Mardi Gras!!

Enjoying a little Mardi Gras Fun!!!

Phone Battle Ship, Grating Carrots and Praying for Miracles

Hey Mom and Dad!

Sorry to group email yall, hope you'll forgive me :)

So, to start with, I just wanted to tell you that I'm just in the happiest mood of all time this morning. I can feel your prayers/putting my name on the prayer roll strengthening me. This last week was really really slow - everything got canceled on us and we had no miles. But our exchange with the Sister Training Leaders was awesome, and unity-wise we've seen miracles. Sister Monk and I are at a much better place, I feel closer to my Savior (I realized that He has been carrying me the last few weeks and I am humbled/so grateful for that knowledge) and this morning as we walked out to the car, I couldn't help singing "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a wonderful day in the neighborhood" from Mister Rogers. And when Sister Monk was like "He's dead." it still didn't get me down. The Lord is totally strengthening me and helping me to be happy and have a positive attitude and have faith in good things to come. This morning, I opened up my missionary inbox (from which I write to President Wall and he sends out emails to all the missionaries) and President had filled my inbox with excerpts from other missionaries about miracles that they've had in the last few weeks. In the past, I would've had a bad attitude - I would've asked "Why aren't we having the same success" or "What am I doing wrong?" but this morning I just felt happy and excited for those missionaries and I have hope and faith that our time is coming - the Lord will bless us with rain after a long drought. Because we are making every effort to be obedient and diligent, we are trying, and the blessings WILL come eventually, I know it. :)

This is what I wrote to President Wall about how I'm feeling:

"I feel myself changing. Sometimes when I read the emails you send out, I get discouraged and think, "Man, what am I doing wrong? Why can't we have cool miracles like that?" But this morning, I just felt happy. I felt so excited for all those missionaries who had such awesome experiences during the last weeks. The Lord is hastening the work, and He is in control. I felt like this last week was one of the slowest, least successful weeks of my entire mission, and I've been trying to have a good attitude about it. I've been trying to ignore all the "Why?" questions that have come into my head, and ignore the "You must be a really bad missionary" thoughts that have come into my head, and just trust that the Lord knows what he's doing, and these thoughts and questions are not from the Spirit. The emails you sent confirmed to me what I've been thinking - I need to press on. I am enough. I have been obedient. We didn't do anything wrong this last week - we did the best we could. For some reason, the Lord didn't provide us with any really awesome miracles with regards to the work this last week. But He did help us to increase our unity - as you know, Sister Monk and I have been really struggling to work together. But we went on exchanges this last week, and things have gotten so much better. The Sister Training Leaders did a great job at helping both of us feel loved and validated, and then they helped us through a modified, mediated comp inventory that was awesome. Things have changed drastically since then. I really feel blessed know that the Lord's hand was involved in helping us heal our relationship. Sister Monk and I are becoming friends, we are becoming more open and honest with each other, and we are trying to find the common ground. We aren't the perfect companionship by any means, but life is so much better. I know longer feel alone, and I recognize that I was never alone - the Lord has been carrying me through the last few weeks, and I'm so thankful to know that it was He who was leading me through "the wilderness." And so while I rejoice that the other missionaries in our mission have had such success in finding and teaching and extending commitments, I am also rejoicing that the Lord is helping us work together, and I have faith that this is enough. The rough week that we had after the Sister Training Leaders left I think gave us a chance to bond and rely on each other. When I was discouraged, Sister Monk kept us going. When she was discouraged, I tried to help keep us going. I am learning patience, humility, and unconditional love. I am drawing nearer to the Master. I am becoming acquainted with sorrows and grief, just like He was, and my soul rejoices in it."

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for the prayers - they are definitely working!

