Family,
I'm so glad to hear your not all dead! What the heck?! Cass was throwing up because she was coughing so hard? That's crazy! Speaking of Cassandra.......Even though I have yet to receive a letter from you......there's another letter coming for you in the mail. And I sent that extra New Years card/picture thing for you :) I'll send you another one just in case. They messed up our order at Walgreens so we have about 20 extra! I don't have that many friends haha! Cass, I love you. Have you looked up that song? What did you think? WHY IN THE WORLD HAVE I NOT HEARD FOR YOU???? YOU TERD! Ok, that is all. I'm glad you're not dead, and hopefully you coughed up your heart and you have now replaced it and realized you should write your one and only sister!...One can hope. Love you. Alrighty, to the rest of the clan. Thank you so much for the New Years gifts Mom! Those were so fun and Sister Breaux loved it. :) She may or may not write you a letter...we're running out of time. BUT! Know that she wanted to! :) haha She really like the "look not behind you" scripture. Also, thank you to Grandpa and Erma and Nelson and Stevie for the package! Hahaha I open it up and there's a bag of smashed potato chips in this big ol expensive box hahahah It was so funny and soooo sweet. :) You guys are too kind and I really appreciate it. Maybe next time just send a gift card to Walmart or something and save on postage. :) But THANK YOU SO MUCH! MUAH! Kisses to all of you. Also, Mom I get $130 a month. It's really working out pretty well right now cause I live with members so I don't have to buy a lot of meals and I get fed almost every night by members, and I don't have to pay for cleaning supplies or laundry soap or toilet paper or anything like that. The Vendels are FANTASTIC! They love us so much and I love them just as much! It really feels like I'm living with family and it's AWESOME! Please withhold from sending junk food hahaha. You guys are too sweet and I really REALLY appreciate the love but I am turning into a fat cow. No joke. I am fed ALL the time and there's almost ALWAYS a dessert with those meals so I really am getting sick to my tummy so if you ever want to send food, send healthy stuff or just a gift card to Walmart or something. But as of right now, I'm doing pretty swell. :) Thanks for being so awesome! I love coming home and seeing little packages or letters on my bed sooooo much! Also,America, Cindy, Melissa, Manda, and Sister Hernandez/Mariana I got all of your letters and I'm sending you all one in return but it might take me a bit. THANK YOU SO MUCH! You guys are so awesome and I love you all! :) Ok, so on to my week! HOLY COW! Time is FLYING by! I can't believe I've almost been out a month! I mean it fells like I've been here forever(in a good way) :) but it also feels like it's just zooming by. THe temple was soooooo AMAZING!!!! We went with the youth in our ward but Sister Breaux and I almost didn't get to go! We were soooo sad. Our recent convert, Katie, got sick and we tried telling her that she'd get better if she came and we went and visited her, and we told her she could sleep for 4 hours in the car but she wasn't budging. We went over to her house that morning as a last push and we brought her some sprite and crackers but her family isn't all members and we were praying os hard that we'd know what to say because we felt in our guts that we were supposed to go. I did anyway but when we got there we just felt like we should show her that we love her and then leave. Well, SIster Breaux was heart broken because we were actually supposed to go 2 weeks ago and she canceled so we've been looking forward to this for FOREVER and the Elders (whom we're best friends with. They're hilarious haha DOn't worry it's all appropriate) had a recent convert who waited the extra week so we could all go together. Well Sister Breaux starts crying as we drive away but I just KNEW in my gut that we were supposed to go to the temple so I was like we should call somebody. SO we called the zone leaders and they were like.,.."YA! GO!" HALLELUJIAH!! At this point I proceed to cry tears of gratitude hahah we were both just bawling and it was fantastic. At that moment I was reminded YET AGAIN that Heavenly Father just wants us to be happy. I seem to think that all he wants is for me to learn lessons or to be tried and to grow yada yada but honestly, He wants us to be happy. I was feeling guilty the night before cause I really wanted to go to the templ and Katie's decision was not only holding her back form blessings but also holding us back from blessings....and