Hermana Hanatea Elkington : new babies + dr pepper

Hey all you mangoes,

This was straight up one of my favorite weeks on the mission. It was full of hard stuff & good stuff, but I'm not sure I've ever been this happy in my whoooooooole life (rollercoaster goes on).

On Tuesday, September 12th, Galilea Quezada was born! We called Hermano Quezada because we needed something and he was like "welp, Shannon's in the hospital" so the next day they invited us to come visit in the hospital and we got to hold this tiny, golden baby who was just 12 hours old. She's pretty amazing. It was cool to be a part of this experience - the Quezada's have changed the way that I do missionary work and are some of the best people I've ever met, and I told Hermana Sundstrom, "Holding that baby was the only chill moment I've had in Boise. not even joshin'." Today we went to make SWEET BREAD FRENCH TOAST with Hermana Quezada cuz her life is insane right now, and it was good to hang with her.

We went to teach our investigator, Fredy, from Columbia and he was like "aye you guys hungry cuz I want a hamburger" so he took us to Carl's Jr. (he called it 'Carlos Jr.' lolololol) and we taught him the Restoration there. It was a pretty chill lesson. After we were done, we kinda just asked him how he felt and what he was thinking and he took a sip of his Dr Pepper and said, "This is something I've been waiting to hear about my whole life." We were like cheeeeeeeepono fulfilling our proposito at Carlos Jr!

We've been teaching Mirta again, the lady from Cuba, and she's nuts as always but we've been able to teach her without her getting completely distracted about the types of food she buys for her dogs at Winco. We visited her and taught the Plan of Salvation and she had so many questions for us - good, sincere questions. It was a sweet lesson.

Boise was a furnace and now it's a freezer. Winter is coming. Not too happpppeh about that but life's still bomb. No worries beeef currrrrieeeeees

I've loved how happy missionary work makes me. I've been feeling frustrated in a way that I can't even describe these past couple weeks - frustrated with the people we've been working with and the members and the branch and the area and ALL OF IT, but Hermano Quezada said to me one day, "We deal with the frustration of the mission not because we love wearing the tag, or love dressing up every day, or love showing off to other missionaries. We do it because we love to teach the gospel to others." This work brings a happiness like no other - and it's a happiness that's underlying, it's there even with all the frustration and sadness that you experience.

Hope every one has a baller week. Stay cherreh my mangoes! Email me if you need anything! Email me if you want some love!