I bet the missionaries in the Preach My Gospel DVD's never did this . . .

Well hello.

This week has been pretty cool. Today we went down to Bremerton and got to check out the USS John C. Stennis. We walked around the flight deck and everything. It was pretty cool. Yeah, I have pictures. Then, when we were getting ready to drive home, we looked at the Nimitz, the carrier parked right by the Stennis, and it was getting ready to leave to Everett. So we stayed and watched the Nimitz pull out of port. Pretty cool stuff. By the way, the title of this week's email is brought to you by Thursday night's planning session. We were eating ice cream and trying to figure out what to do all day Friday and basically couldn't stop laughing long enough to get anything done. My genius companion just wanted the ice cream from her Hagen Daas ice cream bar so she was biting the chocolate off and spitting it out. For reals? Anyways...don't worry we figured out what to do on Friday. The point is, those awesome little missionaries from the Preach My Gospel dvds probably never ever ever did that. It was funny. Probably had to be there.....

Let's see, where to begin. This week we had transfer meeting down in Tacoma. That was pretty fun, especially since we weren't getting transferred :) We are pretty fang lucky we got to stay though, so we're going to work our butts off this transfer and have a baptism. Not really sure who yet, but it will happen. We got a new investigator last night!! It's a way cool story. Let me tell you.

So, a year ago Sis. Balmforth was serving up in Sequim. They would go visit this lady pretty much every week if they needed something to do and wanted to share a message with a less-active. She didn't ever know what happened to her, she kinda fell off the face of the planet for all they knew.. Fast forward to Saturday. We get a call from the zone leaders saying they have an 18 year old girl they found on Wednesday and are baptizing on Sunday. They knocked on her door and she had been taking the lessons in Kansas but when she moved to Washington she didn't know how to find the missionaries to get baptized. So they needed our help getting some friends there for her from the YSA ward. We're standing there shooting the breeze (phrase of the week, by the way) and Balmforth looks down the hallway and sees the lady she taught from Sequim standing there. She goes and talks to her and turns out the girl getting baptized, Meagan, is her daughter! It was so cool cause after Meagan was baptized her mom got up and bore her testimony to her. Afterward she grabbed Sis. Balmforth and pulled her over to her daughter and said, "Meagan, this is Sis. Balmforth. She helped me and now she's going to help you." AND Meagan'a roommate, Mariah, is super interested and wants to get baptized...so yeah, we're all over that like white on rice. That was a way cool miracle, one that we've been looking for and one that we are super grateful for.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Zebediah that went pretty well. We taught him the commandments. First time teaching them, wooo! The best part was that we brought some girls from the ward to help us teach and everyone had a grand ol' time. He came to church on Sunday, the first time by himself (his member friend Zack had duty) and sat with his new little friends. +1 for the missionaries! I think he'll get baptized soon, it's just a matter of him realizing it's what he needs to do. He and Allison were supposed to come to the baptism so they could see what one was like, but neither of them showed. That was a bummer, but I think it needed to happen cause of everything that we discovered while we were there.

Oh, guess what? We are teaching seminary on Wednesday and Thursday!! Yeah Old Testament! Anyone know what goes down in 2 Kings 14-25? Yeah, me either, but I will soon. It should be fun. The only problem is...we have zero time to prepare a lesson. It will work out I guess...either that or we'll just go and tell crazy missionary stories for an hour.

We have the best wards here. Everyone takes such good care of us and they are willing to do anything to help us out. On Friday the family ward had a spaghetti dinner/auction to help raise money for youth camps and everyone kept buying stuff and giving it to us. We made out like bandits. They didn't care, people just wanted to help out the youth, so they figured the missionaries needed even more sugar in their apartment. That's the great thing about being in an area for a long time, you really get to know people well and they are so supportive of you and the work. I love it. Whenever I do leave Silverdale, it's going to be hard, but I have at least another 5 weeks here, so it's all good.

Came across/remembered a really cool scripture yesterday in sacrament meeting. Psalm 23:4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." I've noticed a lot of my favorite scriptures have to do with not fearing and trusting in the Lord. Fear is something that is so easy to do, especially when every day you are out talking to strangers and putting yourself and your beliefs out there for the world to see. It's scary. But, the Lord always takes care of his children. Here's my version of the verse: "Yea, though I walk through the alley of the side streets of Keyport, I will fear no dogs: for thou art with me; thy scriptures and thy promises they comfort me." God is a God of miracles and blessings. We just need to stay obedient and our lives will be immeasurable changed for the better.

So, I love you all. Please keep sending me letters, I know I am TERRIBLE at writing back, but I promise I haven't forgotten. I think about all of you and hope that life is just dandy and everything. I hope everyone has a good week. Miss you and love you!!!

Love,

Sara