What Was That Again?: In Which There Are BOYS in Our Car and I Work Very Hard on My Christlike Attributes in the Face of a Prophet's Posterity

It's been a long week. I'm pretty freaking exhausted, but ain't no missionary got time to be exhausted. There's stuff to do!

The week started off with a dead car battery. Just after we emailed last week we went to go grocery shopping...and nothing. It was quite sad. The office Elders had to come all the way to our apartment from the mission office to jump it, which took about 3 1/2 seconds, and then drive all the way back. We then spent a good portion of our pants day sitting in the Pep Boys waiting for it to be replaced. I'm not the most car savvy person anyway, but sitting in the Pep Boys in a skirt is pretty awkward.

Theresa took us and the Woodlands Sisters on an outing on Monday afternoon, which was lovely...all except for the part where we spent a whole bunch of hours at the mall. I really don't like the mall. It's boring, and gross, and it smells weird. We got to talk to Theresa about reactivation, though, and she's eager to get started. She's just a cool kid. We're going to teach her the discussions again, because she really doesn't remember anything, which we're really excited for.

We had another discussion with Ashlee this Tuesday, and it was excellent. She's so prepared, it's just crazy. She asks all of the right questions, and she just gets it. She accepted our baptismal commitment and committed to read the Book of Mormon, kept telling us how excited she is to come to church, and basically invited herself to the Relief Society activity this Thursday before we even told her what it was. Our big concern with her is her boyfriend - we're pretty sure she hasn't mentioned anything about us to him, and we're also pretty dang positive that there's some emotional abuse going on. It's going to be rough getting her out of that situation, but it's possible as long as that's what the Lord wants.

So, there's a family in our ward. They are...lovely. They've never had us over to feed us, or even introduced themselves, and a lot of it is because the father is the grandson of one of our latter-day prophets and thinks that he's entitled or something. He's one of our less actives and I, frankly, wouldn't mind just leaving him be and not trying to meet with people who obviously don't want to meet with us, but we've been feeling that we need to go see them. Their son is out on a mission, and that's been doing a lot to help them, but they've still got a long way to go. Anyway, we went to see them on Wednesday night. We knock on the door, very excited to speak with him, and our good Brother opens the door. Before we say anything, he says, "Oh my gosh, you guys should really call. I'm the only one home."

Really?

Yeah. I was working so very hard to bite my tongue. So very hard. We mumbled some apologies, he admonished us to make an appointment, and closed the door. I am such a patient and loving person.

We went to stop by Morgaine's on Thursday night. We didn't expect to see her, seeing as we haven't the last 237 million times we've tried, but lo an behold, she was home! It was great. She invited us in, and we talked for a long time. She apologized for dodging us (I knew it...) and we talked about her fears about coming back to church. We got those sorted, and then she let us teach the Restoration. I love being a missionary, guys. I get to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ all day long. That's my job, and I get to see them through the whole conversion process. How cool is that? She was so accepting and open, and she's really excited to come back. While we were talking, she told us about her great-grandparents, and how they hadn't learned about the gospel until later in their lives, and how she felt like she was carrying on their legacy. As soon as she started talking to them, the Spirit in the room grew - it was so strong, and it was obvious that they were in the room with us. We told her that, and that they had been instrumental in bringing her to the point where she was ready to be a part of the church. Then I said the words, "They want you to know that -" and words came out. I really don't remember what I said, except that it was wonderful, and it was not me. So cool. So cool.

On Friday we had a specialized training from President Pingree, and it was just - it was great, and it was exactly what we needed to hear. We went to the Hand Me Up Shop with the Elders that afternoon, and then we had an appointment with Ashlee in the evening. We had forgotten to get someone to come with us, though. She lives in what one of the members of our ward refers to as the "Mexican drug cartel apartments." They're scary, and we've been forbidden to go in there alone. We needed to meet with her, though, so we thought quickly and asked the Elders to come with us. They were free, so we went in our car (with permission from the District Leader, of course.) It was weird. There were boys in our car. She didn't end up being there, but we got to drag them around with us to contact a few people (who also weren't home.)

Yesterday was a little rough. We were expecting 3 investigators and one of out less actives to come to church, and only one showed up. It's okay, though. We can't control them, so we just do what we can.

I think this email is a little scattered. That's probably because our week was a little scattered. Things are going really well, though. Satan is working really, really hard on the members in our ward, but we just remind ourselves that there must be something really important to be done if everything is falling apart like it is. The gospel is true, guys. It is, and it changes people. I always though that sounded nice, but it didn't really make sense until I was able to see it for myself. It changes nonmembers, it changes less actives, and it changes members. There is no one who will not benefit from our Savior and His Atonement. Use it, live it, love it, and share it. I love y'all (even those of you who STILL haven't written to me,) and I'll see you soon.

Cordially,

Me.

Me, Sarah, and Allison. It's an Sarah sandwich with Allison bread.

These are my A girls - Annette, Andrea, Anaie, and Analie.

Kennedy and Me. She's my girl - I'm pretty sure if we put a tag on her right now, she'd be a better missionary than I will ever be.

Service style, as modeled by Elders Christensen and Thierry. Yes, they are just that tall.

Sister Lambright thinks she's clever. She came to our apartment on exchanges and ignored my instructions to NOT eat the green apple Hi Chews. She only ate one, though.