Week 19

Hey Fam,

So this week has been great and full of lots of fun and entertaining stories so hope you are prepared for a good Monday night read.  First I must say, the subject line of an e-mail coming from a missionary is kind of overrated.  I feel this urge to put something profound or use it as just that, a subject line, but nothing really ever comes to mind.  I don't know why but this is something I am learning to cope with.  It may seem a little odd, or a lot, but I'm sorry, for now it will stay blank. 

So like i said this week has been really good for stories because i have started a new ˝system˝ so that i can remember all the fun stuff that goes on in a week.  So we have lots of mirrors in the new place so I like to write little notes to myself to remind me of my goals or just little reminders of things that i need to do.  So I on the mirror on the way out the door I wrote with dry erase marker, ˝return with honor˝ and our goals for the day so that i can remember what we are striving for.  On the mirror in the bathroom I wrote, ˝did you think to pray˝ and ˝vitamins!˝.  On the mirror in the bedroom I wrote a list of things that i can do in the morning so that i can have a little motivation to get up in the morning because i have been struggling with that.  So this list consists of things like, write in journal, iron some shirts, and do the dishes, and further down the list is work out, which is what i am really supposed to do but never really get around to. 

So now getting to the actual point... so sorry sometimes i just go on and on lol.  i have had a hard time staying positive with all this finding time and not much teaching.  So i have made a little weekly calender and every day i write something good that happened that day.  So on monday after all the p-day fun was done i had another little adventure.  Which leads to my first story!

So we have found a good tracting area that we have been working in but it has been taking a while to walk there so we decided to try and find a short cut.  so we started walking and about 5 mins later we found ourselves climbing this nasty hill.  it was not working out for me but it may have led us to our area in shorter time.  Well it didnt, dang it.  but we did find a super fun service opportunity!! ya for service! we saw this little old lady chopping wood and I told elder Lifferth that we just HAD to go help her.  sometimes we see things and i want to go help but i have bad luck with that, you know like maybe that is their job or something.  So sometimes he just says no we need to go find but i was not going to have any of that excuse this time.  So fully knowing that this would probably not lead to a teaching opportunity we went for it.  So we went over and asked her and at first she said no then i basically just took the ax from her and said thanks.  So we each had an ax and if yall know me you know i have probably never chopped wood before, oh wait i havent.  So Lifferth, who actually knows what he is doing, starts and everything is just dandy for him.  Me on the other hand, i pick the worst pieces of wood.  one has a huge knot in the middle, on is super wet.  So i am done i just let Lifferth, who at this point is frustrated with me, pick the pieces of wood for me lol.  This little old lady is just sitting on the other stack of wood, just going on and on about how great this is and blah blah.  Then this other lady comes out and by this time we have found out that one of the axes is better so he is chopping and when it gets stuck i hammer it out with other one.  So then this other little old lady starts talking but it is really hard to understand her because she has very few teeth and is mumbling.  she says something and Lifferth just starts laughing and says that we have to call the other elders tonight.  Im all sorts of suspicious.... so we get done and i have some blisters and i am not to happy.  it beat finding but whatev... so we are walking away and i ask him what that little old lady said.  he told me and i wasnt to happy.  The little old lady who i couldnt understand asked him, ˝Why is your companion such a girl?˝.  What the heck lady! im splitting wood for you and i have the harder job.  If he gets it suck i have to hammer it out.  he swings once and i sit and pound on it.  Oh what the heck, foo reals!!  then when we are about to leave they want us to come and get a beer at there house, which they have been trying to give us this whole time.  when we decline that one says, oh i know, liquor.  then they ask lifferth if he is married and why not with such strong arms... oh geez... then when we decline the liquor they still try assuring us that the police wont come.  so that was a fun little adventure, but the old lady was hating on me.

So I have become better acquainted with gelado, this week i tried strawberry, banana, lemon, punch, and cookies.  there is a place by our house and it is not good for me lol. 

So there is this other american group here that are kind of missionaries.  they are Nazarene.  I havent ever heard of them but they are so cool.  so they are over here and studying at a college that is all english and accredited in America.  But they just basically do missionary work by their example kind of thing.  So we are all good friends and one of them graduated so she is going home so we all got together for lunch.  I was talking to one of the girls and kind of complaining and she stops and asks me if i am here by choice.  oh dang i should probably stop she thinks i was forced here lol.  i wasnt complaining that much and she told me she was kidding but it was nice to see ˝normal˝ people lol.  they are fun and come play sports with us on p day sometimes. 

So i am kind of having a hard time staying positive and diligent.  It is just so hard when all you do is tract and contact and yes i said that i like tracting but even that gets old.  So when i think i want to sleep in or take a little longer at lunch its hard cause all those doors will still be there when i decide to go get them.  Especially now that it is getting kind of hot it makes me tired that much faster.  I am glad we are done passing out English flyers though.  I think that is one of the reasons that we are struggling to find some investigators because our finding time has been cut into a bit with the flyers but hopefully that time will pay off whth English class.  So no new investigators but lots of knocking on doors.  We have been let in a couple times but usually it is just old people that want to talk.  But hey they need the gospel too. 

So I love you all and thanks so much for everything!! Oh and another thing.  Lots of people wear Mickey Mouse shirts here and whenever Elder Lifferth or i see one we say, i spy mickey, and when i spot it i say, oh your never to far from home! just keepin it real. 

Well I will hear from you all next week! It was so good to hear every ones voices last week.  it already seems to far away.