The week of Donna

Hello everyone!

I just love hearing from everyone, and it sounds like everyone is doing wonderfully! I am so happy! We have PDay a few days early  this week (it's Saturday)  because Sister Evans is completing her mission in just a few days and this is the day that the departing missionaries have to have their Pdays before they go home. Let me tell you, today has been so so so amazing!!!! This morning we had a BAPTISM!!! It was Donna's baptism and, oh my goodness, I was so excited for her. If you had told me after the first time that we met Donna that she would be baptized I probably would have told you that you were crazy! But Donna is just so awesome and has worked so hard to get to this point!! I can't believe that it really happened. There have been several struggles along the way and, at times, we wondered if she would ever be ready for baptism.   For example, just this week she flipped someone off while we had our lesson....awkward. The great thing about Donna, however, is that we can be bold with her and she won't get offended. We told her that she can't do that and that when she gets baptized she is taking upon herself the name of Christ. She just wasn't grasping it, but I told her "Donna, I want to challenge you to not flip anyone off for one week, and then forever". She said she would, although she was laughing. Well, I guess that night she went to Sonic and there was a guy that was swearing a lot and it was really offending her. When we we came the next day with a member, Sister Pierson, Donna told us that she wasn't going to do it any more. She told us that she knew that God was showing her how flipping people off can be offensive to others just like the guy’s swearing was offensive to her.  

Donna also had her baptismal interview this week and she was lucky enough to have it with President Wakolo, which was really cool! She was really nervous. We asked her to say a prayer to really ask Heavenly Father to give her comfort and to help her and so she did. It was a beautiful prayer...well, except for when she started speaking in tongues. I guess that is a big thing here in the south, but man, I felt like I was in a scene of Harry Potter! I seriously opened my eyes and thought she was speaking parseltongue. Sorry, now everyone knows that I am a dork. Actually you probably already knew that, so I'm not sorry. :) To be honest, we were pretty nervous that she was going to speak in tongues at the baptism today (in fact, some of the elders in our district made a bet that she would start speaking in tongues when she came out of the water. They lost. HALLELUJAH!), but we got that resolved. She also met her home teachers, the Nays (some couples in the ward are visiting and home teaching companions, which is pretty cool). They are perfect for her! We have so many fellowships to support her! There were actually quite a few people who attended her baptism today, which made us very, very happy. Anyway, back to the interview with President Wakolo. She came out of the interview so happy and relieved, then she turned to us and said, "he looks nothing like his picture! He's from Fiji!". We had shown her a video of President Monson earlier and I guess she thought that she was going to be interviewed by the prophet!!  No wonder she was so nervous! I would have been, as well. Earlier that day we had talked to her about enduring to the end and so when she went to her car after the interview she turned to us and said “I have endured to the end!!”, which cracked us up pretty hard!

Her baptism today was so wonderful. So many people came to support Donna. We had the ward mission leader baptize her and there was also an elder in the font to help her because she has a really hard time walking and the stairs really scared us and her. But we were all just waiting next to the font at the top of the stairs and Sister Evans,  Sister Beckstrand and I were all hugging and smiling so hard. We were so excited for her! When she came up out of the water, she looked at us and said, "you are more happy than I am!".....so embarrassing. Everyone heard. But when we went to the dressing room, she shared that she was so happy and that she felt great peace. She said that she doesn't usually feel peace but today she did. She felt good. 

This week we also moved out of our apartment. We got a call on Monday from the office elders saying that they were moving us, so we have been living in a temporary apartment since Tuesday. The apartment is in....... LITTLE ROCK!! What's up, hometown?! In fact, I have totally seen the Simmons Tower, which is not only the tallest skyscraper in Arkansas (40 stories high), but it is also the building where my mom used to work when my parents lived in Little Rock. I have actually taken some videos with it in the background. I am so grateful that if I had to move once again because of bedbugs, I was able to temporarily move here and be able to see places that are significant to my family. What a tender mercy!  We should be moving into our more permanent apartment (what even is permanent for missionaries?) next week. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. PLEASE pray that the bedbugs won't follow us!!! We are trying so hard. SO SO HARD. Like two-three hours of cleaning almost every day kind of hard. We have had to use most of the money that we get for food and for necessities to pay for garbage bags, laundry detergent, and ziplock bags because we use them several times a day and we have the laundry machine going constantly. I also have thrown away my pillow and don’t dare use a pillow because I am too scared to sleep on one. 

