RAINY DAYS

What a crazy week! I feel like this week was really long and that the things I'm going to write about, happened forever ago! It's crazy how time is here. It's fast, yet slow. My first transfer is almost over! This next Sunday we will get transfer calls and find out if we stay, leave, train, or if they are splitting our wards. I'm a little bit nervous! But it'll all be good. So weird that I've been out this long already. I still feel like I know nothing, yet have learned so much at the same time!

So we have been knocking on this lady's door whenever we have time and I had never met her until this week! We finally got in and she is the sweetest little old lady EVER. I love her so much! She is from Lebanon and once she got here her family left her. She didn't know English and just learned from watching TV. She just got back from heart surgery the day we got in with her. She LOVES us and loves when we visit because she is SO lonely. So we called the relief society and told them to get on it. She isn't a member but will let anyone from the church in because she trusts us. She kept saying we are true people. Plus, she is religious and knows the bible well. She can't read in English very well though so she can't read the Book of Mormon in English. That makes it a little harder for us! Anyway she would talk to us for hours if she could. She said she likes me and can understand me a little better than some people. So apparently I have an "accent" that she can understand a little better. She is SO CUTE.

Anyway so our golden investigator, who was supposed to be baptized last week, but didn't come to church so she couldn't...How sad. ANYWAY we texted her and she said she needed some time and didn't know if she wanted to "study" with us anymore. We were quite sad but decided to just give her some time and hopefully she would come around again. She is a little stressed right now so we just let her be and let her know that we will always be there for her.

We do have a new investigator though! This guy kept walking into church in another building. It was actually the sisters that we live with that realized he lives in our area so they referred him to us. Long story short, he's got a lot of knowledge and he's analyzes everything. We had some members come out with us; I love this family so much too :) They treat us so well! They fed us lunch and then took us to the appointment and helped us teach. It went pretty well I think.

This week we got to have our temple trip for the transfer! We went to the Mesa temple and it was awesome! I got to see a bunch of people from my MTC district. My MTC companion was there!!! I have missed her so much! We got to sit and talk in the celestial room and it was really awesome to see her and catch up with her! Anyway it was awesome to go to the temple. I loved it.

So we went to our appointment to see another investigator too! She wasn't answering the door or her phone so we went and sat down trying to figure out what to do and right before we gave up, we went and knocked one more time and as we were walking away, the door opened! So we were able to go in and teach her the Restoration in more detail because we briefly touched on it the week before when we were able to get in with her. She is awesome. We set up another appointment for this week as well! She was really receptive and she said the prayer at the end so that was really good! Sister K. ended up getting really sick that day because she is gluten free and had eaten wheat in the meals the day before. The people didn't know I guess and basically everything had wheat in it so she was feeling pretty sick. Then the other sisters came home because one of them wasn't feeling well either. So Sister W. and I went on exchanges! We left the sick ones home and went out together. It was SO fun!!! We went to the young women's in one of her wards and talked about missions and stuff and then we went and stopped by our golden investigator's house. Her boyfriend opened the door and she had already gone to bed. I was so nervous since we hadn't talked to her since she had basically dropped us. But her boyfriend made a comment about how she had said we were coming by that weekend, so that confused me. But he was acting normal and we were able to really talk to him and invite him to have lessons with us as well. So it was really good that we stopped there.

The next day we had a lot of meetings and such. Sister K. and I went to the mission office and had an interview with a man who is helping with the iPads. We went and made a TON of suggestions of how things could be better/easier and what they can better do/fix. He probably hated us because of how many suggestions we had ;) haha It was really good though. That night we decided to stop in and see our golden investigator again. We were SO nervous but we knocked and she let us in and acted almost normal. She hinted at wanting to prepare to be baptized on January 1st. So that's good. However, she still isn't quit herself and she didn't come to church this week again :/ But hopefully things turn out for the best! She is SO prepared, but she's kinda not letting herself be, so that's really sad/hard. Starting that night, it started POURING rain. There were huge puddles in the parking lot and it was really coming down, so us four that live together, went out and played in it/had a huge water fight! It was SO fun! haha it doesn't rain often here so we enjoyed it while it lasted. However, we woke up the next day, and it was STILL raining. It has rained for 3-4 days straight!!!! That is NOT normal and it's freezing! I was not prepared for it. We got SOAKED riding our bikes around!