So crazy to hear about Jack! Poor guy! That is so crazy. I wrote to President Wall about that too haha-

"Also, I wanted to tell you a funny story. My dad wrote me and told me that my dog has diabetes. I didn't even know that dogs can get diabetes. He doesn't really have any obvious physical symptoms, and my family was really surprised when they found out. And now he's on this strict regimen of insulin shots and restricted diet, and my family has kind of had to rearrange their schedule to meet the dogs needs. It sounds a little crazy now that I'm typing it, but we really love that dog :) 

Although he has no physical symptoms right now, if he didn't get help, it would lead to bad stuff like sight problems and circulation problems just like human diabetes. And I was just kind of struck with the spiritual parallel. My dog is not that smart - he will never seem to learn the lesson of "You don't need to bark like crazy every time the doorbell rings" along with various other lessons. Basically, he is not the perfect dog. But we love him any way, and my family has done a lot to take care of him and will continue to do whatever it takes to help him have a good life. And I think that is kind of how Heavenly Father feels about us - he loves us despite the fact that we make the same mistakes over and over. And when we have some hidden hurt, a problem that only we know about, He knows, and He will "rearrange his schedule" and do whatever it takes to help us out. Getting a shot of insulin three times a day won't be the funnest thing ever for my dog or for my mom. And I don't think God rejoices in our trials. He isn't like, "Yay, Sister Chausow and Sister Monk had a really not awesome week!" But He loves us enough to give us the trials and experiences that we need to heal and become spiritually healthy, thriving beings. And that's how I'm choosing to see this last week - not as a punishment or sign of abandonment but as a sign of God's love for me and His granting me an opportunity to learn and grow and become spiritually stronger. Hopefully that made some sort of sense. :)"

It's crazy - the longer I'm a missionary, the more everything seems to have a gospel application. I can't remember if I told you about how Elder Kopischke came and visited our stake, and as he was saying how members of the ward council need to come together and not represent selfish interests and but work together as a council, I just kept thinking about that movie "Miracle" (one of my favorites of all time...) and how Coach Brooks keeps asking his team members their name and who they play for, but the turning point in team unity comes when they are diong that awful back and forth drill over and over and finally Mike Eruzione is like "My name is Mike Eruzione....." and Brooks is like "Who do you play for?" and Eruzione says "The United States of America!..." Oh man, I love that part. Ok, sorry, random, but I loved it. I love hockey and I love the gospel and I love my family so sorry to just barf that on you :)

Ok, another thing - mom I got your easter package and of course it was awesome! Thank you for sending some Easter cheer! I started putting up the lights and window clings already. Can't wait to make the treats for the widows and maybe for the elders :) Thank you for taking such good care of me!

Also, crazy about Toews and Kaner. They managed to stay healthy for so long! Bummer that the Hawks probably won't get to the playoffs. But you never know, it could happen! Also, you will have to let me know how the Baaaadgers do in the final four. Go Wisconsin!

So guess what we did for P-Day today - we had a kind of Amish day because we were out of miles. And the LaPlace elders, Elder White and Elder Hansen (our district leader) is also out of miles, so we had a Amish p-day - we shredded a bunch of carrots (by hand!) to make carrot cake. And then we played Battleship over the phone with the Elders using grids we had each drawn out on paper haha. It was pretty fun. Especially because we beat the elders. So the winner got to eat the carrot cake but we will still bring it to district meeting tomorrow and share because we do NOT need to eat that much cake...

Hmmmm what else is new this week...? We are meeting with a potential investigator tomorrow evening who is super interested in learning from the missionaries. She has been learning about Mormonism from her friend who lives in Nebraska. She is originally from China and is so sweet and kind. She has a lot of good questions and hopefully we will be able to help her find answers and feel the spirit. Her name is R - please pray for her! 

