Sometimes I eat with tongs!

AW! That's sweet of Sister Russell! She was the Sister missionary right? that's cool, keep in mind, we only gave Mother's days gifts to the very specialest of people, so you must have made a big impact.

YES YES YES THE BAPTISM HAPPENED AND WAS BEAUTIFUL!! I love S....., And am so proud of our ward too, they are really helpful and are going to take good care of her. But if not, she can take care of herself lol She is so strong and has an amazing testimony. She shared it after she was baptized, how she went to her ex's family members to learn of the church. And every other person here is a member of the church, so it really stuck me that the only two people would be them-who she hasn't had contact with in a while but she knew them as the kindest, most giving, humble, loving people. And then how she gained her testimony by praying to know if this was her path and turning to the Book of Mormon and applying the passage to her own life. She is just a  firecracker too, she is going to have a stake calling within a month. And I want to be friends with her forever. Her daughter is going to girl's camp this week and will hopefully be really touched by the Spirit there and feel Heavenly Father's love for her, especially through the young women.

The rest of the week was great too! We had Zone Conference, which basically blew me away. It was half about being fully consecrated and so I rededicated myself to keep my mind clear of things back home or tendencies I had so I can be ready and humble enough to do any and everything the Lord tells me I need to. The other half was about working as ward councils, so all of our ward auxiliary were invited and a lot came and we had a discussion by Elder Hansen of the 70 I think and that was fabulous. They's suppose to be doing the finding and inviting.Our one WML was stoked because he has been trying to get the council pumped for over months and to do some missionary work! lol It's already gotten better and we have sooooo much work in that ward. Like a lot a lot. A random 17 year old young man came up to us yesterday at church and said he was ready to learn more about the church and to set up a time to meet with us this week. LIKE WHAT THE HECK!! I love it! And I have at least another month to be here, iz the beehsssst. So many other people though aren't progressing or coming to church though and that's just silly. Don't they know they wanted to come to this Earth and prove to Heavenly Father that they love Him and would choose Him instead of Satan?! Oh wait, that's my job. I really hope I'm teaching it well enough. First step...faith building. What builds your faith? Everyone is different, but overall, it just seems to be self motivated. But yeah...D... didn't make it. Yes he is safe, the Lord wouldn't let me be in danger if I am being obedient and am not scared because I have faith in Him instead of being distracted by fear. And if something did happen, it would only be for my good. or if I was being disobedient lol Poor Elder I know got hit by a car. I am pretty positive it wasn't disobedience, he and his companion are great Elders, but I think it was for them to rely on the Priesthood and......well I don't know God's ways! He's okay though btw And Sister Valentino is good!! Thank you for your prayers, she is home and doing a lot better. She is her husband are great and love us back. I think.............when you get " I've never had sisters like you, I don't know how to deal with you" we take it as we're his favorite. naturally. I mean they talk to us all they time and laugh with us and we give them presents and she says she loves us. I think a lot of people in the wards think we are different than any other missionaries they've had before. I hope it's a good thing. Well, I just hope that whatever we are, helps someone in the area accept the gospel really.We had a lot of miracles this week after reconsecrating ourselves. I went on exchanges and learned better to talk with everyone!!! We met this random guy and ended up teaching him the whole first lesson and he caught onto everything and was beaming and invited him to be baptized and he said he would pray about it. I hope everything goes through with him, he was great. Not in my area so i will have to ask later, but I have started talking with everyone more. It was interesting how many times, I was just standing there loving these people and feeling strongly like I probably won't see you again in this life, but that I will in the Celestial Kingdom and we're going to get to talk about the time we met. I am excited! 

I'm glad I get to work hard and whatnot. Push through the hard stuff to be successfullllllspeaking of which, we ran 4 miles today :D I like to run, yeah yeah

I love you and hope everything is still wonderful at home. MWAHHHH

CACTUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shannabananabananabananabananaShe felt like Elvis

We gave her a CTR ring for a present.
hahah oh! So her ex husband is really funny.
The Gospel made her really nice and happy,
and he emailed Shanna and assumed
she was happy because she was dating
and he asked her who the other man was
 and she wrote him back and all she said was "Jesus Christ."
So we gave he a ring from her man.

#baptism #immersion #priesthoodauthority

Sometimes the kitchen doesn't have any silverware
hidden away in any nook or cranny
 and the only thing to be found at are tongs, and so we dine

Sometimes I get to clean out people's garages and find fun toys

Oh, also this week, I MADE COCONUT CHICKEN PARA(for) dinner.It was for our friend Dawn Ledonne and Dennis. They said it was really tasty, it was so fun!!! I miss cooking.

