Wonder what crazy, funny, adventures #1 is having in Arkansas?

I'm staying in Maumelle.  G is doing well. We are going to see her on Tuesday. We invited her to church and she was excited to come! We invited her to baptism, and she's thinking about it. We'll see what happens. She is also trying to quit smoking. YAY! We taught her the Plan of Salvation yesterday through 2 Nephi 9. It was pretty sweet. It made a lot of sense and she was all like : " how come nobody else knows this?" It was pretty sweet. :) 

So here's my week run down. Monday was boring.  Tuesday, um.....not much. We met with D and taught him about the priesthood and to help him prepare for it. He was a bit unfocused :/ We are working on it. We had dinner with them and when they dished us up, they gave me like a spoonful. I guess I can lose weight that way? Well, the mom got on a rant when she was serving Sister T and she just kept serving her! Sister T even moved her plate away and said she was good, but she kept going, so her plate was completely full! I busted up laughing and the little girl asks what's so funny and I just say she is so cute! Aren't I terrible? Wednesday, we cooked with B. I made the bacon broccoli salad. It was really good and B loved it! :) We saw G. She's doing really great. :) She's  a miracle and an answer to a prayer. :) Thursday, we cleaned an entire house in 2 hours. It is a crazy house! We folded all her laundry, put it away, cleaned up the upstairs, downstairs, and did the dishes. It was very much needed. Really, it was just my OCD freaking out and it needed to be done. We went to a lady's house. Her name is E. She watches this little girl who is absolutely adorable! She is probably about 7 months and she has red hair! So funny story about her. We were teaching her and I was bearing a beautiful testimony about faith, but then she had to go answer the phone and gives the baby to Sister T. HAHAHAHAHA! We aren't allowed to hold babies. ;) Well, she's bouncing around with it so that it won't cry and then E comes back in. E doesn't take the baby back, though, and now the baby is fine! So the minute the baby makes a tiny noise, she hands it back and says that she wants her. OH MAN! I was dying! Friday, we had a meeting. This was my favorite part:   

President  was teaching us about virtuous thoughts. So he had a glass of water and that represented virtuous thoughts. He had a missionary come and hold their hands in a cupping shape, representing our mind. He would pour the water in and tell the missionary to not let any leak out. Of course some would leak out, so what happens then? Our hands are empty, so you just pour more water in. The missionary is trying their hardest to keep the water in, but it still leaks out, little by little. What causes it to leak? Sin, temptation, etc. Some is under our control, but others is not. We can't control what is on billboards, T.V., internet, and things we hear, but we can control is we let it dwell in our mind or not. Sometimes, we try our hardest (like the missionary trying to not let the water leak out), but we make mistakes. That is where the Atonement comes in. We can repent and become better. But virtue is a continuous process. Just like D&C 121:45. Just like how you have to keep pouring water into the hands of the missionary. That is what I learned.

On Saturday, we went to the U.S.S. Razorback with the C's. The story is in all my awkward selfies. Oh dear. I was worried we were going to get escorted out because we couldn't stop laughing! We were taking all kinds of pictures. Sunday was pretty good. I got a nap and we had dinner with the G's. They feed us WAY too much rice. :P but it's still really good.

Answers to your questions: The best thing you did that prepared you for your mission? A 30 day Book of Mormon read and mission prep. Yes it's early in the morning, but it's great! It helped so much! And do the training online. :) Something I wish I had done to prepare more? SLEEP! J/K. Um....probably...um...can't think of anything at the moment. The greatest lesson I have learned so far on my mission? Diligence, patience, and love. You can NEVER give up, even when the going get's rough. There is always something good at the end, and even if you get frustrated with people for not keeping commitments and whatever, still love them :) That's all I got.

Hey mom!

