December 16

Hello there family,

So I am emailing you from the new iPad our mission just received on
Friday. PretTy neat buts I prefer a tangible keyboard that I don't
have to peck letters on. It's exciting though being the guinea pigs
for Salt Lake as a pilot mission for the iPads. They have made us an
app for our planner and area book, so gone are the days of agendas and
teaching records on paper. We do have to sync our iPads every night
though and other programs require wifi which we don't have in our
apartment but we have a grocery store about a mile away with free wifi
that we use for now and we are just working it out as we go. However,
I can now read emails every night though on my iPad, but won't be able
to reply until Mondays still. I super love handwritten letters the
best and you're always welcome to keep doing snail mail too. ;)

Transfers are tomorrow but Sister Whitmer and I are just staying here
in Hickory though, yay! My district leader, Elder Smellie is being
transferred though which is sad because he is a superb district
leader. :'( Oh well, change is a good thing and I think whoever is my
new district leader will be just as great.

One of our investigators, I have just really come to love so
much and she is slowly making her way toward joining the church so I
am very grateful to still be in Hickory and she really connects with
us as well. Our last appointment with her was wonderful because we
read from the Book of Mormon with her and for the first time she told
us she actually feels it drawing her in and like she can connect to it
some. I wanted to just jump up and shout when she said that! Can I
just tell you how relieving it feels to finally have someone show some
desire to actually change and then to start to take steps on there
own? It's like trying to teach a baby to walk- you can show all you
want and hold their hand but they just won't walk until they want to
walk. She is getting to that point where she could start walking on
her own and I just want it badly for her.

So having a birthday on a P-day was interesting today. We thought
about mini-golfing or bowling but we don't have the car this week so
we didn't. I got a surprise birthday call from the Statesville Elders
in my zone today as well as the zone leaders (who are also the elders
in our area) so that was nice of them and made my morning. I can't
believe I am 21 now, it is strange. And if it weren't for the age
change, I would probably just start getting ready for a mission at
this time.... Kind of a weird thought, but I am glad it worked out
like it did. We decorated our Christmas tree today and it looks great!
Yes, it is my first REAL Christmas tree. I'll try to send pictures
next week on a computer since I am very not tech savvy. :P

Hope all y'all have a fabulous week!
I love you. :)
Love,
Sister Rust