Happy New Years Everyone :)!!!

Hello Everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! :)

Honestly, I thought Christmas was going to be a lot harder than it was. It really wasn't hard at all. The only reason why it wasn't as hard as it probably should have been is because I live with the best members and another companionship. The members always say to keep the missionaries busy on holidays especially Christmas so they don't have the opportunity to get homesick. From the minute we woke up, us for sisters were doing something. Also, the members I live with had their family Christmas brunch pretty early and we feel like part of the family. We were talking with everyone and the food was great! Also, there is a family who are not members of the church but love to have Sister Fitt and I visit so we do. They are a great family! It was really thoughtful they knew we were coming and their family was planning to drink alcohol and coffee so they made sure to buy us Sprite :) haha! It was so nice of them :) I was really afraid though after I was done skyping that the homesickness would hit full force. It was perfect though, Sister Fitt and I skyped at a super fun families home so when I got off rather than being in a quite room by myself and missing everyone, I heard them laughing way hard in the other room so I hurried in there before I had the chance to think. We had a yummy, yummy dinner at another members home. Then another member family had us over because they made us stockings and filled it full of great stuff. And then we visited another member family. It was a super busy day and it was a blast! :) It is crazy to think that next year when I skype for Christmas I will have 1 transfer before I go home.... crazy! It is also crazy to think in 9 days will be my 5 month mark. I am almost a third of the way done with my mission. So weird...

This week was great! Sister Fitt and I had two miracle stories of finding 2 new investigators and some other great experiences as well; one of them being one of our investigators is really interested in the church. He recognizes the importance of the gospel. He is also very open about his opinions and questions. Before I was a missionary I would shy away from people like that because they would either intimidate or offend me. Now those are by far my favorite people to teach. We know exactly what they are thinking and what to help them understand. The people who are smiling and nodding the whole time are very hard to teach because we don't know if they understand what we are saying, if they really want to be a part of the church, etc. This investigator is very, very open with us about how He feels about the church and specific aspects of it. The best part about him though is that because he is curious about it, rather than assuming things or going to the internet, he goes to the source. We are able to address everything until he has a great understanding of what we believe. I don't know before I was a missionary if I would be able to do that; it is impressive. If any of you ever have questions, I strongly suggest to do exactly that. 

The talk I want to talk about to day is amazing. I don't want to summarize it too much; Elder Holland is much better than I. The main part I took away from this talk to recognizing and acting on personal revelation; as well as after I have received revelation to not allow Satan to lower it's importance. Many people who are not members of the church believe that because we say we have a living prophet on the Earth today and he receives revelation for the world we are not able to receive revelation for ourselves. False. We are encouraged to seek for individual revelation. That's the easy part though is asking through prayer for it. The hard parts are recognizing our answer and then acting on it. There are many times that we don't know if we are thinking up our own answers or if it is from the spirit. Also, once we have received an answer we want to act on it immediately. However, Satan will make us doubt our decision for many different reasons. If we are able to recognize our decision and not allow any wiggle room for Satan to tempt us in any way, we will be able to recognize the spirit much more frequently and stronger in our lives. The talk is great! Really, everyone please read it.

I love you all! Have a wonderful New Years! :)

Love, Sister Sierra Birch

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/03/cast-not-away-therefore-your-confidence?lang=eng

•  

HAPPY 40TH MISTY LEE!!! :D‏

Hello Everyone! :)

First off, Happy Birthday Mama!!!!!!! :) I hope it is a great one! :)

I would love to share a few of my thoughts about my Mama :) She is amazing! Truly. She has supported me in everything through my life. A characteristic of my Mama's that I hope to make a part of me is how thoughtful she is of everyone. Year after year for birthdays, Christmas, anniversities, etc. she knows exactly what those particular people have wanted and/or needed. Even better than the material things, my Mama genuinely cares about how people are doing.One of my top favorite characteristics of my Mama is that she loves being a Mama to everyone. There have been many times during my life where I have asked my Mama to help out a friend because they are having a hard time and she jumps right in. She gives more support than we could know. She does not expect praise for anything she does. There have also been multiple times during my life, and even still now as a missionary, where I have a friend or family member tell me how much they love her because she writes them a quick note or sent them a text that is exactly what they needed at that time.

The conference talk I want to share this week is "We Never Walk Alone" by President Monson. (I will definitely share this talk again sometime because it is phenomenal). The example President Monson shares in this talk reminds me very much of my Mama. I could picture my Mama making something or at the store and she feels prompted to get something for some random person that she has only met once. Getting it, dropping it off and being her cute self to this stranger (and they naturally fall immediately in love with her) then going about her day like it was not out of the ordinary. Most of us would reconsider why we are doing it or the stranger might thing we are weird, etc. but I know my Mama would do that in a heartbeat because she has before.

One of my absolute favorite memories of my Mama is one her recent birthdays. I am sorry I can't remember the exact number, but I believe it was her 38th birthday. That year her and my Daddy drove all over all day doing 38 acts of kindness. Anywhere from buying someone a Starbucks to a tank of gas to a grocery cart full of food. Her and my Daddy came home so happy!! It was a great way to spend her birthday :)

I love my Mama! Heavenly Father blessed me more than I could thank him for that she, out of every other woman on the Earth, was chosen to raise me. I wouldn't want anyone else as my Earthly Mother.

I love you Mama!!!! :)

I love you all as well!!! :) Have a very merry Christmas everyone!!! :)

Sister Sierra Birch :)

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-relief-society-meeting/2013/09/we-never-walk-alone?lang=eng

Christmas Time!!!

Christmas is only 9 days away! This month has already flown by! :)

A missionary posted on Facebook the other day about how weird it has been being a missionary during Christmas time. It is true! We feel the Christmas spirit differently just because our lives are different. It is just as exciting though! :) With Christmas I still don't know a specific time I can Facetime but I will try to find one that will work with everyone. I am so excited that Kim and Ryan are coming in town! Can I say really quickly, they are an amazing couple. They are so strong in the gospel and they are raising their children so well. Honestly, when I think of the type of person I want  to become when I return from my mission she is my goal. She has an unwavering testimony and it shows through her children. I love those 2! And their kids are great! I really love the Burts :)

This week was again a great one! We found out some sad news though. Sister Cluff is being transferred on Wednesday :( She is a great sister! I will miss serving in the same ward and living in the same place as her. She is so funny! Her new companion is lucky! :) Sister Thorson found out she is training as well. Hence, I will be an aunt for the second time and my daughter will have her second cousin. We don't know who she is yet but we are excited to meet her!

