Tuesday, December 30, 2014

I'm a little fox!!

Seeing you was the best thing ever!!! Thanks for being my mom and for my family. I'm lucky I have so many people that support me, are patient, fun, and a lil cray! Haaaahahhahah I'm so your favorite :] ding!! Afterward, we had some fun stuff. We saw some members who are Native American converts and they are so funny. They call me Rachel, and they gave us our totem/ spirit animals. Sister Siharath is a wolf, Sister King is a polar bear, and I'm a fox!! She told me foxes represent materialistic natures and cunning. Hah! I'm a little fox! Suncgila! Or however you spell it. He's working on our tribal names then we had our concert! President actually didn't sing, he had just been filling in at our para rice because we never practiced all together as one group and the singer weren't there at the time. It was a song called guard him Joseph, which it beautiful!! A group of elders sang parts, and then an Elder did a solo for O Come O Come Emmanuel. He made me cry, I never knew that song but I decided I think it's about my new favorite Christmas song, I like a lot though! I saw the McDonalds there and all of my best mission friends. No Evans or Reidheads though Christmas was really good. I seemed to get the best of presents. Members gave me stuff I was in need of without knowing-shampoo and conditioner, nice footie socks, an Arizona Christmas tree ornament, a loofa, a toothbrush (so I have that AND a super nice electric one) and oh I think that's it. I LOOOOVE the family history books. Those are probably my favorite, I've been wanting so badly to get into family history and have been wanting stuff like that, thank you!! Thanks for everything!

Idk what my New Years resolutions are. Oh! What am I supposed to eat? Black eyed peas, something green? Idk. Anyway, on Saturday we took our two ysa investigators to two different baptisms!! Tyler got overwhelmed by our lesson afterward. But we brought Jo to a baptism in {drumroll please.....} HARMONY PARRRRKKK!! It was great, he said he felt peaceful and couldn't wait for his own baptism. I only saw a couple people I knew though because of Christmas vaca, but I cried a lot thinking about being there. And Jo said he's making sure to get baptized before April so we can all be there and sing lol ....idk . He'll be fine. He's amazing! Heard him pray for the first time. That's one of my favorite experiences as a missionary. After trying to convince them to pray out loud and they finally do it and pour out their heart and it's the sweetest thing of my life. He's so good at praying! 
I am reading a lot of Jesus the Christ. I love Him! That book is the best. And the Bible videos. And wait..what time was church this year. Both of our wards will be at 9 next week. And they're scheduling correlation and council and stuff at the same times-ahhhhhhhh!!! Not convenient! Oh well. We have a New Years party this week and hopefully lots of work. Last day of Christmas lights though is Wednesday. It's been a ride. My favorite! Um and....it's almost 2015. Weirddddd
I love you so much! Thanks for everything! 

I got a hair straightener!

Fox stickers

Jesus The Christ

Lectures on Faith

Minion Peeps!

Minion T Shirt

Putting on said T shirt

Pearl Gloves, idk who they are really from?

From Lizzie BUT she spelled her name wrong.

Lizzie's gift

Eating Lizzie's gift!

Christmas call!



More of MY FACETIME on Christmas day!

Too Excited over that Hair Straightener

Um this is the gift I got at our zone white elephant gift exchange

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Missionaries are basically match makers. PLUS It's Christmas Time!


Deck out in my NEW white coat!


Christmas Lights at the Mesa Temple 2014

Sister Fry and 2 Elders reunion at The Temple

Is that a snake?!

What a tired Missionary!
THE CATCUS!

