The Portland Adventure: Shout out to my Mother.

Hey, fam-bam-bino!

Today I woke up absolutely invigorated to serve with even more of my
heart and I have my family to thank for that. Getting to see your
faces and hear all of your voices yesterday was the most amazing gift
I ever could ask for. I felt so happy as I shared some of my favorite
recent happenings, but even happier as each member of my family shared
their experiences of sharing the gospel with those around them. You
all are so brave and so incredible!

I just want to be sure that I did not take the spotlight from the real
deserving woman yesterday. So this one is for my mama! YOU ARE THE
BEST MOTHER IN ALL OF THE WORLD. Yes, you are! I am going to paste in
a piece of the email that I sent to her earlier this morning because I
want the whole wide world to hear about this amazing woman, Miss Julie
Anne.

"My favorite part of talking with the family yesterday was that our
entire conversation (excepting the Nacho and Bob moments) was focused
on missionary work and not just the full-time missionary's work, but
YOUR work. You are the most amazing mother I know, and I really mean
that, I know and have met a lot of mothers. I hope you recognize that
and I hope you felt the spirit was strongly as I did as we were all
talking together. Look at the family you raised alongside Dad. Your
daughter is raising her own beautiful family and rearing her children
in the gospel. Your other daughters were sharing tracting stories,
sharing experiences of meeting random people and bringing the love of
the Savior to their doorstep. Your son is teaching so many people and
allowing them to feel that love too, he is reaching out to his own
family members and preparing them to enter the Holy Temple and make
sacred covenants. We each gained our testimonies and became aware of
those sacred covenants because of a righteous mother who loves God. We
wouldn't know who He was if our mother had not loved Him with all her
heart and taught us the importance of coming to know Him ourselves.
Being a parent is scary because the outcome of your children lies on
your shoulders, it's a pretty big gamble. But, I don't believe it's a
gamble at all, it's more of an investment. You invested your most
valuable and precious truths in us, your 5 children (and so very many
other people you have met) and prayed for us, that we would accept it.
Your faith paid off, Mom. Just look at your beautiful family. I love
you so much, always will!"

I would also like to recommend two videos to you all! The first is
called, "To Every Mother," the second is, "It Was Mom: A Mother's Day
Tribute to Moms." Watch them and reflect on all that you hold dear,
all that is important to you, really all that you have in this life
and it all in some way leads back to Mom. Thank you for making me who
I am!

Our week was really good. We started teaching a new woman named
Florita. She is incredibly sweet and so very interested. Her best
friend's name is Tito, they are just adorable and are the cutest
couple of buddies. They are probably about 70 and are just a hoot to
be around. Florita's mother passed away a few years ago and she has
had a really hard time with that, especially feeling very depressed.
The elders from Hillsboro were tracting and met her, she expressed the
pain she has felt since her mother passed to them. They asked her if
she believes in God and if she ever had prayed for comfort or
strength. She said that she actually had prayed for comfort earlier
that day before they came. They then promised her that the message
that we would come and share with her would be the peace and comfort
that God was trying to give her in response to her prayer. It was a
great first meeting with her, she loved it and is excited to come to
church and for us to come see her again!

Second, Kyle got baptized! If you remember him, the sisters started
teaching him right before we got into the area. We taught him about
three times over the time of my first 2 weeks here in Oak Hills, then
we passed him over to the Young Single Adults ward in Beaverton. Well,
during our last lesson with him we set a baptism date with him for May
10 and he stuck with it! It was such an incredible baptism service,
the spirit really was so strong. After the baptism, he came up to
Sister Benson and I and said, "So, I can go on a mission in a year
now." AH! We are so excited for him. I am so grateful that I got to be
involved, even in this small way. It strengthened me more than I
strengthened Kyle, but I will always remember that day and the way I
felt there.

Third, we got to go to the temple again this week. My third session in
the Portland, Oregon Temple and it was just lovely. I love it there
and the peaceful feeling that always resides on the temple grounds. I
feel so very blessed to get to go so often!

Fourth, we made a Mother's Day dinner for Sister Morby, our mission
mom! It was so much fun to spend time with the Morby's and get a
chance to serve them in return for all that they do for us. They are
the best mission parents i could ever ask for. We always have such a
good time and laugh so much when we are with them. I truly have fallen
in love with my mission!

Well I love you all so much! We just got home from spending the day
downtown for our p-day. It was lots of fun! I will try and send pics!
Love you guys!