Rain rain go away!‏

G'day everyone!

Just letting you know that I am staying in Golden Bay.  I'll be here for another transfer to finish up Sister Tomaki's training.  This has been a gloomy week in a few ways.  Before I get to that I do have some funny things to share. 

We visited our investigator Faith this week.  She would be a member but her husband won't let her be baptized.  We've been reteaching her all of the lessons and she shared a great story with us this week.  We had just taught her about priesthood authority when she got a call from her husband.  He was telling her about this guy at work that had the audacity to tell him what to do even though the guy wasn't certified to be helping him.  He asked Faith if she would have listened to him and she said, "No because he doesn't have the right authority!"  He agreed and kept going on about this situation while Faith was just sitting there smiling to herself and laughing that he agreed with her but she was relating it to the gospel.  She just said, "I love having my own little Mormom joke!"  We laughed so hard.  We told her that some day his heart will soften and he will give you a funny look when he is taught about the priesthood authority.  She loved it.

We had an amazing lesson with our investigator Kevin this week.  We brought 2 members, Laurie and Molly.  They are both recent converts.  Molly was baptized about 5 years ago and Laurie (Lawrence) is coming up on his 1 year mark.  They are being sealed in the temple in September.  They are a powerhouse couple.  We basically just sat back while they taught the lesson.  It was incredible!  It opened Kevin's heart more than anything else we could have done.  I'm so grateful for the testimony of members. 

It has done nothing this week except rain.  I'm already sick of rain and winter just started.  To quote Sister Tomaki, "I hate this weather.  It makes people feel weak.  No one really wants to do anything."  Amen Sister!  Rain just seems to put a damper on everyone's mood.  And when it rains it doesn't just rain like a nice little shower. . . it pours.  We got home one night to find a swimming pool in front of our house. I had to take pictures to prove it.  Our normal 15 minute drive home from church turned into a 25 minute drive because we were only going about 40 kph on the highway.  I just had to stay focused on the little white reflectors on the road so that I knew I was on the right path.  It was terrifying.  Indeed the lousy weather as brought lousy answers of doors, phone calls, appointments with investigators, less-actives, and members.  I have been on my knees a lot this week. We visited a member that is struggling. We asked her how her prayers were going and she said they weren't.  I said, "Can we start there?"  She responded rather bitterly by saying, "Yous can start there."  It was a really hard lesson to get through.  She isn't ready to do anything.  It is so hard to see people who know exactly what they need to do to be happy not doing any of it.  The blessings are being withheld only because she won't accept them by acting.  I just got in the car and cried.  

 

We got to the flat for dinner and I again was on my knees.  We had some members that have some problems with the church.  They don't quite know why some things are the way they are.  They do what they are supposed to because they know they will be blessed but it's only half hearted because they don't like this or that.  I'm being vague for specific reasons.  I just want everyone to know that the Lord doesn't do things just because it's going to bless one group of people or anything like that.  He gives everyone the same commandments to bless everyone who willingly obeys them.  It seemed like Heavenly Father was trying to get me to learn something this week.  I got the picture loud and clear.  I've felt really low because of many things.  I've studied faith and repentance more than I thought ever possible.  I've tried everything in my power to make things happen and for some reason they just weren't working.  At Zone Meeting on Friday we talked about our purpose as missionaries.  The whole meeting was like a spiritual slap in the face.  I can't put it all to words because much of it was just things that I needed to hear. 

 

I've felt kinda down because I haven't seen fruit from our investigators and our work with them.  We've actually dropped nearly everyone that we had to teach in the last few weeks.  We made a focus the other week to build the members and less-actives.  We thought, "If we can help strengthen them then they will help strengthen us and our efforts."  For the most part the last few weeks have brought success on that front.  I was just continually praying that our leaders would see it that way as well.  

