Baptism!!

                                  We saw a cool barn so took some pics. 

Hello my loved ones,

I have one word for you:  Arachnophobia.

I've seen about 3 huge spiders in the house this week. A few more than that outside the house.  I mean they're not tarantulas or anything, but they are some scary-looking suckers.  They're called "Cat-face" spiders.  But at least they aren't Hobo spiders-- Idaho has a lot of those, and apparently they're very poisonous. Needless to say, sleep doesn't come easily when you know that the 8-legged monsters are coming inside for the winter.

 Man, there are just so many people we see and teach here. I'm really still working on getting names and wards and faces straight with the members.  Something hard about teaching is when you are teaching more than one person and they are on two very different levels.  For example, we are teaching this couple, and the woman is less active and has all these questions about really deep doctrine, and her fiance is a non-member and has no religious background.  So he's pretty lost when she starts asking about the deep-doctrine stuff.  But we just have to keep it basic enough where they both can understand the really important foundational things about the gospel.  I've learned that many people, members and non-members alike, can get hung up on little details about the church and it keeps them from gaining a testimony.  It all comes down to the basic foundations of the gospel, though.  God lives, Christ is our Savior, and the Book of Mormon is the word of God. If a testimony is gained of those basic things--of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel--  the other little concerns that we have won't really matter as much.   

It's also really sad to see when people leave the Church because of what other people do or say.  Please remember to be kind to all.  Love and support other members through thick and thin.  And if someone is unkind to you, remember that although the gospel is perfect, the people in it are not.  Other people's mistakes are no reason to lose your faith in the restored gospel.  Never lose hope! 

We had a baptism on Saturday!! Ethan, who is 10, and his 8-year-old sister got baptized.  Their Dad had just received the priesthood and was able to baptize them! Such a precious moment.  Those kids are amazing and so faithful.  After the girl got confirmed with the Holy Ghost, she was in tears.  The spirit was so strong and you could feel the bond that family has strengthened over the last couple weeks, and it's all because of the gospel.  Because they shared in it with each other.  

Women's conference was awesome. Loved the little korean kids singing.  Elder Uchtdorf is a boss.  I love the women and all but he is just awesome.

Being a missionary here is weird sometimes.  People just know the Mormon missionaries, whether they have a positive or a negative view of us.  Bonding with the investigators has proved really important.  Both members and investigators need to trust us, which is why we need to do everything we can to be trustworthy representatives of Christ.  One of our investigators makes these awesome metal art sculptures, and he's in the process of making one for me and Sister Worrall right now, one for Oklahoma and one for Texas.  I just love the people here.       

So on Sunday, we were just finished with sacrament meeting in 1st ward when we get a text "Hey Sisters, making sure you're good for your talks today?" It was from the Bishop of one of our other wards.  Talks?? We had completely forgotten! That ward was starting in 30 minutes, and it was in the other building on the other side of town.  I've never written a talk so fast in my life.  But we gave them and mine wasn't half-bad, and Sister Worrall's was awesome--it sounded like she had prepared all day for it.  

So something funny that happened this week was that we discovered that Sister Worrall can communicate with turkeys.  There is this flock of turkeys that's always just walking down the road. The other day we drove up to them, Sis Worrall made a turkey noise, and they gobbled back.  She did it several times, and it was so funny! I got a video and I will try and send it if I can. 

Love you all! Pray and study daily and go forward in faith!

Sister Moreland