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FRIENDS & FAMILY!

i love you all so much! hope you had a great thanksgiving and most importantly, i hope you spent the day thinking about how blessed we are to have the gospel of jesus christ in our lives and to have families that last forever. i was particularly grateful for my own family that day, even though were were miles apart, i was grateful to know that they were at home having a wonderful meal together in a home that loves our savior and lives the gospel daily.

transfers happened! i am with sister mendenhall now and she is absolutely great! we get along so well, and the spirit is so strong when we teach together. we had a great lesson with a new investigator last night and i was once again able to invite someone to be baptized. she said she isn't sure yet, but that's okay! you start with the big question, baptism, and then you invite them to read the book of mormon and pray - those invitations seem much easier after you ask someone to be baptized. she said the sweetest, most sincere prayer at the end of our lesson and even though she said she didn't want to until later that night, she ended up praying specifically to know if the book of mormon was true.

we now have two sets of missionaries for the ysa group! the APs (elder jellito and elder miyasaki) will be helping us with our area throughout december (festival of lights at the VC) and possibly even after december. i am really excited to work with them! the four of us taught a lesson a few nights ago, and holy smokes, those elders are amazing!! i felt like i was the camera crew on the district, filming two great elders teaching an amazing lesson. i learned a lot from them that night, and also learned that i am not a perfect teacher, nor will i ever be. it was a humbling experience to watch two experienced missionaries teach. i felt down at first, a feeling that continued even into the next day, but that experience is what allowed me to better rely on the lord and recognize that the elders taught so well because they were in tune with the spirit. my spirits were lifted as sister mendenhall and i taught a little "how to teach" lesson in ward coordination. we shared elder zwick's simply and intensify method and my testimony of that grew immensely. the gospel really is simple and a testimony is really the best way to invite the spirit to be the last to speak.

i get to drive again!!!! 2 months later and i finally get to drive again! i was so sick of always being the missionary standing out in the cold backing up my companion. it's just nice to contribute more, and not always be in the passenger seat. i'm still learning my way around, but that GPS is a life saver - thanks for sending it!! the streets here are craaazy.

we went to teach someone who has been investigating for a while now, and he is a ysa so we get to start teaching him! we thought we were in the right place, but turns out we weren't. we walked around in the rain for 30 minutes searching for his apartment. thank goodness we finally found it!

FESTIVAL STARTS TONIGHT! yikes. tonight is when all the diplomats come in. it will be a non-proselyting night, and more of a "look at my smile and see the light of christ in my eyes as i hang your coat up". yep, i'm the coat check sister (along with a few others). i was told that they put the organized sisters there.

the neatest thing...
so there are a lot of hispanics in the area, and i of course don't speak spanish. my VC companion for the night did though, and we were assigned a spanish tour. i stood and smiled (and also met elder welch who asked me if i was taylor's sister) and nodded, because i didn't have a clue as to what was going on. she was from el salvador, but at one point sister shaw forgot and thought she was from honduras. we were looking at the temple kiosks, so she went to show her a picture of the temple in her home, but instead of el salvador, she pulled up honduras! i took that as a tender mercy from heavenly father. i sort of pictured dad being in honduras speaking with people just like this great woman who was investigating the church. it was just a really neat experience, even though i was sort of out of the loop as to what was going on. i'm just so glad dad served and so glad that i can be serving now. AND NOW CUE CRYING ROWLEY FAMILY. if i'm crying, you must be too.

WE GET TO CHAT THIS TRANSFER!!!!!! i am sooooo excited! i'll keep you updated on my experiences!

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!