Saturday is a Special Day

Dear Family,

This week was just fantastic! Goodness! I don't know where to start or wat I didn't tell you on Thursday! Christmas was great! 

Monday we only emailed then went back to work for the day since we were going to the temple on Friday. So we walked around for several hours from place to place and handing out He is the Gift cards to everyone we saw. It was good, we handed a ton out. Lo and behold an hour after we did that someone called us back! That never happens. But, we missed the call and just got a voice mail and didn't understand it. And we didn't call back. This Sunday I was cleaning out our voice mails and a listened to it again and I realized what it said. This guy wanted to know more! So we immediately called back, he was still hard to understand but we did set up an appointment to come and see him! So that is sweet! A first for me! Call back. And then for dinner we went to the botanical gardens for a sweet light show! It was so magical. I can't even imagine what it would have looked like with snow. And no, we didn't have any snow at all this Christmas. In fact the day after it was 50 and sunny! It may have been my first not white Christmas. We also saw live reindeer! That was cool! 

Tuesday we went to a Christmas Zone Meeting in Madison. I opened my gift of Truman Madsen's talks on Joseph Smith early and we listened to those on the way. It was a fun meeting to see everyone and to have a free meal. But that is honestly all I can remember of that day. This has been a long week. I can't believe that was even this week. 

On Christmas Eve we started off by walking around downtown and handing out He is the Gift Cards again. That was fun and interesting. Then we went to Sister Buchanan's and she prepared several gifts we could go out and deliver. One of the people we went to lived in an old Victorian house. He is an artist and there was literally something painted every square inch of the house. It was incredible! I have never seen anything like it! I need to go back and take pictures. I can't even describe it. That was fun. We picked some people we thought it would be good for and enjoyed our afternoon. She wanted this Christmas to be different since her husband just passed away. So then we came back to her house when all the presents were delivered and ate some delicious Papa Murphy's pizza. Which it has been like a solid 9 months since I have had that. We had the veggie pizza, it was super good. We went and helped a member go and clean their apartment that they rent out for a while. Then we went to the Paulsens! It was so fun to be with a family! They were just way to good to us! We got an awesome Christmas Eve dinner just full of traditions! Their little girl had lots of fun with us. I got her to give me several hugs and squeeze as tight as she could! That felt good! Everyone needs a good little kid hug every once and a while. They gave us all huge stockings just full of gifts. It was so sweet of them. We acted out the nativity and just had lots of fun. After we learned some acupuncture! That was exciting! It was only for the truly brave in heart! I was the 2nd person to put needles into my arm so the pride of all the Elders was on the line. Not all of them did it though! I sent you a lovely picture attached :) We then sang some Christmas hymns and just had a good time! Sister Plante and I ended the night by doing a Christmas devotional. I thought I would have trouble sleeping but really that hasn't been a thing lately! 

Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents! That was fun! Thank you for all the wonderful things that you sent me I love each one! Everyone was so good to me I have no idea how I am going to send a thank you card to everyone. Wow! We then went to the Lebeck's to Skype! That was fun! It was so great to talk to all of you! Or at least to look at all of you! It was fun! I can't believe we only have one more time left! That is just strange! But thank you for all joining! It warmed my heart and I will be able to make it through the next 5 months! We went to another members house and played games. We each got to pick one and I picked Dominion! That was super enjoyable and reminded me of fun times! My jaw about dropped when I saw that one. Then we went to dinner at another member's home and had Christmas dinner. We accidentally showed up 30 minutes early so I entertained the little girl and kept her out of the kitchen and was super helpful. That is what her mom said but I was just having fun playing with her and her awesome toys. We were best buds by the end of the night. Basically I just tried to get my kid fill for 2 days! They also provided us with some presents. People were just too good to us. 

Friday was another big day! We got to go to the Chicago temple! We woke up brighter and earlier than usual to go! Let me tell you, it is a lot prettier in person! I think all of us missionaries were slightly shocked, pictures just can't capture it at all. It was so great to be back there. After we met the temple President and he blew our minds, so I am going to have to wait and ponder until I can go again and see. It was good after so long! After we got there we saw a van full of missionaries pull up from the Chicago mission for their zone conference. It was crazy. 

We drove back through Lake Geneva which is super rich man's place. Supposedly it is the largest and clearest lake. That is where that huge picture of the mansion is from. We also saw places with gas at 2.12! It's crazy!

I decided all the miracles happen on Saturday. We tripled our lessons for the week and just had miracle after miracle. We met Hope who is having a hard time with her mother's death. So we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She just loved it! She is going to start the Book of Mormon and come to church next week! We are meeting with her again tonight to teach her the Restoration. It will be good. Then we just got in contact with a lot of people who had disappeared. We also got a referral! It was just a great Saturday!

Really it was a great week! I loved it! I can't believe how much happened. I will have to tell more stories in 10 months because I can't write it all. But I did get to finish the Book of Mormon this week and Jesus the Christ as my gift to Jesus. It was so great! I feel like I know my Savior so much more. I can hardly believe let alone comprehend the magnificent love he has for me and every child of God. I am so grateful for Him, the greatest gift of all. Through him all things are made possible and all things are made right! He is the great refiner and through Him we can all be changed and feel his love. I am so grateful to be on a mission. I am learning so many things I could have learned no other way. It is life changing!

I hope you have a Happy New Year! This will probably also be my first year (in remembrance) starting the New Year sleeping! Changes all over the place! Drive safe! I love you so much!

I love you more than all the cheese consumed in Wisconsin! ;)

Anne

It's Christmas Time!

Dear Family,

It has been a fantastic week and it will be an even better week this week! So much to look forward too! I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will try to go in chronological order. So this week we went to go and visit Krista. She came to church 2 weeks ago and we haven't really seen her since. Apparently it's a busy time of year. The sisters have been going to her house since May and we haven't really been able to teach her much because she never lets us in and she is always "busy". This week she let us in! And her kids were there too! They are so cute! They are 8 and 9, Chris and Destiny. So cute. Chris he gave us batteries for Christmas and Destiny took a Papa Tom's Christmas card and altered it so it was to us from her. We taught Krista where the Book of Mormon came from and how it can help her, she said she is now excited to read it! When we were leaving Destiny said "Thank you for your company!" I don't know what 9 year old says that but it was dang cute!

Thursday we gathered with some ward members in Clinton ( a small town we cover) and went caroling at a nursing home. We sang in the cafeteria 2 songs then walked down the halls and sang. After a couple minutes the people were asking us to come back to the cafeteria and this old lady hauled us back there. Elsy, the old lady, then asked what key we were singing in and she sat down at the piano and busted a tune! Holy cow! It was incredible! We preceded to sing every Christmas hymn, she was so incredibly good. So after I asked her how she knew piano so well. She used to play professionally at churches! She knew the piano like the back of her hand! I felt like I ran into Bach or something. After I went up to an old man who had been singing along and had just loved the whole thing. I shook his hand and wished him a Merry Christmas, then he saw my name tag. "Oh! I know your church! I love your church! I have been investigating it for 30 years!" What?? He then tells me all about how he was going to the Beloit ward and loved the Madison stake and went to conference there and just busting out all this church lingo. It was crazy! I asked him if he still had a Book of Mormon and he has read the whole thing and loves it. We are going back there. A Christmas miracle! After caroling we went and had a "bonfire" and roasted some s'mores. It was a great time. 

