30 - Workin' On My Bucket List

Last rain of the year?

First off, the weather this week. 

It was cold for the first bit still, but hey! 

It totally got warm enough to rain yesterday! 

It was 40 degrees! Woo!

Thermometer on the Pole says 20 F.

And now it's 19 degrees again. With a wind gusting to thirty miles an hour, making it feel like 3 degrees. 

That warm spell didn't last long!

But, it's been good. 


We've been braving the cold still and we've seen results from it. We actually found two less actives this week, one because we were out in the cold knocking on doors. We had a good conversation with him out in the cold, 'cuz he didn't actually live at the house, he was just doing their yard work, shoveling snow and what-not. He told us that we might see him at church someday, that you never know.

Some of the Deaf Sisters (just because).

After that particular slew of tracting though, it was good to come back to the apartment and defrost. We were out in the cold for about two hours, and it was maybe 15-19 degrees outside plus a slight windchill. And knocking on doors doesn't get your blood flowing like say, building a snowman does, so you get pretty cold. 

When I was defrosting, when even something slightly warm was super hot, when my fingers were red from the blood rushing to them, when my face felt funny from having feeling return to it, it completely reminded me of returning home from astronomy at NAU on those cold nights when my roommate Katelynne and I stood out in the snow to look at stars and got so cold while we did so. We had to thaw out then too. 

Good times.

I love eating dinner with so many families. This particular family of mom and dad and two little boys just cracks me up. I told their mom that she needs to record their dinners and it would be a super funny show! haha. 


The one in the dark shirt, he's four I believe and is just a chatter box and so funny! And then the one in the red shirt, his name might as well be Echo because he just copies everything his older brother does and it's so funny! 

Hahahaha.

Now. Wednesday. That was an awesome day. Let me tell you, a mission allows you to cross things off your bucket list that you didn't even know were on it! I did three awesome things this particular day, that is:

1)Have a butterfly land on my face.

2)Eat swordfish

3)Dominate at dodgeball (sorry, no picture).

What a day, right! 

The worker person who was showing us volunteers the butterfly house, she scissor-grabbed a struggling butterfly and threw it in the air and it landed on my face and stayed there! hahaha. It was crazy! 

Then for dinner there is a very well off family in the ward who likes to treat the missionaries and they took us to Foley's, a very expensive restaurant with real quality food and wow... that swordfish is heavenly! It tasted like salmon, but not and it was just! AH! It was so good! 

And then we were waiting at the church in order for the other sisters to meet us to switch out the car and the young men and young women just got done with mutual and were playing dodgeball. So we joined. I've decided that I like playing dodgeball with a softer ball about the size of a grapefruit, because, I can't catch, but those smaller balls are easier to dodge, so I just dodged and threw when the ball was open and I dominated! I even flaunted my nametag. Haha it was pretty boss.

  

And this week I got around to taking pictures of bingo! We go and volunteer at the assisted living place here and call bingo. All the old people are just so funny and we have a great time. 

There's one old lady with a cute old southern accent named Eva who is 103! And still kickin'! She always picks fruitsnacks for her prize when she wins a round of bingo. She is so funny, sayin' "choo choooo!" when she's shuffling her little feet in her wheelchair to get around from place to place!

Also, it's official. Sister Burt is spending the last bit of her mission here. It has now entered into the next transfer and she is staying here for the last six weeks of her mission. I'm going to kill her off! How shall I do it??? haha. 

She doesn't want to go home. She's also in denial about how little time she has left. But she has no more planners to make. She even made a case for all her planners.

Speaking of planners, I made my next one, Christmas! woo!

And it's super sweet! 

I worked long and hard on writing those words... literally hours... hahaha. 

But it looks beautiful, so the practicing paid off! haha.

I also neglected to mention something about last week. Short story time!

So! This was on the day that was very snowy, the Saturday. We called our one native american less active that we are teaching to see if we could set up a time to come over and teach her and her grandchildren. She said that we could come over today, so we did. 

She lives in the elder's area, so a bit out of the way. But we had the car, so it was all good. We drove over there and then we got the text.... that she couldn't meet anymore.... Sigh... what were we going to do? 
We are low on miles this month. 
We couldn't afford to go back to our area and then all the way back here again for our dinner appointment.... 
I suggested we call someone else, a recent convert who we see on this side of town. She's always busy but, might as well try. 
Well, she was able to meet with us! 
And! 
Because it was an impromptu visit, she had her handy man friend over! And he listened to what we had to say and is totally open to the gospel! 
And he came to church with the recent convert the next day! 
He lives in the elders area, so the elders are teaching him now, but he's super solid and progressing well! 
The Lord really paved the way on this one. Heavenly Father orchestrated it so that we found him, because he is ready to listen! 
SO COOL! 
So yeah. That's my awesome story!

Marshall has spina bifida

And last but not least, videos!

So, many of you know my brother Marshall and how he has Spina Bifida. (What is spina bifida?). 

Well, this is a video about a guy in Africa with Spina Bifida and he MAKES wheelchairs! How awesome!

Then there's also this awesome music video that is sung beautifully and I was watching it and it moved me to tears because I thought of the words darn it and it's something that's just so good! So, might as well share.

And then this is my favorite Thanskgiving Message video thing in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!