Hello Everyone!
I am seriously loving it here in Texas. Everyone is so nice and courteous! And, the best part about it is that everyone wants to talk about Jesus, so we can go up to random strangers and say, "Hey, do you want a picture of Jesus?" and give them a pass-along card ;) It's great!
So, I'm sorry, in advance for anything that I might repeat in this email because I can't really remember what I put in the last one, but that's okay because all the things I want to include will definitely be things that should be heard twice anyway!
First of all, I LOVE my mission president and his wife! They are absolutely amazing! It makes me really sad that they will be leaving the mission in a year and that they won't be sending me home, but I know there will be someone even better than they are that replaces them (if that's even possible). I guess they only serve for three years as a mission president, and that time is up! Also, one of my companions, Sister Udall, is going home soon and she is really having a hard time with that. I really sincerely hope that will be my attitude when I come up on 18 months.
So, I'm not sure if I talked about them at all, but there are these amazing people named Adrian (husband) and Dakota (wife) and their brand new one month old baby, Luna. A couple transfers ago, the sisters knocked on their door and started teaching them and they were baptized last Saturday!!! The amazing thing is, that they are so converted, it's insane! There are so many people within the church that don't have a love for attending church and a love for the gospel in the same way as they do. The baptism was so beautiful! It was pretty funny, because Adrian has a huge tattoo on his right arm and he was very VERY self conscious about it when he put on his jumpsuit. But, no one stared at it. No one whispered about it behind his back. No one said anything to him about it. All the people who came to the baptism were just so excited for the both of them to be joining the church and that they would be clean of all their sins. It's really sad that it's not like that in the church everywhere you go, just because we're all human and we're not perfect. I wish it could be like that everywhere, and that's how it should be! I am just astounded at the love everyone has for everyone here in Texas. There are exceptions, as there are everywhere, but it's so nice!
The next day, Sunday, Adrian and Dakota were a little late to sacrament meeting, which worried us all a little, but they were confirmed as the newest members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost! THAT was amazing. Since it was fast and testimony meeting, Adrian got up and bore his testimony and sang a song at the end (he is a classically trained opera singer!) called "A Poor Wayfaring Stranger" - you all need to look that song up right now and listen to it because it is amazing. In one version, Ed Sheeran sings it and one of my companions actually had it on her USB, so we listened to that after church and it was just as amazing as when Adrian sang it!
Last P-day was so stressful because we had to do so many things and then it just stretched out into the rest of the week last week. We were just hitting the pillow any time we were home, but it was the best week I have had in a long, long time. So many incredible things happened, I witnessed so many miracles, and I got to spend some serious quality time with my companions and we got to know each other really well! On Tuesday, we saw a woman named Angela, who was a referral from someone in the ward. She is middle-aged and she has two kids, one son in college, and one son who is going into 5th grade. We had never seen her before this, but when we got there, she had a plate of cookies waiting for us to take home! Also, before that, we went to Pizza Hut for lunch and had tons of pizza in the car. And THEN we went to dinner with the Beckstrom family in the ward and they gave us all the leftover food to take home! So, on the way to a less active family in the ward, we gave away a bunch of food to some homeless people standing on the side of the freeway and such. It was really funny because we were all so excited to give them food and they were kind of taken back by that!
Wednesday was Zone Conference and Pres. and Sister Heap came and both them and other leaders in the Zone instructed us on different topics. Two words: mind. blown. President Heap is so good at instructing and he had us all crying at the end because we felt the Spirit so strongly! After that, we started what are called "exchanges". Since my two companions are the Sister Training Leaders for a couple different zones, every week (just about) we do exchanges with another companionship in the zone. This week, Sisters Crosby and Matheson came to our apartment and stayed with us for one night and then went back to their zone. The purpose is so my companions can see if there are any problems with the companionship etc. I was really worried about it at first (I have no idea why), but I soon got to love it! 
On Thursday, we walked dogs for PetSmart. It really worked out to be on exchanges because Sister Slater is allergic to cats and dogs and it would have been bad, but she was with Sister Crosby doing a different service opportunity! The dog I had was named Kenzie and she was INSANE. Once we got outside, she was better, and it was very very hot that day so she got tired pretty quickly. Also, I got to hold a two month old calico kitten! She had worms really badly just a few weeks ago, so she really was very tiny and everyone on the staff thought she was going to die, but she pulled through and now she's just working on gaining a little weight (it totally reminded me of little ReyRey!)
After that, we were able to mow an investigator's lawn for him for his birthday! That was really fun.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY YESTERDAY!! We had so much fun. We were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but it was so great! At the end of the day, we went to do some service for a 4th of July event put on by the Chamber of Commerce in Midland. We helped to prepare for it earlier last week, but this was the actual event. They gave us a golf cart, free t-shirts, and some garbage bags and we were just supposed to ride around and check the trash cans and replace them when they needed to be replaced! So, we didn't do that for very long when it started to rain. Hard. We got completely soaked!! The t-shirts we were wearing were bright, neon green and because of the rain, it totally stained my bra and my garments!! They're in the wash right now, so I'm hopeful, but I guess we'll see! On our way home, the streets flooded and we had to find different routes home because it had rained so hard and Texas doesn't have drainage systems. But we rolled the windows down after it stopped raining and it was so warm and wonderful! Yeah, yesterday was pretty much the best day ever.
Love,
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