This week we had the opportunity to be in a lesson with President Wakolo. There is a less active couple that we have been trying to get reactivated and Sister Evans really wanted to do this before she went home, so President Wakolo helped us out. The cool thing was we didn't tell him really anything about this couple or what their concerns were but he hit Every.Single.Thing. He is so amazing! I really just sat there in awe. None of us taught, but he just asked questions and gave them commitments. The coolest thing that he said was to hold hands every night and morning and pray together. It would set an example for their children and help them to grow as a couple. I just love that! 

This week sure has been such a crazy, busy week. It has been difficult not following a traditional schedule because of the bedbugs and the moving, but the amazing thing is that we still faced some really cool experiences that came from our trials. We were at a laundromat for several hours the other day and we met a guy that had lots of questions for us and he talked to us. I really think that Heavenly Father knows that we are trying our best, and He has helped us even when we have felt like we were worthless missionaries. The crazy thing is, you really have to LOOK for those positive things though. Heavenly Father gives us so many blessings, but how often do we see them in our daily lives?

I love you all so so so much! I hope y'all are doing well! I love hearing from you!

Love, your favorite missionary in the south!

Ash

Sister Esplin

Master packer

Bed bug food

 Donna’s Baptism!!! We were so so so excited!!!! 

 District photo before transfers and Sister Evans goes home.  :(

 Waiting with my seesters for Donna to finish her baptism interview.

 Cleaning the font!

Look how cool!! The Simmons Tower was almost completely covered in clouds this morning.  

They're Baaaaaaaack!!!

They're baaaaaack! The bedbugs apparently love the sweet nectar that my blood seems to give them. Why? I don't know… Apparently Satan knows that there is something that we need to do and it is important, so he is sending these evil little blood suckers to make our work hard to do. What a stinker! I have bite marks all over my legs and apparently I am scratching in my sleep. But seriously, sweet is the work!! I hate talking about bedbugs. I really do. They suck the life out of the fun! It sounds like they are going to be my eighteen month companions, so I probably won't bring anything home when I do go home in a year and a half. Yay!

Here is the funniest thing that happened this week. We did weekly planning on Friday and that takes a couple of hours, so right after that we had lunch. Well, we were just getting comfortable for lunch when knock knock knock, someone came to the door. Well, who could be there but some missionaries. Were they those darn Mormons? Nope! Some Baptist missionaries. They immediately told us that we were going to hell and that our future held eternal damnation. So nice. They just started spouting out bible scripture after bible scripture and telling us that we were wrong about everything. We were just like, bro, chill!!  Seriously, I was so shocked that people could behave like that. I think that Arkansas had realized that I had been there too long without getting a good old fashioned southern bible bash so it brought one right to our door. This guy was seriously so off about everything that I had to try really hard to not laugh. For example, he told us that we are going to rule all the planets when we die! Wow! He also said that he had read some parts of the Book of Mormon and he knew Joseph Smith was not a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was not true. What was so crazy was that every time he said something against us, the spirit sweetly testified to me that it was totally and completely true. I had been struggling to really gain a deeper testimony of Joseph Smith so this week I read a wonderful talk by James E. Faust from the October 2003 conference called "Lord, I believe; Help thou my unbelief". It was so wonderful. He said,  "For those of you who, like the biblical father, say, “I believe; help thou mine unbelief,” you can have a confirmation by following the direction of the Book of Mormon, which challenges us to ask “God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ,” regarding the truth that can only come by faith in Christ and by revelation. However, there are two indispensable elements. One must “ask with a sincere heart, with real intent,” and then God “will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”" So I did that. I prayed and asked. And several times this week the truth was revealed to me. That was one of those moments. Another was when an investigator who we had to drop told us that she just didn't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She felt he was just some crazy guy and couldn't get beyond her doubts.  I just love that by adversity and opposition we can come to know the truth. By their fruits you may know them, right? Joseph smith is not who we worship, he was not a perfect person, but he was a prophet of God and he restored Christ's church to the earth! How grateful I am for that wonderful morning in 1820. It takes a lot of effort and faith to ask our Father in Heaven to reveal truth to us. Sometimes it is out of fear that we don't ask what He wants us to do. I don't believe that Joseph Smith went into the sacred grove thinking that he would see God and Jesus Christ. He didn't foresee that he would be called as a prophet of God. But, I am so glad that he had great faith and that he was worthy enough to sincerely ask such critical questions in faith. Do we live our lives in a way that we can do the things that our Heavenly Father wants us to do? Are we living so that we can follow promptings? Does He know that you will follow them? 

