And so it goes

Went to Boston yesterday and didn't have time to email. Now, it seems petty. I will see you all shortly and I will never, ever forget what has happened on my mission. I hope that I will talk with many of you soon! I've been talking about me and my mission for so long and it's about time I hear about how you're doing.

I'll say this:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the one true church on the earth. That is important to me because I would have no purpose or direction without a knowledge of what will happen after this life, and that is exactly what this gospel teaches me. This life is a gift, but it is not the full-package. The Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible hold the complete gospel of Jesus Christ. That is important for you because whether or not we chose to follow Christ, these books tell us that he will always love us and that he will always be there to help us. The things taught in these two books are answers written specifically for you to find. It is the all-access pass to understanding what God has in store for you. I as a missionary am not any more privileged than you in this fact. Anyone that puts their trust in the Lord and reads these books in faith will know for themselves that they are true. It's important to us because our God, our Father in Heaven, who so anxiously wants to see us again, has sent these teachings as a way of communicating with us while we're away. I know that someday I will see him face-to-face and daily I make an effort to show him how badly I want to get here. I will see you there, too. I know I will.

In the meantime, let's keep doing this together! This mission is over for me, but a bigger one is about to start for all of us. Let's pretend that it starts in three days. Say we're already prepared and that we already have the capacity to handle it. What do you say? Shall we continue?

LIFE IS A MISSION

don't lose it

(video isn't working. coming soon)

First things first. This was an awesome experience.

 Before

After

Spanish tradition to egg/flour departing missionaries!

Well geez. You know what? It's never over till it's over. Normally people say that about that about a girl when she's engaged to be married and some guy at the dinner party night before the wedding is missing out and his buddy leans over and says, 'It's not over till it's over, man. Go get her!" Yeah. That's the normal context. In this situation, however, I'm talking about a mission. 

It wouldn't matter if I had 365, 25, or 10 days left. It's just not over till it's over. This morning a member called asking us for helping finding a scripture story. Since we didn't really have anything to plan for today we jumped at the opportunity to study it out for her. I love studying for people's questions! I love piecing it all together so that it's teach-able. You know when you get a feeling that is so strong that you can't find the words to describe it? I hate that. That's not okay with me mostly because I love to talk and anything that restrains that is therefor an obstacle. But from the teaching's of the church we know that there is no challenge that we cannot overcome. So. There is a way to take all powerful feelings and create them into a format that can be shared with others. It happens every day that I study the scriptures and then take what I find and teach it to others. I am hit so strongly by the answers that I find and I can't wait to help someone figure it out for themselves! It seems that I will continue to have this desire through till the last day of my mission. And man, is it a good mission!

You wouldn't believe how much fun Hermana Lewis and I have together. We love walking through the tree streets of downtown Nashua and make friends at every corner. Last Thursday we saw one of our old friends out on the porch with some friends so we stopped by to say hi. We stayed for a little while, long enough for a cop car to come rolling down the street. I turned around and said, "Oh! Cops. They love us!" And one of the friends said, "No, don't draw attention! He knows me!" so I replied, "No really, watch this." and I gave that cop a good hard smile-and-wave as he drove on by. He waved back and we told her, "Good. He should be off your case for awhile." It's amazing how much people really do desire the love and protection of their Father and Heaven and yet won't do anything to receive it. It doesn't matter, though, because he will always send help in one form or another and they will always have what they need available to them. As we left we said, "Alright then, same time next Thursday? We'll wave off the cops for another week." and they all laughed. Seriously, though. We have a good rep. 

Obviously we have fun with the Lopez Carrasco family. We love them so much and since they've adopted Hermana Lewis into the family and call her "hija", we think it's a two-way kind of love. Late last night after the egg fiasco Heydi took me over to her house so I could shower off and gave me clothes to change into. We got back to the group again and after awhile Heydi came over, grabbed my hands, looked into my eyes and asked "did you two eat dinner today?" We tried telling her yes, because Hermana Lewis ate at 11 and I had a bowl of cereal at 3, but sweet mami saw right through it. Her and her husband cooked us up an incredible meal and said, "You can always come home for dinner, okay? This is home." Gawl we love them. 

It's not just them, though. We love everyone here! The Candelario family got sealed in the Temple last week. We went through with them on Friday and back again on Saturday to see Ana, Luis and their 5 kids kneel together and be sealed for time and all eternity. It was beautiful, and I've never seen a happier family! I sat next to a sister named Kadis and we talked and talked about her family and her husband. I love her, too. 

