Este Semana... que mas puedo decir?

It's so beautiful here!!!

I'm sad to say, my dog died this week. It is a hard pill to swallow, but I really do know that she is a lot happier now, so I will be okay with it. 

So this week was pretty meh... A lot of different things going on right now.

Monday we had some fun at P-day with our district. Elder Flamm taught me how to play a fun board game called Risk. It was Star Wars themed, so pretty fun! A funny thing that happened- we were about to start the game, after a lot of set up, and then the volley ball that the others were playing with accidentally got hit over to our table and landed right on the board ruining everything we had just set up!! It was pretty funny. We were like... “Well I guess you won!” to the person who threw the volleyball. Then we had to set it all back up, and then I won! Woo hoo! "Beginner's luck," according to Elder Flamm. 

Tuesday we found out that one of our investigators got evicted! The phone number is not working either... so that's pretty sad and concerning! We already had a few investigators drop us lately and now another one has disappeared! After that shock, we went to the community service center to do some service at the thrift store. It was kind of fun, because they got about 4-5 huge truckloads of bags of clothes to go through about 2 weeks ago and they are still working on it! So Hna. M and I sorted through clothes for about two hours straight. Then we had to get going but they told us that if we saw anything that we liked or needed we could take it for free. So we got a nice lamp for the apartment (which is usually very dark and needs more lights), and I got another multi-skirt hanger thing. Very useful for sister missionaries! That evening we did some surprise service for one of our investigators, Jane. We went over to just stop by and see how she was because we hadn't had an appointment in a few days, and when we got there, there was a bunch of boxes of clothes! She’s starting a clothing business out of her house of modest and comfy clothes, so we ended up coming in and helping her unpack and sort out all the new clothes! It reminded me of my retail days! So Tuesday pretty much was just all about clothes, until we had a lesson with our investigator, Emma. Sis. Hall came along, because they are good friends. It was a wonderful lesson, actually. Emma has been investigating the church for a very long time now--I think about 9 years! She bore her testimony about a lot of things like priesthood blessings and the Book of Mormon. We were just like Emma! Why don't you get baptized then?!! She said she's just not ready for the commitment yet.... We'll get there :) 

Wednesday we met Arvin. He's a new potential investigator! Which is really, really good because we seriously are running a little dry in the investigator pool right now. He's Spanish-speaking, too! Which is really exciting. Usually when we are knocking on doors, (plan Z) we just share a simple and short message, but he actually got really into it and started asking more questions. We ended up talking with him and teaching him for almost an hour! It was cool. That night we had dinner with Mama and Papa Abken. It was enchiladas, and they were delicious! Almost the best enchiladas I have ever tasted made by a white person (except my mom's of course)! Then Mama Abken came with us to a lesson with a sweet older couple we have been visiting lately, the Damans. 

Thursday we had an awesome lesson with Larissa, a less-active member from the ward. We read Ether 12 together (SUPER good read, BTW) and discussed it. There's always something new I don't notice! I can read the same chapter four times, and each time I'm still like, “Wow! When did that get there?!” I didn't realize that Moroni was numbered among those who have actually seen and talked with God. Thursday night we had a WEIRD member dinner.... seriously weird! Everyone was being so goofy and teasing and sarcastic, which wasn't like, a bad thing. It's just that we've eaten with them in the past and it was 100% not like that! Their friend was there, and they apparently go way back with her and have this strange love language of harassing each other constantly... Personally, I feel lines were crossed! It was hard to find a way to direct the conversation to something spiritually uplifting. We tried a few times to even just bluntly change it, but it was useless. The good news is I got to eat a carb-free waffle. Interesting, but not bad! Plus, we had some fresh strawberries. Mmmmmmm! After that we went to Emma's again and had a great lesson about family history, and I got to help her set up her Familysearch.org account. She was amazed that it was free, even to people who are not members of the Church!

Friday was weekly planning, or sometimes how I like to call it--Weekly Stressing!! Then we had dinner with the Rutters. It was super delicious taco salads. I also made a low-glycemic cheesecake this week, like how I used to at home all the time. Sometimes I just really miss having time to cook and bake!  We finally met a less-active member, Ruby, that night. We had been trying to figure out where she was, so that was good, but then ANOTHER investigator dropped us! One of the members got way too excited about sharing the gospel and went really deep into the doctrine. He started sharing things with her way too fast and overwhelmed her with information. It was really hard not to be mad at him after that. We went to his house the next day. Because he's actually a recent convert, we still teach him, and we had to talk a little about milk before meat. 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, and Hebrews 5:12-14. It’s so important that you start with the basics and build your way up! We did it in the kindest, most loving way we could, but he still got a little offended. We didn't even bring up specifically what happened, but he knew what we were talking about. I think it’s just hard for him, as an older guy to take some correction from a couple of kids.

