No Propane!

Hi Mom and Dad!

I know! i can’t believe how fast the time is flying. I was just thinking that by the end of next transfer i'll already be at my 6th month mark. Craziness!

I love the dresses! The Spanish Sisters were like, “That is such a cute dress!”  They are super comfortable!

The beach sounds nice! Nice and warm! :)

It’s been a rough week here.  We ran out of propane... Which means no hot water or heat or stove....  The lady we live with was bringing over some heaters because she can’t afford to fill it up yet. So I’m not sure what’s going on today. All I know is that I’m annoyed beyond anything else with my comp.
She complains "I’m not showering in cold water! Whah!" 
And I’m thinking, I’m sorry your life is so difficult. Leave me alone. :)

Yeah, it’s not the heat that bothers me.  We have a wood burning heater, so that’s no biggie. But the fact that we can only cook in a microwave and there’s no hot water is hard.
I just wash my hair in the cold water. It’s not that bad. :)
I actually really like the wood burner.  It’s nice, and I've gotten really good at starting fires.  It’s amazing the things you learn on a mission. :)

Splits with the Training Sisters was good.  I really like one of the STL's Sister Brown.  She is nice and I feel like we get along great. We actually got to teach some people, and had this awesome dinner with a member. 

Hey Mom, I met your long lost younger sister this week.  Honestly it’s crazy.  She looks like you and your sisters, has the same personality and the same laugh.  It’s really weird.  And some of the wedding pictures she has look a lot like Aunt Corby. It’s very strange.

Dad, that’s so awesome that you gave out a Book of Mormon on the plane.  Good job!

We had stake conference here this weekend, and it was super good.  The theme was missionary work. I saw Sue Brauning at stake conference.  Her ward, Ladera, just got added to the Los Lunas stake not even a month ago. So it was awesome to see her.  One of the YSA's who I’ve worked with a lot when I’m on exchanges was asked by the Stake President to open his mission call as part of his talk.  It was so great. And it was all about member missionary work.

[Darcie had told her the story about the Johnson’s lost cats]
Haha!
That’s such a funny story! Mr. Fluffy Guy, that’s a really funny name for a cat. Poor Aunt Katherine. :) She has seven kids and now three cats.  That definitely was a laugh that I needed. It’s been a really really long week. I’m so exhausted.

[Darcie had shared a story about an investigator she spoke with at church Sunday]
Yeah, that sort of questioning attitude is something that we get all of the time.  We tract into pastors and "well educated" people all of the time.  A couple of days ago we knocked on this door, and this lady came out. She was very nice and sweet and we talked for almost an hour.  But halfway through it turned out she was the mother of one of the pastors at this huge New Mexico based chain church, known for Mormon bashing. We get all sorts of crazy questions all of the time.  And people make all sorts of weird comments that make absolutely no sense. 

"Who wrote the Book of Mormon?" 
Well, it is a collection of writings by ancient prophets-
"But it’s not written by God, like the Bible is!"

Or we got one the other day where this lady told us that Moses didn't write his own Bible like Joseph Smith did. The whole time, in my head, I was like 'Moses did write the Bible' 

We meet all types! :)  It can actually be entertaining.  And it’s nice being a Sister because sometimes little old ladies let us in.  Some random catholic let us in for lunch the other day. She was very nice.  The Elders never get that. 

We are still on date for the 8 and 9 year old girls, which is good. The baptism date for Jessica and Nevaeh is the 22nd.  So I’m praying that I don’t get transferred, because that’s the week of transfers... I would be so sad if I left before that :(

And we also got an appointment for next week with a part member inactive family who wants the kids to be baptized, so another little girl and a little boy, who will most likely happen. Yeah it’s been a great experience. I’m really excited for the other little girl and boy. The girl is 12 and the boy is 9. So about Warren and Minas age.

And it’s also exciting to see that some of the girls that I helped teach with the Elders are still active. That’s always one of my worries, that they will go inactive after being baptized.  It’s just something to work for, I guess.  So many of the in actives that we work with went inactive within a year to two years after their baptism :(

We've also had some great experiences with some of the families that we have been teaching.  We are teaching a family and the Mom isn't all that interested but the Dad is super into it, and he read 100 pages of the Book of Mormon in a week and when we asked him to be baptized he said that he would have to be sure it was right for his family and he would have to see the church, but most likely yes.  It was so exciting!

Love you! 
Em