Feb. 12

Happy Valentines Day! I hope you are all having a super fantastic week and that things are going well for everyone. I pray that everyone is getting healthier or staying healthy during your cold, snowy season... Would it be awful to tell you that we had some days in the 50's this week? Okay, I won't tell you then. Life here in Missouri is going great! Sister Stobbe and I are working on building up the teaching pool in the Independence 1st Ward and the YSA branch. They had a lot of baptisms in the last couple months so their teaching pool slowly drained out. The are we are covering seems to be HUGE. Not only compared to a Utah ward but compared to my Liberty ward, too. And, for the YSA branch we cover the entire stake--lots of work to do!

I met my favorite family in the Independence 1st Ward Friday. It is a man by the name of Sayko (yes, psycho!) and his four boys; Walter, Rocky, Rico, and Justice. When S. Stobbe set up the appointment with Sayko he said he didn't know if he could make it because he was allergic to white girls. When I met them I told Sayko I was grateful they had come; I was afraid he wouldn't show up because of his allergies! (Yeah, you can be proud of me! A little white girl smarting off to a large Samoan!) I think it broke the ice nicely, though, we had a great lesson about the Restoration after that. Sayko's boys are so great! Walter (10) and Rocky (9) were just recently baptized; Sayko isn't a member. Rico (7) has such a sweet spirit and is eager to learn and Justice (6) is in the stage where he loses interest easily. They were fun to get to know; answering/asking questions and having really good insights. We sat by them in church on Sunday; such respectful boys!

Church is quite the experience. I think I may have mentioned the large population of Polynesian families here. Yeah, it's huge. And I'm not able to remember most of their names. I don't have anything to associate them with! It's an interesting experience. I can recognize their faces and know they have pronounced their names for me a few times but I can't recall them from week to week. And, their first names aren't any easier so it doesn't do any good to ask those!

I ran into the hardest to eat food last Tuesday evening. We went to Bro. Banuelos' house for dinner. His mother is a non-member and he wanted us to have a FHE type lesson with her. He cooked doctored store-bought pizza that was more than slightly burnt... Yum! For dessert he gave us what I thought was a traditional Spanish dessert but ended up being something he had just thrown together. It was a milk, cream, and fine cottage cheese mixture over a layer of sweet potatos with strawberries and blueberries in it. Oh, goodness. Both S. Stobbe and I couldn't handle it. We were gracious, though, and at least tried it. Then we left quickly.

I don't have a lot of investigator experiences this week. We're just doing a lot of finding; building that pool back up. I'm enjoying working at the visitor center. It should be getting busier here soon. Independence is an interesting and diverse place. I look forward to getting to know it better. Oh! We had interviews with President Keyes this week; I survived!

Remember, I love you all and am grateful for your continued love, prayers, and support! Have a fantastic day!

Love,

Sister Wilson

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