If you are wondering about the title, it's a quote from my dearest companion, Hermana Boley. When she gets overwhelmed she does this little arm action and I call them her 'jelly arms of stress.' What a funny person. Anyway, this week there were a lot of 'jelly arms of stress.' For example, on Saturday night we had a child of record baptism in our Branch. Pretty much baptisms are the most stressful things to plan and prepare. We didn't realize until the day before that the family hadn't reserved the font, but miracle upon miracle, we were able to use the Stake Center. Then the night of, I had to be the pianist. I was overly confident in my abilities to play the piano. I was very humbly reminded that I am NOT Elton John, and I can't just bust out hymns on the spot. Yep, there was a lot of me just picking out the melody at that baptism. But I think it's okay because I was the only one there who had any idea of how to play the piano. If there is something I regret not doing before my mission, it's getting better at the piano. Anyway, they all think I am a superstar......I hope! haha
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| The lovely fog in the mornings It's da best!! |
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| My view of Seattle during the day. So close yet so far away! |
The weather is starting to get colder and starting to be more like what I expected Seattle to be like. That includes rain, fog and more rain. It's still not as bad as I was thinking it would be though. There are a lot of people getting sick right now so all the missionaries were required to get a flu shot. Fun, fun!
In other news, we have only ever found 2 spiders in our apartment, but Washington is just crawling with spiders. I have learned to constantly be looking up before I touch something because they are everywhere! They add a fun little haunted house affect to knocking doors.
My favorite member family this week is the Velasquez family. I love them! The fed us twice this week. They also have two of their sons that just finished their mission papers. Exciting things are happening around here. One night they fed us succotash. I thought that was only something that Sylvester from the Looney Tunes said! Anyway, it's super delicious! Yesterday when we were at their apartment half the branch was there because it was one of their daughter's birthdays. I guess it was technically my first "real" fiesta. Kind of crazy for a Sunday and for a missionary...when they busted out the karaoke, it was time to go! I have never been so strongly tempted in my life! They were even singing "Imagine" and "Yesterday" from the Beatles. I just wanted to sing with them so bad, but we had to go.
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| Our ginormous Mexican sandwiches some members made for us. Yummy! But I thought I was going to die of a HEART ATTACK! |
I also love this family because they are so willing to help us. Hermano Velasquez and his son Abinadi came with us to a lesson to give one of our investigators a blessing. It was such a powerful experience.
We have been working with a lot of less actives lately. We have about 300 members in our branch, but less than a third are active. One of our less actives called us one day and broke down in pure testimony of the Book of Mormon. We went to see him and he truly does love that book! He will use his whole lunch break at work to read it. He still hasn't been to church though. Inactivity is like an addiction. Once your hooked, it's hard to let go of it.
By the way, I loved Bednar's talk as well! We had two investigators listening to Conference with us while he was giving that talk and it really made a huge impact on them. Once again, I love all of you and wish you the very best! You are always in my prayers.
Week 15 Challenge:
Con Amor,
Hermana Stoddard
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| Celebrating my 'click' day (my monthly bday on the 2nd) at Baskin Robbins Happy 3 Months to ME!! |
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