Apologies, Apologies, Apologies

A warm hello to all my family, friends and other readers of the world!

I want to start with an apology. My last email was very doom and gloom related. I apologize! I forget that I write way to much way to fast and a lot of it makes no sense (especially my journals) so things can be misconstrued and sound way worse than they really are. Sorry!

This week has totally picked up! Let me rehearse the days for you:

Monday - we went to a cute little bakery and bought a giant cinnamon roll and a cheese danish for lunch. It was scrumptious! And then we bought ingredients, so I could make bread. I failed miserably. Ona you would have been very disappointed. But, I learned that it was not entirely my fault because Sister Groesbeck made some as well and hers were slightly better but still just as sorry as mine. I wrote a really fun letter to Granny all about it. You should ask her to share it. (We have been eating my failed bread for the past week. And today, it finally went moldy, so we threw it all away.) We had dinner with Brother and Sister Olsen that night too which was fun. We had burgers and root beer floats.

(In case you were wondering, I talk a lot about food. So I will continue in that tradition and share more about food.)

Tuesday, our investigator Debbie dropped us.  We were really sad. But at least she found her answer. (I still haven't given up on her, and I don't think the Lord has either because we talk about her all the time. So we may ask if we can stop by some time around Easter and share the Lamb of God video with her. I don't think anything will come of it, but I would feel better leaving her with a witness of the Spirit and my testimony than how we did. [Our last lesson with her was really rough.])

Anyways, then we went to the Library to do Mormon.org. Ona if I haven't told you before, you would really like the Library in Cheyenne. It has three floors. And glass elevators and a little cafe. It is super cute. We don't ride in the elevators; we take the stairs, but we do like to race those who ride in the elevators. It helps us get our exercise.

Then we tracted another street. We still have quite a bit to go. Our goal is to tract all of our area before the end of the transfer.

No one signed up to feed us that day, so we had a vegetarian feast of veggies and fruit. Some days I wish I was a vegetarian. Anyways...

Then we went to Sister Cash's house and read scriptures with her. We read 1 Nephi 8 and 11. It was good. She is such a sweet sister. She is struggling right now, and we're not really sure how to help her.

(So I decided to name all of the rabbits I see in Cheyenne. There are TONS!)

On Wednesday, we had Zone Meeting. We started with a delicious breakfast at the Stake Presidents house and then we went to the Stake Center to be trained on how to use Family Search. We have been asked to teach members the basics of how to use family search. It will be a new and exciting tool of missionary work. (I wish all of those names counted as baptisms for the mission - then we'd be booming.) Anyways, I'm excited. The more we can think outside the box of typical missionary work the more success we will have.

For lunch we had Subway with one of the YSA sisters in the ward. That was fun. She is so spunky and super goal oriented. She wants to be an elementary teacher. And she is working on getting her coaching certificate. She's awesome!

We also went to the VA Hospital for the ice cream social. That was so much fun. I talked with a cute family who had a daughter that was handicapped. She was showing me some pictures of when she went to see Disney on Ice. It was fun. I also talked to a man named George. He is the greatest person I have ever met!  He has a little notebook where he writes down the names of all the people he meets. He also writes down little descriptions of things that make them unique. For Sister Z, he wrote down Sister Yawning because when he met her she was yawning. :D For me, he wrote down scrunched nose and smiling. (Apparently when I smile I scrunch up my nose in a laughing fashion.) He has also asked us to come back and play the piano for him. So we may do that next week.

Then we had a really good lesson with Emma. Her ex-fiance finally moved out this past week, and it totally changed the atmosphere of the home. It was amazing!

We went to mutual which was fun. They were doing a physical fitness activity to help them prepare for trek. That was fun! Sometimes though having to wear a skirt all day is kind of a downer. I really wanted to participate, but most of it involved getting up and down off the floor in a very not lady like fashion. This is where skirts are the worst things to wear ever.

Thursday was cool. We called a bunch of members that we hadn't met before and set up some visits which was fun. And then we went tracting again. We met a potential named Ricky. He is baptist, and he said we could come back and teach him. I am so excited! He is on vacation all this week, but next week we are going to call him and try and set up an appointment. I made us tuna burgers for lunch. They were tasty.

Then we did some service for the Habitat. It was a delightful two and a half hours. We were moving furniture and putting up displays. I loved it. I felt really buff carrying two dining room chairs across the street and back. It was legit!  We also carried a table and a shelf.

We ate dinner with the Howe Family. (They are related to the Archuleta Family.) That was a lot of fun. They made us curry and coconut rice. YUM! It was so good. I am grateful when members experiment on us.

And then we had a really good lesson with Celeste about the organization of the church, prophets and the priesthood. It was so good. I learned a lot that night. And, I am so grateful for the priesthood and the Spirit! I wouldn't be able to teach without it.

That night, I also received a letter from one of my Kmart co-workers.  I was sooooo excited! I've missed my buddies at the Big K. It's still really sad that they are closing it down. Anyways...

Friday was fun. We had a very long planning session. But it was good. We got everything worked out and planned that we needed too, and we had an awesome companion inventory session. Can I just say that it is really, really, really, really, really important to have Companion Inventory on a weekly or more basis!?!

And we also had dinner with the Cox family. They invited Sunshine over too which was fun. We shared a lot of Mormon jokes, and I about killed Sister Cox with my Wisconsin handshake.  (The milking cows one) It was really funny. She was rolling on the floor she was laughing so hard.

On Saturday, Sister Z and I got up early and ran at the park up the hill. It's a little bike trail but boy is it fun. It's a dirt trail and we just ran in circles all over. It was a blast. I loved it! We got to watch the sunrise which was gorgeous. It was a lot of fun.

We also did more tracting that day. When there is no one to teach, we have to find people to teach. It was a good experience. We got to talk to a couple of people who might be interested. We also stopped in at a members house. It was really good that we did because they had family over for vacation. They live up in Star Valley, WY. And there are only three sets of missionaries that cover two stakes. Also, the members are asked not to feed the missionaries. They only want less actives and investigators to feed them. So this poor family misses out on the joys of having missionaries over. It was cool because later, the mom said that she realized that her daughters had never seen Sister Missionaries before. I felt really grateful that we had decided to stop and talk with them. It was fun! We don't realize how much missionaries bring to the church and its members.

We also stopped by Roxcyne T's. house. She is a less active, and she is amazing! I have the highest respect for her. She does missionary work all the time. I think that she could be one who would come back to church within the year.

And then we had the most amazing Women's Conference the church has ever known. The Spirit found in that meeting was SO strong!!! Oh my goodness! I loved it. I hope all who didn't watch it will take the opportunity to do so. It was powerful.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday. It was great! We have so many primary kids in this ward, and they are not afraid to share their testimonies with the world. Most of the testimonies that were shared were from the Primary kids. When the scriptures say that children will speak words that confound the wise; they weren't kidding! They are the purest of Spirit, and they are the most in tune because they haven't been influenced by the world as heavily yet.  It was wonderful.

After church, we did some more visits and met another less active member. She said she wants to come to church. We need to remind her of conference this week though. We forgot that little detail yesterday. Oops!

Anyways, I hope this gives you hope that life as a missionary isn't as awful as I sometimes make it sound. The gospel really is a blessing to the world. I love the Savior, and I am so grateful for his loving care and guidance. I am also so grateful to have the scriptures in my life. They are true, and they are worth studying! Why would the Lord spend so much time protecting them for our day if they weren't important.

I love you all, and I hope this week finds you well.

The Church is TRUE!

Love,

Sister Bryans