Christmas 2011

Christmas Wrap up

Hiya family!

So. Not much has happened since Christmas.  My chats with mom, dad, and Lynz were too short, but it was good to hear their voices.  I'm excited to hear every one's voices though when i get home. But that's off the topic of missionary work... Sister Anderson has begun singing "Hark All Ye Nations" every time I talk about after mission plans.  She's 7 months into her mission so no doubt it's hard for her to think about home.

Christmas was great. After I talked to the family, I took a 2 hr nap, then ate dinner.  The night ended with working at the Christmas Lights.  So miracle of the week/month/year (well, at least in the visitor's center):  So on the 23rd we had 6,800 people come into the visitor's center during the Christmas lights. This was a record. Last year the high was only in the 5,000s.  Even better, we had 40 top boxes (which is when non-members come to the VC and accept missionaries to come to their homes). This was a record for this year and last.  So, happy Birthday, Joseph Smith!  THEN Christmas day came. 5,100 people and none other than..............80 TOP BOXES!!!!!!!!  80!!!! Happy Birthday, Jesus! Isn't that just incredible?!?!?!

Another miracle i saw was seeing the Taits on Christmas Eve. I cried. Like 4 times.  But it was SO GOOD to see them! then Pres. Ellsworth gave me a blessing. It was needed.

Everything is going well here in Mesa.  We're trying to prep all of the bishops and WMLs for us to go full field on Jan 2nd.  We've been asking them to begin gathering and deciding who they want us to visit. We know they are trying pretty hard already, but our wards just seem content, which makes the work harder when we don't have the help of our members. We are praying though and we're trying to get them to do special fasts and stuff.

We're hiking Camelback "mountain" on Jan 2nd, too.  It should be interesting. We'll see if it kills me. I've hesitated to do it thus far in my mission just because it doesn't help the whole narcolepsy situation and I'll probably be dead afterward.  But.  My companion really wants to and I don't want to make other arrangements. So if nothing else, I will either suck it up, or Sister White (the VC director's wife) and her disabled daughter Debbie are doing a smaller, less intense trail that I may just do with them. It'll be good either way.

To the individuals:

Mom- It was good to hear your voice on Christmas!  I still haven't had a chance to look t dresses yet, but I'll let you know when I have.

Dad- Got both of your emails. All is well. I still don't have my itinerary, but I'm expecting it this week. If you need to call the mission home, you're welcome to. Love you!

Danny- How are you and the family doing? i haven't heard from you in awhile...

Cory- I got your ecard. i can't believe how BIG your son is! Whew! How are you and Charisse?

Eric- First it was Mocking Jay, now it's HP7. What the junk?!  I loved the surprise!  But you are way too good at playing the Devil's Advocate. I had to hide it and the book you sent me (I already sent Mocking Jay home).  Crazy. Tell Crystal I LOVE the snowmen earrings she made. I'm wearing them now. :-D

Lynz- We had way too little time to chat.  Blasphemy! Don't forget to send me the letter you wrote!

Ok. That's all folks!  I love you!

Love,

Me

Sunday Sunday Sunday!!

Dear Family,

Yesterday was zone conference (amazing) so I am emailing today.  But FYI, now that I work at the Visitor's center (well, I actually start on thursday. Ahh!!) I will never know when my p-day is for sure.  Usually it's on Mon or Tues, but Christmas light mess everything up even more. So I don't know exactly what's going to happen. So, on that note, everyone please write to me on SUNDAY.  That is the only day we for sure will not have pday.  So SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

Also, for some reason some post offices are gradually stopping forwarding mail from the mission home. So to make sure i get anything through snail mail, please put the mission home as the return address. Let me put that in caps... ON ALL FUTURE SNAIL MAIL TO ME, PLEASE PUT THE MISSION HOME AS THE RETURN ADDRESS TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T GET SENT BACK TO YOU. We're not sure which post offices have quit forwarding mail, but just in case it's my post office, this is a good back up to make sure the mail you send me isn't returned to you. The mission home address is:

6265 N. 82nd St.

Scottsdale, AZ 85250

The companionship is going well. Slowly. It's funny though, I don't know if the Lord is trying to teach me humility, or if he's trying to teach me gratitude... Probably both. But I hope I'm learning it. Lol. But it is kinda driving me crazy.