This week I got a bunch of letters that had been sitting at the mission home for weeks! I got 7 letters. Sooooo if I haven't written you back, it's probably because I just barely got it. haha my zone leaders were so jealous that I had so many letters. Anyway I'm running out of time so I won't have time to say everything else I wanted to...but one night we visited an older woman. She is a recent convert and is preparing to go to the temple. She has two more temple prep classes and then she is set. She was really lonely and we went and visited her and in her prayer when we left, she expressed thanks to God that he knows her so well and that when she was really lonely and at her lowest, he sent us to visit her and raise her spirits. It was so awesome to hear and to know that we really are answers to peoples prayers sometimes. 

On Sunday our Bishop invited two families to church and they both came! Another member picked our male investigator up too! So we had 6 non members there and it was awesome!!! We introduced ourselves to the families we didn't know and one of them told us we'd have to come over and "harass" them sometime. Little do they know, we really will and we won't stop until they ask us to! ;) After church we had some really good ward correlations with both of our wards. The members are really starting to step up and help us/go out with us and find us people to teach. We then went to dinner at member's home and our male investigator. He also brought his girlfriend. That was really good. However we had to leave early and go to our second dinner! We went with our recent convert to our assistant ward mission leader's home. We had a BLAST there. We talked about spiritual things and had dinner, and then we played a game called Farkle. It was SO fun! It got a little intense and riled up and we were all laughing and having a fabulous time. However, not that I think about it, I'm pretty sure playing games is breaking a rule....so I better double check and not do that again. haha but since we were with our recent convert, it was alright because she needed that quality time with us and someone to be there for her in her time of struggle. So that was good and she had a really good time as well. Then the  assistant ward mission leader showed us a cool object lesson. I know it sounds impossible, but he put one toothpick in the salt shaker, balanced another toothpick on the first toothpick, and then balanced two forks on the second toothpick! Crazy right? So it's hard to explain, but I'll send a picture of it too! It was awesome. Anyway I got to go! Have a good week!

 Playing in the rain.....

SOAKED!

Highs and Lows

Hello again! What another crazy week. We have had some fun and....not so fun times as well this week. To begin can I just say, it is a REALLY good thing I didn't go foreign and have to eat all these crazy foods! BUT you should be proud, I always eat what the people serve, regardless of how well it tastes to me. For example, ya'll know how much I don't like vegetables. WELL, I have been eating peas, broccoli, cooked carrots, tomatoes, and so forth. Gross huh. But I guess it's gonna help me be healthy so I shouldn't complain. Anyway last week on P day we played kickball with our zone. Let me just say, the elders get CRAZY competitive. It was pretty fun for a while and I also worked up quite the sweat. I am SO out of shape. (currently working on that as well ;)

So for some fun little facts for ya...our nine year old finally got permission from her biological father so she got baptized this week! Since she was getting baptized, her family was priority this week so we went there every night. Her step dad got baptized last year and has the Aaronic Priesthood so he was going to be able to baptize her! How awesome huh :) Well they had some whip cream one night, and I ended up showing the girls that "trick" that Brandon showed me with the whip cream :) They thought I was awesome. The dad tried it, and he totally almost fell in the rocks trying to catch it in his mouth..he still missed :) So he sent us home with bottles of whip cream and that night, our apartment had a whip cream fight! haha good times.

Anyway so that was fun :) This week we also got to have interviews with our mission president! I love him. We get to do that every other transfer. However, the interview was literally 2 minutes long so it was just a lil check up and if we had anything serious we needed to talk about, then we had to set up another time. But it was still good to just touch base with him. He said I look like the kind of person who would keep things "bottled" up inside me so if I need anything to make sure I talk to him or his wife. We also learned that day that we get to help with the Gilbert Temple open house! The sisters get to work in a booth outside the temple but we aren't allowed to proselyte. We are just there if people willingly ask questions or want to refer themselves to learn more. So that's cool! We also might get to do an endowment session there before it opens to the public! But we don't know yet. This week my companion and I also had the opportunity to help package invitations to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple. An LDS man prints them for free and only charges for ink and paper so the missionaries package them and send them to every ward in the 5 missions in Arizona! SO many cards. But it was kinda fun to help do that :)

This week was also good because every week I have been here we ride our bikes down to Biscane Bay. It's an apartment complex that takes a half hour just to get down there, so we only get there about once a week. We have knocked on a lady's door every time and she is never there. Well this week she was there! Success! She was busy but said she had a few minutes. We were able to give her a brief synopsis of our religion and the restoration/priesthood and stuff. Then we set up an appointment for this week! She seems pretty open and we got along pretty well so hopefully everything works out with her :) We are excited to teach her!

