t : its a time to give thanks!

what a great week this was. like unreal you guys. so fun and so much good work and miracles. on monday, we just had pday sports at the park but i was just like lol chillin. then at dinner the members gave us each a box of cereal! THANKFUL. then we went to heathers that night and talked about the hope of gods light that we can all have. when we are down and sad...gods light and the atonement of jesus christ is the hope that we have that everything will be alright. when everything is taken away that is all we are left with. hope. on tuesday we walked to an apt with sandy. sis mags said that she likes to walk so i thought it would be fine. we had a good lesson with sandy and read the book of mormon with her. we are in 2 nephi so its like hard to explain something that Isaiah said when i dont really understand either. oh well...ill trust the spirit will speak louder than me! by the time we got home mags was HURTIN!!! like big blisters on her piggy toes. NOT THE PIGGIES!!! i felt so bad. after dinner we were able to see the frosts and aaron. dude, its like 50 degrees at night and im just FREEZING! omg i am going to be suffering when i get back to washington. and then i will just DIE when i get to provo. layer up! on wednesday we had a great district meeting. everyone brought a random object and then elder merrell gave us a number and a gospel principle. we had to get the object and relate it to the principle. the gospel literally relates to EVERYTHING! try it. i double dog dare you!!! we were way into analogies for the rest of the day. we saw our investigators john and barbara that night and our relief socitey president was able to come with us. we had a powerful lesson about the atonement. freak, i am so obsessed with it and our savior. its ridiculous! on thursday we saw doug and his mom gave us a box full of fruits and vegetables....so nice! THANKFUL! we also were able to see sami and every child in the neighborhood was at her house. so we taught them all how to pray. so cute. i love the little children. so cute and innocent. on friday we saw 2 of our investigators...marissa and sandy. these people are so great! i love them and it hurts to see how there is something holding them back. SATAN. im still gonna try and do all that i can to help them progress. then when they do get b-tized ima come and cheer them on!!! wooooooo!!! we got taken out to pizza for dinner. holler. how good is pizza though? saturday was a real good day too! we went on a blitz with the district....we tracted a whole neighborhood! i bet the people were like "ATTACK OF THE MORMONS" hahah it was great. thinking about tracting literally makes me wanna die sometimes but when we get out there and do it, it is actually so fun! you meet the craziest people and have great stories to tell. like the man who opened the door without a shirt....i think he might have been the hairest man on earth. i got a hair ball just lookin at him. but then there are actually people who are interested!!! those are for sure tender mercies of the lord. we saw sami and had 4 little girls from the ward come! so many eager fellowshippers. its great. sami got super quite and scared though, saying shes not sure about church because she sooo scared! plz pray for sami to have courage and to feel the saviors love for her! after dinner we saw the burns and committed the to church. i mean everyone says that theyll try to come to church...but by gollie they were at church the next day. i could hear the hallelujah courses when they walked in! then we saw my favorite grumpiest man bill! hes so fun and we just pick on him and teach him the gospel and stuff! FUNNN! sunday was soooo good! not only were the burns at church but so were 3 of our investigators. miracles! marissa and her son came. as she was leaving she said to us "thank you for inviting us to come to church yesturday." sometimes i just think duh its sunday they should know to come to church! but NO! people need invitations. to quote pmg "people will not likely change, unless they are invited to do so." invite invite invite!!! we went to choir that night...lol its fun but like i have no idea whats going on most the time. okay you guys, this week is thanksgiving. i love it because hello, good food and a good time, but lets not forget the real meaning of what thanksgiving is...TO BE THANKFUL! with that said, here are somethings that i am thankful for:

family: forever and always i will love my family and am so thankful for the continual support that they give me. i couldnt make it without you guys. omg i love my mom and dad sooo much. lets hang out for eternity!!! also, huge shoutout to my lil sister and best friend who has written me these last 17 months without fail! I LOVE YOU GADA! smh at jason and jessica...step up the game these last 22 days. jk love you guys tooooo!

friends: i love my friends way too much and you guys make me soooo trunky!!!! i hate that im missing all the fun times with you but the sacrifice is def worth it. big love to brittany, brayden, and brandon who have sent me an email every single week for the last 75 weeks. freak you are the best! i cant wait to see you again and for all the love! LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH! also, im thankful for all the love and support of the friends that read my blog and keep me in their prayers. they are felt, trust me!

mission: oh shooot there are too many things that i am thankful for in this aspect. just everything that ive learned from investigators, less actives, members and fellow missionaries. im thankful for the love of those ive served around and that have taken me in as one of their own children. im greatful that i have been able to be apart of gods work and helping others come unto christ. that will forever be one of the biggest blessings in my life. im grateful for all the ward members and countless dinners ive been fed. seriously that means so much. i love all my mission friends and family. couldnt have made it with out that friendship!