Soooooo close to FaceTime!!!!! I am yelling too!! I can't handle myself, I'm probably just gunna ramble and giggle for 40 minutes like I do every time. I get to see you! I miss you ding!!! 
Shoot, I can't even think of what happened this last week to tell you about. Oh! I have an investigator whose a doctor and told me a have a cyst. Lol a wrist-cyst. It doesn't hurt right now anymore. Just a funky bump and my thumb feels numb now and then hahaha, but it's okay because I can still play k-ball and WIN SON. I love our zone. We're fun. We went caroling all together. Only one person yelled at us to "Go away, shut up!!" It was awesome! And my sistrict (all sister district with sister district leaders) have fun too. We talk about after mission life things a lot though. That's called the 10%! 
But honestly, we're so busy with work that we're too focused on that than too much also. Our investigators in YSA both came to church! We found someone for Jo to friend him and it worked! Missionaries are basically match makers. And we've been getting referrals! We are doing a lot of service for that lady whose horses we were with a couple weeks ago. We decided to be her best friend. 
We had our Christmas party for ironwood and I got to meet lots of people and am remembering names pretty well. I feel like I'm adjusting in the wards really well. Everyone's my friend, but for some reason I'm still struggling talking to people just on the street. I've just done it a few time without thinking but then sometimes I just get freaked out. And I need the skill, especially at the Temple Christmas  lights! All I do is talk to people that don't want me to talk to them. Ok, that's a lie. Seriously, I've seen SOOOO many people!! All from my other areas! All the mutual from las Sendas were there the other night! I was so ecstatic! All my girls! And the leaders I love too. They remembered me and crowded around, ran off to get their friends to see me and said I was a celebrity to them. It was so humbling! When I thought I wasn't good enough, really I was uplifting  and loving the girls and the members and they loved me back as much as I loved them. I couldn't handle my excitement! Cause I saw some people from harmony park too and mountain vista! Every night though I've seen someone that I adore and they know and remember me too. It's different than last year's Christmas lights because I've built up so many friendships. It's weird to have so many people love me! And it's the best because I know it's not me, the friends have came when I stopped being me and tried to be like Jesus. And I like it. I saw my Sewells too(: they almost rearranged their whole Christmas Eve plans in case we didn't have somewhere to be. Someone in ironwood invited us though so we should be alright. 
I want to serve someone for Christmas. But I also want to relax a little. But not that much. I sent you all a card. I hope it gets there soon!!! I love you soooo MUCHHHH

Thursday, December 18, 2014

I can't wait to see your face in ten days!!

 We have lots of work to do, lots of referrals coming in. And life is hectic throwing CHRISTMAS lights on top of it all.
I love the AJ!! l want to it show it to you. Have we ever already talked about you guys picking me up from my mission? I didn't know how much work daddy could get off for something like that or if it was possible. But I could take you hiking and see me friends and go to the temple and I could travel my cactus home. ...actually idk how all the stuff could fit in one car! Lol

I can't wait for my Christmas! What the glad some tidings be! I haven't opened or cheated at my gift yet(: I wanted to send you guys a present but it requires a lot of writing and my wrist is in a brace. It's pink inside though!! I like it.

I got to go to the temple this week and saw the old school 80s version it was hilarious!! But I like how I still learned from it. My first mission mom showed up there and I was ecstatic. It was a third of the mission with us so I saw a lot of my other favorite missionaries and love them! I love the feeling of the temple. We had a Christmas party too and I had lots of fun! Just a luncheon and devotional. We practiced too for our choir! Sorry I thought I told you, the whole mission is singing to the temple on Christmas Day!! My sister smith has a duet too! And my mission prez has a solo!! We had no idea he could sing!! Another stack of cool points added to the basically perfect man! Shoot 

I can't wait to see your face in ten days!! Hfhdjdsididn and finally people are coming to you! We're going caroling twice this week. And at a swap meet or flee market thing we had a booth just of He Is the Gift!! It was rain gin lol but we watched the video over and over again and passed out info about it and temple lights. Got to talk to some people! Fun fun funnnnn

I loved our sacrament yesterday. The speaker in Ysa talked about the prince and the pauper, how the king became just and fair because he descended below the throne and compared it to the Savior. Jesus is so kind!! I don't deserve it!

I love yoooou. I put ornaments on my Christmas cactus!
I'll show you soon.
I am not mad just confused as to why the phone is not working!

Ponies to groom!

He is THE GIFT booth at the Mesa Temple

Hermanas at the He IS THE GIFT Booth. Got to practice some Spanish!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

I totally saw a cockroach.....

