Pretty Sure it's Week 20

 What's up!!!! So I wasn't counting the MTC weeks but since they go towards my 2 years I might as well. This last week was fun, and we did a good amount of service too. Here are the highlights.

Tiana - We had another lesson with her and Elder Moake shared his testimony on Christ's Atonement and she really needed that. I don't know if we changed her heart or if she really wants to change now, but we were able to help her so that was a great feel good moment.

Shower - When I got here I thought that was just how the shower worked and that our water heater was just bad. Turns out our water heater was bad and a shower isn;t supposed to be leaking water from the handle. So after weeks from the time it was looked at they finally fixed it and now I feel truly blessed for being called stateside. Sorry everyone else, I'm sure you still love your mission 

Shirley - Backstory: John, (mentioned before) we met him once and all the sudden we got a text from a random lady asking us for help to move someone and John had referred us. So I thought that this must be definitely be God pulling strings. It was out of our area but we thought we could help the Sisters as we were driving back from district council. So we get there and find out that this old lady, who needs to be moved out that day, had not even prepared anything. So we were there for 5 hours helping her pack and move her boxes into a truck. It was so crazy because she wanted things done in a certain way but she didn't have the time for it. So I ended up distracting her while everyone else packed stuff, and it was mentally exhausting. But we were able to give her a blessing and help her and our appointments that night cancelled anyways, so I do think that was where we were needed that day.

Gillogly - He is an old member that is super covid shy and hasn't been to church in over a year because of it. He's been mostly stuck inside and I think he's been watching too much of the news because he has some very interesting political viewpoints that I probably shouldn't share. It made for an interesting lesson, but we are going to give him a Come Follow Me manual so hopefully he will fill his time with that instead.

Cookies - I got this 100 cookie recipe book from a family and I tried making cookies and I wouldn't call it an epic mistake but I definitely did something wrong, and it wasn't until afterwards that I realized what. I first realized when the recipe said makes 20 and I somehow came out with 40 cookies. I don't know how that happened because I only doubled the butter, by accident. I did 12 oz instead of 12 tbsp, but they still tasted great and I probably ate 30 of them.

Taira/Taiva - So it turns out Taiva's real name is Taira(tyra), And she has come to church twice now and this week we are going to teach her the first lesson!! It has been so cool: her referring herself, coming to church and activities, and now her asking about Joseph Smith. I can't wait to tell you guys how it goes!!

Spiritual thought -  I'll keep this short because it's pretty simple: Love others. It's one of those things that are easy to say but hard to do. It was pretty hard for me with Shirley, but as I started to remind myself of her situation and remembered that God cared for as much as I knows he cares for me it became a bit easier. It was also cool that yesterday my companion and the other speaker both spoke on loving others and not judging them. I know that there are people out there that need to feel that love and that sometimes it's hard for us, but I have been able to see the difference it makes in me and others and I hope that you all can try and do that this week so you can see it too. I love you all and I know that God does too and that we can love Him back as we share our love with others. It sounds weird but I promise it works :)  

Until next week, here are the pictures (sorry Mom, I have to take more)

Pride still High: I look good

the recipe book

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