Letter from Cassidy 10-21-14

HELLO!

Well it was a busy week out here! We got to see a ton of people and people are making awesome progress. THE MISSION IS GOOD. That is all.

Things are going really well with the Graves family! We had another awesome lesson with them this week. It is really fun because they all want to be there and want to learn. And it is always powerful to hear the parents bear their testimonies of how they have seen their lives improve as they have started to fully live the Gospel. I have just really grown to love their family so much. It is amazing how that happens on a mission. You just love people a weird amount and sometimes it freaks me out a lot.. but it makes it so fun and meaningful. It is cool that I have this opportunity to meet people and they always change my life. I will remember them forever. Crazy to think about how much my mission has changed my life. Sam is going to get baptized on November 30th... conveniently like right after transfers haha... I am preparing myself now to get moved right before. Because that ALWAYS happens to me. It is okay though because I get to do the fun part of teaching him!

Okay time for a funny story. Well I hope that it is funny. It is funny to me. But sometimes I realize that A) I have turned into a weird missionary who finds things funny that most likely aren't actually funny. B) You have to be here to understand why it is funny. But I will tell you anyways. So there is this lady that we go and do service for who is older and from Peru so she has an awesome accent. And we were there for lunch the other day.. and she asked us to move her grill off of her deck and into her garage. (PS why she thought we could lift a huge grill I have NO clue) anyways we somehow managed to get it, but she had to move the riding lawn mower in the garage to fit the grill. And we finally get this huge thing lifted into the garage (and I only broke my foot once going down the stairs) and then I guess she thought she had the lawn mower in reverse when she didn't... because all the sudden she drove smack into the grill and it is like completely tipped over and she could get it to reverse and was freaking out. hahaha I was dying. Just picture this old grandma on a riding lawn mower knocking over a grill. It was too funny. Then she asked us to help her upload pictures to facebook of all these paintings she has done. And her computer was a mess and we couldn't locate this picture and she was like 'We have to find it. It is Jesus riding on white horses" and man it was funny. One of the weirdest service things I have done. But that's okay. It is always good to help grandmas with facebook.

Also... we had 2 lessons with this less active named Billy. He is a nice guy...  BUT HE WAS EATING HIS ORANGE MUSTACHE DURING OUR LESSON. Yeah he literally would put his mustache in his mouth and chew it. Pretty sure that is an all time weird.

We had a miracle this week! We actually got to have a lesson with our investigator Susie! We haven't been able to teach her for like 5 weeks. And we had a super good lesson about the Word of Wisdom. She has quit everything and is working on quitting coffee. She is down to 1 cup a day from drinking like 3 pots a day. She is so solid. She has consistently been coming to church and she loves it! She even cleaned the church last week and loved that so much that she asked to do it every week.... pretty sure she is doing better than most the members.. hahah. But things are looking up with her!

We got to have a very interesting dinner with a family that has 890 kids who are all home schooled and apparently don't know what deodorant is. Scary times.

We had a super awesome lunch and lesson with the Grimms! They are from Germany! It is so much fun because they remind me of our German relatives so much. I almost feel like I am in Germany eating with them. Especially because they don't think that you ever get full and they keep making you eat more and more until you almost die. And Dieter was having a heart attack because he thinks I eat too much salt (which okay I probably do) but I was like "Oh well I will probably die from it." and he said "hopefully soon." and he is an old German with an odd sense of humor so I have basically no clue if he was kidding or not. haha. Then we had a lesson about Joseph Smith.. and it got pretty intense in a good way. Dieter isn't a member, and he has a really hard time with faith. And he gets really defensive when he feels the spirit. And after I bore my testimony to him he got really upset.. and then just said "You are very lucky that you really know. I wish I had that." And it is cool because he can and he will if he will just stop fighting it so much. It's hard because he promised his mom before he died that he wouldn't get baptized... so even if he does know it is true I think it is too hard for him to think he is disappointing his mom. It is just sad. But it ended really well and before we left he got out this thing and he tested my blood pressure 3 times (because he was THAT worried about my salt obsession) and my blood pressure was so low that he almost had a heart attack and told me to start eating more salt. hahah it was so funny.

Another cool thing happened! NEW INVESTIGATOR named Stephen! He is really awesome. He had us over to dinner (which was... interesting) and then we had a really good lesson. He wants to get baptized! He grew up Atheist and started going to our church a few months ago and he said that he has completely seen his life change. He said he has felt so much peace and happiness that he never had before. He has completely given up coffee and alcohol and everything. I asked him why he did that and he said "I just want to be who Jesus wants me to be." SO COOL. And he is taking us to Chipotle tonight so yeah best investigator award. haha. No but really it is so awesome. We are just teaching so many cool people who are so dedicated to it that it is awesome. Miracles just keep happening. I say that every week because they happen every week.

And with that I am out of time. It was a real good week! It is fun having more time in the area! Kirtland is starting to slow down quite a bit so that means we spend a trilion hours on chat... which is fun sometimes.. but other times when people spend 3 hours trying to argue about how Joseph Smith deserved to go to jail I just want to bang my head on the wall. Most the time I actually do. haha.

Okay well I hope you have a good week. I LOVE YOU. Bye.

love cassidy.