 

While we were driving the other day we were listening to a General Conference talk and the speaker said, "Where there is faith there comes a trial of that faith.  That trial will bring forth increased faith."  I needed to hear that too.  Heavenly Father will always find ways to help us and usually rebuke us in one way or another.   That increase of faith came yesterday at church.  On Saturday we went and visited the Fiti family.  We found out that they didn't have rugby games on Sunday and would be able to come with us to church.   We went home and started to make phone calls.  We found fellowship for the older brother from the Driessen boys.  We called the Primary president to tell her that she would have 3 extra kids in primary this week and found out that her daughter is Kaya's age!  We texted Bishop and Brother Day and told them that the Fiti family would be coming.  We did everything we could think of to make this family be welcomed and to feel at home.  Sunday came and church started.  No sign of the Fiti's.  I was gutted.  So much planning. So many prepared people to help.  It was a hard sacrament meeting to sit through.  I said a lot of prayers and did a lot of soul searching.  At the end of sacrament Sister Tomaki stood up and turned around to see if they had snuck in without us knowing.  Low and behold they were there!  They had found people they know, the fellowship took their roles, and they all stayed for all 3 hours.  Later Sister Tomaki during companionship study read this to me, "Your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost.  She said, "I just knew they would come.  I didn't get discouraged.  The Spirit knew that we had done our part."  Another spiritual slap to the face.  I definitely learned the teaching of turning the other cheek this week.   Spiritual slap after slap.  I learned what I needed to.  Now I just need to act and apply what I've learned. 

 

After church we joined Ward Council Meeting.  Bishop took the time after we had given our reports to say, "Missionaries, I just want you to know how grateful I am for all of your hard work.  We don't have a lot of baptisms coming up but the amount of returning members that I've seen the last two weeks makes me incredibly happy and grateful for your efforts."  I could have cried.  Bishop couldn't have said anything else that could have helped me more.  It was another prayer answered.

 

Heavenly Father is always mindful of us.  I'm so grateful for that.  Keep faith in every footstep.  Every time we go through the wilderness of life it is just preparing us to reach the promise land.  I have a strong testimony of that.  If you are going through a trial know that it is just testing the faith that you have.  The faith is there, it's being tested, and it will be strengthened as long as we keep close to Him.  This is the scripture that carried me through the rain this week and I hope it can help someone else.  James 1:2-4 "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3: Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4: But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." 

 

I love you all and hope you have a great full first week of summer! 

Much love,

Sister Shayne

Book of Mormon Week 2!

1 Nephi

17:45  Lamen and Lemuel give us a good example that you can have knowledge without having faith.  Faith is necessary to be converted.

18:16 Do we complain after our trails?

21:14-16 God hath not forgotten thee

2 Nephi

2:13 This is one of my personal favorite.  Everything happens for a reason.

3:15 How cool would it be to be Joseph Smith and to read about yourself!

4:15-16 Is that how we feel?

4:34-35 Let's do this!

7:5  Are your ears open? 

Photo's of the flooding from the rain

 Happy Sisters. 

 

CTR rings!

Sunset :)

Too Much To Tell

G'day everyone!

There has been soo much that has happened this week.  I've decided to just stick to the most important and best stories.  Some small tender mercies that happened this week we are praying will become great stories for future emails.  I want to start with some super funny stories first.

I love having a companion that is learning English.  Sister Tomaki and I were talking about the commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  We have a family that is struggling coming to church because of rugby games on Sundays.  I asked Sister Tomaki how we can help them come to church and she said, "Can't they just ask the coach to move games to Saturdays?"  I explained that rugby union plays on Saturday and rugby league plays on Sundays.  She didn't like that answer and asked again why it has to be that way.  I said, "That's pretty much all of Australia."  She pushed her chair back and said, "Well that's why no one believes in Jesus Christ anymore!"  I laughed soo hard.  I agreed that other things are coming in place of Sunday worship and it is really hurting people's spirituality. 

The other great thing that happened was as we were reading the Book of Mormon for language study.  Now we do a whole variety of things for language study from singing the hymns and learning the words she doesn't know, to using a booklet that the Senior Couple over languages gave to us.  In that book we have done a fair bit of rhyming words.  At the end of the chapter in the Book of Mormon we were reading Sister Tomaki came across the word 'abomination'.  We talked about that word for a bit and she just got quiet and I could tell she was thinking of something and just waited to hear what she would say.  She started whispering under her breath and finally said, "A Polynesian!"  She was finding something to rhyme so that she could remember how to say that word.  :)  I couldn't help but laugh and when she thought about what she said we ended up in tears we were laughing so hard.  It was great!      

