Lessons, lessons, Tippy and Tiwi.

I feel like the most loved missionary ever!
Every Tuesday I get a STACK of mail!
My zone gets kind of jealous. Then they tell me it will die down in the mission. We shall see! But regardless I want you to know that I really appreciate it.

This past week has been really fun! We've been very busy and have been jumping from appointment to appointment which is AWESOME!! It's how missionary life should be so I'm grateful I can experience it.

Tippy the cat has NOT been very fun to be around. We were having a lesson with our investigator Josh, 21, the grandson of the people I love--the Mahaffeys. We were outside on their porch teaching the Plan of Salvation when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see Tippy with a baby bunny in his mouth. I jumped a little bit, tapped my companion and made her look. We were both shocked and the two other men in our lesson did not notice, so we had to keep our cool. It was a struggle to try to teach since Tippy was five feet away pouncing on this poor, what-we-thought-to-be dead bunny. Suddenly the bunny darts at Sister Stewart and almost jumps in her bag, but Tippy the killer cat has scary reflexes and grabbed the bunny again. I almost peed my skirt. Sister Stewart and I both worry that Tippy is going to kill us in our sleep.  The men with us were just laughing, and were impressed with the murderous cat. I was not. Throughout the lesson, Tippy was eating the bunny just a few feet from where we sat.

We believe Tippy is now bunny-sick because every night he leaves little treats on the carpet for us to clean up. I'm not a Tippy fan. But we do laugh. Thanks for the entertainment Tippy!

We taught the McDaniels again. It was a great lesson. All the kids participated and they are still committed to their baptismal date. My favorite part of the lesson was when the 13 year old boy Aaron prayed at the end. Sweetest prayer I've ever heard. He prayed to be able to understand the Book of Mormon better and then to be able to be baptized.

Speaking of baptism, Taylor's baptism is this Saturday! I'm PUMPED!! We had a great lesson with her about missionary work and she's already doing so much. She's invited all of her immediate family and extended family to come to church, come to her baptism, and to take the lessons. She's working miracles. I love her so much and I wish all of you could meet her. She's really funny. Hopefully we are going to the Mormon Battallion site with her family on Friday. I'm excited about that as well. She is one of the best people I've ever met and she is my age. She is already so mature and is like a mother to all of her siblings. I aspire to be like her.

One topic we've been teaching a lot to less active members of the church is the importance of the Sacrament. It was a big topic on Sunday. We found an awesome talk by Don R Clarke called "Blessings of the Sacrament." It really helps us prepare throughout the week to have the best experience ever on Sunday. I loved this past Sacrament Meeting. The spirit was really strong and I truly felt connected to our Savior and his forgiveness for all I've done wrong and letting me start over again. If you think about all of the ordinances, like baptism or temple ordinances, we only do them once for ourselves. But we partake of the Sacrament every week. It's so important that we need it weekly. Really puts things into perspective and I've loved teaching about it. We've also been challenging members using a talk by M. Russell Ballard called "Write down a date." It's basically where you pick a date to have a spiritual experience with someone, or share a bit of the gospel with them or introduce them to the missionaries. It's not necessarily picking a name, but picking a date where by that time the Lord will put someone in your path to share the gospel with. It's a faith builder. Do it! Pray for a date either individually or as a family and watch the Lord go to work in your life. Make sure you don't sit back and watch; make sure you are living worthily to receive this miracle in your life. Work for it. It will be an amazing experience.

Guess who's driving in California now?!? THIS SISTER!!
I love it. It took a while to be able to get approved, but I'm pumped! So we have this thing called "tiwi" and it's a little box that's in our car and if we speed or drive aggressively it yells at us. It says, "Watch your speed!" or "Aggressive driving!" and if you get too many of those you may have your driving privileges taken away. With speeding they give you ten seconds to dlow down and if you do they don't record the speeding. Repentance is alive and well! Tiwi yelled at me yesterday for going 30. I was slightly offended. Ouch, Tiwi.

We went to the retirement home yesterday. Its' always so funny to go there. We were helping put up Fourth of July decorations around the whole building, since the member we visit there is the party decorator. She is in charge of bringing the party. It was funny--she is quite bossy and spunky. A great lady.

Our ward is the bomb-dot-com. We got fed almost every day last week and yesterday we got fed lunch AND dinner! I probably will not come home skinny.

On Sunday we taught the Young Women a missionary lesson. I thought it went really well. We mainly emphasized that a lot of the time missionary work just happens naturally. It's through the light that you have that people notice you. It's important not to shy away, but to embrace those moments and enhance them with invitations. We wanted to do an activity with them where they would invite their friends to a movie night and the movie is going to be "Meet the Mormons." If you haven't seen it, you need to. I saw it for the first time in the Missionary Training Center and I was smiling throughout the whole entire thing. It was wonderful! I'm excited for this activity that is coming up. It will be a great missionary activity. One sweet Beehive came up to us after the lesson and told us how much she enjoyed our lessons and how she felt inspired. She was so cute and it made us feel really good. We also made little mission calls for them--super cute. We got pretty creative. I loved it. The Young Women are great! And I hope to get to know them more and more each week.

Life is great, couldn't be better and I've never felt so blessed in my life. The Lord truly does love me and he loves all of you. I know that for a fact and I will never doubt it. Being an instrument for the Lord always helps me to have love for everyone. It's been one of the best experiences of my life. I love it. And I love all of you! You inspire me everyday! Keep it up!!
:)
Love,
Sister Whitcomb

This one's for you Dad! Duck Dynasty Pride! I would have gotten you a shirt but they didn't have one in your size. :(  Don't worry--I'll keep looking!