Week 12--3 Month Mark

Hey Loved Ones,

So this week I've been reading and thinking a lot about Mosiah 11-18. Alma and Abinadi. How Abinadi went into King Noah's kingdom, and preached to no avail whatsoever, and was thrown out. And he was told to go back, and he did, not knowing why. And he did, and he came back more agressive, bolder, and more powerful than before. And he knew they would probably kill him, but he did anyway. And then he got taken before the kind and they said they are going to kill him. And he's like, alright cool, but I'm not done. And he literally doesn't stop prophesying until he is dead. And he never got to see a single soul brought to repentance. And he dies thinking he hasn't brought anyone to repent.

But then there's Alma. He believes. He stands up for his beliefs. He is kicked out and has to separate himself from his formerly wicked (pretty much the most wicked in all of the kingdom) lifestyle. And he surrounds himself with people who are open minded. And he starts preaching to them, and baptizes 402 souls in that kingdom. And later they join up with King Mosiah in Zarahemla, and he becomes prophet and the whole land of Zarahemla are believers because of him. And he has a son who becomes a missionary to lead the Lamanites to believe, and thousands of them are converted.

All because of Abinadi. They are still referencing his prophecies years and years later, and nations brought into the fold of God because of him. And he died thinking that no one listened. One person did, and that was all it took.

We face a lot less than torture and death when we share the Gospel with our friends, and they may say no and we may never see the fruits, but in D&C 58:28 it says that no good deed is without reward, and sharing the Gospel with others is THE MOST IMPORTANT duty we can do...at least according to Joseph Smith. And I dunno about you, but he's a pretty smart guy.

Love you, but Jesus Loves You Best,

Sister Pugmire

Paige is in this video for the Boise LDS Institute!

Tornado Warning-May 2, 2016

All is safe with tornadoes. Yesterday we were having a meeting at the home of the Cox's. They are a senior couple and this week was the last week of their 12 month mission. There were about 16 missionaries there Sunday evening when a neighbor drops by an says there is a tornado warning. A few minutes later the sirens went off. The whole sky was lit up, and the wind was crazy. We turned on the news (because Senior missionaries have like, no rules) and they showed the hail was the size of ping pong balls. We all had to crowd into the stairwell until 10pm, so we played Uno and ate  bundt cake. It was actually a really fun memory. At 10 the Zone Leaders drove us home, and lucky they did because shortly after it stormed really a lot. But during that 30 minute window to get home the weather was calm! The Lord blesses us for sure.

Week 11--The Week in Miracles

Hey Loved Ones,

HUGE miracle this week. We felt impressed to go tracting on a street, and after 2 hours did did not see much success. As we were getting back into the car, Sister Gregerson felt we should do one more house on the corner. We knocked, and the woman answered and said, "Sisters! One moment; let me pull up some chairs and we will talk!" We sat on her porch and she told us her name, Kay, and that she'd been to our church before and loved it. She said she didn't really know why she stopped attending, as she loved our church best and felt the people were the nicest in the world. She also told us she was engaged to be married in June to an inactive member, Jerry, who is not even on our roster. She was looking for someone to marry them and a venue as well, as asked if it would be possible at our church. We told her if she wanted the Bishop could do it in our building for no cost. She was so happy, and then started crying and said that she had just been praying and feeling lost, and wanted to have a sign, and then we showed up. She said she knew she needed to come back to church, and that she knew she would be welcomed back with open arms. We told her we would come back before church and meet with her and her fiance on Friday.

On Friday, at 3:15, we get a call from her and she asks if we can bring the Bishop with us at 5. We say we will give it a shot, but we know Bishop Jackson is probably the busiest person we know and has eight children who are all home schooled, and he just opened up a law firm. We call him, and ask if he could come to her appointment. It just so happens he's taken the day off from work! When we show up, she and Jerry are both waiting on their porch. As soon as we get seated, she says, "I want to be baptized right now. I know I need to be married first, but I want to be married as soon as possible and baptized the next day!" We are kind of stunned. The Bishop rolls into the drive and they both remember each other! She tells him the same thing. He's kind of in shock too, and goes over the baptismal interview qualifications right on the porch, and she says, "Yes, I know all that, I don't have any Word of Wisdom problems, and I'll try to pay my tithing too! We want to get married the first weekend in June, and then baptized the next day!" So she pretty much puts herself on baptism date for June 4th, and asks if he can marry them on the 3rd.

Bishop says we have to give her all the discussions, and read the Book of Mormon. He asks her, "Kay, do you have a Book of Mormon? Have they given you one yet?" She smiles so big and says, "Oh, do I have a Book of Mormon!" She runs into her house and immediately fetches this beautiful leather grain LDS quad, and opens it up and pulls out all the Missionary Discussion pamphlets, and had the pages all marked in different colors and highlighters. "You know what they call you, Kay? A Dry Mormon," says the Bishop. "All we need to do is baptize you."

She really is ready for baptism, and it made me think of why after not coming to church for years after meeting missionaries she still had retained her testimony. It's the Book of Mormon.

Not everyone is like Kay. We have one recent convert whose mother Lea has been taking discussions. She wants so much to be baptized and to see her husband's proxy baptism done in the temple by her daughter at his one year mark, but she has a Word of Wisdom problem with smoking. The past week we had the perfect lesson, with the perfect ward member who shared the PERFECT testimony and by the end of the lesson we were all CRYING and Lea offered the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. We gave her two commitments: Come to church, and put her Book of Mormon on top of her tobacco and every time she is going to smoke one read a chapter first.

