July 9, 2009 Melt like a popsicle on the 4th of july!!!!!!!!!!

Well. This week was pretty crazaay now that I'm thinking about it. Lots of fun though! Always fun :) So! Happy 4th of July! To be honest- we don't really get to celebrate that much because we're missionaries but! we had to make it a special day for our very own Brazilian, Miss Sister Granja! So! We coordinated with some of the seniors who didn't have to go in for a show and did a little bbq and even made her homemade ice cream! Which she had never had before! And we all wore matching patriotic colors to the jail. Admittedly- I was kind of lame because I didn't have any red clothing. Just lots of blue. Hmmm I wonder why that is?? :) So! That was lots of fun! Then! My wonderful companion was trying to clean a pan and thought it would be a good idea to try and "burn it off". I told her it was going to explode and blow up her face- but! whatevs. So then the next thing I heard was "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" that is a scream coming from the kitchen. The pan was on fire- so I said "don't put water on it!!!!!!!!!" then I ran in and our kitchen stove was just pretty much on fire so then I was like ok ok ok how are we going to put this out- by that time the fire alarms were going off and the Elder that lives next door ran in and threw the lid on the pot which stopped the burning flames from engulfing our kitchen. Fun experience. Fo sho. So then! Let's see what else. Elder Neunschwander (sp?) from the 70 came into town for the Pageant. So we had dinn with him at President's house on Sunday. Then afterwards we had to sing him some of our sociable songs. Have I even told you about this sociable thing? I forget. Well- what it is is a big fireside we put on where we pretty much try to be ypm's. Can't you just feel the excitement pouring out of my soul at the prospect? I am also accompanying for one song. OH bleh. Oooh blah. Isn't that from jimmy neutron? Ok. What was I saying. Oh yes. So! First- Elder N (we'll call him that) TOTALLY falls asleep while we're singing, which is HILARIOUS :) hahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahha But then we sing this song that is approximately 2 octaves higher than any of us can sing- so we try to hit the 1st note and it totally wakes him up and his wifes face was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. That song is horrible. But! The thing is- regardless of what we sound like pretty much the entire audience will be senior missionaries and temple missionaries- so we could really sing whatever we felt like and they'd still say it sounded amazing. HA! I love it:) SO THEN!!!! The exciting moment arrives! PAGEANT STARTED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!! So a bajillion people are here. We had 700 people go through the jail yesterday. Which is a lot. Every night we have to come in from Carthage to help greet and get referrals. It's fun because it's a time when we can actually be like missionaries and contact and what not. They even have Elders come in from the Peoria mission to help get referrals since a lot of the non-members in the area will come for the show. So! The first night of Pageant was on Tuesday and apparently every year it threatens to rain. Well- let me just tell you. It did not only threaten- it POURED! And Sis Barry and I were assigned to be contacting out in the pre-show (the pre-show starts @ 7 the pageant starts @ 8:30 so at the pre-show they have a whole bunch of fun pioneer-ish things to be doing. yee yee) So! It starts to just downpour and we both had on white shirts- go fig. So then we were running all over the place trying to find a sweater and we bummed clothes off of other sisters and then just kept talking to people in the rain. If anything- I hope it made them happy to see us looking like crazies :) But we tried to keep people there for the performance! And we talked a lot about faith and how God answers prayers :) It's fun to talk to the people because every conversation we have HAS to come back to the gospel- because we're missionaries. So I think sometimes people will think you're crazy in how you try to bring the conversation back around to Church. But! That's what we do ok! Transfers are on Sunday which is CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So! We'll see when my prep day is next week and where I end up! I'll be sure to let you know! I feel like I still have a billlion things to say- but I gots lots o stuff to do today! I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea. Seriously. I love me some family. And I miss you. But it's a good kind of miss. Be good! Love you!

