Really Busy Week

We have had a really busy week. We taught 31 lessons and we're all striving for at least 20 which was really hard to accomplish in my past areas....I'm so grateful to get a chance to teach as much as we do here. I love it. We've had our challenges though. We are learning a lot about working with the ward council and really being there to serve. That seems to be the theme for this transfer, we're ready to learn what the Lord has for us to learn. :) I know that will make things even better than they are for the missionaries that follow us.

Sister Riggs is so great. I truly love being companions with her! We have a lot of fun, work really hard, and are really good friends. :) She has helped me so much and I think I've helped her a little too.

I'm really not sure what to update you all on. We are going to the Temple today. That will be wonderful! We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We were in 5 homes and ate 2 dinners :) We got to teach a lesson to every family we visited. I think the members really appreciated it and we certainly did.

I can't believe it is Christmas time again. You should all check out mormon.org/christmas it is a huge campaign the church has been planning for and really trying to push! Tell your friends about it! We have a lot of people that we are teaching...that in itself is a blessing, but it is hard to get to them all. Please pray for us to help these newly added investigators to progress and come to church.

As for now, I don't have a lot more to report on. I'll try to attach some pictures to this e-mail. I love you all and think of you often! Thank you for your prayers and love!

Ouch...Thank You

Dear family,

Yesterday was a very bizarre day for us. After 4 weeks with our sweet Sister Greathouse, she felt strongly that she needed to go home to sort out a lot of health problems, so we had to drop her off at the airport yesterday morning. It was so hard knowing what lies before her if she truly wants to get back out here. She can do it with the Lord's help. We truly do miss her though. Sister Riggs and I just hugged and cried for a good while. After personal study we went to see Dr. Holmes, the Chiropractor. While he was adjusting Sister Riggs neck I had to look away so the image of the movement wouldn't be in my head when he adjusted mine. I hear the movement in her neck and she said, "oww,...thank you." It was a perfect analogy for the gospel and our experiences hear on Earth. Sometimes the Thank you is delayed for a very long time but it will always come when the Lord lets us understand the purpose of that trial or challenge. It's silly but very deep. I know there are people experiencing a lot of Oww for a reason and we can be a part of helping them come to say Thank you.

We just got back from a meeting for the Sisters in the mission. The 4 of us training Sisters (including the mormon battallion sisters) got a chance to share our thoughts with all 40 of the sisters here. It was wonderful. We talked about how we need to laugh and find joy in the journey. Self-destructing is Satan's way. Joy in the journey is the Savior's way. Sister Sterling (Phil, do you know any Sterlings from PG?) shared how her twin sisters that are about 4 were alone in the kitchen getting into their typical mischeif and from the other room she hear one of them say, "I believe in Savannah!" She peaked in to see Savannah standing on the kitchen counter tightly holding onto the cupboard with one hand and reaching far back into the cupboard with the other. Savannah said, "say it again." So her sister said, "I believe in Savannah!" That unity and confidence in each other is what we need in our companionships, mission, ward and stake. I know that applies to after the mission too. We can do incredible things when we know that someone believes in  us. I know that is true. I felt that the moment I walked into my district in the MTC. I felt it totally change me and I've carried that throughout my mission. Then we talked about the immense changes in missionary work that are approaching. We have 180 missionaries currently and are expecting that to increase by 70 before July. We want each missionary to come into this mission and feel like they are a part of something amazing and that they are needed and loved instantly. The work will truly roll forth with greater power as we are behind each other and pushing alongside. I felt so humbled and full of love for every sister as we all sat huddled in the living room of our mission home. I felt an outpouring of appreication for these choice daughters of God that are here serving the Lord. They each carry a power and I know that we can create a unity here that will help hasten the Lord's work.

I love this gospel. I Know it is true. I feel the safety and certainty that comes from spoken truth as the spirit witnesses to my heart that the doctrine is true. I love being a tool for the Lord. I'm looking forward to the months I have left here in San Diego and for the years I have in the Lord's kingdom all over the world. I'll still make a huge impact if it is a desire of mine and if I am willing to act on the impressions that come, even when they don't appear to make sense. I love you and invite you to pray for those opportunities to bless lives each day with an act of kindness and showing your awareness.

Baptisms!

We had an interesting week with Halloween and a few sad things happening with our investigators but we were able to grow even stronger as a companionship and as servants of the Lord. We had to accept and trust that the Lord knows what he is doing, even if we wanted someone's journey to be different. The Lord knows exactly what He is doing and we know that in his perfect timing, each of his children will have a chance to embrace the gospel in its fullness. I love this work. We are so lucky to be a part of it! I've been reflecting on how limited my time is to be a full-time missionary and what that means. I won't have the same capacity to reach people and I won't be recognized as a representative of the Lord...that is because I won't be an authorized servant anymore. Not that I want to dwell on it too much, but it has helped me see what an urgency there should be in my heart to make the fullest of this time. I am so grateful to be here and for the marvelous miracles that I have been a part of. I'll never be able to repay the Lord for even the smallest of those miracles.

We just got a new stake president last week and Elder Koelicker and Elder Bassett were here to make that change. They taught us so much! Elder Basset and I spoke for a little while and he asked me how long I had been on my mission. I said, "A While." He asked if my experience had been good and I assured him that it had been incredible. He then related to me that he was mission president in Mesa from 2007 to 2010 and that he still ached for it at times. I treasure this time...and am so so grateful for this calling. I'm also really pumped about coming home as a sanctified member of the church but I don't want to botch it. My theory is that if I have a plan and make realistic commitments to the Lord before I get home, I'll be able to springboard off the purifying that has happening these last 18 months.

I was in a car accident back in May and went to the chiropractor about 4 times and then the missionary department wanted me to get checked out by a medical doctor. I went and he said to take a lot of Ibuprofen regularly for a while and to have better posture. I went to our mission doctor last week because my companions already had to see him. He told me and Sister Riggs that the best solution is to just lose some of the weight that is on our frames...he's so right. But, I feel like my car wreck left me in a weird place.  Sister Russell told us we could go see Dr. Holmes a chiropractor just down the street from us. I had been there so many times before with Sister Ah Chookoon. He wanted to see me then but it was weird with all the medical doctors and I felt like my biggest problems (the headaches) were gone. Since then I've been really uncomfortable but nothing really painful. Today we went and he  charges $60 for an x-ray (he's like the only chiropractor that actually does those) which would've been almost all the money I have in my account but I knew it would be good to be seen. He sees missionaries for free except for that x-ray which he knocks down for us. So, he saw me and got a crazy adjustment on my neck and upper back...and I didn't leave with a headache like I did the four times before with a different chiropractor (of course there were some serious problems then with my whiplash.) We went up to pay for our xray and he said he wouldn't charge us. He just wanted to help us to feel better, so we could work harder and have more baptisms. :) Such a great man! That was such a miracle and he and his wife are the sweetest people ever! Wow, we definitely have to do something really nice for them. We are actually teaching his brother's girlfriend. It's crazy how things work out like that. I couldn't really express what wasn't right but after he adjusted me I felt so much better! I feel looser and lighter than I have in such a long time. Anyway, just thought I'd share that miracle with you all.

We have a baptism this weekend and 2 next week. Both of the Baptisms are completing part-member families. I love them!!!! :) The Lord has a great work for us to be doing here and so much has surfaced...we just have to keep moving forward and always being ready to declare the Lord's word to all of his Children around us. :)