Brad Wilcox in Laramie!

Dear Family and Friends,

I cannot believe it is already P-Day again. This week just flew by!
It's been full of so many awesome experiences, but I'll just give you
some highlights.

Sister Russell is such a great companion. I am so blessed to have
her! She's always looking for the good and is constantly striving to
be effective and exactly obedient. We work hard together, and build
each other up. She's so caring and compassionate! And very teachable.
Not to mention absolutely hilarious, and we are laughing constantly!
Just all around a great Sister, and I feel privileged and very blessed
to be her first companion.(:

Brad Wilcox came to Laramie for a YSA fireside on Friday night. It
was SOOO good! The first memory I have of him is at EFY when I was 14,
and he talked to us youth about how at a dance, us girls need to be
the "lone zebra" so that the guys won't be scared to break up our
little circles to ask us to dance. So funny! Anyways, back to the
fireside..(; Brother Wilcox talked about commandments, and how they
are not rules which hold us back, but they make us free. They enable
us to jump off of a cliff with a safety harness firmly in place,
instead of jumping without any protection and having our fun and
freedom come to an abrupt stop when we hit the ground. I can't say it
as well as he did, but it was awesome! He also talked about the
Atonement and grace. One quote that I absolutely love is, "We are not
earning heaven, we are LEARNING heaven." That's so true! We need to
"learn" Heaven while we are here on earth so that when we return to
live with God again, we will be comfortable and happy in His presence.
It's about living a celestial lifestyle. Temples are sacred, and we
NEED to be there constantly.


General Women's broadcast Saturday night was just plain amazing. For
some reason, being a missionary helps me so much to focus on the
spirit during meetings and really pay attention and get all I can out
of them. My mind is enlightened and edified, it's so great! With
general conference coming up this weekend, let's all try our best to
focus on what our leaders are telling us, and make notes about what
the Spirit teaches us.

We drove down to Windsor, Colorado on Friday for a meeting with all
of the trainers and their trainees. It was fun to see my missionary
friends and hear about their experiences and areas. I'm just so
blessed to be surrounded by these people!! President Brown taught us
many things that we can work in to become better missionaries, more
consecrated and diligent and prepared. One thing we are implementing
is that we are going to do a role play each morning during companion
study for a lesson we will have that day. I love role plays.(: I love
them because the Spirit is real, it prepares us.

We have been blessed with TWO new investigators this week! Woohoo! 
Sister Russell and I are just SO blessed right now, it blows my mind!

We finally went to our two YSA wards yesterday, which totaled out to
be five hours of church. But, I loved it.(: I love church! I love
testimony meetings! I just wish we would've had more less actives
come.. But we will work on that. I love being in YSA because of the
awesome members. They're mostly all super pumped RMs who are bringing
people to us to teach. That's the way it should be in any ward,
including family wards! Bring your loved ones, friends and family,
into the gospel. It's our duty as members of this church. If we don't
do it, who will?

I love each and every one of you! I'm so grateful for the support
coming from family and friends both back at home and in the mission
field. This is truly a marvelous work, a sacred work, the Lord's work.
And He needs us. He needs you! Have a great week everyone!