Hey guys! 

It has been a pretty cool week! The highlight was mission conference last Tuesday. We met inside the Kirtland temple with all 250 missionaries in my mission. It was the most missionaries that have ever been in the temple. Some different stake presidents spoke, and Elder Seldon (An area 70) and then my mission president. We had time to read the scriptures that happened in the temple and it was so neat. The whole thing was just cool... I mean we are the only mission in the world that gets to do that. Plus the spirit in the Kirtland temple is incredible. We sang the Spirit of God, which has always been my favorite song, and it felt like we were back in time singing in the Kirtland temple. I really have no clue how to describe the experience to you, but just know it was awesome and that Kirtland is probably one of the top 5 coolest places in the world. The end. Oh and  It was probably the best thing of my entire life when all of us missionaries sang our mission song together. I mean 250 of us and the whole time I was thinking... we are all out here away from our families serving in Ohio.. and we are all experiencing miracles.. and missionary work is the coolest... and Ohio is awesome and the church is true and I am so happy that I get to do this and I love it.  That is what I was thinking.  Mission Conference just basically reminded me how lucky I am to be a missionary and made me want to work even harder. And it got me all in the Christmas spirit. Oh and at the lunch afterword the funniest thing happened. So me and my companion got there first.. and so we got our food first.. and we decided to get desserts first before all the good stuff was gone.. so we had SO MUCH food. Like a full plate, a salad bowl, and then a plate of desserts. So we are sitting there and then all the sudden, Elder Seldon and his wife.. the Stake Presidents.. and Karl Anderson and his wife ask if they can all sit with us. And we just have a mountain of food in front of us and we were like.. "Of course!" and inside I was like shoot. Must hide food. So I tried to hide some of my desserts in my bag while they were getting their salads.. but there was really no hope. The meal was fun and it was cool to sit with them! I have no clue how we ended up being the only missionaries to eat with them. But so afterward... we were sitting there and one of the Stake Presidents commented about how they had noticed how much food we had... and I basically crawled into a hole and died. Then he said "But you sister's look great!" And I was like... how do I respond to that? It was awkward and hysterical at the same time.

We had some cool experiences with investigators.  Lavonne is going to get baptized in January! We had a lesson with her.. and at first she was really confused about things. She has a coworker who is a Jehovah's Witness and they were telling her lots of stuff about our church that is not true... and then her coworker told Lavonne that she has messed up her life too much already and there is no way she can make it to Heaven with God. And I was getting super worried while she was telling us this. Anyways, so Lavonne was all down thinking that she had no hope... luckily we were able to fix that! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and about how we can all be happy  and with our families forever... and man if you could have seen her smile! She was the happiest person in the world. When we were teaching her it really hit me that I am so lucky to not just think that I can be with my family forever... but I Know without a doubt that I can be. And it brings me so much happiness and I don't think I ever realized how blessed I am to know that. So anyways the lesson was awesome and she is working so hard to come closer to God and it is incredible to see how her life is changing. Missionary work is real and it is COOL. Also she randomly called us late Thursday night and said "I just want to sincerely thank you for coming into my life... I feel so much happiness and peace.. and I just really wanted to thank you." And I danced around like a crazy person for 4 minutes and it was one of those times when everything I am doing is all worth it. To know that someone's life is better makes knocking on doors in the freezing cold weather is 100 percent worth it. So yep, basically Lavonne is the coolest and I am obsessed with her. 

Also we had a really cool experience with Brenda. We had some members come with us and He gave her a blessing to help her quit smoking. She has a lot of faith, and so do we, that it will help and that she will be able to quit. She is getting patches today and hopefully then she will be done! But her husband was talking to us about the church and Brenda was telling him all of the reasons she wanted to be baptized and she was like "I have to get baptized by the RIGHT AUTHORITY" and they were fighting and it was so funny. It kills me that she has such a strong testimony but smoking is preventing her from progressing. The other night we decided to just give her a Preach my Gospel because she basically knows it all anyways..and she read this part that said something about missionaries teaching someone for years because they couldn't give up their addiction and when we came the next time she said "I found a part in this book where they wrote about me." Then she read it and said "They literally wrote this about me but forgot to put my name next to it!" and we were all laughing so hard. I mean she knows that she hasn't been progressing and that smoking is holding her back. It is just such a struggle for her. Sometimes it is really hard for me because I care about her so much and I want things to get better for her.. and it is so hard to have no control over it.  All we can do is pray and have faith that Heavenly Father is going to help her and I know he will. Even if it takes time.  BRENDA WILL get baptized. Mark my words. And I will probably be the happiest missionary in the world. 

Let's see I feel like a ton of other stuff happened but I can't even remember. Joe's brother passed away last week and he asked us to come to the funeral.. that was interesting. We were able to go to his house after and talk with him for awhile. He was being hilarious as usual. I can't remember any good quotes right now but I am sure there were some classics.  Oh and okay the scariest/funniest thing happened to me at Kirtland. So when people get on mormon.org they can chat with missionaries... and we are the missionaries they chat with. So we were talking to this guy and telling him about what we believe... and all the sudden he threatened to kill me! He said this long thing basically about how he wanted to peel off my flesh with a rusty knife and then turn me into a jacket potato with sour cream and chives.... and not only was it the most horrifying thing I have ever heard... but it was really confusing because NONE OF US can figure out what the heck a "Jacket Potato" is. I have no clue, but it can't be good. So luckily the person doesn't know where I live and I am safe from becoming some kind of cooked food. It was creepy... but I was also laughing my head off. I don't think I would look good as a potato... but I am from Idaho so maybe it fits. 

So yep it was a pretty interesting week. We didn't get to meet with Patricia or Frank and Maurice this past week so hopefully we can this week! Well I have to get going but I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Thanks for your emails! I love you! 

Love Cassidy