Sister Allie Slater: Feng Shui Kind of Week.

Hey ya'll! Hope everyone had a fantastic week! I know I did here in the Great OCM!! (Ohio Columbus Mission)

Monday: Monday's are legit one of the best days of the week now:) I love being able to write everyone. It is so fun:) This is the day I have been looking forward to... bike shopping day... yay. I was actually looking forward to riding a bike! I love riding bikes! So we went to the library and used their computers. I felt like I had like no time to write though! AHH it is so stressful. After that we did the joyous bike shopping. We went to this used bike store and there was a bike there which was perfect for me! It was in very good shape too:) So I got it! It was a good price too... always a plus:) After that we went grocery shopping at Kroger. I got a lot of good stuff:) Haha. Mac and cheese, pop tarts, Eggo waffles, frozen corn dogs.. yup I love the mission life:) Sister Horsley needed to shop for winter boots so we went to Kohls. It was just a big shopping day! We also went to Walmart and I got lights and stuff for my bike, and a basket of course:) It is def a must. After our long shopping day we went to Steak and Shake for dinner. It is just like Johnny Rockets. I got chicken strips, cheese fries, and an oreo mint shake. I am healthy:) When we were there, this woman stopped us and was like "Oh are you sisters?" We got way excited and were just like YES WE ARE and she was like "Oh yes, you two look just like each other." Shoot... not sisters like that. Haha! It was hilarious. We had a lesson planned with Tristan that night so we headed over there after dinner. I just love Tristan. He is really progressing in the leessons and we are seeing such a growth in him. We talked to him about faith, and we were telling him how even though we were born into the church we had to be converted ourselves. He then asked, "So.. how did you know you were converted? Like how did you know when this church was true?" It was so golden! The Lord is preparing Tristan! He is ready! He just needs realize the things the spirit is telling him:) I love being a missionary!

Tuesday: Good old Tuesday. This was the day everything went wrong. Target pretty much became our home. Haha. Since I finally got my bike we could finally ride to area 3! We haven't got to go up there yet because it is a way long walk, but not too long of a bike ride. We had one stop to go to before we went up to area 3, and that was Target. All we had to get was some batteries for the light to my bike so I could ride at night. That was it! When we were riding on the way there though I realized riding with a skirt is very different so I needed some biking shorts. We finally got to target, and we went to find some biking shorts. We found some nice ones on the clearance rack so that wasn't too much of a struggle, now onto batteries. But, oh wait, I forgot the flash light outside to know what kind of battery to get haha so we went out go grab the light just to check what battery it needed and you have to have a screw driver to open it, of course. So we went inside and asked a check out lady for a screw driver. She didn't have one but she opened it with this tool thing. It needed AAA batteries so I got those and went to put the light on my bike. We got outside and realized we needed a screw driver to put the light on my bike haha so we went back inside and asked to borrow that little tool. It was a huge struggle getting that light on. It took at least 20 minutes. But Sister Horlsey is super handy so she got it on. But when she stood up she had dirt all over her skirt. It was bad. She couldn't go visit people like that. So the only thing to do was to go back into Target and buy another skirt. Goodness gracious! Keep in mind Sister Horsley is 5'0 so we went to the kids section to look at some skirts. She found one she liked in there, and a skirt she liked in the womens department and tried them on. They both didn't fit right so we tried to wipe the dirt out to make her skirt decent. No luck. We decided it would be okay so we got back on our bikes to visit the people in area 3. On our way there my bag scraped up against the tire of my bike so my bag got all torn up on the bottom:( I was really sad.. but not bad ebough there was holes or anything so it was okay:) We went to visit 5 people in area 3... no one was home. That would happen haha at this point it was like almost dinner so we just rode home. We spent way too much time in Target. Haha. The struggle was real. But the day got better because a member took us to Panera Bread for dinner (it is just like Kneaders!) and I got broccoli soup so that was good! Overall, the day was crazy and unsuccessful but, the bike is now ready to go and that is a good thing:)