Now, one of our investigators put herself on date for January 1st but we really felt we could get her baptized this month. We prayed about November 30 and I just kept getting the impression it needed to be earlier. So that left the 23 of November....aka NEXT SATURDAY. CRAZY RIGHT!? So we taught her on Thursday night and we had to teach the commandments. Investigators have to live the law of chastity and the word of wisdom for at least 10 days before they can be baptized...Thursday was day one. We taught her and she has to quit cold turkey! She is not really addicted, so she says, but she loves her coffee. Soooo it could be rough. She had to be to church on Sunday as well cause she has only been once and you have to go twice. We bought her a cute water bottle with some lemons to help her be able to resist coffee and she really appreciated it. We were so excited and all ready to plan a wedding for her as well so she can get baptized on the 23! Soooo we had a lot to do for her in order for her to be baptized, but we knew it's what the Lord wanted! Sooo we've been checking up on her and we were really excited. Sadly, she bailed on church.....we were CRUSHED. We had so much faith and knew she needed to be baptized on that date and now she can't because she didn't come to church. She said she wasn't "feeling well" but we know that she is scared to let others see her commit to this. Especially her family. She is scared of the judgement they will have. So that has been really hard on us. She won't answer us now and we are a little nervous. She is SO prepared and I will be so heartbroken if she doesn't come around. She is SO close!!! I can't imagine how sad God is :( But we will work with her still and hopefully she will come around and show her faith by taking that action. 

So our little 9 year old got baptized on Saturday! I know you are waiting for that email or letter that tells you thank you for putting me in piano...NOT going to happen. I haven't practiced the piano in so long that it is such a stressful thing for me to play the piano in public! I had to play at a stake meeting the other day and I was also the person who played at the baptism! I accompanied the special musical number as well. It is so stressful and makes me dang nervous since I haven't played hymns or primary songs in a LONG time. Anyway, the stepdad, did really good baptizing her. It was super special. They had to do it twice though because somebody (my companion) didn't put the plug in the font right so it was draining for a while before the baptism!!! haha oops. The water was really low and her stepdad held her down quite a bit the second time cause her knee and elbow kept popping out so he pushed her farther down and held her longer looking at the witnesses to see if it was good. haha it was SO cute. Their family was so grateful and they are now working towards being sealed in the temple! 

We also had a super cool experience on Saturday night. Again, everything we had planned fell through and we went to see a recent convert.. She really needed us and she just started sobbing. She is feeling like everything is against her and just having some physical ailments and stress as well. Oh my goodness, I hardly know the woman and I cried for real (spiritually) but tears definitely came out. The bishop came over and gave her an AMAZING blessing. She had never had one before and it was so cool and she was promised so many awesome things. I wish I could better explain it with more detail, but it really touched me and was a good experience for me.The Lord definitely put us in her house that night because we weren't planning on being there. 

On Sunday, like I said, our investigator didn't come to church and my companion and I were so sad and discouraged. It had felt so right and now because of that one choice, she can't be baptized this coming week. We were pretty down and I wasn't feeling too good physically either. We ended up going to one of our ward mission leaders homes that night to have a correlation. It ended up being a venting session for us because we have had some mixed messages from the ward members about them helping and such. It's a long story but it was really stressing us out and becoming overwhelming because we are supposed to involve members and we just feel like a burden to them. This mission leader and his family are so amazing though and they are always there for us. They made us get blessings before we left and I didn't realize how much I needed it until I got it. It was so good and they do so much for us, and it was much needed by us. I'm so glad we have members that we CAN TRUST and who do take care of us. They were so sweet and were really sad to hear what was going on. After that we had a pretty good night. We took some members,(they are awesome/the husband got home from his mission a year ago) and we taught our 9 year old's stepdad about getting the Melchezidek priesthood. We all sat around a fire and had hot chocolate and smores! It was really fun and reminded me of home. They said they could see I'm definitely a "country girl" as they put it. haha. It was really fun though and we are excited for these steps that that family is making! So all in all it was a good yet stressful week. We have a few referrals that we are hoping to meet this week and add some people to our teaching pool! I feel like this email was a little scattered, but it's so hard to put all the details in here in the short amount of time I have! Love you all! :) Have a great week.