the gospel: who knows where i would be with out this gospel and the influence it has been in my whole life. being lds isnt my religion...it is my entire being. its who i am. i know my celestial purpose and identity. prayer and the scriptures have been my anchor and i love that hour i have for personal study everyday. the gospel blesses lives. it blesses families. how has it blessed you? IM MORMON AND I LOVE IT!

i love you guys and sad that i wont be home for this holiday but its that last one!!! then ill be home for chirstmas....eeeek im too pumped. i love you so much!!! SO MUCH! have a great week! BE THANKFUL!

sista b

"To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude in our hearts is to touch heaven." -Thomas S. Monson (The Divine Gift of Gratitude)

harvested cotton thats wassup

"lets jump on the bed and take pics" yeah okay im dumb

running to the finish line!!!

oh hey guys, what the heck is up with yallll? this last week was so crazy and good!! so much fun. so on monday we went and had our last lunch as a district. i will miss them! then we made a movie where we "kill" the dying missionaries. i was in it and slit zealleys throat. lol fun!!!! the rest of the day was spent saying goodbye to people and finishing packing stuff up. we went to the sisters house to sleep over before transfers. me and ballard were up pretty late helping her pack up stuff and yak yak yaking. i will miss her so much! tuesday was transfer day!! saying goodbye to all my fellow missionaries was especially hard this time around. maybe because i was super close to them or because my time is next. its so weird! we played ball at the transfer cite and then me and sis magneson (mags) went back to the west zone to meet the new peeps at sports. theyre....interesting. everythings different and new and change is still hard. but im sure that we will all love each other by the end of the transfer. mags unpacked and made herself at home! on wednesday we had district meeting. elder merrell, my buddy from safford, is my district leader! we go home together so we will encourage with one another these last 4 weeks. we hit up that tbell for lunch. cheap and yummmmy! we didnt have dinner that night but we got a good nap in! then it was the lavalles (crazy children, that takes every thing in me to get in 10 minutes of BOM reading) and heather for the rest of the night. on thursday morning we walked to see barbara and john. they are the cutest old couple. we talked to them about faith and how they can strengthen it. i love teaching that lesson because it reminds me that i have to strengthen mine EVERYDAY! lol then we saw doug....omg he went through every tv show he watches, with every character and every super power they have. it took a solid 1.5 hours. oh doug! love that 24 year old child! isnt it fun how unique and different god made all of his children?! then we saw sami and after weeks and weeks of asking her to pray about coming to church a miracle happened! she said "i got an answer and God told me to give it a try" HALLELUJAH!!!! i was so happy! god answers prayers...everyones! we had ward coorelation that night and everyone got meet mags and we talked about how we can improve and get more investigators. guys, if there is something that you think the missionaries should try and could help...just tell them. every suggestion can help! on friday we saw kristi, a less active girl who just dropped out of high school so we are trying to help motivate her and see where she can be productive. i love working with the youth!!! after weekly planning we went to the despains for dinner. i love that family! they own a ranch and on dec 6th we are going to help them brand, tag and castrate the cows! IM TOOO PUMPED!!! then the sisters had a baptism that night, so we went to that and shared a little message with the people while the man was changing! this man had been taking lessons for years and had been taught by numerous sets of missionaries so a bunch of elders were there. they were so excited for him! awwww cute. i love missionaries! on saturday our stake was having a 5K so i was like wayyy down for that. i have been running every morning for the past couple months so i didnt think i would do too bad! it was actually really fun and i didnt stop the whole time. my finishing time was 32:17. so i was pretty surprised! go meeee! i ended up getting 2nd for my age group but lol i only think there were 5 of us. oh well. winnnner!!! that day we saw sami again and she taught us the funnest song about obedience:

obedience is the very best way to show what you believe

doing exactly what the lord commands

doing it happily

hahhah so funnn huh? then our member cancelled dinner but gave us money to go out so we hit up dat panda express. after dinner we went over to a members house to watch the cultural celebration for the phoenix az temple. it was sooo fun! i have never seen one before! i am def coming back to tucson if that temple ever gets finished. hahah it will. then on sunday we went to all 3 sessions of the dedication. the connection was awful though! we werent able to view the first one. the second one kept cutting out and the third one was audio only. i loved them all though. the temple is so fun!!! i cant wait to make it a bigger part of my life when i get home and go more often. president uchtdorf said something i really liked, "temple in spanish means templo- connecting 2 lines. the lines it connects is our earthly experience with our eternal existence." everything we do in the temple prepares us for the happiness of the eternities. stay temple worthy and go often! we went to choir practice that night because mags has a voice like woah! so im doing that hahaha. it was fun! theres one last thing i want to leave you with from my reading in the infinite atonement: 

