November 24, 2011

Hey family!

I hope you are all having an enjoyable Thanksgiving! Today is our pday, so we aren't doing too much. We are writing letters, emails, relaxing, and then tonight we are headed over to a members house with the elders to have Thanksgiving potluck with a bunch of his nonmember friends. So, it'll be perfect. We will probably spend the rest of the night there. It should be enjoyable. 

Send Great Grandma Burbank my love. I hope that she can find peace. 

I'm glad things are improving in the house. It sounds like everyone is doing well!  I have been writing most of these experiences down. Sometimes I choose sleep over journal...whoops? But, I will write a key in my journal with names of investigators and their code names and the area/date that we were teaching them. And, when I call on Christmas I can "reveal" the code to you! ;) haha. 

I am loving the ward here. The YSA's are so wonderful and loving. I love getting to know them and seeing how ambitious many of them are in their studies. They are also so willing to help out with joint teaching. I love it. Oh yeah, the wards are officially combined! That was a good Sunday. We had Jenny to church and another guy who we had talked to 2 weeks before and emailed a couple of times and he walked into church. I didn't recognize him at first and I thought maybe he was from another ward, but, it was him! He left after Sacrament meeting, and we sent a Book of Mormon with him. It's kind of funny because we have a parking problem here at the institute and so people end up blocking cars in and this investigator ended up getting blocked in. But, he didn't come find us. We happened to look out the window during Sunday School and there he was, sitting in his car! So, we ran out there to talk to him and he rolls down the window, holds up the Book of Mormon and says "It's ok! I'm reading the Book!" haha. Best ever! We got him unblocked so that he could go on with his day. It was awesome.

Elder Zwick from the 70 came and spoke to us. It was awesome. I had had lots of questions that I'd been pondering on for quite some time and during the 6-7 hours we were with him all of them were answered! It was amazing. I loved it! He asked me if I was related to the President Randall over the Japan mission. I took a wild guess and said "Not that I know of, but probably somewhere along the line, yes?" Us Randalls are EVERYWHERE. Everywhere I've moved to I have met Randall's. It's a good name :)

We taught Jenny. She is just absolutely amazing. So prepared. And she recognizes God's hand in her life. It's such a blessing to get to teach her. She's now living the Word of Wisdom! She was worried about coffee, but the day we taught her she'd only had 2-3 hours of sleep, got up and went to work and she told us that she was feeling great, and she hadn't had any coffee. She has so much faith. :)

John and our other investigator, I dont think I've given him a name are interesting. We found out our other investigator has paranoia schizophrenia. It's really interesting trying to teach him. John, has felt the Spirit, but isn't ready to admit it. He did accept the baptismal invitation if he received an answer. So, slow and steady wins the race. 

I think this weekend will be slow for the work, so many people are home for Thanksgiving. 

We went on exchanges this week. I was with Sister Elsholz (Like Dr. Scholz...gone spanish!)  She's great. I love working with her. I enjoyed the time with her and learned a lot. 

Anyway, there isn't too much exciting news. OH! I LOVED the letters I got in the mail! They were quite enjoyable. Dad and Austin were quite humorous, and Mom and Shae's were wonderful and informative! I enjoyed them all! It was like Christmas, getting 4 letters in one! Shae said you want my Christmas list...but I don't really have one. I will need another thing of face wash. I can always use shirts. Your clothes just get so boring after awhile. I know what I want when I get home! So yeah. I will enjoy a box full of love :) Well, I hope you have had an enjoyable week! Oh and next week we are going to the temple, so pday will probably be on Thursday again. Maybe Wednesday, but probably Thursday. Well, I love you!! Keep being awesome (especially you, Austin ;P ) Best of luck with everything!

Love, Sister Randall

Nov 14, 2011

Helllloooooo family!!!
What an exciting week it has been! It's already almost Thanksgiving! Oh, and since our next p-day isn't until Thanksgiving.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I know, it's early. But, what can ya do?

