March 24, 2014

Well I am glad that you are enjoying your spring weather! We got snow last monday after I emailed you, and then we are supposed to get more tomorrow, so we shall see what happens. I am so done with the snow! I want spring already! It teases us and makes us think that it is coming, and then we get another snow storm. LAME! But I am excited for spring here in Maryland and Delaware :) I hear its pretty! And I need one of those springs!

Andrew is leaving?! Well tell him good luck from me, and tell him that the MTC is what you make it. Its one of my favorite places that I have ever been able to spend time. I would love to go back, so enjoy it while it lasts! It goes by way too fast in my opinion.

Im glad that Stuart was able to come in and stay the night with you guys and get to go to church with everyone. Glad that he made it safe, he sent me an email from Erin's so I am glad that he is able to spend some time with them as well. Hopefully he will be able to spend time with Griff and Kate or that they can help them move in and what not.

Glad Keiras track meet went well! She threw the farthest for AHS? Is this the first meet of the year? a PR is a great way to start out! Now just keep it up lil stupid!

I dont think I ever met Tammy in 23 but I am glad to hear of the missionary work there and how well it is going. Keep it up Hazeldale! Do you still have elders and sisters? Are you feeding them and keeping them busy?! I hope Hazeldale is the promise land there! haha. What mission is that? Is it Eugene? Or is there a Portland one?

Well it sounds like there is lots of stuff going on back home! Im glad :) It sounds like Garret got to Oki safely, and Keira is enjoying track! And Stuart got to Seattle, and Lindy and Clara are having fun playing with gma and gpa Strasser in Idaho for a little bit longer. It sounds like Clara has Leon wrapped around her finger, but I dont blame him. Im there too haha. I miss that little girl! And all of you. Are you going to do anything fun for spring break other than visiting Vernonia? Hopefully you just get some relaxing time in and what not. How are the apartments going? Are you full or are you doing a lot of turn overs?

Well this week in the life of sister Wilson was kinda stressful. We have our iPads which are a great tool and give us a lot of resources to be able to expand our teaching. We are able to use mormon messages which is great. I love being able to show a short movie or clip and teach a principle and invite the spirit to the lessons. In district meeting someone made the comment to the effect of "what would it be like to teach with a living Apostle of the Lord?" and guess what? I get to! Its an incredible feeling to be able to pull up a video such as Elder Hollands testimony of the Book of Mormon: Gods words never cease and then to be able to testify following that to help people to feel of how something as simple as a Book can change their whole life. Its truly amazing.

But with great tools comes great responsibility, in inputting all of the records of teaching that has been done since the area opened. So we are inputting all of the teaching records for the area and its been quite a few years. This is where the stress comes in, because we had a deadline for yesterday, and we didnt make it. So all week we have been trying to in put as much data as possible and singing 'I believe in miracles!' and while I still believe in miracles, the finishing of inputting data was not one that happened before the dead line.... so we HAVE to get it done this week and we still have over 30 records to input.... so it will be an adventure :) But all of the things we did on top of inputting data include but are not limited to:

Sister Lewis' 20th birthday! It was a party. We began by going on a run in the morning with a recent convert from the ward who has the same birthday, with her husband and a friend of theirs from the Starwars charity legion he is in. Its actually a pretty cool thing that he does, but Im running out of time to explain everything. So we went running with them, it was a 3 mile run/walk. Probably 2+ running, -1 walking, but man I am sooo sore! STILL! Its like the muscles in my legs are rotating who gets to hurt next... its less than preferable. And that was Saturday so it didnt help that we went to church the next day... literally all day. I will never complain about 3 hours of church again after this calling as a missionary! We started at 7:00am with ward council, 8:30am church, then 20 minutes to eat before going to the out reach program with the singles ward, then Singles ward at 2:30, then dinner at 6:00 and inputting info to the iPads until 8:30pm when we started planning since we report numbers to Salt Lake via iPads on Sunday night and we need wifi to do so.