I love my area and companions!! It's such a beautiful change of scenery and feeling! My comps are fun and care what I think and say and I love the new insights they bring and YSA is so fun! It isn't awkward-people told me that it would be and it was a lie! And AJ is awesomely ghetto and far away! I totally saw a cockroach in someone's house and had forgotten that that was possible because I was in the salt river stake for so long hahaha, I love it, we have work to do! Mostly in YSA. :D I've already seen a couple of people I know. Anyway, I'm feeling like a missionary again and happy again and able to overcome my weaknesses instead of just sitting by patiently. Which is good I know. I've learned patience and hope and faith in Jesus Christ, but I feel like now I get to apply my faith and am being proactive again and driven by purpose to change people's lives! Sister King is senior comp and driving because she's been in the YSA for 2 transfers. We're all three new to Ironwood though. Of course, the two wards meet at the same time 20 minute apart from each other. We've figured out splits though and meetings and fun stuff. Man, we've been teaching and learning and working and I feel so good. All I want is to rely on the spirit though for my words and intentions. It's hard work to even want to try, but I've learned how to get it. It takes hard work which hurts sometimes, to spiritually be strong enough to receive the miracles from Heavenly Father and recognize them!

Yesterday I felt like I was really repenting and my anxiety was trying to take over and my spirit didn't like my body and I couldn't focus, but I did everything I could to get the spirit and to deal and think clearly. When Moran starting singing Silent Night after the Christmas devo, I felt soooo much peace. It was so beautiful and I felt better, more calm, and more energized than I had in a while. We went out to Christmas lights at the temple and I was committed to help people by talking to them. And I did!! AND I saw people that I met there last year! Idk if I told you about a girl who was struggling at CHRISTMAS last year and after we talked, she changed her life, got baptized and married a guy (that she had talked to me about that made her cry because he wouldn't date her after his mission ) and they're totally getting sealed in March or something! MIRACLEEEEEES! And an elder came up to tell me about homeless Dave! The man Sister Smith and I were lead to meet way back when and started teaching. He got lost because of the homeless situation, but this elder found him a couple days ago? He remembered our names and had the elders send a message to us that he is moving, not homeless, and will be in contact with missionaries. DAVE<3 

I got my Advent calendars btw! Thanks!! I love them, I took the one with animals on it. 

But I'm still feeling great. I'm so excited, we are teaching a gay guy, Tyler, that has a lot a lot of faith and is giving everything up to be baptized. He is trying to be baptized the 20th...which, we'd love for a white Christmas but we're not sure if he'll be ready. Living the Gospel is hard work, but it's worth it! And it isn't about us. And there another guy that is just shy, Joe, but he's loving the idea of being able to be forgiven. I love it too. Neither of them came to church though. Soon! And there's others! Our area is massive and our car is nice! White. We named her Elsa, the snow queen.

 I'm figuring out what I want to do to make everyone have a great Christmas! I want everyone to make it about rejoicing in Christ and sharing God's glory.  

I'm glad they showed He is the Gift at the baptism! And that there was a baptism! The Ward is on fire! How is retention? As of yesterday, the video is on YouTube! Woot woot!! Tell everybody!

And, you know you have a problem when your mom says the Christmas party was a whobilation and you think she's talking about doctor who.

I love the lights on the house!! Decorating is the best, we've had fun helping people, especially when the lights don't work! I love how you can still feel the Spirit when normally you would be frustrated, but you know it doesn't matter anyway. I love Christmas. 

I love you. I love the Atonement. Life is beautiful, thanks for choosing it, I couldn't have done it without you. You rock, I want to be a good mom like you! Thanks for everything, it hasn't been quite cold enough for my white coat yet. I'll get a pic soon, it's cooling down! 



Monday, December 1, 2014

I'M HEADED TO AJ BABY! (Apache junction)

LETTER TO DANIELLE:

We have Christmas lights all over here too. People decorate their
cactus!! It's hilarious!!! I want to do it...

I start Christmas lights on Wednesday :D I can't wait to bring my
lovely coat there and feel the temple spirit and the Christmas spirit
and talk to people and listen to the music and the excerpts of the
Christmas devos. It's beautiful. I love this time of year and I love
the He is the Gift video! It makes me want to cry and I feel like
Jesus is coming any minute here whenever I watch it. God isn't playing
games anymore, the world is going to know about Him and His Gospel!
Woot woot! It's hard to live up to.

I missed you thanksgiving as well, I was supes busy though! 7 dinners.
But one of them ended up being us crashing on their bean bags for 10
minutes #unexpectedblessings

I'm glad your home is getting dedicated! I can't wait to see it in
real life. Your house always has the Spirit already.