Also, please pray for J. She is a less active with a word of wisdom problem. I can't remember if I told you about her....she has two kids that want desperately to be baptized but they don't come to church because she wont let them. She feels super guilty and horrible coming to church and even just letting her kids go to church makes her feel pretty bad, but recently she's been letting people pick up her kids and bring them to wednesday night activities and she even let them come to the baptism this weekend. Maybe we can watch General Conference with them this weekend... we have to see. I will keep you posted :)

One more thing - I sent a package home again, this time of winter clothes. Each month I want to try to send a little bit of stuff home so that my suitcases are a manageable weight by the time October rolls around... it is warming up hear, and even the chillier days are fine if I wear my tights and my cardigan. Seriously, the weather here is heavenly. Please hang on to those clothes though - I love them a lot and can't wait to wear them when I get home/when the weather gets cooler again! PS - Summer lasts till the end of September down here, so it will probably be a little cold when I get to Wisconsin but it will still be nice here. 

Ok, to close, here is a joke I heard - Why did the Lamanites have to eat their food off the table? 

Because the Nephites had all the plates! Bahahaha!

K, I love you guys more than all the stars in the sky! And more than all the puddles on a rainy day in Loosiana! Sending sooo many hugs and smaeches!

Love,

Johanna

Hey family! 

Hope y'all had a good week! I survived my first week in Metairie, hooray! We went tracting, we did service, we taught a bunch a people. It was great! I wanted to share an experience we had while tracting. This is an excerpt from my letter to President Wall-

Also, we did have a miracle of sorts while tracting. We knocked on a door and an old, tired man came to the door. We introduced ourselves and asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. He said that his wife was ill and that maybe now wouldn't be a good time. That's what he said, but the look on his face seemed like he desperately wanted something from us. So we asked about his wife and she said she had dementia and told us a little about their situation, and finally he said, "If you'd like to come in and sit with her for a while, you can." And we said we would love that. So we went in and sat down with his wife who is a lovely person despite her memory not being what it once was. We talked and laughed together, and shared a message of peace from the Bible, since that's what the Spirit directed us to do. We talked more with the husband and found out that they are Catholic - but they are unable to attend church because of his wife's health. But they love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and so when we left they said we could come back and read the Bible some more with them and we promised we would try to find a MoTab CD and bring it to them. After we walked out the door, the man came out after us and said, "I have some neighbors who are handicapped. He had his leg amputated and she had two strokes. They are moving a few houses down, do you think we could help them?" We said of course we could and offered the help of the elders as well, and gave him our number so he could call us when it got closer to the move. And of course, we said we would come back in two weeks to visit again and we would follow up them. His whole countenance had changed by the time we left, and I felt that we were doing what the Savior would do - helping those who needed it, whether they accepted his message or not. It was an amazing feeling, and it gave us the energy we needed to keep tracting for another half hour. We didn't find anyone, except a man that was eager to bash with us, which we politely declined, but it was an awesome experience and I'm excited to tract some more - it brings great experiences!

So great. Please pray that we will have the courage to open our mouths and find new investigators. The ward has a goal of baptizing 12 people this year but isn't willing to help us out too much yet, so we are on our own for the finding, teaching, and baptizing of 10 people (down from 12 because someone was baptized in January and the Elders will have a baptism at the end of this month). The cool thing is, though, we are not alone. The Lord has promised that He will be with us - and I know this is true. We are in His hands, we are His servants, and if we let Him He will direct this work and our lives. 

I love all of you so much! Have a wonderful week!

-Sister Chausow

Hey family!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and doing well in my new area with my new companion! I am currently in Metairie (pronounced Met-uh-ree) which is 5 miles west of New Orleans. It's a whole new world down here - I'm pretty much in the city, even though it's not actually downtown New Orleans. It's kind of like Wauwatosa - not actually part of Milwaukee but has some city stuff going on. And I'm with Sister Monk- she is from Highland Utah and has been out 3 months. She just finished training and she is awesome. We have lots of fun together :)

So my new address is 

2300 Edenborn Ave #2-136

Metairie, LA 70001

We live in a really nice apartment, not ghetto hooray! It's nice being in a residence with a solid foundation again haha. I loved that trailer in Denham but there's nothing like a good solid concrete foundation to help you feel secure lol. We cover one ward (whew! the whole two wards thing was wearin me out, lemme tell you somethin) and we have a car (yay!). The ward is awesome - its a lot of med/dental students but then there's those who were born and raised here and have been here forever and tell you crazy hurricane stories. Metairie didn't get devastated by Katrine but it definitely did some damage. People talk about living in FEMA trailers like it's no big deal haha. 

