Dear Family,
Man, your email was such a cheerer up for me today :) Thanks so much for replying about my letter... it has been so hard this week! But your support and everything helps me, and especially helps me feel happy again and renew my strength :) Thank you! The sheep are sooo cute! I'm excited to see the new ones... was that pic you sent of the new ones? Every time I see goats or sheep or any fun animal in our area, it reminds me of you guys :D Haha, I LOVED the totes my goats and goat t shirts!! Those were so funny!!!! And when I first saw it, I thought the pic of me holding the goat was on Isaac's t shirt hahaha.... wouldn't that be the funniest? Now there's a homecoming at the airport idea... everyone wearing totes my goats t shirts with that pic on it... hahaha, just sayin'. :D The conversations with E. were sooo amazing!! I seriously think that was the greatest tender mercy that we can be teaching him during this time. It is the greatest happiness in the world, finding and teaching those who are prepared and searching :) I am so excited for him!!! We just need his missionaries to visit him so they can help him make friends in the ward. :D
College is such a hard choice... I'm pretty sure I'll choose Virginia. Maybe find an apt to share up in DC, and commute to george mason... that would be awesome. :D But we'll see! Any ideas on how housing or rooming costs are up there?
That's so awesome K. C. is going to Mesa!! She is going to LOVE it. The heat honestly isn't even that bad... everyone makes it sound sooo terrible, but you totally acclimate. I hardly even notice it anymore. :) Luckily it's cooled down alot though! Now its usually just in the 90s! The Captain America poses and redneck band pictures were hilarious, haha. And the possum!!! Oh man, that made me laugh! Hahaha... so hilarious!
I'm glad Hannah is taking piano lessons! She is going to LOVE that :) And she's going to be so good!
Well, as for me, this week has been pretty hard! We've had some major miracles happen. I've felt really homesick and depressed for some reason... just all weak I've kind of been dragging. But B is doing really well! It's cool to see his progress. We had some good lessons with him, and he told us that he is searching for the true church, and that we're his guides. He also told us that once he has a spiritual "validation" (or a spiritual witness) that these things are true, he'll act on it. He is still listening to the BOM cd's, and is on disc 7....
This week we got to help a family out in our ward who had a wedding reception. It was so fun! We got to weekly planning on Friday, we usually plan for the coming week in the gym for about 3 hours, and it was all decorated with crystal chandeliers and Christmas lights... so it was a fun planning day haha. But on Saturday we got to help them serve ice cream at the reception! It was so fun! We got to talk to some nonmembers, and B came too! He knows the family who was getting married, so that was so fun :)
We had the craziest bike troubles!! So on Thursday, we were biking to an appt at about 8:00 pm, and suddenly my front tire went flat... so we called the member we were giving a family mission plan too, and she ran out the front door and drove her minivan to come and help us. We were stranded on the side of the dirt road haha. So she came... and we did our best to fit our bikes in her van... but they didn't fit at all! We finally fit them in lying sideways over the seats, but the front wheels were poking out the door, so Sis W and I stood and held them in place, driving with the door open back to our car. It was sooo funny! Then to top it all off, while we were doing this, it started getting really windy and dusty, and a dust storm came! So there we were, driving through the dust storm with huge tumbleweeds flying by, with the door open and standing holding the bikes in place.. haha it was so funny! It was crazy!! Luckily we got home safe and sound :) The next day the elders helped us fix my bike... well, we said thank you, and did online proselyting for an hour. We came back to get our bikes... and saw that now my other bike tire was flat! It was so crazy! So the next day we had to go buy a bike tube and fix the other tire too... needless to say, it's been a crazy week haha.
It's been hard with the work so slow. But we're still working hard and doing our best! We had a miracle yesterday. I was feeling soooo down, and just so unmotivated, and my faith was growing weak. I was so tired. So we tried yet another less active's door with no answer at 8:00 pm again.. and we saw this family outside weeding. We went up to start talking to them, and it was amazing! They were so happy to talk with us! The mom told us her boss is a member, and then told us she wanted her daughter - whose 11 and was there too - to learn about God. She asked us if she had to pay us money for us to come visit them :D We told her of course not! We would love to come back! And she asked us to teach her daughter how to pray. It was so cool!! So standing on the sidewalk, we taught her daughter how to pray, and we all prayed together. It was the most amazing experience! I was so depressed, but we turned back and continued to work (Alma 26:27) and Heavenly Father blessed us to find a little family, a mother and a daughter, who are interested, and who want to learn more! It was so amazing. I know that was such a tender mercy and miracle... sometimes we just have to plough through the hard times, the rejection and the setbacks, in order to find the miracles. It was amazing :) They set up a return appt with us, so we'll be going back on Thursday at 4:30! Be sure to keep them in your prayers :) Their names are A (the mom) and T (the daughter).
