6/1/09

First things first...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're lucky I get to e-mail you ON your bday :-) love you and hope it's an awesome day.

Mom and dad, did you get the package I sent?

I am glad to hear you are using the suitcase calendar lol!

Mom, that's exciting that you are going to mother's week-end. It was really hard that one year that you didn't come because everyone was with their moms and so it kind of sucked (although Jamie's mom kind of adopted me). Tell Jamie and Wes I say "hello".

I am glad to hear everyone is doing well!

Well, Derrick (friend of the Manning's) got baptized on Saturday it went really well! Afterwards we went over to the Manning's for a bbq and most of their kids and their families were there. Other people's family gatherings suck! I would so much rather be with my family! haha but it was fun to meet the whole family and see what people were like. Then he was confirmed yesterday and bro manning told us that while he was giving the blessing he saw Derrick baptizing his family (I don't know if I told you or not but when derrick told his family that he was getting baptized they kicked him out of their house and called bro manning and told him to stop brain washing their son, etc. they weren't very happy at all) so I thought that was REALLY cool!

we are starting a Preach My Gospel class this week for the youth. I hope we get a good turnout. When I was in high school I don't know if I would have gone to a PMG class BUT the youth in this ward are really awesome kids and have strong testimonies... so we will see!

There is the Part member family (the Wilsons) in the other ward that we met a few transfers ago doing service. The dad, brad, chews tobacco but really wants to be baptized and has a testimony of Joseph smith. So when the new elders got there we told them they HAD to go see this family because first they were awesome and second they need to help the dad. so 6-7-8 weeks past and they didn't' go over there!!!!! we stopped by to see how they were doing and they told us they elder haven't even gone over there!! ugh we were so mad, so that dad said he wants us to teach him because the elders suck! haha so we got permission from the zone leaders to teach him. I hope it doesn't cause too much drama in their ward. Their ward mission leader called us last night and was asking us why we were teaching him. so I feel kind of bad, but at the same time Brad wants us to teach him (once he finally met the elders he told us that he thinks they are really immature and likes us a LOT LOT better lol)

Colleen (our recent convert) is struggling. not with her testimony but she has this job that she absolutely HATES! and it takes up a lot of her time. so she doesn't have time to look for another job and the job she has now doesn't' pay her enough to pay her mortgage. so it's really tough to see her struggle.

It's so crazy how much you love the people you teach. I have always heard RMs say "I just love the people from my mission blah blah blah" but it's so true!!!! I just LOVE colleen to death and the Wilsons. It's amazing.

The coolest thing happened; a few weeks ago we stopped by a less active (sis. chandler) to see how she was doing. She was out in her yard talking to her neighbor so we talked to them for a while. and when we drove away I told sister that we were going to baptize him and his family, well we kind of forgot about him and didn't really have an "IN". so we were out helping sis chandler in the garden and stuff and he was out in his garden and he came over to help her with some heavy stuff. well that night sis chandler called and said that Eddie had been asking questions about us, what we do, why we help her, and she explained about missionary work. He asked if we would be interested in helping him and she told him of course! he also said he has been kind of looking for something in his life... so we helped him plant some grass, but we will see where it leads.

It's cool because we were getting scared; we have baptized 2 of our 6 investigators, so our teaching pool is diminishing. BUT God will always provide!

anyways we had a really good week! thanks for always being AWESOME! love you all xoxo

sister lizzie marchant