How is your research paper going? What is it on? I'm happy to hear that my family is being involved in missionary efforts :) When you said that you'd like to be a mouse I was super confused and read it Moose, but thinking it as the spelling of mousse. Needless to say, I couldn't figure out how being a moose would help you see how the Apostles and Prophet make it look so easy. But, I was reading a talk today, by Elder Holland from April Conference and he was talking about how it isn't easy. He talked about how Pres. Monson has given his life to the church since he was 36, and his wife and children gave their husband and father to the church. Anyway, very interesting stuff!

What is dad doing to the house? (He always seems to be doing something!) It used to be mom that did all the surprise work on the house! Yes, I got the package with the coat. I greatly appreciate it! I think as for mary kay stuff, I somehow lost the blush applicator and the powder foundation applicator broke :( Plus, I was wondering if maybe you could send me my hair straightener? I know, random. But, it's nice to have a change of hair style every once in awhile. Oh, and the acne cream stuff. That stuff has lasted forever, but it's starting to run low. Oh, and I am going to be buying some tights & nylons today on the debit card. Mine have runs in them :(

We got the first snow of the season this past week! CRAZY! Thankfully it warmed back up. Nothing stuck, but there was definitely snow in the air. We have mission tour this week. I guess Elder Cook was not the mission tour. So, this week we have our mission tour from 8am-3:30pm. It's such a long day, but it will be SO good. For Thanksgiving we are eating dinner with this kid in our ward who is going to get a bunch of his college friends together for dinner. So, it will be a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.

So, Jenny is absolutely amazing! We invited her to be baptized, and she said that she wanted to read the Book of Mormon first and she wanted her friend to be able to come out for the baptism. It was a really good lesson, and it was made pretty clear that she was planning on being baptized. It's not if, but when. So, we are trying to help her read more and help her see that she doesn't have to read the whole book first. We have some awesome converts in the ward who are amazing and are willing to share their stories. This ward is SO good at fellowshipping. When she got home from the lesson we had about the Gospel of Jesus Christ she texted us to tell us that she loves the church message of CTR and that when she got home her ring had arrived in the mail! She had ORDERED a CTR RING off of Deseret Book! How awesome is that!? She's soooo sweet! I just love her!

The investigator that told us he wasn't coming unless he got an answer....SHOWED UP! He said that he had realized some of his views were wrong and that he had softened his stance. We had been praying for his heart to soften all week. At the beginning he said that he didn't want to keep meeting, only when he had questions. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and at the end of the lesson as he walked out the door he said "I'll see you next week." So, that was exciting. We learned some things about him that helped us understand his situation more. So, things should continue to be interesting.

John! We also watched Finding Faith in Christ with him. As I had mentioned before, he used to be Lutheran, then atheist, now Buddhist with the thought that Buddhism can help him be a better Christian. Anyway, our 2 joint teachers ended up canceling 1 1/2 hours before the lesson. We spent the whole time looking for a joint teacher so that we could teach him. Finally 20 minutes before one of the converts in our ward was able to come. She too had been Lutheran and they were able to connect so well and she bore her testimony to him of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Authority. She was amazing! She's also considering serving a mission!

So, we've seen several small miracles over the past couple weeks between us and the elders. It's amazing how the Lord is directing His work :) So, now for a funny story, I hope it comes off as funny as it was!

We were walking across this really long bridge on campus that crosses the Mississippi and we looked at the river and there was this shimmering silver something and we couldn't figure out what it was. It didn't look like fish, and it wasn't the reflection of the sun, and it was moving and would get smaller and bigger and smaller. Anyway up ahead this kid was also looking at it, and he looked super perplexed! He started to wave at it and it got smaller and moved away from him. So he ran down the bridge toward the direction of it. Then he raised his hands in the air and just started yelling "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Then he brought his hands onto his head looking very stressed out. It seemed to disappear and he ran ahead and caught up with his friend. Well, we ended up catching up and started talking to them and we asked if he had seen the thing in the river. He acted weird, so we moved on and asked if he'd ever heard of the church. Then he goes "OH! You saw that? You've been there? I've been there too!" We were super confused and a little weirded out, so we gave him a card and went on our merry little way. It was super funny.

