Guess where I am going!!!!???

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Nowhere! I am staying here in K2. With Sister Cochran! We are excited. We are nervous because they are flushing the Elders out of our ward and giving us the whole ward! My whole mission I have shared a ward and I am feeling a little bit nervous about doing it all without the Elders. But we will keep going. I'm excited because there is still so much I need to learn from this area and from Sister Cochran I feel. One of the most important things is how to work with the ward and the members. We are not awesome at it. We had only 1 member present lesson this last week, and that was at a dinner appointment. That is not very good. We are working hard on getting members at our lessons this week. We have already scheduled 3 member present lessons with the members. Now we just need the investigators to cooperate.

This last week was a good one! We have been having some cooler weather lately, which is always so good. We haven't been going finding as much lately because I have been not liking it lately. I think that's for a reasons, though. Because I used to LOVE tracting. SO much. And I just really don't anymore, and I'm starting to think it's because we need to work with members more.

James is back at home. We saw him on Saturday night. He is doing good. He just has so much to be up against and that is hard. He came to church yesterday though. I hope he felt loved there. They are trying to detach him from missionaries, so I don't really know how to act with him when the ward is around. So he's okay. I want to find someone else to teach and baptize though! I'm really trying to be a good missionary.

Well, actually, let me rephrase that. I am trying to be a servant of the lord. "the 4th missionary" talk says that we should not strive to be "great" missionaries, because "great" implies us in relationship to others. We should strive to be servants of the Lord. Which is so what I want to be. I want to be good and I want to be enthusiastic and I want to be impactful. I really want to help people.

We found a man tracting this week named Doyle. He is great. Me and Sister Cochran taught him a 1st lesson on Saturday and it went very well. We talked about it afterward and we felt like the Spirit was able to testify through us and that Doyle really understood the importance of the message and reading and praying to know if the book of mormon is true. That's all we can ask people to do after all. His baptism will be November 19.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT IS ALMOST NOVEMBER?!??!?!?!!?!? WHAT? Where did the year go? I got a letter from Daren this week and I had asked him if it really does speed up after a while in the field (I wrote him like the 1st week of the 1st transfer) and he told me that he thinks that sometimes, time goes slowly. But overall, it starts to go fast. Guess what, family? It has started to go fast. In 5 weeks, I will have been on my mission for 6 months! I will be coming home in 1 year!!!!!!! That is bizarre. And 1 year still seems like a long time. But we will just keep going. And we'll see how fast it goes. I bet it's quick.

For Christmas I actually DO have a list :] And it is much better than James' mission list. I would like a new memory card for my camera. Mine is full. And I want to just get different cards so I don't have to delete pictures you know? Mine says "SanDisk 2.0 GB" and on the back it says BE09162117240. I have no idea if that helps you to know what kind to get. I don't know how much they cost, but I would like one that is more than 2 GB if they are cheap-ish. Just so many fun pictures to take.

I am also thinking about getting a legitimate tracting bag. Because my brown one hurts my shoulders after a while. I want one like Sister Cochran has, maybe. I will take a picture and send it next week. Or if you see any recently returned missionaries, ask them what an ideal tracting bag is and they could probably steer you right.

I am also going to need some winter gear. Like my nice green coat? Or I can buy one here, but it is going to get cold at some point, I hear. Like, really cold. Good thing I have some awesome scarfs right? Scarves? Scarves.

This coming week we have the most legendary sister missionary staying with us for a few days. She is training, so she'll get her greenie on Thursday, and we get to hang out with her til then! She is (surprise) Polynesian. her name is Sister Kinikini and EVERYONE knows her and loves her and is obsessed. I'm a little intimidated, but also super excited because I have heard only good things about her. Actually, I have heard only INCREDIBLE things about her. Seriously, when I say legend, she would be it. This will be a SUPER good pride check for me, right? No competing!

We are going to have a good week. I'm excited for it. Weeks are starting to go by fast. Days still lag sometimes. But I am really trying to schedule more appointments. Because this is something that I've learned. If you schedule and appointment, then you expect yourself to deliver a better message. Because you don't just want to go waste people's time, you want to do something impactful and meaningful. That's why we're here, to invite people to act. I'm loving learning all these things. My life is never going to be the same after going on a mission. It's rad.

Today for Pday we went to a park and had a barbque. Pretty sure we were only invited cause Kinikini is with us. Sometimes the mission gets clique-tastic. Which is DUMB and I am not having it. We are a family, right?? But it was fun anyway. Sister Lundgren got a new companion but she is still in the zone, which is cool because I love her.

When this transfer is over, I will have spent 1/3 of my mission in Kingwood 2. Cool.

How is everything going at home?? How was conference and meeting Elder Bednar?? (Dad did you actually get to meet him?) That is way cool that you got to sit in the apostle chairs! I don't know what else to call them.

Dad, how is work going? Still good? How is the stake? Did you do your big calls yet? I hope they went smoothly. How are all the people in the stake and in the ward? How is the U doing this season now? Any better? How is Wynn?

Mom, how is work going for you? I loved your letter this week! I read a ton of it to sister cochran. All of my companions just know all about my family because whenever I get a letter I freak out and read the whole thing (pretty much) outloud. How is Wilsy? How is Grandma? I should write her. I have not written ANYONE is like 3 weeks. The worst. PDay has started to get nuts. But I love and appreciate and THRIVE off of the letters that I get, so it is so dumb of me not to write back. Becuase they seriously mean the world. I am so blessed, whenever I get a letter I just am blown away by how many blessings I have and how I don't deserve them.

Jamesy! How are you? How is escuela? You are about done with the semester. And I bet you have perfect grades huh? Do you go to institute? How is the ward and how the elders quorum? How's work? Have you picked a major for reals yet? How are the ladies?

Jonny, you have been silent for a while now. How is school and being a senior? Have you gone to MORP yet? Seriously, I want to see all the pictures from your dances. On the real. You can tell me about your ladies too. :] How is basketball going - when do you start? Or try out or whatever?

Family, what is up?? What is going on in the neighborhood and in your lives? I miss you so much! I think I'm always going to miss you. We have the best familia ever. I would LOVE a picture??? PLEASE???? LIKE TODAY!? Just sit down after dinner and take a picture for me. With Wilsy. I don't have my chord to attach pictures, which is sad because I have them to send. This last week, us and the K2 Elders were on a "Legacy" kick. I had to stand up for the movie, because I still LOVE it... even though it is just sometimes way cheesy. But somehow, we got to the point where we acted the best scenes of legacy out. and I hope I can attach a video because they are SO funny.

Well. I love you guys. You are really the best. I am so blessed to have such a great family. And also, all of the rest of y'all that read my blog and write me (or don't write me :] ) and pray for me. I am so blessed by all of you. I love the gospel. The gospel is my purpose as a missionary. I gave a talk in church yesterday about changing your heart. And I believe that only through the gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ can we be effectively and permanantly changed. With the gospel, change is wonderful and lasting and every day we become better. That is why I want to share these things with people. I think I've forgotten that a little bit over the past 41/2 months. But I am remembering it now. I am remembering why I love the gospel and why I wanted everyone to know about it. People are still mean, but it's easier to deal with them. And not everyone's mean. And what's the worst they can do to me? Probably no one is going to smack me, so I'm good. I LOVE YOU!!