Transfer News!

So transfers came and went and we are all staying! Yay!! I am so grateful. That means that now if I get transferred it is all good because it will be past all the winter months and weather and so packing will be WAY less stressful, talk about a tender mercy! Besides why wouldn't I wanna stay in the trio with my native best friends! I love it! I love it! I love it! We also couldn't believe it when we were called with the news, we actually asked multiple times if this was all a joke and who was really leaving. Especially because the mission is shrinking in size, but September we will be done 60 missionaries and so there isn't really a whole lot to spare to have trios. We are blessed!

This week we were able to go to the doctor and get results. Turns out I should get my tonsils out, which I can do when I get home. And I have severe lactose intolerance + wheat sensitivity. But yeah we are doing great and avoiding all dairy! But get this, oreos + marshmallows do not have dairy in them! When I learned that I was pleased and good to keep on trooping on with soy milk or almond milk..This week was also MLC and it was incredible! We talked a lot about finding, one of my favorite things, and district meetings. And that we are getting "little black boxes" that get installed in the mission cars to make sure everyone is driving well and no more workout DVDS. We continue to teach Elijah who will be baptized on March 20th. He is incredible and now his mom is our new investigator too! Yesterday we also talked about Lehi's Dream and I made these little cutouts of the whole story and the importance of "continually holding fast" or "consistently studying" the scriptures. It was so fun!The power of scriptures was actually a theme in my studies this week and you wouldn't believe the prophetic promises from reading daily! In Elder Scott's last conference talk he talked about a lot of them but some that really stood out to me were:-personal revelation will flow-it helps our physical bodies-our burdens are made lighter

-parents will counsel better + children will respond better

-and it is doing something VERY significant to add to the overall peace in the world. Which after I told my companions the last point Sister Rocha shared this quote by Elder Russell T. Osguthorpe, "Anytime we live a principle of the Gospel more fully someone else is blessed either directly or indirectly." This week we had Ward Conference and it was incredible. During Gospel Principles we had a meeting with the Stake President, President Smith and he told us the vision for Roswell! After MLC we learned that he has the highest goals in the mission for baptism and reactivation. And his plan is to find, reactive, and baptize the less-active and part member families here in the Stake of Roswell. He told us that their activity level is at about 1/3 of all the records that they have. He invited us to join him in the rescue and we can not wait!! Also another quick story of how awesome the work is here right now: on Thursday we felt inspired to knock these street named "San Juan" and so we did and door after door it was not receptive at all, but then the 3rd to last house we knocked was the sweetest little lady (reminds me actually of Great-Grandma Ball) that we had volunteered with at the Episcopal Church's Pancake Breakfast, and I know that is the only reason she let us in, but she did ! And she let us a share a quick message and invited us to come back this week! Her son was killed in a jet fighter plane accident 4 months ago and I can see that God has been preparing her! We like to say that her son has accepted the gospel on the other side and that he has been guiding us to her. I believe it completely! Well that's about it for this week! Other highlights were: -Paula bore her testimony for the first time in Sacrament Meeting and I wanted to cry, I felt like such a proud mom and I loved to hear how the Gospel has blessed and changed her! -Yesterday we were almost bit/attacked but this little dog that is VICIOUS! I was running, my companion was running, the member was trying to open the car door so we could jump inside, it was hilarious!! xoxo hna. slade