So here's what I really want to tell you today. Kind of how I was describing being able to share strong feelings that initially are hard to explain. It's how I've felt for the past six months and this morning I found the scripture to back it up! I have learned that we are here on Earth to learn. (Funny, huh?) It's the best thing we could do with our time. I have also learned that the best way to gain knowledge is through teaching others. But that's beside the point. The point is, we come to learn. If at any point we give up on learning, though, what happens? It's not a secret that life brings challenges. It's not a secret that you're not perfect (sorry) and it's definitely no secret that I'm not perfect, seeing as the past 18 months of my life have been publicly documented. We're not perfect! So we can't keep it up all the time! We can't do everything we need to all the time. So what happens when we give up on learning? 

I think that we lose it.

That being said, giving up on learning could be the absolute worst decision ever. We don't just plateau when we stop practicing, we lose it. It's a pretty harsh thing, but it's gotta be true. Look at it.

If you start piano lessons at age four, rapidly learn the notes and blow away all your family and friends, but drop out by the time your 8... will you be able to even read music when you hit 20? 

If you give a remarkable public speech as Valedictorian your Senior year of High School but then never go to college, never excel past your job as cashier at a fast food joint, never interview, never apply yourself, and never push yourself to learn... will you be able to stand up and run for a local office with as much persuasion, vocabulary, and class as you once had?

Or take a more extreme example. Imagine you have a stroke or get in a horrible accident that enables you from moving, talking, writing, or remembering. This isn't even a social thing anymore this is a genuine, scientific fact. You must retrain your body and mind. You relearn to take a step, you learn to swallow your first bite of solid food, and you utter your first words at extreme effort. Even sitting in a cast for a month requires rehabilitation to re-teach your limb how to move like it used to. 

You just can't retain knowledge like a twinkie. It doesn't last forever. You have to keep going! It's SO much easier to just keep walking then to spend 6 months in physical therapy. It is equally so much easier to just keep reading then to run out of time and leave your scriptures on the shelf for a year.  

Here's what the scriptures say about it. This is 3 Nephi 26:9-10.

"And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their  faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. 

And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from  them, unto their condemnation"

If we apply it, it gets greater and greater. If we stop, we lose it. It doesn't just plateau. You have to keep going. And if we've already stopped and we realize that we shouldn't have, it's okay. God is a fan of regaining what's lost. Like in Alma when the Nephites fight back to reclaim their land and their possessions, it says that they had "miraculously prospered in regaining". If you've already fallen and it's a long journey back to the top, you can be assured that you will be miraculously prospered in regaining what you lost. There is never a loss of hope, only of desire. 

I guess I'll have to put my words to action in a few days when I come home. See if I can't regain what I've learned on my mission. I'm still learning, though! It's not over till it's over! 

Hope you all have a great week! 

 The confetti popper popped 10 feet. Much more than we predicted.

 Baseball with Daniel

Makin' faces. He's 3. He's huge.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY HNA LEWIS

 Got my hija Sister Tantillo to come up for the celebration!

 Saw Hermana Ruiz at the Temple!!! (From Revere)

What I deal with.

LIFE IS A MISSION!

Set backs can't get us down!

My oh my another week gone by!

This week was catch-up from the crazy 4th of July Weekend. It set us back a bit, but then this week started and we got "set back" a few more times by new road-blocks. We volunteered to redo a bedroom for Jordy. We planned on it taking about 5 hours, but it took the entire day. From 10AM-8PM we were at those walls scraping and scrubbing and taping and painting. I can't believe it took so long. We didn't even stop for any breaks to eat or anything! As soon as we finished we ran home and I packed some things before heading down to Bellerica, MA where we swapped companions for the next 24 hours! I spent the day in Mass and Sister Lewis took the reigns here in Nashua. She did an AMAZING JOB. One upset came when she found out that our long-time investigator, Patricia, doesn't feel the spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon. Sister Lewis handled the day like a champ and I was so excited to come home and get back to work after about 6 days of chaos. We hit the ground running and although we weren't able to see everyone we had hoped to, we were able to do a lot of good. 

So, this email isn't very planned out or organized. Neither was last week's, and nor will next week's or the week after that! 

