I know it and I love it

Hello my lovelies!

this week i will not even try to beat around the bush... it was ROUGH!!! sister H and i got sick... and by sick i mean up and down cough and cold and flu.. but not enough to kill us so we still went out and did missionary work but then it went to -30.. so the guilt almost KILLED me but we stayed in for two days.. we totally got approval from our leaders cause you have to recover when your sick or else the sickness drags on and on and on.. but so we got a blessing on thursday from the elders in our district, and over and over they said "contingent upon our faith we would be healed" soooooooooo we were like.... does that mean we need to be FAITHFUL in letting our bodies HEAL? or just be FAITHFUL in missionary work and go work work wooorrrrk.... and so we prayed alot about it and we stayed in :/ i was super bummed but it worked out how it was supposed to. i got to know sister h better than ever! its weird how SIMILAR we are.... and then also how OPPOSITE we are haha... we are the best of friends and i LOVE that girl. man she is great :)

sister halverson helped me do something this week that was HAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRD.

i purged my clothes. im definately a clothes hoarder. and that is NOT good on a mission cause there is NO room and it makes for getting ready in the morning a slow process if i can never decide... so i got rid of so much... and i totally cried lol im so dramatic but it was so hard for me... and then im sending some skirts home that are a little "to good lookin for the mish" haha.... but i do want to keep them so ill just send them home.. as for the rest of the stuff i gave it to some other sisters.... aw man... so hard... but it was good. you'd be so proud of me dad.. less is more lol

ok story time!!!!!!!!!

coolest tracting story.. it made me tear up just finding them it was so neat.

SO there is a young family in our ward that is just on fire with missionary work. they want so badly to have missionary experiences and they are always so willing to reach out to anyone to share the gospel with them, and recently they were like "man we just want to have misisonary opportunities here cause we always seem to have them when we are on vacation or something but never someone that we can WORK with day by day ya know?" so sister halverson and i were like.. hmmm what can we do to help... SPIRIT COMES AND GIVES US AN ANSWER.

we decided that we were going to go FIND someone for them to teach and fellowship!! cool right?!?! so we would go tracting in the area that they live... LOOKING for a family their age or that they would have something in common. we knocked on like 10 doors... which is alot in one night.. and we werent having any real success.. (we did find a few ysa referals :) ) but so finally JUST 3 DOORS DOWN from where this awesome missionary family lives.. we knock on the LAST DOOR for the night....
and he invites us is... and introduces us to his wife who is expecting a new little baby (the family in our ward JUST had a baby)

AND THEY PROCEED TO TELL us that they love visiting other churches and that they know a mormon lady and they wondered why she was so happy and they want to learn more!!!!!!!!!

3 DOORS DOWN FROM THE FAMILY IN OUR WARD.

they are the same ages

same kids ages

neighbors

both awesome and friendly

its like they were made for eachother!!!

aw man so after they were like "ya come back we want a book of mormon" we boooked it down to the O's to go tell them how AMAZING this is and were like basically screaming we were so excited to tell them and THE O's are so excited to they were like YA WE'LL GO MEET THEM tomorrow!!! woo hoo!!!

soooo thats gonna be our new thing... were gonna FIND PEOPLE for the real missionary minded families in our ward to fellowship, so we can get them really excited about missionary work and be needed. its so cool :)

also this week i have fallen in love with the book of mormon all over again. that book is.... i have no words for how much i LOVE IT! for how POWERFUL IT IS for how cool it is!!!! like the stories have all come together for me... and i dunno its just like... I KNOW ITS TRUE.. and i think i have always known it.. but like i KNOW IT and i LOVE IT.... annnnnd i just want kyra and morgan and the boys to just know these things BEFORE they go on their missions.... READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERYDAY.

oh my goodness another story.

M our investigator.... oh my goodness we met with her on tuesday... and SHE PRAYED for the first time ever... and it was like no other experience i have ever had... i felt the spirit like a BLANKET COVER THE ROOM... and afterwards she was shaking and she's like "feel my hands... theyre all sweaty/" haha she had felt the spirit so strong she was like completely overwhelmed... and in her prayer she thanked god for sending us to her to teach her the TRUTH!!!! SHE KNOWS ITS TRUE.. so now we are just trying to help her bring her family to this so that they can all learn together and come TOGETHER... i just love how the gospel blesses families... it brings LIGHT and LIFE to family. man... so cool

also we have had like FIVE potential investigators just come from everywhere!! the elders tracted into a couple kinda  the same way we did (with looking for investigators around where solid members live) and we are going to teach them. our zone leaders street contacted a lady who wants to learn more about God, marlenis family is coming soon, lots of tracting potentials.. like i can just FEEL the potential of this area like energy from a battery... its about to explode!!!! sooooo NOW that i have overloaded on vitamins and tylonel and drunk enough water to drown a COW im feeling so much better and this week we are going to WORK work WOOOOOOOOORK and we are fasting and praying that we are going to see some BAPTISMS... thats what its all about! bringing people and helping people come to know and trust God that they are willing to make promises to him to follow him forever... man... its so cool :)

last thing before i end....
we had stake conference... HOLY COW.... it was SOOOOO GOOD!!!! the saturday night session all the full times missionaries sat on the stand, and sang the first verse of called to serve and then as a pledge to work WITH us.. together united in the work of salvation... the rest of the congregation... like a whole stake center full of people... STOOD UP AND SANG THE SECOND VERSE WITH US...

Called to know the richness of his blessing--

Sons and daughters, children of a King--

Glad of heart, his holy name confessing,

Praises unto him we bring.

Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name;

Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name;

Forward, pressing forward, as a triumph song we sing.

God our strength will be; press forward ever,

CALLED TO SERVE OUR KING.

coolest. thing. ever.

the WHOLE program was about missionary work. preparing. doing. working. temples. fellowship. unity.. like... it was this HUGE puzzle piece just fell into place in the congregation and everyone was like... everyones eyes were singing with excitement... THIS IS THE GREATEST TIME TO BE ALIVE AND HERE AND WE GET TO SHARE THE BEST NEWS EVER WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!

i love you all so much!

and i love hearing about all your missionary experiences!

This is the best work EVER!
LOVE SISTER DOUGLAS