I don't have much to say for this week. The work is slow and we are still loving it! Keeping our heads held high and still enjoying our time here :)

This talk I read this morning. It is now in my top 5 easily. I love to listen to Elder Oaks. In this talk he explains how the world is putting "other Gods" before God. In other words they don't have their priorities straight. Most people don't understand when they are worshiping other God's. There are many things that are socially acceptable and "normal" so they are not intentionally going against God. However, we have been taught from Old Testament times what is expected of us. Most people also look at the commandments as limitations rather than guidelines. I have always heard the term "the commandments are Heavenly Fathers way of showing his love for us." I didn't realize what that truly meant until this past week. Heavenly Fathers "work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." He wants us back with him. He loves us. How else are we going to know how to live with him again unless He explains to us how to get there. So, He gave us commandments for that purpose. However, as time goes on people start to question and create gray area. They question what something "exactly" means to try and find ways around following it. Eventually there are many different ways to look at a commandment. What does Heavenly Father do at this point? He calls a prophet! The prophet clears up the gray area. He receives guidance from Heavenly Father to what needs to be clarified and/or explained. The majority of people that we talk with ask why we have "such strict rules" in our church. They are the opposite of that. People have asked with particular commandments what exactly they mean and the prophet has clarified that for us. In result, we have things like the word of wisdom, law of chastity, tithing, etc. In Elder Oaks he includes statistics of how we can see people disobeying God's commandments during our time. We can see that is it decreasing drastically. Sadly, it was not a surprise to me. I know of many people who are doing these things that he explains. Knowing these people personally though I know they are not doing it with the intention to go against what God has asked them not to do. They don't understand the sin. This is where our role as members comes in. He are not asked to call people to repentance and point out their sins; absolutely not! Rather, we show them through example and guidance the blessings and understanding they can receive through following the commandments and our modern day prophet. Going back to my first paragraph, Kim and Ryan are great examples of this! They live their testimonies. They not only are willing to share their testimonies but they show by example what they believe. I have never had to question something that they have done or said and I will always feel comfortable around them. I know even if I was doing something that was not in accordance to what they believed or lived, they would love me still the same. I also know that if that were to happen because they are so kind and loving, I would desire to live the life they do and I would desire to change myself to strive to be happy like them. 

Let us all take a look at ourselves. What are our priorities? Do we fully understand what Heavenly Father has asked us to do because He loves us? I am not asking people to feel guilty, that is the exact opposite! Let us all look at the blessings and happiness we can have, and that Heavenly Father wants to give us. Change is never easy but it is always happening. We are changing everyday so we may as well change to the person Heavenly Father wants and needs us to be :)

I love you as always!! Be safe during the season, drive slowly, pray often, read your scriptures, shovel your walks before it ices, let your car warm up before you drive it, and remember to keep your feet dry :)

Sister Sierra Morgan Birch!!

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/no-other-gods?lang=eng

The Black Name Tag

Hello Everyone! :)

This week has been an amazing one! I am so grateful I am a Washington Vancouver Missionary; best mission without a doubt! We had the great experience to go to the Portland Oregon temple together and have a Christmas devotional afterwards. It is so cool to see how close our mission is. I knew a majority of the missionaries there and I have been out only 4 months. President tries as much as he can to keep the mission close and it is working out great! :) I love the other missionaries! I said this on Facebook already, but I want to stress for those who have a temple recommend to attend often (I suggest weekly). Those of you who do not yet have a temple recommend do all in your power to get one. I promise that you will be blessed and have a happier life and a clearer understanding if our purpose. I love the temple! I cannot wait to go to the temple at least weekly when I come home.

Sister Fitt is SO great!! I love her a lot :) We have a lot of fun and we get along great. The work is moving slow BUT we are staying happy and positive. We are working with the ward a lot more and that will definitely help. This Friday we find out if either of us are being transferred. Most likely neither of us will because I am training her but you never know right? We didn't have anything miraculous happen this week that is great to share but we are having fun and working as hard as we can :) I read a talk given by Elder Ballard to mission presidents and missionaries a little while ago. A line from it I like a lot is "You will find that work is a tremendous therapy." If anyone is anything besides happy go do some work! It will help you feel better :)

There is something that I really want to share this week. What kind of example are you to others?

The reason why I am concerned about this is because we had a few situations about this recently. One in particular is there is a member of our ward who is very proud to be a member of the church and loves to talk about it. However, the way she presents herself is not in compliance with what she says. She lives a "do as I say not as I do" lifestyle. We tracted into a young woman who said she would not look into our church because of how badly this particular young woman treats others and she would not want to join a church who teaches that. Those of us who are members of the church know immediately we do not preach to treat others badly but rather the exact opposite. We are expected to treat others with love and kindness. It broke our heart as missionaries to hear that! She is an amazing girl who would benefit greatly from the gospel but the church would greatly benefit from her! Also, we must not assume or judge others. Ever. If someone is not of our faith and participate in things that we do not agree with, we still love them. Christ taught, ^"loveyour enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pary for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Love everyone equally! Do not have friends who are only of our faith. How will the work of the Lord progress if we have Mormon cliques everywhere? Spread out the gospel as far as we can! Get outside of your comfort zone! Share this glorious message of the Restored gospel always! You are being watched as a member of the church. Represent the church well. I am required to wear a black name tag with my name and Christ's everyday and I am honored to. How many of you wear your name tag with honor?

I love you all so much!! Be an example always

Love, Sister Birch

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/ye-are-no-more-strangers?lang=eng

"Your Wonderful Journey Home"‏

Hello Hello Hello!!

This week has been a week of miracles!! :)

Firstly, we had exchanges this week. I got to go stay in the other area while the S.T.L (sister training leader) came here. In both areas miracles happened it was so great! Then 2 days later we had Thanksgiving. This was one profound moment for me that I am grateful to be serving in the states. People sometimes tease us for "only being called to Oregon" but we had 3 families feed us dinner and another feed us pie. So, it was a pretty great day ;) Along with all of those appointments the members made sure to have non members or less active members there so we can talk to them about the gospel. All of them were very nice and open to letting us talk to them about the gospel!! It was such a fun day! :) The next day was full of miracles too. Sister Fitt and I were worried about our day because we didn't have any lessons scheduled. We have tried making it a goal every time we get out of the car we say a prayer first. We kept asking the Lord to lead us to who needed to hear about the gospel and nothing was working. We weren't discouraged or anything, but we were getting a little worried. We both felt prompted to go try a former investigators home and tract the street. The first door we knocked on we introduced ourselves and the man said "Sure! Come back at 8. I am excited to hear." And it was his entire family that night and we are going to meet with them again this week! We tried the door next to him and he is now a new investigator! He is so ready for the gospel it is amazing :) We are really excited to start teaching him!

Some exciting news (but I am sure most every one already knows?) but the Washington Vancouver Mission is now on Facebook! :) I am still trying to figure out what to do exactly, but that is the purpose right now. The missionaries are trying to find the best way to help people come closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through social media. It might take a little bit of time but the Lord knows the best way for this to help hasten the work. He will guide us :)

The talk I am inviting everyone to read this week is called "Your Wonderful Journey Home" by President Uchtdorf. It is such an amazing talk! :) Something that I have come to better understand since I have been on a mission is the plan of salvation. It is perfect. The Lord has a perfect plan for everyone. It's not a plan that fits certain people or certain lifestyles. It is for all of his children to follow obediently. We accepted this plan before we came to the Earth. Because we moved forward with faith Heavenly Father blessed us with a body that He promised will be "perfected and glorified" when we are resurrected; reguardless if we lived a rightous life or not. What a blessing! We are also promised to live with our Heavenly Father again. The way to get there is a marvelous plan! A "Wonderful Journey." I promise, with all of my heart, that if we lead the Lord guide us through our lives and we are obedient to what he asks us to do, we will be happier than we could comprehend :)

I love you all so much! I hope you are excited for this Christmas season!! :)

Sister Sierra Birch

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-young-women-meeting/2013/03/your-wonderful-journey-home?lang=eng&query=your+wonderful+journey+home

"That's how do ya say... good...?"‏

Once again no pics :( so  found a cute pic of her :) Happy Thanksgiving Everyone :)!!

