“I’ve officially been out ONE MONTH!”

I thought I did a lot of service back home, boy was I wrong!!! We do SO much service as missionaries!!! It’s exhausting!!!!!!! Monday night we did service for Tori. It was gross. But thats all Im gonna say about that!

Tuesday we did service for Sister Gougler. She is the bread lady out here. We helped rearrange her bakery. I swear I lifted over 800 pounds of flour!!!!! We were so sore for the rest of the week. I am so out of shape! hahaha!

We had some appointments, but they all fell through. Which was okay with me cause they were all spanish ones and I usually zone out during those ones. We did however go to Norma’s house. She has the crazy chicken that wanted to eat me! I read in spanish to her my favorite scripture, which is 2 Nephi 2:24, and she laughed at me!!!!! It was kinda rude, but at the same time I dont care…..because spanish is not something I ever want to learn! Bah!

Oh we also went to Allan Coopers house. I cant remember if that was last week or this week. He is this HUGE old biker guy, cigarette and tattoos everywhere. He is really mad at God so it was awkward and sad. And he had a fake leg. Weird. Safe to say he is NOT interested in the gospel. Sad for him.

Wednesday we had a zone training meeting or ZTM. It was pretty fantastic!!! We had 3 workshops, but the second was my favorite. We had an elder pretend to be Bob the investigator. And everyone of us had to say a brief doctrinal statement like “Heavenly Father knows we are not perfect, and that life is hard, but through this gospel things that are unfair can be made right, things that are hard can be worked through as we do what Heavenly Father has asked us to do”, I was like 4th from last so of course I am freaking out…worrying out what to say! I dont wanna be wrong ya know?! So finally I stopped worrying, and started listening and when it was my turn, it was smooth as butter. Just rolled right out! The spirit was SO strong, the elder was in tears!!! man!! Powerful!!!

We have interviews with the Mission President this week!!!! Hopefully I’ll learn more about whats to come!! DID I MENTION I HAVE BEEN OUT A MONTH?!!?!??!?!? 🙂

I honestly cannot remember much this week, and I forgot my journal at home. We are going to Saint Johns today for a sister missionary conference!!!!! And I have exchanges tonight, I am going to the reservation!! And I am freaking out! Pray for me!!!!

I got a letter from Alyssa ❤ I love her!!! AND Joanne Gunderson, I love her!! Thanks for the sweet package! Your sweet aunt bought my companion a gift too so she “wouldnt feel left out” haha. SO sweet. Thank you! ❤

It was 44 degrees this morning at 8 am. Be jealous.

We learned more about family history this week. I logged in and my Mom has done over 27,000 records…..so Im gonna say my work is done here! haha.

We have RCLA (recent convert less active) Janette. She is an interesting character. She is SO funny though. She will call us and be like “I know of another commandment I need to work on, its not cussing!” and then she started texting us and being like, “blessing number 1, I got extra money for food.” ahha. Love that she is being self aware, LOVE that she is counting her blessings!!!

In the spirit of thanksgiving, I’ve started saying 5 things I am grateful for every day! To help keep my mind focused. I am so grateful for fuzzy blankets,I cant even begin to explain!!!

Meet the Mormons is up here in Show Low! Its in Surprise and Phoenix, so I expect all of you to go see it!! Seriously guys, it is AMAZING! So inspiring!! So amazing! We have really been pushing our members and everyone to go see it. It is the PERFECT missionary opportunity!

The leaves are yellow and red. It’s so weird. Im used to leaves dying and falling off the trees! Its beautiful!

We had lunch at Darbis…..AGAIN! Phil takes us every week and this time he invited the other sisters we live with. I love him SO MUCH! He is SO sweet!!! I will for sure be hugging him before I get transferred! Ah. I dont wanna leave here!

Friday we………went and visited a bunch of hispanics with Hermano Ruiz. He is really nice!!!! He lives in Taylor but comes down to do visits with us whenever we need him to!! AND he is taking us and an investigator to the temple open house on the 21!!!! Woot woot!!! 🙂

Anyways…..

