Professor X and 4 Legged Whales.

Well hello there y'all! It's been a kind of rough week. But! We've seen successes nonetheless, so I'll get right to it. :)

Monday- After emailing and errands we played Scatterball at the church. Basically it's just free-for-all dodge ball and it is AWESOME. But man, I got out a LOT. Oh well. It's fun. :) We had exchanges that night! Our original date for exchanges had to be cancelled because of the weather so we did them from Monday to Tuesday night. Sister Ott and I went down to Noble with Sister Pfister and Sister Leavitt stayed here with Sister Main. It was an AWESOME exchange. We had dinner with the Comber family! I met them last exchange and it was great to see them again. After dinner we met with Sister Mona Jones. She is one of the coolest old ladies you'll ever meet. She makes AMAZING artwork with paper and folding it and she's just super artistic. ALSO, she let me ride around on her Hover Round. It was awesome- I felt like Professor X (from X-Men) and it was just a blast. I probably enjoyed it a bit too much, but it was really fun to whir around in that thing.

Tuesday- We exchanged back and went to a very interesting lesson with a couple we're teaching. I'll call them P and L. They're super unique. They are MADLY in love. They're in their late 50's.. and okay. They have HUNDREDS of WWE and WWF wrestling action figures in the ORIGINAL packaging nailed to their living room walls. They're covered. Also there are some stuffed animals on the walls. Also sweet puzzles that are of unicorns and Indians and rainbows and night skies and yeah. Also- P only has one leg. Her other one was amputated because she got a really bad staph infection.
Also- they have 4 cats. But they aren't really cats. They're actually furry 4-legged whales. I have yet to meet larger cats. It's ridiculous. Ridiculous. Anyway, so we went and taught them the other day. We show up and L is sitting in his recliner, shirtless, holding a toilet brush. He quickly got up and told me to sit in his recliner, and he shuffled off and put a shirt on. Later on, mid-lesson, P was sitting in her hover-round, really struggling with a housefly that would not leave her alone. After about 5 minutes of her jerking around, whispering 'LEAVE ME ALONE' at her housefly bully, L tells me to hand her the toilet brush.. so I gingerly pick it up and hand it it to her. She whacks at the fly until eventually the fly leaves her alone.. So she starts to brush her hair with the toilet brush.. Annnnnd I'm 99% sure that it has met a toilet or two in it's lifetime, not to mention there were definitely the guts of that housefly's little ancestors on that brush. So yeah. It was an interesting lesson. But we love them and they're hilarious. Man, the mission helps you meet some reallllllllllll crazy folks. :) 

After the lesson we went to check on someone else and we found a new investigator! His name is LD (he told us it stood for Little Devil) and he's super solid. :)

Wednesday- We met with President Walkenhorst, then went to visit with Kristyle. She's a LA that we're working on bringing back to the church. :) After that we had a doctor's appointment for my companion, then we went to dinner at the Hannah's!! YEAH! So excited. They made me Tamale Pie (SO HAPPY) and it was great. Also- we had a miracle lesson with the Jingozian's! It was awesome. We invited Jess to baptism again and she said yes! Chris said he's not quite there, but he's working on it. We're just so excited. We've been working with them. I love it. :D

Thursday- We went to the doctor again and then our cars were put on lock down because of the weather. Yeah it was pretty crazy. We've gotten snow and ice and the whole world has become an ice rink! We studied, planned, ate, chatted, and had a little dance party (you can only dance so much to EFY music) and it was a good time. :)

Friday- During my studies on my mission and also from other people, I have found some interesting things in the scriptures.

Santa is real! (Zechariah 2:6)

Baked goods can fly! (Zechariah 5:1-2)

Isaiah created the Kindle Fire (2 Nephi 7:11)

and UNICORNS ARE REAL (Isaiah 34:7)

Anyway, being on lock down can make any missionary go crazy. We weren't allowed to drive and we couldn't get to our area. We were also advised to only go out for specific appointments.. and it was driving us all crazy, so we walked to 7-11. Afterwards the ZL's brought us our mail (I GOT A LETTER FROM BIANA AND A PACKAGE FROM MY MOMMA) and we got special permission for my companions and I to drive to get priesthood blessings. It's been a rough week and we really needed that extra measure of support. Let me tell you- Heavenly Father knows and loves His children. I have felt that firsthand. It's been an awesome experience to feel the blessings of being a missionary and having the Priesthood in my life. I love it.

Saturday- Lock down again. We had correlation by phone and Sister Leavitt and I said the word "hue" for 20 minutes straight, because someone had told the elders in our ward that if you did that, you'd be saved. So we tried it. Felt exactly the same except my throat was a little sore. Our car was taken off of lock down for us to go to district meeting and dinner, and that was it. It was a great district meeting and dinner! Sister Ott rapped the 10 commandments again and that was an experience. She's funny.

Sunday- It was a good day. :) We had to teach Gospel Principles about the gathering of the house of Israel and that all went right over mine and my companion's heads. It was crazy. But the Spirit was in the room so that was what was important. After church, we had a lesson with Annie. We got her a Preach My Gospel so she could start teaching us the lessons to help her learn better. She did an awesome job teaching us the Plan of Salvation, and it was great. :)

We had dinner with the Kunz family! It was awesome. Brother Bets was there! He was in our ward before the ward switch and his family is one of my favorites! It was great to see him again. We watched the Christmas Devotional at Sister Smart's and then went home. It was a good day.

Well, everyone, as the Christmas season comes, I want to challenge each and every one of you to try and share Christ's love with just one person. It can be something as small as giving them a Joy to the World DVD or inviting them to church. Help them to know of the love of Christ and you'll be able to feel that same love in return! I love all of you and I'm praying for you.

Be safe, be strong, be good, be glad. 

The world is a beautiful place!

Zecharia 2:6 Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord.

Zecharia 5:1-2 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

2 Nephi 7:11 Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand—ye shall lie down in sorrow.

Isaiah 34:7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

Email dated December 9, 2013

Freezing Rain, Seventies, and Bad Knees.

Hello one, hello all! It's another week here in Oklahoma and this week, I remembered my journal!

I'll get right into it.

Monday- After emailing we went to run errands and then play sports. I messed up my knee a couple weeks ago and it's been a bit of a bummer not being able to walk a lot, but I've been working through it! That being said, I wasn't allowed to play sports on Monday :( It took all of my willpower to not just run out and play anyway. But I persevered and wrote letters instead. That night we had sushi at the Blackburns! My companions don't like fish much so that was kind of fun to watch them eat it. It was decent sushi. I'm not big on fish either, but the dipping sauce made it way good. They are an awesome family. Brother Blackburn designs apps and video games (it's soooooooooo cool).

Tuesday- We went to the doctor about my knee! I thought it'd get better but my companions were like, "NO!" and they called my mission president's wife. Sooooooooooooooo we went to the doctor. Dr. Zukas, to be exact! Who is one of the most awesome members of our ward. I just sprained my knee so I should be a-okay. :) His son was with him and asked if he could come into our appointment because he wanted to see what it was like to see his dad as a doctor, so I told him sure. :) He got bored within a couple minutes and left. It was funny.

