The pioneers walked in 100 degrees below zero, and so will we!‏

Hola Familia!

I love you so very much!  I just think you're the best family in the entire world.  

Look on the bright side Mum; at least you still have two weeks to work on your paper and not two days.  It could be worse.  And I'm so excited that you're starting to look at jobs.  Just a few short months and you'll be a big kid!  Well you already are, but I just equate graduating from college with growing up.  That's really exciting and I'll be praying for things to work out.  You've been working so hard the past few years and it's finally going to start paying off.  Keep up the good work, I'm so proud of you!

And Cam, good job pinning your guy.  It's taken you long enough in the season.  Sorry that Tyler's been sick, I hope he's getting better.  We've had about 10 out of every 10 people we talk to are sick here.  Those germies are going around.  So be sure to wash your hands!  Kelley, you made it through your first high school basketball season.  Woohoo!  You are a superstar.  Did you get my special surprise in the mail yet?  Isn't it the best thing ever.  I would have kept it for me, but every time I looked at it, that song would pop into my head.  We're trying to keep Babylon out, and that was just inviting it in.  But I hope you looooove it! I'm so excited that Natey is still reading Harry Potter.  I got his email last week and then after we left the library I felt like a huge jerk because I forgot to respond.  But I'm very excited that he read the "hole" book.  Keep going!  And tell him that when he's in the NFL he can buy me a car too. Yeah that would be really good.  

I'm so excited that the elders are going to start teaching our neighbors!  That is so good.  I know you don't have a ton of time, and I know it's scary, but volunteer to go with them when you can!  Our lessons are always so much stronger and so much more spiritual when we have members present.  They will really appreciate that.

Thank you for finally responding about the mouse.  It is gross!  We haven't found him dead yet.  But we haven't heard him either.  Maybe he went to go and bother someone else.  Speaking of rodents, the other night we saw a possum.  I honestly don't know why Heavenly Father felt the need to put those creatures on the earth.  They are horrid.  Ick.

So, our week this week.  Like every week, we had our ups and our downs.  I think being a missionary might be equivalent to being diagnosed as bipolar.  We experience just about every emotion on the spectrum just about every day.  

I don't know if I've told you much about Wednesdays here in the DC South Mission, but we have this thing called Walk About Wednesday.  And it's just that.  We don't use our cars on Wednesday.  At all.  Sound fun?  It's not.  We dread Wednesday.  But because we know there is some blessing to be had in being obedient, we do it.  This week has been so cold.  We got snow a couple of days and then we had the temperature drop into the low teens.  One of those days just happened to be a Wednesday.  And it was windy.  So I had on tights, and leggings and wool socks and and under armor shirt and my warmest sweater and my coat and my warmest scarf and this fleecy headband thing.  And we still froze.  But we finally had our Walk about Wednesday Miracle.  Two actually.  First off, we didn't turn into popsicles.   But the more important one was that we were looking at some old teaching records and we decided to check on an old investigator.  We went to the house and there was a Muslim man living there.  Not exactly what we were looking for.  But then, a couple of houses down we saw this woman getting out of her car.  She looked like she might speak Spanish, but by the time we made it to her house she had gone inside.  We decided to knock her door.  She answered, and without asking any questions she just said, "come in, it's cold."  No questions, no funny looks, nothing.  It was a miracle.  I've never had anyone just let two American girls with name tags in their door like that before.  It turns out that her dad had taken the lessons on was baptized 20 or 30 years ago in Bolivia and she had sat in on all of them and the assistants to the President went to the ward they went to and everything.  She even has one of their name tags.  She loved church and she loved the change she saw in her dad and how much he was focused on their family and how loving he became.  She was never baptized so we gave her a Book of Mormon and we did a quick review with the Restoration pamphlet and it turned out so well.  She is married, which is awesome, and has a two year old son.  She would love to come to church and wants us to come back.  When we left her home, she said, "thanks for knocking on my door."  That's also something we never hear.  There are blessings, miracles even, in being obedient.  