Other super significant experience! After dinner last night, we looked at our schedule and the Spirit just hit me, like "none of these people's home are where you need to be." So we prayed and tried to pick where to go until it felt right and no one did and we played our game of hot and cold and drove and finally decided to see one investigator in the apartments. We got there and we met someone we needed to talk to and it was this kid and the Lord made it so easy and I told him to read the Book of Mormon and to go on a mission. I think he's seriously considering it now.

sorry, I would give more deets but I'm out of time, LOVE YOU TONS

I got Toilet Paper! I love technology!

Aunt Linda is so good to me! I wrote her a little while back, but I should write her again.

You're so good to me too, maybe I'll write you.(:

I love technology and helping out Nannie too, that's the best thing ever! Also the best thing ever is that I get to cook this week for our less active bff, who came to church yesterday!! Yeah yeah yeah. We'll be doing coconut chicken. 

The most best thing ever is THAT S-------- IS GETTING BAPTIZED SATURDAY,! Kjbdojnslindsljd lsidnssodin sjkfs coj ed. I love her. She is so ready and on top of this, she was getting nervous and asked God if the baptism was too soon, and her answer was, it doesn't matter how long you put it off, you are living the standard and values, you had better be baptized now and follow the commandments. Lol and she texts us and tells us she has put together her order of services by herself and has been committing herself to do things to help he feel the Spirit more in her life without us telling her to and all this great stuff(: I'm so happy for her. We also found out she decided to do all of this because she had been talking to someone on words with friends and they shared their testimony with her and she said she wanted to learn more lol I LOVE HER. and technology.

 D--- got his phone turned back on right after getting out of jail (because he missed a court date while he was out of town working for his only job option trying to not be homeless and whatnot) and we were the very first phone call he made. He is having a super hard time and is feeling really defeated and doesn't know how to get back up so that he can do the things that will bring him the blessings he is looking for, by going to church and meeting with us and studying the scriptures. We drove over to find him yesterday and try to uplift him a little. We talked with and sang to him. He said it really helped, but he is still upset, I can tell. I mean he is the most cheerful person that could be handling the stuff he is going through, but I want to take it all away. He is one of  my favorite people here right now. I just love this poor man and feel so bad for him. I know The Lord sent us to him and I want to prove that we will use that opportunity to love and help him. It just really made me sad to see how sad he is. Worst thing ever. But The Lord also really helped us last night to say the right things and whatnot. And I really love when I get to sing to people in attempts to bring the Spirit because it sure makes me sing well. Everyone always comments that we have heavenly help or angels with us when we sing. I believe it too, my voice sounds different and really good when Heavenly Father needs it to. Unfortunately, he doesn't always need it to! Lol but I guess I kind of like it that way, so I can tell when He is providing miracles and that the person we are with really needs love and the Holy Ghost to be with them.

Anyway, we did everything this week. So much that I can't remember lol oh more pulling of weeds! We snuck over to S-----'s to do that and she caught us right before we finished and that was really grand. We had a fun lesson afterward and , OH we also went with her to he daughter's band concert! Sometimes, I forget what it is like to applaud things. But I did it and it was worth it, the middle school band was so good. Like, super a lot better than what our high school band was like. But then it made me really want to play my violin, the end.

Just kidding, answers

-I'm in my 6th transfer

-this Saturday will make my 4th baptism

-oh. Crack um...........Mtc, T, B, c, t, t, b, b, t, c, b

Lol something like that.

You know what is marvelous? The Gospel. It makes my heart happy. That and Sprouts. Is that on the East coast? It's like whole foods but different and awesome. They have a lot of fruits and veggies I have never seen or heard of and it's exciting.

But the Gospel is better. WHY DID GOD LET ME COME TO EARTH NOW AND HAVE EVERY GOOD THERE IS TO HAVE..? 

I'm singing the Efy medley tomorrow at zone conference! Wish me luck. I love you sooooo mucho. 

Will you pray for D---? And for sister V---------, the lady who let's us live in her place, she is in the hospital. 

Be good and share your testimony and do fun things! Mwah!

SHOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTT. GUESS WHAT  I GOT THIS WEEK,! Toooooiiiileeet paperrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRrrrRrRrrRrRrrrr!!!!!!!!! A LOT OF DANG TOILET PAPER. LIKE THREE TRANFSERS OF TOILET PAPER. The people in the mission office really got a laugh of that. And my white board is so color coordinated and pretty, thank you thank you thank you

Beautiful Things in Mesa

Sometimes, there are cowboys roaming around our neighborhood. #southwest #iminadesert #ihatemyselfbecauseiusehashtagsallofasudden

My MTC loves. We all wore blue!