On Saturday, since pretty much all of our investigators, save a couple, have either dropped us, moved, or disappeared from the face of the planet, we literally knocked on doors all day. It actually wasn't bad though, I don't mind knocking. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, not too cold. We were up in the mountains, so the view was incredible, and we met some really interesting and nice people. We even met this crazy vegan lady who was so funny and gave us some facon (fake bacon) made out of coconuts, maple syrup, and liquid smoke! It was actually weirdly good.... then we had a solid conversation about the Godhead. 

Sunday a convert of 30 years came back to visit for Memorial Day weekend. He said he wanted to come back here, because his baptism is something he wanted to remember. (Remembering was a HUGE theme at church yesterday!) During this brother's testimony (it was testimony meeting because we have Stake Conference next week) he talked about how he was investigating the church for several years and put off getting baptized for a long time. He said he is SO grateful for the blessings he has now from being a member of the Church, and he regrets putting them off. He said if there was anyone in the congregation right now that was thinking about getting baptized they should do it, because it was the best thing they could ever do. “Just jump in feet first!” he said. EMMA WAS AT CHURCH! She was crying. The spirit was SO strong in that meeting. I have a good feeling about her. :) Thank you random convert visitor man! So, back to the theme of “Remember.” We were reading in Mosiah chapters 25-27 in Sunday school, and the teacher started to point out all the times he says “remember.” Then he took us to Helaman chapter 5, verses 6-7 and 9. There are so many more “remembers” everywhere. He asked, “Why is remembering so important? Because when we don't that's when the pride starts to creep up on us.” That was just so profound to me! Don’t' forget where you come from and what you have been through, and that the Savior went through it all with you! Forgetting=pride. 

Well I think that's it for this week, please pray that we can find some more people that need us! I love and miss you all. 

 More beautiful scenery!

 The grass is so green now!

 Hermana Marble stacking eggs???

Transfer week: We're staying! Guess who my new STL is!

We get to stay together one more transfer!

Transfer predictions

One of our STL's, and one of my old comps in Yakima, Hna. Streuling, has completed her mission, so now we are going to be getting a new Sister Training Leader, (drumroll please) HNA. LUEVANO!!!!!!!!! I am so sososososososososososososososososososooooooo excited. This means I will get to have a weekly phone call with her AND do exchanges together! I miss her so much, so this will be really fun. Hna. Dee and Hna. L were companions the transfer before I was comps with Hna. L, too so that will be awesome for them to be reunited before Hna. Dee goes home in July. We were also really excited to find out that Hna. M and I will both be staying right here in White Salmon for another transfer together! We are so happy, because this is a great companionship! Our area has been a little slower lately too, not a lot of new work to be done, and we just really did not want to leave it this way for other missionaries to come into. Hopefully we can get this place a little more on fire before we have to leave. 

So some fun things from this week:

Tuesday-Wednesday Hna. Streuling and Hna. Dee came down for a couple of days to "blitz" our area with us. It's like exchanges, but instead of one of them coming down here and one of us going up there, they just both came down here, and there were double companionships in one area. It was really fun to get to see my old companions again, but also weird! Like two realities colliding! I was with Hna. S and Hna. M was with Hna. D. Hna. S was on fire!! Like I said, she goes home today, so she was like totally YOLO (or maybe YOMO you only missionary once!). Just going for it, no fear, no laziness, nothing. She was awesome. Really fun to be with her on her last week. (Hi Hna. S if you are reading this!) 

Exchanges!

 Hermana S missed me!

A "Welcome to White Salmon" cake for our visitors

Tuesday night we (Hna. S and I) went to Juan Oltega's house with a couple of Spanish-speaking members of our ward. Juan is going to be having open heart surgery in a couple of days, so they went to give him a blessing. It was a really powerful visit. We taught about the priesthood, and his wife, who is usually pretty stand-offish we come over, actually stayed for the lesson and was asking lots of questions! It's amazing to see what can happen when people have a humbling experience. After visiting Juan, we went to Emma's house. She’s our eternigator here, and we finally convinced her to let us practice teach her. Bro. T came with us because Bro. T and Emma are like best friends. It was another amazing lesson! Emma has the most interesting and thoughtful answers to questions! She was bringing up stuff I had never even thought of before, so it was great practice and we all learned a lot together. 