Anyway, that's one of the fun stories of the week. Over the next few weeks we will be teaching 2 member referrals! I love it when members bring their friends. They are so much more interested and willing to listen than if we approach them. We've been talking as missionaries about how to increase this and one of the things we've talked about is that as members our responsibility is to give the investigators a social conversion and the missionaries are to take care of the spiritual. Members don't have to teach lessons. They can share beliefs, but they don't have to teach the lessons. What they can do is invite their friends to church/activities and such and eventually invite them to learn more from the missionaries. So, we are working on a plan to increase member missionary work in our area.

Well, that seems to cover our week. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. You'll have to send some pictures! I believe you said that you were going to Nebraska for Thanksgiving? Well. Have tons of fun! Have an awesome birthday celebration and tell everybody hi and that I love them!!

I love you all!!!! Keep smiling and being awesome! And work hard in your classes! :)
Love,
Sister Randall

Nov 7, 2011

Hola Familia!

Sounds like you had a good week :) What are your research papers on? Feel free to just use whatever picture you have on the plaque. That's funny that it still isn't up yet. The weather is decent. It's still sticking in the 50's. But the lows have been as low as 25. brrrr. It's gonna come quick. I've heard that since the winter is taking so long to get here then it is gonna be pretty horrid. And we've heard that this winter is supposed to be worse than last winter (which was one of the worst winters they've had in a really long time), but then I've heard that after a harsh winter comes a mild winter. So, we are praying for the mild winter. :) It's supposed to flurry on Wednesday morning, hopefully it doesn't. Once it starts to snow, it keeps snowing for six very long months. But, either way "I will survive!"

What to say about the week? We taught Jenny this week! We taught her the Restoration. She shared some special personal experiences and we invited her to be baptized. She expressed some potential hardships that could cause with her family, but told us that she had been considering it already and that if God told her this is what she needed to do, she would do it. She was unable to come to church Sunday because she was visiting her parents.

John--was interesting. We taught him, well actually we double booked and had to go on splits which is the first time I've tried to teach a lesson without a companion. But, overall it went alright. He had already read 2/3 of 1 Nephi. I'm sure by now he is in 2 Nephi. He said that what he really wants to know is what motivates Mormons to live the way they do and act the way they act. So, next week we will teach the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully he has been praying as well.

The investigator that Sister Cook was meeting with may have dropped us. He said that he will only show up this week if God tells him to. He's an interesting kid with a very interesting thought process.

Oh, yesterday night we had a 4 stake YSA meeting where they rearranged the 3 existing YSA branch/wards within the 4 stakes and turned them into 1 Twin Cities YSA Ward. So our area just grew from one stake, to four. That will prove to be interesting. We aren't quite sure if President wants us to go spend times in those areas or stick with the college campuses. We will find out.

So we taught a few other lessons, but our Recent Convert/Less Active stuff was really bad. None of them would respond to us. Finally on Sunday (which was Stake Conference) we were able to contact 3 of them and teach 2 of them.

Also on Sunday we had the opportunity to go to Macallister College and have lunch with the inter-faith council. That school is the 6th least religious school in the United States. So, it was a cool experience. We got to each (us and the elders) share our "conversion" stories, share our views on family and homosexuality and teach a full Restoration lesson. The Spirit was so strong, and each time that the Spirit was at the strongest one of the students or the Chaplain would say something and change subjects. It was a super cool experience :) We also watched the CES Fireside. It was really good :)

So, we actually come into contact with quite a few members of Judaism. Two of them were at the inter-faith council. Anyway, I was thinking about Judaism for some reason and I realized that they believe in only the Old Testament, which brings us to a conclusion that they believe in a God who calls prophets, but, where is their prophet? Anyway, just something I realized. In the common phrase of Elder Ruesch "The Church is true".

Well, that's all I've got for the week! I hope you all have a wonderfully awesomely amazing week! I will communicate with you next week and just as a heads up, the week of Thanksgiving, pday is moved from Monday to Thanksgiving Day. And to end the email, a little joke. What is December 23rd called?

Christmas ADAM! Because Adam came before Eve! haha. I love you!

