February 24, 2014 Kearney, Missouri

Dear Family,

Well, it sounds like it has been quite the week with Chris coming home. I'm glad he made it home safe and it was kind of funny this morning I was thinking about how transitioning to "civilian" life would be. No nightly or morning planning and as I thought about that I started thinking that maybe I should start asking now for extra planners so that I can still plan in the evenings and during the day after the mission....ha-ha-ha! I can't believe all of you are still sick!

Good job inviting Mr. D to Chris's home coming; that's awesome that he came! Keep up the great work! J

Here's a bunch of random things that happened this week: Sister Jarman and I have given up ice cream until April 2015 for Jeff Stringfellow. We taught the Word of Wisdom and it has been really hard for him to give up coffee. I was kind of tired of him complaining about it and he said we don't understand what he goes through. So, I told him I would give up ice cream for the rest of my mission.....then Sister Jarman got involved and had to say she would give up ice cream until the end of her mission (which is April 2015), so in the spirit of companion unity we told Jeff we would give up ice cream until April 2015 if he promises to give up coffee FOREVER, and so far he has J!

Also, we have been getting a lot of referrals from our members so that has been exciting to see who our members are currently working with and how we can help them. At this point we are praying for a lot of people to help the ball rolling on a lot of the member’s mission plans. So we are excited to see how things go! J We have even been getting referrals from our investigators, woohoo!

On Tuesday night our investigator family, the Stringfellows, invited Sister Jarman and I out to dinner at Taco Bell. It was nice to be kind of one on one with them and get to know them better without Bishop's family there. We were able to just have some casual conversation and answer random questions they had, rather than having a formal lesson. They also asked us to teach a friend of theirs which we were really excited for. As we were talking a man in the line kept glancing over at us, eventually he asked us where we were from. We began to state that we were with the LDS church, and he cut us off and said he knew that because he is a less active member from Albanine, Kansas. He said he was a Semi-driver and was making a random pit stop. We talked with him for a bit and he told us his story and how he became less-active. He said he had been praying to get in contact with some missionaries because he wants to come back to church! (MIRACLES HAPPEN) We were able to get his information so that we can send him missionaries. He said it will be a long hard road for him to come back, but it is ultimately what he wants. We encouraged him and then just before he was going to leave he looked at the Stringfellows and told them they were great members to have us out for dinner. The Stringfellows told him they were just investigating the church but hoped to be members soon, and BAM!!....the less-active member bore his testimony to them for a good ten minutes about how the church is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true, it was awesome, ha-ha!


We had such a great night and then we got home and things went downhill. An incident occurred with our investigator M. through a voicemail. It was pretty serious so we called to ask President Keyes what to do. Under his request we had to drop M. and if he still wanted to learn about the gospel, he would need to be taught by the Elders. I'm not going to lie I was ticked about the whole situation for the next two days, because it was all probably a stupid joke M. and his friends thought would give them a laugh, which I'm sure it did, but it was not at all okay what they did. The Elders were able to meet with M. once and then he dropped the Elders and decided to look into his friend’s church. I think for the first time I really probably felt a sliver of how a mother feels when she teaches her kids how to live right and they rebel and go down the wrong path after everything they already know. We had worked with him for 3 ½ months. Through the frustrating times I prayed for more love and patience and tried my best to help him and understand his life situations. After finding out he dropped the Elders, I doubted myself as a missionary and whether I just didn't teach him properly. I scrutinized myself picking at my flaws and trying to figure out what I should have done better, so that M. would have really applied the things we were teaching into his life and not have done something that would cause his teaching process to stop. Over the next few days I was reminded that after all we do, there is still agency. I came across 2 Nephi 33 and verses 1-4. I was really able to understand how Nephi felt in those verse 3-4.  I have faith that "the Lord will consecrate my prayers for the gain of [those I teach]. And the [testimony I have spoken] in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their [Father]; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him...." (2 Nephi 33:4). Although he has decided to leave the gospel path at this time, I know in the future when he is ready he will find the gospel again.

I love you all and hope you know I love you! The church is true and at times as you invite others to learn more about the church there will be rejection, but all that matters is that as you go out and do all you can, the Lord will bless you and you are planting a seed in someone's life that will eventually desire the water of the gospel to help it grow closer to the Lord. 

