week 15 1/2

Tuesday- 

Some wild miracles today. A lady I taught the first week I got here called us. She wad always really interested but always busy and canceling so we broke up with her. Well she calls us and she goes sisters I miss you and I am ready to accept the gospel now… then she's like let me tell you about something I've been reading and she then starts quoting our prophet and his talk about thinking celestial. My mouth dropped to the floor. Tatum is going to enter into a covenant with the lord!!!

Following her call I got a message back on Facebook from a person I had messaged. Long story short they are meeting us this week and then coming to church on Sunday. Yayayayayay. 

Wednesday- buckle in 

The morning was a rude awakening. The apartment was 51 degrees and out heater was blowing out cold cold air. Around 8am we gave up and called the maintenance workers. He came in and looked at it and was like you do know you have to turn it on to have it work? It took all of me not to go nooo Really??? 

Rather I explained that we turned it off because it's only blowing cold air making the apartment colder. He quickly came to the knowledge we were correct and said he'd make some calls. We left for a meeting. District council was profound. By some miracle our most amazing AP and most amazing ZL came to attend our district council. Purley random for them but for me it was not. I really had been feeling like I needed a blessing.When the Ap and zone leader came waltzing into the room the peace and assurance I felt confirmed that God knew what I needed. I was able to receive a beautiful blessing that said some pretty bold answers to my prayers. I was quite thrown off by how specific the blessing was. One specific thing that I will be holding onto is that the lord invites me to stay out here on the mission and to know brighter days are ahead. I had been praying so hard to know if this is truly where the lord needed me and if I should stay or not. Guess I'm holding on. Well shortly after disaster struck. Doug texted to cancel…. He leaves Thursday for Arizona and today he was supposed to fill out his baptismal calendar.

Anywho we went about our day and had some great calls and found two new friends to teach! We went to visit a lady who was taught in the past and she invited us to come back!!! Then we had someone call us and we set up a time to come do service and teach. On our way to a stop by there was a car stopped in the middle or the road and the doors left open. We slowed down and there was a lady on the side of the road. Again long story short we helped push her car because it ran out of gas and then I went and bought her gas so she could get home. We had to rush to the relief society dinner. It was such a good night. We chatted a lot with the sisters we sat by and at the end we heard some beautiful testimonies. The spirit in the room was so tender and so loving. Well we got called Doug and ran to his house at 8:30…… HES GETTING BAPTIZED ON DECEMBER 23RD!!! Woohoo he's so excited and already told his daughters. He insisted we text the bishop and everyone to tell them it was so fun. Then he goes “ Alexaaaa I'm getting baptized on December 23rd” it was so precious. Happiest moment of my life. I'll add the voice clip and pictures!!! 

Thursday- 

A lovely day. I woke up so dang tired but rolled out of bed onto my knees and began the day. Had a semi good personal study. Not my best work due to the lack of sleep. Then we ran our guts out at basketball with the relief society women. One of them played in college, 4 played in high school and then on a team. A few others that played occasionally and then there was me hahaha. I thought I was going to die. I managed to be the speediest and that's the only thing I had going for me. I made two beautiful shots and a ton of awful shots lol. I started to play soccer half way through and threw hips. Had to calm down so I didn't break any hips. Moving on. We ran to our apartment to shower and then run to service. We did service for this lady who use to be taught. We'll she was the most beautiful lady. She has the biggest heart. We put up her Christmas tree and then cleaned her walls. She told us her story and wanted us to come back to do a lesson!! She says I like to get all the sisters gifts everytime you come I have something for yall to show my appreciation. We tried to insist not to give us anything but she insisted she had to and didn't want to make us feel like she was taking advantage of us…. The most kind stubborn woman I've ever met….. well my mom and grandpa might top her. It's a close tie.

Gotta hurry this along anyways we had to change in the McDonald's bathroom and it was beyond nasty, the worst 4 minutes of my life. We got to see the most beautiful lady with the attack geese I have mentioned her in previous emails. We then went to see Robert, a man we taught about two weeks ago. He is wonderful and has been reading the Book of Mormon. Sadly he is going to Florida for like 4 months. We did some solid calls and set up some appointments. Keith called us for the 4th day in a row so we did a zoom Book of Mormon study. He cracks me up. We then knocked and planted some seeds. As we were driving away we passed a lady and I was like pull over!!!!! We unrolled the windows of the car and waited for the lady to catch up. I creepy yelled out the Window and once again long story short she wants to come to church but lives in cleveland ahhh. We keep finding people for the Cleveland elders they should reciprocate. 

Had a lovely member meal and had the most profound spiritual discussion. Got sent home with a whole box of gf dairy free ice cream popsicle thingys. At this point my cold has started to set in. I refused to go home so we did some more calls and planned out our Friday morning training for the whole mission. We have been given the “honor” of teaching the entire mission. Luckily spiritual revelation flowed and we filled up 5 pages worth of bullet point thoughts. I feel confident we were meant to give the training but I'm not necessarily enthusiastic about it considering I've began to sneeze and cough up a lung every two minutes. 