We also had another miracle this week.  We had a baptism last night.  Here's the story.  There's a woman in our ward who is just awesome,  She decided to serve a mission when she was 28 because that's what the Lord told her to do, and she's just awesome.  Well we went to her house to have lunch with her earlier in the transfer.  While we were there we asked her to revelation question and she just pointed to the other guy that was there.  His name is Edgar and he lives in her house and had been taking the lessons from the elders a few months back.  He comes to church every Sunday and is just the nicest guy.  So that was all good and well, we shared a nice spiritual thought with them and had intentions to come back and teach Edgar.  The following Sunday he all of a sudden tells the elders that he wants to get baptized.  What?!  We were so excited, and a little jealous that he talked to the elders and not us and that the elders got to finish teaching him, but all is well.  The important thing is that he got baptized.  The service last night was so beautiful and the Spirit was so strong.  This baptism has been a long time coming.  It was so amazing, I wish I could put it into words, but they wouldn't be sufficient.  Just such a sense of peace and happiness, joy really, and Edgar was so happy.  I was also playing the piano and translating for the English elders who had brought an investigator, so it was a little stressful, but so so good.  After the service we were talking to him and he said, when you asked the question at our house that day, that's what got me thinking about getting baptized.  So thank you.  The church is true.  I love this gospel because it is truly the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's what gives us lasting joy and happiness.  It makes it so our families can be together forever, and it's let's us know where we're going.  I love being a missionary and I love having the privilege of representing Jesus Christ and being allowed to see miracles.  I'm just so full of love for everything today.  And I especially love you guys.  You're so important to me and I miss you so much and I can't wait to see you again, but I know that this is where the Lord wants me and that we are all being blessed as a family because of it.  I love you all so much.

xoxo,

Hermana Simpson

This is also funny, but every time Hermana Stewart emails home she uses a different celebrity name for me.  So I've been Brittney Spears, Taylor Swift, and this week it's Mariah Carey.  Cool? 

Also, Kelley, I did not get a single letter from you this past week.  It was a very sad mail week.

The Next Closest Thing to Being a Character at Disneyland‏

Hola Familia!

I love you so much!  It sounds like you are doing well!  Sorry about no email yesterday.  I don't know who had the great idea of making basically every national holiday on a Monday, but it stinks when you are a missionary.  You kids are champs.  Good job and working hard and being so good at the sports you play.  Why didn't I get any basketball genes?  I'm sorry it's been so cold.  It's been cold here too.  Well, kind of.  Last week was glorious!  Like in the 50's all week long.  And then yesterday was nice too.  And then we woke up this morning and walked outside of our apartment to go to district meeting today and it was 23 degrees!  I think we've made it up to about 26 now.  I don't know what happened, but I want the warm weather back.  I know it's only January, but I'm so ready for Spring.  

Let's see, what's happened in the past week?  Let's just say we've had better weeks.  We had a lot of good plans and goals for this week, but almost every single one of our appointments cancelled.  So that was a bummer.  And Saturday we went through all of our plans and all of our backup plans in about an hour.  That was a very long day!  We had a lot of good things happen too.  Remember the guy that called us last week from the pass along card?  Well he's been reading the Libro de Mormon and he likes it!  He was a bit confused about church on Sunday--he thought we wouldn't be there and that it would be in English, so he didn't come.  We cleared that up real quick.  We also met him last night and did an FHE with the single adults from the ward.  We played SkipBo and one of the members gave a really good spiritual thought about studying the scriptures and doing it with the Spirit so that we can learn what the Lord wants us to know.  It was really good for Rafael to be able to come and meet people.  He told us that he was really wanting to meet people because he's only lived here for about six months.  FHE!  I can't think of a better way.  So that was really good.  I'm really excited for him to be able to learn more.  

We also went back to those people that we found knocking last week and had the first lesson with them.  And we found out that they are Agnostic.  I'm not super familiar with what that means, but I think they might believe in everything.  They're super nice and they want us to come back and they want to learn more.  We're really just going to have to focus on helping them understand that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Church of Jesus Christ.  