Here's a sprititual message for tonight to inspire our Family Mission Plan tonight for FHE that Dad mentioned you will discuss ;) 

2 Nephi 26:27-28
                          "Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of His salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance. (so, to become more like Christ).
                           Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden."

In reading those verses I thought, the Lord said ,"all men are privileged the one like unto the other", yet some of us are born into the church and some of us aren't. So how is it that all men are privileged one like unto the other? As I thought about this, I realized that the Lord knows that if we the members do our part and truly become disciples of Jesus Christ and share the gospel with those around us that "non are forbidden", because they will have the opportunity to learn about and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, it requires our part as members to reach out to those around us to share the gospel. And later in Alma 13:24, my thoughts of this verse requiring our involvement was confirmed.

Alma 13:24, "For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of me to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory"

We need to be those angels for our friends around us. To help them either accept the gospel now, or to plant the seed that will help them to receive the gospel later on in their lives. As we act and do our part in bearing our testimony and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others we, "...are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you."  (D&C 62:3). AWESOME!!

I love this gospel I love this work. I love you all and I know that as you become more engaged in this work, that you will be able to feel the joy and happiness that our Father in Heaven,  Saviour Jesus Christ and the angels have for each of you. Love you! Keep up the great work :)

Love, Sister Luening

February 24, 2014 Kearney, Missouri

February 18, 2014, Kearney, Missouri

Dear Family,

Wow! I can't believe that Elder Luening will be on a plane home in a few hours......weird! In my mind I just feel like he shouldn't be home until I get home, so I can welcome him home off the plane. I will be sad to have to miss that. Elder Luening I am so proud of you! You really don't know the kind of example and impact you made on me. It was really you and your decision to serve that got the ball rolling for me and I don't know that I would have ever really made the decision to serve my mission if it hadn't been for you. Thanks for being a great example for me every step of the way and I know there are still things that I see from you that I know I need to apply into my own missionary service right now. So thanks and keep emailing me about how things are going back home and any advice for my investigators etc.

Well, Mom and Dad, sounds like you got the nasty flu! I wonder if it is the same thing we had down here between the months of December and January. It is a stomach and digestive bug that knocks you right out for about a week, yuk! Mom, thanks for reminding me to take my vitamins and things...I should probably do that, lol!

Kass, let me just say "NAILED IT" on guessing that you were called as YW President. You will do awesome and I know the girls will have lots of fun with you. There is an awesome scripture in D&C 121:40-46 that talks about responsibility and authority of a calling. It also mentions attributes to help us qualify for callings, many of which you already have and then it ends in  recognizing the Holy Ghost and how it will be "your constant companion and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth....and shall flow unto thee forever and ever". Pretty cool promise, huh! Anyways, just look to that and I know you will do great especially in times where you feel inadequate and well...stumped on what to do J Love, ya! you'll do great!

Another week come and gone! It was definitely an interesting week! Monday was P-day. Then on Tuesday we went out to Plattsburg with a member to go see some investigators and tract. It was awesome! Sister Cox, is so wonderful, she is literally a ball of fun and she is moving to Utah this week, which makes me really sad. Unfortunately our appointments fell through, but it was so great being able to go out and tract with Sister Cox. It was weird, a lot more people answered their doors and we even were able to go inside and talk to a man. His name is R. and he's black. He looked like he was in his 60's, but it turned out he was actually 82. As we were talking with him, it came into my mind that the Elders have mentioned that they were working with a black man, who's name I was pretty sure was the same. Well, he is Baptist and he is awesome and was very receptive. He told us we could come back this week. After we left we called up the Elders and they told us, they were working with Richard, and that he ha s dementia, which is why when we asked him if missionaries were meeting with him, he said Elders hadn't come by for at least a year or two. We were kind of bummed, but the Elders told us there would be no harm in going back and sharing something with him, since we told him we would be back. He does have a daughter who just had a stroke, who we were initially looking for at his address, and he said she should be back home next week. So hopefully we can share the gospel with her and see if she is interested.

