F-U-N

During personal study one morning this week, I get startled outta my focus by our neighbor across the wall who's making weird noises........wait for two seconds.......then she starts up again. After listening for a couple minutes I realize, she's chanting.    

Like inaudible voodoo witchcraft status. ...over and over and over again......

F.R.E.A.K.Y.

and that's when we kicked comp study off with a hymn and it stopped;) #spiritswag
That same day we headed off to a service project (Feed My Starving Children) and decided to split up the district fam so we could contact more people while serving. Sis Bishop and I ended up at a packaging table where we start talking to our teammates only to realize that of all the people there, we ended up with the head of the chaplain department at the hospital.....a passionate Lutheran. 

This should be fun.....

Turns out, he was friendly, buuuuuuut.....not interested. Go figure. one day......one day......

We then were told that after filling a box of packaged meals, we were to come up with a team cheer (it's supposed to build enthusiasim ......#2cool4school:) that's related to the country we're boxing meals for. Sooooooo.....the middle-aged woman who's job it was to box, decided to have a different cheer each time we filled a box. After four or five old-school cheers (like the ones that are followed by silence and cricket noises) I was DYING.

"Alright! Next cheer! What do we wanna say?"

I turned to my companion and said...."Swag on Swahili."   She turned, passed it on, and the woman (bless her heart) stood there a bit confused and then said:

"Alright! One....two.....three! Salty Swahili!!!"

ehhhhhhh........close......... hahaha! Oh well.....A for effort.

Later on in the week, we went back over to Yung's (our 90 year-old friend's) house to finish helping with her roses. She came out with us for a while, and started showing us how to feed the roses using a fertilizer. She dug her hand deep into the mixture and spread it around the plants, then said, "See, girl? see? Now you go."

She went inside and then, following orders, I took the feed and got to work. BUT before digging my hands into the fertilizer, I read the back label which said in caps: "DO NOT TOUCH MIXTURE WITH HANDS" followed by italicized, underlined, and bolded instructions on what to do if feed touched skin.

Ummmmmmm.............

Sis Bishop and I were SO confused with what to do, we ran inside to find Yung and make her wash her hands. Try telling a 90 year-old chinese woman who speaks "not good, only little bit English" that she's just touched a poisonous substance. 

15 minutes of AWKWARD.
 

She was so confused....and ended up telling us to keep washing our hands....keep washing...while she brought us all kinds of shampoos, conditioners, soaps, shower gels, lotions, and perfumes to use on our hands.

bless. her. heart.

With no luck, we finally decided to call POISON CONTROL to figure out our worst-case-scenario and if our friend would die from touching rose food. Luckily, we were able to figure out what to do thanks to the guy on the other end of the line......and Yung's still alive;)

#sismishlife

Never a dull moment.......

On Friday night, our ward mission leader (who, btw, is a JOHN MCCAIN LOOK-ALIKE 
.....yes, I have cool ward mission leaders:) took Sis Bishop and I out for dinner at Thai-Sushi. Two of my f.a.v.o.r.i.t.e. foods.......perfect.

It was Sis Bishop's first time eating Sushi, and she had NO idea what to expect. Soooooo.....we dished her up the unexpected:) Convo later that night:

Me: "So what'd ya think of the sushi?"

Sis Bishop: "Well, first off, I thought a 'roll' was going to be an actual roll until they brought out that plate and then I was like...'Nope, that's not a roll'"

L.O.L..... she thought we were getting bread rolls;) (with rice, crab, avocado, seaweed, and cucumber as an inside spread)....Gotta love a comp from UTAH.........Welcome to sushi......haha

After dinner...we decided to get creative with some missionary work so we headed over to a near-by electronics store to have some fun.......wait for it......we pulled up mormon.org on all the ipads, laptops, computers, and notebooks.

