run that race.

April 13, 2013

so what happens when you are halfway across the world for general conference?

you watch it a week late. in a room with no air conditioning... full of a bunch of recent converts... that may or may not really understand what it is or why they are there (it was almost comparable to the figeti-ness of their first fast sunday) with the thai version blasting on the TC. (YES! we  ACTUALLY have a TV.) and the 4 of us missionaries crowded around a laptop listening to the english. the english version may or may not have cut out halfway through the saturday afternoon session. hello language study! 

so. quick recap of my week (i've been hearing reports that weeks back at home have been crazy busy as well!)

 

monday. sukothai. way too much fun to even express. time with all my favorite missionaries, seeing old ruins... missionary work can't get a whole lot better here. 

 

sukothai = "old ruins"

 

me and sista pete

 

cool little statues in a cool tree by a cool wat

some random wat by our house

and the hour and a half song-tow ride... will never be forgotten. (i want you all to imagine 10+ people crammed into the back of a pick-up truck with some kind of cage welded to the top. yes it has seats... but they are not backside-friendly... and yet it is the preferred method of travel here in thailand. go figure. i would PAY for air conditioning...)

 

tuesday. we had district meeting. we talked about our expectations in coming on a mission. me: learn the language like a boss, speak like a native, and have super crazy amounts of scriptural knowledge. i took a few minutes to reflect on that. i don't speak very well. i still got lots of weird looks when i'm speaking... and i know the scriptures ok. but then he told us to think about the things that we have REALLY learned on our missions so far. that was a better thing to think about. i learned that i have learned to LOVE far more people than i ever thought possible. and that i have learned SO MUCH about service. and how selfish i was before. so our commitment for district meeting: to keep trying to reach our initial goal. and to DOUBLE on the real things that we have been learning. if i had to say that is where my priorities should have been in the beginning... i'd be right. and it just proves to me AGAIN that the lord (and not me) is in charge. 

 

wednesday. we started visiting teaching. the weird thing about starting a unit (we aren't even a branch yet... but guess what? we're officially recognized by the church now! woot woot!!!) is that you have to start... everything. it's easy when you just have to teach a young woman what visiting teaching is... but it's weird when they just learned about joseph smith 2 months ago. it puts everything into perspective a little bit. about the importance of loving those around us. about helping each other build up the ward/branch/UNIT... wherever we are in the world. we all have something to give. 

 

thursday. we taught a new investigator. the shirtless man. we didn't know if he was a creep or not... but apparently he actually DID try to come to our first appointment... but his phone was 40 minutes late. so he showed up... and we were teaching english. and he was afraid to come in. lucky that we decided to do the wander-style of contacting. or we probably wouldn't have met him that second time. it's soooo not me in charge. 

 

we decided to start a piano class here. (well... my companion is teaching... i'm.... observing.) we made a bunch of cute little pianos (LITTLE is the right word) for everyone to practice on, since we only have one piano in the whole church. probably in all of kamphaengphet. and we taught them a song. so we had four people at a time squished onto the piano, learning how to play. hopefully a little more music theory will help them to be able to read some music... so i am not conducting for the rest of my life. that would be nice.

 

after piano class we had scripture study. our mission started it as a way to help all of the RCs that we've had finish the book of mormon within this next year. we decided to read about enos this week. teaching them what it really means to want an answer. so we read the story, and did an activity on "how bad to you want it?" we had everyone start by standing on one leg. i should have known thai people would have great balance. not as quick as i thought. then we had 2 people put their feet in ice cold water, to see who could stand it the longest. they.... never took them out. their feet were ice cold when they took them out later... guess they wanted it pretty bad? and finally... the best/worst part of the night. (just going to preface this... was NOT my idea.) we decided to have everyone chug a 1.5 liter bottle of water. ummmmm.... they did it. but everyone also ran out of the church to throw it all up as soon as they were done. ha. ha. um.... probably not an activity we will be using in the future. at least not with RCs, whose testimonies are still young saplings... ;) 

 

friday. i have to admit i'm not really a believer in asking contacts for referrals. it's just.... not a thing. they reject you, then they decide that they don't want to listen any more, so they just keep shaking their head and waving their hands.......... usually it doesn't work. but a few weeks ago, someone was like - hey! my daughter likes this stuff. ok..... can we have her number? sure. we got the number. called...... and she was in bangkok. she said she'd give us a call when she got back. suuuuuuuuuuuuuure. 

but she called. last week. said she had just pulled in... and that she wanted to meet us on friday. welllllll...... i can't really say exactly how i felt at the moment. i think i probably blacked out for a second. but we went through ALL the commandments. everything. she's good. and wants it. wants to be baptized. again and again. i'm not in charge here. 