Saturday we went out tracting with very little success. The Packers weren't playing but apparently there was a game that was vital to there salvation. So most people won't answer the door. So after a very cold 1 and a half we finally found someone! His name is Rob and he was all nonchalant until we started talking about where the Book of Mormon came from. He said he totally believes Christ visited others. He said he would probably read the whole thing this week. We will see how that goes! We then went to a less actives and found a pretty awesome nativity. They had Micky and Minnie as Joseph and Mary, Boo from Monster's Inc. as the baby, Green Lantern, Batman and Superman as the 3 wise men. It was sweet. 

Now for the big Kahuna awesome day! Sunday! No one came to church but I just love Christmas Sundays! But after church we had a big fiesta with the Nielson clan. It was 4 families. One of them had bragged that he can make better Cafe Rio than Cafe Rio does. Oh boy it was good! I would say it perhaps was better than Cafe Rio if my taste buds haven't been deprived of Cafe Rio for the last 9 months. But we gladly took the leftovers home with us. I also made a delicious creation! At the dinner before when Brother Nielson had bragged about his cooking skills we dreamt up a really good brownie. For some reason we called it a tootsie roll brownie even though it has nothing to do with that besides the shape. We imagined a brownie in the shape of a tootsie roll with chocolate chips dipped in caramel then dipped in chocolate. I thought I would be funny and make it for our party. So I couldn't really figure out how to do that. So I made it like cake pops. I crumbled the brownies into a bowl and mixed it with caramel, rolled it into balls and dipped it into milk chocolate. They were good. Really good. The best part was seeing people reactions eating them, the wide eyes and the praise escaping from their lips. I felt pretty proud of myself! Anyways, sorry if you are drooling now. I will get back to what we did. We were also able to see a recent convert who we haven't seen in 2 months. That was a miracle. Her new boyfriend might actually be the one dragging her to church, so kind of a good thing.

That night we went back to someone we had done a survey with, Michelle. We were almost starting to believe she was a figment of our imagination because there has been no life in that house for 3 weeks, not that we did tons of drive-bys or anything. We are not creepy. But last night there was life! And she opened the door! She had read a little of the Book of Mormon and said it seems pretty good so far. We asked if there was a time we could come back and tell her more. She told us now would be good and to come in. We both sat down deer in headlight mode. I think it was just kind of shocking to both of us. It isn't good when you keep turning to your comp because you don't know what to say then she looks at you because she doesn't know what to say. It was rather funny, that will be an embarrassing moment to watch up in heaven! So after a very choppy we-have-no-idea-what-we-are-doing-but-we-will-do-our-best-to-open-our-mouths moment we transitioned into the Plan of Salvation and from there it went great! The Spirit took over! And by the end she was crying and we invited her to be baptized if she got an answer if it was true. Then she sat there deer in headlights mode and said "what?" Sister Plante repeated the invite. She then asked if she needed to be baptized again, we said yes. I was totally waiting more an MTC prepped horror moment, hard question with high likelihoods of offense but she said yes! So we will go back and set a date after Christmas. The only bad part about Christmas, waiting. So that was a HUGE miracle. Yeah!

Anyways other exciting news this week! Tomorrow we finish the Book of Mormon! Wahoo! Thank you for doing that with me mom. it means a lot. Thank you for reading too dad. I have an awesome red and green reference book to the atonement. I had no idea the Book of Mormon was so full of the atonement. Everything really does revolve around that wonderful gift! We get to go to a Christmas Zone Training Meeting tomorrow to discuss what we have learned, eat cookies and laugh! That will be fun! Oh and tonight for dinner we are going to the Botanical gardens for a light show and to see live reindeer! I am PUMPED! We didn't know this place existed until one night we were out driving in the middle of nowhere when BAM! This magical place appeared in front of us! So pictures to come. Then of course Christmas Eve and Christmas! I get to hangout with you guys! See your beautiful faces! I will be doing it about 12 my time, you do the math! That way there will be no confusion. Also dad, it was your favorite day of the year yesterday. Shortest day and from here it only gets better. Then on Friday, drum roll please, I get to go to the temple!!! First time in 8 months! I am stoked! So basically it will be the best week. We are going caroling with the Elders and just basking in the Christmas Spirit! Thank you for all the cards and gifts everyone has sent! i am just feeling the love! I love all of you SO much!

I love you more than all the Christmas presents in the world!

Anne

You'll never get dehydrated if you just keep breathing!

Dear Familia!

I just can't get enough of Christmas! It is just so magical! Except, there is no snow! It has been so warm! And so foggy! It has been a solid fog for 2 days straight. It was weird, everything is wet, there are puddles BUT it hasn't rained. Therefore my title. I am pretty sure humidity is like 140% because you wave your hand through the air and you can feel the moisture. I want some snow, I am not dreaming of a foggy Christmas, it has been fun though. 

So I will just get the house keeping out of the way first. I will be doing a google hangout on Christmas, it will probably be somewhere in between 11-1 ish my time. We don't have a solid time and I don't know if I am going first or my companion. If you could mail me, handwritten, my gmail password so I can access that, it would be great. My siblings are welcome to join, I invited them. So there is the stuff, I will detail it out next Monday. But let me know if anything doesn't work. I will probably have my screen on mom and dad most of the time so it won't be chaotic and noisy. Kind of like what we did with me opening my call, but I do want to talk to each of you! I love you guys and I can't wait! 9 days! 

I have been loving my advent calendar, it is so fun! Just like my presents I itch to open them early, but I don't! 

Anyways, not too much happened this week. It is hard to find people home around this time and everyone is busy with the holidays. We did find one awesome person. Her name is Erika. We did they survey with her and she has never been to church and never read the bible. Her daughter is asking a lot of questions about God though so it has been weighing on her mind. She had us come in and answer her questions. She had a lot of really good ones like "Where is grandpa? Does he live with Jesus?" And some silly ones too like "Can Jesus turn into bread?" I just love children. We taught them a lot of random things and invited her to church. She is timid so we are doing a church tour first this week. It should be a great thing for her little family! And she is married so we don't have to worry about some things! 

William got back in contact with us, I don't know if you remember him. But he is really sick and could use prayers. He has so much potential, you can tell he is just waiting to receive the gospel. So basically just a lot of things have the potential but it just takes some acting of others. If people only knew. 

Really not too much happened. It's been rather ridiculous, but that is ok. The members have been super nice to us. We have 4 invites on Christmas and maybe 2 on Christmas Eve. I hope we get more so we don't have to knock doors. I am just pumped if you can't tell. It will be weird to be away on Christmas though. But we have people taking care of us, it'll work out.

Alan's story is really funny, oh boy. It is shocking to some people. I have not seen Sister Morales yet, I don't know if I will. She is further up North and going home in March, probably before I have a chance. Who knows though. Maybe if I get transferred to Milwaukee before then I would see her. 

Well I hope you continue to enjoy the snow! I love you guys so much! Sing lots of Christmas music for me!

I love you more than all the christmas lights in the whole world!

Anne

We decorate trees like the Jaredites build boats!

Dear Family!

