I HAVE BEEN OUT FOR 2 WEEKS!!!!!!!!
Holy cow. It goes fast, and then it doesnt! It is FREEZING TODAY!!!! I think it was 56 or something when we left at 9! I am soooo cold. Send fuzzy socks!!!
All the missionaries on the mountain just go together and watched the new movie, “Meet the Mormons” AMAZING. Tears in both eyes, and my heart was full. Holy canoli. It was amazing. It is coming to surprise and phoenix October 10. GO WATCH IT. You dont have a choice, GO WATCH IT! It was amazing. I laughed, I cried…I cried some more. AMAZING!!
SO. Tuesday we fasted ALL day. It was by far the hardest fasting experience of my life. We started our day with 4 hours of service. We were exhausted and wanted water SO bad! AND the lady we did service for owns a bakery. SO she sent us with fresh bread. It smelled so delicious. It was asking us to eat it, but we didnt. It was kinda a chill day for the most part. Visited some of the spanish branch, so I just sat and looked pretty!.For dinner we ate with Loretta. I LOVE LORETTA! She is in her 70’s. SO sweet. She made chicken and mashed potatoes. I love that my companion isn’t the size of my pinky. We had like 3 plates of food cause we fasted all day. Back to Loretta though, I love her! She’s like the 70 year old version of me! She lost her husband a few years ago, but her faith and her testimony is SO strong. She vacations in phoenix, so she is leaving us next week. She will be a guide at the temple open house though. Look out for Sister Tunison! 🙂
We are teaching two 11 year old hispanic girls. I love them. They’re so cute!!!! Their little brother is annoying, so he is not so cute! He disrupts the lessons! AH.
Wednesday for dinner we went to a chinese buffet. I had chicken on a stick! I LOVE IT! If you’re familiar with the glendale area, China Star Buffet was my FAVORITE! I loved chicken on a stick. So be jealous.
I cant remember what day, but we went and visited Nena. Oh my goodness. The house reeked of cigarettes. So I tried to sniff my book of mormon without it being obvious.I couldn’t breathe! We sat in her house, and she was just sad looking. Drug addict her whole life, she looked a LOT older than she was. Ah! We planned to teach the Restoration with scriptures from the Bible. Lets just say, it did NOT go as planned. I couldn’t find the words to teach. Nothing was coming out. I kinda sat there with my mouth open. It was bad. Luckily my companion noticed I was struggling and jumped in. finally it was my turn to talk about Joseph Smith. Yeahhhh NO. She got all mad and tense. I finally gave up. I shut up and sat back in my chair. She didn’t want us there. She was NOT interested. She wasn’t ready. And most importantly, the spirit wasn’t there, and without the spirit I couldn’t do the work. We left and we both knew we had to “drop” her. She wasn’t interested. I smelled so bad of cigarettes though, I had to go home and shower. SO GROSS.
The spirit is important let me tell you!
We went to lunch with Phil. He LOVES the missionaries!!! He took us to Darbi’s and it was DELICIOUS! I had pasta cause I’m lame. He cried when talking to us. He LOVES the missionaries more than anyone else. He says he wants to take us to lunch every week! Love him! 🙂
We met Ida Marsh. Poor lady!!!! Her apartment flooded because of the rain, and she slipped and fell. She is like late 70’s!!! Black eye HUGE bump on her head. So sad. We sat and talked to her for awhile. The landlord isnt doing anything. And with the giant down pour this weekend, it flooded again! So sad for her. There was nothing we could do, so I offered the prayer. She thanked me for it, and told me the right side of my face is very pretty. Weird considering, my left side is my good side! 😉
THEN WE met Raymond Lee. He is in his 70’s as well. He’s not all there, but I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! I want to cry every time I see him. He is neighbors with Ida, so at 3 am this weekend he was trying to get the water out of her house, he even put down sandbags. I love him.
After visiting these two, Sister Garrett and I cried in the car on the way home. Ah. Compassion is a blessing and a curse.
We went to the parade. We TTI’d. Teach, testify, invite. We got a few people. The parade was kinda lame, but what do ya do. Then this paramedic said he was going to buy all the missionaries lunch! SO Him and his emt partner bought pizza for 10 of us. It was DELICIOUS pizza. SO scrumptious.
I went to a baptism for Judge Steve Price. the smell of the bleach in the font took me back to the good ol’ days of baptisms for the dead. I miss the temple SO much!!! I need to do some baptisms, go do some for me!!!!
Sunday was good. Ward Council, Wagon Wheel ward, Lakeside ward, and then dinner!!!! Missionaries are asked to bear their testimony, so I had to do it twice. In lakeside I told everyone where I was from and blah blah blah. I bore my testimony on the temple and the AMAZING feeling you get doing baptisms. Then…I got sad. Just so sad. I miss the temple. I miss going all the time. I miss the people I got to go with. Ah!!!
When I sat down this lady leaned to me and was like “You’re from surprise? Do you know Joanne Gunderson?” HOT DANG! It made me so happy. So, sister Gunderson if you are reading this…I LOVE YOU! 🙂
But the rest of church was rough as well. I was sad and cold and tired. I was teary eyes the entire time in RS. Finally at the end, I kept looking at the RS president. I kept thinking to myself, “She needs a hug. Im gonna hug her after!” So it ended, I stood up, and SHE came to me and was like “Do you need a hug!?!?” Oh man. I maybe sobbed in her arms for a minute or two. But then I was good. Ah. I miss everyones hugs 😦
We had dinner with our ward mission leader, Brother Jacobs. Sweet man! DELICIOUS FOOD. We totally got some to take home. We taught the restoration to Brigette. Brigette is not all there either and has had a SERIOUSLY rough life. Abused, homeless, she was starving…so sad. She wants to be baptized. BUT, we cant let her. We know she is not ready yet, and we dont want to do that to her.
We baked bread to take to some people. And by we, I mean my companion. I dont bake. And we took some to Raymond. He called and was like, “Sisters it wasn’t fully baked!! BUT that didn’t stop me from going to get another piece!” hahaha Love him so much!
Nothing exciting this week. LOTS of rain. Lots of studying. We do lots of role playing and my companions “character” is Sarah from England. She does the accent and it makes me giggle. I’m “amanda” and Im based off Amanda from friends, the one who’s like “Monica darling, its amanda calling!” We are fluent in friends quotes. I love her.
I am freezing up here! But other than that its all good. Love you all so much. Miss you all so much. 10 weeks and I’ll be back…….to go through the temple!!
GO get tickets for the phoenix temple. we are trying to go to that! So maybe I’ll see you there!!!
Did you watch womens conference? We did. I loved Uchtdorfs talk!!! It was about obedience. Obedience brings blessings. He said we cant pick and choose the rules we want to follow, we have been asked to obey ALL of them. Love it.
OH AND WE MET Jo Riggs. We were dropping off a movie at her house. We stood on her porch for a good half hour. She is SO ready to here the gospel!! Before we could set up an appointment she was like “K. Well I’ll see you next week!!!’ PERFECT. And fun fact, she used to be a playboy bunny. haha.. Hilarious.
And my official badge came in Friday!! I am finally SISTER CRAIG!
Love you. Here are some lame pictures. And Kara, I totes wore my peacock necklace and black skirt..it was an “exclamation dog” kinda day! 🙂
The world according to me 