After the doctor, we visited with Sister Smart. She's HILARIOUS. She's not technically in our ward but she's one of those floater-people who just needs some love and we're allowed to visit with her. She's so funny. That night we had a lesson with the Feasels and then we came home and planned. It was a good day. :)

Wednesday- MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY. (Shoutout. Aw yeah.) We had lunch with the Thackers! They're awesome. Brother Thacker is the "grumpy old hick" that I mentioned in a previous email. We read the B.o.M. with him and asked him a LOT of questions about his church, the church of Christ. Learned a lot. Apparently they have a LOT of similarities to our church. Kinda cool. Kinda weird. Afterwards we went to check on a less active, but apparently he'd moved! BUT!! The people there were receptive and let us in! THEY'RE SO SOLID. One of them was recruited to play football for BYU (but he isn't a member) and the other lived in Arizona and had a bunch of LDS friends. Alsoooooooooooooo they have two kids! YEAH. They're a great family and they're SO prepared for the gospel. :D After meeting them (miracle) we had dinner with the Walser's, then we checked on Sister Weedn. Turns out she's Sister Blackburn's mom. Who knew? She's really nice and she told me all kinds of things about what to do to care for my knee, and she gave me some things to take care if it. Bless her heart, she's really the sweetest. And my knee is doing great now!

Thursday- MISSION TOUR. Elder Cardon of the 70 was in the area for Stake conference, so we got to hear him speak to us as a mission! It was so cool. He gave us great counsel on how to help pump people up to further the work! He's a great guy. After that we had a lesson with the golden family that we met. Yep. They're just as golden as we thought they were. Their questions are.. incredible. I'm dying. They are awesome.  After meeting with them we had dinner with the Tuckers! They feed us so much and I LOVE them. Their daughter is so funny and she always says the funniest things. After that we went home. I did language study! ANNNNNNNNNNND I GOT A LETTER FROM MATT. So happy. :)

Friday- Freezing rain! We were told to not leave except for specified appointments, so we didn't leave until about 4. We had a meeting with a less active. Her little daughter thought I was a human jungle gym so I sat there and distracted her while my companions got to know Crystle better. After that we had dinner with the Jensen family. They're hilarious! Sister Jensen is from Sweden and Brother Jensen's dad was a mission president in Germany. Crazy. After dinner we had a lesson with the golden family, but they cancelled because of the weather.. but we had a member with us (Sister Reynolds. She's the bomb.) so we decided to try a less active that lived in the same complex. ONCE AGAIN, the less active had moved, and the people that opened the door were receptive! SO we taught them the first lesson and set baptismal dates and they are SOLID. AH. I'm so happy! They're really nice and they just want to know the truth. I love missionary work!

Saturday- Still only allowed to leave for appointments! We had correlation by phone because of the weather.. which was way more productive anyway, we should always conference-call our correlation. Anyway. We picked up some firewood and brought it to the Jingozians, met with them, and then we had a lesson planned with the new people we found but it fell through because of the weather (dagnabit) BUT we had Sister Reynolds with us so we went and helped her do her visiting teaching. It was fun! After that we went to the adult session of Stake Conference.. which was basically a repeat of our mission tour. But it was good. I loved it. :) Elder Cardon really is an inspired man of God. There's a reason he's a Seventy.

Sunday- Our cars were straightup on lockdown. So we weren't allowed to drive at all. We got a ride (a very slow ride.. a 15 mph ride) to church with some members (so nice of them), and conference was great! We had a reorganizing of our stake presidency so it was mainly testimonies, but there are some real powerhouses here. After conference our dinner appointment turned into a lunch appointment due to the weather, so we had dinner with the Tuckers! (Not the normal Tuckers, their parents) and it was basically just a big block party! It was so fun. After dinner we came back home and weren't allowed to leave for the rest of the day. :( It was sad. BUT. We did a lot of studying (studies for dayzzzzzzzzz) and we organized EVERYTHING. Again. So yeah. Moral of the story- I really don't like being locked up as a missionary. It's hard.

Email dated November 25, 2013

Carry On, My Wayward Son.

What a week it has been.. man.. what a week it has been. Unfortunately, I forgot my journal at home! So this email is coming all from memory!

Monday- After emailing we played basketball and football! It was really fun and I made a lot of shots in basketball! I loooooooved it. We sat around for a long time while everyone signed each other's comp journals (basically missionary yearbooks) and we ate dinner. We went and visited the BnB's (Bashers not bashers- basically people who want to know the truth and are open to the gospel, but ask doubting questions about everything) and Josh (one of the BnB's) played a Christmas/anti-abortion song for us that he'd written. It was cool! ..And way weird. He was talking about splitting cells and all kinds of things and the song was alllll over the place. It was cool though. We went back home and my companions worked on comp journals for the rest of the night.. and I just slept.

Tuesday- Tuesday was a weird day because we had to do a ton of things for Sister Clark. She was transferred to a city that has next to no stores. So we went and did some shopping? I didn't really like the idea but it was up to them so I went with it. We also went and visited Doris and said goodbye to her. OH! And we cleaned Sister Zukas's house. She is this amaaaaazing lady in our ward who just had her 5th kid and needed a little help. All of her kids are under the age of 6. So it's a really crazy household. We went to a few other people to say goodbye for Sister Clark and then we went home and she packed while I studied.. and studied.. and studied..

Wednesday- TRANSFERS. Whewwwww. So we went to the Moore stake center for transfers and it was crazy. Missionaries running around hugging each other, bags everywhere, new missionaries walking around with their trainers, completely petrified. That was me a transfer ago.. weird.

 Anyway. We got our new companion! Sister Ott. She's really nice. We ran to the mission office to get our mail (I GOT A PACKAGE FROM BIANAAAAAAAA) and then we went to the apartment, and Sister Ott unpacked. We took her to the store to get her some groceries and then we set to work! This whole week we've been doing less-active work and it's been really fun! We have made contact with a LOT of inactives and it's been a blast to get to know them.

Thursday- Weekly Planning. I don't understand how it always takes sooooooooooooooo long. But it does. It's incredible. When we FINALLY finished, we went to meet more less-actives and we had a lesson with the Jingozians. Man. They constantly impress me. They are about to be evicted from their apartment (breaks my heart) so I've made it my personal quest to find them a job that will work. And I did! I'm so happy! I'm almost positive he'll get the job which is really good. I'm really excited for him.

Friday- We had district meeting. Our new district dynamic is WAY different from our old district. The only missionaries left in our district of 10 that didn't change are Sister Leavitt, Elder Tripp, and myself. It's cool though. All of our new missionaries are really nice! There is one Elder who's name is Elder Brotherson.  Yep. Elder. Brother. Son. I feel bad because all of us have pointed that out to him. Poor guy. He's nice but he doesn't talk much. That's how most of our new missionaries are. Oh well. We'll all become great friends, I know it! After District meeting, we all went to Panda Garden- a chinese buffet that Elder Tripp has been trying to get us to go to since I got out into the field. Dad would be proud of me. I tell ya what. It was great! Made me slightly weirdly homesick but it was good. :) After lunch we went around and met more less actives then we had a lesson with Annie and Jared! They're great kids. Man. Also- Jared insisted on finding my Instagram and it was weird. He found it (my companions told him my first name.. dagnabit) and he showed it to me and it freaked me out. The outside world is a weird place. Bleh.

