Holidays in Holladay!!

New planners! Staying together another transfer

HAPPY HOLLADAY! Happy Thanksgiving, from Holladay, Utah! It is official that I will be here for at least 6 more weeks, which means that I will be here to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! I want to keep saying puns about Holladay and the holidays, but I think you get it.

There is so much to update you on! An eventful week and a half, in fact! Here we go...

November 18, Monday: Sister Talbert went to the doctor on exchanges with our mission president's wife, Sister Eberhardt. I went with Sister Giguire (who I did Extreme Street Contacting in SLC with) and her companion. We went shopping, and I bought some much needed winter tops. That evening, Sister Talbert and I ended Pday early and went to dinner with one of our Less-Actives, who has been coming to church the past couple of weeks. She is so sweet! She took us to Cafe Rio, and we sat and talked for almost 2 hours! 

19, Tuesday: Rainy day. Sister Talbert and I made a few GIANT thank-you cards for some very helpful members and delivered them. We were still on foot, so Sister Talbert protected the cards inside of her coat and had a very flat stomach. 

That night, the phone rang and on the other end, a voice said, "Hello Sister Wall, this is Moroni." I thought it might be an elder playing a prank (because I always say "I'm going to kill you like Moroni), but it was actually a man in the 2nd ward named Moroni! He told us how much he loved our talks in his ward and how they inspired him and his roommate to do missionary work! He told us about some potential investigators, and we were very excited to hear about them!

20, Wednesday: Our investigator tried to cancel our lesson and we asked what she was doing. She and her husband have a calling in the church to clean & set up chairs, so she said they would be doing that. I asked if we could help, she said No, and I said, "Too bad, we'll see you in a minute!" and we met them at the church. We helped set up chairs and then had a lesson by the baptismal font. She saying that she was expecting the bishop to walk in any minute and baptize her. 

Later, we had a lesson with a young boy who is a recent convert and the primary president came with us. The lesson was short and we had some time before dinner, so we asked her if she knew anyone that we could visit. She took us to a woman who she visit teaches and it went so well! The Primary President was so impressed with us and told us that she couldn't believe the woman let us share a spiritual thought! I love strengthening the faith of the members!

And after our dinner appointment, we did the same thing with the mother of the family we ate with. She seemed hesitant at first, and asked if she could go buy cookies first. haha. She said if she had something to give them that she would feel more comfortable! So we ran to the store with her very quickly and then made visits... They went so well!! We visited a few homes and got in & even scheduled a service for one of the women. Afterwards, the member was so happy & excited & couldn't wait to take us to more people that she knows! 

21, Thursday: Sister Talbert and I went on exchanges. She stayed in our area with Sister Mahterian and I went to the Monument Park stake with Sister Orellana. She took me to some appointments that went well. We visited one investigator who she said was pretty tough. They have been meeting with him, but he's stubborn, and I thought, Perfect! We visited with him on his doorstep and we had a really good conversation! We invited him to go to church and I really hope that he went! 

Afterwards, Sister Orellana took me to lunch at Subway and then we went to this adorable bakery, The Sweet Tooth Fairy! 

Exchanges & the Sweet Tooth Fairy bakery

We exchanged back and I went with Sister Talbert to Sister Diederich's house. We had a beautiful celebration for Eva, our investigator who had been smoke free for a whole week!

Eva! Non-smoker celebration!

We ate brownies, watched Mormon Messages, and I danced inside because I just love that woman!!

22, Friday: Getting frustrated with members who don't want to be missionaries. Repenting. Oops.

23, Saturday: We went to a Super Saturday activity with our landlady, Cecy!

Home-made hair bows!

Tshering was there and a lot of women who we love. Sister Talbert and I made headbands, and the wonderful Relief Society president bought them for us! And we got a phonecall from the Assistant to the President, saying, "We have a surprise for you... You're getting a car!" and I said, "Elder, if you're lying to me, I'm going to kill you," and he said, "No seriously, you're getting a car!" And i jumped up and down and hugged Sister Talbert and all of the women at Super Saturday were clapping for us! haha.

Celebrating our new Jeep Compass

Later, we went to a lesson with Eva and her husband, who is getting active in the church. The bishop talked to Charles and Charles is getting the priesthood to baptize Eva on Saturday!! Woohooo!! 

