How are all of you doing? Sounds like you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We had a real good one. We had a p-day. So in the morning we had a brunch with our zone. We had pancakes, fruit, potatoes, and juice. We played some basketball - yeah I did! Played hard against another sister. It was fun. We had a good time...and boy am I out of shape for basketball. But it was fun. Trevor taught me well. :) And then at 2 we went over to a family's house for dinner! They were running late, but we ate o'deurs...I really don't know how to spell that word...appetizer...hopefully you get what I'm meaning... It was a good dinner. It was the mother, her 4 children (ages 4-14), grandmother, and great-grandmother, and us. It was really nice. And then after that we went to our bishops house and played games with his youngest 3 daughters (ages 7, 14, 16). We played a zapping game...I didn't like it. If you didn't press a button at the right time, or before anyone else, you'd get zapped. The only reason I got zapped was because the 7 year old -tisk tisk - made me press the button before we had too. Haha, yep. They are a fun family. Full of girls. 4 girls to be exact. No boys. And then after that we got together again with our zone. A couple of us just passed a volleyball around - fun style. It was a nice good Thanksgiving Day. It was good. So this last week we found out that our investigator is unable to get baptized this weekend. Due to some personal matters - our mission president is on the help though. It's kind of funny, last night we were telling our district leader about it and he felt really bad for us. But I don't feel bad. First, I'm not surprised by this hold back. Second, it's all for the better. Third, she's so good and still learning that I'm not worried about her. She'll be fine to hold off her baptism for a time. Timing sometime is everything. When she gets baptized, it'll be the perfect timing. That's her story. Oh! Something really cool! We got 9 referrals from 1 member on Saturday! Way cool! And you know what!?! ...We all have someone we can work with and share the gospel with. Yesterday in our small ward council meeting, our ward mission leader was talking about some ideas he had. We all have someone out there that we can invite to a ward party, we all have someone we can have a small, simple gospel conversation with. We all have someone we can invite to hear us speak in sacrament meeting. To the friend being invited, it is a privilege. I love missionary work. Really, it is a lot more simple than people make it out to be. I love it. It is so worth it. Oh, and can I say again how much I love my ward again!? They are so good. Yesterday in our meeting, bishop asked how much longer I had. He asked if he could call the mission president and ask to extend my time, if it couldn't be 2 years. And then he offered to give me a calling in the ward. Jokingly of course, but also in seriousness, I could feel the love. I love this ward. They are so amazingly great. Let's see...oh! Last week - from zone conference, President Weston asked us each to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days. That's how long it took Joseph Smith to translate! So we are reading it in 85 days (about 6 pages a day). When he extended that commitment I was almost finished with the Book of Mormon, so for the last week or so I have been reading in 2 different spots in the Book of Mormon - it's been lovely. I just love the Book of Mormon so much! It is such a powerful book! It surely has been written for our day! I love it! It is true! It has been written by prophets of God! And as we are reading it in our 85 days, we are marking (we're using a free copy) every time it mentions Christ, his words, his attributes, and gospel doctrines and principles. I am loving it being able to do it this way...although my own personal Book of Mormon is marked really similarly. I love it. Oh! And Mom asked about my actress 17 year old investigator, well, we weren't able to meet with her this last week, but we stopped by yesterday and set up an appointment for Tuesday. She, and her 14 year old sister, and her less active mother have agreed to be part of the lessons! This will be so exciting! And one of the elders texted us today and said one of their investigators is moving into our boundaries! So we'll hopefully pick up 2 new investigators this week! Exciting! Yes. I love missionary work. It is the work of the Lord. Yesterday people kept mentioning our motto: Redeem the dead, Perfect the Saints, & Missionary Work. We should be focused on all 3. That is plain truth. That is our purpose for being here. That is our purpose as God's children who have the truth. That will be my life motto of work. Love you all! Have a lovely day and week! :D Love much! Sister Kristi Walston

