Monday, March 30, 2015

Week 20 – March 30, 2015

So this last week was quite eventful to say the least... I guess I will let the picture speak for itself. Somehow I'm not totally sure how this happened, but lets just say there is a BIG difference between having the car in REVERSE and having it in DRIVE!!! Yeah—talk about embarrassing! Looks like I'm not going to be driving anymore on my mission while I'm out here...


Okay, enough about that let's jump into the other events of the last week. Monday the 23rd and Tuesday the 24th we had lots of different appointments.
- We saw Sister Whitlock and Abby.
- We visited Sister Yule at her work.
- The Tylers had us over for dinner.
- We taught Rahel and her girls (They're just awesome!!! We are reading out of the illustrated BOM story book with them and they are just loving it!).
- And of course let's not forget meeting up with Brother Longstreet for our weekly lunch date at Snuffy's ;)

Wednesday, March 25th, we had our zone conference were they went over the new Easter video the church just put out. It's called, "Because He Lives." Each of you need to take two minutes to sit down and watch this Easter video. It is such a great reminder about our Savior and what He has done for us. You can watch it at HeLives.mormon.org I would also encourage each of you to share this video with someone you know. This is a wonderful way to share the gospel and the Easter message with those around you.


After zone conference a bunch of us missionaries went out to lunch and then Sister Parke and I went on exchanges with the Spanish speaking sisters. I ended up going with Sister Rawlins to North Minneapolis (which apparently is the ghetto). That was an interesting exchange considering the fact that I was visiting people who ONLY spoke Spanish. I have to say I was really good at smiling and nodding though so you know... ;)

We ate dinner at a Spanish family's home. Latinos LOVE to cook! When we came over to the table they had already dished up our plates and boy were they loaded up! I instantly knew this was going to be a chore to even eat half the food on that plate. I tried my darn hardest to eat as much as I could, but even then the food DIDN'T sit well with my stomach and I ended up starting to feel one of my bad stomach aches coming on. This wasn't looking good! We were teaching a lesson to this same family after dinner so I knew we were going to be there for awhile. Let's just say while Sister Rawlins chatted it up with the family in Spanish, I pretty much died in their bathroom. Thankfully, after about 30 minutes of no fun in the bathroom I was finally feeling good enough to put my missionary face back on and go out for our lesson where once again I sat and smiled and nodded my head while everyone else spoke in Spanish. However, Latinos are very good about expressing themselves using body language so I was able to catch on to quite a bit simply by watching them.

On exchanges with the Spanish Sisters in North Minneapolis.
The next day (Thursday the 26th), we did another exchange, but this time I was with Sister Fastidio (another Spanish sister) and we went back to work in the Minnetonka area. Kelly (Steve Nelson's daughter) who just got back from her mission in Peru also joined us for part of the day. We went to visit Carmon so they could speak to her since she speaks Spanish and every time I go to visit we just have to kind guess what each other are saying. It was a nice visit and Carmon loved having us come see her at the nursing home.

Then we also stopped by to check on Tanneh and Josh. Sadly only Tanneh wasn't willing to talk so she just came out in the hall for a few minutes. It's so hard to see them struggle and not continue to put their faith in Heavenly Father. It is so hard to walk by faith when you are in the total dark, but that is exactly what faith is. We must take three steps into the darkness before we see the light. The hard part is just continuing to take those steps into the darkness.

We also met with a new girl by the name of Madeline. She is 20 years old and has THREE KIDS!!! It absolutely amazing me the different people I meet out here and their different lives. I can't even begin to be 20 and have 3 of my own children. Sister Parke, my companion, is still only 19 years old. This little girl was forced to grow up so fast because of the choices she made. This is yet another reason why I am so grateful for the standards of the church and for the values I was raised with. Anyway, Madeline just got married this last fall and we are really hoping we will be seeing more of her in the future.

We went over to the Reese's for a lesson on faith with the elders and then we ended the day with a lesson with Jennifer over at Sister Donely's on the word of wisdom. Jennifer is getting more and more excited about her baptism and that is fun to watch! Not sure if I told you, but her baptism is going to be on April 18th! Yippy!

Friday night we went to visit Brother Dam with the elders and then Sister Parke and I went to see Sister Erlendsson. It had been a few days since she had last let us come over so we were very happy when she said we could come and see her. We decided we needed to cheer her up and get her to laugh so we came up with a little game to play and it was quite fun! We each had to think of a childhood memory and then tell it, but the catch was we had to keep our tongue sticking out of our mouths the entire time we talked. We sure sounded silly, but Sister Erlendsson was getting a kick out of it! I have never seen her laugh so hard. You know some say, laughter is the best medicine and I really do believe there is something to that! Now I dare you to find someone and try talking with them with your tongue sticking out. I can tell you it will make you laugh and that will in turn brighten up both of your days just a little bit more ;)

Saturday, March 28th, Sister Parke and I helped Jennifer move some of her things from one of her storage units up to her apartment. Now you have to understand Jennifer is a hoarder and it's a problem, but we were just the movers so we just helped. But boy would I love to be able to plow through her apartment and de-junk it. Oh well, I guess right now we will just continue meeting other places for our lessons since you can't really see any of her furniture or even carpet at this point. To each their own I suppose.

Then we also stopped by Sister Spurlins, Sister Aldens, and then we had dinner with the elders over at Isaac's place. Now I have only been to Isaac's one other time for dinner and it was unbelievable! And once again Isaac blew me away! His presentation was as if we were in some fancy smanshy restaurant. And then on top of that, it tasted amazing! Oh and did I mention that it was a six course meal?! I know right? Who is this guy?! And then we ended the evening with going to watch the women's general conference broadcast.

Yesterday, was a great day at church. Kelly (Steve's daughter) spoke about her mission and Steve sang a song in sacrament meeting. They invited a bunch of their friends to come and Patrick and MaryKay were there too!

Sunday evening, we went to see, "The Lamb of God" performance. It is a bunch of songs sung about the last week of Christ's life. The singers were amazing! There was sure some intense opera going on there. Opera isn't totally my thing, but Sister Parke was eating it up. But tons of missionaries were there and Sister Steadman was there which of course made my whole day!

Now before I sign off here, since it is April Fools this week and all... I thought I should say... APRIL FOOLS on you! I totally did NOT drive into that garage. hehehehe... I hope I got you! Hope you have a wonderful week and a great April Fools day! :)

What do you do when you find a shopping cart in the elevator?
Play with it of course!
Sister Parke and I had lots of fun running up and down
the apartment hallway pushing each other.
 That was until someone came out our their apartment to
inform us we were being too noisy- oops... ;)

Momma Larson sent me the BEST EASTER package ever!!!

Thanks Momma, and Ashlyn, thanks for the fun new pillowcase for this month :)

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