Week 13

Hello to all! It was so great to read your emails today! I just love hearing how you are all doing. I love you all so much! Meag I can't believe you won the WII! That is so great! Thanks for filling in for me! We are 3 for 3 at the banquet! YAY for us! Thank you so much for the little photo album! I was so excited to get it! I only got mail 2 times this week so it was well appreciated! I love the pictures and I just can't believe how much I miss and love you! So this week has been pretty good. It seems like we have been pretty busy as usual. I have been extra tired this week cause we did service and boy was it a workout! This family is moving and bless their hearts they had more on their hands than they could handle. There is only a mom and a daughter and a whole house to clean out. I have never seen so much stuff! Mom if you thought our house was cluttered, I promise this one had more. The daughters room was covered with garbage, empty pizza boxes, papers everywhere. It was like a foot deep. She hasn't slept in her room for over a year. I promise to keep my room clean for the rest of my life and yes you can hold me to it! We hauled many bags of trash out and we only did one room. We packed up her mom's room who died about a year and a half ago of brain cancer. She collected everything at the end of her life so there was stuff everywhere! It felt great to be able to help someone. You could tell that she was so grateful. The elders came and helped load the truck yesterday which made her and the driver grateful for the extra hands. I just love helping people! It is so great for everyone involved! One day when we were cleaning out stuff we found these tablets that form into dinosaurs when you soak them in the water. We saw them and said we need to give these to the elders. So we did and yesterday we asked if they had done it yet and they said they didthe other night. Elder Anderson said "I'm not going to lie, it was pretty fun. It was fun to watch them to see which one start going." It was great. I just love those elders. Yesterday we went to the Kavea's and Brother Kavea gave me my tiki that he carved for me! It is so cool! I am sending pictures home of it today. I will treasure it for the rest of my life! Their family is so great! They are the ward mission leaders and a great strength to the missionary work. Next week he is making Tongan food for us but his wife made him promise no dog or horse so hopefully I won't have to eat that. The elders had a baptism on Sunday. It was Brother Kavea's grandson. He is a cute kid. It is so fun to see these little hearts changed. I just love seeing people change and come unto Christ. This week we met a man named Omar and his wife Marcella. He told us that he knew that they needed to get baptized. We are excited to teach them! We are also teaching a lady named Rosa. We went over there yesterday and she said that she had prayed and read in the Book of Mormon. We are hopeful that she will continue to progress. We were teaching Mireya last night and talked about Lehi's vision. We were going to teach her the 2nd lesson but she was confused about the Book of Mormon so we read from there instead. She said something in Spanish and I responded before Hermana Colwell and she said to me english, you understood! YAY! It is coming! I think I know a lot more than I give myself credit for but I still struggle. Little by little. So this is the last week of the transfer! Have I really been here 6 weeks already? The time in the field goes so much faster than the MTC. Holy Cow! We are babysitting one of the sisters today so her companion who is going home next week could go to the temple with the Sexton's. It is fun to get to know the other sisters. Sister Hart is the last sister to come out before me and she came out in like January. They went through a big dry spell so they were extra exicted to get me! I think there are 5 sisters leaving in the next 5 months and then I will be the 2nd oldest sister! Crazy! We are running low on the hermanas out here! Sister Miller wrote us this week(she was the sister I replaced) and she made us trunky calendars! So funny. I now have the remainder of my mission pocket size on an index card. I marked all of the transfers so I will either come home the 29th of December or the 9th of February. Unless for some reason I get extended but that is a long ways away. So now you know when I could come home. It seems so close but yet so far. I know it fly so I am going to enjoy every minute of it. So things are pretty good. We didn't have any funny door approaches or anything but we did have one that made me way nervous. Politics are pretty heavy out here right now, hmmm...I wonder why? Anyway we haven't really run into many problems until we met this one guy. We were supposed to be going to an appointment at a house but there were a bunch of people out front and it was kind of awkward. So we contacted one of the guys standing out front and he did not like us. He told us that we were taking away the rights of people he holds dear and to leave because the church is supporting propostion 8(which is to stop gay marriage). Hermana Colwell tried to be respectful and leave on a positive note but he said that he could spit on us. Hermana Colwell wanted a good story and I wanted to leave. I have never been so nervous. Nothing crazy happened but it was very uncomfortable and I didn't like. I hope that he is not the husband of the lady we didn't teach cause we are going back to her house. I can only imagine what would happen if he answered the door. We would get spit on for sure this time! I will be grateful when elections are over. I am really grateful that we are not involved in everything right now. It is so nice to be in the world but of the world. I hear about everything sometimes and I just want to cry because of how crazy and wicked the world is becoming. That's why it is so important for us to prepare for that which lies ahead. We need to read our scriptures and constantly pray and build that firm foundation so we stand immovable when tragdey hits. I am so grateful for the hope that we find in Christ and in his gospel. I so grateful to know that have the truth and that we know that the best is yet to come. I am amazed at how much I learn everyday. I am working to finish the Book of Mormon 2 more times before the year ends. Once in Spanish and once in english. As I read the Book of Mormon I am looking for teaching skills that will help me as a missionary. I am so amazed at much is in there. It really is applicable to every situation you just have to look. I know that as I continue to read the Book of Mormon I will find what I need to learn to help me and to help those around me. Sometimes in companion study we will prepare a lesson for someone and find scriptures to share with a specific person but then we won't even share them with that person. We share them at a different time and place then we were expecting. We never who the Lord is preparing us for and how grateful we can be when we have read those passages to help us help someone else. We must always be prepared so we don't let those moments pass us by. I love you all so much and miss you so much! I couldn't do this without your love and support! I am so grateful for the best family! You really are the greatest blessing anyone could ask for! Thank you and know that I love you more than I can express!