Wednesday: Another crazy, crazy day. We had district meeting that morning and it was really fun meeting the district! We all introduced ourselves and got to know each other which I think is always good. Our district is like 2 Elders and all the rest are Sisters which is crazy! After meeting we had lunch and then training... yay. Haha. Only ten more weeks of training then I will be done:) Hey, happy 3 week anniversary to me! Didn't feel that long did it?:) Haha. After, we did some feng shui, as I call it, in our apartment. Haha we worked on a lot of things. Sister Horsley is just like my mother and wants to re-do everything!! So that is pretty much what we are doing. We are redoing the maps, the area book, etc. Haha she loves it. Later,we went to Tristan's and had a really good lesson with him. We talked a lot on the atonement and I can see it really starting to play a role in his life. Wow, seeing the difference in Tristan is insane. He is truly coming unto Christ and I love being apart of it. Sister Brofey forgot she signed up to feed us that night so she got us pizza, cinnamon sticks, and Sprite! It was so nice! So that was a very good dinner:) We worked some more on feng shui after that and then went to bed:) Haha re-doing everything took up most of our time that day, so we didn't do much we planned but it is okay because it is very needed!

Thursday: This week has been funny. Nothing has gone our way the past 2 days! Haha everything has gone wrong. So we had high hopes for today:) We woke up and worked out. (I know... I work out every morning.) But Thursday morning consisted mostly of Sister Horsley and I laying on the ground. I attempted a sit up. Haha. We did our usual morning study and we had plans to go do service for Sister Zimmerman. Miscommunications happen so we didn't end up doing service, so we decided to go to Dublin and tract a bit up there. We also had a lesson planned with Ryan in Dublin so it worked out well. It is too far to ride our bikes up there so we usually have to ask members for rides, and no one could take us until 2:30! Therefore, we sat in our apartment and talked while Sister Horsley curled her hair haha. Then finally we got up to Dublin. We were walking to a members home when we stopped to see Kevin! He used to be an investigator but somehow lost contact with the missionaries. He answered his door and was so sweet! He asked for our number, and set up an appointment with us! Score:) So then we walked to go see Ryan and on the way we saw this guy. I was too scared to talk to him so Sister Horsley did. His name was Kevin too! He was actually our waiter at Steak and Shake Monday night. Haha. He was really interested in the BOM and took our card and set up an appointment! YAY! It took like 30 minutes to get to Ryan's, and when we were almost there he texted us and cancelled on us. That didn't fly with Sister Horsley so she made us go to his house anyway haha he was home and we gave him a 10 minute lesson. He told us we could come back later though! Oh Ryan.. The Lord is preparing him! He just needs to see it:) After that we went home to make Ryan some cookies to take to him later because we felt bad for just barging in on him after he cancelled haha. So we went and made cookies, and went to dinner at the Hammons. They are so sweet! And dinner was so good! It is nice having home cooked meals:) Mac and Cheese and Top Ramen is getting a wee bit old... haha:) After dinner we went back to Ryan's and he was way excited about the cookies. We decided this would be very casual so we just talked. The whole family eventually came out and we just talked for like an hour and a half about life and such. I thnk it is good for people to see that missionaries are normal people! Haha. Honestly, they were shocked we have seen half the movies they were talking about. We really got to know Ryan and Tristan's parents and it was good because they trust us more! Actually Ryan's dad said he wanted to come to our next lesson! We were excited:) So even though a lot of things didn't go as planned Thursday it was a very successful day:)

Friday: Friday, Friday gotta get down on Friday. Haha I always tend to sing that song on Friday's out here in the great Ohio. Hmm let's see... Friday's here are weekly planning days so we spent a lot of time doing that. We weekly planned until 2:00 actually. Weekly planning really is great though! I love planning for the investigators and really paying attention to their needs. After weekly planning we finally got to do some service for Sister Zimmerman. We went and cleaned her house. It was fun! I really feel so much joy when I serve others. When we were done we had Sister Zimmerman take us to the library so we could update our progress record and also print some things we needed. So we did that. Haha it is really hard not to get on my email and talk to everyone though but no worries I didn't:) After the library we went to Kroger because... well... lately we have been finding bugs in our bed. GAH! Haha. They are not bed bugs though they are like theses little red beetles but that is still disgusting! Sister Horsley thinks they are bed bugs though. We flat out just have a ton of bugs in our apartment so we got some bug spray and we are going to spray the baseboards and possibly our beds. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about bed bugs. We had dinner at the Vermillions. They are so awesome! We had some good mexican food. I haven't yet had a meal that I was totally disgusted with so that is always a plus haha. They were nice, after dinner we had full intentions to go visit people but it was about 8:00 and it is so dark at that time and there are no street lights in our neighborhood so it is just really unsafe. So we just planned and such inside. So overall, a productive day of planning I guess! And don't be concerned. I don't have bed bugs... at least not yet. Haha.

