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

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

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!

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! 

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