That night, we went to the adult session of Stake Conference. Elder Nash of the 70 and Elder Evans of the area 70 were there. It was so wonderful. They came up to us and said they had heard a lot of good things about us. The entire conference, no exaggeration, every speaker included very kind words about Sister Talbert and I! We are so loved in this stake! It's amazing! 

24, Sunday: Stake Conference. We sat with Bishop and Sister Jones and Eva & Charles. They had this amazing live symphony and choir! That night, Sister Talbert wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home with Cecy and I went out with one of our ward missionaries, Sister Evans. We found 2 new investigators!! Yayy!!

25, Monday: We got transfer information. We are staying! Half Pday, sorry I didn't write any emails! Sister Talbert and I got MUCH NEEDED haircuts. She got her hair cut in half! Mine was only cut about 2 inches.

Then, we went to Temple Square with Eva and Charles and the Ward mission leader and his wife, Brother and Sister Colemere.

          Eva & Charles

It was so so wonderful!! I love, absolutely love the Christus statue!

          Christus with Eva

Eva felt the Spirit very strong in that room. She said, "This is so nice. It feels weird!" haha.

Later, I got a package from home!! yayay! Included was a little mirror with the SLC temple on it, a Gratitude journal, a little flower, and JuJu coins!! My favooorite! I love my family!

That night, we visited this referral for a part-member family. The mother is a member, but the father, son, and daughter are not. When we went, the teenage boy answered the door and the dad and sister were at the table. We started to talk to them and the dad was super nice, but the kids didn't speak. The boy was kind of behind the door, but right beside the door was a picture, where I could see the reflection of the boy turned towards his dad. He was shaking his head no and saying No. I said to him, "I can totally SEE YOU in the reflection!" 

26, Tuesday: We got a call from a Wyoming number. Sister Talbert answered it and the voice asked for me. I got on the phone and heard, "Ramona!" ..It was my old district leader from Park City, Elder Simon! They are serving in Wyoming and need the Jeep more than we do, so we went to the mission office to switch vehicles with them. We got their Chevy Cruise, and they got our brand new Jeep! We switched all of our things but every time we left, we forgot something we left in the Jeep! We left and came back THREE times! haha. It was so ridiculous. But it was soo good to see a lot of my friends who were at the mission office being transferred. 

That evening, we went to this family of members. They called and asked us to help them with missionary work!! I LOVE THAT! The Spirit prompted me to extend a challenge that I never have before. I asked them to make 3 invitations of any kind: i.e. come to church, read BOM, meet with missionaries, etc. AND I asked them to make invitations until they heard 2 "No"s. The wife was so so excited and said it was the perfect challenge for her, because she would look forward to getting No's rather than scared of them. I love the Spirit!

That night, we went to our investigators, the two girls, and we painted Prayer Rocks with them so that they can remember to pray! 

                          Prayer rocks

And FINALLY, yesterday, 27, Wednesday: Eva had her baptismal interview!!! We took her to the stake center and let her see the baptismal font. It went really well. She passed with flying colors. I am so excited for her baptism on Saturday!!

Also, Sister Talbert and I made this adorable Gospel of Jesus Christ layout for our lesson. Sister Talbert made the Kindgom, and I made everything else.

                  Gospel of Jesus Christ

I am obsessed with crafting! We do it every time we get a chance! Cecy has an entire craft room that she lets us use, so I've been going crazy! Our visual aids are getting progressively more cute.

Well, that's my week and a half. I'm exhausted even just writing about it! This morning, Cecy made Sister Talbert and I some Mickey Mouse waffles and delicious smoothies!

                    Mickey waffle!

We are going to our Bishops house a little later, and then dinner with Cecy and some members in her ward. Love you all!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanks to the WONDERFUL members of Holladay, Utah

Ohh what a beautiful Monday! There is no snow on the ground, we have TONS of treats (thanks to the WONDERFUL members of Holladay, Utah), and it is Pday! 

I don't know how much information I've included about our home or the area, so I want to include a few things to help you understand how blessed I am! 

Our landlady, Cecy, is borderline offended when we buy our own food. She is from Chile and is very generous. She vacuums our room, makes us meals, and encourages us to take a Vitamin-C every day. She's basically our nanny.

