Week 36 - Trading Face Wash for Salvation and Other Adventures

 Hello again!

And just like that, another pday has arrived. This week was a really good week! We were productive, met lots of people, had fun, and tried our very best to be the best we could be. Unfortunately, the numbers for the week don't reflect that. We once again found 0 people to teach, had 0 people join us at church, and 0 people on date for baptism. This is definitely one of the hardest lessons the mission has striven to teach me: you can work hard and not get the results you were hoping for. That's the nastiest pill I've ever had to swallow, but it's true. God is the only one who can catch a glimpse at the eternal effects each of our actions will have.

One thing that made this week fantastic was that we got to meet with and talk to so many members of our ward! We pulled weeds, shared lessons, and--get this-- even got fed! That was a nice perk for sure. Being able to go inside again is such a huge blessing, and I'm praying that it doesn't get revoked. The people of Dickinson continue to be my favorite people with every new person I meet. A definite highlight was the Wednesday night Relief Society. There wasn't a huge turnout, but we got together for a campfire with s'mores. Just being in a setting where all that we did was talk with these people was soooo nice. Plus I love s'mores. Get this--Angela came! We told her about it, she was going to go even if we couldn't come, and she stayed after we left. Seeing her being a part of the ward and seeing her feel  like a part of the ward makes me beyond happy.

Speaking of Angela, we went over to her house earlier on Wednesday to help her make masks! I ended up being in charge of fabric cutting, Sister Astle was on ironing and thread trimming, and Angela of course did the sewing. My job was stressful! I messed up many times, lol. Her entire basement is her sewing/quilting room, and it's incredible! She has a big board that has measurements on it with these fabric cutters that are like baby pizza cutters, so you set the fabric on the measuring mat, use this long board to line up where you need to cut, then use the wicked sharp fabric pizza roller to cut right along it. It was so cool! Anyway, we were there for a good 3 hours. We jammed to Christian music the whole time, heard all about Angela and Ted's life stories, and just had a good time. Ted and Angela are such incredible examples of the atonement! Knowing them now and hearing about their pasts, it's hard to think that they're the same people.

On Saturday, Sister Kropf and Sister Campbell arrived at our place. They're the social media specialists, so they're traveling the mission teaching the missionaries, recent converts, and anyone else interested how to do family history. It's been so fun having them with us! They leave tonight. So on Sunday after church, we all got together in the FHC with Ted and Angela and got their FamilySearch accounts all set up and got their trees started! They both got so excited and into it; it was so fun! If you can't tell, I absolutely love Angela and Ted. I could talk about them all day every day! They've become my southern grandparents. Angela was on a video call with her daughter and called us her babies, and she always says things like, "drive safe baby" or "love you lots" and other things that just make me feel so beyond loved. She genuinely has adopted me as her friend and granddaughter, and I'm over the moon about it. 

Having the family history sisters here has been such a blast! They of course trained us on family history as well (I learned sooo many cool things!), but besides that, it's just been one big slumber party haha. We've played many games including CHESS! Heck yes! We made a sheet rope last night just for fun, have laughed till we cried, and just had a good time! Another thing that was a straight up blast was Saturday evening. A family in our ward turned their snowcone shack into a popcorn stand for a drive in movie night for the community and asked us missionaries to run it. 

All of the popcorn, glow sticks, licorice, and suckers were free. It was so much fun! There were definitely some hiccups along the way, including when the kettle came dismantled on one side while cooking, so we had to give out all the existing popcorn, wait for the kettle to cool sufficiently, dump it all in the garbage, then fix it all up. Yeah, we were playing the catch-up game for a little while after that. There was also this whole big confusion that resulted in us babysitting Sister Combrink for an hour. My favorite part about this situation though was that Eva was working the popcorn shack with us. She is seriously one of my favorite people I've met on the mission, so hanging out with her for 3-4 hours was a party and a half! The whole situation made me feel like I was back working at the ballpark snack shack again lol. (Also, I'm Eva's favorite missionary of all time which makes me happy. We're best friends.)

We tried to teach Erica a lesson this week, and she answered the video call breastfeeding, which we weren't anticipating seeing, and her baby's dad was there and tried to bash with us. So we said we'd call another time. We also got to give Julie a Book of Mormon, so that's progress!

Alrighty, let's talk about face wash, shall we? So, on Instagram I messaged this girl who was super friendly. Well, she also happens to be a consultant for Arbonne. So her and I along with her Arbonne friend and Sister Astle met up at a coffee shop and they taught us more about Arbonne (they did a pretty convincing job, not gonna lie) and we taught them more about our church and what we do as missionaries. Honestly, it was kind of funny because we were both using the exact same tactics of alternating points, asking questions, adding personal experiences, giving a commitment of some kind, following up a few days later, etc., expect the biggest difference was they were using them to sell face wash and protein powder and we were using them to teach them how they can get salvation. I think we win lol.

I think that about covers this week. I love you all!!

Sister Balls