 

CONFERENCE! i know this is old news to the rest of the world - but it was AMAZING! 

after conference on saturday we went out to eat dinner with the crazy cop. at a "steak house"... it was funning realizing that a "hi-so" place here.... probably wouldn't pass a health inspection back home. i want you to imagine not a texas roadhouse... but an apartment with a kitchen in the back. playing the titanic theme song, george strait, and "she don't know she's beautiful"... i was in heaven. and the chicken "steak" was pretty tasty too. haven't died yet... so i think it's ok. 

the ONLY problem with conference weekend in april... is that it falls on one of the biggest "holidays" of the whole year. songkran. so.... we didn't tell them they couldn't play... we just told them not to invite the missionaries to play on sunday. 

but guess who gets to go play today???????

pretty excited. 

this weeks mormon message trivia (i spent a lot of time of this one...):

"help build robots... and stuff." 

 

i just love this work so much! even in despite of the heat, the rain (yes, we have had that too this week), the smells, the weird creepers... it is the Lord's work, and it is such a blessing that we all have to take a part in it! 

3 nephi 5:13 behold, i am a disciple of jesus christ, the son of god. i have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life. 

i was amazed at the answers that i got from this conference... even if they did come the conference AFTER the one that i was praying for. we are disciples of jesus christ. we have the opportunity to share the things that we know and the happiness that we feel with the whole world. and if we have courage, he will make us into the best disciples, into the peters and johns... the people that are able to work miracles. 

i love it so much. 

and i love all of you! 

i hope this week (hey! next week is easter! eat some candy for me k? they don't even know what easter is here....) finds you all well, and that you will take a few minutes to remember the reason that this life here is happening, and the hope that we all have in eternal life. 

it's good stuff.

loves!

sister ellis

 

 

bestbirthdayconferenceextravaganzaever!

April 6, 2013

oh what a wonderful week to write about! hopefully i can make it somewhat entertaining...

so. yesterday was my birthday! if you forgot... you have time to repent, since it is still technically my birthday on that side of the world... 

 

my birthday cake (from a member) tasted like old bread covered in butter. and dowsed in sugar. yummmmm. it's the thought that counts right?

i can't think of a better way i would have spent this birthday, or a single thing i would have changed. from being able to listen to the women's session of general conference (we're a week behind here...)

to a BAPTISM! of a wonderful couple of investigators. their names are james and บิว (sounds like biew) ages 18 and 19. they are also now best friends with all of our cute little RCs. i think that was the biggest miracle of all. to have them so completely accepted into the ward. makes the change... so much easier. i remember kind of sarcastically/flippantly saying that a baptism on my birthday would be the best present ever. who knew that heavenly father actually gave presents on birthdays too? that was a nice surprise...

 

 

 

 

oh. and brother sutep (our unit leader) breaking out into an opera-esque solo at the end of the thai version of "happy birthday" woah. won't experience that one again. for sure! 

we spent the rest of the day doing pretty regular missionary stuff. eating with the members. baptizing people. (they were both baptized by RCs in the ward that have been members for about 3 months. so cool!) pepsi said that he was going to go home and practice baptizing with a teddy bear... (as you can probably guess... it took a couple of tries....) 

i invited a christian guy to come to church. it's always weird when you find one of those. "i'm christian already! oh sweet! you wanna come to church with us? and have you been baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of god? that one usually gets us some good looks. 

then we came home and guess who had a surprise birthday party on the roof? it was actually a surprise... despite my companions protestations that "i'm always there!" well sorry... i was just trying to follow the white handbook! ;) it was probably a little my fault... i kept saying i was going to take a shower at night... but then always felt too lazy. he. he. he. next time? the look she gave me was priceless. 

 

 

this week was just filled with all of those little moments that make life grand. like when we told our invesigators that we were going to clean the church... and they volunteered to stay and help. and while we were just sitting at the church calling all the people in our planners to tell them to come to church... we had a bunch of random people walk in and ask us about when we taught. i'll take walk-ins any day! even if they think that it's an office and not a church... 