We've had a few other lessons that went really well and when we were visiting one of our members this week her son was there.  This is a big deal because her son is very inactive and went off the deep end when he was still in high school.  As in drugs, jail, the whole shebang.  He's never really acknowledged us before, but this week we sat down and talked for almost an hour just answering his questions and bearing testimony.  He told us that he really wants to come back to church, that he's always like church and that he knows it's true.  He told us that even when he was making all those bad decisions he always knew Joseph Smith was a prophet, and he told us how he came to gain his testimony.  What he needs now is to be truly converted.  To be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to come back and get his life in order.  It was a really good experience.  I think once he realized that we weren't there to judge him, but just to help him, that he really opened up.  

That's the beautiful thing about the gospel.  We all need it because we're all imperfect.  We need help and complete access to the Atonement of Jesus Christ is what heals us and gives us purpose and direction.  I really love being a missionary.  Most of the time it's super hard, I'm not sure if it will ever get easy.  But it's so worth it.  Transfers are next week and I'm just sitting here thinking about where I was three months ago when I first got here.  About how much I've learned and how much I've grown.  I still have so far to go, but hopefully someday I'll get there.  Just like anything, being a missionary, at least the missionary I want to be, doesn't happen overnight.  But with patience and diligence I know I can become the missionary that I want to be, but more importantly the missionary that Heavenly Father wants me to be.  

We had a really good district meeting today.  There's going to be a lot of changes being made in our mission, but we're really excited for them.  Some of them will be hard, like having any lesson after the first lesson in members  homes, especially when the majority of your investigators don't have cars.  But it's what President Riggs wants.  We're also making some changes to how we go about teaching the lessons, and it will be a change, but it will be worth it.  Some of the elders were having a hard time with it and don't want to change.  The way I see it though, this is revelation coming from Heavenly Father.  It's what he wants and it's what the mission needs to be more successful and to bring more people unto Christ.  It's not really about what we want, but what God wants.  If we're not here to do His will, I'm not sure why we're here.  It's an opportunity to prove our faith and lay hold upon blessings from being obedient.  

I wish I had some funny stories to share with you, but nothing too funny has happened this week.  And why didn't you respond to my mouse story from last week?  It was funny.  Do you even read my emails?!  Just kidding.  I know you do.  

We have had some super fun pdays the last two weeks though.  Last week we went bowling as a district at Fort Meyers, which is an Army/Marines base. It's super cheap there.  We got there and they search your car and everything before you can actually go on base.  I had no idea that civilians were even allowed to go on base just to hang out and do something as silly as bowling.  It was a lot of fun though.  Except for the fact that I might be the worst bowler in the world.  Yep.  I definitely came in last place.  So I'll send some pictures from that.  The sad thing is that one of the Elders from our district went home on Friday.  He's been having some knee issues and had to go home to get them taken care of.  The cool thing is though that he's from LA and will probably be spending a lot of time at the LA Visitors Center.  So tell Grandma and Grandpa to look out for Elder Anchondo Perez.  It was really sad to see him go.  Our district is super close and we all get along really well, so that was kind of a bummer.  We went to Krispy Kreme to say our last goodbyes, hence the pictures.  

Then yesterday we went to Costco for lunch!  Yes, Costco!  It was wonderful.  Hermana Stewart and I did some exploring afterwards and tried all the samples.  As you already know, Mondays are not prime sample days, but we were happy with what we got.  And a member bought us all lunch.  Thanks member!  It's almost like being a celebrity at Costco because at least 50% of the customers are members and they all say hi to the missionaries and do nice things like buy your lunch and introduce you to the kids and such.  Hermana Stewart thinks it's the next closest thing to being a character at Disneyland.  She's probably right.  After our Costco extravaganza we met up with some other missionaries from our zone and played volleyball and soccer.   

So that's about all I have for this week.  I love you all so much and I hope you're all doing wonderfully.

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

Two Miracles and One Not So Miracle‏

Hola Familia!

I love you all so very much! It sounds like you're doing a good job of keeping busy. And Kelley is awesome! Good for her for being so good at basketball. And it I'm starting to sense a common theme with Cam's wrestling. I think the past three emails Scott has been mad that Cam didn't pin the guy. Maybe he should just get over it. And yay for Nate! So glad that he's liking it and that he's doing well. Hopefully that's helping drain some of his energy so he goes to bed at night. Are you still reading Harry Potter? I hope so!

