Hi Mom!!

Oh my goodness! So much to share and no time to share it all! That's okay, I'll be brief...ish.

First off, I hate to be that person that is constantly hinting at birthdays but...well...*ahem* tomorrow IS November and uh...well...that's just a really special month that's all. ;)

Haha life here on the mission is great. We found out that we are staying together as a trio and nothing is really changing except for my new opportunity to be in a position of leadership. Oh boy. I hope I don't mess it up to royally, but knowing myself as I do, I certainly won't be excellent at it.

So I finally sang His Hands yesterday. Oh my goodness I thought I was gonna die! I was shaking so bad. I said a prayer right before I got up and I thought, "Okay, now I'll be calm and everything will go smoothly." I mean, that's what happens in every story you hear in sacrament meeting right? Well...not so much. I was still shaking horribly and I had to hold onto the podium to keep myself aright. Lack of faith? Or a manifestation of God's love for me anyway? Let me tell you. I made it through the song, shaking and all, with a clear voice and every note hit precisely as I had practiced. When the fireside was finished, one man jokingly asked when my CD was coming out. I learned that Heavenly Father does not always answer our prayers the way we want them answered. I still felt like a walking gumby doll with no strength in my legs but the message was able to come forth despite my weakness. God calls men in their weakness, not strength. When we are called in our weakness, we have the opportunity to strengthen that weakness and turn it into a strength. How wonderful and merciful our Heavenly Father is!

Because it is Halloween, we have been told to deep clean our apartments tonight instead of knocking doors. Something about people mistaking us for overgrown trick-or-treaters or something like that. ;) Apparently everyone wants to be a missionary this year. There were a couple of missionaries at our ward party last week. They were cute!

I've been thinking a lot about what it would be like to raise and teach a child in the gospel. I am so grateful that I have that blessing in my life. I feel like I got a head start in my life because I had that precious impressionable time in my life to really have the gospel truth ingrained in me.
So we had an interesting tracting (only we call it knocking now) experience. We brought a member with us to meet a potential investigator to find out he was not home. So we decided, since there were four of us, to split into groups of two and knock his street. Sister Phonsina and the member took one side and Sister Ding and I took the other side. We knocked on every door, explained and testified of the gospel and love of Jesus Christ and were repeatedly told to move on because there was already enough religion in those houses. When we came back together, Sister Phonsina and the member asked us why we took so long. We told them because we had talked to so many people, why? They then said, "What! How? Everyone on our side of the street was either not home or didn't speak any English!" Hahaha fun times in Southern California!

We are getting an English class started in our ward now. Did you know the Church actually has materials for that? It's technically supposed to go through the Relief Society but we offered to teach it. I am really excited to get that project up and running because there are just so many people here who don't speak English! How can we teach them if we can't communicate with them?

I love this work. I love my area. I love the gospel! I love you! Thank you so much for your prayers and loving thoughts. Let me know what's going on back home k? People keep asking me and I don't have any answers! AAAAH! Haha

Love,
Sister Shavonne Fielding