Saturday- SUCH A GOOD DAY. We had correlation and then e did SO MUCH less active work. There are a TON of less actives and we met so many great people! We did that from 12 until dinner. AT THE REYNOLD'S. AWW YEAH I LOVE the Reynolds! They're so great! We had an awesome dinner with them and then went back home to do more studies since correlation messes with our studies in the mornings. OH man. Okay. Saturday night. We go to bed, it usually takes about an hour for me to fall asleep, and I finally fall asleep around 11:30. I wake up at 3am... confused. There's loud noise and I'm not happy. Suddenly my brain adjusts and I recognize a familiar tune- "CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SOOOOOOOOOOOON." I'm still really confused. I get up, hobble into our living room, turn on a lamp, and look through a window. I see the shadow of a man across the street in his apartment, flailing around like crazy. Sister Leavitt gets up, disgruntled, and says- "What is happening?" And starts to whimper. I peek my head out the porch door, and there's a brief pause in the music, followed by a drunken "WOOOOOOOO" and what I can only assume was supposed to be a drum solo, but it sounded more like BAPBAPBAPBAPBAPBAPBAPBAPBAPBAP.  For a solid 5 minutes. I tell Sister Leavitt to go back to bed, and I quickly follow. I lay down.. Wayward Son starts over again.. it finishes. Starts over again.. and again.. and again. This went on for about 10 plays through the song. My companions both fall back asleep and I lay there- unable to sleep. Wayward Son turns into a general medley of Boston songs.. followed by Lynyrd Skynard. Around 4:30, the music stops. But now, I'm wide awake. I lay in bed until 6:30 comes. I didn't sleep a wink.

It was a long night.

Sunday- I was so tired. It was bad. But it was a GREAT Sunday. We had 4 investigators at church! That's the most we've had since before the ward split. ANDDDDD we had 15 less actives at church! That was a HUGE deal. We were so excited. Also we were alllll over the place. I took Sister Ott around with me and Sister Leavitt was on splits with another sister and it was just crazy. I took Sister Ott with me to Young Women's. It was so sweet. We were sitting there in the Laurel classroom while the classes split up, and a couple of beehives came in and said, "We want to invite the sister missionaries to come to our class, please." so Sister Ott and I went to their class and we had so much fun! Those girls are so nice. Man. The youth in our ward are INCREDIBLE. After church we went and checked on more less-actives (the work is never-ending.. our area is huge.) and then we had dinner with the Davis family! They are so funny- they're the kind of people who are REALLY into deep-doctrine and genealogy so it's always very informative to go over there. We went back to the apartment and did training and then got ready for bed and I went to sleep.. thankfully. I was SO tired.

It's been a great week! Sorry it's all over the place, my brain has been fried. But I love you all and I miss you!

Be safe, be strong, be good, be glad.

The world is a beautiful place!

Email dated November 18th

Okie Jokes and Transfers

Hello errybody! How the heck are y'all? :)

It's been another awesome week here in Norman, Oklahoma, so let's get right down to it! 

Monday- After email and such, we played Flickerball. I MADE A SHOT! I was so happy. You don't even know. I also kinda hurt my knee, but it's okay. It was worth it. :) That night we had dinner with the Hack's. They're a sweet couple! Brother Hack is from Guam, he's way cool. After dinner we went and I had my very first "Do Not Contact" encounter! a man that was on our list told us that if we came back, he'd have us charged with stalking. We'd never seen him before in our lives. But that was fun. Made me sad, I wish we could help him. But oh well. So we checked on more people then went home. That night, I learned a new song:

"What do you do when you're stranded?
Stranded on the toilet bowl?
What do you do when you're stranded-
and you don't got a roll?"

One of my companions was singing to herself in the kitchen. I wish I had more of an explanation than that.. but I don't. Sorry. Potty humor.

Anywayyyyy..

Tuesday- We went and visited Doris (our 93 year old feminist investigator) she's hilarious. It was a pretty long lesson, but we managed to teach her the restoration fully. She was very receptive which was really good. She also had some good, deep questions that we were able to answer. After that we visited the Whalens. They're a really nice older couple that live about 20 miles out of town, but they are in our area. They're really really really sweet. That night we had dinner with the Chambers and we went to Braum's (I love Braum's.) and then I got really sick so we had to go home. I felt really really bad about it. :(

Wednesday- We did more less-active work. We met with Brother Corless and he told us crazy stories about Australia, then we visited other less-actives (or tried to, there are a lot of people who have moved and the records weren't updated.) so we had dinner at the Tucker's. I really genuinely love them. They feed us all the time and I'm so grateful for them! They're really chill. After dinner we tried more less-actives to no avail.. until we went to check on one woman named Alicia. A woman named Lisa opened the door and said, "they moved. But I know where they live! Let me hop in my car and I'll show you where they live!" And so she did. We got to the house (Lisa is so nice) and turns out they were all active, we just hadn't met them yet. We had a really great conversation with them. (Alicia is the sister of Sister Singer, and she lives with the Singers. She's disabled and so so sweet.) and it was awesome. We left them with a spiritual message, and went home.

Thursday- Weekly planning. Man alive. It takes SO LONG. Seriously. When we'd finally finished, we had a lesson with the Feasel's. WHEW. Brother Feasel is a reactivating member and Lindsey, his wife, is an investigator. I LOVE how enthusiastic Brother Feasel gets about church, and he was so stoked to find out he has a home teaching route. Man if everyone was that enthusiastic about home teaching.. Whew. So then we went and visited the Jingozians. I LOVE the Jingozians. I wish that everyone saw the world the way they do- as a gift from Heavenly Father, with beautiful patterns and rhythms everywhere. Man. They're awesome. I got a letter from Biana that day! So happy. :)

Friday- District meeting. Took a long time (Zone leaders were there, talking with us) and it was good. I also had an Okie tell me this joke:"The toothbrush was invented in Oklahoma. Wanna know how I know that?" "How?" "Because if it was invented anywhere else, it'd be a teeth-brush!" and then he gave me a happy, gap-toothed smile. I love Oklahoma. We had dinner that night with the Avery's. They lived in Eugene for a long time (random) and it was a nice dinner. We had a lesson with Annie that night and that was way good. She's so sweet. She and Jared are both REALLY solid teenagers, with a firm understanding of the importance of the gospel in life, no matter what age you are. It was great.

Saturday- My companions made a list of things they think are weird about me. Here's a few things on the list: "If there's a dog without an owner on the side of the road, you always make us pull over so you can find it's owner." "You love cares. We'll be driving along and you'll see a car you like and then whisper to yourself- "dannnng." "You can sing the entire Phineas and Ferb theme." and my favorite, "You love french bread too much. You get a loaf, rip it in half, and eat it. That's weird." I don't think any of those things are really all that weird, and there are other things on the list, but that's a few things they really emphasized. Anyway- Saturday was Gabriel's baptism! He was our investigator until we had to hand him off after the ward switch. They had to dunk him 4 times to get it right because the water in the font was too shallow. That night we had dinner with the OROPEZA'S! I LOVE them. They're so great. They're the kind of people who don't have much, but give all they have to anyone who needs it. They also make deliiiiicious food. It was great to spend time with them.

Sunday- MAN. I LOVED SUNDAY. Okay so first off, Sister Leavitt's aunt and uncle showed up at our ward. Weird. Turned out they were in town.. random. That night we had dinner with the Kunz family. They are the BOMB. During Relief Society that day we announced that we had a couple who was in need of anything they could get (clothes, shoes, dishes, firewood) and the Kunz family (who don't have much) gave us a ton to give to them. One of the sweetest things was that Brother Kunz gave away an old leather jacket that had a lot of sentimental value to him, but he didn't need it anymore. We brought the stuff to the Jingozian's, and watching Brother Jingozian put the jacket on.. Man. He put the jacket on and I about cried. His eyes lit up, he was so happy. He looked at Sister Jingozian and said, "how do I look, mama?" and I almost lost it. You could see how happy he was and how much it meant to him that there was someone willing to give him a coat.

Man.

I have so much hope for the world! I LOVE OKLAHOMA! I love the people here, I love the environment, I love the opportunities we are getting for service. I love that no matter where you are, the church is the same.
OH! We got transfer calls last night! Sister Clark is being transferred and Sister Leavitt and I will be getting a new companion- Sister Ott. I've met her before and she was nice, so I'm excited. :) But also sad to lose Sister Clark. I love her so much!

