(Hna. Deb's parents leave tomorrow to drive from Colorado to Missouri to pick her up from her mission. Mom says, "It is a very blessed Christmas.")

So, cool stuff... I got a referral from a member a while ago for a Baptist minister that likes the Book of Mormon, he finally agreed to come in to the visitor center and President van Komen said he would meet him here. Inter-faith relations has been Presidents' specialty his whole life. So the earliest Pastor Lynn Ridenhour could come is this Friday evening. And that was good, umm, so you don't mind taking the tour twice do you? Love you. Thanks. See you Friday!

From Hermana Deb's parents: One week from today we travel to Kansas/Missouri to pick up our missionary! Eighteen months have flown by. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! Thank you for your support of our Debra "Deb."

Hi,

We found two new investigators this week. Jose and Glenda. I had found their names on a sticky note cleaning the apartment. They weren't in potentials, so I called not knowing anything about them. We went over. They had been committed for baptism at one point, but stopped coming to church when a man, not a member of the church, but whose kids do attend church, tried to kill him. I found his teaching record and he still has many of the same concerns as he once had. But he said whether he joins
our church or not, even if he had slammed the door in the face of Sister Rounds and Hernandez, we have done what Heavenly Father wants us to do and worked out our salvation.

That's similar to what President Van Komen told me in interviews this week. He said, “Sister, what makes a successful mission?” and I thought he was asking about the mission of Independence, MO. So I said, “Baptisms and reactivation.” And apparently he meant like, “What makes MY mission successful?” So blonde. Anyway, he said, “It's the conviction of your testimony. If I see you in twenty years and you are still active...you had successful mission.” I thought that was great, because
this is my last email. And looking back and judging old emails, won't tell me if my emails were successful. We're to look forward and outward, not back. And when I said that, I felt more emboldened and in control.

Climbing a mountain, it doesn't make any sense to feel bad that 2 hours ago, I wasn't at the altitude or as far as I am now or that I didn't take a better way. But praying for strength to make up for any lost time and to enjoy and the journey ahead does. God doesn't ask us to climb mountains because He needs us to, it's because we need to.

I've learned a lot from my sisters here and Sister Stowell says, “The Gospel is Joy.” That's profound and true. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. I know that faith in the Savior Jesus Christ and in His atonement will bring us happiness. I know that relying on His grace will bring us a peace. Through Him we are made clean and whole. That is why the Church is true, because the keys to that atonement and that cleansing power are
restored.

I love you. Thank you.

Hermana Deb

Hello family of Hna. Deb,

Your daughter had Thanksgiving dinner with us along with the elders and our friends. We enjoyed having them and the spirit they bring into our home. Afterwards we sat around and talked about the scriptures and they sang a couple of songs for us. We took pictures and video during one of the songs and combined the pictures and video into one that you can watch on the internet. I told your daughter if she gave us your email address we would send you the link so that you can watch your daughter singing for us. You will probably need a DSL or cable connection so if you don't let us know and we can send it to you on a CD. Your daughter is a wonderful person and missionary, and we love her.

You can watch the video by clicking on the link below or pasting it in your web browser. We have also made the video down-loadable from there if you want to put it on your own computer. There are also pictures on there that we took when they were here for a Young Women's activity, and another time when they were here for a dinner appointment.When you get to the website just scroll down to the bottom and you will see the video and pictures.

Click here for pictures.

Click here for video.

Happy Holidays,
Scott and Laura

Subject: turkey turkey bang bang!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

It's been a fun one. We go to Sister Hamilton's house every pday anyway to do laundry, so she signed up to feed us and the elders with another Utah couple away from their kids this Christmas season. They said we could be their kids. They are really wonderful people. I was on the couch writing letters and listening to their Christmas music and they had pictures floating across their tv screen. They were one of the families that happened to be at Far West when Elder Holland went through here. I couldn't think of another family that deserved that photo op more. I made a blanket out of sheets with Sister Hamilton last pday. I pretty proud of my sewing skills. We'r'e tying it next week. She also volunteered to let you stay in their guest level, Mom and Dad. It's the basement, BUT it opens out to ground level (like the Badureks) and they have a little kitchenette and a queen size bed and a twin down
there...so, not too bad. :-P I gave her your number.

Yesterday was a good day. The elders asked us to take their investigator on tour and it was very spiritual. He's the husband of an inactive RLDS lady. He has a Baptist background, but when I asked him how he felt at the end, he said, "I wasn't raised being taught about Joseph Smith or anything, but when you talk about Jesus Christ you're speaking my language. One thing I can say for you all is that you're spiritual people. No denying that. I always feel the Holy Spirit really strong
whenever the elders come by. I compliment ya'll for that. You've said it a million times. I need to pray. I believe in the power of prayer. I'm gonna do that." Sister Fife pointed out that the Spirit testifies that what's being said is true. Hopefully he puts two and two together. It was good working with the elders in our ward. I think we all feel more unified now.

We had a meeting with Bishop that evening talking about the need for more unity working with the 35 families we were given to visit and it went really well. He gave us a lot of free reign to get the ball rolling ourselves, "because Bishop said so." So it was good, because I didn't feel like we put too much more on his plate and as we were talking he thought of a few more assignments for us. I feel a lot better and directed now. It feels good.

I was pulled out of that meeting a little early to take the Riverview elders Spanish speaking tour. It was a lady I had tried to visit about 5 times! The sister-in-law of the ward mission leader, but she never showed much interest and he didn't give us access to teach her. I wondered what changed. When I was in Riverview she had a pretty big tummy, now she's a lot skinnier and her husband and she came in a
carrying a tiny little brown baby, so cute! Things change. It was sort of a lengthy tour. If you knew Elder Jones. You'd know why. But it was great and he comitted to start meeting with the Elders, too. I'm really excited for their little family. She's totally ready---has all the answers and he's---coming along.

Anyway, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Do some service. Make some memories. We're going to go to the rest home and the hospital tonight to see Kathy and some shut ins. It'll be great. "A man filled with the love of God will not be content to bless his family alone." -- Joseph Smith movie.

Happy Holidays! I love you all!

With Love,
Hermana Deb

Dear Familia,

The Church is getting cooler. So Elder Perry came awhile ago and decided to make some policy changes on missionary work in this mission and put the responsibility moreso in the hands of the members. I was in Riverview at the time and the members were already struggling filling basic callings, so we didn't apply it there. But the work in this ward has been down for the last 6 months and we don't have much to do and there's a huge work force and really solid people have callings ike, “Beehive secretary” and “Activities co-coordinator”. So we should be clicking along like no one's business. But coordination meeting's been so-so and the ward mission plan is complicated and we don't have the complete list of less actives were supposed to visit and most people don't seem to care about those names anyway. They don't even have visiting teachers seeing them, yet they're sending us to replace member fellowship instead of enhancing it and preparing them to return to church. So anyway...lots of changes that need to be made and we have a brief meeting with Bishop tonight and my companion has done a lot of work making a presentation on reintroducing what Elder Perry taught, so it's going to be great.

The general idea is that the leaders of the auxiliaries (Relief Society, Elders Quorum, Youth, etc), will each choose five families that are sort of coming to church or ready to come back or have some open nonmember relatives. And then they, along with the ward missionaries will go see them and then we'll have lessons with each family in the homes of the auxiliary leaders. And the best part is that the ward mission leader will schedule, fill out the reports in the Area Book and report to the Bishop on those lessons for us. So we literally, just teach. So that way the
members always know what's happening and decide themselves how the missionary work is going to go. It's so neat. I really feel like this is the baby step to when there won't be a need for missionaries in the US stakes. I think that's the eventual goal.

Funny story. We were real nice last week and gave the elders our car and let them use our miles on a frosty Friday. We got teamups most of the day, but in the evening we rode their bikes to go check in on their investigator Kathy. We had a good lesson with her and had forgotten that we had left the bikes locked in a well lit place on a lamp post, because the elders were going to swing by and get them in a couple minutes. The elders called and said they'd get them in the morning. We leave the lesson and the there's the lampost...where's the bikes? The Assistants
live in the some complex as the investigator. We asked if the elders in our ward had come for their bikes and they said they hadn't seen them! Argh! So we lost two pretty nice mtn bikes. Sister Fife calls our elders crying and Elder Gallegos says, “Well, I guess some one else needed them more. It's okay sisters.” The next morning we drag the two bikes and helmets from main house shed up the stairs into our apartment and I start guesstimating repairs on the nicer one, but I felt bad replacing Elder Whiting's specialized with a Huffy. So I call the Assistants that
afternoon and ask for permission to look on Craigslist.com. Elder Gallacher says, “Oh, the elders bike weren't stolen, Elder Seethaller put them in our apartment. He's tall. He just lifted them over the lamp post. I thought he told you.” Oh man...if you hear about the homicide of a freakishly tall assistant to the President, eat this email.

So that investigator was baptized Saturday and we had a big part in that. Kathy Swain is in her 60s and has survived everything to be survived. She is an amazing woman at just 5 ft in height. She put off cancer surgery to be baptized this weekend. Just an amazing person. It's been a privilege to meet her.

Times out.
Love you!
Hna Deb

[Note from Missionary Mom (Rexene). Deb will be in CS about the 19th of December for a few days. We will be in Utah by the 23rd. Reply back with your holiday plan - I know she would like to see as many of you as she can].

