Go Cincinnati Reds!

Last week the entire mission went to a Cincinnati Reds game. Some pictures from the game. 

This is Sister King, President Porter's wife and me! 

This is my best friend from the MTC, Sister Elmer!!!

Fairy tale kisses . . .not

I get bored on my mission from not kissing boys so much anymore... so
I kiss a lot of animals out here now! ;P Needless to say, that frog
didn't even turn into a stupid prince!! >:[ grrrrrrr hahahah but I've
gotten pretty good at catching frogs now :]

We are spoiled!

So our investigator J. who lives right across the street from us
got Sister King and me matching Swarovski crystal bracelets!!!!!!!!
She spoils us :P (please post picture on blog, I guess I am going to
have to specify from now on which pictures go on the blog. A.K.A ALL
OF THEM!)

Helping out on the farm

Here are some pictures from last week, we helped the lady in our ward clean out the goat pens, then loaded it up on her lawn mower and took it into the forest to dump it! :]

I found a kitten in the barn! :] so these people in our ward own this
farm and the house and the barn were both built almost 200 years
ago!!!!! It's the COOLEST place everrrrrr.

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The raccoon story . . .

So it was really late one night and dark. Sis. King and I were walking home, and all of a sudden we see this raccoon just laying in someone's front yard! And I just freaked out because I've never seen a raccoon before! And Sis K said, "oh don't get too close it might be rabid!" But, it wasn't doing anything, it was just laying down and so she was thinking maybe it was sick or something. Cuz, they don't usually just chill like that. So, I whipped out my camera and so did Sis. K and we started taking pictures of it, but it was so dark we couldn't see the screens on our cameras and the flash was on and stuff, so we kept getting really bad pictures. We just kept snapping away. Then a man came out and asked us why were were taking pictures of his house!!! Oh my gosh, it was the most embarrassing thing ever!! We said, "No, sorry, there's a raccoon in your yard and we're not from here so we've never really seen one this close before! Sorry!" and then we ran away down the sidewalk super embarrassed and just laughing.

Sleeping Beauty

It's been raining for the past 4 days! People make fun of me because I carry my umbrella EVERYWHERE!! They say it's just a little rain! I tell them "I'm from Phoenix, ain't no body got time to get wet!" But on Sunday, it was just pouring and pouring all morning long. We got a flash flood warning on our phone. That was a little scary. I even did my hair that morning for church, I walk outside and in .07 seconds - Flattened!! :(

But, the night before it had been thundering and lightening outside so hard, the walls were shaking and the windows were rattling, and the lightning outside would flash so bright, our entire room would light up! Sis. K is terrified of thunder storms, so she wasn't asleep. But I was, and it was like 3 a.m. and she said that I sat straight up in bed. I scared her so badly and told her I was scared and started talking to her and stuff, then laid back down and went back to snoring! Lolololol Which I do not remember doing any of this at all! So maybe I'm a sleep talker! Also, I sleep a lot here. I'm usually conked out by around 9:02 p.m.  Lololo The minute we walk in the door, I swear no matter how hard I try to stay awake! And, I get made fun of so hardcore for it too because apparently the zone leaders/district leaders/Centerville Elders will usually call every night some time between 9:45 & 10:15 and I am NEVER AWAKE!! I didn't even know they called us at night time until they started making fun of me for it at zone meeting! :[  Even Sis K has joined in the fun a little, like the other day, we were driving in the car and I was blinking, (may or  may not have been a longer blink than usual) and she started this thing where she yells out this quick, loud "Wake-up!!" whenever she sees my eyes closed. Lolololo But seriously, I fall asleep all the time and it may be becoming a problem. Sis. K suggested maybe I have mono or narcolepsy, or something. A member thought maybe it's because I'm so iron deficient. But that can't be right because I take my iron every day! Anyways, I need to figure out why I'm so exhausted all the time.

I got y'all's letters!!! which is EXACTLY what I needed! Also, I can not believe that Bishop Darnell got released !!!! I swear I cried a little bit reading that. HE WAS THE BESTEST BISHOP TO EVER WALK THIS PLANET!  I'm so very grateful that he was able to be there for my farewell. That was the greatest. Also, I was reading Chase's email that mom sent. He is a really good writer, I'm sorry that I don't write too many spiritual things down anymore, I mean we really do see miracles here almost daily.

(to be continued)

A few pictures

We went to the historically famous Greaters Ice Cream parlor!! Apparently Centerville has some of the oldest buildings and structures in all of Dayton Ohio!!! (someone told us that, it may not be true...) but anyways, I thought mom might enjoy these. she can rest assured that I am staying cultured and educated down here!! :P ​

I look like a weird pioneer girl or something holding my skirt out like "pleased ta meet ya!" lolololol. but seriously I look stupid here. 

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Downtown Centerville. cutest little place ever.

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 wildlife

The geese have flown south for the winter.

An old lady we were talking to the other day heard them honking, she got scared she was like what was that?? and my companion was like oh just some geese and the old lady was like "they back again??" lolololololololol My companion said yup, they've been here for a couple weeks now! 

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​It looked like pride and predjudice!!!

​There was early morning fog outside in our backyard couple mornings ago

First Baptism!

MY FIRST BAPTISM was this week!!!!
So, they always say there is a lot of opposition that happens just before a miracle, and well they're right! It's kind of a crazy story.

