What Was That Again?: In Which I Make Infants Cry and Everything Is Green, Just for Me

So, apparently another week has gone by. It doesn't feel like it at all, to be honest. We just kind of do our thing and then all of the sudden it's Monday again and this transfer is almost over and I've been out for more than a month, and things just get really confusing.

I feel like not much happened this week because, again, it feels like I just emailed. I'll explain my title, though. They're both encounters with member families. The first - okay. The Farnsworths are awesome. They just moved in and they're hysterical and I love them. They have a baby girl who is just adorable. We went over for dinner the other night - I walked into the room, this baby takes one look at me and starts sobbing. Hysterically. It was really upsetting for baby and me apparently. We still haven't figured out why she did that. The second happened right after I emailed last week. We had dinner with the Manns, who are also awesome, and Sister Quist told me that it was going to be all about me. (I liked the sound of that.) I walked in - and everything was green. All of the Manns were wearing green, there were green streamers, all the food was green, even the lightbulbs were green. They gave me a present (in a green bag) that turned out to be a green scarf. Greenie meal! It was so much fun. They're the coolest.

One of the things I've learned this week is to be happy. One of our recent converts said something that really stuck with me - he talked about how he had always thought that success would make him happy, but that after he found the gospel he discovered that being happy is success. I was really excited to try it out. (Now that I look back on it, it was totally a precursor for impending events - curse you, Aqua Scum...) The whole week was kind of a struggle to be honest. I was humbled a lot. Remember my member rant last week? Mhmm. That wasn't very nice. I've been humbled quite a lot in the past few days.

First of all, we've been trying to work with the members, not eat them alive, which I may or may not have felt like doing at one point. I had a special moment when I realized that I was expecting perfection of others but begging them to accept my weaknesses. Not very cool. We've been trying to alleviate some of their fears and create non-awkward situations for nonmembers to meet us. It's a work in progress.

The roughest patch was probably yesterday morning when we went to talk to Kezza. We were so excited to get her baptism ready for this Friday, and fill out forms... and she told us that she had decided that she wasn't ready. She wasn't sure that she was a spiritual person, and she said that she felt overwhelmed and stressed. It was kind of - well, it was - a punch in the stomach. We were so excited and thought that she was so ready that we weren't listening to her and completely scared her to death. It was really hard. I was convinced that we had lost her.

So, I went to church feeling really upset and really alone. I knew that my Father hadn't left me, but I felt like He just wasn't helping me. Pride, I know. I spent a long time praying, and decided to be happy, because being sad wasn't going to help me at all. Afterwards, just because He's great like that, I was given a lot of peace. It's not like things all magically fixed themselves, I just was okay with it - I wasn't anxious anymore, and I was able to see the good things around me. Then, I got a whole bunch of goodies. Kezza sat down and talked to Omar - the recent convert who told me to be happy - and they had a talk about his conversion and her struggles. He is such a powerhouse and has one of the most amazing testimonies I've ever heard, and she came up and told us later that it was exactly what she needed. She just looked lighter and happier - it was awesome. We got to talk to the Young Women about helping us find people to teach, and we were asked to teach seminary tomorrow morning (I. AM. SO. STOKED.) Three less actives came to church, and one of them gave us a referral. There's a nonmember who's been living with our ward mission leader and coming to church, and he agreed to have the discussions. Can you just - Agh! It was excellent, and exactly what I needed.

Remember that the Lord loves you. He cares, and He knows what you're going through - He's making sure that you can do it, and just wants to bless you. Keep doing good things. And all y'all that haven't written to me yet? REPENT. Do you know what repentance means? Change. Change your bad behavior and write to me, punks. I love you and am praying for you. I miss you, but it's all good. Keep adventuring and Stay not a grown up.

Love,

It was Elder Peterson's birthday. He's our Zone Leader, so we had to make sure that he was arrayed appropriately.

Um, that's me.

This was our lunch at Pitmaster's (which is by far the best BBQ I've had so far.) It was on Katie's birthday, so it's kind of like her birthday lunch, right? From left to right, Elders Ririe, Murdock, Vought, Cornwall, and Sister Quist