Prizza Everyday

My dearest family and the other precious souls who read these,

   Well, my cold heart hurts today to hear the hard news. I am so sorry for the Coffey family, and I hope they can feel my love all of the way from Canada. What a kind man Dean is. I don't know why Heavenly Father needs him now, but how blessed are the heavens to welcome such an extraordinary man. Dean was always so kind and interested in how my life was going. So genuine and nice! He never failed to go out of his way to talk to me when I would see him around town. At Matt's soccer games or at our own house when he was fixing things up for us. He even came to my farewell. I'll never forget how kind he is. I never saw him sad, and that is something we all could be better at. I am thankful to have known him, and all of the Coffey family! Even their cousins, one of which happens to be one of my best friends. Their examples and strengh are incredible. Pray for them, comfort them, and mourn with them. I keep them and you all in my prayers. I never expect things like this to happen. And it confuses me when they do. But, it's ok. Because I do not have any doubts that there is a purpose for everything. The Lord's timing is perfect. And even though we don't always understand it, one day we will. And just like you said Dad, Katie is right there waiting for him. And Chandler Webb, Steve Brewster, and Jim Gasik. Once you're a Hegessy ward member, you're always a Hegessy ward member! The church is a family, here on the earth and in heaven as well. The Lord blesses us with our ward families for a reason. Cherish the relationships we can have with other members. We are all here for each other! It was hard for me to hear about Dean. It just brought up some sad memories. But how blessed are we to know that they are there together, cheering us on. Do what you can now to be worthy to see them again. Don't deny yourself that blessing. I know we can see them again, and I am so thankful for that.
   It's been a rough week. An excellent week, like they always are, but hard too. Sometimes it seems like thing after thing after thing goes wrong, but for some reason I am still happy. I am convinced that true happiness comes from sharing the gospel and being obedient. Because there have been a lot of crazy things going on, and yet, for some reason I am still just so happy. And the only thing I can actually trace my happiness back to is sharing the gospel. How blessed are we to know the things that we know. We had a baptism planned and almost fully figured out for this week, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen. I was pretty disappointed at first. But one thing I am really trying to understand, is not the "when" of baptism, but the "why." I think, yeah the sooner the better, but it has to be when we are ready. And sometimes as missionaries I think we get a little caught up in the rush of baptizing because we want to see some numbers. It's not the point. These are souls, children of a loving Heavenly Father, and not just statistics. Apostles and prophets say that all of the time, and it is so true. So, with our investigator, Michael, we are now going to go back and try to understand what he needs to help him turn his desire for baptism to become more of a desire to come unto Christ. He has been struggling to give up smoking, but really wants to be baptized. But the desire to be baptized needs to help him quit. The desire to be baptized isn't enough, we have to have the desire to change and follow our Savior, and if he doesn't understand that, then he isn't ready. But I have faith in him! And in Heavenly Father! This can and will all work out how it's supposed to, as long as we help him understand his relationship with our Savior and Heavenly Father, and what baptism actually means for him, and the importance of making and keeping covenants. Because if he is baptized then falls away, whose fault is it? We don't want to put someone's salvation in danger. And if we are truly led by the spirit, we can find out what he needs to understand, and help him to be better. I understand (not to it's full extent) how hard it is to quit smoking. It'll take some time. But with the Lord, we have that time, and we have the support and strength we need.

   Something kind of funny happened this last week. We had a lesson with a lady who is less active. She really loves praying, so sometimes we'll just be sitting and talking when all of the sudden she'll just start yelling out prayers. I guess it's cool, it doesn't seem too reverent, but hey, she loves Heavenly Father and knows that he loves her too, so I don't mind her sporadic prayer cries. But during our lesson she asked if we could stop and all just say a prayer, her, then me, then my comp. So this sister starts, and her prayers tend to be lengthy. She has a really nice old lady voice too, the kind that makes you want to go to sleep. We were sitting outside and the weather was nice, and conditions were just perfect for sleeping. So she starts praying and I think, "sweet, I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes, enjoy this prayer time, then say my prayer." But I accidentally started dozing off, and she finished and I was still just sitting there with my eyes closed and head bowed. Luckily I noticed she had stopped talking after probably ten super long seconds, and opened my eyes and her and my comp were just staring at me, so I just closed my eyes and started praying. Haha we just get in the weirdest situations sometimes... But it was funny and I think she enjoyed my prayer. After though my comp asked, "what were you doing?" And I felt bad to say that I was just kinda taking a little nap. But it was all good.

