Aloha

Hello,

So tomorrow we get a toaster in our apartment..A TOASTER!!! I have never been so excited. Do you know what this means? Toaster Struddle for breakfast. Hallaa!!!!!

That is one thing I have noticed on my mission. The little things. Be grateful for the little things...like toasters. And fans to keep the mold out of your bathroom, and the time you get in the bathroom. It is nice to be away from your companion for 10min so you can take a shower hahahaha.

We had zone meeting (my first one!) this week. It was way good, man everything that was said I was like yep that was for me..that too...and that.. hahah so great! I love meetings, they are probably one of my favorite things.  Plus sometimes I get to go to Washington and that is always a plus.

Mom/Michele, I have forgotten so many times to tell you this, but I have gotten lots of compliments on my skirts :-)

At night, or during study or in the shower..it is pretty annoying. You can't focus because you are going through little role plays in your head..geez. You know you're a missionary when that is one of your main thoughts..how would I explain this to someone? How would I answer this question? I don't sleep at night!! hahahah

The ward here - Rocky Butte, we are trying to get them to be involved in missionary work. Well...we see some progress, but not much, it is slow.  So let me just tell you. i am now experiencing what it is like to be a missionary, and to DESPERATLY need the help of the members.  In Preach My Gospel (PMG) it tells us to be a blessing and not a burden to the bishop, well members, please be a blessing and not a burden to the missionaries! haha. This blessing not a burden rule goes for everyone.  Members don't want to come out with us, they don't want to talk to our investigators. We had a relief society picnic thing where one of our investigators - Stephanie, came. NO ONE talked to her. I was like WHAT THE FLIP?!?!?! umm hello? um hi? (Anna you will get that :-D )  There were like 2 members that were actively talking to her and then our relief society president was just like oh hey. I was so disappointed. We introduced her to people, and we told people AHEAD of time that she would be there. SO disappointed. Members, after the investigator is a member it is YOUR JOB to help them feel welcome and included so they STAY ACTIVE. Also, the missionaries ASSIST the bishop as he ASSISTS us as we ASSIST.  The members so on and so forth, we are all ASSISTING each other, not all dumping our jobs on the missionaries. no. it is not MY job as a FULL TIME missionary to go out with your entire ward list and find out where the ward is at. No. I go out and teach less actives, it is your job to find them, and to INVITE them, SO MUCH POWER AND SUCCESS happens when the members work with the missionaries!!!!!!! I have already talked to some people that said if the missionaries came knocking at their door, they would have said no, but because their nice member friend invited them to meet with the missionaries, it wasn't so weird or scary.. Don't know how to invite your friends to meet with the missionaries? ASK THE MISSIONARIES...THEY CAN HELP!!!!!!  Rant over. Wait not it's not.  EVERYONE is a missionary, EVERYONE is capable of doing missionary work, even if you served a mission, your mission is not over, there is always work to do, always a soul to help and save. Sometimes they need a friend not a full time missionary, sometimes they need YOU. And ONLY YOU. Sometimes you are the only person who can touch them.  I promise you, PROMISE, if you pray for opportunities to share the gospel, you will get them. Open your mouth, don't be afraid to speak (D&C 30:11) who cares what they think!! you will be blessed even if they don't accept the invitation. the lord won't be like "oh. They declined, no blessings for you." no! You put forth the effort to do his work OF COURSE you will be blessed!!! Open your mouth!! Just be an example, be a friend!  I promise you the lord needs you, every single one of you, you are all so important. one of our favorite quotes here in the mission is "GOD DOES NOT DO RANDOM" everything has a purpose, everything has reason.  You know the people you know for a reason. You were put in their life and them in yours for a reason.  Go forth and serve! Ok NOW rant over. :)

It is pretty cool seeing how the spirit works, there are times when I really just don't know what to say, and my companion looks at me and I'm like-crap. hahahah but I just start talking and something cool comes out! hahah So many times I have already seen that.  plus gosh the investigators we have now, still not progressing, and we are like okay, what the flip does this person need?!?!?!?  When we don't know, we make a plan anyway, we go in there and it is so cool how the spirit will use what you have and direct it to something grand.  We just listen to our investigators; they tell us what they need. Just listen.  Then the spirit is like AHHHHH!!! That!!! Talk about that!! we had that experience recently, we are teaching a woman named Mary Lisa, love her so much, we were going to talk about prayer and we ended up talking about how to recognize the spirit, I don't know how but it flowed so perfectly.  I mean yeah they are kinda related, but just the way it happened I was like there is no way we could have done that on our own. That was like PRO-FESH! hahah

Time on your mission does not make sense. the days feel like weeks the weeks feel like days...the weekends feel like eternity. However there is a scripture (i can't remember it off the top of my head) but it says that this is all basically one day to god and time is only measured by man.. According to Sister LeBaron, since we are on the lord's time here...hahhahaha

@Alicia, thanks for the necklace :) I have worn it every day and lots of people are like oooo I love your necklace and I say ohhh shanks..my seester gives it to me :-) (Okay I don't say it like that...)

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else. So that is is for now!!

Love ya lots!

Ok so the story with the two elders real fast while I still have wifi,
that was from zone meeting,  they talked about being yourself and how
important it is because god called YOU. so they said how they got
talking to someone that really like pd super Herod and that was their
connection, so at the end they were like just be you and so will we,
and they RIPPED their shirts open hahaha it was like wow. Okay but we
all couldn't help but laugh. The one with batman is elder Jackson our
district leader. The other one is elder Speer. Ok bye!!