2-13-13

Annie’s Letter

Hello wonderful family of mine! Thanks so much for the birthday wishes! And presents! Thanks SO much for the camera! I am sending the other one back, maybe Spencer can fix it. :-) Meg and Justin thanks so much for the awesome package! I love it! The boots are so awesome! And SO comfy! And SO cute! :-) I just love you guys. Seriously, best family ever. So let me tell you about my amazing 22nd birthday.

Monday wasn't pday because TRANSFERS ARE TOMORROW! So we have pday today so that we can pack and say goodbye to people if we want without wasting time. We did have lunch at the Whipples. Sister Whipple invited Sisters Skaggs, Ellington, Rutter, Hansen, and Thomas and we had a birthday party! Yummy pizza and texas fudge cake... Even 22 candles! I wished that we would find a new investigator and I blew out all my candles! And guess what...?! We totally found a new investigator. Reva's little sister Maddi! :-) yay! It was just an awesome day. And we don't have dinner at members houses on Monday's anymore. So that night for dinner we had... beans! I had to make them from memory so they weren't quite as good as dad's but still pretty good :-) and the next day they were even better. So that was fun. Then yesterday we had dinner at the Madsen's and they had cupcakes and I got to blow out more candles. It was just a fun fun birthday. :-) Sister Twitchell and I will definitely go out to lunch today! It's possibly our last chance! We haven't got transfer calls yet... but we'll keep you posted :-)

2 Nephi 10:23. WHAT A WONDERFUL SCRIPTURE! What a wonderful gift to be able to choose to be happy, to have eternal life. Agency is such an incredible blessing! It has been amazing this week to see people and how they are choosing to be happy. Mom, you're such an incredible example of this. you always taught us that people can't "make" us anything. They can't make us happy or sad or mad. Those are our choices. When I was younger I had a really hard time understanding that. It would "make" me so mad when you would tell me "you're choosing to be upset right now." Of course, that would only make me more mad. However, the older I got I realized the wisdom of your counsel and how true it was. It's not always easy, and I am certainly not perfect at it, but definitely something I have been working on for years! On Sunday Josh was planning on coming to church. We took him breakfast and he was having a crappy day. He hadn't been working as much as he needed and so his rent was past due. He had been given a 3 day eviction notice and although he had been trying to get the money, even tried selling his truck, he was unable to cut it. Last week we had an amazing lesson with him and ended up talking about Priesthood blessings. He was interested in having one, so the member that was with us called her husband and another brother in the ward and they came right over and gave Josh a blessing. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong. Part of the blessing said that as he improves his spiritual well being his temporal well being will also improve. How amazing! So Sunday we went back to his house after we delivered breakfast and went to knock on the door so they could follow us to church, but they were already in the truck! So we went to church, and he was just feeling really upset. A "terrible day." :-( 3 hours later he was just happy. Smiling, playing with his daughter...it was amazing. And guess what? He was able to pay his rent and they are still in their apartment. Heavenly Father really does take care of us. It was amazing. He loved church. Absolutely loved it. But of course he did. When the spirit is so strong and you are so enveloped by love by so many complete strangers...you can't help but love it. He wanted to find a church where people didn't stare or judge him for his tattoos or his daughter (single dad). And no one did. People came up to him and introduced themselves to him and just brought him right into their embrace. It was amazing. I love this ward. It is seriously so amazing. Wonderful examples here.

Now, Reva. Reva is just amazing. She has been such a great missionary to her little sister. We are actually teaching Maddi now! The young women's organization has just completely banded around these 2 girls. They absolutely love them. And vice versa. It's just amazing. Reva was on date to be baptized on March 9. But now she's not. No worries though... FEBRUARY 23!! She is just so ready to be baptized! It's wonderful! And it's going to be great for Maddi to see Reva be baptized! Reva is another wonderful example of choosing to be happy. She decided to turn her life to God, she met us and she just feels so happy now! She is so sweet and the happiness and love that just emanates from her is amazing. She has really risen above a rough situation. We finally met her mother too. She is sweet and totally supportive of Reva. And I think that after Reva and Maddi are baptized, Amy will follow. It's going to take time. Maddi isn't going to be as fast as Reva, and their mom might not either, but before long this family will be united in faith and... man, miracles. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Seriously, who wouldn't love this work!? I just don't understand. Every day we have the amazing privilege of inviting others to come unto Christ. I can't think of a better way to choose to be happy than by dedicating your life to the Savior and helping others come closer to Him!

Rachel have fun prom dress shopping! I definitely want pictures! What is your theme for prom? I hope school keeps going well! Sorry your pops concert wasn't all that fun. What a bummer! Also, I LOVE "
To Kill a Mockingbird!" Such a good book! Good luck on your speech!

Natalie- thanks for the card! And yes, I got the package! I'm excited to eat it tomorrow! :-) Keep up the good work chica! Jon, make sure Rachel gets a pretty dress ;-) are you excited for track to start up!?

Landon- you are such an awesome example! We didn't get any of the snow. There is absolutely zero snow here right now. It's practically balmy. 41 degrees is the high today. Yesterday I didn't even wear a jacket! haha. Keep up the good work, bro! I hope you had fun at Niagara Falls!

Meg and Justin- hate to break it to you meg... you're 24... Not quite 22. old lady! ;-) but it's okay because Justin is even older! :-P

Mom- thanks for all you do for me! I just love you! You're the greatest mom ever! I am so lucky to have you to be my mommy!

Dad- you're the greatest daddy a girl could ask for! Thanks for all you do! Sister Twitchell says thanks for lunch! She is excited to meet all of my amazing family! :-)

Also, I'm sending a box home today. It will have in it: a memory card full of pictures and videos. Dad, there is a video for you that I made for father's day but couldn't get any of these stupid library computers to send it. So happy father's day late. Also, I hope you enjoy the songs that Sister Twitchell and I wrote. We have had lots of fun with this. There is also a blanket that a very sweet old woman, Victoria Kirkland, made for me when I was in Springfield. She is amazing. She is from Austria and Germany... (WW II) and then went to Texas and then to Ohio. Her accent is the coolest. :-) There is also a Lion King piano book and "The Complete Chronicles of Narnia." I found these at the dumpster and thought it was appalling, abhorrent even, that someone would just throw then away! So I saved them. But can't have them here. Haha. Oh, and a beautiful picture! The financial secretary, Sister Wursten, bought these for all the Sister Missionaries. There is an Elder's version too called "Called to serve" I think. But you have to go directly through the artist to get them! Deseret Book discontinued them. Sad. Anyway, it was so sweet of her! It is an amazing picture! I love it and I don't want to lose/ruin it! So keep it somewhere safe please! :-)

I love you all so much! Thanks for all you do for me and Landon! We really appreciate it! You're just the best family EVER!!! I love you all!

Tata!

Annie

PS cool story with Reva! After our lesson on Monday she was talking to Maddi and she was upset. Reva said "okay, I'm going to open the Book of Mormon to a random page and point to a scripture." So she did...and it related perfectly to what Maddi needed! It was just amazing. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and wonderful and just great! I love it! Keep reading it! Every day!

also... the subject line was a joke from the MTC. One of the men in my branch presidency was talking about being accountable but it definitely sounded like a cannibal. And then a man in a general conference session from the past said "heed the prophet every day" but because of his accent it sounded like eat. haha :-)

and tell grandpa thanks for the valentine's card! :-)