So the Days Turn to Weeks

Wow, I feel like we didn't do much this week, but when I start thinking about everything I want to write, I KNOW I won't have time to tell it all! So I guess we did more than I thought! :)

So on P-days we have a little old woman from our ward take us to Walmart to get groceries. She is THE cutest old lady I have ever met! She is 90 years old and still going strong! She writes AMAZING poetry and will soon have a poetry book published. I'll have to get one because she is so sweet. She is however, a CRAZY driver. Sometimes I fear for my life ;) She tends to see red lights right before we fly through them! haha so I'm exaggerating a little, but just know she is so cute and so funny :) I'll have to take a picture with her sometime.

 

So I knew the day would come that I would not be so lucky as to "almost" fall off my bike. It happened...Although it was weird, I was basically already off my bike but we were on an incline and I lost my balance and got entangled in my bike. I had a nice tire mark on my bum the rest of the day. It was just lovely. My poor companion thought I was crying so she didn't know what to do! However, I was just laughing SO hard, that it sounded like I was crying. Good times, good times.

 

So this week I have begun to get a wee bit homesick. Sometimes its hard to be on facebook and see everybody and know I am "missin" out on some things. But no worries, I'm all good! This week I just had a few times where it was hard for me to focus. Still haven't cried, so I think that's good.

 

My companion and I are sooo shy and terrible at OYMS (open your mouth...aka street contacting). We get nervous and shy. But we did pretty good on a particular day! We had an OYM at a bus stop and it turned into a lesson! It was the first time we have taught a lesson on the side of the road but it was really awesome and I think it was a confidence booster for us. The guy was really nice, but he thought we were trying to sell something. He was a salesman and he kept saying he really admired my perseverance and the way I went about explaining things. So he took it from a salesperson perspective. He was really impressed that we pay to do this though. Because he knows what it feels like to be rejected daily. Anyway so that was pretty cool. Then we passed some people moving into some apartments! We stopped and asked if we could help. We helped move some heavy stuff (I'm so strong, ya know) into their apartment, and in the end the daughter seemed interested! She asked if we worked there and what not so we kind of explained what missions are and we gave her our card and said we would check up on her later this week. So this week we will go back! The young woman has a daughter and lives with her parents. Her daughter is SO CUTE. She was adorable and told us to be safe riding our bikes home. Anyway so those were some good experiences. However, in the same day, we had four people drop us :( Basically they said they were no longer interested in learning and not to come back. Sad day...

 

But another happy moment! I asked one of our other investigators to be baptized!!! She put herself on date for January 1st but we are going to push to do it sooner. She needs to get married and stuff first though, so I think that's why she pushed the date back. She is one of the sweetest ladies ever. She is like our mothers! She always asks where we are going so she knows if she has to worry or not. Then one night she told us we needed to get jackets cause it was going to be chilly! We love her so much!! She has so much faith in Christ. She has financial struggles but she puts her faith in God and doesn't stress and she knows if she keeps doing what she is doing, then God will take care of the rest and help her. She is truly so amazing. A man shot and killed her brother six times in the back and she is not angry at all with him. She has forgiven him and she feels bad for him and hopes he is doing well. Isn't that AMAZING!? I definitely think it is. She has had a lot of struggles in her life but I know that meeting with us has brought her peace.

 

 

Our little nine year old investigator finally got permission from her biological dad so she will be getting baptized this week! Hooray! So exciting. She is so great and she can't wait to be baptized. She has been over the top excited for weeks now. We also got to have our first skype lesson! We met with our recent convert and skyped her mom into the lesson. That was pretty neat. It went well. We also have a new investigator. She always cancels on us but we finally got in this week! We taught the Restoration and it went SO well. She was really receptive and she is going to try to read as much of the Book of Mormon as she can before we come back next week. She has a severely autistic daughter so she didn't want to come to church this week, but hopefully next week she can work up to it. Speaking of church, my companion and I had to teach the Gospel Doctrine/Gospel Principles class in one of our wards this week. It was kinda nerve wracking to teach a bunch of adults who really know the gospel. All the teachers had a training auxiliary or something so of course they asked us to teach.But I think it went pretty well. We talked a lot about how they can help us share the gospel and we gave them all pass along cards with our number on them that we challenged them to pass out. Also, during church the fire alarm went off! It was right during somebody's testimony and they were crying and such and then we all had to evacuate. Super weird! haha but funny. It was definitely a new experience for me!

 

 

We made a cake for someone we are trying to get into teach! One of the members baked a cake for us and then we used all her stuff and decorated it! It was fun :) She took pictures of us and put it on facebook, she's a cute lady and she is always taking care of us!

