Our Live Nativity

Here is our live nativity from this morning at the institute. It was a blast. We had real animals! and Mary and Joseph are a couple who are really engaged. Getting marrieddecember 29th. and one of the shepherds is even a non-member who saw the LDSSA president typing up a sign-up sheet for it in class and asked to come help!! How awesome is that!? 

Sister Santas!

My second baptism in this area

 M got baptized!!!!!! Now my second baptism in this area, where the investigator scouted us out! M saw us on campus one day and realized that we were Mormon missionaries. Just the people she had been looking for after hearing from a friend, who she grew up with who went to BYU-I, that Mormons believe that Jesus Christ is the literal son of God. Satan almost had her because her baptism was set back in October, and she started avoiding us and hiding from us. Then one day, she opened her book of Mormon randomly to a page and read a scripture on baptism and took it as a sign from God and decided to continue learning from us and chose baptism again!! :] 

My birthday!

I threw the greatest party the institute has EVER seen.  So this is how my brithday came about. So, many of you may know this, you might not, but I have picked up a very very strong addiction on my mission called, family history. Literally, every second of every day, I just thirst for it. That's all I want to do, is get on family history and find people. Every single spare moment I get, I go and get on familysearch and just do it. It's like doing a puzzle. If I ever create an addictive substance, I am going to call it Elijah. After the spirit of Elijah. Which I'm pretty convinced is more addictive than any substance on the face of this planet. The Spirit of Elijah pretty is powerful stuff. It compulsively calls to me every second of every day. SO. Someone had asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said, "I want to do family history for my birthday!!!" And then the greatest idea I may have ever thought of popped into my head. I was going to hold a family history party at the institute the night of my birthday because it so conveniently fell on the only night of the week that there is nothing happening at the institute. There are never any set classes or activities at the institute on Wednesday nights. I tried to start a crocheting club on Wednesday nights at the institute but the only person who ever showed up to it was Kevin and not only that, but the branch was going to the temple that Friday so I thought that if everyone came to my family history party on Wednesday night, then I could help everyone find names to take on Friday to the temple AND I could conveniently be doing family history for an extended period of time and not be feeling like a jack missionary for doing it. So I threw a birthday party at the institute on my birthday. we legitimately invited EVERYONE. We invited members, non members, less actives, potential investigators, former investigators and current investigators. We invited everyone we possibly could and it was a great turn out!!! and the mitchells bought cake, and a few nice people brought presents, but I'm pretty sure that the only person who worked on family history that night was me.... whatever! I tried. But, I had 20 names to take to the temple on Friday after getting permission from President Porter to go with the branch!!! So that was good. I still have 200 names that still need to be done though.. but a bunch of former investigators showed up, like Alize!!!!!! and Emily, and Seth even came and brought John. It was just awesome. I just wanted people to come to the institute and have a good time and feel the spirit and they did. :] 

We went to the temple this week!!!

I ate real authentic Iraqi food

We have only found about 5 investigators last transfer. I've been at Ball State YSA for 6 weeks now, but school hasn't been in session, and everyone is home for the summer and so the campus is like ghost town. But next transfer will be super busy!!!!!  The YSA covers the entire Muncie Indiana stake, but each ward is about 45 minutes apart. The boundaries are HUGE. so, we mainly just stay here around in Muncie. But people have been slowly moving back for school and the institute is located on Frat Row, so as soon as school starts, we can start meeting people during rush week and everything. Do you remember the movie Sydney White? All the sororities and fraternities were all located on one block? Yeah, that's what it's like here. And then there's the institute. hahahaha. We did meet this one guy who swims for the university's swim team, and he actually rode his bike down to the institute to have a lesson with us a couple of days later!!!! He is what we call "golden" or "the elect", people who are honestly searching for truth will all their hearts and will do anything to find it. So he's pretty cool. Super buff.

