HAPPY THANKSGIVING PRISONERS

OH MAN! I am in the library LAUGHING MY EYES OUT because of that subject line. MAN Xanxan you are hilarious! Hello what have we here? (my comp loves starwars and so i conveniently quote many quotes that she does not think are that funny... but i laugh hysterically.... oh the whoas of being hilarious;)) So this week was CRAY! So monday was pday. classic Tuesday: We did service for sister huyck who is ADORABLE! And loves star wars! She went to some Star Wars convention down here and dressed all her kids up in cute costumes - totally adorable! Her husband is less active and sorta no longer believes from what i have gathered - ultra sad(anyone who feels like someone close to them is LA read the talk "Claim the Blessings of your Covenants" http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-relief-society-meeting/2013/09/claim-the-blessings-of-your-covenants?lang=eng&query=covenant+keeping ) its good. Then we finally met this Potential gator who really is just a woman who is SO willing to do anything for the missionaries! Her name is Shirley Zusi and she is friends with the Roberts in Sandy(thinks we should know them - who ever they are they left a great impression) She is so rad and I hope we can get closer to teaching her! Then right before dinner we knocked 1 door and got a potential! IT WAS A MIRACLE! we also were invited to just share a thought with a member fmaily - that is the best! When members just allow us to do what we know what to do - teach. No need to ALWAYS feed us - although we do appreciate being fed LOADS! We just want to teach! Fill the missionaries time with Teaching! THATS WHAT WE ARE TRAINED TO DO! Then WEd: we had a great dm about asking Qs. I am horrible at asking Qs to people so I am working on that. If anyone has any tips... HIT ME UP! Then we had cleaning checks... unfortunately we thought the senior comps were coming earlier than they did(other mishs apt were disasters apparently) so we did lots of inside stuff...boo. but it was a gross day also so no one was really out and about. OH and when the Senior comp The Gordons were leaving they told me that they talked to sister Parker and she told them that DORA and her SONS (logan and ashton) WERE GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! THEY ARE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH! aAHHHHHHH! I ALMOST STARTED CRYING! IAMSTILLJUSTSOFREAKINGHAPPYABOUTALLOFIT! i LOVE DORA AIPA! (note: this letter is going to be much longer thansome... i guess i really wanted to talk today) Thursday was chilll....not remembering much of what went on... rained. that was cool Friday was chill too... SATURDAY was exchanges which were BOMBING! I was with sister Dunford in Longwood and we LAUGHED THE WHOLE TIME! apparently everyone wants to exchange with me so they can know what it is like to be my comp...#humble #boasting #repentingnow It probably isnt a good thing but the STL and i had a great time and i learned so much! She told me that she truly thought I was a great missionary - That made me so happy because I have been feeling like I am not great and really been beating myself up about my missionary efforts. But when she said that I was so happy! Then to make it even better i was studying the priesthood sesh talk by pres Uchtdorf(what a homie) "You CAN DO IT NOW!" and he said something that i absolutely LOVED! "Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward" GOLDEN right there! It totally pumped me up! I just want to keep going! I am just going to GINGER IT UP down here! ORLANDO isnt going to know what hit them!!! On a more serious note: it is amazing how the Lord reaches out to help you through so many different means; whether it be a letter, the words of the prophets, or a comforting feeling - He is always reaching out to you! I am so grateful for that!~ At this time I would just like to express my gratitude for all of you and all you have done to help me get to where I am today! YOU ARE THE WORLDS GREATEST!(now listen to that song and think of me) I would also like to express my gratitude for my Father in Heaven! I am so grateful that He loves us so much and sent HIS son to die for us so that we might live with him again! What a blessing that IS! HE LIVES! I know it and i love it! I love this chance that I have to help gods children draw closer to live with him someday. I love all of you! t-1 month till i see your faces. love you lots love the work and love the lord. sister ZOE HART