Sister N is my new companion. She's really fun! We are laughing all the time! :) G is a struggle. :( Her daughter won't let her come to church or be baptized. :( But she still lets us come over and read the Book of Mormon with her. She needs prayers. :) I don't know what else to do for her. We are working on finding and less-actives. It's a work in progress. I'm proud of you for following the spirit. :) It is always nerve wracking and you just want to die, but it's good at the end. That's how I feel about less-actives, but eventually it works out for the better.  I've been studying a lot of Isaiah. Not the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi, but actual Isaiah in the Bible. I almost like it better in the bible because it has it all there, not just parts. It's got me thinking a lot about the Second Coming and how it's right on our heels. We have GOT to be prepared!  The times are coming and now is the time to prepare.

Now, onto the specifics of the week. Monday, Sister T went home, so I was companions with Sister F and Sister M. It was a lot of fun. :) Tuesday, we saw a couple of Recent Converts from Sisters before me and we also saw G. That's when she told us the whole thing about going to church. :( It was a bit sad. Wednesday, I got Sister N. We are having a ball! She is so much fun. I haven't had fun in a long time. :) I haven't laughed in a long time. She is definitely an answer to a prayer. We just went around and had her meet people in the ward. Nothing super exciting. Thursday was just a bunch more members and less-actives. We did have dinner at the G's. It was SO GOOD! She put veleeta cheese, rotel, cream of chicken soup, and chunks of chicken in a crock pot and let it melt/mix together and then poured it over rice and we ate it with doritos. It was the best meal ever! It was so good! I want to have it again. On Friday we had weekly planning :p I'm definitely looking forward to the day of not having to do that anymore. We saw G again and she asked us to come over only once a week. :( We also had Mexican food. It was delicious! Saturday was boring. Nothing much happened. We had to fix the car, so that was exciting...not. But it was out of the norm, so I got to see new places. Sunday was good! The Bishop talked about the love God has for us. It was pretty emotional. We also saw D. That family is struggling! Prayers for them, too, please! We also saw the G's AND......they are moving on Saturday to Oklahoma. :( I'm super sad about that one, but I think they will be happier there. They struggle with being here. It will be okay. I can still write them. :) That was pretty much my week. Nothing super crazy.

You guys might not get as good as hand written letters this month. Our P-days are shortened to 2 PM so that we can reach our goal of 100 baptisms and confirmations and 100 re-activations in the month of November. I'll do my best, but no promises. That is the life of #1 this week as a missionary. Wish I had more to say. This looks like a lame letter....:( but it's all I got. Love you so much!

My birthday was pretty good. Sister N decorated the apartment and I opened my box from you. It was AWESOME! I told everyone about it. They had no idea I was such a nerd! We had district meeting that day and after ward the Elders surprised me with a cake. It was really good. The S's gave me a hand crank music thing that plays happy birthday and a Maumelle cup and stuff. We got home and visited a couple of members and people didn't keep their mouth shut and so I got a bunch of birthday wishes from members I've never met before. It was cool though. A bunch of people from Batesville, called/texted to say happy birthday. It was a really fun. I had cake and confetti soup and focaccia bread for my dinner at the M's. It was awesome. Then we went over to Sister S's for MORE cake! So I'm all caked out. MAN! But it was great. The G's came over wtih two confetti cannons and exploded them in the house. HOLY COW! You should have seen it!  Well, the next day, I received revelation on what to do with all the confetti. I am very positive it was revelation because it was during study time. We took it over to the Elders apartment and put it in their house. It was great! And then they got us back with the car. The wrapped it up in 5 rolls of plastic wrap. Yep. But it was hilarious.  We saw G on Thursday. She needs prayers. She doesn't know what she wants. She has a plethora of excuses. I don't know what else to do for her and it makes me sad. We are seeing her again Thursday to see what is going on. Friday, we were finding less actives and part member families. We found a couple of them, and we will be seeing them this week, too. And we helped the G's pack.  We are probably going to be helping them today, too.

There's a talk I found I want you to read. It's by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It's "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence". It's really good. I found only part of it this morning during study. I'm going to read the rest of it this afternoon.  I really like 1 Nephi 4:6 as well. But look at verse 7: "Nevertheless I went forth......." He still went even though he didn't know what was going to happen. That takes a lot of faith. Even though it was hard. Even though he was scared. Even though he was alone, HE WENT FORTH. Just a thought. Good job being a missionary, mom! That is how you do it. If only the members here were like that. It's a work in progress. :) I love you so much! You are always in my prayers. Keep the faith. Be strong. Show now fear. Move forward.

