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.