November 19, 2012 Dear Family, How are all of you doing? Are ready for this lovely holiday called Thanksgiving? This week has been pretty fine. Thursday we had zone conference - with our mission president, assistants, and many other missionaries (3 different zones). It was really good. They showed a clip about the atonement. It was very powerful. The Savior went through so much for us. I don't think I can relate what I learned from the clip. But He's experienced it all. HE understands our pain, our sins, our sadness’s, our struggles, our inexperience, our confusion, our suffering, our feelings of grief, worry, anything and everything. HE understands it ALL. He is there for us. The Atonement covers everything! As long as we are repentant and humble and willing to place our life in His, He will succor us. He will help us. He will relieve us. I think that's something that overall I have learned a lot about on my mission. The Atonement is a wonderful thing. We also met with our investigator, whose baptism date is on December 1, 3 times this week. She had a smoking problem, but when we taught her the word of wisdom, right there and then she resolved to quit. She's so dedicated to the Lord. She understands His mercy and understands the necessity to follow His will. She is so good. Whatever commandment we teach her, she accepts right away. She is so good. We also picked up a new investigator! She's about 17 years old and is an actress. She is so sweet. Her mother is a less active member. But they have such a good family. Our new investigator is so willing and eager to learn. Overall, our other investigators are doing about the same. We are working, working hard, and learning a lot. Still. Both of us. Oh! I wanted to share a story from last week that I believe I forgot to tell you all! So we were walking down the street, we had tried visiting a potential investigator, but no luck. As we were walking we saw a group of people outside one house, with a little moveable campfire. Sister Slaugh, good as she is, walked up to them and said hi and asked if any of them were interested in hearing a message. One of them said, Yes. This special lady recently has decided that she needs to get close to God again. And she had been praying all week to make a decision on a job. She is so good. So ready to hear the message. Unfortunately she was visiting a friend and didn't live in the area. But we gave her a Book of Mormon and sent her to mormon.org. From Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon I was in Loomis on exchanges. It was finery. Oh, last Sunday was also our primary program. I love the children. They are so sweet, so cute, and just adorable! There are so many children here that I just love. We got a new ward mission leader yesterday. He is so cool, so on the ball. And young. (Our last one was ancient...and his health was not that good.) Our new ward mission leader has a great vision, to involve the youth; they are the heart of the church. He knows what his purpose is. He's knows what's going on. He is motivated. And he's the type of person that will get things done. (He was just the young men's president and loved it - so good at it.) So yeah, we are so excited for this new change here. Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This Thanksgiving I will be spending it with some of our families. We've had 2 offers to feed us food. So we'll probably go and do that. I love you all bunches and bunches! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of thanks! I am thankful for all of you! I am thankful to my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ! And I am thankful for our loving Heavenly Father! Love you all! Until next time! Sister Walston

Dear Family, How are all of you doing? I am doing just fine right now. So this week - what have we been up to? Well, let's see. The new member lessons have been started with our most recent convert. She has such great home teachers. Our ward mission leader was released from his calling and put into the Sunday school presidency. Now we are ward mission leader-less. Hopefully they will call one real soon. We had a really good week full of lessons -a total of 22! We took with us an 18 year old girl, who is thinking to go on a mission, with us a couple of times now. She is so good. She is prepared to serve. And we just love her and her family. They are so good. Her older brother, who is 21, is serving a mission here with us in the California Roseville Mission. He has something...like cerebral palsy...I don't even know if I spelt that right. His body doesn't quite work right, but he is so smart and funny - his brain is all there. He uses a walker to get around. Each day of his mission, he spends with a different set of elders that use a car. He is such a great asset to our mission. One of the elders said about him, "There is no reason, no excuse we can make for not going on a mission. If Elder Barney can do it, anybody can." He is such a good little example. We had a few lessons with some of our investigators. It was a couple of our elders birthdays this last week. We made them cake and cards to celebrate. We had a zone meeting. It was really good. We talked about how the Doctrine of Christ is our foundation, that is what our faith and testimony are built upon; and through that our gospel knowledge increases, we have a good work ethic, we are obedient, and we have a good attitude. There was a little drawing that went with it...but can't really draw that on this email. One day. But we talked about how we need to consistently work on those 4 things. They help build and upkeep our testimony and faith in Christ. All of it is essential. Something else I thought and pondered and heard about this week was due to the new age limit of sister missionaries. We are in the last