Break it Down

Stove S'mores

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Temple!

District Lunch

Hey family!! So we get the transfer email every transfer Monday around 10 and Sis Warmbier and I were freaking out. I was so conflicted, because I would love to go to St Paul or Lakeville or something, but I also would love to stay here with Sis Warmbier for Christmas. The email is scary because it's literally a chart with all of our faces, and we have to look for our face! I'll forward it to you so you can see. But the news issss..... I'm staying here with Sis Warmbier!! That will make at least six months in my first area. As of Christmas I will have been on my mission for six months. That's a third of my mission! So the breakdown goes like this. Only one year, two Skype sessions, 8
transfers, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days! That is not very long at all. There's this weird time warp as a missionary where you forget that time keeps going. Like yesterday we went to visit someone that we just met, and Sis W looks at her record and we haven't seen her since November 19th! It seriously goes like that. We have no idea how long it's been and so we really have to stay on top of it because all of the sudden we won't have seen someone for a month.

Remember last week how I talked about learning lessons and seeing success from diligence. Well this week we found 8 new investigators. Plus Christina came to sacrament meeting and has read all the way to beginning of 2nd Nephi! We are learning a lot about what works and what doesn't work, and we are starting to stress a little bit about how many people we have to see. It's really fun.

This week we also went to the temple! It was seriously the best. The St Paul temple is laid out just like the Medford temple, and it felt just like home. It was a serious boost and it was so nice to relax. Sister Cupkie picked us up in her awesome truck. I loved it. It like a really nice Ford. Like really nice. She picked us up and then after
took us to five guys. I have been really impressed with her. The Cupkie's are really dedicated to helping the missionaries. She said "when we weren't serving the Army anymore, we said why not serve Gods army?" And that describes their dedication. I'll have to tell you more about her sometime. She has the craziest life. But she cares a lot about the missionaries.

We also got to see the Christmas devotional! We were super excited to go, because originally we weren't planning on it but both our appointments cancelled. But obviously, I loved it. I loved Elder Bednar's talk on Christ being the light. I love driving around every night seeing all the Christmas lights on our way to appointments. It's
a beautiful remind of why we really have Christmas. Also our fast Sunday was cool because the stake was doing a fast for the missionary work in this mission, that we'll increase the numbers of members in this area. We fasted for our investigators. It's easier when you have people to think about.

Thanks for taking good care of the sisters there. Give them hugs and do what you can. Sara, as a laurel you can go out with them to teach occasionally. Even if you don't want to go on a mission, it would be a good experience. And let me just tell you that missionaries are always looking for joint teachers and rides. Have fun on the cruise, take lots of pictures! And tell everyone hi! Also for Christmas, I would really like thermals, fleece lined tights
(preferably not leggings), and an iPad case would be really awesome. Because mine just broke. It's an iPad mini:) thanks for spoiling me.

I love you!

Love,
Emily