 

 

I have officially been out for a month! I had my one month birthday on the 9th! Pretty crazy. The days are long but then soon, they turn into weeks and the time just flies on by. Everyone in our apartment is getting sick though :/ I've been good so far...knock on wood. The weather is still great though, although I must be adjusting because sometimes I get chilly when its even 60 degrees!

 

 

Anyway I can really see God's hand in helping us. One day everything fell through and we ended up going to somebody's house an hour earlier than we had planned. However, that person had really needed us and needed to be uplifted. Later we realized that God made it possible for us to be there at that time for him. It just wasn't until later that we realized it. Amazing. That is my challenge to everbody! Have a spiritual journal or something, and at the end of each day, try to recognize when God has helped you or you have seen His hand in your life that day. I promise as you continue to do this, it will be so easy to start recognizing His hand quicker and you will be blessed. He will start to bless you even more because you are showing gratitude and that you recognize him in your life.

 

 

Sorry this letter has been so scattered. I wish I could just record my day and send it to you so you could understand what I go through and how awesome it is! Oh! It rained this week and it was so beautiful! We stopped to take pictures and then we rode all over on our bikes in the rain. It was awesome :) It reminded us both of home. Anyway until next week! :)

It's All A Blur

Holy cow, I can't even remember the details of this week in order to write this letters! The days honestly just melt together. I feel like I have been here for months, yet that I just barely left at the same time (which I did, so that would make sense :) Anyway, good thing I write in my journal each day so I can remember some details for my letters!

 

This last Tuesday we got Ipads! Woohoo! It is really nice because we literally have every talk, broadcast, and so forth right at our fingertips. We don't have wireless internet at our apartment so we have to go to the church in order to download videos, but slowly we are downloading mormon messages, conference talks to watch, and other helpful videos. In that aspect they are really nice. However, they are such a pain in the rear right now. We have to move everything from the area books (which are huge binders that have a teaching record for each person the missionaries have ever contacted in that ward) and move them to the ipads! Talk about time consuming. So we now have an extra hour inside each day to do our area books. There is so much that we do inside that I never realized. My typical day is:

6:30 (or 6 sometimes) exercise

7:00 breakfast and getting ready

8:00 personal study

9:00 companionship study

10:00 training (you have training for 12 weeks, its kinda like companionship study continued and helping you learn to do things better)

11:00 facebook (we now use facebook to proselyte for an hour each day

12:00 lunch

1:00 area books

 

And the rest of the day we get to do whatever it is we have to do that day. There are three days that we have meetings as well so then our time outside is limited even further! It's crazy, I didn't really realize how much we would be inside. But EVENTUALLY we won't have to do the area books and training anymore. On Tuesday we had dinner at a member's house and we were able to carve pumpkins after dinner! We had to leave before we could finish, but we started and they finished it for us. That was kinda fun to do :)

So we have started to teach some "formal" lessons. The first week we mostly left spiritual messages or just talked about the gospel, but this week we have really taught each bullet point in the lesson or just went more by the book and had a formal lesson, if that makes sense. So that has been really good!

So, I haven't worked out really hard since after basketball my senior year. I've done good and done a few things here and there but I haven't continuously worked out. Needless to say, exercising in the morning has been brutal. Not to mention, we do INSANITY. And let me tell you, it really is insane (especially when you are SO SO out of shape!) I have never had sore calves like I had for the next FIVE days. I waddled around like I was a grandma! When you would rather bike in a skirt, than walk, you KNOW something is wrong! ;) haha but seriously, I thought my calves were going to rip in half. I haven't ever been sore like that in my calves before so that just goes to show how out of shape I really am. But no worries, I'm slowly getting back into shape.