So total time at church sitting in a meeting: 1 hour, 3 hours, 3 hours, 1 hour.... and that was mild compared to last week! We were at the church for 11.5 hours last week, so it was nice to have a break and get to leave the building for outreach this week.

Okay outreach, was really cool! So anyone who wanted to be a part of it came and met together. We had a prayer and then were divided into groups. Each group had different people to go and visit, then we left. I was paired with a girl named Leann. So we took off and went to the first girl, on the way Leann asked me what the out reach was for or what exactly we were supposed to do. So we talked about how the whole program is to reach out to the less actives members of the branch, or to those who we have not seen in a while, or others that we have been thinking about them. The whole point is to reach out and let people know we are thinking of them and want to have them come and join with us. The first girl had moved, and the phone number we had was wrong.

So we called the next girl and she said we could come over and gave us her address and off we went. It was truly a great experience, Leann had to make lots of arrangements to be at the out reach, with people to cover for her in Nursery in her home ward that she attends. But I am glad that she did because her and the second girl connected really well and quickly. Leann testified to her of the importance of taking care of ourselves spiritually as well as physically and emotionally and helped her know of the difference that spiritual goals made for her personally. It was great to see a member reaching out to another who they didnt know anything about when we walked into the house, and finding out that they have lots in common! They are going to become great friends I believe, and if nothing else happens, at least now they have each other to help one another, whether or not she comes to church or the activities, at least now she has another friend that can help her in a spiritual sense, and that will help her in all aspects of her life!

Its really cool :)

Then I went to the singles ward.... and it was kinda not the greatest. It was a loud, rowdy Sunday and exactly why I dont like singles wards. But I love these people and thats the hard part! Is that I see the benefits of going and being so spiritually uplifted that you WANT and NEED to come back to church to get that again next week. I am grateful for spiritually uplifting meetings in which I am able to 'recharge' and prepare for my week.

I think one of the most surprising things I have learned on my mission is that when you have Christ in your  relationship, with anyone, you grow closer. When you involve God in your relationships with friends, family, loved ones etc. you grow closer together, faster and in ways you dont always consciously know. I was talking to Lindy about this, and how when you involve the spirit you dont get to know them on a temporal basis, you know the likes, the dislikes, where you came from, why you are the way you are. That takes time and interest and you can develop that in many ways, but when you involve the spirit, you grow to love each other more deeply than you thought you could.That is why a mission is so hard.

Its because you grow to love these people, more than they understand, more than you can express, and they grow to love you in the same way. That is why it is so hard when the missionaries switch. Which is the joy of the work. When you learn to love someone, you get so much joy out of it. And then you attempt to give them everything that means anything to you, the gospel. I am here to give people the understanding they need to know to develop with God the relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father. And then its up to them.

You can bring a horse to water, but you cant make him drink.

but you can make him thirsty.

I hope that I have been able to show someone, anyone somewhere how thirsty they truly are. How much they WANT what I have, a knowledge of Who I am and Whose I am, as a daughter of God. I know where I came from, why I am here and where I am going. I am going back to live with my Heavenly Father, to be with my family and my loved ones. Which includes those who I have met here. But in order to be there with them, they have to understand all of this for themselves and decide that they want the same things I do. To be with my family for eternity!

And when they realize everything that they can have, and how the spirit can help them, that is when they desire to follow the example of their Savior and Redeemer, Jesus The Christ, and desire to be baptized and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be with them always.

There is nothing more that I want for every person I know and love, than for them to know what I know and to act as I have. In following their Savior so that they can be with their families for not just time here on Earth, but for all eternity.

Man, there is nothing like being a missionary. This is truly a once in a life time experience. Never have I lived so close to the spirit. That is part of the calling, to be able to have the spirit with you so influentially. To be able to help people realize the thirst they have for the truth and knowledge of Whose they are. I am so blessed and so lucky! There is nothing else to it!

Man do I love being a missionary! Not the easiest thing I have ever done.... but definitely worth every minute.

