Letter #3

FAMILY!! So it's basically been a week, and what a week it has been. Good news, I get an hour to write so this is hopefully going to be good. So I told you the events leading to the airport so I will start after that. I found my district and we were waiting outside of our gate and we realized that Elder Lloyd and Stawinski weren't with us. Elder Lloyd only got to talk to his Mom for like 5 minutes due to phone problems. Elder Stawinski was having a hard time saying goodbye to his family. But we made it. The plane was super small and everyone was crammed in there. Elder Lloyd is pretty tall so he didn't really appreciate the smallness of the plane. I sat next to a member who immediately started asking me all kinds of questions. He was heading to Cali for a buisness trip. He told me all about his mission, and family. He told me that his wife had just gone into remission from stage 4 lymphoma and it was a great blessing in his life. We had a really great conversation and he left me with a scripture before we got off the plane. His wife is one of Sister Pendleton's best friends so he told me all about President Pendleton and his wife. He showed me all kinds of pictures on his laptop. He was pretty excited to be able to see them at the airport. So we got off the plane and grabbed our stuff and headed for the baggae claim. We ran into two elders going home. The AP's and President and his wife were at the bottom of the stairs and they were rapidly taking pictures. There was a sister heading home that told me that she wished that she didn't have to leave. I learned later that she was super nervous to go home because there was a boy that started writing her mushy letters that was going to be at the airport and she wasn't too excited about that one. Anyway, we all grabbed our stuff and headed for the cars. I was the only sister so the Elders were super helpful and carried most of my stuff:) Elder Lloyd and I got to ride to the Mission Office with President and we had a good time talking about Idaho. I love Sister Pendelton. She has these blue eyes that seem to look into the deepest depths of your soul. We got to the Mission Office and were given these HUGE three ring binders full of Do's and Don'ts. We then had to meet with the nurse, and then had to watch a drivers safety video. It was funny because the Brother that does all the car stuff stopped the video right after Elder Holland stopped speaking. So we pretty much signed our lives away after only watching like 3 minutes of this movie. After that we all went to the Mission Home and had lunch. It was so yummy! Everything was super fresh and it tasted sooo good after eating the stuff we did in the MTC. We had a good talk outside on the deck after that. The weather has been so, so nice. We then drove to the Mission office again where we met our Trainers. It was pretty obvious to who my trainer was when I walked into the room. Only one other sister was there. Her name Is Laura Lytle. She is 6'1''. We said a few words took some pictures and then we were off. It is sad but true that the Jr. Comp ALWAYS has to stand behind the car and direct the Senior Comp to back up the car. I feel pretty retarded, but being obedient will bless us. We went straight to our Apartment and threw my stuff down and headed for dinner. We ate at the Weaver's home and it was pretty yummy. Sister Weaver is really fun and bubbly. We had to eat quick becuase there was a Relief Society activity that we needed to get to. I have a goal of learning who everyone in the ward is in a week. So Sister Lytle introduced me to everyone at the activity. It was super fun. They had a swap where everyone brought something and it was auctioned off. Sister Smedly's (the relief society pres) husband is an auctioneer in real life so he auctioned everything off. I was super greatful to get home and get in bed at the end of the day. Wednesday morning came way too quickly. We had a district meeting, so I got to meet everyone in the district. After that we had lunch and then I got to go knock on my first door! No one was home, so we left a pass along card. We had an appointment at 3 to meet with a less active sister in the ward. We taught her a lesson on the Atonement. She had a headache when we got there but by the time we left she was feeling much better. After that we went and ate dinner at the Lisonbee's. That was really fun. She attemped to make me an all green dinner. I guess it is a tradition? We had broccolii soup, green salad, a green fruit salad, and zuchinii muffins. They have a daughter named Sara that is being potty trained, and she had an accident on her Dad's lap during dinner. It was pretty funny and made things pretty entertaining. After we left we went to go see a potential investagator,Danny. When we got there he was a little busy so we talked to him for a little while and he told us we