Week 5

HELLO FAMILY!!

WHAT A GREAT WEEK!!! I have so much to tell you all! Last P-Day our Zone was going to have a BBQ but it got canceled due to a lot of really great rain. So Sister Lytle and I ended up going to the sister's house and we played "Mormon Triva" with the other sisters. It was fun but I really stink at that game! We had a SUPER fantastic time at dinner. The Golthorpes took us to In & Out and it was just as good as I remembered it. We went and had hot chocolate after that, which is a weird thing to think of having when it is 70 degrees outside even with the rain. We ended up staying there for the rest of the night, which is how we produced the video that Sister Goldthorpe sent to you. She told me yesterday that you e-mailed her back and she found that to be very cute. Thanks for doing that:) We technically lost the NNC bet. We originally won by 2, but we extended the bet and due to a Dr.'s visit in Roseville for Sister Lylte and two major miagranes for me we lost by like 40. I had to make 4 dozen cookies for Elder Heath and Miller and they didn't even get to eat any becuase the other Elders in the apartment ate them all! They called me and asked for more because they said that they were really good and felt jipped. Too bad I won't give them any until they wash our car!! Wednesday we went and visited the less active couple that we committed to come to church with us on Sunday. We had a lesson all planned for them and were a little nervous about how it was going to go seeing as it was about forgivness. However, to our surprise Sister Thomas took it extremely well and she even told us that she would teach us how to crochet (I am prety sure that is spelled wrong) this really cute blanket:) We are super excited for that! Thursday was weekly planning day and boy do I hate weekly planning!! It takes FOREVER, but in the end it is totally worth it because it cuts down on nightly planning and it lines the week out and shows the Lord that we are willing to do the work. We went and had dinner with the Murry and Burry family that night. The Burry's are the parents of Sister Murry. Brother Burry is not a member and until about 6 years ago was very anti. He is a mason and let Sister Burry get baptised 6 years ago, and she is probably in her late 70's now. Sister Murry is one of the few siblings that are still active in the church. She only has a few of her children that are even members as well. Sister Lytle and I shared a message about families and it was so wonderful. Both of them had tears in their eyes and testified that they knew that in the end all would be well. What amazing women they are and they have set a most wonderful example of having faith. Friday was zone conference, and boy was that an experiance. First of all we have to stress out about having the car super clean. We have to check everything possible and buckle all the seat belts too! Elder Birch (the senior couple Elder over all the cars) is SUPER picky about how things are to be done and look. Of course they have awards for the cleanest cars and there is one elder who always wins. Anyway, I got to meet all the sisters who are in the southern part of the mission and they are all huggers! I don't know that I am really all that comfortable with how much hugging there is here! Anyway, the conference was amazing and it was all about recieving personal revelation, and showing investigators how they can recieve it as well. Which is weird because Dad wrote all about that in his letter to me too! At luch time they hand out awards for the cleanest car and apartments and Sister and I got first for our zone:) I will send Mom the certificate to prove it to you! Saturday was a very long day. We have started to teach this German man who speaks like 8 languages! This was our second lesson and we were prepared to be there for a while. We brought a returned missionary who speaks Russian with us. She really didn't end up helping us all that much:( We had the lesson at the ward building, which by the way is HUGE!!! It has the capacity to have 2 wards going at the same time on Sundays. It kind of looks like a pinkish colored stucko temple. Anyway, as we were teaching Andrey we realized that we have two problems. One being that he started to read the BOM from the back, starting with the index. We had a lot of explaining to do about the 3 Nephites!! He thought that we think that they are Saints like they have in the Orthodox churches. Boy was that a mountain to climb with him. The second problem we had was that he thinks that the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood are one in the same. He also thinks that the apostasy hasn't occured yet, which causes HUGE problems with trying to help him realize that the gospel has been restored. Pretty much no need for the BOM if there was never an apostasy! Sister Lytle and I have stepped into a major one, but we are determined to try and teach him!! We were teaching him for two hours again and by the time we were done we were so tired!! We had dinner that night with a less active family who we have fallen in love with. I am trying really hard to get their name on the list of 15 that the ward is going to help with trying to reactivate. Oh I almost forgot to tell you something really funny. So we are trying to get in to teach the Napli family, and Sister and I went over the other day to see if they were home. Well Rabi, the Dad who we were looking for, was not but the grandma, Bina, was. She talked to us about how there was no need for her to get baptised because she was too old. However, she REALLY wants Rabi and his family to be baptised. Well talked to her about this for awhile and promised her that we would do all we could to teach her family, but we had to go. She then started telling Sister how frail and sickly looking she looks. She was telling her all this stuff about how she needed to eat more. Then she gave me the once over and smiled and said "You, you are healthy! Look at your face, it is glowing healthy!" I laughed and said thank you, and we started towrds the car. She continued to tell me how healthy I was as we were driving away. After I rolled up the window I couldn't help but to burst out in laughter...I have NEVER been complimented for being fat and it made me laugh REALLY hard. It was great. Okay so Sunday we went to church and waited anxiously for the Thomas's to arrive. Soon enough they did and they had brought thier son with them. She gave us a hug and told us that her son didn't believe that they were actually going to church so he came to make sure it happened. The sweetest part was when Brother and Sister Thomas went to go find a seat, their son hung back a little and put his hand on my shoulder and said "Thank you, whatever you two are doing thank you, thank you." I am pretty sure that tears would have ran down my face had I not been in public. We had started a fast with Brother and Sister Thomas the night before and though she has serious type two diabetes she was willing to try. The lord gave us a miracle because Sister Thomas made it all the way to dinner time without needing anything to eat. She told us that this was the first time in 10 years that she has gone more than just a few hours without needing some sugar. How grateful Sister and I were to have had such an experiance to have the Lord confirm to Sister Thomas that she really needed to be back at church. Welp that was the week, we crammed a lot more than what I can tell you about in the week, so today is something to be grateful for to be able to relax a little. So as for the experiance well...I did forget to mention that we did commit a lady named Tammy to baptism on the first lesson but I think that the Thomas's story would be much more meaningful to share. It shows how much our Heavenly Father loves us and especially works to find his lost sheep. But advise would have to be a few things. One do all you can to be obedient even before you leave, it will help with following the rules while you are out. Two READ AND STUDY PREACH MY GOSPEL!!! Make it a huge priority in your life. Think about your testimony, especially about the BOM. And Three: One of the biggest things that I have learned on my mission so far is that of all the things that you could do in your life serving a mission is one thing that you SHOULDN'T live without experiancing. You learn how to truely love, even when people are saying the most horrible things to your face. You learn to work hard, which in this world you need to know how to do. And you have the amazing opportunity to feel the spirit with you stronger than you will ever feel at any other time. There are more prayers being said for missionaries than anyone else and you can tell. It will solidify your testimony. There is so much more I could say but I have 30 seconds so I will just say that it is just 2 years just man up and do it!!! I love you!!

GHeidi