Love, Sister Randall

Oct 31, 2011

Family! I hope you have enjoyed the Halloween season! The pumpkins look wonderful and Wesley is getting SO tall. I think that forwarding that is fine :) I can't believe it's almost been a year since I've seen him.

Thanks a million for the package! It's perfect! It brought lots of happiness (and I received it on my 9 month mark)

Shae said that you guys think she is a lot like me...that's a scary thought :S Tell her to be smarter than me and ignore boys until she's 50 ;) Ok, maybe at least until she's 17? Pleeaase? She won't listen to me but I tell her everytime I email her! haha.

That is exciting that Myles is a daddy! That makes grandma and grandpa great grandparents for the first time, correct? Crazy!!!

 

I love it when members are involved with missionary work and that is where our miracle of the week comes from! So last week we were home a little early so that we could update the area book, fill our paper work, make phone calls etc. when we heard a knock on the door! The three of us looked at each other a little confused, and answer the door. Well, we were all dressed in our sweats and the girl outside the door asked if we were LDS missionaries. We said yes and she introduced herself as "Jenny" from the apartment next door. She said that her best friend is LDS and she gave us cupcakes. We chatted for a couple minutes and then said goodnight. A couple days later we left a card on her door thanking her for the cupcakes and an invite to the Mormon Movie Night. She left a card in return with her contact info and apology for not being able to attend the movie night, but that she would love to attend other activities. So, we gave her a call later that week and invited her to the weekly Friday lunch devotional. She accepted the invite and we walked with her from our apartment building to the institute. On the way she told us that she had always wanted to come into the institute, but had no one to go with. She also told us that she had been to church with her friend in CA and that her friend had given her a Book of Mormon. She asked us where she should read at. Jenny also said that she had told her friend in CA that we lived down the hall and that we had been talking and her friend told Jenny that she'd been praying that she would be able to meet someone that could take her to church! Jenny took this as no coincidence and even came to church the following Sunday. She said that she is going to try to get all Sundays off so that she can come and she asked us if she could meet up with us and talk more about Joseph Smith!! We are going to try to meet with her tomorrow, but she is unsure of her work schedule. She is super awesome! It is amazing how God directs His work and that when the time is right He places people in the right place. I was thinking about it and I realized that it is SO important for us to talk about what we believe, even when our friends don't seem to be responsive. Because, like Alma the younger (Alma 36: 17-20) when he was humbled and ready to receive and act he REMEMBERED and then he received peace and joy and a remission of his sins. When our friends are ready to accept the gospel they will remember what we have said and who we were. This experience, and the next that I'll share, have both been huge testimony builders that the Lord is directing His work and all we can do is be prepared, obedient, and ready to work!

 

Two weeks ago we were at a bus stop and I talked to a kid named "John." His parents had been Lutheran Missionaries, but had a falling away and became atheist. Consequently so did the kids. Well, we had talked and I invited him to learn more and check out the website, but he didn't give me his information. Well, Thursday night we were out contacting and we walked with another kid to the same bus stop, while we were talking to him I looked up and saw John in the exact same spot that I had met him last time. He saw me too, we made I contact, I smiled and Sister Cook and I then finished up our current conversation and began walking away. But, I couldn't. I didn't really want to go back and talk to John because I didn't remember his name, his story, our conversation, nothing. But, I swallowed my pride and we went to talk to him. We had a good conversation, explained the Book of Mormon, gave him a copy and then invited him to come to the weekly friday lunch devotional. He accepted the invitation. We still didn't have his contact information. Friday morning the elders texted us and asked if we had a guy named John coming to the lunch. We were confused at how they knew, but it turns out that their investigator was roommates with John their freshman year and was cancelling their lesson at 11 so that he could come at 12 with John! (What a small world) Well, John showed up and much to my surprise he had already read at least the first 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon!! (I only know it was that much because he asked why Laban's servant couldn't recognize that it was really Nephi). Anyway, after the devotional we talked some more, we set up a lesson and he gave us his phone number! It was awesome! Things are picking up!

 

Last night 3 college students stopped us and asked if we could do a survey for them. They were each majoring in ministry. They asked us questions regarding sex and marriage. They were pleased to find that we had standards and let us know that it was so heartbreaking to find out what college students thoughts on those things were. We really appreciated their stand for truth.

well, this is all that is coming to mind. Sister Cook gave an awesome talk in sacrament meeting yesterday!