As for investigators, there's good news and bad news....

Good news- We got a new investigator this week that seems super prepared and super sincere.  She is working to quit smoking and she has been clean off drugs for about 3 months.  We're really excited about her.  We've already taught her like 5 times. :-)
Bad news- She got arrested yesterday for some past crimes she's committed. Apparently she had a warrant out for her arrest... *sigh* SO we have no idea where this is going, BUT we know it's in the Lord's hands. I am praying that she won't smoke while in jail as that would cause significant set backs to her progress. The other problem is that she may be on probation. So. She may not be getting baptized anywhere near to when we thought she would be. BUT I really think she will eventually. After she pays for the consequences of her former life and is clean according to the law, then I know she will. She's ready. And she has felt the spirit SO STRONG. It's amazing.
The W's are doing ok, but not great. We need to get more members involved.  But it's difficult because of the dad's life as a cop. He is very protective. But it will happen. The wife and son are super prepared and personally, I think they're ready.  However, I'm not sure the wife will get baptized without her husband, which is understandable. But the son can't get baptized unless he gets permission from his biological mom since she has part custody of him, which is fine. Except. His bio mom is anti. Go figure. So. We don't know what's gonna happen there either.... 

Can I just say, I never realized until my mission how much I HATE PRIDE. I hate my own pride, and I hate others' pride. It's just annoying and arrogant and self-centered and belittling to others. It allows no progression. It is contrary to the Plan of Salvation for that reason. There is NO BENEFIT from being prideful. Just Snobbery that everyone loathes.

I started writing about how much I hate it, but I decided I better not.  Because it was turning into a venting session.  About a lot of things. So. Period. Suffice it to say I hate pride. It is of the devil. Lol.

Ummm.. Mom, I have like 3 hours to write letters today. I will handwrite you a response to your red paragraph. I havr to go though. I haven't gotten the little something you sent me... I'll have to call the mission office.  When did you send it? And was it a letter or a package?   

ok. Got to go.Love you all!

Sis Stephens

Stupid Sudden Weather Changes!

Hey everyone!

Short and sweet again.  Things are going well.  I've been sick this week. Bleh. Stupid sudden weather changes.  Even though it's only in the....70's?  SoStupmetimes colder, but not much. Although I am wearing sweaters.

This week Sis A and I obtained bikes.  By choice.  Our area is tiny and the exersize is needed. These silly arizonians are making me even more chubby.  So. Bikes it is.  I need to find a more comfortable seat, a helmet, and.... that's it.  :-)

Sis A is awesome.  She's adjusting to full-field nicely. She only has a bout 1.5 weeks left, then we're both in the VC for Christmas lights.  I'm super nervous. I'll be in zebra companionship (spanish/english) so that one of us can speak english (that's ME!) and the other spanish.  There are 9 "posts" and we rotate every hour.  And there's gonna be WAY too many people.  I'm really nervous. Ppl keep asking if I'm excited.  I keep telling them that I know I'm gonna be fine, but I'm not there yet. I won't be really ok with it until I've done it for a week or so.  But I know it will be fine and I'll love it. I'm just working to get to the point where I can say that honestly... I am being reminded of how much I  didn't like being the "greenie"... Lol.  Sis A is great though. She obviously wants me to love it just as much as I want her to love being full field. 

We only have 3 investigators. It's a family. They're solid and we tried setting a baptism date with them, but they didn't feel ready yet. We're hoping they won't wait longer than december.  They are so ready, but they also have a lot to learn. 

Ok. Love you all.  Write to me. Lynz, I got you letter. :-) I'm gonna try and squeeze in time to write a short letter to you today.

Loves

Me

A short One

Hey family,

This is a short one.

This week has been ok. I don't like change. My brain is always on a name-overload and moving to a new area doesn't help.. Lol I wish I had a whiteboard brain where I could just wipe out old info so I can fill it with the new. That would be way easier!

Mom- I got the package! THANKS SO MUCH!

Lynz- no letter yet, but it will probably get here soon. It gets sent to the mission office first, then to me so it takes an extra day or two.

Eric-  I've seen some of your wedding pictures. You're grinning so much I can't imagine how much your cheeks must have hurt that day. Lol. I'm glad you're happy.

