Putting My Heart in Texas: I PROMISE I AM NORMAL.

Oh man... this week is a total blurr. I will just give you a recap I guess. But the highlight? Sunday was Frank's patriarchal blessing it was amazing! SO neat. Easily one of my favorite moments on my mission so far. SO proud of him. AND MY SISTER IS MARRIED! HUZZZAH!

MONDAY, MONDAY
Helped Sister Wessendorf pack. I just about broke my back trying to lift her luggage up on that dinky little luggage scale. Super weird helping her pack to go HOME. It is kinda surreal that I only have EXACTLY 4 months left out here. So crazy. Time flies.

TUESDAY- A GINGER PART II
Got my new companion and sent Dorfy on her way! I will miss her, we had a good time with some good laughs. But my new companion is Sister Cecil. I have another ginger! Woot, woot! She is from Orem and goes home in a month. This transfer is only 5 weeks long so people can be back in time for the BYU semester to start. She is great. I have seen her around the mission a lot but we had never really talked so it has been good to work together. However, Tuesday morning I started feeling sick. I was hoping it was just allergies but I was wrong.

WEDNESDAY- LOOKING SISTERS AND KRISTIN
Sister Loo and I were lucky enough to go to Kristin Neubergers funeral. Sister Loo and I were really close to her when we were serving together in Spring. There were no Sisters serving in her ward so we would go visit her all the time and bring her taco bell, sonic, paint our nails together on p-day, watch conference, she had a really strong influence on Frank, and even though she will tell you that we took care of HER she really took care of US. She had been fighting Breast Cancer for 3 1/2 years and though her body lost the battle, her spirit never did! Here is her obituary, she touched so many peoples lives through her facebook posts she had thousands of friends, some that she had met in online cancer support groups. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?pid=171694284

It was a beautiful service and there were a lot of people that were not members there. Sister Loo and I talked to many of them and they all said that there was a different feeling in our chapel than in other chapels. One woman said, "it was so refreshing to hear a pastor (the bishop) stand up to recognize the person because they actually KNEW them. She was a part of their lives. Your church really is a family." It was powerful. Kristin was the only member in her family. I remember she told Sister Loo and I that she had had a dream that she gave her dad a Book of Mormon and he read it. For weeks after that we were encouraging her to give him one. But I don't think that she ever did. When Sister Loo and I were giving our condolences to her parents afterwards I told her parents about Kristin's dream and that she wanted to give them a copy of the Book of Mormon. Kristin had at least 15 copies of it on her bookshelf so I said, "in fact, I think that she left each of you 7 copies! That is how much that book meant to her! " They laughed and told us that they would take a book. They told us that before Kristin passed she had asked them to go to Temple Square and so this last weekend they went and I told them to be sure to go to the Music and the Spoken Word. I hope they did :) It was a really neat missionary moment. Kristin's spirit was definitely there fueling the whole conversation. Really cool. AND the Looking Sisters got to be a team again!

SPEAKING OF LOOKING SISTERS- Westlake Sisters are now helping the Sam Houston 2nd YSA ward! So we are split and working two wards now! I am really excited and I get to work with Sister Loo. I about cried with joy when I found out. SO neat. I get to be with YSA's again... BUT I GET FED TOO! Best of both worlds :)

THURSDAY-SUNDAY--- DEATH BY SUDAFED AND BENADRYL

SO this is when the email gets good. I was so sick. Thursday, I don't really remember much except for we had a really cool miracle. We had a lesson with our new investigator and we didn't know the gate code. We were already late to our appointment and so we just waited for another car to come go in or come out so we could sneak in (as a missionary you become ninjas when it comes to sneaking into apartments and gated communities) but no one was coming in or coming out so we waited for a minute. Then all the sudden the gate just opened. No cars were coming or going it was just us. It was so weird. Sister Cecil and I looked at each other and said, "miracle." We prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for letting us in and we had a good lesson with Darsel :)

Friday I got an amazing blessing by Elder Sapp and all the other Elders joined it. I think there were seven Priesthood holders there. Fellow servants of the Lord. Worthy, hardworking and devoted. It was such a beautiful blessing and a really cool bonding experience for our district. SO grateful for the priesthood.

Then we went to a few lessons and helped a member weed her garden. Seemed a good idea at the time, ya know being Christ-like and all... but then I got bit by something and my hand started swelling up like a balloon. I didn't really notice until we got in the car but then I realized that my hand was on FIRE. We stopped at our Relief Society Presidents house and she gave me some benadryl. Went home and then the Elders called (at this point it was9:30pm) they needed a ride because they were on their bikes and it was too dark for them to ride home. Sister Cecil doesn't have her drivers license and at this point the Benadryl hadn't kicked in... So pick them up, but by the time I got to their apartment we were all laughing hysterically and I was starting to feel the meds kicking in. We got home safe. I think Sister Cecil thought we were going to die, haha but I wasn't THAT out of it.

Then I got WORSE. Sister Cecil says that I told her to call the Elders so I talked to them on the phone for like 45 minutes while they asked them hilarious questions. I remember a few of them, and I spilled a few of my most embarrassing moments it was so freaking funny. Sister Cecil got a video of me. I kept saying, "Is this even legal? I am a missionary...what's even happening? ...I am not even in my own body right now..."

SATURDAY MORNING- BENDARYL HANGOVER

I emerged from my hibernation around 11am the next morning, bedhead strewn every which way, and when I tried to wish my companion "good morning" I realized that I had lost my voice. She was laughing so hard. It was pretty funny.

This whole week I have been sick/on drugs so Sister Cecil doesn't really even know what I am really like haha. I keep saying the following:

"Sister Cecil I PROMISE......

......I am normal!

......I am not always hacking up a lung on the side of the road.

......I am not a druggie.

......I am usually a very upbeat and talkative person.

......I am fun!!!

......I don't always sound like a man.

She just laughs. Good thing she has had Bethesda to keep her company while I have been out of it. Last night as we were falling asleep Sister Cecil said, " tomorrow remind me to google how long out car is preggo for." OUR cat haha. I just about died. Oh man.... what a week.

Oh and I wanted to add this really cool story that President Mortensen shared with us :) Love you all!

"There was a group of women in a Bible study that came to the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across this verse which reads: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." It puzzled them and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silver smith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silver smith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot--then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.

She asked the silver smith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silver smith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."

The reason the Lord uses us is because He is trying to help us become like Him. We need this experience!!"