Hi Everyone!!

It's great to hear from you! I bet its nice having this week off to work on stuff around the house and get those little things done. Tell Dylan Happy Birthday!!! And tell Chris Happy birthday too. I ws thinking about him but I don't have his address. Make sure he knows that I knew it was his birthday, :) Also I'm glad that Kailey and Alli decorated Alicias room. She is amazing! My health is good! I was super tired yesterday because of the time change, but I feel better today! I was even able to take a little nap yesterday.

Mom I was also going to tell you thank you sooo much for keeping our bathrooms clean! I went into a members house to use the bathroom and not kidding the gas station bathrooms are cleaner than theirs. They had mold growing in their sinks. :( It was gross but made me very grateful for you!

Tell Alayna I'm soooo excited for her! I want a copy of her talk.

Oh man the past few days have been really rainy! I thought the rain was bad in Utah.... Here in Texas it is like a flood when it rains, and it's like someone just dumps a bucket of water on you right when you get out of the car. But it's ok! I think this will be the last of the cold until November or December so people tell me to brace myself for the heat that is coming. I actually am not really bothered by the humidity, but i'm sure it'll be different in the summer. My hair does all kinds of things here! haha

This week has been good. It has gone by a lot quicker than the past few weeks. Oh an tomorrow I am going on exchanges in Houston. I will be with a different companion for 24 hours. It's so I can learn different ways of teaching and studying. It'll be good! I know the sister I'm going with and she is really nice.

This past week we got 3 new investigators. We are teaching a new family too! They have a 2 year old daughter. I love teaching families because I love seeing their faces light up when they hear they can be together forever. I always tell them that it wasn't easy leaving my family, but I did it so that families like theirs can have the knowledge my family has of being together forever. :)

So the girl I told you about last week, Shianne, we haven't been able to meet with this week because she has been 'busy' I hope we can meet with her tonight! She knows it is true!!!! I saw her change in those short 45 minutes we were with her! That is the hard part of missionary work. Is seeing the people change, but they don't see it in themselves and they don't know if they want to change. We had a baptismal date with a dad of 2 girls for 2 weeks ago. His wife and daughters just got baptized and he was atheist. Well he told us last week that he doesn't think he has changed any. But he had been praying, reading his scriptures, and even coming to church. Well we just found out yesterday by his wife that he doesn't know if he wants to continue being taught. A member in the ward said something and it offended him. That's why it's so important to realize that the people in the church are NOT PERFECT! Only the Gospel is, and only God and Jesus Christ are. So maybe you could keep him in your prayers. Everytime I meet with their family I can see them being sealed together forever, and Satan knows that so he is doing all he can to make Jody--the dad--feel like it's wrong.

Me and my companion have been finding new people to teach, but it's hard to work around everyone's schedules. I think that is one way Satan is getting people too... keeping people busy... too busy to keep God in their lives. It's good to stay busy and productive, but keep God in your everyday life, not just your Sunday life.

Last night we took our Investigator Erica (who is getting baptized next Saturday) to an investigator fireside where new converts shared their testimonies! It was soo good and she felt the spirit. The thing I love about Erica is that she is so honest with us. If she disagrees or doesn't understand she will tell us straight up. She doesn't beat around the bush. Her son Ty was going to be baptized too but she grew up where religion was shoved down her throat. She doesn't want to push her son. He doesn't know if he wants to be a Mormon because the kids at school make fun of him for it. He is such a smart boy and understands all we read in the book of Mormon, but he isn't sure about becoming a member. And the sad thing is that he is only 10. Pray for him!

Anyways, so on the way home from the fireside last night we rode with Erica and she was telling us her past about how she was so into drugs and drinking, living out of her car, and sleeping around. She told us she wish she had done something like we are doing now where we can look back and say, "Look at this great thing I've done to help people come out of Hell" She said the missionaries have turned her life around 100% and she said something I needed to hear, "Yeah, this is going to be hard... everyday will be because everyone yells at you on the streets. But it's so worth it in the end. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!" I was grateful to hear that from an investigator of all people! She is awesome! We love her. We taught her the word of Wisdom on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we dropped by. She told us she had to tell us a story we'd be proud of her for. She said she was with friends and they told her to go to the store to get some drinks. Well she was on her way to the store when she remembered the word of wisdom. She still went into the store and was feeling kinda guilty. She stood there in the Isle of the beer and turned to this random lady and told her that she was getting baptized into our church and she wasn't supposed to drink. She asked her what she thought she should do. The lady (an angel i'm sure) said, well if you are getting ready to make those promises to join the church don't you think you should start now? Erica said, "of course" and left the isle that second! We were sooo proud of her to choose not to drink. She could have easily gotten a drink and not told us, but that is how we know she wants to change!

Anyways this week was a good one! I'm grateful for you all! I miss you all and pray for you!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Erianne

P.S. We are heading to NASA to have a VIP tour today! :) I'll send pictures next week!