Thanksgiving 2020 style

 

Thanksgiving was so fun this year. A wonderful women in the ward brought us a huge dinner, with so many delicious plates, we were quickly stuffed. We are almost done with the leftovers, but still have enough to keep us fat and happy. 

We went on a hike during P Day to the Red Rocks Amphitheater, which has steps and a stage that are surrounded with the towering red rock cliffs. It wasn't too hard of a climb, and the views were well worth it. From the top of the stairs it felt like you could see all the way to Washington. We had a mini photoshoot up there and a lot of great laughs. 

I am grateful everyday for a chance to serve at such a time as this!

A few photos

 

An exciting morning

 So, here's a brief overview of my week. 

Tuesday morning, we woke up and our car was gone. A few panicked minutes later, we were in contact with the Elder over all the vehicles, and he was able to find it in a tow yard. We were told we didn't need a permit to park here, but I guess that wasn't quite true... 

Also, I'M IN ANOTHER TRIO! This is my 6th Trio. Sister DeMordaunt's companion, Sister Smith-Driggs, was able to go to  her originally assigned mission in Poland! So excited for her. We now have Sister DeMordaunt with us for the rest of the week. She is super sweet and enthusiastic. So grateful to have her with us. She is my 12th companion so far on the mission. I have only been in five normal two person companionship, but never any longer then one transfer, the shortest being three weeks. It's funny I've been in so many trios since they are supposed to be a rarity, but I guess I'm just special.

Also, it's been getting so chilly outside, we had to make a special stop to get some shaved ice. We have had a freezing wind blowing for the past week, and today was especially sunny, so these three Sisters walked into the shaved ice place with long sleeve, sweaters, and ready for an icy treat. We had a good laugh. 

Also, I got a little surprise in the mail. Boma made me a new Christmas scarf, and IT'S THE GRINCH!!! My comp and I had been making references to the old Grinch movie for weeks, so it seemed only fitting that  we now have matching scarfs for the movie!

I am so grateful for a chance to be serving the Lord!!!

11/9

 This week hasn't been too eventful. We have been having very nice sun rises and sunsets. The smoke has been clearing up and we can see the silhouette of the mountains. That has been nice. Oh, this week my companion and I had some fun. We attempted to make Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. I don't mean to brag, but they turned out preeeeeeety fantastic. It took almost an hour to fry up the pepper and veggies, toast the sandwich buns, and fry up the meet, but it was so very much worth it. Sadly they were so good that we weren't able to get a picture before devouring them. 

We were able to meet with the missionaries near by during the Zone conference, of course staying six feet away from each other, and that was fun being able to see so many missionaries we know. 

I got my General Conference book today! I'm so excited to reread through the wonderful talks given. They were so powerful and directed for this time of chaos and confusion. They brought so much peace and understanding, and I'm excited to study them even more in depth.

Colorado weather strikes again! This past week it has been pretty warm and a little breezy, but yesterday it got very windy, howling outside our window, and today the temp dropped drastically and we are now in a mini snow storm. I say mini because it looks like by tomorrow it should be getting warmer and melt the snow, then we have sunshine the rest of the week. Colorado weather certainly is interesting, haha. The picture below is a little glimpse of the weather. The entire sky is white and was dropping giant flakes of snow, but us being in the sunshine state you could still see the sun sticking out behind the clouds. 

I am so grateful for the chance to serve at such a time as this.

Halloween and voting

 Happy Halloween to you all!

This week has been great. Now that I'm an official adultish person, I had the chance to vote. Luckily mom sent me my ballot in the mail. We discovered a hot chocolate stand that had a variety of flavors. The one I got was english toffee and cinnamon. Soooooo good. In celebration of Halloween, I put up a little spider on the door. It was a party napkin, but it did the job, haha. For halloween to surprise the twins, I decided to rush and make a super quick halloween costume, so I took a straw, a piece of paper, and cut eye and mouth holes out of it. Once I did I got board and started doodling, and one mustache, one set of eyebrows, and one monocle later I realized I had accidentally made myself into the Pringles mascot. Haha, my family seemed to enjoy it. We also were able to celebrate Halloween after the day when we went to the store today and bought half off halloween candy. It is WAY more sugar then I need in my life right now, but when something's cheap it so much harder to resist! We have also been getting a lot of smoke. Below are some pictures of a sunrise we had. The dark gray mass in the background over the buildings that look kind of like a mountain was a giant plume of smoke stretching over the horizon going farther then we could see.  Luckily we aren't  in danger. We can sometimes smell smoke outside and we can see it on the horizon some days, but we are safe. 

On my mission I have truly found a love for the scriptures. While reading any other book, there is always an end. As humans, I feel like we don't like endings. They just don't feel right, for something to end, but it seems that scriptures simply never have an end. No matter how many times I read the Bible or Book of Mormon, there is always something new to learn, a new story to tell, a new word that sticks out. Even when you finish what was writing, you want to start over, because you know there will be more. I have really discovered this through daily study of immersing myself in the scriptures every day. Everyday I learn something new, and I am touched in such a powerful way. I feel I have heard these stories a million times before and that I've read these words so often, yet there is always more. It is truly a book without an end.

I am grateful everyday to have a chance to serve at such a time as this!!!

Snow Storms Save Lives

 So sorry about not sending a weekly last week. I ran out of time then tried to rush one buuuuut it deleted, so yeah, that's my little excuse.

Let's see. Transfers happened a week or so ago. I'm staying here with Hermana Tailleur, who is a Washingtonian like me, and we've been continuing to throw ourselves into the work. 

One new development of my missionary work is blue light glasses. For the past month or so I was getting really bad headaches in the evening time, probably due to doing so much missionary work on the phone and just staring at screens all day every day. My brilliant and beautiful mother sent me a few pairs of blue light glasses, and the headaches have almost completely disappeared. Now I look even more like the nerd I truly am on the inside:) That, plus two wonderful friends of mine, Elise and Barb, sent me some new super cute book lover t shirts that I wear at night.

The other day we were driving home from something, can't remember what, and I looked up in the sky and saw one of the most gorgeous clouds I have ever seen. It was so huge and luscious and the colors reflecting from the sun were magical. It looked just like the cloud from Castle in the Sky! I pointed it out to my companion and we both marveled at it. I mentioned it looked like the cloud from Castle in the Sky and awkwardly discovered she hadn't seen that movie, but Sister Falemaka, who was in the car with us, had seen the movie and agreed with me:) Later that night during the all mission meeting we found out that that cloud wasn't a cloud, but a giant pillar of smoke. One of the largest fires in Colorado's recorded history was about to collide with another giant wild fire, making it so much bigger and so much worse. The missionaries from that area had safely been evacuated, but we all prayed mightily that night for an early snow storm to try to control the fires at least enough for the brave fire fighters to have a chance to take care of the fires. Sunday night, the snow came and the temperature dropped to the teens. Luckily our heater works very nicely. 

We went to church and took the sacrament with our district. When we first got there we were locked out, so we took some fun pictures of the snow.  

Another fun part of the week was that it was my Companion's birthday!!! We celebrated with one of her favorite treats, egg nog and mountain dew mixed together. For lunch we went to Jersey Mike's and she got a free birthday sandwich (philly cheese steak) and she split it with me since I didn't have time to make anything for lunch with everything that had happened that day. It was very  sweet, the gesture not the sandwich. The sandwich was delicious.

So yeah, it has been a great last couple weeks, filled with laughter, inspiration, and miracles. I can see God's hand in every aspect of my life, and I am so grateful to feel so close to Him, especially during such a chaotic time in the world. 

I am grateful everyday for the chance to serve a mission at such a time as this!!!