So yeah, life moves at a slower pace down here, which is something that I'm slowly getting used to. In Denham I felt like we were just running running running but down here it's more chill. It freaked me out at first but we get just as much good work done down here, just in a different way. I'm learning that just like there's a bunch of ways to make gumbo that are all delicious, there are lots of ways to do missionary that are all really good ways. 

I'm not a Sister Trainer Leader anymore but I learned a LOT while serving in that calling last transfer. I'm still learning, and I hope to be a better missionary and a better person as a result of what I've learned.

So I think the hardest thing about leaving Denham was that I was leaving my missionary friends and ward family. I'm in a new zone and a new district and it's a lot different. Elder Smith, who was my old district leader in Denham actually got transferred down here to Harahan, and we are in the same ward haha. Who'd have thought? So it was really a tender mercy that the Lord sent me down here with someone that I knew really well - Elder Smith and I served together for 6 months so we are pretty tight. But yeah I'm adjusting and we are going to do some volleyball madness down at the Stake Center later today. Nothing brings a district together like some good ol' volleyball! I love it! :)

Also, want to hear something weird about Metairie? Well, it's not actually weird, just different than what I'm used to. We are definitely in the city - Denham was pretty red neck, not a lot of roads or traffic. But down here, the streets are the most confusing thing ever - there are a plethora of overpasses. NOLA loves overpasses let me tell you - they even have an overpass round about - literally a round about in the sky. So crazy. I'm the designated driver, so I've had to get used to it pretty quick. But lets just say it'll be a while before I learn my way around haha.

The other different thing is that there are so many people here in the city. Which is cool because that means lots of people to talk to and share the gospel with. I've set a goal to hand out 20 Book of Mormons in 6 weeks. That's half a box of Book of Mormons that we get from the mission office. Hopefully by the end of my mission I can hand out a whole box in a transfer :) 

So basically I just love being a missionary right now - everything is new, and fresh, and I'm excited to see how we can help the people here progress in the gospel. Please pray for S and R - they are our most promising investigators and they are really cool women. Hopefully we can increase our teaching pool a little more each week. Please also pray for Brother D - he is a less active that the sisters have been working with intensively, and we are trying to find a way to help him over come his fears and throw himself wholeheartedly into the gospel. 

I love all of yall so much! Thanks for all you do to love and support me. I seriously couldn't ask for a better team!

-Love, Sister Chausow 

Update from the Bayou

Hey guys-

Sorry to group email yall this week. I'm so tired. I need to take a pday from pdays but the elders won't let me. They say that if I rest on pday (take a 3 hour nap like I want to) I'll wake up just as tired and it won't help. And they insist that we have to party and do tons of stuff together every pday or else we aren't unified. Ugh. So over it. Just let me take a nap without feeling guilty for once. Elder Crane and I are still working some things out...

Anywho...thanks for all the updates! I can't believe yall are going snowmobiling in Yellowstone! So awesome! Take tons of pictures/video so I can see how it was. I really want to go do that some day!

Mom- Thanks for all the happy bits! I loved reading them! They made me smile so big! :D And also, opening up the valentine's envelopes every morning is so fun. Everything you sent has been amazing and I freakin loved all the notes and cards from friends and families from home that I love so much. My favorite little gift that you sent so far was the wipes - to "wipe your love" on me with-- hahahahhahaha. Seriously, that was so funny! Also, I got the package from Deseret Book with all the pictures and books and CD - thank  you thank you thank you! So great! That picture of Peter and the Savior gets me every time.

