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!!!

Flu shots, pruning and smokey skies

 So sorry how brief these email have been. We've had crazy P Days these past few weeks.

So, we all got our flu shot, so we couldn't resist taking a picture of our battle wounds.

Transfers happened, and I'm staying here, but Hermana Wangsgard was transferred to Highlands Ranch, my first area where I was at for six months. I am super excited for her. Sad to see her go, but I know she'll be taken care of. I am staying in Cornerstone Park with Hermana Tailleur, which means this is now the Washingtonian companionship, since she's from Port Orchard. 

Earlier this week we went to a woman's house and we were able to help her trim her Russian Sage bush. First time either of us had ever trimmed, but I think we did a pretty good job. We MIGHT have looked a little suspicious walking down the street with giant scissors hanging out of our bag, but that's fine. On the way back we couldn't resist stopping to get Slurpees.

With all the smoke, the sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular! The smoke  hard on the lungs and it is sad with all the destruction caused by the fires, yet there is always a silver lining to be seen. In this case it is more like a gold lining. It's amazing no matter how hard life can be, as we look up to God and look at the many blessings wonderful blessings He has given us, we can always see the most spectacular views, may it be through miracles, kindness, answer, or beautiful sunsets and sunrises. 

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

small adventures

Sorry to make this brief, but I have no choice. So, we delivered cookies. I made little cards to go with the cookies, fall themed of course. We ran under a red moon. We walked all the way from Littleton to Washington. We had many adventures and laughs, and I will tell you all about it next week:)

I am grateful everyday that I chose to serve a mission at such a time as this!

My three angels

 These last two weeks have been so joyful and full of hard work. Last week we had an opportunity to go and serve a new friend of ours outside her house. In her backyard there was a pine tree that had been dropping pine needles for about ten years. When we got there3 feet of needles that were 20x30 feet. All the needles were starting to corrode the fence, so we took a rake and pitch fork and started first moving them away from the fence and into three giant piles, then we put them in giant black garbage bags. Several hours later we filled the last of the 56 bags. It was honestly one of the funnest service projects I have done in a while. I discovered I love using pitch forks. It was hard work, but not too hard that we couldn't talk while working. It was a ton of fun and felt SO fulfilling to look back at our work and see the stark difference we had made in only a few hours.

While on exchanges, we had a service project, but I didn't know about it so I didn't bring any extra shoes, so I ended up doing weeding with my church shoes. Luckily, they are super old, second hand, and already falling apart, but they are super comfy so I can't bring myself to toss them out:)

Also this week, we had the opportunity to heart attack the door of a wonderful young women in the ward who had been going through a lot. My awesome Companion, Hermana Wangsgard, was in charge of the tape and, since we needed to go as quickly as possible, she found a creative way to prepare. Haha, it was so fun decorating the hearts and thinking of what to say.

Last Monday I discovered something marvelous. My companion, Hermana Tailleur, graduated from beauty school before her mission. She was kind enough to cut my hair, and now it is so much easier to manage.

Also, we made another new friend named Brother Ohler. We have phone calls with him once or twice a week and he is such a spiritual giant. He has such a desire to do what is right and wants to help those around him. We would talk to him and he would share his miraculous experiences with us, of how he first found the church and all the work he did to grow his testimony, and we were always so blown away. At church on Sunday we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know what he would look like, how old he is, and we were all super excited to meet the man behind the stories. Then he rode up to church on his motorcycle and we were almost jumping with excitement. It felt like meeting a dear friend that we had never met before, haha. We hope to one day meet his daughter and grandson, who he has been trying to help during some difficult times. Later last week we were talking to him again over the phone, and he shared with us that at an addiction recovery meeting he shared about our conversations and some quotes from General Conference we shared, and in the meeting he called us "My Three Angels." He encouraged others in the meeting to reach out to the missionaries, and we hope to be making more friends in the coming weeks.

We are so excited that fall is coming! I love the colors, the cool weather, and the taste of pumpkin spice. The walks we have been going on have been so fun. Everyday we can see the leaves change more and more. One day it was particularly chilly outside, so no one was crazy enough to play at the park. No one, that is, except the missionaries. It was a ton of fun.

I am grateful everyday that I am able to serve a mission at such a time as this!

From the oven to the snow storm

 This week has been quite interesting, to say the least. On Monday, it was 98 degrees outside. The next day the high of the day was 98 degrees and it was snowing. It is the beginning of September, it was sweltering outside, then the next day BOOM, snow. I love the weather here:)

Before it was snowy it was really smokey. That's been fun. Often when I walk outside it smells like walking into a camp fire. It sounds like I'm not the only one enjoying the smoke. It sounds like a lot of people are having fires and smoke. Yep, exciting times to be alive and serving the Lord.