This week has been really great. Donna is getting baptized this Saturday!!! I am so excited for her. She received a blessing this week from the elders and it was wonderful. I love priesthood blessings! She also said to us, “I just wish that everyone would live the things taught in the Book of Mormon. The world would be a much better place”.  Oh Donna! I love her so much! The work progresses here, but it goes so much faster with the help of members! 

The Gustafsons fed us dinner this week! It was so fun to finally meet sister Gustafson. She worked for my Grandpa when she and her husband lived in Utah years ago. She was trying to get her kids to remember my Grandpa and she told them that he was the one that gave them the giant container of jelly beans. Oh man, that brought back some great memories!  I couldn’t help but laugh to myself.

I am sorry I have to run and keep things brief this week, but know that I love you all!

Love,

Sister Esplin

Bedbug cage fighter

North Little Rock Zone Conference

 Sunsets in Arkansas are AMAZING!

 Zone conference with Sister Peterson

(We share the same cousins—just different sides of the family)

 Sweet is the work with these cute companions!

Creeper picture of me sleeping-courtesy of my companions

Fun in the Sun?!!!

Hello everyone!

I am so grateful for the love of our Heavenly Father. This week has been full of trials, but also so very full of miracles. In church yesterday there was a speaker that encouraged us to read the 2003 conference talk by Elder Holland, “The Grandeur of God”. I would invite you all to read that talk, as well. It really is amazing, as all of Elder Holland's talks are. He said, "Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.....Jesus did not come to improve God’s view of man nearly so much as He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know--until Christ came." I absolutely love that when we come to know Christ we are coming to know God. I so often forget the amount of love that He has for me. During personal study every morning I search the scriptures and highlight Christ's attributes. During that time I also strive to better develop those attributes so that I can be more like Christ. But when we strive to be more like Christ we are striving to be more like God. That is our ultimate goal, isn't it? To become more like Him so that we can live with Him again. I love that to better understand our Father in Heaven what we really need to do is study the scriptures and find Christ. For when we find Christ, we are seeing God, as well. During discussions and when we meet people we often relate our Heavenly Father to fathers here on earth. Our father loves us so much and just like our earthly parents have given us personality traits, we have inherited traits from our Father in Heaven. I have truly grown to understand better the love that Heavenly Father has for me by seeing and feeling that love for others. When we serve and love those around us we are being more Christlike and therefore more like our Father. There was an investigator this week that we met that was telling us that he believes in God and that he knows that God loves him, but he didn't really believe that Christ was anything more than a good guy that fulfilled a purpose to teach about God. I really do believe that God and Christ testify of each other. Everything that Christ did, He humbly gave credit to His father. And Heavenly Father declared multiple times that Christ is His son.

Anyway, I just love the chance that I get every single day to grow closer to my Father in Heaven and Savior, Jesus Christ. Not only that, but to help others grow closer to them. This week was awesome! It was “WALK WEEK”  so there are not many pictures. It was so hot but it was awesome to really feel like a missionary. We walked up a ton of hills, but we were so happy to be doing the work! It was great to also get to know members better,  because we asked for rides and we also asked for people to come to lessons with us. Sister Pierson, who was in my parents’ ward back when they were first married and lived in Little Rock,  came with us on Tuesday to teach Donna and it was so cool because we talked about my parents! Sister Pierson shared stories about my parents…that they were a gorgeous couple…what?!! ;)…and that my parents both worked so hard in that ward. That they were tremendous assets to the ward and that everyone was so sad when my family left. I felt so much gratitude knowing that I have such great parents who made a difference in this beautiful place that I serve. Sister Pierson also said that she held me as a baby, which seemed so surreal!! 

