Letter December 2, 2013

Happy December! I cannot believe that I get to skype you guys in like 23 days... I can't wait! It will be so fun to tell you stories in person... so you can actually understand how awesome and funny everything I tell you is. And I miss seeing you so it is going to be really fun and I am super excited and yeah. SO THIS WEEK was pretty great. It was slightly slower than normal because people were so busy with Thanksgiving and all that jazz but we still had some pretty incredible experiences. So I am just gonna skip straight to the good stuff. 

OKAY THIS NEXT THING Is probably the coolest thing that has happened in my whole mission. Maybe my whole life. Either way. So it is a freezing cold blizzard outside.. and we are headed out tracting. The thought of walking around getting rejected by people wasn't sounding all too fun, but I bundled up like an overweight snowman and we headed out. Oh and backup to the night before.. we were planning.. and we pick out the night before where we are going to tract. So we were sitting staring at the map... not feeling really inspired about anything... but we did feel slightly lead to a street called Serene. Okay so fastforward we get to Serene.. and start knocking doors. The first one... nothing.. get to the second door.... and this teenage boy answers. We talk to him for a minute, give him the normal spheal (I don't know how to spell that word but I really wanted to use it and I don't have any way to figure out the spelling sorry...) ... and then all of the sudden his mom appeared at the top of the stairs and invited us in. We were obviously excited because we got out of the freezing snow. We start talking to her.. and her name is Patricia. She had an awesome accent and she told us that she is from Argentina. AND then she told us that when she was 18 in Argentina, she took all of the missionary discussions, went to church for 3 years, lived right by a temple, and that she wanted to get baptized. But her dad was a hardcore Catholic, and she said he was dying and she didn't want to break his heart.. so she didn't get baptized. Then later she married an American.. moved to Ohio.. and didn't really know/think that there were missionaries and a church here. She said that she still prays the way the missionaries taught her.. because it helps her to have a personal relationship with God. She said she loved all the things she learned from the missionaries and they spirit she felt. The whole time I was standing there in shock. Honestly PLEASE do not try to tell me that we just happened to pick Serene street... and then just happen to knock on someones door who almost got baptized and loves the church... because we were straight up lead to her. And it was the coolest thing ever. So we had an awesome talk with her and we are going to teach her the lessons again! SHE IS SO COOL I just am so happy and thankful that we were lead to her. Just another miracle of being a missionary. When we left her house me and my companion both just stood there for a good 5 minutes just not even able to comprehend it. It was just the strongest testimony to me that this really is God's work and that He is using us to reach out to the people that need the Gospel. It was just so evident to me that He loves Patricia and that He needed us to find her. It was one of those times that I realized how important and significant this work that I am doing is.

So yeah that was really the biggest highlight of the week. We had awesome lessons with both Inger and Lavonne! At the end of Lavonne's lesson she was just so happy about the things that she is learning and how much she is feeling God's love now that she is learning more about him. She said in her prayer "Dear Heavenly Father, my bible study went GREAT today." It was awesome. Hahah it is also funny how all of our people call us "The Bible Study Teachers" no clue why but it is hilarious. 

Brenda Dougly is doing pretty good! Still working on the smoking thing. This week was a bit crazy because her daughter got married... and yes we did attend the reception which was on Thanksgiving. Oh that reminds me Thanksgiving was great! We went to my bishops house for like 12 hours.. okay only like 6 but still. The food was all really delicious. My bishop said "The goal is 4500 calories" and I am proud to say that I far exceeded that goal. hahaha just kidding. Somehow I lost 2 pounds on thanksgiving even though I ate like a starving animal? No clue how that worked out. Hahah I don't normally eat that much at thanksgiving because at home with Mom cooking every day is a thanksgiving status meal.. but now that I am a missionary.. when there is a chance to eat lots of good food we go for it. We also played scrabble and I got third. Weak. I did use the word Pique and it was pretty impressive. Also I used the word LSD.... hmm... I was debating about it because ya know I am a missionary and that is a drug.. but my bishop agreed that it was worth it because I got a TON of points. Hahah wow okay anyways so after we left their house we went to Brenda's for the wedding reception. It was the funniest thing ever. We show up... and there are all these people like "WE GOT SOME WHITE GIRLS IN THE HOUSE" because we really were the only white people there. They like gave us all this cake and candy and we pretty much were the talk of that party. It was awesome. We did get to have a lesson with Brenda and it was great. And we gave the married couple a Book of Mormon and Bible as their wedding gift. Classic times. 

We were up at Kirtland on Friday and Saturday, and it was the opening of the big Nativity event so there were lots of people! Okay funny story. So there was this "lighting ceremony" on Friday night to kick off the event... and so everyone is outside waiting to turn the lights on. And we realized we forgot our cameras, so we ran up the stairs to get them.. and then we came out the back of the building.. and then we heard counting... so we started running... and RIGHT when we turned the corner the lights came on and I yelled "WE MISSED IT" And then I realized that I was standing right where the lights all came on and right where everyone was looking..... so I slowly backed away and hid in a hole. Basically ruined the entire Kirtland Christmas lighting ceremony..... it is amazing that they didn't send me home from my mission. Hahah. It was so embarrassing. I am still trying to recover. But besides that damaging experience Kirtland was great! It is really pretty with the snow and lights and everything. And since we started this event there are a lot more people which is nice because it is more opportunities to share about the church! 

I have a few Joe quotes for you this week!
"I used to be a great dancer. You can ask anyone in this town and they will tell you. Actually, you can ask anyone in ANY town. " 

"LISTEN TO ME MISSIONARIES. When are you going to come to my house and teach me everything so I can be baptized?" Hahhaha he really wants to get baptized. We set a date for January 4th! 

"I made myself a punkin pie, bought a turkey.. and tomorrow I am going to stuff that baby up." 

He also told us that pizza was his idea.. hahaha we were dying. 

OH and last night we had a lesson with Barbra. The lesson went pretty well and then we asked her to say the ending prayer. She started praying (oh and just a little background her daughter had a baby really early.. so the baby has been in the hospital and has to have surgery) and she said "Please bless my granddaughter Ariana, cause she is kinda tiny and has no clue what is going on... and please bless my other granddaughters because they really get a kick out of seeing someone so small." hahahah we all started laughing so hard. If you could just picture the Barbster you would be laughing your heads off. She is awesome. 

Well my time is up and I have to get going. I hope you guys all have a great week! I love hearing from you and I am so glad that I have so much support. I think about you guys all the time and I can't wait to skype you in a few weeks. I am so happy that I am here in Ohio and that God has blessed me with so many amazing experiences. I feel so lucky. Tomorrow we get to have our mission conference, with everyone in our entire mission, INSIDE the Kirtland temple! It is going to be the coolest experience ever. My mission is super cool and I love it. The end. Okay but really I have to go I love you all!

Love Cassidy