Happy Monday Everyone!!! I hope everyones week was a good as....good as....chocolate tastes?? I don't know. Basically i hope it was good. Mine was pretty great! Here's my Top 5:)

1. WARM: We have been blessed with a warm spell!!! Yay!! However let me express to you that you know you're in Iowa when everyone is talking about and thanking God for the warm weather and it is a whooping 30 degrees. Yeah i know, but seriously it has been fantastic! I haven't even worn a coat as much! #iowaprobs (ps are hashtags still cool?) 

2. BROADCAST: So on Wednesday there was a worldwide broadcast for missionaries led by President Oaks and oh man was it good!! It was mostly fundamental stuff but oh man did i learn a lot and had a lot of duh! moments. Hermana Smith and i are excited to implement what we learned into our daily proselyting:) Yay missionary stuff!!

3.THE FAWCETTS: The other day we went to go visit this less active couple that live in the outskirts of a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. First off, let me brag that we found the house without a GPS:) But oh man it took a long time, we really need a one. (hint hint wink wink) Anyway, we knocked on their door and they answered and said "ahh man, you found us" and we  were like yes we did! Then we all laughed and they invited us in and we got to know them. So he is a member and she is a member of the RLDS church and her grandfather started that church in this area. Its a really weird situation and we aren't sure how to approach it but hey we'll figure something out. They were super sweet and said we could come back any time....we will for sure be back. 

4. OLD PEOPLE: Ok so anyone that knows me knows that i have a hard time....having patience toward the elderly. We'll the mission is where God throws all your weaknessess at you and says Hey lets work on these together. Sooo i have had a lot of heart-softening experiences out here towards old people and oh my lanta they are my favorite now! We go visit a lady named Darlene every week and she is so sassy and fun to talk to! The other day i painted her nails for her and she always gives us ice cream:) And we love knocking on doors at independant senior living places and even though most of them aren't interested, we still talk with them and listen to their stories and usually do service for them and its awesome!! Ahh missionary work is the best!! 

5.LIZZY: I love Lizzy! She is so amazing!! We taught her word of wisdom and law of chastity this week and she was super open and said that living the law of chastity would be really good for her and her boyfriends relationship. She is sooo excited for her baptism on the 6th!! Ahhh she really is a miracle and we are just so blessed to be able to help her! 

Well thats my week:) As always have a fantastic week and LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!! xoxo, Hermana Rice

OH and I almost forgot to send a pic of my district. We are an all sister district which is a blast and the tall blond guy in the back is our district leader (whom we call the relief society president) looking like he does pretty much every time we gather. Poor guy

Doing Darlene's nails:)

Hermana Rice sculpted out of stick rice:P

2.FOOD:  There is a hispanic lady that owns a restaurant here in town and she lets us come eat for free once a week so we went there and had lunch and it was sooo good!!!! I love mexican food!!!! Hermana Maria is the best cook in Webster City and then as a bonus she fed us at her house again this week and we got her cooking again!! We are spoiled!

3. COLD : So the average temperature this week has been -10 with a windchill of about -30 so its cold. But we have been knocking a lot and its been crazy! People either get mad that we are letting cold air into their home or they feel bad for us and let us come in a share a message. Its been pretty interesting and we've definitely seen miracles this week. But oh my lanta i have never experienced anything like this, we have on as many layers as we can fit and we are still cold. It makes me think of the pioneers crossing through Iowa in this weather ( and apparently we are having a mild winter) in their thin clothes and thin or no shoes and wow they were amazing!! So grateful for them! Would it be cruel and unusual for me to bring my kids to an iowa winter and make them pull a heavy wagon around in pioneer clothes for a little bit so they can gain an appreciation for the pioneers? 

4.LIZZY: Lizzy is our 21 year old investigator that CAME TO CHURCH!! woot woot she is so prepared! She loved it and asked to keep the Gospel Principles manual to study and she is doing great!! She is adorable! She is going to be baptized on Feb 6 and she is super excited and so are we! Stay tuned next week for Lizzy updates :)

5.I can't think of a  number five so i will just say....MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME! I LOVE IT! I LOVE IOWA!! I LOVE EVERYTHING!!!   

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!! xoxoxoxo

This week was pretty fantastic and I can't wait to tell you all about it!! Here's my Top 5 for this week!

1. ZONE CONFERENCE: This week we had a special "New Years" Zone conference that was so fun! First we had trainings from the AP's and Pres. and Sis. Jensen and then we had lunch (lasagna, salad, breadsticks, and cookies my favorite) and then each District did a skit. We did the story of Lehi and his family sailing to the promised land but we added Iowa jokes and "tiwihona" (making fun of the tiwi boxes we have in our cars that tracks our driving) Most of the skits were hilarious!!! So fun!! Then we watched Ephraims Rescue. Oh my lanta such an amazing movie!!! If you haven't seen it, watch it!

