Week 39 - 50% done with the mission, 100% done with life

 Hello hello!

Yeah, I know that my email subject sounds super depressed, but I promise I'm good! Annoyed? Absolutely. But good! You'll read the source of my irritation in this email. Let's talk about the first half of the subject though! I'm halfway there! How did that even happen? One day I'm writing "Week 7" then BAM, I'm at week 39/78. My technical nine month mark is on Thursday. I'll be seeing all of y'all real soon!

Alright, so let's address the gargantuan elephant in the email. I'm in quarantine yet again! If you can't keep up with whether or not I'm in quarantine and/or what level of quarantine it is, I can't blame you. I can barely keep track of it, and I'm living it! So, idk what y'all see on the news because, well, I don't read or see the news, but nodak has pretty much blown up with COVID. Currently we have the most cases per capita in the United States! That means that we're pretty dang high ranking in the world. I know that the majority of you reading this are in UT where you're getting over 1,000 new cases a day and ND is getting 600 new cases a day. Looking at that, you may think that Utah is worse, but then you realize that Utah's population is over four times that of North Dakota, and you can see the issue. Yep, so we're taking a couple steps back as a mission to try and keep ourselves and others safe.

...which is just too little too late for Dickinson. We have 5 missionaries in my district right now who can't smell/taste, 2 of which are confirmed positive for COVID. The other 10 of us are getting tested tomorrow, and we fully anticipate another 3 positive cases for sure, with a good chance of a couple of positive results from asymptomatic missionaries. So do I have COVID? Possibly! Fun times. Starting to see why I'm a bit done with life right now? So yeah, I'll be chilling in quarantine for two weeks. Everytime I eat something, I double check to make sure I can smell/taste it haha. So far, so good!

Okay, that's enough about rona. I did other things this week too! For example, we had ward council last Monday and our wards are moving to phase 2, which means our whole ward will be meeting for both hours each Sunday, socially distanced. Hopefully it stays that way! We'll see. We had dinner with the Birds who are basically my favorite people EVER! I know, I say that a lot, but their daughter Eva is so dang cute. Also working on a video that has them in it along with some other kids in our ward! It is the worst editing process I've undergone so far, but the finished video is going to be so cute! 

We got our apartment inspected by one of the senior couples and BARELY passed, jk, we passed with flying colors, and they took us out to lunch afterward! Unfortunately, that means that they were exposed to COVID..... dang. Went to Richardton and saw a BEAUTIFUL abbey and some members, shared a thought with the YW at a s'more roasting activity, sat in 6 hours of meetings straight on Thursday morning, got quarantined, and had sacrament meeting as a district on the lake. Good times!

Anyway, that's about all I feel like writing. Love you all lots! Read your scriptures, say your prayers, wear your masks, wash your hands. Talk to y'all again soon!

Sister Balls