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