Hello everybody!
So you liked my M&M picture postcard? Just for the record, the M&M's were for the "Don't Eat Pete" game. I had to laugh at how bad of a picture that was of me... So of course I had to share it. But you do remember why the blonde got fired from the M&M factory, don't you? She threw away all the W's! I find that's really the problem around here as well. People are so fast to reject listening to us because they think we have W's when they are looking for M's, and so they throw it out, but if they'd just look a little closer and look at things from a different perspective, they'd find that we are trying to give them the real M's and it's exactly what they were looking for, they just didn't recognize it right away because they were expecting something different. I think we all make the same 'blonde' mistake more often than we want to admit.
The news for the week is that our apartment is being painted, so we have to be out of our apartment at like 8 in the morning when the painter comes (because we can't be in the apartment at the same time with him) and we can't come back to it till dinner time. So we have been living at the church or member's houses in the morning to study and then to eat lunch. It's been interesting. But the apartment is looking better, and the land lady is fixing a bunch of little things that needed fixing like the squirting faucet and the front door that didn't close. It's just a bit annoying. We also had our first big snow yesterday and today, so the ground is covered with a couple inches of that cold, wet stuff...
Actually the more exciting thing that happed this week is that we had Zone Conference with Elder Arnold of the Seventy on Friday and he spoke to us and it was really good. But, like always, just calling us to repentance and trying to inspire us to be more obedient missionaries. That's what it always boils down to. I guess that means it's important :) But they are also doing away with all such things as Zone p-days and basically discouraging us from ever getting together with other missionaries and having fun because it takes away from the time we should be spending sharing the gospel. But Elder Arnold did say something very interesting to me, so maybe you could look it up. He said that President Hinckley gave a talk in the Oct 2001 Conference and mentioned the dream about the 7 fat cows and the 7 lean cows, and having 7 years of plenty and 7 years of scarcity. So isn't it interesting that that was exactly 7 years ago? So it just seems everyone is really trying to hammer in the idea that time is getting short and we still have a lot to do so we better be prepared and get on it.
We also had a stake conference where they reorganized the stake presidency here, but they also had a little extra session for new converts and investigators, and we had Ty come to that and he really enjoyed it. Jennifer, the other girl we are teaching was going to come, but she got sick at the last minute so couldn't come. And Jamie is doing well. It's so funny the little fiascos that happen right before baptisms. So, we made sure we told her to make sure she wore white underwear and bring a dry pair to change in to. But well, Jamie's Jamie and a young college student and forgot, and not only forgot, but she was wearing a giraffe print bra and bright blue underwear. Well, of course, that's not going to work. But good thing she did get there early like we told her to just in case, so she sent a friend to go get her a white pair from her room. But when she came back, she said she couldn't find a pair of white underwear so she had a pair of grey with pink outlines. It was better than the bright blue, and well, the dress was pretty thick, so we thought it would be ok. And it was mostly, but you could still kind of see it..... aghhh, girls...... But the baptism went really well, and we (Sister Reeves and I) sang a special musical number, and her boyfriend's parents flew in to be there and gave one of the talks. Oh, and we might be starting to teach one of her friends. So we'll see how that goes. And Jennifer will probably be setting a baptism date soon, so that'll be really exciting. She is so ready and will be such strength and refreshment to the ward. But I better go.
Love you all! ~Melissa
Here's a picture with Sister Reeves and I and Jamie at her baptism.