2.MIGRAINE: So after Zone Conference I had this massive migraine so went to sleep and no joke 24 hours later I woke up. I only woke up once during that do eat some soup. It was awful! I went to bed Tues evening and woke up Thurs morning! Not fun. I haven't had a migraine that bad in a long time!!!

3. PUPPIES: Oh my lanta so the rule of not being able to hold kids has me so deprived that I go crazy over ever cat and dog that I see. Its ridiculous! But we were visiting a less active couple the other day and their chow chow and their corgi had puppies! And they were less than a week old and still had closed eyes and we got to hold them!! I died!!! One of then was so chubby! You pet him and it was just layers of fat rolls and Ahhhhhh baby animals are the best!!! Sooooo cute!!!

4. COLD: So its been pretty cold here lately, and when I say cold I mean -10 degrees with a windchill of -30 degrees. I have never felt anything like it before. I can't even describe it, no matter how many layers you have on the cold just goes right through you and it everything goes numb and hurts and oh my lanta I will never complain about the cold in Utah again!! We have no idea what cold is!!!! Yesterday on the way to church I was eating a yogurt in the car and as I was eating it the edges started to freeze! My yogurt was freezing as I was eating it!!! I leave my water bottle in the car for half and hour and its frozen! What is this madness???? ITS IOWA!!!!

5. INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: We had a fantastic member present with Jose in the Dairy Queen the other night! The member was perfect! He answered questions perfectly and addressed concerns that we didn't even tell him that Jose had! The Spirit was so strong! Then Rafael is doing great! We met with him and he invited us to his church to see how corrupt it is! So funny! We also taught him the Restoration and we said it makes so much sense and why doesn't everyone know about this and we were like Rafael! That's why were here!! They are both awesome!! We just need to get them to church!! Its sad cause the bad weather here scares everyone away:( but we press forward!

That was my week! Can't wait to here from ya'll and tell you about next weeks adventures!!! As always. LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!!!! xoxox Hermana Rice

PS I can't send pics this week cause I forgot my cord to plug into the computer. Sorry!

Happy New Years Everyone!!! This week was absolutely fantastic and oh my lanta i can't wait to tell you all about it. Here are my Top 5 from this week.

1.NEW YEARS EVE: So basically the whole world parties on this night but when you are a missionary you have to go inside at 7. But you still wanna do something special so you make cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate...then you give up and go to bed at 8 and have the longest sleep you have had in 10 months. That was my night and it was perfect. 

2.NEW YEARS DAY: The first day of 2016 was spent at District Meeting. Where we ate food and then practiced a skit for our fun zone conference thing this Tues. and its gonna be fabulous and then we had dinner with a member and her two adult daughters (one lives with her and the other was in town for the holidays) they are half Chilean and half French so they are amazing and oh my lanta the food was delicious! Fist we had whole artichokes dipped in olive oil and lemon juice ( not a fan) and then we had this  chopped up chicken cordon bleu and fresh green beans and a Chilean potato salad. And peach upside down cake for dessert. Fantastic family and oh my lanta here is the crazy/best part about them.....ready for this....they have....no joke....46 CATS!! I am not even kidding they have 46 cats but only 25 of them are indoor cats and the rest are outdoor cats. I really want to find them 4 more cats so they can have 50! That has got to be some kind of record. Basically i made friends with all the cats and it was soooooo fun!!!!!

3.CLARION: So yesterday we decided to go tracting in a small town in our area called Clarion...Its actually not small...well it is but its bigger than Webster. Anyways we spent the afternoon there and we got to teach TWO lessons in Spanish!! Woot woot!! It was awesome!! Haven't taught in spanish in 3 weeks and boy did it feel good! My spanish has gotten sooo much better!! Yay!!! 

4.PAM: Ok so Pam is a member that is from Laos and she has two daughters that are the cutest things in the whole wide world!! One is 8 and we are teaching her the lessons so she can be baptized and the other is 2 and oh my lanta i just wanna squeeze her chubby cheeks and keep her forever she is sooooo cute!!! I can't stand it!! And Pam is the funnest person so be around. She is a blast and she makes the best food!!! We had dinner at the house last night and oh my lanta it was amazing!!! We had sticky rice ( i could eat buckets of that stuff) and steak strips that were spicy but perfect and had the most perfect flavor and oh my lanta we ate so much it was soooo gooood!!! I am legitimately in awe at how amazing her food is!!! I could go on forever!! Basically Lao food is the bomb!

