July 28 Weekly Update and Pictures

Hello! Time for updates!

On the 23rd Sister Ruth and I went to a specialized training for missionaries, where I got to see my MTC district which was super cool! The Elders were still silly and made us laugh most of the time. We got to practice all different kinds of role plays and it was very helpful! Training was in Fishers, a few hours away, so we were rushed to get in anything else that day. Sister Ruth and I still had a fun dinner break with peanut butter, sweet potatos, and Uno.

On the 24th we sang Come Come Ye Saints before bed, since we hadn't been able to earlier, which was pretty neat. That Thursday was also the first or second that we finished weekly planning in one day! We tried a different approach that we learned from the District video and were able to be much more efficient and personal with our plans! It was pretty exciting.

On the 25th we were talking to one of our Sister Training Leaders, Sister Bowen, who had talked to President before, and she told us he called us beacons of light after seeing us at training. After training I felt like there were so many things I had to work on as a missionary, but that was very encouraging! We had time that day to read a talk the cute mission nurse, sister Steadman, sent us, called "All Is Well". We also sang Christmas songs for Christmas in July!

On the 26th we went to the ward genealogy fair, which took a lot of our day. We were in classes most of the day and didn't get to talk to as many people as we were hoping, but later when we were tracting we found inspiration from something they said! In one of the classes the lady was talking about ancestors we hit brick walls with, and how we can research ancestors with intersecting lives to find them. We were going to see a Sister Marvin's son, Bowe, who wouldn't answer, and when we were driving away I looked at one house and it popped in my head, so we stopped and talked to them. The guy we first talked to called out another girl as soon as we mentioned Jesus, and she was on the phone, but agreed to a return appointment so we're excited to see how it goes!

Yesterday the less active family we visited last week, the Johnsons, were at church! We were talking to Sister Marvin when they walked in and we got so excited we wrapped up really quick and ran over to them. They were excited to see us, and were still excited when we visited them last night. Nora and Jessica were also at church, which was exciting! At the Johnsons they realized without our prompting that they needed to read the Book of Mormon more, which was such a lesson that when the spirit is in our teaching the things that need to be learned are taught by him! We had dinner with the Smith's whose son, Camden, just left on his mission, and his friend, Nora, who is getting baptized. We had an awesome lesson and are so happy the Smiths are such friends to Nora!

Hopefully this week, even with transfers, will be less crazy! I'll be staying in Mishawaka and Sister Ruth will be going somewhere close to Indy, probably. Crazy!

Favorite Quotes:

"My arms are so long so I do the scrubby" Elder Johnson

"It might've been a brown spider...which is spidorous" (also known as poisonous) Sister Mckendrick

"G6 like gangster to the 6th?" Sister Mckendrick

"That was the 2nd one eyed kitty I've taught on my mission" Sister Ruth

"and that was the 2nd prayer I've given where a cat has crawled on my lap" me

"There isn't normally a man here laying on the couch, but you know, YOLO" Elder Smith, during our practice church tours when one of the Elders was passed out there, I'm not sure what was going on, there.

"This is like the best delivery of peanut butter ever!" Sister Ruth and sweet potatoes

"Can we wash our hands in your sink? We just had a lesson with a cat" me at dinner, after we saw Dennis who has cats

"Patrick called and he's been throwing up so don't go pick him up...did I say that? I'm turning into a Hoosier!" Sister Ruth

"I figure it's the 25th so I can listen to Christmas songs!" Sister Ruth

"How were role plays?" Elder Easter

"They were smashing" Elder Russell

"Smash, smash, smash, smash" Elder Adams

"My usual advice is 'pray, read the scriptures, and suck it up'" Sister Bowen

"Sister Bowen is always drawn to old guys that are drunk or smoking" Sister Mckendrick

"to teach!" Sister Bowen

"You're getting ahead of my lesson, stop using revelation!" ward council

"we're just going to hand cuff you to the iron rod" Sister Ruth

"It might be cold but the spirit is warm!" me, aka why we role play before actually talking to people.

Welcome to our awkward district

​Sister Ruth and I half inadvertently, half planned matching

me, Sister Ruth, Nora, and Sister Smith