Sister Carter (Aly) and Sister Lane (Heather) celebrating Kate's birthday in their own special way.

AWESOME week.

Super duper awesome.

I can't tell you all the reasons cause no one will think they're as awesome as I do, but miracles. PURE miracles.

First off----Happy Father's Day! To all the father's and almost father's! (William & Ben :) ).

And---Happy 19th Birthday to Kate Bokovoy!! Aly and I saw each other on your birthday. It was awesome.

Happy Almost birthday to Capri!! I'm not so good with counting. I don't usually know what the date is. But I KNOW her birthday is on the 19th! So Happy Birthday to the little princess!! I want pictures!!

First off- this week my world was turned up side down. In the most dramatic sense. Only not really. Here it goes. Sooooo these girls in my district... they're pretty hilarious. So for weeks they've been planting words ( I suspect there are more than one). What they did is at dinner one day, they asked us to pass the mohekians (napkins) so we were all (naiively) like "wow cool! Napkin= mohekian, let's use it all the time!". So. We did! then one late night the truth came out hahahaha they have been making up words and planting them hahaha it's pretty awesome. It's funnier if you were the one being tricked I suppose hahaha. They told our sensai and he thought it was hilarious haha

So- the Canadian in the district. She was talking to this girl, let's call the girl Blank Shimai. So Blank Shimai has a really thick accent, (australian or something) and so canada was trying to ask her about her passport. "Have you turned in your passport yet Blank Shimai?" --"Uhh I mailed it in like a long time ago". ---"what? how does that even work?"....----"Uhhh they told me to turn it in so I did....?"----"wait, how in the world did they let you into America then?"....Blank Shimai: "Umm...I'm from North Carolina..." hahahahahaha I don't know why, but I thought that was hilarious haha. Mean girls moment haha ...."we have a new student from Africa..." anyways. Ooooooh Canada....

OH! BEST PART OF THE WEEK! (in some ways). There I was, just standing outside of the bathroom for my doryo, and I saw a real live nihonjin! (I don't know how to spell it. Quite embarassing...but she's a legit Japanese Shimai) so I tried talking to her in English of course. She didn't understand. So I had to resort to Japanese. It was awesome. They her Doryo came and I was talking to BOTH of them and both of them were sooooo sweet. I told them I was from California and they were so excited. And then we were all just there smiling at each other. Cause that's how I communicate. Not with words of course. But yeah, then I continued to ask all the questions I actually know how to say, and they responded, and they UNDERSTOOD me ( I think they were probably just nodding their heads) but anyways, THEN (get this) they THANKED me for learning Japanese. Best moment of my life. When one of the Elder's heard that, he was like "are you kidding me?!?! Everytime I go past their classroom and I say hello, every single one of them just laugh at me and none of them ever talk to me" hahaha. Yeah. That's write. The Japanese love me.

I met two Elders speaking Mandarin, and they told me their biggest mistake they ever made in a lesson. it's pretty funny. The poor red headed elder told his investigator NOT that he was from America (like he was trying to say) but that he was from the Devil. Yup. Poor poor elder. I'd make a ginger joke here but I'll just let it be. I think it speaks for itself.

This other companionship of Japanese Elders are pretty funny. One of them is super intense and serious, and the other is not as serious as he probably should be haha. So the serious elder goes "Everytime he tried to commit someone to baptism he promises them the gift of tongues" hahahahaha so the not-so-serious elder goes:

 "what? It's just so easy to say, and I sound so smart. It's just so easy to say 'igen no tamamono'. It rolls off your tongue. The only other phrase that rolls off my tongue is 'so desu ney (kinda an all-encompasing phrase you can use in any situation, like 'you don't say' or something like that) my companion likes speaking Japanese, so he'll speak to you now".

It's just really funny hahahaha.

Okay. Coolest video EVER on Sunday. It's called Recognizing the Holy Ghost and it's by Elder Bednar (a devotional he gave here so I don't think it's on youtube or anything) but here's some of my notes/thoughts from it. It was SO great.

Question: How do you know when it's the spirit, and how do you know if it's just you?

Answer: Quit worrying about it. Quit fussing. Press forward with fath. Follow the commandments, remember your covenants, be a good boy, be a good girl, and your steps will be guided.

He said that people too often now just sit, and try to analyze their thoughts. Quit doing that. Just get up and work. Just do it! Don't worry about it, because if you're doing what you should be doing, then you will have the spirit with you in everything you do. He said that very very rarely do you know it's a promting from the spirit before you act on it. It's usually somewhere down the road that you realize it, or sometimes you'll never know.

He told a story of how he was supposed to conduct a big stake meeting, and he was promted to travel two hours to get to his sons basketball game, and take a brother who was sitting in the audience because their sons were playing each other at this high school tournament thing. So he did. He just got up and left before the meeting started and put someone else in charge. So they went to the basketball game, had a good time, but elder bednar wondered (and assumed) that the feeling he got that he should go to the basketball game, was just him wanting to get out of meetings. So he assumed that. 6 months later, the father of the other son called him and asked him to come to the hospital because their son had been in a terrible accident. By the time elder benar got there, the man's son had passed away. And one thing he said, was that he was so grateful that elder bednar took him out of that meeting and had him go to the basketball game...because little did he know, but he wouldn't have ever had an opportunity in this life again to see his son play in a game like that.

He shared two other amazing stories, but I don't have the time to write them all down. They're amazing though. So just little things like that. Don't worry about it! Go forward with faith instead of sitting back and pushing away thoughts that come to your mind.

Another quote I love that has to do with this--- "never supress a generous thought"-Sister Kimball. Just do what you feel is write, and the Lord will be with you. Section 80 of D&C says "it mattereth not" somewhere...it's the Lord speaking to someone, and Elder Bednar pointed out that when the Lord says "it mattereth not", he doesn't mean that he doesn't care. It means to be a good boy, be a good girl, choose the right, and your steps WILL be guided. Anyways. Love elder bednar.

Another devotional--- this lady gave. She was so cute. But quickly--the message she shared was mostly just 1) Know your purpose... someone who knows their purpose will do everything they can to get back to their Heavenly Father. People who truly have the love of God with them, will also want others to feel that love. So yeah. Know your purpose. If you don't know your purpose, ask the missionaries!!!

Another thought I had this week---I think this is a quote somewhere--- but the only gifts that grow when you give them is Love and Charity. So remember that!!

Oh. By the way, thanks family for NEVER telling me that I ate weird hahaha. Everyone in my district comments on it. They say their all going to send their kids to me to learn how to eat properly. So yeah. I guess I eat weird hahaha. Good to know. One of the elders came up with the nick-name 'princess peach'...........I have no more comments on this.

Oh! Today is my month-a-versary. So i'll take a moment so say how awesome my companion is. She's awesome. I don't know what else to say other than that, but she's awesome, and I've learned so much from her! She's like a little beam of sunshine. And she smiles at everyone. She's a hard worker, and she's a sassy little country girl when she gets tired hahaha.

Speaking of tired, on fridays, (usually the most tired days) I tend to start loosing it. So friday when we got to class, before it started I made the agenda like they normally do, and I said 1) eat, 2) sleep (because we don't drink...and I was really tired), and 3) be merry. So my teacher didn't notice it for a really long time, and I was surpressing my laughter that entire time. So when she saw it and started laughing, I was laughing soooooo hard. best laughter of the week. I'm not sure if anyone else enjoys my nerdy sense of humor as much. But someone reading this probabaly does. Even if that someone is just Kimber and Emma hahaha.

Well, I love you all! And I'm about to send pictures maybe? I think? Have a great week! SEND ME DEAR ELDERS! AND LETTERS!