Last Transfer Week

other than to tell you how COLD IT IS HERE. Haha kidding, I have LOTS to say. But the thing that's on my brain MOST is that yesterday was the coldest day that Nebraska has had in over 15 years. As in, it was -12. And with the windchill, it was colder than -31. HA. Do all of you Arizonans even know what that MEANS!?!? I sure didn't. It was an adventure of a day for sure. We were in the TC until 3 and then out in our area for the rest of the night, and we were nice and bundled up so all was well.

This week has been a week of changes. Sister Owen has been sick for awhile and has been so tough and sticking it out, but she went home this past week. I miss her to death but I want her to get better more than I want to be selfish and keep her here with me. When she left, Sister Mahlstede got transferred down to Bellevue 1st with Sister Tarpenning, so Sister Jensen and I are back to being just a normal companionship. No more trio for us.....well, I guess I should wait until transfers happen this week to make any comments like that. :)

Last week was really good! The TC feels so much better now that all of the Christmas decorations are down and that the GB houses are gone. Haha I feel like Marisa, trying to get rid of Christmas as soon as it is over. We had a great district meeting, and I want on exchanges with Sister Anderson on Thursday, which was a lot of fun. We have served together for over a year now but we haven't ever gone out teaching together. I wish we would have had more time to just be out in the area, but we had 6 appointments and just had to run from one place to another. Welcome to Old Mill though.

TOM GOT BAPTIZED! The elders texted us Tuesday night and told us that Tom wanted me to speak at his baptism...meaning...he's getting baptized! AH. Best text ever to get. I think this has been one of the biggest miracles/evidences that the Lord is in control and that He loves us. Seriously, what are the chances that I would be transferred into Old Mill the transfer he gets baptized after he has been taught for over a year? So good. He had his interview on Thursday before district meeting, and I was a nervous wreck during it. I normally am during baptism interviews, though, so nothing new haha. He came out joking and smiling (and asking really specific details about what he has to pay tithing on....I wanted to tell him to call Dad because I didn't know/care about the details haha) and told me that he would see me Saturday morning!

We showed up to the church at 8 on Saturday morning (yes, 8 in the morning) and found the elders dumping buckets of water in the font. They had been filling it up for long enough but, as we would find out later in the day, they put the wrong end of the plug in the font so it was draining at the same time it was filling. Tom was glowing. We took a bunch of pictures and then started the baptism. I spoke, then Tom went to get in the font with Brother Vaterlaus. We heard a crash. Come to find out later, Tom slipped down the stairs, and then as he was being baptized, bumped his head on the back wall of the font. Yikes. What a baptism.
After that, Sister Jensen and I and Sisters Mahlstede and Tarpenning studied and grabbed some lunch, and then headed BACK to the church for cute Brandon Carruther's baptism. I love that kid and his family so much. It was really hard to see the girls try to be supportive and happy for their brother even though they were really sad that they weren't being baptized too, but Brandon was SO happy that it made up for it. After the baptism, he went and hugged every single person in the room, including Sister Tarpenning who he has never met before, and a woman in the ward who the other set of sisters brought with them so she could see a baptism again. Oh man. It was so cute. Love that kid.

Today was one of the best Sundays of my mission. I guess it's more like it was one of the best times at church of my mission. Fast Sundays usually make me so nervous because you never know what people are going to say, and you hope that the Spirit will smooth over anything crazy that happens haha. Sacrament meeting started by having cute Brandon stand up when they talked about his baptism. He was smiling SO huge and kept looking over to us and waving. I love that kid! Then, Tom received the gift of the Holy Ghost. THEN, Brother Mullin blessed their baby boy and Brother Forbush blessed the Miller's (a family that is returning to activity) little boy Laughlin. And then, to top it all off, William passed the Sacrament. I could have died. It was the best sequence of events. EVER. And the testimonies that followed the Sacrament were brief, powerful, Christ-centered testimonies of truth. The comment was made by Brother Morrison (in the bishopric) that it was such a sacred and spirit filled meeting because it began with so many priesthood ordinances, and that the truthfulness of that priesthood was confirmed through the Spirit.

I always sit next to Tom in Sunday School. He saves me a seat every week. During class, Brother Vaterlaus announced that Tom had been baptized the day before, and sweet Tom yelled out "It was AWESOME!" To which I leaned over and responded "aren't ya glad you finally did it?" He just looked at me and smiled and kind of teared up as he nodded. He is such a humble man.

I love you all so much. I hope your weeks are great and that you know that I love you!!!

Love, Sister Farnsworth