Alright well. I need to go but I love you all so much. I'm praying for you and I'm grateful for the support you show me. Thanks for all that you do!

Email dated November 11th

My Heart Feels All Sparkly.

Hello all! It's been another abnormal week in Norman, Oklahoma! Heaven forbid things get more weird. Let's jump right into the week.

Monday- Good day! After emailing, we ate lunch and went to play flickerball at the church. It was really fun! I've found that I'm really good at catching the ball, but throwing it into the net.. Not so much. It's okay. Time, practice and patience and all that! That night we had dinner with the Thacker's. THEY ARE HILARIOUS. Also confusing. So Sister Thacker is a member, but her husband belongs to the Church of Christ. He comes to our church every week but his heart is pretty hard against accepting the gospel. It's all well and good though, and he's a hilarious guy. He's a self-proclaimed "Angry Old Hick" and he will do anything he can to change the subject AWAY from the Book of Mormon. He sure makes me laugh. We got him to agree to allow us to stop by and read the scriptures with him, so we'll be doing that pretty often. :)

Tuesday- Rough day. I was still sick so I got a blessing. Which was much needed. I thought it was really cool that in the blessing there were things mentioned that I hadn't even said out loud, subjects were addressed that weren't told to anyone. The Priesthood is real, y'all! It's so cool, and I am so grateful for it. I had to call the mission health advisor and he told me I could only drink gatorade for the day and that I was not allowed to go out for a couple days. :( That bummed me out. Nothing makes you want to work as hard as you can more than being locked in for 2 days. :/ But my day was cheered up when I got mail from Sister Carlson! MAN! I was so grateful for that mail! Heaven knows I needed it. :)

Wednesday- Another sick day. Since we weren't allowed to leave, we did a lot of study, discussed every investigator and potential investigator we have, mapped out part of our area (it's HUGE) and I took a really long nap. I got 3 pieces of mail that day! SO HAPPY! Two from Biana (THE BEST) and 1 from Matthew (ALSO THE BEST) It was so great to get mail and I felt so happy. :) I am so grateful for y'all! Anyway, I gave my companions corn rows that day. It all started because Sister Clark asked me to teach her to french braid. So I showed her real quick and that was that. Well we'd already done our planning for the night. Somehow, in french braiding Sister Clark's hair, I decided I'd quickly give her corn rows. Her hair is pretty short so they kind of fell apart a little bit, but low and behold, she looked like she just got out of jail. Or like the creepy doll that belongs to Angelica in Rugrats. Sister Leavitt was so excited that I gave Sister Clark corn rows that she asked me to do corn rows up the side of her head and put her hair into little ponytails, so I did. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of it, but she essentially looked like a wild steed.

Thursday- We did weekly planning and all of the other stuff that we had to get done, and then we had a REALLY early curfew because of Halloween, so we went out a little bit on our bikes, but couldn't even make it to our area (we live six miles away from it) before we had to turn back or else we'd be out past our curfew. We got back and the Tuckers (bless their hearts) brought us dinner. We ate dinner, did some study, and then my companions wanted to dress up. Sister Leavitt dressed up like "Miranda Sings" (some youtube celeb) and Sister Clark dressed up like a little fox. They have decided that my spirit animal is a lioness (I don't know how accurate that is) so they dressed me up like one. I just look like a gigantic creepy cat. They even ratted my hair. It was pretty bad. I had to condition it 4 times. We cleaned our apartment and retired to bed.

Friday- EXCHANGES! But before that, District Meeting. It was so funny. Our district leader decided that we needed to do a district inventory because a couple of companionships were having some issues, so we all went around and for every person we told them one thing we thought they could improve on (if we could think of anything) and one thing that we liked about them. Everyone told me to stop saying "Holy cats". Haha. So I'm working on that. It was good. After that, we had EXCHANGES! Sister Leavitt and I were with Sister Pfister (yep, her name rhymes) and Sister Clark went with Sister Main. We went down to Noble and got right to work. We went and met this woman, Mandy- HILARIOUS. They had this FAT ferret named Havoc and it was the chillest ferret I have ever seen. It was getting swung around and smothered by her two year old and the ferret was just like, "whatevs. I'm a ferret." and it was fantastic. After that, we went and helped Brother Jackson paint his porch. He also needed his lawn mowed, so I did that. It was great! Funny thing- the grass cover was broken so it didn't cover much, so I got pelted in the ankles with acorns. We also helped demolish an old roof and that was really fun. We had dinner with Sister Pam. She's a really funny recently-single lady who cracks me up like none other. That night we went and visited the Comber family. Oh man, words cannot describe. So they just got married a couple years ago. Brother Comber has a really rough past (motorcycle gangs, drugs, all that) and he turned his life COMPLETELY around and joined the church and married Sister Comber, and they are now trying to adopt 5 kids at once, all brothers and sisters. They are a solid family. Brother Comber is one of the most missionary-minded people I have ever met. Also their 5 year old daughter is the sweetest. We asked her how she felt when she prayed and she said, "I just, I just feel so good. My parents are the nicest people ever, they are nice to everyone, and I love them because they are so nice and wonderful. I also love you. You missionaries are my best friends. And I love Heavenly Father. When I talk to Him, my heart feels all sparkly." I'd describe her as precious, but that's an understatement. I love the Comber family.

Saturday- Went back to Norman and helped some women clean out the garage of their recently-passed mother. That was really sad and you could tell they were having a rough time. But I am so grateful they asked us to help. After that I met with President Walkenhorst and that was really good. He's a great man and he knows exactly what he's talking about. He's full of the spirit and you can feel it. He actually reminds me a lot of my mom (weird? yeah probably) because they have very similar personalities and senses of humor. After exchange reports and all that, we went back to the apartment, and Sister Leavitt wasn't feeling well, so she took a nap and I decided to do some language study. That went well! We had dinner that night with the Mortensen's. They're a really great family who adopted all of their kids from different places. While we were leaving, Elder Mierau accidentally let a bird into the house, so the dog, Sister Mortensen, the Elders and I tried to get it back out of the house, while my companions ran and hid. It was really funny. We tried to visit a couple other people and no one was home, so we went home and planned for our lesson the next day.

Sunday- No one reminded us that it was daylight savings, and we all forgot, so we woke up an hour early! Hahaha. It was funny. We got an extra hour of studies in. I read this talk called "The 4th Missionary" (SO GOOD) and one thing that I REALLY liked in there was "He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will make of you a man. He will make of you a god." I LOVE THAT. So good. We went to church. Taught a lesson on Eternal Marriage. Sat in on Young Women's. It was a weird church day. After church we taught the Jingozians. It was really good! We went and knocked a couple doors, prayed with a really nice Methodist preacher named Donna, and went to dinner at the Hannah's. Sister Hannah made my dad's garlic mashed potatoes! She is so sweet. She calls the parents of missionaries and gets their favorite recipes then makes them. So nice! I got to play a guitar for the first time since I was in Oregon (so happy) and we went to our Ward Pie Social. It was a get-to-know-you night and we played bingo! It was really fun. It helped us to get to know the ward better and it was great fun. Sister Zimmerman (the hilarious woman who reminds me of Biana) gave us 5 pies. We tried to deny them. We really, really did. But she didn't care. We brought one to the Jingozians along with some flowers and went back home, planned, went to bed. My companions both talk in their sleep. So sometimes they say funny things. And I'm a light sleeper, so I almost always hear what they say. Once Sister Clark said, "You know, you're really good at that. You should teach a class!" and then Sister Leavitt teaches lessons in her sleep. Last night, however, Sister Leavitt said, "I'm so sorry that our bikes are bigger for our moms than for our daughters." I have no idea what that means.

