16 down 2 to go!

Dearest friends and family of me,

Today officially marks 16 months since I entered the MTC as a full
time missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
In some ways, I can't believe that I actually made it this far. I
can't believe how long I've been serving as a missionary, how long
I've been away from home. In other ways I  think, "how in he world has
it already been 16 months!? Where did the time go?" It seriously just
flew by. I felt like I blinked and everything was pretty much over.

Each week goes by way too fast for me, they seem like a blur. I feel
like a week is only a day, but in some ways I feel like the days are
an entire week. But aside from some of the week long days, things
generally seem to be speeding up as I near the end of my journey. It's
a bitter sweet feeling.

This week was a lightning one, gone too fast.

Monday was fun, we went shopping so Sister Welch could get some winter
clothes. Then we went geocaching - my newfound hobby thanks to the
Beers family. They taught me all about it. We found two geocaches
which was awesome. It's like a giant treasure hunt for adults, for any
of who who might not have heard about it. I am absolutely taken by it.
I'm going to do it all the time, the Beers showed us a map of like
where all the geocaches are in the world and there are tons of them in
Utah!! And I'm gonna catch em all.

When pday was over, we had dinner at the DeMartinis, she made us this
giant feast, it was probably the single best dinner I've had so far in
Butler - steak and salad and potatoes and asparagus and garlic bread
and everything good in this life that couldn't even fit on my plate so
I had to go back for seconds just to get firsts of some things and it
felt like Thanksgiving day and I couldn't even fit it all in my
stomach I felt like I was going to die hahaha.
But yeah after that we had a lesson with them since her husband is a
nonmember but  basically he just straight up told us that he hasn't
been studying and he doesn't really want to know if it is true so
hahahaha we got dropped.

Tuesday we had a couple of really good lessons - one with Jonathan and
one with Ross. Jonathan was all set to be baptized Saturday but
he didn't come to church yesterday, so he's not gonna make it for this
week. We will have to reset him with a date. Ross also expressed a
desire to be baptized and is working toward having the desire to quit
smoking. We talked about how smoking keeps us from living in our
Heavenly Father's presence and tried to help him understand the
importance of living the word of wisdom.
We also got to participate in something called "produce to people".
It's like this food bank hat gives fruits and vegetables to needy
people instead of just the typical canned stuff, which is really cool.
So we bagged produce and then we stood in the line and handed it out.
We were in charge of cabbages and there were all these extra leaves,
so I took one out and put it on my head and everyone started laughing
at me. Then Grape Juice told me to take it off, and I told her that
people were enjoying it, so she put one on her head and pretty soon
everyone was laughing and having a good time, calling us the cabbage
patch kids and saying they liked our costumes. We had to leave early
to go to dinner and volleyball and they were all sad and I felt all
warm and happy inside cause we made a bunch of new friends :)

Wednesday was good, we had our district meeting and an awesome lesson
with a less active named Amy and she is really ready to start coming
back. She wrote a whole list of things she wants to change and it was
super spiritual and amazing.


Thursday was wonderful, as usual. Getting to spend he day doing
service at Katie's is always a highlight for me. This week we had a
bazillion pears and so we were cutting them up to make pear sauce and
we cut and cut and cut those pears until I'm pretty sure I gave myself
arthritis. But it was fun, some kids from the college in Slippery Rock
came over to help out and they were all really nice. So that was fun.
New friends rock.

Friday was super busy, running errands and getting stuff done. We got
to see Bill and we had dinner with the Eberlys at Chilis. I gorged
myself, I was so happy. They are the best kind of people. It was so
fun.
(Can you tell I get less and less enthusiastic about writing my weekly
email the longer it gets?)

Saturday was such a good day. We get to do service at this therapeutic
riding center  and I love working with the kids and the horses.
Usually we just walk alongside the kids and talk to them and sing to
them and help them stay on the horses. We were with William this week
and he is so funny, he always likes singing Old McDonald and he's a
real good singer. After Williams lesson, they didn't have anything for
us to do because everyone else cancelled for the day, so we groomed
Ally (she is the prettiest quarter horse in the whole place) and it
was awesome. We cleaned her hooves and wiped all the dirt. We were
talking to her the whole time cause she wasn't having a good attitude
about it, and at the end we were taking her back out to the field and
when we let her loose she just turned around and followed us, she
didn't want us to leave. It was so cute!

