She passed!

Elder Staynor! Haven't seen him
since Chico

OUCH BUT SOMEHOW POSITIVE. So, many of you are probably thinking the subject line is about "passing" a test. Or maybe even thinking outside the box, and assume "passing" a car, or a ball on the street. Nope, none of the above!

On Tuesday I was able to go on exchanges with the one and only Sister Crowther (ok, she's one of two: her 3rd cousin Sister Crowther was also in this mission a few months ago). It was amazing and hysterical and productive day, full of talking to everyone, learning from each other, and even picking up a new investigator! But the funniest event of the day by far, was when I became an Aunt...(only funny because Sister Crowther herself made it funny) -- Sister Crowther passed her kidney stone!

Brother Pettey is ridiculous in the most
amazing way (thanks Bro. Pettey!)

McAnelly was passed at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 measuring 4-5 mm and weighing .0001 oz (kidding; I don't know how much it weighed). Sister Crowther is just such a good natured and funny person. She went on about being SO excited and enthralled by the kidney stone, it made light of the whole event. The coolest part is how hard working she is, in spite of pains like passing a kidney stone. She's had 5 on her mission. Her quote of the day was, "you know how they talk about childbirth and how some births are easier than others? Yeah I understand that now."

I matched the door! nuff said

 We had a lot of fun the rest of the day, learning from each other and swapping stories, while also being guided by the spirit and talking to a lot of new people.

NEW FRIENDS, OLD FRIENDS. As for the new investigator, we found THREE this week! It's amazing to see the work picking up in the whole mission, as people are changing. Motivation continues to go up, since some of the distractions we used to have aren't there anymore with rules changing. There was just so much that happened this week.

We also had Zone Conference, and I saw some of my good friends, which was so exciting! Unfortunately Sister Swenson is in Citrus Heights now, so I didn't get to see her (lame). When I get pictures of that I'll send them; it usually takes a little time.

fun in the rain

UNEXPECTEDLY INTERESTED. One of our new investigators is named Ian. He's about 10, and the whole situation was just funny. We were driving down the street, and he was with a few of his friends practicing scooter tricks. He shouted, "What's up homies" as we drove by. Sister Johnson and I continued down the road, stopped at a house where we both felt like we should knock but no one answered.

Sister Crowther

One of Ian's friends had a dog, and let me just tell you that dogs are my biggest motivation. So we walked back down the street, honestly to just pet the dog and see where it went. Well, we ended up giving Ian a Book of Mormon! His friends were kind of laughing as we had our interaction of giving it to him. He asked if we could sign it too, and we did, plus putting in a sentence or two of just our personal thoughts.

We asked if we could come back and he said sure, Friday at 5, while his friends busted up and just made jokes that he had a "date" with two older girls. We left after suggesting that he read a little bit out of it before we came back, and also told him to make sure he had perfected his jump, too. From how it went, since neither we, nor Ian seemed to take the whole situation fully seriously, we didn't have much of an expectation when we went back on Friday.

not great lighting for McAnelly but
he is alive and well

I still had hope, since we only ran into him in the first place because of a prompting to go a different way to get to our dinner appointment. Well, when we came back on Friday, he had actually read some! We taught him about the restoration, and he actually asked us questions, so he was genuinely curious! It was so cool to see how even though the initial contact had not seemed legit, he really did want to learn more. Never guess who God has prepared to make a change in their life!

BOTHERSOME BITES. Tangent off that lesson, though. The first interaction with Ian, I got 6 mosquito bites, for the sake of giving away a Book of Mormon. And all of you know how much I loathe mosquitoes! Well I was hoping the next time we went back it wouldn't be so buggy, but guess what: Heavenly Father tests us in a variety of ways. And since we were there on his porch for a good 30 minutes, I got not 6, or even 10, but 27 bites on my legs alone! So clearly I have a strong belief in what I do, or else I would have left the scene in a hearbeat.

signature one of the YSA used for dinner...
even has some birds in there

Never let bugs stand in the way of somebody's opportunity to increase their faith! And, sidenote, shaving off a bugbite doesn't make it itch less, Fun Fact. It was unintentional don't worry, but still annoying.

TAKEAWAY. So I guess my thought for this week is find something you believe in so strongly you're willing to be attacked by mosquitoes for the sake of sharing the joy it brings you with someone else! That's the one thing I love while I'm out here. Even though we sometimes do ridiculous things that push me out of my comfort zone, I can do them because I know what I'm teaching can change someone's life. And if all I change is one perspective, and then get rejected after planting a seed, then that's enough to keep me pumped to keep going!

never a bad time to remember the joy in Christ

You guys are all stellar humans! Enjoy the start of spring, maybe? I don't know...it's been in the 60s and 70s for almost a month already here. I'm enjoying it before it gets too hot!

Talk to you next week,
Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net
751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678