waves of good

so aunties this was the best week ever - choke kine happy, no jokes, no play. I'm forreal. 

Got to spend a bomb couple days with Sister Ely over in Heyburn and connect with some old friends and cruise a 'lil before the shiz hit the phone and we got transfer calls. Lemme tell you there is something special about that side of the mission - just sitting in the Burley Wal-Mart parking lot brought back greenie memories of weird (but incredibly good) times and it was good to be in the country. 

I got the call that I'll be with Hermana Nielson (otra vez! party!), whitewashing Hailey Idaho. Where's Hailey? 

So we met up at the Stake Center, the mission got destroyed and pretty much everyone is whitewashing (feels good to have some good obama change up in here!), I picked up Hermana Nielson and drove the hour and a half up to Hailey Idaho. It's close to Sun Valley - I had 0 expectations. President Bartlett stopped us at transfers as we were picking up the car and said "Sisters, sisters...do you know how lucky you are? Do you know what's happened? Do you realize? What's going on? Do you know?" And I was like "k prez enuf w/ the mysteries we'll just go find out." 

Hailey/Sun Valley is one of the most beautiful places I've seen - maybe I've just been away from the island too long, but it's gorgeous. We live in a small apartment on top of a garage, there's a river in our backyard, there's tons of Hispanics, the people are incredible. Our second night, the member that we live with gave us a call and said "hey I have a plate lunch and some taro for you," guess where he grad folks - LAIE ELEM. How blessed? How blessed? Me and Hermana Nielson have been working hard to get to know everyone, to get to know the area - whitewashing has it's challenges, but sometimes I really like simply starting from scratch. It feels like I'm baking this new batch of brownies that are kind of a wreck at first but after you put them in the oven for a little bit they'll turn out to be really ono (hopefully). 

Our first day at Church was Stake Conference, two of the 70 were here (don't rememba their names sbi) but we talked a lot about how the gospel makes you happy and ministering to others. A couple of things really stood out to me:

1. Ministering isn't about baptisms, it isn't about reactivation, it's about loving. 

2. The Savior's hands are the safest place you can be. 

This week has actually been pretty emotional for me, but in good ways, good food. I've been driving our subaru around (how could it get better?) and looking out at the mountains and breathing the air and talking to lots of strangers and I don't think I've ever felt this happy before. Like not just on my mission - in my life. Missionary work has still got the same challenges, still got the same struggles, the ups and downs, but this week I felt something in my heart that wouldn't leave. And it was a reminder that the basis of the gospel is love, and when we're connected with braddah Jesus, everything will be ok. I've loved the way that this knowledge has made me feel. 

Love you all loads, let me know if there's anything I can do for you. If anyone's down to come teach me how to snowboard @ Sun Valley after the mish hmu.

love&aloha&mahaloz,

Hanatea Elkington