Hey Family!!:) So a TON has happened this week....so I'll try and fill you on some things!! So my companion has been havin major stress and anxiety issues, so I have really been trying to help her through it this week. I helped her talk to President and the Training Leaders and she's been doin a little better. I've really tried to take time and just make her feel loved and understood and done as much as I could to help her. I have experiemented and made some DARN GOOD breakfasts;)haha but she is slowly doin better! I am SO happy. It broke my heart to see her hurting and struggling so bad. But anyways so me Sister K, and S, all got Priesthood blessings this week cuz A LOT has been goin on. Ha I almost got electrocuted, then one night, Me and Sister K were sleepin alone at the house cuz S stayed in her apartment this week and I had a strong feeling all night to go check the door and make sure it was locked....but I didn't cuz the door automatically locks when you shut it....so I KNEW the door would be locked...anyways I ended up not being able to sleep and had the same dream 3 times that there was a guy in the house and I needed to lock the door. So finally I woke Sister K up at 2 in the morning and told her I needed to go check the door. She didn't see why we had too cuz the door automatically locks...but we went downstairs andddddd the door was unlocked. Creepy. So we locked it and I felt immeadiately better. Weird? Then every Saturday night we drive down to Sioux City and sleep at the L house with the Sisters....and that night in Sioux City...5 shootings happened within a mile of us. Ha we had the WORST feeling the whole time we were drivin there and had the strongest feeling to just keep drivin fast and not stop...it was crazy. Then we get to the house and the Sisters were freakin out tellin us that 5 shootings just happened and the district leader texted us all to stay inside. Ha anyways we are safe and protected now:) But we got blessings and it was AMAZING. Ah I love the Priesthood so much. I am so grateful for the peace and protection it brings and have such a strong testimony of it. I know it is power from God and I am so grateful for every boy who is worthy to hold it. Well we have met SO many new people and have so many amazing experiences but one really special experience to me happened with J M again. She is the lady who has cancer and started chemo this week. She is the biggest sweetheart you will ever meet. We went over one night and she showed us all these pictures of her husband. They were best friends and high school sweethearts and she loved him SO much. It's so precious to hear her talk about him. He died a couple years ago and she talks about how he is always here holdin her hand through the surgeries and chemo and hard times. Mom it was amazing....you could feel his love for her in that room. Her husband was there and so was Jared. It blows my mind how strong the spirit is there whenever we go visit her. We just read from the Book of Mormon with her and she asked me to sing her How great thou art cuz she loves my voice!! haha so yes...I sung a solo mom....it was so embarrassing but she was crying and hugged me. I feel such a strong connection with her. I just know that if she dies,,,,,that Jared is gonna be there with her husband to teach her the gospel up there in Heaven:) Its so cool. She's the investigator me and Jared both got to teach:) So amazing.

Well another cool experience was we were drivin back from Sioux City one day and I had a strong feeling to stop by L. We did and she was bawling when we opened the door. We went and just hugged her. I went and fixed her dinner and Sister K vacuumed and did dishes and then we went and sat and talked with her. We read scripture after scripture about God's will and comfort. I told her that we have a source that's never ending...and that is Christ. and if we are feeling down, and pour in spirit that we just need to turn to Him, and His words and He will make us whole. I told her that we are all known and loved by our Heavenly Father. It was soo cool. Sister K shared an amazing experience about her life and when she was depressed and how God comforted her. It was such a cool night. She felt so much better and we had the most amazing prayer at the end. She is so special. Ok well SO many other cool things happened but I am runnin out of time...but one last thing the Sisters told us that S is going to be calling the mission president today to tell him that he can't transfer me or Sister K EVER. She wants to call and tell him all that has been goin on and all the things we are going through and doing and how we are Le Mar's angels and she has never seen so much success and miracles since we been here and there's no way he can take us out of here. Haha oh S.....I wonder how the Mission President will react to that one. haha but I absolutely LOVE it here. I love Le Mars...its the cutest little town ever even if there are some not so nice people. But there are some of the most Amazing people out here and we are finally gettin to em!!! I can't ever leave!!! I wanna serve my whole mission here! But I know the Lord will send me where I am needed and I will gladly go wherever that may be:) I just want to serve the Lord with all I have...and give him everything. I know we cannot ever outserve the Lord's capability to fill us...but it is worth a try!!! He just always blesses us more than we can ever give back!

One thing I heard in church yesterday that I really liked was "When we are through changing, then we are through." Haha well we ain't dead yet so that means we need to be changing for the better every day. I hope I can become closer and closer to the person the Lord wants me to be every day. Well I love you all SO much and pray for each and everyone of you! Have a great week!:) Also.....I would like to give a shoutout to one of my ALL TIME FAV COUSINS Kelsie:) You are the best Kels. Thanks so much for all you do for me:) I love you so much and hope you had the best birthday week ever!!!

