this gospel is a gospel of joy

We are very excited about the package. It got here exactly a week ago. (Of course!) Hna Scott is very excited about the sponges. ;) We are both super excited about the curtains. Apparently she has been waking up early too. The clocks were both fine and we love them. We don't know how we lived without them! :) And we are very excited for the games and SUPER excited for the 50MM [50 missionary moments DVD Phil made from Andrea's video for Nana & Grampa Frenches anniversary. I will try to get Phil to post it for everyone. It may be too big for all 50 moments.]! We have invited all the missionaries in the zone and Hna Ghan to watch it with us at 1 today. We'll be having chips and dip and twizzlers(eww) and we just can't wait to see how it turned out! :D

I would love to see a picture of the new car and you guys sweating it up in all that heat! :D

I am now taking naps again. I was very lightly rebuked by President for not taking more care. It felt like a huge rebuke because of a guilty conscience and the disappointment of having to take naps again. Hna Scott is another very good mom. :) She is taking very good care of me. I actually had a little bit of a break-down last week and terrified a couple of the elders. I was in a LOT of pain one morning and was also just exhausted so I asked for a blessing. They showed up about 5 minutes later so I was still a mess of tears and curled up in my chair. They gave me a blessing and asked if there was anything else they could do. Then I got a call from Hna Ghan that night asking me how I was doing. I explained what happened and she explained how she found out. She saw Elder Lehman at the VC [Visitors Center at the temple] and he asked her about me and said that he had no idea that I had a disease [Chronic Lyme - see: ilads.org] and was so freaked out that he couldn't stand still or look her in the eyes. And he is one that ALWAYS looks you in the eyes when he talks to you. I felt bad for scaring him and called to apologize. The next day we had weekly planning and he and Elder Scwarze ended up bringing us smoothies. They are great zone leaders. So don't worry, I'm well taken care of. :)

I have been really bad about writing in my journal lately so I can't remember what I wanted to tell you about. I just read the first chapter of Mosiah where it talks about how grateful they are for the brass plates so they can remember things. I have recommitted myself to writing every day. ;)

Oh, so this transfer we have a goal that we are determined to meet. As a mission we are going to get 200 baptisms. We have already had 58 and have another 170something scheduled. Four of those 58 were the Galvez family. They are awesome.

Oh! We got to attend the Gila Valley temple dedication. It was amazing. And a lot of fun. I never realized how silly President Eyring and Monson are! We laughed a lot. And then I got a call from the zone leaders asking me to give a talk in our zone meeting this week on having a positive attitude. So I think I will use them as an example of how this gospel is a gospel of joy, rejoicing, fun, cheer, and just general happiness. It is so true that we get assigned to speak on the things that we need the most work on. ;) But it is also amazing how helpful it is. I never realized how many scriptures there are that command us to be happy or of "good cheer". I am excited to share what I have learned.

Hna Scott and I have a goal to lose 10 pounds each by the end of the transfer. That is June 15. If you would like to join us you are welcome. (And anyone else that wants to join us is also welcome.) We plan on drinking lots of water and being even more active. I hope your scale works better than ours. We are planning on getting a new one somehow. Hopefully digital. The one in the apartment is ancient and unreliable (we like to think that anyway ;) ).

Thank you for everything!
(((((((((((((((((((((LOVE)))))))))))))))))))))))
love Ella