Funny that you should mention working with the child life specialist. I was sitting in Relief Society yesterday and I was thinking about real life and had this huge panic attack about what I was going to do with the rest of my life and how I was going to get back into the swing of things again and how I was going to get home in the summer and have to apply for grad school in the fall and take classes and all of that stuff about real life. And I was super stressed out for about 37 seconds. And then I realized that I basically have a million years before I have to worry about all of that again. I have way more important things to worry about right now.

I hope that you do well on your test today. I'll be thinking about you and praying for you. I'm sure you'll do great. You're so smart. And I'm so proud of you, Mum. If there was ever an example of hard work and perseverance and general awesomeness in my life, it's you. Thank you for teaching me to set high goals and to work hard to achieve them.

I think that whatever you send Dani, she will love, but the pillowcase and goodies is a great idea! She especially loves chocolate. Tell her I love her. I sent her a card last week, hopefully she's gotten it by now.

And Jackson, I knew it!! I'm so happy for him! I got a letter from him last week and he told me about his novia and how she came home with him for a little bit, so I had my suspicions. I will be very disappointed if I don't get a wedding announcement.

This week was a pretty good week for us. I think I'm finally starting to adjust to this whole missionary thing. At least every day doesn't seem like it lasts a year anymore.

We had zone conference this week, and that was a much needed spiritual boost. And we got fed lunch! We talked a lot about how to extend invitations and help investigators keep commitments and also how to follow up. President Riggs also talked about the talk from Conference, "What Will a Man Give in Exchange for His Soul." If you get a minute, you should reread it. I was reading it again this morning and I learned a lot of new things. We also had our cars checked, and Hermana Stewart and I won the award for the cleanest car, which means we get an extra 100 miles this month! See, I can be clean in some things!

We've seen some miracles this week. It's been really cool. Heavenly Father is so involved in this work. On Wednesday night after zone conference we were checking up on a less active family, except the address that we had for them didn't exist. Yep. That happens pretty often. So, we decided to just check the apartment number in the building with the closes address. No one answered. As we were walking down the stairs I felt this impression that we should knock the door of the apartment under the one we thought the family lived in. I kind of brushed it aside though and kept walking down the stairs because it was late and we had one more family to check before we went home. But the thought just kept repeating through my mind. So we get to almost the door of the building and I told Hermana Stewart that I felt like we needed to go back up and knock that door. She asked if it was even Hispanic and I just said that we needed to try. So we listened to see if we could hear anything and sure enough, the TV was on, in Spanish. So we knock and there are three middle aged men just chilling in the living room. One invited us to come in and we were about to ask if there were any women home when the man in the back corner pipes up and says, "they can't come in, there's no women here." Um what?! So I look at him and I'm like how did you know? And he tells us that he had been to the temple's visitor's center and had been taking the missionary discussions before, kind of, but then he just kind of lost contact with the missionaries. And his friends had heard of Joseph Smith and they were all like yeah, come back when our wives are home, we really want to learn more. And you can tell us all about that big temple in Maryland. Guess who has maybe finally learned how to listen to the Spirit. This kid. I felt like a real missionary. It was a really neat experience and we're headed back tomorrow to go and see them and their wives.

Then last night, during correlation, we got this phone call. We didn't answer it, but the guy left a message. He said he was interested in learning more about the church. So I called him back and this is what happened: He moved here from Honduras six months ago and has been looking for a church to go to here. Last week he ran into some of the English speaking sisters on the street and they gave him a pass along card with our phone number. He told us that when he got it he intended to throw it away, but he left it in his car. He found it on Sunday and decided to give us a call. So we met him at the church last night and taught him all about the restoration. He's definitely interested and is very excited to read the Libro de Mormon and come to church. I still can't believe he called us. From a pass along card! That has never happened before.