"Oh in that moment when he (God) might have saved his son, i thank and praise him that he did not fail us for he had not only the love of his son in mind, but he also had love for us." 

i loved that because it showed me how much god loves us, enough to forsake his only begotten son. you are loved more than you know. never forget that. AND THAT I LOVE YOU TOO!!! have a great week. 30 days eek!

love, sista b

transfer cite!!! cute lil salazar love her

oh ballard DONT LEAVE ME!

buddddsss

what happens when you get 3 hours of sleep. #donthate

so theres this prison in marana called the MTC. coincidence...i think not. jk i loved the mtc

me and mags at the run

im a winnnnnnnerrr. lol

and then an elder broke my toe

makin salsa! fiesta!!!

sleepin in da car between dedications...real talk

seeeee ya zealley!!!!

okay ima just say this right now...having a companion that goes home 5 week before you do is just TORTURE! oh man im trunky but its okay because i know that there is a lot more work that i can do in these next 35 days. focus butcherite! okay lol lets see what happened this week. oh yeah on monday we had zone olympics. district vs district. we play volleyball, basketball, minute to win it games, soccer and had a relay race. it was really fun!!! we tied for second. we got zone shirts too and sis reeves drew all of the people in the zone as cartoons...i look so sassy. am i that sassy? i mean i just tell it how it is? sis zealley lost the phone that night so after dinner we were on a man hunt to find that thing!! but we didnt-_____- we met up at the stake center for exchanges. sis brown came with me to avra valley. the next morning we went to ASL class to learn how to teach the gospel in sign language. fun! then we all went to taco bell for lunch. we had to go to the mission office to get a new replacement phone which is awful and stupid and i dont like it. lol. we saw doug and he showed us all the toys he wanted in the target christmas magazine. fun! omg then MIRACLE!!! i had been looking through the area book and found a record for a snowbird couple that had been taking the lessons but went back to indiana in april but would be back in october, and when we went to try them they were back and were interested in continuing to learn!!! so fun!!! they are so cute and old. at dinner the kids were on one! im telling ya sooo funny. the little boy was just going off and talking about dessert. "WE ARE HAVING PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES FOR DESSERT....AND MY DAD IS 28!" sooo funny...i was dying. on wednesday we had zone training that went forever! we were trained on teaching by the spirit and leaving commitments right when the spirit is the strongest! people do great things when moved upon by the spirit. then we went to village inn for ballard and zealleys last lunch outing. i love wednesday nights because i get to see some of my favorite people. the lavalle kids....they are just a hoot and its almost impossible to get through our lesson. but its fun! i got told multiple times that i wasnt your "average" sister missionary. is that a good thing? i think so. im just sista b!!!! haters gonna hate! then we saw heather. she really confided in us and told us some of her issues that shes having. it made me so happy to know that people can trust in us and know that through christ and his gospel they can be healed. on thursday we met with barbara and john, our new investigators. our WML is really excited about them because he thinks that they are ready to be baptized! he knows them more than i do so i hope something will come from them! on friday we met with our investigator sandy....she is going to talk to her children this weekend about her baptism. but i still dont think it will be until january. so sad that i wont be here to see it. or maybe i will come back! fun!!! that day sister zealley spent most of the afternoon packing while i planned for the next week. TRUNKTRUNKTRUNK!! okay yeah....saturday was another crazy fun day with the district. in the morning we went to our district leaders area to blitz it. then after lunch we visited some people for sister zealley to say goodbye to. our elders had a baptism that we went to that night. it was huge!!! i swear the whole ward went. its so great to see how much fellowshipping and love was shown to that family. its great to see the church grow. lets keep it going. GOOD JOB MOM FOR YOU MISSIONARY EXPERIENCES!!! then that night we to dinner with some less actives in our elders area. its so funny how less actives love the missionaries so much. i guess if they came to church we wouldnt have to visit them so much. we are just so fun! im gonna go less active so i can be bffs with the missionaries. lol JUST KIDDINGGGG!!!! i swear. we got transfer calls that night and sister zealley is being transfered to riverton, utah and its up to her to find her new companion. LOLOLOLOLO AHAHHA AH i died when they told us that. so clever. and im getting sister magneson. she was in my zone this transfer but i didnt talk to her much. she seems fun and chill and has way cute clothes so it should be fun!!! on sunday there was a baby blessing and i just had the biggest revelation. like how great is the priesthood you guys!!!! it is so awesome!!!! i know that it is gods power that is on the earth and not to be like wierd but there is nothing more attractive to me right now than a worthy priesthood holder. just saying. i will definitely not settle for anything less. the priesthood blesses families and homes. thanks to my big bad dad for being so great and being worthy for this calling. use the priesthood! i cant wait tilll my hubs blesses my cute lil babes! eeek. see im trunky. hahahah okay welll thats about it. until next week! have a great one and be good. ctr!

