A new mission begins!

The elders like to play pranks on us.. They left an Anonymous note: "You parked your car in my spot!! I will report you to the police! Oh & here is a book! Read it some time & you'll be a better person. With much hate." 

Ahhh! I hate that I have to write about the past week and a half!

On Tuesday, we had our first meeting as a district. Sister Summerhays and I are the only sisters in a district of 8. It's a definite change from a district full of sisters, but it is a very welcomed change. Well last week Sister Summerhays and I were sick! Well, we don't really know what was wrong with us.. We had headaches, felt lightheaded, and nauseous. It was good though, because we were both sick at the same time so neither of us felt like slackers!

Wednesday, we drank gross Emergen-C (I don't recommend it), took medicine, & we slept so much! In the evening, we had a lesson with a Catholic deacon! He is in school to be higher up in the church. Well, when we approached the door we heard, "Hey! It's the Mormons!" and he opened the door to let us in. We talked with him a little while and in the middle of his sentence he told us that it was nice to meet us and that he had to go!! He felt the Spirit, for sure!!

Thursday, we went to a lunch/swim party (and obbbviously we didn't swim!) with the Relief Society. We taught them a few tips to be every-day missionaries.

Friday, Sister Summerhays and I were seaaarcching for someone to teach. We said a prayer and went to contact a referral who ended up not being home. We saw someone getting out of their car and went to talk to him. He wasn't open at all and sort of moved to walk away but we followed him up his front stairs. We continued to talk to him and ask him questions and he progressively opened his heart and we ended up having a lesson with him on his porch! We found out that he was baptized a member, but was never really active or had a testimony of the Church. By the time we left, he was asking what chapter he should read in the Book of Mormon. It was such a wonderful experience. That night, Sister Eberhardt, the new Mission mom, called us! She is so sweet!

Sunday, we taught the Sharing Time lesson in Primary. We taught the parables from the Bible about Repentance: the woman losing her change, the sheep straying from the Shepard, and the Prodigal Son. We had one child leave the room and we hid a coin or a sheep, and then when they came back, we sang louder and louder as they got closer to finding it. It was a fun activity and the kids seemed the enjoy it. Afterwards, we went to the Brighton Branch, which is pretty far away, and we gave talks. The members were so so nice and all came up to tell us how well we did :)

Last Monday, we had a Not Real Pday. Did you get the email from Sister North? Today is our actual Pday and we get to spend it with our new mission!! I am so excited! Well anyway, that day we had a lesson with a couple of men who all live in the same house.. It is the most unique combination of people and you won't even believe it. There is an Amish man, a black man, a hispanic man, and a white Mormon man, all living together in one house! What a gong show! Most of them are members, but the Amish man (who left the Amish community, obviously) is investigating the church.

Magic piano

Tuesday, we had dinner at this AMAZING house! They had this piano that I will send you a picture of... It had instruments INSIDE that you could see and when you turned it on, they all played a song together... A magic piano! It was so wild. The family was so fun and so cute and they all danced crazily in the living room. If I ever have a family, I won't settle for anything less than a magic-piano-delicious-cupcakes-Indian-food-Missionary-mindset home. That night, we did some contacting in the park.. I just absolutely LOVE people. We met this man sitting on a bench. He expressed to us that he couldn't speak English in a very thick Russian accent. We stayed and half-sign-language communicated and half-misunderstood him. We called an Elder in our district, Elder Pokrovskii, who is from Russia and they ended up scheduling a lesson for this coming week! The man was so sweet and so willing to attempt to communicate with us.

Wednesday, we talked to a man who asked us if we knew a handy man and he ended up giving us his broken weed-wacker. We figured that the Amish man (who I wrote about earlier) could fix it and sell it or something. He wasn't home when we went to drop it off, so we left it as a surprise on his doorstep with a note that said, "We stole this for you! (Joke) <3The Sisters".

Weed wacker with note

Life is wonderful. I am having the best time ever with Sister Summerhays. I feel my testimony being more and more strengthened every day. I find myself longing to live in Utah forever and strengthen the foundation of Christ's church. I am so glad that they are sending so many missionaries to Utah because we really need them here. Even the members need more converting experiences to make them devoted disciples of Christ. I never thought that I would live in Utah, but I want Heavenly Father and the Savior to know how strong my testimony is. I want this Church to thrive. I want Zion to expand it's borders. I love this gospel. I absolutely love it. I love the Savior. I find so much strength in Him. I am dead-tired every day, but I find energy in unexpected places because I know that Christ needs me to build his army. Ahhh! I loveee the Book of Mormon. Before my mission, I thought I was converted, but I have surprised myself in how passionate I feel about the Book of Mormon. I love that Book. It is TRUE! I feel the Spirit every time I read it. Any person who reads it with an open heart will be blind-sided by it's truth! Ahhhh. I absolutely love this gospel. I cannot even imagine who I would be without my mission. I am so eternally grateful to be here. It is hard and it is frustrating and intimidating but it is perfect. I am actually becoming the person that I think the Savior wants me to be. I am a gong show and I make so many mistakes, but my testimony is progressing and my faith is increasing. I love this Church, I love the prophet, I love the Savior, I love my Heavenly Father! Thank you for the blessings that you promised me as I contemplated waiting to go on a mission. I am here because of you!! I love you!!!!

Brighton Branch