lots and lots of food🧀🍉

SO MUCH good food this week😊 I'm not even exaggerating when I say we ate out every single day this week for lunch and dinner and people gave us so much food to take home. The members are so sweet here and just want to feed us constantly so that's good but also we are so full. Also we did service at this girl Donna's place and she fed us watermelon + feta cheese + mint and some other stuff and it was actually so yummy. She's the real life Donna from Mama Mia and I love her🫶 She's so free spirited and it took her an hour of showing us her garden before we actually started doing service for her lol.

But actually this week went by SO FAST- the highlight of the week was going to the temple with Mallory for the first time though!! She got to be baptized for both of her grandma's and it was so special🥰 Also the guy who baptized us literally served his mission in Leeds England so that was pretty cool!

Other highlights:

- got a text yesterday saying "I wanna take you girls to Texas roadhouse" 🤠 like yes Sister Carter pls do_-

-interviews with Prez

-taco bell feast at the Essigs

-the watermelon salad thing

-Donna gave us flowers💐

-David was excited to tell us he got another Harley 🏍

-not a highlight but the new movie about sister missionaries getting kidnapped sounds awful😃 we're going no where without pepper spray now 🔫

Anyways love and miss you all!!

Also I love this quote👇

"As we are yoked with Him through sacred covenants and receive the enabling power of His Atonement in our lives, we increasingly will seek to understand and live according to His will. We also will pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances according to our will. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:14). We will be blessed with spiritual traction." 

-Elder Bednar (bear up their burdens with ease)

Chickens and Cockatoos🐔🦜

I love Missouri🫶 its a funny place with funny people. We saw so many random animals here this week. We saw a cockatoo on someone's porch and then the guy walked out so we rolled down our window and told him his bird looked cool. So he said we could hold it. Actually it was so scary because it kept biting my bag but also memorable🤠 We also found like 8 chickens just roaming in someones front yard so real definition of free range eggs✌️ Also went to the zoo and that was chill. Oh and our members let us hold their baby chicks and we named one Dwayne😎

Family history is so cool btw. We helped our recent convert Mallory print off some names to take to the temple and the Spirit was SO STRONG😇 It's so sweet helping her prepare for the temple and we're so excited to go with her this week!

Also sniping has been so fun lately- I truly believe the Lord places people in our path to hear this message! We just have to open our mouths and share it with them!! 

Love and miss you all!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qSs2wNuWwULfC4fY9

Royals game pt. 2⚾️🎤

HEY!!

This week was a lot of fun - we sang the national anthem at the Royals baseball game and it was SO MUCH better than last year haha. Elder Gary E. Stevenson threw the first pitch so that was fun meeting him after! Our member bought us a big bowl of popcorn and refillable cups - so tender mercy because we forgot our wallets😅 The game was so much fun though and the party bus back was SO GOOD! 

We had so many sniping miracles this week! Sniping is when we just roll down our car window and talk to people lol. We met this girl who literally just moved from Ogden Utah so that was funny and her cousin was so excited to learn. We also met this guy while he was on a walk because it was the 2 year anniversary of his mom's death so it was perfect timing that we ran into him and the Spirit was so strong when we talked with him!

Also I caught a fish😎 so highlight of my week for sure!

Love and miss you all!!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qSs2wNuWwULfC4fY9

Transfers & being sick🤮

Ok first off I LOVE SISTER WINN🫶 my trainee is the cutest and we have the same humor and it's been so fun the past few days! She just wants to get to work which is so awesome and we've already seen so many cool miracles.

I was pretty sick the day before transfers so I was fighting for my life for real. My fever was not fun but then I got Sister Winn the next day and I was chilling but still kinda sick lol. The first few days were fun but stressful. We're covering two wards now and the ward boundaries just changed so that's been a fun challenge😅 We've had lots of pass off lessons with other missionaries so that's fun! Also transfers was so much fun seeing everyone!!

Sister Winn experienced her first rejection on the mish but it was chill the lady just put her hand up and said "dude don't...I'm literally catholic" and walked off so that was funny. We had a pass off lesson with the Elders and the little girl who opened the door grabs my hand and goes "can we like uh kinda be friends" I was like "why don't we be actual friends" so now we're besties and she put all her stuffed animals on my lap haha also we're singing at the Royals baseball game tomorrow so I'm excited🥳🥳 pray for us so we don't sound as bad as we did last year because it was awful and I was so embarrassed. 

Anyways love and miss you all!!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qSs2wNuWwULfC4fY9

Transfer News🙈

HEY!!

So I'm staying in Lees Summy for another one and training🥳🥳 I'm excited to train again and meet my new comp! Sister Duke is getting transferred which we weren't really shocked about but the next few days will definitely be filled with lots of visits so she can say bye to everyone!

This week was pretty fun. We got a new car and it's boujie😍 our vehicle coordinator called it a sandy color but it basically looks like one of those pink sparkler dolphins in the barbie mermaid movie so I'm in heaven🥰 

Also, our friend Erlin cannot wait to be baptized. He sent us screenshots of some scripture he was reading and was like "I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED NOW" so baptism is sooner than we thought. But then we called him because he didn't show up to our lesson and he's like let me show you where I am. So he sends his location and he's literally in NEW YORK...like bruh how'd u get there? Anyways, he's a funny guy and the missionaries in new York are blessed to have Erlin in their teaching pool but also I'm praying for them haha🙏

We helped our friend Tanya pack and move to Colorado - the missionaries there are actually so blessed to get her because she's the sweetest most, truth seeking woman I've ever met and for sure getting baptized in the future. Good thing Utah isn't too far from Colorado so I told her I'll come to church with her when I get back lol. Our members helped out and an hour service project turned into a whole day thing bc they needed a new moving truck and everything but our member brother Essig (but he goes by poppy) drove 2 HOURS with her to Louisburg to get a trailer. Poppy is a king👑 seeing our members help a complete stranger and expect nothing in return was so amazing to see. Serving others is one of the best ways we can show Christ like love to those around us!! So find someone to serve this week and help uplift🫶

Ok I know this is so long but I just love talking about missionary work!!! I ALWAYS say this but we met some really cool people this week. One afternoon in particular we weren't sure what to do so I was like "Sister duke, let's pray and pick a street to tract" so we did and guess what...we ended up finding this 18 year old girl named Emma who's actually been looking for a church!! STRAIGHT MIRACLES- I love how the Spirit truly guides us in this work! I see the Lord's hand EVERY SINGLE DAY and sometimes it's harder to recognize but he's ALWAYS guiding us and I love being an instrument to help others come unto Christ!!

Oh also our whole stake got reorganized and the meeting was so cool!! Even though it was a lot of sustaining new leaders and figuring out the new ward boundaries the spirit was so strong!! It's so cool to see the church growing!!

Love and miss you all!!

(oh also idk why but I have everyone thinking I'm OBSESSED with Shrek out here - which don't get me wrong I do love it - but one of the Sisters in my last area is writing a book and she drew me as Shrek and I LOVE IT lol)