Hola,

Well. Once again. Busy p-day in which we had to do other thing other than p-day things. My comp from Cali needed to get winter clothes so we went to the mall. Weird. Kohls was okay, but Old Navy and some other 'hip' places we did not fit in very well. I finally got my bajillon dollar knee brace and it's really good. It's like wearing braces on your knee. Maybe that's why it's called a knee brace. There's like a little rubber thing that pushes up against one side of the knee cap while I walk and attempts to shove it where it's supposed to be. Like a tooth! Cool, huh?

The Lord always really blesses us on exchanges. We didn't have a single appointment scheduled, but driving to see a recent convert we pulled over and did some random service for people raking leaves for two hours in the rain. My kinda fun. :-) Really. Then we saw this recent convert that dissappeared after her baptism for about 6 months. Her son had strep, so she was at home and we got to talk to her and get a new phone number. She still hasn't signed her baptismal form. There's a year limit on getting that turned in.

Then I remembered a member referral a little kid had given us at a dinner appointment, so we went and she was sick too! Yea! So she was home from work and invited us in to teach lesson one. And we're going to teach her tomorrow. That takes so much preparation for people to just let us in like that. Especially white people. I always wonder how the Lord's hand has been in their life and they probably haven't even seen it. I guess the same goes for my own life, though.

I'm glad Dad's surviving. Zone Conference and church on Sunday was mostly about trials. Strong kind people are strong and kind for a reason. The Van Komens, our mission president and wife, have been through a lot. They're still going through a lot. I wonder sometimes what I'm going to have placed in my path to be a strong, kind, and wise person, too. Kind of worries me...anywho.

Love you all. I'm excited about going to Nauvoo in a few weeks. Mom, I've never traveled or booked anything around here, so I say go cheap...send me the address and I can tell you if it's in the ghetto or not. Beyond that I'm not much help. Sorry. Keep me updated. Happy Thanksgiving! We're eating at Sister Hamilton's and she's attempting to teach me how to sew next p-day. Con muchisimo amor.

Love,
Hermana Deb

It’s been a good week. I’m finding my place in 3rd ward, meeting our investigators and less active families. I’ve also taught 2 lessons in Spanish this week. It shouldn’t really matter to me if I teach inEnglish or Spanish, but when I went to Spanish Sunday School instead ofEnglish I felt soo much better. Like, “Okay, I belong here.” It was good. I had a similar feeling at the beginning of my mission in Lawrence. I think it’s just because my call says Spanish-speaking. That’s the mantle I was given and what I was set apart to do by the priesthood. And in some areas when that’s ignored I just feel uneasy and out-of-place.

We went to teach a referral from Raytown and she wasn’t home, but right across the street was a Hispanic family who invited us right in and listened to the whole first lesson. It was great. Their family members back in Mexico were having a rough time and we prayed for them together and I think my companion is a little more determined now to learn to bear her testimony in Spanish.

There were a couple nonmembers at church on Sunday. We’re going to go teach one of them. A young man who’s dating a Mormon girl. Gotta look out for them Laurels. They’re treacherous territory. So he reallywants to learn more and is coming to the Visitor Center Saturday.

The Visitor Center has been incredibly slow. Like 2 tours a day. So I’ve had some good referral calling experiences. And I began to take a history tour yesterday but got called away from it to take the Spanish Elders investigators on tour instead. It was funny as I began the history tour, because I was really nervous and wasn’t sure what to say. I was only taking a single LDS businessman and I was trying to figure out what was wrong. I realized I was just out of practice. I hadn’t had a history tour in a week. It’s amazing how quickly we forget and I began to wonder what it’s like for missionaries who go home. It’s going to takea lot of extra effort to remember. And stay in practice. Time’s up.

Love you all.
Hna Deb

HI there!

Sorry this is late. P-day and transfer day ended up being the same this past week, so I'm just winging it and writing while I'm at the Visitor Center today. How is everyone? It's been a good week. A Liberian man we're teaching came to the Visitor Center and we took him on tour and talked about bit about baptism for our third lesson. He said he wants to get baptized and we said great! We didn't even invite him to be. He said he was willing to take work off and come to church on Sunday. Sadly I won't be there. I'm going to miss Riverview a lot. It's so different and fun. Lots of strong people I just fell in love with.

Sister Williams is training in Riverview and I'm with Sister Fife in third ward. It was an exciting first day. We went to do laundry at Sister Hamilton's house. She is so nice. Third ward is a lot like Lawrence. Big shmancy houses in a lot of the area intermixed by lower income neighborhoods. And we went to two shmancies (former bishop and current YW pres) and one investigator's house. I honestly didn't know what to do with myself in a big home. The families are so nice, and they're doing their missionary work and serving their neighbors and inviting people to church and fasting and praying for missionary opportunities and fulfilling their callings and we have a dinner every day next month... so I'm still sort of trying to figure out exactly what we're there for. What we can do for them. We shall see.

Sister Fife was inspired to go see an investigator that wasn't in our plans and has been out of town forever. Her name is Edie. She was home for the first time in in a long time she said, because she's been busy. But she was a very nice woman in her thirties who has been reading and praying and eating up the Gospel. It's been amazing. She's coming to church on Sunday and she's really excited to learn more. She has a greatSpirit about her and just left a husband that sounds pretty dominating, but who knows.

She also had a rather nice mtn bike propped against the wall in her home--BMX style, with Bontrager tires and Avid brakes....soooo we've made p-day plans :-) Apparently she went to Colorado to ride with some friends a few weeks ago. This is going to be a good transfer. I feel like I'm serving in Utah in a lot of ways. Most of the 3rd ward is from there and their neighborhoods have that HIghland/Linden/Orem look to them, so I feel like this is good preparation for missionary work in my BYU world.

Thank you for the letters Mom and Dad. I like your explanations, Dad. Share your testimony too. Thanks for the update Lisa. Christian that was a cool card. You'll be a good MiSSiNry. Love you all.

HermanaRobbins.

p. s. Rick Holden came by the VC on his way to basic training for some kind of operation in Iran. He's living in Arizona now. He used to be in Riverview ward a few years ago. it was exciting to see him and take him on tour. Great great man.

To ya’ll:

This week I felt bound and determined to have some really well thought out, memorable lessons. Yesterday, after a lovely dinner of chicharron (it builds character), we played a game with the little kids. We had madel ittle coins (talents) with kid's names on them and an idea on the back for doubling it, like “draw a picture of mommy” or “Give a friend a picture of Jesus,”, and then we hid them and they had to find them. Cool huh! Heavenly Father’s idea. After that we had asked one of the ReliefSociety women to go with us to visit a less active woman who just had her baby yesterday. This sister makes good bread. Great stuff. So we went to the hospital and her Baptist boyfriend and mom were there with her and we congratulated and sang a song and I don’t think her boyfriend had any idea what a role people in the church play in your life, even as a less active member. I know he appreciated the service and the Elders are going to go and dedicate the house they just moved into this week. I think he’s going to want to learn more. Also, we made a good contact with one of the nurses who heard us singing.

It was so slow yesterday in the Visitor’s Center I FINALLY got to watch women’s conference on the computer in Elder Tedrow’s office. All the other sisters on shift gradually wandered into the front office and we all sat on the floor and watched together. I really liked Elder Uchtdorf’s invitation to ‘pick a little space and beautify’ and then see only the good of it. I felt inspired. And then yesterday evening we got to see the EMMA movie at the visitor’s center. It is so good. If you haven’t seen the Joseph Smith or the Emma movie—Do it! They are both good and they were made at the same time, so they connect really well. I like that the main purpose of it was to get all her posterity in the same room/theatre. Get them talking to each other. It was wonderful.

We had an appointment last Tuesday with a Haitian named Antoine. SisterJeffrey, the one I talked about last time, went with us. It was really neat. He’s very smart and almost a citizen. English is his third language. Haiti only has four little branches on LDS.org. I looked because his whole family is still there. But surprisingly this man has met several members there and here. Still he didn’t realize this was a Christian church and he was excited to hear that news. It made me think of a scripture. "Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings ofthe Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord" (2 Nephi 1:6). There’s so many miracles that take place in people's lives and so many people that we have these meetings with and so I just assume, okay, The Lord needs this person to accept the Gospel now. But divine or not, people have agency and they need preparation. Antoine first met a bishop, then he talked to some inexperienced missionaries that didn’t give him very good info, then he met a member on a boat, then he met the Elders, then we went over and he missed our first meeting, and we finally got to teach him last weekand he realized we’re Christian, but has trouble seeing a need foranother testament of Christ. He’s so open-hearted. I feel like if he comes to church, he’ll feel the Spirit and it will make sense. But jumping from “Oh, you’re Christian,” to “I want to be a member” is a pretty big step. We’ll do our best to help him make it. But he might need more time to soak that in and look around at other churches. But when he’s ready to accept something else, he’ll be found again. Maybe by missionaries going through the area book or missionaries on the street or a member coworker. But the Lord knows where he is at and what he needs.

I had a neat experience in the referral center last week making calls. 7 calls, no answers. So I got up and left. But putting my referral cards back, there was an old business card in the bottom of the box. I called it out of curiousity and the person I called wasn’t a member! She’d come in last February and wasn’t ready for missionaries, but had given the sister her card, but now work was bad and she was wondering about what ‘eternal life’ really means, so I asked her again and this time, she was ready to have the missionaries over! So neat! Then one of the people I called previously called me back. He also said he would meet with themissionaries! I told Sister Williams, and she had called him before and invited him to read the Book of Mormon, because he just had one on the shelf, and he’s said, ‘Sure,’ but wasn’t up for missionaries. She called again and followed up and he still hadn’t read. She had a ton of cards and delegated this one to me, so I just called and asked if he’d read and he said, “Sort of” and he said he’d seen missionaries around, but never had like a sit down meeting. I asked if I could send them to answer his questions about the Book of Mormon and he said yes! So neat! If you want me to call anyone in the referral center lemme know.

