i love life!

Hey hey! Oh my goodness I love my companion Sister Smith so much! We get so much work done but we have a TON of fun and are laughing 24/7. She looks like a Disney Princess and sings like one too. I'll try to send some pictures next week.There is a really intense fire in the mountains by Stevensville right now, so itis super smokey here =/ Our district leader called to see if everything was okay and I made up a big dramatic story about fire alarms in town, evacuation plans, and so on and he totally believed me. It was amazing! hahaha but no, everything is okay, we just need some rain before I get black lung disease,cough cough.It will be good to get back to temple square because people here feed us SO MUCH. Someone offered me a candy bar the other day, which I still haven't eaten one since Dec. 31st, and Sister Smith said,"Oh no she gave up candy bars for a piece of cake with extra frosting." haha, its so true. Yesterday Sister Smith and I made up a land syncronized swimming routine to the MoTab version of Circle of Life. Such a good workout =) On a more spiritual note...Terry set a baptisimal date for October 8th. YEEEAAAYAAAAA! Sister Smith and I prayed about it and we had been waiting on her husband to get active so he could potentially baptize her and he wasn't making a move, so we just told her the time had come. She picked Oct. 8th since it is her 21st b-day. Now Wade sees that she is serious and he said. "Sister Olsen,your dream is going to come true this weekend!" haha I hope he is at church =) He probably won't be able to baptize her by Oct. 8th so I probably won't see it,but I don't really care; I'm so happy for her. I'll just be at the Temple for them in a year! I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this but on my first day here I went to the funeral of a ten-day-old baby. Its was so sad and I just cried my eyes out because of the pain I felt for their family. We have visited with the mom, Brandy, a few times but mostly she was just feeling really overwhelmed and knew we needed to teach her but was super hesitant. Well, we went back over there and we taught her the first two lessons this week. She hates being in crowds and has a hard time around lots of little kids, like church, so we had struggled all summer to get her there. This Sunday we went over to her house 30 minutes before church and she had her dress on but was crying and said she couldn't do it. I promised her that if she went the Lord would give her the strength she needed and the sacrament meeting would be just for her. She cried and said she just couldn't do it, so I just stopped and said a prayer for her right there in her living room that she would be have the strength to come. We cried. Then her 8 yr old boy said,"Mom, I know its hard. But I want to go too." I handed the keys to Sis. Smith and found Brandy's shoes and off the four of us went. The meeting was the perfect message and the Spirit was so strong. Man Satan sure is good at keeping people from good things, it was such a battle. But we won!!!!! Sister Smith went there yesterday on team ups and Brandy wants to know when shecan get baptized and asked if it would be possible to do it before I leave. Yay!Thats a bit quick, but I'm just so happy for her =) There is a man you may want to include in your prayers. Lee Holmer is not a member but has been going to church for 40 years. He has 3 sons who have served missions and gotten married in the temple. He is an amazing man and the time has come for him to be baptized. I can feel it. I love the people here so much. There are a few families here I have such high hopes for. As we sit in their living rooms I picture them in white. I tell them,"You are a great family, but you need to be an eternal family." And its true. Simple as that. I go back to Temple Square on October 14th. It is so so soon. I'm not sure where the last 4 months have gone. I will give everything I have to this area in the next three weeks; I love the people here. I know I'll be leaving the area in good hands. Sis. Smith is awesome! I love you all tons. You are constantly in my prayers.

Love, Sister Maegan