Just a Few More Steps

Random hike selfies?

What a week! Zone Conference, General Conference, miracles, amazing lessons, the whole works. Honestly, I'm serving in the best area in the mission! Not biased or anything :) So many things happened this week that it would take 15 pages to write, so I'll send a short novel with some of the miracles instead.

Also, they're building a TEMPLE IN YUBA CITY!! That means the mission will have a temple! I know it will be a few years, but it was amazing to hear that one, and 11 others announced at conference!

Speaking of General Conference (our biannual weekend where we hear inspirational messages from our leaders in Salt Lake City), let me

our conference rainbow

PAINT YOU A PICTURE. Sister Taylor and I step outside to a partly cloudy day, crisp air, and good moods because we're about to go to the Ingraham's for conference and breakfast! I quickly put some nuts out on the perch for the birds and see a woodpecker making a new home in the tree across the way. Another woodpecker is drinking the water droplets off the wire it's perched on.

Sister Wright!
(Doing jumping pictures
in a dress isn't
as fun as it looks)

FIRETRUCK :) :) :)

We get in the car and start driving, a light sun rain happening, and suddenly a FULL rainbow is across the sky in front of us. We look to the right to see a thickly snow-capped Mt. Shasta, with clouds playing in the valleys and on the glaciers. Then to the left we are at eye level with another cloud, dancing through the crests of the mountains on the other side of the freeway.

The clouds are on fire now, too!

The rainbow changes as we drive, always staying in front of us: sometimes it's brighter than others, sometimes it shows a second arc of color, but all of it gloriously shines to kick start the day. To top it all off, we have As Sisters In Zion/Army of Helaman playing. We're serving in 100% the most gorgeous area!

The drive to the Ingraham's features Black Butte wonderfully.

Selfies with Steven in the firetruck

We pull up, get out, and are greeted by 4 deer grazing not 15 feet away. Inside, the smell of eggs and sausage waft to us as we watch the hummingbirds drink from their feeder, and we pet the 3 dogs who are also housed at the Ingraham's. Could life get any better? Yes! At 9 a.m., holding a plate full of food including a muffin, conference starts and the revelation begins. Conference was amazing!

PHONE TAG. On top of all that, let me tell you about some of the great moments this week. Thursday was quite the adventure. It was our only full day of work, since we had so many meetings and missionary things to do. We played the most solid game of phone tag with some of the other sisters in Loma Rica to get some info on where someone lived, since Sister Kemp has served here before.

We drove through
2 layers of clouds to get to
zone conference on Tuesday!

Well, trying to get two companionships in contact when both serve in areas with spotty cell phone service, is definitely not the easiest thing to do. So after a good hour of back-and-forth calling and missed calls, we got ahold of them! The house we were trying to find wasn't marked on a map. We ended up finding a cliff, and a road that led to nowhere instead of the actual house. Welcome to Mt. Shasta.

My weekly shoutout to Mt. Shasta,
lookin' fly as always

SURPRISE VISTAS. Before we headed to our destination we stopped at another lady's house, but on the way we found a trail leading up from the side of the road. Of course Sister Taylor asks if we can go, and I'm game for a 5 minute tangent adventure. Not that we didn't already have enough for the day. We stop the car and start going! Only to find that it's actually a trail. I tried to pull it up on a map and guess what, it didn't exist: surprise! I took a few more steps and the trees opened up to an amazing vista of the mountains with a river by the road, flowing down the center of our view. I would never have seen it if I hadn't taken a few more steps.

We decorated the car for
Elder Hallam's car inspection

Sometimes, we stop our progress because we think we've done enough for the moment. We assume that the view of the trees is all He has planned for us at the time, and we start to head back. In reality, He asks us to do a little more every day. Take those extra 4 steps even when you feel you can't go any further, because that's when He carries you. Those final few steps after a long day of what feels like your best already will only give way to a miraculous view and blessings we can't even begin to imagine!

Me, ft. (featuring) The Cliff,
that this angle doesn't show very well

CALLING THE COPS. We finish our adventure, try the lady, then go to the person's home we'd called Sister Kemp and King for. No one answers after the first knock, but I'm looking around and see a car turning, so I wave. I don't usually wave, mind you, but this time I did for some reason. Well, the car turns and the word "Sheriff" is printed on the car...the car stops, then literally backs up and turns in to the complex we're at...guys, I flagged down a sheriff.

Rivers and clouds:
What more can you ask for?

Turns out he was one of the church members we're working with! He's super nice, and excitedly tells us that he'd been at this complex the previous night at 1:30! With the timing of everything, it's no coincidence we were both there at the same place at the same time. And the best part? None of that would have happened if we hadn't been trying for so long to call the other sisters and take our mini adventure. #Godisinthedetailsofeverygameofphonetag

NEVER TOO OLD FOR FIRE TRUCKS. Another cool thing, we had a lesson with Steven this Friday...wait for it...in a FIRE STATION! So that was probably one of the coolest things of my life. Don't worry, I 100% indulged my inner 5-year-old and took pictures in the fire truck!

Sunday morning conference wasn't a rainbow,
but instead Black Butte had a cape of clouds!

But aside from the setting being amazing, the lesson was also one of the best I've had. Steven is so willing and prepared to listen to everything we teach. As we got to know where he was regarding baptism, we learned that there are some of the basics we need to go over again, which is totally fine by us! But it gave us the opportunity to bear testimony and share doctrine I know and love so much.

District hike to McCloud Falls (again?)

PEACE AND HOPE. This gospel is something that has changed not only what I would do in my life for the past many months, but has changed who I am. I've learned more of my nature and seen just how much joy comes from accepting Christ. There are so many things that have strengthened my testimony, of His light and the strength we can get from Him. We need to be willing to put in the effort just to listen and do as He would. I'm crazy far from perfect, but it's because of Him that I'm so confident in the peace and hope I have now, that I never thought I could have before!

...which allowed for us to take
the most epic of comp pics!

As Elder Carpenter talked about in General Conference, healing comes immediately when you turn to Him. Christ healed a lame man almost instantly, after he suffered for 38 years unable to walk. By a simple act of faith, the woman with an issue of blood was healed in a moment after years of suffering. He will take who we were, and change us into something so much better than we ever expected, if we just turn to Him!

Take the extra minute to read from the Book of Mormon each day. Say a prayer on your drive to work. It matters! He sees your efforts, and you will start to see a change. Good luck this week!

Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

311 Old McCloud Rd. Apt. B
Mt. Shasta, CA 96067