Attitude is the helm of our ship

Hello one and all my favorite Peo-PALL! (see it rhymes)

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW so im in ellerslie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. SITER HALVESON ROCKS and i love her to pieces already she reminds me so much of caia... and then she is also crazy like kaylea and she makes me laugh till i almost peed! soooo thats lovely

she kinda reminds me of anne of green gables haha cause she is so funny and bold AND a red head haha :) we are going to be "bosom friends" lol so far so great. i love this chick to death already.

2. the area we cover is huge and the streets dont go like a grid they are CIRCLES so try to wrap your head around that... im supposed to be the map reader/navigator but really i just pray the whole time and some how we find where we are supposed to go.. its totally the spirit guiding us.

3. Ellerslie ward is SO FUN its a bunch of new families with little kids which is super exciting and fun and refreshing.. really different from spruce...

(thats also a weird thing.. like spruce grove was like my home ward.. and i keep waking up thinking im gonna go back home to spruce and be done with exchanges... haha but this is for reals... i do love it though its just been different.)

4. i am turning out to be quite an awful airhead.. on the FIRST DAY in ellerslie i lost BOTH my tags AND the keys to our appartment.......

i dont even know how..
well the tags is cause i put my clip tag on the right side and my bag must ahve pulled it off then i had to put my magnet one on my coat which turned out to not work and that one got lost to.. i dont even know where the keys went thats why they are lost ha. but we had to wring EVERYONES doorbell at our appartment just to have someone come let us in.. then the manager had to let us in....

but we solved the issue got new keys... and thanks to alot of prayers and being "sister halverson for a day" both of my tags were found!! ON. THE GROUND. miracles. miracles everywhere

5. THIS IS THE CRAZIEST STORY EVER AND I HAVE TO TELL YOU!!!
soooo sister H is so so fun right?? and hillarious and really creative as to tracting and all taht... so instead of just knocking on doors we go "garbage tractin!! hahahaha so we get in pday clothes and just knock on doors and say "we are missionaries from our church and we are doinga  service project compitition and we are seeing how many peoples trash we can take out in one hour.... do you have any trash we can take out!>???" and then if they do we get them to write their name down so we get "credit" check yes or no if they wouold like more service in the future and then we tell them what kind of service we can do and our greatest service is teaching people and then chekc yes or no if they would like to learn more! so far we have gotten 2 investigators from that! which is more than we ever got in spruce really so we were super stoked!

so that makes tracting even more fun then it even is and more upbeat and exciting and people keep asking us why we are so happy hahaha

but to the BEST STORY EVER!!
after a successfull few hours of tracting we went to visit a potential which turned out to be not so rewarding and the whole appointment fell through so we were gonna drive somehwere else but the day was soooo nice like... 45 F so warm! :) and so we just kept walking around not realy sure where to go talking to people on the street as we go... but we needed to say a prayer cause we werent gonna go normal tracting cause that is not reaklly effective... but i felt super strongly about going and knocking on this door.. and sis. H was like well what are we even gonna say? cause she hates the whole "hi were missionaries and we have a message for you" (its not really effective.. i hate it to)

and i didnt really know what we were gonna say but we both were like we need to knock on this door and this house was in the middle of the street like we hadnt knocked on anyother doors we just knew we should knock on this one.. so i was kinda joking when i said it but we ended up saying it anyways haha we knock on the door and this little indian lady answers the door (real indian with the cool dress thing and everything.. she's uh... sihk?? i think??)

"hi! how are you!? good good well we are missionaries.. we usually teach people about the word of God, but our appointment fell through and we felt really strongly about asking you if you wanted to hear what we are all about" and then sister halverson asks" DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD?"

and she says... SURE! COME ON IN!!!

:O thats what i felt like.. so we go on in... she lets us share the whole first lesson... she knows its true... no big deal... she says she'll pray about it no big deal.. SHE ASKS US TO COME BACK no big deal.. NEW INVESTIGATOR. no big deal...
actually we almost peed our pants when we laughed we were so excited...

NOT ONE HOUR LATER we tried to get into another potential appointment... so far Sis H says theyve visited this house like 8 times and no one ever answeres the door but someone referred us so we wanted to try again....and we ring the doorbell and the lady was laying on the couch inside i could see her and she looked at us and then just ignored us and i was like are you kidding me this is the best news you will ever hear and your ignoring it... so we knocked again and she still isnt answering..... SOOOOO i tromped through tthe snow to the window.. knocked on the window.. NOW shes looking at me haha.. so i waved and did the whole come here beckoned with my hands and she FINALLY gets up and answers the door... haha

TURNS OUT that she had been praying to know which church was true and her grandpa just died and she wanted to know where he was...so we taught her lesson 2 plan of salvation and sister h was a boss talking spanish to her every now and again. (cause she is from cuba.. her name is marlenis)  AND SHE IS NOW AN INVESTIGATOR. TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS IN TWO HOURS!

it. was. SO COOL.

ummmmm questions??

oh YA!!!!!!!!!!!!! EPHRAIM AND MAHONRI AND TEUNIS ALL came! :) and we went out to lunch! to boston pizza!! and it was so fun and good to see familiar faces and talk to family.. love them :)

i cant believe that you all saw my hair already! bah! i was gonna send pictures but the surprise has been spoiled :P laaaame.. but a lady in our ward is going to help my A-line is a little more and make it a little more funky and me-ish :D

sister halverson IS from davis county... a little farm town inbetween Sacramento and San Fransisco.... small towns rule

im living in a ghetto lil apartment.. that actually is really nice INSIDE it just looks sketch from the outside haha... i cant give you my real address cause im scared of stalkers lol... plus even if you mailed me things we never check our mail here cause its way out of the way. but ill be getting mail once a week here!!! or potentially if i HAVE mail LOL

we email from a library in the mall here... but like 3 zones do so its suuuuper crowded with missionaries everywhere and i dont ahve very long to do so...

ellerslie is split up into 2 areas that we go to millwoods... which we call millHOODS cause thats the ghettttoooooo.. not really but some parts are suuuper sketch and we dont go there after dark..
then the south side which is all newer houses and it looks like candy cane lane doll houses everywhere that are so cute :) millwoods people listen better ;)

ummmmmm i cant think of anything else............ ermmm. OH i held a three legged cat yesterday.. haha his name is tripod.. LOL love it

but i love you alllL!!!!!!!!!

oh i know.. ill share my goals...
i have realized im NOT all that great teaching the gospel SIMPLY annnnd thats kinda necessary when we are teaching people with no christian background at all.. its really challenging... but sis H is like a pro teacher... she is soooo talented and im learning alot from her.. so i hope to become a simple yet powerful teacher this transfer so i gotta study the lessons alot better and then simplify them to the needs of who we are teaching.

i love the gospel. i know its true.

yesterday i was feeling really blue for like 30 minutes and then i realized where i am and what i am doing... and WHY i am doing it.. and i got so excited and i felt so much for empowered.... attitude is the helm of our ship... Doctrine&Covenants 123  verses 16-17.. look it up! :)

 16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is ^abenefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

 17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us ^acheerfully ^bdo all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the ^csalvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

be happy! CHOOSE HAPPINESS!!

i love you!
love sister D