Hi Family!

Hey there you guys!

So this week was very sad. Our family we are teaching lost their baby girl, Bristol. She was very very fun and super active and smiley and sweet. Michelle, her mom, took her to the doctor because she was throwing up and fainting. But the Dr. said there was no infection and she was fine. But then she kept throwing up and got really lethargic so they took her to the ER. they put her on an IV and apparently, the fluid didn't pass the kidneys. So they transported her to Seatlle, and found that she had Viral Myocarditis (maybe ask sterling what exactly that means because I have no Idea) but anyway, she passed away Saturday Night. Michelle's family came up from California so they have family, and the ward is super aware and are arranging a meal plan and calendar so they are getting meals often. I will see if we can bring her a meal thought and maybe use that recipe for chicken pot pie myself :) 

But luckily, I have found such peace in the Gospel. I am so grateful that I know about the plan of salvation. I know that Bristol is in Heaven with Heavenly Father and as I've stressed and prayed for the family that they will be able to still want to meet with us and that we will know how to help them, I've just felt the Lord telling me that It's okay. He's got it. So I am just praying and trusting in Him. I know they will be okay, and I am grateful for the knowledge I have that families are forever and that when we die, it's not the end :)

Funny story: so everyone here in the stake is pretty much in the navy. A part of our area is a military base. We don't have military IDs, so we have to be escorted on and off by someone who does. WELL. the members we go see don't usually escort us off because they know we are just going home and won't go anywhere we aren't supposed to be. Sister Harbaugh always knew how to get off base, but I wasn't sure because it was always dark when we went home. I plugged the address we were trying to go to into my GPS (whom Sister Trost and I have named Helen) and off we went. Into a resticted area. Where we were told by an angry guard that whoever we were with was "in trouble" and so we had to wait for a half hour while the Gartungs (the family we were with) came and got us. We were interrogated by two more cops (who were nicer) and they were chewed out by the mean cop. Ugh. we felt so bad, and we were both shaking and almost crying. We kept apologizing to the Gartungs and Brother Gartung told us not to worry and that if the mean guard tried to make is a big deal at work, he had a trump card because his old boss was mean guards boss now, and to not worry. They were super nice about it, but it was so stressful and we both were terrified! Stupid HELEN! :P

But other than that, this week was actually alright. One our investigators dropped off the face of the planet (they seem to do that frequently -.-) , and we FINALLY got to see her! It was great and we had a good lesson and got her back on track for baptism. We also got to use the bathroom at a really sweet lady. We had tried going to some member's homes, but none of them were home. Then I remembered this sweet lady, Berti, who was a neighbor of a member. We knocked on her door and we were able to use the bathroom and even set up an appointment to go help her wash her floors. YES SERVICE! We also went to a former investigator's house (she's not interested) but she told us to go and see another lady who had moved in. We knocked on her door and she was super nice. She has a set of twins, another little kid, and a 14 year old. She'd had some contact with the Church and seemed really open. We set up a service appointment with her for tomorrow! So maybe we will be able to teach her! even if not, sowing seeds, right? Every good deed counts! Then we got to see Matt again! Sister Trost and I had about 15 minutes before we had to go back to our apartment and she suggested we do an "obedience walk" where we just walk around and talk to everyone so that we wouldn't be going back early to our apartment and who was the first person we see? Matt. AND he is still interested. He said he just got really busy, but said he would definitely be home on Friday. So YAYYYY! 

It truly has been one of the most stressful, exhausting weeks but I am still so grateful for it. There were so many miracles, among all the stress. Rainbows only come after the rain, right? :) 

Love you all! 

Love,

Sister Kramer

                       My new favorite flower, the Dahlia (i know i know....flowers. yes yes yes. But it's so pretty!!!)

                                    This is Daytona Marquez. She's 12 and so funny and sweet 

 Next week I will send you some pictures of Sister Trost! :) This is me and sister Harbaugh :)

 It's gorgeous here! 

 My ankle a couple of weeks ago.

this is sweet Bristol, who just passed away. She's giving them some fun fun times in heaven! She was a hoot and a half. I will miss her a lot. Thank you for the prayers in their direction

SO this week's been pretty rough. My ankle doesn't hurt and I have had such a wonderful experience of seeing how Heavenly Father has helped me. My ankle doesn't hurt too much. I have been able to walk around and have it not hurt. Although....it is pretty swollen still and even more colorful than the pic I sent. Haha. It's all blue. My foot is an entire bruise! It makes me laugh. Every morning Sister Harbaugh come over and is like: "What color is it today?" BUT it doesn't hurt and I rest and ice it as much as possible so it's been fine! This one lady we met while knocking I could tell right away that she was a mother because as soon as she saw me she was like "ARE YOU WALKING around on a HURT ankle?" and I was like "...Well...yes." missionary work has to get done! she offered to drive us to the church and back to our car. She was so sweet. 

This week was crazy. ALL of our plans fell through. I don't think we had a single day that went according to plan. That was rough cause I kinda felt like we weren't doing enough. PL:US we had a family that was supposed to get baptized on saturday fall through. THey heard all kinds of Anti stuff from the mom's dad about the temple. Did you know that a video of the endowment is online? When they were telling us about that and even showed us it, it just made me sick and angry and sad. BUT they were still okay even trough that. What happened was that they didn't really understand the word of wisdom and the dad had a beer for his birthday. We were so dissapointed and they were so sad. BUT the good news is that they are still meeting with us and talking to us. They are still going to pray and read the Book of Mormon and I really feel good. they will be okay. Satan just loves to work on people, but the Lord knows what they need! BUT Heavenly Father knows what I need, too, and even through the stress and craziness of this whole week  I just kept remembering your voice telling me it's okay and not to be too hard on myself and then Heavenly Father gave me a hug and I also read D&C 6 (read the last 5 verses!!! They reminded me of you momma!). I also really saw the miracles that happened. We were able to talk to a lot of amazing people. Nothing came of it, really, but just planting seeds! Also: Sister Harbaugh was so postitive and happy this entire week and it helped me remember how loved and blessed I am. I have you guys at home. sure I miss you, but that's what the temple is about. I have an awesome companion and amazing investigators and an amazing ward. Plus, Sister Harbaugh is really good at studying the scriptures, and we've been able to have amazing amazing discussions and I've been able to learn a lot!

As far as investigators go:

We weren't able to get in touch with Matt so we are just hoping he gets in touch with us. We also weren't able to meet with Jenn because her dog got really hurt. BUT we are having dinner with her tonight and we are hopefully going to be planning a wedding! Fingers crossed! Also: we got to meet this funny less active member and her non member care taker. She had this little apartment and in there were 2 gods, 4 cats (one of whom had JUST had 5 kittens. like....that morning) and 2 ferrets. She doesn't have any food in her pantry but she told us that Jesus saved her life (everything you can imagine happening to someone happened to her, apparently) and she feels her job in life it to rescue animals! I was so amazed. PLUS we were able to tell her care taker about the restoration and give her a Book of Mormon, and she started reading it RIGHT there!!!! It was really cool. 

The Lord really knows what He's doing and I am so grateful to have Him guiding me because if I were alone in this....I couldn't do it.

I am so thankful for you. I love you so so much! You are so amazing at serving others and following the Lord. I know how proud he is of you adn how grateful he is to have you. Thank you for your support and for your packages and prayers and love. I love you tons!

Love,

Sister Kramer