These Are The Best Days

Hey everyone!

What a week! I loved every single second of it! We kicked off Monday last week with an AWESOME lesson with Matthew and Marcy. They are progressing so well. All we are waiting for is for them to get married. They are SO close and Marcy is SO ready to get baptized. I'm so excited. Seeing them from 6 months ago to now just amazes me. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly does change lives.

Did some awkward referral contacting in Kmart. Hahahahaha Someone called us and asked us to see if we could share the gospel with the pharmacy lady that worked there. So....what better way to do that then ask for her advice on allergy medicine! We planted a seed for sure. Hopefully she doesn't remember how awkward we were though. We had an AWESOME district meeting on Wednesday. Really sad that this week will be our last one with this group :( that night we had dinner with Sister Beck. She really wants to go on a mission but has been stopped in her progress because of health problems. I felt prompted to share with her some things I experienced 6 months ago when I couldn't do missionary work AS A MISSIONARY because I was so sick. Lots of tears. But it was cool to see that I didn't go through all of that in vain. She needed to know that there is always a reason behind things that we feel are halting our progress.

We biked all day on Thursday. So fun! I'm getting used to it again. The Billings valley was SUPER smokey that day due to all the fires in Canada (or so I hear...who really knows. It was smoky. That's all I know ;))  it took me back to last summer when it seemed like the whole state of Montana was on fire. We finally caught up with the Realbird family again. Rama is on her way back from Denver with 4 of her kids. The baby still has to stay I the hospital for one more surgery. Her step mom and step sister came to all of church yesterday :) I was SO proud of them.

Annicka got baptized this week! She's 9 and I have been working with her and her less active family for the nearly 6 months that I've been here. It was such a sweet experience. Everything leading up to it was SO chaotic and stressful. All baptisms are stressful (especially without a Ward mission leader) but this one was nuts. It was in the heights because all of Annicka's extended family lives there. Forgotten towels, forgotten keys, lost missionaries. It was great fun. Her 94 year old great grandpa wouldn't have been able to come if it was in our stake center. He got to confirm her as well! Plus, all of her other family members have been baptized there, so...we made it happen. It all worked out in the end though. The biggest pay-off was seeing Annicka in the font with her grandpa and her mom and dad standing right up against the glass watching her and absolutely BAWLING. Her older siblings cried as well. I KNOW they felt something there. The member of the bishopric presiding pointed it out too, which was great. I'm excited to go follow up with their family and see if we can get them to understand how we don't need to wait for special occasions to feel the spirit. Annicka literally SWAM out of the font. Hahahaha I love that cute girl. It was a wonderful day :)

Mother's Day was wonderful :) 6 hours of church, speaking in sacrament meeting, and teaching relief society. Wouldn't have it any other way! It was so good to see my family :) love them. It really is crazy how time flies.

I'm going to reply to personal emails now. :) love you all SO much!!!!

 View from the Rims

 View from the Rims-mission home 

Waiting...

 Smiles for Mother's Day

Annnnnd skyping da fam :) some things never change... Hahahaha