This has been kind of a crazy week...

Dear Fambly, 

Well Mom you were definitely inspired when you sent those tips on how to be more effective at learning. I have been struggling a little bit lately with having meaningful and productive studies every morning and I was wondering somethings that I could do to get a little bit better. So that helped. I think I get worried sometimes that I have to get something out of the scriptures every time I read and that reminded me that sometimes I can just read the scriptures purely for the sake that I love them. And it turns out that when I did that I started getting more out of it anyways haha. Funny how that works. Thanks for sending those.

That is funny that Sister Sant sent you a little message. It was funny, after a Zone meeting we all went out to lunch and when we got there I saw Sister Jackson, a member from the Plaquemine Branch, that I knew really well. So we talked for a little while and she was there with her friend who knows you guys. She said," Oh my gosh, I know your dad and Lisa. I even know Stan and Wendy from pioneer trek." Little connections everywhere. 

That is crazy that Emma's birthday is coming up. Time is really flying by. I don't have a ton of time today, sorry We went to Costco with a member today and then we are getting picked up by some missionaries soon. That was a blessing though we bought some stuff and bulk and I think we won't be starving anytime soon. We bought that huge thing of pancake mix and we are pretty sure that will be feeding missionaries in that apartment into next year.

This has been kind of a crazy week. And even after a few weeks it is still taking some adjusting too. We have definitely seen some really cool miracles since we have been here, but at the same time all the time in between there has been hard to fill up. Sometimes feels like we aren't missionaries, just because we don't do a lot of missionary things all the time. I am slowly coming out of that attitude, because we are fulfilling our purpose in other ways and I have to remember that we are still trying to get the area started for Elders. And when I think about that or tell people about how sometime it is difficult, I am immediately reminded of some of the tender mercies that we have haha so here are a few. 

Wednesday was probably one of the coolest days of my mission, not in terms of any huge miracles happening, but being able to see the scripture "through small and simple things, great things come to pass " come true. So we made a goal that we were going to pass out 10 Book of Mormons that day. So we filled up my bag and went on our way. When we got on campus there were tons of people around for the club kick offs. So there were just people everywhere. We were able to talk to some people and one guy even came up to us and asked if he could come to our activities. We were able to carry one woman's stuff to her car for her and she gave us free sunglasses. And then there was a guy who wanted a picture with us because we were Mormon. During all of these opportunities we were able to pass out Book of Mormon's. We kept on going, knocking on doors and talking to people on the bus. We even had a miracle where we found a Spanish Book of Mormon in the Zone Leaders car when we were talking to a spanish family while getting some dinner. By the end of the day we were able to pass out 16 Books. It was cool to see Heavenly Fathers hand in that. At the end of the day we had a lesson with a recent convert named Kyle and that was the strongest I have felt the spirit in a long time. We talked about the plan of Salvation. We ended up talking about how we know and love a lot of people from the pre-existence. My testimony also grew in the atonement on how real it is. Christ loves us so much. 

Hey I gotta run, the missionaries are here to pick us up. I will send some pictures next week.

I love yall,

Elder Soper