On Wednesday, Sister J and I had quite the adventure. She had a pain in her lower left abdomen since Tuesday and it had only intensified. We knew it wasn't the appendix, because the pain was on the wrong side, and I told her it could be an ovarian cyst or something. Sister J. refused to go get it checked out and finally by early afternoon told me we should go to urgent care after our appointment with Morgan. Well after our appointment with Morgan, Sister J. told me she didn't want to go anymore, but I made her go. I dragged her to urgent care and what do you know! I was right, again! Turned out Sister J. had an ovarian cyst, so the doctor told her there wasn't much they could do and it should go away by Monday. Well Monday has come and gone and she is still in pain...unbeknown to her we will be going to urgent care again today to check it out, cause that's what the doctor said to do.

Thursday, was AWESOME!! We had Zone Conference and Elder Martino from the Quorum of the Seventy was there. He is so cool! He talked a lot about working with members and having the "Right Member Present" at lessons with investigators. He also talked about and suggested ways we could get referrals from members. Think about it, there are a lot of people we know, but maybe not people we think would be interested in the gospel. Well think of things going on in their lives right now that you could see the gospel helping, strengthening and uplifting them in their various situations. For example, people who have had a recent baby born, or a death in the family, or moved into the neighborhood or who are raising teenage kids. Those are all people that in one way or another, the Plan of Salvation and ultimately the gospel can help and strengthen them. So, Mom, dad, Jeremy, Kass, Scott, and Chris (since you will be home) I want to invite each of you to think of someone, who isn't a member who has something going on in their life, (like something I have suggested or not) where you can see that the knowledge of the plan of salvation would benefit them in their lives. Will you think of someone and make a plan to invite them over for dinner with the missionaries in the next two weeks, and specifically have a date to invite them for dinner and invite them over in the next two weeks? I hope you all said yes! I will follow up with you next Monday :)

Missionary work doesn't need to be hard. Having friends, acquaintances and neighbors meet the missionaries over dinner is very casual and non-threatening, and it doesn't mean you have to have a full blown lesson after dinner, even just discussing the gospel through casual dinner conversation is missionary work. I know that if you take this challenge and pray to know who you can invite for dinner that faces and names will come to mind. I know that doing your part in sharing the gospel with friends, and acquaintances is something that will bring the spirit more strongly into our home and will strengthen your testimonies and help you to develop more Christ-like attributes. I have seen Bishop Walker and his family change, as they have shared the gospel with their neighbors, the Stringfellow Family, and have allowed me and my companions to teach them in their homes. Their son now wants to serve a mission and is going out with the missionaries. Their family as a whole has become more unified and their testimonies have grown immensely. It has been a huge blessing to see how their family has been blessed and strengthened through member missionary work. These are the same blessings and more that Heavenly Father desires to bless each of you with, if you will just go forth and pray to know whom you can truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ for!

I love you all and feel so blessed to have your support and love in all phases of this great work. There are some missionaries out here that don't have that from their families. I'm grateful that you guys always keep me in the loop and let me know how things are going back home. I don't worry because I know the Lord is taking care of you guys and you don't have to worry because He is also taking care of me. I love you and hope you get healthy soon J I'm proud to be a servant in this great work and as my Mission President likes to say, "I'm all in!"

Love,

Sister Luening 

February 10, 2014, Kearney Missouri,

Dear Family,

Sounds like everyone is doing well! Dad thanks so much for your talk on Blessings! That was awesome and reminded me to think on the positive, especially with all the craziness that went on this week. Jeremy and Kass congrats on the new callings! I can't wait to find out next week that Kass got a calling to be YW President! She didn't tell me what calling she got but that's my guess, and we all know us missionaries are the closest to the spirit and it will tell us all things, right?! J ha-ha, just kidding! Anyways, so I'm still at loss of knowing when Elder Luening actually gets home. Is it this week or next week? I'm so confused! Can you guys give me a specific date so I know! Thanks :)

Well things have been going pretty good. I said good-bye to Sister Morris at transfers and now I am with another companion from Arizona. Her name is sister Jarman and she is so cool!!  Her family was less active pretty much since she was baptized and now she is the only active member of her family and she became active just a little over a year ago and then 6 months later decided to go on a mission. She has been out 4 ½  months now (weird to think that she is at the same spot in her mission as I was once I got here to Kearney). She has a lot of good new ideas of how we can get to know the members better and gain their trust, so it should be awesome! Also, she is hilarious and just a ball of fun, and she is beautiful!! She also is one semester away from a master's in biomedical ethics, and basically with the degree and master's degree she has she will be like "Bones". Hard to believe she's my age and has accomplished all these amazing things. But she has worked really hard to finish school she took 48 credits in one semester...NUTS!! She has studied in Spain and England. While in England she studied and analyzed the DNA of mummies in the British Museum, so cool! Yup, anyways every day I am learning new things about her and every day I am surprised and impressed.