 

Since today is Halloween we are going in at 8. For us it would have made more sense to go in early Friday and Saturday. Here there won't be much trick-or-treating and the students did all their partying this weekend. Fridays and Saturdays are the most difficult nights in a college town. I am so grateful that I will never have to worry about being under the influence and not having complete control over what I am doing.

 

Thanks for being awesome! I appreciate your love and support. I hope you know that I pray for you and love you each dearly! Have an awesome week! :D

 

Love,

Sister Randall

October 24,2011

Hello Family!

 

So good to hear from you! I heard that NE beat MN! We went out and handed out fliers for the mormon movie night before the game. Weekends are the hardest here, especially on Frat row. Everyone gets drunk out of their minds and it hurts your heart. It's so sad to see the decisions people make. We had our Mormon Movie Night last night at 7. We had 2 non-members come and probably about 20 members. One of the nonmembers was a members friend that she brought, he was nice, but not really interested. The other one was an older man, P.C. who showed up about 30 minutes early. He said that he saw one of the posters and he has been looking forward to it all week. (For names I'll just use initials). P.C. has felt drawn to the Mormon church ever since he got back from the Vietnam war. He knows all of the history and he stands up for the church when people say things against it. He said he won't ever convert because he feels that you need to believe with your whole heart and he thinks he's wishy washy and doesn't have courage. Oh, he was the sweetest man.

 

The scavenger hunt sounded like a blast! And, I'm assuming the choir sounded good? That quote from the desires talk is awesome and it already is in my collection, but I'm glad you thought of me! :) My favorite conference talk from this past conference was What Manner of Men and Women Ought ye to be. Or something like that. It's all about being and doing. It's awesome! One of our investigators concerns had to do with faith and works and this talk helps demonstrate how if you have faith you act. It says that if you "do" with out "being" you are a hypocrite and if your "be" without "doing" you are lying to yourself. It's an awesome talk. That's all. :D

 

So, as missionaries we have been asked to teach 20 lessons each week. Whether it be active, less active, recent converts or non-members. That has been the standard for a long time and for the first time since Oakdale WE TAUGHT TWENTY LESSONS (we even had 5 or 6 lessons fall through)! It was AWESOME. We tend to teach a lot of lessons while we are contacting on campus. It's awesome. Our female investigator J. who went to church last week claimed to have questions and concerns this past week, buuut her concerns were not legitimate concerns. We need to figure out what is underneath it all. I feel like since being in Dinkytown my teaching skills have improved (and still can improve). I've learned a lot this past transfer. Oh, so transfer calls were today. Sister Stephenson is headed to Oakdale to be with Sister Gibson (from Casa Grande, AZ). Sister Cook and I are staying here.

 

It's been a pretty fun week. We've worked hard, taught a lot, and had fun. I love meeting people and having conversations about their lives. You learn so much about life! It warmed up a bit this week! It's been between 55 and 60. Which has been nice. We are going shopping today to get Sister Cook winter stuff. I will probably be buying sometime in the next couple weeks earmuffs, a thicker hat, and thicker tights... but maybe I'll wait until the box comes and see what's in there. Other than that, I think I'm good to go for the winter. It's gonna be here before we know it. Anyway, things are going awesomely.  I'm not sure I have much more to report on....

 

I love you all and hope things are well. Have an awesome week and Halloween weekend. I'll email next halloween! LOVE YA!!