Well we got 3 new investigators this week! Which is CRAZY insane for Le Mars!!! haha...so we are pretty happy about that! one of them is this lady C who's house flooded so we have been over there doin service like crazy...her husband died a year ago from cancer and so we have been able to get into some REALLY cool deep conversations with her about the Plan of Salvation. One night...her, S, and her friend J all had a lesson together. J just found out that day that her cancer came back and its stage 4.....she is the cutest lady in the entire world. She's probably in her 60's. Anyways she came in C's house bawling.....so we all went and hugged her and cried and knelt down and J (she's catholic) asked if I would say a prayer...So I said a really heart felt prayer....The Spirit was SO strong...Then after I asked if we could share a message with her. It was COMPLETELY guided by the Spirit....we had a complete other lesson planned for them that night. Anyways I talked about who knows what...I seriously don't remember anything that I said....J just was crying and crying and squeezing my hand. .Andddd....then Me and my companion sung "A Childs Prayer" with her.....yea I DONT sing...so it was super scary...but we did it and she was bawling...and said she had never felt so at peace and calm in her life. The spirit was SOO strong..... Mom the cool thing was....I could feel Jared in that room. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. I have never felt so much peace in my life. ahhh it was amazing. anyways, afterward J hugged me for the longest time and said I was an angel sent from God to her. It was the sweetest most touching thing...Then she asked if we could come and sing to her at the hospital and share messages with her while she goes through chemo. She said, "Please just be with me every step of the way through this....there is a special comforting feeling I never wanna leave around yall" So we promised we would share with her what that feeling is...and that she can have that ALL time...without us. It was way cool...so we are meeting with her a lot now. I just know without a doubt that God is here for every single one of us through our trials. And that He hurts to have to put us through them....but if we turn to Him in our hard times...He WILL take care of us. He will comfort us...and send others to help Him. I am so grateful to be able to be the Lord's hands in helping His children feel his love. I hope I can always be His hands...and his mouthpiece. I want to help others know that hope is never lost. With God anything is possible....and the hard times.. won't be so hard when we have our loving Father in Heaven with us.

Well a lot more miracles have happened....D is SO close to baptism.....which would be INCREDIABLE to have a baptism in Le Mars. Haha everyone teases that we are the pioneers here and get all the slammin doors and yellin at cause we are the 2nd missionaries ever in this area....so if we break through all this and get seeds planted....then later on.. Missionaries will be baptizin left and right. Its kinda hard...to not see much success....but its all good:) We do get to see hearts get softened and we get to do a LOT of service. Service is the way to hearts out here! Haha....let me tell ya....I am basically SUPER buff now....I have muscles the size of body builders. ;) not....but hey I'll get there;) I also am really good at painting and fixing all sorts of things now! I can now be a plumber, or construction worker, or landscaper, or mover, or cook when I get home!!:) haha I love it! But anyways long story short...MISSIONS are AWESOME. Everyone should go on one!! Amen. Haha well I love you all and appreciate all the prayers and letters and support!!! It means SO much to me. I pray for you all every night! Have an amazing week!! Love you!!!

Hey! So we are FINALLY not homeless anymore!!!! YAY!!! haha we moved in on Saturday! Its wayyyy creepy though....so its this SUPER SUPER old house....like built 100 years ago,...and everything is breaking....and S (The 75 year old lady who bought the house) isn't moving in for another week or so....so its been WAY creepy livin there alone. haha we listen to Mormon tabernacle choir ALL night! Haha But this week was crazy busy!!!! So L (The lady who drinks like crazy and smokes like crazy and lives alone) called us bawling one night because she just found out she is gonna lose her house. So we went over there and just hugged her while she sobbed and sobbed. It was sooo sad....but it ended up being SUCH an amazing night. We shared with her a bunch of scriptures and prayed with her 2 different times, and each one of us was crying. You could feel the spirit SO strong in that room. She now is keeping EVERY commitment we give to her! Its AWESOME. She reads from the B.O.M ALL the time now and we are getting her to come to church next week hopefully! SO cool!! So we met this old lady named G. She is a Lutheran and a hard core one. She won't let us leave her with a b.o.m.....but she does let us read with her from it every time we come over! That's HUGE. She wouldn't do that before. So we are workin with her. Its been crazy hard cause everyone here is SOOOO into their ways....they are way into their religion...and we get the door slammed in our faces all the time...haha its been kinda depressing so instead we make jokes out of it. Haha the best is when they peek through the window, make eye contact with us, and sit and stare at us till we leave. Its real sad. haha but oh well. Or we have people let us in "Cuz we are just soo darn cute" but don't want to hear a thing we have to say. It's kinda frustrating but its funny cuz we always somehow slip a scripture in and get a conversation going so that's always good! They just need to let us in and we can work some magic! haha;) but We are progressing really well with L and D. D has been keeping all her commitments and we are doing a church swap with her sunday!!! She will come to ours if we go to hers! She prayed to know if the book of Mormon is true and she got her answer, it is! she also knows joseph smith and president Monson are prophets. We just need her to realize that if the book of Mormon is true, all of it is!!