Well, this week has been filled with craziness!! Our recent convert K. is going through some things and she is just kind of struggling right now and we are trying to keep in close contact with her and help her through the different trials that have been coming her way. She didn't come to church yesterday and so we called her and talked to her and she said she would come to church next week. She's trying to push through everything coming at her, but it is just kind of tough.

This weekend our 19 year old investigator .M was supposed to get baptized. This week we found out he has two daughters. A 2 year old and a 5 year old....man oh man!! But he keeps telling us he wants to be a good example and support for them, which is awesome! Anyways, he went through his interview and everything and was good to go. Then on Saturday, at 3:00 pm his friend texted us and told us he had been throwing up all morning. I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not because we have had trust issues with him in the past. So we did some running and calling around trying to figure out what was really going on, and it all sounded very sketchy and untruthful. The elders even got involved and tried to figure out what was going on and they told us to cancel the baptism because it was all a big web of lies. Anyways, needless to say I was really confused and didn't know what to think. I was frustrated, ticked, and .......had a melt down and ate 5 cookies and a bowl of ice cream, lol! We cancelled the baptism and were left to call each member in our ward to make sure they didn't drive an hour to the Stake Center to find out there was no baptism happening. Anyways, we are still trying to determine what happened. He ended up calling us Saturday evening and told us he was sick and asked when he could get baptized. So we don't really know what to think. We are meeting with him on Tuesday and I am praying I have patience and love, because I am realizing I am not as patient as I once thought....then again I have been praying to develop charity, so obviously the Lord is blessing me with lots of opportunities to develop it, ha-ha!

Also, pray for me and my companion Sister Jarman tonight! We're going to be teaching the S. family about the law of chasity tonight and it is going to be tricky. They are on Baptismal date for March 1st and are so excited to get baptized. But Sam and Jeff (the mom and dad) are divorced, but still live together because Sam can't find work and so if Jeff was to kick her out she would be left homeless and they have two sons. I guess they got divorced just 6 months ago and she sleeps on the couch. However, they can't be living in the same place in order to get baptized....talk about a tricky situation. Jeff's just trying to be nice and Christ-like, but the laws of God need to be upheld, sticky-sticky. We found some good talks by Elder Oaks and Elder Nelson, so we are praying we can help them understand and that they won't be offended and will put into motion Sam looking for work and a new place....or maybe the gospel will heal the wounds of a dying relationship and they will decide to get married! We can only hope!!

Oh here is something funny that happened to us this week! We got a whole 12 inches of snow dumped on us in one day on Tuesday. So on Wednesday,  Sister Morris and I went to shovel our car out, and we were sent an angel. Seriously this guy in a bobcat comes over and tells us to stand back and he ended up removing all of the snow from around our car and from the Le Neave's GIANT driveway! He was so nice! I guess we got so much snow that the city had all the plows out and then still had to contract private plows and bobcats to remove snow! It was crazy!! The guy ended up telling us he had been removing snow for the last 18 hours, poor guy! We were so grateful! Then Saturday, I tried turning the car around and I got us stuck in the snow so I had to push the car....word to the wise: do not buy a 2014 chevy cruise car, in areas where it snows! They get stuck in snow really easily, it is stupid! But on the upside I am driving a brand spakin' new 2014 chevy cruise which I probably will never ever have the opportunity to do ever again, especially since I don't have to pay for the gas or the insurance, woohoo!

Well, I hope things are going well with all of you! I love you and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY J Have an amazing week! Drive safe in this crazy weather!!

Love,

Sister Luening

P.S. Mom I got the money and note pad. Thanks J

February 3, 2014, Kearney, Missouri

Dear Family,

Seriously these weeks are going so fast, I don't get it! Well, after all the excitement and bolstering up about training I am officially (drum roll please.......) still a normal missionary, ha-ha! No training call for me, so I have dodged the bullet once more. Obviously, there is still more for me to learn and I am excited for that opportunity. I guess there is still a slight very small, miniscule chance that Sister Morris and I could be together one more transfer, although I highly doubt it. So, I won't know until tomorrow night when transfer calls are made.