Love Sister Wilson

March 17, 2014

:) This is my favorite thing I get to do. Which might sound bad, but I love the fact that I get to email my family once a week, I know for Stuart and I, we grew closer by emailing over those two years, and then being at school together. So I love being able to email and hear from home and get to grow together in a way we wont when I get home. Because I can just pick up a phone and call! haha. Anyhow...

Thanks for sending that article Garret was in. That was really cool to get to see and read. I am glad that he is making the most out of his time in Hawaii and spending his time doing worthwhile things. He is pretty great :)

I am excited for you  to get to be in Texas for your birthday and celebrate with family and Val and Gary. That will be a very fun birthday for you indeed. Plus youll get the biggest group of family since they will be coming for the wedding. Sounds like so much fun! Im sad I dont get to go, but thats mission life right?! I also hope Keira gets to go to state! And if Lindy and Stuart are that close maybe Lindy would get to go and see, depending on where the competition is. But anyhow, that would be an awesome experience for her to have!

I also had trouble remembering the exact date that Dad died, but then after I figured it out someone pointed out that it was pie day... you know 3.14, March 14th? Way to ruin pie day dad.... but now you wont forget! But thats funny that you did mistake it. haha. I wasnt able to post on that friday, we had our day explode and we werent around internet. But I got to post something on saturday about it being a hard week for the family in marking the 2 years, and then I was able to bear my testimony of the plan of salvation and how the gospel has helped me to grow and learn and to accept and cope with a loss. You know, maybe Ill just copy it for you. Its short:

"This week is a hard one for my family, it is the two year anniversary of losing my dad. Death is something that has caused a lot of pain and hurt for many people, but it has also brought my family closer together. Since losing many friends and family we have been able to truly ponder what matters most to us. After my dad's death we were able to lean on each other and gain comfort in knowing we will be together again when we have all left this world.

I am so grateful for the knowledge that God loves us, and because He loves us He did not and does not leave us alone. He never will. He has given us the ability to pray and talk with Him, to learn from His prophets about our purpose on earth, where we came from and where we are going. I am so grateful to know that I can live with my father and the rest of my family together after this life is over.

I know that there is more, there is purpose in being here. There is purpose in our families! I am grateful for mine. This life has not been easy, but because we have fought together we have grown closer together. Happiness does not happen by chance, it takes time and effort.

I would invite you to take a step back and think about where you are spending your time, and is it with those that truly matter most? If not, do something about it! Where you are is the perfect place to start improving."

I was grateful to be able to share my experience and to reach so many people in so many places. It was neat because there were a lot of comments from different people, thanking me for sharing and a lot of support from many people. It helped me to see how truly blessed I am. I have an amazing family, awesome ward family, friends from school, support from the members here and all of the people I have been able to meet. Its been truly amazing  to see how people band together and support one another. I feel so blessed to have been able to come on a mission and to meet everyone that I have. I have learned so much from watching different situations, hearing others stories of how they deal with their trials and how beautiful it is to watch the gospel heal people and bring them back together.

Yesterday in church we talked a lot about  The Family: a Proclamation to the World. It was neat to be able to study it so much and get many peoples insights on it. I am so grateful for having grown up in a family that has been built around the gospel of Jesus Christ and who understands the principles of "faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities". We each shared our experiences and my favorite one to talk about was work, and to talk about growing up as the managers kids, and spending Saturdays cleaning apartments (which is what I spend Mondays doing here apparently, people just clean a little bit each week and then you dont have to deep clean so badly! Anyhow, just do it! ) and working on the pool, building the play ground, picking up trash to get an otter pop! Mom you are so smart! haha.