Hello everyone! :)

Well, this week was very good! We saw so many miracles and it really is fun! :)

Firstly, I love being in a "courtship." It is so fun living with 3 other sisters and living in the same house and serving in the same area. We all get along really, really well and we have a fun time! We are staying busy right now but I am afraid that we will run out of work pretty soon on our side of the ward. Our ward works really close with the two neighboring wards to we might start working all together. Most likely it will be our ward and another with 3 sets of missionaries (2 sets of sisters and 1 set of Elders) covering the area. That would be amazing! :) That way single people will be able to have visits from missionaries of their same gender without having to worry if another member can come. Hopefully that makes sense :) haha

I honestly don't have any great stories this week because we are contacting everyone on the ward list, active or not, to see if they are interested in having us come back. We only have about 5-10 names left and we had some great experiences where people who haven't been active for decades said we can come back regularly so that's great! :) One really funny story that happened this week is at our "Spuds-and-Suds"  (a scout dinner where they serve potatoes and rootbeer floats and have an auction)  and in the auction Sister Cluff (another sister who is HILARIOUS!) Asked us how much cash we had because she wanted a bucket full of "dirt"  (you know, the pudding, oreos, gummy worms, etc.) so we gave her all we had and she was bidding for it. Well, a member of the ward bid $13 for it and then gave it to her :) And it happened again with another bucket of dirt and another member bought us a huge dinner. So, the ward really has a lot of love and trust for us so we cannot let them down! :) This week between the 4 missionaries we set a goal to talk with 200 people about the gospel so we can get more lessons and have more people join us in enjoying the goodness of the gospel :) 

The story behind this title is as follows: We did an exchange where I went with Sister Cluff and Sister Thorson and Sister Fitt went tracting. When they went tracting they ran into this hilarious guy! And apparently anytime he said a small word like "good, bad, happy" etc he would start it out by saying "that's how do ya say..." and then the word. We say it all the time now :) St. Helen's is definitely a small town, middle of nowhere country place. I thought I could always live in the country when I grew up and I would love living in the middle of nowhere. It is... pretty good... :) haha! It really is great! :) 

A talk I really enjoyed this week is Linda K. Burton's talk from this past conference titled "The Power, Joy and Love of Covenant Keeping." It is worded so well of how when we keep our covenants the blessings we can receive and how we are blessed from it. 

This is a really short email... I will try to write more next week ;) haha!

I love you all!! :)

Sister Sierra Birch :)

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/print/general-relief-society-meeting/2013/09/the-power-joy-and-love-of-covenant-keeping?lang=eng&clang=eng

St. Helens A.K.A. Twilight County‏

Hello everyone! :)

This week has been very interesting haha :) Our zone is huge!! To get to the stake center, that is in the middle of the stake, it takes us 45 minutes to get there so its a really big area! And, we just barely opened a new zone so that is pretty exciting :) Anywho my "daughter" is doing awesome! She doesn't seem stressed or worried at all. I know she is because I was in her shoes only 12 weeks ago (crazy...) Her name is Sister Fitt and she is a doll :) She worked at the M.T.C bookstore before her mission and she was my cashier one day and we talked for a minute. Ironic right? :) She is working right now with getting used to the super structured schedule as well and that is a huge change the first couple of weeks. I don't feel like I have gotten used to it but looking back I see that I have a lot, it is interesting. Training her is going really, really well. It is an honor to train this early into my mission and I don't want to let down the Lord and President Taylor in this assignment. She is making it really easy on me though :) 

It is really interesting as well because we have 4 missionaries in this ward right now and we all live in the same home which is the mission 2nd councilors home and his house is gorgeous!! It is a treat :) and we have a car! It is funny, I thought the minute I got a car I wouldn't hardly walk any more. False! We park the car and walk everywhere. We are in the middle of nowhere so the houses are really far apart. We split the ward in half so the other sisters have the half where all of the investigators live because one of the sisters was here last transfer so she knows them already. Her companion is my "sister" and is follow up training her because she came out at the same time as me. We took the other half where there are very few homes and they have all been knocked on probably at least once every 3 months or so ;) So it will be interesting to see how the work moves forward there :) With the Thanksgiving decorations I was able to decorate the apartment before I moved but now because we are living with members I don't have to decorate ;) haha! But next year for sure :)

Your 5K sounds fun! How did you convince him to do that with you? :) The family dinner seemed way fun!! You all look way happy and it looks like you had a great time :) Hopefully Catching Fire is good. Let's be honest, it is going to be great! And you are not too old! But in a few weeks maybe ;) hahaha! Just kiddin :) I think I answered all of your questions hopefully :)

I decided something this week. I am going to ask everyone who reads my emails to read a conference talk every week :) I am on a real conference kick right now and I am loving it! The guidance that comes from them are amazing! Obviously, if anyone feels prompted to read more that is great :) But I would like to share the one that particularly helped me out during this week. With our new ward they are really trying to help people come back to church. In Elder Ballards talk from this past conference (the one I mentioned in one of my previous emails) he words it perfectly of how members and full time missionaries can help and support one another to continue hastening the work. It is a wonderful talk :) (I copied the link to the talk at the bottom of this email). My friends and family who wonder "how could I help Sister Birch with her mission?" One way that I would love is if you work along side the full time missionaries in your area :) Go on exchanges with them, feed them dinner, offer to give them rides, anything at all really does help! Even if we don't take our members up on the offers because we may not need them at that moment, we know they love us :) As always, I would love to hear experiences about how you have helped the missionaries!
I have also been studying the spirit world with Sister Fitt. She wants to know how to best teach that as well. If anyone is trying to find something new to study, that is a great place :)
I hope everyone is doing wonderful! I love you all so much and I hope you are staying warm and safe :) Love forever!
Sister (Seester) Sierra Birch :)

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/print/2013/10/put-your-trust-in-the-lord?lang=eng&clang=eng

First Transfer... well, ready or not here I come!‏

Hello Hello Hello!!!

