Thank you Thompson family, Grandma Davis, Grandma and Papa Dodd and
Aunt Pat for the Valentines Day cards! The mail is a little slow so I
just got them but THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
It is my beautiful companion, Sister Britton's, birthday this
Saturday!!! So I have began her pre-birthday week celebration.
(Birthday's are a big deal in her family. They celebrate the week
before and the week after)
So our mission is getting Ipads.
We have a "Mobile Device Training" tomorrow so I will find out and let
you all know next week.
This has been a busy week. We had our last exchange this past week. I
got to be with Sister Scotty for a day. She is from a Micronesian
island called Naru. She loves spam and seaweed so for breakfast during
our exchange I made her spam and eggs with seaweed and blueberry
pancakes. She started crying and she told me that none of her
companions had ever cooked for her before. Sister Britton and I love
cooking for one another! It is so fun. They say a mission prepares you
for marriage (insert Sister Dodd rolling her eyes)/
All of our lessons went well this past week. On Saturday we went to
the Stake Women's Conference. The former Salt Lake temple president and
matron spoke (Brother Richard and Sister Kathy Walker), a women's
health doctor spoke(Dr. Robert Jones), Marshall Mcdonald, Steve Nelson
and Julie Nelson all performed and Julie Nelson spoke of how she copes
being married to one of the Piano Guys. It was really powerful.
This week has been good. Transfers are next week so I will let you
know what happens! I hope everyone has a good week.

We went to Primary yesterday and it was so funny!
Teacher: "What sins do we do in our lives?"
Kid: "Swearing in our prayers"
---------------------------------------------------------
Teacher: "How does Jesus Christ save us?"
Kid 1: "He saves us from jumping off cliffs."
Kid 2: "No! That's Thomas S. Monson."

Sorry that these pictures are old...better than nothing, right?

This week was long and exhausting but there were some great miracles.

Al**is, who babysits for members in our area, finally told her
catholic mother that she is meeting with us. Even though her mom isn't
crazy about the church she is supporting Al**is. She wants to be
baptized in March! Yesterday we asked her why she wanted to be
baptized and she said "Because I know that is how I follow Jesus
Christ and I know that is the only way to make it to the temple and I
want to go there someday". OH MY GOSH! Golden. I am so sad that we
have to send her to the Young Single Adults.

A**y and Ry**e and two of our cute young women who are struggling with
their testimonies. So we are doing Personal Progress with them! A**y
came with us to a nursing home that we go to every Monday for a Family
Home Evening. We shared about faith and A**y and her friend Ca***ine
said that they want to go back every week with us! Hahahaa.

Br**n is so wonderful. We had a lesson this week with him where we
taught the beginning of the Plan of Salvation. He is very insightful
and he said that he has been reading a book that has been helping him
understand the Holy Spirit more. We had the great opportunity to tell
him that the Spirit testifies of all truth not only the truth found in
the scriptures. He thought that that was pretty cool.

Those are the miracles from this week. I got to go on exchanges (when
you swap companions for 24 hours) twice this past week. I only have
one more exchange to go on this week and then I will be done for the
transfer! Hahaaa. Valentines Day as a missionary....EVERY ONE IS ON
DATE! So the struggle was real. But Sister Britton and I bought one
another matching gold shoes for V.D. so that was pretty exciting.

We were driving past a little kid's lemonade stand and Sister Britton
said, "It is so hard to pay for lemonade in Utah because the parents 
aren't looking I pass the kid a duck--I mean a bollar. Ugh! I mean a buck
or a dollar! Hahaaa I hope everyone has a great week. I love being a missionary!

Special shoutout to the Nieslanik family! I got your Christmas present
and I love it! Thank you.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY (on Saturday!)
This week was good! CO**OR GOT BAPTIZED! Wahoooooo. He was so cute all
dressed in his suit!
Al**is is progressing so well. We taught her the Plan of Salvation
this past week. She has great questions and she is reading the Book of
Mormon and praying.
J**e and He**y Martinez are doing well. We are still meeting with them
and we are helping them to develop a habit of scripture study. He**y
is on bed rest so we went by on Wednesday and did ALL of her dishes
for her! It took about an hour and a half. If this doesn't give people
a clear idea of how important moms are then I don't know what will.
Are you ready for the miracle of the week?! There is a man named Br**n
in one of our wards who is not a member. His wife, So**a, is and she
teaches primary (the 5 year old children). Br**n goes to church every
week with So**a and helps her teach her primary class. So**a went to
Italy for 3 weeks and Br**n taught her primary class the whole time
she was gone!!!!!! *For those of you who don't know....people that are
not members of the church do not usually volunteer to teach at church*
Anyways over a year ago Br**n was taking lessons from missionaries and
got offended and hasn't trust missionaries since. (drum roll
please....) WE ADDED BR**N AS AN INVESTIGATOR THIS WEEK! He is very
smart and was raised catholic so we probably have our work cut out for
us but we are excited.
So we got to go to New Beginnings last night (for personal progress)
and Michael and Jeff McLean were there! If you don't know who they are
it is okay because I didn't know either! Hahaaa. Michael is a mormon
composer and singer. He composed "The Forgotten Carols". And his son,
Jeff, is a singer and has performed on Broadway. Anyways it was really
cool!
Other than that we have had a really great week. I am blessed in so
many ways. I finished reading the Doctrine and Covenants this past
week!
Also I hear all the time about people coming home from their missions
and knowing how to make a cultural food....so does that mean I have to
learn how to make jello? Gross.
LOVE YOU ALL!

Co**er's Baptism!

My cute companion and I!

On exchanges with Sister Xiong!!!

Guess what?! Sister Britton and I have decided to get our Young Womens
medallion while on our missions! We figured it will help boost the
morale of the YW and we are doing service and reading the scriptures
24/7 so we might as well write about it and get a necklace :) hahaaa.
We are super excited.

H***y is going to start attending the Young Single Adult ward!

H*****r has pneumonia. Boooo!

C****R IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!

R***e is a cute, spunky 15 year old less-active/recent convert. We
meet with her once a week and encourage her to come to church. She is
super cute. She is dating a boy that is not a member of the church and
she said that she has began to share the gospel with him! So cute. And
she came to church yesterday!!!

Miracle? I have already told Kam about this but I feel like this is a
miracle to share. S****y is the cute young mom that has 3 children.
A***n is 5 and only has 1 leg. Z**y is 3 and was born with a cleft
lip. Her twin sister B******n has a rare form of cancer that only 5
people have ever had in Utah and none of them have survived. She is
developmentally (physically and mentally) about 1 and she doesn't
speak. Recently they went to Wendys and this couple looked at sweet
little B******n and said she was "disgusting" and got up and left.
When S*****y told us this through her tears my heart broke. I have had
my testimony strengthened throughout my life and especially on my
mission about being kind to others. Did this couple know that B******n
has a rare form of cancer? Did they realize that she has been through
countless surgeries just for a slim chance that she might live?  Did
they realize how much her parents love her? Did they realize that this
is the body that Heavenly Father blessed her with? Sometimes we don't
think about what we say but may I caution each of you as you go
throughout your day to see the good in each person because there is
good in everyone. S****y is a less-active member of the church but
every day she prays and thanks her Heavenly Father for her beautiful
children. This is such a lesson to me on gratitude.

I am doing well. I love being a missionary. Love you all!

This is from J****'s baptism!

I call this her diva pose. haha My cute companion Sister Britton.

Pretty Utah.