So, I’ll end on that note. Love you all. Church is true. Thanks for the letters Lisa and Mom and Carollos and Christian!

From: me.

Hna. Deb in action at the Visitors Center, with some family friends.

Hello Family,

How is everyone doing today? It’s a lovely day here in Independence. Fall is a nice time of year to be in the Midwest. It’s the only nice time of year to be in the Midwest. The leaves are changing and I’ve taken a lot of nonmember tours just visiting town, seeing the sites.

We went to visit a less-active lady in the ward about to have a baby to see how she was doing. She was gone, but her dad was there and he talked to us. He used to be in the bishopric of one of the wards, but had been offended years ago. Every time I’ve seen him, he kind of just brushed us off. Last time were there he played solitaire in the corner while we taught and took off his hat when we prayed, but didn’t participate at all. But yesterday he opened the door and told us his life story. It was pretty amazing. He’s the only Hispanic I’ve heard of that was given the priesthood, before it was given to everyone else. He’s from kind of a unique tribe. He’s seen a lot of miracles. And he did have good reason to be offended about what happened to him, but he’s still so mad about it. And it was years and years ago. He gave us some old visitor center postcards from 1982.

I told him we missed him. Sister Williams talked about her dad feeling the same way some time ago and how that affected her family. I mentioned Martin Harris telling the missionaries that went to go see him, “I didn’t leave the church, the church left me.” And how he didn’t rejoin till he was elderly. The man said he used to mow the cemetery where OliverCowdery is buried. He was claiming he’ll be active when he goes back to the Dominican Republic, but it’s already almost too late. All his kids have gone less active. The younger ones are living with people. It’s sad. And I feel so annoyed every time I see his wife go to church alone. I read a scripture in Ezekiel yesterday. “Again, when a man doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand” (3:20). And I thought about that conversation, wondering what it’s going to take for him to remember. He told us he’d just lost his job, and I think that might have been why he felt ready to really talk to us for the first time. I think part of what makes missions such a great learning experience as well as reading the scriptures, is that there are many examples of what NOT to do. #1, Apostasy=Waste of Time.

We also taught two other families this week that are so cute and know they need to go to church, but just don’t . They know it doesn’t make sense and they have good desires. They’ve been to the temple. They know exactly why they should go. They just don’t understand anymore. People just forget what the Spirit feels like. It’s the craziest thing. So we do our best to love them and bring the Spirit to them, but they’ll really feel it again when they start doing something. A lady who hasn’t come t ochurch in forever and a day who used to be a Relief Society president came to church last Sunday…sooo good. We’ve taught her family several times and the Bishopric has visited them, even though they live far out of the boundaries. That was really exciting.

Yesterday, everything sort of fell through and we had a sister in the stake Relief Society, Sis Jeffrey, as our teamup. She’s another one of those people I just want to be more like. She’s African American with her own style of doing things, but very classy and super funny. But I’m not sure if I could sure survive what she’s gone through: Fire, Divorce, Cancer, Poverty, stillborns, and big callings during some of these things. When a less-active member we went to see wasn’t home, we walked across the street to talk to some youth hanging on the playground. It was a Wednesday afternoon and these young men, looked pretty tough, but she wanted to know why they weren’t in school. And she told them a story about what having baggy pants Really means and gave them all the ‘mom look’. After the mini-thugs were traumatized by our beautiful teamup in her relief society presidency clothes, we played good cop and told them where they could find answers to their life questions and handed the mormon.org cards. It was a very memorable experience. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Beautiful young people are a chance of nature. Beautiful old people are a work of art.”

Love you all, Hermana Deb

Dear familia!

I love you mucho! I'm excited for this next week. We're going to the art museum today and Liberty Jail with some investigators tonight and 5th branch is putting on a musical fireside that we can hopefully get some of our members into.

It's been a good week. Things are picking up. I didn't die. I got a blessing. Conference was Great! \We had investigators there that really felt the Spirit on Sunday and we invited their little family to be baptized yesterday evening. We didn't get a yes or no, but it sounds like she's going to work towards Nov 1st. So that's really exciting. And I think the best part of that lesson was how she really talked. She's very shy, but she finally really talked about why she wanted to study the church and the things she has questions about. I hope she really prays. We invited her to.

I also succeeded in losing my planner yesterday. Sigh. I keep my brain in there. It's like how Dumbledore pulls the memories our of his head and puts them in a basin, so he can sort through them better. That's my planner. Normally, I sit here in the library, say a prayer and then flip through my planner to pick which lessons/experiences I want to share. I'm plannerless and so can only remember yesterday.

A goal I've had this transfer is expressing love for people. Really showing them I care, giving them a hug, making eye contact, telling them“I love you.” It's hard. I didn't think it would be. I'm pretty friendly as it is, but I feel out of character if I don't wrap warm fuzzies in sarcasm. Megan, you'd be so proud, I'm working on sounding sincere. So to my family and close friends...
I love you.

Thank you for showing me so much support and being my example. This is Christ's church and His gospel. The way to return to our Heavenly Father again. I know that's true.

Love,
Hermana Deb

Hola familia!

Last week was a good one for teaching less actives. This week was a good one for organizing the area and making calls all day in the apartment. My companion got strep and tried to die on me, but I didn't let her. One of the senior couples gave me about a million vitamins to take, so I didn't get sick: goldenseal, E, echinacea, iron, and C. I think I OD'd. But I feel fine, so that's good. I even made chicken soup from SCRATCH! I had to look at the back of the can to figure it out, but I felt very accomplished and my companion ate it.

Sunday was cool. It was my companion's first one and she started to freak out a little when I told her we would be playing the piano in Sacrament, conducting, doing a special musical number, teaching a gospel principles lesson in Spanish or English, playing and conducting in Relief Society, and translating. Then she got a phone call Saturday night asking her to speak in Spanish sacrament meeting. “Argh! They should call it the Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day SISTER MISSIONARIES!” Anyway, she had a sore throat, so I canceled the musical number and convinced the Utahn in the ward to stay an hour after English church to play in Spanish sacrament for us. It was a fun day and it was just getting started!

Our appointment after church called and canceled (called--that's a miracle). And as we were driving to go see a less active member I recognized a house Sister Werrett and I had knocked on once, no one was home at that time, but I remember her telling me to go back sometime. There was red truck in the driveway that wasn't there before. So I did a semi-legal u turn and we knocked on this stranger's door. A young father, named Gilberto, answered and he was just open and prepared. It was great. He said he believed there could only be one true church and the one he was in wasn't it, but he was looking. He believed in a need for authority. He studies the Bible a lot, but he'd received a copy of 'our book' as well as the religious texts of some other religions. He's talked to a lot of Jehovah's witnesses, used to be a Catholic, currently attends a nondenominational Christian church, and was really excited because he's wanted to meet with Mormons before and ordered a book, but the representatives never caught him at home, and so the book went in the mail. He talked to a guy from Brazil/Utah installing a security system once, but that was it. He had great questions and I almost wanted to say “Blessed art thou Gilberto, for no man hath told you, yet ye have believed!” But I don't know how to say that in Spanish. He's figured out so much, just by living and studying the gospel in the Bible. Somehow he's stayed humble and open and teachable. I don't know how. I'm anxious to find out. We have a return with him and his wife tonight.

After that was hurried to the Visitor Center, where the Elder and Sister Tedrow (Chelsea Tedrow's uncle) picked us up and took us the the fireside and Liberty Jail where my companion and her old companion from Kaw River would be doing a duet for President's friend/guest speaker. They sang perfectly despite sore throats. I so impressed. The guest speaker is the religion correspondent for KSL TV and he's met, traveled with and interviewed every prophet since President Mckay. He had some good stories. What I really liked though is how he kept relating the huge amount of missionary work that's been done to the prophecies given toJoseph Smith in Liberty Jail -- “How long can rolling water remain impure?” “What power can stay the hand of God?” Brother Cardell said, “This Church is a revolution; not of war or arms, but a revolution of truth, a revolution of the Spirit. Come join this Revolution of Righteousness.”
Viva la revolucion de rectitud! It's been a good week and the next one will be even better. Love you all!

Hermana Deb

p.s. HAPPY BDAY LISA!

HI!

It has been a great week. Last Saturday was interesting because we've begun having “Full Proselyting Days” again. Meaning it's so slow in theVisitor Center that they only have 4 sisters in shift instead of 6 and the extras stay in their area all day. It's great. What was odd about it though, was that despite having 6 extra hours to proselyte. We only taught 3 lessons. We taught 3 lessons on Sunday between church and going to the visitor in just a 2.5 hour period. So the Lord really blesses us to find people at home and find people in our path at the visitor center. And it's a testimony to me of the difference between being busy and being effective and the difference is really Heavenly Father's help. The 2nd divider wall was opened during church on Sunday because so many less-actives and nonmembers attended. The bishopric was beaming.

We had a fun lesson yesterday with a less active family. We gave them stickie notes with the names of BOM characters, descriptions and a scripture that talks about them. The goal was to guess who it was. One of the descriptions was about Abish. Ammon performed a miracle, taught one lesson and took a nap while Abish (a previously less active member) ran around and testified to everybody she knew to come see him and as a result, thousands were converted. Ammon was a very effective missionary. He saw opportunities, was diligent in serving, testified when he could, didn't run faster than he had strength and everything fell into place. He was just a tool.

