Well, its been a while... and not much has happened. Marlie has been potty trained since the beginning of the year. and let me tell you, its SO nice to not have to buy diapers. I have been surprised by the fact that we have NEVER had a problem with her wetting the bed.... not that im complaining, i just thought when i gave up diapers, i would be adopting bed wetting.
At the beginning of this year we got sister missionaries in our ward, which was SUPER exciting for me because i was called as a ward missionary a year ago and with elders it was hard for me to do much. but now that we have awesome sisters in our ward i am able to magnify and learn from my calling in ways i never knew i could. mostly it has just been helping re activate members of the ward but the sisters have been teaching a few families in the apartment complex that i live in and so i have been able to help teach people who have had no contact with the church.
one woman that we are teaching has been particularly influential for me is a single mom with 2 kids. sounded pretty normal until she told us that he mom started her on meth when she was 12. well, she's 30 years old now. you guys, shes been doing meth for 18 YEARS! her husband was shot to death in his sleep, and who knows what else has happened to this poor girl. being a druggie is all shes ever known, and the last thing i thought she would do is join a church that will ask her to leave that life, the only life she has ever known, behind. but talking with this girl has been so awesome! at first she almost got mad at us for telling her that we have something that can fix any problem she has. she told us "NOTHING you guys can give me can fix what HAS happened to me, what IS happening to me, and what WILL happen to me." but she continued to have us visit her in her home. then she started asking questions, then she started reading the book of mormon, and praying, and now she is detoxing, and going to rehab, and calling the sisters when she needs someone to talk to or needs help with something. its been so cool to see her develop.
the other day we met with her in my apartment to answer a question that she had. we got to talking about the temple and how families can be forever and the sisters pointed out the picture of the salt lake temple that i have hanging on my wall and talked to her about how she could someday be married there. she expressed to us that she just feels like she will be alone for the rest of her life because of the things that she has done, that no one will want her. and the missionaries told her that someday someone would love her more than anything and he would take her and her kids to the temple and be sealed together. i showed her a picture of the temple in portland and told her that i was married there and she looked at me with a shocked look on her face and said "you got married THERE??" and you could just see her face light up when we talked about how she can go too!
it has been so interesting to watch someone feel the spirit and not know what it is or how to describe it. every time we meet with her she gets emotional and she always says "i dont know why i always cry when you guys come over!" my testimony has grown SO SO SO much in the past 6 months as i teach with the missionaries, i thought that this calling would be really boring and that i wouldnt like it at all but i couldnt have asked for a better calling!
In other news, i have 2 weddings to photograph this summer, im really excited! both are for families that i have known for years so it will be a lot of fun!
marlie will be 4 next month.... 4!!!! i cant believe shes going to be in school next year! so crazy!
Thats all i can think of right now. like i always say, we dont live very exciting lives lol.
