Hey Family!!!! I just want you all to know how much I love and miss you guys! I pray about you all every single prayer (which is like 90 times a day as a missionary) and think about you all often! I am so grateful for you guys and really took for granted how special each and everyone of you are. I really have the most amazing parents possible. You guys have always been such great example to me and have loved me and made me into the person I am today. Thank you so much. Thank you for the for the amazing life you gave me. I seriously am so blessed to have such a loving atmosphere. I took that for granted. Ha being out here in Le Mars has really opened my eyes...So me and Sister Kent are the ONLY missionaires up here in Le Mars. The closest missionaires are an hour away in Sioux City. Ha its real hard up here.....everyone is real strong in their religion and don't ever wanna change. President warned us this was the hardest area in our mission. Ha its crazy but I love it. Other than the fact that we get the door slammed in our faces ALL the time and yelled at...(even got threatened to be shot if we didn't leave the porch!!! hahaha) oh and the weather is in the negatives ALL day every day....haha with a -25 wind chill....shoot me. haha I WILL die here. but I ABSOLUTELY love it here! We have met some amazing people and I've already had amazing experiences. I wanna share some of them with you, Hopefully it will make sense..

As part of missionary service up in Le Mars weve had the privelidge of serving with some amazing women at Christian needs. (food and clothing pantry for the needy) Through this service we've become friends with these women of other faiths and have truly become welcomed into this community. One example is with P. While discussin service oppurtunities in Le Mars she sent us to her friend D. D had just had back surgery and needed help around the house. Our first night there we found she needed the gospel in her life and began to teach her. Through D we met I. I, D, and P are all involved with the Methodist church. I became excited with the idea to have us teach their women's group about our beliefs and we were SO excited about that! but a couple days passed and we hadn't heard anything but we continued to serve and teach D. During this time our investigator J(who works for this same Methodist church) told us she no longer wanted to meet with us anymore. None of these things seemed to connect until a few days ago...when we saw our investigator Ju. Amazingly enough we found out Ju attends the same Methodist womens group as the other women we mentioned. What she told us, explained everything. That same night that we first visited D, the rest of the women were in a meeting with their pastor. I brought up the idea of having us come and teach and Ju was excited that others knew and loved us as well. To her surprise, the Pastor freaked out and rudely refused. That bothered Ju and she then explained that we were wonderful girls who were sacrificing a year and a half of their lives to teach and help others and that it would be exciting to learn about another church. The pastors only response was that we (Mormons) did not believe that Jesus Christ was the only begotten son of God and the discussion ended there. Ju asked us about that and we told her that we did believe that he was the only begotten son and she shook her head in agreement saying that she knew her pastor was wrong. We are so grateful to know that our service has touched hearts and even though church leaders are against us, the people here are beginning to accept our message and love us and even stand up for us!

After we met with J we went and had dinner up in Strubel (which is a really small town of about 15 people total haha) at a members house the Rs. They are way nice! She just had her 3rd baby IN HER HOUSE this week and fed us a couple days later....CRAZY haha. We ate where she just had her baby...ew weird thought. haha anyways then we left there and were gonna go visit S (the old lady who is SO funny and amazing) We pulled up in the parking lot and then we kinda just sat there and Sister K said she felt sad. We couldn't figure out what was wrong so we were about to get out of the car but then I felt really weird. Like something was off....so then I told Sister K and we got back in the car and I asked if we could pray. So we said a prayer and then after looked through the list of investigators deciding if there was somewhere else we needed to be. This referrals name (R) popped up to both of us. Which was super weird because he is a single man and that's all we know. So we were scared to go and knock on his door at night. But we felt really good about it so we started driving over there. The second we started driving, I felt immediately better. I felt REALLY good. It was werid. Once we got there it was dark and we couldn't see the house numbers so we couldn't figure out which house was his. We both saw this one house and agreed that we needed to go and knock on that door. So we prayed and walked up to it, The whole time I was walking up to it I felt SO good. I felt like I wasn't even walking....it was so surreal. Then we got up to the house and realized it wasn't Rs house.....but we knew this was where we needed to be. So we knocked and this 50 year old lady answered. We introduced ourselves and she said she had a church and loved it and didn't want to hear what we had to say. We then introduced the Book Of Mormon and she got interested. We then both testified of the Book of Mormon with all our hearts and the spirit got SO strong. I had this overwhelming feeling of absolute love for her...like I had known her forever. It was amazing. Then I challenged her to read the B.O.M and promised her that she would know it was true and that it would bring her the happiness she was looking for. It was so bold...I was terrified...but it felt so right. Then she took it and promised she would read it and asked if we could come back after she rad it next week! ha she is gonna read it in a week! We said of course and we were about to leave when Sister K said, "I