Today, my companions and I went to a super cool national monument called Lava cast forest! 7,000 years ago the Newberry volcano erupted and covered the entire forest! Once the lave dried and turned into rock, it created volcanic molds out of the trees. The trees were burned and in their place was left a volcanic molding, so there are holes all over the place! So you hike along this paved trail through this entire valley of volcanic rock, and along the trail you can climb down inside all of the volcanic tree molds! It's seriously so fascinating! We climbed in a few holes too! After, we went to see this awesome water fall called Benham falls! Oregon is so pretty! Why did it take me this long to get here?!
The coolest thing that happened this week was when we were teaching our new investigator Trish. She just moved here from Hawaii and is the girlfriend of a less active member. But while she was in Hawaii, she randomly just one day decided to get a Book of Mormon for herself! She was telling us how that was a really weird experience for her. I explained that it wasn't just a random coincidence, but that it was her Heavenly Father giving her a tap on the shoulder and telling her that it was time for her to receive the gospel. So this was her first lesson, which meant we taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. We weren't planning on inviting her to be baptized, but during the lesson I got the prompting to ask her if she would be baptized! I kind of struggled with myself at first and was like "No, Haley. You're ridiculous. Don't ask her yet, you're crazy." Buuuuuut, God had other plans! So I asked her! And she said yes! She'll get baptized! We don't have a date yet because she wants to have some more lessons first, but that is so much better than a no! And that was my first baptismal invite!!! It was such a neat experience, and now I just feel like running down the street and asking everybody I see if they want to be baptized! But I can't, because I would look like a crazy person, haha! But seriously, from that lesson I learned that you should always follow a prompting. And by following promptings miracles can and will happen!
So it amazes me the inappropriate jokes and comments that members make around missionaries! They may not realize that they're doing it, or it may just be that they seem ridiculously inappropriate because I'm in this missionary mindset, but it happens way more than you think! I want to laugh when they say something, but then I feel super awkward. It is so funny! I'm just an awkward mess right now, hahaha!
My companions and I get to travel to Newberg on Thursday! We have to drive to the mission home so that I can get my iPad! YAY!!! Both of my companions have theirs, so when they're using them I just sit there and wait for them to finish. Everything is done on the ipad now. That's where your schedule is, where you report all of your lessons, all of the membership records. EVERYTHING. So I really have no idea what's going on half of the time because I don't have an ipad to put it in, haha. But not anymore! I get it on Thursday!
Oregon is great! It's cloudy and about 70 degrees right now!! It's so nice! I love and miss all of you!
Love,
Sister Hanna
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