I was thinking a lot about these experiences and similar ones from the past two weeks and I realized that I am seeing miracles here. My first transfer was so hard and there was a lot of heartbreak during those six weeks, and I sometimes felt like Heavenly Father had just thrown me here and fed me to the wolves. I was so ready to see miracles and to be my definition of successful. And that's not what happened. I was ready for everyone's great mission miracle stories to happen to me. And it just seemed like that was not going to happen for me. And I realized that those miracles that people talk about are miracles because they don't happen every day. But I also realized that there are other miracles that I have seen on a day to day basis. This is the Lord's work and He is preparing His children. And He is preparing and molding and shaping me as well. And I feel so blessed that He's given me the opportunity to be a part of it. I really like being a missionary. I really love the opportunity to share my testimony multiple times a day. I really am starting to see people not for who they are now, but for the potential that they have and what they came become through the knowledge of the gospel. It is truly what brings us the most happiness. I know it.

We also had a not so miracle this week. We have a mousy mouse living in our house and I think he's pretty smart because he won't get stuck in our trap. Boo. I've spotted him once and Hermana Stewart has spotted him once. And we hear him and find his poopies. It's yucky. Hermana Stewart wants him dead. I feel bad wanting him dead. I just want him to find a nice home that's outside and not under our fridge.

Family, I love you so much. You are the best. I hope you have a good week. And Kelley, I got two letters from you this week. You win! I'm still working on yours, but as soon as I finish it'll be in the mail! I'm also sending a super awesome surprise that will be your birthday present. Love you so so so much.

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

NEED TO WORK ON CHARITY

Hola Familia!

I love you sooooo much!  It sounds like you all had a good break.  Too bad real life has to set back in.  Sounds like you had a good new year too!  We rang in the new year at 10:00 and went to bed by 10:30.  We did have some bubbly (of the sparkling cider variety) and some cream puffs though.  Ever since that one time we had cream puffs on New Years I always associate them with New Year's Eve.  And Brave is maybe the worst Disney/Pixar movie ever.  Hermana Stewart and I both agree that it's about an hour an a half of nothing.  And then we watched A Goofy Movie, which is the worst movie ever.  I didn't like it as a kid, and I still don't.  It was fun to be with the other missionaries though.  We just camped out in the Relief Society room and hung out.  Probably the only time that will happen, but President Riggs didn't want us to be out on the streets.  

We had such a good week this week!  We decided to focus really hard on reaching our goals this week, especially when it came to member present lessons and investigators that came to sacrament meeting.  As I've mentioned before, we've had some trouble working the ward.  Before I got here there were some disobedient missionaries that really damaged the relationship with the ward and how much the ward trusts the missionaries, which is really a shame, because Old Town used to be one of the best wards in the stake for missionary work.  Our district is finally in a state that we can start trying to repair the damages.  And one of the ways that we feel that we can go about that is really focusing on the members.  We've been trying to do that in two different ways.  First, President Riggs feels very strongly that we pick about 15 families in the ward that we see on a weekly basis to ask them The Revelation Question.  Basically we ask them if they have received revelation for a way that we as missionaries can serve their family, their friends, or their neighbors.  This has been a struggle in the past because for some reason our people haven't been getting the gist of what we've been trying to ask and they always tell us just to pray.  We are praying.  We want to do more!  And what we really want is referrals!  So this week we decided to revamp The Question and really focus on the revelation part and working together as members and missionaries to bring people to Christ.  We also made more of an effort to actually visit our people.  It's really hard to see them because we cover an entire zone.  We live at the bottom of the zone and sometimes to visit the people that live at the top of the zone in Arlington, it takes us an hour to drive there.  Not because it's that far, but because there is always traffic here!  So we made a real point to plan and set up appointments with our members and it's gone really well.  We still haven't visited all 15 due to people not being home and such, but we have visited and asked more members that we ever had in the past!  The second area that we've decided to focus on is member present lessons.  I tell you, I'm gaining such a testimony of what members can do to up the spirituality of a lesson.  Our goal was to have eight member present lessons this week and we had nine!  And there were times during lessons that our members bore, sweet powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.  And sometimes when we didn't know what to say, our member was right there to jump in and answer our investigator's questions way better than we ever could.  Some of those lessons would have turned out very differently if it had just been Hermana Stewart and I.  I think it's really been a testimony strengthening experience for all those that have been involved, and especially for me.  Our members are so strong and they really do care that other people have the chance to hear and receive and be blessed by the gospel.  And I think through putting in the extra effort of planning and setting up lessons where members can come too we will all see the work progress further.  Also, Mom, I would love it if you would send lesson ideas to do with members and ward missionaries.  I really liked the Alma fortress idea, but I don't remember it, so it would be super helpful if you could just send me some ideas.  Thanks so much for that.  I would love to do more hands on things, but I think I'm lacking in the creativity department.  