It has been a good week! I don't know if I have mentioned our whole new survey approach, I am sure I have. But we did it quite a bit this week. We found 2 really awesome people doing it. On Tuesday when we did it we got let into quite a few homes which was nice because we didn't have to be cold! However, none went anywhere except for one. I think the key on how far it will go (usually) is if they answer one of the questions a specific way. The 6th question on the survey is "Do you believe the bible to be the word of God or just a history book? If you knew there was another book of scripture written by prophets that testified of Jesus Christ, would you read it?" Without fail, it they say they would they let us teach them. So after all night of people saying they would not read another book we finally met DJ who answered yes. We shared with him the message of the Book of Mormon and he was just on the edge of his seat, and when we offered it to him he jumped right up! It was pretty cool! Then we set up a return appointment and he said he would start reading it as soon as we left. 

On Saturday we did them again. This time we went to so many houses and no one owuld give us the time of day. It was weird (kind of :). One of the first houses we went to a lady was on the phone so we just moved on and kept going. We did the whole street up and down then we decided to go back to the lady's house. Are we glad she did! She let us in and took the survey and she gave great answers. Then we transitioned into the restoration and she was just eating it up. She may be the most receptive person I have ever taught the restoration too. There was such a strong spirit after sharing the first vision and she said she really likes that and feels she can get an answer too! And the whole time she was just really into it, like with the apostasy and how people picked what they wanted and how Joseph was confused because he would read something yet all these churches would say it meant different things. You could totally see her connect to it and kind of a light bulb go off saying "yeah! every church is so different! I want to know what Christ's church taught!" And we are going back tomorrow. We pray she will read and feel of the spirit. 

We had our nativity festival this week. It was crazy awesome. The second night the ward did the music. So I signed up, you know share your talent and don't hide it under a bushel. As a missionary though, it is highly difficult to practice your talents. I had 3 days to put together a piece. I played Joy to the World. after I simplified several hard spots it went decent. My music fell off in the middle of the performance but I kept going with my page turner rescued it! Good thing I asked for one! 

We also are handing out lots of "He is the Gift" cards. I am almost positive all y'all with Facebook have your walls exploding with that video! It has been my favorite tool so far though! It can change any awkward situation. You can do as awkward of an approach as you can, crossing the street, going into peoples garages, it doesn't matter. When you say I want to share this Christmas video with you they just love it! So if by some crazy happenstance you haven't seen it yet, watch it!christmas.mormon.org

I do love Christmastime! I got a package from April and Jake and their fam. Now there are presents underneath our tree. If you send me a package that you don't want me to open, write that on the outside. But if there are wrapped presents I will quickly put them under the tree and resist all urges to touch, shake and poke! 

I am glad you finally got to see Meet the Mormons! So did it start out at Edwards if it just got to the paramount? That is crazy if it did! I got to see that right after it came out. We had a Zone conference and watched it. I think all US missionaries got to see it. I am also glad mom is still enjoying and utilizing her iPhone. I still can't believe she has one. It is rather ridiculous :) I love my advent calendar. A new letter gets opened every morning at 6:30. The King Singers sound fun too! I have never heard them before. 

By the way mom I have been doing the scripture challenge with you the whole time. I just got a day behind during transfers and like you said it is very difficult to catch up. So I am with you! Today we read one of my favorite scriptures. I don't even remember if I picked a scripture for my plaque, but if I could now it would be 3 Nephi 9:14. I love that Christ always invites us to come to him and be healed of everything. He puts no boundaries or limits. You don't have to be this perfect or fit any quota. He loves us all and desires our happiness and eternal life with Him and our families. Because family life is God's life which is exalted life!

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!
I love you more than I love basking in our Christmas corner!

Anne

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

It sounds like you all had a crazy holiday! I liked your noise video mom. It is actually pretty funny, when we go to dinner appointments with families and they are embarrassed by their kids being crazy and loud I say oh no! I love it! It feels like home! So I love going to crazy families homes! Not that you guys are crazy or anything... ;)

Monday was Sister Plante's 21 birthday! That was fun. We went to the mall and I got a cute warm scarf. We also found nerd heaven. If I was rich I would buy everything. It is full random stuff of superheros, doctor who, and anything else that has fans. It is a really fun store, a dangerous one too. We went to the Lebecks and had pizza and cake. I hope she had fun!

Tuesday we went and taught Kevin. That was crazy. We were still able to communicate and teach him! I just couldn't think in english for the rest of the day I was just in sign mode. We saw a lot of great members too. It was a good day. My companion came up with the craziest Thanksgiving message which probably shouldn't have seen the light of day but it did. We made a paper turkey and compared the turkey to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The turkey really trusts his farmer (faith) so he goes to his farmer and gets all his "bad feathers" plucked out (repentance). Then he gets washed and cleaned by the farmer (baptism). Then he gets thrown in the oven (baptism by fire aka the Holy Ghost) and then he gets carved into what the farmer knew was his divine potential (enduring to the end). We were careful who we shared it with, the family we did just loved it. It was really funny. The 2 year old at the end said "No, we can't eat Thomas!" It was super cute. Then his parents were telling us on Thanksgiving he kept asking for more Thomas. Scarring children all over the Midwest! They got a kick out of it and helped us improve it. 

I can't remember everything so we will just go to Thanksgiving. We went to the Lebecks in the morning and just hung out with them and talked. After we went to the Bishop's house for a giant Thanksgiving feast. That was super fun being with their family. After lunch everyone went downstairs to play rockband and I thought of how similar our Thanksgivings were! They even had the one anti-social guy go into a room by himself to watch the game ;) Then we went to the Holloways for dinner (which was only an hour after I stopped eating during the last feast). The had all the missionaries over and another family plus their 7 kids. So it was a feast of 20 and it was rather comical. They had lots of fun foods and fancy foods. They had spicy jalapeno yams. They were great, you'd like them! Me and Sister Plante just loved them and all the Elders were scared to eat them. Eventually their pride got to them and they tried it but couldn't handle it. Not that I am prideful or anything. It was a fun Thanksgiving, it helped that we didn't have to knock doors. Knocking on holidays is no fun for anyone. After we ate I I am surprised I fit it all in! It was a big eating day!

Friday and Saturday we had exchanges. One of the Sister Training Leaders, Sister Ostler, came here. We had lots of fun together. We had a very successful day! We finally got more lessons in for the week. We were just able to find and talk to a lot of people. One of our investigators Tom had a miracle! We went to his house and he said he went the doctor this week and they were checking his lungs because he had COPD. They came back and were in shock because it was completely gone. He is fine now and healthy. He gave credit where credit is due, God, and thinks him meeting with us and him reading and praying helped in the process. So he is going to keep doing that! It was cool.

We also met a woman named Krista. The sisters had been to her house many times but she doesn't let them in because something is always going on. So we felt prompted to go over there this week. She opened the door and said she had been thinking about us and she really wanted to come to church! Heck yes! So we got her a ride to church yesterday and she came! And she loved it! It was a perfect sacrament meeting. It was all about the blessings of daily scripture study. Inspired! There was one talk where she read the Book of Mormon is 7 weeks because she just loved it so much and saw the blessings. After Krista said maybe she'd read it in 7 weeks! In Sunday school afterwards she just kept thanking us a lot about how even though she never let us in, we  kept coming back religiously to share the word with her (got a chuckle out of the class, yes, we hallways come back.) It was cute. And she wants to come again, it is going to be a great week.

