WORDS FROM MOMMA FELSHAW

We got a call from Sasha saying that she would be coming home from her Tennessee mission.  We received a call from the mission president on Tuesday telling us how much he loved her, how much her companion loved her, and how much the Tullahoma ward loved her.  He told us that she had a strong testimony of the atonement of our Savior.  When asked what she was going to be doing for the next week, he told us that she was out doing missionary work! On Monday, April 13, 2015, Sasha came home!  I would be lying if I said that I wasn't happy to see her.  I have missed her, even though she has only been gone a month.   She has always been a ray of sunshine.  She is so fun and full of life. Sasha has been home a week!  She wrote the following on face book:

Sasha Felshaw I just wanted to clear something up: I didn't choose to come home and I surely didn't want to but, I had some things I needed to take care of so they decided that I had to come home. A lot of people have asked why I just randomly got sick of my mission. I never did. I loved it. It wasn't my choice to come back.  

I love and admire Sasha and am so proud of her.  It took a lot of courage, honesty, and a strong testimony to take advantage of the Savior's atonement and take care of something amiss in her life.  She absolutely loved her Tennessee mission, loved the people of Tennessee, and loved the people she was serving with, making her an awesome missionary.  You could tell that from her writings.  I just wanted you to know that we love and support her.  I am thankful she realizes that as long as she is good in the sight of the Lord, that nothing else matters.  

If I Die Young..

I did die young. (Mission style).

So I am home now.

One morning I woke up and got ready for the day like usual. But, right before my personal study i had been praying over if I should go home or not. I prayed about it often but this time I got my answer... I was supposed to go home. It was clear as day. I called my mission president and we talked over a few days. It had been decided I would go home. I was heartbroken, devastated and scared. I knew how much I would miss the people in Tennessee. I loved them. I still love them and always will. There is no place like the south. I was scared of what people would think. If my parents would disown me... Just everything... It is scary but for some reason I wasn't scared. I had so much peace. I knew going home was the right thing to do. 

I love my companion so much. She is the best momma missionary in the world. I will forever be grateful for her patience, love and kindness towards me. We had so many fun times, good conversations and she is the ultimate example to me.

I love my mission president. Never have I felt the spirit so strong by just being around someone. He radiates the spirit. I know he was called of God. I'm thankful for his kindness and understanding towards me. He does so much for everyone.

I love the people of Tullahoma. They love Jesus and I love it. Not everyone accepted the gospel or our teachings but I know they will someday as they further their relationship with their Savior. The people there are straight up crazy but I would not have it any other way. I am so blessed. I don't deserve it at all. But, I am forever grateful.

I love Tullahoma. It is beautiful. It's a home away from home.

Missions are the best. I know that they change people. I know that it is the best thing I've ever done. There is nothing that I would trade for that experience. It was my favorite experience of my entire life. I learned so much. I grew so much. 

I am also thankful for everyone at home who loved, supported and prayed for me. I wouldn't make it where I am today without ya'll. I love you.

I know the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on this earth today. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God. I know that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and me. I know that our Heavenly Father loves each of us unconditionally for eternity. I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I know that because I know these things that I can and that I do have joy. I am eternally grateful to have this gospel in my life. I know families can be together forever and I am sooo thankful for mine. I am thankful for the knowledge that I have.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

RANDOM PHOTOS!

Erbody and their cat has this sign.‏

My companion (mom) and Sister Pinrod (grandma) and Jesus

Disclaimer: not their real name. But this is what investigators text us....

EASTER

Happy Easter, Ya'll! Also, today is Jesus' birthday. Isn't that the neatest thing ya ever did hear? So this past week was EXTREMELY crazy and just wow. This email might be a bit wild cause we don't really know what's happening today.

Anyways, Tuesday we ended up having zone meeting in Sparta which is a couple hours away so we left at like 10 a.m. and didn't get back from the zone meeting til around 6 p.m. I learned a lot and also got my iPad. It was a sister in my districts birthday so we had cake and things and it was fun. :)

Wednesday, we had a district meeting which was also a couple hours away. We also had mission president interviews so we were there til like 7 p.m.   Another meeting of all day.  I was exhausted from not doing anything.  The trainings were good but I wanted to be out doin work.  President Anderson is my mission president and him and his wife are extremely awesome. I love them so much and am so grateful for all they do for us. There are 240 missionaries in our mission so we sure do keep them busy. 

