Hello!!

 How is it going in good old Mendon? Haha yes, this week I am going to hit my year mark. Rather strange. It is really interesting to see what has changed in the past year. I have had some great experiences, and learned a lot! But don't worry, I am still the same crazy Sister Trickler! I still love to wear my pencil skirt and heels, and crazy dance at the most random times :) Haha funny story about grey hair, Sister Amis, my second companion was convinced that I had grey hair. We would be walking down the street and she would stop me, pull out a hair, then try to convince me that I was going gray! I still think she is crazy, but that's alright ;) Speaking of hair, it is getting so long!!!! Crazy!

We had a really cool miracle last night. I was having a really rough night, it was bad. 8:00 came around, and we decided to stop by a less-active family on our way home. We had stopped by multiple times before....probably 5-10, with no answer. Yesterday though, a sister answered! She was very kind, and we talked for a little while outside, then another sister came out with a little girl on her hip. She was a 2 year old little Hispanic girl, that looked just like Kaycee. Oh my goodness, she was so cute!! My poor companion was left to talk to the sisters, while I played with that little girl for the next 45 minutes! I had curled my hair, and it was down (and rather long) So I kept shaking my hair so that it would go all crazy! She would laugh and then do it herself! It was such a simple thing, but something that brought a much needed smile to my face. It reminded me that God is mindful of each of us, and gives us little tender mercies just when we need them. Sometimes all we need is a smile, it can make a world of difference!! 

Anywho, I am glad that your relief society activity went well. You know, that remindes me of the scripture....where much is given much is required. There is so much that we can do! Sometimes we get caught up in our world. The things that we need to do and such, there is so much that can be done if we just look outside of ourselves! It is good to be engaged in a good work! 

Oh man, I miss all the kids at home! I am glad to hear that they are doing well though, that is great.

What is the name of the new family that moved in? Is he an institute teacher at USU? That is neat though. I took an institute class on the parables of Jesus Christ, and one of my favorite parts was each week when we would write what were called personal parables, stories from our own lives that we could learn from. It is neat to see how many lessons we can learn in our own lives! Oh speaking of scriptures, We are teaching a family that wanted a "study bible" version of the Book of Mormon. I remembered the one that we got and use to read out of when I was younger. I mentioned it to them, and they bought it, they got it in the mail Friday! I am excited for them to be able to learn more about the Book of Mormon. 

I am glad that Sister Nelson wrote you, she mentioned that she got your package, and was so excited...good work! It is sort of crazy out of all my past companions she is the one I see most often. I see her nearly every other week, I haven't seen my other ones more than once since I have been with them.

Man, crazy house with all the teens! That is great though. Jackie said that she had a lot of fun, so good work :) Haha Kaycee is so funny, that definitely is the way that she works. You know, I'm not too different in that regard....

We are enjoying fall, lots of raking this past week. We have quite a few meetings this week, so we will see how it all goes. I have decided though that I am doing good, I haven't had to break out the coat, or the boots yet :) gloves yes, but that is alright! 

Well, I hope that you all have a great week!

also, I have probably listened to this 5 times today already, it is fantastic. Definitely worth a watch! Maybe I am just dying for good music or something.....haha no, it is really good!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001&cid=HPTU102114502 

Love,

Sister Christina Trickler

Also p.s. since my companion is from Taiwan, and it is rather expensive to send mail, she doesn't recieve any. If the kids wanted to draw her a picture, or write her a letter, she would greatly appreciate it! Thanks :)

holy Moly!!!! I forgot the best part of our week!!!!!

So. Wednesday night. We get home at 9:15ish, and were planning. I was really tired, really I was half asleep leaning against the couch attempting to plan the day. Needless to say it was being rather unproductive. All of the sudden my companion jumps up out of her seat and screams! Please keep in mind that we are in the basement of a member. Still half asleep, I looked up, and she is pointing at the floor. Running across our floor is a 4-5 inch long Salamander!!!! Haha it ran under my purse, and was just sitting there. I got a container, and helped it find its home...outside! Oh man, it was probably one of the best experience of my mission up to this point! My Asian companion screaming after seeing a salamander. Then I teased her the rest of the night, that it was going to make it's way into her bed...haha I am the worst companion ;) She started talking about snakes though, and I shut my mouth pretty darn quickly!!

Anywho, miracles happen!

Hello!!

Haha no, I do not get tired of that greeting, it is wonderful to hear from home :) Man, that little girl is spunky, I am glad to hear that nothing has changed! I got your package of letters this week, thanks so much! And I greatly appreciate the voting ballot! Although, I am regretably not informed at all...haha such is the life of a missionary ;) I guess I'll pray about it or something! It was perfect timing seeing as we heard about voting from the first presidency in church. I have letters in the mail for the kids, so Matthew is going to get a card at least :) But I will send him an email. I can't believe he is so old, they all are looking so old! Grandma sent me a picture from the adoption, it was great :) And I do quite like the hair! 