Alright well I usually try to end my emails with something really spiritual, so this time, I want you all to go to Moroni 8:3, and know that I am doing that for you. I truly am.

I love you all!

Be safe, be strong, be good, be glad.

The world is a beautiful place. :)

Moroni 8:3 - I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.

 

Email dated November 4th

Naps and Revelation.

Hello all! Another week has come and gone (how on earth? ...) and we're back at P-day.. again! SO! Without further adieu, I'll start out with Monday after we emailed. :)
 

Monday- played basketball at the stake center. It was intense. So fun! But INTENSE. I get so nervous when I get the ball so I just fling it at the first teammate I see. I made a couple shots, so that was fun. :) After that, we went home, wrote letters, got ready, and left to have dinner with the Zimmerman family! Turns out they love Doctor Who! Immediate bonding. They're spunky and fun and a little bit dweeby. My kind of people. :) After dinner we went to meet a potential investigator, but ran into some awkward times there so we left. We met up with a couple of Elders in our zone and discussed people we had swapped during the ward change. We went home and did planning and during our planning I felt strongly impressed that we needed to do service the next day. I told my companions, but we didn't know why I felt that, so we didn't think much of it and went to bed.

Tuesday- GREAT DAY. During companionship study, we found out who we needed to serve! It was so cool. We were sitting there studying when a sister from our ward (the same sister who needed help with the kitten) called and asked us if we could help her with her house. She's going through some REALLY hard things right now and she needed help cleaning up. So we cheerfully accepted (after I did a mental-spiritual fist pump. AW YEAH, INSPIRATION IS REAL.) and we planned out our day. We first went and visited an investigator that we were passing off to a couple other elders in our stake, and that was REALLY great (they're so cool! Their names are Rosalyn and Antoine), and then we went to help the sister in our ward. The Elders were there (Elder Mierau and Elder Tripp, who are in our ward with us) and we all got to work. We did some DEEP cleaning, and it was so fun! I loved it. During our work, I learned that if you make a belt out of aluminum foil and wrap it around a cat's waist, it wayyyyyyyy messes up their equilibrium and they look drunk. It doesn't hurt the cat. But it's fun to watch. We worked at her house for the majority of the day, then went and had dinner with the Rex family. I talked about fishing and hunting with Brother Rex and let me tell you, dad would be proud of me for my knowledge! :) Haha. After dinner we attempted to find a less active that lives in our area. Unfortunately, however, it was dark. And our new area is like ALLL country roads where there's about a mile between each house, so after trying to find her house and driving around for a while, we got frustrated and went home to plan.
 

Wednesday- Zone conference day! It was really good. Also really long. But we learned a lot about exact obedience and repentance. I think my favorite thing that I got from it was this- A truly repentant heart recognizes the importance to try again when they relapse the first time. Often, it takes multiple, repeated attempts to repent. There is something sacred in such striving.
AHH I loved that so much! How easy it can be to put ourselves down when we don't measure up to our own expectations! Everyone's worst critic is themself and it's so sad. Remember that you are constantly growing and adapting and becoming better, and Heavenly Father loves you as much as He loves the person you think is succeeding more at life! On the other side of the spectrum, as well, it can be hard to not be overly critical of those you see who don't uphold their standards or even the standards you unfairly set for them. Remember again- Heavenly Father loves them just as much as He loves you. They're just another Child of God trying to make it through life.

Anyway, after the conference we decided to do a bit of knocking before dinner. Sister Leavitt thinks I'm really inspired by the Spirit so she ALWAYS has me pick the streets we knock on. Anyway, so I picked a street, we went to it. Sister Clark saw a person outside and made the first move to walk up and talk to him, and Sister Leavitt did most of the talking. It went really well! His name is Ryan. He's a really cool guy. He works at a prison and was shanked in the leg once and has some crazyyyyyy stories. He's really nice though and you can just tell that he wants more out of life than just guarding a prison. That night we had dinner with a nice elderly couple in our ward, then went home.

Thursday- I wish I had more to say about what we did Thursday. We did next to nothing. Here's why- Thursday is our weekly planning day. Which is great. But on Thursday we had a lot to talk about and it ended up taking several hours. We went to the library (came to the library? I'm in the library right now.. anyway..) and searched for things on mormon.org/ read up on the world, according to the church. We didn't have a dinner appointment so we went back home, ate dinner, and sang together. It was a good day but I'm upset that we didn't do more.

Friday- We had a special zone training! It was really good. Basically we reviewed zone conference, talked about what we needed to fix as a zone as well as in our districts and our companionships, and reviewed the white handbook. It was really good. After that, we ate lunch, and did bike safety inspections because we wanted to ride bikes.. but.. my bike is not up to par :( Sadly. We have to fix a few things. Bums me out. We went and visited the Jingozians. They... they're truly amazing. They were homeless until recently. They now have an apartment and just got their water turned on 4 days ago, and they still don't have electricity. They have next to no furniture but still, they are so thankful for what they have. Talk about a humility check. They are wonderful people and I am honored to know them. I really am. More about them later.

After the Jingozians, we met with the Feasel family. Brother Feasel is a recently reactivated member, and he's the only member. His wife is so sweet and ready to learn, and their kids are the cutest! Anyway, after meeting with them, we went to the Trunk or Treat at the bishop's. It's a huuuuuuuuuuge event that everyone goes to every year. It was written down as our dinner on our dinner calendar. It was so fun! My companions and I manned the missionary "station" in the back of the Zone Leader's truck, and it was a blast. There were some GREAT costumes. My favorite- the mom who dressed up like Legolas, her sons were hobbits and her husband was Gandalf, or Brother Tucker, who walked around with a Dalek beanie on, carrying a plunger and a whisk.

People are so cool.
 

Saturday- I got sick. Pretty unfortunate but It's okay! I've been sick for the last couple days. Anyway, we went to correlation meeting. After that, we went home and planned to let me nap for an hour until our first appointment, but apparently people cancelled on us a couple times (I was asleep the whole time) and I woke up four hours later in a panic. "WE HAD APPOINTMENTS ALL DAY! WE MISSED THEM ALL!" My companions told me they'd been cancelled and they decided to let me sleep, so yeah. Against my choice, I slept a ton. We went to an appointment with the Feasels and MAN. Brother Feasel is revved to go about the gospel! It's so great to see his enthusiasm. And his wife is so nice and man. I love them. I really really do. ALSO, we set a baptismal date with her! AW YEAH. That night we had dinner with the Reynolds' and then our last appointment fell through so we went home and did training and planning. A cool thing that happened was that we were trying to decide what to teach one of our investigators. I hadn't looked at any records or anything about him, but I said, "We really need to teach him about the priesthood. He needs to know how Heavenly Father sees him and what his potential is." Sister Clark was like, "Sister Larson.. did you look at his record?" and I was like, "no, why?" "..Because the last people to visit with him wrote down that he was really interested in learning about the priesthood, and they thought it would be important for him to learn about it because it would help him realize his potential and worth as a Son of God."

Yep. Revelation is crazy.
 

