Find joy in every day of your life!

Hello family!

Things here in Muskogee are going pretty well. I hear that it is realllllly cold in Utah. Well, last week, we had one huge rain storm and we were even under a tornado watch but nothing happened. The other days it was fairly warm. It even got up to like 75 one day. I think today it is in the 50s at the moment. So I'm sorry that the weather is not so good there. We are expected to have some crazy ice storms out here in the midwest. I guess we'll see what happens.

We had an alright week. A lot of people cancelled on us which is a huge bummer because then you have to figure out what else you're going to do. The worst is when our evening lessons cancel on us and it is dark so there isn't a whole lot you can do because people tend to get mad at you for visiting them at 7 because it is so dark. People will say, "You're out kind of late, aren't you?" We'll think, "it's only 7!" But people think it's later than that because of how dark it is.

It will be great when the time changes again and it is summer time because then there will be sunlight for a longer time!! :) Sunshine makes for better work. In my opinion. :)

So here in Muskogee we live with members! I just want to tell you a little bit about them. I'll eventually send a picture of them. :) We live with David and Mikel Parkes and Sis. Parkes' mother. We call her Grandma! They are just fantastic! Bro. Parkes works with a construction company and Sis. Parkes stays at home with Grandma.  Grandma is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and so she has to have someone with her at all times. Sis. Parkes makes wedding cakes and this last Saturday she had a cake tasting and so we got to eat the cake left over from that! It was delicious! Her icing is AMAZING! And that's saying something since it's coming from me, and I don't really like icing. Landon is their 1 1/2 year old grandson that comes over on Thursdays and Fridays. He loves the missionaries! :) He's adorable! So that's a little bit about them! :)

Last Tuesday, the same day as the rainstorm and tornado watch, the Zone Leaders came to our area to do some tracting to help us out with finding more people to teach. Well, they were successful in finding us 6 potential investigators, BUT, they got soaked in the process! They texted us around lunch time and asked us to bring them some towels so they could dry off! They were seriously so wet and I felt kind of bad, but we got them some towels and they were able to dry off a little bit. There was a tornado warning (there's a difference between a watch and a warning...warning is more serious) in their area, so they stuck around Muskogee for a little bit.

Jarrod is someone that we are working with. We had some bad news come up this week but I'll get to that later. So we had a lesson on Tuesday I think and we were talking about the Plan of Salvation. After it we were asking him how his smoking and Word of Wisdom stuff was going. He told us that his smoking was good and that he was not drinking caffeine anymore and he was just drinking decaffinated coffee. SO we told him that he can drink caffeine....he just can't drink coffee or tea. His eyes got real big and he was pretty excited. As we were leaving the library (that's where we meet with him), he went and bought himself a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine. It was pretty funny! So then we met with him on Friday night at the mall (I know, a weird place to have a spiritual lesson) and it turns out that he's on probation and so he can't get baptized for another year! We had no idea about this and so we had a date set for him for the end of February but now that's not going to work. It was a pretty big bummer for all of us, but hopefully he'll be able to continue to meet with the missionaries and learn everything about the church before he is baptized!

So on Thursday, during our "weekly planning session," Sister Moe wanted to make a goal for us this week to have 10 new investigators....I couldn't convince her otherwise so that is our goal! I don't know how we are going to do it, but we are going to try our hardest to talk to everybody in the city of Muskogee! We'll see how it goes!

Fast and testimony meeting yesterday was so good! I could really feel the spirit during the whole hour! The bishop talked first and I really liked everything he said, but I can't write quite fast enough to catch it all! :) He said, "Sin is not harmful because it is forbidden; it is forbidden because it is harmful." I think he read that in a book. I can't remember which one though. He also said, "The most important of Heavenly Father's servants are those who stand at the head of each family." It really is true! If we don't have good parents who are always striving to provide spiritual learning and experiences for their kids, we won't be able to have valiant missionaries and future leaders of the church! He also said, "The decisions we make alter our life." I've heard that before but it just really hit me yesterday. Then in our Gospel Principles class, the lesson was on agency and our freedom to choose. The decisions we make everyday really do alter our life, for the better or for the worst. Let's all be aware and conscious of the decisions that we are making everyday! If we choose to stay on the path that our Heavenly Father wants us on, we will be happier and will be able to find joy in our lives. We send out a scripture of the day and today I chose to make 2 Nephi 2:25 the scripture of the day! Let us all find joy in every day of our lives!

:)

I love you all! Have a fabulous day!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl