Brief demo

We'll see if this works--this is Emily's brief demo of how she broke her wrist

March 23, 2015

To infinity... AND BEYOND

Today we're going to tour NASA! A man in the ward works there (actually several people in the ward work there but he's the cutest little old man so we chose him haha), and he agreed to show us around!  AHHH SO PUMPED. He's the one that tracks all the satellites, and he says he's gonna show us all the good stuff, so ANHJSKWMXHDKSKS I'M SO EXCITED. We'll probably go to the moon, who knows. Pics to come. Do iPads work in space..? If I'm riding on the satellite.... Hmmm.. I'll let y'all know! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

This week has been super long, so much to say! First, I started driving this week! And I LOVE driving on the east coast. It's absolutely NUTS. We also got bikes for our area! We're already 330 over our miles for the month just because we're so far from the VC, so now we only drive to the VC and back, and then bike in our area. That's the idea anyways haha it's only actually worked out that way a few days, it's been SO cold, windy, and stormy this week. But it's so fun! Biking in skirts is the WORST hahaha definitely a learning process... 

It's been an up and down week for sure, most importantly.... TINA IS ON DATE. MAY 10TH, AKA MOTHERS DAY. AHHHHHHHHHH IM SO EXCITED!!! I love Tina with all my heart and soul. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited and happy for her. We have a ton to teach her and she's super busy so trying to find a time is tough (like all these people), but WOOP WOOP. It'll probably happen before we Skype I think... Usually they do the baptisms right after church so that the ward will come. AHHHH. Praying it all works out!

This week at the VC has been NUTS. We've taught over 40 people every shift. We have what we call "upper boxing", when a nonmember will either fill out the visitor card and agree to meet with missionaries, or on calling we get somebody's information and send them missionaries. Normally we don't get any, we get like 1-2 a day total for the VC. Well, guess how many Sis K and I got one day?? 5. We got 5 upper boxes. Guess how many we got the next day? 4. 4 upper boxes. We've gotten a total of 13 this week, which is AWESOME! Hopefully one of those will get baptized! We got a new investigator last night in India, he's Hindu and wants to convert to Christianity and asked if we could help him get baptized. UM YES. Hopefully the missionaries get to him quickly! (Btw-if you are a missionary reading this, when you get a referral, GO QUICKLY. There is a sister missionary working with that person, waiting for y'all to stop by. Go stinking fast with referrals. So many of these people are super prepared, so GET THERE QUICK. And take good care of our investigators!) Anyways, just a crazy week at the VC! We switched somebody shifts and had Saturday morning (busiest shift usually). Guess how many people we taught in our 5 hours on the floor? Guess? Did you guess? ........... 103. Were you close? We taught 103 PEOPLE. IN 5 HOURS. In case you didn't know, that's a stinking LOT of people. And apparently Festival is about 8x worse than that. WOOO. GET PUMPED. 103. Shoot. We slept real good that night haha. 

Last night there was a multi-stake fireside at the VC, and Ken Nilololololo (or however you say his name), the football coach from Meet the Mormons came and spoke! And I met him, his wife, and his sons! Way cool! We got listen to about 30mins of it, which was exciting. I thought it was weird when he said (4 times) "winningest". "We are the most winningest team in our division". "We have the most winningest number of games won". WOOP... Other than that he was pretty alright, I dunno he just talked about football the whole time, so.. Haha. Met him and his family though! Greeted them at the door and they talked to us! Woooop!

Still trying to work with the ward, which is pretty tough. Learning patience that's for sure!! 

I love you all so much! 

Emily

 

 

 

Basically best/coolest Pday ever. I'm working for NASA when I get home.

 Brother Ward's first selfie. I LOVE HIM.

Vacuum simulation chamber. The top dome part slides off, and they put
different materials and parts in there to test them. Inside, it
simulates space (magnetic, radiation, heat, etc) to make sure
everything will hold up. WOAH.

The gang

NASA SHIRT. BEST PURCHASE OF MY MISSION. Also got a NASA sticker for
my iPad, and a sticker that covers the home button on my iPad. NASA
all day erry day.