I am leaving my area. I'm being transferred right before Christmas of
course lol. I forgot to tell mom this so you can share if you want!
Luckily both wards already had us assigned to speak in Sacrament
meeting. We used mostly the topic Lord is it I. By President Uchtdorf
(amazing talk<3) and I got to randomly announce at the end my farewell
to everyone. I cried in Las Sendas but by the time I was speaking in
Stonebridge I had teared out and was super distracted by my good
friend's death glare from the crowd. It was sad to say goodbye to her.
She is sooo sweet though. She wrote me a letter which did make me cry.
And then this one family oh my goodness! We've been over there a lot
because their daughter was turning 8 and we prepared her for baptism,
but we just got really close with the family and so we had a final FHE
all together. They were the family that when sister chase was still
here, they assigned us each a sleeping beauty fairy. I was Flora! So
they each went through their stuff to find gifts for me that reminded
them of me! It was the most thought thing anyone could ever do!! They
took a stick and with pink duct tape made me a fairy wand and then
each gave me other sweet things! I love them!! I've seen them grow a
lot closer as a family too as we've been here. It so fun! I have a lot
of other people to say goodbye to in the next day and a half though.
Wish me luck
I love you!!

LETTER TO MADRE:

Thanksgiving was fabulous! It started at 5 am(: They had a Turkey Trot that went right past our church building- so NATURALLY we put up a hot chocolate stand!! It was so awesome. We had to boil water for like 45 minutes though. And we had individually wrapped "He is the Gift" pass along cards to give out as presents! It was soooo fun! Unfortunately Sister Dunn and I had the early shift just waving people driving by in and had to leave for our 7 Thanksgiving dinner appointments before the people traffic came in. The Elders passed out TONS of coco and presents! It was so cool :D This He is the Gift initiative is HUUUUGE and we literally want everyone in the world to watch it! Have you seen it yet? We got a bunch of card and were commanded to pass out 10 every day. This month is going to be hectic! Pray for me to find 10 people to talk to please! It'll be different now because........I'm transferring.
I'M HEAdED TO AJ BABY! (Apache junction) It's gunna be a party! I'm so terrified because my street contacting is SO rusty it's not funny after having been in gated communities for half a year. We did what we could but it's still something I'm repenting for (gotta change my nature!) I bawled my eyes out though when I saw I was being transferred. Heavenly Father thinks He's so funny sometimes. After wanting to leave for months, I finally accept that I'm staying here for Christmas and get to be with Sister Dunn until her mission ends and it's so great to be her companion because I love her and I love this area so much...like 2 weeks ago. I thoroughly convinced myself I was staying and then BOOM. NOPE! So I cried all my cries out and then remembered how great it is to start over! There's so much I want to work on and learn. I am in a trio again!! I like it, I do well in trios and feel useful and less awkward(: PLUS it's Sister Siharath- my MTC COMP! I love that girl! It'll be fun I think to see how much we've both changed. AAAAAAAAAAAND not only do I have one ward in AJ, but I also cover the YSA ward in this area and basically half the mission (I get so many miles!) YAAAAAAAAAAY! Time for the awkward and the fast food (pray for me on that too please). I love ysa and youth! I hope to learn a lot(:

OH DAN! I can't believe that, I sure hope he's doing okay, I sure love him! And I love you, I'm sorry I wasn't home for Thanksgiving but I need to help so many people! Being a missionary is crazy. And that's funny about the Sister Carters. We had two Sister Taylors together here for a while. We were just talking about that last night, the fun name combos, like Dunn and Hamberger. or (Better) Fry and Hamberger. Or Moschetti  and Raisor. And when I was with Sister Fry everyone thought my name was Kroger- Kroger's and Fry's ha ha ha.  Anyway, Sister S... totally took our pictures of us eating her pie on Thanksgiving lol weird! She's cray.

