Stepfathers, I have two Hispanic children, and EARTHQUAKE!

Don't have much time today but let me fill you in..... This week:

-Me and Sister H had an open house for one of our church buildings. It's the 2nd oldest church in Utah that is still in use. It has a creepy basement and fireplaces in all the rooms and a trap door that led to the previously used baptismal font. I kid you not. We decided we could use this historical building as leverage to get people to invite their neighbors. We did tours of the building, with a person from RS, primary, YW, priesthood etc., standing in the corresponding room and explaining what the organization is and does for like 30 seconds. In between rooms, Sister H and I pointed out the artwork on the wall and rearranged the pictures so they flowed with the first lesson... we explained the resurrection, Christ being baptized, Joseph Smith, etc. and then bore a quick testimony of each one. Not gonna lie- it was awesome. We ended in the chapel where one of the bishops explained the sacrament. Then they went in the cultural hall and made ice cream sundaes. It was a HUGE success-- thanks to our senior full time couple who advertised for us. We had multiple less-actives and about 10 nonmembers come. Because it was so short and sweet, (each tour was about 15 minutes) the people loved it. We haven't gotten any new investigators out of it so far, but there are some promising ones! Yes yes, I know we are smart successful missionaries...... what can I say.

Funny thing though ... Rich and his kids came. His kids LOVE me, right? So they were following me like lost puppies. So I was talking with this sweet old black baptist lady and she sees the boys tugging on me and pulling on me and hugging my legs and what not... she goes, "your boys are SO precious- they look just like you! How old are they?" Uh........ #1-MISSIONARY- that basically means Mormon nun, lady. She obviously doesn't know what missionaries do.... #2- Rich's ex-wife is Hispanic.... which means his kids are half Hispanic.... uhh. Anyways so after that, Tyler and Josh were telling everyone, "a lady asked if Sister Shields was my mom! I wish you were my mom, Sister Shields...." They are so cute, I don't think you understand... they are PERFECT kids. And Rich told me we do look similar- he asked if I have some blood in me that's not white... do you know what I said?  This is embarrassing but here's what I said... "well my boyfriend's half Chilean and my great-grandma was born in Mexico" (ps are you proud of me that I remembered that? I've been doing some serious fam history). Can you believe I said that? Like am I retarded? Apparently..... but they got a kick out of it and have been bringing it up ever since to mock me.

-Felt my first earthquake! It was life threatening- my bottle of catwalk salt spray legit fell off the windowsill.

-Sister H is an angel. I love her and we get along so well. This is the longest either of us has been with one companion and the first time we've had a comp who's not a trainee. Well, except for the time I was with Sister C for the worst 6 weeks of my life... I mean.... what? We have a lot in common and we are both brats... example- we had a last minute leadership meeting in SLC on Saturday morning and had to miss a ward breakfast for it. I texted the AP's back and said, "we will be in attendance. But we are missing a ward breakfast with potential investigators present- this meeting better be catered by IHOP." He responded, "sorry- we booked Denny's weeks ago- thanks for your dedication to missionary work sisters." In the meeting that day... both the AP's and president brought it up at least 3 times, hahah they thought it was so funny! But they also gave the credit to Sister H .... because she's the one that usually says stuff like that... basically everyone hates us. Oh well, we're still at the top of the mission food chain. Sorry, I'm done. I'll repent.

Also... she's getting kind of trunky..... and it's making me kinda trunky.... like it's a problem. We still work hard and are obedient and what not... but she's planning out BYU in the fall and talking about music and shopping and boys and it's really hard for me! Like- I still have 8 months left!! To answer Mom's question about transfers- I have no idea what will happen. I will probably stay with Sister H here until she leaves on July 22, but then after that I'll either get released as an STL and train a new missionary (the "flood" is about to come in from all the new missionaries that graduated this year) or get put with another STL comp. I'll probably for sure stay in this stake for at least another 2 or 3 transfers though.

-We taught Primary yesterday in Rich's ward....