Just weekly planning

 BIKESSS

Proselyting in traffic? No prob!

MISSIONARY CAR <3 and the temple is beautiful, as always. <3

Hide and Seek

First transfer, DONE. I still can't believe that I'm actually here, and that I only have 11 transfers left. I'm staying in Carrolton with sister Kohler! I'm never coming home, sorry everybody. I've decided to take whatever money I have left and buy an apartment when they drop us off at the airport. Never coming home. Hahaha. I love being a missionary SO MUCH.

First and foremost, MY CAST IS GONE. GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH. PRAISE THE LORD. NEVER AGAIN. Haha we had a little scare on Monday night when the doctor called and said that "the doctor wouldn't be in on Thursday, so we have to reschedule you for April 30th." Um, excuse me what. That's in 2 1/2 weeks. This thing is supposed to be off in 3 days. Bye. So we made plans to take it off ourselves (we found a good knife that cut through it pretty well!). Unfortunately, sister Cooke wasn't too fond of the idea. She and Dr Kearle called the doctor and threw a stink until they finally agreed to let me come in Friday afternoon. BEST. FEELING. EVER. The feeling in my fingers is almost all the way back, I just have a couple spots without feeling WOOP WOOP. Let it be known that if I ever happen to break another bone (which I've decided not to do ever), I refuse medical treatment. That's all.

This week has been so long! Tina came to church though!! Our first investigator at church! And it was so good! All us missionaries had to speak in sacrament, so we could kinda tweak it to her needs, which was good. She's so awesome! Gosh I love her SO MUCH. I'm actually getting pretty good and knowing where in Africa people are from based on their accents! So cool! These are the best people! Serving in this area is the most humbling experience. I am yet to meet one person that has had a relatively easy life. Everyone here has been through and is going through SO much (Katrina, Ebola, civil wars, extreme poverty, natural disasters, starvation, etc). My love for these people is more than I know how to handle. I very much plan on taking a humanitarian trip to Africa after I get home. I love these people!!

HAHA. So i think I've told you all about Betty, yes? Maybe not? She's our eternigator, she's like 75 and lives alone. She's had a super hard life, but we love her so stinking much. We took her to urgent care last week because she has congestive heart failure and was showing signs of a heart attack. SO. We haven't been able to get ahold of her all week. Her car was gone, house locked up, lights off, mail piling up in her mailbox. She doesn't have a cell and she has no family so we have NO away to contact her. We started getting super, super worried! For days this went on. Finally, yesterday we tried calling for the zillionth time and her phone had been disconnected. We were sure that she had gone to the hospital and passed away. Except we had no way to know because she has no family or anybody. Super, super sad. We love Betty SO much. We talked to a lady in the ward that drives her to the VC when she wants to come, and she hadn't heard anything from her either. More mourning. Last night during Why I Believe we get a voicemail from the lady in the ward. Hesitantly, we start listening... "Hey sisters, just letting you know... Betty is ok, she's home now. She didn't like that lady that was trying to rent her room downstairs, so she disconnected her phone, took her car, and went somewhere to hide for a few days. She's home safe now. Have a good night." HAHAHAHAHA. BETTY. SHE HID. I CANNNTTTT. We were laughing SO hard. She's the craziest, funniest lady I've met. She took her car and hid from this lady. Going to see her tonight to hear the story. This is gonna be good. Lolololllllllllll.

This week has been better though, we had a couple good lessons. Trying to do work in the ward, which is kinda difficult sometimes. (The ward members are bomb, some of the leadership is just.... -__-) We came back  to the apartment withour roomies after church yesterday and just broke down for over an hour. We're still working hard though and trying to get them going. When you have 8 missionaries in a ward you know something probably needs fixed... Haha. Learning so much though, and you better believe that I'm going to be the best member missionary when I get home. Everybody go hug the nearest missionary and tell them how much you appreciate them please. Go on splits with them. Let them teach your fambam. Thanks. Mucho gracias.