The senior couple that live at the institute, were invited to an Iraqi wedding a couple nights ago, for a couple to whom they were helping teach English, and are here studying abroad from Iraq. It was literally the coolest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two getting married are actually converted Christians so that is why she does not wear something over her hair. I ate real authentic Iraqi food as the bride catered it all herself. They are only here for 2 years studying at Ball State. Then they go back to a free part of Iraq called Kurdistan. We had taken them to the temple open house, and the husband still cannot speak English, but he was saying to us with the biggest smile on his face, "Temple! Temple!" He must have been really, really impressed with it. For someone who cannot even say "hello" to go and then remember the word "temple" is truly a testimony.

 

We don't usually dumpster dive . . .

Funniest story ever!!! So, Sister H got her "trunky papers" that means her airline ticket and departing information, and then she walked over to the dumpster to throw away some junk mail we had received, and her trunky papers accidentally flew into the dumpster!!! That's her airline ticket home to Hawaii!!! So, she had nothing else to do... she had to climb in the dumpster and get it out!! LOL!!! Talk about not wanting to go home...

New Companion in Muncie

Sister L, my first ever companion that has been out less time than me! She has only been out for 7 months, and she is the sweetest little thing ever! She is from Cedar City, and even had a class with me at SUU!! SO CRAZY!!! We don't remember each other at all though. But, we had the same teacher on the same days. :O Coming from Utah, a lot of the things that she has already come in contact with at BSU have really scarred her for life.
But, we really get along well. :] Said that she is going to hook me up with a job at a dude ranch when I get home and one of her hot cowboy friends :] We shall see what happens!

I'm making a statement

So this is my new statement. The hot pink purse. 

Everyone is like, obsessed with it. 

Even Seth was wearing it the other day!!!! LOL!!

I'm making a statement called, "even sister missionaries can be cute"
with this pink purse. It is seriously famous. In Muncie. In the mission.
Everyone knows about the pink purse. :]

Hata's gon hate. Playas gon play

So, here are the protesters that camp out outside the temple every single day of the open house. Everytime I look over and see them, I just feel embarrassed for them. It's like this former bishop, Lee, and these people that he pays to do this. They just troll around the temple and harass people, and they dress up in these yellow vests and hand out
propaganda at the entrance and exit of the parking lot. SLY!!!! And, they have slyly labeled it as "Non-Mormon Temple Info" so it tricks people every time!!! And, they ALWAYS try to engage missionaries in conversation, but I never respond. I just smile and say have a great day!! They always ask us where we're from. And then they say, "Utah?" as if that's the ONLY place where missionaries come from. It's SO DUMB!!!! And they just put up huge obnoxious signs like "The 36 wives of Joseph Smith" and "Meet former Mormon bishop. Ask him why he left the church" and "Mormonism is still a racist religion. And, the list just goes on and on!!!! And they will sneak into the reception tent at times and try to pick arguments with missionaries. On Saturday, I guess, that guy had threatened Elder Sinclair, the area 70 who is in charge of the open house, that he was going to bring in bus loads of
black people from black churches and tell them about blacks and the priesthood and what not. So, we had an hour training on what to do and say if we get approached by these people. It was actually, one of the best things ever, because we had this super spiritual guy, teaching us doctrine and enlightening us from the Book of Mormon. It was seriously one of the greatest experiences ever!!! I was excited though, because I just love black people, I knew that they would be touched by that painting up in the bride's room. But unfortunately, no black people came through that day. But like I said. It was awesome to be fed so spiritually by this super in-depth scripture study and by this super spiritual leader!!!! 

(Editor's Note: Maggie sent part of her companion's letter telling more about the open house.) 

Sister Carnahan was really excited to have some drama in the reception tent but luckily, there were no problems.
It's really funny because the protesters are just bringing in more people. It's free advertising. Cars driving by will see all the commotion from the protesters and become curious so they take a tour of the temple and love it. We actually heard a really cool story from one of the sisters in the Indy mission. Lee Barker paid some people
$110 an hour, gave them a list of questions to bash with and sent them to take a tour of the temple. One of these people was talking to a sister in the reception tent and stopped half way through, gave her the list of questions and said, "I can't do this" and walked out. The spirit can touch even those who aren't looking for it. The even better
news is that when the anti people printed a 12 page article talking about how horrible the temple is, all the local churches stood up for us and the church was then able to print an article sharing the true facts. We have to remember that temples are part of the Lord's marvelous work and where there is marvelous work, mischievous work is to be expected too. God's plan will not fail.

