Dear Friends and family-  

     Hello.  :)  First of all- it is snowing right now.. smh Reno.  So this last transfer has been nutso when it comes to companions.  Haha I started out with Sister Muhlestein, then was in a trio with Sister Landgrave as well, then back to just Sister Muhlestein and I am now on a permanent exchange for the rest of the transfer with Sister Balbuena!  She is the coolest and it is so fun because she just got her Visa and came from the Phillipines- she was serving in the Naga mission with Jaren Hofeling and he was her first district leader her AP when she left.  Smalllll world.  She is teaching me some tagolog and this week we are going to buy some stuff so she can make filipino food- t'will be good.  

     Okay so we have this investigator family that I love so much... Ive always kinda struggled with showing love and I have been praying a lot about how I can be better at that haha and while I was in the shower and I was thinking about this family I was overcome with such a strong spirit and love for them- I felt like I truly knew what pure and true love was at that moment and I almost hyperventilated when I thought about potentially leaving this area after this transfer.. so that was kind of a weird story but oh my goodness let me just tell you about this family.  It is a mom and a dad and 2 daughters- age 11 and 12.  Phil (the dad) has long gray hair and wears it in a bun.. it is the best ever and then Mary (the mom) was born in Chile but lived in Australia for a lot of her life so she has a think australian accent and it is the best and then Sydney and Samantha are the daughters and they are so smart and cute and hippie and I just adore them.  We have been stopping by to see Phil the dad ever since I got here and he just recently became open to having us come by and teaching after he recieved a priesthood blessing.  Since then we have been meeting with him 3-4 times a week.  Sydney came to young womens this last week and loves it!  We had a mega miracle on Saturday because they were supposed to have dinner with a guy in our ward and us but an hour before he called to tell us he got called in to the hospital to work- so we were like ah man trying to think and pray about what we should do and so we called this family to see if theyd be willing to have us all come by for dinner and a lesson and they were totally okay with it and it ended up being the perfect fellowship and such a wonderful night.  Also it was cool because one of the days we went over for a lesson Phil had forgotten to tell Mary and she was super stressed and you could tell there was tension in the home.  So her and the girls were eating at the table and we were talking to Phil and talking about our purpose here and then we felt like we should read the proclamation- so we started reading it and it was sooo cool because the spirit took over.  Mary and the girls got silent and by the time we had finished reading it the whole family was on the couch together and they said they loved it so much!  Ahh okay so yes I think about them 24/7 and it may be slightly obsessive but I am sooo excited for them. If all goes well they will be getting baptized on May 28th!

     Anyways- one thing I have learned this week is that I love my mom.  Also that I am thankful for Joseph Smith because I can be sealed to my family forever and can have 100% surety that I will be with them even after my time on earth.  I am also grateful for Joseph Smith because he was inspired to translate the Book of Mormon and that has been my rock especially when things are tough- the peace and contentment that comes from engulfing ourselves in that book is undeniable.  I love being a missionary and I am so grateful to be able to share this sweet gospel.  Let me know if theres anything I can do for any of you and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Paul

1. Trio- im getting wacko tans as you can tell by my face.  But that is the beautiful Reno behind us :)

2.  Sister Balbuena!! she is the coolest :)

Friends and family-

hello people!
This past week was so amazing! Great things are happening here. :) I don't have much time so this will be short BUT something I've learned this week is about how we all go through our own small apostasy's with God. That's when we separate ourselves from Him. AS we do that, we don't seem to notice that we aren't feeling the Spirit as much but over time, we are so far away that we may feel we can't return. But that is NOT TRUE. The beauty of the Great Apostasy, which happened to the whole world before Joseph Smith restored the Gospel. is that, because of the darkness and confusion that people were living in, the light and clarity of the Gospel was that much sweeter to the ones who tried it. We all have something that is separating us from Him. Once we can give that up, and show Him that we love Him more than ANYTHING, we truly will be blessed.
Thank you all so much for the support you give to me and my family through your prayers and service. I am so grateful for the influence you all have had on me, and know that because of your life experiences and things I've learned from you, people here in Nevada are being blessed!
I love you all!
Love, Sister Muhlestein and Sister Paul (Sister Muhlestein actually typed this I am just forwarding it lol)

Hello family and friends :)

     So the last couple of weeks have been crazy.  We had to go on an emergency exchange with a set of sisters, one of which ended up going home so we were put in a trio to cover 2 areas.. It was nutso. We have been so busy but it has been way fun because we have gotten to know some wonderful people in the other area. Our mission president got a call this last week that a sister that has been waiting on a Visa in the Phillipines got it and will be coming tomorrow to be Sister Landgraves new companion! I'm sad to not be working with that whole area anymore but it will be nice to be able to spend all of our time in our area. :) 

     So we had dinner with lady yesterday and she shared the coolest story that I wanted to share. She had a son who got called to the Peru mission and after a couple weeks in the MTC she got a call that they had found out that he had cancer and would be going in for treatments in Provo. He ended up coming home to her Ex husband to do more treatments but was never released as a missionary. After about 3 months she got a call that President Hinckley had said that he would be leaving the next day to get on a plane to go to Peru and get to work. She was devastated and confused and amidst that and her recent divorce she was about to leave the church- there was no way that the prophet could be inspired to send her son to Peru given his condition she said- he could not be called of God. When they had called to let her know that her son was getting on a plane the next morning they had also mentioned that there was a new mission president that would be starting with him- she later found out the significance of that when a couple days after her son entered the field, she got a phone call from him.  She could tell right away that her son was so happy, he was so excited to tell her that the new mission president that was called was a cancer doctor and would personally himself be doing his treatments. She expressed that she was overwhelmed with relief and love from Heavenly Father as she was reminded how aware Heavenly Father was of her and of her son. He completely a full time mission and now has a family of his own! Isn't that sweet? I know that we have a prophet today who leads and guides our church today. I felt the spirit very strongly as he testified to us last weekend- "Choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong," - fav quote of conference :) 

     Our investigators are doing well. I absolutely adore the Rush family- they are hippies and honest seekers of truth and they are progressing well :) In our last lesson the dad said "I have no doubt that the Book of Mormon is true" so cool!

     Okay so something I'm really trying to work on is showing love.. One of my companions rocks at showing love and giving hugs and complimenting and making people feel good. I, on the other hand am an avoider of all things touchy-feely and struggle with vocally showing love- so i am going to make a special effort to work on that without being awkward.. Haha any advice encouraged!

     Man I am so happy to be a missionary. The other day I was reflecting on Heavenly Fathers love that he has shown me and I am so incredibly grateful that he has enabled me to have the strength to choose to go on a mission and to have gotten to where I am now. He's so kind! I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week :) Let me know if there's anything I can do for you!

Love,

Sister Paul xoxoxo