I can see how those same principles are working in this ward with this bishop. All the lessons in all the auxiliaries since I've been here have focused on 3 things: Missionary work, Prayer and Scripture study. And the ward is doing great. Wonderful. There's a story in the Ensign this month that talks about another bishop who had similar experience.

We're teaching a lot of Liberians right now. It's really neat. Saturday, we went to go see a less active Liberian lady and we saw Peter Slober anda friend out in front. He's a recent convert from Liberia. We invited his friend to church. Then we went to go contact a referral, guess what...Peter was there too! The referral was from some Elders in Kansas who had tracted into one of the young men of the family doing construction, and they happened to be some refugee friends. We taught them all the restoration and it went great. We asked him to pray to know if the things we taught were true. He told us he already thought Joseph Smith was a prophet. He said it just made sense, but he'd still pray about it if he wanted us to. Then we had an appointment with Peter Slober's son that night, so we went over there and he was there, too! It was so funny. His nonmember friend was there at church on Sunday, along with the other less active Liberian sister we'd taught and her 3 kids and 3 of their friends!

We've been really blessed. So cool. The Lord has lined it up and it feels good to be where He needs us. I love my family. Thanks for being the example for me and being so supportive. People aren't always there when we go by, they change their minds a lot and often listen to the world more than the Spirit, but the worth of souls is GREAT in the sight ofGod. They're great. I'm loving serving the people here.

Love you.

Blessings,
Hermana Deb

Querida Familia,

I've been blessed with lots of things to write about in my journal this week. Really UNIQUE experiences.

10 And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. (2 Nephi 2:10-11)

Let me tell you about last Friday. We've been doing our best to make time to contact a couple referrals and some bishop assignments for two weeks and it just hadn't happened. So we were really excited last Friday because we had the morning free to get what needed to be done. Done. We go to our one appointment that morning and she peeks out the window, but doesn't open the door, so we do our best to talk to some Tanzanian children in the street and tell their dad we'll drop off a Swahili BOM for them. I love Kansas City. The next stop is to deliver a Nauvoo
Pageant CD. We go to the address and it's a bus station. Apparently the person it's for is a driver and so we just drop it off. Then we make a driving adventure to the far off regions of our area our by the airport to deliver a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. “Umm...Sister, is that a prison?” Apparently prisoners aren't allowed to have DVDs, so we gave it to a lady out front taking a break from the cafeteria. She was nice.

We took a reverse driving adventure back to downtown Kansas City. To meet new move-ins (and to find a restroom as quickly as possible). The first member lived in a NICE big marble building. We go in the front and are very confused as we enter a large poorly lit multi-pillared room that the sign on front said used to be a public library. The receptionist informed us that this was a life insurance firm. I KNEW I felt a dark presence as we entered the doors. So this was a wrong address and No, we couldn't use the bathroom. The next move-in was just a few blocks away. I could hold it. We slowly pass by the next address, “Restart Homeless Shelter.” We stopped at the gas station next door to use a restroom (that's another story), and gave the gas station attendant and his son pass-a-long cards. We sat in front of the gas station for awhile eating Cheetos and contemplating the probabilities of making it through the crowd of hobos (our spirit brothers and sisters) in front of Restart Inc. to find out about the new move in. We decide better of it and are off to see our last referral. He was tracted out by an RM selling pest control.

Next driving adventure. As we pull up to the house there are 3 small vicious looking chihuahuas hopping up and down behind the 4 foot tall fence. We say a prayer in the car. The yipping temporarily subsides and go to meet the harmonica playing neighbors. They kindly brave the
chihuahuas for us. And the man we were referred was a former Utah resident that doesn't think much of the church. He had some interesting misconceptions, that he wasn't willing to have us clear up. But we asked if he needed service and if he knew anyone who could benefit from a
missionary visit. Surprisingly, he referred a man and wife down the street who were having some sort of difficulties. We go see the neighbor (quickly since a husky/bear with big teeth also shows up behind the 4 foot fence—not gonna cut it).

The referral's referral is 6'5”, has a big beard, is dressed as a traditional Jew and comes out smiling offering us orange juice. I wasn't sure what to think about the situation, but wasn't feeling great about it, so I stated our purpose tried to give him a pamphlet and get gone. But, we got stuck answering questions for awhile and came to discover he wasn't just not interested but really really really crazy. I'm glad we didn't accept the orange juice. We went to the visitor center to find everyone else on shift that afternoon had similar experiences that day.

So that was last Friday... Yeah, it was a little crazy. Kinda difficult. But do you realize what this means?!? We're going to have a million baptisms next month! That's what it means! We're still teaching our little family of 5 and after watching the Joseph Smith movie with them the dad prayed. But in his prayer admitted he was afraid to do the wrong thing for his family and he didn't really pray to know if what we were teaching was true. So that was exciting that we know what his concern is now and after they came to church on Sunday (despite leaving a sick teen
at home), he told me he wanted us to keep teaching him. Not just his family, but him. We just prayed about and set a goal for our baptisms next month this morning and I'm excited about the work here.

I love serving people and talking to everyone. And Elder Bednar's right. A missionary's purpose is to be a full-time teacher. It's what we're set apart to do. But it feels good knowing, even though I'm back in Utah in December. I can still give pass a long cards to the people at gas stations. And fellowship and find and visiting teach and testify to everyone. The fans can cheer just as loud if not louder than the mascots. The representatives. And I think once people realize that, the
prophecy of President Gordon B Hinckley willed be fulfilled and the 13 million this year, will be 26 million next year.

Love you all. Be the light unto the nations that you are and share what you have with everyone. Trust me, it doesn't matter where you are. Love you.

Con carino,
Hermana Deb

"I can't feel my lip"

Hi Parents -

Just got my lst shot in the mouth. Yowch! I told the punk he needed to get a wand.

I appreciate your office a lot more now. Scented candles, Steel drums, nice warm fuzzy posters, sunglasses, DisneyCartoons.

I was stressed out. I didn't realize a REAL shot has to stay in for 10 seconds. It felt like more. Anyway, I'll get over it. He was nice, but I'm not a fan. I study in the same Bio classrooms at BYU as the dental students. When I get home I'm telling them what for ... Greenies. No radio advertising during dental work. That should be a law.

Thanks for paying Dr. King. The work will go forward. I wonder if missionaries like Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde had to get dental work done. Sigh.

Love you both, Hermana Durazna

Hum...well, I'm kind of low on time. We did a lot of service this week. We helped a woman with her car last Tuesday and we visited some older people and we mowed a cliff that one of our less actives calls her lawn yesterday. It was so steep and huge. I have 6 blisters trying to keep the mower straight from going down the hill. The gas kept sprinkling out the top of the cap. And we ran out of time to finish so we're going to have to go in our skirts tomorrow to get it done. But it was fun...sort of, and it feels good serving people.

I love the people in Kansas City. One of the recent converts is from Africa. He bore his testimony at presidents fireside for about 20 minutes and his nonmember son, who we're teaching, was there listening. It was great. The best part is his English is different so no one besides us and his family understood a word he said :-) It's been a very hot, but very good week. And transfers is tomorrow. You'll be joyous to know I've mastered 4 hymns made easy in preparation for possibly having to play in Spanish sacrament this Sunday. I can bang out another 8 if I really have to. What a wonderful opportunity to share my talents....bleh. :-)

Love you,

Hermana Deb
pps THANKS FOR ALL THE LETTERS

Hola mi Familia,

"Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion "THE PURE IN HEART."

It's been a busy good week. We've seen lots of less actives we're working hard to find. A lot of people who haven't come in a long time came to church on Sunday. It was really exciting. Our investigators are all women whose husbands aren't interested...and of course it's the husband's cell phone numbers we have. So it's been hard staying in contact his week. But we're doing our best. We taught 4 lessons yesterday evening and the member that invited us for dinner had a friend that wanted to learn more. I used my Milanesa making skills and when we told her about the Book of Mormon she said, "God loves all His children...that makes sense." Amen hermana! It's so nice when things click without extensive teaching. That made my heart happy.

I'm getting chubby (gordita) in this ward. And there's a ton of Dominicans. I highly recommend fried plantains. So Lisa, they want to know what wards you served in and when and I'm going to need more journal entries :-) They thought it was funny I knew a little about huelgas and tigres. They're some of our most active members. One said when he first saw missionaries in the 70s he thought they were CIA agents.I can't think of any knock down drag out spiritual experiences this week to share. I've taken a lot of good little families on tour. I like teaching kids now. I didn't used to, because it's more of an adult tour. But it really is more fun when you play games with kids and get to think out of the box a little bit. This weeks creation is "Sister Missionary Says." It's gone over pretty well. I put the kids in the play cabin (similar in function to the toy room) at the end and lay the history and dates and names and places of interest on the adults. Most of the kids end up realizing that "Zion" means obeying commandments and being nice to each other. And my most common Preach My Gospel/Missionary commitment/challenge for them at the end of the tour is to not hit each other for a whole week, so they can have "Zion" in their mini-van. I wish I could follow up.

We had interviews with President and Sister Van Komen last week. They work so hard. They had only eaten a brownie each the whole day and refused to cut interviews short. They were so nice and so excited just to meet everyone. We went and got them lunch, brought it back to the stake center after our interviews and made them eat it. Greenies don't know the importance of HALT (hungry angry lonely tired). You gotta stop and take care of yourself sometimes. Their kids are all adopted and their daughter is a ski patrol rescue person who detonates avalanches and the dogs have to come find her in the snow sometimes. She jumps out of helicopters! Coooool, huh? We're going to hang out next winter.

