So the number of miles that we have biked in the past 3 months is almost equal to the number of cockroaches that we have seen. Which is about the same number of miles from here to Salt Lake City Utah. We've biked about 670 miles and seen about 600 cockroaches. 50 of those cockroaches being this morning alone. Nasty. But impressive with the miles biked! I feel like such a beast! Well... Not really. But it sounds super impressive! So now I know that I could bike to SLC in less that three months! I may have to try it someday..... Probably not. But it would be pretty sweet if I did! Gahhh, do you want to hear something super nasty? Here is an exchange between Sister Fjeldsted and I last night:
"That gives me the heeby jeebies!... What are heeby jeebies byway?" -Me
"It's what happens when you wash your face with a cockroach" -Sister Fjeldsted.
Which is precisely what almost happened. I started to wash my face when I looked down and saw a cockroach on my washcloth!!! Yeesh! They're EVERYWHERE.
Anyway, I'm done ranting about cockroaches. Sorry about that. I'm going slightly crazy here. They're really not that bad. As a missionary that is. I would hate to have them in real life. That's something that I've learned about being a missionary; things that would not be very fun in regular life isn't really a concern here. For example, I would hate to have to wash my laundry at a laundromat every time I did my laundry at home. But as a missionary, I'm just like "this apartment is awesome! We have a wall air conditioner and wifi and there's a laundromat right around the corner!" It doesn't bother me at all. You really learn to be grateful for all of the little things. I love it! Something I've really learned is that stuff doesn't make a happy family. The happiest family I've seen didn't even have a dad, they live in a teeny, messy apartment, and they are so happy. And then I see rich families in San Marino that have both parents, kids to to the best schools and get every little gadget that they want, and here obviously miserable. Not all the time, but you can see that they don't have the same closeness with their families and with God most of the time. It really shows you where our priorities should lay. Not saying of course that you can't be rich and have nice things AND be happy and loving and a disciple of Christ, but you don't need wealth to be wealthy if that makes sense. I think that ate one of Satan's biggest lies. He says that riches will make us happier than family relations and following Christ. Not true!
Anyhow. This week we had our mission president and his wife come to meet that one less active/non-member couple. We were hoping that since 1) they're adults and 2) they speak Spanish, they might be able to get somewhere with them. But it ended up being a taco party! We get there and start talking to them, and then all of a sudden a bunch of other people show up! So we're not sure how much the Villanuevas were able to gather. I'll email President today and see if they were able to learn anything helpful. We're also going to see if the Villanuevas can invite that family over for family home evening or something. We'll see what happens I guess.
We had a really cool experience with a different LA/non-member couple though! We've only been able to catch them both at home a couple of times, but they are wonderful. Last time we were over there we didn't end up being able to teach the Restoration, but we really got to know the two of them better and we could see that the Spirit has definitely been working on them. The non-member boyfriend said that he knows that he needs to make changes in his life and what not and get going to church. But then when we invited him to church this Sunday he immediately said no. He said "I smoke and stuff still, I'm not ready to go to church yet" to which we of course told him that you don't have to be perfect to come to church and what not. Anyway, then we showed them Because of Him (which if you haven't seen it yet, you need to watch it. Pronto.) The bf was teary eyed by the end of it and also when I prayed at the end. So we leave and start biking away when the quote "church isn't a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners." And I just felt like we should go back and leave a note on their door that said that. So we turned around and Sister Fjeldsted tried to sneakily leave the note on their door (the go totally saw her, but who else would have left a note like that anyway?) Getting to my poor. This time when we were there, we were talking to them a lot about the Atonement and baptism and things and it was so cool, the LA sister pointed out that she had put the note that we left inside the door and at she reads it all the time! And the bf said that she had told him that she could tell that we were totally sincere and that we really know what we know and what not. It was probably one of the highest compliments anyone could have paid us. The Spirit was SO strong. They still haven't been to church, but I really think that they're going places and I'm so excited! I just love them so much already!
And I love you all so much! Have a great week!
~Sister Kretchman
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