On to more spiritual things.  This week in Sister Tomaki's 12 week program we have been studying the spirit and how to act on the promptings we receive.  Well the other night we didn't have any set appointments so we had written down a couple of names of people to go see.  After dinner I asked her who she thought we should go see.  She said Sister James.  Sister James wasn't on our list of people to see but I trusted her and we acted.  We couldn't have come to her house at a better time.  The week leading up to that had been one of the worst weeks for Sister James.  It seemed like the whole world caved down on her.  When we showed up she had just finished crying to her non-member husband and had been to her dad earlier in the day to work out a plan to help her get her life back in order.  We shared 3 Nephi 19:9 (my current favorite scripture to share) and talked about the Spirit and how much it can help us in our lives.  It was amazing.  We left and I offered a prayer in the car for Sister James and to thank Heavenly Father for prompting Sister Tomaki to say her name.  It was a great thing to see the Spirit work and for Sister Tomaki to get that experience. 

We are currently on Bishop Mandin's good list :)  That is a great place to be.  He texted us Thursday arvo (afternoon) and asked if we could go visit Sister Ingram.  She is a young mum with 3 kids that just needs some encouragement to get to church.  We again didn't have any set appointments so we took his text as a great honor and told him we would get right on it.  We went around that night and said hi to her and her kids.  We got to know her and shared Moroni 6:4-6 and talked about the importance of church attendance.  We made a game plan to get her to church on Sunday and then left.  We texted Bishop back and told him what we did.  He was pretty happy.  Then we asked if there was anyone else he needed us to check up on.  He said to go see Sister Northam.  We had a lesson with her on Saturday and it was amazing.  She talked with us for a good while and we really built a great friendship.  Both Sisters were at church yesterday :)  Bishop saw me after sacrament and said, "They are both here!  I saw Sister Ingram sneak in the back at the start of sacrament!"  He gave me a high five and then carried on to go greet people.  It was awesome.

Last thing for today comes from a lesson that back fired on us.  We've been working with a less active girl named Shanae.  Well at the end of our lesson she said, "Sisters I don't mean to be rude but I'm really not interested with church or anything with it."  We talked for a bit and realized that she will come back when she is ready and now it not that time.  It cut me pretty deep.  I want this part of this letter to be specifically for anyone reading it that may feel  like they have done too much to be forgiven by God, for those who feel like God doesn't love them, or that life would just be easier if you just stay in a state of apostasy because you've already fallen and it's to late to come back.  IT IS NOT SO.  God loves you.  He wants you to come back.  He sent His Son to die so that you can repent, change, and come back.  Whatever it may take, however hard it may seem, whoever needs to be healed it is possible through the Atonement of Christ.   Please, if you are feeling this way, study the atonement.  Find out how that event in time applies to you.  Because it does.  It applies to us each so individually and in every way shape or form that we may need it at any time in our lives.  You have never ventured too far to come back.  God's hand is always extended towards us.  I could give you a list of scriptures that tell us that but I wouldn't deny you the privilege of finding them and seeing God's love for yourself.  All we have to do is reach up and take His hand and he will help us through anything.  If you ever feel like it would just be better without God in our life, think again.  Find a connection to Him.  He is only every a prayer away.  We talk to him through prayer and He talks to us through the scriptures or other people.  Pray, read, and go to church.  I can promise you if you start with those 3 things you won't need anything else.  Just try it.  It can't hurt.  You can give 1-3 hours a week towards this experiment.  If nothing comes from it after trying it several times then you are no worse off.  I know though that if you go and do those things that you will see the difference in your live and you will draw closer to Heavenly Father.  10 mins here for reading, 5 minutes or less there for prayers, 1-3 hours a week for church.  Those little things will bring a lifetime of happiness, guidance, joy, peace, family success, and eventually eternal blessings that we can't even begin to imagine.  The worst that could happen is that you don't try.  Like I said you are never too far to come back.  Ever.  Start today with a prayer.  Do it right now if you need to.  God wants to help you.  Your Heavenly Father wants to hear from you.  The Savior can lift our burdens.  I only know this because I've seen it in my life.  I've seen in in countless others.  Heavenly Father loves you more than you can comprehend.  Please turn back to Him. 

I love you all :)  I hope that you feel God's love in your life every day.  I pray that the blessings that you stand in need of will come as you follow His commands.  I love this gospel.  Being a missionary is the greatest thing in the world.  Share something you know to be true with someone you love.  It will make your day so much better.