love, sista b

christ IS the answer

west zone homies

lavalle children

apparently that sign means "stay fierce" fun

my girl heather and i

spooktacular week

lol that was pretty stupid but oh well. okay btw this keyboard sucks so if im missing letters all over the place im sorry. nothing really happened on monday besides sports and dinner. i was ballin doe. on tuesday we went out walking in the morning because its was still rediculously hot out. but this morning it was acually cold outside...like 50. i was like oh hey. we saw our investigator april who is like super mom and always on the go and doing something while we are there. we might be dropping her because she never has time to meet or sit down and talk with us. booooo. we just need some more super moms from the ward to fellowship her! we saw dougie boy that afternoon and he got a new asain game or something so he was all about showing us whats up with it. that was fun. before dinner we went off to see sami our 9 year old investigator. she still dont want to come to church so she might be dropped too. AND THEN WE DROPPED ENOCH!!! hes not interested in changing and just wants to talk with us.....so needless to say we kinda cleaned up shop. its so sad when missionaries lose investigators because we want so badly for them to recieve the blessings of the gospel but they arent having it! cmon people. agency sometimes...im tellin ya. on wednesday we had a good district meeting on having dinner with members and how we can strengthen them during that time. okay guys just a word of advice: please actually have conversation with the missionaries when they are at your house. it is one of the most awkward things in the world when all you hear at the dinner table is the utensils clinking. even i you hafta bring up awful missionary stories...dad. then after lunch we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. i went with sis barnes to her area in a really ritzy area of tucson. after dinner we were able to go to young womans and see some members from my old area. the gabitas family! omg they remembered me and it was sooo good to see them and reminisce. thursday day we went to go visit some people that i dont really know hahah but it was good to talk to them. isnt it fun how the gospel applies to everyone and can help them no matter what their situation is. i love it! when we exchanged back later that night we went to the ward trunk or treat! omg it was so fun and there was a great turn out. i cant wait to have a cute little family and dress them up and take all the pictures. oh its gonna be great. april and all 6 of her kids were able to come to and trunk or treat so that was great. we just kinda walked around and picked out the candy that we wanted. then after that we went to the sisters house and carved pumpkins...ugh mine started to fall apart but you can still read it says ctr...because choose the right. friday we saw the cutest old lady who is less active but we are still working on that. we had weekly planning and then a family took us out to pizza for dinner. normally on halloween missioanries are supposed to go home early so no mischief can come about but president told us that we should try to go out. so we just went to a members house and watched the priesthood session of general conference. i loved it! president uchtdorf man...im telling ya im not trying to have favorites but he just knows what to say! i loved his talk...go read it. it was about looking at our selves and not pointing fingers at anyone else. thats a pretty big lesson that i have learned on m mission. it is not our responisibiliy to judge anyone because we dont know their life or circumstance. lets just be concerned on our imperfections and how we can be perfected through christ. saturday was the funnest because we spent the whole day with our district. in the morning we went on a blitz in the sister area which was just a lot of knocking and trying former investigators. then we all went to the new mcdonalds. probably the biggest thing to hit marana since sliced bread. after lunch we volunteered at a carnival and me and sister ballard made sure that the kids didnt go crazy in the bounce house. we controlled the situation real good. i love sister ballard so freakin much. we are one. none of us had dinner that night so we went to dennys...so classy. finally, that night we had stake conference. it was all about hastening the work so i luved it!!! yesturday was stake conference again and we sang in the choir hahaha idk even why because i hate choir. but it was fun. this sake conference was really special because it was broadcasted from salt lake city. president uchtdorf spoke. holler! did you know that he took out his own endownments is the mesa temple. fun! i learned so much this week because im reading the infinite atonement. its so interesting! did you know that earth was close to kolob but then it fell when adam did. omg its great. also plants get resurrected. and purdy too. okay i love you guys too much! i will probs not talk to you till next wedesday because its transfers and then its vetrans day on tuesday so yaaaaa.

xoxo 

sista b

we be mini mice

some of the cute costumes of the ward

with a knight wut

ima fighter and thats a sword

bouncy house bouncers lolololol

that one time we got cafe rio

headed to stake conference

                                                         

                          

spooky tree with a huge bees nest in it