Leaving Greenville...tomorrow! :(

Dear Fam,

Hello and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope you all are doing well...it sounds like everyone is doing good from the weekly report. Oh! I got the package you sent! Thanks so much. Now I won't freeeeze! (It finally got cold here.) I also found out I am getting transferred tomorrow. (ah!)

On Monday Sister Matthews and I decided to go shopping and found some attractive sister missionary attire. We ate dinner with Pres. Walker and all the other missionaries in our area. It was good. We talked to them about faith and the levels of faith and had a good lesson with them. Afterwards, we went to Brittany's...with all the elders (because they had to carpool) to give her a blessing. She has been struggling lately and requested a blessing. We didn't tell the elders anything about her situation; just that she needed a blessing. So, they came over and all six of us missionaries sat in there small apartment and taught her about faith and the priesthood. Then, the elders gave her a blessings. It was such a good experience! It was exactly what she needed to hear and she called us the following morning to tell us thank you a zillion times and then commenced to tell us that was the first time she had felt peace in a very, very long time. The priesthood is real. I'm thankful for it.

Tuesday we taught the Plan of Salvation to Nicole. She didn't agree with it at all. She firmly believes there is a heaven and a hell, but none of that degrees of heaven business. We also met with Matthew and talked to him about 1 Nephi 8. There is a really, really good article in the Book of Mormon Ensign by Elder Bednar that is all about the Tree of Life and it relates it to our lives. Read it. We talked to him about his baptismal date of the 4th and he said he was still planning on working towards that. He has a huge amount of faith. It's incredible. He's pretty nervous, but he's sticking with it. He is so in tune with the spirit; and he's willing to act on it.

Wedensday was a rough day. We met with a couple of people who had been "antied" or had dealved into anti material pretty deeply. The first man, Quincy was very respectful and has agreed to read the Book of Mormon because he can't figure out why we are so solidly certain that it is true. The second group was a group of YSA boys who were all roommates. Ironically, their names were John, Mark and Matthew. They just wanted to argue the whole time and Sister Matthews and I felt awful the whole time we were there. We bore testimony and told them we had to leave. They told us we were going to hell for what we believe and that we weren't Christians. I don't think Jesus would have done that. Oh well. We tried. We had dinner with less active Ann. She is such a sweet lady. I enjoyed her. She was the happy spot of the day. Sister Matthews is so full of awesome quotes! When we were studying that morning, we were talking about repentance and she said, "repentance is permanent, personal upgrades." I thought it was good. When we repent, we don't go back. It's a permanent change.

Thursday was the best day ever! We did weekly planning, made pumpkin pies during lunch and then went to contact a referral from the elders. His name is Andrew. He is a YSA and is totally solid. He lives with his parents and they are the nicest people ever. We gave them a pumpkin pie and talked to them about the restoration. The elders had talked to them about the plan of salvation a little bit and she (andrew's mom) used that term a lot. I think she really liked it.

Friday we did a lot of contacting mostly. It wasn't too eventful. Saturday we went to the parade to see Matthew in the band. We told him we could come for a little bit and I've honestly never seen someone get so excited in my life. Their band is pretty highly renowned I guess. He did a great job! We had stake conference in kinston that evening. I played the piano. It was good! I'm glad it's over.

Sunday we went to New Bern for the rest of Stake Conference. New Bern is GORGEOUS! It's right by the water and we froze to death. It got cold all of the sudden. It was the 50th year that the Kinston stake has been around. It's the oldest stake in NC as well. So, they did a lot of historical information and so forth for conference. We had a good lesson with recently baptized Naomi. Her little boy, Matthias is hilarious. I'll send pictures next week, but my time is up!

Love you all!

Sister J