Hello friends and family,

Some might say I am truly a missionary now because I now own 1) a backpack, and 2) Dansko shoes. Haha.  Truth is, anyone can be a missionary, no matter if they have those things or not, but, I must say they are both pretty awesome :)

This week has been great.  Lots of plans have been changed through cancelled appointments for various reasons, but we have also received a lot of referrals.  Even, a lady called us and said, come over Saturday morning for breakfast! I have a friend I want you to teach, and we did, and she said she would read the Book of Mormon!  Also, Chandler got baptized! Chandler is a boy whose parents recently became active in the church, and Sister Chapman and I have been teaching him the lessons.  He turned nine on Saturday, the day he was baptized.  The baptism went well and his dad found out earlier in the week that he could be the one to baptize him, and he was so happy about that, so it was an exciting thing for their whole family.  This week we were able to do yard work, laying bricks and weeding, and then were able to clean the garage and car for this 84 year old lady who is Catholic but she really loves us and we want to get some members to befriend her and do genealogy work with her.  She gave us some chocolate bars, and the lady we did yard work for gave us chocolate twizzlers (genius!) I tell you these things so all you chocolate lovers can move to Montana and have all the chocolate you want! It is in no short supply here.  But maybe that comes with being a missionary, haha, I don't know. 

I learned something cool this week.  I was thinking about why people become less active.  Then I read Elder Holland's talk from last General Conference.  He says, "In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited...the size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue-it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know."  Then he says that Christ says in the scriptures, "Be not afraid, only believe."  We have the scriptures, prayer, a Prophet and his Apostles, and Sunday meetings-all these resources to guide us.  We have these resources to know what we can do, and we do know certain things.  I was able to write down my testimony and be reminded of those things which I do know.  It was really cool to see how much more peace I had when I focused on what I knew rather than what I didn't.

Last of all, we were having dinner at the Bishop's house the other night, and we were talking about a part of Preach my Gospel that says, "Our message will enable you to improve the quality of your lives."  Our message-the gospel- enables people to improve their lives, it doesn't improve it for them.  The Lord doesn't solve our problems for us.  We can pray that He will take away things, but my Bishop said this:  It is when we change our prayer to please give me the strength to get through this, that He can answer our prayers.

I love this gospel.  I know it is true, and I know that when we pray for strength rather than that the trial will be taken from us, we will see our prayers answered.

Thank you Mom, Dad, Paige, Andy, Kenny, Randy, Mikkee, Gma and Gpa, Grandma and Grandpa Hixson, Brooke and Luke for your letters.  They brightened my week.

Keep the faith and have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Hixson