Thursday, we had weekly panning which takes up a good chunk of the day.

Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges.

Saturday and Sunday were General Conference.

Okay, now that ya know the outline of things I will tell ya a couple things that happened this week...

I've tried a lot of new food. We are supposed to write miracles to our mission president each week and this week I almost wrote.. "It's a miracle that I'm still alive after all the new food I had to try." But I decided to say something spiritual instead. But, I tried lamb. I actually made it. I have eaten SOOOO many vegetables. I swear everyone here is on a low carb diet or some kind of diet so all we eat is vegetables. And I am not the biggest fan of that. Also, I don't like tomatoes at all and one meal that we had was just stuffed tomatoes. It honestly took all my strength to not throw up. I was so nervous that I would and I almost did but, I am a champ. That's pretty much all I eat... Vegetables. Not quite what I expected. I am grateful for the people that feed us, though! Funny blonde moment: I like weighing myself now because my weight changes so drastically. So I weighed myself this morning and I was like wow I really gained some weight over night then realized I was holding my scriptures haha. Bless my heart.

 

We eat weird food.

A lady in our ward taught Sister Halbeisen and I how to make some name quilts and that was neat. But, don't know when I will ever have time to actually make it. 

On exchanges I was with Sister Pinkston. She is a rockstar. All our plans fell through so we went tracking and met some super awesome new people. All the people we met were young! Like 20-30 yrs old. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. I swear I only know old people. It was cool. It was nice to be able to really relate. There were to guys who were 25 and they said they love having religious arguments so they really wanted us to come back. Great.... They told us they had been meeting with a JW and they were leanin towards that... Another great. Most people just wanna hangout with us. Lots of people invite us to their bbq parties which is nice of them..

So Friday night while on exchanges we get a call saying there was a tornado warning.. If ya know me ya might now that tornados are my worst fear! As a child I would have nightmares about them errrnight. Well, I found out that where I live is tornado alley and it is the start of tornado season! How wild! So I'm calmly freakin out but sister Pinkston is not so calm about it which made me nervous. So we were out visiting some AWESOME new converts and there is one who works at dollar general and when we pull up the sky is like a creepy green color but it wasn't raining or anything so we go in and invite terry to watch conference and then walk out and it is POURING. There is a reason that windshield wipers have that super fast setting. We couldn't see anything so we just prayed we could drive home. This was at about 6pm so we got home and were instructed to wait in our bathrooms for the rest of the night. I think I watched all the Mormon message videos. Good times. But, no tornado ever came luckily!

One night we tracted all night and EVERYONE was a baptist. They aren't fans of us. 

My favorite part of the week was conference!! Holland and Uchtdorf are such spiritual bosses. Their talks were my favorite but they were all so good! We watched almost every session at the church building. We had an investigator go to the Saturday morning session and after he talked to Estaban who is thee coolest and newest convert here. He is a Mexican and has the sweetest dreads! Every time he talks he preaches and it is just the best! Gary was glad he talked with him and we set up a time to meet with him again. Nancy R one of our progressing investigators came to all sessions. She is such a trooper! It was new to worry about what someone else was getting out of conference. Saturday afternoon session we watched at a members home and Nancy came with us. It was so good.

All I have to say about Conference!

One night it was raining and we were walking at an investigator ran after us for five blocks just to give us umbrellas. It was hilarious.

We were so blessed for Easter. We got a lot of cards, letters, emails, baskets, and I have chocolate Easter bunnies for days!!! We are so grateful.

I just wanted to share how grateful I am for the atonement. How grateful I am for my brother, Jesus Christ and for the love Him and Our Father in Heaven have for all of us. I would invite ya'll to really study the atonement and if you haven't to watch general conference! They are words from a living prophet! How blessed are we!!! Also, I would like to invite you to read your scriptures everyday. They bring stacks on stacks of blessings.

Sorry my email doesn't make sense but ya'll should just know I love Tennessee and the people here! Everyone is awesome! I love and miss ya'll so much!

Love,

Sister Felshaw