Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:44 PM
Subject: Singing with JOY!!!!!

My dear friends and family,
 
Words simply cannot describe how incredibly HAPPY and full of absolute, sheer JOY I am!!!!!!!!!!
 
My new companion, Sister Benally (pronounced Be-NAW-lee) is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, I LOVE HER. (SQUEAL) She is an answer to so many prayers and I will be eternally grateful to Heavenly Father that He let me be with her. I think I've cried in all of my night prayers this week when I thank Him for her because she is amazing.

She is NAVAJO and she grew up on a reservation in New Mexico. She is SUPER hardworking, VERY diligent, devoted, dedicated, motivated, spiritual, athletic, and just all around wonderful. I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week has been amazing and I am just so dang excited for the next three months!!!!!!
 
So on Tuesday, Sister Nelson and I drove to the mission office to switch companions. She is up in Paradise now (an actual town...haha), so we met up with her new companion and she took off for the more northern part of California. I stayed at the mission office for a few hours and got to watch everyone switch companions and see the excitement happening. The other sister that is training this transfer is Sister Tittle and she is serving in Dry Creek, which was the first area I served in when I got here. The two of us went to a meeting with the elders that are training and were instructed by President Weston on training new missionaries. It got me totally pumped up and I could feel the Spirit soooo strongly!!!!! 

After that meeting, we had dinner with all of the new missionaries and I got to meet the two new sisters. I immediately loved Sister Benally. I felt the Spirit when I was talking with her....but I didn't want to try and "guess" who my companion would be at that point. haha.... After dinner, we went to the apartment in Dry Creek and we all passed out for the night. The nexrt morning, I discovered that Sister Benally loves to run and she likes sports. Halleluiah!!!! We went running together and watched the beautiful sunrise. The sky was all pink and as we were running, I thought, "This is a new horizon. Good things are going to happen." After that, we got ready for the day and then went to breakfast with the missionaries and President and Sister Weston. 

After breakfast, it was time for companions to be assigned!!!!!!! So I walked up to the big projector screen, pointed to my area where I am serving on the map, and introduced myself. Then.... my companion was announced and it was SISTER BENALLY. I tried to control my excitement as I gave her a great big hug. OH BABY!!!!!!! I was sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a training meeting all morning and it was so exciting to talk with my new companion and to go over the material that we would cover during the next three months.

After the meeting, we got her suitcases, loaded them into our car, and took of for Wal-mart to get her groceries. Then we drove back to Loomis and quickly got her things unpacked. I just have to say that I loved her from the very start. She unpacked really quickly and was ready to get to work. Since then, we have been going a hundred miles an hour and I just feel on fire with the Spirit. As we are driving around, we are memorizing the scriptures that we recite at district and zone meetings, we role play, we review lesson plans, etc. Oh, it is so great!!!! Our companion study time has been AWESOME. She is just so motivated to learn and she's dedicated to the work. She immitates everything that I do....so I have to make sure that I'm doing it all right. haha! The first day I mentioned that we are supposed to read 4 pages from Preach My Gospel each day and read from the Book of Mormon, as well as study and prepare for our investigators. 

She wrote it in her planner, word for word, just like I do. In the morning, I make my bed really quickly and then put my shoes on so we can go run. She jumps out really quickly and is ready to go in a matter of seconds. It is just WONDERFUL. She graduated with a degree in Chemistry, so she's very studious and she likes to make charts and graphs to break things down. Planning for our lessons is so much fun because it is so thorough and she's EXCITED to plan the lesson!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!! Another huge tender mercy is that our members and investigators LOVE her. She is KIND, cordial, polite, genuinely interested, and just loveable. It is SOOOOO nice!!!!! She just immediately fits in and she is good with people. She watches me really closely and I try to explain different rules, etc. before they come up and then that awkward correction situation happens. I don't really have to do anything or say anything to her because she just watches me and DOES it. OH I LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!
 
This weekend, we took Jacqueline to a baptism of a woman that the elders taught. Jacqueline LOVED the baptism and she is really excited for her husband to get to the United States and baptize her. It should be within the next month! This area is going to explode with awesome missionary work...I can feel it in my bones.
 
I have gained a deepened testimony of the Atonement this week. We will have trials and sometimes we won't know how we can make it or if we will make it. We may wonderf if we will ever heal from our challenges. Through the Atonement and through Heavenly Father's promises, I know that we can be healed. I was really hurting before, but this week, it was as though all of those feelings were completely washed away. I know that the Atonement is real. Heavenly Father has promised that the Celestial Kingdom will be worth every struggle we have, if we endure them well. I know that we can trust Him. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all will be made right. We will be ok, we just have to keep going and do our best. I know that we will not be disappointed in Heavenly Father's plan for us. We will be full of joy and it will be so eternally worth it. I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers. He answers them at the right time and in the way that He knows is best. I am SO grateful for Sister Benally. I love her! I'm grateful that I will get to finish my time in California with her. I love this Gospel and I love being a missionary. Thank you for all of your love and support. It means a lot to me and I'm forever grateful for the influences that I was raised around.
 
Love,
Sister Heather Ripplinger