the sun has started going to bed later and i am so thankful.

God is great. tears are coming to my eyes today but not in homesickness or because i am sad, but i am completely overwhelmed by the perfection in the Plan.

i have learned alot this week. wow that was an understatement.

i have LEARNED THIS WEEK. this week i BECAME. IM BECOMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and again here i am being selfish talking "i i i i did this i am this" laaame.

STARTING WITH LAST MONDAY:

we have such an AMAZING zone... i cant say i know everyones names yet but i know everyones faces and i can say we are all friends...my old district leader from spruce grove is now one of the zone leaders and that elder is wiser than wise... it was sooooo cool to instead of going and playing games and sports a group of us just talked and talked about the scriptures. i guess the whole theme of the conversation was not just being servants of the Lord but becoming His Friends.... really coming to know him and not just about him. it was really inspiring to me and i learned alot about who i am as a person and my deeper desires that come from my soul. im learning alot about change. im so humbled and blessed to be able to SEE people change as they come to accept the gospel of jesus christ. and its not just non members right? its EVERYONE.... ANYONE who wants to change for the better CAN!! "all men are privilaged the one like unto the other and none are forbidden...come unto me and buy milk and honey without money and without price"

man.... im just overwhelmed by how perfect this all is. im so happy with the process of it all... we are all imperfect. HE KNOWS THAT. we all make mistakes. HE KNOWS THAT. we are going to mess up over and over. HE KNOWS THAT. so he invites us to COME. come to him... do as he asks.. do the things that will make us HAPPY and then we can CHANGE and become who he has KNOWN us to be all along... man... so beautiful and perfect.

so... after that tangent...

I MET CATHE! my GOODNESS i love that lady so much already... AND LET ME TELL YOU.... she absolutely ADORES grandmom... it was the most happy thing to have in common... someone that we both completely adore and look up to... man... grandmom is such an inspiration. we just got to talk for so long about how she gets such joy in the little simple beauties of life... in CREATING and in seeing and hearing and smelling and shopping and making the world beautiful in a simple "christlike" way :) i love seeing how much of a difference Grandmom has made in cathe's life... she lives for the letters that she gets from grandmom.

goes to show how much a difference ONE FRIEND can make in someones life...
i have been thinking alot about the girl i used to be..... i wish i had been kinder. i wish i had reached out to more people.. befriended everyone. i wouldnt have lost ANYTHING. im learning so much about the girl that i want to be forever...someone who spends all her time reaching out to everyone... i want to teach my children the JOY of service.. something i have always admired about you mom is your ability to serve without even THINKING about it.. its become a part of your nature... i love it :) i just want that for my kids... for EVERYONE... how HAPPY IT IS TO SERVE AND TO MAKE FRIENDS!

anyways the ward is picking up the spirit of this all. the spirit of service and unity and love and FRIENDSHIP. our goal for the month for all the families is to have another family over that you dont know in the ward for dinner or for games or for something fun to just make for friends in the ward... im excited to see what happens with it. another thing we have been emphasizing is taking care of everyone because we WANT to not because we HAVE to like with visiting teaching and home teaching. sister schofield used to say "the Lord is not going to bless us with more people in this ward if we cant take care of the people we already have" SO... we are gonna start going with visiting teachers to get to know EVERYONE in the ward and love everyone in the ward and help everyone get their visiting teaching done... im excited :)
we got ANOTHER new investigator.... the flood gates are starting to open... i feel a baptism's coming our way ;) pray for it :D 

the sun has started going to bed later and i am so thankful... the whole sunset at 4:30 thing was a little depressing... now its like 6!! whooo hooo!

and ALSO i loooove sister halverson..... every week im amazed at how good of friends we already are... for the kind of friends we will always be! like.... her and sister schofield i feel like are my sisters! last night we talked and talked and TALKED till much to late but i thought how neat is that... that we can laugh our heads of... bear testimonies....tell crazy stories and then talk some more... man... haha i love it :)

fast sunday was beautiful.... one of the best i have ever experienced. im sad to say that it was one of the few that i have been able to make it a full 24 hour fast.. but i am definately going to have to do that again because it was so worth it. so beautiful. during studies yesterday i was reading from the book "teachings of president David O. Mckay" and here's a quote that i love:
he true end of life is not mere existence, not pleasure, not fame, not wealth.

" The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God’s inspiration. Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one’s self of the real joy of living."
the true purpose of life :) we are so lucky to know these things :)
and i LOVE THIS read it :) :
"
When God becomes the center of our being, we become conscious of a new aim in life—spiritual attainment. Physical possessions are no longer the chief goal in life. To indulge, nourish, and delight the body as any animal may do is no longer the chief end of mortal existence. God is not viewed from the standpoint of what we may get from him, but rather from what we may give him.
Only in the complete surrender of our inner life may we rise above the selfish, sordid pull of nature. What the spirit is to the body, God is to the spirit. When the spirit leaves the body, it is lifeless, and when we eliminate God from our lives, spirituality languishes. …"
oh i love it.
i love you.
i looooove you.
love sister douglas :)
ps.. OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes! i forgot to tell you all the answers to your questions hahahah!
i DID get grandma and grandpas package THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO THEM... i just barely got it.. it was a lovely scarf... super soft :) annnnnnd i have a card in the mail for them...i should email them to actually.... i love them
annnnd a typical pday goes as follows
get up at 6:30
work out for 30 minutes
get ready for the day.. or like this morning we talked for way to long we had like 15 minutes to get ready haha..
eat breakfast and do studies for an hour
do companion study...
then we go with the millwoods ysa sisters cause we dont have a car on mondays and so we come email at the library which EVERYONE comes and emails here so its like taken over by missionaries haha
then we go grocery shopping and shopping and shopping which i do0nt like... plus theres an ardenes near by... not good haha i have like 500 socks that i need to send home that only cost me 5 dollars!!! wow! bargain!!
thennnnnn what else do we do?? ummm oh then we go to the stake center for zone sports! so fun! plus i have worn a different cat shirt every week LOL boots and cats... ;) i love it pday rocks... so ya were there from around 3 to 6... today im going to write more letters... else i will prolly melt away from guilt lol
i love you so soooo much!!