Sept 15, 2014 (9 1/2 weeks out)

OKAY. This week was hard, but I don't want to waste time talking about it. I'm struggling with a few different things. But. Focusing on the good. And my keyboard is messed up so please excuse any issues..

 

Okay wait I want to say one thing - so one morning we woke up and I saw our front door was unlocked and I was like aw darn.. whatever. And later that day Sis Rea was like, okay so I'm not sure I want to say this but I think someone was in our apartment last night... and I was like holy what... our door was unlocked and she just stopped like oh shoot. and apparently she takes forever to go to sleep and I am out in 2 seconds but she heard someone come upstairs and walk to our bedroom door stand there and go downstairs. But she was like nah we're locked up it must be the neighbors but our walls are super soundproof and so needless to say I didn't fall asleep in 2 seconds anymore. But. All is well and we are safe. 

 

Another story about safety - we were knocking a couple days ago and walking up to this house this creeeepy big dog came prowling around the corner and like, I have never been legit afraid of a dog attacking me until that moment. He was tied up and sis rea was like it's ok he can't get us and I just had this huge horrible feeling like you can't walk up to this door and I convinced her not to. And when we came back down the street a couple minutes later he was sitting on the front porch growling at us. So, uh. Yeah. I'm glad we didn't go up there. 

 

OKAY GOOD NEWS! Our area is EXPLODING with people right now. We have like 6-7 new investigators and it's awesome. David, the guy who brought himself to church and has read the whole Bom? He believes it all! We taught him 2-3 times this week and he's praying about baptism on the 27! He only has some issues in that he and his son kind of bonded over religion and he has to talk to him about it..so hopefully it all goes over well. He came to church again but he still goes to his Lutheran church in the mornings cause he's been going there like 10+ years and he's not sure what they'd think of him if he up and left to be Mormon. But he's great.

 

We also are going to start teaching this family!!! AH! They are so so awesome and they were sick on Saturday when we were supposed to teach them but we are going to sometime this week. She (Ladeana) and her fiancé have 5 kids ages 7-15, so we are way pumped :) Hopefully we get back in contact with them soon.

Okay! and MIRACLE BAPTISM YESTERDAY!!! So, Heaven Sorenson turned 9 last Saturday and we brought her a b-day present cause once she's 9 she's no longer a ward baptism she's up to us. She's had 2 baptismal services so far and each time when it came to her getting in the font she'd get waaay nervous and wouldn't do it. And she won't tell anyone why. So we were determined this is gonna happen. And we went over there like 4 times this week and taught her everything and practiced with her and she went back and forth with yes I will! To absolutely not sooo many times. So the day of her baptism came and we got her there with many more I can I cants and it was the most amazing baptism I have ever been to. It took 20 minutes of inch by inch but she got in the font! And then stood in the corner terrified and we got he rolder brother in there with her to help and sang encouraging baptism songs with her and her little friends were up against the glass saying "you can do it heaven!" and we were all praying SO HARD. And her brother had her go underwater with her just to try and after that she said ok! And she did it! And everybody was SO HAPPY. I can't even explain the feeling there. We all clapped and cried after - the first baptism I've seen where everyone clapped cause they were just so dang happy. It was so so so so awesome and I wish I could convey that in words.

 

Ok I have just a few minutes left and I need to say a few things -

One. Jason Gray from Studio-C? His brother is in my ward. We had dinner with them and they are awesome. Every time I see them I'm like giddy inside. His bro looks just like him but receding brown hair and shorter. CRAZY AWESOME.

Also, Mom can you send me piano sheet music maybe? I can print it at the library. I just really really miss it and I can't remember anything except Fur Elise.. and I miss it. So if you have a moment to spare even just a couple songs would be amazing and make my life :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH !!! And miss you! Have a fantastic week and tell Derrek hello with a hug from me!!

 

I got a raincoat btw and MY SURPRISE BOOTS! THANK YOU MAMA 

Sept 8th 2014

Ok so lots to say.

First, I want to tell a story of about um this morning's adventures. 

