HAPPY BIRTHDAY LENNON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you have the best day ever :)
Last Monday, we ate with this cute old couple. Their house was DARLING!!!! Oh my gosh!! I was going crazy!! It is this charming old home that is over 100 years old. It is in such a cool part of FOCO and just gorgeous! It got me thinking so much about design and how much I want to flip homes!! Ah! I love it! :)
And at another dinner appointment we had Honey Bunches of Oats for dessert!! Who knew you could serve breakfast for dessert…yum!!
Last week we had cats on our car, this week we saw dogs on a truck!! I just thought I would remind everyone that I live in COLORADO :) That is how they roll here!!
We had an awesome dinner with the Cameron's yesterday! Denae and her husband Brenden (Maude’s cousins!) Oh my gosh I love them! They are so cool and real. It is very refreshing! ha! The dinner was positively one of my absolute favorites of my whole mission! They grilled corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers, and this delish mango salsa and a to-die-for black bean and avocado salsa and grilled chicken. We put all of it on a salad with homemade cafe rio dressing! Oh me, oh my! It was fantastic!! :)
On Friday night we burned skirts! haha! This is a mission tradition when Sisters hit the one year mark. Hna. Smith hit her 13 month mark and still hadn’t burned a skirt. I burned one too even though it was too early :) ha! You know, when you have a fire, you better take advantage of it!
A lot has happened this week! Wow! We went to a funeral of a lady in our ward. I never met her as she died right before I came. She was in her late 70's and died of cancer. She was a nun for close to 20 years and then left and ended up adopting 3 boys. She sounds like an amazing lady! And she moved to Fort Collins about 10 years ago. After she became a member of the church, she served 2 missions! Super cool!! She recorded her testimony before she died and they played it for us. Oh boy, it was beautiful! So touching :) Really neat to hear!
We had a surprise Zone Conference this week! It was a "Brown Conference" Ha! President Brown's Dad and 2 of his brothers came to see him. And so they all spoke and we got to meet his family. One of his brothers didn't have an arm... and the other limped really really bad! They made sure to let us know that President Brown has a fake tooth. Hahaha!! His Dad was so adorable! They told stories and experiences from their missions. The one that I thought was the coolest was from his brother Mike who served in Florida and he had an investigator that was progressing a lot. And his brother, Barry, who was also at the zone conference, was serving in Italy. Mike's investigator moved to Italy right to Barry's area, so Barry taught him and baptized him!!! How cool is that!! What a testimony of miracles!!!
We went “finding” in Old Town on Friday night. They have these really cool pianos placed around town that people have painted. We set up in front of one and an Elder played and some of us sang hymns, while the rest went around talking to people. Hna. Smith approached this guy who was watching us and he lost it. He went on for ever saying how Mormonism is like a “company” and they are brilliant at making people think they are happy people because they just want to recruit and expand their "company". He would twist any words that she said. So she basically stood there as he told her we were crazy and wondered how could we believe in a church that has only been around for 100 years. He kept asking for her “30 seconds sales pitch”. Are you kidding - ugh! I walked over after a little bit and he asked me if I knew 100% that this was the only true church. Sister Smith told me when he asked her that she really thought about it because she wanted to be honest with him. And she had this overwhelming feeling that YES I DO KNOW THAT. I had a similar experience when he asked me. I knew without of shadow of a doubt that YES this is the only true church on the earth today. There are good people all over the world and there are truths and good things from all religions. But they do not have the fullness of the Gospel. As we reflected on that, we both just knew, YES this in the true church on the earth today! And how interesting that he was saying we were forcing religion down peoples throats when we sat there and took everything he said, and he was the one that was shoving down our throats the concept that religion is a joke and what we are doing as missionaries is a joke. People have their agency and we are here simply to invite. We are not here to shove anything down anyone's throats. It was very clear to us that we really are happy! And how grateful I am to INVITE people to feel that same happiness :)
We had 2 awesome lessons with John this week!! I am pretty sure he is going to get baptized next Saturday! I am so excited for him! He is great! I love teaching him! He and his family are out of town this week... so next week he will hopefully have his interview and be baptized! Please keep him in your prayers! He is nervous about having the Priesthood and the responsibility that comes with it.
We got a phone call on Saturday from one of the men on the Stake High Council. He said he was inviting a friend to hear him speak in church in one of the wards in our stake and that he does speak very much English and asked if we would translate. Oh boy. We were nervous! Neither of us have ever had to translate before! But we did it!(especially because we had recently been challenged to). Hermana Smith translated the first half and I did the second half. It was a very humbling experience. I know Heavenly Father helped me. It was scary and hard. I didn't do a great job. But I feel great about it nonetheless because I did something hard! That is the cool thing about the mission! It pushes you to do hard things and helps us realize how capable we are! It was a neat experience :)
Last of all... We had an amazing lesson with Luis last night. The spirit was really strong! He told us all about his life and hard things he has gone through. This poor kid has been through so much. It was amazing to be able to testify to him. He was crying. It was such a deep spiritual lesson. I love Luis so much! I am amazed at how far he has come! He is such an example to me! I feel so honored and blessed to know him!
I am doing so good right now! Today is going to be a great day! We are spending it with our favorite member in the ward! Niki!! She is darling!! She is going to take us out to a legit place to eat and she made a life-size jenga that we are going to play with and then the rest is a surprise. She has planned the whole day!! I am so excited!!!!!! :)
I love you all!! I am so grateful for you guys!! Thanks for your support! :)
LoVe,
HANNAH
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