November 19, 2012 Letter

Our fearless zone leaders - we had the best get to know you activity ever at zone meeting - each person got 20 seconds to blurt out as many adjectives as they could that describe their companion.  Then E. Leonard would strum his ukelele and we all sang "oohhh" to note that time was up.  So fun!!  They also got a little excited about Christmas and decorated the fake shrub in the Relief Society room like a Christmas tree...with icicle lights.  Good times! 

Danielle's Baptism!!  Jonathan was the one to baptize her.  Such a great day :)

BIG turnout.

Hello there!!  It seems like it hasn't even been a week since I last wrote ya'll...oh yeah!  It hasn't been :)  haha! 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY!!!!   I'm really excited for Thanksgiving and hope more than anything that it will be a good day to warm hearts and find out what people are grateful for. 

Right now my mind is very tired...I'm having a hard time of thinking of the week and what we even did.  I'm sure we did something...

Oh yeah!  We had a baptism :)  Can't forget that.  Danielle got baptized yesterday!  The whole service was pretty special.  Our Ward Mission Leader for LP1 is good at his job and helped us organize it really well.  The thing that I really do love about this baptism is how supportive the ward has been.  Sometimes it has been a problem with our investigators because we become such good friends with them that it's hard for them when the missionaries leave.  I do not foresee that being a problem with Danielle at all!  She loves the members, and the members all love her.  This last week her social life has been pretty awesome.  She went to FHE, to institute on Wednesday, and then to a birthday pizza party for a member on Saturday.  I'm so glad she's letting the ward be involved in her life - she's really busy studying for the California Bar exam (which I found out from another law student in the ward is one of the hardest and only has a 40% pass rate). 

I love baptisms because everyone who attends and certainly the person being baptized have a chance to really feel the spirit so strongly.  It just washes over me every time I witness a baptism.  The spirit was palpable during the service itself as well as the well prepared messages and musical number were delivered with love.  Definitely a great way to start off a lifelong membership in the church. 

We had one of those moments that missionaries always pray to have: Sister Khaled and I were teaching a lesson to one of our Chinese friends Kathy :)  It was the first lesson we'd had for a couple of weeks. Sometimes those lessons can be scary because there's no telling who they talked to or what they've been thinking about.  But this lesson was absolutely amazing.  We had just planned to review some stuff we had already talked about and ended up talking a lot about the scriptures, prayer, and about how we get answers to our prayers.  As I was testifying about how I get answers to my prayers and how important the scriptures are to me Kathy stopped me and said as she seemed almost out of breath or scared, "Wait!  What is this that I am feeling?"  Sister Khaled looked at each other and honestly thought she was having a heart attack or something as we asked if she was okay.  She just explained that she felt SO happy and full of emotion that she just wanted to start crying. The Holy Ghost was testifying to her SO strongly that it seriously took her 5 or 6 minutes to get calmed down.  She now has had at least one experience recognizing the spirit.  We were really excited because it made her want to come to church to see Danielle's baptism and see if it's something she wants to do.  She sadly didn't make it, for a still unknown reason.  Hopefully she will recognize how to act on that prompting she received.

So, Sister Edwards has now left our apartment :(  We were all pretty bummed to see her go.  Sister Stevens is super awesome though :)  I feel like we kind of look alike...I'll have to send you a picture once I get one with her and let you see for yourselves.

I'm thankful that I get to be a missionary.  I am thankful for my dear family and for all my friends.  I'm thankful for warm tights and leggins :) I'm thankful for an amazing companion who pushes me to be better.  I'm thankful for times I can practice Espanol.  I'm thankful for blueberries!  I'm thankful for my health.  I'm thankful for the plan of Salvation.  I'm thankful for buses - even late ones.  I'm thankful for nice people.  I'm thankful for pictures.  I'm thankful for a living prophet.  I'm thankful for music.  I'm thankful for my testimony.  I'm thankful for happy mornings that lead to happy days.  I'm thankful for strength to turn not so happy mornings into happy days.  I'm thankful for my life and for all of your lives.  Thank you!!!

Love,
Sister Palmer