Man, i love being a missionary!!

Hi mamma!!
GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!! casey gets to call me on Christmas!!!!! his mission president gave them permision to call siblings on missions!!! isnt that awesome??? So, i get to talk to casey for 5 minutes on christmas too!!! I am SO excited!! and yes, i am excited to talk to the whole family,  i just cant wait!!!!

I have some funny stories for you this week. you'll love em! ok, story number one. So what happened was last night, our phone got left in one of the members car. and we have hermana barrett who was at a members house because she was so sick that she couldnt go out and work, she had to stay in. so, hermana olander and i went out and got to work. so, we had to go pick her up at 9 and then we also had to give 2 of the elders a ride home. well, the problem here is that we have NO WAY to get ahold of either of the 2 to let them know where we'd be picking them up and when. So, we drive frantically back to where our appoitment was, but the member already left. so, then we tried to call almost every member possible and no one answered. we need the number for the elders and then for the member that hermana barrett was with because those members are new and they arent in the ward list yet. and yet...NO ONE answered their phone. so, we felt bad using the neighbors phone to keep calling people and so we drove to the nearest members home to use their phone and get the numbers from them. they werent home. we then drove to 3 other members homes....none of them were home. however, on the bright side...we got to look at christmas lights :) so that was a nice little sidenote. but, we're still up a very steep creek at this point. so, at the last members house we drove to, there was a man outside his garage. so, i think "perfect! we can use this mans phone and while im calling, hermana olander and talk about the gospel". we walk over and we suddenly realize this man is DRUNK DRUNK DRUNK. i mean....DRUNK!!! one of the most intoxicated people ive seen, and i came in contact with a lot before. so, we use his phone and call every member possible and STILL no one answers. At this point im just at a loss of what the heck to do. Finally some member answers but they didnt have the number to either of the people i needed. So, i say a prayer (in my head of course) and i get this overwhelming feeling....RUN! so, i throw the phone back in the mans hand and i turn to hermana olander and say "go hermana. GO!" As soon as we got in the car, we sped off and then drove. As we're driving away hermana olander starts telling me of all the things he was saying while i was on the phone. Things i will not write out in an email but i can ellaborate more on the phone next week if you want. but needless to say...he was a HUGE creeper and the spirit protected us. One thing i will tell you, is that when i got a hold of the member, i spoke to her in spanish. (naturally cause that member doesnt speak a lick of english) and after i hung up, he says "mmm...i like me a bilingual". thats when we RAN away, we booked it outta there. yeeks...such a creeper. Man, i love being a missionary. So many fun things happen. Things like this make for good stories haha

Oh! ok, so there is 2 sets of elders in my district and they are AWESOME!!! we are all really close and we have SO much fun together. One is Elder Strang, our district leader and he is training Elder Newman. Then the other set (the bike elders we drive around) is Elder Albertson and he is training Elder Olvera. We seriously have a blast together. We are doing a gift exchange of Christmas day and then we all decided that we want to contribute a christmas tradition from each of us, and for mine....the 7 of us are going out to get pancakes on christmas eve morning together :) Its gonna be so fun! This is gonna be an AWESOME christmas!!!!!! I love my family, but this christmas is so special. Spending it with investigators and memebrs and other missionaries and being a missionary at the same time. I think this is gonna be the best christmas ever!!!

The 4 elders and my companionship have decided to do a "district unity diet" hahha its gonna be SO MUCH FUN!!! we're all going on a diet together! we're doing like the biggest loser type thing. we're all gonna work out hard core in the mornings and whoever reaches their goal of "weight wanted to lose" first is the winner and gets a prize. (that, we have yet to figure out. but it'll be a good prize). its so funny cause we're all doing it together! its gonna be a blast! we're starting after christmas of course. cause just my companionship alone has 7 dinners lined up for christmas eve and christmas day. Ok, i wont open my package until christmas, i promise. i hope you like your present, its not big or anything, but i think you'll like it! I go and look at christmas lights ever night with the elders and they think it is just hilarious watching me. Oh how much i love lights!! well, i gotta go attach pictures for you know. i love you! i am very excited to get to talk to you! im not sure if the library is open on christmas eve or not, so i might not get to email you next monday, but if not, i'll call uncle steves phone at about 8 in the morning! and i wrote down is number so i have it in my planner.

merry christmas momma!!  I love you!!!

your little hermana powell