Week 9:

This week has been full of mixed feelings! It has been an amazing week, yet a not-so-great week. Doesn't quite makes sense, does it?

Well to start off, I will talk about the bad, not-so-great parts of the week. As I said in last weeks update, no one was getting transferred out of my district. Well, last minute Elder Oliver, who serves in the same ward, got a call saying he was being transferred so he didn't have time to say goodbye to hardly anyone. But we got another missionary, Elder McVey, who came in. What is interesting is that he reported to the Missionary Training Center on August 20, which was when I was suppose to report before I delayed my call. As it turns out, I was suppose to be in the district that he was in! So that was cool to meet him. Continuing on to the worst part of my week, and what has yet to come. Around 2 today I get to head over to Edina, a town a little ways away, to go to the dentist... To get my wisdom teeth out. One of them is actually growing in and as it grows in, it is pushing my molar out of place. So that has been fun to deal with! I had some pain in the MTC and it was bleeding a little bit, but I didn't think too much of it because it went away shortly after. Well, it started back up again a few days ago. And sure enough, there is a tooth back there! It was not pleasant at all. But the best is yet to come! My poor companion who is going to have to deal with me. Lucky for her, I will probably be sleeping the whole time and won't be there to constantly annoy her as usual. ;) I have the rest of today off of proselyting then Tuesday as well to recover. Which means I will have to miss our district meeting! We always have them on Thursdays, so there wouldn't be a problem. But this week, our district leader decided to schedule it for Tuesday, without knowing that Sister Anderson and I wouldn't be able to attend. Luckily, he understands! So next week I will tell ya how it all goes!

Now to the great... We have a new investigator! A young man named Anthony who we met when we went to visit Gina, a recent convert who we meet with each week. Anthony and Gina are friends. He was there for our lesson with Gina and her kids, mostly focused on her 6 and 7 year old kids, and we told them that next time we come, we can act out Nehpi going and getting the plates from Laban. We told Anthony that he should come and he could be Laban. We gave him a Book of Mormon and showed him the chapters which tells the story. He started reading them while we were there! While we were leaving, we invited him to come to church. And he gladly accepted our invitation. Even better than that, is that he did come to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it! He has such an interest and a desire to learn more. He was talking to the elders after church and told them that he really likes the unity of this church and the feeling he got when he was here. I cannot wait to continue teaching him.

Terry is finally over his sickness! He was able to come to church on Sunday and he really enjoyed it. After church, we went over to his house and had lunch with his wife. They are seriously the best! Attached is the picture of me and Cathy, his wife! We attempt to do yoga together, then just send up laying down and calling it good. They are such crack ups. We were also able to get Andraea and her daughter to church! They have been investigating for a while and haven't come to church very often, especially lately, mostly because church is so early and she has a hard time sleeping so she is always tired. Plus getting her kids ready is hard.  But they went yesterday and they really enjoyed it! It helps with the time change of church, now it's two hours later than it was, so that makes it easier for a lot of people. We were glad they got to come. We made them muffins for breakfast. :) Andraea has a two year old son who was running all over the place and going under all the pews. It was really cute and the members didn't mind at all! Liam would just go to play with all the other kids there.

It finally snowed a little more this week! Not much, but enough to make us grounded (where we couldn't go out or drive our cars) for about two hours when it was snowing pretty bad. A lot of it has already melted, but we have about 5 inches on the ground right now! While being grounded, my companion and I made cookies to give out. That night, we took them to a family and left them at the door because no one was home. I was finally able to shovel snow! Let me tell you. Shoveling snow when it is -15 out, not including the wind-chill, with no gloves or scarf, is no cake walk! But it was fun and I am sure they appreciated it. Hopefully it snows more so I can shovel more. It's fun and people really appreciate it. This time I will dress more for the weather! 

Speaking of weather, last week definitely for pretty chilly. It wasn't too bad though! At least for me. My companion was dying. She said she was going to freeze. Haha I guess I just adjust well to temperature, well to my surprise! I'm sure I won't be saying that, come February! 

So, gas prices are kind of really low! At least they are here, so I am sure they are all around the nation. Here in Prior Lake, they are $1.87, which blows my mind. Not that long ago I was paying $5.10! Thank goodness they dropped.

That's about it for this week! Hope you all have a great week! :)

Love always,

Sister Emma Zimmerman