2.1.15

My thoughts are a little scattered today, so I hope this letter even makes sense, but I wanted to get it out before the game...

First, yah, Sister Lauren Redding is in the mtc now and I’m adding her to my list!

We just came home from Stake conference. It was wonderful and the spirit was there in full force as always. The choir sang one of my favorite songs, “Be Still my Heart” and I felt like I really needed it. It was so beautiful, they did it with (bear with me, I don’t know my musical terms..) Come, Come Ye Saints. It was lovely! I had something on my mind right before conference and that song always “speaks” to me and lets me know how much my Heavenly Father loves me.

I Know.. I know.. A little distraction from missionary work.. but can I just say, GO SEAHAWKS!!! I have to say that I love the Seahawks and almost everything about them playing in the super bowl. The only thing that makes me feel a smidge of guilt is that it is on a Sunday. And I have a strong testimony of keeping the Sabbath holy. When I was growing up, we would gather together and watch the Seahawks play and root for them. So, I do like how it can bind families together and something fun to do together. Of course for many years they weren’t that great, so it is pretty exciting to have them be so good this year. I have loved all the feel good stories on the news this week about them. It is so fun to see people everywhere dressed up in their Seahawks gear and green and blue. It has really been fun to have so much spirit around town and it feels like a community. So, today Bro. Shoop and I wore green and blue to church. (Along with several others) Check out his tie... So hopefully a win today! I’m writing my letter obviously before the game.

We have our friend Larry coming over for the game. He has been investigating the church for a while now. I hope he will come over for more discussions with the missionaries. He has before and he says he will again..  We’re just trying to make sure he knows that we are his friends regardless of what he wants to do with church.

A neat story that I heard a couple of weeks ago about the new Olympia Stake President... now I heard this second hand, so hopefully I will get it right.. The new stake president, I don’t even know his name.. was called by the apostle Elder Christopherson. The back story on this new stake president is that he is pretty young and he has a job at Intel. Intel has moved all of their employees to different areas. He has been commuting or is getting ready to move (can’t remember which) but anyways, he was planning on moving this summer because of his job. Well, if he would have been like most of us, he would of said that he can’t take this calling and maybe, something like really... But he took the calling and is trusting in the Lord that everything will work out. What a testimony! I think I would do the same thing if I was called by an apostle! I was talking about this story with another friend of mine and she said that something that really struck me. She said that she tried really hard to listen to whatever instruction is given from a bishop or whoever has the priesthood because they have the priesthood and are following the spirit. It made me think, how easy it would be for me to accept something from an apostle, but is it easy to accept something from my other leaders who have the priesthood? We can’t all have an apostle tell us everything we need to know, we need our other leaders who we should be sustaining and praying for to do the same. (hopefully that all made sense).

The picture of Bro. Shoop and Keagan... its what I feel like I deal with now. I am the lone female. So just think of all the boy wrestling, humor, etc. and you have our house. Granted, it wasn’t much better when Melissa was home, but she did help balance it... sometimes. (Sometimes she added to the crazy.. boy stuff) Sometimes...Bro. Shoop is one of the biggest boys I know!

Keagan is excited! He had to try out for the specialty dance for the dance festival and he made it! (I’m not sure if this is huge accomplishment or not..  because I’m not sure how many tried out, but we’ll take it) It means that he will have to be at the church every Sat. until the end of may to practice... Go Keagan!

This week I have been subbing a lot. I am trying to decide what to do next year. Do I want to get one of these jobs that I sub for to be permanent? Or do I want to keep doing my preschool and keep subbing or just keep subbing. So many pros/ cons of all of them. Luckily, I have a few more months to decide.

I have really enjoyed the subbing. It is fun going to different places all of the time. At first that made me nervous, but now that I’ve done it a few times, I am liking it. It is nice to do something different all the time, and then if I don’t like it, I don’t have to come back. This week I worked in a special needs elementary classroom, did recess duty (ok, here is an example of the boy in my house, I say this and he just laughs, “duty” he says, over and over laughing, why do they call them that?!) and then Friday I helped in the special needs preschool.

I love Pres. Hinckley! I love that quote from him! I hope it shows up on your email, if not, it says, “Keep trying, Keep believing, BE HAPPY, Don’t get discouraged. Things will work out!” I believe this, but sometimes I need to remind myself of this, too..

Pres. Coppin re-iterated again last night to pray for our missionaries by name in our ward and serving from our ward. I was so happy to know that at least I’m doing one thing right!  I love all my missionaries!

Have a great week!

Love,

Sis. Shoop