we thank thee for tommy monson

helllllllo to all! how are you guys doing. i hope you had a fab week! this week was ok...just trying to adjust to everything and lol idk. so on tuesday we played sports and had a good time. then we went to a relief society activity and i got to meet some of the sisters so that was good. it was all about canning....lol so mormon! then for dinner someone bought us a pizza for dinner so we ate that with the other sisters that live out here with us. we are kinda in the middle of no where. about 20 minutes from tucson in a city called marana. lots of cotton fields and dirt roads. i swear once i got outta tucson the lord wanted to keep me out!! its okay though. i love the sisters that are out here with us. sister ballard and sister reeves (my old comp). ballard is a crack up. on wednesday lol i think it was my birthday!!! we had district meeting and they sang happy birthday to me. lol i love attention. then we went to the family history center and they taught us how to do more family history. but the coolest thing was that this guy showed us a website called relativefind.byu or something like that and you can put in your name and family history login and it shows you every famous person that you are related too!!! it was so cool. we are practically releated to everyone some how. i think the coolest one was that i am direct 12th cousins with ezra taft benson. lol famous. after that we went to in-n-out because i havent had that in ages!!! sis ballard bought my lunch for me <3 then it was back out to work. on thursday we walked alot which is fine with me because im tryna get tan and stuff before i get home. but lol i also got blisters!!! dang....i needa buy some dr. scholls inserts today if we plan on doing more walking. i met our investigator named april....lol i dont think she knows she is investigating the church though. we needa change that. i was soooo sore after i took my nap. that night we had ward coorelation and our ward mission leader knows whats up!!! he is so good about hearing about our needs and investigators and how we can get the ward involved. so good!!! ward mission leaders are a big deal as a missionary. on friday we met with another one of our investigators named sandy. she was a referral from a recent convert who i just think is the most hilarious woman. she totally speaks her mind and dont mess around! sandy is waiting to get baptized till her children can come so i dont think i will see it while i am here but she is super solid! after lunch and nap (<3) we went to meet with a referral named sheryl...she welcomed us right in and after one question she just totally opened up to us!! it was so great. she told us her worries, concerns and expectations that she has. she just wants to get closer to god, increase her faith and have more faith. sounds like something we can help her with. she was a member of the Reformed LDS church so she knew a lot about church history and joseph smith and the book of mormon. it was one of the best lessons i have been in in a really long time. the spirit was so strong and she told us she could feel it the moment we walked in and that we were an answer to her prayer. it was so great! we will see her again this week and hopefully set a solid date with her! then we weekly planned and saw another investigator named marissa....who cant get baptized because she works on sundays -_-. then it was conference!!!!! oh i love that conference. we watched it with a single lady and had lunch between sessions which was good! after we saw doug. oh doug what a special character. he loves pokemon and anime and power rangers so i was all about talking that stuff with him. oh yeah hes 24. so we are tight. he likes one direction. then i met another one of our investigators named sami. shes a 9 year old girl who loves to learn about god. didnt get to talk to her that much but she seems like she can progress well. sunday was conference again and we went with the sisters so that was fun. after dinner we got a text from one of our investigators saying he didnt want to study anymore because of me. so that was very very VERY disheartening. i said maybe 10 words to him....sister zeally said i shouldnt be concerned over it and that hes really sensitive. but yeah it was still hard. it is so hard to come into a new area and try and earn everyones love right away. people are imperfect and missionaries are imperfect! my goal is to be the best sister butcherite that i can. im working on love but it is soooo hard!!! ill buck up and see how i can turn this into a learning experience. anyways here are some things i learned from conference:

- who do i face? am i more afraid of man or god?

- kindness is powerful

- take 1 scripture from the BOM that you know to be true and share it.... ether 12:27

- is heavenly father pleased with me? have confidence in your answer that he is

- love everyone!

-follow the prophet

- stay in the boat

- be prepared

- review your testimony and how the gospel has blessed your life and share it with other!

hope you guys learned a lot this weekend and apply it to your life. be a little better than you were yesturday. love you alll!!!!

sista b