16 September 2013

Wet and Soggy People of Colorado

Hello! Wet and soggy people of Colorado! (And dry folk elsewhere!)
How goes?
Funny story, 4 different people made comments this week about "Hey, you're from CO.... Is your family one of the 4 who died in the mass calamity out there?" .... uh....
People kept making Noah's ark jokes. haha, but no really. - If Noah stops by, GET IN THE BOAT!!
It ended up being a tender mercy for me. I was given permission to call home, I got to talk to the Mom unit for a few minutes. WONDERFUL!
So... Things are dry here. And by that, I mean I'm not swimming in things. Like rain. Or Creeks. Or The Great Boulder flood of 2013. So... Send me pictures, yeah? Yeah!
Hey! I need someone to send a thank you note to One of the Rocky Mountain Fire C shifters. Dave, Griff, Holmy and Joel. Thanks to their tutelage, I was able to uphold a conversation about football! I threw in words like "Fumble!!" And "Tight End." (To which I was not referring to those pants. Nope, that's a person!) Not ONCE did I call it a basket or anything. Woah. Thanks Rocky Mountain Fire, for making me a real person!
You know how in Boulder, when someone puts tin foil on their windows, it's because they're a little touched in the head and worried about Aliens? Not here in Hemet! You're touched if you DONT have tin foil? Sister Pack couldn't understand why I kept cackling at random houses. I finally explained that these people were nuts. Nope. Just me!
Let's see... I'm still short, and I finally got a bike! I still need to buy safety equipment, like a helmet, lights and a bike lock. No worries. The bike is bright pink. And my companion is a bright red redhead.
Someone asked if Satan's first name is Kevin.
We're pretty awesomely exciting....
We had a huge miracle moment that was followed by more miracles. We went to teach the gal that I think I mentioned before, who is afraid of water. She finally committed to baptism! She's known all along that she needs to. She then told us that she knew because she's dreamed about us. That she's known us "from before."
.... WHAT?! ... So yeah, she knows us. And she's getting baptized! We had a scary moment when she said she wasn't going to follow through because she has to meet with our Mission president to resolve some things. But this morning she said that nothing would get in her way of baptism. YES!!! Prayer changes things!!!

Hmmm. So. What's going on in your life?
Oh!!!! I got 4 letters on the same day! I am the most loved missionary EVER!!! Shout out to
Mom! Thanks for the stamps!
Bradbury family! Yep, I will ALWAYS be the favorite little person!
Jenna, Shelbs and Karlie!
Sabrina!
It was an epic day in the mission life!
Well, ya know. Life is good. I'm loving this work. I haven't eaten things that make me want to die. So that too, is good. The elders are talking about shaving their legs right now. Awkward....
Loving you all, loving life.
Keep in touch.
The short one


02 September 2013

Howdy world!
Installment number... what. 8? Something like that.
How're you all doing?
Life out here is grand. Warm. and Muggy. It's great.... (read as "Life our here is miserably hot and humid to the point I resemble a drowned cat.)

Other then that, we're working hard. We have 4 new investigators that we're working really hard to teach and invite the Spirit into their lives. It's been an amazing blessing to watch people change. To see people feel the Spirit, and recognize it and then act on it, is so inspiring.
One of our investigators has been going to church on her own for 2 months, but she is afraid to be baptized because her mom tried to kill her by drowning her when she was a kid. So we have permission to jump in the font with her if we need to, to help coach her through all that. But she's pretty fun.
We had to drop a less active family this week. I didn't realize how weird it would be to break up with a family on the mission. It's weird. I'm going to be so good at breaking up with people when I come home! ... yeah... No but really, it was awkward.
Reading the Scriptures has been a new experience out here. Things make sense out here. Scriptures that I never understood before are suddenly crystal clear. That's never happened before! I love it!
Some funny stories from this week, My ear swelled shut this week. Yeah. my EAR. Did you know that ears swelled shut? Neither did I. So I cracked open a benadryl and made a paste and rubbed it on my ear. It took 3 days, but it's finally back to normal. I took a picture. I'll send it out when I get a disk of pictures to send home. Seriously. Weird.
We met this guy who was probably Schizophrenic and not on meds. He was responding to internal stimuli while we were talking to him. He was a former investigator and we were trying to find out more about him and if we could teach him again. CRAZY! EVERYONE we met that day was a few fries short of a happy meal. it was NUTS! (ha. get it?!)
We are finishing up our first transfer and THAT is nuts! 1 transfer done! I'm loving the work. It's hard, though. But it so great. Our ward loves us - Sisters that is. The often tease the Elders that we have gotten more done in the 5 weeks we've been here then the year that they have. It's not true, our Elders are solid. The zone is finally getting used to us being here, and they're finally calming down about it all.

Oh man! So we went to dinner at this one families house, they have a fancy gate to the driveway. So we get buzzed in and drive up the driveway and get met with a HUGE aggressive dog. HUGE. I mean, I was nose - to - nose with the dog (okay, maybe not THAT huge) and it was growling and angry. The homeowner comes out and it is NOT our dinner. She was NOT happy with us! Our dinner was next door! Well, the homeowner wouldn't call the dog off and it tried to attack the car! What the shenanigans!
We got to our real dinner appointment and the homeowners were great. They made Stroganoff. With Filet Mignon. For real! and they put french onion soup powder in. It was tasty. but Every bite I was like "This is a $10 bite...."
Nuts. They made a statement like "You must be disappointed after seeing the neighbors estate. Our estate is tiny, compared to there estate!" Uhm.... If you're referring to your house as an estate, I'm pretty sure you have nothing to worry about.
Anyway. How goes, world? Yall happy?
Did you know that Hostess is back?! Of course, you probably know that, you're not under a rock right now. Sister Pack, my companion, her family sent her some twinkies and hostess cupcakes. Blew our minds. Hostess has returned! GREAT!!!
Hope life is good. Pray for missionary experiences! The field is ready to harvest!
Love,

Sista Dibe Hall!