PRAISES

Wellp. This week I found myself coming upon many moments and situations when I was grateful for the lessons that the one and only Paula Hart taught me. MOM: you are one amazing woman. Seriously. Throughout my life I can look back and accredit many of the attributes I have, or learned to have, to you. You taught me to be respectful, to be confident in myself - with talents, words, actions, and LOOKS- to be polite and to have proper etiquette, and SOO many other things. i found this week that there are mothers who tell their daughters that the only way to look "okay" is to wear LOTS of makeup and to tan and to make sure that you only eat xyz to stay below that ultra ridiculous weight... THANK YOU for not doing that to me. Thank you for teaching me that I am perfect the way I am and for being an example of that to me. Unfortunately my companion was not so lucky and I cannot comprehend. Thank you for giving me SOOOOOOO MUCH SELF CONFIDENCE! sometimes it may be too much but hey-better to have a little more than none at all! ;) So thanks mom. Thanks for being the BEST MOM EVER!!("Ill call you BM for short";)) haha - hilarious! So here is the scoop of the week. sorry last weeks letter was short- we had district Pday at this huge LAs property in my area with a river and the largest cypress tree in florida and she also has the awapuhi plant that paul mitchell uses in their awapuhi line...rad right? its all natural from right here in ORFLO. so the district played games and roasted mallows and had a jolly ole time! While i was perusing the surroundings and checckiing out the fish in the river E. Duffy and E. Weston came over to see what I was doing and they leaned forward as if they were going to try to push me and me being silly me, moved my foot down the shore to avoid getting "too close" to the elders...wellp florida is all sand so that lil step resulting in my FALLING into the GROSS river! EWE! I tried to grab the tree-but there was no luck. I was in the sludgey water... I tried to get out and eventually was offered a hand from E Duffy and was literally soaked head to toe. it was ridiculous.. the worst is that i didnt even get pushed... i just literally fell... gah. Side note. being fully immersed in water for the first time in 5 months...pretty bizarre feeling. OOO then on saturday we got to volunteer for this Families in Transition service project where we guided these homeless families through different booths to obtain and sign up for different free services to help them out. It was sooo cool- but it also made me think of Dora and her family. While there all the missionaries were apparently talking to my comp about me - asking what it was like to be my cmop, how funny it would be, how crazy i am, etc etc. Literally everyone said that they were talking about me.... gah. thats just silly. why. oh well. Then on sunday we were asked to bear our testimonies(all 4 missionaries) in sacrament meeting, it was ultra great because we all testified of sort of different things but it all tied together - especially mine and E Ashbys because he quoted me. then last speaker tied most of our testimonies in and quopted them. after the meetring our ward mission leader, bro Bates, said i was the sacrament MVP. Ha! it was hilarious! I love having the opportunity to bear my testimony to members! It is just soo cool! (says the girl who never bore her testimony in her own ward save maybe two times) its the best! oh other side note: I have found that i have a couple of secret lovers... dont worry everyone it is nothing serious. One of them held my hand and told me they loved me and the other held my hand and kissed me... not to fear im still obedient because they were only birds... yes yes they were cockatoos named baby and cassie...yep. chris brown aughta write a song that instead of saying ladies love me says birdies love me - cause birds be lovin me. oh random but the mission wants all christmas packages sent by dec 10 so they get here no later than the 17th. so heads up on that. welp i love you all dont forget to be thankful! watch this. http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-11-39-in-the-spirit-of-thanksgiving?category=topics/gratitude its good. do work i love you loads like seriously loads. t-1month till skype time;) cray love you zoë

flop

so sister buxton totally flopped off her bike this week because a home parade flag flopped her and she flopped off... a lil road rash on her hand...very small.. and she is fine. it was actually hilarious but i sincerely tried not to laugh... how could i not though because it was soo funny. HOW MANy people fall from a flag blowing in the wind? haha. and she looked like the doll from the original Gatsby movie that they use when whats her face gets hit by the car... just layed on the floor limp... i held my laugh and helped obvi but still giggled. other than that nothing too crazy happened this week. Most of the "work" is slow. LOTS of tracting. like loads. back to the good ole days of st cloud. the bonus of longwood is that MOST everyone is ultra nice. so not really any haters. but haters gon hate. tomatoes gon tomate and aliigators gon alligate. we ran into a few racist people this week whicvh was really annoying... floridians... aka florida krackers(thats what they call themselves-im just quoting them) hmm OH GEEZ - this is for cec and xan! Okay so everytime something creepy, weird, funny, awkward, WHATEVER, happens my comp always says "This will make a great memory sister" and everytime she says that ALLL i can think of is Daniel Tosh's Happy THoughts when he talks about the pranks he does with his sister..."OH DANIEL" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH literally dying of laughter when i first heard her say it.... she has no idea what i was talking abbout... proabably a good thing. Also I got the word for the internet pros... so stoked. FB and IPAD here i come. also here are some bombing mormon messages. "wrong roads" Until we meet again. and the daily breads - dad you were right those are GREAT! Hey so its actually chilly down here. weird i know. uh sorry this is random. i have been alll over the place today. i may be sending you more emails later tooday because my time is cut inhalf for pdayl. sooo i will talk more later. FYI I know this is what i need to be doing at this time in this plavce and i am so grateful for this chance that i have to serve the lord and become accquainted with my SAvior! LOTS OF LOVE TO YOU ALL! i miss you! feel frewe to send a family photo.... i cute the last one..oops. loves loves loves makes the world go round. zoë HART

