Spiritual Thoughts from the Land of Tater Tots : Week 41 - Death, Hermana Sondrup, Heart Break, New, Truck, Melting, I cant think of a title..

Well this week my heart broke a little, OK more than a little, a whole heck of alot!!!!!! But don't worry I'm a survivor!!!!!!

So last week I told you I was excited to have a baptism, well sadly neither one we had planned went through!!!! The one for Monday cancelled and Saturday's miracle baptism found himself in continued legal trouble and he is now in Jail in Kemmer, which is not only out of our area, but out of our mission, and we cant see him! :( AHHHHH MY HEART!!!!!!!!! We got the text Monday night and all i wanted to do was cry!!!!!! He is so amazing!!!!! And so ready for the Gospel!!!! Thankfully it just sounds like it was a glitch in the system and he should be getting out sometime this week, which would be amazing! I am really grateful though for the missionaries in the Salt Lake City East mission serving in Kemmer, because though he isn't their investigator they have been over every single day to see him, talk to him, and offer him the support that the Gospel brings into our lives!!!!! I've never met those Elders, but I am so grateful for their hard work and dedication to the work!!!!!! That is a true disciple of Jesus Christ to me!!!!!!!!

So that was the major heartbreak of the week, and then I had to say goodbye to Sister Kolbo Wednesday which was rough!!!! It's funny how close you get to a companion when you literally have nobody else to talk to!!!!!! It was hard to see her go, but Sister Parker is great! She is from a city in Colorado called Bay field, which is right outside of Durango. She's almost done with her mission, and this will more than likely be her last area. But we'll see. The work is continuing to progress and move forward and we have some great things lined up for the month of July!!!! The Lord is so aware of this Valley and he is definitely preparing it!!!!

Speaking of which...you may wonder why I called myself Hermana well, apparently there is a huge Hispanic population here in Star Valley, and we happened to discover all of it this week. We got tons of new investigators, all of them except one being a Spanish investigator. But because Star Valley has no branch it's up to us to teach them. So my lunches are now spent eating and Studying Spanish. My goal is by the end of this week to say a basic prayer in Spanish. But I don't know how realistic that is. But thank heavens for translators!!!!! The members here are great and they are so willing to help us out!!!! I am so appreciative of that!!!!!! What's even cooler is in return for teaching the Gospel they're going to feed us Mexican food!!!!! LIKE REAL MEXICAN FOOD!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am to have a real taco!!!!!!!! I might cry out of shear excitement!!!!!

So this week starts the beginning of something new, a new mission president!!!! It's funny because everyone in the cities are like "Oh my goodness whats he going to change this is going to be so different!" and I am just like "I am pretty sure he wont even know we exist out here" Haha it'll definitely be a change to have president Hancock, but it will be great!!!! A quote I love from Elder Martino of the 70 is "If you always do what you've always done, you're always going to get what you've always got". Don't get me wrong our mission is doing amazing, but there is still more, and we don't want to stay stagnant, we want to improve and better ourselves, the members, the work, the mission in general, and while things will change I know they will only be for the better. After all President Hancock is called and set apart as our mission president, he is called to receive revelation for us, and I know anything he changes will ultimately be because it's what the Lord needs him to do, so it will be the best change ever!!!!!!! Thursday we are driving down to Pocatello to met him, and I am so excited!!!!!

Speaking of Stagnant...I hate having water near by!!!!!!! The mosquitoes are killer!!!!! Literally I might die!!!!! I kid you not this is no exaggeration I have OVER 30 mosquito bites on me right now, a little excessive? I think yes!!!! I even have them under my clothing! I don't know how they managed it but they even got through my G's apparently mosquitoes aren't aware of the promise of protection given! How rude!!!!!!!! My skin is itchy and gross!!! I have never been more grateful to have grown up in a desert than now, but it's alright, if this is the worst of my problems then I am doing pretty good right?!

Also it's like high 80's here and I am dying I might not survive next summer at home, just as a warning you may need to get the coffin ready...

On Wednesday I got to drive the Elders truck all the way back to the valley!!!! It was so cool!!!!! Except it was sketchy!!!!! We took a dirt road the entire way back because it saves 40 miles, which was fun, but I thought I was going to die!!!!! I don't know how the Elders did it they were flying!!!!! I was so worried the were going to crash my precious jeep! But alas we survived! It was fun, but by the time we got back to the Valley I smelled like Stinky Elder. GROSS!!! But it was worth is for sure!!!!!!!

So funny we lost our phone in Freedom Wyoming this week...Have I ever told you the story of Freedom? No? Well here you go! Freedom is the border of Wyoming and Idaho, in fact the state line runs right through the middle of the town, and way back when the polygamist used to live there, so when the Idaho police would come to arrest them, they would cross to Wyoming, and when Wyoming would come they would cross to Idaho. It's pretty funny, so Sister Kolbo wanted to take a picture, so we did, the funny thing is she ended up not even being in the selfie, and then she forgot the phone on the hood, and then no more phone for us...thankfully we were in Pocatello the next day and we just grabbed one from the office. PHEW!!!! that could have been bad!!!! But now we have no contacts which is a struggle, but it's better than nothing right?!

(I promise my companion was sanding right next to me, she just got cut out of the selfie, which is funny because she is the one who wanted it)

Well this has been long and really scattered!!!! But welcome to my brain!!!!!! I will end with one last thing though!!!! We had the most amazing miracle this week!!!!! We have been working with a less active who is super Anti, like super, he wouldn't even talk to us when I first got here, but slowly but surely he has been talking more and more, and he even started reading the Book of Mormon!!! Which is MAJOR!!!!!! But anyway, yesterday we walked into church and low and behold there he was sitting in the pew, with a bright smiling face!!!! We didn't even invite him to church, he just came!!!! And he loved it!!!! It was so amazing to get to see him take the sacrament, and just see how the spirit worked on him!!!! SO AMAZING!!!!! Seriously he was the last person I ever expected to see in church and yet there he was!!!! What a miracle of the Lord!!!! It just goes to show that everyone has there own conversion and it's never to late to find out for yourself!!!!! How truly great this work is!!!! Well sorry this letter is everywhere but I only had a small amount of time today because Saturday is going to be an all day p-day due to the 4th of July. I hope you have an awesome week, and don't have to much fun in Mexico without me!!!!!!