Week 22: Serving Saints in San Angelo!

Hello friends and family!

It has been a crazy insane week for Sister Overson!

Sister McArthur and I sharing an
avocado milkshake
for the last time :(

Sis. Snell, Me, Sis. Kynaston
and the McArthurs!!
I love them so much!

It all started out on Monday when Sister Kynaston and I were packing up pretty much the entire apartment because it was all ours and we were both leaving.  This time packing wasn't as stressful and I really had a good time trying to fit things in my suitcases and going around the whole apartment for the 56th time trying to see if I left anything behind.  Fun stuff.  We then rearranged the apartment to fit just two missionaries instead of three and then it was off to Neverland!!  We then had lunch with Sister McArthur and she made me an avocado milkshake for the last time (for a while at least).  It was really sad.  We spent the night at Carnel's house with her and Abby and Sarah and we said our goodbyes and promised to write each other etc.  It was also very sad - I cried so hard!  I never thought I would come to love people on my mission as much as I have come to love the people in Andrews!

Goodbye, Andrews Apartment H!

On Tuesday, we got everything situated in the car (the bikes were SUPER precarious and the bike rack was only 6 inches above the ground because the car was so weighed down with Sister Kynaston's and my crap) and we went to eat at Mi Pueblo

 Goodbye, Mi Pueblo!!

for the last time for lunch (I know, I know, I said it was nasty, but it was the last time and I guess we just got sentimental and had really good horchata and sopapillas :) ).  After that we were on our way to Odessa to the transfer site!  As soon as we got there the lady who was supposed to take us was already there!  We loaded up her car (my bike didn't fit, and I still don't have my bike, but that's okay because Sister Donis can't ride bikes anyway) and I said my goodbyes to Sister Kynaston and Sister Snell.  Surprisingly, I didn't cry, but I was so, so sad to leave Andrews and one of my best companions in the world, Sister Kynaston.

Goodbye, Sister Kynaston!!

 We got in the car with a member from Odessa who took me to Big Spring.  Then, I met another set of ladies who were to take me to Abilene, then I would meet my new best friend, Sister Donis in Abilene.

Well, we got to Abilene (after about 5-6 hours of me being in a car) and Sister Donis hands me the car keys and says, "let's go!" and I just said, "I can't drive on the mission!  Sis. Donis said, "I talked to somebody about this and they said it would be fine!!"  

A little welcome gift
from my new companion.

This is Heather's Mom.  At this point I feel I need to explain something:  Heather, though she had her license and did drive very occasionally, was not on our car insurance before she left on her mission.  Therefore, the mission president would not allow her to drive the mission car up to this point (don't ask me why, but I speculate it has something to do with concerns about her driving safety, and not knowing why she wasn't on the insurance).  Sis. Donis, from Guatemala, is unable to drive for some reason, so Heather brought this up to the powers that be when she found out about the transfer to San Angelo. They said they would make an exception in her case, which kind of freaked her out because she hasn't driven since May, and she's a nervous driver, anyway.  ALSO, TiWi is an electronic instrument installed on the cars used by the church to keep track of who is driving, and it measures speed and other factors.  You are supposed to put your Missionary driving card into the TiWi and if you have too many infractions, the mission warns you, and eventually you can be placed on suspended driving.  Heather did not yet have the TiWi card at this point.
  

I got to hold a snake that belongs
to a member here :)
His name is booger -
Danny I know you're jealous :)

Anyway, after a lot of panicking by me, someone got a hold of President Heap and he said I had temporary permission to drive without a TiWi card (login for missionary cars) and that I was covered under missionary medical insurance.  So, I drove the hour and 45 minutes to San Angelo from Abilene after not driving for probably 6 months or so!  It was super scary and I was tensing the whole way there just begging Heavenly Father to help me get us there safely and He did!  I am a LOT more comfortable driving now and I have a TiWi card and everything is settled. 

