Hello, Hello!! It is so great to hear from you. :)

We are surviving the cold, today it is actually in the mid-20's and sunny!! This calls for a light jacket, and shoes instead of boots. :) It is seriously so great. Due to the days getting longer, I have been able to find the perfect spot in our kitchen where I can sit in the sun for personal study! It has been one of the highlights of my days. Sitting reading the scriptures, learning about the gospel and feeling the warm sun on my face. It is a fantastic way to start off my day. :) Sister Dumas is adjusting quite well. The first few days were really cold, but she has done much better than she or I expected! I suppose it helps that we have been teaching quite a bit, so we are often inside.

Yes, I did hear about great-grandma. It sounds like she is struggling. I really hope she makes it until I come home. I would love to see her one last time. She is a great example. If I send you a letter today, could you read it to her if you go down and see her? Gracious is a wonderful word to describe her. She is always so happy and kind. Grandma T wrote me and said that she was surprised how much help you were when you came up, haha I am sure more help would be appreciated. Give them both a hug for me!!

I am glad that grandma is putting some of her fabric to use with that project! Haha it sounds like a great thing. :)

And I can't believe everyone is starting 3rd tri! Some of the people we are teaching are just finishing up with finals too. It is a crazy time of year. Haha sometimes I miss school, then I remember all the stress that it causes, and I don't miss it all that much!

I can't believe that it is warm enough to be transplanting berries?! We heard today that you just got lots of snow....is that inaccurate? I sure hope that you get water though that we are going to need! 

That is super great that you made french toast for everyone! I am sure that they really appreciated it. You know, it is the smallest things that make a difference. Taking time to listen to someone, writing a simple note, they are the things that can make someone's day. This week we got a phone call from one of our friends in the ward. She is struggling with a lot of things and sounded really depressed. After talking with her for a few minutes, knowing that there was nothing I could really do about the situation, we hung up and told her that we would be at her apartment soon with a surprise for her! Then came the tricky part, thinking of a surprise! (all on a missionary budget.) I thought of one of the things that will always bring a smile to my face, flowers. I remembered that at one of the grocery stores we go to, they were selling them for really cheap! After getting permission to leave our area briefly, we ran to the store to get flowers (beautiful white and purple ones), wrote a quick note, and took them to her! She was so surprised that we actually took the time to A. bring her something and B. come visit her! It was the simplest little thing that we did, but it made a difference to her, and made us feel like we had done good. I think the world needs more acts like that. Simple things, things that give us encouragement though. Like you said there is so much discouragement in the world. We get it all the time. We have the opportunity though as brothers and sisters to help lift others up. To shoot them a text, give them a call or write a note just being there for them! I love it :)

So, this Saturday was our miracle day. Let me just tell you what happened.

1. We had lunch with a wonderful family in our ward. They are a young couple from Guatemala, and so much fun to be with! The sister is going to have a baby in 2 weeks, so we stayed and helped her with the dishes. We had such a fun conversation, and laughed way too much! Also, we had tacos with avocado (which is my current addiction! )

2. We stopped by a sister who hasn't been to church since I have come here. Everytime we stopped by before she has seen us then told us to go away and call before we come. The catch is that her phone doesn't work....Anyways, we went and she saw us, and let us in! She invited us to sit down and we had a wonderful conversation with her! It was great.

3. We stopped by a part-member family in the ward. We have met the teenage daughter once, but that was about it. They invited us in! The mom had all the kids turn off the TV and their various devices, then we talked with them. They asked us what was different about our church, and where the Book of Mormon came from, so we were able to teach them about the Restoration of the Church. It was super great!! They are a great family.

4. This one is sort of....different, don't judge! So, our tire has had a leak in it for a little while. We have to refill it about once a week, and were just told by the mission to go get it fixed. Anyways, Saturday rolled around and we needed to fill it again. We pulled into the gas station, and for the life of me, I could not get the pressure gauge, to work, or the air to work on that tire. I don't know if something was blocking the valve or something, I have no idea! Anyways, we went inside for my companion to use the restroom, and I said a prayer in my head. I knew that we couldn't do anything that evening if we didn't get our tire fixed, and I had no clue what was going on! We went back out, tried one more time, and it worked! We were able to fill up our tire, and head out. 

It was a great miracle filled day, hopefully our coming week will be the same!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Also, mom, if you happen to be free Wednesday morning (slim chance I know ;) ) We are going to the temple to the 10:00 session. It would be super neat if we were able to be in the temple at the same time! (just a few states apart!) If things are crazy, don't stress though!!

Have a wonderful day, and a great week!!

Love,

Sister Christina Trickler