting Mormon Message and a scripture :)
That's one thing that makes me love being a missionary is being able to make people smile :) We went to the gas station a while ago and the lady at the counter said, "You guys are just always too happy - what's the matter with you??" She said it jokingly, of course, but it was a neat experience being able to tell her why we were out here and such :)
Wednesday, we visited Bro. McMahan (an 86 year old member of our branch, who has a daughter named Sue) and he gave us a bunch of stuff. . . again! He is seriously so generous with us! Bro. McMahan is kind of a nut - he's very independent, and he has a "To Kill a Mockingbird" accent and loves to talk. He takes care of Sue, who is kind of housebound. They are always giving us things, like a laughing pictrue of Jesus (kinda creepy), and Sue gave me a "princess club" pen to remind me of my divinity, Russell Stover's chocolates, peanut butter M&Ms (that was the best yet!), cosmic brownies, and mangoes. They are so fun and I really hope my parents can meet Bro. McMahan (they are picking me up in Texas!) We saw him again yesterday and he gave both Sister Kynaston and I leather coin purses from decades ago and wallets! He also gave me a Christmas dream catcher :)
Also, on Wednesday, it was Abby's 11th birthday!! We were able to help her Mom, Carnel, with setting up everything and we had a great time at Pizza Hut. She bought me a whole pizza just for me without cheese on it! I love her so much :)
Thursday night we had dinner with the Geisler family. Bro Geisler is the second counselor in the Branch Presidency, but he works on Sundays, so he's not there very often. They have three adorable little kids and we had sloppy joes at their house! I told them how we call them Sloppy Peters at our house because of my Dad's name, and they loved that idea! They are an amazing family and they told us about this place called Branson, Missouri that is better than Lagoon! It's cheaper and no one knows about it, so no one is there and you can ride the rides over and over again! They also have a lot of other amazing things there and I want to take my family there when I'm off the mission! It sounds so much fun! Danny, you should ask Mom to look it up to see all the fun stuff there!
Then, of course, Friday was my SISTER'S BIRTHDAY!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!! She is 14 years old now! And starting 8th grade Wednesday!!! That just seems insane to me. It was pretty hard that day to be away from her, but I know she had a really good time!
I've just been struggling with all kinds of things because Satan knows the work is progressing! Good things are happening in Andrews and he is trying to stop it. But guess what? I WON'T LET HIM! No matter what comes our way, we will press forward with faith and there will be miracles!
I love you all and thank you for everything you do! I hope you have a fantastic week this week!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
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| Sis. Overson, Sis. Kynaston, Abby, and Sarah |
Tuesday, we had quite the incredible District Meeting! We have a new District Leader because the last one just went home at the end of the last transfer. The new one is Elder Meza (pronounced Meeeesa, if you say Maysa he gets pretty upset). He did a really good job with his first District Meeting and he set some expectations for us and we set some expectations for him - he's been pretty amazing so far! We've been able to randomly call him about things we're struggling with or things we wanted to tell him because they were so spiritual!
That night, we went to dinner with Sister Smith! She is an amazing example to me because she is so SO strong. Her husband is not a member of the church and they have two daughters together. So, because of their different faiths, her husband takes one daughter to his church (it's literally called the Cowboy Church - Toto, I don't think I'm in Utah anymore) and she takes their other daughter to our church. Of course, they're both older and going to college now, but they've been strong in the faith they were brought up in by each parent separately. Luckily they don't give each other grief about the others' faith etc. But that would still be hard! She also works at the hospital here in Andrews every single day and probably has about 60 hour work weeks! AND she is the relief society president AND she does her visiting teaching every month AND she finds time to do service every week AND she takes us to a restaurant called Mi Pueblo just about every week! She is just so amazing!
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| Patsy dresses!!! In the middle is Abby, in her Patsy dress. :-) |
That's one thing that makes me love being a missionary is being able to make people smile :) We went to the gas station a while ago and the lady at the counter said, "You guys are just always too happy - what's the matter with you??" She said it jokingly, of course, but it was a neat experience being able to tell her why we were out here and such :) |
| Bro. McMahan and Sister Overson |
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| Sis. O., Abby, Sis. K. |
Also, on Wednesday, it was Abby's 11th birthday!! We were able to help her Mom, Carnel, with setting up everything and we had a great time at Pizza Hut. She bought me a whole pizza just for me without cheese on it! I love her so much :)
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| Sister Overson, Abby and Sister Kynaston |
Thursday night we had dinner with the Geisler family. Bro Geisler is the second counselor in the Branch Presidency, but he works on Sundays, so he's not there very often. They have three adorable little kids and we had sloppy joes at their house! I told them how we call them Sloppy Peters at our house because of my Dad's name, and they loved that idea! They are an amazing family and they told us about this place called Branson, Missouri that is better than Lagoon! It's cheaper and no one knows about it, so no one is there and you can ride the rides over and over again! They also have a lot of other amazing things there and I want to take my family there when I'm off the mission! It sounds so much fun! Danny, you should ask Mom to look it up to see all the fun stuff there!
