Ava's Mission

For reals. Best week of my mission this far. We spend Christmas morning with my favorite family THE PALMERS (Julie and Daniel) and then later we got together with the church with all the Palmers (the whole extended fam) and played the most intensely competitive basketball and volleyball I've ever played in my life. Good wholesome competitive fun. My comp sat out because she thought the competition was against our missionary rules... but I was having the time of my life! She's a champ. Then we went to Bishop Rikki Palmers house for dinner and games. I highly recommend Palmer house hopping on Christmas day. I forgot to tell you about my companion. Her name is sister Christensen and she is from California and she is awesome. We get along great and laugh a lot. She loves to work which I am so so grateful for. Shes been out for a few months more than me and knows how not only invite people to come unto christ but HELP them do it. The highlight of my whole mission though came on...

I have never before felt so much of the Christmas spirit in a single month. I have no gifts under our 2 foot tree, no family around, and none of grandma's chocolates to devour. What I do have though is more precious to me than any gift I've ever been given, and the experiences I've had this last week are more special to me than all the traditions and any experience that I could have or would have had back home. I NEED TO BE HERE. I have felt as though I was standing in the place of my Savior more this week than ever before. I have a testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ that is stronger than I thought was even possible. Nobody could understand the depth of this weeks miracles, even if I tried to write them down. So I wanted to share a thought with you that has been strong in my mind. I have reflected over and over again on the term "on-going miracle" that my uncle George used in a letter to describe our Eternal Family. I am coming to realize that the great plan of...

Well friends, it's been quite the week. I have come to realize that with the highest of highs and most joyful moments of missionary work come the hardest moments of trial and distress. The whole community of Flagstaff has been in a refiners fire for the last month as there have been deaths of a few very special important people in the community and in the church. Our stake president lost both his wife and nephew and just yesterday two of our bishops lost their brother who was also the temple president's son. They are all related. The Palmer family (who I love more than anyone I've met since being gone and who has done so much for me) needs prayers. Flag is a lot like home where everybody is family, whether they are blood related or not, and it has been cool to see the whole community come together and we've been able to touch a lot of hearts through it all. I never thought that I would be attending funerals as a missionary, or that those would turn into opportunities to...

This week was eventful. The MAIN EVENT happened when we knocked on an inactive's door and her medium sized dog came out and the girl says "hmm that's weird, he's being really nice to you... usually he barks and is mean. It was then that this devil dog looks me in the eyes and then bites my shin and TAKES A CHUNK OUT OF MY LEG. I screamed a little scream, (more like a yelp) and the lady gave a half hearted apology while I proceeded to tell her that it was totally alright that her dog ripped a hole in my ONLY PAIR OF 38 INCH DRESS PANTS and walked away with a piece of my leg. It's the little dogs that will get ya I'm telling ya. I used to like all dogs, but with every passing day of my mission I'm beginning to dislike them more and more. Any dog under 2 feet tall I am not a fan of. I want to kick them all. And THEN the next day I was on an exchange in Camp Verde and get a text from my companion sister Rossi saying that she got bit by a big stray dog and was ...

First of all, thank you to everyone who sent me what your happiness is! I have never loved reading emails more. Happiness is so contagious! Also shout out to my best friend in the world, DANE! Happy birthday bro. It is FOR REAL the most wonderful time of the year right now. Flag got hit with a ton of snow, and apparently when that happens, everything shuts down. So every one of our appointments canceled on us because the roads were "too bad." Ok but it is nothing compared to back home and our truck can get us anywhere. So the only worthwhile thing we could think of was to shovel a bunch of driveways. But every store in town was out of shovels. Literally. A whole city out of snow shovels. We ran into our kind members at Walmart and they gave us a ride to the other side of flag to buy nice winter boots and gloves, because I did not bring those with me and my comp has never shoveled snow before. We called up the Elders to come help us and we would drive and pull up to random ...