Well, October is just Chugging Along like a Champion

I cannot believe that October is over this week. How even did that happen? What is November? Is that a real thing?

This week was so crazy. We met some of the funniest people. 

Let me tell you about Bob the porch dweller. First I have to explain to you all that people in Lebanon dwell on their porches rain or shine. They have like full living rooms set up. These people do not fail. Doesn't matter if it's 8 degrees outside. They are always posted up on their porches, judging the world. It's excellent. 

Bob is one of these fine people. We met Bob last pday briefly while we were doing our grocery shopping at the local Walmart. I just smiled and said hi to him. It wasn't anything unusual. I smile and say hi to everyone. But later that night, we were out on the streets contacting some less actives and we passed by his house and he called out, "Hey! You're that girl that said hi to me in Walmart earlier today!" and I said, "That's me. " we had a conversation, I met Bob's wife Pat. He told us that it meant a lot that we had smiled at him and to keep doing the work. He already had a church and wasn't interested in changing, but he was just so nice to us. 

Those are the fine kind of people that Lebanon provides for us to teach. Wonderful people.

We also met a random drunk man during our lesson with Kathy this week. They kind of live on an alley that's a little bit... well. It's just busy I guess. There's always a lot of people yelling out there. Anyway. In the middle of talking about the Book of Mormon with Kathy, this drunk guy just walks into the house. He starts mumbling on about how happy he is and how lovely it is that we're having a bible study. Then he starts talking about how much he loves us all. At this point he's getting ready to leave and we're just trying to stifle our laughs. He attempts to point at me and says, "Hey. I wanna see you guys again." 

"Um. Probably not." Was my response. Then he just walks away.

 We turn to Kathy for some sort of explanation. 

"I have no idea who the heck that guy was!" Kathy cries out. 

We all burst into laughter. It was quite the experience.

Unfortunately, we also found out that Keith and Kathy have bedbugs and so we can't continue teaching them in their home. We would teach them outside but it's just getting too cold. I don't know what we're gonna do. They also can't come to church because then we run the risk of spreading bedbugs to the ward. 

I HATE BEDBUGS. Why did Noah even save them? 

In other awkward news, we were able to serve our investigator Hector this week. He got sick so we ran some soup over to him. He was a little bit out of it though and he just kind of grabbed me and Sister Tolman for what can only be described as the most awkward hug of my life. It was so funny. Cause like... we're not allowed to hug him back or whatever! so we just stood there while he rocked back and forth and mumbled about how much he loves us in Spanish. 

Then we walked back to the car and looked at each other and then just burst out laughing. It feels so good to be best friends with your companion and to be able to laugh through awkward moments. 

I don't know how to transition into my next thought so we're just gonna jump into it. On Wednesday it was district meeting and we found out that we have to do weekly inspections on our cars. So we went out to inspect the engines and whatnot and then Elder George is like, "Okay let's check your blinker fluid."

Because I'm a trusting person and didn't think that my district leader would tell me to look for something that wasn't there I just kind of went with it and started looking. But after a few seconds it finally registered, "you moron. He told you to look for blinker fluid? That doesn't even exist." And then I just turned and gave them the glare of death and I swear they didn't stop laughing for like 11 minutes. 

Elders are unbelievably rude. :P 

But I promise I'm not usually that clueless. I'm actually very capable. Last week we had a lazy pday and I cleaned the whole house and did some minor repairs to some things that are broken and it was very cool and I felt very domestic. I even baked something for pete's sake. 

Blinker fluid.

The nerve. 

Besides the awkward and funny things that happened this week, we actually had a super big miracle that happened. 

So on Saturday we were having this big stake event in Lancaster for the Hispanic members and investigators that we were really excited to go to. We'd gotten permission to leave our area from the zone leaders, called and found a ride with a member, and even had an investigator coming. Everything was set to be an excellent experience. 

Unfortunately, everything fell apart at the last minute. The member was feeling sick and didn't want to go. So we couldn't go either.

At first, we were feeling really sad. We even through a pity party and went to Wendys for dinner hour and kind of just sat there and ate greasy food to try to help us feel better.

Then we realized that we were having bad attitudes! we realized that the weather was really nice, so we set up an appointment to meet with one of our investigators who is really hard to get in with. We met up in a park, taught the plan of salvation and even set him with a baptismal date. He was so excited about getting baptized (cause he's never been baptized before) and getting the gift of the Holy Ghost for his birthday in January that he decided to take us all over Lebanon to meet tons of his friends. He introduced us to a bunch of people he knows and some of them were even interested in learning about the gospel! So hopefully they can become investigators really soon! 

It was so cool. I love how the Lord takes things that are hard for us and, if we are faithful, he can turn them into things that are beautiful and beneficial. He is so wonderful and perfect at what He does. I'm so glad that he's in charge of things. 

We also had Samantha and Matt come to church for the first time this Sunday. They were there with their four little boys, Joseph, Bryan, Braxton and Brayden. It was so incredible to see them there. The ward was so welcoming and the boys had such a fun time playing with the kids. My heart was seriously brimming with joy. I had tears in my eyes virtually the whole 3 hours. I'm a baby, I know. But it just touched me because I was reminded so powerfully that this work is about families. It's about individuals too, yes. But we can only experience the fulness of the joy that our Father has to offer us as family groups. 

And now I totally get it. 

I love this Plan. It's so stinking cool.

It's incredible how much I'm learning every single day and how much these people blow me away with their knowledge and their relationships with our Father in Heaven. These people will knock your socks off. I wish you could all meet every single one of them. 

Speaking Spanish is a nice bonus, too.

Missions are so fun. :) 

I miss you guys! Thanks for all you do. Happy Halloween this week!

-Hermana Bills