Transfer 6 Week 4

Pics: my progressing watch tan,

fireworks,

fridge drawings

wiggle flower

and regular flowers

A little girl living tHE GOOD LIFE: falling asleep whilst consuming a taco

The cutest card from the hawaiian old ladies husband, he passed away last december and she wears his wedding band around her neck. They met at the turtle races, I think he was 20 and she was 17, it was "love at first sight!" she says, holding her hand to her chest.

And two pictures from the desert this morning

but please admire my dark complexion 
please ignore my very Asian eyes

Sorry I'm emailing so late, but we spent the morning with our potential investigator! He's a hoarder (like dad but one or two notches higher) and we go over and force him to throw away things. His phrase is, "But I might use that later!" He's the one with the thick Brooklyn accent and we have thrown away four broken vacuum cleaners, recycled at least seven bags of aluminum cans, and seen many many piles of old rusty pieces of metal that he "might use later!". We got him to throw away the vacuum cleaners, but he chopped off the cords that he "might use later". We let him keep his old pile of bed frames because his fence for his horses is made out of it. I asked him, "Hold on, when you go to the dump to drop stuff off, do you come back with more stuff?" He says, in his thick accent, "Of COURSE! That's da fun of goin to da dump!" I told him my father did the same exact thing. Anyways he took us out dinosaur bone hunting, AKA we walked in circles and picked up cool rocks in the desert.

Our new investigator, the Jersey girl is still going strong! She told us that she tried grape juice with sprite and its just as good as wine with sprite, so goodbye alcohol! Hello grape juice! If only it were that easy for every drinker. 

An old man who we help in his garden said he saw a vision of my future, and I am a 48% believer of that story. Among the rest of his visions and 'Nam stories. He's straight out of the movie Big Fish, I swear.

We did service last Wednesday for the Brooklynite, leveled dirt. He has a big mustache and a hilarious little grandson. 

The blessings of service are blooming! Sister C in our ward told us that the woman across the street from her has a huge yard of weeds. The woman was away for her sons funeral. So we got some shovels and started going to work. We've been working on the weeds for days now, and one night the woman opened the door and was surprised to see us there. We told her that we heard she could use some service, she sheepishly and quickly thanked us. We tried to ask her the casual "How've you been?" and she choked back tears and she told us about her sons death. She seemed embarrassed and shut the back door quickly after handing us some bags for all the weeds. We continued to come back every couple of nights to pull her weeds, we'd talk and she'd pop her head out and give us more bags. Her husband did the same, a quick 'thank you', and not much more. 

We were out tracting last Wednesday at a door who has answered a few times but given us the "we're busy come back later" response. We take that response very seriously because this is a small town and there are only so many doors who haven't given us a firm NO. This time the man opened the door all the way. Before we had time to invite him to hear the restored gospel, he asked "Are you the ladies who have been pulling my sisters weeds?" He pointed down the street to the woman's house where we had been weeding. We told him, yes, we had heard she needed some help. His voice was soft as he thanked us, he said "I'd let you in, but we're in the middle of dinner right now." Usually, that response was an excuse, but we could tell he was sincere. He told us we could come back, and smiled, he thanked us two more times for the service we were doing for his sister. It is amazing how service softens hearts. How sometimes we think that our small acts go unnoticed. But they don't. They never are

A couple of days later on the fourth of July, the woman's husband came out as we were pulling weeds. He said "I have a little gift for you ladies." He put down two of those solar powered wiggly flowers and quietly slipped back into the house. I don't understand the wiggly flowers, but I understand a sincere thanks when I see one. It's interesting how naturally we wait for the "Thank you" when we really shouldn't. I want to serve without waiting for it, because it makes it so much sweeter if it does come.

We received many other gifts on fourth of july as we walked around in the hot sun:

Potato salad

a bag of jelly beans

roses

and most importantly, a dinner appointment! 

A member pulled up beside us on the road and invited us. 

The next day, a 9 year old gave me an arrowhead necklace because he maybe perhaps is madly in love with the sister missionaries.