Wednesday (still with Hna. S,) literally ALL of our plans fell through!!! Usually in daily planning the night before, we go over what we are going to do the next day and set at least two back up plans for in case it doesn't work out. So for like 4 or 5 hours in a row, all three plans had fallen through. SO we walked... and walked and walked and walked and knocked and knocked and knocked. It was actually pretty fun. We met some interesting people! And we walked about 6-7 miles when all was said and done, so we got a lot of really good exercise. The next day my calves were so sore! Most of the walking was downhill. But hey! The good news is my hip is almost 100%better! It's amazing what an anti-inflammatory shot can do. Also on Wednesday our investigator Darren dropped us. It was so sad!

This last week I was driving just in case Hna. M got transferred, and to make sure that I understand how to get everywhere in our area. It was pretty fun to drive again, but now that we're both staying, she's back to being the designated driver. 

We got to have a sweet visit with one of our favorite people, Larissa, this week. She gave us some awesome picture prints, because she is a photographer! I will probably send some home soon. So be looking out for that. Oh, hey I forgot something! My old Zone Leader from Othello, Elder Shugart, is going to be the new AP (Assistant to the President)! I totally called it! So that's exciting, too.

It's been a bit of an off week, but I'm so happy with the transfer info we got! This transfer is going to be great. 

 Beautiful Sunset

 Having lunch with Tacho!

 We love Tacho's cooking!

The youth of the White Salmon Ward

playing crab soccer! It was so funny!

What You Can Depend On

Beautiful Washington Scenery

Hello friends! I just got news from my mom that my dog Shiloh, has gotten very sick and will probably be getting put down soon. So, sorry in advance if this is not as chipper and happy as usual! I will do my best! Because I want Shiloh to stop feeling miserable all the time. I know she will be in a much, much, better place.

  Me with Shiloh just before I left on my mission

Monday was a kind of weird day. Usually p-day is on Monday, when we email, do laundry, clean the house, the car, do grocery shopping, etc. But this week, since we were going to be spending a lot of time going to the temple on Thursday, we changed p-day to Thursday and went out an worked on Monday to make up the time we would miss (except for emailing because we didn't want to freak out anyone's parents!) So we emailed like usual on Monday but then did everything else on Tuesday, and it threw us off so bad! 

Tuesday we had district council in the morning, it was pretty good. We talked about being more diligent and hard-working. Then after DC, the car coordinator for the mission called us and told us our jeep was due for an oil change and tire rotation. Fortunately we were already in Hood River for DC, and all we had planned to do for the next couple of hours was service at the thrift store, so the timing was great! Except then it took like three hours for some reason to do the car servicing, so we were a little lost on what productive things we could do. I'm just really glad we had study materials with us, and we have a lot of contacts in our phone of potential investigators we have never talked to yet! We also OYM'd the cashier and a few other people in the waiting area. So I guess it turned out alright. Except my scriptures literally fell apart!! IT was so sad! Thank goodness for gorilla glue is all I have to say!

Wednesday was an AWESOME day for us. We have been doing some practice-teaching with some of our members and less-active members lately, because we want to work on being better teachers. It also helps them have a refresher on the doctrine. Plus it builds member trust and helps them see what it's like to be taught by the missionaries, so they will be more likely to refer their friends to us. We practice taught Larissa on Wednesday morning, and it was really fun. She was so cute! She really got a kick out of pretending like she didn’t' know anything. She would just ask a question like "What is the Book of Mormon?" and then just giggle and giggle. IT was fun :) Then, we had a lesson with Tyler at the Fore's house! He is so awesome and SO smart! He asks the best questions. Wednesday night we had an awesome lesson with the Merrill family, and the bishop came. Their 10-year-old son really asks amazing questions, but sometimes it's really hard to answer them because there are so many basic things he doesn't know. We had to explain the virgin birth and how Jesus is literally the biological Son of God. Try to explain that to a ten year old who is really, really intelligent, but also doesn't know where babies come from yet... Bishop helped a lot. HE's so awesome and I'm so grateful for the help of the Spirit. He's the real teacher there. 