Anyhow, this week was very focused on the family and how we can continue to build ours into the strong family everyone desires. How lucky are we, I tell people that happiness comes with work, and tears and sweat as well though. Life isnt easy, but thats what makes it worth it. I am so blessed, and I am so grateful for each of you! Especially my mommy :) I know I wouldnt be the person I am today without the influences that I have had. So thank you all for being a part of my journey. I have learned something from everyone I have interacted with. And I should apologize for my hardened personality that many have had to deal with. I am working on it though! Not loosing the sass at all :) But I think I have softened at least! Which is a good thing. I interact people who are similar to what I was like and I just think, man do I owe a lot of people for those years! So thank you everyone for putting up with ridiculous me! I do appreciate it, a lot now!

Anyhow, this week was good. Not as hard as I thought it was going to be with the two year anniversary of losing dad, but it was a good one.

And mom you are not a bad grandma, that just means that Clara gets another birthday party! Which I dont think she will be offended by! haha. Anyhow, I love you all! Keep being awesome and thank you for the prayers and thoughts and notes and love and kindness. I love you all! Stay strong, the gospel is so beyond true!

Love, Sister Kindra Wilson :

Monday March 10, 2014

Wow mom, sounds like such a cool missionary activity. Not sure that I would have had the discipline to take it when I was in seminary, but I would certainly try for a week! Tell them if they do, Sunday will be one the easier and better days for them, because everyone else will be living like they do. If they really want a challenge tell them to dress up too! Well... at least the girls can wear skirts, the boys would probably feel funny in suits in class.... anyhow. That is awesome!

I am excited to hear how Bethlehem's Missionary March Madness goes, since I was only there for the preparation and kick off. Hopefully it goes well, I know of a few youth who were starting already, so that’s a good sign! Let me know how that goes, that’s exciting!

Thanks for doing my taxes etc. and my FAFSA, your awesome! And registration wont be until December? sweet! I will have time to look and figure them all out and teachers and times etc. And Keira and I can be up at school for two semesters together, starting in January! Dang. That would be hard to pass up. I do want to stay with Mountain Pines but I am will have to talk to one of my companions who I want to room with. Sister Taylor from the MTC, anyways, and I have a few more people and technicalities to figure out. But I would suggest Mountain Pines for her, I love the location and the management. So I would call and talk to Melanie, if she is still there. And see if Keira can get a winter/spring contract or if there is some reason that they aren’t doing them. Maybe construction? Anyhow. I am so excited for her! Im glad she gets to be there in the Spring! That is my favorite semester, and if I graduate that semester that would be a great time to have people come out and road trip back without a huge rush on mine or Keira's part... anyhow. That’s way out there and trunky talk and so Im stopping. But I am glad that she gets to be there in the Spring! Its the best! And we can do some great hiking together and anyhow, its gonna be a party!

But as far as talking to the school, I wouldn’t worry about that until Spring is at least up and running. We will probably have to do something during fall track to make sure its all good, but I wouldnt worry about it until after summer. They wont require things before that to switch the tracks. I will probably have you email my counselor and ask him just to get some step by step instructions to make sure it all gets figures out.

Hey and then I will be home to help Keira with registration as well! Cool cool! That will be fun to help her with. MAN I am just so stinking excited for Keira, college is the best! I love it. And I do miss it sometimes.

And thanks for the area update, Walgreens will be weird to have so close... and that cute little barber shop is being torn down? Get a picture first!

And Im glad that you were able to go to Red Lobster together :) 28 years huh? I couldn’t remember which anniversary it was, but I am glad that you guys were able to celebrate it. Im glad that you have still felt close to dad, and I think its really neat that you said you have continued to get to know him from opposite sides. I sometimes pray for dad and ask for him to be able to do whatever he is assigned to do well and have everything he needs. Since we dont know what he is doing, but I am grateful to know of eternal families as well. I am so lucky to know that dad is still alive, he is somewhere else, but I will get to see him and hug him again. I feel so blessed to know about this gospel, and I am so lucky to be able to share that with people here in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. I am here sharing the gospel because I know, I don’t just believe or think this is true. But I KNOW with every fiber of my being, that this is the true Gospel. This is what Christ came to teach the people of His time and He has not left us alone to figure it out on our own. He called a Prophet again, just like Noah and Moses, to lead and guide His people, to guide ME back to live with God the Father, Jesus Christ and all of my family. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know so firmly that this is the Lords true church, once again established on the Earth.

