There's no raining on this parade!

Hello all! Hope your week was great! Ours was good! Quite a lot can change in one week. This week is living proof.

D. is working towards a baptism date of March 16th. We are so excited for her. She is so sweet! She is one of those people who Heavenly Father has been working with for years. I don't think we had any influence in her decision to be baptized! She's had a lot of interactions with missionaries in the past, and she's ready now. Awesome!

We're still working with Ha; we taught the law of chastity yesterday and it went well. The law of chastity is my favorite lesson to teach, oddly enough. It is so straight forward and quick!

My interview this week with President was great! It was wonderful to see him and Sister Nilsen and talk with them. It's been a long time since I was able to do that. President couldn't get over how much I've changed.... the mission kind of just does that to you, I guess! Near the end of my interview they asked if I would extend my mission to do floater training with the sisters, kind of like Sister Cash did this time last year. I told them “of course”! It would only be a few weeks, but I'll take what I can get. The only problem is that I’ll be home after Mother’s Day instead of on May 10, which was my previous release date. I'm sorry I won’t be home for it Mom!!!

The Nilsens told me that there are 16 sisters coming in the May transfer!! Wow! And Sister Nilsen says that last week the number was 8...it will have doubled! I’m guessing it will keep increasing for a while, too! There literally won’t be enough sisters to do training! I wonder if they will train in trios?

The last highlight was seeing Elder and Sister P. (friends from back home, who are now serving a mission in my district)!!! It was awesome! Super blast from the past! I'll attach a picture!

Mmmm . . . shopping channel?

Wow! What a week! First off... .transfers went well! I did not go to them, however! It's official: at the end of this transfer I will have spent over half of my mission in Zanesville!!

A few weeks ago I developed this weird dry skin on my elbows. I tried using lotion, but no good. Well, we went to Walmart to look at lotions and were contacting at the same time. We met this one lady who recommended a certain kind of lotion, and we talked for a while. So this week when we went to Walmart, that same lady was there again and came up to talk to us! She asked if we were Mormon missionaries. She said she'd felt something special about us as we'd talked with her last time. Turns out she's a less-active member whose 1st husband didn't like the Church. Her 2nd husband, however, doesn't have too much exposure yet. I asked if we could stop by sometime and we got her address. Her name is E. We're stopping back later today! I'm so excited! Super miracle. Also, the rash randomly went away all by itself after that. Perhaps we were just meant to meet E. on the lotion aisle?

In other news I currently have no voice. I've had a viral infection of some kind since late November. I'll get better for a few days and then move on to the next symptom. I could probably kick it except I'm constantly outside and shaking so many hands! The ward is teasing me mercilessly for not having a voice though.... probably has to do with how vocal I am about my opinions or something... :)

As far as studies/spiritual learning goes. The February Ensign is amazing! In particular the article by Elder Oaks about tolerance and truth, as well as the article on integrity by Elder Callister. They are amazing! Read them! Here's my favorite part from the integrity article:

“Integrity is the foundation upon which character and a Christlike life are built. If there are cracks in that foundation, then it will not support the weight of other Christlike attributes that must be built upon it. How can we be humble if we lack the integrity to acknowledge our own weaknesses? How can we develop charity for others if we are not totally honest in our dealings with them? How can we repent and be clean if we only partially disclose the truth to our bishop? At the root of every virtue is integrity.

“Christian author C. S. Lewis noted that once we make a mistake in a mathematical equation, we cannot just keep on going: “When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start over again, the faster I shall get on.”

“Likewise, we cannot continue to fully acquire other Christlike virtues until we first make integrity the granite foundation of our lives. In some cases this may require us to go through the painful process of ripping out an existing foundation built upon deceit and replacing it stone by stone with a foundation of integrity. But it can be done.”

Isn't it amazing? It reminds me of the house analogy that you shared with me, Dad! It’s from Mere Christianity, too!

Well, I love you all! I'll send some pictures! Send me letters and pictures! I love hearing from you. :)

We must be protocoligorically correct!

The temple last week was amazing!  So nice to go to the house of the Lord and seek revelation for our ward, investigators and companionship.  Always wonderful!

Transfers are Thursday . . . Valentines Day!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for all the info on the origin of Valentines Day; I actually never really knew where it came from.  I'm not sure what will happen with transfers.  If I stay here, I'll have been in this area for over nine months of my mission!  We have 24 new missionaries arriving, eight of which are sisters!

We had a wonderful Sunday with four member-present lessons.  We also found two new investigators this week.  One (C.) is the wife of a prospective elder; we've been wanting to teach her for so long, so that is very exciting. The other (E.) is a former investigator that I met eight months ago.  E. has come to church periodically in the time I've known her, and when she came to church yesterday, there was light in her eyes and she asked us to start teaching her!  We're going by later today!

We were able to teach T. last night; we hadn't seen her for over a month.  The Spirit was as thick as peanut butter and the member we brought with us was absolutely inspired!  T. is coming to a chapel tour this Friday with her son and her son's girlfriend.

Ho. came to church for the third time!  Yay!  She still won't stay for the second or third hour, though.  She needs to go to Sunday school and relief society -- she would love it!  I really want her to be able to progress.  Come on!  You can do it!  Trust the Spirit!  We also taught Ha. twice this week, once to read the Book of Mormon with her and the other time to teach her the Ten Commandments.

I'm out of time!  I love you all!  Stay safe and remember that we always have an opportunity to share what we know with those around us, whether they are already members of the Church or not!

Here is my absolute favorite quote by Elder Richard G. Scott: "You become who you want to be by consistently being who you want to become."

I am the Frito Bandito!

Hello everyone!!! It's been a wonderful week in the Great Ohio! How's it been for yous? "Yous" is actually a term out here, similar to y'all. :) I really hope I don't come home from Appalachia with an accent and a new vocabulary! :)

It has been snowing consistently over the last three or four days. The roads have been exciting and our car is DISGUSTING!!! I will never buy a white car! We don't have preparation day today, except for emailing, because we get to go to the temple this week!! Yay! I'm so happy! So, for all of you who sent me letters, I will hopefully get to them Thursday, but we may not have any p-day left after the temple experience!

It has been an exciting week full of miracles and amazing missionary opportunities. Always –  even if they're small.

Ho. came to church yesterday! She only stayed for sacrament, but I caught her crying during a member’s testimony. I think she really enjoyed it. We had a great lesson on Saturday about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration. She has agreed to begin the Book of Mormon again (we gave her a reading assignment). She just needs to read and Pray!

We've started a new activity with a few of our members. No one has really hopped on their member-missionary commitments, so we're putting out a challenge. We made them this little envelope to hang on their fridge. The front of the envelope says their name and is super cute. Inside the envelope are pump-up scriptures for them to read as a family every morning and on the back there is a little chart with three tiers. The bottom tier (Telestial) has 15 boxes. The second tier (Terrestrial) has 10 and the Celestial has five. Each box is a for a person or family that they invite to church! The Telestial reward is that the Sisters will do their most despised chore. This was probably a very bad idea . . . out here people have farms. I have a feeling we'll be shoveling a lot of manure. Hey, if it gets them to invite . . . awesome!! I love manure!! The Telestial reward is another despised chore and a delicious baked treat. The celestial reward is a reward from God. We can't give those rewards! I'll let you know how successful it is!

That's about all of the updates that we have for the week! Sister H. and I are hitting our stride. I hope neither of us gets transferred next week!! I've been here for 8 months....I hate transfer time. I'm always so uneasy!

Stay safe out there! Love you all!