Apparently the whole family has ADD!

I know I didn't say like anything for you about this past week
yesterday. I was just so excited to see all of you, you look good and
are now only missing me and a pig. Sister smith says I have a great
family and that we all seem a little bit ADD and hilarious. I JUST
DYED HER HAIR RED! As I mentioned before, this was the agreement we
came to in how we would celebrate our 3rd transfer together. It is
sitting this very moment. She's pretty. I want to dye my hair now too.
BLOND. but I'm a chicken and I think I will wait til after my mission.
Also we just planted our cacti.

Our Family Portrait

Their Cacti

Amazing companions

Don't tell Lizzie Rachel is cheating

Her FAVORITE childhood pass-time!

Even the tongue is PINK!

We teach people NOT lessons

I can't believe they are homeless!!! Do you know where they went? That makes me so sad!! So does investigators not coming to church. We had a really amazing lesson with his one guy we've been teaching for three months and I thought it really started getting him thinking, and I asked him to think about what he was willing to sacrifice to prove his love to God, because he probably isn't getting his answer because he is scared that he will have to change. And he promised to come to church....again and it was serious this time. And yet again he didn't show. We are just confused, because what lesson or stronger spirit could persuade him to come?! He is waiting til he is prepared to come, but there's not anything more that he needs or that could be readied for him! It's okay....we did have a super inactive lady come for the first time in forever,  because we had a lesson Saturday. It was really weird, because we said some things that kind of implied she didn't need to come to church. Which....we never say lol but it was really strongly prompted by the Spirit. And then she saw she wasn't being told she had to go and it let the spirit into her own heart explain clearly the blessing it is to get to come, and she actually went! It was a miracle....we teach people not lessons! The golden investigator came too!!! She's so amazing mama, she got up and bore her freaking testimony! Second time ever coming to church. And it was good too, not awkward or uncalled for. She said this  journey she's now in investigating the church makes her feel like she's coming home. Which is the reason that D. decided to join the church. He walked into the building and he felt like he was at home. I feel like I'm at home there too! Especially with my Companion!!!! Guess who gets to keep her for a month and a half! Sister stinking Krueger!!! Three transfers together! How often does that happen? Not often........ We must work really well together :-) or we have a whole lot we need to work on. You never really know with these sort of things. But never mind all of that, the Lord heard my prayers and hopefully they were sister's, too.

Well. And we got a lot of people from the ward praying for us to stay as well. I think some of them actually really like it! So yeah this is pretty much the best news of my life. Sister Smith is the best. But don't tell anybody. Except for everybody. I'LL SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS. Lol we're celebrating by dying her hair red. She's trying to get out of it, but I'm using my missionary follow-up skills.

Our next step is to move our homeless man back into our area. Because that's really what he wants. We give a Call to make sure things are going okay and he said that the elders were trying to steal him away and he told them that the sisters were going to be the ones. This is good. That's what other missionaries like to call poaching. But we really really like him and I am going to be thoroughly vexed if the missionaries in his area let him slip away. I will poach before I let him get forgotten. He is ready for the gospel and really just needs some guides to get him where he's trying to go. I love D..e  I also love all of the other new investigators. Things are going really well for now and I hope it's because the Lord is blessing us for all the hard work we've been doing.

Oh! We got another homeless man this week. He was at the church building! It was really cool actually the way it worked out we know we were definitely inspired and led to be at the exact moment and place we needed to! Because they're supposed be doing something else and our plans fell through and the key to the door we tried first didn't work and we had to walk around the building and just bumped into this guy in the perfect moment. He had been investigating too and trying to get off of drugs and was really down and alone, we talked to him for a while and found I'm some help from ward members and it was really nice. I'm glad to be able to help these less fortunate people without giving them money, because I'm not allowed to as a missionary, but I think Heavenly Father has put them in our path because he trusts we will care for them, like king Benjamin teaches us we should. 

I am going to get a cactus soon too.

Um, idk what song you should sing! Something pretty! Like come thou fount, or His Hands, or a child's prayer. I have decided a new favorite hymn of mine. It's Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. It's a guy song, but I really really love it. I never was really familiar with it most of my life because we don't sing it very often. But it really helps me feel like a missionary and remember why I am one. ITS THE BEST!

Being a missionary is fun. There's always something to work harder on. This last week, we've been doing more of contacting every investigator daily. It is hard because that's annoying lol and there's already so much to do every day. But we do see them a lot more frequently, and are getting some good fellowshipping for them. My favorite is getting members to make them cupcakes. .....and making the cupcakes with them. I like cupcakes. I shouldnt like cupcakes. Oops