October 18

Howdy from La Porte where the weather is still completely beautiful! I feel so blessed and privileged to be serving the Lord here at this time. My heart is very full of gratitude for all the Lord has given me! It's just amazing!

I hope you all had a wonderful week this past week and that this email/blogpost finds you well! This next week is going to be just FULL of miracles... I'm planning on it :) I'd like to take this moment to publicly wish my mom a happy birthday this Thursday! I'd also like to offer my congrats and best wishes to my wonderful friend Rachel Bradford and her soon-to-be husband, Brian Walker (also my friend-ps). I hope all goes well for them this Thursday! I intend to celebrate all the wonderful happenings of the 21st, by doing lots of missionary work w/ all my heart!

Monday was a pretty normal pretty normal preparation day: cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, letter writing, etc... nothing out of the ordinary, but still very good. That evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal w/ the fabulous B* family. Brother and Sister B as they are lovingly referred to throughout the area, are the sweetest little senior couple. Brother B. is our stake patriarch and their home is always so filled w/ the Spirit. They fed us and the Elders. We enjoyed a great chicken and rice dish with lots of yummy sides, and bread pudding for dessert. Sis. A* B*- Bro. B's sister joined us too, and we all had a great discussion after dinner on following spiritual promptings to serve those around us. Sister Hatch was not feeling well, so we ended up calling it a night after our dinner appt.

Tuesday was also fairly uneventful... most of the day was spent inside the apt. while Sis. Hatch slept. She's hasn't been feeling well recently. I was pretty productive w/ the extra time though, organizing, journal writing, studying LOTS of the Book of Mormon, and other spiritually uplifiting things. I also tried to keep Sis. Hatch drinking fluids and such. We made it down to the church at 7:30 for our Ward Relief Society "Missionary Celebration". It was a delightful activity, with about 10 awesome Relief Society sisters in attendance. Our RS president shared some awesome inspiring thoughts on getting involved in missionary work. Our FABULOUS recent convert, Sis. C* W* shared a some of her conversion story, including the impact of the members who have fellowshipped her. The Spirit was SO strong during her sharing portion. Sis. Hatch and I allowed the sisters to get to know us a little bit as people, and discussed ways in which they can be involved in missionary work, and utilize the great resource of "Preach my Gospel". We did small group discussions on how the gospel blesses families- inspiration and practice for thoughts we can share with others who may be interested in learning more. The evening was a huge success, and being a R.S. activity ended w/ delicious cupcakes and fruit.

We went to visit T* I* Wednesday morning. She's still wanting to learn more about the gospel and figure out if this is really what she wants in her life. She's still really struggling though, with family circumstances and such. We had a good spritiual conversation with her, shared some scriptures and set an appt. to come talk about the Restoration next Tuesday. After that visit, we came back to the apt. where we remained the rest of the day... Sis. Hatch still not feeling well.

Thursday we went tracting for a little while- SO good to get out and WORK! We met some great people and found a couple of potential investigators we'll be following up with. In the evening we met up with Sister J* S* and her mother at Baytown Seafood where they fed us and the elders dinner. We picked up the elders and gave them a ride (something we do regularly as they're on bikes!) and as I went to turn into the restaraunt parking lot- the police car behind me turned on his lights to pull me over! I couldn't figure out what I'd done, but pulled into the parking lot and parked, then rolled down my window to talk to the officer... he didn't come talk to me. Instead he took his flashlight and shined it right on Elder Packer and then inspected the rest of the passengers. Finally he asked if everything was alright, and I assured him it was. Apparently he thought he saw Elder Packer bang his head on the back of my seat or something and was concerned we were fighting or something and that I might be in danger. We STILL can't figure out what he even did to make it look like that to the officer! The best part is that Sis. S* and her mother witnessed the event from the restaraunt window and we giggled about the strange occurance all through dinner. After dinner, all 4 missionaries went to Sis. S*'s apt. to teach her about Preach my Gospel, and the message of the Restoration. She's such an amazing woman and we really love her! FYI- she's the primary president in our ward.

Friday we had an awesome district meeting, followed by lunch at Bullritos w/ the missionaries from our neighboring Spanish district. I love that, because then I get to hang out w/ Hermana (Teresa) Harris, my friend from highschool. We just love seeing each other all of the time, and enjoyed eating lunch together. We were able to do some more tracting in the afternoon- yay tracting! That evening Sister S* P* took Sis. Hatch and I to dinner at Olive Garden- my fave! It was awesome and we had some great spiritual discussion w/ her and her 10 yr. old C*.

Saturday morning we picked up the Elders at 8:30, and went to breakfast at Texas Donuts.... where a member from another stake works/runs the place. He gave us free donuts, sausage biscuits, Kolaches (sp?), and juice! (Spoiled? yes... trying not to gain a million pounds...DEFINITELY!) We went to the church, filled up the baptism font, and set up chairs for the baptism of H* M* F* who the elders have been teaching. She's 17 and dating a member Bro. M* C*, who just got his mission call to the Spokane mission- Spanish speaking. The baptism was wonderful! (not that I had much to do w/ it- I just led the music.) Exciting stuff though!! She was comfirmed a member yesterday. In the afternoon we had a "service celebration" w/ C*, M* and E*. They completed a Service challenge extended by Sis. F* and me so we celebrated by playing a game, eating some cookies, and having a lesson on service and focusing on others. Sister A* E* and her daughter E* took Sis. Hatch and me to dinner at El Torro that evening after some successful tracting time. I love TexMex and thouroughly enjoyed the gospel conversation, the company and the food. The leftovers made a great lunch yesterday too! We ended the evening by visiting a less-active member, Sis. N* A*. Sis. C* W* came w/ us and shared a powerful testimony- SO GREAT!!!

Yesterday was meetings and church (which was WONDERFUL) and meetings. Afterwards we went back to the apt. where Sis. Hatch needed to rest some more until our dinner appt. w/ the C* family who fed us Tuna Mac & Cheese, Broccoli, fruit salad, and cake. We had a great lesson w/ them about being "Examples of the Believers". They're such a great awesome family, and we gave the kids "Future Missionary" stickers to remember their commitment to share the gospel and be examples. Great stuff!!

I hope that's enough details this week- I tried REALLY hard and I hope it wasn't boring. I love you all so very much!!! I love the gospel! I love being a missionary! Be good and smile lots!!!!

*~Sister Pilmer~*