The members are really lovely. We honestly have at least 4 types of cookies at home, as well as cupcakes, a caramel apple or two, a bowl full of fortune cookies, a bag full of candy, many chocolates, and a box full of pie. We end up sharing so many of our desserts with people who we teach, but the more we give, the more we receive! Don't judge me if I am super large when I come home. 

We have been so blessed to receive winter things, rides to our meetings and appointments, notes of encouragement, photos of my companion and I sent to my mom, waves on the street, free Apollo burger every Wednesday, dinner almost every night excluding Mondays, and so much more! From time to time, I feel guilty and attempt to not accept these favors, but the members are so generous and wonderful. It's like that song, "Enoch was a prophet; he taught what was good. People in his city did just what they should. When they were so righteous that there was no sin, Heavenly Father took them up to live with him." 

So.. About our week!

Tuesday: Sister Talbert and I went to the home of a part member family. A member at church came up to me after bearing my testimony and told me that I NEEDED to visit her neighbor because I look "exactly like his daughter." So we went and knocked on the door. He let us right in and then I explained about his neighbor. He said, "You DO look like my daughter!" We talked for a while about the Book of Mormon and he said he would consider reading it. I said, "Well, what does that mean?" and he said, "It means that I will consider it!" haha. We kept talking and while I was in the middle of a sentence, he stopped me and told me that I will be the first woman to be an LDS bishop! hahah

The highlight of Tuesday was our Stake Bishopric Council. We met with all 5 bishops, their counselors, all 5 ward mission leaders, and the Stake Presidency. It was so empowering to be surrounded by these worthy Priesthood holders. They talked about us like we were the Queens of the world or something! One after another, they shared experiences they had witnessed or stories they had heard about us. They were so complimentary and just the best! The Stake President is very missionary minded and asked every single person in the room to pray for us by name in EVERY PRAYER! He said, "and that even includes the prayer over the Cheerios." 

Wednesday: We went over the Plan of Salvation with one of our tough-cookie investigators. She asked questions all along the way, but we referenced the Bible for every doctrine we taught and she seemed to approve. 

We had dinner with this family and they had the funniest little four-year-old. I wanted to put him in a box and write down everything he said! At one point, I said, "Chill out!" and he said, "You chill out!" and I said, "You chill out!" and very calmly he said, "No, let's both chill out."

That night, we went to a senior dinner. Everyone offered us dinner and wanted us to eat so bad! They kept putting plates in front of us and then came out with 3 boxes full of food for us to take home. Ahhhh! We watched them all play Bingo. We sat at the table with the Bishop and his family. He was so competitive and we all were laughing so hard!

Thursday: Ahhh, I was having back problems and wished I could see my good ole pal, Brother Passey! The elders came over to give me a Priesthood blessing and the zone leader, Elder Clark, gave me a blessing to be healed by the next morning. Well, since then, I haven't been hurting! Miracle!

That night we had an AMAZING lesson at the Diedrich's home. We started the Stop Smoking Program with our investigator and she was very willing. She has such sincere desires to stop!! The Diedrichs are awesome and bought all of the little supplies such as grapefruit juice, cinnamon mouthwash, fresh fruits, etc. Sister Diedrich went crazy on Pinterest and printed out all of these adorable signs with motivational saying for our investigator to hang around her house! 

Friday: We went tracting as a zone. We went on exchanges again, and this time I was with Sister Day. We didn't have any success because it was the middle of the day and only 2 people were home. Both of them were on drugs. Eesh.. Also, I knocked on one door and accidentally pushed it open! Woops. 

We went to dinner with some members.

We went to a Chinese food restaurant and the waitress was so funny. The dad told her to "Fill us" and she brought out all of these vegetarian foods that we could all eat! At the end, she kept piling food on our plates, even after we were all full. I started to talk to her about the church and she said to me, "You are so nice! Your companion, not as nice as you!" 

We went to Tshering's for a lesson and she is so great. She could basically teach us the entire Plan of Salvation. I asked if she had any questions and she said, "Yes, it's about the meat again." haha. She always wants to talk about eating animals! We told her that it's okay to be vegetarian and she says that she feels like God doesn't want her just to be vegetarian, but to convince other people to stop eating animals. I said, "Tshering! You can't just tell people what to do before you even do it!" hahha. She went on and on, asking me questions. I told her that I eat eggs and she chastised me, but I said, "Hey Tshering! You can't tell me not to eat eggs while you aren't even vegetarian!" She's so cute.

