HAPPY VALENTIMES! Someone told me the other day that it looks like I'm wearing a wig. I would have to concur, but that's what happens with this awkward length of tween boy hair.

We locked ourselves out, so this had to happen...

HAPPY VALENTIMES!

I LOVE you all so much! I love you to the witches (thanks Levi for that great quote)!

This week has been pretty interesting. It has been nice seeing old friends again. We got to teach the Rossi"s, a less-active/part-member family who we had started teaching when I left. The father has been coming to Church the past few weeks and his son has started coming too! And then the kicker, Elder Jay Jensen of the First Presidency of the Seventy visited them and gave their family blessings!?! Brother Rossi said it was an AMAZING experience!

Elder Jensen came to speak to the missionaries this week and he taught us about how we can get the most out of our scripture reading. He particularly said to find out 1) Who is speaking?2) To whom are they speaking? 3) What are they speaking about? And to also really think about the hymns we sing and the words involved. He is such a great speaker. And I never knew he's over scripture translation in the Church. He also did the translation of the King James Version of the Bible into Spanish, and it took 4 years! Woof!

Other things: We saw a lady packaging things outside her house and offered to help. She didn't need any help, but told us to come in for a drink of water. She had HUGE chunks of Himalayan rock salt in her house. One chunk weighed 100 lbs! Apparently it has all these medicinal and therapeutic purposes. She gave us a bag of the fancy salt to use in our cooking, which was nice. She didn't want to hear our message, but said we could come back any time for food and water. So nice!

Also, I have such a testimony of the Church. I know the Gospel is true, but I also know the organization of the Church is inspired. A man in our Ward lost his wife 3 months ago, leaving behind 5 kids ranging from 1 to 15 years old. He bore his testimony about how much support he's gotten, especially for his kids. He is still struggling, but his burden is made lighter because he has a Ward family to help him through. He has been reading the scriptures and praying even more with his children and he knows his wife isn't far and that he will see her again. And he knows that God has a plan, and that it's a perfect plan even if we sometimes don't understand it. In my last area, something similar happened, and the man refused to believe a real God would let this happen to him.

And then a mother who is bipolar came up and bore her testimony of Jesus Christ and how He's helped her through her struggles. She comes to Church when she's in a good mood, and has been trying her hardest to come because it's one of the few things that makes her happy. And then, and this was the sweetest testimony of the day, her 7 year old son came up. He was in a little vest and tie, and just stood there quiet for about 10 seconds. Then, and with a little trouble saying his r's, said, "We're a family. We are all together in this. We come to Church and we want to come to Church every day, because this is family. We're all family. We have fun. We have friends. We have family. Heavenly Father. Amen."

And another thing, the past month President Jeppson (my mission president) has had trouble walking and has had to use crutches. He has an amputated leg, and can usually walk fine on his prosthetic. But about a month ago in a District Meeting, the District Leader had everyone do wall sits to reach a goal of getting a new tie (the meeting was about goal setting). President Jeppson was there and participated, but got a shooting pain from an old injury, and it's hurt him ever since. He's been feeling better, but last week he got an MRI to see how his leg and back are healing, and they found a tumor on his kidney. So he'll be back in Salt Lake for the next 6-8 weeks for surgery to remove his kidney and for recovery. If he hadn't done that wall sit, he wouldn't have found out about this, but Heavenly Father inspires people. Please pray for him, he's the best thing that's ever happened to New Jersey. He's a Patriarch and knows each one of us and how to help us, and I don't know what we'd do without him, so please pray.

I love you all and hope you have a super lovely Valentimes! Give each other a cinnamon roll from this one! And a wink!

I love you!

Sincerest day,

Sister Mister

My last time with the Deida's from my old ward. They're converts from Venezuela and are just the nicest people of all time.

Sister Mathusek and Snickers. They lived above me. Snickers is super sassy, but I love him and miss him already.

My new companion, Sister Call!

Family! Happy Valentimes! Soon!

Let's see, this week I packed up my things and said goodbye to Emerson. I'm really gonna miss that place and the people there. Sister Barrett told me Shaquille, a boy we've been trying to teach, but he kept dodging us at Church, is getting baptized in April! One of his friends who's in our ward took him to Youth Conference in November in Palmyra, and he's come to Church ever since. I'm glad something's happening with that.

And now for the news, I got transferred to...... Fardale! Wait what? Yes, you got it, my training grounds. My new companion is Sister Call, Sister Cope's last companion before she went home. Things are pretty much the same from when I left three months ago. One family, Babby, Coty and Peanut, are doing better. There's more of the Spirit in their house, and less fighting and swearing. They're really trying to make things work, though it's hard for them to come to Church. So we've been making a Sunday Program they can do in their house to try and feel more of the Spirit for at least one hour on Sundays. We also do Family Home Evening with them to help them get in the habit of doing uplifting things together, so they see the good in each other and not the negative, and it seems to be helping. They love the Spirit we bring, and they want that for themselves.

Sister Call is from California, near San Francisco! She LOVES Trader Joe's, and they have those out here so we went there today! It was so lovely and organic in there. I love their packaging, it's so fun. Call me a hippie, but I like it!

People were pretty busy yesterday with the Super Bowl, whatever that is, and apparently their team won because at sometime during our sleep fireworks started going off.

There's not much else to say, so I love you kids! And Happy Birthday to all the Februaries!

I love you kids! Do good things and say family prayers! Give each other a snuggle from this one! I love you!

Love,

sister mystery