Love you all heaps!

Sister Shayne

At the end of every email from now on I'm going to give you my Book of Mormon reading updates.  For those of you who want to join us the challenge I issued is to read 5 pages of the Book of Mormon everyday.  I've done my first week and I want to share my favorite scriptures that I read throughout the week with you.  If you haven't started I hope these will get you started. :)

1 Nephi

1:20 There are tender mercies all around us.  Look for them everyday and you will see God's hand in your life more abundantly.

3:5 All commandments come from God.  Not your parents, not the apostles, not your leaders, they come from God and we should accept them and live them as such.

8:30  I hope this is the group that we are all a part of.

12:11 How is your faith today?

13:37 Again I want this to be each and every one of us.

15:11 If you have a question, need, or anything just ask!

Pic.  This is for Emily Wells!  Thank you for your love and kindness!!! Kaya loved her praying chart! 

Too many tears‏

G'day!

It was so good to see you all today on our Skype session.  I love technology so much!  You all look soo good.  I'm glad that everyone is happy, healthy and doing just absolutely wonderful.  It's crazy to think that our time from Christmas to Mother's Day was longer than the time from Mother's Day til I arrive home.  I don't like to think about it.  I hope you all have an awesome summer while I freeze and try to stay dry this winter.  Much love to everyone near and far!

This week was challenging.  Some weeks you are on top of the world and others the world is kicking you while you are down.  In many ways this week had both but mainly the latter. 
The Spirit is a unique thing.  It guides, confounds, comforts, and testifies.  I witnessed all of those this week. 

 

First off with the guidance-  Sister Tomaki and I went walking this week to go find new people to teach.  We had a couple of specific houses that we were going to go try and we were going to just talk with people in between each house.  Well on our way to a less actives house we turned on to Korong Street.  I felt prompted to tract the street.  Well for the last 20ish minutes of walking it had started to rain and I really wasn't in the mood to stay in the rain longer than necessary.  After passing 3 houses I got the prompting again so I turned to Sister Tomaki and said, "We should just tract this street on our way."  We backed up and started knocking.  No one was interested.  One Roman Catholic lady wasn't interested in talking religion but she was nice enough to let us stand under her porch until the rain let up a little bit.  We only had 2 houses left on the street when we met Paris and his little sister.  She opened the door and he came up behind her.  They let us share a scripture with them.  We asked if they were religious and they said no.  We asked if they knew about the Book of Mormon again they said no.  We jumped on the opportunity to tell them about the Book of Mormon and where it came from, who wrote it, and why we have it.  It was a good little conversation.  We asked if we can come back and share more with them.  There are 6 people that live in their house.  We are going back on Wednesday to teach them the Restoration.  We will be praying that we can teach them all.

On to confounding-  We went to teach Brother Williams this week.  We went over last Monday to have a family home evening with their family.  We taught the Restoration.  The boys ages 15, 13, 11, 8 and amazing.  They have solid testimonies and don't let anything shake them.  They shared their favorite scriptures and testified like little missionaries.  We finished the lesson and turned the time back to Brother Williams.  Well little did we know, Brother Williams in preparation for our meeting had done some studies of his own.  Somehow he can take a random book from the library and believe everything he reads from that (basically anti Mormon stuff) and yet he refuses to pick up the Book of Mormon to see if it could be true.  I don't get it.  Anyway he opened is Bible and the whole room started to fill with contention.  There were many scriptures that I wanted to share from the Bible but the spirit wouldn't let me remember any of the references as to avoid bible bashing.  I couldn't handle his bashing any longer and in response to one of his questions I said, "The answer to that comes from the Doctrine and Covenants" The only scripture the spirit would bring to my remembrance.  He cut me off and said, "That's not the Bible!"  Without thinking I said, "No it's not but it was written by a prophet just like the Bible and therefore is the word of God" and I shared my scripture.  He didn't have a comeback.  We ended the lesson and then had dinner.  We left of good terms and the relationship we have with Brother Williams is definitely one of mutual respect.  I was grateful for the spirit in that lesson.