We are continuing to work with Donna towards baptism on the 27th. We are really trying to get the members involved so that she can establish relationships and ultimately be more than a baptism. We want her to become a CONVERT! We had 4 members out to see her with us! I am so excited for her! This week we also had exchanges with other sister missionaries! I stayed in Sherwood with my Sister Training Leader, Sister Hirschi, and Sister Evans and Sister Beckstrand went to Conway with the other Sister Training Leader. It was cool for me, because in a trio it sometimes is hard to have a chance to teach. I think that because I was kind of hesitant at the beginning my companions think that I don't want to say anything so they don't always give me a chance to speak as often, but I really do want to talk. When I was alone with Sister Hirschi, it really gave me a chance to teach and it was awesome! 

I love that everything in the gospel can really go back to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. It is exciting  to talk to people about what we believe. The funny thing is, we plan every night for what we are going to do the next day and then pray about it to see if that is what Heavenly Father wants us to do. So the night before it went great! Unfortunately, the next day does not always go as planned. On one  of those days, the first person we were going to see switched the time so instead of seeing him at 11, we had to come back at 7. Then our 12 o'clock appointment also cancelled on us. As a result, we were trying to find people in the area (since we were walking). Well, we were passing this street where one of our investigators lives and I just stopped. I felt like we needed to go see him, but the funny thing is, he is never home and when he is he's too busy to talk to us, but I felt like we should walk to his house anyway. A couple of houses into the street there was a guy taking out the garbage and Sister Hirschi nudged me and told me to go talk to him. Well, I nervously told him that we are the sister missionaries in the area and that we come with a message about Christ that can bring a lot of joy to his life. He then asked if we had one of our little blue bibles. A Book of Mormon! Yes! I told him it actually does not replace the bible but it works with it as another Testament of Jesus Christ. Sister Hirschi invited him to read it and pray to know if it is true. He said sure! Yay!

Another awesome miracle that happened that day was that I was wearing my black ugly sister missionary shoes because they are really comfortable. Well, apparently they aren't comfortable when you are walking all day in the sun because I got blisters all over my heels and they popped! So I stopped in the church and got some bandaids before we went to the 7 o'clock appointment. We went and they answered the door saying that they would get the person we were looking for and then they never came back. So we started walking back up the hill. Well, the bandaids kept coming off so I sat down on this little ledge in front of a Catholic Church and I started putting on new bandaids. All of a sudden, a car pulled up. They said, "Sisters! Do you want a ride?". I was a little confused because I had no idea who this person was (I know who the members in the ward are pretty well now), and I wasn't sure if we could get rides from nonmembers. She must have seen our confusion because she said, "I'm a member in the Little Rock Spanish Ward!”, so we hopped in our car and she drove us up the hill to our next appointment. I remember in a blessing that I got in the MTC that they blessed me that I would have the strength to take one step after another and when my strength was gone and I couldn’t take another step, that He would take the next step. I just love that my Heavenly Father is looking out for me and that He was there to take my next step.

Interesting story of the week: Because I was outside all day on Thursday in the hot hot hot sun, I think that I got dehydrated or something. I just forget to drink water. Oops!!  Well, that night I was EXHAUSTED, but the next morning I was NAUSEOUS. The whole day I had a horrible headache and sharp pains in my abdomen. Well, I kept on going, as is the missionary way. I got a blessing from my district leader and he talked about working with the mission nurse, if things persisted. The next morning I still felt horrible and since my companion, Sister Beckstrand, had had similar problems about a month before and had landed in the hospital I decided I had better call the mission nurse,  Sister Thompson. She told me to stay inside…Boo!!!  Well, I hated that. About two months ago, if you had told me I could stay home and take a nap I would have been thrilled. Not now. Sister Evans and Beckstrand took turns staying in with me, while the other one went out on splits with members. They had awesome lessons and I was so bummed toot be a part of it, but I really felt so much love from my companions.  

I love this work and I love this gospel, but most of all I love my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love y'all!

Sister Esplin

P.S. The bedbugs are "gone". We haven't been bitten for about two weeks. YAY!!!

Sherwood is on FIRE!!!

