Hola Familia!

Can you believe that it is already time to write again? This week seems to have flown by. I guess each one seems to go by faster and faster.

I bet it was fun to have Joseph, Tracy, and Afton visiting. Maybe I'll get the snail mail pictures in the mail today. That would be really exciting!

It sounds like you had a great Stake Conference. And, I'm excited to hear that Elder Christofferson went to Sarah's mission. We are having Elder Clate W. Mask, Jr. come to our mission this next week. We are meeting with him on Monday. It was a little bit of a surprise because they only told us this past week at our Zone Conference. It will be really great! I'm looking forward to it.

Our Zone Conference was really great this week. I really needed it. Even though we did a lot of role playing, President Summerhays talked about preparing for our futures. He also talked about the importance of prayer and how it is through prayer that we can align our actions and our productivity with our goals. We at times have these goals that we want to reach and the result of our efforts don't match. It is through prayer (and real sincere prayer like Elder Bednar has talked about in the past two conferences) that our efforts will match our goals. That was really good, but the best part was of course my interview with President. We had a pretty lengthy discussion about the importance of the experiences we have at certain times in our lives, and then we had a pretty good talk about the area and the future of the mission sister-wise. Apparently, three are coming this next transfer and only one is going home, so either there will be threesomes or a new area will open up. It is pretty interesting to see how much President trusts us. I'm so glad that he was called to be the mission president. I don't think I could have served under any other one.

Our investigators are doing so well! Lindsay and Melanie are both set for their baptisms. We had a really good time with Melanie last week at dinner. She has such a strong testimony. Her boyfriend's dad told us he had been wondering what the missionaries would think when here Melanie showed up regularly attending church and going to all the activities and institute class and everything. He also is very impressed about how strong of a testimony she has. She is a great girl! They took pictures so maybe we'll get to send them home.

We also have two really strong investigators. We were teaching one this week and he told us that right before we had knocked on his door he had been praying to God that he would send him a more direct sign that the feelings he had been having were true. He came to church last week and he said that it was after going to church that he realized that we were the answer to his prayers! He also told us that the Book of Mormon felt heavy like how a fishing pole feels heavy when it is going to be a good fishing day and it is going to catch fish. We were really excited when we heard that. He has some really good spiritual gifts and is really in tune with the Spirit. He should be coming to Church again tomorrow.

Our other new investigator is Zack. He was friends with members growing up, and even went to church, Wednesday night activities, and early morning seminary! His family started getting more active in their church when he was a teenager and they told him that he had to stop going. When we met him on campus he told us that his mom isn't paying the bills anymore and he can do what he wants. When we met with him this past week he told us that he felt like he had done too much wrong in his life and didn't know if God would want to listen to his prayers. We bore testimony about how God will always answer our prayers. He told us he knew it was time for him to get his life back in line with God. It was really great!

We have also been able to find more investigators this week. It has been a pretty good week, except yesterday it rained all day long! It makes it pretty hard to work, but we were still able to acheive some things.

Oh, last Sunday while we were waiting for Church to start I saw Brother Garr and Sister Garr. They stopped and talked. Sister Garr was like "Oh, you're our Sister Allred's daughter? We loved our Sister Allred! She was great!" She said she had to give me a hug. They both wanted me to say hi again to everyone in the family. It was exciting to see them.

There is going to be an article in the Deseret News about the Institute program here sometime next week I believe. You should see what it says. I'm not sure what day, but the institute director said it should be next week. We were talking one day this week and he told me that I have a great spirit about me. A lot of people have told me that while I have been on my mission. It is interesting that other people see that when you don't necessarily see it.

I love you all! I hope that you have a great week! Thanks for the love and support!
Love, Joanna