I Love You!

Sister Halbeisen, my daughter, and Hermana Dansie, my goddaughter, are
both STLs!!!
This dog was sleeping on her, and I was telling her to push it off of
her. Sister Theriault said, 'But, he has arthritis!' I was just
laughing :)
This is a Book of Mormon from the 70s i think? One of our members gave
us both a copy! It's so cool! He found them at Goodwill, hahah!



 Dear Everyone!

It has been a GREAT week, making progress with lots of people, and finding new people, and just absolutely loving Tennessee and the crazy people that live here! :) Does weather make people crazy? Cause it went from 100+ to 75 in one day, with some awesome thunderstorms in between!  I love it!

So, a quick update on some people:

Diamond- still moving forward. Really, the only problem about teaching Diamond is simply that she has SO many questions, we never actually have time to answer them all!!!! She jumps ahead and think through things really deep, so we can hardly make it through teaching her the basic principles of the gospel before she gets into the intricate details! it's like trying to do calculus before you know how to do addition and subtraction, ya know? But it's a good thing, because it means she wants to know. it's really fun to teach her :)

Jeff and Maleah:  I don't know what  I have told y'all about them before, but they were married a few months ago, so they could be baptized, but, the baptism never happened. We had a lesson with the Gilday family, and it went so well! We think they needed to hear it from a member, not from the missionaries. So hopefully, we can keep making some good progress with them. They are in a tight situation, so we really hope it all works out and they can keep getting things straight in their life.

Speaking of the Gildays, they have become our new best friends! they live near a lot of our investigators, and they are such awesome missionaries, so we have been able to teach people in their home, and it's been great. They are a young couple with four kids, two boys and two girls. Bro Gilday is this burly guy, but he loves his little kids! We love their family, they help us out all the time! Really, all the members here do, they all want to do whatever they can forever, mostly that means they feed us. We had three pizzas this week :) And they gave us the left overs, so we had two different kinds of pizza in our fridge at one time, living the high life right? It always just made me feel so loved when  I saw it, haha!

We found a lot of people who were willing to talk with us this week, so hopefully we will be able to follow up with them in the coming week. One is a 16 year old named Ally who really wants to know more about God, and how he can help her in her life. It's always neat to teach younger people, they seem so open to the Spirit! We know she could really change her life if she could learn about the gospel!

Virginia: so the miracle of Virginia this week was that we had a lesson with her and Sister Lee, the quietest and strongest member  I know! We had been planning to have them meet for a long time, but it just hadn't worked out until this week, and it was meant to be! Virginia had a lot of questions about why she would need to be baptized again in order to receive the Holy Ghost, because she had already been baptized. Sis Lee had also been baptized once before she joined the church, and she was able to really testify of the difference she felt from the first and the second time, and how she knew it was because of the priesthood, or the authority from God. It was a really spiritual lesson, and a neat thing to experience for all of us!

Oh there is just too many people to write about, I'll stop there so  I can tell you a few of the other really amazing and hilarious things that happened this week!

So we were driving back into town, and we pulled up to a red light.  I saw the girl in the car next to us was dancing, and  I was just laughing and smiling about it, and then  I realized it was Jana, a member of our ward! So, we pulled up next to her and waved and started talking and laughing about it! Now, Jana is taking care of her mom who is very ill with cancer, and she works third shift, so we hardly ever get to see her! So, we are talking, both knowing the light is about to turn green, but also knowing that we never get to actually meet up! And guess what happens? A police man pulls out into the intersection, and stop s traffic for a funeral procession! So we had an extra five minutes to talk, while the procession drove through town! it was such a blessing and tender mercy, because we never get to catch up with her. She was able to fill us in on what's going on with her mom, and we were able to get her in contact with a few people who could help! it was a great reminder to me that God is SO in control of every detail.

Also, isn't it the strangest but greatest thing that they stop traffic for funeral processions?
Ok, so then another great thing this week: we had met this sweet lady who had stopped coming to church a while ago when things got crazy, and we were able to have a member pick her up, and met with us at her house! it turned out to be so exactly perfect, down to a t! They both had so many similar experiences in life, and so much to talk about. It was really incredible to see how Heavenly Father helped this sweet sister who was struggling meet someone who was on the other side, and could help her! It was just such a good moment :) Alright, last thing. this was just hilarious! Sister Theriault was talking to our district leader about something, and as they were ending the phone call, he said, 'have a good night!' and she responded, 'Thanks,  I love you!" But thankfully, she stopped herself before she got too far!!! it had me cracking up,  I couldn't contain myself. Maybe you have to understand sister Theriault a little bit more. She is totally reserved, and everyone we met calls her quiet, shy, or bashful. She blushes when she doesn't know what to say, and she is just the cutest little thing ever! She barely even says love ya to me, so the fact that she almost said it to the elders was just too much to handle!!! it was hilarious, and a good way for her to get a little more out of her shell! laughing always helps!

Well,  I know this was way too long and probably very few of you actually made it through, but  I hope you can see how happy  I am to be serving the Lord, and how grateful  I am to be working with theses amazing people.  I wouldn't trade this experience for anything! Everyday,  I get to see how God works in people's lives, and that's a real blessing.

Love you all!

Sister Penrod