Saturday: You know what is so funny that I have found about being a missionary? Children just gravitate towards us. Everywhere we go little kids will say "Hi" to us and want to talk to us. I think it is really cool. Saturday we woke up did our thing, ate lunch and went up to Dublin at 12:30. We took our bikes today though because we had lots of places to go and had to get there fast:) Walking takes way too long. We were in the Khols parking lot getting our bikes all ready to go when this car pulls up next to us. I was like do not make eye contact. Haha. I didn't want to get kidnapped! They rolled down the windows and said "Oh we knew you were Sisters. Need any help?" It was totally a member! Haha they were from a ward close by. This doesn't happen in Ohio. It was crazy! They were cool. After that we went to the Harden's. They are a referall we got from the Relief Society President. The girl is less active but the boy is not a member so it is an awesome opprotunity! We got there and Emily (the member) wasn't home but her boyfriend Sam was. He was super cool and said he would tell Emily we stopped by! After the Harden's we went to visit a woman named Gretta. She is a former investigator. She wasn't home... in fact her family told us she wouldn't be home until next month! Haha dang. Oh well. When we were getting back onto our bikes this little girl came up and asked us what we were doing and asked us our names. We told her and she asked if we could play. Haha. We told her "We can't we have to talk to people." and she asked "What for?" We explained we were missionaries and she asked what we talked about. We told her we talk about Jesus Christ. She said he had never heard of Him before. So we pulled out a BOM and showed her the pictures in the beginning. She then asked about all the other pictures in there (Lehi, Jospeh Smith, Moroni). She was like "Oh cool! There is a book about the Jesus guy?" She asked about Jesus and who God was. So overall, we gave the first lesson to a 5 year old little girl. She was so cute though. Haha it was fun! We rode down to Ruby's to visit her. She is a former too, but she moved away sadly. It is okay though! After we went to the Palmer's. They are members. We wanted to ask if we could practice teach on them. They said we could:) They are so cool. We headed to Ryan's after because we had a lesson planned with him. We were almost there when Sister Horsley said she had to go to the bathroom. Haha great. So we had to ride back to Khol's and us their's. After she went we rode to Ryan's once again. Suey was coming to our lesson with Ryan. (He is a recent convert). Suey is so cool. He was athiest. It is incredible to see how his life has changed. We had a solid lesson planned for Ryan but when we got there, the lesson went a totally different way. It was very personal to Ryan and I think that is what he needed. It was a good lesson! Ryan needs the atonement of Chrirst in his life. And we are going to help him use it! After that we went to dinner at the Johnson's. Guess what we had? BROCCOLI SOUP FROM PANERA. I was so so happy. I ate two bread bowls of it... haha. Hey I was hungry from biking all day! After that was the Women's Broadcast which was prime! We got to have ice cream before and socialize and that is always grand:) It was fun getting together as a whole Stake to watch the broadcast! I cried when the little Korean kids sang "I Love to See the Temple". I just love how the whole focus was on temples. It made me feel so blessed to have the blessings of temples in my life. After the broadcast I went home and went to bed. It was a long day of biking and eating! Haha.

Sunday: We had church today, and we got to teach the lesson in Gospel Doctrine! It is usually just recent converts and missionaries in there but today was a full house with visitors and investigators! Our lesson wasn't very prepared at all... haha but we worked it out and the lesson went really well!:) We came home after that and had lunch. I had mac and cheese and some cheesecake... I can't believe how healthy I eat it is ridicilous. I told Sister Horsley that Sunday naps are a necessity so we took one which felt soo nice:) After our nap we sprayed our base boards with some bug spray we bought. Boy, did it stink. We left right after that to the Zimmerman's which was good because I was going a little crazy with that smell haha. Our plan was to go to Zimmerman's for an hour to help get our map finished for planning but it went a little longer... okay a lot longer that planned haha. So we ended up eating dinner there then going to Sister Hammonds so Sister Horsley could practice playing a song on the piano. The rest of the night consisted of Sister Horsley telling me High School Musical scenes to act out and me dancing and singing so pretty much best night ever:) I think we were a bit high from the bug spray. Haha.

I am loving the work. It is so incredible being a missionary! love you all so much!

Love- Sister Slater