Then, of course, Friday was my SISTER'S BIRTHDAY!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!! She is 14 years old now! And starting 8th grade Wednesday!!! That just seems insane to me. It was pretty hard that day to be away from her, but I know she had a really good time!
I've just been struggling with all kinds of things because Satan knows the work is progressing! Good things are happening in Andrews and he is trying to stop it. But guess what? I WON'T LET HIM! No matter what comes our way, we will press forward with faith and there will be miracles!
I love you all and thank you for everything you do! I hope you have a fantastic week this week!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
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| Necklace made out of safety pins |
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| Sister Kynaston modeling the necklace |
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| Abby, Sarah, and Sis. Kynaston in the sunset :) |
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| Sis. O, Abby, Sis K. and Sarah |
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| Sis O, Sis K and Sarah |
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| A card Sis. Kynaston did for Bro. McMahan |
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| A card Sis. Kynaston made for Carnel |
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| A ring Sis. Overson wire wrapped/crocheted using a gem Patsy gave her. :-) |
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Week 11 - Faith, Actions, then blessings.
Hello Family and Friends and people I know and love!
This week has been a roller coaster. At first, I really couldn't sleep at all because of my bug bites, but then I had a talk with God and this is what we discussed. I noticed that nothing I was putting on my bug bites was working to take away the itching, but they really felt a lot better after taking a shower in the morning and washed everything off. So, I told God I was going to stop putting creams and stuff like that on my legs and I was just going to take Benedryl all day, which I realize may have consequences on my ability to stay awake, but I told Heavenly Father I was going to do my best when it came to the work and I was going to stay faithful with taking it as often as I could and then take two pills at night to help me sleep, which was my biggest problem. I just was not able to sleep because my bites were itching so badly to the point of driving me nearly to insanity. So, I had that talk with God late Wednesday night, just before I went to bed. I didn't get any sleep that night. Or the night after that, but the night after that? I slept straight through. And, during the day, my legs weren't itching anymore and I was able to focus on the work. It was very very hard not getting sleep for a while, but after I made a promise to God about being faithful to taking my medicine, He made a promise to me that He would provide me with the sleep necessary to continue His work in Andrews and He would carry me throughout the day, and He did! After that whole experience, I have a new testimony of the Lord's timing, the true nature of God (He is my loving Heavenly Father), prayer (we can talk to God about literally any aspect of our lives and He can and will help us if we truly have the faith and if we ASK Him - it will always take some sort of ACTION on our part, but He will always help us if we truly need it and in the way we truly need it), and i am a witness to the fact that God can bring about miracles, but only when we ask in faith, nothing wavering. James 1:5-6 promises us this: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." That last part of the scripture is the key to truly receiving an answer from God! Moroni 10:3-5 says, "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye would read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things." THAT, my friends, is a powerful promise. And all he asks is that we take that leap of faith and have real intent to ACT to receive an answer and to ACT when we receive that answer. I could not have healed that quickly if I told God, "Okay, you need to heal me because I can't do missionary work with these things on my legs - SO HEAL ME. NOW." It doesn't work like that. I needed to have the faith that God would heal my legs quickly, but I also needed to promise Him I would take the medicine that was working and not do the medicine that wasn't. That is when I received my help from on high!
The other pictures are a bird skull Sis Kynaston found for me, a picture we made for Bro McMahan that he FRAMED!! I did the lettering and Sister Kynaston did the water color flowers, and a picture Bro McMahan had in his back room that I thought was hilarious.