After that, we went home and had lunch and language and then we went

to Bill's house with one of the RMs in our ward. It was so fun, Bill
is the funniest. We took rags and wiped all the nicotine off of the
walls, and then we painted over them. He couldn't find any rollers, so
we were using these tiny little brushes and it was taking a lot longer
than we thought it would and we were laughing so hard because Bill was
about to give himself a heart attack looking everywhere for the
rollers and finally I just told him, "Don't kill yourself, Bill. We
don't even need them that much." And he just turned around and was
like, "that's your opinion." And it was so funny we were all laughing
for like 5 minutes straight. Because he hadn't smoked for about 36
hours, so he was really irritable and it was just so funny.
The good news is he still hasn't smoked, and it is so amazing! He's
been smoking since he was a teenager and tried to quit tons of times
and could never do it and now he's finally doing it!
After Bill's house, we went to stake conference. It was really
amazing. Elder S. Mark Clay of the Seventy was visiting and it was so
cool. We got to sing in the choir, and I just love the spirit that I
feel whenever I share my testimony through music, so that was awesome.
Plus it was amazing to see President and Sister Johnson. I talked to
her about some of the struggles I've been having and she helped me so
much, it was amazing. Somehow, she knew just what to say. I have such
a love for the Johnsons. If I can be half the woman that sister
Johnson is, I've got it made. So anyway, I was left feeling so loved
and just like Heavenly Father is so aware of me and the things I'm
going through that I cried pretty much the whole ride home, haha.
Sometimes you've just got so much bottled up inside and one thing just
sets you off. It was good to get it all out.

Sunday was more stake conference. There were some power house speakers
and the temple president spoke about how it's not a matter of "if"
there will be a temple in Pittsburgh, it's a matter of "when" and I
started freaking out because that is amazing. I would love for there
to be a temple here, that would be so amazing.
After church we had lunch with this amazing lady that we are trying to
teach, she invited us over for Sunday dinner with her family and we
got to know them all and they were so amazing and funny and family
oriented. It felt just like being at a family reunion or something.
Some day I want to be teaching all of them!! We are hopefully going
back to help paint her house this week, so maybe something will
happen.
After that, we had an appointment with this girl Norah - we teach her
and her mom English and she is super funny. Usually we just help her
with her homework to understand what it's saying. She reminds me of my
bae Cynthia Chan #shoutout mostly because she's Asian.
#datasianpersuasiondoe love you chan! ❤️
Then after that, we had weekly planning since Friday was so busy.

And that was my week! Today we went to the Pittsburgh zoo and we just
got back from that. It was super fun, we met up with the zone leaders
and the sisters in there ward and the Beaver elders were there for a
while, so it was super cool. I saw a sloth and almost had a heart
attack because they're so wonderful and I love them. We also saw a
really cute polar bear 

and the zone leaders decided that I should
climb the fence and hop onto his back and then he'd sprout wings and
we'd ride off into the sunset. So that was awesome. 

There was also a llama and some lions and cheetahs and tigers and a giraffe that really liked me and a baby gorilla and it was just all around a great day.
Plus this Sister Butler made us homemade cafe rio for lunch and so o
was basically in heaven when that happened.

More good news, we passed out apartment inspection so ✔️ for that. Now
it's time to move apartments haha... *sigh. The life of a missionary.

Anyway, basically everything is great and I'm having a great time. I'm
really starting to click with a lot of people here and it's starting
to feel so much like home. I also met this super awesome family and
they tell great jokes so hopefully I'll remember some of them so I can
tell them to you guys when I get back :)
My last interview with President Johnson is this week and I'm super
excited! I love that guy.

Anyway! I just want you guys to know that no matter who you are, where
you are, whatever - God is aware of you and He loves you. He knows
your individual trials and each of your goals and aspirations, and he
will help you reach your fullest potential. I know He loves us, I know
He lives. This gospel is true, never doubt that!

Have a good week.

Love,
Hermana Bills

 

Cheers to the Beers, and look out for Deers!

 

First off, the title is because I met the Beer family this week and
they're the absolute best and also it's hunting season so there are
deer everywhere in this city, just running around. And there was no
deer emoji so I used a cow because I can.

Moving on.

So...this week was super lame.

Last week we went to visit one of our investigators, and it was super
cold that day, but he's a single guy and we didn't have any woman who
could come with us and so we had to sit outside on his porch. While we
were sitting and talking to him, we found out that he was really sick
and I felt really bad and so we tried to have a quick lesson with him.
A couple hours after the lesson I started feeling pretty crappy but I
just thought, " ain't nobody got time fo dis" and so I pushed through
it for about three or four days until my body finally just crashed.