That night, we stopped at a single sister's house to get warm. She invited us in and told us all about her 3 kids who are less active. She was so so sweet. She reminded me a lot of my mom when she talked about her children and I hugged her and said, "I'm sorry, mom!!!" 

Saturday: Cold day!! Freezing. We still are on foot. Our stake is too uphill to ride our bikes, so we walk mostly. Sometimes we get rides when we have appointments, but we do a lot of walking. 

We walked to our investigator's house, who is trying to stop smoking. She had all of her signs up around the house. It was so cute! One of the Emergency Procedures to stop smoking is to drink raw grapefruit juice when you get a craving. So during the entire lesson, she was taking shots of juice! hahaha. She is supposed to keep herself busy to keep her mind off of it, so she went out and bought a ton of yarn and started crocheting. I am so proud of her!

Sunday: Sister Talbert and I spoke in one ward, taught a youth Sunday school lesson in another, and attended Relief Society in a ANOTHER ward. We went to two ward councils. Sundays are NOT days of rest in the mission field. They are so exhausting! Sister Aldous, the young women's president in the 10th ward, is an absolute ANGEL and made us brown paperbag lunches! So so sweet. 

Our talks in the 3rd ward went really well! One lady came up to me at the end of the meeting and handed me a little note. It was so sweet. She wrote about how grateful she is for me sharing my light :) 

And when we got home, our landlady and I were alone in the kitchen and she told me how much she liked my talk. I thanked her and she said, "No..Sister.. You have a very powerful testimony!"  

That night, I got a feeling to call Madeline, our friend who is putting her mission papers in at the end of the month. She sounded sad and I asked if she was okay. She said she was fine and I said, "You don't souuuund okay," and she said, "I'm not okay." So we went over there to talk to her and I hugged her and she started crying on my shoulder. She said that she was having a bad day and that she was sitting on her bed and started to cry, but that her phone rang and it was us calling! AHH! I absolutely LOVE the Spirit and how it directs us where we need to be! 

I heard part of an Elder Holland talk yesterday at church, and today I printed it to read. One line that sticks out to me is when he says, "There is a sheepfold and we are all supposed to be in it." I love this work. I love being the shepherd leading the sheep to our ultimate example, the Savior, our Good Shepherd. 

Love you all! Also, Happy birthday, Sister Summerhays! 

I love member missionaries!

Happy Veteran's Day!

It has been an eventful, long, forgetful week! I lost 2 of my nametags, but I found one of them! Woo hoo! Here are some things that happened this week:

Monday: Brother Smith gave us a ton of chocolate from his shop. And some journals and stationary and things! I love the Smiths!

I got Shane's email from the MTC! I am so excited for him! 

Sister Talbert needed winter boots, so we went to Sugarhouse with a member and her daughter-in-law. They were so sweet. We found Talbert some boots and then ate at Zuppas! We saw Sister Mahterian and her companion there, so we sat and ate with them. We went to this adorable local store in Holladay called "Paisley Pomegranate"... I wanted everything and I want to have a shop of my own like it some day! There were so many handmade things, very vintage and cute. Everything was a thousand dollars though, so we just window shopped. 

We had our first New Member Lesson with Tshering and her family. She is so wonderful. Her mom is a member of about 4 years. She still has so many questions though, so we basically spent the entire time talking to her about the Priesthood and answering her questions. Tshering has such great faith. She asks questions, but is receptive to the answers. She has such a strong spirit!

Tuesday: Gongshow day! 

We went out with this 18-year-old, Madeline. She's so cool! She's really positive and funny, which made the day completely brilliant. She did missionary work with us all day long! I absolutely loved it. Afterwards, we went back to her house to drop her off & our dinner appt came to pick us up. The only problem was that it was just the guy who came. (We can't ride with just Sister Talbert and myself and a man.. we need another sister in the car). So Maddie ended up just coming with us to dinner, too!

That night, Sister Evans came to our house and brought ALL of these winter things! She said that they were from an ANONYMOUS member of the ward. She had sworn that she wouldn't tell us! So we got these really nice Calvin Klein winter coats. They are so light and warm and wonderful. We each got new winter boots (kind of like Uggs). We got socks and sweaters, as well. So so so blessed!

