"Apostate Piece of Crap"‏

I am pretty sure that Sierra forgot to tell the great story behind the title of her email this week.... It sure sounds like it would have been pretty interesting ;) Love that she has not lost her "blondness". Sounds like she is doing great :)

Hola! 

This week was the same old same old in good ol Gresham. I will break
down the week like always :) 

 Monday: p-day! So the couple we live with the wife was out of town
this weekend and because only the husband was home we had to spend the
nights over the weekend with 2 other sets of sisters. These sisters
are so much fun! One of our some leaders has a Batman doll that is
holding onto a string with a suction cup on the other end do the
string so they have Batman hanging outside of the car when they are
driving. This Batman is this elders child, and the 4 sisters stole him
and have held him hostage for a week or two. They found out we were
spending the weekend and they challenged us to a mission that I
accepted and we stole Batman Monday morning. We are sneaky sneaky. We
did our shopping and car washing and such and we headed over to the
church to play basketball. We gave Batman back to the elders and they
paid us in Nutter Butters. We are taking all sorts of pictures of
Batman tied up to a chair and duct tape over his mouth and stuff just
to be dorks haha! We are teasing the sisters non stop though for
stealing him :) we went on exchanges Monday night to Tuesday night. I
went to a different area with one of my favorite former companions
Sister Thorson. We had an awesome lesson with a less active lady and
we drove around and handed out "Family Proclamations" and B.O.M.
That's always fun :) haha then we partied it up and did what 21 year
old girls do best: giggle and laugh and tell stories, etc. 

 Tuesday: I had exchanges with Sister Thorson and it was way fun! We
did the same ol' missionary stuff I was just in a different ward. We
didn't have anything particularly exciting happen it was just fun to
spend the day together. That evening after we switched back we taught
a guy who is awesome! He has really good questions about the plan of
salvation. He is a recent convert and is really diving in to learn
more. He has thought a lot about the veil and we had a really good
discussion about it. I realized while I was talking to him what a
blessing the veil is for us. This is the way I think of it:
missionaries get excited and anxious for our life when we get home-
friends and family at the airport, a party of some sort, speaking in
sacrament meeting, etc. It's the same when we pass from this life- we
have dozens of friends and family waiting to welcome us back and to
congratulate us on a job well done and we get to help the work further
on that side of the veil. Going along with the apology, missionaries
get homesick because they remember all the fun things and people from
before their mission and that's what we constantly reflect back on.
Imagine if we could remember our home with Heavenly Father? We would
be so terribly homesick!! We wouldn't want to keep working hard and
going through trials and sickness and everything else because we know
how much happier we were before. Because we can't remember it we are
able to focus on the here and now and strive for that welcome back
home. According to Bruce C. Hafen he explains this idea very well,
"This earth is not our home. We are away at school, trying to master
the lessons of “the great plan of happiness” so we can return home and
know what it means to be there." I agree with this 100%

 Wednesday: Today is the day I found out sweet Grandma Mary was going
to pass on. I got a call from President Taylor and he told me that my
mama had called me and my great-grandmother wasn't doing well. I asked
him which one and he said, "you have more than one?!" Haha but he have
me permission to call my mama. It was a tender mercy to be able to
talk to her for a little while. I love my mama so much! Just hearing
her voice brought me comfort. I was and am still shocked that I
haven't mourned like how I would have expected to. I owe that
completely to my mission and for the understanding I have gained about
the plan of happiness. I am so happy for grandma! She is in a perfect
spirit form once again as an adult with grandpa! Can you imagine the
joy they have right now?! :) she is free from aches and pains and she
gets to help out everyone she can and wants! She is helping out others
on both sides of the veil I have no doubt about that :) also in a year
she will be able to receive her endowment and be sealed to grandpa.
They will be so happy! Some people may find me morbid for feeling this
way, but I have so much peace knowing first off where grandma is and
secondly that she is happy :) she is also able to see Nick again and I
am sure that reunion was wonderful :)
We had zone meeting Wednesday morning. I love this zone! Pretty much,
this mission is spoiled with awesome Elders and Sisters! I have been
so blessed with the people I have served with. Our zone leaders are
amazing! They work way hard and have a really fun time while doing it.
They keep things interesting that's for sure :) haha afterwards we had
some lessons that went well. We are helping a close friend of ours to
quit smoking. She is a champ! She stopped cold turkey and she knew the
withdrawals would be awful so I gave up all desserts and Sister Rust
gave up ice cream and chocolate to do this all together. She really is
amazing though! She has such a great attitude about life and even
though her circumstances are hard she stays strong in the gospel and
keeps on keepin on. 