Just goes to show you that if you don't take time to rest you'll take
time later to be sick.
Which is what we did.

And let me tell you, we took a lot of dang time.

It started Tuesday - just cold and chills and stuff, we went out a
little, but I slept a lot. Wednesday we had zone training so obviously
we went to that and I just sat out for all of the activities and
stuff. When we got home I tried to tell myself that I was feeling
better, so I pushed myself too hard again and we went out to our
dinner appointment and to our meetings at the church and to try a
couple of people. When we got home that night, I was just exhausted
and miserable, so Thursday we spent the entire day inside which made
me really sad because it meant that we had to miss working at Katie's
which is the best part of every week. At this point m symptoms has
escalated beyond the fever and achy and now included nausea,
dizziness, congestion... I didn't have any appetite at all, and when I
tried to eat, I couldn't keep it down. Sister Welch felt really bad
and she tried to find me some medicine and she ended up giving me this
pill that totally knocked me out, so I don't remember anything about
Thursday because I was unconscious.

Friday was a little bit better, we were able to go out and see some
people and get a couple things done. A member of our ward passed away
this week and we were able to attend his funeral and to comfort his
wife and daughter, they're both less actives that we've been working
with, and they were really happy to see us. They told us how much Joe
loved the sisters and how we were like family to him.

Death is so weird. It was just a couple of days before, maybe like 8
or 9 days, that we were over at his house for a dinner appointment. He
had made us grilled cheese sandwiches with pickles on them and orange
jello on the side, and we were sitting there, laughing, telling jokes
and cool stories, he showed us his photo albums and shared his
testimony with us, and we shared a spiritual message and said that
we'd see him later...

But the next time we saw him he was just laying there in his coffin,
no color in his cheeks and no big grin on his face.

It definitely wasn't an expected thing by any stretch of the
imagination. He was the primary care taker of his wife Roberta, who
has been sick for a really long time, but Joe was healthy as a horse.
Just had a heart attack one morning and died before the ambulance
could get there, so I guess God must have really needed him up in
heaven.

So anyway. That was really sad. I think it was harder for Sister
Welch, cause I didn't know Joe as well as she did. The hardest thing
for me was to watch the people's reactions and how sad they were and
just to wish that there was something that I could do to help them, or
some words I could offer to take their pain away, but all I could do
was just cry with them and hold their hands or just sit and hug them.

Anyway... There have been fourth deaths in this ward since I got to
this area three weeks ago, so I think I'm bad luck. But it's caused me
to reflect a lot on how grateful I am for the knowledge I have of the
plan of salvation. It's also been weird, two of the people that passed
away had requested that there be no viewing, no funeral service,
nothing. Just a graveside prayer and some short words and that's all.
And our bishop was taking about the importance of a funeral and the
respect that we show for our body as we lay it to rest in preparation
for the resurrection, etc. and I guess I never thought about it that
way... I love that idea, that you're just laying your body down and
keeping it safe until your spirit can be reunited with it again.
Especially that we get to be all dressed in our temple clothes, that's
the coolest part for me, all ready to stand for judgement and be
welcomed home into the celestial kingdom to live forever with Christ
and our Heavenly Father!! That's the dream, right?

But yeah. Enough about that.

Saturday and Sunday was back to business.

We had some really great lessons on Saturday. My favorite was with our
new investigator Ashley, she is so cool. She has had the absolute
hardest life I've ever heard, but she's just decided that she wants a
life with the Savior on her side again and so she was trying to find
the right way to go and that's when we found her. She said she is
going to work toward baptism on December 5 and we are so excited for
her! This week we got to teach her the plan of salvation and she just
ate it up, she had a big smile on her face. We asked her if she felt
that our message was true and she said yes. Then we talked about how
to recognize the spirit and committed her to read and pray more and to
come to church with us. She couldn't come this week because there were
some family members that were in town, but she said she would
definitely be there next week. So that was awesome!

We also saw our investigator Bill, who has a baptismal date in
November and is trying to quit smoking. We had a great lesson with him
and talked about what he thought it would take to have the willpower
to quit smoking, and he committed right then and there to quit
smoking, we shared some scriptures that would help him and we have
been texting him every since, just about every other hour or so to
check up on him and make sure he's doing okay and giving him
encouragement. He says he knows he can do it which is awesome, we know
he can do it, too. Please keep Bill in your prayers! He has the
strongest testimony ever and he knows these things are true, he wants
to get baptized so bad! He is so amazing and I know that he can do it,
he has a real love for the Savior and the gospel, he knows the Book of
Mormon better than anyone else I've ever taught... He rocks! We really
want him to make it through this week!

