Oh my goodness. THERE'S ALWAYS SO MUCH TO WRITE!!!!!! AND NO TIME TO WRITE IT!!!!

My birthday has been awesome!!! I'm 22, baby!!! haha.

#1-My companion put all sorts of suuuper cute signs all over the walls that I woke up to. She gave me a skirt (kind of a mission tradition thing) and wrote me a suuuper nice note. I LOVE HER!!!!

#2-We went to Red Rock and hiked. It was all the sisters in the south part of the mission and sister Black. I loooooooved it. It was soooooo refreshing and fun. The sisters are hilaaaarius. I wish I could've stayed there all day. So so so so so so nice!!!

#3-Having my birthday on P-day is EXTRA COOL cuz I receive all these amazing emails on the actual day! Yes!! Thanks to all the great emails from people who thought about me. It means sooooo much!! I wish I had time to respond to each one individually but there's NEVER enough time!

It's been sooooooooo awesome and happy. I've felt so loved and appreciated. Your support love and kind words are so special to me! I miss all you WONDERFUL, AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, MINDBLOWING people out there. I have SO MUCH LOVE for all of my friends and family of Provo and West Virginia. You all hold such special places in my heart!

On to this week. There's so much to tell. We set 2 more people with a date (an engaged couple)!!! We also realized that 3 of the people we're teaching (2 with a date) have to be passed off to the young single adult missionaries. I'm sad to see them go but I know it'll be good for them!

The Relief Society General Broadcast was SOOOO AWESOME! You have no idea how ridiculously excited I am for conference. I'm not sure about what we're doing and all but I soooooooooo hope I get to see all four sessions in their entirety.

We had a baptism on Saturday!!! It was AMAZING! My first baptism! It was so spiritual and sacred. I loved it. It was a great time for reflection and it made me realize how much I take my being baptized and having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost for granted. It was so HUGE for this person. So many people are living their whole lives without the precious blessings of the gospel and it made me so motivated to give that great gift of baptism and confirmation to more people!

Heavenly Father is COMPLETELY directing this work. I AM SO BLESSED to be teaching the people that I am. I'm learning so much from them and I love them soooooooo much!!!

Eek. There's no more time. ENJOY CONFERENCE! Take it seriously and listen carefully! It will give you direction and answers to your prayers!!!!

That's Sister Sprouse and me! I'll send more soooon!!!!

Hello all!! My emails won't usually be this long but we have some extra time today and I have a lot to catch up on!!! It's September 19th! I've been on my mission for over a month now and I've been in the field for exactly 2 weeks!! I didn't really get to email for the blog last week so there's a lot to tell!


I don't think I stressed it enough before that it's waaaaaay ghetto here. I'm living in the hood. haha. Sister Sprouse and I love it!! She has a ghetto book with all her crazy stories and I'm definitely gonna copy her! We have adventures all the time and let's just say I'm gonna have some legit street cred after this area. haha.


And it all affects how we teach too. Hearing about some of the other areas makes me realize the awesomeness that we have here. It's way different. People are waaay more willing to listen. But there are addictions of every kind and pretty much everyone is looking for a job and needs money help. Most people don't have much of a religious background (or the best education) so I'm learning to teach SUPER SIMPLY. It's so awesome here though! I love the uniqueness of this area and I'm so excited to be here!


I LOVE Sister Sprouse. She's pretty much perfect for me! We crack up all the time and we're so happy to be missionaries. Being with her is effortless. We're pretty sure we were bff's before we came to earth. haha. And I'm learning SOOOOO MUCH from her!! Yesterday someone gave his homecoming talk in one of our wards (we cover two wards). It was way exciting to hear but when the Bishop presented his plaque it was like a horror movie. We were so sad to think about that being us someday. It hurt our hearts and we wanted to cry. We just love our missions SO MUCH! I wanna be companions with her foreeeeever. hehe.


Seriously the phrase to describe this transfer is BEST OF THE BEST! I've been blessed SO MUCH to have such greatness at the beginning of mission. This is the best most misionaries have in their whole missions and I'm starting out here! Crazy!! I really don't understand why Heavenly Father has given me so much!! But I do know that where much is given, much is required! I'm trying to be worthy of His great trust.


