Deciembre 28

Hi again!

So the reason I'm emailing today is because the library was closed Monday and we had exchanges Tuesday. So still please continue to email Sunday night. :)

The Es and G are still doing well, and thankfully so are our other investigators. We got to take the Es to the VC last week! They LOVED it. I'll include some pics.

Our Christmas was very good overall and so many members of the Granite View ward were thoughtful and remembered me.

Oh! Here's the quote you wanted to hear again:

"Many blessings in life are missed because worldly judgment was applied to what was really a spiritual decision." -Elder Schwitzer of the 70

Here's another one:

"Reverence denotes activity of the heart, not just inactivity of the mouth." -Marion G. Romney

Some more random highlights of the week:

-Painting the house of a very interesting family. The mom is a writer and ebook editor. Her commentary on Twilight was hilarious.

-Visiting the stake RS president. She has an inactive son who's training to be a Green Beret. That night I asked him how he'd seen God's hand in his life, particularly being deployed overseas. He avoided the question for the most part, saying he didn't know if it had been God or something else that had saved him different times. Then on Christmas as we were greeting people I felt a pair of eyes on me and I looked over to see him in the church pew next to his parents and sister.

-I got my hair cut! But it was just a trim to get the ucky ends off. It's basically the same length just more layers. I'm TRYING to practice some self control here. And we can actually color our hair now out here.... but I just figure it can wait.

-Again, I'm in the middle of planning a training for Thursday morning. This one's going to be on how we invite the Spirit, how we recognize the Spirit and how we trust the Spirit [in our lives, our lessons with investigators, etc.].

-JD, the 12 or 13 yr old in the E family is excited for the "responsibility and privilege" of holding the priesthood. (!!!) I'm giving them a book that Ervin sent to me that has 52 nights of FHE. M, the mom, is on 1 Nephi 10 and they're going to begin reading as a family. We've also set 4 of them with a date--January 14!--and we're making "baptism jerseys" with them. What are baptism jerseys, you ask? They are a Sister L creation. Lots of times people need something visual to remind them of their goal and preparation to be baptized. We got them all white shirts and they're going to put their name on the back and their number will be the date they're going to be baptized. :)

-I've gotten some sweet tours this week. I took a guy and his family who just got his doctorate in biochemistry! And he got to tell me about his post-doc work he's doing in Cincinnati. He actually spent some time at USU and loved it. :) Then an anesthesiologist came through who lives in Overland Park and works near one of my old areas and we got to talk about schools. His brother then came around the corner and met Sister P (we were on exchanges) and they grew up together and hadn't seen each other in like 9 years! And last, but not least, yesterday I took a family through that was visiting from Jordan (the country). But he's actually from Sandy! He now works for the US embassy over there. His next assignment is in Kenya. Really nice family.

Have a great week! Remember to study the scriptures even on vacation!