Henderson: Week 2

I think if I had to give this week a title, I would call it, "The week that everything fell apart. Literally"

This week, Sister W's bike broke! It was actually a big tender mercy because we had to randomly stop by our apartment in the middle of the day at a time we are NEVER usually home at. And, right as she pulled into the parking lot her back tire stopped spinning. So, long story short, she had to borrow one of the Elder's bike, which was quite the adventure in a skirt! (The closest bike shop is in Evansville.) Also, we had an exchange the next day, so that worked out really nicely. We had interview with Pres. B last week and there is a chance my area might be closed this next transfer. There are some pretty strong reasons for it, unfortunately.  

My companion riding one of the Elder's bike in her skirt! 

Me and a few of my GKLM Sistas! 

Besides progressing investigators getting sprained ankles and a few other hitches, it was still a pretty good week!

And guess what? Heavenly Father hears prayers! I think that's one thing that I've really gained a strong testimony of on my mission. Not that I didn't believe it before, but I think the times I've felt closest to Him on my mission and some of my most treasured times have involved sincere, personal prayer. This week I was -once again- reminded of that by the Spirit. He wants to hear from us, he's our Father!! :) How neat is that?

Henderson is great and it's so beautiful. It's neat because the long side of our area is against the Ohio River, which is absolutely gorgeous.

The beautiful Ohio River! 

I also LOVED the Women's Broadcast. So good, except that Sister Missionaries can't go to the temple, so I felt like we got jipped.  Pres. Uchtdorf is the best. General Conference can't come soon enough!

Mom, I was excited to get your package! Yay, for having conference treats now! Fun Fact: I don't like alfredo! Remember?! I'm the only one in the family who doesn't like it. I'll eat it, but just for future reference--don't send me anything with the word "Alfredo" on it!  I find it amusing that you forgot baha. #stillgetmompointsanyway

Have a great week! Pray! Watch Conference! Love y'all!

Love,

Sister Galloway

Quote of the Week:

Us:"Okay, so what do you have to do to be baptized??"

Investigator: "You have to pray.  And read the Book of Mormon every fifteen minutes."

Uhh.. yeah, We'll go with that! haha.

A New Area...

Hello!!

This week has been crazy!! My new area is Henderson, KY

​

, which is in the Evansville, Indiana district of my mission. I am at the far western edge of the mission now.

​

 

​And ​

I'm on a bike still! I am so, so excited for this new area. I'll probably be purple and frozen to my bike by the end of the winter, but I'm so excited I don't even care! :D

Henderson is like a weird mixture of my previous two areas. It's a small town and everyone is SO nice! I loved Louisville, but it's definitely a nice change.

​This is m

ore my pace

​

,

​

 I think. We are 

​incredibly​

 busy though. 

​W​

e

​ have 

barely ha

​d​

 time to breathe

​--

 there's so much to do here. 

​W​

e barely have time to eat. I think we planned in a meal maybe 3 times this

​ last​

 week. Thankfully

​,​

 things fall through sometimes, but it's just... crazy.

​ ​

 People here are very willing to stop and talk to 

​us,​

 for the most part.

​Here's the info on my new area:

​

-We are in a BRANCH

​!​

 (Sis W drew me out a family tree and literally, all the ward council members

​,​

 except for 2

​,​

 are related)

-We are the only bike missionaries in our district! :(

-The 

​E​

lder

​​

s in our 

​W​

ard have a car and the

​ Branch​

​ members give them a lot of grief

 about it

​

.​

 ha

​ ​

ha

​!​

-We borrow the Elder

​'​

s car for like 2 hours on P

​-​

day to go do laundry

​ & ​

shop

​.​ Below is 

a picture of what we found in their glove 

​box​

. 

-I really like my new ap

​ar​

t

​ment​

! It has a wooden

​-

looking floor in the main room

​ and​

 carpet

​

 in the bedrooms.

-It has good closets <3 <3

Sister W

 is my new companion. She is from Vegas. She came out 1 transfer before me. She​

 is great and we get along very well

​. ​

A biker church.

I love Henderson!! 

​T​

here is some good 

​missionary work ​

going

​ on​

 in this area and I'm excited to build on it! I hope we can keep this energy and work ethic up because I feel like we're just running full force ahead

​,​

 

​​

which is awesome,

​Anyway, you asked about Sister Bl's stitches. ​The mission nurse took them out before district meeting. But, she is kinda old and shaky. It seemed like she was sort of hacking at her face with scissors. So, we both agreed it probably would've been less scary for me to have done it--which says a lot. The scab had to be picked off and that was definitely the grossest part of the whole ordeal. Blech!

