3/10/14 - The greatest sound I've ever heard is the sound of water running in the church

Honorable Mentions:

Sister Packie! My mama! (Mom, this means she trained me. I have not replaced you)

The Lolotai's! My Comp is from Hawai'i. She was really excited that I knew REAL Hawai'ians . (Do you put the apostrophe in Hawaiian?)

Sista Gowans!!! I LOVE your middle name. Also, I'm a creeper

This week has been crazy! We've worked really really hard this week. Which is good, because we're missionaries and such. That's always good to work hard when the Lord is your boss. But our efforts paid off. We hit the standard again. The Standard is a pain in the neck. But I get that we need to aim for something specific to improve. Now that we've been hitting the standard, we're shooting past it. That's fun. I love reaching goals and exceeding them. Even if I truly and sincerely HATE numbers.

Oh. Fun fact. On 16 March, I will have been a missionary for 8 months. Is that crazy? I'm almost halfway into my mission! (Except that I'm going to extend for 3 or 4 years. Don't give me that look, Gowans. I can't do 10 years! I want to read books that I don't need a dictionary to understand! And you're still planning my wedding... So eventually I need to go home for that.)

We had a baptism yesterday in one of the best services I've been to! It's such an evidence that being obedient and hard working will pay off. The ward was working hard to be obedient. WE were working hard to be obedient. We weren't finding anyone (which was really frustrating) and in walks a family that were just ready. The Lord blessed us and prepared a way for them to find the Gospel, even though we didn't find them. Anyway, he just walks into church a few weeks ago and says that he needed to go back to church and we came to find out, he wasn't baptized. They are just Golden and ready to follow the Savior. It's been a huge blessing to get to be a part of their journey!

He is baptizing his daughters on Friday and they are all going to the Temple on Saturday. What an incredible blessing! I am so excited to be able to be a missionary.

So I hear we're almost at war with Ukraine? Is that legit? Anyone stocking up on guns and food and building motes around their homes yet? For real though... What is happening? And something is going down in Venezuela? Missionaries are being recalled or something. Nuts. NOBODY WORRY! There is NO SEIGE IN SUN CITY! Whew. I knew the concern was there. But seeing how this community is like 80% old...

Pray for the people in those country's and the leadership there. The world needs help. Lots of it.

Let's see. Some adventures of this week.

President said we could be on bike! Why?. because he loves us. Also because we need to save some miles. So we're going to go buy my companion a bike today and me a helmet and lights and a lock and such. If you have fun bike accessories you don't want or need, this girl is becoming a biking missionary!

I tried a kumquat. Gross.

People decorate their lawns with plastic deer. Old people LOVE plastic deer. We counted 14 this week.

Also, people get little pebbles and pain them green for their lawn. That's funny stuff. Or Astro-turf. I am in a-whole-nother world out here, people.

I've basically become an expert of funeral's here. I've been in Sun City for like 8 weeks. We've have 3 funerals since I've been here. It's way sad. But really, at least it's not 3 funerals in like a YSA ward. That would be worse, I think. Am I a dirt bag for saying that? Probably. Nevertheless. There you have it.

Let's see. I love this work. I love the people. (I haven't sent anymore to the hospital)

My companion is GREAT! She's so much fun. She's Hawaiian. I said that before, but it's important enough to reiterate. Again and again. Sometimes I have random dance parties and she laughs and doesn't judge me to my face. That's about all I can ask She's a rockstar teacher. She tells it how it is, and I LOVE that. We're a pair, that's for sure. And we work hard at being obedient so that we can qualify for miracles. It's wonderful. I love my missionary life.

Apparently there are a new set of scriptures out? Are they awesome? Since when did they release a new set? That's crazy. I used to know things! Remember that? That was fun.

Well friends, family and townspeople. I love you. I'm grateful for you.

I'm grateful for your prayers and love.

Be good. Remember who you are. Make good choices.

Always choose the right. Unless you need to go left, then you should probably go left. (haha. Thanks Gowans!)

Love and Peace and Stuff!