cinco. 5. se. FIVE!

okay so can anyone believe that i have been out here for 5 MONTHS NOW? CRAZY! Its going too fast! like seriously. I love it way too much. so i decided to put some facts and figures into the idea machine and found these fun facts: -I am on my mission for approx. 547 days....zoë's 500 days of summer, because it is literally an endless summer down here -i study for 2 hours every morning... adding up to a grand total of 1094 hours(ish) by the end. That makes me 1/10 of the way to being a professional at the gospel;) That's it/ It is great here in Longwood. People are nice. Lots of apts. There are BEARS here...i havent seen one but they are apparently ALL OVER DA PLACE. okay also its finally nice outside. i love it. REAL fall weather... well like california fall.. no humidity(welll loads less atleast) Its the BOMB! The only downside is that I GOT A COLD. IT IS THE WORST! but the upside is that our apt manager, barb, gives us tea all the time(celestial tea too) Dad go get Celestial's Roastarama tea... its good! My new fave! I got a thermos mug thing to take on the go in the car and what not. so feel free to send tea or cider or hot Co or cold remedies if that tickles your fancy;) MY COMP is so little and cute... But she is one of those that sets up for christmas after halloween.... ITS NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING YET!!!! at least wait until the middle of november.. you havce to give people some time to put away the halloween stuff. then you can start that. BUt thats how a lot of people in florida are. its funny. Uhm. oh yes. I went to the ER on saturday night. NBD. My comp started coughing way hard after this BRILL LA lesson, then she threw up, then she started wheezing, and then got a blessing, then went to the er... i had to be one of THOSE people who has to wear a mask because of my cold... pictures are coming. it was hilarious. She has bronchitis and allergies. so all is well now that she is on her antibiotics. Okay also this week I was watching some of the new bible story videos on lds.org and i watched the one called "Suffer the children to come unto me" or something. WATCH IT! and if you look at the father like figure behind christ in the first 47s you may recognize someone... then if you jump to 1:23 youll recognize who it is! JAKE HASLER! with his beard hahaha! what a funny kid. I was way stoked to see his face though! Its really nice to see a familiar face every now and then. I cannot wait to see your faces in 1 month. The way the lord works is pretty crazy and ultra miraculous. i love the lord. I love all that he has done for us and am so grateful so the chance that i have to come closer to him. Ive been reading about samuel the lamanite in Helaman 14 and 15, What amazing chapters! 15 is my favorite. It tells you about how people become converted to the gospel, the blessings that come from being converted and the reason why the Lord chastizes us. It is all out of love! I love the lord. I love this work. I am so grateful for faith and for the chances we get to exercise that faith. To take that step into the dark room, only to have the light follow us in. It is all about making that step. We cannot expect to have the light turn on without flipping the switch. It is after we are in the room that the light can turn on. not before. I am thankful for the CHANCES i am given daily to exercise that faith. I am also SOOO thankful for repentance because sometimes i may not take advantage of those CHANCES to act upon my faith and build that trust with the Lord and it is then that I know i can repent and continue to draw nearer unto him. The work here in Orlando continues. It isnt easy but i am forever thankful for the forces of support, love and prayer that are coming at me from home. You're all the greatest! I LOVE YOU ALL SO PIPILO MUCH! (Pipilo means stink in samoan... so stinkin is what i meant but thats what you would say.) YOURE THE BOMBS.COMS Send some photos and recipes. the family go to recipes if you dont mind. my comps all have no idea what delicious food is because most of their lives they were fed food out of boxes.... ive been blessed to have a DAD who knows how to OWN IT in the kitchen and a MOM who can bake the BEST breads, just like bear;) (alphabet soup anyone;)) wellp. cool i love you sister zoë HART