Email from Jan. 29, 2012 - Sorry I have been so bad. The new job, I guess. I will be better!!

Hello family!
Thank you for the e-mail! It always makes my week to hear from you! Mama, it was SO great to get to chat with you last week! I miss just getting to sit adn talk to you, but it was awesome to get close to that! Are you so excited to start indoor soccer? That sounds like so much fun! It will be an awesome way for you and Jared to get some time together too! I am so proud of all of the kids for working so hard to get their grades up! It is SO worth it to put in the work and get good grades in school. I wish I would have worked harder. Please tell Kristin I am so sorry for her loss. That is so hard! put up some pictures of Christ by my bed like you suggested and it is really nice to go to bed and wake up to those. It helps me to remember that I am out here doing the work of the Lord and that He is always with me. If you can, I would love some print pictures of the family, and of the mountains! Hahaha, I never thought I would miss the view of mountains! It is funny the things you find you miss when you don't have them anymore. But it will make me more grateful for them when I come home! I am so excited for Cory and Tammy! Have they decided for sure what they want to name her yet? That is way awesome that Alyssa was able to get a job as a waitress! I think she will love it! IT is so fun! And I am SO glad Josh is still planning and working towards a mission. It will be so worth it for him! I think everyone should go on a mission if they are able! It is definately SO hard, but it has been so worth it for me to learn about myself, to come to know my Savior more personally, and to see the miracle of the gospel in people's lives and understand what an incredible blessing it is. I am sad that I have taken that blessing for granted for so long, but I am grateful for the chance now to show my gratitude. That poor man at the prison! What a crazy story! Mama, please be way careful working there. I know you will be, but still...scary!
This last Monday, Sister Lish and I got to go to the zoo here in Khorat. I have never seen such a huge zoo ever! We had to ride a golfcart around it to be able to see even half of it in two hours! SO cool though! Being there made me so grateful for Pappo and his love of nature and that he instilled that in me too! Other than that this week was spent looking for nbew investigators, which was really hard, cuz it rained...A LOT! And it isn't even rainy season yet! I have seriously never in my life seen rain like this. We were literally soaked within seconds. It is nuts! And people all think we are crazy when we are out trying to invite in the rain, which isn't super successful. But we got one really good referal. This guy is super nice and seems really interested! And he likes soccer! So it was cool for me to get to talk soccer with him for a minute. It really made him open up to us, and I actually felt kinda useful! It was so great! This week I have really been trying to work on being positive and looking for the good things in every day. I never thought that that would be hard for me. It never really was before. I have always been a pretty positive person, but it is hard for me right now. But I also know that that is Satan trying to get to me, and that if I just keep looking for the good, that is what I will find, and God will bless me for it. I have been reading the Liahona a lot lately, and found a really neat poem that Pres. Monson quoted that I LOVE!!!
"And I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year:
Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown.
And He replied:
Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the
Hand of God. That shall be to you
Better than a light and
Safer than a known way"
-M. Louise Haskins
I know that when we let God lead our lives, He will never lead us astray. And though sometimes it will still be dark, and we may not understand where He is leading us, we know that we can trust HIm, because He loves us and wants nothing more that for us to find true, eternal happiness. Even when that means we have to fight some hard battles in this life to get there.
I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week! Miss ya tons!