 I can't wait to see all of you at Christmas either!!! The Christmas season is so sweet. The air just feels good because it's the most Christ-centered time of year. I wish we could go out light-finding and playing our Hanukkah song and all that jazz. I want this Christmas to be special though, I'd love a white Christmas so much. I want to feel like I'm doing a good job. I get so scared that I'm not living up to my potential and don't know if what I'm doing pleases the Lord. But it's sweet when you start saying goodbye to people in an area and they start to share with you all the progress they've made because of you. It''s seems like most of the contributions I made are when I least knew I was doing anything. It's really humbling, I see my weaknesses so plainly and then see how it doesn't stop people from receiving the Light of Christ or the Gospel. I saw our former, Fred, one last time and while we talked I could see how much he'd changed. He's starting to live the Gospel, even if he doesn't have a baptismal date, he is repenting and has faith in Christ that he can make it though and reach baptism someday. That's living the Gospel. He just needs to make good choices. Dropping him was the best thing we did. He'll be ready again soon. I just saw the light shining in him and felt the Spirit tell me that he was the reason I was in this area. We worked so hard for him and prayed and I taught with as much power and authority that I could figure out how to teach with for him and loved him unconditionally. I can't wait to see him in the celestial kingdom. And there's my new best friends, Sarah and Grace and Emma that I didn't know I helped so much but loving there and being around is all they needed to grasp onto what they'd been searching for. I love being a missionary.
Lol and watch out for those weirdies! God loves them and they need the Gospel even if they're different from us, but....sometimes you just gotta laugh.

Laughing is my favorite. Not loud laughter of course...steer clear of that one.
I LOVE YOU MAMA!! Soooooo much!! No more being sick :) Wish me luck with transfers.


The little boy that proposed to me! The last thing everyone said to me as I walked out of church was "wait for him!"

And omg I got to see me shanna banana banana banana last Monday for her 6 month baptism anniversary! I bawled my eyes out, I miss her and sister smith, but I felt better and it was what I needed to keep working hard here!!





More pics from the Fit for the Kingdom 5K



Wrapping presents for The Turkey Trot

Making Hot Chocolate for The Turkey Trot



Farewell gifts from The Palmers



Monday, November 24, 2014

Fit for the Kingdom 5k this morning! I did it in 29:46

I feel like for some reason I don't have anything to fill you in on this week. I did run my Fit for the Kingdom 5k this morning! Not super fast but better than my past and I'm proud to say I did it in 29:46 :D I only walked it for approx 14 second while I drank water. I am so excited I did it!! And it was easier than I ought. I'm grateful my comp and I trained. Sister Dunn did get sick though this week so she was a little not all ready for it but still made good time(: but when I started to ask myself if I had run a mile yet, I realized I was over half way. And then at the end, I realized my mission president's wife was right behind me and I wanted to beat her so I sprinted and did by probably 4 second!




Sorry no makeup. But the best part was that everyone in the mission was there and I saw all of my best friends and it got me so pumped, that's probably why is went quicker than I thought. And we got AWESOME shirts! Woot woot!!
I think I'm allergic to 5k's though because my nose is running like nobody's business. That or it's that God heard my prayer that I didn't want to get sick during the run because everyone else is, so He held it off until I got to reach my goal! How sweet!
I'm trying to focus on being grateful of course! It almost doesn't feel like the Holidays, just cause I don't know what time is anymore! Gee, but I know it feels good outside! Thanks for my coat, you're so amazing, thank youuuu. 

We got our Christmas lights training for the season. We only get every other day to work, but I was worried it would only be every three days. 

Confession....I have to give people fake names.....even in my emails. I haven't known the deal my whole mission, but the McDonald's .....are not really the McDonald's. I'M SORRY. and we are transitioning this next Tuesday. :) we'll be at the rs president's house a lot. We're putting up her Christmas tree! And then going to her home (along with 6 others') for Thanksgiving day!! 


I find out transfer news Saturday...but it's been done since Thursday so we're just in torture all week, because they didn't want to have to do transfer planning during Thanksgiving. I guess I understand(: I think we're both stayingggg.
I love you so much and can't wait for Christmas :D have a good safe week!   

Monday, November 17, 2014

Mama told me I can do hard things-

Hahahaha I tell myself that all the time!! Mama told me I can do hard things- I can do hard things. Every time someone says something is hard, my instincts just go off shouting how much I don't care! I want to do hard things that the Lord expects me to do. I know I'm not prefect at it. That's why I love repenting!! Lol Yaaaayy!