Spring is wonderful and I love DC. So blessed to be able to serve here where there's so much diversity and culture. It's the most humbling experience of my life and I love every second! Our mission has taken up the Elder Bednar missionary challenge to talk to 10 people a day (20/companionship). We have a goal of contacting 51,800 people this transfer! Also focusing a ton on family history (trying way hard to get excited about that haha). Get pumped lol. Super excited to go to the temple in a couple weeks! Sorry, nothing super exciting happened this week haha. Some sweet lady from Seattle came in and gave us DC Cupcakes (like from food network--SO STINKING GOOD). The VC has been getting way busy, I love it!! Got some super exciting calls/chats. Lololollll. Going to start keeping a chat/call journal where I can write down all the crazy stuff people say. I love it way too much.

I love missionary life! I love you all! Have a great week!!

Emily 

 Carrolton district

 FREEDOM

 Fun in the new VC kids exhibit

 

Most epic district pic ever-climbed like 7 stories on sketchy ladders to take a pic in the steeple of our chapel

Popcorn Trees

Ok! This week was alright, just about every single one of our appointments fell through so we didn't teach much at all. Tuesday I was on exchange with Sister Veenker, which was super fun! We went and visited Barbette (less active), and saw a huge miracle there! She has had3 miscarriages, and her niece was murdered last week. Really, really hard life. And the ward doesn't really give her any support or love at all so she's struggling. She's been less active forrrrrr like ever haha. Been living with her boyfriend Tory for years(no bueno). So we go over and talk to her about conference, and have an AMAZING lesson with her! She decided this last week that she wants to go to the temple, and she talked to Tory about it and told him to go live with his brother on Saturday! TORY IS GONE! Praying that he stays out! And she came to church! Ahhhhh!!! It was wonderful. 

Also, ummmm my first transfer is over? Sorry what? I just got here? AH. 1 down, 11  to go. NO. I'M NEVER COMING HOME. I'm staying with Sisted Kohler in Carrolton. Kinda bittersweet haha. This is a really hard area... We don't really have a hard time finding people to talk to, but absolutely nobody keeps commitments here... Everybody LOVES God, but they love all churches and are open to pretty much everything. They think all religions are good, so it's so hard to teach haha. It's tough. They call this area "Little Africa" because quite literally EVERYBODY is African. I love it. A lot of them are stuck here in the states while their family is back in Africa, but they can't go back because of Ebola and a TON political crap going on... So they get stuck here with no way to contact their families... :/ Gosh I love Africans. And I love serving in DC! It's incredible how much I've learned about the world already. Politics, world policies, governments, everything. And how many people I meet!! So far I think I've taught people from over 20 countries! Wooooop! I LOVE IT HERE. AHHH.

Spring is here! The blossoms! The flowers! The grass! AHHH. Seasons are beautiful. But my body isn't used to it so it gets headaches lots haha. The weather here is way weird haha it'll go from 35 and rainy one day to a hot sunny humid windy 70 the next day. I never thought I'd miss Phoenix sun haha, this week was super overcast and drizzly, and holy poop it was bringin me down. OH! You know the rhyme "April showers bring May flowers"? I TOTALLY GET WHAT THAT SONG MEANS NOW. And did you know that there isn't actually such thing as a "popcorn tree" (popcorn popping on the apricot tree)? I figured that out this week. It's not popcorn growing on the apricot trees. They're flowers everybody. Flowers grow on the apricot tree. Popcorn grows on corn. We have lots of popcorn trees here in Maryland.

We did see Betty this week (eternigator). We actually had to go with her to urgent care because she was having signs of heart attacks (she's already had like 4, she's had a crazy hard life like everybody else here AGH), and her cardiologist was t answering. So we ended up in urgent care for a couple hours haha. And in the waiting room they were playing Judge Judy and MAN I HATE THAT SHOW. We didn't watch (we turned our chairs around so we couldn't see the tv lol too tempting, family feud was on before...), and I just want everybody to know how much hate Judge Judy. Worst judge ever. I don't even think she's a real judge. Pft. Betty is doing alright though, she came to Night of Music last night and didn't say no to coming to church next week! Progress! 

