Dear Family and Friends,

We don't have much time today to write. Next week I will hope to write a longer email telling you about everything. Things are going good, though.

Zone Conference last week was good. We are having another 3-zone Zone Conference with someone from the missionary committee coming. It is going to be in Marianna, Florida. Because it is so far away, we are going to go tonight and spend the night there.

We have been working hard to weed out the investigators that we have. A lot of people like us to come over so that we can have a Bible Study. We have been weeding through them all, and have several people that are really close to setting baptism dates. It is great to hear them tell us how they come to receive their answers.

My trainer emailed me and said that her boyfriend's friend is Jason's fiance.

It sounds like Sarah is having a good time. I'm glad that I'm not there. I'm pretty sure that Heavenly Father knew I would not like living in those conditions.

I'll send pictures next week. A member cut my hair this morning. It is short, but it is so nice.

I love you all!
Love, Joanna

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a pretty good week this week, but there were some rather frustrating times. We had some weather come through, which halted the work a little bit. Luckily, nothing happened. We were still able to do most of the things we had been planning on doing. We have been doing more tracting. I'm still trying to love tracting. Sometimes, like yesterday, it can be long and not very fruitful at first. However, this morning we had a media referral from the Church for a lady that we saw yesterday.

We have one investigator, Brenda, who is really sincerely looking for the truth. Of course, it takes work, but she has been trying hard to find it. Even though there were frustrating times this week, it was pretty good. We had an amazing visit with Brenda at about 8:30 one night. We had tried seeing a couple of potential investigators, but no one was at home. I had been feeling like we should see Brenda, but the thought kept popping in my mind "Oh, you know it is just an easy person to see and an easy way to pass the last little bit of proselyting time." When I finally drove over to her apartment, it was the best thing we could have done. She really needed us to come by. She had missed her appointments this week, but she was really feeling the weight of everything in her life. She told us that she hadn't been to her church for a while and no one from her church had even checked on her to make sure things were okay. She recognized that that wasn't the way it should be, but we should always look out for one another. We were able to talk to her, and at the end she said, "Is it alright if I come to Church with you on Sunday?" That is music to a missionary's ear. We said of course, and yesterday she was glad she came. She really enjoyed the talks about family and how we need to prepare now for the time when we eventually die. I feel really good about Brenda.

We have Zone Conference this week, and I am looking forward to it. I need the spiritual boost it always gives. Even though I know this work is true and exactly what I should be doing, it is hard. There is hardly anything else that I could think of doing right now with my life. It is amazing to see how the Lord prepares us for our future. I know that everything in my life lead up to this point where I can be serving the Lord as one of His missionaries. I am so grateful for this oppurtunity.

Thanks for the emails this week. I'm glad that Ben and Shannon had a good time in Mexico. It sounds like things with Emily and Preston are also settling down. I was excited to get Janet's graduation announcement this week, but I still can't believe my little sister is graduating from high school. That is crazy!

I was thinking about what you said about Casie's lessons. Being able to have lessons with members and in members homes is such a good thing because when missioanries aren't able to get it, the members are there to back it up. There have been so many times when I have been grateful that we had a member there. Members really pull through. Keep up the missionary work. It makes me happy to think that you get to see the same things happen as I do here in Andalusia.

Well, I love you all! I hope you have a good week.
Love, Joanna

Dear Family and Friends,

Since I talked to some of you yesterday I don't know what to write. It was really good to talk to you. We had a pretty good week this week. We are looking forward to a busy week with lots of teaching appointments. We were really blessed this past week to find lots of people who wanted to learn more. We are really praying that they will be willing to keep their commitments. That is the only way they can truly progress.

We met a lady this week that told us to tell our moms that we are making a difference in people's lives. She is a counselor at the community college here in town. She said that people who make a difference need to be told that they are making a difference, so she told us. It was good to hear that. She knows our recent convert and told us that he has changed a lot, especially since we had started teaching him and he has gotten baptized. It is exciting to see other people recognize the change that having the restored gospel makes in people's lives. She reminded me a lot of Mrs. Burley. She was really nice and let us sit in her air conditioned home to cool off while we were tracting. It was nice.

I also tried boiled peanuts this week for the first time. They were interesting. Maybe I'll try them again sometime. Hopefully, I can get them along the side of the road since Dad says that those would be the best. I was reprimanded by the Branch Mission Leader for not cooking grits for Sister Leafa. He and his wife gave us some for her to try.

Other than that nothing much is new. It has been really hot-yesterday morning when we went to Church it was about 80 degrees. A member told us that it was hotter yesterday morning than any morning last August. I think I might die in the heat! Today however it was cooler.
I love you all and hope you all have a good week!

Love, Joanna

Dear Family and Friends,

It sounds like things are going well at home. I bet it was fun to be with Joseph, Tracy, and Afton and having Emily and Preston at home. And, you thought I had a lot of stuff when I came home!
Things are good here in Andalusia. It was sad to say goodbye to my companions, but good for them to leave. Sister Leafa is very nice. We are going to have a good time serving together. She has been out for over a year. I'm not sure if I'll be transferred when she gets used to it here. She only has three more transfers left so we'll see.

We didn't have a super exciting week besides transfers. We were able to find some more investigators to teach, and we are working on introducing Sister Leafa to everyone. That gives us reason to go and see people.

Oh, we had a really good lesson with our investigator who came to Church last week. As we were teaching her and talking with her about how everyone needs to pray to know if the Church is true, she said, "It's funny that you bring that up because I have been thinking that same thing for over the last little while." I'm excited for her to get her answer.

Oh, I got a letter from the Murrays this past week and a copy of the article that was in the newspaper. There are several people that I didn't recognize their names. It is fun to see the how the Mt. Vernon Ward has grown.

Well, I think that is all for this week. Here are a couple of pictures of what we have been doing.
The first one is on transfer day. Notice the Ohio State truck in the background? I purposefully had us stand so that it could be in the picture.

The second one was on our fishing adventure. I caught that brim all by myself after quite a while of not getting anything.
The third on is of my favorite street in our area. Yes, it really is "Over Yonder" from where everything else is. Gotta love it.

Well, I love you all!
Love, Joanna