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| Sis. Overson did the lettering, and Sis. Kynaston did the flowers. So pretty!!! |
Monday, August 8, 2016
Week 10: Photos
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| Hermana Kynaston and Hermana Overson |
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| Rainbow over Andrews |
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| The apartment door #405. Home SWEET Home |
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| Outside Andrews |
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| Sister Kynaston and Sister Overson |
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| The Andrews Branch Building |
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| Sister Kynaston, I guess happy to be home! |
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| As Heather's mother, I have no idea why she would be playing on a Wii!!! But, if she could, she would! |
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| My planner cover I made with real, pressed, Texas flowers! |
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We have shower crayons in our apartment and we write little notes to each other in the shower and this is what Sister Kynaston wrote about me :)
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| For some reason, last week, I logged into my missionary website and it was my picture, but both times I tried to log in, I was Elder Breda and Elder Sagers - LOL! |
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| Me with a recent convert's kitty - whose name happens to be Rey Rey! |
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| Me eating a whole mango for the first time :) |
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| Sis Kynaston and I at a sandwich place called "McCallister's" |
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| Brand New Car!!! |
Week 10: When life gets too hard to stand....
Greetings from Andrews, Texas!
This has been a long week for me. I got bitten by THOUSANDS of mosquitos on three separate nights, but Saturday night was the worst of it (pictures included). We have just been doing a lot of outside, late lessons that turn into a feeding frenzy for my blood! I haven't been able to get much sleep lately because they itch worse at night, but it has allowed me to appreciate the times when I'm NOT covered in mosquito bites the size of golf balls all over my legs. I have put several products on it, including, but not limited to: benedryl cream, hydro cortisone cream, hydro cortisone spray, a couple of other anti-itch creams, and lots of other weird stuff like seasoned white wine vinegar (Sister Heap told me to do it).
Love, Sister Heather Overson
Monday, August 1, 2016
Week 9 - 2 Months as Missionary!
TWO MONTHS!!!
So, first of all, I STILL CAN'T SEND PICTURES because none of the computers will let us - dumb. But anyway, just know that I am alive and that I will have good pictures to send later!
I LOVE SISTER KYNASTON SO MUCH!! She is seriously amazing and (this is going to sound rude, but you know what I mean) she isn't perfect and she doesn't pretend she is! She is very real and it's really refreshing. We really are the best companionship ever though because we write messages to each other in the shower - we have some awesome shower crayons that were just there so we decided to use them and we leave each other notes and I make food for her all the time and it's just really really great. I think she will be literally my favorite companion on my mission, but we'll have to see! Also, she's from Draper, so we were, like, neighbors and didn't even know it all this time! I really do believe that God did that because he knows we need each other desperately and that we'll be the Best in the West when we're out working and doing our best!
So, I had the most incredible experience last night! Sister Kynaston and I were out trying different people in Andrews, but the first person we tried didn't answer, and by the time we got to the second house, both of us felt like our time would be better spent elsewhere, so we sat in the car and prayed for guidance to where God needed us. I then asked about where the church was in Andrews and we decided to go there and knock on some houses around it.
SIDE NOTE: THAT IS THE TINIEST CHURCH I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! I am not even in a ward here. The church building is literally the smallest structure I think I've ever seen. I'll send pics when I can, but seriously!! So, I'm in the Andrews Branch, that's literally what it's called, and the building is so small that there aren't even pews. Just cushioned chairs. It's unbelievably tiny. Also, I know for sure that I will be here for the next 6 weeks, but I hope it will be longer because I love Andrews so so so so much!.
Back to the story...Anyway, by the time we got there, we both started to feel a little frustrated because we felt we needed to be somewhere, but we didn't know where, so we prayed again and I asked if there was a road just up from us that went to the right, so Sister Kynaston drove us up there and turned onto that road. While we were doing so, Sister Kynaston said that God was probably trying to teach us how to recognize the Spirit and I agreed. We drove up that street a ways and both of us felt prompted to stop at this house with cute little sunflower decorations. We knocked and rang the doorbell, but the lights in the house were off, so we decided no one was home and started walking down the street towards where we had come from driving. The very next house had people that were outside in their back yard area and were walking towards the front, but went inside. We were both discouraged, but knew we needed to at least talk to this family. So, we walked towards the door, but it had a gate blocking the way with dog collars keeping it shut. So we were trying to figure out how to get in when the people came back outside and we were able to say hello! Brad, the husband, came to talk with us and we exchanged some awkward conversation, his two daughters had gone inside (Morgan and Mckenzie). But then his wife, Suzanne leaned her head out the door to tell Brad that dinner was ready and saw us. She immediately had a huge smile on her face and asked us if we were hungry! We hesitated, but Brad was very insistent, "Yeah! Come on in and have a bite to eat." SO WE DID!! Every single one of them are so incredibly amazing! They gave us a plate full of fudge! And we had chicken and french fries for dinner! We talked about everything from their church (Methodist) to how Mormon Moms are THE Pinteresters and how they were wanting to make a giant swing out of their trampoline! Afterwards, we hugged and left them with a word of prayer (we even hugged Brad, which was WAAAY awkward, but oh well). I'm so grateful for that humbling experience! They are seriously the best people ever and they left for Houston the day after we met them (We met them on Tuesday, and they left Wednesday morning) to see their two sons who are in college, but they came back yesterday and we're hoping they can meet with us some time this week! Oh, Sister Kynaston and I needed that so badly and it was just such an amazing thing - we were indeed very humbled :)
I hope you all have an amazing week and I love each and every one of you!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
So, first of all, I STILL CAN'T SEND PICTURES because none of the computers will let us - dumb. But anyway, just know that I am alive and that I will have good pictures to send later!