 

On Halloween we had to be in our houses by 4:30 because they didn't want us out and about on Halloween night. The four of us in our apartment had treats and played games. We sat around for hours and just told stories about ourselves. It was really fun! We were supposed to be updating our area books.....ya it never really happened. It was nice to have that little break and just get to know each other better. Oh, we also dressed up for a little bit. haha There is a box of clothes that missionaries have either left or that members have donated. Some of them are pretty interesting if I do say so myself. So we dressed up as we thought missionaries might dress in the 90's. Haha then we all wore "matching"/similar pjs that were in the box as well. When you're stuck inside with only scriptures, clothes, and food, you've got to be creative ;)

 

We haven't been teaching very many people, because most of the people we are helping right now, need our help basically all day. So lately we have been with one person each day and trying to help them out. But,we did get to teach a lesson on Friday! We had a woman walk into church last week; my companion had talked to her a few times before trying to get her to come to church. Finally this week she felt prompted to come! So she cancelled three times on us this week, and finally on Friday we were able to teach her! Can I just say, she is so prepared by God. She has been fasting, praying, studying, and watching General Conference talks online each day. She is so hungry to learn more and she is also trying to give up coffee (we haven't even taught her the Word of Wisdom yet!) We had a really good lesson on the Gospel of Christ though. It went SO well. She is mostly just nervous for what her family will think of her and she doesn't want to be judged. So even though I think she should be baptized ASAP, she wants to take things slow. So hopefully she doesn't cancel on us this week and we are able to teach her some more. I was so pumped after that lesson, cause it was that AWESOME! On Saturday we were with our recent convert of one week all day. She is have some personal trials that we are trying to help her through. We took her to dinner and ice cream that night and had a great time with her. She is 18 so we all get along really well. It felt like I was just going out with my best friends for the night! She is such a sweet girl and I love her to death.

 

We had stake conference this weekend. We were invited to the adult session on Saturday night. Well apparently only my companion and I understood that we were supposed to go, so we were the only ones there (out of 4 companionships in our area). Elder Stoddard (the general authority who was there) made us stand up and we looked around and realized we were the only missionaries there). President Toone (our mission president was there) quickly sent a text out and pretty soon our zone leaders texted us (and the other missionaries) telling us to get our little bums to the church as fast as we could. Luckily we were there, or how embarrassing would that have been if there were no missionaries there when they asked us to stand! At the end, Elder Stoddard put us right on the spot, made us stand up again, (we were in the back by the way) and then come up and talk about how the members can better help the full time missionaries! Uh, What? No, I hardly know anything! I've only been here like a week and they want me to tell them how they can help me!? Luckily, I did have a few things up my sleeve :) haha kinda crazy though. On Sunday, they had a meeting before the next session of conference that was specifically for the recent converts in the stake. It was SUCH a good meeting and there were many amazing testimonies bore about how great the missionaries are and all the different conversion stories and such. I wish everyone could have been there because it was so great to see how many are converts and to hear their strong testimonies.

 

Sunday night went pretty well too. One of the members invited us over to have dinner because they had a non member friend coming. We ended up having a formal lesson with her as well! We taught the restoration and it went really well. Hopefully she wants to keep learning more! She seemed really interested and we are setting up another appointment in a few weeks (she's busy right now). Also, we had dinner at a members house that same night that was already planned, (double dinners are the worst, I felt so fat) and it totally made me a little homesick. Their daughter was almost four and she looked and acted like Kinsley. It was adorable. She sat with me and sang songs and watched some videos on the Ipad. Ya, it was a little tough since I still have yet to cry/have a breakdown. I'm sure it'll come though.

 

So the bike situation is super fun. NOT. I think I have almost fallen at least five times daily. I'm sure the people driving by get some good laughs from watching me. However, most of the time its my companions fault I almost die ;) Seriously though, she's crazy :) Yet, I love her. haha we had some pretty scary "almost" wipeouts yesterday, butttt....what can ya do :) It's not too bad, mostly it's just funny :) We usually just laugh the whole way home as we each almost fall constantly. I'm sure one of these days I won't be so lucky!

 

Basically, I LOVE being a missionary. It is so amazing. I can't wait to keep meeting new investigators and to help people understand the importance of our message. It is so awesome for me to sit down and pray during personal study, and then as I read the scriptures and everything else, thoughts just pour into my head and my questions are answered, regardless of whether it has anything to do with what I'm reading. Now I really know what people mean when they say the Book of Mormon can answer all your questions. It really can! Even if what you're reading has nothing to do with what your question is. Super cool.

 

So everything this weekend at stake conference was on how members can help the missionaries. Yes, I've only been here a week but I realize how crucial the members are in helping converts stay at church as well as helping us find and teach them. SO DO YOUR PART! I feel guilty because I hardly did anything at home. Find people for them to teach, mention the gospel in your everyday conversations and fellowship those that are coming to church!

Anyway, love you all :) I wish you could all have the experiences I'm having!

 

 

The Mesa Temple

A Biking Pro! 

Heart Attacking 

 Pumpkin Carving

 

Playing Cards on Halloween