email of 01 November 2010

Haloooooooo!!!!!

This will probably be pretty short because I spent a lot of my time reading and writing individually today...which I'm totally fine with, and hope you are too! If any of you see repeats from your individual email, sorry!

Happy Halloween!!! Last Halloween we were home in our apts for the night by 6pm...and had eaten dinner with la familia cristobal, now that I remember :) This year, we had a zone activity instead, which was really fun! We all met at the USC institute and had a little cook-out dinner and just some time to kind of chill out...unheard of for a missionary!!! It was fun though -- there was a group of us playing "Celestial Pursuit," which, by the way, is ridiculously hard, especially if you were born after 1984 and haven't studied the silly little details of obscure people, stories and facts in church history and the scriptures! It was really fun though, and I found a fellow scripture scout while we were playing!!! The question was something about the Zoramite's Rameumtum prayer, and I was quoting "Thanks for making me so special..." when one of the elders turned to me and said, "Hey! Scripture Scouts!" It was so funny! And SO FUN! Noone really understands SS unless they've experienced them...otherwise they just think you're a little weird.

This whole end-of-mission thing is hard. I'm really happy and excited to come home and to see and be with all of my family and everything again, but I'm also really scared. I'm scared to go back to being "normal," and to loose the missionary bubble. I know that I currently live in one of the most worldly places ever, but I'm so scared to go back and live in the world. Maybe scared isn't quite the right word, but maybe it is. I don't know. I just can't believe that the end is looming so near...I'm really trying to work as hard as I can and just not think about it, but it's a little difficult to avoid. But it's ok. I know it is. It's just daunting to look ahead to real life and the future. Exciting, and scary, and happy, but daunting. Oh the unknown.

I am SO GLAD that I came on a mission! This is by far the best decision I have ever made in my life.

I KNOW the church is true, that my Savior lives, and that this is His work and glory!!!!

I LOVE YOU!!!!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Hermana Sallie