Hey guys!
Thanks for all the emails. I opened my inbox and so many
people loved me this week I was shocked! I don't know if I will always
have time to respond to every one, but if people include their addresses I can
write them back after email time. I only have an hour and a half a week
to email and I have to write my mission president during that time each week as
well.
Things were kind of a mixed bag this week. I got pretty sick
but didn't want to stop working which just made me even sicker. One morning I
woke up and my companion made me go back to bed because 1) I kept her up all
night coughing so she wanted to sleep and 2) she said I sounded like death and
needed to get better. It's nice that she makes me do things because I'm
really bad at doing things for my own benefit. We were disappointed
because ALL of our appointments cancelled on us Friday and all but one
cancelled for Saturday. It actually was a tender mercy because I started
running a low fever and was really not feeling well so on Friday we just spent
a couple hours knocking on doors and on Saturday we did the same and both
nights we came home early and I went to bed early. I'm still coughing a
lot, but I feel much better on the whole. I'll be ready to head back out
again tomorrow full force. My mission president's wife told me my
allergies would be bad here, but I didn't believe her because everything is
dead here. People legitimately have rocks for a front yard. ROCKS.
I guess maybe cacti have pollen or something. I don't even know.
Speaking of cacti, they really intrigue me. I'm trying to figure
out how they grow arms. I've been examining the arms and trying to figure
out how they bud and stuff. If you have time I wouldn't object to you
printing off the wikipedia article about cacti and mailing it to me.
We had a pretty good week as far as food goes. We even got
to go to the Cheesecake Factory with a family. It is just barely inside
our mission boundaries. Also, thanks for the Reese's! Thank the
Wilsons' and Patitz's as well for the gifts they mailed me. I eat a
Reese's every morning because I decided that a Reese's a day keeps Satan away.
My roommates all say that now as well. Sister Adams' mom mailed her
Reese's for Valentine's day too so we eat them together and say my new catch
phrase. I should probably get Reese's on board too so they can start
using it and paying me royalties. Reese's: Official treats of the
Celestial Kingdom. Also, related to food, I had dinner with someone you
went to high school with mom. She is in one our wards and looked around your
age and was talking about playing softball for the stake softball team as a
teen and how she's always lived in Mesa. I just was like, "Do you
know Robin Kleinman." and she was like, "Yeah, I do. Why?" and I
was like, "SHE'S MY MOMMMMMMMM" and she was like, "Oh I can
definitely see the resemblance now that you tell me that." Her name
was Rhonda Gurr, now it's Rhonda Allen.
Just a little note. If you mail things USPS the mission office can forward them to my address free of charge. If you use another provider I have to go and pick it up at the mission office and we don't always have time for that. So if you can, mail my packages USPS. Also, just to keep on your radar, I get my iPad next week and I want a keyboard to use with it so I can email on it each week and type the information in the area book each night quickly. You can wait until my birthday and it can be a gift to me from you for my GOLDEN BIRTHDAY.
I had to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday and I enjoyed it.
It gave me an opportunity to prove to the ward that I'm competent and
that I have a personality. I saw a lot of people nodding in agreement
with what I was saying and a few people after church told me that they just
thought my talk was so great and that I'm sure funny. I told them about
dad's conversion story and wove that into the importance of members helping
with missionary work. I also told them that I hated Arizona as a kid and
that is why I'm here. They all died laughing when I shared the story of
when mom made me take the missionary lessons with dad so he would listen to
them and then how she tricked him into going to church by saying we needed more
people to get a building.
We taught some of our regulars this week and one new lady.
The new lady even committed to a baptismal date, but she also has some
Word of Wisdom problems, so we'll see how it all pans out. I like her
though. She's a little sassy. We also had dinner with a really
sweet less active member. She sells Avon so she gave Sister Gillespie and
I each some lotion, body wash, and body spray and a $20 bill. Sometimes
people are just too nice! The
skateboarder boys that we teach are just great. The youngest is five and
we're friends. He gave me four rocks from his rock collection to keep and
sang Adele songs to me. Half of the lyrics were completely wrong, but it
was entertaining nonetheless. The one boy is the youngest boy to ever be
invited to the X-Games. He just turned 13, but was invited when he was
11. He will be performing in them again this year. Now that he
turned 13 he is officially sponsored by Red Bull. He is legit. They
all are. And the mom made us cheesecake last night, so she's legit too.
There was a party last P-day for a leaving sister that we went to.
It was nice because Sister Adams and I got to spend some time together
and we ran into our friend Elder Sweeten. I also ran into some sisters
who had dinner at Grandma Margie's last week so that was funny. She
showed them pictures of me.
I'm not going to lie. I was kind of a hot mess last week.
I was just sad. So sad. But things got better. I really
have been working hard as a distraction, which is why I didn't want to stop
when I was sick. I started re-reading the Book of Mormon as well with the
intention of finding out what it takes to be a good missionary. It really
is interesting. I just love that right away in the first chapter of First
Nephi Christ is already mentioned. Nephi was just crazy obedient and I'm
trying to be better like him. I really think it is a good idea to read
the Book of Mormon with a question in mind though, it has made my reading so
much more meaningful. I also want to read the Bible from front to back
while I'm on my mission, so I may start splitting my time between both books
during personal study.
Love you all! I pray for you every night. Actually
sometimes I forget to and then I remember and have to get back out of bed and
kneel down to pray about you all individually.
Most of my zone in the MTC. Also, it's kind of blurry.
I asked a senior missionary to take the picture and he was a little
behind with technology.
Funny story. Sister Adams wanted a picture of me for her
wall so I gave her one in the MTC. Then we became roommates and it was
awkward/funny to always see myself on her wall. I posed with it.
Also, look at my new pink skirt. It's flowy. It makes me feel
like a desert maiden when we're out walking around.
The Love Nest. Last night in the MTC. Also post
shower, which is why our hair is all blow dried and crazy.
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