I miss you!

Hi there!!

 

This week was spiritual/weird/great! Haha. Both Wiley and I just wanted chocolate everyday last week. So we ate chocolate everyday. Now I'm on a diet. This is not good.

 

Haha I'm loving my life right now. Seriously. I do miss being able to watch movies and ski and everything else, but I love my life! It's so great. I feel so confident and comfortable in my skin. I'm just so content.

 

Do you guys know what fruit cake is? I do now. We were at the johnson's home and they asked if we liked fruit cake. I said " oh we love anything with 'cake' in it" and sister wiley's face was mortified. So Sister Johnson gave us these huge pieces of fruit cake. I thought I was going to hurl after I took a bite. OH it was just so awful. I told her I couldn't eat it. I didn't like it hahahaha. Good thing it was store bought and they didn't like it either..

 

Guys. I met my kindred spirit/soul mate. I'm not even kidding. Did I tell you about buddy? Oh  my word. He is a black golden retriever. He came out the wrong color! Just like me! haha we both have identity issues and he can just relate to me. It's nice knowing I'm not alone in this world. I'm actually going to walk him right after I get done emailing.

 

WE have a Christmas tree!!! the Barnards left it on our doorstep. It's covered in lights and ornaments! So exciting! 

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ward. We went and taught Benzi Pantoja. He is 7 years old about to get baptized. They are a part member family. One of the boys has to be able to do a pull-up to get something passed off for boyscouts so they have a pull up bar in the kitchen. After the lesson I got everyone in the kitchen and got the whole family to have a pull up contest haha. I loved it!

 

Sister Wiley and I wanted to get the ward more involved/excited about missionary work so we came up with this rad idea. The ward has an emailing list and we are going to send out "blasts" through text to the Ward Mission leader and then he is going to email it to every family in the ward. It's going to be a miracle that happened or someone that we want them to pray for and then we are having them text us if a miracle happens to them. We think that if we do this, the ward will be more involved so when we have investigators come to church, members will be legitimately excited!

 

It's so weird, I keep thinking that the investigators we have, we are just going to turn them over to the missionaries to finish teaching them... um, I'm the missionary. It's so weird. It's on our shoulders! 

 

 I'm so excited about the missionaries you are sending packages to! That's going to be so cool. I have become so grateful for everything since being on my mission. This guy in the temple today had cerebral palsy and couldn't even talk or move really. It made me so grateful to be able to say the words I want to. I'm just so grateful for my life.

 

We found 3 new investigators and I love them. Joel, Dale, Shane. Joel was a miracle! It was like 8pm and we just wanted to go home but we felt like we should go to Lori's house. We knocked on her door and she didn't answer but we looked across the street and Dale was just standing there. So we went and taught him the restoration of the gospel and about prophets. He said that him and his wife and little daughter have been looking for a church! Dale is so great. He is from Taiwan and is a photographer. We taught him about prayer this week and he said a prayer to close the lesson. It was the first prayer he has ever said, his whole life. It made me so happy! Shane is 40ish and lives alone. He is divorced and has had such a crazy past with drugs and everything. He is just alone and lost. He said he attends this non denominational church because he feels loved but he talks about our life after this life and it is exactly what we believe. He died once and saw what happens after this life, and then he came back to life. His Faith is super strong. We are getting him fellowship this week!

 

Two of Sister Green's kids came to church this week! Oh happy day! We went over and Family night with them last monday and the entire family sat in. it was amazing how it all came together.

 

Crazy Stories

 

1.So Sister Wiley and I were sitting in our car for our lunch break eating and sister wiley waves at this guy walking by. I hit her and say, "why did you wave at him! he is going to think we are watching him" well... the guy comes over to us. It was trippy. He was from Boston and is a less active member. Their family is estranged and he moved back to make it better. But he went into really deep doctrine stuff that was WAY over my head. He wouldn't shake our hands or tell us his name. It was weird. Cray Cray.

2. We went tracting in Fall City (which is where all the trailer parks are) and we walked, parked our car on the side of the road, and walked up to this farm house. This old guy was outside and we started talking to him and he said " well are you gonna sing us a carol?" and I'm like "no" but of course sister wiley says "yes" so we go inside and meet his wife. then they look past me through the window and say "who are those people". Oh my gosh. It was a family from the ward. I said " i know them, you guys don't?" hahah. The Barnards had seen us walking into this random persons house and so they followed us and brought rolls to them. CRAZY. it was funnny and the old couple really appreciated it and then they gave us deer pepperoni and summer sausage that he had killed himself. I can't eat it, knowing it's deer.

3. We walked outside after meeting this old couple and our car is SURROUNDED by cop cars. Sister Wiley just says " did we do that?" haha. Then we realized that there was a cemetary right by our car and a big funeral going on.

 

Well this is ALL OVER THE PLACE haha. Sorry. But that's this week for ya! haha.

 

I LOVED the package with all the pictures in it! I loved it so much. It totally made my week. And I absolutely cherish the letters i get from Emma and Jaina. Thank you for thinking of me! I'm so grateful for that!

 

love you!

 

write soon!~ xoxoxo Sister Mara