Hey everyone!!

Happy last email! This week was probably the happiest and saddest week of my mission, but I'm so grateful for every second of it.

This week was filled with a lot of goodbyes and final things, but it made me realize how much I've genuinely loved my mission and how much of a blessing it's been for me. On Sunday we went to my last night church and it was just the most bittersweet moment of my whole life. A lot of all my favorite members and friends came to say goodbye, which was so cute of them, and then it was also testimony meeting. I got to play the piano one last time for my favorite meeting of my whole mission (spanish night church, duh) and so as I was sitting up on the stand, I was just looking out at everyone. There were past leaders, recent converts, friends, my favorite members, companions, just all the people I've met and loved for the past 18 months.

For those of you who don't know, I was not happy to be called to Las Vegas. Pretty much the furthest opposite of happy that you can think of (not proud of that.) But after saying goodbyes this week, seeing all these people I've met and loved, spending hours at the churches that have become my favorite places in Las Vegas, and being able to just talk to everybody and teach them about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, I have never loved a place more or been sadder to leave somewhere.

My mission has completely changed my life. I can't even begin to imagine where I would be right now if I hadn't decided to serve, and I'm so grateful I never have to find out. I have learned and grown so much, but the most important change has been my testimony of this church and of Jesus Christ. I know this is His true church on the earth and that it was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know that God has put His priesthood power back on the earth today and that through it, we can draw closer to Him and Jesus Christ through covenants. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us individually and will never stop loving us. 

Happy December everybody!

This week was much better than last week, and we had lots of fun things!!

★ Samuel is one of the guys we met in the park a few weeks ago and he's super awesome. He's come to church every week since we met him, and he really wants to be baptized. He's got some things that we have to figure out before he can be baptized but pray that we somehow figure them out in the next 2 days so that he can maybe be baptized on Saturday—haha.

★ Wednesday we had to say goodbye to Sister Kamp (not one of the fun things) but it's okay because I remembered that I'll see her in less than two weeks. 🤪

★ Thanksgiving!! We had a fun day with some zone volleyball and then two Thanksgiving dinners. We spaced them out as far as we could but I'm just going to say that it wasn't far enough. It was so fun though and we got to have dinner with our recent converts and the other sisters, so it was a party. 🥳

★ Saturday we got to go to a Christmas/classical music concert, and it was so good!! They were all crazy talented and it made me so excited to come home and do piano again.

I've been listening to talks by President Oaks lately and this was one of my favorites this week! Our recent convert Melissa had some questions about Christ and the Godhead, and this talk was able to answer all of them! My favorite part is at the end when President Oaks says, "Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten and Beloved Son of God. He is our Creator. He is the Light of the World. He is our Savior from sin and death. This is the most important knowledge on earth..." Jesus Christ is everything to us, and I know that it's so important that we continuously build and strengthen our testimony of Him through the small and simple things. 

Heyyy everybody! This is going to be the shortest email ever cause we've done nothing this week haha.

It was a little bit of a crazy weekend, and it's been a very memorable way to wrap up. Sister Kamp didn't feel very well Friday night into Saturday morning, and by noon she was pretty bad. We took her to urgent care, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, so they transferred her to the ER. She and I were in the ER for 6 hours till they admitted her to the hospital overnight and she's still here as of today. Unfortunately, because they don't know what's wrong still, they said it'd be better for her to go home and figure it out. So Sister Kamp is going home today and it's just me and Sister Ackley for the rest of the transfer :( Can't lie, it's been a pretty brutal week and is super sad. And this is totally selfish, but y'all please pray that Sister Ackley doesn't get her VISA because then I'll be all alone. 😭

Scripture of the week is Sister Kamp's favorite! It's 1 Nephi 3:7 which says: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for 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." Pray for Sister Kamp and her doctors that they can figure out what's wrong and help her get better!

Love y'all!

🤍 Hna. Pursglove 

Happy week everyone!

I'm just going to get right into it with the highlight of the week: JULIO WENT TO THE TEMPLE!! We messaged him Saturday morning to make sure he was still good to go, and he replied and said he was excited! We got to the temple, and he was already there and it was just awesome. It was exactly one year after his baptism, and so while we were waiting, I was just thinking about his whole journey and everything and how cool it is that he was finally able to go to the temple and feel that peace.

After about 20 minutes, we were the next group to go, and the temple worker goes, "So we're going to have him be baptized and then he's going to baptize you." Literally one of the coolest experiences of my whole life. I got to be there for his baptism a year ago, and then he baptized me his first time doing Baptisms for the Dead a year later. You already know we were both crying in the font and it was genuinely just something I will never forget. Best day ever. 🫶

Little highlights:

★ I had my last zone conference!! It was amazing as always, and I got to give my departing testimony. It still doesn't feel very real that I'm leaving so if everyone could keep pretending with me that I don't come home in 3 weeks that'd be awesome. 👍

★ Angel got his patriarchal blessing!! He is genuinely the best and is going to convert all of Las Vegas.

★ Got to see some members from my last area who moved to Spain but then surprised everyone by showing up at night church!! It's so fun to see all the old friends and members.

This week I got an email that I have to write a little memory book and include some of my favorite scriptures and quotes from my mission. President Nielsen used this as some advice during one of my interviews and it's something that's stuck with me since then. It's 3 Nephi 13:34 and it says, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof." I was talking with Sister Nielsen the other week, and she told me that we can't change yesterday, we can't predict tomorrow, so the only thing that's left to do is live today. Each day is a new opportunity, so it's important to take advantage and do all that we can.

Have a good week!!

🤍 Hna. Pursglove

Hey everyone!

Don't have a lot of time today so I just want to share two cool things from this past week!!

1. We met these 2 guys named Nestor and Samuel playing basketball at the park on Saturday! They were both interested and let us have a lesson with them, and then they promised that they would come to church on Sunday. Guess who actually showed up to church on Sunday? Nestor and Samuel!! They loved it and said that they're going to bring all their friends next week as well so that was a major highlight.

2. When Sister Kamp and I were together in January, we received a media referral named Jordan. We met him, he wasn't very interested, and we ended up sending him to the English sisters because he didn't speak Spanish. We found out a couple of months ago that he got baptized, and this weekend we got a notification that he moved into our YSA ward!! When we had a lesson with him on Saturday, we got out of the car, and he recognized both of us and was so excited even though we met him I think 3 or 4 times. We ended up talking about how there's no such things as coincidences and how this is such a cool full circle moment.

Sad news of the week was that my cutie patootie baby Sister Pope went home, so today's thought is her favorite scripture. It's Mosiah 27:28 which says, "Nevertheless, after wading through much tribulation, repenting nigh unto death, the Lord in mercy hath seen fit to snatch me out of an everlasting burning, and I am born of God." The coolest experience of my mission has been seeing Atonement change people's lives.

This Saturday we're going to the temple with Julio! That will be the exact one year of his baptism, and I literally have never been more excited for anything in my life so PLEASE pray that nothing happens to stop it this time. 🙏

Love y'all!!

❤️ Hna. Pursglove