October 5, 2015

Dearest family,

First of all, you should know that you are the actual best thing in
the world. You know that right? You know what's crazy? I'll see you
guys in just over a year! The time is going TOO FAST. I'm glad you
guys were able to have such a fun conference time with the cousins!
Wish you all could have been here with me! That's
crazy with all the wedding and accounting plans! Sounds like you guys
are keeping pretty busy, that's the way to do it! To answer some
questions: yes I would love all of my fall and winter stuff! It's
getting kinda chilly and humid, and the wind and rain for the
hurricane isn't helping a whole ton haha. Yes I do keep somewhat in
contact with a lot of people actually! But Quinn is the only other
person that I write almost every week. (Our emails are really
pointless and lame, but entertaining) and for p day today we will be
going to the zoo with the sister training leaders (but we'll have to
pay for it this time :/)

Well is week has been really super great! We have had a whole bunch of
lessons and met some really great people! We have tried to see Robin
but it just hasn't been working out. We think she has too many
commitment concerns (she has had 5 baptism dates in the last year) but
at least we were able to get her one step closer! We don't always get
to see the full effects of our efforts but every little bit counts so
it's ok! We have been seeing Lacey again and it's going great! She is progressing super well, been reading the Book of Mormon,
and she had a little bit of a relapse with her smoking during a really
stressful few days but she is back on the right track! She is having a
really hard time with life right now but we really think she is being prepared for
bigger and better things! She has such a strong testimony
and really wants this for herself and it is amazing to see!

We had transfers on Thursday which were CRAZY. In the end, it put me
and Sister McMillan in a district consisting of: 1) our zone
leader/district leader combo companionship 2) the sister training
leaders 3) the technology elders 4) the assistants to the president
and 5).....our awkward less experienced selves hahaha but it is going
to be so good! I'm terrified for district meetings now... But it will
be such a great learning opportunity! We will be together in Powell
for another 6 weeks and then, no guarantees, but I will probably get
the boot out of Powell :(

Well conference was SO SO SO good! Wow, the whole thing just blew me
away. Aren't we so lucky to have prophet and apostles on the earth to
help us out like that? First of all Mom, Elder Hollands talk made me
cry and you should know how much I absolutely love you and appreciate
you! I can always improve on showing it more, but you really are a
miracle woman! Thanks for all you have done for me :) One thing that
really stuck out to me as an overall theme is that we all need to be
better. It's so easy to get stuck in just passively living the gospel
and it just isn't enough! I am super grateful for the opportunity I've
had on my mission every day to better myself and I came to see that I
never really understood the importance of actively improving
ourselves to become more like Christ. I hope we can all make it a
goal to more fully see how the gospel needs to be utilized more fully
in our lives and en act on it!

I love you all so so much!