Nov. 23 Grateful in all things

Transfers calls were a little unexpected. I thought Sister Desautels and I would be together for a little bit longer...we kind of are but not really. I have been asked to be "an exchange missionary". That means I will technically keep all of my stuff at my apartment but I won't be there very often. We will be in a trio but I won't be spending very much time with them. President Passey has asked that I spend 90% of my time on exchanges with the Sisters in North, West, South, and central Tucson. Exchanges will be like 3 days long and I will pretty much be area hoping all transfer long. I have no clue how it's going to work. He didn't really give me a whole lot of instructions. I'm just supposed to figure it out and pray really hard. Staying in my area would be too simple I guess. I'm grateful for the opportunity to help train these sisters on a more personal level. Everything went really well this week! We are begging Jicell to slow down so that we won't run out of things to teach her! We started her up on personal progress this week and begged her to take her time doing it. She took the book and went to town! That night she called us freaking out about how much cute stuff pinterest and blogs have on personal progress. She is getting 5 other converts in the ward started. The bishop has now decided to call someone to be a personal progress teacher! Now what are we supposed to teach her!?!?! Luke set a date with us for December 2nd! Ever since he set the date that boy has gone a whole other level of on fire! Whatever he was holding back before is gone and he is ready to move forward! He couldn't stop smiling all week long. Thanksgiving couldn't come at a better time. Thanksgiving is just reminding me how important it is to slow down and remember to be grateful for what I've been given. I'm grateful for our investigators. I'm grateful for the friends that I have made here. I'm grateful for trials. They are necessary to grow. They help us to become better. I couldn't be more grateful for my mission. Thank you for everything. I love you so much! Mom- I hope you have the greatest birthday of all time. You deserve it! I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have the greatest best friend of all time. Happy Thanksgiving! It's the best holiday of them all! All our ward members are going home for the holidays so this next week should be an interesting one.... -Sister Barton