Sister Dakota Bartsch: Me: You're eating oreos for breakfast? Sister Nash: There wasn't very much cake...

Tuesday felt more like my birthday than my birthday did :) Dede made me half of a cake and we had a picnic to celebrate my nine month mark. We also recreated my MTC picture to remind yall that I look pretty much exactly the same minus the bangs :) A grinch x-ray would show my heart has grown about 32 sizes, though. You guys will just have to wait nine more months to see that!!

My halfway cake. :)

Funny story: We had a lesson on Kaye's front porch this week. She lives right across the street from a big park! And on Tuesday morning there were a bunch of electricians laying cables... and firemen running the track.. and my goodness, Kaye was hooting and hollering and REALLY enjoying herself the whole lesson. I guess this happens pretty often, she was trying to find her specs (binoculars) on her porch........ Instead of reading her scriptures she committed herself to finding me a Mississippi man, I'm working on getting her over that. :)

Sister Coleman and I

Thursday I went on an exchange with brand-new Sister Coleman in Hattiesburg. She has a great area, a lot like Bossier! BTW Bossier is pronounced "Bo-sher" just in case you've been saying it wrong :) I got a whip/nae nae/duff/bop/stanky leg dance lesson from little black girls. It's been a while!! In my current area parents freak out if you talk to their kids.. so I enjoyed working in the Burg! I love my Sisters. Exchanges are so fun, and they give me MANY opportunities to serve them, so I am learning a lot. Sister Nash and I are bonding well as we deal with Sister drama so that's nice :) I pray a LOT in this area, serving in this calling, and I have decided that God is trying to teach me some very specific things. I'm going to grab this chance to grow with two hands and work as hard as I can to become better. Pray for me.

On Saturday we taught at a youth Mini MTC activity. We led a workshop about talking to everyone and the awkward side of missionary work. They were given little slips with situations like coming across an old lady raking leaves, a tired cashier at Walmarts, contacting a referral, etc. They had a minute to prepare with their companion and then they came and tried to share something with one of us! You can probably picture it, it was funny. Teaching youth is my favourite way to see how far I've come! They are fantastic here, too. Being a Mormon in Mississippi isn't the easiest thing in the world, I look up to these kids a lot!

Dede helping eat the cake!

On Sunday Dede and her husband Joel gave talks in Sacrament Meeting at church. Dede got married and baptized back in November and has been living and loving the gospel :) She would come out and teach with us every day if she could. Her talk was on repentance, and my favourite quote that I doodled was "Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a long time making it." So true, and so exactly what I needed to hear. We are either moving forward or backward, yall! And I am determined to keep going forward if it kills me.

Love you!
Have a blessed week!
Sister Bartsch