And I know that I have friends and family and acquaintances and others who are reading this blog. And please, I would ask, if you have any questions to ask! Ask me, or my family, or the missionaries or a member near you. Because you can know for yourself the same things that I know. But answers come from questions, so ASK! God gave us a brain and a heart to think and feel, so use them to figure out what God wants for you. This is what I know to be true. So act on those feelings and questions, they are not random, they are tender mercies from God leading you to the path you should be on. I love you all, whether or not if you believe what I believe. But I don’t want to get to the other side and regret not inviting any one of you to find out for yourselves what I know. I love you all, thank you for the support and letters and love  I have received from all of you, I truly do appreciate it!

Anyhow, how was my week? Well it started by switching states... I am now in Newark Delaware! Part of our ward is in Delaware and part in Maryland! How cool :) We live in MD. And I am assigned to a Family Ward and to a Young Single Adult Branch. It is so much fun, and a completely different experience from what I have had thus far.

I am with Sister Lewis, who I came out with. We were in the MTC at the same time, but I haven’t really gotten to interact with her until now because of how many people I came out with. She is 19 and from Utah, Mapleton to be exact. She is the oldest of 6 or 7 and she is awesome! She has been here for one transfer so we are learning the area and people together pretty much. Also we are spoiled rotten! We live in these apartments that have a gym, wifi access (very helpful with the iPads and things we have to do) and a pool, not that we are allowed to use it... plus we have a washer and dryer in our apartment HUZZAH! Its awesome! I love that. NO more quarters! Also the car wash we got to has endless vacuums... so thats sweet! 

Lets see, what else. Oh and we share the ward and the branch with elders. We share the family ward with the District leader and his companion, and we share the YSA branch with our Zone Leaders who are awesome.

Yesterday was exhausting however! We went to ward council, church, lunch, met with the elders, branch council, church, munch and mingle. So we spent 11 hours at church yesterday... which was good but exhausting! Lots of new names, people, places, and the YSA asked me to speak in Sacrament meeting but they asked me on Friday and we had no study time between that call and church. So it was one of the talks I have felt the least prepared for, but I think it went well. One of the sisters thanked me for it, so I found my one! So that was good.

But it was fun. We went home for 30 minutes for lunch because we are only a mile or so from the church building, but we were at church from 8am to 7:30pm... it was exhausting! But good.

Man, there is nothing like a mission. We also re-did the boundaries from the elders and us in the ward so we are having to shuffle around the people we are each working with... we got 75 people from them. I think less than 10 are investigators, but almost 10 and thats a lot! Plus that was 95% of their investigators... so that was sad because we only had 3 or 4 less actives to give them... oh well I guess it is what it is. They are having a good spirit about things though so that makes it way better to work with them. They are awesome! One of the elders is always smiling and he has this great big huge smile and I cant even tell you how many people asked me 'the elder that smiles a lot?' to figure out which one stayed. He is awesome.

Anyhow. It was great. I am excited to be here! And we got another investigator from the White Castle elders and she is superb! She came to church last week, could only stay for one hour but came this week for all 3, signed up to feed us this week and signed up to come out with us next week. She also set her own baptismal date for May! How awesome is that?! Her name is Jennifer and she is going to be a great addition to the ward. The elders were also working with her son and daughter-in-law so hopefully we can start working with them soon as well.

Basically? Life is good :) I know this is exactly where I need to be. There is nothing like a mission and I am so excited that I am here! And Sister Lewis is awesome, we have a lot of fun together. So our goal for this transfer is to just laugh as much as possible! Its good. We’re gonna have a ton of fun and work super hard!