So after personal study this morning we were going to swap out our laundry and there was this nasty big spder on the outside of our front door - so, naturally, we wanted to kill it. So Sis Rea went outside with my shoe and I said WAIT I want a picture of it (cause it was cool nasty) so I ran back inside and we shut the door so she could hit it against the door... and my camera was dead. And when we went to get back in, the door was locked. And we were locked outside. With no phone, no key, and no shoes. (actually no, we had one shoe to kill the spider) which was actually 3 spiders. SO. It was cold. And we killed the spiders. And had absolutely no idea what to do. Beth and Gayle (2 ancient old ladies who are sisters and live together now and so cute) who live in the other unit have a spare key, but they sleep from 2am-2pm and no matter how many times we rang their doorbell they never came. And everyone else was either asleep or at work. So... there we were as 2 helpless missionaries with no phone no shoes no neighbors and no way to get inside (and no camera to document it which made me kind of sad). And so I said what are the odds we left the car unlocked.. we did. So we sat in the car for warmth and thought about what to do. Longer story shorter we sat in the car and my first suggestion was to climb up the tree, climb onto the roof and hope the window was unlocked and climb in through there. Sis Rea totally rejected it but I kept suggesting it and finally, we did that. It was slightly terrifying and I saw myself coming home with a broken femur for a minute, BUT it totally worked and it was awesome. We reinacted it with her camera since mine was dead. So there's a pic or 2. That was a lovely adventure this morning, and it probably means nothing to you but it was hilarious and utterly helpless for us. It was fun.

SO, anyway.

This week was probably one of the hardest thus far... I'm kind of struggling taking over this area. I feel like Sis Rea is annoyed with me because I don't know as much as I should and she asks me who these people are all the time and I have no idea and it's just frustrating. She'll ask me what we should do and who we should visit and I have no idea. I feel like I don't know anything. And our area is struggling in the first place as it has been, and she came from a place where she had a baptism or 3 a week. And I feel like she just expects so much of me and I have so little to offer. And for the first time I had a little bout of homesickness. One night I was just done and for the first time I thought I just want to go home, this is too hard and I'm not worth it anymore. Sis Rea is way sweet though. One night she just sat there waiting for me to decide what we should do as I stared at the map and I just started crying cause I felt so hopeless and she just held me and let me cry, which was good cause I haven't been able to just cry for a while. Sis Rea is good at helping me feel better - she knows what to say and we came to find out last night that we've been through a lot of way similar stuff. And we bonded a lot. In the first couple days I thought this compship may struggle cause I got slightly annoyed with her sometimes.. (she is Barbie. walk,talk,dress,you name it). But we're coming to understand each other more and I think we'll be good. We agreed to just be totally open with each other and say when somethings bothering us (and I told her I didn't like how she argued with this anti on a doorstep yesterday and they were yelling at each other and I stood there like oh..dear.. (there was no hope of fixing that situation and the spirit was totally gone). So. Things are hard right now. I just don't feel good enough to be here and I questioned my decision to be here and I feel so weak. But in my blessing Elder Bing (our DL who is my absolute favorite person ever I love him) said something about how my weaknesses are going to come out and let God turn them into my strengths, and that Heavenly Father is proud of me and I AM supposed to be here, and he said that you will serve the full 18 months. So that really helped a lot. There are still but a few things I will never be able to deny and that is that God lives and He loves us, and the power of the Priesthood. I am amazed by it all the time. And I must go, and I so wish I could tell you all that happens and the miracles we saw ok actually I will tell you real quick. Yesterday was fast Sunday and we prayed and fasted so much that someone would come to church and nobody came that we planned on EXCEPT this guy David who brought himself to church and he's read the book of Mormon already. like, WHAT. and while we sat there talking to him another lady walked in who said she saw a BoM on the bus stop and took it as a sign to come to church. WHAT. MIRACLES, man. It was awesome. But I wish I could convey a mission. But I can't. So, just know that it really is the hardest most difficult and rewarding and growth-enducing thing ever.

I LOVE YOU 

PS--[Funny side note-- when I told Charity to go buy some bug spray to get rid of the spiders this was her reply "ps- we prayed that spiders wouldn't come in any more a few weeks ago and they haven't come IN (just on our door). God is better than bug spray :)"]

the first few is when we got caught in our torrential downpour. and some slugs. and the clouds which I love

 

 

 

 

 our zone last transfer at our zone lunch at capitol lake park which was just lovely!
and the capitol across the lake.

Take 2

Ok, so today is transfers!!! My first one is already done! (wat) The library was closed yesterday so we are here today to write real quick. :) SO!

Sister Julien is leaving me D: She's going to Elma to be an STL with Ghering and C-something. They're gonna be a tripanionship! (which she's not too excited for because she's going from having our own bathrooms to sharing one with 2 others..lol) But I'm staying and taking over this area (which I am kind of nervous for because... I still feel like I know nothing) But my new comp is gonna be Sister Rae - and it's way funny cause of stalking the blog before I left and such she's one that I remember seeing.. So. We're going to transfer meeting in a couple hours (but we're grabbing meconi's after this and going straight there cause it's in Tacoma). I forgot my camera today (it's been crazy) which sucks cause I had some fabulous pictures. We had a zone lunch/activity yesterday at Capitol Lake (look that place up its gorgeous btw) and I LOVE our zone. From what I hear it we'll have an interesting district next transfer. But it'll be good.

