November!?

Hello my family! I had a really good week last week. Ups and downs like normal missionary life but it was good.

Monday we went to visit the old man in our ward whose wife just passed away, Brother Pudil. He is great. We sang a song to him - Because I Have Been Given Much. That is his favorite hymn. He has a pretty cool story. He was raised in the foster care system, and in orphanages. When he was in college he met with the missionaries and shortly after that met his wife. She has met with the missionaries in college as well. She grew up near an orphanage and would over and give one of the little boys there sweets from time to time. Years later, Brother and Sister Pudil were talking about the situation and figured out that the little orphan boy was him that she would give candy to. Isn't that cool? Poor Brother Pudil, he is very sad.

Tuesday we had a member of the ward come out with us (the best! I love when members come out with us) and our appointments fell through. So we went finding. And we started talking to this Hispanic family with her sorta-English and my sorta-Spanish. But after a while we sat down and actually shared a message with them! In Spanish! Sister Cochran was like "Gift of Tongues??" and you know what it probably was. My spanish wasn't that good, but they understood what I was saying (I shared Mosiah 4:9 and I know the word for Believe and God in Spanish. So... there you go.) But Spanish words definitely came to my mind throughout. It was cool.

We worked a TON with Less Active members this week. We don't know why, but we just kept feeling promptings to go see them. And it turned out so good on so many accounts. I kind of got sick this week, but one day we went to see this woman, Lisa, and her daughter and we just love them. They are moving across the road and we were able to help them box up some stuff. They are great.

Thursday night we had a church tour with Doyle and Sister Lee. When Doyle got there, he was extremely hostile and kept throwing out this random accusations and facts, like for example the Priesthood and black people not having it for a while. And we just tried to redirect him after we resolved his concerns the best we could. But he was pretty hostile all the way until we were at the sacrament table and I felt like I should bear my testimony about the Savior and why I love Him and why I take the sacrament. And I looked him right in the eye and did. And then we went and talked in front of the baptismal font and he was great. So happy and so talkative. He is still pressing forward toward baptism, but he didn't come to church yesterday so we will have to change the date that that happens. It went extremely well, though.

We also saw Sister Harless a lot this week. Have I ever told you about Sister Harless. She is incredible. She is like 80 years old and at age 68 she served a mission for a year in New York City. She is still just full of life and energy and she has had the coolest life. I just love to listen to her stories. Her life has been so full. It's kind of the same with Sister Kretschmer. This week when we saw her, we talked about "jumping in" and she was telling us about something that had happened in her life and I told her I thought she had had a really great life and she said "well, you just have to jump in." and I think that is so profound. And so what the gospel teaches us too. We are supposed to get involved and live and help others and have JOY. Men are that they might have joy right?

This Friday, we had Zone Meeting (the last one, I guess, President is pulling the chord on those apparently) and after zone meeting I am usually like "uggggggh, I just like being around people that don't hate me and that are my friends and it's hard to go back to work." but this Friday we went and taught Anna (our new investigator) and she just cried the whole time. It was so timely for her. We are going back this Friday. She is great. I hope we can help her.

Saturday we went and saw one of our potential investigators mother. And her mother became our investigator. She was born in Utah and was actually blessed as a baby (her aunt and uncle are LDS and she called it "christened" but we got the gist).She is really open and we hope we can bring the spirit in so that it can teach. Because if we try to do it ourselves, we will botch it to death. Sister Crawford may be coming to our return appointment on Thursday. We hope so. We love Sister Crawford.

This coming week will be really good. Guess who is coming to Houtson?? Elder Ronald A. Rasband! (I think that's his first name, right?) I was like "Heyyyy I know his family!" He is coming to speak to all of the Houston missions. I am way excited. It should be fantastic.