Yeah , ********** is working on it and trying to change things. No baptism in over 3 years and I think everyone has just given up. I want them to have hope! We had Zone Conference this week and Sister Dunn and I definitely were filled with a lot of hope. We are changing some things we do to follow Preach My Gospel more exactly, focusing on our purpose and setting goals(: We aren't going to treat the area differently than we would any other area. It was nice to see things in ourselves change and attempt to work better. I'm glad with how that's going. It was a really great training President gave us about the Doctrine of Christ. We learned a lot about the exactness and how apostasy is so prevalent, but really the Gospel of Jesus Christ, found in His church- this one- is the ONLY way. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way, no matter how many people, member and non alike, say that God knows people's hearts and more people than we think will go to the Celestial Kingdom, does not mean we don't have to do very specific things and sacrifice anything to get there. I love it!! but lots of people just don't know yet. I loooooove the example of service with how much time we're given every day. Seriously, I never knew how much time I wasted before my mission!! I knew I liked to relax and maybe waste a couple hours on netflix, but the 15 minutes here and there scattered throughout the day add up and are all important, I can be using them to help someone! Which I promised at baptism to focus on! Shoot. Service is my favorite.

I GOT MY COAT! MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM, THANK YOU I almost cried, that was so sweet but I seriously hope that price tag was lying. It's really really big on me so I might have to send it for a lot smaller size. I'm so distraught I just want to wear it now! It was really funny though I went shopping last week and there were no white coats to be found ANYWHERE #secretblessing I did get a little gray jacket though. I was telling Sister Dunn though how I still have that dream of a beautiful long white coat. I love that one you picked and sent (more than the facebook one) Also, I had no idea Belk wasn't nationwide. What THE WEIRD. It's just southern! Not okay! No one here has heard of it and I thought it was more common than JC Penney's. Whatevs. Thank you so much, you send the best packages of my life.

Sister Dunn and I don't have a regular place to just serve within our area, and that's where all of our work is confined to. In fact, a grandma is wanting to learn and we've taught her two lessons already and have to transition her. It's starting to become a fuss because someone doesn't want to and my comp too is hesitant, but I felt strongly that the Spirit told me that it would be a waste of His time to teach her because we do not have the authority to receive revelation for her, like her missionaries do. STINK.

What else happened this week. We walked around contacted for 3 straight hours the other day giving out Temple Christmas light invites! That was fun! I miss just walking around :D We are still seeing our recent converts and helping them start on family history. They're of course taking it running. I LOVE THE MCDS! There's a less active family we've been trying to work with since we got here and are finally starting to have weekly family home evenings together and they're reading the Book of Mormon daily! IT'S SOOO EXCITING!!! I love them- seeing them tonight(: We were taken out for sushi again the other day. Most amazing dinner of my life.The stake had this huuuge event called the Night of Classics. Local artists put on displays and there was a classical music performance too. A lot of our members had art and performed and they had a bunch of just local people get involved too. It was perfect! I love that kind of stuff and it was in the institute building and still was revolved around Christ. It was genius!  I think I want everyone to do it. ding ding ding.

Oh yeah! The Phoenix Temple was dedicated!! It was so cool!! Sitting there, the Spirit randomly brought back to me the memory of the Nashville temple dedication! When we went to the Open House and Daddy taught me about the 12 oxen and we went to the stake center I think and I remember that I didn't understand why it was so exciting but that I simply knew it was a good thing (and now I can see that I was feeling the Spirit). I thought the Hosanna shout was weird and my favorite part was singing The Spirit of God and for a while after that it was my favorite hymn. I had forgotten ALL of that until yesterday. The Spirit is so cool. I love temples, I can't wait to go monthly! I learned so much and thought about my family tons- I'm so lucky! LOVE YOU


Monday, November 3, 2014

I GOT NEWS THAT I AM GOING TO BE A MENTOR!