Sister Plante and I are getting along great! We have officially made a Christmas corner. We found two chairs in the spare room and put them by our Christmas stuff. And we grab our blankets, turn on the heater and sit in our chairs watching Christmas Mo-tab. It is quite enjoyable. It is a little feeling of home. It is also where I now spend all my spare time :) Oh and Friday was like the best day ever! I got an awesome Thanksgiving package! It was so good, I love getting those thigns, never too many! Then I got 3 letter from friends who hadn't written me yet on my mission! What! Crazy stuff!

Well I am glad you all had a happy Thanksgiving! It looked fun! I love you all a ton! I hope i didn't make you cry too much mom in my video! ;)

Love you more then all the calories I put into this body of mine!

Anne!

Oh the Weather Outside's Delightful

Dear Family!

It is just a wonderful day! It has been raining for 2 days straight and during companion study I said, "Could you imagine how awesome this would be if the rain was snow?!" Two minutes later BAM! Snow! And it is just dumping! It was pretty exciting! It has been such an exhausting week and I haven't written in my journal so I have no reference as to what has happened! (I usually write every night mom, this is the first I have missed) But oh boy! I will do my best to go off memory!

Monday and Tuesday was just crazy getting Sister Homan packed up and get all her goodbyes in. Just lots of visits.

Wednesday was crazy day! Transfer day! We drove ( I drove because I can do that now :) ) to Madison early and she left and all us missionaries waited all day for our new companions. My new companion is Sister Plante. It's french though so it's not plant but kind of like how the mom say french in Better Off Dead. French bread, french dressing and so on. She is a ginger! She is an only child from Orem, Utah. My first Utah companion! She is super sweet. It is actually her 21st birthday today! She made german pancakes this morning! That reminded me off home. We didn't have whipped cream though so I may or may not have just put icing on it. Either way it was delicious. Anyways back to Wednesday, we went and ate dinner with Katie, the woman who got baptized last Saturday. Her husband is a member but like 5 other people live in their house that I just can't figure out the relations. But we had some pretty crazy and good gospel discussions and questions with everyone in the house. If we made a mess hopefully the Elders can fix it :) Our district got cut in half so we have 3 new missionaries in our ward. One of them is being trained here. 

So our mission is implementing this crazy new approach. It is a bold new way to get in doors. We ask if they would be so kind to help us with a survey we are taking. Then we say "May we come in" whilst walking forward assuming they will. Then once you are in the door you point to the living room and ask "Straight through?" Then you sit down, make sure they sit down. You then take the survey and ask to share a message that would answer some of those questions. Holy cow it's bold. We have done only 3 so far and got in 1 door. Afterwards I am pretty sure I weirded myself out, I can't even imagine how they felt. But we have been promised by our inspired leaders that we will get progressing investigators if we keep doing it. So we are doing it. We made a list of less actives we have no information about and we try to visit them then go survey their neighbors. So we should be busy for a while. 

We have a lot of people with promise but now everyone has the flu, so not a ton of progress with our current people. Saturday we went to Bishop's Breakfast. This is a huge deal for the missionaries because they invite all the missionaries and all the recent converts and anyone else their heart desires and we feast on so many breakfast foods! It's delicious! We had freezing rain that morning though, so it almost got cancelled because bishop lives 30 minutes away. But we made it anyways! Also I am officially the designated driver! I never thought this day would come! Because typically I am the youngest and the choose based off of experience. Well when Sister Plante filled out the form for driving on her mission it asks how many miles you probably have driven. Her mom told her to put a big number so she thought 100 was a big number :) So I get to! Which is great, I just love to drive! Granted two Elders in our district did the exact same thing with writing down 100 and they can't drive. Silly missionaries. Even with the freezing rain we survived! It was delicious!

Sunday was awesome. We walked into gospel principles and it was full of less actives! Most of them just showed up out of the blue! There were 7! It was CRAZY! Awesome though! Sunday bishop invited us and all the misionaries over for dinner again and everyone shared how their families came into the gospel, it was neat. Then we went and taught our ASL class. Oh boy it is going to be interesting continuing that! It will be fun! I will be pro by the time I leave janesville! Sometimes I say my personal prayers in sign, it works pretty well. 

So now it is my turn to share the talks from sacrament meeting. It was based off of Craig C. Christensen's talk this conference. There were two really good lines from the talk though. He said his mission president would tell them all the time, when you feel the spirit you must act or change what the spirit is telling you, otherwise it is just a good feeling that will eventually fade away. He also said "Faith is more of a choice than a gift" It is so true. The only way we can get true faith is by acting. The only way to gain a testimony of the gospel is to live the principles of it. He talked about no matter what, the world can never proof religion wrong or proof it right. That is the brilliance of our Heavenly Father's gospel. It is a choice! I thought that was great! 

I hope you all have a fantabulastic Thanksgiving! I hope it is a white one too! Have fun, take pictures and write me! Everyone can go gather around my shrine when you miss me! It'll be great! I love you soo much!!!!!

I love you more than I am jealous that both my parents now have iPhones... :)

Anne!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Dear Family,

It has officially snowed here in Wisconsin! Whoot whoot! And it is sticking! I love it! So pretty! Really funny story though. Sister Homan is the designated driver and she is from California. She was here for last winter but has never driven in the snow. We were leaving an appointment 5 minutes late and we were supposed to be at a meeting. It is like a 7 minute drive to the house we are going so we text and say we are going to be 10 minutes late. There is probably 1 cm of snow on the ground at this point. It has been a solid 10 minutes on the road and Sister Homan had not gone above 12 mph and we weren't even half way there. She may have been slightly freaking out then she had me call the mission office and tell them she doesn't want to drive, so I did and they made me the driver and she immediately pulled over and made me drive. It was pretty funny! I was happy because I love driving and haven't done it in 7.5 months! Granted it is not going to last long. 

So we went over to the Tuckers house for dinner this week again, they are the ones with the ghost. The husband wasn't home this time so it was super creepy. When we were eating my back was turned to the stairwell where they had seen the ghost and half way through dinner everyone at the dinner table jumps and are all looking down the stairwell and said they saw something down there. Of course the rest of the night I am super jumpy. We were teaching our lesson and I kept just blanking everytime we heard a noise. It was pretty funny, I just couldn't handle myself. Then we came home to the wind howling and I just had a lovely remembrance of all my childhood fears :)

We had our last district meeting of the transfer which is always sad. It was fun though. Elder Robinson did ballet and he wants to be a professional dancer, I have heard he is really good. But he does the best awkward old man dance. Everyone turns their cameras on to video and the elders have an awkward random dance party, with no music. I have a pretty funny video of it for some future time. 

Thursday we went and taught Kevin with the spanish elders. Oh man, it was so funny. I think Kevin really enjoyed all the company, it helps that the Elders are just downright hilarious Kevin gave all of us name signs though! I have an official ASL name sign! How cool is that? Mine is a "T" sign brushing the chin. It is the sign for cute, but with a T :) I am pretty pumped. Sister Homan was ecstatic she has only been waiting for one for 3 years. You can only be given a deaf name by someone who is deaf. 

