Hazardous fumes ...

Kim cleaning the black mold out of our bathroom with us!

Well to start...... This morning we were awakened by Kim barging into our apartment with all of Home Depot. We went to work on our bathroom. I don't know if I can describe to you how funny it was to see her take a crow bar to our baseboards in that tiny bathroom. And she was like, high off of bleach fumes hahaha. CLASSIC. This week we also put 2 investigators on date! Delaney (finally) has a set date and time. It's OFFICAL, GUYS. Saturday May 10th at 2:00 pm. We booked the church so no one can change their minds. Kim's trying to find her a baptism dress..... Delaney's like 6 foot (literally) okay? Kim's looking at 8 year old poofy baptism dresses... for a 6 foot 14 year old girl.... anyways hopefully we'll find a good alternative. Also- we put Holly on date! Can't remember if I've talked about her before (this isn't the Holly we live with). Holly is 23, her husband is an inactive member and they live with his active parents. I have been teaching her ever since I got in the area, when her mother in law called us up and said her daughter wanted to take the lessons. She's so solid and always has been- the only hold up was a little prescription drug issue. She did the 12 step program and is now good to go! She was scared to talk to her husband and tell him she wanted to be baptized- she thought he would be mad because he doesn't have good feelings towards the church. So I've been trying to get her to tell him for literally 3 months. She finally did and he said she could do whatever she wants. The only tricky thing.... if she was to move out of her in-law's- what's the chance she'd stay active? I don't know. She's adorable though and I could not be happier for her. She's being baptized on the 4th- that's TWO baptisms TWO weekends in a row! Yay! 

Brody and Tara came to church this week. They are the less active couple who I've been teaching forever who didn't start progressing until we read the Book of Mormon with them. The ward mission leader hooked them up with church clothes (perks of living in a rich stake) and they commited to come to the first hour.... ended up staying 2 hours- yay! Guess what the lessons were on? The Book of Mormon. How perfect is that? I was worried they wouldn't feel welcome... picture this: a ward full of picture-perfect Molly Mormon newlywed couples, 60+ year old couples, or 90 year old widows. That's the ward for ya. And Tara is tall and pretty with long hair and has some tattoos.  Then Brody is short, stocky, has red hair that he wears in a pony tail, a red beard, tattoos everywhere and gages. Surprisingly, Brody was talking to everyone! He made a bunch of new friends and was having the time of his life looking through all the cool stuff on the LDS tools app. I was shocked but like... okay, I'll take it! And they read their reading assignment this week! How weird is that? It's really cool to see people who obviously have never cared about church and know almost nothing accept the gospel and actually make an effort. I can't tell you how cool it is.

I LOVE my companion- we have so much fun together! Everyday's a party. Sister H (last comp) writes Holly (one we live with) and Kim, and has said her new comp isn't very nice to her and isn't very obedient... I think she really misses me- not to toot my own horn or anything. It's really kind of sad- I feel bad for her!

The hospital is on flu lock down so we haven't been teaching anyone there for a while.

A few days ago I ran into Charlotte Haws’ mom Rachael. They literally live 5 houses down from the Binghams (where I live) and I NEVER knew!

Easter was SO fun! Kim reserved us for Easter weeks ago so we spent the whole evening there. Jason made us a huge wonderful dinner of steak and vegetables and yummy things.... then Kim probably spent $50 on each of our Easter baskets. She's so funny.... Her 2 oldest girls who live in Salt Lake came down too and we got to hang out with them. They are both inactive and do not have good feelings towards the church so I tried my best to sneak spiritual stuff into the conversations. They are so fun though- I love them. With their 4 girls- it feels just like being home! Plus they are super into artsy stuff so we molded a bunch of cute stuff out of clay and drew pictures and painted and such... so fun. 

Being on a mission is so fun. Sometimes. Sometimes it sucks. Most of the time it sucks. But sometimes it's really awesome. Especially when people actually keep their appointments and open their doors for you and decide they want to come to church and decide to get baptized and tell you that you changed their lives and such... that's pretty cool. One thing the mission has taiught me- homes without the gospel CAN be happy.... but if a home has the gospel, it's guaranteed to be happy. Not perfect- but happy. And more peaceful than it normally would be. 

Note for all of the not-Mormon people who receive this email:
 if you want missionaries to NOT bug you do the following:

-have sprinklers in your yard on ALL DAY LONG
-get 5 ugly stinky dogs

if you want a sign that says "missionaries actually have some potential here" do the following:

-smoke weed with the windows open
-put a cross on your door
-mow your lawn on a Sunday

just random tips and tricks hahahhaha HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK. Someone go to the gym for me!

Heidi