Thanksgiving (ish)

Hello loved ones!

 

How are y'all doing? This week I had my third incident of saying y'all with no intention of doing so...it simply just came out in a normal sentence. It kind of freaked me out but I guess I will just embrace it. Also a fun fact: I am typing this email at the computer for sight impaired. There is a huge yellow sign by me that says I am "sight impaired" and the keyboard is ginormous and bright yellow as well. Good thing I wore my glasses today or else people might question me.

 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Thank you for the Thanksgiving cards, the emails and the packages!! I got a few Christmas ones already and you bet we decorated our room - thank you Seegmiller and Gubler families!! I am excited for the season!!

A month from yesterday is when I will get to talk to you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I am excited?? I hope so. I promise I am still focused, but I do think about talking to you. It will be awesome :)

 

Oh, and I wanted to say congratulations to the future Sister Orgill! Honduras will be quite the adventure. We can be mission pen pals for sure. And thanks for the sweet Thanksgiving card Lindsey :) I am excited to have another cousin out in the field with me!!

 

So I guess I will highlight a few things from the week...

 

First off...Thanksgiving. The reason for my email subject is due to my holiday experience. It was not a bad day by any means, but it was not the same. Sister Blocker and I decided that our theme for this transfer and our companionship is awkward dinners.

So the family that we had Thanksgiving dinner with is awesome. I want you to understand that because I am not saying bad about them. They had kids in town with grandchildren so it was fun to be around family. We got there around noon and their kitchen was spotless with nothing on the counters. Sis Blocker and I looked at each other and just kinda smirked cause we knew where this could go with our past dinner history. Everyone was just relaxing and waiting around. They told us that all we had to wait on was the turkey. In my mind I was like, the rest of it is probably in the fridge or in the oven, etc. As we get ready to eat turns out that the only real Thanksgiving type of food was the turkey. We had quite the assortment of other food but it was not your traditional Thanksgiving food. It was just funny because they had other guests there too and they were like, "what about the stuffing, yams, cranberry, etc." haha. They were kind of teasing them, but I think they were also serious. It was fun nonetheless, but I will never forget it. (I just re-read this and realized it just sounds like I am picky and wasn't grateful for the meal. I guess it was a "you had to be there" experience).

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving with Kate who is in the YSA branch. She didn't have family there, so we wanted her to have company. We just chatted, made a pie, and read a bit of the Book of Mormon. It was a good way to spend the holiday.

After Kate, we really had not gotten over our Thanksgiving cravings. I was craving stuffing and yams like crazy cause I was so looking forward to it. We drove to the store but it was closed, of course. But the next day our dinner was a family's lefovers so I got the stuffing.

 

Anyways, sorry for the long not interesting story. This week did go well overall. It was a little slow with lessons just because everyone was out of town or they had family with them. We were able to meet with Rex before he went to Salt Lake to go to the temple. He was so excited and is so ready! Yesterday he told us that he had an amazing experience. We are excited to meet with him again and get more details about his trip.

 

We tried to contact a lot of referrals and less actives thsi week and weren't having a lot of success. But then we had a cool experience. The Lord always gives you something to be happy about even during a hard day :) We knocked on the door of a family who has a mormon message about them and everything. Their conversion story was put online and they area great family. Anyways, through time though they have become less active. It is super hard to get a hold of her and missionaries in the past haven't been able to work with them. But when we knocked, she was home! First miracle. She was on her way out the door so we asked if we could come back sometime and she said of course and gave us her number. Second miracle. We are so excited that they are willing to have us in their home! Hopefully this continues to go well and we can help them come back.

 

We did a lot of service this week. We helped the cookie lady again. We made cookies that taste like those orange chocolate covered jelly sticks...you know what I am talking about? They were so good. We also were able to go to Bingo and help at the old folks home again. I LOVE going to visit them especially during the holidays. They just thrive off of our visits and it makes me so happy that by us coming, their day is better.

 

 

We had wonderful lessons with Sister Kelly this week. She is one of the main less actives we work with. We were able to meet with her twice and we had wonderful spiritual experiences. She is so so close to coming back to church. She was so on board for yesterday and then her stinking alarm didn't go off. Really Satan? I was frustrated but I have complete faith in her that she will be a full time church goer soon :)

 

Yesterday was wonderful. All of the meetings were amazing! We had a wonderful Relief Society lesson on testimony and conversion based on Elder Bednar's talk from this past conference. One of our investigators Sister Jones opened up in RS and shared with everyone where she is at right now in her conversion! That is like a missionary's dream haha. We didn't have to sneak it out of her, she just opened up. It was a great experience and we are excited to meet with them this week.

In our branch council we watched some of the videos for the new youth curriculum the church introduced. I was so thrilled when I read through the outlines they have planned to teach. All of it is so in connection with preach my gospel and is totally towards preparing the youth for missions. I felt like a nerd but I was so happy. It is so exciting to be in the field during this change and it makes me even more excited for the youth. Heavenly Father is so ready for them to go on missions.

 

Well family, I think that's about it for this week. I did have a wonderful week though and this week looks like it will be great too! We have zone conference with 3 zones on Wednesday, so I am excited to see other sisters too!

I love you and am thankful for all you do for me! Have a great week. Know that I love you and am praying for you always!

 

Much love,

Sister Magness

 

P.S.

Picture explanations:

1. Me and Sister Kelly's daughter. I know I look insane in this pic but I love it because we both had no idea that we made the exact same ridiculous face. We are the same person. I love her.

2. Cutest baby in the world!!!! And the tag makes the pic even cuter. Other daughter of Sis Kelly.

3. Me and my comp with Kate and Amanda on Thanksgiving. Two recent converts who are incredible examples.