from O Town to MoTown

Sister Torgerson taking a whack at the accordion.

Silos and barns--they're all over the place out here.

And lastly...a real French braid! That I did!  I taught myself! And Sister Torgerson likes people playing with her hair, so yay!

Dearest Family!

Hope all is well out West! Things are good here. 

Not a ton happened this week. Kevin got stuck in Pennsylvania and had to cancel our appointment, so hopefully we get to see him soon. He just started college and we wanted to teach him about Word of Wisdom and Chastity before he left because college kids do dumb things. But hopefully he'll be smart and we can teach him that when we see him next. 

Speaking of Pennsylvania, I'll be going there this week! Some of our ward members live there, so we're getting permission to visit them! I'll have visited 3 states on my mission! Woof!

Dawn and Judy are doing well. They are almost done with the Gospel Principles book and say it makes so much sense to them. Bill was determined to come to Church this week, but he overdid walking on Saturday and was quite sore. Poor guy. He's also a little nervous about Church because he doesn't know what to expect. Dawn told him that she came the first time, loved it, and wanted to come back to learn more. The next week loved it, and wanted to come back. And so on. She says she just has to come because she just wants more and more every time. They're so great! I love them so much!

Eli is another fellow we're teaching. His mother is a member, but has basically 100% Alzheimers. She just mumbles and doesn't totally recognize anyone. He requested a blessing for her and for him. We brought our old ward mission leader over and he gave the blessings. It was really special. Eli has been listening to General Conference cd's and really likes them. He works full time helping his mother, but he says that when she either gets better or passes on that he wants to be baptized. He loves her so much and calls her "Supermom" and "the 100% best mom in the whole world."

 
The family who gave us the Mars products fed us chili this week and asked us to guess the secret ingredient. I guessed cinnamon, and that was indeed in there, but it wasn't it. Dark chocolate! I couldn't taste it, but he said he made some with and without it and it's totally different without it. Interesting... apparently Hispanics do that too.

 
We've seen a lot of people lately who for whatever reason have gotten offended and left the Church. It makes me so sad. They're cutting themselves off from so many blessings because of usually one person who said something dumb. There's so little we can do to help them, because we try to make it about them and their relationship with the Savior, not with that other person. Many times they realize that it's the person's fault and not the Church's, but they say they're too prideful to come anyway. Bah! So yes, all of you, don't do that. Just love everyone, and if you say something inappropriate, apologize. And if someone does that to you, don't get offended, but just love them anyway.

 
That's the gist of this week. We hauled wood again. And we sorted through another person's clothes to get rid of the bed bug ones. And we helped someone clean their kitchen. I like doing service. I think a service mission would be quite fun. And not so nerve racking. But of course, teaching is service too. 

Ok, well, I love you lot! Let me know what's goin on! Letters are lots of fun! Just sayin...

Love you!
Sister Melificent