So we have been down in Sioux city and got to go on transfers with the Sister Training leaders ALOT. Me and Sister V went to J and S's house. J is a major chain smoker and is constantly lighting up while we teach him...ha hes also kinda a really perverted old man...hes like 90 somethin. its kinda funny....but we had a lesson with him then asked him to give the prayer and this is what he said..."Dear God, Thank you so much for havin these girls come.....they are absolutely beuuuuuuuutiful...ya done good Lord and thank you for havin them bring the Book of Mormon. I know that's what you want me to be readin. Amen" It was SO cute. haha im so glad he finally knows the book of Mormon is what God wants him to read! then one last quick story...so J...the 23 year old who had a baptismal date and everything, then randomly freaked out and said that the book of Mormon is from the devil and tried to convert us to his church.....randomly called us again and apologized for everything and had a referral he wanted us to share our message with...we felt really weird about that and called Brother W (our mission leader) at like 10:30 that night Brother W called us back again saying he talked to the Bishop about it at some meeting that night and the Bishop said "Don't you dare let those sisters go teach him and his referral...I have a REALLY bad feeling about it. " So we texted J and cancelled...ha It was crazy!

Hello Family!!!! So we are STILL homeless......but S (the 75 year old lady) got the house!!!! So we will be moving in probably sometime this week! Transfers are this week so we will have been out of our area for half of our transfer!!! haha crazy...but somehow God is blessing us and we are gettin a lot of work done in Le Mars!:) Well church was cancelled yesterday because it was -35 with the wind chill....and someone broke into the church or somethin too? We dont really know what happened....and then today it is -50 with the wind chill!!!!! its AWFUL!!! haha we are told to stay inside!!! But I have been able to see a lot of miracles this week. We have gone up to Le Mars 3 times this week....and have been able to give lessons over the phone. L is doing AMAZING. She is actually keeping her commitments!! YAY! I have a deal going with her to stop hooking up with guys and smoking, if she will read a chapter of the Book of Mormon instead...haha its working!!! haha so funny. Then J..(the 23 year old mexican....who was gonna get baptized) all of a sudden called us up freaking out that we were of satan and the Book of Mormon is a book against God...and this horrible thing went down...long story short we aren't teaching him anymore:) It's sad how Satan just gets ahold of people right when they are about to do somethin REALLY good.

I have been able to have a bunch of new experiences being up here in Sioux City. I have been on exchanges with Sister G and have been able to speak a little spanish!! Its been cool because downtown Sioux City is super ghetto and lots and lots of poverty....so we have been able to meet these amazing humble people who cook you HUGE amounts of food...and then they don't eat it. They fast ALL day just to feed us. It's amazing. Then we have also been able to meet this one family, the B's. They are AMAZING. They moved here from Africa a couple years ago. They taught us how to do some African dancing! Haha I LOVE it here. Well sorry I don't have much time to tell about my experiences...there has been SO many but I did want to share a story that I have been able to share countless times while being out here. It means so much to me and I really hope it will do the same for you. It's not a real story but the message is powerful. It's about this man who was sleeping at night in his cabin when the Savior appeared to him. The Lord told the man that he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day. For many years he did this constantly, giving it his all. Each night the man returned to his cabin, sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Noticing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the mans tired mind. "You have been pushing against this rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are NEVER going to move it." This made the man think that this task was impossible and that he was a failure. He decided that he would just push the rock with minimum effort and that will be good enough. He did this for many days, and then finally decided to take his thoughts to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "I have worked long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even been able to budge that rock. What is wrong? Why am I failing?" The Lord responded, "My Friend, When I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and strong. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities are so much more. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in my wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock." At times when we have trials put in front of us...we think of them as impossible and hard,....something that wont even budge. You work and work, but the trial is still there. You pray for the trial to be moved...but it doesn't. God put that rock, or that trial in front of you...to make you stronger. He knows what's best for each of us, and he knows what we need to go through to turn us into the people he wants us to become. All he requires is for us to PUSH. Exercise faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still GOD who moves the mountains. When everything seems to get down or go wrong...just PUSH. When people don't react the way you want them too...just PUSH. Pray Until Something Happens. That's what PUSH means. Then God will move your mountain:) I hope all is going well in each of your lives and I can't thank you all enough for the love and support! I pray for each of you every night and love you and miss you all sooo much!!!