Week 65 - Soooo Gooooooood! :)

July 19, 2010

Hi again!
I'm excited I got to finally hear all the updates about the reception and everything! And I'm glad it went wonderfully! I wish I could see some pictures! Tell Hayley to send me some through email! I'm dying to see what everyone and everything looked like!
Alright, some quick updates really fast.....we had zone conference again this past week and found out some exciting news!! President Pugh is going to be the new Seattle temple president!!!!! Cool, huh? I'm excited for him! And now excited to have a reason to go to the Seattle temple. :) We were also told about some changes that all missions are going through (again). Mostly just with missionary meetings. When I first started my mission, we had zone conference and interviews every transfer. Then in October when we had mission tour, Elder C. Scott Grow changed it to having zone conference and interviews monthly. Now it will be changed to having it quarterly. Only 4 times a year. Crazy huh?? So for sisters, they will only have 6 opportunities for zone conferences and president interviews! I'm so glad I got more then that! haha. They are starting it pretty much right now too, but luckily President Summerhays has already planned for an August zone conference. So at least I get one more! :) But my last interview will be next week.....until the exit interview. Yikes! Then they are also adding in Leadership training meetings for zone leaders, district leaders, and some sisters that will happen every other month. And they will last for 2 days. It's going to be interesting to see how this all works out!
Now for the real fun stuff! The work that is going on here! It is GREAT! Karen's baptism will be this upcoming Saturday! They announced it in church yesterday and she was just beaming! She's excited. When we visited with her this week, she said that she has been feeling a little depressed. Since she gave up coffee, she hasn't been having that 'pick-me-up' and her body is trying to adjust back to normal. In a moment of depression, she was going to give in and just drink some, but then she reminded herself that she REALLY wanted to be baptized and that would stop her if she drank it. So she stayed strong and is moving forward! She's great.
We received a member referral this past week! A lady in our ward has a daughter-in-law, Jess, who has been against organized religion for most of her life. She just had a cute baby girl though and realized that she wants religion in her family. So she asked to meet with us and she's pretty much set on joining. :) We had a great first lesson with her and talked all about how the gospel blesses families. It was perfect! I guess she had a discussion with her own mom about the church and her mom told her to not take the lessons. But Jess is set on it and is going to do what she wants! Another great thing that goes along with Jess learning about the gospel is that HER sister-in-law is coming in on it too! Her name is Amber. Amber formerly had all the lessons and was set to be baptized but things came up and she fell away. But Jess is sort of bringing her back around! It's a beautiful thing! I love this gospel so much!
As for Chuck, it's still pretty much the same old-same old. He was pretty sick yesterday so he didn't come to church. But Megan (his fiancée who is a member) invited his mom to church to listen to her Relief Society lesson and she said that she was interested in coming. Unfortunately she didn't come.....but that is a step forward. His mom wasn't opposed to coming. Maybe she has just been feeling left out because Chuck doesn't tell her anything so she gets mad at the church for it. Hopefully her heart will start softening and she'll come around.
We stopped by that one girl I told you about last week, Elizabeth, who is living in a former investigators home and wants us to teach her more. We stopped by and things were just really crazy for her that day, but she wants us to come back this Tuesday to actually sit down and teach her more. She's so cute and so sincere! She is planning a wedding and was talking about how she's having a hard time finding a church to get married in because they all charge so much if you aren't a member of these certain churches. We told her that she could look at our church and it would be for free. She LOVED that idea! haha. Don't worry, we told her about the basketball hoops and everything and she said that was OK because her fiancée loves basketball! haha. Cool. She's going to come check it out :)
And one last little thing I forgot to mention......at zone conference, Sister Westbrook and I recited the family proclamation during our scripture mastery time and President came up to us and told us that Sister Summerhays is taking us to dinner and gave us $20 again! :) Oh my goodness, I love President and I love this mission! Oh, and we found out that we are getting 4 new sisters this upcoming transfer! That's a lot!!!!! But we're so excited!
Anyway, enough of my rambling. I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week and I can't wait to hear from you next week! Love you and miss you!!!!
Love, Holly