hey i'm staying in my area! hna meldau is too, so you can write letters to the same address!
okay.
first. EVERYONE CELEBRATE ON THURSDAY WITH ME!!! it's my 1 year mark officially!!!! WOOOOO!!!!! it went by so fast!!!!!!!!!
I YEAR OLDER AND CHUBBIER TOO!!! HUZZAH!!!!!!!
anyway also put on some good toons and DANCE WITH ME because WE GOT MOTAB BACK!!!!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ANYWHO.
moving on :)
okay so i don't remember if i told any of you this, but the Tampa Florida mission has had a flat average of 2.2 baptisms per missionary per mission, or year. or something. for about 20 years. anyway, 2.2!!!!!! so L. Tom Perry had a conference with the mission president and with stake leaders i think, and he was like... yeah we gotta get that up. every number they said he was like... not good enough! until they reached 8..... haha and then he was satisfied :) WOOOO so basically we all have a lot of work to do. when there's a will there's a way and the LORD WILL PROVIDE!!!!
so that's cool. president is changing things left and right, just seeing what works best and how to get these numbers up. EVEN THOUGH it is not based on numbers, your success. the work is hastening and we gotta be gettin our army put together, faster!!!
anywho. okay so something really NEAT this week was this! let me tell you!
eh hem. we had our bike day and it was awesome, and I had left a Book of Mormon in my basket that night. the next morning we go and i see it and i'm like... hm. I'm gonna have to give that to someone this morning. so then we biked to the park we go to and then this kid and his little brother got dropped off and started playing basketball in the park! and i was like OH MAN this is it!!!! so i got it and walked over and gave it to them :) and then made a 3 pointer and walked away really cool.....
hahaha just kidding but i really did make a 3 pointer! and walk away! anyway okay i realize this story just sounds normal and like nothing special but the cool THING is that i LOVE THE SPIRIT and how right it always is and it's just cool to be able to feel it!!!!!
okay NEXT COOL STORY!!!! so we were driving the other night.... and we started to drive to our scheduled destination. and i was like... hm.... hna meldau should we go there? and she was like.. yeah? sure? i dunno! and i was like okay... hmm.... and then i was like SHOOT we gotta be somewhere tonight and it's not there! and so i started turning around and went in the opposite direction and was like wheeeere am i even gooOOOOIng i don't know what i'm doing! haha and we started driving and i gotta a little feeling like first move, YOU GOT IT RIGHT! keep going! and i was like okay this is so cool where am i going! and then i was like.... Mountain Bay dr......? (a street where some members and investigators live) and i was like... maaaaybe? and then i said yes. lets go there. and then i got a feeling.... GOOD JOB 2 DOWN 1 TO GO! and i was like WOW this is so cool!!!! so we went and parked. and i was like... hm. i'm crazy. there's no one outside.... what shall we do... it's really late... and so we just started walking down the street. AND THEN this family started walking up the street, and we'd met the husband before and no interest. so i was like hm great. they aren't interested! but we hadn't met the wife yet and so we stopped and started talking and BOOM CONVERSATION!!! i love her! we just talked and talked! and she started asking tons of questions about the church and what we do and it was AWESOME and then we were just like so when can we teach you more? and they were like there's a wedding this weekend but next! we're good! and it was juuuust really cool GOSH i feel like these always come out with a lame sounding ending but IT REALLY IS AWESOME I PROMISE! haha i love it :)
anyway. life is good.
sometimes it gets hard, and man out here I've been like Heavenly Father i will do WHATEVER you want me to! and I will go through trials and testing cause I wanna grow! I do! so give me the hard stuff! and then something hard comes and all of sudden I'm like wait.... i doooooon't think this is the right thing. hang on a sec. I thought you were gonna give me the OTHER thing.... waaaaaait can you RETHINK??? haha and so it's just funny how we still have SO FAR to go when we think we have already come a long way. there is so much growth we each have to do in this life, and sometimes we make it a long and slow process, longer than it has to be, because we won't just let it happen! we push The Lord away or get mad or let ourselves sulk in our trials instead of letting him help us grow the way the trial is supposed to help us grow. I was reading in a great talk I probably have quoted long ago but it talked about the fiery trials of our faith and how they have the potential to completely destroy us and our faith or to make us stronger. DO NOT LET THEM DESTROY YOU. cling the your heavenly father and try to remember that he does love you and that even though it seems unlikely and it's hard to remember, everything is for your good. He makes plans to help us grow, not destroy us. we are the ones that let trials destroy us. that sounds harsh, and i know some trials are harder than others, but there is no way the your Heavenly Father would intend to hurt you, when his reason to live is to give us eternal joy. eternal is the key word, not temporary, not right now. but eternally. we need the patience to see the big picture, and recognize that he lets us suffer because he DOES see the big picture, and he loves us enough to know that we need this, for the eternal results. That's why he doesn't always give us the temporary joy. just remember that, and be strong.
i love you all so much, make something positive and good out of every bad thing that happens. love those around you. PLEASE DO! people need the love. don't hold it back. Just focus on Christ, and do your best.
Love you guys :)
HASTA LA VISTA!!!
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| yeah i built that crib it's NOT A BIG DEAL. but it's pretty cool. |
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| that sandwich doesn't look that big NOW. but. trust me. it was huge. hahaha |
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| RAIIIIN! it's becoming rainy again :) HOORAY!!!! my old friend. back! |
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| THIS IS SOME DELICIOUS STUPID BELGIUM chocolate.... |
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| awwwww man! look how cute this little guy is :) I LOVE HIM! we were just walking around a trailer park and went up to some people at a party and they had this baby goat and let us hold it :) |