Me: "so if God is our Heavenly Father, and Jesus is his son, what does that make Jesus?"
Josh (6): "Sister Shields, call on me- I know! OUR STEPFATHER!"
The girl next to him: "yeah, our stepfather!"
.............. yeah--close, kids!
How sad is it that in this generation a 6-year-old's normal vocabulary and frame of mind include the word "stepfather."

-Our stake president is wonderful..... but really intimidating. He gets the work done and his whole life is missionary work.... but at the same time, every time I'm around him I feel like I'm walking on tip toe and trying to be perfect so he doesn't chew me out. It's really stressful and I do not like it. Great to have a supportive stake president... not so great when they scare the living daylights out of you. To make matters worse, I've been here a month now and he still forgets my name. Everyone here loves Sister H and looks at me like I'm pond scum and don't know anything... I'm not kidding. He doesn't talk to me or even glance at me in coordination meetings. I'm trying so hard to do things right and prove I'm a good missionary but nothing's working. that's the hardest thing about this area right now.

-Last night we made s'mores at Rich and Lorie's (because I LOVE s'mores) and the sprinklers kept coming on us like every 10 minutes.... it was miserable. Anyways- that's what that picture is that I sent. Rich got like 5 of me and Lorie, and in every single one I'm giving someone a death glare. Sorry I don't try to!!! But it's kind of a funny picture, hahah.

-Teaching a boyfriend and girlfriend who live together, named Carson and Ashley. Carson's not a member and Ashley is less active. They are SO fun! Sister H thinks Carson's a punk (he is) and Ashley's a drama queen ditz (she kinda is), so we go on splits for their lessons and I teach them. They really like me and I LOVE them! Hornberger says I can relate to them and get along with them and I'm exactly what they need. She's taught them for months but they have never progressed very much. Ashley is such a cutie and she's so fun. She reminds me SO MUCH of Lauren- she laughs like her and says comments that are just like something Lauren would say. It makes me so happy- I miss Lauren so much! They are so fun and I hope they get married so Carson can get baptized. They came to church for the first time in months and I take credit for that.

-I love being a missionary. I love the feeling of helping someone learn to love the gospel and see the difference it makes in their life. I love working hard and being tired. I love eating healthy so I can focus on the work. I love learning to have fun and work at the same time. I love working with cute couples like Carson and Ashley who are exactly like my friends at home and seeing them be happy. I hate living "p-day to p-day," like me and Sister H say... but what can you do?

Sister Shields

Making s'mores at Rich & Lorie's - is this the funniest picture or what?  I promise I wasn't trying to give a death glare!

Hoarders, CSI, and Secret Life of a Middle-Aged Man - Treat us for PSD!!

............. that's how me and Sister Hornberger feel right now. Mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted. Let's start with 10:00 am this morning. We spent a couple hours cleaning BLOOD stains out of a CRIME SCENE CAR with a TOOTHBRUSH. 

Okay so this week..... Members are getting frustrated with "hastening the work" and being pushed to invite and be missionary minded and all of that... especially when there's 8 nonmembers in each ward and they've been invited over and over and over again.... So one of our bishops had this brilliant idea. Ready? Hastening the work means here on earth- AND on the other side. Family history and temple work. So what if we used that as a finding idea? He's organizing this huge program for us to split with the family history specialists and visit every youth in his ward and give them a little intro to family history. This will be double effective- meeting with the youth, gaining their trust, getting referrals, helping them with their missionary work, encouraging them to serve missions. Plus getting them hooked on family history. Eventually the bishop wants us to get into the less active and nonmember homes to show them how to get started, because apparently a lot of people find it interesting. Problem.... neither me or Sister H have ever done family history.  I don't even know how to start..... so we decided to take a couple hours and be instructed. It is SO fun and addicting! It's like online bargain hunting or blog stalking! I'm not even kidding, guys! Anyways, that's our newest finding idea and I am pumped about it.