 Thursday: we had zone conference today (that's where a few zones all
meet together and we have different trainings about aspects of
missionary life and the missionaries who would be flying home in the
next 3 months bear their testimonies to everyone). First and foremost
I checked my Facebook during lunch to see if a friend of ours messaged
us and I saw Alex and Natalie are getting married!!!!!!!! I punched my
companions arm way hard and showed her the picture and I was freaking
out!!!!! I mean come on, we all knew this was going to happen, but it
is actually in motion!!! :D yeah!! I am so happy for them!!! I sure do
love those 2 :) a few of the elders who bore their testimonies during
the meeting are some I have grown the closest to on my mission so
there is going to be a huge hole to fill when they fly home in 3
weeks. I have definitely learned that we can have fun AND be a
missionary. Those who haven't served a mission are probably thinking
that's obvious, but being a missionary you don't want to do anything
that could negatively influence someone's decision to come closer to
Christ so a lot of us default to robot/dull/serious mode when really
people are looking for a person who is happy to be apart of a church.
These elders exemplify that. They have a ton of fun and they are great
missionaries! It is weird to think I will be bearing my testimony at
the next zone conference most likely, maybe the next? I don't know
haha 

 Friday- weekly planning. Whoot whoot. We taught a lesson to a part
member family. Only the mom is a member and her husband and 3 kids are
being taught. We asked each of them individually why they wanted to be
baptized and one of the boys said, "so you will stop coming over."
Hahaha!! I laughed way hard, poor kids we bore him to tears. I am not
a boring teacher I can promise you that because my arms are flying and
I am loud. We are thinking about reenacting Samuel the Lamanite and
have them try and shoot me downs or Ammon and we chop off their arms
or something like that to be even more fun :) eh?
The coolest miracle EVER happened on Friday!!
Once upon a time we were at our dinner appointment. The family who was
feeding us had a late start because they got home late from work so we
were helping them cook. It was fun :) we got a call from a member
explaining the mother of 2 of the foster kids they care for was
sitting on the corner of the street pan handling. These children have
wanted to be baptized for almost a year now and the parents would give
them permission only with strings attached that wasn't allowed with
DHS so it was a sticky situation. We left our dinner appointment and
told them we would be back soon. We pulled up to the McDonalds, said a
prayer asking for the right words to come and to help them. We walked
up to her and started talking to her. We talked with her for a long,
long time and we figured out that she was for sure the kids mom and
that she has a really strong faith in Jesus Christ. Towards the end of
this conversation that was really good and the spirit was strong, the
spirit filled Sister Rust and I. Sister Rust first started testifying
of promises that she will receive as she turns her life around and
starts following the commandments and that she will be happy. It was
beautiful! I was then directed by the spirit and told her something
along the lines of "the most Christlike thing you can do is to give
your children permission to be baptized and to follow the example of
Jesus Christ. They desire to continue on their spiritual path and they
cannot without your permission. They will be grateful for you for the
rest of their existence for this choice you will make." I pulled a pad
of paper and a pen out of Sister Rusts purse and handed it to her and
she signed it! It was such an amazing miracle! I feel like Moroni
right now that my writing is weak compared to my speech. I promise
this was so amazing!! If I could explain this in person it would be so
much better :) so they are getting baptized this weekend! Whoot whoot
:) 

 Saturday: we did some service as a zone and that was really fun! This
oober cute 10 year old little girl named Vivian and I became best
friends. She was talking to us about Christ for about 20 min straight
and she told me "after I am done being a sister I should be a
catholic"

 :)

K I am tired of typing haha! I hope everyone is doing great! Love you! :)

*** ONE YEAR!!! ***

I have been out on my mission for one year on Thursday. That is kind
of insane! Sometimes it feels like I just left. But the majority of
the time it feels like I have been out for way longer. But it is kind
of crazy to think back to the day I got dropped off at the MTC and how
much I have changed, grown, and learned. It's amazing! I am so
grateful for my mission :) if anyone would like to send me a letter,
that would be awesome ;) haha

My first full week in Gresham was good! It's funny, I am not sure what
to write anymore in my emails. Let's take a poll :) people tell me
what they like to hear from me and I will write about those things :)
I really don't want to bore people so let me know and that would be
awesome :)

