Strong Faith Strong Arms

What an amazing week!
I started it off with a great day at interfaith, I got to travel across town to another one of their offices to help organize some files and put things back together for these 2 ladies that just moved to that office. And the second half of the day I got to work a little in the food pantry (which I loved) and I got to sit in a meeting about their Adopt a Family event that they will be doing and I will be helping with this Christmas, which I am really excited about!

Tuesday was a hot day and we worked outside all day at Habitat for Humanity. Which was so good because that means that the insides are pretty much done and the families can move in soon! I pretty much just cut fence wood with a chop saw (making my dad proud;)) then painted the fences white. Lots of carrying wood back and forth making my arms stronger (if you know me you know I need that haha) but we got lots done and were able to put up lots of the fence.

Wednesday was a great day at Family History I finally feel like I'm starting to get how to actually do it which is nice. But I still take breaks to index (transcribing old birth death etc records)  because it is my favorite. That day there was not a lot of beginning documents to index so I choose the one that said it was the easiest and went for it. Starting it was hard and as I kept going all the information was put in wrong and had to be redone and the names were very hard to read for me.Luckily last week I got some tips on how I can make family history and indexing not as boring for me. One of those was to pray before I start that I could be guided on what to look for and to know what I am looking at. With some help from Sister Anderson I was starting to get it, but sadly it was time to leave so I promised her that I wouldn't give up and to hold me accountable to finish it! I have been working on it all this week and finally finished the document a few days ago and got confetti! Looking back I know that I could not have done that alone, that Heavenly Father helped me all along the way to have the motivation to do it and to see clearly the words on the paper.

The last thing I had this week was Mission Conference since the temple is closed for cleaning. But wow Mission Conference was AWESOME. We had a Chaplain come who gave such a great talk. He talked all about how we need to keep pressing forward despite out failures. I loved the first little story he told. He talked about how he was watching a documentary with his son and it was about giraffes. It started with a giraffe giving birth, then once the baby giraffe was born he quickly stood up and right when he stood up his mom pushed him back down to the ground. This happened 3 times until she finally stopped. He told us how the English accented voice came on and explained that the mother did this so her baby giraffe would remember how he stood up and so he could  learn to keep standing back up. This is something that we all need to remember! Even when we feel we finally just stand up and are on our feet and are doing great... We will get knocked down, and sadly we may fail. But it is how we respond to our failures and our setbacks that builds our character. Do we make our trials take over our lives or do we stand up and keep trying no matter what may knock us down. *hint* the answer is KEEP TRYING, keep standing back up, keep believing in God and trusting in his plan.

I hope you all have a great week and remember that when you fail and feel like you want to give up, you are not alone... Cause trust me it happens to me a lot. I  also hope you remember how stand back up, not give up and keep moving forward.

Love you all
<3
Sister Owsley


Pictures
1. Interfaith food pantry (me being OCD:))
2. Making my dad proud ... with a super blurry awk picture
3. Confetti
4. Me with my mission leader and wife (Elder and Sister Bramwell) they are THE BEST
5. Look I’ve made friends!

Are you a Nun?

The answer is NO!

Haha so this week has been so great! I started my week off at interfaith and I got to work in the food pantry which is something that I loved doing way more than I though I would! Pretty much in the food pantry we organize all the food donations that come in on the shelves then when we get a green slip saying that someone needs food and how many people are in their family and what appliances they have we load up boxes of food and hygiene stuff for them to take out! It is super cool to see their reactions when we give them their boxes and how grateful they are. I got to work with a lady and a man and it was all of our first times! They could not figure out how to say my last name so they just resorted to calling me sister O. And one asked if I was a nun haha (that’s the 2nd time if gotten asked that question)

Habitat was nice and I got to paint again and touch up the spots that have been messed. The one main thing that I did for about 2 hours was fix this dang door. This door was was not put in properly, and everything they could have done wrong to this door they did. But with a little help from sand paper, caulking, a scraper, paint and with lots of patience the door now looks beautiful.

Family History was super fun this week we all shared stories from our ancestors and it was awesome to hear about everyone’s background. We also celebrated sister Anderson’s birthday with party hats and brownies! Not going to lie Family History is something that I have and am finding something harder to start and get into for myself, but luckily I have awesome mission leaders who are so helpful and motivating! I’m learning to not get overwhelmed by everything and remember that these names are real people!

I got to bring Sister Vargas and Sister Caudill with me to my temple shift since they are going to be working also (which I’m excited about having someone to talk to during the traffic drive home).

Last thing I just wanted to say how grateful I am for this gospel. I have been struggling a little with truly diving into this mission and not getting distracted by worldly things. As I have prayed for helped and studied my scriptures I have been able to see how the Spirit has spoken to me about different things that I need to do to be able to give my mission my all! And I am so grateful for that! I am also grateful for Christ’s example of charity and for the different ways that I get to try to emulate Christ like Charity every week in this mission. I want to challenge you all to try to serve others with charity, love, and how Christ would!

