NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Dear... everyone who want to read this...

My week has been fantastic, well.... Thanksgiving was fantastic!!! They pushed P-Day from Monday to Thursday, so Monday-Wednesday my companion and I were pretty much dead. Its really hard to work 10 days in a row without a break. We were very beat, but it was all worth it on Thanksgiving! We spent the morning running our normal errands, Walmart was all sorts of madness with the workers bringing out huge things getting ready for the Black Friday sales! (Which started on Thursday night, and I think that is weird). We then went home and caught up on some letter writing, and then went to the Gardners for dinner. Okay, how do I describe the Gardners to everyone at home. Basically they are the most amazing people in the whole world! She is so cute, she is probably around my mom's age, they have 4 kids, only two are still at home, a 16 and a 13 year old son. Brother Gardner is an engineer at Catipillar, and she is a flight attendant for US Airways. She started doing that only about 4 years ago when she moved here, her family was mostly all grown up, and she had just gone from being the RS President in her last ward that kept her very busy, but here she didn't have a calling, looked into jobs that could keep her busy, and became a flight attendant! Dad... her name is Elizabeth Gardner, and she said she's going to be asking every Southwest pilot if they know you, she wants to find you! Haha!

So dinner was in their basement where they had three tables set up, it was there family, her parents, his parents, their friends the Allens (cute young couple who just moved here from REXBURG to work at Cat as well) and the Allens parents (also from Idaho!) and us! There was TONS of food, and she asked us if there was anything that we are used to getting at home that wasn't laid out on the counter, and she was full on ready to get us anything that would make us both feel more at home! She is honestly the sweetest! Then we were going to go home and rest before our next family to visit, but they brought out desert (homeade pumpkin pie) and then we sat around and talked with Sister Gardner for a good two hours! It was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had! For not being at home or with family, I felt very surronded by family, and it was just really all around great! And then we went to another ward members house who had a lot of other families over, so we got to see about 4 of our favorite families, and we had desert with them. And oh.my.gosh was I full by the end of the day. Like super duper sick to my stomach full.... I love Thanksgiving! 

Friday was a really good day to get us back to working after a wonderful day off, we had one of the most amazing District Meetings I've ever gone to about the Atonement. You should know... the Atonement is powerful. It kinda sorta blows my mind just how amazing everything that Jesus Christ has done for us! Literally, my mind is blown! Then we met with Phoebe, and she was having a really hard day. I might have told you about her last week, but she has had a really hard life. She didn't believe she is a child of God, and we decided to sing I am a Child of God to her during the lesson. When we sang "parents kind and dear" she yelled WRONG! Ouch... honestly being on a mission has really opened my eyes to what a wonderful way I was raised. Mom and Dad, thank you for not being hippies and raising me like a gypsy with no home and spending all of our money on drugs. I really REALLY appreciate it.

Church was fantastic yesterday. We had 3 investigators come, and Sister Carver was there even though she was supposed to be out of town. She came home early and came to church. AND she told everyone in Sunday School and in Relief Society how she is getting baptized in Januray. When we first committed her to the date she said yes but she was hestitant, not sure if she could do it. But now she said its on her calendar and she's been living the word of wisdom for weeks now and she even told her Catholic mom at Thanksgiving that she would be getting baptized in Januray. She is SO AMAZING!!! 

The work is basically fantastic. I can't pick a favorite thing we do, because all of it is so fun! I love being in members homes though, its just really cool how people can hardly know us but they love us. Oh, the Bishop in the ward loves us so much. He tries to have dinner with us every other week, but sometimes other people sign up too fast, and so we haven't seen him in 2 weeks but we have dinner with him next Sunday, and he texted us, "I'm having sisters withdrawals for dinner!" We had to reassure him that we would be over soon! And in his talk at Ward Conference last week he talked about us TWICE! What a great man! I kinda never want to leave Lafayette! Good things are happening here! I think I'd be cool to stay here for the rest of my mish, in fact I think I will email President Collins right now and tell him that! 

Anyway, I love being a missionary! I love everything about Indiana, even the dogs are starting to grow on me! 

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