This is Leo. He is always bringing us candy!

Hey family!
So first of all I saw this video and it reminded me of all the times we talked about rafting analogies.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-01-004-stay-in-the-boat?lang=eng
Second, I really like this quote:

 "Faith in God engenders a love for the sabbath. Faith in the sabbath engenders a love for God." -- Elder Nelson

 I think it is very very true.

This week has been a little wacky. Sister Jensen, the lady we live with had her birthday yesterday so we were in on a surprise for her. All of her kids flew in for the weekend, so we were kicked out for a

few days. We stayed with another set of sisters from Thursday until this morning, which means a lot of couch sleeping and living out of a suitcase. It was pretty jammed for a few days, and we didn't get a ton

of sleep. The Jensen's invited us to dessert last night to meet their family. It was fun to meet them all and see how happy they were just hanging out for the weekend. They are all grown and most of them have kids. I'm excited for when our family is in that stage but at the same time soooo not ready for when we are all old and out of the house. Everything changes when that happens. So that was kind of a pain, but seeing how well the surprise turned out and how much their family
enjoyed it made it worth it.

We also had exchanges this week, it's a lot less stressful than it used to be now that I can actually communicate in Spanish. We taught 4 lessons I think. I learned a lot about training from Sister Smith, she's done it three or four times now.  We had a good discussion. I have learned that I really owe Sister Scholl more credit than I gave her when she was training me. I think Sister Hughes is very much like
I was as a greenie as well. She has ideas of how things she should be done and then I resist her ideas because they're not my ideas, and then she resists because I'm resisting, and then there is tension. But I discovered that that's probably exactly how I was in training. I have a lot more respect and appreciation for Hna Scholl since I started training. Sister Hughes and I talked about it quite a bit, and I told her all that too, it's interesting the change of perspective that you get haha.

I was thinking today about how much time I've been on my mission, I still remember telling people that I had only been out for like 6 weeks  saying wow...you still have some left... And now, I'm almost
nine months in and I get an in between response, like you're close to going home, but not really at the same time. Time is flying by.

This week has been of the weeks that I have felt most consistently guided by the spirit. We had multiple experiences this week where it turned out way better than it should have. We had dinner with a family
where the parents aren't married because he doesn't want to. So I went out on a limb and asked why they weren't married. We discussed and I felt the spirit more strongly than I have in a long while. We were able to testify of the importance of keeping the commandments and of families. It was more bold than I think I've ever been. Another lesson we had, we are talking to a lady that we had just met and she was talking about the church she went to in St. Paul but how that she hasn't been to a church since she moved down here. I had a distinct impression to ask if she would like to attend church with us and she
said, yes would really like to and told us about how her six year old has asked if they can go to church. She said she would do everything possible to didn't come haha but the moment was cool. We also taught a Hispanic Mama Odie last night. Imagine Mama Odie from princess and the frog and add Spanish and that is literally this lady we taught last night haha.

It's been a good week, thanks for the emails and the video of Lauren,
if you have more I would love to see them! I think you should be able
to send up to two minutes.

Love you!
Emily