Heather Rose of Texas: Week 12 - Happiness is a disease we all should spread!

NOTE from Sis. O's Mom: Some of this is from a letter Heather sent earlier in the week that I wanted to share with you!

Sis. Overson, Sis. Kynaston, Abby, and Sarah

This week has definitely been hard, I'm not going to lie. But it has also been one of the most incredible weeks ever because we both (Sister Kynaston and I) have been able to see God's hand and be so much more grateful for Him and His help more than ever!

Tuesday, we had quite the incredible District Meeting! We have a new District Leader because the last one just went home at the end of the last transfer. The new one is Elder Meza (pronounced Meeeesa, if you say Maysa he gets pretty upset). He did a really good job with his first District Meeting and he set some expectations for us and we set some expectations for him - he's been pretty amazing so far! We've been able to randomly call him about things we're struggling with or things we wanted to tell him because they were so spiritual!

That night, we went to dinner with Sister Smith! She is an amazing example to me because she is so SO strong. Her husband is not a member of the church and they have two daughters together. So, because of their different faiths, her husband takes one daughter to his church (it's literally called the Cowboy Church - Toto, I don't think I'm in Utah anymore) and she takes their other daughter to our church. Of course, they're both older and going to college now, but they've been strong in the faith they were brought up in by each parent separately. Luckily they don't give each other grief about the others' faith etc. But that would still be hard! She also works at the hospital here in Andrews every single day and probably has about 60 hour work weeks! AND she is the relief society president AND she does her visiting teaching every month AND she finds time to do service every week AND she takes us to a restaurant called Mi Pueblo just about every week! She is just so amazing!

Patsy dresses!!! In the middle
is Abby, in her Patsy dress. :-)

After dinner we went and saw some of my favorite people in Andrews - Patsy (like Barbara Crebs, but with a southern accent, and who makes her own dresses); Carnel, Patsy's daughter (my mom's age); Sarah, Carnel's daughter (13 years old and plays softball), and Abby, Carnel's youngest daughter (10 years old, hilarious and just barely baptized. Patsy gave Sister Kynaston and I handmade dresses, just like she wears! (We went over again yesterday and she had made us both skirts!! How incredible is that? She told us that it's been really nice to have someone to sew for.) I always LOVE going to see them! I'm really grateful they have welcomed us into their home, because we've been able to feel the Spirit there, and hopefully we make their day a little better. We left them with an uplifting Mormon Message and a scripture :)

That's one thing that makes me love being a missionary is being able to make people smile :) We went to the gas station a while ago and the lady at the counter said, "You guys are just always too happy - what's the matter with you??" She said it jokingly, of course, but it was a neat experience being able to tell her why we were out here and such :)

Bro. McMahan and Sister Overson

Wednesday, we visited Bro. McMahan (an 86 year old member of our branch, who has a daughter named Sue) and he gave us a bunch of stuff. . . again! He is seriously so generous with us! Bro. McMahan is kind of a nut - he's very independent, and he has a "To Kill a Mockingbird" accent and loves to talk. He takes care of Sue, who is kind of housebound. They are always giving us things, like a laughing pictrue of Jesus (kinda creepy), and Sue gave me a "princess club" pen to remind me of my divinity, Russell Stover's chocolates, peanut butter M&Ms (that was the best yet!), cosmic brownies, and mangoes. They are so fun and I really hope my parents can meet Bro. McMahan (they are picking me up in Texas!) We saw him again yesterday and he gave both Sister Kynaston and I leather coin purses from decades ago and wallets! He also gave me a Christmas dream catcher :)

Sis. O., Abby, Sis. K.

Also, on Wednesday, it was Abby's 11th birthday!! We were able to help her Mom, Carnel, with setting up everything and we had a great time at Pizza Hut. She bought me a whole pizza just for me without cheese on it! I love her so much :)

Sister Overson, Abby
and Sister Kynaston

Thursday night we had dinner with the Geisler family. Bro Geisler is the second counselor in the Branch Presidency, but he works on Sundays, so he's not there very often. They have three adorable little kids and we had sloppy joes at their house! I told them how we call them Sloppy Peters at our house because of my Dad's name, and they loved that idea! They are an amazing family and they told us about this place called Branson, Missouri that is better than Lagoon! It's cheaper and no one knows about it, so no one is there and you can ride the rides over and over again! They also have a lot of other amazing things there and I want to take my family there when I'm off the mission! It sounds so much fun! Danny, you should ask Mom to look it up to see all the fun stuff there!

Then, of course, Friday was my SISTER'S BIRTHDAY!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!! She is 14 years old now! And starting 8th grade Wednesday!!! That just seems insane to me. It was pretty hard that day to be away from her, but I know she had a really good time!

I've just been struggling with all kinds of things because Satan knows the work is progressing! Good things are happening in Andrews and he is trying to stop it. But guess what? I WON'T LET HIM! No matter what comes our way, we will press forward with faith and there will be miracles!

I love you all and thank you for everything you do! I hope you have a fantastic week this week!

Love,
Sister Heather Overson