Friday- 

Woke up sicker than a dog. Coughing a lung up, a wee bit of a fever at 101 and I said not today Satan. We gave a profound training that I only remember slightly but we got like 6 calls and texts that it was lovely, hope thats the truth. We then had a profound last mentor session. Did some fabulous weekly planning. Took loads of drugs. Then we went out knocking in the rain with a 101 fever. Slay girl boss move. We found 6 new lovely friends and my fever broke. The lord provided miracles. Let me expand on the new friends. Two almost got baptized but had an event happen that caused them to be busy and fall off the face of the planet. Well now they want to meet again and come back to church. I then found 4 new friends on social media and all wanted to learn about the Book of Mormon and asked me tons of questions and I set up calls with each of them. Then while knocking we found 2 more new friends that might come to church and then planted a bunch of seeds and left invites to Kirtland nativity exhibit!!!! At this point my body was screaming to go home so at 8:50 we got some dinner and I zonked out. Well I slept feeling like a Fat elephant was on my chest.  

Saturday- 

My chest pain has increased and the elephant has gotten fatter. I decided exercise might not be a good idea so I took a 15 minute nap in a kneeling position on the ground with my face smashed into the couch. Apparently my talent to fall asleep in any position has not changed. I just have to be tired enough. I decided to be stupid and go out knocking again for two hours. I have no self control. We talked to so many people. We knocked every single house that had a car outside and met the most lovely people. We met the cutest older couple that just moved from the Philippines. They had a little nativity outside and we approached them. Again long story short they are super excited to go to the Kirtland nativity exhibit and they showed their nativity to us up close because he made it from wood from the philippians and said the wood was way older than us combined. Him and his wife were so nice. We are per chance stopping by again next week hehehe. As we were walking I felt the most distinct promoting to stop and go back and knock a house. There was no car in the drive way but I figured why not. Well we met a fantastic man! We are also going back next week. Thennnnn there was a house that looked just like my grandparents house( My moms mom and dad) so I knew I was destined to knock it as well hahah. We met the nicest lady on the planet. She looked terrified but quickly opened up. We will also be going back to see her. At this point my body said please take a break so we decided to go do some member stop bys and just drop off our cute notes we wrote them. Side note I swear I stayed a safe distance away from everyone and wore gloves and did not cough to keep everyone safe :) 

Anywho, we had a delightful dinner with rambunctious kids. Both their kids are under the age of 8 but reminded me of my siblings over the age of 20 back home. I enjoyed the crazy and loudness. Nothing else significant happened. 

Sunday- 

My personal study was elite. A great way to start off the day. Church was really good minus our friends didn't pull up but Doug went to church down in Arizona!!!!! We got a new ward missionary who's amazing. I am still having some interesting chest pain. We did some finding and some member stop bys. Had an interesting member meal. Then met up with the stls to do training visits. I went to shaker with Sister Brown. I have such a love for Shaker I want to one day be STL there. My district leader was concerned and called the mission nurse to report me for my chest pain… how rude but so nice. She told me if it wasnt gone or at least better tomorrow I'd have to go in to be seen. Elders can be so dramatic jk it was probably needed. I was going to call her eventually. 

Monday- 

 Quick summary of today. Went to doctors. Got locked out of apartment. Had the yummiest lunch of my entire life consisting of corn tortillas cheese and turkey with some ranch and chick fil a sauce. I'd say they're in my top 5 for quick lunches. Anywho, we found 3 amazing families that all wanted to come to church and have us come back. I'm so jealous this isn't my area. Got some authentic Mexican food for dinner and then topped it off with ice cream. 

Wednesday- 

Wilden day. We wrapped large trees with Christmas lights and I think this is my calling in life. Mine looked real crisp. It was raining and hailing on us but I had the time of my life even if I was coughing up a lung and a half. My district leader might be one of my favorite people out here. Anywho, him and his companion who is also one of my favorite people came to a lesson with us and it was fantastic. All our other lessons canceled nothing significant happened besides dinner with the sweetest lady. She was talking about our last meal together except she didn't realize we were the same sisters and she went on and on about how they(us) were the sweetest and most fun. Made my heart sob. She might have fed me straight gluten but it was so worth it for her. It was time for pbz night and I had not a worry in the world about me and my comp. I knew we were staying together. Before we opened it we went and got ice cream as a district. My district leader bought lactose free ice cream and I'm a literal idiot and was like since when were you lactose intolerant??? He just looked at me and I was like ohhhh it's for me. Precious. We went to the church and listened to a talk and then opened PBZ and sure enough I was staying with my comp. My favorite stl sister williams was leaving and so was my district leader so I was a little sad but I was over joyed that I was staying.