This week is full of crazy surprises. I got the news on Friday that I am getting transferred tomorrow. Not only that, I am going to be training!! So, from what other missionaries have told me, it sounds like they are opening this area new for sisters. In mission life there is genealogy. For example: Sister Furnell is my mama and her trainer is my grandmama and I have 3 sisters. Therefore, I am getting a daughter tomorrow!! :) It is really exciting and really nerve racking as well. I will be praying a lot, but I know that with the Lords help he will guide me through this new assignment :) Especially because he is the one who called me to do it haha :)
Besides that we had a really good week again! (Funny how a good week tends to happen if you want it to right? ("Everyday is a good day if you want it to be" -Matthew Oral Birch)) Jeff is still solid about getting baptized. We are just waiting for the living situation to sort itself out. We had so many less active people come to church it was fantastic! :) In church on Sunday word got around that I was getting transferred. So many kind people said really nice things to me! I love the Columbia Ward! I really can't wait to come back here and visit and have you 3 meet all these amazing people :) Oh, it will be so weird to be in a new ward... it is slowly starting to become reality for me... One really, really good section of scripture to read is D&C 122 whenever we feel like our trials are too big for us to handle. Actually, I invite you 3 to read that section as well as D&C121 and let me know how you felt about it. Maybe have a little F.H.E. tonight eh? That sounds like a great plan ;) 

It's funny a mission, our week is jam packed, but I really don't have much to tell you about...? It's interesting haha :)

Something I have been thinking about lately is how vital home and visiting teaching is. I have been shocked how many people are not visited by their home and visiting teachers. Every single one of our less actives have at least 1 or the other that haven't ever visited them, only on occasion, or the classic make a treat and leave it on the doorstep. It would make our work as full time missionaries so much better if we knew we could rely on those members to help us. There is one family in particular where the family feels fellow shipped only by their home teacher and he is the only person besides the missionaries that they feel comfortable to ask questions to. How great is that?! He doesn't do anything grand or elaborate. He simply stops by at least once a month and every time he does he takes the time to sit in their living room and share a gospel message. Not only that, he also calls them every so often to ask if they need anything. Little small acts like this truly make a huge difference. Granted, we are the missionaries and we are expected to live a higher standard; and members of the church are asked to do many things. However, we have all been asked to do missionary work. There were so many talks in the past conference of how members can and need to do missionary work to their full potential according to their means and life circumstance. Home and visiting teaching is one of those great ways! :) According to President Harold B. Lee:

“Missionary work is but home teaching to those who are not now members of the Church,and home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to Church members." 

I testify that this is true. I have seen it work in the field. Even if someone who is on your route doesn't want to talk to you because you are there to share a gospel message that is ok! Be their friend :) Ask them if you can come back and visit and just be friends with them. Even if you don't share a gospel message the first few times befriending someone genuinely, to be there to offer service and love to them will do more than never visiting again. I would love to hear some great stories about how home or visiting teaching has blessed people! :) So if anyone would like to they are more than welcome to email or write me to tell me how it has benefited them :) 

I love you all!! And keep enduring to the end :)

Love forever, Sister Sierra Birch :)

P.S. I am copying Elder Jordan Neilson; but anyone who hasn't read "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson needs to read it. It. Is. Phenomenal. 

JEFF IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!! FOR REALS!!! :)

 ahhh!!! This week was full of great things!! :)
First off, thank you SO much Mama for the amazing packages!! I absolutely love every piece of clothing you sent me! I have already worn everything at least once and I have been getting compliments for everything, thank you!!!! :) It was so sweet of you to send me so much food as well! There is a chiropractic school close by so we have 5 families that the husbands are going to school there. They are all young couples with young kids and I guess every Thanksgiving they get together (because their families live out of state) and have Thanksgiving together and they invited us to come as well. We will be able to help contribute to the meal a little. (We will keep most of it of course ;). 

Please tell Chris and Julie congratulations!!!!! I wrote them a letter today so hopefully it gets to them soon. Is there a name for Baby Boy Birch? :) That is a huge baby!! I hope Julie is feeling well :)

Oh! And please tell Michelle Lynch thank you for me!! My goodness, I got her card today and I was freaking out! :) She looks absolutely stunning in her wedding picture!!!!! :D And her card was so funny! I love that girl so much, I am so grateful we are still great friends :)

Here is something amazing, Jeff is getting baptized!! We haven't set a date yet, but this is what happened. We were walking to an appointment when we got a call from the couple who is friends with him. He called them that morning and said, "We need to find me a place to move to. I'm getting baptized." We had to cancel the baptism before because he was still living with his girlfriend and he didn't want to kick her out even though they weren't dating anymore. So he has been attending another church for the past few weeks. He explained when he attended the churches he felt good. He felt comfortable and there wasn't anything bad. However, he said when he attends church at an LDS church, he feels the spirit so strongly it's undeniable. He told his girlfriend she has until the first week of December to find a place to live. Otherwise he will be the one to move. Also, he came to church yesterday with his daughter and he bore his testimony. It was short and sweet and he explained just that, but he started out his testimony by saying, "I would like to start out by saying to all of you, I know this church is true. I know this is Christ's church." It was amazing :) The congregation was crying because they all know Jeff. They have all contributed to his conversion one way or another. He has brought this ward very close. We are all very excited, but not nearly as excited as he is to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints :)

Also, we have another investigator named Eugene. He is the guy who we taught the first lesson to and he felt the spirit really strong. We taught him again this week and he asked quite a few questions revolving the church (polygamy, the Godhead, etc.) and we were able to answer them for him. He also came to church!! :) He said this is the only church that he has investigated (and he has investigated a lot of churches) where the members allow non-members to ask questions. He said that he got yelled at a few times or they couldn't answer it, it wasn't a good doctrinal question. We promised him that if we didn't know the answer, we will search, ponder and pray and find the answer for him. I love being asked questions!! :) It really stretches me to figure out what exactly do I believe, and is this church in line with what I believe. I have honestly had some questions already in my mission that I have had to ask myself if I really believe some of the doctrines, or I realize I believe in something that I haven't been taught before. I promise if we have these questions we should seek to find the answers; but finding the answers through the scriptures and prayer is the #1 way of course :)

We have been teaching Scott still. He is doing great! He taught me something this week that I really took to heart. He is really studying faith and he told us, "If we have faith in the Father, we have faith in ourselves." Wow, isn't that true? Just like that 1 Nephi 3:7 says "I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." The Lord knows our potential. And He will only give us as much as we can handle. We will be stretched though. This life is a school. We are sent here to learn and grow; to be tested and challenged. There are some subjects we really do well in and others we struggle. The Lord wants to see us progress and He knows exactly how we can individually. But, he gives us a syllabus of exactly what he expects from us. It is outlined clearly and the materials we need are also listed. However, he doesn't list when the tests are or what exactly they will be on. So, we need to "study" always. We need to be prepared for those tests. But how are we supposed to know what we need to do? How much can we handle? What is a passing grade? The Lord knows all of that. If we have faith in Him; with his teachings, doctrine, prophets, etc. we will have faith in ourselves to make it through any of the tests with flying colors :) That is going to be one of my new mottos, that is for certain :)

Things are still great! My hair is super fluffy all the time haha! I have tried so many different things to keep it tamed but I am slowly giving up lol :) The rain is Misty (<---haha :) so it is a wonderful rain to walk in. It has been chilly, but that's an easy fix. Just wear Batman pajamas under your normal clothes ;) haha! Really though, they keep me way warm walking around :) Transfers are next Wednesday, we find out on Friday or Saturday if any of us are getting transferred. Most likely at least 1 of us is because we are in a trio. But it would also make the most sense to keep us 3 here because Sister Furnell is going home next transfer and Sister Taylor can get her visa at anytime. 

That girls day looks way fun!! I am a little jelly :) How crazy! 3 months! Weird... 