Then we had a lesson with Brother Zajacs, he's an excommunicated
member who is working toward getting re-baptized and has recently
(like just within these last two weeks) lost both his mother and his
father. I'm telling you people, everyone in all of Butler county is
gonna be done for by the time I leave!! Anyway, it's caused him to
think about what really matters in life. We talked about the plan of
salvation with him as well and about the sanctity of life, and why
it's important to keep ourselves close to the Savior throughout our
lives... And, just like every other lesson I've had with him, we
committed him to come to church.

But guess what.

THIS WEEK HE ACTUALLY CAME.

It was amazing! We walk into church yesterday, and there he is sitting
in his little pew with his brother.

It was like...wow. Amazing. Everyone was going over and talking to
him, just welcomed him back with wide open arms and it was the
sweetest thing to see. We have a great ward here.



They also know how to party! We had our ward trunk or treat this week
as well, and that was a huge success. Even though it was raining, tons
of people came out. Even our investigator Perry came out, he was so
funny he said he felt like a creep walking in since he didn't have any
kids haha. But he seemed to have a good time.

Anyway, now for the two highlights of my week.

First, was last Monday when we took our pday trip to Pittsburgh and I
was probably just about the happiest person in the whole city because
dang flabbit, Pittsburgh is amazing. We met up with Sister Welch's
grandparents who are also serving in our mission, and they took us and
4 other missionaries to the Carnegie science center which was probably
the coolest building (besides the temple) that I have ever set foot
in, literally ever. I think I probably could have spent hours in
there, they had everything you could have ever wanted. They had zero
gravity astronaut training and microscopes for looking at dead bugs
and robots that you could play air hockey against and a fake tornado
which was absolutely amazing for me and they had a human yoyo thing
and a roller coaster simulator and a giant trampoline where I did my
first successful back flip and a gift store and friendly people and
tons of kids, the most excited of all of them being myself. It was the
greatest party ever. I was so happy.

Then Elder and Sister Butler (grape juice's grandparents) treated us
to Peppi's, it's like a Pittsburgh restaurant which is super cool, and
I guess the elders go there all the time so when we walked in they
said, "Ah! It's the eldettes!" Haha 😂 he was the funniest guy.

After that, we went and walked along the strip and I was sooo happy,
saying hello to everyone and I wanted to stop and look at everything
and I even got a pirates t-shirt and Grapejuice got a cats in space
calendar and the Butlers got some Pittsburgh popcorn and wow. It was
the best pday ever. I literally could not have been more happy. Even
the bus ride to and from Pittsburgh was amazing (except that I wasn't
feeling super good and so that wasn't fun) but other than that, it was
the most perfect pday I ever could have imagined.

And then the best highlight of all was meeting the Beers.
Mind you, I had already heard a ton about the Beers from Hermana
Tolman and Hermana Davis since they both served here in Butler. But I
had no idea how amazing they were going to be.

Here's the thing. I just came from my favorite area that I have ever
served in, and I don't think I will ever feel more like I belong
anywhere than I did in Lancaster serving in that branch, that was
literally my home! I miss it so much. And to make things harder, I
really haven't felt like I've been able to really connect with very
many people here. Like, I love a lot of people, don't get me wrong,
they're amazing. But I haven't really felt like I'm here for anyone,
if that makes any sense. Except for Perry, there was like that instant
friendship with him. But other than that... I kind of just thought
maybe Perry was the only reason I was serving in Butler.

And then we went to the Beers last night.

They literally had that spark in them from the moment we sat down, and
I never wanted to leave their living room ever for anything. I kept
just asking them question after question, sitting on the edge of my
seat and hanging on absolutely every single word that they said. My
love for that couple was instantaneous, I could have listened to them
all day long. When 9 o clock finally rolled around I was devastated
because I knew it meant we had to leave, and it had been so hard to
set the first appointment with them, I was worried it would be like a
million years before I saw them again. But, to my great astonishment,
they invited us over TUESDAY.

Like, tomorrow, people!

So we left their house and I was just like so happy and excited, and
flying on cloud nine because I finally felt like I had found someone
other than Perry that I could connect with and I finally had my moment
where I felt like I found out why I was sent to Butler, and that is
just a great feeling.

So basically I'm super stoked for this week is all.

Finally feeling a little bit better, still gonna keep the diet simple
this week though, try not to push myself too hard. Got my purpose, got
my motivation, got my Savior... Everything I need.

How could I ever fail? :)

Love,
Hermana Bills