Hope you had a great Thanksgiving & WAR EAGLE!

Family and friends of mine, in which I love so dearly,

So I wrote down a list of things I need to fill you in on, especially things I didn't get to last week....so here we go!

1. I was welcomed into the mission home with warm cheerful smiles and hugs by President and Sister Brinkerhoff. They are wonderful and inspired people. They took us on a tour of Pocatello and held interviews with each of the 14 missionaries that came in the same time as me.

2.So my area right now covers half of BYUI campus and a family stake, Henry's Fork, right outside of Rexburg. The areas are Salem 1 2 and 3, Plano, Hibbard 123, Teton River, and Henrys Fork wards. That's the family stake. The members are amazing and we are teaching a few investigators from that stake. We also teach a lot of inactive, part member, and recent convert families. On campus we cover 6 stakes. We have 5 investigators on campus that we are teaching right now. It's really cool because all of these kids have such good friends and roommates that sit in and help out with our lessons. We get to go to Tuesday devotionals at BYUI if we have an investigator to go with. Last week we went and I saw a couple of familiar faces. We also have a booth set up every Friday in the commons area by the cafeteria where we sit and get referrals or requests from students who want to go on splits with us. So many girls ask to go out with us! Oh yeah there are only two sets of sisters who cover all of BYUI. I live at a members home, not actually in our boundaries. She is the sweetest lady, about 35, member all her life, husband is in jail right now but we don't know why. We live in her basement where we have our bedroom, bathroom, separate study room, workout room, and laundry room. We go upstairs to use the kitchen. It's a sweet setup!

3. My companion Sister Mafi is from Hawaii. She lived on the west side. She is the 7 out of 8 children and her family is active. She's 5'9, loves to joke around, and has a really bubbly personality. Best first trainer! She might not be the most organized, but we get the job done. She played volleyball in high school and surfed. She jokes on me for the healthy food I'm always eating but she said that, come new year, she's going to eat what I eat and go on a diet hahaha. I love her a lot!

4. So zone conference is coming up where there will be training for about 70 missionaries from the AP's and the mission presidency. It is an all day affair. Sister Brinkerhoff requested we have a talent show. Along with that, she specifically told my zone leaders to call me and have me be in it (I think she's got it out for me). Well you guys know me, I don't have a stage-performing talent! I was thinking about just writing a Christmas poem and reading it....but then I asked Sister Mafi what she thought I should do. We came up with the idea that we'll do a haka with some of the sisters in our zone. I don't know how it's going to happen but we'll see.

5.Thanksgiving was wonderful. President chose it to be a day of service. We helped a family clean their house for family coming over. Then we went to another house where we had thanksgiving lunch and helped set up nativities and hang Christmas lights. We hung light on a giant tree outside and I stood in the bucket of the tractor and they raised me up and we strung em up! Only in Idaho I tell ya. Later that night we went to a Thanksgiving dinner with another family and I felt like I was home. The dinner was exactly like we have in the Fredrick home, DELICIOUS!

6. Hahahahahahahahahaha so the Auburn game. My oh my. So we were at a members home for dinner Saturday night and I had completely forgotten it was GAME DAY. We walk in and I don't even realize the TV is on. They ask me where i'm from and I say Alabama. They all begin to laugh and proceed to tell me about the game. We got there with 5 minutes left in the game. I'm not going to lie, as I visited with the family, as they were preparing dinner, I watched the game through the reflection of a picture frame on the wall hahahahaha. That game is going to go down in the record books. I attribute their winning to me being on a mission, FYI ;) Let's just say very well that night in an Auburn tshirt and Auburn pj pants.

7. So yesterday was fast Sunday and I'm going to call it Miracle Sunday. Our investigators came to church and most of all, our lesson last night went amazing. So every Sunday is different, we went to two sacrament meetings, taught sharing time, met with one of our ward mission leaders, and taught 3 investigator lessons yesterday.There is a student we are teaching on campus who is truly the biggest miracle. She was raised strictly Lutheran. She came to BYUI because of the nursing program, cheap tuition, and overall the great environment of students who share her same values. She prepped herself religiously before coming though, she had her mind made up that she would not let the Mormons influence her religiously. She started dating an RM who slowly began to break down her wall. Last night in our lesson, my 3rd lesson with her, she told me that the first time we met, within an hour of knowing her, I had said the exact same things her bf had said to her to break down her walls, word for word. At the beginning of the lesson she was not sure about baptism, she was not sure she knew the truthfulness of the gospel. Her biggest fear is that her mom will disown her if she joins the church and she's only 18. I felt impressed to tell her that the easiest and best way to express to her mom about her learning more about our gospel is through the Holy Ghost. I then went on the explain, which she already knew, that we receive the CONSTANT companionship of the holy ghost through baptism. I told her, in short, that if she were to be baptized, she would, through the holy ghost, more easily be able to relay her feeling to her mother. She would be able to touch her mother with more than words, but with the spirit, and that's the only way her mom might have an open heart. By the end of the lesson Sarah was not quastioniong the act of baptism, just the date of when she wanted to get baptized! MIRACLE I THINK YES!

8. So I've learned many things so far. One of the biggest this week is the power of fasting. I fasted for 24 hours, and it really did bring forth miracles. Another thing I've learned more fully is the reliance I, as a missionary, or you, as member missionaries, must have on the Holy Ghost to teach others. D&C 11: 21-22.

9. Ali requested my favorite scripture of the moment and here it is: Alma 26:35-37. I will boast in the name of the Lord because I know that He, and only He, is worth boasting for.
Yes I got the care package, thanks moo for the letter and family for everything in it! It's windy as they said but hasn't snowed since I've been here, that's going to change soon though. Thanks for everything y'all do for me! I miss you tons, but wouldn't trade being here for the world.

xoxoxxoxoxoxo (holy hugs and kisses),

Sister Fredrick