HAI.

Isn't Rose the best? She's so adorable and I love her :D If you haven't already, you can post the pictures to the blog.

So! Big news here in Loomis - my companion Sister Fonua (foh-nu-ah) is being transferred! Nuuu! She was the Australian one and I will miss her loads. With her I've learned how to not sweat the small stuff, how to overcome big barriers, and how to have a good time despite working really hard! It's been good to be with her and I know that good things will follow her to her next area :3 My next companion will be Sister Ripplinger (sp??) and she actually came from the visitor's center in Nauvoo! We usually have a Temple Square sister in the mission at some point or another, so it's really cool that we have both right now. But she'll be my next companion and I don't actually know where she's from. I think Idaho, maybe. Stay tuned for that!

I'm sorry about Aunt Renae. With what we know about the Plan of Salvation, death is surely not an end! I think that's truly one of the great blessings of the gospel we have today. No wonder Abinidi told the people "the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ" (Mosiah 16:8). I will continue to pray for them, for sure.

 Congrats about the new car, btw! Sounds like a fun adventure. Does that mean there's four cars, now? Not for very long, I'll bet, the Taurus sounds like it's apt to die any minute. ¯\[°_O]/¯ Haha! (also, the comment about the biggest ball of yarn had me in stitches. It's not even that funny, but just how nonchalantly it was mentioned was awesome. Hehe.)

Hmm, what else. Oh! Our Primary Program was yesterday! It was really cool what the ward did, tho - they totally used it as a way to get all the less-active members to come out and see them too~! Cos who doesn't like little kids singing and being cute on the stand? :3 There were a few who came, too, so it was great :D

Woohoo, chapel tour! Those things are the best! This ward does them four times a year, so we're pretty well-known in this area. It's kinda neat, and every time they have new people that come. They combine with the other two wards that use the building too, so it's neat that there's always somebody there who hasn't ever seen it before. It's a great draw :)

It's cold (ish) and rainy here today! All the Californians are kinda weirding out cos it's cold. And wet. I'm quite comfortable, actually. Haven't had to use a coat up to this point, and even now it's just a sweater. No prob! Maybe when it gets into the thick of winter I'll actually get a light jacket to use. Maybe. Haha!

So yesterday I was looking through my scriptures and I found I had a lot of notes in ch.9 of John. In it, Jesus is walking with his disciples and they see a blind man. The disciples ask Him if the man sinned or his parents sinned, that he was blind. Jesus told them, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." So he spits in the dirt, gets clay, puts it on the man's eyes and tells him to wash in the river.

Of course, we can see the physical miracle to this - he gets his sight back. But there's another miracle coming - watch for it.

The man goes back to his house and all his neighbors see him. They ask him what happened and he tells them, and they want to know where he sis now but he doesn't know. Then the Pharisees come and have a big flip-out cos oh no, he healed on the Sabbath. Must be a sinner, they think. They ask the man what happens, he tells them, and then they ask him what he thinks of this man. "A prophet," he says. But the Jews think he'd been lying about being blind, so they call his parents and ask them. They confirm it was their son and that he was blind, but they don't agree to anything about him being healed. They're, of course, afraid to agree to anything in case they get cast out (excommunicated, basically) so they tell the Pharisees, "He's of age, ask him!" So they do, also mentioning along the way that they think Jesus is a sinner for healing on the Sabbath. At this point the man is obviously annoyed with them for not believing him and calls them out, telling them that they must be crazy if they think Jesus is a sinner. He reminds them that if he weren't from God, there's no way he would've been able to heal at all. So the Pharisees get mad and cast him out.

Did you catch it? The 2nd miracle happened. The man not only had a physical miracle, but a spiritual miracle, that he realized he had faith in Jesus Christ the son of God and testified of him! I love that; sometimes we need to be placed in those challenging situations to realize we have faith and a testimony of the things we're being tried on. I really liked that.

 But yeah, I need to go now. But I love y'all and you are wonderful! I pray for you every day and I know good things will happen! Look for those missionary experiences, and remember if you pray for them they will happen!

I LOVELOVELOVE you!

Sister Nelson