In The Great Wide Somewhere: 04/11/16

Luckily I'm not Flori and I didn't die. It's also a plus that I'm not in Missouri ;)

(Side note from mom: We were on vacation in Illinois 10 years ago and a feisty elderly woman came up to us in the parking lot--came up REALLY close to us--and started spouting off these state "jokes". Not sure if she made them up or what but the first one was "Why did Flori die?--because she was in Missouri" (misery~get it?) Then she rambled off 2 more to her captive and very close audience. "What did Missi sip?--a Mini sota! What did Dela wear? --a New Jersey She was then ushered in her truck and we thanked her for being awesome. We laughed and laughed and then Ryan made up his own state "joke". Why did Ida hoe? Because the Ore was gone! Idaho-Oregon....yah! lol Feel free to make up your own and add them to the comments at the end of this blog:)

Hey Ya'll

I got a stomach bug this week

I was under the weather for a few days

translated into real time language under the weather means: my body purged itself.

Both ends of my body. Not pretty. Sorry for the visual.

As surprising as it is that I just straight up said that,

prepare to just about fall off your seat with astonishment.

Sister Christiansen woke up at 2 am on Thursday to me hackin' it up in the bathroom, what did she do?

She held my hair and rubbed my back. She's going to be such a great mom.

COMPANION OF THE YEAR

and probably human of the year too

The elders gave me a priesthood blessing the next day and I saw so many blessings from that. I stopped throwing up, and I slept for about 20 hours waking up about every 5 to use the restroom. I slept a ton! I was very frustrated with myself. We had to cancel appointments and I was completely useless. I am not even in a third world country --I literally have clean drinking water so what is my wimpy excuse? The stomach flu? Wow. Quade would not be proud, he didn't throw up until the last week of his two year mission in Peru! I made it two months; my immune system needs to get on board.

Nevertheless... here I am today doing just fine. (I lost 6 lbs.. lol)

(another side note from mom: When Ryanne gets sick at home we end up at the doctor for an IV --which she passes out from because she has a thing with needles in her veins --so imagine how thankful I was that Sister C took care of her for me and also for the blessing from the Elders, because of her faith she didn't need to go to the hospital)

Fun stuff happened this week!

We have a less active member that has been through the ringer lately. She expressed to us her desire to come unto Christ, to start coming to church regularly for the first time in 12 years! She said she knows she's not doing the things she needs to be doing and I asked her

"how do you know the things you need to be doing, are the things you need to be doing?"

"because I'm not happy."

The strength of this woman astounds me. She could have easily blamed her unhappiness on the fact that she has had trial after trial lately, but instead she has allowed the tough things to bring her to her knees and realize that trial or no trial, we will be happier with the gospel in our lives. I am so proud of her and I love her and her kids so much!!!

For those of you who aren't familiar with transfers...every 6 weeks we can be assigned a new companion or a new area to serve in or both..or none of the above!

This transfer I got none of the above and I get to stay with Sister C in Gulf Breeze!!

Fun fact about Sister C, she's about to die.

(MISSIONARY DICTIONARY)

Die: N. To be transferred home after a period of 18 to 24 months as a missionary.

I hate thinking and talking about it. But we are both having to go through the process of accepting the truth. My wonderful trainer is about to finish her 18 month full time mission.

**transfers**

We also were able to have a lesson with Paul.

Part of this process of my comp "dying" was admitting it to Paul and Paula.

Which led to questions about Sister C's future and the M word.

DUN DUN DUN

Marriage.

ick.

;)

Paul: "I'm officiatin' at the wedding. This is how it's goin' to go.."

Paula: "You are not! She's getting married in the temple!"

Paul: "That's fine, but I'm officiating it. It's going to go like this. I'm goin to get up there and say "Do you love him? Do you love her? Get the rings out. You put this ring on his finger, you on hers. I now pronounce you married, give each other a kiss, shove some cake in her face and we're on our way! Won't take but five minutes. And then we can have some lunch."

lol to the max

Then he said to her "You're going to have three kids. Boys. Only boys no girls. Just three and just boys.

You know why? So you can teach them how to pee."

we all busted a gut with that.

Sister C was like "What does that even mean?!?!"

(last side note from mom: Good Luck with that Sister C!;)

Anyway. It was a good day.

I had fried chicken for the first time here! In the south fried chicken is huge, so imagine my surprise when it took a couple of months to figure out why.

It was so darn good I can't even explain how great it was! Shout out to Sister M.!

Tomorrow I am going on exchanges with Sister Holmes (Cade Holmes sister)

((Cade Holmes is one of my besties from high school

and I got called to his sisters same mission.. Obviously))

Cade & me after graduation...

She is my Sister Trainer Leader (stl) right now and I am super nervous because she is a FAN FETCHING TASTIC missionary. I am so excited to learn from her.

Sorry this is all so sporadic and sounds like I am just throwing a bunch of random stuff that I think of down for a weekly letter... that's exactlly what I'm doing.

I saw a little boy get bit in the face with a lizard yesterday. It was the same little boy I sent a picture of me and him a few weeks ago, Landon. It scared the heck out of me.. He was bleeding and everything! It was a tiny lizard so no one saw it coming and all the sudden he just started screaming and I saw the lizard flipping around attached to his face! Crazy..

All is well here in Gulf Breeze~ it's sunny just about everyday now and somewhere between 75 and 80 degrees which means vacationers all the time. Traffic<< but the good news is that we have more opportunities to share the gospel!

Good weather=people are outside!

Shout out to the Army: My grandpa Vaughn is an Army vet!

Met an Army vet the other day outside in his wheel chair. He's about 30, was serving for 8 years when he got into a motorcycle accident. He expressed to us his desire to know more, we left him a pamphlet and plan to see him this week. He was so kind, but has been through some tough stuff. He has seen and done things that no one should have to see or do. He told us of an experience in combat when his friend was shot right in front of him. Dead.

I've never been through anything even remotely close to this.

but I do know that no matter who we are and where we come from the gospel which is centered on Jesus Christ and His atonement can and will help us.

ALL IS WELL

PRESS FORWARD

ONWARD EVER ONWARD

and if you are looking for a pump up chapter to read because sometimes (all the time) we need some pump ups.

"We all need a pep talk." -kid president