An insanely crazy, busy, rewarding week!

Dear family,

Oh me oh my... where to begin?? This week has been so much fun but also exhausting. Everyday has been jam packed, but I love how busy we always are. I got emails from Borgs, Mom, Dad, and Sum this week - oh joy! I love hearing from each of you. Thank you thank you. I also got a fresh container of honey from Wendy (I haven't tried it yet because I'm waiting to run out of the honey i already have but I am just giddy with excitement about it!), and 2 huge letters from Jordan and Samantha. Every one of those mail deliveries were much needed and I've been overwhelmed with gratitude for all the support I've received from back home! 

The Ward Rescue on Saturday was incredible. I was so impressed with the organization of it all and the joint efforts of the whole ward. Seriously, everyone was on fire! We had 3 different shifts throughout the day - 9AM, 12PM, and 3PM. Ward members who came at each shift received a bag of 3 households to visit and then went into the Relief Society room to get a 15 minute training before going out to visit the homes. Our ward mission leaders explained that the purpose behind the rescue was to contact those individuals we don't know and see A. If they still live there, B. what they're like, and C. if they're interested in having home and visiting teachers come visit them every month. Then we'd offer them an invite to a ward picnic we're having by the lake next month. After each visit, the ward members would write down their observations and mark whether the households were "hot, warm, or cold" (AKA interested, semi-interested, or not interested at all in the church). If someone wasn't home, the name would be brought back and set in a bag for the next shift. Members came back with some really awesome stories, and out of the 120 households, we contacted 90, 29 no longer live at their listed address, 30 still need to be visited, and 5 were very "hot" and interested in coming back to church. I was overwhelmingly impressed with the enthusiasm of the ward and the leaders. I am just so grateful. Sister Cook and I have so much work to follow-up on from that Day of Miracles, and we are thrilled to get busy this week. And to top off the day, we had Tammy's baptism.... Does that sound like a solid missionary day or what?? Everything turned out beautifully. 

Tammy

Self defense, a wedding, and packages

Dear Family,

Sister Cook and I were so busy all week. On Monday after emailing, we went straight into the church gym and had our ward mission leader, Brother Hauck, teach us some self-defense. He works for the government in the Department of Interior and has been through 4 police academies, so he knows his stuff.. part of his job is actually training other federal cops how to fight, so this was the real deal, haha. We loved it! Not that we're in any kind of danger really, but it's good to know how to defend ourselves. The other sisters serving in Havasu joined us, and we had a great time learning how to throw a good punch and kick ;) 

There's a woman in the ward who got married this week and she invited us to her wedding ceremony at the Bishop's home. The last wedding ceremony I can remember going to is probably Danny and Brittany's way back when, so it was an interesting experience being there. Bishop had been out of town for a week, so we hadn't seen him in a while, and it was refreshing to see his face light up with a smile when we walked into his house for the ceremony. He hadn't been expecting us, and he came right up and asked how the work has been and what news there was since he'd been gone. It was one small evidence of the confidence and trust ward members are developing in us! It's so rewarding, and seriously makes all the difference.