Saturday was pretty cool, the Elders had a baptism. Her name is Katie. So we did a lot with her because you need sisters helping a woman getting ready for baptism. She had to get baptized 3 times. It was bad the last time though because the witnesses passed it the 2nd time so she was already changed when we had to go tell her it had to be done again... But she still had a good time! She likes us sisters because she is feeding us this week. We wrote down her confirmation blessing and I am going to make it all nice and give it to her at dinner. We pray she will stay strong! But during the baptism we got our transfer texts, worst thing ever! Sister Homan AND half our district is leaving. They literally chopped every companionship in half! We were all pretty upset. Especially Sister Homan. She is going back to her first area which she is pumped about. I am getting a Sister Plante- I am not sure if that is her full name but the transfer board cuts her name off as. So I am just calling her Sister Plant for now, I am almost sure I am pronouncing it wrong. 

We found a ton of Christmas stuff in our closet this morning. Sister Homan was super against having Christmas before Thanksgiving but I think she has been enjoying the Christmas music I have been playing. We have a Christmas tree decorated and a giant blow up santa! I put them right next to my desk :) I love Christmas! Wahoo! 

Basically I love you all! I hope you have safe travels and great Thanksgiving preparations! Stay warm!

Love you more than I love driving!

Anne

Then We Must Go Pro!

Dear Family!

It was a good week! A long good week! Weeks are always long what am I talking about. So during stake conference this week Sister Cutler came up to me and we made plans to surprise Sister Homan. One of her converts wanted to come and take her out to lunch on Tuesday. So I totally tricked her (which is really hard as a missionary by the way because we are ALWAYS together, but I am really tricky). We were waiting at the library to meet someone when her convert Coralyn came in and she totally freaked out, it was pretty great. Afterwards we went to a lesson at Kevin's (the deaf less active). So we are starting to teach an ASL class this Sunday the 16th and Kevin is super excited to be able to get friends. Poor guy, he is so lonely. I don't know why but Sister Homan did not interpret most of what he said this time even though we had a member there who couldn't sign, but I still understood a lot! Then at the end he pointed at me to say the prayer and I said my first prayer in ASL! That was crazy! Sister Homan said I only really messed up once saying sorry instead of please, but Kevin got it. 

So we have a member in the ward who we went and visited. He used to be a ghost hunter. He is a super cool guy but man he tells us stories and it freaks us out! I don't know how I feel about some stories. He has a ghost in his house that bangs, and I have heard it and it's freaky but I don't know. So that hasn't really been helping me sleep at night because every time I hear something now I am scared it is a ghost, but I don't even know I believe in that! It's a funny conundrum. 

We went on companion exchanges and Sister Brewster came here. We went and visited a Hmong family 8:30 at night, and we had no idea they were going to feed us but they did! Oh boy did they. The make this noodle soup called fuh and we each got a giant serving bowl of it! Like 15 inch diameter bowl. HUGE! The kids just slurped it up like it was no big deal. Holy cow, it was so much food. I couldn't finish. I told them next time I would be prepped to do so. When we were going to bed I was putting my ointment on my hands and Sister Brewster just started freaking out. She asked all these questions if i had *insert some scientific name* All I know is I have a bad rash that will never go away. Apparently she has that too, it's a little different but she was super excited to have that bond with me. It was kind of funny. 

We had Zone Conference this week! Wahoo! That was fun because guess what! It was in Sun Prairie! It felt like home! I loved it! Some of the relief society sisters made the lunch so I got to see some people.I got to see Sister Davis! She is just wonderful. She is the one in the sadly blurry picture, but I love her so much I had to send it anyways! It was just the most delightful zone conference lunch I have ever had as well! So good! Sun Prairie knows how to cook! But we also got to see Sister Elkington too which was sweet. We have been able to see each other my whole mission! We are in different zones right now but it was a Madison combined zone conference. So this might be the last time in a while. 7 months though! That is pretty impressive! There was a training we had from the family history coordinators and he brought a death mask of Joseph Smith and Hyrum. That was pretty cool. We also had a training based off of one of Brother Fullmers techniques. he made a video of it and put it on YouTube. It is called "What is the Book of Mormon?" So we have used that technique a couple times in lessons. It is cool because it helps people understand how the Book of Mormon and Bible work together and that we are totally Christians and why we are called "Mormons" 

Friday we went and saw our investigator Miranda. She is the one who came to the Halloween party. She was on her kindle the whole time not paying attention. But her friend was there and he at first was starting to accuse us of not being Christians and that he wouldn't read anything but the Bible. So we then whipped out our maps and taught where the Book of Mormon came from (see reference to above video) and he just ate it up. He kept turning to Miranda saying "You really should listen to this!" So now he is really excited to come to church. He was telling us he has 15 minutes to read at school and can't play video games at home so he will definitely read. That was pretty cool!

At Zone Conference they played a video of part of Elder Uchtdorf's talk that he gave while I was at the MTC! That was cool! Apparently he adapted it and used it in the new mission president devotional this year. So we talked a lot about "Fear no Man" So of course we go tracting afterwards and kept that in mind. I don't know how we found this street but everyone on this street was old and mean, it was perfect! Let me tell you dad, I now feel your pain on 6/21. More so with daylight savings. It's pitch black by 5, which is just not cool. I don't even want to know what it will be like by winter solstice. That doesn't make for happy people either. So hopefully we get more member help as winter is starting! 

Saturday we had Super Saturday and there was so much fruit there! It was wonderful! I ate a ton, because it is not often we get fresh fruit. I think I hurt my mouth with all the pineapple. But it was so worth it! We spent some time getting people pumped up for our ASL class. I think there will be a pretty good turn out. We are trying to start fast because transfers are next week :/ So we will see if Sister Homan gets transferred. Or me but the likelihoods of that are very low. But her she goes home in 3 transfers so it will be interesting to see what they do with her. I feel like that snuck up fast! And Thanksgiving is in 17 days! Weird! Christmas is in 45! Weirder! I hit my 7 month mark! Weird. So much weirdness but it's in my bones :) 

How is your Book of Mormon study going mom? I am super excited to be in Alma. I was in Alma when we started so starting over wasn't all that I wanted to do but I got back fast! I will have to send you something awesome that will help with the war chapters. I am sorry to hear grandpa isn't doing the best. Go say hi and give him a hug for me! I am glad you didn't blow up dad. Good thing I prayed extra hard for you ;) I forgot Thanksgiving was at our house this year. Dang it. I will totally not be expecting some serious writing Sister Trent time and coloring pictures for her time. I mean who would do that at a family event where she is missing? 

Well I love you all a ton! I hope your week is superb! 

Love you more than the amount of Canada that seeps into Wisconsin!

Anne!

This is Halloween

Dear Family!

This was a pretty good week! We went over to the church to help set up for the ward Halloween party. Holy Cow, I have never seen an LDS church decked out so much, especially with Halloween stuff. They take Halloween seriously here in Wisconsin. I think they like it here more than Idaho. A lot of people decorate and like all the scary stuff. It was a sweet party though. We had an investigator come and bring her boyfriend and sister. It was funny watching them, they said this is the first clean party they have ever been to and enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up. It was funny because the boyfriend is your typical gangster type with the piercings and chains and questionable clothing choices. The Elders thought he was dressed up for Halloween but that is usually how he dresses. But it was good. I found out one of the ward members graduated from Skyline! It is a small small world!

We raked some leaves this week. There are SO many. You rake them to the curb and the city has a vacuum that sucks them all up. So the roads are just lined with a bazillion leaves. We ate dinner with some sweet members this week. That was fun, Wisconsin is just full of some really cool people. It is pretty diverse. 

