Sept Semaine

Morning! Thanks for the cookies mom! They are delicious...I'm so sorry that the flags have been up all week at the beach. I guess that has given you a lot of time to play Nertz. Is it more fun without me dominating?! Just kidding of course. Hopefully you'll get at least one day in the water. So happy to hear that everything is going well otherwise.
I am anxious as you are to hear where Josh is called! Maybe he will get called French-speaking and inherit my teachers. I adore Sr. Stevens and Fr. Wadsworth. They have been such an amazing support in this whole MTC process. It is so clear that they were both amazing missionaries and I aspire to have as much conviction and charity as they do. Anyways send me a DearElder the minute he gets the call!
San Francisco was so much fun! We had to be at the travel office at 5am for our 9am flight! On the flight there I spoke with an amazing woman from San Fran. She drew me an incredibly detailed map of the city and gave me a list of approx. 100 things to do in the 2 hours we had! She was Apostolic and explained all of her beliefs and then I reciprocated! The conversation was amazing! I think the hardest thing about it was trying to decide what to tell her. There is so much doctrine and knowing what will make the difference is difficult. We ended up talking about the Plan of Salvation, the Restoration and the importance of prophets. Again...I have so many things that I can work on! I think it is easy to inform people about doctrine but getting them to FEEL the truth in the message is essential. Anyways, I think she left with a better impression of the church AND a pass along card:) We waited at the consolate for about 2 hours....and didn't end up having any time to see San Francisco. We were right next to Chinatown so we grabbed some Chinese food. It felt good to eat with chopsticks again! On the flight back I sat next to this 21 y/o kid from Billings. We talked all about his love for planes and his relationship with God. I thought things were going well until he asked for my number as we were getting off the plane! AHH...I guess I wasn't clear enough in explaining my purpose as a missionary! Haha thank heavens we don't have phones!

One quick last thought...
Sister Dalton came and spoke at relief society this past week. She is incredible! She talked all about how we love to stay in a comfort zone but we don't progress when we stay there. The Lord pushes us so that we can grow and learn. I feel like I am living proof of this principle. The French is still difficult and it is hard not being good at it! I feel like I usually understand things quickly and but not so much the case with the language. The French is pushing way outside my comfort zone boundaries! We just have to keep plugging at it and Heavenly Father will bless us for our efforts. HUMILITY! Anyways she concluded with D&C 123:16-17... I had never read that scripture and I think it has made it to my list of top ten. We do all we can and we are promised the the hand of God in our lives.

I LOVE YOU! good luck with the start of school and work and mission calls!