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