I don't think I'm anxious to come home. I don't think that I'm sad. I don't think that I'm getting lazy. I don't think that I think too much. But lately when I sit down to write anything down whether it be in an email or a letter of my journal, all I seem to be able to do is slap down as much detail as I can about the days. I guess I don't want to forget anything but I know that too much happens to really record it all. I'll tell you something really neat!

In February plans for the new spanish group were finalizing. The first week of March marked the first sacrament meeting as a newly established congregation! That Friday we met one-on-one with the Stake President to discuss two callings that we believed would help the group to grow. One of them we eventually gave up on because we were having such a difficult time getting anything pushed through. So we put all of our focus on getting a Group Mission Leader; someone who could represent the spanish group at church meetings, reports, and also someone to simply hold us missionaries accountable for the work that we needed to be doing. The assignment to extend a calling bounced around between the two wards that the group covers before, finally, last Sunday we were assigned our very one Group Mission Leader!!! I truthfully thought I wouldn't live to see the day. Finally, after months of pushing and praying, we have our team. We're ready to work hand in hand with him and move things forward!

People don't come to church, and that seems to be one of the more disappointing things. But somehow the spirit is stronger and stronger regardless of the attendance count. I know that the Lord see's us down here frantically running around and doing all we can to grow this group. Yesterday I was reminded of just how aware He is of our efforts. My companion gave an incredible talk, all in spanish, with nothing but bullet points. She abhors this task, and we were given no time to prepare our thoughts or words beforehand. She put all fear aside and not only that, she spoke with confidence and power. She was positive, and happy, and had a smile on her face. She gave me confidence that the Lord is preparing all of the people here to accomplish his work. The members are some of the best I know. The Bishop's are full of love and laughter and kindness. The people we meet are welcoming and friendly (for the most part) and we absolutely love serving them!

I guess the round-house kick of what I learned this week was how much God is aware of our individual needs. One thing I look forward to post-mission is being able to help others to those specific needs. There is so much that we as missionaries can't do because of time restrictions or other responsibilities. I can't wait to offer my helping hand in any way needed. I know that as a trade, I will be losing the responsibility and blessing of being a teacher and disciple of Christ. For that, I am continuing to do all that I can before that trade does happen!

I love you all so very much!!!

I hope you laugh everyday. You can be sure that I do. Boy, do I have stories for you!

BEFORE

 BEFORE

 AFTER

 AFTER

 Note the hand-painted web

 Saying bye to one of my favorite Bellrica members! Didn't think I'd get to see her again before I left!!!

 Cutest Hatian kid I've ever met

 Cow Day - We got free meals.

 Reading her BIRTHDAY CARD from the RS sisters

Farwell to the Petrie family! They're heading off to be famous show-stars in Nauvoo for two weeks.

God Bless America

This week was incredible! As always. We had back-to-back meals on the fourth of July even though Hurricane Arthur ruined most of the holiday fun. The effects of the surplus were so powerful that Sister Lewis got sick 7 times at someone's house the next day. Luckily we ate a funky purple salad that looked exactly the same coming up (so she says). Poor girl toughed it through the whole day and topped it off with yet another BBQ style feast. We enjoyed fireworks and proudly represented America and the LDS church at a town fair all day Sunday. We had the Traveling Visitor's Center with us (go here to see what it's like) and were definitely the most high-tech booth on the field. We met Mark, an athiest who is know excited to read through the Book of Mormon, and Andy who will be setting us up to do service with Habitat for Humanity. It was a great day! Church was a miracle on it's own when two less-active families came! One of them was such a surprise that I choked when they came in. The mom came running in yelling, "hiiiiiii!" Hahaha it has been a long time since they've been to church. Since it was the Sunday where anyone can stand and speak what's on their heart, I was thinking of what I could say to her that would really make her remember the spirit of being at church! I was distracted when her three year old daughter started throwing her barbie doll up in the air yelling, "yippeeeee". That's when it hit me. I motioned over at little Dana and she came skipping over to the chair next to me. I whispered to her asking if she wanted to go up front with me. With big eyes and a smile, she looked forward to the podium and said, "si!" The person speaking then sat down and I grabbed her with one hand and a chair with the other, plopped her up on top of the chair, and whispered, "say, hola". "Hola!" she repeated. "Soy Dana" "........." "Soy Dana"......... nothing. She went from excited to freaked out of her mind in .5 seconds. So I asked her if she'd rather that I go first. I said some quick words and she helped me point to the pictures around the room as I spoke about them. She still didn't want to speak up, so I finished off her testimony for her and then we said Amen and sat down. If her mom forgets how powerful the spirit was, I know Dana will at least remember! It was funny because for the first half of the meeting she kept asking to get up and go to the hallway. After we stood up together her sister tried taking her out again but she cried, "I don't want to leave!" We hope they'll keep coming. 

