It's September!

Hello all! Happy labor day!

For those of you wondering, labor day is just like any other P-day. I mean we could go do something but that's a lot of effort and all...

Anyway, some great things happened this week. First off, last Monday I was in Little Khoury's (the only grocery store within 15 minutes or so of where I live) and as I was checking out the lady in front of us insisted on paying for me. It was such a miracle! Last Monday was the last day of the month and we don't get more funds until the 1st of the month. So I was down to no money and was going to have to use personal funds but she paid for me! Such a miracle :)

We also had Zone Conference this week! Zone Conference consists of car inspections starting at 8 and then meetings from 9 until 4. We had training from President and Sister Chesnut, the assistants to the president, and our zone leaders, and then the stake relief society fed us! It was an awesome day! I learned so much on how I can better develop Christlike attributes as I set goals and study up on the attributes in Preach My Gospel. We also talked a lot about the Atonement! Man the Spirit was so strong in all of our meetings that day!

On Sunday we taught sharing time in primary again. We taught about keeping the commandments this time so we played Simon Says and we related it to following the prophet. We added a twist to it so that there was someone representing the adversary and they were trying to convince you to not do what Simon Says and to follow them instead. It was a pretty fun lesson! The kids in this ward are so fun :)

We were out walking and walking a lot this week. We contacted quite a few people though! We have 600 people on our directory and we're trying to contact all of them as soon as possible! What we've learned is that there are really only around 300 people in our ward though because a lot of people haven't moved their records out of the ward with them. Luckily most people in Spring Creek are pretty nice so not many people are rude to us! :)

I learned a lot this week about the Atonement, shark and dolphin safety, Christlike attributes, and the differences and dangers of crocodiles and alligators. I guess I should explain...Sister Torres is from Florida so she knows quite a bit about such things mentioned previously. I said something about how you're safe if there are dolphins around when you're in the ocean. Note to all, apparently it's more dangerous if there are dolphins around. So that's something we land-locked peoples need to learn I guess! She also explained to me the difference between alligators and crocodiles. She said gators are completely safe and compared them to being like puppies and that they're nice as long as they're not starving. Crocs are terrifying though. It's good to know cuz there are so many crocs and gators in Nevada and all ;) Anyway, after that brief squirrel moment, we had some awesome training at Zone Conference about the Atonement. Really that was the focus of the day. We talked about how as we apply the Atonement in our life, we will have a greater desire to share the gospel with others. When we were talking about Christlike attributes, we got to listen to some great talks. They were great because I didn't have to share mine :) One of them was on hope and she talked about how when we say "I hope this happens" we're really saying "I expect this to happen." She talked about how great things will happen when we expect great things to happen. I also learned that Alma's pretty cool and that getting sick is definitely not fun. I was sick a couple days this week but no worries, I'm good now :)

Also, if you ever need advice for sending packages, my mom sends the best packages. Sorry, it's true. She sent me barbecue sauce, cash, Mountain Dew, and some other stuffs and really what else do you need in life?

Looking forward to another great week! Apologies for the randomness of this letter.

Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)