April 7

So here's a picture of a dinner I had at this family called the Litsters. They call it their "April Fools Dinner." They basically just take a buch of random things and we have to eat using them. I don't know if you can tell what I'm eating out of, but I'm eating out of a plastic thing in the shape of a shell, I'm using a serving utencil as my silverware, and I'm drinking from a mini watering pot. My companion got a cat food dish and a baby bottle to drink out of. You also might be able to notice how short my hair is. It's not a very good picture, but this is the only one I will probably be able to send since this was a picture sent to me by a member. Hopefully I can get my camera figured out and send some more pictures.

So yesterday I was sick with the pukies and I wasn't well enough to email, but I am doing a lot better today. Not fully recovered, a little queezy, but able to hold food down and not miserable! Yay! I'm taking it easy today regardless, I don't want to get other people sick.

This week was a really good one! Last Sunday I invited my second investigator to be baptized! It was so exciting! It was definitely guided by the Spirit, and she can hardly wait to be baptized! She should be getting baptized next Saturday!

This same investigator also was going to the Liberty Jail, and she asked US if we wanted to come! We're like, "Heck yeah we do!" It was so cool! I didn't realize how amazing the jail is; that alone is worth a trip to Independence!

Last Monday, I got to go back to the Visitor Center and see some old friends! It was so good to see Sister Raymer :) Sister Vance and I took one of our investigators through the whole building, and he seemed to get a lot from it. He was actually an investigator brought to us by a member, and so far he's been pretty solid. It just goes to show how important member missionaries are!

Speaking of member missinaries, our ward missionary Sister Decker is the best! She makes sure we have rides to appointments when we don't have a car, she meets with us regularly to stay updated on our schedule, she puts together goody bags for us whenever we have conferences, and she's so funny! She is seriously the best missionary ever! She takes really good care of us and magnifies her calling. I hope to be just like her when I get home :)

Sister Decker also helped us a lot with one of the ladies we visit. One night as she was driving us home, Sister Vance had this impression that we should go visit this woman named Stephanie. She really struggles with depression and alcoholism. When we visited her, she had admitted to us that she drank a little that night, and we talked to her about the Word of Wisdom. With my whole thing with giving up sweets, I was able to relate to her a little bit. There have been some days where I was having a bad or stressful day, and thought about eating some chocolate to help me feel better, but I never did because I knew that I had to be the example, even if it was just in a small way. Stephanie told me that she really appreciated my example. That night, we committed her to dumping out all of her alcohol down the sink, and we could see how hard it was for her, but we told her over and over how proud we were of her. This all came about because of Sister Decker. She was the one that came up with the idea of flushing out the alcohol herself. Also because of her, Stephanie will be attending alcoholics anonymous meetings. That night was a miracle.

Of course, General Conference was amazing. The members that we watched it with fed us SO MUCH. I thought my stomach was going to explode. That probably contributed to my sickness.  Elder Holland's and Elder Uchtdorf's were two of my favorites (I know, huge shocker). I also really liked Elder Bednar's talk a lot too. He's growing on me more and more as I've been out here.

BTW Adam, those Nutella brownies are apparently super delicious. My companion and I made them for our investigators and they really enjoyed them :)

Life is good out here! The mission keeps on becoming the best time of my life every day! Love you guys, and talk to you next week :)

Hermana Candland