On that note, I really miss playing with kids. I can't wait to tackle-hug all of my nieces and nephews, and hold my friend's new babies. And on THAT note, I found out today that TWO of my friends are getting married! Floopadooz I was so happy I cried. Congratulations Jackson and Layne!!!!!

I'm daily reminded how much God loves us. 

Remember that this week!

He loves you!

 Moving the Burson Family (in our home-made T-shirts)

  Killing chickens...

  Killing chickens...

 At the Lake in Peterborough, NH

 Find Hermana Hileman

 Goat crackers

 Goat Lovin'

 4th of July lunch with Lucy and Jordy :)

 Hurricane Arthur making it's way into town

Mid-day, 100 degrees, 70% humidity. Thank goodness for our good ol' Chev the Chevy

A Day in the Life

Dearest Family!

Let me tell you about last Friday

We had our usual meeting with the other missionaries in our area. We got out around 12:30 and instead of staying to eat with everyone we made our way directly to a member's home for a BBQ. One, because we love barbecues, and two because he had asked us to speak to the youth after they ate. Sister Lewis is 4 months into her mission and I'm 4 weeks and out! She told them about the preparation she put in before she came and how beneficial it was to learn that "God can't direct our footsteps unless we pick up our feet". I told them about my experiences being humbled, one of the things I hoped to learn about, and promised them that if they set goals and trust that the Lord will help them, that they will without a doubt achieve them. Not to say that I am humble, but I have definitely been humbled again and again... and again, since coming on a mission. Through it all I have come to learn how much God loves me. I came on a mission to be able to focus on others 100% of the time and have been faced with so many inner battles that at times I have felt like I am wasting the Lord's time. Each time this thought comes into my mind I am filled with a determination, a strength, and a trust in the Lord that gets me up-over-and-flying through my obstacles. When I am the weakest, He gives me strength. I couldn't be more grateful for this lesson in humility, or rather humbly relying on the Lord, and know that it will carry me through the rest of my life!

After the BBQ we went to see a family who is soon to be sealed in the Boston Temple! They're a couple a gangstas from the Bronx with 5 kids and another on the way and I couldn't over exaggerate how cool they are. They were having a crazy day so we visited with them for awhile and talked about how they're doing. She picked up a book that I brought, The Power of Everyday Missionaries, and she was flipping through it and loving it so I said, "You know what, keep it. I'll get another one when I move to Utah. I hear they have Mormon stores all over the place." So any of you reading this now, who don't currently own a copy of this book, go get it either at the store, or from this website and get yourself one or three and give them away! It's so cheap, and the words are priceless. 

We got out of there and headed to our recent convert Jordy. He's a difficult kid to work with, but super easy to love. After bribing him and patiently waiting for him to settle down, he set the timer for 10 minutes and let us teach him a lesson. He listened to what we said and gosh darnit wouldn't you know that he basically memorized it! He put all of the flashcards out and put them in order with their definitions. We did an object lesson/science experiment and he loved that! So, happily we asked him to say the prayer to finish and he got TICKED. He really didn't want to pray. His mom said, "if you say the prayer I'll give you something!" so he sat back down and gave the sweetest prayer I've ever heard him say. She stood up after, went over to the fridge, and turned around... "Your GUMMY VITAMINS!!!" "DAHHHHHHHH YOU LIED! YOU'RE A LIAR! YOU WEREN'T GONNA GIVE ME ANYTHING!!!!!" and he ran into his room and slammed the door. Sister Lewis laughed so hard that I thought she was gonna wet her pants, and Lucy laughed with us, too. It was so funny. He's such a bum sometimes. I sat there for 10 minutes trying to convince him to stop watching TV so I could teach him how to tie his tie so he won't look like a goob every Sunday. I didn't come away successful on that one. But the lesson was good, and we were happy for that.

