Week 59

Hello family!! :)

Alright I have to start with the most exciting thing of the week...I GOT TO GO BACK TO STEILACOOM!!!! :) It was the greatest thing of my whole life!!! :) There was a fireside and I got to sing "lead kindly light" in an acapella (however you spell it) group :) It was a lot of fun! :) And a bunch of people from Steilacoom and Chambers creek were there! :) It was de best! :) Both of my old bishops and their families and the Tangaro's and Stowers and Gherrings and Grandma Perkins from Steilacoom and recent converts from both! Juan Jon Kyle Anthony and Aiden his mom Emma and papa rich and emerald (his granddaughter)!!!! It was SO great!!! I love those people SOOOOOOOO much! Seriously they make my heart a puddle!!! I can't even handle it! I was so overwhelmed with spirit and love that I slept great last night! :) It took it out of me!  I was so happy! :) It was definitely the highlight of the week :) Emma came up to me after and she was crying like crazy and she told me that she was going to the temple soon!!! :) When I was in Steilacoom and we baptized Aiden she wasn't coming to church and drinking coffee and her house was a wreck! and she turned her entire life around and is going to the temple!!! I was so happy!! :) I was crying like a little baby :)  I love those people so much...it was the greatest thing ever! :) Almost like going home! :) I miss Terrance and Myk and Mike and Doug and Luis and Timothy and Michael and all those people (the list would go on for a while :) ), but I'm glad I got to see a few of my buddies! :)

anyways I’ll get to the rest of the week! Last Monday was way fun! It was the p-day that we could do stuff with the elders! And so we went to the driving range and hit some buckets of balls! It was a blast! I was pretty good! I think it's on behalf of TC constantly practicing his golf swing in the living room!!! ;) hahaha! Good times...it was fun though! I want to do it again! :) That night we had a way fun FHE with a part member family and they loved it! We got to play apples to apples with them and I won every time!  I told them we used to play games all the time so I was really good at it they didn't believe I was competitive :) on Tuesday we went and visited our wonderful old people in the nursing home! We are going to start a bible study there! with singing and such! it will be fun!  That night we had a lesson with Gary! He is doing better than he was last week...he's still kinda stuck in a rutt...but I think we helped him..I just want SO badly for him to be baptized!!! I don't really know what else to do...but I won't ever give up on him! He will be a Mormon one day! :) On Wednesday we had a way spiritual zone meeting! :) I cried. So there's this video called "Because of Him" that you HAVE to watch! Right now! It’s about the resurrection of Christ it can be found on Mormon.org/BecauseofHim or facebook.com/Mormon :) but the zone meeting was completely dedicated to the life and atonement of Christ. And I don't know why but it was just amazing! I love the Savior! and I'm so grateful for His love and sacrifice for me. And that because of Him I can stand in the presence of God, clean and pure! :) How amazing is that?! That night we had a lesson with Maria and she is just the sweetest lady ever! :) She gave us chocolate bunnies for Easter!! :) and she has no money...I swear she is SO giving. I love her :) on Thursday we went and saw our old in love couple June and Don! They’re the sweetest! and Don always quizzes us on our Book of Mormon knowledge! It's a good thing I've read it a few times cuz he asks hard questions! haha and to tell you the truth I still know very very little...but I'm workin on it! :) I have learned a lot but we know we learn line upon line precept upon precept. I never understood that phrase until my mission!  On Friday we had apartment checks and of course ours was clean! :) I may throw some things on the floor sometimes but actually I'm a very clean person :)  so we passed! Then in preparation for the temple we watched "between heaven and earth" and it's so cool! The temple really is the only place we can be closest to God! SO GO!!! :) cuz it's awesome! and some of us don't get to go very often :) so don't take the temple for granted...because not only are you serving others (and service is the substance to our souls) but you are filling yourself and getting answers and solutions for your life. And it's THE biggest blessing God has given us on this earth. It is a little piece of heaven on earth. SO make a time this month to go and go! because I promise you it will help you in your life! (there's an exception to pregnant ladies who have to pee every 2 seconds :) ) haha (go do inititories! however you spell it! :) ) then we went and saw this lady who Sister Horge and I knocked into and she was always busy, but then the Spanish elders knocked into her and she was still interested so we got the referral and went back and God taught me a valuable lesson, I didn't have faith in her. But we went to her apartment and she invited us in and she poured out her soul to us basically. She NEEDS the gospel. so badly. so she's going to read the book of Mormon and we are going back on Thursday. She’s way prepared. And God showed me that miracles do happen and I really need to have higher expectations :)  then we got to go to dinner with the falters! They’re one of my favorite families here! The Falters, Opdahls, and some other people who I can't think of right now :) haha but it was fun! :) Then we visited one of our investigators sisters in the hospital and on Saturday we went with the elders to give her a blessing! We were at the hospital for over an hour visiting all sorts of people! It was fun! :) I love the elders! (Genereux and Pierce) they are seriously my best friends! :) It was sunny that day so Sister Flanigan and I walked everywhere! Then we went and visited sister Mcowen! She is so lonely and very pregnant! So we helped her do her dishes :) She's precious! We love her! :) Sunday at church we sat by the Arnold family and they have 2 little kids and the youngest Lori shouted when we sat down "it's the sister missionaries!!!" haha it was so cute! Then all throughout sacrament she passed us notes and gave us a cute little bracelet (one of those wonderloom bracelets they're big in WA I don't know about UT :) ) and so I wrote her a little note and she loved it! After sacrament she came up and gave us a BIG hug! :) She's the cutest! :)  I love little kids! And being a missionary because they love you back! :)  Maria came to church and it was good...she is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday!!! :) So that's exciting! :) I'm way PUMPED! :) and Gary was there too :) we got to teach gospel principles in the family ward and it was about the life of Christ. I bawled like the little bawl baby I am when we talked about the Atonement. I am just SO grateful for the Atonement. It really truly is everything to me. I could not be the person I am of it weren't for my Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him SO MUCH!!! It makes me weep every time I think of Him and what He did for me. :) I love Him!!! :) and I am grateful for the opportunity we have next Sunday to celebrate His Resurrection. I know that because of Him I can be truly happy!!!! :) Because of Him, I am who I am! :) and I get to experience opposition! and it's just so great...I can't even express my feelings so I just testify that He lives! and I know that because of Him I can reach my potential! :) I am SO EXCITED!!! because we get to go to the temple on WEDNESDAY!!! :) I can't even wait I'm so pumped!!!! and I've been reading the preparing to go to the temple pamphlet. It’s amazing! One of my favorite parts was that it says something to the effect of the more temples that are built the less power Satan has to tempt us. I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!! This week is going to be the best!!!! :) Anyways times up!!! I love you more than you know!!!

Love always 

Sister Wilkins :)