Our stake conference was so good this weekend and I learned a lot about families! Also I went to the Phoenix Temple Open House again (Like Sister Skabelund showed you-she's awesome) and got to teach this one lady about family history and whatnot (And YES! A potential investigator. Unfortunately she isn't in our ward boundaries) and instead of trick-or-treating, we went to the temple for initiatories and an endowment session!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!! We get to go next week! Just for endowments, it was amazing though to do the initiatories! I've only ever done my own and had forgotten what the blessings were that I got and then getting to do it for others that night was the coolest experience ever!!!!! I want to do them all the time! President Jenkins is so cool for letting us get extra special permission to do them! It was packed with missionaries that night though lol, all of the ordinance workers had to come in and do our prayer circle for us because we didn't get extra special permission for that :P I can't wait to go to the temple with my family againnnn, I hope you and daddy get to make it there a lot, I think the goal for the rest of my life is to go once a month, every 6 weeks is hard enough to wait that long! But I know it's different when the temple is in your own city. It's been really cool to see how many of the members here actually utilize the temple (that's why Arizona's coming up on 6 of them), I judgmentally thought most people take the close temple for granted but I've seen most of these people go almost every week or work there all the time. My bad. I can't wait for the presidency to announce a new temple soon. 
I don't know about seminary teaching at all! I haven't been able to look into it, I just was told I have to do it, so those are my plans! I still want to train dogs, but that's probably even a steeper chance of being paid for that. Maybe my husband will actually be rich....maybe I wouldn't hate it too much if it allows me to have a full-time job of service! YAY!
You make my heart so ahppy with all the missionary work you do!! It's weird how I just had no idea that that's how you're converted! GAH, it's fun :D Living the Gospel and sharing it are the exact same thing. I hope.....I remember that the rest of my life. lol I just want to be PERFECT OK!? Well, not really, it was cool, I actually I had that question of why the Lord commands us to be perfect and we just can't, and in the regional broadcast Elder Christofferson or Uchtdorf talked about it! That conversion is often not an instant event like Alma Jr or Peter, in fact is probably shouldn't be. "Perfection" is striving to be like Jesus and repentance. He asks us to just stay on the right path living the Gospel. I guess I already knew that but I needed the Spirit to teach it to me so I would actually be able to understand(:

Man what else happened this week?...Sister Dunn was invited to attend a committee thing with other missionaries, so we did some splits for a bit and I got to drive. I GOT NEWS THAT I AM GOING TO BE A MENTOR! There's a sister coming in to the mission in December and I get to talk to her on Facebook and do stuff to help her prepare for the mesa mission! I'm SO STOKED- BEST NEWS EVER! OH! And also!! The lady that messaged you, her husband makes authentic Native American flutes-they're beautiful! Anyway, back when Sister Chase was here, she wanted one so bad. They're expensive though and she didn't ask before she was suddenly transferred away. Right after she left, I felt impressed to make sure she got one. She LOVES flutes and she has this weird thing with Heavenly Father, where she just always gets what she wants (she doesn't usually want to much!) So sister Dunn and I conspired to get her a flute! This member of our other ward is obsessed with buying us things- So instead of making up things she could by us, we thought we'd let her bless Sisiter Chase's life and help out with the flute! We did it and finally got it to her and she about cried! it was so exciting, we had to make all these plans with people and in getting her to the mission office the same time as us. I loved it! Well...this week, we then go over to the Skablelunds. They inform us, that this other Sisiter gave them more money than they asked for- so the way they are using the money is to give sister dunn and I our own flute, Whichever one we want. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! They are so sweeeeeet!! I can't believe it! I get an indian flute- best souvenir ever! I'll have to send it home though! How great!!?
Anyway, I got your card! hahahahaha boo-gers, thanks I LOVE YOU! I have to run! Tell Daddy-o I love him too!! You're my favorite parents!! Ding ding ding! I can't wait to see your faces <3 MWAH

Monday, October 27, 2014

My comp ordered wasabi rolls and I tried it and cried

Baptism Day!

Baptism of The McD's
Road TRIP!

Phoenix Temple Open House

TEMPLE TIME!

Sister Dunn and me!