Guess what? Do you remember Sara Turner? Well...she is in my district. Meaning that she is in the neighboring ward, and we will see each other at least 4 times a week for a couple of hours! Isn't that crazy? I saw her yesterday for the first time, and it was sort of strange, because sometimes I forget that Utah exists, but it was really great to talk to her :) She is really going to be an incredible missionary, I can tell already! And she has a wonderful companion. We are going to carve pumpkins with them and a couple of sisters in the surrounding areas today, I am quite excited! It is the first time that Sister Huang has carved a pumpkin, so we went and picked some out this morning from a stand on the side of the road. It reminded me of when I grew pumpkins and sold them. Good times :) 

I am glad that you had a good Stake Conference! I am sure that was really neat to have Elder Nelson there! And I love that story about visiting less active souls. Sometimes it does get sort of discouraging because they don't seem to ever want to change, or they don't want to talk to you, but it is really neat to see that we can have an impact, and make a difference. The little things we do definitely make a big difference in the end! Even if we feel like we did nothing, a seed was planted. 

That remindes me of two of my favorite people in Austin! A mother and her daughter that got baptized while we were there. I remember that I was with Sister Amis, trying to find some less-active members. We went to one house, and no one was there. After knocking, Sister Amis thought that we should go try a yellow house across the street. We did, and found out that a less-active family lived there. When we returned to see them again, we were introduced to their cousins, the two who were baptized. They are amazing people!! It was neat though that we were able to find them through less-active members. I wear a braclet that the daughter made for me every day reminding that the little things we do make a difference. Plus it is a really cute braclet ;)

Haha oh goodness, I have read a bit of the Old Testament as well, what a crazy book of scripture!! There are some amazing stories in there, and then some that make you wonder! 

I am sorry that you have had a headache, I have been having some recently as well. They seem to hit me for 3 weeks or so, then I get a little break. Isn't it funny how it makes you so much more grateful for a healthy body when you have pains like that? It is sort of neat. It reminds me that there really has to be opposition in all things! 

Well,

Miracles happen!! I hope that you all have a lovely week :)

Love you lots!

-Sister Christina Trickler

p.s. I am not sure when our day to email will be next week, so don't panic if you don't get an email from me on Monday. We have a member of the 70 visiting us, and with Halloween, p-day

Hello!

 It is great to hear from you this lovely gray monday! This week is transfers, we got news that we are both staying, so that is good. We have a lot of things happening right now, and.......I should be able to go to the temple within the next month or so!!! I am more than thrilled :)

It sounds like you had a busy sunday, those are great though. It is good to be busy, it keeps us out of trouble! ;) Man that is crazy that you are already working on music for the christmas program. It still feels like so far away!! I am sure it will be here before we know it though. Man, good for Matthew, that time isn't to shabby! He's not varsity, is he? I can not for the life remember what times were for our varsity boys.  I heard that Jackie had a blast, good for her. I think that she needed a pick-me-up. I think we all need one of those sometimes ;) Scratch that, I know we do! And good that Jake is having fun, good coaches are great. We were asked to write a talk on becoming a consecrated missionary this past week. I haven't done it yet, but as I was thinking about the topic this morning, a quote came to mind from Coach Wright. (XC) He always told us to give 100% of what we had. It changes everyday, but as long as we truly give it our all, that is enough. I believe that applies to every situation in life. As long as we give it our all, we will go to bed satisfied with what we did. We aren't perfect, and some days we are able to give more than other days, but that is alright. We are only human, to quote Christina Perry I believe ;). Moral of that story, things that coaches say can stick with us for a long time. That, and he always told us that if we died running he would pay for our funeral. Haha that was great :)

That sounds like a really neat project you are involved in. It sounds like there is a great need. We certainly have been given so much, it is great to have the opportunity to give something back to the world. 

Adoption: Good for the family. I'll be there in spirit.

That is really neat that Elder Nelson is coming to stake conference, I am sure that it will be a great experience. Where is conference going to be held? Conferences are great. I believe that our Stake one will be held next month, which means that I will still be here for it! They are a good opportunity to get a spiritual uplift :) Thanks for the letter from Blake! It was great to hear that he is doing well. I am sure that he is having many grand adventures! Vitamin D works wonders! Here in our mission we are all told to take it as well, starting now in preparation for the winter. I didn't last year, but am seriously considering it this year! Haha I remember one day my first companion took some Vitamin D, she was so happy that day! It really works wonders :)

Fall is beautiful, the trees are very pretty here! It is a little cold, but that is alright. We are starting to get creative with the layers, so it is alright! Change is not in my future until at least the day before Thanksgiving ;) I have to admit that I am dreading winter. Just because I know how cold it can get. It isn't bad once we are in it, it is just the anticipation that gets me sometimes! It is beautiful, and once the snow falls it will be lighter at night, which would be much appreciated!

That is a great experience with your knitting group. Did you just start it? That is the best way to do missionary work. Our mission president always use to talk about Social conversion. How people need to be socially converted to the gospel as well as spiritually. I had a hard time with that one for a while, because I don't think I ever have been socially converted to the gospel, but I have seen how important it is that people have friends in the church. Christ like love can change the world. And it does, all the time. Keep it up!

So, last week I realized that I had so many miracles that were happening but I was always so tired that by the time Monday came around I forgot all of them! This week I wrote them down though...so I thought I would share a few!