Our ward mission leader's wife likes us again, so that's good! She gave us several church ASL books and taught the Elders a lot of signs. They were having way to much fun telling each other to go into bondage. Silly Elders. 

On actual Halloween we went to the Bishops house and ate dinner there. They have a tradition of making gross looking food to creep each other out. Now I have to tell you, eating at the bishops house is a feast every time and they invite lots of people! So all their family was there and neighbors and TONS of food. It was super fun. I sent you some pictures it was pretty funny. At the ward Halloween party there was the cutest set of kids costumes. There were 3 families who each had babies between 1-2 years old. One child was Ignacio, the other Escalito and then Encarnacion. It was way too cute! Nacho had on a monk robe, fake mustache and a big gold cross. Half way through the party they took of his robe and he had the tights and cape. Classic!

Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference. Which is weird because my first Sunday out here was Stake Conference and I am in the same stake so I got to see all my Sun Prairie peeps! It was great to see them again! It was so cute, they had Bishop Hatch's son (from Sun Prairie) give a talk about baptism and he is just this cute little 8 year old. It was a great talk! He talked about choosing to be baptized because he now knows how to choose right from wrong and how important it is because Jesus got baptized! Too cute! Our mission president spoke as well talking about how we all need to be member missionaries and how we can do so. It was good. 

Today we went to a funeral for the former stake president. President Buchanan. Wow, it was good. I was biting my lip so hard so I wouldn't cry because I knew I would lose it. When he was bishop he started a tradition of when every time someone leaves on a mission all the men (is an Elder and all the women if sister) got up and sang "We'll Bring The World His Truth". So they had all the men get up and sing that to send him off on his new mission. Wow! So sweet and tender. I have never seen such a well attended funeral either. They had to use the overflow. That many people don't even come to church. It was a fantastic service. I also got to see Sister Schroeder there, turns out that is her step family. She is just my favorite so I was thrilled to see her! 

I can't believe it is already snowing there! I am waiting for the snow here. It hasn't come yet. It is cold enough though! I can't believe Sister Sorenson got released then called to the Stake! Oh man! She is one busy lady! You should tell her hi for me! I just love her, she was the best Sunday School teacher! We were so lucky to have her before the Relief Society stole her. I am glad BYU won dad :) I bet you are thrilled. Mom, you are so funny and not too old ;) I am so excited you put up the Christmas tree! That's my mom! We have one in our closet that I want to sneak up. I don't know how much my comp will appreciate it. I mentioned that now we can all put up our trees at members house after Halloween, oh boy did I get the death look! There is no reason we can't celebrate Jesus with Thanksgiving. We should be thinking of both things all year long!

Here is my epiphany of the week that is entirely mine, it partially is. We were at a members house reading the Book of Mormon and her visiting teacher came. We are reading in 2 Nephi with her and her visiting teacher got talking about the Isaiah chapters. Mary was knew Jesus was to be the Christ so she probably raised him the best she could. She probably tried to keep her home a cultivating learning environment. Jesus probably grew up reading or hearing about Isaiah and could have learned of some of his ministry and mission through his writings. He even quoted Isaiah to announce that He was the Son of God. He loved the words of Isaiah and in 3 Nephi tells us to study them. Could be just maybe one of the reasons He loved it. That could be totally wrong but I like the idea and it kind of gives a fresh outlook on Isaiah. So there is some food for thought!

Well I love you all and hope you stay warm and see lots of snow this week! Thank you for the package mom! It was the best and I was not expecting it! Thank you! I appreciate it a million!

Love you more than all the fishes dad has ever claimed he caught ;) 

Anne

Gallivant as a Noun

Dear Family,

I don't even know really what to say about this week. It was interesting. We had a district meeting on the law of chastity, that was fun... We did find a new investigator this week named Tom. We met him at the begininng of the week and then taught him near the end. When we got to his lesson it was cool because he said he didn't feel like the Book of Mormon was false. Halfway through the lesson his son came out and said "Dad, the food is ready!" The dad started laughing because that is how his son saved him from the Jehovah's witnesses but he said he wanted to hear what we had to say.

So we went with one of our recent converts (who got baptized at BYU-I btw) to go help this old lady. She was on the 6th floor of an apartment building and is moving to the 2nd floor and just waiting to die. It sounds sad but she is pretty okay with it. She smoked for 50 years so she knows it's time. But anyways she had us clean her old apartment because she couldn't. She warned us before hand that she had Hepatitis C. Not good stuff, so we were really careful and had doubled gloves. We didn't have any cuts so all was good. But we had to clean the toliet and of course all of us being teenagers we were arguing over who had to do it, Sister Homan ended up doing it. After Jacob posted on facebook that we had cleaned an old ladies toliet. We had correlation that night so we were at our ward mission leaders house and his wife asked us what Jacob meant when he posted that. So we told her we had cleaned a ladies toliet who had hep c. She freaked out, hardcore. She made all her kids get away from us and had us sit in a corner and no one could give the sisters and handshake. She then went on a huge search on google to see if she was in any danger. She ended up coming to the conclusion that she wasn't. We didn't know what to do though, it was pretty funny because her husband was just laughing. She then spent the rest of the time upstairs. Fun times.

We went to dinner at the bishop's daughters house. It was great, they have 4 crazy kids that were just wrestling and teasing and beating each other up. And one point we heard a thunk that sounded pretty brutal when the kid walks in and tells his mom, "Mom, Jacob just hit me reeally hard in the head. It hurt, but not too bad. But it is all ok because I am ok!" Then gallivants back on in to wrestling. It was so funny, I have never seen a kid do that. Usually they cry or try to get someone in trouble. Nope, he just wanted his mom to know he was ok.

So Friday we held a fireside. Our mission has implemented a CD to help members be effective missionaries and it is called "The Missionary Next Door" So we held a fireside based on this CD and spent a lot of time putting everything together. We had 14 families helping. It was supposed to be awesome. Half the people dropped out less than an hour before and some others didn't even show up. Some people came, but then it was mostly put on by the missionaries and no one wants to hear from us. Well the lady who made the CD, her dad was there President Hassler. He is in the mission presidency. He told her we worked hard and it was good but we were kind of upset with how it turned out. The lady called us and talked to us, that was pretty cool. She is like a mission celebrity, but yeah.

So really not to much happened. I am glad you guys are doing the Book of Mormon challenge. I finally caught up the other day! It is pretty neat. I enjoyed 2 Nephi a lot with the focus on the atonement! It was super red and green! But today we hit Jacob 5... I still gotta finish :)
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you loads!

Love you more than there are cows in Wisconsin!
Anne

Meet the Mormons

Dear Familia!

This week was pretty dang sweet. So we had zone training this week and we got to watch Meet the Mormons. It was pretty sweet. You all should have seen it already because I know it is playing in IF and in Utah, I don't know about Nevada. That was pretty fun! First movie in 6 months! I enjoyed it, it was a nice treat for the missionaries. Also at zone training they had Brother Fullmer, the awesome Book of Mormon guy from Sun Prairie, come and teach the missionaries about the Book of Mormon! It was so sick. Everyone was in awe and I just felt pretty cool because I already knew him and already knew most the stuff he was teaching, I'm not prideful at all. Anyways, it was a super good meeting and we didn't have to do any role plays which made it even cooler. 