We also had a fun Sunday! We taught the gospel principles lesson, and I was so scared! It was about the gathering of Israel, so it talked about the twelve tribes and all this deeper factual stuff that I haven't learned much about... so we were nervous haha. But it ended up being an awesome lesson :) The Spirit was really strong! It's amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us, with His help our weaknesses don't matter. He helps us do what He asks us to do. It was a great experience!
We had two other tender mercy miracles. The first is:
Recently we've just been working on finding, almost all day and night. Part of this has been knocking the doors of less active members... for some reason, there are so many angry ones here! I will never understand how someone just seeing our nametags can instantly bring such strong anger... it's really sad! And hard for us! But as part of the finding, we decided to knock the neighbor's doors when the person we're looking for isn't home. So we knocked this person's door, and they weren't home, so we started biking away... and halfway down the street I felt a really strong prompting to go back and knock the neighbor's doors. So we turned around, and went and knocked their doors too, and neither of them were interested. So we biked away again, and as we turned the bend of the street, we heard someone yell "Sisters!!" We turned around, and this teenage kid ran up to us and said hi! He had two friends that he introduced us to, promptly told them that sister missionaries are the sweetest people in the world, and then said they had to go in because they were going to wrestling, but said that he would tell his friends all about the gospel and what we believe. And his friends were super nice and wanted to know! It was such a cool experience! It was just a simple encounter, but you never know what might come from it :) It was amazing because if we hadn't turned around to knock the other doors, that wouldn't have happened.... it was really cool.
The other tender mercy was also pretty small, but taught me that God is so aware of us and loves us :) He even cares about the little things we struggle with. We have a ton of gated communities in our area, so luckily we have the gate codes and we can just bike in. But when we leave, if there isn't a car, we have to crawl under the gate, punch in the code, and run back in to roll our bike out before the gate closes on us. Well, sometimes you are just so tired and dread crawling under that gate, haha! So we were biking towards the gate, and I just said a prayer, and said "Heavenly Father, please let there be a car to open the gate for us." I prayed this a few times.. and then as we were pulling up to the gate, a car came through and opened it for us. It was so amazing. I really know Heavenly Father answers our prayers, even the small things we struggle with each day. :)
Well, it has definitely been a crazy week! Tonight we have our fireside... it will be so fun! A potluck, musical number from the elders, and the two speakers.. it will hopefully go smoothly. It was one of our finding ideas, and we're really hoping that we'll find someone to teach from it :) And if not, it was definitely a great experience for the ward, for the recent converts who are speaking, and for the nonmembers and investigators who are attending!
We also have mission conference this week! I think a general authority is coming down to speak to us, so that will be amazing :)
Oh, another funny story.... so our church building doesn't have a microwave. Weird huh?? So Sister W and I got one, from the mission office, and now we bring it to our meetings, so when we eat lunch we can warm stuff up :) Haha, it was so funny...
Well I'm glad all is well at home! I miss you guys!! I loved seeing the pictures, and I'm excited to get letters :) For Christmas... hm... I think I would definitely love the Nashville Tribute Band CD, the title is D&C 4! It is SOOO GOOD!! It has a silver cover, and is all upbeat, happy, motivating missionary music... other then that, probably just handwritten notes and stuff from home. I would love nice pics of the kids and of Virginia... and just anything, really. :) Cute skirts... earrings.. lds music... there are also really good revised hymns that are fun that are by the "lower lights". Just the normal stuff I always love :)
Is there anything you guys want from AZ? haha.
Well, I love you all! Hope you have an awesome week :) Thanks for all your love and support and encouragement! It seriously means the world to me.
Love you!
love,
the wedding reception
gilbert rocks from last transfer
gross huge frog!
making mud pies, with the arizona rattlesnake gummies... those were so gross looking haha!
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