The Coat

Hello from the land of the cornfields and soy beans!

First of all, I want to shout out to my mother who IS HAVING A BIRTHDAY ON WEDNESDAY! Woo hoo (: don't party too hard without me — lol!

Also, I can't believe it but tomorrow is my eleven month mark! Ohhhhh my goodness where has the time gone?!?! I am getting so OLLLLLLLD in the mission! Which reminds me — I am also going to be turning 20 later this week and will no longer be a teenager... So basically I am double old!

This week was incredibly incredible, and just went by so darn fast. Sister Hansen and I can hardly believe it has already been 3 weeks, I mean, the transfer is half over... Like what? Where did the time go??!

Tuesday I went to Marion for an exchange with the beautiful Sister Parker!!

Exchanges with Sister Parker

Love this sister so much. Cool thing — she is from Idaho and worked at DQ with this couple that was in my last area. They had told me to keep an eye out for her and whaddya know?! I get to go on exchanges with her... BOOM! Anyways, we had so much fun, and saw so much grace.

We had SO. MUCH. FUN.

I ended up staying in Marion for two nights because we had Zone Conference there the next day, and since Marion is like forty minutes away we figured it would make the most sense not to add the extra trip.

And then Wednesday, we had Zone Conference! It was really awesome. I learned a lot from the Spirit about how I can have more power in my teaching. One specific thing was using the language of the Book of Mormon. There are powerful phrases in that book (for example: Broken heart and contrite Spirit) that, when used, really create a strong atmosphere of the Spirit. I also learned that I should have a greater focus on having more revelatory studies. The more revelation we seek, the more we will receive, and sometimes it's easy to get lazy since studies are so early. But since I have put a greater emphasis on it, I have been receiving all sorts of revelation! It has been so cool.

Later that night, Sister Hansen and I had a Stake Reports meeting with the zone leaders, Stake President, and President Welch. That was fun. Sometimes those meetings can be stressful but it went well and then we all went to dinner afterwards.

Those of you who know me know I use oil wipes...and that's what all the leadership of Muncie Stake needed to use after a full day of meetings! The SHINE was REAL.

Friday was a super cool day! Sister Hansen and I were invited by the Winchester Branch President to visit some single sisters and recent converts in his branch. Right now, the branch only has a set of Elders, but by some inspiration, sister missionaries were needed. We traveled to Winchester (like a 35 minute drive) and one of the sweet members took us around to visit people and it was great. We got to meet some of the coolest people, and then Sister "S" took us to dinner afterwards, to this place called Chocolate Mousse, which had one of the best burgers I have EVER had in my (almost) twenty years of living — seriously, I mean... what's not to love? The patties were half beef, half bacon — AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Cute Restaurant we went to in Farmland, Indiana(:

Look at me, holding Woody's hand... couldn't help it!

LOVE LOVE LOVE water towers in small towns...

An interesting comment that Sister "S" made was that none of the five or six lessons we taught that day were the same. She said she could tell we were teaching by the Spirit and that every lesson was very specific for the person we were teaching. Sometimes I don't notice those things, but that made me think of just how incredible it is that the Spirit literally puts into our minds what we need to say do to bless those around us. Revelation is the coolest thing and it is available to us EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. as we seek it.

Saturday, Sister Hansen and Sister Ferrara (a sister missionary serving in Muncie 1st Ward) had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Indy temple for a session with a girl they worked with and helped get to the temple. So I spent most of the day with Sister Ferrara's companion, Sister Compton, who was Sister Evensen's (my cute mission daughter!) MTC companion. We were lucky because it was pouring rain that day but we had an indoor service project, and every time we were actually outside it either wasn't raining or it was only sprinkling.

But we had the coolest miracle happen! We stopped by one of our recent converts' homes, and we arrived the same time as her brother and niece. We ended up having a lesson with all of them, and "P's" brother said he would be interested in learning more! We are going to start teaching him in her home next Sunday. It was also totally his birthday so Sister Compton and I sang Happy Birthday to him at the end. That was fun! We saw "P" on Sunday and she told us that her brother absolutely loved our visit and message! And she said she will be inviting him to church this Sunday and to the ward activity on Saturday. We are so excited to start working with him!

 Sunday was cool. We had an extra hour of church because our investigator could only come to the 1 o'clock meeting, which was YSA, and so we joined him for that. Then we had a bunch of afternoon meetings.

That brings us to today! We went bowling with the south zone today. I was pretty bad.... BUT I DID NOT COME IN LAST PLACE! Hallelujah. haha

We have a busy week ahead! I am so thankful for this work and for the opportunity I have to be a part of it. I have found that when I lose myself in the service of God, I feel greater joy and happiness and I feel strong.

Speaking of service, Sister Hansen showed me this video and it literally made me cry! Twice! It has the most beautiful message, so I encourage you all to watch it this week and pay attention to how it makes you feel!

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/collection/kids/the-coat-1

Love, Sister Feil
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