"I heard about the disasters that happened in Lousiana recently and the cleanup that is happening as I type. I encourage everyone to pray for those affected by this! I know I do. Something very profound that I learned this past Sunday was the phrase: "We should be homesick. We should be homesick to return to live with our Heavenly Father because we will do anything that we can to return home when we are homesick and that's the attitude that we should have in this life about going home to God." I love that so much that I wanted to share it with everyone! At the same time, the speaker said something about how if we really love someone we won't ask them to do something that we know they don't want to do. I think that's really important! We need to serve others and respect them at all times. Another thing about making mistakes. Sometimes it takes a pinch of hurt to make the right decision next time. That comes from a story about a girl who wanted these pretty red shoes, but they were a half size too small and she bought them anyways! Her mom knew better and bought the brown ones in the right size and then a few days later the girl happily accepted the brown shoes because the other ones were pinching her feet! Hence: "sometimes it takes a pinch of hurt to make the right decision" and it's totally okay if we make mistakes! That's why we are here right? To learn from our mistakes :)
A couple funny things from this week:
1) The Portuguese nose
We went to a food bank in Seattle this week. There were a
lot of people who spoke Russian and a lot who spoke Chinese (can't help those
ones, but luckily there was a volunteer who spoke Mandarin). One of the people
who happened to actually speak English kept telling me (not asking) that I was
from Portugal. He said that my nose is definitely from a Portuguese ancestor.
Now, I'm pretty sure that my family isn't from Portugal, but he was sure. He
wouldn't give up so I eventually just agreed with him.
2) Elder K
So we have a Ukrainian Elder in our Zone who is learning
English. (He's very helpful because he speaks Russian) But, anyways, he doesn't
know any of the idiomatic phrases in English yet because he is just trying to
get conversational English down right now. I know how he feels. Anyways, we
texted him to let him know that we were going to go to Sports Day with a
different zone so that we wouldn't have to drive an hour up to Bothell. Then we
said "sorry we are party poopers." He responded back really confused
because he doesn't know what that means but he knows what party and poop mean.
It was so funny and we will definitely make fun of him mercilessly for that.
Sometime awesome that happened yesterday was we saw this
really tall man! So we were like let's go talk to him. He was super open and we
even set up a return appointment for him! Turns out he is a retired NBA player!
Cool right? He is 6'10"! such an awesome and nice guy.'
I had an idea this
week as I was eating my morning oatmeal. I decided to put peaches and cinnamon
in it. LET ME TELL YOU it was the best decision I have made in a while. I
highly suggest this. IT is so good and surprisingly the peaches here are really
wonderful. I want someone to try making peach cinnamon rolls and lemme know how
that goes please. I would make them, but no time. I think it would be so good
like a peach cobbler but as a cinnamon roll.
It's really hard only going to the store on Mondays. We
always forget everything. This week it was ziploc bags to take our lunches that
we have to eat on the road in. So we started washing ziploc bags. It's pretty
funny that we are that desperate, but it all works out! I think it's getting to
us a little bit having to eat in the car so much because we kept
"forgetting" to pack dinners this week and then ended up having to go
to Cafe Rio and Chipotle. I think I ate burritos 4 times this week but it's
fine we don't have a Mexican food problem at all.....
We went to a Ukranian man's house this week and when we got
there he had totallyu fixed us a bunch of desserts and bought a ton of Russian
candy for us to eat. And he expected us to eat it all! It was so funny that we
just couldn't stop laughing long enough to teach him about God. We were there
for so long because he kept getting distracted and going on tangents. And THEN
he saw an ice cream truck and bought us ice cream. Super nice guy, but really
wants to make us fat or something. Russian food is actually pretty amazing.
They make really good bread and the candy is so good. The desserts are always a
gamble because a lot of them aren't super sweet and so they taste a little bit
weird. I'm willing to try it though!
We went to a Ukranian festival! Actually sooo Overwhelming
because everyone there spoke Russian! We went with Sister Allred and Truax and
then Elder Karpunkho and Piekarski. Elder Piekarski knows very very little
Russian. So I think he would just say hello and then let his Ukrainian
companion do the rest. The food there was SO amazing and it smelled so good! We
were only able to try the crepes, but one day I'm gonna try all the Ukrainian
food. Everyone was wearing these cool shirts that are apparently a Ukrainian
thing. All of the women and girls were wearing beautiful floral dresses and a
lot of embroidery. It was amazing. They also had these pretty flowers braided
into their hair. It made me want to go there and it also made me realized just
how many Russian speaking people there are here! I mean there were thousands of
people there just wandering around in their Ukrainian gear speaking Russian to
one another! Wow! What a cool experience. We met a bunch of awesome, faithful
people that were all coming together to pray for Ukraine and the challenges
that are happening with the people there at this moment. People either think I'm
Ukrainian or tell me I don't look Ukrainian at all so I don't know what to
think. I've never typed the word "Ukrainian" so many times in my
life.
The weather here is amazing at the moment. It's perfect
tights and cardigan weather. Fall comes early here, the trees are already
turning colors. Everyday I notice more and more orange trees and I can't wait
to send pictures when fall is in full swing! It will be beautiful. One of my
favorite sights during the day is Mount Rainier. There are often clouds covering
it when it's rainy, but on the sunny days it stands out against the sky. It
doesn't even seem real it's so amazing. I'm a little worried that it's going to
get colder than I thought it would. I'll survive though, at least I'm not in
actual Russia, right? It could definitely be a lot worse. I could be in
negative 50 degree weather this winter.
Anyways, I am grateful for everything and everyone! I miss
and love all of you so much and can't wait to see what this week holds. I love
hearing from everyone :)
Love,
Cectpa Jenne"
Goodness I'm so proud of this sister of mine. <3
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