Dad- Thanks for sharing what you learned from ward conference. I truly love President Heller and Bishop Miller. They are so inspired. It's funny that you talked about weaknesses - I was just studying that this morning. In Jacob 4:6-7 Jacob is talking about the amazing things we can accomplish through the power of Christ, while at the same time the Lord gives us weaknesses so we can stay close to him and continue to to do amazing things. It was a really cool insight that I had never found before, and I'm having a hard time explaining over email right now, sorry. Hopefully you can read the verses and make sense of what I was trying to say :)

So updates from the Bayou-

-Mission Leader Council this last wednesday with President and Sister Wall and the assistants. We were trained on what President wants to focus on for the last 5 months of his mission, based on what we learned from Elder Perkins at Zone Conference. We are working on finding, urgency, and purpose. On Friday, me and Sister Recksiek and the zone leaders instructed the missionaries in our zone about the various topics, with a focus on confidence - President Wall said that the biggest/best thing we can do for our missionaries is to help build their confidence. And so for my portion (we broke the zone into four groups and each of us leaders took ten minutes with each group, instructing on a different aspect of confidence, and then rotated around to each of the groups. It was cool!) I focused on confidence in your talents and gifts. I have learned that the Lord has given each os us talents, gifts, and unique abilites/interests, and that if we deny these talents it is like denying blessings, and who would ever want to do that? So I had each mission take a piece of colored paper and gave them markers to draw things that are unique about themselves or talents that they have, etc. And then in D&C 8:4, it says that applying unto our gifts will protect us from our enemies. If a missionary's greatest enemies are fear and lack of confidence, then we should apply our gifts to overcome that. i told stories of real life experiences when a missionary used his or her individual gifts/talents/interests to contact people, conect with an investigator, or help someone feel loved. And basically I tried to teach that God doesn't want us to be robots, He wants us to be the best version of our selves so that He can use each of us to bring forth His purposes. I learned a ton about myself and how I can have more confidence, and I felt confident (through the holy ghost) as I instructed other missionaries on this topic. Hopefully it made a difference for them. I know it did for me! :)

Ok, gotta run, but thank you so much for all your love and support! You two mean the world to me - you are the best parents and cheerleaders I could ask for! I pray for you guys and I'm so thankful that I get to be with you for eternity!

Love,

Johanna

A Looisiana Wintry Hello

Hello to my family who I love so much!

Sounds like in most parts of the country it is cold cold COLD!

This last week was a little crazy sauce. We had lock down on Tuesday and half of Wednesday. It was only like 20 or so degrees but there was freezing rain and a little bit of snow, so the whole city of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas (therefore our entire mission) shut down. Our mission only shut down for a day and a half (Tuesday was walking and biking allowed so we walked to the church for district meeting and games with the Elders. The Elders had our bikes. We walked a mile and half in the freezing rain and I have never felt so dumb in my life--- hahaha. That whole thing is another story. Ask me about it when I get home). The city was pretty much shut down from Tuesday through Thursday even though Thursday warmed up beautifully. Friday and Saturday were nice too and Sunday was humid but cloudy. I seriously love the weather down here. No -30 degree windchill for me, thank heavens!

So I wanted to list some of the little things that have been making me happy recently-

Bluetooth- the Elders hooked up the bluetooth in our car so now we can talk on the phone as we are driving and it's like the coolest thing ever. It's a silly thing but I love it. :)

Claritin- Thank you to everyone that sent me Claritin. It is helping so much. We have an investigator who is a heavy smoker. We are helping her to quit starting tomorrow but it's been really tough going over there so much. On Saturday we helped her clean her whole house to try to get rid of the smoke smell. Hopefully that will make teaching her a little easier on my respiration system.

Crane/Stork/Pelican Birds - Ok, these birds are seriously the coolest thing ever. I don't know what kind of bird they are, but they are white and have long white necks and long skinny legs and they wade around in the drainage ditches by the side of the road and I get so excited whenever I see them. I think I've only seen birds like that in the zoo but here they are everywhere just chill in by the side of the road. I yell "Bird!" every time I see one and my companions just think I'm crazy! LOL.