For example: we have TEN people set with baptismal dates at the moment!! RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME!!! Like this is suuuuuuuuuper unusual. And we should have more soon. My head is exploding!!
One person is getting baptized this week. The sisters were working with him before and he's WAY awesome and SUPER solid. I'm sooo excited for this Saturday! We're teaching a family of 7 (6 are set with a date, 1 wasn't there when we taught), a few individuals and a few couples. I know that they've all been prepared by Heavenly Father. This work is COMPLETELY guided by Him. Seeing the changes of heart these people have had and the way the Spirit works has strengthened my testimony so much! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's true church on the earth and that the power of the Priesthood within this church is REAL. We have such authority as missionaries only because it's given to us from God. I love being the messenger of the restored gospel for these people. In the MTC they talked about missions being so great because it's like a front-row seat to seeing the atonement work in the lives of people and that's so true!! One of my faaaavorite things is hearing investigators pray. I love hearing people sincerely talk to their Heavenly Father and strengthen their relationship with Him! THERE IS REAL JOY IN MISSIONARY WORK!!


I've been so blessed to start my mission off busy and with all these progressing people. I'm working on having real faith that shows my complete trust in Heavenly Father. I think this has really been the struggle of my life up to this point and I know it's something that I'll have to continue to work on. But it's all about FAITH. It makes ALL the difference. I don't even know how to explain. It just makes ALL the difference.


After so much confusion about what to do with my life these past few years, I'm SO happy where I'm at and I know that's because the Lord is happy with where I'm at. There are so many evidences of this in my life right now! I CANNOT express how grateful I am to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. I'm learning so much about Christ and I'm striving to be like Him. He is my Savior and I love Him. I'm so grateful for prayer and for the knowledge of my individual importance to Heavenly Father. He has watched out for me in so many ways leading up to my mission and so much while I'm here. When thinking back about how I got here, I don't even know how I made the decision to serve. It was all Him gently guiding me to where I NEEDED to be.


Even when I doubt myself and my abilities to teach, I have complete confidence in the message that I have to share. I know it's real and it will CHANGE people's lives! The gospel of Jesus Christ is for EVERYONE. Heavenly Father SO wants His children to hear and accept the gospel and to receive the great HAPPINESS and BLESSINGS that come from it. That's why it's so important that we open our mouths. We carry a message with us that people are so desperately searching for. I'm so blessed to have it and so I must share it. Missionary work is the best work on the EARTH!!!
Sister Aubrey Ruth Dillistone

PICS FROM THE MTC!!!


My companions! The redhead is Sister Badger and the blond is Sister Brown!


The elders at the temple are my district. From left to right: E. Nielsen, E. Reiber, E. Calquin, E. Mangum, E. Wilson, E. Mitchell, and E. Albertson
They were AWESOMEEEEE!!!
The comps were: E. Nielsen and Calquin, E. Albertson and Mitchell, and then the trio of E. Mangum Wilson and Reiber


That's all that I have time for. I love you all!! The gospel is SO true. It changes hearts. I LOVE THE MISSION FIELD. It all just feels so right!!

WOAH! This is one big WHIRLWIND if there ever was one!!! And there's so much to tell!! We arrived yesterday! We had a ton of training and stuff but we were all EXHAUSTED. At 6 I met my trainer, Sister Sprouse, and her old companion, Sister Dixon. I'm in the Lone Mountain area which is like right by the mission office. I'll tell more about that later. We went staight to dinner with some members. They were waaaay awesome about it being my first dinner appointment ever. haha. Then we went to play games with some progressing investigators. I was POOOOOPED so I'm pretty sure I didn't look like I was having fun and didn't make the best impression. So I'm definitely excited to go back and act like a real person who's actually alive. haha. Then we had to go pick up some soup from an investigator before we went home. With training and all being so long I didn't realize any of that was going to be happening. This morning we dropped off Sister Dixon at transfers so she could go to her new area. And now it's just Sister Sprouse and me. I'm the FOURTH person she's trained! She's way awesome, super understanding, and really encouraging. She's making sure not to overwhelm me with all the tonnnns of information I'll have to learn. I love her already!!!


Oh and all the sisters are way cool. I'd seen them all on the blog (BTW, go visit that!!! Sister Black's going to pics up soon!) At transfers they were all really loud and jovial and craaacking up. haha. My kind of girls! lol.


We're living at members' home! President Black said about 50% live in members' homes. I had NO clue. I thought we were all in apartments so that was a surprise. It's pretty neat though! The family consists of the parents, one daughter still at home (a senior in HS), and a dog that's exactly like Mitzi.