We went to a members home who have been having a hard time wrangling in their kids and we did a little FHE, well they brought their little friend. He is a super polite kid and super awesome. He is 10 and he can break dance and rap and he knows a TON about the bible. We played Simon Says at the end of our lesson and all the kids wanted to take a turn so when it was his turn he was having them do all these dance moves like the coffee grinder and head spins. It was super funny. We also totally forgot it was one of the Elders birthday so we ended up building him a sweet cake.

Tuesday was a really slow day because we didn't have our usual meetings. Then a miracle happened. A referral from the Madison Elders called us and wanted to know if we could bring the Elders over to move her washer and dryer. So all 6 of us show up at her house 10 minutes later and the Elders move her washer and dryer/ almost die down the stairs. We shared a little message with her and invited her to church. She said she would if we could find a ride for her and her 3 boys. We of course say yes we will and go along on our merry way. Turns out it is really hard to find a ride for 4 people. Really hard. We'd gone through the ward list several times and made many phone calls and it is 8 Saturday night. Finally someone calls us back and who can give them a ride. During that phone call 3 other people try calling to say they can! Awesome! Everything thing went through and her family came to church! She has a 16, 13, 2 yr old and one on the way. It was hard to keep the 2 year old entertained during sacrament meeting, we may have had a little marker incident. It all worked out though, they stayed for all 3 hours and afterwards they all said they really enjoyed themselves and can't wait to come back! Super exciting! The bishop told us after that the boys had been really involved in priesthood too! So pretty solid! don't think anything is more stressful than having investigators come to church! I am always so worried. It is like when you show somebody your favorite movie and just sit there and stare at them the whole time to see if they liked it.

We also had Kevin, the deaf member come to church and Sister Homan interpreted for him during Sunday School. It looked pretty dang hard. Everyone was talking super fast and it looked hard to keep up. We had a lot of less actives come to church actually. Gospel Principles was pretty full, which is never is. 

We also met someone else awesome this week. So we went to contact a referral the Elders gave us. He opened the door and introduced himself as a Satanist........awkward..silence... then my comp asks what that means. Then we taught him the restoration and he loved it! He stopped us like 3 times to ask questions about our church and he was just eating it up. Finally HE just asked if we would mind if he came to church! Hallelujah! We taught him the next day too and he totally would have come to church but he got food poisoning, he is definitely coming next week though. So all that is fine and dandy! He seems to be super solid. He believes in God and he believes God is going to win in the end. That point of view got him kicked out of his church. He really wanted to be Christian at one point but all these churches were super mean to him and kicked him out. Not ours!

So yeah sweetness of a family coming to church! That is a first! I have never taught a family, I am uber excited. The gospel is meant to bless families. And as our awesome President Cutler always says "Exhaulted life if family life, God's life it family life!" It's so true! God is just waiting to bless us and families are where we see the most blessings! 

Love you more than all the colors in the trees!

Anne!

...Since Easters

Can I just call this week CRAZY! So Monday was just full of a lot of goodbyes as well as Tuesday. It was go go go. I only cried once and that was saying goodbye to the Stolls. That was rough. He of course says the closing prayer and he is crying so of course I start crying. Dang it all! Then I saaid bye to a lot of families in the ward. I also spent quite a bit of time packing. But I can proudly say I did not have to send one thing home! And I dare you to find another missionary here that can say the same! Granted, I need to send some things home. But it isn't because I got too many packages, because there is no such thing and I will take all the packages one desires to send me. But because members have given me a few gifts and I just have a ton of books which are not mission approved. I think one suitcase was mostly books. But I fit everything including bedding into my suitcases. So bravo to me! Transfers were super easy. So everyone who is going to be transferred in the zone meets at the same building then members drive missionaries to 1 of 5 transfer buildings and you just go from there. Because janesville is still in the Madison zone We drove to the building, talked a bit then I got in Sister Homan's car and went home! left at 8:30 from Sun Prairie and got to Janesville by 10. Our apartment is HUGE! Apparently the Sun Prairie apartment is one of the smallest apartments. I didn't know any better so I thought it was perfect. You could fit my old apartment into this one twice. We have a big living room and a whole kitchen and a spacious bathroom that you have to walk across to get to places. Two bedrooms. We sleep in the same one. The other room is Sister Homan's closet because she lives out of her suit case, the real closet in there is the community closet with a bunch of free clothes. Everyone who has passed through here though has been like a size 0. So no free clothes for me. And I already have all of my stuff unpacked and put away ever so nicely. Folded in the drawers and hung up in our bedroom closet. It is kind of nice that Sister Homan doesn't use the closet or the dresser because I get to use all of it. I can be organized and I am not cramped on space. The closet is about 4x as big as my old one. And I love our new car! It doesn't feel like a big bulky, jerky brick. But nice and sleek! I keep going on about our apartment because it is sick. I told Sister Homan she is just going to have to deal with me talking about it for another week. 

Let me tell you, replacing Sister Elkington is some hard shoes to fill! She was here for almost 8 months, the people love her. They work with a lot of less actives here. Wednesday night we teach a BOM class with the Elders at the church for parents waiting for their kids at mutual, at least that is what I assume it is for. That is who goes. Oh and I hit my 6 month mark! Wahoo! I thought it was the 8th so I didn't realize that I had hit it :) But whatever. Way to fast, I still feel like a newbie. Sister Homan has been out 13 months and she feels like a newbie. I will always feel like one. Sister Homan came out with Sister Morales AND was her comp in Gresham! How cool is that! She has been comps with the 2 people I know! 

Friday we went to a less active and she taught me how to knit! That was fun! Most less actives just need a friend, thats it. Someone to take interest in them. It's kind of sad that that is all it would take for someone to come back to church but no one will be their friend. Then coolest thing ever! We are teaching a less active in the ward who is deaf! And Sister Homan signs! So we can understand each other! And he is starting to come back to church (hopefully) he says he will. We are going to work on starting a signing class in the ward so he can have some people who will understand him. AND Sister Homan is teaching me ASL. And I must say I am doing pretty well. Let's see what she has to say. She says "You are doing great and you are learning very fast" So there you have it. I can fingerspell and sing a couple songs and say families can be together forever. Also to help me learn, I am learning our missionary scriptures in ASL. I have D&C 30:27 and the missionary purpose done. It was neat to teach Kevin because you could feel the spirit so strong! And I could understand him! Granted not communicate with him, I got kind of nervous. But next time I will have more to say to him! 

We are helping the Elders plan a wedding for their investigators so they can get baptized. It is pretty funny helping them. They are clueless. We went and raked for a really long time and we have blisters and sore hands. It is great though because it will prep us for shoveling this winter! I would much rather build up racking then shoveling heavy snow! It was great to have my first Sunday here be fast Sunday! They asked me and the new spanish elder in the ward to bear our testimonies and introduce ourselves. It is always the weirdest feeling for me to be in a new ward, It feels weird that I am the missionary. That I am the one the little kids look up to and sing about. I hope I can live up to their expectations. 

I love Janesville! I love the people here! I am excited to serve the Lord here! I hope to be a part of building up his kingdom here and finding prepared people to be strong valiant servants of his. The Millers in the Sun Prairie ward said something amazing before I left. They said they were talking about downsizing. We of course said oh thats a good idea, a lot of people do that. Then they said no, we want to so we are spending as much time on the house and cleaning as we could be serving and doing missionary work. Wow! That took me aback. I hope I can be that dedicated when I get home. To keep this relationship I have with my Savior and always strive to put him first!

