February 16th Weekly Update

Since driving to and sitting for a couple hours at Stake Conference my knees were even more swollen and hurting, so I asked for a blessing Monday. Sister Gil had suggested I get another blessing but I wasn't sure because I'd just gotten a blessing from Elder Mortensen. Elder Rasmussen, who I served with and was friends with in Mishawaka, was at the chapel that P-Day and I knew if I was going to get a blessing I wanted to ask him. I was gathering up my stuff and ran into him in the kitchen after we'd both been busy, and knew I had to ask. One of the parts that stood out to me most was when I was blessed to know that many people cared. Right after, one of the elders asked me why I didn't play soccer with them that day, and I said I went to the mall with some other sisters because my knees were hurting, and he said they missed me on their team.
We also went to the UIndy campus with the elders and taught 6 lessons and found 2 new investigators! One kid we talked to was walking with his girlfriend, so we were trying to talk to both of them, when they saw a friend who wanted to come see what we were doing, and then another friend, and then another, until there were 4 students with super different religious beliefs talking to us! What a lesson! One of them was named Jeff, and he said he knew the Bishop of the Plainfield ward I just served in, had been studying the church for two years, and had a Book of Mormon! That was way exciting!
For lunch one day we went to Sister Bank's for pizza with the elders, but didn't think she'd be home. Before the elders got there Sister Banks came in! We were pretty surprised because we thought she was helping at her friends Linda and Raymond's, but it turned out she was having a pretty rough day and having the missionaries there, who she calls her kids, was so good for her! Later that week we brought her roses for Valentines Day and she was on cloud nine, it was the sweetest! She sure loves her missionaries, and we sure love her!
Wednesday we had a March Madness Zone Conference that was pretty exciting! While I was icing Elder Smithhart asked if he could wear my tennis shoes, and was so excited to get in on the basketball clinic! It was really sweet how many people reached out to me that day to see how I was doing. Afterward I talked to President because I was nervous about training with my knees bothering me so much. That night we had dinner with the Restivo family who had prepared a message for us about God's love, including a video from President Uchtdorf, who is one of my favorites! It was incredibly overwhelming. Getting ready to go, Sister Restive gave me a hug and asked how my knees were doing. She expressed her love, concern, and how much she was praying for me! That night another evidence of God's love was my district leader giving me a call. Elder Diaz asked how I was doing and I told him I was great and asked how he was doing, but he said he knew I'd had a rough day and he was sorry there was nothing he could say to make it hurt less, but he wanted to let me know that he cared.
Waiting for President Cleveland to call and talk to my parents and stake President about how much pain I was in was pretty difficult. I prayed and studied so much about it, and by Friday, reading my Patriarchal blessing, I felt like I should pray more specifically if going home would be best, rather than what to do. The peace that then came over me was amazing! Sunday I fasted that I, and those who were involved in my decision, would be able to know God's will, and that I would be able to accept that will.

Seeing Sister Banks' chicks with Beech Grove 1.3 and Cross Roads!

Dinner with the Hutchisons!

Favorite Quotes!

"My family is actually Amish!" Jake (PI)

"It's open!...It's already unlocked!...We're in here!...Come in!" Sister Gil
"It's me!" Sister Banks

"I like you! Can you come back?" Molly Tomlinson (PI)

"Today we met a kid named Jeff at UIndy that knows the Simpsons and has been studying the church for two years! Crazy!" Me
"What the...get baptized! Haha" Sister Lowry

"and please bless the haters..." Elder Borsch prayer request

"I was gonna scare you because I saw you first but I thought you might scream so I decided to scare Sister Gil" Elder Diaz

"And you should probably look out for Joe" Sister Williams, referring to Kat's son

"I'd be like 'um ya, I can help you with those pillows!" me and moving

"God was smart sending His pretty daughters to find and teach His sons!" Kat (I)

"and I visit teach Sister Comeau" Sister Tait
"Oh no, she hates us!" me
"She hates you? Can she have visiting teachers?" Sister Tait
"Ya, she likes other people, she just called the cops on us!" me

"If you could marry any fictional character who would it be and why?" Sister Williams
"I'm racking my brain for fictional characters...the only one I can think of is Harry Potter and he's not exactly my first choice" me

"We had dinner with the Ronalds who were gracious enough to feed us two triple cheeseburgers...each!" Elder Lorsch, referring to them having McDonald's for dinner

"Should we go check on Elder Bair?" me
"Oh he's fine" Elder Lorsch
Don't worry about it mother Evans" Elder Given