New boots!

New coats (& wearing my Park City tag because my others were lost!)

Wednesday: We did service for our investigator. Her husband is a recent convert. They are so wonderful. While we were our raking her yard and getting rid of the leaves, the neighbor was standing on his roof, blowing leaves off. I made a comment like, "You'd better not blow those over here!" We laughed and started talking. He's like 22 and not a member of the church. The RC husband came out and invited the neighbor to meet with us and learn more! I LOVE MEMBER MISSIONARIES! The neighbor said yes and gave us his phone number! Yayay!

That night, we had an appointment, so a ward missionary was coming with us. The appointment fell through and we asked the ward missionary to take us somewhere that we could have a lesson. She was so scared at first, but we said a prayer and encouraged her. We met a lot of people and had a really successful evening! 

Thursday: We went to visit a LessActive who wasn't home and the Spirit guided us to tract. We hardly ever knock doors, but I felt like we needed to. So we went across the street and knocked on a door. No one home. Knocked another door. This really sweet lady answered and let us in. She is a less-active member who is floating between her parent's ward, the ward she lives in, and a single adult ward. She got divorced a few years ago and is pretty lost. She was so beautiful and really friendly. She started to cry as we spoke with her, saying it was a miracle that we came at that time. She usually works a lot, but was taking the day off to just relax around the house. I love the Spirit!

We met this man cutting down a stump in a yard. He's a LessActive as well. He talked to us for a minute and told us that we are some of the best missionaries he's ever met. He went on and on about how wonderful we are and said he wants to go back to church! We  kept walking but a few hours later, we were on the same street again. We said Hi and he called us over. He said, "I've had this tune in my head ever since you left!" I asked what it was and he said he didn't know, but he could hum it. He hummed it and I sang, "Hail to the prophet, ascended to heaven, traitors and tyrants, now fight him in va-ai-ai-ain." haha. I loved it!! 

Sister Talbert and I met up with this woman who lives in a Care Center for elderly people. She's kind of wild, but says she might have a friend for us to teach. We will probably go back and do service some time soon.

Friday: AHHHH! My favorite day. After zone meeting and weekly planning, the Assistants to the President (AP's) took us to downtown Salt Lake to do "Extreme Street Contacting". The companionships all went on exchanges, so I was with Sister Giguiere. She's this amazing sister who has been out for about 9 months. "Extreme Street Contacting" is where you just go talk to every single person. You are given a bag full of things like the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, Mormon.org cards, pass-along cards, referral cards, DVDs, etc. You try to give away as many things as possible and invite every non-member to be baptized. At the end, you tally up the points from invitations made and things given away. Sister Guiguiere and I invited SEVEN people to be baptized!! It was such an amazing experience. 

We saw this guy in a white shirt and tie who said he had just come from his niece's wedding at the temple. We assumed that he was a member and asked him who he knew in California (where he was from), that we could send missionaries to. He said he didn't know anyone. I said, "Can we give you a challenge?" He said, "Umm, sure," and I gave him a Mormon.org card and said, "Will you give this out to a non-member before you go home?" He said, hesitantly, "Yeah." And suddenly, I thought to ask him.."Are you a member of the Church?" He said "..No"...!!!..hahahahha. We talked to him a bit more and he had to leave. But I just love that I challenged a non-member to give away a Mormon.org card and he said yes!

We had a wonderful lesson with our investigator whose leaves we raked. The bishop came and it was super great. 

Saturday: The weather was 65 degrees! It has been so nice and beautiful outside! Sister Talbert and I rode our bikes up this giant hill and almost died. We might have decided to retire our bikes in Holladay. These hills are mountains! 

I found out that Sister Giguiere and I won the Extreme Street Contacting competition! Yay! As a prize, our zone leaders bought us milkshakes! 

I texted our 15-year-old investigator, whose mom won't let her be baptized. I asked if she had time during the day for us to visit. It was kind of random, because we always have lessons on Monday nights, but I just thought we could get another visit in. When we showed up, her grandma told us that the girl had such a terrible day and the grandma almost said we couldn't come but the girl said, "Please grandma. I need them." Ahhh. Again.. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Spirit. 