 

the church.

the church parking lot.

RAIN! you know it's going to rain when you feel like your skin is melting. (but it's still really sunny) and THEN the sky starts to look really angry. but it's not always "na-non" (aka a sure thing). (i promise. i'm going to make some of these thai words a thing in english. they are so much more saduik. i mean... convenient.)

our investigators being nervous for their interviews. passing. being so excited for their baptisms. me almost dying because they were late for church... 

buses in thailand. ALWAYS an experience. whether it's a VIP bus to chiang mai... or the school bus pack from zone training in pitsanulok.... (you know... the one that floorboards are missing and you can see the road moving underneath the bus?) always fun. 

in zone training we talked about the miracles that are happening here.

this month (march) was one of the first months that a country in south-east asia got over 200 baptisms! it was awesome! and they keep building. 

they also talked about finding joy in this work. because sometimes... during inviting... you feel like a robot. it's easier than feeling like a human sometimes. because being rejected is hard. i actually think i've now been rejected more times than i was ever rejected by boys... 

but you can always find joy. in the fact that i can now ride without hands on my bike... 

 

 

when it rains... and all other thai people run for cover... there's the tall blonde farang standing there in the middle of the street. 

i'm always an oddity here. and no matter how long i stay here... i don't get any less strange to these people. one day i'm going to wake up and think i am thai... then look in the mirror and be shocked that there's a white girl looking back at me. 

if there is one thing that i've seen over these last few months... is that baptism... and the gift of the holy ghost... empower us. not just when we receive them when we are eight... or for a few months after converts get baptized. they change us for the rest of our lives. i've watched people as they are baptized, and their growth... just accelerates. a member that was a shy, awkward kid comes to church and asks us if he can have a book of mormon to give to his friend. the gospel changes us. it makes us into fearless, strong, capable people. we really can do all things through christ. he gives us the power that we need to do his work. on a mission in the field or throughout the missions of our lives. it doesn't matter where we are. 

oh. one last thing. mormon message trivia anyone? i will eat a chicken foot if anyone can get this one: "filter out the static" and hint: "glitzy"

love you! 

sister ellis

it's a good day

March 30, 2014

so i don't know how much everyone knows about what us missionaries in thailand actually do. and i don't know how different it is from other missions in the world. so i will elucidate. (i have to try and remember BIG words in english... i'm afraid i will lose them all!)

basically it starts with contacting. we have a mission rule to go contacting for at least 2 hours every day. when sister mullen and i started in KPP (kamphaengphet) - spelled like กำแพงเพชร (you wouldn't believe how long it takes me to find these letters on the keyboard...) - we had NO investigators. only a bunch of RCs of about 2 months. if that. so.... we contacted. all the time. if we didn't have plans... it was a whole day full of... (shudder) contacting. it's actually not that bad. since we really can't go door-to-door... we end up going to places like markets or big C and talk to people as they go in and out of the doors. we get kicked out if we go inside........ 

so we run around. hey - how are you? do you recognize baptism? yes. that is literally what i say. if they stop... i then say, 'this is a way we wash our sins.' 'do you want to wash your sins?'

i get several responses. one. complete denial of my existence. this one is always fun. because then i throw the last comment out and it seems to hover there in the air as they walk away...

two. giggling. usually happens with a group of teen girls.

three. "i don't have sins." or really? everyone has sins. and through jesus christ you can get rid of them. 

four. a person trying to tell me how to get to the church. ugh. i'm blonde and american. not lost!

five. you can speak thai?????

six. occasionally. rarely. almost unbelievably. someone will stop. and talk to me. 

seven. even more rare. someone interested in long-ing their bob! (washing their sins)

the focus our mission has had over the past few months is increasing the numbers of baptisms that we have - and finding those people that are "ready". it's crazy. but the even crazier thing is that it works. we are finding people that are ready to be baptized... in a matter of weeks. we met a few of our investigators just a few weeks ago. they would have been baptized yesterday if they had come with us to chiang mai. unfortunately... their moms wouldn't let them come. they were even willing to sneak out... we urged them against that decision. but they are getting baptized this coming weekend! 

