5/27/14

MOM!!!! Thank you so much for the package! It was AWESOME!!!! Loved them! Thank you!

 

I am so sad to hear about Grandma! I hope she's doing better now. I'll be keeping her and Sarah in my prayers. Sarah sent me a pick of her Cafe Rio borrito trying to rub it in my face. I responded, "first you total my car and now this..." haha! But I told her I loved her. I hope she's having a good time in Provo with the family and at EFY.

 

It has been a crazy week! Last Monday we went out for lunch at this AWESOME place called "the Melt" it has these insane grilled chees sandwiches that are to die for! It was a lot of fun. Tuesday was Zone Conference which was so awesome! I love zone conferences, getting to see President and Sister Vellinga is always so fun! It was my last zone conference though, so that was kind of sad. Sister Olsen and Martin from the office went home this weekend so they called them up and all the other missionaries whose last zone conference it was and they sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again to us. It was awful... We were all crying. I hated it because I still have 2 months left! I'm not going home yet! We'll meet again tomorrow.... But it was a good way to say goodbye to Sis. Olsen and Martin.

 

Wednesday was ELDER HOLLAND DAY! It was SO INCREDIBLE! He walked into the room and said, "I want to shake all of your hands" and so we all filed through and got to shake Elder Holland, Elder Hallstrom (From the presidency of the 70) and Elder Seldon (area authority)'s hands. It was so fantastic. Elder Holland said, "This is a good mission. I can tell because we've just interviewed each of you individually as we shook  your hands and looked into your eyes." AHHH!!! It was awesome! They all complimented us on our spirit and our preparation. I loved that they could tell we are a good, obedient mission! Elder Holland talked a lot about our personal conversion and that we can't go home and not live up to the title of "return missionary", we don't have the right to desicrate that title he said. It was so powerful. He told us that he thinks about his mission every day of his life, that it's become the template of his life. I hope that I will be able to say that about my mission. He also told us that he prays for the 2nd coming to happen every night. He says there are too many tears, too many troubles, too much evil in the world. He wants it to stop. But he said in order for that to happen we have to get to work, we have to hasten our work so that the Lord's can  be hastened. He also talked about our teaching. He said that each of us has power and authority as a missionary, but that we don't use either as much as we need to. He told us that we often don't get return appointments because we don't use our power and authority to astonish them. So that was his instruction, "go out and astonish someone today!" It was pretty cool to be taught by an Apostle! SOOOO COOOOL!!!! I loved every minute of it. He is so powerful and so in tune with the spirit and SO FUNNY! He told us that if we came home and went inactive that "Clint Eastwood would be baby talk" compared to what he would do to us! hahaha! It was great. Very inspiring and motivating for me to make sure when I come home I never forget what I have learned and felt and been apart of here and that I never go back to who I was before. It was incredible.

 

The rest of the week was good. Nothing too exciting to report... The weather here is so beautiful! I love that it's getting nice because it's making it so much easier to go contacting. We go to the pier that's right across the street from us and are able to talk to so many people! And there's a really awesome park/beach down the road too that's great! It's so beautiful here. I can't wait for you to see it when you come out! It's going to be so fun!

 

Monday was a lot of fun. We didn't do too much, just relaxed. Because it was memorial day everything was closed. but next week we're planning on going downtown Cleveland and checking out the markets and the fun stuff to do! SO EXCITED! It will be a lot of fun!

 

Well I hope that you guys are all doing well and that everyone is healthy and happy! I can't wait to see pics of the boat ride! Because I know you took pictures, right mom?

I love you!