Undeniable Truth

An undeniable truth: we are all more alike than we are comfortable admitting.

I talk to people -- all day, every day. It's practically a full-time job (that I do for free). And I love to do it. Because the more I talk with people, the more I realize how similar all people are.

We all need love. We all need acceptance. And as hard as it is to admit sometimes, we all need each other.

I recently challenged myself to learn to like certain people that I didn't particularly want to have a picnic with.

For the record, I would love to have a picnic
with any of these lovely ladies.

It's been so eye-opening.

When I first came up with this goal for myself, Sister Snyder told me,

#sightandsound

Missionaries are assigned companions - another missionary that we do everything with. We stay together all day, every day. We're always in sight and sound of each other.

That sounds exhausting, right?

Amazingly, it's not. That may have something to do with the fact that I have a pretty great companion - Sister Annie Snyder. She's twenty-one years old. She's from Indiana (not India). And she's the BEST. We've been together for eight weeks, five days, four hours, and fourteen minutes. Not that I'm counting.

 

Things that I love about having Sister Snyder as a companion:

1. We always have an endless supply of breath mints. (That really comes in handy.)
2. We both have a great appreciation for Christmas. You can tell by our matching Christmas bows that we wear in our hair. And our abudant collection of Christmas CD's. And our two mini Christmas trees in our bedroom. And our peppermint essential oils that we like to use for perfume this time of year.
3. We accidentally talk in unison sometimes. And sometimes on purpose.
4. Sometimes we forget that God is watching us. So I have to sing about it so we remember.
5. We both love broccoli and ice cream. But not together. That would be weird.
6. We both quote The District, Napoleon Dynamite, and The Errand of Angels on a very regular basis.
7. We both really love to go running at six thirty in the morning. (That one's a joke.)
8. Sometimes we get lost. But it's always almost always a good experience.
9. When we are angry with each other... Wait, that never happens.
   
10. We help each other to improve and work on our appropriate goals.
11. Our bedroom always smells good.
12. We enjoy the small things. Like midgets, amoebas, and mini-golfing (on P-day of course).
13. Sometimes we forget that bad/sad things are happening around the world, and in our area, and we are happy all the time anyway.  
14. We are good at sharing cupcakes. Sister Snyder eats the frosting, and I eat the cake.
15. We are good at making fun of each other's hair.
16. We have so much fun with our investigators. We think some of them might like us, maybe.

Things that are less good about our companionship:

Smiling is My Favorite!

I love life. I love all of the fun and exciting things that come with living. I also love all of the boring and monotonous things I get to do. I even love don't mind waking up at six thirty every morning. I don't so much love it when bad things happen to me. Like when I rip my favorite jeans, or someone is mean to me, or I do something really embarrassing (all the time, I've learned to live with it).

Even though bad things happen sometimes, I'm still happy.

Even when this happens to my week-old bread. 

I'm learning not to let those things bother me so much. Things happen, and life is sometimes really hard to handle. In those times, I channel someone who is such a great influence.

Buddy the Elf.

The "Glutens"

My companion is gluten intolerant. Sometimes people forget about that, or they don't understand what that entails. Which is fine, unless they're feeding us dinner.

Recently we ate dinner with the sweetest elderly couple. They missed the memo about the gluten-free thing. So they made us lasagna. Which is totally alright with me, I love lasagna.

For those of you who don't know, lasagna is chock-full of gluten.

(Fudge is Gluten-free)

Sister Snyder didn't want to offend. She knew that this dinner was prepared especially for us, so she ate it. Though, after the second piece, she was sore afraid for the well being of her intestine. (She tried to refuse the second piece, but the sweet sister was persitent, and Sister Snyder was polite.) We finished our lasagna, and the kind woman went to get us dessert. I saw her from the kitchen scooping ice cream and heaved a sigh of relief.

She came out with the ice cream, topped with two chewy, chocolate-chip cookies. More gluten.

Sister Snyder, not able to handle more gluten, passed me her cookie under the table as non-chalantly as possible.

Lost in the Meadows

Lost in the Meadows; that should be the title of my month. There's an apartment complex here called the Meadows, and it's kind of like Pan's Labyrinth without all the scary guys. We get lost there - a lot.

And getting lost kind of stinks. But getting lost in the Meadows is kind of the best.

A few weeks ago, we were lost in the Meadows, and we were wandering around the complex trying to find someone's apartment. We stopped a nice looking man and asked him to help us decipher the "map". We got to talking, and we set up an appointment to come back and talk to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Guys. That wasn't a coincidence that we ran into this man.

God Knows That I Love Cookies

I'm going to tell you all a story about cookies. I love cookies, and I firmly believe that God knows that.

*Preface*
As missionaries, we are fed dinner by members of our church, which is so wonderful! It's such a blessing to us, because it allows us more time to focus on our work. And we get to eat with the great people that live here. I love, love, love being fed by members.

A few days ago I was going about my business as a missionary. It wasn't a bad day. It wasn't an abnormal day. But it was long. And I wanted a cookie.

Because someone else was feeding me dinner, I didn't have control over whether or not I got a cookie. I stopped thinking about it, and continued with my work. It was Sunday, so I had six hours of church, then two hours of meetings after. I was so tired and hungry by dinner time.

Trials

Yesterday was a difficult day for me and my companion [Sister Snyder]. It was our only day of the week to run errands, get our laundry done, and grocery shop. The garage door of the house I'm staying at was broken, so I had to park on the street. I didn't think it would be a problem, seeing as I live in a nice neighborhood. Sister Snyder and I were up and ready to leave at 7:50. We walked outside to get in our car and we realized that the driver's side window was broken. Sister Snyder's GPS was taken, and my iPod was taken. This was a problem because we're both new to the area, so neither of us knows our way around quite yet. Though the real problem was the fact that they didn't take the copy of the Book of Mormon that was in the backseat!

I'm not upset that our things are gone, or that we had to use our personal time to clean up the car, or even about the hassel we have to go through. The frustrating part is that I no longer know where I'm going. In trying to keep a positive attitude about the situation, I've come to the conclusion that trials (this one specifically) are for my good. In 2 Nephi chapter two, Lehi tells his son Jacob "thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."

My Testimony

Hello friends, and welcome to my blog! I'm new at this -- fair warning. I know I've only been out a few short weeks, but my testimony of my loving Father in heaven, and my faith in his son have grown so much.

I know that I have a Heavenly Father that watches over me and is aware of me -- my shortcomings, weaknesses, and faults. He knows what I'm going through, he knows my thoughts, he knows what's hard for me. He also knows my potential and what I can become, and he loves me more than I can comprehend. With his love, there is no point of no return -- he will always love me, even when I do things that disappoint him. His love is constant and unchanging.