Sister Picard

July 2, 2009

Well- to be honest, I'm fairly tired. Writing this e-mail just isn't sounding super exciting to me right now. So! I'll try and make the best out of it. And make my life sound super duper exciting :) I've driven too and from Nauvoo a bajillion times already today it seems like. Lots of car time. But- you gotta do what you gotta do :) So! What is most exciting about this past week you may ask? I will tell you what is most exciting about this past week. The commemoration of the Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith took place on Saturday the 27th. So! All of last week we had lots of people in. On Saturday I- just me- took 200 people through the jail. That's crazy talk. Esp since we were close for an hour and a half during the commemoration ceremony. But! What an awesome experience to be serving at the jail on the day of the martyrdom. Just 165 years after:) I had some sweet tours. Heavenly Father always gives me reasons to be happy. I really felt blessed that day to be able to be serving a mission at such a special place. I was able to give tours to a couple of big youth groups which I always love. One of them had over 60 people. This may not sound like a whole lot- but you would only think that if you've never been in the jail. It's a tight squeeze once you get over 20-25-ish. But! We did it. At the end of one of the tours they asked to sing A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief- and that was pretty sweet. And I was so blessed to be able to have the energy to keep it up all day long. And it was a bajillion degrees outside with a bajillion percent humidity. I'm not even exaggerating. But! I think I've become impenetrable to the differences in temperatures. It's just always hot. And you just kind of have to learn to deal with it. Here's this for weird- I'm so turning into mom. I like clean stuff up all the time. And I'm always having to be doing something. It's weird. And I LIKE budgeting my money? Whaa?????? Weird. And I'm just obsessed with grocery shopping. It is the highlight of my existence at this point. And I plan out all of my meals and exactly what I'm going to buy. I'm just turning into a weird kid. And I obviously have nothing more exciting to write to you about than any of this:) haha Let's see- what else is going on in my life? I'll tell you what has been difficult for me. I do the same thing every stinkin day. Literally. Every day. Same thing. And it is SOOO easy to just turn on auto-pilot. I have the whole tour just memorized. So I could say it in my sleep. Literally. And probably throw in some quick witted jokes even :) But! It's SOOOO important for me to really care about each and every person that comes in. Heavenly Father gives people the opportunity to come to Carthage for a reason. If they're prepared it can just be an awesome experience. And I need to make sure I'm doing all that I can to make sure that they get the experience God wants them to have. But! I've learned at the same time I can't MAKE people feel the Spirit or give me referrals. That would be Satan. So- a lot of it is just trying your very hardest all the time (which is way hard esp if you're tired or don't particularly enjoy everyone on the tour etc etc) and knowing the God will do the rest. I'll come home a lot of times and wonder if anything that I did that day did any good. Or even if my mission is important at all. And I just have to trust that God called me here for a reason. And just keep trying :) I'm sounding really negative. I shouldn't. There are TONS of awesome things that happen to me everyday. Seriously. Like- these sweet people totally bought us Subways one day. The senior couples at the jail make my LIFE! They are hilarious I tell you. We went to the store today with 2 of the senior sisters and I just LOVE them. And there are always families that come in that I can really connect with that make it so much better to be alive and giving tours:) The CUTEST little babies came in yesterday. Their dad was from Nigeria and their mom from Idaho and they were just SOOOOOO cute. I loved them. I didn't get to take them on the tour- but they're my friends. And they're coming back next year! So I'll be sure to look for them :) So! Conclusion of the story is to just be happy. Today I was happy when a sweeet song came on at Wal-Mart and I got to dance to it. Slightly apostate- but it made my life. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE you! I a) can't believe you got a trampoline. b) won't resent you for not having one throughout my whole life at home c) will enjoy jumping on it when I go home if I'm not too old and decrepit by then d) hope that you all were cruisin in lovin memory of michael jackson and had some kind of dance party for him, I would expect nothing less e) asked reggie miller to come back and play with my boy baby ty h. what a sweet combo for the pacers huh?:) f) I assume dad was talking about blake griffin when he said that the "robotron-mutant from oklahoma" got drafted first g) want to watch the new transformers with daniel h) hope that rubbing a monkey paw on dad's head will get rid of his dot. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Picard