We can't get a hold of them Sunday morning. So we literally go over to her house and knock on the door for ten minutes. Then we go around and knock on the bedroom door to wake them up. Then (because we are really close) we walk right into their house and wake them up for church, and tell them we found a member to give her a ride. She's happy to see us, but tells us she doesn't feel well enough to come to church today. Then she rolls a cigarette right in front of us--no Book of Mormon in sight--and starts smoking it. We were at a loss.

And I wondered why she didn't keep her commitments--didn't even try. Sister Gregerson and I went back to square one. And realized the very first commitment we need to give someone--before we ask them to pray, before we ask them to come to church, before we ask them ANYTHING--is to read the Book of Mormon. It's the keystone of our faith and the first step to conversion. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and i know that you CANNOT BE CONVERTED TO THE LORD UNLESS YOU READ IT.  You can be converted to the people at church, or the food, or the way you feel in the chapel at church, but not to the Savior. So read it, and pray and fast until you know it is true.

My challenge to you,

Thanks for reading this long letter,

Love you, but Jesus loves you BEST!

Sister Pugmire

Week 10

Hey Loved Ones,

Being on mission is crazy. Just when you think you'll never teach the law of chastity as a first contact lesson, Heavenly Father puts it in your path. He definitely has a sense of humor. 

This week was also full of miracles. There are people out there looking for what the Gospel has to offer and they don't know where to find it.

A lot of miracles are invisible--probably most--but the clearest ones come from tracting. President Cleveland (former BYU basketball coach) wants us to go tracting 12 hours every week. We try and get in the full amount even if we only have 15 minutes here or there. One day we had that kind of situation--where we had too much to do and only could tract in between lessons. But we wanted to  be diligent. First person to answer the door says, "We're in the middle of a family meeting. Can you come back later?" Which sounds like an excuse. But then he says, "You're the Mormons, right? Come back Saturday at 1. We used to have missionaries that lived a floor above us. We were such great friends and had them over for BBQ all the time. Then we moved. So come back, you can teach us, and then we will talk about having you over for BBQ!"

If that wasn't enough of a miracle, what happens next is. When we see them again, the wife greets us like old friends. The whole family seems happy to see us, except their 8 year old son Izzy isn't there. His mom says, "Izzy likes to go 'find friends' around the neighborhood. He will come back soon with a friend he's made and then we will start a lesson." Sister Gregerson and I got a strong impression that we needed to change the lesson we were going to teach and tell a story from the Book of Mormon instead. Izzy comes back with two new friends he has made, and we invite them to listen. They were very touched by the story of the 2000 Strippling Warriors.

But after the closing prayer, the two friends, Nicholas and Logan come up to us and say, "Uh..we're Mormon." We think they must be confused because we haven't seen them at church and we have the ward roster practically memorized, and they are no where on it. But they say they are, they know the name of the Bishop, and say their parents don't really take them to church anymore but they loved to go. We ask them if they had missionaries at their house ever. "Yes," they say, "We loved the Elders but they don't come anymore! Let's take you to our house!" So across the neighborhood they lead us to their house. The parents are busy but say we can come back. As we leave the boys yell, "Thanks for coming to visit us! Come back soon!" Cutest thing ever.

We look at home, and sure thing their family is not on the records. It was just the most crazy, off the wall :coincidence" to me. That this family would be so receptive, and that their son--out of all the kids in the neighborhood--would choose the two children of inactive parents who had their records removed. And we totally changed the lesson we were going to give too! If we hadn't told a story from the Book of Mormon that those kids recognized, they may have never told us they were Mormon. It's almost like...God knows His children and is mindful of them...or something? 

I know the Lord is mindful of you and what you need, and even when you don't see His hand, He is there!

And I love you, But Jesus Loves You BEST!

Sister Pugmire

Week 9

Hey Loved Ones!

So this week we had to say goodbye to our old zone, and hello to a new zone. Not because I was transferred last week. Sister Gregerson and I were actually the only companionship in the zone to not be transferred! Still in good ol' Franklin. There are only a handful of other missionaries staying, and then our zone combined with Columbus Zone to form the Indianapolis Zone. I thought for sure the new Zone would not be as cool as the one we had before, because I loved every single one of them so much, but this new combined zone has 30 missionaries and they are all super cool! So funny how you can only spend time with someone once or twice a week for a few hours and be best friends.

This week being the first week of transfers was kind of a shuffle. It seemed like even though we stayed,  everything was different. A lot of investigators decided they wanted to ignore us, while others came out of the woodwork. They say it happens a lot the beginning of the transfer, and is a good way to reevaluate how to be most effective. One thing that I've realized is that even as a missionary when you feel the Spirit so strongly, and can fill up your schedule, and go about doing good all the day long, it still might not be the thing that the Lord wants you to do. Sure, the Spirit may say, "Go for it!" because it is the Spirit's job to testify of truth and good. But it is our job to seek the difference between good, better and best, to show our faith in God.

Speaking of which, I love seeing how strong the faith of someone can be when no one tells them "it's too hard" or "you can't do it." Terri came to church on her first Fast Sunday as a member already fasting! We didn't even remind her. Sunday was the first, so it's not like the calendar reminded her either. She has MS, and I think a lot of people in her place would say, "Oh, I'm too sick, I can't do it." But she takes no excuse. She obeys the Lord immediately. She remembered our stake presidency, weeks before she was baptized, telling the stake to focus on fasting especially this month and year, and for missionary opportunities. It reminds me of the story in the New Test where someone came to the Savior imploring their relatives, who were possessed, to be healed. Jesus did so, and the apostles complained they couldn't heal that same person and asked why. Jesus told them it was because the apostles lacked faith, not the ones that were possessed. Even if you think someone wouldn't be able to live the Gospel,. think again, because they might have the faith that you don't.

I love you, but Jesus loves you BEST!

Sister Pugmire