Sister Allie Slater: Break Ups and Ice Cream.

Monday: Happy Columbus day! Ha so funny story.. I kept hearing that it was Columbus day on Monday. When people told me this I just assumed it was Columbus day as in a day to celebrate the city I am living in. So I was really confused when libraries were closed and such. I was like wow they must really be into the day to celebrate their city. Haha syke, it is Christopher Columbus day! So shout out to him :) It was P-Day! Yay! I got to write my family :) My mom as online so we got to really talk back and forth it felt like I was just texting her :) It was nice cause I was able to tell her how I am feeling cause I am having a hard time.. but she comforted me and I know the Lord can help me through it :) After emails it was Zone fun day! So we went to the chapel and played some fun improve games :) Oh my goodness it was so hilarious. In one of the games I had to act like Bella. Haha so I pretty much walked around with no emotion saying “Time passes” and “I was irrevocably in love with him”. Oh my goodness it was so fun! My zone is really cool. After that we went grocery shopping and Sister Horsley made us get multi-grain bread. Yuck. But it is good to eat healthy I guess haha. She made us hurry in the store though cause she had letters to write so I didn't really get anything good at the store but that is ok :) I wrote some letters when we got home then had dinner. We were waiting all day for Brother Flanders to call us about getting our bed bugs worked out but he never did so we called him at like 6 and he answers and goes “Oh.. Sisters..” haha he forgot. It is ok though a few more nights won’t kill us :) So we went and visited some less actives that night. None were home. Such a bummer, we rode our bikes a long way for them! Ha but afterwards we came home and planned a little more for our murder mystery game. During this time we were texting Ryan, and having a DTR (determine the relationship) I hate those! We asked him if he thought this church could be true. And he said his church is.. and that he keeps meeting with us cause he knows we care about him and he doesn't wanna hurt our feelings. :( We were so sad! We thought he was so close to baptism but I guess not.. we decided we need to drop him. But we are waiting to do it in person. It is like a legit break up, my heart is broken. We went to bed pretty sad that night. But we know it is for the best.

Tuesday: Another big service day! We did service for Carmine again and packed some more of her things. Her parents were hoarders so she has so much random stuff from like the 60’s! I am not saying hoarding is good but.. she has some really cool vintage stuff like board games, and suitcases, and just a whole bunch of vintage stuff. I really loved looking around! After we went to Sister Howards to weed. Weeding isn’t too bad :( But we didn’t finish so we are going back on Thursday. She fed us Panera Bread though! Dang, I love that place, 10x better than Kneaders :) We went to go teach Richard but he wasn’t home! Dang! I missed the last lesson with him cause we were on exchanges but I am not too worried we will get to talk to him soon! After we came home and kinda fell asleep for like 15 minutes.. haha. It was an accident! But we really didn’t get a lunch so we figured it was okay :) After that we headed out to see some former investigators. Can I just say.. some people are so rude. Haha when people answered they very rudely told us to not come back! I’m over it. After we had dinner at the Robinsons! Such a nice couple! Did you know being a seminary teacher is a calling here in Ohio? Well it is! And they are seminary teachers. Dinner was delicious and I found out Sister Horsley wants to be a seminary teacher! She would be a good one :) After dinner we ran to see Wesley. He is our neighbor. We met him the other night and he didn’t seem interested at all but we thought we would try to see him again. He answered the door and was totally expecting us! He has no religious background and he is very open to know if there is a God. He has many questions that is gospel can answer :) We only talked to him for few minutes but we are going back to see him! Such a blessing! He is really cool :) After Wes we planned some more of the murder mystery, planned, and went to bed, haha with the bed bugs snuggled in with me :)