Next is comfort-  Jess dropped us this week.  She called us on Thursday and told us that she no longer wants the discussions any more.  I was gutted.  She was progressing sooo well!  She was making changes and noticing the difference in her life.  She had got an answer.  She had felt the Spirit.  She had a baptismal date.  She knew that this is what she wanted.  She said that she is on a spiritual journey at the moment and that she didn't want to waste our time if she wasn't fully into it.  I called the District Leader nearly in tears to tell him what happened.  Leaders are inspired and in 3 minutes he had said exactly what we needed to hear.  I still cried myself to sleep over it that night after I poured my heart out in prayer for her but I accept God's timing and we are just going to move forward and enjoy the journey we are on. 

 

The last thing involves comfort and testifying-  We had our follow-up training meeting on Thursday.  It was amazing.  It was a hour and a bit train ride there and back for a almost 5 hour meeting but it was so needed!  Two things in that meeting helped me more than anything else.  President Lindsay was talking about diligence and he said, "Diligence is not necessarily asking what more we can do but what God needs us to do."  That hit a cord.  With investigators dropping us, with others not progressing, with the change of weather and sad people to match the weather I had been really trying hard to figure out what Heavenly Father was expecting from us.  I was trying to figure out how much we could do or how we could get the most people possible to teach, and all the other things a missionary worries about but I over looked the little things that we still had to do in a way.  I guess in some way this was a good soul searching week.  Trying to purify myself.  It was a small Gethsemane is some ways.  I'm grateful for it.  While at this meeting one the things that we do is preform a 4 minute model of the Restoration.  As Sister Tomaki and I did our model for President and Sister Lindsay I was nearly in tears as I recited Joseph Smith's first vision.  The spirit was so strong.  President commented on it as well.  I love the power that comes as you share the truth of this gospel.  Every time I share the first vision it strengthens my conversion and testimony.  The spirit can testify to us in any setting about anything.   We just have to be open and worthy to have it with us.  I got home Sunday night and opened my scriptures to Mosiah 24:9-16.  Could I have asked for a more appropriate scripture to read?  I don't think so.  Heavenly Father is so aware of us.  Every single things we go through he is there for us.  He always will be.  Many people will come in and out of our lives but Heavenly Father is only a prayer away at all times.  We never need to worry as long as we have Him on speed dial.  I love the sacrament and the blessing it is to be able to take it with a repenting heart and open to changing and drawing closer to our Savior and Father in Heaven. 

I love you all!  It was the best thing being able to see and talk with you all today.  That will carry me, along with your prayers, through anything.  Know that I'm always praying for you!  

Love you and miss you heaps!  

 

All my love,

Sister Shayne     

Pic #1 Sister Tomaki's writing on the whiteboard for me :)

Pic #2 These are called Chiko's.  They are like giant Spring Rolls.  Someone made them as a snack food to eat with one had at Footy games. 

Pic #3  Birds on a wire.  I wish I could have captured how many were actually there.  There were more on the ground, house and across the street. 

I made Sister Tomaki leave her hair untied today :)  She doesn't like it but I do!  She gets headaches from how tight her hair is always pulled up.  We got some styling moose to put in her hair.  :) 

                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This is Ava.  She's the cutest little thing.  She is Sister Mutu's granddaughter.                                                                      

This is English study the other day.  Sister Tomaki was copying words down from one side of the page to the other.  She started writing the word 'regarding' but half way through she started writing the word 'gathering' which was under the word 'regarding'.  The outcome was the word 'regarthering'.  We both got a good laugh at it when I pointed it out.  

Great lessons = great week.

G'day everyone!

This has been another fast week.  We had some great lessons that I want to tell you about.
First off is Brother Williams.  We went and taught him the Plan of Salvation in hopes of being able to answer his questions about the Godhead and the kingdoms of glory.  He is a stubborn Samoan man but he wants to understand.  He is really strong in his beliefs.  Which is fine as long as he is open to hearing ours.  Sometimes through the lesson I would get a little frustrated because he would cut me off to say his point.  He kept saying, "that's according to what YOU teach".   Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I said, "Brother Williams you keep saying that this gospel is what we teach.  I am here as a representative of Jesus Christ.  I come to teach what He taught when He was on the earth".  Sister Tomaki and I bore testimony of what we know to be true through the Spirit and he was confounded by the Spirit.  As we left we told him we would come and teach him about the authority of God next time.  We walked out the door and he said, "Okay see you on Monday!"  He wants to understand.  We fasted for him yesterday and we are going to see him today to teach the Restoration.   It's going to be good. 