   Something else kind of cool that actually happened two weeks ago is my comp and I were walking into Wal Mart to buy something and this guy stops me and asked if I went to school with him. I just kind of laughed and said, no I am a missionary, I have only lived here for a few weeks, etc. But anyway, we got to talking and we ended up giving him a mormon.org card with or number, and he called us the next day! It was so sweet because he set up the appointment. His name is Lamine and he is about 6'4 two hundred plus pounds. He said he was from Jamaca (how do you spell that??) and Africa... So I don't know which one is true. But he is pretty sweet. I was just laughing though because when we went to teach him the first time we didn't have a member with us, because we didn't know if he was serious so we didn't want to get stood up and have a member with us. So anyway, we got to his building and he buzzed us in. But you had to go through a door and walk down a hall to get to his room. So we climbed the stairs and looked through the door window down the hall to his room, and there was Lamine, this giant man. I was kind of scared because he could probably just crush me if he wanted to. But my comp said, "we are going, he is a child of God and we will be protected!" So we went and talked to him, but since it was just us three we had to go to outside. So we went outside and walked to a park. It was probably a hilarious sight to see. I kept laughing secretly because I thought to strangers looking at us we probably looked so funny. Just me, my comp, and Lamine. He knows a lot though. It's pretty cool to talk with him. But, we've only had two lessons so far. Hopefully he starts understanding things and comes to church with us! We invited him but he went to Novelle Vie instead. Lame.....

   We had to break up with an investigator last week. It was pretty sad, but she isn't all that interested and we didn't want to keep bugging her. Missionary work really is like relationships. Sometimes people say you get and keep investigators just like you'd get and keep a boyfriend. I don't know if it's the exact same, but breaking up with investigators was sad like breaking up with  boyfriends is. I assume.. I can't remember if I have ever broken up with anyone. I usually just let them go on missions and that takes care of it for me. Just kidding, that sounds really terrible. I don't know why I am telling you all this. So anyway......

   I am glad that things are going well at home and school is getting goin for the dudes and you are all safe. Right now things are tough, I understand, believe me I do. But, read 1 Nephi 3:7, it's one you all know. It has taken on a whole new meaning for me here. Sometimes I think, "why are things like this Heavenly Father? This is too hard, why are you asking me to do this. I am just Suzy, I can't do it." Well of course, "just Suzy" can't do it. But I have my Savior on my side, as you all do. And like 1 Nephi 3:7 says that the Lord does not give any commandmants or he doesn't ask anything of us, save he has already prepared a way for us to achieve what he has asked. Don't quit. Don't turn your back on what you know to be true because you think it is too hard or impossible. Take the Lord's yoke upon and give him your weaknesses. Let him make you stronger. And even if we don't have a distinct path that says, "here this is the way I provided for you to accomplish the hard thing!" Trust in the Lord and use the atonement. It's here for us. And perhaps that simply is the path, or the way that he has prepared. Just putting trust in our Savior can get us through anything. Some of you may think I am wrong, but the only thing I have to say to that is, where is your faith?

   Snoopswag is signing off. Keep your heads up and your hearts open. The world is a good place, keep making it better. I love you and miss you dearly. But like after a mission or after someone's time on earth, we will all see each other again. If you're worthy, it's a promise. Ok I love you all! Someone eat some pizza for me because I've been craving it lately. Prizza everyday!!!

Beaucoup d'amour, comme toujours,

Soeur Kingsbeard

P.S. Shoutout to my homie Sara Ranck!! England, WHADDUP!!!! Supes pumped for her. Now we've got three friends in three countries (excluding the elder friends, they're everywhere)! Peru, Canada, and soon England. Cheers!

P.S. I think I am still loyal to Dunkin Donuts, but I had some Tim Horton's today and it was pretty good.....