Another surprising tidbit: half the missionaries are down in just the small area of Vegas. I figured since the mision is so big I'd spend a lot of time elsewhere and when everyone talked about Vegas I was like 'yeah, whatever, that's such a small part of the mission,' but I was totally wrong!


It's staaarting to feel real. Last night when we were meeting with people it just felt like I was tagging along with the sisters. haha. It totally felt like I was just visiting. Luckily it's starting to feel a little more real and I'm getting excited. There are SO many emotions it's crazy. But just as has happened all up to this point, Heavenly Father has strengthened me and given me the ability to take it all in without going crazy. haha. but there's SO MUCH TO TAKE IN!! I get scared when I think about teaching real people and my own stuff and all but when Sister Sprouse talks about it and from interacting with people a just the little bit that I have, it all makes me feel soooooooo good inside. The gospel is true. The work is real. Hearts can change. And I'm soooo excited to witness that!!


P-days are Mondays, we're just emailing today b/c of the holiday yesterday.


So on to the Lone Mountain area!!! The church is super strong here! People always talk about that in Vegas but I was definitely surprised. My area is like 2 and 1/2 by 1 mile by wide. CRAZY!!! There's so much here! Sister Sprouse and Sister Dixon were talking about how they opened this area up to sisters like 6 months ago and it went on fire. It's SOOOO busy. It's a more humble area...the most ghetto area in the mission that sisters serve in. haha. YESSSSS! :) I can't believe how many bajillion investigators/potentials there are. Sister Sprouse narrowed it down to 66 that we're going to work on right now. HOLY MOLY. My brain's going to explode!!! She also said that with contacting and tracting and stuff about 40% of the time people are interested. WOAHIE. haha. I'm glad to be in an area where the people are so receptive. It makes it all a little less scary. Oh and they're doing a new program for new missionaries with their trainers. I'm suuuuper excited about it cuz it's supposed to be really effective in helping us become better missionaries faster! It's a 12 week thing, which means that I'm for sure going to be here with Sister Sprouse for the next transfer. Yay!


I meant to add pictures but there was no time. I'll be sure to do that next week!!
I LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!

Hello all!!!
It was GREAAAAAAAATTTTTT hearing from you all. I WANT TO HEAR MORE!!!! Tell me alllll about the move!! How's everyone adjusting?! AIMEE....THIS MEANS YOU NEED TO WRITE MEEEEEEEEEE! haha. tell me about school and the pets and everything. pleeeeeease. I get lots of letters from my friends but none. from. my. family. RUDE. FIX THIS. (sorry I gotta guilt trip but hey, just write. haha). I know it's craaaazy busy there and all though so I understand.


DearElder is super awesome. You go on the site and email and they will print it out at the MTC and put it in the mailbox with the rest of the mail. So yeah. SUPER COOL. So UUUUUSE IT! I think I heard it only works in the MTC so use it while we still can. I'm not sure though. You'll have to look it up on the site. I wanna hear about eeeeeverything. And it's better to have letters cuz then I can keep them with me instead of only being able to look at them at one time. AND I only have 30 mins on the comp. so I gotta spend my time with my fingers flying on the keyboard, not trying to read all you wrote. But I LOVED receiving your emails anyway. I won't be able to respond to them individually though cuz there's only so much time. But Joe, you crack me up!!! keep those letters coming. it's fun to hear all the little details of what's going on.


I pretty much have NO time to write this week. Once again, the MTC is FLYING BY!!!! I have this reaaaallly super cool analogy/metaphor thing that I came up with that's changed my view about entering the field but I have no time to write! Basically I'm changing my attitide so that I'm happy and not scared of going into the field. It's made a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE DIFFERENCE. I was kinda freaking out there for a bit, but now I'm all excited about it. and I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT HERE. My district and my companions are SERIOUSLY THE BESSSSSTTTT. It just gets better and better!! I FINALLY saw Timmy on Sunday. His classroom's in the same building I live in but we've missed each other this whole time! Anyway life is DANG AWESOME AT THE MTC!!!!


AND YAAAAAAAAAAAY FOR TAMMY!!!! I wanna hear allllllllll about Luke!! and get pictures too!!! YAY FOR NEW NEPHEWS!!! I was gonna ask about him this week but Patty told me the good news (Thanks a bunch, big sis!!!!)! What day was he born? LOVE IT!!!


SEND ME MAILLLLLLL!
hehehe
Love,
Sister Dillistone!!!!!