Love,

Sister Randall

October 17, 2011

Well, it's been an eventful week! It sounds like yours has been too! I'm glad to hear all has gone well with selling the house. It sounds like your meetings in St Louis were great! Shae said she held Sister Dalton's hand. haha, she would ;) I am super excited that NE is coming here for the MN homecoming game! We were out walking Saturday night and I saw a family and I didn't even realize it until we were walking past them but the girl was wearing one of the Corn hats and they were all wearing Nebraska hoodies! I was so excited, then I was confused because they are a week early. I keep wondering if the pep band is coming and if I still know anyone in it. That'd be crazy! If I do, they should walk around campus while they are hear and find the mormon missionaries! ;)

 

We are now in a trio. Sister Stephenson, Sister Cook and I. It's been incredible! Sister Cook brought an unbelievable amount of faith with her and we have seen the evidence of her faith and exact obedience. I have really appreciated having her here. Thursday we had interviews with President and I briefly mentioned that I was going to have to have college stuff figured out in a couple months and he gave me permission to start looking at school websites...I'm gonna push it off for probably a month though. Friday Elder Quentin L Cook spoke to us. It was really good, and before he started he shook each of our hands and asked our names. When he finally got up to speak he said "It was nice to have a brief spiritual interview with each of you." That was a little intimidating! Saturday, the baptism was postponed because of family and other reasons, but they are shooting for the middle of November.

 

So, last night we sat down to do numbers and it has been one of the best weeks number-wise that I have had since I left Oakdale in the middle of my 2nd transfer! We taught 17 lessons, got 4 new investigators-one of which is currently progressing! It was awesome. By the way, new rule that we can't use the names of investigators or recent convert/ less actives. Sorry :/

But, like I said we got 4 new investigators! It was sooo cool. We had a pretty good lesson Saturday with one of them and he is such a sweet kid. At the end he was like, "Well, I guess I need to really think about this!" Right after his lesson we taught one that we've been teaching for awhile and we finally cracked down and told her that she needed to make the Book of Mormon a higher priority. So, she said she would read 2 chapters a day this week and pray to know if it was true each time. She went to the Uptown ward and she texted us this morning and said that it was interesting and she had lots of questions and that she was going to keep reading so she might have dozens of questions. So, I'm excited to see where she goes. She will be an awesome member when she knows its true. We learned from a member of the Uptown ward who talked to her for awhile that our investigator has been defending the church when things come up with her friends and stuff. So that was good news! :)

 

For this coming week we already have several lessons set up with potentials, so we should have several new investigators this week. It's going to be an incredible week :) Lots of big plans!

 

The smell in the car has decreased A LOT because of the cooler weather- I just hope that I don't have this car next spring when it starts to warm up again! :/ Quick question- for my bank account, how much is in there? By the way, I'm probably gonna need my black down coat, unless you want me to buy another one. And I need ear muffs, mine got ruined back in March. I have a few winter necessities I will have to buy. If you happen to want to send me a box of hand and foot warmers, I wouldn't complain. Anyway, I'm short on time today, we are in a hurry to get everything done on time and I have other emails to write. I love you all! Keep smiling and working hard!!!

 

I hope you weeks go well and that you remember that you have a missionary praying for you and loving you! :D

 

Love,

Sister Randall

Oct. 10, 2011

Well, it's been a pretty good week! We've had some awesome conversations on campus, have some sweet potential investigators and had an AWESOME Sunday. But first, I'll let you know that I picked up on the hint. Thanks for being so...subtle? It definitely took me until the 2nd hint to figure it out. haha. I thought maybe you were trying to make reference to my terrible use of "alypsies"? What can I say? I like my dot dot dots :D

Anyway! I'll start with Sunday, because it was awesome. Remember Ann? The recent convert from Kenya, whose father is a Lutheran pastor? Well, she got up to bear her testimony on Sunday and she said that 2 months ago when she got baptized she told her mom that she had joined the church, and just trusted that she would tell her dad. Well, yesterday morning she got a call from her dad. He said, "What is the name of your new church?" She said, "The Church of Jesus Christ," and paused because she couldn't speak. He then said, "Are you going to tell me the full name of your church?" So, she told him the full name. He then said "Will you send me a copy of the Book of Mormon?" The Spirit filled that room so full and so quick. I am excited for her father to read it, and hope that he will find that it is true and that it can unite him and his wife in a religion (it's been a topic of much contention between them for years). So that was awesome moment number 1!