Dad- I totally look at the same stars EVERY night. 

Love you all!

Sister Stephens

So..... What To Say.....

Hello, Family!

So...What to say....

This week was good.  My favorite part is watching the Randolph family act out BOM stories.  We've decided that the ward is going to be taking over the new member lessons, and we are going to focus on just teaching them stories and reading with them.   They're so funny.  They were acting out the story of Ammon and they had one of the boys pretend to be the dead arms.  It was so cute and absolutely HILARIOUS.  He started baaing like a sheep in the middle of it.  I love hearing them pray, too.  One of them thanked Heavenly Father for basketball courts.  Hehehe... It was cute.  Oh, and then last time we were there Taja came over to me and asked if I would come and sit on the floor with her so she could play dog.  I told her only if she would give me a hug.  She agreed. And I sat on the floor and "petted" her curly curly hair while we read the scriptures.  :-)

Today we played Lazer tag and went Mini-golfing.  It was fun but it wore me out.  Everyone else in the zone went on a hike, too. I apologized and told them that if I did that it would wipe me out for the rest of the week.  Thankfully SIster Kiernan really didn't want to go either. So we stayed home.  I want to go on the hike eventually. Just not while on my mission.  Our schedule is so demanding anyway that it doesn't even sound fun to go on hikes.  I'm already dead by the time I get home anyway!

So this week we have a record of running into nice drunk people.  It was SO funny.   We were standing outside having a lesson with this man named Chris outside of his house and we were just about to pray when I noticed this man walking up behind us.  He was coming to visit Chris, so I invited him to pray with us before we left.  He agreed to, and just as Sis Kiernan was about to pray, this man began to pray. It seemed like a very sincere prayer and very heartfelt. But he just reeked of alcohol.  THe cool thing is that he wasn't a member and he said the prayer perfectly.  He addressed God, thanked him for things, asked for forgiveness, and closed in the name of Christ.  It was very well done.  We wondered afterwards if he was less active, but when we asked if he was a member, he said no.

It's interesting how many people around her deny that they are members though.  For one reason or another, they just aren't active and when we talk to them they deny that they are members.  I am stilll trying to figure out why anyone would do that. I supposed there's lots of reasons, but none of them make sense to me.

Anyway...

TO the individuals:

Dad- I don't think I've heard from you for 2 weeks now.... :-(  Maybe I'm just remembering wrong.  But I miss your letters. No forgetting me now!  ;-)

Mom- I'm glad to hear that the letters will be in your/Dad's care soon.  You are welcome to open the box to look at them, just don't lose anything. Thanks! I love you!  There are Baptism programs and other random things throughout it, too.

Lynz- Missing your letters.... :-(  Oh, and the heart bracelet you made me has fallen off my wrist. I've worn it every day since you gave it to me-- almost a year! And I know you sent me the bracelet from salt lake, but I think I need another one handmade by you. ;-D  I like the colors blue and purple and white. Please? You don't have to make it those colors, but just so you know.  :-D

Eric- Missing your letters, too. About 3-4 people have said you were all grins and giggles at your wedding. Tell me about it, please!

Crystal- Thanks for sending me pictures! They are SO BEAUTIFUL!  I love them! and I wish I had a way to print them so I could put them on my study desk... But mom said she'll send some. So I just need to be patient.  But it looks like it was a lot of fun.

Ok family, I have to go now.  But I love you all! 

Love, Me

Such a HOOT!

Dearest Fam-bily,

Oh, where to start... 

The baptism on Saturday was amazing.  The Randolphs are so cute.  Jamal (the dad) is probably one of the most humble men I've ever met. He was all full of gratitude and just so happy.  He is a man of few words, so the words he does speak are powerful. ANd more than half of them are words of gratitude. He sent us a text yesterday that just said theank you in it.  It was sweet.  The kids were all great. They crack me up. Terrence and Tavante are so full of energy and are expert dancers.  Way cute. And their older sisters Damisha and Asura are so beautiful. They have a heavy load on their shoulders with no mother in the home, but they keep everything in good order and take really good care of the rest of the kids.  Taja is the baby. She's 4 and SUCH A HOOT!  Remember when Lynz used to run around and act like a dog when she was little? Well, Taja is the SAME EXACT WAY!  If you find that dog tail we gave lynz back in the day that tucks into the back of her pants, feel free to send it my way to pass on the love.  Taja would LOVE IT! HAhaha  sometimes the only way to get her to calm down is to convince her to lay down beside me while I scratch behind her ears.  Do you remember those days, Lynz?