that was really REALLY selfish, but even after my stupid pettiness God still answered my prayers and blessed me with what I wanted most. Because He Loves Me. And let me tell you, the spirit in the temple and in my heart was sooooo strong. Our mission is the only mission in the world thus far that is trying this 90 day program thing out. You teach your recent converts lessons and then you take them to the temple within the first 90 days of their baptisms. Ya. I am so lucky! We and the Elders decided that we're gonna get a baptisms every month so we can go to the temple every month haha. It's awesome :) I was really hoping that Melanie (single mom) would've been one of those because I honestly feel like she is one of the main reasons why I'm in this area, but she's now in FLorida helping her dad with his business and won't be back for at least a month....well transfers are on the 30th of this month. :/ Ya... BUT! She is so strong in the gospel already and she's so prepared it's ridiculous. We asked her if she'd like to keep seeing missionaries in Florida and she was really excited to! She gave us her new address and we referred her to the missionaries down there so here's hoping AND! I am praying that I stay here with Sister Breaux for at least another transfer! I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH!! And SIster breaux and I are really like Best Friends. We get along so well and we have sooooo much in common it's crazy! :) We seriously have a blast and Today we took a mile long jog (which I almost killed myself over...pathetic I know but I have been eating on average 12, 3 course meals a day) ;)Ya but we've resolved to be healthy! We're only going to eat sugar on Mondays!....So we ate a half of our pecan pie that we finally made for breakfast cause it's Monday......hahaha we're so sad :D BUT! We'll start tomorrow haha. And hey we had my first zone meeting on Friday and I TAUGHT WITH SISTER BREAUX!!! What??? I was the newest one there (besides Elder Burton haha. He got pulled over by a cop randomly for driving a car that look suspicious haha I didn't witness it. He was telling me about it haha cracks me up :'D )!!! But I got some really nice compliments from an older couple. THey told me that I better become a Sister training leader here pretty soon or it'd be a wast of talent. I was also told by a 90 year old man that I look "Saint like" when we were tracting. Hahah that was sweet. AND! Best of all, on Sunday I was told that I had successfully pulled off the "Why isn't she married already" missionary look. HAHAHA! That made my day. :) Oh! SPeaking of which! President made this really awesome promise to us that was kinda surprising. On Friday he told us: "If you are really obedient and really diligent, I know the Lord is preparing a special, loving companion for you when you got off your mission"....AWESOME! Hopefully he's tan and funny haha but either way that was kind of a neat thing to hear from a mission president. Also, that's sad about Fannie, but thank you for planning on getting it done! Let me know when you go through! And the Winter Ball???? Still no mention of it? And is Kyle dead???? Where is that guy and why haven't I heard from him?? I sent him a Christmas present with a pig on it for heaven's sakes! He owes me ;) Just kidding. I know everyone is busy and I'm just teasing. I hope all of you start to fell better. Also, I think you're absolutely right about Happiness being a choice. Amen! I've tried to change for the better in that way, Honest to goodness one of the things that I was really afraid of before I came out here was that I was gonna have a miserable time cause honestly all I want is to be happy. And I have decided that I'm just going to be happy no matter what! How does one do this? Serve God, don't think about yourself and your problems, loose yourself in the work of Salvation because we're ALL missionaries (so reach out to your friends and neighbors!) and rejoice in the fact that everyday you have the opportunity to learn and grow, then take those opportunities! Don't let the world distract you from the blessings of God. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Thank you for always thinking of me and loving me. I'll try to send the pecans soon, but I left them in Charleston and we're in Greenwood. Also...Mom...kinda stalkerish that you googled my house.....hahahah you crack me up! But yes! We do have a lake in the back yard so that was probably us, although I don't know what color our roof is hahaha. Oh man, good times. :) Ok Be good and love each other!
Love you forever,
Sister Moreno