March 3

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I'm officially 21, so that's super weird. I still feel exactly the same. Haha. Probably because I'm a missionary and my celebrating was very minimal. Not that it would've been any different at home. Turning 21 doesn't mean a whole lot when you don't drink. haha.

Anyways, It was a great week. I did go to ju'jitsu again last week, but still didn't get any pictures. Hopefully I'll get some at some point. But it was super fun and I learned more stuff. I know how to choke people in like 5 different ways now. Haha.

Wednesday was great because we had a temple trip. It was the last one we'll have to the Mesa temple since the Gilbert Temple officially opens tomorrow. It'll be sad to not go back there again, but I'm super excited to get to go to the Gilbert one. But it was super fun to see everyone. We had like half the mission there and I got to see lots of people. That was great.

And then that night we had a lesson with Bethany. She's still doing amazing. But we had the lesson at the Frieden's house. (They're one of my favorite families in the ward.) And we found out that sister Frieden is pregnant with twins, so that was super exciting. Probably not so much to you, but it was for me.

We also had to take our car in to the mission office earlier that day. A few weeks ago when our roommates were backing out, they accidentally scraped the side of our car and so we had to take it in to get it fixed. So we don't have a car for the time being. I don't mind it too much, I really enjoy biking. But it's nice to have a car too, so I'm excited to get it back. Haha. Hopefully I'll at least lose some weight this way. haha.

And then Saturday was my birthday! Like I said, it was a pretty normal mission day. But Lisa sent me a package with some birthday party stuff in it, and my roommates decorated the house for me. And we all went out to lunch and Sister Ball bought my lunch for me, she's so sweet.

It also poured on Saturday, it never rains here, except for on my birthday, when we don't have a car. Haha. But it was all good. We didn't get caught in it too much. But the cultural celebration was that night and the 13,000 youth that participated in that definitely got caught in it. But they were all still so excited and happy to be part of it that they didn't even care that it was cold and rainy. I was super impressed by all of them. There was a lot of singing and dancing and it was all super inspiring. I'm still so jealous I didn't get to be part of it. haha. And, they got to perform for President Monson and President Eyring! It was definitely a cool way to spend my birthday-watching the celebration. And we got to watch it with the Watts, one of my other favorite families in the area. haha. And they made me dinner and pie for my birthday. It was super sweet of them.

The thing that's super cool about it too, is that when they practiced last week there was a ton of dust from all the running around on the field, and several kids had to go to the hospital. So everyone was praying that it would rain just enough to keep the dust away, but not so much that it interfered with the celebration. Well, it definitely rained enough. haha. But that was also an answer to prayers because it hasn't rained much this year, and if we don't get more rain, there will be a drought. I thought it was cool that the answer to so many prayers came during the celebration. And, as soon as the celebration ended, it started to pour even more. And if it had done that earlier, they would've had to cancel it because the field would've been too muddy. Basically it was just super awesome and inspiring and shows us that Heavenly Father is definitely mindful of us.

And then Sunday was amazing too because it was the dedication for the Gilbert Temple! We go to go to the first session at9 AM and I loved it. It was super inspiring and I learned a lot. And I'm super excited to be able to go to the Gilbert Temple now. I'm so blessed to be here at such an amazing time!

We've also still been teaching Devon, the little boy who's family is starting to come back to church after years of inactivity. He's getting baptized on Saturday and I'm so excited for him. He's going to have a lot of family come down for it and so many people from the ward too! I feel so lucky that I had the chance to teach him. I'll send pictures next week and tell you all about how it goes

But yeah, that was basically my week. Nothing too crazy, just normal missionary stuff. I'm still loving Arizona, until the heat hits. Haha. This week will be great too, I'm excited to see what happens. I hope you all have a wonderful week too! I love and miss you!

Love always,

Baylee