Sunday- Great day! Man. Sister Barlow (a sister from the mission office) came down for the day and was on splits with Sister Leavitt. We went to church. All of the talks were directly about member missionary work. I love how much everyone is really realizing the importance of hastening the work! SO COOL. We taught the lesson in Relief society and got asked to teach the lesson in Gospel Principles next week. I don't think we've gone to church yet since I've gotten here without people asking us to teach in church. It's fun though, I enjoy it. :) After church we met with Annie. Man, talk about a young girl with a solid testimony of Christ. She knows exactly why the gospel is in her life and she is so grateful for it. She's counting down the days until she can be baptized (next May) and is so excited for it! She's sweet. Also Jared, her boyfriend. he's a great kid. He brings himself to church every Sunday, because his mom has to work. They're really solid. I love the youth here. We had dinner that night with the Davis family. They are genealogy fanatics. I never knew there was so much to know about Haun's Mill. They're really nice and really smart. That night we had an appointment with the Jingozians, and it was really really good. The spirit was so strong and it really helped me put my personal issues into perspective. There are so many things to be grateful for! The world is a beautiful place.
How blessed we are to be a part of this world at this time. Yes, the world is getting increasingly more scary and difficult, but I am so thankful that we have the knowledge of the gospel! The church is true. I know this. Joseph Smith restored the word of God. I know this. God loves me, and he loves you. I know this.

I love you all. Be safe, be strong, be good, be glad.
The world is a beautiful place. :)

Email dated October 28th

Cat Scratches and Toby Keith

Hello all! What a CRAZY week it has been! Man alive. I'll just jump right into it, after I emailed last P-day.

Monday- We got a bunkbed! So happy! It's tiny though. I sleep on the bottom bunk and I have to be careful to not turn to abruptly because otherwise I hit my head on the top bunk. It's great fun though. Having a bed at all is really the best. Later in the day we played flickerball with the elders (like a mix of ultimate frisbee, football, and basketball) and it was fun. We had dinner that night with the Broderick family. They're so sweet! They remind me a lot of the Thomson's. A LOT. It's crazy. That night we went to check on our Bashers-not-bashers. They are really cool. They're super hipster-Oregon people who started their own religion, but only because they haven't found one yet that they really believe is the true church.. so now they're reading the Book of Mormon and it's going really well! Man. They're really nice. We call them Bashers-not-bashers because they ask really crazy doctrinal questions trying to disprove the Book of Mormon, but when we answer their questions, they're really thoughtful and are like, "okay, that makes sense!" so they're super open to everything.

They're cool.
 

Tuesday- After morning studies we went and met with Gabriel. He's so interesting. He can just take a subject and run with it for a solid half hour.. you can't get a word in sideways! He's really nice though. Needless to day, we were unable to teach a lesson to Gabriel on Tuesday, but I learned a lot about him and what he thinks about humanity. After Gabriel we went and knocked doors on a street I'd felt impressed to knock a couple days ago. And guess what! We found a new investigator and some potentials! it was way cool. After that we visited some less actives and went to dinner with the Tuckers. They're the people that fed us amazing waffles on Sunday morning of conference.. so happy. After dinner we checked up on Sister Smart. Okay. This story.. is awkward. So we get in there, and first off, she has the most OBESE CAT I have EVER seen in my life. His name is Biscuit. He (no lie) is the size of half of a coffee table. It's crazy. He's really nice. Anyway, she has this other kitten named Max. But she didn't know if he was a boy or a girl.. so she had me pin the cat down, (yikes) and she checked. It was harder than that though because she was like yelling at me to help her with this poor cat, it's meowing like it's about to die, I'm unsure what to do, one of my companions is holding a flashlight and the other one is just laughing to tears, and I'm getting scratched to death by this poor disgruntled kitten. It was so uncomfortable.
 

Wednesday- We had veteran's meeting. Basically that's a meeting for new missionaries (like me) to go and our trainers tell us how much they love us and they brag to the other trainers about how great their "kids" are. It's ridiculous. We had some good macaroni and cheese though. I got my first letters, too! From Matthew and Biana! I was SO HAPPY that I might have cried a little. Just a single solitary tear, but it happened. So happy. :) That night we checked up on some investigators, had dinner with the Cruz's, and met with a girl named Caitlyn. It was fun! But alas, we made very little progress :(
 

Thursday- Ah Thursday! We did weekly planning for WAY too long. It took FOREVER. A lot of it was because we were gutting out our area book to make sure we were organized for the area changes. Afterwards we went to have a lesson but it fell through, so we felt prompted to check on Doris. SUCH A GOOD IDEA. She's this old baptist lady who liked us a lot but was not receptive to the gospel. Her heart was so softened when we went to visit her and we're going to go check on her again soon. :) She also (without realizing it) helped me to remember my purpose and helped my perspective a bit, so that was really good. After Doris, we had a lesson with Maverick. AH! MAV! I love that kid! We taught him a fun lesson and then booked it home.
 

Friday- District meeting. It was so long. We had a good one though and I'm slowly coming out of my shell. It's weird because when I email, I'm normal me again but as soon as I'm talking to someone, I change. I don't know how to explain it. Shyness. It's weird. After district meeting (and lunch) we went back to the apartment and I did language study. We went to dinner with Sister Martin at this REALLY yummy french bakery. OH. Forgot to tell you. Our area boundaries got completely changed around so now we're all in different wards. Also- we lost ALL of our investigators to other missionaries.. and didn't gain any. Well, at least we get to keep Doris. :) It's like we're shotgunning kind of and it's weird. But it's fun and our new area is beautiful! It's all country roads and mansions. Also- Toby Keith is in my ward boundaries. Yeah. He lives here. It's weird.
 

Saturday- We did studies, then met up as a district to swap records and stuff. It was sad. :( But it's for the best! After that, we went with the Zone Lords to transition Gabriel over to meeting with them instead of us now because of the changes. It went surprisingly well! After that, we went around and said goodbyes to our investigators and less actives. :( It's amazing how much I love all of them! That night we had dinner with the Oropeza's! They're the best! They always feed us sooooo much though and it's hard to say no.
 

Sunday- Man. yesterday.. crazy day. Went to church. New ward, different people, introductions EVERYWHERE. It was great though. We met one girl who is just like Molly was, where she has been an investigator for a lonnnnnng time but hasn't joined yet. She's really sweet. Her name is Annie and she is awesome! After church we came home and I decorated my planner. It looks legit. I'm happy about it. We had dinner with the Humphrey family that night. Brother Humphrey served his mission in Sweden so we talked about Scandinavia for a while and that was nice. :) After that, we had a fireside. My companions and I were asked to speak at a youth fireside. It was crazy! We told our stories and we encouraged them all to learn to bear simple, powerful testimonies. It doesn't have to be something big. Something small like, "I know God lives." It was a really neat fireside. A mom at the fireside asked me to talk to her daughter about considering a mission and it was really cool to get to know her. She's a really sweet girl.

Alright well, that's all for this week. It's been a nuts week, it really has, and I'm so happy for it! I love this gospel. I know that God loves us. He sees us in our trials as well as in our joys. He wants our happiness more than we do! It's up to us to do what we have to in order to gain those blessings.

I love y'all way too much!

Again, randomly rotating, IDK why. Email dated October 21st.

The World is a Puddle.

Email dated October 14th

Hello from the wettest place on earth! You thought you had it bad in Oregon? Nope. It's a torrential downpour outside right now- and everything is flooded. It's the best. :)

I have gotten my first chigger bites. For those of you who don't know what a chigger is, they're these irritating little bugs that live in the grass and bite your legs, kinda like fleas. My companions have tons of them.

Life has been crazy this past week! I'll just jump right into it, after emailing on last P-day.