Yesterday we were able to take our recent convert, Kate, to the Independence Visitor Center!! It is about a 45 minute drive and the Elders had planned to go down with their recent convert for President's Devotional. The members they were catching a ride with have a 12 passenger van, and they invited us over for dinner and told us if we wanted to take Kate, we could also catch a ride with them. We were so excited!! So, while the Elders and the family were in the basement for President's Devotional, were able to go around with Kate upstairs and show her all the awesome fun teaching resources take her through the video presentation, "God's Plan for His Family", and to the Christus statue. It was awesome and she loved it!! A bonus was being able to see a ton of the sisters at the VC who I used to serve with - it was like a mini re-union. It was awesome!! Sometimes I wonder if missionary work should be this much fun, but I figure I better take it all in before something comes along that creates a lot of stress, ha-ha!


On Thursday Sister Morris and I got to go to the temple! It was amazing! I have just been thinking a lot about how amazing it is that we have a Saviour. How excited we must have been when Heavenly Father explained his plan to us, and how grateful we must have been when Christ told us he would be our Saviour. Can you just imagine, us being there knowing that all of us, who chose to follow Christ and God, would come to earth, but we would be tempted and face trials that could take us farther from God's presence. I think that would have made me a little scared and concerned. But, then we find out that because of our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, we would have a second, third, fourth, fifth, infinite amount of chances to be able to overcome our mistakes and be able to return to live with God. It is truly amazing! I am so grateful for the love that both Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for each of us. The love that propelled them to act and enable us to be able to return to live with God, if we so choose to follow him. I love you all and the choices you have made in your own lives to be such great examples for me.

Kass, keep up the awesome work! I guess I feel kind of confused about all these random jobs you seem to be applying for, ha-ha! But I guess work is work and money is money. Good Luck on getting that art studio job. Also keep up the awesome work on P-90X....just BRING IT!! I started it last week too, but of course I don't have the motivating DVD's with Tony Horton, just the book - oh well!

Elder Luening, sounds like every week seems to be quite the adventure for you at the train station, ha-ha! And you did all that running around with the Sister's boxes of Books of Mormon, lol!

Mom, I'm glad you had a good relaxing week and I think my bank card didn't work because I didn't use a Bank of America ATM. Thank-you for sending my P-90X book and the card and money. Please tell the Redekops thank-you so much for me, or could you send me their email or mailing address so I can write a nice note to them, thanks J !

Dad, you are awesome! I love your emails because they are always so uplifting and always help me on crazy P-days to still bring my focus to the Lord and his work.

Jeremy, how's it going? Haven't heard from you or about you in a while! Are you alive or have the slopes killed you?! J

I love you all and hope you are having a great week!

Love, Sister Luening

 (note: It really is an art teacher position Kass has applied for - not so random!).

January 27, Kearney

HOLY SMOKES!! P-DAY ALREADY!!

Seriously, these weeks are going way too fast! This week was wonderful and stressful. I must say, even though I am a missionary I still don't do last minute change of plans very well; my whole world just feels like it gets flipped upside down and then my brain turns into a scrambled mess. So, yesterday right before church the Bishop decided that after church at 3:00pm would be a great time to travel 30 minutes to the Historic Liberty Jail to do BYD (Bishop's Youth Devotional). It really threw off our plans, since that would be right in the middle of our proselyting time, so we asked Bishop if he really needed us to be there. He told us he did. So, we tried to go with the flow the best we could and found a member who could take us there with her kids. Then on the way to the jail we found out Bishop wasn't actually going to be in attendance because he and his family caught a plane right after church to go vacationing in Colorado. So all of a sudden it wasn't just that we would be bearing our testimonies at BYD but now we would be leading it and it all of a sudden turned into MYD?! (Missionary's Youth Devotional). But all was well, except that we weren't able to do any of the proselyting we had planned, mais c'est la vie de la missionarie! (but, that's life of a missionary!)