Thursday -TEMPLE AND COSTA VIDA! It was a great day! It was amazing to receive personal answers to deep personal questions and to feel the peace in the temple. I had missed going to the temple so much, but after being gone for a while, it made me notice a lot more this time back, like little things I hadn't paid attention to before.  Also, I got to see Pam and Lamar Gilbert, from Royal City there!! It was so cool and fun to catch up and see what's going on in Royal! Two of the youth have received their mission calls! And one of them is the first youth from the Spanish branch ever to go on a mission! So special! Also, Hna. M got to see her friend Hna. J from the Mexico MTC. She just went home early about a month ago (14 months into her mission) because she might have lymphoma cancer! Hna. M and I have been thinking and praying about her for a while now, so it was amazing and crazy that she actually got to see her! She served her mission in Nashville, Tennessee, but is actually from Kennewick (where the temple is). It was a mini miracle. We got to eat COSTA VIDA for lunch, which I was ridiculously excited about and turns out the owner of the Costa Vida there is Mormon, and he gave us an awesome discount, plus on top of that, Sis. Colis (our ride) paid for all of the missionaries! It was so cool. 

Temple Trip! 

Friday we had a really cool experience at the Stockman's house. Bishop asked us to go over that night and practice teach them.  They own and live in a really cool bed and breakfast up in the mountains. It's themed in the early 20th century and has tons of really, really cool antiques! They are a really nice older couple but that night Sis. Stockman came home in a really bad mood. She had been in a fight with her daughter, and was really upset about it. We went to their house with the plan to teach about the restoration, but when we got there and sat down together in the parlor, we could tell she was really upset, so we asked in the prayer that Heavenly Father would bless them to feel open and comfortable sharing their feelings and feedback during the lesson. Then after the prayer she really opened up to us, and we were able to adjust our teaching a bit and share the message with her in a way that really suited her needs. By the end of our visit, the spirit was definitely back in that home, the feeling of tension was gone, and we were all very edified and uplifted together. Teach People Not Lessons! I learned a lot from this experience, not just about how to be a better teacher and listener, but also about Heavenly Father's perspective. He sees every part of every person we see. He knows their struggles and secrets, and all the things they have seen and been through in their lives. At first it seemed like a weird request from the bishop that we go visit and practice teach an active couple. On the surface they seemed to be doing just fine, but there is always so much more than we can see. It's like that with everything, not just people. There are so many questions we can ask that we don't have the capability of answering on our own. Even with all of our amazing modern technology, science, and historical records, there's still so much that we don't and can't answer. BUT the good news is, we don't have to depend on human resources and intelligence. We can depend on divine intelligence. We have so many resources that Heavenly Father has given us that can help us become closer to him and be better able to answer hard questions when we use them! (scriptures, prayer, prophets,etc.) Heavenly Father promised us if we seek we will find, (Matt 7:7-8)  If we are looking for the right things and answers we will find them. It's like an iceberg.

It's like an iceberg!

 Cool antiques at the B&B!

Chandelier from the 1920's 

Fireplace from the 1910's

Saturday morning we had a surprise service opportunity pop up. Well, kind of surprise, more like miscommunication. The Stevenson Elders had texted us a couple days before and told us about a possible service project for a Hispanic woman who lives in our area. They told us they were going to be going there, but we actually had another service project with the ward that we were going to be at at the same time, so we said we didn't know if we could come. Then we got to the church on Saturday morning and turns out it was the whole zone going there, and they thought we were coming too!! We got out of the car and were like, “Whaaaat? Why is everyone her in White Salmon?” And they were like, “Whaaaat? Why are ya’ll in proselyting clothes?” And so we had to rush home really quickly and change. It was awesome, because it turns out she's not a member. She’s just a lady that this member in the Stevenson ward knows. She is and older lady from Colombia whose husband just died of cancer last year and now she was just diagnosed with cancer, too. She is really going through a lot right now, and now on top of it all, her landscaping company ripped her off. They built this retaining wall on the back of the property to keep the rocks and things like that from coming in (it's in the mountains) and did it completely wrong! It was all wobbly and unlevel, so this member who knows her, who also happens to be a landscaper, offered himself and us missionaries to come over and fix it. It was awesome, except with my hip I'm not supposed to exert myself a lot yet, so I mostly just went over and talked to the lady for a while. It was like an instant connection! She showed me all these pictures of her granddaughter, and it turns out she is a musician, too. She speaks pretty good English but was so pleasantly surprised when I could speak Spanish with her. She said it was refreshing. Then we had a member present lesson with her that very day! She's so awesome and has great questions.

 Service for Cynthia!

Sunday was also really awesome. Not much in particular to report, just over all a very good and spiritually uplifting day. 

