Food Poisoning!!! :(

Dearest family and friends,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2014. I was thinking about how weird that is. Somewhere at home I have a time capsule that I made in Primary that says, "Do not open until 2014." And now.... it's 2014. I still have to wait until October to open that time capsule haha. But I can't believe that it's already here! Time is FLYING. It's insane.

Sooo.... I guess I'd better tell you about the subject of my email first, yeah? So Friday, we went to lunch with the elders and their recent convert, Steven Lau. Steven is loaded so he took us to an American restaurant -- a steakhouse. I was STOKED out of my mind to eat steak. The elders ordered halibut and us sisters ordered steaks. So they bring the steaks out, right? And they bring out what looks like half a cow to EACH of us. We were like, uhh.... elders? Help a sista out! haha :) so we split up our steaks. I gave half of mine to Elder Arrington, and Sister Tidwell gave half of hers to Elder Liu. Life was great. The steak was delicious. And all was well in Zion.

But THEN.... Friday night rolled around. Literally spent half the night in the bathroom. I felt HORRIBLE. It was the worst night I've ever had. When we got up in the morning, Sister Tidwell said she felt totally fine but I've never felt so awful. I called the elders and guess what? Elder Arrington was sick too! But not Elder Liu. DANG IT STEAK. :( so we had a slow weekend to say the least. I took a nap and spent my Saturday in the bathroom and Sister Tidwell did a bunch of calls and records, poor girl. We went to a Christmas concerton Saturday night but I wasn't feeling so hot. I drank some "tummy mint" herbal tea -- I'm turning Chinese and I think herbal tea is the BEST THING EVER. And it helped my stomach feel lots better. The end :)

So Christmas was AWESOME! I loved being able to talk to you guys!!!!!!!!!!! We have the best family in the world. I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you .... :)

Christmas was wonderful! We opened up all of our presents together on Christmas morning and it was so much fun :) went to our ward Christmas party and had an AWESOME time! We had a lot of people there -- investigators and potentials -- which made us really happy. Us missionaries did a skit... Elder Arrington dressed up like Santa and played his guitar, and the rest of us hung upside down from a table with a curtain over our bodies/faces and sang Christmas songs as chin people. The ward LOVED it; they were laughing so hard. Ah Christmas :)

We've been having some slow weeks the past few weeks. It's been hard for me, to be senior companion, to see our dips in numbers. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. But then I look back at the rest of my mission and remember.... the Lord gives us ups and downs all the time. He is trusting me with some challenges right now so that I can improve myself and grow. It's been hard, but good, to have to rely on Him and remember that there's no way I can do this work without Him. It humbles me so much. I love what I'm doing. The good and the bad -- it's all the best experience I've ever had.

Can you believe it? This week marks my HALFWAY POINT. Whaaaaa?? I've been out 9 months. I have 9 months to go.I can't believe it! I don't want to go home. I want to stay and serve here FOREVER. I love this mission. I love these people. I want to help them my whole life. I want to serve my Savior like this my whole life. I can't believe it's going so fast!

I love you, fam! and friends! You are what keeps me going! Thank you for your support, your love, your encouragement, your smiles, your prayers, your jokes, your righteous examples. I love you all so much!

Have the best week and HAPPY 2014!

Love always,
Shay
xoxoxo