Sunday: Such a successful day!!! Ahh!! We got a ride to this LessActive family and they went to church for the first time in a long while. They have 2 little girls, and we arranged for them to be in the primary program! After sacrament, the mom said that the little girls disappeared to primary (They had been planning on leaving after sacrament). We invited the parents to come to Sunday School with us and they came!! 

Later, we arranged for another LessActive woman to meet us at church so that she could hear us speak in sacrament. She doesn't come to church because she has very bad depression, so she hasn't come in a long time. She showed up and was very anxious and nervous to sit alone, so we sat in the front row with her, rather than up on the stand. We each got up to speak when it was our turn, then sat back with her in the congregation. After sacrament, a member came up and started talking to her and invited her to Sunday School. She went! 

And THEN, we went to ANOTHER ward, and met with ANOTHER LessActive woman, who sat with us in Relief Society. We were so happy to hear that she even went to Sacrament! After years of inactivity, the women welcomed her with open arms!! 

That night, we asked a member to introduce us to a LessActive woman in her ward. She called the lady and we were allowed to go! She was making excuses for not coming to church and things. I was bold and loving with her. I can't remember what I said, but she responded, "Your mom must be so proud of you." hahah.

I had a Dream… and Halloween!

Happy late Halloween! I cannot believe that it is November already! What is happening to the time? 

I had a dream last night that I was home from my mission. I was online, trying to look at pictures of people that I hadn't looked at while I was gone. It was taking so long and I felt so tired and (in my dream) I thought, "What am I doing? Why aren't I reading the scriptures? Why am I not doing missionary work?" I woke up, feeling so strange and anxious. I just want to stay here forever. 

On a more positive note, I love being in Holladay!! It is getting colder outside and we are walking more than biking. Members have been very helpful in offering us rides. There hasn't been significant snow, just little raindrops that turn to flurries and melt. 

I cannot believe that Shane is in the MTC and is officially a missionary! I am so so proud and happy for him. My heart is filled with love for my mission! I LOVE the gospel. I was able to go to the testimony meetings of a few different wards on Sunday and I was overwhelmed by the Spirit that I felt as one bishop talked about missionary work. I thought of Shane going to France, diving into an entirely different life than he's ever known before. I am excited for the changes that we will see in him as his testimony grows. He will go through so many hard things that will challenge him and test his faith, but he will be so strong because of it all. 

It has been a Halloweeny week. Wild and gongshow and lovely and difficult. 

Last Monday, we played soccer outside as a zone. It was basically a storm. The leaves were blowing all around us and my hair was a crazy mess of tangles. We had so much fun. Sister Talbert and I walked home in the rain. One of my favorite comforts is to arrive at home after being in the cold and to feel warmth! We sat on the couch underneath blankets, writing letters, and eating soup until Pday was over. 

We went to a Halloween party and a little bit of their Trunk-or-Treat. We didn't eat, we just walked around, trying to get to know people. There were some adorable little kid costumes and some really funny adult costumes. The old ward mission leader dressed as a superhero and had these disgusting and hilarious sideburns that extended to his mouth. For the record, Halloween is such a strange time to meet new people. 

That night, we had a lesson with these two sisters, whose mom won't let them get baptized. We do the lessons at their grandparent's house, who are members. We had each person choose a word or phrase from the Book of Mormon, and then write it down, and we played charades with them. The 10-year-old wrote "inhabitants" and Sister Talbert had to act it out... hahah! After the game, everyone had to come up with a question, and then open up the Book of Mormon to a random spot, and read until they came up with an answer. It was a revelation-seeking activity, and it worked out SO well!! Before we left, the grandmother, hugged me and said, "Thank you for being INSPIRED!" 

On Tuesday, we visited a Less-Active, who was referred to us by the bishop. Sometimes less-actives are scary to visit because they left the church for a reason and then they become bitter. But as soon as the woman opened up the door, she was SO friendly! She hugged us and pulled us in, gave us soda and treats, and opened up her story to us! As she was talking, she was crying because we came! She said she had been thinking about coming back to church, and she knew that we were an answer to her prayers. Ahh. So wonderful. 

