Week 52- Year with a Yeti

Hello all!

This week's subject line is a clever, clever joke, not least because it is the title of a Gilderoy Lockhart book (which I think I deserve some MAJOR awards for remembering) and I hit my year marker this week. I also happen to now be the proud owner of a yeti union suit, courtesy of my firstborn in the wilderness. I got her a moose one. Merry Christmas to us.

This week was a week full of awesome! I'm serious. It was really good.

Monday we went to go see D & P. That was a good time. We read out of the Book of Mormon with them and helped them understand what we were reading. We read Alma 36 and near the end we just felt inspired to tell them about chiasmus, because that chapter is written in chiasmus. Go look it up if you don't know what it is. And P was like, "THAT IS LITERALLY THE BEST THING IVE EVER HEARD. I HAVE TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THE BOOK OF MORMON LIKE THAT." Oh, have we mentioned yet that P has been telling everyone she got baptized into the Mormon church, and sharing the gospel with all her friends? It's rocking our socks off, yo. I'm serious. And so anyways, P was really excited about chiasmus, Dan liked our union suits, it was a really good time. We also heart attacked the Rs.

Tuesday we did NOT have DDM, because transfers...:( You guys, do you ever meet folks where you're like, "MAN, I needed that person"? This district has been that way for me. It was pretty sad to see some of them go. We spent the morning making a tie and doing Mormon.org time, and then we went to a nursing home. IT WAS NUTS. Please, please remind me, family dear, to tell you face-to-face what happened the day we went to see B. And probably don't eat before I tell you. Oh my goodness. And then, we gave Elder H his airplane journal back and got Elder P's. (Airplane journals are like missionary yearbooks that you write nice things about people in. You're supposed to read it on the airplane.) Then we went to see Sister M in her nursing home. Please pray for her. She has no family so the holidays are always super hard on her. Then, we went to...ANOTHER nursing home. Luckily the Spanish South elders are really sweet and willing to come with us. That night we found out Elder C was also getting transferred, which was very unexpected.

Wednesday we did the soup kitchen, which was nuts! It was super busy. The ladies there gave us Christmas presents, which was cute. I have a new cup. It says some bible scripture on it. I like it. We also got my airplane journal back from the elders. Elder P STILL has Sister Larsen's. But luckily, he's in Greenville as one of their zone leaders over there, so we'll see him again this Tuesday and hopefully he has it then. We also went to see Sister B, who should be paying the fam a visit. We also were able to go to Book of Mormon class, which was taught by D. It was pretty good. P declared very excitedly her testimony of the Restoration, so that was a definite high point. We got to play some basketball after the class and also wrote in Elder C's airplane journal so we could get it back to him before he was transferred the next morning.

The next day we did not go to Brother W's or MMA which was sad, but we did get to talk to our WHOLE NEW DISTRICT over the phone. President moved the Gaffney elders into our district and made one of them our district leader. The thing is, he goes home in literally 17 days because he needs to get back for BYU-Idaho semesters, so we will not have a district leader for the last 3 weeks of the transfer. So since the zone leaders are zone leaders and never come to district meeting anyway, and the two other elders in the district JUST GOT HERE and also JUST GOT OUT OF TRAINING, I'm the district leader for the last three weeks of the transfer. HAHAHAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING. I'm really not sure what we're gonna do, but I KNOW it's not gonna be that.  We also went out with Sister F and had a short visit with Sister M where we helped her start her family history with Sister R, which was a great idea. Sister R took us up to see K and the baby after, and we helped K decorate for Christmas. It was fun, except they have cats, so I was dying a little bit. Also we had a lesson with a family named the Hs, which DAD is a Finnish surname, by the way. Brother H is half Finnish. He is pretty different. He wants to be a knight. And Sister H is from Cambodia. They fed us pasta and gave us a referral so I'm happy. And they came to church on Sunday also! So that was great too.

Friday we went to another nursing home to sing. I love nursing homes because everyone there tells you you're pretty even when you look like you just drove a semi-truck through a nitroglycerin plant. And that is about how I felt after K's house because I was sneezing and coughing and altogether slightly ill.  Anyway, then we planned for our week, had apartment inspections, and tried to go see people, to no avail.

Saturday we got to go to another baptism for M. She was not able to get baptized last week. But she was so excited for this week! We also got to meet the hermanas, and they are super cute! So that is really exciting. Also, the Spanish South elders came...and GET THIS. Awhile back, I sent Taran a song by an elder in my mission who was in a mariachi band before his mission. His name is Elder G, and his voice is so beautiful. Like, so beautiful, guys, you don't even know. I get emotional about it. And so Elders H and C come around the corner ... followed by Elder G. And I think I about lost my cool there. Also, Elder P got to come back and baptize her, and Elder H got to Skype in, so we got to see them again after they left, which was good. AND THEN. After the baptism was over, Elder G turns to me and is like, "Sister Pew, are you doing a musical number for zone conference?" And I was like, "No." (Because at that point I wasn't. I totally am now. They told me last night at 10:25. Zone conference is tomorrow. If I didn't love the zone leaders, I'd probably kill them.) But anyways, he was like, "Dang! I would love to hear you sing." And you don't understand. This was like, imagine Michael Jordan telling you he's seen you dunk a basketball. This was like Michaelangelo telling you he likes your artwork. Firstly, I had no idea how Elder G even knew I sang, except I figured it out real quick -- he served awhile around Sister Goettsche. That would be why. Anyways, yeah, so I was dying. And Sister Larsen, knowing, because I have told her, that my mission bucket list, which I was certain I would never ever achieve, is to sing with Elder G, says, "HEY, YOU SHOULD SING TOGETHER." And he was like, YES. GOOD. I WILL DO IT. And you guys. You don't even understand. Elder G. He GOES HOME IN 5 WEEKS. And he's only up here in the upstate until Tuesday to help the elders. There was no way this was ever happening! And it happened. We sang Child's Prayer together. I am so happy right now typing this. You don't even know. I can't believe it. Such a tender mercy. God just loves me so much. I'm serious. Ugh, so awesome.

Yesterday we had choir practice again. Sister Larsen hates it. It's hilarious.

Well, I'm super out of time. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but there should be videos coming in later today!!! And family, talk to y'all Monday!

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love,

Sister Pew

One of their soup kitchen friends