I am learning so much. Guess what, it keeps going fast!! That is still exciting to me. I'm sure at some point I will hate how fast it goes, but at this point to move faster than a snail's pace is really thrilling. That means I am happy. I have learned that people don't want us to be their friends. They want us to be missionaries. The ward, the investigators, they don't want us to be chummy with them and tell them it's okay if they don't keep commitments or tell them they don't have to do missionary work. They want us to ask them to do things. We need to be BOLD. That is so hard for me, because I really want people to like me. But we have been studying from the 4 gospels, you know, and right now we're in Luke. And a recurring theme throughout all of them is "Whosover shall lose his life, shall find it." That is what I have to do. That is what we all have to do is lose our lives. Lose it all in the service of others and of our God. He will give us so much more than we give up. He will make us so much more than we can make. Like the 4th missionary says "He will create a masterpiece, you will create a smudge. You will create an ordinary man, He will create a God... Just give it up. Surrender your will to His." OH my gosh, it's so cool! I love thinking about these kind of things. These have been my thoughts of late, rather than thoughts of "oh my gosh this is so hard this is so hard!!" because it is still hard, but it is life. This is my life now and it is going to be alright. We talked to one of our ward members who really is struggling right now and told her to read Ether 1-7. I LOVE Ether. The whole thing is a metaphor. We have to believe that, thought the waves are going to dash and push us around, the lord says "I will bring you up again out of the waves". and After they got into the barges "the wind did never cease to blow toward the promised land." When we ask the lord for something, when we ask for a "promised land" we have to then get into our barges and allow the the Lord to take us where we need to go. Because, He has promised that the wind will never cease to blow us toward our promised land. If we've asked for something good, the Lord is going to help us get there. He will never give in or give up on us. He will NEVER do that. I thought a lot about ABA therapy in conjunction with that. When the kids have a tantrum, we as the therapist are supposed to not react. Because we know that they are just throwing a tantrum and that in the long run, we want more for them then their happiness in that moment. We want them to be able to go to school and go on with life and have everything they want. so BECAUSE of that, we don't reach over and hug them and give them what they want. It's the same with the Lord, he will NEVER give up on us. When we throw our tantrums, he will never give in to them. He loves us. He wants us to have so much more happiness than what we can see in front of us. So He will not take away our trails because if He did, we wouldn't be as happy. He will never give up on us and give in to our tantrums. The wind will never cease to blow us toward the promised land, but that also means the wind will never cease to blow. We have to have faith in Him! Trust Him who knows what we can be and where He is leading us. :] I'm feeling good lately, can you tell?

In 3 weeks, I will have been on a mission for 6 months!! Mikelle will be half way through her mission. Nuts.

Mom I LOVED your letter. Every time you think your life is boring, just know that I eat it all up. I love hearing about your day to day stuff. Tell Grandma that I love her so much this weekend, okay? I'm glad you get to spend time with her too. Will you tell Diane that Daren put his home address on the letter he sent me, so I want to know if I should just mail my letter to their house or if she has another address to give me? Thanks. Thank you also for the talk Uchtdorfs. He is so great. How was your week this week? Snow yet? Want to switch? I bet you do, our days are GORGEOUS right now.

Dad, you were the tangled princess for halloween?? Why did you choose her?? No complaints, I loved that movie a lot. Did you get a picture of it. How is everything else going? What is work life like for you now? Tell me about it :]

James, please tell me you were a Disney princess at work for Halloween as well! did you ahve to dress up? or GET to dress up I guess? School is winding down now, huh? Getting geared up for finals?? Do you have to plan the christmas party since you are the elders quorum president? you should be santa. that would be neat. Today we were changing CDs in the car and guess what show was on "the sean hannidy show" that reminded me of you.

Jonny I would like an Indian costume picture. That sounds so fun! How was MORP,. Mom says basketball try outs are today. We will pray for you. :] I hope you do good. I'm sure you will you are a rockstar. How is life as a senior?? You are a good boy. Keep being a good boy and get out on a mission.You will be so great out here.

Yall are so great! I bought your Christmas present today!!! You will LOVE it. Stay tuned. I hoep you have a great day. Here are some pictures.

OH MY GOSH I forgot to tell you. Mmkay, I don't know if I ever told you about Elder Peterson? Well he is great and we love him and he just went home this transfer. But he is back to visit and guess who his mother is Carolyn Hebertson!!... I think. she went to high school with you guys? I am attaching a picture. Yeah, she is Petey's mom. Nuts, huh?? small world.

LOVE YOU GUYS SOOO MUCH have a good week and write me a letter. Muchas gracais.

We had Sisters Day this week. It was phenominal. I loved it. Sister Cochran and Sister Baldwin and I were all MTC muchachas together. I told you about sister Temple and her son right? well this is a picture of them.... and sister temple looks like she is a vampire!! I can't believe it. She really is a beautiful old lady. I hope I age like she did.