The Book of Mormon- This book is seriously the best thing ever. H and R finally started reading it - we went and read it with them, and the spirit was there so strong . D, their inactive mom, actually made them these punch cards so every time they read 10 minutes or one chapter, they get a punch. After they get 18 punches she said she would take them to get frozen yogurt. How awesome is that! D has never discouraged her girls from joining the church but she definitely hasn't been helping them with it either. So this is a big turning point for her!

My companions- I love being in a trio. Weird, right? It's actually really nice because until we became Sister Training Leaders, we never saw other sisters (its only Elders in our district) so it's just nice to have girl time - three sisters feels more like a party and like a sisterhood, it's awesome.

So please pray for R. W. this week. She is the one that we are helping to quit smoking tomorrow. She has plans to be baptized on February 15th, but she needs to quit smoking and she needs to come to accept Joseph Smith as a prophet. Those are her two biggest obstacles. Everything else she is good with. She needs the gospel, but her path towards the gospel has been rocky. Please pray for her!

K, I love you all! Thanks for being so great and sending me words of encouragement, pictures, comic strips, and the like. It all helps to keep my fire burning bright. I couldn't do this without all of you!

Love-

Sister Chausow 

Good morning!

Ok, so, here's the run down on my situation since transfers-

1. We are still in a trio. Sister Venable, a service missionary has been with me for about 2 weeks. She is great. She has a really sweet spirit and is really humble. My new companion, Sister Reckseik, trained Sister Venable in McComb Mississippi so she is really helping me to help Sister Venable feel comfortable.

2. Sister Reckseik is freakin awesome! We were in the MTC together and we have waaaay to much fun together now. Seriously, I haven't laughed this much and this hard for my whole mission. She is really helping whip my bum into shape - I was slacking a little bit in the obedience department but she is helping me get better at that and I know we will see miracles because of it!

3. Our first exchanges as sister training leaders is this week with the Hammon sisters. We have no miles left so I don't know how that's going to work but the Lord will provide a way! I'm really looking for to traveling around the zone and getting to know the sisters better - we have some awesome sisters down here and I'm so freakin excited to get to love, serve, and teach with each one of them! I am determined to have a better attitude this time around. My first time being STL was good but I had kind of a bad attitude about the whole thing. I really didn't want to be a leader and I complained a lot. This time I want to accept my calling and magnify it and trust that the Lord will help me fulfill my responsibilities. It helps that I've had more time in the mission too, because I feel a little more capable of helping sisters with personal/missionary problems.

4. Weather = crazy. They canceled school down here on Friday, haha because it was in the teens all day and it was sleeting/icing/snowing all day. We had to scrape thick ice off our windshield twice and people kept telling us "Don't go out if you don't have to!" and me and Sister Reckseik just laughed because we deal with this all the time. The roads were wet but not icy, so we just went about our business as normal, except one family canceled their appointment because they thought it was too dangerous. :) They did shut down the freeways because the bridges over all the rivers and overpasses did get really icy so getting in or out of Baton Rouge was a nightmare - it is pretty much surrounded by rivers.

5. Peeps we are working with - We have an investigator that wants to get baptized on February 15th. Hooray! It was really weird though. During sacrament meeting she kept telling me that little demons were crawling on her, and she said that during the last few weeks demons had been crawling on her and in her house. We took her to Bishop because I didn't know if she's just crazy or she is really seeing spirits or what. But he has the gift of discernment and he gave her a priesthood blessing and she felt better after that. He also sent the Elders and the ward mission leader to her apartment with us to cast out any bad spirits that were there and to give her a blessing of healing. Interesting. It was really weird but it helped her feel better and we keep trying to stress that faith precedes the miracle. A lot of our trials don't go away in a poof (which is what she wants) but sometimes we have to work at it and then the miracle comes. So we encouraged her to keep reading the bible and book of mormon and singing and praying if the demons come, and don't give up. She seems pretty determined. We are going to start helping her quit smoking on Wednesday. Again, she wants the desire to smoke to just go away in an instant (since that is how it happened when she quit doing drugs) but we need to help her see that she's got to DO some stuff and then God will change her heart. Pray for us!