One thing that was kind of hard this week is there's a golden family who can't get baptized, because they would have to return to Mexico to get divorces from their previous spouses to completely live the Law of Chastity. But they've been encountering other obstacles too, and the husband said he wasn't coming to church anymore for personal reasons. He's been more active that most members. And after that lesson I walked out of the house feeling like I lost of friend in battle. It's hard to explain. But the Gospel is urgent. We went straight to another appointment with other investigators and I testified that they NEEDED to read and NEEDED to pray and seek a testimony and COME to church. Because the war that was in heaven between good and evil is Here. Now. I hate casualites. But it reminds me this is important. Moreso than anything else.

Family, I love ya. Keep doing all the good you do. And recognize differences and made that you don't see. "Love endureth by dilligence..." (Moroni 8:26). Thank you.

Con carino,

Hna Deb

The date on the picture is wrong. Hna. Deb and other Sister Missionaries at the Visitors Center.

Querida Familia Mia,

"And again, verily I say unto you that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, that inasmuch as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears, and humble yourselves before me, for ye are not sufficiently humble, the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am—not with the carnal neither natural mind, but with the spiritual." (D&C 67:10)

I've met some amazing people this week. People whose struggles I couldn't even begin to understand. A woman called for a free Bible. We called ahead and after her daughter called off their 'friendly (face-eating) dog' we went in their home to drop it off and this woman was elderly with a cast and recovering from foot surgery. She lived with her daughter and had received a Book of Mormon before, but gave it to someone else. So we gave her another one and taught her about the restoration. But she taught us a lot about humility. She wants to come to church. We haven't figured out how yet. She's so sick. But next time we meet her we'll figure out something.

Our High Priests leader was sick and our ward mission leader had fallen off the roof of his truck hit the side, then the ground on Saturday. He's in his 60s. He claimed 'he just bruised a couple ribs.' He was there Sunday at 9am for Correlation decked out in gold suit and fedora like usual. I was so impressed. He didn't stay, so we taught his Gospel Principles class. We had 2 investigators come this week.

There's another sister in our ward who's wonderful and optimistic and a little mentally/socially challenged. We went to her apartment a couple weeks ago on accident. She helped us figure out where we were going. She also told us Bishop had given her the assignment to call everyone on the ward list to see if the number worked and if they wanted to come to church. She did it! She gave us two names of people who just didn't have transportation and we went to go see them this week. She also showed us her awesome unicorn collection and her plates. One the walls in her apartment, by the ceiling she has a line of plates. Each with a name. They represent family members and close friends who've died. She even had one with an extensive list of pets. She cares so much about people. So I was really worried this Sunday when we went to church and she was distraught. Her niece had cancer. No insurance. She was mad at God. Didn't want to come to church anymore. We didn't have much to say. Just that we loved her and hugged her. And I shared a couple scriptures with her during sacrament meeting. Talked a little bit about the plan of salvation. There was a special musical number and I think it was for her, too. By the end of the 3 hours I saw her gain hope. And that night she called me to tell us her niece started chemo. I hope it works out. We're going to go see her this week. I never thought people I barely know would matter so much to me.

That night we went and saw a sister with Diabetes. She volunteered to feed us. She lost her vision a month ago and I'm amazed how independent she is, but you can see she's still so frustrated. And wants to do more. She's been an active member of the church for about 30 years. I guess she used to take the missionaries around all the time. We need to find someone to teach in her home. But she told us she KNOWS if it's God's will. She will get her vision back. It's true. She's been thinking a long time about asking for a blessing. I felt so insignificant when she said that. She's inspiring. It's hard to explain but the Spirit was there and I know it, because I want to do better. I want to help more.

I've been thinking a lot this week about these people and I don't understand them. I'm sure how to. But last night Sister Gray came back to the visitor center for FHE. She's single and a little less accountable like Mandy. And she loooovvves to talk. She's stayed at the visitor center for 5 hours one time. So I didn't jump right up and volunteer for that tour. I was the one who took her around last week. But she wanted to see God's Plan for His Family (again). She talked through most of presentation. Well...she testified through most of the presentation. "'Happiness in Family life'-that's what I want", "I know when you obedient you always abound in in good works", "God loves us-always, always". I just nodded and smiled, but I felt my heart softening and in the last video. When I saw the picture of the Savior healing the leper in his tent I teared up. I've seen that video almost as many times as Sister Gray now, but didn't think I'd ever met the leper or the dumb or the blind like Jesus did. But I'm beginning to. And I'm trying to find faith like them. I'm the person in the back of that picture, peeking around the corner to see if Jesus will do, what He really says He will.

Anyway, thanks for letting me be here. I love you all and I hope you find the Lord's hand in this week.

Sister Deb

Dear Family,

It's been a wonderful week and serving in Riverview is becoming a littleless tornado a little more sun shower. I played piano in sacrament meeting (hehehe). Hymns made easy. I think I hit the majority of the notes. The second verse was fairly accurate even if the third was mostlyA Capella. The three investigators I mentioned in my letter last week were there with their friend.

I really enjoyed Relief Society. It was the highlight of my day. This week it was the combined Spanish/English again. And the teacher was teaching in English and not waiting for her translator, so she was talking at the same time and trying to translate answers to questions and everyone was participating, because the teacher asked, "What are some daily difficulties you face?" That's a loaded, but very therapeutic question to respond to. The southern African American sisters were going off and the Latina grandmas were like, "Lemme jus tell somsing to ju!" and the Utahns would stand when called upon and quietly give very long, entailed, profound responses that the sister translating had some issues coveying. At the end we were asked to read our scriptures and pray everyday this week, I quietly said, "Si, se puede." (Yes, we can.) with a smile and I accidentally set off the grandmas who chanted that with their fists in the air a few times. It really was a spiritual lesson. I don't know how, but it was. I think our investigator liked it, too. The testimonies weren't translated at the end and one sister finished the lesson with hers and I could tell our investigator was touched.

This week has been awesome. There were 9 nonmembers at church. This area of Kansas City has a lot of room to grow and it's exciting. People are humble and have to make sacrifices to come and so the regulars are so solid and blessed with so many missionary opportunities. I love teaching in Spanish and I'm learning a lot. Especially from my companion, Sister Werrett. She is a lot like Megan. I like her lots. So I we're very busy and I'm doing my best to learn the ginormous area.

Happy belated Independence Day from Independence Missouri! They have this huge fireworks display right behind the Visitor Center. There were a about 2000 people in attendance and lots of them had to come into the VC to use the bathroom so we took them on tour until the fireworks got started. I took a couple people to the Christus statue who wanted to meet with the missionaries when invited to do so. It was exciting. And one of the eternigators [eternal investigators] from 2nd ward brought in this huge picnic for all the sisters at the center and we went out on the back porch and had the best seat in the house to watch the fireworks. President Van Komen was there. It's a hard calling. Sister Van Komen skipped and went to sleep instead, they'd had such a crazy week. It was his birthday though, so hecame out and one of the sisters had made him a card.

There's been a lot of big names here. I got to take two former mission presidents on tour in Spanish and that was fun. One was traveling homefrom the Dominican Republic and the others were former presidents from Bolivia. They were really nice. They complimented my Spanish. So you know they're REALLY nice.

We're 3 for 15. President Uchtdorf, his wife and twins were doing their family vacation of the church history sites. Sister Williams came in from Lenexa, KS, because she was in his stake in Germany. She speaks about 5 languages. And it was neat to shake his hand and welcome him there. It sounds silly, but it is a testimony building experience. I've spent sometime with "Apostle Sheldon," one of the leaders of the Church of Christ-Temple Lot. I've helped teach the son of the prophet of the "Remnant Church of Latter-Day Saints." I've taken "Community of Christ" leaders and pastors of other denominations on tour. Some of them have been wonderful, because you can see they've filled their lives with service. Others have chips on their shoulders you can almost see. But no matter their personality, they are not called and set apart by the authority of God. When you talk to bishops and Stake Presidents and particularly mission presidents, you sense authority. When they speak it's by the power of the Holy Ghost. Elder Holland and President Uchtdorf both have a comforting aura of power and and attitude of kindness that can only come from someone higher.

I have a testimony that this is Christ's church on the earth today. "And also unto my faithful servants who are of the high council of my church in Zion, for thus it shall be called, and unto all the elders and people of my Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scattered abroad in all the world; For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light maybe a standard for the nations; And that the gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon herstakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth." Doctrine and Covenants 115

We've been promised that Christ's church will never again fall into darkness and that if we are prepared we shall not fear any calamity that may fall upon this country or around the world. We are set apart and peculiar and I know our leader are men of God set apart by His authority, His Priesthood.

Love you all. Thanks so much for being there for me. And for those that are getting this that aren't in my family and have written me I'm writing today.

Love Sister Deb

Hna Deb's Mission President and his wife leave in a few days and
they sent this last picture with their missionaries before returning home
to Linden, Utah. A new couple has been assigned.
(Click to enlarge)

Dear Family,

Happy P-day! It's been a good week. My fingers are all covered in paint, we had fun painting in our NEW BRANCH MISSION LEADER's mom's house yesterday. We haven't had an active branch mission leader for about 5 months, so that was really really exciting. Plus, painting is fun. I'm going to spend a week cleaning out my fingernails. I really enjoy doing service, but we haven't been able to use our lawn mower yet. It's been really busy. The bishops of other wards have been giving us names of young single adults to go visit and most of them live pretty far away or don't have lawns. Sad day. But we'll keep on rolling on. It sounds like Mom is out doing more missionary work than I'm doing. That's really great. Colorado Springs 2nd needs some good missionaries like you guys. Keep it up. That's really exciting. I've been showing off your letters in the guides room at the visitor center.