My old stake in Bountiful is really struggling... they have nothing to do, no one to teach and are being fed too many desserts. We are trying to be good STL's and help them, but.... I don't know what to say! This Centerville stake is really similar- the difference is the leadership and stake support. If we have an idea, the stake takes it and runs with it. They set up appointments for us, they find people for us to teach and things to keep us busy. They make phone calls and arrangements for us- it's weird but awesome! My new favorite quote..."when all is said and done- there is usually more said than done." (Pres. Hinckley). This is how I feel About EVERYTHING. Our stake president even buys us healthy groceries every week because our $30 a week is NOT enough to buy all the crap we throw in our nutrient dense smoothies.
HOARDERS

Let me just tell you how many houses I've had to go in and clean that could be on this show..... Like so many. Some of these houses are the nastiest things I've ever seen in my life. I thought I was a slob..... I might be clutter-y- but I know how to keep a kitchen and bathroom clean! Blek! I was on exchanges in west Bountiful and we went to one of their recent convert's house..... It's a 40-ish mom of 7 young kids. She had a stroke a couple months ago and has major brain damage. It's so sad... she probably has the comprehension of a 6 year old. Her husband works all day and she cannot run their household. I walked in and was SHOCKED. Like.... it was bad. Rotting chicken wings all over the floor, spilled milk and cereal crusted over everything that had probably been there for weeks... all the food on the counters was moldy, wet towels, dirty dishes everywhere.... like I cannot tell you how sad this was. I (being absolutely disgusted) grabbed a broom and some paper towels and lysol and went to work. Like I was on fire! I just felt so bad for this poor woman.... the sister I was on exchanges with kind of sat around and watched.... and when we left she was like, "wow, I didn't see that coming from you." What's that supposed to mean? ... Anyways- if I've learned nothing else on my mission, it has been to keep a clean house one day. Also- we were helping an old lady in the ward today clean her terrible house.... this is an OLD lady- like over 90. And she's crazy! Anyways her husband was asleep in the bed and she told me to go look at his face... I was like, "uhh ok...." I looked and his eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling.... I asked if he sleeps with his eyes open and she stops and goes.... "OH SHI**, HE"S DEAD!" HAHAHAHA, turns out he wasn't dead... just not asleep.... I cannot even tell you how freaking funny this was- Sister H and I were DYING, hahahahha!

CSI
Back to my story this morning... a nonmember in my area named Anahit ("Anna Heat") is from Armenia. Her husband tried to kill her this week. Literally took a knife to her! In front of her kids! Then he apologized and said he was taking her to the hospital.... he ended up trying to take her to a river or something to try and drown her. When she tried to escape- he RAN HER OVER WITH THE CAR. She is the sweetest thing ever.... it's so sad.... so we spent the morning trying to scrub splattered blood out of the seats in her car so she can drive it without having a meltdown. I'm not kidding- there was splattered blood everywhere. It was so traumatizing... we almost puked. It was like being in a movie - I kid you not. Sister H started crying when we were hearing her talk about how scared she was because honestly, we just know she needs the gospel in her life. She really really does! BAD! She hasn't accepted the lessons yet.. but we are working on it..

SECRET LIFE OF A MIDDLE AGED MAN
Rich. There has been so much drama I don't even have time to write it all out..... basically- he wants to be baptized so bad, but he is on probation for multiple things.... he also needs to get married to the girlfriend he is living with. His little boys are adorable though...... they love me and love the gospel. I was explaining to Tyler (7) about the sacrament at church on Sunday,.. I said we take it to remember Jesus and he goes, "what if people don't believe in Jesus?" I said... "well, I guess they don't have to be here. Or take it." And he says, "well, I believe in Jesus. I love Jesus. When my dad gets baptized, can he bless the bread for me everyday so I can think of Jesus everyday?" I almost cried it was so sweet! I gave him and his brother Josh CTR rings and told them what it meant.... Tyler is obsessed with it! Rich played me a recording of him talking the other day... He goes, "Dad, I can't eat this Reese's." "Why not?" "It's melted. That would make a mess. I don't think making a mess is choosing the right like Sister Shields told me to do...." HOW CUTE IS THAT. They are adorable.... We played a jeapardy review game with Rich on all of the lessons we've taught so far.... he loved it and it was amazing to see how all of the PMG lessons work together. The restoration is where our beliefs come from; the plan of salvation is what we believe and what it does for us, the gospel of Jesus Christ is how it's all possible; the commandments are how we live it. It's as simple as that and it's beautiful.