A week later . . . . 

Do you see whats going on here? Yeah, so we were at the temple on Saturday, and I had been standing there talking to this guy answering his novel of questions that he had written when he went through the tour, and I had been talking to him for like a good 35-40 minutes (or so it felt) and then sister H came over to me and whispered,
"don't freak out, but just kinda go outside and see what our friend Brother Baker (Lee Baker, the ex-bishop and face of "Non-Mormon Temple Info tent") has done..." Oh my goodness. Adrenaline shot through my
entire body. I could only imagine what he had cooked up today!!!! Everyday its something different. So I walked outside to find this!!!!!! 

He had a huge sign up facing the reception tent that said "The 34 Wives of Joseph Smith Founding Prophet of Mormonism" and he had brought in 34 women, dressed as pioneers, standing along the sidewalk so that you would have to pass every single one of them on your way to the temple either in a car or walking on the sidewalk. It was absolutely outrageous!!! I cracked up!!!!!! But low and behold, our tour attendance about DOUBLED that day. it was INSANE!!!! People were waiting for hours to get into the temple!!!! I'm pretty sure we have just about exceeded 80,000 people through the temple so far, now. Thank you Lee Baker!  Honestly it was hilarious!! So, I decided to go outside and talk to people that were walking that little sidewalk from the temple to the reception tent and just really try to divert their attention, and kinda re-focus it on the reception tent, or the temple itself. That was working until all of a sudden, I hear this loud, penetrating, "Hey sister missionary!!!" I look over to the tent of doom across the lawn. Lee Baker is yelling right at me!!!!!!!!! He goes, "why don't you come over here and  PREACH??!?!?!" It was just absolutely embarrassing. Like I was straight up embarrassed for the guy. I just looked away and kept going, talking and smiling nicely to people, helping them find their way to the reception tent instead of the tent of doom. 

Lee Baker's comment hollered across the lawn at me was... awesome actually. Didn't even make me angry or upset or anything. It just made my body filled with this surge of excitement and even more gratitude for being on the right side. For being on the Lord's side. For there are far more with us than there are with them. And just this absolute feeling of safety came over me. I know who's side I'm on. I know whose side I represent and defend and there is NOTHING that anyone could ever do or say that could make me feel ashamed in any way. And then I immediately thought about Lehi's dream. And about how that sidewalk between the reception tent and the temple was the iron rod, and Lee Baker's tent of doom was the great and spacious building where people old and young, male and female would go to mock those on the path to the tree. And the reception tent was the tree. And that lawn that separated us was that mist of darkness. And I just wanted people to stay on that straight and narrow sidewalk and to keep going and not to fall into the mist of darkness and find themselves wandering over to the great and spacious tent of doom. I thought of this talk by Elder Holland that I heard before my mission about two sister missionaries who got spit at, and I always thought that if that ever happened to me, oh that guy would be sorry he ever even opened his mouth. I would sure give him a piece of my mind. But, now that I have been faced with that, I realize that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed me and has softened my heart and I just turned my cheek towards the temple and just kept on walking and smiling at everyone. I saw a police man go over and talk to Lee Baker a few moments later and then I never saw him again for the whole rest of the day. I think he was "dismissed" from his public display and cry for attention. I am thankful for Jesus Christ, and I am thankful for the iron rod and the feelings of safety and peace that overcome me when I cling to it.

The Temple on a stormy night

It was sooooo stormy the night we went to the temple with the branch! But it just highlighted the stark contrast between the spirit in the temple and feeling it so strongly in there, and being outside of the temple in the scary, world.

