Lets keep it here

Ok friends, I am going to be full on honest with my email this week. The good, the bad, the ugly. I feel like most missionaries only give you the fluffy good stuff but I'm going to share all. Brace yourselves.

Wednesday we were reading the Book of Mormon with a family we are teaching the returning member mom, recent convert son, and the not baptized yet daughter and there was a MAJOR change in their hearts. The daughter sat and read with us and the mom was reading, she stopped and said, I CAN SHARE THIS WITH MARJORIE. (her friend she is trying refer to us)... ummm what? YES! So awesome she was able to find it on her own! MIRACLE! 

Thursday we had district council.. Guess who came. President and Sister Marquis. Guess who was training, solo, for the whole time. Me.. Guess who did so awesome? ME. I honestly have no idea where it came from, but that was the greatest training I've ever done! I learned things and I planned it. After we went home for a bit to study and came back for interviews. President Marquis shared with me that was the best district council he's been to, that training was incredible, and he was so proud of me, he even got inspiration for what to train on at zone conference for the whole mission! I felt on top of the world! I don't say all that to be prideful, I just was so low and down from the transfer already, only after 4 days. I needed that. I trained the whole 90 minutes and didn't run out of material, or time. I have never done that before! I couldn't even believe it! MIRACLE. Then that night we had ward council, where I was promised that bishop would talk about our fireside I had planned a month ago. It wasn't even a glimmer in his eye, wasn't on the agenda, and time ran out. No fireside. I was crushed. I was so quick to lose the plot of how great I had done just a few hours earlier. 

Friday came we had weekly planning and then went to see the sweetest old lady (she'd kill me for saying that, shes not even old but she is the sweetest), she was just baptized a few months ago. So we talked about patriarchal blessings, she started to cry. She wanted one so bad, so we said we would try to talk to Bishop so he can help her prepare herself for that. Her granddaughter is also so keen for the gospel, so we made a plan to skype with her since she lives 3 hours away where there are no missionaries. her granddaughter studies come follow me, has the gospel library app on her phone. She is so awesome. Small town aussie needs a branch!! I'll gladly go! ;) 

Saturday we were doing heaps of follow ups and visited a new member in the ward, she has SUCH A STRONG TESTIMONY OF MINISTERING. hello, answer to my prayers, we need help with ministering in this ward. She asked for returning members on her list of ministering sisters, because if she had actives nothing would be getting done. MIRACLE! She then shared that she was so sorry that she hasn't even met her neighbors yet so she doesn't have any referrals for us.. WHAT?! YES MIRACLE! We love her and her newly called Elders Quorum President husband!! So excited to work with them. They live in the elders area but they haven't visited them yet so... us sisters will!! Then we went to another returning member, got to know her a bit, she was going to make corsages for Mothers day since she loves floral design! She is a wiz! (hope I told her about our flower shop business, she says she wants to hear about it when I get home!)

Sunday was Mothers day but oddly, only 1 talk was about Mothers. I think they miss the plot sometimes here in Aus. But during sacrament there was a mouse running up and down the pannels in the ceiling, so just before sacrament meeting is over a member gets on chair, throws the rat to the floor, steps on it and carries it out of the meeting. Lovely right? We had to do some clean up with that one.. but on Sunday we had 5 returning members at church! MIRACLE. We got invited to lunch by one of them MIRACLE we got invited to dinner by one of them MIRACLE. We got invited to do FHE with one of them MIRACLE. Then we went home for some studies, and to make some mothers day card to deliever. Then we get a call to have dinner with a member family. We go there for dinner and a tradition in their house is ever missionary has to sing a solo song of a minimum of 3 verses. For those of you who know me know i am tone deaf and HATE SINGING when people can hear my voice isolated. Choirs I'm fine, solos. I'm not. But I did it and it wasn't the worst one they heard MIRACLE. THEN on our way home we got a text from a returning member who was at church today. She is only going to come to church because of her dad being in town, but once he leaves she is done coming to church. MY HEART BROKE! She is one who has a powerful testimony of ministering too so I was so excited we were going to work on getting her a calling and everything. We sent her a text explaining our love for her, that God's church is perfect but sometimes the people running it aren't. We go to church to be healed its a hospital, not the celestial kingdom where only the righteous go. We haven't heard back from her yet sadly. 