Hello everyone! Someone call the fire department, because Sherwood is on Fire!!! Oh man this week has brought forth such blessings but also much tribulation (do you like my Book of Mormon language? Teehee). It has been such a whirlwind! I have got to say, there are definitely people out there that are prepared by God to find the gospel and there are definitely some people out there that are just there so that you can help them be prepared for other missionaries to help them...if that makes sense. I just love this area! This week I have been working on having more faith. I have faith in my Father in Heaven and that He can do anything, I think the disconnect is that I struggle to have faith that He can do anything through ME. Ugh. But do you know what? He really can do anything through me. I just need to open my mouth! This week was amazing because it really showed me how much God really cares about this work and how great a hand He has in this work. One day this week we had finished everything that we had planned to do, but we had 10 minutes until we had to be in the apartment. We contemplated just going home, but then we thought that we should go and see an investigator that the elders that had been here before us had found. So we went over and she opened the door and said, "Can you come back tomorrow afternoon?" So we set up an appointment! I was so pumped about it, but the closer we approached the appointment, the more I thought, “Oh great! She isn't going to keep the appointment”, because that happens fairly regularly. We got there and oh my goodness. It was wonderful. She is actually a member! She hasn't been to church since Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet and she has been to lots of different churches but she has always been drawn back to the LDS church because it is the one she grew up in. She had been praying and reading the scriptures and she felt that she needed to have the missionaries come over but she didn't know the phone number to call. Then we came!! She came to church yesterday, as well! We called her to see how she felt like it went and she said that it felt right and that she would definitely be there next week. We are going to see her this week, but it made me so excited to see her at church! 

WE HAVE TWO BAPTISMS SET UP!!!! Donna committed to being baptized and she said that she is excited about it! We definitely need to keep going over things, but we were just so excited for her to make this amazing commitment! Also, we got a referral from the elders named Dana and we went and saw her and she said that she wants to be baptized and has picked the date September 3rd. Well, that just threw me! She is so ready to be baptized. She has been taught since before Christmas last year and she just needs to quit smoking, but oh man, when we were in the room talking to her there was just a light about her. She had a glow. Oh man. I love Sherwood! Yesterday we also had a member, Sister Jackson, come with us to see Donna, (Donna went to her old church one last time so we wanted to make sure everything went well). Sister Jackson is the sweetest, tiniest, most faithful women I have ever met! She was telling me stories about her life and I had to stop myself so that I wouldn't cry. Sister Jackson is from Germany and she was there during the war.  She and her siblings were taken from their parents and right before she was taken she was baptized, but her parents didn't tell her why. It took her so long to finally understand why, but she just had faith in God that whole time. She truly is amazing!!

I have learned what having true love for an investigator means, because I have quit chocolate. I have quit chocolate until Dana gets baptized. She is struggling to quit smoking so we are not eating chocolate while she tries to stop smoking. I really had to evaluate my love for her, because we had just gotten some thin mints from some ladies in the ward. LOVE is quitting chocolate for a little while so that others can have eternal joy. That is a mission. 

Well, my spiritual thought this week comes from 2 Nephi 2. Lehi is talking to Jacob and he says in verse 2: "Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." I think of how much we have all gone through, wether it be spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally. We all go through trials, but those trials are for our gain. It is hard to think of a trial as a blessing at the time, but I know that my trials are sacred to me. They are what have helped me to "know of the greatness of God". Often people say, "God doesn't give you more than you can handle". I'm not entirely sure that is true. I think that God doesn't give us more than we can handle with His help. It is through the atonement that everything can be made whole and right again. It is so hard to think about after a trial and how it can be a blessing, but when we go through a trial, relying on Heavenly Father and on Jesus Christ's atonement, it can become so beautiful. It can be like a refiners fire.

I also just want to say as a note, go out with your local missionaries! They love members and going to a lesson is so special. Even if you go and no one is there, the fact that you were willing to take time out of your day is so special to Heavenly Father. Also feed the missionaries. :) Hint. Hint. Hint. I love you all so much, you are amazing and I love this church and the people in it. I love Arkansas but I love Utah, as well.

Love y'all!

Sister Esplin

Hanging with my bike and a free bike that someone just GAVE us at the bike shop!

Our chocolate sacrifice!

I am becoming such a pro at laundry!

Hello Everyone!

This week....oh my goodness. This week is seriously one of the most bizarre weeks that I have had in my life. Let's just start from the beginning. I love this GOSPEL!!!!! The members here in the North Little Rock ward are awesome. They just love to feed us and go out with us to teach people. I encourage you all to go out with the missionaries! We love having members there. 