(and I just copied this down from my journal (fyi)

10/7

Today I saw a super cool miracle. So, lately I've been struggling wanting to make calls, who knows why. This morning though, I was excited to call! I decided to call Sister S. (for no real reason.) I did, and she was in tears on the phone. I couldn't really understand what she was saying. I asked if she wanted us to come over and do anything, she said no. I told her that we loved her, and she ended the call. I felt like we still needed to see her today though. We had plans to be in a completely different part of our area, but we decided we would go rake her leaves anyways. We didn't want it to be a big deal, just to let her know that we cared. So, this afternoon we went over and started to rake. (in the wind ;)) We made progress though, and after 20 minutes or so, Sister S. Came outside and told us to come in, with tears streaming down her face. We did, and she gave us huge hugs saying that she had been praying for someone to help her this morning, then right after we called her. She was praying for help, then we showed up at her house. Trust me, it wasn't coincidence. How neat is that? As we were talking to her, I received another witness that not only does God exist, but He loves each of us, and answers our prayers. It was a great experience.

10/9

Alright. yesterday's miracle : Sister Huang lost her watch when we were doing service, raking leaves for Sister S. We didn't have time to go back and search Tuesday, and forgot Wed. Afternoon. We went and ate dinner, then we were going to Stop by a potential who lived by Walmart, so we parked in the Walmart parking lot, and I had to use the restroom, so we ran inside. We needed our jackets, so we came back to the car. After putting on our jackets, sister Huang said that we needed to pray! I was in a rather silly mood, so i hopped in the backseat to say a prayer, she got in as well. AS soon as we said amen, she opened her eyes, and saw her watch on the ground! Keep in mind that we never sit in the back seats!

Moral of the story: Miracles exist every day, it is just a matter of realizing it, and recognizing them!

I hope you all have a lovely week!!

Love,

Sister Christina Trickler

Hello!! It is great to hear from you, as always :) It sounds like things are going well at home, busy but well! It is sort of strange to have a year without canning....it just isn't quite the same! This last week I came to the realization that I am just not a fan of spaghetti sauce that you buy at the store. This week I decided to buy the ingredients and just make it myself. I definitely took delicious sauce for granted! That and jam ;) 

It is sort of crazy to hear that Matthew is doing xc and Jackie has all-state choir. I feel like I was just there! Time really moves too quickly sometimes I think. I am glad that Jacob has a good coach, that makes a huge difference. I know that I had coaches that really influenced me, in a positive way.  And good luck with parent teacher conferences. You might need to go get ice cream or something afterwards! It is interesting how we all have different struggles in life. I never struggled with school, but definitely had some other struggles some of my sibilings haven't had. There is a reason though, we are all able to help each other. It's interesting, I have had 6 companions now, and they are all very different, and all have different struggles. Most of the time their struggles are different then mine, which is a blessing. They are able to help me, and I am able to help them! At least on occasion ;)

Conference was quite a delightful experience. The longer I am out, the more I realize that my life is going to be much different than I imagined when I get home. It is a strange feeling. Conference gave me hope in the future though. In a strange sort of way, I am excited to face the next adventure a head (in a little while ;) ) This could be my last conference on the mission, we'll see. There seemed to be a lot of talks on prophets in general conference, I think we are going to have to rely on them more and more in the near future. It will be great though :) Also, just a random sidenote...I didn't know most of the songs that the choir sang, it was sort of strange!

Haha I am glad you got your hair cut, but that does sound short! Mine is very long....I can't wait until I can cut it! I am hoping to donate it, so I need a little bit more length. But this winter might drive me to cut it, It is cold enough now that I need to dry it every day, and that takes a while lately! It has been in the 40's pretty consistantly the past week. 40's with rain and wind....winter is here! Thank you so much for the sweaters, they came at just the right time. I might have to buy some tights, but we'll see. I am hoping that I won't need to, but I think I just am in denial that the cold weather is coming. Snow was predicted this week, but we didn't get any....maybe this next week if we are lucky ;) 

Today we had a zone p-day which was really fun. We played capture the flag, and did a relay.....and....played ultimate frisbee for a little while. I admit my participation in that one was pretty limited, what can I say, I am just terrified when a crowd of people (especially tall elders) run towards me! It was good though to be with other missionaries, and to remember that we are not alone! We are going to have a mission conference later this month, which I am looking forward to. I got here last year just a few weeks after the mission conference, so I haven't had the opportunity to experience one yet!

As mentioned before, conference was really great! Here are a couple of my thoughts, I thought I would share :)

1. Stay in the boat!!!

2. God will not make us to be something we are not, we must have free agency. We can choose who we want to become.

3. Christ died not to save everyone, but to offer repentance to all.

4. Loving others is probably our gratest challenge in this world right now.

5. Accept trials, setbacks, and surprises as part of this moral experience.

And of course

6. Follow the example of Jesus Christ. Walk as He walks, not where He walked.

There are just a couple of things I loved....general conference is great :) I hope and pray that you all have a lovely week!! Just keep going, one step at a time :)

Love,

Sister Christina Trickler