Sent: Monday, January 7, 2013 1:55 PM
Subject: Time to Arise

My dear friends and family,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!! This week has been really busy, really great, really crazy...and I feel like 2013 is going to be a great year! =) I
hope everyone was able to set some temporal and spiritual goals for the upcoming year and that everyone is looking forward to it. I know
that I sure am! Woohoo!!!!!!

Transfers are coming up next week!!! I can't believe that I've been in California for the amount of time that I have been... I feel like I've
been here for a long time because of how many things have happened since I've been here, but yet, the time has absolutely flown by. I'm
trying to soak up every single day. I have a few months left here and I'm just going to try and work away with all of my heart so that I
have absolutely nothing left in the tank to give in California. I have three months left here. I've been getting pretty specific promptings
of what is going to happen during that time and I'm really, really looking forward to it. Then I'm going back to my good, old town of
Nauvoo with everything I've got left to give on my mission and I'm going to finish hard. I feel like there is still so much ahead to
accomplish and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has been consecrating my time. It's really interesting to step out of my little
missionary world and look at the big picture. Speaking of the big picture, eternal perspective, and feeling the Spirit.... I GET TO GO
TO THE TEMPLE THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Words cannot express how incredibly, deeply, sincerely JOYFUL I am that I get to go
to the Sacramento Temple. I was really blessed to be able to attend the temple once a week while I was going to school for the last couple
years, then once a week since I was endowed last December all through my mission until October. I haven't been in three months and I am
REALLY missing it. Sister Nelson and I get to go with some of our favorite members and I am SOOOOO excited!!!!!!!!!!! =) I LOVE THE
TEMPLE.

It will be interesting to see what happens with transfers and who I will be with. Earlier this week, I was having my personal study time
and I kept feeling the Spirit and thinking about the new missionaries. I started trying to calculate out how soon a sister would enter the
MTC to come out in time for our transfers and I think I was feeling those promptings the morning after someone special went into the MTC.
I am not positive about what will happen.... but I think that I am going to train and I think I'm going to get a really good companion.
This week, Heavenly Father has been lining things up and it is interesting to see His hand in preparing the area for upcoming people
and their specific talents. We'll see what happens! But I'm getting ready for whatever it is!

I went on exchanges with two different sisters this week, as well as attending Zone Leader Council...so the week was CRAZY!!!! It went
really well and I am just totally pumped up about the new year. My planner is filled with scribbles of people that we are teaching, the
lesson plans, the commitments we are going to leave, the miracles that happen, the impressions that the Spirit gives, etc.... If I step back
and just look at it, it gives me a head ache. haha Luckily, the Spirit helps keep us organized and sane. This is the Lord's work!!!!!

I have some SUPER EXCITING NEWS!!!! Jacqueline's husband (who was trying to immigrate from Germany) RECEIVED PERMISSION TO
COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been waiting for a few months to hear and he finally gets to come. She is just dying to jump into the baptismal
font and now her husband gets to baptize her!!!!!!!! She is SO excited and WE are sooooo excited!!!!!!!! She is one of the most prepared
people that I've met or taught. Everything just makes clear sense to her and she embraces the gospel with all of her heart. She is going to
be a strong, strong member.

So one night this week, our previous dinner plans had fallen through and we hadn't had time to figure anything else out. So the night
before, we receive a phone call from one of my favorite, sweet voices on the phone and she invited us over for dinner with their family. We
ended up having a really big discussion with two of their family friends. They had watched a show on TV about Mormons, which wasn't
true at all. It started out with questions about the show and then we ended up teaching basically the whole first lesson. This young couple
was surrounded by current missionaries, a young man with a mission call to leave in the next month, returned missionaries, and all.
hahaha It was really fun to be part of. =) It was cute because at first, the rest of the family was cleaning up dinner and it was pretty
loud in the kitchen. We were just sitting at the table in our little bubble, teaching about Joseph Smith and prophets, etc. By the end of
the conversation, however, all of their family was sitting reverently at the table listening to the conversation. =) I LOVED it!!!

One day on exchanges, we went tracting and we came to a man standing out in his driveway. At first, he had his walls up around him and
wasn't very friendly at all. Within a few minutes, though, he was smiling and happy and super nice! After a few minutes, his wife walks
out with a happy smile and starts talking with us. Come to find out that she is a less active member of the church! No one else in her
family is a member, however! They invited us in and the mom went to get her two teenage daughters! We were talking with their family for
about 20 minutes and there seemed to be a glow in the room. It was really interesting. I kept looking at them and just felt like something special is going to happen with them. We said a prayer before we left and scheduled a time to come back this week. I'm REALLY excited about them! It was a miracle that things worked out like they did because we couldn't have gone in if the wife wasn't there and she
was right inbetween work schedules ( PERFECT TIMING).

Another tender mercy is that our stake president is in tune with the Spirit. He is AWESOME. I had a few people that I've been worried about
and a few lessons that we wanted him to come to. When I called, he was already all over it. =) Tender mercy!

I am so grateful for this time to be a missionary!!!!!!! I AM SOOOO EXCITED TO GO TO THE TEMPLE THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!! If you haven't been to the temple in a while, please make time to go soon!!!!  It is such a blessing and privledge to be able to attend the temple. =)

Love,
Sister Heather Ripplinger