Week ....10?

It's super trippy to me that it's already been this long, and I'm almost done with my 2nd transfer... WHAT? Missions are a time warp.

 

Ok - so I have 20 minutes to fit 20000 hours of events into this email and it's just not possible,.. so I hope this suffices.

 

David Wallace - that guy that dropped us? We kept praying for him that his heart would soften and guess what happened. We were out knockin in the rain the other day (oh btw, IT'S RAINY SEASON!!!) and he called us saying "I'm so sorry I just texted you that the other day, you guys were so nice to me and that was wrong. I just have so many questions and I don't want to bother you anymore." And we were like, um, David, you do realize that is WHY we are here - to help you answer those questions!! And so we met with him on Friday! Except I wasn't there because we went on exchanges!! I got to go to Elma with sister JULIEN :) Mother and daughter reunited! It was way fun. And they are a tripanionship so Sis Casner was there too (she goes home in like 14 days and is the trunkiest missionary I have ever seen) Elma is SO different than Oly. It was cool to get a glimpse of what else is out there in the world, ya know? We taught this guy James they are teaching and he wants to be baptized but he just isn't sure about it yet. So. Anyway, David believes the BoM is true. He has a masters in theology and he said right when we met him it just makes sense, and he believes it. But on Friday he told Rea that he believes it with his heart now - that he had a spiritual witness that it is true! Way exciting! Except at church yesterday he said he is way hung up on "original sin" and can't wrap his head around all these little things, and I think he is just so frustrated with so much info, so hopefully he can just humble himself a little more to accept something different than what he used to know. That's hard to do, but we believe in him! 

 

Robin is doing SO well :D I love love her. She is tentatively praying about being baptized Oct 11!! We had dinner at the Macdonald's last night and she and her daughter Edie came too! It was SO fun - the Macdonald's have 7 kids :) It felt so much like home.. there were kids at other tables and it was loud and slightly chaotic. I loved it. They are the best. We are teaching her more this week and hopefully things just continue to go up! She came with us to the General Women's mtg on Saturday too - which I just love those things so much now. Before, they were great. But I crave them now. I'm SO EXCITED for conference this weekend!!! Oh, and after the women's meeting this little 8 year old girl came up behind us and tugged on sister Rea's jacket and said all shy, "one day I'M gonna be a missionary..." with this cute little smile on her face and my heart just exploded. I totally teared up and grinned ear to ear cause I realized that I am that person that I used to look up to... And it was just amazing. I still don't realize I'm a missionary some days, but when I do it's just this overwhelming WHAT. I love it. :) 

 

Ok. Zion's Camp was AMAZING. I wish I could say everything about it but I can't right now. We got to pre-see that new movie "Meet the Mormons" though!!! It was GREAT. GO SEE IT. They made us popcorn and everything :) Did they put the video of us singing Amazing Grace on the blog? I hope so. So anyway at Zion Camp we had this one part where we did trust falls off of this thing and the other sisters caught us and that was slightly terrifying, but I did it! And we did the thing with the 11-ish foot wall and we had to get everyone over. I was at the top lifting for a while and when we had to lift some of those heavier sisters I have never prayed so hard in my life - they almost fell a couple times but it was a super spiritual experience the whole day and everything had a comparison to what we do as missionaries. It was so soso great. 

Ok. We also had dinner at Milka's house again... (last time it was boiled brussel sprouts and over-expired salad dressing and whatnot) and this time it was cold pizza, soggy salad soup (doused in that expired dressing - which still exists and is probably STill rotting in my stomach), fruit salad with brown soggy fruit (I claimed allergic. I couldn't.) and melted ice cream. Needless to say, I spent the rest of Wednesday evening hunched over heaving on doorsteps. But I think we're finally recovering.

 

So we are also helping this family move - we've shared some messages with them cause her grandma just passed and she's having a hard time with that. And we helped them pack last night and shared the Resto with them and it was so good. They kept saying "no one ever helps us.. thank you" and they loved the message :) they're moving to Oregon though, so hopefully missionaries find them there.

 

Last thing - we met this guy Zach who has 2 little kids and his wife works and he's struggling to find a job. And we showed up a couple times to check on them and he just got tears in his eyes saying "no one has ever cared about us enough to help us the way you guys have" and it is just the most amazing thing being able to help these people. I love it so much. We told him that there IS a God and he DOES care about you - He is watching over you every day and you ARE loved and we can see him already beginning to change. It is the most amazing thing :)

I love you all SO much. I really really do! You all mean so much to me and your support means the world! Thank you so so much for all you do - I love you all!