9/19/16

Greetings citizens! I have to tell you all a funny story about some succulents, but that can wait a minute.

We got our carpets cleaned this week! Now I don't feel like I'm wallowing in hundreds of companionships worth of dead skin cells and foot germs and spilled food every time I want to lay on the ground. What a blessed occasion! Also our carpet is literally like 15 shades lighter in some spots. Somehow we managed to fit literally all of our furniture in the kitchen, both bathrooms, and the patio. #Magic 

So literally every day of this week in my journal starts with "this was a stressful day." That's because this has been an incredibly stressful week. I feel like I'm trying really hard and doing a lot of things that I can do, but then I keep leaving stuff out and messing up. We only got like 11 contacts this week, but I feel like I was trying SO HARD to be a good missionary. It's hard because I'm also really sick. I have like anywhere between 2 - 20% of my voice at any given time. Then I'm also in charge of the phone all the time so I keep forgetting to send all these texts and follow up with all these people. Also we haven't had studies except for like 1 day this week and I can't even function or handle my life without having good studies. ON TOP OF ALL THESE THINGS Sister Baker has been unusually mad at / mean to me this week. So basically I keep slightly failing at my life and doing literally anything else and then Sister Baker rolls her eyes at me and acts like I just did the dumbest thing she's ever seen. Also we haven't talked about it because comp inventory makes her mad also. So basically this companionship is getting harder instead of easier somehow. Also Sister Baker's mom reads this sometimes I think. Hey Momma Baker..... I just wish I knew what I had done to make Sister Baker decide to treat me like a gigantic idiot though. I'm just trying to be a better person. 

The good news is I've been successful at being closer to Heavenly Father this transfer so far. I am remembering how to listen to the spirit and I can tell He is directing me all the time. Even though I've been really stressed out I haven't been discouraged or depressed that much too. Basically I've stayed fairly cheerful which is definitely the spirit. This week we saw a ton of success. By a ton of success I mean we had 2 NON MEMBERS AT CHURCH AND I FOUND OUT ZACH IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!! #Winning 

We got this referral from the Spanish Elders this week for this lady named Veronica. We contacted her and she needed some babysitting THAT DAY. So we texted like half our ward and none of them were available except Sister MacLean. So Sister MacLean watched her son and was super friendly and invited her to church. She came! She said the only reason she didn't stay for all three hours is because she didn't know it was going to be three hours long! So she's coming this week to all three hours. 

The other person that was at church was this lady named Kim. She's been meeting with the missionaries since February and this is the first time she came. Sister Baker was fixin to be ready to drop her, but we went over and had a heart to heart about why we were meeting with her and why she wasn't coming to church. She came for the first time! Also she liked it! 

Now I got to tell you this story about some succulents. Then we'll have quotes. 

The other day Elder Anthony was on exchanges with Elder Center in our ward. That's a funny story too because he happened to be here the day that we, by pure coincidence, had ALL THREE MEALS TOGETHER AT MEMBERS HOMES. Elder Mueller was with Elder Rasmussen in Las Flores. So yesterday We got home for lunch or something and Sister Baker discovered that someone had thrown away her succulent. She was super sad about it. So I, under the guise of following up with some members, had a super sneaky super illegal conversation with our Elders in which I convinced them to help me find some new succulents for Sister Baker. 

"Hey can y'all wrangle up a pot with some succulents in dirt?" -me 

"What the fetch is a succulent?" -Elder Center 

It was a bit of a process.... Anyway we were having this conversation about succulents over text when they decided to almost blow it by CALLING ME TO ASK WHEN THEY COULD GIVE IT TO ME. So since boys are way bad a secrets I had to play it cool. I pretended we were having a conversation about the member area book that we also needed to exchanged. They worked out that they were going to leave the succulents in the garage. I have no idea how they got some on such short notice at this point but I'm down. 

So we get home and there to the side of the garage is a really nice pot of three different super cute succulents.
"Hey Sister Baker, I got you a present." -me 

*Sister Baker freaking out for like 5 minutes* 

Then, since Elder Mueller is our district leader he called us for numbers and explained why they were so efficient at succulent wrangling. 

"Apparently sometime in the last two hours you and Sister Atchley were in cahoots to get me a new succulent and I had NO IDEA SOMEHOW!!!" -Sister Baker

"When I was on exchanges with Elder Rassmussen I noticed that there were a bunch of pots on their patio so we just went to Las Flores and grabbed the one that looked least dead." -Elder Mueller 

And that's a story of how everything worked out perfectly somehow. 

"This is the missionary that Baptized her!!" -Elder Center

"Wow was his hair always like that even when he was teaching you?" -literally everyone

"How long did it take you to be able to do that?" -me 

"Considering I played minecraft for 8 hours straight once a week like... 8 hours a week." -Elder Radeke

He's really talented at making zombie noises 

"I'm not even gonna date around I'm just gonna marry the first girl that looks at me funny." -Elder White

"I don't want to leave this blessed apartment" -me 

"Lets get them to bless it again so it's even more blessed." -Sister Baker 

"Elder Mueller is just one of those people that makes me extremely uncomfortable because he's super ripped and there is literally no explanation." -Sister Wimmer 

"Hi this is Veronica! I live next door to Peter and Mackinley"-Veronica 

 "Elder Quest and Elder Soreness! Thanks autocorrect!" -me 

Elder Quast and Elder Sorensen is the accurate one. 

"Oh! Sorry! I fell asleep!" -Charlotte

"It's ok Isiah does that to me too." -Sister Baker 

"President was like 'tell your zone leaders to let you present this at zone training meeting' when we talked to him" -me 

"Hope you can get a hold of your zone leaders then." -Elder Radeke

"Is this a cat on a hamburger!? I've never seen anything like this before!" -Sister Fagan

"The main reason we're here is the atonement which is very sacred so we're not going to talk about it in this sacrilegious role play but..." -Elder Radeke and Elder White teaching me a really bogus Plan of Salvation lesson 

"I practiced saying your name like 5 times before I came in for this dinner appointment." -me 

"Thanks now I feel like I can trust you." -elder Houghtalen 

"I tied for the record, but I want you to know that it wasn't too much. I... well I could only wall sit for twenty minutes." -Sister Clark

"I can't be in squat position Elder! My pants are TOO TIGHT." -Elder White

"We're trying to move this dresser, but Elder Richardson's fingers are too weak." -Elder White 

"YSA contacting good! Family ward contacting BAD!" -Elder Radeke 

"Yeah Jesus and Lucifer are brothers. Jesus is my brother too. Lucifer's not special. Technically we all got less active siblings." -Sister Baker. 

"You're replacing Elder Mueller so you have to eat like 5 plates." -Sister Baker 

"Ok Brother Moorhead we dusted all the things." -me 

"Wow, impressive." -Brother Moorhead 

"Elder Center reminds me of Branden." -Brother Byrne 

"Oh yeah he could totally be a Branden. Wait.... That's literally his first name." -Sister Baker 

Your Reading assignment is this: 

Read Alma 40-42 after praying to learn something new about the plan of salvation.