Monday, May 16, 2016

I have never been so tired in my life. You know when you go to the beach or something and you come home and you're super tired because you sat in the hot sun all day but you're really happy because of the great memories you made? That's my life right now. Mixed with wonderful spiritual moments and random times when you think you're going insane because of the heat. It's starting to get up to 100 degrees and it's only May.. What in the world is supposed to happen in August?! Do we all just bake on the sidewalk?! I'm pretty sure that's what's going to happen..

Anyways Sister Perkins and I have been doing great. I love her! We have been learning so much together and she always has a scripture for every random thought or question I have. Unfortunately we both have very short attention spans and start talking about the most random things. One day we decided to look at our family history and we found where our family trees crossed and from there were able to go all the way back to Adam and Eve... It took us a while... But we got there..

On Thursday we got to go to the temple with our recent convert Aaron!

He was having a hard day and decided that it wasn't a good day to go to the temple. We didn't get in contact with the person that was giving him a ride in time and he called us telling us that Aaron wouldn't answer the door and that he yelled at him to go away! So Sister Perkins and I of course we're really worried so we went over to his apartment with one of our members (Jocelyn who is absolutely

amazing) to try and figure out what was wrong. He told us he had a bad day so we sat and talked to him for a minute and then we got him to come to the temple with us. So he got in Jocelyn's car and we followed them over there. Come to find out that when we got to the temple we talked to the member that was supposed to give Aaron a ride and he had gone to the wrong apartment! It wasn't even Aaron that yelled at him!

But because of the phone call we had gotten from him telling us that he was worried about Aaron, we were able to go to his house and be there for him when he needed someone. We were able to walk around the temple while the rest of the ward was inside doing baptisms for the dead. I had one of the most spiritual moments I have had on my mission so far. I was able to testify of the peace and happiness that I feel when I go to the temple. The temple is the one place on earth that I know I will always feel joy. I love going to the temple and I miss looking out my window every day and seeing it. But this area is amazing! Even though I don't get to see the temple every day I still have it in my heart always!

Kinley got baptized on Saturday! It was awesome! I have never seen so many family and friends at a baptism before but this girl is special and she has a lot of people that love her and that we're so excited to see her make this decision! Words can't describe how happy I was to be able to go back to my old area and see her. I love that girl so much!

I'm so proud of her and I am so happy that I was able to be there to teach her and to help her make this big step in her life. I will be forever thankful for her in my life and the influence she has had on my mission. It's people like her that make me want to be here and to work hard.

Other than that it's been pretty calm this week. My birthday was on Friday and Sister Perkins made me a cake and French toast for breakfast. I had one box from my mom for my birthday because that was all that came in the mail the Monday before so I might be getting some more birthday stuff today! Birthdays are great!

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! My mom sent me the messages that I got on Facebook. You are all amazing and I love you so much!

Hope everyone is doing well! Have a great week!

Sister Eliza Hopper