It would be a lie to say that I didn't cry at all on Saturday that I couldn't be at the wedding. But I did well until about 5pm when I broke down.  That was because of a few things though. One of which was when an investigator bailed on us for an appointment. We were going to go to a baptism.  Mom, Remember the less active B family that you told me about where a member of the 70 went and met with them and then they became active and Sis B began investigating? Hehe Yup! Sis Tait's family!  I was totally going to be at the baptism but because our investigator bailed on us, I couldn't go.  I was pretty upset.  It didn't help that I'd been trying to not think about how I was missing Eric's wedding.  Anyway, send Sis Tait my love and tell her I really tried to be able to go. We spent an additional 20 minutes trying to get someone else to go at the last minute. 

Ok, so remember Dusti?  Well, another miracle happened this week with her. We had invited her to go and play softball on some church teams, and she said she was gonna come but she didn't show up.  So, we left the game and went to her house.  As it turns out, she had a really crummy day, and then we showed up!  That's the 2nd time that's happened.  She has a bad day, and we show up. Cool, huh?

Tomorrow is Zone Development Meeting. That also means interviews with President Ellsworth. I'm excited, except that it ALWAYS goes into my nap time and my nap schedule is off.  We got new floors in our apartment this week because our fridge leaked and messed up the floor. It was the perfect excuse though for Sis. Bawden to put in new floors that she's been wanting.  The only bad thing was naps were messed up because they weren't in consistant places at the same time. That's not so good, and rather frustrating.  I've learned though on my mission that what the doctors say about sleeping habits are true.  If I sleep at the same time everyday in the same place, then I sleep better and feel more refreshed when I have to wake up. I've learned I need to be kinda a stickler on making sure that happens consistantly. Some may call it selfish, but they get over it. I make sure I am patient about it though when explaining it so that they understand why it needs to be that way.  It's seems to be working fine and people do understand, I just get frustrated when they forget. It's usually only then that I really feel selfish because I begin to wonder if my priorities are messed up.  SO then I give in. And become a monster because I'm tired and frustrated and I later have to explain the reason I was acting that way.   But for the most part it's good. I try to be flexible in like a 30-45 minute time radius. I'm usually ok then.

TO the individuals:

Mom- I'm looking forward to the pictures!

Dad- I tried to convince my companions to support me in suggesting geocaching for a zone activity. To no avail.  :-(

Lynz- I need a letter from you. And if you want to write your testimony and send it to me to read to some girls like 11-13 years old, I would appreciate it.  It's for Damisha, Asura, and Sophia. Do it for a personal preogress thingy. It's gotta fit in there somewhere....

Erstal- Congrats on your new life together.  We can finally kick you out of the singles ward...err... I mean, have fun in the family ward! ;-D Love you both!  Hope to hear from you SOON!

Ok. That's about it. Love you lots.

Love, Sis Stephens

Hello!

Hi everyone!

Ok. SO I'm short on time today, BUT I have to tell you all how much I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!  I was so sad when it was over.  I could just sit there and listen to them ALL DAY!  I can't wait for the ensign to come out!

This week was AWESOME!  We had 11 investigators watch conference on Sunday and even more on Saturday.  This weekend is going to be amazing! A WHOLE FAMILY getting baptized, AND Eric getting MARRIED! What could be better than that?!  Well, it could get better than that. Like me being able to go to the wedding, but that's ok. The lord keeps reminding me that I'm where I'm supposed to be. Even though I tried to argue a little.

So. the mormon.org thing starts today!  Billboards, internet, tv, everything just FLOODED with Mormon.org.  SO COOL!  We're supposed to be getting time this week to be able to finish our profiles.  Have any of you made one yet? I promise I will have one.  I've started it, but I didn't have a good picture, plus limited internet access makes things difficult.

So obviously the work is going great.  It's still too hot here, but it's getting better.  I love you all!  MWAH!

Love, Sister Stephens

Transfers!

Hello, family!

