Sister Jessica Lee Hollist

We had a super cool opportunity to be apart of a mission tour thing where Elder Matthew Holland & Elder Aidukaitus called into our mission twice this week to do some training. it was such a amazing experience. at the beginning one of the missionaries made a reference to Elder Holland's "first & only talk" and then he chimed in very excited and said "hey but stay tuned the second one is coming next month" so just a heads up, stay tuned for October's conference, he is a spiritual giant!! anyhoo, they talked A LOT about charity & how crucial that is to all we do. I LOVED the way that Elder Holland talked about charity !! I loved that he talked about the importance of diligent prayer in gaining charity. & that charity is obedience & it drives us to want to do everything we can to follow all the commandments God has given us because they are just there to help us. he said "having charity for the people we teach & serve will change our...

I've said it a million times and I'll probably say it again but I cant believe it is almost September...this week was a goooooood week!! I went on an exchange with Sister Patterson and I got to spend a day in Illinois yay!! they are known for having white squirrels where I went but i didn't get to see one but maybe next time. but anyways this week was SUPER cool. We had interviews with President and Sister Alder on Thursday and they were so special. I love them, they are such spiritual giants & the biggest cheerleaders. it was so sweet, President Alder is so excited about the work up here and it was a super encouraging and spiritual experience to talk to him and to feel his love for the Lord's work. we left interviews SO pumped for the work & ready to be representatives of Jesus Christ. over the next couple days we were organizing how the work is going to be done and we began to be really stressed out....& we are still a little stressed out but a wise women ...

My heart is full of so much gratitude this week. gratitude for my Savior, for this gospel, and for the opportunity that I have to be a representative of Him. it amazes me every single week that I begin to love my mission more and more everyday. of course there are days where I am down a little bit but this week I gained a new love for mission & these people, a deep love. i go home a year from tomorrow and that is still a really long time but I am already so not looking forward to it. no offense @thefam I love yall more than anything. there is something so so special about this work that is beyond words can describe. I don't have too much time today because something came up BUT quick story on how the marshallese teaching began- about a year ago two elders found a group of marshallese people and asked President if they could start learning so they could teach them and he gave them the go ahead. after a little bit they weren't able to find that many people so President kinda ...

what a CRAZY week. I feel like my mission kinda got flipped upside down a little. in the BEST way of course. not gonna lie the marshallese people are the greatest people. we met with a group of missionaries up here doing the marshallese work to figure out how it's all going to work. & before I got here the sisters were kind of doing 20% marshallese and 80% English but they decided we would be going 100% marshallese so that will be quite the adjustment....BUT awesome !! plus we don't really have an area they just said wherever the marshallese people are that is where you are. YAY !! so I had my first marshallese lesson not even 24 hours after I got here and I really only knew like 10 words so I used those 10 words but I was kinda in shock the whole time because I was like wow I know nothing & how will I ever understand any of this. and she said something to me in English and I was so in shock I didn't know it was English and I just stared at her and smiled, very emba...

So kinda BIG changes... first of all I hit my 6 month mark a couple days ago which means somehow I'm already a third of the way through my mission which is kinda scary but I have spent my whole mission here in Woodhaven and I have just loved it so much but apparently it's time for a change. President called us on Saturday and told Sister Brunsdale she would be training and then he said, "so Sister Hollist are you open to learning a language?" .....first I was shocked, then BEYOND excited and then I was terrified & then excited again and then cried and then got excited again and that pattern is just continuing. YAY but ANYWAYS!!! I have been called up to Evansville, Indiana Marshallese speaking !!! I am so so so excited, it is really cool to see all the work that they are doing up there. nearly my whole district is doing Marshallese work and it is just poppin over there. so here's to my first transfer yay!! my new companion is Sister Hassler and she was serving...