So, there are these three boys who were all half Samoan, (I'm not sure what the other half is) and their mom is a member who just recently, within the past 2 years, has come back to church and has been bringing her sons and they have been taught by the missionaries. However, their dad was very much against all of this and said no to baptism for a very long time. But, he just recently let up on it and said "whatever" to the boys and allowed them to be baptized on August 30th - the day after the youngest of the three turned 8! And then I arrived in Centerville.  . . .  So Sis K and I planned the whole baptism and went to the church the morning of August 30th to set up and get ready. About 30 minutes to 10 a.m. when the baptism was going to start, we get a call from the boys' mom. Their car would not start, and they were going to need a ride! So, we freaked out. We were like, oh Satan, you poop! Such a mean dude, thinking he was going to stop this baptism. So we started calling members frantically, because we couldn't drive them! They were all under the age of 18!

We couldn't get a hold of any members, and we were getting a little more frantic at this point. Then we remembered that we had seen a lady cleaning the church when we arrived. So we ran down the hall, quickly told her our dilemma and asked if we could have her drive us down to pick these boys up. She said she could, but then that almost didn't happen cuz she had about 4 kids with her and the Elders were there. She couldn't leave them at the church with only the Elders. But then, on old guy got there. So we ran out to her mini-van and took out all the car seats and piled them up, jumped in, and off we went to rescue the boys so they could come get baptized! When we got there, there were 3 boys to get baptized, their half brother all the way from Hawaii (who came to baptize them) and their cousin. So he had 5 big Polynesian boys that we needed to get into a car with only 4 open seats. But, we made it work. It was like clown-car status. Sis. K sat on the floor and I sat on her lap! So we hauled all those big boys to the church for their baptism, which was amazing! There are about 280 people in the ward (that actively come to church) and I swear about 150 people came to the baptism! The chapel was definitely full, I wished I could have taken a picture! But only mental pictures are appropriate in the chapel of course :]  But, we couldn't even fit everyone that came, into the room with the font to watch the actual baptisms! It was wonderful, the ward is so awesome!

Hannah's Treasure Chest

This week was great. We went with the training leaders and I had fun with them. This week has also been a week of dining out with the members. We went out to eat three times! There was one adorable little lady who took us out. She's the most memorable so far! Seriously, she is just a hoot. Sis. K and I just held in laughing THE WHOLE TIME! She's just this little 4 foot tall lady with a personality that is about 10 feet tall! Think, "Edna Mode" from the Incredibles!! lololol. She was soooooo funny! Her husband has dementia or something, but Sis K and I think it is rubbing off. She is just a riot! So that was fun.

The next day, we went to a place called "Hannah's Treasure Chest" which is a place that collects donations of clothes and toys for little kids. We go there about once a week for 2-3 hours and volunteer. They invited us to a luncheon, and to help them get ready for this huge garage sale they were going to have. They were going to sell all o their over-stock that they didn't have any room for. So, we invited the Elders because they needed community service and they didn't know about Hannah's . They arrived before us and were eating lunch in the corner when we got there. When we sat down next to them, one of the Elders leaned over and said "so this is like a charity group for old ladies, right?" and I looked around, THEY WERE THE ONLY MALES IN THE WHOLE PLACE!!!! Lololol! It was the funniest thing! The Elders were so awkward, but all the old ladies were obsessed with them. And they kept complimenting them on how buff they were and everything. It was just the funniest thing ever! The old ladies loved them. Also, if you go on Facebook and search maybe there will be pictures of me and Sis K. I love Hannah's. (Editor's note, Sis. K and Sis C are not on the site yet.)

But, here are a few pictures:

Celebrity of God

Here's the best picture taken in my ENTIRE mission. Me and the President! Seriously, this man is freaking awesome! At zone conference he came in the room and everyone stood up, it was like celebrity was going to be in presence. Yeah, this guy!!!! Celebrity of God! I love him so much, he's the best! Don't mind Elder Callister in the background trying to photo bomb. But nothing could ruin such a phenomenal picture! I hope this picture sums up my whole mission!

e-i-e-i-o

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite

There was a bed bug scare earlier this week. Apparently bed bugs are extremely rampant in Ohio, and so the district handed out permethrin to everyone to spray for bed bugs. We were doing some service work in one apartment where we were a bit concerned. Sure enough, she had bed bugs, and we had to help her make her bed. As soon as we got back to our apartment, we stripped down and threw our clothes straight into the dryer! Sis. K took the permethrin and sprayed our entire apartment! She just soaked it down. It smells EXACTLY like the stuff that our pest control at home sprays in our house in Phoenix, so I didn't think anything of it. A couple days later, on Sunday, we were talking to the elders from Centerville, apparently you are supposed to dilute it in water, so we might get permethrin poisoning!!! :(

Sis. K gets bitten by soooooo many different bugs all the time, I think I've only gotten bitten by one mosquito the entire time I've been here!

On another note - someone was handing out iris bulbs at church and I grabbed a whole bag of them because our apartment looks like a desolate barren desert from outside, it reminds me too much of home, so I thought planting some plants would be nice. I had to haul around a whole jungle on Sunday and Sis. K made fun of me so much! She said the landlady might not let us plant stuff, so I said then I'll just tear them out of the ground, then . . . So, I'm planting random stuff at our apartment this week!

Two pet peeves - NO ONE can say my last name. Hmph. The other is that whenever anyone asks where I'm from and they say 'oh where in Phoenix?' or 'What part?" it's sooooo annoying to have to explain that Phoenix really is it's own city. So, I'm going to just start making up random names and just claim they are places in Phoenix. So I need some good desert names to tell people, such as Sunville, Firebird, Prickley Pear, AZ lololololo 'Cuz no one seems to understand that there is a part of Arizona that is actually called just plain Phoenix.