Frog Legs - Yummy

So, my number one goal on my ENTIRE mission was to eat frog legs!!!!!!!! I've finally done it!!! They tasted exactly like chicken... now I get why people don't eat them very often. Because, it tastes exactly like chicken but you get 50% less meat!!

It's called frog-baby fountain!!

First impressions of Muncie Indiana

Serving at Ball Sate in Muncie, Indiana is seriously the best. It has been a non-stop party since I got here. It feels exactly like I'm back at college again. The time of my life. I serve in the YSA Ward and I went from a ward of 80 people to a ward of about 30 people. We go to FHE & Institute and we chill with the senior couple who run the institute right off campus and we just walk around the university all day. The senior couple sit around on the couch's all day with the front door open, and eat! It's like the place to go. The place to chill. Sister M. makes sure that anyone who walks through that open door is heavily supplied with food and love. And, we go there every day. I don't know, I just feel like I'm constantly eating ever since I got here! It's nice though. 

The members feed us, usually it's to Taco Bell or the Dining Hall. Most of our investigators live in dorms and we meet with them at the Library a lot, right next to a huge statue of a naked lady. It is the first thing you see right when you walk in and she is holding like a deer or something. It's so awkward! But, I can't complain. Life couldn't get any better than this. We teach Mission Prep class. The Institute is a house owned by the church and it is super fun. I'm serious. Life is an absolute party right now. My companion is amazing. She was my Sister Training Leader a couple transfers back so I have already served with her here and there before we became companions. 

She has already served at Ball State a while back, she has also served in the YSA ward at UC in Cincinnati and now she is back at Ball State with me. This is her last transfer before she goes home, so I'll only be with her for 6 weeks. 

We opened this area again for sisters. We replaced the Elders and inherited their old apartment. It was the stinkiest, grossest thing. It smelled like DJ's room, first of all . . .And second, there was man-hair all over the bathroom. When I walked in there and saw that, I screamed "Eww, that is so gross! I'm going to murder those Elders!" Then I walked into the bedroom and poor Sister H was trying to pray! Our apartment complex has a gym, so I can work off the food pretty fast. They also have a stand-up tanner at this apartment. So Legit! Dude. My life is so great right now. Heavenly Father really hooked a sister up. Big time. 

It's pretty country out here. And, people grow a corn . . . a lot. 

And, people do a lot of fishing. Everyone is obsessed with my swivel bracelet. (Editor's note, it is made from fishing hooks.) Sister M even bought some so all the sisters in the ward can make them at institute. But seriously, people go fishing here all the time! I have heard a few "hick" accents. It's just really country here. Oh, and everyone has a truck! :) I've been waiting a long time to serve in a wonderful place like this. I can't wait to go catch frogs and fish and go muddin! People have been talking about taking us, non-stop since we arrived. And, not only that, but the YSA branch covers the whole stake, so our area is the size of an entire stake, so we have a huge area. 

But, the real reason they put a lot of sisters back in our Stake is because the Indianapolis Temple is opening and we get to help with it! So, not only are we the Indiana missionaries, but the only ones authorized to go to the Indiana Temple during the open house. We are going t guide people and answer questions and stuff. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father is just making up for the fact that I missed the Phoenix Temple opening. He's just showing me that he loves me and understands how I felt about not being a part of the Phoenix Temple, and making up for it by allowing me to be one of the sisters to help. 

And, we got to be a part of the very first tour tour to go through on Sunday, before it opened to the public on Friday! 

I have now, not only been in three different states on my mission, but I have been to three different temples here as well!!!! What a privilege!!!!

Goodbye Ohio - Hello Indiana

I went from the big city to the vast, green country of Indiana!!!

Welcome to Indiana!!!! Here we are at the Institute. It's just a big play-house and Elder and Sister M live there (senior missionaries) and its just nestled in between a bunch of frat houses on Ball State University. It is the most fun place ever. We go here, everyday. And then it rained my first 3 days here. Like non-stop raining.

Ugh.

Here is frat row . . .

And, here is my companion, Sister H. 