Anyways, this week has been hard. This transfer has been hard. Our one investigator on date just left to Nigeria haha, soo. It's a hard area. Working hard though! 

Love you all!

Emily

   

PS- next Monday is mine and Sam's official one year. So. Shoutout to you, Elder. *fist bump*

 

PPS-Oh and online I'm teaching people from 4 countries (New Zealand, Brazil, England, and Canada). I LOVE online teaching. Honestly all of my baptisms will probably be from the VC haha.  Online teaching is part of our shift, we have "TC"/chats. We go online and answer Mormon.org chats, which is.... Interesting most of the time lol. But we pick up investigators that way from all over the world, and we teach them online and keep in contact. We also send missionaries to them when they're ready, and it counts for our baptism when/if they get baptized. It's super cool! One companionship has 43 progressing and 8 people on date online. AH! So cool! I love online! It's just chatting usually but we can skype if it's an option (haven't done that yet). Figuring out time zones is a pain though! Haha.

 

 Blossoms!

 Blossoms on Monday (MY FAV)

 We got lost and ended up at the wharf. COOLEST PLACE EVER. I bought a stuffed crab. Yummy.

 

  Octopus and squid just hangin.

 

 Tired ALL THE TIME.

 Jefferson, looking lovely as ever

 Where's Emily???

Authorized Vehicles Only

Happy Easter everybody! I hope it was wonderful! Mom-thanks so much for your support package! It was perfect! Sis K says thanks too for the candy haha, and a huge thanks for the CD! I can't tell you how sick of our music we are lol. New music is BUENOOO. Thanks! Love ya! 

Today we're going into the city, going  to hit Air and Space and Natural History! Busy day WOOP WOOP! This week has definitely had its ups and downs. First of all, SPRING IS COMING!! You know that rhyme "April showers bring May flowers"? I never understood what it means until now! Spring actually is a thing! April showers really DO bring flowers! Big yellow daffodils (I think that's what they are) sprout up on the side of the highway, in cracks in the sidewalks, everywhere! It's incredible! The weather has been super nice too. It was super humid a couple days, but other than that it's been 60-70, and SUPER windy (it actually knocked me over one time lol). I'm in love! The cherry blossoms started I think, tomorrow we have another sisters day, and Sister Cooke is taking us all into the city-we're going to the art museum and doing cherry blossoms! AH! Get ready for loads of pictures next week! Haha.

Most of our set appointments fell through this week, which is frustrating. Missions are so weird. You spend your whole life checking on people. They're weird. Hahaha love it! We did get to meet with Donakd though! He's in Virginia, but comes out on weekends. He used to have a bdate but everything fell through, so we're working on him! He's from Sierra Lyon, he's actually an Olympic runner there and he's the son of the president or ruler there! So he's a pretty big deal! We're really hoping we can get him baptized so he can go back and teach everybody there. Another fun fact-one of the senators is getting baptized! Sister Williams and Wathon have been teaching him, I think he gets baptized in a couple weeks! President Cooke is ecstatic haha. Super cool!! Oh, and we met with Bola again, and she's on date!!May 16th!! She's going back to Nigeria for 3 weeks end of this month, so we're doing it when she gets back. YAY! We just need to get her to church, which is a problem with people in this area haha.

