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