Sister Rachel McIntosh: 25 April 2016

Greetings, all!

Here's a true story:

So, Tuesday night I was getting ready for bed and reflecting on the past 3 months. From the MTC up until that night. It's been AMAZING and I've grown an incredible amount, but I felt the need that night to pray for some specific things. I felt that I needed to be more humble and put more faith in the Lord than I had been. So I prayed for those things. I prayed that I'd learn humility and faith through experiences that I'd be faced with. The next day, we were driving to an appointment out in the boonies and I get a phone call from the mission office. It was one of the assistants. He made pitiful small talk for a while (bless his heart) then asked "Sister McIntosh, would you be willing to train a new missionary next transfer?" So... basically what I'm saying is that I'm training a missionary fresh from the MTC, and that God answers prayers. I asked for humbling and faith-building experiences, and I got one for sure!!

I went to a training in Idaho Falls for the new trainers a couple days ago, and there's only 3 new sisters coming in this transfer, and only one of them is called english-speaking. She's from Samoa, and President said that she may not speak very much english... So..... there's that!! I'm so so so excited! Nothing makes me step up my game faster than being put in a leadership position, so it'll be good for me, too.

I learned how to make flour tortillas! Yenise taught us!! It was so fun. We were there pretty late, but we set a date for her to get baptized and she's so excited.

This morning, all of the Sisters in our zone went and hiked "R" mountain in Rexburg! The elders didn't come because "What are men to rocks and mountains?" (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice). It was so fun!! I'm ashamed that I never went when I was going to school here.

ALSO, for those of you who know Bryant Siddoway, I'm serving in the stake where nearly ALL of his Idahoan relatives live. Everyone recognizes the Siddoway name. I had dinner with his cousin this week one day and with his child-hood next-door neighbor another day. It's really weird/great. I'm pretty much used to running into friends/roommates/professors/bishops from my college days. A relative here and there, as well. And I'm staying here and training, meaning that it's 99% likely that I'll stay here in Sugar City for another 3 months. I'll be 1/3 through my mission at that point! How crazy is that!?

Anyways. I hope you all are healthy and happy. I hope that you're in good spirits and I hope that you have hope. Members keep asking if my family is safe from the floods. They've seen all the footage and photos (including the BEAUTIFUL one Bro. Boyd took of the temple!!!!) and telling me about how crazy it's been right in my neighborhood and I've been praying for you all!!! It sounds like you're all helping each other out, which makes me happy. Faith, hope, and charity is the way to happiness. Faith to believe when we don't see how it'll work. Hope to give us the motivation to press forward anyhow. And charity to bring aid to those around us and to make us into more Christlike disciples.

You are all wonderful. Pictures to come.

Faithfully,

Sister McIntosh

1. Yenise taught us how to make tortillas

1.5 . See above.

2. I found furry antlers

3. Interacted with some ewes. Fun fact my first name (which hasn't existed for months) means "ewe" in hebrew. HebrEWE.

ALL IN ONE DAY

1. Our investigator and her younger sister who always ask to wear our tags after the lesson <3

2. Kevin Zhao, the guy who was taught my the missionaries in the Logan mission, but then came up to be baptized in Sugar City, where all of his people are, since he grew up here. Super nice guy. There were close to 200 people at the baptism. SO COOL.

3. There was a really ugly turkey and it freaked out sister stein.