Hey everybody!!

How was everyone's Christmas?!? Mine was great!! It was so good to see my family on skype Christmas night! It was really good, but man! Saying goodbye felt like the goodbye I had at the MTC all over again! Its like breaking up old wounds.. I am good now, the missionary bubble is encompassing me again. But that next few hours was really rough. I was just balling! Yup, its embarrassing. I am just glad I had Sister Chismar! She is just great!  But man oh man I am truly, enormously blessed to be a part of my family! If you don't feel blessed to be a part of your family, go serve a mission. Nuff said. 

This week has been pretty slow.. Sister Chismar and I have been really sick ALL week! And almost every single morning we woke up to different symptoms.. So this might sound strange, but we have been just laughing through our sickness together! Haha. I think its HILARIOUS to laugh at our struggles. Its the only way I know how to get through it on a positive note. So instead of crying, I laugh. However we really were able to pick up the pace again on Saturday and Sunday. I think if anything, being sick just helped me to get a little jump start. Now its just keeping that pace up, because those were definitely miracle days. I am so excited for this week though, because I am feeling a little bit better. I still have a stuffy/runny nose, sore throat, and headache.. but no more fever! So the sun is coming out from behind the clouds! I had actually received a blessing from the elders to help with it too. In it I was told that I will learn patience and long-suffering from this.. but I don't know how to tell if I did learn anything from it. haha. If anything, being sick just reminds you to be grateful for your health. (:  It was really good, but man! Saying goodbye felt like the goodbye I had at the MTC all over again! Its like breaking up old wounds.. I am good now, the missionary bubble is encompassing me again. But that next few hours was really rough. I was just balling! Yup, its embarrassing. I am just glad I had Sister Chismar! She is just great! 

So I don't know if you noticed at all or not.. but I am writing a little bit later in the day today. We decided to write last today. So we can tell you about our awesome P-day today! So since we have been pretty miserable all week from being sick, we decided that we need to have a fun relaxing P-day. So we start off by getting permission, of course, to do a couple things. We start off going to the mall(out of our area), then in the mall we got massages!!! I have never had a massage before, it was great! We were just told from the assistance that we couldn't have a lie-down massage. So we had a chair massage and got a foot massage! I was so relaxed! So even though we are still sick, I dont even care, because my body is relaxed!(: Then we went out to eat at a place I have never been before, Texas Roadhouse. It was so good! I was just throwing peanuts on the ground.. well that part felt a little weird, but I guess that is what you're supposed to do.. haha. But it has been a good day, and will be a great week full of miracles and hard work!!

 Love you all,

Sister Steffani Stokes<3