Thank you all- have a good week!

Sister Shields

This is a drawing Rich's boys made for me!

Life-Saving Memory Foam, Life-Threatening Hikes and Protein Powder

Family,

We bought memory foam pads this week and they SAVED both of our lives.... I sleep sound through the night, have more energy during the day, and don't hurt! If you could reimburse me that'd be great....... or just buy me an iPhone as a welcome home present; either will suffice :) And tell Uncle Dave thanks a billion for the dental work!

This has been a fun week.... me and Sister H are seriously having so much fun together- you wouldn't even believe it!  It's kind of ridiculous, hahahah - last week at the grocery store we had memory foam mattress toppers, a huge thing of protein powder, more fruits and veggies than you can imagine, nail polish, face masks, lotion, vitamins of every kind... I could go on. People probably think we are such snobby missionaries. And then today we got permission to go down to Farmington Station again (she's convinced she needs to "school shop") and I realized our shopaholic personalities are not good for each other, haha. We eat really healthy and go on intense hikes.... last week I sprained my ankle BAD, which I've never done before- I'm not usually clumsy like that... I think I'm out of shape and not used to hiking. We went again today and literally almost rolled down a cliff and died. I'm not being dramatic, we almost died.

It's also fun being STL's with Sister H. We had to do some serious drama control this week...... we had to break up a cat fight- I'm not kidding. And we've done a couple overnight exchange with people... let me tell you how those go down. Everyone thinks I'm like this super sweet, fun, easy to get along with, hard working, creative missionary. Which I am. But anyways- I think President, the ZL's and AP's think I'm the perfect peacemaker/problem solver for hard companionships and areas. I get to go with the troubled sister and Sister H gets to go with the "victim" and be a stress relief for her while I go fix the crap. This might sound mean- but seriously that's how this STL calling is going. President told me I'm good at "direct and loving confrontation." Great. It's kind of fun feeling like I'm helping people though. We did exchanges in Dave and Monica's stake the other night and I couldn't resist stopping by...... oops :)

This area is really weird.... not at all like Bountiful, which is weird because it's not even a mile away. But let me tell you why:  we get work handed to us here. Like no joke. We never have to really set stuff up on our own, we never door knock referrals ... nonmembers show up to church on their own out of the blue, then the ward mission leader has already set up an appointment for us to start teaching them before we know it. Like, it's weird haha. We did yard work for a less-active lady.... she showed up at church Sunday and plopped herself down next to me- like what? It's so weird..... in Bountiful- if we found someone new to teach (which didn't happen often) we worked like crazy for it! it was hard work getting people to church! I was talking to H (last companion) the other day and her new comp (she's been out longer than I have) is really frustrated with the area. They said they haven't been able to schedule a lesson at the B's and they never hear from them or Holly since I left. That stake is really struggling.... the new sister in the area was like, "how on earth did you get 3 baptisms here?! Tell me your secret!" I told her she's just gonna have to think outside the box and plan some good finding ideas or something... I didn't know what else to say! I feel bad for them.

So as for the people we are teaching here.... I'll name a few. Trichelle- she's a divorced mom with really bad health problems. Her ex-husband is a total jerk and treated her like crap and ruined all her self esteem. She's been recently reactivated but still needs lessons as a spiritual support. She's so friendly and funny- I LOVE her! She's seriously so much fun. It breaks my heart though because her teenage son has really bad depression and is always trying to jump off of elemetrary schools... (literally) and she has no money because she is so sick she can't work. She stays on the couch all day and has no motivation to go on. But I love her. I did her hair for her this week as a pick-me-up (for both of us, hahah).