There is one miracle I want to send :) yesterday we were driving
around and I saw a families name in our ward that we know are
inactive. I asked Sister Rust if we should stop by there and we both
felt really good about it. We stopped by and the husband was way nice!
We talked with him for a while (he rides a honda motorcycle dad. The
type of road bike you are thinking of getting) and I told him about
how you have a Harley dad :) he told us that his whole family has been
inactive for years and yesterday morning he told his wife, "you know,
I think I want to start going back to church." Guess who shows up on
his porch later that day?? :) GOD DOESNT DO RANDOM. The 3 of us knew
that we all needed to be there that day and he is so excited to come
back to church and to meet us again :)

Also I saw an investigator I taught in Vancouver get baptized. He
seemed so happy! It was great :)

I hope everyone is doing great! Sorry for the short email!

Love, Seester Birch :)

Welcome to the family Amelia!!! :)‏

Hi everyone!! I first and foremost want to congratulate Ash and Brian
on sweet Amelia Dawn!! She looks adorable and I cannot wait to meet
her :) she looks a ton like Lilly so I am really excited to see how
much they will look like each other. I hope you are feeling well Ash
and Amelia is doing well also!!! :)

We got transfer news this week that Sister Herpich and I are both
moving. I am going back to Oregon in Gresham and my new companion is a
sister I just love! This will be so much fun :) a ton of missionaries
I am close with are flying home tomorrow, it's crazy! And McKay is
flying in tomorrow morning. I am stoked to find out who his trainer is
:) and I will for sure see him on Wednesday. Cray cray :)

Here is a break down of my week :)

Monday: we ran all over the place during P-day, so that was fun. We
went out to dinner with our ward mission leader, his wife, and his
mother in law. It was so fun! We went to this nummy Italian restaurant
:) we taught Josh with an awesome member who we just adore! Josh is as
awesome as ever!

Tuesday: we had district meeting. I love my district! Actually, my
whole zone is way tight. We all get along so well and it is a blast!!
:) we met with a less active member and talked with her about family
history work. She is catching the bug. I am excited to do family
history work when I get home it seems so fun! :) especially because I
am endowed it makes me want to live up to my covenants more because I
want to go to the temple worthily for my ancestors. I want The Lord to
know he can depend on me to do the work for those who have passed on.
I can't wait to be searching and searching for a name, and finally
find them and help them along the path back to Heavenly Father. It's
the best hobby I can think of :) we taught our new friend who I just
adore! She introduced us to one of her friends and we all talked for a
long time. They both loved our discussion and want to meet with us
more :) sadly we are getting transferred :( we had dinner with an
amazing couple who have the coolest "how you met" story I have ever
heard! We walked around for a while contacting people and making
visits. We visited sweet Sister Johnson to wish her a happy birthday.
I sure do love her :)

Wednesday: this day was good, nothing super out of the ordinary though :)

Thursday: Sister Herpich made 15 bags of candy and wrote "sweet is the
peace the gospel brings" on them and we delivered them to members and
doorbell ditched them :) we helped clean one of our friends garages.
We had lunch with a member and a sweet woman we met on Easter Sunday.
We ate on this ladies patio and her yard is gorgeous!! It was so fun
:) the rest of the evening we had visits and meetings back to back so
it was a good day :)

Friday: I got a little sick that morning so we stayed in for an hour
or two then I felt pretty good :) we found out news about transfers
and we are both way sad because we love this ward a ton!! We do have
peace though so we know this is what The Lord needs to have happen at
this time. Again we had a bunch of visits and we were busy busy.

Saturday: I love Mama Hobbs!!! She took us to the temple!! :) oh my, I
absolutely love the temple! It was such an amazing morning! I will
never forget her :) we had appointments throughout the day and we had
dinner with another amazing couple! This ward is just chuck full of
amazing members :)

Sunday: Sister Herpich and I were both asked to bare our testimonies
during sacrament to bid our farewells. It was bitter sweet. I will
definitely come back and visit this ward, I love the members so, so
very much!! One of our friends decided he wants to be baptized! :) it
will either be this weekend or the next and we are very excited about
that! We spend some time with some amazing people and it was a
wonderful evening :)

The Lord has blessed me so very much on my mission! It is miraculous.
I am truly so grateful to him for these experiences and for the people
I have met. There is no other way I would have met all of these
wonderful people that have changed me than serving a mission. It has
been by far the best thing for my life :)

Love you alls!!