Excitement in Madisonville

There was a shooting in Madisonville when the mini missionary was here. A cop died. It was on the corner of W and R!!!!! That is our main finding corner!!! We were in Madeira that morning, at
our coordination meeting when it happened. But, we still had a lesson with S that afternoon around 4 and I wasnt going to let some stupid shooting keep us from visiting S. Even though he lives at the corner of W and E which is approximately 500 ft away from where the shooting took place. Members kept calling us and telling us not to go to Madisonville, because there was a shooting and people might be rioting and people were still down there shooting. All I have to say after hearing all
that, and then going down there to visit S and learning the REAL story, is LOL. What a bunch of crap!!!!!!!! First of all, it was a mentally ill guy that had called the cops himself, saying that there
was a crazy guy with a gun shooting people. He hadn't shot a soul until the cops arrived. Then he shot a cop and then another cop shot him and they both died. Later they found a suicide note. So this guy was looking to die. No one was rioting, no one was out there shooting guns all day.  It just goes to show you how scared of Madisonville, some people are. If you really went down to Madisonville, and spent some time down there, you would see just how truly unscary that place is. People who
have never even been there to see it for themselves, hold it up to be just this terrible, dangerous place. It is not. There are real, genuine people there, just trying to make it in this world. I know that the
Lord my God will protect me. I know that he loves his children in Madisonville, and I know that this is the work of Salvation, this is the Lord's work, it is our Father's business, his hand is in it, and
that there is no one who can tell me not to go out and do it, except for the Lord Himself.  The Lord needs S and there is nothing going to stop me from aiding Him in bringing S closer to christ.

The Highs and Lows of Cincinnati

We had dinner at a member's home. She was out of town for the entire first 6 weeks I was here in Cincinnati. She and her husband work at Proctor & Gamble, and they own like a million dollar apartment that they built themselves in downtown Cincinnati, overlooking the entire city. This was a view from her window. Like I've never been in such a luxurious apartment in my entire life!!! I felt like I was in a loft in New York!!! All her furniture was super nice and modern and from all over the world, because they travel so much for P&G. I swear, I thought that apartments this nice only existed on TV!!!  Sister Corbridge and I  didn't even know what to do with ourselves that place was just too clean and nice and expensive!

And, some other views from the mission . . . .

The Fashionista

Editor's note, We know Maggie is stretching her clothing situation somehow, we have never seen the same outfit twice in any emails! :) 

 There are definitely blizzards here in Ohio. This week. The weather here is known for its bipolar nature. So it will snow and then be sunny, then snow again, then be sunny. But its really really coming down hard today. We heard that there will most likely be up to 6 inches of snow.

Here is a funny picture that sister Corbridge took of me one morning. But this is me every morning. Trying to decide what to wear. I'm sooooooo bored with my clothes!!!! And I have bought like a ton of new clothes, and I raided the sister training leader's apartment after two sisters went home last transfer, so I have about twice as
many clothes as I came out with, yet I'm still bored with all my clothes!!!

So I have been really really bored with my own clothes lately (sorry, mom) so I went up one morning and asked Maxine if she had any sweaters that I could wear. My intentions when I asked her, were just so that I would stay warm, but then I found a gold mine of the frumpiest, ugliest, sweaters that I had ever seen and I just got soooooooo excited!!!!!! So I picked out this awesome grey one with cats on it. It even had shoulder pads!!!!! And I wore it. It was our first day at the nursing home where we scored these awesome volunteer jobs painting
nails for the elderly!!! :] It's seriously, one of the funnest jobs I have EVER had!! And that says a lot, because I've had some pretty fun jobs. But the home supplied us with all the nail supplies and all the nail polish, and we just sit in the lobby at a little desk, and they wheel the ladies in there to get their nails polished and manicured!!! :]

 I am staying in Cincinnati!!!  You can send me clothes mom, I do wear a lot of my clothing over and over and over
and over and over and over again, that's why I was wearing Maxine's clothes. I just wanted to change it up for a day. Also, she has a ton of warm sweaters and it was snowing all week that week, so that is why. Maxine didn't care. But just to let you know, I do plan on leaving multiple pieces of clothing behind when I DO leave here. So if you do send me clothes at all, don't be sending anything too expensive. Only the most expensive pieces will be the
ones that will come back on the plane with me because I will feel too badly giving those away.