We found out transfer news yesterday!  Haha... We accidentally slept through the phone call on Saturay night. It always comes so stinkin' late!  But we called the Elders right at 6:30am to find out what's happening. It was kinda amuzing to hear them answer the phone all groggy froggy sounding. Especially since Elder Nuku is Tongan and we, well, I can't ever understand anything he says on the phone. Lol. But the news is CRAZY!!!!!

So. Sister Kiernan and I are together for ANOTHER transfer. It's only our 3rd together, but this will be her 7th transfer! 10.5 MONTHS!!! Which means we'll also be sending Sis K home. But the twist comes in the form of area shifting and a second companion. Sister Naulu (she was in the MTC with me) is joining Sis K and I to make a trio. I am really excited about it, but I am struggling a little too.  I don't like trios.  My last trio was my first companionship which wasn't so hot.  I have this tendancy to end up being the third wheel and so I'm nervous about how this is going to be. I told Sis K that, so she is aware at least....  ANYWAY. The funny thing is that Sis N was with Sis Orton is the other half of our stake. So for a little while we thought they were combining our areas (9 wards! AH!) Then we found out they're not. BUT both of our areas are being split.  Some Elders who will be whitewashing are taking 3 of our wards, and 2 of Sis N and Sis O. We will be tking the other 4.  CRAZY! But Sis K and I were looking at the people that are in the wards that the elders are taking and elders will be SO GOOD for them!  I am actually REALLY excited.  I know there are people in those wards whose hearts the elders can touch.  I'm excited to see what happens.  A great comfort is that the two wards we're keeping from our area are the two wards with the most work. hehehe....  So. Transfers will be great. And Sis O is going to Sis Robinson (she was my companion in my first trio) in Scottsdale. 

Oh the excitement that comes with CHANGE!

So I have to tell you! In one of the wards that the elders are taking over, there is a lady who is 101 years old being taught!  SO COOL!  Her name is Iddy.  And she's getting baptized this weekend. We get to sing at the baptism. :-)  She asked her caregiver for an application to be mormon. So cute!

Akio is still on for baptism on Oct 22. And the 11 yr old boy that we're teaching is still getting baptized this weekend.  We're excited for it!

Mom- I remember the Ironyas. I went to his funeral. I don't know them personally really, but what a cool experience for their family!  Did you give Brian my card? Hehehe....  And you saw Ross Viens? Wow. I haven't heard his name for what seems like AGES!  I'm so glad to hear he is active and married and happy.  Wow!

Dad- It sounds like the work is AWESOME at home!  Tell me about the people that are being taught.  I want to hear stories, too!  I miss stargazing!  I don't know how it constituted daddy-daughter dates either when I ran in to get warm, but hey! They're fond memories! hehehe...

Eric- I got the announcement this week!  YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!  I love you lots.  I'm really excited that you're getting married. Don't forget to send me pictures!  I might die if you don't.  Oh and someone suggested you could print a life sized picture of my head to hold up in the pictures.  Just passing the word along....

Crystal- Ask Eric if you can read the letter I gave to him before I entered the MTC. It has the story in it of how I decided to come on a mission.  I can just imagine you and Eric playing Monopoly Deal. Monopoly is his favorite game in the world. Well, it used to be at least. but no one would play it with him because it takes FOREVER and because he always wins.  Maybe he was cheating in that game, too... hahaha..  Hey what is your address...and/or soon to be address. I might have more time to handwrite letters... 

Lynz- I'll be watching for that letter!  Have you gone out with the sisters lately?  I LOVE YOU!!! And i'm hoping to send a journal home soon.  ;-)  I don't know how soon, but soon.

ok. i got to go. I love you all!  X's and O's all around!

Love, me

 So, I made this list of things to write about in my planner....and I forgot my planner...lol.  That seems to happen a lot. I hope I can remember my grocery list... :-P 

Hmmm... Ok. So before I forget- Deon, I talked to Sister Rosendahl about the Bs. :-D  She said they were asking about me and if they could meet me. Lol. Sis R to told them I'd try and be at the baptism. Haha... I told Sis R that I tried sending the elders to go see them when I was in that neck of the woods. I don't know if they ever did. But it doesn't matter anyway. Because Sis R said that it was when one of the 70 came that touched their hearts.  Oh, and just in case you're wondering, when I served in Mesa East Stake, we didn't cover the 61st ward.  That's a new development. Otherwise I would have gone to see them... So yeah. Thought you would want to know all of that.