Anyways I'd better run

​,​

 but I hope everyone has a great week!

The church is true!!! :)

-Sister Galloway

Transfers!

Well, it looks like today is my last day serving in J-town! We got transfer calls Saturday and I'm leaving!! :( It's definitely bittersweet. I'm trying to shove all my stuff  (plus my new painting, see below) in my suitcases! Dad would be appalled.

 

Me & Sister Bl

 

 

This week seemed to fly by faster than most! C was sick so we didn't get to teach him, but he came to church which was good. We also got in contact with some recent converts/less actives we hadn't seen in a bit. And did some tracting.

 

Last picture of me in the Hurstborn District

 

 

Sisters on the bus! You can see Sister Bl's bandaid on her chin that is covering her 9 stitches from last week's bike accident. Poor Sister Bl!!

 

 

Also, funny story of the week, I got a painting in the mail!! Back in Corbin, our Native American recent convert decided that he was going to do a little doodle for each missionary in the ward of the Indian name he had given us. He named me "Starbright." Then, said he actually wanted to get some paint to paint it. Several weeks ago he sent me a letter that said he was almost done and that I'd have to use a screwdriver to get to it!! So, below is a picture of the painting that I got this week! :) 

 

My original "Starbright" painting from my friend K, in Corbin.

 

 I wish I had some sweet prank to pull with all these packing peanuts.

 

 

This week something I've been studying has been Chapter 6 of PMG. When Elder Cardon was here, his wife talked on unity

and how we can apply christlike attributes to our relationships with others. It's really neat to see how you can take attributes such as faith, knowledge, patience, diligence ect and apply them to your relationships with those you associate with or your family or companion! It's neat, because I've tried to develop different christlike attributes on my mission, but as I've tried this week to apply them by putting each attribute in context of how I can use that attribute to benefit others, I've learned so much more about it. I know that striving to become like Christ is not just an internal, personal thing. It necessitates looking outside of yourself and serving and trying to help others. Because that's exactly who Christ was! 

 

I saw this place on Bardstown Road. Interesting name!

The little box of goodies my dad sent me this week--it had mini-sized pens, chocolate & money in it!

 

 

Sister S (my comp in Corbin) is  going home this week. She was in the 1st big wave of Sisters that came to the GKLM. She is awesome & I love her!

 

 

 Pray president doesn't put me on a bike for these next few winter months!! ;) I think I COULD do it, I just also will probably complain a lot and possibly die :) BUT, I got super nervous the other day because what if for some crazy reason I have to drive home from transfer meeting?! I've been mentally reviewing which way you turn the wheel when backing all this week, in case I'm the designated driver in my next area! (That is not an alchohol reference.) Or WORSE, if I have to drive home from transfer meeting in a car I've never driven, to a place I've never been! Which, granted, is higly unlikely, but I went through the entire terrible, mental scenario of having to back out of that busy parking lot surrounded by people I know.  I really do want to drive though. Which do you think would be a worse hazard?? Me biking in the winter or driving??!! :D

 

 

 

 Have a wonderful week!

 

 

-Sister Galloway

 

PS: Happy Birthday Mom!

 

Gratitude in Every Circumstance!

Hello!!

I think if I had to define Heavenly Father in one word, I would say "kind." He is so aware of his children and He always treats us with so much mercy and love. One thing that I've been trying to focus more on lately is gratitude. I've been studying Elder Uchtdorf's talk from last conference on gratitude and trying to apply it more in my life. One thing I've realized is how vital gratitude is to faith. If we don't recognize blessings big or small that we have now, how can we have faith in the future? 

Having gratitude really helped us this week! We contacted about 60 people and everyone must have been having a bad day or something. No one was super nice or wanted to talk to us, but we kept trying to contact anyways. Finally, I said a prayer as I was biking and just a few minutes after we met this awesome lady!! I guess my former companion and I had contacted her a few months ago. We had said a prayer for her mom whose health was declining. She said her mom was not only feeling better, but was going back to work even! She asked us for a Book of Mormon and was very interested in learning more! It was a neat experience. It definitely was a testimony-builder that even when things don't look super great, as long as we are having faith in the future and gratitude towards the present no matter our circumstances- that God will provide and bless us abundantly!