I think I answered all of the questions.... I love you all!!!!! :D

Love forever, Sister (Seester) Sierra Birch :)

"Every blessing we receive is through obedience."‏

This week I didn't get a picture :( so I found a cute one of Sierra. This pic was taken just before Sierra left on her mission. Thank you Beev for taking Zoey and Sierra out horseback riding before she left! I know they both loved it :)

Hello hello hello!!

I love Mondays!! :) I am just really excited haha :)

We had so many miracles this week it is amazing!! Let me tell you :)

First off, we come to the library every Monday and usually 1 other day too because Sister Taylor and I have online training. There is the cutest lady here who has been working every time we have come. She is hilarious!! And we love talking to her. It's really funny actually because she talks really loud and she is a librarian so we always know where she is :) ha! Anyways, we left on Saturday and she caught us outside the door and told us 3 sisters that she loves having us in the library because we show that women can be unified and happy and be classy and that we are a great influence for all the people who come there. How sweet is that?! :) We love her!

Also, there is a darling old woman named Sister Fleet in our ward. I can't remember if I have talked about her yet or not. She is a hot tamale that one ha! She is 85 and got baptized when she was about 30 in a river right before she had a surgery because she was afraid she was going to die during the surgery. Hence, she knows very little about the gospel so she asked us to teach her the lessons like she is an investigator and we love it! Every time we go over she makes us a snack and she is eating up the gospel! She gets really distracted and we have to explain everything really simply and slow but she is awesome :)  (Oh, and she has a blind and deaf weenier (<---spelling?) dog haha! poor thing, it probably makes great banana bread) This week we asked her if we could have a "girls night" and we could watch The Restoration with her because she hasn't seen it and she doesn't understand what Joseph Smith was called to do as a prophet. When we showed up she had so many homemade snacks and homemade egg nog because she was so excited to learn; And, she has come to church the past 3 weeks in a row! She tells us she is loving it and we can tell, it is amazing :)

Also, there is another less active named Scott. His father and step-mother live in our ward and are very active. Scott hasn't attended church for about 4 or 5 years or something? Any who, we asked him if he would attend study groups with us for 2 of our investigators; a man and his mother. At the study group on Thursday the investigator committed Scott to come to church. How awesome is that?! :) So the investigator and Scott both came to church yesterday and stayed all 3 hours. We were so happy!! And they were so happy to be there too! Scott also told us he would be interested in continuing to help us teach investigators as well. It is amazing! :)

Another thing that happened yesterday is we had 2 appointments who rescheduled and we were pretty far from home so we were just walking around an apartment complex. We started talking to a lady who was smoking and she accepted a Book of Mormon, agreed to read the introduction and pray about it AND committed to baptism!! :) Then when we turned around there was a guy who Sister Furnell talked to about a month and a half ago who asked us to teach him right then. So we went over to a table and taught him the whole first lesson and he said that he knows that this church is true by the way we bore our testimonies and the knowledge we were sharing, he said he could feel the love of God. (K, I just read over that and it sounds really creepy... I promise it's not!! It was so cool! :) He, without us bringing it up, asked if his baptism was correct what we believe about baptism and authority. So he also committed to baptism!! :) Oh my, it was so great! :) He is so ready for the gospel, and he will be an amazing member of the church :)

Hunter- Your costume made me laugh so hard!! It is hilarious, as missionaries we have a "12 week training program" and this really isn't the best, but at all the meetings when ever they say "12 week training program" I repeat it like Rex, then Sister Furnell and I laugh pretty hard. Haha! "With the strength of a grizzly." "Would you like a roundhouse kick to the face when I'm wearing these bad boys? Forget about it!" Also, the sweatshirt that you wore is that my sweat shirt? You could always wear my Pink Floyd one ;) haha It looked like you had a way fun time! Do you have a close lady friend? Do the ladies dig the short hair? ;) lol  How is school going? How is the jeep coming? How is being a big wig at KFC? Tell me all about it :)

So, the reason I chose this title for my email is a quote that struck me when we were watchingThe Restoration with Sister Fleet. Joseph Smith says it during the movie and it struck me very hard. What an interesting promise? Heavenly Father, our literal Father, promises us blessings. We are promised that if we obey certain commandments, covenants, etc. we are promisedblessings. Obedience is an interesting thing because I know before a mission it is hard to know how to be as obedient as we can be. Now we are expected to have perfect obedience and even though it is hard, it actually makes it really easy to know exactly what we need to do every hour of the day. But when we have a job, school, families, friends, etc. it is really hard to know how to be very obedient. The primary answer of course is go to church, pray, read our scriptures (C.P.R.) and yes, that will save us spiritually. But how can we better ourselves and obtain as many blessings as we possibly can? I have been thinking about that question a lot since I got out into the field. I wanted to have my prayers answered, I wanted to know how to help our investigators and the less active members. I wanted all of these things and I kept wondering how I could get it. I realized obedience is key. Period. When we are obedient, we receive blessings. Of course we will receive trials and hard times, but as we strive to continue being obedient miracles will happen. I just wanted to share that thought, it isn't very complete yet, and I am still thinking about it and studying more. But I really do invite everyone (naturally because I am a missionary ;) to look at one thing in your life that you know could be better whether it is scripture study, prayers, following the word of wisdom, the Strength of Youth guidelines, etc. and work on just 1 think to start. Make it a priority and ask for help from our Heavenly Father to help improve it. He will bless us, because we are striving to be more obedient. Then, once we are obedient, He will give us more blessings! It's a win-win situation :) It's amazing the love Heavenly Father has for us! Then once that is no longer a worry we start on another, then another, then another, and so forth. It's a beautiful thing :) Hopefully that makes sense.... I will continue to think about it :)

I hope you all are doing great!!! I love you so so so much!!!!! :)

Love forever, 

Sister Sierra Birch :)

"No, I'm a Boy."‏

This week was interesting to say the least. Let me first start with Brother "j". He didn't get baptized this week. In fact, he is most likely spending time with antis now. So he dropped us all together. It is really, really sad to see somebody come so far and have such a strong testimony and just because he has one doubt he denies anything he has come to know to be true. It goes to show that the Lord and those around us try to bring us to truth, but Satan works equally as hard. We have to know for ourselves what is truth and ask Heavenly Father for those answers. We used the line "have you doubted your doubts before you doubted your faith?" quite a few times and he said that he knows that what we say is truth. But he doesn't want anything to do with it. His questions are easily answerable and his doubts are small. But there is something holding him back. We don't give up faith, but he have to let him find out on his own I guess. Sister "j" also missed all of her appointments this week with us and she isn't progressing at all. That is the one I am most sad about. But! The gospel is still true, and because of the love that our Father in Heaven has for us my companions and I are still working hard to try to find others who are looking for truth and guidance. 

