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