The Fashionable Maxine! 

Sometimes missionaries can help with an initial push

Dear Daddy,
It so great to get emails from you. I really really appreciated your email. Cincinnati is stressful. We have flaky investigators, and just everything here is just in complete disarray and mess!!! We have about 304 inactive members of our ward, and about 100 actives. Among the inactives, there are about 250 of them who want absolutely NOTHING to do with the church anymore, who desire other religions, who have just been lead into such darkness! It's extremely disheartening. Less active members of the church are the meanest people I've ever met. It's almost like they just have the exact opposite of the Holy Ghost. Satan has such a strong grip on them! And so, it can take a very huge emotional toll when we are getting this spirit of hate towards us so much as we are here.

With so many missionaries in the ward (6 of us), it is hard for the members to feed us all.  So the ward mission leader had a great idea, he said that he would personally pay for food, if that was the excuse that people were making, because its not about feeding us. It's really about having us in your home, because we have been set apart with this special spirit, that the members of this church have the opportunity and privilege to take a part in. Which it was actually, because we went to go visit this less active the other night, found out that he attends another church now and has no desire to  come back to LDS church. So I told him that was fine, and just asked if he would be interested in having the missionaries in his home for a meal, just Christian to Christian. It was almost like his countenance changed from irritated and angry to taken aback. He said of course!! Then we found out that he was actually disabled, and does not get around very well anymore, which opened the opportunity for us to offer to then bring him dinner!!! Boom. Exhibit A. That was the perfect opportunity for that idea. Which then made me think, no one from church even knows him, which means that no one even knows that he is disabled. Which means no one from church has even reached out to him, probably, which means no wonder he has chosen a different church!!!

 I think that less actives would be more responsive towards missionaries going to them in person, taking the least over bearing approach, and just asking those who are not interested in the church anymore at all, if they can just share a Christian meal with them in their home, and if needs be, bring the food. 

The ward mission leader told us to take members out to their visiting teaching. Which, listen to this awesome experience I had with that. We were out with our favorite member in the whole world. And,  our lesson fell through, so we asked who her visiting teaching person was. It was this lady that we had been thinking about visiting early that morning, and then the sister confided in us that she had never visited this lady as long as she has been assigned to her!!!!! Which was the saddest thing I had ever heard!! Even a strong member in the ward, was struggling with visiting teaching!!
So we threw her in our car and drove down there. (This lady lives in a nursing home, which is a big part of the reason why she has never been down there to see her) and it turned out amazing!! She almost cried because she didn't realize how sweet this little old lady really was, and she felt horrible for never even going and visiting her and giving her a chance. Then the next day, the little old lady called us, and left the longest message on our phone about how much she loved us, and how thankful she was that we had all come to visit her. It really touched my heart. The power behind fellowship. I think if there is anyone in the ward who is struggling with home teaching or visiting teaching, I think it would not be too bad of an idea to have the missionaries go with them and just kind of give them that initial push.

Also, the ward just instituted the best idea ever! That if someone who is less active, comes to church and asks for a food order, that they have to schedule a dinner on a set day and time, with the
missionaries. Because then its like paying the service forward, and also, they can't use the excuse that they do not have enough food, or money for food.

Other than that, this week has been pretty okay. Maxine was gone. So it was quiet. There was talk of us moving out of her house and into an apartment. I do not want to. I like Maxine.

We need a lot of prayers..

Over the Rhine

DADDY!!!!!!!