Monday I got to skype the fam for Mothers Day! Got roasted there too!! (Sepah... apparently I'm fat again) Then we had a service project and literally built a room onto a house with the elders! It was awesome! We got a text from the sweet old lady, (mentioned above about patriarchal blessings) saying she just sat on her porch and cried when we all left. she was in awe and so thankful, her neighbors came over cause they thought something was wrong (since she has cancer) but she explained what happened and they were so impressed. GREAT missionary opportunity there now. MIRACLE. then we had a lesson with a member who is playing Aladdin at the moment. His family, another couple who are YM/YW leaders in the ward, and the family we are working with. IT WAS A TRAIN WRECK.  My companion is very shy and doesn't talk much. So I solo taught the whole thing, It was bad. I cried the way home, it was so bad. We texted Aladdin to say thank you for having us all over and explained the situation with the family we brought a bit and heard nothing that night. I got home got in the shower and CRIED my eyes out. I was beat. It was horrible. When my comp was in the shower I got on my knees and offered an out loud, humble as can be, most sincere prayer I have ever offered, i bawled the whole time. But as soon as I was done, not even before I said amen. I felt the most calming peace come over me. I had no feeling it would all be ok or anything I just left peace. The Immediate Goodness of God. MIRACLE. 

Tuesday morning, I was trying to figure out how to tell my companion that I cant do this alone, in the nicest way possible. I shared with her the prayers I offered before this transfer started for the boldest missionary. God said her, President transferred her. and Now she is here. I explained I didn't want a different companion that could be bold, I just wanted her to be that bold missionary that God knew she could be. I asked her what I can do to help her be bold. She explained she needed to practice the lesson before we did it so we spent time and practiced every lesson we would have that day, which was a few! MIRACLE.  It was good and I said she will take the lead on it all. MIRACLE.  After studies we got a call from Aladdin and he said he'd been thinking after he read our text, and he found out a lot of things from this family we are working with just from a 20 minute ride taking them home after FHE. He got to the nitty gritty with them it was awesome!! He called and explained a few situations they are in that we already were aware of but weren't sure of who to ask for help since the track record hasn't been the best in the ward. He had a plan already set, and since he won't be here for too much longer he is going to "train" another member on what to do when he is gone! after that phone call i bawled, I had been praying for 7 weeks to find someone to help. MIRACLE. we went out and found another returning member we have been trying to work with and set up FHE with them, that we can alternate with the elders, which will be great because then the elders will be teaching as well MIRACLE.  Then we went to Sister Blake. She still hates me and my accent. That's all I'm going to say about that lesson. Then we went to a returning member and her 6 year old daughter, we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and asked the mom to share an experience and her experience was so powerful, it was years ago but she remembers it like it was yesterday! Such a great lesson, she even committed herself to read the book of mormon with her daughter that night MIRACLE. As we walk out of that we got a text from the family we are working with saying that she wanted a list of all the less actives in the ward, she and the kids were going to write hand written personalized notes to them to invite them to church on Sunday. MIRACLE I cried again. I didn't know what to do, I was in awe. We went and saw the sweet old woman, and she was in awe of us! She even got 5 hours of sleep which she never gets, so she was seeing many miracles from God as well. MIRACLE!  We then had coordination and I talked about our plans for what to do with our new information we have. Our Ward Misson Leaders wife gets it she is on the same page as me, and they made me cry again because they said, "This past week we were talking about you, We are so grateful you are here and we are going to take your ideas and run with them while we have got you here." I now really am seeing fruits on my long labors last transfer. MIRACLE! Last night I got on my knees and said a LONG PRAYER of gratitude and thankfulness. 

This week was ups and downs. but We are on an uphill climb right now. Its for sure a climb but its going somewhere incredible! Please keep these people in your prayers! The power of prayer is real. I am thankful for it, get on your knees and out loud say a prayer from the heart. God will answer it. He will. I know it. 

I love you all!! 

Miss you heaps!

xoxo Sister Standage 

1. me your welcome I know i'm cute

2. FHE with aladdin and fam, another couple, and the fam we are working with

3. the sweet "old" lady

4. my awesome mothers day cards. whitney i'm getting good at water color.. i can do circles..

haha happy birthday to kade jensen (kaden or aust tell him. he never gave me his email. also allie tell buddie happy birthday next week!!