 

the problem with going to chiang mai... is that our pday is pretty much toast. we slept in, emailed, studied... and finally got out of the house at 3. lame. our pday (which consisted of me buying a ukulele!) and annoying my companion with that for the rest of the week. i only got a limited number of chords... so the playing... was probably a little monotonous. even though somewhere over the rainbow is a great song... you can only listen to it a million times before it starts to get annoying... 

tuesday. english. district meeting. all that fun stuff. more contacting. 

wednesday. i almost hesitate to share this experience... because i probably should be less... i don't know. anyway. we had switch offs. and i wasn't excited. not one little itty bit. i thought that it was an excuse to come and judge me and my thai... and i wasn't having it. so i was thoroughly miserable most of tuesday night. i wasn't going to be happy. wednesday morning i realized how childish it was. so i prayed. a lot. just to help me to have a good day. 

i didn't expect anything. especially NOT the fantastic day that was in store. 

and it wasn't anything super special. it was just great. i loved the sister training leader that i went with, we had a great time, and i learned so much about being myself during contacting and about being fearless as well. (this sister positioned herself by the speed bump and stopped every single car that passed.) 

needless to say i had some repenting to do that night. and she said my thai was good. ok. i know i still have some work to do... but i was so good to hear a missionary that is close to finishing tell me i'm doing ok! (elders just don't give compliments like that.........)

she told me something i loved. from a t-shirt she'd seen. my new motto:

IT'S A GOOD DAY TO HAVE A GOOD DAY.

nuf said right?

oh. and we got 21 numbers that day. no big deal.

on thursdays we teach a scripture study class. for our recent converts (since most of them have never read the bible, let alone the book of mormon!)

we were talking about the story of lehi finding the liahona. and how it led them through the wilderness. we were trying to show them that with god, all things are possible! so we had them do a puzzle. all of them figured it out... except for one. when they would get it, they would say something like "i'm smart - like nephi!" poor kid that didn't figure it out... "he's a sam."

hahahaa. i shouldn't laugh. but it was funny. 

 

friday we were supposed to do double the normal amount of contacting. 4 hours. it's not the 4 hours that's hard...... it's the fact that it is 4 hours... in the worst weather of the year. it's miserable. we often treat ourselves with a trip into big c for an ice cream cone from dairy queen. 

later that night we were teaching our investigators the plan of salvation. and we had 3 different people stop by the church. it was nuts. we had a lesson going in thai, and a lesson for a couple of ladies from cameroon... one in thai and one in english. it was so strange teaching it all in english again! 

saturday was a special day. the day we clean the church. i don't understand where all the dust comes from. but it just...... appears out of nowhere! and we have a mouse in the church somewhere.....

sunday - BAPTISM! not ours... but the elders baptized 3 of their investigators! they were soooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuuute! i died. 

it was so great. 

i love it here. i love this work. 

it's crazy.... not the missionary work that i expected... but it is the missionary work that i love! 

 

 

 

this picture. makes me laugh. river baptisms.... they are a dangerous, epic endeavor. ;)

 

ok. this is already too long - but i want to thank everyone for their prayers - we've seen so many miracles this week, i know that we're getting sooooo much heavenly help! we must be stacking up prayers somewhere.... ;) 

 

thank you all! i love you so much!

keep up the good work!!!!!

pictures!!!!!

a few of our adorable rcs. they asked us if our patriarchal blessing told us who we are going to marry....

my favorite food. cucumber sumtam. 

oh. so stinking delicious!!!!

darth vader made a special appearance in thailand. 

 

never a more blessed people

March 23, 2014

i had a hard time thinking about what to write about this week.

mostly because it seems like ages ago that i was actually in kamphaengphet, 

thursday we all went to chiang mai, and rolled back into town at 1 in the morning... missionary life in the boonies. it's interesting. ;)

 

so we started out last week by getting a call from a member. telling us to come and eat lunch with her and her parents. who aren't members. she'd be paying for lunch. welllllll... it's hard to say no to a free lunch - even if it IS on a pday. so we went. ate lunch. and then got talked into riding out with them to their house. 8 kilos? i don't think so. it was wayyyyyyyyyyy far out there. but we did get a free ice cream and 3 jackfruits out of the adventure... so i'm not complaining. 

until tuesday. when i decided to cut into said jackfruit. big mistake. i didn't know what a jackfruit actually was. the pointy plant that looks like durian... i thought to myself... this will be easy! so i just into the plant. as i'm pulling it apart i see the sticky insides pull away from each other... like they didn't want to be parted and were holding on for dear life. i think i should have gotten a hint right there. but no. i persevered. next thing i know, i'm about elbow deep in stick. cutting away at the stupid basket-ball sized plant. massacring it is probably a better description...

finally. i finished the first half. so irritated and sticky that i decided that it was worth it to pay someone else to deal with it and just buy it at the market. never again. 

