HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Heavenly Father loves you and so do I! Will you be my valentine? So Sister Cockrell goes home in 5 weeks! I love her so much!! We always act so funny together, that people giggle. She and I work extremely hard (and need to work harder) for the Lord, yet we are still funny when we are in our apartment by ourselves! You know you love each other when you start beating each other up...right? HAHA I'll be getting in the car, and she'll push me! haha! And then I go and chase her around the church parking lot! We are there for each other when we need to talk, and we love to laugh. Sister Cockrell is amazingly strong, and is so dedicated to the Lord, She LOVES her Savior! Her testimony is so strong and it’s so beautiful. I want to cry when we teach lessons and she bears her testimony of Christ. It’s so awesome.

So I'm SO SAD I already have 2 months GONE of my mission life! I guess I have 16 more months! New investigators: .2 Japanese girls from Japan and they where contacted on the airplane from Japan to Las Vegas... guess who contacted them... A RM! A RETURNED MISSIONARY going straight home for the first time! Haha! So he rocks and he meets with us when we teach them! The singles ward is just so awesome. I love working with them! :) We also have an investigator from India, and she is 19 and is loving the gospel. Both her (Besey) and David, where at a baptism yesterday night, with us, to see what it was like.

We also are teaching a Muslim woman from India, and she has read the Book of Mormon many times. People are popping up out of everywhere! And we have another family we are teaching, and TONS of recent converts, and less actives, mission life is always FULL! We are helping a few families start family home evenings...so we are teaching those...and we have dinner appointments each night and share a spiritual message...and planning for the next day (each night) and zone conferences, and district meetings each Tuesday, and attending church activities to meet new people, and tracking, and praying......feeding our elders in our district because they ran out of food......THIS is what mission life is like!!!! On Sundays we are in meetings and in church from 8:30-5PM 2 wards! Everyone is so kind to us too! :)

I may not be swinging from jungle vines in Jamaica, but now that I have started my mission, I will totally be able to relate to Return Missionaries! We all go through many of the same things across the world, yet no mission is the same. I'm so excited to see where my brother Eric is called! YIPPIE!!!!!

Some yummy things I made this week: Curry cauliflower, coconut Asparagus, cumin coriander quinoa, black bean taco salad, and yesterday I made a coconut Thai cuisine pasta dish with 1 tea of Cayenne for 1 cup of noodles... spicy and delish!

"The Submission of one's will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God's Alter. The many other things he 'gives' are actually the things he has already given or loaned to us." Neal A. Maxwell

Remember that we grow closer to God through our extremities. Sacrifice unites us. Be willing to place your doubts, fears, and worries on the alter of Sacrifice. Give your life to the Lord. See where he takes you!!!! Only when we do this, "ye shall find it," (Your life!) Give 100% to the lord and "cleanse yourself from all ungodliness." If we do this, miracles will take place in our hearts and our lives will change for the ultimate better! Give 100% exact obedience, exceeding faith, heart, focus, and love to God! Give it all, even when you feel you have nothing left, and He will in return open the windows of Heaven to you! Our God, and our Savior Jesus Christ are AMAZING! Take the challenge to know your Savior this year like you never have before. "FEAST upon the words of Christ," follow His example, pour out your soul to him through prayer, and LIVE like you are THANKFUL for his tender mercies and miracles! TRUST Heavenly Father. It is those who believe, who trust. Never back down and fear men or worldly things. Jesus has overcome them all. Be good, and be happy and do all that the prophets have counseled! I promise the windows of Heaven will be opened up to you and that you will receive every needful thing you stand in need of! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Me Ke Aloha Pumehana! (With the warmth of my love!)


Sister Sprouse

"Well, one minute I am teaching a lesson in a mansion, and the next, sitting on the couch in a poor apartment with a family who has moved 28 times and are eating dinner on the floor in front of me. They gave me and my companion the couch to sit on for dinner. Their feet are black from the dirty floor they walk on. Yet, in their state, they are happy. They children are smiling with smudges on their faces. All 6 children and the single mother enjoying the company. You know why they are still happy and why I can see the Light of Christ in the Mother's Eyes? It’s because she is faithful. It’s the only way she could be happy. When all else is at unrest, she goes to church and prays, and has family home evening with her children, home schools them, takes them to church, opens her home as shelter for her neighbor children, and delights in her Savior. She does the best she can. What else could seem bright and cheery, when you sit on the once white, but black floor, with a single light in the room, and dirty chairs but no table? Being thankful for what you have. As it says in 2nephi 31:20 "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the words of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

As President Thomas S. Monson says "Pray for your abilities to match the challenge. Not for the challenges to be easier and you then will be the miracle."

Be grateful for what you have. We are all enduring. But if we stay on the "straight and narrow" the ending will be worth it!!!"