I would love to know: What is your favorite way to serve others?

Love you all and hope you have an week amazing!

Sister Owsley

Missonaries!

This week was a little empty as far as assignments go. Due to Labor Day on Monday I had that Day off. I did get to go to Habitat for Humanity on Tuesday and I got a "special assignment" When she told that to me I was excited (like anyone would be) thinking I was going to be doing something different and cool. But I was wrong I got to fix and paint more baseboards which I actually love to do, so it was great. Wondering how in the world they weren't done with the baseboards by now the lady who is over me said that they tried to get someone else to do it, but they didn't know how to tape, so they didn't do the best job, so they have been waiting for me to work so I could finish them. Anyways I'm just glad to be helping and serving there with such fun people.

Family History was great! I've been doing a lot of Indexing and I love it. I even found someone with the same Birthday as me which was cool. And the best part is the confetti that fills your computer screen after you finish a batch.

The only other thing that I did this week was my Saturday temple assignment, because I had to cancel my other one due to this dang cold that is going around. But like always it was such a great day and a beautiful day with bright blue skies when I finished my shift.

I hope everyone has had a great week! I have loved having some downtime this week to really dive into my scripture study. And with general conference coming up (which I am SO excited about) I have loved preparing for it by listening to the talks from last conference! I have received so much inspiration by doing that and have seen some of the things that the Prophet and Apostles promised 6 months ago be put into action. I challenge all of you to try reading or listening to a conference talk if not each day, every week. I know that by listening to the words of our beloved leaders you will be blessed.

Love you all!!

Sister Owsley

Pics:

1. Me and Shannon because today was her farewell and she’s going to be an awesome missionary in the Philippines 🇵🇭

2. Welcoming a new sister into the mission Sister Caudill at her setting apart!

The wise man built his house upon a rock

Here is my lame attempt to combine 2 weeks together because I forgot to send last weeks email out :)

Week 8/19/18-8/25/18
I am pretty sure Monday was just a few hours ago... This week has gone by so fast!
I started working at Interfaith and I am so excited to do all sorts of different things there. This week was mostly paperwork and handbook reading but I did get to do some filing projects bringing me back to the good ole days when I was an office assistant ha so that was fun. I also got to meet this guy named pat. He is an amazing catholic man who works at interfaith. Talking to him he was telling me that his house burned down in the 2007 fires, he then went on and on telling me how amazing the "Mormons" (Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ;)) were, helping them clean passing out supplies and donating Christmas presents for families. He then proceeded to tell me how there was only one other faith that did a little more than we did and that was the Protestants, and he Sid that during that fire the Catholics came in 3rd but not to worry because during the fires following that the Catholics were the best. Although I may find this very funny I also find it so amazing how so many people of different Faiths come together when people are in times of need. Cause ultimately we are all here to help each other in any way we can.
Tuesday was one of those days that when I got home I sat myself on the couch and didn't move the rest of the Day. Working at Habitat I pretty much got to dig and move rocks around for 6 hours which was so great! We leveled out patches of dirt so when people come to plant all the plants they can do it fast and with ease! but MAN all these houses are built on rocks, lots and lots of rocks which made it so fun to dig. Needless to say I may or may not still be sore, but it was also a super awesome day cause you got to see the final result of your work all done.
Family History and Institute this week was awesome I got to pick up 2 new sisters and bring them along with me which was fun! And I only got lost for 15 minutes and had to do 5 U-turns but we made it alive that's all that matters :)
Working at the temple is amazing as always, and I have loved meeting and serving with new people there who are about to leave on their missions.

Week 8/26/18-9/1/18
Mission Conference!!! We got to combine Mission Conference with the San Diego Mission this month because of the mission tour so we got to have 2 members of the 70 with us. Elder Mckay and Elder Pearson. It was such an amazing conference and we learned so many think about acting like representatives of the Lord, and about how we need to never give in, up or out.  Before this conference our mission president emailed us and asked us to read 2 articles and prepare a 3-5 minute talk on What we are doing to become better missionaries. Getting this email the evening before conference and being with family that was in town I only I time to read the talks, then as we got to the conference early I wrote a few notes just in case I had to speak (but come on I have done my fare share of speaking the past couple of week so I didn't think I was going to have to) and guess who was the only one in our mission to speak... Me. But of corse it was a great experience and is was so great to be able to get up and bare testimony in front of some incredible missionaries.
Tuesday at Habitat was a stress relieving day for me. I got to clean and spackle and tape and paint baseboards in the downstairs of one of the houses. I worked on that for the whole day but got it ALL done and it looked so nice after and was very therapeutic for my OCD haha.
The temple was amazing as always and Adam got to meet me after one of my shifts which was super fun.

That’s is all for the past 2 weeks. Now enjoy my pics of my accomplishments these past weeks

Love y’all
Sister Owsley


1. Flattened out all that dirt
2. Cleaned, filled holes with spackle, taped and painted base boards
3. Including under the kitchen cabinets:)
4. Temple with Adam