The Best Decision I Have Ever Made

Sisters Layton and Schofield

That's so awesome that Eric was in my same zone!! Best teachers in the MTC! I cannot believe that he is headed to Guatemala. We have people in our ward from there and they were very excited when I told them that my brother was going. He will love it. I heard that there are really big spiders... that's why he went there and not me! :)

Ok, so this week has been crazy. I thought for sure that I was leaving this area because we knew that there were going to be changes with all of the spanish sisters. We got transfer calls Saturday night and they are actually splitting my area in half and I am taking the north half and Sister Breitenstein and her companion are taking the south half. I think I will just plan on staying here my whole mission! :) I was really sad at the thought that I might have to leave. We will have 4 sisters in our district now! That never happens. The half of my area that I will be working in has some good potential and most of our investigators are there, but the other half has our most progressing family. I'm glad that I will still get to see them at church but will miss teaching them. I know that sister Breitenstein will take care of them though. :) 

Anaheim, California Mission Sisters

Sister Schofield is going back to Anaheim and my new companion is sister Poulson. I am so sad that I was only companions with sister Schofield for one transfer. It was definitely my favorite transfer of the mission so far. I learned so much from her. Sister Poulson will be great too though. She is from Colorado and is going to BYU. Her major is history teaching. She came out with sister Breitenstein, so only has three transfers left. 

That's awesome about Michael's mission call! I love how many missionaries are coming out lately! He will do great! 

Mom, did you go to the women's conference? If not, you should watch it! I am getting really excited for conferences coming up this next weekend. I am grateful that we can listen to our living prophet and apostles. We taught Pati about Prophets this week and she thought it was really cool. She said she want's to come watch!

It is so amazing seeing the change in her from the time we started teaching. She is so great! Our new ward mission leader has been so great and helpful with the missionary work! He is getting the ward excited about doing missionary work. I am looking forward to this new transfer and am so grateful to be out here!

Cooling off with the district on a P day

Dad you said in your letter that you wondered about all of the things I'm not telling you like anything negative. Haha... There honestly not much to say and really nothing to complain about. The language is hard but it's okay because I always have a companion if I get stuck. The hardest part of the mission is watching people not accept the message and not keep their commitments, but there are others who do accept and do keep their commitments and that is one of the most amazing things to see out here! Another thing that is hard is saying goodbyes to my companions, but hey, I'll see them all again so what is there to be sad about? Haha. Don't worry I'm not hiding anything negative. 

I love the mission more than anything. It is the best decision I have ever made coming out here. I know I am supposed to be here. I cannot believe that in a few days I am at my halfway mark. Crazy! Make the time slow down!! :/ Anyway, I have to go. Love you all so much! Tell Michael congrats for me. Oh and also tell Matthew congrats for his baptism. I don't know if I said that before but I meant too. I am proud of him. 

Have a great week!

El Dia de Hispanidad

Today has been crazy so I don't have a lot of time. We left at 8 this morning and went on a bike ride with our zone. We rode to Newport beach! It took a long time and was a good work out. It was a ton of fun, but I am going to be really sore tomorrow! 

We stopped for lunch and I met a lady whose daughter is in Italy on her mission. That is so awesome that Dallin got called there! He is going to do great. I can wait to hear where Michael goes! I can't believe that Eric is leaving so soon. I know he is going to do so awesome! 

This week there was a huge stake activity called el Dia de Hispanidad. They do it every year and a ton of people come. They had food, activities, and dancing. It was really cool to see the Mexican culture! I love the people here. We brought investigators and the members brought friends. We set up a missionary booth and just went around talking to people all day. It was really weird not having our usual missionary day. 

Tomorrow is zone conference. We are going to have a big service activity in the morning painting fences and then going to a church building for the conference. I always look forward to the zone conferences. As for our investigators, they are doing well. We are passing some of them to the singles ward Elders soon and this week we are really going to focus on finding more people to teach. Our mission leader has some really good plans to help us out, and get the ward more involved. 

Our area is like 3 times the size of the Elders, and they have been planning on splitting it up and bringing two more missionaries in our area. That would help us out a lot so that we would be spending less time driving across our area to appointments. 

I don't have much time left, but I am so grateful to be out here serving a mission. It is a life changing experience and I really love every minute of it. I am learning so much from the people and from my companion. There are hard days when no one wants to talk to us, or days when I have a hard time with the language, but I have really never been happier and wouldn't change this experience for anything. 

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that we have a living prophet today to guide us. I have seen so many blessings in my life and in the lives of those who accept the Gospel and am so grateful to share it with others. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that through him we can be forgiven of the mistakes we have made in this life. I love the gospel, and I love being a missionary! Thanks for all of the support from everyone. I love you all! :)