Now to the great stuff! :) Cute story, there is an adorable family in our ward who are pretty shy. They have an 8 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. The boy is a hoot! We visit them once a week because the father is less active, he believes everything but gets really nervous around people, so they know us really well. Earlier this week the parents asked the boy "Do you want to be a missionary when you grow up?" and he said, "No! I am a boy!" haha! How great is that? :) Sister Taylor heard in the M.T.C. because of the age change sometime really soon it will be 55% sisters 45% elders. That's insane! But way cool! :) 

I got a letter from Uncle Jeff this week. I was laughing SO hard!!!! Oh my gosh!!! The pictures completed it too! Please tell him thank you and I am writing him back asap :)

And please tell Amy I AM SO SORRY!!! Oh my goodness, when I saw her I was freaking out inside I wanted to scream!! But for some reason I forgot her name for a split second and for some reason I asked her if her name was Amy. Of course I know what her name is! But that really was a surreal experience. I was really confused because I saw her at the top of the street and I thought "Huh, that lady has cute boots and she looks like Amy Hogue" (I know that's not her last name ;) haha and I was so excited! I felt really bad though because for 24 hours every 6 weeks we have Sister Training Leaders come do exchanges with us and our exchanges started right after I talked with her. So if it was any other day in the 6 week period we could have gone to lunch, if it was a Monday we could have gone to Multnomah Falls, etc. Please tell her sorry :( and please tell her thank you too! It made me SO happy! :)

Today 4 other sisters and 4 elders and us went to Multnomah Falls. There is a gorgeous hike to the falls. I can't remember if you guys did that hike when you were there but it is gorgeous! I will attach the pictures in another email.
A woman in the stake young womens presidency spoke in sacrament yesterday. It was such a great talk! She spoke about gratitude. I just wanted to share a few things that she spoke on. Her father used to always say "We are only happy as we are grateful." I agree with that 100%. If we look at the negative aspects of live, even during hard times, we are not seeing the miracles and blessings that out number them. We are given hardships and trials because Heavenly Father wants us to learn and grow. That is the beauty of repentance. Rather than looking at repentance as an eraser for sin, rather look at an opportunity for us to be refined; have the change of heart to better ourselves and become the person that Heavenly Father can see us potentially becoming. We need to have gratitude always. She said we need to do 3 things: open our eyes, open our hearts, and open our arms. Open our eyes to obviously see what we have to be grateful for. She used the example of Helen Keller that even though she could not see or hear she loved life, became very educated and motivating to millions of people. She found things to be grateful for even though she couldn't hear or see them. We have that blessing of sight and sound and we should strive to utilize that as much as we can! Open our hearts to the Lord and tell him about our gratitude. Without him we would have nothing and be nothing. It is part of humbling ourselves to thank him for our blessings and it really helps to recognize them. Prayer is so amazing! and last open our arms to our brothers and sisters to help them in times of need, struggle, happiness, anytime or any stage. Just like how Christ taught in Matthew 5 "but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." In all instances we have to strive to do this. I am not perfect at this; not even close but I am striving to have this become a part of me. Her talk was great! 

Also, I invite everyone who reads this email to accept Elder Ballard's invitation from conference. "We are not asking everyone to do everything. We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just “one” between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior." This is something that everyone can do! I know we can! :) 

I can't remember if there is anything more... but I hope everyone is doing fantastic!!! :) Love you tons! :)

Just call me Dr. Birch‏

We had an amazing week!!!!! Let me start :)

We were doing our weekly planning on Friday when we got a call from a couple who we taught once but they really didn't want us to come back so we havent talked to them for a while. He called us and said "Sisters?" "Yes this is us" "Umm.... I am pulling puppies out right now... can you come over...?" So come to find out both of them have a really bad flu and their freakishly huge dog was pregnant but wasn't due for at least another month. They both took some medicine and were out cold. Well, he woke up to her delivering the puppies on their bed next to him. So obviously is call the missionaries they'll know what to do! I was stoked! We hurried and changed and sped walked over there and about every 20-30 minutes a puppy was born. It was really gross, but way cool too! My companions wouldn't touch the puppies or the dog and the couple were loopy still so I was helping out. I didn't do anything weird or nothin' but my job was pretty much take the puppies out of the mothers mouths and when she sat on one move her, and keeping the puppies in one general area. My face in the picture explains it perfectly. I was really excited, but kind of disgusted at the same time :) haha!

We had dinner with a sweet 85 year old sister who looks like she is about 70. She is awesome! She hasn't been consistently active in years but we spoke in sacrament yesterday and we asked her to come listen to us and she did! :) She stayed all 3 hours too. Not only that but the whole ward was giving her hugs and welcoming her and loving her like she was there every week. 

Also there is a mother with 2 children who haven't ever really been active in the church. The mother has had a really hard life for the past 15 years or so but she is raising these children so, so great. They are great kids! But the daughter, who is 7, screams every time during sacrament because she says that she gets bored. Her son, who is 5, loves church! He says all the time that he can't wait to have the priesthood so that he can give his grandma priesthood blessings and serve as a bishop. What an amazing kid! We asked the daughter if one of the missionaries come to primary with her if she would sit through all 3 hours of church and she said yes, So, because we are origami buddies I went with her and she did awesome! :) Her mom also was doing personal scripture study this week and she went and asked her mom to teach her. It was such a miracle! Brother "j" is getting baptized on Friday! :) He had his interview yesterday and he is so excited! He is inviting literally everybody and he is proselyting in his apartment complex with his neighbors already. He is truly converted :)

Sister "j" isn't keeping commitments anymore. We are not sure why... but I promise, I have so much faith in her. I know she will keep commitments because she genuinely wants to be baptized. She is amazing, she will do great :)

K, this part is just nuts. We pass out pass-a-long cards everywhere and to everyone all day. We pass out an average of 80-100 each week. Well we got a call last Sunday during conference from a man asking when and where church was. Sister Furnell explained that we didn't have church that day but she told him to come the next Sunday. We called him on Saturday night and left a voicemail reminding him to come. While Sister Furnell was talking during sacrament we saw a man dressed in all black with a hoodie, jeans and Nikes with facial piercings and black hair come in and sit in the front rows of the chapel. After the closing prayer before we could get off the stand there were 2 members introducing themselves and getting to know him. Brother "j", of course, came over and befriended him and invited him to go to Gospel Principles and priesthood with him. I wasn't there but I guess in gospel principles he was participating and reading and in priesthood when they asked who would volunteer to go do baptisms for the dead and he rose his hand. What a great guy!! :) He told Jeff that he will be at his baptism on Friday. We are trying to schedule an appointment with him. What an amazing experience! :)

I am sure there is so much more that I can't think of right now but really this week has been phenomenal! Right Dad, "Everyday is a good day if we want it to be." If we were to recognize the tender mercies the Lord gives us all the time throughout the day, we wouldn't have nearly as much anger, stress, sadness, anything besides joy and gratitude. I love this gospel. I am grateful for the examples I have here in this ward. The members are truly converted and are always actively engaged in missionary work. They know the gospel of Christ, they know their purpose and they know the plan of happiness. I love the Columbia ward so much! Mama, Daddy and Hunter I can't wait to come here and visit these members (I can think of like 6 families who would love to have us stay with them too :) you will absolutely love them!! :) 

The relief society president is a HUGE ducks fan and she was telling us all about the game on Saturday. She also brought up the Utah game on Sunday and she was freaking out! She is hilarious :)

Hunter... Hunter... Hunter.................    Congratulations on graduating from KFC! I am one proud Sis ;) How much weight have you put on eh? By the way, I would LOVE it if you wrote me a letter. Just sayin' :) Keep up the great grades! I really am proud of you with that :)

Please tell Justin hello for me and give him a huge hug!! I cannot believe all these people are coming home! They will all be married before I get back. Guaranteed. Haha!!

