enero 31

Wow. What a packed week!! For all of us.
Thanks for the funeral updates and commentaries.

To answer questions:
Mmmm maybe you won't ever see me new hair. Dunno. Taking pictures tends to be at the BACK of my mind out here and then printing them off at Walmart and sticking them in a letter and.... yeah. Just kinda no time, ya know? :) Haha, but with our haircuts, Sis. Nuckles and I look like real sisters--much more than Rach and I ever did ha. Basically it's a shorter A-line that reaches my jaw line and is super short and choppy in back and instead of having 10,000 layers I have 40,000 layers.... but somehow she made it lay exactly right with no product or hairspray or pomade. :) Yay.

So as I said, this week was very packed.
Monday - More absolutely crazy confessions. Like as in I couldn't even invent something that could happen more to these people.
Tuesday - Got the call that Grandma has passed away. Sis. Nuckles said we should go back to the apartment. Talked to Mom, she answered a prayer I almost didn't know I had, it was super good to talk to her and Brent.
Wednesday - Special training with Pres. Van Komen. He is so amazing and I love him. Of course his training helped us. It was on planning and always making a to-do list every day.... which is good because I already do it! And other things of course.... And then we tried to contact Spanish potentials in Manhattan... not so successful.
Thursday - Taught the W. family--the family that lives out in the boonies and is super down-to-earth whose dad said, "She can stay" when she found out I liked the Longhorns. Both Sis. Nuckles and I were unusually nervous and anxious for this visit (just our second) and we wanted SO BADLY to handle it perfectly because we both see so much potential with them. We prayed for the Spirit's guidance and impressions many times and neither of us ever felt a strong prompting throughout the whole day. So when we finally went to the apt. at 7 we just went with a prayer in our hearts. And the Lord answered our prayers. I couldn't tell you anything specific, but I can tell you He must've worked through us because ...... I'll tell you when we get to Sunday :) :) But as we were leaving the house, I just kept saying, "Sister! This is our family! (every missionary dreams of baptizing a family) I can see Ed ordaining Connor to the Aaronic Priesthood!...." and she goes, "Sister! That's our vision!" (you need to have a vision for your investigators to get them where they need to be.)
Friday - We did exchanges with the sisters in Lawrence, KS. I went with the sister leader in Lawrence and her comp came to work with Sis. Nuckles in JC. Sister Robinson and I had a great time together. It was one of those every-door-you-knock-on-and-every-investigator-you-try-to-visit-isn't-available days so no lessons to speak of. But it was fun working together. We served food at the Salvation Army in the afternoon and then rode the bus and walked all over until the ligaments in my right thigh were screaming at me. But it was like 60 degrees that day so I was definitely lucky that the one day I walked everywhere was the one warm day. (It is very much freezing again now.) For dinner a member took us out to dinner on a famous downtown street called Massachusetts St. The restaurant served all sorts of Asian cuisine, from Vietnamese to Napalese to Thai to Indian... it was sweet. Very yummy.
Saturday - We switched back companions. Later on we visited the D.s (dad is a returning less active, mom is a recent convert, we are working with the 10 yr old daughter to become baptized.) and it was good because we got her to set a baptismal date: Feb. 12 and talked to both of the parents about receiving Patriarchal Blessings.
Sunday - We spoke in sacrament meeting about missionary work and love and charity and fellowshipping. We were supposed to have 4 investigators in church that day (Tracie, Mark, Josie, Hannah) and we really hoped that Sister W. would attend. She has been inactive for years and years--not for any particular reason (she wasn't offended.... what a miracle and relief!) but just got out of the habit of going and I think probably just didn't have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. The W.s live a ways away but she had to come to JC for a bowling tournament that day anyway and we would give her (them) what she later called "Gentle shoves" to come to church (along with reading the Book of Mormon of course). So as we were sitting on the stand as the meeting began, we were both somewhat anxiously scanning the congregation and watching the doors for our investigators. Hannah. Check. Josie. Check. Tracie...... no Tracie. Mark and Carrie! Check. Sister W....... Sister W..... please.................................................................................................... [end of hymn]........[prayer]................[ward business]...... OH MY HECK YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister W. AND Ed, her husband (whom we LOVE and is so funny and such a cowboy and Texan dad) and Connor their 5 yr old (absolutely adorable) son walked in! I kid you not, it was like the happiest moment in Sis. Nuckles' and my lives. We just squoze hands and beamed at them as they sat down. I was the first to speak. I formally welcomed them ("any visitors") and gave my talk. Then Sis. Nuckles spoke. Then Bro. Wheatley, our WML... who's amazing. I was so much more nervous about jumping off the podium and getting them fellowshippers and talking to them before they could slip out then giving any talk! Like as in Sunday morning sleep was bad and stressful and full of half-awake-half-asleep stressing over it. The second the meeting ended, we jumped up (leaving our stuff by our chairs), I grabbed the bishop and Sister Brantley and quickly made our way toward the Ws. We talked with them, the Gavins came up and joked with them (apparently they've known each other for a long time), Sister. Brantley talked to them, the bishop talked to them, Bro. Wheatley introduced himself, Sister Smith did too.... (having just spoken on fellowshipping definitely helped....) and then we moved to the lobby and talked more until they left for her bowling thing. I was talking to Sister W. and just asked, "So how was Sacrament?" She said, "It's good to be back. I really enjoyed it." And Sister Nuckles later told me that Ed told her he had woken up at 4 a.m. and made two trips to Wichita in a semi on Saturday so he could be there.... !!! Wichita is like 2.75 hours away. And they have been reading the Book of Mormon. Including the testimonies in the front and Joseph Smith's account of receiving the gold plates. So we hope to see them twice this week. (there was an emergency transfer in the zone so the zone is low on miles so we can't drive much right now). The rest of the day was crazy too. We had a small, good lesson with Josie and Bro. Wheatley about eternal marriage, we passed our dinner calendar around the ward and branch (and it's completely full!), we talked to tons of people and during our dinner apts. this month we'll be scouting who's missionary-minded, who's willing to go on team-ups regularly and fellowshipping, etc. And we helped with the baptism of Mark. And we taught our Spanish Primary class... I love those kids. And they love us. :) They are so funny and full of energy! And then we went on a team-up with the V.s (Denise and Angel) to a Spanish investigator family. We kind of discovered a diamond in the rough, Pele, the husband's son from another marriage, Kevin. He's 16 and in very smart. Usually he disappears into his room, but is friendly, but this time we made him sit out and talk to us and we all discussed his many questions, which were GOOD questions--ALL of which are answered by the Book of Mormon! So we gave him one, told him to read it, bore out testimonies, discussed what it contains, etc. Diana was sick, but Pele said she has been reading it. I think that Pele was very affected in a good way by how we interacted with his son and gave him the best answers to his hard questions he's ever heard AND we brought the Spirit. Then that night we walked to our RCLA apt. and talked about Patriarchal blessings and their temple prep class, etc. and got a referral. GOOD DAY.

So I am definitely out of time, but I love you all.
Hope to hear from you all soon.