The Visitor Center has been super busy as well. It's neat how there's always a connection between myself and the tours that come in. They're usually from a mountainous area or they know someone I do or study the same thing I study. It's neat, how it all works out. I really liked some of the people I got to take on tour this week. I took a man from England on a short tour at the Visitor Center. I asked him if he knew anyone from Leeds. I guess he used to live there and he served as a high councilor with Al and Val Mitchell -- the only people I know in England. That was cool. There one this one little couple from Podunk, Alberta, Canada. And the husband was a convert. His wife looked young, but apparently she'd already been a primary president and was a Relief Society counselor in their little family ward out there. And in this city of 8,000 they were from, due to missionary efforts there were already 3 wards. I was really impressed with how positive they were, despite being in the middle of a move and how much love they expressed for the Gospel. If they testify that much to everyone they meet. I'm not surprised they're so many who want to join the church in that area. It's great. There's a lot of power in testimony.

Something like 25% of the wards in the US didn't have a single convert baptism last year. I've heard of more of my friends being sent stateside on missions, because we're not as up to par and excited about sharing the gospel as we could be. I think on average here in Missouri there's about 10 baptisms in a ward per year, some a little more, some a little less. In Kansas it was a little lower, less members. I want to know what the retention is over a 30 yr period. I've discovered that most really active member have all gone less active at some point in their life, but still had a testimony and felt a connection, if not a commitment to the Church. So I wonder in a 30 yr period who stays or becomes really active.

We've got a lesson with Josh tomorrow and he's still active and doing great and I hope he'll be able to go to the Nauvoo temple trip to do baptisms next month. I'm really excited for him.

Thanks for your service and all that you do. Thanks for the letters and the support and the prayers. I love my family.

Hermana Deb

Our missionary, Deb, sent a picture of the Sister Missionaries in the Independence MO mission Visitor's Center during a visit from Elder Holland. She is at the feet of the Christus. This was a very special day as your read in her letter.
(Click to enlarge)

Hi Family!

How's Colorado, Washington, Utah, Virginia and California treating you? Missouri's good. Spring's really nice here. There's millions of dark purple trees that have been in bloom the last couple weeks. I have my 'tree guide' out trying to figure out what they are, but I don't know. Maybe 'eastern redbuds'. But summer's on it's way and there was a waterfight/volleyball at an FHE barbecue last night. We've spent every activity thus far going around and making appointments and asking referrals. This time we just did our best to make friends and play. No one recognized us pulling into the parking lot because we were wearing shorts. One of our recent converts brought a friend. Another guy that claimed he 'didn't want to be Mormon anymore' because it wasn't fun enough showed up too, and had a really good time.

We got a lawn mower! Going on my mission, I'll admit I haven't missed mowing our yard, Dad. But we've been looking for a way to serve and I'm excited to use my skills. Our elders quorum president finds old mowers all the time at his work. He found one that we can take apart and fit into the back of the Corolla. Sweet.

Let's see, so all that was exciting this week, what else interesting happened...oh yeah. ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO THE VISITOR CENTER! He's really short. But he's really really nice and walked around through everything we had and then when he was done greeted every sister and every visitor lucky enough to be there, actually it was the other way around. He greeted everybody, walked around, greeted everyone again, then said,“I've never met a missionary without a camera. Let's take pictures. Are you all happy, I'm the head of the missionary happiness committee. Are you busy here?” So I have a picture with Elder Holland and we sang "Beautiful Savior" for him and Elder Watson of the 2nd Quorum of the 70. Elder Holland's really funny. He kept threatening to kiss everybody. I was good with a handshake. I found out he did kiss one of the senior sisters he knew from UT on the cheek. Her husband's been teasing her about it ever since. The sister that took them downstairs through the history center said he spent the most time at the one display I don't ever seemto fit into my history tour. It's a rounded plastic display on the wall about the Proclamation on the Family. So I've tried to work it into the history tour more this week.

I'm thankful for opportunities to share the gospel. I was reading on oneof the first pages of Preach My Gospel and it said something like, "We welcome you as fellow servants of the Lord in His work." I recognized this week how true that is. No matter what calling we have. We've been called. I've been choristering at church lately. The person who's called to do has showed up late or not at all. He went up at testimony meeting and held up the program and said, “You see 'Chorister', next to it, it says my name. I need to do better. I know callings are important. And they are opportunities to grow. And I will do better.” He led the closing song. Change is a really neat thing. We're also getting a branch missionary leader. That's a big change. I'm excited to find out who it is.

Well. I love you all. Thanks for supporting me and loving me and doing lots of good. I know you all do.

Tu Hermanita Dev [Translationfrom Samoan - "Dev" = Deb]

Life's good. I had a missionary mid-life crisis moment last Thursday. I was in the shower and through much strenuous brain math concluded I only have 7 months left on my mission and am not very close to the goals I set for myself when I got here. So we've been serving. We've been talking to everyone. We've been setting goals and making plans. We've been super busy at the visitor center and I really like it. I'm going to try and cut some more time off my p-days to make calls.

This week has been exciting. A recent convert came back from the army and just showed up at stake conference on his first day back. He came to FHE last night as well and 4 other people from Liberty came down and want to be in the branch. It's exciting. We made appointments with all of them. At the night session of stake conference we sat in the front row with one of our members and President Medina gave a talk on missionary and the goals and challenges he gave the stake. He said, “I hope you have all taken the opportunity to invite the missionaries over to role play and practice with your missionaries---look there's good ones too right here.” I repented as soon as conference ended and set up anappointment to role play missionary situations with the person sitting right next to us.

I and other missionaries I've noticed seem to grow into the responsibilities they're given. There's this part in the Joseph Smith movie where his first child dies, and he's mourning with his wife and in the next scene it shows him pulling the gold plates -- The Book of Mormon -- from its hiding spot. And he says, “The Lord calls us in our weakness, but he qualifies us for the work.” I've seen elders grow up before my eyes as they're given a leadership calling. Both of our VC [VisitorsCenter] leaders came out about the same time as me, but even though they haven't been here long I've seen them grow super fast and I really do look to them for answers to questions, because Lord has given them the mantle to fulfill those callings. I grew a lot as I trained for one transfer and I'm getting to see Sister Faivakimoana grow, too. We expect a lot out of Josh and he totally stepped up to the plate. He studied the copy of Preach My Gospel we gave him at his baptism and taught two principles of lesson 3 to our investigator Conrad. He taught “Endure tothe End” better than we do, because he could testify of how hard it was having to wait 2 months to get baptized vs having the Gift of the Holy Ghost to help and support him now.

I wonder if sometimes the reason it's hard to go home is because you've been a muffin in a big tin that was provided for you. The Lord gave you lots of responsibility and spiritual room to expand and when you go home, the tin seems little and you just don't fit anymore. You have to find opportunities to serve and teach instead of having them presented. I don't know if that's true or not.

I see a service opportunity here a the library. There's a little old lady making boxes. Sooo... I love you! Thank you for everything you do for me and for your examples and for that dvd for my bday! I think my favorite part was Benjamin sneaking up to Dad and whispering, “Grandpa snoring.” My companion was impressed with all the wildlife and I was very impressed with Mom's cello skills! Qow. Will you play at my homecoming?

Love ya.

Sista Squirt.

Hellooooo!

It's a lovely springtime in Missouri. My lucky chilanga companion is on 'Safari' for another 6 weeks as I identify all species of flowering plant, tree and songbird for her. We got transfer calls and I'm stayin in the branch! Which is great because we got a new progressing investigator this week named Conrad and he's going to get baptized and I finally know everyone and I told President Morby I wasn't going anywhere anytime, soon, so...good thing.

It was really good talking to Mom and Dad this week. I got permissionfrom President Hacking yesterday in the office to watch my home video, 'but only once and only on p-day,' so I'm on it after we finish groceryshopping at Hyvee. Yeah for being 22! I'm amazed it's been like a whole month since they've visited anywhere. That's got to be some kind of decade record.

The investigator I mentioned in the letter last week that really just needed a friend, now has a couple, summer is a good time. We've had a couple of missionaries come back, and so we've got some people to work with us and fellowship the people that have been found. We've got some serious goals to find more and find them soon, though. I'm excited to start a new transfer. I like that we get a redo every 6 weeks on the mission. I hope I keep doing that.

There's a sister in the branch that I decided this morning is my new role model. She has completely changed her life in just the 12 weeks I've served around her. She didn't like her job, wardrobe, self (little overweight) or the fact that she never seemed to have time to do anything beside her church calling, plus she was shy. I remember the first lesson with her: she was up to do more than just give out one pass-along card and it was asking a lot. But she did it. And she called us and she had a great experience talking to a grandma about the church, in a waiting room, while she waited to get her oil changed.

Then one time on teamups about 6 weeks ago, she told us about this little schedule she'd come up with for herself based on chp 8 of Preach My Gospel, “Using Time Wisely”. She MADE time. She gets up at 5 am everyday, works out for an hour, job searches and develops the talent of piano playing. She also put herself on a budget and took sugar and dairy out of her diet. With her new found funds she went to Dillards with a friend and has some really cute modest dresses, since she lost like 20 lbs. It sounds like superficial stuff, but she has a lot more confidence. She seems a lot happier. Because people can see how happy she is, missionary opportunities are popping up all over the place. It's really neat how fast she's achieved her goals.

