Hello Again - email from March 3, 2010

Sounds like things are going well out in AZ. I hope you are enjoying the sunny weather for me. We got snow again this morning. WEIRD!!! We are ready for the sun. I wonder if I'll still be saying that when I am sweating up a storm. Haha

Everything is going well here. We had a mission conference last Friday and it was pretty good. They had the Area Mental Health Advisor come and talk to us. It was really informative. I didn't necessarily leave spiritually uplifted, but I learned good things though.
I also got to see Sister Case. She is doing really good and is still in Salem. It was good to see her. We have a Sister's Meeting next week, so I'll get to see her then too. I usually see Sis. Cox every Sunday too. It's fun to see everyone! It feels like we have meetings all the time...I had to train on Recognizing & Eliminating Pride and Casualness at our District Meeting yesterday. It went pretty good I think. After I train I always sit down and wonder what it was I just said and if that is what I was supposed to say. Haha!

We took Sis. Woodard, a less active sister, to the Family History Library yesterday for a lesson. That was fun! We helped her start her pedigree chart. She's going to start coming to the FHL a few times a month. She is Greek, so it'll be really awesome for the temple work to get done for her family.

We started teaching another soldier. His name is Nunez. He has a lot of questions about everything. He is going to test my teaching skills and my knowledge that's for sure. We're trying to help him not eat the whole cake in one bite. Nunez is way awesome though. He didn't really grow up with too much religion. His family is Catholic, but he's only been a few times and didn't like it. The soldiers went on a temple trip Saturday and he went as well as Vader. It was awesome they both went. The only thing missing was Sis. Dickson and I :( But there is always after the mission!

We are still teaching Yinhoo (from Burma/Thailand, 16). He is so funny. Bro. Waller the YM pres. took him to a youth dance and I guess he had a really good time. He didn't know anyone or how to dance, but still had fun and met a lot of people. He went to YM a few days before though and said it was boring.  Ashley Pauley who was baptized in December was a referral from a YM. We are teaching a YM too. Her name is Briana. She is soooo quiet. Her mom just got deployed, so she is here with her dad and 4 siblings. None of the other family has come to any lessons though. She understands everything we teach her and she is so smart.

We've had some really great younger couples move in recently and the ward is starting to grow. And we've had some less active members come back too. Now if we can just get some recent converts...

The work is good here. I have this feeling that I will be around this ward for a long time. Who knows if that's true or not, but Sis. Dickson's been here almost 6 months and could very well leave soon, so I'm preparing to stick around for a little while. At the end of this transfer Sis. Cox will have 9 months in NN1.

We have exchanges this weekend with Hampton. Sis. Dickson gets to go to Hampton (jealous!) and Sis. Vawdery is coming to me. It should be a good time. I've heard she's quiet. I'm not, so this should be fun :)

Well I love you all and hope everything is going so good for you. I hope you are all able to be a part of the work in your own way. I really do want to hear about the small (or big) missionary opportunities that you are having. Sounds like Ryan is having a blast being a member missionary!