Sister Emily Sabey: So I'm 21 now. Huh.

Hi Family!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. It made my day really special. I'll tell you more about it later :)

My district leader gave me a challenge this week. He asked me to write five things that went well each day in my journal. People have given me this challenge before, but I usually forgot to carry through, so now my journal entries look more like lists every day, but it's been really fun to be able to reflect on just how much God has been in my life. And with that, now I'm all ready to tell y'all about things that were awesome this week.

We went tracting this week and met a girl named Allie. She was fun to talk to and has lots of Mormon friends. We introduced ourselves saying, "We're the missionaries and we are kinda new to the area" sort of deal. Well, she misunderstood and thought I meant I was a new missionary. It was a funny conversation because she straight up said it was awkward, so we apologized and made comments about trying to not be awkward during our conversation, so at one point she told me, "It's okay, you're still learning". I liked that response, so I went with it. This is official news now: I am still learning. I have lots to do :)

I guess that is my funny moment for the week. I had an awesome experience doing service this week. We were helping someone named Aimee, and while we were talking, she mentioned the Las Vegas Shooting, and asked, "What does your book say about that?" It was awesome because it was a totally unplanned teaching opportunity. I got to talk to her about how God is in charge and how in the eternal perspective, He knows who those people that would be coming home that day were. I remembered a scripture about it, so I got to share that with her. I told her about the Nephites and how they sometimes had wars happen, and then shared Alma 56:11, which says, "Nevertheless, we may console ourselves in this point, that they have died in the cause of their country and of their God, yea, and they are happy." She really liked it and even asked me to write it down so she could share it with a friend!

We also got to see our friend Jaime again! I mentioned him before. He was the man in scrubs that we gave a Book of Mormon to. We stopped by and he spent a long while telling us his life story, but it was cool because we got to testify of the Savior and invite him to church. He said that he did not want to, but "if his Heavenly Father was calling him, he would obey". I'm hoping we get to see him at church one of these days. He said we had shown up at the perfect time, and I was really happy that we got to talk to him again.

Now I will tell y'all about my 21st birthday. We had Zone Sports, and we played my favorite game, which is called "Chair Soccer". I asked all of the zone to come (there are one or two that don't usually come), and they all came!!! We went out and worked and it was a pretty normal day, but we got to have dinner with Sister Sorenson and Sister Donaldson. It was a lot of fun and they worked really hard to make sure it was a special birthday.

We got to end off the evening by stopping by Charles, and it turned into a teaching appointment! We taught him the Plan of Salvation, and he absolutely loved it! It was so good. We are doing a church tour with him this upcoming week, and I couldn't be more excited. We got to testify and it strengthened my own testimony of the Plan of Salvation as we did so. Charles even commented that he could see that this was "in our hearts". It made me so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and for all that He does for us, including and most importantly, sending His Son to die for us. I love the Gospel, I love sharing it, and Mom got her wish for my birthday--I was definitely just a little spoiled in a lot of ways. I'm so blessed to be serving here and to have an awesome family that is so supportive. I love you!

Sister Emily

1001 N Burk Street
Gilbert, AZ
85234

Sister Sattler and Ogawa surprised me by decorating the kitchen