Rich. He's not a member. He LOVES the church and wants to be baptized... but he's on probation so it has to wait. He's also living with his girlfriend Lori, who has been recently reactivated by Sister H. They are awesome and so much fun. There's a lot of drama there though...... I feel like a marriage counselor.

That's all I have time for right now- we are having so much fun! Have a wonderful week, everyone! xcoxoxoxoxoox

Heidi

The Clinger Family in Bountiful - I LOVE them!

And ... a few pictures from Jamison, just 'cause I know you want to see them :)

Plywood and Spiders

Hello family and friends, May 26, 2014

I am alive. Barely. JK - I have moved to my new area in the Centerville South Stake with Sister H. We have been reunited and it's quite fun. Our beds are SO hard- we literally wake up every morning in pain. I feel like I did a crazy hard workout the day before but then I remember that's definitely not the case and I am still chunky... Sister H. has sleeping problems as it is, so this really sucks. Plus we are EXHAUSTED. I've never been so tired in my life. We wake up more tired than when we went to sleep- I swear. We called Sister Hansen to tell her all of the complications that come from these terrible beds.... she told us to try putting a piece of plywood under the bed. I'm not kidding- that's what she said. Like, are you kidding me?  Thank you, Sister Hansen- we will definitely try that.......

We live with the sweetest old lady. She reminds me of Grandma McConkie! She's so sweet... last night we got talking with her and I was asking all these questions about WW2 and how she met her husband and how she was married in the 50's and stuff.... because anyone who knows me knows I love WW2 romances. Sister H. fell asleep in the chair next to me while she was telling us but I loved it, hahah. We live in her basement full of spiders. Awesome.

This area is about 200% different from my Bountiful stake- even though it's literally less than a mile away.... hahah. The leadership here is so gung-ho about missionary work- it's awesome! We're teaching quite a few people- all of which have been found and set up by the stake. The people here are way more humble and receptive.. Plus we have a lot of town homes and apartments in the stake- I cannot even tell you how happy I was to hear that! We have one girl on date named Bree- she's 10 and her mom is less active. We got them to come to all 3 hours of church yesterday and that was awesome. She's sort of autistic, I guess, but honestly it just comes off as blunt and bratty- it's funny, hahah. In lessons she'll go, "I'm bored." Oh.... okay, hahahah my bad- guess we'll have to cut our 7 minute lesson down to 30 seconds for you! (Which we do). Church yesterday:

Sister H: (to Bree) "do you like to draw?"
Bree: (bratty voice) "we don't have an app for that."

HAHA

Me and Sister H have so much fun together! It's seriously a miracle they put us together but I'm definitely ok with that. I do miss (the most recent) Sister H though... she was so fun! I miss Bountiful.... but then again... there's so much more to do here. So I don't really miss it, hahah. The stress levels are so low here! Except the lack of sleep from the terrible mattresses.

Life is good. We are going on a hike today because that's what we like to do on P-days. Everyone else is paying $10 bucks to go bowling. We were talking the other day ... we get asked the same questions over and over and over again- like, am I real person with real interests other than missionary work? I can't even remember! What music and TV did we like before the mission? I don't even know... The other day in our leadership meeting president mentioned something about including personal experience stories in your lessons sometimes.... I don't remember my life before the mission so I can't do that, hahaha. Me and Sister H joke all the time about the "mission veil" because that's seriously what it feels like.

That's all for now folks- have a wonderful week!

xoxoxo
Heidi

Indian Food, Hot Dogs and Hot Rods

Family and friends,

Well, this will have to be short so I'll do bullet points:

-Getting transferred tomorrow, 2 stakes North of where I am.  Going to be with Sister H, my trainer.  I was SHOCKED they are doing that ... weirdest, most unexpected transfer ever!  Really sad to leave H in the middle of her training, but I will still see her a lot.

-Got a calling yesterday from President Hansen to be an STL (Sister Training Leader - Sister Zone Leader).  Get to go to lots of meetings and do lots of exchanges now - wooo!  Drama control is always fun too.  Excited to work with Sister H though.  She goes home next transfer.