Wednesday: We had district meeting this morning and that is always fun! Elder Hansen called us ahead of time and asked us to talk about a Christlike attribute. Specifically humility and patience. Which is so funny cause Sister Horsley and I were talking and decided we needed to study and work on those a few days ago! So it was totally inspired :) So we went to the district meeting, had lunch, and then had training. I will only have training for like 7 more weeks soo I am getting there :) I am ALMOST not a trainee anymore haha :) So we knew the bug guys were coming today to spray for bed bugs but we didn’t know what time. Super frustrating! So we just kinda sat around, waiting for them to come. We read scriptures and the Ensign and stuff they finally came at like 4. We were waiting like 2 hours though not knowing when or if they were ever coming! Haha but yay he sprayed for bed bugs! That was exciting. Hopefully they are gone now, fingers crossed. Well, since that took like forever we went out and saw a few people then went and had dinner with the Storms, Brother Lynsky’s older sister! We had crepes!! She has a crepe maker and we got to make our own crepe it was really fun. We had this chicken alfredo stuff on the inside of it.. oh boy was it delicious! Then we got to have a sweet crepe after! Mine had apples and cinnamon and stuff it was way good. After dinner we went straight to our lesson with Steve. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. That man is the best non-member, member I have ever met! Haha he follows the word of wisdom, law of chastity, all the things that are usually a problem with people! And, he already knows basically everything we were teaching him except the Plan of Salvation which we are teaching him next time :) But he understood almost all of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he read 150 pages of the BOM! I was shocked! He said he wants to read it once all the way through then re-read it and ponder it the second time. Whatever works for him, I guess. He is awesome! After that Sister Horsley wanted a blessing so we went to the Flanders and got one. When she was getting hers I felt I really needed one so I got one as well. I did really need it. It encouraged me to keep going, and do what I am doing. It was a beautiful blessing. The priesthood is such a blessing in our lives. So yeah that was Wednesday! Hopefully there are no more bed bugs!

Thursday: Woke up bed bug free :) At least I hope.. haha there are a lot of other fun bugs in our apartment though so don’t worry.. I am never too alone :) We did our usual morning thing then headed out to try and see Beth. She is a potential who we have tried to see like 10 times. We are about ready to give up and of course when we went she wasn’t home! By that time it was like lunch time so I had some good old mac and cheese then headed over to the Howards to finish weeding their lawn! Weeding isn’t that bad! It is actually kinda relaxing cause you get all your frustration out on the weed :) Haha after Suey offered to take us to Graeter’s to get ice cream cause we have had a hard week and he likes to make missionaries weeks better. He is awesome. So in Ohio there are two ice cream places that EVERYONE is obsessed with Graeter’s and Jenny’s. Both have really good ice cream, but it is like a competition. If you like Graeter’s you can’t like Jenny’s and vice versa. People here in Ohio are so funny with their obessions. Anyway, Graeter’s was super delicious probably the best ice cream I have ever had! Mmmm. But we talked to Suey about Ryan and asked what we should do. He agreed we should drop him, but still be his friend and like hang out. Sister Horsley cringed at the hang out idea haha. In our companionship I am the very casual go with the flow one, and she is the very professional one. Haha she has a hard time being casual so she counts on me for that one :) We got pretty pumped just like ok ya lets just do it lets just go drop him. So we walked over to his house unannounced and uninvited. He came to the front door and Sister Horsley just like started laughing! She had no idea how to drop him haha she just looked at me and was like “you are really gonna make me do this? I hate you!” Haha :) Ryan and I thought it was funny eventually she spit it out and just told him we think it would be best if we didn’t teach him anymore. She then put her head down she was so embarrassed. Haha I could feel the awkward. So I just told him we still care about him and we still want to see him and such! He was way cool with it, considering he really didn’t wanna learn anymore anyway.. ha. After we dropped Ryan (sad) we went to dinner at the Ostler’s. Her husband is anti-Mormon so we knew this would be interesting. He used to be a strong member in the church but things happen in life and now he hates it. She takes it well though, she is very active still. We had tacos and legit their cat would not leave me alone. He hopped on my chair and his tail was in my food and I am allergic so that was fun.. And the Brother Ostler was talking to me about the beer he was drinking. Very interesting dinner but very fun! They are a cool family :) After dinner we went to teach Maun. He is Buddhist! He told us all about his beliefs and it is very interesting. He wants to learn more though about Jesus Christ and his life. So we got that one covered. Overall, we didn’t get to teach much in the lesson but.. it was good to get to know Maun a little better. We rode home after that and I got the cutest Halloween package from my mommy :) Thanks mom I love you!:) It was filled with all this Halloween candy and treats and stuff! I love me my candy :) It was a nice surprise. Glad to know my family hasn’t forgotten about me :) haha. So yeah.. that was Thursday. It was a fun day!