Since both of my companions are reassigned from Spanish speaking missions, they have language study for one hour everyday. While they study and practice Spanish, I make little thank you cards for people who invite us over with little puns. If you have any ideas for other puns I can make, please email me. I'm starting to run low on fun puns. 

This week was our District Leader's Birthday, so we decided to bring him chocolate chip cake muffins. Since we aren't allowed to use flames or candles, we made him a make shift paper candle with a little flag. He turned 20, but on his Facebook it says he turned 27, so we teased him a little about that. He was previously serving in Brazil, so we got a little creative with the Happy Birthday note. Thank goodness for the Google Translate app!

One perk of having Hermanas as companions is they teach me a little bit of Spanish here and there. Yes, I stink at it, but I can kind of sing a few hymn and I know a couple common phrases. It's actually been really cool. There is a friend we are teaching who used to live in Mexico, and they have been teaching him in Spanish. I understand almost none of it, but I do understand the feeling I receive from them teaching. The spirit is so strong in the lessons, and I can testify the things that they say are true, because they feel right. They feel warm, familiar, and welcoming. These truths are so profound you can spend a life time learning about them, but so simple that you can grasp them so quickly and even a child can understand. I love this church and all that I've learned in the few months I've been out. I'm so excited to see what the Lord has in store for me to learn from.

41 or 42 weeks?

 So I hit my 41 week mark! Or 42, I can't remember. But I've made it pretty far. It's crazy.

So a few eventful things from my week. Earlier last week we went into our closet to grab something, and water was looking through our roof. We are on the second story of a three story apartment complex. It was dripping fast, and our ceiling was forming bubbles coming out. We quickly put buckets out and tried knocking on our upstairs neighbor's door, but he didn't answer, so we called maintenance, but it took a bit for him to get here. This was all at 10 at night. He came to check it out, and said he would check what was happening upstairs and try to get it taken care of, so we figured we had a long night. So, being three reasonable adults, we grabbed a game, baked some cookies, popped the popcorn, and got ready for a good old fashioned girls night. It was a ton of fun. Sister Wangsgard turns out is a pro at games and won several times. 

The next day we woke up to get ready, and to our surprise our hot water no longer worked. It did not work for about two or three days. Maintenance came by a few times, said it should work, but never did. Finally he did a deep check on the water heater and found one of the parts was broken, so he spent the next forty five minutes removing it, while we were in the middle of a Zoom meeting... There was a lot of confusion why there was a strange man in our apartment. After the meeting we baked some more cookies and gave him quite a few for all his help. It was an adventure, but a fun one filled with cookies and laughs.

So it turns out the weather here is very strange. It has been super hot lately, then on Sunday ash started falling from the sky. Turns out there is another fire. We ate outside with a member, and by the end of the meal there was a quite of bit of ash on our plates and car and hair. Luckily not enough to harm anything, just enough to give it a nice smokey taste, haha. It is still pretty smokey today, the sun was red as it rose, and while looking at the weather, it looks like it will be going from in the 90s today all the way down to the 30s tomorrow when we should be getting snow. Yeah, it's that crazy, but fun crazy! I'm excited to see what happens. I wonder if the snow and ash will mix, and if so if the fire nation is coming... To my utter delight, I discovered one of my companions is almost as nerdy as me. She also likes Avatar, so we've been making fun references to it:)

I have so loved my personal studies from the week. I always learn something new. I try keeping up with come follow me, but then a verse or phrase will stick out to me, and I'll write it down, study it, look for it in Bible Dictionary, use the dictionary to look for the meaning of certain words, and I have learned so much. My study of "traditions of their fathers" and I have learned so much. After the study I wrote down all the "traditions" of my fathers, or family, and I grew to appreciate what I've learned from them even more.

I am grateful for such a great opportunity to serve!

Back in Littleton

 Sorry, this will be a short one again! 

I was transferred this week once again, haha. I am now back in Littleton, now serving in the Cornerstone Park 2 ward. We serve here along side another companionship of Sisters. I am in a companionship with Sister Wangsgard (The one in the picture below) and Sister Tailleur. They have both been reassigned from foreign missions and have learned so much from those adventures! I love hearing their stories and experiences, and I love sharing my own!

I am now a rookie news reporter or something. When I got here I found out we were in charge of hosting the Spiritual Sunday, a 20 minute video compiling multiple missionaries and members sharing experiences and leading discussions from all around the mission. I will probably be sharing it on my page, so you will all be able to see my acne

covered face and me trying not to look as awkward as I felt, haha.

So that's me right now. Excited to be back in Littleton and be serving with two wonderful sisters.

I am grateful everyday to be serving at such a time as this!!!!

Pictures

We saw a really nice sunset on our walk

I have a tradition of giving a sticker to every companion of mine. My mom sent me a pack of a bunch of beautiful stickers and I love seeing the different ones they pick out. 

I drew a chicken:)

Sister Wangsgard and I testing the lighting for our video:)