Taylor Gemperline	3:30 PM (29 minutes ago)

Thanks so much everyone for your Happy Birthday emails! Sadly for my mother my Birthday Package is somewhere in the mail system still and I have no idea when it will get to me but I am sure that I will love it.

We had a pretty good week I suppose. Well we had a good day in the week so that was pretty awesome! I got to go on an exchange with Elder Jensen my Zone Leader and I'll be completely honest and say that I loved every minute of it even though I thought I was going to hate it. Elder Jensen has always just had what I thought was a clashing personality to mine. Turns out we compliment each other very well. It was like being on an exchange with Luke Pettet to be honest. Not saying that I hate Luke's personality :P. Anyway, we got a lot off my mind of this nothing happening stuff and we had a lot of experiences where I could relieve my stress. We went on a fantastic run where we had to ward off 4 skunks that surrounded us in the depths of the Orange County jungle. We had a nice bike riding stunt demo on our way to a service project where I totally destroyed my bike and bike seat and other stuff. (Don't worry I've become quite the little bike mechanic and fixed it all up good as new.) We even went tracting which Elder Jensen had not done since he was trained almost a year ago. In the end we came to he conclusion that I have no reason to second guess myself and that we are working hard and that people are just simply not using their agency. So don't get discouraged and keep on loving Jesus. We also talked a lot about getting to know the ward a little better. I'm going to start keeping notes on the families I go to. 

This week I also had the amazing opportunity to see a few fun faces. We went to the trainer follow-up meeting. I got to sit between Elder Hegland and Elder Tetuanui in a small group with the trainers of the Irvine Mission as we discussed our training with President Cook. In that small group President Cook told us that he was depending specifically on those present as well as a few others whom were off with other assignments to be the people who set the success of the entire Irvine mission for the rest of its history. It was a great come to Jesus talk about what he expects of us. It was really cool and I enjoyed the not so gentle rebuking. Then this morning I walked into the Newport Temple and found Elder Tetuanui next to me in the ordinance room! I got to got through his last session on his mission with him. It was really a blessing and I loved it. That Temple has some AMAZING art inside it if you ever look up pictures of the Newport Temple you'll see what I mean. 

Yesterday we had a lesson with Cyrus. A 17 yr old young man whom was baptized a few years ago and has never actually been active. We talked to him about what his plans are for the future and we helped him see how Prayer, study and the church were going to help him achieve those aspirations. In the end he said he really did feel like it was time for him to come to church. It was a major success! later that day we even got a text from him saying he is looking forward to it and that we are the favorite Elders he has ever met with, which is a lot of Elders. It was the pick me up miracle we needed to make us both feel successful. After this week I know I'm successful and I love it. I am trying to just be more happy. Cause I have absolutely no reason why I shouldn't be! Except that I'm out of time. Love you all! Talk to you when I'm Shventy Shvone.

Elder gemperline