Where two or more gather in my name there am I in their midst

My Dear Family!

This week was interesting. It was a wonderful growing experience. It was hard, but those are the best weeks aren't they?

We will start with a funny story first. So Tuesday night we stopped home before our dinner appointment to grab our grubs for ward volleyball that night. So I am sitting on my bed and Sister Plante is in the hallway grabbing her clothes from the dryer. I can see her and we are just talking having a good conversation when all the sudden she stops talking. She is frozen looking up above the door....Oh no. Her nervous "Sister Trent..." Told it all. Spider. Not any spider but of monster proportions. I don't want to come out of the room because I would have to come within in to close of a distance to this spider. But I did, I ran out of the room and I glanced up and kept running. I didn't have to look at it long to know that I didn't want anything to do with that spider. I've killed spiders on my mission but I refuse when it's bigger than my fist. The body wasn't too big but it's legs. Oh my goodness. They just stretched on into the great expanse of eternity. I am almost shaking thinking about it. I got to hurry so I don't dwell on this! So she sat mesmerized by it and I sat out of sight not wanting to have anything to do with it. We discussed many ways to kill it. Every way. All we knew is we couldn't leave this thing in our house. Much yelling and screaming later we attacked. I came at it from the farthest angel I could with steady streams of Lysol to either drown it or move it so Sister Plante could reach it with the vacuum. The worst happened though! It fell!!!! I bet you can imagine the screams! Sister Plante found it and sucked it up! Oh it was terrible! It took us 40 minutes to kill this thing. So naturally we were late to dinner. We told them what happened and they sympathized with us and enjoyed the story. We haven't told the Elders though because I cannot imagine the pranks that would commence. 

So this week was just typical rough missionary life. Cancelled appointments, investigators falling apart and nothing going according to plan. Hope is not getting baptized anytime soon. I think she will it is just going to take a while, and that is ok. We had a lot of less active this work but I just felt gross. Just gloomy. It was bad. Then after a stressful Saturday morning and afternoon with little motivation Sister Plante and I had a well needed discussion about how terrible we were feeling. That is what companion inventories are meant to be. We were both frustrated and just not feeling it. So we went and got a frosty cancelled a couple less active appointments for the day and went tracting. It was the best thing. Not that we were successful tracting but we just needed to do it. It was good and we both feel a ton better now and are going tracting for an hour and a half tonight. Now that may not sound effective to most but we need it. We one investigator and just a ton of less actives. We have to find so we can teach. And we are going to find! 

So Sunday morning we are both just ready for church! It's fast Sunday and we get to go take the sacrament! We are all getting ready and excited when the phone rings. It's the bishop, church is cancelled. What?.. We were so, I don't know what we were because we just really didn't know what to do without church. We both needed it. Plus it is super bowlSunday so we were hoping we could get member appointments instead of tracting. We made plans to go street contacting but in a middle of a blizzard, no one would be out. We had no idea what to do. Plus we really wanted the sacrament. President gave us permission to gather somewhere with the Elders and take the sacrament. So we decided to go to the church after studies. So it was just the 6 of us and we had our own little meeting. It was so good. We sang an opening song, had a message, sacrament song and then had the sacrament. We sat for about 5 minutes after it was passed to just ponder and pray. I was brought back to a childhood memory. When I was little I used to think that during prayers that if you kept your eyes close angels would come. You couldn't open your eyes because they would disappear. Oh man, that is what it felt like. Angels were in the room, no one can prove me wrong because you can't see them if you open your eyes :) Just one of the best spiritual moments. The Spirit was so strong. All I could think of was the scripture when two or more are gathered in my name there I will be in their midst. Oh boy, and it was great for silence too! No other kids or people making a sound. Then we all got up and bore our testimonies. I can't even express to you how great that was. 6 ragged missionaries, we all look great but boy you could tell we had all just felt so worn down. But because of our Savior's sacrifice for us, because of his atonement, we were all able to be healed through that sacred sacrament that represented Christ's gift to us. It was just wonderful. It is wonderful. That is the atonement. He is there always to strengthen and uplift us. I am so glad we had that opportunity to still partake of the sacrament.

So there you have it. It really isn't that bad of weather I think. I don't think I will ever be satisfied with the winter. I think I just want to see what it can give me :) I just love snow and I think it needs more snow! We got like a foot. I don't think it was enough to cancel church but it was snowing all day and our ward is probably over an hour driving distance from one side to the other. I have fun playing in it! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Tell grandpa and Liam Happy Birthday! I am just forgetting everyone's. Sorry, I will celebrate them eventually! I forget my own parent's birthdays. I only know my own, which is coming soon ;) Stay safe and warm! 

I love you more than I love having a warm car!

Anne