Monday- After emailing, we went grocery shopping, went to Cici's again (so good, and they have a lunch buffet that's only 3.79? What? It's the BEST.) We went back to the apartment and watched a church dvd and fell asleep. We got about 40 phone calls during our nap, but one of them was someone calling to confirm a dinner appointment we didn't know we had, so that was cool! :) We went and had dinner with the Anderson's. They're a newlywed couple in our ward. Kind of weird, Sister Anderson is 3 years younger than me. But they are the sweetest and funniest people! Also they make some killer french bread. Man.

Tuesday- Kind of a weird day. We got up, but Sister Clark was really sick so she didn't want to get up. I tried to stretch out my back because it's been all wonky with my bed, then did personal study. Eventually all of us were up, we got ready, and went and visited Gabriel, one of our investigators. He's the funniest guy. With just one question you can get him to tell you so much! It's really cool. After our lesson, we picked up the elders and went to dinner at the George's. Nope, they're not related to the George's from Philomath.. I checked. Anyway, they're vegan, and we had these really good wrap things. Sister George told me some terrifying things about cheese and her daughters taught me how to "dance ballet good". So cute. Man. After dinner we went to Walmart because one of the elders rode his bike through a patch of thorns with unfortunate results. We dropped them off, got home, and planned.

Wednesday- We quickly got ready and took Sister Clark to be on splits with the other sisters for the day. Sister Leavitt and I went back home and studied, then went out tracting! So fun! We have one specific approach that we use that works really well- "Hi, we're representatives of Jesus Christ, and we're in your area offering to pray with people. Could you use a prayer today?" and then we pray with them and get to know them. It works so well. We met a really sweet woman named Coral in a coral colored robe. She was pretty cool. Seriously. Oh, so we were driving and there was this cute little dog sniffing around in the middle of the road. My companion just wanted to drive around it but I didn't want it to get hit, so I had her stop and I got out and found it's house. Oh, also- my companions think that I'm obsessed with cats because I always say "holy cats!" and whenever we see a cat I try to catch it, but really I just miss having a pet. After that, we talked on the phone for a bit with one of the elders about some doctrinal stuff, then went and picked up Sister Clark. I got a desk chair! Best day of my life.. not kidding. I was so excited. We dropped it off at the apartment then had a classy dinner with our district at Taco Bell. None of us got dinner appointments. This, mind you, was the first time I'd gone without a dinner appointment since getting into the field, and we've had dinner every night since.. so yeah. We went to check on one of our investigators, Gayla, but she wasn't home, so we knocked doors in her area. We met a couple really nice people, but no one was interested. We prayed with a lot of people though. After that, we went to visit the Clark family (confusing I know, my companion's last name is Clark). They are this really amazing family that has gone through a lot and is going through a lot more. I really felt like I connected with them- I love that family so much and I just want to help them out so badly. Thank goodness we're missionaries.. so that's what we get to do:)

Thursday- We woke up, did the morning routine, went to an appointment.. and got stood up:( So my companions decided we needed to go to Taco Bell and get some pity Crunchwraps. I promise I haven't eaten any fast food since.. I've decided it's gotta stop. Anyway. We went and did weekly planning, went to another appointment.. it fell through, too, so we went home finished planning, I did language study, then we went to check on Mehri. She's going through a hard time too. It's frustrating because she wants our help but won't accept what we teach her.. It's okay. Heavenly Father will help us figure it out:) After that, we went and got the elders, and went to dinner with the Zukas family. They are so cute! They have 4 kids under the age of 6, another on the way. They have this one really rambunctious little boy named Bronco- he's the sweetest. After dinner we dropped off the elders and went to check on Dan (not to be confused with our other investigator, Danny) but it turns out he doesn't live there anymore. We did however get to talk to this really really great guy named Doug who accepted a Book of Mormon and was really solid. Unfortunately, he doesn't live there either, he lives in Tulsa, outside of our mission :( But he's a great guy. After that, we walked around with the intention to do OYM's (open your mouth), but we didn't encounter anyone. We went back home and FINALLY re-dedicated our apartment. My companions had me do it, so that was kinda cool.

Friday- we didn't do much. We had district meeting, and we ate at this really great place called Fuzzy's tacos. A couple of the elders dubbed me the "District Adele" because they think I sound like her when I sing. Don't know what that means. Anyway, Fuzzy's tacos. Sounds super appetizing right? Yeah. Anyway, we knocked doors to no avail, and all of our appointments fell through :( 

Saturday- we did the morning routine, then Sister Clark had an appointment to talk to President Walkenhorst so we went to that. After that we came back, I did language study, then we went tracting. We met a really sweet woman named Wanda and we're going to go back and visit her hopefully. Also a woman named Marilyn. Both of them are really cool! We met this guy named Allan who talked to me in Spanish and I spoke back to him in portugues. I understood him really well but he couldn't understand a lick of what I was saying. Probably my fault on that one, ha. Anyway. I hope we can go visit Wanda and Marilyn. Our area boundaries are getting moved.. I'll explain that in a bit. We had dinner with the Palmers on Saturday, and that was really nice. Brother Palmer talked with me in portugues too. It's amazing how many people speak spanish and portugues, and it's so cool that I can understand them! The Spirit is so cool.

Sunday- GREAT DAY. AH. I loved Sunday. We got up, studied, picked up the elders for church. We had testimony meeting and in Relief Society, they asked minha companheiras e eu to talk about why we decided to go on a mission and what sacrifices we were making to be here. It was really cool to share that experience. After church and correlation, we went to dinner at the Hannah's. Sister Hannah makes AMAZING food. We had that chicken noodle soup that we make back home with the homemade noodles.. and we had roast. And we had veggies for days. So good. Cool thing about Sister Hannah. She asked me where I was from.. like everyone does. 

This is how the normal conversation goes:

"Where you from?"

"Oregon!"

"What part?"

"Do you know where Corvallis is?"

"Nope."

"It's where Oregon State University is, it's about an hour and a half south of Portland. I'm actually from a small town next to Corvallis, but people never know where that is."
"Oh, cool. *Some comment about how I'm not from Utah and that's weird.*"

This time, when I was talking with Sister Hannah, the conversation went like this:

"Where you from?"
"Oregon!"
"What part?"
"Do you know where Corvallis is?"

"Yes! I have an uncle that lives there! Well, actually.. he lives in.. Philomath?"
"I ACTUALLY LIVE IN PHILOMATH!"

I was SO excited. SO COOL! He's a non-member, she says he's not interested at all. But he lives on West Hills Rd. So crazy right?

Anyway, after dinner, we had to go to a special meeting where they announced that the ward boundaries in our stake are being moved.. so our areas are changing too. Weird, not sure how to handle it, but it's cool! No one told our mission president, so he found out yesterday too.. so we're not sure what our areas are right now, but it's cool. I'll keep y'all posted.

I love you all so much and I'm grateful for you! No picture this week, maybe next week I'll get a worthwhile one.

Be safe, be strong, be good, be glad.
The world is a beautiful place. 

Hellooo NORMAN.

I hope you all said that in your head like Jerry Seinfeld says "Helloo NEUMAN." Because that's what I was going for.

First off, here is my address, everyone!:

417 SW 79th St. Suite 210

Oklahoma City, OK 73139

Anyway, hello! I am in Norman, Oklahoma! Life is pretty crazy. 10 days ago I found out I would be here, and now, I've been here nearly a week! Heavenly Father is pretty dang cool.

Alright first let me tell you about the town:

Norman, Oklahoma may actually be the flattest place you will ever go in your earthly life. It is the home of Oklahoma University and it is a lot like Corvallis.. just more flat and an incredibly large amount of fried chicken restaurants. I'm gonna end up gaining back the 14 pounds I lost at the MTC. Oh, cats. It's a cool place though. The humidity is really nice here and I feel like I could breathe forever! So I love it. There aren't as many trees as I'd like but there's still plenty to give shade and create oxygen, so no harm, no foul.