So the other night, I felt like a real missionary.  I really don't like street contacting, because it's still really hard for me to talk to strangers.  I know I just need to put my big girl panties on and get over it, but it's harder than you think.  Anyway, the other night we were at this apartment complex where one of our investigators live.  We were just checking on them because we had invited them to come to a baptism the day before and they stood us up.  The didn't answer the door that night either, so we went back to the car.  Well there is a bus stop right in front of where we had parked.  And there was a man standing there.  And from the looks of it, he was Hispanic   I put my scriptures and my bag in the back seat and was about to get in the car when the guy looked at me.  I said buenas and smiled but didn't really have any intention of doing anything else, when all of a sudden I found myself walking up and introducing myself and my companion.  I gave him a pass along card, and my companion started talking to him about church and stuff.  And he realized we were Mormons!  A lot of people think that we are Testigos, so that was a bonus!  He said that there was a beautiful Mormon church close to where he lived in Honduras that he would pass every day on his way to work.  He also asked us for our phone number so that he could call us when he had a little bit more time.  I don't know if anything will actually come of it, but at least a seed was planted.  And I'm getting better at talking to strangers!  

Our church time changed to 1:00, which is awesome, so yesterday morning we had some time to check on some references before heading to the chapel.  As it happens, there were also some Testigos that were also out in the same apartment complex.  Super awkward!  So we went tracting with Testigos yesterday morning.  

As church was ending we were talking to one of our members and he has a three year old son named Chris that is super naughty.  But he loves me.  I don't know why, but all the naughty ones love me.  We were saying goodbye and I knelt down to see if Chris would give me a besito (a kiss on the cheek).  And he did!  And then one of the young women in the ward came up and wanted one too.  We'll just say that this certain young woman is basically all the things I do not like about Provo all rolled into one 17 year old.  And of course everyone just adores her and blah blah blah, you know the type.  Everyone that is, except Chris.  He refused to give her a besito.  He wouldn't even look at her.  He ran away and hid behind his dad.  Hermana Stewart and I both got a certain (large) amount of satisfaction from that.  I know, I know, I really need to develop charity.  It was funny though.

Well family, email time has come to an end.  I love you so much, and I miss you tons.  Be good this week (Nathan!).

xoxo

Hermana Simpson

p.s. Kelley, you've stepped it up when it comes to letter writing.  I'm going to write you an awesome one today!  And it sounds like you had a good birthday.  Loves.

Christmas Came . . .

Hola Familia!

 

I love you soooo much!  I can't beieve that Christmas has come and gone like that! We've had a crazy week.  Christmas Eve was Pday.  We had made sugar cookies the day before and needed to drop them off to some members and then we went to the stake center and met up with a bunch of other missionaries to play games and have fun.  That night we ate dinner with two different members.  Oops.  First we had posole, which is a Mexican soup with corn and meat and deliciousness that you eat with tostadas and then we had mole negro, which is this sauce that you typcially put on chicken and it is made out of chiles and chocoalte and nuts.  Hermana Stewart does not like it at all.  Then it was Christmas.  We love our rice bags!  They keep us so warm.  And our pillowcases!  Especially mine.  Hermana Stewart loves you now, Mom! Then I made biscuts and gravy for breakfast.  It wouldn't be Christmas without that.  And then we got to Skype!!  That was so fun.  I wish we could have talked for longer.  And that Brady's internet connection was better.  But it was soooo good to see you.  We had all day on Christmas free, so we went to a place called Old Town, which is in the heart of Alexandria and is where the rich white people live.  The street goes all the way down to the Potomac and is lined with trees that have been strung with lights.  It's a really fun little place, so we walked around there for a bit just enjoying the lights.  And then a homeless guy asked us for money but we didn't have any cash.  Really truly.  And he told us we were pathetic.  Sorry buddy.  I felt a little bad about that.  Because I couldn't help him, and because he was mean.  But the rest of the day was so good.  We also watched the Forgotten Carols, and we've been singing the cheesy songs all week.  We didn't teach as many lessons as we usually teach, things were a little bit crazy with Christmas and what not, but hopefully this week we'll be back on track. 