Oh, happy belated April fools! I hope everybody is still in tact! Lol. Our VC training leaders did the FUNNIEST thing... HAHAHA. Ok, so when somebody calls in to schedule a tour, we have this sheet that we fill out with all the information about the visitor, their background, if they're bringing a member with them, what they want us to focus on, what concerns we should resolve, commitments to extend, etc. So, Tuesday evening, Sister Veenker (STL) was like, "Hey sisters, you've got a pretty big tour tomorrow. Make sure you prepare really well. If there's any dead time on the floor, please role play it so it's perfect ok?" So we're like yeah sure thing whateveaaa. Later that night there was some dead time, so we went and looked at the tour sheet. It was for President Riggs (DC South Pres), who was bringing Gary. Gary was 80 or so, and his description: "Lots of friends are members. Worked with Thomas Monson in publishing. Pres. Monson wants him to get a tour. USE MEMBER PRESENT". Under the member present part, it just casually said "Pres Monson". UM SORRY WAT. They wanted us to really focus the tour on living prophets. And invite them to watch conference. UM IM SORRY WAT. WHY IS THE PROPHET COMING. AND WHY ARE WE GIVING IT. IVE BEEN OUT FOR 2 MONTHS. NO. PASS. BYE. We were freaking out just a little bit. Eventually we figured out that tomorrow was April Fools, but MAN. we were dying. So. Funny. Lolololollllll. Well played Sister Veenker, well played. 

One more FUNNY story... HAHAHAHAA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA. Last night after conference we were checking on some referrals and move ins (people are a whole lot less willing to hear a message about Jesus on Easter than you'd think...) So we had this one move in that was pretty close to the apartment, and we only had like 20 minutes of golden hours leads so we were darn determined to find this house! Only problem was, it doesn't exist. I mean, the address comes up on google maps, but apparently this house is on a park. We were not deterred! We were going to find this house! We had driven up and down Hanover a few times at this point, and there weren't even houses. Nope. Just trees and a park. BUT THEN we found this little thing that looked like a little turnoff! So naturally, this must be the street that this secret house is on! So we turn off and drive a ways. Turns out this isn't a road at all, it's a walking path! We almost hit some walkers LOLOLLL. So we're stuck on this little path, no where to turn around. It's like8:20 at this point. GOING TO FIND THIS HOUSE. So we eventually had to back up over the grass and book it out before somebody saw us and called the cops lol. So we drive up and down Hanover some more, but nothing. Again, we decide that that path must be like a really long driveway or something. It HAS to be here. So on we go again! After a ways, this little path turns into an even smaller dirt road. Never hindered, we press onward! We see lights in the trees, could this be it?? Our miracle house?? We get closer.. And closer... And closer... Until we pass through a gate! AHA! Could this be it?! ...wait. WAIT. WAIIITTTT. WE WERE IN THE PARK. That little dirt road we were driving on TURNED INTO THE SIDEWALK THAT GOES THROUGH THE PARK. WE WERE DRIVING ON A SIDEWALK. THROUGH THE PARK. There was a big group of people playing soccer and eating and everything, and they dropped the ball and just stared and watched as our little white Chevy emerged from the trees. We were DYING. WHERE IS OUR MIRACLE HOUSE. EXCUSE ME DO ANY OF YOU KNOW WHERE THIS HOUSE IS. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAA. Eventually, after driving around the park, we found a little exit that went into the parking lot. The sign where we exited said "Authorized vehicles only". DYING. I CANT. We didn't find our miracle house. So we went and checked on a less active and she did a monologue for us. Then we went home. Lol. Life.

Conference was awesome though!! Haha we actually stopped somebody in the street and was like "HEY. THE PROPHET IS SPEAKING IN 25 MINUTES." Didn't go over too well. Haha we played it in the big auditorium at the VC, and we only missed 20 mins when we were on shift Saturday night! Yay! Haha it was all about getting married and having kids, so we were all like ehhhhhhhhh *tears* lol. It was funny. So good though! Can't wait for October!

Have the best week! Oh, and side note -if you send a package could you send it to the mission home? Our apartments are inside, and they just leave them outside our door, and we're not home most of the day... Don't want any of that goodness to get stolen! They bring packages to the VC when they get sent to the mission home so it's good! Thanks! Letters can still be sent to my apartment though. :)

I love you all! Have the best week! :)

Emily

Air and space

McDonald's food truck SCORE lol

Pink on pink on pink

Look who I found! AH I LOVE HER

Most beautiful Easter Sunday ever!

Just to prove that I live in the most beautiful place in the country...

 Fowls got us Easter baskets cuz they rock <3(and sis Veenker lol)