I GOT TRANSFERRED TO CINCINNATI!!!!!!
This place is CRAZY!!!!!
They have only had sisters here for 3 months before I arrived. My new companion is Sister Corbridge. She only has two transfers left (including this one). We got doubled in!!!!!! So we knew absolutely NOTHING when we got here. And no one knew us. It was the scariest thing. Not to mention that no one in Cincinnati has really ever seen sister missionaries too much here anyways. The ward should be a branch. We got the ward roster, and there's about 30 actives and 300 inactives!!! There are so few people in the ward that the missionaries have to do a lot. Like we had to pray in sacrament meeting, we have to teach Young Womens, and help out in primary a lot. There are 4 Elders in the ward. Thankfully their areas cover the scariest parts of Cincinnati. Downtown. But daddy, we still have to drive through scary parts a lot. And, I've NEVER seen poverty. This place looks like a war zone!!! There are houses falling down, the streets are dirty, and smell. This place really is foreign. 

We have one large family with four generations in our ward and they all make up about half of our active members. We live with a member, this little lady named Maxine. She's 86. She's a retired English teacher and Home Ec teacher, so she says exacts what she feels and does exactly as she
pleases. She is super bossy and super strict and pretty much just runs the world! She and I go back and forth all the time. She's so brutally honest. Whenever she starts dishing it out, I dish it right back to her. And she just gets this twinkle in her eye, smiles and walks away. I guess no one has ever dished it to her right back. Also, she and I argue for hours. (Not like contentious arguing, more like debating. Like what our family does a lot) and I'm almost about as brutally honest as she is, I
make her laugh all the time!! My companion has never seen anything like me and Maxine when we get together. She just doesn't ruffle me at all like she does everyone else. And people just let her get away with whatever she pleases because she's so old. The older you get, the more things people let you get away with. But I don't like how strict she is. She yells at me a lot for not eating at the table, and for eating packaged food, and for not making my bed. But it just makes me wanna do that stuff even more!! but I make my bed now. 

Cincinnati needs A LOT of work. like A LOT. The first presidency has asked us, that in order to make sure that we are fulfilling our purpose as missionaries, that we extend baptism on the first lesson, and then extend a date for baptism on the second lesson whether we think that they really are ready or not. But the only people who have gotten baptized in this ward in the past 5 years have all gone immediately inactive. Listen, I didn't know what the plan of salvation was when I was baptized, I hadn't read the Book of Mormon, let alone the bible! I knew a few primary songs and maybe a few stories and that was it!!! These people are already 10 steps ahead, knowledge-wise, than I was when I was baptized. So it really is not, how much you know, that determines baptism. It is if you have felt compelled by the spirit and you have decided to act upon that compelling, to get baptized. I think that these people in Cincinnati just need to understand commitment, and responsibility to stick to the things that they commit to. So we are really going to need to just build up the ward member's faith in baptism and missionary work before we start converting anyone yet. So I need help daddy. I need help to know how to help strengthen this ward's faith in missionary work, and in us, and to help teach the people of Cincinnati about commitment and responsibility.

We helped clean up a house in the ghetto. It was so disgusting I wanted to just throw away my gloves and my shoes and everything else I wore that day. But I don't have another pair of shoes or gloves... So, I'm going to have to just really clean them well. And those are all the elders in our ward. They're pretty nerdy. 

New Companion, New Area

Here are pictures of me and my new companion!! Here we are with Maxine, the 86 year old member that we live with! Shes a spice. :] And, the sweatshirt I'm wearing was a gift from a member in Centerville, it says Sister Carnahan Ohio Cincinnati mission on it.

Then here we are making our new map! The other sisters left this teensy tiny map for us, so we borrowed on of Maxine's map books, and photocopied a bunch of pages from it and taped them together like a puzzle!!! I feel like we are literally building this town from scratch! Then here we are at the ward Christmas party!!

silly pictures

Here is an old picture. I was really hyper that day. It was us three missionaries that  served in Centerville together, but we call this picture the pterodactyl picture because of the face I'm making.  :]

Me and my best friend Rizzo!!! Seriously, everyone in Cincy owns a Pitbull. EVERYONE. Its a little ridiculous... But some of them can be really quite sweet!! Like this one here, Rizzo. He reminds me of Buster. :]

We made pizza one night. And then a 2000 piece puzzle that i finished finally.