First Area Week 12- Transfers and The Lord is My Shepherd (10-21-2013)

Family and Friends,

Somehow another transfer has gone by! It seems like yesterday I was sending a similar email saying that I didn't have my visa and I would be staying in St.Clairsville. Well, for all you who are waiting to hear... No visa yet, but there is still hope for another transfer! Also, I will be leaving St.Clairsville and moving on to another area. I will let you all know by next week my new whereabouts!

So yesterday in Sacrament Meeting I was feeling extraordinarily grateful for everything that Heavenly Father has given and taught me while I was here in St.Clairsville. Especially for the previous day's events and I opened up to the Lord is My Shepherd. As you all know not every moment on the mission are happy ones and the beginning of our week was a little bumpy. Needless to say many appointments fell through and even a couple of less actives yelled at us. But in the midst of all that Heavenly Father still managed to bless us more than we could imagine!

The Lord is my Shepherd; no want shall I know.

I feed in green pastures; safe-folded I rest.

He leadeth my soul where the still waters flow,

Restores me when wand'ring, redeems when oppressed,

Restores me when wand'ring, redeems when oppressed.

Thru the valley and shadow of death though I stray,

Since thou art my Guardian, no evil I fear.

Thy rod shall defend me, thy staff be my stay.

No harm can befall with my Comforter near.

No harm can befall with my Comforter near.

In the midst of affliction my table is spread.

With blessings unmeasured my cup runneth o'er.

With perfume and oil thou anointest my head.

Oh, what shall I ask of thy providence more?

Oh, what shall I ask of thy providence more?

So I think you will all remember me saying that our finding activity kinda didn't work. While that really stunk at the time and we couldn't see how anything good could come out of it. We were able to make some contact with a less active that we had been trying to get a hold of. He ended up saying that he wanted to come to Church but he just needed a ride. So we called up the closest family to him and they willingly accepted to bring him to church. I will save what happened on Sunday for last!

One of our very favorite families the Finks are some of the best member missionaries I have met. They love sharing the Gospel which they found about a year ago. They called us up on Saturday afternoon and said that they had a friend in town that really wanted to talk with us. Now the coolest part... When we planned our day the previous night before, we planned in such a way that we could accommodate this sudden and welcomed invitation. So we ended up doing everything that we had planned plus this unexpected lesson with the Fink's friend!

Jeff is an incredible man. He lives in Logan, Utah of all places and has almost exclusively LDS friends. He grew up Baptist and felt like some sort of something was missing in his life. When we began to tell him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, he was touched beyond words. He said that he felt that all of the questions that he had and all of the loneliness was taken away by the Spirit of God while we spoke of what we believe in. He eagerly accepted an invitation to get baptized and even more eagerly accepted the opportunity to come to Church the following day.

Another tender mercy of this week was an incredible idea to contact a lady that asked for us to teach her but a week later backed out. Elizabeth is very crafty and we noticed that she made a beautiful wreath the last time we saw her, so we asked if she could teach us how to make it to give to one of the members in a nursing home. She was so excited that we asked her to teach us how to do it. We are going to her home later tonight to learn!

There were also so many other amazing events of this week, but I don't think I have enough time to write them all down! But let's just say Sunday was the best!

Sunday was better than I could have imagined. Brother Drummond was able to come to Church thanks to the Bertoch's. We had our first meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader and we could not be happier with the potential of growing with the ward. Jeff came to Church and loved every minute of it. The Boles, whom we have been working with for quite some time where there too! The Vanstones came even though they had just returned from a very long trip. And the ward was just happy and vibrant! It was the busiest Sunday that we have had in a long time. Everyone wanted to talk to us and we felt like we were just running around barely getting to everyone in time. It was a very happy day.

I think the best part of Sunday though was after Church. The Bertoch's had signed up to feed us dinner that night and we were really excited to go. About an hour before dinner Brother Bertoch texted us and asked if it was alright if he invited Brother Drummond over for dinner. Just in case you can't imagine our reaction... ANY MISSIONARY IN THE WORLD WOULD BE MORE THAN EXCITED FOR A MEMBER TO REACH OUT TO A LESS-ACTIVE! So Brother Drummond was at our dinner appointment with the Bertoch's and we couldn't be happier with the willingness of the ward members to go above and beyond in fellow-shipping a less active.

I also had the opportunity to say my final goodbyes to the Vanstones. If you all can't tell by how much I talk about them, they are very dear to my heart. Words cannot describe how much I am going to miss them or any of the other people here in St.Clairsville. I can say that without a doubt, the hardest part of the mission for me is having to say goodbye to those that I have grown close to!

So while this area has been really tough at times I can say with the fullest conviction in my heart that the blessings have ALWAYS outweighed whatever didn't work out!

I challenge you all to remember the Savior, Jesus Christ, in the midst of your afflictions. Because the best and sweetest of blessing come during or shortly after the darkest and yuckiest of time.

Remember the Lord loves you and the Church is true!

Sister Nay