SHOREVIEW (Brooke's Letter)

Habari!! (Swahili for hello!!)

What. A. Week!

Well folks, I'm not in North Branch any more! On Thursday, I got transferred to SHOREVIEW! (All the Peoria folks, skip to the pictures for a surprise lol!)

I have a new companion, Sister Campos! She is the best! We are both new to the area (whitewashing) so that has been crazy and fun! We laugh... a lot haha mostly because I do dumb things. (On our second day together I went the wrong way on a main road but quickly realized and recovered... the adrenaline really kicked in) Anyway! We have a lot of fun and we teach really well together!

We are meeting so many cool people here! The other day we met this lady from Kenya and she taught us Swahili! (Hence the intro) And then later that day we met another man from Kenya and I could use what we learned from her with him and that made him so happy! We also met the cutest Chinese family! They were so open so hopefully we can go back! We also get to have the neatest conversations with people! I love giving them hope!

We got to teach a family here The Plan of Salvation using the word "love" and it was so neat! (I'll attach a picture) I LOVE the Plan that God has for us all! It is so cool! 

We had stake conference yesterday (so good) and one of the things I liked from it was that a speaker challenged everyone to BE the ANSWER to someone else's PRAYER! Follow promptings! You never know who God may be trying to bless through you! 

Sorry this is so scatterbrained! We don't have a ton of time today because we are with the Hermanas and heading to the STATE FAIR soon with our Zone! So excited! 

ANYWAY I love you all! Keep on keeping on! Remember who you are and what you stand for! I love getting updates about your life! (Seriously email me!) Thank you for your prayers and your love! 

Kwaheri! (Goodbye)

Love, Sister Freeman

Pictures

1. Sister Penaflor makes good food

2. The sunrise view on our run every morning in North Branch :)

3. I'm allergic to cats but NOT THIS ONE! IT WAS A MIRACLE! 

4. Sister Penaflor off to train another Sister!

5. Sister Campos!! She is the BEST!

6. This guy look familiar? So my area used to be an elders area (like super recently changed) and the apartment has drawings of all the elders who have served there (it's like a tradition of someone in the ward)... its a little creepy to be honest because they are in the room where we sleep but ANYWAY, we were looking at them and I was like whoa! I know him! Shout out to Elder Holmes! 

7. Sister Campos is the best! We are having a blast getting to know the area and the people :) 

8. The "LOVE" Plan of Salvation

9. Cute little Polaroid from a baptism in the Shoreview ward! 

A Full Day of Sadie Hawkins FUN!!

Well it was a fun day FULL of lots of activities. I guess Sadies is a full day now!  The girls plan things for the whole day!  First we went to the lake, then they met for pictures, then they went to dinner at In-N-Out, then they went to the dance, then Katelyn and Caleb went to his house because the noise was bothering him at the dance, and they played Smash Bros.-- fitting!, then Katelyn came home and got her car and went to the after party at Camille Scoffield's house.  Caleb had had a long day and so Katelyn went by herself to the party.  She got home just before midnight!  Wow!  That was a long day considering we got up at 5:30 this morning to leave for the lake by 7!  (I just did the math...Katelyn had an 18 1/2 hour day!)  We had a great group of kids at the lake though... and we had a super great time, even though we were only out there for about 3 1/2 hours.  Below pictured from L-R is who went to the lake:  Landon Updike, Collin Proudfit, Camille Scoffield, Sammy Holmes, Caleb Van Wie and Katelyn inside the car, Olivia Withey, Logan Murphy and Hannah Hinton.  The boys were so good to help in getting Caleb in the boat and did whatever we asked them to do!  It helps when their own family has a boat!  (Landon)  I was impressed with all of them!  Makes me wish I had a boy!  David Van Wie also came to help take care of Caleb. The girls were great too and everyone had such a great time!  All the boys already knew how to surf, so that was great!  I learned a lot from watching them!  They were seriously all really good!  Katelyn was the only one of the girls that knew how to surf, but they all tried and some got REALLY close!  Just need to figure out the balance thing once they get up!  I even got to go a couple of rounds!  I'm getting the hang of it!  Both Landon and Logan caught grapes in their mouths while they were surfing...have video to prove it!  Landon I think caught a pretzel as well!  It felt good to get out and swim too!  And of course, they had a blast on the tubes.  Lastly they made human chains off the back of the boat which at first they didn't really want to do, but had tons of fun and laughs doing it!  It was harder than they thought it would be!

They took pictures of their whole group over at Arrowhead Country Club later on.  The couples were from L-R (using the picture where the girls are in front holding hands):  Olivia Withey and Landon Updike, Camille Scoffield and Collin Proudfit, Molly Baird and Drake Wilson, Whitney ? and Cade Cannon, McKenna Farrell and Kelton Easton, Hannah Hinton and Isaac Proudfit, Sammy Holmes and Logan Murphy, Ally Collins and ?, Jaycee Marks and Tanner McMurdy, Ashley Inman and Seth Pehrson, and Katelyn and Caleb Van Wie.