Well, this week marked the first time on my mission I've been pulled over. As it's been mentioned in the past...I make sure when it's our turn for the red car...we get it. Well, the elders didn't mention to me that they for some they decided to turn off the automatic lights, and I didn't notice it until law enforcement brought it to my attention. Just got off with a verbal warning, huzzah!
We had a zone conference that lasted from 9-5 on Tuesday and it was so good. We talked about being spiritual giants which was inspiring. Elder Jones gave an awesome training on visions and goals, and I think that was all a good prelude to conference weekend. I think the biggest thing you can gain from conference is first, to remember and ingrain the spirit you felt as the apostles witnessed of Christ and second, what are you specifically going to do about it. What are you going to change to progress.
I realized that one of the reasons I'm lacking in confidence is without even realizing it, I think negative or judgmental thoughts about people and I want to recognize when I'm doing it and change.
We had a lot of investigators watch conference which was awesome. One was Sharla, who has been investigating the church for forevers and it was her first time making it to the building. She has a 4 year old who amazingly kept entertained with the several copies of coloring pages I got from the lesson manuals in the library. Her baby was also with her and slept for most of it. Sharla LOVED conference and I think it's finally getting to be the right time for her with everything.
Elder Jones has been like a completely different missionary since we had our talk. There was just one day last week where we had really bad numbers. Sometimes that just inexplicably happens and with it came the smallest of reflections of the old E. Jones, but it went away again. There are few missionaries that I have had the honor of working with that are true spiritual giants and Elder Jones is definitely one of them. If we lay everything on the altar of sacrifice the Atonement truly can change us from where the natural man led us to what God intended for our divine nature.
Now for some comic relief....on Saturday, right after the afternoon session, Elder Jones calls us to tell us that a family in the branch invited us all to come over for a bbq in half in hour. We didn't have a
dinner, so we agreed to go. When we got to their house, we knocked. No answer. Rang the doorbell. No answer....okay...so we text the branch elders. They said that they were on exchanges and E. Jones was with a Spanish elder. We call up the Spanish elders and E. Tarma was with a member and said that his comp and E. Jones didn't have a phone. Then we decided E. Jones must've been pulling our leg and had us go to a rando members house expecting dinner, and we were already thinking of ways to get back at him. Well, I was thinking maybe we should check in the back, but first off, it's on Post so that would be creeper status and some MP will come at us. So while we were doing all of this we were in the car, so we decide to try one more time and we go back and they still weren't home. Right when we decide to go home, their neighbor comes out and asks if we're with the missionaries....uhhh, yeah? Then he tells us we can just go in and that their in his house, apparently the bbq was at their neighbors house.
We still will probably get the Zumbrennens involved. "oh hey elders, what's up?" "not much, just excited for dinner" "um...." Just kidding. That would be mean.... ;)
Have I talked about the joys of going on Post. It requires every week to go get passes, which is like 8 miles out of our way. They do a big background check and I had one comp who they told her that her parents car tags were expired. Then while on Post we can't talk with people except for members or friends of the members. Its also huge and hard to find anything.
We had an awesome lesson with an investigator we have living in a less active's home. I was talking about her relationship with God and she was explaining how she prays when things are going bad, but forgets to when it's going good. I explained that's not how it works, that He wants to here from us all the time and that's how we can rely on Him and I asked her how she can continue building that relationship all the time and she's like, well, I guess I need to go to church. THANK YOU. Been trying to tell you that since day uno, but now it finally got across. Haha, she still didn't get to church, but that's missionary work for ya.
A less active gave me her cello (side note--just so no snob musician freaks out--her cello was the same price as what it would cost to ship me home) to fix, because the tail piece string thing that goes around the end pin kept coming off. So I did what any highly educated luthier would do and super glued the metal screw thing that kept popping off. It worked. Now the problem, which she probably hasn't realized is that her bridge is stupid and not curved right, so the D string is like the same level as the A and G so it is really hard to play right. But you bet your bottom dollar I'm playing the heck out of that thing on p-day.
Sister Chappell used to go to the gym all the time to work out and we decided we need to start doing that. Skinny September ended up being the month of our biggest weight gain....the YMCA is an effort to not turn October into Obese October. So we are now having the exercise regime of waking up at 5:40 and treadmilling it for 30 minutes, then working out in the weight room--which Sister Chappell is an expert at. The unfortunate part is you can probably guess who also frequents the gym at 6 am.
Now for a side story--also wow, sorry this is the longest post ever-- so there once was a father and son who were making a journey to the market to sell their donkey. To get there they had to go through 3 towns. To the first town the father offered the son to ride the donkey, so as the son was riding it and the father walking beside it the town people would murmur saying, how rude of it was for the son to not let his elderly father ride the donkey. So the father and son switched places and as they were going through the 2nd town the townspeople would say how rude it was for the father to not let his young son ride the donkey. So they both got on and rode it through the 3rd town and by the time they got to the market the donkey was so worn out that no one wanted to buy it.
Now what should have happened is the father and son should have made a plan, where the son could ride it through the first town and the father through the second and they both walk the third in an effort to give the donkey time to recuperate and look healthy for the market. Then as they were riding it wouldn't matter what people said to them, because they could look at each other with full confidence, because they had a plan.
So Saturday mornings at 6 am, the YMCA is closed and we do this just delightful thing called morning sports. *the sarcasm is so real for this one* so we do soccer, basketball, volleyball and last time we did smashball. It's a true test of patience for whoever is on my team. It actually isn't as bad as I was imagining, but I'm still about as good as chopped liver next to any other elder. My middle child syndrome was kicking in and I was kind of annoyed with it all. These kids all did sports in high school and that's so easy to find and do....then God sent me a cello. Now I'm all good.
We went to Herington and found this delightful field decorated.
Just hanging out with my mummy friend.
Sister Chappell and I started making a list of people who we love and would want in our room of favorite people. It consists of like everyone in Junction City, so we decided we want to start taking pictures with all of these people. This is the first with Twana, Sister Humbard and Jen.
Exhibit A for reasons we are gaining so much weight.
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