We had a wild lesson with our stubborn ole' man investigator. His fellowship, who is like his daughter, came with us. It started out good because he was telling us that he read his assignment, but then he went off about how he knew that the Book of Mormon wasn't true and how he had grown up Jewish and would never be Christian. Well, our fellowshipper, who is a return missionary/super mom, was SO passionate and wonderful. She was hollering and crying and bearing such strong testimony. It was a spiritually overwhelming experience. We couldn't get through to him because his heart is so hardened and he is very not open to feeling the Spirit right now. We left feeling completely drained! 

After our dinner appointment, this young boy was complaining about his homework. I asked him what homework he had and he said, "English." I said, "I love English! What do you have to do?" And he told me he had to write a poem... I said, "Perfect! I love poetry! Let us help you!" ...So we sat with him and co-authored this very lovely poem about how wonderful the color orange is. We went through the seasons, describing what the color orange was like throughout the year. I wish I had a copy of it, but you should know that it was a very wonderful poem. 

That night, we went to a Relief Society activity. It was a Japanese cooking class for the women, and there were 2 non-members there. It was like watching Food Network live, but better because we got to smell all of the wonderful things being made!

Wednesday, we had a gongshow lesson with one of our investigators. Her LDS friends have been giving her all of these church books that they say will help her understand the gospel more easily. The problem is that she is reading all of these books, finding things to be offended at, and avoiding the Book of Mormon! We had a very firm talk with her about putting aside all other books for now and just reading the Book of Mormon to find out if it is true. 

Wednesday, we got to go to the Jordan River temple with most of our mission (excluding Park City and Wyoming). Ahhh. It was beautiful and wonderous and I just loved it. 

Thursday, we got a ride from the bishop's wife and she gave us a giant bag of candy! We got a bag of 100 Hi-Chews and shared them with our district at district meeting. I was asked to share a scripture and experience from my mission that correlated with the Atonement. I talked about Howard from Park City and tied it with the Laborers in the Vineyard story from the New Testament. 

That night, we had a Halloween party/musical talent show at the mission office. I got to see all of my daughters together- Villoso, Kiser, and Talbert. It was fun.

Sis. Kiser, Sis Talbert, Sis Wall and Sis Villoso

Our ride will be here in a few minutes so everything else will be watered down, Lo Ciento!

This weekend, our zone had a challenge to invite 50 people to be baptized. So we went a little crazy. Here are some of the text messages I sent to our district leader, reporting on how it went...::

"We invited Maggie to be baptized & she said she will pray about it! We invited Bob to be baptized & he said absolutely not!"

"We invited Brother Wall to be baptized! He said he never will be!"

"We invited Larry to be baptized! He said he's already been baptized, but that we can come by Tuesday. He's Catholic!"

Sunday... Our investigator told us that she hasn't stopped smoking, and so she can't be baptized this next weekend. Her less-active husband, however, stopped smoking last week because I chastised him!! He said that when he was outside and I said, "You better not be smoking!!" he went back inside and hasn't smoked since!! haha! Chastising is the ticket!

Also, Sunday, the Relief Society came up to me in church & told me that she was inspired by my testimony of the Book of Mormon at Tshering's baptism a week ago. She said that my testimony and love for the BOM was so powerful, that she went home and decided to read it in one week! WOO HOO!

My testimony before my mission seems like a tiny little thing compared to the overwhelming Spirit that I feel now as I bear my testimony. I LOVE to bear my testimony. My soul feels too big for my body and life feels so joyous and I am reminded how important this work is to the Savior. I need you to know that I believe in what I am doing here. I feel the truthfulness of it every single day. I want this for myself; I want it for my brothers; I want it for my family; I want it for the strangers here in Utah. I know that the Lord is coming. I love Jesus Christ. I testify that He lives. I love that we are given commandments to help us feel the love that can only come as we are obedient. I love the temple. I know that it is the House of the Lord. I am absolutely in love with the Book of Mormon!! I love every bit of that book. Every time I read it, I am uplifted. It invites me and entices me to do good and to be good. It is a book of Light and knowledge and joy! I love my mission. I am completely indebted to the Lord for allowing my to have this experience. This gospel that I am sharing is eternally significant. I am grateful for the Atonement, which allows me to change more fully, improve day by day, and to feel the Spirit deeper than I ever have. I love this work. I bear testimony that I am engaged in the wonderful, glorious, perfect work of the Savior, Jesus Christ. I bear testimony of these things in the name of Jesus Christ. 

LOVEE YOU ALL!