Ok. This week we got 2 baptismal dates.  One for this month and one for next.  The one this month is a 10 year old boy.

 The other baptism we have coming up in October is for Akio. He's a japanese man who was given a BOM in Japan when he was 8-ish.  Fast forward 30 years and you find him an immigrated citizen of the USA.  When he left Japan, he brought 2 books with him.  A bible and the BOM. He's married to a member now and has two cute kids. He is what we call an eternal investigator because he's been investigating the church for about 5 years. We are so excited to finally be able to see him get baptized. In our lesson with him, we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and he just kinda said it out of nowhere. "Yeah. I think it's time that I get baptized. i was thinking next month. Is that ok?" I almost asked him to repeat what he said.  I wasn't sure I heard correctly. Lol.  So I asked him when next month and he said he was thinking the 22nd.  Sister Kiernan was crying. Our ward mission leader kept saying how great it was. And I sat there thinking "Did he just say what I think I heard?". You know. kinda like what everyone's reactions were when Danny announced out of nowhere that he was getting married.... Lol. I had the same reaction then.

So that's the best news.

Other than that, this week has been good. Sophia Diperi (Jono's sister) came to church again. And she's reading the BOM every night. It's cute. She almost runs to primary every week.  We hope that her parents will let her get baptized.  We told her that once she has a strong testimony and can tell her parents her tesimony, that will help soften their hearts.  I don't think Karen's heart is as hard as the Dad's, but we need to work on him a little more.

Mom- Did you watch Jane Clayson Johnson's profile? She and Norman Tolk are my favorite!

Dad- It's good to hear this are getting back to normal. I'll try to send a little of this sun your way.  But only if you try to send some of the fall colors...

Lynz- A cow?  You dressed up like a cow?  I gotta see this! I bet seminary is a blast.  Mike Wheeler is quite a teacher!  Tell me EVERYTHING that you learn. no joke. Everything! 

That's about it. i should probably write to President now.

I love you all. hugs all around!

Love, me

Sounds Like Things Have Been Crazy!

Hi Family!

Wow! Sounds like things have been crazy! I'm glad you all have your power back. 8 days.  Wow.  I think I would die without air conditioning here.... Lol.  Someone told us it's fall now and I couldn't believe them. We're still in the 90-100 or more. There's no way it's fall yet.  Thankfully, we don't do a lot of tracting.  Thank heaven we have members to help us find!  It's way more effective to talk to the members anyway...

So this week has been eventful.  We have still been struggling with people bailing on lessons, so we're gonna have to do some re-evaluating, but all is well.  Know why?! Because the huge Media Blitz that happened in NYC is happeneing HERE!!!! AHHH!!! It's gonna be awesome! The way that it's gonna work is on October 3rd, it's gonna hit.  For the first month there will be billboards, tv commercials on prime time tv, taxi cabs (well, they were on cabs in NYC. There's not a whole lot of cabs here) but there's just gonna be all of these ads done by the church. Guess what they'll say?! MORMON.ORG And on TV they'll be the "I'm _(name)_. I'm a ________. I'm a ________. And i am a mormon" commercials. They're the ones you can watch on Mormon.org.  So. The first month, the area is going to be FLOODED by these ads. Then, over the next 5 months it will slow down and kinda die off.  But the purpose is to dispel myths about the church and to show everyone that we are normal people, without horns and tails. In the first 9 areas that the church did this in, statisitics said 50% of adults were asked what the church is doing, while 100% of the youth were asked the same question.  But the biggest flaw in the first 9 areas was that the church didn't informs it's members and the missionaries.  So. Test run over. Part 2 is about to begin and in every ward, we are having combined meetings to explain what is going on and why the church is doing it.  SO COOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!!!  The work is gonna EXPLODE!  This is like THE PERFECT way to present missionary opportunites.  No effort on the part of the members except to know how to answer what is is going on and to be prepared to answer questions.  HAVE I MENTIONED THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!?!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!!? I can't wait!  You can learn more at boncom.com/mormon or something like that. It's the church's official communication thing.  Bonville communications.  Or something to that affect.

