Doughnut Tacos and Gluten Free Thanksgiving!

Hello errybuddy! What a week it has been, I LOVE that we're in the holidays now! So happy!

First off- they are in the middle of changing the rules for mail, so you can send me mail, but I will not be getting it until transfers. After transfers come (two weeks from Wednesday) I will give y'all my new address and then you can send me mail normally again! :) Sorry for the inconvenience. It bums me out too :(

Alright I'll get right to it. :)

Monday- After emailing, we ran errands and then played sports. I made a MIRACLE shot playing basketball and it was the only shot I made. Hahah. Hence it being a miracle. But it was fun. I love sports on P-day! After that, we had dinner with the Emery family! They're so nice. Their daughter just got back from a mission in Riverside, California, so it was AWESOME to talk to her about her mission experiences.

Tuesday- I don't have much written down in my journal on Tuesday for some reason.. BUT! We had dinner with the Rex family and Brother Rex was so excited to tell me about a hunting endeavor he'd gone on. We visited a couple other people (no one was home) and went home to do training and language.

Wednesday- we had to do weekly planning because Thursday was Thanksgiving! After planning, we had lunch, checked on a couple people, then had a really early dinner appointment with the McAdam's at Pizza Hut. They are the most hilarious little old couple. I love them so much. After dinner Brother McAdam's left our waitress a Book of Mormon (what a champ) and we left. We met with one of our investigators, Lindsey. Usually she's really shy, but this time she opened up a lot and told us about a miracle that she'd experienced the day before. Her brother had gotten into an accident with a semi truck, and he came out of it just fine. He should have died. BUT, at the same time as he was getting in the accident, Lindsey just happened to be praying with her son. It was an awesome experience to see that growth of testimony that she has. :) After Lindsey, we had a lesson with Annie and Jared. OH MAN I LOVE THEM! They're the STRONGEST youth I've ever met and they're so solid! Sister Ott rapped the 10 Commandments for them while I beat boxed (poorly) and then we read Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "You Can Do it Now" and we acted out the story in the beginning of that talk. It was fun. We had a good time. I love teaching them. They're both so solid in the gospel and it's the greatest.

Thursday- HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Okay. So we woke up, studied, then decided to take cheesy family photos. They're included in this email. Don't mind the way awkward one of me holding a mini-pumpkin. We were instructed to spend the whole day with member families, so we did! We first went to dinner with the Corless family. They're awesome. It was more like, pre-dinner. Lotttttts of chips and dip. We played games and their grandma is hilarious! She kept saying "CHEAT TO WIN, NEVER GIVE IN." And it was the funniest thing ever. Man. After that we went to our ACTUAL dinner, with the Blackburns. Have you ever had a gluten-free thanksgiving before? Yeah I used to be able to say no to that until this Thanksgiving! It was actually not bad. :) Lots and lots of weird, non-traditional Thanksgiving foods, but it was still really good. There was a lot of sushi. That part was different. But they also had deviled eggs so I was happy. :) Their Stuffing was actually just grits but prepared in a really weird way. So that part was new. It was a nice dinner :) After that we went home and slept for a bit then went and played games with Sister Smart and the Elders. It was sooooooooooooo fun. We played Shoot the Bowl, which is just like catch phrase but without the actual catch phrase game. :)

Friday- We had district meeting, but because Elder Duffin got sick, Elder Tripp didn't come either, and he's our district leader, so we had to go to a different district's meeting. We learned all about Teaching People, Not Lessons and it was really good. :) After District Meeting my companions and I went to Taco Bueno and I got a DONUT TACO. Yeah. Who knew they existed? It was basically a Chalupa but I loved it nonetheless. :) We went and used mormon.org (perks of being in the 12 week training program) and then Sister Barlow showed up for her stay with us. Sister Barlow is a sister that is assigned to work in the office, and then comes out with different companionships on weekends. This weekend she was with us! We had dinner with the Singers (they made us "Cafe Rio"! So happy! :D) And then Sister Ott and I went back to the apartment to do language study. :)

Saturday- Weird day. We had correlation, then we did studies and training and then Sister Ott and I went and tracted. We stopped by Patty and Lin, and we set up an appointment with them for tomorrow, and then we visited Brother Feazel. He- ..man alive. He's an incredible person!  He's coming back from 13 years of inactivity and his passion for the gospel is inspiring. He wants to help his wife embrace it so bad and it's awesome that he has such passion for it. After that we had dinner with the Youngs. Brother Young was an Olympic gymnast in Athens! So cool! They told us some cool stories. After that we went and Sister Ott and I did more tracting. We went to visit a less-active family with a single mother and totally walked in on the mom on a Skype date. That was a weird experience. We talked to the guy and to her and it was a great time! It was weiiiiiiiird though. Really weird. We also found another Do Not Contact! So that was slightly scary. But it was fun. I love being out here. :)

Sunday- I NEEDED SUNDAY. I was kinda grumpy that day and church was exactly what I needed! Whew. After church we went and knocked doors until dinner. EVERY person we talked to agreed to pray with us. That was AWESOME. I loved it! The first door we knocked, the guy opened his door and immediately told us to come in! We were a little hesitant, but we went in and he played piano and we sang Christmas songs. About halfway through we found out his name was Mark. He's a real nice guy! He's a meteorologist and likes to compose music in his downtime. Cool guy. We talked to him about the church and set up an appointment with him. :)

I LOVE Oklahoma, y'all. It's the best. There are two things I've been really trying to apply this week. First- "There is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone." We need to CONSTANTLY push ourselves to be more like Christ and be stronger, better people! We have the potential, it's up to us to reach it!
Second- "Every weakness is a pending strength." I especially have been focusing on this. Heavenly Father wants us to learn to overcome our weaknesses, not bury ourselves in them. So remember that next time you feel like you can't do it. Heavenly Father knows you can, and I DEFINITELY know you can.

I love you all so much! Take care of yourselves and know that I pray for you!

Email dated December 9, 2013