Sister Birch :)

Did You Know......

Hi family! :) I'll break down the week again:

Monday: it was my birthday. I am spoiled!! You all are so sweet to me
to send me gifts and packages and cards it is so kind! Thank you so
much :) the ward spoiled Sister Herpich and I. People were giving us
cards and texting us and spending time with us it was amazing!! We
went out to breakfast with a member and her cute kids. We did our
shopping and emailing then we went over to a members home to watch
"The Other Side of Heaven" and eat snacks and treats. Then we walked
around a little bit and tried contacting some people then some other
members gave us some fudge sickles to say happy birthday. It was an
awesome day and I am so grateful for everyone who made it that way! :)
I love y'all!

Tuesday: we had lunch with some members and we taught some lessons.
Our dinner cancelled because they were all sick so an AWESOME family had us come over 




















last minute. Their son came home from his mission about a year ago and
taught us this awesome way on how to work with members so we are way
excited to try it out :) our new investigator we met with read all of
1 Nephi and 5 chapters in 2 Nephi in a week! She said her prayers
changed and she is feeling so much joy and clarity in her life after
she started studying. She is truly a golden investigator. She already
believes in everything we share with her because she has believed it
for a long time but no one has discussed it with her. It's amazing!
Truly. We helped our bishops sons family move that night as well.
Bishops family is a wonderful group of saints! They are so kind and
hardworking and dedicated to the gospel I love spending time with them
:) it was really fun!

Ahhh!!! I am running out of time!!! K, I will tell you a few highlights k? :)

The new investigator who is golden told us on Thursday that she wants
to be baptized and she is already inviting people to her baptism and
she asked her friend to take the discussions with her and he said yes!
Miracle!! :)

We helped an amazing member of our ward wash her convertable. I will
send pictures :)

We cut through a members backyard and we didn't realize she doesn't
have a gate and she wasn't home so we jumped the gate. I hopped it in
a pencil skirt. That's legit. I'll add a picture too :) we did break a
chair of hers though.

We taught 33 lessons! That's a lot we are busy busy because this ward
is phenomenal! It's great :) the part I do not understand is that we
taught 33 lessons and still had time to do service. This week was way
fun! :)

I hope you all are doing great! Love you :)

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY :)!!!!!!!!!

Yahoo!!! Everyone ready to celebrate?! :D whoot whoot it's my
> birthday! 
> Oh my goodness this week has been an absolute blur because it has been
> so darn fun!! I will try to break it down :)
> 
> Monday: we had a mission birthday party because the Washington
> Vancouver Mission started July 1, 2013 so the whole mission celebrated
> together and had a BBQ. It was awesome and so fun to see everyone!
> 
> Tuesday: we had a ton of appointments with less active people. I love
> them all they are hilarious!! Haha at one ladies house I was laughing
> a ton! At another one we were talking about the word of wisdom and we
> got talking about eating meat. K, I haven't ever really enjoyed meat.
> A steak or cheap Chinese food every now and then is tasty but I never
> buy it on my own. That day I decided, "that's it! I am vegetarian." So
> I am :) yeah! The only time I eat meat now is if a member makes it for
> us. The only dairy I eat too is cheese and candy so I am practically
> vegan too. miracle story! K, so this lady
> talked to a member of the ward who moved 2 weeks ago right before she
> moved. The 2 ladies talked for over 3 hours about the church. The non
> member got really excited and referred herself online. We met her on
> Thusday night. She is awesome!! She is very very sick but she is
> really young so it's a sad deal but her attitude is stellar!
> 
> Wednesday: we taught some lessons and met some people. At night we
> nought 3 bouquets and 3 balloons and drove to 3 investigators homes
> who are having a hard time with sweet Mama Hobbs to drop them off. I
> sure do love that woman :)
> 
> Thursday: we drove with Sister Munden to St Helens to see sweet Jean
> get baptized! :) she is so sick we literally said an
opening prayer,
> she bore a brief testimony, she was baptized, confirmed her, closing
> prayer, and they took her back to the hospital. She is terribly ill,
> she can pass away any day. I am so grateful I was able to be apart of
> that experience with her. I love Jean! I will attach a picture :)

 for dinner we went to this awesome Thai restaurant and I ate my dinner out
> of a pineapple. Sick right? :) it was so good!

