Hey Friends and Family,
I’M STAYEN AT AGNES!! WOO WOO! My companion is gone though. He’s going to Regina and Elder Schulte (my zone leader) is gone too, which is really sad because I love and look up to him a ton! It’s sad that good friends are leaving, but the change is exciting!! Mom, thank you so much for the package!! It was sooooo great!! I opened it at district meeting and now everyone wants to be my comp! haha Elder Ewell was so shocked that he got a stocking with his name on it! It was great!! You are amazing! Oh, and I got Grandma’s Christmas early! That has been fantastic! I didn’t open the presents yet, but the toffee and fudge are almost gone. Grandma, thank you so much you are amazing!! No other candy tops your toffee!
So, this week started out great!! I took Burt to lunch! Of course the man never gets good food, so I asked him what he wanted and he was quick with his response of the Big Mac Meal with the fry and drink! haha It was great to eat with him and then we taught him at Brother Browns. It was great!! I love the man to death! But then we were going to take him to the Christmas party on Saturday and he missed his ride. He called us all upset because he had been looking forward to it and he had already had a rough day. He told us he didn’t want to see us for a couple days because he was so upset. We dropped by the next day anyways and he was all mad and yelled at us and told us not to come by. This killed me!! I was so depressed about it!! But then that night we got a call from him. He called and apologized and asked if we could get him a ride to church. I WAS SOOOO HAPPY! We got his ride and church went really good! It was Fast Sunday again already! It was a really good one!! Oh and Terry (the man that I slipped on poop in his house) shaved his head super short and came to church! He missed a couple spots in the back, but he looked great!! I don’t blame him because I had to shave mine and its hard!! But he got there and he was way excited!! He bore his testimony and it was really good! He thanked me and Elder Ewell for getting him to come back to church! It was really neat, he was signing up for everything, too! haha He’s great! He said we just need to keep calling him every Sunday, because he works nights and he doesn’t have an alarm clock! But that was exciting!
Oh and Emanuel’s baptism fell through on Saturday because of some problems but we are all good and planned for Wednesday! The last day before transfers!! That’s way exciting and Burt’s going to be there to watch, which is super good!! I’m really excited for that!
Back to the Christmas stuff, though! It was really neat to watch the devotional and think about all of you lounging by the fire watching it, too! haha It was great! And the Christmas party here was so good!! I love the members here, they do so much for us! It felt like home, except Santa wasn’t a little person (Frank Price) which completely crushed my universe! I’ve grown up loving the little Santa and he wasn’t at this Christmas party! Other than that, it was great!! It was so fun because we nodded the President over and just chatted with him. I love him so much!! We were trying hard to get info out of him about transfers. Just to make Elder Ewell mad, he whispered that I was staying. So I knew before anyone else! It’s so crazy that its Christmas already! Time is flying bye!! It’s crazy! I have all of your Christmas stuff to send though! Hopefully you like it! My comp didn’t like shopping for it. I don’t get these other missionaries, they don’t Christmas shop! They’d rather play basketball, haha. But things are going great!
I have so many stories, but I cant think. We had to drop a ton of people the last couple weeks because they weren’t progressing, which is hard! We teach so many lessons, but people just dont keep their commitments! I hate sounding like I’m complaining at all though, because we have been so blessed! We will have had 2 baptisms this transfer and we are hoping to set another date tonight! We are also getting a lot better at teaching Thailand people!! THAILAND PEOPLE ARE AMAZING! THEY ARE SO HUMBLE AND KIND! They are poor, but when we come to teach they have food and drinks waiting for us! We are doing all of our teaching out of the Bible because there isn’t a translated Korean or Burmese Book of Mormon! Everything goes well until you try to teach the Restoration. But we’ve been studying a lot for them and so hopefully we can get them to understand it. We are teaching 3 big Thai families! I’m hoping they let us start a Thai Branch! Oh, I love them!! They are learning English fast, so hopefully all goes well there!!
I am loving it here!! It is so good, but there are hard days! Derrek, a man we have been teaching for a while, got a new girlfriend. I love the man and he had finally decided to come to church and then he totally changed! He told me straight to my face that he just wasn’t interested anymore. I like lost it and just started ranting a crazy testimony about how this is salvation, and what IS his purpose in life, and who knows what else! He just said “I don’t know” over and over and that he just didn’t care anymore and he just wasn’t interested! I just can’t understand how people can do that! It’s ridiculous. My comp doesn’t let that stuff bug him, but man it sure gets me upset. But things are great other then a few crazy things!
Oh and my new comp is Elder Willardson. I don’t know how to spell it or what he’s like but I’ve heard he’s good and a super hard worker! I am a little nervous because I’m the one that has to know the area, members, and all the investigators because he’s never served here before. He’s coming from Regina. It’s super exciting, but sad to see friends go! It will be great!!
Usually I have a thought or something, but I don’t have anything particular today. haha I do have a quote that Heather Hill sent me though and I love it! It’s by Neal A. Maxwell: "The Lord doesn’t ask about our ability, only our availability, and if we prove our dependability, the Lord will increase our capability!” Out here I thought that ability would play a big part, and it does. But the best missionaries are so good because they give everything! When they have spare time at meals or before bed they just study more. I really look up to them and I hope I can be like them! But this quote really applies to members! It’s all about just showing up! haha Like really, if everybody would just show up their lives could change! We have members here who are the goofiest people ever and they come and help us all the time and it makes such a huge difference! There is a man named Elton John who just got more active a couple months ago and he helps us every day! He is amazing!!
Dad your birthday is here! I’ll probably tell you Happy Birthday again next week! haha but Happy Birthday now too! I love you a ton and I sent you a present! Hopefully you like it!! I love you all a ton! Good luck with everything and keep me updated!
Love ya bye!
