Hi there! :)

Another amazing week in Nebraska! Surprisingly, I think it's starting to cool down just a little bit and the TC is slowing down a bit also. Can't believe summer is almost over! I think some schools here have already started which is crazy to me!

Well, last Monday after Preparation day, we decided to go pull weeds and do some yard work for our ward mission leader and his family, the Cottams. They were out of town at Disneyland so we wanted to surprise them with some weed picking ;) It was so fun!

Tuesday we went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders. I got to go with my dear Sister Fronk in Elmwood. Let me tell ya...it was really weird to be honest. Being on the other side was really different and not what I was used to. I haven't been on exchanges my STL in 8 months! It was especially interesting because I was once Sister Fronk's STL, then we were leaders together, and we're best friends. So it was a little different than a usual exchange. She kept telling me that she wanted me to be the leader and give her advice on how she can become a better leader. We just helped each other out and had a grand time :) I love her so much! We got to teach Dusty the rest of the commandments and then put all her drawings all the wall so she can remember all of them. Then we saw Sister Maurel who is a less active who is the sweetest lady in the world but has a lot of mental health problems. We read this great talk called "Sharing your Light" from the Women's Broadcast 2 conferences ago and she loved it! We saw Joe as well. Oh that man...it's always a party when we see him. He's doing great on not smoking! He's been going every other day without smoking and still reading the Book of Mormon twice a day. Love him! We had dinner with the Corbitts whom I love SO much! It was just a great day! First day I think in my entire mission that none of our appointments fell through and we saw everyone that we had planned on seeing. Always so many miracles on exchanges :)

Wednesday we had district meeting and then saw Anna who is an investigator who also has many mental problems and likes to talk a ton and go off on really random tangents. We decided to watch the 20 minutes Restoration video with her to see if that would distract her a bit, but instead she was looking out the window, picking her nose, and talking about her mom so we had to keep trying to get her focus on the movie. Oh how I love the people in this area :) I feel like we're teaching little 10 year olds all the time. We had dinner with a lady named Sister Johnson whom neither of us had ever met before. We had seen her at church the following Sunday, but never talked to her before. Anyways...it ended up being one of the best lessons. She has been less active for a really long time and has had SO many problems in her life. She was sealed in the temple 11 years ago, but the man ended up being abusive so they got divorced, and she seriously has had just about every illness and trial you could imagine so it's caused her to fall away and she told us that she's never felt the love of God before. Oh, it just broke my heart. She lost her job and had just applied for a new job and she told us that every time she's had the missionaries over for dinner, a miracle has happened. Well, we found out yesterday that she got the job! Throughout the lesson we just listened to her for the longest time and shared some good helpful scriptures with her and told her to start reading the Book of Mormon every single day and we also told her that if she starts coming back to church every Sunday then she will have more strength to get through her trials and be so much happier. The spirit there was so strong and as she cried to us, I just felt Heavenly Father's love for her SO strongly. It was one of those moments where I knew right then and there that she is one of the people that I was specifically called here to meet and bring back to church. I know I will stay in touch with her for the rest of my life! We're seeing her on Wednesday and she has 2 quilts that she's been wanting to finish so we're going to help her! So excited! She came to church again yesterday and guess what! She was wearing her garments again! Miracle! I love missionary work so much :) After that appointment we went and did yard work for Sister LaPier which is always so great!

Thursday we just weekly planned and served at the TC.

Friday we were at the TC in the morning and then Gary and Dusty had us over for dinner and cooked us roast! So delicious! We only have a couple more points to teach Dusty out of the last lesson-Laws and Ordinances. She will be getting baptized August 22nd! She's been off smoking for 2 weeks and is on a roll! I'm beyond excited! I know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now. Right here in Elmwood! Heavenly Father has just blessed me with so many wonderful people to teach and meet and I can't thank Him enough! We also saw Christina that night and met her friends from South Omaha. One of her friends, Kristine has really bad arthritis and is always in a lot of pain so we talked to her about how Christ's Atonement can heal her. Gave her a Book of Mormon and had a great lesson with them. Unfortunately they don't live in our area so we can't keep teaching them, but it was still a good opportunity.

Saturday was pretty dead...TC in the morning after TC training, then tried some people, then helped Sister LaPier with her yard again. It's like a jungle, so she needed a lot of work on it! It was pretty exhausting!

Sunday we were at the TC in the morning as usual, church was great. Dusty came as well as Sister Johnson. Wonderful! Then we had dinner with some members and saw Brother Powell. Love that man too! Read a great talk with him. He's doing a lot better with not smoking too. Hasn't been to church in 2 weeks though because he's been helping out some boy's camp group or whatever. He cracks me up. He was telling us that he has to approve the guys that we marry when we get home. He's hilarious. Anyways, such a great week! I hope you're all doing well also! Love you so much!

Sister Ferrara :)

Sneaky yard work at the Cottams. Nebraskans have specific "YW" buckets that you have to put all your cut grass and weeds in so people can come pick it up for you. Pretty awesome!

Exchanges with Sister Fronk! Ate Nutella pie at Fazolis. To die for!

Dusty and her wall of colored pictures of the commandments :)

Weird statue we discovered downtown

Matching weirdos :) We were having way too much fun after planning one night... :)