I ate MOOSE!!!

I know you didn’t stay up until midnight, but did you do anything to celebrate the new year?

- We had our district meeting and then after we had lunch all together like normal except the senior sisters brought the main dish and then the rest of us brought side dishes. After that we went and followed up on some potentials and referrals. Then a member took us out to Friendly's for dinner :) the rest of that night we went through the area book and planned then went to bed #partyanimals.

Moment that strengthened your testimony:

-  Well I have studied a few different things this week but one of my favorite that I studied was Jacob 5. Normally people compare it to the scattering of Israel and the restoration and all that fun stuff but this time I made it more personal. We are the tree in the vineyard (world) and the branches are the people that come in and out of our lives and some of them are good and some of them are bad and each grow different experiences that either grow our faith or tear us down but through Christ we can grow good fruit once more. We can keep our roots good and firm and we keep the best company and strive to keep the commandments and choose the right. When we keep those around us who are bad influences our roots can and will decay and we lose our faith. So yeah that was one of my cool studies.

Favorite lesson you shared:

-We went over the sacrament with E and talked about the meaning. We then told him how it is his great opportunity to pass the sacrament and invited him to prepare to pass it and to talk to one of the Brethren at church about it. On Sunday it snowed pretty hard and not very many people came so E had to pass the sacrament because there weren't enough men to do it. It was so great to see him pass the sacrament.

Oh also last Sunday we had to teach and he made a sign that said "Go B&C!"

Thing you are most looking forward to for the second half of your mission:

-I think I am just looking forward to continuing to meet more people and to help them come unto Christ. 

Did you meet anyone new this week?

-We met this cute little old lady named Eula and taught her the restoration. She's not really accountable anymore but she was a sweetheart.

Any new food?

- I HAD MOOSE CHILI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOOOD!!!!!!!!! (Sorry Chelsea)

-That awkward moment when....

... you're tracting and knock on this door and this guy answers with his daughter and you tell them that you are sharing a message about Jesus Christ and the little girl starts laughing all weird like and says "HAHA that's funny! I have to tell that to my mom. We already KNOW  Jesus." And just walks off laughing and we are all standing there stunned.

...you're tracting and knock on a door and a lady yells from the window "We don't use that door" So you go to the one by the garage and and it opens up and then lady yells from the inside garage door "You better not be Jehovah Witnesses" so we say we're not and then say who we are and then she says "Oh. Well I don't think I am interested goodbye!" and tries to slam the garage door shut but it just slowly creaks down.

Not only does Whitney not love veggies, she also has an aversion to anything that might color her mouth, especially anything blue.  As a joke, with several packages we have included ring pops and one of them was always blue.  She never mentioned them until she saw a picture of her cousin, Brookie, with a package of blue candy canes. . . “Yep, I always gave the blue ones to the elders.  One elder had never had a ring pop before and I gave both him and his companion one and let them choose what flavor.  Well he picked the blue one and started to eat it and his mouth went completely blue and they had an appointment they had to go to next. Hahaha whoops!  I was laughing pretty hard and told them that is why dou don’t eat anything that dyes your mouth a different color!”

They never stopped teasing me about it.  I don’t have a chance to miss getting teased at home, I get plenty of that here too.  Elder Sowby is my zone leader and he was at our district meeting on Wednesday where we had a potluck lunch.  He took away my dessert and wouldn’t give it back until I ate a stick of celery. Yuck!  It was gross and everyone watched as I ate it.  (I think you met his parents when you met Sister Williams at Café Rio.)

So, we have senior sisters in our district and they are the ones who decided to do a potluck each week when they saw us all eating our PB&J sandwiches.  They bring the main dish each week and we bring the side dishes.  Sister Bee and I are in charge of the salad.

Lately we have a lot of meals with members.  I love spending time getting to know the different families in this ward.  It has also really help our budget too which is definitely a blessing.