OH and for transfers, its a miracle we got there. We fit 5 people, and 2 sisters belongings in a small 5 person car. There were two members up front, sister Spanogle had two crates of all our books and office supplies in it. Then we had the trunk FULL, our feet were padded on all sides with bags, the back window was full, and we had my two green suitcases on our laps in the back. And it was packed so close that I couldn’t move my legs and most of the weight from one suitcase was resting on one of my legs... lets just say it was asleep for almost an hour... not the best but its fine!

LOVE YOU GUYS! Thank you for your prayers, letters, love, packages and support! I love and miss you all. Wish I could say more but this is long enough, hopefully someone will read it haha.

And Aunt Duana, thank you for the package! And tell Grandpa thank you as well. I have read through and used that Family book a lot, it’s an awesome tool for me so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

And I got your package mom, thanks! Lots of candy :) The boxes and cards are cute, thank you, they will be fun to give to people :) And for all the product. very nice to have.

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Love, Sister Wilson :)

On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 3:03 PM,

Mom, I just love you so much! Thank you for your emails every week, I really do enjoy them :)

To answer everyone's questions, I am being transferred on Wednesday! It been a great 6 months here, full of lots of learning, love and laughing! I have LOVED being with Sister Singleton this transfer! We have started calling each other (depending on the events of the day we are assigned different titles) mine is usually the bully friend, sister Wiehl is usually the princess friend and sister Singleton is usually the drama queen friend. :) Trust me, we are laughing the whole time and we are joking around and everyone is having fun the whole time, but they ended up being kind of fitting... but thats nothing new. I tend to be assigned the bully friend often :( But princess fits and sister Singleton is jokingly dramatic so its always a hoot.

I have really enjoyed these companions, its been such a great 6 weeks together, I am sad that it is over and more so sad that I am leaving Bethlehem, but I am excited to see where I go next. Maybe Ill go down to Delaware and get out of the snow and boots!!!! That would be great :) Or Mary Land? Jersey scares me, not gonna lie. The East coast is a lot faster paced than the west coast, and from what I hear Jersey is the worst of them all! But who knows, I could be anywhere!

Sister Singleton and I have been joking around that we are going to go double into an area together. That would be so stinking fun! She goes home in 2 transfers and she is the companion that I probably clicked with the fastest. I love her so much! I am going to miss her tons!!!! But she is great and good and stuff. And we will find out on Wednesday.

I had to say goodbye to Ashley at church yesterday and that was the first of the almost tears, then other members, and then that night Cindy and Gentry, and man was that house a hard one to walk away from! I love them SO SO SO much! I wish I could have just given Gentry a big old hug, and Cindy and I swapped emails so we will be staying in touch! There are others that have been hard to leave, the Ortegas we took pictures with and we will be seeing them again tonight, saying goodbye to Sister Relitz, to Kelly! Man there are too many people I love! Im going to stop right there before I start crying in the library!

Anyhow, this week? They have been trying to get us to switch completely from our paper planners to the iPads (Im not a fan, too many glitches to still trust them completely and I dont know them well enough to use them efficiently yet) so I am still using paper but not completely, so sorry I need to figure out a better system for taking notes on my weeks.

So this week Sister Singleton has been feeding the squirrels on the back porch. They love her. She has named them 'scragles' because his tail is pathetic, and 'well endowed' because his tail is not pathetic. She refers to them as best friends and has taken many pictures of them, and dont worry, I got them all! haha

Well this week was a roller coaster. Lynsi told me about how a mission has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows all in the same day. And she is dang right! We had an investigator that we were teaching the 'stop smoking' program to who realized she could never pick a cigarette up again, panicked and asked us to leave. We were devastated by how the lesson went and the events made us feel like we had done things not as well as we could have, which was true. But we were devastated, we walked out, drove around the corner, parked and just cried together. We talked about it and tried to figure out what had happened. We came to the conclusion that Satan is working on her VERY STINKING HARD and I could truly kick him for that. But he is working on her, and fear caught hold and took over and she panicked. She started texting us as we were in the car and we started looking up scriptures, talks, videos, anything we find with the new devices (came in handy!) and were sending all of it to her.

