The Larson's drop in!

I am so excited for Shane's mission call! Make a video... Practice beforehand!! ;)
You will have so much fun on Trek! You will be the best ma ever!
I really like what Marshall said! He's so great..

Last Monday we went quilting at Sister Thorum's again. We had 2 dinners that night! I really love the members here. Sometimes they get depressed if we say that we can't have dinner, so we just said yes! haha. That night we had a miraccclleee.
Sometimes we get "media referrals," which are referrals through a text message, from Mormon.org, another visitors' center, or something like that. Well we received a media referral a couple of months ago that we went by SO many times, and he was never ever home so we stopped going. Well last Monday we were walking down a street, contacting a completely different referral, and we heard 2 people talking on a balcony above. I stopped and OYMed them; it was 2 guys. We were talking for a minute and I asked their names. Long story short, it was the same media referral guy we had been trying to contact forever ago! His address was the exact same address as the house across the street that we had been trying to contact! I didn't even know that that was possible! & he was actually really interested and
we are meeting with him this week. (Sorry if this whole email doesn't make sense, my brain is a gong show today! So many changes are coming in the mission!)

Tuesday, a girl preparing to serve her mission in London this August, came out with us. I love her and her family soo much!! She is a great missionary already. She called her non-member friend and asked him if we could come teach him on the spot...and he said yes! We had an amazing lesson with him! That night we were supposed to have a lesson with a member and her non-member friend, but the non-member wasn't home when we went there. So the member called her teenage daughter who was having friends over, and asked if we could come play a gospel game with them. When we went, there were like 10 people there and a few non-members!! We played gospel charades with them and they loved it! It felt like it was a real mutual activity, haha.

Wednesday, we went to the Valley for Sister V's last new-missionary-training. We did a roleplay for OYMing and at the end, the group gave us feedback. One of the comments was that it was a "Cute role play," haha. I don't know how often roleplays get called cute!
When we got back from the Valley, we worked at the Tree... That's when the Larsons came!!

The Larson family!

Oh my goodness, what a complete surprise! Angelia was completely wild, but it was so good to see familiar faces! And thank you SOOO much for the packages!! Sister V and I are so grateful! 

That night, we decided to visit a part-member family. When we showed up, the non-member mom asked us if the bishop was almost there. We didn't understand why we would know where the bishop was, but she explained that the bishop made an appointment with the family that night and she thought that we were also invited! haha! So many non-coincidental happenings! Well the bishopric showed up and we talked to the family and it went really well.

Thursday, we went out to eat for district lunch. The district was going to Subway, but Sister V only likes Asian food, so we went to get food from Panda Express to take to Subway. Well anyway, a man ran up right before we paid for our food and paid for us! Soooo nice. I will really do that for missionaries when I get home. It's just so unexpected and unnecessary but
generous. I have been so fortunate on my mission to be taken care of!
The night, the elders (district leader and companion) came to a lesson with us for one of our investigators. It was so so good. I love seeing the way that other missionaries teach! Well, we obviously rode in separate cars, but Sister V and I were heading back to the Family Tree and the elders were heading back to their area.

Running gas to the elders!

On the way there, the elders called us and told us that they ran out of gas!! We turned around and saw them sitting in a turn lane in the middle of the road. hahah. We went to the gas station to help them out, but I had never been in a situation like that so I asked the clerk what to do about buying a gas can to fill up. He told us that if we gave him a $20 deposit, we could borrow a gas can and we would get our money back when we returned it. So we ran out to the car, only to find out that we had about $14 in dollar bills and spare change!!  We were laughing so hard as we realized what a complete gongshow we are. We went back in and I laid out all of our change. I was like begging the guy, "Please! I prrromiseee we will bring it back!" He just laughed at us and took the change.
After the fiasco, we went back to the Family Tree and Main Street was having a firefighter parade. Sister V and I stood outside the door with Clark, the parking ticket man, and we caught flying candy.

My my my, what a full week! And I'm not even done yet!

Friday, we had a mission conference. Elder Cook and Sister Cook came and spoke. Sister Cook conducted the entire mission in singing an intermediate hymn, haha. One thing that I really loved about Elder Cook's words was the witness and blessings he gave at the end. He said that apostles are called to do those 2 things: be a special witness of Christ, and leave special blessings. Our mission president explained to us that the blessings he promised us were only available to us because we were there, in that place, at the time that he was giving them... How special! He blessed us that our families and loved ones would be taken care of and blessed according to our service. At the end, I was feeling nostalgic to leave because everyone I had served with in the Valley was telling me that I would be sent to the new mission and they would miss me...
That night, Sister V and I went to Tari VanLuewen's and talked to her for about half and hour! She is so nice and was telling me all of these stories about Russ. She told me about the first time she met you and what a good person you are and etc etc. It was really good and we are definitely going to go back and get her to come to church again! She knows a TON of the members that I am really close with here.

Saturday, we were working at the Family Tree and my second trainer, Sister Mikki Stone came in!!! I was SOOOO excited. I love love love her and I miss her so much. It was such another wonderful and unexpected surprise!

I am sort of really sick of typing at this point, but I will write briefly about Sunday. haha. Happy Father's Day! To all of my fathers and father figures and friends... Happy Father's Day.
We went to the McLaws for dinner, whom I absolutely love. (Their daughter Sara, the future missionary is the one who went out with us on Tuesday).

Sara McLaws & I

We wrote letters to their daughter on a mission, following up with their missionary experiences that they tried to have for the week. We decided that Sara had the biggest and best missionary experience because she went out with the missionaries (us) and taught a missionary lesson to her friend! The family asked for an extension so they could look for more missionary opportunities this week. haha.

Welllll. I love you with everything that is in my heart. You are the very best in the whole worlddd!! Have a great time at Trek!! MWah!