"lead me, hide me, walk beside me..."

The version of "I am a Child of God" sung by Brock Herbst. (Real words= "lead me, guide me...")

It was such a tender moment. He sang it all to himself while he was being swung on the swing, all bundled up in his big coat, with his eyes shut, just relaxing.

Other Brock quotes:
"Mom, I love kissing missionaries."
Granted, it's just usually our arm or whatever he can reach while we're standing there, but it's a phase we hope he eventually grows out of. :)

and "I love missionary work" after a p-day morning of jumping on the tramp together, playing with the dog, and making smoothies.

Also, every time we leave the house Brock and Allison ask if we're going on our missions. Yes, we're going on our mission. Multiple times a day. I love it.

RACHAEL
So we found the cutest, coolest girl. We were tracting in a rather "unsuccessful" neighborhood. We had one door where it opened, we introduced ourselves, and the guy just said "you guys are crazy" and shut the door. We didn't even have time to react. It was hilarious. We weren't sure if he thought the church was crazy or just us for being out in the 2 degree weather. Either way....it was a weird street but we didn't feel like we were supposed to leave just yet. We kept tracting and eventually knocked on a door where the girl let us in before we said anything. What the? Then we proceeded to tell her what we were there for and our message and she was getting so excited. She identified the Spirit even before we did. We started telling her what feelings to look for as evidence of God's truths being taught and she said, "oh, i already know. I've felt that the whole time you've been here." Everything we taught she'd say "this makes so much sense!" or "this is what i've always thought, and now it's right here staring me in the face." Man, oh man. She's so stinkin cool. Anyway, she was way excited but now seems to have disappeared over the last couple days. We're beginning to think we dreamed her up cause she's too prime. Keep her in your prayers that she'll resurface. She's amazing.

HARD-CORE MEMBERS
so one of the best things about serving a mission is seeing how to be a member missionary. there are some amazing examples in my ward of people who just do it. it's not anything extra that they do, necessarily. more of a mentality they've developed. we were over at a family's house the other night and talking about one of her friends and she says "you know what, i'm going to invite her to church." and she just picks up the phone and calls her and she came. another one went over to a family (the cool ones that seemed LDS) we'd introduced her to and just said "I think you guys are really cool and we'd love more friends. Do you want to do dinner." She's doing it even though we're not teaching them anymore and we didn't ask her to or anything. just cause she sincerely thought they were cool. I love these people. They just love the people around them and show it by including them and thinking about them.

TRACT-OF-WAR
So the other day on a doorstep i was standing there innocently holding a scarf (a homemade one that sharon made me that i love) and a random golden retriever comes out of NOWHERE and starts trying to take it from me. I tried to pull back but that's just what he wanted so he pulled harder. yikes! i eventually weaseled it away from him but i was dying. i felt like i was being punked or something. speaking of...

ARIEL AND ERIC
so the lady we live with is scared of missionary work and always teases us about our techniques in finding peolple to talk to. i tell her to stop making fun or we'll take her with us. we called her to go to an appt with us and then went to the house to meet her and she was sittinhg in her sweats by the fire not budging. she said, "if you were gonna play a joke, you could've been more creative that to pick disney names." the appt we had was with a couple named ariel and eric. only we really did have an appt. then she's like "sure, you're gonna take me to some random trailor park." only it really WAS in a trailor park. ha! after much convincing, we finally got her out the door. eric and ariel were no-shows but we did get to teach a guy who's wife locked him out of the house in the 20 degree weather cause she was mad. that was fun! and all in spanish so sis herbst was lost. the coldest lesson i've ever taught but that's what sis herbst gets for making fun. haha!

ok, love you all!

Here's a scrip to ponder: Moroni 10:32. Pick a way to try and do that this week.

love, sis c