So, crazy story of the week: Sister Bl crashed her bike on our way home Wednesday night at 9:15 pm!! We were cutting through a parking lot to avoid construction. She braked too hard and split her chin open. :( So, we with our bikes, sitting in the dark, empty post office parking lot, with no napkins or anything to put on her chin. There was blood everywhere. We had no way to get home except to bike. BUT, within 30 seconds, this car just HAPPENS to cut through the parking lot and see us sitting on the ground. It's this sweet grandma who is retired from the medical field! So she tells us all the Urgent Care Centers are closed (how dumb is that?), but insists on driving us to the closest hospital. Her husband has a truck so she called him and he picks up our bikes and drops them off for us at home. Then she takes us to the hospital and tells us to call her if we can't get a ride home! She was literally a good Samaritan. I know NOTHING about her except her first name and phone number. (She called the next morning to see if we were okay. How sweet is that? She was SO nice and I thought it was crazy how quickly Heavenly Father sent us help!! He is so very aware of his children.)

Now the part you will be proud of me for: I called the mission president (like we're supposed to) to get permission to go to the ER and I didn't freak out at the gushing blood. I called sister Bl's parents to get her insurance info and sat with her for like 4 hours in the ER waiting room surrounded by miserable, dying people (Ok, That was a figure of speech...hopefully no one was dying). I told her all my embarrassing stories in the ER to keep her distracted because, obviously, she wasn't too happy. It's a good thing I have so many embarrassing stories to tell. (Never thought I'd say that!)  I watched the doctor stitch her chin up THE WHOLE TIME AND DIDN'T LOOK AWAY ONCE--even when blood dripped from the wound, as he was stitching it! And when he stuck a needle in the wound several times to give her shots to numb it, I watched that too! I continued to watch as he put in ALL 9 STITCHES! And I kept watching even when the skin around it got sickly pale-looking because of the loss of blood. Then I examined her stitches afterwards too. I have to take them out in a week!! Let's just say it's a good thing this didn't happen a year ago because as you know, I would have been a MESS. An absolute wreck. But I did it!! :D

Another funny thing is that we were one person away from our contacting goal for the day and were praying for Heavenly Father to put one more person in our path to talk to :P So, on the plus side, we hit our goal that day. Next time, though, we're going to try and avoid having our last contact be the person driving us to the hospital... Haha!

Also, I am convinced that President B doesn't sleep. I think he's probably secretly been transfigured. He told us to call him when we got home, no matter how late it was. So, sure enough, we call him at 3:30 in the morning and he's up, sounds completely awake and is cracking jokes. even. But, thankfully, he told  us not to worry about getting up at 6:30 am and to get the rest we needed the next day. It was weird to sleep in. 

Zone Conference Sept. 2014

One of the challenges of being a missionary is teaching people who had sad/difficult family circumstances in their youth.  They have trouble comprehending the idea of "Heavenly Father" and that he is our perfect "dad," who loves us unconditionally and is always aware of us. The very first thing you teach as a missionary in the first lesson is "God is our loving Heavenly Father" and so many people just cannot understand or believe that. And most often, it's because they don't have a good relationship or feelings towards their earthly parents. It's such a blessing to have parents who loved me in such a way that understanding the nature of God was easy for me. A lot of people don't have that and it makes it hard for them to accept the gospel. Parents are important, especially in just letting their children know that they are loved, unconditionally!!

Have a great week!! :) 

-Sister Ashlyn Galloway  

The Spirit, Sacrifice, Gratitude, and a Rant...

Hello!!!

It feels like a lot has happened this past week! Tuesday we had a conference with Elder Cardon of the Seventy, so that was really neat!! He talked quite a bit about the Spirit. The things he taught were very simple, but very much accompanied by the ​Spirit. He had several missionaries get up and talk about what they had learned about the ​Spirit, and it was interesting to see the differences between the older missionaries and the newer ones. Everyone did really well, but it was interesting to see how the longer a missionary had been out, the more simplistic and clear and basic their testimony and teaching style seemed to be. One thing that my testimony has really grown of this past year, is the importance of Gospel Principles. They seem so basic, but they really are all we need. We don't need to fluff up our lessons and talks, we just need to (as President B said) "prepare ourselves for a talk, instead of preparing a talk". The spirit is what teaches and we need to trust it. Elder Cardon talked about how the Holy Ghost isn't something that we can choose to turn on or off like a faucet, but that it truly is a gift from God, and it's our job to live worthy of it and follow it's promptings whenever Heavenly Father is willing to give them to us because they are precious. Sister Cardon also spoke, and talked about unity, and how we should develop Christlike attributes in our relationships with others and especially in the companionship. At the end of her talk, Elder Cardon remarked that she had "perfect moral authority" on the subject.  There was so much I learned and I wish I could write it all!

