January 7, 2013

dad,

thank you for being proud of me with the grump! i really like that guy and it was such a wonderful time to see him laughing and enjoying some company. the lord was definitely blessing me that night with his spirit because i just knew i had to do it. the hardest part was getting my companion to do it. she was scared and really didnt want to. but after he started talking to us and things got lighter, she felt so much love for him. it was really great to see :)

new years wasnt anything great. that night i did wake up multiple times in the middle of dreaming about investigators. we had spent a while that night going through the area book and apparently i just couldnt stop talking about the people that were in there! coincidentally i slept through midnight even though my companion woke up from fireworks and banging pans etc..  kinda funny.

thank you for talking on the phone with me! it was great to hear those familiar voices! the only voices i hear these days that i knew before november 7 is the mo-tab!

thank you for the letter! i will be sending another email in a few minutes to mom and who ever :)

love you!

love, your horrible missionary :)

bob,

hey sorry not much time. your email made me laugh! in the library! haha you are just funny bob.

i did get the new years box from erin. we decided we would celebrate the 14 in russia or something. that way we can celebrate without staying up. neither of us want to stay up. we dont get enough sleep as it is. but i am SO THANKFUL AND SURPRISED erin did that. i am so touched. and did she tell you how she did it? there was tinsel or whatever exploding out of the package. it was great :)

i am glad scott got a job. he should do a good job at his job. (or else).

i cant believe how cold it is over there! we got lots of snow here! it was and is wonderful. my boots have kept me so happy, as has my coat. i love those things. today it is like 56 degrees! it was last time i checked, can youbelieve that? haha

i am happy fotis swims around and stuff. oh that made me happy. i think as long as the water doesnt get below 4 or 5 Celsius he should be ok :)

i did not get transferred, and neither did my companion. another 6 weeks :) did i tell you you can always send mail to the mission office? they are really good about forwarding mail.

sadly there is no news about angela YET! we stopped by pete and he said go away again. we will have o figure out how to get to him! come on pete!

thank you for all those updates. they are so fun to read! one miracle i saw was with a man named gerry. we were excited to have our second appointment with him. our first one didnt go well because the spirit wasnt there. a couple from the ward was going to teach with us. a couple hours before the appointment, he sent us a voicemail, cancelling the appointment and politely explaining that he didnt want us to come over any more, because what we have just isnt right for h im. we tried to contact him, without success. we called the members who were going to come with us. they were sad about it and said they were excited to come teaching with us. that night, 4 more lessons fell through. we had a member named hillary hughes with us. she is preparing for a mission. we decided to go visit gerry, even though he asked us not to. when he answered the door, he immediately invited us in. we happily accepted! (extra happy because we had hillary with us! we couldnt have gone in without her!) the lesson went very well. he had a couple of concerns which were very easy to clear up. (lehi and family sailing safely to america) the spirit was there this time and it was a wonderful lesson. at the end, he said a prayer; he thanked heavenly father for our visit and expressed gratitude for us!!! to the lord!! it was grand. he also set up a return appointment! it was a wonderful evening!

this week has been good! i just need to figure out how to calm down sister caffall! she worries like crazy!! i love you! thank you so much for the love and the emails etc..!!!

love, sister lani buxton