Happy to Be Here, Proud to Serve!: July 20, 2015 Hi

WOW, missions are cool yall! I know that I keep saying this and it's only been a month since I flew the coop, but I feel like I am growing so much with every email I send! As I sat in bed last night, writing in my journal, a thought came to my head that I thought was pretty funny. I'd like to compare myself to macaroni and cheese. (Many people call me Beccaroni, a name in which I gave myself but am in no way embarrassed by that fact) When I came out on the mish, I was more of the Kraft Macaroni and cheese type. Good.. but not fantastic. Usually associated with kids, immature and not too knowledgeable. BUT, you listen here, as I continue to serve others, forget myself, read the scriptures, and pray more than I have ever done before, I am becoming more and more like the delicious Sauce(Dana Park) macaroni and cheese that I am destined to be. The mac and cheese that we are all destined to be! How exciting! I could just eat myself! Can you tell I miss food from home a little?

The calendar to feed the missionaries hasn't been passed around for two weeks now so finally we got it out this Sunday and we got fed real food last night!! YIPEE!! It was delicious! I love eating with the members and talking with them! I feel at home. Sister Johnson says that member dinners are usually super awkward but that every dinner she has had with me as a companion has been really fun and not weird at all! That gave me a little boost of confidence for sure! I guess I just like talking to people? Hopefully that's a good thing when you are on a mission.. fingers crossed..

SOOO.. We are teaching a TON of less actives which is good, but I WANT MORE INVESTIGATORS!! waaa! We tract a lot but every really great potential that we have found has been either Spanish speaking, or YSA. Super frustrating. I hope Spanish and YSA start finding some potentials for us pretty soon.. The last one we got from them ended up being some crazy basher lady. LOL thnx guyz.

We teach this family of a less active husband but the wife really wants to go to the temple with him so we have been teaching them and they are my favorite people ever. The dad is hilarious and he a little bit rough but seriously so so nice and he loves us so much. They heard that we weren't getting fed that much and knew that we didn't have much money for grocery shopping this week so they sent us home with some fresh zuchinni, apples, and homemade grape jam. Ahhh so good. I love them!!!

The Elders that are over the YSA are also our zone leaders (Elder Leubke and Tempest) and they also live a few doors down from us which is actually not supposed to happen but that's a whole other story. Today is Elder Leubke's birthday so we promised to make him a cake and we are going to go help them move a few doors down. Their apartment smells like smoke all the time. Kinda stinky. actually really stinky I guess. I love my zone and district so much! We are getting a lot more comfortable with eachother. Because sister Johnson and I are the only sisters in our zone, everyone is a little weird around us but I feel like it's getting a lot better.

HAHAHA So one of our recent converts is the funniest guy ever. We have scheduled appointments with him and his wife every week and we always show up and he is wearing nothing but a towel over his legs in his big recliner. Without fail. He is a pretty hefty guy and for some reason our conversation got turned to embarrassing stories? not quite sure how but it did.. And he told us that a couple mornings ago he was getting up out of bed and he had a big fan on next to his bed. He said that he got up and got his butt cheek stuck in the fan. hahahaha so he JUMPED clear across the room onto the bed and his wife was cracking up as he told this to us. OMG I died.

Not much else to report! I am weirded out that fruit trees are literally everywhere here. Cherries are just growing into the street and Blackberries are so abundant that they are considered weeds here. Sister Johnson is weird about me eating anything though and I'm just like, WHY NOT?? FREE FRUIT??? She also always comments on how amazing the sunsets are here and I am just not impressed. Arizona's sunsets beat all the sunsets in the world. Love her though. She is really helping me to know how to missionary and stuff.

I love you all! the church is very true! if you didn't know that, go figure that out right now. HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!