That's the Life

I have a couple of good stories this week!  Don't have really much to do with missionary work, just missionary life.  So we went on our weekly visit to a family who has this three year old son who is quite the handful and has the mouth of a sailor!  He's really cute and can be really sweet though so it makes up for it. Well, we were sittin' on the couch ya know, with our scriptures out being all spiritual and the boy crawls on the couch by me and starts playing with my hair.  Then he leaves and I reach up to smooth it down and it is WET!  My first though was the applesauce he was eating but come to find out, his sister puts olive oil in her hair to help it and he was just trying to be nice and make our hair look beautiful as well.  Too bad it was in the morning though, we live 20 minutes away from our shower and no time to go back.  Thank goodness my hair is now long enough for a pony tail!!  That's all I'm sayin'.  

Another story, again about Alex.  So they came to church this week (yay!) and he is quite the handful and doesn't enjoy sitting for that long.  We were in the middle of the sacrament and he was trying to escape and his mom grabbed him, so of course he wasn't happy with that and, very clearly and loudly, yells some choice words at her.  I'm used to it by now, but some others at church aren't, their faces definitely made me laugh!  Then during the closing prayer, he tries to escape again and he is grabbed by the member who was sitting by them, helping out.  As Alex is being held by the member, he reaches out his arms to us (we were sitting a couple rows behind them) and yells, "Missionaries!!  Help me!  Save me!  Missionaries!!"  At least he trusts us, right?  It was pretty great.  I love eventful Sundays.  

Sis Irwin had the flu for a couple days this week so we stayed in.  Which meant I was by myself.  In a quiet apartment.  Stuck there. With nothing to do.  So I cleaned, read the Book of Mormon, watched the District (for FUN) and found a 500 piece puzzle (that was really hard), took a nap, finished the Book of Mormon, and cooked some amazing cookies.  It was really boring.  

But luckily she was better in time for our baptism this week!  Earl, was baptized this weekend!  His wife was the one that got baptized back in December but he wasn't quite ready for it yet.  While we were at the baptism, one of the 6 year old daughters came up to me and told me that she wanted to be a missionary just like me one day.  Made my life!!  She's a cutie.  Then on Sunday, Earl got the Holy Ghost and Scott received the priesthood and next week there is a temple trip for baptisms so they are going to that.  It's so exciting to see these families grow in the gospel and be part of the whole experience (since I've been here for forever and a half) and to see the changes that they have made in their lives from the day I met them to know.  Ah!  I wish I could put it into words, but just know that it is amazing.

The church is true and life is good!

Love,

Sis Rae

Baptism!

Downhill Slide

Well, I have officially passed my halfway mark and it's all downhill from here!  Weirdest thought ever.  I still feel like I am a brand new greenie trying to figure things out.  Guess that's how life works!  We also passed transfers and surprise surprise, I am staying in Eagle Canyon for another 6 weeks with Sister Irwin!  By the end of this next transfer, I will have spent 9 months (half my mission!) in this area.  Apparently I'm not learning somethin' I need to learn! haha  No, but really, I love it here and would be more than happy if I spent the rest of my mission here!  Heck, you know you've been here a long time when you know the names of all the DOGS in the ward!  And yes, I claim that status of awesomeness.

This week has been a pretty awesome week!  It ended especially well, Scott and Kirsten got baptized!  It was pretty awesome and super exciting for their whole family!  Stacy has been a member since she was 8 but hasn't been since about then but she commented after the baptism that she finally felt like her family was complete, something she didn't realize that it wasn't until they got baptized.  They were finally all together and working toward the same goal.  It made me so happy to hear that and realized that that is why I was out here.  To bring families together.  That's the whole crux of the gospel!  To make it possible for families to be united in that common goal and be united for time and all eternity.  That is the message that we have for everyone, that goal that we are all reaching for.

We had a couple amazing experiences as well this week; just when things go right and people are home and actually want to talk with you.  For example, we have been working with this lady, Sue, since I got here and she hasn't really made any big steps just because she has a lot on her plate of life right now and religion wasn't a huge priority but still wanted to meet with us because it brought some 'peace' into her crazy life.  Well, the other day, we just stopped by on a whim because we were in the area and another lesson had canceled on us.  She was outside and you could tell she was struggling, just in one of those moods.  Come to find out, her son, who has some severe medical needs, was struggling with one of the many conditions that he has.  I offered to get someone over there for a blessing of healing for Michael and she accepted.  So right then, we had a member come over with his son and give both of them a Priesthood blessing.  It was not some spectacular blessing but you could just feel the love in the room, it was amazing.  And it really touched Sue.  She's had the kind of life that there hasn't been much love there and so I think it really touched her that people would drop what they were doing to come help her and meet her needs, especially since she doesn't know them and isn't part of the church!  We had a lesson with her the next day and it was amazing to see the difference in her.  She had read from the Book of Mormon, talked more and asked more questions, and actually smiled.  It's so cool to see how just one act of kindness can go so far in a persons life!  