My cute companion Sis. Donis

COUNTING CHANGE 

SO SHE CAN BUY 

A  MCFLURRY - lol

Anyway, I absolutely LOVE San Angelo, even though it's been difficult adjusting from a teeny town to a very large one!  I  love serving in the YSA and I love my companion.  I love Jesus Christ and I love my Heavenly Father and I love my mission!  I'm doing very well and I hope y'all are, too.  I love you so much!

Love,
Sister Heather Overson

Week 21: TRANSFERRED TO SAN ANGELO!!!

October 24,2016

This week has been NUTS!!

Monday night, we went over to our recent convert's house, A, and her Mom, V, was just making dinner for everyone when we went over, so we ended up having dinner over there as well.  Well, she made something called pozole, and Dad, you might know what that is, but I didn't.  So, we just started eating this delicious soup and it really was amazing!  I loved it.  BUT.  While we're happily eating our pozole, V comes in and tells us that she put PIG'S FEET IN IT!!!  So then V's boyfriend, Al, says from the next room, "Don't tell them that!!"  So.  Long story short, I ate pig's feet this week.  I literally never thought in my entire life I would EVER eat anything remotely like that. . . .  The actual meat from inside the foot is good, but the skin is SUPER rubbery and it's CHEWY!  So nasty.  SO NASTY.

Anyway, something else that happened this week is I helped cut down a tree!  Carnel, the mother of another recent convert, called us one day and asked what we were doing, so we told her we were driving to go get donuts,  she then yelled into the phone, "DON'T BUY DONUTS" and then told us to meet her at Porter's, the local grocery store.  So we did and she showed us that she had just come from Odessa where she bought several cinnamon rolls, each one bigger than my face, and she also bought a chain saw.  So, we followed her home after her buying us some goodies at Porter's and had cinnamon rolls for lunch and then changed into pants and t-shirts, and cut down the tree in her front yard!  She has been wanting that tree down for YEARS and was finally sick of it and decided to do something about it!  So, she put her hair back and put her tennis shoes on and we cut it down!  I held the branches while she cut them with the chain saw and it was so much fun!  We had it down within an hour and then went by later that night and helped bring the branches to the back where the garbage people could pick it up :)  Carnel was AWESOME with that chain saw and she did so good!  She also felt pumped for finally just doing it :)

The next super exciting thing that happened was that we got transfer calls on Saturday night!  And guess where I'm going? . . .  THAT'S RIGHT!  SAN ANGELO!!  I'm heading on over to San Angelo tomorrow some time and my new companion over there will be Sister Donis!  Sister Kynaston was companions with her about a year ago and she absolutely loves her!  This transfer she has with me will be her last and she will be going home (her 18 months are up)!  I'm super excited and I will also most likely be driving next transfer because Sister Donis cannot.  Which scares me a little bit, but ya know, I got angels on my side! ( I'm praying for them, anyway!)

As for Sister Kynaston, we will be parting ways, unfortunately, and she will be going to Monahans!  It's about half the size of Andrews, and it has sand dunes and that's all we know, but she is super excited!  Sister Snell will be staying here in Andrews and will be joined by just one other Sister, so we'll all be in a normal companionship again :)

Because of transfers, I've been super busy with packing etc. but I did come across an amazing scripture this morning in the Doctrine and Covenants (some of the words might be changed around a little ;) )

"And if thou do this, I have prepared thee for a greater work.  Thou shalt preach the fullness of my gospel, which I have sent forth is in these last days, the covenant which I have sent forth to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel.  And it shall come to pass that power shall rest upon thee; thou shalt have great faith, and I will be with thee and go before thy face.  Thou art called to labor in my vineyard, and to build up my church, and to bring forth Zion, that it may rejoice upon the hills and flourish.  Behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou art not called to go into the eastern countries, but thou art called to go to the Western Texas.  And inasmuch as my people shall assemble themselves at the Texas, I have kept in store a blessing such as is not known among the children of men, and it shall be poured forth upon their heads.  And from thence men shall forth into all nations."

It was an incredible confirmation to me that I really am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing, and I love it!  I'm so excited to go serve in the Young Single Adult ward in San Angelo!  It will be awesome.