We left Jordy and went to teach our investigator-turned-old-member friend Susan! She's funny, and we had a great time visiting and teaching her. Sister Lewis shared the scripture and explained it afterwards in great Spanish. 

Ok, so it's about 6:00 and I had been hungry before so I started to say, "Do you want dinner?" but then all of the sudden I wasn't hungry and I changed it to, "I don't even think I want dinner today". We agreed to keep going! We had made a big list of names to see that day so we kept making our way through the streets of Downtown Nashua. Had we not decided to skip dinner we would have walked up the next street and gotten in our car, but since we kept going we walked a different street to our next destination. Almost immediately we passed a woman with an adorable little boy. We swiftly passed and happily said, "hola!" and kept going! Lots of names to check off! We didn't make it 5 steps before I felt guilty and said, "Lewis, we have to go back." Jeramia is from Santo Domingo DR and said that the Elders had visited her in her country! Her Uncle is a member of the church, but she hadn't seen missionaries since moving here three years ago. We exchanged contact information and set up a day to come by and see her! Walking away from that we were so stoked we could barely hold it in. Since she was now following behind us walking the same direction on the street, we decided to cross to the other side. Right before we got to the crosswalk someone ran up from behind us yelling, "Yo! I wanna talk about Jesus!" Oscar works at the Barber Shop and said that one of his friends met us the other day. He asked about when church is and said he'd really like to come. We gave him the info and said, "Alright, see you soon, then!". Standing at the corner about to cross the street and we are feeling PUMPED! Gotta keep going. We get to our destination and she's not home, so we leave the Book of Mormon in her mailbox (don't know if that's legal) and turned to go back. Sister Lewis said, "We should take a different route back in case there's somebody else we could talk to." We head over to the next corner to walk back up to our car and on the window of a tienda there's an ad for My Little Pony Ice Cream! Sister Lewis flooped and we had to go check it out. We didn't find ice cream, but they had my FAVORITE DRINK that I haven't found in years. It's called Sidral Mundet, apple beer from Mexico. We were so happy and talking to everyone, and we made friends with the worker! We're going to be frequent customers there from now on. Sidral Mundet?!! Man that was a great tienda. 

We finished off our day over with our friend Patricia and her son Jonathan. He's about to move to Pennsylvania. They're some of the nicest people I've met and they treat us so well!

Ok I'm out of time.

Friday was a good day because we didn't not do what we wanted to do, we did what the Lord needed us to do. Not only did we check off all we had planned out, we got added bonuses along the way. We went from one investigator to 4 prime potentials! And we had a great day. 

I love you all! Here's to 4 more weeks of Fridays! 

LIFE IS A MISSION!

Hermana Hileman

PS: NEW NEPHEW PHILLIP BORN LAST FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU STEPH! You're one hot mama.

golden

 Favorite food from Bolivia

 For all my Sousa friends!

 This is how we teach Jordy. In character. Voices are a requirement.

 I've got a green thumb, what can I say.

 Found a creepy old Organ at an old folks home.

6 hours of church later.

historias de Nashua

I normally stick to a "lessons learned" format and side-step having to write up stories from each week. However, this week was far to weird to not share a few stories. 

****

SUSAN is an investigator. At least that's how she started. Back in March the elders knocked her door and began teaching her about the church. She instantly accepted the invitation to come to church on Sunday and since then has attended almost every week. We knew that she had previously met with the missionaries back in her country and that she had a pretty solid understanding of the gospel already, and for that it has been really difficult to know what to teach her. She still had not accepted the invitation to be baptized. The elders were shipped off to Lowell, MA and left Susan in our trusty hands. When we started teaching her we decided not to address the topic of baptism (knowing it had thoroughly been discussed already) and started to introduce different concepts of the gospel. She readily excepts everything we teach her! Perfect! She's amazing! We started teaching her English and she was so grateful that she had her daughter bring us purses from Ecuador! Perfect! She comes to church! Perfect! She's still not baptized..... what the floop. This last Friday we had just gotten out of a meeting with a determination to teach Susan about baptism and get to the root of the problem. We sat in the car discussing what we'd say, and how we'd say it. Honestly even I was getting a little nervous about it, but not to worry we said a prayer and then headed in. Like always, she welcomed us in with open arms and we sat down and began the lesson. She took the topic elsewhere and before you know it she was teaching us about forgiveness. I was really amazed with what she was saying and finally I said, "Susan! I cannot believe that you are not a member of this church!" to which she replied, more or less, "I am!" 