At the conference with Elder Cardon. I'm in orange--can you find me??!!

It was really neat, though, because Tuesday when we heard Elder Cardon speak, half the mission was there​.​ I got to see Sister B and Sister S!! And others I knew. It was such a sweet, sweet thing. Especially seeing Sister S, who I haven't seen in 6 months!!! Many times on my mission I've asked "why" I had to sacrifice so much, and so many good things, like family and friends. At times, I've felt sad and that I was missing out on happiness and in different things. It's strange to try and reconcile and really, truly understand WHY Heavenly Father asks missionaries to sacrifice things that are good. But, seeing Sister S and others Tuesday gave me a deeper spiritual understanding of sacrifice. I was filled with SO much joy and happiness that I could never have felt without sacrifice, without hard times together, and without saying "see you later" to family and others. Heavenly Father's PURPOSE is our JOY! And sometimes he wants us to wait, like a mom wants her child to wait for dessert, but it's all for us to have the fullest measure of joy. And sacrifice is a part of reaching that. It was just such a happy day, and I can honestly say that I've met some of my best friends on my mission. And only looking at this one aspect of a mission, it really does make it worth it. Let alone all the other blessings I've already felt.

​ ​

(One of those being gospel knowledge. WHAT. THE. HECK​?? I don't think I understood the ​G​ospel at ALL before my mission!!! What were they teaching me in ​Primary/​Sunday ​School/​YW​'s?! OR was I just NOT paying attention?! Because I have learned soooo much about the principle​s of the Gospel. I'd read the Book Of Mormon before, but I swear it's a whole new book now!! I didn't even know what the doctrine of Christ was!!! And what the ​Gospel is! And Prophets are SO important and I didn't even realize that. And, I STILL don't fully grasp the Plan of Salvation! So that's my next task. GAH. SO MUCH TO LEARN. WHAT DID I WASTE MY LIFE DOING BEFORE MY MISSION!?!?) OKay, rant over!! :)

This week we also had a ​Zone ​Conference which was also very uplifting!! I don't care how  many trainings I have on the ​Atonement, I learn something new every time and the ​Spirit is always present. The ​Atonement really is what missionary work is all about. It's why it's even possible!!

 ​This week we also taught C. He is super great!!! I don't know if I mentioned him last week, but his friend sent him a Book of Mormon a year and a half ago. We had a really neat lesson with him this week! We were trying to teach the doctrine of Christ, but he ended up basically teaching himself the ​Word of ​Wisdom. He had looked it up on Mormon.org. He said it was basically everything that his doctor told him to do anyway. Truth. Gotta love it :) ​He came to church Sunday, too.

​However, some ​Investigators are crazy. Having them at church is much like having kids, I think.

"​N​o, sit here"

"​P​ut your phone away, be reverent!"

"Wow, I wish someone would come help me"

"Yes, I know it's long but you can do it"

"Don't put that in your mouth! Go spit it out"

(Yes, last Sunday one of our 'gators came with chew in his mouth!)

***At least, that's how it feels sometimes! hahaha.​***​

​I had an epiphany on gratitude.​ After reading Elder Uchtdorf's talk from last Conference, I realized that gratitude is vital to having faith. How can we have faith/hope in the future if we don't recognize God's hand in our lives TODAY? Having faith just isn't going out on a limb. It's being grateful that you have a limb to go out on and realizing that since you have a limb, you probably are in a forest and there will probably be another limb to grasp as well.

Lunch with the Hermanas.

I love the gospel so much and I​ know that this is Christ's restored church. There is a peace and a happiness that I get from it, that comes to me from no other source. I know that studying and applying the basic principle​s of the Gospel is so vital. There is so much to them, but these things can only be "learned and not taught" like Elder Packer mentioned last conference. Heavenly Father loves us, and speaks to us through the ​Spirit. I know he teaches us as individuals and wants us to have joy.

Love,

Sister Galloway

Quote of the week:

"I'm going to go to the bathroom now, but I might cry when I get back"

-30 year old drunk man we taught this week