So much to tell! :) This week was amazing!
Wednesday was one of the best days ever. We had an awesome dinner with the Dexters, where we made fried chicken!! :D Sister Dexter wanted to try some real southern food, so I procured some recipes (thanks Mom and Erika!) and we made home made fried chicken, corn bread, honey carrots, and mashed potatoes. Then we had better than baseball pie for desert! :P yum. It went super well, considering I had never made fried chicken in my life. But Sister Brown was a great co-chef ;)
Later that night, we went to meet Sam's family, who finally moved here from Oklahoma!!! :D THEY ARE THE BEST. His fiancée, Tash, is super nice and reminded me a lot of Rachel, just a touch quiet and very much a southern girl. Then there's Addison (10), who is sooo smart and was totally ready to learn more about the scriptures. Casten (8), is the cutest kid. He's kinda shy at first, but a sweetheart, and he LOVED church on Sunday. He showed us the paper boat he made in class :) He's warming up. Then there's Boo Bear. Lol we have no idea what his real name is but they all call him Boo Bear and he's 2. Such a cutie. He started showing off for us, doing push ups, jumping jacks, and some truly impressive dance moves like the nay-nay lol. We had so much fun getting to know everyone, and Sam practically glowed with his family there. He loves them more than anything. So we showed them "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father," and talked about how much God loves us and how our families love us. We also read about the Title of Liberty in Alma 46, and asked each of them why God and their family were important to them. It went really well, and they all came to church on Sunday! Ernest and Catherine, Sam's parents who are recent converts, were beaming showing them around church and we got to help Addy and Casten find their primary classes. We are having a family home evening lesson with them tonight at our ward mission leader's (Bro Dunning) home, and we are planning to ask them to get baptized as a family in mid-March. The Dunnings have kids similar ages, and we're hoping it will be fun for everyone, and we're planning some creative games to keep so many little kids' attention! I'll tell you how it goes next time. We are so thrilled to be teaching a whole family! :)
Thursday we had a great zone conference, and we all learned a lot. We also got "Tiwi's" in our cars, little gps systems that track if you speed, if you aren't wearing a seatbelt, or if you drive otherwise irresponsibly. But they're not really a big deal. I mean, at least my comp and I hadn't been driving like that anyways, so it hasn't changed anything except now we sign in and out when we get in the car. But we're glad they are trying to keep us safe. Later Thursday we saw Ieva and her girls Lana and Jasmine. They were so happy to see us, and we talked about how the girls could be good examples to their friends at school. Jasmine had a lot of fun with Addy at church Sunday, and we're hoping they get to be friends because they live close by and Ieva and her girls are recent converts, so it would be really great for them and Sam's family to help each other along the way!
Friday wasn't super eventful, but we did get to deliver some flowers to a sister in the ward who was pretty sick. Then we got the elders to come give her a blessing and we sang "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today" for her before we left.
Saturday I had Sister Wright, a new sister, in my area for an exchange. It was fantastic!! We did some tracting and contacting and Sis Wright got to practice a little bit, and then we stopped by Shawn at her shop downtown and answered some questions she had about the Book of Mormon. We even took the trolley around town because we had to park far away :) So we got to talk to a LOT of people. To end the day perfectly, we visited Dev & Donita. I will have to tell you more about them when I have more time, but we had a sweet lesson with them about prayer and forgiveness from Enos 1:3-12.
I don't have time for a lot more, but I really loved this quote from Sis Reynolds: "A smile is faith on your face."
My scripture this week is 1 John 4:7-8, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." If you have time, go read 1 John 4:7-21. It's incredible, and all about how love is of God and brings us closer to Him. When we love the people around us we learn more about God and His love for us because that's what this is all about! His plan for us is to bring us happiness, because He really is our loving Heavenly Father.
I love y'all! Have a good one! And keep telling me your fun stories :)
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Sister Heather Bambas
California Irvine Mission
heather.bambas@myldsmail.net