Yup. Our investigator of 4 months is actually a baptized member of the church. 

JORDY is the craziest 11 year I've ever met. Sometimes I forget that he's 11 because he acts like he's 6. I can't say much about him because truthfully, I love him as if he were my own kid. Let's just have it be known that yesterday at church he was such a whiny sassy-pants that he was laying on the floor of the chapel (just minutes before church started) rolling around and crying about being hungry. Motherhood will be a beautiful thing. I can already tell. 

RALFIE is Isaiah's brother. Isaiah was baptized a few weeks ago and told us about his older brother pokin' around at his scriptures and asking questions about the church. Of course we got excited about that and kept his name in mind. We hoped to meet him someday and were planning on setting something up with Isaiah. So last Thursday we didn't see Isaiah at the youth activity and decided to go check out the scene. We have his address but had never been to his house before. So there we are, two white girls walking down this windy road in the backstreets of Nashua searching for #18. We find it but we see a car in the driveway that looks like his girlfriend's car. We had just barely seen her at the church, and we weren't sure why she was there right then. We got nervous that something was up and decided not to bother them in case something was wrong. Buuut... what if that's not actually her car? We start peeping through all the windows, pointing and commenting on stuff laying around inside. We're trying to decide if this is her care or not. Finally we agree that it's not, and go up to the door of #18. Right as my hand is up and about to knock we hear from behind us, "Who you lookin' for!" We swing around and see a guy sitting in a car on the driveway, right next to the Corolla we had just inspected inside and out. In his car with the windows down, just chillin' with a blonde girl in the drivers seat. We tell him we're there for Isaiah and he tells us he just left on his bike. Then Sister Lewis throws her hand out and smiling, says, "Are you Ralfie?!" Hahahaha we definitely didn't plan or prepare for it, but we finally met Ralfie!

LUCY is Jordy's mom. For months now she has been looking for a new therapist for her autistic son, Eric. Prayer after prayer left her frustrated and confused as she still struggled to find anyone. Eric is going through a lot of changes and his sensory abilities are getting worse. He's growing and getting harder to control and gaining more and more energy. Finally - last week Lucy found someone. She excitedly told us that she found the perfect person. The next day she told us that she found out she was LDS! On Sunday she brought Ana, the new therapist, to church with her. Ana told us that she moved to America and asked everyone where the Mormon church was but couldn't find it. She looked and looked and then finally gave up. Since we just opened a Spanish group in March there has been much more publication about the church. In fact, having Spanish missionaries here is how we got a hold of Lucy again in the first place! Ana said she's so happy to be back and to have finally found the church! We told Lucy that even when we don't think that God is hearing our prayers, he is. He had been working on this plan for a long time. First Lucy had to be here, then Spanish missionaries had to come to find her, then the group had to start so that we could baptize Jordy, then Eric had to get worse so that Lucy would need more help, then she had to wait... because there was a whole line of events happening with Ana to get her to where she needed to be... and now the plan finally came together.  Ana found the church and a great job, Jordy has us, and Eric has Ana, and Lucy was the prayer that got us all there. So in the end... who helped who? Was Lucy looking for help, or were we all praying for guidance? 

****

Now there were many more stories from this week.... if only I could let you in on all of them. There's some that you'll never get to hear, and others that I probably won't remember myself until the time comes that I need them for something. I can promise you one thing, though, this mission is crazy. There are more connections between the people that we meet then there are in a flight from Boston to Beijing. There are more miracles each day here than there are in Harry Potter collectively.  Because of that, I'm positive that it's the same anywhere you go. I'm positive that in your very own life there are miracles daily. The difference between you and I is that I have a plastic black name-tag and the time and ability to work solely to find these miracles. But the content and quantity of blessings that we get from Heavenly Father is the same. I know that we're all in his hands. Pray for a wider understanding. A bigger view! Try to see life from 30 thousand feet and I promise you'll be amazed at what you find. 

Here we go for one last stretch! Less than 6 weeks to go and plenty of work still to do. If you had intentions of sending me packages and gifts, well, now's your opportunity! :p Aside from that, I hope that you enjoy these last days as much as I do. I'll try to take better notes so that you can share this with me.