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love,
Sister Heather Overson

1.  Puppies!!
2-4.  District pictures :)
5.  Sonic :)
6.  Texas sunset
7-10.  Cutting down the tree

11.  We found a place where they are "cock fighting". . .  Just a bunch of roosters tied to barrels, that's all. . .

12.  another beautiful sunset!

13.  Hermana Kynaston being the amazing person she is :)

Week 20: Oct 17, 2016

Good Morning!

This email will include LOTS of pictures because we pretty much only did one thing worth mentioning this week (well, since Tuesday).

We went to a member's home on a giant ranch about 30 minutes West of the city of Andrews!!  Sister Smith is so amazing and she is the relief society president in our branch.  Her husband, Lane,  is not a member of the church, but he is so amazing!  He doesn't own the ranch, but he is the one who takes care of it - it's a cattle ranch, so he gets to go out and take care of the cows all day long!  He is the most Texan cowboy I have ever met in my life - he's really awesome.  For fun, he goes out on random spots on his ranch and goes arrowhead hunting!  He has also found several painted pot shards on the ranch along with rattle snake rattles!!  He showed us the whole collection and it was AWESOME.

We went to the ranch because Sister Smith noticed a teeny little cemetery on the ranch that contains headstones from the people who first owned the ranch.  The cemetery had become completely overgrown with these big nasty plants called allthorns - they are adequately named because they are seriously covered with nasty big inch long thorns that will go through just about everything.  Luckily, my Mommy sent me some pig skin gloves to work with and they definitely came in handy that day!  So, we went to the cemetery and cleared out the weeds and the nastiness and cleared away the gunk around the headstones and took pictures of them to put on Find-A-Grave!!!  It was so much fun over there!!!  Because we were 30 minutes away from town, we had lunch over at their house and Lane made us some AWESOME burgers!  Unfortunately, the meat was from the store and not from his cows. . . :(  It was still a very, very good burger! ;)

We saw everything from scorpions and rattle snakes to roadrunners and turtles!  It was seriously the most fun I have had on my mission and I wish we could go back and just spend a p-day there with that awesome couple and go arrowhead hunting and ride horses into the sunset!  (You can actually do that in Texas because there's no mountains in the way to block the sunset)

Another amazing thing we did was exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders in Midland and I got to spend a whole day and a half with Sister Slater again!  I also got to see Adrian and Dakota, the recent coverts from Midland who changed my life, and I got to see their not-so-little-anymore baby Luna!  She is so big now and she smiles so so much!!  It made me so happy that they were so excited to see me and before we left, they told me, "Pray for a transfer to Midland!" Aww!  They are so so sweet.

I learned a lot of really amazing things on exchanges and Sister Slater is helping me become a better person and a better missionary.  I am still struggling (I think I've reached a quarter mission crisis right now), but because of Sister Slater's help and comfort, I have an idea of how to become better and I have a newfound hope for the future!

I just want to bare my testimony of how much I know I am supposed to be a missionary in Andrews with Sister Kynaston and Sister Snell right now.  I am learning so much about myself and about the gospel!  I know God wanted me here and that even though it can be very hard sometimes, I am enough for the Lord to work with and qualify to do this important work.  We have found so many new investigators recently and have so many people to teach!  I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve my Father in Heaven and to serve those around me!  I love the gospel!  The church is true!

I love you all and I'm so grateful for everyone who is supporting me, whether it be a vocal prayer, a prayer in your heart, or in other ways - thank you so much!

Love,
Sister Heather Overson

Week 19: Oct 11, 2016

Howdy y'all!

Some pretty amazing stuff happened this past week, but especially yesterday!  Originally, we were supposed to have this on Thursday of last week, but it got moved because of Elder Keetch's schedule.  Yesterday we had something called a Mission Tour.  It's when a General Authority and his wife comes and speaks to the mission and they feed us wonderful food and we get to see a bunch of people from all over the mission - it was super fun!  President and Sister Heap had a bit of time to speak to us and even though it was super short, it was so powerful!  Sister Heap shared a powerful personal testimony of the Book of Mormon and how it was all the proof she needed to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the true church has been restored on the Earth today.

