Re: Momma

Dear Momma,
I'm glad you and Rich got to have a little fun this week. The concert sounds like it was really cool, and it's neat that you got in for free.
Thanks for sending the package. I hope it arrives before I fun out of pills. I'll be watching for it. I'm excited for the beef jerky. ;-) For souvenirs, I can work with however much you want to send. I guess just send whatever you would otherwise spend on Christmas gifts.
As for how Nate and I have done things... I don't have any regrets. I don't know if I'd have made it this far without knowing I have a future with him to come home to. With everyone else pushing and pushing at me, I may have buckled and run the other way if I didn't have Nate to be good for. The fact is, we're commanded not to delay getting married, and we've already had to wait a long time. There's a reason why church policy allows women to come home from missions and get married. If the Lord wasn't okay with it, that wouldn't be the policy. I'm not really convinced that the Lord wants me to stay in the mission field more than he wants me to get married. And yes, there is time for both, but unless we figure some things out, there's going to be a LOT of frustration and time wasted. Nate and I don't have a long list of demands. But one thing we really are set on is our wish to be married in Utah. At the same time, it is so important for me to at least have my parents and my sisters there, and MomMom, is possible. Getting married without you is NOT an option. From what I can tell, you have exactly three times when you have time off from work and are available to come to a wedding: Christmas break, spring break, and summer. Nate is scheduled to work the week of March 6th and his sister is due to have a baby that week. (I'm also guessing that Rich, Chynna, and Keira don't have that week of with you.) So that one's out. So we either get married over Christmas, or we wait until summer just so you can be there. And during those six months, I will have no job, no school, no money, and nowhere to live, so I'll be 3,000 miles away from my finance with nothing to do but catch up on my reading list FOR SIX MONTHS. I am absolutely not okay with that in any way, and I don't think that's what God wants either. If I'm not mistaken about your availability, let me know. Because that's really what me maybe coming home was and still is about. 0In Fact, just give me dates on all of these... (Really. I need to know the specific dates so I know whether or not Christmas and summer really are our only options.)
When is Chynna's Christmas break? When is Keira's? Does Rich get time off? When is your spring break? When is Chynna's? Do Keira and Rich have time off? If so, when? When do each of your summer vacations start? Are there any times off for you that I don't know about? Are there any times that MomMom wouldn't be free? This is really important right now. So please get me the dates on these things as soon as you can.
Now as for the mission - Anette's baptism was on Saturday, and it was lovely. She was a little stress basket right up until the service started, but the speakers brought a really strong spirit, and she relaxed as they spoke. The music also helped. It was really neat - when we got up Saturday morning, Sister Sprauge looked out the window and saw a huge rainbow. The really neat thing was - the rainbow landed right on Anette's house. (She only lives about 2-3 blocks away from us.) We told her about it when she got to the church, and then we put together a quick musical number with the primary song about rainbows and baptism. She loved it. Her confirmation went really well (nowhere near as eventful as Pontus's was... no 90-year old crazies jumping into it or anything like that)... We also had a baby blessing in the same meeting, which was especially nice because the baby belongs to a less-active member we've been visiting for the last 3 months, and she just started coming to church again last week. President called us Saturday night with transfer assignments. Sister Sprague's moving to Goteborg to be with my old companion Sister Jenson. I'm really going to miss her. She's quickly become a best friend for me.