BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!

Hi family!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SPENCER AND DREW! My companions have been hearing about you guys getting old for the past couple weeks, so I'm sure they'll be glad when your birthdays are over; I'm sad I won't be there to celebrate with you though. Eat some extra ice cream for me. :) I'm guessing between the two of you, at least one will pick to have chinese food sometime this week?  Enjoy some orange chicken and broccoli beef for me too. :) I love you both, and hope your birthdays are magnificent!

Dad, you apparently picked up on some frustration of being in a trio. Yes, it is a little bit harder because there are three of us and so things just take longer. It's more though, because Sister Karratti and I are "older." Sister Gentry just graduated high school less than a year ago, and only did one semester of college. I didn't realize how much of a difference that made, to have lived on my own for a while already. We're working on helping her feel more comfortable and confident, even doing the little missionary things, like reporting our numbers for the week and such. She's a little scatter-brained and forgetful sometimes, but she really is nice! We're just still getting used to it. :) That all sounds very negative, but I promise we love one another and are still working hard! :)

You also asked about our car: we are allowed 1200 miles every month. It seems like a lot, but part of our area is country/farm land so there is a lot of space between each house. Aka tracting is nearly impossible, and not productive or efficient in that area. We do wash the car every week, but we go to a $3 car wash with free vacuums. So, $3 every third week isn't too bad. And the cars get inspected once a week, at district meetings/zone meetings. I would imagine it's probably just tedious work for the district leaders who have to do it, but we keep ours pretty clean all the time so it's not really any extra work to get em checked.

So far I have not "run into" the Forsgrens or the Cannons. I got a Valentines package from the Cannons, which was nice, but that's the only contact. Maybe one day, I'll end up in the Forsgrens ward. Forsgrens, who are the missionaries in your ward? Elders or Sisters? I'd say I'll try and get there, but I really have no control over it. But, we'll keep hoping!

Congratulations on your new callings parentals! I'm glad you got what you wanted mom. Are you doing the string game with it? Where you pull yarn out of a bucket as they sing and when the colors change the way you sing has to change...? Does that make sense? I remember you doing that when I was in primary. 

And, President. Yes, he is very formal, like you said dad, but he's really funny. Very, very dry humor, but we love him. He's very by-the-book with both Preach My Gospel and the White Handbook, but that's pretty nice because we always know where to go to find answers to our questions. He was a seminary/institute teacher before coming here, so he knows the gospel very well! I love going to meetings when he trains because we always learn so much. We talked about grace, and how we receive so much grace through the atonement. It was really good! Speaking of the Atonement, I get to give a training on the Enabling Power of the Atonement (it's from an article in this months Ensign) at our Zone Meeting this week. I'm pretty nervous, but I'm learning a lot as I've been preparing so that's been really cool. Pray for me a little harder on Wednesday around 10:30 please. :)

We've been doing a lot of tracting lately! It's pretty exhausting, but I'm getting used to it. I'm feeling much more like a missionary now. I told Sister Karratti that I finally felt like a real missionary once we had walked to appointments (instead of driving... we're spoiled.) and had a door slammed in my face. (Don't worry. I thought it was funny, not discouraging.) We're struggling to help investigators progress... It's a bummer. We're trying to figure out how to help them this week, but it looks like we're going to be dropping most of our investigators. Their loss. :) Keep praying for our success, and that we'll be inspired to find the right people. 

Thanks family! I love you all! I hope your week is most amazing! Enjoy a little less snow. I know I am. :)

Love, 

Mal

Haley: Thank you for the pictures! Boys, you looked really good in your bow ties! Drew, where'd you get the sweater?! Haha

Drew: I need sweethearts pictures! Slash I want to hear all about it!

Jack: How's Brinleee...? :) And soccer?

Spence: HAPPY  BIRTHDAY! You and Drew will be getting letters this week. :)