 

 

 

on wednesday we decided to go find a members house. usually when this starts, we go to the post office. they recognize us now. coming to look for ANOTHER house. and they always draw us nice little pictures... 

we get to the house... have a nice little lesson with her, then her father starts talking to us. after about 45 minutes of listening to him talk about religion (he was very christian and knew a LOT about the bible), my companion says we need to go. whew. sometimes i wish i understood thai just a little better. he was starting to bible bash a little... in thai. now that's not fair! i can't even debate in english! so we just bore our testimonies and got out of there as we politely could. 

so interesting.

 

i love little miracles. i seem to get them a lot. like contacting on wednesday night... having all 4 missionaries there and having 3 of the new members come out to help us as well (they are the best!) standing at the very end of a LONG line of people all asking everyone passing by to be baptized... i thought there was no hope for me to get ANY numbers. lo and behold... i get a girl that walks up to me and asks me what it is. is interested. i get a number. 

i just stood there laughing for a few minutes because i knew that heavenly father was just making sure that i knew who was in charge. and that even the missionary at the very end could still get a number if he wanted her to. 

 

thursday. chiang mai. for zone conference. 

we left our area... for ever! but it was good. we took all of our recent converts with us to a missionary "camp" they had up there with the whole district. 

then we had zone conference. the theme was "raising expectations", which i feel is what they have been doing here. they gave us all sticky notes and told us to jump and put them as high as we could on the wall. this sister wasn't going down without a fight. :) i only had about 6 elders beat me... and i was in a dress. (back to the REAL point of the story...) then they gave us another sticky note and told us to beat the last one. i think i did a belly flop on the wall. not so graceful. but i didn't disgrace myself too much. all my family can still be proud....

 

saturday they asked my companion and i to go with a group to lamphang. they didn't have any investigators so we were supposed to go and get a bunch of numbers. the problem is that by the time we got there, we had less than two hours before we had to turn around and go home to be at the night session of conference. in the end, we ended up missing that too. so... the logical part of my brain kept asking if it was really worth it. but then i remembered 1 nephi 3:7... i will go and do the things that my zone leaders command... or something like that. ;) 

 

sunday was full of meetings, stress, the spirit, and all those other good things. 

we had to wait for our bus to leave at 8:20. which means we got home at 1 in the morning this morning. not the bedtime of the white handbook... but for whatever reason i could NOT go to bed. i hopped on my bike at 1 and was rearing to go... i only regretted my lack of sleep this morning when the alarm went off...

 

 

 

well that's it for this week! 

i was studying this week, and i was reading... (wow... that's a novel idea) 

i was reading in ether. chapter 10. verse 28. when it says there were never a more blessed people. it reminded me of another scripture i read. 4 nephi 1:16. and i thought about it a lot this week. it is so interesting to be here at the beginning stages of a unit of the church. you see everyone that is just baptized and they are so willing to learn and to be obedient. then you see them as they try to figure out how this is going to be a lifelong thing. of fitting the church into their lives. and then i realized - it isn't a matter of fitting the church and religion into our lives... it is a matter of making our lives fit into our religion. of realizing what is really important. the problems come when we make things in our lives more important than god. when we decided that we care more about what people think than what god thinks. 

so to everyone out there - สุ้ ๆ ต่อไป! (it means keep fighting!) 

 

 

love you all!

ซิสเตอร์ เอลลิส

bugs in room 209

March 16, 2014

it's sad when i have to read over my sent emails to make sure that i don't re-send a joke...

so i won't be telling joke number one. (i can't have you all thinking i'm getting boring by repeating a joke about the number of 7-elevens we have here...) 

but we frequently visit the 7s. and the worst part... the water is THROUGH all of the treats. sometimes... i do not like how smart these marketing people are. i just hear them and their wicked laughs - MUAHAHAHAHAHA! as they watch me struggle to make it past the oreos, fun-os, dewberrys... not to mention the multitude of candy-like treats... it's a dangerous thing. but... at the risk of suffering heat stroke... we push our way forward to the back of the store. i swear it's magnetic... they just find their way to my fingers before i make it out of the store! then what do you do - "I swear - I don't know how these 3 bags of candy made it into the bag with my water. guess i'll HAVE to eat it." 