Thank you for letting me know about the Walking Dead! I can't wait to watch it... in 16 months... haha! :) 

Please also tell Kate congratulations for me!! That is so exciting!! She will be a beautiful bride! :)

I think that is everything.... haha let me just write a novel ;) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! I am grateful for all of you; truly :)

Have a wonderful week :)

Love, Sister (Seester) Sierra Birch :)

Happy 2 Months!!! And Brother "j" is getting baptized!!!!!! :D‏

Can you believe I went to the MTC 2 months ago??!! I can't believe Zach is home now and Justin is coming home this week!!!! Time is a crazy thing :) Please tell Justin hello for me! 

I have the best and sad news for everyone. First the sad. "Sister J" isn't getting baptized this week. She is not trying very hard to be truly converted and with conference she was avoiding us about watching it. We even had members cook her meals to watch it with them. And her LDS friends who referred her to the church are not making good choices and etc. So we will be postponing that. For good news, "Brother J" IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! :) My goodness, he was watching conference with an older couple in the ward who served a senior mission. They spent all of Saturday together. When Brother J and the brother were driving to the stake center to watch the priesthood session he said he realized he was not baptized by the priesthood authority (which we taught him) but that he realized it and knew it for himself. He wants the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and he is already planning his baptism. That, right there, is true conversion. If all of us who are blessed to have been baptized into the Lord's church and we are able to have the Holy Ghost with us always realized what a blessing that is and we had the excitement Jeff has, we would be so happy all the time! He wants to learn as much as he can and he is actively engaged in everything he can with the church if it is meetings, activities, scriptures, anything he is doing it! The wife to the brother he was talking to (is easily one of the most amazing women this Earth has been blessed with) said the other day "If you are a member of the church and you are bored, you don't get the purpose." It is so true!! There is something every minute of everyday that we can be learning and growing in the gospel. Any of you who are reading this and maybe thinking it would be easy for me to say because I am a full time missionary, it's not. We aren't watched as missionaries. My companions and I could do whatever we wanted. We are not required to do anything. I could borrow a car from other sisters and go to the coast everyday if I wanted and not talk to a single person about the gospel. BUT we choose to; along with the other full time missionaries to serve the Lord. We are always doing something to move the Lords work forward. As we learn so well in conference (which was AMAZING!) members and missionaries are now working in unison to hasten the work. Honestly, Sister Furnell and I have done hardly anything in regards to Brother J's conversion. The members have taken him in because he made the effort on his end first. Once he showed that effort the members made him apart of the ward and he feels that love and friendship. We all need to look for our brothers and sisters that are trying but they need that person to reach out and catch them. Everyone can contribute their own unique talents, gifts, money, etc. to everyone. It is vital and now it is asked of a prophet of God. How amazing :)

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." I got teary eyed when he said that. I know without a doubt in my heart that the apostles and President Monson is called of God. They have the proper authority from Jesus Christ himself through the prophet Joseph Smith. I love this church!! and I love conference!!!! :)

I hope everyone is doing fantastic!! I love you all so, so much!!! :)

Love forever, Sister Birch :)



I also wanted to add a little excerpt from my letter; 

Hello Mama!! 

That is a cute necklace! I think you put the wrong state on there... ;) haha JK we are like 20 minutes away from Washington. That trip to the cabin sounds fun!! kinda... besides the dead ducks... ha! I was going to take pictures this week but I totally forgot... but we have a few things this week where I will for sure take some pictures. Guess what? We have a third companion right? Well she was really good friends with Elder Neilson freshman year, haha! What a small world! Her name is Millie and she is a doll. Us 3 get along SO good it is like a slumber party everyday it is really fun! And we are seeing so many miracles it is absolutely crazy! We are teaching lessons left and right. We are going to take 3 older sisters on splits with us this week so we are covering the 3 big parts of the ward at the same time. Cool right? :)............

..............The sisters( in our ward in Utah) seem really normal!! I was happy to see that :) haha are they over only our ward then or are they stake sisters? Here they have a set of missionaries over everyward and the ideal situation is a set of sisters and Elders over every ward! Sick right? That would be awesome! :)......................

...........Oh! I forgot to add this in the huge email to everyone but last night we ate dinner with the bishops family and they have all the missionaries to a food challenge. So they went easy on us sisters so we had a tablespoon full of nutella and a clove of garlic that we had to chew and swallow. We stink so bad!!! and our mouths had the worst taste until just an hour or 2 ago haha!!! :) It was awesome! Do that to the sisters next time you have them for dinner ;).........................

I haven't gotten your package yet.... but I am so excited for it!!!! :)

I love you so much!!! :)

Sister Sierra Birch :)

I have a baby sister!! :)‏

Hello everyone! :)

For the love!!!! I want to know so badly where Tessa Ann Taylor is serving her mission dang it!! It better be Washington Vancouver or Portland!! :)

Your anniversary sounded fun! I am the worst daughter I completely forgot to wish you a happy anniversity last week, but I pinkie promise that we were out somewhere with the missionaries and I said out loud, "Happy Anniversary Mama and Daddy!" I hope you heard it :)

In regards to the email title, in mission life there is geneology. My trainer is my mother, and her trainer is my grandmother. The same goes for Elders but obviously father and grandfathers. Well my trainer has trained 2 other ladies so I have 2 older sisters. Well we found out this week there is a sister who is waiting for her visa and she is joining us! :) Hence, I am going to have a baby sister on Wednesday! :) I am excited and Sister Furnell is kinda stressed worried about training 2 sisters at the same time :) haha

This week has been a blast! The rain is really here this time! :) It is coming down so much so fast it is really fun! Sister Furnell and I are trying to figure out how to wear our hair so we don't look awful when we knock on doors with soaking wet hair. We are allowed to wear hats but the only thing that might work is a sombrero. The wind is way too strong for umbrellas and our hoods work pretty good but it rains sideways so at best the back of our heads stay dry and the first is soaked ;) haha! It is fun :) I have had to wear my huur curly for that reason (or I am trying to look like Liss, either way ;) 

Jazzlin is still on date to be baptized and she is doing great! She however doesn't know any men to baptize and confirm her. So she is going "ward shopping" to find one haha! Jeff is also doing great. He is convinced that he has already been baptized and has the priesthood. He loves the Book of Mormon and everything we have been teaching him, especially the Plan of Salvation. But every time we bring up baptism he isn't rude or anything, he is just happy as a clown (<--- what?) and says "Oh! I am good, I have the Holy Ghost with me." And we explain that he does have the Holy Ghost at times but it is not constant and we explain the priesthood too. So that is going to take patience but he went to the visitors center at the Portland temple yesterday with his daughter and 2 members and he loved it :) We are meeting with a lot of less active or not active people. We are seeing so much success from it. They seem really open to learn from Sisters to "give it a shot" and a few of them have invited their non member friends to learn more. It's awesome! The spirit is an amazing thing :)

I posted only 2 pictures this week. The other sister is Hermana Kidd, we went on exchanges. And the other one is pretty self explainitory ;)

The computer is going to kick me off in a few minutes but I LOVE YOU ALL!! :) 

Love forever, Sister Sierra Birch :)

Happy Forever Family Day Tomorrow

Hello Everyone!
I cannot believe tomorrow will be 2 years since our family was sealed for eternity! What an amazing blessing :) I carry the picture of us 4 in my scriptures and show it as much as I possibly can. I explain my brother doesn't really look that weird ;)
The door on the blazer came off??!!! What in the world?!! I am so sorry we sold Motel 6 :( I feel really bad.... And I love the blazer! I guess it looks like someone has to work on a Jeep eh? ;) Hunter you look great in your homecoming pictures!! I love the new hair. Is it a comb over eh?? 