2nd! I told you about the elder's investigator Anton. Very sweet kid. Anyway, Tuesday Anton came to the institute VERY upset. He went and had a lesson with the Elders and a girl named Jen who converted from Catholicism maybe 2 years ago? Well, he got into some temple anti--which is pretty nasty stuff. He felt betrayed, but the elders helped him realize that the reason he felt like he was going to throw up while reading that is because it wasn't true! So, he's doing better. We met with him Friday with the elders and helped him realize that he has already received answers to his prayers. Elder Ruesch read a scripture out of 2 Ne 32 (I think) that invites all to fear not, to repent and to be baptized. They told him to pray to find a date to be baptized. The spirit was SUPER strong, so we had a kneeling prayer where Anton pretty much bore his testimony in and asked for the correct date to be baptized on. Sunday the elders followed up and he decided he needs to be baptized THIS SATURDAY! We are super stoked! Now, he just has to tell his family...

President called us this week. We are getting a Nauvoo sister coming up to do proselyting for the next 6 months-ish? And, she's gonna come be in a three-some with us! So, that's gonna be super exciting! We are looking forward to that...except for the laundry part, we will have to do like 3 or 4 loads instead of 2. Bummer!

We are having Mission Tour this week. Elder Cook is coming to speak to us Friday from 12:30-4:30. That should be fun!
We have had some really good lessons this week, one with a less active, one with a recent convert, and we taught one to a kid named Karthik (Car-tick). He's Hindu. Our whole lesson was spent on trying to explain who God is. He believes that anyone and anything that is good, is god. He said that if someone is nice to him than he/she is his "god". It was interesting. He said he can't meet for another 3 weeks, so we will see what comes of that.

Remember the car/milk story? So, it was a whole gallon of milk in the back of the car, but only 1/2 of the milk was in the gallon. So, that's why it smelt SOOOOOOO bad. Sis. S and I went and bought some shampoo stuff and tried to wash the carpeting, but it wasn't working. We finally called Elder Braun who is over the cars and told him the problem. He had us take it to get detailed. They shampooed it and then it smelt like a mixture of shampoo and milk. We haven't driven the car since then, but the elders say it still smells REALLY bad. I dunno what they're gonna do about that.

Last Monday we biked to FHE, which is probably 4-5 miles each way. It was great. I've been dealing with a cold? I don't know. It's been weird. First it was just a runny nose at night, then it was during the day... Thursday Sis S was sick, so I took a nap too and I was out for 1 1/2 hours. I felt a bit better. Then I developed a cough one night, which comes and goes. I don't know. It's weird. I've tried allergy meds and sudafed. Sudafed has helped the most with my nose. Anyway, last night I was thinking about it and I realized that it's probably side affects from my Flo Vent inhaler. So, I didn't take it this morning and I feel great! I'm gonna talk to the pharmacist when we go grocery shopping today. I dunno what I'm gonna do. One of the most common side affects is an Upper Respiratory Infection. Hopefully that's not what I've got. We shall find out.

Overall it's been a pretty good week! I'm glad the garage sale went well. I don't remember if this is already gone or not, but remember the white dresser with the mirror and 4 dressers, is that the one you got rid of? Anyway, I'm not too attached to anything in particular. As long as you didn't sell my siblings...even though it might have been tempting ;) Hmm, how did mom's tests go? Have fun with the YW, RS, Primary meeting! That will be super cool!

I did hear that it snowed in Utah. I'm worried because we've had SUPER nice weather (well, to some it's way too hot, it must be the AZ still in me, I thought it was beautiful) the last couple weeks. It's been 80-85. The next few days should be in the 70's, then it's supposed to drop into the upper 50's again. I'm really not looking forward to winter, because once it's here, it's here for good. Well, 6 months, but that's a LOOOOONG time! They say it's supposed to be worse than last winter, and last winter was one of the worst winters they've had in a really long time. The metro-dome collapsed last year. I see that place every day. Oh, and remember the bridge that collapsed several years ago? Or whenever it was. That's here too, the new bridge has a memorial for those who died and has really cool lights that light it up at night. I should take a picture.

Anyway, I could keep talking, but we need to get going. We have a lot to get done today and I still need to email Koltn, Shae, Miranda (who didn't email me ) and President. So, I love you all. I hope all is well with each of you! Keep smiling and remember I LOOOVE YOU!

Love,
Sister Randall