Under the Tucson Sun: 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