NOVEMBER IS HURR

P DAAYA!

I was just reading through some of my old journal entries and I
realized it was one year ago last week that I made my decision to serve a mission!!! CRAZY. That was a FAST year... I am SO grateful that I made this decision to serve. Heavenly Father is seriously guiding my life. I KNOW that FOR sure.

How was everyone's Halloween!?! You all looked so good. 

I love Halloween.

My Halloween was great!! We went to MLC which is a leadership
training. And that was in Scarsdale NY. I looooooved it. I had so much personal revelation I couldn't even write it all down. Good stuff. And Sister Morgan made us Chili!!!! Which made me SO happy because it reminded me of my moms chili that she makes every year on Halloween. And then afterwards she brought out homemade donuts. I. just. about. died. Yummiest things of my life. I was happy. That night allllll the missionaries in NYNY North mission had to be in by 6:00. So guess what I did that night? BAKED yummmmm cookies. and listened to conference talks. It was so fun. Apparently I cook and bake. and I enjoy it!! Never thought I would. But I do. And my roommates enjoy what I make :) after eating some cookies and cookie dough we had to move around to burn some calories. So I will send some pictures of what we did.. Jumped around just a little…  shhhh And thank the heavens we go to the gym every morning!!

My cheeks hurt from smiling so much out here. I must be happy or something! Every night when I'm in bed It feels so good to relax my cheeks. Hahaha!!

So something I've never experienced ever in my life was being taught by a Muslim! If my mom could see just a few sneak peek previews of a few of some of the situations I've been in I think she would crap her pants!! Hahah So there is this woman named Doris in our ward. And I LOVE her so much. She is from India! And she is married to a Muslim. He lives in India. So yes Doris lives here in Connecticut and her husband lives in
India. And they both have different beliefs. Sooo cool.
Doris is such a good example to me because she is one of the strongest members I know! Doris just came home from her trip to India with her husband. and she was there for like 2 months visiting her husband. I have been dying to see her again so now that she is finally home we went to see her. When we got there her husband was there praying! It was interesting to see how other people pray. She then invited us to sit on the floor and she made us this delicious mint drink. Mmm and some yummy bread. And then her husband came over and looked me right in the eyes and taught me the whole Muslim religion for about 1 hour hahaha. I am almost positive he thought he was going to convert me. I was just openly listening. (Little did he know how strong my testimony is right now) He is so so nice. And VERY passionate about what he believes. He taught me about how they sacrifice Lambs and showed me all sorts of pictures from India. Which was so cool. I felt like I was literally in India. I am going to take a trip to India one day. FOR REAL. And Doris and her husband told me they would plan my whole trip for me! I am way excited. I love Doris.

I LOVE our investigators right now. I haven't talked about them much because there is just so much to talk about. But Rick and Maria are most definitely still progressing. Maria has a bap date in December and I am really hoping to still be here for that! We taught them with some members over the week and that was great. Members are so awesome to bring to lessons because it really does help the investigators feel more welcome at church. I gave rick my FAVORITE book ever "Our Search For Happiness" and I am so excited to hear what he thinks about it. That book is just incredible. I've read it 3 times already. It needs to be connected to the Book of Mormon because it explains what we believe SO WELL. If you have not read that book, I invite you ALL to pick up a copy and open it right up. Your life will change ;) it's by M Russel Ballard.

Christian our nine year old investigator had a baptismal date for Oct. 25th but we pushed it back because we felt that he was not ready! He needs to come to church a few more times. But it's hard because it's up to his mom to get him there. And that's doesn't seem to be a priority in her life. Christian is hilarious. You can only imagine the look on his face when we taught him the law of chastity. Hahaha. Ahhhhh. He is now going to be baptized on December 6th.

Melissa is a new ish investigator and I LOVE her. She is married to a nice man and they have 3 kids and one on the way! She is amazing. I look up to her lots. She and her husband have committed to come to church on Sunday so I'm pumped to see them there!

We just barely started teaching this old woman named Julia! She is baptist and SO nice. She tells me I am an angel over and over and over. She's so sweet. Yesterday I was on an exchange with a sister and we went to knock on Julia's door... Well she opened up and guess what. She forgot to put her pants on. Ah!!!! Haha the poor sister I was with was like what on earth!!!!! Oh Julia. I love to help her out. She is a sweet sweet old woman.

So it was a fabulous week. I would share some of my favorite things I studied this week but I just realized this email is a liiiittttle lengthy and I'm not too sure you guys will want to keep reading more.. So I will end with that. (If you want to get inside some of my thoughts just read my Facebook posts ;)
I LOVE YOU ALL. Thank you for everything.
CTR

Love,
ABBS