So, I've got some goals. Our stake president has asked everyone to

1-prayerfully set a missionary goal for the year

2-prayerfully set one for 2 weeks

3-Then create a list of people to work with (clients, friends, relatives, acquaintances, sports friends, classmates, email lists, neighbors, etc)4-Then share, make actions, and requests to achieve said goal

Sharing (example: Debbie tells her family that she's going to get 7 members referrals this week.)(ex: Donny tells a friend about eternal families and testifies how temple attendance blesses his.)

Action (ex: Sister missionary teaches a member lesson to get them into the Spirit, Pres Medina's idea) (ex: Mom and Dad study a chapter about Finding investigators in Preach MyGospel) (ex: Lori meets her neighbor and has the kids take brownies) (ex The Parsons have a missionary FHE and write nonmember friends)

Requests (ex: Deb asks everyone back home if they will prayerfully consider someone to refer so she can call them at the Inde visitorcenter.) (ex: Lisa and Tom invite a couple from work over for an FHE and they watch “Between Heaven and Earth.”) (ex: Kellen and Meggie use their Spanish skills to invite the taquito guy to go to some activities with them.)

Then the 2 week schedule for the stake looks like this:

Day 1- 3 shares, 3 actions

Day2- 3 shares, 3 actions

Day 3-3 shares 3 actions

Day 4-share blitz -lots of shares

Day 5- 1 share, two requests, 3 actions

Day 6- 1 share, 2 requests, 3 actions

Day 7- 3 short actions

Day 8- 3 short actions

Day 9- requests blitz- lots of 'em

Day 10- 1 share, 1 request, 4 actions

Day 11- action blitz -10 actions

Day 12- 1 share, 1 request, 2 actions

Day 13- 1 share, 1 request, 2 actions

Day 14- 1 share, 1 request, 2 actions

It sounds intense, but it's not really. We should be friendly to everyone anyway and invite to stuff (request). We should be studying the gospel and serving everyone anyway (action). And we should always share—I learned that in kindergarten. But “Goals represent the desires of our hearts” (PMG), so as we set goals to build Zion as a family, the Lord can help us do so. If we're goal-less and not prayerfully asking the Lord for help in becoming tools in His hands, we're either saying we don't care or we can do it on our own and we don't want Him in the work. So, set goals and make plans and let the Lord take the load, since He already has. I've seen how well Preach My Gospel goals have worked for the sister in my branch and I know they can help everyone achieve the desires of their hearts. Whatever those may be.

Happy Mother's Day, all you moms!

Josh got baptized on Sunday. I've had some good days, but that has topped them all thus far. I'm very grateful for how well everything came together and how many people showed up, despite it being a Fast Sunday. Three Somoan guys volunteered to do the musical number so we didn't have to. They were really good. I'm also thankful President Morby didn't drop him. He's not a little guy. We saw him yesterday and he said he feels like a different person. He doesn't have a desire to do the things he used to, because it's just not who he is anymore. I saw that when he came out of the water—big splash, big change. Personally, I've had that new-life feeling on my mission. There's a temple trip May 13th, so hopefully Josh will receive the Aaronic Priesthood in time to go. We taught a lesson about temples yesterday and he already knew all the answers to 'commonly asked questions' on the kiosk at the visitor center. So he's pretty much good to go. We had everyone sign the copy of Preach My Gospel that we gave him and quads really aren't expensive if you buy them through church distribution. Shipping's free. A regular quad like the one I have is only 35 dollars.

So we're short a branch mission leader, he just got married and there's not anyone available to take his place at the moment. So we were kidding Josh that he might get called to do it. But he really might. :-)

Also, we picked up a former investigator this week. We had a couple really spiritual lessons and so he was interested in learning again. He still hadn't prayed or read last time we taught him. So we read with him and invited him to pray about it. He said he didn't have any doubt aboutJoseph Smith being a prophet or the Book of Mormon being true, because he saw the movie, so what was there to pray about? And why did it really matter? I was pretty straight with him and told him if he's a prophet then he was the only one on the earth given the authority to baptize in the name of Christ and this is Christ's church on the earth today, even though so many others make that same claim. So if he prays with real intent like Moroni says, and this is the restored church, the original, he'll get baptized into it. He prayed. I could tell he didn't want an answer. He's tied socially to the church he's at. I told him so. He agreed that he wouldn't know how to leave the church he's at. He needs LDS friends basically. So hopefully we can get him to some activities and get him meeting some more members.

What Elder Bednar said last conference was so true about missionaries being full time teachers. President Hinckley said all investigators and new members need the word, a friend and a calling.

I'm almost more excited togo home, knowing how to do missionary work and do it there, because my hands are tied in many respects. I can't give them a ride. I can't counsel, beyond religion. I can't hang out with them. I can't have them over for dinner. We teach our investigator. We teach our members and then try to play matchmaker so they can have friends.

Other exciting news is that I heard my first tornado siren last week. I grabbed my water supply and my coat and booked it down into the laundry room. All the other sisters and our neighbors met us down there. It was funny to see what everyone brought. There were some sensible things like a flashlight, a cell phone and blankets. But some grabbed SweeTarts, scriptures, journals, digital cameras (we took a group photo). Our neighbors took the time to put their cat in a kennel and were the last to arrive. The alarm went off pretty fast, but it went off again at like 2 a.m., but no one heard it, and an Arbys was demolished a couple miles away. One of the sisters got food poisoning there, so that's probably why itwas smitten. (Kidding.)

Asking around, Independence isn't a common area for bad tornadoes, it's fairly hilly and a good distance from Kansas. Lawrence, on the other hand, got hit this week. That's another area that could probably use a good smiting. College towns.

I'll be calling on Mother's Day around 5 your time, so preparense! Love you lots. The church is true, even in Missouri. I'm gonna tell someone that, so I don't get smitten. I recommend you do the same.

With Love,
Hermana Deb

Hola mi familia!

Josh is getting Baptized on Saturday!!!!!! This kid is amazing. He's already got his dates set that he's going to get the priesthood and go to the temple and even when he's going to get sealed (it's good to have a goal). We've only got 2 days to organize everything, because a lot of people are having to arrange their schedules going out of town this weekend. Mom, sorry about deleting everything, but you sent me a copy of your e-mail address book a couple months ago, so I'll send it back today. That's a frustrating reminder that data doesn't resurrect very easily, nor does it cross the veil. My companion nearly lost all her mission photos last week, but we were able to take her card to a computer guy and get a lot of them back.

We had a couple miracle lessons this week. I'm very very thankful for the guidance of the Spirit in helping us teach new member lessons. There's one young man that's been to church once since his baptism. He comes to most of the activities, but it's hard to catch him for appointments. We felt really strongly that we needed to go and see him. I didn't realize how far away he was. We drove 25 mins south and the timing was beautiful, we got to meet both his parents just before they were about to leave. It was a great opportunity to share the gospel with them, but he's ungrateful for the things he's been given. So we had a bold Lesson One—the Restoration. He said he's coming to church on Sunday, and I got him to write thank you on a sticky note to leave somewhere for his mom. But I don't think he's up to that. Baby steps. My companion, Sister Rivera, is going to be a great mom someday. She knows how to give 'the look' very effectively. She let him have it—'Godly Sorrow R Us.' We'll see him Sunday.

We went to downtown KCMO again this week, but didn't have any luck with our appointments, and were getting pretty discouraged when a nearby Recent Convert just called us up and said, 'Hey, do you wanna come over and teach a lesson?' Whoa. That doesn't happen just for the record. So we picked up some McDonalds and taught him one good new member lesson at a park, before had to go to the Visitor Center.

We've had tons of Aussies, Brits, and Brasilians come through. Not as many as just the regular old Utah type, but a substantial number. It's been really neat. Thing were a little slow this week and I sat in front of the Christus and listened to the narration in Italian, French, Spanish. Romanian and Portuguese. You've heard one Latin based-language you've heard em all. Not really, Romanian is very different.

I have a question for Dad. When we went to Far West a couple months ago, each cornerstone of the temple that wasn't finished was labelled with a different priesthood. There was like a First Presidency one, and a Aaronic one and a Melchezidek one and a 12 apostles one. On the Salt lake City temple what do each of the spires represent? That's really cool you've met 2 general authorities. Oh, and I'm starting the Book of Mormon in Spanish again. So Laban is from Manasseh, and so was Lehi, and Laban got the plates because he some how saved King Ahaz's life or something like that right? I can't remember and it's not in the missionary library :-) Do you get that from the writings of Josephus or elsewhere? Also can I get a review on How Zedekiah's son got to Jerusalem. Or do we know? How's your song coming? There's a version of “He” on the Visitor Center computer sung by Tongans. I should send it.

I went to the chiropractor today. He's Mormon. It was free. My knee hurt. I got popped more than I expected, but my knee feels better. I guess my hip is messed up like mom's. Free medical is good.

My main accomplishment this week was memorizing 14 scriptures for Lesson 3. I'm not good at memorizing so, the Lord helped me out with that. My weakness became a strength and I was pleasantly surprised. Doctrine and Cov 64: 33-34.

Love you all. Thanks so much for the letters and the support.

Con carino

Hna Deb

Oye mi fam! Que onda?