I have two companions! Yep, you got it, I got put into another trio. The reason for this is because I was a surprise! My companions found out about me about a week ago. They said, "You weren't a mistake.. you're a miracle!" Yeah, I'm their baby. What's weird is that I'm the oldest person in the companionship, but I'm also the youngest (in mission age).

Alright, let me tell you a little bit about my companions:

Sister Leavitt- she's the senior companion, she's been out 6 months! She's from Utah and is one of the most high energy people you will ever meet in your life. She's very loving and friendly and funny. She's so cool.

Sister Clark- She is a bit quieter, but still louder than me. She's also loving and kind, but a bit more reserved than Sister Leavitt. She plays the harp and she likes Doctor Who, so we're buds.

Alright. Now, I'll tell you about how the week has been since I got here.

Tuesday I flew from Salt Lake to Oklahoma. I don't think I have ever been more motion sick in my life. It was okay though. There was an Elder sitting next to me who was very chatty and when I didn't feel like I was about to pass out, I would talk with him. He was nice.

Upon arriving at the airport, we met our mission president and grabbed our bags. Our mission president is named President Walkenhorst. He's 7 feet tall (not an exaggeration) and used to play basketball for BYU. He's really nice and kinda goofy.

We headed to the stake center in Moore. Yes, Moore, Oklahoma- where they had the devastating tornadoes earlier this year. I'm right next to that. I'll explain more about tornadoes later.

We spent a solid 8 hours at the stake center, being interviewed, receiving information, eating food, and trying not to fall asleep. I pulled an all-nighter the night before I came here (long story) so I was about to fall over out of tired-ness. But it was good. Finally we went to the mission home and went to bed. I slept SO deep.

On Wednesday we got up, got ready, and went back to the stake center to meet our companions. They had us all stand in a line and he called our names to meet each other. When they called my name and called the name of my companions, they came RUNNING up to me and I desperately tried to reach them, only to trip over my skirt, nearly pull it down, and fall down in between the pews. It was awesome. First impressions are the best. I popped back up, hugged them both, and sat with them. We sat through more information and slideshows and finally we were allowed to go outside. There were tons of missionaries outside for transfers. Sister Leavitt ran around like a crazy person talking to everyone and hugging every sister she saw. Eventually (after Sister Clark and I spent much time looking for her) we caught her and we all headed to the mission office to get me an air mattress. After that, we all went to Braum's. I guess Braum's is an Oklahoma thing? It's REALLY good though. Best ice cream ever. I had a pumpkin milkshake and it was the yummiest thing ever. Man alive. After Braum's, we met with a woman from Thailand named Toy, and gave her a Thai BoM. She has a ton of really cute animals. Specifically this one cat, who was licking my hand with incredible vigor. It was cute. We'll meet with Toy again in a couple weeks. I have high hopes for her.

That night we had dinner at the Ward Mission Leader's house. His name is Brother Cruz. He's a hilarious guy and his wife is funny too. They have some weiiiiird stories. Afterwards we went home. I get my own bathroom! The only downside is I don't get my own showerhead. The shower in my bathroom is messed up.. so we just have a solid stream of hosewater that I use. It's pretty cool though. It's like I'm in Brazil! ;) But seriously the water tastes like dirt here.

Thursday I woke up and did the morning routine, we studied for days, did weekly planning for months, then left the apartment. We started out by going to check on someone named Monica. My companions seem to think I'll be able to reach her in some way, so that's pretty cool. I'm excited to meet her. She wasn't home, unfortunately, but it's okay. We went and checked on a guy named Danny. He's so cool. He got out of jail not too long ago and is actively working to turn his life around. He has two sons- Justin (who quickly informed us that we MUST call him Jay) is 5 and has a foot long rat-tail! He's the cutest little punk of my life. Dartanian is 3 and is missing his 4 front teeth, but his canines are silver, so that's pretty cool! They are the funniest little family. I can see in Danny that he really wants to make life the best he can. After visiting with Danny, we went to dinner with the Hope family at a place called Cece's pizza. It's like a mini Izzy's. It was really good. The Hope's are really sweet. Sister Hope reminds me a LOT of Sister Carlson and she's really spunky.

After dinner, we went to drop off the elders and we ran into Brother Ead. The Ead's are a less-active family who are really nice and friendly! Sister Ead is from Venezuela. They showed us their recently remodeled apartment and we talked with them for a bit. After a while, we left and went back home. Brother Cruz picked us up and we went and visited Maverick. Man, Maverick. Talk about a SOLID kid. He's a senior in high school and he has a baptismal date set for November 2nd. Stoked. After the lesson we were talking and we all agreed that Mav would make a SOLID missionary. I love it. He's a great kid.

Friday we had a pretty lazy day. Sister Leavitt was really sick. We had district meeting, then afterwards went to a place called Raising Canes. It's a fried chicken fast food place that's good. I don't know.  I liked it. We went back to the apartment, and Sister Leavitt rested while I did language study. It's hard to keep up the portugues here.. But it's okay. I can do it. The Spirit is so cool!

That night we had dinner with the Dahl's. They're both meteorologists and they're really nice. Brother Dahl reminds me a lot of Kenny (my brother), but about half the height of him. After dinner we went to check on some people that lived nearby and there was a toad. And it chased Sister Leavitt. And it was hilarious. We tried to catch it, to no avail. After attempting to check on people who weren't home, we went back to the apartment, did training and planning, and went to bed.

Saturday we went to check on Gabriel before church. He is this really nice guy from Venezuela who has a baptismal date set for November 9th! SO excited! He'd just woken up when we stopped to check on him, so we set up a time to meet with him later. We went to the church and watched conference. IT WAS SO GOOD. Man, I LOVED the emphasis they had on loving everyone and doing missionary work! My favorite talk was that of Elder Dube- when he told the story of his mom telling him to "never look back, look at what we still have left to do!" So true. And also when he said "Faith is always pointing towards the future." How true that is! If you're looking back, you're focusing on all the blessings you had, not looking forward to all the blessings you will have. Man. I love it.

I thought Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about depression and remember that the dawn will break was also very important. It's important to be sensitive to people and lift up those around you who cannot lift themselves. I loved it.

After conference we went and had dinner with the Oropeza's. They made us some delicious mexican food, and we got to know them a bit better. They're a really nice family and I love their dynamic. It's great. After dinner we went back to check on Gabriel and talked more with him, and set up times to go back to meet with him. I'm excited for our lessons!

Sunday was very low key. We went to breakfast at the Tucker's, they are this artsy-hipster family that are really cool and totally belong in Oregon. They fed us some of the best waffles I have ever had. After that, we watched the last two sessions of conference, then hurried to dinner at the Bett's. They're a really cute little family that just moved here from California. Their little boy was my little buddy! He kept trying to copy me when I was drumming on the couch with my hands or fiddling with my watch. He's so sweet.

Man, I'm sorry, this is such a long email! I just love it here. I've been in a bit of a funk since I got into the field but I can feel the funk slowly lifting and I'm so happy to be here! Eu sei a igreja e verdadeiro! Eu sei Jesus Cristo morreu para nos! Eu amo voces muito e eu senti muito grato por todos a amar voces mostram para mim!

Be safe, be strong, and I'll write you again next week!

Te amo! 

Sorry guys, I have no idea why it rotated but I can't rotate it back. Oh well. Email dated October 7th.