True Happiness

October 22, 2012

Dearest familia,

How goes it? Thanks for your letters and prayers :) I love reading about the goings ons of everyone especially the little ones. They are so great. I was laughing out loud picturing poor Lucas sweating bullets and Carter just smiling haha They are the cutest. And of course Makena performing boldly and perfectly her lines in the program :) And especially Hadlee doing her thing and entertaining the masses with her dancing and singing. I am so lucky to have such great nieces and nephews. The personalities of those two future nephews are going to be great! :) can't even wait for that.

This week was pretty good. We had a President's fireside last night which is a meeting where recent converts get up and share their testimonies and stories of how they came in contact with the church and their conversion. It's always so uplifting! We had three of our investigators there. Two of them are getting baptized on the 10th of November, but it has been truly amazing to see the change and their desire to repent and receive a remission of their sins. Especially one of them named T-dawg. he is from Liberia and has such a sincere desire to learn and receive forgiveness. He is incredible. We are excited for him to be baptized and continue to progress! He even signed up for the ward halloween party to help with the photo booth and he already took his picture for the ward directory haha he is so great.

I always think of things throughout the week that I will add in my emails home, but then I don't remember when I'm writing them haha ooops. But, this past week was good. Missionary work is always good. We are trying to be more creative in our finding efforts and President wrote a letter all about that so all we have to do is take his counsel and all will work out! :) lovely.

In a few weeks I'll have already been out a third of my mission! Call it crazy, but it is going by supa fast! I can't even believe it. I feel like I am so weak in so many areas and there is so much to do but not enough time. Ah! But, I love this area, I can't imagine leaving it. I hope I don't get transferred next transfer.... it scares me... I do think I'm getting too comfortable where I am at though so that makes me think some change is coming... I need to continually stretch myself in order to progress. The Lord is doing so much for us right now though. I was thinking about how incredible it is that He trusts little girls and boys to preach His gospel. And then I realized, it is not us that does anything, it's the Spirit. We just work to have the Spirit and the Spirit does the converting. How cool is that?! Thanks for your thoughts about Elder Bednar's talk on conversion. I love that too. A testimony is knowing something is true and conversion is continually being true to what you know. There are so many less active members who have testimonies but are not living in accordance with those testimonies. It's a little frustrating sometimes. I guess I don't understand it completely. Then I think about my own life and think, what am I not being continually true to? It's probably so frustrating for Heavenly Father to watch each of His kids not living in accordance with what they know. I have some repenting to do and some major changing to do. Oh boy.

So, you asked about Sister Mansfield. I will tell you. Sister Mansfield is AWESOME. She is such a rockstar. She is so bold and has so much courage (which is the opposite of my timid and shy personality). She just acts and does things even though it'll be hard and she is scared to do it. She loves sports especially volleyball. She is very athletic (except she doesn't like running in the morning haha so we do other things) She has a hilarious personality and always makes me laugh. She has a great laugh and is very open and friendly with people. She is pretty blunt and bold. I love it though, because I need to learn how to be more bold. She is definitely passing me up on being a good missionary. She came already trained and ready to work. I am so grateful for her as a companion. We are similar is some things, but complete opposites in others. It has been a learning experience to say the least haha She is so great though. Her birthday is April 28th which makes me 9 days older than her (and I act like I'm 10 years younger...probably..) She has one older brother getting married next month and a younger sister and brother. Her dad is a dentist. She has great teeth and a great smile (naturally..) I admire her a lot and am so grateful for her example. She has such a strong testimony and desire to serve and teach with power and authority. (I'm sure she gets bugged by me quite frequently, but we work it out ;) Sometimes I feel like she's training me! again! haha This experience has been the best stretching and growing experience. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father for allowing us to serve together and for allowing me this refining time. Oh man! I gotta get back to work! There is so much to do! This week my focus is service. Constant service. Taking it one step at a time.

Alright, I love you family. and consider this your follow up--HOW ARE THE FAMILY MISSION PLANS GOING??? And the missionary experiences? It does take work to prepare yourself for those experiences and I know you do so much already, but I promise the blessings are endless when you put Him first and serve. Keep up the good work and go forth and serve. Share what you know to be true! Everyone needs this message! :)

I love you a lot. And I think of you often! Keep being awesome.

Love,
  Sister Owens