Email Week 10

Family,

I have learned so much this week. It has been so tough and I've definitely learned more than ever that we truly need to rely on the Lord, AND be really united with my companion. SIster Stewart and I were really able to bond a lot this week and I am so grateful, it has helped this week be a little more positive. Someone actually even said to us, "You two seem like you just get along really well. You must have lots of fun." And we really do :) It's hard being with someone 24/7 but i love Sister Stewart she's awesome! 

Anyways...I'm glad Dad got the Father's Day text/picture from Sister Wooley! She is so cute, she texted us asking where we were and we were like, "at church...why?" haha and she came to the church to do that for us, we didn't even ask! She has a daughter out so she is always so worried about our families haha she is the best! :) 

Addison is such a stud in his gradutaion pictures! Haha I wish I could've been there but it's all good, pictures are fun :) I'm sorry Josie's leg has been in so much pain :( that's sad :( I'm pretty sad that Josie didn't win treasurer but I'm sure her speech was great, you should still send it to me! Tell her I love her so much and that she will always be the winner in MY eyes :) <3

I'm getting more and more attached to alot of the members here, and that scares me because usually when you get really comfortable is when you get transferred :( haha but transfers aren't for another 5 weeks so that's good i guess. More time to get attached though...haha. We have been having a lot of Family Home Evenings with active members to just meet more people since we have over 4,000 members in the stake that we cover. It's been awesome, and it's good practice for us too! :)

We had to drop one of our investigators, Kali, because the whole time I've been here they haven't kept a single committment. It is HEARTBREAKING to know that this little girl won't be getting baptized because of other people in her life's choices. It took us forever to realize that we needed to stop focusing on her and focus on finding other people to teach, but once we did we knew that it was the right decision. It's just really sad. We're still going to try to stop by every once in a while though if we can. Oh, the BEST part of the week (huge amount of sarcasm) was that our Zone Leaders borrow our building key that lets us into all buildings in our stake AND the clerks office and they LOST IT. So now we don't know how/where to have meetings and we can't use the building for bathroom breaks anymore or make ANY copies or deliver our progress records to the bishop offices..... It's great..... haha silly elders. But the stake president knows it wasn't our fault so when we told him he was super nice about it and said he'll work on getting us a new one. 

On a happier note, we have started singing before we leave anyone's house. Just singing a hymn, or primary song if they have kids. It has made a huge difference. I am so grateful for hymns because they truly bring the spirit so strongly. It has been very helpful in a lot of our lessons, and sometimes instead of a dinner though, we'll just sing a hymn. I LOVE it. Who would have thought I could perform so often on my mission? :) I've found that when I get frustrated, singing hymns ALWAYS help. Try it, it really works :)

We have done a lot of gardening this week and guess what....I LOVE IT! When I have my own house I'm gonna have a giant garden! It's so much fun! We always garden with Sister Hincks (who is AWESOME, she is the one with the cutest one year old twins EVER in the world) and then we have a tradition of eating popcicles after. And this week she got us gourmet lollipops from Sundance (which is a popular Utah thing apparently haha) they were delicious!!!

So this week we had 2 awesome experiences with random people who aren't even from our area that we've never met, pull over and offer us a ride! Which was extra nice because this week has been SO HOT! Like, honestly, THE WORST heat ever haha but I've been told it will only get worse in July so I'm mentally preparing myself... at least we have the car this coming week :)

So this one family that we had dinner with just recently went to Disneyland, and so that's what we talked about ALL DINNER! It was so fun! I gave them all the good tips and fun secrets that I've learned from Dad and Uncle Mick! They thought I was super cool :) hehe. Their kids actually had drawn a bunch of rides and organized them throughout their house into all of the different lands! It was awesome!!!!! :) so adorable! We also had dinner with THE GUNTHER FAMILY! They aren't very gunther-ish but they were super nice and the food was incredible!

At one of our FHE's they gave us a bunch of cookies/frosting/sprinkles, so we took them over to the Hardings and decorated cookies before our lesson! It was lots of fun! Kylie even joined us! (she hasn't come to lessons since we asked her to be baptized and she rejected it haha) But we love her and I think she knows how much we care about her! That's what we're really focusing on, making sure the people we work with know that we truly love and care about them and that all that we do is for THEIR benefit, not ours :) Because that is so true. We are bold and persistent (but nice) because we love them and want the best for them! I think we are doing better at expressing that :) But it's something we can always work on!

So this family, the Frishknechts went to see The Little Mermaid in St George and told me all about it! I was DYING!!!!! I loved talking about theatre though, I miss it! Haha I shouldn't be focused on that, I know, but it was the first time anyone has mentioned theatre so I got really excited! But I am focused on the work, I promise :)

SO my favorites ever, the Gardners, I told you about them last week, told us that Sister Gardner was going in for surgery and were super vague so we've been KINDA freaking out all week, but we finally got to see them on Saturday! They filled us in on the whole story and we're glad she is okay. She had an absess in her neck that was making it really hard to breathe and it was really scary but she is doing well now. But it was funny because when we were there she was a little loopy and said lots of funny things. They are truly the greatest people ever. They are ALL OVER our quote wall haha. Love them :)

I LOVE RIVERTON SO MUCH! OH, speaking of which, it was just voted the #3 best small city in America! How cool is that?! <3 Pretty darn awesome :) I am so thankful to be serving here :) I personally would vote it #1 :) hehe

Okay well I gotta get going! I love you all so much and pray for you all the time! Don't forget about me :) <333

-Sister Love