A Whole 20 Minutes

finally got a selfie with President Ward!

(Note from Mom: Teresa makes a point to make her blog emails positive. She has had lots of challenges these last few months. I was so impressed this time when she included in her email-to-Mom how she took a frustrated lecture from somebody who was pretty specific and pretty negative, without losing her own temper or giving the same back to them. This is a big deal! I love how she is gaining patience and perspective, and learning about people and about herself.)

basically our snapchat

It was her birthday so she gave us
a tour as well as a gift for coming by!
Kinda backwards isn't it?

Believe it or not, a whole 6 weeks have gone by since Sister Nield became my compadre for the Rocklin area. That means transfers are happening!

CHANGE OF SCENERY. We learned early on Sunday morning that, after my amazing 3 1/2 transfers (5 months) in Rocklin, I'll be headed to Roseville! Finally serving IN Roseville, of the California Roseville Mission. My new companion will be Sister Curtis. She's amazing, I've met her a few times, so we're gonna crank out all the work in Roseville!

The spoons change color when they get cold.
We were a bit excited :)

I got the facemask scraps to soothe
my poor nose from getting
thrashed during the cold I had

We got some shirts from Walmart...

And get this, they are getting a car for the missionaries in that ward but it doesn't have crazy amounts of miles on it, so I GET TO BIKE SOME! In the middle of summer, haha! Heavenly Father loves giving me challenges. Originally they did not have a car, but they're getting one this transfer (lame), so hopefully we'll be out doing more walking and biking than in my other areas! (Granted, I did NO biking or walking really, so ANY days will be more than I've done so far.)

...because why not?

VOICE CHANGES. As for this week, remember how I lost my voice on Sunday? Well it decided to stay lost all the way through Wednesday, so I had a bit of fun with that of course. Don't worry, I still talked during lessons. Sister Nield did not have a mute companion, but it was fun to sound raspy!

I made a new friend
(are you surprised?)

Honestly, a ton happened this week, but also nothing at all happened, so I don't have much to report on. Also feelin' kind of lazy this week (plus yunno, packing and all) so who knows, maybe this will be my shortest weekly yet.

Richie and his pool of Bismuth:
it was way fun to melt minerals
at his house!

PARTY PLANNING. In other news, Sister Johnson's birthday was on Sunday, and Sister Wright, Howell and I planned a surprise party that ended up being "surpriseception" because...joke's on Sister Wright, we also did a little something for her too! But it was so much fun to see so many old companions, and throw a little party :) It's great to see people's reactions to things they are not expecting.

at least they're polite

GOODBYES. Sunday was also a little bittersweet, as I said bye to a ton of amazing people who have been hugely impactful on my mission. It's crazy how attached you get to each area you're in :)

Brother Pratt: best ward
mission leader out there!

To finish, I'll share a scripture we found this week that perfectly explains why we should believe in the Book of Mormon:

MEN/WOMEN SHOULD DO GOOD. 2 Ne 33:10 "And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good."

We found a snake so I made a second
friend (are you surprised?)

If you don't believe in the Book of Mormon, then at least believe in Christ. But, if you believe in Christ, you'll believe in the book! It's just really cool to know how simple the gospel of Jesus Christ is and how much it can help us if we believe in it.

Dad's friend from high school is
in my stake! We finally had lunch
with Julie, here she is at Youth
Conference in a costume from
The Greatest Showman :)

Life's hard but we're never doing it alone! Especially on a mission I'm literally never alone.

But you're killin' it!
Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

New Address TBD!