Okay, this weird week actually started on Friday, but here it is. That morning I was super excited because we were going to go to Maumelle to go to an appointment with James. Well, he called and he said that he couldn't meet with us that day. Bummer! We had planned for him and everything. Then our other appointment canceled on us. So there we were sitting in a parking lot and we had just prayed to know what God would have us do. The interesting thing that happened though was that a couple of minutes later we got a call from Sister Arnold asking us if we could come over a little earlier to teach her daughter.  Oh, and she was in Sherwood! Direction from Heavenly Father! We went and it was an awesome lesson. We were definitely needed there at that time. Then, later we went to an apartment complex to find an investigator that the elders had met but we didn't have the apartment number, just the building number. So we were trying to talk to people to see if they knew her. Nope! But, we were able to talk to lots of people and I even gave away all of my pass along cards and I gave my  blue Book of Mormon and Bible to some children who wanted a free book. Maybe someday they will read it and want to know more. Also, we found a girl that said that we could teach her! Yay! 

Now to my weird part of the day. One weird thing that happened was that we came to the house of a recent convert, Brittany, and she said that we were supposed to meet at three instead of two like we had come. So we came back at three and we knocked and knocked and knocked and called and rang the doorbell. Well after our last knock, they knocked back to us from the inside. Weird. If you want to weird someone out just knock from the inside of the house.   We also got to have dinner with Sister Hugentobler, Elder and Sister Hartzell, and Elder and Sister Cahoon. So much fun! I love senior couples and senior missionaries. They are just so cute and make you feel like your grandparents are there. 

When we got to the apartment after dinner we had to grab things from the trunk of the car (our clothes #stupidbedbugs) and Sister Evans slammed the trunk down on Sister Beckstrand's finger!!!!! She was so calm though! She just said, "um…could you open the trunk?" I would have cried. I freaked out so much that I dropped my iPad and the glass case broke, so I need a new one. Seriously, Sister Beckstrand didn't even cry! She just walked up the stairs with a weirdly bent finger that was cut and bleeding. When we got to the apartment, Sister Evans started to feel sick and queasy so I told her to sit down and I gave her a glass of water. We called the mission nurse, Sister Thompson, to ask about Sister Beckstrand and she said to take pictures of the finger. Well I started to send those pictures when a cup of water just fell to the floor and Sister Evans passed out. I ran to her to try and not have her head hit the floor. It was so scary! Her eyes were wide open but they were rolling to the back of her head. I started patting/slapping her cheeks to wake her up and when she did she was so confused and she had no idea who I was for a second. Finally everything got sorted out, but man! That was a stressful night!

So like I sort of mentioned, we have to store all of our clothes in garbage bags, because of bedbugs. On Wednesday, we finally moved into the apartment because the exterminator said that there were no bedbugs. Well, on Monday we had gone to the apartment and cleaned all of the droppings off the wall and cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen and everything. Thank you, Mom, for Saturday jobs. I know how to clean a bathroom. Also, thank you for having us clean it every week! Our apartment looked like it had never been cleaned (the bathroom at least), so I know that I will clean my future home. So anyway, when the exterminator came he didn't see any of the bedbug stuff. Well, we moved in and we are definitely being bit. Yay. The exterminators are the worst. To try and make it so we don't get bedbugs, here is our daily schedule: Wake up and immediately strip our sheets and put them in the washer. Then, go shower and take a clean set of clothes and garments from a garbage bag of the day, then go put our pajamas in the washer as well. Go study and then rotate laundry to dryer. After dried, IMMEDIATELY put in garbage and ziplock bags. The mission nurse also said that we are going to be doing that for THE REST OF THE MISSION!!!! I am going to be so good at doing laundry by the end of the mission. I may never leave my clothes on the floor because I can't do that here! I have to say though, the mission definitely makes me notice my inadequacies but also forces me to look at my strengths. I have realized that I can do so little by myself, but so much through Him. Whenever we are down and humbled and no one will answer their doors or keep their appointments, THAT is when miracles happen. Sister Evans shared the scripture Moses 6:31-36 and I totally agree with that. I feel so much like Enoch sometimes, but I have to remember that Heavenly Father will help me.

I love y'all so much, I love this work, I love Arkansas, but most of all I love my Savior!

Love,

Sister Esplin