This week was good, just a continuation of the thanksgiving season and more experiences to learn and grow from. Creative opportunities to make every situation a little better are everywhere on a mission, and there are alot of fun things to do without breaking the rules - the trick is knowing the rules well enough to not accidentally break any, there is a very fine line! Also I am learning the importance of working for a reward. You have to plan a way to reward yourself for big things, otherwise you never get around to doing the big fun things like cracking a coconut. (I bought a coconut 2 weeks ago but havent been able to crack it open because we dont have the time) Alrighty so this week - I cooked pumpkin for the first time. As in I cut off a big chunk of pumpkin - boiled and ate it..tasted like acorn squash. Now we have left over for pumpkin cookies today! HOoray! We went running every morning, even though it was freezing cold and we run at a track near our house (google map: Edinburg High School -Bobcats) and you can see the track we run everymorning at - running is great but there is a really strong wind that goes exactly opposite to one direction of the track and that has caused me to ponder the attributes of resistance and perseverance! Heavenly Father puts massive winds in our path, we may feel we are sprinting our hearts out but are making very little progress... well the track has another side. Winds dont last forever and after you persevere long enough the wind will eventually be propelling you forward on the other side of the track. Our ability to find new investigators has felt alot like this lately but this week we saw some miracles, random people we had met on the street previously are coming out of the woodwork wanting to be taught - and all of our work with finding less actives has found an awesome family that has a testimony that just needs to be shown love to motivate them back into the church habit! Anyway, life and trails dont last forever! We just have to do our best and find moments to be proud of ourselves! Hardwork brings happiness!! (I even read about it in 2 Nephi 5 today) And agency brings happiness - please read Elder Christofferson's talk from conference - Free Forever. Sidenotes from this week: First off its freezing - naturally everyone wants to feed us and at each dinner appointment that we go to they think that sister McMahon and I are too skinny so they force us to eat more and more and more..until we are sick to our stomaches - but I am learning a lesson on charity from them! lol Tambien, while on an exchange - a woman that I had never met before gave me a sweater because I was "delgado y frio" and then another member that I had never met gave both Sister Tippets and I - winter hats and fuzzy socks! I love South Texas! Muchisimo gracias por su amor - tenga un buen semana! H Boo Crawford