 

you know how i said it was hot last week? 

it got hotter.

according to an investigator... it gets hotter before it will rain. you also feel like you are swimming while you are walking around outside. agh. i think humidity has become my worst foe. but... on a positive note - it doesn't effect my hair the way i was fearing. ;) 

and sweat starts running down my face like a faucet... and we just stepped out the front door!

say hello to the handy dandy sweat rag. it's the best.

and yes. sweat. rag. it's a thing.

a very cute thing too.

and an absolutely necessary thing. 

so. more miracles. 

that's about all i have to report this week (other than the opressive heat.) there isn't much to do here in kamphaengphet... we went and "toured" Big C (the local wal*mart equivalent...) for pday with the elders. yes. that's what we do for fun here. that... and watch mormon messages. i can't tell you how many times we've watched expressions of love, living up to your privileges, and earthly father heavenly father. it's to the point now where we can tell exactly what one we are watching before it even starts. and we have favorite quotes from them all. 

"i'm stayin"

"not a spoonful... but a ladle-full of love. every. day."

"i'm awake"

"eat the cracker"

ok. enough of that silliness. 

it rained this morning! :) 

now. back to miracles.

last week we met shrimp. remember him? in thai it sounds like "goong" but your voice has to walk up and back down a mountain (aka mountain tone) 

he had just lost his job and was moping at the park when we met him. we saw him the next day and taught him how to pray. gave him a date. he prayed, and called us later saying that he had found a job! god works fast. he came to church last week... but the job. is now taking over. so... we are trying to get him to realize the importance of showing god how grateful he is for his job... by NOT working on sundays. it's... rough. that darned agency!

i realized this week that satan works just as hard as we do. if it was just up to us... we would fail. there is a lot of wicked and distracting influence in the world today (see mormon message: voice of the spirit) BUT we aren't in this alone. we will win because we have God on our side. and his side always wins. (see 2 kings 6:16)

another miracle. i gave a talk in church. 

ME. that's right. 

for all 10-something-odd minutes. about trials. 

i don't know if it was more of a trial for them to listen to me... or for me to have to speak... but it worked! :) and it actually wasn't as bad as i thought. good thing they all have testimonies too. ;) i don't want to be held responsible if any of them go inactive......

oh. and the super drunk guy we met last week. told us he was christian. is actually a VERY nice man that wants to get baptized. AND he brought his girlfriend/wife to church. and their baby. they ARE going to get married. pretty awesome. 

 

other things...

our investigator broke the chair during our lesson. i was laughing so hard... it was slow motion the whole way down....... just watching all the legs of the chair spread out ever. so. slowly... the finally one leg just giving out and flying across the room. 

the guy that called 7 times between 2 and 4 in the morning. and i slept through it all.... sorry sister mullen. 

contacting outside of a concert (i'm sure the biggest thing to hit khamphaengphet since bananas...) elder standing inside of a shopping cart bellowing "do you want to wash away your sins?" 

"yaag lang baab mie?" 

ate an earthquake. 

8 scoops of ice cream from swensons. in 10 minutes. 

should i be proud of this? probably not. 

they have a "food challenge" here in the mission. it includes: a large pizza from the pizza company. and earthquake. and slamming a whole sleeve of tim tams. in an hour. 

we've been committed to the challenge at the end of the transfer for "district unity"..........

i just had to practice. 

;)
 

before the unhealthy amount of ice cream...

 

after the unhealthy amount of ice cream.

 

pros to khamphaengphet:

quiet. 

it won't be long til everyone knows who we are. 

cucumber sumtam. arrrrrrroooooooooooooy! (delicious!) 

bananas. 

mango sticky rice. 

found the cutest shirt.

will get to play songkran here. woot woot! 

 

cons to khamphaengphet:

ants. everywhere.

even in my muesli.

:(

no bugs on the 8th floor. lots of bugs on the 2nd floor.

will not get a tv in the church until we become a branch. (means we need 3 MP holders. we have 1. and 2 AP.) gotta wait 6 more months for a tv. blast. 

 

other than that - life is GOOD! 

it always is. 

love you all to bits and pieces!