I my companion today. Sister Durrant was wonderful this transfer and I killed her on good terms. She's headed back to Salt Lake and is planning on watching conference with her family. She was awesome, she didn't even get a lil bit trunky the last week. She was an awesome missionary. I want to be like Sister Durrant when I grow up. My new companion's not arriving til tonight. Her name's Hna Rivera and she grew up in Texas, but her parents are from Mexico City. So I'm gonna go buy enchilada sauce and make chilequiles for when she gets here. Wish me luck. Our p-day next week is going to be on Wednesday. It's kind of weird having two Spanish-speaking missionaries in the English-speaking singles branch with the Pali's and white folk. But, Sister Rivera served in the Spanish branch before, so I think we'll be doing a lot of drafting of YSAs from that area.

Last week we were working for miracles. And Sunday and Monday definitely were. We had a couple less actives and almost all our investigators show up Sunday and they had a great time. Then, after debating whether we should get rid of FHE since nobody's been showing up, one of our ward missionaries made a ton of food and called everyone and we had more people there, than at church. It was good stuff. So this transfer's gonna start out with a bang. Poor Josh is still working out his legal leftovers, but we've been teaching him still and he and his friend made Sister Durrant a goodbye cake. He'll make it, but the Lord knows some people need challenges, even if I as a missionary with my lil view of life don't like it.

The visitor center's been fairly busy, but life's good and this week I took a tour with 5 kids and 2 bedraggled parents who were only just starting their historical journey from Utah. I left them a commitment to pray out loud, every time they start bickering. It was great. The kids would start arguing about who had to say the prayer, and had to pray 3 times before they even got out the doors of the visitor center. I don't know if they'll stick with it, but I think the parents appreciated me at least trying to keep the peace though. Tours with kids are fun. I think my favorite age group is mine though. People who really listen to what's being said and are critically thinking everything at the beginning, and give thoughtful answers to questions, and then finally recognize the Spirit trying to teach them something, member or nonmember. Because 20 yr olds are busy with music and people and work and shopping and are rarely in a place where they have to slow down and appreciate silence and just think about something more important than the above items, they really FEEL the difference of climate in the Visitor Center. And they're still young, so I can be more straightforward. It's great to see them want a change. And be able to completely relate.

I really like espeaking the Spanish. I've been pleasantly surprised at how many Hispanics from Mexico come all the way to the Midwest to see church history. They realize it's their heritage even, if they are necessarily descendants. And it really makes me stretch my Spanish, I think 'fue disparado' means 'was shot,' and I use that a lot in the history, but I don't know. So if anyone knows, lemme know. I need to improve my language skills. I'm living proof of the Gift of Tongues, cuz I have no idea what I'm saying half the time, but it seems to get across all right.

Spirit's real. Church is true and I love you.

Con carino,

Hna Deb

Hola mi familia!

So I had a couple really cool tours last Saturday. It had been kind of a rough day, but I prayed real specific for nonmembers to come into the visitor center for us to teach. This woman named Marylin came in and she was deaf and from England, so she couldn't do American Sign Language. But she could read lips more or less and her member friend brought her in for his birthday :-) Genius.

Marylin had been to the Holy Land and grew up studying the Bible with her family. She already knew a lot about the church from friends in Salt Lake City, but was really touched after watching the Joseph Smith Movie and went from asking me hard questions about that PBS special on the Mormons, to saying she recognized the Spirit and was definitely going with her friend to church on Sunday. So that was wonderful, even thoughI couldn't do much, since she couldn't completely understand what I said. It was a good lesson for me on the importance of getting to the point. Short bold statements. I don't imagine reading lips is very easy.

After that I immediately took a couple from Iowa on a history tour. Things are getting much much busier in the Visitor Center. It's cool. So the couple was from Iowa, but the guy was de Guatemala and his fiance actually wasn't a member, yet, but had been meeting with elders and was planning on betting baptized before they got married. So it was really neat, seeing how much she'd learned about the church in just a year and how much faith she had. So the cool part, the Guatemalan's name is Olivario Masariegos and he was one of Lori's zone leaders in theTeguichigalpa (sp?) Mission. He even just happened to have a picture of him and some other elders from the mission out in his truck. I showed him a pic of Lori and told him about Benjamin, but I didn't know which partof Guatemala he was adopted from. So I'll send that to you today, Lori. Thanks for being my connection, because after that we went through God's Plan for His Family upstairs, and feeling connected with the people I teach and vice versa, makes a huge difference. His email is ---------- if you want to drop him a line, Lori.

Our main investigator, Josh, has been amazing. He bore his testimony at the recent convert fireside at Liberty Jail, and the other two “recent” converts that went first, had really been members for a few years. So he was super intimidated, but he went right up there next to President Hacking and bore a powerful testimony about prayer, and how it took him 3 years to find out that there is a God. And how strong he felt the Spirit when he prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He was really excited to get baptized this Saturday. We'd read him the interview questions, about a week ago, but he hadn't noticed or realized how important the one about probation is. So we had a really sad conversationwith him yesterday and I feel terrible for him. He met with Branch President Morby and felt a lot better. I think he's been a father figure for him. But I can't imagine how I'd have felt if my bishop said, "Sorry,you need to wait 2 more years, before you go on your mission." I gave him a call last night and we read scriptures together and it really did make a difference. I'll need to be back here in a couple years for that baptism.

Speaking of coming back, I'm am now fully qualified to take the fam on a history tour around Missouri. We went to Adam-ondi-ahman ('place whereAdam dwelt'), Farr West, Richmond and Liberty yesterday and Elder Tedrow (the director of the Visitor Centers) took us around and pointed out tombstones and told us lots of stories and would stop at random intersections and say, “Well, there's no marker here, but this is where blah blah happened.” So, should you feel the need to know far more than you wanted to about small podunk towns in Missouri, I'm your missionary. It actually was really beautiful. I love spring and I identified lots of birds and rocks along the way. I'll send pics.

Love you lots,

Hermana Deb

Hello Family!

My prep day is on Thursdays this transfer. Because there always needs to be someone serving in the visitor center our p-days amongst the sister missionaries get swapped around every 6 weeks. You don't really get that anywhere else in the mission. It's interesting scheduling appointments, when I'm not actually sure if we're going to be able to make it, because the visitor center schedule might get changed over the next couple weeks. But most of the time we still make it to all of those appointments and are scheduled at the vc for the other half of the day. It's a miracle really that it works out that way.

I'm in Main House with 3 other companionships. There's a big map with all the vc sister's names on it who've served there and where they're from. Thus far I am Colorado's only representative. However, I was talking to Moua Talamatasi the other day in Blue Mills Ward and she said SheDaisy's lil brother served in that ward a while ago. So Mom, feel free to confirm that. I've never been so 'in the know' about the goings and comings of a ward and pretty much everything about everybody in it, as I have here in Independence. I've grown accustomed to my role in life as 'the last one to find out.' On one hand, it's a nice change; on the other hand, some times I wish I was still 'the last one to find out' about a lot of people's histories.

We're going to Science City today and I'm bound and determined to be a better member missionary on my p-days and talk to someone at the library and a few people at Walmart and somebody at this Science City place. My companion is dying and going home in 5 weeks, so this transfer we're doing everything she's been meaning to get around to doing her whole mission. Supposedly this is like the ultimate 5th grade field trip. She's excited. I'm up for any excuse to wear p-day clothes.

Oky-dokey, spirachel stuff.... we've been really blessed as we've talked to everyone this week. The girl I referred to the singles branch 3 weeks ago that I met at Cold Stone on a p-day, we finally contacted and she's a new investigator (with a pet ferret :-) and she really liked the first lesson. Except she was so on it with her questions that it really was a discussion. It was great. Then we went back and she missed the next appointment, but we talked to some people in her parking lot and they were really open to meeting with us, so we got their info and are going to make an appointment with them this next week. And even though that appointment didn't work out, the teamup we brought, who used to work with her, was up for coming to teach with us, but as we talked in the car I came to realize that she's probably less active and so it was a good teaching experience and I hope we got her motivated to go back to church in her ward.

So things work out the Lord's way. Sister Durrant, my new, very awesome VC leader/companion, made a good point in companionship study this morning about how we should always be teaching. Even if it's not who we were planning to teach or if it's not a real lesson. Like talking in the car in between appointments we should bear testimony and teach each other. Every conversation can be a teaching opportunity, even if it's with Bishop. And she mentioned this as we were reading “Mothers Who Know” from last conference. It said something like, “mothers who know, teach.” So even after the mission, especially with kids I should constantly be teaching, though not necessarily preaching.

Like in the car with that less active teamup, Sister Durrant chimed in, “So this is off subject, but I was thinking today, like what is faith? And how are we supposed to actually get it?” Perfect. The best lessons are really conversation topics. Well-placed questions. I'm working on that this transfer. Coming up with simple questions that aren't like, “What's the purpose of life?” but like, “Are you happy with how things are right now? That's the point right? You think you could be happier? That God has something more for you than work and school?” I've spent half my mission trying to come up with some good questions and they're finally starting to come as I let my lil personality shine on through.

I'm really in a unique situation here. Our branch could potentially have 600 members, there's actually about 100 on the list and about 20 who come every week. Ay yay yay. So I went to church on Sunday and stilldon't really know anyone, but it was good. And there's been a lot of baptisms in this ward and so sticking with the recent converts is fun. Plus a couple of them live in Riverview ward, which is in Kansas City and is a little more exciting. It's the ethnic quarter. In 5 blocks there's15 taquerias, 2 middle eastern shops, a couple African export stores. I like driving through there, but do my best not to slow down.

Life's good and the church is true. Missouri is thinking about warming up and I hear it's actually pretty in Springtime. Things are going to get busy. I'm excited to teach little old ladies by the busload! I'll keep praying for you all. Thanks for all the support.

Love you,
la Hermanacita Deb