Sister Lara Elizabeth Stewart: How'd'do?

Well, it’s definitely been an exciting week. This week Sister McGrath and I accomplished much more! 7 hours of tracting! 3 active member lessons! 10 other lessons! (Our goal.) We ran into some weird people while tracting, including a man who believed in his previous life he bombed Pearl Harbor, a house with 16 dogs in it, and a very drunk girl. We took a member out with us on Saturday, she's leaving for her mission next month and so we've wanted to help her get some more experience. Unfortunately we were unable to use her presence for a member present lesson because both of our planned lessons fell through and we didn't have any lessons while tracting. But it was really fun to spend time with her, she joined us for dinner and we answered a lot of her questions that she has had as she's preparing.

I’m having lots of fun here in Brownlee. We have ZDM on Wednesday and we discussed Elder Kopsichke's(?) visit at Zone Conference. We made a list of things he taught then went around the zone and everyone said their favorite 2 that they wanted to work on. We determined the top 3 and promised that we would all work on these. My favorite of things 3: Don't Worry Be Happy :) (smiley face included). We had again a zone fast and broke our fast together over Little Caesar's pizza, salad, and carrots. It was so much fun to spend time with our fellow missionaries discussing the work going on in separate areas. I really like my zone, it'll be hard to leave all the friends I've made.

Yes, transfers are next week, have you marked the calendar for every 6 weeks? I'll find out on Friday whether or not I'll be staying in Brownlee. I don't know what the Lord has in store but thinking about it I'm comfortable with both. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is the unsurety whether or not I'll be able to keep all the boxes I've collected to keep things organized. Haha, but I'll manage.

The best experience this week was when we had the worst rejection yet. We had arrived at the home of a return appointment we had set up the week before, we knocked and waited and then from behind the screen door (the main door was open) we heard the adult yelling at the 2 year old to go close the door. We could only smile and wave to child as she slowly closed the door in our faces. Luckily the moment was so funny that we didn't let it deter us and moved on. Next door lived a woman who hadn't been home for our return appointment the week before so we decided to stop by and see if she was home so we could make another appointment to see her. She was not only home but she let us in and we taught her the Restoration. She was thrilled, we answered her questions about religion and god and the prophet. It was an amazing lesson and so exciting. I hope we'll be able to get to her this week (she couldn't make it to our second appointment last week), and see how she felt about the Book of Mormon, she was really excited to read it when we gave it to her. I feel really good about her.

Yes Mom, I got your package! Thank you so much! The jumper is perfect; in fact I'm wearing it right now! Thank you! I'm going to save the hashbrowns for Thursday, we're having the Sister Training Leaders come over and do exchanges with us so they'll be sleeping over.

I've been reading the Our Heritage book that the church put about, it’s a very interesting short history of the church. They mention the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the testimonies of those who heard his voice as they listened to the new Prophet Brigham Young speak. I'm sure your lesson went great, Mom, it’s a great topic.

Experiences of the Week:

Silly - We practiced teaching Sister Simpson the Law of Chastity. As we did so, she mentioned that she just loves looking at young men's "cheeks". Thinking she meant their face, I immediately responded "Well, you can pinch but nothing else." Bad mistake. It took a minute before we could all control ourselves enough to go back, re-comment to that statement and continue on smoothly.

Spiritual - Struggling to know where to tract on Friday, Sister McGrath and I prayed to know where to go that wouldn't make us waste miles, as I said the prayer my mind pictured an apartment complex nearby. As we tracted we found several people who were willing to listen to our message, we lent a Book of Mormon, and made several return appointments. The Lord's Hand, ladies and gentlemen.

Accomplishment- I impressed President Huston as we practiced teaching the Law of Chastity on him. Boo-yah! Thinking about my first practice lesson with him, I can tell I have grown a lot. Bring it on MJM!

I'm in the South - When we got our aids on Tuesday, the Walmart aid was all camo and hunting gear. Duck season started on Saturday. :)

Today we're having a "Burning Party" at the library. The table is covered in CDs and MP3s from all the missionaries. We've been planning to do this exchange of music for a long time, its exciting to finally do it, and to teach every how to do it too! Yay for computer smarts.

No news on Kenny yet, but we haven't lost hope. We have a few new investigators. I think this will be good for the work here in Brownlee.

Six Months on the 27th! Boo-yah!

Question of the week: Do you spell it "y'all" or "ya'll"? (Personally I do the first, Sister McGrath does the second.)

Love you much!