adventures with aubrey: halfway there and definitely livin' on a prayer

First of all, it is freezing here, and by freezing I mean last night it was 67 degrees and I wanted to die. Utah will kill me next winter, butt means sweaters. And the pants make it a bit better to be cold not gonna lie. Still not the biggest fan but oh well. 9 more months.

Yes, you read that right.. I am halfway done my friends. I cannot believe it and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I have loved the last 9 months of my mission. Thanksgiving day is my actual 9 month mark so what a perfect thing to be grateful for! All the miracles and blessings that I have been able to see in the last 9 months, just make me more excited and pumped for the upcoming 9!

This week we had Zone Conference way up in Hialeah and I got to see Sister Soza again! She is serving in Naples now as an STL and it was awesome to see her. Also, I saw Sister Rosario and Sister Adams. It was awesome and the trainings were super great about how to work with the members better and how to help them do missionary work. It was incredible! President Richardson gave us some great training and got us all pumped for the last 3 weeks of the transfer! I cannot believe that I only have 3 more weeks with Sister Dimond. It's so sad, but she'll be great!

This week we got some sad news from our Recent Convert Dorothy. She was in the hospital and she just found out she has stage 4 colon cancer that has spread to her liver. We haven't been able to see her because the hospital is too far, but please keep her in your prayers! She is very calm about it all, but just needs some comfort right now.

Fun stories of the week:
First of all, Sister Dimond is a much better driver than I am, but this story begs to differ. She was pulling off to the side of the road and thought she saw a big dead palm leaf (they are everywhere) that had fallen. NOPE. Not a palm leaf. It was a tree trunk and our car got stuck! I literally could not stop laughing about it. A man just walked by laughing at us while I jumped out to get it off the stump before we had to call the mission office and say we were idiots. Luckily we got it off and no one has to know.

Second, we went and taught a bible referral in the Projects here in our area. It's a place called "Chocolate City," and I promise I'm not being racist by saying that. That's really what it's called. Anyway, we are standing outside her door talking to her at about 7:30 at night and she points to a patched up place on the wall and says, "This place is crazy. This right here is an AK-47 bullet hole and theres another right here."WHAT. We just looked at each other like, "Where the heck are we doing here!" Then as we are teaching her, she's just really watching around us, looking at everyone and she interrupts us and goes: "Sorry, but y'all need to go. let me walk you to your car. I think there's gonna be a shooting..." So we leave and go back the next day and she tells us that there was. Right after we left! Holy dang. So grateful for the Spirit and the guidance and protection that He gives us everyday. (lo siento mom and dad I promise I'm safe).

We also got to preview the new Christmas video, at zone conference, that the church is putting out for the Christmas season! It is so good, oh my gosh. It will launch November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving on mormon.org and everyone needs to check it out. The "campaign" this year is wonderful and very service filled and the video itself is incredible... go check it out!

Some quotes from Zone Conference from President and Sister Richardson:
"People with good intentions make promises, people with character, keep them." -SR
"You're going to have good days, and you're going to have bad days. But they're all days."-PR

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of love and gratitude! Enjoy the holiday time with family and friends! Don't worry! We are being fed well!

1: TACOS FOUND!