-Went to the SLC temple with Holly this week to do baptism for the dead.  She's so cute ... I was telling her how cool it is to look at her family name cards and see that these people were born in this place, in this year, etc. ... she found one from the early 1800's and said, "Wow, that's a long time to be in the waiting room in heaven!  Well, today is Margo's lucky day, folks - she gets promotion!"  She's just cute.  I will miss her!

-Went to the dentist (thanks Uncle Dave!)

-Did a ton of yard work.

-A missionary in zone meeting this week used the phrase, "just love the hell out of these people, literally."  HAHA

-Sister H is so dang funny ... we had a big stake activity called Hot Dogs and Hot Rods - a BBQ with a car show, basically.  Have I told you about the Robert's house?  They have a bunch (literally, 7) of hot YSA recent convert males living with them.  It's a tender mercy, let me tell you.  Well, H always jokes that this one - Sam - is in love with her.  She's super sarcastic.  Anyways, she comes up to me at this activity and goes, "it's over with me and Sam.  I just saw him holding hands with another woman, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!"  I look over at him ... he's holding a 4-year-old girl's hand, hahahahah I almost died!

-Brody and Tara (reactivated) are wonderful and progressing so well.  We helped Tara do yard word on Saturday (we mostly agreed for the tan we would get while doing so) and H busted their sprinkler line with a shovel while being a spaz ... uh yeah, at least it wasn't me.  But Tara is so cute an she's inviting me to her baby shower in a couple weeks - I will def be on "exchanges to help strengthen the sisters" that day.

-Met some Indians (dots not feathers - Kayla, remember when Sister Erekson would always say that?  HAHAHAH) and they taught us how to cook legit Indian food, which I'm not a huge fan of ... the spices smell like BO to me ... but it was fun!

-The B's are traumatized I am leaving -what can I say?  But I will be around!

Have a wonderful week!

Heidi

Transfer board

My zone!

I planned a wedding ... I mean, a baptism

Delaney's baptism!

Hello family and friends,

Oh, what a fun week! To start - I planned and carried out the most extravagant baptism you've ever seen. Delaney's baptism seriously was the most stressful thing of my life..... professionally printed programs on fancy photo paper, catered lunch, centerpieces, decorations..... the whole deal. The program had extra talks and musical numbers (including me telling their family's "journey to baptism" and Emmy singing and playing a song she wrote on guitar). Kim recorded the whole thing so she can have it all forever. I know what we’ve done for their family has really really had an impact on Emmy. Yesterday we were trying to get them out the door for church and were running late... Emmy goes, "it was SO MUCH easier going to church by myself!" Hahah. Bishop asked Delaney and Jason to share their testimonies after she was confirmed in sacrament meeting. Delaney said "I wanted to be baptized when I was 8 but something always got in the way. When the missionaries started teaching my family, everyone thought all that would come of it was a baptism, but there was so much more. My friends at school ask me why I want to be baptized and I decided that Jesus has done so much for me, this is the least I can do for him. Amen." That was it but EVERYONE was in tears. It was awesome. Then I dragged the family to the bishop's office afterwards so they can all get temple recommends for baptisms for the dead. We should be going this week with them!

I also got a surprise text from an elder who took over teaching Sio in Salt Lake... I haven't heard an update from him in over a month after the drama with his girlfriend... they said his baptism was going to be that night at 6 and he really wanted me there... thanks for the heads up, elders. So I got last minute permission to go. Sio was seriously so happy to see me.... it made me feel good. Hahah, the baptism was not planned well at all and the programs were upside down... quite different from the B's extravaganza. But it happened and it was awesome!

