Tada!!

Hola Familia! Oh gracious, this has been a week! haha! So
to start this letter off with some SUPER exciting news, I want to
thank everyone that has been praying for the "S" family. If you don't
remember who they are then you are missing out and you should go back
and read one of the previous letters. We had a wonderful lesson with
the S family on Wednesday and the Bishop was with us. We talked about
obedience and following the prophet and the word of wisdom. The Bishop
was awesome to have with us because he is a doctor and because one of
the main concerns of the S family is the word of wisdom, he was able
to talk about more of the scientific reasons why we abstain from the
items in the WofW. Anyway, so the Spirit was Amazingly strong, so
thick in the room that you could have cut it with a knife. Well we
followed the promptings of the Spirit and invited the S family to be
baptized and they said "yes" so we will be having a baptism on Dec 1st
for Bro and Sis S and the 10 year old daughter! I am the happiest
missionary ever right now! I can't believe how much of a miracle this
family is! They are the exact type of people that I was praying that I
would find on my mission. I know that it wouldn't have mattered who
the missionaries were in the area when they were prepared to hear the
gospel I am just so grateful to be blessed that it was me! :)
          When we left the lesson that night, Sister Mecham and I had
a long talk about how it went and how she felt and how they felt as
the investigators. She told me that she doesn't feel that they are
"hers" and that it makes her happy that they are getting baptized but
that she wishes she could have been here when we started to teach
them, I reassured her that I know exactly how she feels. I was in the
same exact place when I first started in Walla Walla and we had a
baptism. I told her that it doesn't matter who we are, it matters that
we fulfill our purpose! Our purpose is to invite others to come unto
Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel... As long as we
remember that, then we can not go wrong. All we have to do is LOVE
EVERYONE and have the desire to serve them because that is what Christ
would do. After our heart to heart she was excited to make the S
family 'hers' in the future! And I am so excited to come back in a
year to see this beautiful family sealed for time and eternity in the
temple of our God.
         Something else exciting that happened this week is that we
had a Specialized Zone Training and Interviews with President Greer!
This was different than zone conference because it was just our zone
and we were making goals for only our zone. It was really really good!
We were taught by the Assistants to the President and our Zone Leaders
as well as President and Sister Greer!  The Greer's had just returned
from CA where they had attended a mission president training
conference with Elder Maynes of the Presidency of the 70. They told us
some really cool stats because of the announcement on missionary work.
Forgive me if you have already heard these things. Before theannouncements the average number of missionary applications opened
online was around 700. The weeks following the announcement went to
4500, 4700, then 5400! Can you believe that! I can't tell you what it
was after that but that is definitely something to be excited about! I
can't believe how fast this is all happening! President told us that
they have increased our missionary compliment from 190 missionaries in
the WKM to 250! They are expected to be all in by March or April! So
crazy! Also the number of sisters is doubling! Woohoo! I have told
Sister Mecham to be ready to train right after I am done training her!
I know that she will be, she is just that AWESOME! :)
            This week we have Elder Pieper of the 1st quorum of the 70
coming on a mission tour and hopefully he will have even more cool
stuff to tell us about how the Lord is hastening his work and how the
second coming will be here before we know it! I am so excited! Aren't
you!? I will fill you in on what he has to tell us in my letter next
week!
            I realized that I didn't tell you anything about Sister
Mecham last week so here you go: She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. She
is the 4th of 8 kids. The line up is G, B, B, (Mecham), G, B, B, B.
They range in age of 27 to 12. She is just darling! She always has a
smile on her face unless she is crying which happens quite often lol
but it is only because she is very tender hearted and sweet. She is 21
and has wanted to serve a mission since she was 15. Her 1st name is
Whitney which is funny to me because that was Sister Chatwin's first
name even though they were spelled differently. I tease that I named
her after her Grandma. ;) I am not sure what else to say about her
other than how awesome of a missionary she is. I can't believe how
lucky and blessed I was to get her as my 1st baby!
           Anyways, I gotta get going so I hope you all have a great
week and I love you so much! Talk to you later! XOXO

P.S. Funny quote from President Greer...when he saw us at the
specialized training the first thing he said was, "Are you Sisters
still here???" We said in a confused voice, "yes...." He replied, "I
thought you would have been translated by now with all the miracles
that are happening in your area!"

I love President, he is so funny! lol But he is right, there are so
many miracles happening right now, but it has nothing to do with us!
Its is all the Lord because of the prayers of so many! So thank you!
:)