I guess that's it for this week. I'm running out of time and this email is getting loooooong. Have a great week! I love and miss you all. Pray for my dog! Pray for my family! Pray for my new investigator, Cynthia! Thanks <3

Hermana Knight shares her testimony in Spanish

Feliz dia de la madre!

Before I forget- there's actually a sister in my zone right now who is in the hospital, really sick, so if you could, please keep Hermana Juarez in your prayers!!

I don't have a ton to say, because I just barely talked to my family yesterday! But I do have a few interesting things I can share! 

Skyping with my family!

I had to hang up and call back, and when 

the Skype call connected, THIS was my view!

I just love my crazy sisters!!!

I went to the doctor Tuesday for my hip, and it turns out I pulled a muscle, and I had to get an anti-inflammatory shot! It was the last thing I was expecting. I thought maybe an x-ray, or physical therapy or something but not a shot! But it did actually help quite a bit, so that's good. I've found that if I stay really active and don't sit too much and let it get stiff, it's a lot better. 

My favorite Hna. Marble quote this week: "I love you, you're amazing, sorry I'm a butthead, now gimme some chocolate!" (I got some Ghirardelli dark chocolate squares from my dad for my birthday last week.) 

Something really cool that happened on Wednesday was we got a text from Aaron (Tyler’s friend) that said " I really want to meet up with you guys, I have some questions. Are you available next week?" That NEVER happens! It is really exciting teaching him, he is so prepared! 

YESTERDAY I ATE CHEESECAKE. I just really love cheesecake! Thank you Sis. Curtis! 

On Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting, and it was actually super motivating and encouraging. It got me really pumped up to go out and talk to everyone. One thing we focused on is what our fears are about talking to the people we see. Then we talked about how there really is no excuse! Why not talk to everyone? What's the worst thing that could happen? You get rejected? They are a stranger, and you'll probably move in a couple of months anyways, so who cares? It's very freeing and liberating when you think about it that way. 

After ZTM some members showed up at the church and surprised us by taking all 18 of us in the zone out for lunch!! It was delicious! We went to this pizza place in Hood River. 

Mount Hood

I get to go to the temple Thursday!!! Since we do not have a temple in our mission, I haven't been able to go since I was at the MTC. But we got special permission to go to the Columbia River Temple as a zone and with President and Sister Lewis. I'm so excited!

Something really cool that I realized this week, while studying about the Plan of Salvation (more on that later) is that to be damned really means to not live up to your divine potential. It's like eternal regret. 

Some of my favorite verses this week:

1 Ne 17:13

2 Ne 2:11 <- what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

All of Isaiah chapter 29. SO COOL. 

Remember who you are and what you believe in. SUPERAR

 Our car was getting SO DIRTY and there are no car washes here!

We said, the only thing we can do is pray for rain!! Then the next day it poured!

 Making Mothers Day Cards!

"Everything really is bigger in Texas, Especially your heart."

 Hermanas Knight and Marble

I have the sweetest companion ever! Earlier this week, she said to me, "Everything really is bigger in Texas, Especially your heart." I love her! It was a bit of a weird week, with a couple of bad days mixed in there in the middle, but it started and ended on a good note, so that's a good sign.

Something funny that happened to start of our week. We were at dinner at the Hovinghoff's and Bro. Hovinghoff is a huge tease. He was being really goofy and weird and then he just got really serious and was like, "So, Sister Texas (my nickname around here), tell me what you want to know." I asked, "What do you mean?" and he said, "Tell me something you would like to know, and I will help you answer it." I was like, "Hmmmmm" for a while. I figured he was just trying to be funny or something, so then I was like, "I'm sorry. I already know everything." Everyone just started cracking up so hard. Bro. Hovinghoff was pretty quiet after that. I thought my dad would be so proud of that response. 

I hurt my hip at p-day about a month ago playing basketball with some elders back in Yakima, and it hasn't gotten any better like I thought it would, so I'm actually going to the doctor tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! Hopefully it's nothing too bad. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Lewis! It was fun to get to see him and Sis. Lewis. I got kind of used to seeing them all the time in Yakima, so it was nice to not have to wait too long. Sis. Lewis got us super pumped up about writing in journals. She pointed out a few really true things to us about journals and record keeping. She said most people just think they should only write about how they feel or what they think, and only write positive or smooth things, but the truth is, if you don't write about it, it might as well have not happened. Write details! Write about what your routines are, write about what you ate for breakfast, and write about specific experiences. Don't write just about how you feel, write the facts. If you write what happened in detail, your kids and grandkids won't have to be told how you feel, because they will understand just from the events. She also challenged us to write for at least 8 minutes every day. SO far I’ve made it every day, but usually it's more than 8 minutes. Ha ha! on Wednesday at lunch I wrote 5 1/2 pages just about that morning.... maybe I'm putting in too many details!