5.INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: We have three main investigators that we are working with Rafael, Lizzy and Jose. They are all awesome but oh my lanta the holidays are the WORST for missionary work cause everyone is out of town and with family so missionary work kind of pauses. We just focus on the members more but now that the holidays are over (YAY!) we got to get right back into business and work our tails off and its awesome!!! WOOHOO!!! Yay for missionary work!!!! Stay tuned next week for even more investigator updates! 

Well ya'll that was my week! It was fantastic and i hope everyone else's was just as fantastic!! As always LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo Hermana RIce

Hey Everyone! First off let me apologize for not emailing yesterday, we had a huge blizzard and everything closed down (including the library) so we had no way to email. Thankfully the blizzard is over so i get to email!!! Yay!!

Here's me Top 5 from this Week :)

1. SINGLE ADULT DINNER: So we went to this Chinese buffet ( because there are a million of them in Iowa) with the single adults from the ward. Not like young single adults, like young at heart single adults. It was super fun. We ate too much food and had some really great conversations and laughed a lot. Basically it was a fantastic night!

2. EXCHANGES: This week we had exchanges with the STL's in Boone. It was awesome! I went to Boone with Sister Skaggs and our comps stayed in Webster. We had a lot of fun together! We went knocking most of the time and stopped to throw rocks in a frozen pond. Then we visited a member and her 40 year old son that lives with her was totally drunk and oh my lanta did he make for some interesting entertainment. He gave us carmel popcorn which was delicious and we talked a lot and...it was a very interesting evening. The next morning after studies we went to do service at this tiny bookstore and it was the greatest thing in the whole wide world because......they had 2 huge fluffy white cats just walking around. They're like the store pets! It was so fun! We got to clean the store and play with the cutest cats ever!! Then we went to Pizza Ranch for lunch and oh yeah we taught this man that called us and said he wanted to learn. So we find out that the missionaries have been teaching him for a couple years. He is bipolar schizophrenic and has been trying to decide between Mormonism and Islam. Totally opposite but ok. It was a really good lesson, we'll see what happens. 

3.CHRISTMAS EVE: Oh man this was a good day! We had district meeting and we had a potluck lunch with a roast and mashed potatoes/gravy and pasta salad and of course lots of treats. It was delicious!! Oh and the best part was we did throw-up Thursday meaning we wore the most mismatched, ugly, whatever crime against fashion you could think of. It was awfully awesome! We looked nasty. Then we went and talked to people in random places and all that good stuff. Then we had dinner with our bishops family and some of his family friends. It was fantastic! We had lots of food and treats and ok so in Iowa they eat loose meat hamburgers. Its like a regular hamburger but the meat is loose ground meat instead of a patty. Its weird but good. Then we played games and played music and dressed up and did a nativity thing. Fabulous night!! 

4.CHRISTMAS!: Best Christmas ever!! So first we went to Bro. Fortunes house and had breakfast with him and his family (waffles for the win!) and opened presents. Then we went to the Bairs house and played with their kids for a while and then we skyped our families and it was the greatest hour ever! Yes,Yes, Yes it was awesome!! After that we played with the Bair kids for a little longer and went and got our windsheild wipers replaced. Fun fun. But we got to talk to this really cool guy that basically just needed someone to talk to so it was fantastic. Then, to end our day we had dinner with the Nelson family! They are a young couple with a 16 month old and her parents were there too. I danced with the 16 month old for a while and had a grand old time. For dinner we had the traditional ham and green beans and rolls and potatoes and such. Delicious!! It was a fantabulous Christmas!!!!! 

5. BLIZZARD: So we had a blizzard. We went from no snow to ten inches in one day, Joy. It was crazy cause it was p-day so we had to go out and get groceries and stuff like that so we did and Hermana Smith is a very good winter driver. We went to this cutsie little restaurant with a member , Bro. Loffredo, and had a fabulous lunch getting to know him. Then we went to the store and got food and then the blizzard was getting bad so we went back inside for the rest of p-day and that night we had to go see people so we venture out and its still blizzarding and our car in totally stuck. So we shovel around it and I'm pushing while Hna. Smith is trying to go and this guy stops and helps us get it unstuck. Then we go down the road a couple blocks and its crazy outside but we keep going and then we get stuck again. So i get out and push some more and another guy comes and helps us out. Basically we have given up so we went to the nearby McDonalds and got McFlurrys and mozzarella sticks. It was a....interesting night for missionary work. 

Well everyone that's all for now. As always, I LOVE AND MISS YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!! 

xoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

Throw-Up Thurs. District pic

Nativity! 

