Happy Halloween - It's Not Snowing Here Yet !!!!  

Hey guys!  How are you doing?  I'm alright.  The first week a missionary is out in the field is appropriately called "Hell Week".  It is just really hard and overwhelming  I only call it "Hell Week" because it was soooooo beyond uneventful. 

Monday was VERY uneventful.  We were both so tired that we didn't have enough energy to do anything.  After I emailed you last week, we went shopping for food, picked up some lunch and went home to eat.  We planned on eating and then cleaning the car and the apartment, then going to dinner.  Well... Plans change pretty rapidly when you're a missionary.  Instead, we came home, ate, talked for a little while and both fell asleep because we were exhausted.  Only to be woken up by a phone call we received from a member that was supposed to be feeding us that night telling us that three of her family members were throwing up and it probably wasn't a good idea for us to come over.   She offered to drop dinner off to us, (which was very sweet and generous), but she failed to mention the time that she was going to drop it by.  So we stayed at home until she came, which was about 6:30.   So, after that we blew off the rest of the night, because we had to eat until 7:30 and be in by 9.  Let's just say that we taught NO ONE that night because Pilot Mountain is literally dead in the Fall/Winter evenings when it's cold outside!  Yay!  We knew this week was going to go one of two ways; really well or horribly.

Tuesday was a little more eventful, but not by much.  After studying, we went to a store on Main Street that one of our investigators owns. She had to put away all the Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations by herself, so we offered to help her bring out all the Christmas decorations.  We spent about 3 hours there and headed off for a few hours of very unsuccessful street contacting.  No one.  By that time, we had a dinner appointment at Talakipaki.  It is the Southerner's version of Mexican food.  As for cleaning I offered to vacuum the car for us on Tuesday and I ended up smacking my head on the car getting up.  So I have had a nice little migraine all week.  Anyway, after dinner we went street contacting again and did teach a lesson.  Unfortunately it was the investigator who has already had the Word of Wisdom Lesson 3 times. That concluded that night because all of our other appointments cancelled on us.  :/

Wednesday consisted of getting up, planning, and going to district meeting.  All in all it was interesting … We will just leave it at that.  The meeting ended and Elder R said "Okay, it feels like a cemetery in here.  It's too quiet.  Someone give me input on the meeting."  Which subsequently lead to me saying "Other than the fact that when we walked in for meeting preparation, I felt all the happiness drain out of me, I'd say it was fine."  Which made Elder H laugh really hard.  Yes I know I got a little mouthy. But it was called for. ;)   He then said, "Alright.  I guess we're being bold."  I said, "Well, if we're being bold, you're right.  It feels like a funeral home.  No one is happy."  Which made everyone laugh.  It's now a district goal to actually have fun in district meeting.  Imagine that!  ;)  The elders then said they were going to go to Subway for lunch before the service project that we were all going to.  They invited us to come along.  Elder H bought cookies for everyone with Elder R’s gift card and gave him $5 cash instead.  That turned into an all-out sarcasm battle which weirdly sounded a lot like fighting.  Haha  But we calmed them down.  Silly boys!  :)  So after we all ate lunch at Subway, we headed to a woman's house to do our service project.   After service, we had even more unsuccessful street contacting, made dinner, more street contacting, then we decided to see our investigator that works at the Wine house. We had a very nice conversation with him. Apparently, I am the only missionary that has ever taught him that he won't say no to!  :) :) :)  That puts everything on me because he actually follows through when he says he'll do things.  After our discussion with him, we headed home and went to bed.

Most of Thursday was weekly planning.  I still can't get over the fact that we have to do it until 12 or 1 every Thursday!  :/  haha  After that, we made lunch and decided to go see our less active member.  It was an okay visit. We sang her a song, invited her to come to church again and to keep reading her scriptures.  After that, we went home and finished getting ready because we hadn't put makeup on that day.  (Whoops! ;) )  Then we had Sister M offer to take us into the Urgent care in Mt. Airy so I could figure out what the heck is wrong with my arm!  There is a rash all up and down both arms!  (I have concluded that it was probably due to the fact that when I am at home, I avoid Bell Peppers because I had a feeling I was allergic.  Well, over the past two weeks, they have been cooked into A LOT of our meals).  Things didn’t go so well, and the doctor wouldn’t listen to me so I went out and told Sister M what had happened and she was furious!  She said that she would send me to the Herbologist in Pilot Mt. the next day and see what she said.  Turns out, the owner of the shop could tell me exactly what was wrong and gave me a spray and a cream that were all natural and topical that would clear it up in 3 weeks for $35 instead of the $75 they wanted for the steroid.  I was so mad!  Grrr.... haha  But after the fiasco at the Urgent Care, we went to the M's for dinner.  We had Long John Silver's.  Then we headed home and went to a viewing with Sister P in Mt. Airy.  

On Halloween, we got up, studied, went to the Herbologist which I talked about above, and made lunch.  We went out for EVEN MORE UNSUCCESSFUL STREET CONTACTING!  We did get one more lesson in that day though!  We had to tread really lightly that day because it was Halloween and everything gets a lot more dangerous.  Anyway, then we went and "practiced" a lesson with Sister N.  We got to count it as a less active lesson and an investigator lesson because non-members were present.  And here is something really fun, we ended up on the news that night because we started talking to the owner of the restaurant we went to.  They were talking about this bridge that has been closed for months and has put tons of companies out of business because people aren't willing to take the long way around to get here.  And the fact that it was closed for months blows my mind because the bridge is only about 75 feet long.  I have also decided that being in Pilot is going to make me really fat because the members always take us out to eat.  We are currently trying to form a work out plan so it's not as bad, but Sister B says this is the only area where that happens.  So enjoy while you can.  Two of the places they love are Sopper's and Tlaquepaque.  So we went out to eat  …  and after dinner we went to the ward Trunk or Treat to try and build up member/missionary relationships and it turns out that the people that showed up were the same people we already have great relationships with.  We weren’t there very long before it started raining, so everyone packed up and went home after about an hour because it's been getting really cold.  It's not snowing in the valley's yet or anything, just cold and windy. 

Saturday/Sunday were the days of Mercy.  That's about all I can say.  We did the regular things like street contacting, dinners,church, etc.  But the Lord provided so many opportunities to teach!  It was great!  We got up to 14 lessons this week in the matter of about 2 days!  We are supposed to get about 20 a week.  But oh well.  I don't worry about the numbers as much as the actual work.  It's still important, but not as important.   We went to Choir yesterday to practice for the program in December that I told you about last week.  Let's just say that the H’s make it VERY entertaining, even choir practice. 

This morning, we got up and went hiking up around Pilot Mountain Knob.  I will send you pictures of that and the new bike that Elder Richardson was nice enough to bring me this week.  Then we had lunch and now I'm here emailing you!  :) <3

Remember that I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS!  MISSING YOU!  BUT THE WORK IS GREAT!  AND IT’S ACTUALLY MAKING IT FUN FOR ME!  HAHA  ;)

Ash

P.S.  We are going to try to get to Mt. Airy's Walmart next week for a Rain Coat, LongJohn's, Healthy Food, etc.  

LOVE YOU!  NOW TIME FOR PICTURES!