Birthday in Texas

Hello e'rybody!

i am writing you from my now 22 year old body. it feels mostly like my 21 year old body, but a lot wiser. more mature. more good looking. etc. thanks to everybody for the packages and letters and things. it was a nice reminder that i still have friends/family somewhere... the birthday was good. it was our planning day which sometimes can be like a mini p-day if you plan fast enough. we had a "girls day" during our break. pedicures, face masks, deep conditioner, and bubble baths. very nice and relaxing. then we went out and worked. nothing too exciting. some of our recent converts threw me a party at night.. we had pizza and cookies and just chatted and laughed. it was fun. then the next day we had our ward mission meeting and the ward mission leader threw me and elder bilton (whose birthday is two days after mine) a party. he brought cake and tacos to the meeting (at 9:30 in the morning) bless his heart. it was sweet. then elder bilton's companion's mom called in and ordered us all pizza to a member's house to celebrate as well. it was a nicely spent birthday. i thought about how my last year's birthday was spent in utah with my friends at the Jenny Lewis/Bon Iver concert. so stinking good. but this was a birthday to be remembered as well, as it will be my only birthday spent as a missionary.

other than birthday goodness, this week was awesome! we found two new investigators who will either be getting baptized in the end of July or the first week of august. their names are jessica and romeo. they're boyfriend and girlfriend, and one of the teenage girls in our ward is friends with them and started talking to them about the gospel. when we went over to meet with them they already knew they had a testimony of the gospel and they were actually fasting. the spirit was so strong there. we all started crying at one point. i think it will be one of my favorite memories of my entire mission. it was so powerful. i've never met two such prepared people and it came as a miracle. they are so excited. sister bustillos and i are so excited. we love them. erin is still doing well as well. the only thing that stinks is that after she gets baptized she is moving to indiana so we won't get to bask in her awesome glory much longer. she is the coolest person i've ever met.

amidst all the great things happening this week, i kind of was in a downer mood some of the time these past couple weeks. i think every missionary goes through this. where you start to be a little more selfish and start thinking about all the things you are sacrificing and "poor me" thoughts start to kick in and you convince yourself that you aren't happy (which isn't true). but i feel like i'm coming out of it. i had a few "a-ha" moments where i realized that what i'm sacrificing will all come back to me ten-fold, and that the joy i'm bringing to other people's lives makes me happy, and that most importantly, we have a savior who sacrificed EVERYTHING for us. my whole life has been about me. but the savior lived his whole life for others and going about his father's business. which probably was not fun. but he did it because he loves us. because he loves me. and he> loves you. i can sacrifice a small amount of "me" time to help other people learn about the savior and know the happiness that i know. we're never alone and when we draw near him, he draws near unto us. i've felt a lot happier lately and am kicking these selfish thoughts in the butt and finding joy in this adventure in my life. i'm grateful for trials that we go through because they help us learn to rely on god more, and to turn inward and fix things about ourselves. i'm grateful for everybody that reads my emails and cares about me and i hope you're all doing well and happy. love you!

xoxo me