know this is weird but can we just hug you?" and she said, "I was just gonna ask you the same thing." So she hugged us both SO SO tight and started crying and said, "Thank you. Thank you. Just thank you." Then we left her with our number and we are goin back next week! It was AMAZING. The sprit completely led us there. She completely changed from not wanting to hear a word from us to crying at the end and thanking us and to not only committing to read the B.O.M but to read the whole thing in a week? haha amazing. Then after we felt SO good. We decided the best thing was to drive home so we could go tell the Condie's then on the way home I had a feeling we should stop and see one of our investigators L. Sister K thought that was an amazing idea and so we did. L is a 40 year old lady who drinks and smokes like crazy...but LOVES us more than anything. Ha she loves talking with us and bein around us but doesn't want to hear 1 word about the B.O.M or she glares at you and gets upset and kicks us out. So we stopped by and asked if there was anything we could do. We did all her dishes and had a strong feeling that we should tell her about our experiences with Marilyn that just happened...and then I had a feeling we should testify of the B.O.M. which was really scary because she HATES us talking about it. So after the dishes we went in and asked if she would turn the TV off and if we could tell her about something really cool that happened that day. She agreed and we told her. She actually was really interested and thought it was amazing. Ha then we tied in how we were here for a purpose and we know its to bring her the peace and happiness she has been looking for and that happiness is found in the B.O.M. We testified so strongly of the B.O.M. and then I commited her to read it. She said she would and she felt something. IT WAS AMAZING. There have been tons and tons of miracles everyday, and it would take me ALL day to tell you so I'll just tell you one more real fast...so ya know how the spirit guided us to M but we were gonna go see R? Well we decided to finally go see R...it was cool. He was SO eccited to see us and told us how he had been prahin and how he was Lutheran but he just knows theres something else out there that will make him feel whole. We gave him a B.O.M. and he was so excited and we got into a really deep conversation and he was crying and we bore testimony REAL strong. He really wants the truth and is loving and eating up everything we say! I can't wait to see what happens with him. Oh an one other thing...ya know L? The one that drinks and smokes like crazy and finally commited to read the B.O.M.? well now I got her makin a deal with me! haha instead of smoking a cigarette, whenever she feels tempted, she makes another scarf(she LOVES making them) and its ACTUALLY working she said! haha I love her! Sister K is amazing at how well the people are responding to me. She always jokes around saying, "Well if Sister Wilson commits someone to do it, then they actually do it." haha so the whole ward jokes around with me for that. I love it. I love all the people here so much. I can't imagine my life without this experience. Ive already learned so much and its only been 2 weeks!!! WEll don't get me wrong...ha ive only told you the good struff that's happened...theres been tons of bad...but you just cant let it get ya down...and keep on goin. One thing that's been hard lately is the C (G and M) members we live with...are moving the end of December.It all happened really fast. We are SO sad. They are like our grandparents. G makes us this huge home made breakfast every sunday and is always calling and checking up on us in this weather. Its so hard but its the right thing for them to do. The problem is...we have no idea where we are going to live. Theres no where to live up here. Theres only 6 members and they are too poor to house us.. The only place would be these ghetto apartments but they don't want to put us there....so I have no idea whats gonna happen....we will see. The lord will find a way:) Well I gotta get off soon..sorry this is so long but I want to leave all of you with some scriptures that have stood out to me and I have loved recentely! So yall better read em! haha ok in 1 nephi 21:14-16 it talks about how God has engraven us on the palms of his hand. That's so powerful..He will NEVER forget about us EVER. So never feel alone, because I promise you that you have God on your side...and who better than him? We need to remember that God has organized our jouney through life to be a test of our character...it all up to us if we turn to him to help us develop a charater he would be proud of. In 2 timothy 4:5-7 it talks about how to endure our afflictions and at the end of vs 7 it is such a powerful statement. He says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." I want to be able to say this when I die. Its so powerful. He knew that he had done all he could and was content with the way he lives his life..Do we feel this way about our life? Have we given our all? I love that. We need to develop our character in a way where we can say yes to all that. Then in 1 Nephi 21:5 at then end of that verse it says "yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." I want to be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and rely wholly upon him to be my strength. I am so grateful for this gospel in my life and really have no idea where I would be without it. It is my everything. You have everything and you are mad whole with it. In Jacob 2:8 it says that the word of God is the "word that healeth the wounded soul" It is so true. Whenever you are havin a hard time, turn to the word of god and I promise in it you will find rest and the peace and happiness you were looking for. I want you all to know how grateful I am for the letters! it means SOOO much to get a letter! Please keep seding them! they really make my day you have no idea. Thank you all for the love and support and the prayers...I really feel them. and I pray for you all EVERy single day! Love you all and talk to you next week!!!:)