Cozy with pajamas and hot chocolate during the blizzard :)

This is the beginning of the blizzard. Iowa!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! This week was fantastic and i can't wait to tell you all about it! Here's my Top 5 from this week...Enjoy:)

1.TRANSFERS: I feel like i just send out an email saying that i got transferred but here we are again and i can say I GOT TRANSFERRED!! That's right, i left the big city and got sent to the small (and i do mean small) town of Webster City. Its in the northwest corner of the mission and it is the cutest little town! My new companion is Hermana Smith. She is from Salt Lake and has been out for 4 months and her spanish is great and oh my lanta she is super fun and sweet and wow we have a blast together! I am beyond excited for this transfer! The members here are sooo awesome! Hermana Clark was trained here and she told me all about everyone so i feel like i already know and love everyone!  We also have Sisters in the ward and an all girl district ( except for the district leader) and its so fun and so weird! Basically, everything is awesome!! 

2. FOOD: This weeks new food that i tried is Laotian food. We had duck (eww its sooo greasy) and kiwi with fish sauce and sticky rice. The sticky rice is manna but everything else was nasty! Oh well, at least i tried it. 

Oh and i also tried Mate (that Argentine drink) and oh my lanta it was like licking a dirty tractor! Just no. 

3. Guys i am gonna level with ya. I am listening to MoTab while i am writing and man, the beats getting to me. I am doing a little dance in my seat and i totally forgot what i was going to write about. This is awkward but oh yeah that march of the nutcracker is my jam! 

4. OVEN: Ok so this happened to my companion last night and has nothing to do with my but its sooo funny so imma tell it. So were at our ward mission leaders home for dinner and Hna, Smith asks if she can help and they say yeah get the rolls out of the pan. So she grabs the pan and takes the rolls out and she goes to put the pan down and it slips our of her hands and drops on their glass top stove that probably cost as much as her college tuition and the pan survives without a scratch buut the stove top chipped/cracked/ broke.It completely ruined one of the burner areas. The room was silent for a solid 2 min. i swear. They assured her it was ok but oh my lanta, most awkward dinner appointment of my life!

5. INVESTIGATORS: So here we have a bunch of investigators. The one were really focusing on is Rafael. He is from el salvador but speaks perfect english. He just left his church and has a lot of questions about the gospel so were super excited to help him! The rest of them are super great and oh my lanta i just love meeting and teaching people! Its sooooo great!!!! 

So i think i got everything, Hillary Weeks is singing Joy to the World so I can't focus right now. But i think thats about it. LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!! Have a safe, fantastic, wonderful Christmas!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

Me and Hermana Smith:)

Check out this creepy tie I won at a white elephant thing....:/

EVERYONE I NEED YOU TO DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!!! DO NOT READ THIS EMAIL YET, GO TO CHRISTMAS.MORMON.ORG AND SCROLL DOWN TO 12 DAYS OF SOCIAL AND WATCH #5 ALEX BOYE!!!!!! DO IT NOW!!!!

Ok now that your day was just made I can tell you about my week. It was great and I'll tell you why....

1. NO CAVATIES: Maybe just my parents will appreciate this one but imma put it in here anyway. So there is a dental office in town where basically  everyone that works there is a return missionary so they give the missionaries free dental care. Anywho, Hna Lundell had to get a cavity filled and they asked if we wanted a cleaning too. Of course we are gonna say yes so we did and I expected a million problems but no! My teeth are whole and undisturbed by cavities!! yay!

 2. MISSION TOUR: So on Friday we had a big conference with Elder Martino of the Seventy. He was super amazing. And btw he is fluent in Spanish so that was cool. He gave amazing trainings on how we need to work as hard as we can to involve members in the work and how we need to be working with the end in mind and love everyone to pieces!! There was so much more but that's the jist of it and it was super duper fun!!!

3. FIESTA: Guys, white people do not know how to party. Just saying. We had the Branch Christmas party and it was fantastic!! There was a TON of delicious food, music, dancing, Santa, more dancing ahhh it was soooo fun!! I am convinced that if everyone had parties like that the world would be a better place. Homemade green tamales will bring world peace.

4.SHOW CHOIR: Have you ever heard of Show Choir? If not, look it up. Its HUGE here! Its the equivalent of band in AF. But our Branch Presidents daughter had a performance for show choir and we got to go and it was AMAZING!!! They sing songs and have intense dance routines and my favorite is that it modern music, not normal boring choir songs. It was sooooooo fun!!!

5.INVESTIGATOR UPDATE: We are teaching a bunch of people that are all at square one right now so there's not a lot to tell but we are blessed with a lot of people to see and have been very busy!

That's all I got this week. As always, LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!!! xoxoxoxo Hermana Rice

Branch Fiesta with Santa and our favorite member Nani!!

The 5th Branch Missionaries and our mission leader! (someone told us to look sad) (idk why)

I call this one "Trio Angles"  ( yes that is NOT supposed to be angels)