So.. I forgot to tell you a story last week I must tell you. We had another monster-spider in the cottage last week. We had already named the past 2 Aragog and Shelob so this time around Sister Julien wanted to call him Stanley. But I decided on Satan. So, we called him Satan-Stanley. He was in our laundry closet and even bigger than the last 2 (someone said they might be called hobo spiders?) and there was no way I was going to try and get that thing. So we went and got our neighbor Carol (the sweetest little retired lady) and she came over and said "By goodness that's the biggest one I've ever seen!" (and she's lived here decades btw if that gives you the idea I'm really not exaggerating) and so we went and knocked on our other neighbor's door (Les) and he came over kind of chuckling cause he's this macho guy, and he looked at it and said the SAME thing. So this thing is huge. We gave him a mason jar to try and trap it so it didn't fall behind anything and in his rush to be manly he missed and it fell behind our washer... and we couldn't find it. And there he stayed all that day and night and we just had to wait to find him again (which, btw I had to pray myself to sleep that night cause having that thing in your living quarters is terrifying) and lo and behold, the following night he came out and when we came home he was on our wall. So we went to get Les and he wasn't home. So we tried our other neighborat 9:30 that night and he was just laughing at us... but he came over and said "oh gee, that thing really is big..." and we were like mmhmm yes now get it please. And so he caught it in the jar successfully (which his body filled) and took care of him. And that was the end of Satan-Stanley Spider. We now have a nasty spider about as big as my thumb living outside our front door by the porch light and we call him Lucy (short for Lucifer since Satan was taken).

Anyhoo, we're struggling finding people to teach right now. With school starting and holiday weekends and such everybody's like "leave us alone" but hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks. Sister Rae will be joining me and maybe she's got some good ideas up her sleeve. We did find a new guy Mark though! He was a referral from Bremerton elders who found him at a bustop and he's got some potential I think :) He's going through a really hard time in his life right now and is a recovering alcoholic and we're meeting with him tomorrow! Yay! Julie is slowing down cause her dad had a stroke/heart attack but she invited usfor lunch on Sunday with Eleanor and it was so great.

We were downtown the other day walking around trying to find a less-active and as we were walking it was misting (I understand what they say by mist rain now) so we figured we didn't need an umbrella or anything (and I still don't have a coat/jacket yet anyway... which I need to get next Monday...cause uh rainy season is coming up on us) but as we were walking out of nowhere we were caught in this torrential downpour. It was ridiculous. Like when in Phx monsoon season and there's those nights where it just comes in buckets? Like that. So we were running down the street to this lady's apartment which we couldn't get in anyway. So we were soaked - it was quite the adventure.

I had a pretty hard day the other day. I'm just struggling with feeling like I'm not doing anything worthwhile. I don't feel like I'm doing any good even in lessons cause Sis Julien does most of the talking and I sit there and smile and nod. And I can't talk to people on the street yet - I'm working on that bravery. It's hard. So we were downtown street contacting on this rough day when I felt like I wasn't smart enough and didn't know enough about the Gospel and I felt kind of useless and I wasn't getting better even when I am trying so hard and I had a little silent breakdown in the park. I feel ridiculous sometimes cause your days literally are like a little heartbeat monitor with ups and downs and whatnot. But Sister Julien is oh so wise. And she gave me some good advice and told me it's ok that I'm not the perfect missionary and whatnot. So I'm doing better and I'm just studying hardcore all the time and sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't but I'm trying. So, missions are a struggle. But I'm getting better and working on my "hope" for things. Cause sometimes it's hard to be hopeful when everything is rather negative. But. Alas.

Speaking of hope, I hope that Sister Rae does movie quotes too cause me and Sis Julien get a kick out of those. She could be a Bowler. I will let you know next week how things go!

I love you all sooooo much. It's ridiculous really.

Final note - I find the strangest things interesting as a missionary.. Doorbells are like, a thing. When someone has a quality doorbell, it like makes you giddy. We have said a few times this past week "what a majestic doorbell" or "oo, this ones fun" (and when we're all happy from their little birthday-tune doorbell it's this crotchety old man who hates us.. #life) and it's just like the weirdest things we find exciting now.. normal people would think we're the weirdest people ever (which I mean I guess they do have a point but..)

Ok. and really quick- since when is Zac doing swim?? How is that going? How does Jeremy like HS?? How's Matt's injury? Does Sam like cello so far!? I'm so glad he's got an instrument now :) I hope y'all know that I LOVE YOU OH SO MUCH and I show off pictures of the boys to the YW in the ward all de time ;) (don't get cocky).

I LOVE YOU and MISS YOU <3