Friday: Such a crazy, crazy. Well it was temple day! Yay! We get to go every 6 months I feel really blessed to have gotten to go at the beginning of my mission! The Columbus temple is very beautiful, we live like 10 minutes away from it. The temple was amazing it was really peaceful, and I got some answers to my prayers there as well so that is always a plus :) I am so lucky to have a temple in my mission!! I love it! I know I only get to go once every 6 months but hey, that’s better than nothing :) After we went home, ate lunch and did the joyous weekly planning. It always takes forever. It was weird not planning for Ryan! I am still bummed we had to drop him.. but oh well. It happens. After planning we went to go see a less active family. They weren’t home! So we just went home did daily planning and went to bed. It was an exciting/boring day haha.

Saturday: I was beat by the end of Saturday. We made plans to go help Sister Hellwig clean her house she is selling so we had to ride our bikes to her house. It is already a 30 minute ride, and pretty much up hill the whole so it is a hard ride and the wind was really bad. Saturday, it was like the wind by my house! Oh my goodness.. It was the hardest bike ride of my life. I thought my legs were going to fall off! We stopped to take a rest and I just collapsed in the grass my legs hurt so bad. But, we had to keep going. I felt like the pioneers haha just had to keep persevering! We got to Sister Hellwigs and after of riding for an hour.. and they offered to get us Chipotle! I was pretty excited :) I swear.. everyone in Ohio is so obsessed with Chipotle it is insane. We helped her clean for like 3 and a half hours. She had a lot to do but it looked nice by the time we were done! We were glad we could help her. But her house is haunted. Legit. She told us some freaky stories so Sister Horsley and I were freaking out a little when we were in the dark basement.. it was dark and the lights kept flickering off! Gah it was creepy but I lived no worries :) After that we rode to go see Richard and he was home!:) He wasn’t feeling well so we scheduled another time to visit with him. On our ride home Sister Horsley was like I really need to go to the bathroom at Target so we stopped there. We went to the bathroom then she was like “follow me.” I was really confused but whatever I follow where ever she goes she’s my trainer it’s what I do! Haha. She took us back to the grocery part and she was awkwardly looking at cookies and cupcakes it looked like she was trying to decide which one to get but I wasn’t sure. So I asked “What are you doing? What do you want?” and she was like “What do you want?” and I was like “What does that even mean?” Then she said “Surprise! You have been here in Ohio for a month!” I totally forgot! Haha it is so crazy I have been here for a month! Where has time gone? The days are long.. but the weeks are fast. So, we ate our cupcakes and celebrated!:) It was a good time. After we went home and had dinner. We both laid in our beds for a while though cause we were both so exhausted. Then Sister Flanders called us and asked us to do her a huge favor. She needed us to go get Mountain Dew for her cause she is cooking us dinner tomorrow and that is one of the ingredients! We told her of course we would :) There was no way we were riding our bikes.. so we called Sister Zimmerman and she was totally willing to drive us. So we went and got some “pop”. Haha people in Ohio call soda pop. It is so weird to me! When we go home we went out to see Brother Wright. He was home and we talked to him for a bit. He is less active and we want to get him coming to church again! He is way cool. After that we went home and did weekly planning, then went to bed. We were so tired. But it was a good day!

Sunday: The morning started off with church. Church is always a good time, especially on a mission. We had some good lessons. After church we went to the mission home to talk to President. I ate a lunch on the way over but when we got there Sister Daines set out all these treats to munch on and I couldn’t resist. I ate way too much but it was delicious :) We spent a few hours there then headed to our lesson with Wes. The Hammonds met us there and the lesson went so great! Wes is so awesome. We invited him to church Sunday and he said he would come! We also taught him how to pray and asked him to pray, and he totally did. I cannot tell you how incredible it is so hear some pray to their father in heaven when they haven’t really ever done it before. It was such a special moment. After our lesson with Wes we met some neighbors. None were really home but we met a few. None of them were interested in the gospel though. Maybe one day!:) We had dinner with the Flanders and it was so delicious! We had these apple dumplings which were to die for. So so good. I was still full from the mission home snacks when we went to dinner but I still stuffed my face with food at dinner so no worries :) We got home and went to visit the Hobbs who are less active, but of course no one answered so we just went home. It was a good Sunday. Our lesson with Wes was the highlight though.

It has been getting cold here in Ohio! I hear it is pretty warm in Utah. I am jealous. The winter here is supposed to be worst than last winter.. which was the worst winter they have had in 30 years! Yay.. haha. Love you all so so much! Have a good week!