Guess Who's Coming!!!!

Hello everyone!

I so wish I was in St. George with you last week! The weather here is warming up, but today is really rainy and wet! This week has been a good week. The work is still really slow here, but we are doing a lot of finding.

Monday we did not have any miles on our car so we did not do anything really fun. We hung out with the elders and thats about it. Monday night we had dinner with the Crilleys (Sr.). They have us over once a month. They are the nicest people I know! I love them. After dinner we stopped by a less active, Dian. You would never believe the way that some people live. I have seen so much on my mission it breaks my heart. Especially when they know how much the gospel can bless their lives, and choose not to partake of the blessings. 

Tuesday was a busy day. Sister Davis had to start packing. We also had lunch with Sister Crilley (daughter in law to the other crilleys.) She is amazing! She is the Relief Society president! She is a great sister. She has 2 young boys (that she adopted) their family is beautiful. We also got to go visit the Woodins: Mike and Crystal. I think I have told you about Mike (11) and Crystal (13)...recent converts of almost a year. We are teaching the new member lessons. The kids love it when we come over. They are very eager to do the things that we ask them to do. I KNOW the gospel has blessed them as a family, and will only continue to do so as time moves on. Well after the Woodins, we had dinner with Bishop Ross and his family. Bishop is a funny guy. But it is really hard to tell when he is joking and when he is not. I have learned so much from him. Every time I see him he asks me "what did you learn today? Everyone is suppose to learn something new everyday." It catches me off guard every time he asks me.  I have to sit there and think about what I have learned. Looking back at the day I usually find more than one thing that I have learned, and I am also more aware of the tender mercies of the Lord. This is something that I am trying to look for each day. 
Well Tuesday morning we got a call from a sister in the Hampton ward..Sister Duecett. She told us that she had a friend that was in the hospital, and she would like to receive a priesthood blessing. She asked us to find someone to come with us to see her. We called brother Cosman (ward mission leader) and asked if he would go. He came, and he brought his son with him. It was such a neat experience to go visit this woman (non member.) She has seen the miracle's that come from blessings. I am very proud to have men in my life that honor that priesthood! 

Wednesday we had our ward mission correlation meeting. Where we are always served breakfast! We then went to visit Holly. Oh I just love her. She has such a strong testimony of the church, she reads her Book of Mormon everyday, she does good things, but she does not come to church. It seems like such a small thing, but it is one of the most important commandments that we have been given. Church is where we truly can feel the spirit and learn from it. But the most important thing is the sacrament. I never realized how important the sacrament really is. We receive the greatest blessings when we go to church and partake of the sacrament, if we don't do that, then we are not promising to follow Christ. Holly has a difficult time coming to church, and I know it is the work of the devil trying to get her not to go...he knows the happiness that we can and will have if we attend church. 
Well we also got to go see Heather and Brendan (less active).  Next Sister Davis did more packing. Then we got to go visit some of my most favorite people ever...Ester, Rosa, and Cloudia!! We taught them the word of wisdom. I think the girls really liked it. And Ester has some great questions. Which makes me think that she is really understanding and wanting to change. I love teaching this family. I have seen so much happiness in their lives as they attend church, and as they have us into their home to teach them. Well for dinner we were invited over to Butch and Sandra's house. Sandra is a recent convert and her husband Butch is not a member. They are one of the funniest couples that I have ever meet. Butch is so nice, he made us a pizza pasta. yummy!! 

Thursday: Transfer day.. Well we had to be in Moncton (2 hours away)by 9am. The assistants bring all of the missionaries that are going to be serving in New Brunswick or PEI to Moncton in a big 12 passenger van. Then they take all of the missionaries that are going anywhere else in the mission from these places and takes them back to Halifax. Well this is where I met my new companion  Sister Sandberg. She is a new 19 yr old sister. She is from British Columbia. I love her. She is very excited to be here!!!! I can not believe that it has been 9 months!! It is terrifying to me!! I only have 9 months left...and I have been told that last half goes faster than the first. I am not ready to go home...I don’t know if I ever will be...sorry..I love you all at home, but this life, serving the lord, not thinking about yourself...its amazing!!!!! I can not think of doing anything else! The next few weeks will be so different than the rest of my mission. Training. I don’t even know how to explain it. For the last 9 months I have been working with very experienced missionaries. They knew what they were doing, and I was able to follow their example, but now, its different. I have to be the example, I am the most experienced. Crazy!! I am always reminded by the elders that I serve with of how old I am. Not only am I the oldest in real age, but I am also one of the oldest mission wise. The elders that I am serving with have only been out for up to 7 months, and they are all 3-4 years younger than me. Its weird!! and they won’t let me forget it! haha

Well the rest of the weekend was full of normal missionary work. Knocking...a lot of Knocking...we met this man yesterday who says all religions are a cult...because the catholic church owns a country inside of a country!? makes no sense!! We had a Muslim lady try to teach us yesterday. haha that was neat we told her that we were here to teach her and she said not thanks. 

So guess what happened in church yesterday?! We are having our stake conference in a few weeks and the stake president (president Spragg) is from the Saint John ward, so he often attends our meetings, but he got up and said that a very special visitor would be attending stake conference...Elder Holland!! So exciting!! I can not even wait!! The next several weeks are going to be gone before you even know it...this week is Conference (ps I cant wait for that either!!) then we have Stake conference two-ish weeks after that...then we have our mission tour where a member of the seventy will be coming. 

Well I think that is all the exciting news here! I miss you and love you all!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!! 
I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love,
Rachele