More fun things that happened this week..... someone we've been working with (I won't use names) texted us late one night and asked if we could come over. We dropped everything and headed over. She told us she thinks we needed to go over the next morning and "check on her." She gave us keys to the house and said if she wasn't ok, this is the medication she was taking and where she kept it. Basically.... she was telling us she was going to overdose. I was scared out of my mind! So I grabbed the bag of pills and hid them from her, then made her promise she wouldn't do anything stupid! It was so stressful..... who knew missionaries were marriage counselors, shrinks, drama control and babysitters? You'd be surprised, folks. Earlier that day we found out a recent convert of 5 years in our area didn't know what baptisms for the dead were and that they happened in the temple.... like- she was just clueless, it’s sad. I looked up her records and plan to hunt those elders down! And also that day- I told you guys this while skyping yesterday- we found out a family we are trying to teach... like our most potential family- the wife's a porn star. Who knew that happened in Bountiful? And they have "shows" in the backyard along with huge parties. So..... guess we'll have to find a new prospect, hahah.

Transfers are a week from tomorrow and I reallyyyy hope I don't leave H... I love her... but if I do leave- it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, because absolutely nothing's happening here right now. We did find 2 new investigators last week but haven't been able to get ahold of them since. Lovely.

Fun to hear from everyone on skype yesterday- so glad Kylie was there! Glad to hear everything's going well. I'm almost at my halfway point- woooo! Have a good week,

Heidi

Me, Sister H, Delaney and Sister H

Delaney's Family

Sio and me at his baptism

My zone

Cinco de Mayo

Family - Awesome job for meeting with the missionaries! Now go above and beyond, like Kevin Eubank (he's famous here; he's a weather man) and instead of giving them blind referrals to visit- invite someone to hear the lessons! We challenged the Eubank family to invite their neighbor to hear the lessons and he accepted! We taught him last night and it was awesome..

Also this week..... Holly got baptized! Yippee! Her husband Justin is not active and not interested in being active.... he doesn't like the church at all and was upset she wanted to be baptized. But she did it anyways! And he came to support her. Holly is my role model- I love her. She's so cute... plus I feel like she's "mine" because I found her- I've taught her since the beginning (5 months); I helped her through her prescription drug detox.... that was MY baptism. And the Lord's... and her's.... but mostly mine, haha.  When she walked into that baptismal font- she started bawling.... it was awesome, hahah and then when she got confirmed in sacrament meeting Sunday- she started crying again.. I just love her. It was an awesome weekend. Plus this next Saturday is Delaney's baptism! Kim said she's either going to get it catered or take everyone to Chuck-a-Rama... HAHA. Like this is a baptism- not a wedding? But she went through and took a bunch of pictures, bought everyone new outfits, is getting it catered, wants matching tablecloths and centerpieces ... and she asked me to speak at it and talk about the "transformation” of their family... so we'll see how that goes!

We fasted last week and this week that we would find new people to teach.... guess what! 3 new investigators this week! I don't know how it happened, don't ask me.... 1 was from Bro Eubank- he just called and said he had someone to teach, so that was awesome. At the beginning of the lesson I asked the investigator why he believed in Christ. He said he had no reason not to. At the end of the lesson.... I was trying to decide what to say to him or ask him to get him thinking and involved... then I remembered daddy's email a couple weeks ago about Moroni's promise at the end of the Book of Mormon- “ask if these things are NOT true.”  So I brought up what he said when I asked him about Christ, tied it in with Moroni's promise..... BAM. Perfect. Thanks, Daddy!

Tell Didn thanks so much for the letters!

Funny story of how much I love Sister H.... a couple days ago I watched her chug a half gallon of orange juice.... I gave her this stupid look and she goes- "this expired a couple days ago- I may or may not be trying to get food poisoning so we don't have to work....." I gave her another dumb look and she goes, "OH CRAP- this isn't expired- it expires tomorrow!" HAHAH it was SO FUNNY. We have so much fun... she reminds me of Lauren and I loveee ittt ... I have a feeling they will transfer me because we have too much fun together... but we also work really really hard! We get some serious work done!

I love my mission. I love teaching and helping people - it's awesome!

PS if anyone is coming up to visit- let me know and I can ask for permission for someone to come to a lesson with us! Probably not sisters... but maybe? Def cousins or neighbors or something, so that'd be fun.

Have a great week! now I'm going shopping.

Holly's baptism - Yay!!

Holly & her family on her baptism day