This week we have been trying a couple of new things that are going really well! The first is nightly companionship feedback. We really like that our companionship is really open and we aren’t' afraid to talk about things, and we want to keep it that way, so we have started talking about specific lessons at the end of the night. What went well, what we did wrong, if there was anything our companion needs to tell us, etc. It's been going really great! Another thing we have been trying is OYMs over the phone. After we organized our Area Book last week, we realized we have a TON of potential investigators (people that other past missionaries have met and that seemed interested, but we never got back to) that have never been contacted! We are looking for new people to teach, so we figured the potentials list would be a good place to start. A lot of them only have phone numbers though, and no address. SO we decided to just call them! We were like, "Hi we are the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is this Chris?" Then they would be like "Um, yeah! Hi, how are you guys?" Then we say something like "We are good! We are actually new in the area and saw on our records that you have met some missionaries before, how was that experience for you?" and then that's when we hit the gold mine. Usually that gets them talking a ton! It's really awesome, and we've ended up with 3 or 4 new investigators this week because of it. There was one lady in particular, her name was Emma. She was so nice and so cool! She said that she really admires everything that we are doing and knows that it must be for a really good reason if we are going to be away from our moms for a year and a half. She was interested in our message, and she said that we can come over any time if we want some free food and a good mom hug. I can't wait to meet her in person tomorrow!

Check out the name of the street!

(Shout out to my Coxes!)

Wednesday was pretty much a huge joke. Oh my goodness! We had ALL of our appointments cancel on us, and then we got lost on the side of a mountain in basically an ATV trail on our way trying to find a member’s house for dinner. It was stressful but pretty funny looking back on it. Then we had a SUPER weird lesson with an investigator. Not sure if we're gonna go back there....

Thursday was pretty good though. We went to help a sister named Larissa. She reminds me so much of Yvonne in Royal City. She is so sweet! But she is moving right now, so she really needed some help going through all of her stuff. It was so cool, because we got to see so much cool old stuff! My favorite thing was seeing her dad's briefcase he carried on his mission in the 1940’s to England! It still had all of his missionary things in it too! SO COOL! My favorite was seeing his super old scriptures and flipping open to my favorite one in 2 Corinthians 4:6-10 and seeing how it is exactly the same. It just reminded me how God is eternal, and his word stands forever, never changing, like such a rock when everything else is so unstable. 

Some other cool experiences this week--we met the Whites, from North Carolina! And the Whites (not related) from Nashville (totally loved talking to them), and we also met a family who gave us 2 dozen eggs and some freshly butchered, home-grown meat! It was at least $100 worth. The people here are so cool and so nice!

A mini-miracle happened with an investigator named Hayley. She and her boyfriend have been having some major financial struggles lately, and seemed really interested in talking to us, until they found out we couldn't give them any money. We tried for two solid weeks to text, call, and stop by their place, but they didn't respond. So we figured they weren't actually interested and dropped them. But then, the other night we saw that we needed to get gas. We went down to Bingen (local town) and started to pull into the gas station we usually go to, but then for some reason we felt like we should go to the other one across the street, even though it was a little more expensive. Then, as soon as we pulled in, HAYLEY comes pulling up right next to us. We got out really quick and were like "Hey Hayley!" She was so surprised to see us but seemed really happy, and then she started crying a little. She said that she has been praying a lot lately that God will give her some direction. She said she just barely got done praying for like an hour and then decided to read a little bit in the Book of Mormon that we gave her, looking for some guidance. She didn't need gas but decided she wanted to go to the station to get a Slurpee, which is pretty out of character for her, and when she was driving there she just felt like God was going to give her a sign. She knew he was going to answer. Then as soon as she pulled up, there we were! How cool and crazy and amazing is that?!

Okay, last but definitely not least, TYLER IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! WOO HOOOOOO! HIs date is set for this Saturday! We are SO excited. It’s so fun being able to actually be here for this baptism, and to help him plan it, and stuff. He's only 17, so the youth have been really involved the whole process. Even one of the priests in the ward is baptizing him! It's so cool to see everyone coming together for this. The youth here really are amazing. GAH! I'm so excited. Plus on Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I get to Skype with my family! It's going to be a great week! I can already tell :) 

Love you all!