Kylie Takes California: Addicted to Ben and Jerry's The Tonight Dough (July 25, 2016)

That ice cream flavor is seriously so. good. Don't worry Mom, I'm not
going too crazy on it though :)

Sooooo Terry. Y'all would just love her. Our Relief Society president
had us over for dinner and we asked to see if Terry could come along
with us. So that night rolled around and those two just hit it off
together. Terry has had a hard life growing up. It was interesting to
hear some of her experiences. It really just shows that Heavenly
Father gives us these things so that we will be humble enough to
listen to promptings from the Holy Ghost and recognize when we have a
good thing going for us. Side story: Terry has a lot of half siblings.
She casually dropped that one of her older brother's father is James
Brown. Like THE James brown. Her brother was in prison and couldn't
get a test to show it, but I guess Terry's mom was a go-go dancer and
traveled around with Mr. Brown. Anyways, she has been progressing
wonderfully. It's really cool to see how excited she gets about
learning about the gospel. She loves to ask questions and get more
things to read about certain topics from us. She still is in a lot of
pain from her back. She showed us some pictures at dinner of her from
like two years back. She was so lively and active. She still has that
same spirit, but you can tell things wear on her. Terry is such a
great example to me of perseverance and a humble heart. She has
experienced so much back, but doesn't let it affect her or make her
bitter. What a woman.

Tammy is wonderful as always. She always texts us for scriptures to
read and tells us how much she loves us. We found out some things,
however, that need to be taken care of and help her work through. It's
going to be a trial of our faith and hers. But I know that through the
Savior, anything is possible. Tammy has overcome so much and is
capable of growing even that much more.

Cecil is one of the most stubborn old men I've ever met. The people at
his ho,e took away his cigarettes and he was pretty ticked. He just
can't seem to give them up. So we read from the Book of Mormon and
asked him to pray to know if it is the Lord's will for him to give up
smoking. We're hoping that as he gets that answer for himself, he will
be more driven to keep the commitment. We still love him though :)

Peter has been out of town at a nephew's wedding. He is such a good
example for his family. But we found out that he will be moving back
to Chuke in the next few months!😭 I sure will miss going over and
learning of his humility. He is so determined to do what is right. You
can really tell that his heart has been changed and that he knows he
needs to trust in God in all that he does.

The B. Family (one with the three kids wanting to be baptized) is
making progress slowly, but surely. They come to our Book of Mormon
class on Thursday nights. This week we managed to keep them in their
seats and not distracting each other by telling them that every time
their butts left their chairs, they would have to do 10 push ups at
the end of class. Trust me, people hate push ups. So it worked! We're
doing something called the cereal challenge on Friday night at their
place. Apparently we have to eat ten bowls of different cereals. Stay
tuned for the results of this challenge.

I find that we're teaching more less actives than I thought! It's
tough working with them sometimes, but when they finally start to
remember why this gospel made them so happy, it makes it worth it.

There's this one lady named Bev. She and I hit it off because she is
from Georgia. She hasn't been to church in years, but has a great
visiting teacher who has stuck by her and been her friend. Bev told us
that she feels like she is in a rut and wants to start making small
changes that will get her to her big goals. We just need to keep
loving her and loving her back to church :)

I don't know if I've said this in other emails, but hey I made it into
the BYU nursing school! I love hearing about all that's going on back
home and in Provo. Another wave of friends will be coming out into the
field and I couldn't be happier. Missions are seriously the best.

This week I gave a talk on "The Greatest Leaders are the Greatest
Followers" by Elder Stephen W. Owen. Check it out. It's all about how
the Savior exemplifies both. Good leaders always follow the example of
the Savior. I love the quote from President Eyring, "There will be
times when the path ahead seems dark, but keep following the Savior.
He knows the way; in fact, He is the way."

Hope y'all have a fantastic week!!
Sister Thorum