Ok. Other happiness. Ready for this?  Sister Kiernan and I got to go to a private concert with Alex Boye and Clyde Bawden (Who is our WML)!  It was SO GOOD. It's was at Bor. Bawden's house (where we live). And we could go because there were people there that we're trying to teach and get to know.  Less actives. etc.  We tired to get an investigator there, to no avail. And the night before we got to go meet Alex personally and we had this awesome discussion about the work and what it means to be members of the church. He has so much energy!  And such a passion for the gospel. I thought "No wonder people like him!  He's on a spiritual high 24/7."  So inspirational. and genuine.  I asked him on the first night if Sister Keirnan could sing a song with him, and he said that he would sing with her the next night.  So, after the concert, as people were getting ready to go, I reminded him and he jumped on it.  They sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" and afterwards I told her that now when she gets discouraged with school (she's going into music ed) she can remember that she sand with Alex Boye. She told me afterward that she had a ew respect for him because he "went down to her level", which i think is untrue in the way that she is amazing and while she is a bit more timid and shy at first, she's got talent.  She's also out of practice since being on the mission.  So. yeah. But she said that she noticed he would not over power her voice and if she had sung louder and "for the camera", he would have also.  So that shows the great amount of humility he has. And it was really cool to be able to act on behalf of my companion to ask Alex (she was too nervous to) and Bro. Bawden to sing/play with her and to be able to give her that "gift".  Her reaction after we got home was worth it. She was so happy and so excited.  Oh, I'll have to have ask Sis. Bawden to send a picture of us with Alex....

Ok. That's about it. I need to write to president still...  Love you all! I'm glad everyone is ok!

Love, me

Hola!

An earthquake. A hurricane. two short emails from dad. Details, people. Details!  I mean I know everyone is ok. But this is killing me. it's all I've been hearing about it all week!

Ok.Ok. I know patience is a virtue and that you don't exactly have any electricity. Which makes emailing hard. But just know that this is driving me nuts! At almost every dinner appointment this week I've been told about natural disasters that are happening about an hour from home.   What the JUNK?! So. Damage? Anything broken? Did Lynz crack her head open? Hehe. JK. how bad was the damage on the temple? Is everyone in the ward ok?  Did you feel the earthquake?  Did you dance in the Tropical Storm? or was it a not-so-tropical storm that wasn't safe to sit in the doorway to watch?

Ok. I suppose I can wait another week to find out what's going on...

So this week was pretty crummy as far as numbers go...  We had lessons planned but they slipped through our fingers. Excuses for cancellations-- colleges starting up and families getting their kids ready to head off, so no time for us... Or having to fire employees, which means less time for us... or not calling us back...yaddah yaddah yaddah. It's ok though. We've been meeting a lot of members and we've been sharing miracles with them to encourage them to do missionary work, and we've been asking about their own experiences.  it's been great to see what kind of work is going on in our wards.  It is growing a TON! And we're looking forward to a much better week this week. And LOTS of MIRACLES!

On an interesting note more than anything, last night we got to go and meet Brother and Sister Flake. Bro. Flake happens to be a congressman. Coolio, right?  He's running for Senate come spring, I think.

Also, our ward mission leader got to go to Israel to support the Jews for this big something or other with Glen Beck going on. Brother Clyde Bawden is a professional pianist, that accompanies big shots like Alex Boyle.  Way cool.  It was actually with Alex that he went to Israel.  You can probably google it or something to watch videos on it.  And our other Ward mission leader is the owner of the construction tractor company CAT.  So that's odd to think about... That I'm working with people like this, I mean.

So one reason why I bring this up, is because I'm learning so much about what it is to be humble.  It's so interesting to see these people who are so prominent in society, yet they will be right there whenever you need them.  They are just so amazing and it has been such a blessing to recognize that God is literally not a respector of persons.  He loves all of us and wants all of us to return to Him.  While my area is very wealthy, it is so neat to be able to see these people not labeled members of society, but as children of God.  All of the sudden "congressmen", "lawyer", "surgeon", etc. mean nothing, next to "brother" and "sister".  Because we are all working to keep the commandments and bring souls to Christ. And that's how it should be!

Anyway, I love it!

I better go. I hope all is well. Hugs and Kisses from AZ! The church is TRUE

Love, Me