Macon, Georgia: Greetings from Beaufort, South Carolina

Dearest Family and Friends,

WOW! There is so much to tell you and so little time....

I will start first with where I am. I am in the beautiful town of Beaufort South Carolina! I love it here! We are right by the ocean, so i get to see it almost every day! :) My trainer/companion is Sister Pulsipher from Mesquite Nevada! She is so AWESOME!!! I love her so much! :) We get along great! She is so patient and gentle and very understanding.... just what I wanted in my trainer!!! :) (I have been praying for my trainer since the first day in the MTC!) She is a little more quiet than me, but thats ok we work very well with each other! :) She only has 2 transfers left... :( But she hasn't gotten trunky yet! In the only ward here there is also 4 Elders: 2 English and 2 Spanish. So this ward has a lot of missionaries to feed. (And from what I can see, the sisters usually get more places than the elders...) The ward is a young ward and takes in a lot of Marine and Navy families cause of Parris Island boot camp. It is a lot of fun tho! :)

My mission President (Cottle) and his wife are very wonderful and loving. :) The night I was at the mission was very tiring but also a lot of fun. Sister Cottle gives the biggest hugs and lets us know that we are very much loved. :)

Thanksgiving day!!!! OH WOW! We did not go hungry at all! lol. We had 3 places to eat! We had a early and light lunch at the Johnson's with the Elders. It was SO much fun! they are a young Marine family and are just goofy! (They may be my favorite so far... yes I shouldn't have favorites, but its really hard not to with the Johnson's!) Later we ate at the Fife's, they are very sweet and Sister Fife called my Mom to ask her for my favorite recipe to make for me on my Birthday! (This Thursday!) I could't hear my Mom's voice, but I was sitting right next to sister Fife when she called! It was very nice and sweet of her! And right after the Fife's we joined the Elders at the Sarrano's! They are a very strong and cool family! Brother Sarrano is from Ecuador, so we ate a yummy shrimp, tomato, cilantro cold soup! :) We have decided with the Elders to start a "Biggest loser" challenge within our district. Most of the Elders gained 6 to 12 lbs on Thanksgiving!!! Sister Pulsipher and I did a lot better! (only 3ish lbs... we we have already lost it cause we are jogging each morning)

So last week was a bit of a struggle, we had a hard time getting lessons and finding people because of the holiday and all. We went tracting and I decided to pray and tell Heavenly Father that I was gonna be cheerful and notice the small and simple things, the next minuet We came upon a stone SQUIRREL!!! (Yep I have decided that I really love squirrels!) :) right in front of a door way! So of course I get a picture with it! My enthusiasm started rubbing off onto Sister Pulsipher and then we found 3 NEW investigators!!! (Down here we call them 'gators') It was such a small and simple thing, but it blessed us so much and changed our attitudes! :)

Another day after getting lost, not finding the referrals house and using a lot of miles, we found ourselves out on St. Helena's Island. So we got out on the beach and took a walk and guess what we saw?!?!? A DOLPHIN! Yep that's right! :) We also got lost getting back home and it was getting dark (We are not allowed to be on St. Helena's after dark cause its not a friendly place then...) But we did make it back to Lady's Island just in time! :) The Lord blesses us and protects us! :) We have also done a lot of contacting in the Historic downtown. We were there later last night and this homeless guy comes up to us and asks us for money, but instead we offer him a card with Jesus on it. He takes it and says he already has Jesus, but he wants to show us something. So he reaches into his pocket and is trying to find something, Sister Pulsipher and I freak out a little bit and start backing up, when he then pulls out a coin with a scripture on it! lol :) It was freaking and then funny to us anyways. :)

Most of the people that we are teaching are in a rut right now.... kinda frustrating but we keep praying and are loving them. :) All the older black women are called 'Miss. (either there first or last name)' if they are married or not. :) Miss. Dee, Miss. Mullen, and Miss. Pearl. They are very sweet and loving! :)

Also I will try to be better at emailing everyone back who has sent me personal emails. but I am a slow typer so usually I will take a picture of it and then write you a letter back. :)

P.S. Happy late Birthday to Erin!!!! I love ya lots! :)

Love you all SO much!!!