Next we had a sweet lesson with Jess this week!  She is back from her holiday in Kalgoorlie where she was raised.  We brought Sister Simpkins along.  Jess started out with, "Okay I have a question."  I love that sentence.  She said, "I've been trying to figure out how to balance living the gospel and being myself.  Can I just be myself and keep the commandments?"  I couldn't help but smile.  I told her that is exactly what she needs to do.  Then she asked, "If I get married and baptized then later on when we are both worthy and ready to enter the temple can we still be sealed or do we have to do the the first time?"  I just squealed with joy.  I love seeing investigators see the bigger picture.  Sister Simpkins was perfect fellowship for that lesson because she was sealed to her husband later on.  I love the Spirit.  I love good lessons like that.  Jess is progressing so much in her desire to change.  It's incredible to see.

Last lesson was with the Fiti family.  We dropped in on Saturday night for a lesson.  It was just mum, Kause, Kaya, and Kannon.  We taught them about the Plan of Salvation.  From the moment Sister Tomaki started the lesson mum was hit with the Spirit.  She couldn't stop crying.  Every time I looked at her she just gave us the "it's okay keep going" look and wave.  We got to the spirit world and asked mum how it would feel to be able to be in Paradise.  She said that is sounds amazing and a bit overwhelming.  She said that she is so grateful that her kids get to learn for themselves and make those choices that will get them there.  We testified that because of the Saviour we can all make it there if we rely on His Atonement.  The spirit again was so incredibly strong in their home.  At the end of the lesson Sister Tomaki committed the family to come to church.  There was a moment of silence and then mum said, "I hate to say this but we have other commitments to rugby tomorrow morning."  Their again was a bit of silence as we let the Spirit work and she said, "Our priorities are a little messed up."  We testified about how much making church a priority will bless their lives.  They have already started to see the difference that reading and prayer alone have done in their family over the last week.  Mum spoke again as she looked at her 3 kids and said, "I guess we will have to start playing rugby union instead of rugby league.  Union plays on Saturdays."  My jaw almost dropped.  That is huge!  We again promised them the blessings that will come and she said that they might make the 1 o clock sacrament meeting at Rockingham chapel after the games.  We aren't sure if they made it but her thoughts are in the right direction.  We left their house so lifted and excited for them.  I can't wait to go visit them this week :)

Another cool thing happened this week.  We went to the chapel and met with our family history consultant.  She helped Sister Tomaki and I both find a name to take to the temple.  Now I just have to give our family some props because nearly all of the work for all of the ancestors that I have on familysearch has been completed.  We had to do some really good searching.  But finally we found Mrs. Ann Britton.  She is Grandpa Shelton's great-great grandma and her husbands work and her 2 sons work have been done but hers has not.  I'm excited to go do her work for her so we can seal them all together!  Family history work is so cool. 

This week is a big week for me.  I celebrate my "Perth"day on Thursday :)  The 8th of May was the day that I landed in Perth last year.   I'm pretty excited to celebrate it.  I'm also stoked to call you and talk to you all.  I have loved seeing the pictures from all the races that dad and the boys have been in.  Easter looked like so much fun with the family.  I really look forward to hearing it from you over Skype on Mother's Day.  I hope you all have a great week! 

Much love,

Sister Shayne

Pic #1 Sister Tomaki fell asleep while closing her personal study.  I had to take a picture :)

Pic #2 This is how I felt after planning one night.  Sister Tomaki returned the favour and took a picture.  It made me laugh and think about the pictures that mum has of me hanging over things all the time and falling asleep.

Pic #3  It's getting old here.  Sister Tomaki decided to just curl up during lunch one day to try and keep her heat in.  Poor thing.  She's been cold since she got here.  We have great members though that have given her heaps of warm clothes. 

Friday was Sister Mutu's birthday :)  We made her a card and bought her TimTams and chocolate :)   

This is where we were tracting the other day.  I had to snap a photo.

We were really tired one night.  These left us in tears from laughter.  I had to share :) 

Just proof that we are super happy and loving this companionship!

  Just some more.  There are many but this is all I will send :) hahaha!

(Insert from Penny)

Here is a picture of our friends, Ethan and Alec, trying out the lesson Shayne was taught last week.  Fun stuff!