I LOVE SISTER KYNASTON SO MUCH!! She is seriously amazing and (this is going to sound rude, but you know what I mean) she isn't perfect and she doesn't pretend she is! She is very real and it's really refreshing. We really are the best companionship ever though because we write messages to each other in the shower - we have some awesome shower crayons that were just there so we decided to use them and we leave each other notes and I make food for her all the time and it's just really really great. I think she will be literally my favorite companion on my mission, but we'll have to see! Also, she's from Draper, so we were, like, neighbors and didn't even know it all this time! I really do believe that God did that because he knows we need each other desperately and that we'll be the Best in the West when we're out working and doing our best!
So, I had the most incredible experience last night! Sister Kynaston and I were out trying different people in Andrews, but the first person we tried didn't answer, and by the time we got to the second house, both of us felt like our time would be better spent elsewhere, so we sat in the car and prayed for guidance to where God needed us. I then asked about where the church was in Andrews and we decided to go there and knock on some houses around it.
SIDE NOTE: THAT IS THE TINIEST CHURCH I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! I am not even in a ward here. The church building is literally the smallest structure I think I've ever seen. I'll send pics when I can, but seriously!! So, I'm in the Andrews Branch, that's literally what it's called, and the building is so small that there aren't even pews. Just cushioned chairs. It's unbelievably tiny. Also, I know for sure that I will be here for the next 6 weeks, but I hope it will be longer because I love Andrews so so so so much!.
Back to the story...Anyway, by the time we got there, we both started to feel a little frustrated because we felt we needed to be somewhere, but we didn't know where, so we prayed again and I asked if there was a road just up from us that went to the right, so Sister Kynaston drove us up there and turned onto that road. While we were doing so, Sister Kynaston said that God was probably trying to teach us how to recognize the Spirit and I agreed. We drove up that street a ways and both of us felt prompted to stop at this house with cute little sunflower decorations. We knocked and rang the doorbell, but the lights in the house were off, so we decided no one was home and started walking down the street towards where we had come from driving. The very next house had people that were outside in their back yard area and were walking towards the front, but went inside. We were both discouraged, but knew we needed to at least talk to this family. So, we walked towards the door, but it had a gate blocking the way with dog collars keeping it shut. So we were trying to figure out how to get in when the people came back outside and we were able to say hello! Brad, the husband, came to talk with us and we exchanged some awkward conversation, his two daughters had gone inside (Morgan and Mckenzie). But then his wife, Suzanne leaned her head out the door to tell Brad that dinner was ready and saw us. She immediately had a huge smile on her face and asked us if we were hungry! We hesitated, but Brad was very insistent, "Yeah! Come on in and have a bite to eat." SO WE DID!! Every single one of them are so incredibly amazing! They gave us a plate full of fudge! And we had chicken and french fries for dinner! We talked about everything from their church (Methodist) to how Mormon Moms are THE Pinteresters and how they were wanting to make a giant swing out of their trampoline! Afterwards, we hugged and left them with a word of prayer (we even hugged Brad, which was WAAAY awkward, but oh well). I'm so grateful for that humbling experience! They are seriously the best people ever and they left for Houston the day after we met them (We met them on Tuesday, and they left Wednesday morning) to see their two sons who are in college, but they came back yesterday and we're hoping they can meet with us some time this week! Oh, Sister Kynaston and I needed that so badly and it was just such an amazing thing - we were indeed very humbled :)
I hope you all have an amazing week and I love each and every one of you!
Love,
Sister Heather Overson
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