Anyways, my week has been great and filled with more miracles! Unfortunately our investigator Morgan is off baptismal date because he has some things he still needs to work on, but hey, at least he is still working towards baptism. We had an awesome lesson with Bishop's neighbour's at Bishop's house and we were able to put Jeff, Sam and their son Dalton on baptismal date for March 1st. Jeff was really concerned about being baptized because he was baptized into the Catholic Church and he took that step very seriously and with a lot of pondering. He said he literally felt Jesus Christ as he was baptized in that church. However, Sister Morris, Bishop and I were able to help him see that we respect that step he took in his life and that we don't want to take away from his experience of being baptized there, but that it is important for him to be baptized in Christ's one and only church with the authority to baptize. After our words and testimony, he accepted the invitation. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson, it was awesome!!

Also on Friday I went on exchanges with my first trainer, Sister Halverstadt! It was so awesome to be together with her again after 6 months of not seeing each other! J She is such an amazing missionary and reminded me of things I still could work on and things I want to do better. She is such a great example to me. It was really funny being with her because after every appointment she would just be looking at me beaming, kind of like a proud mother, I guess, because of how much I have grown and learned since she had taught me, ha-ha! It was awesome!!

Also, we went to go see this one man, who took his name off the record years ago, because he felt he didn't have a testimony and felt like a hypocrite. Last year he started coming to church again, and the Elders tried teaching him a few months ago, but the man ended up telling the Elders he didn't want to meet with them anymore. However, Bishop said he wanted us to go see him. So Sister Halverstadt and I went over there. At first it was kind of awkward, but he was very open with us and we ended up speaking with him for 3 hours. He is very intellectual and logical. He is a physicist, so things like prayer and faith he told us he finds very hard to grasp. He also told us he was superstitious about Sister missionaries, because the two previous times Sister missionaries had come and visited him, he had very sacred experiences after meeting with them that helped his testimony grow and develop in leaps and bounds. 

He was such a nice sweet man. He told us he knew he needed to be baptized, but he didn't want to be pushed into things. Also he had a lot of guilt built up, and was concerned that he was on the right path at this time, and that we would somehow disrupt his progression. We were able to dig out a lot of his concerns, and I was di not want to leave his house until he agreed that we could meet with him. I just kept being bold and testifying to him that the Lord specifically sent us here in his path for us to teach him and help him progress. He finally agreed that we could meet with him twice a month, and then I gave him our number and as he looked at it, he told us he needed to retract his agreement. I was bummed, but left knowing Sister Halverstadt and I had done everything we could to help him know we cared and that we were there to help him as Christ's representatives. So we figure we will just keep saying hi to him if we see him at church. Also, on Saturday night we ate at a member's house. They have a son who is 28 and has been less active for a really long time and has told us previously that he is trying to come back to church. He told us a few weeks ago he would come to church, but didn't come. So for our dinner message, I did a cool little visual lesson about the importance of church attendance for him and his two kids who are 4 and 6 years old. And guess what?! THEY CAME TO CHURCH!! Sister Morris was like jumping up and down when she saw them! Sister Morris told me that in the whole 6 months she has served in Kearney she has never seen him come to church, so it was a huge step for him, but HE DID IT!! So awesome!

It has definitely been an amazing week! I am a little nervous for next week. Next week is transfers, aaaah!! Pretty sure Sister Morris is leaving, since she has been here for 6 months now, and I am most likely training. So chances are I will be here until May 1st, since training takes 12 weeks to do. President Keyes said that there are going to be a total of 80 sisters in our mission and 60 of them will be involved in training this upcoming transfer, so they will either be training or are going to be trained. So the odds are that I will be training. Training calls are this Friday, so I will know by then. Anyways, I love you bunches and hope you have a great week!!

Mom and dad, I completely agree with Chris! You two are rock stars!! I don't know how you do it! You are such great examples of serving the Lord diligently and willingly. Whenever I have times where I think missionary work is hard, I just remember the two of you and how much you two need to do and how you just keep going without complaining, and just seem to recognize the good in all you do and are asked to do. I am so thankful to be your daughter and to have been raised by two of the best parents in the world!! I love you and hope you have a fantastic week! I love the Lord, I love His gospel and I am so grateful to be on my mission at this time in my life! It is shaping me into the person I know I want to become and into the person my Father in Heaven sees I can become!

All my love,

Sister Luening