To be honest, before I left of my mission, I didn't know that the Book of Mormon was true.  I didn't have a personal testimony of the gospel.  I believed it could be true, but until I started teaching the gospel to other people and telling them to take that beautiful, pure book and read it and pray about it, only then did I realize that I needed to do that myself!  I can now say that I have no read the entire Book of Mormon from cover to cover, even though I have read most of it.  But I don't need to to know that it is a true book.  At the beginning of my mission I came across Doctrine and Covenants 11:21 which says, "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men."  It's still been pretty slow for me, reading the Book of Mormon, but the more I do, the more I have a love for the words it contains and a hunger to know more!  I DO know that the Book of Mormon is true!  I have prayed to God about it and have received a witness of it's truthfulness from the Holy Ghost, just as is promised in Moroni 10:3-5!  I challenge all of you who read this email to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, even if you have already done so.  We are promised to receive the witness from the Holy Ghost whenever we ask in faith with real intent and a sincere desire!  I can testify that you don't need to read a lot in that book to be able to pray about it and know it is true - Nike!  Just do it! :)

President Heap talked about the Missionary Handbook and the ultimate promise it contains, "This handbook contains the basic standards if missionary service and conduct approved by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  Follow these standards.  They will help you magnify your calling and protect you physically and spiritually.  Use this handbook regularly, Strive to understand and live the principles and standards taught in it.  Learn and live the higher law as taught by Jesus Christ (see Matthew 5: 3 Nephi 12).  Strive to enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and follow His direction in living these principles and standards."  He focused on the promise of protection both physically and spiritually.  He then challenged us to live these same standards, with some adjustment, when we are off our missions, because we will still have the same promise!  I definitely want to strive to do that when I get home!

Sister Keetch talked about the 10 gifts to bring home from your mission, by President Hinkley.  They mostly contained a greater love and understanding for different points of the gospel and of life.  The one that stood out to me is a greater love for my parents - which has already happened!  I am quickly beginning to understand and me so SO grateful for everything my Mom and Dad did for me and still do for me today!  I love you so much!

Elder Keetch talked about priorities and the analogy of the big rocks in a jar.  Then put in smaller rocks, then pea gravel, then sand, then water and the jar is finally full, but we would not be able to fit everything inside the jar if we didn't start with the big rocks.  We talked about the "big rocks" of missionary work and then had a great discussion about different points in the gospel, like prayer, repentance, finding people to teach, etc.  We then had a Q&A session with Elder Keetch and President Heap - it was awesome!  I learned a lot about the organization of the church and how to live the "higher law" that Jesus Christ taught.  President Heap is amazing.  He will never tell us what to do.  He will always help us to figure out what to do on our own and if we do the wrong thing, then he'll step in and correct us ;)

I'm so grateful for the mission tour and everything I learned!  I love you all so so much and I hope y'all have an amazing week!

Love,
Sister Heather Overson

PS - I got a HUGE poster from the Primary yesterday!  It was so so so cute!  I love it so much 0 thank you so much to everyone who wrote on it and drew me pictures!  Totally made my day!

1.  We went to Five Guys last P-Day for lunch and it was right next to a weight watchers - LOL!!
2.  Abbisnail tried on her Mom's new SUPER heavy coat!
3.  Sis K with a kitten!  A less active member we visit has an outside kitty who had kittens!
4-5.  Me with said kitten :3
6-7.  We ate a Mcallister's and I had the most delicious autumn squash soup!
8.  Sis K making a super awesome face :)
9.  This last one is going to need some explaining. . .  I tried to make some no-bake cookies to give to people with thank you notes, but I accidentally doubled the salt, so I made a quadruple batch of no bakes, but they ended up being SUPER mushy for some reason, so instead of making little clumps of cookies, we put the mixture in a bad with some powdered sugar and shook it around and created something we call "Snowman Poop".  It's basically oatmeal muddy buddies :)  So, we went to work creating this fun little yummy treat and I went to shake the bag and it wasn't closed all the way, so it spilled all over the kitchen and Sis K got down to clean it up, but then she started EATING it off the floor and looked like gollum, so I took a picture :)