new glasses.. and no nail polish.. that is a big deal for me. and I am going to make it 18 months without it. 2 down..
Hello Fam!
I feel like there hasn't been much to happen since I emailed you last.. but alas, probably heaps has, I just don't remember things. I am working on that. I am getting better at remembering scripture references which is way rad! It is a huge confidence booster whilst sitting in a lesson. We will be talking about something and then I will think hey there is a scripture that woould fit here perfectly! granted, I still use the TG to find out where exactly it is but I am getting better! Yay progress! Speaking of progress- have I told you that I love making goals and planning? Well I do. But I really don't like the way that we have been making them here. We have not been setting goals then making plans to accomplish those goals but rather making our plans and then looking to see what we will do and setting goals that way. Does that seem backwards to anyone besides me? Well last night we had to come up with new monthly goals for July and I think I kind of directed the goal setting in hope to reverse the order to make more sense so we actually use our goals as goals. (is that bad? am I stepping on my trainers toes too much?) hopefully it will encourage us to elicit some real progeress in the area though!
Speaking of, I haven't even told you anything about my trainer yet. Her name is Sister Kylie Brown. She hails from Grayson, Georgia. Well that is where her family is now. She went to BYUI for the last 2.5 years and before that she was in Georgia for 4 years. Before that she was in California and then in Lehi and somewhere else maybe. I don't know ha! Anyway, she is 20 and is on her third transfer. So she is a young one just like me! Well a little older -she will be 21 in August. She is going to school with the intent to major in Child Development with a minor in Photography. She is artsy.. unlike me. The sunsets here are really pretty so when the sun sets she always talks about the light and how perfect it is and how it is creating all these awesome colors and how she wouldlust love to take aa picture and then bring out the reds and all these cool things and to me- yeah it is pretty I guess. Ha! She is very excited to be here on her mission and she is really good and connecting with people. She is really good at loving everyone too. I have a lot to learn from her. ANy other questions about my comapanion? Well she blogs! Well blogged.. her blog from before the mission is
www.genuineyou.blogspot.com and her blog of letters home is
www.sisterbrownsadventures.blogspot.com Check them out! Let me know if there is anything I should be concerned about... just kidding! But really..
Another thing you might be worried about is my food! Especially based on the blessing dad gave me before I left really urging me to be careful and cautious with the things that I take into my body.. (thank you kemp for reminding me of that and thank you dad for being so inspired as to give me that blessing! and thank you for holding the priesthood and being worthy and able to give fathers blessings. I miss those.) Well y'all know how I dislike inconveniencing people (maybe you don't know becasue you are my family and with you I don't care so much (: ) well I don't like it so my plan was just to avoid gluten as much as possible and eat it only if I had to in order to avoid offending members who feed us. Well Sister Brown would not have that. So when we made our calls to confirm dinner appointments Sister Brown would tell them that her new companion can't have wheat so if it in the meal I won't eat it and to not be offended. Not hard at all- I just didn't want to do it. Anyway, this continued for a week and then the relief society presidents announced it in church so now everyone knows and no one feeds us with wheat anymore! oh and there are also 3 or 4 families that are celiacs here too! So they were real excited to hear that one of the missionaries had it. So who knows, maybe I will stay in this area my whole mission because they know how to feed me :) And sister Brown says that we are getting a whole lot more variety now that people have to put more thought into what they cook becasue before I came she said they would get a lot of pizza and hamburgers and lasagna- which all contain wheat so those are now rare. You are probably thinking, pizza hamburgers and lasagna are not very southwest type foods! they are not. and very little of what we are fed is. I was kind of bummed. But I have had the green chile! It is good but I don't quite understand what the big deal about it is... it is just like a green chile sauce. It doesn't even have much flavor. It just adds a kick to things. Maybe in 15 months I will get it. But then I will be home where you can't find it. New Mexico is really the only place it exists. Bizzarre. But you can order it online if any of you are curious - check out 505 chile or something like that. I hear that is the best. (505 is the area code for new mexico if you were curious - funny story ab out 505! We were driving to somewhere and the car in front of us had a sticker right above the license plate that said fiveohfive with the new mexico sun thing as the o in oh [Keni will you find out what that means for me? thanks { Amy, will you tell me the significance of kokapelli? thanks}] and then the license plate itself said 5zero5 so they had obvious pride in their state of New Mexico and the license plate was Arizona!! It was so strange). So all in all I am being fed well. Oh and a lady we go to do service for- Sister Travis (have I told you about her yet? I don't remember. If I haven't, mum will you tell me? We see her often so you should know about her. Thanks.) her mother is gluten free so every couple weeks (so twice - i have only been here 4) she sends us home with a box of gluten free crackers and noodles and good things like that. So no one worry about the substances going into my body. It is gluten free. I have not eaten a lick of wheat for 2 and a half whole weeks! Yahoo! Speaking of gluten free - Sister Christensen, a lady in the ward who has two daughters with severe celiac, writes a gluten free blog of all the delicious food she makes. The address is
www.glutenfreegood.blogspot.com. She is incredible and really takes care of us missionaries. she was showing me some pictures of the food she makes and it all looks so delicious! so really definitely check that one out. oh and she does her own photography too so the professional pictures of food really is her food. Don't think she is conning you. that is real gluten free food that she really makes. Try it out. I dare you :)
Now for a bit of the work we do - becasue really we do work. hard. Christie is in New York this week so we are not teaching her but she did tell us to go over and see her mom. So we did. We pulled up to the house and we were both a little nervous becasue of the negativity to which she has viewed the church in the past. But we told Christie we would do this so we did! We got there kind of late - so she was putting the kids to bed so it was not a good time. but then she told us "Text Christie and get my cell phone number. Then text me and we can set up a time becasue I would love to talk with you." Yahoo!!! She told us to get her phone number! She didn't even ask for our number! So that is the plan for tomorrow!
This week we also went to visit Sister Suarez, a less active in the ward who we have seen a few times but the WML asked us specifically to go see her becasue I guess she dropped off everyone elses radar in the ward. So we dropped by to talk to her yesterday and she was homje and we had a wonderful chat with her. She had just gotten home from vacation with the family (she has 4 sons at 2.5, 8, 10 , 12). She has not been to church becasue she gets sick and super stressed out - she has SIBO - long story. If you want more info, ask and I will explain. Anyway, she asked sister Brown and I if we wanted to come over every week and teach her family the lessons! uh, YES! so that was great too!
That is all for now! I love you all and love hearing from you! I will get better at adding individual bits in here... and am still working on adding a missionary spiritual thought becasue I feel that is what missionaries do.. one day.
Love,
Sister Stuart