I can't remember if I told you, but last Sunday, we got the Elders back....sort of. We put vaseline on the door handles. And we were so excited! But then they went on splits with the other Elders in our district, but we were like, no big deal. It will be good, but then, they were giving the ward mission leader a ride home.....yep! You guessed it! We got him, NOT the Elders. But it was pretty funny. And that is the end of my pranking career.Monday,, we had FHE with the S's. It was so much fun! I haven't had a real FHE in a long time. We discussed the Gospel and then played a game. It was a lot of fun. Tuesday was pretty chill. Not much happened there. Wednesday, we cooked with B, and then we had exchanges, so I went to Morrilton with Sister C. It was a bunch of fun. It a nice break from Maumelle. You will not believe what I had for dinner though. Is everyone holding on to their chairs? You ready? It was....dun....dun...DUN!!!! OYSTER STEW!!!!  I had a very tiny, teeny, weeny, little scoop. I had to think that what I was eating was potatoes, never mind that it was chewy, slimy, and downright disgusting. If you like fish, you would have liked it. Any who, thank goodness for napkins! I only gagged 5 times, but those 5 times it got pretty close. They had scones for the bread. I ate that last so that I didn't have that flavor in my mouth any more. But you would have been proud of me. Thursday, I came back to Maumelle. G put herself on pause. She doesn't want to visit with us anymore. :( Pray that she gets an answer about the church and that she can find a way to church. A (a less active we work with that has MS and smokes) won't quit smoking. :( She needs prayers, too. Hopefully she'll be ready this week. We were supposed to go to Zumba on Thursday because everyone at it is a non member, but our dinner got burned and started late, so we couldn't go 

:( but we will be able to go this week. WEIGHT LOSS, HERE I COME! :D Friday was pretty awesome. You will not believe what I found in a lady's freezer! We went with a member to clean out a house for sale. Pretty much just take what we needed, because it needed to be cleaned out. We got a lot of food. Anyways, I was cleaning out the freezer when I came across two grocery bags. Do you want to know what was inside them? Thankfully wrapped in layers of grocery bags and zip lock bags? RACCOON PELTS!!! You better believe I was freaking out! It was so gross! Who the heck puts raccoon skin in the freezer!!? Crazy people from Arkansas, that's who! You better believe it smelled gross, too. Oh man. I bet #2 and #3 haven't run into that on their mission! But holy crap was I freaked out. I threw away everything in the freezer and fridge. I'm not letting anyone eat anything from there that could have been tainted by Raccoon germs. Nothing notable happened Saturday and Sunday. Just the primary program.

There is one thing I did learn, though. It's about Patriarchal Blessings. By the mouth of three witnesses, I was told to read my Patriarchal Blessing (the Spirit, the Elders (blessing), and Sister C). You'd think I'd learn by now to listen to the spirit, but apparently not. I had to have two other people tell me. Any who, so I read my blessing. Not just read though, but truly feasted. Looking for answers. I'm going to be honest. I had never really "studied" my patriarchal blessing. I would just read it every once in a while and think about it, then put it away for another day. So this time, I really studied it. I took it out, prayed, and wrote down impressions I received. Whenever Patriarchal blessings were talked about and people would talk about things that was in theirs, I would always joke that mine wasn't super specific. That mine was just very general. How wrong I was. I wrote down the whole experience in my journal. I also know that a Patriarchal Blessing if VERY important and we shouldn't just brush it off. It is directly from Heavenly Father. It is promised blessings to us if we continue to be righteous and keep the commandments. How important it is to continue to study from it! It is scripture. Revelation from God, for the individual. I promised that I would study it every week. That's what I learned.

Pray for J. She is a new investigator. We are seeing her tonight. Pray for the spirit to be there, she will recognize what we are saying is true, and commit be be baptized. Also pray for M. We are seeing him tomorrow. We found him because I liked the color of his door for his house. Pray that he will feel that what we are sharing is true.

That was my crazy week. Love you so much!! Can't wait for next week!