Yesterday we had a meeting with the bishop as a district.  Our ward covers the entire stake and there are three sets of missionaries (our entire district) that are in the ward.  We've been having a really hard time working with the ward lately.  I guess some of the missionaries in the past have made it really hard for the ward members to trust them and the ward has become less and less helpful with missionary work.  So now we're in repair mode.  We have a new district leader and he's really dedicated to the work and willing to do whatever it takes to get the ward back on its feet again, so hopefully we'll start seeing some success. 

This week we also passed one of our investigators to the elders.  He's a single guy that we've been teaching at the library, but he's kind of scary.  Kind of a lot.  And he talks and talks and talks forever.  So Thursday we had a hand off lesson and invited the elders so they could meet him, I think he was mad that we brought the elders along.  He insulted everyone there but me.  Probably because I was the only one that was nice to him.  Everyone else told him that if he wanted to truly learn then he needed to stop talking and give us a chance to talk and teach.  Definitely true, but I think it might have offended him. 

We had a really neat lesson with the Peruvian family that we're teaching.  Hermana Stewart and I have really been working on how to better help our investigators understand why the Book of Mormon is so important and why it's absolutely essential that they gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  We were reading a chapter with this family (they haven't been reading) and we decided to read 3 Nephi 11, which is a typical missionary chapter, but we felt pretty strongly that we needed to read it.  So we did.  And we got to the part about Jesus letting the people come to him one by one, and Spanish just started coming out of my mouth.  I don't even remember everything that I was saying, but I know that it was what our people needed to hear.  I know that that this is the Church of Jesus Christ.  That he leads and directs it and that it is for everyone.  Everyone needs what the gospel has to offer, whether they realize it or not.  It's the only way we find true happiness.  It's the only way that we can live with our families forever.  It's more than just a nice idea and pretty words.  It's a reality.  And every person needs to discover that for his or her self.  And at that moment I felt so strongly our investigators needed to know that I know that.  Without a doubt.  And I know it's true for them too.  After that, it was really neat, because the mom started asking us questions about repentance.  It was really neat.  I actually felt like a missionary!

I have something to tell you family:  If you can think of anyone that has been prepared to hear the gospel, please tell the missionaries!  Especially families.  That's what we're here for.  And it makes it so much easier for us to teach people when they come from member referrals.  I know that there are people here in Washington, East (as Grandpa calls it) that have been prepared by the Lord and our now ready to embrace the gospel.  But I also know that there are people at home too that have also been prepared and are ready.  The funny thing is, you probably know who they are better than the missionaries.  I'm starting to gain a strong testimony of how important members are in this work.  It not only makes the work easier, but it makes it so much powerful.  Members play such a huge role in helping people become truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's my hope that we can better work together here in my mission and also that you can help the missionaries there.  It's never too early or to late to start working with the missionaries.  Cheesy as that sounds, I know it's true. 

What are you going to do for New Year's?  We are going to stay up until 10:30!  And we've also been commanded to go to the Stake Center to watch Brave tonight!  Since what people usually do on New Year's isn't really condusive to missionary work, we're staying in tonight.  We had to cancel a dinner appointment, which is kind of a bummer, but it will be fun to watch Brave with the zone. 

So that's about it for this week.  I love you all so much.  It sounds like everyone is doing really good at sports.  I just wish Kelley's entire team played as good as she did.  Then they would never lose!  And when you talk about wrestling, I hope you know that I pretty much understand half of what you're saying.  But go Cam!  I hope you have a good week this week and that you all choose that right and choose the write.  As in choosing to write me letters.  I'm so clever!  Love you bunches.

xoxo

Hermana Simpson