This week was great! We taught 23 lessons and talked to 94 non members. At first we thought not having a car would be a huge burden but it is actually a major blessing. We talk to SO many more people than if we were driving. We also meet a lot of people for the other missionaries to teach because they are not in our area. It started to rain here this week. I love the rain! :) It smells so good and the rain here isn't the same as Utah rain, it just sprinkles a lot. The only bad part about the rain is slugs!!! There are slugs everywhere!! and they are huge, like Shrek worthy. Yucky.
Anywho, I will tell you about some of the people we are teaching :) Sister J is still on date for baptism for October 12th. We took her to the church this week with the Young Womens president and showed her the baptisimal font. She is really excited to be baptized. It is really cool because Sis. Furnell and I have been asked to speak in sacrament on the 13th about missionary work. How perfect! :) She will be an amazing member of the church! We also have a man named Jeff (I can't remember if I talked about Brother J in my last email but just in case I will talk about him). Brother J's daughter was baptized earlier this year and he wasn't investigating the church. 3 Sundays ago he came on his own to our ward to all 3 hours. During priesthood he introduced himself and said this is where he wants to come to church. He is reading from the B.O.M, D&C, Gospel Principles, and the teachings of the prophets. He is being his own missionary essentially, but we are giving him the lessons too :) 

We are teaching a lot of less active people. Our stake is really into getting less active members re-activated in the church. I love those lessons because they already have a knowledge of the gospel; but most of them have been offended or something along those lines. The reason I love those lessons is because we can help them by fellow shipping them and finding them members of the ward that will befriend them as well and they have that desire to become active again. It's awesome :)

I love love love this gospel!! I firmly believe, more than I ever have before, that this church is true. I will very carefully explain this that we are the "only true church." That statement does not mean that every other church is wrong. In fact, many other churches out there have a huge amount of truth! And the members of those churches are amazing because they are striving to be better and to follow Christ's teachings. We always say to people investigating the church that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are not here to change what you already believe, but bring everything you believed before and we can help strengthen it and and answer any questions. That is the purpose of the fullness of the gospel. I spent a day with another sister missionary and she was talking to a very nice Catholic man who was listening to her message. Rather than helping him become closer to Christ, she told him because they don't have the B.O.M Catholics are not correct, they do not believe in Christ correctly, and the only way they can know any truth is becoming Mormon. That is absolutely false. It blew my mind. I have never thought that way in my life, but I now make it a point to share with those not of this faith to know that, that is not part of our religion at all. I love every single person I talk to because they are my brother and sister. They are striving to become better and I want to help them do that. I know from personal experience that, for me, this church has helped me become strong and stay strong and I want to invite others to do the same. The purpose behind me sharing this is that if any one is ever needing help or advise, bear your testimony of the gospel. Through Jesus Christ we can have our burdens lifted, our questions answered, be forgiven of our sins, and so very much more. I know that is true with all of my heart. 

I love you all SO SO much!! Have a great week :)

Love, Sister Birch :)

I think she meant doppelganger......but danglehopper will do.

Hi Everyone :) 

This week has been splendid! I apologize last P-day we didn't end up having as much time as I thought I would have so I didn't get to write too many letters :( But, I will try again today!! This week didn't have anything too exciting I guess? We taught 24 lessons (which I guess is really good?) and we talked with 95 non members. It's pretty sweet :) I really am enjoying the work a lot!! :)

I have kind of a funny story :) Once upon a time Sister Furnell and I were walking down the street after dark when we saw 2 ladies with candles standing in front of a stop sign. We went up and asked them how they were and they explained they are born again Christians. We got excited and we were all talking about Christ and how much we love him. One of them started yelling at us and the other got in the car to leave. We smiled and shook her hand and kept walking. The next night we were walking down another street and something similar happened but this time when the one lady was yelling at us the other was telling us that it is their responsibility to save us because we are going to burn in Hell. The end :)

Hahaha!! I am sorry I probably shouldn't think this is that funny, but you just gotta laugh at situations like that :) And how blessed are we to know that if we strive to live a good life we will be happy and go to a kingdom of glory? I wish more people that haven't learned about the gospel knew that. I think it's a great comfort. We talk to so many people who are scared everyday that if they die they just might go to Hell. Luckily we know with the fullness of the gospel unless you are a truly awful person, like really really bad, then you are golden! You will be happy happy happy after this life is over :) Oh, I just think that is wonderful! :) 

We also went to the Fish Hatchery right along the Columbia River. It was pretty cool!! We went as a district. Our district is tiny and as you can see in the pictures even numbers sisters and Elders. Since the age change they have made Sister-Elder relationships super limited because there is a lot more flirting. Nonetheless our Elders are awesome!! :) Super nice guys. The one I think looks a ton like Griff and I just laugh whenever we have meetings or something because he talks and acts like him too. There is a Sister in my ward that looks just like Grandma Elaine too. I am meeting everyones danglehoppers (<--- is that what it's called....?). Cool right? So if anyone is looking for their carbon copy, look no further because there is bound to be one in Oregon! :) 

We don't have many progressing investigators right now because we are both brand new to the area but hopefully we will have many soon! We have one amazing investigator. Sister Nordstrom (a ward missionary who also served a mission with her husband in Bulgaria) came and taught the first lesson with me to a man named "Mr B". I think I got punked because " Mr. B" is such a golden investigator! I asked him what he is looking for in a religion and he has 2 questions. 1) Where did I come from? Why am I here? And where do I go after I die?   2) If there were prophets in biblical times, why aren't there prophets now? And if there is a prophet who is he and I want to follow his council. I was so happy!! Sister Nordy and I were smiling so big and we were both SO excited to teach him! I really hope things progress with him :)

K, that huge massive fish in the picture is truly HUGE and MASSIVE!! It is absolutely gigantic! It is a stergeon I think? I don't know why they are there. But at the hatchery they have thousands of Salmon that come in through the Columbia and they grow them there and such. It was pretty sweet :) Oh, and the weather is now changing to Oregon weather. My huur looks pretty Hagrid-ish ;) haha! I hope I can wear my cute zebra boots soon ;) Whoot!

I hope everyone is doing lovely and know that I LOVE YA'ALL alot!!!! :)

Love Always,

Sister Birch