Deciembre 13

Howdy folks!

So... surprise! I'm emailing on Tuesday. And actually I'll be emailing on Mondays in the future. Our pdays are Monday now. The reason I'm emailing today is because I kind of died yesterday. Being in so many people's houses, around kids, the wet weather, etc. makes it easy to get sick, no matter how good I try to eat and how many vitamins I take and oranges I eat. So I got a cold and a cough last week and congestion but then Sunday night about 3/4 of the way through our missionary correlation meeting I got super sick to my stomach and at about 2 am I had to run to the bathroom and that (vomiting) continued for 2 hours. In the morning I was drained. I'll spare you the details of all of yesterday, but I don't know if it was food poisoning or the stomach flu or what but I WANTED TO DIE. This happened in my first area.... Anyway, I feel like it was food poisoning cuz my body would not rest until every last bit of what had been dinner was OUT. Anyway, today was kind of a recovery day and we're not going to be able to email for the next few days so yeah.

On a better note!....

So I think I told you a little about the E family... We found them a few weeks ago. We began teaching M, the mom, and the 4 kids and then when I was on exchanges with Sister B the husband was there suddenly and they said they were trying to work things out. At the end of the lesson when we committed them to do certain things to improve their family life, he said he'd prayed for something to come into their lives to help guide them that morning and that he didn't think the prayer would be answered so quickly. (Super cool!) So Sis. L and I went back and when we walked in there was so much tension and arguing and impatience..... We ended up basically having a therapy session with them based on gospel principles. We had them tell each other what they loved and appreciated about the other, we established their "hot button" (what sets them both off to the point where they don't listen to each other they just yell) and committed them never to bring it up (because it's stuff in the past no one can change) and committed them to read the Book of Mormon, read the Family Proclamation and to pray nightly with each other and the kids. By the time we left, the climate in their home was much better (thanks to the Spirit) and they acknowledged that bringing the Lord and the Word of the Lord into their home helped a lot. When we went back we weren't sure what we'd find... but when we walked in it was astonishing the change. The apartment was clean, the husband was coming back from doing laundry, the kids were playing together and they HAD read the BoM, they had prayed together and were even having family councils to find out what the kids were dealing with, etc. And M and J were so much kinder to each other, gave each other the benefit of the doubt, laughed with each other, etc. and it was amazing. So cool. And then J and his 2 sons and one of their friends and M's brother came to church on Sunday! J is so open... It's awesome. I just hope that the family continues to recognize us as servants of the Lord. They have so much potential.

G, D, V and S are also progressing beautifully.

G is set to be baptized on the 31st of December and confirmed New Years Day!

V is so excited for her baptism but we're going to continue teaching them until D feels like she has more of an understanding of what baptism entails. They were able to come to the ward Christmas party and the ward is so good with bringing them in and giving rides, etc. I am sold on the fact that members make all the difference and Sister L's and my testimonies have grown so much with regard to the fact that getting them to church produces baptisms. We've been so blessed to have had investigators at church every Sunday since I've been in the area. We really need to find new investigators, though. We've been focusing on helping the investigators we already have progress but we need to be constantly finding. It's just hard having very limited time in our area. All our time in the area is already filled just with the people we already have. And what with being sick and zone conference this week... Anyway, I love being a missionary. :)

Well'm, I love you all dearly and hope to hear from you next Monday.

In the meantime read Moroni 7. I'm convinced there could be an institute class all about Moroni 7. It's PACKED and definitely means more to me having learned the things I have out here. I'm currently on Moroni 10. :( I hate finishing the BoM. But I love it too. I just love that book period.