9-13-10 "How Do You Feel About Redheads?"

I have news! I am in a new area with a new companion. Sister Schlauder is from Las Vegas, Nevada, and we are getting along swimmingly well. We actually serve in two wards, which means five hours of church on Sunday, which is actually not as bad as it sounds. Not that anyone would think that church is bad. So now that my foot is in my mouth, let me tell you more about the area. It is right by the temple and actually goes really far north. Part of the area is actually in Tomball and it borders what used to be the Tomball ward but then got split back into the Klein stake. I'm realizing that none of this makes much sense to you all because you have never been here. Seriously, I've realized in the last week that I have this map of northwest Houston permanently engraved on my mind and so I'm not very good anymore at describing it to y'all who don't know the area. Anyway, this area was just switched from elders to sisters about three months ago, so the wards are both still excited to have sisters and are both incredibly friendly and welcoming. We had two wonderful sacrament meetings yesterday. The first was a returned missionary reporting his mission to somewhere in Brazil. He spoke about charity and his love for the people and for the Lord was very evident in every word from his mouth and every expression on his face. In the second sacrament meeting, we had two excellent talks about setting goals and accepting change in your life. I've felt very strongly the past two weeks that one of the strongest opportunities I have to receive revelation is through attendance at church. Last week, our Relief Society lesson was manna from heaven. I felt like it was directly to me. And then during both of those talks yesterday I got some very specific directions and promptings and, yes, comforting feelings from the Spirit. So in addition to being more receptive to the Spirit in the morning, Sundays are a great time to receive revelation.

Before I forget, my reason for that subject line is to tell you that I think the Texas sun is turning my hair red. Not all over, but for a while now I've been thinking that I have some red streaks in my hair, but I cast it aside as wishful thinking, knowing that I've secretly always wanted to be a redhead so I was probably just imagining it. But yesterday Sister Schlauder looked at me and said, "Do you have red streaks in your hair?" At which point I confessed that I had thought my hair was turning red. So, it's official I have about a dozen red hairs. I'm no Anne of Green Gables, but I might some day qualify to be something of a Lucille Ball, since her hair was bottle red anyway.

Also before I forget, I think I may have misled you somewhere along the line, Mom. You keep referring to the investigator who got baptized when Elder Kikuchi was here. We were issued a challenge to challenge some investigators to be baptized the next day, but none of our investigators did so. Another companionship in our district did, and I think I mentioned that, but it wasn't "our" investigator. (I hate referring to investigators or baptisms, etc. as "ours" or "mine." You cannot own a person or his or her ordinances of salvation.) But, I did hear from Sister Layton last night that some of our investigators in Katy are very close to setting a baptism date. And we actually have two investigators here who are looking to be baptized sometime in September or October, so pray that all will go well with that. We will be doing a lot of finding this week, but I am feeling inspired by your reminding me what I said about tracting a while back and that great story from your friend. Greetings to them. I know I can do it. And think the hardest part is that at this point I know the kind of effort that is required to bring about the desired results and I let myself focus on how tired I am rather than how good I feel when it actually works well and the Lord blesses someone to take a copy of the Book of Mormon or receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Those are my two favorite things, I've discovered. I love sharing the Book of Mormon. I want to give it to everyone! I get so excited when I think about testifying to people about it. It truly has changed my life. And, I think I've already mentioned this, but my favorite thing about being in an area when someone makes the covenant of baptism is watching his or her countenance change with the gift of the Holy Ghost.

On my first full day here in Kleinwood/Windrose, we did a little tracting. For the first time, I had someone tell me to my face that I was part of a cult. I've heard that others think that about the Church members, but I've never had someone say that. Actually, it was a fairly cordial conversation, and I could actually feel the Spirit, but I suspect that maybe it was more because her heart was hardening to the message the more we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and hear about our message so the Spirit had nowhere to go but back into us. And at the very next house, we left a copy of the Book of Mormon, so you just never know.

Cassidy is quite crazy for running, but also quite brave. I hope everything is well with her at school. Eli is already in PACE. I can hardly believe that, but I'm glad they started out with rockets.

Love,

Sister Whitney Mikell Sorensen

p.s. Please. Shine.