She ended up calling us a day or two later and told us exactly what we thought had happened. She apologized and asked if we still had time to meet with her and help her. OF COURSE WE DO! And so we went from the lowest of lows, to the highest of highs, with the same person!

We also got to visit a woman from the ward who we love! We shared the talk 'His Grace is Sufficient' by Brad Wilcox, because we each learned a lot from it. And she enjoyed it. There was snow outside so she asked us 'is it too cold for a Klondike bar?' and when we all said no she said oh yippee! while shoving her fists and feet in the air, and then jumping up and heading towards the freezer before we were able to ask 'can we say a closing prayer first?!' She said alright and sat back down.

It was the most excited I have ever seen anyone to give out a Klondike bar! She is so cute, we love her! I am going to miss her too! And she is older so no email or facebook there :(

Then we went and had an awkward lesson. It was the first lesson we had with an investigator and her son was there, but he was asking us bashing questions and said 'I can prove it to you with the Bible' and then proceeded to quite obviously record our lesson. But honestly, I didnt figure out what the heck he was doing until the companions told me when we left. I was confused why he was holding his phone like that the whole time... and if I had realized there what was going on I would have said something. But we ended up just doing some introduction to the purpose of our visits and figuring out her back ground to know where to start. So that was good, I hope we get to talk to his mom about it next time instead of having to call him out for it, but it was making the companions quite uncomfortable so the spirit couldnt be there, so Ill have to say something next time we go.

Other than that its been a crazy week of good byes, pictures, stop bys, cancelled appointments, lows and highs. Its been a good one over all. A hard one but a good one. Im guessing next week will be the same with dads two year anniversary, transfers and not knowing anyone or where I will be in two days.

Man if you want someone to feel anxiety you tell them they are going to be leaving almost a week before they do and then not tell them where they are going! It makes me quite anxious! But I get the reasoning for it, so Im not upset.

Anyhow, its been good. Sounds like you had a good week to. I will get the box you sent at transfers on Wednesday, so I don’t have it yet. But I will.

I also cant believe its been 42 weeks.... wow. Its flying by crazy fast!

Man 14 missionaries this summer?! Its amazing really. I feel so blessed to be a part of the missionary force at this time :) I am excited for Andrew, Tyson and Casey! I cant believe we will be serving missions at the same time... that blows my mind! But I am excited for them. And Devin and I both come home in November? Do you know when he gets home? I know Im like in the middle of the month, unless something changes transfers make it November the 11th I will fly home.

And enough of that talk....

Im glad that Tish and Jeff got the truck back at least! I cant believe it, that is very upsetting! But Im glad they have that back at least. Man people are terrible! And dumb.

Tell Tra, Deanna, David, Tara and everyone else that I say hello! Thanks for asking about me, its nice to know your not forgotten even when your gone! haha. How is Tara doing? Her baby must be a few months old now.... man. I cant wait to meet him!

I will keep that family in my prayers. I am glad that you are able to help and friendship her and help her in ways that others cant. It is difficult to talk about without being emotional, but I am glad that she has someone that she can learn to trust and turn to who has been in a similar situation.

I am also grateful and feel very blessed for the gospel, especially this week. Marnie told me in her email that Grandma Strasser passes away, so she was able to call home and talk to her family for a few minutes.

What a blessing it is to know about the plan of salvation that God has for each of us and to know that we can and will live with our families again if we want it enough to work for it. I am grateful to know of the Priesthood power and to have the blessing to know and live the gospel. How lucky are we? And we got to be in the Hazeldale ward? Why are we so spoiled?! I am very grateful for the people I know and for the things they have helped me to learn. I would not be here in Pennsylvania today without the influence of that ward helping me to learn and grow along with you and Dad.

I am so dang spoiled, and I love it!

And I love you all! And with that I will bid you adieu!

With all my love,

Sister Wilson :)