 Her email ended abruptly here, so I think she ran out of time. I know she got to go to lunch on Saturday with our neighbors Todd and Michelle who moved to Vancouver about 8 months ago. Sierra said they were so kind to her and Sister Herpich, and hope to see them again soon :)

Miracle Weekend!!! :)

It is amazing what happened this weekend!!
We helped out with a youth conference for all of the youth from the
Dalles, Vancouver and Longview so it was about 1400 kids 14-18. They
had a choir, orchestra and group of dancers. They were amazing! Anyone
could come and watch for free and they invited the missionaries
serving in the Vancouver stakes to come help out so we were there all
day Friday and Saturday. On Friday a woman from another stake asked
sister Herpich and I and our zone leaders to do a little Q&A session
with the youth in her ward. She asked us questions like how old we
are, how long we have been out, where we are from, etc. The last
question she asked us was what motivated us to come serve a mission. I
didn't sugar coat anything and was really blunt about how my life was
before and how I wasn't going to church and I spent all of my time
with a rougher crowd (right Hunter? Haha!) -( ok rougher crowd... I had to laugh , they weren't all that rough).
then we left and went about our business. On Saturday I had all of these Elders tell me a boy was
looking for me but I didn't find him. When we were leaving I heard an
elder yelling my name and running down the sidewalk with a guy named
Isaiah. Isaiah told me that when I shared my story he couldn't stop
thinking about it all day Friday and he couldn't sleep that night
either. He said he prayed for 4 hours straight and he knew he needed
to serve a mission. He never has wanted to but now he is! How exciting
is that?! :) the most amazing part of all of this is that the Lords
hand is clear in every step of this process. Me, who was not  very active prior to my mission, getting clear revelation I needed to serve. I graduate from SUU and get a job. Next I get more clear revelation that I need to serve. Then it was so quickly that I get my call and fly out to Washington. Then my mission is the hardest thing by
far I have ever done and I am oober close to coming home early when I
meet Isaiah. I have shared that story with easily dozens of people but
God does not do random. He used my story to touch Isaiah's heart in
the exact way he needed and now he is going to go change lives and
generations of people! The Lord is truly aware of all of us and knows
how to help us. We need to ensure we are aware of the tender mercies
he gives us to we can recognize his hand in our lives. This experience
is also exactly what I needed to show that I am needed as a
missionary. As I said earlier, I was very close to coming home because
I felt that I was making very little of an impact here and frankly I feel that any
one else could have been in my place and done better. Seeing that my
goofy story, that comes only from me, effected another person has
changed my heart and humbled me. I am SO grateful for the tender
mercies The Lord gives me, like meeting Isaiah. It is a miracle :)

This week was normal besides that weekend. Today we had the missions
first birthday party and that was oober fun!! :) I love my mission
friends! I know Sister Fitt, Johnson, Cluff, Thorson and I are going
to be tight for the eternities easily :)

I will try sending some pictures :)

Love ya'alls! :)

Love, Sister Birch

Josh Got Baptized!!!

Best weekend hands down!!!
 
 Josh's whole story is a miracle. The Lords hand was in the entire
 process.mon Saturday he got baptized and I haven't attended a baptism
 with a spirit that strong before. I could tell he was nervous and
 pretty worried right before the baptism but he kept going. There was
 help supporting him through this, there is no doubt. His parents
 "ironically" felt the need to drive up here from Southern California
 to spend the weekend with him. They attended the baptism and they
 really enjoyed it. They also attended sacrament to see Josh get
 confirmed. He gave all the men a huge bear hug after the confirmation
 in appreciation. My thoughts are all over the place, it was so much to
 take in. The spirit confirmed to all of us the ordinance that was
 taking place was true. His parents notice a huge change in his
 countenance and I can see them joining in the future as well. They are
 such sweet people! Sorry mom, I am horrible at taking pictures so I
 didn't get a picture with them :( lame right? I need to work on that.
 
 We have been teaching like crazy! We have been really busy lately
 which is the goal so that's awesome. Nothing really new has happened
 this week besides the baptism. We had a few miracles meeting some
 people and we are going to start teaching them this week. They are so
 excited to come closer to Christ.
 
 It's hilarious because this weekend really was amazing but I have so
 little to say haha it is because it was so much to take in, I have no
 idea how to put it simply in words. But trust me, it was great :)
 Love y'all!
 Sister Sierra Birch :)