I am about out of time but I hope everyone's week was just as good and that this next one is just as great!  

Love,

Sis Rae

Hartze baptism!

Valentines present we left the other missionaries in our apartment complex along with some cupcakes :)

Best license plate ever.

Tours

This week was kind of a slow week, most of our apartment had the flu or a cold so we were pretty out of it.  I didn't get it really bad, just a cough (which was nice) but some of the other sisters have done nothing but sleep this week.  Makes it a little hard to go out when your companion is sick!  But we are all on the tail end of it so that's pretty nice.  Ready to hit the pavement since this upcoming week is the last week of the transfer!  I don't think anything will change but you never know, there are surprises around every corner!

So I really don't have a lot to talk about because we spent a lot of time inside recovering but we did have some good lessons and contacts with people.  We did a couple church tours which I think are really fun!  We take people around the building and talk about Christ's life through the pictures on the walls and then we explain kind of what happens as part of the Sunday meetings and what the rooms are for.  It's really fun and the Spirit is always very strong when you are in there.  AND it makes people more comfortable to come to church and see what are meetings are like, which is always a good thing as well!  One of the girls we showed around didn't even know who Christ was so that was an amazing experience getting to share that with her.  It's weird to me that people don't know who He is because He is such a large part of my life!  But it made it even more exciting to share with her.

Sunday was also really fun.  In Primary, the kids made Valentines and then got the option to hand them out to their family or whomever.  Several kids made some just for us!!  It was so cute and made me quite happy :)  This ward it pretty much the best.  Just sayin'.  

Sorry, this isn't longer, I really can't think much more of anything to say.  Next week should be a fun one though!  Lots of exciting things coming up this week but....spoilers.  Oh, and next Monday is a holiday so we will be writing on Tuesday!  TTFN and have a FANTASTIC week!
Love,
Sis Rae

Oh, the Life of a Missionary

The weeks fly by and the days fly by even faster!  I feel like I was just sitting here typing my letter for last week.  I guess that just means I'm havin' fun!  This week was pretty great.  We had a lot of good lessons and people were actually home, which is always nice!  It was also a very eventful week filled with strange happenings.

I'll start with the best one.  So we had just gotten home for the night and we get this phone call from a number in Oregon.  I answer it and this guy tells us that he just moved here and found our card with our website and number on it on the ground.  He wanted Jesus in his life and wanted to make some changes with where he was, so he gave us a call.  Well.  It didn't take long before I realized that he was very much drunk.  So we talked about God for a little and how He can help us overcome those things in our life that we are struggling with and then mid-sentence he asks if I like hot dogs.  It told him yeah and he says "you sound pretty, do you want to come over for some hot dogs?!".  Super funny!!  And then he asked me what my name was and I say "Sister Rae" and he gets really confused and talks about how he is the only child and doesn't have any sisters so how could I be his sister?  We had some interesting conversation, but it always came back to God and how he wanted to make some changes in his life.  We haven't been able to get a hold of him again but hopefully it planted some seeds and he'll find whatever he was looking for!  Gave me a pretty good laugh too.  Drunk people are definitely interesting! 

Also, I am pretty sure I am allergic to birds.  Or something.  A couple weeks ago we were at this house where there were a lot of birds and the house was closed up because it was chilly.  Well, halfway through our conversation, I completely passed out.  Dead and gone.  Well, I was fine once we got outside and in the fresh air and I didn't really think anything else about it.  Well, this week, we were contacting some people and were let into a house that...wasn't very clean....and had lots of birds again.  We were talking and my vision started going all funky but luckily I was able to get outside before I full on blacked out.  Pretty sure they thought I was going crazy;  scared Sis. Irwin to death.  So I am not sure how we are going to handle those situations because they are both interested in learning more.  We might just have to bring blankets and sit on the front porch!  Or someone else house.  Oh, the fun experiences you have on a mission.

The last thing that was pretty cool about this week was that we got to go with some of our investigators to the BYU dance show The Living Legends.  It was a dance performance about Native and Latin American and Polynesian culture, basically outlining the Book of Mormon but instead of saying "God" said the "Great Spirit".  It was kind of a story about how their father in a dream was told to come to this promise land and as they followed the Great Spirits guidance they prospered but then they started thinking that their prosperity was from themselves and they fell into war and then they were humbled and relied on the Great Spirit once again.  Each culture "told" a bit of the story through dance and song.  It was so amazing.  Beautiful dances, costumes, song and a good message.  At the end they sang I am a Child of God and related it back to the stories of our Ancestors and ultimately how we are Children of God and that is our heritage.  It was so amazing.  

So those are my stories for this week, next week will be more spiritual ;)  The church is true.  God is good.  Mission life is the best.  

Love,
Sister Rae

This was a LEGIT sword that an investigator showed us.  And Amanda and Madison wanted to get on the picture too :)

The Elders left us a present on our door step.  Random lamp lifted up to reveal BEANS.  Touche, touche.