I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

I love you more then leaves we've raked!
Anne

Conference time is a good time

Oh boy! Such a long crazy week! I am just going to go off my journal because I can't put it all together.

Tuesday. So we have passed this guy out smoking on his porch like 3 times and we both felt like we should talk to him. We did and it was awesome! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment! We also had a lesson with an investigator we haven't seen in 2 months! That was cool! 

Wednesday, it was cold! Summer is gone! We went to mutual with the youth and they couldn't play mafia because that is appropriate. So they changed the characters and called it gadianton robbers. It was a pretty sick idea. Probably too many people but I kept the paper because I am so playing it again. We also visited Sister Pink. She is just a doll! I love her so! I am going to miss her. But she writes me every week so it is all good. We also taught Marie who we do service for. We taught her the restoration and she was super receptive. We invited her to baptism and she politely said she isn't ready yet. You never know until you ask. But I think Sister Weaver would agree in saying it is probably the best lesson we have taught together. Boy you can feel the spirit when you talk about the first vision out in nature and hear the birds singing and the leaves rustling in the breeze. Wow! 

Thursday. I made food! I made enchiladas and we went to Sally's and ate them! It was fun, she has been so sweet to me. We also went to see a referral from a couple months ago and she was so nice to us. She used to be a member so she likes the missionaries, just not our message. We ate dinner at the Sellars and it was so good and we had hot chocolate and no bake cookies. It made my tummy happy! It was the perfect fall dinner. I sure have appreciated the long skirts you sent me this week. They are just perfect for the cold wind.

Friday we did something cool. We helped an older lady in our ward with family history. She is a convert so we got the names of her parents and siblings all ready to go to the temple so she can be sealed to her family! How neat is that! We went and helped Sally's friend Marge clean her windows. She had a fancy window washing pole thing, it was lots of fun. I might consider doing that for a living. 

Saturday. We went to the Schroeders for General Conference. They are the funniest couple. They are like to children in love. Wow. Playing airplane and everything. Awkwardly greeting us at the door. I hope I am that cool when I get married. We got the transfer text while at their house. It came an hour late, I was just slightly dying. Conference was SO GOOD! It is so neat that the speakers got to speak in their native tongue! So monumental! Wow! All the talks were just so good! I loved Elder Uchtdorf's on light. For the afternoon session we went to the church. That night we had like 35 minutes to tract. We had a plan to go tract on a certain road. We went and stopped where a lot of lights were on and there were cars. We stopped where 5 houses looked like there was life inside. Out of that 5 we taught 4 doorstep lessons, 3 took a Book of Mormon and 2 set up return appointments with us and we got a Spanish referral for Madison. It was a HUGE miracle! We finally met our weekly goal with lessons taught and BOMs handed out. So cool! 

Sunday. We went to Harriet's and Jim had made us breakfast and they had bought us pumpkins to carve. I feel like their adopted child. She is my mission mom, she has just taken care of me. It was cool because we got to watch conference with her and Jim was Ok with it. She had a lot of questions which was good. We went and helped the Stolls set up general conference on their ipad. They have only watched part of a session because she was sick so they didn't get around to it :/ But I taught him how to catch up. Then we went to the church to watch the last session and a ward member ended up having us over to watch it in their home. It was so nice. Last conference I was leaving in 3 days to come here. This one I am leaving in 3 days again to go some place new! I better be careful of my subconscious will associate general conference with leaving places. It kind of made this weekend seem slightly surreal. Then we went to the Miller to pick up my dress that she fixed (I may have ripped a dress :) And they ended up feeding us. It was nice to see them one last time. Then we went to our ward mission leaders house for desert and a farewell. 

I am going to Janesville which is actually Lacey's last area. I am replacing her! How cool is that! Janesville is doing really well and I am super excited. And the best part is I will be close enough to Chicago to go to the temple! Hopefully my companion hasn't gone yet! Wahoo! I am so excited, we will see how that works out. I miss the temple a lot! It is going to be hard to say goodbye to Sun Prairie! I love the people here! I haven't cried yet though. It is probably good that we didn't have church on Sunday. It will be especially hard to say goodbye to Harriet. Well my time is running short. I love you all so much! I hope you enjoyed conference as much as I did! 

Love you more than the falling leaves!

Anne

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

This week has been CRAZY! It feels so good! My wonderful sister Lindsey sent me jump ropes this week! Oh boy! With a really hard (shouldn't be) routine. We did it everyday for 3 days. We were walking like pirated with peg legs. Both of our right calves just killed! We were just hobbling down the street pathetically. Then lo and behold, first day of autumn hits and BAM! Allergies. It was ridiculous! Nothing worked and I was just a sad looking/sounding wreck. Then of course all the snot build-up basically makes me sick. I was sneezing all night and cuddling with a roll of toilet paper surrounded by tissues strewn about. I know, it's a gruesome scene. The members took good care of me giving me many meds and remedies. It is a good thing you sent emergen-c. I was loaded up on that stuff just trying so hard to get better. So I really was a wreck for a few days. Hobbling and sniffing about :) But it is okay, I got through it fast. It was slow in the moment but looking back, I was fine.

Now for the good stuff, Tuesday we had our quarterly interviews with President Cutler. It was awesome! I asked him for a priesthood blessing at the end and oh boy! Wow! Just wonderful and perfect. I know the Lord definitely watches out for each of us and is mindful of everything. We had a lesson with a guy who had slipped Sister Weaver his phone number. We had it at the church and brought Sister Schroeder. It actually turned out really well. He actually seemed interested with learning more and not just flirting with Sister Weaver. Then we ate  with the Schroeders the next day. Oh boy! They are so funny! The Elders always say they feel awkward going there but I don't know why. It's probably because they don't get sarcasm and dry humor as Sister Weaver and I do! We had a member get us some chocolate cheese this week! That was awesome. that is what the picture is of. Thank you Wisconsin.

I am running out of time so I am going to have to cut some stuff out. Saturday was another running around day.Going going. We had a really good lesson with the Stolls because we were really bold with them. We figured out that they aren't actually asking to know if the church is true. So we promised them if they write down 3 questions, take them to the Lord and watch conference (all with sincerity) that they will receive an answer. Brother Stoll came to church on Sunday, partly because it was the primary program and who can miss that? It was so good! I love our ward, they are so neat. 

Saturday we watched the women's broadcast. Sally came to the potluck before hand, she wouldn't stay for the whole thing though. I went with a couple questions because I thought I better try out what I promised the Stolls would work. I went, had my 3 questions. I watched it, waiting. I thought it was over after all the women spoke and I was upset because not one of them had been answered. Then President Uchtdorf spoke and all were answered in like a minute! It was awesome! It totally works, I highly suggest it!

But this week we were really bold and were the missionaries we should be. We were talking to everyone, making those awkward street crossings to talk to people. Bearing testimony by the spirit. I love being a missionary and talking to people. I know we haven't had any baptisms in this area yet but I know we are being successful. We are doing what we need to be doing and it just feels good. The best feeling as a missionary is laying down in bed, exhausted, knowing you worked hard and you did all you could do. I hope you are all doing well! I love you guys so much and I am thrilled with the missionaries you guys are being! Thank you so much! 

ro

I love you more than food in our fridge!

Anne