H and R are kind of progressing. We gave them a challenge yesterday to read from the real Book of Mormon with their mom every day and pray daily as well. They seem discouraged because their mom is always too busy with either work or their ADHD little brother to help them read the scriptures. I don't know what to do to help them. We asked them to think about getting baptized on March 1, but if D doesn't help them they aren't going to make it. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing guess what's in my head with Heavenly Father. I'm like, God, what do you want us to do with this family? What is the plan for them? And I don't get an answer, other than: just keep doing what you're doing. Semi-frustrating but I'm trying to have faith and patience.

6. Me/My Health/My Feelings - Good. No worries. Just trying to improve every day. I think the thing I battle the most is no longer panic attacks (hooray!) it's just general frustration. I wonder sometimes if I'm doing something wrong because we haven't had any baptisms in Denham Springs since I've been here. I also battle fear - there is a big push in the mission right now to find new investigators, and that means talking to strangers about the gospel and lots of tracting. Which is a huge bummer because I hate tracting honestly, and it requires that I get out of my comfort zone. And as a Sister Training Leader, I have to be an example of a good finding missionary, so that puts more pressure on. So please pray that I won't be so paralyzed by my fear. Like John said at Christmas over Skype, I need to be more ok with rejection because I will get rejected, and it's ok, it's not going to kill me, I just think it's going to kill me. I feel like you play lots of mind games on a mission. Blech.

My health - I am in a bet with President Tolbert, 1st councilor in the stake presidency, to try to lose 10 lbs by March 31st.  I gained weight this week but so did he so that's encouraging. Cutting sweets is so hard - people keep giving us cake and Sister Reckseik showed up with a whole box of junk food/candy/snacks so I'm having a rough go. I loved the "Healthy Rules" you sent and I'm trying to abide by them the best I can. Every day is a battle, but I'm determined to do better and better each week, knowing that I will mess up but it's ok.

7. Thanks so much for the package! I loved loved loved it! And I can't wait to put up all the valentine decs today! You are truly the bomb diggity :)

8. Could you maybe send me a few talks. I know I haven't asked for this in a while and sorry to make you send something else, but I'm low on time and coins so I haven't been able to read/print some of the talks that I've been wanting to read.

-Pres Uchtdorf's message for the month - The Best Time to Plant a Tree

-"Our Missionary Purpose" -Elder Christofferson

-"The Love of God" -President Ucthdorf

-"Desire" - Elder Oaks

-Elder Callister's CES devotional from January

-Any talks you find about communicating with kindness and love. It's something I'm studying right now. I got inspired by Ephesians 4:29 :)

Hope you have so much fun with the Elders tonight! You should ask them for some simple ideas for how you can do missionary work! That's what would make me the most happy - if ya'll invited someone to be taught the lessons and invited them to church/to read the Book of Mormon. I think as a family maybe we can all work on being a little less afraid of opening our mouths together. It's tough but I know the Lord will help us! :)

I love you more than all the King Cake in Loosiana! (It's a mardi gras tradition and it's delicious, you should look it up)

-Sister JoBiz

PS: I know, this whole thirty minutes to use the computer thing is lame. But I've found that if I write the mission president and the stake president first, I NEVER get kicked off. How awesome is that! Hence the super long email today :)

PPS: Please tell Sinos that I got her letter and freakin loved it and I loved the poems she sent. So awesome! I wrote her a letter last week but just put it in the mail today. Oops. I will also get a birthday card in the mail to Grandma Lovely today.