Ready to Enter The Temple!
:D Sounds like a good week! I did get the orange package!! Oh my goodness, that was the BEST!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU! You got me leaves!!!!! I forgot those were a thing! But they smelled so good and were so beautiful and were my favorite part, I carried them around with me for a couple of days to remember it's supposed to be autumn outside. Everything in it was was awesome, I love your packages. Halloween is wonderful, Danielle and the kids look like they had fun. I want to party with them. We had our parties on Saturday. Both wards, so we did some party jumping. We dressed up!! I think there were 3 people who guessed who were were. Of course Emma Sewell and a little girl and A returned senior missionary who feeds us all the time. Not even our ward mission leader could spot it. It was a game of who knows who we are as real people! We had fun(: We were each other. We wore each other's clothes and colors, even did the other's hair and eyeliner the way we would. It was a blast to get ready that morning(:

 Don't feel bad that no one's home! It happens no matter who the missionaries take out with them, can't take it personal(: It's just........life.......I guess I'm used to it and it doesn't phase me anymore. Like awkward situations. We leave some people's doorsteps with young women or anyone and they're like, "is it always that awkward?", and I'm like- "what? That was great! They didn't slam the door in our face, they loved us, we're best friends!" Jk

HEY GUESS WHAT. Our lesson was on Grateful in Any Circumstance in relief society too!! It was really good, and everyone wanted to make 3 to 4000 comments. I wanted to as well but thought the sisters should get involved and I just wrote all of my thoughts down. I like how you explain the difference from being grateful IN and not FOR our situations. Just driving over here I was thinking about how I just didn't understand for some reason. It's helped me to be grateful for trails but I wasn't grasping onto it exactly. So thanks.It was cool to think about how, you know when I had such a hard time at the beginning of my mission, I humbled myself and thanks Heavenly father for the trail He gave me and started listing reasons why it was a blessing, and that's when I really started to heal from it. It also took a lot of Sacraments, a lot of naps, prayers, and exercise but now everything is practically perfect in every way! The Gospel is nice. Me gusta.

 So this week was a good one for us too. It was filled with time spent with the MD...s :D They took us to the Phoenix Temple Open House!!!!!!! It was so crazy! I was outside of the mission... FOR 5 HOURS. GAH! And we saw new mountains and actual land and different buildings! I love road trips I realized. Or I like getting outside of the same 10 square miles I've been looking at for 11 months. I can't believe I've had 2 temple open houses. And we might get to go again this week(: Cause a sister had success from inviting a friend to the Halloween party. She got a Book of Mormon from our booth and wants to go the the temple and meet with us! WOOT WOOT

Then we met with them(McD...s lots and had a baptism or two :DDDDDDDDDDD BAPTISM! I haven't had one since May! And then we had two! With the most amazing investigators known to mankind! I love them, Sister Dunn and I went back with her through the bathroom way to the font and got to watch from the side. I've never done that but it was so sweet. And then we watched him get baptized and cried and Sister Dunn and I taught the crowd that came the restoration and cried and they bore their testimonies and cried. (then they took us out for sushi afterward [SUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSHIII<3] and my comp ordered wasabi rolls and I tried it and cried). 

Yesterday for Sacrament Meeting, they were confirmed which was absolutely beautiful and I just was filled with so much gratitude and peace like I can't explain. There were also two baby blessing annnd the Primary Program. (needless to say, the chapel was filled to the brim and the meeting lasted and hour and a half.) But V... came up to us and very baffled asked where all the tears keep coming from and if it was normal. Lol unfortunately! I cried at that new primary song, God Gave Us Families (cutest thing in the world!), and Families Can Be Together Forever. I love my family annnnd I hope I can just be a good mom. It was a good week, but now we don't know how to spend our time anymore :P

Feeding the sisters! Hmmm, It depends on the sister, most I feel just want wholesome veggies, salad or fruit or chicken, and no dessert. Some love the constant dessert, but most don't want it but when you offer we often feel too bad to say we don't want any or just are tired from the day and have lost some will power so we wish no one would even tell us they have any(: Even if it is delicious, we get sick after dinner on a weekly basis :P There's sushi!! Oh, wait that's what I want. Your chicken pot pie is really good, or rice meat and gravy, or chili! But I'm sure the ward is having a chili cook-off ;) I was the chili judge for one of our parties, so i had a spoonful of 11 different kinds. The white chicken ones were all my favorite. You could do that! I also judged the pie. We made a crustless pumpkin pie fudge- that was amazing<3 Sister Dunn taught me how to make it, it's her holiday tradition! 



I love and miss you! Christmas is coming fast :D SKYYYPE
I feel like more happened....but I can't remember
I'll get you some pictures. I just love my madre! Tell nannie thank you for my letter!

Our Halloween costumes!

Pretend Sister Dunn

Pretend Sister Krueger

Our Wonderful RIDE to the Phoenix Temple