Saturday we were inside till 6!!! Holy cow! Longest day ever!!! We go and workout at the church now so I can play volleyball and so they can do jumping jacks. Holy cow I am sore all over. I accidentally broke the EXIT sign in the gym. I would hope people are smart enough to go through the doors if there was an emergency…anyways…

We were inside ALL day. k? I just want you to understand that. And the door was open ALL day. And I was sitting planning in the living room, and I felt like I needed to go in my study room. Weird. So I went in there and planned. AND SOMEHOW……SNEAKY Jaymi dropped a package off at my door. I have yet to find out the details, but we left for dinner and there were two giant streamered packages.

DUDE.

Tears. So much happy and sad tears!!! I opened it on the way to dinner and its all I thought about. I am blessed!!

We went to dinner at the Webbs house. Potato bar! It was delicious! And the husband? Really really delicious 😉 Im kidding….except I’m not. They are SO sweet!!! oh man! And he has 10 siblings and they all live here…..CRAZY!

We went and helped clean up after a wedding with the other sisters. One of the bridesmaids dress was slit straight up the front and you could see her underwear. How is that attractive?!?!? modest is hottest!!! it really is!!!!!

There was music playing from the wedding so I “accidentally” sang along. haha Its so hard not listening to worldly music, we call it “gentile music” One of my dads favorite songs turned on!! ❤

Sunday is my favorite day! I love church! All 8 hours of it! I love the people, I love everything!!!! We went to the durrants home for dinner! We had thanksgiving early! It was scrumptious! And her little daughter Natalie (6) played with me the whole time. I miss my nieces!! I miss the cute kids from the ward!!! Ah!

But Natalie and I were just gigging the whole time. I wanted to take her with me!

We were supposed to have dessert with Nury saturday night. Nury is the midget. I was SO excited because it was my chance to have ice cream with her…but she had to cancel. LAME. So Natalie got on her knees, stuffed her hands in her shirt, pretended she was a midget and I ate ice cream. It’s kind of the same thing! hahaaha.

And we made soup for our hispanic family that was sick. We met Richard and Roberto at wal mart. They both work there, roberto has one arm. They are SO funny. Both hispanic, and both love the missionaries!!! We are getting ready to visit Richard wednesday, and we are supposed to have dinner with Roberto saturday!!!! Richard is ready to hear the gospel, and we are SO excited!! They tried speaking spanish to me though, and I just stared at them! haha. He said, “Donde esta something pantelones?” And that means Where are your pants! haha I know a little spanish! 😉

We did FHE with normas family last night. Hermano Ruiz came. We did an armor of god activity, and cut it out and taped it all over the older sister. Super sweet family.

The homesickness has subsided. There are instants where something reminds me of home and all ya’ll but its good. Really! I am doing great!!! I praying it snows in the next 2 weeks!!

Oh yeah. Transfers are on the 28!! WHERE DID THE TIME GO! Sister Garrett was like, “Im not ready for you to leave me yet!” haha I’m not ready either!!

I saw the RS president who I LOVE yesterday. Hugged her and she was like. “its so good to be hugged by you!” I told her I was leaving soon and she was bummed. BOOM. I love people. I dont want to leave.

I love you all. I pray for you all. I am so grateful for your influence on my life!!

I love this gospel!!!

right now go look up the song, “Im gonna go” by Nashville Tribute Band. We literally listen to that every day, like 5 times a day. The mans voice is beautiful. We picture Brother Webb singing it hahaha. Okay. I love you!!!!!

p.s I actually baked something!! We made these delicious chicken rolls.

Chicken and cream cheese mixed, and put on a croissant (sp?) and then rolled in ritz crackers and baked…DELICIOUS!!

p.s.s Garlic ritz cracker is NOT good with Nutella 🙂

P.s.s.s AGAIN…For personal study I skipped to Mosiah to the story of Abinidi, and I have been rewriting every verse into my own words. OH MY GOSH ITS SO GOOD!!! It seriously makes the stories way more fun. There was a part when Amulon was putting harsher burdens on the people and it reminded me of the Giants from Ella Enchanted. Its SO fun. I love it. I get WAY more out of it! Try it!!