could come back a little later. When we did he wasn't quite home yet so we went across the street and visited with a guy named Garrison. We invited him to come to church and he said he would be there. Danny came home and we found out that he has a son who is also named Danny and a girlfriend named Leanne. We talked to them for awhile and they told us that we could come back the next night to teach them the first discussion. Thursday was AMAZING! We helped the seminary teacher with her closets that she was cleaning out and I told her about the dot game we played in seminary. She loved the idea and was going to play it with her class. After that we FINALLY got to go get a few things at the store. I was so glad! I started to get a cold that day to when we went home for lunch I told Sister Lytle that I just wanted to take a 30 minute nap and to wake me up so we could go out and tract. Well she didn't becuase she felt bad for me and I slept for 2 hours! by that time we were supposed to go eat dinner. We went to the Lopez's and she BBQ for us. I jumped on the tramp with the kids in a backyard that was COVERED in dog poo! They made sure i didn't step in any. After that we went and saw the Baily family. They are less active and we helped her with some flowers that she was taking to a funeral that weekend. We tried to go teach Danny after that but ended up talking with his mother. She is actaully a member but hasn't been to church in 20 years. We are pretty excited to continue to try to teach this family. They are pretty amazing. Friday we were suppoed to do our weekly planning. The district is all supposed to go to the Stake Center to plan, but we found out that it doesn't really work. No one gets any planning done because we all enjoy talking to one another. We have dinner appointments EVERY night. I kinda don't like it but hey its free and we get to teach a lesson. That night we taught two kids who are getting baptized this weekend. Michael and Joann. They are pretty excited and they have even invited their non member friends to come. Saturday was AWESOME. We went to breakfast and Ruth Davis's house and she and her family surprised me with an all green breakfast. It was pretty amazing. I have pictures:) after that we went back home to get the weekly planning done that we didn't finish the day before. We FINALLY got done at like three and then Sister Lytle made me go take a nap. I have to admit that I was feeling pretty crappy. We went and ate dinner that night at the Welton's. That was interesting. I didn't know that their daughters bra wearing habbits were apporpriate dinner conversation in there home. That family is great, but they are pretty weird!! We were there so long that we didn't have any time to do work afterwards so we went home to go to bed. So Sunday was miserable. My cold had peaked to an all time yuck factor and the people in the ward were feeling really badly for me. I took hand sanitizer to church with me and used it every chance I had. I had a really weird experiance with the zone leader. I had thought about asking for a blessing for two days because I just want to be able to work. So I got up the courage to ask and he asked me if I was going to die if I didn't get one right then. I felt pretty stupid and embarrassed for asking and almost told him that it really wan't a big deal and to just nevermind, but he told his companion and we found a room. I really didn't think that it was inappropriate to ask, so I guess I could use a little advice on the Do's and Don'ts for asking for a blessing. Dad could you help me out a little? So that has been my week so far. I woke up today feeling much, much better. I hadn't had a chance to unpack until today, so I did that this morning. It feels good to get those bags out of the way and off of the floor! Our whole district is here at the library e-mailing and the other sisters and us are going to carpool to the store after we get done. The elders might come up with a plan for some fun for later but we will see. I haven't gotten any mail since I got here so I am feeling a little disconnected. I am hoping to hear from someone soon. I am going to go buy an SD card today so I can get the one I have in the mail for Manda today. I am going to try to print off a few pictures while I am at the store so I can send those to the house. I sent a box today with a few things in it. There are a few pictures that Sister Lyon took in the box so you can see my companion from the MTC. Everything has been pretty great. I am loving the work. I miss and love you all so much. I am looking forward to looking back on this experiance and feeling good about the work I've done and getting to see you all again! I love you all so so much!!! Please be safe in all you do! The church is true!! ( I feel like if I don't say something like that it's not an offical missionary e-mail)

SLY

Heidi