days. We need to prepare and be strong in the face of adversity. The Lord has lowered the age of sister missionaries to build and prepare mothers for these last days. Missions will help train mothers for the last days. The mothers of this time need to be strong in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are facing hard times in these days. The world around us is falling into Satan's traps. He is pulling down the values and morals of society. He is pulling down the goodness, taking away the peace. But we can maintain all of that ourselves if we build upon the foundation - the doctrine of Christ. We can have peace. We can have happiness. But we need to be strong. Prepared. Missions help strengthen testimonies. Missions help build the soul of the missionary. I have learned so much from my mission. Missions are a blessing; a key to strengthening the character, the testimony of a soul. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God. I know that my mission has been a blessing to me, is still a blessing to me, and will continue to be a blessing to me. It has not only affected my life, but my current family's lives and I know it will continue to affect my future family's life. Missions are a blessing. They build are character and help us prepare for the future days of this life - the latter days - the last days. I am so grateful for this opportunity. So grateful. Thank you for all your help and support in letting me coming out here. This life is the time to prepare ourselves to become better and to meet God. A mission has helped me with that. Well, thank you again. I love you all so much! You are all wonderful. Wonderful, inspiring, and lovely people. Thank you for being part of my life. Love you tons and bunches! Your sister missionary, Sister Walston

It's crazy how time flies by. Can't believe it's November now! Crazy! That means Trevor boy will almost be 19! Crazy! But exciting! How's everyone been? Sounds good from the sounds of it. We had a baptism this weekend! That was exciting. I was thinking about it and all we did to help her reach that point was turn on the water for the font (which luckily was the perfect temperature - right before the program started it felt kind of cool, so we turned off the cold water and kept on the hot water for the next 15 mintues...thank goodness when she got in there it was perfect she said - whooo, what a relief since I told her it would be perfect temperture - the Lord truly does keep the promises of his servants). Haha, when we taught her the lessons she pretty much knew it all already. She's a really sweet lady. Her husband is really sweet too, not a member, though. I think because of his wife's example that there is hope of him joining one day soon. She grew up in Pennsylvannia! 2 of our investigators, step-father and step-son, came to the baptism. That was good. I think it helped...a bit. We talked with them quite a bit after the service...like an hour. The son, he's so funny. Before we left, he knelt before Christ's picture and prayed and then as we were leaving he told me, "Don't forget to pray to my brother Jesus." Good kid. Last Tuesday we had our ward trunk-or-treat party. It was good. We got to taste test the soups. That was an experience and I was grateful none of them were very spicy. For Halloween night we ate dinner with the members that we live with. And then we cleaned and organized our lives. Our members gave out big candies to the trick-or-treaters - they go all out! We got a lot of referrals this week. That was pretty exciting. And 3 from one member! I love missionary-minded people. It is so important to share the gospel with others. So many people are decived by Satan. So many have a majority of the truth, but are missing keys pieces to God's gospel. Last night I was reading Mormon 8, and oh boy, how the last full page of that chapter totally describes the world how it is today. The world thinkcing it is okay to do this or that and God will not care. Oh how wrong they are, oh how decieved they are by Satan. I had an experience yesterday that made me realize how suttle Satan is in bringing us down. It all starts with a thought. Satan doesn't want us to be happy. He wants us to be miserable like himself. One thought of doubt - of others or yourself - that is Satan. One thought of negativity - of others or yourself - that is Satan. He works hard to help you feel jusitified in your emotions and in your actions. And eventually because of him we can lose the Spirit of God. Our constant, righteous companion, the Holy Ghost. God will be on our side, we (I) just need to learn to cast out those doubts, those negative thoughts, those fears. They pull us down into captivity and in that captivity there is no happiness. Happiness is only founded on obedience to God's commandments. God has commanded us to become as a child. Humble, submissive, loving, gentle, understanding, meek, and ect. If we love others. If we have positive thoughts. God will be there. The Spirit will be there. I know it. I love it. And I will strive to live it. I love you all so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week and day! Remember, remember the Lord. Remember to be happy, to be positive, to love others. I know that much good will come of it. Love always and forever, Sister Kristi Walston