Haters gonna hate

But hey....we saw a guy tap an ipad screen only to have mormon.org pop up...... aaaaaannnndddd .....he didn't log off......we enjoyed watching his wheels turn as he started browsing. #stalkerstatus #dowhatchyagottado

And it only cost us 5 awkward minutes of accidentally setting off a security alarm........fail

We also got to teach JAMES this week!!!! He's absolutely a.m.a.z.i.n.g.!!! We love him! He really does teach us more than we teach him and his perspective on the gospel and his purpose here is outta this world!!! He's anxious for baptism and we can. not. wait. to see him get there!! Can't say enough about this guy! It doesn't get better than this!

We got to teach Rita and Eddy this week as well and had an awesome discussion! They're former investigators, but we're picking them back up and really finding our groove with them. They are very accepting of the gospel and the principles we teach.....now just to get them committed to put that knowledge into practice;) We got a tour of their house after our lesson and .....o.m.gosh.......it was SICK!!!!
 

Downstairs...Eddy has a huge train collection with a railroad town he built by himself (see pics below)! We also got the tour of all his car show trophies (there were a ton!), their carousel horse, coca cola antique collection and a number of stuffed animals that Eddy had either hunted and killed....or that they'd found on the side of the road......one of the two;) hahaha! And theeeeeeennnnn......Eddy takes me over to show me his JUKE BOX.

Like a legit JUKE BOX.    

Never seen one in my life, and this thing was the real deal......wwwwwhhhhhhaaaaat. What's even better, Eddy shows me all the songs it plays, and says, "pick one ya know, and I'll play it"

Okkkkkkkkkkkkk.....test of time.....literally......uhmmmmm...........ehhhhhh........scan scan scan scan scan........this is getting awkward......i have NO idea what these songs are......if nothing else, this is proof  I'm not a 70's chick.......and then....

BAM

Found one I know: MO-TAB. yup....good old mormon tabernacle choir, battle hymn of the republic. I done know that one. Cranker.

And Eddy stayed pleased. #winnerstatus

That was a fun night, and Rita came to church the following Sunday! We're making progress with them and are praying and hoping that this is now their time to accept and be blessed by the gospel!!! Keep em in your prayers!!

Our laughs for the week included Sis Bishop accidentally leaving out a "with you" at the end of "We'll miss eating tonight!" (sent to a wardie who had to cancel a dinner appt but instead left us with a generous gift card....awwwwwkwwwwward;), having a receptionist tell me I had Kate Middleton's eyes (like best compliment e.v.e.r.:), having a former investigator (who's in her 70's) fill us in on her current love life which consisted of dating "the guy across the street, and the guy down the road, and the guy from the club, and the guy who's 85".......ah hah......playah.
 

Oh...and did I mention?......I've been called to speak a language in this mission!!!!!!!! SIGN LANGUAGE!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! President called this morning and said there are investigators and less-actives in the Chicago stake who are deaf and who need translators in order to be taught by the missionaries!!!!!! 

WHHHHHAAAATTTTT!?! I am SO excited!!! Nervous, YES. But SO excited to be using the knowledge I have to bless others' lives! (Guess I should have paid more attention to that prompting to brush up on my signing skills....like the one I got four months ago......ooooppps;) luckily, I've been given permission to do an hour of language study a day!!! Wooooo wooo!!!! MIRACLES.....

Sis Bishop and I are having a blast in this area!!! It's hard.. it's long... it's tough sometimes, but we're alive and kicking. 
 

I've started to realize that missions are meant to be hard for a lot of reasons. They make you a better person. They teach you vital life lessons. They humble you. They mold you....and they make you SO SO HAPPY!!!
 

There are always going to be days on a  mission (and in life) that you don't want to keep going and feel like you can't. But you get up on your feet, keep walking, and start finding joy and satisfaction through working through it all. 

God can't take you to better places, if you won't move your feet. 

Mission are amazing. They're challenging, but they're worth it. SO worth it. Never forget that. Anything in life that God gives us, is ALWAYS worth it. His goal is to make us happy--here and later. So trust Him! Welcome the opportunity to grow and find new happiness!! 

Work hard.

Trust Him.

Smile more.

Have faith.

Keep on keeping on.

Onward and upward,

Sister Anna Parker

juked

#selfies #noshame

first pday lunch with the comp