Animals Gone Wild

So I mentioned the lizard that bit the four year olds face..

literally two days later Sister C and I are in the car

we felt a bump

back left tire

"What was that?"

"Sister C, you just ran something over."

"Oh my gosh I hope it wasn't someones pet."

We turn around and drive back to find the biggest jack rabbit I have ever seen 

STILL MOVING 

Sister C assured me it was dead, but I was worried that it might somehow be alive because it was twitching. 

"Turn around and go run it over again."

"Okay."

*drives back to little bunny foo foo

"What if I miss it?"

"You didn't miss it the first time and it was moving."

She missed it.

but we had places to be so we left.

I am no doctor, nor am I a veteranarian

but I am confident that jack rabbit is dead.

unfortunate little critter

(that thing was huge)

The next day at Paul and Paulas we noticed Sweetie was acting kind of strange

Paula gave her a valium because there was a thunderstorm 

and Paula didn't want Sweetie to have a heart attack

LOL

"Sweetie was so stoned, like she checked out medusa"

okay I'm joking

Paula didn't give sweetie a valium, but she did give her some sleeping pills

and Sweetie was a little stoned

but she is doing okay now. 

Seriously though I love Paul and Paula like I love my own grandparents.  And sweetie is pretty great too;)

Paul story of the week: "One time I put a huge lion head mask on my head and scared a drunk old lady with it.  I was in the bushes by her pool and I grabbed her leg.  She screamed and kicked me in the face about three times before I was able to climb out of the bush and get the lion head off."

Then. 

I was initiated into the South

by walking into our apartment the next day to find a huge roach

They crawl up the drains

and they're fast

ew. 

the roaches here are huge and FAST

so that's fun

lots of animal shenanigans

HAPPY MOMENT TIME

I went on exchanges with sister Holmes and she is absolutely amazing in every way. 

I thank my Father in heaven for letting Sister Holmes come to this neck of the woods so that I could serve with her for her last transfer.

She taught me so much on exchanges!  

Her powerful testimony and ability to teach with faith to move mountains is incredible. 

Crazy thing I found out later--she is adorable and wrote me a note.

The reason why this is so crazy is because when I was in seminary in high school with Caden Holmes (my friend) his little brother was also in that class.  In seminary we wrote notes to everyone in the class and I brought those notes on my mission to motivate me to kill it in Florida.

So pretty much... I have motivational inspiring words from three of the Holmes household in my possession.  There is only one other sibling I have yet to acquire advice from, but I will be contacting her shortly ;) 

Summary: I love the Holmes family. 

A woman we have been working with and love to the moon and back lost her son a couple of days ago.  He lived with her because he had muscular dystrophy.  Sister C and I were able to meet with her and her husband the day after he passed away and had a very spiritual, tender experience.  It was wonderful.  I truly felt the Saviors love for them and their son, and I felt the sadness as well.  It was a further testimony to me of the realness of the gospel, and a Father in Heaven that lost His Son. 

They were sorrowful, but happy that their son is out of the pain of his mortal physical prison.  Heavenly Father must have hurt to see HIs other children mocking the Savior and causing Him pain to the point of death, but it was a joyful occasion as well that Jesus was out of pain and that HE accomplished the greatest most central part of the plan of God for us.  The atonement. 

We testified this (Sister C and I) that because of the atonement, these two awesome people can feel peace and comfort and someday see their son again. 

This brought back a lot of memories for me and my childhood friend Kennedy who passed away from a terminal illness called Juvenile Batten Disease..  

I love that girl.  I will see her again, and she won't be in a wheelchair.  She won't be blind, and she will be just as kind as she always was.  She has been looking out for me I can say that with full confidence. 

Her journey can be found here...http://www.kennedyshugs.com/

Angels whether they be people in our lives, or people that were in our lives, or people that will be in our lives or people that aren't even living... Angels are for real.  They are answers to prayer. 

"I will send my angels round about you to bear you up"

LINDSEY is one of these angels in my life.

SHE IS GOING TO THE FRESNO CALIFORNIA MISSION

 FUN FACT

FRESNO IS WHERE SISTER C IS FROM AND IS HEADED TO IN JUST A MONTH

coincidence? I THINK NOT

Before Sister C leaves I am going to squeeze her to death for two reasons

1. So she can remember me forever and it will hold her over until I am finally home to go stalk her in California or Utah or wherever she may be. (Maybe I'll accidentally run into Lindsey;)

2. So that when she tracks down Lindsey (Sister Rendon) she can give some of that hug to her for me. 

Linds & me after driving 5 hours from SUU to open my call...

I LOVE THE GOSPEL

there is nothing that God has not worked out for us

all we have to do is trust in Him and do His will

LOVE YA'LL

xoxo

Make it a good day:)

-SistaSaunders

Because She Was in Missouri‏

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

Read 2nd Nephi Chapter 1 and feel out of your mind pumped

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/1?lang=eng

LOVE YALL

Make it a good day:)

-Sister Saunders